Skai Jackson Celebrates Motherhood With Baby Product Giveaway
Skai Jackson is giving away unused baby products one month she gave birth to her child.
Skai Jackson has embraced motherhood wholeheartedly and is celebrating by hosting a giveaway for unused baby products.
The former Disney star announced a special giveaway on her Instagram Story on Sunday for her fans who are mothers or moms-to-be after welcoming her first child last month.
“Giving away a bunch of unused baby products for moms in need,” she wrote over a photo of the giveaway products.
Jackson shared how her fans could win the products by following her on Snapchat.
According to Jackson’s Snapchat, she welcomed her baby in early December. On Dec. 16, she shared a photo of her holding the baby. She followed up with a closeup photo of her baby on Dec. 28.
The birth came one month after Jackson announced her pregnancy in a photoshoot with People.
“I’m thrilled to begin this new chapter in my life — embracing motherhood and diving into new acting projects. My heart is so full!” she said in a statement.
The Jessie star kept a low profile throughout most of her pregnancy, waiting until she was close to delivery to make an official announcement. She has since spoken openly about her commitment to being a positive role model for her fans.
“It’s very important for me to put out the right message, be positive at all times, and give my fans great advice,” she said in February 2023. “Let them know that anything that they want to do in life, they can achieve it.”
Best known for her role as Zuri Ross on the Disney series Jessie and its spinoff Bunk’d, Jackson published her book, Reach for the Skai: How to Inspire, Empower, and Clapback in 2019 and competed on Dancing With the Stars in 2020.
She also starred in the film Man in the White Van, which was released last month.
Employers Are Offering Lower Salaries To Remote Workers
Employers are de-incentivizing remote work.
Remote work has become the new norm, but employees are choosing between higher wages and the comfort of working from home. According to Fortune, the work-at-home segment of U.S. workers is offered lower salaries to avoid office life.
The lower salary dilemma affects workers who have benefited from remote work’s flexibility. Many are presented with 15% to 20% lower salary offers than their in-office colleagues. While some employers offer less pay, others use remote work as a perk to attract top talent.
“Remote workers are accepting lower salaries to work remotely. Some are taking as much as 5% to 15% less pay to do so, while other employers are reversing the strategy to entice workers to come to the office with higher salaries,” Fortune reported.
There is no data suggesting that paying employees less for the “privilege” of working from home is a successful strategy. Some believe the plan could backfire. Human resources veterans predict a surge in employee resignations, as companies scale down and insist employees return to the office. This insistence, cuts in benefits, and strict in-office policies are turning off potential hires.
“If you’re trying to lowball remote workers, you’re about to face a harsh reality,” said Amy Spurling, founder and CEO of Compt. “2025 is going to be a ‘find out’ year for companies that thought they could use remote work or other ‘perks’ to replace competitive compensation and genuine employee support.”
According to Pew Research, 35% of American workers work from home, down from 46% during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the decline, the percentage has remained steady for nearly four years after the COVID lockdown.
Remote work is now a standard, mainly as employees and employers have found that it does not hamper productivity. A remote job’s tasks, skills, and workload remain the same, regardless of location.
However, the opposite has been confirmed for companies mandating a return to the office. BLACK ENTERPRISE reported on a study conducted by Vitality that focused on millennial and Gen Z workers in the UK. It showed that lower wages, coupled with office return policies, are causing burnout and reduced productivity. These struggles, particularly among younger employees, have led to a 150% loss in productivity, costing the British economy $176 billion annually.
Only time will tell if the U.S. will face similar challenges.
New Orleans Terror Attack Suspect Filmed Previous Visit To City On Halloween
The Bourbon Street terror attack suspect made previous visits to the city that he filmed.
The suspect in the New Orleans terror attack, accused of driving through a crowd on Bourbon Street on New Year’s Day, had previously visited the city on Halloween, where he filmed his bike ride through Bourbon Street using Meta glasses.
On Sunday, the FBI revealed details into Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s recent travel ahead of the New Year’s Day attack, which included two visits to New Orleans, a visit to Tampa, Florida, and 2023 trips to Cairo, Egypt, and Ontario, Canada Axios reported.
According to Lyonel Myrthil, the special agent in charge of FBI New Orleans, Jabbar spent at least two days in New Orleans, starting on Oct. 30, when thousands of visitors were in town for Halloween. While there, he used Meta glasses to record a bike ride down Bourbon Street.
The FBI revealed Jabbar’s second visit to New Orleans on Nov. 10, but details remain under wraps. The FBI hasn’t revealed if Jabbar was scouting areas to perform the horrific attack.
