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Your Friday Evening Briefing
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1. President Biden’s climate and tax bill will begin to move through the Senate this weekend.
Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, the lone Democratic holdout on the package, said she would support the bill after Democratic leaders agreed to drop a $14 billion tax increase on some wealthy hedge fund managers and private equity executives that she had opposed. They also changed the structure of a 15 percent minimum tax on corporations and included drought relief money to benefit Arizona.
The bill still needs to clear hurdles before the Senate can pass it. With Republicans united in opposition, all Democrats in the 50-50 Senate have to vote for it before it can become law.
2. In a surprise, job growth in the U.S. soared in July.
U.S. employers added 528,000 jobs last month, the Department of Labor said, an unexpectedly strong gain that showed the labor market was not slowing despite higher interest rates, at least so far.
The impressive performance — which brings total employment back to its level of February 2020, just before the pandemic lockdowns — provides new evidence that the country has not entered a recession. But with the Federal Reserve pursuing an aggressive policy of interest rate increases, most forecasters expect the labor market to cool later in the year, as companies cut payrolls to match lower demand.
5. New York state health officials urged unvaccinated residents to get their polio shot “right away.”
6. Relatives and friends of the victims in the Parkland, Fla., shooting described their anguish.
The testimony was part of the agonizing trial in which a jury will decide whether Nikolas Cruz — who pleaded guilty to the shooting rampage that left 17 people dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 — should be sentenced to death or to life imprisonment.
One by one, the relatives and friends described the depths of their despair since losing their loved ones four years ago. “The night no longer brings intimacy and comfort,” said Debra Hixon, the wife of Chris Hixon, the school’s athletic director who was killed in the shooting. “Just the loudness of the silence.”
The defense is scheduled to begin its case later this month.
In other courtroom news, a jury decided that the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones must pay the parents of a child killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting $45.2 million in punitive damages.
7. Now hiring: “chief heart officer.”
With the rise of remote work, new careers and job titles have sprung into existence, such as “head of team anywhere” and “vice president of flexible work.” The lasting power of these new positions has yet to be tested.
“People will try a lot of titles,” said J.T. O’Donnell, a career coach. “Some will fail because they’ll be too far out there. But ultimately you’ll see a lot of shifts.”
8. “The Sandman” is coming to TV.
Ever since Neil Gaiman wrote the first issues of “The Sandman” in 1989, fans have hoped for a screen adaptation. Now viewers can watch Morpheus, the king of dreams, and his supernatural siblings in Netflix’s take on the award-winning, genre-blending comic.
Gaiman said in an interview with The New York Times Magazine that “The Sandman” had endured because new generations “find it, and it’s their comic. It’s their story.”
In other news about August premieres, Abbi Jacobson, the star and co-creator of the series “A League of Their Own,” said she wants to tell stories about insecure people and then “what if the most insecure, unsure person is the leader?”
9. Stockholm instead of Rome? Intense heat waves are changing European vacations.
After more than two years of postponing their vacations, tourists are traveling to Europe this summer, only to be met with record-setting heat that will most likely worsen because of climate change.
But several people in the industry say a growing number of travelers are adjusting their plans to account for high temperatures by heading to coastal or northern destinations and booking trips in the cooler months of April, May, September and October.
In another climate concern, glass bottles may be perfect for aging wine, but making them requires an enormous amount of heat and energy.
10. And finally, a glimmer of hope for Loch Ness monster believers.
A discovery by researchers in Britain and Morocco added weight to the hypothesis that long-necked prehistoric reptiles known as plesiosaurs might have lived in lakes, rivers and oceans. The team found fossils of 12 plesiosaurs, proof that it was not just one plesiosaur that wandered into freshwater and then died there.
Read the full article here
(OKLAHOMA – August 17, 2025) – When I first started researching my family’s genealogy, I thought I was just going to fill in a few blanks.
Instead, I uncovered a lie so deep, so systematic, it reshaped everything I thought I knew about who we are as a people.
I want to show you something personal.
Below, you’ll see two official U.S. government records—both documenting one of my direct ancestors. Thomas Jefferson Adams Harjo.
