Interest rates, AI-generated images and bird flu concerns

Hot Off The Wire

Each week Hot off the Wire looks at a variety of stories in business, science, health and more. This week's headlines include:

• Powell at Jackson Hole 'The time has come' for the Fed to soon begin reducing interest rates.
• New surveys show signs of optimism among small business owners.
• Trump’s post of fake Taylor Swift endorsement is his latest embrace of AI-generated images.
• What's for breakfast? At Chicago hotel hosting DNC event, there may have been mealworms.
• Fannie Lou Hamer rattled the Democratic convention with her 'Is this America' speech 60 years ago
• Heart disease is rampant in parts of the rural South. Researchers are hitting the road to learn why.
• Bird flu restrictions cause heartache for 4-H kids unable to show off livestock at fairs across U.S.
• U.S. government report says fluoride at twice the recommended limit is linked to lower IQ in kids.
• Europe offers clues for solving America's maternal mortality crisis.
• UN says a record number of aid workers were killed in 2023 and this year's figures are also high.
• Weeks after floods, Vermont businesses struggling to get visitors to return.
• Florida quietly removes LGBTQ+ travel info from state website.
• Botswana says a huge 2,492-carat diamond has been uncovered at a mine.
• Sam Sam the Kittycat Man ran away. Thanks to a microchip, he was found close by — 11 years later.
• Plaything or peril? Brazilian kites are endangering lives and prompting a push for a national ban.

—The Associated Press

About this program

Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate.