Chick-fil-A’s spring menu launch features Jalapeno Ranch Club sandwiches and a slew Strawberry Hibiscus Drinks, and Food Republic tasted and reviewed them all.
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Hoping to grab some festive goodies from Aldi for Easter 2026? Read this before making a trip, so that the chain’s holiday hours don’t affect your plans.
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Black Democratic strategists, lawmakers and activists are frustrated that Texas Democrats rejected Jasmine Crockett as their Senate nominee Tuesday night — but they also saw it coming.
Following Crockett’s single-digit loss, they recounted a laundry list of why she fell to state Rep. James Talarico: Her campaign was unfocused; she had an insufficient campaign infrastructure to challenge Talarico, even though she earned the backing of former Vice President Kamala Harris. They also said her media strategy relied too heavily on social media rather than television ad buys — typically seen as critical in a sprawling state like Texas and its nearly two dozen media markets.
“People who don’t understand politics will be upset because Jasmine was their hero,” said Texas state Rep. Jolanda Jones, a Democrat. “But for people who understand politics, [Crockett] literally had no ground game.”
She added: “This L is on her.”
Taken together, Crockett’s campaign shortcomings doomed the upstart Senate bid of the two-term congressmember who entered the contest with broad name recognition and hopes of showcasing her firebrand personality and penchant for viral moments to help Texas Democrats end their nearly 40-year winless streak in Senate races.
Still, Black strategists and activists warn Crockett’s loss will have ripple effects.
They say the party rejected an established star in favor of an untested, white state lawmaker over style — the two candidates did not substantively disagree on policy — raising concerns that Black voters, especially women, will not turn out when the party needs them the most.
“A lot of Black women who work in the Democratic Party, vote for Democrats, organize for Democrats, have always had a sense of this,” said Houston-based political strategist and social media influencer Tayhlor Coleman. “It is a lot more apparent now: A lot of people in the Democratic Party want our labor, they do not want our leadership.”
A spokesperson for Crockett’s campaign pushed back on the criticism of her campaign, saying it came from “Monday morning quarterbacks.”
“This was the most expensive Democratic primary ever in Texas with the overwhelming majority of those dollars being spent on attacks against the Congresswoman,” former deputy campaign manager Karrol Rimal said in a text message Wednesday afternoon. “Despite being outspent, she held our own and excited an untapped base of support for Democrats with record numbers of first time primary voters. There was also the intentional voter suppression of voters in Dallas and Williamson counties. That can not be ignored.”
After Crockett conceded, she tweeted her support for Talarico, saying, “Democrats must rally around our nominees and win.”
Democrats for years have praised Black women as the “backbone of the party.” And Crockett, a former civil rights and criminal defense lawyer, rose to prominence in part by viral moments from House hearings. Just last month, she garnered praise from party insiders for her sharp criticism of Attorney General Pam Bondi during a House Judiciary hearing over the Justice Department’s handling of Jeffrey Epstein documents.
Heading into Tuesday’s primary election — the first of the 2026 midterm cycle — there was optimism Crockett could harness her star power to beat Talarico, a seminary student and former teacher who drew national attention when Texas Democrats fled the state to try to block a major redistricting effort.
Talarico also built his national name with a sitdown on the nation’s top podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience” where the show’s host urged him to run for president — weeks before he officially launched his Senate bid, and later turned an online interview with the late night host Stephen Colbert into a fundraising boon.
Throughout the primary, Crockett faced constant questions about her viability and campaign decisions, including whether she hired enough staff. She also faced criticism that the get-out-the-vote efforts were virtually nonexistent.
“She ran a fucking terrible campaign that many will question if she’s running a campaign at all,” said one Black national Democratic operative granted anonymity to give a candid assessment of Crockett’s campaign.
Crockett staked much of her political campaign on her ability to connect with young voters and rebuked her party for trying to win Republicans instead of wooing hard-to-reach Democrats that have grown frustrated with the party. By contrast, Talarico was praised by many Democrats for the way he leaned into his seminarian background as a way to appeal to progressives, independents and disillusioned Republicans.