Jabbar, a Houston resident, was also wearing Meta glasses when he carried out the attack on Bourbon Street on New Year’s Day. However, the FBI has not found evidence that he was recording or livestreaming the incident. In addition to the Meta glasses, Jabbar was carrying a rifle, and officials stated that at least one of the ice chests containing IEDs was purchased in Texas.
President Biden will visit New Orleans on Monday. Mayor LaToya Cantrell announced that she and NOPD Chief Anne Kirkpatrick will request a tactical expert visit this week to review security plans for Mardi Gras and the Super Bowl.
Officials have requested enhanced security for Carnival, which begins with parades on Monday and continues through Mardi Gras on March 4. The city will also host Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9.
Elon Musk Donates $112M To Charities In A Move That Will Save Him $2B In Taxes
According to an analysis from Alan Cantor Consulting, Musk's charity is little more than a tax shelter to avoid being taxed on money he generates.
On the heels of a New York Times report that indicates that Elon Musk’s charity missed the required 5% donation mark for three consecutive years, the world’s richest man has donated 268,000 shares of Tesla stock, valued at $112 million to unnamed charities as part of his year-end tax contributions.
According to Bloomberg, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing registered on Dec. 31 states that the donation is part of Musk’s “year-end tax planning” and went to “certain charities,” which were unnamed in the documentation.
In 2021, Musk made a similar transaction and circulated $5.7 billion in Tesla stock to an unnamed charity, later revealed to be his own nonprofit organization, The Musk Foundation.
Per Bloomberg‘s reporting, the foundation appears to be little more than a shell company. In 2024, most of the $237 million in gifts it gave away were simply funds redirected to Musk’s own companies.
As a result, Musk had to give away at least $421 million of his funds tied up in the foundation by the end of the year or face a sizable penalty from the Internal Revenue Service.
As the Times noted, although other large charitable organizations have failed to distribute the minimum amount required by the IRS, the Musk Foundation is unique regarding the speed with which its shortcomings have increased and the shortfall amount.
Brian Mittendorf, an accounting professor at Ohio State University, told the New York Times that it is clear to him that the shortfalls indicate an organization that is not motivated to spend its money.
“The distributions made by the foundation are meeting the bare minimum to avoid penalties. It is clear that the organization is not in a hurry to spend its money,” Mittendorf said.
The group’s analysis indicated that Musk saves approximately $2 billion in tax payments by moving money from Tesla to the Musk Foundation.
The Alan Cantor Consulting group also makes parallels between Musk’s foundation and President-elect Donald Trump’s Donald J. Trump Foundation, which was shut down by the State of New York in 2019 after it was discovered that Trump’s foundation was basically used as a checkbook for whatever Trump thought would bolster his public image or pay for his personal obligations.
According to Alan Cantor Consulting, “Essentially, Musk –- like Trump -– thinks the rules don’t apply to him. If Musk says it’s a charitable priority, it is. He can make the decisions himself and have the bookkeeper at the Musk family office cut a check. If he fails to make the requisite payout, he has the foundation pay the fine. He gets to keep his tax break whether he runs the foundation well or poorly. Meanwhile, he gives to causes that enhance his businesses and image, and he doesn’t quite step over the legal line into self-dealing.”
They continued, “And throughout, he maintains power. Even though he’s done a miserable job of distributing grants to worthy causes, and even though his charitable preferences have more to do with helping himself than making the world a better place, Musk nevertheless holds the keys to one of the largest charitable foundations in the country. The potential grants from his foundation give him power. People will cozy up to him in the hope that some money will eventually flow their way if they only play their cards right. Musk is a terrible man, but he’s not stupid. This all works for him.”
Brawl Almost Breaks Out As Tampa Bay Buccaneers Win NFC South
The altercation seemed to revive the Buccaneers, who are playoff-bound.
With a trip to the NFL Playoffs on the line, yesterday’s game between the surging Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the lowly New Orleans Saints was expected to be intense. And it was.
During the third quarter, the two teams nearly came to blows after an altercation between Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield and Saints defensive back Will Harris.
With a little more than 13 minutes left in the quarter, Harris hit Mayfield hard during his run. As Mayfield got up, he seemingly pushed Harris down. It then looked like he tried to kick him, eventually straddling him. Players from both teams intervened.
Luckily, for both teams, the referees did not call any penalties.
At that point of the game, the Buccaneers were losing 16-6 with their playoff hopes on the line. The skirmish seemed to electrify the team.
Mayfield threw two touchdown passes in the 27-19 comeback win. With the Carolina Panthers beating the Atlanta Falcons in overtime, the Bucs wrapped up the the NFC South Division for the fourth straight season. To get there this time around, the team won six of its last seven games.
“It feels great,” said head coach Todd Bowles. “We went through a lot of ups and downs this year, a lot of injuries, guys fought hard. We went through a hurricane, by the way, and with a lot of guys missing on both sides of the ball, it’s even more gratifying throughout the year for us to come out on top this way.”
