A soldier from the drone unit of Ukraine's 108th Territorial Defense Brigade.
Anadolu | Getty Images
Russia plans to introduce drone training sessions in schools in occupied parts of Ukraine, reports say.
The courses will cover UAV design features and assembly.
Drones have played a crucial role for both Russian and Ukrainian forces in the war.
Russia will introduce drone training sessions to schools in occupied areas of Ukraine from September, Ivan Fedorov, the Head of Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration, has said.
"On September 1, 2024, a new subject will be introduced in schools in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine — a course on the management of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)," he wrote on Telegram.
"Officially, they may call it 'training,' but in reality, they are preparing young people for murder," he continued, adding that it was "a blatant violation of international law."
It follows a February report by the National Resistance Center of Ukraine, which was set up by Ukraine's Special Operations Forces in the wake of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, which said Russia planned to teach children in Ukrainian territories "technologies, design features and assembly of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for military purposes."
Fedorov said the Russian plan was to send drones and military personnel to schools to assist with the training.
It is not clear if the potential training sessions would be for all children or for specific age groups.
Drones have played a crucial role for both the Russian and Ukrainian militaries in the war so far, and they have been used for a wide variety of operations, including reconnaissance, guiding artillery, and carrying out airstrikes.
Defense One reported that Russia had set up a training center in occupied Ukraine to train both Russian military and civilian drone operators for combat.
Civilians who undergo training at the center in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine do not officially join the military, it noted, citing the Russian newspaper Argumenty i Fakty.
A 2023 report by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab found that at least 6,000 children from Ukraine had been put through what it called Russian "re-education" camps that aimed at making them "more pro-Russia in their personal and political views."
The report said that children at some of the 43 camps had been given firearms training, although there appeared to be no evidence that the children had been sent to fight.
The pandemic housing boom is yesterday's news, along with the intense buying competition it fueled, subdued by a relentless increase in mortgage rates. It means two things for prospective homebuyers: One, more sellers are likely to slash listing prices to attract buyers. Secondly, buyers now hold an advantage over sellers.
In states like Florida and Texas, where an influx of buyers seeking relatively affordable homes and larger living spaces has led to more new home construction than anywhere else in the US, several metros in March saw the highest share of price drops and the softest median sale price growth compared to elsewhere in the country, according to a new report from Redfin.
Eric Auciello, a Redfin sales manager from Florida, said that the price cuts are partly a result of home sellers facing stiff competition from home builders who are offering concessions — such as money for home repairs or mortgage-rate buydowns — to sweeten their deals.
"My advice to sellers is to price your home fairly; the comps from six months ago don't exist now," Auciello said in the Redfin report. "And if you're a buyer, know that the odds of getting an offer accepted below market value are pretty high."
With builders and sellers competing for buyers' attention by offering concessions and slashing prices, there's a growing possibility that homebuyers previously unable to afford a home may now have an opportunity to purchase one this year — and it might already be happening. According to Census Bureau data, new home sales for March 2024 were at 693,000, which is 8.8% above the revised February rate, and 8.3% above the March 2023 estimate.
To calculate which metros have the highest share of sellers reducing list prices, Redfin analyzed home price data from 85 US metros with populations of at least 750,000. Below are the 10 metros with the largest share of price drops in March, according to Redfin. Notably, not all of these metros have experienced median sale price declines; instead, many have observed a softening in price growth.
9. (tie) Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, Florida.
Joe Daniel Price/Getty Images
Percentage of listings with price cuts: 33%
Median sale price March 2024: $315,000
9. (tie) San Antonino, Texas
San Antonio.
Sean Pavone/Getty Images
Percentage of listings with price cuts: 33%
Median sale price March 2024: $269,000
8. Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas.
John Coletti/Getty Images
Percentage of listings with price cuts: 33%
Median sale price March 2024: $339,000
7. Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon.
James Bentley Photography/Shutterstock
Percentage of listings with price cuts: 34%
Median sale price March 2024: $498,750
6. Orlando, Florida
Numerous cities across Florida, Orlando included, are seeing reductions in home listing prices.
Gabriele Maltinti/Getty Images
Percentage of listings with price cuts: 35%
Median sale price March 2024: $395,000
5. Denver, Colorado
Downtown Denver, Colorado.
Kevin Ruck/Shutterstock
Percentage of listings with price cuts: 37%
Median sale price March 2024: $600,000
4. Cape Coral, Florida
Cape Coral, Florida.
Jeffrey Greenberg/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Democratic primary ballots in New Jersey will look quite different this June thanks to a lawsuit from Rep. Andy Kim.
Associated Press; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez/BI
New Jersey is one of the last states in the US with powerful party bosses and political machines.
