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Salesforce is buying AI-powered cloud data management company Informatica in an approximately $8 billion deal. Informatica’s shareholders will receive $25 per share, a premium of about 11% from Friday’s closing price of $22.55. The transaction will give Salesforce access to Informatica’s data management capabilities. Informatica was taken private in 2015 by private equity firm Permira and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for about $5.3 billion. It went public again in 2021. “Joining forces with Salesforce represents a significant leap forward in our journey to bring data and AI to life by empowering businesses with the transformative power of their most critical asset — their data,” Informatica CEO Amit Walia said in a statement on Tuesday. “We have a shared vision for how we can help organizations harness the full value of their data in the AI era.” Robin Washington, president and chief operating and financial officer at Salesforce, said in a statement that the acquisition will look to take advantage of Informatica’s capabilities quickly, particularly in areas such as the public sector, life sciences, health care, and financial services. San Francisco-based Salesforce is set to report its quarterly financial results Wednesday after the bell. Both companies’ boards have approved the deal, which is expected to close early in Salesforce’s fiscal 2027. Shares of Salesforce rose slightly before the market open, while Informatica’s stock jumped 5.7%. —Michelle Chapman, AP Business Writer View the full article

Most shareholders of listed companies still prefer real assets with predictable cash returnsView the full article

The President Media & Technology Group to sell stock and convertible bonds to purchase crypto tokensView the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. While most people think of smart cameras as just a part of their security system, they’re also a good way to monitor the things growing in your yard. In most cases, the cameras you already have set up for security can be doing double duty as a tool to keep track of what's happening in your garden. I believe we’re on the cusp of smart cameras becoming a much bigger part of the gardening experience. For the last few years, smart bird houses have exploded in popularity. One of those companies, Bird Buddy, has launched an entirely new line of cameras specifically for micro-viewing experiences in the garden. Their Petal cameras, expected to be available next year, should be positioned closer to the ground than most security cameras, and are meant to capture bees, insects, and butterflies, as well as the growth of your plants. Using AI (as a subscription service), the camera will allow you to assign names to your plants and even communicate with them. Still, there is a lot you can do with security cameras already on the market. Remote monitoring Credit: Amanda Blum In an ideal world, you could pack up for vacation and your yard would take care of itself—but a smart camera can allow you to remotely keep an eye on what’s happening and monitor for any damage. What’s impressive to me is how well my solar-powered cameras maintain their connection, even during low temperatures and freezing rain. I've been impressed at how much detail I can get from small plants through my cameras. Credit: Amanda Blum Cameras allow you to keep an active watch on your yard. Not only will your security camera let you know if your trusted waterer drops by while you're gone as promised, but you can actually see how your plants are doing and if additional help is needed. I’m always impressed at how good the zoom is on the cameras I use around my yard; I can actually tell if a tomato is ripe or if broccoli is ready to be picked. Last year, when I couldn’t get outside because of a sprained ankle and had someone helping in the garden, being able to see what they were doing and communicate with them via my security camera was invaluable. It’s much more effective than trying to describe what you need or want. Catch pestsGarden pests are frustrating for a wealth of reasons. To start with, you often don’t know what kind of pest you’re dealing with, and it’s nearly impossible to catch them in the act. Smart cameras are perfect for this, because they give you fly-on-the-wall ability to passively watch. Motion detection does most of the work for you. My security camera let me know I had raccoons in my yard last winter. They weren’t doing any damage (yet), but it helped influence how I design my garden and chicken coops. The cameras identified the cat that had chosen my garden to use as a litter box, checking in each night around 1 a.m. I’ve been chasing down a rat for the last two weeks, and the cameras do a spectacular job of catching his activity, which tells me where to add traps and what I may be doing that is enabling him. Other uses for smart cameras in your yard Credit: Amanda Blum The most invaluable service I’ve gotten from my cameras are how I use them to monitor backyard pets. I could not figure out how my newly adopted doberman was escaping from the yard, so I installed security cameras, and discovered she was climbing a five-foot tall chain link fence. I’ve got three cameras installed in my chicken coop, and they tell me when there are eggs to be grabbed, if a chicken is becoming broody, if everyone got into the coop at night, and if that pesky rat has cracked into the chicken food. When I first got my chickens, I couldn’t figure out which bird was laying which color egg, but the cameras helped. And now that I have a beehive, being able to see the activity going in and out of the hive is a helpful to monitor the health of the hive, and if a rodent of any kind tries to get in, I’ll know immediately. How to choose a camera for your yardI’ve tried smart cameras from almost every major brand, and I’ve figured out some things. First, in almost all cases, I want a PTZ (point, tilt, zoom) camera. These allow you to use your phone as a remote control and move the camera around, often almost 360 degrees, to zoom in on what you want. This is far superior to a fixed range camera. It’s simply annoying to have something going on just outside of the range of your camera and not be able to do anything to adjust it remotely. Additionally, I look for an app that makes it easy to watch clips. While I think Reolink cameras are affordable and functional, their app forces you to watch a horizontal clip on a vertical screen, so details are incredibly small. The Ring app has a lot of bloat, bringing neighborhood alert notifications to your phone. I enjoy the Aqara, Switchbot, and Eufy apps for getting to the video quickly and easily. Lastly, as you add cameras to your collection, being able to remain free from subscription costs is a real bonus. For that reason, I have largely switched over to Eufy cameras, which—if connected to a Home Base—don’t need a subscription. What I use in my yard: I replaced all my floodlights with this camera for overhead views Eufy Wired Floodlight Cam $199.99 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $219.99 Save $20.00 Shop Now Shop Now $199.99 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $219.99 Save $20.00 I place these wireless cams anyplace I want a 360 view of what's happening in my yard. Eufy Solar Powered Wireless Camera $259.99 at Amazon $349.99 Save $90.00 Shop Now Shop Now $259.99 at Amazon $349.99 Save $90.00 I have this epoxied into three spots in my chicken coop. Eufy Indoor PTZ Camera $34.88 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg Shop Now Shop Now $34.88 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg Just added this to monitor my beehive. Eufycam S3 Pro $439.99 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $549.99 Save $110.00 Get Deal Get Deal $439.99 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg $549.99 Save $110.00 All my cameras sync to the homebase so I don't need a subscription. Eufy HomeBase $149.99 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg Get Deal Get Deal $149.99 at Amazon /images/amazon-prime.svg SEE 2 MORE Where to place your camera Credit: Amanda Blum All security cameras are either hardwired or wireless. You might already have exterior floodlights on your home, and wired security cameras can use those connections, replacing the lights (many units come with floodlights). In this case, your connection is likely high up, and can’t be moved easily. So long as it’s high up, you likely have a good field of vision of your yard, but make sure to consider plants that grow in the summer, and if they’ll block your view. If you don’t have these connections available and don’t want to pay an electrician to create them, you need wireless cameras. But I actually prefer my wireless cameras. First, the solar power on most of them is astounding. I live in the Pacific Northwest, a place with seven months of gloom, and my cameras always stay powered. Second, being wireless means you can move your camera around to find the perfect spot. Usually all you need is to screw the base into the spot you want the camera. Don’t be afraid to try different spots, when I was chasing down how my dog escaped, I had to keep moving the camera. I attached the camera to a 2x4, and moved the wood around the yard, leaning it against whatever was near until I found the right range of vision. 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With Memorial Day behind us, America’s summer travel season is now in full swing. While flyers should be aware of how to find great fares and the best apps to use when taking a vacation overseas, they should also be mindful of a few new rule changes going into effect at popular airlines, which could impact their trips. Those changes are happening at two of America’s most well-known airlines—Southwest and United—and include alterations to the airlines’ free baggage and check-in policies, respectively. Here’s what to know about the changes and when they go into effect. Southwest’s signature “Bags Fly Free” policy changes on May 28 On Wednesday, May 28, Southwest’s signature “Bags Fly Free” policy is changing. The policy has been a defining feature of the airline for decades, which lets Southwest fliers check up to two bags for free on any flight. However, come May 28, that policy will end for many Southwest passengers. As Fast Company previously reported, many passengers who book flights on Southwest from May 28 will now need to pay for checked baggage, although some will still be able to check bags for free. Here’s how the new checked baggage policies work, according to Southwest: If you are a Rapid Rewards A-List Preferred Member or traveling on Business Select fares, you’ll still be able to check up to two bags for free on your flight. If you are an A-List Member or a Rapid Rewards Credit Cardmember, you’ll get one checked bag for free on each flight. But if you don’t fall into the categories above, you’ll now be charged to check your first and second bags on each flight. It’s important to note that these new baggage-check rules and fees only apply to flights booked on or after May 28, 2025. If you booked your flight before that date, you’ll still be able to take advantage of Southwest’s old “Bags Fly Free” policy even if the flight takes place after May 28. United’s check-in policy changes on June 3 On June 3, anyone flying on United will need to check in for their flight at least 45 minutes before departure, the airline confirmed with Fast Company. Previously, some passengers could check in as little as 30 minutes before their flight. Those who do not check in at least 45 minutes before their flight is scheduled to depart will be denied boarding starting June 3. Historically, United has allowed those flying without checked bags to check in by as little as 30 minutes before a domestic flight. Those on domestic flights with checked bags had a 45-minute check-in cutoff. In order to simplify things for gate staff and provide uniformity for passengers, United will now require anyone on a domestic flight with or without checked bags to check in at least 45 minutes before departure. “The change brings greater consistency for our customers by aligning with our current checked baggage deadline and the check-in policies followed by most other airlines,” a United spokesperson told Fast Company via email. It should be noted that the new 45-minute check-in rule only applies to domestic flights. For international flights, United requires passengers to check in at least 60 minutes before the scheduled departure. United’s check-in time limits can be found here. View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Like shopping on Amazon itself, Prime Video can sometimes feel like a jumble sale: a proliferation of TV and movies from every era, none of it terribly well-curated. There’s a lot to sort through, and the choices can be a little overwhelming. Presentation issues aside, there are some real gems to be found, as long as you’re willing to dig a bit—the streamer offers more than a few impressive exclusives, though they sometimes get lost amid the noise. Here are 20 of the best TV series Prime Video has to offer, including both ongoing and concluded shows. Overcompensating (2025 – ) Comedian Benito Skinner plays himself, sort of, in this buzzy comedy that sees a former high school jock facing his freshman year in college, desperately trying to convince himself and everyone else that he's as straight as they come (relatable, except for the jock part). Much of the show's appeal is in its deft blending of tones: It's a frequently raunchy college comedy, but it's simultaneously a sweet coming-of-age story about accepting yourself without worrying about what everyone else thinks. The impressive cast includes Adam DiMarco (The White Lotus) and Rish Shah (Ms. Marvel) You can stream Overcompensating here. Étoile (2025 –, renewed for season two) Amy Sherman-Palladino and David Palladino (Gilmore Girls, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) are back on TV and back in the dance world (following Bunheads) with this series about two world-renowned ballet companies (one in NYC and one in Paris) that decide to spice things up by swapping their most talented dancers. Each company is on the brink of financial disaster, and so Jack McMillan (Luke Kirby), director of the Metropolitan Ballet, and Geneviève Lavigne (Charlotte Gainsbourg), director of of Le Ballet National, come up with the plan, and recruit an eccentric billionaire (Simon Callow) to pay for it. Much of the comedy comes from the mismatched natures of their swapped dancers, and there's a tangible love of ballet that keeps things light, despite the fancy title. You can stream Étoile here. Fallout (2024 – , renewed for second and third seasons) A shockingly effective video game adaptation, Fallout does post-apocalyptic TV with a lot more color and vibrancy than can typically be ascribed to the genre (in the world of Fallout, the aesthetic of the 1950s hung on for a lot longer than it did in ours). The setup is a little complicated, but not belabored in the show itself: It's 2296 on an Earth devastated two centuries earlier by a nuclear war between the United States and China, exacerbated by conflicts between capitalists and so-called communists. Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell) emerges from the underground Vault where she's lived her whole life protected from the presumed ravages of the world above, hoping to find her missing father, who was kidnapped by raiders. The aboveground wasteland is dominated by various factions, each of which considers the others dangerous cults, and believes that they alone know mankind's way forward. It's also overrun by Ghouls, Gulpers, and other wild radiation monsters. Through all of this, Lucy remains just about the only human with any belief in humanity, or any desire to make things better. You can stream Fallout here. Deadloch (2023 –, renewed for a second season) Both an excellent crime procedural and an effective satire of the genre, this Australian import does about as well as setting up its central mystery as Broadchurch and its many (many) imitators. Kate Box stars as Dulcie Collins, fastidious senior sergeant of the police force in the fictional town of the title. When a body turns up dead on the beach, Dulcie is joined by Madeleine Sami's Eddie Redcliffe, a crude and generally obnoxious detective brought in to help solve the case. Unraveling the web of secrets and mysteries in the tiny Tasmanian town is appropriately addictive, with the added bonus of cop thriller tropes getting mercilessly mocked all the way. You can stream Deadlock here. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022 – , third season coming) All the talk around The Rings of Power in the lead-up to the series had to do with the cost of the planned five seasons expected to be somewhere in the billion dollar range. At that price point, it’s tempting to expect a debacle—but the resulting series is actually quite good, blending epic conflict with more grounded characters in a manner that evokes both Tolkien, and Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films. Set thousands of years before those tales, the series follows an ensemble cast lead by Morfydd Clark as Elven outcast Galadriel and, at the other end of the spectrum, Markella Kavenagh as Nori, a Harfoot (the people we’ll much later know as Hobbits) with a yearning for adventure who finds herself caught up in the larger struggles of a world about to see the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the fall of the idyllic island kingdom of Númenor, and the the last alliance of Elves and humans. You can stream The Rings of Power here. Reacher (2022 – , fourth season coming) Getting high marks for his portrayal of the Lee Childs’ character (from both book and TV fans) is Alan Ritchson (Titans), playing Reacher with an appropriately commanding physical presence. The first season finds the former U.S. Army military policeman visiting the rural town of Margrave, Georgia...where he’s quickly arrested for murder. His attempts to clear his name find him caught up in a complex conspiracy involving the town’s very corrupt police force, as well as shady local businessmen and politicians. Subsequent seasons find our ripped drifter reconnecting with members of his old army special-investigations unit, including Frances Neagley (Maria Stan), who's getting her own spin-off. You can stream Reacher here. The Bondsman (2025, one season) It's tempting not to include The Bondsman among Prime's best, given that it's representative of an increasingly obnoxious trend: shows that get cancelled before they ever really got a chance. This Kevin Bacon-led action horror thriller did well with critics and on the streaming charts, and it's had a consistent spot among Prime's top ten streaming shows, but it got the pink slip anyway. Nevertheless, what we did get is a lot of fun: Bacon plays Hub Halloran, a bounty hunter who dies on the job only to discover that he's been resurrected by the literal devil, for whom he now works. It comes to a moderately satisfying conclusion, despite the cancellation. You can stream The Bondsman here. The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022 – , third season coming) All the talk around The Rings of Power in the lead-up to the series had to do with the cost of the planned five seasons expected to be somewhere in the billion dollar range. At that price point, it’s tempting to expect a debacle—but the resulting series is actually quite good, blending epic conflict with more grounded characters in a manner that evokes both Tolkien, and Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films. Set thousands of years before those tales, the series follows an ensemble cast lead by Morfydd Clark as Elven outcast Galadriel and, at the other end of the spectrum, Markella Kavenagh as Nori, a Harfoot (the people we’ll much later know as Hobbits) with a yearning for adventure who finds herself caught up in the larger struggles of a world about to see the rise of the Dark Lord Sauron, the fall of the idyllic island kingdom of Númenor, and the the last alliance of Elves and humans. You can stream The Rings of Power here. The Expanse (2015 – 2022, six seasons) A pick-up from the SyFy channel after that network all but got out of the original series business, The Expanse started good and only got better with each succeeding season. Starring Steven Strait, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Dominique Tipper among a sizable ensemble, the show takes place in a near-ish future in which we’ve spread out into the solar system, while largely taking all of the usual political bullshit and conflicts with us. A salvage crew comes upon an alien microorganism with the potential to upend pretty much everything, if humanity can stop fighting over scraps long enough to make it matter. The show brings a sense of gritty realism to TV sci-fi, without entirely sacrificing optimism—or, at least, the idea that well-intentioned individuals can make a difference. You can stream The Expanse here. Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2024 – , renewed for a second season) One-upping the Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie movie on which it's based, Mr. & Mrs. Smith stars Donald Glover and Maya Erskine as a couple of spies tasked to pose as a married couple while coordinating (and sometimes competing against one another) on missions. Smartly, each episode takes on a standalone mission in a different location, while complicating the relationship between the two and gradually upping the stakes until the season finale, which sees them pitted against each other. The show is returning for season two, though it's unclear if Glover and Erskine will be returning, or if we'll be getting a new Mr. & Mrs. You can stream Mr. & Mrs. Smith here. Good Omens (2019– , conclusion coming) Michael Sheen and David Tennant are delightful as, respectively, the hopelessly naive angel Aziraphale and the demon Crowley, wandering the Earth for millennia and determined not to let the perpetual conflict between their two sides get in the way of their mismatched friendship. In the show’s world, from the 1990 novel by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, heaven and hell are are less representative of good and evil than hidebound bureaucracies, more interested in scoring points on each other than in doing anything useful for anyone down here. It’s got a sly, quirky, sometimes goofy sense of humor, even while it asks some big questions about who should get to decide what’s right and what’s wrong. Following some depressingly gross revelations about writer and showrunner Gaiman, it was announced that he'd be off the production and the third season would be reduced to a movie-length conclusion, date tbd. You can stream Good Omens here. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017 – 2023, five seasons) Mrs. Maisel was one of Prime’s first and buzziest original series, a comedy-drama from Amy Sherman-Palladino (Gilmore Girls) about the title’s Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan), a New York housewife of the late 1950s who discovers a talent for stand-up comedy. Inspired by the real-life careers of comedians like Totie Fields and Joan Rivers, the show is both warm and funny, with great performances and dialogue; it also achieves something rare in being a show about comedy that’s actually funny. You can stream Mrs. Maisel here. The Boys (2019 – , fifth and final season coming) There’s a lot of superhero stuff out there, no question, but, as there was no series quite like the Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson comic book on which this show is based, there’s nothing else quite like The Boys. The very dark satire imagines a world in which superheroes are big with the public, but whose powers don’t make them any better than the average jerk. When his girlfriend is gruesomely killed by a superhero who couldn’t really care less (collateral damage, ya know), Wee Hughie (Jack Quaid) is recruited by the title agency. Led by Billy Butcher (Karl Urban), the Boys watch over the world’s superpowered individuals, putting them down when necessary and possible. A concluding fifth season is on the way, as is a second season of the live-action spin-off (Gen V). An animated miniseries (Diabolical) came out in 2022. The Man in the High Castle (2015–2019, four seasons) From a novel by Philip K. Dick (whose work has been the basis for Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, among many others), The Man in the High Castle takes place in an alternate history in which the Axis powers won World War II, and in which the United States is split down the middle; Japan governing the west and Germany the east. The title’s man in the high castle offers an alternate view, though, one in which the Allies actually won, with the potential to rally opposition to the Axis rulers. As the show progresses through its four seasons, the parallels to our increasingly authoritarian-friendly world, making it one of the more relevant shows of recent years. You can stream The Man in the High Castle here. The Wheel of Time (2021 – 2025, three seasons) An effective bit of fantasy storytelling, The Wheel of Time sees five people taken from a secluded village by Moiraine Damodred (Rosamund Pike), a powerful magic user who believes that one of them is the reborn Dragon: a being who will either heal the world, or destroy it entirely. The show has an epic sweep while smartly focusing on the very unworldly villagers, experiencing much of this at the same time as the audience. This is another mixed recommendation in that, while the show itself is quite good, it has just been cancelled following a third season that saw it really getting into its groove. The show goes through the fourth and fifth books of Robert Jordan's fantasy series, so, I suppose, you can always jump into the novels to finish the story. You can stream Wheel of Time here. The Devil’s Hour (2022 – , renewed for a third season) Jessica Raine (Call the Midwife) joins Peter Capaldi (The Thick of It, Doctor Who) for a slightly convoluted but haunting series that throws in just about every horror trope that you can think of while still managing to ground things in the two lead performances. Raine plays a social worker whose life is coming apart on almost every level: She’s caring for her aging mother, her marriage is ending, her son is withdrawn, and she wakes up at 3:33 am every morning exactly. She’s as convincing in the role as Capaldi is absolutely terrifying as a criminal linked to at least one killing who knows a lot more than he makes clear. You can stream The Devil's Hour here. Batman: Caped Crusader (2024 – , second season coming) I know, there's a lot of Batman out there. But this one's got real style, harkening back to Batman: The Animated Series from the 1990s (no surprise, given that Bruce Timm developed this one too). With a 1940s-esque setting, the show dodges some of the more outlandish superhero tropes to instead focus on a Gotham City rife with crime, corrupt cops, and gang warfare. There's just enough serialization across the first season to keep things addictive. You can stream Caped Crusader here. Secret Level (2024 – , renewed for a second season) This is pretty fun: an anthology of animated shorts from various creative teams that tell stories set within the worlds of various (15 so far) video games, including Unreal, Warhammer, Sifu, Mega Man, and Honor of Kings. It's hard to find consistent threads given the variety of source material, but that's kinda the point: There's a little something for everyone, and most shorts don't demand any extensive knowledge of game lore—though, naturally, they're a bit more fun for the initiated. The voice cast includes the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, his son Patrick Schwarzenegger, Keanu Reeves, Gabriel Luna, Ariana Greenblatt, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje. You can stream Secret Level here. Cross (2024 – , renewed for a second season) James Patterson's Alex Cross novels have been adapted three times before, all with mixed results: Morgan Freeman played the character twice, and Tyler Perry took on the role in 2012. Here, the forensic psychologist/police detective of a few dozen novels is played by Aldis Hodge (Leverage, One Night in Miami...), and it feels like he's finally nailed it. There are plenty of cop-drama tropes at work here, but the series is fast-paced and intense, and Hodge is instantly compelling in the iconic lead role. You can stream Cross here. Fleabag (2016–2019, two seasons) Fleabag isn’t a Prime original per se, nor even a co-production, but Amazon is the show’s American distributor and still brands it as such, so we’re going to count it. There’s no quick synopsis here, but stars Phoebe Waller-Bridge as the title character (only ever known as Fleabag) in the comedy drama about a free-spirited, but also deeply angry single woman in living in London. Waller-Bridge won separate Emmys as the star, creator, and writer of the series (all in the same year), and co-stars Sian Clifford, Olivia Coleman, Fiona Shaw, and Kristin Scott Thomas all received well-deserved nominations. You can stream Fleabag here. View the full article

