NOAA to stop tracking weather disasters
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday that it plans to stop logging weather disasters that damage or destroy homes with costs reaching billions of dollars.
The NOAA's Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters program tracked weather and climate disasters from 1980 through 2024, but it will be retired, along with 24 other databases and reports.
In a statement to The Washington Post, a NOAA spokesperson said the move is due to shifting priorities, mandates and staffing changes.
Lender Rocket posts loss
Mortgage lender Rocket Cos. posted a $212 million loss in the first quarter and saw a decline in annual net income.
The results came as the company is finalizing acquisitions of online brokerage and listing site Redfin for $1.4 billion and mortgage servicer Mr. Cooper for $9.4 billion. Lenders nationwide are facing economic uncertainty from tariffs and pullbacks in homebuying activity.
Rocket pointed out some positive momentum, however. CEO Varun Krishna, in an earnings call Thursday, said the company serviced 21% more mortgage clients than it did in 2023. Rocket also exceeded its revenue forecast of $1.25 billion, reaching $1.3 billion for the quarter.
Net income was $80 million, $4 million less than the same quarter last year, the company reported.
DC residents consider moving
Washington, D.C., could see a loss of population as laid-off federal workers struggle to pay bills.
In a 1,667-person survey from The Washington Post and George Mason University, more than 40% of those surveyed could not pay their bills on time, and more than 1 in 5 area residents said they are “seriously considering moving away in the next 12 months.”
About 23% of those surveyed were not affected by layoffs at all but are still considering moving. The area’s workforce is 17% federal workers.
A recent report from staffing firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas found that nearly half of all federal layoffs this year were related to Department of Government Efficiency cuts. In the first four months, nearly 285,000 federal workers were let go.