Mortgage Rates Edge Lower; 30-year At 3.39%

Bluesky has seen its user base soar since the U. S. presidential election, boosted by people seeking refuge from Elon Musk’s X, which they view as increasingly leaning too far to the right given its owner’s support of President-elect Donald Trump, or wanting an alternative to Meta’s Threads and its algorithms. The platform grew out of the company then known as Twitter, championed by its former CEO Jack Dorsey.

A2RL provided flights from San Francisco to Tokyo and accommodation so Ars could attend its race. Ars does not accept paid editorial content. TOKYO—Racing is hard. It's hard on the teams, it's hard on the owner's bank account, it's hard on the cars, and it's especially hard on the drivers. Driving at the edge for a few hours in a vehicle cockpit that's only slightly wider than your frame can take a toll. The A2RL (Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League) removes one of those elements from its vehicles but, in doing so, creates a whole new list of complexities.

When we introduced last year's annual list of the best games in this space, we focused on how COVID delays led to a 2023 packed with excellent big-name blockbusters and intriguing indies that seemed to come out of nowhere. The resulting flood of great titles made it difficult to winnow the year's best down to our traditional list of 20 titles. In 2024 we had something close to the opposite problem.

Part restaurant expansion. Part reality show. Almost all drama. When a restaurant opens, patrons see a brand spanking new sparkling facility and usually everyone is happy and having fun. But the buildup to that opening day is a different story completely, and Jonathan and Brianna Cowan remember some hard times when preparing to launch the Wooden Paddle restaurant in Lemont in 2017. “We looked back at when we built our Lemont location and that had extreme drama,” Jonathan said.

Take advantage of PLAY's holiday deal to book your bucket list vacation to Europe without breaking the bank.

Giving to charity is all about money — and if a tax benefit comes along, the gift is much sweeter. But since the tax reforms of 2017 increased the standard deduction, 9 out of 10 Americans don’t itemize their tax returns — and thus don’t get a deduction for their contributions. Still Giving USA notes that in 2023, Americans gave $557 billion — more than half a trillion dollars — to charities.