Mexican Street Corn Dip

Mexican Street Corn Dip

Try this super easy Mexican street corn dip as a snack, or as a side. It’s great for meal prep or sharing with a group of friends.

Ingredients

  • 3 cans corn, drained 
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 3 tbsp mayonnaise
  • 2 tbsp lime juice
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp tajin
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1/2 cup cotija cheese
  • 1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
  • chips of choice

Instructions

1. Heat the corn
Add butter to a skillet on medium-high heat and add the corn. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Spice it up
In a bowl, add the warmed corn and spices and mix until the corn is thoroughly coated.

3. Add liquids
Add the lime juice and mayo to the mixture, mixing until they are incorporated.

4. Toppings time
Sprinkle the cilantro and cotija cheese on the mixture and add a dash of tajin to top the dish.

5. Serve it hot
Serve immediately as a dip, with chips of your choice, or as a side to your favorite Mexican-inspired dish.

August 5th 2025

August 5th 2025

Thought of the Day

August 5th 2024

The only thing worse than a quitter is the one who is afraid to begin.

North Carolina DMV audit recommends reforms to reverse customer wait times, worker morale

North Carolina DMV audit recommends reforms to reverse customer wait times, worker morale

By GARY D. ROBERTSON Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Customers at North Carolina’s Division of Motor Vehicles are waiting longer in lines that are often far away from home, while agency staffing fails to keep pace with the state’s surging population, according to agency reviews that also recommend major reforms.

Elected Republican State Auditor Dave Boliek on Monday released two audits totaling nearly 600 pages that scrutinize the DMV — the bane of motorists in many states. But long lines and frustrations are acute in the ninth-largest state.

“Our DMV affects the economy. It affects people having to take off of work unnecessarily. It takes our students out of the classroom,” Boliek told reporters. “This has to be fixed and it has to be a top priority.”

Constituent complaints, REAL ID brings problems to fore

Boliek promised during last year’s campaign to conduct a top-to-bottom review of the DMV if elected.

Elected leaders’ constituents have complained about the inability to book appointments online close to home and the struggles for their teenagers to complete driving tests.

It’s not unusual for customers to camp outside driver’s license offices in the wee hours hoping to get seen later that day. Problems continued as federal REAL ID license security requirements took effect in May.

Erin Van Dorn of Holly Springs said at Boliek’s news conference it took her and her teenage son four trips to the DMV — the last time 130 miles (209 kilometers) away in Mount Airy — to obtain his license. Information technology and staffing shortages were to blame.

“My son has missed a total of four days of school,” Van Horn said while mentioning additional delays. “It’s just been a very big ordeal for us.”

New Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s administration brought in former state legislator Paul Tine as the new Division of Motor Vehicles commissioner and has pledged a turnaround.

Longer waits, continued examiner shortages

A DMV performance audit Monday said average wait times for customers at the state’s driver’s license locations increased by over 15% since 2019 to 1 hour and 15 minutes. And close to 14% of the visits lasted over 2 hours and 30 minutes — a 79% increase from 2019.

And nearly half of all transactions by customers aren’t happening at the license office closest to where they live.

“The employee experience has diminished as well,” Boliek said.

The audit said there were 160 vacant license examiner positions as of April. And while the state’s population has grown by 29% over the last 20 years, the number of examiner positions has grown by just 10%. Boliek’s staff heard DMV employee complaints about burnout, security and low pay — average examiner position salaries were well below $50,000 last year.

The audit attributes many problems to DMV’s relationship with the Cabinet-level state Department of Transportation that oversees the agency. The auditor said DMV has undersized influence within DOT when it comes to decision-making and getting budget requests approved by the legislature.

Agency independence among recommendations

Boliek’s most significant recommendation is for policymakers to consider turning DMV into an autonomous agency separate from DOT.

Boliek said the recommendation is no slight upon Tine and current Teansportation Secretary Joey Hopkins, whom he said are taking steps toward reform. But he said a permanent change is needed to address situations where the commissioner and secretary wouldn’t cooperate as well.

Other recommendations include creating a public online dashboard measuring keys performance goals and initiating nonconventional initiatives to reduce wait times and backlogs.

