Texas lawmaker proposes bill to abolish death penalty in Lone Star State: 'I think sentiment is changing'

Mobile sportsbooks in the Empire State racked up a staggering $2.3 billion in bets in October, shattering its national record of $2.1 billion in bets set last year.

Given the unusual nature of the political climate, the Comptroller appears to be hedging his bets — quietly moderating on key issues.

The four-time defending champs find themselves with their backs against the wall.

Do we finally have closure on this chapter of the Outlander saga?

There aren’t too many people openly calling themselves effective altruists these days. You can mostly give thanks to convicted felon Sam Bankman-Fried for having single-handedly made sure far more people hear “effective altruism” and think “cryptocurrency scams” rather than “donating lots of money to good causes.”  But there is still a great deal of work being done in line with the effective altruism (EA) worldview and associated principles: combating lead poisoning, work against factory farming that’s based on efficiently finding the best pressure points to improve animal welfare, work on taking down the diseases that are still major killers in poor countries, work on reforming US kidney policy, work on making sure developing advanced AI goes well.  A lot of people I talk to think this development — the downplaying of EA, if not EA causes — is all for the best. Did it ever really make sense to have all those things under one umbrella? Even if there is a benefit to all of these people learning from each other, collaborating closely, moving between roles, and sharing lots of ideas behind the scenes, does it make sense to advertise the umbrella rather than advertise the achievements?  (Disclosure: In August 2022, Bankman-Fried’s philanthropic family foundation, Building a Stronger Future, awarded Vox’s Future Perfect a grant for a 2023 reporting project. That project was canceled.) But a few things fall by the wayside if you stop talking about effective altruism in favor of just talking about the specific issues that the movement tended to zero in on. One of those things? The innovation called “earning to give.” Earning to give is the controversial effective altruist idea that one good way to make the world a better place is to take a job where you make a lot of money and donate much of that money to important, underfunded work. (To be clear, not any high-paying job would be okay, but industries like tech and finance are generally considered fine.)  It’s a sharp contrast with the more typical take that if you want to do good with your career, you should steer clear of the temptations of high-salary corporate jobs in favor of working directly at a nonprofit.  Earning to give is an idea worth salvaging There are obviously some problems with the naive formulation of earning to give, which would amount to “Just go work at the highest-paying job you can get and donate the money.” Some jobs definitely do enough direct harm that, by working in them, you can’t possibly accomplish good just by donating your salary. From early on, effective altruists argued not about whether there’s a line — there obviously is — but where to draw it. Marketing addictive cigarettes? Probably not acceptable. Working on advanced AI systems? Well, depends on whether you think those will do social harm on net.  (And hopefully it goes without saying that founding a cryptocurrency startup for the avowed reason of earning a lot of money to donate to charity is at absolute best only a good idea if you are very careful not to let your attached hedge fund trade away your customers’ money. Just so we’re absolutely clear.) A problem here, of course, is that people making a lot of money generally find it easy to lie to themselves about the social harm their high-paying professions may be generating. And in many cases, the way to do good in the world is to do it directly, not pay for someone else to do it —  especially if you’re a person with rare and in-demand skills. Over the years, many of the people I know who have done earning to give ended up switching to directly working on important problems. That makes sense. If you’re a skilled tech or finance person, the kind who can earn a really high salary, there’s probably a lot of crucial work that would benefit from your skills, not just your checkbook.  But I have always found something valuable and important in the case for earning to give. It goes like this: There’s a lot of important work that needs funding, and an individual family’s donations — my wife and I give around $50,000 a year — can make a huge difference in getting some of that important work done. Billionaire foundations will never cover all of it, and it’s better for organizations to be funded by motivated individuals than by billionaire foundations anyway. It distorts their priorities less, it’s much less politically awkward, and committed individuals can take bets that foundations can’t or won’t. I also like earning to give for its unabashed friendliness to capitalism, which is a rare quality on the do-gooder left. I believe that the last century has made the world much, much better for the vast majority of people, and while targeted scientific innovation is a huge part of the story, another huge part of the story is the astounding success of market economies. Why did the world get better? Mostly through people doing valuable stuff, often for selfish and pecuniary reasons.  The Vox guide to giving The holiday season is giving season. This year, Vox is exploring every element of charitable giving — from making the case for donating 10 percent of your income, to recommending specific charities for specific causes, to explaining what you can do to make a difference beyond donations. You can find all of our giving guide stories here. Not every big-dollar job is ethical, and I’d strongly encourage thought about what specifically you do and whether it makes the world a better place. But I generally think participating in the economy is a basically good and admirable thing to do, even though many progressives think of it as a morally negative one. And I want there to be a vision for fixing our world that proceeds from the premise that abundance is good, that wealth is good, that “growing the pie” is good, that trade-offs are real, and that we will have to create new things and generate new wealth in order to make those trade-offs more bearable. These convictions have always seemed to me like a firmer foundation for fixing the world than their ideological competitors.  Capitalism is good, actually Just as I like earning to give for these reasons, a lot of people have always disliked earning to give for precisely the same reasons. Earning to give says that you can do a lot of moral good through active participation in our capitalist system, through trying to make a lot of money and then purchasing the things you want (research, bednets, wealth redistribution, you name it) with the money you earned. It is a capitalist ideology.  It makes a lot of sense to me that people who think of capitalism as a dirty word aren’t enthusiastic about the idea of harnessing it in the name of altruism — and that lack of enthusiasm is shared by many of my fellow travelers in the effort to make the world a better place. But if you think capitalism is a net good, like I do, I think you should be enthusiastic about the possibility of earning to give. You can see it as one among many ways to do good, but also a particular strategy that the world could use a lot more of.  And if, like my family, you’re wealthy and have high-income jobs, I’d strongly encourage you to consider making large annual donations. I won’t claim it’s easy. It makes budgeting more difficult, and delays home renovations that we’d like to get done. But the money that a high-income American family can spare without giving up any essentials is enough money to accomplish an enormous amount in the world.  We are the beneficiaries of the wealthiest society in human history. We live in material abundance our ancestors couldn’t have imagined. We can afford to set some of that aside and use it to get things done for the world. A version of this story originally appeared in the Future Perfect newsletter. Sign up here!

