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Why credit card rates remain high, even after interest rate cuts

(NEW YORK) -- Americans' credit card debt has hit a record high, the Federal Reserve of New York said in a report released this week.

Credit card debt climbed $24 billion over a three-month stretch ending in September, soaring to a level 8% higher than where it stood a year ago, the report said.

Debt holders may seek solace in a string of recent interest rate cuts at the Federal Reserve, which typically reduce borrowing rates for credit cards. But credit card interest rates have proven stubborn, leaving borrowers saddled with near record-high average payments even after the rate cuts.

The average credit card interest rate stands at 20.35%, just slightly below a record-high of 20.79% attained in August before the Fed began cutting rates, Bankrate data showed.

Credit card interest rates remain high, in part, because the Fed's benchmark rate still stands at a historically high level, experts told ABC News. The incremental cuts in recent months have only partially reversed the previous escalation of rates meant to fight the nation's worst bout of inflation in decades.

That high baseline rate has collided with a rise in the average credit card margin, or the borrowing cost that companies place on top of the benchmark rate to weather default risk, cover overhead costs and recoup profits, experts added.

"Credit card rates are high, and they're staying high," Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst at Bankrate, told ABC News.

To set credit card interest rates, the industry relies on what's called a "prime rate," which is the rate paid by the most creditworthy borrowers. That rate is calculated by adding three percentage points to the Fed's benchmark interest rate. The prime rate, which acts as a baseline for credit card rates faced by all borrowers, currently stands at 7.75%.

The prime rate remains historically high because the Fed has, so far, taken just a few, incremental steps toward dialing back a yearslong series of rate hikes. In recent months, the Fed has cut interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point, but such relief offers little savings for credit card borrowers, experts said.

Policymakers at the Fed forecast another quarter-point cut next month, and cuts next year totaling one percentage point, but that will still leave interest rates at an elevated level, according to projections released in September.

"I don't think the Fed wants a rapid fall in rates," John Sedunov, a finance professor at Villanova University's School of Business, told ABC News. "It wants to gradually ease rates back."

The persistence of high interest rates has coincided with a rise in the margin charged by credit companies over and above the prime rate, some experts said.

The average margin charged by credit card firms reached an all-time high of 14.3% last year, according to a U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau analysis of Federal Reserve data. The margin increased sharply from a rate of 9.3% in 2013, the CFPB found.

The rise in credit card delinquency owes, in part, to a decline in personal savings, as Americans have spent down pandemic-era economic stimulus and turned to credit card loans, Sedunov said.

"Banks may view the amount of risk in credit card lending as higher than it was a few years ago, even though the Fed is lowering rates," Sedunov said.

Growth in credit card margins also stems from old-fashioned profit-taking on the part of credit card companies, some experts said.

Credit card profitability has increased over the past five years, and has outpaced the profitability of other business drivers at the companies that offer them, according to the CFPB report.

"Banks, especially large banks, are trying to make as much profit as they can," Fariz Huseynov, a professor of corporate finance at North Dakota State University, told ABC News.

Credit card rates may gradually decline in the coming months, since the Fed plans to make additional interest rate cuts, experts said. However, consumers should expect a gradual decrease that could be tempered by a bout of resurgent inflation or higher credit card delinquency rates, they added.

"If you're in credit card debt, my advice is: Don't make the hole even deeper, and shift to a debit card or cash if you can," Rossman said, pointing to the likely persistence of high credit card rates.

“The point is you have to do something,” Rossman added.

Tyler Police assist in capture of man wanted for aggravated sex crime

TYLER — A 70-year-old man from California is now behind bars for the sexual assault of an Irving woman. The man was busted in Tyler. Irving police say Patrick Hoversten was caught on camera pushing his way into a business and forcing a woman into a back room to sexually assault her. Hoversten is a truck driver from Sonoma, California. Public records show the suspect has a lengthy criminal history dating back to 1975, including multiple felony charges and a charge for indecent exposure, which he spent time in prison for since it was a repeat offense. Hoversten is facing aggravated kidnapping and aggravated assault charges

Thank you, Joe.

President Joe Biden meets with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Paul GleiserThank you, Joe.

This time four years ago I, and most of you who follow this column, were none too happy. We were coming to grips with the realization that Joe Biden had likely just eked out a squeaker of a victory against President Donald Trump in an election that was clouded by COVID-induced voting irregularities.

Though he ran as a “moderate,” I and many like me were convinced – and as it turns out rightly so – that Joe Biden would implement a far-left agenda.

Oh, boy.

But what we couldn’t imagine at the time, given that the smoke hadn’t started clearing, was that Biden’s election might eventually come to be seen as a blessing.

So it was in the days after the election. But by March 25, 2021, just eight and a half weeks after Biden took the oath of office, I, among others, was singing a slightly different tune. Here’s a portion of that week’s column that bore the headline, “The Biden Presidency Will Be Costly – To Democrats.”

All of the perfectly legitimate criticisms of Trump notwithstanding, on his watch wages rose, unemployment fell, order was restored on the border and prosperity flourished. For many traditional Democratic voters – notably blacks and Hispanics – it was their first-ever taste of prosperity.