Boliek said outside driving school instructors could administer road tests required of new drivers. The DMV could open “pop-up” license offices at a vacant mall anchor store or create “fast-pass” options for customers who pay extra to reach the front of the line.

“We can’t keep doing things the same old way,” he said.

DMV, DOT chiefs back most recommendations

In a written response to the audits, Tine and Hopkins agreed with nearly all of the recommendations and said many already getting carried out.

But they opposed the recommendation to separate DMV, saying the agency’s core functions align with the Transportation Department’s mission to improve highway safety.

“We know that with the right leadership and follow-through, we will get results -– getting people out of lines and empowering our hard-working DMV employees,” Stein spokesperson Morgan Hopkins said.

The GOP-controlled General Assembly could still attempt to implement the change.

A stopgap budget measure on Stein’s desk provides funds to hire over 60 license examiners. And a new state law has established a temporary moratorium on renewing standard licenses, allowing them to remain valid within North Carolina for up to two years beyond the expiration date.

Trump says he doesn’t trust the jobs data, but Wall Street and economists do

Trump says he doesn’t trust the jobs data, but Wall Street and economists do

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The monthly jobs report is already closely-watched on Wall Street and in Washington but has taken on a new importance after President Donald Trump on Friday fired the official who oversees it.

Trump claimed that June’s employment figures were “RIGGED” to make him and other Republicans “look bad.” Yet he provided no evidence and even the official Trump had appointed in his first term to oversee the report, William Beach, condemned the firing of Erika McEntarfer, the director of the Bureau of Labor Statistics appointed by former President Joe Biden. The firing followed Friday’s jobs report that showed hiring was weak in July and had come to nearly a standstill in May and June, right after Trump rolled out sweeping tariffs.

Economists and Wall Street investors have long considered the job figures reliable, with share prices and bond yields often reacting sharply when they are released. Yet Friday’s revisions were unusually large — the largest, outside of a recession, in five decades. And the surveys used to compile the report are facing challenges from declining response rates, particularly since COVID, as fewer companies complete the surveys.

Nonetheless, that hasn’t led most economists to doubt them.

“The bottom line for me is, I wouldn’t take the low collection rate as any evidence that the numbers are less reliable,” Omair Sharif, founder and chief economist at Inflation Insights, a consulting firm, said.

Many academics, statisticians and economists have warned for some time that declining budgets were straining the government’s ability to gather economic data. There were several government commissions studying ways to improve things like survey response rates, but the Trump administration disbanded them earlier this year.

Heather Boushey, a top economic adviser in the Biden White House, noted that without Trump’s firing of McEntarfer, there would be more focus on last week’s data, which points to a slowing economy.

“We’re having this conversation about made-up issues to distract us from what the data is showing,” Boushey said. “Revisions of this magnitude in a negative direction may indicate bad things to come for the labor market.”

Here are some things to know about the jobs report:

Economists and Wall Street trust the data

Most economists say that the Bureau of Labor Statistics is a nonpolitical agency staffed by people obsessed with getting the numbers right. The only political appointee is the commissioner, who doesn’t see the data until it’s finalized, two days before it is issued to the public.

Erica Groshen, the BLS commissioner from 2013 to 2017, said she suggested different language in the report to “liven it up”, but was shot down. She was told that if asked to describe a cup as half-empty or half-full, BLS says “it is an eight ounce cup with four ounces of liquid.”

The revised jobs data that has attracted Trump’s ire is actually more in line with other figures than before the revision. For example, payroll processor ADP uses data from its millions of clients to calculate its own jobs report, and it showed a sharp hiring slowdown in May and June that is closer to the revised BLS data.

Trump and his White House have a long track record of celebrating the jobs numbers — when they are good.

These are the figures Trump is attacking

Trump has focused on the revisions to the May and June data, which on Friday were revised lower, with job gains in May reduced to 19,000 from 144,000, and for June to just 14,000 from 147,000. Every month’s jobs data is revised in the following two months.

Trump also repeated a largely inaccurate attack from the campaign about an annual revision last August, which reduced total employment in the United States by 818,000, or about 0.5%. The government also revises employment figures every year.

Trump charged the annual revision was released before the 2024 presidential election to “boost” Vice President Kamala Harris’s “chances of Victory,” yet it was two months before the election and widely reported at the time that the revision lowered hiring during the Biden-Harris administration and pointed to a weaker economy.

