Besieged by gang violence, Palestinian citizens in Israel demand more security

KAFR YASIF, Israel (AP) — Nabil Safiya had taken a break from studying for a biology exam to meet a cousin at a pizza parlor when a gunman on a motorcycle rode past and fired, killing the 15-year-old as he sat in a black Renault.

Israel Palestinian Citizens Violence

The shooting — which police later said was a case of mistaken identity — stunned his hometown of Kafr Yasif,long besieged,like many Palestinian towns in Israel, by a wave of gang violence and family feuds.

"There is no set time for the gunfire anymore," said Nabil's father, Ashraf Safiya. "They can kill you in school, they can kill you in the street, they can kill you in the football stadium."

Theviolence plaguing Israel's Arab minorityhas become an inescapable part of daily life. Activists have long accused authorities of failing to address the issue and say that sense has deepened under Israel's current far-right government.

One out of every five citizens in Israel is Palestinian. The rate of crime-related killings among them is more than 22 times higher than that for Jewish Israelis, while arrest and indictment rates for those crimes are far lower. Critics cite the disparities as evidence of entrenched discrimination and neglect.

A growing number of demonstrations are sweeping Israel. Thousands marched in Tel Aviv late Saturday to demand action, while Arab communities have gone on strike, closing shops and schools.

In November, after Nabil was gunned down, residents marched through the streets, students boycotted their classes and the Safiya family turned their home into a shrine with pictures and posters of Nabil.

The outrage had as much to do with what happened as with how often it keeps happening.

"There's a law for the Jewish society and a different law for Palestinian society," Ghassan Munayyer, a political activist from Lod, a mixed city with a large Palestinian population, said at a recent protest.

An epidemic of violence

SomePalestinian citizenshave reached the highest echelons of business andpoliticsin Israel. Yet many feel forsaken by authorities, with their communities marked by underinvestment and high unemployment that fuels frustration and distrust toward the state.

Nabil was one of a record 252 Palestinian citizens to be killed in Israel last year, according to data from Abraham Initiatives, an Israeli nongovernmental organization that promotes coexistence and safer communities. The toll continues to climb, with at least 26 additional crime-related killings in January.

Walid Haddad, a criminologist who teaches at Ono Academic College and who previously worked in Israel's national security ministry, said that organized crime thrives off weapons trafficking and loan‑sharking in places where people lack access to credit. Gangs also extort residents and business owners for "protection," he said.

Based on interviews with gang members in prisons and courts, he said they can earn anywhere from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on whether the job is torching cars, shooting at buildings or assassinating rival leaders.

"If they fire at homes or people once or twice a month, they can buy cars, go on trips. It's easy money," Haddad said, noting a widespread sense of impunity.

The violence has stifled the rhythm of life in many Palestinian communities. In Kafr Yasif, a northern Israel town of 10,000, streets empty by nightfall, and it's not uncommon for those trying to sleep to hear gunshots ringing through their neighborhoods.

Prosecutions lag

Last year, only 8% of killings of Palestinian citizens led to charges filed against suspects, compared with 55% in Jewish communities, according to Abraham Initiatives.

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Lama Yassin, the Abraham Initiatives' director of shared cities and regions, said strained relations with police long discouraged Palestinian citizens from calling for new police stations or more police officers in their communities.

Not anymore.

"In recent years, because people are so depressed and feel like they're not able to practice day-to-day life ... Arabs are saying, 'Do whatever it takes, even if it means more police in our towns,'" Yassin said.

The killings have become a rallying cry for Palestinian-led political parties after successive governments pledged to curb the bloodshed with little results. Politicians and activists see the spate of violence as a reflection of selective enforcement and police apathy.

"We've been talking about this for 10 years," said Knesset member Aida Touma-Suleiman.

She labeled policing in Palestinian communities "collective punishment," noting that when Jews are victims of violence, police often set up roadblocks in neighboring Palestinian towns,flood areas with officersand arrest suspects en masse.

"The only side that can be able to smash a mafia is the state and the state is doing nothing except letting (organized crime) understand that they are free to do whatever they want," Touma-Suleiman said.

Many communities feel impunity has gotten worse, she added, under National Security MinisterItamar Ben-Gvir, who with authority over the police haslaunchedaggressive and visible campaigns against other crimes,targeting protestsand pushing for tougher operations in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.

