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On Monday, the first day in-person learning restarted in Arkansas, one student was injured during a shooting at Watson Chapel Junior High School in Pine Bluff. According to the school district’s Facebook page, as of two hours ago, all district campuses remain in lockdown following the shooting, which the district described as an “isolated incident.” The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department and the Pine Bluff Police Department are reportedly on the scene to “control the situation.”

The shooting took place as students were changing classrooms to go to their next classes. Upon hearing gunshots, all students were abruptly moved to the gymnasium per protocol.

In a press briefing on Monday afternoon, Pine Bluff police detailed the events. According to Chief of Police Kelvin Sergeant, the department was alerted of the shooting at 9:59 a.m. and the first officer arrived at the school at 10:02 a.m. The victim, who is 15, was taken to Jefferson Regional Medical Center in Pine Bluff before being transferred to the Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock. He is currently in “serious condition,” according to officers.

Police also announced that they currently have a 15-year-old male suspect in custody. The suspect had initially fled the scene to hide behind a home on one of the neighboring streets. When police found him, he was taken to the Jack Jones Juvenile Detention Center in Pine Bluff.

According to the school district’s Facebook page, which has continued to post updates throughout the day, the parents of the student who was shot were notified, and all other students were declared safe.

In the hours following the shooting, local news outlet KATV shared video footage of multiple cars backed up on the road leading to Watson Chapel Junior High School, mostly filled with parents who were attempting to pick up their children. Police officers remained at the scene the entire time.

Sergeant reiterated that the department believed the shooting to be an isolated incident and wouldn’t speak to whether it was the result of gang-related activity. Whether the suspect will be tried as a juvenile or an adult will be announced in the next 36 to 48 hours. 

The family of the victim has yet to release a statement.

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Welcome to Money Diaries where we are tackling the ever-present taboo that is money. We’re asking real people how they spend their hard-earned money during a seven-day period — and we’re tracking every last dollar.

Do you want to start investing in the stock market? Are you already experienced at it? Tell us all about your experiences with stonks here.

Today: a registered nurse who makes $100,700 and spends some of her money this week on a light pink surgical mask.

Occupation: Registered Nurse
Industry: Healthcare
Age: 22
Location: The Bronx, NY
Salary: $100,700
Net Worth: $43,000
Debt: $5,000 (This is credit card debt that I accrued paying rent for my mom for five months of the pandemic.)
Paycheck Amount (2x/month): $2,500-$3,100 (varies based on overtime)
Pronouns: She/her

Monthly Expenses
Housing Cost: $300-$500 (I live with my mom and don’t actually pay rent, but I give her this amount of money every month.)
Loans: $0
Gym: $25
Health Insurance: $28.81 biweekly (I have a high deductible, but my employer puts $650 in an HSA for me every year.)
Disney+: $75 annually
Roth IRA: $500
House Savings: $600
Emergency Savings: $800
Discretionary Spending Account: $200
Cell Phone: $200

Was there an expectation for you to attend higher education? Did you participate in any form of higher education? If yes, how did you pay for it?
I went to an in-state college and went on a full merit scholarship. I only paid for some outside fees associated with my nursing program such as scrubs, stethoscopes, etc.

Growing up, what kind of conversations did you have about money? Did your parent/guardian(s) educate you about finances?
I grew up in a seven-person household with a total income of less than $30,000 a year. We immigrated here from Honduras for the land of opportunity, which is not what we found. More than once growing up, I came home to find an eviction notice on our door, but we always made it work. I was definitely kept in the dark about money, which is why personal finance is now an interest of mine.

What was your first job and why did you get it?
My first “job” was a paid stipend I got from my local clinic for being a peer educator. I helped teach other teens in the clinic about sexual and reproductive health. My first real job was as a sales associate at a clothing store. I got it my senior year of high school in an effort to earn enough money to go to prom since I didn’t want to put that strain on my mom. This money also helped me contribute to the needs of my siblings.

Did you worry about money growing up?
Yes, all the time. I knew not to ask for anything extravagant.

Do you worry about money now?
It’s weird, growing up in a low-income household and now becoming middle class, I’m suddenly able to buy all the things I could never have. Whoever said money can’t solve your problems didn’t have enough money.

At what age did you become financially responsible for yourself and do you have a financial safety net?
I’ve always been pretty responsible for myself. I have had a job since I was 15. I never stopped working even in college. My safety net is my savings account that I grew myself.

