The Full Belmonte, 4/21/2023
SpaceX's uncrewed Starship explodes shortly after liftoff on Thursday.
Starship launch
“SpaceX's Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, exploded midair shortly after it launched on Thursday from Texas. No injuries or property damages were reported following the explosion of the unmanned rocket, the FAA said. CEO Elon Musk congratulated the company and said the team ‘learned a lot’ from the ‘rapid unscheduled disassembly.’ Preparations are now underway for the company's next test launch, which Musk said will happen in a few months. SpaceX is known to embrace fiery mishaps during the rocket development process. The company maintains that such accidents are the quickest and most efficient way of gathering data, an approach that sets the company apart from its close partner NASA, which prefers slow, methodical testing over dramatic flare-ups.” [CNN]
House approves trans athlete ban for girls and women’s teams
By KEVIN FREKING
House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., speaks as GOP women members hold an event before the vote to prohibit transgender women and girls from playing on sports teams that match their gender identity, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, April 20, 2023. The Republican-led House was expected to vote Thursday to bar schools and colleges that receive federal money from allowing transgender athletes whose biological sex assigned at birth was male from competing on girls or women's sports teams or athletic events. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
“WASHINGTON (AP) — Transgender athletes whose biological sex assigned at birth was male would be barred from competing on girls or women’s sports teams at federally supported schools and colleges under legislation pushed through Thursday by House Republicans checking off another high-profile item on their social agenda.
The bill approved by a 219-203 party-line vote is unlikely to advance further because the Democratic-led Senate will not support it and the White House said President Joe Biden would veto it.
Supporters said the legislation, which would put violators at risk of losing taxpayer dollars, is necessary to ensure competitive fairness. They framed the vote as supporting female athletes disadvantaged by having to compete against those whose gender identify does not match their sex assigned at birth.
Opponents criticized the bill as ostracizing an already vulnerable group merely for political gain….” Read more at AP News
Biden's launchpad
“President Biden's campaign team has told vendors to prepare for a re-election announcement early next week — but is keeping even insiders in suspense about the exact liftoff plan, Axios' Alex Thompson reports.
Why it matters: By announcing next week, Biden, 80, would quell rising impatience among fellow Democrats — and would have more than two months to raise money before the next FEC filing deadline.
What's happening: Biden's team hasn't announced a campaign manager and is still in the early stages of hiring a staff. If Biden announces next week, he'll need to rely on the DNC in the campaign's early stages.
Once Biden announces his candidacy, political trips will need to be at least partially funded by the campaign apparatus, requiring robust fundraising.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that Team Biden is preparing to announce his '24 campaign with a video on Tuesday to coincide with the four-year anniversary of his 2020 campaign launch.
Biden told reporters last week as he left Ireland that he would announce re-election plans ‘relatively soon.’ He added that ‘the trip here just reinforced my sense of optimism about what can be done.’
CNN reported that campaign headquarters will be in Wilmington, Del.
Between the lines: The longer Biden waits, the more he risks not being able to hire Democratic operatives who are committing to other 2024 campaigns.
Biden doesn't like to be rushed and prefers to make decisions on his own timeline. He began his 2020 campaign on April 25, 2019 — four years ago Tuesday.
Biden will host a donor gathering in D.C. at the end of next week, The New York Times reported — with a meeting with Biden outside the White House next Friday evening, and perhaps briefings with top strategists the next day.” [Axios]
America's "backache" economy: Things could be worse
Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios
“Corporate America's crush of first-quarter results is sending an unambiguous message about the U.S. economy: The long-awaited slowdown is here — but isn't as bad as expected, Axios managing editor Javier David writes.
Why it matters: The first three months of 2023 have been a doozy. The Fed is hiking borrowing costs and Russia is (still) at war with Ukraine. The U.S. and China are sparring over just about everything. And America's banking sector survived a near-2008 experience.
After defying predictions of a slowdown late last year, the "March moderation" showed inflation slowly easing — a sign that the Fed might slow down a campaign that has hiked borrowing costs across the spectrum.
Big banks have mostly defied the gravitational pull of slowing activity and the sum of all recessionary fears.
It all amounts to what Jeffrey Roach, chief economist for LPL Financial, characterizes as an ‘economy with a backache’ — but not flat in bed.
Small businesses — which comprise over 40% of economic activity — ‘are hunkering down, as few have expansionary plans in the near future. No doubt, tighter credit conditions impacted those decisions,’ Roach wrote this week.