None of that will be soon forgotten – particularly as Biden policies of higher taxes, open borders and increased regulation take hold and provide a jarring comparison.

Which means that whatever Democrats attain during a Biden presidency in the near term, they will pay for dearly over time.”

That bill came due last week. Thanks to Biden’s victory in 2020, and the administration that ensued, millions of American voters got to see and experience what far-left governance looks and feels like. And they sent a message last week that they aren’t having it.

Nobody sane wants a country with a wide-open border over which a flood of poor, uneducated, social services consuming third world immigrants pours in. Nobody sane wants the concomitant crime, drug trafficking and inevitable importation of incipient terrorism.

Nobody sane thinks that boys who “identify” as girls should compete against actual girls in varsity athletics (after changing clothes in the girl’s locker room).

Nobody sane thinks that men can have babies or that adolescent boys need tampons in their school restrooms.

Ordinary Americans weren’t much impressed when wealthy, liberal, coastal elites condescendingly told them that they are just too unsophisticated to understand the wonders of Bidenomics. That’s a hard sell to people who are having trouble paying for food, gas, and rent.

Put simply, the Biden administration was a real-world clinic in the failures of leftism. So, with a fresh understanding, the heartland of America rejected the radical leftism that hijacked the once semi-sane Democratic Party and chose a Trump 2.0 presidency instead.

If the history of Ronald Reagan’s similar defeat of Jimmy Carter in 1980 is any guide, the demographic and political realignments that put Donald Trump back in office will prove durable.

We have Joe Biden’s 2020 victory to thank for that.

Officer hit by drunk driver while working Texarkana crash

TEXARKANA- Our news parner, KETK, reports that a Texarkana police officer was injured Thursday morning while working a I-30 crash when an intoxicated driver hit his patrol vehicle.

Officer Kevin Burk was working at the scene of a westbound I-30 rollover crash and parked his vehicle across the highway to divert traffic, the police department said. According to Texarkana PD, Burk was inside the unit flashing his lights when 30-year-old Matthew Patterson crashed into the side of the vehicle. Police said Patterson ignored all flashing lights and warning and was arrested for drinking while intoxicated. Burk was treated for minor injuries at a hospital and has since been released, the police department said.

“This serves as yet another reminder to never get behind the wheel of a vehicle if you’ve been drinking,” the Texarkana Police Department said. “Too many tragic things could happen in a heartbeat. It’s simply not worth the risk.”

The department said Patterson is sitting behind bars at the Bi-State Jail.

Surprise bids revive hope for offshore wind in Gulf of Mexico

HOUSTON (AP) – A surprise pitch from a Chicago company with no experience building offshore wind farms has reignited enthusiasm for wind energy development in the Gulf of Mexico.

Hecate Energy, a company best known for land-based solar projects, presented its plan to build a 133-turbine wind farm in the Gulf shortly after the Biden administration canceled the region’s second lease auction in July due to insufficient interest from bidders. The failed auction came on the heels of the Gulf’s disappointing first-ever auction in 2023, which drew just one successful bid, submitted by German wind energy giant RWE, for a tract south of Lake Charles, Louisiana, and no bids for two areas near Galveston, Texas.

The Gulf’s offshore wind industry “could use a positive headline,” Hecate wrote in its application to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the agency in charge of offshore wind development in federal waters. By proceeding with Hecate’s application, BOEM could “generate momentum” in a region overlooked by offshore wind developers, the application said.

Hecate’s gambit appears to be paying off. Invenergy, another Chicago energy company, recently threw down a proposal for roughly the same two areas of the western Gulf, about 25 miles from Galveston. In an “Indication of Interest” letter sent to the BOEM in September, Invenergy proposed up to 140 turbines with a total capacity of about 2,500 megawatts, enough to power about a half-million homes. Hecate’s more modest plan would likely produce approximately 2,000 megawatts.

Suddenly, the Gulf is back in play, said Cameron Poole, energy and innovation manager for the economic development organization Greater New Orleans, Inc. While the Gulf has stronger storms and fewer potential energy customers than the East Coast, which has been the focus of U.S. offshore wind development, “these new proposals show that developers aren’t scared away by that,” Poole said. “It shows that interest is still growing in the Gulf.”

BOEM is waiting to see if more companies propose projects for the two areas, which total about 142,000 acres. The areas differ from the ones BOEM planned to auction in July, but the agency had identified them as suitable for offshore wind development in 2021. BOEM will likely initiate a competitive lease sale but no timeline has been set, a BOEM spokesperson said this week.

“The interest from industry leaders such as Hecate and RWE demonstrates the commercial potential in the region,” said James Kendall, BOEM’s Gulf region director.

Founded in 2012, Hecate has developed more than 47 solar and energy storage projects in the U.S. and Canada and a wind farm in Jordan. Its minority investor, Repsol, is an oil and gas company with offshore extraction rights in the Gulf and off the Alaska coast.

