19 U.S. states have passed laws requiring adult website visitors to verify their age as of January.

Why it matters: The Supreme Court heard arguments this week in a challenge to Texas' age verification law that could determine the fate of all such state rules.

Driving the news: Age verification laws are meant to prevent underage kids from accessing pornographic websites.

• But free speech advocates — like the Free Speech Coalition, which is challenging Texas' law — say such rules could infringe upon adults' First Amendment rights.
• That group has also challenged similar laws in several other states.

How it works: Age verification laws typically require adult websites to implement a way of checking users' ages, often via government-issued IDs.

• Some adult sites, like Pornhub, have decided to go dark in states with age verification rules rather than comply with the requirements.

What they're saying: "Any regulations that require hundreds of thousands of adult sites to collect significant amounts of highly sensitive personal information is putting user safety in jeopardy," Pornhub parent company Aylo said in a recent statement, per PC Magazine.

• "Moreover, as experience has demonstrated, unless properly enforced, users will simply access non-compliant sites or find other methods of evading these laws."

The latest: An appeals court ruled Wednesday that Tennessee's age verification law can take effect pending the outcome of the Texas case.

Zoom in: The map above is based on information gathered by the Age Verification Providers Association, a trade group.

• Georgia lawmakers have passed an age verification law, but it doesn't take effect until July.

What's next: SCOTUS' decision on the Texas law isn't expected until summer.

• But the justices appear likely to uphold it, per the New York Times — which would effectively be a thumps-up for similar laws nationwide.

New York, San Francisco and Honolulu are home to the country's slowest driving, a new report finds.

Why it matters: Drivers want to get where they're going — fast. But public transit and pedestrian advocates might point to these numbers as evidence that some cities are overwhelmed by cars and need to get serious about alternatives.

What they found: In the heart of the Big Apple, it took an average of about 30 minutes to drive 6 miles in 2024, according to TomTom's annual Traffic Index, released Tuesday. That's 2.3% longer than in 2023.

• New York drivers spent a staggering 94 hours a year driving in rush hour on average, based on a twice daily six-mile trip. That's nearly four days of bumper-to-bumper misery.
• San Francisco drivers took nearly 26 minutes to cover 6 miles (+1.9% longer than 2023), while those in Honolulu took nearly 20 minutes (+0.6% longer).

The other side: Richmond, Virginia, is a veritable autobahn by comparison, with drivers making a six-mile trip in under 10 minutes on average.

Reality check: New York is walkable, bikeable and boasts one of the country's best public transit systems — meaning you're not necessarily stuck driving, as you might be in so many other U.S. cities.

• The latest: Drivers entering the most crowded parts of Manhattan are now being tolled under a "congestion pricing" plan meant to reduce vehicle traffic and raise money for public transit.

Between the lines: Lots of factors go into how quickly you can drive 6 miles in a given city, including traffic congestion, construction and weather.

How it works: TomTom's report is based on a representative sample of data collected by "over 600 million devices" and "over 61 billion anonymous GPS data points around the world," the company says.

• The numbers above are based on city centers — "the densest areas that capture 20% of all trips within the city-connected area," per TomTom.

The bottom line: If we're meeting in New York, I'm taking the subway.

Republicans are set to control the legislative process in far more states than Democrats in 2025.

Why it matters: State laws can have an even greater impact on your life than those passed by Congress.

• Democratic lawmakers and governors, meanwhile, could be a bulwark against some of the incoming Trump administration's policies in states they control.

By the numbers: Republicans will control the legislative process in 24 states to Democrats' 15, per Cook Political Report.

• The process is split in 10 others, including Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina and more.
• Nebraska, meanwhile, has a unicameral legislature unique among U.S. states — though the Cornhusker State has a Republican-leaning supermajority.

What they're saying: "Republicans notched the two biggest legislative victories" of Election Day 2024, per Cook's Matthew Klein: Flipping Michigan's House of Representatives and splitting the Minnesota House.

