Author: openjargon

• A top Maine Democrat floated changes in the state's electoral laws in response to Nebraska.
• Nebraska Republicans earlier in April sought to change how the state allocates its electoral votes.
• The move was backed by Trump in a state where Biden was able to pick up one electoral vote in 2020.

A high-ranking Maine Democratic lawmaker on Friday warned that the state would be "compelled" to change its Electoral College delegate allocation to a "winner-take-all" system should Nebraska tweak its rules to benefit former President Donald Trump.

Maine House Majority Leader Maureen Terry in a statement said that voters in her state and in Nebraska's swing 2nd Congressional District "value their independence, but they also value fairness and playing by the rules."

"If Nebraska's Republican Governor and Republican-controlled Legislature were to change their electoral system this late in the cycle in order to unfairly award Donald Trump an additional electoral vote, I think the Maine Legislature would be compelled to act in order to restore fairness to our country's electoral system," she continued.

The remarks come weeks after Trump touted Nebraska GOP Gov. Jim Pillen's support of a bill that would change the state's system of allocating electoral votes from one determined by individual congressional districts to one that would award the state's five electoral votes to the statewide victor.

"I am steadfast in my commitment to get winner-take-all over the finish line, thereby honoring our constitutional founding, unifying our state and ending the three-decade-old mistake of allocating Nebraska's electoral votes differently than all but one other state," the governor said earlier this month.

Nebraska Democrats vehemently fought back against this electoral change before the legislative session ended earlier this month and the measure didn't advance. Pillen floated a potential special session to complete "other unfinished business," which would include the switch to a winner-take-all system. However, so far, Republicans lack the 33 votes needed to make the change, and the governor previously indicated that he wouldn't call a session unless he had the requisite support to get it through the legislature.

While Nebraska overwhelmingly backed Trump in the overall statewide vote in both 2016 and 2020 — part of a longstanding pattern for Republican presidential nominees — President Joe Biden was the victor in the Omaha-based 2nd Congressional District in 2020 and thus secured its one electoral vote.

The only other state in country that allocates its electoral votes by congressional district is Maine, where the political dynamic is flipped: Biden won the overall statewide vote by a wide margin, but Trump captured one electoral vote by carrying the state's 2nd Congressional District.

Any change in election law in either state would immediately raise the stakes in what is expected to be a close November general election between Biden and Trump.

In a scenario where Biden wins Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin but loses Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina — granted that he also keeps every core Democratic state in his column — he'd win the Electoral College by a bare minimum 270 to 268.

If Nebraska went through with its change, Trump would likely win the state's entire share of electoral votes, given its strong GOP orientation. In the aforementioned scenario, the Electoral College would be tied 269 to 269, which would move the selection of the president to the US House of Representatives. But if Maine also switched to a winner-take-all system before the 2024 election, Biden would be heavily favored to win all of that state's electoral votes and would thus win the Electoral College (270 to 268).

Maine Democrats — who control the state legislature — had generally not spoken of tweaking their electoral allocation system ahead of 2024.

But things are much different now.

"It is my hope and the hope of my colleagues in Maine that the Nebraska Republican Party decides not to make this desperate and ill-fated attempt to sway the 2024 election," Terry said.

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• Alphabet, Google's parent company, achieved a $2 trillion market cap milestone.
• This company briefly hit the threshold previously but never sustained a full day of trading. 
• Despite its recent success Alphabet hasn't had an easy path to the $2 trillion mark. 

Google's parent company, Alphabet, hit a new milestone on Friday: a $2 trillion market cap.  

Google is now the world's fourth most valuable public company, right behind Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft, which has a market cap of just over $3 trillion and overtook Apple earlier this year for first place. 

This isn't Alphabet's first brush with the $2 trillion club. The company briefly hit the threshold in November 2021 and earlier this month but closed above it for the first time on Friday, according to Bloomberg. 