Here’s why the government revises the data

The monthly revisions occur because many companies that respond to the government’s surveys send their data in late, or correct the figures they’ve already submitted. The proportion of companies sending in their data later has risen in the past decade.

Every year, the BLS does an additional revision based on actual job counts that are derived from state unemployment insurance records. Those figures cover 95% of U.S. businesses and aren’t derived from a survey but are not available in real time.

These are the factors that cause revisions

Figuring out how many new jobs have been added or lost each month is more complicated than it may sound. For example, if one person takes a second job, should you focus on the number of jobs, which has increased, or the number of employed people, which hasn’t? (The government measures both: The unemployment rate is based on how many people either have or don’t have jobs, while the number of jobs added or lost is counted separately).

Each month, the government surveys about 121,000 businesses and government agencies at over 630,000 locations — including multiple locations for the same business — covering about one-third of all workers.

Still, the government also has to make estimates: What if a company goes out of business? It likely won’t fill out any forms showing the jobs lost. And what about new businesses? They can take a while to get on the government’s radar.

The BLS seeks to capture these trends by estimating their impact on employment. Those estimates can be wrong, of course, until they are fixed by the annual revisions.

The revisions are often larger around turning points in the economy. For example, when the economy is growing, there may be more startups than the government expects, so revisions will be higher. If the economy is slowing or slipping into a recession, the revisions may be larger on the downside.

Here’s why the May and June revisions may have been so large

Ernie Tedeschi, an economic adviser to the Biden administration, points to the current dynamics of the labor market: Both hiring and firing have sharply declined, and fewer Americans are quitting their jobs to take other work. As a result, most of the job gains or losses each month are probably occurring at new companies, or those going out of business.

And those are the ones the government uses models to estimate, which can make them more volatile.

Groshen also points out that since the pandemic there has been a surge of new start-up companies, after many Americans lost their jobs or sought more independence. Yet they may not have created as many jobs as startups did pre-COVID, which throws off the government’s models.

Revisions seem to be getting bigger

The revisions to May and June’s job totals, which reduced hiring by a total of 258,000, were the largest — outside recessions — since 1967, according to economists at Goldman Sachs.

Kevin Hassett, Trump’s top economic adviser, went on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday and said, “What we’ve seen over the last few years is massive revisions to the jobs numbers.”

Hassett blamed a sharp drop in response rates to the government’s surveys during and after the pandemic: “When COVID happened, because response rates went down a lot, then revision rates skyrocketed.”

Yet calculations by Tedeschi show that while revisions spiked after the pandemic, they have since declined and are much smaller than in the 1960s and 1970s.

Other concerns about the government’s data

Many economists and statisticians have sounded the alarm about things like declining response rates for years. A decade ago, about 60% of companies surveyed by BLS responded. Now, only about 40% do.

The decline has been an international phenomenon, particularly since COVID. The United Kingdom has even suspended publication of an official unemployment rate because of falling responses.

And earlier this year the BLS said that it was cutting back on its collection of inflation data because of the Trump administration’s hiring freeze, raising concerns about the robustness of price data just as economists are trying to gauge the impact of tariffs on inflation.

U.S. government statistical agencies have seen an inflation-adjusted 16% drop in funding since 2009, according to a July report from the American Statistical Association.

“We are at an inflection point,” the report said. “To meet current and future challenges requires thoughtful, well-planned investment … In contrast, what we have observed is uncoordinated and unplanned reductions with no visible plan for the future.

Judge says Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs must stay in jail until he is sentenced

Judge says Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs must stay in jail until he is sentenced

By JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs can’t go home from jail to await sentencing on his prostitution-related conviction, a judge said Monday, denying the rap and style mogul’s latest bid for bail.

Combs has been behind bars since his September arrest. He faced federal charges of coercing girlfriends into having drug-fueled sex marathons with male sex workers while he watched and filmed them.

He was acquitted last month of the top charges — racketeering and sex trafficking — while being convicted of two counts of a prostitution-related offense.

In denying Combs’ $50 million bond proposal, Judge Arun Subramanian said the hip hop impresario hadn’t proven that he did not pose a flight risk or danger, nor shown an “exceptional circumstance” that would justify his release after a conviction that otherwise requires detention.

