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AP Business SummaryBrief at 4:21 p.m. ESTAndrej Stojakovic made 11 free throws to help craft a team-high 20 points, freshman Jeremiah Wilkinson had his second consecutive big game off the bench and Cal ran its winning streak to three with an 83-77 nonconference victory over Sacramento State on Sunday afternoon in Berkeley, Calif. Wilkinson finished with 16 points and Rytis Petraitis 13 for the Golden Bears (5-1), whose only loss this season was at Vanderbilt. Jacob Holt went for a season-high 25 points for the Hornets (1-4), who dropped their fourth straight after a season-opening win over Cal State Maritime. Seeking a fourth straight home win, Cal led by as many as 12 points in the first half and 40-33 at halftime before Sacramento State rallied. The Hornets used a 14-5 burst out of the gate following the intermission to grab a 47-45 lead. Julian Vaughns had a 3-pointer and three-point play in the run. But Cal dominated pretty much the rest of the game, taking the lead for good on a Petraitis 3-pointer with 14:50 remaining. Stojakovic, a transfer from rival Stanford, went 11-for-15 at the foul line en route to his third 20-point game of the young season. Cal outscored Sacramento State 26-17 on free throws to more than account for the margin of victory. Coming off a 23-point explosion in his first extended action of the season, Wilkinson hit five of his 10 shots Sunday. The Golden Bears outshot the Hornets 47.2 percent to 43.1 percent. Joshua Ola-Joseph contributed 10 points and six rebounds, Mady Sissoko also had 10 points and Petraitis found time for a team-high five assists. Holt complemented his 25 points with a game-high eight rebounds. He made four 3-pointers, as did Vaughns en route to 18 points, helping Sacramento State outscore Cal 30-21 from beyond the arc. EJ Neal added 16 points for the Hornets, while Emil Skytta tied for game-high assist honors with five to go with seven points. --Field Level Media
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Guess which ASX tech stock is jumping 13% amid 'financial transformation journey' - The Motley Fool AustraliaSNYDER — This little village of 300 has become such a manufacturing powerhouse, its population more than doubles when the morning shifts start at the four factories lining the highway. One company alone employs 250 people making big aerial ladder trucks for fire departments all over North America. The town also boasts another firm making smaller fire engines, still another assembling specialty vehicles for the water well industry, as well as a new food processor. “We build some pretty cool stuff here,” said Jeff Hunke, who grew up in Snyder and owns and runs Hunke Manufacturing. “I mean, this little town puts aerial ladders in New York City.” Workers assemble fire apparatus at the Smeal facility in Snyder on Nov. 25. But Snyder isn’t the only place in Nebraska where manufacturing booms. Nebraska in recent years has been undergoing a bit of a manufacturing renaissance, with the 109,000 people currently employed in the industry representing a 23-year high. People are also reading... Nebraska’s manufacturing employment is up over 9% in the past five years alone, adding more than 9,000 jobs. That growth, by percentage, is nearly 16 times the national rate and one of the highest among the states. “There is clearly a lot of wind behind the sails of manufacturing in Nebraska,” Tim Carpenter, chief executive of David City trailer manufacturer Timpte, said during a recent manufacturing conference in Omaha. Industry officials and economists cite a number of reasons for the recent momentum. The state is strong in food processing, one of the fastest growing manufacturing sectors. It also boasts many agriculture-related durable goods manufacturers that have been boosted by a strong farm economy over the last decade. It’s believed Nebraska has also benefited from a national trend of American firms seeking to source more of their supplies domestically after the disruptions to worldwide supply chains caused by the 2020 pandemic. More than anything, the state has long enjoyed a stellar base of makers and creators who take pride that their products are not only made in America, but made in Nebraska. Manufacturing is the state’s second-largest industry after agriculture, with more than one in 10 Nebraska jobs in the sector. Many of the jobs are rooted in rural communities, manufacturers decades ago realizing they could find a strong blue-collar workforce in those areas — many of them kids who grew up working on farms. “The quality of the employees, the work ethic, provides a good asset for us,” said Mark Kreikemeier, president of Snyder’s Danko Emergency Equipment. Cheyenne Renter buffs the finish on a truck at Danko Emergency Equipment Co. in Snyder, on Nov. 25. The state’s central location, midway between coastal markets, and availability of cheap electricity and business tax incentives have also historically made Nebraska a productive place for making things. “Frankly, we have a lot of really good manufacturers in the state who are eager to grow,” said K.C. Belitz, director of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development. “So it’s been really impressive.” The impressive growth comes despite the labor shortage that has long plagued the state. The state chamber of commerce believes as many as 8,000 manufacturing jobs are currently going unfilled simply because firms can’t find the workers. “Here, we’re all fighting for the same employee,” Kreikemeier said. Kreikemeier and others say the situation has recently gotten a little better, thanks to a plethora of new apprenticeship