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In early November, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement was alerted of reported vote tampering. Electronic accounts had been accessed without authorization to artificially skew the results in favor of one person: a high school student at J.M. Tate High School near Pensacola, FL.

A five-month investigation found that Laura Carroll, an assistant principal at the nearby Bellview Elementary School, and her 17-year-old daughter, Emily Grover, had cast at least 117 votes for homecoming queen in Emily’s favor using Carroll’s school district login. On Monday, department agents arrested both of them and charged them with conspiracy.

According to the investigation, Carroll’s employee account had been used to gain access to 372 internal accounts of Tate High students since August, reports The New York Times. These accounts, which students used to cast homecoming-court votes, include personal information including students’ grades, disciplinary records, and medical histories.

Working against herself unknowingly, Emily frequently spoke about having access to other students’ information using her mother’s login credentials. This was corroborated by eight fellow students and one teacher in witness statements. “She looks up all of our group of friends’ grades and makes comments about how she can find our test scores all of the time,” reads one arrest affidavit from a witness. “I recall times that she logged into her mom’s FOCUS account and openly shared information, grades, schedules, etc., with others,” said another student. “She did not seem like logging in was a big deal and was very comfortable doing so.”

On October 31, Emily was chosen as her school’s homecoming queen. But by the time Emily stood on the football field in a sparkling silver dress waiting to accept her crown, whispers had already begun spreading among the student body about the illegitimacy of her victory.

Around the same time, the school district’s elections contractor got in touch with school administrators after flagging upwards of 100 votes all cast in a short period of time from the same IP address. Investigators determined that 124 votes had been cast from Emily’s phone and 122 from Carroll’s phone. 

Investigators alleged that Carroll was aware that her daughter was accessing her account. On top of that, school district policy required her to change her password every 45 days, suggesting that she regularly shared her new password with her daughter, reports The Washington Post.

Records show that Emily was expelled from the school as a result of her decision to rig the court selection, and that the family contested the decision but it did nothing to change the outcome. She was also arrested and sent to juvenile detention for an evaluation. Currently, it is unclear if she has been released. Carroll was reportedly suspended from her job. She was also taken into custody on Monday and later released on $8,500 bail.

“She’d love to give out her side of the story,” said Carroll’s lawyer, Randall J. Etheridge, in a statement given to the NYT. “But it would probably be after we resolve the case.”

Instances of voter fraud in the United States are exceedingly rare. This latest plot to rig a high school election isn’t quite the national scandal many Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, spoke about — but it is one of the biggest high school scandals we’ve seen in years.

Currently, there is no court date set for Carroll or her daughter.

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On Tuesday evening, eight people were killed in a series of shootings at three Atlanta massage parlors. Six of the victims were Asian and two were white; seven were women. Although there is no confirmed motive at this time, authorities and public officials believe the shooter, a white man named Robert Aaron Long, was specifically targeting Asian people. As a result of the shooting, police in Atlanta, Seattle, and New York announced that they would be increasing patrolling in support of Asian communities and businesses as a precaution.

The attacks began at Young’s Asian Massage in Cherokee County, about 30 miles north of Atlanta, CNN reported. Of the five people shot there, two died at the scene, and another two died at the hospital. Nearly an hour later, three people were killed at Gold Massage Spa in northeast Atlanta, and then another person was killed at Aroma Therapy Spa. According to a news release from the Atlanta police, it is “extremely likely” that the cases were connected. Long was taken into custody at 8:30 p.m.

“Many have asked whether these shootings are related to Cherokee County’s shootings,” Atlanta Police Sgt. John Chafee said. “Video footage from our Video Integration Center places the Cherokee County suspect’s vehicle in the area, around the time of our Piedmont Road (in Atlanta) shootings. That, along with video evidence viewed by investigators, suggests it is extremely likely our suspect is the same as Cherokee County’s, who is in custody.”

