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For now, Priesters will have to stick to its famous pecans in Fort Payne, Alabama. But maybe not for long. Priesters Pecans, an Alabama staple, is one of more than half a dozen sites across the state slated to receive millions of dollars in federal funding to expand access to chargers for electric vehicles. Across the country, the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law under then-President Joe Biden, is set to provide $5 billion to states for projects that expand the nations EV charging infrastructure. But in a Feb. 6 letter, a Trump administration official notified state directors of transportation that, effectively, they cant spend it. The Federal Highway Administration rescinded guidance on the funds, which had been allocated by Congress, and is also immediately suspending the approval of all State Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment plans for all fiscal years, the letter said. Therefore, effective immediately, no new obligations may occur under the NEVI Formula Program until the updated final NEVI Formula Program Guidance is issued and new State plans are submitted and approved. POLITICO reported on Wednesday that a DOT spokesman said in an email that states were free to use a small portion of the fundingabout $400 millionbecause that was money the states had already obligated, or awarded to subcontractors. But that would still leave close to 90% of the funding up in the air. Even before the administration had issued its letter, some Republican-led states, including Alabama, had already announced pauses to their states implementation of the national EV charging program. In response to Unleashing American Energy, one of several Executive Orders that President Trump signed on January 20, 2025, the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs has paused the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Program as of January 28, 2025, the Alabama agency responsible for implementing NEVI posted on its website. In addition, for applications for funding that were originally due on March 17, 2025, ADECA has closed the application window until further notice. Despite the announcement by the Trump administration, however, legal experts and those familiar with the electric charging program at issue say the president does not have the power to permanently nix the NEVI program. NEVI funding was appropriated by Congress as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law, and it cannot be canceled by the executive branch, said Elizabeth Turnbull, director of policy and regulatory affairs at the Alliance for Transportation Electrification, a trade group for the electric vehicle industry. Its not clear that the secretary of transportation has the authority to revoke states NEVI plans, and its quite clear that the executive branch lacks the authority to withhold the funding for any sustained period. So, we expect recent executive branch actions to be successfully challenged in court. Even under the most aggressive arguments for a strong executive branch, the Supreme Court has stated clearly that the Constitution gives Congress the sole authority to appropriate and legislate. Lawmakers, too, have weighed in on the legality of the Trump administrations NEVI directive, saying officials acted with blatant disregard for the law. In a letter to administration officials, Democratic members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works urged the Department of Transportation to retract its Feb. 6 letter and implement the law according to your responsibilities. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r
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Youve probably heard that people don’t leave their job, they leave their manager. Its a popular saying because its often true. Having a toxic boss, however, is different than having one you simply dont like. If your boss is toxic, you need to take steps to protect yourself. But if its simply a matter of personalities not jiving, slow your job-search roll, suggests Stephanie Chung, author of Ally Leadership, How to Lead People Who Are Not Like You. There are people in your family you probably don’t like, she says. But if you like your company, you like your colleagues, you like how much money you’re making, you like your benefits, and the only thing you don’t like is your boss, then you really shouldn’t just jump to another role or another job. . . . Look at the entire totality of your situation and then decide if you should stay or not. Fortunately, you dont have to like your boss to grow in your career. Start by getting to the bottom of your dislike. You don’t just naturally not like somebody, says Chung. Go a little bit deeper to figure out why you don’t like them. Maybe there’s something about them that reminds you of something or someone else. Usually, it’s that you come from different perspectives, different backgrounds, different upbringings, and therefore have different viewpoints. If youre bothered by everybody that’s different than you, you’re going to spend too much time hopping around. Focus on Whats Important Even if you dont like your boss, you still need to perform well at work. Is this person hindering you from being able to do your job? asks Chung. If the answer is no, and you just have different personalities or different communication styles, you can still get the job done. When you dont like someone, the common response is to ignore them and talk to everyone but them. Chung says this is a mistake. Employees have a responsibility in creating a positive work environment. People find comfort in complaining to their colleagues, she says. It’s easy to point fingers. To say, The boss doesn’t know