Record heat leads to more air conditioning, creating a depressing loop
The record summer heat scorching the U.S. and Europe is illustrating the drastic need for action on climate change, even as the high temperatures are likely to increase the production of energy and greenhouse gasses contributing to global warming. The heat is killing people, energy grids are getting overwhelmed, and more people in more places will be looking for air conditioning in the future, creating an insidious and depressing loop. “Most of the great bulk of our greenhouse gas emissions come from consuming energy, mostly to make electricity,”
Read MoreLawmakers want to expand affordable housing. Communities say, ‘Not in my back yard’
Lawmakers are scrambling to pass affordable housing legislation after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) threw a wrench into yet another social spending package last week. Manchin also rejected the Biden Administration’s Build Back Better Act last year, which would have allotted more than $150 billion for housing geared toward the middle class and lower-income Americans. To get those housing units built, lawmakers from both parties want to boost tax credits that incentivize builders to construct cheaper homes for low-income people in order to offset the o
Read MoreFive takeaways from Thursday's Jan. 6 hearing
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection held its final hearing — only its second in prime-time — before a summer break on Thursday. The latest event stretched over almost three hours and featured two key live witnesses, Matthew Pottinger and Sarah Matthews, both of whom resigned from Trump’s administration on the day of the riot, as well as a plethora of new details. Here are five key takeaways: Raw Trump footage reveals a lot Former President Trump was caught on candid camera — and
Read MoreTrump accused of ‘dereliction of duty’ in dramatic Jan. 6 hearing
The White House was paralyzed for three hours on Jan. 6 as former President Trump rebuffed frantic pleas from anxious aides to intervene to quell the violence at the U.S. Capitol, according to evidence presented Thursday night by the House committee investigating last year’s rampage. Trump’s inaction over that 187-minute span — even in the face of desperate calls from top staff and close family — allowed the riot to escalate, investigators charged, threatening the lives of lawmakers and his own vice president, Mike Pence, who was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 to certify Joe Biden’
Read MoreSeven stunning moments from the Jan. 6 hearing
Thursday’s hearing by the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol focused on the day of the riot itself, zeroing in on former President Trump’s inaction as a mob of his supporters descended on the Capitol and put lawmakers and law enforcement in danger. The hearing, which is expected to be the committee’s last until September, featured new footage and audio clips that shed further light on Trump’s reaction to the violence and on what was happening inside the Capitol as the riots escalated. Here are seven of the most notable moments from Thursday
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