Author: openjargon

• Eric Newland, 56, lives in New Braunfels, Texas, one of America's fastest-growing cities.
• The city between Austin and San Antonio wins over movers with relatively affordable homes, he said.
• The transplants lead to benefits, like higher wages, and drawbacks, like increased traffic, he said.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Eric Newland, a 56-year-old retired Medical Service Corps officer who is now a real-estate agent in New Braunfels, Texas. Census data shows that New Braunfels' population has surged by more than 15% since 2020, making it one of the fastest-growing cities in the US. The essay has been edited for length and clarity.

In 2005, I moved to New Braunfels while going through my master's program at Fort Sam Houston. Since then, I've lived here off and on during my military career.

I've spent time in Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea, and, most recently, Germany. In 2020, I moved back to New Braunfels.

The city is about 32 miles northeast of San Antonio and roughly 40 miles southwest of Austin, within the Texas Triangle." This area, primarily along Interstate 10 and Interstate 35, spans between Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston, and has seen the bulk of the state's population growth.

New Braunfels is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country.

With many people relocating here from various locations, there have been a lot of vibrant changes.

The city is growing but retaining its identity

Despite its growth, the city maintains its small-town charm, with quaint shops and restaurants. In the heart of downtown, there's a central plaza that has smoke trees and a pavilion where people often gather to watch local bands perform.

Further away from the downtown area, there are many new neighborhoods. Moving towards San Antonio and Austin, the city begins to feel like a larger town with several strip malls and new homes.

New Braunfels has a mix of Mexican and German cultures. I have lived in Germany three separate times, and the closest feeling to that is probably here in New Braunfels.

The city was founded by German settlers and many businesses like to maintain that theme. For example, if you're at an Autohaus, it would be spelled with an "h-a-u-s" instead of "h-o-u-s-e." We even have an old German bakery called Naegelin's.

Every year in November, the city hosts Wurstfest, the largest German fest in the United States. New Braunfels is also home to Schlitterbahn, a German water park that is the largest in the country.

Californians are flocking to New Braunfels

I became a real-estate agent a few years ago when I retired from the Army. I began my training in 2020 and got my license in 2021.

New Braunfels has always been growing, but since then, there has been a significant increase in interest in the area. There's a lot of construction going on, and big housing developments and new businesses just keep popping up everywhere.

There's been a mass migration of people from California moving to New Braunfels.

In fact, a common theme among Realtors in the area is hearing, "I have another client from California."

While I can only speak for a handful of clients I've talked to, it seems that many of the movers coming here have been priced out of California and believe their money goes further in Texas.

For instance, a friend of mine from San Diego said that the cost of living became too expensive relative to income levels, and that Texas offered them more affordability on everyday expenses.

Similarly, another person I know sold their Los Angeles home, purchased a house here in New Braunfels, and used the profit to start a business. Their move even encouraged some of their family members to relocate here.

There have been some growing pains

With more people moving here, the real-estate market has changed. Home prices have risen significantly compared to the 19 years that I've been associated with this area.

When I first moved here in 2005, I bought a three-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot home for $130,000. We sold it for $144,000 in 2008, and then purchased another home for $171,000, sold it in 2017 for $194,000.

In 2019, my wife and I purchased a 2,400-square-foot home for $370,000. Today, I'd estimate its value to be somewhere in the mid-500s, potentially up to $600,000.

As a retired veteran with disability benefits, I am exempt from paying property tax. However, I am aware that property taxes in this area have increased. I believe one of my neighbors saw theirs increase from around $1,500 to $1,600 a year.

When you have growth, it does change the fabric of the area.

An upside is that there have been a lot of new businesses, more income to the city, and even live music. A downside has been that there's definitely more traffic.

Even still, I think our city leaders have done the best they can to accommodate our larger population.

• Ex-Google recruiter Nolan Church explains why candidates might get ghosted after interviews.
• Recruiters often forget, shift priorities, or are unaware of internal changes affecting hiring.
• Nolan says a strategic follow-up strategy can help, but moving on if unresponsive is crucial.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nolan Church, a 35-year-old former recruiter for Google and Doordash from Salt Lake City. It has been edited for length and clarity.

Job interviews can be exciting, especially after applying for a wide variety of positions, but the process can quickly become stressful when a candidate doesn't hear back from the recruiter right away.

As a former recruiter at Google and the ex-head of talent at DoorDash, I've seen my fair share of candidates get ghosted by jobs they've interviewed for, and I've definitely ghosted candidates, too, but never intentionally.

Still, ghosting does happen. Before assuming it has intentionally happened to you, here are four scenarios to consider. Also, here's how to follow up with a recruiter properly and when to move on.

1. Recruiters forget

When candidates interview for a role and think, "I really want this job, but I'm not hearing back," I advise them to email the recruiter. Then, if they don't hear back within 24 to 48 hours, send another email.

Candidates often make assumptions about why they aren't hearing back on jobs they've applied for, but, in many cases, the recruiter just got really busy.

Right now, recruiters are expected to do more with fewer resources. This means they're hiring more, working more, and handling more candidates. With everything going on, recruiters often get buried in tasks and forget. Try to give recruiters the benefit of the doubt and assume good intentions first. But when needed, follow up.