The news followed Alphabet's first-quarter earnings report on Thursday, where revenue beat analysts' expectations due to the success of Google's search engine. Alphabet's chief executive, Sundar Pichar, also highlighted the contributions of Google Cloud, which has been equipped with generative AI services through Google's AI model, Gemini.

"In Cloud, we have announced more than 1,000 new products and features over the past 8 months. At Google Cloud Next, more than 300 customers and partners spoke about their generative AI successes with Google Cloud, including global brands like Bayer, Cintas, Mercedes Benz, Walmart, and many more," Pichai told investors during the call.

Pichai also said that Google was well "positioned for the next wave of AI innovation and the opportunity ahead," and reminded investors that the company has been "AI-first" since 2016.

The company also delighted investors by announcing that it would expand its stock repurchase program by $70 billion.  

Alphabet has weathered some tough times over the past year despite the past week's success. It's contended growing pains with its AI offerings, including pausing its image generator after it faced criticism for being too woke.

Still, Alphabet is betting on AI as a key to its business growth and is ready to spend big to compete. Earlier this month, it announced that it would be developing its own central processing unit called Axion to facilitate the training of complex AI models.  

Alphabet did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

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• The Walmart heirs' combined net worth is roughly $240 billion, according to Bloomberg.
• In public, the Waltons live relatively modest lifestyles despite their wealth. 
• Here's how they spend their fortune.

The combined wealth of the Walmart heirs — which includes founder Sam Walton's children, Rob, Jim, and Alice, as well as his late son John's wife, Christy, and their son Lukas — is roughly $240 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

While some have worked in the family business — whether that's serving on the company board or working to manage the family's wealth — others chose to pursue areas of personal passion.

Sam Walton, the original man behind the company that now encompasses both Walmart and Sam's Club, set his family up for financial success when he divided the ownership before he died.

He wasn't a man of flashy luxury, but you can see how his children are living a slightly more lavish life now. Here's a look at how the Walton family empire spends its money: 

Sam Walton opened the first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas, in 1962.

He married Helen Robson on Valentine's Day in 1942.

Together, they had four children: Rob, John, Jim, and Alice.

By the time Sam died in 1992, he had set up the company ownership in a way that minimized the estate taxes anyone on the receiving end would have to pay.

Source: Fortune

He set up his ownership of Walmart's stock in a family partnership — each of his children held 20% of Walton Enterprises, while he and Helen each held 10%. Helen inherited Sam's 10% tax-free when he died.

Source: Fortune

Samuel Robson "Rob" Walton is the oldest Walton child. He is 79 years old.

He served as chairman of Walmart from 1992 until 2015 and remained on the board after.

He's stepping down from the board at the end of his current term in 2024.

Rob made a splash in 2022 by leading an ownership group to buy the Denver Broncos.

The group purchased the NFL team for a $4.65 billion in summer 2022 in a record-breaking sale at the time.

Rob has purchased a house in Paradise Valley, Arizona, near the base of Camelback Mountain.

In the past, protesters have rallied outside of his Arizona home to advocate for better wages and benefits for Walmart workers.

Besides real estate, Rob has a large collection of vintage cars.

In 2013, he ran his Daytona Coupe, which was worth $15 million at the time, off the tracks and wrecked it. The car was one of only five ever made.

Sam Walton's second-oldest child, John Walton, died in a plane crash in 2005.

He was 58 years old.

He was married to Christy Walton and had one son, Lukas.

John left about 17% of his wealth to his wife, and he gave the rest to charity and to his son.

Source: Business Insider

John served in Vietnam as a Green Beret. When he returned from the war he held a series of jobs — like the Walmart company pilot, a crop duster, and the owner a few yachting companies — before becoming a Walmart board member.

Source: Fortune

In 2013, Christy decided to sell their Jackson Hole mansion. She also sold the family's ranch for an undisclosed price in 2016 after listing it for $100 million in 2011.

Source: Curbed and Ranch Marketing Associates

The 8,606-square-foot home was put on the market for $12.5 million.

Source: Curbed

James "Jim" Walton is the youngest son of Walmart founder Sam Walton. He is 75 years old.