• Democrats ended Republicans' veto-proof supermajority in the North Carolina House, among other wins.

Yes, but: North Carolina lawmakers passed a bill last month stripping some power from state Democrats.

The bottom line: All politics, as they say, are local.

Texas, Florida and Iowa are home to some of America's fastest-growing large counties, per an Axios analysis of the latest census data.

Why it matters: This zoomed-in view offers a close look at population change within individual states — for instance, there's huge growth around Texas' major cities, but many of its rural counties are shrinking.

Driving the news: Kaufman County (+35.2% more people in 2019-2023 compared to 2014-2018), Comal County (+29.2%) and Hays County (+25.6%) — all in Texas — are the country's fastest-growing counties with more than 100,000 residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2019-2023 five-year American Community Survey.

• Robeson County, North Carolina (-12.4%); Hinds County, Mississippi (-8%) and Butte County, California (-7.8%) saw the biggest decreases among large counties.

Zoom in: County-level populations either grew or showed little change across a handful of Pacific Northwest and New England states, including Washington, Oregon and Maine.

Threat level: Some of the country's fastest-growing areas are also among the most vulnerable to climate change.

Between the lines: Although Americans sometimes relocate domestically in search of better jobs, lower costs and so on, international migration is the main driver behind population growth at the national level.

• Migration "accounted for 84% of the nation's 3.3 million increase in population between 2023 and 2024," the Census Bureau said in a recent write-up of separate data.
• "This reflects a continued trend of rising international migration, with a net increase of 1.7 million in 2022 and 2.3 million in 2023."

What's next: Population trends could be notably affected by President-elect Trump's plan to deport millions of people.

Trying to save on travel this year? Consider "detour destinations" — oft-overshadowed places near perennial hotspots worth a closer look for the budget-conscious or crowd-weary.

Why it matters: Travel prices rose 10% from September 2019 to September 2024, per a recent NerdWallet analysis, leaving many searching for cheaper ways to get away.

Driving the news: "Detour destinations" will be a big 2025 travel trend, predicts Expedia's annual year-ahead outlook.

• "63% of consumers say they are likely to visit a detour destination on their next trip."
• Among Expedia's trending "detour destinations:" Reims, France (detour from Paris); Brescia, Italy (detour from Milan); Cozumel, Mexico (detour from Cancun); Santa Barbara, California (detour from Los Angeles) and Waikato, New Zealand (detour from Auckland).

Zoom in: Some travelers are embracing what Expedia calls "goods getaways," or traveling in search of a viral item they can't find back home — that chocolate bar from Dubai, for instance.

• "When going on vacation, 39% of travelers visit grocery stores or supermarkets and 44% shop for local goods they can't get at home."

The intrigue: "Noctourism," or traveling to bask in the glory of a stunning night sky, is another 2025 travel trend to watch, per Booking.com's 2025 travel predictions.

• Many of the country's best dark sky sites are out West, like Arches National Park in Utah, Big Bend National Park in Texas, and Joshua Tree National Park in California.
• But the East has its night-sky gems, too, like Pennsylvania's Cherry Springs State Park and the AMC Maine Woods International Dark Sky Park — which bills itself as "the first and only International Dark Sky Park in New England."

What they found: Booking.com's own list of trending destinations includes Sanya, China; Trieste, Italy; João Pessoa, Brazil; Tromsø, Norway and Willemstad, Curaçao.

Reality check: As much as travelers gripe about rising prices, they aren't stopping people from booking trips.

• 24.3 million people flew in August, "reflecting a 4% increase in U.S. domestic trips and a 3% increase in international trips compared to August 2023," per ticketing infrastructure firm Airlines Reporting Corp.

What's next: Having trouble putting an itinerary together for next year? Let AI take the wheel — 2025's version of closing your eyes and throwing a dart at a map.

Christmas Day and the first night of Hanukkah fall on the same date this year for the first time in nearly 20 years.

