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It’s official: Skype is dead. The long-lived (by internet standards) voice-over-internet app has been put out to pasture by parent company Microsoft. Though Skype was once considered the way to call someone online, it's now going the way of Google Hangouts and dozens of other trendsetting apps before it. Come May 5, it’ll officially be replaced by Microsoft Teams. It’s truly the end of an era. Launched in 2003, Skype quickly became synonymous with video calls online, with “skype-ing” entering the lexicon as its own verb. It has supported countless long distance relationships, podcasts recording sessions, and remote D&D games, but after being supplanted by apps like Zoom during the pandemic, it seems Microsoft has decided it’s finally time to go. Users will be prompted to transition to Microsoft TeamsMicrosoft is doing its best to make the transition seamless, and “over the coming days,” will roll out the ability for Skype users to sign into a Microsoft Teams account and immediately import their Skype chats, contacts, photos, and call history. Users who wish to move on from Skype will also be able to export their data to download locally, and Microsoft tells The Verge that it’s also made a tool that will allow users to view their Skype chat history after the shutdown. The company also says that Skype and Teams will be interoperable from now until the shutdown, so if you migrate to Teams and then message one of your old Skype contacts, they’ll still see your message on Skype. No more Skype callsHowever, one big part of Skype will go away once Teams officially supplants it—phone calls. While Microsoft says it will honor existing Skype credits and subscriptions, it’s not going to support paid Skype features beyond that—and existing subscribers won’t be able to renew once their plans run out. To help customers as they use up their paid benefits, the Skype dial pad will be available within the Skype web portal and within Teams after the shutdown. The choice to sunset Skype follows a move in December that saw Microsoft phasing out new Skype Credit sales as well as the Skype Number feature, which allowed users to use Skype to answer calls and send texts from a standard phone number. In retrospect, it seems the writing has been on the wall for a while. “We hope we’ll migrate most Skype users,” Microsoft’s Jeff Tepper told The Verge, “...but we want to make sure the users know they’re in control.” To that end, while Teams is definitely a viable choice for personal use despite its more business-oriented name, you might find yourself preferring one of its competitors. From our friends at PCMag, here are some of best free video calling apps to consider migrating to once the Skype shutdown arrives. View the full article

Even solos can provide it. Here’s how. By Hitendra Patil Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide Go PRO for members-only access to more Hitendra Patil. View the full article

Even solos can provide it. Here’s how. By Hitendra Patil Client Accounting Services: The Definitive Success Guide Go PRO for members-only access to more Hitendra Patil. View the full article

... and why they don't have to. By CPA Trendlines Research Go PRO for members-only access to more CPA Trendlines Research. View the full article

... and why they don't have to. By CPA Trendlines Research Go PRO for members-only access to more CPA Trendlines Research. View the full article

At a press conference in the Oval Office earlier this month, Elon Musk—a billionaire who is not, at least formally, the President of the United States—was asked how the Department of Government Efficiency manages potential conflicts of interest to ensure “accountability and transparency.” In response, Musk suggested that simply opening a browser tab would assuage the reporter’s concerns. “We post our actions to the DOGE handle on X, and to the DOGE website,” he said. “So all of our actions are maximally transparent.” One problem with this assertion: At the time, the DOGE.gov domain was more or less empty, an oversight that someone in Musk’s orbit had to hastily rectify. Now, nested beneath tabs on a white-on-black homepage is a “wall of receipts” tallying DOGE’s alleged cost savings as it attempts to hollow out the federal government. (These “receipts” reportedly included 10 figures’ worth of math errors shortly after the wall debuted.) Other tabs provide information about the salaries of the approximately 2.3 million federal employees Musk is trying to fire (data borrowed from the Office of Personnel Management) and agency-by-agency information about federal spending (figures taken from publicly available Treasury Department reports). There is no better distillation of Musk’s brand of “efficiency” than tasking underlings with building sloppy, dark-mode versions of free government resources that already exist. The “Regulations” tab, however, reveals the true nature of Musk’s project, which is not to deliver tax relief to working people, but to free wealthy corporations from pesky regulatory oversight. The page abandons dollars-and-cents metrics for something different: an “Unconstitutionality Index” that divides the number of regulations enacted by federal agencies by the number of statutes passed by Congress each year. Users can scroll down to see how many regulations these agencies—”unelected bureaucrats,” as DOGE calls them—have published, and even how many hundreds of thousands of words those regulations run. The clear implication is that the Code of Federal Regulations has become far too complicated—perhaps too complicated to be constitutional—and that only the fully optimized business brains at DOGE have the vision, courage, and managerial savvy necessary to wrangle this unruly mess. DOGE’s war on the very concept of regulation demonstrates just how little “innovation” Musk and his henchteenagers are bringing to the putative task of streamlining the federal government’s workflow. Corporate interests, eager to shed even modest limitations on their ability to pay out executive bonuses and shareholder dividends, have spent decades arguing that regulations are unauthorized exercises of legislative power. At DOGE, Musk is simply repackaging these bog-standard, free-enterprise talking points with the trappings of Silicon Valley technobabble. In his position as this country’s de facto copresident, the more regulations he manages to scuttle, the more he and his cronies’ companies stand to profit. To be clear, the regulations that Musk is demonizing here are simply the rules by which the executive branch, at Congress’s direction, implements and enforces the laws that Congress passes. For example, when lawmakers passed the Consumer Product Safety Act, a 1972 law that aims to “protect consumers against unreasonable risk of injury from hazardous products,” they tasked a federal agency, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, with spelling out the nitty-gritty rules for making different kinds of products safe. The logic here is pretty intuitive: Setting standards for, say, the maximum amount of force necessary to open a refrigerator door from the inside is technical, complex work best left to mechanical engineers and child safety researchers, not, say, Marjorie Taylor Greene. In a sprawling country that is home to 340 million people, this system of delegation from professional politicians to subject-matter experts is what keeps air breathable, water potable, and kitchen appliances from becoming death traps for small children playing hide-and-seek. But it necessarily imposes costs on industry: Compliance with rules entails spending at least some money and forgoing at least some potential profit. As a result, the notion that regulation is evil and foolish has become an article of faith among pro-business groups and the Republican politicians they support, who argue that the proliferation of unnecessary, duplicative, burdensome rules stifles innovation and stunts economic growth. Opponents often cite the increase in volume of rules over time as proof of their inherent illegitimacy, a sentiment the anti-tax activist Grover Norquist once summarized using a memorably unsettling metaphor. “I don’t want to abolish government,” he said. “I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” The “Unconstitutionality Index” on DOGE’s website is a fixture of the anti-regulation movement, created by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a think tank that recently celebrated “40 years of eliminating excessive regulation and unleashing human potential.” (Several CEI staffers are listed as contributors to Project 2025, the policy “blueprint” drafted by conservative groups in anticipation of President Donald Trump’s reelection.) Organizations like CEI exist to raise the alarm about the dangers of bureaucracy; in congressional testimony last year, a CEI fellow told lawmakers that despite its best efforts, “unchecked regulation” is still “impeding economic efficiency and undermining progress.” The Trump-Musk administration wasted little time delivering relief on this front: In an executive order last week, the White House announced plans to facilitate the “deconstruction of the overbearing and burdensome administrative state.” The order instructs agency heads, “in coordination with” DOGE, to identify regulations to put on the chopping block, including those that “significantly and unjustifiably imped[e] technological innovation” or “impose undue burdens on small business and impede private enterprise and entrepreneurship.” Suddenly, people who have spent decades framing regulations as an existential threat to their beloved free market have a White House willing to listen and eager to act. Regulation has traditionally lagged behind the pace of the tech industry in particular, which is part of the reason Big Tech has remained so profitable despite doing all kinds of harm that rarely results in meaningful consequences. Maintaining this status quo is worth billions to the leaders of these companies, especially as they search out new sectors of the economy to upend in move-fast-break-things fashion. By gutting the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Musk has deftly greased the skids for X Money, a peer-to-peer payments service that Musk plans to roll out on his social media platform this year. As DOGE fires hundreds of employees at the Federal Aviation Administration, SpaceX engineers are quietly taking their places, and Musk is pushing for the agency to cancel a multibillion-dollar contract with Verizon and award it to his company instead. As sales stagnate, Tesla has taken to hyping its long-awaited driverless taxi business as the future of the company, a bet that becomes a little less risky with every regulatory hurdle that Musk manages to knock over between now and launch. By enlisting Musk to go full Founder Mode on a dated federal bureaucracy, DOGE was pitched as the means of fulfilling every politician’s favorite promise: to run government more like a business. “We’re going to get the government off your back and out of your pocketbook,” Musk told rallygoers in October to rapturous applause. But there is nothing new about the DOGE playbook, other than the involvement of a celebrity tech executive who is amused by memecoin backronyms. It is a decades-long ideological project to empower people like Musk to make themselves even wealthier at the expense of everyone else. View the full article

