Former President Donald Trump appears with his legal team at the start of jury selection in his first criminal trial.
Jabin Botsford-Pool/Getty Images
The judge in Trump's criminal trial has barred certain testimony around his alleged affair with an ex-Playboy model.
Prosecutors cannot introduce that Melania was pregnant at the time the alleged affair began.
Trump's lead attorney called this detail "literally just salacious with no value."
The judge presiding over Donald Trump's historic criminal trial has barred testimony that the former president's wife, Melania Trump, was pregnant at the time a former Playboy model says she had an affair with Donald Trump.
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to allow evidence related to the ex-Playboy model, Karen McDougal, as Trump's hush-money trial kicked off Monday in a Manhattan courtroom.
McDougal has said that she had a nearly year-long sexual relationship with Trump beginning in 2006. Steinglass said he hoped to introduce evidence showing the then-"Apprentice" star believed that her story going public would threaten his 2016 presidential campaign.
Additionally, Steinglass explained that during the trial, he planned to bring into evidence how McDougal claims she had the affair with Trump while Melania Trump was pregnant with their now-18-year-old son Barron.
The McDougal-Trump narrative includes "that Karen McDougal was a former Playboy model," and that the affair began "when his wife, Melania, was pregnant with his child," Steinglass said.
Trump's alleged affairs with McDougal and Stormy Daniels were both part of "catch and kill" deals with American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer. Those deals allowed AMI to buy the rights to those stories and keep them out of the public eye ahead of the 2016 presidential election — which prosecutors say is the driving force behind those deals.
Steinglass said that he didn't want to get too into the racy details of the affair "unless, of course, the defendant opens the door."
Steinglass said he would not solicit "salacious details of the affair" like "the positions and locales," but that it was important to inform the juries about it to explain that AMI believed the affair really happened, and that disclosing it to the public would have an impact on the election.
Donald Trump's lead attorney, Todd Blanche, argued strenuously against any evidence concerning a "literally just salacious with no value."
Steinglass countered that jurors in the hush money trial needed to know about the alleged affair and cover-up because "it speaks directly to the extent to which" Donald Trump "believed this story would be damaging to his campaign … and the lengths they would be willing to go."
"The only value is to embarrass President Trump, right?" Blanche shot back, adding, "This is just to embarrass President Trump. It's literally just salacious."
Merchan ruled that he would allow prosecutors to talk about Trump's alleged affair with McDougal during the trial — but that he would not permit them to mention that Melania Trump was pregnant at the time.
The Manhattan district attorney's office has charged Trump with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, alleging that he lied on documents to disguise payments to Daniels, an adult film actress.
Prosecutors allege Trump's ex-personal attorney and former fixer, Michael Cohen, facilitated $130,000 in payments to Daniels just days before the 2016 presidential election to buy her silence over a 2006 sexual encounter with Donald Trump.
Trump has denied the charges and having affairs with McDougal and Daniels.
But also: Sometimes tech reminds you that tech can be awesome, in the golly-gee-can-you-believe-it sense some of us used to have about this stuff.
Which is exactly how I felt after my last trip to San Francisco, when I took several rides in Waymo's robotaxis.
That's partly because the tech is … amazing. You really are in a car, driving around the city, with no one in the driver's seat. Software and sensors take care of everything.
And partly because the tech already seems so … normal. You order a Waymo via an app, just like an Uber or Lyft. It shows up, you get in, it takes you where you want to go, and you get out.
Yes, my 13-year-old son and I spent the first few minutes in our first Waymo texting our friends and family: OMG IM IN A SELF DRIVING TAXI. We also documented it on social, of course.
We also felt a bit of the trepidatious rush you get when you first sit down in a roller coaster and have that internal debate: Is this safe? It must be safe because otherwise, they wouldn't let you do it, right? But seriously, is this safe?
But after those first few minutes of novelty, we went back to doing what we always do in an Uber or a Lyft: zoning out on our phones, staring out the window, and spending next-to-no time thinking about who, or what, was driving us.
