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Chicago Education Trailblazers Honored for Transforming Schools

CHICAGO DEFENDER — LEAP Innovations has announced the recipients of the Innovator in Education Awards, an impressive array of trailblazing teachers, inspirational school teams, and innovative leaders who are leading meaningful change in Chicago’s education. Recipients were honored on Tuesday, Aug. 27, at the LEAP InnovatED Summit, the annual innovation conference that brings together Chicago educators to energize them for the new school year, with a focus on student-centered learning.

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LEAP Innovator in Education Awards Recipients (Photo by: chicagodefender.com)

LEAP Innovations has announced the recipients of the Innovator in Education Awards, an impressive array of trailblazing teachers, inspirational school teams, and innovative leaders who are leading meaningful change in Chicago’s education. Recipients were honored on Tuesday, Aug. 27, at the LEAP InnovatED Summit, the annual innovation conference that brings together Chicago educators to energize them for the new school year, with a focus on student-centered learning.

The award recipients have transformed their schools and classrooms through a student-centered approach to education, also known as personalized learning. Personalizing education creates rigorous learning experiences that are tailored to each student’s individual needs, strengths and interests. This approach helps every student develop leadership skills, critical thinking, and personal agency to guide his/her learning and mastery of concepts. Chicago is the largest urban demonstration site of personalized learning in the United States, with more than 140 Chicago schools having worked with LEAP to implement the practice.

“As part of LEAP’s mission to work with educators to transform education into a uniquely personal experience that prepares and inspires all learners to reach their unlimited potential, it’s an honor to recognize these exemplary educators who are inspiring positive change and impact for their students,” said Phyllis Lockett, LEAP Innovations Founder and CEO. “We applaud these trailblazing and passionate educators who have personalized the education experience to foster student agency, leadership and strong desire to learn that is critical for them to thrive in the future economy.”

Each of the award recipients excelled against specific criteria. They demonstrated high levels of team commitment, collaboration dynamics and implementation fidelity. Importantly, they also showed strong performance against NWEA attainment and growth, as well SQRP and 5Es.

2019 LEAP Leader Award Recipient: A catalyst for change, with the vision and leadership to inspire teams and transform their school environment to Personalized Learning.

Miyoshi Knox, Principal, Stagg School of Excellence (Englewood)

Ms. Knox, principal of Stagg for the last eight years, is a visionary who takes risks in order to optimize the learning environment for her students and staff. She has championed her team’s transformation to a student-centered approach to education. In concert with her school team, she has redesigned the experience for students to encourage more critical thinking, agency, and academic leadership, with a focus on developing social-emotional learning and human skills, such as collaboration and persuasion.

The work of Ms Knox and her team has yielded strong results with gains both in growth and attainment. Since implementing personalized learning, Stagg has progressed from a level 2+ school to a level 1 school.

2019 LEAP Educator Award Recipient: An early adopter of Personalized Learning, who thinks not only about how we might do education differently but puts it to work.

Jennifer Fedrick, George Washington Elementary School (East Side)

Ms. Fedrick, a 5th-grade teacher at Washington Elementary for 10 years, has been an instrumental member of the school’s effort to pilot the transformation to a personalized learning approach. She has created personalized pathways for her students that have given them the autonomy to design their learning experiences based on data. Her students lead their learning through self-reflection, collaboration and conferencing — and they track their progress daily. Her drive and passion to create a student-centered classroom have resulted in great success for her students.

2019 LEAP School Team Award Recipient: Exhibits creativity, commitment and persistence in building and implementing a vision for PL in their school environment.

Ashburn Community Elementary School  (Southwest Side)

Ashburn Community Elementary School is in its second year of whole school transformation to personalized learning through the LEAP/CPS partner program, Elevate. This program is an integral part of Chicago Public Schools’ growing initiative to personalize learning. This year, the school team has made social-emotional learning a critical priority for its students, zeroing in on the development of self-navigation and agency in its students, particularly in fifth and sixth grades. Its work has resulted in impressive academic growth for its fifth and sixth graders. The entire school team rallied with purpose and collaborated tightly to ensure this transformation, with a deep commitment to insight-fueled progression as they worked through innovation cycles.

The LEAP InnovatED Summit, held at Chicago’s UIC Student Center East at 750 S. Halsted St., draws esteemed education experts from throughout the country to share the latest education innovations and energize educators for the school year ahead. The Summit experience is designed to immerse audiences into insights and strategies about key social forces that must undergird the future of education – such as digital transformation, opportunities and challenges in the future of work, issues of equity and understanding the impact of trauma.

This article originally appeared in the Chicago Defender.

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2026 Lucid Air Grand Touring Review — Is This $136K EV Sedan Worth It?