Invenergy has 74 solar and energy storage projects and 118 land-based wind projects in North America, Europe and Japan. The 23-year-old company is developing offshore wind projects off the New Jersey and California coasts.
Betting on the Gulf

While lagging behind the East Coast, the Gulf has the potential to be a wind energy powerhouse. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory determined the Gulf could generate more than 500,000 megawatts of offshore wind energy per year. That’s twice the energy needs of all five Gulf Coast states, and larger than the potential offshore wind capacity of the Great Lakes and Pacific Coast combined.

An initial flurry of interest in the Gulf from some of the world’s biggest offshore wind developers has waned as the industry’s overall growth in the U.S. cooled in recent years. The reasons are varied: supply chain delays, high interest rates, rising inflation and a lack of trained workers.

Louisiana and Texas have already capitalized on the offshore wind industry even if no turbine blades are spinning over the Gulf.

Louisiana firms with close ties to the offshore oil and gas industry have played key roles in the wind industry for nearly a decade. Six Bayou State companies supplied designers, engineers, ship operators, and other workers to build the U.S.’s first offshore wind farm, a five-turbine project off Rhode Island, in 2016.

About a quarter of all offshore wind industry contracts in the U.S. have gone to Gulf-based firms, with about $1 billion in investments flowing to the region’s ship and metal fabrication yards in recent years, according to the Oceantic Network, an industry trade group.

Louisiana has approved agreements with two companies to build small-scale wind farms in state-managed waters near Cameron Parish, in the southwest corner of the state, and Port Fourchon, the Gulf’s largest oil and gas port.
Texas political winds

RWE, the Gulf’s only lease-holder in federal waters, had lobbied regulators to boost leasing opportunities near Louisiana because it was the only state in the Gulf “that has signaled its interest in pursuing offshore wind policy,” the company said in a letter to BOEM.

Texas has stronger wind speeds, but its leaders have expressed strong opposition to offshore wind development. The Texas Legislature threatened to block wind farms from linking to the state’s power grid and hit companies with fines if they failed to meet energy generation goals. Just before last year’s auction, the Texas land commissioner pledged to do “everything in my power … to thwart this proposed boondoggle,” calling wind farms an impediment to shipping and fishing.

While the state of Texas may appear hostile to offshore wind, its cities are offering a warm welcome. Hecate’s application notes that Texas’ four largest cities – Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Austin – have adopted climate action plans that commit to a goal of net zero emissions by 2050. The four cities offer a combined customer base of about 6 million people.

The market for offshore wind power isn’t limited to cities. Hecate indicated it could steer its wind energy to oil and gas companies keen on making their extraction and refining processes a touch greener. The company would also likely tap into the growing market for “green” hydrogen, a fuel made by using wind or solar energy to split water’s molecules. Unlike coal or gas, hydrogen doesn’t produce greenhouse gases when it’s burned.

Federal and state grants are pouring into green hydrogen projects. The Biden administration and Louisiana have awarded about $75 million to develop interrelated green hydrogen initiatives in south Louisiana. A $426 million green hydrogen plant planned in Ascension Parish, about 50 miles west of New Orleans, is also tapping into government grants. Hecate cited the two projects as evidence of a robust developing market for its proposed project and other offshore wind farms.

“It’s a thin landscape right now with three wind developments in the Gulf,” said Poole, referring to the large RWE lease and the two smaller projects envisioned in Louisiana waters. “But we remain optimistic about offshore wind. It’s not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when.’”

Gregg County woman sentenced for distributing fentanyl

TYLER – A Longview woman has been sentenced to federal prison for distributing fentanyl resulting in death in the Eastern District of Texas, announced U.S. Attorney Damien M. Diggs. Rebecca Diane Merkel, 43, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute fentanyl and was sentenced to 240 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Jeremy D. Kernodle. According to information presented in Court, Merkel operated what was known to drug users as the “Walmart of drugs” out of her residence located on Williams Street in Longview. There, she and her co-defendants sold various illegal narcotics, including methamphetamine and pills laced with fentanyl, in exchange for money, stolen goods, and firearms. Merkel’s customers included street-level dealers in Gregg, Rusk, and Panola counties. Continue reading Gregg County woman sentenced for distributing fentanyl

David Rancken’s App of the Day 11/14/24 –Listenable!

Is one of your goals to educate yourself more? Check out David Rancken’s App Of The Day. It’s called Listenable. You can find Listenable in the Apple Store.

Texas businesses reveal legislative agenda for child care

AUSTIN – The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports private employers across the state are calling on lawmakers to mend existing gaps in the child care sector that are preventing businesses and the state economy from reaching their full potential at an annual price tag of about $9.4 billion. A task force of almost 70 businesses and organizations announced the specific actions they want to be taken in the upcoming Texas legislative session, which focus on creating partnership models, harnessing relevant data and simplifying the existing array of regulations. The Employers for Childcare Task Force — founded by the Texas Restaurant Association, Early Matters Texas, Texas Association of Business and Texas 2036 — revealed its legislative agenda on Wednesday, Nov. 13, in a virtual press conference about a year after its formation in late 2023.

