For: September 17, 2025
>>Ahead Of The Bell
(New York, NY) -- The opening bell rings this morning after stocks closed lower on Wall Street yesterday. Stocks slipped as investors took profits after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq hit fresh records earlier in the session. At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 125 points to 45-757. The S&P 500 shed 8 points to 66-06. The Nasdaq fell 14 points to 22-333.
>>Impact Of Predicted Rate Cut
(Undated) -- The Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates today by at least a quarter -percent. For many Americans, that could make it a little cheaper to borrow money and get a mortgage, while lowering rates on credit cards. It would also lower the amount of interest paid on savings accounts. For the most part however, economists say the biggest effects will be felt by Wall Street traders and large borrowers.
>>Retail Sales Up In August
(Washington, DC) -- Retail sales rose more than expected in August. Government figures out this week show sales increased six-tenths percent for the month as consumers spent at a faster clip than experts predicted. Excluding autos, sales nearly doubled forecasts and came in well ahead of July's pace. Bars and restaurants led the way with gas station receipts up five-tenths of a percent. On an annual basis, retail sales were up five percent.
>>Trump Extends TikTok Deadline Ban To December
(Washington, DC) -- President Trump is extending the deadline for a TikTok ban. This comes after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday the U.S. and China have reached a "framework" for a permanent deal. ByteDance, the app's Chinese parent company, had faced a Wednesday deadline to sell the popular video-sharing platform. President Trump signed an order Tuesday that will allow TikTok to continue service in the U.S. through at least December 16th of this year, and it marks the fourth delayed enforcement of the looming ban. President Trump is expected to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping [[ she jeen-peeng ]] about the deal on Friday.
>>New ChatGPT Teen-Safety Measures
(San Francisco, CA) -- OpenAI is announcing new teen safety features for ChatGPT. Now the AI chatbot will include an age-prediction system and ID age verification in some countries. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman described the struggles of balancing OpenAI's priorities of freedom and safety in a recent blog post. He shared that the company was working to build a system that would try to sort users into a version of the software for adolescents 13 to 17, and one for adults 18 and older.
>>Trump Creates Emergency Board To Investigate Long Island Railroad Labor Dispute
(Washington, DC) -- President Trump has created an emergency board to investigate New York's Long Island Railroad dispute. That's at the request of union leaders who've rejected a three-year contract offer by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Thousands of workers were planning to walk off the job this Thursday but White House involvement pushes off a strike at least until mid-January and possibly until mid-May. A strike would impact 250-thousand daily riders on the LIRR which is the busiest commuter rail line in the nation.
>>Ben & Jerry's Co-Founder Jerry Greenfield Quits Company
(Waterbury, VT) -- The "Jerry" of Ben & Jerry's ice cream is stepping down. Co-founder Jerry Greenfield announced yesterday that he is turning in his resignation because he believes the independence promised by their parent company Unilever is now gone. Greenfield says Ben & Jerry's was always about more than just ice cream, and was a way to spread love and invite others into the fight for equity, justice and a better world. Ben & Jerry's has been clashing with Unilever since 2021, when the ice cream maker said it would stop sales in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Unilever has not yet commented on the resignation.
>>Groundbreaking At New Rivian Plant In GA
(Morgan County, GA) -- Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is welcoming a new electric vehicle factory in the Peach State. Yesterday was the groundbreaking for a five-billion-dollar Rivian manufacturing facility east of Atlanta. The project is supposed to bring 75-hundred jobs to the area. The plant could potentially build up to 400-thousand electric SUVs a year.
