Category: ESTA News

A Michigan school authorities banned the wearing of sweatshirts with the slogan “Let’s Go Brandon” written on it, indicating antipathy to President Joe Biden, and was eventually sued by students.

According to local media and Fox News on the 26th, Ms. A, a mother of middle school students (7th and 9th grades) in Tri County, Michigan, said, “My two sons were sanctioned for wearing ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ hoodies to school. School The school is sanctioning students who show support for former President Donald Trump or express dislike for President Biden,” he said, filing a lawsuit against the school on behalf of his two sons the day before.

In a complaint submitted to the Federal Court of Michigan Southern Branch, Mr. A said, “The school vice principal and teacher forcibly took off the ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ hoodie. It is a violation of ‘freedom of expression’ specified in Article 1 of the Amendment to the Constitution and discrimination against ‘political orientation’. “, he stated.

In October 2021, an NBC reporter interviewed Brandon Brown (29), the winner of the NASCAR car racing competition, and swearing at Biden from the crowd, “Now the crowd is chanting ‘Let’s Go Brandon’.” I’m doing it”, and then quickly spread as a Biden slander slogan.

This slogan was poured out on a variety of products from clothing to car bumper stickers and was used as a slang by Republican supporters to confirm their sympathy at right-wing rallies and demonstrations, as well as on in-flight broadcasts and in the main chamber of the Federal Assembly.

The school said, “‘Let’s Go Brandon’ has the same meaning as the F word.” According to the student dress code, it is forbidden to go to school wearing clothes that are obscene, vulgar, or contain insulting messages.

However, the ‘Foundation for Individual Rights and Freedom of Expression’ (FIRE), which oversaw the student’s defense, said, “‘Let’s Go Brandon’ is refined politics that can express opposition to President Biden without using slang or vulgar expressions. relief,” he said.

Attorney Conor Fitzpatrick said, “Criticism of the president is the core of political speech guaranteed by the First Amendment.”

He said the school forbids wearing a Trump-supporting flag on Free Dress Day but allows attire or flags that convey a message of advocacy for LGBTQ rights. cannot be presented,” he said.

“Students should not be discouraged from expressing their political beliefs, we should be encouraged to do so,” said Harrison Rosenthal, an attorney at the school.

The plaintiffs are asking the court to stop the school’s ‘political discriminatory act’ revealed through the ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ dress ban, and the ‘ban on dress that arouses excessive attention’.

From the 1st of May, the design of Virginia driver’s licenses will change. The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (VDMV) said on the 24th, “The new driver’s license aims to strengthen security features to prevent counterfeiting and show the symbolism of Virginia beautifully.” he said.

The new driver’s license is centered around the interior of the rotunda of the Virginia State Capitol, with images of Virginia’s official flower, the American Dogwood, and Virginia’s official insect, the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly. was added to highlight the symbolism of Virginia. In particular, the butterfly shape is drawn blurry next to the photo, so it is difficult to see, but it is designed to be visible when the driver’s license is slightly moved.

The color of the driver’s license is in two colors, bright blue, and light green, and those under the age of 21 will be issued a vertical driver’s license as they are now.

If your current driver’s license has not expired you don’t have to get a new driver’s license, you will be issued the updated license at your renewal.

With the summer vacation season approaching, scam scams targeting airline mileage or hotel reward points are rampant, so caution is required.

According to the related industry, scammers steal miles or points from consumers’ loyalty program accounts and trade them through the dark web, a black market.

For example, when a consumer receives a phishing email purporting to be from an airline such as Southwest and clicks the attached link, they are prompted to log into their account with the airline.

When consumers log in by entering their username and password, they are connected to a fake website disguised as an airline website, and their personal information is stolen. Fake site addresses disguised as airline websites often end in .org.

Fraudsters resell the stolen miles in a way such as “American Airlines 1.5 million miles sold for $500.” Some scammers have the audacity to set up fake online travel agencies themselves to trade miles and points.

In addition, some fraudsters steal mileage by directly accessing the airline account with the customer’s username and password obtained through other routes. It is abusing the fact that many consumers repeatedly use the password they use in one account for their airline account. Besides, the method is different.

Scammers have been known to use robocalls to fake bonus miles from airlines such as Air Canada and WestJet, and online travel agencies such as Expedia.

When a consumer who answers the phone presses a key such as # to receive bonus mileage, a scammer disguised as an agent answers the phone and asks for detailed account information.

