America's Talking

(The Center Square) – As Americans file their taxes at the last minute this April 15, the federal debt – and Americans’ federal debt burden – continues to grow. While the federal government reports a national debt nearing $37 trillion, one budget watchdog says the figure is actually much higher: $158.6 trillion, amounting to $974,000 for each federal taxpayer. Truth in Accounting, a nonprofit budget accountability group that emphasizes a different approach to government accounting, released those figures, arguing that they more accurately represent the fiscal situation of the federal government.

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(The Center Square) − A Louisiana jury's decision last week to award $745 million in damages against Chevron has become the latest flashpoint in the national legal battle over climate accountability, drawing fierce reactions from industry allies, legal reform advocates, and watchdog groups warning of broader implications. The verdict, issued by the 25th Judicial District Court in Plaquemines Parish, marks the first jury trial result from a slate of more than 40 lawsuits filed by Louisiana parishes since 2013. The suits claim that oil and gas operations contributed significantly to coastal erosion and environmental degradation. But critics say the lawsuits could imperil the state's economic prospects while doing little to directly restore coastal lands.

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(The Center Square) – The massive crackdown on illegal immigration at the southern border is making the U.S. safer, but there’s more work to do, border czar Tom Homan told Arizona lawmakers during a joint session of the Legislature Tuesday. “In a matter of weeks, we’ve had illegal border crossings down 94%. President (Donald) Trump did in five weeks what Joe Biden wouldn’t do in four years,” said Homan, who advises Trump on border issues. Lawmakers in the Legislature, which has a Republican majority in both houses, applauded regularly during Homan's speech. Members of the Democratic minority walked out at the start of the speech to protest the Trump administration policies.

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(The Center Square) – As Senate Republicans work on the floor to pass a compromise budget resolution, fiscal watchdogs are warning that permanently extending President Donald Trump’s tax cuts will have dire consequences. The Senate’s amendment to the House’s $4.5 trillion budget resolution would theoretically subtract $3.8 trillion from the price tag by adopting a current policy baseline, which treats renewing the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as a continuation of current law rather than new policy. The unconventional tactic would also allow the TCJA to become permanent since it puts the costs of extension at zero. 

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Trade between the world's two largest economies could soon come to a standstill as the U.S. and China dig in on trade war. President Donald Trump hit China with 145% tariffs on imports from the globe's second-largest economy. China hit back with 125% tariffs, but said there's no point in going higher.

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(The Center Square) – Susan Crawford won the highly contested Wisconsin Supreme Court race Tuesday night as both CNN and The Associated Press called the race. Crawford held 55.9% of the vote compared to 44.1% for Brad Schimel as of 9:25 p.m. central time on Tuesday on an Election Day where seven locations in Milwaukee ran out of ballots, causing voting delays. Schimel conceded the race shortly after 9:30 p.m. central time. 

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(The Center Square) – A flurry of lawsuits have been filed around the country in recent years attempting to make oil and gas companies pay for the costs of climate change. But critics of these lawsuits say that they are on tenuous legal ground because of a 2011 U.S. Supreme Court case, and proving direct causation is difficult. One such case is underway in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, a moderate state known for its energy industry and that is inevitably at the center of presidential politics each election cycle. The Bucks County government – like many other local and state governments around the country – has filed a lawsuit against the largest and most recognizable oil companies in the U.S., demanding huge payouts for their alleged role in causing climate change.

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(The Center Square) – U.S. markets took their steepest dive Thursday since the pandemic hit in March 2020 as investors worry about how the U.S. economy will handle President Donald Trump's latest tariffs. The Dow industrials dropped 1,679 points, or 4%. The tech-focused Nasdaq slumped 6%. The S&P 500 fell 4.8%. The dollar slipped to its lowest level of the year. It was the sharpest one-day decline since March 2020, when many states shut down large parts of the U.S. economy to slow the spread of COVID-19. U.S. markets plummeted after Trump's "Liberation Day" for U.S. trade on Wednesday, when he announced a 10% baseline tariff on all countries that will take effect Saturday. Trump also put higher individualized reciprocal tariffs on the countries with which the United States has the largest trade deficits, including China, India and Vietnam, among others.

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(The Center Square) – A North Dakota jury of nine on Wednesday found environmental activist group Greenpeace liable for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages in a years-long lawsuit brought by Energy Transfer, the company that built the Dakota Access Pipeline that became the subject of sometimes violent protests and international attention. Energy Transfer sued Greenpeace for $300 million over the protests that delayed the pipeline's completion by five months, but jurors awarded the energy infrastructure giant and its subsidiary, Dakota Access LLC, a total of more than $660 million.

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(The Center Square) – Boeing earned a contract to build the U.S. Air Force's top air dominance fighter, the F-47 and the service has plenty of options to base operational squadrons both in the U.S. and overseas. The sixth-generation aircraft is intended to replace the Air Force's existing top fighter, the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor and will work with uncrewed aerial vehicles. The service says the aircraft will fly by the end of the decade. 

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