Month: February 2024

$1B donation makes New York medical school tuition free and transforms students’ lives

natixis-ezine

Read time : 3 mins

Level : Intermediate

The campus of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine is seen, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in the Bronx borough of New York. The medical school will be tuition-free for all students from now on thanks to a $1 billion donation from former professor Ruth Gottesman, the widow of a Wall Street investor. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

By MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press

First year student Samuel Woo had been considering a career in cardiology so he would be able to pay off his medical school debt until the announcement this week of a generous donation that will remove tuition fees at his New York City school.

Now, without the fear of crippling student debt, the 23-year-old whose parents emigrated from South Korea said Tuesday that he can afford to pursue his dream of providing medical services to people living on the streets.

“I was definitely very emotional and it changes a lot,” said Woo, who had been working as a tutor and at a cafe to help cover his costs. Continue reading

Consumers are increasingly pushing back against price increases — and winning

natixis-ezine

Read time : 4 mins

Level : Advanced

Stuart Dryden reaches for an item at a grocery store on Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024, in Arlington, Va. Dryden is aware of big price disparities between branded products and their store-label competitors, which he now favors. (AP Photo/Chris Rugaber)

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation has changed the way many Americans shop. Now, those changes in consumer habits are helping bring down inflation.

Fed up with prices that remain about 19%, on average, above where they were before the pandemic, consumers are fighting back. In grocery stores, they’re shifting away from name brands to store-brand items, switching to discount stores or simply buying fewer items like snacks or gourmet foods.

More Americans are buying used cars, too, rather than new, forcing some dealers to provide discounts on new cars again. But the growing consumer pushback to what critics condemn as price-gouging has been most evident with food as well as with consumer goods like paper towels and napkins. Continue reading

Presidents Day: From George Washington’s modest birthdays to big sales and 3-day weekends

natixis-ezine

Read time : 4 mins

Level : Intermediate

FILE – The likeness of George Washington is seen on a U.S. $1 bill, March 13, 2023, in Marple Township, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

By BEN FINLEY ASSOCIATED PRESS

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Like the other Founding Fathers, George Washington was uneasy about the idea of publicly celebrating his life. He was the first leader of a new republic — not a tyrant.

And yet the nation will once again commemorate the first U.S. president on Monday, 292 years after he was born.

The meaning of Presidents Day has changed dramatically, from being mostly unremarkable and filled with work for Washington in the 1700s to the consumerism bonanza it has become today. For some historians the holiday has lost all discernible meaning.

Historian Alexis Coe, author of “You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George of Washington,” said she thinks about Presidents Day in much the same way as the towering monument in D.C. that bears his name. Continue reading

Dandelions and shrubs to replace rubber, new grains and more: Are alternative crops realistic?

natixis-ezine

Read time : 4 mins

Level : Advanced

Katrina Cornish, a professor at Ohio State University who studies rubber alternatives, harvests rubber dandelion seeds inside a greenhouse, Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2024, in Wooster, Ohio. Cornish spends her days raising dandelions and desert shrubs. She harvests the stretchy rubber substances they produce and uses special machines to dip them into condoms, medical gloves and parts for trachea tubes. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

By MELINA WALLING Associated Press

Katrina Cornish spends her days raising dandelions and desert shrubs. She harvests the stretchy rubber substances they produce and uses special machines to dip them into condoms, medical gloves and parts for trachea tubes. And she thinks those products could forever alter the landscape of agriculture in the United States.

Cornish, a professor at Ohio State University who studies rubber alternatives, isn’t the only one pouring energy into alternative crops like that desert shrub, guayule, or the rubber dandelions that bloom with yellow petals in the greenhouse where Cornish works. In Arizona, too, guayule thrives amidst drought, its blue-green leaves set apart from dry dirt at a research and development farm operated by the tire company Bridgestone. And in Nebraska and other parts of the central U.S., green grasses of sorghum spring up, waving with reddish clusters of grains. Continue reading

New York City files a lawsuit saying social media is fueling a youth mental health crisis

natixis-ezine

Read time : 2 mins

Level : Intermediate

By CAROLYN THOMPSON Associated Press

New York City, its schools and public hospital system announced a lawsuit Wednesday against the tech giants that run Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube, blaming their “addictive and dangerous” social media platforms for fueling a childhood mental health crisis that is disrupting learning and draining resources.

Children and adolescents are especially susceptible to harm because their brains are not fully developed, the lawsuit said.

“Youth are now addicted to defendants’ platforms in droves,” according to the 311-page filing in Superior Court in California, where the companies are headquartered. Continue reading