He is chairman of the board of the family's Arvest Bank Group. One of the state's largest banks today, Arvest Bank has assets totaling more than $27 billion.

Source: Bloomberg

He also served on the Walmart board, starting in 2005 to fill the vacancy after his brother John died. Jim Walton's son, Steuart, took over his father's seat on the board in 2016.

Now, he presides over Walton Enterprises — the private company that deals with the investments and finances of the Walton family only — from modest offices in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Source: Fortune

The youngest of founder Sam Walton's children, Alice Walton is worth $78.8 billion, according to Bloomberg. She has been divorced twice and has no children. She is 74 years old.

Alice has never taken an active role in running the family business.

Instead, she became a patron of the arts, which she fell in love with at a young age.

When she was 10, she bought her first work of art: a reproduction of Picasso's "Blue Nude" for about $2, she told The New Yorker.

Source: The New Yorker

She has an immense private art collection, with original works from Andy Warhol and Georgia O'Keeffe. Alice opened a museum in Bentonville called Crystal Bridges in 2011 to house her $500 million private art collection.

When it opened, Crystal Bridges had four times the endowment of the famous Whitney Museum in New York.

The collection includes a Georgia O'Keeffe painting that Alice spent $44.4 million on in 2014 — the biggest sale for a woman's piece of art in history.

Source: The Observer

Alice also breeds horses.

Her Millsap, Texas, property, Rocking W Ranch, sold to the Three Amigos Investment Group of Kermit, Texas, in September 2017 for an undisclosed amount.

Source: Star-Telegram

It had an initial asking price of $19.75 million, which was reduced to $16.5 million. The working ranch had over 250 acres of pasture and outbuildings for cattle and horses.

Source: WilliamsTrew

Her other, 4,416-acre Texas ranch was previously listed at a reduced price of $22 million.

The modest, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home overlooks the Brazos River.

Alice also bought a two-floor condo on New York's Park Ave. for $25 million in 2014.

Source: Business Insider

It has more than 52 large windows overlooking Central Park plus a media room, a winding staircase, and more than 6,000 total square feet of space.

Source: Business Insider

In January 2016, Alice donated 3.7 million of her Walmart shares — worth about $225 million at the time — to the family's nonprofit, the Walton Family Foundation.

Sam and Helen started the foundation as a way to teach their children how to give back and how to work together.

The charity awards millions of dollars in grants to causes that align with the foundation's values.

The foundation awarded $566.5 million in grants in 2022, according to its website.

The foundation has three main areas of focus:

The foundation's focus on education was led by John. His brother Jim said John was really interested in being able to give parents choices when it came to their child's schooling.

Source: Walton Family Foundation

Rob spearheaded the foundation's venture into environmental protection. One of the first grants they gave helped develop a sustainable fisheries label.

Source: Walton Family Foundation

A commitment to the family's home of Arkansas is another large part of the foundation. The website says this area of focus is about "advancing our home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta."

Source: Walton Family Foundation

Walmart Inc., which owns Walmart and Sam's Club, is the largest retailer in the US in terms of revenue.

 In fiscal year 2023, Walmart reported $648.1 billion in revenue.

When Walmart has a good quarter, the Waltons make hundreds of millions of dollars in dividends.

Even though the Walton family is raking in billions as a result of the company's success, they remain relatively under-the-radar in terms of flashing their wealth — much like their patriarch, Sam, did in the early years.

Source: Fortune

• Read more:
• Walmart is testing higher starting salaries for some employees in 500 stores as the war for talent heats up
• What Walmart, Costco, and other famous retailers looked like when they first opened
• The average Amazon shopper still earns more than Walmart's, and it reveals a key challenge for the e-commerce giant
• Walmart's ad execs to know, hot DTC companies, iHeartMedia breaks hearts

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•  Gisele Bündchen became emotional during a traffic stop in Surfside, Florida, this week. 
• Bündchen told a police officer she was trying to evade the paparazzi "stalking" her. 
• The Mayor of Surfside called out the cop's "dismissive" response, which he called "unacceptable."