“In many ways, she has been and has felt like a woman on an island,” said Stefanie Brown James, co-founder of the Collective PAC, which works to elect Black candidates to local, state and federal offices.
“Even though she has substance, not everybody likes her style,” she added. “And I think that sometimes her style is one that is not appealing, especially to the old guard Democrats, whose fighting style is antiquated and outdated.”
State and national Democrats acknowledged Talarico built a strong campaign that shored up grassroots support and built a statewide infrastructure long before Crockett entered the primary in December, just months before voters began casting their ballots. He was able to raise money quickly, establish a field and digital plan and craft a message that cast him as a fighter and someone who would bring down high costs.
Some Democrats anticipate Talarico’s victory is going to ignite a fresh round of uncomfortable conversations among insiders about the importance race, gender and identity politics will play in Democratic political circles moving forward.
“The way that we have seen people rally around new, more untested white male candidates” is troubling, said Maya Rupert, a Democratic strategist who served as the campaign manager of Julian Castro’s 2020 presidential campaign.
While she is excited about Talarico’s nomination against what she called “a very weak Republican field,” Rupert said Crockett’s loss will continue to “sting” for months to come, especially with few opportunities beyond Texas for Black women candidates to win in statewide contests.
“There are a lot of people who see this and see a very qualified, very popular Black woman — that, once again — feels like people fail to appreciate the strength of,” Rupert adds. “And that is a very dangerous position for the party to be in.”
Politics
R&B ballads dominated the charts in the early 90s, and Boyz II Men helped lead the charge. Alongside acts like Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Jodeci, and SWV, Boyz II Men proved that slow jams had marketable appeal. Forming in their native Philadelphia in 1988, the group signed to Motown Records about a year later thanks to a chance audition with Bell Biv Devoe.
In 1991, Boyz II Men released their debut album, Cooleyhighharmony. The multi-platinum LP featured hits like the New Jack Swing-inspired “Motownphilly” and their first chart-topper “End of the Road.” But it was the group’s sophomore album II – and its lead single “I’ll Make Love To You” – that solidified them as certified romantic crooners. Released in 1994, “I’ll Make Love To You” had all the elements to put female fans in a trance: lyrics that specifically targeted a woman’s desires, impassioned harmonies, and a music video starring actor Duane Martin to bring the vision to life.
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The song was written by Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds, who penned the track as a response to “End of the Road” (which he co-wrote). “The funny part is that we felt like it sounded too much like ‘End of the Road.’ We didn’t want to do it,” member Shawn Stockman told Entertainment Weekly in 2019. “We didn’t understand how much of an impact the song was going to have. That’s youth.”
The decision to add “I’ll Make Love To You” to II’s official tracklist worked in their favor: the single topped the Billboard Hot 100 for 14 weeks, making history as the first act to have consecutive double-digit runs on the chart while simultaneously breaking their previous record (“End of the Road” topped the Hot 100 for 13 weeks). “I’ll Make Love To You” also secured another record, tying for the most weeks at No. 1 with Whitney Houston’s 1992 single “I Will Always Love You.” If that wasn’t enough, the single also earned a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.
Boyz II Men continued their reign throughout the decade, most notably with 1996’s “One Sweet Day.” With 16 weeks at No.1, the collaboration with fellow chart favorite Mariah Carey became the longest-running No. 1 song in the chart’s history. (The record was later broken in 2019 by Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road.”)
Aside from its chart success, Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love To You” has become a modern-day standard that has since been covered by artists like Justin Bieber and Brett Young, and performed on talent competitions like The X Factor UK and The Voice. It has also opened the doors for future male R&B crooners from Usher and Ne-Yo to Luke James and Lucky Daye, reminding us that romance will always be a winning formula.
