CIA Director Visits Birmingham City School Students
Today Central Intelligence Agency director John Brennan spoke to dignitaries and more than 50 high school students at Birmingham City Schools’ Central Office. His main goal was to get Birmingham students interested in careers at the CIA. He also acknowledged the CIA’s lack of diversity.
“We need to have people from all different backgrounds and experiences,” he says. “I don’t want the agency to be full of individuals who look like me, talk like me, who have similar backgrounds and experiences. I do think if you all are looking the same and acting the same you tend to have a ‘group-think’ which does not help us understand all the complexities of this world.”
Brennan took questions from and pictures with students. Woodlawn High School student Shannon Buchanan says Brennan impressed him:
“It was a major life-changing experience due to the fact that we as African Americans … aren’t seen in settings such as this. Some of us can actually rise above and make an example of ourselves.”
Before Brennan left for other engagements in town, Schools Superintendent Kelley Castlin-Gacutan presented him with a book about Birmingham and a drawing of civil rights heroes made by an artist who recently graduated from Birmingham’s Wenonah High School.
Pentagon puts Scouts ‘on notice’ over DEI and girl-centered policies
After threatening to sever ties with the organization formerly known as the Boy Scouts, Defense Secretary Hegseth announced a 6-month reprieve
President Trump bans Anthropic from use in government systems
Trump called the AI lab a "RADICAL LEFT, WOKE COMPANY" in a social media post. The Pentagon also ordered all military contractors to stop doing business with Anthropic.
HUD proposes time limits and work requirements for rental aid
The rule would allow housing agencies and landlords to impose such requirements "to encourage self-sufficiency." Critics say most who can work already do, but their wages are low.
Paramount and Warner Bros’ deal is about merging studios, and a whole lot more
The nearly $111 billion marriage would unite Paramount and Warner film studios, streamers and television properties — including CNN — under the control of the wealthy Ellison family.
A new film follows Paul McCartney’s 2nd act after The Beatles’ breakup
While previous documentaries captured the frenzy of Beatlemania, Man on the Run focuses on McCartney in the years between the band's breakup and John Lennon's death.
An aspiring dancer. A wealthy benefactor. And ‘Dreams’ turned to nightmare
A new psychological drama from Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco centers on the torrid affair between a wealthy San Francisco philanthropist and an undocumented immigrant who aspires to be a dancer.
