The vinyl revival that began in the early aughts has been as surprising as it’s endurance. And demand for vinyl keeps growing. But buyers want more records than pressing plants can produce. In addition, as sales rise, some are beginning to look beyond supply chain shortages and bottlenecks and increasingly at vinyl’s environmental impact. To hear how industry leaders are navigating this new era, Marketplace’s David Brancaccio spoke with Broc Barnes, a plant manager at Third Man Pressing in Detroit, Michigan. The company was founded by Jack White of The White Stripes. Below is an edited transc ..read more

The University of Michigan’s sentiment index has shown consumers are pretty downbeat, mainly due to inflation.  Meanwhile, there are signs workers remain pretty upbeat, and keep quitting to find new jobs at near-record rates. The rate at which workers quit their jobs each month has remained higher over the past year than any time going back to the 1970s, according to a report by the Pew Research Center. It’s a sign workers feel confident — that they can leave one job and find a new job pretty easily.  And there’s another factor at play, said Pew researcher Rakesh Kochhar: “Being abl ..read more

The tribal gaming industry took a major hit in the early days of the pandemic, but it’s rebounded dramatically.  Tribal casinos brought in a record $39 billion in revenue in 2021, according to the National Indian Gaming Commission, the federal agency that regulates the industry. That’s up 40% from 2020 and 13% over pre-pandemic levels.  Gaming tribes rely on their casinos to fund government operations, pay for social services and keep their citizens employed.  So when the casinos all shut down in March 2020, “there was a lot of apprehension, a lot of uncertainty,” said Matthew ..read more

Kids are heading back to school in some parts of the country, and they will be soon everywhere else. At least, they’re supposed to be. But according to the U.S. Department of Education, more than 70% of public schools reported an increase in chronic absenteeism during the school year that ended in spring. That means more students are missing at least one school day every two weeks. Those students have a harder time learning, and their schools receive less funding. So school leaders are trying to think creatively about how to get kids to stop skipping school. Friday is the first day of classes ..read more

In a community tucked into the foothills of Reno, Nevada, a work crew slashes brush at the perimeter of homes. Their tools are not your average Joe’s weed whackers — they’re high-powered trimmers that send leaves and branches flying everywhere. The crew is with a company called Wilderness Forestry, which property owners hire to create what’s known as defensible space — a buffer between buildings and the flammable brush and vegetation around them. “A lot of times when the developers build the homes, you know, they build them right on top of each other,” says Bill Steward, the company’s defensi ..read more

Weapons detection screening systems are popping up in many places — think metal detectors 2.0. Disney World and Six Flags have them, and more and more school districts screen students through one every day as they enter school. In Detroit, city leaders hope the technology can be used to cut down on gun violence as they bring security checkpoints to public spaces. As part of the city’s celebrations around the Fourth of July, crowds of people headed to the riverfront to get a good view of the annual fireworks show. It was the first one since the pandemic started and thousands showed up to watch ..read more

We received surprising economic data from the Labor Department on Thursday: The July producer price index, or PPI, declined from June — by half a percentage point, or 0.5%. Though it doesn’t sound like a big number, analysts had been expecting it to rise 0.2%. This news comes after the consumer price index, or CPI, showed that prices were basically flat in July. So why worry about PPI? Acronyms and economic weeds aside, it turns out that the PPI might give you a glimpse into what you’ll be paying for goods and services in the very near future. The producer price index tracks the change in pri ..read more

The day it became illegal to sleep outside in Tennessee, Kayla Phillips and Juan Brito moved into an apartment.  “It’s beautiful,” Brito said. “It’s got a fireplace in it, it’s in a really nice area, nice setting. And I got trees on a balcony. I can sit on my balcony, and I got trees all in front of me. It’s beautiful.” Brito and Phillips have both been homeless, and living on the streets of Nashville, for years.    “We’ve been in a tent,” Brito said. “And now it’s …” he trailed off, with a big sigh that sounded like relief. “You know what I’m saying?”  It’s a big wei ..read more

After record-breaking inflation rates, the country finally got some welcome news: consumer prices for the month of July remain unchanged. Zero percent.  That figure was touted by President Joe Biden at a news conference on Wednesday. But wait, the news release from the Bureau of Labor Statistics on the Consumer Price Index said that prices increased 8.5% in July, down from a 9.1% increase in June. Pollsters have criticized this characterization of the data. So what happened: did inflation really stay the same or did it actually increase? Here’s how to make sense of it all: prices increas ..read more

The national average for a gallon of unleaded is just about four bucks – $3.99 according to AAA, to be exact. But the range of what folks are paying varies widely depending on where you are. Gas is $5.39 in Hawaii and $3.49 in Texas. How come? It’s not exactly the same as the three most important things about real estate, but it turns out location matters a lot when it comes to how much you’re paying to fill up your gasoline tank. “The two big things right now that are driving the differences in price that you see regionally, have a lot to do with differences in state taxes, and also the tran ..read more