Sba loans explained: How SBA loan programs set terms and odds
SBA loan programs guarantee shares of lender loans under published caps: 7(a) to $5 million, 504 to $5.5 million, with 103,000 financings in fiscal 2024.
Colin Reyes · November 2, 2026News Bay 71
How the supreme court works — How Supreme Court justices decide: inside the process
About 7,000 to 8,000 petitions reach the Supreme Court each Term and roughly 80 get argument; the path runs from certiorari petitions to 30-minute arguments, private conferences, and written opinions.
Colin Reyes · November 1, 2026
How jury deliberations work behind closed doors
Petit juries of 6 to 12 people decide cases in private, and a federal criminal verdict must be unanimous under Rule 31. The Supreme Court extended that unanimity rule to state courts in Ramos v. Louisiana on April 20, 2020.
Colin Reyes · October 31, 2026
How to build business credit: How a company builds its business credit file
Business credit files grow from payment records vendors report to bureaus like Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, and Equifax, then scored and read by lenders.
Aarya Kapoor · October 31, 2026
What is double jeopardy: What double jeopardy protects and where it stops
The Fifth Amendment bars a second prosecution for the same crime after an acquittal or conviction, yet the Supreme Court allowed separate state and federal prosecutions in Gamble v. United States in 2019, and a hung jury can still end in retrial.
Aarya Kapoor · October 28, 2026
What is probate: What probate does to an estate after death
Probate is the court-supervised settling of a person's estate after death: the court validates the will, an executor pays debts, and heirs receive what remains.
Colin Reyes · October 25, 2026Criminal restitution orders — Restitution orders: how courts calculate what a convicted person owes
A restitution order is entered at sentencing, but collecting it is a separate fight — and full recovery is rare.
Monica Cummings · October 1, 2026How cash bail actually works — and who stays in jail before trial
Money release is the default in most US counties, and the Bureau of Justice Statistics counts who that leaves behind.
Monica Cummings · August 26, 2026
Small business failure rate: What survival data really says about small business
BLS survival tables show about 80 percent of new employer establishments clear year one, half clear year five, and a third reach year ten.
Monica Cummings · October 29, 2026Explainers
More in Explainers →
What is the federal reserve: What the Federal Reserve can and cannot do
The Federal Reserve sets interest rates, supervises banks, and lends to banks in stress. It does not set taxes or pass the budget; Congress wrote its mandate in statute.
Monica Cummings · October 28, 2026
How does cryptocurrency work — Cryptocurrency explained without the hype: ledgers, mining and volatility
How the technology actually works, what it is legally treated as, and why the price moves so much.
Colin Reyes · October 23, 2026
Unemployment Rate Explained — Unemployment Numbers Explained: Reading the Jobs Report
The monthly jobs report moves markets within minutes, but its numbers rest on strict definitions. Here is what the unemployment rate does and does not tell you.
Colin Reyes · October 8, 2026
How Do Tariffs Work — How Tariffs Work: Winners, Losers and Prices
A tariff is a tax a government places on imported goods, paid by the importer. Here is who wins, who loses, and why prices move when tariffs change.
Colin Reyes · October 6, 2026Society
More in Society →
Electoral college explained — The electoral college: how it works and why
The electoral college elects the president through 538 electors, and 270 electoral votes decide the winner. Each state's share follows its congressional delegation under the current census.
Devon Clarke · October 26, 2026
Religion in America statistics: how surveys track a shifting picture
Affiliation patterns are changing, and the way researchers count them shapes what public institutions see.
Aarya Kapoor · October 10, 2026Suburbanization explained: how commuting, zoning and schools redraw the map
Three quiet rules — a car, a zoning code, an attendance line — decide where American neighborhoods grow.
Aarya Kapoor · October 2, 2026Census data explained: How census data shapes your neighborhood, from funding to planning
A once-a-decade headcount, plus quieter yearly surveys, decide where money, seats and services flow.
Aarya Kapoor · September 26, 2026Rights News
More in Rights News →
Whistleblower protection laws: Whose disclosures the law protects and whose it doesn't
Federal whistleblower protection runs sector by sector, with filing windows from 30 days under the OSH Act to 180 days under Sarbanes-Oxley. The statutes decide which disclosures count.
Monica Cummings · October 29, 2026
What the First Amendment does and doesn't cover
The First Amendment binds government rather than private companies, per the National Archives and Cornell's Legal Information Institute, and courts treat several speech categories as unprotected.
Devon Clarke · October 28, 2026Why states and counties keep suing oil companies over climate claims
A New Jersey county's new lawsuit is the latest test of whether state courts can hear climate deception cases at all.
Devon Clarke · October 21, 2026Labor unions today — Union renewal: what the numbers say about organized labor today
Membership is down overall, but the private-sector gap and the legal right to organize explain where new drives are looking.
Devon Clarke · October 18, 2026Business News
More in Business News →
Business insurance explained: What insurance a growing company actually needs
A growing company maps insurance to exposure: the SBA's six common policy types, state workers' compensation rules that differ by state, and a comparison habit that keeps coverage in step with headcount and assets.
Monica Cummings · October 24, 2026
How does franchising work — How franchising works: the buy-in costs and the real returns
What you actually pay for, what you keep paying, and what the record shows about who profits.
Colin Reyes · September 29, 2026How the Labor Department recovers stolen wages, and how much workers get
Federal wage-theft enforcement hit a five-year high in 2025, but the recovery process, and its limits, are less understood than the headline number.
Colin Reyes · August 10, 2026Community benefit agreements: when developers negotiate with neighborhoods
CBAs trade community support for enforceable commitments — local hiring, affordable housing, anti-displacement funds — and the enforceability question is their whole story.
Colin Reyes · August 3, 2026