WASHINGTON (AP) — Forget about red hot. A new color-coded heat warning system relies on magenta to alert Americans to the most dangerous conditions they may see this summer. The National Weather Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday — Earth Day — presented a new online heat risk system that combines meteorological and medical risk factors with a seven-day forecast that's simplified and color-coded for a warming world of worsening heat waves. “For the first time we’ll be able to know how hot is too hot for health and not just for today but for coming weeks,” Dr. A ..read more

AUBURN, Wash. (AP) — After a series of lower-paying jobs, Nicole Slemp finally landed one she loved. She was a secretary for Washington’s child services department, a job that came with her own cubicle, and she had a knack for working with families in difficult situations. Slemp expected to return to work after having her son in August. But then she and her husband started looking for child care – and doing the math. The best option would cost about $2,000 a month, with a long wait list, and even the least expensive option around $1,600, still eating up most of Slemp’s salary. Her husband earn ..read more

Pregnant employees have the right to a wide range of accommodations under new federal regulations for enforcing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act that supporters say could change workplace culture for millions of people. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency in charge of enforcing the law, adopted an expansive view of conditions related to pregnancy and childbirth in its proposed regulations, including a controversial decision to include abortion, fertility treatment and birth control as medical issues requiring job protections. The rules, which were adopt ..read more

A person vandalized an autonomous Waymo vehicle in San Francisco on Saturday, video obtained by Nexstar's KRON shows. The driverless Waymo car was in the area of Market and Dolores streets when video captured an unknown individual trashing the vehicle. The video, which can be viewed in the media player above, shows the person stomping the front windshield in an attempt to break it open. The windshield was shattered and damaged significantly. A person was seen trashing a Waymo car on Saturday, April 20 in San Francisco. (Credit: Alex Vibber) The Waymo car was put to a stop in the middle of the ..read more

Express Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, as the fashion retailer looks to sell off the majority of its stores. Columbus, Ohio-based Express, which is also the parent of Bonbons and Upwest brands, is shuttering a handful of its operations in the process. In an announcement addressing its Monday bankruptcy filing, the company said it planned to close 95 of its Express retail stores and all UpWest stores. Closing sales at these locations, which were not immediately specified, are set to begin Tuesday. Beyond these closures, Express said that it “expects to conduct business as ..read more

(AP) — Work is set to begin Monday on a $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area, with officials projecting millions of ticket-buyers will be boarding trains by 2028. Brightline West, whose sister company already operates a fast train between Miami and Orlando in Florida, aims to lay 218 miles (351 kilometers) of new track between a terminal to be built just south of the Las Vegas Strip and another new facility in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Almost the full distance is to be built in the median of Interstate 15, with a station stop in San Bernardi ..read more

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will consider Monday whether banning homeless people from sleeping outside when shelter space is lacking amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. The case is considered the most significant to come before the high court in decades on homelessness, which is reaching record levels in the United States. In California and other Western states, courts have ruled that it’s unconstitutional to fine and arrest people sleeping in homeless encampments if shelter space is lacking. A cross-section of Democratic and Republican officials contend that makes it difficult fo ..read more

NAPLES, Italy (AP) — Europe is the fastest-warming continent and its temperatures are rising at roughly twice the global average, two top climate monitoring organizations reported Monday, warning of the consequences for human health, glacier melt and economic activity. The U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization and the European Union's climate agency, Copernicus, said in a joint report that the continent has the opportunity to develop targeted strategies to speed up the transition to renewable resources like wind, solar and hydroelectric power in response to the effects of climate change. Th ..read more

NEW YORK (AP) — Tesla knocked roughly a third off the price of its “Full Self Driving” system — which can’t drive itself and so drivers must remain alert and be ready to intervene — to $8,000 from $12,000, according to the company website. Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk promised in 2019 that there would be a fleet of robotaxis on the road in 2020, but the promise has yet to materialize, and the system still has to be supervised by humans. The cuts, which occurred on Saturday, follow Tesla's moves to slash $2,000 off the prices of three of its five models in the United States late Friday ..read more

Price isn't everything, a new analysis ranking the best U.S. airlines for 2024 found. The study, published Thursday by finance company WalletHub, looked at the nine largest airlines plus one regional carrier, SkyWest. It compared the carriers based on not only affordability but also safety, comfort and more ..read more