Author: Reporter

Auto safety failure: How to protect your car from the increased risk of keyless vehicle thefts

They appear like ghosts in the night, standing outside your house, one holding up an antenna while the other crouches next to the car parked on the driveway. Within seconds, your car is gone, yet another victim amid a surge in auto theft enabled by the technology designed to make it easier to unlock and start vehicles. Auto technology has evolved and many newer cars use wireless key fobs and push-button starters instead of traditional metal keys. The fob sends a short-range signal, so when the driver approaches the car, it automatically unlocks the door. This saves you the...

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Chameleon cars: Vinyl wraps offer vehicle owners new option to express their personality in color

Modern cars come in a fantastic variety of shapes and sizes, but far fewer explore the more vibrant shades of the color wheel. The most popular colors for new cars in North America are white, black, gray and silver, according to automotive paint supplier BASF. Together, they constitute about 80% of the colors in new-car production. Drivers seeking more personality might opt for an automaker’s red, blue or forest green offering, but what if you prefer something more expressive? In the past, you would have been limited to an expensive paint job. Today there is another option: a vinyl...

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U.S. automakers feel the threat of competing against low-priced Chinese EVs imported from Mexico

It is a scenario that terrifies America’s auto industry. Chinese carmakers set up shop in Mexico to exploit North American trade rules. Once in place, they send ultra-low-priced electric vehicles streaming into the United States. As the Chinese EVs go on sale across the country, America’s homegrown EVs — costing an average of $55,000, roughly double the price of their Chinese counterparts — struggle to compete. Factories close. Workers lose jobs across America’s industrial heartland. Ultimately, it could all become a painful replay of how government-subsidized Chinese competition devastated American industries from steel to solar equipment over the past...

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College protests: Thousands of students still face the fallout of their unjust arrests

Since her arrest at a protest at the University of Massachusetts, Annie McGrew has been pivoting between two sets of hearings: one for the misdemeanor charges she faces in court, and another for violations of the college’s conduct code. It has kept the graduate student from work toward finishing her dissertation in economics. “It’s been a really rough few months for me since my arrest,” McGrew said. “I never imagined this is how UMass (administration) would respond.” Some 3,200 people were arrested this spring during a wave of pro-Palestinian tent encampments protesting the war in Gaza. While some colleges...

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Post-COVID Jobs: Why few employers are offering incentives to boost satisfaction with in-person work

Justin Ryan Horton has two jobs. When he is not putting in 24-hour shifts as a firefighter, the 22-year-old is working as an administrative assistant for a local community college from his home in Colorado Springs. Firefighting is, of course, not a work-from-home kind of job. So when the community college position gave Horton the choice to clock in remotely, he took it. “I’m gone a lot being a firefighter,” Horton said. “Instead of coming home and then seeing my family for a few minutes before leaving to go to my other job… I feel like I have just...

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Rise of the YouTuber: Why content creation holds appeal for laid-off workers seeking flexibility

With a compact mirror in one hand and an eyelash curler in the other, Grace Xu told her roughly 300,000 TikTok followers she was likely about to be laid off. She was right, she tells them in a subsequent clip. But she was planning to pursue a different career anyway: as a content creator. “I guess the decision has been made on my behalf,” she tells viewers in the video posted earlier this year. “The universe has spoken.” By all accounts, the U.S. job market is holding strong, with employers adding 303,000 workers to their payrolls in March. The...

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