Some state laws are keeping U.S. union membership low despite increasing strike activity. Also in the news: An unusual late-summer storm turned the week-long Burning Man festival into a sloppy mess and keep scrolling for our recap of college football Week 1’s winners and losers.
I’m Nicole Fallert, Daily Briefing author. There was a lot of news this summer about aliens. Now the government has a website for all its declassified UFO info.
It’s Labor Day, but we’ve still got the day’s top news for you.
Labor Day 2023: Why the US labor movement is so popular right now
With screenwriters and actors on strike and hotel cleaners, Amazon warehouse employees and food industry workers following in pursuit, this summer has been coined “the summer of strikes.” In the first eight months of 2023, over 323,000 workers walked off the job for better benefits, pay and/ or working conditions. But the rate of union members is the lowest in decades at 10.1% in 2022. With strike activity increasing over the past few years, why hasn’t the rate of union membership followed?
A sea of mud, overflowing Porta-potties and a rain delay
The culmination of the nine-day Burning Man festival in Nevada is expected to take place Monday evening after two days of rain left the sprawling festival awash in mud and delayed thousands of attendees’ departures.
The burning of a towering sculpture called The Man was supposed to be Sunday evening but was postponed until Monday, officials said. In place of the usual raucous parties, around 72,000 people spent Sunday striking muddy camps instead.
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Student loan repayments surge ahead of official restart
Student loan payments jumped ahead of pre-pandemic levels in the weeks ahead of payments becoming due again in October after a pause during COVID, according to Goldman Sachs economists. Payments rose to about a $150 billion annualized rate, or about twice the pre-pandemic rate, they said, based on weekly payments to the federal Education Department. How people handle student loans, which total $1.7 trillion spread across more than 40 million Americans, could be a barometer for which way the economy could be headed. Read more
Are mask mandates back?
A late-summer uptick in COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths has some schools, hospitals and other businesses scrambling to keep illness from spreading. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported an 18.8% increase in hospitalizations due to COVID between Aug. 13 and Aug. 19, marking the sixth straight week of increased hospitalizations. Experts say currently circulating variants don’t necessarily cause more severe acute infection than previous variants, but there is still a risk of long-term effects from COVID. A new vaccine booster targeting the variants is expected to be available mid-September. Read more
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Maui victims struggle one month after deadly fires
Despite President Joe Biden’s recent pledge of $95 million to help rebuild Maui’s infrastructure, and celebrities, – including Dwayne Johnson, Oprah Winfrey and Jason Mamoa – launching a “People’s Fund of Maui” and contributing an initial $10 million for residents in need, Maui residents still feel uneasy. Many are worried about being abandoned as the island this week marks one month since the deadliest wildfires in more than a century in the United States. The fires killed at least 115 people, destroyed more than 2,200 structures and caused an estimated tens of billions of dollars in damage. An investigation is underway to determine what initially sparked the wildfires. Read more
Quick hits
Photo of the day: NASA astronauts return to Earth in SpaceX capsule
A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying three astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut splashed down off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, wrapping up NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission early Monday. The return marked the conclusion of nearly six-month science mission aboard the International Space Station. Read more
Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at USA TODAY, sign up for the email here. Want to send Nicole a note? Shoot her an email at NFallert@usatoday.com or follow along with her musings on Twitter. Support journalism like this – subscribe to USA TODAY here.
Associated Press contributed reporting.
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