The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law last December, provided qualified pass-through businesses with a 20 percent deduction, bringing the effective tax rate for those businesses down to 29.6 percent.   The law established conditions that would have to be met for a company to qualify for the deduction, and it expressly excluded most […]

The Kroger Co. announced it will phase out single-use plastic bags and transition to reusable bags across its family of stores by 2025. Seattle-based QFC will be the company’s first retail division to phase out single-use plastic bags. The company expects QFC’s transition to be completed in 2019. “As part of our Zero Hunger | Zero […]

When designing their dream vacation home in Maui, clients Shawn and Shelley wanted a home that brought the outdoors in. Portland, Ore.-based firm Tiny Heirloom designed a luxurious, 400-square-foot tiny home for the vacationers with views of the ocean. The Iki Hau’oli Hale, which means Tiny, Happy Home, focuses on blending indoor and outdoor spaces. […]

Organizers of Orgill’s Fall Dealer Market pointed to a record-breaking number of attendees at its event in the Sands Expo and Convention Center. Orgill nation came for the deals, the networking and to generally soak in the home improvement knowledge of the three-day event. “We’re excited to see so many of our customers here in […]

We’re obviously very interested in hybrid vehicles here at Ars Technica; our very first car review back in 2000 was on the then-new Honda Insight. But while we’ve covered the development of hybrid cars since then, we haven’t paid quite as much attention to other parts of the transportation sector. As it turns out, there’s […]

In 2017, we took a look at Project Portal, Toyota’s plan to test a heavy-duty, zero-emissions truck at the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles in California. The idea was to power an 80,000lb (36,288kg) Class-8 tractor-trailer with hydrogen fuel cells and then put it to work hauling shipping containers at one of the nation’s […]

The report predicts that, as a direct result of increased energy consumption, there will be a 70-percent increase in energy-oriented carbon dioxide emissions, and an overall increase in greenhouse gas emissions of 50 percent. This would correlate to a rise in global average temperature between 3° C and 6° C above preindustrial levels. Air pollution […]

Each year, 8 million metric tons of plastic waste enters the world’s oceans. Millions of plastic straws are used and disposed each day. The straws are usually made from polypropylene and are not truly degradable. Most recycling programs are loath to accept straws because straws are too light and fall off sorters. They are often […]

Contaminants in recycling can hurt the process and can actually result in batches of recyclable material being diverted to landfills. Waste disposal is an issue that the islands of Hawaii are serious about. The following items are contaminants and should not be added to the blue bins designated for recyclable items. Thin plastic bags damage […]