Lifestyle
As the US hits record high temperatures, some people are forced to choose between food and energy bills

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — During the heat dome that blanketed much of the Southeast in June, Stacey Freeman used window units to cool her poorly insulated mobile home in Fayetteville, N.C. The 44-year-old mom relied on space heaters during the winter.
In each cases, her energy bills bumped into tons of of dollars a month.
“Sometimes I have to choose whether to pay the electric bill,” Freeman said, “or pay all the rent, buy food, or not let my son play sports?”
As a regional field organizer for PowerUp NC, Freeman’s job is to help people properly weatherize their homes, especially in the Sandhills region where she lives and works and where poverty and rising temperatures make residents vulnerable to the health effects of climate change.
But Freeman’s income is just too high to afford the services she helps others obtain through her grassroots initiative for sustainability, clean energy and environmental justice.
Like a growing variety of Americans, Freeman is battling what is named energy povertyincluding the inability to pay utility bills for heating or cooling the home. Households that spend greater than 6% Some researchers suggest that around 20% of their income from electricity bills goes to the energy poor.
Energy poverty can increase exposure to extreme heat or cold, which increases the risk of respiratory problems, heart problems, allergies, kidney disease and other health problems. And that burden falls disproportionately on households in communities of color, which experience it at a rate 60% higher than in white communities.
Public health and environmental experts say that as climate change continues to drive extreme weather, greater policy efforts are needed to help vulnerable communities, especially during heatwaves.
“Energy poverty is just one example of how climate change can exacerbate existing inequities in our communities,” said Summer Tonizzo, spokeswoman for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
Extreme heat is the leading explanation for weather-related deaths in the U.S., and the risk increases as temperatures rise. Last yr, 2,302 people died in the U.S. died of heat-related causeswhich is a 44% increase compared to 2021. In one week in early July this yr, extreme heat killed at the very least 28 people, according to The Washington Postbased on reports from government officials, health workers and local media reports.
Yet 1 in 7 households spends about 14% of their income on energy, according to RMI, an energy and sustainability think tank. Nationally 16% of households lives in energy poverty, according to an evaluation co-authored by Noah Kittner, an assistant professor of public health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“Old, inefficient buildings and heating systems force people to supplement their energy needs in ways that increase costs,” Kittner said.
Pregnant women, people with heart or lung disease, young children, older people, and people who work or exercise outdoors are most vulnerable to heat-related health problems. High temperatures have also been linked to mental health problems, equivalent to suicide and severe depression.
Location is one other risk factor. For example, in the historically black community in Raleigh often called Method, temperatures might be 10 to 20 degrees warmer than nearby areas with more vegetation and less development, said La’Meshia Whittington, an environmental justice and clean energy advocate. Interstate 440 runs through Method, and the city stores shuttle buses there, often with their engines running.
“That creates a lot of pollution that heats the area,” Whittington said. “There’s no ground to absorb the heat. Instead, it bounces off the shingles, the roofs, the sidewalks, and creates a furnace.”
Method residents often complain of chronic headaches and respiratory problems, she added.
While rural areas tend to have cooler temperatures than nearby urban areas because they’ve less asphalt and more trees, they often lack resources like health care facilities and cooling centers. Substandard housing and higher poverty rates contribute to high rates of heat-related illnesses.
As Ashley Ward, director of the Heat Policy Innovation Hub at Duke University, puts it, energy poverty “is about burdens piling up without any means of addressing them at the individual level.”
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In many parts of the country, extreme heat is a comparatively latest problem. Policymakers have historically focused on the risks posed by lower temperatures.
The federal low-income home energy assistance program, established greater than 4 a long time ago, has a funding formula that favors states with a chilly climate over those experiencing extreme heat, according to a Georgetown University study. Florida, Georgia, Arizona, Texas and Nevada have the lowest proportional allocations of federal funds, while North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska have the highest.
North Carolina relies heavily on private donors and local nonprofits like PowerUp to provide fans and air conditioners during the summer, but the state doesn’t subsidize energy bills.
On extremely hot days, Freeman and her colleagues at PowerUp NC work with state health officials to direct vulnerable people to cooling centers.
On a private level, staying cool this summer meant sending my son to a free, open-air recreation center as a substitute of paying for him to play in a sports league.
“We do things that don’t cost anything,” she said. “We’re just trying to keep up with the electric bill.”
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Lifestyle
The MET gala ended, but Dandyism is not. Here’s how to dress like elegant in everyday life

