Mortgage rates

Mortgage rates rose in 37 of the 50 states between Q1 2026 and Q2 2026, the personal-finance company WalletHub today released its new report on the States Where Mortgage Interest Rates Are Increasing the Most, based on proprietary user data.  For the full report, please visit

Word

“Arresting journalists. Fatally shooting protestors. Turning the military on citizens. Attempting to rig elections. Toying with the idea of declaring martial law. If this were happening in another country, what would you call it?” ‑ Robert Reich

Stores charging more than price listed

The Guardian – Marco Cruz pulled off a four-lane road into the parking lot of a Circle K convenience store in McAllen, Texas, 12 miles north of the US-Mexico border. It was 1.20am on a mild November night in 2025, and Cruz was looking for a bedtime snack after a day of visiting family and friends. He grabbed a pack of beef and jalapeño cheese sticks from the shelf, where they were priced at $3.99. At the counter, though, they rang up at $4.19.

Cruz asked the cashier to charge him the lower shelf price. The employee refused, he said, and threatened to call the police when Cruz grew more insistent. “All I’m asking you is honor the price,” Cruz told the attendant before leaving the store and, later, filing a complaint with the Texas attorney general.

Problems like these – register prices that exceed shelf prices, or advertised sales that don’t materialize – were becoming a regular annoyance for the 29-year-old. In just six months, Cruz said, he had run into similar issues at convenience stores at least five times. Earlier that day, he tried to buy two bottles of water at the same Circle K after seeing an in-store promotion offering a free energy drink with any such purchase. At the register, he said, the manager told him the offer was no longer valid.

Cruz is not alone, a Guardian investigation has found.

The country’s two biggest convenience-store chains – 7-Eleven and Circle K – routinely charge customers more than the shelf prices for snacks, beverages, toiletries, tobacco and medications. Between 2023 and 2025, Circle K locations failed 35% of their government price-accuracy inspections in Florida, 62% in North Carolina and 82% in Columbus, Ohio. Over the same period, its larger rival, 7-Eleven, flunked 47% of inspections in both Colorado and Utah and 79% in Ontario county in upstate New York.

In some cases, inspections turn up multiple overcharges in a single sample. This February at a 7-Eleven in Cruz’s home town, Casa Grande, Arizona, a state inspection found that 12 out of the 25 items rang up higher at checkout than what was listed on the shelf – a 48% error rate.

Donald Trump

MS NOW - President Donald Trump is treating Chinese President Xi Jinping to a three-day White House extravaganza featuring blaring trumpets, stealth bomber and fighter jet flyovers, and the U.S. Marine Band playing both the American and Chinese national anthems.

Also planned to honor the Chinese leader: an opulent state dinner, a private tea meeting and hundreds of U.S. military personnel from all branches marching and carrying flags from both countries

 “This is basically two geopolitical strongmen circling each other on the playground, trying to determine what their next move is,” Kurt Campbell, now the chairman and co-founder of The Asia Group, said.

Dealing with extreme heat

Axios - As extreme heat makes afternoons more dangerous, schools, sports teams and outdoor employers are shifting when — and sometimes whether — people can safely be outside.  Adapting to hotter conditions could reshape the American workday while putting a premium on the cooling and energy infrastructure people rely on when outdoor conditions become unsafe.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends that employers facing dangerous heat consider moving work to early morning or late afternoon, shortening shifts, rotating workers and reducing strenuous work during the hottest parts of the day.

• California's new Extreme Heat Action Plan links protecting heat-vulnerable groups, including workers, with expanding access to indoor cooling and strengthening energy systems to reduce grid strain and outages.
• Oregon's statewide heat-illness prevention rule kicks in when the heat index reaches 80°F, requiring water, shade and acclimatization, with additional measures such as preventive cooldown rest breaks at 90°F, Oregon OSHA told Axios.

Oregon OSHA conducted 3,104 inspections addressing heat and issued 408 citations totaling $652,640 in initial penalties from 2022 to 2025, according to data shared with Axios.

….The bottom line: Shifting the clock can buy people relief from extreme heat — but as the number of dangerously hot hours grows, there may be fewer safe hours to shift into.  Full story

Reporters' White House issue status

NBC News - CNN, MS NOW and Politico journalists were allowed back at the White House Thursday after they had been barred entry despite an overnight court order requiring the administration to temporarily restore their access.

CNN’s Betsy Klein and MS NOW’s Laura Barrón-López, who are White House reporters for their organizations, began reporting live on the air after they were allowed in. Both media outlets pointed to the on-air reporting when asked for comment. Politico wrote shortly afterward that one of its reporters was granted access, too.

