By Holden Lewis, NerdWallet

The year promises a mix of good and harsh news.

The good news: Buyers will have more properties to choose from. Home prices won’t skyrocket. Mortgage rates might drop, to the relief of buyers and some sellers.

The harsh news: Even if mortgage rates fall, they probably won’t decline much. That will restrict affordability for buyers, and some homeowners will keep their homes off the market as long as mortgage rates remain elevated.

Here’s a cheat sheet for buying or selling a home in 2025 (or doing both), along with advice from successful real estate agents.

Folks get real about mortgage rates

Buyers have one overriding question for 2025: “Can I find a home I can afford?” Three other questions lurk inside that one: What will happen to mortgage rates? What will happen to home prices? Will I find a wide-enough selection of homes?

First, mortgage rates: The 30-year mortgage rate spent much of 2024 above 6.5%, occasionally shimmying above 7%. For most of the year, forecasters expressed confidence that rates would fall below 6% in 2025. But since the election, forecasters have begun revising their mortgage rate predictions upward. They’re forming a consensus that mortgage rates will remain above 6% in 2025.

Mortgage rates parked themselves below 5% for 11 years from February 2011 to April 2022, and home buyers and refinancers grew accustomed to the friendly rate environment. But we’re entering what more than one commenter called the “new normal.” Terri Robinson, a real estate agent with Re/Max Distinctive in Ashburn, Virginia, says buyers “are getting used to the new normal in terms of what interest rates are — and they’ve stopped looking for that 3% unicorn.”

Prices should rise, but not by a ton

When it comes to home prices, we talk of supply and demand. In 2024, buyers quickly made offers when mortgage rates dropped to around 6.25% or lower. Demand cooled when rates climbed above that. As rates rose, homes lingered on the market. According to Altos Research, there were 28% more homes on the market in the first week of November than the same week a year before. Higher inventory benefits buyers because they have more properties to choose from.

Demand for homes still exceeds the supply, but the imbalance isn’t as acute as it used to be. This means home prices will keep rising in 2025, but probably not by a lot, especially while mortgage rates remain above 6.25%.

Home prices might accelerate whenever mortgage rates drop noticeably, as buyers get off the sidelines and start bidding against one another for the limited supply of homes available.

The housing shortage may ease

You can trace the shortage of homes to a couple of factors. First, builders haven’t constructed enough houses and apartments in the last 18 years or so. Second, many homeowners keep their homes off the market because they refinanced into mortgages with ultralow rates in 2020 and 2021. Almost half of outstanding mortgage debt has an interest rate of 3.5% or lower, according to the Urban Institute.

These homeowners know that if they sell, they would pay a much higher interest rate on their next home. This dynamic, known as rate lock-in, prevented 800,000 homeowners from selling their homes in the 15 months between the second quarter of 2022 and the third quarter of 2023, according to a working paper published in November by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Stacy Hennessey, a real estate agent with McEnearney Associates in Falls Church, Virginia, sees signs that rate lock-in weakens over time. “People are getting used to the higher interest rates. People want to move,” she says. “So I think people are just going to carry on with their plans and start putting their houses on the market.”

Robinson, the agent in Ashburn, Virginia, advises sellers to think less about the low mortgage rate they’re giving up, and more about the home equity they’ve built. The monthly payment on the next house “may be the same or less, depending on how much equity you have and how much of that you want to use to put down on your next house,” she says.

Other factors affecting the housing market

It’s too early to guess how the Trump administration’s policies will affect housing in 2025. One proposal, to allow housing on land owned by the federal government, is unlikely to result in the construction of ready-to-move-in homes by the end of 2025. New housing developments just don’t get built that fast.

Under a new rule that went into effect in August, home buyers are now responsible for setting their own agents’ commissions. (Previously, sellers decided how much buyers’ agents would be paid.) Buyers can ask sellers to pay some or all of the buyer’s agent’s commission, and sellers often do. But sometimes buyers end up paying out of pocket. Agents say the policy puts first-time buyers at a disadvantage because they tend to have less savings and wealth.

Advice for home sellers

Home sellers will continue to have a negotiating advantage over buyers. But sellers’ dominance has slipped since 2021, and they must put in the work to market their homes effectively. “Stop thinking you hold all the keys to the castle,” says Andy Sachs, managing broker for Around Town Real Estate in Newtown, Connecticut.

Begin by demonstrating value, says Chuck Vander Stelt, a real estate agent in Valparaiso, Indiana. Work with the listing agent to set a reasonable price, and tell buyers about updates made to the home.

Insist that your agent hire a professional photographer, says Hennessey, the agent in Falls Church, Virginia, because buyers “will look at the first five photos and if they’re great, they’ll continue on. But if they’re crummy, they’re not going to look.”

Hennessey laments the poor quality of real estate photography. “It’s an advertisement. It’s not a disclosure,” she says. “We don’t need to see your dirty closet. We don’t need to see your toilet seat up.”

Advice for home buyers

Buyers, on the other hand, should search first for deal-breaking flaws before focusing on a home’s delights, agents say.

Victoria Ray Henderson, owner and broker of HomeBuyer Brokerage in Bethesda, Maryland, says, “Don’t just go into the kitchen and go, ‘Wow, look at this granite countertop!’ You know, you gotta look at the bones first.”

If the home has a basement, “go directly into the basement first and look at the condition and the smell of that basement.” Has water gotten in? Has the owner taken steps to prevent water damage? If you find the basement acceptable, then climb the stairs and geek out over the kitchen counters.

A cautious buyer goes even further. Hennessey recommends that buyers in competitive markets get pre-offer home inspections. This means hiring a home inspector to accompany you and your agent on the home tour. A one-hour inspection won’t get into as much depth as a three-hour post-offer inspection, but it’s enough to detect something big, like a crack in the foundation. Not every seller will allow a pre-offer inspection, “but usually they do because they want an offer with no contingencies.”

The final bit of advice comes from Vander Stelt, who urges action over hesitation. “Go out there and buy,” he says. “Stop looking at interest rates. If you can afford the house today, buy it.”

Holden Lewis writes for NerdWallet. Email: hlewis@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @HoldenL.

The article Home Sellers and Buyers: What You Must Know for 2025 originally appeared on NerdWallet.

DENVER — For years, Airbnb gave travelers access to reasonably priced, home-like stays. From staying in a Victorian home to a charming downtown loft, users of the popular short-term rental app were loyal and happy to shun corporate-owned chain hotels.

Airbnb offers a diverse range of accommodations in Denver with over 1,000 active listings. And Denver was listed as part of Airbnb’s top 10 U.S. cities with the most adventurous travelers in 2023. Tied for third among Houston and Atlanta, Airbnb guests from Denver visited nearly 80% of counties in the U.S.

But many users have begun to grapple with the shifting economics of short-term rentals. The cost of an Airbnb has increased so much that in many cases it’s no longer a cheaper option than a hotel.

Airbnb users like New York resident Jack Hahne, said the cost and experience of a stay is not what it used to be as he recently completed a solo road trip across the U.S.

“For a lot of the cases, either the price was about the same, maybe a little cheaper, but just wasn’t as convenient as like a hotel would be in terms of flexibility of like check-in times,” he said.

Hahne visited Denver in 2016 and paid $41 a night to stay on an air mattress in someone’s basement apartment, an experience he said he couldn’t imagine in 2024.

“When I think about Airbnb now, a lot of it is more kind of absentee landlords,” he said of Airbnb’s current listings. “Back in 2015, 2016 — there was a lot more to like the social aspect of it. Where it’s just some guy who was renting out a bedroom.”

The total price of an Airbnb reservation is based on the nightly price set by the host, plus fees or costs determined by either the host or Airbnb.

Besides Airbnb service fees and local taxes, hosts may impose cleaning fees, extra guest fees and pet fees, according to Airbnb’s website on how pricing works.

A recent search revealed an entire guest suite in Denver for just $55 per night. However, the total cost for a two-night weekend stay ended up being $254.25, far above the expected $110, because of hidden fees. The cleaning fee alone was $85.

Another Airbnb listing of an entire home in Englewood, nearly seven miles away from Denver, costs $130 for a one-night weekend stay. Their cleaning fee after selecting their required minimum two-night stay was nearly as much as their one-night stay — $120. The total cost after fees would come out to be over $470.

The highest cleaning fee The Post found was $129 for an apartment in Lakewood.

“Ridiculous” fees

Washington state resident Nicole Hernandez, who visited Denver and booked through the Airbnb app last September, said she’s noticed a change in pricing.

“When I first started using Airbnb, it felt like I could find a good deal on accommodations while staying in a less commercial place that was more connected to the community,” she said.

“Over the years, it’s become more expensive and commercialized.”

Hernandez has booked through Airbnb a dozen times for both international and country-wide travel.

She said she doesn’t mind host fees, such as the cleaning fee, as long as it’s reasonable, which is not always the case.

“I don’t mind stripping the sheets or doing simple tasks before leaving. It feels respectful considering you’re typically in someone’s space,” she said.

“But I’ve seen some cleaning fees that cost more than the total nightly fee, and that’s ridiculous in my opinion.”

Guests on Airbnb spent an estimated $210 per day during their trip in 2023 and about 40% of their spending was in the neighborhood of their listing, based on data from an internal Airbnb survey of guests in the U.S.

In 2023, the average daily rate of a hotel was $159.99 nationwide and $149.48 in Denver, according to data from CoStar Group, a leading global provider of commercial and residential real estate information, analytics and online marketplaces.

On a May earnings call, Airbnb Co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky said the company noticed there was a lot of concern about prices increasing and a lot of hosts weren’t getting booked because their prices were too high.

“They just didn’t have a really good concept,” Chesky said.

“So we created a tool called the compare listing tool, where people can see how much other people are charging in the neighborhood. And they can actually see people who are getting booked and not getting booked. And no surprise, the people getting booked generally have lower prices.”

