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  • ‘We won’t be silent’ — Teachers vow legal challenges after Trump moves to slash Department of Education

    • President Donald Trump signed an executive order to crack open the Department of Education on Thursday. The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association condemned the move, and have promised lawsuits. Earlier this month, the department laid off nearly half of its staff. 

    President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would dissolve the U.S. Department of Education (DOE). While the agency cannot be shuttered without congressional approval, Trump signed the order saying that it would “begin eliminating the federal Department of Education once and for all.”

    The order states taxpayers spend $60 billion annually on federal school funding marshalled and distributed by the DOE even though the agency “does not educate anyone.” In the order, Trump claimed its closure would help children and families “escape a system that is failing them.” Trump directed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to turn education authority over to states and local communities while ensuring “uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.” It also directs McMahon to terminate programs promoting “gender ideology,” and withdraw funding from programs and activities that illegally discriminate based on diversity, equity, and inclusion. The order claimed that the DOE maintains a public relations office with 80 staff members at a cost of $10 million a year. 

    In a quick rebuke, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said the 1.7-million member union would, “see you in court,” in a statement to Fortune.

    The DOE is charged with oversight of the country’s $1.6 trillion federal student loan fund, and oversees and sets school policies for early childhood, primary, and secondary schools through financial funding and monitoring. The agency’s remit includes ensuring equal access to education for all students including those from low-income, disabled, and non-native English speaking homes. Established in 1979, the DOE supervises 50 million students in public school systems across the country.

    Earlier this month under the direction of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, the DOE laid off 2,183 employees, nearly half of its January workforce of more than 4,100.

    “Now, Trump is at it again with his latest effort to gut the Department of Education programs that support every student across the nation,” National Education Association President Becky Pringle said in a statement to Fortune. 

    Pringle claimed cuts to the DOE would increase class sizes, cut job training programs, eliminate special education for those with disabilities, axe civil rights protections and increase college tuition prices, putting it “out of reach for middle class families.”

    “We won’t be silent as anti-public education politicians try to steal opportunities from our students, our families, and our communities to pay for tax cuts for billionaires,” Pringle said.

    Republican lawmakers have long tried to terminate the department since the 1980s, but in recent years that campaign has garnered traction as tensions mounted after federal mandates and policies in response to COVID-19.

    “In moving forward with this, Trump is ignoring what parents and educators know is right for our students,” Pringle said.

    This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

  • Olive Garden parent company shrugs off concerns of plummeting consumer confidence because restaurant goers continue ‘to treat themselves and splurge’

    • Stock for Darden Restaurants, which owns Olive Garden and Longhorn’s Steakhouse, neared a 52-week high on Thursday. Investors were able to look past a lackluster quarter because the company said it wasn’t affected by declines in consumer confidence. 

    How does a restaurant conglomerate that relies on customers’ discretionary income earn a minor stock rally during a period of declining consumer confidence? By showing Wall Street that while consumers might be worried, they’re still hungry. 

    Darden Restaurants, the parent company of popular chains like Olive Garden and Longhorn’s Steakhouse, saw its stock pop as much as 7% on Thursday after executives said during its third-quarter earnings call it had, so far, been impervious to mounting consumer fears. Any worries about an impending economic downturn weren’t stopping customers from going out to eat. 

    “Even if people say they’re feeling less optimistic, we haven’t seen a huge correlation between that and dining out,” Darden CEO Rick Cardenas said during the earnings call. “So changes in consumer sentiment haven’t necessarily translated to material changes in consumer spending.”

    In fact, Cardenas said he expected eating out to be relatively resistant to any economic anxieties. 

    “Dining out is the number one category where people treat themselves and splurge,” he said. 

    Investors were so pleased with Darden’s prediction that consumers would keep spending at its restaurants that they overlooked a quarter that failed to meet Wall Street’s growth expectations. Across all of its brands, Darden grew same store sales 0.7%, when investors expected them to grow 1.7%. Darden’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% for a total of $3.2 billion. Most of that growth came on the back of its acquisition of Chuy’s, an Austin-based Tex-mex chain. 

    However, it was Darden’s bright forecast that powered the stock on Thursday, which at one point throughout the day was just 15 cents from its 52-week high. The company said next quarter it expected same-store sales to grow 3%. Darden CFO Raj Veenam said the company didn’t expect its operating margin to grow “materially” alongside same-store sales. 

    Darden declined to provide further comment to Fortune.

    Darden executives said they preferred to keep an eye on inflation levels rather than consumer confidence. For Darden, the priority was that incomes continued to outpace inflation, according to Cardenas. If the rate of inflation comes down and essential goods like groceries, gas, and housing cost less, then people would have more money for things like endless pasta and T-bone steaks. 

    “It’s giving people a little bit more disposable income and they may be choosing to spend it on dining out versus buying a good,” Cardenas said.

    This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

  • Does the Google Pixel 9a have wireless charging?

    Google has just released the Pixel 9a, giving some people who are shopping for the Pixel 9 another phone in the series that best fits their budget. It comes in four beautiful matte colors — Obsidian, Porcelain, Iris and Peony — and runs on the Tensor G4 processor, ensuring your phone receives the most optimal performance. It has a flatter camera frame than the premium models, trimming its weight and giving it an eye-catching design. It costs between $499 and $599, depending on whether you buy the 128GB model or the 256GB model, respectively. No matter what model you get, it runs on 8GB of RAM and brings you optimal performance with Google’s Tensor G4 processor.

