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By CLAIRE SAVAGE, Associated Press

The federal agency responsible for enforcing laws against workplace discrimination will allow some complaints filed by transgender workers to move forward, shifting course from earlier guidance that indefinitely stalled all such cases, according to an email obtained by The Associated Press.

The email was sent earlier this month to leaders of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission with the subject line “Hot Topics,” in which Thomas Colclough, director of the agency’s Office of Field Programs, announced that if new transgender worker complaints involve “hiring, discharge or promotion, you are clear to continue processing these charges.”

But even those cases will still be subject to higher scrutiny than other types of workplace discrimination cases, requiring approval from President Donald Trump’s appointed acting agency head Andrea Lucas, who has said that one of her priorities would be “defending the biological and binary reality of sex and related rights.” read more

By DAVID BAUDER

NEW YORK (AP) — Nextdoor, the social media site that aims to create connections among neighbors, is trying to shake off an uneven past and a nagging sense it is being underutilized. How? It is turning to professional journalists for help.

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The company announced a partnership Tuesday with more than 3,500 local news providers who will regularly contribute material to the app. As part of a redesign, it is also expanding its ability to alert users about bad weather, power outages and other dangers, along with using AI to improve recommendations for restaurants, services and local points of interest. read more

A partial meltdown at Three Mile Island nearly 50 years ago pushed Gene Stilp into a life of activism, starting with a 1979 march on the Capitol he helped organize that drew 65,000 demonstrators and appearances by Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne and Graham Nash.

At 75, Stilp is still at it — now protesting Baltimore-based Constellation’s plans to restart a reactor at the Harrisburg-area power plant, one not involved in the accident, in a deal with Microsoft. Stilp, who has lived nearby for decades, started Stop TMI Restart last fall. The group has about 32 members.

“We are two generations away from the accident that happened at Three Mile Island,” said Stilp, who accused Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, officials in an April lawsuit of failing to safeguard residents’ health and safety. “People have forgotten that nuclear power stands for dedicated dead zones with nuclear waste…People who are environmentalists have forgotten about all these things that their parents and their grandparents used to know. The new generations are not up to speed on nuclear power.” read more

By KEN SWEET, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — In the nearly six months since the Trump administration has had control of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the bureau’s leadership has focused almost exclusively on rolling back any punishments, fines and penalties made against companies during the Biden administration.

In some cases, companies that were supposed to refund their customers or pay a penalty for unfair or deceptive practices are no longer bound to make their customers whole. Other companies facing charges of fraud of deceptive practices saw their lawsuits dropped in the early days of the Trump administration.

Here are some of the Trump administration’s rollbacks:

Navy Federal Credit Union

The CFPB accused Navy Federal Credit Union, the nation’s largest credit union, of having unfair and deceptive overdraft fee practices. NFCU settled with the bureau and agreed to refund its members $80 million in overdraft fees. However, when the new administration took over, NFCU asked to have the order dismissed, which the CFPB agreed to do without giving a reason. Navy Federal has not said whether it would refund their members, which are mostly service men and women, families and veterans. read more

By STAN CHOE, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — Most U.S. stocks slumped on Tuesday after the latest update on inflation hurt Wall Street’s hopes for lower interest rates.

The S&P 500 fell 0.4%, though it’s still near its all-time high set last week, as 90% of the stocks within the index fell. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 436 points, or 1%.

Tech stocks were an outlier, though, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.2% to set another record thanks to Nvidia, the market’s most influential stock.

Stocks felt pressure from a report showing inflation in the United States accelerated to 2.7% last month from 2.4% in May. Economists pointed to increases in prices for clothes, toys and other things that tend to get imported from other countries. Their prices could be rising because of the tariffs that President Donald Trump has proposed on countries worldwide in hopes of getting them to open their markets further to U.S. products.

“Inflation has begun to show the first signs of tariff pass-through,” according to Ellen Zentner, chief economic strategist for Morgan Stanley Wealth Management. read more