SUMMARY

FERRARI TO MAKE 80% HYBRID AND FULL-ELECTRIC RANGE BY 2030

06

FIRM BEHIND POPULAR US DOLLAR STABLECOIN TO LAUNCH EURO COIN

12

INTERNET, CELLPHONE OUTAGE CUTS KNOCKS RURAL ARIZONA OFFLINE

22

COURT: AMAZON CUSTOMERS CAN SUE OVER LACK OF TOXIC WARNINGS

32

THIS IS HOW A HIGHER FED RATE COULD AFFECT YOUR FINANCES

40

FLORIDA UTILITY AIMS TO ELIMINATE CARBON EMISSIONS BY 2045

54

CHAOS REIGNS IN ‘JURASSIC WORLD: DOMINION’

64

‘SQUID GAME’ ADAPTED AS NON-FATAL REALITY SERIES FOR NETFLIX

78

M2 PROCESSOR - WWDC22: APPLE SILICON POWER GOING EVEN FURTHER

86

COINBASE GLOBAL PLANS TO CUT 1,100 JOBS, OR 18% OF STAFF

110

CYBERSECURITY COURSES RAMP UP AMID SHORTAGE OF PROFESSIONALS

114

BROADBAND EXPANSION HAS COMPANIES LOOKING TO RECRUIT

132

UPS TESTS TINY BATTERY-POWERED CYCLES IN CONGESTED CITIES

138

COMPANY TESTS HIGH-ALTITUDE AIRSHIP OVER NEW MEXICO DESERT

142

AUTOMAKERS ASK CONGRESS TO LIFT ELECTRIC VEHICLE TAX CAP

150

US REPORT: NEARLY 400 CRASHES OF AUTOMATED TECH VEHICLES

158

TESLA PROPOSES A 3-FOR-1 STOCK SPLIT; ELLISON TO LEAVE BOARD

166

SO LONG, INTERNET EXPLORER. THE BROWSER RETIRES

170

THE S&P 500 IS IN A BEAR MARKET; HERE’S WHAT THAT MEANS

176

SPACEX CLOSER TO LAUNCHING GIANT ROCKETSHIP AFTER FAA REVIEW

188

SAVINGS INCENTIVES: HOW 401(K)S GET US TO DO THE RIGHT THING

194

HOW TO AFFORD SUMMER ROAD TRIPS AMID HIGH GAS PRICES

200

QUALCOMM WINS ANTITRUST CASE AGAINST EU COMMISSION

208

CHINA’S FACTORY ACTIVITY REBOUNDS AS ANTI-VIRUS CURBS EASE

212

INTERIOR PHASING OUT PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES AT NATIONAL PARKS

216

FERRARI
TO MAKE
80% HYBRID
AND FULLELECTRIC
RANGE
BY 2030

Italian luxury sportscar maker Ferrari on
Thursday outlined an electrification strategy
that calls for 40% full-electric vehicles and 40%
hybrid models by 2030.
CEO Benedetto Vigna confirmed that the first
electric car will be presented in 2025, with the
first deliveries the following year.
Now, just four Ferrari models, or 20% of the
range, are hybrid cars. Its first hybrid model was
the limited edition La Ferrari launched in 2013,
capitalizing on Formula 1 technology.
Image: Laurent Cipriani

06

07

Vigna, a former technology entrepreneur who
joined Ferrari as CEO nine months ago, said the
electrification strategy is “highly relevant.”
“Not only it is required by emissions regulations,
but most importantly, we believe we can use
the electric engine to enhance the performance
of our cars, as we did already with our hybrid
Ferrari,” he said at an analyst presentation.
As Ferrari expands its model range, the car
company based in the northern Italian city of
Maranello said it would unveil the long-awaited
Purosangue utility vehicle in September.
Bearing the Italian name for thoroughbred, the
Purosangue will represent no more than 20% of
vehicles produced during its cycle.
In all, Ferrari plans to launch 15 new models
from 2023 to 2026, including a new highperformance supercar.

08

09

FIRM BEHIND
POPULAR
US DOLLAR
STABLECOIN
TO LAUNCH
EURO COIN

12

13

14

Cryptocurrency company Circle said that it
will start issuing its first euro-denominated
cryptocurrency, a stablecoin known as Euro Coin,
later this month.
It would be the first stablecoin in euros — the
world’s second-most-important reserve currency
after the U.S. dollar — backed by a large player
in the industry and could potentially become
a major conduit for moving cryptocurrencies
throughout Europe.
The stablecoin, meaning it’s backed by hard
assets, is launching at a time of major declines in
the value of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, which
has led crypto firms to fail and erase billions of
dollars of digital wealth. That has led to calls for
government regulation, which the European
Union is getting close to approving.
Circle owns and operates USD Coin, the
second-most-popular stablecoin in the
industry, with more than $54 billion sitting in
that coin. The most popular is Tether, which has
a market capitalization over $70 billion.
Stablecoins have become an increasingly
important part of the cryptocurrency market,
acting as a bridge between traditional financial
services like banks and those who want to
invest or lend in bitcoin or ethereum. They are
typically backed by hard assets, like cash, gold
or safe government bonds and are typically
priced as one coin for one unit of a particular
type of currency.
USDC is backed 1-for-1 by cash and short-term
Treasurys. The new Euro Coin will be backed
entirely by euros held in euro-denominated
bank accounts, Circle said.

15

16

The company is launching Euro Coin amid
turmoil for cryptocurrencies. The third-largest
stablecoin, Terra, collapsed in May in a matter
of days. Terra was not backed by hard assets,
like Tether or USDC are, and instead relied on
an algorithm to keep its $1 value in check.
The firm Celsius, with more than $10 billion
in deposits, effectively failed this week, and
customer deposits have been locked up in the
company’s accounts with no timetable on when,
or if, customers will get their funds back.
Circle’s USDC has been a popular place for
cryptocurrency investors to move their
investments during the turmoil. The total
number of USDC in circulation has increased
from $49 billion at the beginning of May to more
than $54 billion as of this week, according to
Coinmarketcap.com. In the same time, Tether’s
circulation has declined from $83 billion to
roughly $71.5 billion.
“This is actually, in some ways, it’s a great time to be
launching products,”Jeremy Allaire, the CEO and
co-founder of Circle, said in an interview.“The market
turmoil has been a really positive catalyst for USDC. It
has been the flight to safety for crypto.”
Circle’s Euro Coin will be tradeable on some of major
crypto exchanges, including Binance, starting on
June 30.
The European Union has been working on
regulations for cryptocurrencies and other crypto
assets like stablecoins.
The bloc’s commissioner for financial services and
stability, Mairead McGuinness, said that the Terra
crash and Celsius’problems highlighted the need for
crypto rules.
17

They’re also necessary to help enforce
Western sanctions on Russia amid worries that
cryptocurrencies could be used to evade them,
she said.
The EU rules “will be the right tool to address
the concerns on consumer protection, market
integrity and financial stability,” she said.
The regulations include measures to
tackle market manipulation and prevent
money laundering, terrorist financing and
other criminal activities. They also contain
requirements to clearly spell out the risks and
costs for consumers.
EU lawmakers have drafted proposed
legislation that needs agreement from the
bloc’s Parliament and 27 member countries,
which is expected soon.

18

19

INTERNET,
CELLPHONE
OUTAGE CUTS
KNOCKS
RURAL
ARIZONA
OFFLINE

A telecommunications outage over the weekend
left swaths of rural northeastern Arizona without
internet or phone connections, knocking out
credit card processors and, in some cases, easy
access to emergency services.
The outage caused by sabotage of a Frontier
Communications fiber line left local officials in
Navajo and Apache counties fuming about what
they called a pattern of problems that leave
people out of touch and potentially vulnerable.
“You go from 2022 to the 1800s,” said Lance
Spivey, police chief in St. Johns, a small town near
the New Mexico border that lost services.
22

23

A spokeswoman for Frontier says the company
worked to restore service as quickly as possible.
The troubles began around 3 p.m. on Saturday
(11), when someone shot a crucial fiber line in
three places across 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) near
Woodruff in Navajo County. The outage knocked
out internet and cellphones that use Frontier’s
infrastructure across much of the area. Service
returned intermittently until being fully restored
on Monday (13), Spivey said.
The outage left many people temporarily out of
touch. First responders kept their radios on at
home in case they had to be called into service,
Spivey said.
Spivey said St. Johns and other rural communities
have struggled for years with prolonged
communication failures that he blames on
Frontier. He has asked state regulators at the
Arizona Corporation Commission to begin
proceedings that could lead to sanctions against
the company. The company agreed in March to
take a variety of steps to improve reliability after
the commission determined 911 services were
out in Frontier territory for a cumulative 66 hours
during the year ending in April 2021.
“It’s just tragic that Frontier will put dollar signs
before people’s lives and are jeopardizing
police police, fire and EMS personnel,
ambulance personnel, paramedics,” Spivey
said. “We take an oath and we live by that oath
to protect our communities, and when our
partner has a key component and doesn’t keep
up, we lose sleep at night.”
Chrissy Murray, a spokeswoman for Frontier, said
its customers lost 911 access for only 1 hour and 3
minutes on Sunday while crews were repairing the
24

25

26

broken line. But she said other service providers,
such as cellphone companies, had longer outages.
“We have long been committed to providing this
critical infrastructure to St. Johns,” Murray said. She
said the company has “offered to discuss network
redundancy” with regulators and the industry to
improve reliability.
The company is offering a $10,000 reward for help
convicting the person who shot the lines, she said.
The Navajo County Sheriff’s Office used two
dedicated cellphones to field 911 and nonemergency calls, along with radio links to other
911 centers, said Chief Deputy Brian Swanty.
That restricted dispatchers to one 911 call at a
time and cut off services like call recording and
geolocating the caller, he said.
On the first day of the outage, Navajo
County dispatchers fielded at least 60 calls
from people seeking welfare checks when
they couldn’t get ahold of their loved ones,
Sheriff David Clouse said.
Crews running the Coronado Generating Station
struggled to reach on-call experts when the
coal fire power plant experienced a “moderately
common equipment failure” on Saturday, said
Erica Roelfs, a spokeswoman for Salt River Project,
which operates the plant.
“We were able to resolve the issue relatively
quickly, however the equipment repair process
would have happened faster and smoother if we
had ease of communication,” Roelfs said.
Breonna Ellington said the lack of phone service
prolonged an already stressful situation Sunday
when her 5-year-old daughter was injured while
playing. She drove a half-hour to the nearest
27

28

hospital, where she waited four hours for staff
to figure out how to get in touch with Phoenix
Children’s Hospital and find out if the pediatric
medical center could treat the injuries.
With the internet down, gas stations were unable
to accept credit card payments. Fortunately, she
said, her husband had cash to buy gas for the fourhour drive to Phoenix.
“It’s scary, and this shouldn’t be a problem that we
have,” Ellington said. “It shouldn’t be happening. I
just hope they get it fixed. I’m so glad that my little
girl was OK. I hope they get it fixed so this doesn’t
happen to any other parent who isn’t as lucky to
have her be OK.”
Rep. Tom O’Halleran, a Democrat who represents
the area, asked the Federal Communications
Commission to investigate.
The agency received the letter and is reviewing
it but doesn’t disclose whether specific matters
are under investigation, said Katie Gorscak, a
spokeswoman.
“However, the Commission under Chairwoman
Rosenworcel has been especially focused on
investigating and enforcing violations of our
911 and outage reporting rules,” Gorscak said.