A Florida mayor has criticized a police officer who pulled over Gisele Bündchen for a traffic stop, calling the behavior toward the supermodel "unacceptable."

Bodycam footage captured the interaction between the police officer and Bündchen, 45, in Surfside — a town about 30 minutes from Miami Beach — on Wednesday. Footage obtained by Fox News Digital showed Bündchen telling the officer she was attempting to escape the paparazzi following her.

The police officer acknowledged her situation but said there was "nothing" he could do about it.

"Yeah, but he's, like, stalking me," Bündchen said.

The police officer then told Bündchen she'd need to contact the Miami Beach Police Department since that's when the paparazzi began following her. After the police officer apologized, Bündchen broke down into tears.

"I'm so tired," she said. "Everywhere I go I have these fucking guys after me. Nothing protects me. I can't do nothing. I just want to live my life."

The police officer responded that he couldn't stop the paparazzi from doing their job, which is to take photographs.

"I don't know how that's allowed," she said.

Now, Mayor Charles Burkett has lambasted the police officer in a letter addressed to Surfside Police Department's Chief of Police, according to WPLG.

"This response is wholly unacceptable and not reflective of the values, judgement and service residents expect from their police," Burkett wrote. "The dismissive posture towards a resident who is clearly in distress is everything we do not want to see in the way our police interact and serve our residents."

Interim Police Chief Henry Doce echoed Mayor Burkett's sentiments in a statement to the outlet.

"I would have liked to have seen more empathy at the initial contact to what was going on," Doce said.

Still, Doce added that the police officer is "phenomenal."

"Could we have done better? I think it's a learning opportunity to understand what the dynamics of that situation is," Doce told WPLG.

Representatives for Bündchen, Burkett, and the Surfside Police Department did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

Bündchen moved to Florida in 2020 after her former husband, Tom Brady, joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Bündchen and Brady announced their divorce in October 2022 after getting married in February 2009.

The pair share two children — Benjamin and Vivian — and Brady has a son named John from a previous relationship.

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• ByteDance would rather close down TikTok in the US than sell it, Reuters reported, citing four unnamed sources.
• President Joe Biden recently signed into law legislation that could see TikTok banned in the US.
• ByteDance has nine months to a year to divest itself of the company under the legislation.

ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of TikTok, would rather close down TikTok in the US than sell it if legal means to fight a proposed US ban fail, Reuters reported, citing four unnamed sources.

A sale is unlikely as the algorithms powering the short-video app are key to ByteDance's overall operations, the sources told Reuters, also noting that TikTok made up only a small part of the company's total revenues and active users.

Closing down the app would, therefore, limit the impact on ByteDance's business and allow it to retain control of its algorithm, they said.

President Joe Biden recently signed into law legislation that would see TikTok banned in the US unless ByteDance divests itself of the app over the next nine months to a year.

The move stems from fears among US lawmakers that China could use the app for surveillance activities and to gather data on US citizens.

TikTok's CEO, Shou Zi Chew, said he was confident the company would win the legal challenge, however.

"We are confident and we will keep fighting for your rights in the courts," he said. "The facts and the Constitution are on our side and we expect to prevail."

The deadline to sell the app is set for January 19, 2025, but an extension is possible if ByteDance demonstrates progress toward a sale.

It follows a report in The Information earlier this week that said ByteDance was exploring options to sell a majority stake in TikTok's US business.

The report, which cited three people with knowledge of the situation, said ByteDance would prefer to sell to a non-tech industry company and without giving up the algorithm that recommends videos to app users.

ByteDance has said that the rumors that it plans to sell TikTok "are untrue."

Business Insider has reached out to ByteDance for comment.

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• Brown sophomore Alex Eisler has a lucrative side hustle selling restaurant reservations.
• He vends them on nascent platform Appointment Trader.
• Eisler told BI his most expensive sale was $1,358 for an omakase reservation in Boston.

