US News

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13580523

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13572512

Three in 10 U.S. adults attend religious services regularly, led by Mormons at 67%

As Americans observe Ramadan and prepare to celebrate Easter and Passover, the percentage of adults who report regularly attending religious services remains low. Three in 10 Americans say they attend religious services every week (21%) or almost every week (9%), while 11% report attending about once a month and 56% seldom (25%) or never (31%) attend.

Among major U.S. religious groups, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also widely known as the Mormon Church, are the most observant, with two-thirds attending church weekly or nearly weekly. Protestants (including nondenominational Christians) rank second, with 44% attending services regularly, followed by Muslims (38%) and Catholics (33%).

Majorities of Jewish, Orthodox, Buddhist and Hindu Americans say they seldom or never attend religious services.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/18194412

Trump Media & Technology Group, the owner of struggling social media platform Truth Social, is began its long-delayed journey as a public company at Tuesday’s opening bell under the ticker symbol “DJT.”

The stock surged about 56% at the open, to $78, and trading was briefly halted for volatility. Trump Media shares have since stabilized at around $70, marking a 40% increase from Monday’s close.

Wall Street is assigning Trump Media an eye-popping valuation of around $13 billion — a price tag that experts warn is untethered to reality.

The skyrocketing share price comes despite the fact that Trump Media is burning through cash; piling up losses; and its main product, Truth Social, is losing users.

“This is a very unusual situation. The stock is pretty much divorced from fundamentals,” said Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business, who has been studying initial public offerings (IPOs) for over 40 years.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13576449

The company, Tuff Torq, was fined nearly $300,000 for hiring 10 children. It must also set aside $1.5 million to help the immigrant minors who were illegally employed.

Immigrant children as young as 14 were found working illegally amid dangerous heavy equipment at a Tennessee firm that makes parts for lawn mowers sold by John Deere and other companies, according to Labor Department officials.

The company, Tuff Torq, was fined nearly $300,000 for hiring 10 children. As part of a consent agreement with the federal government, the company is also required to set aside $1.5 million to help the children who were illegally employed. Ryan Pott, general counsel for Tuff Torq’s majority owner, the Japanese firm Yanmar, acknowledged the violations to NBC News.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13542973

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13548001

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Monday that will prohibit children younger than 14 from joining social media in the state. Those who are 14 or 15 will need a parent’s consent before they join a platform. 

The bill, HB3, also directs social media companies to delete the existing accounts of those who are under 14. Companies that fail to do so could be sued on behalf of the child who creates an account on the platform. The minor could be awarded up to $10,000 in damages, according to the bill. Companies found to be in violation of the law would also be liable for up to $50,000 per violation, as well as attorney’s fees and court costs.

“Ultimately, [we’re] trying to help parents navigate this very difficult terrain that we have now with raising kids, and so I appreciate the work that’s been put in,” DeSantis said in remarks during the bill-signing ceremony.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13540524

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13543662

WASCO, Calif. (KBAK) — A man has been arrested after being suspected of taking the leg of a pedestrian who was struck by an Amtrak train in California and eating it.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13534176

A New York appeals court has given Donald Trump 10 more days to post his bond as he appeals the civil fraud judgment against him and cut the amount necessary to $175 million.

It’s a major lifeline for the former president, who, along with his adult sons and his company, were fined more than $464 million, including interest, after Judge Arthur Engoron found Trump and his co-defendants fraudulently inflated the value of his assets.

The ruling staves off the prospect, for now, of New York Attorney General Letitia James seeking to seize the former president’s property to enforce the judgment against him. Trump had been struggling to come up with the means to post a bond of more than $500 million, the total that he would have needed before Monday’s appellate decision.

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The ruling stated that the $175 million bond will be in place until at least September, meaning James won’t be able to seek to enforce the judgment against Trump until then.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13544298

Nearly two years after Louisiana launched one of the strictest abortion bans in the nation, legislators have killed an effort to let voters decide whether to do away with the ban and enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution.

That decision comes on the heels of a report, sponsored by pro-abortion rights groups, which found that fears of criminal penalties for performing abortions are wreaking havoc on the state’s maternal healthcare system, as doctors hesitate to provide miscarriage care for fear of running afoul of the ban.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13539696

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13484780

Two members of the Orange Unified School District board have been removed by parents who opposed a policy requiring school staff to out transgender kids.

Parents in Southern California have voted to remove two conservative school board members after they spearheaded a policy that forcibly outs transgender students to their guardians. 

Members of the Orange Unified School District board voted 4-0 to enact the policy in September. It was passed at 11:30 p.m., after the three opposed members walked out and withheld their votes. 

The policy states that parents must be notified when a student seeks “to be identified as a gender other than the student’s biological sex or gender listed on the student’s birth certificate or any other official records.” This includes names, nicknames, and pronouns, and applies even if the student hasn’t taken action but has discussed the matter with a counselor.

