Author: openjargon

• Target has slashed its annual Pride collection after the retailer faced protests last summer.
• Now, rather than thousands of LGBTQ+ themed products, the assortment has around 75 items.
• Target said it's made changes "based on guest insights and sales trends."

Target's annual Pride collection is a shadow of its former self after the retailer faced protests from conservative groups last summer.

After a decade of offering a special collection of products sourced from the LGBTQ+ community to celebrate Pride month in June, the retailer said last year it was "rethinking" its cultural merchandising strategy.

Pride this year at Target is shaping up to be a lot smaller, shorter, and quieter than it once was — and there's a good chance you might not see it at all.

Whereas last May, Target's Pride collection featured more than 2,000 items online, this year's assortment consists of several dozen items — fewer than 75 in the regions Business Insider examined, including California, New York, and Wisconsin — as of May 28th.

Now instead of bold statements and functional garments, the selection has more toned-down rainbow-themed apparel and accessories, a few alcoholic drinks, pet gear, and a cutting board emblazoned with "It's Giving Charcuterie."

The company said earlier this month only select stores would carry Pride products, rather than all of its nearly 2,000 US locations.

Business Insider visited a store on Tuesday in Madison, Wisconsin, and found that Target had yet to set out any Pride merchandise, although the company's website and app said items could be purchased from that location. A guest services employee at the store confirmed to BI that online orders could be fulfilled from the store, and said the store display should be available starting June 1.

For now, what previously had been the location of a front-of-store Pride display was instead occupied by a summer "Swim and Sand Shop." Days earlier the spot had been set up for a pickleball promotion.

In an interview last year as the conservative firestorm was gaining momentum, CEO Brian Cornell argued against the idea that Target was too "woke."

"When we think about purpose at Target, it's really about helping all the families, and that 'all' word is really important," he said "We want to do the right thing to support families across the country."

"I think those are just good business decisions, and it's the right thing for society, and it's the great thing for our brand," he added.

A year after the remarks, we're getting a better sense of what exactly is changing as the company switches up its strategy, which Target has said was the result of sales trends and guest insights.

"Please know our intention is to bring our culture of care to life for our LGBTQIA+ team members — not just during June, but year-round," Target's VP of Brand Marketing Carlos Saavedra said in an email to the company's Pride+ Business Council earlier this month. "We remain committed to this wonderful community, and we are so excited to celebrate Pride with you all."

• EVs go a lot farther these days, but chargers are still hard to find.
• No one seems to agree whose job it is to build charging infrastructure.
• Building enough chargers is just one part of the problem.

Electric vehicles have come a long way — literally.

In the earliest days of the EV transition, a fully battery-powered car (like the first-generation Nissan Leaf that went on sale in 2010) could only drive for about 100 miles on a full charge in the best weather conditions.

That's fine for an enthusiastic early adopter or someone looking to replace just one of their multiple gas cars, but it didn't satisfy the average car shopper.

Today, a mass-market EV can deliver about 300 miles on a single charge. That's a huge improvement in just 14 years, but the great American road trip is still far from achievable in an EV, thanks to one persistent issue: range anxiety.

Car companies and battery suppliers have spent years working to quell this anxiety. But despite the vast improvements in battery technology, EV charging still can't hold a candle to the 5-minute stop to fill a gas tank.

Even as charging times come down (GM boasts its Ultium batteries can gain about 100 miles of range in 10 minutes on a DC fast charger), there simply aren't enough public chargers in the right spots.

Car companies hoped the public charging infrastructure would improve along with them as they built more range into their vehicles. This hasn't really happened, though, and a slew of EVs are hitting the market with nowhere to charge up on a road trip, exacerbating one of the biggest barriers to adoption.

Charging is a hot potato issue

One thing essentially everyone can agree on in the EV transition is that vast and reliable fast-charging infrastructure is essential. Studies have shown that areas with more access to public charging infrastructure have higher rates of EV adoption, even though a majority of charging happens at home.

What no one can seem to agree on is who is responsible for building out public charging infrastructure. And a closer look reveals that perhaps pinning the problem on one entity, public or private, will only slow efforts to grow.

Car companies have made some efforts to build out charging infrastructure, partnering with charging companies and other stakeholders to install public chargers and help new EV buyers install home charging systems.