On Thursday morning, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the Trump administration to respond in writing after journalists from the three media outlets were turned away from the White House even after the judge’s order. Kelly early in the morning had granted a temporary restraining order reinstating the outlets’ access for 14 days while their legal challenge proceeds. It was not clear why the journalists had been barred from entry in the morning.

EARLIER STORY

The Hill - CNN, MS NOW and Politico reporters were unable to access the White House on Thursday, despite a federal judge ordering the Trump administration to immediately restore their press credentials.

CNN reporter Betsy Klein and a photojournalist were also denied access to the White House grounds early Wednesday, while one CNN producer was able to enter the property using their pass, the outlet reported.

“There was no reason provided for the refusal and CNN will continue to try to gain access as regular business hours start,” CNN’s story on the matter noted.

MS NOW also noted on its website that its reporter was blocked from the White House after the court ruling came in overnight.

A Politico reporter, meanwhile, “was denied access” to the White House on Thursday, and his press credentials were “confiscated,” according to the organization.

The journalists were blocked from the grounds before 9 a.m. EDT. Given the timing, there is a possibility the ruling was not yet processed....

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ruled early Thursday that the White House must grant reporters from the blocked outlets access to the White House complex, days after the media organizations sued after President Trump banned their journalists from his residence.

Polls

Study Finds - More than half (54%) of 2,000 U.S. adults said their mental load is at maximum capacity during a typical week, rising to 67% among current caregivers of aging family members. Most current and former caregivers (62%) said the role arrived as a sudden need, and 31% felt financially unprepared. 

The Hill  -  A new survey found that a majority of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track and that more Americans would vote for a Democratic candidate over a Republican candidate in the 2026 midterm elections. The survey, commissioned by the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) Action and American Policy Ventures and conducted by Cygnal and Impact Research, was conducted among 1,500 likely general election voters between Sept. 1-2. It found that 60.5 percent of respondents believed that the country is mostly or definitely on the wrong track.

Best cities for those with disabilities

WalletHub compared more than 180 U.S. cities across 33 key indicators of disability-friendliness. The data set ranges from wheelchair-accessible facilities per capita to the rate of workers with disabilities to the quality of the public hospital system.
 

Best Cities for People With Disabilities	Worst Cities for People With Disabilities
1. St. Louis, MO	173. Cheyenne, WY
2. Minneapolis, MN	174. Winston-Salem, NC
3. Columbus, OH	175. Shreveport, LA
4. Huntington Beach, CA	176. Laredo, TX
5. St. Paul, MN	177. Jackson, MS
6. Grand Rapids, MI	178. Pearl City, HI
7. Scottsdale, AZ	179. Gulfport, MS
8. Pittsburgh, PA	180. Montgomery, AL
9. Kansas City, MO	181. South Burlington, VT
10. Columbia, MD	182. Juneau, AK

 
Best vs. Worst

• Fort Smith, Arkansas and Gulfport, Mississippi, has the highest share of people with disabilities living in the area, which is 3.5 times higher than in Irvine, California, the city with the lowest.
   
• Pearl City, Hawaii, has the lowest share of people with disabilities living in poverty, which is 4.3 times lower than in Cleveland, Ohio, the city with the highest.
   
• Columbus, Ohio and Laredo, Texas, have the lowest median annual cost of in-home services, which is 3.9 times lower than in Cheyenne, Wyoming, the city with the highest.
   
• Fremont, California, has the highest median annual earnings for people with disabilities, which is 8.4 times higher than in Burlington, Vermont, the city with the lowest.

Trump face coins blocked

Deep Stare Tribunal -  Senate Democrats and a few Republicans blocked a Trump-backed crypto bill at the last minute, keeping Americans under a messy patchwork of agency rules instead of clear law.

The Clarity Act failed a 60-vote hurdle in the Senate after heavy lobbying and revisions.  Democrats cited ethics concerns tied to President Trump’s crypto interests despite newsafeguards. ….

The vote ended 49–50 after months of talks, hearings, and lobbying by industry and consumer voices. This was a procedural vote, not final passage, but it stopped debate cold. The loss leaves Americans stuck with unclear, shifting rules from agencies instead of a stable law. Markets and entrepreneurs now face more uncertainty about how to build here.

Why Trump's first ballroom architect resigned

Washington Post - In the weeks leading up to his resignation last year, the first architect on the White House ballroom clashed with President Donald Trump over design features that the architect believed violated building safety codes, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions and corroborating documents reviewed by The Washington Post.