Need more proof that the scalper and bot-fueled restaurant reservation-selling ecosystem has intensified to new heights?

Brown University student Alex Eisler has generated $105,000 in reservation sales since November 2022, when he joined Appointment Trader — an online marketplace that allows users to buy and sell restaurant reservations using an auction model.

Eisler — a sophomore studying applied math and computer science — told Business Insider he's always been a foodie, and first stumbled upon Appointment Trader while purchasing a reservation of his own at NYC steakhouse 4 Charles Prime Rib.

He then attempted to sell a few reservations on the platform procured through American Express-owned Resy and by calling restaurants personally. He had mixed success, he said, whereupon he said he started playing around with code and developed a bot to automate the process.

Eisler told Business Insider the most expensive reservation he's ever sold was $1,358 at an omakase restaurant in Boston. Business Insider verified the approved bid with a screenshot he provided. In New York City, he also recently banked $850 for a lunch table at Maison Close and $1,050 for a spot at Carbone, The New Yorker reported.

"It has never really been about the money for me," Eisler told BI. "I just wanted to bring supply and demand together."

It's worth noting that the $105,000 figure raked in was before Appointment Trader takes its fees, ranging from 20% to 30%, according to The New Yorker, which first covered Eisler's side hustle and the increasingly elusive task of going out to eat. He told the outlet he pocketed $70,000 last year.

Appointment Trader is just one platform helping to turn reservation-selling into a cottage industry of sorts.

Members-only platform Dorsia is another — but operates on a completely different business model, working in tandem with top restaurants to offer reservations in exchange for a guaranteed minimum spend.

Business Insider's Linette Lopez previously reported on New York's freshly gilded dining scene, with the emergence of apps like Resy gamifying the reservation experience and pitting elite diners against their more tech-savvy counterparts, who are hacking the system with bots.

That said, some restaurant owners are perturbed by how the space is evolving.

Bloomberg reported in October that sites like Resy and Tock — as well as the restaurants that they service — are attempting to crack down on bots by deactivating reseller accounts and creating teams dedicated to fraud.

The New Yorker noted bots and resellers prevent restaurants from collecting valuable customer data.

"It's bad for business," Eric Ripert, chef and co-owner of famed French seafood restaurant Le Bernardin, told The New Yorker. "Every day, we spend hours trying to track down the bots and the fake reservations … If you have tables that are no-shows, the profit of the night is done."

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• The Pentagon said it would "rush" Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine.
• The announcement comes as Russia targets Ukraine's energy infrastructure.
• US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that Patriot missiles would not be a "silver bullet."

The US will "rush" Patriot air defense missiles to Ukraine as part of a military aid package, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said.

Speaking on Friday, Austin said that the US would send "critical interceptors" to Ukraine for its Patriot systems as part of a $6 billion deal.

Austin's comments come as Russia hit parts of Ukraine with a large missile strike on Friday, targeting energy facilities and power plants in several regions.

Russia launched a total of 34 missiles at Ukraine by air, ground, and sea, Mykola Oleshchuk, the head of Ukraine's air force, wrote on Telegram.

The barrage included Iskander ballistic missiles, Kh-59 cruise missiles, and ship-launched Kalibr missiles, among others, he added.

Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on Facebook that Russia had targeted facilities in the regions of Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Lviv, adding that there had been "damage to equipment."

DTEK, a power operator, said equipment at four of its thermal power plants was "severely damaged" in the attacks.

Austin warned against thinking of Patriot missiles as a "silver bullet" against such strikes, however.

"It's not just Patriots that they [the Ukrainians] need, they need other types of systems and interceptors as well," Austin said. "I would caution us all in terms of making Patriot the silver bullet."

The think tank the Institute for the Study of War said in an update on the conflict that while no single weapon could be thought of as a "silver bullet," the Patriot was "one of the very few air defense systems able to engage Russian ballistic missiles and also to hit Russian fighter-bombers outside the range of Russian glide bombs."

