Author: Sara Epling

Boston mayor posts photo of controversial 'electeds of color' party despite criticism

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has proudly posted a photo of all the attendees of her “electeds of color” holiday party despite the gathering coming in for heavy criticism for excluding white lawmakers.

Wu, 38, who is the city’s first Asian-American mayor, posted a photo to Instagram of 17 people smiling and sitting around a dinner table at the exclusive bash which took place Wednesday.

“Last night was my turn to host the annual holiday dinner for Boston’s elected officials of color – a special moment to appreciate that our affinity group now includes leadership across city, state, county, and federal offices,” Wu wrote in the caption alongside the photo. 

BOSTON MAYOR ACCIDENTALLY INVITES EVERYONE TO HOLIDAY PARTY FOR NON-WHITE ELECTED OFFICIALS

Earlier this week, a member of Wu’s staff mistakenly sent the entire city council an invitation to the party at the city-owned Parkman House near the Massachusetts Statehouse.

Having realized the error, the aide sent out a second email about 15 minutes later apologizing for the initial email. The 13-member city council is made up of six minorities and seven White members. It is understood that the White members were not invited. 

While the mayor and her aide apologized for the accidental invite, they did not apologize for planning a party that excluded White city leaders.

BOSTON MAYOR TAKES HEAT FOR ‘ELECTEDS OF COLOR’ HOLIDAY PARTY: ‘GEORGE WALLACE WOULD APPROVE’

Critics have panned the party as being segregationist and anti-White, with Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld accusing Wu of having a history of “blatant racism.”

The exclusionary invite was criticized Wednesday by one White member of the city council as “unfortunate and divisive,” according to the Boston Herald.

However, Black City Councilor Brian Worrell held a different opinion and defended the invitation, suggesting the holiday party was merely a way to represent “all kinds of special groups” in the Boston government. 

On Friday, Wu championed the dinner party as a celebration of diversity, writing that the number of minority lawmakers has grown since she was first elected to the city council in 2014. 

“Not too long ago in Boston, we didn’t need such a big table to fit electeds of color,” Wu wrote in her Instagram post. 

“But over my time as a City Councilor and now Mayor, following so many leaders who have paved the way, I’ve proudly watched this group grow and create space for mentorship and fellowship among many who are breaking down barriers while holding the weight of being the first or only.”

“And at the holidays, we take the time to celebrate and enjoy each other’s company!”

Ricardo Patrón, Wu’s press secretary, said no city funds were used to pay for the party.

The photo sparked a mixed reaction online, although one poster claimed Wu was pulling down unfavorable comments.

“You can delete my comment over and over commies, I will continue to celebrate your segregation efforts!” wrote one poster.

“You’re an absolute disgrace to the city of Boston!!! Shame on you,” wrote another.

Wu did have supporters in the comments section.

“Great to see such diversity! Every American should see themselves represented in their elected officials!” wrote one of them.

“To everyone saying this is segregation, literally every space of prominence and power has been only White people for centuries,” wrote another advocate of Wu’s actions. 

“We are allowed to gather and find solidarity with other POC (people of color) [in] most every other space we are in we are a minority. It is okay for us to TAKE UP SPACE.”

Fox News’ Kristine Parks and the Associated Press contributed to this report. 

NFL quarterback injuries continue to mount through Week 11: 'That's a part of the game'

The Cincinnati Bengals were dealt a serious blow on Friday when head coach Zac Taylor confirmed that quarterback Joe Burrow would be out for the remainder of the season after suffering a torn ligament in his right wrist during Thursday night’s game against the Baltimore Ravens.

Burrow, playing in the first year of his $275 million contract, was injured during the second quarter of the Bengals’ 34-20 loss to the Ravens.

Taylor spoke to the media on Friday and said the injury will likely require surgery, meaning that the 26-year-old signal-caller would be sidelined with injury.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM

“Obviously, [he’s] very disappointed because he likes leading this team and knows the opportunities that lie in front of us,” Taylor said. 

