Business NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94 NPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94 Business Wed, 15 Jul 2020 12:57:49 +0000 https://www.gpbnews.org Scott Horsley Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. https://www.gpbnews.org/post/federal-tax-filing-deadline-arrives 107194 as https://www.gpbnews.org Wed, 15 Jul 2020 11:20:00 +0000 Federal Tax Filing Deadline Arrives editor Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. https://www.gpbnews.org/post/news-brief-trump-addresses-race-us-covid-19-testing-goals-federal-tax-deadline 107170 as https://www.gpbnews.org Wed, 15 Jul 2020 09:34:00 +0000 News Brief: Trump Addresses Race, U.S. COVID-19 Testing Goals, Federal Tax Deadline editor Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. https://www.gpbnews.org/post/several-states-begin-walking-back-reopening-plans-amid-covid-19-surge 107171 as https://www.gpbnews.org Wed, 15 Jul 2020 09:34:00 +0000 Several States Begin Walking Back Reopening Plans Amid COVID-19 Surge David Schaper Over the last three months, Delta Air Lines lost nearly $6 billion as the company's CEO said a slow, brief recovery in air travel has now stalled amid a big resurgence in coronavirus infections. Delta is the first U.S. airline to report second-quarter financial results; it is the first full quarter since the pandemic began, and the results are worse than anticipated. Delta flew 93% percent fewer passengers in April, May and June than it did in the second quarter last year. Revenue fell 91% compared with the same three-month period last year as the airline said it was losing close to $100 million a day at the start of the pandemic. Atlanta-based Delta said it is still burning about $27 million a day. Delta CEO Ed Bastian called the losses "staggering," adding that "it could be two years or more before we see a sustainable recovery." Bastian noted that in June and early July, there was "a small but welcome uptick in passenger volume, driven almost entirely by domestic leisure travelers https://www.gpbnews.org/post/coronavirus-costs-delta-airlines-nearly-6-billion-second-quarter 107160 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 22:25:26 +0000 Coronavirus Costs Delta Air Lines Nearly $6 Billion In 2nd Quarter Scott Horsley For years, Matt Harris dreamed about building a treehouse out behind his back fence in Knoxville, Tenn. He never got around to it, though, until the pandemic hit. "It was just a matter of finding time," Harris says. "And that didn't come until everything kind of shut down for a little bit." When the coronavirus canceled youth sports for the season, Harris suddenly found his weekends free. And his children — ages 8, 7 and 4 — made a willing construction crew. "They were good measurers and markers of the wood," Harris says. "You don't let small children use power tools, necessarily. But in terms of things they could help [with], they were enthusiastic about it." As he set about buying supplies, Harris noticed a lot of other housebound families seemed to be working on their own projects. "There were definitely some days when we went to Lowe's where it looked like a swarm of locusts had come through," says Harris, an economist at the University of Tennessee. "I think the lumber industry https://www.gpbnews.org/post/stay-home-improvement-diy-builders-help-drive-lumber-prices 107138 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 19:18:00 +0000 Stay-At-Home Improvement: DIY Builders Help Drive Up Lumber Prices Matthew S. Schwartz Updated at 4 p.m. ET Months after approving some limited involvement by the Chinese technology giant Huawei in constructing the U.K.'s next-generation wireless data network, British regulators reversed course Tuesday. Beginning in January, U.K. regulators will implement a ban on telecom operators buying Huawei equipment. Existing Huawei 5G equipment will need to be removed from the U.K.'s 5G network by 2027. The decision comes after relations between the U.K. and China declined sharply over China's actions in Hong Kong, and in the face of a potential rebellion by parliamentarians from the U.K.'s ruling Conservative party who are concerned about the security implications of Chinese involvement in the 5G rollout. But it also follows sustained U.S. pressure on the U.K. and other European countries to exclude Huawei from 5G development. The U.S. says Huawei's equipment can be used for espionage by Beijing, and it has threatened to withhold intelligence from its allies that continued to use https://www.gpbnews.org/post/reversal-uk-will-ban-huawei-equipment-its-5g-network 107139 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 19:14:00 +0000 In Reversal, U.K. Will Ban Huawei Equipment From Its 5G Network Dan Charles Prairie strips in fields of corn or soybeans can protect the soil and allow wildlife to flourish. This strip was established in a field near Traer, Iowa, in 2015. Omar de Kok-Mercado, Iowa State University Lisa Schulte Moore loves nature. To stand in an old-growth forest, she says, "I can only describe it as healing." When she moved to Iowa to teach ecology at Iowa State University, she didn't get that same feeling when she found herself amid acres of corn. She wasn't hearing birds or seeing many bugs. "All I can hear are the leaves of the rustling corn," she says. "Not one biological noise. You know, they call it the green desert." This is, in fact, the central environmental problem with agriculture. This year, corn and soybeans cover an area of the