Tuesday’s shooting comes after a year of rampant anti-Asian and anti-Asian-American rhetoric in this country, and a recent rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans. In recent months, over two dozen Asian Americans — many over the age of 60 — have been assaulted and robbed in San Francisco’s Chinatown. Last year, one woman was standing in front of her Brooklyn home when a group of teenagers reportedly threw acid on her, accused her of “causing” coronavirus, and called her a “bitch.”

Just last month, the New York Police Department shared a video of a man violently attacking an Asian woman at a Chinatown subway station after calling her a “diseased bitch.” In December, a group of Asian students at Emory University told Georgia Public Broadcasting that they had received everything from subtle aggressions to outright harassment from peers since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Molina Zhang, an international student from China, told GPB that she was making small talk with a stranger while waiting for a takeout order. When she told him she was studying biology, he said, “Oh, I hope you don’t invent any viruses in the future.”

As many have noted, a stark number of these incidents have been perpetrated against Asian women — especially those who are working-class and older. “We can’t talk about the surge in racism, violence, and harassment against Asian Americans in the past year without talking about the particularly virulent hatred directed toward Asian women,” wrote Dr. Melissa May Borja, a professor and a researcher with Stop AAPI Hate. “Nor can we talk about COVID-related racism without talking about how Asian American women are leading the fight for safe, inclusive communities.”

Russell Jeung, a professor of Asian American studies at San Francisco State University, told NBC that stereotypes about Asian women led to the increased number of gendered, racist attacks we’ve seen in the past year. “There is an intersectional dynamic going on that others may perceive both Asians and women and Asian women as easier targets,” he explained.

Manju Kulkarni, executive director of California’s Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, also told NPR that the “larger trend” of attacks against Asian American and Pacific Islander communities can “in many ways” be tied back to prejudice resulting from COVID-19 — and former President Donald Trump’s racist, xenophobic policies, language, and lies. Trump has consistently called COVID-19 the “China Virus.” Just last night — after the shootings in Atlanta — Trump referred to COVID as the “China Virus” on Fox News.

Although Trump is no longer in office, his hateful rhetoric is still pervasive — just as it was in this country even before he took office. Hate crimes against Asian Americans have also historically risen during periods of tension or crisis, CNN reported. Tung Nguyen, the director of the Asian American Research Center on Health, said that Asian Americans experience “the racism of being made invisible.” He explained, “It’s easier to hurt someone when they’re invisible. Our invisibility is all over the place.”

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Image Details:
Reformation Dress (similar here and top here)

Around this time every year, just before the last spring frost, we start planting our spring flowers for the front porch (this was one of my favorites from a few years ago). We’ve been collecting a wide range of terra-cotta pots over the years and usually mix them all together, but this year we used all of our scalloped Bergs pots. This is just the first floral project of many, many more to come this spring and summer season. Thomas is currently growing anemones and ranunculus in our front raised bed, and we planted tulip and daffodil bulbs in pots in our backyard. We also have zinnias, cosmos, camomile, cone flowers, dahlias, and more coming this summer. For our spring flowers right now, we chose to plant the bulbs in pots since our yard is under construction with landscaping happening in a few weeks. We used our big blue and white pots from William Sonoma (Thomas drilled a hole in the bottom for drainage) and planted most of our spring flowers in them. We love mixing them all throughout the year and we’ll also save any leftover bulbs after a season is over for the next year, too. If you’re looking to plant some of your favorite flowers for spring, here is a roundup of some of our favorite pots, planters, baskets and more.

The post Pots, Planters & Baskets For Spring Flowers appeared first on Julia Berolzheimer.

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Reviewing this jumper from Stoffa is a good opportunity to discuss the current trend of knitwear being cut shorter and wider, in something of a vintage style.  The way knitwear is usually designed to work, the ribbing at the bottom sits on t... > Read more

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When Elliot Page came out as transgender in December 2020, he set the internet ablaze. There was plenty of hatred, as there is whenever trans people exist in public space, but there was something else, too: celebration. He was perhaps the highest-profile person to ever come out as trans, and his announcement increased (the nearly non-existent) transmasculine representation in Hollywood.