29

32

COURT: AMAZON
CUSTOMERS
CAN SUE OVER
LACK OF TOXIC
WARNINGS

33

The California Supreme Court has left intact a
ruling that allows customers to sue Amazon.
com for failing to warn buyers that some
products it sells may contain hazardous
substances such as mercury.
The court in its decision Wednesday denied a
request by Amazon’s lawyers to review a lower
court ruling that said Amazon violated the
state’s Proposition 65, which requires companies
to warn consumers about products they make
or sell that contain chemicals known to cause
cancer, reproductive harm or birth defects.
The case involved a lawsuit filed in Alameda
County that said the online retail giant
knowingly allowed skin-lightening creams to
be sold on its website for years despite being
aware of concerns about toxic mercury levels in
such creams.
Mercury can harm pregnant women and their
fetuses. The suit alleged that some of the
products produced by third parties but sold on
Amazon contained mercury levels that were
thousands of times the U.S. federal legal limit.
Amazon said in a statement Thursday that
safety is a top priority and that the products in
question have long since been removed.
“We require that all products comply with
applicable laws and regulations, and we
have proactive measures in place to prevent
suspicious or non-compliant products from
being listed and we monitor the products sold
in our stores for product safety concerns,” the
statement said.
The Supreme Court’s action allows the previous
court ruling to be used as precedent in
state courts.
34

35

36

However, California has such a large market
share that any actions Amazon takes to comply
with Proposition 65 could have a much wider
impact on consumers, said Rachel Doughty, a
plaintiff’s attorney in the suit.
“That could look like removal of products
containing carcinogens or reproductive toxins
from Amazon’s site, or Amazon taking measures
to ensure that a warning is provided ... so
consumers can take steps to avoid exposure to
such chemicals,” Doughty said in an email.
The lawsuit was dismissed in 2019 by a judge
who found Amazon was protected by a section
of the federal Communications Decency Act that
shields websites from liability for content posted
by other parties.
In March, however, a state appeals court said
Amazon doesn’t merely act as a place for
retailers to list their available merchandise but
actively stores, sells and ships them.
A drugstore that sold the same creams would be
required to issue Proposition 65 warnings, the
ruling said.

37

Simply Better Living

SUPERSTEAM+
BUILT-IN WALL OVEN
™

SSC2489DS

The Sharp® SuperSteam+ Built-In Wall Oven is the start of
a cooking revolution. With Wi-Fi enabled IoT features, the
innovations within this steam oven are a perfect match
for modern cooking needs.
While regular steam only reaches 212°F, the SuperSteam+
oven can create superheated steam up to 485°F. Steam
this hot can roast meats and caramelize sugars so your
food can be brown and crispy on the outside, tender and
juicy on the inside. With the Sharp SuperSteam+ Oven,
you can grill without smoke, roast without drying, and get
the roasty-toasty, tasty results you desire.

SEE FOR
YOURSELF

Get started right away with built-in recipes and
download the Sharp SuperSteam+ Oven app* to
enable the smart features and access custom
recipes powered by SideChef.

The new Sharp SuperSteam+ Built-In Wall Oven
features Steam Bake for superior breads, and Water
Bath for cheesecakes, custards and puddings.

www.sharpusa.com | simplybetterliving.sharpusa.com
*Mobile Application and Home Assistant Skill available upon commercial release. © 2020 Sharp Electronics Corporation. All rights reserved. Sharp, Supersteam™ Oven
and all related trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sharp Corporation and/or its affiliated entities. Product specifications and design are subject to
change without notice. Internal capacity calculated by measuring maximum width, depth and height. Actual capacity for holding food is less.

40

THIS IS HOW A
HIGHER FED RATE
COULD AFFECT
YOUR FINANCES

41

Record-low mortgages are long gone. Credit card
rates will likely rise. So will the cost of an auto
loan. Savers may finally see a noticeable return.
The unusually large t hree-quarter point hike in
its benchmark short-term rate that the Federal
Reserve announced Wednesday won’t, by itself,
have a huge effect on most Americans’ finances.
But combined with earlier rate hikes and
additional large increases to come, economists
and investors foresee the fastest pace of rate
increases since 1989.
The result is increasingly higher borrowing
costs as the Fed fights the most painfully high
inflation in four decades and ends a decadeslong era of historically low rates.
Chair Jerome Powell hopes that by making
borrowing more expensive, the Fed will succeed
in cooling demand for homes, cars and other
goods and services and slow inflation.
Yet the risks are high. With inflation likely to stay
elevated, the Fed may have to drive borrowing
costs even higher than it now expects. A series
of higher rates could tip the U.S. economy
into recession. That would mean higher
unemployment, rising layoffs and continued
pressure on stock prices.
How will it affect your finances? These are some
of the most common questions being asked
about the impacts of the rate hike.

I’M CONSIDERING BUYING A HOUSE.
WILL MORTGAGE RATES KEEP GOING UP?
Rates on home loans have soared in the past
few months, mostly in anticipation of the Fed’s
moves, and will probably keep rising.

42

43

44

Mortgage rates don’t necessarily move up
in tandem with the Fed’s rate increases.
Sometimes, they even move in the opposite
direction. Long-term mortgages tend to track
the yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which,
in turn, is influenced by a variety of factors.
These include investors’ expectations for future
inflation and global demand for U.S. Treasurys.
For now, though, faster inflation and strong
U.S. economic growth are sending the 10-year
Treasury rate up sharply. As a consequence, the
national average for a 30-year fixed mortgage
has jumped from 3% at the start of the year to
well above 5% now.
In part, the jump in mortgage rates reflects
expectations that the Fed will keep raising its
key rate. But its forthcoming hikes aren’t likely
fully priced in yet. If the Fed jacks up its key rate
even higher, as expected, the 10-year Treasury
yield will go much higher, too, and mortgages
will become more expensive.

WILL IT STILL BE TOUGH TO FIND
A HOUSE?
If you’re looking to buy a home and are
frustrated by the lack of available houses, which
has triggered bidding wars and eye-watering
prices, that may get a little easier soon.
Economists say that higher mortgage rates will
discourage some would-be purchasers. And
average home prices, which have been soaring
at about a 20% annual rate, could at least rise at
a slower pace.
Sales of existing homes have fallen for six
straight months. New home sales have also

45

slumped. Those trends are modestly boosting
the supply of available properties.

I NEED A NEW CAR. SHOULD I BUY
ONE NOW?
Fed rate hikes can make auto loans more
expensive. But other factors also affect these
rates, including competition among car makers
that can sometimes lower borrowing costs.
Rates for buyers with lower credit ratings are
most likely to rise as a result of the Fed’s hikes.
Because used vehicle prices, on average, are
rising, monthly payments will rise too.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO MY
CREDIT CARD?
For users of credit cards, home equity lines of
credit and other variable-interest debt, rates
would rise by roughly the same amount as the
Fed hike, usually within one or two billing cycles.
That’s because those rates are based in part on
banks’ prime rate, which moves in tandem with
the Fed.
Those who don’t qualify for low-rate credit cards
might be stuck paying higher interest on their
balances. The rates on their cards would rise as
the prime rate does.
The Fed’s rate increases have already sent credit
card borrowing rates above 20% for the first time
in at least four years, according to LendingTree,
which has tracked the data since 2018.

HOW WILL THIS AFFECT MY SAVINGS?
You may earn a bit more, though not likely
by very much. And it depends on where your
savings, if you have any, are parked.
46

47

48

Savings, certificates of deposit and money
market accounts don’t typically track the Fed’s
changes. Instead, banks tend to capitalize on a
higher-rate environment to try to increase their
profits. They do so by imposing higher rates
on borrowers, without necessarily offering any
juicer rates to savers.
This is particularly true for large banks now.
They’ve been flooded with savings as a result of
government financial aid and reduced spending
by many wealthier Americans during the
pandemic. They won’t need to raise savings rates
to attract more deposits or CD buyers.
But online banks and others with high-yield
savings accounts could be an exception. These
accounts are known for aggressively competing
for depositors. The only catch is that they
typically require significant deposits.

HOW WILL THE HIKE INFLUENCE CRYPTO?
Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin could become a
little less attractive to many investors.
While bitcoin prices were mostly unchanged
after the Fed’s announcement, crypto prices
had declined in the days leading up to the
central bank’s move. They dropped by a third in
seven days.
Higher interest rates mean that safe assets like
bonds and Treasuries become more attractive
to investors because their yields are now higher.
That, in turn, makes risky assets like technology
stocks and cryptocurrencies less attractive.
All that said, bitcoin is suffering from its own
problems that are separate from economic
policy. Two major crypto firms have failed in
49

the span of a month. The shaken confidence of
crypto investors is not being helped by the fact
the safest place you can park money now —
bonds — seems like a safer move.

WILL MY STUDENT LOAN PAYMENT
GO UP?
Right now, payments on federal student
loans are paused until August 31 as part of an
emergency measure put into place during the
pandemic. Inflation means loan-holders have
less disposable income to make payments, but
a slowed economy that reduces inflation could
bring some relief by fall.
The government may choose to extend the
emergency measure deferring payments at
the end of summer, depending on the state
of the economy. President Joe Biden is also
considering some form of loan forgiveness. For
those taking out new private student loans,
prepare to pay more. Rates vary by lender, but
are expected to increase.

