Linda Palmer usually sees a couple of hundred people line up for bags of produce, milk, eggs and more as she volunteers at her local food bank’s biweekly, hourlong distribution in the parking lot near the senior center in Hercules, Calif. But as she helped people sign in during one recent shift, she said, “we…
King Charles III has talked about being an environmentalist for many years — he even powers one of his personal cars on white wine and whey instead of petrol. More recently, imploring action from the world when speaking at high-profile climate-change conferences, like in Scotland in 2021, Charles sobered up the audience in declaring that…
While advocates for marijuana use 4/20 day in part to reiterate their call for nationwide legalization, their opponents are marking the weed holiday in a different way. One group that’s against legalization — Smart Approaches to Marijuana — is running a conference on Thursday in Washington, D.C., that’s dubbed the 2023 SAM Summit & Good…
A long-established report card grading air quality around the country has uncovered worrisome takeaways. For one, the American Lung Association, which issues the grades, finds that lung cancer among non-smokers is on the rise, with pollution considered a likely contributor. Second, communities of color are disproportionately exposed to unhealthy air and the serious pulmonary conditions…
Canadian pot producer Tilray Brands Inc. on Monday said it agreed to buy peer Hexo Corp. for $56 million in an all-stock deal — after years of losses, steep competition and stalled federal reform in the U.S. have weighed on the industry’s growth prospects. With weed prices falling in Canada, Hexo’s HEXO, +30.16% wrangling with…
The political climate in France has been running hot, with weeks of disruptive protests and strikes in reaction to a bump higher in the pension-collection age. Over an intense few days, Israel’s economy, including its major airport, was hobbled by a broad work stoppage that made frenemies of business owners and labor against a hardline…
Clean-energy incentives for homes and businesses featured prominently in last year’s broad Inflation Reduction Act. It’s the biggest U.S. legislative action for climate change to date, proclaim backers of President Joe Biden, speaking of the law that attracted little Republican support but still made it out of a then Democratic-controlled Congress and White House. Former…
Berkshire Hathaway’s operating earnings declined 8% in the fourth quarter to $6.7 billion after taxes, hurt by a drop in profits at the company’s railroad business and a decline in the U.S. dollar. Excluding the dollar’s fall, which increased the value of the company’s BRK.A, +0.51% BRK.B, +0.31% foreign-currency debt, Berkshire’s operating earnings for the period…
Back in the late 1970s, the White House was harvesting the power of the sun via solar panels. The country was also deep in the throes of global energy and inflation crises — sound familiar? Though the crises of the 1970s were arguably more shocking to the American public than today’s — as anyone who…
Scientists have been closely monitoring Antarctica’s “Doomsday” glacier since the 1970s. But recent studies show a faster rate of melting. And now the first-ever images from a pencil-shaped, 13-foot underwater robot reveal the critical softening point of the ice formation’s chaotic breakup, as scientists have described it. So here are five things to know about…
Friday marks two weeks since a Norfolk Southern Corp. freight train carrying hazardous materials in a few of its cars derailed at East Palestine, Ohio, on the Pennsylvania border. While no one was hurt in the initial derailment, the frightening incident — and the ominous black cloud when officials intentionally burned off the lingering chemicals…
Extreme weather, including an unexpected freeze in January 2022, and an incurable citrus disease that has affected orange groves have caused the cost of O.J. to rise. This is adding to the strain on household budgets already being squeezed by an overall rise in the U.S. cost of living. The cost of non-frozen, non-carbonated juices…
That’s the latest criticism of the established world order from Greta Thunberg, arguably the best-known face of the climate movement and perhaps of Gen Z politics writ large. If capitalism created the crisis, as Thunberg suggests, then leaning on its mechanisms to fix the crisis is a flawed idea, she says. Her takedown of capitalism…
I just started renting my house out on Airbnb. I started a limited liability company to keep the expenses separate from personal ones. I am trying to figure out what would be considered tax deductions in this scenario? I had my own marketing research LLC for around 25 years, so I know a lot —…
General inflation is easing, but the prices of some food items are not going down anytime soon. And the reasons are largely out of the Federal Reserve’s control. The Consumer Price Index cooled in December, falling to 6.5% year-over-year from 7.1% in November, according to government data. Still, food inflation rose by 10.4% in December compared…
Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell showed this month that he’s thinking about how recent lower immigration has factored into the ongoing U.S. labor shortage, but he said it’s not appropriate for the Fed to call for increased legal immigration to help alleviate the shortage. Could his remarks, careful as they were, somehow move the needle…
Food inflation appears to be finally cooling. Food prices rose 10.6% last month compared with a year ago, down from 10.9% in October, according to government data released this week. Grocery prices, categorized as “food at home,” rose 12% last month, down from 12.4% in October. The cost of dining out rose 8.5% in November,…
U.S. lawmakers are planning to unveil a sprawling spending package next week, and measures addressing retirement savings and preventing another Jan. 6 insurrection are expected to hitch rides along with it. The so-called omnibus spending bill could be unveiled as soon as Monday, and would finance government agencies’ day-to-day operations through Sept. 30. Comments from…
Congressional negotiators said they agreed on a framework for a fiscal 2023 government funding package, with lawmakers saying the breakthrough in talks puts them on course to vote next week before leaving for Christmas break. Late Tuesday, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D., Vt.) and House Appropropriations Committee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro (D., Conn.) released statements saying…
Common wisdom might suggest that an artificial Christmas tree, unboxed and redecorated year after year, is the smarter choice for an environmentally sound holiday home. But many gardening and climate-change experts want homeowners to “get real” when it comes to Christmas trees and their environmental impact. And taking this eco sensibility a step further, select…