Israeli police reject allegations of skewed priorities, saying that killings in these communities are a top priority. Police also have said investigations are challenging because witnesses don't always cooperate.

"Investigative decisions are guided by evidence, operational considerations, and due process, not by indifference or lack of prioritization," police said in a statement.

Unanswered demands

In Kafr Yasif, Ashraf Safiya vowed his son wouldn't become just another statistic.

He had just gotten home from his work as a dentist and off the phone with Nabil when he learned about the shooting. He raced to the scene to find the car window shattered as Nabil was being rushed to the hospital. Doctors there pronounced him dead.

"The idea was that the blood of this boy would not be wasted," Safiya said of protests he helped organize. "If people stop caring about these cases, we're going to just have another case and another case."

Authorities said last month they were preparing to file an indictment against a 23-year-old arrested ina neighboring townin connection with the shooting. They said the intended target was a relative, referring to the cousin with Nabil that night.

And they described Nabil as a victim of what they called "blood feuds within Arab society."

At a late January demonstration in Kafr Yasif, marchers carried portraits of Nabil and Nidal Mosaedah, another local boy killed in the violence. Police broke up the protest, saying it lasted longer than authorized, and arrested its leaders, including the former head of the town council.

The show of force, residents said, may have quashed one protest, but did nothing to halt the killings.

__ Hazboun reported from Jerusalem.

byDaniel Coleman

in

February 01, 2026

Besieged by gang violence, Palestinian citizens in Israel demand more security

KAFR YASIF, Israel (AP) — Nabil Safiya had taken a break from studying for a biology exam to meet a cousin at a pizza par...

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Does the Constitution protect begging? Supreme Court asked to decide

WASHINGTON – Two years after theSupreme Courtsaid cities canpunish homeless peopleforsleeping in public places,Alabama wants the high court to end protections for public begging.

The constitutional issues are different. In 2024, the courtsaidfining or jailing someone for sleeping outside when there are no available shelter beds doesn't violate the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

In Alabama'spending appeal, the state argues begging was widely criminalized at the start of the nation so should not be protected speech under the First Amendment.

While the legal strategy may be a longshot, Alabama hopes the justices will want to hear its appeal for one of the same reasons an Oregon city's sleeping ban was taken up: local governments' pleas for help with the nation's growing homelessness problem.

More:In major decision, Supreme Court allows cities to ban homeless camps

"Our cities cannot manage this crisis without the full measure of their traditional police powers," Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall told the court in an appealbackedby 19 GOP attorneys general from other states.

`Today it is me, tomorrow it could be you'

Alabama has asked the court to decide whether the Constitution prevents broad bans on panhandling, such as two Alabama laws successfully challenged so far by Jonathan Singleton, a homeless resident of Montgomery, Alabama.

Singleton was cited six times for violating a state law against soliciting contributions, including for holding a sign that read "HOMELESS. Today it is me, tomorrow it could be you" while standing in the grass near a highway exit.

Violators can be punished with fines up to $500 and three months in jail under one anti-begging law and with fines starting at up to $100 and 10 days in jail under a law against soliciting contributions from people in cars.

More:20 US states sue to block Trump from restricting homelessness funding

Alabama's begging bans blocked by lower courts

After Singleton filed a class action lawsuit in 2020, lower courts blocked enforcement of the laws.

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The Atlanta-based 11thCircuit Court of Appeals' 2025 ruling cited its previous decision in a different case from Florida that begging is speech protected by the First Amendment.

A three-judge panel said Alabama's laws are different from a ban on panhandling on Fort Lauderdale's beaches that the appeals court upheld in 1999 because Fort Lauderdale's restrictions weren't citywide.

In an appeal that includes several references to the Supreme Court's 2024 decision on outdoor sleeping bans, Alabama argues cities and states need more leeway to address panhandling amid the homelessness crisis and a "dramatic growth" in public demand for dealing with begging.

"At the founding, States commonly prohibited idleness, wandering about with no course of business or fixed residence, begging in the streets, and the like," Marshall wrote. "The basic theory, inherited from the English, was to distinguish those who could work (but refused) from those who could not."

More:A growing American crisis is affecting more than 1 million students

Courts have said begging is protected by First Amendment

Lawyers for Singleton, some of whom work for the Southern Poverty Law Center and the National Homelessness Law Center, counter that the historic laws Alabama cites "criminalized the conduct of voluntary idleness, not the communicative aspect of begging."