50

51

FLORIDA
UTILITY
AIMS TO
ELIMINATE
CARBON
EMISSIONS
BY 2045

Florida’s largest electricity provider has
announced plans to eliminate its carbon
emissions by 2045 by halting its fossil fuel usage
and greatly increasing its reliance on solar
energy, including using it to turn water into
hydrogen to power its generating plants.
Florida Power & Light, which serves 5.7 million
homes and businesses or about half the state,
said the multibillion dollar plan will not result
in any price increases beyond what would be
anticipated normally.
54

Image: Phelan M. Ebenhack

55

56

FPL’s parent company, NextEra Energy, said
in its announcement this week that when its
“Real Zero” plan is fully implemented 23 years
from now, 83% of the utility’s electricity will be
generated by solar, including “green hydrogen,”
or come from battery storage from periods
when excess power is produced.
Green hydrogen is a process where solar power
is used to break apart water molecules into
hydrogen and oxygen. That hydrogen is then
used as a fuel source, eliminating the company’s
use of natural gas. Most of the solar facilities will
be built on converted, unused farmland in the
central part of the state.
The company says another 16% of FPL’s power
will be generated by its two current nuclear
plants and 1% from renewable natural gas,
which is created from biomass such as plant
waste. It has set five-year goals starting in 2025
that it says will allow environmental groups and
others to audit its progress. The plan still must
be approved by the state utility commission.
FPL spokesman Chris McGrath said that the
plan is a continuation of the company’s move
since 2001 to reduce its carbon emissions. At
that time, about a quarter of its electricity was
generated by burning oil and coal, but that has
been eliminated in Florida. A Georgia coal
plant in which FPL owns a 25% stake will close
by 2028.
Today, about two-thirds of FPL’s power comes
from natural gas, which generates carbon
emissions but less than oil and coal. Another
20% comes from nuclear, 4% from solar, while
the rest comes from the Georgia plant and
other sellers.
57

“This is a goal that we are setting because
we think the technology exists and it can be
done in a cost-effective way for our customers,”
McGrath said. Wind power will not be used in
Florida because that would require purchasing
expensive coastal property to erect turbines,
a move that would also be opposed by the
tourism industry.
Rising levels of greenhouse gases are increasing
global temperatures and fueling extreme
weather, from wildfires to violent storms. The
burning of coal, oil and natural gas for energy
production is a major contributor and U.N.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned
that the public is “firmly on track toward an
unlivable world,” unless emissions fall faster than
countries have previously committed.
Harrison G. Fell, a senior researcher at Columbia
University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, said
FPL can reach its goals by 2045, “but it won’t
be without challenges and some of the interim
targets may be more difficult to meet.”

58

59

For example, he said, FPL’s goal to double
its solar production by 2025 could run into
problems finding supplies and production sites
and then connecting those sites to the grid. He
said the Biden administration’s policies that have
lowered tariffs on imported solar equipment
should help, but rising prices for raw materials
could hamper FPL’s plan.
Still, he said, eliminating its use of natural gas
might benefit FPL as the fuel’s price is soaring
and could remain high.
“If that’s the case, becoming less natural gas
reliant is not only a good environmental move
by FPL, but may also prove to be a good longrun, low-cost energy production strategy as
well,” Fell said.
NextEra’s stock was selling at around $74
per share, up about $2.50 or 3.5% after
the announcement.

60

61

CHAOS REIGNS
IN ‘JURASSIC
WORLD:
DOMINION’

The enduring, collective love for “Jurassic
Park” is immensely hard to explain. Steven
Spielberg’s 1993 film implanted itself into our
cultural consciousness as a kind of platonic
ideal of a blockbuster. And it wasn’t just the
10-year-olds having a formative experience at
the movie theater. Most everyone, it seems,
including those who were adults at the time
and those who wouldn’t be born for another
decade or more, has a story about just how
much that movie means to them. It doesn’t
even matter how many times you watch it, or
how much better special effects get: “Jurassic
Park” never tarnishes, it just remains perfectly
preserved in amber.
64

65

66

Jurassic World Dominion - Official Trailer [HD]

67

68

It’s hard to fault anyone for trying to recapture
that magic — a filmmaker, a studio, or an
audience looking for a fun time at the movies.
Even Spielberg himself had trouble. But now,
somehow, we’re six movies and three decades
in and about as far as one could get from the
spark that made that first one so special as we
supposedly bid farewell to the “Jurassic World”
era with “ Jurassic World: Dominion.”
I can’t say I didn’t have some real fun with
“Dominion.” There is an exceedingly well-done
motorcycle chase through the streets of Taos,
immense pleasure in watching Sam Neill, Laura
Dern and Jeff Goldblum together again and
the fun addition of a hotshot pilot played by
DeWanda Wise. And there is wall-to-wall action
that makes the almost two and a half hour
runtime go by swiftly. But I also can’t say that I
didn’t burst out laughing several times at parts
that were not designed to be funny.
“Jurassic World: Dominion” is a chaotic mishmash
on an epic scale and, believe it or not, the
dinosaurs (who look great) are almost beside the
point. After the events of “Jurassic World: Fallen
Kingdom,” dinosaurs are just...around. There’s
even a black-market operation in Taos that is
so elaborate, you’d think we were 30 years into
a post-dino dystopia and not just several years
after dinos escaped into the wild. But, again,
“Dominion” isn’t really about the dinosaurs. It’s
about locusts and tech giants.
A company called Biosin is the big bad here
and it’s run by a man named Lewis Dodgson
(now played by Campbell Scott) who, you might
recall, was the guy looking to buy the embryos
in the first film.
69

Jurassic World Dominion | Trailer 2 [HD]

70

71

72

Dodgson has morphed from a sweaty Gordon
Gekko-type on vacation into a Steve Jobs-ian
visionary who is still up to no good and after
profits. Dern’s Ellie Sattler suspects that they’re
behind a locust epidemic that’s destroying all
the food that isn’t grown with Biosin seed and
decides to use it as an excuse to team up with
Neill’s Alan Grant again for the first time in years.
Conveniently, Biosin is also where Goldblum’s
Ian Malcolm is an in-house public intellectual.
And they’re also looking for the clone girl, Maisie
(Isabella Sermon), from the last film. She’s been
in hiding with Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire
(Bryce Dallas Howard) for the past few years.
There is a lot of elaborate wheel-spinning and
globetrotting to get everyone to the Biosin
headquarters in the Dolomites, a Bond villian
complex that’s surrounded by a dino sanctuary.
It’s a lot of people too. At some points, there
are eight running from dinosaurs together.
Oddly, this doesn’t have the effect of upping the
stakes. It’s more like watching a tour group at
an experiential amusement park exhibit, which
might have something to do with the lingering
problem that it may not be fun to watch the
dinosaurs run amok anymore, no matter how
big they’ve gotten.
Colin Trevorrow is back in the director’s
chair and shares a writing credit with Emily
Carmichael, who adds value and wit to the
proceedings, but it’s hard to say what it all adds
up to. It’s fun at times and silly at others. But
it doesn’t course correct enough to redeem
this franchise or bring it back to Earth. “Jurassic
World” started too big. There was nowhere to
grow, except at the box office.
73

It was a Hail Mary to bring back the “Jurassic
Park” originals. But their big meeting with the
“Jurassic World” cast has the unintended effect of
reminding how little we have come to care about
the new cast. It’s not really their fault. Pratt and
Howard have some good moments here too, but
their characters got flattened somewhere along
the way. And there is just no competition when
the originals are there being charming.
At one point, Goldbum’s chaotician Ian
Malcolm quips “Jurassic World? Not a fan.” He’s
talking about the failed amusement park that
kickstarted the new trilogy, but it’s also so onthe-nose you have to applaud everyone behind
it, from the filmmakers to the studio. They’re
waving goodbye with a laugh.
“Jurassic World: Dominion,” a Universal Pictures
release in theaters Thursday, is rated PG-13 by
the Motion Picture Association of America for,
“language, intense sequences of action, some
violence.” Running time: 146 minutes. Two stars
out of four.

MPAA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material
may be inappropriate for children under 13.

74

75

‘SQUID GAME’
ADAPTED AS
NON-FATAL
REALITY
SERIES FOR
NETFLIX

78

79

80

81

A reality show inspired by Netflix’s hit series
“Squid Game” is coming to the streaming
service, but with far less dire consequences
promised for contestants.
In the South Korean-produced drama, players’
lives were at stake. With “Squid Game: The
Challenge,” the “worst fate is going home
empty-handed,” Netflix said Tuesday in
announcing the reality show.
The 10-episode competition will include 456
players vying for a “life-changing reward of
$4.56 million,” Netflix said in a release. They’ll
compete in games inspired by the drama
series along with new challenges aimed at
whittling down the field.
“For this round, the Front Man is in search
of English-language speakers from any part
of the world,” the release said, a reference to
the overseer of the drama’s deadly game. The
game show, which will be filmed in Britain, is
recruiting contestants online.
A release date for the new show was not announced.
The original series pitted hundreds of
players with financial woes against each
other in a violent contest for a potential
multimillion-dollar prize. Losers were killed
throughout the contest.
The drama is deemed by Netflix as its most
popular, with more than 1.65 billion hours
viewed in the first 28 days after its September
2021 premiere. It’s been renewed for season
two with series creator and director Hwang
Dong-hyuk aboard, Netflix said.

82

83

86

M2 Processor
WWDC22: Apple Silicon
power going even further

87

At this year’s WWDC, Apple lifted the lid on the
next generation M-series chip: M2, which extends
the remarkable features of M1, with industryleading power efficiency, a unified memory
architecture, and custom technologies that unlock
a whole host of possibilities for the Mac.

88

89

INTRODUCING THE M2 CHIP
Apple changed the game for the Mac when it
announced the M1 chip in 2020, and since the
launch of the first MacBook Pro and Mac mini,
we’ve come a long way. Alongside the launch
of the M1 Pro and the M1 Max, we’ve recently
seen the launch of the first M1-powered iPad,
and the M1 Ultra, which offers professional
computing performance for the next generation
of videographers, coders, and professionals.
The M1 was built on the architecture of the A14
chip used for the iPad and iPhone, doubling the
performance of the CPU cores, GPU cores, and
memory bandwidth to make them compatible
with the next-generation of Mac devices. In early
benchmarks, the M1 outperformed virtually
every Intel-based Mac ever made, even the
Mac Pro, and Apple has used the power of
the new chip to refresh its entire Mac lineup,

90

recently introducing an all-new MacBook Air,
and previously an overhauled iMac desktop. In
short, M1 changed the way both consumers and
professionals thought about the Mac, with some
technology critics suggesting that the M1 chip
“saved Apple’s computing lineup.”
It’s been more than a year and a half since the
launch of the first M1 computer, and now it’s
time for Apple to lift the lid on what’s next. It’s
unlikely that we’ll see a new M-series chip every
year as we do with the iPhone; instead, an
18- to 24-month M-series refresh cycle will be
introduced to help Apple keep its Mac range at
the top of its game. Appearing first in the new
MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro is the
M2 chip - if the M1 was the A14, the M2 is the
A15 chip. It’s made from billion transistors, 25
percent more than M1, and though it still uses
the same 5nm manufacturing process as its

91

92

93

predecessor, it features an “enhanced” process
that’s designed to increase performance. Apple
says that the M2 doubles the high-performance
CPU cores from the A15, for an eight-core setup
of four high-performance cores and four highefficiency cores, and with a shared L2 cache
increasing from 12MB to 16MB, clock speeds
will likely go a little higher on the M2. The
efficiency cores on the new chip have the same
cache as the M1 but have been given other
architectural improvements, which helps give
the M2 an 18% greater CPU performance than
the M1, putting the chip on par with a Ryzen 7
3800X desktop CPU, but with around 20% of its
power consumption.

