• Julie Pereira posted a yard sign crudely expressing her dissatisfaction with both Biden and Trump.
• But her city, Lakeland, Tennessee, near Memphis, deemed the sign "obscene" and fined her $50 a day.
• She sued — and has now settled, with the town paying her around $32,000 in costs and legal fees.

A Tennessee woman whose eyebrow-raising political yard sign led to her being fined hundreds of dollars won about $32,000 after filing a First Amendment lawsuit against her city.

Earlier this year, Julie Pereira posted a sign in her front year saying "Fuck 'Em Both 2024." But it didn't take long for neighbors to complain and for a code enforcement officer from the Memphis suburb of Lakeland to fine Pereira for violating a city law against obscene signs.

She briefly censored her sign, but sued last month. On Wednesday, lawyers for both sides sought approval for a settlement that deemed the city's actions to be unconstitutional and allocated $31,000 for Pereira's legal fees, plus several hundred dollars for damages and costs.

"Being able to tell politicians to fuck themselves is a sacred American right," Daniel A. Horwitz, one of Pereira's lawyers, said in an email to Business Insider. "We are proud to have protected Mrs. Pereira's right to express her political views and to have achieved a successful outcome in this important First Amendment case."

Pereira said in her lawsuit that she's unhappy with both main candidates, President Joe Biden and Donald Trump, in the upcoming November election. But her election sign isn't the first thing to upset city officials. Local news station ABC24 reported in May that Pereira also successfully sued the city after it cited her for a Christmas decoration that used foul language in a reference to the 1989 comedy film "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation."

When she initially contested the violation over her "Fuck 'Em Both" sign, the judge said it wasn't clear that "both" referred to Biden and Trump, a transcript showed. A code enforcement officer said at least 10 neighbors had complained, including one person who claimed they wouldn't have bought a home in the area if Pereira's sign had been out.

The judge also alluded to Pereira's previous clash with the city and noted that jail time was a possibility.

"I will warn you, I don't want to see you back in here," the judge said.

"Your Honor, I do not want to see the City of Lakeland continue to violate my First Amendment rights," Pereira replied.

City officials didn't respond to an email made on July 4, a US holiday.

• Happy Fourth of July! Mark Zuckerberg is back on his hydrofoil. 
• The Meta CEO posted a video to Facebook and Instagram with the caption: "Happy birthday, America!"
• Don't worry, he didn't forget his chain.

Ah, yes, our favorite 4th of July tradition: Mark Zuckerberg's America-loving post.

This year, he's back surfing while waving the American Flag, sipping a can of beer, and wearing a tux — oh, and don't forget the latest Zuck staple, a chain necklace.

It looks like is also wearing a pair of Meta Raybans, one of the company's wearable tech products it's been pushing heavily.

The Meta CEO regularly posts a message to followers on the holiday. In years past, he's posted a picture of him "smoking these meats" like or surfing on a hydrofoil.

To complete this year's July 4th stunt, Zuckerberg topped off his video with Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" playing on the reel.

In the comments, he also gave a preview for his next potential look — growing out a mullet — and commented about getting active months after recovering from an ACL tear.

"Pure 8 month post-recovery surfing with a dry start right here," Zuckerberg wrote.

The new style is a far cry from Zuckerberg's infamous sunscreen look, where he smeared his face in what he said was an attempt to dodge the paparazzi. It didn't work — and went viral.

My one question is, where is the Threads post?

• Teddy Liaw is a tech CEO who left San Francisco for a Las Vegas suburb in 2021.
• Liaw had grown frustrated with The Bay Area's crime and wanted a family-friendly and lively city.
• Since moving, Liaw said it's his mission to introduce others to everything Vegas has to offer. 

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Teddy Liaw, the 45-year-old CEO of contact center solutions company NexRep, who moved from San Francisco to Summerlin, Nevada, a Las Vegas suburb, in 2021 after he grew frustrated by crime in the Bay Area. Liaw founded the Vegas Tech Summit, a multi-day tech conference promoting Vegas as a burgeoning tech center.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I absolutely loved the Bay Area. I loved the culture, the food, the people, the intellect, and the gorgeous views of the water surrounding an amazing city.

