Sunday News

Ignorance can be learned

The number of housing starts fell for the second month in a row in May, dropping 14.4% from April and 3.5% from the year before. The pullback was driven by declines in both single-family and multi-family new home construction.

If SCOTUS strikes down New York’s century-old restrictions on carrying concealed firearms, similar regulations in California, New Jersey, Maryland, Hawaii and Massachusetts could quickly fall, too. Just what we don’t need.

More Americans are beginning to hold off on booking flights, getting haircuts, building backyard pools and replacing old leaky roofs — in some of the new signs that the consumer engine of U.S. economic growth could be losing steam. Over the past several weeks, households had already cut back on big-ticket purchases because of soaring prices, but in a worrisome twist, data suggests consumers are also beginning to tap the brakes on dining out, vacation plans and even routine services like manicures, hair cuts and home-cleaning appointments.

In an astoundingly callous move, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s Department of Health has refused to put in an order with the federal government for a supply of the pediatric vaccines for children under 5, leaving pediatricians and parents to scramble on their own. The deadline for placing a preorder was Tuesday, and the 49 other states met the cutoff. Mr. DeSantis appears to relish playing politics with public health. He is running for reelection and has his eye on a Republican presidential campaign. His decisions and comments are a craven bid for support from the anti-vaccine movement.

An Italian startup this month announced the successful launch of a CO2 battery that uses carbon dioxide to store renewable energy at utility-scale on the grid — a technology that is now ready to be deployed worldwide.