94

With the M2 chip, Apple has doubled the GPU
cores from the A15, so it’s available with up to
10 GPU cores, though the entry-level device
has only 8 GPU cores enabled. By having 25%
more GPU cores, it could be argued that you’d
expect 25% better performance, but the truth
is that most graphics performance tasks are
limited by memory bandwidth. That’s where
M2 really comes into its own: Apple says its GPU
performance is up to 35 percent better than M1,
though power consumption has increased as a
result. In its marketing material for the new chip,
Apple says that the M2 is 2.3 times faster than
the Intel Core i7-1255U at the same power level,
and early Geekbench data would suggest
that this is the case, though the i7-12700KF

95

96

97

98

and i9-11900K just beat it with a single-core
score of 1872 and 1878 respectively, compared
to the M2’s 1869.
Though the M2 can be easily compared to the
A15 chip, the transition from M1 to M2 does
not work in the same way as the transition
from A14 to A15 when it comes to the memory
subsystem. The A14 and A15 have the same
main memory subsystem specs: a 64-bit wide
LPDDR4x interface. The M1 doubled that to 128
bits wide and stuck with LPDDR4x, for a peak
of 68.25GB/s, whereas the M2 makes jumps to
LPDDR5x, which boosts memory bandwidth
to 100GB/s. This gives us some idea of where
Apple could be headed when it launches the
M2 Pro and M2 Max chips in 2023 - they might
hold 50 percent more memory bandwidth than
the M1 Pro and Max, clocking in at 400GB/s and
800GB/s respectively, which could blow any
other processor out of the water and make the
Mac users’ first choice.
The new M2 chip indeed features more CPU,
GPU, and RAM than the M1 chip, but it’s all of
the system-on-chip features combined that
really make the new M2 special. The Neural
Engine, for example, features 16 cores and
can now perform up to 15.8 trillion operations
per second, up from 11 trillion on the M1,

99

100

101

whilst the media engine has been upgraded
and supports H.264 and HEVC encoding and
decoding up to 8K resolution and includes the
ProRes video acceleration support. It’s also
been reported that advanced video editing
is possible on these entry-level MacBook
Air models, which is truly revolutionary and
makes the M2 chip a truly exceptional piece of
engineering. When Apple does eventually get
around to adding the M2 to its more advanced
machines, like the Mac Pro and MacBook Pro,
we’ll likely see some impressive rendering
benchmarks that save users lots of time. Of
course, the transition from Intel to M1 is much
more dramatic than the transition from M1
to M2, but the features and enhancements
are still useful. What will perhaps be most
interesting is to see Apple’s evolution towards

102

the M2 Pro, M2 Max, and M2 Ultra chips, and
where the firm could be headed beyond that.
Apple’s already been teasing the launch of a
new Mac Pro, likely to be released this year,
alongside refreshed MacBook Pro models.

THE 13-INCH MACBOOK PRO WITH M2
Although the MacBook Air was the star of the
show at this year’s WWDC, complete with an
all-new design, the 13-inch MacBook Pro was
also handed some new features. It was an
unusual move for Apple, as it’s transitioned
its MacBook Pro family away from the 13-inch
design and added a bunch of new features,
but it’s thought that the Cupertino company
wants to continue to offer an entry-level Pro
model to appease professionals. There are no
design changes to this iteration of the device,

103

104

and MagSafe is not supported, but the machine
offers a faster 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU,
working with RAW images in apps like Affinity
is nearly 40 percent faster than the previous
generation, and up to 3.4x faster for users who
are upgrading from a model without Apple
silicon. Apple also says that playing games on
the new 13-inch MacBook Pro should be better
- playing graphics-intensive games like Baldur’s
Gate 3 is also nearly 40 percent faster than the
previous 13-inch MacBook Pro, the company
said, whilst the device now supports up to 24GB
of unified memory — along with 50 percent
more memory bandwidth to make multitasking
a breeze.
The new model supports ProRes encode and
decode in the media engine of M2, so users can
play back up to 11 streams of 4K and up to two
streams of 8K ProRes video, and convert their
video projects to ProRes nearly 3x faster than
before. The 13-inch MacBook Pro also offers
phenomenal battery life with up to 20 hours of
video playback, making it the ideal on-the-go
machine for modern developers, videographers,
photographers, and more.

105

The transition toward M2 is the next step
in Apple’s Mac timeline. With its entire
range of computers (bar the Mac Pro)
more advanced than ever before, we
can’t wait to see how M2 will further
revolutionize computing, creating more
powerful, capable machines for all of us.
106

107

COINBASE
GLOBAL PLANS
TO CUT 1,100
JOBS, OR 18%
OF STAFF

Coinbase Global says it plans to cut about
1,100 jobs, or approximately 18% of its global
workforce, as part of a restructuring in order to
help manage its operating expenses in response
to current market conditions.
The cryptocurrency trading platform said in a
regulatory filing that it expects to have about
5,000 total employees at the end of its current
fiscal quarter on June 30.
The company reported last month that active
monthly users fell by 19% in the first quarter amid
110

111

112

the decline in crypto values. Cryptocurrencies
soared early in the pandemic as ultralow
rates encouraged some investors to pile into
the riskiest investments. Bitcoin, the largest
cryptocurrency by market cap, has tumbled and
briefly fell below $21,000 in Asia this week, down
from a peak of $68,990 late last year.
Coinbase estimates that it will incur about $40
million to $45 million in total restructuring
expenses, mostly related to employee severance
and other termination benefits.
The restructuring plan is anticipated to be
substantially complete in the second quarter.
The remote-first company was founded in 2012
and has no headquarters. It went public just
over a year ago, in April 2021, by listing its stock
directly and skipping the traditional process of
hiring underwriters. Shares closed on the first
day at around $328, the stock lost 7% to $48.40.

113

114

CYBERSECURITY
COURSES
RAMP UP AMID
SHORTAGE OF
PROFESSIONALS

The pressure was on. Someone, somewhere,
was attacking computer systems so customers
couldn’t reach certain websites. In a windowless
room in Denver, Zack Privette had worked all
morning with his security team to figure out
what the cyber strangers were up to.
“What’s happened is that we have an attacker
who has been going through our different
websites and they found a vulnerability into
our active directory and …,” Privette explained
to Richard Mac Namee, identified as chief
operating officer of the company under attack.
115

“OK, I’m not technical. What does that mean?”
interrupted Mac Namee, who is really the
director of the new Cybersecurity Center at
Metropolitan State University of Denver. And
he’s actually quite technical.
This was a simulation.
The makeshift “Cyber Range” command center
inside MSU Denver’s Cybersecurity Center had
multiple TV screens showing ominous maps of
live cyber threats. It’s part of a unique training
ground for students, recent grads and people
who don’t even attend the college but are
interested in cybersecurity careers.
Privette, who isn’t an MSU student, got to
experience the Cyber Range program because
it’s open to outsiders. The industry needs more
outsiders. According to one estimate, there are
66 cybersecurity professionals for every 100 job
openings nationwide. It’s tighter in Colorado,
where there are 59 for every 100. And demand is
growing faster than training programs like MSU
can graduate.
Mac Namee is behind the school’s Cybersecurity
Center and getting the school designated as
a National Centers of Academic Excellence in
Cyber Defense in March. A former commander
in the United Kingdom’s Special Forces who’s
worked as a specialist in counterterrorism, Mac
Namee keeps it practical. During the simulation,
he pretends to be an ordinary company
executive. Students must figure out how to
explain the cyber mayhem to non-techies —
and fast!
“It is a giant database that … holds their DNS
server. And what a DNS server does is when you
type in Google.com, it will change that to the IP
116

117

118

address that the computer actually reads. That
went down, which is why people are not able
to access websites correctly,” Privette told Mac
Namee. “That was down at 3:30:29. We have
since brought it back up at 3:44.”
“So, 14 minutes of outage,” Mac Namee said.
“Fourteen minutes with our athletes and the
way they’re trying to log on, that’s quite a big
problem. How will we resolve this?”
Privette went on to explain that there was a
backup so the data is safe. But he acknowledged
the attackers were still inside the system and his
team was now trying to figure out if data had
been stolen. His team thinks credentials were
taken, but he doesn’t think the theft involved
customers’ personally identifiable data, he said.
Mac Namee gave him an hour to figure it out.
— How it’s going
Targeted training programs have been popping
up nationwide for the past decade as nearly
every business with a website, ecommerce
offering or other internet-based operation must
deal with data breaches, ransomware and other
cyber threats.
According to the Identity Theft Resource Center,
which tracks breaches and supports victims, the
number of publicly reported data breaches in
the U.S. more than doubled since 2015 to 1,862
last year. Regulations in Colorado and around
the globe also put the onus on companies to
protect customers’ personal data.
Back in 1999, partly to address the lack of
qualified professionals, the U.S. National
Security Agency launched its National Centers
of Academic Excellence program. It certifies
119

schools with a cybersecurity curriculum for
cyber research, defense education and cyber
operations. There are now about 380 colleges
and universities in the U.S. Such designations
require standardized cybersecurity curriculum,
active challenges and professional development.
There are 13 schools in Colorado and include
state, community and private colleges.
The partnership with industry and MSU
Denver is credited to Mac Namee, said Steve
Beaty, a professor in the school’s computer
science department. While Beaty started
teaching cybersecurity courses in 2004, a
cybersecurity degree debuted just four years
ago. The new center and partnerships with
private cybersecurity companies such as Atos,
a European information technology firm that is
now taking up space in the facility, really took off
after Mac Namee arrived.
“He had the bandwidth. Some of us haven’t had
the bandwidth to do a lot of this stuff. Atos is
due to him,” Beaty said. “Richard is the one who
put the fire under what’s going on here.”
And looking at the heat map of cybersecurity
job openings at CyberSeek.org, the U.S. needs it.
In the past 12 months, 714,548 cybersecurity
jobs were posted in the U.S. according to
EMSI Burning Glass, a firm that analyzes job
openings and labor data. EMSI partnered with
the Computing Technology Industry Association
(CompTIA) and the National Initiative for
Cybersecurity Education on the CyberSeek effort
to document the need for more trained workers.
Colorado, among the top 10 states with the
most openings, had 25,761 as of April.

