How high energy prices are making things better this summer
In early January, a barrel of crude oil fetched $76.08 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. At the time, American consumers were hitting the road again after their COVID-19 confinement and the industrial economy was awakening from a tough disruption. Demand for energy was on the rise, as was the price of gasoline at the pump. While analysts recognized the recovery of the energy economy, hardly anyone predicted that crude oil’s price would hit $118.87 in early June, up
Read MoreNew figures suggest inflation may be at a turning point
Inflation didn’t rise between June and July according to new figures from the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index, the first numbers in some time that suggest rising prices may finally be at a turning point. Prices aren’t actually going down. In fact, the new figures, while unchanged from June, were 8.5 percent higher than they were a year ago. That’s still near a 40-year high, though it’s also a dip from the 9.1-percent increase that occurred from June of last year to June of this year, according to the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index (CPI). More i
Read MoreHHS launches community-level environmental justice hazard calculator
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Wednesday formally launched its Environmental Justice Index (EJI), which will assign communities numerical scores based on the health burdens of environmental conditions. The EJI is based on data from the individual census tract and assigns both an overall environmental score based on 36 factors. The tool also includes data for individual possible hazardous sites within a community, such as coal mines or lead mines, and planned and built enviro
Read MorePelosi's Taiwan trip heightens the US-China perceptual dilemma
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) recently made world headlines arriving in Taiwan amid strong rebukes from the Chinese government. Pelosi is the highest-ranking U.S. government official to visit Taiwan since then-Speaker Newt Gingrich visited in 1997. Pelosi’s visit was meant to send an unmistakable signal: Taiwan is so important to the U.S. government that top officials are willing to visit despite stern warnings fro
Read MoreBiden signs historic health care bill addressing toxic burn pits. But what exactly are they?
Story at a glance President Biden signed the PACT Act into law on Wednesday, expanding health care coverage for veterans exposed to burn pits. Burn pits were a commonly used method of disposing waste on military bases during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Everything from uniforms to electronics to chemicals were thrown into massive pits and burned, emitting plumes of toxic smoke.
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