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At the initial meeting in September, the board was overwhelmed by crowds who showed up to either protest or support the policy. However, the majority of the attendees voicing support did not have children in the district's schools, and most were not residents of the area, according to the Times.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13494785

Fast-food chain Chick-fil-A has sparked a social media backlash after announcing that it will soon allow certain antibiotics in the chickens it raises, citing supply issues.

Chick-fil-A restaurants in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico will transition "from chicken raised with No Antibiotics Ever (NAE) to chicken raised with No Antibiotics Important to Human Medicine (NAIHM), starting in the spring of 2024," the company said in a statement posted on its website this week.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13444520

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cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/news/t/910625

Boeing whistleblower John Barnett alleged in a lawsuit prior to his death in South Carolina that he was "harassed" and "humiliated" for speaking out at work.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13422082

WASHINGTON — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has filed a motion to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, three sources with knowledge of the move told NBC News, doing so just as the House voted to avoid a government shutdown.

Johnson, R-La., has served as speaker for five months, having taken over for Kevin McCarthy who was ousted from the top job under a similar process.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13382480

Former president blasts New York Attorney General Letitia James as an ‘insane radical’ in a desperate plea for cash – claiming Democrats are trying to ‘intimidate’ him into abandoning his campaign for the White House

Donald Trump has sent out a panicked fundraising message to his supporters as he begs them to help foot his ballooning legal bills. 

The desperate memo, titled “Keep your filthy hands off Trump Tower!”, comes as the Monday deadline to pay his $464m bond in his New York fraud trial judgement ticks ever closer.

“KEEP YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF TRUMP TOWER!” the text reads, linking to an accompanying memo that states: “Insane radical Democrat AG Letitia Jameswants to SEIZE my properties in New York. THIS INCLUDES THE ICONIC TRUMP TOWER!”

It continues: “Democrats think this will intimidate me. They think that if they take my cash to stifle my campaign, that I’ll give up! Here’s one thing they don’t know: WE WILL NEVER SURRENDER!”

The frantic tone of the plea stands in stark contrast to the statement issued by Trump spokesman Steven Cheung to CNN on Wednesday in which he dismissed the network’s reporting that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was in “panic mode” over the matter as “pure bulls*** and fake news”.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/17845853

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed into law on Wednesday a ban on diversity, equity and inclusion programs in public schools, making the state one of a few to enact broad measures against what she and other Republicans call a leftward tilt in U.S. education.

The bill, which passed Alabama's Republican-led legislature on Tuesday, bans public schools from maintaining diversity, equity and inclusion offices or teaching what the bill calls "divisive concepts" about race and identity, such as that of holding people of one race responsible for actions committed by the same racial group in the past.

It also requires public institutions of higher education to designate bathrooms as only for males or females, a move that counters transgender rights advocates' push for gender-neutral bathrooms.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/17905778

Elon Musk's SpaceX has been accused by a U.S. labor agency of requiring employees who were laid off or fired from the rocket and satellite maker to sign unlawful agreements barring them from disparaging the company and joining class-action lawsuits against it.

The complaint, filed late Wednesday by a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional official in Seattle, comes as SpaceX is already facing a separate case before the NLRB and has in turn filed a lawsuit claiming the agency's structure violates the U.S. Constitution.

SpaceX, based in Hawthorne, California, is accused in the new complaint of requiring separated employees to sign severance agreements with confidentiality and non-disparagement clauses that restrict them from exercising their rights under U.S. labor law, the labor board said in a release on Thursday.

Those provisions are common in severance pacts signed by workers, but the NLRB has said such agreements must make clear that workers cannot waive their rights to advocate for better working conditions or file complaints with the NLRB.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13398868

An Oklahoma district attorney said Thursday he doesn’t plan to file any charges in the case of Nex Benedict, the nonbinary 16-year-old Owasso teenager whose death following a fight in a high school bathroom was ruled a suicide.

Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said in a statement that after reviewing the investigation by the Owasso Police Department, he agreed with an assessment from detectives that the fight between the teen and three girls was an “instance of mutual combat” and that charges were not warranted.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/27470580

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13339522

Republican efforts to hand count ballots in a seemingly low-profile Texas county primary election has led to a number of errors.

Gillespie County Republicans, led by Chairman Bruce Campbell, decided months ago to hand-count more than 8,000 ballots for the county GOP primary on March 5. Campbell then declared the results completely accurate and certified before, less than an hour after that certification, reversing course and saying discrepancies were found.

"It's my mistake for not catching that," Cambell said on Thursday while sitting inside the county election administration office. "I can't believe I did that."

The kerfuffle over ballot counting comes after a November rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump was solidified in primaries last week.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13356320