Throughout February, a measles outbreak has been growing in West Texas. The potentially deadly disease, once eliminated from the United States in terms of its continuous transmission, has been making a comeback in recent years as vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccine movements rise. Unfortunately, this outbreak has now had deadly consequences. Earlier this week, it was reported that one unvaccinated Texas child has died as a result of the outbreak. The unfortunate event, along with the continued spread of the disease, has left many asking whether they need a measles vaccine booster shot. Here’s what you need to know. About the measles vaccine The good news is that there is an effective vaccine against measles, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That vaccine is generally packaged with vaccines for other diseases, giving you protection from a variety of illnesses. A measles vaccine is part of an MMR shot, which stands for “measles, mumps, and rubella.” The measles vaccine is also part of the MMRV shot, which stands for “measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (chickenpox).” The vaccines help protect against all three or four diseases, respectively. To receive maximum protection from measles, you’ll need two doses of either the MMR shot or the MMRV shot. The dosing schedule depends on the age of the person. In children, the CDC says the recommended schedule for the MMR vaccine is to have the first dose between 12-15 months of age and the second dose between 4-6 years of age. If children are getting the MMRV shot instead, the CDC says the first dose should also be given between 12-15 months of age and the second dose between 4-6 years of age. However, the agency notes that the second dose of MMRV “can also be given 3 months after 1st dose.” As for older children, adolescents, and adults, the CDC says those who do not have evidence of immunity “need 1 or 2 doses of MMR vaccine.” Should I get a measles booster shot if I’ve already been fully vaccinated? It’s important to note that before making any medical decisions, you should always check with a doctor who is familiar with your unique medical history. As noted by CBS, most people who have had two doses of the recommended vaccine will be protected as much as possible throughout their lives. However, one group of people would likely benefit from another course of the vaccine. This group includes those who were first vaccinated against measles before 1968 and do not know which vaccine they received. As the CDC explains, this is because, before 1968, some people received measles vaccines that contained an inactive (killed) strain of the virus, which was ineffective. Modern measles vaccines use a live strain of the virus to produce maximum protection in the body. “People who were vaccinated prior to 1968 with either inactivated (killed) measles vaccine or measles vaccine of unknown type should be revaccinated with at least one dose of live attenuated measles vaccine,” the CDC states. “This recommendation is intended to protect those who may have received killed measles vaccine, which was available in 1963-1967 and was not effective” Is the measles vaccine safe and effective? Health authorities including the CDC say the measles vaccine is both safe and effective. When it comes to the efficacy rate of the MMR vaccine, the numbers are very good. The CDC says one dose of the MMR vaccine is 93% effective against measles. The efficacy increases to 97% after the second shot. Furthermore, the health authorities say the MMR vaccine is safe for those who are breastfeeding and that there is no connection between autism and the vaccine. “There is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism,” the CDC notes. “Scientists in the United States and other countries have carefully studied the MMR vaccine. None has found a link between autism and the MMR vaccine.” While getting the vaccine does not fully protect you from measles, vaccinated individuals who do contract the disease generally experience milder symptoms and are also less likely to spread measles to others, according to the agency. In a February 27 memo addressing the Texas outbreak that has killed one so far, the CDC says, “Vaccination remains the best defense against measles infection.” View the full article

Servicers—Citadel, NewRez and Selene Finance—will not advance any delinquent principal and interest. Eventually, that should reduce loss severities to the deal. View the full article

Even as paid family leave has stalled at the federal level, a growing number of states have taken up the issue in recent years. Thirteen states and Washington, D.C., have now passed legislation that makes paid leave mandatory, while a handful of other states have also introduced voluntary systems that leave it to private insurance companies and employers to opt into the benefit. Despite those legislative wins, however, a new report by the nonprofit Moms First and McKinsey indicates that many eligible workers in states with mandatory paid leave are not taking advantage of their access to the benefit. The analysis focused on the paid-leave programs in New York, New Jersey, and California—which were among the first states to offer the benefit—and also surveyed over 2,000 parents in those states. Who is eligible for paid leave The vast majority of working parents were eligible for paid leave, in spite of the variation in state-specific requirements for wages or time worked. But the report found that only 40% of eligible parents actually used their paid-leave benefits in 2022, which were worth an estimated $6,000 to $10,000 per person. The families that did take advantage of those policies reported being nearly twice as satisfied with paid leave than they were with other state benefits; at the same time, parents were less likely to take paid leave when compared to similar government offerings like unemployment benefits. Even as more states have adopted laws mandating paid leave, most workers across the country still lack access to it: As of 2024, only 31% of full-time employees in the U.S. had paid leave. There are a number of reasons why utilization of paid leave may be lower than expected, given how critical the benefit can be for families. First is a lack of awareness, which might explain why parents are more likely to use unemployment benefits; of the respondents who did not use paid leave, 60% said they did not know it was available. Why workers don’t take paid leave Other parents were aware of the benefit but didn’t feel comfortable using it, either due to concerns over job security or career progression. “I would have taken [paid family leave] if I could afford it and wouldn’t lose my job,” one New York-based mother told Moms First. Low-wage workers were especially likely to worry about whether they could afford to take leave—even in New York, where the paid leave law explicitly promises job protection. In some cases, there were concerns over wage replacement, since paid leave laws typically only cover part of an employee’s salary (anywhere from 60% to 90%, depending on how much they earn). But the report also indicates that the very disparities that make paid leave so important play a role in why many parents are not fully utilizing the benefit. Since women are more likely to shoulder a greater share of childcare responsibilities, there are fewer women who are eligible for paid leave. In some cases, they may not meet the wage or time worked criteria mandated by state law. (Overall labor participation is also higher for men than it is for women.) In many cases, the cost of childcare can lead one parent to drop out of the workforce and stay home with their children—a burden that disproportionately falls on women. On the other hand, while more men are eligible for paid leave benefits, they are less inclined to use them—half as likely, in fact. (The unused parental leave captured by the report came to a total of six million weeks, with men accounting for four million.) A number of male respondents actually noted that they didn’t think it was necessary to take leave if their partner was already doing so. Race, too, seems to play a role in how widely paid leave is utilized: On the whole, Latino and Black parents are less likely to be eligible for the benefit than white and Asian parents. When they do have access to it, however, Black parents are the most likely to use paid leave. Administrative challenges Another significant hurdle is the administrative burden of applying for paid leave. While many parents who used paid leave expressed satisfaction with the benefit after the fact, almost 60% who opted out said they were frustrated by the application process. Even when paid leave is provided by the state, the vast majority of parents relied on their employer to help guide them through a complicated process, which is likely easier to navigate at large companies that are better positioned to assist their workers. In the absence of a federal law—which lost traction after the pandemic—advocates for paid leave have pushed for legislation at the state level, leading many progressive states to adopt mandatory policies over the past decade. But the Moms First report makes clear that without increasing utilization of paid leave, countless parents are not reaping the benefits, from offsetting the steep cost of childcare to improving health outcomes for mothers and children. View the full article