It comes after the Spanish newspaper El Pais reported that Spain would also send Patriot missiles to Ukraine amid increasing pressure from its EU and NATO allies.

The report said Spain would deliver "a very limited number" of the missiles due to their high cost and because the country's war reserve was about only around 50 units.

Both the US and Spain decided not to send launchers for the Patriot system, however.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly called for allies to send more Patriot systems to Ukraine.

He said earlier this month that Ukraine needed "seven more Patriots or similar air defense systems" to defend its cities from Russian strikes.

"'Patriots' can only be called air defense systems if they work and save lives rather than standing immobile somewhere in storage bases," Zelenskyy added on X.

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• I decided to go to college at 40 when I was busy raising 5 children.
• My schedule was chaos, and the kids had to skip some events because of my studies. 
• Years later, I got my degree and have created the career I always wanted, and my kids look up to me.

My college journey began at 40 years old when I enrolled in a community college.

Not only was I starting college later in life, but I was also doing it as a mother of five children — ages 8 to 14. I decided it was time to start my education again because I wanted to prove my father wrong. When I was young, he told me I wasn't smart enough to attend college. I finally had the confidence to give it a go and majored in English and communications. I wanted to prove to myself and my children I could do it.

As my schoolwork ramped up, my family obligations didn't let up. I was finally a student, but I was also the taxi driver, the laundress, the cook, the teacher, and the religious educator. I drove my children to three different schools each morning.

With the help of my husband, here's how I got my college degree and raised my kids.

My schedule was chaos for years

Motherhood is a full-time job, but I had to find a way to fit my classes and schoolwork into my week.

I quickly learned that coursework is performed more outside of class than in, so I had to make time for reading, studying, written work, and research papers. I included the children in my studies, sharing what I learned in the classroom at dinner or while driving them to activities. It helped me to understand if I explained the material to someone else.

I didn't realize most colleges began classes before the public school system started their school year, which only complicated things. Plus, my spring breaks didn't coincide with the children's school breaks either. I used a neighbor to keep the children company while I was in class.

Initially, I attended classes while my children were in school, praying no one got sick. Sometimes, I had a night course. Since my husband worked during the day, he was home at night. He took over helping the children in the evenings.

To make the schedule work, one thing had to go and that was cooking. I cooked only when absolutely necessary, which was on weekends. We reheated during the week or got pizza. Baking cookies and making bread as a family was a thing of the past for us.

I also had to say no to some of the children's activities. Sports, scouting events, and church functions disappeared. I just couldn't accomplish everything.

I had all my children help out around the house

From shopping and meal preparation to laundry and cleaning, everyone helped — regardless of their age. I had to discard those perfect housekeeping standards and just accept that my house wouldn't be perfect for a few years.

Whenever I did have to do something around the house, I multitasked. I recorded class notes on tapes and listened to them while doing laundry or preparing meals. When the children got tired of the recording, they left the room.

Food shopping became a family affair — performed only when the cupboards were almost bare. Since I used the time when the children were at school to attend classes and work on group projects with classmates, I had to go grocery shopping when they were all home. That meant they went with me to the store; it wasn't easy.

I'm glad it all worked out in the end

With the children growing up before my eyes, I decided to continue my education after community college. I earned a prestigious scholarship and enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania.

After 10 years, I earned my degree in English. I now write for magazines and anthologies and facilitate writing workshops.

Looking back, I can see my kids definitely looked up to me. They realized how I tried not to let my attending college interfere with family responsibility. For that, they are grateful, especially now that three of them are parents. And I helped all of them get into and excel in college.

I may have started college to help my children and to prove my father wrong, but I finished to help myself. I learned that college is worth the effort.

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• Presidents travel in helicopters that are called Marine One when carrying the president.
• The aircraft feature extensive security measures and spacious, soundproof interiors.
• Marine One often picks up the president from the South Lawn of the White House for shorter trips.

US presidents travel in style with secure, state-of-the-art vehicles such as Air Force One and the bulletproof presidential limousine known as "The Beast."

