Social media’s influence is causing Gen Z’s interest in skilled trades to rise, according to a report by Thumbtack – something a trade organization co-director said is “inspiring and eye-opening.”

“55% of Gen Zers are considering a skilled trade career (up 12% from last year) – including 72% of those with a college degree,” Thumbtack’s report stated.

Thumbtack is a company that helps people “care for and improve their homes” by finding a skilled tradesman nearby.

“84% of both Gen Zers and their parents express high respect for the skilled trades,” according to Thumbtack’s report.

The report shows that social media is a driving force behind Gen Z’s interest in trades, with “67% of Gen Zers – including 78% of those with a college degree – [saying] social media has increased their interest in these professions.”

“Skilled trades professionals are driving this trend, with 60% of pros saying that their careers are becoming increasingly ‘Instagrammable,’” the report stated, which feeds Gen Z’s desire to “[keep] it real” and “see both the good and bad parts of ‘a hard day’s work.’”

Ahead of social media, however, parents are the top influence as it concerns Gen Z’s career choice, according to the report.

Reasons Gen Z is attracted to the skilled trades are “the ability to earn money and work right away, to pursue a career they enjoy, and to learn new skills.”

These are “all attributes [skilled] pros rate as better than other industries,” the report stated. “Compared with an office job, the trades offer an opportunity to run your own company, control your own schedule, and pursue a career you enjoy.”

Unfortunately, “only 41% of [Gen Z] reported having any access to trade programs in school, effectively cutting off a pathway to well-paying skilled trades jobs for students every year.”

“When such programs are provided, however, Gen Z embraces them: 83% of Gen Zers who’ve taken shop class said it was their favorite subject,” according to the report.

Gen Z is “most interested in trade careers as engineers, electricians, carpenters, welders, general contractors, and plumbers,” which is “good news for both Gen Z and our communities,” the report stated.

“Gen Z college graduates are seven times more likely to regret attending college than pros who attended trade school,” according to the report. “And 83% of pros would still choose a skilled trades career if they could turn back the clock and decide again.

“80 percent of parents agree learning a skilled trade can be a better pathway to economic security than going to college,” Thumbtack said in another release. “Yet 77 percent of parents still say they’ve encouraged their children to attend a four-year college.”

Mark Hedstrom, co-executive director of Skilled Careers Coalition, told The Center Square that “there was a time when a college degree provided automatic entry into a lifelong, fulfilling career.”

“Today many young people graduating from college find themselves saddled with loan debt and unable to find a job in their field of choice,” Hedstrom said. “Skilled careers provide young people with an alternate path to success.”

Skilled Careers Coalition “looks to inspire the next generation of talent to pursue a skilled career and streamline the talent ecosystem to close the skills gap,” according to its website.

“Demand for talented professionals across a vast array of skilled trades and industries is higher than it’s ever been,” Hedstrom said.

“For young people to see others like them on social media working with their hands, earning a great living, and literally getting the job done, is both inspiring and eye-opening,” Hedstrom said. “Colleges and universities and the military are great career options for some, but for millions of high schoolers and those in the Gen Z set, these options either lack appeal, or just don’t work.”

Hedstrom also told The Center Square that although in its own study it found that guidance counselors, parents, and friends are the top career influencers for students, Skilled Careers Coalition is jumping onto the social media bandwagon with its Skills Jam entertainment brand.

“With the goal to inspire the next generation of master builders, welders, plumbers, creators and fixers, Skills Jam is a story- and information-sharing social media platform about the skilled trades for youth by youth,” Hedstrom said.

Thumbtack surveyed 1,000 Gen Zers, 1,000 Gen Z parents, and 1,233 Thumbtack Pros – those in a skilled trade –in July and August of 2024 for its study.