Which, to me, is really the most amazing part: This stuff is here, now, and you can … just use it.
At least some people can. Waymo, which is owned by Google parent company Alphabet, has a couple hundred self-driving cars roaming around San Francisco, and access is still limited there via a waiting list, as well as geography. You can't get a Waymo to pick you up at the San Francisco International Airport, for instance, or take you across the Bay Bridge to Oakland.
Self-driving tech is also an obvious problem for humans who depend on ride-hailing services to make a living. (On my previous trip to San Francisco, one of my Uber drivers told me he had previously been a recruiter at Amazon who had lost his job during one of Amazon's recent layoff rounds.)
And to be honest, I'm not even sure that I would always order a Waymo if I had a chance. Right now, beyond the novelty, the big upside for me is that the fleet's cars — electric Jaguars — are comfortable and clean. And that the per-trip cost is about the same as an Uber Comfort (one level up from the base Uber X fare) — but really a bit cheaper, since you're not tipping your robot driver.
Waymo self-driving taxis are kitted out with cameras and other sensors, like this Jaguar model crossing an intersection in San Francisco.
JASON HENRY/Getty Images
But there's no reason to believe the cars will remain pristine, and that pricing will stay low, as this stuff rolls out more broadly. (Waymo doesn't disclose financials, and the company wouldn't tell me if it's making money on each trip. I assume it does not, for now; we do know Waymo has invested billions in this project since it started out as a Google project in 2009.)
Or maybe it's simply for people who would rather not interact with another human when they're in a taxi. Which is what David Margines, Waymo's director of product management, says is the service's chief appeal for customers right now. "It's their own space," he says.
Waymo's self-driving cars aren't perfect
Yes, there are still some issues with Waymo, at least in the rides I took recently. One is simply figuring out how to get in the thing: When your Waymo arrives, you unlock its doors with your phone — but only once it has driven to a very precise location that Waymo knows, and you don't.
Which led, a couple different times, to some awkward slow dancing between myself and the robot car. It would stop when I got near but wouldn't let me in because it wasn't exactly where it was supposed to be. Then I'd step away, and then it would lurch forward toward its still-unknown-to-me target spot. Then I'd step forward and it would stop — but still wouldn't let me in.
On one of my trips, this happened on a particularly tight, winding San Francisco street. And as my Waymo and I negotiated with each other we ended up blocking multiple cars, including a minivan driver who started honking at us in frustration.
"You can't honk at a robot," I told her, not very helpfully. "It doesn't care."
Meanwhile, a guy walking by stopped and took out his phone to record the scene. "You can put a cone on it to disable it," he told me, unprompted. Apparently, he's right?
A self-driving Waymo taxi makes its way through Los Angeles.
Mario Tama/Getty Images
More worrisome to me was that on one of my trips — to a Warriors game at the Chase Center arena — at a busy intersection, a Waymo in front of us wouldn't respond to a traffic cop trying to wave it through a red light. Then another Waymo pulled up beside it and also didn't respond to the cop. So now three Waymos were sitting there, blocking traffic and waiting for the light. The traffic cop stopped trying to move us and just held his hands over his head in disgust.
I figured this was a well-known and understandable problem for Waymos — of course, their software and sensors won't respond to humans telling them to override traffic signals! Think of the problems that could cause!
But Margines told me that Waymos are, in fact, supposed to understand human signals like a traffic cop. A Waymo PR person sent me this clip from Waymo CEO Dmitri Dolgov, showing a Waymo doing just that:
Leveraging AI for semantic understanding of complex driving scenes is a key capability of the #WaymoDriver. Check out this example of it autonomously interpreting and adhering to a police officer directing traffic in Los Angeles. pic.twitter.com/PyPqVaOc6B
But unlike other Big New Tech innovations I've seen in the past — anyone still have a 3D TV in their living room? — I don't think self-driving tech is going away. I think the people behind the tech will figure out its possibilities, its limitations, and the places it does and doesn't make sense.