Airlines and security experts recommend carefully checking the website address (URL) for ‘https://’ or ‘lock symbol’ indicating that the site is encrypted to prevent theft of airline mileage or hotel reward points.

The US administration announced on Tuesday that it had uncovered a laundering and sanctions-busting network supporting Lebanese businessman and art collector Nazem Ahmed, considered by the United States to be the financier of the Hezbollah. Nazem Ahmed, described as a diamond dealer “involved in the trade of ‘blood diamonds'” in a statement, has been under sanctions from the US Treasury Department since 2019.

The Treasury suspects this time more than fifty people and companies of helping Mr. Ahmed to escape US sanctions. They are in turn the target of sanctions, in particular the freezing of all their assets in the United States and the prohibition of any American company or citizen from doing business with them, at the risk of being in turn targeted by Sanctions.

As for Nazem Ahmed, the Department of Justice has announced that it will launch proceedings against him for circumventing sanctions, estimating at more than 400 million dollars the number of exchanges carried out by Mr. Ahmed between 2020 and 2022, including 160 million dollars “via the US financial system”.

This also applies to buying art from art galleries in Chicago or Los Angeles and from a New York artist. The network extends from Lebanon to around ten countries, including several African countries, including South Africa and the Ivory Coast, as well as Belgium and the United Kingdom.

The operation uncovered consists in ensuring the financing of the Lebanese Shiite movement through the purchase of precious stones, works of art and luxury products, thus allowing the laundering of funds otherwise subject to sanctions. “Those involved used shell companies and fraudulent practices to obscure Nazem Said Ahmed’s role in these financial transactions,” Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said. in the press release.

“Luxury market players should be particularly vigilant of these potential tactics that enable terrorist financing, money laundering and sanctions evasion,” Nelson added. The Treasury specifies that this series of sanctions is also decided in coordination with the United Kingdom. For its part, the State Department recalled offering up to 10 million dollars for any information concerning Hezbollah’s financing mechanisms, “including concerning Nazem Ahmed”.

Hezbollah, or simply its military wing, is considered a terrorist organization by many countries, including the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and most Arab League member states.

Air Premia, a Korean hybrid airline, is holding a special price promotion until the 25th to commemorate the launch of the New York-Incheon route.

The fare for a round-trip economy class ticket between New York and Incheon sold during this period (including all fuel surcharges and airport facility usage fees) is $1,001.

However, this applies only to customers who have booked flights by April 25, and may close early on a first-come, first-served basis. In addition, the boarding period is from May 22, the date of launch, to March 30 next year.

This special ticket can be purchased through the Airpremia website (airpremia.com) and Korean travel agencies in New York and New Jersey.

Meanwhile, on May 22nd, Air Premia will launch its first flight from Incheon Airport to Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, opening the door to full-fledged flights to New York.

According to Air Premia’s flight plan, flights from Newark Liberty International Airport depart four times a week (Monday/Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday) at 12:30 p.m. arrive at

Flights arriving in New York also depart four times a week (Monday/Wednesday/Friday/Sunday) at 9:05 p.m. from Incheon Airport and arrive at Newark Liberty International Airport at 10 p.m. New York time.

Nearly half of Americans are unwilling to change their car to an electric one, a study has found.

According to the results of a survey released by the Associated Press and the University of Chicago Public Opinion Research Center (NORC) and Energy Policy Institute (EPIC) on the 11th, 47% of respondents said that they are not likely to buy an electric car next time they buy a car.

The survey was conducted on a sample of 5,408 US adults from January to February, and the sample error is ±1.7 percentage points.

19% of respondents said the possibility of purchasing an electric vehicle was “very high”, and 22% answered “somewhat likely”, with 41% of respondents giving a positive answer.

According to the results of the survey, 4 out of 10 Americans said they would buy an electric car in the future.

As a factor for not liking electric vehicles, 6 out of 10 respondents cited “expensive price”.

According to the US car information site ‘Kelly Blue Book’, the average price of a new electric car sold in the US is over $58,000 (about 76.71 million won).

The AP pointed out that considering the average price of all cars sold in the United States is below $46,000 (about 60.84 million won), the price of an electric car is difficult for many households in the United States to access.

In addition, the new regulations of the US Treasury Department will reduce the number of electric vehicles that can receive a tax deduction of 7,500 dollars (approximately 9.92 million won), and the deduction amount can be reduced by half to 3,750 dollars (approximately 4.96 million won). The AP predicted that there would be no incentive to change gasoline vehicles to electric vehicles.

