Author: Arturo Stewart

Alaska’s governor and the mayor of the state’s largest city have continued to support a controversial conservative ally, despite her history of racist, homophobic and transphobic comments. The inflammatory remarks from Anchorage’s deputy library director, Judy Eledge, were most recently documented in a story by the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica that included audio secretly recorded by one of Eledge’s subordinates. In the recordings, Eledge calls Alaska Native people “woke” and “racists” and transgender people “very troubled.” And when library employees complained about Eledge to city and state agencies tasked with investigating discrimination, the complaints were either ignored or became…

WASHINGTON —The signs of climate change are all around us, and children are uniquely vulnerable to its impacts. Climate change-related impacts in childhood can have lifelong consequences due to effects on learning, physical health, and housing security. A new national-scale, multi-sector EPA report showcases some of the ways children are especially vulnerable to a variety of health effects from climate change due to physical, cognitive, behavioral, and social factors. This peer-reviewed report quantifies projected health effects associated with extreme heat, air quality, changing seasons, flooding, and infectious diseases. Where possible, the analyses consider the extent to which health effects disproportionately fall…

Approximately 100,000 workers in District Council 37 (DC 37), New York City’s largest public union, are voting on a tentative agreement reached last month with the administration of Mayor Eric Adams. Voting on the deal, which includes massive wage cuts after accounting for inflation, concludes at the end of March. The tentative agreement is the opening shot in a frontal assault on the living standards of the entire municipal workforce. Beyond the 100,000 workers directly impacted, the deal, if passed, will set the pattern for contracts covering public school teachers, nurses at city-run hospitals, emergency medical service workers, sanitation workers,…

At least five people are dead and six are unaccounted for following an explosion at a candy factory in eastern Pennsylvania on Friday, CNN affiliate WFMZ reported Saturday, citing local officials. The explosion occurred at the R.M. Palmer Company facility in West Reading just before 5 p.m., West Reading Police Chief Wayne Holben said in a press conference on Friday night. The cause for the explosion is unknown and remains under investigation, he said. “There is no danger to the surrounding area at this time,” Holben went on. “However, the borough is urging residents to avoid the area and follow directions of law…

Nothing beats finding the right size and fit when clothes shopping—here are Vogue’s top picks in New York City that offer plus-sized fashion options It’s hard to say if it’s more embarrassing that I cried in the SoHo Mara Hoffman store or that shopping in person as a plus-size person is such a rarity it reduced me to happy tears. After a decade of being told by well-intentioned sales staff that I can only find plus sizes online, standing in a thoughtfully designed store and hearing, “We do have your size in stock; I’ll get a room started for you!” felt euphoric. Deciding if I like…

America’s homebuilders are growing more bullish as buyer demand picks up, driven in part by slightly lower mortgage rates. Homebuilder confidence in the market for newly built single-family homes in February rose seven points to 42, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. This is the highest reading since September and the largest monthly gain since June 2013. Anything below 50 is considered negative, but sentiment had fallen to 31 in December. The index stood at 81 in February of last year, before mortgage rates began to rise. Builders say affordability is improving, as mortgage rates fall…

Although 2023 is shaping up as a more normal year for travel after three abnormal ones, we can’t pretend travel will cease being complicated. Flight disruptions, labour shortages, high energy and food prices, disruptions due to climate and a global economic downturn are factors weighing heavily on the travel industry. Yet if the past three years have proven anything, it’s that a love of travel remains undimmed for a vast majority of Australians. In 2023 we just want to do it differently. More thoughtfully, certainly, but also with more flexibility and economic savvy as global upheavals continue to present shocks…

Companies exporting virtually any product to the European Union must know if their goods have PFAS and weigh in on the region’s new proposed phaseout of those chemicals, which could greatly affect many US companies, attorneys said. The potential breadth of the restriction that the European Chemical Agency (ECHA) proposed on Feb. 7 is “staggering,” said Lawrence Culleen, a partner with Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP who specializes in chemical regulations. The proposed requirements could affect the production and distribution of chemicals, mixtures of chemicals, and manufactured products, he said. Affected business may need to reexamine the composition and design of…

Israel’s government said it would legalize nine settlements in the occupied West Bank after recent attacks by Palestinians in Jerusalem. Several Western countries said they are “deeply troubled” by such a move. In a joint statement on Tuesday, Germany, the US, the UK, France and Italy condemned Israel’s decision to retroactively authorize several Jewish settler outposts in the occupied West Bank and construct thousands of new housing units within established settlements. Foreign ministers from the five Western countries said in a statement that they “are deeply troubled by the Israeli government’s announcement that it is advancing nearly 10,000 settlement units, and intends to…

Price growth in the United States cooled in December as the economy continued to show signs of weakening. Inflation landed at 6.5% compared to the 12 months prior. That figure was in line with analysts’ expectations, and a decrease from the 7.1% seen in November. On a month-to-month basis, inflation fell by 0.1% in December, in line with expectations. The slowing rate of inflation is likely to signal to the Federal Reserve that its interest-rate hikes are working but, so far, Chair Jerome Powell has not indicated any near-term plan to significantly pull back from those increases until inflation gets…