Education layoffs, royal book, Emmy nominations, rising wedding costs: The week in review
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on July 14 that the Trump administration could move forward with laying off more than 1,300 Education Department workers. The staffers, whose responsibilities included helping protect students and teachers from discrimination, assisting college financial aid offices and compiling data about the nation's schools, were laid off in March. The Supreme Court's green light came with caveats, though: The justices didn't rule on the merits of the case. They only allowed the agency to carry out the layoffs while a legal challenge proceeds.
Queen bonded with presidents
A new book aims to show Britain's Queen Elizabeth II wasn't just a woman in a colorful hat. The queen, whose 70-year reign made her the nation's longest-ruling monarch, met 13 sitting U.S. presidents over her lifetime, more than any other American or foreign head of state. 'The Queen and Her Presidents' will be published by HarperCollins on April 14, just days before the 100th anniversary of the queen's birth. It is written by Susan Page, USA TODAY's Washington bureau chief. It will chronicle her transformation from a shy, anxious princess to a powerful and persuasive leader and will provide candid assessments of America's commanders-in-chief.
Saying I do to higher costs
Wedding season is in full swing and if invites are stacking up, celebrating friends and family can turn into a budgeting problem fast. Between travel, accommodations, gifts and attire, guests spent $610 on average to attend a wedding in 2024, according to a study by The Knot, a wedding resources website. Of course, the amount guests spend depends on whether they need to travel. On average, guests spend $270 for a local wedding, $840 when they drive to an out-of-town wedding, and $1,680 when flights are required to reach the venue. The average wedding gift cost guests $150 in 2024, $10 less than in previous years.
'Severance' leads Emmy nominations
The Emmy nominations are here! Apple TV+'s drama "Severance" leads the mentions with an impressive 27 nods, followed by HBO Max's "The Penguin" with 24. Apple's "The Studio" and HBO's "The White Lotus" tied for third place with 23 honors, and HBO's "The Last of Us" earned 16 nominations. "The Studio" also tied the record set in 2024 by "The Bear" for most nominations for a comedy series. Harrison Ford, 83, earned his first Emmy nod for his role as the ornery therapist on Apple TV's "Shrinking" (seven nominations).
Rays may be sold for $1.7B
Tampa Bay Rays principal owner Stuart Sternberg has agreed in principle to sell the MLB team to a group headed by Jacksonville, Florida, developer Patrick Zalupski for roughly $1.7 billion, according to a report by The Athletic. The agreement comes just four months after the Rays backed away from a deal to build a new stadium in St. Petersburg, Florida, near the site of their longtime home, Tropicana Field. The deal is expected to be completed as soon as September, an unnamed source told The Athletic, with the club remaining in the Tampa Bay area.
‒ Compiled by Michael B. Smith, copy editor
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Buzz Feed
an hour ago
- Buzz Feed
People Who Switched Political Parties Explain Why They Left
Political affiliation in America is supposed to be a choice, but for most people, it functions more like inheritance — passed down through family, geography, and social networks without much active deliberation. Yet that assumed loyalty can fracture, sometimes gradually, sometimes in a single moment that forces a fundamental recalculation of where you actually stand. When u/Deimos7779 asked people who've switched political parties to explain what drove that shift, the responses revealed something deeper than personal conversion stories. They exposed the fault lines where personal experience collides with institutional politics — where the gaps between stated values and actual policy become impossible to ignore. From economic realities to military service to local governance, these accounts map the pressure points where political identity breaks down and rebuilds itself. Here's what pushed 29 people to abandon their political home — and what that says about the state of American democracy: "I was raised conservative, spent 27 years in the military. Got retirement jobs with other conservatives. I considered myself a moderate conservative. After I was laid off from a very well-paying job, I chose not to work. After a couple of months, I got bored and took a job stocking shelves in a local grocery store. Getting to know my coworkers REALLY opened my eyes. These folks were barely getting by. I mentioned I needed a root canal; their response was that it would be cheaper to get it pulled. Everyone was a paycheck away from homelessness, took multiple bus rides to and from work, and on Medicaid providers. I realized that a large portion of people were barely surviving, and things needed to change." "My stepmother had come from privilege and spent her life around privileged conservative Catholics. Then she decided to use her degree in psychology to help treat inmates and drug addicts. It took less than a month for her to realize the system really is rigged against the poor. All the criminals were born poor and never had a chance. Things she knew white people did and got a slap on the wrist for, she met multiple people of color serving long prison terms for. And this wasn't just based on their side either — she had all of their files and knew everything the state could know about them. Later, when she went to her church and started asking people to she had a crisis of faith for a bit, after no one wanted to live up to Jesus's ideals and help the poor." "My come-to-Jesus moment was when I found out some district in Pennsylvania (I think) was trying to end their free lunch program because too many kids were racking up debt. Some rich millionaire, a rags-to-riches kind of guy, offered to cover all the debt, but the superintendent refused, saying, 'The kids need to learn a lesson.' I flipped my shit so hard over that, I basically became radicalized instantly. I wasn't a hardcore Republican, but one of those edgy centrist types. Children being fed is my 101 principle. And if we, the richest nation, can't even give our kids a damn sandwich, then what the fuck are we doing?" "As a kid, my dad had a union job, so we were a few notches above poverty. I grew up hearing about lazy people, single moms, etc., but I was always told you'd make it if you just worked hard. While working low-end jobs, I met the hardest working people you can imagine, but things were never going to get better for them." "For me, it was because I was brought up as a fiscal and rule-of-law, constitutional-integrity conservative. As I got into my late 20s, I began to see that the Republican party was just as bad at blowing money and was worse at dealing with party member corruption (even before Trump). It was completely over when Trump got elected. I couldn't wrap my head around why anyone who was a conservative like me could EVER support Trump. It turns out that the number of people who actually care about the principles of an ideology is quite low. The vast majority is just, 'My tribe red, ug ug ug.'" "I grew up in a family that voted one way and one way only because 'that's what we do.' My mom even admitted that she picked her political party because that was what her great-grandmother — who died when she was a teen — picked. My mom still votes that way, but I don't think she realizes that her party is not what it originally was when she started voting. And if you listen to her long enough, you realize that her ideals don't align with them. But she will never admit that. Ironically, most of the family in my generation is the opposite of what our parents are." "I was a staunch Republican supporter in my youth because my dad was, because his dad was. But my first real experience with politics was watching the George H. Bush team tell me the sky was green ten times a day, and I realized these were not good people. My dad made the same decision at about the same time." "I moved from Republican to Independent because my party was ignoring and demonizing scientists and doctors in favor of religion and ideology, costing the lives and ruining the education of my fellow Americans." "As one of my coworkers said, 'I was a Reagan Republican my whole life. Now, I'm a fucking centrist, and my views haven't changed.'" "Voted Green to save the environment. Green Party won. Green Party did absolutely none of the things they promised and instead damaged the economy. Never voting for them again." "I was raised in a very conservative area, to the point that I remember being told the one girl in my grade who had Democratic parents was being abused because they were exposing her to those ideals. I naturally am an adventurer, so I went far away to college. Just meeting other people and cultures completely dismantled that entire structure within a year." "I went to college. Met new people and developed a profound sense of empathy. Going into the military later only strengthened my views." "I grew up in a conservative household in a red state. I then went to college and joined the Army, and that completely changed my view on social issues. What you do with your life isn't my concern. We all just want to be happy and loved. I vote left now (I also owe Obama a huge apology; he was a great president). I'm not happy with the Democratic Party either, but the right has lost their damn minds and I want no part of that." "After this last presidential election, I changed my party affiliation from Democratic to undeclared, not because I can see myself voting for a Republican, but because the Democratic Party needs to know that our confidence in them is badly damaged." "I realized I was voting for a label, not values. I started paying attention to policy over party." "When I was 18, I decided I was a Libertarian — thanks in large part to a high school teacher who fed us a bunch of shitty ideas via Ayn Rand books. Then, I turned 22 and realized the 'social freedom' aspect of the Libertarian Party was complete bullshit. Now, I typically vote for the Democratic Party, while lamenting a lack of more progressive candidates." "I tried to actually do research and talk to people of specific groups instead of consuming only what pundits and YouTubers told me." "I was pretty apolitical but Republican for 10 years. I switched to Independent after their COVID response and the first impeachment. I switched to Democratic after January 6." "My mom was in the Navy her whole life and mostly apolitical, but bought into 'Republicans = military support' propaganda from the Reagan years. She wasn't a big Trump fan — albeit she doesn't really watch the news — but voted for him in 2016 because it's just what she does. During COVID, she decided she wasn't going to vote. Then, after January 6, she decidedly turned against Trump. When he formally got the