The Nashville Voice Backs Briley While Examining Cooper’s Track Record

The Nashville Voice
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The Nashville Voice Backs Briley While Examining Cooper’s Track Record

By The Editorial Board

Early voting has begun in Davidson County as voters choose between Mayor David Briley and Councilmember John Cooper.

During the General Election, The Nashville Voice proudly endorsed the incumbent David Briley to continue as the mayor of Nashville. It is still our belief that Mayor Briley’s track record is proof of his commitment to support the more vulnerable members of our society including people of color, women, and the uninsured.

We noted in the past the following factors that lead to our endorsement:

  • Mayor Briley has hired the most diverse leadership team in the history of the city with a notable number of women of color working on his direct staff.
  • His support of the historic Equal Business Opportunity Program, requiring Metro Nashville to implement race and gendered subcontracting goals, is one of the biggest changes in support of minority-owned businesses.
  • The mayor fully funded Nashville General hospital, a location that continues to provide healthcare to the uninsured and underinsured of our city.

As we examine Mayor Briley’s opponent, At-Large Council Member John Cooper, it is clear Cooper cares about Nashville, yet of the two candidates, he does not appear to be the progressive mayor that can lead Nashville into the future.

For example, according to ballotpedia.org Councilman Cooper has personally loaned his campaign $1,455,000 through July 23, 2019. While Mayor Briley has raised the majority of his campaign funds through individual donors.  Cooper’s decision to self-fund alienates him from the average voter and donor. When you self-fund your campaign you do not have to connect or engage with Nashvillians for their support.

Another factor that is of concern is the number of right-wing voters who supported Cooper during the general election. Exit polling from the Beacon Center showed that nearly 40 percent of voters who supported Carol Swain during her unsuccessful run for mayor in 2018 voted for him during this election.

During his time as Council At-Large, Councilman Cooper voted against funding for police body cameras and opposed the police oversight board, even after the community stood up and said how important these issues were to them.

The most compelling reason for our Endorsement of Mayor David Briley is the fact that we do not know what type of mayor Councilman Cooper will be based on his voting record as Councilman At-Large and his business record as a private citizen.

The incumbent as a proven progressive record, the other does not.

In consideration of both candidates’ track records, we believe that Mayor Briley is not only the more progressive candidate but also the right person to navigate the growth of Nashville for all of its citizens.

Early voting continues in Davidson County until September 7th, with the election to be held on September 12th.

‘Black Panther’ sequel release date announced

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‘Black Panther’ sequel release date announced

By Kendall Trammell, CNN

(CNN) — “Black Panther” fans can finally mark their calendars for the highly-anticipated sequel.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige took the stage at Disney’s D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, along with film director Ryan Coogler, to announce that the second movie of the “Black Panther” saga will debut in theaters on May 6, 2022.

The Disney-Marvel movie won three Oscars for original score and production as well as costume design.

Since hitting theaters in February 2018, “Black Panther” has grossed more than $700 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

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Jeezy did a forecast for the Weather Channel and predicted a high chance of snow

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Jeezy did a forecast for the Weather Channel and predicted a high chance of snow

By Harmeet Kaur, CNN

(CNN) — Atlanta has a new meteorologist, and he’s predicting a high chance of snow. In Atlanta. In August.

The Atlanta-based rapper Jeezy, aka the Snowman, made a guest appearance on the Weather Channel, also located in Atlanta, on Friday to promote his new album, “TM104: The Legend of the Snowman.”

As he informed the city’s residents about the high temperatures expected Friday evening, he made a plug for his latest release.

“… Around that time it’s going to get to snowing because my album is in the streets and I am the snowman, Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you all for watching,” he said.

For the uninitiated, Jeezy isn’t called the Snowman because he has an affinity for winter landscapes.

The nickname is a coded reference to the rapper’s self-admitted past as a cocaine dealer.

Jeezy started sporting the logo of an angry snowman, with downward-slanted eyebrows and a straight line for a mouth, as he was emerging as a star in mainstream hip-hop in 2005.

He wore a snowman medallion on his mixtape “Trap or Die,” released in January of that year. Soon enough, people were calling him “Snowman.”

In a campaign to broaden Jeezy’s appeal outside the South, former Def Jam marketing director Ashaunna Ayars told Genius that she sketched a version of the snowman to be printed onto T-shirts. As Jeezy’s popularity soared, so did the demand for the T-shirts, inspiring copious bootleg versions as well as bans in schools across the country.

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‘Bombshell’ teaser will make your jaw drop

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‘Bombshell’ teaser will make your jaw drop

By Whitney Friedlander

(CNN) — Hot in here?

The new teaser for director Jay Roach and writer Charles Randolph’s movie “Bombshell” is light on dialogue. But it does give an idea about the secret alliances and whisper networks that were required for various women associated with Fox News to feel comfortable enough to go public with allegations against the network’s late founder, Roger Ailes.

As seen in the teaser, Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman have transformed themselves into TV journalists Megyn Kelly and Gretchen Carlson, respectively, for this film. Margot Robbie is also seen in her part as a fictional news producer named Kayla Pospisil.

“Bombshell” is not the only project out this year that tackles the Fox News scandal, which resulted in Ailes’ resignation as chairman and CEO in July 2016. In June, Showtime premiered the miniseries “The Loudest Voice,” which starred Russell Crowe as Ailes and Naomi Watts as Carlson.

“Bombshell” will be released December 20, 2019.

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Jaboukie Young-White to kick off new season of Comedy Central stand-up specials

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Jaboukie Young-White to kick off new season of Comedy Central stand-up specials

By Whitney Friedlander, CNN

(CNN) — Comedy Central’s latest edition of “Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents….” is not joking around, as the network has booked some of the scene’s most promising stars for its upcoming season.

This year’s names include Jaboukie Young-White and Dulcé Sloan, both correspondents for the network’s “The Daily Show,” and Vanessa Gonzalez, who is known for her webseries “Ms. Vanessa.”

The show is routinely seen as an indicator that the network may have plans to shepherd these voices through its development pipeline.

“Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents…” is executive produced by John Bravakis and Stu Schreiberg from Triage Entertainment. Anne Harris and Bill McGrath serve as the network’s executives in charge of production. Alums include Joel Kim Booster from the new NBC comedy “Sunnyside” and “Saturday Night Live” writers Julio Torres and Sam Jay.

The full schedule is below:

Friday, October 18 : Jaboukie Young-White (11 p.m.); Vanessa Gonzalez (11:30 p.m.)

Friday, October 25 : Dulcé Sloan (11 p.m.); Will Miles (11:30 p.m.)

Friday, November 1 : Tom Thakkar (11 p.m.); Mia Jackson (11:30 p.m.)

Friday, November 8 : Joe Kwaczala (11 p.m.); Nore Davis (11:30 p.m.)

Friday, November 15 : David Gborie (11 p.m.); Allen Strickland Williams (11:30 p.m.)

Friday, November 22 : Charles Gould (11 p.m.); Sara Schaefer (11:30 p.m.)

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Naomi Osaka: Tennis star takes on the CNN quickfire challenge

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Naomi Osaka: Tennis star takes on the CNN quickfire challenge

(CNN) — Quiet night in or a big night out? Lead singer or backing vocals? Grass court or hard court?

Naomi Osaka may be one of the most exciting prospects in tennis, but how well do you know Japan’s first grand slam singles champion?

The 21-year-old sprung to worldwide fame last year by winning the US Open against her idol Serena Williams, and she backed it up with another title at the Australian Open in January.

Visit CNN.com/Sport for more news, features and videos

Her dizzying success has turned Osaka into a global superstar and she has had to adapt quickly to life in the limelight.

Ahead of Wimbledon, the tennis supremo sat down with CNN Sport to tackle a revealing quickfire challenge.

Watch the video at the top of the page to discover what makes Osaka tick.

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CNN Poll: Joe Biden regains double-digit lead over 2020 Democratic field

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CNN Poll: Joe Biden regains double-digit lead over 2020 Democratic field

By Jennifer Agiesta, CNN Polling Director

(CNN) — Joe Biden has expanded his edge over the Democratic field in a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS, with 29% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters saying they back the former vice president.

That’s up 7 points compared with a late June CNN survey. No other candidate has made meaningful gains over that time.

The shift returns Biden to a double-digit lead over his nearest competitors, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at 15% and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 14%. Their support is largely unchanged since earlier this summer.

RELATED: Full poll results

Aside from Biden’s increase, the only statistically meaningful change in the candidate standings is a 12-point decline in support for California Sen. Kamala Harris, who stood at 17% support in the June poll but now has the backing of 5% of potential Democratic voters. That’s similar to the level of support she had in the spring before a surge following her initial debate performance.