The task force was created in response to the lack of affordable, accessible and quality child care that limits — or fully prevents — some parents’ ability to participate in the workforce. The resulting turnover and understaffing seen by employers has prompted them to take action toward building a better economic foundation for the state. A recent U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation study showed Texas is estimated to be losing out on roughly $9.4 billion annually because of child care woes. State lawmakers in both chambers have been assigned to study the issues impacting the child care sector, and proposed solutions, ahead of the legislative session that begins Jan. 14. House Speaker Dade Phelan last month announced eight work groups for House members to voluntarily join, one of which is focused on child care accessibility and affordability. The group laid out the following six policy recommendations: Pass legislation to help employers, no matter their size, help their employees find affordable, quality child care through partnerships. Require Texas Workforce Commission and Texas Health and Human Services Commission to collaboratively streamline child care regulations. Improve data sharing across agencies to better inform state officials on child care opportunities and outcomes. Maintain existing sunset scheduling dates for the Texas Workforce Commission and Texas Health and Human Services Commission so the legislature can evaluate the proper regulatory structure for child care in a timely manner. Strengthen child care workforce by helping eligible workers obtain child care subsidies for themselves. Remove costly local regulation barriers (such as zoning) for home-based child care operations, which are already regulated extensively by the state.

New vision for the Astrodome

HOUSTON (AP) — The Houston Astrodome has been in limbo, waiting for its chance at a second life since being shuttered more than 15 years ago.

It was a technological marvel when it opened in 1965. But its heyday has long passed and it hasn’t been home to a sports team since the Astros left in 1999 and it was closed to all events a decade later.

Over the years, ideas for its redevelopment and rebirth have been plentiful, everything from turning it into an indoor water park to flooding its sunken floor in order to reenact naval battle scenes. But none of these plans garnered enough public support or financing.

The latest proposal to refurbish the Astrodome was unveiled on Wednesday by a nonprofit focused on saving the beloved domed stadium. The group, the Astrodome Conservancy, proposes redeveloping the inside of the structure to create new areas for restaurants, retail, office and cultural spaces. But like the others before it, this plan could face a similar fate, with a $1 billion price tag and an initial lack of support from local entities that would need to give their OK for the project to go forward.

Beth Wiedower Jackson, the conservancy’s executive director, said that unlike previous proposals, her organization believes theirs is backed by data and would be economically viable in part because there would be enough private investment to support it.

“This is a big, big, bold vision. And those previous plans, even admitted by Harris County officials, were a first step towards a future Astrodome. And this is the full swing of the bat. And this gives people something to be excited about,” Jackson said.

The plan, Vision: Astrodome, proposes the construction of four state-of-the-art buildings inside the stadium that would offer spaces for restaurants, stores and offices. Similar spaces for shopping and eating would also be located around the Astrodome and connected to other facilities around the stadium. The Astrodome is at NRG Park, a 350-acre complex that includes NRG Stadium, located right next to the Astrodome and home to the NFL’s Houston Texans, as well as an arena and exhibition halls.

“The Astrodome is ready now for its next chapter, redevelopment,” said Phoebe Tudor, the conservancy’s chairman. “It is time for all of us in Houston to come together and do something hard, working together to repurpose the Astrodome.”

Nicknamed “the Eighth Wonder of the World,” the Astrodome ushered in a change in how people attended sporting events. It also hosted various cultural events, including concerts by Elvis and Tejano music star Selena as well as the “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match between Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King in 1973.

Some people have called for its demolition. But a 2017 designation by the Texas Historical Commission as a state antiquities landmark essentially protects it from wholesale destruction. The stadium also maintains a strong foothold in the memories of many people both in and outside of Houston.

Rafi Kohan, whose 2017 book “The Arena” explores the place sports stadiums hold in American culture, said the Astrodome’s construction came at a time of incredible technological innovation in the United States, and it helped transform Houston from what some saw as a “backwoods cow town” into a leader in technology. Houston became the home of the space program with the opening of Johnson Space Center in 1964.

“There was and continues to be a lot of civic pride around the Astrodome, what it represented, the sort of space age feat, you know, in stadium form,” Kohan said.

Douglas Brinkley, a historian and professor at Houston’s Rice University, said the Astrodome has tremendous historical relevance and is worth saving.

“It’s been our fault that we’ve neglected it or not invested in it. But a turnaround is upon us right now. We’re going to get this done,” Brinkley said.

But whether there continues to be enough support in Houston to refurbish and save the Astrodome remains to be seen. It costs between $100,000 and $200,000 a year to maintain the stadium.

The Astrodome is owned by Harris County and managed by the Harris County Sports & Convention Corporation.

The office of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the county’s top elected official, declined to comment on the conservancy’s proposal.

James Dixon, the sports and convention corporation’s chairman, said in a statement that he respects the conservancy’s efforts but “over the last few years, we have seen several concepts that, while thought-provoking, haven’t resulted in viable funding and maintenance solutions.”

Dixon said his organization and the county are working with other stakeholders on a plan for the future of NRG Park and “the solution for the Astrodome must be decided within that context.”

One of those stakeholders, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, which holds its annual event at NRG Park and would have a say on what to do with the Astrodome, was not on board with the conservancy’s proposal.

“The proposed plan by the Astrodome Conservancy does not align with the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo’s strategic vision and operational requirements,” Chris Boleman, the group’s president and CEO, said in a statement.

