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- ATA Applauds House Committee Passage of Diesel Emissions Reduction Act
The American Trucking Associations has welcomed the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s unanimous passage of the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act of 2025, legislation designed to continue a federal program that helps fleets and other operators reduce emissions from older diesel-powered equipment. The committee advanced H.R. 2140 during a September 2 markup. The legislation would reauthorize the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act, commonly known as DERA, through fiscal year 2029. The program is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency and provides financial assistance through grants, rebates, and loans for projects that reduce emissions from existing diesel engines. Eligible projects can include replacing older diesel engines, installing emissions-control technology, rebuilding engines, switching to cleaner fuels, reducing unnecessary idling, and adopting other strategies that lower diesel emissions. The program can support equipment used in transportation and other industries where diesel engines remain essential. For trucking fleets, programs such as DERA can help offset some of the significant costs associated with replacing older equipment. Newer heavy-duty trucks generally offer improved emissions performance, but purchasing replacement vehicles requires substantial capital. Federal assistance can provide fleets with an additional incentive to modernize equipment earlier than they otherwise might. ATA has emphasized its support for voluntary, incentive-based approaches to reducing transportation emissions. The trucking organization argues that programs providing financial assistance can help fleets adopt newer technologies without relying solely on regulatory mandates that may create additional financial pressure for carriers. The legislation itself is relatively straightforward. H.R. 2140 would amend the Energy Policy Act of 2005 by changing the program’s authorization expiration from 2024 to 2029. It does not fundamentally restructure DERA’s eligibility requirements or automatically provide new appropriations. Instead, it extends the legal authorization allowing the federal program to continue. The bill was introduced by Rep. Doris Matsui of California alongside bipartisan co-sponsors Reps. Ken Calvert of California, Nicholas Langworthy of New York, and Chellie Pingree of Maine. Before reaching the full Energy and Commerce Committee, the measure advanced through the Environment Subcommittee in July 2026. The program’s future funding remains an important issue. EPA’s fiscal year 2027 budget justification proposes eliminating the DERA Grant Program, compared with an estimated $90 million fiscal year 2026 enacted operating level. Congressional reauthorization and annual appropriations are separate steps, meaning extending DERA’s authorization would not guarantee a specific level of future funding. ATA’s support reflects the trucking industry’s broader interest in policies that balance emissions reductions with the… [TheTopNews] Read More.2 weeks ago - The Charges Were Dropped, but the Damage Was Already Done
David Huerta sat on a steel bed too small for his burly frame in a Los Angeles jail last summer and looked out a small rectangular window at Dodger Stadium, where he’d once spent evenings with his two boys. He was the kid who’d made good, although it hadn’t been easy. His mother died from breast cancer when he was 4. He was raised in southeast L.A. by his dad, a veteran of the Korean War turned Teamster, who paid the bills by loading and unloading cargo—and, when he was out of work, took his sons with him to the hiring hall. Huerta steered clear of gangs and instead went to college, became a union organizer, and worked his way up to become president of the largest labor union in the state, the Service Employees International Union of California.Yet here he was.He was sure that he hadn’t done anything illegal. He had screamed at masked federal agents as they executed search warrants at a downtown apparel business that was suspected of hiring undocumented immigrants. He had been angry, no question—especially at President Trump. He had flipped his middle fingers at the masked federal officers. At one point, he sat down in front of the business’s gate; later, he encouraged other protesters to form a picket circle in front of it. When an officer warned him he might be arrested, he replied, “I can’t hear you through your fucking mask.” And when a police van tried to enter, he stood with his hands on his hips nearby. He considered all of that well within the bounds of his First Amendment rights. But he couldn’t stop second-guessing his decision to show up at such a volatile scene alone.Huerta wondered how his wife and sons, his niece and nephew, and his other family members would react to seeing videos of his arrest. He wondered if he had somehow jeopardized the safety of his union’s hundreds of thousands of members by drawing unwanted headlines. He wondered if his arrest would make others more fearful of opposing this administration’s actions. He wondered when he would be released—or if he would be. He wondered if he could survive prison, should it come to that. And he wondered what his late dad would’ve thought of him sitting on a thin, stained mattress as his cellmate on the top bunk managed a comedown from drugs. Would he have… [TheTopNews] Read More.2 weeks ago - DSA’s Problem Isn’t ‘Media