The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 2724
5 big questions to help you understand the current state of student loans Washington is sending confusing and even contradictory signals to people with student loans. New repayment plans, reversals on wage garnishment for people in default and trouble getting staffers on the phone to clear up problems are adding to the lack of clarity. Last year, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal agency set up to help consumers, received more complaints about student loans than in any year in...
Michigan measles outbreak shows high cost of stopping even a small number of infections from spreading The small measles outbreak that health officials are combating in Michigan began last month with an unvaccinated young woman returning home from visiting Florida, a state where there have been more than 140 cases this year. Her first symptoms around March 7 seemed like a cold. By the time the telltale measles rash appeared a few days later, she had exposed her family and scores of other people...
Construction faces rising costs and delays as supply chains strain in 2026 It’s a new era of uncertainty in construction. An industry already navigating labor shortages, regulatory pressure, and increasing sustainability demands is now contending with a more persistent and complex challenge: supply chain disruption. In 2026, construction must now focus on managing volatility across global sourcing, transportation, and pricing, often all at once, WSI reports. The way that projects are planned and...
7 commonly overlooked steps when starting a small business There’s a moment every new business owner knows well, the mix of excitement and uncertainty that hits once you decide to go for it. You have the idea, the energy and maybe even your first few customers. Then come the practical questions: Should I register as an LLC or S Corp? How do I pay myself? What happens when I hire someone? Starting a business often feels like wearing many hats at once: sales, HR, customer service, manager, o...
3 cheapest places to golf this spring As temperatures start to warm around the U.S., golfers pull out their clubs and start taking practice swings. It’s time for a spring golf trip, and the options continue to get better. While golf has a long history in the U.S. and U.K., it’s becoming more and more popular around the world. New courses in Thailand and elsewhere are opening up options for affordable, exciting golf trips. A U.S. golf trip is still appealing as well, especially in places lik...
Electric RVs in 2026: What's real and what's not The electric RV market is worth roughly $500 million right now. By 2030, analysts project it'll hit $2 billion. But here's the thing nobody in the press releases mentions: As of early 2026, you still can't walk into a dealership and buy one. The biggest names in the industry (Winnebago, Thor, Mercedes) have spent years showing off prototypes, running pilot programs, and teasing "coming soon" timelines. Meanwhile, a startup in Colorado is quietly...
Your tax return is filed. Now here's what's quietly draining your cash For small business owners, the weeks after tax season make cash flow problems harder to ignore — and the latest data points to a few clear causes. Tax season ends with a moment of relief: The return is filed and the paperwork is done. But expenses don’t stop. For small business owners, the period right after tax season is one of the most financially exposed windows of the year. According to a 2025 QuickBooks survey, 43% of...
The mental health impact of financial stress A sharp rise in the costs of groceries, everyday products, and housing — paired with growing unemployment and worries about the economy — can keep anyone up at night. If you’re frequently concerned about money, it can affect your health, mood, and ability to focus. Sometimes financial stress is temporary, like when you need to pay for an unexpected car or home repair. Other times, it can be caused by ongoing challenges like rising prices, debt, or no...
3 ways PR teams can understand how AI sees their brand Artificial intelligence is changing the way audiences discover and evaluate brands. Today, AI-generated answers often shape first impressions — and traditional monitoring and SEO tools don’t show the full picture. As McKinsey & Company noted in 2025, AI-generated summaries now appear in roughly 50% of Google searches, meaning audiences often decide whether they trust or engage with a company before clicking a link. As AI increasingly sha...
Robots that can build colonies on Mars are already practicing in California You can't joystick a robot on Mars in real time. Radio signals from Earth take up to 22 minutes to arrive. This simple fact has stalled space construction for decades. The dream of building in space has long remained just that: an aspiration, a vision of an extraterrestrial jumping-off point for exploring the cosmos. But the gap between dream and reality is narrowing, driven by rapid advancements in AI and robotics....
10 report: Costs of long-term care and senior living Understanding the costs of long-term care is an essential part of planning for senior living and in-home care. A Place for Mom provides proprietary cost benchmarks drawn from its nationwide network of partner communities and agencies. This report includes cost data for senior living — independent living, assisted living, and memory care — as well as home care. Senior living figures reflect actual monthly costs paid by residents who moved int...
Freight carriers pivot to weekly rate updates amid global fuel volatility The beginning of April 2026 saw the U.S. extend its national security tariff umbrella to the healthcare sector, imposing a massive 100% duty on foreign pharmaceuticals to decouple medical supply chains, Freight Right reports. This aggressive unilateralism stands in stark opposition to the EU's recent diplomatic successes, such as the inevitable ratification of the Mercosur deal, which seeks to secure critical minerals...
Student loan debt by state Over $32.4 billion dollars in student loan debt remained unpaid across U.S. states in 2025. Student loan debt can have a lasting impact on a household’s finances, just like the benefits of the right education and application can have a lasting impact on career and income. It’s important to weigh the costs and potential benefits, as the wrong educational investment can leave people carrying student debt for decades. Nationwide, an average of 12.55% of adults carry stude...