James McCrery II withdrew from the project last October after warning repeatedly that Trump was insisting on a preliminary design that did not provide adequate emergency exit routes or fire-containment measures, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the private discussions.

Trump brushed off McCrery’s concerns, they said, and the president countered that no building codes apply to White House construction.

“I am the code,” Trump said.

That episode, as described by the people familiar with the matter, offers new insight into Trump’s priorities for the ballroom at a time when he is flexing executive power to fast-track construction projects across the nation’s capital. The interviews and documents obtained by The Post — including early ballroom designs and images Trump appeared to have marked up with his trademark black-ink Sharpie — also show how deeply involved the president has been in the details of the project….

Trump’s White House construction projects are being routed through the Executive Residence, a tiny office that is not a federal agency and is therefore exempt from rules governing agencies.

Artificial intelligence

Forward Future - Local opposition blocks or delays 45 US data center projects worth $68 billion, adding pressure on developers to address power, water and land demands. Data Center Watch identifies 843 opposition groups across 49 states, while 30 statehouses have introduced or adopted related measures. The disputes come as AI infrastructure spending accelerates

Climate

Time - The heat waves Europe has seen in recent years were made measurably more intense because of the greenhouse gases emitted since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, according to a new study published Tuesday in Geophysical Research Letters.  …

The findings come on the heels of this summer's back-to-back heat waves on the continent, which broke heat records and contributed to at least 35,000 excess deaths. 

The findings come on the heels of this summer's back-to-back heat waves on the continent, which broke heat records and contributed to at least 35,000 excess deaths. 

Polls

Independent - A CNN/SRSS poll released Tuesday found that just about one in four Americans approve of the administration’s handling of the war in Iran, compared to nearly three quarters who disapprove. Trump’s rating on foreign affairs overall is only a few points higher, at 29 percent.

Showing up for a job interview with iced coffee

Newsweek - A seemingly innocuous drink has ignited a fierce debate across TikTok, LinkedIn and other social media platforms: Should candidates bring an iced coffee to a job interview? The discussion began after recruiter Caitlin Wehniainen, who said she had 16 years of experience recruiting for Fortune 500 companies, posted a TikTok video criticizing the practice.

"Gen Z candidates are showing up to their interviews with iced coffee in hand," Wehniainen said in the video posted last week, adding that it signals to recruiters that the interview is just a "stop on your list of errands to do for the day."

Her comments appear to have struck a nerve, prompting thousands of responses from recruiters, career coaches and job seekers, many of whom are sharply divided over whether carrying a cold brew into an interview is unprofessional or completely harmless.

The debate has become about far more than coffee. At its core, the argument reflects a broader generational clash over workplace norms, professionalism and what employers should value during hiring.

Some recruiters argue that an iced coffee can send unintended signals about a candidate's seriousness, while many Gen Z workers see these concerns as outdated and disconnected from their actual job performance.

 

Health

Independent -  Taco Bell is still struggling to pull customers back after it was connected to the Cyclospora outbreak over the summer that caused more than 20,000 people to fall ill across the country. The chain was among those that used iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms, which was identified as the source of the outbreak by the federal government.

Taco Bell pulled many of its ingredients, including the iceberg lettuce, early on during the outbreak, but its identification as a potential vector for the illness resulted in a major decline in traffic from which it has yet to fully recover, according to Restaurant Business Online.

The Hill – Vance-led task force set to remove 750K Obamacare enrollees, citing fraudThe Hill. The effort is led by Vance’s White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, which has been focusing much of its efforts on healthcare.  

“This is not about cutting off anybody from their benefits. It’s about cutting off fraudsters from stealing from these programs,” Vance said Tuesday.  Oz and Vance said they were not concerned about real people getting kicked off their plans as a result of the new crackdown because most of them filed no claims, had no Social Security number or never responded to outreach efforts.  

High-mileage electric cars more reliable than petrol ones, study finds

The Guardian - Motorists buying a secondhand car with a lot of miles on the clock are likely to find an electric vehicle (EV) ultimately more reliable than a petrol vehicle, according to a study.  An analysis of 47.4m MOT tests found that after cars were driven 90,000 to 120,000 miles, EVs were about 25% less likely to fail than petrol models of the same age (based on a failure rate of 16.5% versus 22.1%).  Beyond 120,000 miles, 16% of EVs failed, compared with 23.5% of petrol cars. The study found relatively little difference between the two fuel types at lower mileages.

