A mural adorns a wall in the city of Springfield, Ohio, U.S. September 11, 2024. REUTERS/Julio-Cesar Chavez
The depth of animosity arising from a few incendiary words is hard to comprehend. Springfield, Ohio, is currently living through a nightmare. The city has been branded by unfounded claims recently. These claims come from former President Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance. Baseless allegations have unleashed a wave of bigotry and fear. Notably, claims that Haitian immigrants are killing and eating pets are part of these allegations. The fallout has been catastrophic: bomb threats, school closures, and a community gripped by anxiety and distrust.
Springfield, Ohio
The recent segment of PBS News Hour featured correspondent William Brangham and Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck. Upon reflection, it is clear that the situation is dire. Over 33 bomb threats have been reported, fueled by nothing more than inflammatory rhetoric. This has led to the local immigrant community living in a state of heightened fear. Brangham’s reporting echoes the voices of those who are suffering. One father is too frightened to be identified. He expressed how something as innocent as biking with his son in the park has become too risky. His fear shows how hateful narratives affect real life. These narratives have turned his everyday life into a continuous cycle of fear.
Bryan Heck openly discussed Springfield’s challenges resulting from national rhetoric. He lamented how the city is now caught in a political maelstrom, struggling against a tide of false claims that distort the reality of their immigrant population. The Haitian residents are not criminals or a burden; they contribute to the local economy and enrich the community they now call home. The irony is striking: those who have come to Springfield in search of a better life are being scapegoated instead.
It pains me to see that bigotry seems to be given a free pass in this situation. Hate groups have capitalized on the misinformation, which has allowed rhetoric previously relegated to the fringes to seep into the mainstream. This past week, Springfield residents found flyers from the KKK labeling Haitian immigrants as “disease-ridden and filthy.” No one should ever feel unsafe in their own community due to identity or race. The presence of such open hate should spur outrage and action, not silence.
While I’ve noticed some pockets of pushback, including televised town meetings where members of the Haitian community, as well as Alden Clark’s family, have voiced their concerns, I struggle to understand why more isn’t being done. Why is Senator J.D. Vance, who represents Ohio, putting the city—and its residents—through this turmoil? It feels disheartening to consider that someone in power would employ such harmful tactics simply for political gain, with little regard for the truth or the people affected.
I also think of Philomene Philostin, a local pastor who runs a grocery store serving the Haitian community. She articulated the frustrating reality of being dehumanized in the midst of personally contributing to Springfield’s cultural tapestry. “Why do they not see the good things the Haitian community has done?” she asked, resonating with the many who feel overshadowed by the noise of hatred. To these families, Springfield has not just been a destination; it has been a hope-filled future built through hard work and community.
The narratives being constructed around Haitian immigrants in Springfield are deliberate, dangerous, and deeply misleading. There are no credible reports of pets being harmed; those assertions have simply been fabricated to foster fear. Health data from Clark County indicates that the influx of Haitian immigrants has not correlated with increased disease or crime; in fact, health officials reported that communicable diseases largely decreased between 2022 and 2023. Vance’s claims about heightened crime have been dismissed as political posturing, leaving residents to wonder why their lives are in turmoil over fabrications.
This isn’t just about Springfield. It’s about how society addresses bigotry at large. How often do we allow lies and stereotypes to dictate our discourse? The danger is exacerbated when no one—neither leadership nor community—stands up to challenge these woefully inaccurate assertions. It’s a reflection of our larger societal issues regarding race, immigration, and compassion.
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As we continue to navigate this crisis, my hope is that the voices of truth and understanding will prevail over hate. We must demand more from our leaders, push back against the tide of misinformation, and work toward fostering an inclusive community where fear and divisiveness have no place. Springfield, a town with so much potential, deserves a future built on unity and respect rather than division and fear. It’s time for everyone to step up, confront these lies head-on, and support the rich diversity that makes our communities strong.
The Bridge is a section of the STM Daily News Blog meant for diversity, offering real news stories about bona fide community efforts to perpetuate a greater good. The purpose of The Bridge is to connect the divides that separate us, fostering understanding and empathy among different groups. By highlighting positive initiatives and inspirational actions, The Bridge aims to create a sense of unity and shared purpose. This section brings to light stories of individuals and organizations working tirelessly to promote inclusivity, equality, and mutual respect. Through these narratives, readers are encouraged to appreciate the richness of diverse perspectives and to participate actively in building stronger, more cohesive communities.
