Author: openjargon

• The Biden campaign sees abortion as an issue that can put Florida in play for Democrats this fall.
• Floridians will vote on a ballot measure that could enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.
• But it'll be a tough road for Democrats, as registered Republicans now outnumber them in the state.

In recent decades, Florida was often seen as the quintessential presidential swing state.

Republicans dominated the Panhandle and North Florida, while Democrats usually cleaned up in Miami, with the I-4 corridor between the Orlando and Tampa areas serving as a swing region where independents often helped decide the outcome of statewide races.

However, Florida has not backed a Democratic presidential nominee since Barack Obama in 2012. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton narrowly lost the state to Donald Trump in 2016. And President Joe Biden lost the state to Trump by 3 points in 2020.

But the Biden campaign is banking that abortion could give them a chance to win Florida this fall, despite the distinct red hue that the state has taken on in recent years.

In November, Florida voters will have a chance to vote on whether or not they want to enshrine abortion access in the state constitution via a referendum. This comes as a strict six-week abortion ban, which was approved by the GOP-controlled legislature and signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, will go into effect on Wednesday.

Since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republicans have struggled to counter Democratic messaging on reproductive rights, with the issue playing a major role in key 2022 Senate races and last year's elections in Kentucky and Virginia.

The Biden campaign hopes to capitalize on what is poised to be robust voter support for abortion rights in Florida. With its 30 electoral votes, a Biden victory in the state would give the president considerable breathing room as he aims to hold swing states like Arizona and Georgia that he flipped in 2020.

But Democrats face a challenging political environment in Florida.

Trump effectively made Florida his political home base after leaving the White House in 2021, and the former president has deep support among Republicans up and down the ballot in the Sunshine State. DeSantis won reelection over former Gov. Charlie Crist by nearly 20 points in 2022. For the first time since Reconstruction, no Democrats hold statewide elected office in Florida.

More consequentially, there are now nearly 900,000 more registered Republicans than registered Democrats in Florida, a warning sign for Democrats given the state's high voter turnout in presidential years. As recently as 2020, Democrats had a voter registration edge in the state.

But the Biden campaign believes abortion rights can give them the lift that they'll need in a state where even some Democrats are skeptical of the president's chances.

"This campaign's posture reflects the seriousness with which we're taking Florida," Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler told reporters last week.

"You've seen our investments begin to pop up in the state of Florida," he continued. "We've got staff on the ground. It is one of many pathways that we have to 270 electoral votes, and we're going to take it very, very seriously."

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• Bumble is getting rid of its signature requirement that women start the conversation — well, sort of.
• The dating app is introducing a new feature called "Opening Moves."
• It lets women set a question that all matches can respond to, meaning men might be first to message.

Bumble is doing away with its defining feature that required women make the first move.

The dating app on Tuesday announced something called "Opening Moves" that will see men sending the first messages in some cases.

Starting today, the new feature lets women set a question that all of their matches can answer to get the conversation started. They can choose one of the questions Bumble offers or create their own. In non-binary or same-sex matches, either person can set or reply to the question.

Bumble CEO Lidiane Jones said in a press release that the option represents a shift "from a fixed approach to giving women more options in how they engage."

"In listening to our community, many have shared their exhaustion with the current online dating experience, and for some, that includes making the first move," she said. "We're also hearing from women that empowerment today is not only about control but it's also about agency, and we're excited to offer more choice in how women make the first move with our new Opening Moves feature."

Bumble found in testing that Opening Moves increased "chat initiation and reply rates, as well as lengthening time spent in conversation," according to the release.

Jones had recently hinted that Bumble might move away from making women reach out first. In a fourth-quarter earnings call last month, she told investors that making the first move "feels like a burden for a subset of our customers today."

The new change marks the first time Bumble will let men reach out first since the app was founded in 2014 by former CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd.

Besides Opening Moves, Bumble is also shaking up its look with a redesign, one of several changes it's made since Jones took over as CEO in January.