And even if they did cover begging, Singleton's lawyers said, First Amendment protections aren't determined by what laws were on the books at a single moment in time.

That's why Alabama's argument cuts against the position taken by courts across the country and against the Supreme Court's "long and unbroken line of precedent recognizing that speech seeking charitable relief is protected by the First Amendment," his lawyers wrote.

When initiating the lawsuit in 2020, the Southern Poverty Law CentersaidAlabama "should dedicate more resources to housing, shelter, and healthcare that would meet those needs rather than jailing or ticketing people that ask for help."

Alabama's appeal is scheduled to be considered by the Supreme Court at a closed-door conference on Feb. 20. Four of the nine justices must want to hear a case for it to be accepted for review.

The court rejects the vast majority of the thousands of appeals it receives each year.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Alabama asks Supreme Court to end protections for panhandling

byDaniel Coleman

in

February 01, 2026

Does the Constitution protect begging? Supreme Court asked to decide

WASHINGTON – Two years after theSupreme Courtsaid cities canpunish homeless peopleforsleeping in public places,Alabama wa...

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Shutdown? What shutdown? For DC, just another day at the office

Shutdown?What shutdown?

There was a time when shutting down the federal government seemed like a big deal. Thirty years ago, the firestorm over a 21-day shutdown revived Bill Clinton's presidency and grievously wounded Newt Gingrich's speakership.

But the partial shutdown that started at midnight on Jan. 31 created less buzz over the weekend than the early and almost-entirely-negativereviews of Netflix's "Melania," the first lady's entry into documentary filmmaking.

As shutdown threat looms, Trump meets with Cabinet

This even though parts of the Pentagon, the Health and Human Services Department and the Transportation Department, left without regular funding, were ordered to begin an "orderly shutdown" for a least a few days. Late Friday, the Senate passed five appropriations bills to fund them but the House can't begin to consider the measure until it reconvenes on Monday.

Passage there is considered likely but not guaranteed. Democratic leaders aren't yet on board; some Republican hardliners are expressing opposition.

Left unsettled is more money for the Homeland Security Department. Those funds are caught in a fierce battle over Democratic proposals, now backed by some Republicans, to impose limits on the behavior of the ICE agents whose aggressive tactics in Minneapolis have left protestersRenee GoodandAlex Prettidead.

Under the deal reached by the Trump administration and the Senate, negotiators would have another two weeks before a shutdown over that looms again.

What once seemed like a sign of a government-in-crisis is now viewed by many in Washington as just another day at the office. Shutdowns have lost their power to shock unless clear catastrophe ensues − say,disrupting air travelfor millions of Americans − or records are broken.

That's not to say shutdowns are free, for federal workers or Americans generally.

Besides overwhelmed TSA lines at some airports, the last shutdown resulted in the furlough of about 670,000 government employees. Members of thearmed forceswere required to report for duty, but some military families turned to food banks to tide over their families.

Areport by the Congressional Research Servicereleased Jan. 29 estimated that the six-week shutdown cost the U.S. economy about $11 billion in lost spending and productivity.

The current shutdown has a long way to go before it challenges the record that one set last fall. That had been prompted by Democrats' demand to extend enhanced subsidies for those who buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act.

An issue, by the way, that is still being debated.

Do you trust your government?

One reason shutdowns have often become a dog-bites-man story is that what once was seen as a shocking last resort has beenrelatively common.

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In the half-century since the federal budget process was overhauled in 1976, there have now been 23 of them, hitting every administration except those of presidents George W. Bush andJoe Biden.

Ronald Reagan had the most, at eight, but each for only a few days. Trump has scored the longest. The previous record of 35 days, set during his first term over funding for his proposal to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, has now been supplanted by the 43-day shutdown in his second term.

Another reason is that the federal government is now viewed by many as so routinely dysfunctional that budget stalemates are seen as just one more example of a broader breakdown.

In aPew Research Center pollreleased in December, just 17% of Americans said they trusted the government in Washington to do what is right most or all of the time.

When that question was first asked by the National Election Study in 1958, an overwhelming 73% of Americans held that level of trust in their government.

Views of the government have gone up and down in the generations since then. They eroded during the Vietnam War and Watergate scandal, then rebounded during rosy economic times in the mid-1980s and late 1990s. But a spike after the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2011 collapsed in the wake of the Iraq War and financial meltdown in 2008.