and internship programs through local high schools and community colleges. That, too, has likely helped to propel some of the recent job growth. Now the industry’s impressive run could either be enhanced or tested with the upcoming change of administration in Washington. President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to boost American manufacturers by putting heavy tariffs on foreign imports, particularly from China. That would raise the price of products coming in from those countries and make American-made products more competitive. Some American manufacturers embrace the change as helping them compete against countries that are unfairly subsidizing their manufacturers. “We can go back to American-made parts, and get them on time, because today we're buying so much from China,” Danko’s Kreikemeier said. But most economists, and even some manufacturers, are skeptical of Trump’s plan. They say such tariffs would raise prices for consumers, risking more inflation and interest rate hikes. They also say new tariffs would inevitably invite retaliatory tariffs from other countries that would in turn make American exports less competitive. “If you can find an economist who thinks you should raise tariffs, give me a call,” said Creighton University economist Ernie Goss. “Two areas we do well in (in Nebraska) are agriculture and manufacturing, and both of them depend on free trade.” Decades of manufacturing declines before resurgence Between 1998 and 2009, Nebraska shed nearly 20% of its manufacturing jobs. It was part of a broader national slump that began in the late 1970s, largely fueled by increased automation, a rise of service jobs and globalization of production. In Nebraska, the decline was probably best symbolized in 2008. That’s when the owner of the 84-year-old Vise-Grips plant in DeWitt — the little town where the locking pliers had been invented — shuttered it and outsourced the production to China. Some 330 local residents were thrown out of work. It’s been said the deindustrialization that hammered blue-collar workers in recent decades helped fuel the rise of Trump’s Make America Great Again political movement. But the past manufacturing slump makes the recent resurgence in Nebraska all the more impressive. Manufacturing jobs in Nebraska were growing somewhat before the pandemic but then surged coming out of it. During 2022, Nebraska manufacturing employment jumped 4% — the biggest one-year increase since 1994. They’ve continued to rise on nearly a monthly basis — up another 2.8% so far this year. The 109,000 manufacturing jobs as of October were at their highest number in Nebraska since September 2001. The growth has also stood out nationally. Nebraska’s 9% growth in the industry since the end of 2019 compares to growth of about one-half of 1% nationally. One recent study ranked the state’s manufacturing jobs growth between 2020 and 2023 the sixth highest among all states, trailing only Nevada, Montana, Utah, Florida and Arizona. Iowa ranked 24th, with a fraction of Nebraska’s growth. Nebraska’s gains have come despite some recent weakening in the farm economy. They've also come even as some production tasks have become increasingly automated. Some Nebraska manufacturers say automation has actually been a force multiplier for them, machines handling some of the more rote and repetitive work and freeing up workers to perform higher-value tasks. “There’s growth in employment, growth in GDP, and growth in interest among young people on what a career in manufacturing looks like,” said Mike Johnson, who leads the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s efforts to boost manufacturing. A panel discussion at the chamber’s recent manufacturing conference focused on efforts to recruit and develop more workers. Snyder is a town with a large manufacturing footprint for a town of less than 300 people. The Nebraska Department of Education is preparing to roll out a new online portal that can match manufacturers looking for workers with school districts and students looking for such opportunities. Officials at Lozier, a builder of store shelves and fixtures that has long been an important employer in northeast Omaha, said they recognized years ago that with an aging Baby Boomer workforce, the company would need to get aggressive if it was going to have the workers it needs. So in 2012, Lozier partnered with Metropolitan Community College on an apprenticeship program in which the company provides candidates on-the-job training and pays for their schooling. Today, nearly a third of Lozier workers have come through the program. “After two years, they’ll have a degree, they’ll have experience and money in their pocket, and a job waiting for them,” said Lozier’s Ralph Kleinsmith. Good-paying jobs, too, he said — paying between $65,000 and $70,000 per year, with overtime. National studies show manufacturing workers generally earn more than comparable workers in the rest of the private sector, with a premium for those in highly-skilled niches. Besides good pay, the industry has much else to offer, industry advocates say. “What’s the coolest thing about manufacturing: We build stuff,” said Jim Townsend of Kawasaki in Lincoln, which this year celebrated 50 years of operations. According to data compiled by IndustrySelect, Omaha and Lincoln have the most manufacturing employees in Nebraska at 26,000 and 24,000 workers, respectively. Other big manufacturing cities include Grand Island (nearly 8,000) and Columbus (more than 5,000). But few Nebraska communities can claim more manufacturing firms or workers per capita than Snyder. The four manufacturers in town collectively employ almost 400 workers, drawing most of them from other towns and cities in a 60-mile radius. Snyder may be the only town of 300 that features rush hour traffic congestion, as at quitting time vehicles back up a quarter mile along Nebraska Highway 91 at its intersection with U.S. 275. The town’s proud manufacturing heritage can largely be traced to one man: Don Smeal. Smeal in 1955 founded a local repair shop for implements and equipment. Some time later, a man asked him to build a specialized derrick truck for use in the water well industry. Then in 1963, the Snyder rural fire district asked Smeal to build it a 42-foot ladder truck. Smeal Fire Apparatus Company was born. Smeal is no longer a local family-owned firm, acquired years ago by a national manufacturer. But it remains rooted in Snyder under the Smeal name, and three Smeal family members still work at the plant — one of them is Snyder’s mayor. Sparks flew and machinery roared on the production floor last week as workers took raw aluminum and steel and cut it, bent it, formed it, welded it and assembled it into bodies that would then be mounted on truck chassis. The complexities of a fire truck and all their gadgets mean jobs not just for welders, but plumbers and electricians, too. At the end of the line, a brightly painted new fire truck comes out, ready for delivery. “You’re not going to find a more cool product to build than a fire truck,” said Kevin Strudthoff, general manager of the Smeal facility, as he watched a woman on the line weld components into place. “It’s an opportunity for a Nebraska-made product to go out throughout the United States. When you talk to the folks on the floor, they do take pride in that.” Strudthoff said the company has about 20 more workers than it did a year ago, and could use 20 more if he could find them. Across the street from the Smeal plant is Hunke Manufacturing, a 30-employee firm which traces its roots to Smeal. A worker welds at Hunke Manufacturing in Snyder on Nov. 25 It was formed in 2012 when Smeal’s original derrick truck business was spun out. It’s now owned and run by Jeff Hunke, a grandson of Don Smeal, who proudly proclaims it the nation’s largest manufacturer of hoist vehicles for the water well service industry. Hunke said his roster of work orders has never been so full, so he can use a few more workers if he can find them. Not only does Hunke sell all over the country, it has an export business, too. Down the highway to the east of Smeal and Hunke is Danko, another spin-off from Smeal. In 1974, Dan Kreikemeier, who was Don Smeal’s first employee, started his own firefighting vehicle firm. His son now serves as president and the firm employs over 60 people, specializing in making smaller all-terrain trucks that can fight brush fires. Last month, Cheyenne Renter was giving a final buff to the paint job of a fire truck before adding the stripes and graphics. She said she loves being able to see the finished product and “knowing what you do helps people.” The newest manufacturer on the block in Snyder is Wonder Meats, which opened last year in a plant that had recently been vacated by Omaha Steaks. It now employs about 45 people producing Philly-steak beef and chicken products for wholesale. Its New Jersey-based owners are also looking to expand the plant. “I think the story of our little town and the industry it has is something to be very proud of,” said Marla Prenzlow, a longtime Snyder resident who now manages the plant. “I know Wonder Meats plans to have the same longevity the other businesses have achieved.” The Nestle Purina plant in Crete has been utilizing a new Boston Dynamics Robot Dog in its manufacturing area to prolong the life of their machines and prevent breakdowns. These industries had the biggest swings in job openings These industries had the biggest swings in job openings Job openings have been at some of their lowest levels nationally since February 2021 , Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows. However, openings remain elevated compared to the two years before the COVID-19 pandemic, with 8.1 million open jobs at the end of May 2024—about 1 million above pre-pandemic levels. While Americans still find themselves largely employed, their capacity to resign and switch jobs is quickly falling to levels before the Great Resignation, when the quit rate reached 3% at its peak in spring 2022. Across industries, employers continued adding jobs, upping employment by 272,000 in May , with the majority of gains in health care, government, and leisure and hospitality. The unemployment rate remained relatively consistent, measuring at 4%. Excess labor demand is declining , and the labor market is rebalancing, Conrad DeQuadros, a senior economic adviser at Brean Capital, told Reuters. For workers, this means less confidence in finding new employment outside their current jobs. For employers, it could mean tempering wage inflation as demand for labor slows. To discover which industries are driving the job market, Stacker used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Job Openings and Labor Turnover report to see which industries added jobs in May and which saw openings shrink. Industries are ranked by the percent change in job openings from May 2023 to 2024 and appear from the largest decreases to the largest increases. Monthly data is preliminary. The BLS records job openings on the last business day of the month and calculates the rate as a percent of total employment plus job openings within the industry. The list below provides a snapshot of the economic activity across categories—retail, finance, construction, and more. You may also like: A look at the average consultant salary by industry #18. Retail trade - Total job openings, May 2024: 478,000 --- Annual change: -274,000 (down 36.4%) --- One-month change: -16,000 (down 3.2%) - Job openings rate: 3% #17. Accommodation and food services - Total job openings, May 2024: 771,000 --- Annual change: -374,000 (down 32.7%) --- One-month change: -147,000 (down 16%) - Job openings rate: 5.1% #16. Transportation, warehousing, and utilities - Total job openings, May 2024: 350,000 --- Annual change: -167,000 (down 32.3%) --- One-month change: +16,000 (up 4.8%) - Job openings rate: 4.7% #15. Wholesale trade - Total job openings, May 2024: 188,000 --- Annual change: -79,000 (down 29.6%) --- One-month change: -1,000 (down 0.5%) - Job openings rate: 3% #14. Nondurable goods manufacturing - Total job openings, May 2024: 174,000 --- Annual change: -54,000 (down 23.7%) --- One-month change: +17,000 (up 10.8%) - Job openings rate: 3.5% You may also like: Workers suffer the most injuries in these 25 jobs #13. Information - Total job openings, May 2024: 134,000 --- Annual change: -28,000 (down 17.3%) --- One-month change: +24,000 (up 21.8%) - Job openings rate: 4.2% #12. State and local education - Total job openings, May 2024: 295,000 --- Annual change: -47,000 (down 13.7%) --- One-month change: +26,000 (up 9.7%) - Job openings rate: 2.7% #11. Construction - Total job openings, May 2024: 339,000 --- Annual change: -38,000 (down 10.1%) --- One-month change: +2,000 (up 0.6%) - Job openings rate: 4% #10. Mining and logging - Total job openings, May 2024: 27,000 --- Annual change: -3,000 (down 10%) --- One-month change: +3,000 (up 12.5%) - Job openings rate: 4.2% #9. Real estate and rental and leasing - Total job openings, May 2024: 112,000 --- Annual change: -9,000 (down 7.4%) --- One-month change: -32,000 (down 22.2%) - Job openings rate: 4.3% You may also like: A tale of two nurses: How average travel nurse compensation compares to all US nurse salaries #8. Professional and business services - Total job openings, May 2024: 1.5 million --- Annual change: -112,000 (down 7%) --- One-month change: +44,000 (up 3.1%) - Job openings rate: 6.1% #7. Arts, entertainment, and recreation - Total job openings, May 2024: 151,000 --- Annual change: -5,000 (down 3.2%) --- One-month change: 0 (up 0%) - Job openings rate: 5.4% #6. Private educational services - Total job openings, May 2024: 184,000 --- Annual change: -6,000 (down 3.2%) --- One-month change: -34,000 (down 15.6%) - Job openings rate: 4.5% #5. Health care and social assistance - Total job openings, May 2024: 1.6 million --- Annual change: -43,000 (down 2.6%) --- One-month change: +78,000 (up 5%) - Job openings rate: 6.8% #4. Federal government - Total job openings, May 2024: 176,000 --- Annual change: +2,000 (up 1.1%) --- One-month change: +37,000 (up 26.6%) - Job openings rate: 5.5% You may also like: As more women are diagnosed with ADHD, here's how their work environment can set them up for success #3. Finance and insurance - Total job openings, May 2024: 325,000 --- Annual change: +25,000 (up 8.3%) --- One-month change: +5,000 (up 1.6%) - Job openings rate: 4.6% #2. State and local government - Total job openings, May 2024: 615,000 --- Annual change: +61,000 (up 11%) --- One-month change: +117,000 (up 23.5%) - Job openings rate: 6% #1. Durable goods manufacturing - Total job openings, May 2024: 428,000 --- Annual change: +63,000 (up 17.3%) --- One-month change: +97,000 (up 29.3%) - Job openings rate: 5% #18. Federal government - Total job openings, June 2024: 106,000 --- Annual change: -58,000 (down 35.4%) --- One-month change: -62,000 (down 36.9%) - Job openings rate: 3.4% #17. Mining and logging - Total job openings, June 2024: 20,000 --- Annual change: -9,000 (down 31.0%) --- One-month change: -6,000 (down 23.1%) - Job openings rate: 3.1% #16. Construction - Total job openings, June 2024: 295,000 --- Annual change: -119,000 (down 28.7%) --- One-month change: -71,000 (down 19.4%) - Job openings rate: 3.5% #15. Retail trade - Total job openings, June 2024: 549,000 --- Annual change: -159,000 (down 22.5%) --- One-month change: +43,000 (up 8.5%) - Job openings rate: 3.4% #14. Nondurable goods manufacturing - Total job openings, June 2024: 164,000 --- Annual change: -44,000 (down 21.2%) --- One-month change: -11,000 (down 6.3%) - Job openings rate: 3.3% You may also like: 20 of the highest-paying cities for travel nurses #13. Information - Total job openings, June 2024: 112,000 --- Annual change: -30,000 (down 21.1%) --- One-month change: -25,000 (down 18.2%) - Job openings rate: 3.6% #12. Wholesale trade - Total job openings, June 2024: 245,000 --- Annual change: -54,000 (down 18.1%) --- One-month change: +47,000 (up 23.7%) - Job openings rate: 3.8% #10. Durable goods manufacturing - Total job openings, June 2024: 323,000 --- Annual change: -47,000 (down 12.7%) --- One-month change: -88,000 (down 21.4%) - Job openings rate: 3.8% #8. Health care and social assistance - Total job openings, June 2024: 1.6 million --- Annual change: -137,000 (down 7.8%) --- One-month change: -62,000 (down 3.7%) - Job openings rate: 6.7% #7. Transportation, warehousing, and utilities - Total job openings, June 2024: 406,000 --- Annual change: -31,000 (down 7.1%) --- One-month change: +62,000 (up 18.0%) - Job openings rate: 5.3% #6. Professional and business services - Total job openings, June 2024: 1.5 million --- Annual change: -43,000 (down 2.8%) --- One-month change: -27,000 (down 1.8%) - Job openings rate: 6.1% #5. Finance and insurance - Total job openings, June 2024: 308,000 --- Annual change: -4,000 (down 1.3%) --- One-month change: -39,000 (down 11.2%) - Job openings rate: 4.4% #2. State and local education - Total job openings, June 2024: 290,000 --- Annual change: +14,000 (up 5.1%) --- One-month change: +24,000 (up 9.0%) - Job openings rate: 2.6% #1. State and local government - Total job openings, June 2024: 698,000 --- Annual change: +34,000 (up 5.1%) --- One-month change: +94,000 (up 15.6%) - Job openings rate: 6.8% The business news you need Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.