STM Daily News is a vibrant news blog dedicated to sharing the brighter side of human experiences. Emphasizing positive, uplifting stories, the site focuses on delivering inspiring, informative, and well-researched content. With a commitment to accurate, fair, and responsible journalism, STM Daily News aims to foster a community of readers passionate about positive change and engaged in meaningful conversations. Join the movement and explore stories that celebrate the positive impacts shaping our world.
Lynette Young is a passionate writer and blogger, sharing insights on livable cities, urbanism, and transportation. As an experienced mom, she captures the essence of community through her engaging stories.
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Lynette Young is a passionate writer and blogger, sharing insights on livable cities, urbanism, and transportation. As an experienced mom, she captures the essence of community through her engaging stories.
Simply put, a 401(k) is an employer-sponsored retirement savings plan in which employees contribute a portion of their compensation on a tax-deferred basis.
The employee is eligible at any age to contribute to a 401(k) plan and has the option to pay into these plans throughout their employment. Many employers match some or all of an employee’s contributions, making the plan even more attractive.
What about withdrawals?
Under Internal Revenue Service rules, someone with a 401(k) is required to start making monetary withdrawals from their plan when they reach age 73. Some people start withdrawing at an earlier age.
Someone with a 401(k) can withdraw funds from the plan early, and at any time. But the money amounts withdrawn will typically be deemed taxable income. In addition, those age 59 and a half and under will likely face a 10% penalty on the withdrawal, unless the employer’s plan allows for hardship distributions, early withdrawals or loans from your plan account.
The IRS has specific rules for these early withdrawals; if you find yourself in this situation, you should get help from a tax professional.
All withdrawals starting at age 73, which tax professionals call “RMDs,” are then taxable in retirement – presumably at a lower tax rate than the employee was subject to while employed and working. So these withdrawals starting at age 73 can be a very tax-efficient way of financial planning, including personal income tax planning, for later in life, especially in one’s retirement years.
Again, it’s important to get help from a tax professional to make sure you meet the IRS’ RMD dollar withdrawal requirements once you start withdrawing.
In calendar-year 2025, the most that an employee can contribute to a tax-deferred 401(k) plan annually is US$23,500, including the employer’s match. “Super catch-up contributions are allowed for employees over the age of 50 to their employer’s 401(k) plan each year indexed to inflation. In 2025, super catch-up contributions allow individuals age 50 and older to contribute an additional $7,500 beyond the standard limit, bringing their total annual contribution to $31,000. For those turning age 60, 61, 62 or 63 in 2025, the SECURE Act 2.0 allows a higher catch-up contribution limit of $11,250, resulting in a total allowable contribution of $34,750 in 2025.
When and why did 401(k)s become popular?
Before 1978, retirement savings options were limited.
In 1935, Congress created the Social Security Retirement Plan. This was followed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, which created individual retirement accounts, or IRAs, as a way for employees to save tax-deferred money for their retirement.
401(k) plans became popular with the passage of the Revenue Act of 1978 by Congress.
Congress saw 401(k) plans at that time as an alternative way to supplement Social Security benefits that all eligible Americans are entitled to receive upon retirement. In 1981, the IRS issued new rules and regulations allowing employees to fund their 401(k)s through payroll deductions. This significantly increased the number of employees contributing to their employers’ 401(k) plans.
As of September 2024, Americans held $8.9 trillion in 401(k) plans, according to the Investment Company Institute. A study published by the Pension Rights Center toward the end of 2023 using data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics concluded that 56% of all workers – including private sector and state and local government workers – participate in a workplace retirement plan. That equates to 145 million full- and part-time workers.
How are 401(k) plans affected by market rises and falls?
Contributions to a 401(k) are typically invested in a variety of financial instruments, including in the stock market.
Most 401(k) plans offer investment options with varying levels of risk, allowing employees to choose based on their personal comfort levels and financial goals.
Employers typically outsource the management of these 401(k) plans to third parties. Some of the largest companies managing 401(k) funds on behalf of employers and employees include Fidelity Investments, T. Rowe Price and Charles Schwab, to name just a few.
Because many of these investments are tied to the stock market, 401(k) balances can rise or fall with market fluctuations.
401(k) plans are a financial lifeline for many American retirees.Halfpoint Images/Getty Images
Should I be worried about the stock market tanking my 401(k)?
It depends on when you started making contributions, when you plan to retire and when you expect to start making withdrawals.
