Shares of Facebook fell as much as 6% on Thursday after the company announced that it will ban new political ads in the week before the November 3 presidential election.
The move is part of a broader set of measures that the technology giant is taking to avoid election interference and encourage voting, Business Insider's Shona Ghosh reported. The company faced criticism for its handling of the 2016 presidential election, when Russia used the platform to spread disinformation.
In addition to the ad ban, Facebook will delete any posts that contain misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic and voting, delete any premature posts from candidates declaring victory, and promote "authoritative information" about how to vote, it said.
"This election is not going to be business as usual," wrote CEO Mark Zuckerberg in the Thursday post. "We all have a responsibility to protect our democracy. That means helping people register and vote, clearing up confusion about how this election will work, and taking steps to reduce the chances of violence and unrest."
Facebook shares have been one of the large technology companies to benefit amid the coronavirus crisis and recession, as investors see it poised to withstand the economic downturn. On Thursday, other technology giants such as Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google parent Alphabet — the so-called FAANG stocks — slumped, weighing on the broader market.
Travis Scott fans are freaking out about the rapper's partnership with McDonald's.
On Thursday, Scott and McDonald's unveiled the Travis Scott meal, which will be added to the menu at the fast-food chain on September 8. The meal includes a Quarter Pounder with cheese, bacon, and lettuce, medium fries with BBQ Sauce, and a Sprite.
"His ability to kind of see where culture is going and have a hand in where culture is going is really unique," Flatley said in an interview on Friday. "Then you couple that with his huge followership and his fans, social-media footprint, and ... 3 billion streams. He just has an incredible audience."
Fans are already reacting strongly to the partnership, with the news producing an explosive response on social media.
The Travis Scott meal itself is made up of menu items anyone can buy at McDonald's. However, as part of the collaboration, McDonald's workers will also receive custom T-shirts made by Scott's label Cactus Jack.
While Scott fans are excited about the partnership, it faced some pushback within McDonald's, as some franchisees felt Scott's more explicit lyrics were not the right fit for McDonald's family-friendly image.
Yet Flatley and Vicki Chancellor, the franchisee who is the head of McDonald's Operator's National Advertising Fund, said that it was worth the risk for McDonald's to stay culturally relevant. Plus, Chancellor said, the chain knew how excited restaurant employees would be about the deal.
"Our crew members have been on the front lines from day one of this pandemic," Chancellor said. "When I have spoken to my crew members, [they] were over the moon. When I told them that there was a collaboration with Travis Scott, they looked at me in disbelief. They couldn't believe it. They were so excited."
Tory Burch is one of a number of business leaders promoting civic engagement.
Tory Burch Foundation
The US faces a shortage of poll workers, as many seniors sit out this election cycle over fears of contracting the coronavirus.
A growing number of businesses are stepping up and encouraging their employees to volunteer as poll workers by giving them paid time off to do so.
Old Navy and Tory Burch are some of the companies extending this benefit to their workers.
Other companies like Starbucks and Salesforce are partnering with a nonprofit organization called Power the Polls, which aims to recruit 250,000 poll workers for Nov. 3
There's a looming shortage of poll workers right now amid the coronavirus pandemic. Historically, the majority of poll workers are over age 60, making them at-risk for the virus.
But a growing number of companies are stepping into civic engagement to help avert a crisis.
250,000 workers
On Tuesday, Old Navy announced it will pay its store employees to work the polls on Election Day. The company, which has 50,000-plus employees, said it is working with Civic Alliance, a nonpartisan coalition of businesses, and Power the Polls, an organization aimed at recruiting 250,000 poll workers "to ensure polling sites stay open and operate efficiently across the country" on Election Day.
Old Navy said it will compensate store associates who serve as poll workers with eight hours of pay, in addition to any compensation they receive from their local jurisdictions.
Nancy Green, president of Old Navy, said in a press release that "every voice in this country matters and deserves to be heard at the polls."
Getting engaged
The clothing retailer is part of a growing trend of businesses promoting civic engagement.
On Wednesday, fashion company Tory Burch announced it would also compensate workers who volunteered or worked at the polls for their day off.
"Sustaining our democracy requires hands-on, active participation, and the lack of poll workers potentially puts the voting process at risk," Tory Burch, founder of the company, said in a statement provided to Business Insider.
"As a businesswoman and a citizen, it is important to me to do what I can to help provide solutions," she added.
DC-based coffee company Compass Coffee is also compensating workers who take the day off to serve as poll workers.
"We want to be engaged. We want to be a part of democracy," district Manager at Compass Coffee told DC CBS affiliate WUSA9.
Other companies like Patagonia, Salesforce, and Starbucks are also working with Power the Polls, the organization leading the effort for more companies to sign on to their mission of getting more poll workers.
A national trend
Earlier this year, more than 380 companies including Deloitte, Dell, and JPMorgan Chase announced their partnering with the nonpartisan Time to Vote coalition to encourage workers to cast their ballots in the 2020 US presidential election.
The participating companies are either giving workers the day off, providing information about early voting or vote-by-mail options, or are making Nov. 3 a day without meetings.
Private aviation is at a crossroads following a busy summer for leisure travel and executives are waiting to see if business travel rebounds in the fall.
Private aviation executives say the industry has succeeded in gaining back most of the business lost to the pandemic but the recovery isn't yet complete.
Private jet travel bounced back in the summer after some firms booked no flights at all in late March and April with the fall looking similarly promising thanks to a new market of leisure flyers.
Firms are moving to capture as much of the new market as possible by scaling up, adopting advanced scheduling and pricing systems, and enhancing safety protocols.
Business Insider spoke with eight private aviation executives to learn how each is approaching the upcoming seasonal transition.
Fall is coming and the private aviation industry's recovery hinges on it being a kind one.
Private aircraft firms have gone from their worst months of the year to their best, or at least getting close to 2019 levels, following a devastating spring.
March and April saw even the largest operators experience near-zero traffic with some choosing to ground their fleets entirely.
"We went from an average of 136 to 146 hours a day on fleet, to 19 on our lowest day," Kevin Thomas, chief operating officer at XOJET Aviation, told Business Insider.
As months of lockdowns eased by the end of summer, the desire to move around eventually surpassed fear of the virus for some and the wealthy began traveling again. Relying more on private planes, travel plans were shaped around quarantine rules and airlines were largely avoided for those who could afford it.
A fast rebounding leisure segment over the summer gave firms an early indicator of how the sector's slump earlier in 2020 might be short-lived.
Now, with new safety protocols in place and a positive industry outlook, private aircraft firms are changing their playbooks. They're moving to capture as many new clients as they can this fall to counter the expected loss of business travel, which typically comes this time of year as summer leisure travel peters out.
The road to recovery
This summer saw a drop in private jet charter traffic by an average of around 20% for July and August.
Andrew Harker/Shutterstock.com
Private aviation saw an active summer with traffic rising so close to last year's levels that executives are expecting a quick return to normal, the opposite of what the mainline airline industry is currently experiencing.
"June was our biggest month ever, by far," Jason Middleton, chief executive officer of Silver Air, told Business Insider. His company's June had surpassed its year-on-year numbers by nearly 40 percent, with July and August also nearing last year's levels.
Firms that couldn't meet 2019 numbers were still coming close as Jet Linx CEO Jamie Walker told Business Insider that his company's June was only 15% off from the year prior. Traffic then increased in July and August to 10% down from last year.
Walker's experience is closer to the industry average, according to data from the aviation auditor Argus. It showed that year-on-year traffic was only down 19.6% for July and is slated to be down around 20% for August, according to Travis Kuhn, Argus' vice president for market intelligence.
Health and safety concerns drove the wealthy to book private aircraft for their leisure travel versus flying the airlines, executives say, with a recent McKinsey & Company study revealing a massive untapped market of non-private flying high-net-worth individuals ripe for firms to capture.
As industry leaders are questioning whether business travel will meaningfully return this fall, executives hope the new leisure market will carry them until the holiday travel season. Currently, the outlook for the fall is quite strong.
September traffic is slated to be down only 16%, dropping to 13% in October, Kuhn predicts, with help from the new flyers.
"The increase in private or personal travel that we're seeing is offsetting the vast majority of the business travel that we've seen erode this year," Patrick Gallagher, president, sales, marketing, and service at NetJets, told Business Insider, noting that the rise of personal flights "is like nothing that we've ever experienced before."
Investing in new planes and pilots
Executives are looking towards expansion to help capture the next generation of private flyers.
XOJET Aviation is eyeing 10 to 20 additional planes for its fleet of 40-strong by 2023. All current aircraft are also getting an interior cabin upgrade and new paint jobs.
"Our plan is a long-term plan and the opportunity in a soft market is to add to the fleet in a cost-effective and intelligent manner, makes sense for us to do it right now," Thomas said.
In July, Jet Linx acquired Meridian Air Charter and 23 managed aircraft, establishing it as the country's second-largest aircraft management firm. Walker navigated Jet Linx through the 2008 economic recession and is applying the same guiding principle this time around — expansion.
Despite a near-90% traffic loss in March and April, Jet Linx doubled sales for jet cards – prepaid commitments where flyers lock in favorable rates – sales this summer with first-timers accounting for 90% of new sales from March to July, Walker said.
The rise of the flexible, premium operator
Executives believe that traditional on-demand charter will fall prey to flexible, floating fleet operators that use dynamic pricing and have advanced scheduling systems.
FXAIR
The new paradigm shift will require more technologically-savvy operators in order to keep up with fast-changing travel trends, executives predict. Firms that can offer dynamic pricing backed by a large fleet of nomadic aircraft constantly moving around the country will be better off.