Michael Henry Adams had He reached the style crossroads At the start of the seventies: when Bell Bottoms and Afros became a trend, and the looks of film characters reminiscent of John Shaft and “Super Fly” became prototypes of fashion, the teenager felt unrepresentted.
But the previous trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, because his exhibition “Harlem in my mind” has already begun to lay his fashion foundation.
“When I saw these photos of elegant harletes that promote up and down the seventh Avenue and Lennox Avenue … The Raccoon Coats and Fox Coats and Spangled Dresses, in addition to bowls … splendor.
Adams would come with He had a reputation: Dandyism. And Dandyism was in the middle Monday’s met gala, where a lot of probably the most famous and influential flavors in the world They put them on the posh best To start the exhibition “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” MET. But black dandyism is not limited to expensive fashion – it is displayed day-after-day.
“He is everywhere in the black community, the concept of what dandy is,” explained Adams, who was photographed to the “Superfine” catalog. “The player, ingenuity and creativity of black, when it comes to fashion, has always been with us.”
How Men -oriented exhibition – The first costume institute, which displays only black designers – opens to a public Saturday, listed below are tips about using style in everyday life.
Tip 1: Start with confidence
Dandies say The key to a characteristic appearance It starts from the within for the primary time.
“Fashion is a personality sense. Two guys can go to the same store and get the same outfit and look completely different,” said 62-year-old Guy Wood, a trendy co-owner Harlem Herdashera. Inspired by relations and elegant neighbors of Harlem, he developed a talent for the early style. “It’s confidence … you enter the room and all your heads turn.”
Michael Andrew, a 42-year-old consultant in the style in Atlanta, delved into Dandy for the primary time after he was inspired by Fonzwortha Bentley, probably the most recognized as Sean “Diddy” Combs, a often controlled assistant and an umbrella owner initially of 2000. Bentley’s colourful costumes and adapted outfits were separated from the universal loose appearance of the hip-hop era.
“Many guys think that being a dandy is about being exaggerated,” said Andrew, who was photographed to the Rose Callahan book from 2013, “I am Dandy: The Return of the elegant gentleman.” “For me, Dandyism is the highest form of taste with self -expression.”
Tip 2: Select the weather of the instructions
The basis of dandyism rests with assumptions reminiscent of daring colours and small tailoring, but there is no special way to achieve appearance. Each dandy creates its own unique style, often specializing in specific elements. For Wood, which refers to creating appearance as gumbo, it It starts with suits.
“Wearing a suit, you just feel important,” said Wood, who often combines them with shoes of various vivid colours. “We love well adapted.”
James McFarland, 80-year-old Master Krawiec, claims that Dandy’s affinity for tailoring is easy to understand: “It’s very simple: we are a visual world. When you wear something that is well adapted and it suits you well, people look at it.”
Known as “Gentleman Jim”, McFarland was prepared by Orie Walls, a tailor from the Sixties. McFarland says that they’ve created suits through almost every famous black celebrity of those times, from Duke Ellington to Jackie Robinson to Muhammad Ali – in addition to one of the crucial infamous characters from the era, reminiscent of gangsters Frank Lucas and Jumpy Johnson. He says that wearing a suit “makes you feel better. Have you ever heard the term style and profiling?”
While Adams, a historian, is attracted to the spine, shoes and straw hats, Andrew says that the fantastic thing about dandyism makes it yours.
“The texture is necessary when you start talking about dandyism-texts and designs. A great point is that dandars always have their own things. And for me the hats are mine,” said Andrew, adding that small accessories reminiscent of stylish wool or cashmere socks and pocket squares can easily raise the looks. “Now he begins to become glasses. … Every Dandy has the opportunity to use something.”
Tip 3: Creativity is value greater than money
Wood says Creativity is essential grow to be a dandy – it is not a high income.
“It’s a class code,” said Wood. “This is creative … Most of us don’t have much money. You can enter your mother’s wardrobe and (think):” Oh, this scarf is flying. ” You attach it to the neck and put it in your shoulder.
Adams says that while style and inspiration can go hand in hand, individuality should all the time be crucial.
“People should find their truth and aspire to look like yourself,” he said, noticing that he is shopping in various stores, high-class Brooks brothers Down Shops outside of price and discount Like Marshalls and K&G fashion. “The part of things that made me rebelled against looking like a” super fly “or” roller “is that I didn’t want to look like everyone else.”
Jacques Agbobly, a designer whose clothes are presented on the MET exhibition, agrees.
“There are people who would really think that it is a suit that you wear and the highest hat … But for me and I think that this is what this exhibition does, really prepares a group of amazing clothes that really redefine, what dandy is,” he said. For a designer born in Togo, “taking space is in a sense a kind of open thing”, no matter whether it is achieved thanks to the colours, silhouettes or fabric selections.

