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☆ Dog named Buddy Holly is first of its breed to win Westminster show
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A six-year-old male from Palm Springs, California, Buddy Holly became the first of his breed to win. "Buddy Holly is the epitome of the dog show." Each breed produces a winner, representing the best of what artificial selection can create from the descendants of wolves. Breed winners are separated into seven groups to determine the best of show finalists: hound, toy, non-sporting, herding, sporting, working and terrier. Buddy Holly won the hound group.

☆ Uber's 2023 lost and found report includes dentures, weed, a lightsaber and slushy machine
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( Emmy Abbassi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

The ride-share company published its 2023 Uber Lost & Found Index on April 27 as Mercury makes its way back into retrograde, a time of the year astrologists say influences forgetfulness, according to Uber. But their list of the 50 most unique items lost is where things get weird. The most common time of the day to report lost items is 11 p.m., Uber said. The annual report, which is in its seventh year, aims to remind passengers how to get lost items back using the Uber app. Using a feature within the app, riders can report items as lost and contact drivers to have them returned.

☆ Microsoft made a big bet with ChatGPT. Months later, it’s already paying off.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Diamond Naga Siu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Microsoft bet billions on OpenAI — its gamble is already paying off. Some analysts said Microsoft's successful integration of AI signals that it has already pulled ahead of Google. They even projected that Microsoft's cloud service Azure could be on track to surpass long-dominant Amazon Web Services. My teammate Paayal Zaveri highlights how Microsoft's AI wager has made it a surprising leader in tech's hottest field. He hit $2 million by the end of 2020, and in 2022 alone, he sold $4 million worth of products.

☆ I bought a $775,000 Palm Springs house to rent on Airbnb when I was 25. It's not as profitable as I thought it would be.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Shelby Church, 28, and her twin, Monica, bought a house in Palm Springs for $775,000 in 2020. I don't think that owning an Airbnb in Palm Springs is a super profitable investment. Palm Springs has tough rules, but I think they're ultimately goodIn Palm Springs, you can only do 36 rental contracts per year. So it also encourages people that are actually going to use the house, enjoy themselves, and be a part of the Palm Springs community. And most vacation rental owners kind of bank on that weekend to carry them through the slump summer season.

☆ Alaska Airlines is getting rid of the self-serve airport kiosks that print boarding passes
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Bianca Giacobone | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Alaska Airlines is removing check-in kiosks as part of a $2.5 billion overhaul of its airport lobbies. Alaska Airlines has started removing kiosks to print boarding passes at airports, as part of a $ 2.5 billion investment in its passengers' "lobby experience." QR codes in airport lobbies will prompt passengers to get a boarding pass on their phones if they arrive without one, an Alaska Airlines representative told Insider. Kiosks have already been removed at nine airports: Portland International Airport in Oregon, Boise Airport, Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, Indianapolis International Airport, Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Missoula International, Ontario International, Palm Springs International, Rocky Gutierrez Airport in Sitka, Alaska. Alaska Airlines is a passengers' favorite in terms of customer satisfaction, according to a recent survey.

☆ Thitikul charges through Chevron field to take share of lead
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 23 (Reuters) - Thailand's Atthaya Thitikul charged up the leaderboard to share top spot with American Angel Yin in the final round of the Chevron Championship on Sunday, with the pair sitting two shots clear of the rest of the field. Thitikul's pair of bogeys were offset by five birdies after 15 holes at the Club at Carlton Woods near Houston, putting the twice LPGA winner within striking distance of a maiden major title. Yin recovered from a bogey on the very first hole to birdie the par-5 fourth and was level par for the round and 10 under total with the six holes to play. The outing was far less smooth for her compatriot and previous co-leader Allisen Corpuz, who bogeyed four times on the front nine and produced a single birdie on the par-5 eighth. Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York Editing by Toby DavisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Golfers tackle new test in uncharted Chevron Championship grounds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/5] Apr 21, 2023; The Woodlands, Texas, USA; Chella Choi (KOR) drives off the first tee during the second round of The Chevron Championship golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Shea-USA TODAY SportsApril 21 (Reuters) - Golfers have risen to the varied challenges that the new home of the Chevron Championship in Carlton Woods Texas brought after moving from its longtime home at Mission Country Club in Palm Springs. World number two Nelly Korda overcame a rollercoaster round on what she claimed was a completely different course than the opening round on Thursday. Thailand's Patty Tavatanakit, 2021 Chevron winner, also took advantage of the course conditions posting the best early round of the day by returning a five under-67. It feels like we're not playing The Chevron Championship just because the grass and everything is so East Coast."