Less than half of city kids passed the state Algebra 1 Regents exam this past school year, after the DOE introduced a controversial new math curriculum.

Both the NFL and NBA have issued alerts this week warning players that a recent series of break-ins and robberies at the homes of athletes may not be a coincidence.

Jewish activists are spending the Trump transition sussing through hundreds of hours of video footage — hunting down pro-Hamas campus activists who are not American citizens.

Seemingly every time Jordi Fernandez coaches the Nets to a win — and frankly, every time Brooklyn’s veterans play well in defeat — there is a hue and cry from some fans openly rooting against the team in a pursuit of ping-pong balls that will solve all their franchise’s problems. There is a contention that...

Stressed-out New Yorkers can now get a free dose of grandmotherly love and advice from a nana on duty at a once-a-week, pop-up “Grandma Stand.” 

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued the city of Dallas over a ballot measure that decriminalizes possession of small amounts of marijuana, arguing it violates state law.

Glioblastoma typically kills within 18 months, but a new type of treatment has kept Nadya El-Afandi's scans clear 17 months after diagnosis.

A luxury French clothing brand ripped off the logo of the New York Young Republicans Club and slapped it on a sweatshirt it sells for $1,399.

Sara Duterte accused Bongbong Marcos of incompetence and said she has contracted an assassin to kill him if she herself is killed.

The holidays are often called the season of giving, but for cybercriminals, it's the season of hacking. This year, corporate giants have suffered paralyzing cyberattacks, and a new study found that 86% of ransomware attacks hit on a holiday or weekend. Here's what to know about staying safe online.

