The following links are just news items and opinions that pass my desk throughout the week. I don’t necessarily support or advocate any of the items, they are just interesting reads.
US home prices have surged 47% since the start of 2020 – Home prices have surged 47.1% since the start of 2020, easily outstripping the gains seen in recent decades.
That’s according to a recent analysis by ResiClub of the Case-Shiller National Home Price Index, which showed that house prices in the 1990s and 2010s grew a respective 30.1% and 44.7%.
On top of that, home price growth so far this decade is on the verge of surpassing all the growth seen in the 2000s. During that time period, housing prices skyrocketed 47.3%, including an 80% spike before the 2007 housing market crash.
There are a number of driving forces behind the spike in prices.
Years of underbuilding fueled a shortage of homes in the country, a problem that was later exacerbated by the rapid rise in mortgage rates and expensive construction materials.
Available home supply remains down a stunning 34.3% from the typical amount before the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020, according to a separate report published by Realtor.com.
Higher mortgage rates over the past three years have also created a “golden handcuff” effect in the housing market. Sellers who locked in a record-low mortgage rate of 3% or less during the pandemic began have been reluctant to sell, limiting supply further and leaving few options for eager would-be buyers. Read More > at Fox Business
Bay Area consumer prices hop higher as pace of inflation worsens – The inflation rate in the Bay Area as measured by consumer prices rose at a faster pace in April compared with the last several months, a disquieting sign that the bouts of elevated costs have yet to run their course.
Costs for electricity and natural gas delivered by utility behemoths such as PG&E soared skyward, the federal government reported Wednesday.
Consumer prices hopped higher by 3.8% in the Bay Area in April compared with the same month the year before, according to the report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Bay Area’s annual inflation rate of 3.8% as reported by the federal labor agency was well above the year-to-year readings for the closely watched consumer price index for the region in recent months.
Over six months going back to last October 2023, annual inflation had been averaging about 2.6%.
The last time the region’s yearly consumer price index had topped 3% was in August 2023. Read More > in The Mercury New
Overdue bills are rising with US debt delinquencies, Fed survey shows – U.S. household debt has reached a record and more borrowers are struggling to keep up.
Overall U.S. household debt rose to $17.7 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit released Tuesday. That’s an increase of $184 billion, or 1.1%, from the fourth quarter.
The data highlight the mounting financial pressures on American families in an age of elevated inflation. The persistent rise in the prices of essentials such as food and rent have strained household budgets, pushing people to borrow against their credit cards to pay for necessities.
Consumers have added $3.4 trillion in debt since the pandemic, and that increased debt bears much higher interest rates.
Total credit card debt stood at $1.12 trillion in the first quarter of 2024, according to the report. That’s down slightly from the $1.13 trillion in the fourth quarter, in line with seasonal patterns of consumers paying debt incurred over the holidays. But credit card balances are up almost 25% from the first quarter of 2020. Read More > from Bloomberg News
S.F. homelessness rises despite city spending hundreds of millions of dollars, new count shows –
Despite a massive increase in homelessness funding, San Francisco saw a 7% surge in its unhoused population over the past two years, reversing the gains shown in its last count, according to preliminary data from a one-night snapshot released Thursday.
The city counted 8,328 unhoused people across the city, which was up from 7,754 in 2022. Unsheltered homelessness, which includes people living in tents, on sidewalks and in vehicles, dipped 1%, according to city estimates.
City officials said the number of people living in tents or structures, or on the city’s sidewalks and public spaces, dropped by 13% to 2,913 — “the lowest street homelessness level in 10 years.” Meanwhile, people sleeping in vehicles spiked 37%, from 1,049 to 1,442.
There were 437 homelessness families tallied across the city, marking an alarming 94% jump since 2022. Read More > in the San Francisco Chronicle
CA Pilot Program Tests Getting EV Drivers To Pay Up For Road Repairs – California is considering replacing the gas tax, which pays for the lion’s share of road repairs and other transportation projects, with a more sustainable source of funding — and they need your help testing it out.
Officials say a new system is needed as more Californians switch to fuel-efficient vehicles, which means lower gas tax revenue at the pump. Drivers of all electric cars don’t pay the tax at all — a budget drain that will grow more serious as more people ditch traditional combustion engines. Roughly 80% of road repair work is funded by gas tax revenue.
In an attempt to offset those losses, Caltrans officials say applications are open for the 2024 Road Charge Collection Pilot, in which people throughout the state can earn up to $400 for participating in the six-month program.
A road charge is a fee based on how many miles you drive, rather than a gas tax that’s based on how many gallons used.