The June CNN poll was conducted in the days immediately following the first round of Democratic National Committee-sanctioned debates among the presidential candidates. Biden’s performance in that debate was widely panned, while Harris had a standout moment challenging him over his views on school busing integration. Biden’s numbers have rebounded since then in other polling as well, and Harris’s have returned to roughly where they were pre-debate.

Biden’s advantage in the poll is boosted by stronger support from self-identified Democrats (31%) than from independents (23%), older voters (34% among those age 45 and older) than younger ones (23% among those under age 45) and from moderate and conservative voters (34%) than liberals (22%).

Among liberals, in fact, the race is a near three-way tie: 23% choose Warren and 22% each back Biden and Sanders. No other candidate even hits 5% among this group.

Biden is also bolstered by those voters who say their top priority is choosing a candidate with a strong chance of beating President Donald Trump, a group that makes up 54% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters (35% in that group support Biden). That group has shrunk slightly since June, when 61% said defeating Trump outweighed nominating a candidate who “shares your positions on major issues.”

While Democrats do not appear sharply divided on this question by ideology (53% of liberals and 57% of moderate or conservative Democratic voters say beating Trump is more important), race (54% among whites and non-whites prioritize beating Trump) or partisanship (52% of self-identified Democrats prioritize beating Trump as do 59% of Democratic-leaning independents), there are notable divisions by age and by education among whites, which highlights the challenge facing candidates when they attempt to appeal to those on both sides of this line.

Among those under age 45, 56% say it’s more important to nominate a candidate who shares your positions on issues, while 66% of those age 45 and older say it’s more important to nominate someone who can defeat Trump. Among whites without college degrees, 49% say it’s more important to nominate someone who shares their view on issues while 45% say beating Trump is more important, but among whites with a college degree, 65% say it’s more important to beat Trump.

The poll — which is among those used by the DNC in order to determine which candidates will qualify for the debate stage in September — marks the fourth such qualifying poll in which former HUD Secretary Julián Castro has hit 2%, securing his spot on the stage in Houston next month.

Castro is the 10th candidate to qualify for a spot. Two other candidates say they have already met the fundraising threshold for appearing on stage in September, but have not yet hit the polling mark: Businessman Tom Steyer remains one poll shy of qualifying and Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard now has two after landing at 2% in this poll. She needs two more to make the debate stage.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s campaign said Monday that he had hit the 130,000-donor threshold. Inslee has not hit 2% in any qualifying polls.

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has hit 2% in one qualifying poll and is the only other active candidate to have hit that mark in any qualifying poll, but she has not met the fundraising criteria.

Asked which candidates they’d most like to hear more about, Democratic and Democratic-leaning registered voters are largely focused on the people who will appear on September’s debate stage.

The 10 candidates named by 5% or more of respondents have all now qualified for inclusion in the debates. Warren now tops this list, named by 20%, despite a slight decline in interest in hearing more about her compared with June. She is followed by Harris at 18%, Sanders at 16%, Biden at 15%, Buttigieg at 13%, Booker and O’Rourke at 10% each, Yang at 6% and Castro and Klobuchar each at 5%.

The CNN Poll was conducted by SSRS August 15 through 18 among a random national sample of 1,001 adults reached on landlines or cellphones by a live interviewer. Results for the full sample have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points, for the subsample of 402 Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents who are registered to vote, it is 6.1 points.

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Kroger is now selling vegan eggs

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Kroger is now selling vegan eggs

By Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN Business

(CNN) — The plant-based trend is about more than burgers: Plant-based eggs are coming to Kroger.

The major grocery chain is already stocking Just Egg, made with mung beans, in some of its locations. Over the coming weeks, the product will be offered in about 2,100 Kroger-owned stores, including Kroger, Ralphs and Fred Meyer.

Customers will be able to find Just Egg, a cholesterol-free liquid packaged in a 12-ounce bottle, in the egg aisle. When you cook it up in a skillet, it looks like a pale yellow scrambled egg.

A partnership with Kroger is “a big deal,” said Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of Just, the company that makes Just Egg.

It’s also a sign that interest in plant-based alternatives to animal products is hitting the mainstream. Consumers are turning to the substitutes to reduce their impact on the planet and eat healthier. And it’s not just vegans: Today, flexitarian eaters are buying products like Just Egg along with meat and dairy.