Trump issues early challenge to GOP Senate with defiant nominations

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just hours after Republican Sen. John Thune was elected as the incoming Senate majority leader on Wednesday, President-elect Donald Trump presented him with one of his first tests — an announcement that he intends to nominate controversial Rep. Matt Gaetz as attorney general.

The Florida Republican is one of the more universally disliked members of Congress, including among GOP lawmakers after he led the effort to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last year. He has spent his congressional career agitating against the Justice Department and has been under a House Ethics investigation probing whether he engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, accepted improper gifts and sought to obstruct government investigations of his conduct. Gaetz denies the allegations.

Asked about the nomination as he left a Senate vote, Thune smiled and declined to answer. “That’s probably a good question for the chairman of the Judiciary Committee,” he said.

An hour earlier, the likely incoming chairman of the Judiciary panel, Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, also deflected, saying he doesn’t know Gaetz but will look at the nomination. “Don’t ask me any other questions,” Grassley said.

Two months before Trump even takes office, he is already challenging those congressional Republicans to defy him as he nominates potentially controversial figures to his Cabinet — including Gaetz, former Democratic House Rep. Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and conservative media personality Pete Hegseth for secretary of defense. On Sunday, Trump even said in a post on X that he wants the new Senate leader to allow him to make appointments when the chamber is on recess, bypassing confirmation votes altogether.

“I think it’s a little bit of a test,” said Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, who called the Gaetz nomination a “Hail Mary” pass from Trump. Cramer said he sees Gaetz as a disruptive force in the House and has concerns about the “serious allegations” against him, but stopped short of saying he wouldn’t vote for his confirmation.

“It will take a lot of political capital to get him across,” Cramer said, adding that “there will forever be tension between the branches.”

What’s unclear is how much political capital Trump will have to expend to get his picks through — or whether it will even be necessary. Republicans will have a 53-seat majority in the Senate next year, giving them room to lose a few votes.

Immediately after his election as the incoming GOP leader, Thune suggested that the Senate will not fully relinquish its power to vet nominations — but kept the door open to Trump’s suggested changes.

“The Senate has an advise and consent rule in the Constitution,” Thune said, adding that Senate Republicans will do everything they can to get Trump’s nominees quickly in place.

“How that happens remains to be seen,” Thune said.

While Trump’s announcement about Gaetz sent an immediate shock wave around Capitol Hill, many Republican senators who will be tasked with confirming him were reluctant to publicly criticize the pick.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a member of the Judiciary panel, said he didn’t know Gaetz “other than his public persona,” and said he won’t “prejudge any of these” nominations.

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, elected Wednesday as the incoming No. 2 Republican in the Senate next year, would only say that Trump “is going to continue to make his appointments. We’re going to continue to look forward to them coming to the Senate and have hearings and get his Cabinet confirmed as quickly as possible.”

“I’ve got nothing for you,” said Sen. Katie Britt, an Alabama Republican. “We’ll see,” said Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin when asked whether he would support Gaetz’s confirmation.

A few GOP senators praised Gaetz, who resigned from the House shortly after the announcement, ending the House Ethics investigation and making way for a replacement to be elected before the new Congress is sworn in Jan. 3.

“I’ve known Matt for a very long time, we’re friends,” said Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who was nominated for secretary of state Wednesday, but was instead flooded with questions about Gaetz. “I think he would do a very good job for the president.”

Gaetz is “a smart, clever guy,” said South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, though he said “he’ll have to answer some tough questions in the hearing, and we’ll see how he does.”

Other Republican senators, like Cramer, were skeptical while stopping short of saying they would oppose his nomination.

Gaetz “will have his work cut out for him,” said North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, adding that it should “make for a popcorn-eating confirmation hearing.”

Maine Sen. Susan Collins said she was “shocked” by Gaetz’s nomination.

“I recognize that the president-elect has the right to nominate whomever he wishes, but we in Congress have a responsibility under the Constitution and our advise and consent, which will lead to hearings, an FBI background check and an awful lot of questions being asked in this case,” Collins said.

Gaetz has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, and said last year that the Justice Department’s investigation into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls had ended with no federal charges against him.

Democrats were appalled.

“This nomination is the first test of whether Republicans are willing to stand up to Donald Trump and go with conscience and conviction as opposed to just politics,” said Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic member of the Judiciary panel.

New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., was even more blunt.

“People voted for cheaper eggs, not whatever the f@#€ this is,” he posted on X, referring to last week’s election.

Flurry of contract deals come as railroads, unions see Trump’s election looming over talks

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The flurry of contract agreements announced early this fall — including two more Wednesday — offer evidence that major railroads and their unions are working to avoid the standoffs that led them to a brink of a national strike two years ago.

Both sides are also now keenly aware that President-elect Donald Trump — who has a track record of supporting big businesses — would be the one ultimately appointing the people who would help resolve the contract dispute this time if they can’t work something out themselves.

“I think overall it may lead the unions and employers to want to bargain more intensively and come to agreements sooner,” said Todd Vachon, who teaches in the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations.

But it still won’t be easy to satisfy all the workers who remain concerned about the widespread job cuts and have seen much bigger raises in other labor disputes.

