Author

Casey Quinlan

Casey Quinlan

Casey Quinlan is a reporter in Washington DC. In the past 10 years or so, they have reported on national politics and state politics, LGBTQ rights, abortion access, labor issues, education, Supreme Court news and more for publications including The American Independent, ThinkProgress, New Republic, Rewire News, SCOTUSblog, In These Times, and Vox. Some of their stories have included coverage of 2018-2019 teachers strikes, a medication abortion ban in Arkansas, the effects of the pandemic on LGBTQ workers, and the fallout of efforts to remove books with LGBTQ characters from school libraries and community libraries across the country.

States see record low unemployment across the US

By: - May 25, 2023

Across much of the country, the jobs market is as strong as it’s ever been, and Black women, young people and people with disabilities are among the workers benefiting, recent U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show. Twenty-nine states reported unemployment lower than the nation’s 3.4% rate in April, while 15 states saw record lows, […]

GOP’s desired work requirements for federal aid would kick roughly 21M from anti-poverty programs

By: - May 22, 2023

Congressional Republicans’ efforts to slash federal spending by tying work requirements to Medicaid and SNAP would have far-reaching consequences for people with mental health issues, chronic health problems, and some people with disabilities if enacted, policy experts on anti-poverty programs say. They say the work requirements as laid out by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s “Limit, […]

Fast federal response to pandemic key to US economic recovery, economists say

By: - May 11, 2023

The public health emergency declaration ended on Thursday, and with it some of the policies that helped the U.S. recover from the many of the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Although COVID-19 is still a public health threat, the national economic crisis it created has subsided with the U.S. economy back to its pre-pandemic […]

Here’s where gas prices are headed (for now) and why

By: - April 26, 2023

Higher temperatures. Higher gas prices.  Drivers across the country have seen that seasonal given play out in recent weeks. The national average for a gallon of regular gas is $3.64 on April 26, up 21 cents over the previous month, according to AAA.  The good news is that gas is 49 cents below where it […]

Long COVID is hurting business; workplace accommodations could help

By: - April 17, 2023

Three years after the start of the pandemic, millions of working age people still suffer from long COVID-19 and some lawmakers and advocates, including people with long COVID, say not enough is being done to protect their well-being and ensure they can continue to be employed. Proposed federal legislation, better workplace accommodations, and more federal […]

Mortgage rates are stabilizing but that may not be enough to help house hunters

By: - April 4, 2023

Home prices are cooling off and mortgage rates fell last week, but the fallout from recent bank closures could continue to make it hard for some Americans to buy homes, economists say.  Mortgage rates fell to 6.32% for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage, Freddie Mac data released on Thursday shows. Last fall, the 30-year fixed […]

 Help wanted: Women needed for U.S. chips manufacturing plan to succeed

By: - March 27, 2023

Natalie Bell was thinking about a career in art after college when a welding class and a delivery of four pizzas changed her career trajectory.  “I was taking a delivery out to a construction site and I met an ironworker who I was taking the delivery to,” said Bell, who lives in Columbus, Ohio. “I […]

Regulators ended last week like they started — tamping down fears, rescuing a bank

By: - March 20, 2023

Financial regulators, policymakers, and bank executives spent last week trying to abate fears that a banking crisis will spread across the U.S. financial system.  On Friday, President Joe Biden released a statement calling on Congress to take action to make it easier for regulators to hold senior bank executives accountable for their mismanagement.  “It should […]

Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse differs from our last financial crisis

By: - March 13, 2023

After the largest U.S. bank failure in more than a decade, regional bank stocks plunged on Monday as the federal government — with the 2007-2008 financial crisis still a fresh memory for many — rushed to reassure Americans that the U.S. banking system was stable. President Joe Biden told Americans that the risks taken on by failed […]

Powell signals higher interest rates. Here’s why Friday’s jobs report will affect Fed’s decision.

By: - March 9, 2023

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said this week that interest rate increases could be higher and come faster if Friday’s unemployment data shows the nation’s labor market isn’t cooling off. Stock indexes fell after his comments. That’s been a familiar pattern over the past year as the federal bank has tried to combat inflation.  A […]

Families are taking a hit as pandemic aid ends, inflation continues

By: - February 24, 2023

Forty million people in the U.S. are having difficulty affording household expenses, and a little more than 25 million people say they sometimes or often do not have enough to eat, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent Household Pulse survey data. The survey is designed to collect data on household experiences during the […]

Rural hospitals gird for unwinding of pandemic Medicaid coverage

By: - February 21, 2023

Donald Lloyd, CEO and president of St. Claire HealthCare in Morehead, has spent more than a year dealing with higher costs for food and medical supplies for his regional hospital. Now he’s trying to prepare for another financial hit — the loss of Medicaid reimbursements for treating people in rural Appalachia. “We are all being […]