A key part of that machinery is the Garden State's unusual ballot design.
But a judge blocked it for this year's Democratic primaries, and the change could become permanent.
New Jersey is one of the last places in the country where the phrases "party boss" and "political machine" don't just harken back to a bygone era, but describe a present-day reality.
In the Garden State, getting the endorsement of local party organizations — a process often controlled by political insiders — can make or break a primary campaign, thanks in large part to the way ballots are designed.
But that could all change forever, thanks to a lawsuit filed two months ago by Rep. Andy Kim, the all-but-certain Democratic nominee for Senate in the deep-blue state.
At the end of March, a federal judge sided with Kim, blocking Democrats from using the so-called "county line" system in the state's upcoming June primaries. That's set to bring a stark change to the way ballots look — and potentially, a total overhaul in the state's political culture.
Here's what to know about the "county line" and why it may be going away for good.
How the 'county line' steers votes
49 states use so-called "office-block ballots," in which candidates are simply listed beneath the name of the office they're seeking, without any sort of preferential placement.
That's not how ballots look in most of New Jersey.
"Office block" ballots from Nevada and Delaware.
Kim et al v. Hanlon et al
In all but two of the state's 21 counties (Salem and Sussex), local party organizations are able to place all of their endorsed candidates in a single row or column. If you're not endorsed by the party, your name may appear somewhere off to the side, sometimes referred to as "Ballot Siberia."
You can see it in the example ballot from the 2020 Democratic primary below — Sen. Bernie Sanders is way off to the side, while then-candidate Joe Biden is on the same row as all of the other party-endorsed candidates.
Now, you may be thinking to yourself: Okay, but how does that help cement party control? There's nothing stopping anyone from voting for a candidate who doesn't show up on the line.
A 2020 Democratic primary ballot in Mercer County, New Jersey.
Kim et al v. Hanlon et al
It's true that nothing's stopping people from voting for candidates that don't appear on the line. But it's a psychologically powerful tool, especially in elections where voters may not know very much about the candidates they're electing.
As Kim's lawsuit argues, candidates not endorsed by the party are "harder to find on the ballot, harder to know who they are running against and/or for what office, and may otherwise appear less legitimate on the ballot than the county line candidates."
Kim and his co-plaintiffs also provided proof in the form of academic research showing that candidates earned double-digit advantages when they ran on "the line," and that incumbents running on the line have almost never lost in recent decades.
It all began with Bob Menendez's gold bars and the short-lived primary to succeed him
In September, long-serving Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez was indicted by federal prosecutors in the most cartoonish scandal one could imagine: being accused of accepting bribes in the form of literal gold bars.
Menendez outside of federal court in New York City last month.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Menendez's political career effectively came to an end overnight, and Kim launched a campaign for his Senate seat just days after the indictment.
But Kim quickly became locked in a tough, personal primary with Tammy Murphy, the wife of Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy. Because of the power the governor wields over local officials, Tammy Murphy was expected to earn the endorsement of most county party organizations, putting Kim at a disadvantage when it came to the ballot.
That's what led the congressman to file his lawsuit in February, arguing that the system violated the US Constitution. US District Judge Zahid Quraishi ultimately agreed with Kim and issued a preliminary injunction blocking the system's use in the upcoming primary.
Rep. Andy Kim and New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images
Murphy later dropped out of the race, all but assuring that Kim will win the Democratic nomination on June 4 and likely be elected to the US Senate in November.
The judge's decision, which applies only to Democratic ballots in the upcoming primary, has been upheld by a federal appeals court — and it signals that the old county line system is likely to be invalidated in future elections as another years-old lawsuit against the line continues to play out.
How the change could affect New Jersey politics in the coming years
While the decision means little for Kim at this point — he no longer has a major opponent — it could have a significant impact on other races in New Jersey, both this year and in the future.
Among them is a Democratic House primary between Menendez's son — Rep. Rob Menendez — and Ravi Bhalla, the mayor of Hoboken.
Proponents of the county line system have argued that it allows the party to serve an important gate-keeping function, keeping out ideologically extreme candidates who may lack institutional support.
Detractors point out that the system is anti-democratic, while arguing that it contributes to a culture of in which party bosses and the political establishment wield undue — and even corrupt — power.
"These ballot dynamics have predictable downstream effects that encourage backroom dealings and soft corruption, and they directly threaten election integrity, public confidence in our elections, and the fundamental premise of representative government," Kim's lawsuit argued.
In its absence, New Jersey's elections could begin to resemble those of other states.