One way to follow up with a recruiter is to send them a thank-you email within 24 hours after the interview.

You could try something like:

Email #1: Hey [recruiter/hiring manager name] —

Thank you for coordinating the on-site interviews today. The caliber of the team is impressive. I'm excited about the role and opportunity for impact.

When can I expect to hear back on next steps? Let me know if you need anything in the interim.

Your email should thank them for setting up the interview, and it should give your impressions about the team and role. Then, let them know you're excited about the company and team and ask for the next steps and a timeline.

If the recruiter responds, maintain contact and respond quickly to their messages.

2. Recruiters shift priorities

Recruiters are constantly buried with tasks, which requires them to focus on the business's top priorities. Even though a candidate might feel excited and think they're about to receive an offer, something else might emerge, diverting the recruiter's attention.

For example, perhaps a new role has just opened, or maybe an internal matter requires immediate attention. Recruiters should strive to treat every candidate as a top priority, but sometimes, internal priorities do take precedence.

If you feel ghosted after sending your thank you note, you could try sending this other email 48 hours after the first email:

Email #2 Hey [recruiter/hiring manager name] — Is there any feedback you can pass along from the team?

This gives a gentle nudge.

3. Something has changed within the business

Sometimes, business circumstances change, including layoffs and hiring freezes, and unfortunately, recruiters aren't always informed first. The tech industry is experiencing a significant wave of layoffs, for example.

When this happens, open roles are often the first to be closed. As a result, there's usually a delay in informing recruiters about these changes, as decisions are made at the management level and require thorough consideration before being communicated.

This leaves recruiters uncertain about how to update candidates on the situation. If you still have yet to hear back, wait 72 hours from the time you sent your second email, and then send:

Email #3: Hey [recruiter/hiring manager name] — Is everything OK?

This is a great strategy because it enables the candidate to push for an answer while being perceived as empathetic and caring. I love this one, personally.

4. Recruiters are talking to other candidates

If a candidate gets ghosted early in the hiring process, the recruiter is most likely talking to other candidates. But if it's later in the process, especially if the recruiter has indicated an offer and the candidate hasn't heard back, it's much less likely to be the case. Still, there's no way of knowing, so following up is still your best bet.

If you still haven't heard anything, it's time to move on to email four, the last email in the sequence. Again, wait 72 hours, and send something like:

Email #4: Hey [recruiter/hiring manager name] — Checking in one last time. Can you pass along any feedback from the team?

If they don't respond to this fourth email, it's safe to assume you've been ghosted.

A solid follow-up strategy is the antidote to ghosting, but nothing is 100% guaranteed

Unfortunately, in today's culture, ghosting does happen, but it doesn't mean it's intentionally happening to you. After all, recruiters are human, and they get busy. But if you've followed up and you haven't heard back, it's time to move on.

Take comfort in knowing that if a company has truly ghosted you, it's a sign that you've dodged a bullet, and that's not a place you'd want to work anyway.

Whether a company moves forward with you or not, you deserve to hear back, and with the right company, you will.

If you're a recruiter or hiring manager and want to share your unique advice, email Manseen Logan at mlogan@businessinsider.com.

• 1st Sgt. Micah Symmonds is a jumpmaster for the Army's 11th Airborne Division in Alaska.
• Symmonds said he still gets nervous before jumps, but keeps an outward appearance of calm for his paratroopers.
• He's in his element once things get going though, but a lot goes into getting ready.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with 1st Sgt. Micah Symmonds, a US Army jumpmaster in the 11th Airborne Division based in Alaska. It's been edited for length and clarity.

To be a jumpmaster, you need to be a good leader. Attention to detail and being able to exude calmness for your paratroopers before a mission is important, even if I'm still nervous in the preparation for it. Once the ball starts rolling though, I feel in my element.

I've had over 60 jumps, and I still cheese out over it every time. It's a huge adrenaline rush every time, and if you're not feeling that, then it's probably time to retire. There's a reason why so many people choose to be in an airborne division for their entire career.

I've been able to jump into Guam, Australia, Thailand, and the Philippines. I've also been stationed in Kuwait and have gone around the Middle East. Especially being in the 11th Airborne Division, we have a very unique geographical position, so we're able to reach a lot of places in the Indo-Pacific region.

Jumping in the freezing cold

Jumping in the Arctic, the biggest change is what you're wearing on your body depending on the temperature. It's very different than jumping into Thailand, for example.

The coldest I've ever jumped in was -50 degrees Fahrenheit. I was wearing a balaclava, goggles, gloves, and vapor barrier boots on that jump. But I wasn't wearing any sort of insulating clothing on my body because inside the aircraft, the temperature is about 40 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit. I don't want to sweat as I exit in that environment, so I keep my insulating layers in my rucksack.

Packing, especially of insulating layers, is the huge difference between our summer and winter jumps. And we're packing a lot of water and water purification materials, or a stove and fuel to melt snow.

The hardest part is balancing what soldier gear you need with what kind of life-saving gear you need. You want your paratroopers to be safe and have all the stuff to make them comfortable in the cold weather, but having a rucksack in excess of 100 pounds isn't sustainable to jump and do a mission that can last weeks or months.

