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Home sales slumped in July as rising mortgage rates and prices discouraged many would-be homebuyers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:54 GMT

By ALEX VEIGA (AP Business Writer)LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell in July to the slowest pace since January, as elevated mortgage rates and a stubbornly low inventory of homes on the market combined to discourage many would-be homebuyers. Existing home sales fell 2.2% last month from June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.07 million, the National Association of Realtors said Tuesday. That’s below the 4.15 million pace that economists were expecting, according to FactSet. Sales slumped 16.6% compared with July last year. It was also the lowest home sales for the month of July since 2010. The annual sales decline was steepest in markets across the Northeast and Midwest, where sales slumped 20% or more, the NAR said.Despite falling sales, competition for a near-historic low level of homes on the market helped drive prices higher. The national median sales price rose 1.9% from July last year to $406,700, marking the first annual increa...

Family travel 5: Sustainable tourism

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:54 GMT

Lynn O’Rourke Hayes | (TNS) FamilyTravel.comAs temperatures rise, hurricanes whirl and wildfires burn, the conversation about climate change and our role in it is intensifying. And, with increased documentation about the environmental, economic and social impact of travel, families may be wondering how best to be a responsible traveler.Here are five ideas to consider:1. Choose wiselyPopular vacation spots like the Machu Picchu, Venice, Italy and many National Parks have begun taking steps to protect their destinations from the effects of overcrowding by managing access, establishing visitor fees and sharing information about responsible practices.If you still plan to visit tourism hot spots, consider a shoulder or off-season trip when the impact may be less. When researching your next family adventure, review second-tier cities, parks with fewer visitors, uncrowded beaches or other locations not currently experiencing a high profile, as your holiday possibilities. Consider visiting ...

Macy’s makes move to open smaller stores in West, Northeast

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:54 GMT

NEW YORK — Macy’s is expanding its small-store format into the West and Northeast, looking to offer more convenient shopping, increase customer visits and add new shoppers.The department store chain said Tuesday that last month it opened a location in Highland, Indiana, and plans to open small stores in Boston, Las Vegas and San Diego in coming weeks, bringing the total number of its small-format stores to 12. The new stores range in size from 30,000 to 50,000 square feet, roughly one-fifth the size of its regular department storesMacy’s said the four new stores will bear the iconic brand’s nameplate, but the other eight stores will still be called Market by Macy’s. The department store opened its first small-format store in 2020 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Macy’s operates little more than 500 stores under the namesake brand.Nordstrom, Kohl’s, Macy’s upscale sister Bloomingdale’s, as well as big box stores like Target, have been exp...

Rampant theft hitting earnings, Dick’s says 

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:54 GMT

Dick’s Sporting Goods profit slipped in its second quarter and missed Wall Street’s expectations as the retailer cut its full-year profit outlook, citing worries over theft at its stores.Shares declined more than 24% in morning trading Tuesday.For the period ended July 29, Dick’s earned $244 million, or $2.82 per share. A year earlier the company earned $319 million, or $3.25 per share.Analysts polled by FactSet predicted earnings of $3.81 per share.“Our Q2 profitability was short of our expectations due in large part to the impact of elevated inventory shrink, an increasingly serious issue impacting many retailers,” President and CEO Lauren Hobart said in a statement.Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, said in a statement that a large portion of Dick’s quarterly profit drop appeared to be from theft.“In our view this is a particular issue for Dick’s as many of the products it sells are desirable and have good resale values...

What Ken teaches men: Psychologist examines the emotional growth of Barbie’s boyfriend

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:54 GMT

Spoiler alert: The following interview discusses several plot elements of the film “Barbie.”Before psychologist Eric FitzMedrud donned a pink tie and joined his wife for a date night to see the summer blockbuster movie “Barbie,” he was all too familiar with the anxiety that the character of Ken feels about his place in the world and in Barbie’s life.FitzMedrud specializes in counseling individuals and couples on relationships and sexual issues and is set to publish a book, “The Better Man: A Guide to Consent, Stronger Relationships, and Hotter Sex” (Wonderwell, 2023), in September. The book offers men advice on how to get past the conflicting messages they receive about how to be “enough.” On one hand, he writes, men are told that they can’t be masculine enough unless they reject feminism and embrace the “abject misogyny” of certain cultural figures. Or, they worry about how to enter into relationships and sex, with a post-#MeToo awareness about consent.All along, FitzMedrud says th...

