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Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe Picture the scene: You’ve returned from a wonderful holiday break, invigorated to tackle ambitious projects, and then it hits you. Maybe it’s pinned to your Jira board, or taking up a tab in Confluence. It’s that one project that won’t go away. Its status hasn’t updated in three weeks. The Slack channel for the project is silent. Everyone else knows that they’re never going to find the time or the energy to see it through, but the boss still considers it “active.” We call this a Zombie Project – and it’s just as scary as it sounds. Atlassian, in partnership with Censuswide, recently surveyed 8,000 global office workers. What we found just might explain what’s been quietly draining the life out of modern work for years. What is a Zombie Project? Related Article Happy circle-back season, to those who celebrate By Dr. Molly Sands In Productivity Zombie Projects aren’t just slow-moving; they’re at a standstill. Often, they’ve become calcified as more time-sensitive (or more exciting) projects have taken priority. But these projects were kicked off for a reason. Likely, they were meant to address a problem that the company still struggles with, so it’s difficult to just kill them outright. It’s often impossible to ignore this snag around the holidays. Last year, Atlassian researchers found that December 17th is the most common drop-off date for projects, at which point punting things to the new year is preferable (We aptly dubbed it “World Circle Back Day”). Here’s the rub: modern knowledge workers aren’t so sure they can jump back into projects with purpose and momentum – and Zombie Projects are often to blame. Almost half (44%) of workers came into 2026 weighed down by Zombie Projects, our research found, and over 90% say it’s causing issues. At worst, Zombie Projects don’t just slow productivity; they drain the tank. 37% of workers said they feel stressed and overwhelmed by the clutter of undead work 32% of workers say it directly impacts their own productivity. 32% of teams worry Zombie Projects put them on a fast track to burnout 31% of teams say Zombie Projects gobble up valuable team resources Amid today’s rapid AI acceleration, the stakes have never been higher. Almost 9 in 10 executives say their organization needs to move more rapidly than ever just to keep pace, per Atlassian’s State of Teams 2025 report. Teams should be conserving their time and energy to make space for AI experimentation and implementation, not carrying along the dead weight of a project that won’t see the light of day. Why Zombie Projects won’t die Stalled-not-canceled projects are a brain drain, and nobody’s happy about them. But if that’s the simple answer, why haven’t we just killed them? New year, clean slate? It’s actually more complicated than you’d expect, and it comes back to a basic lack of autonomy and alignment at most workplaces. More than 1 in 3 employees we surveyed said they fear that pulling the plug will result in negative perception, like a boss assuming a project failed to get off the ground or workers didn’t sufficiently rally around it. A similar share cited a decision gap, which is when the projects lacks a clear sense of who has authority to call it quits. If nobody owns the kill decision, the Zombie lives forever by default. Another third of workers are caught up in the “sunk cost” fallacy. They’re attached to the program – and the many months of effort that went into it – and don’t want to waste that effort. Better to leave it open-ended and hope the time will eventually be right to bring it back. Momentum is also partly to blame; if it doesn’t require much effort to keep a project perpetually on ice, workers are more likely to keep it zombified than sign up for the hard work of bringing it back to life. And when that low-effort limbo coincides with a lack of clear focus, it’s even harder to make a clean call. Often, Zombie Projects are a sign that teams are missing clear focus. These are the projects that don’t obviously contribute to team or organizational goals, so they keep getting nudged down the priority list. They never feel important enough to invest in but without a clear connection to strategy, nobody feels confident enough to say out loud, “This doesn’t fit where we’re going,”. AI teammate? More like Zombie Hunter Related Article 95 AI prompts for better teamwork By Shaina Rozen In Teamwork The strength of a company’s human-AI collaboration will determine its ability to meet the moment in the coming decades. A thoughtfully integrated AI teammate might be the perfect tool for clearing out the graveyard. 60% of global workers believe an AI teammate could guide the decision on whether to revive or retire a project. (That figure rose to 79% among workers in India, but hit a low of 44% in Australia.) When we put aside the emotional “sunk cost” and the anxiety of “failing,” we clear a path for AI to provide the information it needs to make the call. 43% of workers want AI partners to act as master summarizers, filling teams in with full project context so they can decide if it’s worth a reboot. 37% of workers want AI to create realistic time estimates based on their actual availability and timelines. This is a crucial reality check in determining whether a deliverable is even feasible within the desired time frame. 35% of workers want a comprehensive summary of project insights. The right AI partner can extract action items from old email threads and Slack archives and draft quick, fresh replies. AI teammates are a Swiss army knife every team can utilize – especially those bogged down by projects lingering in limbo. Often, it’s the unexciting work of “information hunting” and “context searching” and “silo-busting” that keeps us from moving forward. That’s why it’s such a relief that we can offload the boring bits to our AI partner. I’m sticking to my prediction that human-AI collaboration will separate the high achievers from the folks who miss the moment. That’s why Zombie Projects are so crucial to tackle; they’re the ultimate enemy of collaboration. They suck up resources, they muddy the waters of accountability, and they prevent teams from aligning on the work that actually matters. Fortune 500 companies waste 2.4 billion hours each year searching for information, our State of Teams 2025 report found. That’s more than a quarter of each workweek. Consider how much time could be saved with those hours back in your calendar. I’d bet that’s plenty to resurrect a zombie or two—or, if you’d rather, bury them for good. Special thanks to Jane Thier for her contributions to this article. Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe The post Brain drain: Are Zombie Projects eating your team’s productivity alive? appeared first on Work Life by Atlassian. View the full article

Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe Picture the scene: You’ve returned from a wonderful holiday break, invigorated to tackle ambitious projects, and then it hits you. Maybe it’s pinned to your Jira board, or taking up a tab in Confluence. It’s that one project that won’t go away. Its status hasn’t updated in three weeks. The Slack channel for the project is silent. Everyone else knows that they’re never going to find the time or the energy to see it through, but the boss still considers it “active.” We call this a Zombie Project – and it’s just as scary as it sounds. Atlassian, in partnership with Censuswide, recently surveyed 8,000 global office workers. What we found just might explain what’s been quietly draining the life out of modern work for years. What is a Zombie Project? Related Article Happy circle-back season, to those who celebrate By Dr. Molly Sands In Productivity Zombie Projects aren’t just slow-moving; they’re at a standstill. Often, they’ve become calcified as more time-sensitive (or more exciting) projects have taken priority. But these projects were kicked off for a reason. Likely, they were meant to address a problem that the company still struggles with, so it’s difficult to just kill them outright. It’s often impossible to ignore this snag around the holidays. Last year, Atlassian researchers found that December 17th is the most common drop-off date for projects, at which point punting things to the new year is preferable (We aptly dubbed it “World Circle Back Day”). Here’s the rub: modern knowledge workers aren’t so sure they can jump back into projects with purpose and momentum – and Zombie Projects are often to blame. Almost half (44%) of workers came into 2026 weighed down by Zombie Projects, our research found, and over 90% say it’s causing issues. At worst, Zombie Projects don’t just slow productivity; they drain the tank. 37% of workers said they feel stressed and overwhelmed by the clutter of undead work 32% of workers say it directly impacts their own productivity. 32% of teams worry Zombie Projects put them on a fast track to burnout 31% of teams say Zombie Projects gobble up valuable team resources Amid today’s rapid AI acceleration, the stakes have never been higher. Almost 9 in 10 executives say their organization needs to move more rapidly than ever just to keep pace, per Atlassian’s State of Teams 2025 report. Teams should be conserving their time and energy to make space for AI experimentation and implementation, not carrying along the dead weight of a project that won’t see the light of day. Why Zombie Projects won’t die Stalled-not-canceled projects are a brain drain, and nobody’s happy about them. But if that’s the simple answer, why haven’t we just killed them? New year, clean slate? It’s actually more complicated than you’d expect, and it comes back to a basic lack of autonomy and alignment at most workplaces. More than 1 in 3 employees we surveyed said they fear that pulling the plug will result in negative perception, like a boss assuming a project failed to get off the ground or workers didn’t sufficiently rally around it. A similar share cited a decision gap, which is when the projects lacks a clear sense of who has authority to call it quits. If nobody owns the kill decision, the Zombie lives forever by default. Another third of workers are caught up in the “sunk cost” fallacy. They’re attached to the program – and the many months of effort that went into it – and don’t want to waste that effort. Better to leave it open-ended and hope the time will eventually be right to bring it back. Momentum is also partly to blame; if it doesn’t require much effort to keep a project perpetually on ice, workers are more likely to keep it zombified than sign up for the hard work of bringing it back to life. And when that low-effort limbo coincides with a lack of clear focus, it’s even harder to make a clean call. Often, Zombie Projects are a sign that teams are missing clear focus. These are the projects that don’t obviously contribute to team or organizational goals, so they keep getting nudged down the priority list. They never feel important enough to invest in but without a clear connection to strategy, nobody feels confident enough to say out loud, “This doesn’t fit where we’re going,”. AI teammate? More like Zombie Hunter Related Article 95 AI prompts for better teamwork By Shaina Rozen In Teamwork The strength of a company’s human-AI collaboration will determine its ability to meet the moment in the coming decades. A thoughtfully integrated AI teammate might be the perfect tool for clearing out the graveyard. 60% of global workers believe an AI teammate could guide the decision on whether to revive or retire a project. (That figure rose to 79% among workers in India, but hit a low of 44% in Australia.) When we put aside the emotional “sunk cost” and the anxiety of “failing,” we clear a path for AI to provide the information it needs to make the call. 43% of workers want AI partners to act as master summarizers, filling teams in with full project context so they can decide if it’s worth a reboot. 37% of workers want AI to create realistic time estimates based on their actual availability and timelines. This is a crucial reality check in determining whether a deliverable is even feasible within the desired time frame. 35% of workers want a comprehensive summary of project insights. The right AI partner can extract action items from old email threads and Slack archives and draft quick, fresh replies. AI teammates are a Swiss army knife every team can utilize – especially those bogged down by projects lingering in limbo. Often, it’s the unexciting work of “information hunting” and “context searching” and “silo-busting” that keeps us from moving forward. That’s why it’s such a relief that we can offload the boring bits to our AI partner. I’m sticking to my prediction that human-AI collaboration will separate the high achievers from the folks who miss the moment. That’s why Zombie Projects are so crucial to tackle; they’re the ultimate enemy of collaboration. They suck up resources, they muddy the waters of accountability, and they prevent teams from aligning on the work that actually matters. Fortune 500 companies waste 2.4 billion hours each year searching for information, our State of Teams 2025 report found. That’s more than a quarter of each workweek. Consider how much time could be saved with those hours back in your calendar. I’d bet that’s plenty to resurrect a zombie or two—or, if you’d rather, bury them for good. Special thanks to Jane Thier for her contributions to this article. Subscribe to Work LifeGet stories like this in your inbox Subscribe The post Brain drain: Are Zombie Projects eating your team’s productivity alive? appeared first on Work Life by Atlassian. View the full article

