In all, 40% of Americans in their twenties who reported fraud in 2017 indicated they lost money to the schemes, the Federal Trade Commission said last week in its annual databook of consumer complaints.

...

The percentage surpassed the 18% of U.S. consumers 70 or older who reported they lost money to fraudsters last year, the FTC said.

However, the median loss reported by adults in their seventies was $621, and for those aged 80 or over it was $1,092. Both age groups reported a higher median loss than the $400 for those aged 20-29, the data showed.

The findings emerged from the first year in which the federal watchdog agency broke out consumer complaint data by age groups.

I worried I was getting old when I turned 50 and started getting mail from AARP. And then, when I wasn’t looking, I suddenly became eligible for senior discounts. (No, that can’t be right. My parents were seniors, not me!) And now…

Readercon, once one of my favorite conventions, has decided that—well, let’s let them tell it in their own words: “You won’t be receiving an invitation to participate in programming for Readercon 29. We’re deeply grateful to you for your years of participation at Readercon… but…” But so long, and thanks for all the fish!

They go on to say that they’re making room for fresh, young writers—which, if I thought that were the real reason, would at least be understandable. The truth, of course, is that Readercon has always been welcoming to new writers. I was one myself once, and Readercon always gave me a place at the table, as they did others. In fact, one of the things I liked about it was the yeasty mix of writers of all kinds, all ages, genders, creeds, etc. It made for great conversations. I guess the newer team of organizers are aiming for a new shape for their demographics. Either that, or they think they’re comping too many memberships to program participants.

I’m not the only one to receive this letter, of course. A number of older, white male writers (including my friend Craig Shaw Gardner) have received the same email. I don’t know if any female writers have received it or not. I’d be interested in knowing. (Update: I’ve received a secondhand report that a woman-writer friend of mine, also in my age group, got a similar boot to the backside.)

Perhaps the icing on the cake was the offer to register ahead of time (for $5 off!) by using the coupon code PASTPRO. Ouch. Does that say what they really think? Or did they just not think what that said?

Parents and members of the NAACP are up in arms as the Delaware Department of Education forges ahead to allow students of all ages to self-declare their race and gender without parents’ knowledge or permission.

Under the proposed Regulation 225, schools must keep a student’s professed transition to a different gender or race a secret if students claim their parents are not supportive of that new identity.

Particularly on social media, transgender activists often address vulnerable teens, informing them to not trust their parents if those parents resist the child’s self-diagnosis of transgenderism. Many transgender activists groom teens to consider adult transgenders and activists their new “glitter” family.

The proposed regulation does not provide for a counselor or therapist to determine if the newly-transgender-identified teen has succumbed to the social contagion of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria or has another condition that is causing gender dysphoria, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder.

The proposed regulation requires schools to make gender identity the basis for a student’s access to sports teams, locker rooms, and bathrooms. It also contains a speech code designed to silence all objections in the guise of an anti-bullying policy.

While Delaware DOE officials say the purpose of racial self-declaration is to help biracial children, there is nothing in Regulation 225 to stop white children from declaring themselves black to win scholarships intended to benefit black students. The DOE could have protected biracial children specifically, but did not.

The leaders of the Central Delaware branch of the NAACP and the Delaware State NAACP Conference expressed opposite stands on the idea that race can be self-declared, Delaware Online reports.

“The fight by those of African descent for equality is fundamentally different than allowing a young child to determine his or her gender,” wrote Lamar Gunn, president of the Central Delaware NAACP, in a letter to Delaware Governor John Carney.

“Further, we find that the subject regulation represents government overreach and infringes on the rights of parents. Moreover, Rachel Dolezal reminds of how unscrupulous individuals can use racial selection to their advantage or personal benefit. For the aforementioned reasons, we oppose Regulation 225 and ask that you stop comparing it to the Civil Rights Movement.

“In stark contrast to allowing children to choose their gender, being born black is an invariable fact. Wherefore, we humbly request you do not approve Regulation 225 as it is proposed.”

Taking the opposite point of view, Linwood Jackson, president of the Delaware State NAACP Conference said, “No child should have to suffer discrimination at school based on their identity.”

“Self-declaration of identity” regulations, by definition, have no basis in physical reality and cannot be defined without resorting to sexual or racial stereotypes.

Previously, protected classes were based on “immutable characteristics,” those based in physical reality and cannot be changed, include race, sex, and national origin.

Critics argue that creating a protected class based on identification, which may also be called wishing, destroys the legal validity of classes protected on the basis of immutable characteristics. Protecting “gender identity” changes the definition of the word “woman” from a person born with female reproductive organs and XX chromosomes to include men, complete with male reproductive organs and XY chromosomes, just on their say-so.

And as “gender identity” destroys the meaning of “sex” as a protected class, racial self-identification wipes out the meaning of “race” as a protected class.

Delaware Online reports other opponents to Regulation 225 include the professional associations for Delaware school boards and school superintendents, and most Republican members of the state legislature.

“The regulation is blatantly illegal,” says State Rep. Rich Collins, citing the Delaware Gender Identity Nondiscrimination Act of 2013 adds “gender identity” to its list of protected classes, but the law does not apply to public education.

Unlike most regulations, which are written to implement legislation, Regulation 225 is not based on any Delaware law and, instead, was created by a committee at the instigation of Gov. John Carney last July.

Delaware Secretary of Education Dr. Susan Bunting is expected to approve it.

Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh is receiving criticism over her decision to dedicate as much as $100,000 of taxpayer money to provide 60 school buses, free t-shirts, and boxed lunches for around 3,000 students looking to attend a gun control rally in Washington, D.C., later this month.

...

Mayor Pugh is finding herself in hot water, however, because many of Baltimore’s schools are themselves without hot water. The heating systems in Baltimore’s public schools are so outdated that students, faculty, and staff were actually forced to bundle up indoors earlier this year during an exceptional cold front. In January, a third of Baltimore’s public schools either had broken or underperforming heating systems that made the schools’ indoor temperatures unbearably cold. Schools actually had to close because the indoor temperatures reached unsafe levels.

A college student at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania was reportedly kicked out of his Christianity class after he told his professor that he believed there are only two genders.

The student, religious studies major, Lake Ingle, claims that his professor, Dr. Allison Downie, kicked him out of the class and attempted to have him permanently removed from her lectures.

According to The Washington Examiner, the commotion occurred after the class watched a 15 minute Ted Talk by transgender ex-pastor Paula Stone Williams about ‘mansplaining’, ‘sexism from men’, and ‘male privilege’.