Good morning. Welcome, Naxios today. It's Thursday, February 9th. I'm Nailibu. Here's

what we're covering today. US birth rates go up and buck a trend. Plus, we want to hear

about black artists you appreciate. But first, junk fees and what President Biden plans

to do about them. That's today's one big thing.

For random fees for concert tickets, airline seats and hotel stays, they feel rampant

to many of us. I know how unfair it feels when a company overcharges you to get to

wave with it. Not anymore. We've written a bill to stop it all. It's called the Junk

Feet Prevention Act. That's President Biden weighing in on this issue in his state

of the Union address on Tuesday. We're going to ban surprise resort fees that hotels

charge on your bill. Those fees can cost up to $90 a night at hotels that aren't

even resorts. The White House says hotels make almost $3 billion a year in resort fees.

And the President wants to crack down on those fees, not just at resorts, but with credit

cards and beyond. So how did things get so bad and what could reform look like? Allison

Poley is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and joining us for more. Hi, Allison.

Hi, thanks for having me. Allison, what are junk fees? There's a lot of debate over

what a junk fee is, but simply put, it's something that doesn't give you any value for what

you're paying for or something that you'd assume would be included in the overall price.

That could be extra fees that pop up when you're about to buy that Taylor Swift ticket

or a fee that's charged for using the hotel swimming pool, even if you don't have any

plans to swim. So what industries are most notorious for this?

Airlines also banks and credit card companies. There are a lot of different industries that the Biden

administration is targeting with this legislation. Has this changed? Have things gotten worse with

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