Tesla, which has always led the way with its Supercharger network, is also opening its stations to other car manufacturers, aiding in patching the holes in the public charging network.

All these industry efforts have helped to feed an EV charging infrastructure boom in recent years. At the start of 2024, there were some 61,000 public charging stations in the US, more than doubling the amount of stations there were in 2020, according to Pew Research and the Department of Energy.

Still, that's way less than the roughly 120,000 gas stations nationwide, and public efforts to grow charging infrastructure appear to be slow-going so far.

The Biden Administration has set aside $7.5 billion for charging infrastructure with a vow to add 500,000 EV charging stations by 2030. Since Congress approved this funding two years ago, only a handful of stations have gone live, according to reports.

Building out charging infrastructure is just one piece of the puzzle

We're still far from the level of infrastructure required for mass adoption, even as the rate of EV sales hits a slowdown.

One slowdown appears to feed the other: a new crop of EV shoppers isn't interested in buying a car that might die on a road trip, and charging companies aren't willing to grow for customers that don't exist yet.

On top of the issue of infrastructure coverage, there is the question of where we will get the power to run all of these new charging stations.

A recent study from the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute found that utilities are not fully equipped to handle the large swings in usage that can be caused by increased amounts of EV charging.

All this means that cross-industry efforts — between car companies, their suppliers, charging startups, and public utilities — will be crucial as we continue to grow the share of electric cars on the road.

• Herschel Walker still has millions left over from his unsuccessful Georgia Senate campaign.
• Republicans are unhappy that he hasn't sent over money to boost 2024 campaign efforts, per Politico.
• The Georgia GOP has been weighed down financially as it has paid the legal fees of the 2020 fake electors.

Two years ago, the University of Georgia football icon and then-Senate candidate Herschel Walker was seen by many Republicans as a future star in the party.

Walker, running against Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in the Georgia Senate race, won over many establishment politicians. GOP voters overwhelmingly coalesced around his campaign. And many observers predicted that a "red wave" would sweep him into office.

But Walker — weighed down by numerous controversies and his inability to appeal to moderates in the competitive race — eventually lost to Warnock in a December 2022 runoff election.

Walker is not running for another elected position in 2024. However, he still has $4.3 million left in the bank from his Senate run, much to the frustration of Republicans in Georgia and Washington — who say that the money could go a long way in aiding their party this year — according to Politico.

"Those resources were solicited and given to support his candidacy as a Georgia Republican, and unless he intends to use them again for his own candidacy, I sure hope the favor would be returned," ex-Georgia Republican Party chairman John Watson told the outlet.

Walker previously contributed $100,000 to the National Republican Senate Committee for a recount fund, and he also gave roughly $400,000 to charities, according to Politico.

But Walker so far has not given any indication that he will be a major player in Georgia politics this year.

After his Senate loss, he returned to the University of Georgia to complete his undergraduate degree.

When contacted by Politico about the unspent funds, Walker said that there "wasn't money left in my account." He soon ended the call, telling the outlet that he needed to complete a paper.

Over the past year, the Georgia GOP has been strained financially as it has paid the legal fees of the alternate fake electors who have faced charges over their efforts to overturn Biden's 2020 win in the state.

Two-term Gov. Brian Kemp — a conservative who clashed with Trump-aligned figures over the 2020 election — has largely bypassed the state party by utilizing his own political committee to fundraise.

And Trump is playing catch-up financially as he continues to trail the Biden campaign in the money race.

With Georgia once again in focus as a key swing state in November, both Democrats and Republicans are gearing up for a widespread campaign to turn out their respective bases.

The stakes couldn't be higher: Trump won Georgia in 2016 but lost the state to Biden in 2020, largely because the president ran up the score in metropolitan Atlanta and among Black voters in rural Georgia. The former president very much wants to win the state again. But Biden is eager to hold Georgia, as his 2020 win in the state was one of the biggest electoral triumphs for Democrats that year.

• Closing arguments in Trump's Manhattan criminal trial are expected this week.
• The jury will then consider whether to render a historic verdict.
• Polls show that the proceedings may change few votes, but there's potential peril ahead for Trump.

Former President Donald Trump has turned his legal woes into a conservative cause celebre.