Boyz II Men’s “I’ll Make Love To You” appeared on 2014’s NOW That’s What I Call Slow Jams, alongside other ballads like Usher’s “U Got It Bad” and Robin Thicke’s “Lost Without You.” Looking for more stories behind music’s biggest hits? Check out the Now! That’s What I Call Music page.
Browse Boyz II Men’s music on limited edition vinyl and CDs here.
Discover more about the world’s greatest R&B artists | uDiscover Music
NOTN- Conservation and land trust leaders are raising alarms over a $28.5 million state-backed Ferry Terminal and Ore facility at Cascade Point, saying it’s advancing without key environmental review or tribal consultation and could reshape the region’s important cultural and ecological areas.
“This project kind of came up internally from DOT emails in 2019 and has moved at breakneck speed. In the last couple of years, there’s been a Memorandum of Understanding signed between Goldbelt, those are the land owners at Cascade point and the DOT.” Said Stacy Unzicker Mining Campaigner for Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, “So that would be, not only a ferry terminal, but a shared mixed use dock with an Ore dock in Berners Bay. There’s a lot of other places that money could be spent that would benefit not just Juneauites and people from Haines and Skagway, but all of Southeast Alaska, who’ve really been gutted with inconsistencies with ferry service.”
The proposal would create a mixed-use facility at Cascade Point in Berners Bay, combining a ferry terminal with an ore dock to serve a potential mine at Herbert Glacier, about 12 miles away. The funding comes from leftover money originally appropriated for the Juneau Access Road project.
Tyler Breen, an Environmental Policy Analyst with the Conservation Council, said state officials committed the money before completing the permitting, tribal consultation and federal environmental review processes that are supposed to inform whether and how such a project proceeds.
“On February 12, we gave testimony to the State House and Senate, outlining that the $28.5 million contract commits funds for this state to have momentum on this project in advance of the consultation and permitting processes that are intended to inform whether a project should happen.” Breen said, “So tribal consultation has not yet happened. By committing that $28.5 million in advance of assessing these baseline studies and doing the processes of assessing potential alternatives, they’ve constrained the potential outcome. That is, from my perspective as a policy analyst, a grave oversight.”
Tribal consultation as well as Clean Water permitting, have not been completed, the group said.
The Southeast Alaska Land Trust, which conserves about 280 acres downriver of the proposed mining expansion at Herbert Glacier, is backing the conservation council’s push for a more public comment and conversation.
Unzicker described Berners Bay as the “breadbasket of Juneau,” a place where Indigenous communities and local residents have long fished, hunted and recreated. The area supports herring runs, salmon streams and habitat for brown bears, moose and wolverines.
“These are clean, Lingít lands, specifically Wooshkeetaan lands in Berners Bay,” Unzicker said. “People actively go there to subsist and harvest from the sea and the land. We need to protect our anadromous fish because they’re the bounty that keeps giving, and mines are only there for a short time.”
In recent legislative testimony, a regional transportation official said 92% of public comments submitted during a comment period opposed the Cascade Point proposal, attributing much of that opposition to “fear of the unknown.” Conservation advocates dispute that characterization, saying the public is reacting to the information that has been made available.
“We want to make it vociferously clear that we are quite aware of everything that there has been transparency on,” Unzicker said, adding that the group is trying to maintain a constructive working relationship with transportation officials. “We believe they want to do good work, and we appreciate the ways they keep Alaska moving. We also want to make sure people aren’t getting lost in political agendas.”
To broaden the discussion, the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council and Southeast Alaska Land Trust are hosting a public event today from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center.
The first panel will feature tribal representatives speaking about their lineal connections to the land and the lack of consultation, followed by a second panel with conservation staff, a naturalist and a civil engineer taking questions from the public.
Organizers plan to livestream the event on the conservation council’s YouTube channel, with staff moderating comments so residents in communities such as Haines and Skagway can participate remotely.
“Please help us make sure that the decision makers, CBJ, legislators, DOT, all of these decision makers, need to hear from us really broadly about how this will impact us.” Unzicker said.
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