Climate change made worst Quebec fire weather twice as likely, more intense: study

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:54 GMT

Climate change has made summers like the kind that led to Quebec’s disastrous wildfire season at least seven times more likely to happen again, says a new scientific analysis.The study by the U.K.-based World Weather Attribution group, released Tuesday, says greenhouse gas emissions made the province’s overall fire weather about 50 per cent more conducive to fire between May and June. The very worst days were twice as likely to happen and were about 20 per cent worse than they would have been without current levels of carbon in the air.  The finding should alert governments to the need to reduce emissions and prepare for what’s ahead, said one researcher.“Fire weather risk is increasing due to climate change,” said Dorothy Heinrich, one of the report’s 17 co-authors. “Adaptation strategies are going to be required to reduce the drivers of risk and decrease their impacts.”Wildfires have occurred in almost every province and territory th...

Texas Supreme Court denies request to delay new election law despite lawsuit challenging it

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:54 GMT

HOUSTON (AP) — A new Republican-backed Texas law that dictates how elections will be run in the Democratic stronghold of Houston and its surrounding county will take effect as scheduled next month despite a lawsuit seeking to overturn it, the state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.Officials in Harris County, which is the state’s most populous, had sought to put the law, which abolishes its elections administrator’s office, on hold. Last week, a judge in Austin temporarily blocked enforcement of the law after calling it unconstitutional. The judge’s order was short-lived, as the state attorney general’s office appealed the decision to the Texas Supreme Court.In its brief order, the high court denied Harris County’s request to stop the law from taking effect Sept. 1. It also ordered oral arguments in the lawsuit to take place Nov. 28.The new law stemmed from problems during November’s elections in Harris County, including paper ballot shortages and delayed poll openings. It wou...

Solar panels to surround Dulles Airport will deliver power to 37,000 homes

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:54 GMT

CHANTILLY, Va. (AP) — Travelers taking off and landing at Dulles International Airport outside the nation’s capital will soon see an array of 200,000 solar panels laid out near the runways — the largest renewable energy project ever built at a U.S. airport.Dominion Energy and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority ceremonially broke ground on the 835-acre project Tuesday.The solar farm is just a small part of a huge push by Dominion to add 16,000 megawatts of solar capacity — enough to power 4 million homes — by 2035 as it seeks to comply with a state law requiring 100% of its non-nuclear energy production to be zero emission by 2045.Rural counties in Virginia, though, are pushing back against the solar expansion, as residents complain about the loss of farmland, wrecked viewsheds and construction noise. In recent months, Henry, Pittsylvania, Clarke and Shenandoah counties have all taken steps to restrict or regulate new solar projects.Bev McKay, a supervisor in Clarke Count...

Wildfires torment Greece. California digs out from Hilary. What to know in extreme weather now

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:54 GMT

A nightmarish summer of wildfires for Greece took its deadliest turn yet on Tuesday when firefighters found the burned bodies of 18 people near the city of Alexandroupolis.A hint of the scope of the fire can be seen in this image by Associated Press photographer Achilleas Chiras. The dead were believed to have been migrants who had crossed the nearby border with Turkey before falling victim to a major fire that was among dozens across the country being whipped by gale-force winds. Their deaths came after two people had died in fires Monday elsewhere in the country.Spain continues to struggle with fires, too, including one on the tourist island of Tenerife that authorities said was arson. It’s forced the evacuation of more than 12,000 people. And in Canada, firefighters held back fires from destroying more structures in a scenic region of British Columbia in what one official called the most difficult days fighting fire in the province’s history.Here’s what else is happen...

Man, 86, accused of assuming dead brother’s identity in 1965 convicted of several charges

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:25:54 GMT

BANGOR, Maine (AP) — An 86-year-old man accused of assuming his brother’s identity decades ago and using it to double dip on Social Security benefits has been convicted of several charges, caught by facial recognition technology that matched the same face to two different identities, authorities say.Napoleon Gonzalez, of Etna, assumed the identity of his brother in 1965, a quarter century after his sibling’s death as an infant, and used the stolen identity to obtain Social Security benefits under both identities, multiple passports and state identification cards, law enforcement officials said.A U.S. District Court jury on Friday convicted him of charges including mail fraud, Social Security fraud, passport fraud and identity theft. He faces up to 20 years in prison at sentencing, with mail fraud carrying the greatest potential penalty of all the charges.Gonzalez’s benefits were previously investigated by the Social Security Administration in 2010 for potential fraud and his b...