Training’American socialists are convinced that they have a media-training problem.In the past year, members of the Democratic Socialists of America, the country’s largest leftist organization, have won electoral victories in places such as New York City and Michigan, drawing a spotlight that the group has struggled to handle.Last month, the DSA’s co-chairs, Megan Romer and Ashik Siddique, gave several high-profile interviews that even many of their most fervent supporters agree were disastrous. The two leaders struggled to give straight answers to simple questions, and they defended outlandish policies, such as abolishing prisons and police. They seemed to present socialists exactly the way their opponents caricature them: as extremist, unserious, and unprepared.In damage-control mode, many of DSA’s defenders on social media are repeating the phrase media training as though it were a mantra. If only the group’s leaders had been better prepared to deal with media outlets, the thinking goes, they would have avoided this train wreck. The DSA’s communications director, Priscilla Yeverino, recently told Axios, “Our leaders aren’t politicians. They’re working-class people and new to doing media.”The idea that the DSA’s troubles on prime-time television are a technical matter solvable by the right training is surely comforting, but it is also wrong. The group has a bigger problem: It is led by unpractical extremists whose views are a far cry from those that its electorally successful figures, such as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, espouse.[Read: Why do rich kids love socialism?]This disconnect is partly explained by a sharp division within the DSA. One wing engages in mass politics and includes AOC, Mamdani, and other socialists committed to democratic principles. The other wing is sectarian and extremist: It evinces little commitment to democracy and includes open admirers of Hamas, the Iranian regime, and historical dictators such as Mao Zedong. If the interviews with the DSA’s co-chairs were embarrassing, that’s a result not of a lackluster media performance but of the actual positions the group has embraced.A closer look at the interviews confirms this. Romer, who belongs to the sectarian wing, evidently did not know what the 2000 Camp David Summit was and could not say what “taxing the hell out of millionaires,” as she demanded, would look like in practice. When asked about authoritarianism in Cuba, she praised the country’s constitution and suggested that Americans should learn from it.Maybe media training could have taught Romer what… [TheTopNews] Read More.2 weeks ago
- What is postpartum psychosis?
Experts discuss the symptoms, diagnosis and stigma surrounding postpartum psychosis (not to be confused with postpartum depression), a psychiatric emergency with symptoms that can be extreme and dangerous, as testified in the trial of Lindsay Clancy. [TheTopNews] Read More.2 weeks ago - This Tiny E-Reader Is the Single Best Piece of Technology in YearsNo matter how you read it, The Power Broker is a serious undertaking. The paperback weighs as much as a brick; to avoid lugging around all 1,344 pages, people have cut it apart at the spine and chunked it into sections. Others have organized in-person Power Broker marathon readings that run continuously for three full days. I decided to try something else.Over the past several weeks, I’ve spent 10 hours paging through Robert Caro’s masterpiece on an e-reader the size of a credit card. It’s magnetic, and small enough to attach to the back of my iPhone without adding any real bulk to my pocket. (Yes, this does mean that I have a screen on the back of another screen.) It’s called the Xteink X3, and at a glance, it looks like a cheap gimmick: more electronic junk made by unknown brands and sold on Temu and TikTok Shop—the kind of thing influencers are always hawking. (Can I interest you in a programmable LED hat for $11.60? Or how about $20 AirPod look-alikes made by “Fhumsh”?)In a sense, it is that. Xteink sounds less like a real brand name than the kind of garbled text you’ll find in AI-slop memes. (Speaking of which, the official website of the China-based company is full of AI-generated photos of people posing with the device.) And indeed, since the X3’s release on Amazon in May, TikTokers and YouTubers have raved about how the device is a steal and you should buy it right now—just click the link in bio.[From our August 2026 issue: The end of reading is here]And so I did. On Amazon, the X3 is $69 and tops the “hot new releases” list for e-readers, beating out a slew of Kindles. In person, the Xteink is many things: plasticky. Flawed. Finicky. Nevertheless, it is the single best piece of technology that I have purchased in years. In the two months before getting this cartoonishly tiny e-reader, I finished only one book. In one month with the X3, I read three books without even really trying—and my iPhone’s average daily screen time dipped by 25 minutes.The X3 is great because of its size, not in spite of it. (For once, “fun-size” actually lives up to the billing.) Because this is such a runt of a device, you can stick it to your phone and have an e-reader in your pocket at all times.… [TheTopNews] Read More.2 weeks ago
- Employer and worker health plan costs expected to jump in 2027Employer health benefit costs are projected to see the steepest increase next year since 2003. That could mean higher deductions and out-of-pocket costs for workers. [TheTopNews] Read More.2 weeks ago
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