Reality check: The shakeout among smaller banks is creating an opening for alternative financing institutions, some say.
‘Private equity firms, debt funds, and specialty finance companies with the right resources will see stronger opportunities due to less competition from banks,’ Ran Eliasaf, founder and managing partner at Northwind Group, a real estate private equity firm, tells Axios in an email.
Attractive lending opportunities still exist — especially in residential assets in New York City and other high-demand locations.” [Axios]
Gun violence
“The shooter who killed five co-workers at a Louisville, Kentucky, bank this month left notes that revealed part of his goal was to show how easy it was in America for someone dealing with a serious mental illness to buy an assault-style weapon. The gunman purchased the AR-15-style rifle seven days before the April 10 shooting after quickly passing a records check. Separately, communities across the US are grieving several recent shootings in which young people were shot after making a common blunder. Among the cases, a 6-year-old girl was shot after an angry neighbor opened fire over a basketball rolling into his yard. Other young victims include two teenage cheerleaders in Texas who mistakenly approached someone else's vehicle in a grocery store parking lot, a 16-year-old boy who rang the wrong doorbell in Kansas City and a 20-year-old woman who turned into the wrong New York driveway.” [CNN]
Neighbor says 6-year-old and parents shot over stray ball
Kinsley White, 6, shows reporters a wound left on her face, Thursday, April 20, 2023 in Gastonia, N.C. A North Carolina man shot and wounded a 6-year-old girl and her parents after children went to retrieve a basketball that had rolled into his yard, according to neighbors and the girl's family — another in a string of recent shootings sparked by seemingly trivial reasons. (Kara Fohner/The Gaston Gazette via AP)
“GASTONIA, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina man shot and wounded a 6-year-old girl and her parents after children went to retrieve a basketball that had rolled into his yard, according to neighbors and the girl’s family — another in a string of recent shootings sparked by seemingly trivial circumstances.
Gaston County Police Chief Stephen Zill said at a news conference Wednesday that his department and the U.S. Marshals Service’s Regional Fugitive Task Force were conducting a broad search for 24-year-old Robert Louis Singletary, who fled after the Tuesday night shootings near Gastonia, a city of roughly 80,000 people west of Charlotte….” Read more at AP News
DeSantis Signs Law Lowering Death Penalty Threshold in Florida
The change will allow juries in the state to recommend a death sentence even if as many as four jurors vote against it, the lowest threshold in the nation.
“MIAMI — Florida will become the state with the lowest threshold for imposing the death penalty under a law signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday, which will allow juries to recommend capital punishment without a unanimous vote.
The change, which will allow juries to recommend a death sentence with an 8-to-4 vote, was prompted by a Florida jury’s decision last year to sentence to life in prison without parole the gunman who murdered 17 people in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. The jury had voted 9 to 3 in favor of the death penalty in that case, but the judge could not impose it unless every juror had voted in favor.
Mr. DeSantis, who has been traveling across the country ahead of an expected 2024 Republican presidential campaign, received and quietly signed the law on Thursday in his office, accompanied by a few legislators and parents of Parkland victims.
‘Once a defendant in a capital case is found guilty by a unanimous jury, one juror should not be able to veto a capital sentence,’ he said in a statement….” Read more at New York Times
Note: Some states categorized as illegal permit CBD for medical use. Data: DISA; Chart: Axios Visuals.
“Cannabis aficionados in 20-plus states and Washington, D.C., are able to buy marijuana legally for today's high-flying informal holiday known as 4/20.
Medicinal use is legal in 38 states.
The legalized marijuana market is worth $64 billion, nearly tripling over the last three years as legalization efforts swept the nation, Axios' Kelly Tyko reports.
Maryland and Missouri were the latest states to approve legalizing recreational cannabis through ballot initiatives last November.” [Axios]
What’s in the Republican debt ceiling bill?
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
“House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday unveiled the Republican plan to raise the debt ceiling limit until March 2024 in exchange for spending cuts.” [Vox / Ben Jacobs]
“The Limit, Save, Grow Act would cut federal spending to 2022 levels, rescind Democratic climate change policy, and eliminate student loan forgiveness, among other measures.” [Vox] [Associated Press / Lisa Mascaro and Kevin Freking].
