The Petersburg Post
Top News Stories for Saturday, January 17th 2026
Saturday, Jan 17th, 2026 -
It's not your imagination. Trump's Justice Department really is getting worse. Sign up for the Surge , the newsletter that covers most important political nonsense of the week, delivered to your inbox every Saturday. Welcome to this week's edition of the Surge, which is so grateful to have you as adoring readers but will sue you in North Carolina if you alienate your affection for us. We've got a lot of foreign ...
Source: slate.com
Saturday, Jan 17th, 2026 -
OpenAI plans to test advertisements in coming weeks for free and lower-tier subscribers ahead of anticipated IPO OpenAI said Friday that it would start rolling out ads in ChatGPT to some U.S. users, as the company aims to generate more revenue ahead of a highly anticipated initial public offering. The company said it plans to start testing ads in the coming weeks in the U.S. for users on its free and lower-priced ...
Source: foxbusiness.com
Saturday, Jan 17th, 2026 -
As President Trump prepares to nominate a new Federal Reserve chair in the coming months, he hasn't been shy about his goal for the powerful economic posting: lower interest rates. "I want somebody that when the market is doing great, interest rates can go down because our country becomes stronger," the president said during a speech in Detroit on Tuesday. He's long pushed for lower rates, which could boost ...
Source: cbsnews.com
Saturday, Jan 17th, 2026 -
Emergency call logs and reports detailing last week's fatal shooting of Renee Good by a federal immigration officer reveal a greater sense of the organizational chaos and heightened emotion surrounding her final moments. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents "just shot a lady," one 911 caller said soon after the agent shot Good in her vehicle on January 7, according to emergency call transcripts CNN obtained ...
Source: aol.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
It's been less than a week since President Donald Trump called for a 10% cap on credit card interest rates, but new products that can draw consumers away from bank-issued cards are already on the way. Processing Content Fintech Bilt, which offers credit cards that feature incentive marketing for rent and mortgage payments, this week debuted three new cards with a 10% cap on interest rates for one year — ...
Source: americanbanker.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
The U.S. Department of Education is delaying wage garnishments and involuntary collections for defaulted student loan borrowers, according to a release from the agency on Friday. The Department said its temporary pause was made to continue streamlining the student loan repayment process as it continues to make "major" reforms. "The Department determined that involuntary collection efforts such as Administrative ...
Source: aol.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
Barely two weeks into the new year, Americans are really feeling the crunch. The enhanced subsidies that made the Affordable Care Act more affordable for 22 million Americans last year expired at year's end. Initial Obamacare enrollment has already dropped by 1.4 million people, and that number may be bleaker now that the final enrollment period has ended in most states. People trying to maintain their insurance ...
Source: newrepublic.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
By Maggie Fick and Patrick Wingrove SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 16 (Reuters) - More than half a dozen major drugmakers are participating in the Trump administration's speedier review program for new medicines, yet other leading pharmaceutical companies are hesitating over what they see as potential legal risks, six industry sources told Reuters. Under the FDA Commissioner's National Priority Voucher Program unveiled in ...
Source: aol.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
A federal judge ruled Friday that work on a Virginia offshore wind project could resume, the third project this week to successfully challenge the Trump administration in court. The administration announced last month it was suspending leases for at least 90 days on five East Coast offshore wind projects because of national security concerns. Its announcement did not reveal specifics about those concerns. ...
Source: apnews.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
Jan. 16 (UPI) -- The Trump administration, backed by a group of eastern-states' governors, are planning to ask the PJM Interconnection electric grid operator to hold an auction to help boost the power supply strained by data centers and lower prices for consumers. The emergency power auction would offer 15-year contracts for electricity generation from newly built power plants. Normally, auctions offer one-year ...
Source: upi.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
Amid a fierce flu season, a fifth child in Massachusetts has suffered an influenza-related death, according to the state Department of Public Health. Two of the children died the week of Dec. 21, and two more children died the following week, from Dec. 28 to Jan. 3, according to the state health department's influenza dashboard . The fifth pediatric death was included in data collected through Jan. 10 and published ...
Source: bostonglobe.com
Friday, Jan 16th, 2026 -
A federal judge in California this week struck down the Justice Department's demand for the state to hand over sensitive voter roll data, ruling that it would trample on residents' privacy rights and potentially disenfranchise voters. "The taking of democracy does not occur in one fell swoop; it is chipped away piece-by-piece until there is nothing left," said David Carter, a U.S. District Judge for the Southern ...
Source: cbsnews.com