It was only a matter of time before Page would be given an in-depth magazine profile, and his TIME cover dropped on Tuesday. Accompanied by photos shot by trans photographer Wynne Neilly, the profile marks Page’s first interview since coming out, and the first time his story has been shared in words not written by him. The piece also comes at a crucial cultural moment. Trans youth are under attack in the U.S., with over 25 states introducing bills to ban trans girls from competing in girls’ sports, to ban gender-affirming care for trans young people, or both. The profile never lets the reader forget what is at stake for the lives of trans people in this country.

“Around the globe, transgender people deal disproportionately with violence and discrimination,” the profile reads. “Anti-trans hate crimes are on the rise in the U.K. along with increasingly transphobic rhetoric in newspapers and tabloids. In the U.S., in addition to the perennial challenges trans people face with issues like poverty and homelessness, a flurry of bills in state legislatures would make it a crime to provide transition-related medical care to trans youth.” From there, the piece spends several hundred more words outlining Saturday Night Live bits, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s transphobic outburst on the House floor, and even recaps Dr. Rachel Levine’s confirmation hearing. In essence, it’s a play-by-play of Trans Issues.

With deep respect for those who came before me, gratitude for those who have supported me & great concern for the generation of trans youth we must all protect, please join me and decry anti-trans legislation, hate & discrimination in all its forms. pic.twitter.com/5yr8TYywTn

— Elliot Page (@TheElliotPage) March 16, 2021

In focusing so much on the magnitude of this political and cultural moment, however, the profile misses something crucial: joy. Living openly as a trans person can bring fear and discrimination, but it can also bring freedom. There should be liberation in Page telling his story, even — and perhaps especially — because of the weight of the current moment. For too long, trans people’s stories have been packaged for a cisgender audience and controlled by cis media gatekeepers. In framing trans stories for cis people, often the pain and the struggle is what’s centered.

It’s how we came to understand the most common narrative about what it means to be trans: being “born in the wrong body.” That was a storytelling device designed to allow cis people to understand the trans experience. Page’s profile gives us that, too. By opening the profile with descriptions of Page’s childhood gender dysphoria, it’s pain that is centered once again. He lays bare his suffering and trauma to be consumed by cis readers, describing how difficult it was to look at photos of himself or to wear women’s clothing on film sets, to justify his existence in the hopes that cis people will see him — and, by extension, all of us — as valid and worthy of basic human rights.

“Elliot’s profile is a necessary one for this moment considering the attacks on trans kids,” Oliver-Ash Kleine, a trans journalist and host of the Cancel Me, Daddy podcast, wrote on Twitter. “But there’s another one where he doesn’t have to recount his childhood dysphoria & lifelong pain to defend trans people’s existence. Can’t wait til we can have profiles like that.” 

Trans identity is not all pain and suffering. In fact, many trans people don’t even experience gender dysphoria, which was once considered essential to trans identity. Being trans is joyful and free, it is living openly and authentically, it is self-actualizing the life you want, it is an expression of agency, it is an act of making your body—and your life—your own. Framing transness in this way is radical and reclaims the experience from cis storytellers. There’s an adage about how finding joy in a world that marginalizes you and fails to recognize your humanity is an act of resistance. Sharing stories of trans joy at a time when the state wants to take away our ability to live and thrive is resistance.

The reception to Page’s announcement is a sign of progress. As the story notes, his agent has been bombarded by requests to work with him and he will continue playing the role of Vanya in Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy, which is filming its third season now. “It seems like there’s a tremendous weight off his shoulders, a feeling of comfort,” showrunner Steve Blackman said of Page’s return to The Umbrella Academy set. “There’s a lightness, a lot more smiling.” These developments could have been celebrated more in Page’s TIME interview. The writer could have speculated on what future projects for an out transmasculine star could look like, rather than focusing on how much he hated watching himself on-screen before his transition.

Trans stories are more than just “the series of traumatic events that cis people think define trans people,” as writer Niko Stratis put it on Twitter. Allowing trans people to exist beyond stories of struggle is “the difference between seeing someone for what they are and seeing them for who they are,” tweeted Gillian Branstetter, the media manager at the National Women’s Law Center. We learn so little about who Page is as a person in this profile, which centers so prominently on his transition, dysphoria, and The Issues facing the trans community.

This, of course, is not a criticism of Page, who is admirably using his platform and privilege as a successful, white transmasculine person to help others. Instead, it is a critique of the mainstream media, which is dominated by cis gatekeepers who determine which stories are valid and control how and by whom they are told. In the future, hopefully, we can lean into trans joy as much as — if not more than — we highlight trans pain.

“I’m really excited to act, now that I’m fully who I am, in this body,” Page said to TIME. “No matter the challenges and difficult moments of this, nothing amounts to getting to feel how I feel now.” The world is more than ready for fuller, more nuanced portrayals of trans people; in fact, our lives depend on it.

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Over the weekend, Jared Kushner resurfaced to write an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal titled “Opportunity Beckons in the Mideast.” In parts, he sounds as though he thinks his single term as an adviser for his father-in-law qualifies him to advise others on foreign policy. At one point, he even deigned to call the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a “real-estate dispute.” And yet somehow, this isn’t the most arrogant thing he said. That came later when he told the Biden administration that if they are “smart,” they will listen to him.

But let’s back up: This “advice” came after President Joe Biden offered to work with Europe and rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, known commonly as the Iran nuclear deal. In short, it is an agreement reached during the Obama administration in 2015 between Iran and the P5+1 — the UN Security Council’s five permanent members: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China, plus Germany — to lift sanctions in exchange for significant restrictions to Iran’s nuclear program. In 2018, former President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the deal. Within the year, Iran began ignoring restrictions; however, last month Biden said the U.S. will return to the JCPOA provided that Iran resumes compliance with the agreed-upon terms.

In his advice column, Kushner praised (yes, praised) the Biden administration’s decision as a “smart diplomatic move.” However, naturally, the former first son-in-law believes that Biden was empowered to make this decision thanks to the groundwork laid by the Trump administration. If that seems confusing, it’s because it is. Basically, according to Kushner, Biden could never have had the opportunity to rejoin the agreement had Trump not pulled out of it? We’ll just leave that there.

“Mr. Trump has said that Iran has never won a war but never lost a negotiation,” Kushner wrote. “This negotiation is high-stakes and, thanks to his policies, America holds a strong hand.”

Kushner’s statements continued to grow bolder as he claimed that “we are witnessing the last vestiges of what has been known as the Arab-Israeli conflict.”

“One of the reasons the Arab-Israeli conflict persisted for so long was the myth that it could be solved only after Israel and the Palestinians resolved their differences,” he continued. “That was never true. The Abraham Accords exposed the conflict as nothing more than a real-estate dispute between Israelis and Palestinians that need not hold up Israel’s relations with the broader Arab world.” 

A reminder, for no reason at all, that in 2019, Jared Kushner said that in order to bring peace to the Middle East, people must simply stop “doing terrorism.”

“The table is set. If it is smart, the Biden administration will seize this historic opportunity to unleash the Middle East’s potential, keep America safe, and help the region turn the page on a generation of conflict and instability,” Kushner wrote. “It is time to begin a new chapter of partnership, prosperity, and peace.”

Take it all with a pinch — handful — of salt, though. After all, this is coming from the person who, last spring, told famed journalist Bob Woodward in an interview that “the most dangerous people around the president are overconfident idiots.” Just a reminder.

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