But COVID-19 absolutely wrecked the city. It's not the same San Francisco as before. It's still rebounding, and it's not all the way back yet.

I had been living in San Francisco for about 15 years before I moved. I owned a condo that had a gorgeous bay view on the top of the hill.

The Bay Area had so much to offer, including a thriving entrepreneurial and tech ecosystem that made very smart people smarter.

But during the pandemic, there was rampant crime. I don't appreciate it when people turn it into a homelessness issue because San Francisco has had homeless people before and found ways to provide services. That was the narrative during COVID. But it's not a homelessness issue. It was a safety issue.

At the end of 2020, my house was burglarized. My experience with law enforcement was not positive. That was the last straw.

I've got two young kids, and I asked myself: Is this the type of environment that will be safe for my family? The answer, unfortunately, was no.

Everywhere was on the table

I was considering Los Angeles, Washington State, and Texas.

In January 2021, right in the middle of COVID, I decided to do a scouting trip to Vegas. It opened my eyes to what Vegas had to offer, including new houses, clean living, and ample playgrounds for children.

There was amazing food of all ethnicities, cuisines, and cultures. Vegas has entertainment, family life, and suburbia life, just 20 minutes away from all the socializing you would ever want.

It became a very easy decision.

Summerlin is a master-planned community about 20 minutes from all the action. You can't go more than half a mile without running into a park. We're in a desert, but there's a lot of greenery.

Summerlin is designed for families. It has an amazing list of school options from preschool through high school, including some of the top private schools in the state.

Plus, I like to play golf, and there are so many golf options.

I got close to 7,000 square feet and two swimming pools here for the same price as I got my four-bedroom condo in the Bay Area. I needed a house that my friends wanted to visit.

As soon as I moved, I started inviting friends to come and visit. Many of them ended up being overwhelmed by what Vegas had to offer. I convinced a bunch of my friends to move. There is a whole wave of people I "imported" from California.

Everyone is always concerned about the 110-degree heat, but in just 35 minutes, you can be at Mount Charleston and it's only 85 degrees there. Yes, we're in a desert, but we can drive 35 minutes and find sledding in the wintertime.

Quite frankly, Vegas has over-delivered on quality of life.

Vegas is well on its way to being a thriving tech ecosystem

There's nothing as good for work as the Bay Area. It offered serendipitous opportunities. Back in the day, you could get in a shared Uber, sit with the VP of some tech company, and have a great 20-minute conversation. Or you could be at a restaurant and overhear an executive's conversation next to you. That was the spirit of San Francisco.

That magic of the Bay Area hasn't fully made its way over to Vegas, but it's going to happen.

When I came to Vegas, I started meeting with public officials and was appointed to the previous governor's startup and venture council.

I later founded a nonprofit called Vegas Tech Summit. It's already attracted successful entrepreneurs and tech folks from all over the country who come and see what Vegas offers.

My goal is to make people see that Vegas has the potential to be a thriving tech ecosystem, and we're well on our way to achieving that. I see a lot of VCs and entrepreneurs who have already moved here.

The last thing I'm missing here is an existing group of friends. You can't replace decades of friendship. But I've realized that there are so many new people moving here, and everybody's eager to find good people and build community.

That's the spirit of Vegas.

• Quiet vacationing, where employees take time off without telling their bosses, is on the rise.
• CEO David Barkoe said his employees don't feel the need to sneak away to take time off.
• He advocates for trusting employees to get their work done wherever and whenever works for them.

Quiet vacationing — or taking time off or working from across the world without telling your boss — is growing in popularity.

Millennials, in particular, seem to be especially fond of the trend. A recent Harris Poll found that nearly four out of 10 millennial respondents admitted to taking time off without informing higher-ups.

So what's a boss to do if he wants to stop employees from sneaking out of the office behind his back?

David Barkoe, the CEO and founder of Florida-based PR firm Carve Communications, said it all comes down to creating a culture of trust with your employees.