Today's reading, with only about one in six Americans expressing faith in government, is one of the lowest over the past seven decades.

When it's easier to sign your name

Washington has also set public expectations low that action will be taken on, well, just about anything.

The119th Congress, which took office in January 2025, is on track to enact the fewest pieces of legislation of any in decades, according to statistics reported by GovTrack.us.

The bills Trump signed into law in 2025 included the sweeping tax-cut measure known as the One Big Beautiful Bill. But the president has imposed many of his most far-reaching policies not by passing laws but by signing arecord 228 executive orders− to impose stringent tariffs, order mass deportations, shake up federal agencies and deploy the National Guard to the streets of U.S. cities.

For Congress, funding the government, one of its fundamental tasks, has proven problematic.

Another shutdown?

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:For Trump and Congress, budget shutdown just another day in DC

byDaniel Coleman

in

February 01, 2026

Shutdown? What shutdown? For DC, just another day at the office

Shutdown?What shutdown? There was a time when shutting down the federal government seemed like a big deal. Thi...

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In Minneapolis, all-encompassing immigration story tests a newsroom in midst of digital transition

With the eyes of a nation fixed on the unrest in Minneapolis, the events haven't left local journalists overmatched.

Immigration Enforcement Minnesota

Over the past month, the Minnesota Star Tribune has broken stories, including the identity of theimmigration enforcement officerwho shotRenee Good, and produced a variety of informative and instructive pieces. Richard Tsong-Taatarii'sphotoof a prone demonstrator sprayed point-blank with a chemical irritant quickly became a defining image. TheICE actionshave changed how the outlet presents the news.

At a time when many regional newspapers have become hollowed-out shells due to thedecline in journalismas a business, the Star Tribune has kept staffing relatively steady under billionaireGlen Taylor, who has owned it since 2014. It rebranded itself from the Minneapolis Star Tribune and committed itself to a digital transformation.

It was ready for its moment.

"If you hadn't invested in the newsroom, you wouldn't be able to react in that way," said Steve Grove, publisher and chief executive.

Minnesota's robust journalism tradition

The Star Tribune hasn't operated in a vacuum. Minneapolis has a robust journalism tradition, particularly on public radio and television. Sahan Journal, a digital newsroom focusing on immigrants and diverse communities, has also distinguished itself covering President Donald Trump's immigration efforts and the public response.

"The whole ecosystem is pretty darn good," said Kathleen Hennessey, senior vice president and editor of the Star Tribune, "and I think people are seeing that now."

While national outlets have made their presence felt, strong local teams offer advantages in such stories. The Star Tribune's Josie Albertson-Grove was one of the first journalists on the scene afterICU nurse Alex Prettiwas shot dead on Jan. 24. She lives about a block away, and her knowledge of the neighborhood and its people helped to reconstruct what happened.

Journalists with kids in school learned about ICE efforts to target areas where children gather by hearing chatter among friends. While covering a beat like public safety can carry baggage, Star Tribune reporter Liz Sawyer developed sources that helped her, along with colleagues Andy Mannix and Sarah Nelson, report on who shot Good.

Besides those contacts, the staff simply knows Minnesota better than outsiders, Hennessey said.

"This is a place with a really, really long and entrenched tradition of activism, and a place with really deep social networks and neighborhood networks," she said. "People mobilize quickly and passionately, and they're noisy about it. That's definitely been part of the story."

A Signal chat tipped Tsong-Taatarii about a demonstration growing raucous on Jan. 21. Upon arriving, he focused his lens on one protester knocked to the ground, leaving the photographer perfectly placed for his richly-detailed shot. Two officers hold the man face-down with arms on his back, while a third unleashes a chemical from a canister inches from his face. The bright yellow liquid streams onto his cheek and splatters onto the pavement.

What some have called the sadistic cruelty involved in the episode outraged many who saw the photo. "I was just trying to document and present the evidence and let people decide for themselves," Tsong-Taatarii said.

'A badge to prove I belong'

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In one enterprising story, the Star Tribune's Christopher Magan and Jeff Hargarten identified 240 of an estimated 3,000 immigrants rounded up in Minnesota, finding 80% had felony convictions but nearly all had been through the court system, been punished and were no longer sought by police. Hargarten and Jake Steinberg collaborated on a study of how the size of the federal force compared with that of local police.

