Hitting the brakes: Car rental company Enterprise says it is ending a discount program for National Rifle Association members. The company tweeted late Thursday: “All three of our brands have ended the discount for NRA members. This change will be effective March 26.” Enterprise Holdings also operates the Alamo and National brands. The decision appeared to be a response to a backlash over a mass shooting that left 17 people dead at a school in Parkland, Florida. It followed an announcement by the nation’s largest privately-owned bank holding company, Nebraska-based First National Bank of Omaha, to stop producing credit cards for the NRA. Read more.
Taking it to court: Several Louisiana environmental and conservation groups sued the Environmental Protection Agency and Administrator Scott Pruitt last week, asking a federal court to reverse recent EPA actions they say weaken water pollution standards for dozens of rivers in southeast Louisiana. The complaint was filed in a New Orleans federal court. The plaintiffs allege that the EPA violated the Clean Water Act when it approved new dissolved oxygen criteria for 31 Louisiana water bodies, most of which are on the Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain. Read the full complaint.
Cause and effect: Trade with China and the rise of robots are to blame for the loss of roughly 4.5 million U.S. jobs between 1999 and 2016, The Washington Post reports, citing to new research released by the National Bureau for Economic Research this week. Competition from cheap Chinese imports, as well as those that vanished from related industries, cost the U.S. economy about 2.65 million jobs. Automation, which swaps one robot for 5.64 American workers, cost the economy another 1.4 million jobs. Read more.