The lack of charging stations was also cited as a reason for not liking electric vehicles.

Three-quarters of respondents to the survey said, “there are too few charging stations”, and half of them said this was their main reason for not buying an electric car.

Two-thirds of all respondents said they would not consider switching to an electric vehicle because they “like gasoline vehicles better”.

Looking at the political orientation of these respondents, 54% of Republicans, about half, cited ‘preference for gasoline vehicles’ as the main reason, and 29% of Democrats gave the same response.

The Associated Press pointed out that although the US government is implementing several policies to convert internal combustion engine vehicles to eco-friendly vehicles to reduce carbon emissions, there is still a long way to go in terms of consumer perception.

Five restaurants and one chef in the Seattle area were selected as finalists for the 2023 winners of the James Beard Award, which is called the Oscars of the American culinary industry.

Aaron Burzos of Hillman City-based Archipelago is the only Northwest North American region to be nominated for Best Chef, and sisters Yenby Pham and Cooin Pham, who run a series of South Vietnamese noodle restaurants in the Seattle area, are “Outstanding Restaurateurs.” ‘ was nominated.

The Pham family has been running a Vietnamese noodle restaurant without rumors for 40 years, but it grew explosively when two 2-year-old sisters joined the business.

The sisters opened a “Hello M” coffee shop in Little Saigon in 2021, and a few months later opened “Pacific Standard Time,” an oriental cocktail restaurant.

Ballard’s ‘Copine’ restaurant was nominated for ‘Best Restaurant of the Year’ and competed for the gold medal with restaurants like ‘Lucia’ in Dallas and ‘Friday-Saturday-Sunday’ in Philadelphia.

Belltown’s Rob Roy cocktail bar was also shortlisted for the “Outstanding Bar” category, while Pullman’s “Black Cypress” restaurant was shortlisted for the “Outstanding Hospitality” category.

Microsoft, the world’s largest software company headquartered in Redmond, announced that it would lay off 10,000 jobs this year, and it made another layoff in the Seattle area.

According to the Washington State Employment Security Administration (ESD), it was confirmed that Microsoft notified on the 27th that it would lay off an additional 559 people at its headquarters in Redmond and in the Seattle area, including Bellevue and Issaquah.

Accordingly, in the Seattle area, a total of 4 layoffs were carried out: 878 in January, 617 in February, 689 in March, and 559 this time.

As a result, the Seattle area exceeded 27% of the total number of layoffs of 10,000. It was found that the workers who were laid off this time were concentrated in MS security.

Microsoft provides compensation equivalent to two months’ wages to employees subject to dismissal.

Microsoft is pushing ahead with job cuts, announcing in January that it plans to cut 10,000 jobs, or 5% of the company’s total workforce, by the end of March.

Accordingly, attention is focused on how many of the 10,000 layoffs that Microsoft is pursuing in the Seattle area will eventually be cut.

Microsoft currently has about 50,000 employees in its headquarters in Redmond, Bellevue, and Issaquah.

As a result, it is said that MS employees are suffering from additional layoffs, even though 2,700 of the total 50,000 employees account for a small proportion.

Microsoft’s decision to lay off 10,000 people is the second largest manpower reduction in Microsoft’s history. Microsoft has laid off 18,000 employees since Satya Nadella took over as CEO in 2014.

Along with Microsoft, another big tech company headquartered in Seattle, Amazon, also announced that it would lay off an additional 9,000 jobs following the layoffs of 18,000 in January.

As racial tensions intensify in the United States, hate crimes have risen by 35% to 10,840 in 2021 compared to 8,052 in the previous year.

According to the US political media The Hill, etc., the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced a report on the 13th. The number of hate crimes based on double racial discrimination was 6,643, a 27% increase from the previous year (5,227). Hate crimes targeting LGBTI people totaled 1,707, a 54% increase from 1,110 in the previous year.

Among race-related hate crimes, blacks were the most common with 3,277 (1 in 12,000 victims), followed by Asians with 746 (1 in 23,000) and Hispanics at 698 (1 in 70,000).

There were 1,107 hate crimes against whites, the lowest at 1 per 170,000 as a percentage of the population.

Hate crimes due to religious issues also increased by 27% to 1,510 from 1.244 in the previous year.

