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Taylor Cagnacci moved from California to Tennessee with hopes of starting a new chapter in a state that touts a low cost of living and natural beauty. But she's infuriated by Tennessee's meager social services, which leave her and many other moms struggling in a state where abortion is banned with limited exceptions. “I was going to have my child no matter what, but for other women, that’s kind of a crappy situation that they put you in," said Cagnacci, a 29-year-old Kingsport mom who relies on Medicaid and a federally funded nutrition program. "You have to have your child. But where’s the assistance afterward?” Tennessee has a porous safety net for mothers and young children, recent research and an analysis by The Associated Press found. It’s unknown how many women in the state have given birth because they didn’t have access to abortion, but it is clear that from the time a Tennessee woman gets pregnant, she faces greater obstacles to a healthy pregnancy, a healthy child and a financially stable family than the average American mom. Like other states with strict abortion bans, Tennesseans of childbearing age are more likely to live in maternal care deserts and face overall doctor shortages. Women, infants and children are less likely to be enrolled in a government nutrition program known as WIC. And Tennessee is one of only 10 states that hasn't expanded Medicaid to a greater share of low-income families. “It’s survival, every day,” said Janie Busbee, founder of Mother to Mother, a Nashville-based nonprofit providing baby supplies for low-income moms. “If we took some of that stress off of them, then maybe they’d have time to dream.” GOP state leaders in Tennessee and other states that banned abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 argue that they are bolstering services for families. Tennessee boosted its Medicaid coverage for mothers in 2022 from 60 days postpartum to a year, which allowed an additional 3,000 moms to use the program each year. The state also raised the Medicaid income limit for parents to the poverty level — nearly $26,000 for a family of three — and offers recipients 100 free diapers a month for babies under 2. According to the governor's office, these changes have resulted in thousands of new parents accessing government services. “Pro-life is much more than defending the lives of the unborn,” Republican Gov. Bill Lee said in his 2023 annual address to lawmakers and echoed more recently on social media. “This is not a matter of politics. This is about human dignity.” Yet, nonprofit leaders and mothers told the AP there are still significant gaps in the safety net. Anika Chillis, a 39-year-old single mom in Memphis, has Medicaid, WIC and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps). While she’s deeply grateful for the help, she said it also can disappear — like when she temporarily lost WIC. “It’s hard,” she said, sitting on a park bench as her 2-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter played nearby. “Groceries are constantly going up.” And being a single mom “makes it doubly hard on you.” Anika Chillis spends time with her children, Makhi 2, and Myla 9, at a playground Monday, Dec. 2, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. Tennessee fared poorly at WIC enrollment, Medicaid, having enough maternal care and requirements for paid family and medical leave, an October study found. Other states with similarly restrictive abortion laws — such as Idaho, Alabama, Missouri, Georgia and Mississippi — ranked poorly on numerous measures, too. Researchers said restrictive states had a slightly higher average birth rate and a much lower average abortion rate than the least restrictive states. “In general, these states that restrict abortion are the more fiscally conservative, the more socially conservative states,” said Dr. Nigel Madden, lead author of the study published in the American Journal of Public Health. The Republican supermajority in the Tennessee legislature has long rebuffed efforts to expand Medicaid to people earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level — about $35,600 for a family of three. And TennCare faces criticism already, with a federal judge ruling earlier this year that the state unlawfully terminated coverage for thousands of families and had a “lethargic” response to nearly 250,000 children losing coverage because of paperwork problems caused by the state. DiJuana Davis, 44, was among the plaintiffs. In 2019, the Nashville resident was supposed to have surgery to prevent pregnancy and ease her chronic anemia. Days before the procedure, she was informed her Medicaid coverage had been cut off and the hospital was canceling. She later found out her renewal paperwork went to the wrong address, an error that left her uninsured for two months — during which she became pregnant and developed preeclampsia. Doctors induced labor to save her life, and her son was born prematurely. “The system is broken,” she said, “and it needs to be fixed.” More than 3% of the 83,000 babies born in Tennessee in 2023 had mothers who didn’t receive prenatal care. Only seven states had a higher share, according