Why ‘normal’ labs aren’t enough: Closing the nutrition and lifestyle gap in prenatal care Ana was five months pregnant with her second child, and from the moment she sat down, she was visibly exhausted — not just physically but in that bone-deep way that comes from trying hard and still not feeling like yourself. She was struggling with fatigue, mood swings, and anxiety that hadn't lifted since the first trimester. Her labs were normal, and ultrasounds were right on track. When asked a few more...
Skinny isn’t the same as strong Weight loss has become easier to achieve, but the tradeoffs aren’t always apparent right away. For many patients starting GLP-1 medications, the early results can feel drastic, even disorienting, NutraBio reports. Taryn J. Mitchell, a 54-year-old banker from Greensboro, North Carolina, began losing weight rapidly after starting Wegovy, without the strict diet and exercise routine she had relied on for years. But alongside that progress came something less exp...
How families really pay for senior care, and why so many feel unprepared Paying for senior care is a complex financial responsibility, and many families begin the process believing they understand the costs and have a plan to cover them. But once care begins, that confidence often breaks down as the full scope and variability of costs become clear. This A Place for Mom report examines why families ultimately feel unprepared, the gap between what they expect to pay and what care actually costs,...
Media_Photos // Shutterstock Movies and TV shows casting in Mobile The glitz and glam of Hollywood captures attention starting from an early age. Beyond celebrities' Instagram Stories and red carpet poses, there are actors out there paying their dues and honing their craft in pursuit of a sustainable career or a fulfilling sideline. Submitting to casting calls is a big part of that journey. Whether you're a working actor or an aspiring one, you might be curious to know which movies and TV shows...
Media_Photos // Shutterstock Movies and TV shows casting in Birmingham The glitz and glam of Hollywood captures attention starting from an early age. Beyond celebrities' Instagram Stories and red carpet poses, there are actors out there paying their dues and honing their craft in pursuit of a sustainable career or a fulfilling sideline. Submitting to casting calls is a big part of that journey. Whether you're a working actor or an aspiring one, you might be curious to know which movies and TV...
What should you do if your medication isn’t covered by insurance? 4 tips and tactics, plus how to file an appeal It’s frustrating when your health insurance doesn’t cover your medication. A drug that appears on a formulary — the list of medications covered by a health insurance plan — can get dropped anytime. This can happen if a medication is seldom used, there is a generic or biosimilar available, or a more affordable option exists. Whatever the reason, you’re stuck with the full cost even t...
12 million times a year, drivers illegally pass a stopped school bus. America just got its first plan to stop them. Every school day, a yellow bus pulls to the curb, red lights flash, the stop arm swings out, and somewhere in America, a driver blows right past it anyway. Not occasionally. Not rarely. Approximately 39 million times a year. That's the national estimate for illegal school bus stop-arm violations. Put another way, every school bus in the country gets illegally passed roughly once...
Microschools are seeing an enrollment surge this year Kara Fox did not want to wait. A mom of two, she was frustrated by the fall semester at her children’s traditional private school near Omaha, Nebraska — particularly for her 12-year-old son, Gavin. “He just felt so hopeless already in the second quarter, before the end of the first semester,” said Fox, explaining that the rigidity of a conventional classroom and curriculum weren’t working well for her son, who has ADHD and is on the autis...
Construction faces rising costs and delays as supply chains strain in 2026 It’s a new era of uncertainty in construction. An industry already navigating labor shortages, regulatory pressure, and increasing sustainability demands is now contending with a more persistent and complex challenge: supply chain disruption. In 2026, construction must now focus on managing volatility across global sourcing, transportation, and pricing, often all at once, WSI reports. The way that projects are planned and...
The deadly combination of pregnancy and rural living in the United States Aisha didn’t know it yet, but by the time she reached the hospital, it was too late. After more than a week of struggling to access maternal care—long drives to a distant clinic, confusing insurance forms, and even longer drives to the hospital—she miscarried the pregnancy she had longed for. Aisha, who is using only her first name for safety reasons, made the long drive home alone. Many other rural women in Texas never...
Americans want smarter surveillance. They just don’t trust who’s watching. Consider this: What are the implications when technology designed to enhance safety also creates discomfort? This tension is evident in cities nationwide. Smart surveillance systems, including connected cameras, AI-powered monitoring, and police drones, are now standard tools for emergency response. These technologies deliver faster detection, quicker dispatch, and improved coordination during critical moments. How...
The truth about gut health The "cast iron stomach" myth persists in gastroenterology offices. When patients say they can eat “anything,” they’re saying they believe they should be able to tolerate all foods under all circumstances. Yet this is a fundamental misunderstanding of the gut’s complexity. The gut is not a passive tube but a complex system that houses the digestive tract and is the body’s largest immune organ. It contains about 70% of all immune cells and even has its own nervous s...
