In 2020, with the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the country, many states altered their election systems to try to ease voting. Since then, some of those states, especially Republican-led ones , have aggressively reversed course, taking steps to make voting harder . This sort of bad news has overshadowed one of the more interesting and encouraging changes in the country. Starting in May 2020, Colorado modified its registration system so that anyone who gets a new driver’s license and provides proof of citizenship is now automatically registered to vote. The state then sends people a postcard informing them of their registration and offering them a chance to opt out. That’s a small tweak from the prior system, in which anyone who came to the DMV would be offered the option to register, but a study produced earlier this year by two Stanford University political scientists shows that the new approach has made a significant difference: more than 200,000 new registered voters in the … [Read more...] about Actually Good News About Voting for a Change
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Record four month wait to buy a house as market is paralysed by ‘broken’ system
Martin Roberts discusses the rise in house prices Get pensions news and advice plus latest money alerts for FREE now SUBSCRIBE Invalid email We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info The average time for a property purchase from accepted offer to completion in the year to date is now 133 days. Bureaucracy, long-winded legal procedures, council red tape and a shortage of lawyers and conveyancers – many of whom are still working from home - are dragging the property market to a standstill, experts warn. Related articles 'Bizarre': Prince Andrew still lives with Sarah in £30m home Princess Beatrice is expected to move to Cotswolds - inside £3.5m home And people are losing thousands of pounds in surveys and solicitors fees as … [Read more...] about Record four month wait to buy a house as market is paralysed by ‘broken’ system
How to Forgive Ourselves for What We Can’t Change
Listen and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Googl e | Pocket Casts When we regret our past, it can feel like we’re incapable of changing our future. But it may be our past “mistakes” that help us realize there is room to evolve. In the finale episode of How to Start Over, we explore how regret can be a catalyst of change, what holds us back from self-forgiveness, and how to reconcile our past mistakes—and move forward for good. Conversations with Shai Davidai, an assistant professor at the Columbia Business School, and forgiveness expert Everett Worthington help us identify whether regret hinders our growth or serves as a catalyst of change. This episode was produced by Rebecca Rashid and is hosted by Olga Khazan. Editing by A.C. Valdez and Claudine Ebeid. Fact-check by Ena Alvarado. Engineering by Matthew Simonson. Special thanks to Adrienne LaFrance, executive editor of The Atlantic. Be part of How to Start Over. Write to us at … [Read more...] about How to Forgive Ourselves for What We Can’t Change
Heck Yeah, Tom Cruise
Top Gun came out in the spring of 1986, a movie so big, so wall-to-wall, so resistance-is-futile that you just had to coexist with the damn thing until it finally went away. Now—like one of those flowers that comes into bloom only once every 40 years—it’s back. Apparently Paramount had been after Tom Cruise to make a sequel before the original even opened , which is no surprise. In the 1980s studio executives began to operate more like hedge-fund managers, strip-mining any possible asset in a movie by making sequel after sequel until the thing was finally taken off life support. We can blame Francis Ford Coppola for that; in the 1970s he did the stunning and unrepeatable thing of making one of the greatest American movies of all time—and then making a sequel that was even better. In the ’80s Hollywood tweaked this golden formula by making horrible movies and then a series of progressively worse sequels (unintentionally giving birth to the greatest title in movie history: Rambo: … [Read more...] about Heck Yeah, Tom Cruise
Sorry to burst your bubble but Beyoncé’s ‘anti-capitalist’ anthem isn’t what you think it is
I have some upsetting news. Beyoncé is a capitalist. I know, I was as shocked as you that the woman who once received $2 million to perform for the son of Muammar Gaddafi is a devotee of our exploitative economic system. (To her credit, she later said she donated the money .) But it’s worth mentioning today as Bey positions herself as just one of the proletariat, releasing what is the biggest workers’ anthem since Dolly Parton poured herself a cup of ambition. “Break My Soul” is a fantastic song. It has a great beat and a message which will no doubt resonate with many people. It certainly resonated with me. “Now, I just fell in love/And I just quit my job/I’m gonna find a new drive/Damn, they work me so damn hard,” she sings. And honestly, I’ve never found her more relatable than in that verse. You see, at the end of 2019, I finally quit my job in the mortgage industry to pursue writing full-time. After eight years of misery, I was free. It is the best decision I ever … [Read more...] about Sorry to burst your bubble but Beyoncé’s ‘anti-capitalist’ anthem isn’t what you think it is
Ricky Martin hit with restraining order in Puerto Rico, says allegations are “completely false”
Singer Ricky Martin has rejected as "completely false" allegations from an unnamed individual that led to Puerto Rican authorities issuing a restraining order against him under the U.S. territory's domestic violence laws. According to Puerto Rican newspaper El Vocero , the unnamed petitioner went to the court directly without filing a police complaint after ending a seven-month relationship with Martin. The newspaper cited a court document as saying Martin, who's been married to husband Jwan Yosef since 2017, had refused to accept the petitioner's decision and continued to make frequent, unwanted contact with the person. Martin said in a tweet that the order was based on "completely false" allegations, and he vowed to face them "with the responsibility that characterizes me." "I appreciate the innumerable gestures of solidarity and I receive them with all my heart," he said on Twitter, adding that he could not comment further as it was an ongoing legal matter. The … [Read more...] about Ricky Martin hit with restraining order in Puerto Rico, says allegations are “completely false”