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The entire month of June is dedicated to celebrating the LGBTQ+ community and its many accomplishments and contributions to society. It is also important to take a moment to reflect on the struggles faced by this community and the work still left to be done against intolerance. Since Pride can directly trace its origins back to New York City, it is only fitting that the Big Apple hold a big parade. This years march takes place today (Sunday, June 29, 2025) at 11 a.m. ET Although some companies have scaled back their fanfare due to an anti-DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) climate, one could argue that makes this year all the more important. Let’s take a look at the beginnings of pride, this years focus, and how to catch the parade both in person and on television. A brief history of the NYC Pride March While many call the festivities a parade, Heritage of Pride, the nonprofit behind Pride events in New York City, prefers the moniker march. That’s because of the activist roots of the event. The march specifically honors the anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising of 1969. During the 1960s, same-sex public displays of affection such as kissing, holding hands, or even dancing were illegal, so bars owned by organized crime groups became places of refuge for the community where they could express themselves freely with out fear. When police raided the Stonewall Inn on the morning of June 28, it angered bar patrons and those who witnessed the police harassment. A weeklong protest helped invigorate the modern gay rights movement. The following year, a march from the Stonewall Inn to Central Park was held to commemorate the event. In 1999, President Bill Clinton made the first official presidential proclamation declaring June Pride Month. In 2016, President Barack Obama made the Stonewall Inn a national monument. The anti-DEI movement and Prides response President Donald Trump’s second administration has rolled back many DEI initiatives, causing a ripple effect. As a result, many corporations have not been as enthusiastic in their allyship the year. A Gravity Research survey of more than 200 corporate executives found 39% are scaling back in 2025, with zero individuals reporting an increase. Sixty-one percent cited the Trump administration, conservative forces, and Republican policymakers as the reason for this shift. “Rise up: Pride in Protest,” this years theme, appears to be a defiant reaction to the current political climate. If those in power wont recognize the community, the people must step up. We must support one another, because when the most marginalized among us are granted their rights, all of us benefit, Kazz Alexander, NYC Pride co-chair, said in a statement. Pride is not merely a celebration of identityit is a powerful statement of resistance, affirming that justice and equity will ultimately prevail for those who live and love on the margins. What is the route for the NYC Pride march? The march will begin at 26th Street and 5th Avenue and conclude at 15th Street and 7th Avenue in Manhattan. How much does it cost to attend the Pride march? The event is free to attend. How can I watch or stream the NYC Pride march? If you can’t attend in person, join this years grand marshals Karine Jean-Pierre, Marti Gould Cummings, DJ Lina, Elisa Crespo and Trans formative Schools on television. Those watching from their homes can tune into WABC-TV, aka ABC-7, or wherever you live-stream abc7NY at 12 p.m. ET.
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E-Commerce
Adding the word voluntary in front of separation, retirement, and severance packages seem to be the new, empathetic way for companies to handle layoffs whether it’s the tech industry or higher education. These programs, also broadly known as voluntary incentive separation programs, have been around for decades. They first gained traction in the ’80s and ’90s and saw a resurgence of popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Voluntary layoffs are programs that offer employees incentives to leave. These incentives may include extra pay for a few months, healthcare coverage, and other employment services such as career counseling. Why is this beneficial for employers? Typically, voluntary programs are offered in order to avoid involuntary layoffs down the line.They allow for employees to retire early or make a career change. Christopher Nickson, vice president and senior consultant for HR firm Segal, explains that voluntary layoffs are often beneficial for companies looking to downsize their highest paid employees. Oftentimes you are taking somebody who has worked for the organization for many years, and as time has gone on, their wages have gone up steadily as a factor of increased experience, Nickson said. He points out theyll