#Recycling won’t solve the plastic problem. Here’s what will.

#Recycling won’t solve the plastic problem. Here’s what will.

There is no shortage of news about plastic’s ubiquity or its harms. Microplastics are in clouds, drinking water, playgrounds and our blood. Marine mammals are entangled in and ingest plastic at alarming rates. Plastic exacerbates climate change and biodiversity loss, and high-income countries increasingly consume and export used plastic to lower-income countries for disposal. The…

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#Amazon hoping to train millions through free AI courses

#Amazon hoping to train millions through free AI courses

Amazon hopes to provide two million people with free artificial intelligence (AI) training by 2025 as part of its new “AI Ready” initiative, the e-commerce giant announced on Monday. “Artificial intelligence (AI) is the most transformative technology of our generation,” Amazon said a press release. “If we are going to unlock the full potential of…

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#What I know about Joe Manchin

#What I know about Joe Manchin

Several months ago, I hosted a fundraiser for Sen. Joe Manchin on Long Island. My progressive friends flooded my in-box almost instantly with incredulous, all caps, “HOW COULD YOU?????” protests. One would have thought I was supporting Vlad the Impaler instead of the Democratic senator from West Virginia. I should have expected it. It’s been…

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#Education Department withholding payment to student loan servicer after billing statement errors

#Education Department withholding payment to student loan servicer after billing statement errors

The Department of Education announced Monday that it is withholding millions of dollars in payment to the student loan servicer Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority (MOHELA) over billing statement errors it made.  The department said MOHELA “failed to meet its basic obligation” of getting the statements out in a reasonable timeframe, resulting in 2.5 million…

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#More ‘Buy America’ provisions threaten our industrial base and national security

#More ‘Buy America’ provisions threaten our industrial base and national security

“Buy America” is a hardy perennial in debates over defense manufacturing in the United States.  Given the industrial capacity and supply chain security challenges demonstrated by the Ukraine war and the COVID-19 pandemic, some members of Congress argue that a central part of the solution is to strengthen laws to buy from American companies. To that end, there are draft provisions in the 2024…

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