The enterprise world is awash in AI optimism. Boardrooms buzz with talk of transformation, and budgets swell to accommodate the latest platforms and AI assistants. Today, nearly three-quarters of companies report using generative AI regularly in a core business activity, according to recent McKinsey & Company research. But if you look past the headlines, a familiar pattern has emerged that reminds me of the dot-com era, when companies rebranded overnight, and investors chased the next big thing, often with little regard for a tangible way forward. Today, talk of an AI bubble isn’t just a matter of market speculation or start-up hype. It’s unfolding inside organizations, where the pressure to “do something with AI” drives rapid procurement and internal investment. The fear of missing out (FOMO) is palpable. Leaders, wary of being left behind, greenlight projects that promise automation, insight, and competitive advantage. But here’s the sobering reality: Most AI initiatives fail to deliver meaningful results, and the graveyard of underutilized tools and proofs of concept or pilots that don’t pan out is growing. THE ANATOMY OF THE AI BUBBLE The pitfalls are easy to spot, especially in hindsight. Companies rush to build bespoke AI solutions, convinced their needs are unique, only to watch those features become commoditized by vendors months later. Others buy off-the-shelf platforms, expecting plug-and-play magic, but end up mired in costly customization and integration. Some grant AI agents sweeping permission, only to recoil at the risks when their chief information security officers (CISOs) push back. While it’s completely speculative, if the bubble bursts, it will be driven by a flood of AI projects without clear use cases that fail to generate revenue, productivity gains, or measurable cost savings. That doesn’t mean every AI project is doomed, or that companies should stop investing in AI. It just means you need to tweak your approach. THE PRAGMATIC PLAYBOOK What separates the AI survivors from the casualties is discipline. The most successful organizations approach AI with a pragmatic, four-step framework. 1. Assess with brutal honesty Is the problem unique, or is it a feature waiting to be bundled into next year’s subscription? The build versus buy decision is not just technical; it’s existential. Too much building leads to wasted effort; too much buying without adaptation leads to disappointment. Leaders need to ask themselves if their processes are so distinctive that custom development is warranted, or if a trusted third party is likely to deliver the needed capability as a feature in one of their offerings. 2. Pilot before you leap Small-scale experiments, tightly scoped, reveal both the functional and business value of a solution. Pilots aren’t proof of concept. They’re proof of value. I’ve seen instances where the value looked to be there in the pilot but disappeared in a larger scope. So, resist the urge to roll out enterprise-wide until the groundwork is solid. Use pilots to continue to verify the value and readjust as needed as you scale the project. 3. Verify real impact Does the AI do what was promised? More importantly, does it make or save money? Functional success is meaningless without business impact. Continual verification means demanding evidence that the solution delivers measurable value. Ensure it remains a part of the process even after you roll out your AI, because bolting on the need to continually verify won’t end well. 4. Scale with caution Prioritize quick wins and expand with measured steps. Only after value is proven does scaling make sense. Organizations that scale AI use prematurely often find themselves burdened with tools that fail to deliver on their promise. AVOID THE COMMON PITFALLS All too often, I see my peers fall into the same traps. Here’s my advice: Don’t overestimate AI’s ability to automate complex workflows. Many projects fail because organizations expect too much, too soon. Beware of internal FOMO because rash decisions driven by fear of being left behind often lead to wasted investments. Recognize the value of “traditional” AI. Not all innovations are generative or agentic. Mature, proven AI solutions can deliver immediate value. Guard against giving AI agents more autonomy than is reasonable. The risks are real, and your CISO is justified in being overly cautious. THE DISCIPLINE TO THRIVE AI is not a panacea, nor is it a guaranteed path to transformation. Its power lies in the hands of organizations that approach it with rigor, clarity, and strategic intent. The bubble will burst for those who chase hype over substance, mistake activity for progress, or fail to align investments with business strategy. The leaders who will thrive are those who move deliberately and rationalize every decision, demand real value at every turn, and recognize both the limitations and the possibilities of AI. Success comes from understanding where AI can deliver immediate, tangible benefits and where it remains a work in progress. It means balancing ambition with pragmatism, and performance with transformation. Much like the dot-com boom, opportunity will outlive the initial hype and early failures of AI. Every company needs to lean into the potential, but every opportunity also needs the right framework to thrive and grow. That means setting the right foundation: modernizing your data estate, determining where your data should live—whether in the cloud, on premises, or a hybrid of both—and then ensuring your networking, compute, storage, and security infrastructure can support it all. Equally important is recognizing the growing role of the edge. Whether it’s a retail floor, remote offices, a factory, or the device in an end user’s hand, every edge has the potential to drive AI use cases from cloud-connected services to local inference. The future belongs not to those who move fastest, but to those who move smartest. Step back, challenge assumptions, and invest in AI with discipline and foundational purpose. In doing so, your next AI initiative will be the one that outlasts the hype to deliver lasting value for your business. Juan Orlandini is the CTO, North America for Insight Enterprises View the full article

The $69 billion sale of two-year notes was awarded at 3.580%, more than a basis point below its yield at the bidding deadline. View the full article

Aiming to shake up the Golden State’s media landscape, the California Post launched on Monday with a new tabloid newspaper and news site that brings a brash, cheeky, and conservative-friendly fixture of the Big Apple to the West Coast. The Los Angeles outpost of the New York Post will be “digital first” — with social media accounts and video and audio pieces — but for $3.75 readers can also purchase a daily print publication featuring the paper’s famously splashy front-page headlines. Perhaps most memorably: 1983’s “Headless Body in Topless Bar.” “The most iconic thing about the New York Post, and now the California Post, is that front page,” said Nick Papps, editor-in-chief of the LA newsroom. “It has a unique wit, and is our calling card, if you like.” Monday’s inaugural edition goes straight at Hollywood during awards season with the full-page headline: “Oscar Wild – Shocking truth behind director Safdie brothers’ mystery split.” Page Six gets a Hollywood edition Papps declined last week to reveal what stories his reporters were chasing and what bombs the political columnists will throw in its first editions. But he promised the growing staff of between 80 and 100 will focus on issues important to “everyday, hardworking” Californians, including homelessness, affordability, technology, and “law and order.” Of course, the Post’s infamous gossip column will get a Tinseltown version, Page Six Hollywood, that will keep a snarky eye on red carpets and celebrity culture. And sports fans can expect comprehensive coverage of the state’s major league teams, as well as the upcoming World Cup and Olympic Games in Los Angeles, Papps said. “No matter what your politics are, sports is the great connector,” he said. Adding another title to Rupert Murdoch ‘s media empire, the California Post will draw from and build on the venerable New York paper’s national coverage, which is known for its relentless and skewering approach to reporting and its facility with sensational or racy subject matter. “There is no doubt that the Post will play a crucial role in engaging and enlightening readers, who are starved of serious reporting and puckish wit,” Robert Thomson, chief executive of Post corporate parent News Corp., said in a statement last year announcing the move. In typically punchy Post fashion, he portrayed California as plagued by ”jaundiced, jaded journalism.” Journalism or clickbait? The California Post could make an impact with its combative style and conservative stance, said Gabriel Kahn, professor at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, who added “our statewide press is boring as bathwater,” especially when it comes to politics. He expects a major target to be Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has possible presidential aspirations and has become a Republican boogeyman. Readers shouldn’t anticipate that the new publication will become known for breaking big stories through old-fashioned journalism, Kahn said. “There’s a crass cleverness in the way that tabloids present news that actually works well on social media,” he said. “It could be entertaining.” Kahn doesn’t expect the California Post will turn a profit. He points out that the New York Post isn’t a big moneymaker for News Corp., but rather it serves another purpose, which is “to bludgeon its enemies” and curry favor with people in power on the right. Nonetheless, the corporation’s New York Post Media Group, which includes several media properties, is a player in both local and national politics. It routinely pushes on culture-war pressure points, and it has broken such political stories as the Hunter Biden laptop saga. The Post has an avid reader in President Donald The President, who gave its “Pod Force One” podcast an interview last summer. It launches at a volatile moment for the industry However bold its intentions, the venture is being launched into a turbulent atmosphere for the news business, particularly print papers. More than 3,200 of them have closed nationwide since 2005, according to figures kept by Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. The online world spawned new information sources and influencers, changed news consumers’ tastes and habits, and upended the advertising market on which newspapers relied. California, with a population of nearly 40 million, still has dozens of newspapers, including dailies in and around Los Angeles and other major cities. But the nation’s second-most-populous city hasn’t had a dedicated tabloid focused on regional issues in recent memory. Meanwhile, venerable institutions like the Los Angeles Times have been hit with major layoffs. The launch of a paper edition of the Post “defies logic” as news outlets in major metro areas are rapidly shrinking their print footprint, said Ted Johnson, a media and politics editor for Deadline in Washington, D.C., who reported in Los Angeles for 28 years. “But Rupert Murdoch, his first love is print,” Johnson said. —Christopher Weber, Associated Press View the full article