Chesky said 2 million hosts now use the compare listing tool. But that isn’t the only thing the company has rolled out to help combat the issue of hidden fees and listing costs. Airbnb has introduced weekly and monthly discounts and implemented a total price display, where users can toggle between seeing total prices before and after fees.

“It’s begun to change behavior in our host community because 300,000 hosts on their listings say (they) have removed or lowered their cleaning fee as a result,” he said.

“When we started Airbnb, our original tagline was a cheap affordable alternative to a hotel. And the majority – the primary reason people came to us is because it was a better value than a hotel. And we still think that’s a core value proposition that we have to offer.”

According to Airbnb, the average daily rate for a stay in Denver has decreased by about $5 over the first three quarters of 2024 compared to the same period in 2022.

“We host people from all across the world”

In 2023, Airbnb guests traveled to more than 100,000 cities and towns across more than 200 countries and regions. Additionally, travel on Airbnb generated more than $85 billion in economic impact across the U.S. in 2023, according to the company’s internal economic analysis.

In 2023, Airbnb says it contributed over $3 billion to Colorado’s GDP, generating $932 million in tax revenue and supporting 34,300 jobs.

Last year, hosts in the U.S. earned more than $24 billion and the typical host earned an estimated $14,000, according to the internal Airbnb survey.

Hosts in Denver earned over $115 million, with the typical host earning over $18,000.

Queen Anne Bed & Breakfast owner Milan Doshi has been a host with Airbnb for eight months, but he has been hosting guests on the property for 16 years.

Built in the late 1800s, the historic 13-room bed and breakfast in Downtown Denver opened its doors to the public in 1987. Doshi and his family purchased the bed and breakfast in 2008.

“We host people from all across the world,” Doshi said. “We get a lot of cool repeat customers, people who had their wedding night here 25 years ago, who had some kind of familial connection with the space, it’s just a really cool legacy, and you know, we have a lot of pride in kind of keeping that tradition going.”

The family previously put the property up for sale in October 2021 for $4 million because of city requirements regarding rezoning the property. However, after finishing the 10-month-long process, Doshi said they decided to take the listing down in early 2023 as the lending market had shifted for commercial properties.

He said it was a good decision as it also allowed them to connect with Airbnb. According to Doshi, for a long time, Airbnb wanted them to be a part of their platform for the Queen Anne’s uniqueness, operation and ties to the Denver community.

As a guest favorite listing, the Queen Anne has a 4.94-star rating and is deemed a “Superhost,” an experienced, highly rated host who is committed to providing great stays for guests, according to Airbnb.

Having owned the property for nearly two decades, Doshi said he has seen a lot of shifts over the years, especially with the introduction of short-term rentals in the area.

“Initially I was apprehensive to the idea, you know, when it was just feeling very much like the Wild West when Airbnb first came here to Denver because everybody was all of sudden opening up their properties to becoming a host,” Doshi said.

To become an Airbnb host, people must obtain a Lodger’s Tax ID from the City of Denver. The platform also requires eligible hosts to obtain either a Short-term Rental License or a Residential Rental Property License.

The City and County of Denver require hosts who rent their primary residence for one to 29 days to obtain a Short-term Rental License.

A short-term rental can include a single bedroom, an entire home, or multiple bedrooms. An application fee of $50 and an annual license fee of $100 will be assessed for individual short-term rental license applications. Short-term rental licenses are for one year and must be renewed on time to avoid fines. Short-term rental licenses can be renewed up to 60 days before expiration.

Once an eligible host receives their short-term rental license, they must add the license number to their Airbnb listing, according to the company’s host requirements.

“Now I think the city has kind of upheld their end of the kind of agreements of having the primary residential aspect in place for people to be able to rent out their spaces,” Doshi said.

“I think (it) makes it a little bit more to what the original intention of Airbnb was supposed to be.”

As for the Queen Anne, Doshi said they don’t charge guests an additional cleaning fee.

“We come at it from the angle of still actually being a real kind of hospitality property, a real bed and breakfast,” he said.

“So we don’t charge extra fees on the platform,  just like we don’t to any of our regular customers who would book directly through us or another OTA, like Expedia.”

Airbnb’s growth in the third quarter

Airbnb’s revenue increased to $3.7 billion in the third quarter of 2024 from $3.4 billion in the third quarter of 2023, according to the company’s financial results.

Chesky said the company had 123 millions “nights and experiences booked in their strong third quarter, an 8% increase year-over-year.

Chesky also said last year the company tried to make hosting just as popular as traveling on Airbnb.

The company surpassed 8 million active listings and removed over 300,000 listings that failed to meet guests’ expectations.

Chesky said the company was preparing to expand beyond Airbnb’s core business but when the pandemic hit, they had to cut back resources.

“We got focused, went back to our roots, and really focused on rebuilding our platform, becoming lean, becoming a functional organization, and we now have essentially the same amount of employees as before the pandemic,” Chesky said in an August earnings call.

“We’re now beginning to prepare the next chapter of Airbnb, and I want Airbnb to be one of the most important companies of our generation.”

The San Francisco-based company was founded in 2007 when two hosts, Chesky and his friend Joe Gebbia, welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home. Airbnb has since grown to over 5 million hosts who have welcomed over 2 billion guest in almost every country across the globe. Airbnb is in 220 countries and regions.

By ROB GILLIES, Associated Press

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that if President-elect Donald Trump follows through on this threat to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products, he would be raising prices for Americans and hurting American business.

Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if the countries don’t stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across southern and northern borders. He said he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders.

“It is important to understand that Donald Trump, when he makes statements like that, he plans on carrying them out. There’s no question about it,” Trudeau said to reporters in Prince Edward Island in Atlantic Canada.

“Our responsibility is to point out that he would not just be harming Canadians, who work so well with the United States, but he would actually be raising prices for Americans citizens as well and hurting American industry and business.”

Trudeau said Trump got elected because he promised to bring down the cost of groceries but now he’s talking about adding 25% to the cost of all kinds of products including potatoes from Prince Edward Island.

Those tariffs could essentially blow up the North American trade pact that Trump’s team negotiated during his initial term. Trudeau noted they were able to successfully re-negotiate the deal, which he calls a “win win” for both countries.

“We can work together as we did previously,” Trudeau said.

Trump made the tariff threat Monday while railing against an influx of illegal migrants, even though the numbers at the Canadian border pale in comparison to the southern border.

The U.S. Border Patrol made 56,530 arrests at the Mexican border in October alone — and 23,721 arrests at the Canadian one between October 2023 and September 2024.

Trump also railed about fentanyl from Mexico and Canada, even though seizures from the Canadian border are few in comparison to the Mexican border. U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border.

Canadian officials say lumping Canada in with Mexico is unfair but say they are ready to make new investments in border security.

“We’re going to work together to meet some of the concerns,” Trudeau said. “But ultimately it is through lots of real constructive conversations with President Trump that I am going to have, that will keep us moving forward on the right track for all Canadians.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday she is confident that a tariff war with the United States will be averted. Trump posted on social media that he had spoken with her and she had agreed to stop unauthorized migration across the border into the United States.

When Trump imposed higher tariffs during his first term in office, other countries responded with retaliatory tariffs of their own. Canada, for instance, announced billions of new duties in 2018 against the U.S. in a tit-for-tat response to new taxes on Canadian steel and aluminum.

Canada is already examining possible retaliatory tariffs on certain items from the U.S. should Trump follow through on his threat to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products, a senior official told The Associated Press this week.

A government official said Canada is preparing for every eventuality and has started thinking about what items to target with tariffs in retaliation. The official stressed no decision has been made. The person spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak publicly.

In the U.S., business groups were quick to warn about rapidly escalating inflation. House Democrats put together legislation to strip a president’s ability to unilaterally apply tariffs this drastic, warning that they would likely lead to higher prices for autos, shoes, housing and groceries.

Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day.

About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports are from Canada.

Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing in for national security.

Canada is one of the most trade-dependent countries in the world, and 77% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S.

“Canada has reason to fear because Trump is impulsive, often influenced by the last thing he sees on Fox News,” said Nelson Wiseman, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. “He can leverage that by catering to what he thinks will sound and look good to the public rather than to what happens or will happen.”

By Queenie Wong and Laurence Darmiento, Los Angeles Times

Lars Dennert paid $100,000 for a forest green Rivian R1S, an electric SUV he enjoys driving on family road trips to the beach, snow and desert.

This year, he raised his wager on Rivian’s future, spending at least $10,000 on Rivian stock, which has hardly been a winner.

“I’m hoping for another Tesla, that down the road [Rivian] will prosper and their stock price will reflect that,” said the Pasadena resident, 56, who works in real estate development and property management.

It’s fans like Dennert that the Irvine company is counting on as it tries to navigate a rough road to profitability.

Rivian Automotive Inc. sold about 50,100 vehicles last year, boasting that its R1S is the best-selling SUV in California in the above $70,000 price category. The company also makes pickups and delivery vans.

Still, Rivian’s stock has plunged about 50% this year as production forecasts missed Wall Street estimates. Rivian also has been piling up big losses, including a net loss of $1.1 billion, or $1.08 a share, in the third quarter.

Amid the investor unease, the company is wrestling with supply chain woes, consumers wary about spending and, now, potential changes in EV policy under a second Donald Trump administration.

It didn’t help that Fisker, a Southern California competitor, filed for bankruptcy protection this year.

A $5.8-billion joint venture with Volkswagen Group that closed this month extended a lifeline for the EV maker, giving it capital to develop cheaper vehicles beyond its pricey SUV and R1T pickup truck, which starts at nearly $70,000.

Rivian also is expanding its only factory in Normal, Ill., which it acquired from Mitsubishi, and where it will build the R2, a smaller and more affordable SUV that starts at $45,000 and is set to launch in 2026.

Additionally, VW will benefit from Rivian’s expertise in technology as the two automakers work together on vehicle software, analysts said.

“The good news is [Rivian’s] got… a runway ahead of them. They’re not about to drive off a cliff in terms of financials. So they’ve certainly got some time to continue working against all these forces,” said Karl Brauer, executive analyst at iSeeCars.com, an automotive research website.