“But again, he’s responding in a positive manner. You can only control what you can control, and his next step for us is continuing to lead this team, just in a different way, and assisting Jake [Browning] and entrusting that he’ll be able to do that and help us be fine moving forward.” 

Burrow told reporters Friday it was “tough.”

“You work so hard for seasons and moments like these. Whenever you get hurt, and it ends early, it’s tough to handle. That’s a part of the game.”

Burrow is no stranger to this type of heartbreak. During his rookie season in 2020, he sustained a significant knee injury during the Bengals’ Week 11 matchup against Washington. He underwent surgery, which officially ended his rookie campaign.

Burrow finishes the 2023 season with 244 completions for 2,309 yards and 15 touchdowns.

Next in line will likely be Jake Browning, a 27-year-old who was a career practice squad player until this season.

But the Bengals’ situation this season, unfortunately, isn’t unique.

FROM OUTKICK: JOE BURROW DONE FOR SEASON AS AFC NORTH LOSES ITS SECOND STARTING QUARTERBACK THIS WEEK

The Cleveland Browns will be without quarterback Deshaun Watson for a full season again after the veteran signal-caller suffered a season-ending shoulder injury against the Ravens in Week 10.

Watson, who missed the first 11 games of the 2022 season after getting suspended by the NFL after accusations of sexual misconduct, will miss the rest of this season after he fractured his right shoulder during the Browns’ 33-31 win over Baltimore.

“It’s very tough,” Watson told reporters during a press conference last Wednesday. “Hurt about it, but I’m going to make sure I keep my head above water and make sure I stay in touch with all the guys and support them as much as I possibly can, and attack this rehab process after surgery and make sure that I’m doing whatever I can to be beneficial for the team while not actually being on the field with them, and also prepping for the next year.”

With a 5-1 record as starter, Watson completed 105 passes for 1,115 yards and seven touchdowns. With a fully guaranteed $230 million contract, Watson is owed $46 million for each of the next three years with a cap hit of almost $64 million per season.

Following news of the injury, Browns general manager Andrew Berry committed to Watson’s status as the team’s starter next season.

“Yeah, we feel good about Deshaun. We see how talented he is. We could see it since he returned from his last injury, the level that he is able to play. He’s smart, he’s physically tough, he’s mentally tough. He really is, as [head coach] Kevin’s [Stefanski] mentioned, he’s the leader of the team, and we’re excited to get him back for 2024.”

For now, the Browns will stick with rookie Dorian Thompson-Robinson, who pulled off a 13-10 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. But Berry hasn’t stopped there. On Monday, the team announced the signing of veteran quarterback Joe Flacco, a former Super Bowl MVP during his time with the Ravens.

JETS TO START TIM BOYLE OVER ZACH WILSON IN BLACK FRIDAY MATCHUP VS DOLPHINS

A defeated Kirk Cousins limped off the field before being carted off during the Minnesota Vikings’ Week 8 victory over the Green Bay Packers.

An MRI later confirmed the Vikings’ worst fears: Cousins had sustained a season-ending Achilles injury.

Minnesota had won three straight with Cousins after losing four of five to start the season. At the time of his injury, Cousins was tied for the NFL lead in touchdown passes (18), second in passing yards (2,331) and third in passer rating (103.8).

“I was Googling the five stages of grief, maybe even that night, trying to understand that better,” Cousins said Friday. “I don’t think it’s stages. I think all five just swirl all at once.”

“I’m still mad. I’m still disappointed. But then you go right back to all the things you know. I can’t change it. You’ve got to move forward. That’s what we sign up for when we step between the white lines,” Cousins said. “I’m fortunate to have come this far and not had a surgery in football, so you’re also grateful, too. I just believe there’s more to the story up ahead.”

The timing of Cousins’ injury is complicated with his contract set to expire next spring.