If you tried hopping on TikTok Sunday, you might have noticed something odd: the app wasn't working. Outages happen, of course, as anyone who has Verizon can attest. But in the moment, theories were flying left and right. TikTok had just officially moved into U.S. control, leading some to speculate that the outage had something to do with this change in ownership. As one user put it, "TikTok being down days after the people they were forced to sell to take it over does not feel like a coincidence." As it happens, it does appear that the changing of the guard was responsible for the outage—just not in the way that some conspiracy theories might suggest. TikTok finally released a statement on X Monday morning, attributing the outage to issues at a U.S. data center. The statement is as follows: "Since yesterday we’ve been working to restore our services following a power outage at a U.S. data center impacting TikTok and other apps we operate. We're working with our data center partner to stabilize our service. We're sorry for this disruption and hope to resolve it soon." The outage might not be the only thing different about TikTokFor its part, TikTok is very much operational at the moment. If the issue really was just isolated to a power outage at this data center, that data center appears to have patched things up. But that doesn't mean the company's reputation is patched up. Users are accusing the app's new owners of changing the algorithm, complaining of reset For You Pages, irrelevant content in feeds, and AI-generated content. I've seen users accuse the app of blocking anti-The President and anti-ICE content, while comedian Gianmarco Soresi says even some of his non-political TikToks have "zero views,” which he attributes to the ineffectiveness of the people running the app. (I've reached out to TikTok for comment on user reports of changes to the algorithm and will update if I hear back.) We'll need more time to know whether or not there were serious changes made to TikTok's algorithm and user feeds in the wake of this sale. But the app is running—at least, for now. View the full article

From family-run cafes to retail giants, businesses are increasingly coming into the crosshairs of President Donald The President’s mass deportation campaign, whether it’s public pressure for them to speak out against aggressive immigration enforcement or becoming the sites for such arrests themselves. In Minneapolis, where the Department of Homeland Security says it’s carrying out its largest operation ever, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses have temporarily closed their doors or stopped accepting reservations amid widespread protests. On Sunday, after the U.S. Border Patrol shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, more than 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies, including Target, Best Buy, and UnitedHealth, signed an open letter calling for “an immediate deescalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions.” Still, that letter didn’t name immigration enforcement directly, or point to recent arrests at businesses. Earlier this month, widely-circulated videos showed federal agents detaining two Target employees in Minnesota. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has rounded up day laborers in Home Depot parking lots and delivery workers on the street nationwide. And last year, federal agents detained 475 people during a raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia. Here’s what we know about immigration enforcement in businesses. What ICE is allowed to do Anyone — including ICE — can enter public areas of a business as they wish. This can include restaurant dining sections, open parking lots, office lobbies and shopping aisles. “The general public can go into a store for purposes of shopping, right? And so can law enforcement agents — without a warrant,” said Jessie Hahn, senior counsel for labor and employment policy at the National Immigration Law Center, an advocacy nonprofit. As a result, immigration officials may try to question people, seize information and even make arrests in public-facing parts of a business. But to enter areas with a reasonable expectation of privacy — like a back office or a closed-off kitchen — ICE is supposed to have a judicial warrant, which must be signed by a judge from a specified court, and can be limited to certain days or parts of the business. Judicial warrants should not be confused with administrative warrants, which are signed by immigration officers. But in an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press, ICE leadership stated administrative warrants were sufficient for federal officers to forcibly enter people’s homes if there’s a final order of removal. Hahn and other immigration rights lawyers say this upends years of precedent for federal agents’ authority in private spaces — and violates “bedrock principles” of the U.S. Constitution. Still, the easiest way for ICE to enter private spaces in businesses without a warrant is through consent from an employer, which could be as simple as letting an agent into certain parts of the property. The agency may also cite other “exigent circumstances,” Hahn notes, such as if they’re in “hot pursuit” of a certain individual. Other actions ICE can take against employers Beyond more sweeping workplace raids, enforcement against employers can also take the form of I-9 audits, which focus on verifying employees’ authorization to work in the U.S. Since the start of The President’s second term, attorneys have pointed to an uptick in instances of ICE physically showing up at a place of business to initiate an I-9 audit. ICE has the authority to do this — but it marks a shift from prior enforcement, when audits more often began through writing like mailed notices. David Jones, a regional managing partner at labor and employment law firm Fisher Phillips in Memphis, said he’s also seen immigration agents approach these audits with the same approach as recent raids. “ICE is still showing up in their full tactical gear without identifying themselves necessarily, just to do things like serve a notice of inspection,” Jones said. Employers have three days to respond to an I-9 audit, but agents behaving aggressively might make some businesses think they need to act more immediately. The rights of businesses If ICE shows up without a warrant, businesses can ask agents to leave — or potentially refuse service based on their own company policy, perhaps citing safety concerns or other disruptions caused by agents’ presence. But there’s no guarantee immigration officials will comply, especially in public spaces. “That’s not what we’re seeing here in Minnesota. What we’re seeing is they still conduct the activity,” said John Medeiros, who leads corporate immigration practice at Minneapolis-based law firm Nilan Johnson Lewis. Because of this, Medeiros said, the question for many businesses becomes less about getting ICE to leave their property and more about what to do if ICE violates consent and other legal requirements. In Minneapolis — and other cities that have seen immigration enforcement surges, including Chicago and Los Angeles — some businesses have put up signs to label private spaces and set wider protocols for what to do when ICE arrives. Vanessa Matsis-McCready, associate general counsel and vice president of HR at Engage PEO, says she’s also seen a nationwide uptick in interest for I-9 self-audits across sectors and additional emergency preparation. How the public is responding ICE’s increased presence and forceful arrests at businesses has sparked public outcry, some of it directed at the companies themselves for not taking a strong enough stand. Some employers, particularly smaller business owners, are speaking out about ICE’s impacts on their workers and customers. But a handful of bigger corporations have stayed largely silent, at least publicly, about enforcement making its way to their storefronts. Minneapolis-based Target has not commented on videos of federal agents detaining two of its employees earlier this month — although its incoming chief executive, Michael Fiddelke, sent a video message to the company’s over 400,000 workers Monday calling recent violence “incredibly painful,” without directly mentioning immigration enforcement. He said Target was doing “everything we can to manage what’s in our control.” Fiddelke also signed the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce’s letter calling for broader de-escalation, which got support from the Business Roundtable, a lobbying group of CEOs from more than 200 companies. Target is among companies that organizers with “ICE Out of Minnesota” have asked to take stronger public stances over ICE’s presence in the state. Others include Home Depot, whose parking lots have become a known site of ICE raids over the last year, and Hilton, which protestors said was among brands of Twin City-area hotels that have housed federal agents. Hilton and Home Depot didn’t respond to comment requests over the activists’ calls. Home Depot previously denied being involved in immigration operations. Several worker groups have been more outspoken. Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer for a chapter of the Culinary Union in Las Vegas, said members were shocked by a “widening pattern of unlawful ICE behavior” and “recognize that anti-immigrant policies hurt tourism, business, and their families.” United Auto Workers also expressed solidarity with Minneapolis residents “fighting back against the federal government’s abuses and attacks on the working class.” Hahn of the National Immigration Law Center noted some businesses are communicating through industry associations to avoid direct exposure to possible retaliation. Still, she stressed the importance of speaking publicly about the impacts of immigration enforcement overall. “We know that the raids are contributing to things like labor shortages and reduced foot traffic,” Hahn said, adding that fears to push back on “this abuse of power from The President could ultimately land us in a very different looking economy.” —By Wyatte Grantham-Philips, AP business writer Associated Press Writers Rio Yamat and Anne D’Innocenzio contributed to this report. View the full article

The regulator, in an audit with the Department of Homeland Security, found almost 6,000 ineligible non-American tenants in the units it supports. View the full article