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Under the Biden-Harris administration, more than 2.5 million illegal border crossers were reported from Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

The total excludes gotaways, those who illegally entered the U.S. and evaded capture. It also excludes the number of inadmissibles from these countries who were released into the U.S. through a so-called family reunification program (FRP) program created by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Mayorkas created at least 13 parole programs identified as illegal by U.S. House Republicans who impeached him for them and other policies they argue created the border crisis. Among them was the CHNV parole program created for inadmissible citizens of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. Combined with illegal border crossers, they total more than 3 million under the Biden-Harris administration, The Center Square exclusively reported.

In July 2023, Mayorkas implemented the FRP program for inadmissible citizens of Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, The Center Square reported. Citizens of CHNV and FRP countries have been, and continue to be, linked to violent crimes committed against Americans and against others in the country illegally, The Center Square reported.

The FRP facilitated “access to lawful pathways” for citizens of these four countries, including the federal government opening regional processing centers for the first time in U.S. history outside of the United States. The first centers were opened in Colombia and Guatemala for their citizens to make appointments to meet with U.S. immigration specialists to help process them for entry before they arrived to the U.S.

“The new processes are for nationals from Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras whose family members are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents and who have received approval to join their family in the United States,” DHS said. “Specifically, nationals of these countries can be considered for parole on a case-by-case basis for a period of up to three years while they wait to apply to become a lawful permanent resident.”

Unlike CHNV data, DHS hasn’t publicized how many FRP recipients were released into the U.S. or how many were processed in Colombia and Guatemala before they arrived.

“These new processes promote family unity and provide lawful pathways consistent with our laws and our values,” Mayorkas said when announcing the FRP. “The Department has proven that the expansion of safe, orderly, and lawful pathways, combined with strong enforcement, is effective in reducing dangerous, irregular migration to the United States.”

Despite this, the greatest number of illegal border crossers were reported from these four FRP countries, according to CBP data from fiscal 2021 through fiscal 2024.

CBP’s fiscal year goes from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30. The data excludes the first three months of fiscal 2021, which occurred in 2020 under the Trump administration. Data from Trump-era months are miniscule compared to Biden-Harris-era months.

Colombia

Under the Biden-Harris administration, 442,299 Colombian illegal border crossers were reported, with the greatest number in fiscal 2023 of 167,388.

By comparison, 371 Colombian illegal border crossers were reported in December 2020 under the Trump administration and 19,287 in December 2023 under the Biden-Harris administration, according to the data.

El Salvador

Under the Biden-Harris administration, 306,455 Salvadoran illegal border crossers were reported, with the greatest number in fiscal 2022 of 97,797.

By comparison, 3,107 Salvadoran illegal border crossers were reported in October 2020 under the Trump administration and 9,848 in October 2021 under the Biden-Harris administration, according to the data.

Guatemala

Under the Biden-Harris administration, 913,783 Guatemalan illegal border crossers were reported, with the greatest number in nine months of fiscal 2021 of 251,902.

By comparison, 12,559 Guatemalan illegal border crossers were reported in December 2020 under the Trump administration and 35,544 in December 2023 under the Biden-Harris administration, according to the data.

Honduras

Under the Biden-Harris administration, 870,146 Honduran illegal border crossers were reported, with the greatest number in nine months of fiscal 2021 of 294,770.

By comparison, 7,535 Honduran illegal border crossers were reported in October 2020 under the Trump administration and 22,300 in October 2023 under the Biden-Harris administration, according to the data.

Combined, they total 2,532,683, excluding gotaways and those released through the FRP and other programs.

These numbers alone total more than the individual populations of 15 U.S. states.

A South Carolina sheriff is under fire for refusing to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

U.S. House representatives who chair the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability subcommittees are demanding answers from a Charleston County, South Carolina, sheriff in response to its noncompliance with ICE detainer requests.

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-SC, and U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., sent a letter to Sheriff Kristin Graziano about her refusal to cooperate with ICE. They also announced they are investigating instances of local law enforcement agencies nationwide that refuse to cooperate with ICE.

They’re referring to a federal immigration law 287(g) program that authorizes ICE to designate some state and local law enforcement officers with specific immigration officer functions under its oversight. ICE explains the 287(g) program “enhances the safety and security of our nation’s communities” by allowing ICE officers “to partner with state and local law enforcement agencies to identify and remove incarcerated criminal noncitizens who are amenable to removal from the U.S. before they are released into the community.”