Employees with 401(k) accounts should only be worried about falling stocks if they need the money right now – either for retirement living expenses or for other emergency reasons. If you don’t need to take money out soon, there’s usually no reason to panic. History has shown that markets can rebound quickly; short-term drops often don’t signal long-term trends.
Over time, the stock market has experienced many periods of falling stock prices: the bursting of the internet bubble of 2000; the period after the events of 9/11; and the U.S. and global banking crisis of 2007-2010, to name but three.
But overall, over time, stock market returns have averaged 9% from 1994 to 2024, and this includes the periods of falling stock prices mentioned above.
So even if you are a baby boomer heading for retirement and your 401(k) has taken a hit in recent weeks, don’t panic. Bear in mind the truism that stock markets can always go down as well as up.
History suggests that in the long run, depending upon your plans and timing for retirement, working together with a trusted financial adviser strategically with regard to your 401(k) retirement savings is a good approach, especially during periods like we have seen in recent weeks in the stock market.
This article is for informational purposes and does not constitute financial advice. Consult with a qualified financial adviser before making financial decisions.Dr. Ronald Premuroso, Accounting Instructor, Western Governors University School of Business
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Black holes, like the one in this illustration, can spray powerful jets.
S. Dagnello (NRAO/AUI/NSF), CC BY-SADavid Garofalo, Kennesaw State University
One of the most powerful objects in the universe is a radio quasar – a spinning black hole spraying out highly energetic particles. Come too close to one, and you’d get sucked in by its gravitational pull, or burn up from the intense heat surrounding it. But ironically, studying black holes and their jets can give researchers insight into where potentially habitable worlds might be in the universe.
As an astrophysicist, I’ve spent two decades modeling how black holes spin, how that creates jets, and how they affect the environment of space around them.
What are black holes?
Black holes are massive, astrophysical objects that use gravity to pull surrounding objects into them. Active black holes have a pancake-shaped structure around them called an accretion disk, which contains hot, electrically charged gas.
The plasma that makes up the accretion disk comes from farther out in the galaxy. When two galaxies collide and merge, gas is funneled into the central region of that merger. Some of that gas ends up getting close to the newly merged black hole and forms the accretion disk.
There is one supermassive black holeat the heart of every massive galaxy.
Black holes and their disks can rotate, and when they do, they drag space and time with them – a concept that’s mind-boggling and very hard to grasp conceptually. But black holes are important to study because they produce enormous amounts of energy that can influence galaxies.
How energetic a black hole is depends on different factors, such as the mass of the black hole, whether it rotates rapidly, and whether lots of material falls onto it. Mergers fuel the most energetic black holes, but not all black holes are fed by gas from a merger. In spiral galaxies, for example, less gas tends to fall into the center, and the central black hole tends to have less energy.
One of the ways they generate energy is through what scientists call “jets” of highly energetic particles. A black hole can pull in magnetic fields and energetic particles surrounding it, and then as the black hole rotates, the magnetic fields twist into a jet that sprays out highly energetic particles.
Magnetic fields twist around the black hole as it rotates to store energy – kind of like when you pull and twist a rubber band. When you release the rubber band, it snaps forward. Similarly, the magnetic fields release their energy by producing these jets.
The accretion disk around a black hole can form a jet of hot, energetic particles surrounded by magnetic field lines.NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI), CC BY
These jets can speed up or suppress the formation of stars in a galaxy, depending on how the energy is released into the black hole’s host galaxy.
Rotating black holes
Some black holes, however, rotate in a different direction than the accretion disk around them. This phenomenon is called counterrotation, and some studies my colleagues and I have conducted suggest that it’s a key feature governing the behavior of one of the most powerful kinds of objects in the universe: the radio quasar.
Radio quasars are the subclass of black holes that produce the most powerful energy and jets.
You can imagine the black hole as a rotating sphere, and the accretion disk as a disk with a hole in the center. The black hole sits in that center hole and rotates one way, while the accretion disk rotates the other way.
This counterrotation forces the black hole to spin down and eventually up again in the other direction, called corotation. Imagine a basketball that spins one way, but you keep tapping it to rotate in the other. The tapping will spin the basketball down. If you continue to tap in the opposite direction, it will eventually spin up and rotate in the other direction. The accretion disk does the same thing.
Since the jets tap into the black hole’s rotational energy, they are powerful only when the black hole is spinning rapidly. The change from counterrotation to corotation takes at least 100 million years. Many initially counterrotating black holes take billions of years to become rapidly spinning corotating black holes.
So, these black holes would produce powerful jets both early and later in their lifetimes, with an interlude in the middle where the jets are either weak or nonexistent.