United States equal in size to all the East Coast states from New York to Georgia. It has displaced wildlife and left the soil more vulnerable to water and wind erosion. But Schulte Moore says that it doesn't have to be a green desert. She https://www.gpbnews.org/post/how-absentee-landlords-keep-farmers-protecting-water-and-soil 107122 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 14:46:00 +0000 How Absentee Landowners Keep Farmers From Protecting Water And Soil Updated at 12:45 p.m. ET The dramatic collapse of the U.S. economy from the coronavirus is pummeling America's largest banks, raising new concerns about how much growth is slowing. Wells Fargo lost $2.4 billion in the second quarter — its first quarterly loss since 2008 during the financial crisis — and said it expects to cut its dividend to shareholders by 80%. Citigroup saw its profit drop 73% in the quarter. And JPMorgan Chase, the nation's biggest bank, was forced to set aside billions of dollars more to cover bad loans during the second quarter, although money it made from trading in the frothy financial markets assured it made a profit anyway. The results underscore the toll that the recession is taking on big banks, which serve as a barometer of how the broader U.S. economy is faring. Hopes that the economy will rebound as fast as it declined — a so-called V-shaped recovery — seem increasingly unlikely. "We still face much uncertainty regarding the future path of the economy," https://www.gpbnews.org/post/we-still-face-much-uncertainty-pandemic-hammers-big-banks 107119 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 13:47:32 +0000 'We Still Face Much Uncertainty': Pandemic Hammers Big Banks Greg Rosalsky Editor's note: This is an excerpt of Planet Money 's newsletter. You can sign up here . Pixabay Banks and laundromats are scrambling. Arcades and gumball machine operators are bracing for the worst. Grocery stores are rounding their prices to even dollars or rejecting cash altogether. The specter of the coin shortage lurks everywhere. Blame COVID-19. The U.S. Mint cut back on coin production this spring to keep its workers safe. Meanwhile, the economy is constipated. "With the closure of the economy, the flow of coins through the economy has ... kind of stopped," explained Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell last month. Coins sit idle in closed stores' cash registers and people's homes, and they're not making it to the banks and companies that need them for business. The coin shortage could be a rallying cry for a long-running movement that has lost steam in recent years: Kill the penny! Last year, almost 60% of the coins that the U.S. Mint churned out were pennies. 60 percent . It https://www.gpbnews.org/post/it-time-kill-penny 107103 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 10:30:00 +0000 Is It Time To Kill The Penny? Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: A famous paper, a few months ago, described fighting the pandemic as the hammer and the dance. Officials would put down the hammer, shutting down businesses to slow the disease, and then try various maneuvers to dance back toward normal life. RACHEL MARTIN, HOST: California lowered the hammer last spring. Then came the dance. It's been gradually reopening businesses and beaches over the past couple months. But now Governor Gavin Newsom says he's got to go back to the hammer because COVID is spreading again. (SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE) GAVIN NEWSOM: A week or so ago, I was reporting just six lives lost. And then a few days later, well in excess of a hundred lives lost. And so this continues to be a deadly disease. MARTIN: It's not just businesses closing. The two biggest school districts in California say they won't have kids back in the classrooms for the foreseeable future. INSKEEP: Which is what we're going to discuss https://www.gpbnews.org/post/news-brief-reopening-setback-rules-international-students-south-china-sea 107104 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 10:22:00 +0000 News Brief: Reopening Setback, Rules For International Students, South China Sea editor Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit NOEL KING, HOST: A New Orleans institution is closing. K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen was a temple of Cajun cooking, but after COVID closures and restrictions, it won't reopen. Ian McNulty is on the line with me. He covers New Orleans dining and food culture. Good morning. IAN MCNULTY, BYLINE: Good morning, Noel. KING: Tell me about K-Paul's. Tell me about this restaurant. MCNULTY: This is a restaurant that, in a city famous for restaurants, really stood out as one that sort of vaulted ahead of the ideas that people had for local cuisine in its time and made an impact on, really, the global restaurant scene, the global food world, the ripples of which still end up on your dinner plate today when you dine out in cities across America, not just in New Orleans or Louisiana. KING: How do it manage to do that? I imagine that the food was real good. That's probably the simple answer. But what is Cajun cooking? (LAUGHTER) MCNULTY: Right. Well, you know, New https://www.gpbnews.org/post/pandemic-forces-famed-new-orleans-restaurant-close 107097 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 09:04:00 +0000 Pandemic Forces Famed New Orleans Restaurant To Close editor Copyright 2020 Northern Public Radio. To see more, visit Northern Public Radio . NOEL KING, HOST: All right. Here's a