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☆ 10 Things in Tech: Amazon’s guide to AI in different industries, Earth’s neighboring star, and workers look for less stressful jobs
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

In other news:Tech workers are searching for low stress jobs on social media. Tech workers are looking for less stressful jobs. But one Amazon worker said there's "no such thing as [a] high pay low stress job in tech." Love Love Love: Award-winning engagement photos from around the world. Email dsiu@insider.com or tweet @diamondnagasiu) Edited by Alistair Barr (tweet @alistairmbarr) in San Francisco and Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.

☆ North Korea spent the pandemic building a huge border wall
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +11 min

As the pandemic began, North Korea moved to seal its northern borders, tightening control over informal trade routes and making escape harder for defectors. Nov. 16, 2019 Minimal security features visible along North Korea’s border with Russia. Food shortages in North Korea have worsened in recent months, due in part to the border closures, according to international experts. Still, he said, there were reports of foreign shows such as the South Korean hit “Squid Game” finding their way into North Korea. “It's all the more reason for the international community to step up efforts to support North Korean rights,” he said.

☆ Gun-loving Texas, where most households own a firearm, has become an epicenter of mass shootings
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( Emma Tucker | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +23 min

CNN and the GVA define a mass shooting as a shooting that injures or kills four or more people, not including the shooter. They argue that more firearms and higher gun ownership increases public safety – a stance that continues to be at odds with gun violence experts and data. The area around the Robb Elementary School signs has become a memorial dedicated to the victims of the May 24 mass shooting. Mass shootings are just a piece of that, and the strategies that we’re laying out will impact mass shootings. They’ll also impact a lot of other types of gun violence and that’s absolutely critical to saving lives,” Horwitz said.

☆ After a Yearlong Dating Hiatus, (Cautiously) Embracing Something New
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Louise Rafkin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For Ande Flower, the first year of the pandemic coincided conveniently with a personal commitment to staying single. Flower began transitioning from female to male in 2018, following a move from Seattle to Pacific Grove, Calif., for a new job. At the turn of 2020, he began a new chapter of his life publicly living as a man. Flower, an urban planner focused on affordable housing in the Central California region, vowed to spend the year getting to know himself. So, in December 2020, he cautiously ventured onto OkCupid and quickly became captivated by Veronica Savage’s unique dating profile.

☆ Party City is planning to close over 30 stores across the country — here's the full list
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Avery Hartmans | Ben Tobin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Party City says it's closing over 30 stores after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Cartersville: Cartersville Crossing, 451 East Main St.IowaWaterloo: Crossroads Commons Shopping Center, 1415 Flammang Dr.IllinoisBradley: Bradley Commons, 2060 N. State Rte. 20Felch Street Shopping Center, 3050 Beeline Rd., Ste. L12East Hills Shopping Center, 3702 Frederick Ave., Ste. K2Five Points Shopping Center, 4101 Hwy.

☆ How to talk about mental health across generations
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Julia Chan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

We are born to connect, so if we don’t do that, that’s probably the biggest hit on your mental health. Gen Z is moving the needle when it comes to bringing mental health up everywhere, like language, workplace, to their bosses. There’s a little bit more wiggle room to talk about mental health. What you can do in each generation is match mental health resources. We are going to talk about mental health, damn it!” The goal is for you to connect with your family member and understand what makes them tick.

☆ $2.7 Million Homes in California
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Angela Serratore | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The golf courses of Pebble Beach and the beach are about a 10-minute drive. The property is about 15 minutes from the luxury hotels, boutiques and restaurants along Cannery Row, in the heart of Monterey. To the right, through an arched doorway, is a living room with hardwood floors, front-facing casement windows, a stone fireplace and a staircase to the second floor. The hardwood floors continue through another arched opening, into a dining room with a wrought-iron chandelier. The kitchen, off the dining room, has stainless steel appliances and a door to the back patio.

