The people's voice of reason
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When the air conditioning broke in a Terrebonne Parish school, it sometimes got so hot that kids fainted or had asthma attacks, and the school had to call an ambulance. More often, the school sent kids home early. In the best-case scenario, students packed into classrooms with working AC or relocated to the gym or cafeteria to escape the southeast Louisiana heat. So when the school district got its final federal COVID-19 relief package in 2021, school officials made fixing the AC a top...
Research sends mixed signals. How real is summer learning loss? Summertime can mean many things: vacations, lazy days at home, and ice-cold sweet treats, but definitely not schoolwork. Many kids eagerly await summer during the school year, hungry to take an extended break. Parents, too, might feel the same, excited about extra time with their children, but not without worrying all the free time could lead to the dreaded summer slide, also called summer learning loss or summer setback. "What if m...
Summer 2024 has already been record-meltingly hot, and it's not over yet—meteorologists predict that August is going to be even warmer. Part of the extreme heat this summer has to do with a long period of El Niño. These are conditions that make the surface waters in the eastern Pacific warmer—and bring with it warmer land temperatures, too. Though El Niño subsided earlier in the season, the transition to cooler La Niña conditions won't happen until late summer or early fall. Coupled with alread...
A regular habit of saving and investing is critical for financial independence; however, the practise of regularly setting money aside in a savings account or investment account can be hard. Enter the concept of automatic investing, or auto-investing. The concept isn't new with many cryptocurrency traders quite familiar with the advantages of auto-investing and many tech-savvy traders using scheduled transfers and execution orders to set up automatic trading strategies. However, for many...
Pets provide comfort and companionship, but they can also be a big financial responsibility. Emergency veterinary surgery can run anywhere from $1,500 to $7,000, according to 2024 data from Yelp; pulling a tooth can cost $500 to $3,000. Pet insurance can ease some of the worry of pet ownership by helping cover the cost of veterinary care if your pet gets sick or is injured. To see how pet owners feel about pet insurance, Experian recently surveyed more than 1,200 consumers. Nearly 1 in 3 Pet Own...
Traveling abroad can be an expensive proposition. But with international travel rates up and economic factors favoring American travelers, many global destinations are more affordable than domestic travel for U.S. jet-setters—especially now. Four years after international travel ground to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 285 million tourists in the first quarter of 2024 traveled internationally, 97% of 2019 levels, according to the United Nations. That metric results from a strong...
The American sports betting boom is a freight train hurtling down the track. Despite increasing calls for regulation, there's no sign it will slow down as states in on the action continue raking in absurd sums. With climbing revenue, tax revenues climb too. According to the American Gaming Association, in the first quarter of 2024, gamblers wagered a record $36.86 billion on sports, creating $3.33 billion in revenue—and $804.5 million in tax revenue. Sports betting behemoth New York tops the l...
Which U.S. counties are most likely to be impacted by hurricanes? With a hectic hurricane season forecasted for this summer, LawnStarter ranked 2024's most hurricane-vulnerable counties. The rankings considered hurricane risk assessments and anticipated financial loss from hurricanes according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). It also included the past 10 years of historical storm data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and access to national...
A new report from the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, has found that more fish were farmed worldwide in 2022 than harvested from the wild, an apparent first. Last week, the FAO released its annual report on the state of aquaculture — which refers to the farming of both seafood and aquatic plants — and fisheries around the world. The organization found that global production from both aquaculture and fisheries reached a new high — 223.3 million metric tons of anima...
While the median sale price of U.S. homes is just shy of $421,000 in Q1 2024, homes in some areas more than doubled that average. These expensive places may prevent hopeful first-time homebuyers from investing in the area, making renting – or even moving to a less expensive area – a better alternative. In some cases, high wages and demand keeps the pressure up on a lackluster supply of homes. With this in mind, SmartAsset ranked the 100 largest metro areas based on the average home sale pri...
In a recent episode of her "Women & Money" podcast, personal finance expert Suze Orman provided key insights into the benefits of inheriting a Roth IRA compared to a traditional IRA, emphasizing how the former can simplify the lives of beneficiaries. One listener had a question about the best strategy for an inherited Roth IRA, asking for clarification on whether it was best to wait until the 10th year to withdraw funds to allow the money to grow tax-free for that entire period. Orman confirmed...
As governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz relied on his experience as a former high school teacher and football coach to champion education in his home state. Now, he may have the opportunity to impact education policy from the White House as Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris' running mate. Harris on Aug. 6 picked Walz, 60, as her choice for vice president, according to The Associated Press. As BestColleges reports, Walz, who earned a bachelor's degree from Chadron State College in...
There's not much worse than seeing police car lights in your rearview mirror as you're being signaled to pull over. A speeding ticket with a hefty fine is a financial pain that you can no doubt do without. If you've recently received a speeding ticket, you may be wondering whether this will affect the average car insurance rates you pay with your insurance company. The short answer is that you may not necessarily see an increase at all, although there are some circumstances where you will....