Travelers aren't just going away for the weekend anymore, they're going for entire seasons. Those flyers require one-way flights, something traditional operators cannot typically offer without charging for costly repositioning legs to get aircraft back to home base.
"The leisure flying that we have this summer is not the normal leisure flying that we had last summer," Ronald Silverman, chief business officer of XOJET Aviation's sister company, XO, told Business Insider. "And while the numbers exceed last summer, it's a new kind of passenger, it's a new kind of flying."
The floating fleet model relies on advanced scheduling and pricing technology to maximize efficiency. It also benefits business travelers who may not want to stay overnight when traveling since multiple aircraft can be used on the outbound and return legs, eliminating flight crew duty day concerns.
Directional Aviation is also aiming to combine that technology with a premium charter offering, called FXAIR. The organization's new on-demand charter wing will use second-hand Flexjet aircraft to provide key tenets that its leadership says is missing from the current charter experience – "safety, stability, and consistency."
"In us launching FXAIR, we have changed the narrative from charter to what we call premium charter," Gregg Slow, FXAIR's president, told Business Insider.
Directional Aviation initially wanted to launch FXAIR later in 2020 or 2021 but the new market opportunity couldn't be passed up, according to FXAIR's leaders. Its fleet of Nextant 400XT, Challenger 300, and Global Express aircraft will float around the country, utilizing similar scheduling and pricing technology to connect aircraft with passengers.
"You're going to see dynamic pricing attributes that are going to be really important and the technology that drives them," FXAIR CEO Andrew Collins told Business Insider, noting that "smart routing" will be equally important to effectively drive revenue.
Changing the sales formula
Private aircraft operators are investing in new safety protocols to sell peace of mind to clients.
Silver Air
The private aviation conversation has moved away from solely the price of the service.
"Today, it's more health and safety," Michael Silvestro, chief executive officer of Flexjet, told Business Insider. "No doubt."
When facing a hefty private charter bill, customers want to know that the investment they're making in their health is justified. It's not enough for private aviation to rest on its laurels and the inherent perks of convenience and exclusivity, firms still have to earn new business.
"We're seeing a little bit of a flight to quality," Gallagher said.
The downtime from March to May proved useful for some firms that used it to craft new strategies for bringing in next-generation clients to help lessen the impact of a slow fall for business travel.
"We were very bullish going in April and we basically built an entire direct-to-consumer sales team and strategy during our downtime and COVID," Middleton said. "And we came out of it with this amazing sales team and our revenue has ramped up quite a bit."
Silver's strategy aims to cut out aircraft brokers and have clients come directly to them. Education is at the heart of the strategy, extolling the benefits of private charter over flying commercial beyond just the additional material luxuries.
Bridging the final gap
It took over a decade for private aviation to get back to normal following the 2008 economic crisis.
Media_works/Shutterstock.com
Analysts and executives are still uncertain about when the industry will fully recover as it's unclear when business travel will. Following the 2008 economic crisis, it took the industry 11 years to bounce back, Kuhn said.
Firms are confident that it will come back sooner and are already preparing for that eventuality. Jet Linx, for example, just introduced a new jet card program for business travelers to help ease that all-important segment back into flying.
Argus is predicting that the industry will remain around 10% shy of normal levels as the pandemic continues, the threat of a recession at the end lingers, and international travel restrictions remain active as all three hinder business travel.
"We're not going to gain that last 10% of the industry back until those things settle out," Kuhn said.
A box of dexamethasone at the Erasme Hospital in Brussels.
Reuters
Corticosteroids are a class of drugs that suppress out-of-control immune-system responses.
They may improve survival rates for patients with severe cases of COVID-19, according to new research.
The World Health Organization issued a "strong recommendation" for the use of steroids among seriously ill patients based on the results of seven clinical trials.
Steroids are cheaper and more readily available than remdesivir, the only other drug that's shown promise in treating serious COVID-19 cases.
Corticosteroids — a cheap and widely available class of drugs — can help people with serious cases of COVID-19 survive, according to trial results published this week.
A robust analysis looking at seven trials of corticosteroids found that when patients on ventilators were treated with steroids, they had a 30% chance of dying, compared with a 38% chance among patients who didn't take steroids. For patients treated without ventilators, the benefit was even greater: People given steroids had a 23% chance of dying, compared with a 42% chance for people in a control group.
"This is equivalent to around 68% of [the sickest COVID-19] patients surviving after treatment with corticosteroids, compared to around 60% surviving in the absence of corticosteroids," the researchers said, according to Reuters.
The steroids in the trials included methylprednisolone, hydrocortisone, and dexamethasone.
The World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva.
Reuters
Based on the results, the World Health Organization issued a "strong recommendation" on Wednesday that doctors give seriously ill COVID-19 patients dexamethasone or hydrocortisone. The organization isn't recommending steroids for people who are not seriously ill, however.
Corticosteroids can prevent immune-system overreactions
Corticosteroids are synthetic hormones that mimic cortisol, a hormone the body produces naturally to help regulate metabolism, immune reactions, and stress response. Doctors use corticosteroids to tamp down on overactive immune systems and reduce inflammation, which can help with a variety of conditions, including asthma and skin disorders.
The coronavirus can trigger overactive immune responses, which can be deadly. When too many white blood cells flood the bloodstream, some attack healthy tissue in addition to the virus. Steroids can help suppress that kind of dangerous immune response among COVID-19 patients.
Scientists at Oxford University found in June that dexamethasone, specifically, improves patients' survival rates, but at that time, experts and international organizations wanted more evidence before making recommendations. Now they have it.
"Clearly, now steroids are the standard of care," Dr. Howard Bauchner, the editor in chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association, told The New York Times.
Corticosteroids are cheaper than remdesivir and may be more effective
Remdesivir is the only other drug that rigorous trials have found to be effective for treating seriously ill COVID-19 patients. In May, a study found that remdesivir shortened recovery times for those patients. However, a recent study also showed that patients on a 10-day course of remdesivir died at about the same rates as people given other treatments.
Corticosteroids, then, might offer more promise.
"I had a big smile on my face when I saw the results," Dr. Derek Angus, the chair of the department of critical-care medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and a coauthor of one of the trials, told The Times.
The National Institutes of Health also now recommends corticosteroids, particularly dexamethasone, for COVID-19 patients who need ventilators or supplemental oxygen.
An added benefit of corticosteroids is that they're cheap. A six- to 10-day treatment course of dexamethasone would likely cost most customers between $10 and $13, according to Michael Rea, the CEO of Rx Savings Solutions, which sells software designed to help select less-expensive medicines.
By contrast, remdesivir maker Gilead Sciences has said it would charge governments of developed countries $2,340 for a five-day course of its drug.
Steroids can have side effects, though
Corticosteroids can have some side effects, particularly in older patients. The drugs can leave people vulnerable to other infections and raise the risk of high blood pressure, glaucoma, weight gain, and delirium.
They also don't appear to be effective for less-serious cases. In the Oxford trial, for example, patients with mild cases who took dexamethasone died at slightly higher rates than those with mild cases who didn't take the drug.
That's why WHO and the National Institutes of Health aren't recommending steroids for patients who aren't severely sick. But for the most life-threatening cases, the pros appear to outweigh the cons.
The 'early learning partner' is the most important role of the eight.
kali9/Getty Images
Harvard professor Ronald Ferguson is author of "The Formula: Unlocking the Secrets to Raising Highly Successful Children."
After becoming fascinated with what parents did to shape his most talented students, he conducted research and determined that there are eight parental roles that make up the formula for master parenting.
Being an "early learning partner" is the most crucial, he said, which helps kids become excited about gathering new information and succeeding.
Spotting patterns, trends, and formulas make our work (and life) easier. But I never thought I'd see someone unlocking the formula for the hardest job of all: raising super-successful children.
Ferguson was fascinated with what parents did to shape his talented students. So he and co-author Tatsha Robertson comprehensively studied how different parenting styles shape children's success. Test subjects included the youngest statewide elected official in the country and the mother of the CEOs of YouTube and the genetics company 23andMe.
What emerged?
Eight parental roles that Ferguson says make up the formula for master parenting. "It was like a hidden pattern that gradually revealed itself — a set of widely recognized, well-researched qualities that are the basic success foundations."
Play these eight roles well and you'll ace parenting.
1. The 'early learning partner'
Get kids interested in learning before they start school.
Shutterstock
This role has parents getting their child interested in learning at a young age, before they start school. Ferguson calls the early learning partner the most important role of the eight. The most successful kids can read basic words by kindergarten, and experience what Ferguson calls "the early lead effect," where the child responds positively to a teacher's excitement that they can already read.
2. The 'flight engineer'
There's a difference between this and a helicopter parent.
KieferPix / Shutterstock.com
This is the parent monitoring the child's growth environment, making sure they're getting what they need and intervening when they're not.
This isn't the same as being a helicopter parent, who Ferguson says "are so involved in their children's lives they don't create space for them to develop independent relationships, learn how to negotiate for themselves, or identify their own interests." My wife and I started playing this role when we encountered a teacher that wasn't giving our daughter a fair shake.
3. The 'fixer'
They don't let a lack of resource get in their way.
Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock
In this role, the parent ensures no key opportunity for their child's betterment is lost — and they don't let a lack of resources slow them down.
As Ferguson says, "The parents might be living in poverty, but if they see an opportunity they judge to be essential for their child's success in school or life, they'll walk through walls to get it."
4. The 'revealer'
They help their child discover the world.
Shutterstock.com
Revealer parents help their child discover the world by going to museums, libraries, exhibits, etc. — anything to expand their worldview. Again, this happens even with a lack of resources; revealer parents get creative in how to accommodate such outings. My wife and I have given this one extra focus, since we're fans of experiences over things.
5. The 'philosopher'
This role helps kids find purpose.
