The Chicago Defender, a legacy African-American newspaper that "had a national role in the civil rights movement," will end its print publication and switch to a digital-only format next Wednesday, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The big picture, via Axios' Marisa Fernandez: Many local papers have already folded after failing to transition print customers into paying digital subscribers. By 2021, half of surviving U.S. newspapers will be gone, Harvard's Nicco Mele told the WSJ in May. But, 2018 Pew Research shows that digital newspaper ads are on the rise.
A "screen-free parenting coach" economy has sprung up around the U.S. as parents try to figure out how to wrangle smartphones out of their kids' hands, reports the New York Times.
Why it matters: Concern over screen time and smartphone use is particularly "rampant" among well-off parents, per the Times. It remains unknown "what screens will make of society, good or bad."
Job prospects are finally rising for people of color in the U.S, a development with big implications for 2020 political races.
Why it matters: African-Americans,Hispanics, Latinx and others left behind are finally starting to reap rewards from the economic boom. And in a major shift, the Federal Reserve is listening to people who say the central bank should use its policies to help sustain the record-long expansion that's still in the early stages for low-income communities of color.
In an interview with CNN, Joe Biden told Chris Cuomo that "I was prepared for them to come after me, but I wasn't prepared for the person coming at me the way she came at ..." referencing Kamala Harris' attack on his history with racial issues in last week's Democratic debate.
The big picture: Joe Biden had previously shied away from doing interviews as he leads the Democratic field in the polls.
The U.S. economy added 224,000 jobs in June — far more thanthe 165,000 economists were expecting, while the unemployment rate edged slightly higher to 3.7% and wages grew at an annualized pace of 3.1%, the Labor Department said on Friday.
Why it matters: This is a significant rebound from the weak jobs report in May, calming concerns that the labor market — the standout of the 10-year U.S. economic expansion — was losing momentum at a rapid pace. It may, however, complicate financial markets' expectations of a series of interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve starting as soon as this month.