Daily Briefing: A summer of strikes

Some state laws are keeping U.S. union membership low despite increasing strike activity. Also in the news: An unusual late-summer storm turned the week-long Burning Man festival into a sloppy mess and keep scrolling for our recap of college football Week 1's winners and losers.

🙋🏼‍♀️ I'm Nicole Fallert, Daily Briefing author. There was a lot of news this summer about aliens. Now the government has a website for all its declassified UFO info.

It's Labor Day, but we've still got the day's top news for you.

Labor Day 2023: Why the US labor movement is so popular right now

With screenwriters and actors on strike and hotel cleaners, Amazon warehouse employees and food industry workers following in pursuit, this summer has been coined “the summer of strikes.” In the first eight months of 2023, over 323,000 workers walked off the job for better benefits, pay and/ or working conditions. But the rate of union members is the lowest in decades at 10.1% in 2022. With strike activity increasing over the past few years, why hasn’t the rate of union membership followed?

• A strike looms as a mid-September deadline nears for contract talks between UAW and Detroit automakers.

• Opinion: Republicans, instead of attacking teachers unions, maybe help solve our educator shortage?

• ''The script will write itself'': How the WGA strike could backfire on Hollywood writers.

• Adam Driver slammed major studios amid the Hollywood strike at Venice Film Festival's ''Ferrari'' premiere.

A sea of mud, overflowing Porta-potties and a rain delay

The culmination of the nine-day Burning Man festival in Nevada is expected to take place Monday evening after two days of rain left the sprawling festival awash in mud and delayed thousands of attendees' departures.

The burning of a towering sculpture called The Man was supposed to be Sunday evening but was postponed until Monday, officials said. In place of the usual raucous parties, around 72,000 people spent Sunday striking muddy camps instead.

• It began raining Friday, turning the normally rock-hard Nevada desert floor into a muddy mess almost impossible to walk or drive on.

• Some online statements that participants were barred from leaving were untrue, organizers said.

• But the event's thousands of porta-potties quickly became disgusting, muddy and almost-overflowing messes as conditions kept the event's residents from driving home – and service trucks from accessing the site.

More news to know now

• Migrant families crossed the US-Mexico border in record numbers in August.

• A GOP lawmaker warns Republicans may be ''walking the plank'' with voters over abortion.

• Zelenskyy says Ukraine's defense minister will be replaced this week.

• Shooting survivors in Jacksonville are the newest members of "a club that nobody wants to belong to."

• On today's 5 Things podcast, a look at the recent wave of recalls from Trader Joe's. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your smart speaker.

What's the weather today? Check your local forecast here.

Student loan repayments surge ahead of official restart

Student loan payments jumped ahead of pre-pandemic levels in the weeks ahead of payments becoming due again in October after a pause during COVID, according to Goldman Sachs economists. Payments rose to about a $150 billion annualized rate, or about twice the pre-pandemic rate, they said, based on weekly payments to the federal Education Department. How people handle student loans, which total $1.7 trillion spread across more than 40 million Americans, could be a barometer for which way the economy could be headed. Read more

Are mask mandates back?

A late-summer uptick in COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths has some schools, hospitals and other businesses scrambling to keep illness from spreading. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported an 18.8% increase in hospitalizations due to COVID between Aug. 13 and Aug. 19, marking the sixth straight week of increased hospitalizations. Experts say currently circulating variants don't necessarily cause more severe acute infection than previous variants, but there is still a risk of long-term effects from COVID. A new vaccine booster targeting the variants is expected to be available mid-September. Read more

Just for subscribers:

• ''Like a Russian roulette'': US military firefighters grapple with unknowns of PFAS exposure.

• Visiting Hawaii isn’t just about the beach: Here's what this biologist wants you to look up.

• Rewriting colonial history: DNA from Delaware graves tells unexpected story of pioneer life.

• A thrift store shopper snagged a lost N.C. Wyeth painting worth up to $250,000 for just $4.

These articles are for USA TODAY subscribers. You can sign up here. 

Maui victims struggle one month after deadly fires

Despite President Joe Biden's recent pledge of $95 million to help rebuild Maui's infrastructure, and celebrities, – including Dwayne Johnson, Oprah Winfrey and Jason Mamoa – launching a "People’s Fund of Maui" and contributing an initial $10 million for residents in need, Maui residents still feel uneasy. Many are worried about being abandoned as the island this week marks one month since the deadliest wildfires in more than a century in the United States. The fires killed at least 115 people, destroyed more than 2,200 structures and caused an estimated tens of billions of dollars in damage. An investigation is underway to determine what initially sparked the wildfires. Read more

• Despite prohibition, would-be buyers trying to snap up land burned in Maui wildfires.

• Extreme weather is the new pandemic for small businesses reliant on tourism.

• Hurricane Idalia's wrath scars ''The Tree Capital of the South'' in Perry, Florida.

Quick hits

• Jimmy Buffet died from Merkel cell skin cancer. Here's what to know about the rare skin condition.

• Corgis paraded outside Buckingham Palace in remembrance of Queen Elizabeth II.

• Meet Ben Shelton, the US Open quarterfinalist poised to become the next American tennis star.

• Week 1 college football winners and losers: TCU flops vs. Colorado.

• From ''Super Mario Bros.'' to ''The Flash,'' here are 15 movies you need to stream right now

• Here are the best books to gift the Virgo in your life.

Photo of the day: NASA astronauts return to Earth in SpaceX capsule

A SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying three astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut splashed down off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida, wrapping up NASA's SpaceX Crew-6 mission early Monday. The return marked the conclusion of nearly six-month science mission aboard the International Space Station. Read more

Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at USA TODAY, sign up for the email here. Want to send Nicole a note? Shoot her an email at NFallert@usatoday.com or follow along with her musings on Twitter. Support journalism like this – subscribe to USA TODAY here.

Associated Press contributed reporting.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Labor Day, union, strike, employment, Burning Man, student loan, COVID, Maui, NASA: Daily Briefing