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T-Mobile is making moves to make sure its first among first responders. The mobile giant announced that as a part of its T-Priority solutiona portion of T-Mobiles 5G network thats set aside specifically for use by first responders, to avoid network congestion and slowdowns during emergenciesit’s signed a contract with the City of New York to be the single carrier for the citys public safety network comprising more than 40,000 personnel, and is allowing free limited-time access to T-Priority through its first responder rate plans. Additionally, the company is partnering with others in the industry to create an advanced 5G ecosystem, which should help numerous tools such as drones and AI-powered deployables perform better in the field. That partnership includes companies like Samsung and Skydio. T-Mobile is also making a $2 million donation to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which supports the families of fallen first responders. These are big investments, and its incredibly important work, said Callie Field, president of T-Mobile Business Group, at an event in New York City on Thursday announcing the news. “We launched T-Priority for a reason. It was time to get this community better options . . . Even in 2025, when we expect instant communication, there are times when they cant connect. Field went on to say that almost two-thirds of first responders say they are concerned about network connectivity. As such, Field said T-Mobile saw the announced moves as the companys responsibility. T-Mobiles moves may be significant for emergency services, as first responders can find it difficult to communicate when cell service goes down. While fire and police departments generally do have other ways to get in touch with one anothervia walkie-talkies or pagers, which should work in the event that cell service is downwhen carrier networks are clogged up or otherwise crippled, it can hamper responses and potentially cost lives. T-Mobiles data says that T-Priority can offer up to 40% more 5G capacity to ensure first responders can stay connected, and its designed to emphasize speed for data-intensive communications. T-Priority also meshes with T-Mobiles plan to launch T-Mobile Starlink this year, which will help get signals through to parts of the country that are not reachable by cell towers.
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E-Commerce
The Trump administration is once again targeting California’s controversial high-speed rail project, with federal transportation officials on Thursday announcing an investigation and possible withdrawal of about $4 billion in federal funding.Voters first approved $10 billion in bond money in 2008 for a project designed to shuttle riders between San Francisco and Los Angeles in less than three hours. It was slated to cost $33 billion and be finished by 2020. But the project has been beset by funding challenges, cost overruns, and delays.Now, state officials are focused on a 171-mile (275-kilometer) stretch connecting the Central Valley cities of Bakersfield and Merced, which is set to be operating by 2033. The entire San Francisco to Los Angeles line will now cost an estimated $106 billion to finish and officials hope to complete it in the next 20 years if there is money.“I am directing my staff to review and determine whether the (California High-Speed Rail Authority) has followed through on the commitments it made to receive billions of dollars in federal funding. If not, I will have to consider whether that money could be given to deserving infrastructure projects elsewhere in the United States,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a news conference in Los Angeles.President Donald Trump canceled nearly $1 billion in federal funding for the high-speed rail project in 2019, during his first term. The Biden administration later restored the funding and, in December 2023, allocated $3.3 billion more.Losing that money would be a major blow to the project. The rail authority’s most recent business plan counts on receiving up to $8 billion in federal money to help close a funding gap.Ian Choudri, CEO of the California’s High-Speed Rail Authority, which oversees planning and funding for the project, said he welcomes the investigation.“With multiple independent federal and state audits completed, every dollar is accounted for, and we stand by the progress and impact of this project,” Choudri said.He said the project has created nearly 15,000 jobs and that more than 50 major structures have been completed so far.Several Republican Congress members have taken aim at the project over its costs. On Thursday, Republican Rep. Kevin Kiley, who represents 3rd Congressional District that stretches alongside much of the state’s border with Nevada and includes Sacramento’s northeastern suburbs, called the California high-speed rail “the worst public infrastructure failure in U.S. history.”“There is no plausible scenario where the cost to federal or state taxpayers can be justified. It is past time to stop throwing good money after bad, and we must formally end this project,” said Kiley, who introduced a bill earlier this year to make the project ineligible for further federal funding.Kiley joined Duffy in Los Angeles’s Union Station for the announcement of the probe. Those present were interrupted at times by booing by about 30 demonstrators. The protesters also chanted “build the rail!” and held up signs that read “CA has no king” and “Don’t delay our train.”Eli Lipmen, executive director of Move LA, an organization that advocates for efficient public transit systems, said the high-speed train project remains popular among many Californians.“They said they’re going to start an investigation, but come on, this is a sham investigation,” Lipmen, who was at Union Station during the announcement, told KABC-TV.Greg Regan and Shari Semelsberger, president and secretary-treasurer of the Transportation Trades Department coalition that includes all the country’s rail unions, said the project is the most ambitious and innovative transportation project in the country and urged Trump to become “a Builder-in-Chief by bringing high-speed rail to America.”“Building ambitious projects requires bold leadership and a commitment to getting the job done. Just last year, President Trump complained that the United States does not have bullet trains similar to Japan. We agree with him that it is past time for our country to have these kinds of modern, efficient, high-capacity transportation systems,” they said in a statement.