Kansas once required voters to prove citizenship. That didn't work out so well
ATLANTA (AP) — Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer who won the presidency in the wake of the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, endured humbling defeat after one tumultuous term and then redefined life after the White House as a global humanitarian, has died. He was 100 years old. The longest-lived American president died on Sunday, more than a year after entering hospice care , at his home in the small town of Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died at 96 in November 2023 , spent most of their lives, The Carter Center said. “Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia,” the center said in posting about his death on the social media platform X. It added in a statement that he died peacefully, surrounded by his family. Businessman, Navy officer, evangelist, politician, negotiator, author, woodworker, citizen of the world — Carter forged a path that still challenges political assumptions and stands out among the 45 men who reached the nation’s highest office. The 39th president leveraged his ambition with a keen intellect, deep religious faith and prodigious work ethic, conducting diplomatic missions into his 80s and building houses for the poor well into his 90s. “My faith demands — this is not optional — my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have to try to make a difference,” Carter once said. A moderate Democrat, Carter entered the 1976 presidential race as a little-known Georgia governor with a broad smile, outspoken Baptist mores and technocratic plans reflecting his education as an engineer. His no-frills campaign depended on public financing, and his promise not to deceive the American people resonated after Richard Nixon’s disgrace and U.S. defeat in southeast Asia. “If I ever lie to you, if I ever make a misleading statement, don’t vote for me. I would not deserve to be your president,” Carter repeated before narrowly beating Republican incumbent Gerald Ford, who had lost popularity pardoning Nixon. Carter governed amid Cold War pressures, turbulent oil markets and social upheaval over racism, women’s rights and America’s global role. His most acclaimed achievement in office was a Mideast peace deal that he brokered by keeping Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the bargaining table for 13 days in 1978. That Camp David experience inspired the post-presidential center where Carter would establish so much of his legacy. Yet Carter’s electoral coalition splintered under double-digit inflation, gasoline lines and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran. His bleakest hour came when eight Americans died in a failed hostage rescue in April 1980, helping to ensure his landslide defeat to Republican Ronald Reagan. Carter acknowledged in his 2020 “White House Diary” that he could be “micromanaging” and “excessively autocratic,” complicating dealings with Congress and the federal bureaucracy. He also turned a cold shoulder to Washington’s news media and lobbyists, not fully appreciating their influence on his political fortunes. “It didn’t take us long to realize that the underestimation existed, but by that time we were not able to repair the mistake,” Carter told historians in 1982, suggesting that he had “an inherent incompatibility” with Washington insiders. Carter insisted his overall approach was sound and that he achieved his primary objectives — to “protect our nation’s security and interests peacefully” and “enhance human rights here and abroad” — even if he fell spectacularly short of a second term. Ignominious defeat, though, allowed for renewal. The Carters founded The Carter Center in 1982 as a first-of-its-kind base of operations, asserting themselves as international peacemakers and champions of democracy, public health and human rights. “I was not interested in just building a museum or storing my White House records and memorabilia,” Carter wrote in a memoir published after his 90th birthday. “I wanted a place where we could work.” That work included easing nuclear tensions in North and South Korea, helping to avert a U.S. invasion of Haiti and negotiating cease-fires in Bosnia and Sudan. By 2022, The Carter Center had declared at least 113 elections in Latin America, Asia and Africa to be free or fraudulent. Recently, the center began monitoring U.S. elections as well. Carter’s stubborn self-assuredness and even self-righteousness proved effective once he was unencumbered by the Washington order, sometimes to the point of frustrating his successors . He went “where others are not treading,” he said, to places like Ethiopia, Liberia and North Korea, where he secured the release of an American who had wandered across the border in 2010. “I can say what I like. I can meet whom I want. I can take on projects that please me and reject the ones that don’t,” Carter said. He announced an arms-reduction-for-aid deal with North Korea without clearing the details with Bill Clinton’s White House. He openly criticized President George W. Bush for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He also criticized America’s approach to Israel with