State lawmakers passed a bill in 2014 to start studying the road charge system, and the first pilot launched a few years later, successfully testing more than 5,000 vehicles and 37 million miles.
“Instead of paying the state’s gas tax, which disproportionately impacts those who cannot afford more fuel-efficient vehicles, everyone would pay a per-mile fee for how much they use the road, regardless of what kind of car they drive,” according to the program.
Basically, the more you drive, the more you’d pay for maintenance. Read More > at LAist
Coalition files protest against Delta Conveyance water diversion application that would cause irreversible harm to Delta ecosystem and its people – A broad coalition of California tribes, nonprofits, environmental organizations, and commercial fishing groups have filed a protest with the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), calling on the denial of the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP) Change in Point of Diversion (CPOD) Petition.
For sixty years, California politicians have proposed to divert water from the Bay-Delta and pump, tunnel, or transport it for other uses in other places throughout the state. And for sixty years, the science has demonstrated that such plans will harm fish and wildlife, communities, and people.
The current Delta Conveyance Project (“DCP,” “Tunnel,” or “Project”) proposal is no different. Pushed forward by politicians in plain contravention of the best available science, the continued drive to take more and more from the Delta—more of its water, more of its history, more of its culture—must be rejected by the State Water Resources Control Board (“State Water Board” or “Board”), so that the fate of Tribes, communities, and ecosystems are not left to the whims of political power brokers.
The Board should deny the Petition because it is unlawful and not in the public interest. The Project would cause unreasonable impacts to water quality and to fish and wildlife in the Sacramento River and San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (“Bay-Delta”) estuary, significant harm to the Bay-Delta environment, irreparable injury to tribal cultural resources and tribal beneficial uses, damage to public trust resources, further injury to already impacted coastal and inland fisheries, and a host of unacceptable adverse impacts to Delta Tribes and communities. It is also effectively a new water right application, as DWR has lost any entitlement to divert in the amount contemplated for the DCP under its 1972 permits. And it injures legal users of water, including unadjudicated reserved rights of Tribes. Read More > from Restore the Delta
Analysis: Benefits of the Delta Conveyance Project Far Exceed Costs – Today, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) released a benefit-cost analysis for the Delta Conveyance Project that finds the infrastructure modernization project would create billions of dollars in benefits for California communities, including reliable water supplies, climate change adaptation, earthquake preparedness and improved water quality.
For every $1 spent, $2.20 in benefits would be generated. The report also shows the very real cost of doing nothing, posing significant future challenges to supplying water to California communities.
“The Delta Conveyance Project passes the benefit-cost test readily, with benefits that are more than double the cost,” said Dr. David Sunding, Emeritus Professor, UC Berkeley, who led the benefit-cost analysis. “The project enables ongoing demands to be satisfied and water supply reliability to be maintained,” he said, adding “the benefits clearly justify the costs.”
As climate change and regulatory constraints cause water supplies to diminish over time, the reliability of the State Water Project infrastructure is in jeopardy, putting 27 million Californians and 750,000 acres of farmland at risk. This new benefit-cost analysis provides a compelling financial rationale for the public water agencies funding the project to be able continue to provide affordable, safe, clean and reliable water supply.
“Twenty-seven million people rely on these surface water supplies that support a $2.3 trillion economy in California.” said Karla Nemeth, Director of the California Department of Water Resources. “There is a very real cost to do nothing. It is vastly more efficient and economical to avoid declining supplies. Water shortages, mandatory restrictions, land fallowing and job loss all impact our state and local economies. Read More > at DWR
$20 billion: The Delta tunnel’s new price tag – Gov. Gavin Newsom backs the proposed project, calling it his “number one climate resilience program” and saying he hopes to get it permitted before he leaves office. The 45-mile tunnel would transport water from the Sacramento River around the Delta to a reservoir near Livermore, the first stop on the 444-mile California Aqueduct.
The new estimate and report will help water suppliers in Southern California, the Central Coast and the Bay Area weigh whether it’s cost effective for them to buy the tunnel’s water. The state would issue revenue bonds to fund the project, then suppliers would have to pay back the costs.
Water agencies, such as the giant Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, are expected to have all of the information they need to decide by the end of 2026, said Karla Nemeth, director of the Department of Water Resources, which operates the state’s massive water system.
“The questions are how can this project be implemented, what kind of assurances can we have in the resilience it provides to the Delta and our water supply future, and at what price?” Adel Hagekhalil, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District, said in a statement. He said the cost estimate “brings us closer to understanding that equation.”
