Author: Reporter

Recent research estimated that hearing loss affects approximately 37.9 million Americans, being more common in rural areas than urban ones and in men than women. The study was published in January in The Lancet Regional Health-Americas Journal. It was the first to estimate hearing loss rates at the state and county level, and was led by NORC at the University of Chicago. The estimates are from 2019, and only included people who have hearing loss in both ears. While the study could not explain the reason for the geographic divide, experts who treat hearing loss say there are two...

Migrants at a city-run shelter in New York grumble that relatives who settled before them refuse to offer a bed. In Chicago, a provider of mental health services to people in the country illegally pivoted to new arrivals sleeping at a police station across the street. In South Florida, some immigrants complain that people who came later get work permits that are out of reach for them. Across the country, mayors, governors, and others have been forceful advocates for newly arrived migrants seeking shelter and work permits. Their efforts and existing laws have exposed tensions among immigrants who have...

Trying to keep up with customer demand, Batesville Tool & Die began seeking 70 people to hire last year. It was not easy. Attracting factory workers to a community of 7,300 in the Indiana countryside was a tough sell, especially having to compete with big-name manufacturers nearby like Honda and Cummins Engine. Job seekers were scarce. Batesville Tool & Die managed to fill just 40 of its vacancies. “You could count on one hand how many people in the town were unemployed,” said Jody Fledderman, the CEO. “It was just crazy.” Enter the robots. The company invested in machines...

The negative impact on the climate from passenger vehicles, which is considerable, could have dropped by more than 30% over the past decade if not for the world’s appetite for large cars, a new report from the Global Fuel Economy Initiative suggests. Sport utility vehicles, or SUVs, now account for more than half of all new car sales across the globe, the group said, and it is not alone. The International Energy Agency, using a narrower definition of SUV, estimates they make up nearly half. Over the years these cars have gotten bigger and so has their cost to...