Author: Alex Trent

A plan to expand the campus of McKinley Elementary School in Santa Monica has been delayed after an inspector last year discovered toxic vapors lurking in the soil under a parking lot in the northeast of the school. When measuring the soil during a state-required environmental test ahead of the construction, the inspection found contamination of pollutant perchloroethylene in 2,600 parts per cubic meter. This is 10 times higher than the state’s legal limit. The soil test also found benzene and trichloroethylene amounts that also exceed state health standards. While these hazardous chemical fumes have not yet been found at…

A new poll conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies for Newsweek has found that the conversation around the border is not shifting in Joe Biden’s favor. The poll found that now only 20% of Americans think the US has control over its own border, a number that has fallen from 34% of Americans in just eight months. Border Survey Source: Wikimedia Commons This survey asked eligible voters about immigration, which has become a top issue in recent years as the number of migrants coming across America’s borders has surged. Voters were asked: “Do you believe the United States has control…

Oregon’s minimum wage will rise by 50 cents per hour for all workers starting July 1 of this year. In metro areas close to Portland, this will bring the minimum wage close to $16 an hour. The minimum wage changes, announced in April, are an automatic increase based on the Consumer Price Index to comply with the state’s current minimum wage law passed in 2016.  Almost $16 an Hour Source: Knopka Ivy/Unsplash In three counties located in the Portland metro area, the minimum compensation rate will increase from $15.45 to $15.95 per hour.  Besides these counties, which include Multnomah, Washington,…

In a stinging rebuke to RFK Jr, prominent family members of the Kennedy political dynasty took to the stage in Philadelphia during a campaign event to give a full-throated endorsement to the presumptive Democrat nominee Joe Biden. This endorsement comes as the feud between Biden and RFK Jr. is escalating, with Kennedy recently calling Biden a bigger threat to democracy than Trump. Biden Endorsement Source: POTUS/X Several Kennedy family members stood beside President Biden with one speaking at his campaign re-election event. Kerry Kennedy, who is RFK Jr.’s sister, called Biden “my hero.” She listed some of Biden’s achievements and…

Scotland’s government is now admitting that its ambitious climate change goal to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 75% for the year 2030 is not attainable and will ditch it. When it was set into law in 2019, Scotland’s emissions goal was seen as world-leading, beating the UK as a whole, which was shooting for a 68% emissions reduction by that same time. The First Minister of Scotland at the time, Nicola Sturgeon, boasted that Scotland had the “most stretching targets in the world.” While Scotland was talking a big game in the beginning, the intervening years until today have…

McDonald’s franchisee owner Scott Rodrick gave a recent interview with Fox Business describing the difficulty he is having adjusting to California’s new minimum wage increase for fast-food workers. This wage increase requires them to be paid $20 per hour. The law applies only to chains with establishments of more than 60 locations in the hopes of targeting big corporations. However, franchisee owners of store locations are often small business owners themselves and are struggling to keep things running amid soaring costs. An Eternity Source: Janet Ganbold/Unsplash The minimum wage hike to $20 per hour has only been in effect since…

Trump is on a roll with recent money-generating plans. He has gotten into the business of selling bibles, sneakers, NFTs, and now to fund his presidential campaign, he’s demanding a cut whenever down-ballot candidates use his name or image for fundraising. In new demands to Republicans by his campaign, Trump would receive a minimum 5 percent cut for any fundraising efforts that will go directly to fund his presidential race. Trump Campaign Letter Source: Wikimedia Commons According to Politico, a letter was sent to Republican vendors this week demanding that they immediately start paying up to use Trump’s image. “Beginning…

A new survey conducted by the MassINC Polling Group has found that a majority of Massachusetts voters now think immigration is the top issue for the government to solve. It also found support among residents for housing new migrant arrivals in shelters is dropping. These changing attitudes among Massachusetts voters come as the state’s emergency shelters have reached capacity and about half the families in these shelters are migrants. Biggest Issue Source: Famartin/Wikimedia The GHB News/Common Wealth poll conducted between March 21 and 29 asked 1,002 Massachusetts residents to name “the single biggest issue facing state government here in Massachusetts?”…

California-based tech giant Google is now deleting billions of data records it had been keeping on users who were using its “incognito” private browsing mode in response to a lawsuit settlement. The lawsuit had accused the company of improperly tracking and keeping this data when Google users had thought that these activities were supposed to remain private. Google Lawsuit Source: Pawel Czerwinski/Unsplash The lawsuit against Google was originally filed in 2020 and concerned one of Google’s applications “Chrome.” One feature of Chrome is that it has a browsing mode called “Incognito” which Google says “can help keep your browsing private…

A new study published in the journal Nature predicts that the consequences of climate change will reduce the global future income by 19% over the next 25 years. This economic strain will hit nearly the entire world, from the most developed to the poorest areas. “Our analysis shows that climate change will cause massive economic damages within the next 25 years in almost all countries around the world, also in highly-developed ones such as Germany and the U.S., with a projected median income reduction of 11% each and France with 13%,” says study co-author Leonie Wenz. To make these economic…