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A second Trump Administration could derail California’s ambitious and expensive dream: a bullet train from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
The nation’s costliest infrastructure project is already underway, but it’s at least $4.7 billion short of funds to finish a 171-mile portion through the Central Valley, not counting another $100 billion to complete the route. In contrast to the train-friendly Biden Administration, President-elect Donald Trump canceled about $1 billion of federal funding for the project in his first term, and it’s unlikely his position has changed.
But at least one high-speed rail that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told Forbes seems more promising in the near term: billionaire Wes Edens’ Brightline West bullet train, set to run from Las Vegas to suburban Los Angeles. Brightline hopes to open the 218-mile system by 2028.
Police respond as CEO of UnitedHealthcare Brian Thompson, 50, was shot as he entered the New York Hilton on Wednesday in New York.
The CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, was fatally shot in Manhattan early Wednesday morning outside a company meeting, in what police officials are calling a “brazen targeted attack.” Police are still looking for the gunman, and the motive behind the attack remains unknown.
MORE: Thompson worked for UnitedHealth for almost two decades before becoming CEO of UnitedHealthcare, the nation’s largest health insurer. UnitedHealth Group on Wednesday said it was “deeply saddened and shocked” by Thompson’s death, and remembered him as a “highly respected colleague and friend to all who worked with him.”
The price of Bitcoin crossed $100,000 for the first time and hit an all-time high of nearly $104,000 late on Wednesday, as the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency continued its post-election bull run. Earlier on Wednesday, Trump announced Paul Atkins as his pick for the Securities and Exchange Commission’s chair role, with Trump describing Atkins as someone who “recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before.”
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In good news for the housing market, mortgage rates dipped to a six-week low and home buyer activity jumped to a multimonth high, though activity remains far more muted than it was during the recent housing boom. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 6.69% in the week ending Friday, according to a Mortgage Bankers Association survey. Still, that’s more than 0.5 percentage points higher than........