President Donald Trump called for credit card companies to cap interest rates at 10%, roughly half the industry average, effective Jan. 20. That date has arrived, and credit card rates have hardly budged. What happened? The credit card industry did not follow through. Several banking and consumer experts said they did not know of any major card company that had complied with Trump's directive. "I haven't seen any press releases," said Stephen Kates, a financial analyst at Bankrate. "Not one whisper." "For anybody who's looking at their billing statement, waiting for it to go from 20 to 10, I wouldn't hold your breath," Kates said. Read more
It's been a while since I have posted tis data ...
A major winter storm " the season's most extreme so far " is set to lash the eastern half of the United States with damaging ice and heavy snow late this week. It's all being fed by a brutal blast of Arctic air that's bringing the season's coldest air to date. "An expansive winter storm will produce a swath of heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain from the Southern Rockies/Plains and Mid-South starting Friday and shifting toward the East Coast through Sunday," the Weather Prediction Center warned Tuesday morning. Read more
President Donald Trump's plane returned to the US soon after he left for the World Economic Forum in Switzerland due to a minor electrical issue. Trump is still expected to attend the forum in Davos and is planning to get on a backup plane.
Lindsey Halligan, President Donald Trump's handpicked interim US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, left her position at the Justice Department Tuesday, marking an end to her turbulent tenure bringing cases against the president's political enemies. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Halligan's exit in a post on X Tuesday evening, writing that it "is a significant loss" for the department and noting that she "will continue to serve her country in other ways." Read more
Sometimes science can be painfully slow. Data comes in dribs and drabs, truth trickles, and veracity proves viscous. The world's longest-running lab experiment is an ongoing work in sheer scientific patience. It has been running continuously for nearly a century, under the close supervision of several custodians and many spectators -- and it's ever so slowly drip, drip, dripping away.
Federal prosecutors issued subpoenas to at least five Democratic officials in Minnesota. The subpoenas sought documents from Gov. Tim Walz, Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis and Mayor Kaohly Her of St. Paul related to their policies on immigration enforcement efforts in the state. Two Minnesota prosecutors, Keith Ellison, the state attorney general, and Mary Moriarty, the Hennepin County attorney, were also sent similar subpoenas.
"I kind of think of ads as like a last resort for us as a business model," Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI, said back in 2024.
Fast forward to January 2026 and OpenAI has seemingly reached that last resort. The San Francisco-based AI research company announced Friday that it will be introducing ads on its free bot service ChatGPT and the lowest tier of its paid subscription service ChatGPT Go.
Domestically, people are unhappy about Minneapolis. Internationally, people are unhappy about Greenland. In the past 48 hours, there were four different responses about the situation, from various notable folks, which we thought we would pass along...
There is an old, rather ribald, and apparently true story about the movie Spartacus, a film that now gets its second mention from us in less than a week. That was a three-hour, epic film. That is, in and of itself, a recipe for a VERY long shoot. On top of that, it was directed by Stanley Kubrick, which is also a recipe for a VERY long shoot. It dragged on so long that, on a tough day, about 6 months into filming, star Tony Curtis grumbled, "Who do I have to fu** to get off this picture?" And star Jean Simmons responded, "If you find out, let me know."
A considerable list of stores and restaurants have announced they are closing for the scheduled protests happening in Minnesota on January 23. They range from book stores to bowling alleys and grocery stores, each announcing their support for the protest, showing the widespread momentum generated by community members and union representatives that called for the blackout last week, hoping to reflect the deep public discontent with detention operations in the state.
We can salvage something from the wreckage
AI is asbestos in the walls of our tech society, stuffed there by monopolists run amok. A serious fight against it must strike at its roots Read more
Pardoned Jan. 6 rioter Andrew Johnson is scheduled to be tried on child molestation charges next month, following his July arrest, nearly six months after he and more than 1,500 Jan. 6 riot defendants were pardoned by President Trump. Johnson is accused of molesting a victim for months in Hernando County, Florida, and is being held in custody before his trial date of Feb. 9. Johnson is accused of molesting a victim for months in Hernando County, Florida, and is being held in custody before his trial date of Feb. 9.
The Unconstrained Presidency and the End of American Primacy Read more
Central Florida officials and immigrant advocates on Monday criticized a possible new ICE detention facility here as the region sees a surge in undocumented immigrants arrests. Read more
Sen. Bill Cassidy is an M.D. specializing in treating liver disease. He did that work for over 20 years, during which time he was a Democrat.