Columnist Laura Yuen wrote that her 80-year-old parents have begun carrying their passports when they leave their suburban townhouse, part of the "quiet, pervasive fear" in the Twin Cities. Yuen downloaded her own passport to carry on her phone. "A document that once made me proud of all the places I've traveled is now a badge to prove I belong," she wrote.

A piece by Kim Hyatt and Louis Krauss detailed the health consequences of chemical irritants used by law enforcement — or thought to be used, since questions about what specifically was deployed went unanswered.

"I really think they've done a commendable job," said Scott Libin, a veteran television newsman and journalism professor at the University of Minnesota. He praised the Star Tribune's story about the criminal backgrounds of immigrants as thorough and dispassionate.

Since Hennessey, a former Associated Press editor, began her job last May, the Star Tribune has experienced a run of big stories, including theshootingof two state lawmakers and agunman opening fireat a Catholic school in Minneapolis. And, of course, "we have a newsroom that still has muscle memory fromGeorge Floyd" in 2020, Grove said.

News compelled fundamental shifts in the way the Star Tribune operates. Like some national outlets, it has rearranged staff to cover the story aggressively through a continuously updated live blog on its website, offered free to readers. There's also a greater emphasis on video, with the Star Tribune doing forensic studies on footage from the Pretti and Good shootings, something few local newsrooms are equipped to do. Traffic to its website has gone up 50 percent, paid subscriptions have increased and the company is getting thousands of dollars in donations from across the country, Grove said.

"People have changed the way that they consume news," Hennessey said. "We see that readers are coming back. You know, they're not just waking up in the morning, reading the site and then forgetting about us all day long. They're coming back a couple of times a day to check in on what's new."

Most people in the newsroom are contributing to the story, including the Star Tribune's food and culture team, and its outdoor reporters. "There are no normal beats anymore," Albertson-Grove said.

A rapid transformation to a digital-first newsroom

Under Grove, a former Google executive, the Star Tribune has attempted a digital-first transition, turning over about 20% of its staff in two years. The paper shut its Minneapolis printing plant in December, laying off 125 people, and moving print operations to Iowa.

"We face every single headwind that every local news organization in the country does," Grove said. "But we do feel fortunate that we're the largest newsroom in the Midwest and it's part of the reason we're able to do this now."

As a reporter, Sawyer says the public response to the outlet's work, sharing stories and images, has lifted her spirits. Readers see it as public service journalism. Still, she could use a break. She and her husband, Star Tribune photographer Aaron Lavinsky, have a baby daughter and make sure to stagger their coverage. They can't both be tear-gassed or arrested at the same time; who makes the daycare pickup?

"I think both residents and journalists in this town are running on fumes," she said. "We're tired of being in the international spotlight and it's never for something positive. People are trying their best to get through this moment with grace."

David Bauder writes about the intersection of media and entertainment for the AP. Follow him athttp://x.com/dbauderandhttps://bsky.app/profile/dbauder.bsky.social.

byDaniel Coleman

in

January 31, 2026

In Minneapolis, all-encompassing immigration story tests a newsroom in midst of digital transition

With the eyes of a nation fixed on the unrest in Minneapolis, the events haven't left local journalists overmatched. ...

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Black history centennial channels angst over anti-DEI climate into education, free resources

For academics, historians and activists, the past year has been tumultuous in advocating the teaching of Black history in the United States.

Black History Month Begins

Despite last year proclaiming February as National Black History Month, President Donald Trump started his second term by claiming some African American history lessons are meant to indoctrinate people into hating the country. The administration has dismantled Black history at national parks, most recently removingan exhibit on slavery in Philadelphialast month. Black history advocates see these acts and their chilling effect as scary and unprecedented.

"States and cities are nervous about retribution from the White House," said DeRay Mckesson, a longtime activist and executive director of Campaign Zero, an organization focused on police reform. "So even the good people are just quieter now."

In the 100th year since the nation's earliest observances of Black History Month — which began whenscholar Carter G. Woodson pioneered the first Negro History Week— celebrations will go on. The current political climate has energized civil rights organizations, artists and academics to engage young people on a full telling of America's story. There are hundreds of lectures, teach-ins and even new books — from nonfiction to a graphic novel — to mark the milestone.