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• The Great Green Wall is a project to restore degraded land in nearly two dozen African countries.
• Deforestation, agricultural expansion, and drought have caused desertification across the continent.
• The $36-billion-plus project aims to generate 10 million jobs and sequester tons of carbon by 2030.

Over the past several decades, deforestation, agricultural expansion, and drought have all contributed to desertification in parts of the African continent. Once-fertile soil has become drier and less productive.

More than a dozen African countries have been fighting this desertification with an ambitious project to grow trees and other vegetation on 247 million acres of degraded land, an area roughly 2.3 times the size of California.

The goals of the 17-year-old Great Green Wall project — estimated to cost between $36 to 49 billion — also include generating 10 million jobs and sequestering 250 million tons of carbon by 2030.

Countries from Senegal to Djibouti are trying to regreen the semiarid Sahel bioclimate, a band stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea.

The dangers of land degradation include soil erosion and lessened biodiversity.

West African forests once covered over 50,000 square miles. Since 1975, deforestation, mainly from agricultural expansion, reduced the size to about 32,000 square miles, according to the US Geological Survey.

In addition to making soil less fertile, desertification can make it more prone to wind erosion and less able to retain moisture. It also leads to a loss in biodiversity of plant and animal species. All of these factors make it more difficult for human populations to survive.

The Great Green Wall initiative launched in 2007 as a plan to plant trees across a large swath of the African continent.

The African Union formally began the project in 2007. Originally, the GGW included 11 countries — Burkina Faso, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sudan. In the years since it started, a handful of others have joined as well.

At first, the plan was to fill a 10-mile-by-4,350-mile area of the Sahel with trees. Trees can help slow soil erosion, absorb carbon dioxide, and promote biodiversity by providing food and shelter for animals.

However, critics started pointing out flaws, and the project hit several speedbumps.

The GGW project hit some early snags.

One big problem with the tree-planting plan was the trees themselves. Some saplings either grew poorly or died. They were planted in remote regions, which made them difficult to care for. Warmer temperatures and low rainfall also contributed to the problem.

Some communities thought their government hadn't fully involved local and indigenous populations in their projects. Other governments had purposefully removed groups of people from their homes in forests and conservation areas, Corporate Knights reported.

The success of the GGW has also been difficult to monitor in some areas, according to Corporate Knights. External experts have had trouble independently verifying some governmental data, for example.

By 2020, the project was only 4% completed.

In 2021, world leaders, including France's Emmanuel Macron, pledged $19 billion as part of the Great Green Wall Accelerator to help measure and facilitate the project's success.

By then, GGW's focus had started to shift to a mix of projects that drew on traditional growing and irrigation methods.

Niger and Burkina Faso found success with different approaches outside the GGW project.

Before the GGW project began, locals in parts of Niger and Burkina Faso started using a technique called farmer-managed natural regeneration, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

French colonial authorities had once encouraged farmers to remove trees on agricultural land, according to Yale Environment 360. Droughts in the 1980s prompted the shift back to earlier methods.

Instead of planting new trees, farmers in south-central Niger encouraged the growth of existing shrubs and trees. The practice has helped regreen 12 million acres and grown 2 million trees.

In Burkina Faso, farmers drew on traditional knowledge to adapt after droughts in the 1970s and 1980s. They dug deep pits called zai and assembled stone barriers to help capture and retain moisture.

One farmer, Yacouba Sawadogo, was so successful that a film was made about his work in 2010, called "The Man Who Stopped the Desert."

The GGW isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach.

Since the start of the GGW, many countries have seen success with farmer-led projects. In Senegal, farmers started planting zai gardens during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Known as Tolou Keur in Wolof, the country's language, the half-moon pits hold and direct water toward plants.

While not all the Tolou Keur have survived, others are thriving. Farmers are growing everything from sorghum and millet to mint and hibiscus plants.

Part of their attraction lies in the fact that they're quick to build, don't take up a lot of space, and only need about 10 people to maintain them, according to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification.