I'm something of a treadmill hater. When I do hop on one, it's only during times when it's truly unsafe to run outdoors. I know that the treadmill brings all the same physical benefits as running outside (because no, it is not “cheating” on your workout). However, I mourn all the mental perks of spending time outside. That's why it's necessary for me to use whatever mental tricks I can to transform a monotonous slog into an actually enjoyable workout. The best part? None of these require special equipment or significant time investment—just small, smart adjustments to your routine. Whatever reason you have for running indoors, here's how to make the most of your time on the treadmill. Set your treadmill's incline to 1%The treadmill isn't necessarily easier, but it can sure feel easier. There's a pervasive myth that the treadmill “moves your feet” and thus makes running easier, but that’s not true. However, if you do happen to be running at a pace of 7:30 per mile (8.0 mph) or faster, setting the treadmill’s incline to 0.5% or 1% is recommended to mimic outdoor air resistance. For those of us slower than that, the difference is so small as to be meaningless. Even though I'm not fast enough for it to be an issue, I like to set my treadmill's incline to 1% because it keeps me engaged mentally. It really is a minor change, and even if it's "unnecessary," I appreciate the small challenge to make things feel less boring. Use a portable fan when running on a treadmillIn my experience, gym fans are unreliable. Overheating is one of the main reasons people quit treadmill workouts early. Indoor running means no natural breeze, so your temperature rises faster than it would outside. If you can't find a treadmill with a solid fan nearby (or built-in), use your own portable fan. I like to set it up to hit me at chest level. Trust me, the same effort feels way easier when you're not overheating. Improve your form when running on a treadmillStaring at the console could be killing your running form. When you look down at the display, your neck tilts forward, your shoulders round, and your stride shortens. Instead, pick a spot on the wall ahead of you—roughly the same spot you'd look at when running outside. Check your stats with quick glances rather than sustained staring. A lot of the times, I cover the display with a towel during speed work to avoid the temptation. Your posture will improve dramatically, and you might find running feels more natural. Keep your hands off the handrailsThe purpose of your treadmill run is to mimic natural walking and running strides as best you can. Holding onto the handrail can throw that off. Using the handrails transfers the workload meant for your legs and core into your upper body. If you feel the need to hold onto the handrails, it’s not the end of the world. But if it makes your workout significantly easier, think about what that likely means for the amount of work you’re putting into—and getting out of—your run. Use music to better pace yourself on the treadmillI love crafting a playlist that also works as a pacing mechanism. Songs have a tempo measured in beats per minute (BPM), and your running cadence (steps per minute) responds subconsciously to music tempo. Although there is no single “perfect” cadence, most runners fall around 160-180 steps per minute. Match your playlist to your target pace: slower songs for warm-ups and recovery, 150-160 BPM for easy runs, and 170-180 BPM for tempo work. Spotify even has running playlists organized by BPM. If nothing else, a good playlist will keep you motivated on such a monotonous machine. Play the "descending intervals" mental gameRunning hard intervals when you're already tired is tough. Flip the script with descending intervals: Start with your longest, hardest effort when you're fresh, then gradually decrease the interval length. For example: Five minutes hard, two minutes easy, then four minutes hard, two minutes easy, working down to one minute hard. Psychologically, this can feel much more manageable because each interval is easier than the last. You're essentially creating momentum that carries you through the workout, rather than dreading increasingly difficult efforts. Visualize a virtual route while running on the treadmillCombat treadmill boredom by mentally running a familiar outdoor route. Close your eyes briefly (only if you're comfortable and safe doing so) and visualize running through your neighborhood, a favorite trail, or even a dream destination. Take this further by matching your treadmill workout to the actual route profile. If there's a hill three miles into your usual run, increase the incline at the corresponding time on your treadmill. You could even use Google Maps street view before your workout to refresh your memory. For me, this mental trick makes time pass faster and maintains the connection between indoor and outdoor running. Motivate yourself with negative splitsRunning negative splits on the treadmill—where your second half is faster than your first—is a classic race-oriented goal. Start your run at a comfortable pace, then increase speed by 0.1-0.2 mph every 5-10 minutes. This approach works because it forces you to start conservatively, preventing the common mistake of burning out early. It also means you finish strong, and hey, that could help create a positive psychological association with treadmill running. More importantly, if you do have a race on the horizon, this type of workout trains your body to maintain energy for when it matters most. Practice using the treadmill's emergency stop featureMost people either ignore the safety clip entirely or fumble with it ineffectively. Practice your emergency stop before you need it. While walking slowly, pull the clip intentionally to see how the treadmill responds. Knowing exactly what happens when you pull it means you won't panic if you stumble. Hopefully you won't need to use it, but this little practice could prevent a serious injury. Do a post-workout incline stretchHere's my recovery hack of the day: After your run, leave the treadmill at a 10-15% incline, turn it off, and use it for calf and Achilles stretches. Stand on the belt with your toes elevated and heels dropped down. The incline creates the perfect angle for a deep, effective stretch. Hold for 30 seconds on each leg. This takes advantage of equipment you already have and addresses the tight calves that plague many treadmill runners. It's convenient, effective, and helps prevent the dreaded treadmill-induced stiffness. The bottom lineThe treadmill doesn't have to be a "necessary evil." With these hacks, you can make indoor running safer, more effective, and genuinely more enjoyable. And who knows? Maybe one day I'll finally appreciate the unique benefits the treadmill offers: consistent pacing, controlled conditions, and the ability to execute very specific workouts regardless of weather. View the full article

The estimated range for net income to common shareholders at the company formerly known as Ocwen rose in part due to a deferred tax asset valuation. View the full article

Dario Amodei posts 20,000-word essay detailing potentially catastrophic risks from powerful AI in years to comeView the full article

A record amount of equity is now held by property owners 62 and older, with a growing share transferring homes to their heirs and not putting them up for sale. View the full article

Impersonation scams are everywhere: bad actors are constantly trying to convince you that they represent organizations like LinkedIn, PayPal, your bank, the FBI, the FTC, and the IRS as they look to steal your money and information. When it comes to phishing schemes, which typically try to trick you into handing over sensitive data or account credentials via malicious links, tech brands are (perhaps not surprisingly) among the most commonly spoofed. A recent report from Check Point Research found that Microsoft was imitated in nearly a quarter of all branded phishing attempts in Q4 of last year—nearly double the next most-impersonated company. The most popular brands for phishing scamsAccording to researchers, tech companies and social networks are consistently among the most popular brands for impersonators running phishing scams, with the following share in the final quarter of last year: Microsoft: 22% Google: 13% Amazon: 9% Apple: 8% Facebook (Meta): 3% PayPal: 2% Adobe: 2% Booking: 2% DHL: 1% LinkedIn: 1% While you should always be on guard for common phishing tactics, it's wise to be especially wary of unsolicited communication from any of the companies listed—especially if that communication is related to account security and/or urges you to click a link. We've covered at least one campaign involving nearly every brand here, all of which are known and largely trusted among users, making them prime targets for these types of scams. Check Point notes that stolen Microsoft and Google credentials are particularly valuable because they're widely used in day-to-day workflows. Common phishing tacticsBroadly speaking, a phishing scam starts with an email, text, or social media message that appears to be from a legitimate source. It likely asks you to update or verify personal information—often related to a payment or account security—with a link to what appears to be the company's website or login page. Of course, this link leads instead to a spoofed version of that site designed to harvest your credentials, credit card number, bank details, or other personal data, which scammers can then use for identity theft, account takeover, or purchase fraud. Note that while the above methods are among the most common, phishing can also happen via phone call, voicemail, and malicious browser pop-ups. How to protect against branded phishing attacksAs we mentioned, just because you generally trust a company doesn't mean you should blindly trust all communication from it. If you receive a message that is unprompted, sounds urgent, and is unrelated to any recent action on your part (such as a login attempt or bill payment), do not engage with it. Don't click any links, open any attachments, or respond directly. Look out for typos and other errors, including the original sender—though as scammers have found ways to appear verified, this isn't always an obvious red flag. If you're unsure about the contents of the message, go directly to the website or app and log in to see any legitimate alerts. A password manager offers an extra layer of security here, as it'll protect you from entering credentials on a spoofed page. Finally, enable a strong, phishing-resistant form of multi-factor authentication everywhere you can, and especially for high-use and high-value accounts like Microsoft and Google. If your credentials are compromised, threat actors won't have that additional factor to utilize them. View the full article

Every month, around two billion people see AI Overviews, Google’s AI-powered search feature that generates summaries to users’ queries. Now, a new study is revealing a concerning pattern among some of these responses: When asked health-related questions, AI Overviews appears to turn to YouTube significantly more often than trusted medical sites. Since its inception, AI Overviews has faced its fair share of controversies, from early reports of the product spewing nonsensical answers to a series of lawsuits from businesses and publisher groups alleging that the feature is damaging to organic traffic patterns. The most recent concern with AI Overviews emerged via an investigation from The Guardian on January 2, which alleged that the tool has a tendency to provide users with false, misleading, and potentially dangerous health guidance. At the time, Google refuted those claims. Now, a new study from the AI SEO tool SE Ranking, published on January 14, has revealed that AI Overviews is two to three times more likely to cite YouTube videos than “trusted medical sites” in response to health queries—but Google says that’s not the full picture. “From the AI’s point of view, all of this content exists in the same pool.” To understand how AI Overviews collects its health guidance on the web, researchers at SE Ranking analyzed more than 50,000 health-related Google searches from German users. That location was chosen, per the study’s authors, for its strictly regulated healthcare system. “If AI systems rely heavily on non-medical or non-authoritative sources even in such an environment,” the authors wrote in a published report, “it suggests the issue may extend beyond any single country.” SE Ranking found that, of all the AI Overview results, only about 34% came from “trusted medical sources” (which it defines as sites like medical institutions, academic journals, government institutions, and more), while the other 66% originated from “general or non-expert sources” (like commercial sites or blogs). In fact, YouTube was the leading source for all health-related inquiries; accounting for 4.43% of all AI Overviews citations. According to the report, that’s 3.5 times more citations than netdoktor.de, one of Germany’s largest consumer health portals, and more than twice the citations of MSD Manuals, a well-established medical reference. In total, 20,621 out of 465,823 AI Overviews results cited YouTube. “This matters because YouTube is not a medical publisher,” the report reads. “It is a general-purpose video platform. Anyone can upload content there (e.g., board-certified physicians, hospital channels, but also wellness influencers, life coaches, and creators with no medical training at all). From the AI’s point of view, all of this content exists in the same pool.” In a statement to Fast Company, Google refuted SE Ranking’s findings. The company said the study’s definition of a trustworthy source is “flawed and overly simplistic,” adding that, “it classifies nearly two-thirds of sources as ‘less reliable’ by lumping together everything from commercial sites to multi-topic blogs. This ignores the reality that an expert-written article on a “multi-topic blog” can be a high-quality source.” Google noted that a close look at the report’s top 10 most-cited domains—which, alongside YouTube, include the German Heart Foundation and the country’s second-largest health insurer—reveals that they are “virtually all respected, authoritative sources for information, which directly contradicts the report’s central narrative.” Further, it added, the claim that AI Overviews turns to YouTube two to three times more than trusted medical sites “ignores the fact that a wide variety of credible health authorities and licensed medical professionals create content on YouTube.” Google pointed to the fact that, per the study’s own findings, 24 of the 25 most-cited YouTube videos came from medical-related channels like hospitals, clinics, and health organizations. (Though, SE Ranking’s researchers note in the report, those 25 videos are “just a tiny slice” of all YouTube videos that AI Overviews actually links). In all, a spokesperson said, “The implication that AI Overviews provide unreliable information is refuted by the report’s own data, which shows that the most-cited domains in AI Overviews are reputable websites. And from what we’ve seen in the published findings, AI Overviews cite expert YouTube content from hospitals and clinics.” View the full article