story about unexpected consequences. People are buying fewer lottery tickets because of the pandemic, which is bad for convenience stores and gas stations. But it also means hundreds of millions fewer dollars for school funding. Peter Medlin of member station WNIJ in DeKalb, Ill., explains what's going on. PETER MEDLIN, BYLINE: Last year, the Illinois Lottery set records sales. Proceeds from Powerball tickets to scratch-offs contributed $731 million to public education. That translates to more than 10% of the state's funding for school districts. But the receipts don't look nearly as good this year. With more strict reopening guidelines, sales have plummeted. And revenue has nosedived nearly $90 million during the pandemic. Victor Matheson teaches economics at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, where he researches sports and the lottery. VICTOR MATHESON: So https://www.gpbnews.org/post/drop-lottery-sales-will-hurt-states-school-budgets 107101 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 09:04:00 +0000 Drop-Off In Lottery Sales Will Hurt States' School Budgets Jim Zarroli They fume and rage and demand their rights. Sometimes they even get violent. In the age of COVID-19, most people practice social distancing guidelines when they go into stores and restaurants, putting on masks and standing 6 feet behind other customers. Still, there are the nightmare customers — those who refuse to comply. "I've had a lot of conflict. I've had a lot of pushback from people," says Brenda Leek, owner of Curbside Eatery in La Mesa, Calif. One woman entered Leek's restaurant without a mask, pulling her T-shirt over her face. Leek told her to mask up or leave. "So then she's like, 'This is ridiculous! You're discriminating against me!' Told me I would be hearing from her attorney. And I said, 'That's fine,' " Leek says. Encounters like that are anything but unusual. The Internet is filled with videotaped confrontations involving customers who flout social distancing rules. Sometimes they insist on entering without face coverings. Other times one customer stands too close to https://www.gpbnews.org/post/customer-always-right-except-when-they-wont-wear-mask 107098 as https://www.gpbnews.org Tue, 14 Jul 2020 09:04:00 +0000 The Customer Is Always Right. Except When They Won't Wear A Mask Scott Horsley The federal deficit ballooned last month as the U.S. government tried to cushion the blow from the coronavirus pandemic. The red ink in June alone totaled $864 billion . The federal government ran a bigger deficit last month alone than it usually does all year. Washington spent hundreds of billions of dollars trying to prop up small businesses and assist laid-off workers. With three months left in the government's fiscal year, the year's deficit of $2.7 trillion is already nearly twice as large as the previous record of $1.4 trillion, set in 2009 during the Great Recession. While the government is spending heavily on the pandemic , tax collections in June were lower than usual. The filing deadline for 2019 income taxes was postponed until July 15. Congressional forecasters expect the federal deficit for the full year to reach $3.7 trillion. With infections on the rise, Congress is expected to consider additional relief measures this month. Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https:/ https://www.gpbnews.org/post/red-ink-overflowing-june-us-borrowed-typical-years-worth 107075 as https://www.gpbnews.org Mon, 13 Jul 2020 21:16:00 +0000 Red Ink Overflowing: In June, U.S. Borrowed A Typical Year's Worth editor Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit NOEL KING, HOST: There's something happening in the U.K. right now that is reminiscent of Prohibition in the United States. You remember those old pictures of bar owners pouring out gallons and gallons of booze? STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Oh, yeah. Well, British pub owners today are dumping all the beer that's gone bad during the months they were in lockdown. DUNCAN SMITH: During the 14-week shutdown, a significant amount of our beers and lagers became out of date. KING: That's Duncan Smith (ph). He's been a bartender for 33 years, and one of the pubs that he operates has been around for 250 years. SMITH: It's been serving the community for that long and, you know, been through world wars and all the rest of it and, obviously, very different times that long ago. And something comes along like this, which could wipe it out, and we've got to take any benefit we possibly can, thrown out by the government and the suppliers, in order to survive. INSKEEP: The https://www.gpbnews.org/post/how-does-dumping-beer-help-british-pubs-survive-pandemic 107029 as https://www.gpbnews.org Mon, 13 Jul 2020 09:08:00 +0000 How Does Dumping Beer Help British Pubs Survive The Pandemic? David Folkenflik Updated at 9:35 p.m. ET Monday The revelation that Fox News prime-time star Tucker Carlson's top writer had posted racist, sexist and homophobic sentiments online for years under a pseudonym has led to renewed scrutiny of Carlson's own commentaries, which have inspired a series of advertising boycotts. The writer, Blake Neff, resigned on Friday after questions raised by CNN's Oliver Darcy led to the posts becoming public. Carlson addressed the controversy on the air Monday night, saying Neff's comments were wrong and "have no connection to the show." After noting Neff had paid the price for his actions, Carlson also spoke about what he called the costs of self-righteousness. "When