The GGW is now a mosaic instead of a wall of trees.

At this point, the Great Green Wall is a bit of a misnomer.

"We moved the vision of the Great Green Wall from one that was impractical to one that was practical," Mohamed Bakarr, the lead environmental specialist for Global Environment Facility, told Smithsonian Magazine in 2016. "It is not necessarily a physical wall, but rather a mosaic of land use practices that ultimately will meet the expectations of a wall."

The project incorporates technology like drones and satellite imagery.

Drones and satellites recently started providing detailed information on restored land, using AI to identify the species of individual trees.

Tech startups and organizations like the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are collaborating to help Sahel communities map and track the populations of baobab trees, which can help reduce soil erosion.

Many countries have seen success regreening areas of the Sehal.

Ethiopia, Niger, and Senegal have all regreened parts of their land. In addition to its zai gardens, Senegal planted 50,000 acres of trees, according to National Geographic.

In 2023, the UN Development Programme reported that the GGW project was 18% completed, restoring over 49 million acres of land and creating 350,000 jobs.

But not all countries have seen the same amount of success.

With 2030 approaching, the GGW is facing setbacks.

Conflict and instability in some countries make meeting the GGW's goals difficult as residents move to avoid fighting. More resources also seem to go to stabler countries, while Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, and Sudan receive less investment from donors, according to Nature.

Yet with the climate crisis and expanding population, the GGW's mission remains as pressing as ever.

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• Susan Johnson, 62, said she went for a hospital appointment only to be told she was dead. 
• Hospital records said she'd died four months earlier. 
• Johnson still doesn't know how or why the mistake, now corrected, happened. 

A woman reportedly learned she had been registered as dead when she went for a hospital appointment.

Susan Johnson, 62, went into Bridlington Hospital in Yorkshire, England, for a scan in March 2023. But when she arrived, staff told her that records showed she had been dead for four months, the BBC reported.

"I gave them my letter, and their first words were, 'Ooh, you're dead.' I said, 'pardon?' I was in shock," said Johnson.

The staff entered some details onto the computer so she could still receive the scan, but the experience left her "shaking like a leaf," Johnson told the BBC.

She contacted her primary-care doctors, Scarborough Medical Group, who told the BBC the mistake had been fixed.

However, when Johnson called the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the UK government department responsible for welfare payments, the call handler told her, "On the computer, you're dead," she recalled.

NHS England told Business Insider it was "aware of an issue involving a civil death registration being incorrectly recorded against a patient's medical record."

In a statement, it said: "This was removed within 24 hours of it being reported to us in March 2023 and the patient was re-registered by their GP. We would encourage the patient to contact us directly so we can explain further."

But NHS England would not have notified another government department, such as the DWP, of a death.

Scarborough Medical Group had not responded to a request for comment from Business Insider when this article went live.

Johnson still does not know how she came to be registered as dead.

"I need to find out why it happened, how and by whom, and that person, whoever has pressed a button, shouldn't be working wherever they are," she told the BBC.

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• The US has supplied long-range ATACMS to Ukraine, a powerful weapon that can hit high-value targets.
• Ukraine has used the weapons to strike Russia's prized S-400 air defense launchers in Crimea.
• One analyst said they have the potential to render Crimea "militarily worthless."

Long-range ATACMS provided by the US to Ukraine have the potential to make Crimea "militarily worthless" to Russia, according to one military analyst.

Last week, The New York Times reported that the US had secretly shipped about 100 Army Tactical Missile Systems, known as ATACMS, to Ukraine, which has reportedly already put them to use.

The US has previously sent ATACMS with a shorter range, which aided Ukraine's fight last fall. But the versions sent recently can travel about 190 miles — which puts higher-value targets in Ukraine's crosshairs.

This includes Crimea, occupied by Russia in 2014 and crucial to its military strategy in Ukraine.

Philip Karber, a military analyst with expertise on Ukraine, told Radio Free Europe that "the delivery of ATACMS is a big breakthrough."