Do you or have you ever received passive or inherited income? If yes, please explain.
No, I wish.

Day One

9 a.m. — I’m awake. Today is my day off so I slept in. Not much going on today, just a Brazilian later on. I make some avocado toast and turkey bacon for breakfast and start watching Netflix.

1 p.m. — I’m a sucker for churros, so I get three for $2 from the vendor and then stop by Starbucks and get a grande iced peach green tea. $6

2 p.m. — I head to the salon for my Brazillian wax. I end up buying a wax pass just because I prefer to pay for things up front. This pass should last me for the whole year. $530

3 p.m. — I stop by a clothing store that’s going out of business. They’re selling everything, even the fixtures. I find a really cute dress for only $15. Then I go to Trader Joe’s. $15

4 p.m. — In line at Trader Joe’s, I realize I don’t have my debit card. I go check my bank account to lock my card and see that someone has been using it and about $2,000 is missing. I call my bank and report it. I’m not going to let this ruin my day. I pay with cash for my avocados, banana bread, grated cheese, and cauliflower rice. $12

9 p.m. — I meet up with some nursing school friends for dinner at a Thai restaurant. I get the basil fried rice bok choy spring rolls and a Thai mule. $52

10 p.m. — My friend has a discount with Lyft so I ask her to book me a ride home. I send her the money. $8

Daily Total: $623

Day Two

9 a.m. — I am off again today. I try to be productive on my days off, but honestly working three 12-hour days a week takes a toll on you. My mom makes her daily run to get some fresh bread in the morning so I wait until she comes back to make my breakfast of avocado on bread with turkey bacon and coffee.

1 p.m. — I go to the post office to pick up a package. The bank calls to tell me they will be mailing me a new card. I stop by my local branch to take out cash from the teller to hold me over until then. I’m a sucker for a light pink surgical mask and I see someone selling them on the side of the street, so I buy 10 masks. $2

2 p.m. — I stop by my favorite coffee shop. I love getting a horchata latte and avocado toast. I sit outside and enjoy some alone time. I grab another latte on my way out. $19

3 p.m. — I head to my appointment to refill my eyelash extensions. I only recently started getting eyelash extensions and I am in love with them. They make my face pop so much $85

Daily Total: $106

Day Three

6:30 a.m. — I sleep through multiple alarms. I’m exhausted because I stayed up listening to Apple’s pure party mix on Apple Music and it gave me so much energy, but I had no business being up that late. My commute is typically 30 minutes by train to work, but it’s anywhere from 12 to 15 minutes by Uber. Since it’s the weekend and we all know how the MTA can be, I take an Uber to work. $32

9 a.m. — I have two patients today but they are two very critical patients, so it will be busy. I eat breakfast quickly while doing some documentation.

3 p.m. — It’s been a busy day and I finally get a moment to eat. I get a garlic parmesan bowl from Dig Inn. I also stop by Starbucks to get an iced peach green tea. $14

7 p.m. — I finish up with my patients and give report. My take away from being a critical care nurse is that there’s power in understanding the fragility of life and it’s taught me how to live for now instead of living for ten years from now. I get on the train home.

8 p.m. — I get off the train and decide I deserve some ice cream. I buy my favorite flavor of Haagen Dazs — cookies and cream. I get home and blend some Oreos into crumbs to top my ice cream and it is *chef’s kiss*. $4

Daily Total: $50

Day Four

5 a.m. — I wake up pretty late today, but manage to get out of the house by 6:10. I wait for the bus because I don’t feel like walking to the train. The bus doesn’t come for 15 minutes, so I decide to just order an Uber to work. I buy a tamale for breakfast from a street vendor. I really hate the amount of money I spend on Uber. $24

3 p.m. — I finally get a few moments to myself to eat. I have two patients today, one of which is very critical. Another nurse is going to Starbucks and offers to pick up a drink for me, so I get a grande iced peach green tea with Stevia. $3.50

7 p.m. — I hand off my patients and head to the vaccine clinic. I’m getting my first COVID vaccine tonight. I admit I am nervous. However, as soon as I feel the prick of the needle in my arm, I feel immediate relief.

Daily Total: $27.50

Day Five

5 a.m. — My schedule has sucked this week. I make a quick breakfast of boiled eggs, avocado, and turkey bacon.