“The bill has no chance of becoming law, as Democrats control the Senate, but McCarthy hopes to force President Joe Biden and Democrats to come to the negotiating table.” [Vox] [USA Today / Joey Garrison and Ella Lee]
“It’s also unclear if McCarthy’s proposal has enough support to pass the House, where he can only afford to lose a handful of votes.” [Vox] [Politico / Adam Cancryn, Jennifer Scholtes, and Sarah Ferris]
‘The Treasury Department has used extraordinary measures to keep the government from defaulting on its payments since the US reached its $31 trillion debt ceiling in January. If the limit isn’t raised, resources could run out by June, which would devastate the global economy.” [Vox] [NPR / Barbara Sprunt and Deirdre Walsh]
Gender-affirming care
“North Dakota's Republican Gov. Doug Burgum signed a bill this week banning gender-affirming care for most minors. Burgum, in a statement to CNN, said the bill "is aimed at protecting children from the life-altering ramifications of gender reassignment surgeries." It also bars providers from prescribing minors puberty-blocking medication and hormone therapies for the purpose of gender transition. Health care professionals who violate the new legislation could face a class B felony charge, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison or a fine of $20,000, according to North Dakota law. This comes as a growing number of states are restricting access to health care services for transgender youth. Indiana and Idaho enacted their own bans earlier this month, and several other states have signed into law restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors since the start of the year.” [CNN]
Theranos
“The former chief operating officer of the failed startup Theranos, Ramesh ‘Sunny’ Balwani, has reported to prison, according to his attorney. Once valued at $9 billion, Theranos attracted top investors and retail partners with claims that it had developed technology to test for a wide range of conditions using just a few drops of blood. The company began to unravel after a Wall Street Journal investigation in 2015 revealed Theranos had only ever performed roughly a dozen of the hundreds of tests it offered using its proprietary technology, and with questionable accuracy. Balwani's arrival into custody this week marks an end to a yearslong saga which saw him become one of the rare tech executives convicted for fraud. The founder of the company, Elizabeth Holmes, was also convicted on multiple counts of defrauding investors and has been ordered to turn herself in next week.” [CNN]
‘Swatting’ calls soar at schools
Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios
“‘Swatting’ calls — fake reports of shootings or bombs that draw an onslaught of SWAT teams and cause schools to lockdown — are rising nationwide, Axios' Sareen Habeshian reports.
Why it matters: The psychological impact on children can be immense, even when no one is physically hurt.
401 false reports have been recorded at K-12 schools so far this academic year, according to The Educator's School Safety Network operations director Amanda Klinger.
Many of the calls are computer generated, making it easy for perpetrators to call-in dozens of fake threats in a short period of time.
‘Very often, and probably in this case, they are foreign actors,’ New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said after 36 New York schools were targeted in March.
What's next: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called on the FBI to launch an investigation into the ‘unprecedented wave’ of swatting calls.” [Axios]
Thousands flee Sudan after ceasefires crumble
“Thousands of civilians are fleeing Sudan under the threat of heavy gunfire after ceasefires collapsed.” [Vox] [Reuters / Khalid Abdelaziz and Nafisa Eltahir]
‘Clashes between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group began last weekend after rival military generals disagreed over the transition to civilian rule and how to incorporate the RSF into the army.’ [Vox / Ellen Ioanes]
‘At least 330 people have died and another 3,200 have been wounded in the violence that’s destroyed hospitals and major infrastructure in and around the densely populated capital, Khartoum.’ [Vox] [New York Times / Isabella Kwai and Cora Engelbrecht]
‘The Pentagon on Thursday began moving military troops to Djibouti in case it needs to evacuate US embassy staff from Khartoum.’ [Vox] [Politico / Alexander Ward, Lara Seligman, and Erin Banco]
‘We Will Hunt You’: Ugandans Flee Ahead of Harsh Anti-Gay Law
The bill, passed last month, calls for life in prison for anyone engaging in same-sex relations. President Yoweri Museveni congratulated lawmakers for their “strong stand” against L.G.B.T.Q. people.
“In a spartan safehouse with flimsy curtains and no furniture northwest of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, people from neighboring Uganda clung to the few valuables they could snatch while fleeing harsh new legislation targeting them back home.
A gay man clutched the white rosary that he took to church every Sunday. A transgender woman brought her favorite shimmering blue dress. A lesbian couple clenched the one smartphone that held photos from happier days, going on dates and dancing in clubs.