Having to play that balancing game between what is inside your rucksack and on your person versus what can be delivered later is a very fun and challenging game in the Arctic.

Can't miss anything that would injure a jumper

When you are training to become a jumpmaster, there is a very high standard for what you need to do at the schoolhouse.

Inspecting paratroopers before a jump — when you're meticulously going item by item on each jumper and checking for each item's serviceability and that everything is in the correct configuration to exit the aircraft — is a pretty daunting task. You can't miss any major deficiencies that would cause injury to a jumper on that.

You also have to learn all of the equipment nomenclature. Each piece has its own special Army name that usually doesn't make sense in regular English, but you just have to learn it and know what it means.

So, for example, instead of saying something like helmet pad, it would be referred to as a front trapezoid pad, which refers to a very specific piece of equipment. Another is a rubber band, which is called a retainer band.

Specific words have specific meanings. If I just ask for a rubber band, I could be asking for any sort of thing. If I ask for a retainer band, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I'm getting this specific piece of equipment that everyone in the operations knows. If I ask for a helmet pad, there are about three or four different shapes you could get depending on the helmet you're using.

It is all about having it down and knowing exactly what you need in the heat of the moment, and that can be vital in terms of timing and communication.

Three opportunities to make the jump

Jumping has that extra thrill, and there's a special camaraderie that comes with being in an airborne unit. And then becoming a jumpmaster, you're a leader in that organization, you really need to show the want and drive.

Missions are sort of like a leveling event where it doesn't matter who you are. We're all paratroopers, and we're doing our jobs, helping each other rig and checking for safety for the person in front of you and trusting the person behind you to check your chute.

On each jump, you're generally exiting from both parachute doors of an aircraft, and each door will have a jumpmaster. Once the green light comes on, meaning that we're safe to exit paratroopers, most people click right into their training and know what they're doing. They've prepped for this. They're ready to go.

Each trooper gets three opportunities to go and if they don't go, for whatever reason, they're getting removed from the door and told not to touch their equipment. They'll fly back, and then a jumpmaster who wasn't a part of the team will look at their equipment and chute thoroughly for a technical inspection.

Basically, we want to make sure we're giving the paratrooper every benefit of the doubt that they didn't just get scared before the jump but maybe found something wrong in their equipment.

If nothing is wrong, it goes up a chain of command to make a determination whether that trooper should do some remedial training or a larger discussion about the mission and what's expected of them. This is all exceedingly rare, but there is a plan if it does come up.

Hitting the ground the right way

Paratroopers go through a lot of training, and then before a mission, we rehearse the jump, how they're going to exit the aircraft, what they need to do while they're in the air, and how to land properly.

Once you load onto the aircraft, you can wait to jump anywhere from 20 minutes if it's at your local station to 18 hours if you're traveling far. You wait for the 20-minute call, then the 10-minute call, and you stand up and hook up. Depending on the aircraft, there can be different configurations, but there's always going to be an anchor line cable, which is just a thick metal cable that runs down the entire body of the aircraft.

And once you jump, there's obviously a correct time to pull the parachute and best ways to land, which is with your feet and knees together, slightly bent, and basically you want to hit the ground with the balls of your feet and just kind of roll along, trying to let the energy dissipate.

Landing in the Arctic is a gamble. Even if you're coming down in what you think is a blanket of light snow, it could be hard ice and it's almost like hitting concrete. There are challenges in other places as well though. In Thailand or Australia, for example, you could have a nice sandy landing or sand that's sun-baked and hard. So it's really hit-and-miss.

The training for landing is extremely important because you need to be able to land regardless of the environment, regardless of what's happening, and still be able to go and achieve whatever the objective is at the time.

• Liv Arnold met her now-husband at work after they bonded over how much they hated their job.
• Even though they were dating other people, they started hanging out a lot after work. 
• Once they broke up with their partners, Liv started dating her now-husband.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Liv Arnold, a 29-year-old who met her husband at work. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Tim and I met 12 years ago when we were both working for one of Australia's "big four" banks. We were on the same team and sat next to each other. We bonded over the fact that we both really, really hated our job. We fantasized about quitting together.

Nevertheless, we both stayed on that team for a year before moving to other roles in the company. Our job was in the home loans team and we had the same manager. We hated it because we were expected to sell a product — home loans — to customers who couldn't necessarily afford it. It was the worst kind of sales job. But our shared sense of humor got each other through it.

We started as coworkers and then became friends, and now, we have been a couple for 11 years.

We bonded in and out of the office

We'd play silly games to distract ourselves from the awfulness. One was called "Would you rather?" We'd ask each other things like: "Would you rather eat a newborn baby or get a sexually transmitted disease?" It was really stupid stuff, but we'd giggle when we should've been working.

We had the same group of office friends, but they were flaky. We'd arrange dinners, movies, or after-work drinks. But one by one, they'd all bail at the last minute, leaving just Tim and me. Tim proved to me then that he was reliable; he'd show up when he said he would. And so would I.

Often it was just Tim and I alone — even though we both were in relationships at the time. I initially saw Tim just as a friend. I didn't have any romantic hopes or ideas for the first few months.