In an interview, Rivian’s Chief Executive and founder RJ Scaringe described a company in its “awkward teenage years.”

“I’ve never been more optimistic since the very first day I started the company around our ability to drive impact,” said Scaringe, 41, referring to Rivian’s influence in the EV market. “I’ve never felt as strong as I do…today around the importance of our existence.”

Growing pains

Scaringe, the son of an engineer and who was obsessed with cars as a kid, knew early he wanted to start his own business. The MIT engineering doctorate turned his dream into a reality in 2009 when he founded what would become Rivian, whose name stems from the Indian River in Florida where Scaringe spent his youth.

Back then, the company was based in Florida and focused on making a fuel-efficient sports car, but Scaringe yearned to leave a bigger mark on sustainability. The ambitious entrepreneur started working on electric pickups and SUVs and moved to Michigan to be closer to the auto industry.

At the 2018 LA Auto Show, Rivian finally showed off its debut vehicle, a premium electric pickup truck that wowed the industry with its technology. The earth tones, boxy design and oval headlights of the vehicle also contrasted sharply with Tesla’s sleek design.

A year later, Rivian scored a coup when Amazon invested $700 million into the company and ordered 100,000 delivery vans. In 2020, the company moved to Irvine, with its rich talent pool of engineers.

Rivian became a publicly-traded company in 2021 amid a stock bubble. Its stock briefly reached $170 per share on expectations that EV sales would take off, with the company’s valuation surpassing $150 billion, topping auto giants such as Ford.

But after its public debut, Rivian’s fortunes changed. Pandemic-related supply shortages slowed production and shook investor confidence as the company was unable to fill thousands of customer orders.

Today, Rivian’s stock is priced around $10 per share, as the company continues to be battered by the slowdown in the EV market, which has been squeezed by higher interest rates and ongoing anxiety from potential buyers over where they can get their vehicles recharged.

Another challenge: With list prices that start about $70,000, the company also faces stiff competition from industry leader Tesla, whose cheapest car, the Model 3, can be purchased for less than $45,000.

To stem the losses, Rivian cut 10% of its 16,700-plus workforce earlier this year (it employed about 2,200 locally in 2023, according to the Orange County Business Journal). And last month, Rivian lowered its 2024 annual production esimates to 47,000 to 49,000 vehicles, citing a supply chain issue that was reportedly due to an ordering mix up that left the company without adequate copper windings to build its electric motors.

Javier Varela, chief operations officer, downplayed the issue, telling analysts recently that Rivian faced a “short-term constraint” and was “ramping up a new capacity in record time.”

Meanwhile, policy changes still loom ahead and could have a longer term impact on the EV market.

President-elect Donald Trump has been critical of electric vehicles and could roll back tax credits and policies that fuel EV sales.

On the chopping block: a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicle buyers — a move that could benefit Tesla, which is already able to sell its cars at a lower price point and make a profit, but could harm rivals such as Rivian. Elon Musk, who leads Tesla, has been a vocal supporter of Trump and poured millions into his presidential campaign.

While Rivian buyers are affluent and generally don’t qualify for the tax credit, drivers who lease the vehicles are more often able to take advantage of it. Scaringe minimized the importance of the credit, noting Rivian needs to build cars that don’t rely on government policy.

Chris Pierce, an analyst at Needham & Co., disagrees, saying every sale counts. “If less people are going to be able to get that credit through leasing, that’s less demand for Rivian,” he said.

Rivian also must contend with potential tariffs under a Trump administration that could raise the costs of imports. Scaringe told analysts during the company’s third-quarter earnings call that its sourced foreign suppliers won’t be subject to large tariffs.

The road ahead

Perhaps Rivian’s biggest challenge is to build vehicles that are competitively priced compared with gas-powered cars and trucks — even as it recorded a gross loss of $39,100 for every vehicle it sold during the third quarter. And those losses came despite its ability to sell emissions credits to other auto manufacturers, which it expects will total about $300 million this year.

The company recently upped its projected adjusted annual loss to as much as $2.88 billion for the year, but it has taken steps to cut costs through the introduction of a second generation of R1 SUVs and pickups. The redesigned vehicles have longer ranges and better performance, while using fewer and lower-cost parts.

Electric vehicles have circuit boards called ECUs, or electronic control units, that manage systems in the car, allowing the engine, brakes and other features to run smoothly. The new generation of vehicles cut the number from 17 to seven, which reduces costs while easing software updates.

“It’s like if you had an apartment complex and everybody had a toaster and a microwave versus an apartment complex with one really…nicely done professional kitchen,” Scaringe said.

The second-generation models include a tri-motor option that splits the difference between the company’s base SUV and truck models with two motors and its top-of-the line four-motor option, which produces more than 1,000 horsepower. The sticker prices of the new models range from about $70,000 to more than $100,000.

Unlike Fisker, which could not forge a strategic alliance with an auto manufacturer, Rivian has already benefited from its relationship with Volkswagen.

Rivian has received $1 billion from the German carmaker that Scaringe said the company can spend as it sees fit. In exchange, VW will be able to use Rivian’s electrical architecture and software as the foundation for any model it chooses to make.

“I think people were skeptical Rivian had this tech,” Pierce said. “Volkswagen wants to compete. They need to get their costs of selling cars lower, and this is how they think they can do that.”

In the past, Rivian had deals with major automakers, including with Ford, to make electric vehicles that didn’t pan out. So far, some of the early results of the new joint venture have been promising.

“This is one of the world’s largest car manufacturers with a portfolio of really exciting and interesting brands that’s making the decision to move their software architecture and their electronics architecture to Rivian’s platform,” Scaringe said.

Among Rivian’s top priorities is not only expanding its Normal, Ill., but also restarting construction of a plant in Stanton Springs, Ga. that it halted earlier this year after losing $5.4 billion in 2023. The company has plans to produce several other models, including a smaller SUV called the R3 that will be cheaper than the R2.

As it ramps up vehicle production in Illinois, Rivian has faced allegations from former workers who say it is not doing enough to protect employee safety, Bloomberg reported. Some of the injuries workers reported included a cracked skull and bone fractures.

Scaringe said the company prioritizes the safety of its workers and that the plant is safer compared with the average factory. “Unfortunately, there can be accidents, but we’ve taken all the precautions to make sure that when those happen there, they’re not severe,” he said.

For now, Rivian relies on enthusiasts of its current line up such as Dennert and Travis Vocino, who not only bought its luxurious three-row, seven seat R1S but also acquired shares in the company.

Vocino, a 42-year-old product design director, and his wife were searching for a hybrid electric vehicle, but they also wanted a car that was large enough to fit their two boys and their friends.

They looked at a cheaper seven-seater from Volvo, but the design and technology of the Rivian won out.

Posting a photo of him and his family picking up the car in San José, Vocino expressed his excitement for their new wheels in a Rivian Facebook group. The family spent more than $100,000 for the Gen 2 version of the 2025 R1S and paid extra for the storm blue color.

“We’re not big car spenders,” he said. “It’s pretty crazy for us to buy it.”

---

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The post Local businesses get ready for Small Business Saturday with special events, offers appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

By FATIMA HUSSEIN and JOSH BOAK

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump is turning to two officials with experience navigating not only Washington but the key issues of income taxes and tariffs as he fills out his economic team.

Trump on Tuesday announced he has chosen international trade attorney Jamieson Greer to be his U.S. trade representative and Kevin Hassett as director of the White House National Economic Council.

While Trump has in several cases nominated outsiders to key posts, these picks reflect a recognition that his reputation will likely hinge on restoring the public’s confidence in the economy.

The president-elect also announced a number of other key personnel choices, including Vince Haley, who led Trump’s speechwriting department in his first term, as director of the Domestic Policy Council.

Trump said in a statement that Greer was instrumental in his first term in imposing tariffs on China and others and replacing the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, “therefore making it much better for American Workers.”

Greer previously served as chief of staff to Robert Lighthizer, Trump’s former trade representative who is deeply skeptical of free trade. Greer is currently a partner at the King & Spalding law firm in Washington. He was not immediately available for comment.

If confirmed as trade representative, Greer would be responsible for negotiating directly with foreign governments on trade deals and disputes, as well as memberships in international trade bodies such as the World Trade Organization.

He told The New York Times in June that the view of Trump officials was that tariffs “can help support U.S. manufacturing jobs in particular, especially to the extent that they’re remediating an unfair trade practice.”

His nomination comes a day after Trump promised to slap huge new tariffs on foreign goods entering the United States — including a 25% tax on all products entering the country from Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10% tariff on goods from China — as one of his first executive orders.

As director of the White House National Economic Council, Hassett brings into Trump’s administration a major advocate for tax cuts.

Trump said Hassett “will play an important role in helping American families recover from the inflation that was unleashed by the Biden Administration” and that together they would “renew and improve” the 2017 tax cuts, many of which are set to expire after 2025.

Hassett, 62, served in the first Trump term as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He has a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and worked at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute before joining the Trump White House in 2017.

As part of Hassett’s farewell announcement in 2019, Trump called him a “true friend” who did a “great job.” Hassett became a fellow at the Hoover Institution, which is located at Stanford University. He later returned to the administration to help deal with the pandemic.

In Trump’s second term, Hassett would join a White House seeking to preserve and expand its 2017 tax cuts at a time when deficit pressures are weighing on federal borrowing costs.

He has argued that the tax cuts helped to meaningfully boost household incomes. Inflation-adjusted median household incomes jumped more than $5,400 in 2019 to $81,210. But the tax cuts also came with higher budget deficits as any economic gains failed to offset lost revenues, setting up a challenge for the incoming Trump administration to manage the debt even as it cuts taxes and seeks to hold down inflation.

Also included in Tuesday’s nomination announcements was private investor, campaign donor and art collector John Phelan, chosen to serve as Navy secretary. Phelan co-founded MSD Capital, the private investment firm for Michael Dell, the founder and CEO of Dell Technologies. It is unclear whether Phelan served in the Navy or military.

