5+ min ago (590+ words) Here's the thing. I'm a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. There I was, alive and changing in a changing world. But even in Cherokee homes, even in conversations between one Native person and another, there can sometimes be a tendency to turn ourselves towards loss, and to stay there. To be sure, I don't find our histories unimportant. There is power in memory, in story, in holding onto everything almost taken from us. Consider the work of Cherokee teachers, fighting for the continuation of a language with fewer than 1,500 first-language fluent speakers alive today'work that is necessary, honorable, and (I really mean this word) sacred. But I think there's power in the not-yet, too. As a child, I wish I had been told Indigenous stories about the future, stories that hold curiosity and possibility and wonder, for who we might…...

5+ min ago (590+ words) Here's the thing. I'm a citizen of the Cherokee Nation. There I was, alive and changing in a changing world. But even in Cherokee homes, even in conversations between one Native person and another, there can sometimes be a tendency to turn ourselves towards loss, and to stay there. To be sure, I don't find our histories unimportant. There is power in memory, in story, in holding onto everything almost taken from us. Consider the work of Cherokee teachers, fighting for the continuation of a language with fewer than 1,500 first-language fluent speakers alive today'work that is necessary, honorable, and (I really mean this word) sacred. But I think there's power in the not-yet, too. As a child, I wish I had been told Indigenous stories about the future, stories that hold curiosity and possibility and wonder, for who we might…...

7+ min ago (781+ words) D.C. lawmakers are forging ahead with a bill that would keep medical debt off credit reports, despite new guidance from the federal consumer watchdog agency saying only the federal government has that right. More than a dozen states, including Virginia and Maryland, have similar laws on the books to protect people from the financial fallout of unpaid hospital bills, which can make borrowing money for mortgages and cars more expensive and could derail job and rental applications. About 14 million people in the United States collectively owe at least $220 billion in medical debt, which data shows disproportionately impacts people of color, according to a KFF analysis. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last month issued a nonbinding interpretation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act saying states (and D.C.) cannot lift medical debt from credit reports. The guidance is the opposite of conclusions reached by…...

7+ min ago (781+ words) D.C. lawmakers are forging ahead with a bill that would keep medical debt off credit reports, despite new guidance from the federal consumer watchdog agency saying only the federal government has that right. More than a dozen states, including Virginia and Maryland, have similar laws on the books to protect people from the financial fallout of unpaid hospital bills, which can make borrowing money for mortgages and cars more expensive and could derail job and rental applications. About 14 million people in the United States collectively owe at least $220 billion in medical debt, which data shows disproportionately impacts people of color, according to a KFF analysis. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last month issued a nonbinding interpretation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act saying states (and D.C.) cannot lift medical debt from credit reports. The guidance is the opposite of conclusions reached by…...

8+ min ago (1116+ words) Decades ago, QVC hosts would finish up their breathless pitches of Diamonique jewelry and Miracle Belt "tummy slimming" straps with a familiar phrase. "Let's go to the phones," they would declare, as orders seemingly began to roll in on the leading TV shopping channel. Today, QVC hosts are making the same pitch, but with a new catchphrase: "Let's go to the comments." That's because they're selling on TikTok Shop, a rapidly growing online marketplace within the popular video app. It's a far cry from the numbers that TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, achieves in China, where even by 2022 shoppers were spending over $200 billion on its version of the app, Douyin, according to the data and business intelligence company Statista. It's also well below the earnings from Amazon, which earned $638 billion in sales last year. But two years in, TikTok Shop, which…...

10+ min ago (379+ words) On a beautiful fall Friday in Denver, someone named Wyatt stole my Local Legend crown. "There it goes!" chirped an email informing me of the loss of a title I had never cared about until then. I wanted to destroy him. I didn't. Instead, I followed him " though not literally. I am one of the more than 150 million runners, cyclists and hikers who use Strava, an app that logs your exercise activity and lets you compare it with that of other people. When the pandemic let up, I started on a new path around Sloan's Lake, a flat, 2.6-mile paved loop in view of Denver's downtown skyline and the Rocky Mountain foothills. It was bustling with families, dog-walkers, cyclists. Craving community, I ran a 10K around the lake each Monday and a half-marathon each Saturday, using the app's performance analytics to…...

15+ min ago (1417+ words) The Trump administration is snapping up ownership shares of private companies it deems essential to national security. It is an unusual new strategy that has already committed more than $10 billion in taxpayer funds and shows little sign of slowing. The government's growing portfolio of corporate ownership involves minority stakes, or the option to take them in the future, in at least nine companies involved in steel, minerals, nuclear energy and semiconductors, a New York Times analysis found. The deals were all struck in the past six months, with the bulk made in October and November. The unusual government intervention into the private market is fueling some concerns, including the opacity of the process, the potential for favoritism, corruption and market distortions, along with the possible loss of taxpayer funds should the investments fail. Aaron Bartnick, a fellow at Columbia University…...

18+ min ago (741+ words) This holiday season, shoppers have more artificial intelligence to help with their gift lists. Target, Walmart, Ralph Lauren and other retailers this year unveiled chatbots that act as conversational stylists and shopping assistants. That means people who want to find matching pajamas for the family can ask a chatbot to sort through the options, or for a summary of customer reviews of an air fryer. The goal is to provide shoppers with a tailored and convenient experience, retailers and tech companies said. Many of the new chatbots are "agents," which are programs that act autonomously and can respond to specific questions and context. They go beyond customer service chatbots that could handle only limited questions about returns or the status of an order. The latest chatbots can make holiday shopping more "personalized, efficient and cost-effective," said Lori Schafer, the chief…...

19+ min ago (226+ words) Some 82 million Americans are expected to make annual pilgrimages for Thanksgiving dinner by plane, train or automobile. Long journeys will leave many of them tired and eager to reach their destination. Unfortunately, the scourge of automatic hand dryers in public restrooms ensures that the misery will continue long after the journey has ended. Science supports paper towels. Handwashing is a necessary but insufficient part of germ removal: it's just as important to get them thoroughly dry, because excess moisture facilitates germ transmission. In health care settings, the CDC still recommends this vital task be performed with disposable paper towels " time-tested germ fighters. Older hand dryers spread germs into the air with reckless abandon. Even newer models with HEPA or UV filters can still stir up pathogens that have settled on the floor. Paper towels have none of those problems, and…...

20+ min ago (990+ words) In September, L'Abattoir, an upscale restaurant in Vancouver, British Columbia, had a problem: It was running out of French Muscat wine, the perfect pairing for the scallop crudo on the tasting menu. In fact, it was running out of all of the French and Italian options on its wine list, after a labor strike that halted wholesale alcohol distribution in the province, as well as tariffs and bans that had all but eliminated U.S. wine imports. Peter Van de Reep, now the restaurant's head sommelier, had to get creative as he searched for the right tart wine with enough fruit. After considering six or seven options, he landed on a Pinot Grigio from Salt Spring Island in British Columbia. "It's a Goldilocks wine " it's just right for that dish," Mr. Van de Reep said, adding, "This is a winery most people…...