Combs’ arguments “might have traction in a case that didn’t involve evidence of violence, coercion or subjugation in connection with the acts of prostitution at issue, but the record here contains evidence of all three,” the judge wrote.

Prosecutors declined to comment on the ruling. Messages seeking comment were sent to Combs’ lawyers.

The conviction carries the potential for up to 10 years in prison. But there are complicated federal guidelines for calculating sentences in any given case, and prosecutors and Combs’ lawyers disagree substantially on how the guidelines come out for his case.

The guidelines aren’t mandatory, and Subramanian will have wide latitude in deciding Combs’ punishment.

The Bad Boy Records founder, now 55, was for decades a protean figure in pop culture. A Grammy-winning hip hop artist and entrepreneur with a flair for finding and launching big talents, he presided over a business empire that ranged from fashion to reality TV.

Prosecutors claimed he used his fame, wealth and violence to force and manipulate two now-ex-girlfriends into days-long, drugged-up sexual performances he called “freak-offs” or “hotel nights.”

During the trial, four women testified that Combs had beaten or sexually assaulted them. Jurors also watched video of Combs hurling one of his former girlfriends, R&B singer Cassie, to the floor, repeatedly kicking her and then and dragging her down a hotel hallway.

His lawyers argued that the government tried to criminalize consensual, if unconventional, sexual tastes that played out in complicated relationships. The defense acknowledged that Combs had violent outbursts but said nothing he did came amounted to the crimes with which he was charged.

Since the verdict, his lawyers have repeatedly renewed their efforts to get him out on bail until his sentencing, set for October. They have argued that the acquittals undercut the rationale for holding him, and they have pointed to other people who were released before sentencing on similar convictions.

Defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo suggested in a court filing that Combs was the United States’ “only person in jail for hiring adult male escorts for him and his girlfriend.”

Agnifilo also raised concerns about squalor and danger at the Metropolitan Detention Center, the notorious federal lockup where Combs is being held. The judge wrote Monday that those conditions were a “serious” consideration, but he said Combs hadn’t shown that unique circumstances –- such as advanced age or medical issues –- would warrant his release.

The defense’s most recent proposal included the $50 million bond, plus travel restrictions, and expressed openness to adding on house arrest at his Miami home, electronic monitoring, private security guards and other requirements.

Prosecutors opposed releasing Combs. They wrote that his “extensive history of violence — and his continued attempt to minimize his recent violent conduct — demonstrates his dangerousness.”

___

Associated Press writer Jake Offenhartz contributed from Los Angeles.

Dow leaps 585 points as US stocks win back most of Friday’s wipeout

Dow leaps 585 points as US stocks win back most of Friday’s wipeout

By STAN CHOE AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rallied on Monday and won back most of their sharp loss from last week, when worries about how President Donald Trump’s tariffs may be punishing the economy sent a shudder through Wall Street.

The S&P 500 jumped 1.5% to follow up its worst day since May with its best since May. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 585 points, or 1.3%, and the Nasdaq composite leaped 2%.

Idexx Laboratories helped lead the way and soared 27.5% after the seller of veterinary instruments and other health care products reported a stronger profit for the spring than analysts expected. It also raised its forecast for profit over the full year.

Tyson Foods likewise delivered a bigger-than-expected profit for the latest quarter, and the company behind the Jimmy Dean and Hillshire Farms brands rose 2.4%.

They helped make up for a nearly 3% loss for Berkshire Hathaway after Warren Buffett’s company reported a drop in profit for its latest quarter from a year earlier. The drop-off was due in part to the falling value of its investment in Kraft Heinz.

The pressure is on U.S. companies to deliver bigger profits after their stock prices shot to record after record recently. The jump in stock prices from a low point in April raised criticism that the broad market had become too expensive.

Stocks are coming off their worst week since May not so much because of that criticism but because of worries that Trump’s tariffs may be hitting the U.S. economy following a longer wait than some economists had expected. Job growth slowed sharply last month, and the unemployment rate worsened to 4.2%.

Trump reacted to Friday’s disappointing jobs numbers by firing the person in charge of compiling them. He also continued his criticism of the Federal Reserve, which could lower interest rates in order to pump adrenaline into the economy.