He said the weapons "could basically make Crimea militarily worthless."

Crimea has been heavily fortified since President Vladimir Putin's forces occupied it, and it serves his military by both land and sea. It's home to the advanced port of Sevastopol, the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

It also serves as a crucial logistics hub and military supply route to occupied southern Ukraine, and has been the launchpad for a series of devastating Russian missile and drone attacks.

Ukraine has landed many blows on Crimea before — vastly weakening Russia's Black Sea Fleet, the port of Sevastopol, and periodically targeting the strategic Kerch Bridge that connects the peninsula to Russia.

These have been variously conducted by weapons including air and naval drones, and likely the UK- and France-supplied Storm Shadow/SCALP missiles.

But ATACMS have a key advantage over Storm Shadows, Radio Free Europe reported, in that they travel much faster.

In mid-April, Ukraine claimed to have struck the Dzhankoi military base, in northern Crimea, including a prized S-400 air defense launcher, without elaborating on the weapon used. A senior US official later told the Times that it was among Ukraine's ATACMS targets.

Last month, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Congress to agree on an aid package for Ukraine, he pointed to ATACMS as a key weapon for targeting Crimean airfields.

"When Russia knows we can destroy these jets, they will not attack from Crimea," Zelenskyy told The Washington Post.

"It's like with the sea fleet," he added. "We pushed them from our territorial waters. Now we will push them from the airports in Crimea."

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• This post originally appeared in the Insider Today newsletter.
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Hey there! Leave it to the Hamptons to figure out a way to turn riding the bus into something fancy.

In today's big story, we examine how tough the job market is for the well-paid employee.

What's on deck:

• Markets: The brutal reality of life as a first-year investment banking analyst.

• Tech: Elon Musk secures a big win for Tesla in China.

• Business: Higher-for-longer interest rates aren't going anywhere.

But first, the plight of the upper middle class.

If this was forwarded to you, sign up here.

The big story

High pay, low vibes

More money; more problems.

That's the current job trend, as higher-paid employees are having trouble finding work despite a historically strong labor market.

It's creating what Business Insider's Aki Ito describes as a "white-collar recession." The hiring rate for workers making less than $55,000 annually (1.5%) is well above the rate for those making more than $96,000 (0.5%).

It's true not many people need work, so the lack of open roles isn't critical to the economy. But not everyone is happy at their job.

The dearth of hiring for higher-paying jobs has created a "trapped in place" economy, a concept previously highlighted by BI's Emily Stewart.

There are worse problems than making six figures at a job you don't particularly like. Especially considering the number of Americans struggling to afford basic necessities but making too much to get help.

But as Aki points out, white-collar workers' issues could be a sign of bad times to come for everyone. Companies' hesitancy to hire expensive talent might be about preparing for a market downturn.

The so-called white-collar recession could also have a lasting impact on the job market for high earners.

It comes as high-paying jobs have faced some recent headwinds. Last year saw the demise of middle managers.

And the long-term impact of AI on white-collar roles remains an ongoing question. For example, a key job for aspiring Wall Streeters — investment banking analyst — might face a hiring pullback thanks to the benefits of AI.

It speaks to the broader theme of efficiency Big Tech companies have touted for the better part of a year.

There's still money to be made in corporate America, to be sure. AI specialists remain a sought-after asset for most businesses. Cybersecurity is another good bet, as firms are investing big in the space.

But for the rest of us, the era of cushy jobs with healthy salaries and light responsibilities might be ending.

Maybe that's why Gen Z is going through its own divide. While some young workers are quickly looking to climb the corporate ladder, others have completely disconnected from work or school.

3 things in markets

1. From a dream job to a nightmare. Christine Ji's long days as a junior banker took their toll, and the workload ultimately led her to collapse in the office. The event forced her to reevaluate the career she thought she always wanted.