But then Tim's relationship ended. He discovered his partner was having an affair. Meanwhile, I was in a long-distance relationship. We saw each other about once a month, but neither of us wanted to move for the other. So we knew it wasn't right.

I didn't break up with my boyfriend till the following year. During that time, Tim and I were strictly just friends and colleagues; there was no affair.

Even though we sat next to each other, we'd started messaging each other on the instant messaging service at work so we could discreetly send each other jokes and make each other laugh, making the day go quicker. Colleagues started making jokes that maybe something was going on between us.

But then we started dating for real

Valentine's Day was around the corner. We'd all planned to go out, but, yet again, all our friends canceled as usual. So it was just Tim and me again. We were having drinks, and Tim got pretty drunk. I realized he had feelings.

We finally got together and continued to work on the same team, sitting next to each other for another four months. When we told our colleagues we were dating, they thought we were joking. We had to convince them we were serious.

The senior managers said they could see it coming a mile away and were really happy for us, even congratulating us.

We've been together ever since

Now, I'm a copywriter and author. I write romance novels about office romances. I guess I have some experience there. Tim thinks the charming heroes in my books are based on him, but they're not at all.

We've been together for 11 years and got married in 2016. Tim has a new job at an energy company. I don't worry about him meeting someone else at work, as we have a lot of trust.

Office romances are common. My advice is to go for it. As we worked for a big bank, I at least knew Tim had cleared a police check, extensive background checks, and a credit check. So I knew he wasn't a criminal or bankrupt. That's a good start if you ask me. You don't get those reassurances on Tinder.

• The IDF recovered three hostages' bodies from the Gaza Strip, including Shani Louk's.
• Hamas militants killed the hostages on October 7 during the Nova Music Festival massacre.
• Shani Louk became symbolic of October 7 after photos and video footage of her abduction went viral.

The Israel Defense Forces recovered three hostages' bodies from the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military announced on Friday.

In a press briefing, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, IDF spokesperson, said, "It is with a heavy heart that I share the news that last night the Israel Defense Forces and ISA forces rescued the bodies of our hostages: Shani Louk, Amit Buskila and Yitzchak Gleren-ter."

Shani Louk became a symbol of Hamas' October 7 terrorist incursion into Israel after photos and video footage of her body being abducted went viral.

Hamas militants killed the three hostages on October 7 as they tried to flee the Nova Music Festival massacre, and their bodies were taken into Gaza.

Louk's father, Nissim Louk, spoke of the "relief" of finally having secured the body of his 22-year-old daughter.

"We were informed that soldiers of a commando team were found bodies, and the condition of the body was really good. It was in a relatively deep place in a deep tunnel and very cold," he said, per The Daily Mail.

The three bodies were transferred to medical professionals for forensic examination and identification, per Hagari's statement. After the procedure was complete, the IDF notified their families.

"We will leave no stone unturned," said Hagari. "We will do everything in our power to find our hostages and bring them home. We will not rest until we do."

The Associated Press freelancer Ali Mahmud won the Reynolds Journalism Institute's award for the team picture story of the year for an image showing Shani Louk's lifeless body in the back of a pickup truck and surrounded by Hamas militants.

Louk's father, Nissim Louk, defended the controversial decision to award the distressing image.

"It's good that the photo won the prize," he said. "This is one of the most important photos in the last 50 years. These are some of the photos that shape human memory."

More than 360 people were killed at the Nova festival near Kibbutz Re'im, and 40 were captured, per the Times of Israel.

On October 7 Hamas militants also seized 252 hostages in Israel; 129 hostages are still in captivity in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli broadcaster Kan.

Since October 7, Israel's retaliatory military campaign on Gaza has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. More than 10,000 are missing or trapped under rubble from the IDF's bombardments.

• Warren Buffett's warning that AI is like the atomic bomb is too negative, one expert says.
• Georgetown professor Babak Zafari compared it to nuclear energy given the benefits and risks.
• AI could free human workers to create things and solve problems instead of replacing them, he said.

Warren Buffett's grave warning about artificial intelligence is too pessimistic, according to one expert.

The elite investor compared AI to the atomic bomb during Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting this month. He cautioned that humanity was letting another genie out of its bottle.

"The power of the genie scares the hell out of me," Buffett said. "We may wish we'd never seen that genie."

Babak Zafari, an associate professor at Georgetown's McDonough School of Business, suggested nuclear power was a better analogy.

"Like nuclear energy, AI offers benefits for efficiency and advancements in many areas but it also brings substantial risks if not managed carefully," he told Business Insider.

Zafari, an expert in areas like machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) models, trumpeted AI's potential to transform work, creativity, and problem-solving.

Fraud 2.0

Buffett flagged fraud as a major concern during the Berkshire meeting, predicting AI would make scamming the "growth industry of all time."

He joked that one deepfake video of himself was so convincing that it nearly fooled him too: "I practically would have sent money to myself over in some crazy country."

Zafari agreed it was a "serious concern," especially as AI regulation is nascent and the pace and complexity of the tech make it tough for authorities to govern.

The statistics and analytics guru noted the internet stoked similar fears in the 1980s and 1990s. But a combination of imposing and enforcing rules, and teaching people how to protect themselves, allowed the tech to realize its potential and revolutionize global communication, information sharing, and commerce.

