Author: Reporter

The Biden administration on December 5 said it will give more than $6 billion to a pair of high-speed electric rail routes in the U.S. West, injecting new life into long-stalled projects hailed by supporters as the future of public transportation but bemoaned by critics for their high price tags and lengthy construction times. U.S. senators from California and Nevada said the federal government will give $3 billion for a planned privately-owned route between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area plus another $3.1 billion for an initial segment of California’s publicly-funded effort to eventually connect Los Angeles and...

The U.S. Postal Service announced sweeping plans in February to reduce greenhouse emissions by diverting more parcels from air to ground transportation, boosting the number of electric vehicles, cutting waste sent to landfills and making delivery routes more efficient. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy described a mix of environmental initiatives and cost-cutting business practices that together would combine to reduce the Postal Service’s contribution to planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions by 40% over five years, meeting the Biden administration environmental goals in the process. “We reduce costs, we reduce carbon. It’s very much hand in hand,” said DeJoy, who acknowledged being...

The net worth of the typical U.S. household grew at the fastest pace in more than three decades from 2019 through 2022, while low interest rates made it easier for households to pay their debts, according to a government report in October. Wealth for the median household — the midpoint between the richest and poorest households — jumped 37% during those three years, the Federal Reserve reported, to nearly $193,000. The figures are adjusted for inflation. The increase reflected primarily a jump in home values, higher stock prices, and a rise in the proportion of Americans who own homes...

America’s commercial casinos won $66.5 billion from gamblers in 2023, the industry’s best year ever, according to figures released by its national trade association in February. The American Gaming Association said that total was 10% higher than in 2022, which itself was a record-setting year. When revenue figures from tribal-owned casinos are released separately later this year, they are expected to show that overall casino gambling brought in close to $110 billion to U.S. casino operators in 2023. That all happened in a year in which inflation, while receding, still kept things like grocery and energy costs higher than...

For election officials preparing for the 2024 presidential election, the list of security challenges just keeps growing. Many of the concerns from four years ago persist: the potential for cyberattacks targeting voter registration systems or websites that report unofficial results, and equipment problems or human errors being amplified by those seeking to undermine confidence in the outcome. Add to that the fresh risks that have developed since the 2020 election and the false claims of widespread fraud being spread by former President Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican allies. Death threats directed at election workers and breaches of voting...