to an AP analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After birth, doctor shortages impede ongoing care. Around a third of Tennesseans live in a primary care shortage area — a greater share than in all but 10 other states — according to an AP analysis of data from the Census Bureau and the Health Resources and Services Administration. Moms described several aid programs as frustrating to navigate. Chillis was on WIC for several months after her son was born, but then went without because of a mistake during the renewal process — eventually getting it restored with help from the nonprofit Tennessee Justice Center. Chillis credits a nonprofit preschool provider with linking her to aid programs in the first place: “I don't see a lot of advertisements about, you know, how you can join this program or go get this” service, she said. “People just don’t have the knowledge.” Cagnacci, who is pregnant and has a 1-year-old, said she was on SNAP for a while but missed an appointment and was unclear about the steps after that. The process to get recertified was "such a headache” that she's going without it. “I just felt like it was purposely being made difficult so that I would just give up,” she said. Tatayanna Johnson carries a box of diapers from the Pharmalife Community Pharmacy on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024, in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Johnson participates in the state's TennCare Diaper Benefit, which provides free diapers for children under the age of two. Women with young children in states where abortion is banned or limited to early weeks of pregnancy said it can be tough to get social services there, according to a survey by the health policy research organization KFF. Nearly half said it’s difficult for women in their state to get food stamps, for example, compared with 3 in 10 in states where abortion is generally available. “People who claim to be pro-life, who advocated for these abortion bans, often suggest that these policies are designed to protect children, women and families,” said Madden, the researcher. But the weakness of the safety net shows “the hypocrisy of that argument.” Tennessee’s new diaper program shows the deep political divisions surrounding aid programs. The Republican governor described it as an effort to strengthen families while Democratic state Sen. London Lamar said GOP leaders are “trying to put a little bow on an abortion ban." And GOP state Sen. Mark Pody recently told the right-leaning news website Tennessee Conservative that “it is not the state’s responsibility to have a diaper for every single baby" and floated the possibility of cutting the program. Of Tennessee's 2.8 million households, 30% earn above the poverty level but not enough to afford the basic cost of living in their counties, according to a recent report . Often, they don't qualify for government help. “Some are working three jobs and still can’t survive,” said Busbee, of Mother to Mother. A fragmented patchwork of charities can help, but they don’t cover the entire state. The Nashville Diaper Connection, for example, serves 30 counties, working with partners to provide 50 diapers a month, mostly to working families who make a bit too much for Medicaid. Other nonprofits are hindered in helping by government agencies' income rules. And most charities are constrained by the ebb and flow of donations. Nonprofit leaders fear their job may get harder with a new administration in Washington and a GOP-controlled Congress. Republicans could seek significant changes to federal assistance programs they’ve long criticized, like Medicaid and food stamps. “We’ve been through four years of a Trump administration, and the goal under the Trump administration was to cut social services,” said Signe Anderson, the justice center's senior director of nutrition advocacy. “I’m concerned ... for families in Tennessee and across the country.”It has been the practice of the Kentucky Farm Bureau News to adorn the cover with scenic farm scenes and farm people from throughout the state. However, in 2024, the magazine had the honor of featuring the work of fine artist Joe Bonomo on the cover for the second time. His talents first graced the cover last May with his historic rendition of “The Patriot.” His most current painting contribution for the November/December edition features “Farm Santa” enjoying his favorite magazine as KFB welcomes the Christmas season. KFB News Editor Tim Thornberry said having such a gifted artist lend his talents to the magazine cover has been a great honor. “As with most magazines, the cover serves as a way to invite readers in to enjoy the publication’s contents,” he said. “The first cover Joe provided for KFB News proved to be one of our most viewed editions online, and we feel certain the same will be true for our Christmas edition. It should be a real collector’s item for our many members, and we can’t thank Joe enough for sharing his beautiful artwork with us.” During a recent taping of the KFB News podcast, Bonomo shared his thoughts on his art and how much it means to him. “I started at a very young age growing up in a big city on the East Coast where my father gave me some