120

121

122

“The field is just growing so fast that even if
we churn out many graduates, which we have
seen a significant uptick in, it still often doesn’t
keep pace with the growth in demand,” said Will
Markow, an EMSI Burning Glass cybersecurity
expert. “We’ve seen about a 40%-50% increase
in the number of graduates from cybersecurity
programs across the country. The problem is
that during the same timeframe, demand for
cybersecurity workers grew about twice that rate.”
— Retraining employers to rethink hiring
The industry has a number of unique issues
that compound the shortage, Markow said.
New threats erupt all the time, so the industry
is constantly scrambling. Workers need a mix
of different IT skill sets plus credentials, some
that require years of experience. That makes
it difficult for those starting out who have
no experience.
“Employers are also not offering many
opportunities for people who either don’t have
a bachelor’s degree or who don’t have at least
three to five years of prior work experience,”
Markow said. “What that means is that there
aren’t many entry level opportunities (and that)
presents a unique challenge for building the
pipeline of cybersecurity workers.”
Cybersecurity jobs stay open 20% longer than
other tech jobs, which are already notoriously
hard to fill, he added. And because of the
required degrees and certifications, the jobs pay
about $15,000 more compared to other IT jobs.
Government agencies are more open to hiring
skilled workers without college backgrounds.
That’s true with the state Governor’s Office of
Information Technology. A paid apprenticeship
123

for veterans requires “some IT experience but
no degree,” said Ray Yepes, Colorado’s chief
information security officer.
“It’s also worth noting that for the majority of
OIT positions we will accept years of experience
as a substitute for education,” Yates said in
an email.
With the growth of college programs, boot
camps and other training programs, Markow
said that it’s up to companies to adjust hiring
requirements if they really want to fill openings
and feed their own talent pipeline.
“I think that really the question is whether
employers are going to be receptive (and) hire
those workers,” he said. “They’re learning the
right skills for cybersecurity. What we need are
employers to also recognize that they need
to take more of a skills-based lens towards
recruiting cybersecurity workers as opposed to a
credential- or experience-based lens which they
have done historically.”
— How it went
While security simulations were happening in
one part of the room at MSU Denver, in another,
Nathan Shelley was at work. Literally. The recent
MSU graduate with a Bachelor of Science in
cybersecurity was hired by Atos as an intern just
before his December graduation. He became
a full-time employee May 30. Atos is a massive
European IT firm based in Paris.
“We monitor public-sector clouds,” said Shelley,
who grew up in Estes Park and was drawn to
MSU Denver because of its new cybersecurity
degree. “We are responsible for monitoring
log traffic and determining if there are false
positives or true positives.”
124

125

126

Shelley was monitoring computer systems of
actual government agencies that hire Atos to
make sure what is stored in the internet cloud
isn’t being compromised. Security analysts
like Shelley spend hours watching the online
activity and thanks to artificial intelligence
and monitoring tools, they get alerts when
something is awry and must determine if the
issue is real.
That may not seem very exciting but a cheery
Shelley speaks enthusiastically about his gig,
which includes plugging holes discovered only
after software was released. In other words, bugs
born on day zero that online mischief makers are
constantly hunting for.
“Probably the most active that I’ve been this
week was yesterday when we were patching for
a recently discovered CVE, that is a vulnerability
with Follina, it’s a proliferating, zero-day
exploit,” he said. “This is very widespread for the
Microsoft environment. It’s an Office 365 zeroday vulnerability so that means (the software)
was released with the vulnerability. It’s now
flaring up in the cybersecurity realm. It allows
remote code execution and that can be done
through a certain domain.”
Microsoft had not yet issued a fix for Follina,
named after an Italian village with a postal code
that was found in the exploit.
The MSU Cybersecurity Center is a resource for
others, too. Helping potential IT workers get
hired is the mission of ActivateWork, a nonprofit
IT recruiting and training organization that
connects employers to the overlooked talent.
“We believe the traditional hiring process
leaves extremely valuable talent out.
127

We help employers solve talent gaps by
finding underrepresented candidates and
preparing them to excel in new careers,” said
Susan Hobson, the nonprofit’s director of
apprenticeships and evaluation.
Its first-ever 15-week security fundamentals
course culminated last week with MSU
Denver’s Cyber Range simulation. Hobson
said ActivateWork focuses on the workforce
employers need.
“We know that cybersecurity has a gap, especially
here in the Denver area,” she said. “If you look at
local area labor data, there were 13,000 open
cybersecurity jobs as of March this year. We knew
the need was there and we drive our course
offerings based on local employer needs.”
ActivateWork’s learners aren’t typical students.
Most don’t have a college credential. Many are
unemployed or are looking for a better job in
IT. The recent cohort of security fundamentals
graduates left with CompTIA A+ certification
and over 100 hours of soft skills and life skills
training including resume reviews, interview
prep and financial capability training. After
graduation, ActivateWork helps them find a job
in the field and coaches them for 12 months as
they transition into a career.
The organization also has a registered
apprenticeship program with the U.S.
Department of Labor and works with area
employers to hire graduates from their
boot camps. Three of the 20 graduates start
cybersecurity apprenticeships this month,
and ActivateWork is always looking for more
companies to partner with to build a talent
pipeline in cybersecurity.
128

129

130

“They’re struggling to hire because they’re
looking for individuals with three to five years of
experience,” Hobson said. “This is a way to equip
talent through 12-months of on-the-job learning
with the exact skills an employer needs.”
Privette, who was part of the MSU Denver
cybersecurity simulation, stopped the bug from
wreaking more havoc. They brought back the
websites and, well, he hopes he continues to
keep learning more. He is very excited to start
his ActivateWork cybersecurity apprenticeship
as an information security analyst.
“I’ve been wanting to get into this since high
school and I feel like ActivateWork has really
given me the opportunity to pursue it,” said
Privette, an electrician until he fell from the
ceiling at one client location. “I didn’t have the
money to afford college. And then I didn’t really
realize the path to get to it (cybersecurity). I
didn’t want to be an electrician forever. Falling
through the ceiling gave me the opportunity to
pursue this.”

131

BROADBAND
EXPANSION HAS
COMPANIES
LOOKING TO
RECRUIT

Bridging the digital divide has become a priority
for Louisiana since the COVID-19 pandemic
put a spotlight on the crucial role high-speed
internet plays in the state’s education and
economic systems.
Using federal funds, the state launched a $180
million program last year to provide underserved
areas with high-speed internet. In March the
Acadiana area welcomed Vice President Kamala
Harris to Ville Platte to announce another $30
million federal grant to build fiber internet across
11 rural towns in the area.
Although major federal investments are aiming
to bridge that gap, the funds can only go so far
without an increase in the number of workers
132

133

134

capable of building and installing high-speed
internet infrastructure, The Advertiser reported.
“We have so much work today that we
can’t keep up. We’d almost have to double
our workforce without taking on any new
clients,” said Nathan Carbo, who runs internet
infrastructure company System Services
alongside his wife Kristin Carbo.
“I need 30 people yesterday,” he added.
It’s a similar story for LUS Fiber, particularly
after the city-owned telecom was awarded $21
million of that $30 million federal grant earlier
this year and is asking for a $19 million piece
of the state’s $180 million GUMBO program to
expand in other rural Acadiana communities.
“It’s hard finding the workers that want to work
in the house and that can do the critical thinking
side of troubleshooting this technology, but
also be skilled enough to do the operational
side of running those cables, dressing it in and
making sure it looks nice, plus have that customer
experience so that they can articulate how to use
the product,” LUS Fiber Director Ryan Meche said.
“So, there are a lot of pieces.”
But the issue is presenting an opportunity to
invest in local communities and to develop a
workforce that can capitalize on the need for
workers who can install and repair high-speed
internet infrastructure.
“Why don’t we invest in our local communities
and create jobs locally with all that we’re doing?,”
Nathan Carbo said.
To that end, both the Carbos and Meche are
working with South Louisiana Community
College to launch a new fiber-optic install
135

technician program this summer to meet the
expanding workforce needs of the region
and help residents develop skills to launch
their careers.
“We’ve been working with the industry now for
just a little over two years to design a program
that is versatile enough to produce entry level
employees into each aspect of this industry,”
SLCC’s Director of Transportation, Distribution, &
Logistics Charlotte LeLeux said.
The school’s new fiber optic technician program
is expected to launch at SLCC’s Crowley campus
in July, LeLeux said, with room for about 25 to 30
students to complete the 18-20 week course.
It will cover how to splice fiber optic cables,
how to hang cable on telephone poles, how
to operate installation equipment and other
skills. The goal will be to cover everything from
construction to putting fiber in the home,
LeLeux said, “so that when they’re hired on by
these companies, their training with them would
be very minimal.
“That would be a win for the college, a win for
the student and a definite win for our industry
partners,” she said.
Ideally, that collaboration is a path to building
gainful employment opportunities locally, while
also developing a workforce to meet the needs of
increasingly connected communities in Acadiana.
“We’re getting involved at the right time, so we
can start building the (workforce) pipeline, start
seeing what’s working, so that, in so many years,
we’ll have a continuous pipeline,” Meche said.
“It will be good for everybody,” he added. “I think
it’ll create higher paying jobs, better quality of
life. I think everyone’s gonna win from it.”
136

137

UPS TESTS
TINY BATTERYPOWERED CYCLES
IN CONGESTED
CITIES

The sleek four-wheeled carts look familiar
enough, but not even UPS knows precisely how
to describe what could be the delivery giant’s
latest way to get packages to your door.
UPS unveiled a battery-powered, four-wheeled
cycle to more efficiently haul cargo in some
of the world’s most congested streets and to
reduce its carbon footprint. The company is
trying to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.
The slimmed-down vehicles don the company’s
gold-colored logo and accompanying stripe on
a dark brown background. But the “eQuad” — as
the company calls it — garnered amusement
from passersby.
Ian Lagowitz had never seen one and walked
over to give it a look.
138

139

140

“It’s funny looking,” he said, “but it’s probably
good for the city, right?”
Mohammad Islam called the vehicle “cool stuff,”
and wished the program well.
“Big trucks always blocking the traffic,” he said,
“so if they do that kind of stuff, it’s 10 times
better for everybody.”
The pedal-powered vehicle was dwarfed by
one of the company’s more traditional delivery
trucks, which rumble through traffic and
sometimes draw the ire of motorists trying to
get by parked trucks on narrow streets.
Delivery companies have tried all sorts of ways
to deliver packages — from traditional vans to
drones. The company now has a fleet of more
than 1,000 electric vehicles and thousands more
that aren’t powered by traditional gas engines.
UPS said a trial run is focused on New York City
and in several cities in Europe.
“New York is a complicated city, when we look
at the density,” said Nicole Pilet, the industrial
engineering director for UPS. “So if we can have
success here in the city, then we can see how we
implement in other cities throughout the U.S.”
The company had its start in Seattle more than
a century ago and the first deliveries were made
by foot or bicycle. As the company grew, its
motorized fleet did, too.
“This is right in my wheelhouse,” said Dyghton
Anderson, a 22-year-old UPS delivery person
and an avid cyclist who is helping pilot the
program. “I ride to and from work — from all the
way from the Bronx all the way to here on 43rd
— so it’s pretty comfortable for me.”

141

142

COMPANY
TESTS
HIGH-ALTITUDE
AIRSHIP
OVER NEW
MEXICO
DESERT

A technology company that wants to bring
broadband to more remote areas and monitor
methane and other emissions from the oil and
gas industry launched one of its airships from
the New Mexico desert this week as part of a key
test on the way to commercial operations.
Sceye Inc. is developing a high-altitude platform
station that company officials hope will provide
an option other than satellites and airplanes for
boosting internet connectivity and collecting
data on everything from industrial pollution to
wildfire threats.
It took a couple of hours for the unmanned
helium-filled station to reach the stratosphere.
It will maintain its position there for 24 hours,
Image: Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen

143

a milestone that will bring Sceye closer to
commercial operations over the next 18
to 24 months.
Founder and CEO Mikkel Vestergaard
Frandsenand said his team will aim for more
longevity with subsequent flights from their
home base in Roswell.
“Every flight is a big deal but every flight also
is just another step in a process of iterative
learning,” he said during a virtual interview
from Sceye’s hangar where workers were busy
prepping the massive airship for the flight.
Vestergaard Frandsenand said it takes about
eight months to build a station, which consists
of a sleek reflective fabric designed to operate
in the stratosphere at 65,000 feet (19.8
kilometers) above the Earth’s surface.