nomination, she actively worked against him." "I was and still am a Democrat. However, I went from extremely left to moderate because there is a certain level of leftist orthodoxy where it's literally impossible to have an open conversation without being shouted down. My issue isn't really the ideas so much as the absolutism — there's no room for dissension. I feel like people who are extreme on either end of the spectrum have more in common with each other than people who are a little more moderate. I feel like there's this attitude where there's no room for compromise, so we have to burn it all down — both far right and far left say that kind of thing." "Trump the first time. I served my country in combat, came home broken, but found my way in law enforcement. I had a sense of brotherhood again and was helping people while also protecting them. All that shattered when Trump was elected and empowered the far-right radicals by not speaking against them. Suddenly, I was standing the line at protests and riots, being told to protect the cowards waving Nazi flags, hiding behind the police. It kept getting worse and worse as the far right felt more empowered, culminating on January 6. And then he got elected again and pardoned those traitors! I can ignore all the other illegal stuff this administration is getting away with and calling it politics, but any party that continues to back a traitor who doesn't even try to hide it, is not a party I want to be affiliated with. This is not the America I fought and continue to fight for." "I was a single-issue voter in my first election, coming from a religious background. After having learned more about the world — namely capitalism, healthcare, and LGBTQ+ issues — I became a voter of the left and have never looked back." "I have a very religious friend. His wife was also very religious. When they got pregnant, they were informed it was a high-risk pregnancy and presented with their options. They discussed it and decided to proceed with the pregnancy. Sadly, his wife died in childbirth. The baby did make it, however. Years later, we were talking, and the subject of abortion came up. He shocked me by saying he was now pro-choice. I inquired what brought that on, and he explained that while he is still very much against abortion, he realized that was his opinion. He said the thing that allowed him to ultimately accept and be at peace about his wife's death is the fact that they were able to discuss it and make the choice that was right for them. He said that he simply cannot condone depriving others of the ability to have those discussions and make those choices, even if that meant their choices may be different from his own." "I went from Republican to Independent because I was for fiscal responsibility and liberal on social issues. I do not even recognize the Republican Party I once belonged to." "I moved from a Democrat to an Independent because the Democratic Party has villainized straight white males, and I am a straight white male." "Well, I have always been an Independent — or rather had been — until Bernie, so I registered Democratic to vote for him in the primary. The DNC completely obliterated that in the following months and years. I am now an Independent again and no longer believe either of these parties are the way forward." "I was raised liberal and was super liberal until COVID. That changed everything, including seeing how my fellow liberals act when you have a differing opinion. Now, I am a Libertarian and more right-leaning. I will never go back. That being said, both sides are full of it, definitely do not have the public's best interest in mind, and are corrupt." "Winston Churchill was attributed with saying: 'If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain.' That was pretty much me, and that is why I changed my political affiliation to conservative." "Grew up a Republican in Oklahoma. Joined the Navy. Met LOTS of folks from all over the world. Fought alongside most of them. Fought against a few others. The common trait those I fought against had was a hypocritical eye toward authority — it was bad unless they were in charge. This was a mindset I grew up around with my rural parents, but not my World War II veteran (overseas deployed) grandparents. I never understood it. Unfortunately, it took root in American society, pushed by people like Newt Gingrich, the NRA, the 'Moral Majority,' and Faux News. Karl Rove drove me to switch parties while running the Bush campaign. During the 2000 South Carolina primary, he talked about how McCain (Vietnam War POW and scion of a multi-generational Navy family) fathered a 'Black child' in an extramarital fling — it was an outright appeal to racists for their votes! Never mind the fact that said daughter was a child from Bangladesh the McCains had adopted. I was done." Taken together, these accounts reveal that political identity is far more fragile — and more responsive to lived experience — than our polarized discourse suggests. The moments that break political loyalty aren't always abstract ideological shifts but visceral encounters with institutional failure that force a reckoning between stated principles and actual practice. And more and more Americans are actively renegotiating their political identities as traditional party boundaries prove inadequate to the challenges they actually face. So, have you ever found yourself questioning your political affiliation? What moment or experience made you reconsider where you stand? Share your story in the comments below!