☆ An idyllic California town, a celebrity landlord, and a rental from hell
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Tatiana Walk-Morris | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Sonaar Luthra and Sarah Szalavitz left Los Angeles for a rental in La Quinta, California, last March. The couple found a rental home online for $4,000 a month in La Quinta, California, a palm-tree-dotted hamlet about 2½ hours away, nestled between the resort-haven Palm Springs and festival-famous Coachella. They were relieved, they told Insider, because they believed someone in the public eye would be a reliable landlord. Luthra and Szalavitz thought moving to La Quinta would afford them the time and space to begin personal projects, including planning a wedding. The couple detailed how the celebrity-owned house in a desert paradise became a rental from hell.

☆ Not the same major splash as Chevron moves to Texas
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Steve Keating | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

April 19 (Reuters) - When women's golf crowns its first major winner of the season on Sunday at the Chevron Championship it will not make the same splash it once did. "I'm not really sure," said defending Chevron champion Jennifer Kupcho. "I think there might be snakes in the water here, so might be a little interesting." While a dock can be quickly constructed, it takes years to build traditions and rarely are they transferable. After missing last year's Chevron due to injury, Korda is back to full fitness with four finishes inside the top six in five starts this season, including runner-up at last month's HSBC World Championship.

☆ Kupcho expecting different challenge in Chevron defence
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 18 (Reuters) - American Jennifer Kupcho is expecting a very different challenge as she defends her first major title away from the familiar surrounds of last year's triumph, with the Chevron Championship kicking off the women’s major calendar at a new Texas venue after more than 50 years in its former Palm Springs home. Kupcho had yet to clinch a LPGA Tour title before her victory last year, when she held on through a nervy back nine to win by two shots. Yet the world number 20 will find very different conditions this year at Carlton Woods course. The 25-year-old picked up two more wins on the tour after her Chevron title but has struggled to make much of an impact in 2023, most recently finishing tied for 25th at the DIO Implant LA Open. Feel like I have my feet under me and ready to go," Kupcho added.

☆ Inside the creation of Revolve's first-ever AI-generated billboards
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Ryan Joe | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Revolve's co-CEO said generative AI might lead to budgets shifting for future ad campaigns. What made these particular billboards different from other out-of-home creative is that they were developed using generative AI tools. Thanks to the generative AI explosion, anyone can create a piece of art just by typing in a prompt. Using generative AI to create high-quality images for ads, especially scaled to billboard size, is a huge challenge because it's difficult to control the final result. AI-generated billboard art RevolveThere are time and cost savings when using generative AI tools, Foiret said.

☆ Meet Sonny Vaccaro, the executive credited with signing Michael Jordan in Ben Affleck's new movie 'Air' and the self-proclaimed 'savior of Nike'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-07 | by ( Matthew Kish | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Vaccaro, 83, was a key figure in Nike's push to sign Michael Jordan in 1984. No one in his family went to college, Vaccaro said in an interview over a pancake breakfast in 2021. Matt Damon plays Sonny Vaccaro in the new "Air" movie about how Nike signed Michael Jordan. "The signing of Michael Jordan, yeah, success has a thousand fathers, and failure is an orphan," Knight told USA Today in 2015. "A lot of people want to take credit for signing Michael Jordan, most obviously Sonny Vaccaro."

☆ Gun Violence Has Changed Us
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Christina Caron | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

On a hot day in July, he got into an argument with a man at the bike store. The man eventually left, but later returned — this time with a gun. Fear was a unifying thread, regardless of whether someone had directly encountered gun violence. Mass shootings, though only a fraction of the number of gun murders nationwide, are also on the rise. One survey, conducted by the Harris Poll for the American Psychological Association, found that more than seven in 10 adults cited gun violence as a significant source of stress.

