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☆ Can the ‘California Effect’ Survive in a Hyperpartisan America?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Conor Dougherty | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

For a while this winter, seemingly every text message that Buffy Wicks received asked if she was running for Congress. This decision by Lee, who is 76, created a rare opportunity for the next generation of California Democrats to vie for federal office. Soon enough, however, Wicks put out a statement that, humbled as she was by the suggestion, she wouldn’t be seeking the seat. “I pass big bills here,” Wicks told me. California has been so successful at bending national policy in its direction that academics have taken to calling the phenomenon the California effect.

☆ Eyeball to eyeball: Estonia stares down Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-20 | by ( Jill Dougherty | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

It sits high on the western bank of the Narva River, its 13th-century castle proudly flying the blue, black and white flag of Estonia. We think we know roughly what makes them tick.”Like parts of Ukraine, Estonia was illegally annexed and occupied by the Soviet Union. Estonians at the conference were adamant: Unless Russia is utterly defeated in Ukraine, there is no reason to expect Putin will change his strategic objective. Jill Dougherty/CNNSeveral Russians at the conference said they feel personally responsible for the horrors Russia is unleashing on Ukraine. What’s more, Vladimir Putin is winning support for the war from so-called “swing states” and nations in the Global South.

☆ US small business sentiment slumps to more than 10-year low
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Lucia Mutikani | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

WASHINGTON, May 9 (Reuters) - U.S. small business confidence fell to more than a 10-year low in April on worries about the near-term economic outlook and persistent worker shortages, but there were few signs that businesses were having difficulties accessing credit. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) said on Tuesday its Small Business Optimism Index dropped 1.1 points to 89.0 last month, the lowest level since January 2013. "As we've argued before, though, measures of sentiment are often a poor guide of what is likely to happen in the economy because it tells us more about how business owners are feeling, rather than what they are doing." The share of owners expecting better business conditions over the next six months fell two points to a net negative 49%. Forty-five percent of owners reported job openings that they could not fill, up 2 points from March.

☆ The Covid–19 Crisis Is Officially Over. Everything Changed.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Stephanie Stamm | Danny Dougherty | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The alarms sounded in March 2020, and Americans cloistered at home, sheltering from a pandemic killing at times thousands a day. Many people free to work remotely left their big-city lives for suburbs and rural communities. Americans everywhere have settled into more homebound routines for meals and entertainment. Yet even with the deadly crisis fading, the U.S. has yet to recapture the level of happiness enjoyed before the virus SARS-CoV-2 transformed our world.

☆ The Covid–19 Crisis is Officially Over. Everything changed.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Stephanie Stamm | Danny Dougherty | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Little would make sense about a drone attack on the Kremlin. Except this
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Jill Dougherty | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The Kremlin was slow to react, eventually releasing a statement calling it a “planned terrorist attack,” a deliberate attempt by Ukraine to assassinate Putin, but presenting no evidence. Even more embarrassingly for the Kremlin, how did the drones get so close to the Kremlin? Ukraine officials said the attacks might be exploited by Russia to launch even more vicious attacks on Ukraine, including “terrorist” attacks. What about the possibility that Russians opposed to Putin launched a drone attack from within Russia? This year, with drones apparently attacking the Kremlin, it may be harder than usual to feel victorious.

☆ Juice mission launches to explore Jupiter’s icy ocean worlds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —The European Space Agency has sent a spacecraft to explore Jupiter and three of its largest and most intriguing moons. The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission, or Juice, launched Friday at 8:14 a.m. Toward the end of the mission, Juice will focus solely on orbiting Ganymede, making it the first spacecraft ever to orbit a moon in the outer solar system. The Juice mission was designed to unravel what takes place as Jupiter interacts with its moons, including auroras, hot spots, radio emissions and waves of charged particles. Given the eventual distance between the spacecraft and Earth, it will take 45 minutes to send a one-way signal to Juice.

☆ Why Is Chartreuse Hard to Find Right Now? Ask the Monks Who Make It.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Becky Cooper | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

According to Chartreuse Diffusion, the business arm of the monks’ operation, it took more than 150 years for the Carthusians to “unravel the secret of the manuscript.”Chartreuse became “a mixologist’s ace in the hole,” said Joe Kakos, an owner of Kakos Market, a liquor store in Birmingham, Mich. Many credit Murray Stenson, a bartender at the Zig Zag Café in Seattle, with repopularizing the liqueur in 2003 when he resurrected the century-old Last Word cocktail, a mixture of gin, Chartreuse, lime juice and maraschino liqueur. “I almost feel a little bit guilty,” said Ben Dougherty, the cafe’s owner. In 2020, as the pandemic turned many people into at-home mixologists, sales of Chartreuse in the United States doubled, a pattern that held true worldwide, according to Chartreuse Diffusion. Global sales topped $30 million in 2022.