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E-Commerce
The one-bedroom cottage with a woodsy vibe reminded Heather McAlpine of the home she lost to the brutal Los Angeles-area wildfires. But only two hours after seeing the listing, the rental was snapped up.She is one of tens of thousands of people displaced by the fires who is now competing for housing in a region that is among the most expensive and competitive in the country, partly due to lack of supply.McAlpine, had lived in her Altadena house for four years and is now staying with her boyfriend. She isn’t surprised by spiking rents.“I know they’re expensive, and it sucks,” she said.Tenants who were just getting by before the fires now face a daunting housing search after the January fires leveled entire neighborhoods. The L.A. fires destroyed more than 16,000 homes, businesses and other structures in upscale Pacific Palisades and working-class Altadena, where the U.S. Census reports 22% of homes were occupied by renters.It’s hard to quantify exactly how the wildfires are affecting the rental market, but L.A. rents rose faster than prices nationwide in January compared to the previous month, according to housing platform Zillow.The added competition from residents displaced by the fires is likely to worsen housing affordability, increase overcrowding and contribute to homelessness, says Sarah Karlinsky, research director at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley. Already, more than half of all renter householdsor a little over one million householdsin L.A. County spend 30% or more of their income on rent.Shane Phillips, housing initiative project manager at the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, expects prices to increase significantly for months, if not a few years.“There’s only so many people moving at any given time, and suddenly adding another 20,000 households to that amount is just an extraordinary pressure,” he said.Rental pageviews in L.A. County on the real estate platform Redfin are up 50% from a year ago, said Daryl Fairweather, the company’s chief economist.She said people will feel the impact of “shorter supply, more fierce competition for rentals.”Egregious rents cropped up soon after the fires broke out, prompting an ad-hoc group of tenant organizers, web programmers and others to crowdsource examples. The Rent Brigade found more than 1,300 examples of illegal rent increases advertised between January 7 and January 18. Many have since been removed or relisted at lower prices.California Attorney General Rob Bonta has warned repeatedly of the state’s anti-gouging laws, which limits price increases to no more than 10% from whatever the price was before the emergency. His office has so far filed three misdemeanor criminal price-gouging charges.A 10% cap is still too high for Wendy Dlakic. She was paying about $3,000 a month for a now uninhabitable two-bedroom condo in Altadena, a community she loved. She’s searched rental websites, but for now is staying with friends, family and at Airbnbs.“It was already expensive,” said Dlakic, an educator who moved to Southern California two years ago. “It’s tough to be in L.A. on one income. You’re right on the edge, you know?”The “typical rent” in the U.S. was $1,968 as of January 31up 0.2% from the previous month, according to Zillow. But in the L.A. metro area, the typical rent was up 0.8% to $2,954. Zillow calculates the typical rent figure by averaging the middle 30% of rents.Daniel Yukelson, executive director of the Apartment Association of Greater Los Angeles, says fears of rent-gouging have been overblown by tenant advocates and he’s angry that Bonta has filed criminal charges.“Some mistakes were unknowingly made,” he said. “If these infractions were pointed out to these few owners, corrections would have surely been made immediately.”McAlpine, the displaced tenant, realized the Eaton Fire was coming for her in-law unit while she was helping to evacuate neighbors as a Altadena Mountain Rescue Team volunteer. She scooped up her cat, ski gear and camera equipment and fled the 300-square-foot (28-square-meter) cottage.She’s grateful for donations through GoFundMe, which will help with essentials, but is worried about finding a standalone unit close to nature and within her monthly budget of $1,800 for rent and utilities.The cottage that McAlpine, a photographer, and her boyfriend wanted was listed for $2,750 a month. Even though they have a bigger budget together, the hunt has been dispiriting.“I’m quickly looking for the photos. ‘Oh, does this look sketchy or not?’ Or, ‘you know, is this the right price?'” she said. “It’s just very different from how I would normally look for a place to live.” Janie Har and Damian Dovarganes, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
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