At the end of March and the beginning of April, the French Senate approved a new amendment that would ban Muslim women who are younger than 18-years-old from wearing their hijabs in public. Following that, another amendment was approved soon after, banning parents from participating in school activities with their children if they too are wearing religious clothing, such as hijabs. However, both amendments are still required to be approved by the National Assembly before becoming law.

Richard Green, executive editor of the Press Democrat stated, “...Our decision to not thoroughly investigate these women’s accounts about alleged incidents involving Foppoli may have caused more personal heartache, humiliation, and physical and emotional harm for other women.” In a statement that was published by the Press Democrat, he continued. “We had a responsibility to take these allegations seriously, and there is no excuse for our failure to not push harder; to not dig deeper.”

Sonoma County is now considered to be part of the orange tier, which means indoor businesses like gyms and movie theaters can open up to 25% to 50% capacity while bars, professional sports, and theme parks can operate outdoors. Places like Rohnert Park are already seeing the newfound, restriction-less advancement as soccer and baseball players fill the public parks. Other locations in California are also opening up their professional sports, like San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Khloe Kardashian stated on an Instagram post, “My body, my image and how I choose to look and what I want to share is my choice. It‘s not for anyone to decide or judge what is acceptable or not anymore”. This came after an unedited swimsuit photo was accidentally posted online and the public became aware of her and her team trying to take the photo off the internet completely.

David Dobrik and his Youtube “Vlog Squad” are under scrutiny after sexual assault allegations have been made over the few past weeks. The 24-year-old Youtuber has 18.8 million subscribers and recently launched an app called Dispo; an app that resembles the same attributes as a film camera and allows users to capture moments and share them among friends. It could be said that Dobrik is one of the most successful YouTubers on the platform. Due to his high status in the influencer world, he can seem “uncancellable”. However, in March, it was made clear that this is not the case.

Digital art has been taken to a whole new level thanks to the umbrella concept NFT. Not only has this new form of cryptographic token allowed artists to make a remarkable amount of money, but it also has caught the eyes of those who believe it can make it a “get rich quick” scheme. However, NFT does come with concerns, such as not lasting forever or being stolen, which makes it difficult to have it be considered a long-lasting trend in the art collection world.

On March 7, CBS aired a Primetime Special of Oprah interviewing Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. Prince Harry is a member of the British royal family who began ‘courting’ the American actress in 2016 and eventually announced their engagement in 2017. The interview was based on clarification of the relationship between the couple and the crown. Oprah set the stage for Meghan and Harry to disclose their experience when they decided to take a step down from the crown.

The arts and entertainment community has been greatly impacted since the pandemic hit in the early months of this year. Art shows have been canceled abruptly, performances are postponed with no end date, and artists are trying to find their means to survive, not only survive as an artist but an artist during a pandemic.

Local businesses across the country have been struggling to stay afloat as the pandemic sweeps across the nations and causes chaos in not only personal lives, but work lives as well. Dealing with restrictions, orders on whether or not businesses can open, or simply being able to afford staff during these hard times have been a constant difficulty for local businesses since March of 2020.

Living through the employment effects of the pandemic allows us to see the skyrocketing unemployment rates that have been a result. With that being said, those who are working artists have also felt the repercussions of the pandemic and its effects on the unemployment rate. Due to social distancing, it has been hard for artists to find opportunities to showcase work or source out work.

Now more than ever, self- care has been a highly discussed topic while living during a pandemic. During stressful situations, it’s easy for some to be consumed by their stress and disregard their own needs and care. Fortunately, there are resources available to help remind those that it’s for the best to focus on ourselves before our stressors.

he pandemic has caused numerous changes to our day-to-day lives. Whether one is walking their dog or getting their jog on, the public is finding themselves more outside these days amidst the pandemic. Of course, these individuals who have taken on the new outdoor time probably walk or jog the same routes with no differences to be cited. Unless your exercise takes place in Sonoma near Highway 12.