A new report from the Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, shows strong and sustained progress for adult learners supported through Tennessee Reconnect, the state’s free tuition program for adults returning to college powered by the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. The findings show more Tennesseans are enrolling, completing credentials, and seeing higher wages as [.] Ms. Cheap: New book gives history of Mr. Harvey’s longtime Nativity Scene at Centennial Park I admit that I never saw the larger-than-life Nativity scene that Fred Harvey Sr. commissioned and had set up each year in front of the Parthenon in Centennial Park during the Christmas season in the.
https://mainstreetmediatn.com/articles/cce-print/more-tennesseans-enrolling-completing-advancing-through-tennessee-reconnect/
Tag: commissioned
Better Life Lab Reporting Grants Q & A Webinar
Join the team at the Better Life Lab for an informational webinar to learn more about the care reporting grants for 2025-2026. During the session, you’ll hear how to apply and what we’re looking for in stories focused on child care and care across the lifecycle.
Stories will be commissioned on a rolling basis beginning in November 2025. Journalists selected for this program will be invited to participate in the Better Life Lab’s reporting cohort, receiving editorial guidance and placement assistance.
Since 2021, the Better Life Lab has supported more than 20 independent journalists and storytellers. Together with our team, we’ve produced nearly 70 stories on child care innovations, which have appeared in nearly 40 different publications and media outlets.
We’re now expanding our focus to cover innovations in care across the life cycle. We’re seeking solutions-oriented stories that explore how and why care issues matter to families, children, communities, and a thriving economy with thriving families.
We welcome submissions in all mediums, including print and online stories, photojournalism, graphic stories, podcasts, audio pieces, multimedia projects, and videography.
For more information on how to apply, please [find more details here].
https://www.newamerica.org/better-life-lab/events/better-life-lab-reporting-grants-q-a-webinar/
Animal rights group NYCLASS spends millions to ban horse carriages in Big Apple
That’s a lot of hay!
The animal rights group NYCLASS has spent millions of dollars over the past decade as part of its campaign to ban horse carriages in New York City, according to records reviewed by The Post.
New Yorkers for Clean, Livable, and Safe Streets, in its 2024 tax filing, reported spending $1.272 million in the 2022 calendar year, including $744,547 on ads and promotions and $261,000 on lobbying lawmakers, records show. The group spent $634,000 in 2021 and has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in prior years dating back to 2015.
News of NYCLASS’s big spending came as the group commissioned a poll released Monday that claimed 78% of voters support Ryder’s Law. This legislation would ban horse-drawn carriages and replace them with electric alternatives, relocate horses to rescue farms, and provide job-transition programs for current drivers and replacements.
The bill, supported by Mayor Eric Adams, is named after Ryder, a horse that collapsed and died in 2022. However, it has stalled in the City Council due to opposition from the union-backed industry.
“They are a bunch of hypocrites,” said Transport Workers Union (TWU) president John Samuelsen, whose union advocates for the carriage drivers and is also now spending vast sums to save the industry. The TWU recently commissioned its own poll, claiming that regular Central Park-goers support the horse carriages.
“They haven’t spent a dime to provide any actual goods or services that would benefit horses. Not a single bale of hay or even a carrot,” Samuelsen contended. He alleges that NYCLASS is “obsessed with dehumanizing carriage-horse drivers by falsely portraying them as evil animal abusers, just so real estate developers can put them out of business and build more hotels and high-rises on the West Side of Manhattan, where the stables are located.”
“This is about money and greed,” Samuelsen said, “not the horses.”
NYCLASS defended its spending, with a spokesperson saying the group funds other animal protection programs as well as pushing to ban the horse carriage industry.
“NYCLASS has rescued New York City carriage horses discarded and sent to slaughter by the same rich owners John Samuelsen is lying for, and we’ve passed numerous laws that have saved thousands of animals,” said NYCLASS executive director Edita Birnkrant.
She referred to Samuelsen as a “bully” who attacks anyone who wants to end horse abuse.
“He bragged about wasting $1 million in union dues on vicious AI attack ads to threaten officials and silence advocates. Samuelsen isn’t fighting for workers; he’s protecting the wealthy carriage bosses who exploit them and their horses for profit,” Birnkrant countered.
“Horse carriages are a dying, obsolete business being shut down and replaced in cities around the world, and 78 percent of New Yorkers, along with every major mayoral candidate, support Ryder’s Law to ban them.”
https://nypost.com/2025/10/20/us-news/nyclass-spends-millions-to-ban-horse-carriages-in-nyc/