Caleigh Wells

Los Angeles

Climate Reporter at KCRW-FM (Santa Monica, CA)

Reporter @KCRW & @Marketplace covering climate. Host of The Anti-Dread Climate Podcast. Previously @KPCC & @WCPN. @USCAnnenberg alum. [email protected]

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Articles

Catholic sisters take a vow of poverty. As they age, affording care is tricky

3 weeks ago | marketplace.org | Caleigh Wells

Decades ago, the Holy Spirit Retreat Center in Los Angeles housed novices hoping to become Catholic sisters. The young women who lived here kept aging, younger women stopped joining, and part of the property got remodeled as an assisted living facility. Now its rooms are filled with gray-haired women and hospital beds. “Everything has grab bars, all the doors are wide enough for wheelchairs and the showers are wheelchair accessible,” said Sister Maribeth Larkin.
Consumers are struggling with their credit card balances, Fed study finds

3 weeks ago | marketplace.org | Caleigh Wells

All of that spending consumers did last year turned out to be too much spending for some. Late credit card payments reached record highs at the end of last year, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The percentage of credit card accounts getting just the minimum monthly payment is also at a record high. The Philadelphia Fed started tracking this back in 2012. Andy Kish with the Philadelphia Fed said long-term and short-term factors are colliding to set records.
Covering Wildfire - Expert Advice on Emerging Issues, Recurring Risks

3 weeks ago | sej.org | Molly Peterson |Caleigh Wells

Journalists with expertise in covering wildfires say that physical and mental preparation are needed to protect reporters and the quality of their work. Above, the edge of the Eaton Fire near Mt. Wilson, in Los Angeles County, Jan. 14, 2025. Photo: USDA Forest Service/Andrew Avitt via Flickr Creative Commons (Public Domain).
Housing inventory is up, but buyers remain in short supply

3 weeks ago | marketplace.org | Caleigh Wells

There’s good news and bad news from the housing market today. The good news: Mortgage rates dipped a bit, and sellers are finally selling. That’s helping with the housing shortage. Housing inventory is 19% higher than it was a year ago, according to Zillow’s new Housing Market Report. The bad news: Buyers still aren’t buying. A lot of sellers hadn’t been selling because of what’s known as the “lock-in effect.”“Homeowners have very low interest rate.
Coal-fired generating capacity is likely to keep declining, despite the President's order boosting coal

3 weeks ago | marketplace.org | Caleigh Wells

Coal power has been on the decline for years here in the U.S. Since its peak in 2011, coal generating capacity has fallen by nearly half. And it’ll keep declining, according to a new brief from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. Coal declined as the rise of fracking made natural gas way cheaper.
Organic produce is 53% more expensive than conventional, a study finds. Tariffs might shrink that gap

4 weeks ago | marketplace.org | Caleigh Wells

If you stick to the organic offerings in your supermarket fruit and vegetable section, you’re going to pay a premium: Organic produce costs 53% more than conventional, according to a new analysis from LendingTree. With tariff threats come uncertainty, and Matt Schulz, chief consumer finance analyst with LendingTree, said just the fear of higher grocery prices might make organic food less popular.
Water bills have been rising at twice the rate of inflation. Blame drought and "ancient infrastructure"

4 weeks ago | marketplace.org | Caleigh Wells

Water bills keep going up. Some of that is normal – they’re supposed to rise with inflation. But a new report from the Bank of America Institute shows that the average water bill has risen at nearly twice the rate of inflation in the past year — more than 7%. There are two big causes.
That drop in car insurance costs may soon be in the rearview mirror

1 month ago | marketplace.org | Caleigh Wells

One of the more notable inflation readings in the March consumer price index, which came out Thursday, was for motor vehicle insurance. Prices in that sector — by 0.8%, seasonally adjusted. Maybe you’re looking at your last car insurance bill and finding that hard to believe. That’s because the inflation index that includes car insurance is still 7.5% higher than it was a year ago. Jeff Rieder knows firsthand why car insurance has increased. He leads benchmarking at Aon’s insurance consulting.
Acting on uncertainty

1 month ago | marketplace.org | Justin Ho |Caleigh Wells |Kai Ryssdal |Nancy Farghalli

Current stream: Carbon Sound - change to marketplace when marketplace.stream.publicradio.org is available Apr 9, 2025Universities issue bonds to compensate for federal funding cuts and companies rescind their 2025 revenue projections. Plus, benzene and the trade imbalance. Segments From This Episodeby Justin HoUniversities have long issued bonds to raise money, but the amount being issued has nearly doubled in recent years —and is increasing as government funding is paused.
Delta throws out 2025 profit projection, says future is uncertain

1 month ago | marketplace.org | Caleigh Wells

Delta Airlines had predicted that 2025 would be its best year yet. Clearly, 2025 had other plans. This morning Delta reneged that prediction. And it didn’t provide a new one. It’s weird, but it’s not an unprecedented move for companies to respond to market uncertainty with a big shoulder shrug. The last time this happened was about five years ago, when the economy was in uncharted territory. I’ll give you one guess why.