Zafari also discussed how AI could affect Buffett's planned successor as Berkshire CEO. Greg Abel will have to navigate the morass of privacy, accuracy, and ethical concerns, but harnessing the tech could boost efficiency and customer engagement in Berkshire's key insurance business, he said.

Moreover, the Georgetown professor tackled the pressing question of whether AI will replace human workers and spark mass layoffs. He suggested it might handle operational and data-driven tasks, freeing up human employees to creatively solve problems and work on innovative projects.

"This shift could lead to more fulfilling roles, potentially reshaping job descriptions to emphasize creative competencies and soft skills, thereby enhancing overall job satisfaction," he said.

Buffett is clearly wary of the dangers of unleashing truly intelligent technology into the world. But he may be underestimating the positive impacts that AI could have if it's managed responsibly.

• Two sitting House Republicans are dating each other — and one of them is getting a divorce.
• It's not the first time two lawmakers have dated while serving in Congress together.
• Here are 4 other congressional couples throughout the decades.

Two current members of the House Republican conference are dating each other.

On Friday, Rep. Beth Van Duyne of Texas confirmed to the Daily Mail that she's "happily engaged in a relationship" with Rep. Rich McCormick of Georgia.

That's appeared to cause some trouble back home for McCormick: according to the Daily Mail, his wife filed for divorce earlier this month. Van Duyne — who's been divorced for over a decade — told the outlet that the congressman's marriage has "been over for quite some time as I understand it."

A spokesperson for Van Duyne declined to comment further, while a McCormick's spokesperson confirmed that the congressman and his wife have been "separated for quite some time." Neither disputed the Daily Mail's reporting.

The two mid-50s lawmakers, both of whom were only elected in recent years, aren't the first congressional couple.

In fact, there are four known cases of lawmakers dating one another — and ultimately marrying — while serving in Congress.

2000s: Reps. Connie Mack and Mary Bono

Republican Rep. Mary Bono got to Congress in 1998 after her husband — singer-turned-politician Sonny Bono — died in a skiing accident.

Bono opted to run for in the special election to fill her late husband's House seat, triggering the special election that she would ultimately win.

She remarried in 2001, only to file for divorce in 2005 — the same year she began dating fellow Republican Rep. Connie Mack IV of Florida.

The two later married in 2007, with the congresswoman changing her name to Mary Bono Mack.

In 2012, Connie Mack IV ran for US Senate in Florida, only to lose to Democrat Bill Nelson.

Mary Bono Mack lost reelection to her House seat at the same time, and the couple got divorced in 2013, with one source telling the Washington Post that losing their races — and no longer being in DC together — played a key role.

1990s: Reps. Bill Paxon and Susan Molinari

The two New York Republicans arrived in Congress within a few years of each other. Paxon was elected to a Buffalo-area House seat in 1988, while Molinari won a special election for her father's Staten Island House seat in 1990.

Molinari and Paxon began dating a few years later and got married in 1994, after Paxon proposed to Molinari on the House floor.

"What she said was, 'Yes, I'll marry you, but get off the floor,'" Paxon recalled Molinari saying, according to the Associated Press.

They later had two children together, moving to the Washington, DC, area together permanently after they each left the House in the late 1990s.

1980s: Sen. Olympia Snowe and Gov. John McKernan

Olympia Snowe and John McKernan — both Republicans — represented Maine's two House seats at the same time from 1983 to 1987. But they began dating years before that, when they served together in the Maine state legislature.

They ultimately got married in 1989, after McKernan had been elected governor of Maine. That gave Snowe the distinction of being the first person to serve simultaneously as a member of Congress and the First Lady of a state.

Snowe was later elected to the Senate in 1994, where she served until 2013. The duo are still married to this day.

1970s: Reps. Andrew Jacobs and Martha Keys

While every other couple has been Republican, the first known congressional marriage was between two Democrats.

Rep. Andrew Jacobs of Indiana and Martha Keys of Kansas got married in 1976, the year after both of them were elected to the House.

While Jacobs would go on to serve until 1997, Keys lost her 1978 reelection race. She later joined the Carter administration, serving in the now-defunct Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

The couple separated in 1981.

• When Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980, it caused enormous devastation.
• The eruption triggered mudslides, an explosion, and plumes of ash that did enormous damage.
• The death of 57 people led to large changes in how the US monitors and prepares for eruptions.

On May 18, 1980, Don Swanson placed a frenzied call to his wife to let her know that he was OK. "That's nice," she said, unconcerned. She had no idea her geologist husband had spent the morning in a plane flying by an erupting volcano.

At 8:32 a.m. Pacific Time that day, a magnitude 5.1 earthquake had shaken Mount St. Helens, leading to its eruption.

Its conical top collapsed into a horseshoe crater, sending rivers of mud and rock down its side and an enormous blast of heat and gas to the surrounding forest. Ash clouds wafted for over 930 miles, all the way to central Montana.

The devastating natural disaster killed 57 people and was the most destructive volcanic eruption in US history. It leveled trees, destroyed bridges, and caused more than $1 billion in damages.

Just a few years before the eruption, The New York Times described Mount St. Helens as a "relatively little known volcano 50 miles north of Portland, Oregon." Its eruption forever changed the way volcanologists, geologists, and other scientists perform their jobs.