“Those conversations will happen, but it’s just not time yet,” he added Friday. “We’ve got so much to focus on with this season. The guys are playing so well, and that’s really where the attention needs to be.”

The Vikings, however, have found themselves a silver lining with Joshua Dobbs, a seven-year veteran who was acquired from the Arizona Cardinals in an emergency trade two days after Cousins went down.

Minnesota’s winning streak continued to five under Dobbs, but it was halted Sunday with a 21-20 loss to the Denver Broncos.

VIKINGS QB KIRK COUSINS EXPRESSES EXCITEMENT FOR ‘NEXT CHAPTER’ IN FIRST COMMENTS SINCE ACHILLES PROCEDURE: REPORTS

The New York Giants‘ struggles this season were exacerbated when in Week 9 Daniel Jones suffered a torn ACL in his right knee, the second notable injury for the fifth-year quarterback this season.

Jones was hurt on a non-contact play against the Las Vegas Raiders. On the final play of the first quarter, his right knee gave out while he was looking downfield.

“I mean, it’s tough, for sure. You put a lot into the season. You put a lot into preparing to play, and to get it taken from you through an injury is definitely tough,” Jones said after the game. 

“That’s real and that’s something that you deal with as a player, but it’s part of the game at this level, at any level, really, it’s something that you have to deal with, and part of it. I understand that, and it’s unfortunate, but I can’t afford to feel sorry for myself or sulk. It’s part of it, and I’ll be fine. I’ll bounce back, attack the rehab process like I have anything else and come back stronger.”

The Giants held a 2-7 record at the time of Jones’ injury. Little has improved behind backup quarterback Tommy DeVito, who picked up his first win with a 31-19 victory over the Washington Commanders on Sunday.

Jones will remain sidelined with 108 completions for 909 yards and two touchdowns.

TOMMY DEVITO PICKS UP FIRST CAREER WIN AS GIANTS’ DEFENSE PICKS OFF SAM HOWELL 3 TIMES

The New York Jets organization was rejuvenated with the addition of four-time league MVP Aaron Rodgers during the offseason. 

But it took just four plays for it all to come crashing down.

In his debut with the Jets on Sept. 11, Rodgers ruptured his Achilles, and with it, the Jets’ hopes of making the playoffs for the first time since 2010.

“I feel more for Aaron than anyone,” head coach Robert Saleh said at the time. “He has invested so much into this organization, so much into this journey that he’s embarked on and wanting to be a part of what we have got going here and how much he’s invested to not only this organization but his teammates, himself, this fanbase, this city.”

“I have a lot of emotions for him. As for us, it’s really all about him, it is. I don’t look at it like, ‘Woe is me here for the organization.’ I think guys are excited about being able to step up and continue the things that we’ve been building, but a lot of hurt for Aaron.”

Rodgers raised eyebrows with his seemingly speedy recovery and rehab process. His move from a boot to no cast to throwing on the field before games raised questions about if the former Packers star might be fit for a return this season and if it would be worth it.

Rodgers has repeatedly hinted at making a return this season, and according to one report, he’s eyeing mid-December.

“If I have a great week this week and next week, that could be accelerated,” Rodgers said on “The Pat McAfee Show” last week. “If we’re not in it in three or four weeks, that could take it a different way. But I expect us to be in it and I expect to come back.”

The Jets suffered a blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, falling to 4-6. On Monday, Saleh confirmed that the Jets would be demoting Zach Wilson to third-string quarterback in favor of Tim Boyle for Friday’s game against the AFC East-leading Miami Dolphins.

It seems the Jets are hoping to turn things around, perhaps just in time for Rodgers’ return.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

SEO Expert’s Guide to a GA4 Landing Page Report

With the sunsetting of Universal Analytics (UA) on the horizon in 2023, it’s more important than ever to learn how to create a Google Analytics 4 (GA4) landing page report.

Change can be difficult. What steps are you taking to get ahead of the curve?

