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Sarah Leeson

Latest Stories (119)

Boeing failures are a case study of America's manufacturing "dark age"

Apr 24, 2024
A century ago, U.S manufacturers were run by engineers. Now leadership suites are distant from factory floors, says journalist Jerry Useem.
Jerry Useem attributes much of America's loss of manufacturing excellence to the replacement of engineers by financial managers in corporate leadership.
Juliette Michel/AFP via Getty Images

SCOTUS weighs policy on policing homeless people amid a national housing shortage

Apr 22, 2024
The justices will debate if enforcing a public camping ban in Grants Pass, Oregon, violated the Eighth Amendment.
Communities are grappling with how to address record-high homelessness across the country.
John Moore/Getty Images

Cargo mover waits out “catastrophic” halt in Baltimore port business 

Apr 19, 2024
"It was like, 'OK, this is a horrific event. And how are we going to recover from this?'" says Dawn Speakman, founder of Drayage Solutions in Baltimore.
Crews are still working to clear the wreckage from the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Movie theaters aren't going anywhere, and it's partially due to their weird architecture

Apr 17, 2024
With sloping, concrete floors and huge, windowless rooms, movie theaters are not the easiest properties to convert.
Ticket sales at movie theaters are still down from pre-pandemic times.
Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Job security and hiring in tech have plummeted. How much is AI to blame?

Apr 1, 2024
Tech companies may have over hired in the pandemic. Now, AI and other economic forces are creating a shrink in the tech sector.
While the IT sector added more than 260,000 jobs in 2022, last year it grew by a mere 700 jobs, and that number is expected to shrink even more in 2024.
David Paul Morris/Getty Images

For aspiring CEOs, being a buyer rather than a founder is an increasingly attractive path

Mar 27, 2024
Raising "search funds" to find a business to buy may be an answer to a challenging startup landscape.
Although the concept has been around for decades, the number of "search fund" starts went from 20 in 2013 to 105 in 2023.
(Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Owners of a Vermont trolley tour company are committed to the city that "accepted us"

Mar 12, 2024
"We want to add something good to Burlington, Vermont," says co-owner Hannington Kasagga.
"When we went to the manufacturer's warehouse and we saw our trolley, I think that was the happiest moment in my entire life," says Burlington Trolley Tours co-owner Hannington Kasagga.
Courtesy Hannington Kasagga.

After dreaming of living in a dome home for decades, this Texas woman made it a reality

Mar 7, 2024
"I'm not getting any younger. If I'm going to have a dome, I need to get on with it," said Paula Stone of Fredericksburg, Texas.
Paula Stone's home is made up of five connected monolithic domes that she designed herself.
Courtesy Stone

Farmworkers are making — and enforcing — the strongest heat protection rules in the country

Feb 29, 2024
Farms that participate in the Fair Food Program ensure workers have access to things like shade and water. In return, they're first in line to sell to big buyers.
Farms participating in the Fair Food Program ensure farmworkers receive certain heat protections, including access to shaded areas and water.
Photo Courtesy of Eva Marie Uzcategui for The Washington Post

For a couple in Maine, calling a Grange Hall home means financial freedom

Feb 23, 2024
With the goal of living mortgage-free, "I really knew that I would go anywhere and I would live in anything," Kate Mill says.
After living in Nashville, Tennessee, for 23 years, Henry Pile and Kate Mills bought this  Grange Hall in Livermore Falls, Maine.
Courtesy Henry Pile