Creek Nation certificate
📜 The first is from the Dawes Roll, the federal list created in the early 1900s to register members of the Five Civilized Tribes.
As you’ll see, my ancestor is listed as a Full-Blood Indian—a clear acknowledgment of their tribal heritage and cultural identity.
1900 US Census
But then, take a look at the second image:
📄 That’s the federal census record from just a few years later.
Same ancestor.
Same location.
But this time, the government marked them as Negro.
No tribe. No Indian classification.
Just folded into the general Black population—without consent, without explanation.
That wasn’t a mistake.
That was paper genocide.
This is what happened to millions of Indigenous Black Americans across the South.
Their identities were stripped away on paper—one document at a time—by a system designed to erase, absorb, and exploit.
This wasn’t just about racism. It was about land, power, and control.
By reclassifying tribal people as Negro or Colored, the government could:
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Deny them land rights
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Remove them from tribal rolls
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Steal their inheritance
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And make sure future generations never knew who they really were
This is why so many of our elders say, “My grandma said we had Indian in us.”
They weren’t lying.
They just didn’t have the tools to prove it.
Now we do.
And I’m not showing you this to just share my story—I’m showing you because this might be your story, too.
If you’re ready to go deeper, tomorrow I’m going to pull back the curtain on how far this went—how the reclassification of Black Indians was not an exception, but the rule across the Southeast.
You’re not crazy.
You’re not reaching.
You’re remembering.
—Mike
Founder, Native Black Ancestry
(TAMPA, FL – August 12, 2025) – The Black Agenda is coming! Join us this August for a powerful virtual town hall where residents, neighborhood associations, nonprofit leaders, faith communities, and other key stakeholders will come together to share their concerns and discuss solutions.
This event will be streamed live and will feature candidates offering their vision for the future of West Tampa.
This will be a street-level, bottom-up dialogue—focused on real voices, real stories, and real strategies to protect and uplift our community.
https://us02web.zoom.us/…/register/n2MwP53TQ-2e9xfih1rrAg
Join us this August for a powerful virtual town hall.
News
From Illinois to Texas, CTU President Stacy Davis Gates Leads Largest African American Parade in the Country Amid National Education and Democracy Attacks
(CHICAGO – August 8, 2025) – This Saturday, internationally recognized labor leader and Chicago Teachers Union President Stacy Davis Gates will serve as an Honorary Marshal at the 96th Annual Bud Billiken Parade, the largest African American parade in the United States.
Why Does This Matter?
- Back To School: As families nationwide prepare for the academic year, the Chicago Teachers Union will usher it in by continuing the call for Chicago’s 300,000+ students to have the schools they deserve.
- Texas: State-level fights over education and democracy in Illinois resonate across the nation. Illinois is currently hosting Texas Democratic leaders who are fighting shared policy battles including public education funding and labor protections.
- National Relevance: The Chicago Teachers Union is one of the most powerful teachers’ unions in the country. When America catches a cold, Chicago catches the flu, but its leaders continue to push back on attacks against equality and opportunity. It is the third-largest local teachers union in the country and the largest local union in Illinois.
“DOGE already happened in Chicago. Our public school system was ravaged by the types of policies that are being implemented at the federal level right now: summarily firing female workers, Black female workers from the schools; closing schools—Rahm Emanuel closed fifty of them.” – Stacy Davis Gates (May 2025)
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About Stacy Davis Gates
- A working mother and high school social studies teacher.
- Led the historic 2019 CTU strike, securing smaller class sizes, sanctuary protections for immigrant students and the right to teach Black history.
- Raised millions to elect pro-education and pro-worker candidates including Mayor Brandon Johnson and fought for equitable school funding.
- Serves as Executive Vice President of the Illinois Federation of Teachers, Vice President of the American Federation of Teachers, Party Chair of United Working Families, and board member of the Action Center on Race & the Economy (ACRE).
- Is one of the next-generation labor leaders that you are going to want to get to know. She is going to help define what union leadership looks like in the coming years.
Stacy Davis Gates
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