Ceres calls on federal banking regulators to strengthen racial and climate equity in the Community Reinvestment Act

Ceres has submitted comments to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (Fed), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) urging the three agencies to modernize the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) by explicitly incorporating racial equity and strengthening crucial environmental and climate provisions.  Enacted in 1977 as part of a series of civil rights laws designed to expand access to credit and address discriminatory lending practices, the CRA requires federal banking regulators to encourage banks and other financial institutions to help meet…

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#DoTheVapeTalk: New Youth Vaping Prevention Campaign Uses Dance Challenge to Address Serious Topic

The American Lung Association and the Ad Council have launched a new series of public service advertisements (PSAs) encouraging parents to proactively talk to their kids about the dangers and health effects of vaping. The new PSAs, created pro bono by advertising agency Hill Holliday, are part of a broader campaign to raise awareness about the risks associated with youth vaping and help parents with kids aged 10-14 initiate important conversations with their kids to prevent their kids from starting. “These new PSAs address the need for parents to educate…

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Chien: The celebrity fragrance from Tanya Bardsley that deserves a round of a-paws

Everyone from Beyonce, Kim Kardashian to David Beckham has used their personal brand to launch a celebrity fragrance. Yesterday, reality star Tanya Bardsey confused her 578k followers when she shared an Instagram post promoting her much-mocked new fragrance called Chien (French for ‘dog’). The former Real Housewives of Cheshire star’s social post sparked ridicule, not only for the less than flattering name, but for stating that Chien was a ‘fragrant composition made from my own personal scent’. Surely someone should have told Tanya that Chien is the masculine French for ‘dog’ and who would want to…

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Milton Keynes-based community interest company receives £50K in funding from Big Issue Invest to help empower disadvantaged communities

World Media Initiatives (WMI), a community interest company that works with young people including those from disadvantaged communities and in danger of going into custody to teach them the skills of film making, has received £50K in funding from Big Issue Invest, the investment arm of Big Issue Group. The organisation creates fun learning experiences and wonderful opportunities for young people aged 9-19 years old. The participants get to learn to create film scripts, prepare storyboards, crew and cast for their production, carry out pre-production activities and produce their films…

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Anti-LGBTQ+ Grooming Narrative Surged More Than 400% on Social Media Following Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay or Trans’ Law, As Social Platforms Enabled Extremist Politicians and their Allies to Peddle Inflamatory, Discriminatory Rhetoric

In the wake of the passage of Florida’s discriminatory “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” bill, extremist politicians and their allies engineered an unprecedented and dangerous anti-LGBTQ+ misinformation campaign that saw discriminatory and inflamatory “grooming” content surge by over 400% across social media platforms, according to a new report released by the Human Rights Campaign and the Center for Countering Digital Hate. The report — Digital Hate: Social Media’s Role in Amplifying Dangerous Lies About LGBTQ+ People — reveals that the average number of tweets per day using slurs such as…

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