Author

Casey Quinlan

Casey Quinlan

Casey Quinlan is an economy reporter for States Newsroom, based in Washington, D.C. For the past decade, they have reported on national politics and state politics, LGBTQ rights, abortion access, labor issues, education, Supreme Court news and more for publications including The American Independent, ThinkProgress, New Republic, Rewire News, SCOTUSblog, In These Times and Vox.

A man with his vehicle next to a gas pump

Here’s where gas prices are headed (for now) and why

By: - April 30, 2023

Higher temperatures. Higher gas prices. Drivers across the country have seen that seasonal given play out in recent weeks. The national average for a gallon of regular gas was $3.63 on April 28, up 19 cents over the previous month, according to AAA. The good news is that gas is 51 cents below where it […]

Senior businesswoman using laptop for team meeting video conference

Long COVID is hurting business; workplace accommodations could help

By: - April 18, 2023

Three years after the start of the pandemic, millions of working age people still suffer from long COVID-19 and some lawmakers and advocates, including people with long COVID, say not enough is being done to protect their well-being and ensure they can continue to be employed. Proposed federal legislation, better workplace accommodations, and more federal […]

National Park Service Removes Homeless Encampment At McPherson Square In Washington, DC

High mortality rate of homeless highlighted in new report

By: - April 9, 2023

Barb Anderson, director of Haven House in Jeffersonville, Indiana, works with homeless people to place them into housing. It’s a job that has shown her firsthand the severe health issues facing unhoused people in southern Indiana, where many people live in tents in the woods and under bridges. She is currently working with an older […]

New homes construction site. Framed houses. Lumber. Building.

Mortgage rates are stabilizing but that may not be enough to help house hunters

By: - April 8, 2023

Home prices are cooling off and mortgage rates fell last week, but the fallout from recent bank closures could continue to make it difficult for some Americans to buy homes, economists say. Mortgage rates fell to 6.32% for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage, Freddie Mac data released on Thursday shows. Last fall, the 30-year fixed […]

Natalie Bell, 23, an art student turned welder has worked in construction since 2019

Help wanted: Women needed for U.S. chips manufacturing plan to succeed

By: - March 26, 2023

Natalie Bell was thinking about a career in art after college when a welding class and a delivery of four pizzas changed her career trajectory. “I was taking a delivery out to a construction site and I met an ironworker who I was taking the delivery to,” said Bell, who lives in Columbus, Ohio. “I […]

First Republic Bank office

Regulators end week like they started — tamping down fears, rescuing a bank

By: - March 18, 2023

Financial regulators, policymakers, and bank executives spent the week trying to abate fears that a banking crisis will spread across the U.S. financial system.  On Friday, President Joe Biden released a statement calling on Congress to take action to make it easier for regulators to hold senior bank executives accountable for their mismanagement. “It should […]

Silicon Valley Bank

Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse differs from our last financial crisis

By: - March 14, 2023

After the largest U.S. bank failure in more than a decade, regional bank stocks plunged on Monday as the federal government — with the 2007-2008 financial crisis still a fresh memory for many — rushed to reassure Americans that the U.S. banking system was stable. President Joe Biden told Americans that the risks taken on by failed […]

A sign outside a business says "now hiring"

Powell signals higher interest rates. Here’s why Friday’s jobs report will affect Fed’s decision.

By: - March 9, 2023

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said this week that interest rate increases could be higher and come faster if Friday’s unemployment data shows the nation’s labor market isn’t cooling off. Stock indexes fell after his comments. That’s been a familiar pattern over the past year as the federal bank has tried to combat inflation. A […]

Press Briefing With U.S. House And Senate Champions, Impacted Families on Expanding the Child Tax Credit During Lame Duck Session

Child poverty dropped to a record low last year. A new report shows how to keep it that way.

By: - March 5, 2023

The expanded child tax credit that families received in 2021 helped reduce child poverty across the country, but particularly in the South where families lack a sufficient safety net, according to a paper released on Wednesday. The report by the Hamilton Project, the Brookings Institution’s economic policy initiative, comes as some Democrats appear ready to […]

Harvesters, a private food bank, saw the amount of food distributed increase from 54 million pounds in 2019 to 65 million in 2020. In this picture, food is distributed at a drive-in in Kansas City, Kansas. (Harvesters — The Community Food Network)

Families are taking a hit as pandemic aid ends, inflation continues

By: - February 24, 2023

Forty million people in the U.S. are having difficulty affording household expenses, and a little more than 25 million people say they sometimes or often do not have enough to eat, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent Household Pulse survey data. The survey is designed to collect data on household experiences during the […]

Medical Workers Inside Maryland Hospital Work During Coronavirus Pandemic

Rural hospitals gird for unwinding of pandemic Medicaid coverage

By: - February 19, 2023

Donald Lloyd, CEO and president of St. Claire HealthCare in Morehead, Kentucky, has spent more than a year dealing with higher costs for food and medical supplies for his regional hospital. Now he’s trying to prepare for another financial hit — the loss of Medicaid reimbursements for treating people in rural Appalachia. “We are all […]

airline passengers wait for baggage to arrive in an airport

Advocacy groups ask FTC to expand Biden administration efforts to rein in junk fees

By: - February 12, 2023

President Joe Biden devoted 19 sentences of his State of the Union speech to “junk fees,” which includes credit card late fees, service fees for concert tickets and airplane seating preferences that he said strain families’ budgets. Biden did not mention the numerous and opaque fees faced by prisoners and their families every day. But […]