The greatest test of that strategy could arrive as soon as later this week. Closing arguments in Trump's Manhattan hush money criminal trial are expected to occur on Tuesday. Twelve New Yorkers will then weigh the possibility of a historic verdict: finding the first-ever former president guilty in a criminal trial.

Polling shows that a guilty verdict has some potential peril. But the strongest possibility is that voters will tune it out entirely in favor of economic issues, on which Trump scores far higher than President Joe Biden.

Voters are paying attention to the trial but have thus far largely discounted it.

Trump and his allies might not have to spin much.

In a recent Quinnipiac University nationwide poll, 62% of voters said a guilty verdict would not affect their vote in November. In comparison, just 21% said it would change their minds.

A Cook Political Report polling partnership that surveyed seven battleground states found that 40% of voters said Trump's legal woes had no impact on their support or were unsure. Interestingly, the same survey found voters were broadly aware of Trump's problems when asked about the hush money trial, a previous civil fraud trial, and a separate civil trial that found the former president liable for sexually assaulting columnist E. Jean Carroll decades ago.

Voters were also asked by the Cook partnership whether they were more concerned about Biden's age or Trump's temperament and legal issues. Narrowly (53% to 47%), they said Biden's age was more concerning.

Trump has rallied Republicans, but the broader public isn't entirely convinced.

Trump has repeatedly shown he can rally Republicans to his side when his legal problems mount. But the average voter is not a GOP member of Congress nor responding to Trump's fundraising appeals.

Despite Trump's and allies' efforts to cast doubt on the entire prosecution, some polls have found that Americans see legitimacy in the process. A Yahoo News/YouGov poll found that since last month, the hush money trial's approval has increased slightly; there's now a 12-point margin of approval (49%-37%).

That's not to say many voters are sympathetic to some of Trump's claims. A recent New York Times/Siena College poll of voters in key battleground states found that among registered voters, slightly more (49%) thought that the former president would not get a fair trial than those who did (45%).

And if there is one clear takeaway from recent polling it's that the American people do think the former president did something wrong, even if he may not have broken the law. The same Yahoo poll found that a majority of Americans (52%) believe Trump falsified business records " to conceal a hush money payment to a porn star" — the charge at the center of the Manhattan case. The Quinnipiac survey that showed voters may not be motivated by the trial also found that 46% of voters believe Trump did something illegal — another 27% believe he did something unethical but not illegal.

Those responses are in stark contrast to the GOP officials, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, who have slammed the trial as a sham.

Trump's reaction will loom over the verdict.

Trump has never been one to take setbacks lightly. He's under a gag order that does not allow him to criticize witnesses, the jury, or Merchan's daughter. Once the verdict is in, Trump can unleash whatever criticism he desires.

It's not hard to imagine that in responding to a potential guilty verdict Trump lashes out in a way that causes him more problems. His attacks on judges have historically triggered some of the rare instances when Republicans speak out more broadly against him. It was then-Speaker Paul Ryan who called Trump's suggestion that a federal judge couldn't fairly adjudicate a case because of his Mexican heritage the "textbook definition" of racism.

But Trump has constantly been able to count on almost all of his fellow Republicans. The FBI's decision to search Mar-a-Lago marked another point of vulnerability for Trump. Almost immediately, top GOP officials rallied to his side.

Then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy proclaimed that the Justice Department had reached an "intolerable state of weaponized politicization." Even former Vice President Mike Pence, who had been harshly critical of Trump, expressed concern about the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago.

The repeated shows of unity in the face of a new Trump indictment became so common that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis later complained that they "distorted the primary."

The easiest prediction is that Trump's verdict will likely spawn a wave of donations. According to a Politico analysis, Trump's legal woes are among his most effective fundraising appeals. Trump had one of his best fundraising days since launching his presidential campaign on March 22 when the former president warned his followers that New York Attorney General Tish James might try to seize his assets in connection with a civil fraud verdict.

During the Manhattan criminal trial, Trump has sent repeated fundraising appeals, including when Justice Juan Merchan found Trump in contempt for violating his gag order.

There are obvious costs to such efforts. Trump has relied on his network of political groups to help pay his legal bills. President Joe Biden mounted a significant early cash advantage. While other parts of Trump's orbit have been forced to come to the aid of Save America, the main outfit that has paid Trump's legal fees. According to its most recent filing, the leadership PAC owes over $1.1 million to Trump's lawyers. If the former president is found guilty, his almost certain appeal would likely further draw on this fund for support.