typically be replaced by someone with less experience. The result is they come in, typically at a [lower] compensation rate that’s beneficial to the company, Nickson said. Essentially, companies view the voluntary programs as a more empathetic and transparent approach to cost savings than layoffs where employees are given no choice. But not all who are offered these programs agree. In April, Duke University announced a voluntary layoff program in order to cut 10% of the universitys costs, or roughly $350 million. The offer included compensation for one week of regular pay multiplied by years of service, maxing out at 26 weeks. In response members of the Duke community wrote a letter entitled Duke, Dont DOGE to the universitys administration and president, Vincent E. Price, pointing out that cuts could be made elsewhere. The letter calls the voluntary layoffs institutional hoarding. It notes that some of the highest paid members of the institution (those making over $1 million), including Price, could take a 25% pay decrease, and those earning $500,000 to $1 million, could take a 10% decrease voluntarily and save Duke $6.6 million. Duke is one of the first major universities in the country to enact sweeping layoffs across its workforce. This is a historic and devastating move, the letter states. And while workers are losing their jobs, housing, healthcare, and immigration status, Dukes top administrators and athletics personnel continue to pull six-and seven-figure salaries. There are no cuts at the top. Theres no shared sacrifice. Just more for themand less for everyone else. Nickson argues that universities like Duke are in a tight spot since enrollment rates are dropping, and universities are seeing grant and funding cuts. Overall, Nickson believes these programs are a good way to minimize or avoid involuntary layoffs later on. It’s a win for both the institution and for the individual,” he said. What to consider when offered a voluntary layoff It can be difficult to decide whether or not you should take part in a voluntary layoff or buyout. Here are some factors to consider: Your likelihood of being laid off. Ask yourselfhow likely is my position to be impacted later on? And, how strong is the current job market for someone with my experience and skills? If you feel like you’re going to get laid off if you don’t take the severance, you may as well do it, career coach and founder of Life after Layoff Bryan Creely said. The voluntary severance is generally going to be more attractive because they’re trying to incentivize people. If you don’t take the voluntary severance and they move to eliminate your job anyway, it’s likely not going to be as attractive of a package. Where you are in your career and what you want next Taking a voluntary leave could open the doors for a career change, offering an exit from an unwanted job, or a ramp into retirement. Consider how easy will it be for you to pivot. Are you looking to switch industries entirely, which may take longer to find a job or gain additional certification? Or are you mid-level, at your career prime with a niche or specialized background where there’s demand for your skills? Are you close to retirement? Would taking a voluntary layoff allow you to financially and emotionally move on comfortably without having to find a new position? Hypothetically, if you’re close to retirement and you have the option to take part in a voluntary layoff for one year’s payment, this is a great opportunity for you, said Micah Alpern, senior managing director at CEO global advisory firm Teneo. But, if you’re a young person, like a newer, tenured employee, this might be very negative to you if you receive four months severance but have to find a new job. What is being offered and what are your rights? It may be helpful to enlist the help of a financial adviser, career coach, or legal counsel to understand the full scope of your needs and rights. As each program has different incentives and financial offerings, it is important to fully understand your offer before accepting or declining it, as each program varies with their incentives and financial offerings. Typically, taking a voluntary layoff means you still qualify for unemployment in most states. But, you should get a written statement from your employer, stating the reasons for the layoff. For better or for worse, theres a good chance these programs will continue, as general rates of layoffs have remained consistent over the past few years in the U.S. The layoff cycle is getting shorter and shorter. It used to be that there would be a layoff cycle that would happen once a decade, Creely said. Then COVID-19 hit, and now the layoff cycles have now gone from roughly every 8 to 10 years down to two years, or even shorter than that. I think they’re becoming a much more prevalent part of corporate culture unfortnately.
