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| Auchincloss Announces Guest For President Biden’s State Of The Union Address |
Congressman Jake Auchincloss (D, MA-04) is announcing Brookline's Myrieme Nadri-Churchill (M.Ed) as his guest for President Biden's State of the Union Address to Congress on Thursday, March 7th. Myrieme serves as Executive Director of Parents for Peace, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit empowering families, friends, and communities to prevent radicalization, violence, and extremism using a public health approach.
Parents for Peace began as a support group for other families who had lost loved ones to extremism and soon expanded to offer a confidential helpline to assist families grappling with new cases of extremism.
With antisemitism rapidly increasing throughout the country, and specifically Massachusetts, the work Myrieme is doing is more crucial than ever. Nadri-Churchill's unusual combination of intervention and coaching experience shaped the unique methodology of the Parents for Peace helpline. She has helped hundreds of American families successfully intervene to rescue loved ones falling into extremism.
In addition to announcing his guest, Auchincloss is introducing the Verifying Kids' Online Privacy Act. Most of the young individuals that Parents for Peace works with were radicalized by extremist groups through social media. Amid rising youth mental health challenges and continued negligence on the part of social media companies to serve the best interests of our children online, Congress must enact stronger protections to ensure social media companies are held accountable and that parents may have confidence in how their children use social media.
The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which took effect in 2000, requires that a website operator have increased protections for children under 13, including verifying parental consent before collecting any personal information. Major social media companies have, by and large, decided that it is easier to not allow kids under 13 to use their services instead of complying with this "burdensome" requirement. However, companies often simply ask users to input their birthday when creating an account, which is easily faked.
This legislation would take two major steps to address the gaps in COPPA's protections: 1) increasing the age of those protected from 13 to 16, and 2) requiring social media companies to develop privacy-protective methods of verifying the age of its users to ensure that COPPA's protections extend to all children on a platform.
Requiring age verification would constitute a critical step in ensuring that companies uphold the protections included in COPPA. Importantly, this legislation would not require a specific age verification method, but would allow for companies to design a privacy-protective method that fits their platform, while still requiring those companies to submit these processes to the Federal Trade Commission to be considered for COPPA's existing safe harbor provisions. Companies would also be barred from selling, transferring, or otherwise using any data collected in the verification process for any purpose other than verification.
Lastly, this legislation would establish a Children's Online Safety Fund to support Department of Education grants that support digital literacy programs to promote safe and healthy internet use for children. The Fund would be financed by civil penalties obtained by the federal government from violations of COPPA.
"As the youngest parent in the Democratic caucus, I speak daily with parents who are stressed about their children's social media usage, and I speak with youth who are made increasingly lonely and anxious as a result of their social media habits. Meanwhile, trillion-dollar social media corporations continue to productize our children to sell ads. Congress must fight back on behalf of parents and children, who don't have the time or resources to outfox algorithms. My legislation directly holds social media corporations accountable for their negligent approach to our children's wellbeing," said Auchincloss.
"The ease of access to manipulative ideological content has enabled the variety of radicalizations we see in our helpline work with families, from White Supremacy and ISIS to eco-terrorism and Antifa. The families come from a broad cross-section of American society, with children being radicalized as young as 12. Seeing the harsh realities of this every day, I urge our leaders to support policies that limit minors' access to social media platforms and increase parental supervision over their online activities," said Churchill, Executive Director of Parents for Peace.
To learn more about Congressman Jake Auchincloss, visit https://auchincloss.house.gov or connect with him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube.
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| We've lined up some terrific journalists for our free webinar series How to find news you can trust. You won't want to miss these fascinating and informative conversations!
The series begins April 12 and runs for three consecutive Wednesdays, starting at 4 p.m. ET. Register once to access all three sessions!
We look forward to seeing you April 12!
For a future founded on facts, |
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| Hi Franklinites! You probably read, watch or listen to the news every day, and chances are you often do so online. How do you know whether news sources are credible? How do you know what to trust?
You can find more information and register for the series here. |
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If you want to stay informed on what matters in Franklin, MA, you have found the right place.
You can subscribe (or follow) for free to receive a daily dose of what matters via email (yes, only one email daily.)
As a volunteer “Community Information Director”, I attend as many Town Council, School Committee, and other Franklin meetings as I can. I will report on the full and complete meeting, publishing my notes as the meeting progresses.
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"What dream of yours are you nurturing right now? 🌷
Making quick progress or getting fast results certainly sounds nice, and in our fast-paced world, it can seem like things must be completed in an instant.
But taking things step by step and making progress daily is what generates real results. So if a goal seems too large right now, the thing to do isn’t to speed up.
👉🏽Instead, embrace the power of slow and work towards your finish line with patience and discipline. Let all the good things you’ve been chasing come and catch you, and remember that no matter how small your efforts may feel, things will come together sooner than later."
Via The Good Life Project on Instagram -> https://www.instagram.com/p/CdtQTngu10a/
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| Good things take time... |
No, vaccines don’t magnetize you, increase the risk of infertility, contain tracking devices, or cause cancer and HIV. But misinformation surrounding vaccines — along with other science-based topics like climate change — continued to deluge social media feeds throughout the year.News literacy takeaway: Turn to credible, authoritative sources to confirm or debunk science-related content, such as NLP’s COVID-19 resources page or reputable institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And know that bad actors will even resort to cute cat videos as “engagement bait” to draw you to their sites and spread falsehoods."