Building the tunnel could take until at least 2044, with construction expected to start around 2029 and last roughly 15 years. Read More > in The Mercury News
Red Lobster abruptly closes dozens of restaurants around US – Struggling Red Lobster is abruptly closing at least 48 of its restaurants around the country, according to a leading restaurant liquidator.
TAGeX Brands is conducting an online auction of Red Lobster kitchen equipment, furniture and other contents at restaurants closing. The auction begins Monday and continues through Thursday, according to company founder Neal Sherman.
Red Lobster locations in Sacramento, Buffalo, Orlando, Jacksonville and other cities were listed as “temporarily closed” on Red Lobster’s website, according to local news reports. On the Red Lobster website, it said the Fremont location was closed.
Red Lobster did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment. The company has around 650 locations.
Red Lobster is reportedly considering filing for bankruptcy protection. The chain has tapped a restructuring expert as its chief executive, a possible indicator of an impending bankruptcy. Read More > from CNN
There’s Not Enough Power for America’s High-Tech Ambitions – Bill Thomson needs power fast. The problem is that many of the other businesspeople racing into Georgia do too.
Thomson heads marketing and product management at DC Blox, which in recent years built a string of data centers in midsize cities across the fast-growing Southeast. The company more recently set its sights on Atlanta—the would-be capital of the region—joining a slew of tech and industrial firms piling into the state.
Vying for a piece of one of America’s hottest markets, those businesses tend to have two things in common. One is that they represent a U.S. economy increasingly driven by advanced manufacturing, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. The other is that they promise to hoover up huge amounts of electricity.
That combination means Georgia’s success in luring this development comes with a side effect: Power is a big source of tension. The clean-energy goals of companies and governments are running up against the need for projects to break ground fast. So far, climate advocates fear the imperatives of growth mean more fossil fuels.
Georgia’s main utility, Georgia Power, has boosted its demand projections sixteen-fold and is pushing ahead on a hotly contested plan to burn more natural gas. Critics warn it will yield higher bills and unnecessary carbon emissions for decades. Some companies are scrambling to secure bespoke renewable-energy deals to power their development.
One major source of disruption is data centers. The facilities are ballooning in size as people spend more of their waking hours online and companies digitize everything from factory processes to fast-food drive-throughs. All that computing requires power—and for firms like DC Blox to lock it in as quickly as possible. Read More > in The Wall Street Journal
Nonprofits Are Making Billions off the Border Crisis – While the border crisis has become a major liability for President Biden, threatening his reelection chances, it’s become a huge boon to a group of nonprofits getting rich off government contracts.
Although the federally funded Unaccompanied Children Program is responsible for resettling unaccompanied migrant minors who enter the U.S., it delegates much of the task to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that run shelters in the border states of Texas, Arizona, and California.
And with the recent massive influx of unaccompanied children—a record 130,000 in 2022, the last year for which there are official stats—the coffers of these NGOs are swelling, along with the salaries of their CEOs.
The Free Press examined three of the most prominent NGOs that have benefited: Global Refuge, Southwest Key Programs, and Endeavors, Inc. These organizations have seen their combined revenue grow from $597 million in 2019 to an astonishing $2 billion by 2022, the last year for which federal disclosure documents are available. And the CEOs of all three nonprofits reap more than $500,000 each in annual compensation, with one of them—the chief executive of Southwest Key—making more than $1 million.
Some of the services NGOs provide are eyebrow-raising. For example, Endeavors uses taxpayer funds to offer migrant children “pet therapy,” “horticulture therapy,” and music therapy. In 2021 alone, Endeavors paid Christy Merrell, a music therapist, $533,000. An internal Endeavors PowerPoint obtained by America First Legal, an outfit founded by former Trump aide Stephen Miller, showed that the nonprofit conducted 1,656 “people-plant interactions” and 287 pet therapy sessions between April 2021 and March 2023. Read More > at The Free Press
Top doctor, 57, reveals he is cancer-free a year after undergoing world-first treatment based on his own breakthrough research to beat ‘worst of the worst’ brain tumour. – An Australian doctor has revealed he has been cancer-free for a year after undergoing a world-first treatment based on his own breakthrough research.
Professor Richard Scolyer was diagnosed with ‘incurable’ grade 4 brain cancer after becoming ill in Poland last year.
This ‘worst of the worst’ type of cancer, known as glioblastoma, is so aggressive that most patients survive less than a year.
The 57-year-old underwent an experimental therapy based on his own research on melanoma, a type of cancer that starts in the skin.
On Monday, he wrote on X to say he had an MRI scan last week and there was still no sign of recurrence.