More Klarna customers are having trouble repaying their “buy now, pay later” loans, the short-term lender said this week. The disclosure corresponded with reports by lending platforms Bankrate and LendingTree, which cited an increasing share of all “buy now, pay later” users saying they had fallen behind on payments. The late or missed installments are a sign of faltering financial health among a segment of the US population, some analysts say, as the nation’s total consumer debt rises to a record $18.2 trillion and the The President administration moves to collect on federal student loans. Shoppers who opt to finance purchases through BNPL services tend to be younger than the average consumer, and a study from the Federal Reserve last year said Black and Hispanic women were especially likely to use the plans, which customers of all income levels are increasingly adopting. “While BNPL provides credit to financially vulnerable consumers, these same consumers may be overextending themselves,” the authors of the Federal Reserve study wrote. “This concern is consistent with previous research that has shown consumers spend more when BNPL is offered when checking out and that BNPL use leads to an increase in overdraft fees and credit card interest payments and fees.” As Klarna grows its user base and revenue, the Swedish company said its first-quarter consumer credit losses rose 17% compared to the January-March period of last year, to $136 million. A company spokesperson said in a statement that the increase largely reflected the higher number of loans Klarna made year over year. The percentage of its loans at a global level that went unpaid in the first quarter grew from 0.51% in 2024 to 0.54% this year, and the company sees “no sign of a weakened U.S. consumer,” he said. More consumers are using ‘buy now, pay later’ plans Buy now, pay later plans generally let consumers split payments for purchases into four or fewer installments, often with a down payment at checkout. The loans are typically marketed as zero-interest, and most require no credit check or a soft credit check. BNPL providers promote the plans as a safer alternative to traditional credit cards when interest rates are high. The popularity of the deferred payment plans, and the expanding ways customers can use them, have also sparked public attention. When Klarna announced a partnership with DoorDash in March, the news led to online comments about Americans taking out loans to buy takeout food. Similar skepticism emerged when Billboard revealed that more than half of Coachella attendees used installment plans to finance their tickets to the music festival. An April report from LendingTree said about four in ten users of buy now, pay later plans said they had made late payments in the past year, up from one in three last year. According to a May report from Bankrate, about one in four users of the loans chose them because they were easier to get than traditional credit cards. The six largest BNPL providers — Affirm, Afterpay, Klarna, PayPal, Sezzle, and Zip — originated about 277.3 million loans for $33.8 billion in merchandise in 2022, or an amount equal to about 1% of credit card spending that year, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. An industry that is coming under less regulatory scrutiny The federal agency said this month it did not intend to enforce a Biden-era regulation that was designed to put more boundaries around the fintech lenders. The rule treated buy now, pay later loans like traditional credit cards under the Truth In Lending Act, requiring disclosures, refund processing, a formal dispute process and other protections. The regulation, which took effect last year, also prevented borrowers from being forced into automatic payments or charged with multiple fees for the same missed payment. The The President administration said its non-enforcement decision came “in the interest of focusing resources on supporting hard-working American taxpayers” and that it would “instead keep its enforcement and supervision resources focused on pressing threats to consumers, particularly servicemen and veterans.” Consumer advocates maintain that without federal oversight, customers seeking refunds or in search of clear information about BNPL fee structures and interest rates will have less legal recourse. There are risks to taking out installment loans Industry watchers point to consumers taking out loans they can’t afford to pay back as a top risk of BNPL use. Without credit bureaus keeping track of the new form of credit, there are fewer safeguards and less oversight. Justine Farrell, chair of the marketing department at the University of San Diego’s Knauss School of Business, said that when consumers aren’t able to make loan payments on time, it worsens the economic stress they’re already experiencing. “Consumers’ financial positions feel more spread thin than they have in a long time,” said Farrell, who studies consumer behavior and BNPL services. “The cost of food is continuing to go up, on top of rent and other goods … so consumers are taking advantage of the ability to pay for items later.” The Consumer Federation of America and other watchdog organizations have expressed concern about the rollback of BNPL regulation as the use of the loans continues to rise. “By taking a head-in-the-sand approach to the new universe of fintech loans, the new CFPB is once again favoring Big Tech at the expense of everyday people,” said Adam Rust, director of financial services at the Consumer Federation of America. The Associated Press receives support from Charles Schwab Foundation for educational and explanatory reporting to improve financial literacy. The independent foundation is separate from Charles Schwab and Co. Inc. The AP is solely responsible for its journalism. —Cora Lewis, Associated Press View the full article

The run-up in prices since the pandemic, and mortgage rates hovering near 7%, have squeezed affordability for house hunters, pushing many to the sidelines. View the full article

Sleep can be a mysterious process even under ideal conditions, but when you’re in a completely alien environment like a hotel room or other temporary lodging it can become seemingly impossible. But if you take a little control over your environment, you can get more—and better—sleep no matter where you find yourself at night. Make the space feel more like homeStudies have shown that aspects of our home environment like sound and smell can help us be more relaxed and and happy when we’re away, so replicating those aspects of your life in an unfamiliar spot can help you sleep: Sound. If you normally sleep with a white noise machine, bring it with you when you travel, or find a travel-size model or phone app that simulates it. Smell. Everyone’s home has a unique scent map. Bringing those scents with you can trick your brain into feeling “at home” in a strange place. Using the same lotions, shampoos, and soaps on the road can recreate that scent matrix. Bringing an item of clothing that smells like the dryer sheets or detergent you use at home into bed with you can also help make an unfamiliar bed seem inviting. Routine. Another way to make an unfamiliar place seem more like home is to keep to your usual routine. However you approach bedtime at home—whether it’s reading a book, meditating for a few moments, or watching a little mindless television—do it as much as possible in your temporary digs. Try to hit the sack around the same time as usual, if you can, and keep to the same bathroom routine as well. Control the environmentAs much as possible, you want to control the physical environment that you’re sleeping in. If you’re used to sleeping in a pitch-black room, block light sources as much as possible by clipping curtains shut (binder clips work well for this), putting tape or Post-It notes over incidental light sources like alarms and thermostats, and blocking gaps under doors that allow light to leak in. If you prefer some light while you’re sleeping, bring a nightlight with you that you can plug in to make sure even the darkest room is illuminated. And adjust the temperature, if you can—most people sleep better when the room is a little on the cool side, about 60 to 65 degrees. But if you’re used to sleeping in a warmer or even colder environment, try to get as close to that as you can. Select a strategic locationIf you have control over the location of your room (when staying at a hotel, for example), use that control to select a spot that’s conducive to a good night’s sleep. That starts with the location of the building itself—if you have a choice of guest rooms or hotels to spend the night, choose one far away from busy streets or other sources of noise. Then look for a spot that’s far from common areas like elevators or lobbies—or your friend’s living room where everyone stays up all night chatting. Get out of bed (for a little while) Finally, if you’re struggling to fall asleep in a strange place despite all of these efforts, give up and get out of bed. Forcing yourself to lie there and count the minutes as they slip past you just reinforces the connection between stress and anxiety and that bed, making it even less likely that you’ll fall asleep. Instead, after about 20 minutes it’s best to get up and do something relaxing for a short period of time. This resets your body and mind and breaks the association between frustration and the bed, making it easier to relax when you try again. View the full article

Reform UK leader in favour of policy to make it ‘easier’ for lower paid workers to have childrenView the full article

No place is more vulnerable to hurricanes in the 50 U.S. states than the Florida Keys. The chain of islands celebrated by singer Jimmy Buffett in his odes to tropical escapism is surrounded by water, jutting out 120 miles southwesterly from Florida’s mainland to Key West with the Gulf and Atlantic Ocean on either side. The archipelago historically has been known for its quirky and libertarian inhabitants who revel in the islands’ hedonistic, artistic and outdoorsy lifestyle. In recent years, it also has become a haven for the wealthy. Overseeing safety for the more than 80,000 inhabitants of the Conch Republic — the nickname for the islands after denizens declared a tongue-in-cheek secession from the United States in the early 1980s — is Shannon Weiner, director of emergency management for Monroe County, Florida. The Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1, and the county has some new weapons this season, including a brand-new emergency operations center and a new seawater desalination water treatment plant. The county also relies on surveillance flights from hurricane-hunting aircraft from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for information about how to prepare. But, the potential for a catastrophic storm like Hurricane Irma in 2017 is always at the back of residents’ minds. The Category 4 storm made landfall in the Florida Keys with winds up to 132 mph (209.2 kph), destroying around 1,180 homes and seriously damaging another 3,000. Weiner recently talked to the Associated Press about the upcoming hurricane season. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. AP: Why is Monroe County perhaps the most vulnerable place in the 50 U.S. states for hurricanes? Weiner: Our entire island chain is surrounded by water. We have more water than we do land mass. Being uniquely situated between the two large bodies of water makes us very vulnerable. We see storms early, sometimes in their formation — storms that come across the Atlantic and then storms that develop in the south, in the Caribbean Sea. We tend to be in their path, and so we get a lot of storm practice here in Monroe County. AP: Given your dependence on the National Weather Service and NOAA for hurricane predictions, how concerned are you about recent job cuts and budget cuts to the federal government? Weiner: The weather service is a good partner, and the field offices, from what they were telling us and what they’re hearing here, everyone is secure. They are not expecting or anticipating any cuts to the (Florida Keys) field offices. So, of course, going into hurricane season, we’re really happy to hear that. AP: Can we talk about Hurricane Irma? The Keys have always been vulnerable, but Irma was a shock to the system, right? Weiner: The Keys had not had a storm of that magnitude or size since the early 20th century. People tend to get complacent. It’s human nature, right? They’re not as worried. They’re not as prepared. We were very fortunate with Irma in that we had plenty of days’ notice to evacuate. But when we came home and saw the devastation, it was an eye-opener. Being an island chain, we had unique challenges bringing logistics in to help us recover. AP: Do residents typically evacuate when they are asked to? Weiner: Usually, they tend to heed that advice. We are constantly reminding people to be prepared and how important it is in our county to evacuate because the Florida Keys, the entirety of the island chain, is a storm surge zone. People here tend to be pretty savvy when it comes to storms, and throughout the entire Keys, the bigger concern is storm surge rather than wind. We say, “Hide from the wind and run from the water.” AP: We are close to the start of the Atlantic hurricane season. What is keeping you up at night? Weiner: The city of Key West is an incredibly resilient community. There’s a lot of history there. But there is also a lot of older architecture there. There’s a lot of wooden homes, and for them to receive a storm, a direct impact of a major magnitude, that would be devastating for them. That is what keeps me up at night — a Category 4 or 5 storm hitting Key West. AP: Given the Keys’ vulnerability, why do you think people choose to stay and live there? Weiner: Because it’s beautiful here. It really is an island paradise. Being surrounded by a national marine sanctuary is amazing. I think everyone that lives here, we all live here for that reason. Because we appreciate the environment and the marine life and love the water. And so it’s worth it. You make sure that you’re prepared, and you have a plan if you need to go. And you go somewhere safe, and you come back, and you just put it back together. Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform Bluesky: @mikeysid.bsky.social. —Mike Schneider, Associated Press View the full article