his 2006 book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” And he repeatedly countered U.S. administrations by insisting North Korea should be included in international affairs, a position that most aligned Carter with Republican President Donald Trump. Among the center’s many public health initiatives, Carter vowed to eradicate the guinea worm parasite during his lifetime, and nearly achieved it: Cases dropped from millions in the 1980s to nearly a handful. With hardhats and hammers, the Carters also built homes with Habitat for Humanity. The Nobel committee’s 2002 Peace Prize cites his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” Carter should have won it alongside Sadat and Begin in 1978, the chairman added. Carter accepted the recognition saying there was more work to be done. “The world is now, in many ways, a more dangerous place,” he said. “The greater ease of travel and communication has not been matched by equal understanding and mutual respect.” Carter’s globetrotting took him to remote villages where he met little “Jimmy Carters,” so named by admiring parents. But he spent most of his days in the same one-story Plains house — expanded and guarded by Secret Service agents — where they lived before he became governor. He regularly taught Sunday School lessons at Maranatha Baptist Church until his mobility declined and the coronavirus pandemic raged. Those sessions drew visitors from around the world to the small sanctuary where Carter will receive his final send-off after a state funeral at Washington’s National Cathedral. The common assessment that he was a better ex-president than president rankled Carter and his allies. His prolific post-presidency gave him a brand above politics, particularly for Americans too young to witness him in office. But Carter also lived long enough to see biographers and historians reassess his White House years more generously. His record includes the deregulation of key industries, reduction of U.S. dependence on foreign oil, cautious management of the national debt and notable legislation on the environment, education and mental health. He focused on human rights in foreign policy, pressuring dictators to release thousands of political prisoners . He acknowledged America’s historical imperialism, pardoned Vietnam War draft evaders and relinquished control of the Panama Canal. He normalized relations with China. “I am not nominating Jimmy Carter for a place on Mount Rushmore,” Stuart Eizenstat, Carter’s domestic policy director, wrote in a 2018 book. “He was not a great president” but also not the “hapless and weak” caricature voters rejected in 1980, Eizenstat said. Rather, Carter was “good and productive” and “delivered results, many of which were realized only after he left office.” Madeleine Albright, a national security staffer for Carter and Clinton’s secretary of state, wrote in Eizenstat’s forward that Carter was “consequential and successful” and expressed hope that “perceptions will continue to evolve” about his presidency. “Our country was lucky to have him as our leader,” said Albright, who died in 2022. Jonathan Alter, who penned a comprehensive Carter biography published in 2020, said in an interview that Carter should be remembered for “an epic American life” spanning from a humble start in a home with no electricity or indoor plumbing through decades on the world stage across two centuries. “He will likely go down as one of the most misunderstood and underestimated figures in American history,” Alter told The Associated Press. James Earl Carter Jr. was born Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains and spent his early years in nearby Archery. His family was a minority in the mostly Black community, decades before the civil rights movement played out at the dawn of Carter’s political career. Carter, who campaigned as a moderate on race relations but governed more progressively, talked often of the influence of his Black caregivers and playmates but also noted his advantages: His land-owning father sat atop Archery’s tenant-farming system and owned a main street grocery. His mother, Lillian , would become a staple of his political campaigns. Seeking to broaden his world beyond Plains and its population of fewer than 1,000 — then and now — Carter won an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1946. That same year he married Rosalynn Smith, another Plains native, a decision he considered more important than any he made as head of state. She shared his desire to see the world, sacrificing college to support his Navy career. Carter climbed in rank to lieutenant, but then his father was diagnosed with cancer, so the submarine officer set aside his ambitions of admiralty and moved the family back to Plains. His decision angered Rosalynn, even as she dived into the peanut business alongside her husband. Carter again failed to talk with his wife before his first run for office — he later called it “inconceivable” not to have consulted her on such major life decisions — but this time, she was on board. “My wife is much more political,” Carter told the AP in 2021. He won a state Senate seat in 1962 but wasn’t long for the General Assembly and its back-slapping, deal-cutting ways. He ran for governor in 1966 — losing to arch-segregationist Lester Maddox — and then immediately focused on the next campaign. Carter had spoken out against church segregation as a Baptist deacon and opposed racist “Dixiecrats” as a state senator. Yet as a local school board leader in the 1950s he had not pushed to end school segregation even after the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision, despite his