"This is why we are working with more than 150 teachers around the country on a Black History Month curriculum to just ensure that young people continue to learn about Black history in a way that is intentional and thoughtful," Mckesson said about a campaign his organization has launched with the Afro Charities organization and leading Black scholars to expand access to educational materials.

New graphic novel highlights history of Juneteenth

About three years ago, Angélique Roché, a journalist and adjunct professor at Xavier University of Louisiana, accepted a "once-in-a-lifetime" invitation to be the writer for a graphic novel retelling of the story ofOpal Lee, "grandmother of Juneteenth."

Lee, who will also turn 100 this year, is largely credited for getting federal recognition of theJune 19 holidaycommemorating the day when enslaved people in Texas learned they were emancipated. Under Trump, however, Juneteenth isno longer a free-admission dayat national parks.

Juneteenth helped usher in the first generation of Black Americans who, like Woodson, was born free. "First Freedom: The Story of Opal Lee and Juneteenth," the graphic novel, comes out Tuesday. It is the culmination of Roché's assiduous archival research, phone chats and visits to Texas to see Lee and her granddaughter, Dione Sims.

"There is nothing 'indoctrinating' about facts that are based on primary sources that are highly researched," said Roché, who hopes the book makes it into libraries and classrooms. "At the end of the day, what the story should actually tell people is that we're far more alike than we are different."

While Lee is the main character, Roché used the novel as a chance to put attention on lesser known historical figures like William "Gooseneck Bill" McDonald, Texas' first Black millionaire, and Opal Lee's mother, Mattie Broadous Flake.

She hopes this format will inspire young people to follow Lee and her mantra — "make yourself a committee of one."

"It doesn't mean don't work with other people," Roché said. "Don't wait for other people to make the changes you wanna see."

Campaign aims to train new generation of Black historians

When Trump's anti-DEI executive orders were issued last year, Jarvis Givens, a professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard, was thousands of miles away teaching in London, where Black History Month is celebrated in October. He had already been contemplating writing a book for the centennial.

Watching Trump's "attack" cemented the idea, Givens said.

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"I wanted to kind of devote my time while on leave to writing a book that would honor the legacy that gave us Black History Month," Givens said.

The result is "I'll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month," a book with four in-depth essays that comes out Tuesday. The title is a line from the 1920s poem "The Creation" by James Weldon Johnson, whose most famous poem, "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," is known as the "Black National Anthem."

Givens examines important themes in Black history and clarifies misconceptions around them.

The book and the research Givens dug up will tie into a "living history campaign" with Campaign Zero and Afro Charities, Mckesson said. The goal is to teach what Woodson believed — younger generations can become historians who can discern fact from fiction.

"When I grew up, the preservation of history was a historian's job," Mckesson said, adding his group's campaign will teach young students how to record history.

How the 'father of Black history' might feel today

Born in 1875 to formerly enslaved parents, Woodson was among the first generation of Black Americans not assigned to bondage at birth. He grew up believing that education was a way to self-empowerment, said Robert Trent Vinson, director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The second Black man to earn a doctorate at Harvard University — W. E. B. Du Bois was the first — Woodson was disillusioned by how Black history was dismissed. He saw that the memories and culture of less educated Black people were no less valuable, Vinson said.

When Woodson established Negro History Week in 1926, he was in an era where popular stereotypes like blackface and minstrelsy were filling in for actual knowledge of the Black experience, according to Vinson. This sparked the creation of Black history clubs and Woodson began inserting historical lessons "on the sly" in publications like the "Journal of Negro History" and the "Negro History Bulletin."

"Outside the formal school structure, they're having a separate school like in churches or in study groups," Vinson said. "Or they're sharing it with parents and saying, 'you teach your young people this history.' So, Woodson is creating a whole educational space outside the formal university."

In 1976, for the week's 50th anniversary, President Gerald Ford issued a message recognizing it as an entire month. There was pushback then over the gains the Civil Rights Movement had made, Givens said.

As for today's backlash over Black and African American studies, Vinson believes Woodson would not be surprised. But, he would see it as a sign "you're on the right track."

"There's a level of what he called 'fugitivity,' of sharing this knowledge and being strategic about it," Vinson said. "There are other times like in this moment, Black History Month, where you can be more out and assertive, but be strategic about how you spread the information."

Resistance to teaching Black history is something that seems to occur every generation, Mckesson said.

