Author: potus

(The Center Square) – Motorists in Washington state are experiencing gas prices higher than the national average, in contrast to declining gas prices across much of the rest of the nation in recent months.As of Tuesday, Washingtonians are paying even more to fuel up. The state’s gas tax increased by 6 cents per gallon, from 49.4 cents to 55.4 cents. Starting July 1, 2026, it will rise each year by 2% to account for inflation.The state tax on diesel is also increasing by 3 cents per gallon, bringing the total tax to 58.4 cents per gallon. Additionally, there will be another 3-cent…

(The Center Square) – Texas’ two Republican U.S. senators, who voted for the “Big Beautiful Bill,” are praising its passage. Some Texas House Republicans have expressed concerns after key provisions were gutted by the Senate, including Medicaid and Social Security reforms.U.S. Sen. John Cornyn said the bill “puts Texans first by avoiding massive tax increases on hardworking families,” making historic investments in border security, including reimbursing Texas for border security operations, The Center Square reported.Sen. Ted Cruz said it includes language he authored creating universal school choice, using taxpayer funds to invest in savings accounts for children and banning taxes…

(The Center Square) — The California attorney general filed a lawsuit against a San Diego County-based nursing facility chain on grounds of patient neglect and failure to meet minimum staffing levels.The suit accuses Sweetwater Care, a nursing facility chain in Carlsbad, of committing more than 25,000 violations of minimum staffing levels.Attorney General Rob Bonta filed the lawsuit after an investigation by the California Department of Justice’s Division of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse.The suit said the department discovered the company had violated California’s Unfair Competition Law by understaffing its facilities despite receiving large amounts of money from Medi-Cal. Bonta took legal action against Sweetwater,…

(The Center Square) — The Alliance Defending Freedom recently announced the settlement of a lawsuit filed by Camp IdRaHaJe, a Christian summer camp in Colorado.Under the settlement, the camp will no longer be forced to allow campers access to bathing, dressing and sleeping facilities designated for the opposite sex.That rule was a new policy update made by the Colorado Department of Early Childhood in February for all licensed resident camps.“Government officials should never put a dangerous ideology ahead of kids,” said ADF Legal Counsel Andrea Dill in a press release. “State officials must respect religious ministries and their beliefs about human…

(The Center Square) – After a 27-hour voting session, Senate Republicans narrowly approved their amended version of the House-passed “big, beautiful bill” Tuesday, sending it back to the lower chamber for final approval.But the Senate’s swath of controversial changes has alienated multiple House Republicans and upset delicate political compromises House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., made with his constituents earlier, curtailing the bill’s chances of reaching the president’s desk by July 4.The 940-page budget reconciliation bill – formerly titled the One Big Beautiful Bill Act before Senate Democrats pulled the name on procedural grounds – implements the bulk of President Donald…

Google CEO Sundar Pichai addresses the crowd during Google’s annual I/O developers conference in Mountain View, California on May 20, 2025. Camille Cohen | AFP | Getty ImagesThe Google Doodle is Alphabet’s most valuable piece of real estate, and on Tuesday, the company used that space to promote “AI Mode,” its latest AI search product.Google’s Chrome browser landing pages and Google’s home page featured an animated image that, when clicked, leads users to AI Mode, the company’s latest search product. The doodle image also includes a share button.The promotion of AI Mode on the Google Doodle comes as the tech…

Disposable diapers are a massive environmental offender. Roughly 300,000 of them are sent to landfills or incinerated every minute, according to the World Economic Forum, and they take hundreds of years to decompose. It’s a $60 billion business.One alternative approach has been compostable diapers, which can be made out of wood pulp or bamboo. But composting services aren’t universally available and some of the products are less absorbent than normal nappies, critics say.A growing number of parents are also turning to cloth diapers, but they only make up about 20% of the U.S. market.ZymoChem is attacking the diaper problem from…

(The Center Square) – Thom Tillis wants the president to keep his promise on health care.For if he doesn’t, the Republican U.S. senator says, surely a sea tide of change will be on the way for their party. He’s seen it before, as has all his constituents back home in North Carolina.As much as the headlines grab attention that the two are in a monstruous riff, Tillis has pleaded compassionately, all in an effort to spare harm to the party and Donald Trump. He voted against the reconciliation budget proposal known as One Big Beautiful Bill on Tuesday afternoon, leading…

$1.8 billion in fraud alleged amid 13 defendantsThirteen Illinois defendants are facing federal charges as part of the largest national healthcare fraud enforcement action in Department of Justice history.More than 320 defendants were charged nationwide for allegedly participating in various healthcare fraud schemes.The Illinois defendants are charged with crimes involving more than $1.83 billion billed to government programs and private health insurers. Economic bellwethersA financial media company has ranked Illinois’ “signal cities” for economic shifts.MarketBeat surveyed more than 3,000 business leaders and determined that Rockford, Peoria and Carbondale are the state’s top economic bellwethers.The report said local shifts in hiring, consumer…

Dylan Field, co-founder and CEO of Figma, appears at the Bloomberg Technology Summit in San Francisco on May 9, 2024.David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesDesign software company Figma filed for an IPO on Tuesday, and plans to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “FIG.”The offering would be one of the hotly anticipated IPOs in recent years given Figma’s growth rate and its high private market valuation. In late 2023, a $20 billion acquisition agreement with Adobe was scrapped due to regulatory concerns in the U.K. That led Adobe to pay Figma a $1…