2. It's a big week for stocks. The Federal Reserve's rate-cut decision and press conference. The April jobs report. Tech giants Amazon and Apple's earnings reports. Raymond James' chief investment officer Larry Adam breaks down what to watch out for during a busy week for the market.

3. Amazon crashes the earnings party. The e-commerce giant is set to report its results for the first quarter after Tuesday's closing bell. Top Wall Street banks including Bank of America and Goldman Sachs are bullish on the "Magnificent Seven" tech stock.

3 things in tech

1. Elon Musk's trip to China paid off. Musk made a surprise visit to meet with Premier Li Qiang to discuss the rollout of full self-driving in China. Approval of the tech could boost Tesla sales in the country, but wouldn't be without intense competition, as local rivals are developing their own versions of FSD. Tesla stock surged on Musk's FSD "home run."

2. Introducing the top defense tech VCs. The space has boomed in recent years; According to PitchBook data, defense tech startups received more than $109 billion from investors between 2021 and 2023. Meet the people behind the push.

3. Nvidia's boss has no qualms about being a demanding leader. CEO Jensen Huang has a formidable reputation — and that's the way he likes it. "It should be like that," he said in a recent interview with "60 Minutes." "If you want to do extraordinary things, it shouldn't be easy."

3 things in business

1. Sorry, America. High interest rates are here for a while. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve will announce its latest decision on interest rates — and traders believe borrowing costs will likely remain unchanged, according to the CME FedWatch Tool.

2. Paramount CEO Bob Bakish stepped down. For the time being, three executives will take his place. Bakish's exit comes as major shareholder Shari Redstone inches closer to a sale of her controlling stake in the company.

3. Shopify plans a switch-up in its Support division. Support director David Kohl said in an update posted to the e-commerce firm's internal Workplace page that Shopify had seen success in its AI experiments, sparking fear among some employees that job cuts are coming.

In other news

• I took the new Hyundai Kona on a family road trip: It's a practical car with pizzazz that I'd be comfortable letting my teenager drive.

• Supreme Court gives SEC a win over Elon Musk.

• Adam Neumann got cut out of WeWork's restructuring deal.

• A VC and former student-athlete who played with Aaron Rodgers breaks down 7 big opportunities in the burgeoning NIL startup scene.

• I make over $2,500 a month from focus groups. Here's how I decide which ones are worth my time and how to find the highest-paying ones.

What's happening today

• Today's earnings: Amazon, Starbucks, Pinterest, and other companies are reporting.

• Binance founder Changpeng Zhao will be sentenced following his guilty plea to failing to maintain an anti-money laundering program.

The Insider Today team: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Hallam Bullock, senior editor, in London. George Glover, reporter, in London.

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• Retiring lawmakers are once again saying that their $174,000 salary isn't enough.
• Several said that there should be adjustments for inflation and cost of living increases.
• Their salaries haven't changed in 14 years, and some find it difficult to maintain two residences.

It's funny what happens when lawmakers decide to retire: Suddenly, they're willing to say things that wouldn't have said when they still had to face voters.

That's what happened when Rep. Patrick McHenry, one of many retiring House Republicans, told an interviewer earlier this year that the $174,000 salary that rank-and-file members of both the House and Senate receive is not enough.

"Most of us don't have wealth," McHenry said at the time.

Now, even more retiring lawmakers are saying the same thing — and acknowledging that they may not be saying it if they weren't on their way out the door.

"If I go back to my district, where the average salary in some places is $32,000, and I say 'I don't make enough' when I make $174,000, they would go ballistic," former Rep. Ken Buck, a Colorado Republican who resigned from Congress in March, told the New York Times. "I'd be out of office in a heartbeat."

But Buck says it's "very difficult" for lawmakers to live on those salaries when they have to maintain residences in two different places.

"When I got to Congress, I realized, holy smokes, that comes out of my pocket without reimbursement," Rep. Tony Cárdenas, a retiring California Democrat, told the Times.

"I've had a roommate every time I've rented an apartment," added Cárdenas, noting that many members of Congress sleep in their offices to cut costs.