"Go live your life, but get the job done," Barkoe told Business Insider while describing his approach. "I'm going to trust you from minute one, from the moment I hire you, to just get the job done, however you feel best to do it."

In practice, that culture takes a lot of forms. Sometimes, it's an employee working a couple hours early in the morning so they can sign off early to make their kid's swim meet. Other times, it's an employee taking a three-week trip to Europe where the first week is PTO, and the next two, they simply work from another time zone.

Barkoe said the open and flexible culture, which is actively encouraged and practiced by higher-ups, makes it so employees do not feel like they need to sneak away just to get a break.

"It's absolutely culture-driven," he said.

Barkoe believes a reason people are taking quiet vacations is because they feel like their employer is not giving them trust and respect, so they just take the vacation they want anyway.

As for bosses who are worried having such a flexible culture would result in less work getting done, Barkoe has found the opposite to be true. When Carve went fully remote in 2020, Barkoe said he realized very quickly they were never going back to the office.

"It was just working. People were more motivated," he said.

Although it may be different at a company with thousands of employees, Barkoe said, "As a small organization, if you're not doing your job, it's pretty hard to hide." He added that if someone does take advantage, then they're probably not the right person for your team, regardless.

Ashton Mathai, the associate director of content at Barkoe's firm, told BI she fully takes advantage of Carve's unlimited PTO policy and work-from-anywhere culture.

Last year, Mathai traveled to Europe for two months. She took 10 days of PTO to start the trip and then spent the remainder of the time working from places like Scotland, Amsterdam, Portugal, and Italy. Because she was in a different time zone, she'd often work 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. local time and spend the morning doing a tour or going to the beach.

"I would live my life in the morning and then in the afternoon, night I would do my work," she said.

Mathai said before she went, her bosses told her they had total confidence in her that she would get her work done while she was gone.

"It wasn't a threat. It was truly total confidence," she said. "So I kind of went there knowing like I want to make them proud. I want to make myself proud and do my work."

In addition to working from abroad, she said she also takes plenty of full-fledged PTO. Earlier this year, she traveled to India for two weeks with family and didn't work.

"There's a lot of encouragement from leadership, from David himself, to take time off," Mathai said of Barkoe.

Barkoe said a lot of companies have unlimited PTO in theory but that there's a difference between saying it and doing it. He tries to actively encourage and call people out, in a good way, when they take advantage of Carve's flexible culture.

"You just got to have the mindset and the willingness to say personal life is part of the work culture," he said. "Not the other way around, where work culture is part of the personal life."

• A box of old crockery stored in an attic turned out to be Chinese porcelain worth $200,000.
• Owner Gill Stewart found the box while searching for holiday decorations last year.
• Even the auctioneer was surprised when the items sold for such a high price.

A box of tableware stored in an attic for decades with the label "broken porcelain" sold at auction for more than $200,000 last week.

The owner, Gill Stewart, had been looking for Christmas decorations during the holiday season last year when she stumbled across the box, which she had inherited from her grandfather, according to the BBC.

She said she almost threw it away.

"Every time I went up to get the Christmas decorations, I thought 'I must do something with that box,'" she told the outlet.

However, she eventually took it to an auctioneer in Louth, a town in England.

The auctioneer, James Laverack of John Taylors Auctioneers, told the BBC the items looked "quite unassuming" — the sort of thing people might find in yard sales and thrift stores.

He initially divided the collection into lots, giving an initial total valuation of a couple of thousand dollars.

'We expected the Chinese ceramics to sell well — however, they achieved prices way beyond our dreams," Laverack told Business Insider.

Interest picked up quickly after the items were listed, and at the sale last week, the lots sold for a total of $204,000, including fees.

According to the BBC, when Laverack called Stewart to tell her, he first asked her: "Are you sitting down?"

One lot — a set of five Chinese saucers that had been valued at under $100 — ended up going for nearly $45,000.

Another set of 16 teacups, valued at no more than $100, sold for $75,000.

Even a broken bowl went for $6,300.

Stewart was "flabbergasted" by the news, Laverack told BI.

