Consumer Confidence Increases As Economy Improves

mdash; U. S. rugby star Ilona Maher made her debut for the Bristol Bears women’s team in front of a record home crowd of 9,240 fans on Sunday. But Maher, “the most followed rugby player on the planet,” could not prevent Bristol from losing 40-17 to defending champion Gloucester-Hartpury in a Premiership Women’s Rugby match. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] She came on as a substitute in the 61st minute at Ashton Gate with Bristol trailing 28-10.

A chilly Saturday will bring light snow to Colorado’s mountains as fog returns across the Front Range and Denver area, according to the National Weather Service. The entire state will see frigid temperature highs below freezing on Sunday, according to a NWS Hazardous Weather Outlook. Denver has expanded its cold-weather shelters through Wednesday. “Roads are looking slick this morning, with areas of snow and ice on mountain roads and across the eastern plains,” NWS forecasters said Sunday.

Last summer, the global superstar Bad Bunny was driving through the streets of San Juan, Puerto Rico, crying and feeling sad “about a lot of things.” As he looked out his window, he saw the city’s beaches filled with blissed-out tourists—which somehow made him feel even worse. He began thinking about the relationship between Puerto Rico’s external perception and its sometimes-harsh realities and how that relates to his personal life.

By VALERIE GONZALEZ McALLEN, Texas — When Roselins Sequera’s family of seven finally reached the U. S. from Venezuela, they spent weeks at a migrant shelter on the Texas border that gave them a place to sleep, meals and tips for finding work. “We had a plan to go to Iowa” to join friends, said Sequera, who arrived at the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in October.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Sunday plans to sign into law a measure that boosts Social Security payments for current and former public employees, affecting nearly 3 million people who receive pensions from their time as teachers, firefighters, police officers and in other public service jobs. Advocates say the Social Security Fairness Act rights a decades-old disparity, though it will also put strain on Social Security Trust Funds, which face a looming insolvency crisis. The bill rescinds two provisions — the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset — that limit Social Security benefits for recipients if they get retirement payments from other sources, including public retirement programs from a state or local government. The Congressional Research Service estimated that in December 2023, there were 745,679 people, about 1% of all Social Security beneficiaries, who had their benefits reduced by the Government Pension Offset.

By PATRICK WHITTLE and BRIAN WITTE A blast of snow, ice, wind and plunging temperatures stirred up dangerous travel conditions in parts of the central U. S. on Sunday, as a disruptive winter storm brought the possibility of the “heaviest snowfall in a decade” to some areas. Snow and ice blanketed major roadways in nearly all of Kansas, western Nebraska and parts of Indiana, where the state’s National Guard was activated to help any motorists who were stuck.