When the black hole spins in counterrotation with respect to its accretion disk, that motion produces strong jets that push molecules in the surrounding gas close together, which leads to the formation of stars.
But later, in corotation, the jet tilts. This tilt makes it so that the jet impinges directly on the gas, heating it up and inhibiting star formation. In addition to that, the jet also sprays X-rays across the galaxy. Cosmic X-rays are bad for life because they can harm organic tissue.
For life to thrive, it most likely needs a planet with a habitable ecosystem, and clouds of hot gas saturated with X-rays don’t contain such planets. So, astronomers can instead look for galaxies without a tilted jet coming from its black hole. This idea is key to understanding where intelligence could potentially have emerged and matured in the universe.
Black holes as a guide
By early 2022, I had built a black hole model to use as a guide. It could point out environments with the right kind of black holes to produce the greatest number of planets without spraying them with X-rays. Life in such environments could emerge to its full potential.
Looking at black holes and their role in star formation could help scientists predict when and where life was most likely to form.
Where are such conditions present? The answer is low-density environments where galaxies had merged about 11 billion years ago.
These environments had black holes whose powerful jets enhanced the rate of star formation, but they never experienced a bout of tilted jets in corotation. In short, my model suggested that theoretically, the most advanced extraterrestrial civilization would have likely emerged on the cosmic scene far away and billions of years ago.
David Garofalo, Professor of Physics, Kennesaw State University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The Role of Bike Lanes in Shaping Modern Urban Development
Bike lanes in urban areas promote sustainability, improve mobility, boost economic growth, enhance public health, and increase property values, symbolizing a shift toward inclusive community-focused city planning.
Cycle path in the city park. Bicycle sign on the road.
As cities continue to grow and urban spaces evolve, the integration of bike lanes has emerged as a transformative element in urban development. Beyond just providing a space for cyclists, bike lanes symbolize a shift toward sustainable, inclusive, and community-focused city planning.
Sustainability and Environmental Benefits Bike lanes contribute to reducing carbon emissions by encouraging more people to opt for cycling over driving. This not only lowers air pollution but also supports greener urban environments.
Improved Urban Mobility Cities with well-designed bike lane networks experience enhanced traffic flow. By reducing congestion and offering safe zones for cyclists, bike lanes create a more balanced transportation ecosystem.
Economic Growth Bike-friendly cities often see increased local business activity. Cyclists are more likely to stop and shop at small businesses along their routes, boosting neighborhood economies.
Health and Community Well-being Encouraging cycling promotes physical activity, improving public health. Additionally, bike lanes foster a sense of community by creating shared, accessible spaces for all residents.
Urban Aesthetic and Property Value Bike lanes enhance the visual appeal of cities and often lead to increased property values in surrounding areas. They signal modern, forward-thinking development, attracting young professionals and families.
Bike lanes are more than just pavement—they are investments in a city’s future. By prioritizing sustainable transit, healthier lifestyles, and economic growth, urban planners can create cities that thrive for generations. To embrace the future of urban living, integrating bike lanes into development plans must remain a top priority.
Call to Action Join the movement for sustainable cities by supporting bike lane initiatives in your community. Together, we can build cities that benefit everyone.
Image Credit: Adobe Stock
Learn more about Bike Lanes…
Check out these sites related to biking and urban development:
CicLAvia: CicLAvia catalyzes vibrant public spaces, active transportation, and good health through car-free streets. https://www.ciclavia.org/
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The Bridge is a section of the STM Daily News Blog meant for diversity, offering real news stories about bona fide community efforts to perpetuate a greater good. The purpose of The Bridge is to connect the divides that separate us, fostering understanding and empathy among different groups. By highlighting positive initiatives and inspirational actions, The Bridge aims to create a sense of unity and shared purpose. This section brings to light stories of individuals and organizations working tirelessly to promote inclusivity, equality, and mutual respect. Through these narratives, readers are encouraged to appreciate the richness of diverse perspectives and to participate actively in building stronger, more cohesive communities.
STM Daily News is a vibrant news blog dedicated to sharing the brighter side of human experiences. Emphasizing positive, uplifting stories, the site focuses on delivering inspiring, informative, and well-researched content. With a commitment to accurate, fair, and responsible journalism, STM Daily News aims to foster a community of readers passionate about positive change and engaged in meaningful conversations. Join the movement and explore stories that celebrate the positive impacts shaping our world.
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Dr. Ronald Premuroso, Accounting Instructor, Western Governors University School of Business
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