The team used a treatment based on immunotherapy, which teaches the body’s immune system to attack cancer cells. Read More > at Daily Mail
What Is Causing This? “Demographic Winter Is Coming” As Fertility Rates Plummet All Over The Globe – Fertility rates have fallen way below replacement level throughout the entire industrialized world, and this is starting to cause major problems all over the globe. Aging populations are counting on younger generations to take care of them as they get older, but younger generations are not nearly large enough to accomplish that task. Meanwhile, there aren’t enough qualified young workers in many fields to replace the expertise of older workers that are now retiring. Sadly, this is just the beginning. As I discuss in my new book entitled “Chaos”, if fertility rates continue to drop we could potentially be facing an unprecedented global population collapse in the decades ahead. This has become so evident that even the mainstream media is starting to do stories about this. In fact, an economist that was just interviewed by the Wall Street Journal is warning that “demographic winter is coming”…
Fertility is falling almost everywhere, for women across all levels of income, education and labor-force participation. The falling birthrates come with huge implications for the way people live, how economies grow and the standings of the world’s superpowers.
In high-income nations, fertility fell below replacement in the 1970s, and took a leg down during the pandemic. It’s dropping in developing countries, too. India surpassed China as the most populous country last year, yet its fertility is now below replacement.
“The demographic winter is coming,” said Jesús Fernández-Villaverde, an economist specializing in demographics at the University of Pennsylvania.
Here in the United States, if we want to maintain a stable population we need the fertility rate to be at 2.1 or above.
Unfortunately, our fertility rate dropped to just 1.62 last year, which was an all-time record low…
In the U.S., a short-lived pandemic baby boomlet has reversed. The total fertility rate fell to 1.62 last year, according to provisional government figures, the lowest on record.
Had fertility stayed near 2.1, where it stood in 2007, the U.S. would have welcomed an estimated 10.6 million more babies since, according to Kenneth Johnson, senior demographer at the University of New Hampshire.
Our native-born population has been in decline for quite some time.
The only reason why the U.S. population as a whole has not been shrinking is because of the tremendous amount of immigration that has been happening.
But even though it is not shrinking, the U.S. population has been rapidly getting older, and it is being projected that just six years from now seniors will actually outnumber children for the first time in our entire history… Read More > at Substack
Disney removes ‘potentially problematic’ character from park meet and greets – One of the Walt Disney Co.’s most iconic characters has been removed from Walt Disney World park meet and greets with the public, reportedly because the character was flagged as “potentially problematic” by a Disney committee.
Disney confirmed in February that Tinker Bell, a Disney icon since making her first appearance in 1953′s “Peter Pan,” had been removed from the park’s meet and greet rotation, but could still be seen flying over the park at the conclusion of the nighttime fireworks show, as well as in park parades.
In addition to park appearances, Tinker Bell has been a company mascot, featured in the opening sequence of scores of Disney movies and television shows for decades, flying towards the screen and sprinkling it with her famous pixie dust.
Meet and greets within Disney parks were discontinued during the COVID-19 pandemic, but when they returned, Tinker Bell did not. Now, the signage at the Magic Kingdom’s Town Square Theatre where guests could once meet the blonde fairy has been removed, replaced by signage for Mickey Mouse, according to Inside the Magic.
While confirming the character’s absence from Magic Kingdom meet and greets, Disney did not indicate a reason for the change. However, a 2022 report by the New York Times said Disney’s “Stories Matter” team — launched to “ensure (our content) accurately represents our global audiences” — had indicated the Tinker Bell character was “potentially problematic.” Read More > at AL.
How to kill the ‘zombie’ cells that make you age – Lurking throughout your body, from your liver to your brain, are zombie-like entities known as senescent cells. They no longer divide or function as they once did, yet they resist death and spew out a noxious brew of biological signals that can slow cognition, increase frailty and weaken the immune system. Worst of all, their numbers increase as you age.
For more than a decade, researchers have been trying to see whether they can selectively destroy these cells with a variety of drugs. In a pivotal study1 published in 2015, a team at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and at the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Florida, discovered that a combination of two compounds, called dasatinib and quercetin, killed senescent cells in aged mice. The treatment made the mice less frail, rejuvenated their hearts and boosted their running endurance. The finding opened the door to a new area of medicine called senolytics.
Now, fresh results from animal studies and human clinical trials have added momentum to the field. In mice and monkeys, researchers are using genetic tools to reprogram and kill senescent cells. Others are engineering senolytic immune cells. And about 20 clinical trials are ongoing. Researchers are testing new and repurposed drugs that could have senolytic properties, in the hope of combating age-related conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease, lung disease and chronic kidney disease. Read More > at Nature
Romick in Oakley 