Economy Shrank by 3.5% in 2020, but Rebounded in Final Months
The U.S. economic shrank last year by the largest amount since World War II, but 4% growth in the fourth quarter leaves some hope for a strong recovery in 2021.
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Commerce Department
Russian Hackers Suspected of Breaching US Government Agencies
Hackers suspected of working for Russia broke into the computer systems of the Commerce and Treasury departments, according to multiple media reports released Sunday.
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Silent Secretary Ross Subpoenaed Over Census Disarray
Following repeated refusals to hand over critical documents that could illuminate errors in the 2020 U.S. census, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross was subpoenaed Thursday by House lawmakers.
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Data Leak Pointing to Census Delays Could Trigger Subpoena
Twenty-four hours after an anonymous data leak suggested delays to the decennial count already steeped in controversy, the Census Bureau made little effort Thursday to allay concern from lawmakers.
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Plot to Shake Up Census on Track for Supreme Court Redux
President Donald Trump faces an uncertain path in taking his election challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court, but his bid to dramatically change the census will take center stage Monday at oral arguments.
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Texts: US Census Manager Told Counters to Use Fake Answers
Texts shared by a census taker from Florida who traveled to Alabama, among groups of enumerators dispatched to areas lagging behind in the count, suggest that falsification of census data may be more widespread than previously known.
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Economic Growth Hit Record 33% Annual Rate in Third Quarter
The U.S. economy grew by a record 33.1% annual rate in the third quarter, but there is still a long way to go before it is fully healed from the damage inflicted by the coronavirus pandemic.
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Census Takers Fall Short of Target Goal in Areas of US
From tribal lands in Arizona and New Mexico to storm-battered Louisiana, census workers who go door to door were unable to reach all the households they needed for a complete tally of the U.S. population, a count that ended abruptly last week after a Supreme Court ruling.
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Commerce Nails 18 Countries With Steel-Dumping Duties
Spurred by industry members to crack down on aluminum dumping, the Trump administration announced tariffs Friday against 18 countries.
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Census Takers Head to Homeless Shelters, Outdoor Camps
Starting this week, census takers are grabbing reflective vests, face masks, bug spray and flashlights and heading out at night in groups of four to track down one of the hardest populations to count in the 2020 census — the homeless.
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US App Stores Banned From Offering WeChat, TikTok
The Trump administration’s restrictions on Chinese-owned mobile apps WeChat and TikTok get underway this weekend, the Commerce Department announced Friday.
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Less Than 1 Million Gay Couple Households in US in 2019
In 2019, there were slightly less than 1 million same-sex couple households in the U.S., and a majority of those couples were married, according to new figures the U.S. Census Bureau released Thursday.
Read moreTrump Administration Fights to Enforce Census Change Blocked by Court
One week after a judge blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to exclude undocumented immigrants from a census count used to divvy up seats in Congress, the government gave notice Wednesday it will appeal.
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Three-Judge Panel Blocks Trump’s Census Memo as ‘Unlawful’
The Trump administration’s latest effort to exclude undocumented immigrants from the 2020 census count is unlawful, a panel of three federal judges ruled Thursday.
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Judge Halts Trump Plans for Early Shutdown of Census Operations
U.S. Census officials are reviving quality-control measures and postponing layoffs of census takers after a federal judge on Saturday temporarily blocked the statistical agency from winding down operations by the end of this month.
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Two Dozen Chinese Firms Sanctioned for Helping Build Island Bases
he U.S.-China relationship continued to devolve Wednesday as the Commerce Department announced the addition of 24 Chinese companies to its sanctions list for their role in building military islands in the South China Sea.
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Lagging Behind in Census Response, Houston Spends More on Outreach
With around half of Houston’s residents yet to fill out the census, the City Council approved $175,000 on Wednesday to pay for billboards, text message, email and phone campaigns to reach holdouts, a move one councilman said is throwing more money down the drain of a failed outreach effort.
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Challenge of Trump Census Change Put on Fast Track
“It is what it is,” a federal judge told the Trump administration Wednesday, perhaps unintentionally echoing the president’s latest coronavirus gaffe while advancing a suit over his changes to the census.
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US Reports Unprecedented Economic Crash, Stocks Follow Suit
Markets fell precipitously early Thursday after a disastrous GDP report, then righted themselves slightly to end the day in negative territory.
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Economic Growth Dropped by Record 33% in Second Quarter
The U.S. economy shrank at a record 32.9% annual rate in second quarter of the year, an astonishing plunge triggered by the coronavirus pandemic that has been ravaging the economy for nearly six months.
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