Dina Uretski/Shutterstock.com
Ferguson says this is the second most important role, because it helps children find purpose. Here, the parents ask and answer deep life questions, never underestimating a child's capacity to understand life and grasp the idea of meaning. I've been astonished at how early my daughter grasped these big ideas.
6. The 'model'
They embody the values that are important to them.
Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock
This is classic role-modeling. Parents who do this well are clear about which values are important to them and work hard to pass those values on to their children, who then aspire to emulate them. My wife and I try to live our core values each day — but that doesn't mean it comes easy, or that we always succeed.
7. The 'negotiator'
This teaches kids to stand up for themselves — respectfully.
Ivan Marjanovic/Shutterstock
This role teaches the child to be respectful while standing up for themselves and what they believe in (especially in the face of those with power and authority).
8. The 'GPS navigational voice'
This is the parents' voice staying in the child's head, even when they've left home.
Betsie Van Der Meer/Getty
Ferguson described this as, "The parents' voice in the child's head after the child has left home, coaching the young adult through new situations in life." I can only hope our daughter's GPS never says "recalculating," given the work we've done to try and keep it on course.
Reassuringly, the Harvard researcher said that the most important quality for parents to exhibit as they wear these different hats is simply the determination to be a great parent. He calls this motivation "the burn," and says it often comes out of things in the parents' histories:
It could be something that went wrong in their own childhoods that they didn't want repeated for their own children. It could be a family legacy of excellence in some domain that they felt a responsibility to pass on to their offspring. Or some commitment that the family had, for example, to civil rights, that they wanted their children to honor. But each of these parents had a vision of the kind of person they wanted their children to become. That vision, along with the burn, guided and inspired their parenting.
So whatever your "burn" is, use it to play these eight roles well. None of the roles are always easy, but all of them are important for giving your child every chance to succeed.
This Inc. story was originally published on Business Insider April 30, 2019.
Did you know that public speaking is often rated the number one thing people are afraid of?
But while getting up on a stage in front of an audience can definitely be nerve wracking, many people find striking up a conversation one-on-one just as intimidating.
Maybe it's the CEO of your company, a new colleague, the guy in the mail room, the girl from IT, or a stranger in the street.
Whomever you want to talk to, there's a way to strike up a conversation. And the best news is that it gets easier with practice.
Try these conversation starters to talk to absolutely anybody:
1. Skip the small talk
Avoid the tired topics.
Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock.com
"What's up with this weather?" and "How 'bout them [insert local sports team]?" are as bad as cheesy pick-up lines when it comes to starting a conversation. Avoid tired topics. Every situation is unique, so you should be able to find a unique conversation starter.
2. Ask for their opinion
Start with light topics.
Courtesy of Hero Images/Getty Images
Everyone has one! For someone you don't know well, start with light subjects like the food, the music, the atmosphere, etc. "Do you like your margaritas with salt or without? Do you watch horror movies? Do you like this song?" It's probably best to stay away from really sticky subjects like politics unless you already know the person very well.
3. Ask for their advice or recommendations
Bundle it with a compliment.
Taiyou Nomachi/Digital Vision/Getty
This works very well when commenting on someone's outfit or accessories, as in "What a great tie! Where did you get it?" or on the food, as in, "Everything looks good. What are you having?"
4. Ask them a question — that's easy to answer
Start with an easy question.
fizkes/Shutterstock
This is great when you know or find out that a person has expertise in a particular field. If you're talking to your company's IT guy, for example, you could ask him whether he's the guy who installs hardware or software. But avoid asking anyone to explain something super complex or involved; if that's where the conversation leads, great, but asking a really complicated question up front can feel demanding.
5. Comment on the environment
There's always something to comment on.
Pressmaster/Shutterstock
No matter where you are, there are things to comment on: the music, the food, the lights, the guests, and so on. Even if you are stuck in an elevator with someone, you can comment on the music, the speed, the crowdedness, etc.
6. Ask for an update
If you know something about then, ask them about it.
SFIO CRACHO/Shutterstock
If you know someone a little or know them by reputation, ask for an update on something you know they've been doing, for example, "Oh, Mary mentioned you were taking swing dance classes. How's that going?"
7. Ask open-ended questions whenever possible
Always have a follow-up question ready.
Pressmaster/Shutterstock
If your question can be answered with a simple yes or no, don't be surprised if that's what you get. Having follow-up questions ready can also help the conversation flow. If you are asking what kind of food they're having, for example, you might follow up with, "That sounds good. Do you know what kind of wine would go well with that?" Almost everything can be followed up with, "Why?" (Just don't ask it too many times and end up sounding like a three-year-old!)
8. Ask a hypothetical question
Tie it into something that's happening in current events.
Fizkes/Shutterstock
These can be great conversation starters, but try to tie them into something happening at the event or in current events to avoid seeming too random. You might say something like, "I just saw this movie where all the laws were revoked for one day. What would you do if there were no laws for a day?"
9. Ask about their kids, pets, or hobbies
Ask them about the things that are important to them.
JGI/Tom Grill/Getty Images
People love to talk about the things that are important to them. If you know that your boss loves to sail, asking him about his latest trip is a surefire way to get him talking.
BlackRock's Rick Rieder told Bloomberg on Friday that the stock market's sell-off Thursday was a "healthy" recalibration.
He said the volume and price of call options leading up to the sell-off was "bizarre," and the amount of froth in the market was more than he had seen in most of his career.
The global chief investment officer said investors should hold more equities and cash in their portfolios than they historically would have, and that traditional interest-rate sensitive assets don't do as much today.
Rick Rieder, BlackRock's global chief investment officer of fixed income, told Bloomberg on Friday that the stock market's sell-off on Thursday was a "healthy" recalibration, and he still believes stocks can go higher.
"I think the market got ahead of itself and then recalibrated," Rieder said. "The amount of exuberance particularly around some of those tech names was just overdone."
On Thursday the Nasdaq 100 dropped more than 5% during intraday trading, while the S&P 500 fell roughly 4% in the biggest one-day declines since June. The investment chief said the amount of froth in the market leading up to the sell-off was larger than he had seen in most of his career, and the volume and price level of call options was "bizarre" and needed to recalibrate.
Rieder added that the question of whether a traditional 60-40 portfolio will suffice in a low-rate environment is the "the most important question and issue today."
"I still think the equity market is going to go higher. That being said, I do think you need to think about OK, how does your balance in your portfolio change because you can't count on Treasuries to rally alongside of a falling equity market?" he said.
Rieder said investors should have more stocks and cash in their portfolios than they did historically, and added that BlackRock is running a "barbell" strategy.
"Build some income in a portfolio, don't have so much what is traditional interest-rate sensitivity, because it's not going to do a lot for you today," Rieder said.
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NASA was the force behind many product development innovations that you might take for granted.
The research used to develop and improve space suits, time-keeping systems, temperature measurements, and other space-related needs is often later adapted for consumer use.
If you weren't obsessed enough already with the work that NASA does to advance our knowledge of space, here's another reason: its research has a large number of applications beyond space suits and shuttles.
Though the science it engages with can seem nebulously complicated, it's really all around us in the products we use every day. Technology originally developed to support the nation's astronauts is often later adapted for consumer use. If you take a closer look around your house and closet on Earth, it doesn't take long to come across something that was also employed by astronauts floating in space hundreds of thousands of miles away.
Knowing the historical origins of these everyday products certainly helps us appreciate innovations that we previously took for granted.
You have NASA research to thank for these 10 popular products:
You might not know it, but if you own a pair of Nike Air sneakers, you've actually been walking in the shoes of astronauts. The ubiquitous sneaker's shock-absorbing material, which gives you the light, cushion-y support for better runs, originates from a "blow rubber molding" process used to make astronaut helmets.
NASA-funded contractor Charles Yost developed memory foam in the late 1960s to improve airline seating for crash protection and comfort. Both soft and able to absorb high-energy impact, it was the perfect material to outfit NASA planes and is today widely applied to many home and comfort-related products, like mattresses, pillows, and travel pillows.
Prolonged weightlessness weakens muscles and bones, and with the construction of the International Space Station, which was expected to house long-term crews, NASA needed an exercise system that could keep astronaut bodies strong while in space for long periods of time. Instead of using weights, which are ineffective in space, BowFlex systems use springs to provide resistance. They're easier on the joints, and they pack a versatile number of exercises into one compact machine.
Just like astronomers measure the temperature of stars and planets with infrared technology, you can quickly figure out your body temperature with aural thermometers, which measure the amount of infrared energy emitted by the eardrum. Since this method avoids contact with mucous membranes, it eliminates the possibility of cross-infection and is also safer to use with newborns and critically ill patients.
In 1972, the FDA mandated that all sunglasses and prescription lenses had to be shatter-resistant — a problem for an industry dominated by the use of glass. Manufacturers turned to plastic lenses. On the one hand, they were shatter-resistant, lightweight, and cheaper to produce, but on the other, they were easily scratched.
The technology for scratch-resistant lenses originated from a project on a spacecraft water purification system and was also seen in the coating for space helmet visors. Thanks to the Ames Research Center, you can now carry and wear your stylish sunglasses worry-free.
A synthetic form of hydroxyapatite, the mineral present in your teeth and bones, was created by NASA to restore bone density in orbiting crew members and is the star ingredient in Boka's mint toothpaste. The non-toxic, biocompatible ingredient can potentially help the millions of people worldwide who suffer from bone density loss.
Aluminized mylar was first used to make the Echo satellites more reflective and to insulate cryogenic fluids and spacesuits. Mylar thermal blankets, seen anywhere from marathon finish lines to camping tents to home emergency kits, are still sometimes referred to as "space blankets" as a nod to these origins. They're ultra-light and packable, waterproof and windproof, and very effective at retaining body heat.