☆ Russia digs in as Ukraine prepares to attack
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Tom Balmforth | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

And in the case of Polohy, Russia has constructed two distinct defensive lines, one to the north and one to the south. Musiyenko estimated that Ukraine would have a force of between 100,000-110,000 for an attack, including eight assault brigades with a total of 40,000 troops. Russia has not said how many troops it has in Ukraine, or within its borders ready to deploy. A leaked U.S. intelligence document dated Feb. 28 seen by Reuters said the West had committed 200 tanks to Ukraine. Army chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said in December he needed 300 to defeat Russia, along with other vehicles and artillery.

☆ U.S. to send nuclear submarines in new pledge to protect South Korea from North's threats
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Alexander Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

The United States will deploy nuclear-armed submarines to South Korea for the first time in decades — part of a new agreement that will signal Washington's commitment to defend Seoul against rising nuclear threats from North Korea, U.S. officials said. The plan to dock the ballistic missile submarines in South Korea, which hasn't happened since the 1980's, headlines an effort to make U.S. deterrence against Kim Jong Un's regime "more visible," according to senior administration officials. President Joe Biden and his counterpart, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, will unveil the new agreement in Washington on Wednesday, the officials said. In return, an official added, South Korea would reaffirm its commitment to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, known as the NPT, which bars countries from seeking nuclear weapons. Yoon's visit follows the largest U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises in years, aimed largely at countering the North Korean nuclear threat.

☆ Los Angeles Is a Doughnut Town
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Tejal Rao | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Donut Hole, in La Puente, doesn’t sell the very best doughnuts in the Los Angeles area, but I love going there. Driving through its absurd, gigantic fiberglass doughnut — a pristine example of mimetic architecture — is a brief, giddy and almost spiritual experience. An edge, architectural or otherwise, is practically required in the unusually saturated, competitive doughnut market of Southern California. It might be a glamorous seasonal doughnut, like the strawberry-stuffed beasts you can find at the Donut Man, in Glendora, from February to September. I am consistently pleased by the simple chocolate glazed at Colorado Donuts — though if I’m with my nephews, the chewy, pull-apart, rainbow-colored mochi doughnuts from Mochi Dochi are always the stronger choice.

☆ A Swinging Duo of Duke Ellington Films
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Will Friedwald | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

John Lamb on bass, Duke Ellington on piano, Johnny Hodges on alto sax and Lawrence Brown on trombone at Grace Cathedral Photo: Bettmann ArchiveDuke Ellington is between sets in his dressing room at San Francisco’s Basin Street West. “Do you want the snore in there?” he says, as he starts to lie down for a nap. Then, surprisingly, he chooses instead to engage with the interviewer—the music critic and television producer and host Ralph J. Gleason —and the camera crew who, by that time, have been trailing Ellington for a month. He also demonstrates a piece that he is in the middle of writing with his musical partner, Billy Strayhorn . It’s a rare example of a very candid Ellington letting the rest of us into his world and creative process.

☆ Elephant seals enter 'sleep spiral' during ocean dives
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The researchers refer to this as a “sleep spiral.”The research marked the first time scientists recorded brain activity in free-ranging wild marine mammals, capturing data from 104 sleep dives. Then she attached them to 13 juvenile female elephant seals that are part of a colony at Año Nuevo State Park in Pescadero, California. In shallow waters, the elephant seals even reached the seafloor, where they would rest. During REM sleep, elephant seals enter a "sleep spiral." Elephant seals sleep the most along the coast and near their foraging grounds, and that data could be used to see how shipping traffic could affect the seals.

☆ California superbloom: Hillsides are exploding with wildflowers. Here's what it looks like from space
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Stephanie Elam | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesVisitors walk through a field of wildflowers at the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve in Lancaster, California on April 14. Hillsides are covered in colorful wildflowers, seen here in a satellite image in Palmdale, California, on April 10. Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesWildflowers bloom at the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve in Lancaster, California, on April 14. Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesWhile California hasn’t closed state parks because of the superbloom, at least one town is demanding that tourists stay away. The Antelope Valley Poppy Preserve in Lancaster, California, on March 30.

