Son of Cape Verde

Here’s your citation:

Taylor Farms is facing attention on multiple fronts. The produce supplier has been connected to a cyclospora outbreak tied to shredded lettuce sold through supermarkets and fast-food chains across the country.

At the same time, older reporting about the company's use of prison labor has reentered the conversation, raising new concerns about its labor practices.

What's happening?

Dr. Abdul El-Sayed was born in Detroit, a natural-born citizen. He also holds a double doctorate, is a Rhodes scholar, taught epidemioloigy at Columbia, and became Detroit's health director at just 30.

EL-SAYED: I want to make healthcare, groceries and gas more affordable, get rid of data centers, remove corporate money from politics and tax the rich.

A federal appeals court blocked President Donald Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom project on Friday, saying that all work except below-ground construction must stop, including projects the president argues are needed for security.

The Federal Communications Commission, the government agency that regulates the broadcast airwaves, voted Thursday to eliminate a cap on the share of U.S. television households a single company can reach, a major move that could pave the way for more corporate consolidation in the media industry.

In a 2-1 vote, the FCC repealed a 22-year-old rule holding that a company cannot own stations that reach more than a combined 39% of the U.S. television audience. The ownership limit will be replaced by a case-by-case approach.

...

The 39% cap has been in place since 2004, when Congress boosted a previous 35% limit set in the 1990s. The rule remained unaltered for more than two decades partly because it is codified in federal law.

Carr has contended that the FCC nonetheless has statutory authority to scrap the rule — a position that is likely to face legal pushback. Free Press, a progressive consumer group, said it planned to sue over the FCC’s “unlawful power grab.”

Booker Wright was an African American waiter in Greenwood, Mississippi, who gained national attention after appearing in the 1966 NBC documentary Mississippi: A Self-Portrait. In the film, he spoke candidly about the racism he endured while working as a waiter at Lusco’s, a white-owned restaurant, while also running his own business, Booker’s Place, a café that served Black customers.

His appearance in the documentary was groundbreaking but came at a great cost. After the film aired, he faced severe backlash from the white community. He was beaten by police, lost his job at Lusco’s, and his business was targeted.

In 1973, Booker Wright was tragically shot and killed at his café. The official story was that he was murdered by a man named Leroy Gibson over a money dispute, but some believe his killing was linked to retaliation for his statements in the documentary.

Does Rust-Oleum 214944 reflective spray really stop speed cameras from working?

Posted On July 23, 2025

Does Reflective Spray Actually Work on License Plates? I Tested Rust-Oleum 214944.

Update. I’ve had 4 photo radar tickets. 3 from before I applied this and one after. The one after was in the daytime though so this obviously does not work in the daytime.

So, I was scrolling through Instagram when I came across a video that stopped me in my tracks. Someone sprayed their license plate with a reflective coating—Rust-Oleum 214944—claiming it could mess with photo radar cameras. Naturally, I had to try it.

Here’s the backstory: over the past few months, my household has received three photo radar tickets. Two were mine, one was my wife’s. Each time, we were caught going about 11 km/h over the limit (that’s roughly 6.5 mph). Not exactly speeding demons, but enough to get dinged.

So, I ordered the same reflective spray from the video and set out to debunk or possibly prove whether it works. Spoiler alert: the results were… interesting.

The Test

I grabbed my trusty Sofirn IF30 flashlight, which cranks out 12,000 lumens, and shone it directly at my license plate before applying any spray. As expected, the plate was easy to read.

Then I applied the Rust-Oleum 214944. It went on evenly, dried fairly quickly, and once it cured, I hit it with the flashlight again.

The Results

There was a noticeable difference. Under the intense beam of the flashlight, the plate became far more reflective and a little harder to read, depending on the angle.

But here’s the thing:

I don’t think this is a one-and-done solution. You’d likely have to reapply it repeatedly to maintain any effect. Over time, rain, dirt

On it’s own, Rust-Oleum 214944 might not be the complete solution. You will need to clean the plate thoroughly before applying the Rust-Oleum 214944 but it certainly won’t hurt your chances.

Does Rust-Oleum 214944 work during the day?

No. I’ve had one photo radar ticket since applying it, and it happened during the day. The reflective effect only does something under strong direct light — like a flash or infrared beam at night — so daytime cameras aren’t affected the same way.