Accurate timing is of utmost importance on NASA missions, which is why the Johnson Space Center contracted General Time Corp to develop a quartz crystal. Because quartz vibrates millions of times per second when electrically stimulated, and watches use vibrating bodies to keep time, NASA was able to establish a stable time base off which all mission times could be derived. For ordinary consumers, they're helping us arrive right on time to our appointments.
The secret to shiny, soft, and smooth hair is NASA research on nanomaterials, which was first applied to ceramic metallic components that could trigger the release of cancer-fighting drugs from microcapsules.
When special ceramic nanoparticles are heated, they produce negative or positive ions — that also turn out to be beneficial for hair and hair styling. With its link to this research, the brand CHI (Cationic Hydration Interlink) no doubt has an advantage over other hair styling brands.
During long-term missions, astronauts have to figure out how to grow their own food. Enter aeroponic garden systems, which can grow plants suspended in air without soil and reduce water usage by 98%. The clean and efficient food-growing system was brought down to Earth and successfully introduced to the kitchens of small apartments and homes that still wanted to enjoy home-grown herbs and vegetables.
Got feedback or tips? Email me here or shoot me a text at 646-768-1657.
I'm thrilled about two things: We're on the cusp of a holiday weekend, and today we get to talk about gay things. I'm not talking about joy. Obviously.
LGBTQ icon RuPaul may have a fracking empire, but any reference to his popular TV show Drag Race, a drag queen competition, is likely to land with a big thud on an oil rig.
To be clear, the oil industry's biggest Western companies have made huge strides in their support for LGBTQ workers in the last decade.
But the story of inclusion becomes a lot more complicated in the non-Western world, where these companies have enormous operations and thousands of employees.
Many hotspots of the oil industry, like Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, outlaw same-sex relations and/or criminalize forms of gender expression.
Some places even maintain the death penalty for same-sex behavior.
Analysis: We compared the global operations of seven of the world's largest oil companies to regions with anti-LGBTQ laws.
We found that multinational oil companies operate in more than 40 countries that outlaw same-sex relations.
So what? In these regions, global companies, based in the West, face a tension between upholding their own nondiscrimination policies and abiding by local laws and conforming to the national culture.
LGBTQ workers get caught in the middle of this tension, and experts say nondiscrimination policies aren't enough to protect them.
How you can help: Are you or an acquaintance a member of the LGBTQ community and working in the oil industry? If you're comfortable reaching out, we'd love to hear about your experience.
Exxon Mobil's Fife Ethylene Plant in Cowdenbeath, Scotland
Exxon's pitch to prospective workers is that it's a stable giant within an industry prone to swings. Part of that pitch is that it doesn't do layoffs.
"Our size and the integrated nature of our operations provide stability throughout the economic cycle," notes accompanying an Exxon campus-recruiting presentation seen by Business Insider said.
"This point should help ease the concerns of students who may be worried about joining an oil-and-gas company due to news reports about layoffs in the industry over the last few years," they continued.
Companies use layoffs to cut costs during financial strife. Right now is a great example, considering the oil market collapsed earlier this year — and it's still struggling to gain ground.
In the billion-dollar race between startups and investors to develop a better battery for electric cars, one company just got a lot closer to the finish line, BI's Ben Winck reports.
Backed by Volkswagen and Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a fund spearheaded by Bill Gates, the secretive startup QuantumScape revealed three big updates this week, Medium's Marker reported.
Breakthrough: The firm, which makes solid-state batteries, said it's solved the problem of working with pure lithium, a finicky material prone to fires. This is a big deal, Marker explains.
Timeline: VW electric cars could run on QuantumScape's pure metallic lithium batteries as soon as 2025.
IPO: The startup said it was going public using a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, with a value of $3.3 billion.
WTF is a SPAC? Also known as blank check firms, SPACs are companies that raise money from investors with the sole purpose of acquiring other businesses, BI's Melia Russell reports.
"As the two companies merge, the publicly traded SPAC effectively takes the private business public, without the pomp and cork-popping of a traditional IPO," she writes.
In the case of QuantumScape, it will be merging with Kensington Capital Acquisition Corp., and appear on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker QE.
Wall Street analysts say the renewable energy industry may be more insulated from a recession than other industries.
Shutterstock
4 big stories we didn't cover
Driving out of town this weekend? You'll see the lowest Labor Day gas prices since 2004, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
Schlumberger, the largest oilfield services company in the world, is selling its North American fracking business to rival Liberty Oilfield Services as oil prices fail to gain ground.
Two-thirds of all new energy added globally last year came from solar and wind energy, while fossil fuels accounted for just a quarter, according to new data from the research firm BloombergNEF.
Consumer goods giant Unilever, which sells products ranging from Lipton tea to Dove soap, said it would remove fossil fuels from its cleaning products. Many cleaning products are made using oil-derived ingredients, which is kind of ironic, because soap is often used to clean up oil.
That's it! Have a great holiday weekend, and feel free to drop me any feedback here.
Samsung became the first major smartphone maker to introduce a foldable phone in early 2019 with the debut of the original Galaxy Fold, beating rivals like Huawei and Motorola to the punch.
But that approach seemingly backfired for the South Korean tech giant. The company delayed the phone's launch by several months after some reviewers reported that their device had broken after just two days of use.
Now, Samsung is on its third foldable device, the Galaxy Z Fold 2, a successor to the original Fold that also inherits some qualities of the Galaxy Z Flip it launched earlier this year. But it'll put quite a strain on your wallet when it launches on September 18. The Galaxy Z Fold 2 costs $2,000, making it slightly more expensive than its predecessor and the $1,450 Galaxy Z Flip.
Even with its improved, more durable design, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 isn't for everyone — the price alone is enough to make anyone question whether it's a worthwhile decision. And there's certainly a learning curve that comes with using a phone with such an irregular design compared too your typical smartphone.
At this stage, foldable phones are still best-suited for early adopters that don't mind spending a lot of money up front and taking the risks that come with buying a product that might be a little ahead of its time. Foldable phones are still in their awkward teen phase so to speak: phone makers still need some time to work out the growing pains.
But even after just a day with it, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 gives me confidence that things will progress quickly. It addresses some of the original Fold's biggest setbacks, particularly when it comes to the size of its cover screen and durability. Samsung claims the new sweeper hinge will keep dust and debris from damaging the device, as was the case with the first Galaxy Fold.
Here's a look at some of the aspects about the Galaxy Z Fold 2 that immediately stood out to me.
The Galaxy Z Fold 2 has an improved design with bigger cover screen.
Lisa Eadicicco/Business Insider
Compared to the original Galaxy Fold, there are several improvements when it comes to design.
Among the biggest is the significantly larger cover screen on the front of the device. The Galaxy Z Fold 2's front screen measures 6.2 inches, making it roughly the same size as the display on the Galaxy S20 (although the Z Fold 2's screen is noticeably narrower).
That's a major upgrade compared to the 4.6-inch cover display on the original Galaxy Fold, which felt too cramped and tiny to actually be useful.
I've actually been using the front screen on the Galaxy Z Fold 2 to quickly check Slack messages and send text messages — basic tasks that were difficult or impossible on the older Fold's tiny front screen.
The crease is also much less noticeable.
Lisa Eadicicco/Business Insider
The other aspect of the Galaxy Z Fold 2's design that stood out to me was how subtle the crease in the middle of the display seemed compared with last year's version.
When I reviewed the Galaxy Fold in April 2019, I wrote that the crease was noticeable when performing everyday tasks like reading a news article, checking social media, and sifting through my email inbox. The crease may seem apparent in the image above, and it's not completely invisible, but it's still much less intrusive in everyday use compared to last year's model.
That's important because the whole appeal of a foldable device like the Galaxy Z Fold is its larger, tablet-sized screen. A less noticeable crease makes the Galaxy Z Flip all the more useful in this mode when unfolded.
But it's still heavier than your average phone — and very thick.
The iPhone 11 Pro beneath the Galaxy Z Fold 2.
Lisa Eadicicco/Business Insider
The Galaxy Z Fold 2 isn't for those who frequently stuff their phone into a tight jeans pocket or a small purse. When folded, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 is essentially as thick as two phones stacked on top of one another, making it difficult to fit in tight spaces.
The device's thickness also generally takes some getting used to when holding the device while closed in one hand. Its larger size also means its heavier than your average smartphone; the Galaxy Z Fold 2 weighs 282 grams, while the Galaxy S20 weighs 163 grams. The iPhone 11 Pro, which is pictured underneath the Galaxy Z Fold 2 above, only weighs 188 grams by comparison.
Flex Mode makes the Galaxy Z Fold 2 more useful as a camera.
Lisa Eadicicco/Business Insider
When I tried the Galaxy Z Flip earlier this year, one of my favorite things about it was its ability to stay propped open halfway, with the bottom half of the phone propping it up like a tripod.
Thankfully, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 has inherited this feature. Launching the camera and opening the phone horizontally will prompt the device to display the camera viewfinder on the top half of the screen. The bottom half houses camera controls like the shutter button and the most recent photo from your camera roll.
If you've ever scrambled to prop your phone up on a nearby surface when trying to take a group photo with friends or family, I imagine you'll appreciate the Galaxy Z Fold's ability to keep its camera upright on its own.
Its speakers are louder than I've heard on any phone.
Lisa Eadicicco/Business Insider
The Galaxy Z Fold 2's stereo speakers are plenty loud and boisterous — a must for a large-screened device like this that was likely designed with entertainment in mind.
The phone's speakers sounded impressively crisp with the volume cranked all the way up, pumping out tunes that sounded much clearer and more powerful compared to the iPhone 11 Pro Max's. Apple's high-end iPhone sounded shallower in comparison, and wasn't quite as loud.