AUTONETWORK ON BLACKPRESSUSA — Finished in Stellar White Metallic with the Tahoe Grand Touring interior, this Lucid makes a strong first impression. The shape is sleek and low, but it still feels elegant instead of trying too hard. Features like soft-close doors, powered illuminated door handles, 20-inch Aero Lite wheels, and the Glass Canopy Roof help the car feel expensive before you even start it.

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The 2026 Lucid Air Grand Touring is the kind of luxury EV that makes people stop and ask a simple question: Is this really better than a Tesla Model S, Mercedes EQS, or BMW i7? At $136,150, it has to do more than look futuristic. It has to feel special every time you get in it.

Finished in Stellar White Metallic with the Tahoe Grand Touring interior, this Lucid makes a strong first impression. The shape is sleek and low, yet it still feels elegant rather than trying too hard. Features like soft-close doors, powered illuminated door handles, 20-inch Aero Lite wheels, and the Glass Canopy Roof help the car feel expensive before you even start it.

Inside is where the Air Grand Touring really makes its case. The 34-inch Glass Cockpit Display and retractable Pilot Panel screen give the cabin a clean, modern look that still feels different from other EVs. The Tahoe Extended Leather and Lucid Black Alcantara headliner lifts the sense of occasion, and the front seats are a highlight. They are 20-way power-adjustable, heated, ventilated, and include massage. That matters because luxury buyers at this price expect comfort first.

Rear passengers are not ignored either. You get 5-zone heated rear seating, a rear center console display, and power rear and rear side window sunshades. Add in the Surreal Sound Pro system with 21 speakers, and the Air feels like a true long-distance luxury sedan.

Lucid also gives this car serious EV hardware. The dual-motor all-wheel-drive system, 900V+ charging architecture, and Wunderbox onboard charger are big talking points. Buyers in this segment care about range, charging speed, and everyday ease, not just raw performance. That is where the Lucid continues to stand out.

On the technology side, the Air Grand Touring includes DreamDrive Premium, with 3D Surround View Monitoring, Blind Spot Warning, Automatic Park In and Out, Automatic Emergency Braking, and a Driver Monitoring System with distracted and drowsy driver alerts. This one also has DreamDrive Pro, which adds future-capable ADAS hardware.

There are still some real-world annoyances. Based on your notes, the windshield wiper control is hard to find and use, and that matters more than people think in a high-tech car. When controls become less intuitive, even a beautiful interior can feel frustrating.

Still, the 2026 Lucid Air Grand Touring succeeds where it matters most. It feels luxurious, advanced, comfortable, and thoughtfully engineered. For buyers who want an EV sedan that feels truly premium and less common than the usual choices, this Lucid makes a very strong case.


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Snoop Dogg Celebrates 10 Til’ Midnight at the Compound

LOS ANGELES SENTINEL — The album is paired with a film that stars Snoop Dogg, Hitta J3, G Perico, and Ray Vaughn, and one of the strongest elements of the whole project is that the production stayed rooted right here in Los Angeles.

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Snoop Dogg celebrated the premiere of 10 Til’ Midnight at his Inglewood recording studio & multipurpose facility, The Compound, but the night felt like much more than an album release. It felt like Los Angeles. It felt like legacy. And it felt like another major move from one of the city’s greatest cultural architects as he continues to prove that he is not just dropping music — he is building moments, shaping narratives, and pushing the culture forward in real time.

What made the event so powerful was the clarity behind the vision. During a panel conversation with DJ Hed, Snoop opened up about the heart behind 10 Til’ Midnight, explaining that the project was created to help bridge older and younger generations while also speaking to the long-standing divisions between Bloods and Crips in a unique way through film. That alone gave the project a different kind of weight. This was not just about songs. This was about using creativity as a tool for connection. This was about taking a story rooted in Los Angeles and telling it in a way that could bring people together.

Snoop Congratulated By Rapper & Fellow 10 Til Midnight Cast Member G Perico (CreativeLB/KreativeKapturez)

Snoop Congratulated By Rapper & Fellow 10 Til Midnight Cast Member G Perico (CreativeLB/KreativeKapturez)

The album is paired with a film that stars Snoop Dogg, Hitta J3, G Perico, and Ray Vaughn, and one of the strongest elements of the whole project is that the production stayed rooted right here in Los Angeles. The film was shot in the city, including at WePlay Studios in Inglewood, which gave the entire project an even deeper hometown feel. It was not just a West Coast story in content — it was a Los Angeles-made production from the ground up.

That matters because, in a city like this, authenticity still carries weight. Snoop understands how to make sure that what he creates does not just represent Los Angeles on the surface, but actually comes from it.

What also makes 10 Til’ Midnight significant is that it represents another major step in Snoop’s evolution as both an artist and executive. Public reporting around the project identifies it as his 22nd studio album, but the bigger story is what it represents in this season of his life. This is one of several consecutive moves he has made in his 50s that show he is still building, still expanding, and still finding new ways to reinvent what the next chapter looks like.

