The recession America was waiting for never came.Many economists spent early 2023 predicting a painful recession, a view so widely held that some commentators began to take it for granted. Inflation had soared to its highest level in decades, and a number of forecasters believed it would take falling demand and a prolonged jump in unemployment to combat it.Instead, the economy grew 3.1 percent last year, down from less than 1 percent in 2022 and faster than the five-year average before the pandemic. Inflation has fallen significantly. Unemployment remains at historic lows and consumers continue to spend even with Federal…
Author: newsintel365.com
The recession America was waiting for never came.Many economists spent early 2023 predicting a painful recession, a view so widely held that some commentators began to take it for granted. Inflation had soared to its highest level in decades, and a number of forecasters believed it would take falling demand and a prolonged jump in unemployment to combat it.Instead, the economy grew 3.1 percent last year, down from less than 1 percent in 2022 and faster than the five-year average before the pandemic. Inflation has fallen significantly. Unemployment remains at historic lows and consumers continue to spend even with Federal…
A Republican-appointed judge on Thursday denounced as “shameless” efforts by prominent Republican politicians to reframe the Jan. 6 uprising in a positive light, including portraying Trump supporters who dismissed Congress as having done nothing wrong and calling out those convicted of crimes political prisoners or hostages.”In my 37 years on the bench, I cannot recall a time when such unjust justifications of criminal activity have become more prevalent,” wrote Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the Federal District Court in Washington. “I am dismayed to see distortions and outright lies creeping into the public consciousness.”The remarks, made in a seven-page filing…
Rep. Lauren Boebert, the far-right stalwart, faced eight Republican challengers Thursday night in a debate in the new Colorado district she is seeking to represent in Congress.After barely winning re-election in Colorado’s Third Congressional District against a Democrat in 2022, he’s running this year in a much more conservative district, the Fourth. On Thursday night, Ms. Bobert appeared comfortable delivering fiery rhetoric and espousing her hard-right pro-Trump positions among her similarly conservative colleagues at the Fort Lupton debate.“Everybody will be talking like a Freedom Caucus member, but there is only one who is governing as a Freedom Caucus member,” Ms.…
Alabama carried out America’s first execution using nitrogen gas Thursday night, killing a convicted murderer whose jury voted to spare him life and opening a new frontier in how states execute death row inmates.The execution of condemned inmate Kenneth Smith, 58, began at 7:53 p.m. Central time and was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m. in an execution chamber in Atmore, Ala., according to John K. Hamm, the state. commissioner of the penitentiary system. The US Supreme Court allowed the execution to go ahead over the objections of its three liberal justices and the concerns of death penalty opponents that the…
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has complained that his state’s higher education system is “not working,” on Friday proposed a sweeping overhaul of the state’s sprawling college and university system that would lower tuition for many students and fix funding for individual schools. partly for their performance.The plan would consolidate 10 of Pennsylvania’s state universities and 15 community colleges under one governing umbrella, boost state funding for public higher education and allow low- to moderate-income students to pay just $1,000 a semester in tuition. Most of the plan would not affect Pennsylvania’s best-known public universities, including Penn State, Pittsburgh and…
The western United States and Canada are likely to see heavy rain and heavy snowfall from a series of atmospheric rivers beginning this weekend and continuing into next week.An atmospheric river is like a powerful fire hose with a single person holding it. It often has a narrow path with the longest and heaviest precipitation. It can be difficult to spot where the heaviest stream of water will fall. It could be strong in the San Francisco Bay Area and a little may fall in Southern California or vice versa.Early in the forecast, forecasters are confident the weather pattern is…
Driving into Davis from the Bay Area on Interstate 80 last week, I spotted a cow jumping over the moon.More specifically, I saw the long-standing sign for the old Milk Farm restaurant on Dixon, which I now learn, after reviewing reader comments about iconic landmarks along the road, is a landmark for many travelers to the Sacramento area. Seeing it in person made me feel like I got a glimpse of a whole new side of California that I had yet to explore.I wrote last week about popular roadside attractions like Pea Soup Andersen’s or Harris Ranch that can feel…
Alabama on Thursday carried out the first execution using nitrogen gas in the United States, an untested method that was the subject of debate before it was used. The inmate, Kenneth Smith, was pronounced dead at 8:25 p.m. central time at the William C. Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Ala., after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal for a stay of execution.Here are some things you should know about the case.Who was Kenneth Smith and what was his crime?Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58, was one of three men convicted in the stabbing death of Elizabeth Dorlene Sennett, 45, whose husband,…
Consumer confidence is up. Fears of a recession are easing. The economy is growing. And a corroded bridge in Wisconsin is getting more funding.It’s a wintry mix of positive news for President Biden, who traveled to the shores of a bay near Lake Superior on Thursday to stand at the foot of the Blatnik Bridge, a structure his administration said would have failed by 2030 without a $1 billion dollars An injection provided by the bipartisan infrastructure bill championed by Mr. Biden.The president was there to talk about infrastructure and the economy, and to contrast his performance with that of…