☆ Some electric vehicles from BMW, Nissan, Hyundai and Volkswagen will no longer get federal tax credits
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Emma Newburger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Brown | AFP | Getty ImagesFewer electric vehicles now qualify for federal tax credits after the Biden administration this week unveiled stricter rules for battery sources that will prioritize domestically manufactured models. The new list published by the Treasury Department includes 16 U.S. manufactured models from Ford , General Motors , Tesla and Stellantis . Ten of the models on the new list will qualify for the full $7,500 tax credit, with the rest qualifying for half that amount. Vehicles losing credits include those from BMW, Hyundai, Nissan, Rivian , Volkswagen and Volvo Cars. The bill set various manufacturing requirements for new all-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles to qualify for the $7,500 tax credit.

☆ These US port cities are fighting to restrict cruise ships. It's easier said than done.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Hannah Towey | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The pandemic offered coastal communities across the US a taste of life without cruise ships. Now, port cities in Florida, Maine, Alaska, and California are fighting to limit or ban the vessels. A few weeks prior, Juneau, Alaska's city assembly voted to cap the number of cruise ships visiting the capital's downtown port at five per day. According to one study commissioned by Stand.earth, an environmental organization, found that cruise passengers visiting Victoria, a major Canadian cruise port, were responsible for less than 2% of tourism spending. Do you live or work near a US cruise port?

☆ Wet winter eases California drought, giving way to spring flood risks
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"Climate change is driving both wet and dry extremes," NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad said in a statement. "We're not calling for catastrophic and major widespread flooding," said Ed Clark, director of NOAA's National Water Center. California's winter was marked by a punishing succession of so-called atmospheric river storms, the product of vast, dense airborne currents of water vapor funneled in from the tropical Pacific. The storms have unleashed widespread flooding, mudslides, power outages, fallen trees, surf damage, road wash-outs and evacuations since late December. "Winter precipitation, combined with recent storms, wiped out exceptional and extreme drought in California for the first time since 2020, and is expected to further improve drought conditions this spring," NOAA said.

☆ Biden calls on Congress to tighten rules to claw back executive pay, levy penalties in bank failures
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Emma Kinery | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

President Joe Biden called on Congress to give regulators more authority to claw back pay and penalize executives at distressed banks "whose mismanagement contributed to their institutions failing." "No one is above the law – and strengthening accountability is an important deterrent to prevent mismanagement in the future," Biden said in a statement Friday. Biden noted his powers to hold executives accountable were constrained by the law and asked Congress step in. "Congress must act to impose tougher penalties for senior bank executives whose mismanagement contributed to their institutions failing," Biden said. Signature Bank in New York, which was shuttered Sunday over similar systemic contagion fears as SVB, had been a popular funding source for cryptocurrency companies.

Another atmospheric river storm brought strong winds, rainfall and flooding to California this week, prompting levee breaches and mudslides and breaking decades-old rainfall records across the state. Only about 36% of California now remains in drought, according to data from the U.S. Drought Monitor released on Thursday. Since the storms have eased some water supply shortages, the board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California recently lifted water restrictions for nearly 7 million people. The governor noted that widespread damage across the state from the winter storms was an indication of how climate change is triggering worsening weather extremes. The state's emergency agency and private weather forecasters in January estimated that damage from California's winter storms could surpass $1 billion.

☆ California’s Levee System Under Strain After String of Storms
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Jim Carlton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Houses were inundated and vehicles submerged when the Pajaro River burst over a crumbling levee overnight Friday into Saturday. PAJARO, Calif.—When Andres Garcia was routed from his home as a child by a levee break in 1995, it was three decades after federal officials had first concluded the protection system for the Pajaro River was “inadequate.”Mr. Garcia, now 37, had to evacuate again last weekend when the still-vulnerable Monterey County levee ruptured another time, sending floodwaters gushing into this town of about 3,000 people—many of them Latino immigrants who work in the surrounding strawberry fields.