"We will go back to normalcy. We've seen these backlashes before," Mckesson said. "And when I think about the informal networks of Black people who have always resisted, I think that is happening today."

Tang reported from Phoenix.

byDaniel Coleman

in

January 31, 2026

Black history centennial channels angst over anti-DEI climate into education, free resources

For academics, historians and activists, the past year has been tumultuous in advocating the teaching of Black history in...

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Chaka Khan, Cher, Whitney Houston, Fela Kuti get Grammys Life Achievement Awards

LOS ANGELES (AP) —Chaka Khan,Cher,Carlos Santana,Paul Simon,Fela KutiandWhitney Houstonreceived the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy at theGrammysSpecial Merit Awards on Saturday night.

2026 Recording Academy's Special Merit Awards - Arrivals

"Music has been my prayer, my healing, my joy, my truth," Khan said as she accepted the award. "Through it, I saved my life."

She was the only Lifetime Achievement recipient who appeared at the ceremony at the small Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles on the eve ofSunday's main Grammys ceremony.

She was preceded by a short documentary on her career that highlighted her hits as a member of the funk band Rufus and as a solo artist, including 1974's Stevie Wonder-written "Tell Me Something Good," 1983's "Ain't Nobody," 1978's "I'm Every Woman" and 1984's Prince-penned "I Feel For You."

Wearing a shimmering sea green gown, she thanked her many collaborators while admitting not all of them were entirely sane.

"Over 50 years I am blessed to walk alongside extraordinary artists, musicians, writers, producers and creatives," she said, pausing before adding, "and cuckoos."

Family accepted the Lifetime Achievement Awards for the Nigerian Afrobeat legend Kuti, who died in 1997, and the singing superstar Houston, who died in 2012.

"Her voice — that voice! — remains eternal," Pat Houston, Whitney's sister-in-law, close friend and longtime manager, said. "Her legacy will live forever."

Three of his children accepted the award for Kuti, introduced as a "producer, arranger, political radical, outlaw and the father of Afrobeat." He's the first African musician to get the award.

"Thank you for bringing our father here," Femi Kuti said. "It's so important for us, it's so important for Africa, it's so important for world peace and the struggle."

The audience gave a collective moan of disappointment when academy President Harvey Mason Jr. said Cher wasn't there.

She spoke in a very short video.

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"The only thing I ever wanted to be was a singer. When I was 4 years old I used to run around the house naked, singing into a hair brush," she said. "Things haven't changed all that much."

Santana also spoke on video, after his son, Salvador, accepted his trophy.

"The world is so infected with fear that we need the music and message of Santana to bring hope, courage and joy to heal the world," Carlos Santana said.

Elton John's longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin paid tribute to Simon, calling him "the greatest American songwriter alive."

Taupin was there as one of the recipients of the Grammys Trustees Award, which honors career contributions outside of performing.

Despite co-writing the vast majority of John's hits, Taupin has somehow never won a competitive Grammy, though he's nominated for one Sunday.

"I've been waiting 57 years for one of these," he said, looking at his honorary trophy.

Taupin read a list of the songwriting principles he's always followed. They included "avoid cliches," "never write songs in cubicles" and "don't say you're going to die if she leaves you — because you're not."

Eddie Palmieri, a pianist, composer and bandleader who was a great innovator in Latin jazz and rumba, also got a Trustees Award.

Palmieri, who died last year at 88, became the first Latino to win a Grammy Award, in 1975.

Another trustees honoree was Sylvia Rhone, the first Black woman to head a major record label.

John Chowning, whose work as a Stanford professor in the 1960s was essential to the synthesizer sounds that dominated the 1980s, won the Technical Grammy Award.

Jennifer Jimenez, a band director from South Miami Senior High School, won the Grammys Music Educator Award, and "Ice Cream Man" by Raye got the Harry Belafonte Song for Social Change Award.

byDaniel Coleman

in

January 31, 2026

Chaka Khan, Cher, Whitney Houston, Fela Kuti get Grammys Life Achievement Awards

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Undercover investigation of Meta heads to trial in New Mexico in first stand-alone case by state

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The first stand-alone trial from state prosecutors in a stream of lawsuits againstMetais getting underway in New Mexico, with jury selection starting Monday.

New Mexico's case is built on a state undercover investigation using proxy social media accounts and posing as kids to document sexual solicitations and the response from Meta, the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. It could give states a new legal pathway to go after social media companies overhow their platforms affect children, by using consumer protection and nuisance laws.