Marine One, the presidential helicopter, is another such mode of transportation. With spacious, soundproof interiors, advanced defense systems, and a landing zone on the White House lawn, the white-topped helicopters are often the most convenient way for presidents to get from place to place.

Take a look inside the Marine One models used by modern presidents.

Similar to Air Force One, any Marine Corps aircraft carrying the president of the United States uses the call sign Marine One.

President Dwight Eisenhower was the first president to fly in a helicopter in an official capacity in 1957, according to the US Naval Institute.

The helicopter is equipped with extensive security measures.

Marine One features antimissile countermeasures, ballistic armor, secure communication lines, and radar-jamming technology.

In case of a crash, it also has self-sealing fuel tanks and energy-absorbing landing gear to help prevent fires and extensive damage.

The president always flies with at least one other decoy Marine One as additional protection.

There can be up to five Marine One helicopters flying at one time to obscure the president's exact location, according to the George W. Bush Presidential Library. The helicopters also frequently change positions after takeoff to make it harder to determine which one the president is on.

Marine One travels abroad with the president, as well.

Military cargo aircraft transport Marine One helicopters abroad and remain on standby at local airports in case of emergency during foreign visits, according to the US Naval Institute.

Marine One can fit between 11 and 14 passengers, depending on the model.

A Black Hawk model called the VH-60N White Hawk can fit 11 passengers, and the Sikorsky VH-3D Sea King helicopters can fit 14, according to the George W. Bush Presidential Library. Both are used as presidential transports.

Presidents often meet with staffers aboard Marine One.

The helicopter is so soundproof that passengers can speak at a normal volume.

Marine One also includes perks like 200 square feet of interior space and a bathroom.

It's also used to transport the president for shorter trips to places like Camp David and Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to board Air Force One.

Flying across Washington, DC, in a helicopter is more efficient than snarling traffic in a presidential motorcade.

Marine One picks the president up on the South Lawn of the White House.

Two newer Sikorsky VH-92A Patriot models built by Lockheed Martin debuted in 2021 with the goal of eventually replacing the older Marine One helicopters. Each new aircraft cost $218 million, CT Insider reported.

Bloomberg reported that the new Sikorsky helicopters are no longer in regular use because the engines kept burning the White House lawn.

Upon boarding and landing, the president is greeted by Marines wearing the Marine Blue Dress uniform.

President Barack Obama sparked controversy in 2013 when he seemingly forgot to return a Marine's salute and doubled back to shake his hand while boarding Marine One, NPR reported.

However, while Army personnel in uniform are required to salute the president, the president doesn't have to return the gesture. The New York Times reported that President Ronald Reagan was the first president to start returning soldiers' salutes in 1981.

The aircraft is stocked with water bottles and snacks including boxes of presidential M&Ms.

The president's seat is the only forward-facing captain's chair on the aircraft aside from the seats occupied by the pilot and copilot, The Points Guy reported.

After his first ride in Marine One in 2009, Obama said that the helicopter was "very smooth" and "very impressive."

"You go right over the Washington Monument and then, you know, kind of curve in by the Capitol," he said. "It was spectacular."

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• Blanca Barragan rents out rooms in her home for extra income, earning $55,780 since 2019.
• In 2023, she began building an accessory dwelling unit in her yard and moved into it in April.
• Renting out her entire main home, she's saving hundreds every month, with plans to buy more homes.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Blanca Barragan, a 42-year-old electrician, who completed construction of an accessory dwelling unit she built in her front yard and moved into in April. The essay has been edited for length and clarity.

I bought my home in Sacramento seven years ago for $150,000; it's small, 583 square feet. Even back then, there weren't many available in the city at that low of a price.

At the time, almost all of the homes on my block were abandoned, and there were many empty lots. When I bought my home, it looked like it was falling apart; everybody was telling me I shouldn't buy it and instead wait until I could buy something in a better neighborhood.

Things have changed a lot since then. They've remodeled all the houses in my neighborhood and have built homes on the empty lots.