Current contracts don’t expire until July but the National Carriers Conference Committee group that negotiates on behalf of the railroads said in its statement at the start of the talks on Nov. 1 that it was hoping for an early resolution. And just Wednesday, the railroads announced two new tentative agreements with the Transportation Communications Union and the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen.

The railroads play such a crucial role in the economy that the president and Congress have the power to intervene because so many businesses rely on them to deliver their raw materials and finished goods. The Railway Labor Act that governs railroad contract talks dictates that if the two sides can’t reach an agreement, the dispute could wind up in the hands of a special board of arbitrators the president appoints that would hear from both sides and recommend a deal. That happened in 2022 — though the industry still reached the brink of a strike.

The two unions that inked deals Wednesday and several others among the 12 rail unions had already reached some agreements with CSX, Norfolk Southern and BNSF railroads even before the formal talks began between the unions and a coalition of railroads that includes Norfolk Southern, BNSF and Canadian National. The other major railroads — CSX, Union Pacific and CPKC — have decided to bargain individually with their unions.

“I think we all saw the perils of going through that again,” Norfolk Southern CEO Mark George said about the yearslong battle the industry engaged in last time that created “a lot of anxiety and uncertainty in the labor force.”

The industry has also made strides over the past two years toward addressing some of the quality-of-life concerns that nearly led to a strike in 2022 before Congress and President Joe Biden intervened. In the two years since the nation’s freight railroads nearly ground to a halt, the industry has offered paid sick time to 90% of them — at the urging of the Biden administration and other officials — and most railroads have promised to improve the unpredictable schedules of train crews who were generally on call 24-7 without any idea when their next day off might come.

As a result, the relationships between the major freight railroads and the dozen different unions that represent their workers have generally improved, though they remain strained at times.

The president of the largest rail union that represents conductors — SMART-TD — Jeremy Ferguson said, “We’ve come a long way in two years.” But many workers still feel overworked and underappreciated by the railroads after the job cuts made in the name of efficiency in recent years.

CSX’s CEO Joe Hinrichs, who has led the industry with the first sick-time deals and other efforts to show employees they are appreciated, said he’s optimistic about the prospects for deals.

“We’re in a dramatically different place than we were two years ago, that’s for sure,” Hinrichs said. “I think what’s gotten us there is just everyone stepping back at CSX and at the unions and saying, OK, no one was satisfied what happened last time. What are we going to do differently this time?”

A bunch of those early deals were ratified this fall, not long after the first ones were announced in the midst of the labor dispute that brought Canadian National and CPKC railroads to a halt for a few days in Canada. But more recently, deals that offer 18.8% raises and improved vacation and health benefits over five years have been getting voted down after workers at Boeing and the East Coast ports secured deals with much larger raises following their strikes.

Josh Hartford with the Machinist Union’s District 19 rail division said that with a deal with CSX already out for a vote when the longshoreman secured their big raises, there wasn’t enough time to explain why this contract — coming on the heels of the 24% raises rail workers received in their last contract — might be considered a good deal. The port workers had gone longer without a new deal before this one that includes 62% raises.

But Hartford said “the morale is still poor” on most railroads after all the cuts and there is a strong feeling among some workers that maybe they could get more if they fight longer, so the Machinists rejected that deal. Conductors have also voted down all but one small deal on part of BNSF they have considered so far, and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union has been unwilling to sign onto any of these early deals. Plus, the third largest union that represents track workers split on the deals it voted on so far.

So getting all the unions to agree won’t be easy. Consider that BLET is locked into a lawsuit with Union Pacific trying to get that railroad to deliver the schedule improvements it promised, and SMART-TD is headed into arbitration on scheduling issues at UP and crew size details at BNSF.

BLET union president Eddie Hall said his organization that represents engineers “wasn’t going to rush into deals that didn’t deliver.”

“Some of the deals that were reached early by other unions were hurried and failed to meet the needs of those railroaders who operate trains,” said Hall, who cited concerns about the expanding use of remote-control trains, the ever-increasing length of trains and the impact of all the job cuts.

But the pressure will be on the unions to settle because the Biden administration won’t be there anymore to lean on the railroads, said Virginia Commonwealth University professor Victor Chen, who studies labor issues as a sociologist.

“I expect the Trump 2.0 administration will continue with its earlier playbook of blocking unions at every turn. In negotiations, the unions will need to keep in the back of their minds that the White House will no longer step up for them the way that Biden did,” Chen said.

Satire publication The Onion buys Alex Jones’ Infowars at auction

AUSTIN (AP) – The satirical news publication The Onion won the bidding for Alex Jones’ Infowars at a bankruptcy auction, backed by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims whom Jones owes more than $1 billion in defamation judgments for calling the massacre a hoax.

“The dissolution of Alex Jones’ assets and the death of Infowars is the justice we have long awaited and fought for,” Robbie Parker, whose daughter Emilie was killed in the 2012 shooting in Connecticut, said in a statement provided by his lawyers.

The Onion acquired the conspiracy theory platform’s website; social media accounts; studio in Austin, Texas; trademarks; and video archive. The sale price was not immediately disclosed. The Onion said its “exclusive launch advertiser” will be the gun violence prevention organization Everytown for Gun Safety.

“Everytown will continue to raise awareness on InfoWars’ channels about gun violence prevention and present actual solutions to our nation’s gun violence crisis, including bipartisan, common-sense measures and public safety initiatives backed by Everytown,” The Onion said in a statement Thursday.

Jones confirmed The Onion’s acquisition of Infowars in a social media video Thursday and said he planned to file legal challenges to stop it.

“Last broadcast now live from Infowars studios. They are in the building. Are ordering shutdown without court approval,” Jones said on the social platform X.

Jones was broadcasting live from the Infowars studio Thursday morning and appeared distraught, putting his head in his hand at his desk.

Sealed bids for the private auction were opened Wednesday. Both supporters and detractors of Jones had expressed interest in buying Infowars. The other bidders have not been disclosed.

The Onion, a satirical site that manages to persuade people to believe the absurd, bills itself as “the world’s leading news publication, offering highly acclaimed, universally revered coverage of breaking national, international, and local news events” and says it has 4.3 trillion daily readers.

Jones has been saying on his show that if his detractors bought Infowars, he would move his daily broadcasts and product sales to a new studio, websites and social media accounts that he has already set up. He also said that if his supporters won the bidding, he could stay on the Infowars platforms.

Relatives of many of the 20 children and six educators killed in the shooting Jones and his company for defamation and emotional distress for repeatedly saying on his show that the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, was a hoax staged by crisis actors to spur more gun control. Parents and children of many of the victims testified that they were traumatized by Jones’ conspiracies and threats by his followers.

The lawsuits were filed in Connecticut and Texas. Lawyers for the families in the Connecticut lawsuit said they worked with The Onion to try to acquire Infowars.

Trump may try to reverse TikTok ban. Here’s how he could.

(WASHINGTON) -- Social media platform TikTok is hurtling toward a U.S. ban that could upend its business and frustrate more than 150 million American users -- unless President-elect Donald Trump finds a way to reverse the policy.

Trump, who boasts 14 million followers on TikTok, voiced opposition to the ban earlier this year. The policy, which orders TikTok to find a U.S. parent company or face a ban, is set to take effect on Jan. 19, a day before Trump’s inauguration.

An effort to eliminate the ban may present formidable political challenges and legal hurdles, experts told ABC News. The outcome could depend on support from an array of major institutions ranging from Congress and the Supreme Court to tech giants like Google and Oracle, they added.

The China-owned app has faced growing scrutiny from government officials over fears that user data could fall into the possession of the Chinese government and the app could be weaponized by China to spread misinformation.

There is little evidence that TikTok has shared U.S. user data with the Chinese government or that the Chinese government has asked the app to do so, cybersecurity experts previously told ABC News.

TikTok did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. Neither did Trump’s transition team.

The president is expected to try to stop the ban of TikTok after he takes office, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with his views on the matter.

Here’s what to know about the different ways that Trump could try to stop the TikTok ban, according to experts:

Push Congress to repeal the TikTok ban

The most straightforward way to reverse the policy would be a repeal of the law that enacted the ban in the first place, experts told ABC News.

A repeal would require passage in both houses of Congress, landing the measure on Trump’s desk for his signature.

“The easiest way is to ask Congress to reverse the ban,” Anupam Chander, a professor of law and technology at Georgetown University, told ABC News. But, he added, it isn’t as easy as it sounds.

Congress voted in favor of the ban only seven months ago. In the House of Representatives, the ban passed by an overwhelming margin of 352-65. In the Senate, 79 members voted in favor of the measure, while 18 opposed and 3 abstained.

A repeal effort carries political risks for Trump, since it could be perceived as conciliatory toward China, in contrast with the adversarial tone voiced by Trump on the campaign trail, James Lewis, a data security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told ABC News.

“It’s a political problem,” Lewis said, noting that Trump could soften potential backlash by seeking a reform of the law rather than an outright repeal.

Trump may not need Congress to repeal the ban. A lawsuit against the ban brought by TikTok on First Amendment grounds currently stands before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Experts who spoke to ABC News said they expect the court to rule against TikTok, but the company could then appeal, potentially sending the case to the Supreme Court before the ban takes effect. The Supreme Court may determine that the legal challenge holds sufficient merit to delay implementation of the ban, leading ultimately to a rejection of the law.

“The Supreme Court may want a crack at this,” Alan Rozenshtein, a law professor at the University of Minnesota who focuses on the First Amendment, told ABC News.

Refuse to enforce the TikTok ban

Instead of repealing the law or counting on court intervention, Trump could try to prevent the Justice Department from enforcing the measure, experts said.

The law orders distributors like Apple and Google to stop offering the social media platform in their app stores, and it requires cloud service providers like Oracle to withhold the infrastructure necessary for TikTok to operate.

Companies that violate the law risk a penalty of $5,000 for each user who accesses TikTok. “That adds up,” Rozenshtein said.

In theory, Trump’s Justice Department could opt against enforcement of the law, reassuring the likes of Apple and Oracle that the companies would not face prosecution in the event of a violation, experts said.

Along similar lines, the Trump administration could take up an interpretation of the ban that affords it wide latitude in finding that TikTok has complied with a requirement that it divest from parent company ByteDance, experts said.

In other words, even if TikTok has made little effort to comply with the law, the Trump administration could attempt a reading of the measure that finds the company has met the threshold necessary to avoid a ban, Rozenshtein said.

If Trump opts against enforcement, the move could still prove insufficient. Companies like Apple and Oracle may decide to comply with the ban anyway, since they could face legal risk if the Trump administration reverses its approach, Rozenshtein added.

“Trump is mercurial,” Rozenshtein said. “If you are Apple’s general counsel, do you really want this hanging over you?”

Help TikTok find a U.S. buyer

Finally, Trump could try to find a U.S. buyer for TikTok, allowing the platform to avoid a ban. This approach may appeal to Trump’s self-image as a business dealmaker, but time is running short for such a significant business transaction and TikTok has shown little appetite for it, experts said.

The law allows for a 90-day extension of the deadline for a TikTok sale, as long as the company is advancing toward an agreement. Under such a scenario, the deadline would move back to April, providing Trump with additional time.

“It’s possible that he’ll try to force TikTok to come to some kind of deal with American buyers,” Lewis said. “It’s not likely. TikTok will hold out as long as they can.”

China has signaled opposition to the sale of TikTok to a U.S. company, The Wall Street Journal reported in March.

Alternatively, Trump could seek a compromise measure in Congress that affords him additional time and wider latitude to establish a U.S.-based operation for TikTok, experts said. Or the Trump administration could offer up an interpretation of the law that gives it space to strike a compromise with TikTok.

TikTok previously proposed a solution called “Project Texas,” in which the company would keep all data on U.S. users within the country through a partnership with Oracle. When TikTok CEO Shou Chew testified before Congress last year, several members raised concern about a potential lack of third-party oversight in such an arrangement.

Trump could seek to assuage the concerns of members of Congress while reaching terms satisfactory to TikTok, Chander said.

“Trump may be able to do things that reassure the American people that the app is safe, and that it is bringing a lot of the programming here to U.S. soil,” Chander said.

Black infant mortality rate more than double the rate among white infants: CDC

(NEW YORK) -- Infant mortality rates remained relatively unchanged from 2022 to 2023, but racial and ethnic disparities still persist, new provisional federal data released early Thursday finds.

The U.S. provisional infant mortality rate in 2023 was 5.61 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, unchanged from the 2022 rate, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

The report also found that infants born to Black mothers still died at much higher rates than those born to white and Asian mothers -- more than double the rate of white infant mortality, according to the CDC.

Additionally, changes in the neonatal mortality rate from 3.59 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2022 to 3.65 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2023, and the postneonatal mortality rate from 2.02 deaths per 1,000 live births to 1.96 deaths per 1,000 live births from 2022 to 2023 were not seen as statistically significant, the report's authors said.

Neonatal refers to the first four weeks of an infant's life and postneonatal refers to the period between 28 days and 364 days after birth.

Dr. Danielle Ely, co-author of the report and a health statistician at the NCHS, said 2022 was the first year there was a significant increase in the infant mortality rate in about 20 years. That the rate did not increase in 2023 shows the rise in 2022 was likely not a fluke, she said.

"So what we're seeing is that what we were hoping would be just a one-year blip is now a two-year higher rate," she told ABC News. "It is unfortunate that it did not go down again to where it was in 2021 at least or at least down from 2022. It just quite literally stayed the same, the infant mortality did."

Black infants died at a rate of 10.9 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, more than double the rate of 4.5 deaths per 1,000 live births for white women and 3.4 deaths per 1,000 live births for Asian women, per the CDC data.

Infants born to American Indian and Alaska Native women also had higher rates than white and Asian women at 9.2 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to the report.

Data also showed infants born to Hawaiian or Pacific Islander women died at a rate of 8.2 deaths per 1,000 live births, and those born to Hispanic women died at a rate of 5.0 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Why racial disparities continue to persist is "the $100 million question," Dr. Kirsten Bechtel, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Yale New Haven Children's Hospital and an expert in infant mortality, told ABC News.

"One of things that's great about this data is that it helps us work backward. It's like the canary in the gold mine," Bechtel, who was not involved in the report, said. "Death is an outcome that everyone agrees on is a problem, but why that problem happens is oftentimes subject to vigorous discussion."

She said one reason behind the disparities could be that Black mothers have a higher rate of pre-term birth, and pre-term birth is associated with higher infant mortality.

"That has a lot to do with access to timely prenatal care," Bechtel said. "Trying to get folks access to timely care during pregnancy and timely care that is evidence-based. We also know there is some elements of structural racism that is built into some of the care these women receive."

Bechtel said the findings show that pregnant people need to be supported financially with access to medical care and by the community helping take care of a child.

"Raising a child can be very daunting, especially if you have socioeconomic challenges or you have to go to work and you can't take time off after your baby's birth," she said. "So we really need to look at policies that support pregnant people."

Harika Rayala, M.D., MSJ, is a neurology resident physician at the University of Virginia and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

A $1 billion proposal is the latest plan to refurbish and save the iconic Houston Astrodome