144

145

Sceye

146

147

NASA several years ago proposed a challenge
that called for designs that could fly higher and
longer than existing airships, with scientists
at the Jet Propulsion Lab in California saying
observations at that altitude could provide
greater clarity. At the time, no airship could
maintain an altitude in the stratosphere for
more than eight hours.
Capable of lifting heavy payloads, Sceye’s
airship runs on solar panels and a bank of
lithium-sulphur batteries.
“Whether we achieve our objective with this
flight or achieve something that’s short of the
objective, we’re going to learn a lot,” he said.
The New Mexico Economic Development
Department pledged up to $5 million in
funding when Sceye announced it would locate
in the state. The company has operations in
Roswell and Moriarty, a small community
near Albuquerque.
Sceye partnered last year with the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency and New
Mexico regulators to study air pollution and
climate change over the coming years.
The state also has been studying accelerated
formats for expanding high-speed internet, and
state officials have said Sceye could play a role
in that effort through a separate multimilliondollar contract.

148

149

AUTOMAKERS
ASK
CONGRESS
TO LIFT
ELECTRIC
VEHICLE
TAX CAP

Major automakers are asking Congress to lift the
cap on how many people can receive tax credits
for buying a hybrid or fully electric vehicle.
Currently the number of tax credits allowed is
capped at 200,000 per company. General Motors
and Tesla have already reached the cap and
Toyota is close to it.
In a letter to leaders of the Senate and House
of Representatives, the chief executives of Ford,
Toyota, GM and Stellantis asked that tax credits
be extended to anyone who seeks to buy a
qualified vehicle.
150

151

152

153

Automakers want the cap lifted until “the EV
market is more mature,” they said, without giving
a time frame.
“Eliminating the cap will incentivize consumer
adoption of future electrified options and
provide much-needed certainty to our
customers and domestic workforce,” the
CEOs wrote.
The request comes as Americans find
themselves financially pinched from all
directions by four-decade high inflation.
Energy prices have been especially bad, with
the average cost for a gallon of gas in the U.S.
breaching $5 this weekend, according to the
auto club AAA.

154

155

156

Automakers said that the tax credit has
allowed them to offer more affordable cars to
people, helping accelerate the adoption of EVs.
However, the companies said recent economic
conditions and supply chain constraints have
raised the cost of manufacturing EVs and those
costs have to passed on to car buyers already
paying more for almost everything.
President Joe Biden has attempted to ensure
the supply of materials needed to produce
electric vehicles continues to flow as the nation
transitions away from fossil fuels.
Biden in April invoked the 1950 Defense
Production Act to boost production of lithium
and other minerals critical in powering
electric vehicles.
Toyota’s plug-in RAV4 Prime small SUV with
42 miles of electric range earns the buyer a
$7,500 credit, the largest available. The Prius
Prime plug-in, with 25 miles of electric range,
gets $4,500.
The letter was signed by GM CEO Mary Barra,
Toyota CEO Ted Ogawa, Ford CEO Jim Farley and
Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares.

157

Image: Rick Bowmer

158

US REPORT:
NEARLY
400 CRASHES
OF AUTOMATED
TECH
VEHICLES

Automakers reported nearly 400 crashes
of vehicles with partially automated driverassist systems, including 273 involving Teslas,
according to statistics released by U.S. safety
regulators this week.
The National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration cautioned against using the
numbers to compare automakers, saying it
didn’t weight them by the number of vehicles
from each manufacturer that use the systems, or
how many miles those vehicles traveled.
Automakers reported crashes from July of
last year through May 15 under an order from
the agency, which is examining such crashes
broadly for the first time.
159

Image: Loren Holmes

160

“As we gather more data, NHTSA will be able to
better identify any emerging risks or trends and
learn more about how these technologies are
performing in the real world,” said Steven Cliff,
the agency’s administrator.
Tesla’s crashes happened while vehicles were
using Autopilot, “Full Self-Driving,” Traffic
Aware Cruise Control, or other driver-assist
systems that have some control over speed
and steering. The company has about 830,000
vehicles with the systems on the road.
The next closest of a dozen automakers that
reported crashes was Honda, with 90, but
Honda says it has about six million vehicles
on U.S. roads with such systems. Subaru
was next with 10, and all other automakers
reported five or fewer.
In a June 2021 order, NHTSA told more than
100 automakers and automated vehicle tech
companies to report serious crashes within
one day of learning about them and to disclose
less-serious crashes by the 15th day of the
following month. The agency is assessing
how the systems perform and whether new
regulations may be needed.
NHTSA also said that five people were killed in
the crashes involving driver-assist systems, and
six were seriously hurt.
Tesla’s crash number also may be high because
it uses telematics to monitor its vehicles and
get real-time crash reports. Other automakers
don’t have such capability, so their reports may
come slower or crashes may not be reported
at all, NHTSA said. A message was left seeking
comment from Tesla.

161

Tesla’s crashes accounted for nearly 70% of
the 392 reported by the dozen automakers.
Although the Austin, Texas, automaker calls its
systems Autopilot and “Full Self-Driving,” it says
the vehicles cannot drive themselves and the
drivers must be ready to intervene at all times.
Manufacturers were not required to report how
many vehicles they have on the road that have
the systems, nor did they have to report how far
those vehicles traveled, or when the systems are
in use, NHTSA said. At present, those numbers
aren’t quantifiable, an agency official said.
However, NHTSA may seek such information
later. In the meantime, the new data has enabled
it to find out about crashes much faster than
before. At present, it’s using the crash data
to look for trends and discuss them with the
companies, the agency said.
Already NHTSA has used the data to seek a recall,
open investigations and provide information for
existing inquiries, officials said. Also, they said it’s
difficult to find out how many drivers actually
use the technology.
“This will help our investigators quickly identify
potential defect trends that can emerge,” Cliff
said. “These data will also help us identify
crashes that we want to investigate and provide
more information about how people in other
vehicles interact with the vehicles.”
Honda said it has packaged the systems to sell
more of them, which could influence its numbers.
“The population of vehicles that theoretically
could be involved in a reportable event is much
greater than the population of vehicles built by
automakers with a less-aggressive deployment
strategy,” the company said.
162

163

Also, reports to NHTSA are based on unverfied
customer statements about whether automated
systems were running at the time of a crash.
Those crashes may not qualify for reporting to
NHTSA after more data is gathered, Honda said.
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which
represents most automakers, said the data
collected by NHTSA isn’t sufficient by itself to
evaluate the safety of automated vehicle systems.
NHTSA’s order also covered companies that
are running fully autonomous vehicles, and 25
reported a total of 130 crashes. Google spinoff
Waymo led with 62, followed by Transdev
Alternative Services with 34 and General Motorscontrolled Cruise LLC with 23.
Waymo, the autonomous vehicle unit of
Alphabet Inc., said it has more than 700
autonomous vehicles in its fleet. The company
is running a fully autonomous ride-hailing
service in Arizona and testing one in California.
The company said all the crashes happened at
low speeds, with air bags inflating in only two
of them.
In 108 of the crashes involving fully autonomous
vehicles, no injuries were reported, and there
was only one serious injury. In most of the
crashes, vehicles were struck from the rear.

164

165

Image: Chris Carlson

166

TESLA
PROPOSES
A 3-FOR-1
STOCK SPLIT;
ELLISON TO
LEAVE BOARD

Tesla proposed a three-for-one split of its stock, a
move that will make a single share of the electric
car maker more accessible to investors but not
affect the company’s overall market value.
Tesla Inc. made the announcement in its annual
proxy statement, which also said Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison will not be standing for
re-election to the company’s board.
The company said in late March that was
planning to split its stock for the second time in
two years. At that time the shares were trading
at over $1,000 each.
167

168

But Tesla’s stock has fallen about 39% since
early April, shortly after its CEO Elon Musk
started raising the idea of buying Twitter.
Shares in the company headquartered in
Austin, Texas, closed at $696.69.
Share splits are used by companies when their
stock price gets too high for retail investors
to buy individual shares, or when a company
wants more shares to exist in the marketplace
to make the stock more liquid to trade.
In its statement, Tesla said it was trying to
accomplish both of these goals: giving its
employees greater quantities of shares as
well as making the stock more accessible to
retail investors.
Musk is planning on using his Tesla shares
as collateral for buying Twitter, as well as
potentially selling down his stake in the
company to help with financing.
Tesla shareholders will vote on the share split at
the company’s annual meeting on Aug. 4.
The company, meanwhile, said Ellison, a major
Tesla investor and friend of Musk’s, will be
stepping down from its board. Ellison was
one of two independent members named to
the board in late 2018 as part of a settlement
with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
which had demanded more oversight of Musk.

169

SO LONG,
INTERNET
EXPLORER.
THE BROWSER
RETIRES

170

171

Internet Explorer is finally headed out to pasture.
Microsoft will no longer support the oncedominant browser that legions of web surfers
loved to hate — and a few still claim to adore.
The 27-year-old application now joins BlackBerry
phones, dial-up modems and Palm Pilots in the
dustbin of tech history.
IE’s demise was not a surprise. A year ago,
Microsoft said that it was putting an end to
Internet Explorer on June 15, 2022, pushing users
to its Edge browser, which was launched in 2015.
The company made clear then it was time to
move on.
“Not only is Microsoft Edge a faster, more secure
and more modern browsing experience than
Internet Explorer, but it is also able to address
a key concern: compatibility for older, legacy
websites and applications,” Sean Lyndersay,
general manager of Microsoft Edge Enterprise,
wrote in a May 2021 blog post.
Users marked Explorer’s passing on Twitter, with
some referring to it as a “bug-ridden, insecure
POS” or the “top browser for installing other
browsers.” For others it was a moment for 90´s
nostalgia memes, while The Wall Street Journal
quoted a 22-year-old who was sad to see IE go.
Microsoft released the first version of Internet
Explorer in 1995, the antediluvian era of web
surfing dominated by the first widely popular
browser, Netscape Navigator. Its launch
signaled the beginning of the end of Navigator:
Microsoft went on to tie IE and its ubiquitous
Windows operating system together so tightly
that many people simply used it by default
instead of Navigator.

172

173

The Justice Department sued Microsoft in 1997,
saying it violated an earlier consent decree by
requiring computer makers to use its browser as a
condition of using Windows. It eventually agreed
to settle the antitrust battle in 2002 over its use of
its Windows monopoly to squash competitors. It
also tangled with European regulators who said
that tying Internet Explorer to Windows gave it
an unfair advantage over rivals such as Mozilla’s
Firefox, Opera and Google’s Chrome.
Users, meanwhile, complained that IE was slow,
prone to crashing and vulnerable to hacks. IE’s
market share, which in the early 2000s was
over 90%, began to fade as users found more
appealing alternatives.
Today, the Chrome browser dominates with
roughly a 65% share of the worldwide browser
market, followed by Apple’s Safari with 19%,
according to internet analytics company
Statcounter. IE’s heir, Edge, lags with about about
4%, just ahead of Firefox.