Overall, US retail sales of plant-based foods have grown 11% in the past year, according to a July report from trade group Plant Based Foods Association and the Good Food Institute, a nonprofit that supports plant-based businesses.

And experts think that the plant-based sector is going to balloon over the next several years. Barclays predicts the alternative meat sector could reach about $140 billion over the next decade, capturing about 10% of the global meat industry.

Just, which used to be called Hampton Creek, says it has sold more than 10 million egg equivalents. Tim Hortons and dining service Aramark are offering Just Egg in some locations. Last year, it launched in retail for the first time. Today, Just Egg is available at over 3,000 stores, not including Kroger, and more than 500 restaurants.

But the company has faced setbacks in the past. It was briefly under investigation by the government after a 2016 Bloomberg story alleged it artificially inflated demand for its mayo with fake shoppers. Andrew Noyes, head of global communications for Just, told CNN Business that there were no fake shoppers.

“In the very early days of the company, we employed ambassadors to conduct sampling at stores, which is a common practice in the industry,” he said. The company commissioned an audit that refuted the claims, Noyes said, and government agencies found no wrongdoing.

The company also faced a lawsuit from Hellman’s mayonnaise maker Unilever, which argued that Just Mayo does not meet the legal definition of mayonnaise since it isn’t made with eggs. Unilever ultimately dropped the suit and now sells its own version of egg-free mayo.

Today, Just remains ambitious.

Tetrick wants people to see Just Egg not just as an egg alternative, but as a healthy source of protein. That’s partially why the company isn’t too concerned about making look exactly like a real egg.

And though the product, at $7.99, is more expensive than an equivalent amount of egg, Tetrick hopes that in the next few years it will be the cheapest protein available.

“Our goal is to get below five cents per what we call ‘egg equivalent’ in the next handful of years,” he said. And be “more cost effective than beef or pork or chicken.”

In addition to Just Egg, the company sells plant-based dressings, mayo and cookie dough. It plans to one day sell cultured meat.

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The Winklevoss twins may work with Facebook again

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The Winklevoss twins may work with Facebook again

By Clare Duffy, CNN Business

(CNN) — Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have long been known for their legal battle with Mark Zuckerberg over who invented Facebook. That was over a decade ago. Today they have made names for themselves as entrepreneurs in cryptocurrency with a company called Gemini.

“Facebook was a dispute, but it didn’t really define who we were as people,” Tyler Winklevoss told CNN’s Poppy Harlow in an interview for the Boss Files podcast. “Gemini’s much more of a representation of who we are, what we stand for, what we’re interested in.”

But it was hard to ignore their history with Zuckerberg when Facebook announced plans to enter the world of crypto with Libra, a digital coin that just so happens to also be named after a zodiac sign. So, are Zuckerberg and the Winklevoss twins at it again?

The brothers don’t see it that way. In fact, they’re looking to potentially partner with Facebook on Libra. Whether or not they do decide to team up with their old rival, the Winklevoss brothers say Libra is a good thing for the industry and a step toward a time when cryptocurrency is ubiquitous.

“I think there is a day in the future where we can’t live without crypto, or imagine a world before crypto,” Cameron Winklevoss said.

The brothers bought into that vision in the early days of bitcoin, when it was worth around $8, after cashing out much of the wealth they’d earned in Facebook stock from their settlement with Zuckerberg. The value of bitcoin peaked at $20,000 in 2017, and now hovers around $10,000.

It was a bold bet to make on an investment opportunity the brothers first learned about from a guy on an Ibiza beach after “some tequila.” But it paid off for the Winklevoss twins, making them, at least for a time, “bitcoin billionaires.” (That also happens to be the title of the book about their lives.)

With those returns, the brothers started Gemini in 2014.

Gemini allows people to buy, trade and store digital assets — or cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies have traditionally been decentralized and largely unregulated. The Winklevoss brothers pitched Gemini as a platform people could trust. So they sought and received licenses in New York state as a so-called trust company, similar to many traditional financial institutions, and as a virtual currency exchange.

“We often say trust is our product,” Cameron Winklevoss said. “And we’re trying to basically build a safe and easy way for that person in the Midwest, if they want to buy a piece of crypto, to do it, just like they do at their brokerage account, just like a share of Apple or a share of Amazon.”

Gemini is now available in 49 states and Washington, DC, as well as in the United Kingdom, Singapore and several other countries, and it’s seeking regulatory approval in other areas around the world. While the company does not publicly share user numbers or revenue, its staff has grown to more than 200 people working out of offices in New York, Portland and Chicago.