Several other members of Congress told the Times that they believe their salaries should be adjusted for inflation and increased cost of living expenses, in part to ensure that a broad swath of people are able to serve in Congress.

"Do you want it to still be the House of the people, or do you want it to be only wealthy people?" Rep. Anna Eshoo, another retiring California Democrat, told the Times.

Though the $174,000 salary is far more than most Americans make — the median household income in 2022 was $74,580, according to the US Census — many lawmakers have complained that it's not enough money to keep up with the costs of serving.

The salary has remained the same since 2009, and if it had kept pace with inflation, lawmakers would now be making more than $250,000 annually.

Good government experts have long said that lawmakers should see a salary increase, arguing that it's an important measure to safeguard against corruption and ensure that the best talent is able to serve.

But polling has long shown that voters hate the idea, and few have been willing to make an argument that's extremely unpopular with the public.

Yet it's not a partisan issue.

Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York has been one of the most vocal proponents of a salary increase, while Ken Cuccinelli — a former Trump administration official — recently filed a lawsuit arguing that the lack of a pay increase since 2009 was unconstitutional.

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• Trump's re-election could bring loads of problems to the US economy, Paul Krugman warned.
• The former president is prone to "magical thinking" and could pursue "destructive" policies, Krugman said.
• Inflation in particular could get worse if Trump imposes tariffs and erodes the Fed's independence.

Trump's re-election would not be good news for the US economy. Blame the former president's "quack" economic policy and his tendency to deny reality, according to Nobel economist Paul Krugman.

Krugman wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times this week on Trump's propensity for "magical thinking," the same way of thinking that led Latin American dictatorships to pursue reckless and inflationary monetary policy in the 1970s and '80s.

Similar "destructive" policies could be re-enacted in the US if Trump is re-elected in November, Krugman said. 

"His behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic showed that he's as addicted to magical thinking and denial of reality as any petty strongman or dictator, which makes it all too likely that he might preside over the type of problems that result when policies are based on quack economics," Krugman wrote.

Some of Trump's economic policies during his presidency were flawed, Krugman said. He pointed, for instance, to Trump's tax cuts in 2017, which ended up favoring the rich over working-class Americans.

If re-elected, Trump has said he plans on cracking down on immigration and imposing tariffs on US imports, especially those from China. But those are deeply flawed ideas about what it would take to bolster US economic strength, Krugman said, as immigration has been key to robust growth in recent years, while high tariffs could easily stoke inflation. 

Inflation could also get worse if Trump looks to exert control over the Federal Reserve, Krugman warned. He pointed to recent reports that suggested Trump's advisors were looking to reduce the independence of the Fed, putting the former president more in control of monetary policy. Presumably, that's to "juice the economy and the stock market the way he wanted to in 2019," Krugman said.

"What's really worrisome, however, are indications that a future Trump regime would manipulate monetary policy in pursuit of short-run political advantage, justifying its actions with crank economic doctrines … The details of these bad ideas are probably less important than the mindset they reveal, one that rejects hard-learned lessons from the past and buys into economic fantasies," Krugman added.

Other economists have warned of potential chaos if Trump is re-elected as president. Top economist Nouriel Roubini said recently a second term for Trump would be one of the biggest risks for the world economy, making inflation and debt worse while hobbling economic growth. 

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• Fisker warned staff it might lay them off in two months if efforts to course correct fail.
• The company said its exploring restructuring alternatives and potential sale discussions.
• Fisker has launched a series of layoffs over the past few months. 

Fisker warned employees on Monday that they could be laid off in two month and the company's facility could close if the company is unable to course correct.

"Fisker is diligently pursuing all options to address our operating cash requirements, including maintaining discussions with prospective buyers and investors and exploring various restructuring alternatives," the company said, according to an email viewed by Business Insider and confirmed by three current workers. "There is a possibility, however, that these efforts will not be successful."