Stewart told the BBC that her grandfather had picked up the items in China, where he had been stationed before World War I.

Many of them date back hundreds of years, and her grandfather had kept detailed notes on their provenance, she said. He also kept a note of who was responsible for breaking some of the pieces — which was often her grandmother, she said.

"She had broken the most valuable ones!" Stewart told the BBC.

• "Perfect Match" season two star Harry Jowsey is one of Netflix's biggest bachelors.
• Jowsey has appeared on multiple dating series, but has been unlucky in love.
• Here's what to know about Harry's previous relationships and if he is dating someone now.

Harry Jowsey is single again after appearing on his second Netflix dating show.

Harry became one of the most popular "Perfect Match" season two contestants last month, after finding fame on the first series of Netflix's "Too Hot To Handle." The streamer's growing reality show empire has created an ecosystem for cast members like Jowsey to become minor celebrities.

After appearing on "Too Hot To Handle" in 2020, Harry used his newfound fame to launch a podcast and get cast on other reality series.

Naturally, fans are hungry for details about the reality star's life, leading to speculation about who he has dated. Rumors have swirled about various influencers, reality stars, and models.

Harry told Entertainment Tonight last month that he is single. But if fans are wondering which rumors are true, here are all of the reality star's confirmed relationships so far.

• People are hiding AirTags in campaign posters to stop thieves, The Wall Street Journal reports.
• The tracking devices are helping recover signs and charge those who took them.
• In some cases, those charged included political opponents, WSJ said.

It's a political tale as old as time: put up a campaign poster in your yard, and thieves come to snatch it.

But according to The Wall Street Journal, those fed up with front lawn looting are embracing a modern solution.

Apple's geo-tracking AirTag devices are helping owners find their signs — and sometimes, even the people who stole them.

The practice has already led to charges. In one example cited by the outlet, Florida politician John Dittmore decided to hide the coin-sized gadget on one of his posters after waking up to a number of thefts in May.

When this sign was taken overnight, the Brevard County Commission candidate tracked the AirTag's pings to a pickup truck eight miles away. Police questioned two teens, and they were charged with criminal mischief and the theft of nine signs.

Including the poster stands that were also taken, the stolen property had a total value of over $1,100, WSJ said.

In other cited cases, stolen signs don't end up with teens, but in the homes of electoral opponents.

After Chris Torre became the victim of poster snatching, AirTags led him to the residence of Renee Rountree, the Journal said. Both were running for a seat on the Isle of Wight County Board of Supervisors in Virginia.

Her son-in-law was charged with a misdemeanor for stealing the property, while Rountree faced a misdemeanor for receiving stolen goods. In a December trial, she noted plans to return the signs. Rountree has since been ordered to 250 hours of community service.

"I would like to think that this will have a huge deterrent effect," the trial's judge said in the court's transcript, quoted by WSJ.

Though the judge was speaking of Rountree, the point outlines another big appeal of AirTags: if thieves know to suspect that a device might be planted on a poster, they might be less inclined to take it.

"It's a lot like when cops mark themselves on Waze," New Jersey deputy mayor Vinny Panico, who tracked a lost poster to a local committeeman's house, told the outlet: "If that slows people down, that slows people down."

Still, AirTags don't solve everything. Lawn posters are still exposed to destruction, with some vandals going as far as to drive over signs they don't like.

But the technology's capabilities have recouped more than just lawn signs. These devices keep track of lost wallets and airline baggage — sometimes when the airline itself can't find it — or let parents keep tabs on their kids.

But criticism has also mounted against the $29 geo-trackers, over fears that they provide a cheap tool for stalkers or abusers. A lawsuit against Apple was filed in 2022 — and in March, a judge denied the firm's motion to dismiss the case.

• Noplace, a new social media app, tops Apple App Store charts this week.
• The app, created by Tiffany "TZ" Zhong, offers a text-based feed for Gen Z users.
• Business Insider spoke with Zhong about building a viral app and the fear of becoming a "fad."

There's a new app in town.

Noplace, a text-based feed that's like if MySpace and Twitter had a Gen Z baby, is dominating the Apple App Store charts this week.

