For many Americans owning a personal vehicle is essential to their daily lives. Whether for important necessities like work, school or medical visits or for more leisurely daily tasks, Americans rely heavily on their vehicles. Yet the process of buying a vehicle has never been more expensive for the average American.[1] Average monthly car payments have reached record highs of $741 for new cars and $533 for used.[2] Rates for auto loans are also at peak highs for this century, with the national average hovering at 7.9%.[3] Purchasing a vehicle, new or used, has become one of Americans’ largest expenses and is on par with other essential costs like housing, childcare, and food costs.[4]

In an era where global supply chains connect economies more intimately than ever before, the United States stands at a crossroads of trade policy.[1] “Promises made, promises kept,” serves as the proclaimed motto of President-elect Donald Trump’s term as the 47th President of the United States.[2] Trump has promised throughout his campaign to impose broader, more aggressive tariffs on foreign goods entering the United States.[3] An emphasis on tariffs marks a departure from decades of preference for free trade policies.[4]

A “dark kitchen” is a restaurant with no in-person ordering facilities.[1] Rather than going to the restaurant’s premises, customers of a dark kitchen must place an order online and wait for food to be delivered to them.[2] Some dark kitchens, known as virtual restaurants, operate out of the same premises as a traditional in-person restaurant but only interact with customers online.[3] Others, known as ghost kitchens, prepare food in a commercial kitchen space and lack a retail location entirely.[4] Dark kitchens often partner with third-party meal delivery platforms, such as Uber Eats, Grubhub, and DoorDash, to coordinate delivery of their food to customers.[5]

No amount of restorative justice will ever be able to compensate for the loss and grief caused by school shootings. However, the continuous growth of school shooting across the nation has pushed lawmakers, public officials, and prosecutors to look for new ways to put an end to the horror being sown in our schools.[1] One such novel way is to prosecute the parents for their child’s crime.[2] Until April, when prosecutor Karen McDonald convicted Jennifer and James Crumbley of involuntary manslaughter in Michigan, this was unheard of.[3] Now, Colin Gray, the father of a school shooter in Georgia, has been convicted of murder for his son’s actions.[4]

Immigration has been one of the most controversial topics in the 2024 election season across party lines.[1] Both presidential candidates discussed plans to prevent the number of 11 million unauthorized noncitizens from growing,[2] but President-elect Donald Trump’s goal is to launch the largest deportation plan in United States history.[3] The magnitude of his program will require a massive increase in funding for federal agencies.[4] Additionally, Trump will have to build state relationships and look to local law enforcement if he hopes to have the numbers required to be successful.[5]

 Piece rate compensation is a common pay system in the manufacturing, agriculture, home services, and construction industries.[1] In the construction context it means that workers are paid by units handled rather than hours worked. For example, a drywall hanger would be paid for every board of drywall they hang, or a roofer for every roll of tar paper they put down.[2] While piece rate compensation is widely held to increase efficiency,[3] it prompts construction workers to disregard Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standards in order to be more productive and achieve their desired income.