The Fed has instead been keeping rates steady this year, in part because lower rates can send inflation higher, and Trump’s tariffs may be set to increase prices for U.S. households.

Friday’s stunningly weak jobs report did raise expectations on Wall Street that the Fed will cut interest rates at its next meeting in September. That caused Treasury yields to slump in the bond market, and they eased a bit more on Monday.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.19% from 4.23% late Friday.

“In our view, if the Fed starts to cut rates at its September meeting, we believe this would be supportive for markets,” according to David Lefkowitz, head of US equities at UBS Global Wealth Management.

Such hopes, combined with profit reports from big U.S. companies that have largely come in better than expected, could help steady a U.S. stock market that may have been due for some turbulence. Before Friday, the S&P 500 had gone more than a month without a daily swing of 1%, either up or down.

This upcoming week may feature fewer fireworks following last week’s jobs report and profit updates from some of Wall Street’s most influential companies. This week’s highlights will likely include earnings reports from The Walt Disney Co., McDonald’s and Caterpillar, along with updates on U.S. business activity.

On Wall Street, American Eagle Outfitters jumped 23.6% after Trump weighed in on the debate surrounding the retailer’s advertisements, which highlight actor Sydney Sweeney’s great jeans. Some critics thought the reference to the blonde-haired and blue-eyed actor’s “great genes” may be extolling a narrow set of beauty standards. “Go get ’em Sydney!” Trump said on his social media network.

Wayfair climbed 12.7% after the retailer of furniture and home decor said accelerating growth helped it make more in profit and revenue during the spring than analysts expected.

Tesla rose 2.2% after awarding CEO Elon Musk 96 million shares of restricted stock valued at approximately $29 billion. The move could remove potential worries that Musk may leave the company.

CommScope soared 86.3% after reaching a deal to sell its connectivity and cable business to Amphenol for $10.5 billion in cash, while Amphenol rose 4.1%.

They helped offset a 15.6% loss for On Semiconductor, which only matched analysts’ expectations for profit in the latest quarter. The company, which sells to the auto and industrial industries, said it’s beginning to see “signs of stabilization” across its customers.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 91.93 points to 6,329.94. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 585.06 to 44,173.64, and the Nasdaq composite leaped 403.45 to 21,053.58.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.

South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.9%, and France’s CAC 40 climbed 1.1%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 was an outlier with a drop of 1.2%.

___

This version has been corrected to say that the U.S. stock market had its worst week last week since May, not April.

___

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

Cali Breakfast Burrito

Cali Breakfast Burrito

This breakfast burrito is a great way to start your day. It’s an easy, yet filling breakfast that works well on the go, or even for advanced meal prep if frozen and microwaved individually.

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • 1 large tortilla
  • 1 tbsp butter/oil
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp pepper
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 of an avocado
  • 1 hash brown patty
  • hot sauce of choice (optional)

Instructions

1. Scramble the eggs
Put butter in a skillet over medium-low heat and whisk eggs with some salt, pepper and garlic powder. Cook the eggs until they are set. Put them to the side. Scrambling the eggs works well for this recipe, but this step can be adjusted for preference.

2. Cook hash brown patty
Cook the hash brown patty in the same skillet in a bit of oil over medium heat, about 5 minutes on each side until golden brown. An air fryer can also be used for this step at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

3. Warm tortilla
Warm the tortilla, either in the microwave for about 15 seconds or in the skillet until lightly golden.

4. Prep avocado
Cut avocado and spread about half of it on the warm tortilla.

5. Assemble burrito
Add eggs and hash brown to the tortilla and wrap it into a burrito. Dip in hot sauce or another sauce of choice and enjoy!

August 4th 2025

August 4th 2025

Thought of the Day

August 4th 2024

When you help someone up a hill, you’re that much closer to the top yourself.

College isn’t in the plans for many rural students despite stepped-up recruiting efforts

College isn’t in the plans for many rural students despite stepped-up recruiting efforts

By CAROLYN THOMPSON Associated Press

PERRY, N.Y. (AP) — As a student in western New York’s rural Wyoming County, Briar Townes honed an artistic streak that he hopes to make a living from one day. In high school, he clicked with a college-level drawing and painting class.

But despite the college credits he earned, college isn’t part of his plan.