174

175

THE S&P 500
IS IN A BEAR
MARKET;
HERE’S WHAT
THAT MEANS

176

177

178

Wall Street is back in the claws of a bear market
as worries about inflation and higher interest
rates overwhelm investors.
The Federal Reserve has signaled it will
aggressively raise interest rates to try to control
inflation, which is the highest in decades.
Throw in the war in Ukraine and a slowdown
in China’s economy, and investors have been
forced to reconsider what they’re willing to pay
for a wide range of stocks, from high-flying tech
companies to traditional automakers. Big swings
have become commonplace and this week was
no exception.
The last bear market happened just two years
ago, but this would still be a first for those
investors that got their start trading on their
phones during the pandemic. Thanks in large
part to extraordinary actions by the Federal
Reserve, stocks have for years seemed to go
largely in only one direction: up. The “buy the
dip” rallying cry after every market slide has
grown fainter after stinging losses and severe
plunges in risky assets like cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin fell below $20,100 this week. The price
for Bitcoin neared $68,000 late last year.
Here are some common questions asked about
bear markets

WHY IS IT CALLED A BEAR MARKET?
A bear market is a term used by Wall Street
when an index like the S&P 500, the Dow Jones
Industrial Average, or even an individual stock,
has fallen 20% or more from a recent high for a
sustained period of time.
Why use a bear to represent a market slump?
Bears hibernate, so bears represent a market
179

that’s retreating, said Sam Stovall, chief
investment strategist at CFRA. In contrast, Wall
Street’s nickname for a surging stock market is a
bull market, because bulls charge, Stovall said.
The S&P 500, Wall Street’s main barometer of
health, slid 3.9%. The index fell 22.2% below
its record set early this year and now in a
bear market.
The Dow industrials sank 2.8% and the techheavy Nasdaq composite, which already was in a
bear market, tumbled 4.7%.
The most recent bear market for the S&P 500 ran
from February 19, 2020 through March 23, 2020.
The index fell 34% in that one-month period, the
shortest bear market ever.

WHAT’S BOTHERING INVESTORS?
Market enemy No. 1 is interest rates, which are
rising quickly as a result of the high inflation
battering the economy. Low rates act like
steroids for stocks and other investments, and
Wall Street is now going through withdrawal.
The Federal Reserve has made an aggressive
pivot away from propping up financial markets
and the economy with record-low rates and is
focused on fighting inflation. The central bank
has already raised its key short-term interest
rate from its record low near zero, which had
encouraged investors to move their money into
riskier assets like stocks or cryptocurrencies to
get better returns.
Last month, the Fed signaled additional rate
increases of double the usual amount are likely
in upcoming months. Consumer prices are at
the highest level in four decades, and rose 8.6%
in May compared with a year ago.
180

181

182

The moves by design will slow the economy by
making it more expensive to borrow. The risk is
the Fed could cause a recession if it raises rates
too high or too quickly.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has also put upward
pressure on inflation by pushing up
commodities prices. And worries about China’s
economy, the world’s second largest, have
added to the gloom.

SO, WE JUST NEED TO AVOID A
RECESSION?
Even if the Fed can pull off the delicate task
of tamping down inflation without triggering
a downturn, higher interest rates still put
downward pressure on stocks.
If customers are paying more to borrow money,
they can’t buy as much stuff, so less revenue
flows to a company’s bottom line. Stocks tend
to track profits over time. Higher rates also make
investors less willing to pay elevated prices
for stocks, which are riskier than bonds, when
bonds are suddenly paying more in interest
thanks to the Fed.
Critics said the overall stock market came into
the year looking pricey versus history. Big
technology stocks and other winners of the
pandemic were seen as the most expensive,
and those stocks have been the most punished
as rates have risen. But the pain is spreading
widely, with retailers signaling a shift in
consumer behavior.
The bond market is also having recession jitters.
Overnight, the yield on the two-year Treasury
briefly rose above the yield on the 10-year
Treasury. That inversion of short- and long-term
183

yields has been a reliable indicator of recession
over the years, although the downturn could
follow anywhere from a few weeks to a year or
two later.
Stocks have declined almost 35% on average
when a bear market coincides with a recession,
compared with a nearly 24% drop when the
economy avoids a recession, according to Ryan
Detrick, chief market strategist at LPL Financial.

SO I SHOULD SELL EVERYTHING NOW,
RIGHT?
If you need the money now or want to lock
in the losses, yes. Otherwise, many advisers
suggest riding through the ups and downs
while remembering the swings are the price of
admission for the stronger returns that stocks
have provided over the long term.
While dumping stocks would stop the bleeding,
it would also prevent any potential gains. Many
of the best days for Wall Street have occurred
either during a bear market or just after the end
of one. That includes two separate days in the
middle of the 2007-2009 bear market where the
S&P 500 surged roughly 11%, as well as leaps
of better than 9% during and shortly after the
roughly monthlong 2020 bear market.
Advisers suggest putting money into stocks only
if it won’t be needed for several years. The S&P
500 has come back from every one of its prior
bear markets to eventually rise to another alltime high.
The down decade for the stock market
following the 2000 bursting of the dot-com
bubble was a notoriously brutal stretch, but
stocks have often been able to regain their
highs within a few years.
184

185

186

HOW LONG DO BEAR MARKETS LAST
AND HOW DEEP DO THEY GO?
On average, bear markets have taken 13 months
to go from peak to trough and 27 months to get
back to breakeven since World War II. The S&P
500 index has fallen an average of 33% during
bear markets in that time. The biggest decline
since 1945 occurred in the 2007-2009 bear
market when the S&P 500 fell 57%.
History shows that the faster an index enters
into a bear market, the shallower they tend to
be. Historically, stocks have taken 251 days (8.3
months) to fall into a bear market. When the S&P
500 has fallen 20% at a faster clip, the index has
averaged a loss of 28%.
The longest bear market lasted 61 months and
ended in March 1942. It cut the index by 60%.

HOW DO WE KNOW WHEN A BEAR
MARKET HAS ENDED?
Generally, investors look for a 20% gain from
a low point as well as sustained gains over at
least a six-month period. It took less than three
weeks for stocks to rise 20% from their low in
March 2020.

187

SPACEX
CLOSER TO
LAUNCHING GIANT
ROCKETSHIP
AFTER FAA
REVIEW

SpaceX cleared a key hurdle this week for its
plan to launch a gigantic, futuristic rocketship
into orbit from Texas.
The Federal Aviation Administration concluded
an environmental review of Elon Musk’s
Starship base. The agency saw no significant
environmental concerns, but is requiring more
than 75 actions to reduce impacts to the region.
It’s no guarantee a launch license will be issued
since other factors such as safety and financial
responsibility requirements still must be met at
the Boca Chica site, according to the FAA.
188

189

190

191

192

After the latest news, SpaceX tweeted: “One step
closer to the first orbital flight test of Starship.”
At nearly 400 feet (120 meters), Starship is the
most powerful rocket ever built and meant
to carry people to the moon and Mars. NASA
intends to use it for the space agency’s lunar
landing of astronauts, planned no earlier
than 2025.
While SpaceX has launched Starship’s bulletshaped upper stage several miles (10 kilometers)
into the air over the past year — resulting in
some spectacular explosions — it’s yet to fly it
atop a Super Heavy booster.
Some residents had opposed Starship launches
and landings, citing not only the noise and
closed roads, but also wreckage raining down
from failed flights. As part of the FAA report,
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service insisted on
additional measures, but noted operations were
unlikely to jeopardize endangered species or
their habitat.
The site is located at the southernmost tip of
Texas, about 1,000 miles west of Cape Canaveral
where SpaceX launches astronauts and supplies
to the International Space Station for NASA.

193

SAVINGS
INCENTIVES:
HOW 401(K)S
GET US TO DO
THE RIGHT THING

More workers are following experts’ advice in
saving for retirement, even when finances feel
precarious. It’s happening because 401(k) plans
are using a simple human trait to guide us: our
inclination to do nothing.
More workers are putting more money into their
401(k) accounts, and they’re more often putting
it into a reasonable mix of investments. That’s
according to Vanguard’s latest look at the nearly 5
million accounts of 401(k) and similar plans that it
keeps records on.
Even amid heavy uncertainty about the economy
last year, retirement savers socked away an average
of 7.3% of their pay, not including employer
matches, according to Vanguard. That’s the same
194

195

196

level as a year earlier, when the pandemic first
struck and threw everything into doubt. And it’s
up from 6.9% in 2012. Vanguard recommends
workers save 12% to 15% of their pay, including
any employer match.
More than four out of five workers eligible to
contribute to their 401(k) were doing so last year, at
81%. That also held steady from a year earlier, and
it was up from 74% in 2012.
The reason for the resiliency? In many cases it was
because employers made the moves for them.
Over the years, employers have become more
likely to enroll workers automatically into the
401(k) plan. Employers have also been starting
workers off contributing higher amounts, again
automatically. And as the years roll on, plans are set
to automatically increase the percentage of those
contributions. Last year, a quarter of all Vanguard
401(k) accounts saw a boost in contributions
because of an auto increase.
Workers can opt out of such measures, but now
they have to take an extra step to get out of saving
for retirement rather than to get in. And in the field
of study known as behavioral finance, that can lead
to better outcomes. In other words, inertia wins.
“I really see the value of it in these unusual years,
these years that have a lot of stress and uncertainty
where you might expect some reversals of a
positive trend, and in fact you you don’t see it,”
said David Stinnett, head of Vanguard’s strategic
retirement consulting group.
In part because of that, the median 401(k)
balance rose to $35,345 last year. That’s up from
a median of $33,472 a year before and from
$27,843 in 2012.
197

To see how powerful inertia can be, consider
the difference in participation rates at plans where
employers automatically enroll workers into the
401(k) versus those where employees must sign
up themselves. The auto-enroll programs saw 93%
of eligible workers save in the 401(k) last year. The
participation rate was just 66% in plans where
workers had to volunteer.
A challenge going forward may depend on
whether the “Great Resignation” that’s taken hold
across the economy continues.
When workers leave their jobs either to move
to a new one or to retire, they can cash out their
401(k) balances. Experts discourage this, calling it
retirement “leakage.”
Not only can a cash out invite taxes and penalties,
it also means workers don’t benefit from the magic
of compounding their savings over the years.
Such cash outs often occur among lower-income
workers with smaller balances, said Amber
Brestowski, head of advice and client experience
for Vanguard Institutional Investor Group.
With millions of workers quitting their jobs every
month, the potential for such leakage is increasing.
Brestowski said Vanguard is working with
employers in hopes of keeping cashouts low.
The industry is also working on ways to move
workers’ savings from their old employer’s
401(k) plan to their new one to stem leakage,
again automatically.