7 a.m. — I just graduated a few months ago, so I am still in a nursing residency program and take classes. Today’s class is about chemotherapy. We have a three-hour lecture then I observe a nurse administering chemo to a patient.

2 p.m. — I take a break for lunch. So far, the day has been great. I even got to do a couple of procedures with some other nurses. I talk index funds with one of my colleagues and end up buying two shares of PRNT, which is $60. $60

5 p.m. — Class is over so I head home and watch Netflix for the rest of the day.

Daily Total: $60

Day Six

9 a.m. — Another day off, loving being able to sleep in. I’m doing Sunday brunch with the girls, but it’s honestly way too cold for outdoor dining today so we go to The Boil in Jersey City.

3 p.m. — The food is so good and being able to spend some time with my friends is so good. We split the bill. $78

7 p.m. — There is not much shopping in this area of Jersey, but we stop at TJ Maxx where I buy an Evian spray and a sweater ($20). I also treat everyone to Starbucks before we head back home and that’s $10. $30

Daily Total: $108

Day Seven

5 a.m. — Everybody loves Mondays, right? LOL not me.

8 a.m. — Mondays at the hospital are always overwhelming and I’m glad I’m not working. I have a shake for breakfast.

10 a.m. — I go meet my trainer for a boot camp workout. I’m just getting back into working out. I purchase a 10-pack of sessions. $600

4 p.m. — I shower and take a nap. I had dinner plans, but they get canceled. I heat up leftovers from yesterday and do some work for a class.

5 pm – Mail is here! So excited to have a debit card again. I make some cauliflower rice and grilled shrimp for my work lunch tomorrow. I spend the rest of the evening on Netflix. Until next time guys, xoxo, your Gen Z nurse.

Daily Total: $600

Money Diaries are meant to reflect an individual’s experience and do not necessarily reflect Refinery29’s point of view. Refinery29 in no way encourages illegal activity or harmful behavior.

The first step to getting your financial life in order is tracking what you spend — to try on your own, check out our guide to managing your money every day. For more money diaries, click here.

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Still reeling from their 2020 presidential election loss, conservative Republicans met for their annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Florida late last week. And oh, did this year’s CPAC have everything: a golden statue of Donald Trump reminiscent of the biblical golden calf, Nazi insignia displayed center-stage, and an appearance by the former president in which he continued to espouse election fraud and other 2020 election lies and conspiracy theories. In fact, a number of CPAC speakers continued to scream “voter fraud!” and claimed the system is so broken it’s near-pointless to vote. So, is this how Republicans plan to win in 2022? By basically encouraging people not to participate?

The consistent voter fraud lies peddled by prominent members of the Republican party have done significant damage to their voter bases’ trust in the voting process. According to a January 22-25 survey of 1,990 registered voters nationwide, only 32% of Republican voters believe the election was free and fair. While grassroots organizers, most of whom were Black women, turned out a record number of voters to give Democrats control of the Senate in two Georgia run-off elections, Republican-leaning counties saw a lower voter turnout — a byproduct of Trump’s continued assertion that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and “stolen.”

Simply put, it’s nearly impossible to encourage Republicans to vote when the GOP continues to hang its proverbial hat on a lie that undermines voters’ faith in the power of their vote. And that’s intentional.

Rather than encouraging conservatives to vote, the GOP plans on making it even harder for Democrat voters — specifically Black people, who undeniably won the presidency for the Biden-Harris administration — to do so. Republican lawmakers in Georgia are pushing a slew of new voting laws that would make it harder for people to vote, including banning automatic voter registration, restricting the use of drop boxes for returning absentee ballots, and requiring an excuse to allow voters to cast absentee ballots.

In Arizona, GOP officials are also wanting to do away with no-excuse absentee voting and are seeking to require that signatures on all mail-in ballots be notarized. In Wisconsin, Republicans are trying to prohibit retirement homes or residential care facilities from encouraging their residents to vote and are attempting to require every absentee voter to request an absentee ballot for every election instead of simply receiving their ballots automatically. 

But the fact that voter suppression remains the GOP’s bread-and-butter election tactic is hardly surprising. The party has a long history of targeting marginalized communities with erroneous registration processes, voter purgers, poll closures and long lines, ballot restrictions, and discriminatory rigged district maps in an effort to curtail the vote. And it works: In the 2018 midterm elections, nearly 120 million eligible Americans did not vote. Last year, then-president Trump said the quiet part out loud during an appearance on Fox & Friends, where Trump discussed the $2.2 trillion COVID-19 relief package, and Democrat-led efforts to make it easier for people to vote during the ongoing pandemic. 

