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Teenage Willie Nelson didnt like picking cotton when he was growing up so he played in bands at local Texas dance halls instead. This doesnt mean that he didnt appreciate the value of the family farm. Beyond becoming a country music icon when he grew up, he would also help create an organization that would help family farmers in hard times. On Saturday, September 20, the fruits of his labor, Farm Aid, will put on one heck of a show for the 40th year. Lets take a deeper look at the history of the event, who is performing, why family farms matter, and how to tune into the concert. Bob Dylan inspired Farm Aid In 1985, Bob Dylan performed at Live Aid. During his set, he talked about the struggles that American farmers face, such as high interest rates and unstable land prices. Nelson was inspired by Dylans words and got his pals Neil Young and John Mellencamp together to put on their own benefit show: Farm Aid. The first concert took place just six weeks after Dylans call to arms on September 22, 1985, in Champaign, Illinois, and raised over $7 million for family farmers. Performers included the three founders, along with Dylan, B.B. King, Billy Joel, Loretta Lynn and more. Who is performing at Farm Aid 2025? Fast-forward to 2025 and the performer roster has some similarities to that first event. Nelson, Young, Mellencamp, and Dylan are still dedicated to the cause. None more than Nelson, who has performed at every concert and is a driving force behind the organization. These seasoned veterans will be joined by Dave Matthews, Tim Reynolds, Kenny Chesney, Wynonna Judd, Madeline Edwards, Trampled by Turtles, and more. Where is Farm Aid 2025 taking place? This year, the concert and accompanying festival are taking place at Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Why do family farms matter? Nelson and Farm Aid believe that family farms matter because they not only help feed the country but also stimulate rural economies and protect the environment. Family farms help reduce Americas reliance on foreign imports and big corporations. Farmers tend to pass down land through generations, so they have a vested interest in using sustainable practices. Farms also help preserve the culture of rural America. How can you catch Farm Aid 2025? If you find yourself in Minneapolis, you can secure a ticket and rock out live. There are even yummy homegrown concessions. Those who are unable to attend in person have options. Cable network CNN will air a special event Farm Aid 40 tonight (Saturday, September 20) at 7 p.m. ET. It will air on the network and stream on CNN.com and CNN’s mobile apps for free. According to CNN, viewers won’t have to authenticate with a pay-TV provider to see the event. Cord-cutters can also live stream the event at farmaid.org beginning at 12:30 p.m. ET. Additionally, the action can be caught on the Nugs mobile app, at nugs.net, or on the Nugs YouTube channel at 12:30 p.m. ET for free. SiriusXM subscribers can listen in on Willies Roadhouse, channel 61, or Dave Matthews Band Radio, channel 30, beginning at 1 p.m. ET. This coverage will also feature behind the scene interviews hosted by Dallas Wayne and Ari Fink.
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E-Commerce
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday unveiled a brand-new Gold Card visa scheme, offering a fast-track to residency for people willing to pay $1 million. But that wasnt the only change to immigration policy that the president announced on Friday: Companies looking to attain H-1B worker visas could soon have to pay a $100,000 annual fee for the privilege. The H-1B visa is used by myriad American companies to hire skilled workers from abroad, but it is particularly beloved by the tech sector. The White House said in a proclamation on its website that businesses have “abused” the system, making it more “difficult to attract and retain the highest skilled subset of temporary workers, with the largest impact seen in critical science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.” The changes are likely to be challenged in court, with some critics arguing the rationale for the H-1B changesto limit the visas usecould face legal scrutiny. If the changes do take effect, however, then they could significantly affect how some of the countries largest companies operate, from hiring to headquarter location. What is the Gold Card and who can apply for it? On a brand-new government website, the Trump Gold Card is described as a means to “unlock life in America.” There are two cards aimed at individuals: One is the Trump Gold Card, which has a $1 million fee and promises applicants can receive U.S. residency in record time. The other is a soon-to-be-released Trump Platinum Card, which carries a $5 million fee and would allow recipients to stay in the country for 270 days without being subject to U.S. taxes on income earned abroad. There is also a business-focused card, called the Trump Corporate Gold Card, which costs $2 million and is aimed at companies that want to sponsor an individuals bid for U.S. citizenship.Trump touted the Gold Card on social media Friday, writing, “We anticipate THE TRUMP GOLD CARD will generate well over $100 Billion Dollars very quickly. This money will be used for reducing Taxes, Pro Growth Projects, and paying down our Debt.”According to the cards website, all applicants must fill out an application and pay the nonrefundable fee to be considered. Individuals who apply will also be vetted by the State Department and Department of Homeland Securitya process that carries another $15,000 feeand once approved, they will be granted lawful permanent resident status, similar to green card holders. