A federal court on Thursday found that Georgia’s congressional map violates the Voting Rights Act, the latest Southern state to have its map struck down for discriminating against Black voters.

A judge ordered the state legislature to redraw the lines by early December. The ruling will likely be appealed by Georgia Republicans. It could lead to the creation of an additional majority-Black district in the state — although the immediate partisan effects aren’t clear.

“Georgia has made great strides since 1965 towards equality in voting,” district court Judge Steve C. Jones, a Barack Obama appointee, said in his decision. “However, the evidence before this Court shows that Georgia has not reached the point where the political process has equal openness and equal opportunity for everyone.”

Jones’ lengthy opinion said Black voters’ power had been diluted following extensive population growth in the state that has been disproportionately powered by Black residents. The remedy, he ordered, should involve the creation of “an additional majority-Black congressional district in west-metro Atlanta.”

He gave the GOP-controlled state legislature until Dec. 8 to enact a new map that complies with the Voting Rights Act by giving more power to Black voters there. If the state “is unable or unwilling to” do so, the court will draw the lines.

The state’s current delegation has 9 Republicans and 5 Democrats after the latest round of redistricting. That was a one-seat GOP gain from before the decennial redistricting process, in which Republican mapmakers effectively dismantled two rapidly diversifying suburban Atlanta seats to make one safe Democratic seat based in Gwinnett County and a deep-red district to its north.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the creation of a new majority-Black district would create an additional Democratic one; four out of the five Democratic districts are currently majority-Black, but Rep. Lucy McBath’s (D-Ga.) is not. (McBath is Black.) It may be possible to make another majority-Black district west of Atlanta without shifting the overall partisan balance of the state’s districts.

“While the outcome of the process remains unclear, one thing is certain: Rep. McBath will not be letting Republicans in the state legislature determine when her work serving Georgians is done,” Jake Orvis, McBath’s campaign manager, said in a statement following the ruling.

Jones also ruled that the state House and state Senate map also violated the Voting Rights Act, saying they too must be redrawn.

The order is just the latest finding that a Southern state’s Republican-drawn congressional map illegally weakened the power of Black voters. The Supreme Court affirmed a lower court order earlier this year that found that Alabama needed to create a second predominantly Black district. A court-drawn map was imposed there earlier this month after the GOP-dominated legislature refused to draw lines that would do so.

A similar challenge to Louisiana’s map is ongoing and may resolve before the 2024 election.

Earlier this week, North Carolina Republicans redrew their congressional lines in a particularly efficient partisan gerrymander that could flip as many as four seats there. Immediately following its passage, Democrats suggested that it, too, was a racial gerrymander and that they would challenge it. But it isn’t clear how successful their case would be — and any challenge to those lines would be unlikely to resolve before the 2024 election.

Nicholas Wu and Ally Mutnick contributed to this report.

Matthew Boyle | Bloomberg News (TNS)

Ellen Kessler was visiting her mother in Florida last year when things took a bad turn.

“She called me at 3 a.m. and was just hysterical, frightened that someone was in the house,” Kessler, who was staying at a hotel nearby, said. “I got there, and it was like she was not the same person. I didn’t know what to do.”

Concerned about leaving her then 91-year-old mother on her own, Kessler decided to bring her back with her to Maryland, which she said was “the worst mistake I ever made.” Being away from home exacerbated her mother’s anxiety and added a demanding burden to daily life for Kessler, a 60-year-old senior director at hotel chain Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.

Kessler’s bind has become increasingly common. More than half the U.S. labor force has caregiving responsibilities outside of work, and some 37 million Americans can spend an average of nearly four hours a day looking after an elder, according to U.S. government data. Workers who tend to aging parents and have children at home, the so-called sandwich generation, report even higher levels of emotional and financial strain, according to AARP.

Estimates of the economic cost of caregiving in the U.S. range from $264 billion to as much as $600 billion. “The impact is felt by a surprisingly large share of the population and it comes at an enormous cost,” according to a report from health insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield. Many people who are trying to balance their professional lives with caregiving are forced to miss work, take leave or quit their jobs.

One startup is trying new ways to help working caregivers carry the load. When Kessler explained her situation to her boss, she learned that Hilton had a new elder-care benefit managed by a startup called Wellthy. Other big companies, including electronics retailer Best Buy Co., tech bellwether Meta Platforms Inc. and mutual-fund giant Vanguard Group Inc., also offer Wellthy’s services to employees.

Just 12% of companies extend some form of elder-care support, according to Gallagher Surveys. Though a growing number of large employers offer workers paid caregiver leave, and many have referral or counseling services, hardly any offer tailored, expert advice on navigating the complex, acute challenges of caring for older family members. That means Wellthy has little direct competition.

