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US News

Southern California Residents Scramble to Evacuate Amid Fast-Moving Wildfires

What's going on: Authorities ordered about 30,000 residents in Southern California to evacuate yesterday, as fast-moving flames tore through Los Angeles’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood. The fire — made worse by a ferocious windstorm — quickly grew from 300 acres to nearly 3,000 by Tuesday evening. As residents from Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, and Malibu rushed to leave, traffic backed up for miles, with some having to abandon their cars. The flames have destroyed homes and filled the sky with plumes of smoke. California declared an emergency, warning Tuesday night the worst was yet to come. 

Tell me more: The cause of the fire is under investigation. Meanwhile, Los Angeles County Fire Department Capt. Sheila Kelliher called the conditions in the area — including low relative humidity and high winds — “the perfect storm” creating a “once-in-a-decade wind event.” The “tornado-like” winds are expected to continue into today. As first responders work to contain the Palisades Fire, a second blaze in Eaton Canyon near Altadena and Pasadena has already burned hundreds of acres and also prompted evacuations. President Joe Biden said the White House “will do everything it can to support the response.”

Related: Southern California Is Dangerously Dry Right Now (NYT gift link)

Tech

Meta Ditches Fact-Checking Ahead of Trump's Return

What's going on: A big change is coming to Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, but it’s not a thumbs-down button. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced yesterday that the company is ending its independent fact-checking program and restrictions on topics like immigration and gender. After the 2016 election, Meta’s fact-checking team worked to combat misinformation and disinformation by adding disclaimers and warnings to some posts. But now, the company says the fact-checkers’ biases have led to a number of errors and have overcensored users. In the coming months, Meta will transition to Community Notes — taking a page out of Elon Musk’s playbook. On X, it gives users the ability to comment on posts or flag things they believe are inaccurate. Who’s excited for that one uncle to fact-check them? In a video, Zuckerberg said there would be more “bad stuff” on the platforms, but the “reality is that this is a trade-off.”

What it means: Even with fact-checkers in place, Meta has struggled to curb hate speech and misinformation, so it’s unclear whether this change will have much practical impact. It’s also no coincidence that Meta’s major policy change comes less than two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. In the video announcement, Zuckerberg directly referenced Trump’s reelection as a “cultural tipping point towards once again prioritizing speech.” A number of tech moguls are doing what they can to appeal to Trump. Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and OpenAI’s Sam Altman are just a few who have planned to donate to Trump’s inaugural fund, according to reports. While most Republicans have welcomed Meta’s change, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said this is merely a “ploy to avoid being regulated.”

Related: The Supreme Court Will Hear Arguments About the TikTok Ban This Week (USA Today)

Finance

Your Credit Report Could Be Getting Healthier

What's going on: Sick of medical debt haunting your credit score? The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is stepping in with new rules that ban medical debt from credit reports and prevent lenders from factoring it into loan decisions. These changes will wipe an estimated $49 billion in medical debt from credit reports, benefiting roughly 15 million Americans. The rules also give people more breathing room to resolve disputes (because, let’s be honest, those bills can be riddled with errors). Additionally, lenders can no longer repossess essential medical devices — like wheelchairs or prosthetics — if patients can’t repay loans. Medical debt is the leading type of debt in collections nationwide, disproportionately impacting women, people with disabilities, and Black Americans.

What it means: The CFPB predicts these changes could boost the credit scores of those with medical debt by an average of 20 points — making it easier for some people to secure better loans, housing, and even small-business financing. Protecting essential medical equipment from repossession also reduces stress for patients already struggling financially. Of course, not everyone’s on board — some Republican lawmakers and credit-industry groups say the rules could increase risks for lenders and weaken credit reporting accuracy. These rules may also face potential legal and political challenges that could delay or even overturn them. For now, they’re a big win for Americans weighed down by medical debt. Next up, someone please address those sky-high health care costs to begin with…baby steps, right?

Related: How Tax Changes Could Impact Your Paycheck This Year (CNBC)