--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Thursday, October 28th. I'm Shamita Basu. And I'm Guarante Giraldino. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: President Biden is visiting Democrats on Capitol Hill this morning. We're expecting more specifics on his economic agenda in a speech at the White House later today.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: This comes on the heels of reports that paid leave appears to be gone from Democrats' spending plan. Multiple news outlets are reporting this, including The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and Bloomberg.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Lawmakers are looking for hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to land on a bill that can pass a closely divided Congress. At this stage, it's largely about how to appeal to Senator Joe Manchin, who's refused to compromise on paid leave.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: President Biden initially wanted 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave for American workers. Then there was a proposal to scale it back to four weeks. But as of this morning, it looks like even a smaller version of this type of leave doesn't have the votes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Paid leave is broadly popular, which makes all this squabbling in Washington maybe a little surprising. Polling earlier this month showed more than 70% of Americans support spending federal money on paid leave.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: It's an area where the U.S. lags behind the rest of the world. Only a handful of other countries have no paid leave. Globally, the average paid maternity leave is 29 weeks. Paternity leave is 16 weeks.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And the data shows paid time off of work is associated with better physical and mental health for mothers and infants. The New Republic looked at research into the impact of paid leave, which has been shown to reduce the risk of postpartum health complications for moms.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: And when it comes to gender equity, data shows paid leave helps women stay in the workforce after giving birth. A recent study of New York's paid leave program found no evidence it affected the employees' performance.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There was a sense that the pandemic could be a turning point for paid leave in America. Many people found it challenging to balance working and caring for children and relatives. A few weeks of paid leave might have helped, but it looks like that won't happen here just yet.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: A lot of cuts to this bill are happening behind the scenes. CNN rounds up how the overall spending bill appears to be shaping up. A clean electricity program and free tuition for community college are some of the highest profile cuts.
--:-- Shamita Basu: CNN also looks at what seems likely to make it into the final package, and that includes free universal preschool, child care funding, an extension of the child tax credit, and money for Affordable Care Act premiums and housing subsidies.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: And it also looks like there could be half a trillion dollars in tax incentives and credits that address climate change, even if the clean electricity program appears to be dead for now.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Do you remember the news this summer after census data came out? Headlines like, census data shows white population shrinking below 60%. At first glance, it may have seemed like the data was suggesting the number of white Americans declined by 19 million people since 2010.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: But as it turns out... It's in fact, on one level, simply wrong, and then in another way, misleading.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Morris Levy is a political scientist at USC. He and two other academics wrote about this in The Atlantic. And they say before you read too much into the census numbers, you should check out the fine print.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: The census changed the way that it classified people into racial categories. And it was those changes in classification rather than any real decline or rise in the actual number of people who have a certain kind of social identity that, as far as we can tell, entirely drove the change and therefore the narratives.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This all came about because the Census Bureau wanted to more accurately account for the number of mixed race people. There are plenty of people who identify as white and as members of another race or as Latino.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: So keep this in mind as you make sense of these numbers. In the most recent census, people had so many different ways to describe themselves.
--:-- Shamita Basu: According to Levy, what ended up happening was many people who checked white during the 2010 census ended up being categorized as multiracial in 2020.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: So those early headlines about the recent census weren't because of dramatic demographic shifts. It came down to a more nuanced way of recording a person's identity.
--:-- Shamita Basu: What's happening is not that one group is growing at another group's expense the way that the standard framing would have it. That's the framing that elicits so much anxiety.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: What's really happening is that groups are blending and coming together. Which all goes to say, the census is basically allowing people to define their identities in different ways.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And depending on how you slice the numbers, the population of white Americans could have grown by more than 2% or dropped by more than 8%.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: So yes, U.S. demographics are shifting, but it's not as drastic as the summer's headlines would have had you believe.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Government officials have pulled out all the stops to try to get more people vaccinated. Even before vaccine mandates, there were all these incentives to try to get people on board.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: Gift cards, scholarships, vacations. And, of course, there were the lotteries. Get a COVID vaccination in the Buckeye State and get a shot at winning a million dollars.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Millions of dollars will be up for grabs if you are vaccinated. New York is jumping on the bandwagon as well with its Vax and Scratch lottery, announcing prizes up to $5 million.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: At least 24 people across the country won a million dollars or more. USA Today caught up with some of these winners.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And, well, months after their bank accounts got substantially fatter, some of these people say they have mixed feelings about cashing in during a pandemic that caused so much suffering.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: Colorado resident Pete Vegas says his first reaction to winning a million bucks was guilt. He said he just felt like he couldn't keep the money, like he had to do something good with it.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So he decided to invest in green agriculture. Christine Duvall of Michigan won $2 million, and she said one of the first things she did was give money to a mental health charity.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: All the winners USA Today spoke to said the lotteries didn't motivate them to get vaccinated. Some got their shots before the lotteries were announced.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And that's in line with the research. One recent study compared vaccination data in states with and without lotteries and it found states with lotteries did not see a significant difference in the vaccination rate.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: And one possible conclusion that the study's authors offered, maybe long shot lotteries are not as effective as a guaranteed "here's 100 bucks to get the shot" offer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Looking to save money or pay down some debt? Most advisors will tell you, create a budget, stick to it. But what if a way to save money would be to spend more time at an amusement park?
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: You don't have to threaten me with a good time on a funnel cake. Well, this is what one guy in California came up with.
--:-- Shamita Basu: His name is Dylan, and he says he bought a year-round pass to Six Flags for around $150.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: Now, most people are drawn to the roller coasters, the thrills. Well, Dylan became a regular because his pass also came with two meals a day.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So what he decided to do is eat there for as many meals as possible. He's been doing this for seven years.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: Dylan told Mail Magazine about how he turned this into the deal of a lifetime. He worked just a few minutes from the park, so it was easy for him to take advantage of the free meals.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If he had enough time, he'd even sneak in a ride or two. I mean, you gotta admire this guy. This is low-key genius.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: But he did say it has been endless burgers and fries and pizza and soda, which gets old fast.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You know, Dylan estimates that he's eaten 750 chicken meatballs. He said snacks are the dangerous part. He gained a little bit of weight when he was tempted by Dippin' Dots and the churros.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: But over the years, he did find healthy options. He recommends the Chipotle chicken salad.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You know, Dylan crunched the numbers. He says the price per meal is about 50 cents for him. And with the money saved on food, he paid down his student loans and he bought a house.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: He says as long as Six Flags keeps changing their menu, they'll still be a regular.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And while you're in the app, keep listening to hear narrated articles from our News Plus partners.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: We'll talk to you again tomorrow.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Goodbye for now.
--:-- Guarante Giraldino: Goodbye.