what they’re doing. This is a stupid process. I’m looking for the worker who says, I don’t think this makes sense, but instead of talking to April, May, and June about it, I’m going to actually go to the boss and say, I am not sure that I agree with the thought process here. From my perspective, it doesn’t look like it makes a lot of sense. Am I missing something? Often the root cause of not liking someone is lack of communication, miscommunication, or different styles of communication, says Chung, and the only way to fix that is to engage in more communication with them. If you want to move up in your career, you dont have to wait for your boss to make the first effort, she says. It is possible that there’s something that you are not doing correctly or as good as you may think. If you want to be that person who’s constantly moving up in their career, who has a brand that stands for itself in a powerful way, you’re going to have to own your stuff. Part of that in the workforce is being able to own the fact that maybe it is them and maybe its not. You play a part in your relationship, as well. By going to your boss to work out your differences or to clarify what could be misunderstandings, you demonstrate that you care about the company and want to take ownership for your career. Its managing up. Employees who want to move up, want to be seen as people who are productive and can add value to the company, says Chung. How you do that is not being the person who’s sitting around complaining. Its being the person who’s trying to help leadership and your colleagues solve the problem. An ability to work with people you dont likepeople who are not like youis an important skill to develop. Chung likens it to being on a sports team. If everybody on the soccer team was a forward, you’d never win, she says. In the workplace, the same rules apply. There are different positions, different talents, different strengths, different weaknesses. Different perspectives ask different questions. When everybody gets along because we don’t have any disagreements, we’re all cookie cutters of each other. But that doesn’t help in business. Leading diverse teamspeople who don’t think alike, act alike, have a back same backgroundis quite challenging, says Chung. The results are great, but there is a challenge to it because they’re so different. Real leaders [know] how to harness those differences in a powerful way that allows the team to be unstoppable and sets the company up to win. The key is knowing that the leader doesnt always have to be the one higher up on the org chart.
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Whether you’re setting up a new Windows PC or looking to enhance your current setup, there are some life-changing apps you can grab for free that will transform how you use your computer. From screen grabbing to file searching to quick launching and more, these essential apps will supercharge your productivityall for the low, low price of nothing. ShareX: Screen captures and then some Windows includes a basic screen-capture tool. Dont settle for it, though: Get ShareX, which rivals even paid screen-grabbers. You can create custom-capture regions that remember your preferences, set up automatic uploads with instant-link copying, and configure workflows that process and organize your captures. While the capturing features work great on their own, its the mind-boggling number of post-capture features that set this gem apart. If youre looking for a capture tool that does it all for nothing at all, this is it. Everything: File search that just works If Windows Search feels to you like it hasnt evolved since the Clinton administration, Everything wont leave you hanging. Instead of laboriously indexing entire files, Everything indexes just file and folder names, which means it can wrap its head around a clean Windows installation in about a second. Its powerful search syntax then helps you quickly find recent documents, filter by size to free up storage space, and create bookmarks for frequently searched folders. PowerToys: Microsoft’s best-kept secret Microsofts free PowerToys is a productivity suite that packs features that arguably should’ve been built into Windows from the start. FancyZones lets you create custom window layouts that snap into place. PowerRename handles bulk-file operations. Text Extractor grabs text from images or non-selectable. Mouse Without Borders lets you use a single mouse and keyboard on up to four computers. Those are just a few of the cavalcade of time-savers included with this excellent utility. If you havent already, get it installed and start reaping its benefits. AutoHotkey: Automate anything If you invest the time to learn how to use it, AutoHotkey will become the digital assistant you cant believe you ever lived without. Create custom keyboard shortcuts for just about anything, auto-fill forms with frequently used text, or launch multiple programs with a single command. The real power lies in its ability to chain commands together. With a bit of creativity, you can automate entire workflows that used to take dozens of clicks. Flow Launcher: Get there faster Flow Launcher is a little window that delivers huge time savings. Open it with a customizable key combination, start typing, and let it handle the rest. Use it to quickly launch apps, control music, search the web, run system commands, and moreall without having to click your way through a bunch of menus and windows. Its also got an excellent community-driven plugin ecosystem that lets you add features like password management, weather checking, and smart-home-device control.
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E-Commerce
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