The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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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...
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...
Consumer sentiment slides, but retail spending holds for now Retail and e-commerce are entering a fragile phase as they head into peak planning. Consumer sentiment is falling again, but the implications for the industry are more complex than a single headline suggests. Beneath the surface, spending remains unevenly resilient, shaped by rising costs, geopolitical instability, and widening financial pressure across income groups. For retail brands, the takeaway is not that demand is collapsing,...
How telehealth is reshaping access to mental health care in America As telehealth becomes a normalized part of healthcare, digital therapy platforms are helping expand access to mental health support by reducing traditional barriers such as geography, cost, and stigma. For generations, the greatest obstacle to mental health care was the courage it took to ask for help at all. That stigma has softened considerably over the past decade, but what took its place was something most people did not...
Tax refund fraud is surging in these states. Here's how to protect yourself before it's too late Whether you’re due to receive a tax refund this spring or not, it’s likely that there are scammers out there eager to get hold of your personal information. Each year, fraudsters take advantage of tax season to swipe personal details and, sometimes, even claim your tax return before you get a chance. With the addition of generative AI tools, which make impersonating tax officials a breeze, these sca...
Experts see a rising trend in pet humanization Sixty-nine percent of Millennials and Gen Z now view their pets as family members. It is a shift that has erased the old, rigid line between animal care and human lifestyle. Historically, our bond with animals was a functional trade: Dogs helped us hunt and cats managed pests in exchange for shelter. Now, that hierarchy is fading. Data from Euromonitor International confirms this isn’t just a social media trend. The hierarchy with humans at the t...
KinoMasterskaya // 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...
Tikkyshop // 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 are...
How to maintain weight loss after using a GLP-1 Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists are now widely used for weight loss. If you’re one of the millions of people in the U.S. taking one, you may be wondering what happens next. Do you need to keep taking it? What happens if you stop? Here’s what experts say about maintaining weight after GLP-1 treatment, reported by GoodRx, a platform for medication savings. Key takeaways: - Most people need to keep taking GLP-1 medications to pre...
How to save money on any budget When you’re already living paycheck to paycheck, learning how to budget to save money can feel out of reach. Rent, groceries, gas—it all adds up quickly. In fact, about one-third of U.S. adults say they’re living paycheck to paycheck, and more than 40% spend their paycheck within the first three days of receiving it. But don’t despair. Even if your budget is stretched thin, you can still start saving. "The most common thing I hear from people I work with is, ‘I...
Why direct mail is making a comeback: Small businesses turn to mailboxes to beat digital fatigue The economics of digital attention are reaching a breaking point for small business owners. According to the WordStream 2025 Google Ads Benchmarks, cost-per-click (CPC) increased for 87% of industries last year. For a lean enterprise, this inflation represents a significant drain on working capital. While the digital-first giants are chasing clicks, the mailbox is quietly becoming the most reliable...
No test can confirm perimenopause. Doctors say you should get one anyway If you’re in your mid-40s or older and having symptoms like hot flashes, brain fog, weight gain, sleep issues, and more, you might be wondering if a blood test can tell you whether you’re in perimenopause. It can’t. Hormone levels fluctuate too widely during this transition for any single test to tell you where you are on your menopause journey. But doctors strongly encourage getting a blood test during perimenopause to ru...
How to save money on any budget When you’re already living paycheck to paycheck, learning how to budget to save money can feel out of reach. Rent, groceries, gas—it all adds up quickly. In fact, about one-third of U.S. adults say they’re living paycheck to paycheck, and more than 40% spend their paycheck within the first three days of receiving it. But don’t despair. Even if your budget is stretched thin, you can still start saving. "The most common thing I hear from people I work with is, ‘I...
The mental health stigma is changing: What America’s increasing therapy rates reveal As more Americans seek therapy than ever before, shifting attitudes toward mental health are revealing a broader cultural change in how people approach emotional well-being. Nearly 9 in 10 U.S. adults now say that having a mental health condition is nothing to be ashamed of, and 83% report feeling comfortable talking about their mental health openly. That level of acceptance reflects a meaningful shift in how Am...
Retirement savings by state Tax-advantaged retirement accounts can give savers a leg up in building their nest egg. While many American workers qualify for Social Security benefits in retirement, these benefits are rarely enough to cover expenses — especially since retirement often brings added costs for health care and aging. On average, Americans have roughly one year’s worth of their current annual income saved in tax-advantaged accounts. For most households, that figure hovers around $80...
Currency and commodity hedging for middle markets More than five years of cross‑current volatility in currencies, commodities and interest rates has middle market companies thinking longer and acting faster about hedging risk. Markets moved hard in 2025: The dollar sold off roughly 10% in the first half, then settled into a tighter range, reminding treasurers that timing and tenor matter. "We’ve seen all kinds of things happen. What we’ve mainly seen is a real push to look at longe...