They began leaving after Uganda’s Parliament passed a sweeping anti-gay bill in late March that threatens punishment as severe as death for some perceived offenses, and calls for life in prison for anyone engaging in same-sex relations.
‘The government and the people of Uganda are against our existence,’ said Mbajjwe Nimiro Wilson, a 24-year-old who fled with a single backpack days after a hostile crowd, including children, cornered him as he bought groceries near a gay shelter in the capital, Kampala.
‘They kept saying, ‘We will hunt you. You gays should be killed. We will slaughter you,’ he said. ‘There was no option but to leave.’
The bill, which passed 387 to 2, punishes anyone who leases property to gay people and calls for the ‘rehabilitation’ of those convicted of being gay. President Yoweri Museveni, who has commended the bill, sent it back to Parliament on Thursday for ‘improvement,’ his party said in a statement.
The president congratulated lawmakers and religious leaders on what he called their ‘strong stand’ against L.G.B.T.Q. people. ‘It is good that you rejected the pressure from the imperials,’ he said, a reference to Western countries, in footage released by the public broadcaster. He spoke hours after the European Parliament denounced the bill.
The legislation follows a groundswell of anti-gay rhetoric that has swept African countries in recent years, including in Ghana, Zambia and Kenya. Last month, lawmakers from more than a dozen African countries gathered in Uganda and promised to introduce or pass measures in their own countries that they said would protect the sanctity of the family and children against ‘the sin of homosexuality.’
Same-sex acts were already considered illegal under Uganda’s penal code, but the bill introduces far harsher penalties and vastly extends the range of perceived offenses. And while anti-gay rhetoric has long existed in Uganda, it has taken a severe turn in the past year, with authorities removing rainbow colors from a park and parents charging into a school because they thought a gay person taught there.
The latest move to target L.G.B.T.Q. people in Uganda has drawn support from local Christian and Muslim groups, and for years the financial and logistical backing of some conservative evangelical groups in the United States. One of the key organizers of the parliamentary conference in Uganda last month was Family Watch International, an Arizona-based organization that spreads anti-L.G.B.T.Q. and anti-abortion stances, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Ugandan bill has drawn condemnation from human rights groups and the United Nations, and the Biden administration has called it ‘one of the most extreme’ anti-gay measures anywhere in the world.
Senator Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, said the United States should reduce military aid and introduce sanctions against the government of Mr. Museveni, who has been in power for almost four decades. The East African nation, a close security ally of the United States, receives more than $950 million annually in health and development assistance.
After months of campaigning against it, gay rights activists in Uganda are now planning to challenge the measure in court if it is signed….” Read more at New York Times
UK deputy prime minister quits after bullying investigation
By BRIAN MELLEY and JILL LAWLESS
FILE - Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab arrives at 10 Downing Street in London, Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2022. Raab has resigned after an independent investigation into complaints that he bullied civil servants. Raab’s decision Friday, April 21, 2023 came the day after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak received findings into eight formal complaints that Raab, who is also justice secretary, had been abusive toward staff during a previous stint in that office and while serving as foreign secretary and Brexit secretary. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant file)
“LONDON (AP) — U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab grudgingly resigned Friday after an independent investigation found he bullied civil servants, though he criticized the report as ‘flawed.’
Raab’s announcement came the day after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak received the findings of an investigation into eight formal complaints that Raab, who is also justice secretary, had been abusive toward staff members during a previous stint in that office and while serving as Britain’s foreign secretary and Brexit secretary.
Attorney Adam Tolley, who conducted the inquiry, said Raab ‘acted in a way which was intimidating,’ was ‘unreasonably and persistently aggressive’ and ‘introduced a punitive element’ to his leadership style.
‘His conduct also involved an abuse or misuse of power in a way that undermines or humiliates,’ Tolley wrote in the 48-page report. ‘His conduct was bound to be experienced as undermining or humiliating by the affected individual, and it was so experienced.’”… Read more at AP News
“Theories abound surrounding the underwater detonations that caused gas to bubble up from the Baltic seabed, turning the surface into a gurgling cauldron. As Willem Marx reports, seven months on, the mystery of who was behind the explosions that damaged the Nord Stream 1 and 2 natural gas pipelines from Russia to Europe remains unsolved.” [Bloomberg]
The leak near the Danish island of Bornholm. Source: Danish Defense
Twitter begins removing blue checks from users who don’t pay
By BARBARA ORTUTAY
FILE - The Twitter splash page is seen on a digital device, on April 25, 2022, in San Diego. After several false starts, Twitter began making good on its promise Thursday, April 20, 2023, to remove the blue checks from accounts that don't pay a monthly fee to keep them. Twitter had about 300,000 verified users under the original blue-check system — many of them journalists, athletes and public figures. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
“This time it’s for real.
