Clips

Without tourist attractions, how are small town Airbnbs attracting so many visitors?

New York City began enforcing its restrictions on vacation rentals last week. Hosts must be registered with the city and stay on site during guests’ stays. These restrictions might shrink the number of vacation rentals in the country’s biggest city, but the picture is different in small towns across the U.S.

Members of Generation Z bought more homes at a younger age than previous generations, but not all Gen Zers broke into the housing market early.

Some members of Generation Z — people born between 1997 and 2012 — are now old enough to buy homes. And despite recent, record-high home prices and rising mortgage rates, Gen Zers are ahead of older generations.

An estimated 3,000 Texans’ identities were stolen by an organized crime group due to a weakness in a state security system.

Gov. Greg Abbott’s office is cautioning state agencies and public universities against using diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in hiring, claiming that doing so runs afoul of federal law, according to a memo obtained by the American-Statesman. 

The city-funded camp, long held in North Omaha, includes very few North Omaha children, a Flatwater Free Press analysis found. Instead, the day campers are disproportionately from wealthier West Omaha zip codes. 

Last summer, more than half of the roughly 2,000 Hummel day campers from Omaha lived west of 90th Street, even though only 33% of Omaha’s under-18 population lives in the zip codes west of that street.

In Nebraska, 14 city and village clerks have been charged for theft or violating public resources over the last decade.

Those clerks, plus another who took money but wasn’t charged, stole an estimated $1.7 million from 17 small towns across the state, according to audit reports and restitution orders. 

Several unions have formed since the start of 2022, including at an Austin Starbucks, and could be signs of a growing national trend.