How long does the effect last?

Not permanently. Rain, road grime, and general wear will wear it down over time, so realistically you’re looking at reapplying every so often to keep any effect going, not a one-time fix.

Is this legal?

This varies by location, and I’m not a lawyer. Some areas have specific rules about anything that alters a plate’s visibility or reflectivity, separate from whether it actually fools a camera. Worth checking your local laws before applying it — this post is documenting my own test, not a recommendation to modify your plate.

Does it stop laser or radar guns (not photo cameras)?

I haven’t tested that specifically — my results are based on photo radar/flash-triggered cameras only. Don’t assume this does anything for handheld radar or laser enforcement.

A quick disclaimer: this post documents my own personal test, not a guarantee. Rust-Oleum 214944 is a reflective coating — it’s not marketed or designed as a radar-defeating product, and my results were mixed and daytime-ineffective. Altering your plate’s reflectivity may not be legal where you live, so check local regulations first. Use at your own judgment.

Dean Obeidallah at The Dean's Report:

Watching the GOP Senators form Rand Paul to Josh Hawley to Bernie Moreno wildly attack and smear Dr. Fauci was all part of their scripted show. This was not a Senate hearing. This was bad dinner theater in a mid-level venue in New Jersey. It was so ugly, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal called the hearing, “one of the darkest days in our Senate’s history.” So why did the GOP do this now? Here’s why. As The Washington Post reported earlier this week: Republican pollsters and political groups are raising the alarm that their party is not excited to vote in the upcoming midterm. As the Post reported, “The lack of enthusiasm is reaching deep into Republicans’ loyal base, spreading to the party’s most consistent voters — who have shown up to vote in all of the past four primaries and general elections.”

That is bad. But wait, there is more bad news for the GOP. A new CNN poll released Wednesday found only 19 percent of self-identified GOP voters are enthusiastic about the next two years of the second Trump administration. The key to midterm elections is animating your own base given turnout is far lower than in a presidential year. If your people don’t come out, you are looking at a wave election like in 2006 when GOP President George W. Bush lost both the House and Senate! That is why today’s hearing featured people like Rand Paul threatening to put Fauci in jail for contempt and calling on security to eject one of Fauci’s lawyers. And it’s why we saw an over-the-top Ohio GOP Senator Bernie Moreno yelling at Fauci, “‘Who the F*ck Do You Think You Were?!” It’s also why Fox News host Laura Ingraham was sat two rows behind Fauci on camera and the audience was packed with Trump supporters.

Yesterday’s Senate Hearing of Dr. Anthony Fauci was all about the GOP turning him into a punching bag for the upcoming elections.

fuck them all

Black August is an annual commemoration and prison-based holiday to remember Black political prisoners and Black freedom struggles in the US and beyond, and to highlight Black resistance against racial, colonial, and imperialist oppression. It takes place during the entire calendar month of August.

It was initiated by the Black Guerrilla Family in San Quentin State Prison in 1979 when a group of incarcerated people came together to commemorate the deaths of brothers Jonathan P. Jackson (d. August 7, 1970) and George Jackson (d. August 21, 1971) at San Quentin State Prison.

It is a cultural movement that has had a significant impact on the arts. The Black August (film) focuses on the experiences of prison activist George Jackson. A book named Black August: 1619 – 2019 by Gloria Verdieu. The Black Collective launched the Black August Mixtape. In visual art, the virtual exhibition “Black August” opened at the Crenshaw Dairy Mart.

August 1: Emancipation Day in Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Canada

August 5: Nelson Mandela is arrested and imprisoned in 1962

August 7: Death of Jonathan P. Jackson

August 9: Mike Brown is killed by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri

August 10: The Attica Prison Rebellion of 1971 is frequently invoked and commemorated as part of Black August

August 11: Watts riots known as the Watts Uprising, August 11-16 1965

August 14: Bois Caiman: Vodou ceremony that would lead to the first large-scale uprising of the enslaved of Saint Domingue and spark the Haitian Revolution

August 17: The birth of pan-africanist leader Marcus Garvey

August 21: the beginning of Nat Turner’s Rebellion

August 21: death of George Jackson

August 22: The Haitian Revolution begins in 1791

August 23: Uprising of the enslaved in Saint-Domingue, the beginning of the Haitian Revolution