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E-Commerce
Technology can seem pretty mysterious at times, so its all too easy for misconceptions to spread. That helps explain why I keep seeing technological myths propagate. Should you bury a wet phone in rice? Do you need a VPN to use public Wi-Fi networks? Is your phone secretly recording your conversations? The answer to these questions and more is no, but believing otherwise can be detrimental. Heres my attempt to dispel a half dozen popular tech myths, and what you should do instead of believing them. This story first appeared in Advisorator, Jareds weekly tech advice newsletter. Sign up for free to get more tips every Tuesday. Myth 1: Dry rice can save a wet phone The idea that uncooked rice will draw the moisture from a waterlogged phone is so pervasive that even Apple has tried to dispel it. Dont put your iPhone in a bag of rice, the companys support documentation says. Doing so could allow small particles of rice to damage your iPhone. What to do instead: Your phone may already be water resistant, rendering the rice trick obsolete. But if not, iFixit recommends shaking loose any excess water, turning the phone off, and leaving it out to dry for as long as possible. (Putting your phone in rice forces you to leave it alone, which may explain why the myth persists.) Myth 2: You should regularly force-close all your phone apps Since the advent of recent app menus in iOS and Android, Ive seen too many people compulsively swiping up to force-close all their apps, mistakenly believing this will conserve battery life or help the phone run faster. In fact, force-quitting everything can make performance and battery life worse, because your apps will use more power each time they fully reload. Even Apple says to force-close an app only if its not responding, and the same logic applies to Android phones as well. What to do instead: Use the Battery menu in your phones settings to identify apps that are draining your battery. You may need to adjust the background settings for that app or find an alternative. Myth 3: Incognito mode prevents websites from tracking you Misconceptions about Incognito mode are so widespread that Google had to settle a class-action lawsuit last year after Chrome users claimed that it provided a false sense of privacy. So heres what your browsers Incognito or Private Browsing mode actually does: Prevents sites from showing up in your browsing history so that others with access to your computer cant see them. Lets you browse sites in a logged-out state, with none of your interactions carried over from previous visits. These modes do not render you invisible online, as websites can still collect data and use identifiers such as your IP address to track you. And if you sign into a website while using Incognito mode, that activity will be associated with your account. What to do instead: Use a web browser with strong built-in tracking protections, and possibly a VPN if youre extremely concerned about privacy (though VPNs arent panaceas either). An ad-blocking extension can help, but only if youve set it to run in Incognito mode. Myth 5: Public USB charging ports spread viruses Thanks to repeated FBI warnings over the years, the idea that public USB charging ports can infect your devices with malware has become pervasive, yet the actual threat of juice jacking remains theoretical. To date, no ones provided a single real-world example of charging ports spreading viruses. Besides, both Android and iOS require permission to transfer data when connecting your phone to another devicesomething youd hopefully reject when plugging into a nefarious port. What to do about it: Your own adapters and cables may be faster anywayespecially if youve followed my buying guidebut I wouldnt fret about using hotel or coffee shop charging ports in a pinch. Myth 5: You need a VPN for public Wi-Fi This ones just as pervasive as the juice-jacking myth, but at least it used to be true. These days, youll notice that pretty much every website has an https in its address, indicating that your traffic is encrypted. That makes the encryption from a VPN redundant. In the extremely rare case where a website transmits unencrypted data over Wi-Fi, your browser will use stern warnings to try to stop you from visiting it. What to do instead: According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the best thing to do is make sure your devices software and operating system are up-to-date, so youre not at risk of security vulnerabilities that might transmit unencrypted traffic. Myth 6: Your phone is listening to you Youve probably heard an anecdote like this: I recently met up with a friend, and they told me about something they bought that Id never heard of before. Then a couple of days later, I started seeing Instagram ads for that exact product! My phone has to be recording me. Its not, but the reality is no less concerning: If an app on your phone has access to your location, and that data gets shared with a company like Facebook or Google, its fairly trivial for those companies to understand which devices are nearby and to target ads based on what those devices have been doing. Thats a lot easier than secretly recording audio, especially because your phone indicates when thats happening. What to do about it: If you find this behavior unsettling, take a few minutes to do the following: Disable your ad ID in iOS or Android. Manage which apps can access your location on iOS or Android. Disable off-Facebook activity on this page under Manage future activity. Turn off targeted ads from Google on this page. Consider using a web browser with tracking protection or an ad blocker such as uBlock Origin. These steps wont solve every potential privacy issue, but theyll alleviate the feeling that your phone is always listening. This story first appeared in Advisorator, Jareds weekly tech advice newsletter. Sign up for free to get more tips every Tuesday.
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E-Commerce
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