Meanwhile Cruise is starting up again, but this time with humans in the driver's seat. Elon Musk promises to unveil his robotaxi this summer, and while your doubt about anything Musk says is well-warranted, you never know. So I think that one way or another, we are going to make some version of this standard for many of us in the not-far-off future.
Is that great? I don't know. But it really is amazing.
Snap has offered salaries from about $45,000 to over $1.95 million for various roles.
Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is still hiring in the US as its user base grows and some analysts forecast a revenue bounceback in 2024.
After laying off 500 employees, or almost 10% of its workforce, earlier this year, the tech company looks to be staffing in key areas like engineering, product, and sales. On April 12, its jobs board listed more than 142 openings, including 88 listings in US cities.
The hiring comes after a lukewarm 2023, in which Snap grew daily active users by 10% year over year but its annual revenue was flat. Some analysts predict a boost in political advertising in 2024 could help grow Snap's revenue this year.
We combed through public data to get a picture of Snap's salary levels. The data, released by the US Department of Labor's Office of Foreign Labor Certification, shows how much Snap offered to pay employees it wanted to hire in the US through work visas.
According to the data, Snap offered certain US staffers between October 2021 and December 2023 annual salaries ranging from $45,282 to $1.95 million for various roles. The median salary range was $148,013 to $180,000 a year, by Business Insider's analysis.
Those rates are base salaries and do not include other forms of compensation like stock options or bonuses.
Our full analysis breaks down salaries for jobs including product, research, engineering, and sales roles.
Hogan has made $52,000 from paid speeches since announcing his campaign for US Senate.
William B. Plowman/NBC via Getty Images
Larry Hogan has made $157,000 from paid speeches since the end of his term as Maryland governor.
Some of that money came after he announced his Senate campaign in February.
His campaign says he doesn't plan to give any more paid speeches while he runs for Senate.
Larry Hogan has made $157,000 from paid speeches since the end of his term as Governor of Maryland, according to financial disclosure documents filed on Sunday.
One of those speeches — a $28,000 appearance alongside former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe at the Self Storage Association's National Spring Conference — came after he launched his GOP Senate campaign on February 9.
"Governor Hogan was committed to doing a bipartisan event with his friend Terry McAuliffe that brings hundreds of visitors to Maryland, and felt it important to keep that commitment," Hogan spokesman Michael Ricci told Business Insider.
Hogan was also paid $24,000 for a speech he gave to a gathering of Canadian CEOs on January 23, though he didn't receive the payment until February 14, after his campaign launch.
Ricci told Business Insider on Monday that Hogan does not plan to give any more paid speeches while campaigning for Maryland's US Senate seat.
"It's not uncommon to cash in on speeches between leaving government and running for a higher office," said Jordan Libowitz, communication director for Citizens for Responsibility & Ethics in Washington (CREW). "It is uncommon to do it as a candidate."
Indeed, plenty of figures in both parties have given — and faced scrutiny — for paid speeches in the past, the most famous case being Hillary Clinton. But politicians typically stop giving those speeches after they become active candidates in order to avoid the appearance of being influenced by special interests.
Business Insider has previously reported on members of both parties, including GOP Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers and Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi, enriching themselves via the so-called "revolving door" between the public and private sectors.
Here are the six speech payments Hogan has received in the last two years:
July 10, 2023 – $34,000 from the American Property Casualty Insurance Association
July 10, 2023 – $37,000 from Jobs for the Future,
September 25, 2023 – $24,000 from the National Multifamily Housing Council
November 30, 2023 – $10,000 from LG Ad Solutions
February 14, 2024 – $24,000 from the Business Council of Canada
March 13, 2024 – $28,000 from the Self-Storage Association
Hogan, a moderate Republican who served as Governor of Maryland from 2015 to 2023, is already quite wealthy. According to the disclosure filed Sunday, he's worth somewhere between $12.3 million and $34 million, much of which comes from real estate holdings across Maryland.
As governor, his official salary ranged between $165,000 and $180,000, though he continued to make millions from his real estate holdings while in office.