The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau has dropped several enforcement actions against companies like Capital One and Rocket Homes, just weeks under new leadership and turmoil at the agency caused by orders from Trump administration. In notices of voluntary dismissals filed on Thursday, the CFPB dropped lawsuits it had brought against Capital One, Rocket Homes, Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, and others. Those suits were all filed under the agency’s previous director, Rohit Chopra, who President Donald Trump fired just weeks ago. The CPFB has since plunged into turmoil—with the White House later ordering it to halt nearly all its work. The administration also closed the agency’s headquarters and moved to fire scores of its workers. Trump has defended his administration’s broadside against the CFPB — including recent claims about the agency being “set up to destroy people.” But supporters of the agency stress that it provides crucial oversight and protects consumers from being vulnerable to predatory business practices. Trump nominated former Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation board member Jonathan McKernan to be agency’s new director, who faced a Senate committee hearing Thursday. The CFPB is tasked with creating rules and taking enforcement actions to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices by a wide range of businesses and other institutions. Since its founding, the bureau has said that it’s obtained nearly $20 billion in financial relief for U.S. consumers — in the form of canceled debts, compensation, and reduced loans. Legal action from the CFPB often involves banks, mortgage servicers, credit card companies, student loan processors, payday lenders, money transfer providers, credit reporting agencies and debt collectors. Last month, prior to Trump taking office, the CFPB sued Capital One for allegedly misleading consumers about its offerings for high-interest savings accounts — with the bureau accusing the banking giant of “cheating” customers out of more than $2 billion in lost interest payments as a result. Meanwhile, its Jan. 6 suit against Vanderbilt Mortgage accused the lender of pushing consumers into loans they couldn’t afford to buy manufactured homes. And the CFPB’s December complaint against Rocket Homes alleged a “kickback scheme” from the company to illegally steer prospective borrowers to Rocket Mortgage, which operates under the same parent company, and away from other competitors. But all those cases will now be discontinued with Thursday’s actions. Court filings in the Rocket Homes case notes that the “Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, dismisses this action, with prejudice, against all Defendants.” Dismissing a case with prejudice means that it cannot be refiled. Similar wording was used in the dismissals of the CFPB’s Capital One and Vanderbilt Mortgage suits. In a statement Thursday, Rocket Homes welcomed its dismissal and said “it is good to see the truth come to light.” The company called the suit “an empty claim brought forth by former CFPB director Chopra for the sole purpose of seeing his name in headlines during the final days in public office.” Capital One welcomed the CFPB’s Thursday decision, too, noting that it had “strongly disputed” the action filed against the company. The Associated Press also reached out to Vanderbilt Mortgage for comment. The CPFB isn’t the only federal agency to signal a pullback on previous enforcement action under the new administration. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, for example, has either closed or paused legal action against several cryptocurrency platforms in recent weeks, as the regulator tries to present itself as more crypto-friendly under Trump. Earlier this month, Binance and the SEC filed a joint motion to pause its high-profile lawsuit against the crypto exchange. And both Coinbase and Robinhood have said that cases against them have also been dismissed or closed, although the SEC declined to immediately comment further. —Wyatte Grantham-Philips, Associated Press View the full article

Tech giant to retire service it acquired for $8.5bn after being overtaken by upstarts such as WhatsApp, Telegram and ZoomView the full article

Here is a selection of Posts from February 2025 that you will want to check out: Four Ideas to Improve Workplace Communication by @artpetty The Leadership Trap: Quick fixes by Marlene Chism @stopyourdrama Exemplar or Empire? 1 of 3 by @jamesstrock Washington and Adams Cast a Vision. 4 Leadership Lessons on Scarcity, Dominance, and Delay by @BrianKDodd CEO Coaching: Idiots at the Helm? by @toddordal 5 Ideas That Changed My Life by @SahilBloom 40 Thoughts On Turning 40 by @p_millerd Earn Your Influence by @nateschloesser How does this apply to your situation? 5 Character Qualities Leaders Must Have by @JosephLalonde Looking Under the Lamppost (On Problem-Solving) by @edbatista Simple Reasons The Pursuit of Happiness Can Make Us Miserable by @LaRaeQuy What Beliefs Are Limiting Your Leadership? by @TerriKlass All Preparation IS NOT the same. 5 Leadership Lessons on the Power of Effective Preparation from Kevin Durant by @BrianKDodd USAID, Oligarchy & Empire by @jamesstrock DOGE Has Cleared a Path to Accountability. How to Turn Your Vision into Action with Three Simple Questions by @WScottCochrane Why Do Some People Have Poor Judgement? via @AdmiredLeader You Only Lose if You Don’t Learn by @TheJohnCMaxwell Articulating a Vision via @LeadershipMain 3 Ways Reflecting Helps You Move Forward by @JosephLalonde Six Things That Can Hide Bad Leadership by @PhilCooke 5 Rude Emails You Send Without Realizing It by Travis Bradberry Why Tradition in a Church is Good and Traditionalism is Not by @Clawlessjr - This can apply to many organizations The Lombardi Way: Winning, Growth, and the Next Challenge via @TheDaily_Coach Could That Meeting Be An Email? by @davidburkus Leading People Who Know More Than You Do or Do Work You’ve Never Done via @AdmiredLeader How To Respond To Critics on Social Media by@PhilCooke From Designer to Leader by Gessica Puglielli The more I held onto design execution, the less space I left for my team to grow. The Dominoes of Communication: Why Intentionality Matters in Sharing Information by @gavin_adams See more on Twitter. * * * Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas. View the full article