Next up for the Bucs, who finished the year at 10-7, is a home Wild Card game against the Washington Commanders on Saturday, January 12.
Jamar Banks, 52, is accused of stabbing an off-duty Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) subway cleaner and a second man less than 24 hours apart in the Manhattan subway system.
Banks allegedly stabbed a 31-year-old man on the No. 2 train heading uptown at the 14th St. subway station in the West Village roughly before 10 a.m. on Jan. 1. The victim told authorities the assailant walked up to him and started an argument. He then pulled out a knife and stabbed him in the back.
The victim was later taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he is in stable condition.
The attack on the MTA cleaner took place at the Pelham Parkway. Banks allegedly picked a fight with the 47-year-old transit worker before stabbing him in the back and armpit and then running off. The unidentified worker was taken to Jacobi Medical Center in stable condition.
Banks will be charged with assault and weapon possession, which will be added to the 80 prior arrests on his record.
While MTA CEO Janno Lieber highlighted that felony crimes in transit decreased by 12% in 2024 compared to 2019, but that “high-profile crimes that are alarming New Yorkers are real.”
Added Lieber, “We catch all of these maniacs. We need the criminal justice system to put them away.”
During the end of 2024 and since the start of 2025, NYC transit systems have seen their share of violent crimes.
On Dec. 29, a man was arrested for allegedly attacking his ex-girlfriend in front of her two teenage daughters at a subway station. The man faces attempted murder charges for slashing the woman’s neck with a razor blade. After failing to sever her neck, according to reports, he stabbed her in the face and pushed her onto the subway tracks. One of the the woman’s daughters stepped in and pulled her mother up to safety.
A few days prior, a sleeping homeless man was allegedly set on fire just days after a woman was lit on fire while sleeping on the F train, making national headlines. However, sources claim there is limited evidence of any criminality in the incident.
Amid safety concerns, experts have suggested different methods of increased safety so commuters can regain a sense of security. According to the New York Times, there is a need to heighten gun patrol and provide more help to people who really need it, highlighting a need to focus on mental health matters.
Another recommendation looks at creating a better—and brighter—environment on the subway tracks. In 2024, MTA announced it would convert the 150,000 fluorescent light fixtures in the system to LED lighting by mid-2026.
Pastor Jamal Bryant Says Infidelity Ended First Marriage
'I say to men all the time: one of the mistakes I made is my first attempt at monogamy was marriage,' Bryant said
Pastor Jamal Bryant, who recently remarried after cheating on his first wife, revealed the reason for his infidelity while appearing on the Hardly Initiated podcast, according to the Atlanta Black Star.
“…I had to go through a healing process for myself, on what is it that was in me that would go outside of the bounds of my covenant my agreement. And to risk my family for somebody I never wanted to be with,” Bryant said on the Nov. 15 episode.
Bryant, who leads the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, GA, divorced Gizelle Bryant, in 2009 after seven years of marriage. Ten years later, they tried again—before breaking up in 2021.
Gizelle Bryant, a star on Real Housewives of the Potomac, has three children together with Jamal Bryant, who said his cheating, and not irreconcilable differences, led to the split.
“I say to men all the time: one of the mistakes I made is my first attempt at monogamy was marriage,” Bryant said.
He explained.
“I’m not advocating for this, this is not what I’m saying. But I’m saying, let’s say you’re with four women in a month, and that’s the regimen you’re on. It’s natural. This is what you do. You don’t have no guilt about it. You don’t have no conscience. None of them think that you’re committed. You’re with four a month. That fourth one you decide, you know, let me lock this down. You have not purged out your system of the three.
“And the danger that we have is that we have compartmentalized our sexuality to have sex without intimacy. So we have so reduced the standard for ourselves. That you can sleep with four people and feel nothing for any of them.”
Bryant married his second wife, Dr. Karri Turner, after proposing to her in May 2024.
Biden Signs Social Security Fairness Act To Secure Retirement Benefits For Millions Of Public Workers
President Joe Biden is getting things done during his final days in office.
President Joe Biden signed the bi-partisan Social Security Fairness Act into law, guaranteeing an increase in Social Security benefits for public sector workers who receive a pension, CNBC reports.
Biden signed the legislation on Jan. 5, paving the way for two provisions: the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and the Government Pension Offset (GPO) to be repealed after being in place for over 40 years.
“By signing this bill, we’re extending Social Security benefits for millions of teachers, nurses, and other public employees and their spouses and survivors,” Biden said. “That means an estimated average of $360 per month increase.”
Biden called the movie a “big deal” for middle-class households as the targeted provision places limitations on benefits for public workers.