ICE also maintains that arresting and removing noncitizens “who undermine the safety of our nation’s communities and the integrity of U.S. immigration laws” is paramount.

Graziano, who was elected sheriff in November 2020, canceled the county’s cooperative agreement with ICE on Jan. 5, 2021, after she was sworn into office. Similarly, Harris County, Texas, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez did the same after he was elected in 2016, ending Texas’ largest county’s participation in the program in January 2017.

Local jurisdictions ending cooperative agreements with ICE because of so-called sanctuary city policies have been detrimental to arresting, detaining and removing some of the most violent offenders, ICE argues. Under the Biden-Harris administration, ICE Deputy Director Patrick Lechleitner said sanctuary policies are hurting Americans and noncitizens.

Some local jurisdictions “have reduced their cooperation with ICE, to include refusal to honor ICE detainer requests, even for noncitizens who have been convicted of serious felonies and pose an ongoing threat to public safety,” he said in a letter to Congress, due to their so-called “sanctuary city” policies. “However, ‘sanctuary’ policies can end up shielding dangerous criminals who often victimize those same communities,” he said.

In addition to ending the sheriff’s office 287(g) agreement with ICE, Graziano’s office also refused to honor at least 51 ICE detainer requests, according to ICE data.

Among the requests was one reportedly for “an illegal alien who was arrested and charged with two counts of criminal solicitation of a minor and then released back into the community,” Mace and Grothman said. “Due to your actions, ICE has designated Charleston County a ‘non-cooperative’ institution for refusing to detain criminal aliens long enough for ICE to take custody of them.”

Because local jurisdictions nationwide have refused to cooperate with ICE, the agency lifted detainers for 24,796 known criminals and released them into the U.S., Lechleitner said in a recently released report. The data is from Oct. 1, 2020, through July 22, 2024. Local jurisdictions refused to comply with 23,591 detainer requests, he said.

As of July 21, 2024, “there were 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories on ICE’s national docket, which includes those detained by ICE, and on the agency’s non-detained docket. Of those, 435,719 are convicted criminals, and 226,847 have pending criminal charges,” Lechleitner said. This includes criminal foreign nationals convicted of, or charged with, homicide (14,914), sexual assault (20,061), assault (105,146), kidnapping (3,372), and commercialized sexual offenses, including sex trafficking (3,971).

The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability has launched an investigation into why local jurisdictions refuse to cooperate with ICE, arguing doing so “endangers local residents.”

The committee requested Graziano provide requested information about her office and ICE requests by Nov. 10. If she fails to comply, she will be subpoenaed.

During Graziano’s tenure, 17 inmates have died, prompting a federal investigation “into a potential pattern of abuse at the county jail,” The Post and Courier reported. More than twice as many deaths occurred under her tenure than in the four years prior, according to the county coroner’s office.

Graziano, who’s running for reelection, called Mace a "liar" in a statement issued to the media with “a dump of paperwork” about how the jail functions, The Post and Courier reported. "Just because she and her congressional colleagues cannot solve our country's federal immigration problem doesn't mean they get to make it mine,” Graziano said. She also accused Congress of failing “to do its job” and “lawmakers like [Mace] think it's their job to force someone else to do their work. Not on my watch."

In response, Mace said, “The delusion is outstanding. The document 'dump' Graziano took the liberty of providing the press before our office CONFIRMS everything we've been saying about her reckless, fake, & self-imposed policies. This is not ‘abuse of authority,’ but necessary intervention.”

Mace has led the charge to deport criminal noncitizens, introducing a bill that passed in the House to do so. Among the 158 House Democrats who voted against it was South Carolina’s Jim Clyburn, The Center Square reported.

The media and consulting firm linked to fraudulent voter registration forms in Pennsylvania earlier this week has gone dark as of Saturday.