This post was written by Alison Green and published on Ask a Manager. It’s the Friday open thread! The comment section on this post is open for discussion with other readers on any work-related questions that you want to talk about (that includes school). If you want an answer from me, emailing me is still your best bet*, but this is a chance to take your questions to other readers. * If you submitted a question to me recently, please do not repost it here, as it may be in my queue to answer. View the full article

Bodies representing big funds unleash lobbying offensive against global regulators’ plansView the full article

Democratic lawmakers demanded answers from billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency on Thursday as concerns about who has access to America’s most sensitive information continue to dog Trump administration efforts to reshape the federal government. The systems accessed by Musk’s DOGE staffers include billions of data points about citizens and businesses, as well as potentially sensitive information about government payments and programs that, if assembled correctly, could reveal secrets about national security and intelligence operations to Russia, China, or another adversary. Musk and the White House so far have not convinced their critics and have offered few details about their cybersecurity measures as their tech-centered approach to shrinking government roils Washington. In a letter sent to Musk and the White House, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., demanded to know the details about security precautions and whether lapses in security may have exposed sensitive information. The letter asserts that reckless actions by DOGE present a “grave” threat to national security by exposing secrets about America’s defense and intelligence agencies. “DOGE employees do not appear to fully understand much of the information to which they have been given unfettered access and given the cavalier and incompetent ways that they have handled this data, these individuals represent a clear threat to national security and the nation’s economy,” wrote Warren and Connolly, who were joined on the letter by several other Democratic lawmakers. Musk and President Donald Trump have defended DOGE’s work, saying it’s led to billions of dollars in savings. In response to the concerns raised in Thursday’s letter, a spokesman for the administration said it’s vital that DOGE workers have access to federal databases. “It takes direct access to the system to identify and fix it,” Harrison Fields, principal deputy White House press secretary, said in an email Thursday. “DOGE will continue to shine a light on the fraud they uncover as the American people deserve to know what their government has been spending their hard earned tax dollars on.” If that information is mishandled, or security precautions fail, the information could be exposed to foreign intelligence services or common hackers, prompting significant worry among some national security and cyber experts. Groups worried about DOGE have challenged its actions in court, with a federal judge in Manhattan temporarily restricting DOGE from accessing some Treasury Department information until its members can be certified in cybersecurity. Another recent ruling blocked DOGE’s access to certain records at other agencies, too. Federal laws and regulations were written to tightly control the management of sensitive federal data—even if it has little value to scammers or foreign spies. Certain officials only have access to certain data, and access to information from the same data set may be split among different people as an additional security measure. Classified data has always been subject to more stringent rules—designed to minimize the risk that it could fall into the wrong hands. Access to such information is tightly controlled, said Jeffrey Vagle, a law professor and cybersecurity expert at Georgia State University who has in the past worked on classified federal technology projects. It’s unknown what steps DOGE has taken to ensure security, Vagle said, which called worrying by itself. If they store data on flash drives, access it on a personal device or comingle systems, they could be creating huge security vulnerabilities, he said. “A foreign agent wouldn’t even have to try that hard,” Vagle said. Information in federal systems includes Treasury payments that could be used to figure out the details of intelligence programs or health and personnel records that could reveal the identities of agents or the responsibilities of clandestine officers. An adversary like China could use artificial intelligence to analyze these kernels of data to create a picture of covert U.S. activities, said Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. “In the intelligence business, information is the coin of the realm,” Warner said. “These bits of information could unravel the very sources and methods our nation relies on to keep Americans safe. And it could literally get people killed.” In their letter, lawmakers cited concerns that DOGE staffers used unauthorized servers and unknown AI programs to analyze and store the data. They noted that despite assurances that the DOGE website will not reveal information from intelligence agencies, material from the National Reconnaissance Office was easily found. The Democrats also said they worried DOGE was cutting spending without understanding its purpose, pointing to a recent incident in which the government tried to bring back workers it had fired who worked on nuclear weapon programs. Earlier this week, more than 20 DOGE staffers resigned, saying they would not use their technical expertise to “dismantle critical public services.” In a joint resignation letter, they warned that many of those brought in by Musk are political ideologues who lack the necessary skills or experience for the job. U.S. intelligence agencies have, so far, escaped the same scrutiny or level of cuts that DOGE has leveled at other agencies. Employees at the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence were told they didn’t need to comply with Musk’s demands for federal employees to list their recent accomplishments or risk termination. Some of the concerns raised about DOGE may be motivated by politics and concerns about its rapid pace, said Zach Edwards, senior threat researcher at Silent Push, a cybersecurity firm that worked on President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. But Edwards said DOGE’s tech-centered approach could lead to mistakes that would have been caught in the old system. “They’re moving fast and breaking things,” Edwards said, quoting the popular tech catchphrase. “With government, if you break things, it can take a long time to fix it.” —David Klepper, Associated Press View the full article