Hogan's surprise entry into the Senate race, which came after years of dismissing the idea of serving in the upper chamber, was a win for Senate Republicans.
Though he faces an uphill climb in the deep-blue state of Maryland, Hogan was a popular governor, and Democrats will have to spend more resources to defend the state's Senate seat in a year where they already face a tough fight to retain control of the upper chamber.
Tesla's SVP of powertrain and energy engineering reportedly stepped down.
John Keeble/Getty Images
Drew Baglino, Tesla's SVP of powertrain and electrical engineering, resigned from Tesla on Sunday.
Baglino's departure came shortly before Tesla laid off 10% of its workforce.
The executive had worked at Tesla for over 18 years.
Drew Baglino, Tesla's senior vice president of powertrain and electrical engineering, announced he'd left the company, becoming the latest major executive to depart Elon Musk's EV giant after the CFO stepped down in August last year. The move came as Tesla announced sweeping job cuts.
"I made the difficult decision to move on from Tesla after 18 years yesterday," Baglino wrote on X on Monday. "I am so thankful to have worked with and learned from the countless incredibly talented people at Tesla over the years. I loved tackling nearly every problem we solved as a team and feel gratified to have contributed to the mission of accelerating the transition to sustainable energy, a mission that I am quite passionate about."
I made the difficult decision to move on from Tesla after 18 years yesterday. I am so thankful to have worked with and learned from the countless incredibly talented people at Tesla over the years.
I loved tackling nearly 🤣 every problem we solved as a team and feel gratified…
Tesla's vice president of public policy and business development, Rohan Patel, also said on Monday he'd left. Patel told TechCrunch that he departed due to "[b]ig overall changes" at Tesla.
Baglino and Patel did not immediately respond to a request from Business Insider for comment, nor did a spokesperson from Tesla. However, CEO Musk responded to X posts from both execs thanking them for everything they'd done.
Baglino joined the company in 2006 — only two years after Tesla CEO Elon Musk first began investing in the automaker — and started out as an electrical engineer working on the company's very first car, the Roadster.
By the time he left, he had become one of only four execs named as "leadership" on Tesla's investor relations page, alongside Musk himself, CFO Vaibhav Taneja, and Tom Zhu, senior vice-president of automotive. Baglino was in charge of the technology behind the company's energy products, including batteries and motors for the cars.
EV blog Electrek noted on Monday morning that Baglino had already lost his Tesla company badge — a red symbol next to his name — on X shortly before he announced his departure on the platform. X is also owned by Musk.
Baglino appears to have resigned less than 24 hours before Tesla announced a round of job cuts impacting about 10% of its workforce. Multiple Tesla employees told Business Insider there had been concerns of impending layoffs going into the weekend as rumors spread throughout the company that some managers had been told to provide upper management with a list of names.
Earlier this month, Tesla delivery numbers appeared to show a slow in EV demand. The company's stock is down about 33% year-to-date.
Tesla saw another key executive depart last year. CFO Zachary Kirkhorn, who was rumored to be under consideration for the role of successor to Musk, left the company in August after 13 years.
Do you work for Tesla or have a tip? Reach out to the reporter via a non-work email and device at gkay@businessinsider.com
But Corradi said people need to change too in order to cut the rat population down.
One way people can help is to stop scattering food on the ground for pigeons to eat. Leftover crumbs end up becoming impromptu meals for nearby rats, Corradi told New York Magazine.
Instead, bird lovers in the big city should place pieces of bread on the ground and make sure the birds eat it all up.
Another method is the city's new pilot program requiring trash to be stored in containers, not thrown out in bags on the street where rats can gnaw their way inside and feast.
"We're a big part of the problem when it comes to sustaining rat populations in the city," Corradi told the magazine.
Those suggestions are in line with what rat researchers previously told Business Insider.
Michael Parsons, an urban-rat expert, said after Corradi's appointment last year that she'll need to focus on changing human behavior to tackle the root of the rat problem.
Parsons suggested picking up trash earlier in the day when rats aren't as active and sticking to data-proven techniques.