Boak reported from Nantucket, Massachusetts. Associated Press writer Paul Wiseman in Washington contributed to this report.

The post Detroit-based Healthy Roots Dolls addressing need for diverse representation in toys appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

By Kimberly Palmer, NerdWallet

Hosting the Thanksgiving meal — with its traditional turkey, multiple sides and showstopper pie — can be daunting. But with a little preparation, it can be one of the most affordable ways to feed a large group.

“In general, Thanksgiving is one of the cheapest holidays to host. The foods are so cheap — potatoes, squash, carrots, apples, turkey,” says Andrea Dekker, who publishes simple home organization and cooking tips on her eponymous website.

Indeed, the American Farm Bureau Federation, an agricultural industry group that tracks food prices, reports that in 2024, the classic Thanksgiving meal for 10 costs just over $58. That’s a decrease of 5% from last year, but 19% higher than five years ago.

In addition to selecting the right ingredients, the following strategies can also make it easier to host Thanksgiving on a budget:

1. Focus on seasonal ingredients

Try featuring root vegetables like sweet potatoes and carrots, which are in season and affordable, in your Thanksgiving meal, recommends Annie Berger, co-founder of Meal Better, a weeknight dinner planning service. She says the freshest veggies may not even need to be peeled as long as they get a good scrub.

“They’re seasonal, inexpensive and colorful,” she says.

Bari Tessler, a financial therapist in Boulder, Colorado, and author of “The Art of Money,” makes a galette from scratch for dessert, selecting the fruit ingredient based on what’s in season or on sale at the moment. That could include berries, apples, plums or cherries.

Dekker suggests leveraging ingredients you may already have tucked away at home. She pulls all of the bread ends out of her freezer, which she saves throughout the year for baked French toast and stuffing.

“Otherwise, I would throw them away, but if you add Craisins, sausage and apples, it’s almost like a free side dish,” she says.

Dekker also heads to her local orchards in western Michigan to pick up bags of blemished produce sold at a discount.

“You can turn them into apple sauce, pies or apple bread,” she says.

2. Substitute high-cost items

“Stick with recipes that don’t have a laundry list of ingredients,” says Brooke Caison, food editor at Delish, a website that features recipes, videos and food news.

If you buy an obscure spice for a specific dish, you might not use it again until next year, she adds.

Caison also suggests making last-minute substitutions when you see what’s on sale at the grocery store.

“Maybe you’re making green bean casserole but you see Brussels sprouts on sale. Be OK with that substitution,” she says.

Casseroles that feature canned goods as their base — such as canned corn and canned pineapple — make cost-effective side dishes, she adds, noting that pineapple casserole is one of her family’s favorites.

If you want to serve greens, Caison suggests braised collard greens or bacon-fried cabbage. Those leafy vegetables tend to be lower-cost than salad mixes like arugula.

“If mustard greens are on sale, then go for that,” she says.

(Kimberly Palmer shares how she’s hosting Thanksgiving dinner for under $150.)

3. Make the meal a potluck

Inviting guests to bring their own dishes to share is an easy and fun way to host a Thanksgiving meal, says Amanda Christensen, an accredited financial counselor and extension professor at Utah State University.

“It’s a great way to include everyone in the planning as well as share the monetary burden,” she says.

4. Turn leftovers into new dishes

Dekker turns her leftover turkey into enchiladas, broth, soup, pot pie and alfredo.

“I don’t want to eat the same thing for the next four meals, so I figure out ways to mix it up so it doesn’t taste like Thanksgiving,” she says.

She adds that you can freeze almost anything to help the leftovers last for weeks or even months.

Caison recommends mashed potato pancakes and other creative ways to reuse food.

“Think about using leftovers at different times of day. Repurposed turkey can be an omelet for breakfast. Cranberry sauce can be a dessert. Let your mind play outside the space of just being dinner,” she says.

5. Rein in decor

While it can be tempting to purchase Thanksgiving-themed lights or banners, Dekker recommends using branches, dried flowers or pine cones instead. Evergreen trees, sage or rosemary can add warm scents to the room.

Berger says she creates a tablescape with seasonal items like apples, clementines and small squashes, which can later be rinsed and eaten.

Reusing, repurposing and recycling can unlock new levels of Thanksgiving creativity.

Kimberly Palmer writes for NerdWallet. Email: kpalmer@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @kimberlypalmer.

The article 5 Budget-Friendly Thanksgiving Dinner Ideas originally appeared on NerdWallet.

As open enrollment for Affordable Care Act plans continues through Jan. 15, you’re likely seeing fewer social media ads promising monthly cash cards worth hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars that you can use for groceries, medical bills, rent and other expenses.

But don’t worry. You haven’t missed out on any windfalls. Clicking on one of those ads would not have provided you with a cash card — at least not worth hundreds or thousands.

But you might have found yourself switched to a health insurance plan you did not authorize, unable to afford treatment for an unforeseen medical emergency, and owing thousands of dollars to the IRS, according to an ongoing lawsuit against companies and individuals who plaintiffs say masterminded the ads and alleged scams committed against millions of people who responded to them.

The absence of those once-ubiquitous ads are likely a result of the federal government suspending access to the ACA marketplace for two companies that market health insurance out of South Florida offices, amid accusations they used “fraudulent” ads to lure customers and then switched their insurance plans and agents without their knowledge.

In its suspension letter, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) cited “credible allegations of misconduct” in the agency’s decision to suspend the abilities of two companies — TrueCoverage (doing business as Inshura) and BenefitAlign — to transact information with the marketplace.

CMS licenses and monitors agencies that use their own websites and information technology platforms to enroll health insurance customers in ACA plans offered in the federal marketplace.

Suit names long list of defendants

The alleged scheme affected millions of consumers, according to a lawsuit winding its way through U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale that seeks class-action status.

An amended version of the suit, filed in August, increased the number of defendants from six to 12:

— TrueCoverage LLC, an Albuquerque, New Mexico-based health insurance agency with large offices in Miami, Miramar and Deerfield Beach. TrueCoverage is a sub-tenant of the South Florida Sun Sentinel in a building leased by the newspaper in Deerfield Beach.

— Enhance Health LLC, a Sunrise-based health insurance agency that the lawsuit says was founded by Matthew Herman, also named as a defendant, with a $150 million investment from hedge fund Bain Capital’s insurance division. Bain Capital Insurance Fund LP is also a defendant.

— Speridian Technologies LLC, accused in the lawsuit of establishing two direct enrollment platforms that provided TrueCoverage and other agencies access to the ACA marketplace.

— Benefitalign LLC, identified in the suit as one of the direct enrollment platforms created by Speridian. Like Speridian and TrueCoverage, the company is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

— Number One Prospecting LLC, doing business as Minerva Marketing, based in Fort Lauderdale, and its founder, Brandon Bowsky, accused of developing the social media ads that drove customers — or “leads” — to the health insurance agencies.

— Digital Media Solutions LLC, doing business as Protect Health, a Miami-based agency that the suit says bought Minerva’s “fraudulent” ads. In September, the company filed for Chapter 11 protection from creditors in United States Bankruptcy Court in Texas, which automatically suspended claims filed against the company.

— Net Health Affiliates Inc., an Aventura-based agency the lawsuit says was associated with Enhance Health and like it, bought leads from Minerva.

— Garish Panicker, identified in the lawsuit as half-owner of Speridian Global Holdings and day-to-day controller of companies under its umbrella, including TrueCoverage, Benefitalign and Speridian Technologies.

— Matthew Goldfuss, accused by the suit of overseeing and directing TrueCoverage’s ACA enrollment efforts.

All of the defendants have filed motions to dismiss the lawsuit. The motions deny the allegations and argue that the plaintiffs failed to properly state their claims and lack the standing to file the complaints.

Defendants respond to requests for comment

The Sun Sentinel sent requests for comment and lists of questions about the cases to four separate law firms representing separate groups of defendants.

Three of the law firms — one representing Brandon Bowsky and Number One Prospecting LLC d/b/a Minerva Marketing, and two others representing Net Health Affiliates Inc. and Bain Capital Insurance Fund — did not respond to the requests.

A representative of Enhance Health LLC and Matthew Herman, Olga M. Vieira of the Miami-based firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP, responded with a short message saying she was glad the newspaper knew a motion to dismiss the charges had been filed by the defendants. She also said that, “Enhance has denied all the allegations as reported previously in the media.”

Catherine Riedel, a communications specialist representing TrueCoverage LLC, Benefitalign LLC, Speridian Technologies LLC, Girish Panicker and Matthew Goldfuss, issued the following statement:

“TrueCoverage takes these allegations very seriously and is responding appropriately. While we cannot comment on ongoing litigation, we strongly believe that the allegations are baseless and without merit.

“Compliance is our business. The TrueCoverage team records and reviews every call with a customer, including during Open Enrollment when roughly 500 agents handle nearly 30,000 calls a day. No customer is enrolled into any policy without a formal verbal consent given by the customer. If any customer calls in as a result of misleading content presented by third-party marketing vendors, agents are trained to correct such misinformation and action is taken against such third-party vendors.”

Through Riedel, the defendants declined to answer follow-up questions, including whether the company remains in business, whether it continues to enroll Affordable Care Act clients, and whether it is still operating its New Mexico call center using another affiliated technology platform.

Lawsuit: COVID relief package made ‘scheme’ possible

The suspension notification from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services letter cites several factors, including the histories of noncompliance and previous suspensions. The letter noted suspicion that TrueCoverage and Benefitalign were storing consumers’ personally identifiable information in databases located in India and possibly other overseas locations in violation of the centers’ rules.

The letter also notes allegations against the companies in the pending lawsuit that “they engaged in a variety of illegal practices, including violations of the (Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations, or RICO Act), misuse of consumer (personal identifiable information) and insurance fraud.”

The amended lawsuit filed in August names as plaintiffs five individuals who say their insurance plans were changed and two agencies who say they lost money when they were replaced as agents.

