Author: chicagoinquirer

WASHINGTON  — For most Americans, Friday’s September jobs report was welcome news: Businesses kept hiring at a brisk pace, unemployment fell back to a half-century low and average pay rose. Yet for the Federal Reserve, the jobs figures highlight how little progress they’re making in their fight against inflation. With the Fed more likely to keep raising borrowing costs rapidly, the risk of recession will also rise. Employers did pull back slightly on hiring last month, and average wage gains slowed. But economists say neither is falling fast enough for the Fed to slow its inflation-fighting efforts. As a result,…

by Paul Wiseman WASHINGTON (AP) — America’s employers slowed their hiring in September but still added 263,000 jobs, a solid figure that will likely keep the Federal Reserve on pace to keep raising interest rates aggressively to fight persistently high inflation. Friday’s government report showed that hiring fell from 315,000 in August to the weakest monthly gain since April 2021. The unemployment rate dropped from 3.7% to 3.5%, matching a half-century low. The Fed is hoping that a slower pace of hiring would eventually mean less pressure on employers to raise pay and pass those costs on to their customers…

by Gene Chamberlain LAKE FOREST, Ill.  — Impatience is something Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields and wide receiver Darnell Mooney cannot afford. The Bears (2-2) made small strides in Sunday’s 20-12 loss to the New York Giants and hope to build on those against the Minnesota Vikings (3-1) this week, even with the offense mired near the bottom of the league in most passing categories. “I understand the process we have to go through with our offense and everything being new, everybody still learning and just trying to believe in the offense itself,” Mooney said. “It’s a process. It’s a…

by Zeke Miller and Chris Megerian WASHINGTON  — President Joe Biden is pardoning thousands of Americans convicted of “simple possession” of marijuana under federal law, as his administration takes a dramatic step toward decriminalizing the drug and addressing charging practices that disproportionately impact people of color. Biden’s move also covers thousands convicted of the crime in the District of Columbia. He is also calling on governors to issue similar pardons for those convicted of state marijuana offenses, which reflect the vast majority of marijuana possession cases. Biden, in a statement, said the move reflects his position that “no one should…

by Marcia Dunn CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.  — A NASA spacecraft rammed an asteroid at blistering speed Monday in an unprecedented dress rehearsal for the day a killer rock menaces Earth. The galactic grand slam occurred at a harmless asteroid 7 million miles (9.6 million kilometers) away, with the spacecraft named Dart plowing into the small space rock at 14,000 mph (22,500 kph). Scientists expected the impact to carve out a crater, hurl streams of rocks and dirt into space and, most importantly, alter the asteroid’s orbit. Telescopes around the world and in space aimed at the same point in the…

by Collin Binkley President Joe Biden’s plan for student debt cancellation will cost the federal government about $400 billion over the next 30 years, according to new estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. The figures were released Monday in response to a request from Republican lawmakers who oppose Biden’s plan in large part because of its costs. They were quick to cite the estimates as evidence that the plan will “bury” taxpayers, passing along the costs to huge numbers of Americans who never went to college. The Biden administration previously estimated the plan would cost about $24 billion a year…

MOSCOW  — Russia on Monday granted citizenship to former American intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who fled prosecution after he revealed highly classified U.S. surveillance programs to capture communications and data from around the world. A decree signed Monday by Russian President Vladimir Putin listed Snowden as one of 75 foreign citizens listed as being granted Russian citizenship. After fleeing the U.S. in 2013, Snowden was granted permanent Russian residency in 2020 and said at the time that he planned to apply for Russian citizenship without renouncing his U.S. citizenship. Ties between Washington and Moscow are already at their lowest point…

by Jay Cohen CHICAGO  — Moments after the game, Justin Fields wanted to get right back to work. “I’m going to go see the film tonight. I played terrible,” Fields said. “See what I could have done better and get better.” Fields’ growth in his second season with the Chicago Bears is one of the biggest priorities for the team at the moment, and it’s clear there is a long way to go for the young quarterback. But Chicago is leaning on its run game and defense in the meantime, and it’s working. Fields passed for just 106 yards and…

by Jake Coyle NEW YORK — Rihanna will take center stage at February’s Super Bowl halftime show. The singer, who declined to perform in the 2019 Super Bowl halftime show out of solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, will headline the 2023 Super Bowl, the NFL announced Sunday along with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and Apple Music. Rihanna posted an image on Instagram of an arm outstretched holding an NFL football. “Rihanna is a generational talent, a woman of humble beginnings who has surpassed expectations at every turn,” Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, whose Roc Nation is an executive producer of the show, said in…

by Jon Gambrell Only glimpses of videos that make it online show the protests convulsing Iran over the death of a 22-year-old woman who had been detained by the nation’s morality police. But those flashes show that public anger across the country, once only simmering, is now boiling. The demonstrations surrounding the death of Mahsa Amini — and the government crackdown emerging to stifle them — represent just the latest cycle of unrest to grip Iran since its 1979 Islamic Revolution. It likely won’t be the last as the Islamic Republic lurches between crises at home and abroad. The window…