great advice saying how much he enjoyed my art and thought it was something I should pursue,” he said. “However, he also told me if I really wanted to make a living, I needed to work in a field that would be more consistent.” That advice led Bonomo to his first career as an electrician, something he said worked out well for him and supported him in starting a family and paying the bills, but his love of art never left him. “I’m a Christian man, and I know that God has given me gifts for a reason,” he said. “What it comes down to is if I’m given a talent like art, I’m accountable to use that talent to share God’s grace and glory with the rest of the world. I think when people look at my art, they see enthusiasm and a connection with the human existence.” Bonomo recounts earlier years of learning the art skills he uses today. ‘When I first learned to paint as an adult, my instructor, who was an unknown artist but a great teacher and mentor, showed me the importance of being able to see correctly. Often times we go through our day, taking for granted the visual information that is right in front of us. We recognize what we think should be there and ignore the way objects actually appear,” he said. “I went to him specifically to learn how to paint, and it took a year, if not longer, before he would even allow me to put a paintbrush in my hand. and the reason for that is that he saw the importance of teaching me how to see over how to paint.” Bonomo added that by teaching him how to see, he learned how to sculpt, draw, mold, paint, and use pastels, all of which are interchangeable as long his eye is in tune with what visual information is coming to him. But “seeing” is just a part of what goes into his work. “Secondly would be a knowledge of the artistic tools and what those tools will do for me; what are the limitations of different mediums.” and then, I guess from my religious side, is a joy of seeing what is unique and what makes everything individual, with its own emotional content,” he said. “The plight of American culture nowadays is that people are pessimistic. They don’t see the good in things generally but in Kentucky, people are mostly good, wanting to experience the good things in life. I hope that my art, whether it was the last painting that I did for Farm Bureau or the next one, they see things that make them feel good about where they are and what they’re doing, and why. That’s my focus.” As an artist, Bonomo is always looking for new forms of inspiration, and subject matters that really spark his interest. His equine art is a testament to one of those inspirations. “I was always a portrait artist, so, in moving to Kentucky, I was thinking, I needed to paint more equine sporting events,” he said. “To be quite honest, I was fearful of it. There are a lot of people out there who paint horses very well and I was afraid my horses were going to look more like big dogs!” That has been far from reality as Bonomo has become a well-known equine artist and a regular fixture during the spring and fall meets at Keeneland. “Keeneland has a rich history of embracing the arts and it’s a great place to experience the better side of nature, both human and equine” he said. “There are a lot of artists and photographers who fixate on the finish line or winners circle, but I go for the less noticed, the barn area, the people who work in the industry and I get their sense about what they’re doing as they’re doing it, which is a story unto itself.” Bonomo emphasized that as younger artist, he would always train himself to paint from life as to capture an essence of what he was looking for and maybe refine it in the studio. “But as I get older, especially in equine sports, I primarily work off of photographs because you just can’t have a horse stand still long enough to get everything that you need to get down,” he said. “So, photographs have helped me quite a bit, and by doing that, it has made me a better photographer.” While Bonomo works towards the completions of his artwork in order to make it project the message he intends, he sometimes ends up with a work that is different from when he first envisioned it. “We call those wonderful surprises,” he said. “I trained with an artist in Montana at one time, and she would relate to this as the willingness to let go a little bit. Don’t be so manufactured that everything has to be accounted for by your pre-notion of what the end is going to be. In the freedom of art, be unpredictable in your art. Don’t be timid. Be willing to use a broad, very verbose stroke that might be better than the one that you’re trying to protect.” No matter his subject, be it horses, people, or the wonderful covers he has graciously allowed KFB News to use, Bonomo uses the gifts he has been given to inspire and encourage others to look for their gifts in life. “I truly believe that God gives everyone a talent to use,” he said. “You may not have found it yet or it may not even be in art. It might be music. It might be the way you speak, the way you are able to motivate other people, whatever it is, everyone does have that talent.” This article was originally published in the November/December 2024 issue of Kentucky Farm Bureau News.