Attorney General Raúl Torrez filed suit in 2023, accusing Meta of creating a marketplace and "breeding ground" for predators who target children for sexual exploitation and failing to disclose what it knew about those harmful effects.

"So many regulators are keyed up looking for any evidence of a legal theory that would punish social media that a victory in that case could have ripple effects throughout the country, and the globe," said Eric Goldman, codirector of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law in California. "Whatever the jury says will be of substantial interest."

The trial, with opening statements scheduled for Feb. 9, could last nearly two months.

Meta denies the civil charges and says prosecutors are taking a "sensationalist" approach. CEOMark Zuckerbergwas dropped as a defendant in the case, but he has been deposed and documents in the case carry his name.

In California, opening arguments are scheduled this week for a personal injury case in Los Angeles County Superior Court that could determine how thousands of similar lawsuits against social media companies will play out.

The allegations against Meta in New Mexico

Prosecutors say New Mexico is not seeking to hold Meta accountable for content on its platforms, but rather its role in pushing out that content through complex algorithms that proliferate material that can be addictive and harmful to children.

The approach could sidestep immunity provisions for social media platforms under a First Amendment shield andSection 230, a 30-year-old provision of the U.S. Communications Decency Act that has protected tech companies from liability for material posted on their platforms.

An undercover investigation by the state created several decoy accounts for minors 14 and younger, documented the arrival of online sexual solicitations and monitored Meta's responses when the behavior was brought to the company's attention. The state says Meta's responses placed profits ahead of children's safety.

Torrez, a first-term Democrat elected in 2022, has urged Meta to implement more effective age verification and remove bad actors from its platform. He's also seeking changes to algorithms that can serve up harmful material and criticizing end-to-end privacy encryption that can prevent the monitoring of communications with children for safety.

Separately, Torrez brought felony criminal charges of child solicitation by electronic devices against three men in 2024, also using decoy social media accounts to build that case.

How Meta has responded

Meta denies the civil charges while accusing the attorney general of cherry-picking select documents and making "sensationalist, irrelevant and distracting arguments."

In a statement, Meta said ongoing lawsuits nationwide are attempting to place the blame for teen mental health struggles on social media companies in a way that oversimplifies matters. It points to the steady addition of account settings and tools — including safety features that give teens more information about the person they're chatting with and content restrictions based on PG-13 movie ratings.

Goldman says the company is bringing enormous resources to bear in courtrooms this year, including New Mexico.

"If they lose this," he said, "it becomes another beachhead that might erode their basic business."

Many other lawsuits are underway

More than40 state attorneys general have filed lawsuitsagainst Meta, claiming it is harming young people and contributing to the youth mental health crisis by deliberately designing features that addict children to its platforms. The majority filed their lawsuits in federal court.

The bellwether trial underway in California against social video companies, including Meta's Instagram and Google's YouTube, focuses on a 19-year-old who claims her use of social media from an early age addicted her to technology and exacerbated depression and suicidal thoughts. TikTok and Snapchat parent company Snap Inc. settled claims in the case that affects thousands of consolidated plaintiffs.

A federal trial starting in June in Oakland, California, will be the first to represent school districts that have sued social media platforms over harms to children.

In New Mexico, prosecutors also sued Snap Inc. over accusations its platform facilitates child sexual exploitation. Snap says its platform has built-in safety guardrails and "deliberate design choices to make it difficult for strangers to discover minors." A trial date has not been set.

The jury weighs guilt, but a judge has final say on any sanctions

A jury assembled from residents of Santa Fe County, including the politically progressive state capital city, will weigh whether Meta engaged in unfair business practices and to what extent.

But a judge will have final say later on any possible civil penalties and other remedies, and decide the public nuisance charge against Meta.

The state's Unfair Practices Act allows penalties of $5,000 per violation, but it's not yet clear how violations would be tallied.

"The reason the damage potential is so great here is because of how Facebook works," said Mollie McGraw, a Las Cruces-based plaintiff's attorney. "Meta keeps track of everyone who sees a post. … The damages here could be significant."

byDaniel Coleman

in

January 31, 2026

Undercover investigation of Meta heads to trial in New Mexico in first stand-alone case by state

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — The first stand-alone trial from state prosecutors in a stream of lawsuits againstMetais getting un...

Read More