For: July 15, 2025
>>Watching Wall Street
(New York, NY) -- The opening bell rings this morning after stocks closed higher on Wall Street Monday to start the new week. Stocks edged higher as investors largely shrugged off President Trump's latest tariff threats and looked ahead to second quarter earnings results. At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 88 points to 44-459. The S&P 500 added 8 points to 62-68. The Nasdaq rose 54 points to 20-640. Investors today will be keeping an eye out for the latest consumer price index report - a key gauge of inflation in America.
>>Trump To Attend Energy and Innovation Summit In Pittsburgh
(Pittsburgh, PA) -- President Trump will be in Pittsburgh today to take part in the first Pennsylvania Energy and Innovation Summit. The event at Carnegie Mellon University is billed as a gathering of top leaders in energy and AI -- alongside the biggest global investors -- for the purposes of planning how to advance the President's energy agenda. "A number of Trump cabinet and government officials are also expected to attend. Pennsylvania's Republican Senator Dave McCormick is hosting the event. They are reportedly expected to announce 70-billion-dollars in AI and energy investments for the state.
>>Port Of L.A. Seeing Record Traffic
(Los Angeles, CA) -- The Port of Los Angeles is seeing record shipping traffic as companies are hurrying to beat President Trump's tariff deadlines. Tariffs on Chinese goods set to take effect next month are of particular concern to shippers. Nearly 900-thousand containers were processed at the nation's largest port in June.
>>Trash Strike
(Undated) -- Trash has been piling up in California as more sanitation workers walk off the job. Garbage collectors with Republic Services have stopped showing up as they stand in solidarity with striking workers on the East Coast. Sanitation workers have walked off the job in cities across several counties including Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego. The Bay Area is also being impacted. Union leaders say contract talks are continuing this week.
>>Musk Doesn't Support Tesla, xAI Merger
(Austin, TX) -- Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he does not support merging his electric vehicle company with his artificial intelligence firm, xAI. Musk expressed his opinion in response to a user on 'X' who asked Tesla investors whether they backed a merger, and the tech billionaire wrote "No." While Musk appears resistant to the idea of a merger, he does seem to support having Tesla invest in xAI after writing on X, "If it was up to me, Tesla would have invested in xAI long ago." Meanwhile, the Defense Department will begin using Musk's generative AI tool, Grok. According to an announcement from the department, it's granting contract awards of up to 200-million-dollars to AI companies including xAI as well as Anthropic, Google and OpenAI.
>>USPS Raises Stamp Price
(Washington, DC) -- It now costs a little bit more to mail a letter using the USPS. The price of a First Class Mail Forever stamp has jumped from 73-cents to 78-cents. The price increase is part of the USPS's ten-year financial stability plan. It also plans to raise prices in January and July of 2026 and 2027.