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the program is still in the “implementation phase,” but that the administration expects to issue around 80,000 Gold Cards. The program is designed to replace the EB-1 and EB-2 visas, which granted green cards to individuals with exceptional ability in the arts, business, science, or other fields. What about the H-1B visa? Under the new rules, U.S. businesses would need to pay a far greater price to hire foreign workers on H-1B visas. Previously, employers could expect to pay several thousand dollars in visa fees, but if these changes take effect, then that is set to balloon to at least $100,000 per year. The administration said the new fee for worker visas is aimed to crack down on companies that lean too heavily on foreign workers: “The large-scale replacement of American workers through systemic abuse of the program has undermined both our economic and national security,” the White House wrote in a statement. Commerce Secretary Lutnick on Friday said that the $100,000 fee could be made annually for six years. The H-1B visa system was created during the George H.W. Bush administration in 1990. And according to to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data, tech companies have benefitted most meaningfully from the system. The businesses with the most H-1B approvals include tech giants like Amazon (which has more than 10,000 beneficiaries approved), Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Apple, according to USCIS. Around half a million people live and work in the U.S. on an H-1B visa, according to The Washington Post. While the changes are likely to rattle the companies that rely most on foreign workers, Trump said he believes tech firms will approve of the new program. I think theyre going to be very happy. Everyones going to be happy, Trump said at the White House on Friday.
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E-Commerce
Earth Day is getting a sequeland it comes with an unusually engaging logo. Founded by environmentalist Bill McKibben and Earth Day founder Denis Hayes, Sun Day is a global day of action that will be held this Sunday, September 21. The iconography of the first Earth Day was fascinating, says McKibben. There were a lot of things people were protesting againstyou know, oil spills off Santa Barbara, the Cuyahoga River catching on fire.The most important design element, though, was the picture that had come back from Apollo 8 about a year before, the first vision of the Earth as seen from space, and this fragile, blue-white marble in the black void, arguably the most important photograph ever taken, McKibben tells Fast Company.How do you compete with that? For Sun Day, McKibben wanted to do something perhaps less iconic but equally impactful: Thus, the logo is unfinished and invites us all to fill in the rest.A participatory logo[Art: Courtesy of Sun Day]Before it was called Sun Day, McKibben says he had the idea for Sky Day. After turning to the team at the consultancy Collins, the realization was that there was no good way to draw a picture of the sky, but everybody was drawing the sun.In this case, the design element is the sun, which is, if you think about it, literally the one object on the planet you cant look at, he says.The resulting logo represents only half the sun, with an asterisk-style mark on the left side and a blank space on the right for people to fill in their own drawing. As a symbol, the sun is simple and easily abstracted; as a work of advocacy, it gives people a first thing to do. Its participatory by design.The basic message becomes we have half of what we need, we now have the technology. We live on a planet where the cheapest way to make power is to point a sheet of glass at the sun, McKibben says, noting that whats lacking is the political will to make clean energy work.Collins created the branding for Sun Day with Commercial Type, which designed a custom Sun Day typeface that comes in print, brush, and outline weights. Garden3d built an application that lets users make their own sun drawings directly in the browser with MS Paint-like ease.[Art: Courtesy of Sun Day]The resulting brand is one thats meant to look more DIY than professionally designed. Already about 10,000 people have made their own logos, including Jane Fonda, who drew a heart while in the rainforest of Ecuador doing advocacy work. So many of these protests . . . when really well-meaning designers get involved, they end up looking like national design conferences instead of something where people make shit, designer Brian Collins says. I think part of what people need to see is their own voice in these things, whether its their children . . . their parents, their aunts, their friends. Whats important is giving people a voice to participate collectively.This isnt climate activism as visualized through sad polar bears on ice caps or images of a cause thats lost and a planet thats too far gone. Its optimisticand something everyone can latch on to.As Collins sees it, Hope is a strategy, and hope is our strategy here.
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E-Commerce
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