How COVID-19 travel restrictions are hurting border towns
CBSN
El Paso, Texas — About a mile from the Paso Del Norte International Bridge, which connects downtown El Paso to Mexico, Emilio Mendiola sorts neon snapbacks into bins labeled reading "Special $2.99 plus Tax," — and what was 90% of his business.
"I'm not kidding. It's that bad." The manager of "Mr. Hats" has let go of all but two of his full-time employees since the international bridges closed to noncitizens whose travel into the U.S. is deemed nonessential. The closure has shut down tourism, shopping and dining business from the neighboring Mexican city of Juárez that once fueled rows of El Paso's vendors -- and it has cost Mendiola 90% of his business. Over 10 million people cross the bridge into El Paso from Juárez every year. On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security extended the travel restrictions until at least August 21.The Consumer Federal Protection Bureau last week launched an inquiry into what the agency is calling "junk fees in mortgage closing costs." These additional fees, involving home appraisal, title insurance and other services, have spiked in recent years and can add thousands of dollars to the final cost of buying a home.
Retired Maj. Gen. William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic "Earthrise" photo showing the planet as a shadowed blue marble from space in 1968, was killed Friday when the plane he was piloting alone plummeted into the waters off the San Juan Islands in Washington state. He was 90.