While this post is not an ultimate guide to Google Analytics, I’ll show you how to get GA4 set up and give you the best GA4 tips out there. From setting yourself up to best practices, by the time you’re finished, you’ll feel confident creating a landing page report in GA4.

What Is GA4?

Google Analytics 4 is the latest edition of one of the greatest web analytics tools on the market.

With so many awesome features and a smooth user interface, it’s no wonder that over 28 million websites worldwide count on Google Analytics to track their traffic.

With a landing page report in GA4, you can follow the digital path your customers travel along your branded content.

The best part? GA4 landing page reports track customer data from all the platforms your content is on to determine trends in traffic, engagement, product demand, predictions, and more.

It accomplishes these incredible analytic feats with the help of artificial intelligence. With the use of AI, GA4 helps you figure out how customers are currently using your content, as well as predict what customers will do next.

You don’t have to be a large business to make GA4 work for you. In fact, a recent survey by Enlyft found that roughly 71% of businesses that use Google Analytics are small companies with less than 50 employees.

While this may all sound similar to what you’re used to in Universal Analytics, the two function quite differently.

The biggest difference between UA and GA4 is the way data is collected and organized. While the former groups user interactions into time-blocked “sessions,” GA4 tracks each and every user interaction as its own event.

What does this mean? Well, because of this key switch, GA4 is better at predicting the behavior of customers in a wider variety of ways.

What Is A Landing Page Report in GA4?

Simply put, a GA4 landing page report is a detailed analysis of user interactions based on metrics that you choose.

For those who don’t know, a landing page is the page that is a user’s first interaction with your website or platform. For example, if you searched for information about landing page reports and clicked on the link for this article, then this page is your landing page for my site.

A landing page report in GA4 gives you deeper analytic tools that can really help you develop the best SEO strategy.

Neil Patel talking about advanced SEO tactics.

If you’re familiar with UA, you’ll remember that their landing page report was automatically generated. All you had to do was look for the report by clicking the Behavior drop-down menu. and from there. clicking Site Content and then Landing Pages.

GA4 is not automatic. Fortunately, it only takes a few steps to get your GA4 set-up.

Creating Your Landing Page Report In GA4

GA4 landing page reports must be generated manually. The good news is you can create your own preset landing page report, so you don’t have to set it all up each time you need information.

Follow these steps to create your own landing page report in GA4.

Get Started

Log in to your account with GA4. From there, open your Reports (the button below the Home icon, with a bar graph inside a white square). Next, click on Acquisition and then look for and select Traffic Acquisition in the dropdown menu.

The traffic acquisition page on GA$.

Pull a Report

In case you don’t already know, dimensions are essentially the qualitative titles or categories being measured by GA4. When you choose Traffic Acquisition, GA4 will pull a report for you, automatically using the Session default channel grouping dimension.

While this is great info for you to know in order to increase traffic to your website, it’s not the data on user landing page interactions.

Customize Your Report

To create a custom landing page in GA4 to suit your analytical needs, click on the small pencil icon in the upper right corner of the user window.

Customizing the channel group on the traffic acquisition page on GA4.

In addition to adding new dimensions, the Customize Report button can add new metrics, rework charts and create summary cards.

For our purposes, we’ll focus for now on the dimension aspect.

Add a New Dimension

On the right side of the screen, click on Dimensions and then select Add dimension.

From there, you should be able to scroll through the options until you find one labeled Landing Page. Click it, and landing pages will be added to your primary dimensions.

Don’t forget to save when you’re done!

Set as Default

Let’s get real: do you actually want to go through those steps every time you want to analyze user interaction on landing pages?

No way! Follow this quick GA4 tip to make a shortcut for yourself.

Locate the Landing Page dimension once more. This time click on the three vertical dots and then select Set as Default.

When you are finished, click the Apply button in the lower right corner to save your new default setting.

