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☆ Nina Montée Karp and Dr. Harvey Karp turned the $1,700 Snoo into the holy grail of parenting. But some say they overhyped the crib's abilities and created a nightmarish corporate culture.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Kate Taylor | Jake Swearingen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +31 min

Karp and Montée Karp built the hype into a parenting-media empire that put out three books and two instructional films in 10 years. Karp and Montée Karp met at a Hollywood party in the early '90s. Karp and Montée Karp promised her independence and flexibility to accommodate her two young children's day-care schedules and a 90-minute commute. Karp and Montée Karp insisted on being involved in minutiae that most top executives hand off. Karp and Montée Karp turned the Snoo into an award-winning holy grail of parenthood in just a few years.

☆ Republican senators seek to reverse U.S. heavy-duty truck emissions rule
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - A group of 34 Republican senators said on Thursday they would seek to overturn U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules that aim to drastically cut smog- and soot-forming emissions from heavy-duty trucks. Under the Congressional Review Act, a simple majority vote in both chambers of Congress can reverse recently finalized rules. The new EPA rules target heavy-duty truck and engine manufacturers by tightening yearly emissions limits and changing key provisions of existing rules to ensure emissions reductions in long-term road use. Separately, the EPA plans to propose by next month "Phase 3" greenhouse gas (GHG) standards for heavy-duty vehicles and new emissions standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles. Transportation is the largest source of U.S. GHG emissions, making up 29%, and heavy-duty vehicles are the second-largest contributor at 23%.

No one thought LeBron James would overtake Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the N.B.A.’s career scoring leader when he came to the league as an 18-year-old. The line for LeBron James is just past the 38,387 points scored by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Table showing the scoring totals for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Lebron James, broken down by type of shot. Career points by age for top 250 scorers Line chart showing career points for the top 250 scorers in N.B.A. The line for LeBron James is just past the 38,387 points scored by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Due to the tiny size of the capsule and the huge distances involved, authorities warn the chances of finding it are slim. Department of Fire and Emergency Services/APHow rare is it to lose a radioactive device? Radiation Services WA says radioactive substances are transported throughout Western Australia on a daily basis without any issues. A conveyor belt transports iron ore at the Gudai-Darri mine operated by the Rio Tinto in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, June 21, 2022. At that rate, the capsule could be radioactive for the next 300 years, said Deb from RMIT University.

☆ Biden’s Green-Energy Mineral Lockup
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Biden Administration is heavily subsidizing electric vehicles, but at the same time it is blocking mineral projects needed to produce them. Another example of this head-scratching contradiction came Thursday when Interior Secretary Deb Haaland walled off much of Minnesota’s Superior National Forest from mining. Minnesota’s Duluth Complex has one of the world’s largest undeveloped mineral deposits, including copper, nickel and cobalt that are needed in vast quantities for EV batteries. Ms. Haaland is assuring the deposit stays undeveloped by signing an order withdrawing more than 225,000 acres in the Superior National Forest from mining for two decades.

☆ The US Army has been dredging the Mississippi River 24/7 for 6 months. The drought crisis that grounded barges and unearthed fossils may finally be over.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The US Army Corps of Engineers has been dredging the Mississippi River 24/7 since July. USACE maintains a nine-foot-deep channel down the Mississippi River, so that ships and barges can travel freely. A barge tows cargo down the Mississippi River, in Vicksburg, Mississippi during a historic drought. The National Weather Service predicts the likely removal of drought in much of the Mississippi River basin in February. The National Weather Service's outlook forecasts a likelihood of no drought in most of the Mississippi River basin into spring.

☆ 3 couples who drive trucks for a living reveal how they manage to stay in love while on the road
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Hannah Towey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

But the Rebelos aren't influencers or travel photographers — they're truck drivers. Insider interviewed three trucking couples about how their marriages have survived — and even thrived — while driving freight across the country. "Even prisoners have a bigger cell than a truck," Deb told Insider. "Of course you love the person, but you better like that person, too," Frank Rebelo said. "You get into a little bit of an argument and you're packing all your stuff," Deb LaBree told Insider about the couple's early trucking days.

☆ U.S. renames 5 sites that used racist slur for a Native woman
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

The U.S. Department of the Interior announced Thursday that it has given new names to five places that previously included a racist term for a Native American woman. The renamed sites are in California, North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas, completing a yearlong process to remove the historically offensive word “squaw” from geographic names across the country. She called the word “harmful.”Haaland, who took office in 2021, is the first Native American to lead a Cabinet agency. In September, the Interior Department announced its final vote on proposals to change the names of nearly 650 sites that contained the word. The Interior Department ordered the renaming of places with derogatory terms for Black and Japanese people in 1962 and 1974, respectively.