Proposals would end residents’ discount for non-EVs, says transport bodyView the full article

Key Takeaways Definition and Purpose: Business incubators are supportive environments designed to help startups thrive by providing essential resources, mentorship, and networking opportunities. Benefits of Participation: Engaging with a business incubator can significantly reduce failure rates by offering tailored support, expert mentorship, legal guidance, and funding options. Networking Opportunities: Incubators foster connections with other entrepreneurs, mentors, and potential investors, which can lead to valuable collaborations and enhance business visibility. Types of Incubators: There are various forms of business incubators, including non-profit, university-based, and for-profit, each serving different needs and offering unique resources to entrepreneurs. Key Features: Successful incubators focus on mentorship, access to funding, and personalized guidance to help entrepreneurs navigate the complexities of starting and scaling a business. If you’re looking to launch a startup or grow your existing business, you might have heard the term “business incubator.” But what exactly does it mean? A business incubator is a supportive environment designed to help new ventures thrive. It provides resources, mentorship, and networking opportunities that can turn your innovative ideas into successful enterprises. In today’s fast-paced market, navigating the challenges of starting a business can be daunting. Business incubators offer tailored programs that guide you through the early stages of development, helping you refine your business model and connect with potential investors. Understanding how these incubators work can be the key to unlocking your entrepreneurial potential. What Is a Business Incubator A business incubator is a supportive environment tailored to help entrepreneurs launch and grow their startups. These programs provide essential resources and services that facilitate the development of business ideas. You gain access to mentorship, funding options, and networking opportunities crucial for success. Business incubators often focus on specific aspects like market research or product development. You can refine your business plan through guided support, ensuring it resonates with your target audience. Many incubators also assist in legal structure matters, whether you’re forming an LLC, sole proprietorship, or corporation. In addition to mentoring, incubators help with financing needs. You’ll explore various funding avenues, including venture capital, angel investors, and crowdfunding. The right incubator can connect you with investors interested in your business model and growth strategy. Throughout your journey, incubators emphasize the importance of innovation and scalability. They encourage you to develop a solid sales funnel and strong marketing strategies, including digital marketing and social media. As you build your small business, incubators provide the tools and contacts that enhance your customer acquisition efforts and overall success. Benefits of Business Incubators Business incubators offer a range of advantages for small businesses and entrepreneurs. They provide essential support through tailored programs, mentorship, and valuable resources, enabling startups to navigate challenges effectively. Support for Startups Business incubators deliver comprehensive support for startups, addressing various aspects of business development. You gain access to expert mentorship, which helps refine your business idea and sharpen your business plan. Incubators also assist with identifying appropriate funding options, whether through venture capital, angel investors, or crowdfunding. This support significantly reduces failure rates and increases the chance of achieving sustainable growth. Startups often find legal structure guidance beneficial, providing clarity on the differences between LLCs, sole proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations. This insight ensures your business complies with regulations while focusing on growth strategies and customer acquisition. Networking Opportunities Networking opportunities in business incubators prove invaluable. You connect with other entrepreneurs, potential investors, and experienced mentors who can offer advice and resources. These connections often lead to collaborations, partnerships, and additional funding options, enhancing your small business’s visibility and reputation. Engaging in networking events hosted by incubators helps you develop relationships that can be pivotal in your business journey. Building a robust network provides access to vital market research and insights, informing your marketing and branding strategies. Ultimately, leveraging these connections can amplify your startup’s sales funnel, positioning you for success in a competitive market. Types of Business Incubators Business incubators come in various forms, each tailored to meet specific needs and goals of startups. Understanding these types can help you choose the right incubator to support your entrepreneurial journey. Non-Profit Incubators Non-profit incubators primarily focus on aiding entrepreneurs by providing low-cost resources and support. These incubators offer services such as mentorship and networking opportunities, often without the pressure of profits. They commonly partner with local government or organizations to provide funding and training. Valuable for startups aiming for social impact, non-profit incubators can guide you through business registration and legal structure options, ensuring your business idea aligns with community goals. University-Based Incubators University-based incubators leverage academic resources to support startups. These incubators often provide access to research facilities, expert faculty mentors, and a pool of interns or graduates. Engaging with a university incubator can enhance your business plan by incorporating cutting-edge market research and innovative strategies. Additionally, you can benefit from networking opportunities with fellow entrepreneurs and investors at university events, bolstering your growth strategy and enhancing the scalability of your business. For-Profit Incubators For-profit incubators operate with a business model focused on generating revenue from their services. They typically charge fees for resources, mentoring, and networking access. While they seek a return on investment, they offer robust support systems that may include access to venture capital or angel investors. Engaging with a for-profit incubator can fast-track your growth by refining your sales funnel and honing your pitch for potential funding. They often provide vital legal advice, helping you navigate the complexities of trademarks, patents, and partnerships essential for scaling your business. Key Features of Business Incubators Business incubators offer essential resources and support tailored for your startup journey, enhancing your chances of success. You’ll find several key features that contribute significantly to the growth of early-stage businesses. Mentorship and Guidance Incubators provide access to experienced mentors who can help refine your business idea and business plan. Mentorship includes personalized advice on various aspects, such as marketing strategies, legal structures, and financial management. Business coaches within these programs guide you through challenges, share insights on leadership, and assist in developing your growth strategy. Leveraging this expertise can accelerate your startup’s development while minimizing common pitfalls that new entrepreneurs face. Access to Funding Business incubators facilitate access to multiple funding options necessary for your startup’s success. They connect you with angel investors, venture capitalists, and crowdfunding opportunities, making it easier to secure financial backing. Understanding various financial avenues is crucial for effective cash flow management and budget planning. Incubators also provide valuable resources to help craft compelling pitches that resonate with potential investors, increasing your likelihood of obtaining critical funds to scale your small business. Conclusion Business incubators play a crucial role in transforming your entrepreneurial dreams into reality. By providing tailored support resources and networking opportunities, they empower you to navigate the complexities of launching and scaling a startup. Whether you’re seeking mentorship funding or valuable connections incubators offer a structured environment that fosters innovation and growth. Choosing the right incubator can significantly impact your journey as an entrepreneur. With the right support you can refine your business model and enhance your chances of success in a competitive market. Embrace the opportunities that business incubators present and take the next step towards achieving your business goals. Frequently Asked Questions What is a business incubator? A business incubator is a program that helps new ventures by providing essential resources such as mentorship, funding options, and networking opportunities. These supportive environments focus on refining business models, assisting entrepreneurs in successfully launching and growing their businesses. How do business incubators support startups? Business incubators support startups by offering expert mentorship, guidance on funding options, and help with legal structures. They also provide networking opportunities, connecting entrepreneurs with peers and investors, which can enhance visibility and collaboration within the business community. What types of business incubators exist? There are several types of business incubators, including non-profit incubators that provide low-cost resources, university-based incubators that leverage academic resources, and for-profit incubators that charge fees while offering comprehensive support. Each type is tailored to meet specific needs of startups. Why are mentorship and networking important in incubators? Mentorship provides personalized guidance on critical business aspects, while networking helps entrepreneurs build relationships with peers and potential investors. Both are vital for accessing market insights, refining marketing strategies, and increasing the chances of success in a competitive environment. How can business incubators help with funding? Business incubators connect startups to various funding sources, including angel investors, venture capitalists, and crowdfunding options. They assist in crafting compelling business pitches and understanding financial avenues, crucial for securing funding and managing cash flow effectively. Image Via Envato This article, "Understanding What a Business Incubator Can Do for Your Startup Success" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Key Takeaways Definition and Purpose: Business incubators are supportive environments designed to help startups thrive by providing essential resources, mentorship, and networking opportunities. Benefits of Participation: Engaging with a business incubator can significantly reduce failure rates by offering tailored support, expert mentorship, legal guidance, and funding options. Networking Opportunities: Incubators foster connections with other entrepreneurs, mentors, and potential investors, which can lead to valuable collaborations and enhance business visibility. Types of Incubators: There are various forms of business incubators, including non-profit, university-based, and for-profit, each serving different needs and offering unique resources to entrepreneurs. Key Features: Successful incubators focus on mentorship, access to funding, and personalized guidance to help entrepreneurs navigate the complexities of starting and scaling a business. If you’re looking to launch a startup or grow your existing business, you might have heard the term “business incubator.” But what exactly does it mean? A business incubator is a supportive environment designed to help new ventures thrive. It provides resources, mentorship, and networking opportunities that can turn your innovative ideas into successful enterprises. In today’s fast-paced market, navigating the challenges of starting a business can be daunting. Business incubators offer tailored programs that guide you through the early stages of development, helping you refine your business model and connect with potential investors. Understanding how these incubators work can be the key to unlocking your entrepreneurial potential. What Is a Business Incubator A business incubator is a supportive environment tailored to help entrepreneurs launch and grow their startups. These programs provide essential resources and services that facilitate the development of business ideas. You gain access to mentorship, funding options, and networking opportunities crucial for success. Business incubators often focus on specific aspects like market research or product development. You can refine your business plan through guided support, ensuring it resonates with your target audience. Many incubators also assist in legal structure matters, whether you’re forming an LLC, sole proprietorship, or corporation. In addition to mentoring, incubators help with financing needs. You’ll explore various funding avenues, including venture capital, angel investors, and crowdfunding. The right incubator can connect you with investors interested in your business model and growth strategy. Throughout your journey, incubators emphasize the importance of innovation and scalability. They encourage you to develop a solid sales funnel and strong marketing strategies, including digital marketing and social media. As you build your small business, incubators provide the tools and contacts that enhance your customer acquisition efforts and overall success. Benefits of Business Incubators Business incubators offer a range of advantages for small businesses and entrepreneurs. They provide essential support through tailored programs, mentorship, and valuable resources, enabling startups to navigate challenges effectively. Support for Startups Business incubators deliver comprehensive support for startups, addressing various aspects of business development. You gain access to expert mentorship, which helps refine your business idea and sharpen your business plan. Incubators also assist with identifying appropriate funding options, whether through venture capital, angel investors, or crowdfunding. This support significantly reduces failure rates and increases the chance of achieving sustainable growth. Startups often find legal structure guidance beneficial, providing clarity on the differences between LLCs, sole proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations. This insight ensures your business complies with regulations while focusing on growth strategies and customer acquisition. Networking Opportunities Networking opportunities in business incubators prove invaluable. You connect with other entrepreneurs, potential investors, and experienced mentors who can offer advice and resources. These connections often lead to collaborations, partnerships, and additional funding options, enhancing your small business’s visibility and reputation. Engaging in networking events hosted by incubators helps you develop relationships that can be pivotal in your business journey. Building a robust network provides access to vital market research and insights, informing your marketing and branding strategies. Ultimately, leveraging these connections can amplify your startup’s sales funnel, positioning you for success in a competitive market. Types of Business Incubators Business incubators come in various forms, each tailored to meet specific needs and goals of startups. Understanding these types can help you choose the right incubator to support your entrepreneurial journey. Non-Profit Incubators Non-profit incubators primarily focus on aiding entrepreneurs by providing low-cost resources and support. These incubators offer services such as mentorship and networking opportunities, often without the pressure of profits. They commonly partner with local government or organizations to provide funding and training. Valuable for startups aiming for social impact, non-profit incubators can guide you through business registration and legal structure options, ensuring your business idea aligns with community goals. University-Based Incubators University-based incubators leverage academic resources to support startups. These incubators often provide access to research facilities, expert faculty mentors, and a pool of interns or graduates. Engaging with a university incubator can enhance your business plan by incorporating cutting-edge market research and innovative strategies. Additionally, you can benefit from networking opportunities with fellow entrepreneurs and investors at university events, bolstering your growth strategy and enhancing the scalability of your business. For-Profit Incubators For-profit incubators operate with a business model focused on generating revenue from their services. They typically charge fees for resources, mentoring, and networking access. While they seek a return on investment, they offer robust support systems that may include access to venture capital or angel investors. Engaging with a for-profit incubator can fast-track your growth by refining your sales funnel and honing your pitch for potential funding. They often provide vital legal advice, helping you navigate the complexities of trademarks, patents, and partnerships essential for scaling your business. Key Features of Business Incubators Business incubators offer essential resources and support tailored for your startup journey, enhancing your chances of success. You’ll find several key features that contribute significantly to the growth of early-stage businesses. Mentorship and Guidance Incubators provide access to experienced mentors who can help refine your business idea and business plan. Mentorship includes personalized advice on various aspects, such as marketing strategies, legal structures, and financial management. Business coaches within these programs guide you through challenges, share insights on leadership, and assist in developing your growth strategy. Leveraging this expertise can accelerate your startup’s development while minimizing common pitfalls that new entrepreneurs face. Access to Funding Business incubators facilitate access to multiple funding options necessary for your startup’s success. They connect you with angel investors, venture capitalists, and crowdfunding opportunities, making it easier to secure financial backing. Understanding various financial avenues is crucial for effective cash flow management and budget planning. Incubators also provide valuable resources to help craft compelling pitches that resonate with potential investors, increasing your likelihood of obtaining critical funds to scale your small business. Conclusion Business incubators play a crucial role in transforming your entrepreneurial dreams into reality. By providing tailored support resources and networking opportunities, they empower you to navigate the complexities of launching and scaling a startup. Whether you’re seeking mentorship funding or valuable connections incubators offer a structured environment that fosters innovation and growth. Choosing the right incubator can significantly impact your journey as an entrepreneur. With the right support you can refine your business model and enhance your chances of success in a competitive market. Embrace the opportunities that business incubators present and take the next step towards achieving your business goals. Frequently Asked Questions What is a business incubator? A business incubator is a program that helps new ventures by providing essential resources such as mentorship, funding options, and networking opportunities. These supportive environments focus on refining business models, assisting entrepreneurs in successfully launching and growing their businesses. How do business incubators support startups? Business incubators support startups by offering expert mentorship, guidance on funding options, and help with legal structures. They also provide networking opportunities, connecting entrepreneurs with peers and investors, which can enhance visibility and collaboration within the business community. What types of business incubators exist? There are several types of business incubators, including non-profit incubators that provide low-cost resources, university-based incubators that leverage academic resources, and for-profit incubators that charge fees while offering comprehensive support. Each type is tailored to meet specific needs of startups. Why are mentorship and networking important in incubators? Mentorship provides personalized guidance on critical business aspects, while networking helps entrepreneurs build relationships with peers and potential investors. Both are vital for accessing market insights, refining marketing strategies, and increasing the chances of success in a competitive environment. How can business incubators help with funding? Business incubators connect startups to various funding sources, including angel investors, venture capitalists, and crowdfunding options. They assist in crafting compelling business pitches and understanding financial avenues, crucial for securing funding and managing cash flow effectively. Image Via Envato This article, "Understanding What a Business Incubator Can Do for Your Startup Success" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