Overall, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 feels like exactly what Samsung wanted the original Fold to be.
Lisa Eadicicco/Business Insider
Samsung didn't need to rush out the original Galaxy Fold in 2019 to beat its rivals. The Galaxy Z Fold 2 is still one of only a few foldable phones on the market, and it feels much more like a finished product that's ready for consumers, unlike the original Fold.
The debacle that occurred with Samsung's first foldable phone also means it's already learned from its mistakes and has been able to iterate at a time when other major players like Google and Apple have yet to announce plans to launch a foldable phone.
But at $2,000, the Galaxy Z Fold 2 is likely going to be a tough sell for most people, especially coming at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has hammered the economy and put many people out of work.
The Galaxy Z Fold 2 is evidence that tech giants like Samsung are continuing to think about the evolution of the modern smartphone. It will be quite some time before foldable phones replace the sleek rectangles we carry around today — if they every do at all — but the Z Fold 2 is certainly another step in that direction.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk met Volkswagen's chief executive, Herbert Diess, for a courtesy visit during which Musk took a test-drive in Volkswagen's new electric car, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.
According to local media, whose reports were confirmed by Bloomberg and Reuters, Musk flew to the Braunschweig, Germany, airport near Volkswagen's headquarters in Wolfsburg after departing Berlin. There, he test-drove the company's ID.3 electric car during a two-hour meeting with Diess.
A spokeswoman for Volkswagen declined to comment on the meeting. A spokeswoman for Tesla could not be reached for comment. Musk was also scheduled to meet with Germany's economic minister, Peter Altmaier.
"Elon Musk delivers results that many did not think possible," he said on LinkedIn in July. "They show: you can be profitable with electric cars. As one of few car manufacturers (Porsche AG also, for example), Tesla will drive through the corona crisis without a quarter of losses."
At Tesla's under-construction factory, Musk said Tesla planned to manufacture batteries there for its vehicles.
"It will be the first time that there will be a transformation in the core structural design of the vehicle. It's quite a big thing. Both manufacturing, engineering, and design as well," he said, according to video from the event. "The three elements needed for a sustainable energy future are sustainable-energy generation, energy storage, and sustainable transport, electric cars."
When the iPhone'sPortrait mode debuted on the iPhone 7 Plus, it was the first smartphone to mimic the effect of taking a portrait with shallow depth of field, like you can with a professional SLR camera.
Now, many iPhone models let you take portraits with this feature. Your iPhone needs at least two camera lenses since it's taking two separate photos (one of the subject and another of the background) and combining them using artificial intelligence.
Which iPhones can use Portrait mode
You can find Portrait mode in the Camera app on many iPhones. Here is the list of compatible devices right now:
iPhone 7 Plus
iPhone 8 Plus
iPhone X, iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max
iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max
iPhone SE (2nd generation, 2020)
If you have an iPhone X or later, you can also use Portrait mode to take a selfie.
How to use Portrait mode on iPhone
1. Start the Camera app and then tap or swipe in the menu at the bottom of the screen to choose "Portrait."
2. Wait until the lighting mode turns yellow to indicate it's ready for you to take the shot. The default lighting mode is Natural Light, though you can swipe through the other options. No matter which one you choose, wait for it to turn yellow.
Select the lighting mode you want to use in your portrait and wait for it to turn yellow before taking the photo.
Apple
3. If you have an iPhone X or later, you can switch to the front camera to take a selfie.
4. Tap the circular Shutter button to take the picture.
If you don't have enough light, or there isn't enough contrast between the subject and background, the Camera app might display a message at the top of the screen with advice on how to change your composition.
How to adjust the depth of field in a Portrait photo
The magic ingredient in a Portrait mode photo is the ability to have an out-of-focus background with a razor-sharp subject. With an SLR camera, you'd get this effect by using an aperture with a small f-number, like f2 or f4. The iPhone lets you adjust the aperture after the fact.
1. Start the Photos app and find the Portrait mode photo you want to edit.
2. Tap "Edit" in the upper right corner of the screen.
3. At the top left of the screen you should see the f-number associated with the photo. Tap it.
4. At the bottom of the photo, you should see a slider with all the available f-numbers for the photo. Swipe to the left or right and watch how the background changes. Smaller f-numbers will make the background blurrier, while larger numbers make it sharper.
5. When you're satisfied, tap "Done." You can return to this screen and change the depth of field at any time.
You can "dial in" the photo's depth of field after it's taken.
Apple
How to turn off Portrait mode in a photo
It's easy to remove the portrait effect from a photo. In fact, you can toggle it on and off at any time.
1. Start the Photos app and find the Portrait mode photo you want to edit.
2. Tap "Edit" in the upper right corner of the screen.
3. At the top of the screen you should see the label "Portrait." To turn off Portrait mode, tap it, and it will turn into white text on a black background. To turn Portrait mode for this photo back on, tap again and it should turn yellow.
Bugatti teamed up with The Little Car Company to develop a miniature version of its 1920s Type 35 race car.
Dubbed the Bugatti Baby II, the car is built to 75% scale and boasts an impressive list of features like LED headlights, hydraulic brakes, and an electric powertrain with regenerative braking.
The top-of-the-line model can reach speeds of 42 mph and costs nearly $70,000.
Bugattis might be tempting, but their seven-figure price tags aren't. The good thing is, now's your chance to score one for right around $35,000 — less than the price of the average new car in the US.
That may sound like the deal of the century, but, as with all things that sound to good to be true, there is a slight catch. Although technically a Bugatti, the Bugatti Baby II is, as its name might suggest, a three-quarters-scale replica meant for teens and young adults.
Developed jointly by Bugatti and The Little Car Company — which makes, you guessed it, little cars — the Bugatti Baby II isn't some run-of-the-mill pedal car or ride-on toy. It boasts quite the spec list, featuring a limited-slip differential, LED headlights, and hydraulic brakes.
In its highest-spec Pur Sang specification, the Baby hits a totally ridiculous top speed of 42 mph. But would you expect anything less than totally ridiculous from Bugatti, the maker of a 1,500-horsepower supercar? No, you wouldn't.
Keep scrolling to take a closer look at the Bugatti Baby II.
To celebrate its 110th anniversary last year, Bugatti teamed up with The Little Car Company to develop a driving, 75% scale car called the Bugatti Baby II.
Bugatti Baby II.
Bugatti
Now, Bugatti's sharing all the specs, details, and pricing of the pint-sized ride.
Bugatti Baby II.
Bugatti
As its name might tell you, this isn't the first time Bugatti has built a miniature car.
Bugatti Baby II.
Bugatti
The original Bugatti Baby was a 50% scale, kiddie version of the Type 35 that Bugatti sold from 1927 to 1936.
Bugatti Baby II.
Bugatti
This time around, Bugatti made the Baby a bit larger and brought it into the 21st century.
Bugatti Baby II.
Bugatti
The car comes in three versions, all of which boast rear-wheel drive, a limited-slip differential, hydraulic brakes, and multiple driving modes.
Bugatti Baby II.
Bugatti
While the base model hits a plenty-respectable top speed of 30 mph, the upper-tier Vitesse and Pur Sang versions can reach a frightening 42 mph.
Bugatti Baby II.
Bugatti
Those models come with a "speed key" — much like you might find in a Chiron — which unlocks all of the Baby's 13.4 horsepower.
Bugatti Baby II.
Bugatti
The top-of-the-line Pur Sang model — which Bugatti says is "targeted at collectors" — boasts hand-formed aluminum bodywork that requires more than 200 hours to create.
Bugatti Baby II.
Bugatti
The base Baby can travel 15 miles on a charge, while the Vitesse and Pur Sang versions can go twice as far thanks to larger battery packs.
Bugatti Baby II.
Bugatti
The Baby's dashboard features working replicas of the original Type 35's instruments, but the oil gauge now displays power and the fuel-pressure gauge shows battery level.
Bugatti Baby II.
Bugatti
Bugatti and The Little Car Company also carefully recreated the Type 35's handling characteristics using 3D scans of an original car.
Bugatti Baby II.
Bugatti
Some modern touches include LED headlights, a regenerative-braking system, and adjustable dampers so drivers can fine-tune handling.
Bugatti Baby II.
Bugatti
The Baby II starts at roughly $35,000 for the base version, while a Pur Sang model will run you close to $70,000.
Bugatti Baby II.
Bugatti
Although all 500 cars sold out within the first three weeks after the project was announced last year, some slots have opened up as clients' circumstances changed "due to recent global events," Bugatti said.
Bugatti Baby II.
Dunkin' is looking to buy up struggling independent coffee shops.
Reuters
Spending at big restaurant chains is up 2%, while sales at small chains and independent restaurants are still down 15%, according to a Bank of America report.
A big chunk of the gap can be explained by the fact that chains are more likely to own fast-food and fast-casual locations, many of which built thriving drive-thru and to-go businesses before the pandemic, the report said.
Sales are returning to pre-pandemic levels at chain restaurants across the US. Independent restaurants are not as lucky.
Spending at big restaurant chains is up 2% through the week of August 22, according to a new report from Bank of America. Meanwhile, sales at small chains and independent restaurants remain down 15%.
Much of the gap can be explained by the fact that fast-food and fast-casual restaurants are more likely to be owned by larger chains, while dine-in restaurants are more likely to be independently owned, the report said. During the pandemic, restaurants focused on dine-in customers have struggled far more than locations that already had thriving drive-thru and delivery businesses.
Other advantages enjoyed by chains include "scale, access to capital, and years of technology investments," according to the report.