“The things they had in there were crazy. They had things, levels of voting that if you’d ever agreed to it, you’d never have a Republican elected in this country again,” Trump said. “They had things in there about election days and what you do and all sorts of clawbacks. They had things that were just totally crazy and had nothing to do with workers that lost their jobs and companies that we have to save.” 

It is the political party constantly accusing their rivals of cheating that is hinging their future election wins on their ability to cheat as many people as possible out of voting. A “the boy cried wolf” reference would be appropriate here if that boy was also a low-key wolf-breeder.

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Candace Owens Praised Trump For Being Transphobic

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Following former president Donald Trump‘s CPAC speech, in which he continued to falsely claim the election was stolen, allege voter fraud, and tease a 2024 presidential run, conservative commentator Candace Owens entered the chat. Specifically, Owens praised Trump as a “feminist” on Twitter after he touted some wildly transphobic views about trans women being included in women’s sports.

On Sunday, Trump gave a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he criticized Biden’s decision to allow trans kids to participate in sports according to their gender identity. Trump claimed, falsely, that transgender women in sports were breaking records, and referred to them as “biological males.” In response, Owens essentially called him a feminist hero (sure, Jan). “If you guys are wondering what actual feminism is, it’s Donald Trump having the courage to stand up on stage and call out the insanity of biological men dominating women’s sports,” Owens wrote. “He never kowtows to the Left. #CPAC2021 #CPAC.”

If you guys are wondering what actual feminism is, it’s Donald Trump having the courage to stand up on stage and call out the insanity of biological men dominating women’s sports.

He never kowtows to the Left. #CPAC2021 #CPAC

— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) February 28, 2021

Owens was immediately the subject of serious backlash on Twitter, with users calling her a TERF well into Monday, when her name started trending. “I’d say your fear of trans people is much greater than your intellect, but we all know it’s easy to find a bigger number than zero,” one user wrote. “At almost every level of government over the past few weeks we have heard about the ‘threat’ of trans kids in sports. Let’s talk about this because there is no threat and yet, we are about to see a massive expansion of privacy intrusions into and surveillance of kids’ bodies,” Chase Strangio, a lawyer for the ACLU, wrote.

Trump’s speech and Owens’ subsequent comments are responses to the recently passed Biden administration executive order titled “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.” On January 20, Biden’s first day in office, he signed the order declaring that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity were unconstitutional. The order notably states that “Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.”

The order — though praised among many for being an inclusive step forward — has become an easy excuse for conservatives to spew hate. And, this isn’t the first time Owens has been openly transphobic and tried to mask it as standing up for women’s rights. In February, she tweeted that transgender rights policies in the U.S. were “trampling over” the rights of women. In the past, she’s also stood her ground on the false claim that only women can give birth, spoken out against trans soldiers serving in the U.S. Army, and called the work of trans activists the work of Satan and “confusing” to children. Most notably, Owens rebuked Harry Styles’ Vogue cover, where he was photographed wearing a dress, saying, “bring back our manly men.”

In reality, there’s no evidence of transgender children harming the upbringing of cisgender children, including in school sports. With nearly 2% of kids identifying as trans as of 2019, the conversation surrounding gender identity and children is becoming a more common one, thanks to the help of organizations like the Human Rights Campaign and PFLAG.

But given that ignorance is rampant in the Republican party, it’s no surprise Trump would latch onto this Biden order — and even less of a surprise that a noted TERF like Candace Owens would praise him for it.

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In the era of quarantine, during which most of our activities happen on the couch — whether we're in Zoom meetings or, let's be honest, scrolling through TikTok for three hours — comfortable clothing has never been more integral to our lives. We've traded in our workwear for nap dresses and restricting denim for functional leggings. But after nearly a year of making athleisure our uniform of choice, we're in desperate need of a revamp. It's time to find a way to stay comfortable (and ready for that mid-day yoga YouTube video) without forgoing style.

Thankfully, making activewear-centric outfits look put-together is far easier than you might think. To prove it, we styled four everyday athleisure looks using Old Navy's new Powersoft pieces, creating outfits that are as comfortable as they are chic. Read on to reinvigorate your daily wardrobe.

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