If you've got a Samsung phone, you've got an alternative, lightweight option for computing on the go: Galaxy handsets come with a desktop interface called DeX built right in, and depending on what you need to do, you might be able to use this mode in place of a laptop while on your travels. Essentially, you plug your Samsung phone into a TV or monitor, and Android shifts to look more like Windows or macOS. You're still using the same software and the same apps, but you get floating windows and easier multitasking. While a lot of the apps will stick to their mobile views, you can make use of apps such as Google Docs or Google Chrome to get work done while you're away from home (or just in a different room). And of course you've got access to all your movie and music streaming apps too, on a bigger screen. How to set up Samsung DeXYou've got a few different connection options when it comes to Samsung DeX. It actually works wirelessly if you have a TV or monitor with Miracast technology built into it—or a streaming box or dongle with Miracast support. That includes most Samsung TVs made in the last few years, for example, so if you're heavily invested in the Samsung ecosystem then you're already a step ahead. To launch Samsung DeX wirelessly, open Settings on your Galaxy phone, then choose Connected devices > Samsung DeX. Alternatively open the Quick Settings panel (swipe down from the top right of the screen), then tap the DeX button—if you can't see it, swipe down on the panel of tiles to see the full selection. Your phone will scan your wifi network for compatible hardware, and you can tap on a device to connect. DeX in Quick Settings. Credit: Lifehacker If you can configure Samsung DeX with a wired connection, it's usually easier and more reliable. The cable you're going to need will depend on the external monitor or television you're connecting to: You might need a USB-C to USB-C cable, for example, or a USB-C to HDMI cable. Most cables should work with the right connectors, but I'd advise searching for ones that specifically mention DeX in the listing. You can use USB-C hubs and docking stations too, which is handy if you want to plug a mouse and keyboard in as well. Again, most models should work, but they won't necessarily all work—a bit of internet research should guide you towards products people are already using with DeX. This $12 Ugreen hub is the one I've been using for Samsung DeX, so you can see you don't necessarily need to spend a lot of money here. DeX can be set to launch automatically. Credit: Lifehacker You don't have to use a keyboard and mouse with DeX, because you can use your phone's keyboard, and turn it into a makeshift trackpad (you can even use an S Pen to control DeX). However, if you need to get some serious work done, from essay writing to emailing, then you'll probably want to hook up a mouse and keyboard. That's what I've done: The Galaxy phone, HDMI cable, and keyboard and mouse all plug into the hub. Launching DeX in a wired configuration is the same as launching it in a wireless configuration, though if you're using cables and hubs then as soon as you connect an external monitor to your Galaxy device, you should see a prompt to connect. Future connections can be launched automatically (to manage this open Settings on your phone, then choose Connected devices > Samsung DeX). How to use Samsung DeXWith DeX launched, you should see the desktop interface up on the external screen. It's a bit like having a second monitor for your phone, because you can carry on using apps on your Galaxy device the same as you normally would. You'll find a few app shortcuts already on the DeX desktop, which you can double-click to launch, and a taskbar showing open apps along the bottom. In the lower left corner, you've got the standard Android buttons: the recent apps button, the home button, and the back button. To the left of those is a search button and an all apps button, which brings up shortcuts to every app installed on your phone. Over on the right of the taskbar, you've got an array of buttons, including ones for checking notifications, taking screenshots, and checking battery and signal level. The app drawer view in DeX. Credit: Lifehacker To customize DeX further, double-click the Settings shortcut on the desktop, then pick Samsung DeX. You've got a host of options here, covering font size, wallpaper, the shortcuts available on the taskbar, how the keyboard and mouse work, and whether to play audio through your phone or through the speakers attached to the bigger screen. Operating DeX is fairly straightforward. Apps appear in Windows, with shortcut buttons in the top right corner. They will (from left to right) pin an app window (keep it on top of other apps), minimize an app window, put an app window full screen, or close the app. You're able to resize windows using their edges and move them about using their title bars much as you would on Windows or macOS. DeX means you can get work done on the go. Credit: Lifehacker There are a bunch of keyboard shortcuts you can make use of too, which make it a little easier to get around the interface: Ctrl+Enter (Windows keyboard) or Cmd+Enter (Mac keyboard) will take you to the home screen desktop. To see all of the shortcuts you can use, press Ctrl+/ (Windows) or Cmd+/ (Mac). It all works slickly and quickly, and while Samsung DeX isn't something I use a lot, it occasionally comes in handy—especially in moving between home and the office when I only need to carry a Galaxy phone in my pocket. It's actually such a good idea that Google is expected to include its own version of DeX in Android 16. View the full article

Agency ships supplies as military continues offensive in shattered Palestinian enclaveView the full article

Amazon hasn't yet released a full list of what's coming to Prime Video in June, but we do know what original titles are slated to premiere throughout the month. Prime original action comedy Deep Cover (June 12) has a stacked cast that includes Bryce Dallas Howard, Orlando Bloom, Nick Mohammed, and Sean Bean. In the film, Howard plays an improv comedy teacher who recruits two of her students (played by Bloom and Mohammed) to infiltrate London's gangs by pretending to be criminals. Countdown (June 25) is a new crime thriller series from Chicago Fire showrunner Derek Haas. An LAPD detective is recruited to a secret task force to investigate the murder of a Department of Homeland Security officer. And We Were Liars (June 18) is a psychological thriller series based on the titular novel by E. Lockhart, the plot of which follows the wealthy Sinclair family and the events of summer on their private island. Finally, there's sports doc American Thunder: NASCAR to Le Mans (June 12), which chronicles the journey to bring the American stock car Chevrolet Camaro to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Here are the originals coming to Prime Video in June. What’s coming to Prime Video in June 2025 Available June 12American Thunder: NASCAR to Le Mans Deep Cover Available June 15The Chosen: Last Supper Available June 18We Were Liars Available June 23Head Over Heels Available June 25Countdown Available June 27Marry My Husband View the full article