Tip 4: Avoid the crisis of freedom
General consensus amongst dands A well -dressed look past.
McFarland, a tailor, claims that his occupation is not admired or used in us because it was years ago. He teaches excellent tailoring, just like for many years, and plans to start a podcast to discuss the craft and his adventures of the celebs of his era.
“When I grew up, I wanted to look like people in the area,” he said, explaining that his mother couldn’t afford the garments he wanted, leading him to tailoring. “Everyone, men and a woman, were dressed.”
Andrew hopes the identical A trendy spirit from the past may be reborn, Faith in appearance and pride cooperates with one another.
“I would hire or encourage us all, especially as black, to remember our history, to remember that we have thrown our Sunday,” he said. “We wanted to show ourselves as the best versions of ourselves.”
. “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” exhibition, which can last until October, will definitely introduce visitors to probably the most elevated types of black dandyism. But for wood and other everyday dandy it is simply a business as usual.
“The fact that Met realizes it is a beautiful thing,” he said with a cunning smile. “But we do it forever and we don’t really pay attention to it. We just do it because we love it.”

(Tagstranslate) @Ap
Lifestyle
Like Rocket Mortgage helps tenants with the property of the house

Online rocket loan helps to dream of tenants with home properties develop into a reality with a brand new program This gives them recognition of 5000 USD, informs CNBC.
The Rocketrentrewards program, launched in February, gives tenants a loan value 10% of their last yr of rent, which may be used to shut the cost of housing loan of mortgage rockets.
“Many tenants believe that the household owner is out of reach, especially when they try to save money on the closing table,” said the essential economist Rocket Mortgage, Bill Banfield. “Rentrewards soothes these fears, rewarding customers for simply doing what they do every month: making rent withdrawals.”
Closing costs for people buying a house – including lenders’ fees, title and insurance and residential inspection – may be a rise. The average cost may be as much as 6% of the house price. When selling a house in the amount of $ 200,000, buyers may have a look at nearly USD 12,000 closing costs.
With 10% savings, the tenant paying USD 1800 would have a loan of USD 2160.
Vice President of Product Development and Credit Policy, Eileen TU, claims that the program also helps potential buyers understand existing expenses Apart from the advance.
“There are many costs that are associated with buying a house, and sometimes people are not aware that you not only have to reduce the payment, but also the closure costs that are involved,” he said here, based on.
There are certain conditions with qualifying for the program; The essential thing is that candidates have to be a tenant. However, tenants would not have to live in the same place for the last 12 months. To calculate a possible loan, Rocket mortgage requires documentation proving the Applicant’s rent and the way much it’s paid every month.
Rocketrentrewards can only be used to purchase the original place of residence, not a second home or investment property. Applicants would not have to be a house buyer for the first time to qualify. According to here, “many people do not know that such offers are there.”
Financial institutions, resembling Bank of America and the third federal savings and loans, have programs that increase home availability. Bank of America offers an advance subsidy of as much as USD 10,000 and a lender’s loan of as much as USD 7,500 for eligible borrowers, while the third federal savings and a loan provides low-cost mortgage loans that cover only USD 395 in closing costs in exchange for a seemingly higher mortgage rate.
Candidates of the rocket program needs to be aware that there’s a probability to still blame the cost of closing after applying the loan along with liability for the advance.
(Tagstotransate) Rocket Mortgage (T) Rocketrentrewards (T) House owners
Lifestyle
Jodie Turner-Smith and Joshua Jackson are finalizing the divorce, but there is one disputes about their daughter

While Jodie Turner-Smith and Joshua Jackson finalized their divorce, the former couple still has to straighten the dispute over their four-year-old daughter, Juno.
In accordance with legal documents obtained by TMZ AND People magazineThe 38-year-old actress and 46-year-old actor finalized the conditions of divorce, but they are still developing a plan for their daughter’s learning.
There was a pair agreed that Ałun “Dawson’s Creek” would pay 2,787 USD for maintenance and a lump sum as a substitute of monthly marriage support, they gave points. However, they still have to seek out out who could have the final saying, deciding where their daughter goes to highschool.
In court documents, in line with the stores, the star “Queen & Slim” said that she and Jackson participated in the whole day of mediation with the judge in May 2024 to resolve “Problems of temporary care” for the school 12 months in 2024–25. She was Dana, who divides the care of 50-50, determined that Turner-Smith would find a way to choose where Juno went to highschool. Now the mother claims that Jackson is pushing this detailed detail, even after she worked on finding the right school for their daughter for next 12 months.
“I have a clear right to choose a school in the best interest of Juno, and Josh refuses to comply with the conditions of the decision and order and deprives me of the right to choose school,” said Turner-Smith in court documents, for people’s warehouse.
He also asks for $ 75,000 in a lawyer fees in reference to the school misunderstandings.
The settlement and the latest divorce proceedings appear after Turner-Smith submitted a divorce application in October 2023, after 4 years of marriage. Jackson and Turner-Smith, who met at the party in 2018, married in August 2019 and welcomed their daughter in April 2020.
In October 2024, Turner-Smith suggested her evolving “complicated” relationship of interdependence with Jackson in the profile for Glamor magazine.
“This is a period of correction for everyone when he separated with someone because you are used to being with your child all the time,” she said. “But no one gives you instructions. Everyone is trying to figure it out.”

(Tagstotransate) lifestyle
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