private support for integration. And in 1970, Carter ran for governor again as the more conservative Democrat against Carl Sanders, a wealthy businessman Carter mocked as “Cufflinks Carl.” Sanders never forgave him for anonymous, race-baiting flyers, which Carter disavowed. Ultimately, Carter won his races by attracting both Black voters and culturally conservative whites. Once in office, he was more direct. “I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over,” he declared in his 1971 inaugural address, setting a new standard for Southern governors that landed him on the cover of Time magazine. His statehouse initiatives included environmental protection, boosting rural education and overhauling antiquated executive branch structures. He proclaimed Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the slain civil rights leader’s home state. And he decided, as he received presidential candidates in 1972, that they were no more talented than he was. In 1974, he ran Democrats’ national campaign arm. Then he declared his own candidacy for 1976. An Atlanta newspaper responded with the headline: “Jimmy Who?” The Carters and a “Peanut Brigade” of family members and Georgia supporters camped out in Iowa and New Hampshire, establishing both states as presidential proving grounds. His first Senate endorsement: a young first-termer from Delaware named Joe Biden. Yet it was Carter’s ability to navigate America’s complex racial and rural politics that cemented the nomination. He swept the Deep South that November, the last Democrat to do so, as many white Southerners shifted to Republicans in response to civil rights initiatives. A self-declared “born-again Christian,” Carter drew snickers by referring to Scripture in a Playboy magazine interview, saying he “had looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.” The remarks gave Ford a new foothold and television comedians pounced — including NBC’s new “Saturday Night Live” show. But voters weary of cynicism in politics found it endearing. Carter chose Minnesota Sen. Walter “Fritz” Mondale as his running mate on a “Grits and Fritz” ticket. In office, he elevated the vice presidency and the first lady’s office. Mondale’s governing partnership was a model for influential successors Al Gore, Dick Cheney and Biden. Rosalynn Carter was one of the most involved presidential spouses in history, welcomed into Cabinet meetings and huddles with lawmakers and top aides. The Carters presided with uncommon informality: He used his nickname “Jimmy” even when taking the oath of office, carried his own luggage and tried to silence the Marine Band’s “Hail to the Chief.” They bought their clothes off the rack. Carter wore a cardigan for a White House address, urging Americans to conserve energy by turning down their thermostats. Amy, the youngest of four children, attended District of Columbia public school. Washington’s social and media elite scorned their style. But the larger concern was that “he hated politics,” according to Eizenstat, leaving him nowhere to turn politically once economic turmoil and foreign policy challenges took their toll. Carter partially deregulated the airline, railroad and trucking industries and established the departments of Education and Energy, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He designated millions of acres of Alaska as national parks or wildlife refuges. He appointed a then-record number of women and nonwhite people to federal posts. He never had a Supreme Court nomination, but he elevated civil rights attorney Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the nation’s second highest court, positioning her for a promotion in 1993. He appointed Paul Volker, the Federal Reserve chairman whose policies would help the economy boom in the 1980s — after Carter left office. He built on Nixon’s opening with China, and though he tolerated autocrats in Asia, pushed Latin America from dictatorships to democracy. But he couldn’t immediately tame inflation or the related energy crisis. And then came Iran. After he admitted the exiled Shah of Iran to the U.S. for medical treatment, the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun in 1979 by followers of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Negotiations to free the hostages broke down repeatedly ahead of the failed rescue attempt. The same year, Carter signed SALT II, the new strategic arms treaty with Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union, only to pull it back, impose trade sanctions and order a U.S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. Hoping to instill optimism, he delivered what the media dubbed his “malaise” speech, although he didn’t use that word. He declared the nation was suffering “a crisis of confidence.” By then, many Americans had lost confidence in the president, not themselves. Carter campaigned sparingly for reelection because of the hostage crisis, instead sending Rosalynn as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy challenged him for the Democratic nomination. Carter famously said he’d “kick his ass,” but was hobbled by Kennedy as Reagan rallied a broad coalition with “make America great again” appeals and asking voters whether they were “better off than you were four years ago.” Reagan further capitalized on Carter’s lecturing tone, eviscerating him in their lone fall debate with the quip: “There you go again.” Carter lost all but six states and Republicans rolled to a new Senate majority. Carter successfully negotiated the hostages’ freedom after the election, but in one final, bitter turn of events, Tehran waited until hours after Carter left office to let them walk free. At 56, Carter returned to Georgia with “no idea what I would do with the rest of my life.” Four decades after launching The Carter Center, he still talked of unfinished business. “I thought when we got into politics we would have resolved everything,” Carter told the AP in 2021. “But it’s turned out to be much more long-lasting and insidious than I had thought it was. I think in general, the world itself is much more divided than in previous years.” Still, he affirmed what he said when he underwent treatment for a cancer diagnosis in his 10th decade of life. “I’m perfectly at ease with whatever comes,” he said in 2015 . “I’ve had a wonderful life. I’ve had thousands of friends, I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence.” Former Associated Press journalist Alex Sanz contributed to this report.