☆ The battle over Airbnb has hit a breaking point
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( James Rodriguez | Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

"We started panicking and started connecting with other folks who we know have short-term rentals," Sullivan told Insider. Rather than a collapse of the industry, the increasingly bifurcated state of the market — a bust for some, a boom for others — is a clear sign that we have hit a turning point in the long-running battle over short-term rentals. Given the sharp rise of short-term rentals there, some local lawmakers have recently called for amending the law. Investors jumped in to capitalize on the boom, and the market soon became saturated with short-term rentals. There's one thing pretty much everyone can agree on: Short-term rentals are here to stay.

☆ The 'Airbnbust' proves the Wild West days of online vacation rentals are over
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( James Rodriguez | Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

"We started panicking and started connecting with other folks who we know have short-term rentals," Sullivan told Insider. Given the sharp rise of short-term rentals there, some local lawmakers have recently called for amending the law. But short-term rentals are often essential to a healthy tourism economy, particularly in vacation destinations. Investors jumped in to capitalize on the boom, and the market soon became saturated with short-term rentals. There's one thing pretty much everyone can agree on: Short-term rentals are here to stay.

☆ I quit my job as a nurse to house-sit — and I've now lived rent-free in LA, Portugal, Costa Rica, and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Claire Turrell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Costa Rica and Mexico were the top two. We booked a trip to Costa Rica, but in March 2020, the pandemic hit and all our travel plans were put on hold. We checked out the site, and we typed in "Costa Rica" when it asked "Where do you want to go?" So far, we've stayed in 10 homes in landscapes as varied as the desert of Palm Springs and the jungle of Costa Rica. Our first house-sit was at a jungle casita in Costa Rica, where we looked after a little rescue dogIt proved to be one of our favorites.

☆ Ex-Bon Appétit editor Marissa Ross says the wine world ruined her. Now she's back and ready to give it hell.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Anna Silman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +40 min

Her rise was tied to a period of reinvention for the wine world during which natural wine conquered millennial taste buds and became ubiquitous on menus across the US. Marissa Ross, Bon Appétit's wine editor from 2016 to 2020, often posted pictures of herself chugging straight from the bottle — a technique she called "The Ross test." "Natural wine," a nebulous term that generally refers to wine made with minimal intervention and without additives like sulfites, was tentatively entering the American wine world. Many in the wine world took the idea that you didn't have to be educated to know about wine as a personal insult. When she first told BA that she planned to cover only natural wines, Ross said, Rapoport called to try to change her mind.

☆ It’s Home to Coachella Valley’s Most Expensive Real Estate (And No, It’s Not Palm Springs)
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Jessica Flint | Photographs Natasha Lee For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

This week, The Wall Street Journal’s Mansion section is rolling out stories from our special desert living issue. On the western end is Palm Springs, known for its old Hollywood glamour, stylish resorts, and significant architecture. But more mid-to-east valley, about 30 minutes from Palm Springs, is Indian Wells, which has the area’s priciest residential real estate as ranked by median listing price, according to Realtor.com. It also has some of the most expensive desert real estate in the United States. “To say you live in Indian Wells has cachet,” says Scott Ehrens, a Compass real-estate agent.

☆ 7 hidden-gem cities and towns to buy an Airbnb in this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Dan Latu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

They were picked for their high rate of bookings, growing revenue, affordability, and regulations. The list of 25 cities and towns captures destinations with "momentum," said AirDNA economist Jamie Lane. This year, the team also responded to the growing wave of regulations cities and towns are putting on short-term rentals. Locations like Burlington, Vermont and Madison, Wisconsin, for example, were removed because of new rules that limit who can own short-term rentals or require month-long stays. The list, however, is mostly dominated by midsized cities in the Midwest, where home prices are cheaper than in more expensive coastal cities.

☆ Seeking an Oasis in the Palm Springs Desert With $350,000 to Spend. Which Home Did He Choose?
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Soumya Karlamangla | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

He returned to Santa Cruz in 2019 to be closer to family, and then to ride out Covid lockdowns. Like San Francisco, Palm Springs offered a thriving gay community, with a more relaxed vibe and much more affordable housing. Email: thehunt@nytimes.com]In March, Mr. Andrade contacted Kevin Koerner, a friend who was a broker with Compass, to help him sift through properties. Palm Springs, historically, has been a destination for buyers “looking for places to get away for the weekend, or a week, or to come here in the winter,” he said. Mr. Andrade set a budget of about $350,000 and began looking for a home with two bedrooms, so friends and family could comfortably visit.