Field and Media Corps – the website and social media accounts of which are now defunct – is an Arizona-based company that contracts with Everybody Votes to run a canvassing operation in Pennsylvania and other states that target low-income minority residents unregistered to vote.

The Monroe County District Attorney’s Office confirmed Wednesday that 30 registration forms contained fraudulent information, including an application submitted on behalf of a dead resident.

Everybody Votes runs an office in Lancaster County, where election workers recently found suspicious registration forms among a batch of 2,500 applications delivered last week. Investigators there said at least 60% of those reviewed were fraudulent. So far, the campaign has not been tied directly to the investigation.

Not so in nearby York County, where law enforcement continues reviewing another delivery from the operation leading up to the Oct. 22 deadline to register.

On Wednesday, the America First Policy Institute, a conservative-leaning research nonprofit, demanded a federal investigation into the company.

“Where there’s fire, there’s fire,” said Hogan Gidley, vice chairman of the institute’s Center for Election Integrity. “Thousands of instances of reported voter registration fraud have now been confirmed throughout Pennsylvania.”

He described Field and Media Corps, established in 2017, as a “high-powered left-wing organization” that may have launched similar “schemes” across the country that require state-level investigations.

“Submitting fraudulent registrations right at the voter deadline to overwhelm election officials is exactly the kind of scheme that the Department of Justice should be using their force and resources to stop,” he said.

Evidence also exists that Everybody Votes is linked to a left-wing super political action committee intent on expanding registration numbers for Democrats in battleground states.

Of note, the Democratic Party's registration advantage in Pennsylvania has diminished significantly over the last four years.

According to public tax records shared with The Center Square, The Voter Registration Project, also known as Everybody Votes, describes itself as a public charity that helps low-income minority citizens register to vote and provides technical assistance to voter registration drives.

The organization reported $45.8 million in total revenues in 2022, a “substantial portion of which comes from a governmental unit or the general public.”

A 2023 report from Capital Research Center, a conservative nonprofit, says left-wing donors together raised $190 million for the campaign to register 5.1 million voters across the country – all in violation of federal law that bars 501(c)(3) from engaging in such activity.

The strategy, detailed in a 2019 leaked memo from Mind the Gap, the liberal super PAC in question, entices investors by promising a more cost-effective strategy to boost vote counts for Democrats – namely through voter registration drives.

The group pointed to its direct role in flipping the U.S. House blue in 2018 as “proof of concept.”

Detailed further in the report are signed tax forms from donors that link their grants to the Voter Registration Project in direct support of Mind the Gap. The Capital Research Center estimates President Joe Biden collected between 1 million and 2.7 million swing state votes in the 2020 election as a result.

Biden defeated then-incumbent President Donald Trump 306-232 in electoral college votes; the popular vote was Biden 81.2 million to 74.2 million.

Francisco Heredia, who runs Field and Media Corps, told Votebeat earlier this week he’d not heard from county officials in Pennsylvania, but would cooperate with the investigation. He said the company trains workers how to legally complete registration forms and has no tolerance for fraud.

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The U.S. economy added 12,000 jobs in October, far fewer than expected and the lowest monthly total since December 2020.

With the election just days away, it's unclear how Friday's report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor will impact voting.

"Total nonfarm payroll employment was essentially unchanged in October (+12,000), and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent," the bureau said. "Employment continued to trend up in health care and government. Temporary help services lost jobs. Employment declined in manufacturing due to strike activity."

The economy and inflation have been the top issue on voters minds all year, according to most polls, including The Center Square Voters' Voice poll in October.

"Employment in government continued its upward trend in October (+40,000), similar to the average monthly gain of 43,000 over the prior 12 months," the bureau said. "Over the month, employment continued to trend up in state government (+18,000)."

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(The Center Square) – New polling from Wisconsin shows the presidential race in the state remains too close to call.

The survey, conducted Oct. 16-24 by Marquette Law School, shows Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris barely leads Republican former President Donald Trump 50% to 49% among Wisconsin voters. The results fall well within the poll’s +/-4.4 margin of error.

“It should not surprise anyone if Donald Trump wins, and it should not surprise anyone if Kamala Harris wins,” MLS poll Director Franklin said. “Because the polling – both ours and the polling averages for the state, which is under a 1% average margin right now – are just so close that polling is not going to help us at all to have confidence in who’s the likely winner.”

The partisan makeup of the poll sample, which included 834 registered and 753 likely voters, is 39% Republican, 31% Democratic, and 34% Independent.

Favorability ratings have remained mostly stable for the presidential candidates, but have significantly changed for their vice presidential picks.

Trump went from a net -11 in September to a -14 in October, while Harris’s ratings also dropped during that time from -3 favorability to -5 favorability. But Sen. J.D. Vance’s favorability has shot up by 9 points since last month, though he still has a net negative rating, -4 percentage points. By contrast, Gov. Tim Walz’s favorability has dropped 7 points since last month, with his current rating at exactly zero percentage points, still the highest out of all the candidates.

Candidate images have barely changed, with voters still believing Harris has a better personality overall than Trump. Voters’ opinions on who would do a better job on political issues have also mostly remained the same, with the majority believing Trump would better handle the economy, immigration and border security, the Israel-Hamas war, and foreign relations. Harris scores much higher on the issues of Medicare and Social Security, health care and abortion policy.

The economy remains by far the most important issue for Wisconsin voters at 38%, with abortion policy at 15% and immigration and border security at 13%.

“If you look at personality, most of those favor Harris. If you look at issues, it’s a split. But when you look at the single most important issue to people, it’s a slight Trump advantage,” Franklin summarized. “So that kind of explains why we have such a close race.”

MLS also analyzed the voter gender gap using a pooled sample of all registered voters interviewed in the four MLS polls from July to October. Women, who made up 51% of registered voters in the combined July-October polls, favored Harris by 14 percentage points, while men, who made up 48%, favored Trump by 12 percentage points, a 26-point gap between the genders. Though significant, the difference is smaller than the 32-point gap in 2020 and the 30-point gap in 2016.

The gender gap is especially large among non-white voters, suburban-dwelling voters, and voters under age 30 and between the ages of 45-59. The gender gap is smallest within rural communities and small towns, older voters, and born-again Protestants.

Enthusiasm levels across both the gender and partisan gap remain high, something Franklin says could drive voter turnout to 2020 levels.

“[The year] 2020 set records for turnout. It would be hard to reach those levels again,” Franklin said. “But I think with this level of enthusiasm, we do have some reason to believe that we should expect to see turnout close to the 3.3 million we saw last time.”

(The Center Square) – With a total of 137 local school referendum questions spread across ballots in Wisconsin, recent data shows voters’ support for increasing property taxes to fund public education is waning.

Marquette Law School polled 834 registered Wisconsin voters from Oct. 16-24, asking their opinions on presidential candidates, the direction of the state, and public school referendums, among other things.

The poll found that voters’ desire to prioritize public school spending over lower property taxes peaked in late 2018, when 57% of Wisconsin registered voters polled said increasing school spending was more important and only 37% said reducing property taxes was more important.

But now, voter support for increasing school district funding has fallen to its lowest level since Marquette began tracking the sentiment in 2013, with only 44% in the most recent survey saying school spending is more important, versus 55% who chose lower property taxes. The change occurs even as voters’ reported satisfaction with Wisconsin schools has returned to November 2023 levels, though not to pre-pandemic levels.

School districts in Wisconsin are subject to a 1993 state law that places limits on how much local governments can increase their property taxes each year. But a district’s property taxes can be raised above the revenue limit through voter-approved ballot proposals.

This past spring, voters across the state approved 62 of the 103 school referendum questions on the ballot, the lowest approval numbers in a midterm or presidential election year since 2010, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum.

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The U.S. Supreme Court has granted Virginia’s emergency request to keep “noncitizens” off voter rolls, Attorney General Jason Miyares announced Wednesday morning via a social media post.

The Wednesday morning announcement comes after a coalition of 24 state attorneys general joined the commonwealth in urging the high court to allow Virginia to remove “self-identified noncitizens” from voter rolls.