The Nor'easter left about 190,000 homes and businesses in New York and New England without power as of Wednesday morning, according PowerOutage.com, a tracking service. In California, about an equal number of customers had no electric service on Wednesday in the wake of the latest in a series of atmospheric river storms to churn through the state this winter. [1/3] A California plate is seen at an area affected by floods after days of heavy rain in Pajaro, California, U.S., March 14, 2023. Along California's coast and lower inland areas, the heavy rain and melting alpine snow triggered renewed flooding from rain-swollen rivers and streams, compromising levees. "It's a little too soon to say for sure if it's another atmospheric river, but the storm is coming," he said.

☆ Biden Seeks to Strengthen Gun Background Checks
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Sabrina Siddiqui | Andrew Restuccia | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

President Biden is expected to direct the Justice Department to step up FBI background checks of would-be gun buyers. President Biden on Tuesday is expected to announce an executive order aimed at reducing gun violence, including increasing background checks, while visiting the area of a January mass shooting in Monterey Park, Calif. The White House said Mr. Biden’s actions are designed to move the U.S. “as close to universal background checks as possible” without the passage of legislation in Congress, where partisan divides have left most gun-safety legislation dead on arrival.

☆ Biden Issues Executive Order to Strengthen Gun Background Checks
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Sabrina Siddiqui | Andrew Restuccia | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

President Biden on Tuesday signed an executive order that he said was aimed at reducing gun violence, including changes that could increase the number of gun buyers subjected to background checks, while visiting the area of a January mass shooting in Monterey Park, Calif. The White House said Mr. Biden’s actions are designed to move the U.S. “as close to universal background checks as possible” without the passage of legislation in Congress, where partisan divides have left most gun-safety legislation stalled.

REUTERS/Bing GuanMarch 14 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden will announce an executive order on Tuesday that reinforces background checks for gun buyers in what the White House is promoting as the most comprehensive policy the president can enact without Congress. In a country with more than 40,000 gun deaths per year, Biden is betting that voters will embrace more proactive gun control. The Biden administration is pointing to public opinion polls that show a majority of Americans support background checks. A Reuters/Ipsos poll last year found 84% of respondents supported background checks for all firearms sales and 70% backed red flag laws. Some gun rights advocates oppose background checks, saying they infringe on constitutional rights to possess arms while failing to stop criminals from getting them.

[1/7] Floodwaters from the Pajaro River are seen flowing under Highway 1, currently closed by officials, in Monterey County, California, U.S. March 14, 2023. read moreNine atmospheric rivers already lashed California in rapid succession from late December through mid-January, triggering widespread flooding, levee failures, mudslides and punishing surf. Massive flooding from failed levees on the Pajaro River in Monterey County this weekend prompted hundreds of evacuations and dozens of water rescues. Mandatory evacuation orders remained in effect for residents in 10 California counties on Tuesday, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta and Nathan Frandino in Monterey County, California; Editing by Aurora EllisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Watch live: Biden announces new plans to curb gun violence, months after Lunar New Year mass shooting
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Emma Kinery | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

President Joe Biden is in Monterey Park, California, to announce plans for a new executive order to combat gun violence, less than two months after a mass shooting during Lunar New Year celebrations rocked that community. Biden's executive order will include increasing the use of background checks for gun buyers and promoting safe storage of firearms. But the White House says the number of mass shootings in 2023 alone shows it did not go far enough. There have been at least 110 mass shootings in the United States in the two and a half months of 2023, according to the Gun Violence Archive. More than 8,300 Americans have died due to gun violence since the beginning of the year alone, the organization's data says.

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