pelespirit

Agency spokesperson Spencer Miller-Payne confirmed in an email that Medical Director Robert Bredt submitted his retirement paperwork on Jan. 7 and left the same day. Bredt had been in the high-profile role since July 2012, according to the Texas Tribune’s salary guide, which tracks the employment of state officials.

The Texas Medical Board is the state agency that regulates the practice of medicine in Texas and oversees doctors.

Both the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq are also closed. The rare closure of Wall Street for a U.S. president first occurred in 1865 after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. The observance by Wall Street to honor deceased presidents has continued and the most recent closure was in 2018 after the death of former President George H.W. Bush.

State Farm, one of California's largest insurers, announced last year that it would not renew 30,000 home insurance policies throughout the state—including at least hundreds in areas affected by the current wildfires—explaining that the move was meant to avert a "financial failure" that would "detrimentally impact the entire market."

Other insurance companies have taken similar action, leaving their customers scrambling to find coverage.

"They've been waging a campaign against Proposition 103… a ballot initiative that got passed in the late 1980s that, among other things, puts in place a lot of consumer protections about insurance," he added. "This has been a big deal for consumers and it's helped keep rates down. But insurance companies really hate these consumer protections and have been trying to weaken them."

In a Wednesday interview with Common Dreams, Jamie Court, president of the Los Angeles-based group Consumer Watchdog, noted that "under Prop 103, we could challenge rate hikes, and we saved $1 billion by challenging rate hikes that were too high last year."

The list of electric vehicles that qualify for the IRS clean vehicle tax credit has changed with the arrival of the new year. No longer linked to battery capacity, the credit of up to $7,500 is now tied to the sourcing of battery components—each year, an increasing amount must be extracted or refined in the US (or a free trade partner) to be eligible. The total number of eligible EVs has actually increased in 2025, from 24 last year to 27 this year, but a number of automakers' products have also dropped off the list in the process.

The $7,500 tax credit is split into two components. $3,750 is available if the battery components are made or assembled in the US. The other half now requires that 60 percent of the critical minerals in the battery—things like lithium, nickel, and so on—be extracted or refined in the US (or by a free trade partner). Last year, this threshold was 50 percent; next year, it will increase to 70 percent.

The change will be introduced in the US this week before being expanded globally next week.

Users will not be able to turn off unsolicited political posts but can choose between three settings - less, standard or more.

The head of the two platforms Adam Mosseri - who had previously said he was opposed to news and political content - says users have "asked to be shown more" of such posts.

The bolded part is why this is in Politics:

Each time you see a targeted ad, your personal information is exposed to thousands of advertisers and data brokers through a process called “real-time bidding” (RTB). This process does more than deliver ads—it fuels government surveillance, poses national security risks, and gives data brokers easy access to your online activity. RTB might be the most privacy-invasive surveillance system that you’ve never heard of.

A new law regulating when app-based delivery companies may deactivate drivers went into effect in Seattle on Jan. 1 after a federal judge denied a motion from Uber and Instacart to block it.

The law restricts the companies’ ability to boot delivery drivers and couriers from their platforms without more extensive notice and justification, and requires them to provide more opportunities for drivers to understand and appeal the decision. Passed in 2023, but delayed in its implementation, the law’s purpose was one piece of a larger effort by a previous city council and labor-backed advocacy groups to regulate the so-called gig economy.

Wikipedia, an organized and evolving repository of all human knowledge, relies on an army of anonymous volunteer editors to keep running. Wiki editors spend hours of their lives tweaking entries, fighting with each other, and attempting to create a clear picture of the truth online. According to leaked documents obtained by Forward, the Heritage Foundation is planning to “identify and target” those anonymous editors.

These tubes might contain tantalizing clues about past life on Mars, but NASA's ever-changing plans to bring them back to Earth are still unclear.

On Tuesday, NASA officials presented two options for retrieving and returning the samples gathered by the Perseverance rover. One alternative involves a conventional architecture reminiscent of past NASA Mars missions, relying on the "sky crane" landing system demonstrated on the agency's two most recent Mars rovers. The other option would be to outsource the lander to the space industry.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson left a final decision on a new mission architecture to the next NASA administrator working under the incoming Trump administration. President-elect Donald Trump nominated entrepreneur and commercial astronaut Jared Isaacman as the agency's 15th administrator last month.

• The Vegas Loop: Elon Musk’s Boring Company is constructing a planned 68-mile tunnel system beneath Las Vegas where drivers will ferry passengers around the urban core in Teslas.
• Less Regulation: Despite its size, the project, because it’s privately funded, has not gone through the vetting typical of public transit systems, including lengthy governmental studies.
• Musk’s Worldview: Musk says regulation often stymies innovation, a view that now has added significance given his new role advising President-elect Donald Trump on government efficiency.

The Republican majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court on Tuesday temporarily blocked the state election board from certifying the victory of one of the court’s own members—Democratic Justice Allison Riggs. In doing so, the state’s highest court laid the groundwork for potentially overturning the election and handing the seat to Riggs’ GOP challenger.

Riggs leads the race by 734 votes after two recounts. But her opponent, appeals court Judge Jefferson Griffin, has challenged the eligibility of 60,000 voters. He claims that ballots were wrongly counted from people who submitted incomplete voter registration records, but his list of challenged ballots includes many lawful voters—including Riggs’ own parents.

Mike Johns boarded a driverless Waymo taxi to an airport in Scottsdale, Arizona, but it began spinning in circles in a parking lot.

He filmed the moment he was trapped in the vehicle, unable to stop the car or get help.

Johns said he almost missed his flight.