The WEP reduced Social Security benefits for people who received pension or disability benefits from employment where Social Security payroll taxes were not withheld. Approximately two million beneficiaries were affected by this provision as of December 2023. Benefits for spouses, widows, and widowers were affected by the GPO, prohibiting them from receiving income from their partner’s government pensions. The provision affected close to 750,000 beneficiaries.
The Social Security Fairness Act will go into action on benefits payable after December 2023.
“With the repeal of WEP and GPO, federal retirees, along with so many others, will finally receive the full Social Security benefits they’ve earned. This victory is more than 40 years in the making, and while we celebrate today, we also reflect on those who were impacted by these provisions but are no longer here to witness this change,” William Shackelford, president of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association, said in a statement.
“Their service and contributions are not lost on us, and we honor their legacy by continuing to advocate for fairness in retirement benefits for all public servants.”
The bill passed Dec. 21 with the support of a 76 bipartisan majority vote, including Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown (OH) and Abigail Spanberger (VA) as well as Republican Sen. Susan Collins (ME) and Rep. Garret Graves (LA).
Though the act received bipartisan support, a number of GOP lawmakers pushed back due to the additional cost. The Congressional Budget Office quoted the law would add an estimated $195 billion to the federal deficit over the next 10 years.
As NYC Congestion Tolls Begin, NY Media Outlet Voices Its Support For The Initiative
The controversial measure eventually went into effect on Jan. 5.
New Yorkers and fellow tri-state area residents are starting the New Year with new congestion tolls. The price hike affects drivers entering and exiting Manhattan, and a local media outlet has voiced its support for the controversial initiative.
The measure officially cleared its last hurdle after an appeals court in Philadelphia denied a last-minute motion prompted by New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy. While New York’s neighboring state opposed the new tolls, which would cost drivers $9 to enter the congested parts of Manhattan after 5 a.m. on weekdays., the new law went into effect on Jan. 5.
The new fares benefit public transit and encourage travelers to forego the pricier, personal option. However, many commuters find the fees unfair, with New Jersey’s specific lawsuit also stating environmental harm if enacted. Regardless, NY Gov. Kathy Hochul pressed the legislation after initially expressing interest in reviving the program two years ago.
Despite many naysayers, the program has found support within one New York-based platform. The New York Daily Newshas posted its 25th editorial piece in favor of congestion pricing since May 2023.
The media outlet states that New Jersey does not want drivers, many of whom are from the Garden State, to take on this financial burden. However, the outlet proclaims that drivers from this state heavily contribute to the traffic plaguing mid-to-lower Manhattan.
The publication emphasized the benefits of using this pricing model to support the public transit system. The subway system has also faced budget issues and backlash for increased fares.
The zone starts south of 60th Street and goes down to the Financial District. However, cars entering before 9 a.m. on weekends and after 9 p.m. daily can avoid paying this lofty tax. A discount during these off-peak times will amount to $2.25, per NBC News. For small trucks and multiple forms of buses, drivers can expect to pay significantly more, ranging from $14.40 to $21.60 during peak times.
The congestion relief zone has also become the first-ever enacted in the United States.
Lost Boy Found After 5 Days In Zimbabwe Park With Lions And Elephants
Tinotenda Pundu survived among lions, elephants, and buffaloes inside Matusadona National Park.
A missing African boy in Zimbabwe was discovered five days later about 30 miles from his village, surviving by using survival skills taught to him.
According to Metro, Tinotenda Pundu, who resides in a village in northern Zimbabwe, went missing on Dec. 27 after getting lost but was rescued by park rangers in Matusadona National Park.
Outlets report that Tinotenda is either 7 or 8 years old.
Tinashe Farawo, a spokesperson for the park, said the boy was found on Dec. 31 after his footprints were discovered the previous day by people who went searching for the boy. The Zimbabwe Republic Police was assisted by rangers from ZimParks and the local community in the search.
Animals like lions, buffaloes, elephants, and other wild animals occupy the park, yet he somehow survived. He reportedly slept on perched rocks so he’d be out of the reach of predators.
“Remarkably, it is estimated that he walked through the harsh terrain of the lion-infested Matusadonha National Park for 49 kilometers from his village to the point where he was found,” Farawo said. “During this period, he survived on wild fruits and would dig a small hole along the dry riverbank to access underground water to drink, a technique that is well known in drought-prone areas.”
Mutsa Murombedzi, a parliament member, took to social media and credited the local Nyaminyami community for their assistance. They beat drums at night in hopes that Tinotenda would follow the sound.
💫 A boy missing & found in Matusadonha game park
A true miracle in remote Kasvisva community, Nyaminyami in rural Kariba, a community where one wrong turn could easily lead into a game park. 8-year-old Tinotenda Pudu wandered away, lost direction & unknowingly headed into the… pic.twitter.com/z19BLffTZW