Flashback: Hanukkah last started on the evening of Christmas Day in 2005 — the only other time the two have aligned in the last 50 years.

• Hanukkah has started the night of Christmas Eve twice in the last 50 years: in 1978 and 2016.

How it works: The first day of Hanukkah comes on the 25th of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar, which is based on lunar cycles with the occasional "leap month."

• Jewish calendar days begin at sundown, meaning 25 Kislev starts this year on the evening of Dec. 25, when the first candle is lit.
• Hanukkah can start in late November through late December on the more commonly used Gregorian calendar.

By the numbers: The earliest first nights of Hanukkah on the Gregorian calendar over the last 50 years came in 1994 and 2013, when it fell on Nov. 27.

• The latest came in 1986, on Dec. 26.
• The most common first night over the last 50 years? Dec. 8 (1974, 1993, 2012).

💬 Our thought bubble: This year's "Chrismukkah" is both a simple celestial coincidence and a blessing for people who take part in both holidays, giving us a rare chance to truly blend and share end-of-year celebrations and traditions with our different family groups and loved ones.

What's next: The next Hanukkah-Christmas alignment is in 2035.

All American Airlines flights nationwide were halted for about an hour Tuesday morning after what the airline called a "technical issue."

Why it matters: The nationwide outage snarled early traffic on Christmas Eve for the world's largest carrier.

Catch up quick: The FAA issued a nationwide ground stop for all American flights at the airline's request as of 6:49 a.m. ET.

• It was cancelled at 7:50 a.m. ET.

What they're saying: "A vendor technology issue briefly affected flights this morning. That issue has been resolved and flights have resumed," the airline said in a statement.

• The issue "impacted systems needed to release flights," American added.
• Multiple passengers posted on X that their planes had been forced to return to gates, and in some cases all passengers had to get off.

Between the lines: Even a temporary morning pause can throw an airline's daily schedule into chaos.

• FlightAware showed just over 300 flight delays nationwide around 8 a.m. ET, mostly impacting East Coast airports like New York's John F. Kennedy International and Boston's Logan International Airport.
• By 6pm ET, nearly 650 flights had been delayed. However, this was mostly at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, which experienced delays due to severe weather.
• Christmas Eve is one of the lightest air travel days of the holiday season, though nearly 2 million people flew on Dec. 24 last year, per the TSA.

The intrigue: On Monday, American touted its recent performance in a note to reporters, boasting it had more on-time departures than any competitor since the holiday season started.

Flashback: American isn't the only airline to have suffered holiday snafus.

• Southwest Airlines was fined $140 million and spent months rebuilding customers' trust after an extended Christmas week meltdown in 2022.

Editor's Note: This story has been updated with additional statements from American Airlines and more details from FlightAware.

If you're dreaming of a white Christmas, be jealous of those in the Mountain West, upper Midwest and northern New England.

• Those are the regions that most often had at least an inch of snow on the ground or actively falling on Christmas Day between 2003 and 2022, per historic satellite data.

Yes, but: Past performance is no guarantee of future results — especially as climate change shrinks the length of snow seasons in parts of the country, changing the odds of a white Christmas over time.

The latest: As of Dec. 16, NOAA's Climate Prediction Center is calling for heavy snow in parts of the Northwestern U.S. on and around Christmas.

• The best, timeliest forecasts for your area will come by way of your local National Weather Service office.

What initially seemed like a release of pent-up demand for air travel immediately following the worst of COVID-19 now looks like a never-ending climb.

Driving the news: Record numbers of travelers are taking to the skies this year, according to the latest TSA data.

• Nearly 3.1 million people passed through U.S. airport security checkpoints on Dec. 1 (the Sunday after Thanksgiving) — an all-time agency high.
• 2024's numbers have consistently been above those of 2023, just as 2023's figures were above those of 2022, and so on.

Between the lines: This huge demand is partly why aviation leaders like United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby have been calling for more air traffic controllers and other improvements.