Many of Twitter’s high-profile users are losing the blue checks that helped verify their identity and distinguish them from impostors on the Elon Musk-owned social media platform.
After several false starts, Twitter began making good on its promise Thursday to remove the blue checks from accounts that don’t pay a monthly fee to keep them. Twitter had about 300,000 verified users under the original blue-check system — many of them journalists, athletes and public figures. The checks — which used to mean the account was verified by Twitter to be who it says it is — began disappearing from these users’ profiles late morning Pacific Time.
High-profile users who lost their blue checks Thursday included Beyoncé, Pope Francis, Oprah Winfrey and former President Donald Trump.
The costs of keeping the marks range from $8 a month for individual web users to a starting price of $1,000 monthly to verify an organization, plus $50 monthly for each affiliate or employee account. Twitter does not verify the individual accounts, as was the case with the previous blue check doled out during the platform’s pre-Musk administration.” [AP News]
BuzzFeed shutters BuzzFeed News
BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti celebrates ringing the bell during BuzzFeed Inc.'s Listing Day at Nasdaq in 2021. Photo: Bennett Raglin/Getty Images
“BuzzFeed is shutting down its BuzzFeed News division as part of a wider effort to turn the struggling media group around and to squeeze profits from a company that's lost 90% of its value since it listed in 2021.
In a memo to staff, CEO Jonah Peretti wrote that he over-invested in the business and relied too much on social media distribution, Axios' Tim Baysinger and Sara Fischer report.
Peretti said that BuzzFeed would cut its workforce by 15% — 180 people — and BuzzFeed News would begin the process of shutting down today.
Former and current BuzzFeed News staffers (including Kate who worked as D.C. bureau chief from 2016 to 2020) lamented the loss of BuzzFeed News on Twitter.
‘BuzzFeed News deserved so much better, and has for a long time,’ tweeted Tom Namako, former deputy editor-in-chief at BuzzFeed News who left last year to join NBC News.” [Azios]
Wearable AI
Journalist Zarif Ali, who has been closely following Humane, captured this image of the phone-call demo. Photo: Via Twitter. Used by Zarif's kind permission
“VANCOUVER, Canada — Ex-Apple employee Imran Chaudhri gave TED attendees an early glimpse of the AI-powered wearable that his startup, Humane, has been developing, Axios chief tech correspondent Ina Fried writes.
Why it matters: The screenless device, which doesn't require a nearby cell phone to work, uses a combination of voice and gestures for input and can display information by projecting it onto nearby objects.
In his TED talk, Chaudhri showed the wearable, which sat in his jacket pocket, translating his own voice into French.
He answered a phone call from his wife, with the call information appearing as a green image projected onto his hand.
The secretive startup has raised $230 million.” [Axios]
Alec Baldwin charge to be dropped in movie set shooting case
By ANDREW DALTON and MORGAN LEEan hour ago
“SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Prosecutors in New Mexico plan to drop an involuntary manslaughter charge against Alec Baldwin in the fatal 2021 shooting of a cinematographer on the set of the Western film “ Rust,” Baldwin’s attorneys said Thursday.
‘We are pleased with the decision to dismiss the case against Alec Baldwin and we encourage a proper investigation into the facts and circumstances of this tragic accident,’ Baldwin’s attorneys Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro said in a statement.
Heather Brewer, a spokeswoman for the Santa Fe district attorney’s office, declined to comment on the status of the criminal charges against Baldwin and weapons supervisor Hannah Gutierrez-Reed when reached by telephone Thursday.
That left it unclear whether charges against Baldwin could be refiled later, and whether prosecutors will continue to pursue an involuntary manslaughter charge against Gutierrez-Reed.
‘This is very different from what the original prosecutor said,’ noted John Day, a Santa Fe-based criminal defense attorney, highlighting the arrival of a new prosecution team on the ‘Rust’ case in late March.
‘It does raise the question of initially the Santa Fe district attorney saying we’re holding Alec Baldwin responsible in part because of the role as CEO of the production and (that) it was a very sloppy production. Does this mean that the new prosecutors have a different point of view?’