Since graduating from high school in June, he has been overseeing an art camp at the county’s Arts Council. If that doesn’t turn into a permanent job, there is work at Creative Food Ingredients, known as the “cookie factory” for the way it makes the town smell like baking cookies, or at local factories like American Classic Outfitters, which designs and sews athletic uniforms.

“My stress is picking an option, not finding an option,” he said.

Even though rural students graduate from high school at higher rates than their peers in cities and suburbs, fewer of them go on to college.

Many rural school districts, including the one in Perry that Townes attends, have begun offering college-level courses and working to remove academic and financial obstacles to higher education, with some success. But college doesn’t hold the same appeal for students in rural areas where they often would need to travel farther for school, parents have less college experience themselves, and some of the loudest political voices are skeptical of the need for higher education.

College enrollment for rural students has remained largely flat in recent years, despite the district-level efforts and stepped-up recruitment by many universities. About 55% of rural U.S. high school students who graduated in 2023 enrolled in college, according to National Clearinghouse Research Center data. That’s compared to 64% of suburban graduates and 59% of urban graduates.

College can make a huge difference in earning potential. An American man with a bachelor’s degree earns an estimated $900,000 more over his lifetime than a peer with a high school diploma, research by the Social Security Administration has found. For women, the difference is about $630,000.

A school takes cues from families’ hopes and goals

A lack of a college degree is no obstacle to opportunity in places such as Wyoming County, where people like to say there are more cows than people. The dairy farms, potato fields and maple sugar houses are a source of identity and jobs for the county just east of Buffalo.

“College has never really been, I don’t know, a necessity or problem in my family,” said Townes, the middle of three children whose father has a tattoo shop in Perry.

At Perry High School, Superintendent Daryl McLaughlin said the district takes cues from students like Townes, their families and the community, supplementing college offerings with programs geared toward career and technical fields such as the building trades. He said he is as happy to provide reference checks for employers and the military as he is to write recommendations for college applications.

“We’re letting our students know these institutions, whether it is a college or whether employers, they’re competing for you,” he said. “Our job is now setting them up for success so that they can take the greatest advantage of that competition, ultimately, to improve their quality of life.”

Still, college enrollment in the district has exceeded the national average in recent years, going from 60% of the class of 2022’s 55 graduates to 67% of 2024’s and 56% of 2025’s graduates. The district points to a decision to direct federal pandemic relief money toward covering tuition for students in its Accelerated College Enrollment program — a partnership with Genesee Community College. When the federal money ran out, the district paid to keep it going.

“This is a program that’s been in our community for quite some time, and it’s a program our community supports,” McLaughlin said.

About 15% of rural U.S. high school students were enrolled in college classes in January 2025 through such dual enrollment arrangements, a slightly lower rate than urban and suburban students, an Education Department survey found.

Rural access to dual enrollment is a growing area of focus as advocates seek to close gaps in access to higher education. The College in High School Alliance this year announced funding for seven states to develop policy to expand programs for rural students.

Higher education’s image problem is acute in rural America

Around the country, many students feel jaded by the high costs of college tuition. And Americans are increasingly skeptical about the value of college, polls have shown, with Republicans, the dominant party in rural America, losing confidence in higher education at higher rates than Democrats.

“Whenever you have this narrative that ‘college is bad, college is bad, these professors are going to indoctrinate you,’ it’s hard,” said Andrew Koricich, executive director of the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. “You have to figure out, how do you crack through that information ecosphere and say, actually, people with a bachelor’s degree, on average, earn 65% more than people with a high school diploma only?”

In much of rural America, about 21% of people over the age of 25 have a bachelor’s degree, compared to about 36% of adults in other areas, according to a government analysis of U.S. Census findings.

Some rural educators don’t hold back on promoting college

In rural Putnam County, Florida, about 14% of adults have a bachelor’s degree. That doesn’t stop principal Joe Theobold from setting and meeting an annual goal of 100% college admission for students at Q.I. Roberts Jr.-Sr. High School.

Paper mills and power plants provide opportunities for a middle class life in the county, where the cost of living is low. But Theobold tells students the goal of higher education “is to go off and learn more about not only the world, but also about yourself.”

“You don’t want to be 17 years old, determining what you’re going to do for the rest of your life,” he said.