☆ Factbox: Golden Globe awards: Full list of nominees
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

[1/5] Butler poses backstage after receiving the Breakthrough Performance Award at the 34th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards gala in Palm Springs, California, U.S., January 5, 2023. REUTERS/Mario AnzuoniJan 10 (Reuters) - Hollywood gathers on Tuesday for the 2023 Golden Globes, the first major awards show of the season. After diversity and ethics scandals at the Globes organizer - the Hollywood Foreign Press Association - NBC declined to air the ceremony in 2022, but will broadcast the show this year for its 80th anniversary. The following is the full list of nominees:MOVIESBEST PICTURE-DRAMA“Avatar: The Way of Water”“Elvis”“The Fabelmans”“Tar”“Top Gun: Maverick”BEST PICTURE-MUSICAL OR COMEDY"Babylon"“The Banshees of Inisherin”“Everything Everywhere All at Once”“Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”“Triangle of Sadness”BEST ANIMATED FILM“Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio”“Inu-Oh”“Marcel the Shell with Shoes On”“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish”“Turning Red”BEST PICTURE-NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE“All Quiet on the Western Front" (Germany)“Argentina, 1985" (Argentina)“Close" (Belgium)“Decision to Leave" (South Korea)“RRR" (India)BEST ACTRESS, DRAMACate Blanchett, "Tar"Olivia Colman, “Empire of Light”Viola Davis, "The Woman King”Ana de Armas, "Blonde”Michelle Williams, "The Fabelmans”BEST ACTOR, DRAMAAustin Butler, “Elvis”Brendan Fraser, “The Whale”Hugh Jackman, “The Son”Bill Nighy, “Living”Jeremy Pope, “The Inspection”BEST ACTRESS, MUSICAL OR COMEDYLesley Manville, "Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris"Margot Robbie, “Babylon”Anya Taylor-Joy, “The Menu”Emma Thompson, “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande”Michelle Yeoh, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”BEST ACTOR, MUSICAL OR COMEDYDiego Calva, “Babylon”Daniel Craig, “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery”Adam Driver, “White Noise”Colin Farrell, “The Banshees of Inisherin”Ralph Fiennes, “The Menu”BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESSAngela Bassett, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”Kerry Condon, “The Banshees of Inisherin”Jamie Lee Curtis, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”Dolly De Leon, “Triangle of Sadness”Carey Mulligan, “She Said”BEST SUPPORTING ACTORBrendan Gleeson, “The Banshees of Inisherin”Barry Keoghan, “The Banshees of Inisherin”Brad Pitt, “Babylon”Ke Huy Quan, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”Eddie Redmayne, “The Good Nurse”BEST DIRECTORJames Cameron, “Avatar: The Way of Water”Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, “Everything Everywhere All at Once”Baz Luhrmann, “Elvis”Martin McDonagh, “The Banshees of Inisherin”Steven Spielberg, “The Fabelmans”BEST SCREENPLAY“The Banshees of Inisherin,” Martin McDonagh“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert“The Fabelmans,” Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner“Tar,” Todd Field“Women Talking,” Sarah PolleyBEST ORIGINAL SCORE“Babylon,” Justin Hurwitz“The Banshees of Inisherin,” Carter Burwell“The Fabelmans,” John Williams“Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio,” Alexandre Desplat“Women Talking,” Hildur GuðnadóttirBEST ORIGINAL SONG“Lift Me Up” by Tems, Ludwig Göransson, Rihanna and Ryan Coogler (“Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”)“Ciao Papa” by Alexandre Desplat, Roeban Katz, Guillermo del Toro (“Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio”)“Naatu Naatu” by Kala Bhairava, M.M. Keeravani, Rahul Sipligunj (“RRR")“Hold My Hand” by Lady Gaga, BloodPop, Benjamin Rice (“Top Gun: Maverick”)“Carolina” by Taylor Swift (“Where the Crawdads Sing”)TELEVISIONBEST DRAMA SERIES“Better Call Saul” (AMC)“The Crown” (Netflix)“House of the Dragon” (HBO Max)“Ozark” (Netflix)“Severance” (Apple TV+)BEST MUSICAL OR COMEDY SERIES“Abbott Elementary” (ABC)“The Bear” (FX)“Hacks” (HBO Max)“Only Murders in the Building” (Hulu)“Wednesday” (Netflix)BEST LIMITED SERIES, ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR TV MOVIE“Black Bird” (Apple TV+)“Dahmer - Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story” (Netflix)“The Dropout” (Hulu)“Pam and Tommy” (Hulu)“The White Lotus” (HBO Max)BEST ACTRESS, DRAMAEmma D'Arcy, “House of the Dragon”Laura Linney, "Ozark”Imelda Staunton, “The Crown”Hilary Swank, “Alaska Daily”Zendaya, “Euphoria”BEST ACTOR, DRAMAJeff Bridges, “The Old Man”Kevin Costner, “Yellowstone”Diego Luna, “Andor”Bob Odenkirk, “Better Call Saul”Adam Scott, “Severance”BEST ACTRESS, MUSICAL OR COMEDYQuinta Brunson, “Abbott Elementary”Kaley Cuoco, “The Flight Attendant”Selena Gomez, “Only Murders in the Building”Jenna Ortega, “Wednesday”Jean Smart, “Hacks”BEST ACTOR, MUSICAL OR COMEDYDonald Glover, “Atlanta”Bill Hader, “Barry”Steve Martin, “Only Murders in the Building”Martin Short, “Only Murders in the Building”Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear”BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, MUSICAL, COMEDY OR DRAMAElizabeth Debicki, “The Crown”Hannah Einbinder, “Hacks”Julia Garner, “Ozark”Janelle James, “Abbott Elementary”Sheryl Lee Ralph, “Abbott Elementary”BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, MUSICAL, COMEDY or DRAMAJohn Lithgow, “The Old Man”Jonathan Pryce, “The Crown”John Turturro, “Severance”Tyler James Williams, “Abbott Elementary”Henry Winkler, “Barry”BEST ACTRESS, LIMITED SERIES, ANTHOLOGY SERIES or TV MOVIEJessica Chastain, “George and Tammy”Julia Garner

