Friday Scoop: Amazon Daycare

Jeff Bezos to Create Charitable Foundation to Provide Childcare for the Homeless

Bezos plotting all the good things. (image: Flickr)

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos has announced that he will use some of his $160 billion fortune to establish a fund that provides early childcare and preschool to homeless and low-income families.

The fund, “Bezos Day One Fund,” will start out with $2 billion, pledged from Bezos’ personal wealth. Bezons explained on Twitter that the foundation will have two tiers: one that helps existing non-profits in providing for homeless families, and one that creates a network of new preschools and childcare centers for no or low-income families.

The announcement comes almost exactly a year after Bezos reported he was looking for a new philanthropic project, and it is his largest charitable donation to date.

Hurricane Florence Begins Life-Threatening Rainfall in North Carolina

The National Hurricane Center reported that Hurricane Florence has made its way into North Carolina, sweeping the state with powerful winds and “life-threatening” rainfall. According to the Washington Post, the storm made landfall around 7AM EST this morning.

Several structures have already collapsed in Morehead City and New Bern, with approximately 100 people left stranded as of this morning. More than 400,000 residents of the region have lost power in Morehead, New Bern, and Wilmington.

The storm is expected to continue wreaking havoc through today and the beginning of next week.

Truett McConnell University Cuts Ties With Nike After Kaepernick Commercial

Scraps of Nike symbols lay in the trash and Nike shoes lay burnt on American lawns as a result of Nike’s latest “Just do it” commercial featuring NFL star and racial activist, Colin Kaepernick.

Christian colleges across the nation have broken ties with Nike including the most recent, Truett McConnell University. Truett’s president, Dr. Emir Caner gave an explanation for the split, “For Nike to then hire Colin Kaepernick, a person known for wearing pigs on his socks, mocking law enforcement, kneeling against our flag, and mocking our troops, is reprehensible to my family and to the Truett McConnell family.”

The school will sell the rest of their Nike apparel from the campus store and donate all of the funds to veterans, the Wounded Warrior Project and the Fraternal Order of Police. Regardless of the controversy and loss of business relationships, Nike has seen a 31% increase in sales since the commercial was aired.

Courtney Good tells us more in her story here. 

Today in a Tweet

Today is the first day of London Fashion Week, debuting fall collections on the other side of the Atlantic. RIP, New York Fashion Week, we miss you already. 

Last But Not Least: International Center for Academic Integrity to Host Day of Action Against Contract Cheating

Contract cheating occurs when students submit work produced for them by someone else. Turnitin reported at least 7% of students admitted to contract cheating in 2013. According to the ICAI, “As many as 16 million people could be receiving fraudulent certifications…as a result of contract cheating.”

This fraudulent practice is a serious threat to the integrity of higher level education systems across the globe. Contract cheating contributes to nearly 1/5 of the plagiarism found in assignments submitted to Turnitin according to ICAI statistics.

ICAI encourages students, professors, administrators and entire institutions to stand against contact cheating on October 17 this year.

Find out how you can get involved in Kelly Rosenblatt’s report here.

This Friday Morning Scoop was made possible by Courtney Good, Kelly Rosenblatt, and the CMN Staff. We almost forgot we have an active Patreon account. Don’t worry, you didn’t miss out on becoming a patron and supporting the next generation of journalists. Is this the part where we say something clever?