After the celebration ends, college graduates typically face numerous transitions, from moving to a new city and/or starting a new job to taking on student loan payments and other financial responsibilities. College students are often targeted for job scams, but the Better Business Bureau is alerting recent grads about schemes being employed specifically to steal their personal information and money during this transition period. Unpaid tuition scamImagine getting a call after graduation that you have an outstanding tuition payment, and unless you pay the bill immediately, your diploma will be rescinded. Scammers are using this threat to con recent grads—who have, in fact, paid their full tuition—into sending money via wire transfer or prepaid debit card, which cannot be tracked or recovered. Another version of this scam attempts to convince college students (and/or their parents) that they owe tuition and need to pay immediately to ensure they remain enrolled. If you receive an email, text, or call about an unpaid bill, do not engage—instead, contact your school's bursar or financial services office directly. You will typically receive communication from higher education institutions by mail or via a secure student portal—not as an urgent message demanding money. Student loan scamsStudent loans have been targets for scammers for years—made easier by the starting and stopping of loan forgiveness programs—and recent college grads who are getting ready to make their first payments are common victims. You may get an unsolicited call, text, or email from a company offering debt relief or debt forgiveness services for a fee. In some cases, the company is legit but making false claims, and in others, the whole thing is a scam. They may ask for upfront payment, usually via gift card or wire transfer, and never deliver, or gather a bunch of personal information that can be used to steal your identity. While the status of loan forgiveness can be difficult to follow, you should know the details of your loan, including when payments are due to begin, and look for official sources regarding loan forgiveness options. Job scamsEmployment scams range from fake job listings to unsolicited texts from "recruiters" offering a position while demanding personal information and payment for "training." Recent grads may be promised an entry-level remote role at a completely unrealistic salary, and scammers collect everything from your Social Security number to your bank account information in exchange for the offer. Other schemes have you pay upfront for training or equipment you never receive (because the job isn't real) or pay you too much with a fake check and ask for reimbursement via app or wire transfer. No one is getting too-good-to-be-true jobs in this market. Always do your due diligence on companies before applying for a position or accepting an offer: Review the official website for contact information and job postings, and consider reaching out to HR or employees you locate independently to confirm that a position is legit. Don't ever pay for anything up front. Moving scamsThe moving industry seems to be rife with scams, and recent grads who need to move across town or out of state are not immune. Moving companies may charge more money than was quoted and, in the worst cases, hold your stuff hostage unless you pay. Or they may simply not show after you've paid a deposit for the move. Red flags for moving companies include estimates delivered quickly and with little information collected about your move, full payments demanded before the move, and non-refundable deposits paid via peer-to-peer apps and bank transfers (negating the protection of credit cards). Thoroughly research the company to understand how moving brokers operate, and make sure you get everything in writing. Rental scamsIf you make it through the actual move unscathed, you could still encounter a rental scam. As with job scams, these involve listings that sound too good to be true, with lots of amenities in a desired location at an affordable price. (Like job scams, most renters aren't getting these deals in this market.) Fraudsters may even use real properties in their listings to lure you in. Once they have you, they collect a deposit, first month's rent, and a bunch of personal information while leaving you with nowhere to live. While you may pay your actual rent via Zelle, PayPal, or Venmo, you shouldn't use these services to send a deposit for a rental you haven't seen to a landlord you haven't met. Search the listing on Zillow, Redfin, and other rental sites to look for inconsistencies that could indicate a scam. Verify the address, look at Google street view, and visit (or send someone you trust in your place) before paying any money if you can. View the full article

The Mortgage Bankers Association deleted web pages including a diversity, equity and inclusion playbook, citing compliance with President The President's orders. View the full article

But fund warns that slim government headroom makes tax or spending measures necessary ‘if shocks arise’ View the full article

Last month in Los Angeles electric vehicle startup Slate Auto revealed its low-cost, American-made electric truck, with hopes to become the holy grail the auto industry needs to make EVs more affordable and accessible.The company expects its trucks’ sales price to be less than $20,000 with $7,500 U.S. federal tax incentives taken into consideration. While markets like Europe and China are seeing moderate to accelerated sales growth in their electric vehicle markets, the transition to EVs is slower in the United States. According to McKinsey’s latest annual survey, 12% of respondents in the U.S. said they intend their next car purchase to be a battery electric vehicle. However, the rate of EV adoption depends on where consumers are located in the country with urban areas seeing rates twice as much as rural areas. That data may indicate that adoption rates in the U.S. will remain slow, but Slate Auto chief commercial officer Jeremy Snyder is hoping the company can build demand by focusing on accessibility. “Slate is approaching the automobile differently,” Snyder says. “We are not competing with the existing market so I think it is creating a new one. People are going to want this one for the price, for the personalization.” According to the company, Slate Auto has raised its Series A and Series B, amounting to almost $700 million in funding. The company plans to produce up to 150,000 vehicles annually by the end of 2027—which would be less than 10% of Tesla’s 2024 deliveries, but roughly three times what luxe EV brand Rivian expects to deliver this year. Less Money, more problems? Currently, the average transaction price of an electric car in the U.S. is $59,205. Much of the market is dominated by high-dollar makers like Tesla, Rivian, and Polestar, which are likely out of reach for hourly wage workers—Slate Auto’s target audience. “When you talk about target demographics for current automotive, everybody is going towards the top 20%, 30% of the market,” Snyder says. “We don’t need to focus there. We need to focus [on] the folks that don’t have a lot of product choice. Those are the folks that we are really wanting to provide a safe, reliable, and affordable vehicle to.” Since its reveal event, a recent report indicates that the company has garnered over 100,000 refundable reservations ahead of the truck’s availability, which is expected by the last quarter of 2026. Infrastructure issues Though Slate’s early numbers suggest an appetite for low-cost EVs, that hints at a need for more robust charging infrastructure, according to Philipp Kampshoff, McKinsey senior partner and leader of the consultancy’s automotive practice. “ The moment you tap into the volume segment, you will also tap into a part of the consumer population that is going to be more reliant on public charging,” Kampshoff says. “Right now, most of the battery electric vehicle buyers are more affluent. They tend to have their own houses and they can charge at home. The moment you go more and more in the volume segment, [you] will have people that don’t own their houses and may be renting.” McKinsey’s summer 2024 report on EV buying trends, found only 9% of respondents felt existing charging infrastructure was sufficient. Kampshoff explains that particularly in the U.S., there is a “chicken and egg” problem when it comes to public charging infrastructure. Some consumers are hesitant to purchase an EV because public charging stations are either not visible or do not exist. On the other hand, charging infrastructure players may not want to invest in establishing charging stations because of low EV ownership. Based on lessons from other regions, potential solutions to this problem could center on government incentives beyond subsidies. For instance, in China, some nonmonetary incentives include preferential parking for EV drivers. Additionally, increasing awareness of existing public charging stations could also help resolve the issue. “When people are worried because there’s not enough charging infrastructure, you don’t take that worry away unless you know they see it,” Kampshoff says. “ If you’re driving down a highway, it’s very easy to see a gas station. But, there’s no signage for EV stations in most states.” View the full article

Hours before a federal law was set to take effect in January mandating that Chinese tech giant ByteDance sell TikTok’s U.S. operations, the social media app shut down. Though service was restored the next day, thousands of TikTok content creators were faced with the prospect of their source of income disappearing in an instant. The incident laid bare a common problem creators face: As social media algorithms change and platforms fold and emerge, creators need to find a way to grow their following and take it with them to different sites. That’s where LTK comes in. The 14-year-old company allows influencers to connect with brands, get commissions from products they plug, and hedge their bets by making money off any platform. The company also helps creators build a community that’s not subject to the vicissitudes of social media platforms: When a creator links to a product via LTK on any social platform, consumers have the option of following that person on LTK as well. And the company helps creators carry their sponsored content deals from platform to platform as well. LTK, which raised $550 million in 2021 at a $2 billion valuation, works with more than 350,000 creators, 8,000 retailers, and a million brands. Today, LTK facilitates more than $5 billion in annual sales through its platform. The company was cofounded by Amber Venz Box, a content creator herself, who also serves as its president. Venz Box came on the Most Innovative Companies podcast to discuss how LTK is navigating ever-changing social media algorithms, the increasing amount of AI-generated social content, and consumer fatigue from sponsored content. Every creator I talk with says they’re seeing less and less return on investment from their social posts. How do you handle that trend as a company? Social media has changed a lot in the last year specifically. Until 2024, social media was a place to follow creators and be part of communities. You had control over your feed. [Instagram head] Adam Mosseri came out in January and said this year the majority of what you see is going to be recommended content [that an algorithm selects]. We saw and felt that. If you had 100,000 impressions in January, you ended the year with about 25,000 impressions per post. How do you deal with those changes? We saw, as early as 2015, 2016, that their business is built on advertising. Our business is not built on that. So there are incentives that are misaligned. You have to displace a piece of creator content in order to insert an ad. That was the beginning of us thinking that we need to start planning. Snap also scaled quickly [around that time]. We were seeing the rise of a major scaled platform almost every two years, which presents fragmentation risk for our creators. We also saw consumers shift from desktop content consumption to mobile. At the end of 2016, we realized we had to create a home base for our creators because when you play this tape forward, it’s not great for our industry. So by 2017, we launched the LTK app. That is where everything lives for [our creators], where they house their community, and [where] they could start using social media as a marketing platform. Is video a big part of your business? We introduced video to our platform 2017. Over the last two years our creators have produced 300% more video. It’s quickly becoming the largest content type on LTK and it’s the most important. We know that consumers really resonate with video. There’s a higher trust with that, and as a creator, I’m actually selling trust. Ultimately, I need to be in a relationship with my followers and video is the best way to do that. We totally rebuilt the app and relaunched it this year to be video-first. When it comes to [the shutdown of] TikTok, we were the first generation to be fully disenfranchised for a minute. Our users were able to feel firsthand what it meant to have their community pulled. They need a home base to own their audience. We saw a huge uptick and people setting up their LTKs and driving their community over to the platform. These days, consumers can spot sponsored content and advertising from a mile away. What are some of the ways a creator can stay authentic and also sell things? Creators definitely don’t win by tricking people. For example, if I tell you this mascara is a tubing mascara and it’s not going to smudge on your face, and then when you try it and it smudges and it’s total crap and it’s flaky, you’re never going to trust me ever again. Creators need to be truly helpful. The environment we’re in this year is so wild when it comes to trust because there’s just a lack of it across the internet. Consumers are looking at AI creators across TikTok. Mark Zuckerberg says the vast majority of content you’re going to see on his platform is going to be machine created. Those are super low-trust things. Being a human creator is a differentiator. How does LTK make money? When you look at the monetization structure, our incentives are aligned with the whole ecosystem. The creator wants to create content that resonates with consumers. When that content resonates, the consumer makes a purchase. In that case, the brand pays a commission or transaction fee to that creator. If you go to Sephora, maybe somebody’s getting a commission. If you go to me online and buy the lip gloss from me, I’m going to get a commission. That’s one piece of the business. The other half is when brands come into our brand platform and say, “Hey, I actually am launching that new lip gloss and I want to make sure everyone talks about it.” They can find creators and have them do paid collaborations. The creator can accept offers through the platform or not. They’re being paid a flat fee to talk about the product. LTK has tons of other [revenue-generating] products, but if you want to think of it in two core ways, it’s really the transaction revenue and then the campaigns or the collaborations. Some of your competitors make money from affiliate links. What differentiates your business? We’ve created a whole platform where creators set up and run their business. [We help with] everything from content creation and distribution to partnerships. There’s a really rich technology stack that doesn’t meet the consumer eye. And when it comes to consumer distribution, we have 40 million consumers. That’s about 38% of millennial and Gen Z women who are using LTK right now. LTK is in a category of its own pursuing a vision to be the creator app in the same way that LinkedIn is the professional app or Strava is the running app. As a marketer, you want to leverage a creator who’s able to reach their audience. In January of this year, Adam Mosseri came out and said that stories are not a distribution point. They’re for friends who are friends in real life and know each other well. Everything he says comes true, so we should expect for the degradation of story reach even further than it already is. If you’re a brand marketer, it’s not great news. If you are working with a platform that is just providing affiliate links, then you may not have a place to use those links [when the algorithm changes]. We’re providing a home base to creators that’s separate from the influencer marketing platforms and storefront affiliate type of platform. LTK raised $300 million from SoftBank in 2021. Is the company profitable? Yes. We’re really unique for a SoftBank investment. My husband and I started the business and self-funded it. It has remained within our family and we still both operate it. I’m the president and he’s the CEO of the company. Ten years in, we decided to give some relief to some of our shareholders. We were already a profitable business. What SoftBank allowed us to do is give some reward to people who had been with us for about 10 years and run our road map forward. Since that time, we’ve more than doubled the business. And we remain EBITDA positive. Are you incorporating AI and machine learning into LTK? Our team uses a suite of 20 different AI companies and products to be more efficient, whether it’s from legal to design to everything else. At LTK we think that our creators being human is their superpower, but we can make them more efficient. AI is being used across all of our services. We’ll be releasing AI music, which is music that’s custom-created for the videos and content that our creators have made. We also use AI to pre-tag their content. The CRM for our creators is also totally automated. We’re also using it to send the right message to the right customer at the right time [to get them to buy something]. We sent over a billion notifications last year on behalf of our creators to their customers. On the brand side, we’re building campaigns for them in partnership with the right creators. The vast majority of creators we are recommending to brands are based on AI insights. Will you ever let AI influencers on the platform? We will not. The human promise is so important. There’s been a lot of articles that have come out actually about AI creators. They can gain a following and they look so real, but ultimately we think there’s a lack of trust. They’re not going to know that something ships faster, how it fits you. Again, it becomes like an ad, right? Because anything they’re going to be doing in that context is going to be because they were paid or told to by someone. So we will remain a human app, but it’ll be powered by AI. And the music might be created by AI, but the person that you’re chatting with and all that is real. View the full article