Last Energy, a nuclear upstart backed by an Elon Musk-linked venture capital fund, says it plans to construct 30 microreactors on a site in Texas to supply electricity to data centers across the state. The initiative, which it says could provide about 600 megawatts of electricity, would be the company’s largest project to date and help it develop a commercial pipeline in the U.S. Set on a 200-acre site Last Energy has obtained in Haskell County, in northwest Texas, the project still faces likely years of regulatory and public scrutiny. The Washington, D.C.-based company hasn’t yet disclosed customers or the details of its financing, or announced a timeline for the effort. But once construction starts, the firm says it could deliver the plants within 24 months, using its modular, factory-built design. “Texas is America’s undisputed energy leader, but skyrocketing population growth and data center development is forcing policymakers, customers, and energy providers to embrace new technologies,” said Bret Kugelmass, founder and CEO of Last Energy. Nuclear energy is “the most effective way to meet Texas’ demand, but our solution—plug-and-play microreactors, designed for scalability and siting flexibility—is the best way to meet it quickly.” The plans are a response to overwhelming demand from data center developers in the state and elsewhere. U.S. tech giants are increasingly turning to nuclear to meet the growing energy demands of artificial intelligence and the data center boom, investing billions in traditional nuclear projects and an array of new ones, including fusion. Of Last Energy’s existing commercial agreements, which entail deploying over 80 microreactors across Europe, half are set to serve data centers. By powering data centers on-site, “behind the meter,” in addition to linking to the electrical utility, the plants could help sidestep the restraints and price volatility of a grid that’s already stretched thin. They could also be a proving ground for an unprecedented legal gambit: in December, the company joined Texas and Utah in filing suit against the U.S. government over its nuclear regulations. The outcome of that case could speed up this and future projects in the US. Until now, Last Energy’s focus has been on signing up customers in Europe, where lighter regulations and an aversion to Russian natural gas have helped accelerate a push toward nuclear power. The company says it has development agreements for more than 50 nuclear reactor facilities in Europe, including a $400 million project at a former coal power plant in Wales that could come online in 2027. In December, the firm received a tentative offer of $103.7 million in debt financing from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) to build the first of those four SMRs. The Texas project would be the company’s first in the U.S. In Texas, surging energy demand has prompted officials to step up efforts to court the nuclear industry. Already the nation’s leader in fossil fuel production, as well as renewables and battery storage, the Lone Star State currently gets only 10% of its electricity form nuclear power. But a November study by the public utility commission, done at the behest of Gov. Greg Abbott, urged the state to deploy “a coordinated nuclear power strategy to enhance energy security and grid reliability,” and identified 61 sites suitable for small modular reactors. “Texas is the energy capital of America, and we are working to be No. 1 in advanced nuclear power,” said Abbott in a statement. “Last Energy’s microreactor project in Haskell County will help fulfill the state’s growing data center demand. Texas must become a national leader in advanced nuclear energy. By working together with industry leaders like Last Energy, we will usher in a nuclear power renaissance in the United States.” With 30 of the company’s shipping-container-sized microreactors each producing 20 megawatts, the site would generate about 600 megawatts, enough electricity for about 150,000 homes on the hottest summer days. A Last Energy spokesperson said the company had initiated the process of grid connection with the state utility, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), and begun pre-application engagement with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to obtain an Early Site Permit for the site. The first reactor is estimated to cost approximately $100 million, the company says, with costs expected to drop as it iterates. Last has already built two full-scale prototypes in Texas with local manufacturing partners, and says it has secured its first full core load of low-enriched uranium fuel, scheduled to arrive in September 2026. In January it became a founding member of the Texas Nuclear Alliance, which aims to make “Texas the nuclear capital of the world.” the company says it’s also exploring projects in Utah. With the deal, the microreactor firm joins a number of companies that have announced plans to fuel their data centers’ voracious electricity demands with nuclear power. Earlier last year, Amazon said it would build a hyperscale data center next to a nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. In September, Microsoft said it would pay Constellation Energy to restart a reactor at Three Mile Island that was closed in 2019. And in October, Google and Kairos Power inked a deal for 500 megawatts of nuclear power. Meta is also going nuclear. In December, the Facebook parent said it was asking developers to submit proposals to deliver 1 gigawatt to 4 gigawatts of reactor capacity, starting in the early 2030s, as it looks for a reliable energy source for its data centers. In January, Meta also signed four purchase agreements with Spanish renewable energy developer Zelestra to build four solar projects that can help power Meta’s data centers in the region, currently located in Temple and Fort Worth. The projects, with a combined capacity of 595 megawatts, will deliver electricity to the ERCOT grid, which will then power the data centers. In Texas, even four years after a deadly, storm-linked blackout, the state utility has continued to struggle to add enough capacity and flexibility to meet a surge in demand. That already includes over 340 data centers which consume nearly 8 GW of power and make up about 9% of all Texas electricity demand; those in the Dallas area alone are expected to need an additional 43 gigawatts of power in the coming years. As with much of the state’s energy consumption, much of the electricity in those data centers is needed just to keep all those hot chips and servers cool. Smaller, ‘less scary’ reactors Last is one of a new class of nuclear firms building small-modular reactors (SMR) in ways intended to lower the cost and speed of constructing new plants while enhancing simplicity and safety features. Traditional nuclear plants are hulking installations, providing 1,000 megawatts or more but often beset by cost overruns and construction delays that can stretch to many years. The U.S.’s newest fission reactors, commissioned in 2023 and 2024 in Georgia, were seven years late and more than $17 billion over budget. SMR startups like Last are attempting to use mass production techniques to bring down costs and speed construction, with reactors that are small enough to be transported by truck. Last tries to advance the technology of the conventional pressurized water reactor with a modular design, factory-built parts, and tools and expertise borrowed from the oil-and-gas industry. The company also hopes to overcome nuclear skepticism with a number of passive safety features, an underground containment system, and a futuristic design meant to look “less scary.” By using the pre-arranged price contracts typical to renewable projects, Last Energy also seeks to reduce financial risk and unlock private financing, avoiding the uncertainties that come with typical utility-scale nuclear plants. Under its model, the company owns and operates the reactors and sells the power to the customer under long-term contracts. “Technology from the nuclear industry, the business model from renewables, and the constructability from oil and gas—that was the founding idea behind Last Energy,” Kugelmass told Fast Company in 2023. The company has raised a total of $64 million since its 2019 founding, including a $40 million Series B round last year led by the Austin-based VC Gigafund. The heavyweight fund was the first investor in Elon Musk’s SpaceX and its founder, Luke Nosek, now sits on both companies’ boards. Venture capital has shown interest in other microreactor designs, too. Last year, Aalo Atomics raised $27 million to scale up a 85-kilowatt design from a Department of Energy program, and Deep Fission, which aims to bury microreactors a mile underground, raised $4 million led by 8VC, a venture firm founded by Joe Lonsdale. Why Last Energy, Texas, and Utah sued the U.S. Before Texas, Last Energy had avoided the NRC’s pre-application process, which the agency says can help expedite NRC review. But the pre-application process itself can last years, ahead of a formal application process that can take two years or longer. More than a dozen next-gen nuclear developers have begun pre-application work for NRC review, but since December 2023, the agency has approved only three reactors: two low-power, grid-connected test reactor facilities in Tennessee, built by Kairos, and a 1-megawatt research microreactor built by Natura Resources at Abilene Christian University. The regulator approved its first SMR design in January 2023, from NuScale Power, but determined further review was needed, a process it expects to complete in June. Last Energy is also working on accelerating its regulatory journey. In December. it joined the states of Utah and Texas in suing the NRC over the 69-year-old rule that underpins nuclear reactor licensing in the U.S. The rule, the suit argues, exceeds the agency’s statutory authority and creates an unreasonable burden for microreactor developers. The plaintiffs asked the Eastern District of Texas court to exempt Last Energy’s 20-megawatt reactor design and research reactors located in the plaintiff states from the agency’s definition of nuclear “utilization facilities.” That designation subjects all U.S. commercial and research reactors to strict regulatory scrutiny. The suit asks the court to order NRC to develop a more flexible definition for use in future licensing. Until now, Last Energy has focused on projects abroad, “in order to access alternative regulatory frameworks that incorporate a de minimis standard for nuclear power permitting,” the company said in its lawsuit. Patrick White, research director at the Nuclear Innovation Alliance, told Utility Dive last month that, regardless of its merits, the lawsuit underscores the need for “continued discussion around proportional regulatory requirements . . . that align with the hazards of the reactor and correspond to a safety case.” View the full article

When we see organic traffic growing, it’s a good sign that customer interest is building and brand strategy is hitting the mark. If you’re looking for a source of alternative data to inform your investing decisions, our list of the…Read more ›View the full article