When it pertains to content marketing on social media, having a solid strategy is essential for success. You need to identify and set clear goals that align with your business objectives. Comprehending your audience is equally important; knowing their preferences helps you craft customized content. Furthermore, analyzing competitors and auditing your existing content can reveal valuable insights. These foundational steps will set the stage for developing an effective content plan. What comes next can greatly impact your results. Key Takeaways Set SMART goals to ensure your content marketing strategy is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound for better outcomes. Research and define your target audience segments to tailor content that resonates with their interests and preferences. Analyze competitors’ social media strategies to identify engagement trends and opportunities for improvement in your content. Conduct regular audits of your social media content to evaluate performance and ensure alignment with your brand voice. Measure results through key performance metrics and optimize your strategy based on data-driven insights and A/B testing. Identify and Set Goals How do you guarantee your social media content marketing aligns with your overall business objectives? Start by identifying and setting clear, specific goals for your content marketing strategy. Use the SMART framework—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound—to define these goals. This approach helps you create content that resonates with your audience and boosts engagement. Establish baseline metrics for key performance indicators (KPIs) like engagement, reach, and conversions, which will allow you to track your progress effectively. Regularly review and refine your goals based on performance metrics to adjust your strategies as needed. Research Your Audience To effectively connect with your audience, you need to define target audience segments based on demographic insights, such as age and location. Analyzing this data helps you tailor your content strategies to meet their specific interests and preferences. Utilizing audience engagement tools can further improve your comprehension of their behavior on social media, ensuring your content remains relevant and engaging. Define Target Audience Segments Defining target audience segments is essential for effective content marketing, as it helps guarantee that your messaging resonates with specific groups. To achieve this, create detailed buyer personas using demographic data like age, location, interests, and behaviors. By conducting audience research, you can uncover insights on how different segments engage with your brand, allowing you to tailor your content marketing for social media effectively. Utilizing AI tools, such as Sprout‘s AI-enabled Query Builder, can greatly improve your comprehension of audience preferences. Segmenting your audience enables personalized content delivery, which boosts engagement rates and advances conversion metrics. Finally, remember to regularly revisit and update these segments to keep your strategies relevant and aligned with evolving trends and audience feedback. Analyze Demographic Insights Analyzing demographic insights is crucial for shaping your content marketing strategy, as it allows you to create material that truly resonates with your audience. Knowing your audience’s age, location, and gender helps tailor your content effectively. To improve your social media marketing efforts, consider these four strategies: Conduct audience segmentation to identify distinct groups within your audience. Analyze discussions about your brand to uncover preferences and pain points. Utilize tools like Sprout‘s AI-enabled Query Builder to capture relevant trends. Regularly update your demographic insights, as audience preferences shift over time. Utilize Audience Engagement Tools Though grasping your audience is essential for effective content marketing, utilizing audience engagement tools can greatly improve your insights. Conduct thorough audience research to develop detailed buyer personas that represent your ideal customers. This helps tailor your content marketing tactics to resonate with specific demographics. Employ AI and machine learning tools, like Sprout’s AI-enabled Query Builder, to capture real-time conversations and insights about your products. Gather demographic data, such as age and location, to understand audience preferences better. Analyze how customers engage with your brand on social media to identify trends. Regularly assess audience feedback and engagement metrics for actionable insights, ensuring your content strategies remain aligned with audience interests and behaviors. Analyze Your Social Media Competitors To gain a competitive edge in social media marketing, you need to closely analyze your competitors and their strategies. Start by identifying at least three key competitors in your industry. Here are four crucial steps to guide your analysis: Assess their social media presence, including platforms and posting frequency. Use tools like Sprout Social or Hootsuite to gather quantitative data on engagement rates and follower growth. Analyze the types of content that generate the highest engagement, such as videos or infographics. Monitor their use of hashtags and keywords for optimizing your own content discoverability. Audit Your Current Social Content Once you’ve analyzed your competitors’ social media strategies, it’s time to assess your own content. Conduct a social media content audit to evaluate performance against your goals, focusing on engagement rates, impressions, and reach. Identify trends in high and low-performing posts to see which content types resonate with your audience. Make sure your language and tone align with your brand voice to maintain consistency. Use competitive analysis tools for benchmarking, gaining insights into effective practices. Regularly review your findings and adjust your strategy based on this content marketing guide. Metric Evaluation Engagement Rates High, Medium, Low Impressions High, Medium, Low Reach High, Medium, Low Content Type Visuals, Text, Links Brand Voice Alignment Consistent, Inconsistent Develop a Social Media Content Plan Developing a social media content plan is vital for maintaining a consistent online presence and achieving your marketing objectives. This plan helps bridge content marketing definition with social media marketing, guaranteeing a cohesive strategy. Here are four key elements to include: Content Calendar: Outline your publishing schedule and content types to guarantee regular engagement. Content Variation: Incorporate how-tos, user-generated content, and live events to cater to different audience preferences. Audience Analysis: Regularly review audience insights and competitor activities to adapt your strategy and replicate high-performing posts. Ideal Posting Times: Use tools like Sprout’s Ideal Send Times to maximize reach based on audience activity patterns. Build a Content Calendar Building a content calendar is essential for organizing your social media strategy and ensuring consistent engagement with your audience. A well-structured calendar helps you visualize and plan content in advance, aligning with your marketing goals. It allows for strategic resource allocation during important dates like holidays and product launches. Content Type Purpose Promotional Posts Drive sales and awareness User-Generated Content Build community and trust Educational Resources Improve brand authority Measure Results and Optimize Measuring results and optimizing your social media strategy is crucial for achieving your marketing objectives. To effectively assess your content marketing efforts, follow these steps: Regularly track key performance metrics like engagement rates, impressions, and conversion rates to gauge content impact. Utilize A/B testing to experiment with different content types, headlines, and posting times, helping you uncover the most effective strategies. Implement monthly performance reviews to analyze content effectiveness, allowing you to refine future posts based on insights from high and low-performing content. Leverage social media management tools, such as Sprout, to gather thorough analytics, facilitating data-driven decisions that improve your overall content strategy. Frequently Asked Questions What Are the 7 C’s of Social Media Strategy? The 7 C’s of social media strategy include Content, Context, Community, Connection, Conversation, Collaboration, and Conversion. You need to create valuable content that resonates with your audience, ensuring it fits the platform’s specifics. Building a community involves engaging with your followers, whereas connection nurtures relationships through interaction. Encourage conversation for better engagement, collaborate with influencers to expand reach, and focus on conversion to achieve measurable outcomes like sales or sign-ups. What Is the 5 5 5 Rule on Social Media? The 5 5 5 rule on social media suggests that for every five pieces of content you share from others, you should create five pieces of your own original content and promote five pieces that engage your audience. This approach balances curated and original content, enhancing credibility as it nurtures community interaction. What Is Content Strategy in Social Media Marketing? A content strategy in social media marketing is a structured plan that guides how you create and share content aligned with your business goals. It starts with audience research, identifying demographics and developing buyer personas to tailor your messaging. You should analyze your competitors to discover effective content types. Regularly tracking performance metrics helps you refine your approach, whereas a content calendar guarantees your posts are timely and relevant, maximizing audience engagement. What Are the 7 P’s of Social Media Marketing? The 7 P’s of social media marketing are essential for a successful strategy. They include Product, which defines what you’re offering; Price, which communicates the value of your product; Place, focusing on the right social platforms for your audience; and Promotion, involving tactics like ads and partnerships. Furthermore, People refers to your target demographic. Process emphasizes the customer experience, and Physical Evidence showcases authenticity through testimonials and branding elements. Conclusion In summary, implementing these seven strategies will greatly improve your content marketing efforts on social media. By setting SMART goals, researching your audience, and analyzing competitors, you create a solid foundation for success. Auditing your existing content, developing a content plan, and maintaining a calendar will streamline your efforts. Finally, regularly measuring results and optimizing based on analytics guarantees that your strategies remain effective and aligned with your business objectives, leading to sustained growth and engagement. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "7 Essential Strategies for Content Marketing on Social Media" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