On February 17, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek released a video assuring Oregonians that Donald The President would not derail the progressive state’s efforts to combat climate change. As promised during his presidential campaign, The President had issued executive orders during his first week in office aimed at halting new sources of wind power and freezing Biden-era funding for renewable energy. Oregon, Kotek said, had been “leading the way for years on courageous state policies to fight climate change.” Along with neighboring Washington state, Oregon has set an ambitious mandate for electric utilities to be carbon neutral within the next two decades. “It’s going to take all of us working together finding innovative solutions, no matter the obstacles, to confront the climate crisis,” the governor said, “and we are not turning back.” But the reality is not nearly as inspiring as Kotek made it sound. For all their progressive claims, Oregon and Washington trail nearly all other states in adding new sources of renewable energy. Iowa, a Republican-led state with roughly the same population and usable volume of wind as Oregon, has built enough wind farms to generate three times as much wind power. What’s held the Northwest back is a bottleneck Oregon and Washington leaders paid little attention to when they set out to go 100% green, an investigation by ProPublica and Oregon Public Broadcasting found: The region lacks the wiring to deliver new sources of renewable energy to people’s homes, and little has been done to change that. Northwest leaders left it to a federal agency known as the Bonneville Power Administration to arrange badly needed upgrades to an electrical grid that’s nearly a century old in places. Bonneville, under a setup that is unique to the Northwest, owns most of the power lines needed to carry green power from the region’s sunny and windy high desert to its major population centers. Bonneville has no state or local representation within its federally appointed bureaucracy and, by statute, operates as a self-funded business. The agency decides which energy projects can hook up based on whether its infrastructure can handle the extra load, and it decides how quickly that infrastructure gets expanded. Its glacial pace has delayed wind and solar projects under Democratic and Republican presidents alike. Of the 469 large renewable projects that applied to connect to Bonneville’s grid since 2015, only one has reached approval. Those are longer odds than in any other region of the country, the news organizations found. No major grid operator is as stingy as Bonneville in its approach to financing new transmission lines and substations needed to grow the power supply, according to industry groups that represent power producers. Efforts to bypass Bonneville didn’t start until this year, when Oregon and Washington legislators considered bills to create their own state bonding authorities for upgrading the region’s high-voltage network. Both bills died. The grid’s severe constraints are hindering the Northwest at a time when it desperately needs more electricity. Oregon and Washington lawmakers lured power-guzzling data centers with tax breaks in recent years, and the industry has helped drive electricity demand sky high. Having failed to add enough green-energy sources or any new gas-fired power, the Northwest buys electricity from elsewhere, at high prices, during extreme weather. Rates paid by customers of major Oregon utilities are now 50% higher than five years ago. The worsening energy shortage threatens millions of residents with continual rate hikes and sporadic power outages—not to mention dashing the Northwest’s hopes of drastically reducing its contribution to climate change. “The people who, technically speaking, are in charge of our transmission system are dropping the ball,” said Oregon state Rep. Mark Gamba, a Democrat who sponsored this year’s failed legislation aimed at creating a state grid improvement authority. “We are absolutely looking at rolling blackouts, and we are absolutely looking at not hitting any of our climate targets when it comes to energy production.” Kotek declined an interview request. Kotek spokesperson Anca Matica said in a statement that the governor is “open to innovative ideas to increase transmission capacity” and labeled it key to achieving the state’s energy goals. She offered no direct response to questions about Oregon’s lack of progress in boosting renewables. Reuven Carlyle, the former state senator who crafted Washington’s 2019 decarbonization bill, said he was “deeply cognizant” of the region’s transmission challenges at the time but that plans to address the problem “simply slipped.” “It’s certainly nothing to be proud of that it didn’t get resolved,” said Carlyle, who founded a consulting firm for climate-focused investments after leaving the Legislature. “And it’s embarrassing that Oregon and Washington, which are such good-looking states, simply can’t practically build anything in terms of energy.” In the final months of the Biden administration, Bonneville announced a plan to do some grid upgrades, and agency Administrator John Hairston has said the self-funded federal agency is investing in transmission as much as it can without taking on too much debt. Bonneville responded to written questions from OPB and ProPublica by citing recent improvements to its process for connecting energy projects and noting that it’s not the only player responsible for growing the grid. The agency added that it “remains committed to its critical mission of supporting the region with affordable, reliable and secure power.” But Bonneville’s latest plans for the grid are in jeopardy. In addition to suspending all new federal wind permits, the The President White House has added Bonneville to the long list of agencies cutting federal jobs. Three Bonneville employees, requesting anonymity for fear of retribution, said the cuts will make building out the transmission system even harder. With four years of Joe Biden’s climate activism in the rearview mirror, the Pacific Northwest appears to have blown its best chance to realize its ambitions for renewable power. Projects in Limbo David Brown is a case study in the long and agonizing path to breaking ground on a Northwest solar farm. The Portland energy developer has been in the renewables business since 2003, and his firm, Obsidian Renewables, has a plan to put a vast array of solar panels on a piece of southern Oregon high desert that’s the size of 3,000 football fields. Brown said it’s expected to produce enough energy for about 110,000 homes. Obsidian will handle everything from acquiring the land to getting permits approved, then look to sell the solar farm to an investor or utility once it’s ready for construction. But any power plant, whether fueled by coal, wind or sunshine, has to be wired into the electrical grid: a system of transmission lines and transformers that pools electricity and channels it to customers. While power lines crisscross the nation, power mainly gets used within the region that generates it. As in most parts of the Northwest, the nearest transmission lines Brown could plug into belong to Bonneville. He asked the agency for permission to connect his solar farm to its system in 2020. He doesn’t expect approval until at least 2028. “I don’t know a single place in Oregon or Washington where I can connect a new solar project and get transmission. Not one,” he said. One part of the holdup is that Bonneville needs to finish studying what kind of substation it will need to safely let a big new power source into the grid. Brown’s 400-megawatt solar farm has been through three such “interconnection” studies so far. The first time, Bonneville estimated Brown’s business would need to pay $23 million to build a substation, which Bonneville would own. The second study bumped the price to $70 million. By the third, Brown said, it was $212 million. He said the agency blamed supply chain and labor issues, in part, for the near-tripling in cost over four years. There are hundreds of projects like Brown’s: more than 200,000 megawatts worth of renewable energy awaiting Bonneville’s signoff, or enough to power the Northwest nearly 10 times over. One proposed wind farm has been in Bonneville’s queue for more than 16 years. Among projects 20 megawatts or bigger that were proposed in the past decade, the only one that made it through Bonneville’s waitlist was an add-on to an existing Portland General Electric wind farm that didn’t require any major transmission upgrades. It won approval in 2022. The Northwest is not the only region with a backlog of projects waiting to plug in. Grid operators across the country have navigated a deluge of new wind, solar and mass-storage battery requests in recent years. Many applicants proved to be merely testing the waters, with nearly 3 in 4 ultimately pulling their plans, according to Joseph Rand, an energy researcher at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. But other regions managed to sort out problems better than the Northwest, OPB and ProPublica found. The news organizations used data from Bonneville and from a national database compiled by researchers at the Berkeley Lab to analyze how many large renewable energy projects waiting for grid connections made it to the finish line. The data showed that for large projects proposed since 2015, Bonneville’s one approval translates to a success rate of 0.2%, the lowest rate of any region. By contrast, about 10% of new applications for major projects in the Midwest and 28% in Texas made it through. Bonneville has said one reason for the slow progress is that its waitlist is jammed up with too many “speculative” projects—more dream than financial reality. (There’s no evidence that Bonneville has it worse, though; data shows that the share of developers who back out after seeking Bonneville’s approval, 76%, is close to the national average.) Renewable advocates and energy developers say Bonneville struggles to hire and retain people to process connection requests because the agency pays less than the private sector. In January, Washington U.S. Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Democrat, and Dan Newhouse, a Republican, introduced a bill to make Bonneville’s compensation more competitive, but it hasn’t moved since. To speed things up, Bonneville has halted new requests for grid connections and changed its approach to reviewing applications. Where specialists used to review proposals one at a time, in the order received, they now plan to prioritize projects that are closest to ready. The agency said the new approach will increase the number of projects that get connected while cutting processing time in half, from an expected 15 years. Bonneville said in a statement that it is “confident the interconnection reforms we adopted” will prove “sufficient to meet our customers’ needs.” The changes have not yet helped Brown, who has been awaiting Bonneville’s approval to start work in southern Oregon since 2020. For now, the planned solar project remains in limbo. “It’s gonna take me years and a couple million dollars to get land use approval,” Brown said, “and why do I want to get land use approval if I don’t know whether or not I have transmission?” “There’s No Room for Your Project” The predicament Brown and dozens of other wind and solar developers face is a product of the Northwest’s unusual history with electric power. Oregon and Washington were blessed with powerful rivers fed by abundant snow and rainfall. Beginning in the New Deal era, the federal government built dozens of hydroelectric dams and a sprawling transmission system to electrify the rural West. The region’s energy supply was cheaper and emitted less carbon than the rest of the nation’s. Bonneville was at the helm. Even today, hydropower supplies almost 35% of Oregon’s electricity and more than 50% of Washington’s, according to the most recent data available. But hydroelectric dams are a finite and increasingly shaky power source. Output from existing dams dips whenever droughts sap water from the Columbia River basin. New dams are a nonstarter because dams have decimated the region’s salmon populations. That leaves wind, solar and battery storage as the most promising places for the Northwest to turn as it approaches self-imposed deadlines to fully wean utilities off electricity that comes from oil, coal or gas. Bonneville has now become a barrier to accommodating the new power sources, six green energy developers told OPB and ProPublica. An agency that erected more than 4,800 miles of high-voltage transmission lines from 1960 to 1990 built fewer than 500 miles from 1990 to 2020. In the past five years, it built 1. Bonneville has the ability to borrow money, at low interest rates, for projects that would enable the grid to carry more power. Congress pushed the agency to do so in 2021, more than doubling Bonneville’s debt limit specifically to finance transmission upgrades. The chairs of the Oregon and Washington public utility commissions, in a joint 2022 letter, urged Bonneville to spend the money: “The region needs BPA to be a leader in delivering a transmission system that serves the entire region.” Bonneville, however, has been reluctant to take on debt. It is still paying off billions of dollars in bonds from failed nuclear plants in the 1970s. As recently as 2019, the agency’s finances were so poor that some economists expected it to become insolvent. Bonneville’s transmission planners, for their part, have told OPB and ProPublica in previous interviews that they want to avoid building expensive transmission lines that no one ends up using. “We can’t speculate and build a transmission line to nowhere,” Jeff Cook, the agency’s vice president for transmission planning, said in May 2024. When Bonneville announced in the fall it would tap some of its expanded debt limit to help pay for $5 billion in transmission upgrades over a decade, renewable energy advocates characterized the work as long overdue maintenance that wouldn’t provide the expansion the grid needs. Most of the work Bonneville announced was “the equivalent of fixing potholes, installing some new round-abouts, doing some repaving,” Spencer Gray, executive director of the Northwest & Intermountain Power Producers Coalition, said in an email. A further frustration for wind and solar developers that is unique to Bonneville: The grid operator makes them absorb an outsize share of the cost for projects that help the transmission network accommodate their electricity—and it requires a big deposit up front. That’s true even if the new power lines benefit a wide network and will be around for many generations of customers. “Lately, the answer to these individual developers has been, ‘There’s no room for your project. If you want to put this project on our system, it’s going to cost you this many millions of dollars to help us upgrade the system,’” said Sarah Edmonds, president of a coalition of utilities known as the Western Power Pool. The approach, Edmonds said, has had “a chilling effect on the ability of developers to get their projects online.” Michelle Manary, Bonneville’s vice president of transmission marketing and sales, said requiring up-front deposits keeps existing ratepayers from getting stuck with the tab if a developer backs out and that Bonneville has begun work on a transmission upgrade. She said other regions have more control over who pays these costs because their entire distribution networks are under one operator. Bonneville’s transmission lines are more like highways, from which electric utilities serve as exit ramps that deliver power the last mile to Northwest neighborhoods. Manary denied that Bonneville’s current way of allocating costs has stifled green energy projects. But she acknowledged the agency needs to reevaluate its policy amid the flood of applications for new projects, and she said that process is underway. “Texas Is Kicking Our Ass” The rest of the nation has taken a different approach to bringing green power online—with better outcomes. In most parts of the country, each grid has a central, independent operator, known as a regional transmission organization, typically run by a board that represents customers, electric utilities and other groups. Bonneville recently rejected joining a California-based energy market that advocates described as the Northwest’s best bet at accelerating the adoption of renewables. In Texas, which runs its own grid, large renewable projects applying to connect in the past decade took a median of 19 months to get the green light, or nearly two years less than the one project Bonneville approved in that time frame. California and the Midwest were also faster than Bonneville. Texas doesn’t require project-by-project grid upgrades the way other grid operators do. It essentially tells developers it will connect their project, and then it figures out how to balance the added electricity after the fact. Texas and other regional grid operators spend billions more than Bonneville on transmission upgrades annually, and they spread the costs across a wider swath of customers than Bonneville does. (Bonneville says the federal agency differs so much from regional operators that they’re not a fair comparison group.) Texas brought more energy online in the past two years than any other power region. That’s helped the oil and gas powerhouse become the country’s biggest producer of wind and solar energy. Last year alone it added more than enough renewable energy to power the entire Northwest. “Texas is kicking our ass,” said Gamba, the Oregon state representative. Northwest lawmakers were told that they’d need to find effective ways of confronting their region’s aging transmission system if they wished to phase out coal and natural gas. As Washington lawmakers debated a mandate for renewable power in 2019, Nicholas Garcia of the Washington Public Utility Districts Association testified that replacing coal plants with wind and solar would require “more transmission, significantly more transmission.” In 2021, when Oregon lawmakers debated their own mandate for carbon-free energy, Republicans also raised concerns that the state’s transmission lines were maxed out. It became one more GOP argument against the bill, in addition to saying more should be done to ensure green energy projects were built in Oregon. Numerous reports—from the Oregon and U.S. departments of energy, for example—supported the assertion that heftier transmission lines were needed. Bonneville would be key to meeting that need, with one utilities lobbyist calling Bonneville’s grid “the backbone for decarbonization” in testimony to Oregon lawmakers. But Oregon state Rep. Pam Marsh, who led the 2021 effort, said in a recent interview she was focused on getting utilities to cut their carbon emissions and that green energy advocates weren’t demanding transmission improvements at the time. “I was not thinking personally about the role that Bonneville might play in this,” said Marsh, a Democrat representing southern Oregon. Washington’s Legislature took some action on the need for better transmission: It required the state to study the issue. The resulting 2022 report concluded that the grid was indeed inadequate but led to little in the way of solutions. Instead, lawmakers decided to require utilities to plan out transmission needs 20 years ahead rather than 10, and they created a statewide environmental review in hopes of streamlining the state’s approval process for transmission. It did nothing about impediments posed by Bonneville. The Legislature was “a little complacent” about relying on Bonneville to upgrade the grid, said Sen. Sharon Shewmake, a freshman lawmaker in 2019 when Washington enacted its energy mandate. Shewmake and Gamba both introduced legislation this year following states like Colorado, New Mexico, North Dakota and Wyoming in creating independent authorities to finance transmission infrastructure. Gamba said he led an 80-person group of interested parties through 18 months of drafting. Democratic Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson labeled Shewmake’s bill a priority. The legislation didn’t make it through either state’s Democrat-controlled legislatures, however. Brown, the energy developer who’s been awaiting Bonneville’s solar approval since 2020, said the future of the Northwest’s energy dreams looks dim. “We don’t have a prayer of meeting our heralded, flag-waving renewable energy goals,” he said. “The dialogue will be to blame The President; it won’t be to blame ourselves for poor planning and extremely low expectations.” — Tony Schick and Monica Samayoa, Oregon Public Broadcasting — Ellis Simani assisted with data analysis. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with Oregon Public Broadcasting. View the full article