This article is posted with permission from our partner MacPaw. MacPaw makes Mac + iOS apps that have been installed on over 30 million devices worldwide. Freelancers Union members receive 30 days of free unlimited access to CleanMyMacX and Setapp: https://freelancersunion.org/resources/perks/macpaw/ As a freelance writer, you’ll have to write or jot something down during the working day. Whether you’re a team leader, project manager, freelance writer, or freelance SEO expert, you’ll need to write a range of notes, such as emails or a simple to-do list. If you want to avoid memorizing pieces of information, you have a choice in terms of how you want to write down the information. You could write things manually with good old-fashioned pen and paper. But for speed and efficiency, there are also quality note-taking apps that can ensure you stay productive and organized. Trying to find out which ones are the best? Let’s explore the best note-taking apps for Mac and learn how to take notes with them. How to take notes quickly and accuratelyWe’ll get to the apps in just a minute, but it’s worth considering how to take notes quickly and accurately before you use them. Recommendations for this include writing phrases as opposed to full sentences and structuring the notes with headings and numbered lists. It also involves using abbreviations when you need to write very quickly and keeping them well-spaced. These approaches are ideal when writing notes manually, but keep in mind that they’re top tips for using note-taking apps and can really optimize the note-taking process. 5 note-taking apps for Mac to jot down crucial informationA bunch of note-taking apps for Mac are available and worth checking out if you’re looking for an effective helping hand. The top recommended options are listed below, as well as their features and the benefits they provide. All plans in one placeThe NotePlan app offers a range of benefits for the note-taking process. A key feature it offers is the calendar and deadline automation process; when you jot down tasks and their deadlines, the app will automatically add them to your calendar. It’s a process that saves you time and manual effort, helping you handle two tasks at once. Since you can also use the tags, checkboxes, and filters while taking notes, you can sort through the pages instantly and transform a selection of notes into a to-do list. This is beneficial for staying organized. So, if you’re a freelance writer, you’ll be able to make structured notes, such as the steps required to complete a blog article and tick off each step as you complete them. This app will also automate the iCloud backup process for your notes. The main benefit this feature offers is that even if the hardware fails, you’ll easily be able to recover the notes you’ve made. Quick notes on the side of your screenThe SideNotes app is beneficial for fast and effective note-taking. It’s a notes app that slides into the right-hand side of the Mac screen and is accessible with a simple two-finger swipe, so you can instantly take notes when required. When you check out this app, you’ll see that it can organize the notes into folders and add new folders by pressing the + (Plus) button. This is ideal for freelancers who work with multiple clients and have several projects on the go. For example, if you’re an SEO manager and need to complete multiple content calendars, you can make notes related to each content calendar for each project and add them to separate folders, which will keep you organized. If you need to, you’ll also be able to color coordinate the notes and change style aspects. So if you need to turn some text into a quote, add a bold format, or change text so that it has the strikethrough format, you can do this by selecting the markdown feature. It comes with code blocks, too, which is ideal for software development work or code-reviewing duties. Flexible annotations for your filesThere are several advantages of the MarginNote app. Not only does this notes app let you import documents in various formats, such as PDFs or from a URL, but you can annotate them using the pencil icon. You’ll also be able to add comments and excerpts that move from the document to a notebook. Comments work by highlighting the text; they’re ideal for freelance editors who need to glance through an article submitted in PDF form and highlight portions that require adjustments. You’ll also be able to share the excerpts you accumulate by using the export button. The advantage of this export feature is that you can export the excerpts contained in common files such as PDFs and Word documents. In terms of note-taking, the app offers a mind-mapping feature. The advantage of this feature is that you can add excerpts from multiple document sources. It’ll allow you to access the documents and the mind map so you can organize your ideas, perhaps for a presentation or to produce a coherent written document based on the research you’ve completed. Better structure for your docsThe Craft app is ideal for taking notes and annotating documents. It offers the benefit of an easy-to-use markdown feature, which allows for clean formatting processes and the ability to add images or links effortlessly. Features such as these make the content look better. So, if you’re a freelance copywriter creating a plan for ad copy, you can use the markdown feature to format the plan or even a draft and incorporate the right images accordingly. You’ll also benefit from offline mode. This ensures you can work offline and synchronize any note updates when you reconnect, so you’ll always have the most up-to-date notes whenever you need them, even when you’ve made changes. When looking at Craft's other advantages, you’ll notice that it comes with 50GB of storage and extensive customization for each document. This ensures you can store plenty of notes after adding them to a document and customize each document using the new interface for styles. This can work for several drafts of a webpage, a blog, an author bio page, a landing page, and more. Distraction-free spaceUlysses offers plenty of advantages for freelancers. Its handy and intuitive markdown editor makes formatting notes and documents simple. You can use hashtags to format each header in your notes into H1 and H2 tags. This gives the notes you make in Ulysses the right structure and makes them easy to navigate. The app also offers annotations for PDFs and other documents. Navigate to the notes section on the right-hand panel to add a note, or use markdown to add an annotation to a live document. Your annotations are viewable from the sidebar, and any notes added to the live document through markdown processes will not appear in the published version. These features are ideal for freelance writing projects where you might want to remind yourself to add an image to the published version of a blog post. You’ll be able to export a wide range of documents from this app. No matter if you need to export PDFs, HTML docs, or documents in a Microsoft Word format, this is a smooth process. So, to export multiple blog posts, you can select all the sheets and click the Preview button. You’ll be able to change the format from the dropdown list before you share it with an editor. Note-taking apps for freelancers: Searching for the right one?Note-taking is a fundamental duty when handling freelance work. It doesn’t matter if you’re a writer or a web developer. You’ll want to jot down a reminder or plan ahead with the right notes. That’s where all the note-taking apps for freelancers in this article will help. Now, if you’re unsure where to get these apps, they’re all available on Setapp. Here, you can get a seven-day free trial to get a feel for how these apps work. So, it’s worth checking them out more closely and then incorporating them into your note-taking process. Make sure you download these apps and try them out to begin taking notes quickly and accurately. Go to Setapp to find the best note-taking apps for freelancers! View the full article