When it pertains to content marketing on social media, having a solid strategy is essential for success. You need to identify and set clear goals that align with your business objectives. Comprehending your audience is equally important; knowing their preferences helps you craft customized content. Furthermore, analyzing competitors and auditing your existing content can reveal valuable insights. These foundational steps will set the stage for developing an effective content plan. What comes next can greatly impact your results. Key Takeaways Set SMART goals to ensure your content marketing strategy is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound for better outcomes. Research and define your target audience segments to tailor content that resonates with their interests and preferences. Analyze competitors’ social media strategies to identify engagement trends and opportunities for improvement in your content. Conduct regular audits of your social media content to evaluate performance and ensure alignment with your brand voice. Measure results through key performance metrics and optimize your strategy based on data-driven insights and A/B testing. Identify and Set Goals How do you guarantee your social media content marketing aligns with your overall business objectives? Start by identifying and setting clear, specific goals for your content marketing strategy. Use the SMART framework—Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound—to define these goals. This approach helps you create content that resonates with your audience and boosts engagement. Establish baseline metrics for key performance indicators (KPIs) like engagement, reach, and conversions, which will allow you to track your progress effectively. Regularly review and refine your goals based on performance metrics to adjust your strategies as needed. Research Your Audience To effectively connect with your audience, you need to define target audience segments based on demographic insights, such as age and location. Analyzing this data helps you tailor your content strategies to meet their specific interests and preferences. Utilizing audience engagement tools can further improve your comprehension of their behavior on social media, ensuring your content remains relevant and engaging. Define Target Audience Segments Defining target audience segments is essential for effective content marketing, as it helps guarantee that your messaging resonates with specific groups. To achieve this, create detailed buyer personas using demographic data like age, location, interests, and behaviors. By conducting audience research, you can uncover insights on how different segments engage with your brand, allowing you to tailor your content marketing for social media effectively. Utilizing AI tools, such as Sprout‘s AI-enabled Query Builder, can greatly improve your comprehension of audience preferences. Segmenting your audience enables personalized content delivery, which boosts engagement rates and advances conversion metrics. Finally, remember to regularly revisit and update these segments to keep your strategies relevant and aligned with evolving trends and audience feedback. Analyze Demographic Insights Analyzing demographic insights is crucial for shaping your content marketing strategy, as it allows you to create material that truly resonates with your audience. Knowing your audience’s age, location, and gender helps tailor your content effectively. To improve your social media marketing efforts, consider these four strategies: Conduct audience segmentation to identify distinct groups within your audience. Analyze discussions about your brand to uncover preferences and pain points. Utilize tools like Sprout‘s AI-enabled Query Builder to capture relevant trends. Regularly update your demographic insights, as audience preferences shift over time. Utilize Audience Engagement Tools Though grasping your audience is essential for effective content marketing, utilizing audience engagement tools can greatly improve your insights. Conduct thorough audience research to develop detailed buyer personas that represent your ideal customers. This helps tailor your content marketing tactics to resonate with specific demographics. Employ AI and machine learning tools, like Sprout’s AI-enabled Query Builder, to capture real-time conversations and insights about your products. Gather demographic data, such as age and location, to understand audience preferences better. Analyze how customers engage with your brand on social media to identify trends. Regularly assess audience feedback and engagement metrics for actionable insights, ensuring your content strategies remain aligned with audience interests and behaviors. Analyze Your Social Media Competitors To gain a competitive edge in social media marketing, you need to closely analyze your competitors and their strategies. Start by identifying at least three key competitors in your industry. Here are four crucial steps to guide your analysis: Assess their social media presence, including platforms and posting frequency. Use tools like Sprout Social or Hootsuite to gather quantitative data on engagement rates and follower growth. Analyze the types of content that generate the highest engagement, such as videos or infographics. Monitor their use of hashtags and keywords for optimizing your own content discoverability. Audit Your Current Social Content Once you’ve analyzed your competitors’ social media strategies, it’s time to assess your own content. Conduct a social media content audit to evaluate performance against your goals, focusing on engagement rates, impressions, and reach. Identify trends in high and low-performing posts to see which content types resonate with your audience. Make sure your language and tone align with your brand voice to maintain consistency. Use competitive analysis tools for benchmarking, gaining insights into effective practices. Regularly review your findings and adjust your strategy based on this content marketing guide. Metric Evaluation Engagement Rates High, Medium, Low Impressions High, Medium, Low Reach High, Medium, Low Content Type Visuals, Text, Links Brand Voice Alignment Consistent, Inconsistent Develop a Social Media Content Plan Developing a social media content plan is vital for maintaining a consistent online presence and achieving your marketing objectives. This plan helps bridge content marketing definition with social media marketing, guaranteeing a cohesive strategy. Here are four key elements to include: Content Calendar: Outline your publishing schedule and content types to guarantee regular engagement. Content Variation: Incorporate how-tos, user-generated content, and live events to cater to different audience preferences. Audience Analysis: Regularly review audience insights and competitor activities to adapt your strategy and replicate high-performing posts. Ideal Posting Times: Use tools like Sprout’s Ideal Send Times to maximize reach based on audience activity patterns. Build a Content Calendar Building a content calendar is essential for organizing your social media strategy and ensuring consistent engagement with your audience. A well-structured calendar helps you visualize and plan content in advance, aligning with your marketing goals. It allows for strategic resource allocation during important dates like holidays and product launches. Content Type Purpose Promotional Posts Drive sales and awareness User-Generated Content Build community and trust Educational Resources Improve brand authority Measure Results and Optimize Measuring results and optimizing your social media strategy is crucial for achieving your marketing objectives. To effectively assess your content marketing efforts, follow these steps: Regularly track key performance metrics like engagement rates, impressions, and conversion rates to gauge content impact. Utilize A/B testing to experiment with different content types, headlines, and posting times, helping you uncover the most effective strategies. Implement monthly performance reviews to analyze content effectiveness, allowing you to refine future posts based on insights from high and low-performing content. Leverage social media management tools, such as Sprout, to gather thorough analytics, facilitating data-driven decisions that improve your overall content strategy. Frequently Asked Questions What Are the 7 C’s of Social Media Strategy? The 7 C’s of social media strategy include Content, Context, Community, Connection, Conversation, Collaboration, and Conversion. You need to create valuable content that resonates with your audience, ensuring it fits the platform’s specifics. Building a community involves engaging with your followers, whereas connection nurtures relationships through interaction. Encourage conversation for better engagement, collaborate with influencers to expand reach, and focus on conversion to achieve measurable outcomes like sales or sign-ups. What Is the 5 5 5 Rule on Social Media? The 5 5 5 rule on social media suggests that for every five pieces of content you share from others, you should create five pieces of your own original content and promote five pieces that engage your audience. This approach balances curated and original content, enhancing credibility as it nurtures community interaction. What Is Content Strategy in Social Media Marketing? A content strategy in social media marketing is a structured plan that guides how you create and share content aligned with your business goals. It starts with audience research, identifying demographics and developing buyer personas to tailor your messaging. You should analyze your competitors to discover effective content types. Regularly tracking performance metrics helps you refine your approach, whereas a content calendar guarantees your posts are timely and relevant, maximizing audience engagement. What Are the 7 P’s of Social Media Marketing? The 7 P’s of social media marketing are essential for a successful strategy. They include Product, which defines what you’re offering; Price, which communicates the value of your product; Place, focusing on the right social platforms for your audience; and Promotion, involving tactics like ads and partnerships. Furthermore, People refers to your target demographic. Process emphasizes the customer experience, and Physical Evidence showcases authenticity through testimonials and branding elements. Conclusion In summary, implementing these seven strategies will greatly improve your content marketing efforts on social media. By setting SMART goals, researching your audience, and analyzing competitors, you create a solid foundation for success. Auditing your existing content, developing a content plan, and maintaining a calendar will streamline your efforts. Finally, regularly measuring results and optimizing based on analytics guarantees that your strategies remain effective and aligned with your business objectives, leading to sustained growth and engagement. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "7 Essential Strategies for Content Marketing on Social Media" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

