Previewing Empty Bowls

Leaders of College Park Baptist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, thought it was odd when the Southern Baptist Convention recently sent queries about the congregation's LGBTQ-affirming ministry. The church itself had voted to leave the conservative denomination 23 years ago. But it was still on the SBC rolls until last week. That's when the convention's Executive Committee voted to cut ties because of the congregation's “affirmation ... of homosexual behavior.” The Rev. Michael Usey of College Park said the congregation was ousted for the right reason. Said Usey, “It’s good when people reject you because they understand clearly who you are."

Experts say the U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling overturning Roe v. Wade appears to be sending more teens to their doctors in search of birth control, including long-acting reversible forms like intrauterine devices and implants. Waits for appointments are growing in some areas, Planned Parenthood is getting a flood of questions and doctors report demand even among teens who aren’t sexually active. Some patients are especially fearful because some of the new abortion laws don’t include exceptions for sexual assault. Dr. Peggy Stager said dedicated spots for insertion of the Nexplanon implant are consistently filled at her Ohio practice and requests for contraceptive refills have increased 30% to 40% since the Court's June ruling.

Four people have pleaded guilty to misdemeanors for their roles in absentee ballot fraud in rural North Carolina during the 2016 and 2018 elections. These convictions Monday stemmed from an investigation that in part resulted in a do-over congressional election. The defendants were associated with Leslie McCrae Dowless, a political operative in Bladen County whom authorities called the ringleader of the ballot scheme. Dowless died this year before his case went to trial. The State Board of Elections has ordered a new election for the 2018 9th Congressional District because of all the fraud allegations. Cases against six other defendants are pending.

Forty years after a predominantly Black community in Warren County, North Carolina, rallied against hosting a hazardous waste landfill, President Joe Biden’s top environment official has returned to what is widely considered the birthplace of the environmental justice movement to unveil a national office that will distribute $3 billion in block grants to underserved communities burdened by pollution. Joined by civil rights leaders and participants from the 1982 protests, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan announced Saturday that he is dedicating a new senior level of leadership to the environmental justice movement they ignited. The new Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights will merge three existing EPA programs.

After a Willem de Kooning painting worth millions was brazenly stolen in 1985 from an Arizona museum, the staff clung to the hope that it would turn up one day. But nobody could have predicted “Woman-Ochre” would find its way back through the kindness of strangers in a neighboring state. The 1955 oil painting by the Dutch-American abstract expressionist is finally back home. It will be the centerpiece of an entire exhibition opening Oct. 8. The whole ordeal of the theft and its return via New Mexico will be chronicled in the show. The painting will be in the same spot it was stolen from — but under a case.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A broadly smiling California Gov. Gavin Newsom joined about two dozen jubilant, cheering farmworkers camped outside the state Capitol Wednesday to sign one of the most contentious bills before him this year, reversing course on a measure to help farmworkers unionize…

Hurricane Ian, one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the U.S., swamped southwest Florida, flooding streets and buildings, knocking out power to 1.8 million people and threatening catastrophic damage further inland. A coastal sheriff’s office reported that it was already getting a significant number of calls from people trapped in flooded homes. Some video showed debris-covered water sloshing toward the eaves of homes. The hurricane made landfall Wednesday afernoon near Cayo Costa, a protected barrier island just west of heavily populated Fort Myers. Though expected to weaken to a tropical storm as it marches inland, Ian’s hurricane force winds are likely to be felt well into central Florida.

Authorities say six adults were shot and wounded at a school campus in east Oakland, California. The shooting took place at around 12:45 p.m. Wednesday at Rudsdale Newcomer High School. The school's website says it serves new immigrants ages 16-21 who fled violence and instability in their home countries. It is one of several adjacent schools located on the same block. Oakland Assistant Police Chief Darren Allison said the victims “were affiliated with the school,” but declined to say whether any were students or teachers. Officials have not said whether any of the victims might be students age 18 or older. Allison said police were seeking at least one suspect but did not have anyone in custody.

For years, Facebook, now called Meta, has pushed the narrative that it was a neutral platform in Myanmar that was misused by malicious people and failed to moderate violent and hateful material adequately. But a new report by Amnesty International says Facebook was not merely a passive site with insufficient content moderation. Rather, Meta’s algorithms “proactively amplified" material that incited violent hatred against the Rohingya beginning as early as 2012. Amnesty found that despite years of warnings, the company not only failed to remove violent hate speech and disinformation against the Rohingya — it actively spread and amplified it until it culminated in the 2017 massacre.