Still, there may never be another day in American history like the one about to unfold.

• My self-employed husband and I moved from Austin to Arkansas after being offered $10,000 to do so. 
• We had great access to nature, and our cost of living was lower, but we didn't love where we lived.
• Living in Arkansas helped us figure out what we wanted and I have no regrets about my time there. 

Nearly every time I mentioned my impending move to Arkansas, I was asked, "Why there?"

It was a curious choice, especially considering I was leaving bustling and lively Austin for Fayetteville, Arkansas, a city known for little more than historical monuments and college football.

My somewhat tongue-in-cheek reply to the above inquiry is that I was bribed.

Money talks, and it said, 'move'

My conversation-prompting response wasn't entirely untrue.

The Northwest Arkansas Council had launched Life Works Here, an initiative that offered $10,000 in cash or bitcoin and a mountain bike to selected remote-work applicants in exchange for moving to the region.

My husband and I are both self-employed, so we could live anywhere but we didn't have an abundant amount of funds to do so in a place with a stratospheric cost of living.

So when we heard about the grant program designed to entice people who worked from home to move to Northwest Arkansas, we thought, "Why not?"

Ready to leave burgeoning Austin, whose shine had begun to patina after eight years, we each applied for the initiative alongside tens of thousands of others.

When my application was one of 100 accepted, we started packing.

After all, the cost of living in the Texas city was rapidly rising and we craved more adventure and outdoors than Austin's manicured parks and overcrowded campsites could offer.

And maybe Arkansas wasn't that big of a jump, anyway. Although Texas had more inbound movers than outbound movers last year, so did Arkansas. According to data collected by major moving company Atlas, Arkansas was actually even more of a relocation hot spot than Texas was in 2023.

Our move came with rough starts and fresh discoveries

We moved in July 2022 and were immediately disenchanted because we arrived during what appeared to be a housing crisis.

This added panic and urgency to our housing search. I was also confused as to why we'd been enticed to move if there weren't enough places to actually live here.

When we finally found a suitable apartment that was much cheaper than what we'd pay for something similar in Austin, we realized we'd made a mistake: Our new place was one highway exit from the Arkansas Razorback stadium.

Living there became a headache that lasted through the late summer and autumn as fans clogged the streets and angrily honked at anyone not wearing the team's signature red.

Still, we enjoyed exploring our new community. We learned to mountain bike, as one does when moving 30 minutes south of Bentonville, the mountain-bike capital of the world.

We joined group rides and participated in trail maintenance, and we became passionate about mountain biking. We enjoyed backpacking trails minutes from our doorstep, visiting campsites that didn't have to be reserved months in advance, and finding accessible outdoor activities in the surrounding national forest.

We found it easier to connect with fellow creatives and became friends with small-business owners who were just as invested in their communities as they were in their own success, which isn't always the case in large cities.

After six months, we knew Arkansas wouldn't be our forever home

Living here was an honor and a privilege, our chance to sample a different sort of existence in a smaller town that loved the outdoors but with little financial risk.

Our Arkansas town had much of what we longed for but showed us we really wanted more: towering peaks, a community of equally passionate outdoor lovers, and the opportunity to try even more sports.

And because we uprooted and moved once with little-to-no concrete evidence it was the right decision, we now knew we could do it again.

In the end, we left Arkansas after 15 months and moved to a small city near the Wasatch Mountains in Utah.

I regret nothing about our transitional period in Arkansas. Our time there was a necessary stepping stone across the river of life, a leap that made the next one seem attainable.

Now, my soul soars when I marvel at peaks from uncrowded trails, cruise downhill on two wheels, and, yes, even tentatively learn to snowboard.

And it's thanks to Arkansas that I realized what I needed to truly thrive.

A landslide struck Papua New Guinea in the middle of the night May 24, burying thousands and destroying six villages.

• Belgium will send 30 F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, however it must avoid use over Russia.
• Zelenskyy has emphasized Ukraine's need for enhanced air defenses against Russia.
• The F-16s are part of a $1 billion aid package, with delivery over four years.

Belgium agreed to send 30 US-made F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine as long as they aren't flown within Russian territory.

