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By DAVID KOENIG (AP Airlines Writer)

Congress gave final approval Wednesday to a $105 billion bill designed to increase the number of air traffic controllers, add more safety inspectors at aircraft factories, and require airlines to automatically pay refunds to travelers whose flights are canceled or significantly delayed.

The House passed the measure to reauthorize Federal Aviation Administration programs by a 387-26 margin and sent it to President Joe Biden. The Senate passed the measure last week.

Supporters called the provisions of the legislation a key step in improving aviation safety after a number of close calls between planes at U.S. airports in the last two years.

“This bill recognizes while our aviation system is safe, we have to continue raising the bar for safety,” said Rep. Sam Graves, R-Mo., chairman of the House Transportation Committee, which produced the first version of the legislation 10 months ago.

The Republicans and Democrats who lead the key aviation committees in the House and Senate negotiated over the bill’s final shape last month, then fought off amendments that might have slowed the measure’s passage. read more

By Phil Galewitz, KFF Health News

Patients admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital get a monitoring device about the size of a half-dollar affixed to their chest — and an unwitting role in the expanding use of artificial intelligence in health care.

The slender, battery-powered gadget, called a BioButton, records vital signs including heart and breathing rates, then wirelessly sends the readings to nurses sitting in a 24-hour control room elsewhere in the hospital or in their homes. The device’s software uses AI to analyze the voluminous data and detect signs a patient’s condition is deteriorating.

Hospital officials say the BioButton has improved care and reduced the workload of bedside nurses since its rollout last year.

“Because we catch things earlier, patients are doing better, as we don’t have to wait for the bedside team to notice if something is going wrong,” said Sarah Pletcher, system vice president at Houston Methodist.

But some nurses fear the technology could wind up replacing them rather than supporting them — and harming patients. Houston Methodist, one of dozens of U.S. hospitals to employ the device, is the first to use the BioButton to monitor all patients except those in intensive care, Pletcher said. read more

By Anna Helhoski | NerdWallet

If you rent your home in a major metro area, chances are you already know this hard truth: Your pay raises aren’t keeping up with your rent hikes.

A new analysis released on Tuesday by the rental website StreetEasy and its parent company Zillow found that rent growth has surpassed wage growth in 44 out of the 50 largest U.S. metros since before the pandemic. The report analyzed rental data from both company sites as well as wage growth data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

What’s driving rent price growth? Nicole Bachaud, senior economist at Zillow, chalks it up to a combination of low inventory of homes for purchase, high costs of homeownership and few rentals available all putting pressure on the rental market. And it’s not just high prices keeping people in their rental homes — mortgage rates are also elevated, which increases the cost of buying a home.

“When we look at why we have so many renters and so much demand for rentals right now, it’s not for lack of people wanting to buy homes — it’s for the lack of ability to be able to buy homes,” says Bachaud. “There are no homes available to buy and the ones that are available are oftentimes unaffordable for the majority of potential buyers.” read more