Kamala Harris could well be the first woman president, but she's not making a big deal about it. Instead, she's "letting that fact speak for itself," said Politico. That marks a shift from Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, which emphasized the history-making nature of her presidential bid. Harris is betting that voters are ready to vote for a woman but "care far more about her record and platform." 

Harris is "avoiding the sexist traps that snared Hillary Clinton," Susan Milligan said at The New Republic. The electorate has grown more used to women in power over the last decade, but "much of it is the candidate herself." Harris is managing the tricky balancing act expected of women candidates.

'Breaking barriers'
Voters are "looking for electability, not representation," Pamela Paul said at The New York Times. A Pew survey showed that nearly two-thirds of voters, including 57% of women, say electing a woman president in their lifetime was "not important or didn't matter." Sexism often is blamed for Clinton's loss, but she was a "flawed candidate." It's best to "stop all the talk of breaking barriers and glass ceilings."

Harris is running an "anti-Hillary plan," Patricia Murphy said at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Her stump speech focuses less on barrier-breaking and more on her resume as a prosecutor, senator and vice president. People who might be inclined to vote against a woman "don't have to be reminded what they are getting if they pick her anyway." It's not like Harris has to work to highlight her gender. "The images say it for her."

Challenges and benefits
Gender will factor into voter judgments no matter what. Women "have to do more than men to prove they are qualified and are held to a higher standard of likability," pollsters Celinda Lake and Christine Matthews said at USA Today. "A majority say America is ready for a woman president." What voters need to see from a woman candidate, then, is her "leadership abilities."

The gender of voters may matter more. Harris' surge in the polls is "driven heavily by women and younger voters," said The Washington Post. The political divide between men and women is an "increasingly stark partisan divider," said Axios. Harris may not be highlighting her gender, but that "doesn't mean the topic is not deeply infused in this race." 

While rooftop solar panels are becoming increasingly ubiquitous in homes throughout the U.S., the industry also has a widespread problem: Many companies are participating in fraudulent practices in an attempt to scam homeowners out of their money. 

Dissatisfaction with the solar panel industry has been growing over the last half-decade. One-star reviews on the industry website Solar Reviews increased more than 1,000% since 2018, according to NPR. 

There are estimated to be between 105 and 126 million individual solar panels on U.S. residential rooftops, according to solar insurance company SolarInsure, and that number is expected to grow by the 2030s. As a result, victims are now teaming with federal agencies to stem the flow of scammers.

How do the scams work?
U.S. prosecutors are "investigating high-pressure sales tactics and misleading financing arrangements," said NPR. Many larger solar companies with "more of a profit motive have introduced questionable sales and financing practices that are hurting the industry's reputation." Many of these interactions happen as a result of walk-up sales pitches. 

As solar energy has boomed over the years, some companies have also "preyed on consumers by offering predatory and costly loans," said CNET. Many other scams are a result of long-standing financial obligations. Since solar was "more expensive in the 2010s, many entered into leases with solar companies to defray upfront costs, and many were left in the lurch when those companies went out of business," said Time. 

Other common scamming practices include "creating a fake company and 'selling' solar panel systems without any intention of ever installing them," said MarketWatch. 

How widespread are these scams?
There were "5,331 complaints containing the words 'solar panels' submitted" on the Federal Trade Commission's Report Fraud site "between Jan. 1 and Sept. 19 of 2023," according to a Freedom of Information Act analysis from Time. This is up 31% from the entire year of 2022 and up 746% since 2018, the first year that the Federal Trade Commission began tracking solar fraud data in the U.S. Scams are also widespread in Canada and Europe.