Author: Carma Henry

 In 2024, enrollment in ACA marketplaces reached historic highs, with over 45 million nationwide now enrolled in ACA-related coverage—a 46% increase since 2021 and more than three times the enrollment since the ACA’s early years in 2014.

       Every year as fall approaches we are either intentionally or subconsciously reminded of the harvest. From being bombarded with pumpkin spice flavored coffees, cookies, and cakes to fall festivals and pumpkin patches or even jack-o-lantern decorations there is no argument that the pumpkin is hailed as the fruit of the season! And I know what you’re thinking… “FRUIT???” Yes, you read that right. Pumpkin is a FRUIT! Many people believe that it is a vegetable; however, all members of the squash family are fruit. Vegetables are the edible portion of plants such as leaves, stems, roots, bulbs, flowers, and tubers. Because pumpkins are a product of the seed-bearing structure of a flowering plant; they are classified by botanists as fruit. Considering the popularity of the pumpkin during this time it is hard to separate the thought of it from cornucopias, Pilgrims, Native Americans & “The First Harvest”. The pumpkin’s identity and connection to a particular person and time of year vehemently remind me of another fruit that hosts an identity that unfortunately boasts a much more negative connotation, the watermelon. 

       If there was any victor in Tuesday’s presidential election, it was former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She was, although in heartbreak, clearly vindicated of not having what it takes to be commander in chief of the most powerful nation in the world. At the DNC in Chicago in August, former President Bill Clinton tried to warn us. 

       Brown’s win makes him the first Black person to serve as Washington’s attorney general. He is succeeding Bob Ferguson, who ran for governor instead of seeking reelection, to become the state’s first new attorney general in 12 years.

       Nichols will serve as Tulsa’s first Black mayor. He delivered his acceptance on Tuesday night in front of images of Black Wall Street, a thriving district in Tulsa that was destroyed by a white mob in 1921.

The lawsuit claims that Metcalfe was consistently underpaid compared to her white colleagues despite holding similar job responsibilities.

       FPL will seek to recover an estimated $800 million stemming from Hurricane Milton, which made landfall Oct. 9 in Sarasota County as a Category 3 storm and crossed the state, according to a quarterly financial report that the utility’s parent company, NextEra Energy, filed Wednesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. FPL also had an estimated $300 million in costs from Debby and Helene.

 ‘Test Your Bible Knowledge’

Even after stepping down as artistic director in 2011, Jamison continued to inspire and guide the Ailey troupe as artistic director Emerita.

    A Michigan State football player who made headlines after becoming the legal guardian of his four minor siblings following their mother’s death has been gifted for his selfless act.