The bottom line: If your flights seem particularly jam-packed lately, well, you're not wrong.

Childhood flu vaccination is down so far this season in every state but Iowa, per new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

Why it matters: Flu shots can help prevent kids from getting sick, but they appear to be getting swept up in a broader wave of vaccine skepticism that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The CDC reported 200 pediatric flu-related deaths in the 2023-24 season — a record high for a non-pandemic flu year.

Driving the news: Nationally, childhood flu vaccine coverage is down 7.1 percentage points as of Nov. 30 compared to the same time last year.

• 36.6% of kids nationwide have their flu shots for the 2024-25 season so far, compared to 43.7% at this point last season.
• 53.8% of kids got their flu shot by the end of the 2023-24 season, the CDC says. That's down from 62.4% in 2019-20.

Zoom: Childhood flu vaccine coverage is up 6.5 percentage points in Iowa, where 51% of kids are vaccinated so far.

• The biggest drop is in Idaho (-18.8 percentage points), where only 15% of kids have their flu shots yet this season.

How it works: These figures are among kids aged six months to 17 years.

• No data was available for Arizona or Mississippi.

Between the lines: These numbers are in line with a national rise in vaccine exemptions among kindergartners, suggesting increasing vaccine skepticism among parents pretty much nationwide.

What's next: Public health experts worry President-elect Trump's pick for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., could further erode confidence in many vaccines that have proved safe and effective, as Axios' Maya Goldman and Tina Reed report.

Americans need to make nearly $800,000 to be in the top 1% of households nationally — but the bar varies considerably by state.

By the numbers: Washington, D.C., has the highest threshold for one-percenters, at about $1.22 million.

• Connecticut ($1.17 million), Massachusetts ($1.13 million) and California ($1.05 million) follow.

The other side: West Virginians need to make about $426,000 to be in their state's 1%.

How it works: These figures are based on adjusted gross income (AGI) reported on tax filings in the 2021 tax year, adjusted to 2024 dollars.

Between the lines: The variance between states is tied in part to local economic factors, like job opportunities and wealth concentration.

• West Virginia's floor may be low, for example — but the total AGI per tax return there was about $60,300 in 2021, compared to $112,500 for California.

Christmas tree prices peak around Thanksgiving and mostly fall thereafter, new data shows.

Why it matters: For the live tree lovers among us, timing your annual purchase is a delicate balance between prices and how long you'll get to enjoy a majestic pine or spruce in your living room.

By the numbers: The average Christmas tree went for a high of around $131 on Thanksgiving last year, then fell to about $55 by Christmas Eve.

• Just like candy after Halloween, the real bargains come after Christmas: about $50 on Dec. 30, for example.
• That's based on data from payments firm Square, which gathered info from more than 3,000 tree merchants.

Between the lines: Actual local prices depend on several factors, including the success of nearby growers' annual yields.

• Certain varieties or crops may be more vulnerable to the drought conditions plaguing much of the country this fall, for example.

If you go: Consider chopping down your own tree.

• It's usually cheaper than pre-cut, and makes for a great family day out.

The bottom line: Tree sellers moved 90% of their inventory by mid-December last year, per Square — so get moving if you don't want to end up stuck with a diminutive Charlie Brown fir.

New U.S. business applications hit a high water mark in 2023, with notable hot spots in the Southeast and Mountain West.

Why it matters: Small businesses are a cornerstone of the U.S. economy, employing tens of millions of Americans.

Driving the news: Americans filed nearly 5.5 million new business applications in 2023, per the U.S. Census Bureau, or about 16.3 for every 1,000 residents.

• That's up from about 5.1 million in 2022 and 3.5 million in 2018, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
• About 1.8 million of 2023's new businesses are highly likely to hire workers, per the bureau, compared to around 1.3 million in 2018.

Zoom in: Wyoming (100.1), Delaware (53.4) and Florida (29.4) had the highest rates of new business applications per 1,000 residents in 2023.

• The first two are perennial new business favorites for legal and tax reasons.

Stunning stat: Nearly 85% of consumers say they'll probably shop at a small business this holiday season, a new American Express survey finds, up 11 points over the last decade.

Reality check: Filling out the paperwork for a new firm is just one step, but it's at least a sign of confidence that small business success is possible.

As a record number of travelers fly this Thanksgiving, some may wind up enjoying new Biden-era refund rules that could be on the chopping block after President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January.

Why it matters: Trump and his appointees will likely try to defang consumer protection efforts at the Transportation Department (DOT) and across the federal government, as they did during his first term.

Driving the news: New DOT rules forcing airlines to automatically and quickly refund travelers for significantly delayed or canceled flights took effect in October.

• They're a capstone achievement for Biden's outgoing Transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, who's spent the last four years framing himself as a consumer rights champion.
• But airline industry leaders now seem confident that Trump 2.0 will be less aggressive and friendlier to their bottom line.

What they're saying: Speaking ahead of a company investor day earlier this month, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said that Trump promised "to take a fresh look at the regulatory environment, the bureaucracy that exists in government, the level of overreach that we have seen over the last four years within our industry," the Associated Press reports.

• "We are hopeful for a DOT that is maybe a little less aggressive in terms of regulating or rule-making," Southwest Airlines CEO Robert Jordan said after a recent speech, per the AP.
• In a letter to Trump, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby — once vilified by the right for the company's early COVID-19 vaccine mandate — asked Trump "to consider the role the federal government plays in realizing [United's] vision for economic growth," but focused more on air traffic control reform than passenger refunds.

Between the lines: Sean Duffy, Trump's pick to head up DOT, is a Fox News contributor and former reality TV star, as Axios' Sareen Habeshian reports.

• He has little formal transportation experience — not unlike his predecessor, though, that complicates any tea-reading.
• A Trump Justice Department is also likely to be friendlier to airline mergers — a big change from the Biden DOJ, which grounded JetBlue and Spirit's attempted tie-up on anti-competition grounds. (Spirit has since filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protections.)

Zoom out: Also likely in team Trump's crosshairs: consumer protection efforts at the Federal Communications Commission (where Democratic officials have been eyeing broadband companies' data caps), the Environmental Protection Agency (where clean water rules could be in the crosshairs), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (which has been fighting banks' "junk fees"), and more.

Reality check: Some of these efforts — most notably the airfare refunds — have been broadly popular with consumers, complicating any rollbacks.

The bottom line: Expect fewer consumer safeguards in a new Trump administration, with a question mark on how far they'll go.

A typical Thanksgiving dinner for 10 will cost about $58 this year, a new report finds — down around 5% from last year but up nearly 20% in unadjusted dollars from 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Why it matters: Grocery prices are a key way Americans experience inflation, and Thanksgiving puts food costs front and center.

Driving the news: Those figures come from the American Farm Bureau Federation's annual survey, released Wednesday and based on observed nationwide prices for a hypothetical basket of Thanksgiving staples.

• That includes turkey — obviously! — plus cranberries, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie mix, and more.
• ☝️ Axios created an expanded menu, which includes two other Thanksgiving favorites: ham and potatoes.

Between the lines: Adjusting for inflation back to 1982, as the group always does, this year's Farm Bureau basket is one of the cheapest in decades.

Yes, but: That's not how everyday people think about prices, and grocery costs have been a major worry for many since the pandemic and through the recent election.

• Indeed, 44% of Thanksgiving hosts surveyed are concerned about the cost of having folks over for dinner this year, per a separate Deloitte report
• 3 in 10 hosts surveyed are inviting fewer people, Deloitte found, while some are also expecting guests to bring dishes to reduce costs.

The bottom line: Thanksgiving may be yet another example of how economists and everyday people think about prices and inflation in very different ways.