That relative lack of elder-care options stands in contrast to the wider availability of child-care benefits, such as pretax set-asides for daycare expenses and emergency backup-care services.

Wellthy helps workers navigate the myriad issues that can arise when an older family member needs care. When Kessler reached out to Wellthy, they connected her with care consultant Lynda Cooke. Kessler’s mother has macular degeneration that impairs her vision, but she had resisted moving somewhere with full-time caregivers, so Cooke guided the family through finding a home health aide.

Then, a nighttime fall that resulted in a broken rib changed Kessler’s mother’s thinking about assisted living. “She said, ‘Ellen, I will not fight you anymore,’” Kessler recalled. Cooke was able to change course and provide Ellen with detailed questions to ask the facilities, guidance on negotiating fees and emotional support.

“Between the hospital, rehab and trying to work, it’s a lot,” Kessler said. “You really feel the wear and tear of being there for your parent.”

The employee-assistance programs (EAP) that many big companies offer typically can’t help employees navigate the labyrinthine maze of long-term care providers, regulations and payment options. Some employers offer services that steer employees to vendors, but shortages of home health aides and other workers in low-paid, high-turnover health-care roles can make actually getting help difficult.

“It’s a big, gaping hole,” said Boston Consulting Group managing director and partner Suchi Sastri, part of a team whose research estimated that the nation’s caregiver shortage, compounded with its aging population, will cost the U.S. $290 billion annually starting in 2030. “I don’t think it’s top of mind right now, but it has to be on the agenda of CEOs.”

Lindsay Jurist-Rosner co-founded Wellthy in 2014 after struggling to balance a demanding career in marketing with caring for her mother, who had multiple sclerosis and died in 2017. She started offering the concierge service to individuals but quickly expanded to focus on selling it to employers as a sponsored benefit, meaning it’s free for employees. Companies usually pay between $3 and $6 per employee per month. That gets them access to Wellthy’s network of care specialists — many of them experienced social workers — who are available around the clock.

“People come to us in crisis,” Jurist-Rosner said. “You have few moments in your life like this, so we have to deliver extraordinarily well.”

Christopher Cowan, the chief human resources officer at ChristianaCare, a Delaware-based health-care network that employs 13,700 people, gave Wellthy a shot last August. While Cowan said “it’s not cheap,” he said it will pay for itself if it helps him hold on to 11 nurses or three executives who might otherwise have left due to caregiving duties.

Harvard Business School professor Joseph Fuller, who has studied the effect of caregiving on the labor force and advised Jurist-Rosner when she was launching Wellthy, said those obligations are a primary driver of employee turnover. “It does not take much utilization to justify the coverage,” he said. In addition to elder care, Wellthy also provides help for young children, teens and the employees themselves.

Laura Fuentes, Hilton’s human-resources chief, said Wellthy saved its 49,000 U.S. employees 20,000 hours in less than a year, convincing her to expand it to the company’s UK and Ireland employees. Kamy Scarlett, Best Buy’s senior executive vice president of human resources, corporate affairs and Canada, said Wellthy has saved its 90,000 workers about 60,000 hours over the past two years, and has one of the highest satisfaction ratings of any of its employee benefits.

“I went through this years ago and if I had Wellthy then, I would have made different decisions,” Scarlett said.

For all Wellthy does — its specialists will also interview vendors on behalf of workers — it can’t offset the costs of care, which can be unpredictable and steep. Wellthy also can’t diagnose maladies or prescribe medications.

For workers who don’t have access to elder-care benefits, especially those who still have kids living with them, balancing work and family can feel overwhelming. Kelly Mann, 50, holds a high-ranking corporate job helping companies map out hybrid work. She has a teenage daughter with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and aging parents facing serious health issues.

Her 79-year-old mother was recently rushed to the hospital with diverticulitis, and a follow-up MRI found a brain bleed, requiring a neurological consult. A stay in a rehab facility was initially rejected by her mother’s health-insurance provider, forcing Mann to spend five hours on the phone appealing the decision. Then, her mother had a stroke, putting her back in the hospital.

Around the same time, her father, 85, was diagnosed with midstage dementia, requiring a daytime home health aide. Mann’s husband, who works in residential real estate, helps out, but Mann says juggling everything is a burden.

“I have unlimited time off,” Mann said. “If you do not, you are screwed.”

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If the Chicago Bulls were hoping to set a tone to open the 2023-24 season, they picked a bleak one.

For nearly three quarters Wednesday at the United Center, they hung tight with a young Oklahoma City Thunder squad. With a little more than three minutes left in the third quarter, the Bulls trailed by one.