Israel is targeting Hezbollah in a new wave of deadly airstrikes in central Beirut. Lebanese civil defense officials say the attacks have killed at least 11 and wounded more than 60. Meanwhile in Gaza, the United Nations said this week that humanitarian aid delivery was "grinding to a halt" in the territory.

One young catwalker said she quit in despair at the surreptitious surveillance.

The Terrapins’ newest star plays with a toughness honed in backyard games with her older siblings.

Trump’s allies treat every change in social norms as a DEI project gone wrong.

Laura Richardson, a former Congress member, will represent Senate District 35 in the California Legislature after a costly and negative election.

The signs hung in Virginia Beach for decades, reminding visitors and locals alike of the family-friendly atmosphere the city’s leaders wanted to foster.

A Caesars Sportsbook senior trader talked to Fox News Digital about interest in Formula 1 in the United States ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Hilton Grand Vacations CEO Mark Wang found his love for Formula 1 in the 1980s, and that helped spark the experience fans can receive at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

"It will be panic time when the first spending bill happens in the new year," said one senior GOP House insider.

The affection between the good and green witches of Oz has already been magnified tenfold by “WIcked: Part I.”

“He loves to snuggle on the couch and be scratched,” said Brett Martin, who brings his pig to work every day at Good Samaritan Society in Kansas.

Seriously, why am I not rich?

Tom Bateman enjoys playing the unexpected.

No, Denzel Washington wasn’t in the original.

Orange Cassidy sits down with Joe Staszewski to discuss stepping into a larger role in All Elite Wrestling, what it would mean to become an AEW World Champion and his feud with Jon Moxley.

A one-pan Thanksgiving recipe video is turning stomachs, with revolted critics panning it "one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen" and warning others to "NOT try this at home."

While the party ran a rabid campaign against during the 2024 presidential contest — including accusations of being a second Hitler — some Democrats in Congress said they were ready to deal.

In a brief statement, NATO said Trump and its secretary general, Mark Rutte, met on Friday in Palm Beach, Florida.

President-elect Donald Trump on Friday named former NFL player Scott Turner as his pick to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

A potentially record-breaking Thanksgiving travel rush is on, with AAA estimating nearly 80 million Americans to make a trip of more than 50 miles and airlines expecting more than 30 million people to take to the skies between now and the Monday after the holiday. Here's how the country is preparing — and how weather might throw a wrench into plans.

Under the Philippine penal code, such public remarks may constitute a crime and can be punishable by a jail term and fine.

The exodus to Bluesky is a problem for the right.

Season 1 will premiere with two episodes on April 11.

The Hoosiers travel to Columbus to take on No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes for a shot to effectively punch their ticket to the College Football Playoffs.

A reckoning is under way for the Ivies and other elite universities, as top students look elsewhere and alumni donations drop because these schools have abandoned their missions and their principles to worship “woke.”

Information can be a lot of things. It can, and normally is, useful in making, ahem, informed decisions. It also can be debilitating.

The security force said it was “coordinating with law enforcement agencies to detect, deter, and defend against any and all threats to the president and the first family.”

A third-party voter apologia helpfully reminds us that voting is an expression of one's priorities and values more than a strategic act.

Two men form a friendship over their love of the U.S. A group helps make travel more comfortable for kids with autism. Plus, more heartwarming stories.

On Friday, in the aftermath of Trump’s presidential victory, Merchan postponed indefinitely next week’s scheduled sentencing and agreed to consider a defense motion to dismiss the case.

David Lane Braff Jr., 42, of Thousand Oaks is accused of molesting eight students between the ages of 6 and 10 in a school office at McKevett Elementary School.

Mark and Nolin Lewis, grandnephews of UCLA Hall of Famers Ann and David Meyers, provide a positive influence on and off the basketball court.

Misty formed an instant connection with fellow shelter dog Peachy over the summer, but sadly for her it did not last.