Donald Trump

Fact-Checking Trump’s Speech at the United Nations

The Hill - President Trump told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday that artificial intelligence will be renamed “super intelligence” in all U.S. documents. 

Donald stamped his face on U.S. passports issued in D.C this year — but now, they’re coming to every passport agency in the nation. - Transcend

Newsworthy News -  President Trump told rally-goers that today’s higher gas prices are “a very inexpensive price to pay,” even as national averages top $4 a gallon...

ICE

Daily Beast - Thousands of ICE detainees’ whereabouts have been scrubbed from an online federal database after the agency instituted an unannounced change to its deportation process.  ICE quietly removed detainees who were subject to final deportation orders from its online detainee locator system last week, three current and former ICE officials told the Associated Press

The move has made it increasingly difficult for these detainees, who had received final orders of removal from an immigration court, to be traced or contacted by attorneys or family members.….ICE, which didn’t publicize the change, did not confirm or deny it in a statement to the AP.

Trump vs. TV news

1440 - ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox yesterday suspended TV coverage of presidential events in response to President Donald Trump barring CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House over reporting he characterized as fake news.

The move came shortly after CNN, MS NOW, and Politico filed a lawsuit against Trump, arguing his decision violates the First Amendment. The three banned outlets are members of the White House press pool, alongside ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and others. The pool was established in 1937 and has covered every president's daily activities since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Outlets rotate traveling with the president, sharing footage, photos, and quotes with one another. The White House Correspondents' Association has historically selected the pool, but the Trump administration began exerting greater control last year, restricting wire services such as the Associated Press and adding startup media outlets.

Best cities for vegetarians

To determine the best and cheapest places for a plant-based diet, WalletHub compared the 100 largest cities across 17 key indicators of vegan- and vegetarian-friendliness. The data set ranges from the share of restaurants serving meatless options to the cost of groceries for vegetarians to the number of salad shops per capita.
 

Top 20 Cities for Vegans & Vegetarians
1. Portland, OR	11. Cincinnati, OH
2. Los Angeles, CA	12. Miami, FL
3. Austin, TX	13. Atlanta, GA
4. San Francisco, CA	14. Chicago, IL
5. Oakland, CA	15. New York, NY
6. Seattle, WA	16. Lexington-Fayette, KY
7. Orlando, FL	17. Pittsburgh, PA
8. San Diego, CA	18. Birmingham, AL
9. Madison, WI	19. Washington, DC
10. Tampa, FL	20. Phoenix, AZ

 
Best vs. Worst

• Scottsdale, Arizona, has the highest share of restaurants serving vegetarian options, which is 12.4 times higher than in Laredo, Texas, the city with the lowest.
   
• Scottsdale, Arizona, has the highest share of restaurants serving vegan options, which is 59.7 times higher than in North Las Vegas, Nevada, the city with the lowest.
   
• San Francisco has the most community-supported agriculture programs (per square root of population), which is 26.8 times more than in Houston, Texas, the city with the fewest.
   
• Atlanta, Georgia has the most salad shops (per square root of population), which is 17.15 times more than in Santa Ana, California, the city with the fewest.

To view the full report and your city’s rank

Middle East

The Guardian - Gaza’s health ministry said in its latest update that at least 1,399 people have been killed by Israeli attacks since a supposed ‘ceasefire’ was signed between Israel and Hamas last October...Gaza’s health ministry said on Tuesday that 73,919 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza since October 2023, when Israel launched its assault on the territory following the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, were killed.

The Guardian  - Five Stanford University students who faced prison sentences in connection to a campus protest against Israel’s war on Gaza have had all charges dropped. Meanwhile, a jury has convicted a Vermont man of attempted murder in the shootings of three Palestinian college students who were walking near his home.

Diesel prices hit $6.50 a gallon

Bloomberg - US retail diesel prices topped $6.50 a gallon for the first time, extending a war-driven rally that’s rippling through the economy. Average nationwide prices rose to $6.505 as of Saturday, according to the American Automobile Association. The pace of increases has accelerated in September — gaining more than 87 cents so far this month — with prices rising almost every day and surging beyond the peak set in 2022.

Polls

Newsweek - President Donald Trump's approval rating dropped below 30 percent for the first time across both his White House terms Monday, as the midterms draw closer.

The new poll, from American Research Group, conducted September 16-20 among 1,100 American adults, showed the president with a 29 percent overall approval rating, with positive views on the economy at 26 percent.