Families choose the magnet school because of its focus on higher education, even though most of the district’s parents never went to a college. Many students visit college campuses through Camp Osprey, a University of North Florida program that helps students experience college dorms and dining halls.

In upstate New York, high school junior Devon Wells grew up on his family farm in Perry but doesn’t see his future there. He’s considering a career in welding, or as an electrical line worker in South Carolina, where he heard the pay might be double what he would make at home. None of his plans require college, he said.

“I grew up on a farm, so that’s all hands-on work. That’s really all I know and would want to do,” Devon said.

Neither his nor Townes’ parents have pushed one way or the other, they said.

“I remember them talking to me like, `Hey, would you want to go to college?’ I remember telling them, ‘not really,’” Townes said. He would have listened if a college recruiter reached out, he said, but wouldn’t be willing to move very far.

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The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Popular 1980s actor Loni Anderson of the hit TV series ‘WKRP in Cincinnati’ has died

Popular 1980s actor Loni Anderson of the hit TV series ‘WKRP in Cincinnati’ has died

By CHRISTOPHER WEBER Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Loni Anderson, who played a struggling radio station’s empowered receptionist on the hit TV comedy “WKRP in Cincinnati,” died Sunday, just days before her 80th birthday.

Anderson died at a Los Angeles hospital following a prolonged illness, said her longtime publicist, Cheryl J. Kagan.

“We are heartbroken to announce the passing of our dear wife, mother and grandmother,” Anderson’s family said in a statement.

“WKRP in Cincinnati” aired from 1978 to 1982 and was set in a flagging Ohio radio station trying to reinvent itself with rock music. The cast included Gary Sandy, Tim Reid, Howard Hesseman, Frank Bonner and Jan Smithers, alongside Anderson as Jennifer Marlowe, whose good looks were matched by her intelligence.

As the station’s receptionist, the blonde and high-heeled Jennifer routinely deflected unwanted business calls for her boss, Mr. Carlson. Her efficiency often kept the station running in the face of others’ incompetence.

The role earned Anderson two Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe nominations.

Anderson starred on the big screen alongside Burt Reynolds in the 1983 comedy “Stroker Ace,” and the two later married and became tabloid fixtures before their messy breakup in 1994.

Their son, Quinton Reynolds, was “the best decision that we ever made in our entire relationship,” she said during the unveiling of a bronze bust at Reynolds’ Hollywood grave site in 2021.

“I think back to the beginning of our relationship, it was so, oh, gosh, tabloidy. We were just a spectacle all the time. And it was hard to have a relationship in that atmosphere. And somehow, we did it through many ups and downs,” Anderson told The Associated Press.

Anderson detailed their tumultuous marriage in the 1995 autobiography, “My Life in High Heels,” which she said was about “the growth of a woman, a woman who survives.”

“I think if you’re going to write about yourself, you have to do it warts and all,” Anderson told the AP while promoting the book. “You may not even tell the nicest things about yourself, because you’re telling the truth.”

She married four times, most recently to Bob Flick in 2008.

Anderson was born Aug. 5, 1945, in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Her father was an environmental chemist, and her mother was a model.

Her first role as an actress was a small part in the 1966 film “Nevada Smith,” starring Steve McQueen. Most of her career was spent on the small screen with early guest parts in the 1970s on “S.W.A.T.” and “Police Woman.” After “WKRP,” Anderson starred in the short-lived comedy series “Easy Street” and appeared in made-for-TV movies including “A Letter to Three Wives” and “White Hot: The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd.”

In 2023 she co-starred in Lifetime’s “Ladies Of The 80s: A Divas Christmas” with Linda Gray, Donna Mills, Morgan Fairchild and Nicollette Sheridan.

“I am heartbroken to hear of the passing of the wonderful Loni Anderson!” Fairchild wrote on X. “The sweetest, most gracious lady! I’m just devastated to hear this.”

Anderson is survived by Flick, her daughter Deidra and son-in law Charlie Hoffman, son Quinton Anderson Reynolds, grandchildren McKenzie and Megan Hoffman, stepson Adam Flick and wife Helene, and step-grandchildren Felix and Maximilian.

A private family service is planned at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Kagan said.

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Associated Press journalist Itzel Luna in Los Angeles contributed.

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