☆ The Juice mission will soon launch to Jupiter’s icy ocean worlds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission, or Juice, was expected to lift off Thursday at 8:15 a.m. European Space AgencyGanymede, Callisto and Europa are ice-covered worlds that may contain subsurface oceans that are potentially habitable for life. European Space Agency“With Juice, we want to confirm there’s liquid water in these moons, confirm their heat sources. Testing and modeling of Jupiter’s radiation belts allowed engineers to prepare for what Juice will encounter. Given the eventual distance between the spacecraft and Earth, it will take 45 minutes to send a one-way signal to Juice.

☆ Sunbelt Cities Nashville and Austin Are Nation’s Hottest Job Markets
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( Sarah Chaney Cambon | Danny Dougherty | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

To find the best job markets in America, head to the South. Nashville, Tenn., topped the list of 2022’s hottest job markets, followed by Austin, Texas, and Jacksonville, Fla. Other cities known for tourism—notably Orlando, Las Vegas and New Orleans—climbed the ranks last year.

Diverse hiring helps life insurance companies connect with underserved communities. Life insurance companies are focusing on community and product development. Many of the largest insurance companies have historically denied Black applicants, given them lower-value life insurance than white applicants who paid the same amount, and engaged in other discriminatory activity. Research from William G. Gale, a Brookings Institution economics expert and co-author of "Racial Discrimination in Life Insurance," found that while Black families were 3% more likely than their white counterparts to have a life insurance policy, the differences in inheritances (often including life insurance payouts) accounted for 10-20% of the wealth gap. Aside from eliminating blatantly discriminatory underwriting, Guardian Life has opened the door to life insurance for people with HIV.

☆ Where Financial Risk Lies, in 12 Charts
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Shane Shifflett | Danny Dougherty | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank was driven in part by assets that lost value when interest rates rose from near zero. Higher rates will continue to weigh on banks’ balance sheets. Banks lost money on securities sensitive to interest rates such as Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities. One risk is commercial real estate, where owners of half-empty office buildings might struggle to pay their debts. That would hurt commercial mortgage-backed securities, which are already declining in price.

☆ Wing It or Plan It: Do Travelers Without Itineraries Have Better Vacations?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Emilia Petrarca | Margot Dougherty | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

MAP IT Travel can be free-wheeling or fanatically arranged. For the recurring series That’s Debatable, we take on a contentious issue of the day and present two spirited arguments—one in favor and the other emphatically opposed. TRAVELERS OFTEN fall into two camps: those who plan ahead and those who go with the flow. The former group relishes the research; the latter loves the serendipity of a laissez-faire approach. Here, two writers with opposing views hash out whether to lock in a game plan or let fate intervene.

☆ A student-loan borrower was promised a $5,000 refund on payments after Biden's broad debt relief. Months later, she's still waiting — and no one is picking up the phone to help.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Roxanne Dougherty, 31, is waiting for a $5,000 refund on her student-loan payments. The Education Department directed Insider to guidance on refunds posted on Federal Student Aid's website. "No one is taking the time to help me or to listen to me when it comes to MOHELA," Dougherty said. "It just seems like there's something in it for them to not help," Dougherty said. Are you still waiting for a refund on your student-loan payments?

Operators of hotels, bars and restaurants—hit hard as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold—are now among the country’s fastest-growing employers, offsetting a slowdown in tech-related hiring. The leisure-and-hospitality industry is rebuilding its workforce after cutting back during the pandemic’s early days. In contrast, companies focused on providing business and tech-related services have slowed their growth in recent months.

☆ Colorado supermarket shooting suspect remains unfit for trial, judge says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

BOULDER, Colo. — A man charged with killing 10 people at a Colorado supermarket nearly two years ago remains mentally incompetent to stand trial, a judge said Friday. Bakke said the latest report from the hospital finding Alissa incompetent also said he has a “reasonable likelihood” of reaching competency, an outlook also expressed in previous reports. Concerns about Alissa’s mental health were raised by his defense immediately after the March 2021 shooting. Competency is a different legal issue than a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, which involves whether someone’s mental health prevented them from understanding right from wrong when a crime was committed. They said Alissa passed a background check to legally buy a Ruger AR-556 pistol six days before the shooting.

☆ Goldman Sachs shares 4 cities that will suffer a 2008-size crash in home values — and breaks down why they believe home prices across the US will now fall further than they originally thought
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( William Edwards | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

In some cities, the damage will be as bad as it was across the US in the mid-2000s, the bank said. Attention homeowners and real-estate investors, Goldman Sachs has bad news: home prices are going to fall further in 2023 than they had previously thought. Goldman SachsWhile Karoui, Viswanathan, and Walker see national home prices falling by 10% peak-to-trough, they see prices in cities where home values have soared above average falling more. What other firms are sayingGoldman Sachs isn't the only Wall Street bank calling for further home price declines in 2023. Morgan Stanley strategist James Egan said in a January note that he sees home prices falling by 4% in 2023 thanks to stagnant demand.