we pretend we are holy, we are lying," he said. "When we pose as blameless in order to hurt other people, we are committing the gravest sin of all, and we will be punished for it, no question." In an internal memo, Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott and President and Executive Editor Jay Wallace called the postings https://www.gpbnews.org/post/fresh-scrutiny-foxs-tucker-carlson-top-writer-quits-over-bigoted-posts 107026 as https://www.gpbnews.org Mon, 13 Jul 2020 00:21:00 +0000 Fresh Scrutiny For Fox's Tucker Carlson As Top Writer Quits Over Bigoted Posts editor Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST: Ryan Sutton is chief food critic for New York Eater, and he says he's not going to dine out - inside at tables while apart from each other, outside in the open air, anywhere under any circumstance at all. And he says you shouldn't either. Ryan Sutton joins us now from Long Island, N.Y. Welcome to the program. RYAN SUTTON: Thanks for having me, Lulu. GARCIA-NAVARRO: So tell us why you're taking this position to stick with takeout exclusively. You know, servers, bussers, overnight cleaning services - isn't it good to give the restaurants that employ them the business they need to stay afloat so that these people have jobs and income for their households? SUTTON: There's no denying that we're all in a very difficult situation right now. However, given that we have over, you know, 50,000 new cases, often every day, throughout the country, just from an individual moral standpoint, I simply can't bring myself to eat at a https://www.gpbnews.org/post/new-york-eaters-chief-critic-isnt-ready-eat-out-heres-why 107001 as https://www.gpbnews.org Sun, 12 Jul 2020 11:58:00 +0000 New York Eater's Chief Critic Isn't Ready To Eat Out. Here's Why editor Copyright 2020 KHNS. To see more, visit KHNS . LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST: Southeast Alaska's economy is getting hammered without cruise ship tourists, who stayed home due to the pandemic. So one tiny town is using its federal relief money to write monthly $1,000 checks to every resident, paying them not to move away. Claire Stremple reports from member station KHNS. CLAIRE STREMPLE, BYLINE: The boardwalk-lined streets of Skagway, Alaska, are usually filled with tourists by midsummer. But this year, the streets are quiet. REBECCA HYLTON: I became unemployed March 13. STREMPLE: Like many people in town, Rebecca Hylton has depended on the tourism industry for decades. She ran marketing for a local brewpub. But no cruises means no business. She couldn't pay her mortgage until she and her 7-year-old son got their first $2,000 from the local government. Then she spent a little money downtown. HYLTON: So right away, we bought some new boots for him, whereas before, I definitely would've https://www.gpbnews.org/post/residents-alaskan-town-receive-monthly-stipend-not-move-away-during-pandemic 107002 as https://www.gpbnews.org Sun, 12 Jul 2020 11:58:00 +0000 Residents Of Alaskan Town Receive Monthly Stipend Not To Move Away During Pandemic editor Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: The United States set a new record yesterday for the most new coronavirus cases reported in a single day - more than 68,000. The previous high mark was set just the day before. The pandemic is stressing medical resources in several states like California, Arizona, Texas and Florida that have seen dramatic surges in recent days. The country's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, this week referred to this moment as a perfect storm of viral contagion, all of which has intensified the debate about what the country - each of us, really - can do to slow down the spread of the virus, like wearing a face mask. Today President Trump was seen wearing a mask in public during a visit to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. But the president has sent mixed messages about this, refusing for months to wear a mask, as health experts recommend. So to begin tonight, we want to focus on a group of https://www.gpbnews.org/post/left-enforce-local-mandates-front-line-retail-workers-face-threats 106990 as https://www.gpbnews.org Sat, 11 Jul 2020 21:16:00 +0000 Left To Enforce Local Mandates, Front-Line Retail Workers Face Threats editor Copyright 2020 KUNC. To see more, visit KUNC . MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: As cities across the country consider diverting police department dollars into social programs, some are looking at summer jobs for low-income youth. Through these summer youth employment programs, young people can make some money, learn new skills and stay productive. From member station KUNC in northern Colorado, Leigh Paterson reports. LEIGH PATERSON, BYLINE: Last month, New York slashed police spending but did fund its massive summer youth employment program. Cincinnati shifted a million dollars out of its police budget to expand youth employment. Los Angeles did something similar to its $1.8 billion police budget. Here's LA city council member Curren Price. CURREN PRICE: Well, my motion shifted $150 million from the police department budget. PATERSON: Ten million of that will go to the city's summer youth employment program. He said this reallocation is a direct response to recent protests against police violence. https://www.gpbnews.org/post/cities-divert-police-budget-funds-youth-summer-jobs 106989 as https://www.gpbnews.org Sat, 11 Jul 2020 20:55:00 +0000 Cities Divert Police Budget Funds To Youth Summer Jobs