But in a matter of minutes, calamity struck. Nikola Vučević sacrificed two points via technical free throws earned by talking back to the referees. A handful of jumpers later and the Thunder suddenly led by nine.

The quarter ended, giving the Bulls time to compose themselves. Instead they allowed the Thunder to sink three consecutive 3-pointers to open the final quarter, sinking into the sludge of a 16-point deficit they couldn’t overcome.

Fans exited early from the season opener as the Bulls lost 124-104.

Here are six takeaways from the game.

1. Zach LaVine suffered a slow start.

LaVine was eager to start fresh after entering last season hindered by a slow recovery from knee surgery. But his first outing was similarly sluggish as he struggled to find his shot.

LaVine went 0-for-4 from the field in the first half, scoring all six of his points on free throws. He sat the last 10 minutes of the half after picking up three fouls and turning the ball over four times.

After opening the second half with a 3-pointer, LaVine’s off shooting night continued. He finished 4-for-16 from the field and 2-for-9 behind the arc. And despite working to the rim consistently in the first half, he wasn’t able to earn another free throw in the second half, finishing with 16 points.

2. The Bulls showed solid 3-point shooting quantity but lacked quality.

The Bulls entered the season with one main offensive goal: take more 3-pointers.

That improvement was quickly made. The Bulls took 42 3-pointers Wednesday. The problem was none of those shots fell with regularity. The Bulls went 6-for-23 in the first half from behind the arc; they finished 12-for-42. With the Thunder shooting 19-for-39, it was nearly impossible for the Bulls to keep pace on the offensive end.

“There wasn’t really a rhythm,” LaVine said. “It might not have been the right shot at the right time. So I think we’ve gotta work at that because once you get down, you start forcing things to get back into the game, see what works, what doesn’t. At that point, the game was a struggle.”

DeMar DeRozan took three attempts from behind the arc (finishing 1-for-3) to maintain an uptick in his long-range shooting volume from the preseason. He was one of only three players to finish above 30% from behind the arc. Torrey Craig went 3-for-4 and Ayo Dosunmu went 2-for-4, with both of his makes coming in garbage time.

LaVine went 2-for-9 from behind the arc, Coby White 2-for-7 and Patrick Williams finished 0-for-4.

3. A poor finish elicited a team meeting.

Frustration was high after the loss, leading players to ask coach Billy Donovan to give them space for conversation immediately following the game.

Vučević described the conversation as “constructive” and necessary, with players voicing their opinions without yelling or losing control.

“I think it’s good that we had those,” Vučević said. “It was needed. It was just regular discussions of what needed to be done. It wasn’t nothing crazy, no fighting, none of that. Just really constructive. It’s maybe one of the first times since I’ve been here that it was like this and it was really needed.”

But the immediate necessity for intense conversation reflected the poor footing the Bulls are on to start the season.

4. The offense succeeded in two key areas.

The Bulls are judging their offense by two other key statistics this season: offensive rebounds and free throws. Both help to capture the intensity with which the Bulls are attacking the paint and the rim, which is key to balancing the floor and creating more 3-point opportunities.

Both statistics were positive for the Bulls in the opener. They matched the Thunder with 18 free throw attempts (Oklahoma City went 15-for-18, Chicago went 14-for-18). And the Bulls out-rebounded the Thunder 13-5 on the offensive boards to tally 19 second-chance points.

5. A tepid start for Patrick Williams.

No player will fall under a more focused microscope this season than Patrick Williams, whose first outing was relatively lukewarm.

Williams was the only starter to not tally double-digit scoring, finishing with eight points. But he also recorded a -3 +/- rating — second only to LaVine among starters — in part due to his consistent defending, which included two steals.

Williams still lacked some of the physicality the Bulls hope to draw out of him. He didn’t record a rebound until midway through the third quarter and did not draw a foul. But several of his athletic moves to the basket showcased a baseline for how he can make an impact as a starter.

6. Andre Drummond welcomed Chet Holmgren to the NBA.

Every NBA player has a “welcome to the league” story — that moment when they went toe-to-toe with a professional for the first time and ended up worse for the wear.

For Thunder star Chet Holmgren, that moment came Wednesday at the hands of Bulls center Andre Drummond.

This is technically a rookie season for Holmgren, who missed last season with a foot injury after he was selected No. 2 overall in the 2022 NBA draft. Holmgren recorded a strong rookie debut with 11 points — but he also hit the deck attempting to guard Drummond in the second quarter.

Drummond poked the ball out of Holmgren’s hands at the top of the key, then took the ball full-court, crossing up Holmgren and sending the 7-footer tumbling to the hardwood on his way to the rim for a layup.

The play was a highlight in a solid night from Drummond, who finished with six points and five rebounds off the bench.

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