Miyares announced Sunday evening that the commonwealth would file an emergency appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court in a last-ditch effort to block a ruling an order from the U.S. District Court to return over 1,500 noncitizens to the voter rolls that have been removed since Aug. 7.

The 6-3 ruling overturns the unanimous decision from a panel of judges in the Fourth Circuit of Appeals that rejected Virginia's request on Sunday to stop an order from a lower court to reinstate noncitizen registrations removed from voter rolls.

In the amicus brief filed to the highest court, the attorneys general argued that the ruling from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia “undermines the constitutional authority of states to determine voter qualifications” to maintain election integrity “by allowing only eligible citizens to vote.”

The top prosecutors argue that the District Court’s ruling is “based on flawed interpretation” of the National Voter Registration Act’s 90-day “quiet period.” They claim the quiet period “does not apply to the removal of noncitizens from voter rolls.”

“Noncitizens are not eligible voters,” the brief reads. “They were not eligible voters before Congress passed the National Voter Registration Act, they were not eligible when Congress passed the NVRA, and they are not eligible today.”

Miyares has defended the commonwealth's removal of noncitizens from the voter rolls, claiming the ruling was “politically motivated.”

"It should never be illegal to remove an illegal voter," said Miyares. "The Department of Justice pulled this shameful, politically motivated stunt 25 days before Election Day, challenging a Virginia process signed into law 18 years ago by a Democrat governor and approved by the Department of Justice in 2006.”

The Friday ruling drew criticism from Republicans, including former president Donald Trump, who claimed the move was an attempt by the Biden Administration to “weaponize” the Justice Department.

“Now their truly Weaponized Department of ‘Injustice,’ and a Judge (appointed by Joe), have ORDERED the Great Commonwealth of Virginia to PUT NON-CITIZEN VOTERS BACK ON THE ROLLS. This is a totally unacceptable travesty,” Trump posted on X.

In the lawsuit, the Justice Department alleged the commonwealth unlawfully removed individuals deemed “noncitizens” from voter rolls within 90 days before an election, citing a “quiet period” in the National Voter Registration Act that mandates “no such voter cancelation or list maintenance programs may be conducted” within that time period.

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(The Center Square) – There’s a warning about invasive carp in two western Wisconsin rivers.

The Department of Natural Resources said silver carp have been found in both the lower Chippewa River and lower Black River.

“In July, the DNR began receiving reports from anglers of jumping fish suspected to be invasive carp at the Dells Dam on the lower Chippewa River in Eau Claire. The Dells Dam in Eau Claire prevents further upstream passage of invasive carp in the Chippewa River System,” the

DNR said. “On Aug. 1, DNR staff went to the dam and observed jumping fish but were unable to verify the species of fish.”

The department said it confirmed silver carp in the lower Black River in September.

“The dam in Black River Falls is a barrier to upstream fish migration, and no observations or other detections of invasive carp have been reported in the lower Black River at this time,” the DNR added.

Silver carp are an invasive species in the Midwest and have done immense damage to other rivers where they’ve been found.

“It is believed that the carp may have migrated in June and early July due to the high-water levels observed on the Mississippi River, which would have allowed fish to move upstream into adjacent tributaries,” the department explained. “Tributaries to the lower Chippewa River, such as the Red Cedar River up to the Lake Menomin Dam and the Eau Claire River up to the Lake Altoona Dam, may be other potential locations where invasive carp might be observed since these waterbodies do not have barriers that would prevent upstream fish movement from the adjacent lower Chippewa River.”

The DNR is not saying what it plans to do about the carp but is asking people to keep an eye out for them.

“Although no technology currently exists to eradicate invasive carp, the DNR is working collaboratively with other state and federal agencies on the research and development of invasive carp prevention and control technologies,” the department added. “Anglers and others who capture any potential invasive carp are asked to euthanize the fish, put them on ice and contact a local aquatic invasive species staff, fisheries biologist or warden to confirm identification.”