You’ve just graduated, and it’s time to get ready for your first adult job. This feels different from your summer jobs and internships—yet it’s not. Take a pause, two deep breaths, and realize: you are not flying solo. Remember: in the workplace and throughout your career, a “we, not ‘me” mentality makes all the difference. None of us gets anywhere alone. Not even fiercely independent believers in rugged individualism. Many graduates think they don’t have a personal board of directors and that they’re starting their careers with an empty table. But I’m here to tell you that nobody starts from zero. It can be hard to recognize at first, but you already have a group of people invested in you and your professional journey. These are your go-to people: those you trust, respect, and who have demonstrated their commitment to your professional growth and success. Think of the “board” as a figurative way to describe the individuals you turn to for guidance, support, input, radical honesty, and feedback. How to establish your board of directors First, start by setting some ground rules for your board: there are always open seats, and there are no term limits. Some people may only be on your board briefly; others may stay for a lifetime. These relationships shouldn’t be transactional or one-way. They are respectful, thoughtful connections that you must nurture. Here are three actions you can take to strengthen your relationship with your current board members. 1. Start with an audit Ask yourself, who’s already sitting at your table? Think about the people you call when you’re in a personal or professional crisis, the ones who make you feel better just by talking. Think about the friends you trust to discuss school, career decisions, fashion dilemmas, or family stresses. Don’t forget about teammates, club members, or organization peers whose advice you value. Reflect on those who have once sat you down to walk you through a critical decision. Even family members who offer solicited (and sometimes unsolicited) advice can be part of your board if you trust their input. These are the people who are already serving. 2. Be open to changing your board members Second, roll people off when necessary. Not everyone is meant to stay forever. As you grow and evolve, it’s natural for board membership to change. Sometimes it’s them, they might have life commitments that shift, which decreases availability. Sometimes it’s you. You develop new priorities or outgrow the relationship. Sometimes, a person might break your trust, and a once-valued board member no longer feels like a safe person. Whatever the reason, honor the evolution. The right board changes over time to meet the needs of the person you are becoming. 3. Show gratitude Third, show gratitude. Ask yourself if you’ve truly done the work to nurture these relationships. Once you finish reading this, reach out to a few board members to say thank you. Whether you send a handwritten note, a text, an email, or make a phone call, be intentional. Share an update—let them know you’ve graduated and are starting your next chapter. Express your gratitude with a specific example of how their support helped you reach this milestone. And tell them that you’d like to stay in touch, if they’re open to continued communication. This isn’t a transaction—it’s the ongoing work of maintaining and valuing real relationships. As you begin your new job, remember that there are always open seats at your boardroom table. Think about who you’d like to join next. What areas of growth could benefit from more support? For example, when I graduated from medical school, I wished I had someone to help me with financial literacy—someone who could have guided me through paying off debt and making smart financial decisions. Books, podcasts, and newsletters are helpful, but nothing replaces having a real person to call or email when questions arise. The most successful professionals don’t achieve everything at once. They build careers by learning and applying micro skills—small, intentional behaviors that compound over time and can be implemented in real time. Congratulations, graduate. You already have a board. People are serving on it. Now it’s time to reinforce, grow, and celebrate the support. View the full article

The President’s mercurial war on economic orthodoxy is making markets jitteryView the full article