☆ Palm Springs Film Festival
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Anuja Jaiman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

The U.S. House of Representatives, mired in a chaotic leadership battle, rejected Republican Kevin McCarthy's bid to lead the chamber two more times on Wednesday as a small group of holdouts in the party defied former President Donald Trump's call for unity.

Today, there are 54 Hispanic American banks and credit unions that are FDIC or NCUA insured around the US. We selected Hispanic American-owned credit unions from the National Credit Union Administration's list of minority depository institutions which was also updated in September 2022. In our list of Hispanic American-owned banks and credit unions, many of the institutions listed offer customer support in Spanish and English. You can open up savings accounts, checking accounts, CDs, and money market accounts in most of the institutions listed. To help you learn more about a specific Hispanic American-owned bank or credit union, we've included links to reviews of individual institutions.

☆ Painters in Search of Transcendence
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Susan Delson | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

In 1932, the painter Agnes Pelton traded a well-established career in New York for the beauty and isolation of Cathedral City, a desert settlement near Palm Springs, Calif. A few years later, her ethereal abstractions caught the attention of a small group of artists in New Mexico who called themselves the Transcendental Painting Group (TPG). Pelton never met most of the artists and didn’t attend their gatherings, but they saw in her work what they hoped to achieve in their own, and they elected her their honorary president. “Another World: The Transcendental Painting Group, 1938-1945,” opening Dec. 18 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), brings to light this little-known band of philosophically minded artists. The exhibition presents some 80 works by 11 artists who were united in the belief that “the spiritual can be both achieved and expressed through abstraction,” said LACMA curator Leah Lehmbeck.

☆ Union Pacific pauses use of controversial freight rail embargoes
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Lori Ann Larocco | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

In a letter addressed to STB chairman Martin Oberman and sent to the STB on Friday by Fritz, the Union Pacific CEO stated, "We are taking a hard look at our use of congestion-related embargoes. Union Pacific carries nearly 27% of freight served by rail and nearly 11% of all long-distance freight volume. Unions have said that even as major freight rail companies add workers, the data supplied to STB on hiring is masking a longer-term trend of labor attrition. According to a Union Pacific spokesperson, total craft hiring was 27,753 in October 2022 compared to 32,315 in October 2019. Union membership data shows employment on all of the Class I rails, including Union Pacific, is down from just before the start of the pandemic and even down between October 2021 and October 2022.

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