Gemini’s desire to work with regulators positions the company well amid ramped up calls by US lawmakers for increased oversight of cryptocurrency. It could also make the Winklevoss brothers a valuable partner for Libra. The push for new regulations has been driven largely by the Libra announcement. Legislators fear Libra could give Facebook too much power, and a rapid buy-in to cryptocurrency driven by the social network’s massive audience could destabilize government-backed fiat currencies, like the US dollar.

The Winklevoss brothers said they’ve been in talks with Facebook about joining the project’s governing body, the Libra Association. Facebook already announced the 28 “founding members” of the association, including Gemini competitor Coinbase, but has said it hopes to have 100 members by Libra’s launch in early 2020.

The brothers said they’re waiting to learn more about the project before deciding whether to join the association or to list Libra on the Gemini exchange, which they said is another possibility. The Libra Association told CNN Business that it does not comment on ongoing conversations with potential members.

Ultimately, the twins don’t think Facebook will be the last big tech company to try to launch a cryptocurrency. Cameron Winklevoss expects every one of the FAANG companies — Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google — to get into crypto.

“I think that internet companies have to have a crypto strategy, and I think a lot of them are thinking about their own coin projects. They’re probably watching Libra and Facebook to see how that fares as they develop it,” Cameron Winklevoss said.

One company well-suited for such a coin, he said, is Amazon.

“Amazon can probably get packages to literally any place in the world, even if the last mile is on a dirt bike or something,” Cameron Winklevoss said. “What you can’t get is paid for those goods, which is very ironic, that the physical stuff we can move all around the world and we can’t get money to a lot of places around the world.”

That’s just one of the ways the brothers expect cryptocurrency to change the world, and they say there’s more to come.

“We’re in the bottom of the first inning,” Tyler Winklevoss said. “The game really hasn’t started.”

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Fun Ways to Develop Your Children’s Interests

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Fun Ways to Develop Your Children’s Interests

The games children play can inform the way they see the world. Here are some fun ways to make playtime an opportunity to help young kids explore new ideas and develop their interests:

• Art: Dedicate a little corner of a room to kid-friendly arts and crafts projects. Stock the space with finger paints, watercolors, play-dough, crayons and construction paper to encourage kids to refine their skills and gain a deeper appreciation for art. Have kids draw and paint from their imagination or take them on trips to a local park to capture what they see.

• Food: Inspire kids’ interest in the culinary world with fun toys that let them be the chef. With the LeapFrog Smart Sizzlin’ BBQ Grill, for example, little grill masters can pretend to grill by placing eight different play food items on an interactive skewer. Utensil hooks keep the tongs and spatula at the ready to serve steak, fish, green peppers and more. The smart grill recognizes the food’s name and color and knows if the Sheat is too high. Kids can twist the skewer to count along with the grill, then turn the temperature dial from 1 to 10. With sizzling and cooking sounds, as well as safety messages, grilling suggestions, melodies and phrases, this interactive grill is a fun way to get kids interested in cooking and food.

• Sports: You don’t have to enroll kids in a formal, competitive team to spark an interest in sports. Instead, get the ball rolling by going outside to catch, kick and dribble. Having an opportunity to practice sports in a fun, pressure-free environment will help kids develop athletic skills on their own time, while building their confidence and opening the door for a deeper interest in the future.

• Music: It’s never too early to develop a sense of rhythm and gain knowledge of musical genres and instruments. New toys like the Learn & Groove Dancing Panda will inspire kids to get up and move. The panda shakes, dances and spins around to the music and his guitar lights up with shapes, letters and numbers. Kids can play Freeze Dance and other games, press the musical instrument buttons on the panda’s light-up shoes to hear a saxophone, trumpet, drum and guitar, or press the whammy-bar music button to select from dozens of different tunes. The same line of toys also features the Learn & Groove Shakin’ Colors Maracas. One maraca includes colorful shaker beads and the other features a light-up dome that changes colors and plays maraca sound effects. Little ones can add rattling sounds to the songs that play, count from 1-10 with every shake, and press the six light-up buttons to hear color and instrument names. Switching between English and Spanish mode lets kids explore all of the content in both languages.

Young children are absorbing everything they see and hear, so be sure to introduce them to a range of hobbies through games, toys and activities.

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