Snoop Dogg at the Premiere of 10 Til Midnight (CreativeLB/KreativeKapturez)

Snoop Dogg at the Premiere of 10 Til Midnight (CreativeLB/KreativeKapturez)

Now, as the head of Death Row Records and the newly aligned leader of Death Row Pictures, he is taking the brand into a new dimension. That is what made this moment feel bigger than music. Snoop is not just protecting the legacy of Death Row — he is stretching it. He is expanding it beyond records and into film, visual storytelling, and larger creative worlds that can continue carrying the label’s impact forward. Public reporting has noted that this project arrives as part of that broader cinematic push.

That is a major Los Angeles move because the city has always been built on the intersection of music, film, neighborhood identity, and cultural storytelling. With 10 Til’ Midnight, Snoop is leaning all the way into that intersection.

The room at The Compound reflected that. It felt like a private premiere, but it also felt like a statement — a reminder that Snoop Dogg’s staying power has never been based only on nostalgia. It comes from his ability to remain connected, remain visionary, and remain in tune with how to move the culture without losing the essence of who he is.

That is why this premiere mattered. It was not just about celebrating another album. It was about witnessing a Los Angeles legend continue to evolve, continue to unify, and continue to use art to tell stories that hit deeper than entertainment alone.

In that sense, 10 Til’ Midnight became more than a project launch. It became another example of how Snoop Dogg is still taking Los Angeles to the next level — using music, film, and legacy together to build something bigger than a moment.

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OP-ED: Small Businesses Need Minnesota to Act on Pass-Through Tax Policy

MINNESOTA SPOKESMAN RECORDER — A Twin Cities immigrant entrepreneur who built several businesses including grocery stores in underserved neighborhoods is calling on Minnesota lawmakers to extend the Pass-Through Entity tax option before it expires, warning that its loss would hit small businesses already recovering from Operation Metro Surge with higher federal tax bills.

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A Twin Cities Small Business Owner Is Urging Minnesota to Extend a Tax Policy That Could Save Thousands of Businesses

By Daniel Hernandez | Minnesota Spokesman Recorder

I came to the United States as a teenager with a clear goal: to build something meaningful through hard work. I put in long days in construction, restaurants, and landscaping; doing whatever it took to learn, save, and eventually start my own business.

Over time, I built and ran several successful ventures, including an event photography company, a magazine, a tax and accounting firm, and now grocery stores serving neighborhoods across the Twin Cities where other retailers chose not to invest. I’ve created jobs, supported families, and committed to communities that deserve stability and opportunity.

That’s why I’m speaking out now.

Small business owners in Minneapolis and the communities we serve are recovering from serious disruptions, including the impacts of Operation Metro Surge. That event hit immigrant communities especially hard. In my own case, I lost nearly half of my 60 employees and saw revenue drop by about 85%. While I worked to provide competitive wages, health benefits, and paid time off, the real hardship fell on the people who lost their jobs and income.

Even as we rebuild, small businesses are facing another challenge. The Minnesota Legislature is considering letting an important tax policy expire: the Pass-Through Entity tax option.

Here’s what that means in plain terms.

Many small businesses, including mine, are pass-through businesses. That means the business itself doesn’t pay income tax. Instead, the owners report the income on their personal tax returns. But under current federal rules, there’s a limit on how much state tax we can deduct. That often leads to higher federal tax bills.

The Pass-Through Entity option fixes that. It allows the business to pay the state tax directly, which means the business can fully deduct those taxes on its federal return and lower the total amount of income taxed federally. The result is straightforward: small business owners pay less in federal taxes, without reducing what the state collects.

This policy is not new or controversial. Thirty-six states already offer it. It doesn’t cost Minnesota anything, it’s revenue neutral. And it benefits more than 66,000 businesses across the state.

In a state where the cost of doing business is already high, it’s hard to understand why we wouldn’t offer the same basic tax treatment as states like California and Illinois.

Small businesses have carried a heavy load in recent years, through a pandemic, rising costs and public safety disruptions. We’ve adapted, reinvested and stayed committed to our communities. What we need now are practical policies that support that work, not make it harder.

If the Minnesota House does not act soon, many businesses will face significantly higher federal tax bills. That’s money that could otherwise be used to hire workers, raise wages or reinvest in local neighborhoods.

I urge Gov. Tim Walz and members of the House Tax Committee to pass House File 3127 and extend the Pass-Through Entity election.

Small businesses are the backbone of our communities. We’ve proven our resilience. Now we need our state leaders to show the same commitment to us.

Daniel Hernandez is the owner of Colonial Market located at 2100 E. Lake St.

 

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