Because I like data, here are my federal tax rates from 2015-2023. Taxable income and federal tax amounts are not shown due to privacy, but are shown in relative values on the graph.

The 2017 Trump law ended up being a tax hike for us, because we had previously itemized deductions that were either eliminated or reduced in 2018. The COVID child tax credits in 2020 temporarily lowered our taxes to their lowest point, but went up to their highest the next year. The Biden/Harris child care tax expansion in 2021 lowered our taxes back down to what they were before the 2017 tax law.

The building was damaged during the 2020 hurricane season and was the tallest building in the city.

This guy’s channel is excellent content about national parks and public lands. He’s typically very reserved and thoughtful about including any politics in his content, but you can tell in this video that he’s just so overwhelmed by the proposals in Project 2025 that he just can’t contain it. It’s a great watch and maybe a way to sway more outdoor-focused conservatives away from supporting an administration that is planning on selling our lands for the benefit of the few.

I'm in the US and I'm going back to college after 15 years in the work force. I'd like to try to test out of some basic classes I have a lot of experience in, but no college credits. How does this work? Who runs this program, an accredited testing board or individual colleges? If you test out of a class, would that count as 3 (or equivalent) credit hours of college credit for other purposes such as professional licensure? Are there issues with acceptance by colleges of these types of tests? Thanks!

It was majority employee-owned before the acquisition but is now majority owned by private equity firm. The main change I'm noticing is that everyone is being pressured to work uncompensated overtime (we're all on salary here) and requests for training/professional development have been all but eliminated. They also initially hired a bunch of new employees with no specific work in mind and expected us to find the new people work to do then got rid of a lot of people about 1 year afterwards.

Has anyone else rode out a private equity buyout? It's not terrible, but it is extra stress on top of an already stressful job. Is it a good idea to get out now? I've heard they typically sell after around 5 years of "optimization". What happens then?

I thought this was a very centrist view of "greedflation" from SYSK. It's great to see this recognition of this problem become more mainstream.

This is one of my favorite new songs in the last year. The thoughtful lyrics are about mental health and understanding others at a time where I feel like it's extremely relevant and the smooth harmonies and guitar picking mellow me out and get me emotional at the same time. I hope everyone else enjoys as much as I do.

I want to get a professional wetland scientist license for work I've been doing for 15 years professionally, but the license requires college credits in biology that I don't have. The application board will not consider current experience level in the subject and will not accept any training or education taken post-college that didn't award college credits.

Do you have any recommendations for self-paced online classes that offer college credit? I will be working full time and taking care of children during this time, so the classes have to be flexible.

I photographed and had my best views ever of an American Flamingo this morning in Pensacola (actually Warrington) Florida at Navy Point Park. Based on eBird records, it looks like it showed up yesterday. Wild flamingo summer in the eastern US appears to be wrapping up, but these birds are still showing up in unexpected places after being displaced by Hurricane Idalia in September.

I saw a pair of Great Kiskadee in south-central Louisiana today at White Lake Wetland Conservation Area. This pair has been here for at least a few years and it looks like they were gathering nest material this morning. This species is considered rare in Louisiana but with increasing sightings in the last few years. Is this species expanding its range like other southern birds such as the Limpkin and Black-bellied Whistling Duck?