☆ One of the most powerful rich families in American politics just got their son in the Senate
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Ricketts' family owns the Chicago Cubs and has broadly supported conservative causes. Ricketts will replace former Republican Sen. Ben Sasse who left the chamber. Pete Ricketts will be joining the US Senate, an appointment that caps his political comeback and cements his family, which owns the Chicago Cubs, as one of the most powerful forces in American politics. Sen. Deb Fischer, a two-term Republican incumbent and loyal ally of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, is also up for reelection then too. Along with owning the Cubs, the Ricketts family has long been among the biggest funders of Republican campaigns.

☆ U.S. sets up office to oversee abandoned oil well cleanup
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 10 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland on Tuesday issued an order to establish an office to ensure efficient use of the Biden administration's $4.7 billion investment in the cleanup of abandoned oil and gas wells. The Orphaned Wells Program Office will be led by Kimbra Davis, who has worked at the Interior Department since 2009. Orphaned oil and gas wells are those that generally have been abandoned and are no longer producing. "The Department is standing up a new office to support states, tribes and federal land managers as they close and remediate orphaned oil and gas wells that pose environmental hazards to communities across the country," Haaland said in a statement. The number of abandoned U.S. wells has grown over the last decade, and many experts believe it will keep growing as fossil fuels are replaced with cleaner energy.

☆ It's still not clear what the Senate Ethics Committee is doing with a 2-year-old January 6 probe into Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Democrats lodged an ethics complaint against Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz nearly two years ago. No one's heard anything since from the Senate Ethics Committee, which one advocate calls a "black hole." Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island led the complaint against Cruz and Hawley. Democratic Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware and Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, the chairman and vice-chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee. Little has emerged in the last two years to suggest that Cruz and Hawley were intimately involved in the assault on the Capitol.

☆ Advocates Urge Congress to Pass Permanent Residency Status for Afghans
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesConvincing Republican senatorsThe House version of the Afghan Adjustment Act has 143 co-sponsors, including 10 Republicans. Demonstrators gather to support Afghan evacuees outside the Capitol on Nov. 16, 2022. At the moment, one prospect to advance the Afghan Adjustment Act is by attaching it to that larger spending bill, advocates say. But negotiations on the omnibus are ongoing, and whether the Afghan Adjustment Act will be included is up in the air. Yet without a deal by then, passage of the Afghan Adjustment Act appears doomed, advocates say, keeping Afghan evacuees in perpetual legal limbo.

☆ European energy firms dominate landmark California offshore wind auction
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Nichola Groom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The auction began on Tuesday and ended Wednesday, the offshore wind industry's first chance to snag leases in waters off the U.S. West Coast. "Today’s lease sale is further proof that industry momentum -- including for floating offshore wind development -- is undeniable," U.S. Winners of the five leases were mainly divisions of European energy companies already developing projects in the U.S. offshore wind market. "The macroeconomic environment has hardened significantly over the last six to 12 months," said Alon Carmel, a partner at consultancy PA Consulting who advises offshore wind companies. About 100 megawatts of floating wind capacity is currently installed in the world compared with 50 gigawatts (GW) for conventional offshore wind.

That’s all I have to say about that,” said Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, a member of Senate Republican leadership. I don’t think he should be the nominee of our party in 2024,” he said. And I don’t think it’ll matter in terms of his political future, but I do believe we need to watch who we meet with. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., the outgoing NRSC chair, said, “There’s no room in the Republican Party for white supremacist antisemitism — so it’s wrong.”Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said: “Antisemitism is wrong, and white supremacy is wrong, and that’s all there is to it. Writing on Truth Social, Trump called Ye a “seriously troubled man” and said he had no idea who Fuentes was.

☆ Biden Interior rule would limit methane leaks, gas flaring from public lands drilling
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Emma Newburger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The primary component of natural gas is methane, which is odorless when it comes directly out of the gas well. In addition to methane, natural gas typically contains other hydrocarbons such as ethane, propane, butane, and pentanes. The BLM's proposed rule comes after the Environmental Protection Agency said it would expand its 2021 methane rule to require drillers to identify and plug leaks at every well site across the country. Western and national conservation groups said the proposal marks a critical first step but should be strengthened to eliminate gas flaring. The BLM is accepting comments on the proposed rule for 60 days and a final rule is anticipated next year.

The governors' proposal raised oil industry concerns about fuel regulations differing from state to state. "We have good support," Fischer told Reuters. The legislation also has the support of Senator Kevin Cramer from North Dakota, a co-sponsor of the bill. Cramer's support is significant, as North Dakota is one of the top oil-producing states, Fischer said. Organizations including the API, the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and the National Farmers Union wrote to congressional leaders this month to urge them to adopt legislation to expand nationwide E15 sales.