☆ Consumer Prices Plateau as Inflation Slows to Prepandemic Levels
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Danny Dougherty | Nate Rattner | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

After a period of steep inflation, Americans have seen monthly price growth ease, but when will things get back to normal? The inflation benchmark, measuring price growth over a year, hit a 40-year high in June after months of sustained price increases. Since then, monthly gains have slowed. While December 2022 prices were up 6.5% from a year earlier, a Wall Street Journal analysis of Labor Department data indicates that annual growth has eased to levels that existed before the pandemic. Inflation observed during the past six months would extend to prices rising 1.9% over the course of a year, close to the average annual rate of 1.7% between 2010 and 2020.

☆ Viktor Bout: The Russian arms dealer swapped for Brittney Griner
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Eliza Mackintosh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Brittney Griner’s freedom ultimately hinged on the release of a convicted Russian arms dealer whose life story inspired a Hollywood film. On Thursday, a source told CNN that the US basketball star had been released from Russian detention in a prisoner swap for Viktor Bout, nicknamed the “Merchant of Death” by his accuser. Viktor Bout is pictured in a temporary cell ahead of a hearing at a court in Bangkok in August 2010. Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images“His early days are a mystery,” Douglas Farah, a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center who co-authored a book on Bout, told CNN in 2010. He said that Bout graduated from the Military Institute on Foreign Languages, a well-known feeder school for Russian military intelligence.

☆ Tennis in Winter? How about Pickleball? 6 Resorts With Unseasonably Inviting Courts
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Margot Dougherty | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

YOU SPEND ALL summer honing the can’t-see-it-coming slice, the killer backhand. Then winter hits and, poof, it seems tennis is over until it’s safe to leave home again without an anorak. Consider these resorts, which entice racket-enraptured guests with everything from weekend clinics and make-your-own tournaments to private lessons and ball machines. Many have added pickleball to their lineups, too, a nod to the fast-growing sport. At Little Dix Bay in Virgin Gorda, simply give your butler a ring to arrange for time on the court or elsewhere.

☆ In Georgia’s Runoff Election, Midterm Turnout and Blank Ballots Might Reveal Who Has the Edge
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Danny Dougherty | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Georgia will have its second runoff Senate race in less than two years after Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker finished within 1 percentage point of each other in November. Mr. Walker and Mr. Warnock earned backing from supporters across the state. Now they need to garner the votes that they left on the table in November. Mr. Walker may hope to mobilize Georgians who voted Republican elsewhere on the ballot, while Mr. Warnock could face less pressure if turnout declines. Precincts he lost had a higher turnout rate.

☆ Falling house prices will help the Fed tame inflation – but they also increase the risk of a prolonged economic downturn
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-26 | by ( George Glover | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

But a housing market slowdown also increases the risk of a recession. The aggressive monetary tightening lifted the average 30-year US mortgage rate from 5.60% to 6.84% over the last three months, according to Bankrate. "A decline in home buying is one of the byproducts of tighter monetary policy," Macquarie's head of economics David Doyle told Insider. What has the Fed said about the housing market? Should borrowing costs remain too high for too long, those industries risk facing a decline in business at a time when monetary tightening is already squeezing their cash flows.

☆ Right-wing media powerhouses pan Trump amid Republicans' underperformance in the midterms
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Sonam Sheth | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Three of the most prominent right-wing media outlets in the US are turning on Trump. Fox News, the NY Post, and WSJ editorial board all published critical pieces about Trump amid Republican underperformance in the midterms. The New York Post published a Thursday cover story mocking "Trumpty Dumpty" for failing to unify the Republican Party. The Wall Street Journal's editorial board followed suit, publishing a piece Thursday calling Trump the GOP's "biggest loser." The WSJ editorial board blamed Trump for having "botched" the 2022 midterms, adding that "it could hand Democrats the Senate for two more years."

☆ Senate Control Could Be Decided by These Remaining Midterm Votes
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Danny Dougherty | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

As votes are tabulated in the races that will determine control of the Senate, the speed at which votes are counted can vary widely within each state. That can lead to changes in who is leading the race at a particular point in time. The Associated Press will declare a winner in a race when it is determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidate to close the gap. That decision is informed by votes that have already been tallied, results from the AP VoteCast survey of why voters voted how they did, and an estimate of the total votes expected to be cast. The expected vote total is determined by AP’s proprietary research, knowledge and expertise; it will vary over the course of the election tabulation, based on the incoming total votes at any given time for the race.

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