*By Max Godnick*
The newly-crowned Miss USA said she stands with her "sisters" who had the courage to appear on camera and say "me too."
The national reckoning with toxic male behavior was part of this year's Miss USA competition, which included a pre-recorded montage of some contestants sharing their experiences with sexual assault.
"You have to be real and acknowledge what's going on in our world," said Sarah Rose Summers, the newly crowned Miss USA, in an interview with Cheddar on Thursday. "We're not in our own little bubble as Miss USA contestants."
The 23-year-old said she has never experienced any sexual misconduct but was supportive of her fellow contestants who did appear in the video.
Summers received two degrees from Texas Christian University and recently finished her clinical rotations to become a certified child life specialist. She said she and her fellow contestants handle uncomfortable interactions on social media and in person differently since the #MeToo movement took off.
"There's less of 'oh he's just creepy' and more of 'that's not acceptable," said Summers.
President Trump owned The Miss Universe Organization, operator of the Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, and Miss Universe pageants, from 1996 to 2015. Five former contestants have said they remember Trump visiting their dressing rooms during the 1997 Miss Teen USA competition, according to [a report by BuzzFeed News] (https://www.buzzfeed.com/kendalltaggart/teen-beauty-queens-say-trump-walked-in-on-them-changing?utm_term=.kjX2mPLpG#.byrm5eOLZ).
Summers said she never felt like her privacy was violated while taking part in the pageant.
"I felt very safe and we all have security that are with us all of the time so we cannot be approached by anyone," she said.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/miss-usa-on-pageants-in-the-metoo-era).
Data from a Slack Future Forum survey shows employees returning full-time to the office are not thrilled with their experience. Sheela Subramanian, vice [resident of the Future Forum, joined Cheddar News to talk about how worker satisfaction is worsening in returning to the office compared to those workers with flexible schedules. "Employers need to actually empower their teams to create team level agreements and also skill their managers to better lead distributed teams because everybody's work is different," Subramanian noted.
UPSIDE foods, a company that makes cultivated meat products, recently raised $400 million in a Series C round.
UPSIDE says it's developing a way to grow real meat, poultry, and seafood, without the need to raise animals for human consumption. It's a process that gets the attention of some big-name backers, including Bill Gates and Richard Branson. Dr. Uma Valeti, Founder and CEO of UPSIDE Foods, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Samantha Tan, professional racing driver and team owner of Samantha Tan Racing, joins Cheddar News to talk the motorsport community, being an ambassador for the AAPI Victory Alliance, and her mental health.
Hosts of the new MTV ]show "Help! I'm in a Secret Relationship," recording artist Travis Mills and actor Rahne Jones, joined Cheddar News to talk about the new show and how sheds light on romantic partners who are keeping their other halves hidden away from other parts of their lives. "Travis and I go in and we investigate and figure out what is going on in hopes that we can sit the two parties down and have a resolution, a conversation, a productive conversation, in hopes that the relationships remain intact," said Jones. "But unfortunately that does not happen all the time, which is where, where the drama, where the drama comes." Mills added that “I honestly think that the pandemic gave people who want to hide their partner a really good excuse."
Once called the rent-forever generation, Millennials are bucking the trend. But just as they age into their prime home-buying years, they’ve run up against a red hot housing market exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Cheddar News senior Reporter Chloe Aiello went to Hudson, N.Y., to learn more.
Every year on April 8th, we celebrate the deliciousness of empanadas for National Empanada Day! This time, Cheddar's News Wrap was joined by New York's own Empanada Mama to try some of interesting flavors.
The Biden administration is making changes to federal student loan programs, bringing more than 3.6 million people closer to debt forgiveness under the new rules, providing 40,000 with immediate debt cancellation, and allowing several thousand more with older loans to get some relief. Rob Franek, Editor-In-Chief of the Princeton Review, joined Cheddar News to break down how these changes might impact the lives of student loan borrowers and addresses some of the pushback against doing even more. "This is not a bankruptcy bailout of industries that are supporting the American economy," he said. These are for students right now who would otherwise be hobbled financially if they didn't experience some sort of forgiveness overall."
Emmanuel Macron staves off the far right challenger Marine Le Pen in France, conservative lawmakers find themselves embroiled in varying controversies, and pickleball is hotter than ever in the U.S.