To commemorate the anniversary of Mount St. Helens' eruption, here's a series of photos that captured the immense devastation it caused 44 years ago.

Years earlier, scientists predicted Mount St. Helens would violently erupt.

In 1978, the USGS issued a report stating that Mount St. Helens had the potential to violently erupt before the end of the millennium.

The last known eruption had been in 1857. Over the past few centuries, its recent dormant periods lasted an average of 123 years. It was only a matter of time.

In March 1980, earthquakes caused cracks in the volcano, sparking alarm.

In the spring of 1980, Mount St. Helens had been trembling for weeks. Thousands of small earthquakes in March and April caused cracks in the summit. On March 27, steam started pouring out, turning the snow an ashy gray.

"That's when it becomes this multi-agency response because now you have to prevent people from getting too close," Liz Westby, a geologist with the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory, told Business Insider. "It could possibly erupt, but that wasn't a for-sure thing."

Meanwhile, people climbed on their roofs to take pictures of the steaming top. "Everyone really wanted to catch that glimpse of Mount St. Helens," she said.

When the earthquake hit on May 18, its northern side collapsed. That triggered a debris avalanche, careening down enough rock, dirt, and snow to fill a million Olympic swimming pools. Some of it traveled as far as 14 miles away.

Ash-filled plumes rocketed 650 feet into the sky.

A super-hot mix of rock, gas, and ash caused incredible destruction.

The avalanche sheared off part of the cryptodome, a magma-filled bulge. It had swollen part of Mount St. Helens' north side by about 450 feet.

Rapidly expanding gas then caused a devastatingly powerful blast that exploded sideways instead of up and formed what's called a pyroclastic flow. The mixture can reach blistering temperatures of 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit.

"That is such a hot, thick, gas-rich flow that it essentially kills everything in its path," Westby said. The heat, force, and high-speed debris can all be deadly. It knocked over trees, leaving them stripped and looking like toothpicks.

Moving at 300 miles per hour, the flow traveled faster than the debris avalanche, covering roughly 230 square miles — an area nearly the size of Chicago.

"Then you see this plume rising up," Westby said. This one, full of ash and rock, rose as high as 80,000 feet. The eruption lasted nine hours.

Melting snow and ice mixed with rocks and ash turned into mudslides.

Mount St. Helen was still snowcapped in May when it erupted. The scorching heat turned ice and snow into gushing water that took rocks and soil with it.

Known as lahars, these 100-mile-per-hour volcanic mudslides ripped up trees, destroyed over 200 houses, and took out bridges.

Millions of tons of ash traveled hundreds of miles, closing highways and canceling flights.

Westby was at Eastern Washington University, not far from the Idaho border, when the volcano erupted. What looked like an ominous line of dark clouds drifted in the sky above. "I thought, wow, that's the weirdest thunderstorm I've ever seen," she said. It turned out to be ash.

Wind blew roughly 520 million tons of ash and volcanic glass to eastern Washington, Idaho, and Montana. It was dark enough to obscure the sun in some cities.

It settled on everything, leaving trees that looked like they'd been dusted with snow.

"This ash, it's fine like baby powder," Westby said. Driving through it would stir it back up into the air.

For days afterward, authorities closed highways and canceled flights because of the poor visibility and the ash's potential to damage plane engines, Westby said.

The eruption killed 57 people, including USGS geologist David Johnston.

One of the first USGS geologists at the volcano was David Johnston. He had been closely monitoring Mount St. Helens during its many earthquakes.

On May 18, Johnston was only six miles from the volcano. As the eruption started, he radioed a final message to a nearby Washington city: "Vancouver, Vancouver. This is it."

After that, Johnston's death would have come within a minute, his fellow geologist Swanson wrote.

"It hit home to us as geologists, as volcanologists, how important it is to have monitoring up at the volcanoes and to install sensors before unrest so that we don't have to have people up there in harm's way," Westby said of Johnston's death.

Leading up to the eruption, experts created safety zones around the volcano. Only essential workers could go to the red zone.

However, the majority of the 57 people who lost their lives were outside the red zone, according to NPR. Many were killed by the lateral blast, Westby said. It ended up being more powerful than anticipated.

"It still gets me a little bit, thinking about that," she said, "but that really influences how we feel about hazards today." Now, she said, hazard maps are much more accurate and take into account a range of an eruption's possible outcomes.

The eruption destroyed trees and killed wildlife, but many species survived.

Over a week after the eruption, researchers from the USDA Forest Service started looking at the ecological impact. Ecologists were shocked by what they saw at Johnston Ridge, about six miles from the summit.

They had expected to find nothing. Instead, there were still carpenter ants, frogs, pocket gophers, spiders, and other signs of life.

Thousands of large mammals like elk and bears didn't survive, but other species of plants and animals were buried in snow or sleeping in their dens.

The blast zone where a hot flow of gas toppled trees is now known as the pumice plain, named for the porous rock that volcanoes create.

Initially, nothing survived in this area. It was two years before researchers saw the first plant, a prairie lupine. The purple-flowered perennial is known to be resilient.

It took four years following the eruption for new greenery to shoot up in the "ghost forests" where the volcano left broken and dying trees.

