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United States policy, business and public affairs with source-level context.

A hazy orange sky over a residential neighbourhood obscured by dense wildfire smokeUS · 44 days ago

Spokane's fires destroyed more than 700 structures. The smoke is now the story for five states

Three fires that began on 1 August have burned over 10,000 acres and forced roughly 67,000 people out. No deaths have been reported. The smoke has spread far beyond the fire line, and air quality is what most of the region is now checking.

Developing · 8 sources · 4 min read
An empty university lecture hall photographed from the back in daylightUS · 46 days ago

A seven-year case just forced the Education Department to erase $23bn in student debt

Nearly 450,000 borrowers who said their colleges misled them are covered. An appeals court refused the department's request for another eighteen months, noting it had waited three years to object.

Verified · 5 sources · 3 min read
A calendar, notebook, reading glasses and coffee cup on a kitchen table in morning lightUS · 46 days ago

The 2027 Social Security raise is being guessed at at 3.6 to 3.8 per cent, and none of it is official yet

Three forecasters put next year's cost-of-living adjustment above this year's 2.8 per cent. The figure that counts is not calculated until October, from three months of data that are not all in.

Verified · 5 sources · 3 min read
A neoclassical legislative building at dusk under an overcast skyUS · 46 days ago

Senators wrote a funding patch that runs past the midterms, and quietly took back some spending power

The stopgap holds the government open to 11 December. Buried in it are a blocked grant rule, a bar on moving money to Border Patrol, and a battleship request that did not survive.

Verified · 6 sources · 2 min read