I fixed up my home with the help of Habitat for Humanity and by 2019 I began house hacking.

My home was meant to have two bedrooms and one bathroom. But I sacrificed my master bedroom and converted it into a separate micro studio that I now rent out.

I also got very creative and turned the pantry area into a room, and another room in my house that was supposed to be an office, into a bedroom. Additionally, I repurposed a 120-square-foot shed into a micro studio.

Over the last four years, I've made $55,780 from renting out the micro studios in my home. The money I've made has helped me buy my eldest son a $360,000 house that I'm also the co-mortgage owner of, and qualify for a loan to add an ADU to my property.

In April, I moved into the ADU with my youngest son. Living there while renting out the main house is saving me about $2,200 each month. I plan to use that money to buy more properties.

The grant approval process was pretty straightforward

I always wanted to buy another house but knew I couldn't afford it. Instead, I decided to expand my existing property since I had a huge front yard and my home was pretty small.

I told all of my friends about my dream to build an additional house on my lot. One of them sent me an advertisement for CalHFA's ADU grant program that gives eligible Californians $40,000 to cover blueprints, permits, and closing costs to build an ADU on their property.

In 2022, I began the process of getting approved for the CalHFA's ADU grant, which was pretty easy.

The advertisement I was sent explained all the steps I needed to take and also provided a list of lenders that could work with me. This is because, to qualify for the grant, you have to simultaneously qualify for a traditional loan for the ADU.

Because I couldn't find someone who would finance the ADU separately — those loans were way too expensive for me — I chose to refinance my existing mortgage with Envoy Mortgage.

My lender contacted Anchored Tiny Homes for a cost breakdown of the project, which was about $30,000, including pricing for permits and a blueprint. They then submitted those numbers plus their closing cost estimates to CalHFA to obtain the grant. I was approved and the $40,000 grant was sent directly to my lender, which approved my new mortgage.

Because the property value continued to increase each year since buying my home in 2017, I refinanced my 30-year fixed mortgage a few times before I started my ADU project. So I now have 28 years left on a $460,000 loan at a 4.8% mortgage rate that includes my existing home and the ADU.

I moved into the ADU — it's saving me hundreds monthly

Construction for my ADU began in April 2023 and took a year and eight months and was completed just about three weeks ago. It has two bedrooms and one big bathroom.

Overall, it cost $220,000 to build, which was higher than I anticipated. I had expected the closing costs to be around $5,000 to $6,000, but they ended up being almost $30,000. I believe they were higher because the lender had to oversee the contractor's work and administer the loan throughout the construction process.

Although I received the $40,000 grant, I had to borrow the rest of the money from my lender. As a result, my mortgage, including my main house and ADU, increased by $1,500 a month — from $1,200 to $2,700.

There are two renters living in the main property and my son and I moved into the ADU. (The little shed that I was previously renting out had to be torn down when I built the ADU.)

The main home's primary bedroom — the one I turned into a micro studio — is renting for $875.  I'm charging the other tenant for the remainder of the house $1,305. Living in the ADU with my son, I only pay $520 of the $2,700 mortgage. The tenants cover the rest.

I love living in my ADU, and my son likes it a lot too. Everything is clean, white, and brand new, including our dishwasher, washing machine, and dryer.

The ADU has inspired me to buy more real estate

With housing being so expensive right now in California, homelessness is widespread. There are tents on many streets; it's very sad.

Everyone is searching for affordable housing, even my family. That's why I had the idea of sacrificing living in a larger space and moving into a small one.

I like to know I'm helping people, and if anyone in my family ever needs to move somewhere in an emergency, I have housing for them.

I had zero extra dollars when I started this project, I just sketched it out and put it on paper. Building this ADU is beautiful to me because I now feel like anything I dream can happen.

The whole thing has impacted my children's, friends', and neighbors' lives because they all saw it happen out of nothing.

I have developed a lot of big dreams because of this: I wrote a 20-page booklet to teach others how to build an ADU, and I'm already thinking about the next property I want to buy.

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