The lawsuit accuses the defendants of 55 counts of wrongdoing, ranging from running ads offering thousands of dollars in cash that they knew would never be provided directly to consumers, switching millions of consumers into different insurance policies without their authorization, misstating their household incomes to make them eligible for $0 premium coverage, and “stealing” commissions by switching the agents listed in their accounts.

TrueCoverage, Enhance Health, Protect Health, and some of their associates “engaged in hundreds of thousands of agent-of-record swaps to steal other agents’ commissions,” the suit states. “Using the Benefitalign and Inshura platforms, they created large spreadsheet lists of consumer names, dates of birth and zip codes.” They provided those spreadsheets to agents, it says, and instructed them to access platforms linked to the ACA marketplace and change the customers’ agents of record “without telling the client or providing informed consent.”

“In doing so, they immediately captured the monthly commissions of agents … who had originally worked with the consumers directly to sign them up,” the lawsuit asserts.

TrueCoverage employees who complained about dealing with prospects who called looking for cash cards were routinely chided by supervisors who told them to be vague and keep making money, the suit says.

When the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began contacting the company in January about customer complaints, the suit says TrueCoverage enrollment supervisor Matthew Goldfuss sent an email instructing agents “do not respond.”

How it started

The lawsuit states the “scheme” was made possible in 2021 when Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act in the wake of the COVID pandemic.

The act made it possible for Americans with household incomes between 100% and 150% of the federal poverty level to pay zero in premiums and it enabled those consumers to enroll in ACA plans all year round, instead of during the three-month open enrollment period from November to January.

Experienced health insurance brokers recognized the opportunity presented by the changes, the lawsuit says. More than 40 million Americans live within 100% and 150% of the federal poverty level, while only 15 million had ACA insurance at the time.

The defendants developed or benefited from online ads, the lawsuit says, which falsely promised “hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars per month in cash benefits such as subsidy cards to pay for common expenses like rent, groceries, and gas.”

Consumers who clicked on the ads were brought to a landing page that asked a few qualifying questions, and if their answers suggested that they might qualify for a low-cost or no-cost plan, they were provided a phone number to a health insurance agency.

There was a major problem with the plan, according to the lawsuit. “Customers believe they are being routed to someone who will send them a free cash card, not enroll them in health insurance.” By law, the federal government sends subsidies for ACA plans to insurance companies, and not to individual consumers.

Scripts were developed requiring agents not to mention a cash card, and if a customer mentions a cash card, “be vague” and tell the caller that only the insurance carrier can provide that information, the lawsuit alleges.

In September, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss the claims. In addition to denying the charges, they argued that the class plaintiffs lacked the standing to make the accusations and failed to demonstrate that they suffered harm. The motion also argued that the lawsuit’s accusations failed to meet requirements necessary to claim civil violations of the RICO Act.

Miami-based attorney Jason Kellogg, representing the plaintiffs, said he doesn’t expect a ruling on the motion to dismiss the case for several months.

The complaint also lists nearly 50 companies, not named as defendants, that it says fed business to TrueCoverage and Enhance Health. Known in the industry as “downlines,” most operate in office parks throughout South Florida, the lawsuit says.

Complaints from former employees and clients

The lawsuit quotes former TrueCoverage employees complaining about having to work with customers lured by false cash promises in the online ads.

A former employee who worked in the company’s Deerfield Beach office was quoted in the lawsuit as saying that senior TrueCoverage and Speridian executives “knew that consumers were calling in response to the false advertisements promising cash cards and they pressured agents to use them to enroll consumers into ACA plans.”

A former human resources manager for TrueCoverage said sales agents frequently complained “that they did not feel comfortable having to mislead consumers,” the lawsuit said.

Over two dozen agents “came to me with these complaints and showed me the false advertisements that consumers who called in were showing them,” the lawsuit quoted the former manager as saying.

For much of the time the companies operated, the ACA marketplace enabled agents to easily access customer accounts using their names and Social Security numbers, change their insurance plans and switch their agents of record without their knowledge or authorization, the lawsuit says.

This resulted in customers’ original agents losing their commissions and many of the policyholders finding out they suddenly owed far more for health care services than their original plans had required, the suit states.

It says that one of the co-plaintiffs’ health plans was changed at least 22 times without her consent. She first discovered that she had lost her original plan when she sought to renew a prescription for her heart condition and her doctor told her she did not have health insurance, the suit states.

Another co-plaintiff’s policy was switched after her husband responded to one of the cash card advertisements, the lawsuit says. That couple’s insurance plan was switched multiple times after a TrueCoverage agent excluded the wife’s income from an application so the couple would qualify. Later, they received bills from the IRS for $4,300 to cover tax credits issued to pay for the plans.

CMS barred TrueCoverage and BenefitAlign from accessing the ACA marketplace.

It said it received more than 90,000 complaints about unauthorized plan switches and more than 183,500 complaints about unauthorized enrollments, but the agency did not attribute all of the complaints to activities by the two companies.

In addition, CMS restricted all agents’ abilities to alter policyholders’ enrollment information, the lawsuit says. Now access is allowed only for agents that already represent policyholders or if the policyholder participates in a three-way call with an agent and a marketplace employee.

Between June and October, the agency barred 850 agents and brokers from accessing the marketplace “for reasonable suspicion of fraudulent or abusive conduct related to unauthorized enrollments or unauthorized plan switches,” according to an October CMS news release.

The changes resulted in a “dramatic and sustained drop” in unauthorized activity, including a nearly 70% decrease in plan changes associated with an agent or broker and a nearly 90% decrease in changes to agent or broker commission information, the release said.

It added that while consumers were often unaware of such changes, the opportunity to make them provided “significant financial incentive for non-compliant agents and brokers.”

But CMS’ restrictions might be having unintended consequences for law-abiding agents and brokers.

A story published by Insurance News Net on Nov. 11 quoted the president of the Health Agents for America (HAFA) trade group as saying agents are being suspended by CMS after being flagged by a mysterious algorithm that no one can figure out.

The story quotes HAFA president Ronnell Nolan as surmising, “maybe they wrote too many policies on the same day for people who have the same income or they’re writing too many policies on people of a certain occupation.”

Nolan continued, “We have members who have thousands of ACA clients. They can’t update or renew their clients. So those consumers have lost access to their professional agent, which is simply unfair.”

Ron Hurtibise covers business and consumer issues for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can be reached by phone at 954-356-4071, on Twitter @ronhurtibise or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California could offer rebates for electric vehicle purchases if the incoming Trump administration eliminates a federal tax credit for people who buy electric cars, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday.

Newsom, a Democrat, will propose creating a new version of the state’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Program, which was phased out in 2023 after funding 594,000 cars and saving 456 million gallons of fuel, Newsom’s office said.

“Consumers continue to prove the skeptics wrong – zero-emission vehicles are here to stay,” Newsom said in a statement. “We’re not turning back on a clean transportation future — we’re going to make it more affordable for people to drive vehicles that don’t pollute.”

Newsom’s proposal is part of his plan to protect California’s progressive policies ahead of Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s second term. He called the state Legislature to convene in a special session to help “Trump-proof” state laws by giving the attorney general’s office more funding to fight federal challenges.

But a budget shortfall could complicate California’s resistance efforts. Early budget projections show the state could face a $2 billion deficit next year, according to a report released last week by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office. That’s an improvement from an estimated $46.8 billion deficit the state faced last year, but the shortfall could still curtail the state’s ability to expand new programs and fight federal legal challenges. Legislative leaders in both chambers have said the state needs to stay prudent in anticipation of future budget deficits.

Money for the new rebate system could come from the state’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, which is funded by polluters under the state’s cap-and-trade program, the governor’s office said.

Officials didn’t say how much the program would cost or how the rebates would work. Newsom is expected to offer more details of the possible rebate program during an appearance in Kern County later Monday.

California has surpassed 2 million zero-emission vehicles sold, according to Newsom’s office. The state has passed policies in recent years to transition away from fossil fuel-powered, cars, trucks, trains and lawn mowers.

Trump previously vowed to end federal electric vehicle tax credits, which are worth up to $7,500 for new zero-emission vehicles. There’s also a $4,000 credit for used ones. But Trump later softened his stance as Tesla CEO Elon Musk became a supporter and adviser.

Newsom said at a news conference last week that he called Trump after the election and the incoming president hasn’t returned his call.

California’s defunct Clean Vehicle Rebate Program offered rebates on electric cars as high as $2,500.

Any new rebate program “would include changes to promote innovation and competition” in the zero-emission vehicles market, the statement said.

By JOSH BOAK and FATIMA HUSSEIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump has big plans for the economy — and a big debt problem that will be a hurdle to delivering on them.

Trump has bold ideas on tax cuts, tariffs and other programs, but high interest rates and the price of repaying the federal government’s existing debt could limit what he’s able to do.

Not only is the federal debt at roughly $36 trillion, but the spike in inflation after the coronavirus pandemic has pushed up the government’s borrowing costs such that debt service next year will easily exceed spending on national security.

The higher cost of servicing the debt gives Trump less room to maneuver with the federal budget as he seeks income tax cuts. It’s also a political challenge because higher interest rates have made it costlier for many Americans to buy a home or new automobile. And the issue of high costs helped Trump reclaim the presidency in November’s election.

“It’s clear the current amount of debt is putting upward pressure on interest rates, including mortgage rates for instance,” said Shai Akabas, executive director of the economic policy program at the Bipartisan Policy Center. “The cost of housing and groceries is going to be increasingly felt by households in a way that are going to adversely affect our economic prospects in the future.”

Akabas stressed that the debt service is already starting to crowd out government spending on basic needs such as infrastructure and education. About 1 in 5 dollars spent by the government are now repaying investors for borrowed money, instead of enabling investments in future economic growth.

It’s an issue on Trump’s radar. In his statement on choosing billionaire investor Scott Bessent to be his treasury secretary, the Republican president-elect said Bessent would “help curb the unsustainable path of Federal Debt.”