In the decades since, the ecosystem has drastically changed.

In the over 40 years since the eruption, a new ecosystem has slowly emerged. In the absence of larger predators, their prey thrived.

The smaller animals and dormant plants that survived the volcano's destruction are still there, and bears, cougars, elk, and mountain goats have been spotted, too, The Seattle Times reported in 2020.

That doesn't mean Mount St. Helens is back to normal, ecologist Charlie Crisafulli told the Seattle Times. With the pumice plain area starting from scratch, ecologically, what's happening there now is unique.

The eruption spurred changes to how the US monitors and responds to earthquakes.

In addition to ecology, Mount St. Helens offers opportunities for other kinds of scientific research. Two years after the eruption, the USGS established the Cascades Volcano Observatory to better monitor the volcanic range.

The Observatory, which was dedicated to David Johnston, is one of only five in the US. It's become a kind of laboratory for volcanic research and monitoring.

It's also helping to train what could be the next generation of volcanologists. Every summer, Westby and the Mount St. Helens Institute run a camp for middle school girls called GeoGirls.

"We treat them as though they were our field assistants, to give them an idea of what it's like to work on volcanoes," Westby said.

Mount St. Helens could erupt again.

Mount St. Helens continued to have smaller eruptions through 1986 and then had more between 2004 and 2008. "They are active volcanoes," Westby said of the Cascades, the volcanic arc that runs through several states and Canada. "They've erupted in the past, and we know they'll erupt in the future."

Of all the Cascade volcanoes, Mount St. Helens is the most active and most likely to erupt again, Westby said. But the technology to predict eruptions has vastly improved.

In 1980, Mount St. Helens only had a single seismometer, Westby said. "Now we've got 20," she said. These newer devices are more sophisticated and can detect smaller earthquakes that could signal an impending eruption.

GPS data can also alert scientists if the ground is deforming. And software can help them process the data more quickly. In the 1980s, scientists were making the calculations by hand.

As the sensors help geologists keep an eye on what's happening beneath the ground, Westby says people should feel free to enjoy the volcanoes. "They're safe to be around right now," she said, "but you never know what happens in the future."

• China's EV makers are packing their vehicles with high-tech extras in an attempt to woo customers.
• Auto execs and experts say Chinese customers want their cars to be more "intelligent."
• The likes of BYD and Xiaomi are doubling down on autonomous driving and smart features in response.

China's legion of EV companies are facing an increasingly brutal fight for customers — and many are packing their vehicles with high-tech features to woo drivers who increasingly want "intelligent" vehicles.

"The Chinese customer's expectation for an EV is very different compared to the rest of the world," said Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida, speaking at the Financial Times' Future of the Car summit this month.

He said Chinese customers expect EVs to be "intelligent," fitted with features like autonomous driving, smartphone integration, and plenty of screens, and that Nissan had been forced to adjust its approach and build vehicles "in China, for China" to compete against local carmakers.

Standing out in a crowded field

After languishing in the shadows of Western, Japanese, and Korean automakers for years, those local carmakers are now booming, thanks in part to the massive growth in demand for electric vehicles.

EVs are expected to account for about 45% of all car sales in China this year, according to the IEA, and local automakers now make up more than half of total car sales in the country, per Bloomberg data.

That boom has sparked a wave of competition and a brutal price war, with around 123 car companies battling for EV dominance last year.

To stand out in a crowded field, many Chinese automakers are adding increasingly high-tech and unusual features, from cars that can shake themselves free of snow to vehicles that transform into living rooms.

Paul Li, CEO of China-headquartered EV tech firm U Power, told Business Insider this was all part of a strategy to attract tech-savvy Chinese consumers, who have radically different expectations to US buyers.

"In China, the EV customer right now is totally different than any customers in the whole world," he said.

Li said that Chinese consumers expect "a high level of intelligence" from EVs and are willing to pay extra for features such as autonomous driving, smartphone integration, and even onboard drones.

"The innovation in the Chinese EV market is not only coming from competition, it is coming from innovation-driven customers. A sophisticated market makes sophisticated products," said Li.

"I very much doubt whether the same level of intelligence is needed for the global market," he added.

High-tech EVs prove popular

This demand for high-tech features has seen the gap between China's EV makers and its tech firms narrow as both try to capture a segment of China's booming electric car market.

Nio, a Chinese EV startup and Tesla competitor known for its network of battery-swapping stations, unveiled its own smartphone last September that allows owners to park their cars remotely.

Smartphone makers Huawei and Xiaomi, meanwhile, are both getting into the EV business, with the latter's SU7 model coming with five screens, smartphone and smart home integration, and Xiaomi's own autonomous driving system.

Unlike in the US, where the technology is still limited and mired in controversy, autonomous driving systems are fairly common in China, with the likes of Xpeng, Huawei, and Nio all offering the feature.

They may soon be joined by Tesla, which is edging closer to releasing its Full Self-Driving technology in China after striking a deal with Chinese tech giant Baidu.

Even BYD, which has experienced enormous success in selling its cheap EVs to Chinese consumers, is feeling the pressure to make its cars smarter.

The Warren Buffett-backed automaker announced in January it would invest 100 billion yuan ($13.8 billion) in AI-powered features for its vehicles, including improved voice recognition and automated parking.