If your goal is to replicate the UA report as close as possible, you will need to follow a few more steps.

Customize Metrics

Not all engagement metrics are created equal. As you become more familiar with the GA4 set-up, explore all the data at your fingertips to determine which data will help the most. You never know what new insights you’ll discover!

Customizing metrics is not all that different from dimension customization.

Instead of clicking on Dimensions, this time select Metrics.

From here, you can add and remove metrics that suit your needs. For a UA-style landing page report, make sure to choose the following metrics:

  • Sessions
  • New Users
  • Engagement Rate
  • Average Engagement Time
  • Event Count
  • Conversions
Customizing the metrics of the landing page report in GA4.

Create a New Summary Card

Summary cards are a great way to take a fast scan of your analytics when checking reports.

While they won’t show you everything, summary cards can help you streamline your review of the information you find most important.

To create a new summary card, simply click on Create a New Card. From there, you can customize the card to choose specific dimensions, metrics, and visualization style.

Save Your New Template

The key here is not to overwrite your other template that you used to get started. Instead, save your work as a New Report.

Make a Shortcut to Your Report

Remember, our intention is to make pulling GA4 landing page reports as quick and easy as possible.

That’s why I would recommend creating a shortcut for you to access this with just a couple of clicks going forward.

  • First, click on Reports.
  • Next, click on Library. There should be a folder icon next to the word.
  • Unless you’ve already created some collections, you should only see two collections. In the collection marked Life Cycle, click where it says Edit Collection.
  • A prompt on the left will ask you to drag reports to create collection. Find your report template and drag it into the topic labeled Acquisition.
Making a shortcut in the collections screen on GA4.

That’s it!

Now when you click on the Reports icon on the main menu, you can pull your latest landing page report with ease. Simply click the drop-down menus for Life Cycle and Acquisition, where you will find the template that we’ve been putting together.

Best Practices For Landing Page Reporting

The whole point of this practice is to understand what customers are driven towards and how we can improve our content to bring in more traffic.

When you run your GA4 landing page report, be on the lookout for pages that have a low number of visits, or worse, poor engagement. These are areas of growth for your brand.

Take advantage of landing pages that are doing well. Any time a landing page has a high click rate and engagement, you should be looking for ways to capitalize on that momentum.

Add more links to that page that direct users to more of your articles. Use those pages to advertise upcoming promotions. If at all possible, recreate that style of writing in new content.

Conclusion

Google Analytics 4 is a powerhouse of reporting. In the right hands, GA4 can revolutionize your marketing and content strategies.

Don’t wait until UA finally kicks the bucket for good in 2023. Learn about GA4 now to easily generate the reports that matter most. You should consider creating your GA4 tracking ASAP so you have as much data as possible to compare for reporting.

We’re also here to help!

If you need more information on how to best utilize the features of your GA4 landing page report, or if something doesn’t look right, just reach out and my team will get back to you ASAP.

How are you going to use Google Analytics to increase your web traffic? Let me know!

Blake Masters rips 'unforgivable' lack of action on border crisis by Biden, Sen. Mark Kelly

Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters said the greatest issues facing his state are inflation and the border crisis which he blames on Joe Biden and his opponent, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.

The Republican joined “America’s Newsroom” Wednesday to discuss the race and said Kelly portrays himself as a moderate but is voting “in lockstep with the Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden agenda.”

“Arizona is getting the brunt of it, the border crisis and this economic inflation crisis, people have had enough. And it’s why they want to make a change in November,” he told Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer.

ARIZONA GOP CANDIDATE: DEMOCRATS ‘DOING EVERYTHING THEY CAN’ TO AVOID TALKING ABOUT INFLATION, BORDER CRISIS

Masters said Mark Kelly and Joe Biden “declared war on American energy” when they “surrendered our energy independence, and then they printed $6 trillion too quickly,” a move he said contributed to rising inflation.

Masters also blamed Kelly for the border crisis. 