The email, which was sent by the company's new restructuring officer, tells staff that they could be terminated effective June 28 and Fisker's "facility will be closed." The company told staff it was bringing in a restructuring officer last week, according to a previous email viewed by BI.

The memo regarding potential layoffs was sent in compliance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires companies that have more than 100 workers to provide 60 days of notice before a large-scale layoff or plant closure.

Three current employees told BI that everyone they had spoken to at Fisker said they had received the notice. Fisker's main headquarters is located in Manhattan Beach, California, but it also has other facilities in La Palma, California, as well as in some international sites including Munich and Vienna.

A Fisker spokesperson told BI the company is working to find the best path forward.

"Every decision is made following thorough analysis and careful consideration of the available options, including the appropriate locations and workforce for the go-forward business, as well as our ability to manage our liquidity and sell our inventory," the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

"The steps we are taking are intended to give us breathing room to ensure we are maximizing the value of the business and can operate efficiently," the spokesperson added.

Read the full memo below:

As you know, Fisker Group Inc. (the "Company" or "Fisker") has previously communicated that it will provide updates on significant developments that may impact Fisker's workforce. Over the past few months, Fisker's leadership team has been pursuing all avenues to preserve the future of the business and its path forward. Fisker is diligently pursuing all options to address our operating cash requirements, including maintaining discussions with prospective buyers and investors and exploring various restructuring alternatives.

There is a possibility, however, that these efforts will not be successful. Should this possibility materialize, the Company has an obligation to provide "conditional notice" that employees — including yourself — will be terminated on June 28, 2024. If the Company must terminate your employment in the future, the job loss will be permanent and the facility will be closed. The Company has no policy creating transfer, bumping, or reassignment rights for employees laid off from the business. If needed, we will provide you with additional separation information, including information regarding unemployment, COBRA benefits, and severance pay.

This notification does not mean the Company is shutting down or ceasing operations, and receiving this conditional notice does not necessarily mean you will be let go. Fisker is operating under challenging circumstances and we are making every effort to work towards an outcome that facilitates new investment or other strategic solutions. We appreciate your dedication and support for one another during this challenging time. Thank you for your hard work and contributions to Fisker.

In the meantime, please contact me, John DiDonato, Chief Restructuring Officer at ____________ should you have any questions.

Sincerely,

John DiDonato

Do you work for Fisker or have a tip? Reach out to the reporter via a non-work email and device at gkay@businessinsider.com

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• Dave & Busters will soon allow adults to bet money on games like Skee-Ball and Hot Shot basketball.
• The betting works inside D&B's app, with $5 "cash-based competition" against your friends.
• Now, you can not just be humiliated by losing at arcade games; you can lose money!

Great news for degenerates! Soon, you can bet real money against your friends playing Skee-Ball at Dave & Buster's.

The adult entertainment (the wholesome kind) chain just announced a partnership with Lucra, a company that makes "white-label gamification software" to create gambling betting wagers cash-based competition on certain arcade games when you visit the restaurant.

The experience is 18+ and in the Dave & Buster's app — (It hasn't launched yet, so don't get up from your slot machines and run over there today) — and will allow friends to place $5 bets against each other on games like Skee-Ball, Hot Shots basketball, and other games.

According to CNBC, this won't be regulated like real gambling:

Lucra says its skills-based games are not subject to the same licenses and regulations gambling operators face with games of chance. Lucra is careful not to use the term "bet" or "wager" to describe its games.

"We use real-money contests or challenges," Madding said.

Lucra has also created apps for people to play each other for money in real-life pickleball.

The details of how the Skee-Ball betting will work are not totally clear yet, but it sounds like you'll be betting against your friends, not the house — if you lose, your buddy gets your $5, not Dave & Buster's, which didn't immediately respond to my request for comment.

Over on the Dave & Buster's subreddit, hardcore fans are somewhat confused. "I don't get it. 'Hey man, bet you $5, I can beat you at shooting hoops.' 'Ok, but put it in the app so that D&B can take a cut.'" wrote one person.

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