The disparity between chains and independent restaurants represents a significant improvement from past Bank of America reports this year. In mid-April, there was a percentage-point difference of more than 30 in year-over-year sales performance. Bank of America estimated sales at chains and independent restaurants by analyzing customers' aggregated credit- and debit-card data.
Chains are preparing to 'swallow up' independent restaurants
Chains see real-estate opportunities as a silver lining of the pandemic.
Bank of America said it expected some full-service restaurants to shut down permanently during the pandemic, which could boost sales at well-positioned sit-down chains such as Olive Garden's parent company, Darden, in the long term. As mom-and-pop restaurants shut down, customers will end up eating at chains that survive the pandemic more often, when they feel safe to dine out once again.
Chains including Dunkin', Chipotle, and Domino's have already started scoping out real estate occupied by doomed restaurants, Business Insider reported last month.
"The pandemic is going to result in many vacant restaurant spaces around the city, which will provide an opportunity for better-capitalized restaurant companies to swoop in and take over these spaces if they see a good business opportunity," Andrew Rigie, the executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, told Business Insider.
"Unfortunately, many small-business owners won't have the capital to start opening new restaurants," Rigie added.
Just 66% of independent restaurant owners were confident that they would still be open in October, according to a July survey of independent restaurant owners conducted by the James Beard Foundation and the Independent Restaurant Coalition. According to the restaurant consultancy Aaron Allen & Associates, only about one in three independent restaurants may survive until the end of 2020.
Elliot Nelson, who owns 20 restaurants in Oklahoma and Arkansas, told Business Insider that a major chain has already approached him about taking over one of his restaurants' leases. Nelson said he expected many independent restaurant owners to leave the industry altogether because of the pandemic.
"It's going to be hard to muster up the energy to want to keep going and do it again," Nelson said. "How would you feel if the biggest thing you worked really hard on was replaced by Taco Bell? So much of your soul goes into building unique stuff, and if you see it become so homogenous, that's especially heart-wrenching."
A four-bedroom home built in a 19th-century Newport fire station is selling for $3.5 million, over $1 million under its 2019 asking price.
Exterior of 118 Prospect Hill Street.
Clint Clemens
Jessica Chase of Gustave White Sotheby's International Realty represents the listing. According to Zillow property records, the home was first listed for $4.7 million in April 2019.
Known officially as Redwood Hose Station 8, it is located on a residential street in Newport's Historic Hill district, minutes from Gilded Age mansions and the Cliff Walk, a popular coastal walking path.
The home's owners nicknamed the residence the "Chutes and Ladders House" because of the many ways to travel between floors. There are multiple staircases ...
In 2009, the home won a prestigious Doris Duke Historic Preservation Award after architect David Hacin renovated the home with a focus on green living.
To save it from structural damage, Hacin worked with owner and photographer Clint Clemens to 3D image the building, then dismantled and relaid the structure brick by brick. The process took three years.
While the deck is scenic, the rooftop viewing platform above it takes the cake, offering birds-eye views of the neighborhood and sailboat-dotted harbor.
Shoveling snow might not be much fun, but it need not be a loathsome burden, either. All you need is a great snow shovel to help you get the job done.
The DMOS Alpha Shovel is our top pick because its serrated blade easily cuts into and lifts large blocks of snow and because the shovel disassembles and packs down small enough to fit in the trunk, in a closet, or even in a backpack.
If you're looking to move a ton of snow as quickly as possible, check out our guide to the best snow blowers.
Shoveling snow is a task few people enjoy, but with the right snow shovel, removing snow from your stoop, driveway, deck, and walkways need not be a daunting chore. With proper shoveling technique on your part, even a decent shovel will make the process faster and easier, while reducing the chance of injury.
Our top picks each take a different approach to snow removal. If you need to be chipping through thick ice or cutting large blocks of snow, our best overall pick might be the right one for you. If you're clearing parking lots or a wide swath of land, you might be better off with a snow pusher. We've even got an electric option that's a cross between a snow blower and a shovel. Whatever your preferred method or snow clearing, we've got a great pick for you.
Prices and links are current as of 9/4/20. We also added a selection of related buying guides.
The best overall
DMOS
When fully assembled, the collapsible DMOS Alpha 2S Shovel is as capable as any classic snow shovel, easily tossing scoop after scoop of snow.
The DMOS Alpha 2S Shovel is a clever and capable tool that can help you move snow all day long, and then pack down small enough for storage in a cramped closet, on a garage shelf, in your car's trunk, or even in a bag. The secret here is that the shovel's handle is both collapsible and detachable. The shaft telescopes out to a generous 61.5 inches, giving taller users plenty of length for proper leverage, and it can be shortened down twice times for users of differing heights.
When fully collapsed, the handle can be detached and stored within the shovel, creating a package small enough for easy storage and with the grip making it easy to carry around. As the Alpha is fabricated out of rugged but lightweight 6061 aluminum, it only weighs 4 pounds 6 ounces.
This is the newer version of the one I tested, the original Alpha. The Alpha 2S uses stronger aircraft-grade aluminum and it's a tad heavier, but it is otherwise similar to the original. As for performance, the Alpha is the best snow shovel I have ever used, and it's still one of my go-to shovels. The slender, serrated edge of the shovel's blade cuts into all sorts of snow with ease, lifting fresh powder, heavy slush, and icy chunks alike. The long handle makes lifting effortless and tosses large scoops of snow, while the all-metal construction ensures that the shaft won't bend or break and the scoop won't crack or buckle.
Though this shovel isn't cheap, the durable construction ensures it lasts for years.
Pros: Collapses for stowing, serrated blades cuts into packed snow, lightweight but rugged
Cons: Expensive
The best ergonomic snow shovel
Snow Joe
The ingenious two-handle design of the Snow Joe Shovelution Shovel can reduce back strain by as much as 30% when compared to a traditional snow shovel and speed up the snow clearing process.
Lower back injuries make up the bulk of snow-removing injuries. With its Shovelution Shovel, Snow Joe created a unique design for reducing the strain that shoveling puts on the lower back.
It is essentially a regular snow shovel with a straight handle and an 18-inch shovel blade that's curved to help you collect loads of snow. But right above it, Snow Joe designers added another handle on a short, pivoting rod. This lower handle is spring-assisted, moving up and down in response to your shoving-motions and helping to counterbalance the weight of each shovel full of snow.
By keeping your lower hand well above the main shaft, the Shovelution Snow Shovel allows you to stand up straighter as you work, reducing the strain put on the back's lumbar region. The spring-action second handle also helps you fling aside that heavy snow with less effort and with reduced shock at the end of each toss, thereby further limiting the effects on your joints, muscles, and skeletal system. The second handle is a small addition that creates a major improvement.
Pros: Reduces back strain, speeds up snow-removal process, good price point
Cons: Initial use is awkward until you get used to it
The best electric snow shovel
Toro
The Toro Power Shovel Electric Snow Thrower can clear snowfall of up to a half-foot deep with a single pass, and you never even have to lift it off the ground.
I've used the Toro Power Shovel Electric Snow Thrower to move snow piles as high as 6 inches, off my driveway, stoop, and the sidewalk. This electric shovel can help you clear an area quickly and with much less effort than a traditional shovel requires. I also know firsthand, though, that with snow any deeper than that, or with snow that's particularly wet and heavy, this thing bogs down and loses efficacy rather quickly.
The Toro Power Shovel Electric Snow Thrower is perfect for people who live in areas prone to moderate snowstorms that come a few times per season. As noted, it can't really handle deeper snow. But for lighter precipitation, it clears the stuff right down to the pavement, pushing along easily without the strain that manual shoveling places on the knees, arms, and the back.
This electric shovel is best suited to mid-sized properties, as it tosses snow a distance of about twenty feet. If you have a large driveway or patio you want to clear, some of that snow is going to fall right back onto it. For clearing sidewalks, stoops, or smaller or medium-sized driveways, though, it's a great tool. The thrower cuts a 12-inch swath as it moves along, enabling most users to clear a 1,000 square foot area covered by four inches of snow in about 20 minutes.
Pros: Minimizes effort and backache, quickly clears shallower snowfall, lightweight
The Lifeline Aluminum Sport Utility Shovel weighs less than 1.5 pounds and folds down to just over 2 feet long, making it perfect for storing in the trunk of a car.
This low-priced, compact, and multipurpose shovel can be stowed in the trunk, in a closet, or just about anywhere else. It's lightweight (approximately 1.3 pounds) and it can adjust from 25 to 32 inches in length, allowing for comfortable use by people of varied height.
The blade is smaller than that of most traditional snow shovels, but it can still scoop up more than enough snow to clear the stoop and steps outside your home, to carve out a narrow footpath, and to help you dig your car out of the snow.
Because this shovel is so compact, don't expect to use it for large snow-clearing jobs. The handle is quite short and it will be rough on your back to use for more than a quick stair job or digging out your tires. Think of this as more of an emergency-preparedness tool than an everyday snow shovel.
Pros: Compact size ideal for storage in car or closet, adjustable handle length, low price point
Cons: Too small for serious shoveling jobs
The best on a budget
Suncast
The Suncast Snow Pusher Snow Shovel isn't fancy, but it is effective. For the person who prefers a durable, functional tool over a newfangled, gimmicky product, this is the snow shovel to choose.
The Suncast Snow Pusher Snow Shovel doesn't have a unique, ergonomic handle design. It doesn't have wheels, a motor, or anything fancy. What this shovel does have is the ability to help you safely and comfortably move and toss hundreds of pounds of snow as quickly as you can.
The Suncast Snow Pusher Snow Shovel measures 51-inches long, giving you plenty of leverage as you lift it to toss away snow. The ribbed shaft improves hand-grip and is made with a steel core, so it won't bend even under the strain of wet, heavy snow.
