by Colleen Tressler
Consumer Education Specialist, FTC

Whether you’re planning a weekend getaway or a cross-country road trip, a rental car may be in your future. Comparing prices online can save you a bundle, but make sure you compare the total cost — not just the advertised rate. Added fees can increase the base price dramatically.

Pay attention to fees before you reserve your rental car to avoid surprises when you’re at the rental counter or paying your bill. Common fees include:

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WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has put forth a new initiative to promote the creation and expansion of high-quality public charter schools in Opportunity Zones across the United States.

Currently, more than 70% of Opportunity Zones do not have a public charter school option available to students. One-fifth of Opportunity Zone residents lack a high school diploma. By creating and expanding high-quality public charter schools in Opportunity Zones, more families living in economically distressed communities will have access to additional education options that might better meet their child's needs.

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This summer, NOAA researchers are studying an unusual feature of Lake Huron: giant sinkholes.

Scientists already estimate how much water comes into and out of the Great Lakes by measuring precipitation, runoff, evaporation and other processes; these “deposits” and “withdrawals” all play into NOAA’s forecasts of Great Lakes water levels.

Determining the amount of water supplied specifically by sinkholes, however, requires more research.

Despite some being more than 300 feet across and up to 60 feet deep, sinkholes aren’t likely contributors of large volumes of water, but just knowing the amount could help scientists get a more accurate reading on water levels across the Great Lakes.

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Introduction

Photograph of Dawid Samoszul. Close-up street portrait of Dawid Samoszul, probably taken in Piotrkow Trybunalski, Poland, between 1936 and 1938. Dawid was killed in the Treblinka killing center at the age of 9. US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Abe Samelson

The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its allies and collaborators. Holocaust is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community.

During the era of the Holocaust, German authorities also targeted other groups because of their perceived racial and biological inferiority: Roma (Gypsies), people with disabilities, some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians, and others), Soviet prisoners of war, and blacks. Other groups were persecuted on political, ideological, and behavioral grounds, among them Communists, Socialists, Jehovah's Witnesses, and homosexuals.

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The Library of Congress has restored and made available online the Gandhara Scroll, a manuscript dating back to around the first century B.C., that offers insight into early Buddhist history. The scroll is one of the world’s oldest Buddhist manuscripts.

The scroll originates from Gandhara, an ancient Buddhist region located in what is now the northern border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The scroll tells the story of buddhas who came before and after Siddhartha Gautama, the sage who reached enlightenment under the Bodhi tree in eastern India around the fifth century B.C. and the religious leader on whose teachings Buddhism was founded.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Law, passed by Congress in July of 2016, directed USDA to establish the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard, a national mandatory standard for disclosing foods that are or may be bioengineered. The Standard requires food manufacturers, importers and certain retailers to ensure bioengineered foods are appropriately disclosed.

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