The debt service costs along with the higher total debt complicate Trump’s efforts to renew his 2017 tax cuts, much of which are set to expire after next year. The higher debt from those tax cuts could push interest rates higher, making debt service even costlier and minimizing any benefits the tax cuts could produce for growth.

“Clearly, it’s irresponsible to run back the same tax cuts after the deficit has tripled,” said Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a former Republican congressional aide. “Even congressional Republicans behind the scenes are looking for ways to scale down the president’s ambitions.”

Democrats and many economists say Trump’s income tax cuts disproportionately benefit the wealthy, which deprives the government of revenues needed for programs for the middle class and poor.

“The president-elect’s tax policy ideas will increase the deficit because they will decrease taxes for those with the highest ability to pay, such as the corporations whose tax rate he’s proposed reducing even further to 15%,” said Jessica Fulton, vice president of policy at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington-based think tank that deals with issues facing communities of color.

Trump’s team insists he can make the math work.

“The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail, including lowering prices. He will deliver,” said Karoline Leavitt, the Trump transition spokeswoman.

When Trump was last in the White House in 2020, the federal government was spending $345 billion annually to service the national debt. It was possible to run up the national debt with tax cuts and pandemic aid because the average interest rate was low, such that repayment costs were manageable even as debt levels climbed.

Congressional Budget Office projections indicate that debt service costs next year could exceed $1 trillion. That’s more than projected spending on defense. The total is also greater than nondefense spending on infrastructure, food aid and other programs under the direction of Congress.

What fueled the increased cost of servicing the debt has been higher interest rates. In April 2020, when the government was borrowing trillions of dollars to address the pandemic, the yield on 10-year Treasury notes fell as low as 0.6%. They’re now 4.4%, having increasing since September as investors expect Trump to add several trillions of dollars onto projected deficits with his income tax cuts.

Democratic President Joe Biden can point to strong economic growth and successfully avoiding a recession as the Federal Reserve sought to bring down inflation. Still, deficits ran at unusually high levels during his term. That’s due in part to his own initiatives to boost manufacturing and address climate change, and to the legacy of Trump’s previous tax cuts.

People in Trump’s orbit, as well as Republican lawmakers, are already scouting out ways to reduce government spending in order to minimize the debt and bring down interest rates. They have attacked Biden for the deficits and inflation, setting the stage for whether they can persuade Trump to take action.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the wealthy businessmen leading Trump’s efforts to cut government costs, have proposed that the incoming administration should simply refuse to spend some of the money approved by Congress. It’s an idea that Trump has also backed, but one that would likely provoke challenges in court as it would undermine congressional authority.

Russell Vought, the White House budget director during Trump’s first term and Trump’s choice to lead it again, put out an alternative proposed budget for 2023 with more than $11 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years in order to potentially generate a surplus.

Michael Faulkender, a finance professor who served in Trump’s Treasury Department, told a congressional committee in March that all the energy and environmental components of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act from 2022 should be repealed to reduce deficits.

Trump has also talked up tariffs on imports to generate revenues and reduce deficits, while some Republican lawmakers such as House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, have discussed adding work requirements to trim Medicaid expenses.

The White House was last pressured by high rates to address debt service costs roughly three decades ago during the start of Democrat Bill Clinton’s presidency. Higher yields on the 10-year Treasury notes led Clinton and Congress to reach an agreement on deficit reduction, ultimately producing a budget surplus starting in 1998.

Clinton political adviser James Carville joked at the time about how bond investors pushing up borrowing rates for the U.S. government could humble the commander in chief.

“I used to think that if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the president or the pope or as a .400 baseball hitter,” Carville said. “But now I would like to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.”

By RONALD BLUM

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball will test robot umpires as part of a challenge system during spring training at 13 ballparks hosting 19 teams, which could lead to regular-season use in 2026.

MLB has been experimenting with the automated ball-strike system in the minor leagues since 2019 but is still working on the shape of the strike zone.

An agreement for big league use would have to be reached with the Major League Baseball Umpires Association, whose collective bargaining agreement expires Dec. 1.

“I would be interested in having it in ‘26,” baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said Wednesday after an owners’ meeting. “We do have a collective bargaining obligation there. That’s obviously a term and condition of employment. We’re going to have to work through that issue, as well.”

Manfred said the spring training experiment will have to be evaluated before MLB determines how to move forward.

“There’s two sides to that test,” he said. “It’s what the clubs think about it and also what do the players think about it? And we’re going to have to sort through both of those.”

Triple-A ballparks used ABS this year for the second straight season, but there is little desire to call the strike zone as the cube defined in the rule book and MLB has experimented with modifications during minor league testing.

The ABS currently calls strikes solely based on where the ball crosses the midpoint of the plate, 8.5 inches from the front and the back. The top of the strike zone was increased to 53.5% of batter height this year from 51%, and the bottom remained at 27%.

After splitting having the robot alone for the first three games of each series and a human with a challenge system in the final three during the first 2 1/2 months of the Triple-A season, MLB on June 25 switched to an all-challenge system in which a human umpire makes nearly all decisions.

During the second half of the season, each team had three challenges in the Pacific Coast League and two in the International League. A team retains its challenge if successful, similar to the regulations for big league teams with video reviews.

“I think we will have a spring training ABS test that will provide a meaningful opportunity for all major league players to see what the challenge system will look like,” Manfred said. “It won’t be in every single ballpark but we actually have a plan where every team will get meaningful exposure.”

By MEG KINNARD

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has endorsed a line of guitars, following up on the Bibles, sneakers, watches, photo books and cryptocurrency ventures launched during his third White House campaign.

Trump on Wednesday posted to Truth Social a photo of himself holding what he said was a “Limited Edition ‘45’ Guitar,” an electric model emblazoned with an American flag and eagle on the body, and Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan inlaid into the neck. Both acoustic and electric styles are available, for $1,250 and $1,500, respectively, as well as “Presidential” and “God Bless the USA” models and “Signature Edition” guitars, which — with a $10,000 price tag — also include Trump’s signature.

What’s not clear is the financial relationship between Trump and proceeds from the guitar sales.

Following his long tradition of melding his political and business interests, Trump has hawked a series of branded products since he launched his 2024 White House campaign, a slew of items that went up for sale in the wake of a $489 million civil fraud judgment against the former president.

Some of them, like the “Official Trump Watch Collection” — where one model costs $100,000 — were listed as affiliated with CIC Ventures LLC, a company that Trump reported owning in his 2023 financial disclosure.

Websites for items like the watches note that the products are subject to a “paid license agreement,” the same mechanism that allowed Trump, well before he entered politics, to profit for years from sales of everything from water to vodka and steaks.

As of Wednesday, GetTrumpGuitars.com included no such disclaimers, or even the name of the company selling the items. An FAQ page lists information about how many of each model are being made available — and notes that these models are “the ONLY guitars endorsed by President Donald J. Trump!” — but includes none of the disclaimers or licensing language on some of Trump’s other product sites.

The guitar website’s privacy policy does include a suburban Nashville address for a couple, neither of whom immediately returned a message seeking comment Wednesday. Photos on their social media pages showed that they attended Trump’s election-night party in Florida.

Messages left with 16 Creative — a branding agency listed at the bottom of the guitar website — and Trump’s transition team also were not immediately returned.

Leading up to his win in the general election, Trump this year has announced the sale of $100 silver coins bearing his face, urged his supporters to spend $59.99 for a “God Bless the USA Bible,” inspired by country singer Lee Greenwood’s patriotic ballad, and hawked new Trump-branded sneakers at “Sneaker Con,” a gathering that bills itself as the “The Greatest Sneaker Show on Earth.”

He also has dabbled in NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, and last year reported earning between $100,000 and $1 million from a series of digital trading cards that portrayed him in cartoon-like images, including as an astronaut, a cowboy and a superhero.

Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP

The post Detroit Evening Report: Dearborn launches ‘Business Bootcamp’ for women; Detroit gets $1.3M for lead hazard control + more appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

By MATTHEW DALY

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fossil fuel executive Chris Wright, Donald Trump’s choice for Energy secretary, is a strong supporter of oil and gas development, including fracking, a key pillar of the president-elect’s quest for U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market.

Wright has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change, and he could give fossil fuels a boost, including quick action to end a year-long pause on natural gas export approvals by the Biden administration.

CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, he describes himself as “a tech nerd turned entrepreneur” and promotes the idea that more fossil fuel production can lift people out of poverty around the globe.

Here are some things to know about Wright.

He has no experience in government

Wright has been chairman and CEO of Liberty Energy since 2011 and has no experience in government.

Liberty is a major energy industry service provider, with a focus on technology. Wright, who grew up in Colorado, earned an undergraduate degree at MIT and did graduate work in electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley and MIT. In 1992, he founded Pinnacle Technologies, which helped launch commercial shale gas production through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

He later served as chairman of Stroud Energy, an early shale gas producer, before founding Liberty Resources in 2010.

Wright says on LinkedIn that he is “all-in on energy,″ from starting his career in nuclear, solar and geothermal energy to his current efforts in oil and gas and “next-generation” geothermal. “I don’t care where energy comes (from), as long as it is secure, reliable, affordable and betters human lives,″ he wrote.

Wright will serve on Trump’s new National Energy Council

If confirmed, Wright will join North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s choice to be interior secretary, as a key player on energy policy in a second Trump term. Wright will be a member of a new National Energy Council that Burgum will chair. The new panel will seek to establish U.S. “energy dominance” around the world, Trump said.

The energy council will include all executive branch agencies involved in energy permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation and transportation, with a focus on “cutting red tape” and boosting domestic energy production, Trump said. The council’s mission represents a near-complete reversal from actions pursued by Democratic President Joe Biden, who has made fighting climate change a top priority.

Trump has pledged to rescind unspent funds in Biden’s 2022 climate law and is widely expected to curb or reverse Biden’s push for more electric vehicles and stricter regulation of carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants.

Wright has won support from conservatives and oil industry leaders

Wright has won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm.

Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term. Hamm helped organize an event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in April where Trump reportedly asked industry leaders and lobbyists to donate $1 billion to Trump’s campaign, with the expectation that Trump would curtail environmental regulations if reelected.

Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, a conservative group that supports fossil fuels, called Wright “an excellent choice” for energy secretary. Pyle led Trump’s energy transition team in 2016.

Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry’s top lobbying group, also praised Wright, saying the group looks forward to working with him “to bolster American geopolitical strength” by lifting Biden’s pause on LNG export permits and ensuring “open access” for American energy around the world.

Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, called Wright an energy innovator who played a key role in America’s fracking boom.

Wright has disparaged climate activists, who have denounced his selection

Wright has frequently criticized what he calls a “top-down” approach to climate change by liberal and left-wing groups. He argues that the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight.”

Jackie Wong, senior vice president for climate and energy at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, called Wright “a champion of dirty fossil fuels” and said his nomination was “a disastrous mistake.”

“The Energy Department should be doing all it can to develop and expand the energy sources of the 21st century, not trying to promote the dirty fuels of the last century,” Wong said. “Given the devastating impacts of climate-fueled disasters, DOE’s core mission of researching and promoting cleaner energy solutions is more important now than ever.”

Lena Moffitt, executive director of Evergreen Action, another environmental group, said Wright has “shown that his loyalty lies with fossil fuel interests. Yet he would be tasked with overseeing billions in clean energy investments that are critical to lowering costs and creating jobs nationwide. This nomination is a clear indication that Trump is more interested in helping his political allies than tackling the real challenges facing everyday Americans.”

By Patrick Clarke, TravelPulse (TNS)

If it seems like the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales start earlier and earlier every year it’s because they do.

Or at least it feels that way.

But that doesn’t mean these awesome discounts and special perks on travel are to be ignored. Timing is everything.

Sure, a flooded inbox can be a turnoff but don’t let a minor annoyance cost you big-time savings this holiday season.

Airlines, cruise lines, hotels and resorts, tour operators and other travel suppliers are already offering up notable deals on travel whether you’re looking for one last getaway in 2024 or lining up your dream vacation for the New Year.

In many cases, travelers will have to be patient and book during special Black Friday and Cyber Monday windows that start just ahead of Thanksgiving and wrap up in early December.

Black Friday is November 29 and Cyber Monday is December 2 but oftentimes these offers extend beyond these dates.

Nonetheless, having a plan could net you some major deals, including an additional $1,055 in resort credits at Bahia Principe Hotels & Resorts in the Caribbean and Mexico (November 21 to December 3), for example.

Airlines like Southwest are even extending their bookable flight schedules so that fast-acting travelers can book a getaway well in advance.

It’s true that some offers require travelers to leave home by the end of the year but there’s a sea of savings for those who want to have something to look forward to in 2025 while keeping their budget intact.

Working with an experienced travel adviser could score you even more special savings and perks, as these professionals have access to additional discounts and connections that will only enhance your trip while saving you headaches this holiday season.

©2024 Northstar Travel Media, LLC. Visit at travelpulse.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By Tim Henderson, Stateline.org (TNS)

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, McLean County, Illinois, was known mostly as the home of State Farm Insurance in Bloomington and Illinois State University in Normal.

Now, the area illustrates a trend that’s bringing more factories to small cities with lower costs of living: It has thousands of new jobs manufacturing Rivian electric vehicles and a new candy factory that will produce Kinder Bueno and other Ferrero candies.

“Food and electric cars. This is not something we were known for before 2019,” said Patrick Hoban, president of Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council in McLean County.

“We’re primarily an insurance and university town that’s just now seeing a rise in manufacturing. Rivian has ramped up from 300 to 8,000 employees, and I don’t think anyone realized how fast that was going to happen,” Hoban said.

President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to rebuild American manufacturing, and he won handily in most areas hollowed out by the movement of factory jobs overseas. But the rebound Trump promises has already been underway in many places: McLean County is part of an unusually strong jump in manufacturing jobs between 2019 and 2023 — the first time manufacturing employment has recovered fully from a recession since the 1970s, according to a recent report from the Economic Innovation Group, a bipartisan public policy organization in Washington, D.C.

There were about 12.9 million manufacturing jobs in 2023, slightly more than in 2019. However, the number of manufacturing jobs has declined precipitously since the all-time peak in 1979, when there were 19.4 million of them and they were a much larger share of overall employment.

Joseph McCartin, a Georgetown University professor and labor history expert, said manufacturing has been on an upswing since 2010 as the nation started recovering from the Great Recession. The pandemic interrupted the trajectory, but the United States recently saw a hopeful increase in pay for the new jobs, he said, as the Biden administration aimed to increase both wages and jobs through the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.

“The Biden administration tried to use policy to ensure that more of these would be union jobs or at least offer union-level wages,” McCartin said. “This approach is almost certainly dead due to the results of the election.”

Employers may have a hard time filling lower-paying manufacturing jobs such as meat processing if the new Trump administration deports the immigrants who fill them, said William Jones, a University of Minnesota history professor and former president of the Labor and Working Class History Association.

“These will be hard hit if Trump follows up on his deportation plan,” Jones said. “The political rhetoric is that a bunch of native-born workers will move into these jobs, that they’re getting squeezed out, but that’s actually not the case. Some of these industries are extremely dependent on immigrant labor.”

Where growth happened

Small urban areas such as McLean County got most of the increase in manufacturing jobs between 2019 and 2023, according to the Economic Innovation Group report. Rural areas lost those jobs, and large cities saw no change.

It was mostly Sun Belt and Western states that saw the increases during those years, according to a Stateline analysis of federal Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The largest percentage changes in manufacturing jobs were in Nevada (up 14%), Utah (up 11%), and Arizona and Florida (each up 9%). The largest raw numbers of new manufacturing jobs were in Texas (up 48,200), Florida (up 35,100) and Georgia (up 22,900).

Southern states such as Alabama and Mississippi also have seen more automotive jobs as manufacturers have taken advantage of lower costs and state “right-to-work” laws that weaken unions. Vehicle manufacturing jumped by 7,800 in Alabama and 6,600 in Mississippi, the largest increases outside California.

Meanwhile, traditional Rust Belt states have seen continued declines, with manufacturing jobs down about 2% in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and also in Illinois — despite McLean County’s success.

Manufacturing is playing a critical role in Nevada as it tries to diversify its tourist-oriented economy so it can better weather downturns such as the one during the pandemic, said Steve Scheetz, research manager for the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development.

Automotive and other battery manufacturing and recycling, driven by electric carmaker Tesla and battery recycling firm Redwood Materials, account for much of the increase in Nevada manufacturing, Scheetz said.

As in Illinois, the job growth tended to be in smaller areas outside big cities, such as Storey County, just east of Reno, with a population of about 4,200.

“Fifteen years ago, this small county in rural Nevada was relatively unknown,” Scheetz said, adding that jobs and economic output has risen tenfold and the number of total jobs — including manufacturing — has grown from less than 4,000 to almost 16,000 in those 15 years. The county also is home to plants making building materials, industrial minerals and molded rubber, among other products.

The Biden administration focused on bringing more blue-collar jobs to small cities like Normal and Bloomington, said Jones, the University of Minnesota professor.

“Much of the growth is due to [President Joe] Biden’s manufacturing investments. There was a conscious strategy to focus on small towns to get the political benefit in places that tended to vote Republican,” said Jones.

If there was a play for political benefit, it got mixed results: Vice President Kamala Harris carried McLean County, Illinois, on Nov. 5, but she lost Storey County, Nevada, by the largest margin for a Democrat in 40 years.

Blue-collar wages

The decline of unions and the availability of cheaper labor overseas have dampened U.S. factory job wages in recent decades. Even so, manufacturing jobs remain an attractive path for blue-collar workers.

Manufacturing pay still ranks fairly high among the blue-collar fields at an average $34.42 per hour as of October — less than wages in energy ($39.98) or construction ($38.72), but considerably more than hospitality ($22.23) or retail ($24.76). That also was the case in 2019, and it has led many state and cities to seek more factory positions to balance out the lower-paying service jobs that have blossomed as manufacturing has waned.

But in the past year, state Republican leaders have pushed back on a burgeoning Southern labor movement that aims to bring higher wages and better benefits to blue-collar workers.

In Alabama, Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed a new law in May that would claw back state incentives from companies that voluntarily recognize labor unions. GOP leaders in Georgia and Tennessee also passed laws pushing against a reinvigorated labor movement, viewing unions as a threat to the states’ manufacturing economies.

Much of the increase in Alabama manufacturing jobs has been in the northern part of the state, near Tennessee and Georgia. Since the pandemic began, Mazda Toyota Manufacturing came on line with the goal of hiring 4,000 vehicle production workers and another 2,000 in nearby parts factories as other manufacturers also boosted hiring. Private investment in Alabama automotive manufacturing totaled $7 billion over the same time frame, Stefania Jones, a spokesperson for state Commerce Secretary Ellen McNair, said in a statement to Stateline.

Supply-chain problems during the pandemic illustrated the advantages of American-made goods, said McCartin, the Georgetown University professor. However, without union support, today’s factory workers are unlikely to achieve the middle-class lifestyle enjoyed by earlier generations, he said.

“The growth of manufacturing itself is unlikely to become a panacea for what ails working-class America,” McCartin said.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a national nonprofit news organization focused on state policy.

©2024 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By KELVIN CHAN, AP Business Writer

LONDON (AP) — If you’re tired of memorizing passwords, then give passkeys a try.

You might have noticed that many online services are now offering the option of using passkeys, a digital authentication method touted as an easier and more secure way to log in. The passkey push started gaining major momentum after Google started accepting them about 18 months ago.

Passkeys are seen as eventual replacements for passwords, but if you’re still not sure what they’re all about, read on:

What are passkeys? And how do they work?

Forget about memorizing an optimized 14 character password consisting of letters, numbers and symbols. Passkeys do away with that because you never need to see them. Instead you are using existing biometrics like your face or fingerprints, digital patterns or PINs to access your accounts.