    If you’re in the market for a new phone and are looking to get the Pixel 9a, you might be wondering if it has wireless charging capabilities. Most smartphones on the market are able to fill their batteries through wireless charging. Is the Pixel 9a any different simply because it’s a budget Pixel phone? The answer will have you decide if it’s worth the money.

    Does the Google Pixel 9a have wireless charging?

    The Pixel 9a has wireless charging, but it’s not as powerful as its premium counterparts. It only draws 7.5 watts of wireless charging power, which is similar to that of the Pixel 8a, despite it having a bigger 5,100mAh battery than the Pixel 9’s 4,700mAh.

    Its slow wireless charging speed is determined by the fact that it can only be charged with Qi standard wireless chargers, so you may see your phone may not get wirelessly charged at the same pace as the Pixel 9, which supports 15W of wireless charging. The 30-plus hours of battery life may also be a factor in its slow wireless charging speed.

    Other charging methods

    If wireless charging is not an option for you, you can always choose to plug the Pixel 9a into a wired charger. It supports 23W of wired charging, provided you use Google’s 45W USB-C wall charger. It’s not much of an improvement from the 18W of wired charging the Pixel 8a had, but it’ll still charge your phone faster than a wireless charger.

    Google’s proprietary 45W USB-C wall charger is sold separately, but you can still use other wall chargers from other brands as long as it has a USB-C port.

  • Ukraine strikes Russian strategic bomber airfield, triggering huge blast

  • California couple deported after living in U.S. for 35 years

  • Trump’s bluntness powered a White House comeback. Now his words are getting him in trouble in court

  • Vast majority of cannabis users drive afterwards, report says. What to know about the risks.

  • Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities – The White House

  • M60 crash: ‘Several’ people are injured after lorry smashed through central reservation and ploughed into SIX vehicles – motorway closed

    A shocking video from the scene shows multiple emergency vehicles rushing past gridlocked traffic with their sirens blaring out.

  • Have Blu-ray discs been given a stay of execution?

    It’s no secret that physical media in general, and Blu-ray in particular, has been in decline. Best Buy began removing Blu-ray discs from its stores and website at the beginning of 2024, and some manufacturers, like LG, have stopped production of Blu-ray disc players due to low demand. DVDs have even shown some issues due to their age, with disc rot reportedly affecting Warner Bros. titles from 2006-2008. I’ve been hopeful that physical media will stick around for as long as possible, but staying positive has been decidedly difficult.

    News out of Japan from publication Monohika, as reported by flatpanelshd.com, indicates that Sony is releasing its first Blu-ray disc player since 2019. The UBP-X700/K isn’t a brand new player designed from the ground up, but instead an update to the existing UBP-X700 originally released in January 2018. Also, quite often the letter K is used at the end of a model name to denote the products color — K for black — so the naming itself is curious.

    The player is scaled back in terms of features, with Monohika pointing out the new version includes no video and TV SideView app, no networking features (although images include an Ethernet port, perhaps only for updates), no video streaming apps, no Spotify Connect support, and no screen mirroring support. All of this and the pricing in Japan makes it more expensive than the non-K version.

    sony ubp x700 logo
    The original Sony UBP-X700 Blu-ray player. Dan Baker / Digital Trends

    The removal of streaming capabilities makes no difference to me, and I assume to anyone that would plan on buying it. Streaming offerings are available everywhere. TVs, game consoles, and external streaming devices have this well covered. There’s no reason for a Blu-ray player to also include the ability to stream from Netflix or Spotify.

    The benefits of owning physical media

    Putting aside the current disc rot situation affecting Warner Bros. DVDs, owning a physical copy of media — be it a Blu-ray, a CD, or a vinyl record — is the only way to make sure you’ll always be able to watch or listen to your favorite content. Streaming services like Netflix and Disney+ regularly remove content, so we’re all at the whims (and financial statements) of our streaming overlords. Content moves from one service to another (like when Westworld was pulled from Max so it could be moved to the FAST service Tubi) making it hard keeping track where shows can be streamed. Being able to walk over to the shelf and grab whatever you feel like watching — that you own — is turning into a privilege.

    The ability to take a movie down off the shelf does bring up one of the issues with owning your media — space. Having copies of absolutely everything you ever want to watch would be costly, both in the price of the media and the price of the real estate it takes up. But the tradeoff of knowing I’ll always have my favorite movie available to watch, in the version I’m familiar with, is worth it.

    There’s also some things that just aren’t available streaming. David Lynch’s classic Wild at Heart is only watchable on physical media. There are bands that only have albums released on vinyl or CD. The only way to watch the original versions of Star Wars is on a DVD, laserdisc, or VHS.

    Call me old fashioned, but there’s also something to be said about holding a disc. One of the reasons vinyl has had a resurgence, I think, is because of the ritual of taking a record out of the sleeve, putting it on the turntable, and looking at the album and liner notes while you listen to the music. There’s a similar feeling with collecting movies on disc — especially those that have collector’s editions with bonus material. Very often, that extra content isn’t included on streaming services.

    Sony keeps Blu-ray alive… but will it be for the U.S.?

    The fact that Sony is releasing a new Blu-ray player is an encouraging sign for the industry. The problem for those of us in the United States is it’s unclear if the UBP-X700/K will be available here or not. Reports state that the player will be released in the April/May timeframe, depending on region. There’s just been no clarification if one of those regions is North America.

    But even if it isn’t, the fact a new player is coming in any region is good. As much as we like to believe it, the U.S. is not the middle of the universe, and the inclusion of other areas of the world matters. More Blu-ray players everywhere means disc production will need to keep pace. I, for one, will be happy to continue adding 4K UHD Blu-ray discs to my collection.