198

199

200

HOW TO AFFORD
SUMMER ROAD
TRIPS AMID HIGH
GAS PRICES

A summer road trip used to be a cost-effective,
easy getaway. This year, soaring gas prices and
expensive rental cars might make you think
twice about hitting the road.
According to the American Automobile
Association, a federation of motor clubs
throughout North America, the average gas
price was $4.60 per gallon nationally before
Memorial Day weekend. Some experts believe
the national average might even top $5 later in
the summer.
Plus, rental car prices hit record highs during the
pandemic, up 38.6% in February 2022 versus
February 2020, according to a NerdWallet analysis
of U.S. Consumer Price Index inflation data.
201

But those roadblocks don’t necessarily mean
you have to put the brakes on travel completely.
You might just have to shift your road trip plans.
Here’s how.

CONSIDER CHANGING
YOUR DESTINATION
If you’re open-minded about your vacation
destination, consider driving through a region
with below-average gas prices. On June 1, 10
states had average gas prices below $4.30 per
gallon for regular grade gasoline, according to
AAA data.
Those states, ranked from cheapest to most
expensive, were:
1. Georgia
2. Arkansas
3. Kansas
4. Mississippi
5. Oklahoma
6. Missouri
7. Louisiana
8. Nebraska
9. South Carolina
10. Texas
Given how many of those states border each
other, it’d be fairly easy to plan a road trip
through the South or Midwest. You could start in
St. Louis, and make the roughly four-hour drive
on Interstate 70 across the state to Kansas City,
Missouri. Make time for a pit stop in Columbia,
which is a quintessential college town with the
University of Missouri. Boonville is another great
stop, where you can tour Warm Springs Ranch,
home of the iconic Budweiser Clydesdales.
(Walking tours start at $15 .) From Kansas City,
202

203

204

it’s about three hours on to Omaha, Nebraska,
where you can try the allegedly original
Reuben sandwich.

BE STRATEGIC ABOUT RENTAL CARS
If you’re renting a car, understand that rental car
prices can vary dramatically depending on the
rental company, whether you’re renting from an
airport location versus downtown, and how far
in advance you book.
Speaking of renting a car, this might be the year
you rent an electric vehicle. The EV may have
a more expensive rental price, but it could be
cheaper than renting a gas-powered car and
filling its tank. AAA has a helpful gas calculator
tool that factors in the type of car and where
you’re driving to help you see the trade-offs.
Hotel and vacation rental companies also are
making it easier to search for accommodations
that offer electric vehicle charging. More hotels
are promoting electric vehicle charging as a
hotel perk, right alongside traditional amenities
like pools and breakfast buffets. Many hotels
even allow you to charge your car at no cost.
If rental car prices are brutally high, consider
booking with alternative rental car companies
like Turo or Getaround, which can be cheaper
than a major car rental company. Many of these
companies are relatively new and allow you to
book cars directly from the owners, functioning
as an “Airbnb for cars.”
For example, the cost of a weeklong car rental
from San Francisco International Airport
during the first week of July for a standard, gaspowered car like a Volkswagen Jetta would
average about $640 . Head to peer-to-peer
205

car-sharing site Turo, and there are more than a
dozen Teslas available to book in San Francisco
on the same dates for less than $800.
If you filled the Jetta’s roughly 13-gallon gas
tank twice at $6 a gallon (which isn’t unheard of
in some states like California), you’d pay more
than $150 in gas. That cost plus the rental would
have you paying roughly the same amount as
booking the Tesla.
With so many variables, it pays to shop around
before you make reservations.

KNOW WHERE TO FIND THE
CHEAPEST GAS
If driving a gas-powered car is non-negotiable,
master the art of saving money on gas.
Download apps like GasBuddy, which track
local gas prices and can help guide you to the
cheapest station near you. It also helps to drive
more efficiently. Adjusting how you speed up,
brake or use cruise control can have an impact
on your gas usage.
And if all else fails and you’re stuck with a
gargantuan gas bill, at least earn rewards for your
spending through a rewards credit card. The best
gas credit cards can typically net at least 3% back
in rewards for your gas station spending.

206

207

QUALCOMM WINS
ANTITRUST CASE
AGAINST EU
COMMISSION

A European Union court on Wednesday
invalidated a decision by the bloc’s executive
arm to fine technology company Qualcomm
more than $1 billion in an antitrust case.
In overruling the European Commission,
the Luxembourg-based General Court cited
“a number of procedural irregularities” that
affected the American company’s defense rights
and rejected the commission’s “analysis of the
conduct alleged against Qualcomm.”
European regulators fined Qualcomm $1.23
billion in 2018 after concluding the chip and
software maker bribed Apple to exclusively
208

209

210

use its products in iPhones and iPads, thereby
stifling competition.
Without providing specifics, EU Commissioner
Margrethe Vestager said at the time that
Qualcomm had doled out “billions of dollars” to
Apple during 2011-2016.
The regulators contended Qualcomm secretly
paid Apple to use its chips for connecting to highspeed cellular networks as long as Apple didn’t
switch to rival products during that period.
The General Court said that in addition to
identifying procedural irregularities, it disagreed
with the analysis of the anticompetitive effects
of the payments.
“While the commission concluded that the
incentive payments had reduced Apple’s
incentives to switch to competing suppliers
to source LTE chipsets, it is apparent from
the commission decision that Apple had had
no technical alternative to Qualcomm’s LTE
chipsets for the majority of its requirements,” the
court said.

211

CHINA’S FACTORY
ACTIVITY
REBOUNDS AS
ANTI-VIRUS
CURBS EASE

China’s factory output rebounded in May, adding
to a recovery from the latest COVID-induced
economic slump after controls that shut down
Shanghai and other industrial centers eased.
Industrial production rose 0.7% over a year
earlier, recovering from April’s 2.9% contraction,
government data showed. Consumer spending
edged up compared with April but was lower
than a year ago.
The data suggest a “lockdown recovery got
underway across most parts of the economy,”
said Sheana Yue of Capital Economics in a report.
212

213

214

China’s case numbers in its latest wave of
infections are low, but the ruling Communist
Party’s “zero-COVID” strategy that aims to isolate
every person with the virus shut down most
businesses in Shanghai starting in late March and
suspended access or imposed other restrictions
on other industrial cities. That fueled fears global
manufacturing and trade might be disrupted.
Most factories, shops and other businesses in
Shanghai, Beijing and other cities have been
allowed to reopen but are expected to need
weeks or months to return to normal activity.
Economists have cut forecasts of China’s growth
this year to as low as 2%, well below the ruling
Communist Party’s target of 5.5%. Some expect
activity to shrink in the quarter ending in June
before a gradual recovery begins.
Consumer spending, depressed by jitters over
the economic outlook and possible job losses,
rose 0.05% in May compared with the previous
month but was off 6.7% from a year ago.
Investment in factories, real estate and other
fixed assets rose 0.7% compared with April.
Chinese leaders have promised tax rebates, free
rent and other aid to help businesses recover.
“Following all this weak data, we should expect
the government to respond with more fiscal
stimulus,” said Iris Pang of ING in a report.
Export growth, reported last week, accelerated
to 16.9% in May from the previous month’s 3.7%.
Import growth rose to 4.1% from April’s 0.7%.

215

216

INTERIOR
PHASING OUT
PLASTIC WATER
BOTTLES AT
NATIONAL
PARKS

217

The Interior Department said it will phase out
sales of plastic water bottles and other single-use
products at national parks and on other public
lands over the next decade, targeting a major
source of U.S. pollution.
An order issued by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland
calls for the department to reduce the purchase,
sale and distribution of single-use plastic
products and packaging on 480 million acres of
federally managed lands, with a goal of phasing
out the products by 2032. The order directs the
department to identify alternatives to single-use
plastics, such as compostable or biodegradable
materials or 100% recycled materials.
“As the steward of the nation’s public lands,
including national parks and national wildlife
refuges, and as the agency responsible for the
conservation and management of fish, wildlife,
plants and their habitats,´ the Interior Department
is “uniquely positioned to do better for our Earth,”
Haaland said in a statement.
The order essentially reverses a 2017 Trump
administration policy that prevented national
parks from banning plastic water bottle sales. Only
a fraction of the more than 400 national parks,
but some of the most popular ones like the Grand
Canyon, had implemented such a ban.
Environmental groups hailed the Biden
administration’s announcement, which advocates
and some Democratic lawmakers have been
urging for years.
“Our national parks, by definition, are protected
areas — ones that Americans have loved for their
natural beauty and history for over a century
— and yet we have failed to protect them from
plastic for far too long,´ said Christy Leavitt, plastics
218

219

220

campaign director for the conservation
group Oceana.
Haaland’s order “will curb millions of pounds of
unnecessary disposable plastic in our national
parks and other public lands, where it can end
up polluting these special areas,´ Leavitt said. The
group urged the National Park Service and other
agencies to move swiftly to carry out changes in
reducing single-use plastics well before 2032.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., also urged quicker
action to address what he called the plastic
pollution crisis. “With everyone – from park
rangers to park visitors – doing their part
we can get this done before the decade has
passed!” Merkley said in a statement.
Merkley, who chairs a Senate Appropriations
subcommittee that oversees the Interior
Department, is co-sponsor of a bill that would
ban the sale of single-use plastic water bottles in
national parks.
Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., who co-sponsored the bill
in the House, hailed the Interior announcement as
“a huge step forward in the effort to protect our
environment and its creatures from the damage of
single-use plastics.´
Quigley, who is planning a visit to Yosemite
National Park, said he looks forward to learning
how the park will implement the new rule.
Matt Seaholm, president and CEO of
the Plastics Industry Association, called
Interior’s announcement “disappointing ´
and counterproductive.
“In most applications, plastic products are the
least environmentally harmful option, as long
as they are disposed of properly,´ said Seaholm,
221

whose group represents the entire plastics
industry supply chain. He urged improved
recycling infrastructure in parks as “a
better approach to sustainability.´
Oceana said a national poll conducted by Ipsos
in November 2021 found that more than 80%
of American voters would support a decision
by the National Park Service to stop selling and
distributing single-use plastics at national parks
Haaland said the plastics order was especially
important because less than 10% of plastics ever
produced have been recycled, and U.S. recycling
rates are falling as China and other countries have
stopped accepting U.S. waste.
Interior-managed lands generated nearly 80,000
tons of municipal solid waste in fiscal year 2020,
the department said, much of it plastics.
Of the more than 300 million tons of plastic
produced every year for use in a wide variety of
applications, at least 14 million tons of plastic
end up in the ocean every year, and plastic
makes up 80% of all marine debris found from
surface waters to deep-sea sediments, the
department said.
Many marine species ingest or are entangled by
plastic debris, causing severe injuries or death, and
plastic pollution threatens food safety and quality,
human health, coastal tourism and contributes to
climate change, the department said.

222

223