"Understand that rat control begins by changing people's habits, hygiene, and expectations," he told BI.
Now restaurant reservations service OpenTable has decided that the benefits of anonymous posting don't outweigh the costs.
The company told Business Insider it will no longer support posting anonymous reviews, and will require diners' comments to include their first name and their selected OpenTable profile image.
OpenTable also reversed an earlier plan, first reported by tech news site Bleeping Computer last week, that would have de-anonymized past reviews posted to the platform.
"Following feedback from our diner community, and in line with our continued commitment to trusted reviews, we are making refinements to our restaurant reviews program," the company said in a statement on Sunday. "To increase transparency, on a go-forward basis only, we will no longer be supporting anonymous restaurant reviews. This change will go into effect later this year."
The reported policy change comes a month after after Wired found that careers site Glassdoor had begun requiring users to provide their real names for account verification, though they still have the option of posting anonymous content to the company's services.
"We use your real name and email address for verification purposes only, to make sure everyone is who they say they are. After that, your privacy takes priority," Glassdoor says in an FAQ page.
One Reddit user was quick to dismiss concerns about OpenTable's change, saying, "This is how you get King Tuttle's, Emperor Nero's, and Kim Jongummm on the reservation list. Customers will outsmart this in no time."
UPDATE: April 15, 2024 — This story was updated to reflect OpenTable's adjustment after it received feedback on the policy reported last week regarding previously anonymous reviews.
New Orleans-Metairie, Louisiana, ranked No. 1 among metropolitan statistical areas for its negative net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people.
John Coletti/Getty Images
Many metros had more people move out than in between July 2022 and June 2023.
New Orleans ranked No. 1 for its negative net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people.
Six of the top 14 metro areas in this ranking were in California.
California cities aren't appealing to everyone. Numerous places in the Golden State were among the top14 metros where more people moved out than moved in, adjusted by population.
Business Insider looked at negative net domestic migration estimates for US metropolitan statistical areas for the period of July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023. Negative net domestic migration means they had more people fleeing these metropolitan statistical areas for another US location than people in the US moving in. We adjusted those estimates by each metro's population as of July 1, 2022, to get migration rates per 1,000 residents.
Before adjusting for population size, negative net domestic migration stood out the most in the greater New York City metro area — with a value of -238,494. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, California, came next, with a value of -154,634, and then Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, Illinois-Indiana, with a value of -71,310.
Los Angeles continued to be notable when adjusting metroareas by their population size. Six of the 14 metros that had the biggest negative net domestic migration rates per 1,000 people were California metros. That includes San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara and San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont — as well as Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim.
New Orleans-Metairie, Louisiana, stood outthe most though for its negative net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people among metros, with a value of -17.5.
Below are the top cities people are fleeing based on net domestic migration rates per 1,000 people.
14. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, California
San Francisco.
Alexander Spatari/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -11.83
Net domestic migration: -54,160
13. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, California
Los Angeles.
ANDREY DENISYUK/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -12.01
Net domestic migration: -154,634
12. Ithaca, New York
Ithaca, New York.
DenisTangneyJr/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -12.11
Net domestic migration: -1,263
11. New York-Newark-Jersey City, New York-New Jersey
New York City.
Westend61/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -12.19
Net domestic migration: -238,494
10. Santa Cruz-Watsonville, California
Santa Cruz, California.
4kodiak/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -13.08
Net domestic migration: -3,455
9. Champaign-Urbana, Illinois
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Laxmikant Maitri/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -13.46
Net domestic migration: -3,178
8. Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara, California.
Alexander Spatari/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -14.07
Net domestic migration: -6,246
7. Salinas, California
Salinas, California.
MattGush/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -14.30
Net domestic migration: -6,190
6. Fairbanks-College, Alaska
Fairbanks, Alaska.
Jacob Boomsma/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -14.61
Net domestic migration: -1,391
5. Minot, North Dakota
Minot, North Dakota.
Feifei Cui-Paoluzzo/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -14.72
Net domestic migration: -1,122
4. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California
San Jose, California.