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| News literacy requires work on everyone's part |
GOOD DEEDS: CHRISTMAS MOVIE TRIVIA
By William P. O'Donnell, Norfolk County Register of Deeds
The Holidays are upon us and it is time for an article from the Registry of Deeds that builds upon the joys of our holiday season. It is about time a writing that is light and not so serious is written in these "Good Deeds" articles. There can always be more of that in our day to day lives.
One go to article theme readers of "Good Deeds" may have noticed over the years has been trivia. There have been trivia questions about historical figures of Norfolk County such as the four Presidents of the United States born here in Norfolk County. There have been trivia challenges involving naming one of the 28 communities making up Norfolk County as the answer to some notable person who hailed from that community.
The Norfolk County Registry of Deeds has seen its share of Hollywood filming which has taken place in and around the beautiful Registry of Deeds Building. There was an old television show "The Practice" starring actors Dylan McDermott and Michael Spada. Four episodes of this show were filmed in and around Dedham. "Ironman" Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duvall made use of the Norfolk Superior Court and the Registry of Deeds Building front pillars and steps in the film "The Judge". Recently Rosamund Pike and Eiza Gonzalez used the books and beauty of the renovated Registry of Deeds Record Hall to film "I Care A Lot". Rosamund Pike won a Golden Globe for her performance in this movie which can be seen on Netflix.
So I thought I would combine the Christmas Season, trivia and this link to movies to challenge the reader to some Christmas Movie Trivia.
Trivia Questions (answers located below)
#1 In Home Alone 2, what city does Kevin mistakenly get lost in?
#2 What was the real name of the character Tim Allen plays in The Santa Clause?
#3 Where does the Polar Express take the children?
#4 Finish this iconic line from It's a Wonderful Life: "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his ___."
#5 Buddy the elf sticks to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and ____.
#6 Who was the bad guy Rudolph tried to avoid?
#7 Finish this line from How the Grinch Stole Christmas. "It came without packages, boxes or ____"
#8 What did the other reindeer not let Rudolph do because of his shiny red nose?
#9 In the story of a Christmas Carol, what is Scrooge's first name?
#10 What Christmas carol does the Peanuts gang sing at the end of "A Charlie Brown Christmas"?
#11 "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is ____."-Elf
May all the songs and spirit of the Christmas Season bring you happiness and health. There is no great prize being given out if you did well answering these trivia questions. However, I certainly hope Santa Claus is good to you. To everyone a joyful and happy holiday season.
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| Good News: Christmas Movie Trivia |
"Santa's Magical mailbox
I would like to give credit where credit is due. Ann Marie Donovan was trying to raise money for the Food pantry asking kids to drop a letter to Santa and a small donation for the food pantry at her personal mailbox last year. I contacted her and asked if she would like to have a mailbox at my light show because I get a decent amount of traffic and figured we could raise more money that way. She thought is was a good idea and so that's how it all began.
Ann is in charge of writing letters along with some really great elves. Thankfully we also have some generous people donating stamps because less than 20% of the letters we get come with a donation and each letter returned to the kids cost us around $1. We understand that not everyone can afford a donation and all kids will get a return letter no matter what.
The mailbox is taken in and out every night to keep it in as good shape as possible. It should be out by 5:30 every day. We have received letters from many towns in MA including some that are not very close. The elves are working hard and hopefully the first batch of letters will go out soon.
I named it Santa's Magical Mailbox because I feel like it was magical how members of the community help donate their time, material and skills to make it come to fruition. Scott Firestine made the mailbox and donated it which was absolutely amazing. After just a day or two the paint got ruined so Power Painting Plus ( Rick and John Power) came and picked up the mailbox, repainted it at no cost, then took it to "Signs by Cam" where they redid all of the lettering, which was also at no cost.
This mailbox belongs to Franklin. I just store it and try my best to keep it in good shape. I hope to pass it on to someone else in Franklin one day.
Thank you everyone for your support. We hope its a great year for the Franklin Food Pantry and that your kids enjoy their letters from Santa. "
Laura McCarthy
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| Santa's Magical Mailbox - highlights the goodness of our Franklin community |
On the seventh day before leaving Facebook
My true love sent to me
Seven tweets a twitter'
Happy anniversary Franklin Matters! Goodbye Facebook! (audio)
https://www.franklinmatters.org/2021/11/happy-anniversary-franklin-matters.html
Yes, the count down is underway....
follow Franklin Matters on Twitter -> https://twitter.com/FranklinMatters
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| On the seventh day before leaving Facebook , My true love sent to me |
Effective Nov 30, 2021 the Franklin Matters Facebook page will go away. You are given notice to find one of the other options to obtain the valuable information shared but not longer directly by me on Facebook.
Someone can also set up a way to take what I share and share it themselves to Facebook. I have no way to stop that. Folks occasionally do so on their own today.
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| Franklin Matters is leaving Facebook; your alternatives to consider to remain "in the know" (part 1) |