This article is posted with permission from our partner MacPaw. MacPaw makes Mac + iOS apps that have been installed on over 30 million devices worldwide. Freelancers Union members receive 30 days of free unlimited access to CleanMyMacX and Setapp: https://freelancersunion.org/resources/perks/macpaw/ As a freelance writer, you’ll have to write or jot something down during the working day. Whether you’re a team leader, project manager, freelance writer, or freelance SEO expert, you’ll need to write a range of notes, such as emails or a simple to-do list. If you want to avoid memorizing pieces of information, you have a choice in terms of how you want to write down the information. You could write things manually with good old-fashioned pen and paper. But for speed and efficiency, there are also quality note-taking apps that can ensure you stay productive and organized. Trying to find out which ones are the best? Let’s explore the best note-taking apps for Mac and learn how to take notes with them. How to take notes quickly and accuratelyWe’ll get to the apps in just a minute, but it’s worth considering how to take notes quickly and accurately before you use them. Recommendations for this include writing phrases as opposed to full sentences and structuring the notes with headings and numbered lists. It also involves using abbreviations when you need to write very quickly and keeping them well-spaced. These approaches are ideal when writing notes manually, but keep in mind that they’re top tips for using note-taking apps and can really optimize the note-taking process. 5 note-taking apps for Mac to jot down crucial informationA bunch of note-taking apps for Mac are available and worth checking out if you’re looking for an effective helping hand. The top recommended options are listed below, as well as their features and the benefits they provide. All plans in one placeThe NotePlan app offers a range of benefits for the note-taking process. A key feature it offers is the calendar and deadline automation process; when you jot down tasks and their deadlines, the app will automatically add them to your calendar. It’s a process that saves you time and manual effort, helping you handle two tasks at once. Since you can also use the tags, checkboxes, and filters while taking notes, you can sort through the pages instantly and transform a selection of notes into a to-do list. This is beneficial for staying organized. So, if you’re a freelance writer, you’ll be able to make structured notes, such as the steps required to complete a blog article and tick off each step as you complete them. This app will also automate the iCloud backup process for your notes. The main benefit this feature offers is that even if the hardware fails, you’ll easily be able to recover the notes you’ve made. Quick notes on the side of your screenThe SideNotes app is beneficial for fast and effective note-taking. It’s a notes app that slides into the right-hand side of the Mac screen and is accessible with a simple two-finger swipe, so you can instantly take notes when required. When you check out this app, you’ll see that it can organize the notes into folders and add new folders by pressing the + (Plus) button. This is ideal for freelancers who work with multiple clients and have several projects on the go. For example, if you’re an SEO manager and need to complete multiple content calendars, you can make notes related to each content calendar for each project and add them to separate folders, which will keep you organized. If you need to, you’ll also be able to color coordinate the notes and change style aspects. So if you need to turn some text into a quote, add a bold format, or change text so that it has the strikethrough format, you can do this by selecting the markdown feature. It comes with code blocks, too, which is ideal for software development work or code-reviewing duties. Flexible annotations for your filesThere are several advantages of the MarginNote app. Not only does this notes app let you import documents in various formats, such as PDFs or from a URL, but you can annotate them using the pencil icon. You’ll also be able to add comments and excerpts that move from the document to a notebook. Comments work by highlighting the text; they’re ideal for freelance editors who need to glance through an article submitted in PDF form and highlight portions that require adjustments. You’ll also be able to share the excerpts you accumulate by using the export button. The advantage of this export feature is that you can export the excerpts contained in common files such as PDFs and Word documents. In terms of note-taking, the app offers a mind-mapping feature. The advantage of this feature is that you can add excerpts from multiple document sources. It’ll allow you to access the documents and the mind map so you can organize your ideas, perhaps for a presentation or to produce a coherent written document based on the research you’ve completed. Better structure for your docsThe Craft app is ideal for taking notes and annotating documents. It offers the benefit of an easy-to-use markdown feature, which allows for clean formatting processes and the ability to add images or links effortlessly. Features such as these make the content look better. So, if you’re a freelance copywriter creating a plan for ad copy, you can use the markdown feature to format the plan or even a draft and incorporate the right images accordingly. You’ll also benefit from offline mode. This ensures you can work offline and synchronize any note updates when you reconnect, so you’ll always have the most up-to-date notes whenever you need them, even when you’ve made changes. When looking at Craft's other advantages, you’ll notice that it comes with 50GB of storage and extensive customization for each document. This ensures you can store plenty of notes after adding them to a document and customize each document using the new interface for styles. This can work for several drafts of a webpage, a blog, an author bio page, a landing page, and more. Distraction-free spaceUlysses offers plenty of advantages for freelancers. Its handy and intuitive markdown editor makes formatting notes and documents simple. You can use hashtags to format each header in your notes into H1 and H2 tags. This gives the notes you make in Ulysses the right structure and makes them easy to navigate. The app also offers annotations for PDFs and other documents. Navigate to the notes section on the right-hand panel to add a note, or use markdown to add an annotation to a live document. Your annotations are viewable from the sidebar, and any notes added to the live document through markdown processes will not appear in the published version. These features are ideal for freelance writing projects where you might want to remind yourself to add an image to the published version of a blog post. You’ll be able to export a wide range of documents from this app. No matter if you need to export PDFs, HTML docs, or documents in a Microsoft Word format, this is a smooth process. So, to export multiple blog posts, you can select all the sheets and click the Preview button. You’ll be able to change the format from the dropdown list before you share it with an editor. Note-taking apps for freelancers: Searching for the right one?Note-taking is a fundamental duty when handling freelance work. It doesn’t matter if you’re a writer or a web developer. You’ll want to jot down a reminder or plan ahead with the right notes. That’s where all the note-taking apps for freelancers in this article will help. Now, if you’re unsure where to get these apps, they’re all available on Setapp. Here, you can get a seven-day free trial to get a feel for how these apps work. So, it’s worth checking them out more closely and then incorporating them into your note-taking process. Make sure you download these apps and try them out to begin taking notes quickly and accurately. Go to Setapp to find the best note-taking apps for freelancers! View the full article

What are you doing this weekend? Don't know? Now you do: You're going to organize and declutter your home with the "out in the open" method. This technique is helpful whether you have a cluttered space, live in a relatively tidy home, or even are hyper-organized. Here's what you need to do. What is the "out in the open" method?This decluttering and organizing technique, like a lot of others, comes from tidy-home gurus The Minimalists. Essentially, you pull everything out of the space you're trying to organize, whether it's your closet, a cupboard, or a junk drawer. Truly, pull it all out and pile it up. The Minimalists say this approach is the opposite of one of their other methods, the "packing party," which involves putting everything from a certain room or location into categorized boxes, as if you were moving, then live out of those boxes for three weeks, pulling out only what you actually need. Three weeks after your packing party, you get rid of what you didn't use and put the rest away. With "out in the open," you don't have the luxury of living normally for three weeks, though; all your stuff is in a big pile, and cleaning and organizing it becomes an immediate necessity if you'd like to move freely around your space again. So, that's what you do. Once everything is pulled out of its usual spot, you get a real sense of the volume of what you have. You have to organize it, because it's in your way. This creates some urgency while helping you get a handle on all that clutter that has been stored away. From there, you just have to follow your preferred decluttering technique, sorting, as usual, into piles of keep, throw, donate, and sell, before putting away what you're keeping and getting rid of the rest as you see fit. Why the "out in the open" rule works so wellThis is actually one of the best techniques out there because it works well for everyone, even—hell, especially—people who are already pretty organized. I often recommend following the rules of the Organizational Triangle to keep your home in order, particularly the rules that say to store similar items together and that everything needs a designated space. All of my favorite organizing techniques require you to use containers, smell shelves, boxes, and other specific storage tools to keep everything in order while it's stashed away in cupboards or closets. That's why I'm always going on about the best storage boxes and divided shelving units. The goal here is to keep everything organized and out of sight—but that can become its own kind of problem. Even if you adhere to all the storage and organizing rules strictly, once everything is out of sight and mind and your home looks presentable, you can still be accumulating way too much unnecessary stuff in those closets, cupboards, and boxes. You may not even think it's an issue since, hey, at least it's all organized. By periodically pulling it all out and creating the very kind of mess you usually try to avoid, you have to confront all that stuff. I do this with my closets and dressers pretty regularly, every two or three months, so I can pare down clothes I no longer wear, need, or fit. It's also a great idea for junk drawers, spice and medicine cabinets (or anything full of products that might expire), garages or sheds, shoe storage, and even your living room shelving. As annoying as it is to temporarily have a giant mess on your hands, it will be worth it to only hold onto what is still serving you and let go of the things that were taking up too much organizational space. View the full article