Dhaka has to balance ties with, India, China, US

Advisors Asset Management Inc. Increases Position in AppFolio, Inc. (NASDAQ:APPF)

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Icelanders voted to elect a new parliament Saturday after disagreements over immigration, energy policy and the economy forced Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson to pull the plug on his coalition government and call an early election. This is Iceland’s sixth general election since the 2008 financial crisis devastated the economy of the North Atlantic island nation and ushered in a new era of political instability. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.None

Team claims NASCAR rescinded approval to buy charterVictor Wembanyama plays 1-on-1 chess with fans in New YorkBangladesh asserts no systematic attacks on minorities amid UN concerns

University professors across the political spectrum in Texas are preemptively self-censoring themselves for fear of damaging their reputations or losing their jobs, according to a new survey from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a First Amendment advocacy group. More than 6,200 professors from across the country responded to the survey on the climate of free speech and academic freedom on their campuses, one of the largest surveys of its kind, according to FIRE. Respondents included more than 165 professors at Texas A&M University, more than 200 at the University of Texas at Austin and nearly 50 at the University of Texas at Dallas. According to survey results, 35% of all respondents said they recently toned down their writing for fear of controversy and 27% felt unable to speak freely for fear of how students or administrators might respond. Nearly a quarter of faculty worry about losing their jobs over a misunderstanding. The worries were higher among faculty at Texas universities. At UT-Austin, more than half of the faculty respondents said they occasionally or often do not share their opinions because they worry how others might respond. Nearly half of faculty respondents at UT-Dallas said they had toned down their writing to avoid pushback. “Faculty are not conflating self-censorship with being polite or professional — that would be categorically different,” the report stated. “Rather, consistent proportions of faculty report that they are likely to refrain from sharing their views in various professional and conversational contexts for fear of social, professional, legal, or violent consequences.” FIRE said this climate is unsustainable for higher education. “The academy needs courageous faculty who are not afraid to research, write about, or teach topics that some may shy away from because they are labeled as controversial — to ask and investigate unasked and unanswered questions,” the report concludes. “And the academy needs more faculty who are not afraid to support colleagues who themselves are afraid, or who have been targeted and have come under fire for their speech or academic endeavors. Consistent support from institutional administrations would not hurt either.” According to the report, one faculty member at Texas A&M said they are actively avoiding aspects of the job due to the climate on campus. “I am starting (for the first time in my career) to censor myself out of a desire for self-preservation,” the faculty member told FIRE. “I say nothing at all in faculty meetings now, if I attend at all.” A UT-Austin professor said they feel pressure to conceal certain opinions. “The atmosphere in certain academic units can be cult-like and fascistic and I really feel I have to pick my battles,” the professor said. The report highlighted an incident at Texas A&M last year in which the school watered down a job offer to Kathleen McElroy, a Black journalism professor, after the Board of Regents and alumni groups criticized her previous employers, her diversity, equity and inclusion work and her research on race. McElroy decided to decline the offer and stay at her current job at UT-Austin after an A&M administrator told her he could not protect her if the regents wanted to terminate her. The Texas A&M System paid her a $1 million settlement after acknowledging mistakes were made during the hiring process. FIRE’s survey found self-censorship was more prevalent among conservative faculty. Around 55% of faculty who identified themselves as conservative reported they self-censor, compared to 17% of faculty who said they were liberal. The survey also found that faculty are more likely to be skeptical of conservative peers, indicating in the survey that a conservative faculty member would be a poor fit in their department. Two-thirds of respondents said universities should not take positions on political and social issues. That number was higher in Texas. Around 70% of the faculty respondents at Texas A&M, UT-Austin and UT-Dallas supported institutional neutrality. Earlier this year, the University of Texas System Board of Regents adopted an institutional neutrality policy after UT-Austin became ground zero in Texas for clashes over the Israel-Hamas war. Around 70% of survey respondents said the conflict was the most difficult issue to discuss on the flagship campus, along with racial inequality and transgender rights. At Texas A&M, the three most difficult issues for faculty to discuss on campus were racial inequality, trans rights and abortion. Overall, half of the faculty who responded to the survey said it is rarely or never justified to require job candidates to submit diversity statements, written statements in which job seekers explain how they might support diversity, equity and inclusion efforts if hired. Last legislative session, Texas lawmakers banned diversity statements at public colleges and universities as part of Senate Bill 17, the law that eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion offices on campuses. Many survey respondents said they don’t believe administrators at their universities will push back against governing boards or politicians to protect free speech on campus. At Texas A&M, 45% of respondents felt academic freedom — the longstanding principle that protects faculty’s ability to pursue teaching and research activities without political interference — was somewhat secure on campus. More than a third of respondents said they’re not sure A&M administrators would protect free speech on campus. Last year, Texas A&M University System leaders directed the school to put a professor on paid administrative leave after a well-connected student complained that the professor allegedly criticized Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick during a lecture. Text messages showed Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp directed the system’s flagship university to put the professor on paid administrative leave while school officials investigated the complaint. He also updated the lieutenant governor on the status of the investigation, which eventually found that the complaint was unsubstantiated. Faculty said the incident created a chilling effect on campus. FIRE’s survey comes as Texas faculty are gearing up for another legislative session in which they expect Republican lawmakers to try and curtail their power on campus. Patrick has asked lawmakers to limit the influence on campuses of faculty senates, which provide input on their universities’ curriculum and hiring decisions.