The social media app is the brainchild of 27-year-old serial founder and investor Tiffany "TZ" Zhong, whose tech career took off in her late-teens.

Instead of stressing over carefully curated posts, the app encourages users to share their stream-of-consciousness thoughts directly to the feed. People can also build a customizable color-block profile to display what they're listening to, watching, eating, doing, and feeling.

The app lets you connect with other users based on your common interests — or "stars," as the app calls them. Once you've added your new connections, you can pin your top 10 friends to your profile, and make use of the friends-only feed.

According to its App Store description, it aims to harken back to the social media era before "algos and ads" took over.

It's not Noplace's first time in the spotlight, either. Earlier this year, the app racked up 500,000 people to its pre-release waiting list after building up hype through viral TikToks.

As users grow weary of incumbent social-media giants like Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, new social media platforms have entered the arena, vying for a shot at becoming the new 'it' platform.

In 2020, it was Clubhouse; in 2022, it was BeReal (which was recently sold for 500 million euros); and in 2023, there was a flood of apps from Lapse to ByteDance's Lemon8 that each had their moments in the sun.

"We're all just competing for people's attention, especially Gen Z's attention and time," Zhong told Business Insider.

How to build a viral app

While Noplace had nearly half a million users on its waitlist just last month, the app has been testing for much longer and it even had a different name.

Zhong started testing the app, then called Nospace, in late-2023 with a smaller number of users who would need to wait and receive invite codes to access the app.

"When we started doing wait lists, it was really a way for people to reserve your username," Zhong said. "I wanted people to feel excited and early."

She and her small team of seven continued to test the app in a closed setting, which allowed them to iterate fast, remove unnecessary features, navigate trust and safety, and "double down on the things that are working," Zhong added.

Just as the app was gaining popularity, in April, Zhong was sent a cease and desist letter from another company. Zhong declined to name the company, but one can speculate.

So, Nospace changed its name. It also capitalized on the drama and turned to TikTok to hype up the renaming process. Zhong said they received thousands of submissions until a user of the app suggested Noplace. Users of the app then voted to approve it.

"It was kind of a really fun marketing moment for us and it felt very collaborative," Zhong said. "The vibe is just like … 'no place like home, no place like here.'"

Avoiding being a 'fad' and learning from Big Tech's trials and triumphs

As Zhong built and continues to build Noplace, many of the decisions come directly from user feedback.

"I spend a lot of time talking to them, understanding how they feel about certain features, how they feel about the product, what gets them to spend more time in the app, what they're getting from the app," Zhong said.

She particularly follows the behavior of Noplace's "power users," some of whom even spend between eight and 10 hours on the app, Zhong said.

Her goal from the get-go was "fostering a place where people can express themselves" and find community. And at a time when social media platforms are prioritizing entertainment over social interactions, Noplace feels timely.

Zhong compared her app to incumbents like Twitter, TikTok, and even Reddit: "A lot of it is not oriented toward community and it's more so just consuming content and media. Reddit, for example … it's really good for information. I use it for information, not for connecting with people."

Reddit is an important source of inspiration for Zhong's app as well, since one of Reddit's founders, Alexis Ohanian, has advised Zhong on her app and his firm 776 invested in her previous company, Islands XYZ.

"He's seen how this company has changed over time, but this is also very aligned with his experience at Reddit, and it's been very helpful," Zhong said. Like Reddit, pseudonyms are very common and part of the experience on Noplace.

As Zhong looks ahead, however, she's wary of following in the footsteps of social media giants when it comes to scaling the app and adding more features.

"I want to be very thoughtful about not bloating the app too much," she said. "That's kind of the downfall for a lot of social apps."

Still, Noplace plans to expand its group chat features with AI tools that can help bolster conversations.

And staying relevant, Zhong knows, will be the next test for Noplace.

"The biggest risk being a fad," she said. "It's hard, social apps are an art more than a science. There's not really a clear cut playbook."