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent wants to focus on bringing down long-term interest rates, not the overnight ones set by the Federal Reserve. View the full article

White House meeting comes after US and Ukraine agreed terms of deal on jointly exploring resourcesView the full article

Egg producers blame the bird flu outbreak for driving prices to record highs, but critics believe giant companies are taking advantage of their market dominance to profit handsomely at the expense of budget-conscious egg buyers. Advocacy groups, Democratic lawmakers and a Federal Trade Commission member are calling for a government investigation after egg prices spiked to a record average of $4.95 per dozen this month. The Trump administration did unveil a plan this week to combat bird flu, but how much that might ease egg prices—a key driver of inflation—remains to be seen. “Donald Trump promised to lower food prices on ‘Day One’, but with egg prices skyrocketing out of control, he fired the workers charged with containing bird flu. Working families need relief now,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren said in a statement. What’s behind the record egg prices? The industry, and most experts, squarely blame bird flu. More than 166 million birds have been slaughtered to contain the virus. Some 30 million egg layers have been wiped out just since January, significantly disrupting egg supplies. The Department of Agriculture’s longstanding policy has been to kill entire flocks anytime the virus is found on a farm. As a result, the number of egg layers has dropped nationwide by about 12% from before the outbreak to 292 million birds, according to a February 1 USDA estimate, but another 11 million egg layers have been killed since then, so it’s likely worse. When prices spiked to $4.82 two years ago and prompted initial calls for price gouging probes, the flock was above 300 million. “This has nothing to do with anything other than bird flu. And I think to suggest anything else is a misreading of the facts and the reality,” American Egg Board President Emily Metz said. “Our farmers are in the fight of their lives, period, full stop. And they’re doing everything they can to keep these birds safe,” Metz said. “This is a supply challenge. Due to bird flu. Nothing else.” Farm Action suspects monopolistic behavior. The group that lobbies on behalf of smaller farmers, consumers, and rural communities notes that egg production is only down about 4% from last year and some 7.57 billion table eggs were produced last month, yet some consumers are still finding egg shelves empty at their local grocery stores. “Dominant egg corporations are blaming avian flu for the price hikes that we’re seeing. But while the egg supply has fallen only slightly, these companies profits have soared,” said Angela Huffman, Farm Action’s president. The Justice Department acknowledged receiving the group’s letter calling for an investigation but declined to comment on it. The fact that a jury ruled in 2023 that major egg producers used various means to limit the domestic supply of eggs to increase the price of products during the 2000s only adds to the doubts about their motives now. What do the numbers show? Retail egg prices had generally remained below $2 per dozen for years before this outbreak began. Prices have more than doubled since then, boosting profits for egg producers even as they deal with soaring costs. Most of the dominant producers are privately held companies and don’t release their results. But the biggest, Cal-Maine Foods, which supplies about 20% of the nation’s eggs, is public, and its profits increased dramatically. Cal-Maine reported a $219 million profit in the most recent quarter when its eggs sold for an average of $2.74 per dozen, up from just $1.2 million in the quarter just before this outbreak began in early 2022 when its eggs were selling for $1.37 per dozen. Sherman Miller, Cal-Maine’s president and CEO, said in reporting the numbers that higher market prices “have continued to rise this fiscal year as supply levels of shell eggs have been restricted due to recent outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza.” But he said Cal-Maine also sold significantly more eggs—some 330 million dozens, up from 288 million the year before—in the quarter because demand is so strong and Cal-Maine has made a number of acquisitions. Cal-Maine also suffered few outbreaks on its farms, outside of a couple facilities in Kansas and Texas. The Mississippi-based company didn’t respond to calls from the Associated Press. What about production costs? Economists and analysts say the record egg prices aren’t a sure sign of something nefarious, and short-term profits might only last until farms get hit. Once a flock is slaughtered, it can take as long as a year to clean a farm and raise new birds to egg-laying age. The USDA pays farmers for every bird killed, but it doesn’t cover all the costs for farmers as they go without income. “The consumer, I think, will probably feel like they’re getting the rough end of the stick. But I guarantee you, the farmers that are having to depopulate the barns, they’re having a rougher time,” CoBank analyst Brian Earnest said. Inflation in the costs of feed and fuel and labor have contributed to rising egg prices, and farmers have been investing in biosecurity measures to help keep the virus away. So production costs also appear to be at an all-time high, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ producer price index. “This isn’t a case where they’re taking the price up to gouge the market. It is the price is going up through auction at wholesale. And they’re benefiting from higher prices because supplies are tight,” University of Arkansas agricultural economist Jada Thompson said. —Josh Funk, AP Business Writer View the full article

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...View the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Google Pixel Watch, in either champagne gold with a hazel band or polished silver with a charcoal band, is down to $109.99, $170 off its usual price of $279.99. Google Pixel Watch $109.99 at Walmart $279.99 Save $170.00 Get Deal Get Deal $109.99 at Walmart $279.99 Save $170.00 Launched in 2022 as Google's first smartwatch (the stainless steel build is 80% recycled, so Google gets some sustainability points here), the Pixel Watch blends Wear OS with Fitbit’s health-tracking expertise, and does everything you’d expect from a premium smartwatch—texts, calls, contactless payments, smart home controls, fitness tracking, among others. Plus, it works with any Android 8.0+ device, not just Pixels, so you’re not locked into Google’s ecosystem. Here's everything you need to know about the Google Pixel Watch. The Pixel Watch comes with a 5ATM water resistance rating, allowing for shallow water submersion. However, Google doesn’t provide an official IP rating for dust resistance, which might be something to consider if you plan on taking it into rough environments. Additionally, its AMOLED display is covered by a domed layer of Corning Gorilla Glass for better durability, but there's no raised bezel for extra protection against accidental bumps. That said, the display is smooth and highly responsive, with no noticeable lag, and its visibility is strong both indoors and outdoors. Internally, it runs on an Exynos 9110 chip paired with a Cortex M33 co-processor and 2GB of RAM. Google claims this setup helps improve heart rate tracking without draining the battery too quickly, and in practice, it does last a full day—about 25 hours with the always-on display enabled, notes this PCMag review. On the fitness side, the Pixel Watch leans heavily into Fitbit’s ecosystem, tracking heart rate, sleep, and daily activity while supporting 40 workout modes—CrossFit, HIIT, Pilates, yoga, etc. It also includes an ECG app for detecting atrial fibrillation and Fitbit’s Active Zone Minutes to help you hit recommended activity goals. If you’re into data, the included six-month Fitbit Premium trial unlocks extra insights, guided workouts, and mindfulness sessions. After that, it’s $9.99 a month, so you’ll need to decide if it’s worth the subscription. The latest iteration of Google's wearable, the Pixel Watch 3, will introduce pulse loss detection by March. If that is something you care about, it might be worth waiting for the upgrade. View the full article