Graduation day at Brooklyn College in New York City was marked by confetti guns blasting thousands of scraps of yellow paper over the heads of the 4,000 graduates, symbolically transforming them from students into alumni. “We go to the real world now,” said Benash Khanu, a psychology major who is looking to land her first job. “It’s scary, but it’s life.” The commencement speaker was a man whom many Brooklyn students had championed in his quest to become president — Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. In his address to the students, Sanders imparted what he called a “simple” message: “Think big, not small, and help us create the nation we all know we can become.” Entering a “hot mess” Students graduating across the United States this spring entered secondary school at the beginning of the eight-year presidency of Barack Obama, a relatively youthful figure at the time whose rhetoric about tolerance, …

When General Motors CEO Mary Barra introduced the Chevrolet Bolt at the CES gadget show last year, she took a shot at Tesla. Buyers can be confident because Chevy has 3,000 U.S. dealers to service the new electric vehicle, she said. The implication was that Tesla, with just 69 service centers nationwide, can make no such promise.   The uncharacteristic insult from Barra was designed to highlight the difference between 108-year-old GM and Tesla, a disruptive teenager. It also acknowledged a budding rivalry that could help determine whether Detroit or Silicon Valley sets the course for the future of the auto industry. The tale of the tape favors GM. It has made billions in profits since returning to the public markets in 2010. GM got the Bolt, a $36,000 car that goes 238 miles per charge, to market before Tesla’s Model 3. Tesla, the 14-year-old company led by flamboyant CEO …

Hundreds of businesses have urged President Donald Trump to keep the United States in the Paris climate deal, and there is evidence that business support for the agreement is growing. As a presidential candidate, Trump called climate science a “fraud” and pledged to get out of the Paris climate accord if he won the election. But many business leaders disagree with that goal. Major American firms, including Mars, Nike, Levi Strauss, and Starbucks signed a letter to Trump several months ago, arguing that failing to build a low-carbon economy puts U.S. “prosperity at risk.” On Wednesday Tesla founder Elon Musk said he tried to persuade the president to stay in the accord, and said he would quit the White House business advisory council if Washington pulls out of the Paris agreement. GE chief Jeff Immelt has written that customers, partners, and countries are demanding technology that generates electric power while …

A noose was found in the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture, the museum said Wednesday. Police came to investigate and remove the noose found in the Segregation Gallery on the second floor of the museum, reopening the exhibit just three hours later, Smithsonian officials said. This is the second noose found on Smithsonian grounds just this week. In the United States, the noose is symbolic of lynchings of African Americans that took place primarily between the 1860s and though much of the 20th century, at the hands of white mobs. “The noose has long represented a deplorable act of cowardice and depravity, a symbol of extreme violence for African Americans. Today’s incident is a painful reminder of the challenges that African Americans continue to face,” Lonnie Bunch, III, the museum’s founding director, said in a statement. “This was a horrible act, but it is a stark reminder …

When most people think of Alaska, they picture its thick forests, hulking grizzly bears and soaring, snow-covered peaks.   What they might not imagine is rockets whisking defense and other payloads into space. But America’s northernmost state has that too, entering the high-tech aerospace business more than 25 years ago as it looked to diversify its oil-reliant economy.   The Alaska Aerospace Corp. hit a low point after a rocket exploded at its launch site in 2014 amid a deepening state deficit. The governor later gave it an ultimatum: Become self-sustaining or shut down.   Today, Alaska Aerospace has rebuilt its launch site and is again showing signs of liftoff. It is no longer confined to Alaska or government contracts, recently winning, for example, a deal with Rocket Lab to track the company’s rockets and monitor its onboard systems in New Zealand.   Gov. Bill Walker said he is impressed …

Former U.S. president Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, are putting down roots in Washington, at least for awhile, a short distance from the White House. Since he left office in January, the couple has been renting a Tudor-style mansion in the upscale Kalorama neighborhood of the U.S. capital, long a home to diplomats, lobbyists and politicians. Now, with the Obamas’ younger daughter, Sasha, still attending a private high school in Washington for two more years, the Obamas have bought the eight-bedroom home for $8.1 million. The house had previously been owned by Joe Lockhart, once the press secretary for former president Bill Clinton and now the top communications official for the National Football League. Prominent figures in Washington’s new power structure are among the Obamas’ neighbors: President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, both White House advisers, moved to Kalorama when they left their New …

U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes is facing complaints of launching his own investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election after recusing himself from leading the committee’s Russia probe in April. Aides to Democratic committee members have complained that Nunes, a Republican, has begun investigating allegations that senior members of President Barack Obama’s administration improperly “unmasked” the identities of Trump associates who were caught communicating with Russian officials. The aides maintain Nunes failed to consult with Democrats when he subpoenaed the CIA, FBI and the National Security Agency (NSA). Congressional sources said the subpoenas requested the intelligence agencies to provide details of any requests made by two top Obama administration officials and the former CIA director to “unmask” the names of Trump campaign advisers inadvertently captured in top-secret foreign communications intercepts. Named in the subpoenas were former national security adviser Susan Rice, former U.S. Ambassador to the …

The House intelligence committee said Wednesday it is issuing subpoenas for former national security adviser Michael Flynn and President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, as well as their businesses, as part of its investigation into Russian activities during last year’s election. In addition to those four subpoenas, the committee has issued three others, to the National Security Agency, the FBI and the CIA, for information about requests that government officials made to “unmask” the identities of U.S. individuals named in classified intelligence reports, according to a congressional aide. The subpoenas were announced as the special counsel overseeing the government’s investigation into possible Trump campaign ties to Russia has approved former FBI Director James Comey to testify before the Senate intelligence committee, according to a Comey associate. Watch: Spicer: ‘Best Messenger Is the President Himself’ At a Wednesday briefing, press secretary Sean Spicer said inquiries about the Russia investigation must …