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks tiptoed to more records amid a mixed Tuesday of trading, tacking a touch more onto what’s already been a stellar year so far. The S&P 500 edged up by 2 points, or less than 0.1%, to set an all-time high for the 55th time this year. It’s climbed in 10 of the last 11 days and is on track for one of its best years since the turn of the millennium. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 76 points, or 0.2%, while the Nasdaq composite added 0.4% to its own record set a day earlier. AT&T rose 4.6% after it boosted its profit forecast for the year. It also announced a $10 billion plan to send cash to its investors by buying back its own stock, while saying it expects to authorize another $10 billion of repurchases in 2027. On the losing end of Wall Street was U.S. Steel, which fell 8%. President-elect Donald Trump reiterated on social media that he would not let Japan’s Nippon Steel take over the iconic Pennsylvania steelmaker. Nippon Steel announced plans last December to buy the Pittsburgh-based steel producer for $14.1 billion in cash, raising concerns about what the transaction could mean for unionized workers, supply chains and U.S. national security. Earlier this year, President Joe Biden also came out against the acquisition. Tesla sank 1.6% after a judge in Delaware reaffirmed a previous ruling that the electric car maker must revoke Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar pay package. The judge denied a request by attorneys for Musk and Tesla’s corporate directors to vacate her ruling earlier this year requiring the company to rescind the unprecedented pay package. All told, the S&P 500 rose 2.73 points to 6,049.88. The Dow fell 76.47 to 44,705.53, and the Nasdaq composite gained 76.96 to 19,480.91. In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady after a report showed U.S. employers were advertising slightly more job openings at the end of October than a month earlier. Continued strength there would raise optimism that the economy could remain out of a recession that many investors had earlier worried was inevitable. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.23% from 4.20% from late Monday. Yields have seesawed since Election Day amid worries that Trump’s preferences for lower tax rates and bigger tariffs could spur higher inflation along with economic growth. But traders are still confident the Federal Reserve will cut its main interest rate again at its next meeting in two weeks. They’re betting on a nearly three-in-four chance of that, according to data from CME Group. Lower rates can give the economy more juice, but they can also give inflation more fuel. The key report this week that could guide the Fed’s next move will arrive on Friday. It’s the monthly jobs report , which will show how many workers U.S. employers hired and fired during November. It could be difficult to parse given how much storms and strikes distorted figures in October. Based on trading in the options market, Friday’s jobs report appears to be the biggest potential market mover until the Fed announces its next decision on interest rates Dec. 18, according to strategists at Barclays Capital. In financial markets abroad, the value of South Korea’s currency fell 1.1% against the U.S. dollar following a frenetic night where President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law and then later said he’d lift it after lawmakers voted to reject military rule. Stocks of Korean companies that trade in the United States also fell, including a 1.6% drop for SK Telecom. Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.9% to help lead global markets. Some analysts think Japanese stocks could end up benefiting from Trump’s threats to raise tariffs , including for goods coming from China . Trade relations between the U.S. and China took another step backward after China said it is banning exports to the U.S. of gallium, germanium, antimony and other key high-tech materials with potential military applications. The counterpunch came swiftly after the U.S. Commerce Department expanded the list of Chinese technology companies subject to export controls to include many that make equipment used to make computer chips, chipmaking tools and software. The 140 companies newly included in the so-called “entity list” are nearly all based in China. In China, stock indexes rose 1% in Hong Kong and 0.4% in Shanghai amid unconfirmed reports that Chinese leaders would meet next week to discuss planning for the coming year. Investors are hoping it may bring fresh stimulus to help spur growth in the world’s second-largest economy. In France, the CAC 40 rose 0.3% amid continued worries about politics in Paris , where the government is battling over the budget. AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.