☆ Amazon's job cut plans show that tech isn't out of the woods just yet
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Matt Weinberger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Indeed, as Insider reported last week, Mark Zuckerberg isn't ruling out the possibility of more layoffs at Meta. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy Dan DeLong/GeekWire1. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg Photo by Liu Jie/Xinhua via Getty2. The tech titans are known for paying the big bucks, but that's not the only way to make it in tech. Tech leaders like Ancestry CEO Deb Liu and Scale AI CEO Lucy Guo will appear on stage.

NEW YORK, Nov 10 (Reuters) - A Republican U.S. senator plans to submit federal legislation with the support of a major oil industry trade group that would expand national sales of E15, a higher ethanol-gasoline blend. If the bill passed, it would be a win for U.S. corn farmers and the ethanol industry. The governors' proposal raised oil industry concerns about fuel supplies. The bill would represent just the latest push to win nationwide, year-round sales. A federal appeals court last year struck down the Trump's administration approval of year-round E15 sales, arguing it did not have the authority.

☆ Summer heat and 'flash drought' dried up the Mississippi River, choking a crucial shipping corridor. It could devastate America's agricultural exports.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | Ayelet Sheffey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Drought has driven the Mississippi River to historic low levels, choking US agricultural exports. The Mississippi River basin produces about 92% of US agricultural exports, including 60% of US grain exports, which travel down the river to the Gulf to ship across the world. Coal is in high demand right now, Calhoun said, and the low water levels present a challenge to ship it out of the country. He said higher food prices at the grocery store are just the first way consumers will start feeling the impact of low water levels. A barge tow passes under the Mississippi River bridges in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on October 11, 2022.

☆ U.S. warns western states it may impose Colorado River water cuts
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Daniel Trotta | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Oct 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. government warned on Friday that it may impose water supply cuts on California, Arizona and Nevada to protect the Colorado River and its two main reservoirs from overuse, drought and climate change. Besides protecting drinking water supplies, the proposed federal action might also preserve hydroelectric production at the country's two largest reservoirs. The bureau, part of the Department of Interior, had previously set a mid-August deadline for seven western states to negotiate their own reductions or possibly face mandatory cutbacks. The seven states operate under a 100-year-old compact distributing Colorado River water, but that agreement has come under increasing strain from the worst drought in 1,200 years, which has been exacerbated by climate change. A century ago, the compact assumed the river could provide 20 million acre-feet of water each year.

☆ Rates on I bonds are expected to drop in November. Why they're still offering the best risk-free return
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

If you buy an I bond before Oct. 28, you will lock in the 9.62% interest rate for six months. How to buy I bonds I bonds can only be bought on the government website, TreasuryDirect.com , which has been recently updated . "If you are going to need it in the next year or two, that is a great interest rate you can make." However, a diversified bond portfolio will likely provide the same results over the long term, she added. Another thing to think about is how much you are holding in I bonds, McLoughlin said.

☆ U.S. to hold offshore wind power rights sale off California coast in December
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Oct 18 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's administration on Tuesday said it would hold the first ever sale of offshore wind development rights off the coast of California on Dec. 6, a big step forward in expanding the nascent U.S. industry to Pacific waters. Previous federal offshore wind lease sales have all been for leases in the Atlantic Ocean. By 2035, Interior aims to have 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind capacity. The goal is aligned with the administration's other target for permitting 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. She said the department is "moving forward at the pace and scale required to help achieve the President's goals to make offshore wind energy, including floating offshore wind energy, a reality for the United States."

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was the only GOP committee member to oppose the bill. Other numbers to know:155 miles per hour: How fast the maximum sustained winds of Hurricane Ian were as of Wednesday morning, per the National Hurricane Center. 23 percentage points: Democrat Beto O’Rourke’s edge over Republican Gov. Last night, Democratic Gov. Tim.”Oklahoma Senate: Former President Donald Trump endorsed Republican Sen. James Lankford in his Senate bid, after conspicuously not endorsing the GOP incumbent in his primary.

☆ Investors shouldn't wait for the Fed to rescue the market this time
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Jeff Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

"There may well be someplace where the Fed says they've turned the screws too hard. But, it's going to have to be something more exogenous," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth Management. "If in fact there is a Fed put, it's certainly got a strike price that's much lower than where we are now." The Fed has had only limited success in slowing price increases, and a resilient labor market is pointing to continued inflation pressures. The result has been a Fed tightening policy more aggressively than it has done in at least 30 years, posing threats to economic and financial stability.

☆ Mini to Maestro, Part 1: Crosswords for Beginners
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Jackie Frere | Isaac Aronow | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Once you’ve gotten the hang of completing the Mini for about a week or so, it’s time to try a Monday puzzle. Diving into the dailyOpening up the daily crossword can be daunting, especially if it’s your first time solving. Yes, random facts and knowledge will come in handy when you’re filling out the crossword grid, but believe in yourself. “I start every puzzle the same way: I start in the northwest and work my way through,” she said. And they’re great at explaining what certain crossword clues are asking you to do, or how they might trick you.

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