“Joe Biden and Mark Kelly caused this crisis. They gave the whole southwest border over to the Mexican drug cartels. It’s a human trafficking disaster. The crime being committed, the fentanyl coming through. This is all on Mark Kelly.” 

Masters said he would support securing the border and slammed Kelly for his inaction as poisonous fentanyl comes across.

“I just find it so unforgivable that Joe Biden and Mark Kelly, haven’t even pretended to do anything about it.”

“Mark Kelly just two days ago announced some new fentanyl bill he’s trying to run in the Congress,” said Masters, ahead of Thursday’s debate with Kelly. 

“It’s performative. He didn’t do anything for the first 22 months. And now, what, three days before our debate? One month before Election Day. Now Mark Kelly pretends to get serious about fentanyl. It’s killing our kids here in Arizona. He’s not keeping people safe.”

Hemmer said Kelly has been invited onto the show to respond and lay out his case to voters.

Fox News’ Victoria Balara contributed to this report

New comment by ammmir in "Ask HN: Freelancer? Seeking freelancer? (June 2022)"

SEEKING WORK | Worldwide | REMOTE

I have 10+ years experience implementing software systems. I’m in the process of exploring full-time opportunities, but in the meantime, I’m open to some contract work for the next month or two. I’m specifically looking to get my hands dirty on a Go project or something other than the usual React/node.js/TypeScript 🙂

Keyword soup: Go, golang, Elixir, Erlang, C, Swift, Win32, VPN, API, GraphQL, SQLite, Tailwind, REST, SSO, WebAuthn, web3, crypto, browser extension, …

Fun facts: Last public side project I built was https://loginwith.xyz but https://kvdb.io is still going strong albeit growth has stagnated.

Email: amir@amirmalik.net

Resume: https://amirmalik.net/resume

GitHub: https://github.com/ammmir

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirmalik/

New comment by sam-mueller in "Ask HN: Who is hiring? (February 2022)"

Blink Labs | SF Bay Area | Multiple Engineering Positions | Fully Remote + International

gm hn, blink powers the creator economy by making it dirt easy for influencers to launch NFT collectibles and build huge, realtime communities of superfans.

we’re backed by gumi Cryptos Capital (seed investors in OpenSea) + other amazing VCs — and we’d love for you to join us for the ride

BLOCKCHAIN ENGINEER: You live in Solidity because you’re convinced Ethereum is the future. You know exactly why zkRollups will change the game and you can’t wait to get your hands on a zkEVM. You’re comfortable with building+deploying advanced, upgradable smart contracts with ethers.js and other web3 tools.

WEB ENGINEER: You’ve got metric tons of experience with React, Vue or Svelte, and you’re curious about working with SvelteKit in particular. You’re comfortable with Realtime APIs and/or GraphQL. Hopefully you like TypeScript. You’re able to take designs and bring them to life with animations and transitions. Bonus if you’ve worked with three.js or babylon.

IOS ENGINEER: You love SwiftUI, understand unidirectional data flow architecture and know your way around UIKit too. You’re able to take design comps and bring them to life with animations, transitions, and pixel perfection.

ANDROID ENGINEER: You love Kotlin and Jetpack Compose, because you hate Java and want to build modern android apps. You’re intrigued with Compose Multiplatform and are challenged by the idea of building a first-class, native Windows desktop app with the same Kotlin codebase.

Contact me on twitter https://twitter.com/samuel_mueller (DMs are open) or shoot us an email to jobs@blink.cm, we’d love to hear from you!

How to Create Your 5 Year Business Credit and Funding Blueprint

What’s YOUR Business Credit and Funding Blueprint? So it should be obvious – when considering business credit and funding, you need a blueprint. Because traveling without a map won’t get you anywhere. So, where do you see your business in five years or more? Do you double your revenue? Open a new office? Replace your … Continue reading How to Create Your 5 Year Business Credit and Funding Blueprint