In 2025, reposition your career or business with AI (artificial intelligence). Why? In a Logic and Philosophy class (GST 103) as an undergraduate in Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), Nigeria, my professor explained one of the most foundational postulations of Pythagoras: the universe is numbers. Thales, Heraclitus and other philosophers had different explanations, ranging from water to fire. But the Pythagoras’ explanation was supreme. That lecture that day reminded me what happened in my first course in Physics in senior secondary, when Mr. Aham introduced us to the study of matter in relation to energy, as a subset of Natural Philosophy, and linking all to mathematics, the beautiful science of numbers. Simply, logic rules the world and every knowledge converges in philosophy, which means if you get a PhD in Chemistry, you have simply mastered logic and philosophy (the PHD title) in chemistry! So, at the height of knowledge, it is all about philosophy. If we connect Pythagoras postulation and what AI (artificial intelligence) is doing today, we can see that AI is helping us to understand our world better, since if the world is made up of numbers, it does mean that the business of man and woman, is making sense of numbers. Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 16 (Feb 10 – May 3, 2025 ) opens registrations; register today for early bird discounts. Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations here. Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and i nvest in Africa’s finest startups here . Hello, that is computing and now with intelligence. Is that not exciting? It has a promise to change the world, as calculating, processing, etc, has evolved from the age of abacus, slide rule, difference engine,...., to now AI. AI will change the world, and as the Igbo Nation says “uwa bu ahia” [the world is a marketplace], it does imply that AI will change the marketplace. In other words, AI will change careers and businesses. But AI is not just about coding: think of how workers transitioned to Microsoft Word from typewriters, and how knowing how to use wordpressors like Microsoft Word is expected at workplaces. Yes, understanding how to use specific AI tools for your job will be as important as using Word and Excel at work. If you have no knowledge of any, it may be seen as a weakness. In Q1 2025, get an AI tool that will help you improve productivity . Do not delay because companies by Q2 will be subtly introducing those as job requirements. AI skill is the universal blue collar skill of the 21st century worker and employers, looking for productivity, will expect you to be ready Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA (Feb 10 - May 3, 2025), and join Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and our global faculty; click here .NEW YORK (AP) — Geronimo Rubio De La Rosa scored 27 points as Columbia beat Fairfield 85-72 on Saturday night. De La Rosa shot 8 of 15 from the field, including 5 for 11 from 3-point range, and went 6 for 6 from the line for the Lions (11-1). Avery Brown shot 5 of 8 from the field and 5 of 5 from the free-throw line to add 16 points. Kenny Noland went 5 of 12 from the field (3 for 7 from 3-point range) to finish with 15 points. The Stags (5-8, 1-1 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) were led by Louis Bleechmore, who recorded 12 points. Fairfield also got 12 points and seven assists from Jamie Bergens. Deon Perry had 12 points and five assists. Columbia's next game is Monday against Rutgers on the road, and Fairfield visits Merrimack on Friday. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .