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U.S. families are struggling to make ends meet as multiple supply chain issues continue to affect many aspects of their lives amid record high gas prices and 41-year-high inflation. Online news outlet the 19th highlighted one such case this week as an Indianapolis mother, Diamond Cotton, has struggled to find basic products she needs for her family. She has been forced to go from store to store to find tampons for her daughters, “who have both started menstruating and would need tampons to go swimming this summer,” according to the outlet.

Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged a “level of malaise” among Americans — and channeled one of the lowest moments of Jimmy Carter’s presidency — in an interview this week. “I fully appreciate that there is a level of malaise,” Harris said Thursday during an appearance on “PBS Newshour,” in answer to a question about why President Joe Biden’s social spending agenda has stalled.

<p>This Fourth of July holiday we might pause for a moment from our festivities to ask how we collectively lost our minds over the last 15 months—and are we yet regaining any semblance of our sanity?</p><p>A pandemic caused by the leak of a Chinese-engineered virus and its coverup was cause enough for nationwide madness. But the spread of COVID–19 was followed by a nationalized and often politicized “flatten-the-curve” quarantine that soon ensured a stir-crazy nation. Tens of millions saw no people, and heard nothing human other than what was fed to them through television and computers. No wonder they grew paranoid, conspiratorial, and angry, and soon forgot the therapeutic nature of personal interaction and the shared humanity of being in the physical presence of others.</p>

The New York Times sent out an alert Monday warning that bedbugs were spotted in its newsroom — triggering hilarity on social media. According to an internal memo obtained by The Post, the NY Times said it “discovered evidence of bedbugs in a wellness room on the second floor, a couch on the third floor and a booth on the fourth floor.” “In an abundance of caution, the second floor room has been temporarily closed, the booth has been blocked off and the couch has been removed to be treated and professionally cleaned,” the memo said. Exterminators also swept the...

The state of Washington formally shuttered its tourism office on Friday, a move that helps close deep budget deficits but makes it the only U.S. state no longer spending money to attract visitors.

Concord, N.H. (AP) -- In his latest trip to New Hampshire, Republican Rick Santorum says the Social Security system would be in much better shape if there were fewer abortions. The former Pennsylvania senator and potential presidential candidate was asked about Social Security during an interview on WESZ-AM radio in Laconia on Tuesday morning. He says the system has design flaws, but the reason it is in big trouble is that there aren't enough workers to support retirees. He blamed that on what he called the nation's abortion culture. He says that culture, coupled with policies that do not support...

CHICAGO (AP) - The $8 billion in stimulus cash awarded to 13 high-speed rail corridors across the country may seem like a windfall, but there's a catch. The money isn't enough to finish any of the major projects. State coffers are dry and federal spending is being cut back. So, it's unclear who will pay the rest of the multi-billion dollar bill.

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them. Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits? Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes?

OSLO (AFP) - The world could solve many of the major environmental problems it faces at an "affordable" price, the OECD said Wednesday, warning that the cost of doing nothing would be far higher. In a report presented in Oslo, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development suggested a range of measures to address what it said were the greatest global environmental challenges through 2030: climate change, biodiversity loss, water scarcity and the impact on human health of pollution and toxic chemicals. "It's not cheap. It is affordable, but also it is considerably less onerous for mankind and for the...

WASHINGTON - Human activity such as driving and powering air conditioners is responsible for up to 60 percent of changes contributing to dwindling water supplies in the arid and growing West, a new study finds. Those changes are likely to accelerate, says the study published Thursday in Science magazine, portending "a coming crisis in water supply for the western United States." The study is likely to add to urgent calls for action already coming from Western states competing for the precious resource to irrigate farms and quench the thirst of growing populations. Devastating wildfires, avalanches and drought have also underscored...

CARACAS, Venezuela - Street vendors seem to encroach on every broken sidewalk, every open plaza, every grimy corner of downtown Caracas, most of them grinding out a living on the pavement for lack of a better option. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has cast himself as a defender of this poor underclass, upholding their right to work on the street while promising his leftist revolution will bring more dignified employment. Eight years into his rule, their existence has become an uncomfortable reminder that Chavez's policies — like those of his predecessors — have failed to create enough stable, productive jobs despite...

WASHINGTON - Another day, another scandal. The Justice Department's improper and illegal use of the USA Patriot Act puts Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the hot seat, an all-too-familiar place for President Bush's inner circle. The last thing a troubled president needs is another friend in trouble. "This strikes me as another blow for the administration," said Republican consultant Joe Gaylord. He was not the only Republican fretting about the Bush White House after a Justice Department audit criticizing the FBI's use of post-9/11 powers to secretly obtain personal information. "This is, regrettably, part of an ongoing process where the...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger neatly summed up the reason for the current crisis facing our state's prisons last month by telling the Los Angeles Times that: "You talk about prisons, people feel like, 'OK, go out and get the criminal and you send him somewhere, but wherever that is, I don't want to look there, I don't want to know.'… When the people are not excited about it, how do you make the legislators excited about it?" It was the kind of statement that really cuts to the heart of the problem, the kind that could only be uttered by someone...

HARARE, Zimbabwe - President Robert Mugabe opened a new legislative year Tuesday with a speech to Parliament blaming economic problems on the U.S., Britain and other Western critics of his human rights record. Zimbabwe is in a state of economic collapse, suffering from the world's highest inflation rate — more than 1,000 percent — and shortages of all basic goods. A quarter of its 16 million people has emigrated since 2000 and millions more are dependent on aid. "My tribute goes to the gallant people of Zimbabwe for continuing to exhibit great fortitude despite the prevailing economic challenges which are...

Gov. Arnold Schwarznegger stood with environmentalists Monday to decry what he described as congressional effort to open federal waters off the nation's shores to oil and gas drilling. "We do not want to make any changes," he said during a telephone press conference organized by the Sierra Club and other environmental groups. "For anyone to think that this would bring gas prices down is ... a big mistake. Because this is not the answer." The House already haspassed a measure giving states the right — and a large slice of the resulting revenue — to open federal waters 100 miles...

SACRAMENTO — In their last year in the Assembly, the bipartisan duo of Democratic Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla of Pittsburg and Republican Keith Richman of Northridge say they have finally hit on how to make politics work again for an ailing state and disgusted voters. The concept, imported from Canada, comes after a series of failed state government-revamp proposals. It seems simple but challenges the status quo embraced by many of the politically powerful — form a Citizens Assembly of regular people to suggest to voters reform of everything from redistricting and term limits to campaign finance and open primaries. "Should...

WASHINGTON - The increase in the number of people without health insurance has occurred largely because of illegal immigration, a study found. Researchers at the RAND Corporation, a nonpartisan think tank, analyzed data received from about 2,400 people in Los Angeles County in 2000 and 2001, and applied that information to the nation's undocumented population at large. The number of uninsured adults in the United States grew by about 8.7 million between 1980 and 2000. If the trend for Los Angeles County held true for the rest of the country, about a third of that growth can be attributable to...

SAN FRANCISCO — Some of California's most forward-looking thinkers gathered the other day to offer their assessments of where the state is headed, and the conclusions were pretty depressing. They described a state with a short attention span and a dysfunctional political leadership incapable of dealing with the complex problems of the 21st century. And the experts don't see things changing anytime soon. Their hope is that Californians — so far disengaged in any comprehensive discussion of the state's future — will meet the challenge by demanding more from their elected representatives. But until that happens, California's problems will be...

WASHINGTON - Strains between President Bush and his conservative supporters are giving John McCain an opening - albeit a narrow one - to make inroads among those activists as he eyes his prospects for a 2008 presidential run. --snip-- In the past few weeks, McCain, 69, a decorated former prisoner of war and critic of pork-barrel spending, has: * Called on members of Congress to give up billions of dollars' worth of pet projects adopted earlier this year in a massive transportation spending bill, saying the money should instead go to hurricane relief. * Proposed delaying or altogether canceling the...

New Orleans criminal justice system facing severe money woes 10/7/2005, 5:34 p.m. CT By MELINDA DESLATTE The Associated Press ST. GABRIEL, La. (AP) — Struggling to restart New Orleans' crippled criminal justice system, the parish district attorney and chief criminal judge said money problems from Hurricane Katrina have forced layoffs and threaten to stymie court proceedings. The cash shortage compounds problems for a system that already was troubled with prosecutors trying to track down witnesses who scattered as evacuees, a clerk of court's office assessing whether flooding and mold damaged evidence and a criminal court temporarily holding limited proceedings at...