When word of the dismissal came, Baldwin was at Yellowstone Film Ranch on the set of a rebooted ‘Rust’ production. Preparations for filming were underway Thursday at its new location in Montana, 18 months after the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins shut it down, a representative for Rust Movie Productions said.
Baldwin was pointing a pistol at Hutchins during a rehearsal when the gun when off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.
Baldwin has said the gun went off accidentally and that he did not pull the trigger. An FBI forensic report found the weapon could not have fired unless the trigger was pulled.
Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys said that they ‘fully expect at the end of this process that Hannah will also be exonerated.’
‘The truth about what happened will come out and the questions that we have long sought answers for will be answered,’ the lawyers, Jason Bowles and Todd Bullion, said in a statement.
The case against Baldwin had already been diminishing. A weapons charge that would have meant a much longer sentence had already been dismissed, and the first special prosecutor appointed in the case resigned.
The charges against Baldwin had marked a stunning fall for an A-list actor whose 40-year career included the early blockbuster ‘The Hunt for Red October’ and a starring role in the sitcom ‘30 Rock,’ as well as iconic appearances in Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Departed’ and a film adaptation of David Mamet’s ‘Glengary Glen Ross.’ In recent years, he was known for his impression of former President Donald Trump on ‘Saturday Night Live.’
The 65-year-old worked little since the shooting but hardly went into hiding. He stayed active on social media, making Instagram videos, recording a podcast and posting picture of his wife and seven children.
‘Rust’ safety coordinator and assistant director David Halls pleaded no contest in March to a conviction for unsafe handling of a firearm and a suspended sentence of six months of probation.
Plans to resume filming were outlined last year by the cinematographer’s widower Matthew Hutchins in a proposed settlement to a wrongful death lawsuit that would make him an executive producer. Souza has said he will return to directing ‘Rust’ production to honor the legacy of Halyna Hutchins.
Despite the settlement, attorneys for the Hutchins family said they welcomed the criminal charges against Baldwin when they were filed. They had no immediate comment on the pending dismissal Thursday.
After a scathing safety review by regulators in New Mexico that detailed ignored complaints and misfires before Hutchins’ death in October of 2021, the production company agreed to pay a $100,000 fine.
Baldwin had yet to even travel to New Mexico for a court appearance, and none had been required of him under state law. Evidentiary hearings had been scheduled for next month to determine whether to proceed toward trial.
Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies had said previously that her office is pursuing justice in the death of Hutchins and wants to show that no one is above the law when it comes to firearms and public safety. She says the Ukrainian-born cinematographer’s death was tragic and preventable.” [AP News]
This handout photo released April 25, 2022, courtesy of Santa Fe, New Mexico County Sheriff's Office, shows actor Alec Baldwin after the 2021 death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the New Mexico set of the film "Rust."
Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office via AFP/Getty Images
Tomorrow is Record Store Day
Data: RIAA; Chart: Axios Visuals
“Vinyl sales continue to rebound, and last year outperformed CDs for the first time in more than three decades, Nicole Cobler writes for Axios Austin.
Why it matters: It's still a streaming world. But decades-old music formats are suddenly trendy.
Record Store Day, being celebrated coast to coast tomorrow at bricks-and-mortar retailers, marks the biggest sales day of the year for many vinyl stores.
By the numbers: National vinyl record sales last year outperformed CDs 41 million to 33 million, according to a Recording Industry Association of America report.
Vinyl sales grew to $1.2 billion in 2022, up 17% from the previous year and the 16th consecutive year of growth.
What to know: If you're interested in tracking down a limited-release record tomorrow, expect to wait in line with hundreds of other music lovers.
Limited quantities are released at indie record stores, and aren't available online. There are no options for pre-orders, holds or phone orders.
In Austin, Antone's Record Store manager Ray Colgan tells Axios that the store has received the most inquiries about Taylor Swift's release — a special issue vinyl of ‘folklore: the long pond studio sessions.’
Fans camped outside Antone's and other record stores last year to snag a copy of Swift's exclusive 7-inch release of ‘the lakes,’ which led some stores to create drawings to manage demand.” [Axios]
“Lives Lived: Loren Cameron was a photographer and activist whose groundbreaking portraits of himself and other transgender people inspired a generation. He died at 63.” [New York Times]