"The first half [of the game] is about electrification, the second half is about intelligence," said BYD CEO Wang Chuanfu at the time.

Experts agree that for EV makers looking to sell their cars in China, smart car features are now essential.

"Young people in China no longer treat EVs as just vehicles, they want them to [function like] smartphones," Cao Hua, a partner at the Shanghai private equity firm Unity Asset Management, told the South China Morning Post last year.

"Making the cars autonomous and intelligent can draw more Chinese buyers," Hua added.

• Several stories in the news this week shine a light on mothers in the workforce.
• Women with kids under 5 are participating in the workforce at much higher rates than their peers.
• And childcare for two kids now costs more than rent in all 50 states.

For working mothers, it can sometimes feel like even when there's good news, there's also bad news.

Just this week, several stories drove home some of the things that parents and working women already have sensed.

First, some good news: Business Insider reported this week that women are the group of workers that are most successfully getting hired for high-paying jobs. My colleague Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza looked at data from a recruiting software firm with 50 million applications:

The white-collar recession means there are fewer $100K jobs — and women are landing them more often than men — Business Insider

She found that for jobs that paid over $100,000, women were a minority of applicants. But women actually landed those jobs more often than men. She found a likely reason:

An internal study from Hewlett Packard in 2014 indicated that while most men will apply for a job if they meet just 60% of the requirements listed, most women will apply only if they believe they meet all of them. This helps explain why fewer women apply but also hints at why female candidates are more successful: If women are more likely to rule themselves out, those who will apply will be higher-quality candidates.

Basically, women are better at judging whether they have a chance of getting hired at a high-paying job, so when they do actually apply, they're more likely to score it.

Of course, not all women are also parents, and only a portion of women (or anyone) in the workforce is getting those high-paying jobs. But it's a good signal for working moms.

And there's another positive story: Part-time work is booming more than ever. According to Bloomberg, more people are employed part-time or with flexible hours than ever before, and a lot of that rise is coming from working mothers.

Mothers reap benefits of record part-time workforce boom in US — Bloomberg

Bloomberg reports:

Many businesses eager to hire have accepted worker demands for part-time positions, along with other policies meant to give employees more control over their schedules. That's helped bring more women into the labor force than ever before, with about a fifth of them working part time.

Overall, the workforce's share of women — both parents and not — has increased since 2015.

One thing that stuck out to me was a chart in the Bloomberg article showing the percentage of women who are working in different groups: those with no children, teenage children, kids aged 5-12, and kids under 5.

The chart shows that since 2015, the percentage of women working across all those groups has gone up in the last 10 years. But the biggest change was for the group of women with kids under age 5. In 2015, about 64% of moms of babies and toddlers worked — in 2024 it was up to 70%.

The biggest change in that chart happened in 2020 when remote work started to become more popular. Another way to look at that is that remote work has the biggest benefit to moms of kids under 5.

Age 5 is indeed a huge turning point for a parent — that's when kids typically start kindergarten, usually at their free local public school. Suddenly, the decision and ability to work outside the home (even if remotely) is radically changed.

Free public kindergarten also can mean a radical change in the family finances — especially if they were bogged down with paying for day care or a nanny for the last five years. I wrote about this recently:

Meet the DIPS parents: Double Income, Public School. They've got it better than the POLKs, or Parents of Little Kids. — Business Insider

On that note, here's the real bad news. This week, it was reported that for the first time, childcare for two kids costs more than rent in all 50 states and more than the average mortgage in 45 states.

Childcare costs more than a mortgage payment or rent almost everywhere in the US: 'There is no escaping it' — MarketWatch

You don't have to be a genius economist to know that when childcare costs are sky-high, many women will drop out of the workforce.

For many families, the math just doesn't math to have two working parents.

But it's also more complicated. I really was interested in this article this week:

The childcare cliff that wasn't — Vox

You may recall that last summer, there was a threat of a "childcare cliff" — federal subsidies during Covid that helped carry childcare centers through the pandemic had ended, and there was a fear that thousands of childcare centers could close. Some lawmakers urged more federal funding.

The federal funding didn't happen. The "Build Back Better" bill passed without provisions for childcare and paid parental leave.

And yet … that cliff didn't really happen. In fact, as we saw above, instead of a crash of mothers dropping out of the workforce, the percentage of working mothers actually went up. This is largely because of a stronger labor market and economy. But, as Vox's Rachel M. Cohen wrote: "The lesson to take from all of this is not that people should stop advocating for policies that would improve the lives of parents, kids, and those who care for children."

If you're a mother of young children, all this probably feels like something you've already sort of noticed or experienced in your own life or among your friends. Childcare is expensive. Working is hard. Your TikTok feed is full of tradwives. The grandparents aren't available to babysit like you hoped they would.

So maybe, yes, it is harder being a millennial mom than any other generation. (And yes, if you're Gen X or older, I know you'll scoff at that.)

Being a mother is hard work. Is it actually harder on millennial moms? — The New York Times

Reading these articles this week reminded me that everything about parenting is a bit of a paradox — "the days are long and the years are short," they say about kids. It's that same mix for the state of working moms — not all good, but not all bad.