Author: potus

(The Center Square) – State Farm, California’s largest property insurer, is seeking the remainder of its originally requested 30% rate hike after getting emergency, temporary approval for a 17% rate hike earlier this month due to cost pressures from the state’s wildfires.“While we are pleased that Commissioner Lara approved the interim rate of 17 percent for State Farm General Insurance Company, this change only addressed part of the original request of 30 percent filed in June 2024,” State Farm told Newsweek. “The overall request of 30 percent would not be on top of the 17-percent interim rate change. State Farm…

Elon Musk listens as reporters ask U.S. President Donald Trump and South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa questions during a press availability in the Oval Office at the White House on May 21, 2025 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla | Getty ImagesSen. Jeanne Shaheen urged President Donald Trump on Wednesday to require billionaire Elon Musk and special government employees of his DOGE project to certify before leaving government service that they cannot use for personal benefit any non-public government data they gained access to.Shaheen, D-N.H., in a letter to Trump, noted that the Tesla CEO Musk and DOGE employees have “unprecedented”…

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Wednesday his government is talking to the U.S. about joining President Donald Trump’s future Golden Dome missile defense program. The multilayered, $175 billion system would for the first time put U.S. weapons in space. Trump said the previous day he expected the system to be fully operational by the end of his term in 2029.“Is it a good idea for Canada? Yes, it is a good to have protections in place for Canadians,” Carney said. Carney confirmed he’s had talks with Trump about it and said there are discussions with senior…

Apple CEO Tim Cook, left, and Apple chief design officer Jony Ive look at the new Mac Pro during the 2019 Apple Worldwide Developer Conference, or WWDC, at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, California, June 3, 2019.Justin Sullivan | Getty ImagesBefore Jony Ive left Apple in 2019, no major Apple hardware launch was complete without a video highlighting the product’s physical design, narrated by Ive’s gentle British accent.He became a touchstone in Silicon Valley for great hardware because of his role in the creation of the iPhone and Apple Watch.On Wednesday, Ive returned to the computer industry…

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin’s hospitals say they are trying, the bestthey can, to solve their own workforce needs across the state.The Wisconsin Hospital Association testified before lawmakers at the Capitol in Madison on Wednesday about the 2025 Wisconsin Health Care Workforce Report.“The WHA Workforce report is not a static document that just sits on a shelf for us,” WHA Senior Vice President Kyle O’Brien told lawmakers. “This is a living breathing document for us, in the sense that we use the data in the document to affect public policy.”The overall report said Wisconsin needs more frontline health care workers.Hospitals say…

(The Center Square) – California Republicans are launching an investigation into the Low Carbon Fuel Standard update that is expected to increase the cost of gasoline by 65 cents per gallon — impacting not just California, but the parts of Nevada and Arizona that rely on the Golden State for fuel — on July 1. That’s the middle of the peak summer driving season.“CARB and the Governor pushed an expensive gas price hike behind closed doors, ignored public input, and misled Californians about the real cost,” said Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, R-San Diego. “We believe their real goal is…

The artificial intelligence boom has sent energy demand soaring. Some of the supercomputers sucking up all that power are helping to find new energy sources.Fusion energy is the process of forcing two hydrogen atoms to combine and form one helium atom, which releases huge amounts of power. It uses a stellarator, a type of fusion reactor invented in the 1950’s that produces heat. Until now, the technology was too difficult to deploy commercially.But this old concept has brand new potential. Type One Energy, a startup based in Tennessee, claims to have proven that fusion energy will be able to produce electricity…

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A former Florida Republican congressional candidate accused of stalking and plotting to have his primary opponent murdered by a purported foreign hit squad was sentenced Wednesday to three years in federal prison.William Robert Braddock III, 41, of St. Petersburg was sentenced in Tampa federal court, according to court records. He pleaded guilty in February to sending an interstate transmission of a threat to injure.In 2021, Braddock and U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna were both candidates in the primary election to represent the 13th Congressional District of Florida in the U.S. House of Representatives. Luna eventually won…

(The Center Square) – California Democrats aren’t ruling out new taxes on state residents to pay for health care for illegal immigrants despite the program’s costs growing from $9.5 billion this year to $12.1 billion in California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest budget proposal, or just a little more than the state’s $11.9 billion budget shortfall.Should new federal penalties pass, the program could cost the state an additional $4.4 billion in lost federal funding each year, increasing the relative cost of the program to $16.5 billion. An analysis from The Center Square has found the three main House GOP proposals for…

Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, speaks during an unveiling event in New York on Feb. 26, 2025.Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesAmazon CEO Andy Jassy said Wednesday that the company hasn’t seen any signs of consumers tightening their wallets in the face of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.Jassy’s comments came during Amazon’s annual shareholder meeting, which was held virtually on Wednesday.”We have not seen any attenuation of demand at this point,” Jassy said during a question-and-answer portion of the meeting. “We also haven’t yet seen any meaningful average selling price increases.”Amazon and other retailers continue to digest the impact…