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Your road trip just got cheaper

Nicole Fallert   | Paste BN

The July Consumer Price Index report shows that inflation is still elevated, even though gas prices have fallen. Paste BN's newsroom takes a deep look at maternal health care deserts. A major moon event may outshine what's considered the best meteor shower of the year.

🙋🏼‍♀️ I'm Nicole Fallert, and here's Thursday's news.

🌅 Up first: Have you heard of ''grounding'' or ''earthing?" These are practices that have likely existed in certain communities for generations, even if there wasn't an exact label for it. Now, thanks to an interest in natural healing and further discoveries, the practice is gaining more attention. On social media platforms like TikTok, the hashtag #earthing has more than 66 million views and #grounding has 199 million. Read more

Gas prices drop under $4 for first time in months

After gas prices reached all-time highs, drivers are feeling relief at the pump with the national average under $4 per gallon for the first time in five months. In fact, the average price has gone down at least one cent daily for 38 straight days. There are numerous factors at play in the falling prices, such as the cost of oil, demand, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, inflation and fears of a recession. Read more 

Here's the bigger picture: Inflation is still elevated even though gas prices have fallen.

More news to know now:

🎧 On today's 5 Things podcast, hear from Justice Department correspondent Kevin Johnson as former President Donald Trump faces a storm of investigations. You can listen to the podcast every day on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your smart speaker.

Pregnant but unequal

About two million rural women of childbearing age live in maternity care deserts at least 25 miles away from a labor and delivery unit, a new Paste BN analysis found. Rural hospitals and obstetric wards, already scarce, have continued to shut down in record numbers – and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this trend. In rural communities where at least a third of residents are Black, women travel among the farthest in the nation for maternal care. And the rate of severe maternal illness for Black mothers is twice that of white women, according to a 2021 Government Accountability Office report. Read more 

  • Graphics: The impact of maternal health care deserts is compounded for people of color, who often have worse maternal outcomes regardless of location.  

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Who is Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart? 

As he has done scores of times before, U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart on Monday signed off on a search warrant. It allowed FBI agents to search Mar-a-Lago, the Palm Beach home of former President Donald Trump and ignited a political firestorm. While the issuance of the warrant has been the subject of broad speculation and has touched off a cascade of angry responses from Trump's allies, few know what's in the document Reinhart signed. What is known is it contained details of what the FBI was after - but neither the Justice Department nor the FBI have commented, or released details. Read more  

  • What we don't know, Trump does: Experts say Trump would have been told the inventory of what was taken and potential crimes that prompted the search.
  • Trump took the Fifth: The former president declined to answer questions at the New York attorney general's office in New York City on Wednesday.
  • ''Banana republic tactics": U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., said in a statement his cellphone was confiscated by three FBI agents carrying a search warrant. 

Suspect in killings of four Muslim men in Albuquerque denies crimes

After he was pulled over by New Mexico police, the suspect in the killings of four Muslim men in Albuquerque denied any connection to the crimes that shook the city and its small Muslim community – and told authorities he was so unnerved by the violence that he was driving to Houston to look for a new home, court documents said. Police have said they are gathering evidence in two additional cases before charges are filed. Read more  

  • Background: Here's what we know about investigation into a possible link among the killings of four Muslim men. 

ICYMI: Some of our top stories yesterday

The Perseid meteor shower peaks tonight - but the moon may steal the show.

What NASA calls the "the best meteor shower of the year" – the Perseids – will peak Thursday night, according to the American Meteor Society. But stargazers could be disappointed: The moon will be full, which can spoil the show because of its brilliant light. The Perseid meteor shower occurs every year when the Earth passes through the cloud of debris left by Comet Swift-Tuttle. The meteors are actually tiny dust and particles from the tail of the comet as it orbits the sun. Read more  

📷 Photo of the day: Dozens of looted artifacts are being returned: See what the US is sending home 📷

Cambodia’s ambassador to the United States says the transfer of 30 antiquities by U.S. law enforcement authorities to his country is a return of the “souls of our culture.”  The pieces range from the Bronze Age to the 12th century and were looted during a long period of civil war and instability in Cambodia, which was ruled by the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in the 1970s. Read more  

Click here to see photos of the artifacts the U.S. is sending home.

Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at Paste BN. Send her an email at NFallert@usatoday.com or follow along with her musings on Twitter. Support journalism like this – subscribe to Paste BN here.

Associated Press contributed reporting.

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