Overall, 72 percent of those surveyed said they felt the U.S. economy was getting worse amid rising gas and grocery prices despite the Trump administration's insistence that those pressures are still largely down to the previous administration.

Hartmann Report- A new Economist/YouGov poll of registered voters that just came out this week found that the top two words that Americans across the board endorse to describe Donald Trump are “corrupt” (53%) and “dangerous” (51%). Not even half of registered Republican voters were willing to call him “honest.”

This is consistent with Gallup’s finding earlier this month that fully 89 percent of Americans now believe that corruption in our government is widespread, the highest number in the two decades the polling company has been asking, and a higher number than in any other advanced, industrialized democracy. 

Record city temperatures

Independent - This summer was America’s hottest yet — and a new troubling analysis reveals several cities have seen more triple-digit temperature days than ever in 2026.

It may come as little surprise that the top five cities were mainly in the South, according to forecaster AccuWeather, with Dallas, Texas, taking the top slot at 52 days with sizzling temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s more than double the city’s historical average and a far cry from the seven seen in 2025.

And the Lone Star State’s capital of Austin was a close second, with 48 scorching days. Last year, the city saw fewer than half that total.

Historic heat was also felt in Oklahoma and Kansas with Oklahoma City ranking third, Tulsa coming in fourth and Wichita taking fifth.

Oklahoma City only had one day at or over 100 degrees in 2025 — but 35 this year, per data.

…“Lander, Wyoming, has tied its record of three 100-plus-degree days, as has New York City's Kennedy Airport. Atlantic City has tied its record with four days. Miami tied its all-time record high of 100 degrees this summer, a feat that has only happened once before,” AccuWeather said.

Best and worst cities for women

WalletHub - The personal-finance company WalletHub today released its report on the Best & Worst Cities for Women in 2026....WalletHub compared 182 cities across 15 key metrics. The data set ranges from the median earnings and unemployment rate for women to the quality of women’s hospitals and access to preventative healthcare.

 

Best Cities for Women	Worst Cities for Women
1. Columbia, MD	173. Tulsa, OK
2. Seattle, WA	174. Augusta, GA
3. Fremont, CA	175. Laredo, TX
4. South Burlington, VT	176. Baton Rouge, LA
5. Washington, DC	177. Fort Smith, AR
6. San Francisco, CA	178. Brownsville, TX
7. Overland Park, KS	179. Gulfport, MS
8. Raleigh, NC	180. Shreveport, LA
9. Gilbert, AZ	181. Huntington, WV
10. Santa Clarita, CA	182. Jackson, MS

 
Best vs. Worst

• Columbia, Maryland, has the highest median earnings for female workers (adjusted for cost of living), three times higher than in Santa Ana, California, the city with the lowest.
   
• Gilbert, Arizona, has the lowest share of women living in poverty, six times lower than in Detroit, Michigan, the city with the highest. 
   
• Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Newport News, and Norfolk, Virginia, have the highest share of women-owned businesses, 2.2 times higher than Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the city with the lowest.
   
• Boston, Massachusetts, Fremont, California and Pearl, Hawaii, have the lowest female uninsured rate, 11.6 times lower than Laredo, Texas, the city with the highest.
   
• Bismark, North Dakota, has the lowest unemployment rate for women, 8.4 times lower than Detroit, Michigan, the city with the highest.

 To view the full report and your city’s rank

Nearly 119 million people globally forced to leave their homes

UN Refugee Agency

Of those, 46 million are children — roughly equivalent to the number of students enrolled in every U.S. public school from kindergarten to senior year of high school. While over 14.7 million refugees and internally displaced people were able to return home, particularly in Afghanistan, Syria and Sudan, many did so involuntarily and under fragile conditions.

Today, one in every 70 people worldwide is forcibly displaced. Behind those numbers are parents doing everything they can to keep their loved ones safe, children with big dreams missing out on school, families just trying to rebuild their lives — families like yours and mine.

Key questions about artificial intelligence

CLICK

Environment

Free & Fair Democracy - The Trump administration wants to allow 15,000 square foot mansions for the rich to be built in Georgia’s Cumberland Island National Seashore, threatening one of America’s most important sea turtle nesting sites....Cumberland Island is home to more endangered loggerhead sea turtle nests than anywhere else in Georgia. Once those nests are gone, they don’t come back. And it’s not just Cumberland Island. The Trump administration is deploying the same tactic to give wealthy interests pieces of Yosemite National Park.

Trump regime

Trump denies ‘assault’ on free press as three outlets plan to sue over White House ban

Happiest states

WalletHub