Passkeys are made up of two parts of a code that only makes sense when they’re combined, kind of like a digital key and padlock. You keep half of the encrypted code, typically stored either in the cloud with a compatible password manager or on a physical security dongle. The other half is stored on the participating apps, services or accounts you want to access.

When you want to log in to your Gmail account, for example, both parts of the code will then communicate directly with each other and give you entry.

Do they offer better security?

A passkey won’t work with any website except the one it has been created for, eliminating the security risks associated with traditional passwords.

That means bad actors carrying out phishing scams won’t be able to trick you into entering your details into a copycat login page for your bank. And because passkeys use cryptographic security, they also can’t brute force their way into your account by trying passwords exposed in previous data breaches or guessing them.

Where can you use passkeys?

Some 20% of the world’s top 100 websites now accept passkeys, said Andrew Shikiar, CEO of the FIDO Alliance, an industry group that developed the core authentication technology behind passkeys.

Passkeys first came to the public’s attention when Apple added the technology to iOS in 2022. They got more traction after Google started using them in 2023. Now, many other companies including PayPal, Amazon, Microsoft and eBay work with passkeys. There’s a list on the FIDO Alliance website.

Still, some popular sites like Facebook and Netflix haven’t started using them yet.

Passkey technology is still in the “early adoption” phase but “it’s just a matter of time for more and more sites to start offering this,” Shikiar said.

How to set up a passkey

I tried setting up passkeys for some of the major online services I use. It was fairly easy for some but confusing for others. Shikiar said his group is constantly working on ways to improve the user experience.

Google users can go to myaccount.google.com and under “How to sign in to Google”, click Passkeys and security keys. Upon reaching the setup screen, I received a prompt to create a passkey while simultaneously my password manager’s browser plug-in popped up offering to save it. I clicked to confirm and the setup work was all done automatically.

So far, pretty easy.

Then, I tried adding more Google passkeys to my Windows-based work laptop and a Yubico physical security key. This time, when I got to the Google setup screen, it asked for my existing passkey to confirm my identity. But then it somehow failed to authenticate through my password manager.

I tried again using other verification methods, including my Google authenticator app that I already had on my iPhone, and it eventually succeeded.

Adding multiple passkeys to my Microsoft account — one on my password manager, another on my Yubico key — involved some head scratching over a few of the prompts, but I eventually figured it out.

Setting up passkeys on LinkedIn and Amazon was much easier. And when I attempted to add a passkey to my WhatsApp account, I discovered I had, apparently, already created one months earlier when I activated the app lock feature requiring a fingerprint scan.

Logging in

Once set up, it was a breeze to sign in to some of my accounts with just a click or two. But there was some friction with my PayPal account because its passkeys don’t work on some browsers, like Firefox.

When I tried to log in with my Amazon passkey, it asked for a one-time verification code from my authenticator app, which confused me because I thought passkeys were supposed to eliminate the need for multi-factor authentication.

Shikiar said it depends on the site, but, in theory, the passkey already has enough protection built in.

“When the primary factor’s un-phishable, other factors aren’t necessary,” he said.

What happens if I lose my passkey?

If you’ve lost the device containing your passkey, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s gone. That’s because the typical method to store passkeys on phones is a cloud-based password manager from Apple, Google, or third-party providers. So just log back into the password manager from another phone or computer.

Passkeys stored on security dongles, on the other hand, aren’t synced to the cloud so there’s no way to recover them if they’re lost. It’d be a good idea to get a second hardware key and keep it as a backup.

And don’t forget you can always mix both cloud and hardware methods to keep multiple passkeys for extra redundancy.

Should I add a passkeys to all my accounts?

Based on my experience, setting up a passkey can be easy, or tedious and bewildering, depending on the service and what other security technology you want to layer in.

So I wouldn’t recommend doing all your accounts right away.

Instead, choose a few of your most important and frequently used services or accounts and focus on a proper setup for those.

What about my passwords?

In theory, you could delete your old passwords. Some services like Microsoft already offer this option. Shikiar says it should be a “personal preference,” because “some people may feel extremely nervous” about going passwordless.

It’s fine to keep your password but make sure there’s also multi-factor authentication set up for it, he said.

Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.

By Eliza Haverstock, NerdWallet

As interest rates start to soften, you may hear more buzz about student loan refinancing as a way to lower your bills.

“Essentially, what it means is you are taking the debt that you owe and you are giving it to another company. They’re going to pay off the debt that you have with the company you currently work with, and then you’re going to pay this new company,” explains Kristen Ahlenius, director of education and advice at Your Money Line, a workplace financial wellness company.

For private loan borrowers who can qualify for a better interest rate, refinancing can shrink your student loan payments with little or no downside. But student loan refinancing comes with a steep opportunity cost if you have federal student loans — even if you can get a lower rate. You’ll transfer your debt from the Education Department to a private lender, and you’ll permanently forfeit federal borrower protections.

If you’re considering student loan refinancing, here’s what to know based on your loan type — plus alternate ways to lower your payments and get student debt relief.

Private student loan borrowers: Consider refinancing if you can save on your interest rate

A borrower with only private student loans is a good refi candidate, as long as they meet credit-worthiness guidelines, says Stanley Tate, a lawyer focused on student loans. Typically, you must have a stable source of income and a credit score at least in the high 600s to qualify for the lowest advertised rates.

Consider refinancing now if you can save at least half a percentage point on your current interest rate, Tate says. Keep an eye on rates even after you refinance — you can refinance multiple times if rates keep falling.

“You should be aggressive in monitoring your rates until you get to a really good rate,” Tate says. “We may not see 2% or 3% anytime soon, but 7.5% versus 8% is way better. It seems small, but over a 20-year loan, that adds up.”

Before deciding to refinance, research lenders and loan terms. A student loan refinancing calculator can help you compare options. Pay attention to all aspects of the loans you’re considering — not just the interest rate.

“Rate is what most people think of, but a lot of times, people don’t think, ‘What happens if I lose my job? Do I need a co-signer? What are the terms of this loan? When can it be in default? What are the collection terms? What are cases where the interest rate may go up or down in the future for this loan?’” says Jantz Hoffman, executive director of the Certified Student Loan Advisors Board of Standards, a nonprofit that trains financial planners to help their clients make student loan decisions. “And because they’re not uniform, those contracts and the language in those contracts matter.”

And if you’re having a positive experience with your current private student loan lender — no issues with autopay, the online portal or customer service — refinancing with a new lender might not be worth it.

“Just consider that sometimes that’s not always the experience,” Ahlenius says. “Unless there’s a significant cost savings, remember that that experience is also worth something.”

Federal student loan borrowers: Think twice before refinancing and forfeiting borrower protections

Refinancing is risky if you have federal student loans.

When you refinance federal student loans, the lender you choose pays off your remaining federal debt and issues a new private student loan. It’s a permanent move: You can never turn your private refinance loan back into a federal loan.

“That decision to give up federal loans for private loans is one that is oftentimes regretted by the borrower,” Hoffman says. “Once that decision is made, there is no ‘Whoops, I wish I would have stayed. I could have gotten Public Service Loan Forgiveness. I lost my job and need forbearance.’”

That’s true even if you can get a lower rate through refinance: “Even if a private refi is long-term cheaper for [borrowers], that opportunity cost of losing potential federal protections usually keeps people from moving to the private space,” Ahlenius says.

You give up access to existing federal relief programs — like borrower defense for students defrauded by their schools, more than a dozen student loan forgiveness programs, income-driven repayment (IDR) plans, payment pauses if you lose your job and loan discharges if you face a permanent disability.

You also lose access to any future relief programs. For example, borrowers who refinanced their federal student loans before the pandemic did not benefit from the three-year interest-free payment pause that began in March 2020.

Exceptions when federal borrowers may consider refinancing

There are a few situations in which borrowers with federal student loans may consider refinancing to a lower rate, experts say. Those characteristics include:

• A high income, so IDR plans don’t offer a lower payment relative to the standard 10-year plan.
• Steady employment, so you can be sure you won’t lose your job in the future and need temporary payment relief.
• A good credit score, so you can qualify for the lowest advertised interest rates.
• You don’t work as a teacher, nurse, government employee or other type of public servant, so you won’t qualify for 10-year Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
• You are not working toward any other loan forgiveness programs, including IDR forgiveness.

Certain borrowers with federal parent PLUS loans may also be refi candidates, since these loans have higher interest rates than those doled out directly to students, Tate says.

“If you’re someone who is several years away from retirement, you’re a high earner and you have a fairly low loan balance in relation to your income, then refinancing can make sense, because you may not reach the [forgiveness] finish line before you would pay off the loan under the income-driven terms,” Tate says.

Explore other student loan relief options

Refinancing isn’t the only way to lower your student loan payments. Consider these other relief options:

• Flexible repayment plans. Income-driven repayment plans cap your monthly federal student loan bills based on your income and family size, to as low as $0. These plans are not typically available for private loans.
• SAVE lawsuit forbearance. Due to SAVE lawsuits, borrowers enrolled in this federal loan repayment plan have an interest-free payment pause until at least April. If you’re not on SAVE, you can still get this forbearance if you apply for the plan now.
• Deferment or forbearance. Temporarily postpone your federal student loan bills by asking your servicer for a deferment or forbearance. Some private lenders offer this option, too.
• Federal loan consolidation. You can consolidate multiple federal student loans into a single loan and extend your repayment term up to 30 years, which can lower your monthly payment. Consolidation is different from refinancing, because your loans stay in the federal system and you won’t lose any federal borrower protections.
• Set up autopay. Get a 0.25% interest point rate deduction by setting up automatic student loan payments through your servicer. If you have private loans, ask your lender about autopay benefits.

Reach out to your lender for personalized help. Do your research before calling your student loan servicer, explain your situation and ask about relief options available to you.

Eliza Haverstock writes for NerdWallet. Email: ehaverstock@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @elizahaverstock.

The article As Rates Fall, Should You Refinance Your Student Loans? originally appeared on NerdWallet.