Wednesday, December 18

Tag: north america

Biden’s $3.1 Billion Train Ticket to Nowhere
2Jan By adminNo Comments
Health

Biden’s $3.1 Billion Train Ticket to Nowhere

It didn’t get a lot of attention, but last month the White House awarded $3.1 billion to the California High-Speed Rail project. This was supposed to be a bullet train connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles in less than three hours. Instead, its costs keep rising even as the state scales back the plan. Since 2008, when California voters authorized a $10 billion bond issue for the train, they’ve been sold a bill of goods.The original total estimated construction cost to taxpayers was $33 billion. That’s risen to at least $100 billion. The authority decided to offer service between San Francisco and Los Angeles in Phase I, then eventually extend the train service north to Sacramento and south to San Diego. Phase I was to have been completed by 2020. Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company...
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Car That Hit Pedestrians Outside New Year’s Eve Concert Was Filled With Gas Canisters, Police Say
2Jan By adminNo Comments
World

Car That Hit Pedestrians Outside New Year’s Eve Concert Was Filled With Gas Canisters, Police Say

A car involved in a deadly New Year’s Eve crash outside a busy concert venue in Rochester, N.Y., was filled with at least a dozen gas canisters, police said.Two people were killed when a car hit another vehicle and plowed through a group of pedestrians outside the Kodak Center in Rochester as nearly a thousand concertgoers were leaving an event early Monday morning, authorities said.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
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Chevron Warns of Billions in Charges From California Challenges, Gulf of Mexico Assets
2Jan By adminNo Comments
World

Chevron Warns of Billions in Charges From California Challenges, Gulf of Mexico Assets

Chevron said it will book $3.5 billion to $4 billion in charges for the fourth quarter, citing challenges tied to regulations in California and previously sold oil and gas production assets in the Gulf of Mexico.Chevron said it will impair a portion of its U.S. upstream assets, mostly in California, due to regulatory challenges in the state that have led to “lower anticipated future investment levels in its business plans.” Chevron said it will continue to operate the affected assets for many years.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
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Iberdrola’s Avangrid Ends $4.3 Billion Deal With PNM Resources
2Jan By adminNo Comments
World

Iberdrola’s Avangrid Ends $4.3 Billion Deal With PNM Resources

Updated Jan. 2, 2024 3:55 am ETIberdrola’s U.S. renewables subsidiary Avangrid has ended a merger agreement with power company PNM Resources after rejecting a bid to extend the deadline of the $4.3 billion deal reached in October 2020.The Spanish energy company said Tuesday that Avangrid—which is 81.5%-owned by Iberdrola and houses its U.S. renewable-energy assets as well as electric and natural-gas utilities—terminated the deal after conditions for closing it weren’t met in the timeframe the parties agreed to.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
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Double Dipping in Opioid Lawsuits
2Jan By adminNo Comments
Health

Double Dipping in Opioid Lawsuits

The plaintiffs bar never met a business it wouldn’t sue, and now the lawyers are using government authority to pursue private interests. In their latest business model, trial lawyers are hired by state attorneys general to help prosecute public lawsuits then use it to the advantage of their private lawsuits. Kudos to one company for pushing back. In December pharmacy benefit manager OptumRx filed a motion in federal court in Ohio to disqualify Motley Rice, a South Carolina plaintiffs firm suing the company in multidistrict opioid litigation. Motley has been retained by state attorneys general and city prosecutors in Washington, D.C., Hawaii and Chicago to handle the government’s litigation, but it continues to represent private clients in related litigation.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones &...
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Michigan Overcomes Alabama—and Recent History—to Reach National Title Game
2Jan By adminNo Comments
World

Michigan Overcomes Alabama—and Recent History—to Reach National Title Game

Updated Jan. 1, 2024 9:45 pm ETPASADENA, Calif.—Michigan arrived at the Rose Bowl with plenty of baggage. There was the coach, Jim Harbaugh, once again dogged by rumors that he will imminently depart for the National Football League, and with a dismal bowl game record of one win in seven tries. There was its recent history—two previous trips to the College Football Playoff that both ended in losses. There were the twin scandals, yet to be resolved by the NCAA.Copyright ©2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
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Tariffs and the Common Man
2Jan By adminNo Comments
Business

Tariffs and the Common Man

With Donald Trump leading the 2024 polls while calling for a 10% universal tariff, the new GOP protectionists are trying to sell this idea as a boon for the working class. The evidence exposes this folly: Trade wars invite painful retaliation, prop up politically favored industries at the expense of others, and raise prices on consumers like an invisible tax. They hurt the average worker.The economic literature on this point is voluminous. To pick one place to start, here was the conclusion of a study of Mr. Trump’s last trade wars, written in 2019 by two Federal Reserve economists: “We find that U.S. manufacturing industries more exposed to tariff increases experience relative reductions in employment as a positive effect from import protection is offset by larger negative effects from r...
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