Gasoline prices haven't changed much in several weeks, and on average they sit about 45 cents lower than this same time last year. For the majority of the season, filling up the tank has cost as much—if not less—than it did last summer, according to AAA data. That trend may continue as the weather cools down and seasonal travel demand falls. Hurricane Ernesto veered away from the U.S. this week and spared drivers the impact of damaged oil and gas infrastructure, even if it is causing tur...
Gasoline prices haven't changed much in several weeks, and on average they sit about 45 cents lower than this same time last year. For the majority of the season, filling up the tank has cost as much—if not less—than it did last summer, according to AAA data. That trend may continue as the weather cools down and seasonal travel demand falls. Hurricane Ernesto veered away from the U.S. this week and spared drivers the impact of damaged oil and gas infrastructure, even if it is causing tur...
Gasoline prices haven't changed much in several weeks, and on average they sit about 45 cents lower than this same time last year. For the majority of the season, filling up the tank has cost as much—if not less—than it did last summer, according to AAA data. That trend may continue as the weather cools down and seasonal travel demand falls. Hurricane Ernesto veered away from the U.S. this week and spared drivers the impact of damaged oil and gas infrastructure, even if it is causing tur...
Gasoline prices haven't changed much in several weeks, and on average they sit about 45 cents lower than this same time last year. For the majority of the season, filling up the tank has cost as much—if not less—than it did last summer, according to AAA data. That trend may continue as the weather cools down and seasonal travel demand falls. Hurricane Ernesto veered away from the U.S. this week and spared drivers the impact of damaged oil and gas infrastructure, even if it is causing tur...
Gasoline prices haven't changed much in several weeks, and on average they sit about 45 cents lower than this same time last year. For the majority of the season, filling up the tank has cost as much—if not less—than it did last summer, according to AAA data. That trend may continue as the weather cools down and seasonal travel demand falls. Hurricane Ernesto veered away from the U.S. this week and spared drivers the impact of damaged oil and gas infrastructure, even if it is causing tur...
Gasoline prices haven't changed much in several weeks, and on average they sit about 45 cents lower than this same time last year. For the majority of the season, filling up the tank has cost as much—if not less—than it did last summer, according to AAA data. That trend may continue as the weather cools down and seasonal travel demand falls. Hurricane Ernesto veered away from the U.S. this week and spared drivers the impact of damaged oil and gas infrastructure, even if it is causing tur...
Gasoline prices haven't changed much in several weeks, and on average they sit about 45 cents lower than this same time last year. For the majority of the season, filling up the tank has cost as much—if not less—than it did last summer, according to AAA data. That trend may continue as the weather cools down and seasonal travel demand falls. Hurricane Ernesto veered away from the U.S. this week and spared drivers the impact of damaged oil and gas infrastructure, even if it is causing tur...
Gasoline prices haven't changed much in several weeks, and on average they sit about 45 cents lower than this same time last year. For the majority of the season, filling up the tank has cost as much—if not less—than it did last summer, according to AAA data. That trend may continue as the weather cools down and seasonal travel demand falls. Hurricane Ernesto veered away from the U.S. this week and spared drivers the impact of damaged oil and gas infrastructure, even if it is causing tur...
Gasoline prices haven't changed much in several weeks, and on average they sit about 45 cents lower than this same time last year. For the majority of the season, filling up the tank has cost as much—if not less—than it did last summer, according to AAA data. That trend may continue as the weather cools down and seasonal travel demand falls. Hurricane Ernesto veered away from the U.S. this week and spared drivers the impact of damaged oil and gas infrastructure, even if it is causing turbulence...
Gasoline prices haven't changed much in several weeks, and on average they sit about 45 cents lower than this same time last year. For the majority of the season, filling up the tank has cost as much—if not less—than it did last summer, according to AAA data. That trend may continue as the weather cools down and seasonal travel demand falls. Hurricane Ernesto veered away from the U.S. this week and spared drivers the impact of damaged oil and gas infrastructure, even if it is causing tur...
To be a top earner in these states, your annual salary will need to top $1 million The U.S. median income is around $75,000, with half of Americans earning less than that. High-income earners, on the other hand, can make 10 times that – or more. This top 1% also makes up a disproportionately large part of the tax base, with their incomes generally putting them in the highest federal tax bracket rate at 37%. While state and local level taxes may impact the spread of high earners in those a...
"What serves my children best is play-based learning that allows kids the space to learn in the place where they learn best. Play is the language of students, it's where they're the experts and it's where they're able to have a lot of fun and have a lot of joy, but also develop the critical executive functioning skills that determine life outcomes," Baltimore prekindergarten teacher Berol Dewdney told NPR in 2022. The word "education" is often associated with high school or college, where...