I am a self-professed AI skeptic. I have yet to really find much of a need for all these AI-powered assistants, as well as many AI-powered features. The most useful applications in my view are subtle—the rest seem better suited for shareholders than actual people. And yet, the AI believers have a new tool they're very excited about, which is now all over my feeds: Clawdbot. Could this agentic AI assistant be the thing that makes me a believer as well? Spoiler alert: probably not. What is Clawdbot?If you're deep in the online AI community, you probably already know about Clawbot. For the rest of us, here's the gist: Clawdbot is a "personal AI assistant" designed to run locally on your devices, as opposed to cloud-based options. (Think ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude.) In fact, Clawdbot runs any number of AI models, including those from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, xAI, and Perplexity. While you can run Clawdbot on Mac, Linux, and Windows, many online are opting to install the bot on dedicated Mac mini setups, leading to one part of the assistant's virality. But there are other AI assistants that can be run locally—one thing that makes Clawdbot unique is that you communicate with it through chat apps. Which app you use is up to you, as Clawdbot works with apps like Discord, Google Chat, iMessages, Microsoft Teams, Signal, Telegram, WebChat, and WhatsApp. The idea is that you "text" Clawdbot as you would a friend or family member, but it acts as you'd expect an AI assistant to—except, maybe more so. That's because, while Clawdbot can certainly do the things an AI bot like ChatGPT can, it's meant more for agentic tasks. In other words, Clawdbot can do things for you, all while running in the background on your devices. The bot's official website advertises that it can clear your inbox, send emails, manage your calendar, and check you in for flights—though power users are pushing the tool to do much more. Clawdbot works with a host of apps and services you might use yourself. That includes productivity apps like Apple Notes, Apple Reminders, Things 3, Notion, Obsidian, Bear Notes, Trello, GitHub; music apps like Spotify, Sonos, and Shazam; smart home apps like Philips Hue, 8Sleep, and Home Assistant; as well as other major apps like Chrome, 1Password, and Gmail. It can generate images, search the web for GIFs, see your screen, take photos and videos, and check the weather. Based on the website alone, it has a lengthy résumé. The last big point here is that Clawdbot has an advertised "infinite" memory. That means the bot "remembers" every interaction you've ever had with it, as well as all the actions it's taken on your behalf. In theory, you could use Clawdbot to build apps, run your home, or manage your messages, all within the context of everything you've done before. In that, it'd really be the closest thing to a "digital assistant" we've seen on this scale. These assistants have been mostly actionable—you ask the bot what you want to know or what you want done, and it (hopefully) acts accordingly. But the ideal version of Clawdbot would do all those things for you without you needing to ask. It's not just fans talking about ClawdbotNot everyone is psyched about Clawdbot, though. Take this user, who jokes that, after four messages, the bot made a reservation, then, after six messages, was able to send a calendar invite, only to cost $87 in Opus 4.7 tokens. This user came up with a story (at least I hope it's a story) where they give Clawdbot access to their stock portfolio and tasked it with making $1 million without making mistakes. After thousands of reports, dozens of strategies, and many scans of X posts, it lost everything. "But boy was it beautiful." I particularly like this take, which reads: "[I've] made a tragic discovery using [Clawdbot.] [There] simply aren’t that many tasks in my personal life that are worth automating." There are also some jabs from what appear to be anti-AI users, like this one, that imagines a Clawdbot user with no job living in their parent's basement, asking the bot to do their tasks for the day. As with all things AI, there are many thoughts, opinions, and criticisms here, especially considering how viral this new tool is. But the main critique seems to be that Clawdbot requires a lot (in terms of hardware, power, and privacy) without really offering much in return. Sure, it can do things for you, but do you really need a bot booking your plane tickets, or combing through your emails? The answer to that, I suppose, is up to each of us, but the "backlash," if you can call it that, is likely coming from people who would answer "no." How to try ClawdbotIf you want to try Clawdbot, you'll likely need to have some technical experience first. You can get started from Clawdbot's official github page, as well as Clawdbot's "Getting started" guide. According to this page, you'll begin by running the Clawdbot onboarding wizard, which will set you up with the gateway, workspace, channels, and skills. This works on Mac, Linux, and Windows, and while you won't need a Mac mini, it seems to be what the Clawdbot crowd is running with. Full disclosure: Clawdbot and its setup go beyond my expertise, and I will not be installing it on my devices. However, if you have the knowledge to follow these instructions, or the will to learn, the developer has the steps listed in the links above. How secure is Clawdbot?While I likely wouldn't install Clawdbot on my device anyway, the privacy and security implications here definitely keep me away. The main issue with Clawdbot is that it has full control and access over whichever device you run it on, as well as any of the software that is running therein. That makes sense, on the surface: How is an agentic AI supposed to do things on your behalf if it does have access to the apps and hardware necessary for execution? But the inherent security risk with any program like this involves prompt injection. Bad actors could sneak their own AI prompts into otherwise innocent sites and programs. When your bot crawls the text as it completes your task, it intercepts the prompt, and, thinking it's from you, executes that prompt instead. It's the main security flaw with AI browsers, and it could affect something like Clawdbot, too. And since you've given Clawdbot control over your entire computer and everything in it...yikes. Bad actors could manipulate Clawdbot to theoretically send DMs to anyone they like, run malicious programs, read and write files on your computer, trick Clawdbot into accessing your private data, and learn about your hardware for further cyber attacks. In Clawdbot's case, these prompt injections could come from a number of sources. They could come from messages via bad actors through the chat apps you communicate through Clawdbot, they could come from the browsers you use to access the internet, and they could come from plugins you run on various programs, to name a few possibilities. Clawdbot does have a security guide on its site that walks you through ways to shore up your defenses while using Clawdbot. The developer admits that running an AI agent with shell access on your machine is "spicy," that this is both a product and an experiment, and that there is no "perfectly secure" setup. That said, there are security features built in here that serve a purpose and attempt to limit who can access Clawdbot, where Clawdbot can go, and what Clawdbot can do. That could involve locking down DMs, viewing links and attachments as "hostile" by default, reducing high-risk tools, and running modern AI models that have better protections against prompt injection. Still, the whole affair is too risky for me, especially considering I'm not sure I really want an AI assistant in the first place. I think companies believe we want to offload tasks like calendars, messages, and creation to bots, to save us time from menial to-do lists. Maybe some do, but I don't. I want to know who is reaching out to me and why, and not trust an AI to decide what messages are worth my attention. I want to write my own emails and know what events I have on my own calendar. I also want access to my own computer. Maybe some people trust AI enough to handle all these things for them—if it makes me a luddite to feel the opposite, so be it. View the full article

CEOs of Minnesota’s biggest companies signed a public letter calling for “immediate de-escalation of tensions” after weeks of silence following Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) descending upon the state, which has led to civilian deaths, abductions, economic stand-stills and a profound disruption of daily life. On Sunday, chief executives of more than 60 major corporations like Target, Best Buy, 3M and General Mills, called for “immediate de-escalation of tensions” in Minnesota. The letter came following federal agents shooting and killing Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old VA ICU nurse while he was on the ground. Weeks earlier, Renee Good, was also shot and killed by ICE agents while in her vehicle. The letter marks a shift for major companies headquartered in Minnesota, many of which put out public statements in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd, but were quiet on the chaos swirling around ICE’s presence in their state. (Earlier this month, Fast Company’s Joe Berkowitz received no reply from any major Minnesota company when asked to comment about ICE.) The letter reads, in part: “In this difficult moment for our community, we call for peace and focused cooperation among local, state and federal leaders to achieve a swift and durable solution that enables families, businesses, our employees, and communities across Minnesota to resume our work to build a bright and prosperous future.” But experts think the call for peace fell short of criticizing the illegal actions that have been increasingly taken by federal immigration agents in recent weeks. Weak leadership just makes workers more anxious While the organization has been operating largely without warrants, and have been caught on video violently detaining people (even U.S. citizens) the letter stayed away from any criticism of either the The President administration’s direction or ICE agents themselves. That’s been common during President The President’s second term: many organizations haven’t pushed back on the administration’s rollbacks on DEI efforts, for example. Instead, the letter stuck to neutral language, such as “the recent challenges facing our state” to describe the situation. The letter has received criticism: On social media, some commenters call it a “pseudo-statement,” “spineless” and “mealy-mouthed.” Sonia Daniels, a consultant and organizational systems expert who studies how people, power, and institutional behavior intersect, tells Fast Company that the letter’s clear display of neutrality was intentional—and also, she believes, the wrong call. “Leaders often reach for language about calm and deescalation when they are actually trying to manage risks, not reality,” she says, and adds that “while this instinct feels responsible, it isn’t.” She explains how failing to accurately speak about a situation of such magnitude has the potential to even cause more damage. “When leaders refuse to name the source of harm, they shift the burden to the employees,” Daniels says. “When that happens, workers are left to absorb fear, confusion, and moral tension while leadership stays abstract and polite, which erodes trust fast.” Actions speak louder than words Instead of staying neutral to avoid any potential blowback, Daniels says CEOs should tell the truth about where they stand, as well as offer resources to their workforce who will undoubtedly be affected by ICE’s ongoing raids—and are, in many cases, afraid to go to work. “Statements alone do not stabilize people,” Daniels explains. “Unless action follows.” While the open letter stated that companies’ efforts have included “close communication with the Governor, the White House, the Vice President and local mayors”, many agree that doesn’t feel like enough. Cameron Kolb, a CEO adviser, tells Fast Company that fairly neutral-sounding open letters like this one “are disconnected from the employees and community, especially residents, from the current realities.” Kolb says that leaders in Minnesota should be openly talking about the impact ICE operations have had on the community, as well as providing support for de-escalation efforts—”including backing community investigations.” “True leadership, especially in times of crisis, involves more than preaching for unity. It involves an alignment of the public position with demonstrated support for the most affected,” Kolb says. Community leadership Meanwhile, as top business leaders stay relatively neutral-sounding, the citizen leaders of Minnesota are taking action. On Friday, community leaders, along with citizens, faith leaders, and labor unions organized a day of action where over 75,000 took to the streets to stand against ICE and hundreds of thousands participated in an economic blackout. “ICE continues to make everyone less safe, and Minnesota’s Labor Movement repeats and amplifies our call for them to leave our state immediately,” said Bernie Burnham, Minnesota AFL-CIO President, in a statement following the killing of Alex Pretti. “Minnesota’s Labor Movement will continue to actively support and stand in solidarity with every worker who has been unlawfully detained. We stand shoulder to shoulder with our fellow Minnesotans in the face of a hostile federal government.” View the full article

Nissan is recalling thousands of its 2025 and 2026 vehicles due to a flaw which could potentially cause the door to open while driving, increasing the risk of injury or a crash, according to a notice from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Nissan North America, Inc. is recalling approximately 26,432 vehicles, including certain “2025 Altima, Sentra, 2025-2026 Frontier, and 2026 Kicks” because the door strikers, which hold the door in place, may have been improperly welded and can break. The company estimates about 1% have the defect that prompted the recall. “Customers may notice a rattling noise from the door striker if only one side of the striker wire is cracked; however, if both sides crack, there may be no warning prior to failure,” the notice said. This recall comes just two months after Nissan previously recalled over 41,000 vehicles due to defective windshields that may cause decreased visibility. Here’s what to know. Which Nissan vehicles are being recalled? The recall covers Nissan vehicles, which were manufactured between August and September 2025. 2026 Nissan Kicks Production dates: August 23, 2025 – September 26, 2025 Number of vehicles: 3,434 2025 Nissan Altima Production dates: August 4, 2025 – September 8, 2025 Number of vehicles: 7,627 2025-2026 Nissan Frontier Production dates: August 4, 2025 – September 8, 2025 Number of vehicles: 8,383 2025 Nissan Sentra Production dates: August 21, 2025 – September 6, 2025 Number of vehicles: 6,988 This issue is specific to those vehicles equipped with a suspect door striker and “no other Nissan or INFINITI vehicles are affected.” What should I do if I own one of the recalled Nissan vehicles? According to the NHTSA notice, Nissan said the company’s dealers will replace the door strikers free of charge; and expect to send recall notification letters out to owners by March 13. Owners can contact Nissan’s customer service hotline at 800-647-7261—Nissan’s numbers for this recall are PD185 and PMA61—or contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle safety hotline at 1-888-327-4236. Starting on Wednesday, January 28, owners can find out if their vehicles are affected by this recall by keying in their 17-digit vehicle identification number, or VINs, to the NHTSA.gov website. View the full article