"F-16 jets will be provided to Ukraine as soon as possible. Our aim is to be able to provide first aircraft before the end of this year, 2024," Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo announced Tuesday while hosting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "Everything which is covered by this agreement is very clear, it is for utilization by the Ukraine Defense Forces on Ukraine['s] territory."

Zelenskyy has been vocal about Ukraine's need for improved air defenses against Russia and to rebuild its air force battered from two years of war. The 30 F-16s will be delivered over the course of the next four years as part of a promised $1 billion aid package from Belgium, boosting Ukraine's future fleet to an estimated 85 F-16s.

The total number is important because Ukraine is expected to lose many F-16s in what may be its most dangerous battlefield in five decades of flying.

In addition to defending Ukraine's airspace, F-16s customized with long-range missiles can improve Ukraine's strike capacity — a useful step as Kyiv tries to halt Moscow's momentum on the battlefield.

"Our task is to use the first F-16 on the battlefield this year and in such way fortify our positions," Zelenskyy said.

Netherlands, Denmark and Norway have previously offered up dozens of F-16s to support Ukraine. The US Air Force is also training Ukrainian pilots to fly them.

Ukraine could still strike into Russia from its own airspace with the F-16, but the usage restriction limits the plane from deeper attacks and the sight of a US-made plane overflying Russian land; the US has imposed similar caveats on other weapons.

While Ukraine awaits the gradual flow of military aid from the US and other allies, Russia's summer offensive has kicked off.

Ukraine's current air defense deficiencies have allowed Russia to launch continuous barrages of deep strikes beyond Ukraine's lines.

Experts from the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington DC-based think tank, have noted that Russia may have started its offensive too early and lacks the adequate manpower on its front lines needed to "conduct a successful operation to envelop, encircle, or seize Kharkiv City."

Despite Russia's soldier shortage, Ukraine continues to struggle to make up for its own manpower and resource deficits.

• The IRS's probe into the abuse of a Puerto Rican tax benefit has made little progress, a whistleblower said.
• In a letter reviewed by The New York Times, the insider says that less than 1% of beneficiaries were audited.
• The tax break allows new residents of Puerto Rico to be exempt from local taxes on investment profits.

A whistleblower claims that the Internal Revenue Service has not done enough to stop the exploitation of a Puerto Rico tax break, The New York Times reported. 

According to a letter written by an IRS insider, the agency's three-year campaign to uncover abuse of a tax benefit has failed to make much headway. Fewer than 1% of beneficiaries have been audited, yielding no taxes, the whistleblower said.

"My understanding is that no assessments have been made by any office nationwide for a campaign that has been open for three years," the letter said. 

The NYT-reviewed document has sparked a Senate investigation, and lawmakers are now urging the enforcement campaign to pick up speed.

The IRS' high-profile operation centers on a 2012 tax break that allows new Puerto Rican residents to not pay local taxes on investment income made when residing on the island. Such benefits are common on the island territory, offered to entice wealthier Americans and corporations to move there.

While on the surface this benefit would seem easy to apply — it's chiefly determined by where the investor lives — complications arise when an investment made outside of Puerto Rico leads to a profit after the residents move to the island. 

For instance, if a business was started in the mainland US and sold after its owner settled on the island, the tax benefit should only apply for the years lived in Puerto Rico. However, concerns have risen that investors are ignoring this and exempting the entirety of their profits.

The IRS opened its probe into the issue after the 2020 indictment of Gabriel Hernandez, an accountant accused of offering to help wealthy Americans exploit the 2012 tax break, Bloomberg reported. Hernandez has pleaded not guilty.

However, according to the whistleblower's letter, few enforcement actions have actually been taken against those who may be abusing the benefit. 

For instance, the IRS will typically send out "soft letters" to any scrutinized beneficiaries, encouraging them to voluntarily fix any potential issue with their taxes. Yet, the agency hasn't issued any soft letters, the whistleblower said. 

"This is completely absurd in light of the amount of tax dollars at issue," the insider wrote.

In an interview with NYT, IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel acknowledged that no soft letters were sent, but highlighted the dozens that have been audited. He also said that the campaign was still in an early phase and that momentum is growing after the agency received $80 billion in new funding from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

"We're still coming out of our period of underinvestment, and we are still building muscle that atrophied," IRS commissioner Danny Werfel told NYT.