Culture and Arts

"EEOC data (for 2018 – 2020) showed representation for both minorities and women was relatively flat or marginally increased. Black and Hispanic representation remained at about 3 and 4 percent, respectively. Female representation increased from 31 to 32 percent in that period. Representatives of financial services firms and other stakeholders with whom GAO spoke for the November 2017 report (GAO-18-64) described challenges in recruiting and retaining members of minority groups and women. They also identified practices that could help address the challenges, including recruiting students from a broad group of schools and academic disciplines and establishing management-level accountability to achieve diversity goals." more »

Jo Freeman writes: "Georgia is one of only two states to require that elections be won by at least 50 percent of the vote. Neither Democrat Raphael Warnock nor Republican Herschel Walker received the necessary 50 percent in the November general election, when only 57 percent of Georgia voters cast a ballot. It’s ironic that both are Black men because the original purpose of the requirement for an absolute majority was to keep any Black person from being elected to high office. An electoral procedure crafted to keep Blacks out of higher office now requires that Georgia voters choose between two Black men to be their US Senator. In August of 2021 former NFL player Herschel Walker moved his residence from Texas to Georgia so he could run in the Republican primary for Senate. That’s why there will be a run-off election in Georgia on December 6." more »

Overall Economic Activity: Economic activity was about flat or up slightly since the previous report, down from the modest average pace of growth in the prior Beige Book period...Interest rates and inflation continued to weigh on activity, and many contacts expressed greater uncertainty or increased pessimism concerning the outlook...Inflation pushed low-to-moderate income consumers to substitute increasingly to lower-priced goods. Travel and tourism contacts, by contrast, reported moderate gains in activity, as restaurants and high-end hospitality venues enjoyed robust demand. Higher interest rates further dented home sales, which declined at a moderate pace overall but fell steeply in some districts; apartment leasing started to slow, as well. more »

Dr. Anthony Fauci notes that the emergence of HIV/AIDS in 1981 led to a sharp increase in interest in infectious diseases among people entering the field of medicine. Since then, infectious disease specialists have faced numerous medical challenges, including the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, Ebola, Zika, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and COVID-19, he writes. Dr. Fauci notes that one success of the response was the rapid development, testing and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines thanks to years of research and investment in new and highly adaptable vaccine platforms and structural biology tools to design vaccine immunogens. more »