There were 817 hate crimes against Jews, or 1 in 9,200 victims, and 152 Muslims (1 in 20,000).

In California, which was famous for its good weather throughout the year in the western United States, storms hit repeatedly in the past few days, and thousands of victims were unable to return home. Paralyzed.
From the afternoon of the 14th to the morning of the 15th, about 400,000 households, including 210,000 households in the western part and 190,000 households in the eastern part, suffered power outages as electrical facilities were damaged in various places due to snow and rain accompanied by a storm. In addition, a total of 3,000 flights in the United States were canceled due to bad weather over the past two days, leading to an ‘airline crisis’.

In the western region, since the end of last year, the phenomenon of ‘atmospheric river’ (atmospheric river) originating from the Pacific Ocean has occurred one after another, and it continues to rain. Following the 10th storm on the 10th and 11th, last weekend, another 11th storm struck just three days later.

Two recent storms hit the San Francisco Bay Area in central California. Damage was great in San Jose, a large city along the bay, as well as Santa Clara, San Mateo, and Contra Costa counties.
In some areas of San Jose, where many Koreans live, power outages began at 12:39 noon the previous day, and electricity has not come on for almost a day. As a result, it is reported that residents of the area are experiencing great inconvenience.

According to PowerOutage.us, a site that collects power outages, the number of households affected by power outages in California, mainly in Santa Clara County, where San Jose is located, increased to 210,000 at one time in the early morning of the 15th. The city counted 150,000 households.

Silicon Valley, where major information and communication (IT) companies are concentrated, also suffered from power outages for a while, according to Bloomberg News.

In these areas, particularly strong wind damage followed one after another, and in a 52-story high-rise building in downtown San Francisco, there was an accident in which the windows of the 43rd floor was broken by strong winds.

The BART, a commuter train in San Francisco, was also delayed due to falling branches from the wind hitting the tracks one after another.

Monterey County, south of San Francisco, was flooded by heavy rains over the weekend after storms broke some riverbanks and caused flooding. About 2,000 residents who fled their homes and fled to shelters have not been able to return home for several days.

A landslide warning was issued in these areas as the ground was weakened by continued rain.

As of the previous day, more than 27,000 people in California had been ordered to evacuate.

California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in 43 of the 58 counties as of this day and ordered emergency relief and support.

The northeast region of the United States suffered damage from a winter storm as it headed toward spring. In the United States, storms that hit the Northeast Coast in winter are commonly referred to as ‘Nor’easter’.

As a snowstorm hit the northeast the night before, snow piled up to a height of 91 cm in some areas, such as New York and Vermont. The snow had died down overnight, but strong winds knocked down trees and utility poles, causing massive power outages in the area.

According to the Power Outage tally, as of 11 a.m. on the same day, 190,000 households in New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, Maine, and Massachusetts are still without electricity.

In these areas, snow piled up around houses and on roads has almost paralyzed traffic. Administrative authorities and residents are stepping up to remove snow, but it seems that it will take time to recover.

The New Hampshire State Police tweeted that there were about 200 traffic accidents on the roads in the jurisdiction the day before.

In New Hampshire, a large tree fell in a strong snowstorm, and a child playing near a house was trapped inside the tree, and firefighters and ambulances were dispatched. Fortunately, the child was rescued safely with only minor injuries.

In Massachusetts, transportation authorities are mobilizing more than 1,800 pieces of equipment to clear snow and repair damage from strong winds.

New York Governor Kathy Hokkell said that local shelters were prepared for residents fighting the cold at home due to power outages.

As strong winds blew over the eastern region from the previous day, aircraft were unable to land, resulting in delayed arrivals or flight cancellations without being able to take off.

According to flight tracking site FlightAware, 2,150 flights were canceled and 16,800 were delayed the previous day, mainly in the eastern part of the country. As of this morning, 1,181 flights were canceled, and 12,089 flights were delayed.

Residents are increasingly worried as the bad weather in the U.S. is predicted to continue without an end.

The National Weather Service (NWS) predicted that the storm in the western United States would return next week after showing a lull after stopping on the 15th. Weather forecasters observed that there will be rain, snow, and strong winds in most areas of California from the 21st to the 23rd.

The ‘atmospheric river’ that has been affecting the West for several months is a phenomenon in which a large amount of water vapor moves in a narrow and long belt like a river and sprinkles a lot of rain.

Up to 10 centimeters of snow is expected in parts of northern New York and parts of New England.