• A CEO's post on workplace trust sparked debate on X.
• He advocated for employee trust and autonomy over micromanagement.
• Skillsoft's Koma Gandy emphasizes the importance of trust and empathy in modern workplaces.

A CEO caused a stir on X with a post about the workplace culture he promotes.

Rob Dance, who is the founder of Rock, one of the UK's largest IT consultancies, wrote a list on a whiteboard of things he was "sick of hearing" from his employees.

It included, "Can I leave early today?" "My child is sick, can I rush off?" and "I'll be late in the morning."

Some people responded to the thread, thinking Dance was suggesting he expected his employees to always be at their desks. But that's because they didn't click through to read all his thoughts.

Rather, he was encouraging two-way trust.

"I don't care," Dance wrote. "I hired you for a job and I fully TRUST you to get it done. I don't need you to account for every single hour."

He advised other CEOs to allow their staff autonomy because people "are sick of being treated like children."

Once they read the whole thread, the majority of people who responded agreed with Dance, though others pointed out that his methods may not be applicable to all.

Dance's initial post amassed 14 million views and 52,000 likes.

The 'trust bucket'

Koma Gandy, the VP of business and leadership at Skillsoft, the corporate training platform, says Dance made some good points.

Workplaces are now multi-generational, with Zoomers, millennials, Gen Xers, and boomers, so soft skills such as empathy and transparent communication are more important than ever.

Trust and flexibility are a huge part of building an effective workplace, Gandy said.

In more traditional workplaces, it may be expected that employees are visible, attend all meetings, and work online for a certain number of hours. But according to Gandy, this can perpetuate a toxic cycle of people being "performative" and "bragging" about how busy they are.

"Being busy and effective or not necessarily the same thing," Gandy said. "Your role is not dependent on jiggling a mouse every 10 to 15 minutes because some software is trying to track how busy you are."

Gandy said giving employees the time and space to do their jobs effectively without being micromanaged is like "putting coins in the trust bucket."

"If you're not an empathetic leader, and you're not putting coins in that trust bucket, when the time comes that you're going to need to withdraw, there's going to be nothing in it," she said.

If somebody is struggling or being dishonest about their time, it's likely to become clear in different ways anyway, in their quality of work and performance, she added.

The dangers of undermanaging

Not every employee benefits from having such freedom. Junior staff, in particular, may prefer more structure and guidance on how to manage their time and workload.

There's also a fine line between giving employees more freedom and "undermanaging" their performance.

Kevin Legg, the founder of Sage, a company developing training for workplaces told CNBC in an interview last year that bosses can sometimes fall into that trap of undermanging, which can be just as damaging as micromanaging.

"In the medium term, there is resentment at annual reviews when folks are passed over for promotions because they never lived up to a standard they were never shown," Legg said.

For the most part, however, research seems to back Dance's style of management as being the most effective, as long as employees still have support.

Gartner research from April 2025 found that when employers go big on flexibility — and don't limit it to when and where people work — the share of employees who are "high performers" jumps by 40%.

A mindset shift

Employees will also have to become comfortable with a more trusting dynamic.

Gandy said if someone is used to being micromanaged and overexplaining every hour of the day, they have to "get comfortable" with having downtime in their calendar rather than being in meetings all day, every day.

"You're going to have folks who default to, I'm so busy, I have meetings from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and that means I'm extremely valuable," Gandy said.

"Well, I would also say that means you're extremely stressed, and you're going to burn out," she added. "It's more important to show up and be impactful in specific places than to show up everywhere."

The signs of burnout can start subtly, such as sleeping in too much on the weekend, having a few too many drinks at happy hour, or developing unhealthy eating patterns.

"You don't want somebody who has cardiovascular issues or can't sleep or has an eating problem because of something you could have missed with just a little bit of investment in trust and leadership and empathy to find out what was going on with that person," Gandy said. "Rather than driving to the point where they start adopting destructive behaviors that affect themselves or affect the company."

The benefit of a trusting workplace is a healthier environment with happier, more enthusiastic people, Gandy said.

"Healthier leaders, healthier managers, and healthier organizations," she said. "Why wouldn't we want all that?"