Category: Finance

The phone rings, and it’s your grandson’s shaken voice. There’s been an accident, he says, and he needs money before anyone finds out. Except it isn’t him. It’s software that learned his voice from a clip posted online, run by a stranger working through a list of phone numbers. For years, warnings about artificial intelligence […]

A string of major disasters in 2026 have had devastating consequences. Earthquakes in Venezuela and Colombia and floods and mudslides in Nepal have killed tens of thousands of people and injured many more. Countless people remain missing and hundreds of thousands of homes are damaged, with some entire neighborhoods destroyed. The responses have been global. […]

The Trump administration wants to strip all nonprofit colleges, universities and private K-12 schools of their tax-exempt status if any of their programs designed to help students uses race as a criterion for eligibility. This change is included in a rule the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service proposed on Sept. 3, 2026. The rule […]

Solo travel is surging – and an industry still largely built for two is taking note. Google reported in April 2026 that online searches involving “solo travel” hit an all-time high this year, with queries for “women solo travel” reaching a 15-year peak. Hilton’s 2026 trends report found that 26% of travelers planned to take […]

El Niño is here, and forecasters warn that it’s likely to be bigger and stronger in 2026-27 than any El Niño event recorded in at least 150 years. During strong El Niños, global air and ocean temperatures spike, and precipitation patterns shift dramatically – flooding rains deluge places that are normally dry, and drought strikes […]

Drawing on 14 years of data, we examined whether access to broadband internet could improve Americans’ use of time and found that a 10% increase in broadband adoption across a community corresponds to a 1.19% reduction in waiting time. Losing time waiting for goods and services is a reality millions of Americans face. Whether standing […]

A lot has changed since college athletes began earning compensation in 2021. A small percentage have become rich due to their talent and marketability. The vast majority, however, have earned much more modest additional income, if any at all. But one thing hasn’t changed: Opponents of college students cashing in on marketing their name, image […]

When the Sundance Film Festival begins in Boulder, Colorado, on Jan. 21, 2027, tens of thousands of filmmakers and moviegoers will descend on the city. The influx of film aficionados will bring a problem familiar to cities that host large events: Those out-of-town visitors will all need lodging at the same time. Boulder has traditionally […]

Funding and planning for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence fell largely to two nonprofits with similar names: America250 and Freedom 250. That similarity has sowed a lot of confusion over who was in charge of which celebrations. And according to a report House Democrats released on July 2, 2026, […]

Food assistance is one of the most effective tools for fighting poverty in America. New federal rules are testing that reputation. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP, helps low-income people afford groceries. The program’s benefits reach far beyond the grocery bill, with research linking the program to better outcomes for K-12 students […]