News
Is Homelessness in America a growing epidemic?

The homeless problem in the United States is a serious issue that continues to plague many communities across the country. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, as of January 2018, an estimated 552,830 people are experiencing homelessness on any given night in the United States. Of these, 194,716 are people in families, and 358,114 are individuals. Additionally, just over one-quarter of all homeless people, or 25.4 percent, are unsheltered. This means they are living on the streets, in cars, abandoned buildings, or other places not meant for human habitation.
Homelessness also disproportionally affects certain communities more than others. For example, African Americans make up a disproportionate amount of the homeless population. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, African Americans make up 40 percent of the adult homeless population, even though they only make up 12 percent of the US population.
The US Department of Housing and Urban Development also reports that the number of homeless veterans has decreased significantly since 2010. In 2010, there were 76,329 homeless veterans on a single night, but in 2018, that number fell to 37,085. While this is a promising sign, homelessness among veterans is still a serious issue. The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans estimates that on any given night, there are over 40,000 homeless veterans in the United States. But since 2019, the number has increased 0.5%.
News
NASA, Boeing to Host Media Briefing, Provide Starliner Update
NASA and Boeing will host a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT Wednesday, March 29, to provide an update on the Crew Flight Test (CFT) of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station.

NASA and Boeing will host a media teleconference at 2 p.m. EDT Wednesday, March 29, to provide an update on the Crew Flight Test (CFT) of the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station.
Managers will share a mission status and discuss upcoming milestones ahead of Starliner’s first flight with astronauts prior to certifying the spacecraft and systems for regular crew rotation flights to the space station for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
Audio coverage of the teleconference will livestream on the agency’s website.
The briefing participants are:
- Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program
- Joel Montalbano, manager, NASA’s International Space Station Program
- Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager, CST-100 Starliner, Boeing
To participate in the call, media must RSVP no later than one hour prior to the start of the event to: [email protected].
The Starliner spacecraft will launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The demonstration flight will carry two NASA astronaut test pilots, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, and will prove the end-to-end capabilities of the Starliner system.
Find out more about the Commercial Crew Program at:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
Source: NASA
astronomy
A Spectacular Aurora dazzles Skywatchers
Geomagnetic storm on the sun caused a stunning display of the Aurora Borealis to be visible as far south as New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Virginia.
On March 23, 2023, a geomagnetic storm on the sun caused a stunning display of the Aurora Borealis to be visible as far south as New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, and Virginia. The Northern Lights, a natural phenomenon caused by charged particles from the sun interacting with the Earth’s magnetic field, are usually only visible in the far north. However, this storm caused a rare opportunity for those in more southern regions to witness the incredible light show.
Earth-Sky: https://earthsky.org/earth/aurora-photos-geomagnetic-storm-march-23-24-2023/
Business and Finance
Economics expert explains how consumer price reports show ‘inflation is not done yet’
The statistics from these reports have economists predicting that the Federal Reserve will continue to raise interest rates to get inflation under control.
Expectations that inflation has eased fueled recent stock market gains, but results from two major price-tracking indexes came in higher than expected, dousing that optimism with cold water. The statistics from these reports have economists predicting that the Federal Reserve will continue to raise interest rates to get inflation under control.
“The latest figures underscore the risks of persistently high inflation. Much of the easing that was celebrated at the end of last year has been erased,” said David Bieri, an economics professor for Virginia Tech’s School of Public and International Affairs. He answered a few questions about the persistence of inflation and the Federal Reserve’s efforts to reverse it.
Q: What is the difference between the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCE)?
“The CPI is a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a basket of goods and services. This basket includes commonly purchased items such as food, housing, clothing, transportation, and medical care. The rate of inflation (or deflation) is then inferred by comparing the price of this basket to a base period. The PCE is the one used by the Federal Reserve. Unlike the CPI, the PCE measures not just goods and services for urban consumers, but the prices of all goods and services purchased by households. While the CPI uses a fixed basket of goods and services, the PCE uses a changing basket of goods and services that reflects consumers’ evolving spending patterns. Also, the PCE incorporates data on the quality of goods and services.”
Q: What can be deduced about inflation and the economy from these new statistics?
“Different components of the indexes react to different influences of the economic process, and they also do so at different speeds, or as economists like to say, with different lags. For example, fuel and gas prices react with very little delay and if the price of crude oil goes up, it does not take long for these effects to show up. But this is not the case for other important components. Quite a bit of the recent uptick in inflation has to do with the fact that it has taken so long for the post-COVID related upswing in housing to show up in the data. As for the most recent PCE numbers, these were unexpected and point in the direction of more entrenched inflation. In other words, inflation is not done yet.”
Q: What do these results indicate about the Federal Reserve’s efforts to curb inflation?
“The Fed has to be patient. If we take the image of interest rates working like a brake pedal, the Fed is driving a car on a windy road with a blacked-out windscreen and when it brakes, it can only guess how soon the car — that is, the economy — will slow down, let alone by how much and when the next bend will be. However, the Fed has one key trick up its sleeve: unlike the hapless driver of our car, the Fed can influence how many bends in the road might show up in the future. It does this by something that we call ‘forward guidance,’ which is a wonky term for how the Fed’s attempts influence consumer and market expectations of consumers and market participants. Essentially the Fed is saying that if we stop believing there will be inflation in the future, there actually won’t be any.”
About Bieri
David Bieri is an associate professor of urban affairs in the School of Public and International Affairs and an associate professor of economics. He also holds an appointment in the Global Forum on Urban and Regional Resilience. His teaching interests are at the intersection of public finance, monetary theory, and history of economic thought. He has held various senior positions at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland. Prior to his work in central banking, he worked in investment banking in London and Zurich. View Bieri’s full bio.
Source: Virginia Tech
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