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Republicans and Democrats call for more information on Epstein case
Trump and many of his allies vowed to release a trove of files in the case, including a so-called 'client list' that many involved in the case insist never existed. But the release of some documents earlier this year offered no new revelations. And the Justice Department said this month that it had closed the case and would not release more documents, concluding that there was no client list. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up One of Epstein's former lawyers, Alan Dershowitz, said in an interview on 'Fox News Sunday' that the grand jury testimony was unlikely to contain the information that has most interested Trump's supporters. Advertisement Trump has encouraged his base to move on. But the backlash seemed to be on his mind Sunday morning, when he accused 'Radical Left Democrats' of exposing the 'Jeffrey Epstein Hoax.' Burchett also took up Trump's argument Sunday, saying that Democrats had the chance to release the materials when former president Joe Biden was in office. Advertisement At the same time, Burchett is one of 10 Republicans who have signed on to an effort to force a vote on whether the administration should release the files. The procedural maneuver would require a majority of House members, and Burchett said he was not sure if it would succeed. 'I have no earthly idea,' he said on CNN. 'You know this town buries secrets.' Democrats in Congress have seized on the divide that has opened up between Trump and his supporters, trying to force votes on measures that call for the release of Epstein-related files and pressing for hearings. They have rejected Trump's efforts to redirect the blame to them. 'The president blaming Democrats for this disaster, Jake, is like that CEO that got caught on camera blaming Coldplay,' said Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, to CNN's Jake Tapper, referring to a viral video that showed the married CEO of a tech company with his arms around a woman who is not his wife. Klobuchar, instead blamed the public's clamoring for the files on right-wing politicians, including Trump, who she said had sown distrust in federal prosecutors over the case. 'People have a reason that they want to know what's in there,' Klobuchar said. 'They believe the president when he said there's stuff in there that people should see.' Several former federal prosecutors told the Associated Press that the Justice Department request to unseal grand jury transcripts in the prosecutions of Epstein and his former girlfriend, imprisoned British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, is unlikely to produce much, if anything, to satisfy the public's appetite for new revelations about the financier's crimes. Advertisement Attorney Sarah Krissoff, an assistant US attorney in Manhattan from 2008 to 2021, called the request 'a distraction.' 'The president is trying to present himself as if he's doing something here and it really is nothing,' Krissoff told the Associated Press in a weekend interview. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche made the request Friday, asking judges to unseal transcripts from grand jury proceedings that resulted in indictments against Epstein and Maxwell, saying 'transparency to the American public is of the utmost importance to this Administration.' Krissoff and Joshua Naftalis, a Manhattan federal prosecutor for 11 years before entering private practice in 2023, said grand jury presentations are purposely brief. Naftalis said Southern District prosecutors present just enough to a grand jury to get an indictment but 'it's not going to be everything the FBI and investigators have figured out about Maxwell and Epstein.' 'People want the entire file from however long. That's just not what this is,' he said, estimating that the transcripts, at most, probably amount to a few hundred pages. 'It's not going to be much,' Krissoff said, estimating the length at as little as 60 pages 'because the Southern District of New York's practice is to put as little information as possible into the grand jury.' 'They basically spoon feed the indictment to the grand jury. That's what we're going to see,' she said. 'I just think it's not going to be that interesting. ... I don't think it's going to be anything new.' This article originally appeared in
CNBC
an hour ago
- CNBC
With another tariff deadline looming, these 10 things are going the right way for stocks
Conventional wisdom holds that as we get closer and closer to the coming deadline for tariff resolution, the market will become more treacherous, especially for highly valued stocks. I don't know who writes these stories. I always check the bylines and I have never worked with them or hired them. I will tell you this: their lack of knowledge of how the market works is painful. Their shoddy knowledge of market history would never be tolerated in any classroom. They are, what we used to call at The Harvard Crimson, "filler-up stories," meaning stories that had to be written because copy was needed. In truth, while the deadline looms, there is no relation between the highly valued stocks and the events at hand. I actually expect severe news about South Korea and Japan before Aug. 1 — the Trump administration's "hard deadline," in the words of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, for when new country-specific duty rates will come into effect. Korean car companies "make" vehicles here, but the White House would argue to you that all they do is assemble them here, while the more highly valued pieces of a car are made in the home country. Japan makes even less here but is defended, like Korea, by our soldiers, and I could see President Donald Trump invoking that fact to put on some capricious number — call it 35% tariffs on their imports — because that level is eye-grabbing. So, I doubt we're even going to get to the drop dead date of Aug. 1 without more drama. Does anyone who trades or invests think that the tariffs will influence the most highly valued stocks, none other than my newly minted cohort called PARC — Palantir , Applovin , Robinhood and Coinbase ? These all have room to run because if you are willing to pay 100 times earnings it means nothing to pay 200. That's the gospel. How can these writers not know that? Can Palantir be stopped by Canadian tariffs? Oh please, and if crypto gets knocked down, it will get up again. It's never going to keep that down. Let's flip this moment on its head and question what's buoying the near-record market as second-quarter earnings season picks up steam (we have five Club names reporting this week). I have 10 things on the list, some already happening and others more forward-looking. First, and most obvious: earnings have been terrific. Yes, there is an occasional Abbott Labs , which was brutalized by China, or Netflix , which was challenged by sky-high expectations. But the banks have set the tone, and the pastiche that closed out the week all came in very strong. I expect that to continue, with the only potential weak spot being the drugmakers. Just not enough blockbusters and some very weak pipelines. It's been a brutal year for health care overall, sitting last among all 11 sectors in the S & P 500 . Second, Trump's "big beautiful bill" contains so many provisions that will boost the economy that I think we need to rethink the possibility of a hobbled consumer. Consider these: An extension of the 2017 tax cuts that were set to expire at the end of this year, which could've resulted in an effective tax increase across income cohorts. This is particularly helpful for those who make less than $100,000. A tax deduction worth up to $25,000 for employees who earn tips, a huge win for the working class. Millions of U.S. workers stand to benefit from this. Increased standard deduction to $31,500 (from $30,000) for married joint filers and $15,750 (from $15,000) for single filers. That can make taxes easier to figure out and deliver a bigger benefit. Max child tax credit of $2,200 per child, up from $2,000, which impacts around 40 million families. Expanding 529 savings plans to cover workforce credentialing programs in areas like the trades. A new deduction on car loan interest for vehicles made in the U.S., capped at $10,000 a year. For higher earners, the size of the deduction is reduced. Tax-advantaged savings accounts for newborns, the so-called "Trump accounts." Some tax relief for seniors on Social Security benefits. These are huge benefits that will pump hundreds of billions in the U.S. economy and it's like no one ever cares. Tariffs are important. But these put money in the hands of spenders. Third, business get more tax relief on spending, building and research-and-development costs than anyone expected. Accelerated deductions and credit for building things will set off another boom. I talked about these in a previous piece . Every time I have ever seen this kind of relief, it generates far more spending and jobs than anyone expects. Fourth, we seem to be oblivious to how countries are signaling to Washington that they are going to make their companies build here in order to get some relief from the White House. There's also re-shoring to contend with. Sure, the White House may be circumspect about an Apple putting $500 billion into the U.S. economy in the next four years, but I'm not. Fifth, the amount of building that needs to be done for data centers and for the electric grid are so gigantic that they might be considered the equivalent of the biggest public works campaigns in history, and they include a huge labor component not often addressed. Don't forget that nuclear power overhauls are gigantic projects. Sixth, the Federal Reserve's new stress tests for banks will allow them to lend far more than they currently do. We forget how much heat there has been on the banks in the wake of the financial crisis to be incredibly conservative. That's over. Seventh, the opening of all sorts of land for drilling and the approval of a huge number of new pipelines will create a second renaissance of the U.S. energy sector. Eighth, two industries have so much business and are so important to the U.S. economy that they will be colossal sources of work: aerospace, where Boeing has to expand to meet new orders, and defense, where we are depleted by Ukraine. A heavy component in this sector is new kinds of weapons including drones. Ninth, the initial public offering market is primed and ready, and I think can create new jobs and new wealth for employees and sustained profits for the investment banks, which is why they are such great buys. We own Goldman Sachs for the Club. And finally No. 10, it's been so easy to bet against stocks for so long because the Biden administration had been so anti-business, particularly when it comes to mergers and acquisitions. That's over. Now short-sellers will be incredibly scared to lean on stocks. Witness the rally in the railroads last week that crushed shorts banking on weaker transport earnings. Now, again, Trump seems to do whatever is necessary to derail us in astounding fashion. But we need to think more creatively. When we hear talk of him firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell, what you need to think is that no matter what, lower rates lie ahead. I don't think it will be because of a weaker economy because of what I just detailed, but because Trump wants to have a gross domestic product boom so he can say we are the fastest-growing, most-powerful country in the world. That's what Make American Great Again stands for. Even if you think it is a gigantic fraud, remember that Trump — through a gigantic hole in the budget and pro-business agencies — has created the circumstances that could lead to the opposite of what the "filler-up stories" say will happen. (Jim Cramer's Charitable Trust is long GS and ABT. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust's portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
