Heavy rain associated with Hurricane Helene could result in isolated flooding Friday.
According to the National Weather Service in Blacksburg, rounds of scattered showers and thunderstorms will continue across the area through today with the rainfall resulting in increasingly saturated soils. Then tonight and Friday moderate to heavy rain around Hurricane Helene will greatly enhance the threat of flooding in the mountains and foothills. Over the weekend the remnants of the tropical system will be trapped over the Tennessee Valley with a lower probability and coverage of showers.
Due to the forecast of inclement weather, the Martinsville Speedway has canceled all track activity on Friday for this weekend’s scheduled ValleyStart 300. Practice and qualifying have both moved to Saturday.
The city closed Memorial Boulevard between Bridge and Lavinder Streets temporarily on Tuesday due to flooding after heavy rains.
(WASHINGTON) — In an effort to beef up protections for consumers against corporations, the Biden administration on Monday announced a handful of policies to crack down on “headaches and hassles that waste Americans’ time and money.”
Through the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the administration will ask companies to make it as easy to cancel subscriptions and memberships as it is to sign up for them, and through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a new rule will require companies to let customers cut through automated customer service “doom loops” by pressing a single button to reach a real person.
“For a lot of services, it takes one or two clicks on your phone to sign up. It should take one or two clicks on your phone to end the service,” White House Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden said on a call with reporters to discuss the new policies.
Consumers could see the new rule applied to gym memberships or subscriptions with phone and internet companies.
The administration will also call on health insurance companies to allow claims to be submitted online, rather than requiring insured customers to print out and mail forms in for coverage.
“Essentially in all of these practices, the companies are delaying services to you or, really, trying to make it so difficult for you to cancel the service that they get to hold on to your money longer and longer,” Tanden said. “And what that means is, ultimately, consumers, the American public, is losing out.”
The new regulations were rolled out Monday but will be on varying timelines, with some taking weeks and others taking months to be implemented, administration officials said.
They target a range of industries and companies at a time when Americans feel strapped by high prices and stubborn inflation — an issue that has weighed on President Joe Biden and now Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign as voters continue to rank the economy among their top issues.
As part of an agenda centered around “lowering costs,” the administration has tried to improve voter confidence in the economy through consistent but piecemeal efforts to bring down daily costs, from lowering prescription drug prices to canceling student loan debt.
Volatility in the stock market last week after a lower-than-expected jobs report has increased the pressure for Democrats to prove their economic bonafides to voters. Experts urge caution before drawing any major conclusions from the week, remaining divided over whether the U.S. is headed for a downturn or still on a resilient path of growth.
Other efforts by the Biden administration to reduce daily bills and offset higher prices include targeting junk fees tacked onto tickets and hotel costs, requiring airlines to automatically refund passengers for delayed flights, and banning medical debts from credit reports.
The efforts have frequently pitted Biden and Harris against big companies, as they accuse them of “shrinkflation,” or delivering less product for the same price, and keeping their prices high even as inflation falls. The Biden administration has also been heralded by antitrust advocates for reviving enforcement on companies for the first time in a meaningful way in decades — including with lawsuits against companies like Google, Apple and LiveNation.
Tanden insisted that Monday’s efforts were about creating a better functioning market, not targeting any particular company or “shaming corporations writ large.”
“This is a broad initiative in which we are talking about a whole series of practices across multiple industries, and the real focus is ensuring that consumers and their choices are what is driving decision making in the market, not the practices of companies that make it hard for people to switch,” Tanden said.
“When they want to end one subscription, they can shop for another, but it’s their decision,” she said. “That’s what a free market is really about, empowering individuals to make the decisions they want to make without these practices that get in their way.”
(NEW YORK) — On the heels of the Perseid meteor shower earlier this month, August is offering another great astronomical sight — the rare combination of a supermoon and blue moon.
Beginning on Aug. 19, the super blue moon will reach peak fullness at 2:26 p.m. ET. Since that’s daylight hours in the U.S., Americans will have to wait for the evening to see the moon slightly past its peak, while still being noticeably larger and brighter than a typical moon view.
The super blue moon will appear full for three days, according to NASA.
A supermoon coinciding with a blue moon is exceptionally rare, the space agency reports, with the next pairing happening in January and March 2037.
What is a supermoon?
Supermoons are the biggest and brightest lunar views of the year, they occur when the moon’s orbit is within 90% of its closest approach to Earth, according to NASA.
During the moon’s closest approach to Earth, it can appear approximately 14% larger and shine 30% brighter than when at its farthest point in the orbit, approximately 226,000 miles away.
The term “supermoon” was originally coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979.
Supermoons appear three to four times annually and always appear consecutively, according to NASA, which notes starting this month, the next three full moons will be supermoons.
The next supermoons will occur on Sept. 17, Oct. 17 and Nov. 15.
What is a blue moon?
Despite its name, blue moons have little to do with color and everything to do with timeliness. There are two types of blue moons – seasonal and monthly – and the blue moon on Aug. 19 will be seasonal.
A seasonal blue moon is the third full moon in an astrological season with four full moons, while a monthly blue moon refers to the second of two full moons in the same month.
The next seasonal blue moon is expected in May 2027, according to NASA.
While the super blue moon Aug. 19 won’t be blue, on rare occasions the moon has appeared blue. NASA reports that this occurs when tiny particles in the air, typically of smoke or dust, scatter away red wavelengths of light and cause the moon to appear blue.
How rare is a super blue moon?
While supermoons and seasonal blue moons are more common in the night sky individually, the combination of the two is quite irregular, according to NASA.
The time between super blue moons can be as long as 20 years but 10 years is the average. However, 2023 also saw a super blue moon in August.
Following Aug. 19, the next super blue moons will occur in a pair, in January and March 2037.