The shovel blade has a protective galvanized metal strip across the edge and is fabricated from rugged polyethylene. The deep scoop of the shovel allows you to lift large volumes of snow with each heft, but the shovel can also be used to simply push lesser accumulations of snow off of a sidewalk or driveway.
Pros: Basic but reliable, long and sturdy handle, works as shovel or pusher
Cons: Blade catches easily on some surfaces
The best snow pusher
Manplow
The extra-wide blade of the Manplow REV42 Revolution Snow Pusher can clear 42-inch swaths of sidewalk, driveway, patio, and more in a single pass.
The Manplow REV42 Revolution Snow Pusher is not technically a snow shovel — it's not designed to lift and toss scoops of snow. Instead, it is an extra-wide tool for clearing a 42-inch swath of snow in a single pass.
The broad polyethylene blade is designed not to damage the surface, so you can use the REV42 on cobblestone, brick, wood, etc, yet it's rugged enough to shove heavy loads of snow aside without bending your body.
For quickly clearing most driveways and walkways, it's hard to beat a big snow pusher like this. If the snow piles up more than seven or eight inches high, the REV42 becomes less effective, as snow spills over the top of the blade.
That said, for most suburban homes or for clearing swaths of city sidewalk, the Manplow REV42 Revolution Snow Pusher is a great alternative to a more traditional shovel. And thanks to its clever reversible blade, it will serve you for years, too: When the edge of the pusher becomes too worn down and uneven to be effective, just remove the blade, flip it upside down, and enjoy a like-new snow tool.
Pros: Clears huge swath in one pass, reversible blade extends working life, will not damage terrain
Cons: Not effective with deep snow, not for scooping
How to choose the right shovel
When choosing the best snow shovel for your property, first think about yourself. If you have any physical issues due to age, injury, or illness, then opt for a tool that uses wheels, focused leverage, or even a motor to help minimize the effort needed to move that snow. The ergonomic snow shovel and electric snow shovel we recommend above should be your first picks.
If you're healthy, a more traditional snow shovel might be fine, but you still need to consider the volume of snowfall you'll be facing and the terrain at hand.
Even a fit person can be overwhelmed by hours of shoveling and should consider an efficient tool, even if it costs more. Keep in mind that a bigger shovel is not always better — a shovel that's too wide for your narrow stoop might be counterproductive, for example.
Before snow falls, lay down some salt on the area you'd need to shovel to prevent ice from forming. If safe to do so, try to shovel during snowfall rather than waiting for it to accumulate toward the end.
High-quality snow blowers make quick work of clearing snow, require minimal muscle, and serve you through many winters. But they are an investment, so you'll want one that performs well season after season. These are the best snow blowers.
High-quality ice melt is effective in temperatures well below zero. It melts ice quickly while keeping it from refreezing, and it won't do damage to your property. These are the best snow and ice melts you can buy.
With a great pair of winter boots on your feet, snow, ice, and the frigid temperatures won't stop you from having fun or getting your work done. These are the best men's winter boots.
All too often, women's winter boots put fashion above function and you end up with cold wet feet. We tested dozens of winter boots to find the best ones for warmth, style, and comfort. These are the best winter boots for women.
The automakers have been working together for decades, but amid numerous challenges to the auto industry — most recently the coronavirus pandemic — their collaboration has intensified.
Consolidation in the auto industry is overdue, but big carmakers have stalled, hesitatin to risk capital on electric vehicles and autonomous mobility.
COVID-19 has shown the industry that it can survive a major disruption, however, so we should expect more alliances and possibly more outright mergers to take place in the next decade.
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the global auto industry faced a period of unprecedented change. Many automakers weren't dealing with it very well, practicing the well-honed art of kicking the can down the road on everything from electrification to self-driving vehicles.
Ironically, the near-total shutdown of worldwide production has shown Big Auto that can actually endure a significant, unforeseen crisis — and motivated the industry to grapple with the dreaded "disruption" it had been avoiding.
This week, General Motors and Honda announced that they would develop an alliance, extending several decades of cooperation that has intensified in recent years as the automakers jointly invested in Cruise, the GM-affiliated autonomous ride-hailing startup now valued at around $20 billion, and pledged to create two new electric vehicles using GM's new Ultium battery technology.
What's interesting about the alliance, then, isn't the fact of its existence. It's that the newly signed "memorandum of understanding" outlines a North American alliance.
Honda has been selling and manufacturing vehicles in the US for decades; GM, the number one US automaker by sales volume, has been around for more than a century. The North American market, comprising the US and Canada, is the world's most competitive.
But it has also calcified in terms of market share. GM leads with just under 20% of new vehicle sales. Honda has a little more than 15%. The percentages never change much, and long-term, going back to the 1950s, GM has seen its once-dominant 50% share steadily eroded.
The new GM is really, really new
GM and Honda are collaborating on the development of the Cruise Origin autonomous shuttle.
Cruise
Taking share and defending share in this market is staggeringly expensive. And for most of its history, leading up to its 2009 bankruptcy, GM fought for share like no other automaker. Chapter 11 radically revised that attitude, and the efforts of CEO Mary Barra and her leadership team to turn GM into a more agile and effective 21st-century competitor have meant that while market share continues to matter — GM won't needlessly surrender profitable pickup-truck sales — capturing market opportunities matters more.
Enter the alliance with Honda. Effectively, GM is going to help out a competitor in its own backyard.
"An alliance in North America between Honda and GM would leverage the best technologies and generate substantial cost efficiencies from shared vehicle platforms and propulsion systems, joint purchasing, potential manufacturing efficiencies and other collaboration efforts," GM said in a statement. "This would enable both GM and Honda to make greater investments in advanced and next-generation technologies."
Alliances in the car business have a bumpy track record. Daimler's merger with Chrysler was a disaster, leading to ruinous ownership by private-equity firm Cerberus before Chrysler's 2009 bankruptcy and takeover by Fiat. The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, established in 1999 and often pointed to as an example of successful global cooperation, has been in shambles since its architect, chairman Carlos Ghosn, was arrested in Japan in 2018 on allegations of financial malfeasance. (He later staged a dramatic escape.)
The pre-COVID bottom line was that with the electric and autonomous businesses in gestation — EVs constitute just about 1% of worldwide sales, while no autonomous effort has yet generated any significant revenue — carmakers were staring down the unappetizing prospect of both grappling with Marchionne's indictment and finding the resources to keep pace with rapid-growth new entrants like Tesla.
For a gigantic company like GM, the first priority to prepare for an overdue market downturn. Following the Great Recession, US sales gradually recovered and then surged, setting record or near-record annual tallies from 2015 on. Easy credit, pent-up demand, low gas prices, and a comeback for big SUVs meant that GM was banking over $10 billion a year in profits and building up a fortress-like balance sheet, relatively flush with cash.
But those reserves were largely committed to riding out a market decline and avoiding another Chapter 11 while preserving GM's investment-grade borrowing capability. The secondary management challenge was figuring out how to invest in the future — a future that Barra had unequivocally declared was electric.
With the coronavirus crisis receding, carmakers can shift back to worrying about future
Elon Musk.
Aly Song/Reuters
In numerous conversations with Barra and her team since she got the job in 2014, I heard over and over again that the company wouldn't know how good it was, post-bankruptcy, until it was tested by fire. Then came COVID-19.
Sales have declined, but the damage hasn't been as bad as many thought, and the sense in Detroit is that the market is coming back faster than expected. GM basically lost 100% of production for more than a month, but the preparations it had begun in 2010 proved effective.
That has emboldened GM to tackle the secondary problem, and to take the bold step of giving up on snatching US market share from Honda. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. The upshot is that a GM-Honda alliance would represent roughly 25% of the total US market, although the proposed tie-up is concentrated more on new vehicles than on existing segments.
And while GM and Honda do go head-to-head with many products, Honda is strong in segments that GM would like to get out of, chiefly sedans, while the Japanese automaker lacks the big SUVs and full-size pickups that are GM's US stalwarts.
In other words, neither company loses that much in working together to create new vehicles, and Honda stands to gain if GM uses the alliance to back away from sedans and commit those resources to its goal of launching 22 electrified vehicles by 2023. The Accord and the Civic aren't going anywhere, while the Chevy Malibu is living on borrowed time and the Chevy Cruze has already been put to rest.
Apart from the nuts and bolts of the internal-combustion business, what's actually being shared here is less the opportunity of capturing new markets for EVs than the risk of developing vehicle platforms for that market — platforms that have to endure for potentially decades.
In this sense, GM is in the driver's seat, because Honda should be plugging into GM's Ultium efforts. Think of Ultium like an EV's operating system: the more Ultium GM can sell, badged with one of its brands or one of Honda's, the more profitable the investment should be. Honda can stop worrying about catching up on EVs (where it lagged) and ride along with GM, acting as a sort of copilot and providing GM access to some of that aforementioned US market share.
GM and Honda aren't alone on commencing a post-corona consolidation. Ford and VW have been intensifying their collaboration, although VW's share of the US market is far lower than Honda's (VW is a leader in Europe and China, however). FCA and Peugeot are expected to complete a 50-50 merger early next year, under the name Stellantis.
Marchionne was correct in his grim diagnosis of the legacy auto industry's addiction to capital. COVID-19 made his jeremiad impossible to ignore. As 2020 closes out, with the pandemic having decimated global vehicle sales but, crucially, not killed off any big automakers, the industry has collectively realized that now is the time to address its addiction to waste, overproduction, and redundancy and get serious about building transportation for the 21st century.
Nobody wants to go out of business — so almost everybody is going to work together. We'll see if the ugly history of automaker alliances recurs. But for now, the great compression has begun.
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Alyssa Powell/Business Insider
Representation matters: Exposure to different people and beliefs encourages empathy, acceptance, and perspective-taking.