Jacob Boomsma/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -14.88
Net domestic migration: -28,951
3. Watertown-Fort Drum, New York
Watertown, New York.
Wangkun Jia/Shutterstock
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -15.35
Net domestic migration: -1,772
2. Manhattan, Kansas
Manhattan, Kansas.
DenisTangneyJr/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -16.00
Net domestic migration: -2,134
1. New Orleans-Metairie, Louisiana
New Orleans.
John Coletti/Getty Images
Net domestic migration rate per 1,000 people: -17.49
But according to Raymond James chief investment officer Larry Adam, inflation is set to reverse lower and the Fed is going to cut interest rates at least three times this year.
These are the four reasons why Adam is confident that the recent uptick in inflation is not the start of a new trend like it was in the 1970's.
1. Economic growth should begin to temper
While the economy should continue to avert a recession, it is unlikely to grow at such a strong rate like it did over the past two years, according to Adam.
Adam pointed to small business optimism falling to its lowest level since 2012. On top of that, the percentage of businesses reporting weak sales has jumped to its highest level in almost three years.
Additionally, the recent rebound in inflation during the first three months of 2024 has also led to a rebound in interest rates, with mortgage rates back above 7% and credit card interest rates hovering near record levels. Those high interest rates should dampen spending.
"This, plus a softening labor market, dwindling savings, high credit card balances and rising delinquencies suggest the momentum in consumer spending should start to slow, but not collapse. This should lead GDP to falling below 1% in the next two quarters," Adam said.
If the economy slows, then so should inflation, and it should give the Fed more confidence to begin cutting interest rates.
2. Labor conditions will slowly ease
While monthly jobs reports have been solid, "there are cracks forming that point to weaker labor conditions ahead," Adam said.
Employment subsectors in the ISM Manufacturing and ISM Services indices have contracted recently, and small businesses have pulled back their hiring plans in recent months.
"In the latest NFIB survey, small business hiring plans fell to the weakest level since May 2020," Adam said, adding that temporary help services have been trending lower for over a year.
"While significant job losses are unlikely, these indicators suggest the labor market is likely to soften, keeping a lid on wages and dampening consumption," Adam said.
3. Leading indicators show falling prices
Forward-looking metrics that measure inflation suggest that the overall downward trend remains intact, according to Adam.
The strategist highlighted that the prices paid subsector of the ISM Services Index dropped to its lowest level since March 2020, suggesting that services prices should begin to fall. Meanwhile, goods prices should stay depressed as supply chains continue to normalize.
"This, combined with additional Amazon 'selling events' and slowing demand for motor vehicles point to further discounting in the goods space and leaves us confident that a material acceleration is unlikely," Adam said.
4. Real-time inflation metrics show a sharp decline
While official government metrics show stubbornly high rent and used vehicle prices, real-time measures show considerably lower prices. The government metrics should eventually catch-up to the real-time metrics of prices, suggesting further disinflation ahead.
"If we replaced these components in the CPI with the real-time metrics, CPI would be less than 2% on a YoY basis! The point is: there should be plenty of disinflation in the pipeline as CPI converges with some of these more real-time metrics," Adam said.
Donald Trump enters jury selection at first criminal trial.
ANGELA WEISS/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Donald Trump's criminal trial may prevent him from attending son Barron's high school graduation.
The historic trial began with jury selection in a Manhattan courtroom on Monday.
The judge has not yet decided on Trump's request to skip trial for the graduation event.
Donald Trump may have to miss out on his son Barron's high school graduation ceremony next month due to the timing of the former president's first historic criminal trial.
Trump's hush-money trial kicked off with jury selection on Monday in a Manhattan courtroom.
As the court prepared for the first day of voir dire, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan said he received requests from Trump's attorneys for the former president to skip out on the trial on May 17 so that he could attend Barron Trump's high school graduation in Florida.
Merchan said that he would not yet rule on Trump's request to miss the trial that day.
"It really depends on if we are on time and where we are in the trial," Merchan explained.
Jury selection is expected to last up to two weeks.