The crisis in Flint, Mich., goes far beyond the lead in its water, and a new Netflix docu-series sheds light on the city’s much deeper economic and social problems.
“Outside investment is needed to really rebuild this community,” Zackary Canepari, one of the directors of “Flint Town,” told Cheddar.
Flint, home to about 100,000 people, reportedly has fewer than 100 police officers, and violence has run rampant.
Part of the reason is the city’s high unemployment, according to co-director Drea Cooper. He points out that issue stems from General Motors’ leaving town in the 1980s.
“It’s a town that’s missing a core industry,” Cooper said. “It was a town that was built on a singular industry, and now it’s trying to make its way.
“There’s been influx of universities coming in through the University of Michigan, hospitals are coming in, so they’re starting to find a new sort of niche and a new industry. But I think so many of these things start with education and job opportunities.”
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/welcome-to-flint-town).
Bonnie Wright, who starred in the Harry Potter film series as Ginny Weasely, the youngest of the Weasely clan and Harry Potter’s love interest, is now an author and sustainability activist with her new book, "Go Gently: Actionable Steps to Nurture Yourself and the Planet," which focuses on how to change your habits to live a more sustainable lifestyle. Wright joined Cheddar News to discuss. "I wrote my book to really help to kind of bring the macro-scale system thinking down to our day-to-day life," she said. "They're actually tangible, quite resourceful, practical things that you can implement in your day-to-day life to just help you connect to these issues and just feel empowered when we feel pretty powerless within this situation."
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 19, 2022, with a federal judge voiding mask mandates on public transportation, updates from the Russia and Ukraine war, Mac Miller’s drug dealer sentenced for involvement in the rapper's death, and more.
The 1993 historical drama 'Schindler's List' tells the story of a Nazi party member who helped thousands of Polish Jewish refugees escape death during the Holocaust. Today, Ukrainians are living a very similar reality as Russia continues to invade, and refugees are fleeing for safety. Oliwia Dabrowska was three years old when she became an integral part of "Schindler's List." You'll remember her as "the little girl in the red coat" representing a symbol of hope. Today she's 32 years old living in Poland and once again representing hope for refugees. Dabrowska joins Cheddar News to discuss her experience and tell viewers how to help.
As TikTok grows in popularity, so does its ad revenue potential. Research firm Insider Intelligence forecasts the app's revenue will likely triple in 2022 to more than $11 billion, putting it past the sales of both Twitter and Snapchat combined. Cheddar News takes a closer look.
Snapchat has launched its first features to help users learn American Sign Language through its lenses and a game. The project was spearheaded by deaf and hard-of-hearing workers. Cheddar News was joined by Austin Vaday, software engineer at Snap, and his sign language interpreter, Jonathan Webb, to discuss the ASL Fingerspelling Lens and how the project came together. “We wanted to find a way to appropriately and properly educate the community so that folks can communicate with people like me using sign language," Vaday stated.
The new Netflix documentary "White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch" dives into how the once apparel retailer used an exclusionary business model, focusing on the "popular and cool kids," to thrive for years until its discriminatory culture and practices led to a consumer backlash. Anthony Ocampo, a professor of sociology at Cal Poly Pomona and former Abercrombie & Fitch employee, and Ben O’Keefe, a social change activist and head of diversity and impact production at Creator+, discussed the film and the retailer's rebranding in light of many allegations brought against it. "I got a job at Abercrombie & Fitch, and I worked there for a couple of weeks. But then when I went back to that same store after the academic year ended to get my job back, I was told by someone, I'm sorry, we can't rehire you because we already had too many Filipinos working at this store," Ocampo said.