Complaint alleges ‘unrelenting and egregious sexual harassment’ by wealth chief Andy SiegView the full article

The U.S. Treasury Department has cut its contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton, after a former contractor who worked for the firm was charged and subsequently imprisoned for leaking tax information to news outlets about thousands of the country’s wealthiest people, including President Donald The President. The latest move is in line with The President administration efforts to exact retribution on perceived enemies of the president and his allies — despite Booz Allen’s recent contributions to The President’s ballroom project, expected to cost more than $400 million. Still, Booz Allen, which is a major defense and national security technology firm, maintains extensive government contracts with other agencies, including the Defense Department, Homeland Security, and various intelligence agencies. In 2024, former IRS contractor Charles Edward Littlejohn of Washington, D.C. — who worked for Booz Allen — was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to leaking tax information about The President and others to news outlets. Littlejohn gave data to The New York Times and ProPublica between 2018 and 2020 in leaks that appeared to be “unparalleled in the IRS’s history,” prosecutors said. In court documents, prosecutors said Littlejohn had applied to work as a contractor to get The President’s tax returns and carefully figured out how to search and extract tax data to avoid triggering suspicions internally. Treasury says the agency has 31 contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton totaling $4.8 million in annual spending and $21 million in total obligations. The firm is headquartered in McLean, Va. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that the firm “failed to implement adequate safeguards to protect sensitive data, including the confidential taxpayer information it had access to through its contracts with the Internal Revenue Service.” Brian P. Hale, a Booz Allen spokesperson, said the firm has consistently condemned Littlejohn’s actions and has zero tolerance for violations of the law. “Booz Allen fully supported the U.S. government in its investigation, and the government expressed gratitude for our assistance, which led to Littlejohn’s prosecution,” Hale said. “We look forward to continuing discussions with Treasury on this matter.” Booz Allen says it doesn’t store taxpayer data on its systems and has no ability to monitor activity on government networks. Shares of the firm, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange, were down from $102 per share on Friday to $91 and falling on Monday after the announcement. The firm’s latest quarterly filing with the SEC, for the period ending Dec. 31, states that major risks to the firm include “any issue that compromises our relationships with the U.S. government or damages our professional reputation, including negative publicity concerning government contractors in general or us in particular.” —By Fatima Hussein, Associated Press View the full article

The post-commute changing from sneakers to office-friendly pumps is something well-known to many workers. But could it become a thing of the past? At a growing number of startups and tech offices, workers are taking some of the comforts gained from work-from-home days… and leaving behind their shoes. “No shoes at Cursor NYC,” angel investor Ben Lang posted on social media in October, showing a pile of shoes at the AI company’s entrance. Wholly dedicated to the cause, Lang has created the website noshoes.fun, a “no-shoes office directory” for those who feel equally passionate about having their feet get some fresh air during the work day. Among the 21 companies listed are small startups, where a founding team works out of someone’s house, and taking off your shoes is simply common courtesy. Others are large: like productivity app company Notion, who adopted a no-shoes policy in their HQ until around four years ago, or AI-powered QA Spur, who offer branded slides upon arrival at their office in Manhattan. Responses to Lang’s post were mixed. “Oh dear,” one user wrote. “Imagine the smell.” “Are there slippers for the bathroom???” wrote another. Another: “Imagine bringing round a client.” The shoeless office is growing in popularity, as an unconventional approach to improve focus and create a comfortable environment as more workers return to the office. The trend has since made it across the pond, as the Guardian recently reported, with some British companies taking their cues from America’s West Coast as a way to improve focus, comfort and even staff morale. Shoeless offices might sound like a gimmick. But who knows? With record levels of burnout (76% of U.S. workers reporting at least one mental health condition), anything that can help the office feel a little bit more like home could have an impact on morale. Of course, regardless of being a cute workplace trend, taking off outdoor shoes inside is widespread across countless cultures the world over. It is common courtesy to remove your shoes upon entering the home in countries like Germany, Switzerland and Scandinavian countries. In Muslim households, shoes are left at the door as a sign of respect. In Japan, taking shoes off and switching to slippers to wear inside is extremely common in schools and in many places of business; taking them off in people’s homes is standard practice. It also has pop cultural precedent. Recall Alexander Skarsgård’s Succession character, tech mogul Lukas Matsson, walking sans-shoe between private jets in the show’s final season. Or Bert Cooper in Mad Men striding around his Manhattan advertising agency in socked feet. Many amongst us will have been guilty of slipping off a particularly uncomfortable pair of wingtips under the work desk at one time or another. And as the pendulum swings back on work-life balance, and the 9-5 is replaced by a 996 grind mentality, particularly among AI startups—the very least you can be is cozy while working a 72 hours work week. View the full article

Proposals would cut amount of shares required to trade in public hands to 10% for non-UK incorporated companiesView the full article

A federal judge began hearing arguments Monday on whether she should halt, at least temporarily, the immigration crackdown in Minnesota that has led to the fatal shootings of two people by government officers. The state of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul sued the Department of Homeland Security earlier this month, five days after Renee Good was shot by an Immigration and Customs officer. The shooting of Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol officer on Saturday added urgency to the case. In other developments, President Donald The President said he had a “very good” call with Minnesota Gov. Walz about the latest Minneapolis shooting and that they are now on a “similar wavelength.” It was an abrupt shift from The President, who frequently derides Walz for his actions on immigration issues in Minnesota. During arguments before U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez, lawyers for the state and the Twin Cities argued that the situation on the street is so dire as to require the court to halt the federal government’s immigration enforcement actions. “If this is not stopped right here, right now, I don’t think anybody who is seriously looking at this problem can have much faith in how our republic is going to go in the future,” Minnesota Assistant Attorney General Brian Carter said. The Justice Department’s attorneys were set to speak later Monday. Menendez asked attorneys for the state and the cities where she should draw the line between a legitimate law enforcement response and one that violates the Constitution. She questioned whether the state and city arguments would require her to decide policy differences between the president and Minnesota. The President also said he would send border czar Tom Homan to Minnesota. The president’s statement comes after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino, who has become the public face of the crackdown, answered questions at news conferences over the weekend about Pretti’s shooting. The President posted on social media that Homan will report directly to him. Since the original court filing, the state and cities have substantially added to their request in an effort to restore the conditions that existed before the The President administration launched Operation Metro Surge in Minnesota on Dec. 1. The lawsuit asks the judge to order a reduction in the number of federal law enforcement officers and agents in Minnesota back to the level before the surge and to limit the scope of the enforcement operation. Justice Department attorneys have called the lawsuit “legally frivolous” and said Minnesota “wants a veto over federal law enforcement.” They asked the judge to reject the request or to at least stay her order pending an anticipated appeal. Democratic Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said during a news conference Sunday that the lawsuit is needed because of “the unprecedented nature of this surge. It is a novel abuse of the Constitution that we’re looking at right now. No one can remember a time when we’ve seen something like this.” It is unclear when the judge might rule. The case has implications for other states that have been or could become targets of ramped-up federal immigration enforcement operations. Attorneys general from 19 states plus the District of Columbia, led by California, filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Minnesota. “If left unchecked, the federal government will no doubt be emboldened to continue its unlawful conduct in Minnesota and to repeat it elsewhere,” the attorneys general wrote. Menendez ruled in a separate case on Jan. 16 that federal officers in Minnesota cannot detain or tear gas peaceful protesters who are not obstructing authorities, including people who follow and observe agents. An appeals court temporarily suspended that ruling three days before Saturday’s shooting. But the plaintiffs in that case, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota, asked the appeals court late Saturday for an emergency order lifting the stay in light of Pretti’s killing. The Justice Department argued in a reply filed Sunday that the stay should remain in place, calling the injunction unworkable and overly broad. In yet another case, a different federal judge, Eric Tostrud, issued an order late Saturday blocking the The President administration from “destroying or altering evidence” related to Saturday’s shooting. Ellison and Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty asked for the order to try to preserve evidence collected by federal officials that state authorities have not yet been able to inspect. A hearing in that case is scheduled for Monday afternoon in federal court in St. Paul. “The fact that anyone would ever think that an agent of the federal government might even think about doing such a thing was completely unforeseeable only a few weeks ago,” Ellison told reporters. “But now, this is what we have to do.” ___ This story has been corrected to show the judge’s name is Katherine Menendez, not Kathleen. —Steve Karnowski, Associated Press Associated Press reporter Jack Brook contributed to this article. View the full article

For the average person who wants to achieve financial independence, that desire for early retirement is also for comfort. For many, the prospect of never having to work again is only a worthwhile opportunity if it comes with a lifestyle worth living, and without compromise. This is the prospect of Fat FIRE. The Fat Financial ... Read moreView the full article