Storm update: Tropical Storm Gordon never became a hurricane but it was deadly all the same, killing a child by blowing a tree onto a mobile home as it made landfall. The storm later weakened into a depression on Wednesday but remained dangerous, dumping rain, spawning tornadoes and kicking up heavy surf in its wake. The National Hurricane Center says Gordon is weakening on a path into Arkansas after striking the coast at 70 mph, just shy of hurricane strength, near Pascagoula, Mississippi. The remnants will likely cause flash flooding across parts of seven states and as far north as Iowa in the coming days. Read the full story.
Gig ‘em: There’s a bipartisan push underway on Capitol Hill to make the home-mortgage process a lot easier for self-employed workers in the “gig economy,” The Washington Post reports. For years, federal lending rules have favored applicants with easily documentable incomes, people who can show pay stubs, W-2s and two years of steady income plus the likelihood that it will continue. The Self-Employed Mortgage Access Act, co-sponsored by Sens. Mark R. Warner, D-Virginia., and Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, would expand lenders’ permissible sources to verify incomes beyond the relatively narrow range specified in current QM regulations. Read the full story.
Preservation: Applications for a 2018 African American Civil Rights grant from the National Parks are now open and will be accepted through two separate funding opportunity announcements, one for physical preservation projects and one for history projects, The Daily Advertiser reports. Grants awarded from the $13 million program last year funded four projects in Louisiana, including three historic preservation efforts: $500,000 for the physical preservation of Old Galilee Missionary Baptist Church, $498,632 for the rehabilitation of the Robert “Bob” Hicks House and $50,000 for “Cuttin’ Cane Ain’t All We Do” at the West Baton Rouge Museum. Read the full story.