When you encourage diversity in your children's books early, you facilitate their social-emotional intelligence.
Here are 13 children's books that feature protagonists of color and explore themes like empowerment, sharing, empathy, and cultural pride.
Undoing generations of systemic, damaging attitudes toward people of color is an enormous undertaking that is paramount to their health, safety, and quality of life. One small way you can contribute to this ongoing movement is by encouraging your children to talk and think about race. My family lives in a diverse city, but I still feel day-to-day as though we are not always exposed to or doing our most to talk about diversity or racism. This is why I make sure my children's library is full of books that feature protagonists of color, so they see and hear the things that make us similar and different.
This list includes some of the books that my children — almost 2 and 5 years old — enjoy reading. Sometimes a character's background is central to the story. Other times, it's not a focus at all.
The value of representation in your child's library is substantial. These stories frequently explore salient themes like empowerment, sharing, empathy, mental health, and cultural pride. Unlike other popular children's books, the main characters in these stories are more likely to be portrayed in STEM or leadership roles. And these books give voice to authors and illustrators of color who are typically underrepresented in the literary world. There are 11 and 5 on this list, respectively.
The books below are diverse, informative, and vividly illustrated — all the best things a picture book for children can be. Some of the titles came into our lives organically and have been enjoyed over and over. Some are new acquisitions that were thoroughly researched based on recommendations by teachers. They were all chosen because of the beauty of their characters, inside and out. If your toddler can handle non-board books, introduce these (and others like them!) as early as you can.
This is a beautifully told and illustrated story of Omu (pronounced AH-moo), who makes her best stew ever and then shares it with neighbors and friends as they drop in one by one for a taste. When there is no stew left for Omu, an impromptu feast is born, with special dishes from all of her thankful stew recipients. I love the images featured in a paper cutout style, and the way Omu's kitchen plays against the city backdrop.
"Leila in Saffron" by Rukhsanna Guidroz
Amazon
"Leila in Saffron" by Rukhsanna Guidroz available at Amazon for $11.99
Leila is at her grandmother's house and on the search for things that make her feel good about herself. She finds that the love of her family, the pride of cooking a good meal, and the beauty of her grandmother's saffron scarf all make her feel special. A glossary at the end helps with the pronunciation of some Arabic words woven throughout the bright colors and patterns of the story.
"Mae Among the Stars" by Roda Ahmed
Amazon
"Mae Among the Stars" by Roda Ahmed, available at Amazon for $14.29 and Barnes & Noble for $15.99
A quiet tale about real-life astronaut Mae Jemison's early childhood challenges of asserting her desire to go to space, I love this book for its spotlight on an incredibly smart, driven woman in STEM almost as much as its message that if you "dream it, believe it, and work hard for it, anything is possible." A page at the end offers a brief bio of the real Mae's lifelong achievements, solidifying that mantra as fact.
"Alma and How She Got Her Name" by Juana Martinez-Neal
Amazon
"Alma and How She Got Her Name" by Juana Martinez-Neal, available at Amazon for $13.19 and Barnes & Noble for $14.39
Alma doesn't love that her name has so many, well, names! But by the end of this book, she is excited to know all of the fascinating ancestors she shares them with, and it is a delight to take that journey with her. Combined with the illustrations that feel like flashbacks to the time each ancestor was alive, this is a wonderful opportunity to learn briefly about different Latinx traditions and histories.
"Jabari Jumps" by Gaia Cornwall
Amazon
"Jabari Jumps" by Gaia Cornwall, available at Amazon for $15.50 and Barnes & Noble for $14.49
It's not always easy for kids to process their emotions, and fear is a BIG one. Jabari's dad is thoughtful and supportive while Jabari reckons with the high diving board, and we get to see how he eventually meets his goal from different perspectives at the pool. A quick and easy read about perseverance, this would be a great tool for talking to your little one about confronting their own fears.
"Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story" by Kevin Noble Maillard
Amazon
"Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story" by Kevin Noble Maillard available at Amazon for $12.99 and Barnes & Noble for $16.99
A Best Picture Book on about a dozen lists in 2019 and 2020, Maillard and illustrator Juana Martinez-Neal (yes, from No. 4 on this list!) combine simple prose with round, doughy, subtle depictions of all the new and old elements that make fry bread special: color, time, history, art, place, and you, among other things. A deep look at the cultural roots of fry bread, this story is abstract in many ways and the illustrations emanate so much love that even younger toddlers can see that sharing really is caring.
"The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats
Amazon
"The Snowy Day" by Ezra Jack Keats available at Amazon for $13.63 and Barnes & Noble for $16.49
Quiet Peter has quite a day enjoying the new snow that has blanketed his neighborhood, but I don't have to tell you that since this book has been a classic since it was first published in 1962. Enjoy this sweet tale of a boy on a snowy city adventure with your kids, or without.
"A Big Mooncake for Little Star" by Grace Lin
Amazon
"A Big Mooncake for Little Star" by Grace Lin available at Amazon for $14.99 and Barnes & Noble for $16.99
Written as a way to share the importance of the Asian holiday Mid Autumn Moon Festival with Lin's own daughter, the focus of this story is Little Star's love affair with the big mooncake her mama made. When Mama eventually discovers that the once full moon(cake) has been whittled down to a crescent before being completely consumed, you can almost feel her quiet joy. The black pages of this book create an all-consuming backdrop for the bright yellow of Little Star's pajamas, blanket, and later, her crumbs.
"Sofia Valdez, Future Prez" by Andrea Beaty
Amazon
"Sofia Valdez, Future Prez" by Andrea Beaty available at Amazon for $15.03 and Barnes & Noble for $16.99
Sofia serves as a wonderful example for young friends wondering how they can make a difference in their communities, and how to motivate others to believe in you as much as you believe in yourself. I love the intersectionality of this story and others in this series from Beaty and illustrator David Roberts, including Ada Twist, Scientist, which features a young black girl who loves solving mysteries in science.
"We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga" by Traci Sorell
Amazon
"We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga" by Traci Sorell available at Amazon for $14.49
This is a very loaded book that features Cherokee vocabulary words, including their phonetic pronunciations, symbols, and English translations. Told chronologically, this story and the accompanying illustrations depict how a Cherokee family adapts with the changing seasons, including what they celebrate, eat, plant, and create. Younger children will love looking at all the busy people, while older children may have an easier time relating to the book's discussion of gratitude.
"The King of Kindergarten" by Derrick Barnes
Amazon
"The King of Kindergarten" by Derrick Barnes, available at Amazon for $11.99
This bright, fun story piles on themes of self-esteem about as high as they can go. Barnes' prose helps young friends feel confident and ready for kindergarten, with palpable excitement about the day. He offers a brief glimpse at the structure of a real-life school day, which I also love for my almost-kindergartener. Modeled by the eponymous King, this is a strong lesson in self-confidence, via an author who has made a career of empowering young black children through his literature.
"The Proudest Blue" by Ibtihaj Muhammad with S.K. Ali
Barnes & Noble
"The Proudest Blue" by Ibtihaj Muhammad with S.K. Ali, available at Amazon for $21.34 or Barnes & Noble for $16.49
Muhammad is known largely for being the first woman to wear a hijab while competing for the United States in the Olympics, and now she can add storyteller to her list of achievements. Unsurprisingly, this story is all about pride, in yourself and your heritage, as our main character, Faizah, watches her sister wear her first hijab on the first day of a new school year. I love the delicate descriptions of the experience of wearing your first hijab, and the bright, almost emotional illustrations that are paired with them.
"Last Stop on Market Street" by Matt de la Peña
Amazon
"Last Stop on Market Street" by Matt de la Peña, available at Amazon for $14.90 and Barnes & Noble for $16.99
Precocious CJ has a lot of big, important questions for his grandmother during the trip back to their neighborhood after church. His experience is different (and in many cases, more difficult) than others', but his grandmother replies with optimism and her deep laugh. CJ has many opportunities to interact with a wide variety of people — the blind person who hears and smells their way around the city, for example — and it is not lost on me the value of having conversations about privilege and perspective with my own city babies. This author/illustrator team released another subtly challenging story in 2018, "Carmela Full of Wishes," also worth checking out.
Costco stores have been the site of several contentious encounters over masks.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Police in Boston Heights, Ohio, are looking for a man they say pepper sprayed a Costco manager over the store's mask policy, Cleveland.com reported.
The man had refused to wear a mask and was being escorted out of the store when he pepper sprayed the manager in the face, police said.
Costco was one of the first major retailers to require masks in stores. Still, its stores have been the site of several violent encounters that have circulated widely on social media and in the news.
Police are searching for a man that witnesses say pepper sprayed a Costco manager over the store's mask policy, Cleveland.com reported.
The incident took place on Thursday in a Costco store in Boston Heights, Ohio, and was shared on a Facebook page by the police department of nearby town Bedford. The post referred to the suspect, a man dressed in all black and "cargo style tactical pants and tactical boots," as "the Moronic Macer."
According to Cleveland.com, the man had refused to wear a mask and was being escorted out by the store manager when he pepper sprayed the manager in the face. He then ran from the store, the news site said, citing police.
The Boston Heights Police Department did not immediately return Business Insider's requests for further comment.
Costco was one of the first major retailers to roll out a mask policy due to the coronavirus pandemic, making it mandatory for customers to wear face coverings in stores beginning in May. In Ohio, masks are required in public places.
"We know some members may find this inconvenient or objectionable, but under the circumstances we believe the added safety is worth any inconvenience," Costco CEO Craig Jelinek said when the policy was announced in May.
Growing evidence shows that wearing a mask can help reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Still, masks have become a highly contentious issue in the US, sparking intense debate and sometimes violent encounters.