"I think you'll see a more candidate-centric politics," said Jersey City Councilman James Solomon, a longtime opponent of the county-line system. "I think there are folks [in elected office in New Jersey] who have genuinely never run a real campaign. They've never had to raise money, they've never had to do field, they've never had to do comms."
Tesla boss Elon Musk (L) walks with Shanghai Mayor Ying Yong during the ground-breaking ceremony for a Tesla factory in Shanghai on January 7, 2019.
STR via Getty Images
Elon Musk visits China to expedite Tesla's full self-driving tech rollout, say reports.
Musk is set to meet with senior Chinese officials.
Tesla faces increased competition and scrutiny amid declining revenue and layoffs.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk touched down in China on Sunday in the tech billionaire's second trip in less than a year to the world's biggest market for electric vehicles.
The purpose of the trip is to hurry along the rollout of Tesla's full self-driving technology, the most advanced version of its Autopilot software, Reuters reported, citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter. Musk is expected to meet with senior officials to discuss the software and gain permission to transfer data overseas, the person said.
Musk also visited China in May last year when he met with China's foreign, commerce and industry ministers. The content of the meetings was not disclosed, though Reuters reported at the time that Musk had discussed the development of electric vehicles.
Earlier this month, Musk said in a post on X that Tesla would be making Full Self-Driving (FSD) available to Chinese customers "very soon."
In an earnings call on April 23, Musk said, "So we plan on, with the approval of the regulators, releasing it as a supervised autonomy system in any market that — where we can get regulatory approval for that, which we think includes China."
Tesla has been facing increased competition from Chinese manufacturers since electric vehicle maker Xpeng said last year that it was upgrading its advanced driver assistance software (FSD equivalent) and planning to make all its functions available to drivers across China by 2024.
Musk's China trip comes after he canceled a visit to India to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Musk said he had "very heavy Tesla obligations."
Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, sent outside regular working hours.
It has been a tough month for the EV manufacturer. In its earnings call last week, Tesla reported its first decline in quarterly revenue since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic caused delays to production and deliveries.
This month, The EV manufacturer said it would lay off 10% of its global workforce as it grappled with waning sales.
US federal safety regulators also said Friday that they were launching an investigation into whether Tesla's recall of more than two million vehicles in the US, which the company announced in December to install new Autopilot safeguards, was sufficient following several crashes.
Shane Guffogg said AI helped him "unlock the musicality" in his paintings.
Soni Mei Images
Shane Guffogg is a multi-media abstract artist with synesthesia, meaning he "hears color."
Guffogg worked with AI experts and musicians to compose music that corresponded with his paintings.
He believes AI is still a tool that "needs oversight" but its enhanced his creative process.
This is an as-told-to conversation with Shane Guffogg, an American artist who launched "At the Still Point of the Turning World – Strangers of Time," an exhibition of 21 paintings at the Venice Biennale earlier this month. This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.
So, what I'm listening to when I paint is important. I listen to Indian classical music, Gregorian chants, and some obscure composers such as Gyorgy Ligeti, Leo Ornstein, and Terry Riley. The music sparks my creativity and allows me to be completely present and in that moment.
For years, I've been preoccupied with what my paintings might sound like. The AI revolution pushed me to search for experts who could help me. My first point of contact was Radhika Dirks, an AI and quantum computing expert. We had a couple of Zoom sessions, and she told me — to the best of her knowledge — that no AI program could help me. Instead, she suggested I create a visual alphabet that matched the musical chords I heard in my mind to colors.
I thought it could be a way to propel my creativity. It also built upon the idea of an unconscious alphabet that has informed my art throughout my career.
I met with musicians and AI experts to create a visual alphabet
I started by looking for musicians to collaborate with and met Anthony Cardella, a young, incredibly gifted pianist in Los Angeles. He's a PhD student at USC and happened to know — and even play — many obscure composers I listen to when I paint.
We started collaborating. We would sit down and examine my paintings together. I would zoom in on a color in Photoshop, look at it, and sensorially feel the musical note. Then I would tell Anthony. I'd say, for example, I think that's the color of the note B. He'd hit the B, and I'd say, "No, that's not it; try a B sharp?" After a few trials, he'd suddenly hit the right notes. I would know because the colors would begin to vibrate for me. Together, we've charted chords that correspond to 40 colors.
Soon after, I met an AI researcher named Jonah Lynch through mutual contacts. He works at the intersection of the digital humanities and machine learning. I invited him over to my ranch in central California and explained the work I had been doing and how I created my paintings. We had long discussions about art, poetry, and creating an AI algorithm that could be fed the chords.
He developed a program to "read'' my paintings and convert them into music. I gave him the main colors I used in each painting and the chords I hear when I see those colors. Jonah watched videos of me painting, studied the movement of my hands, and wrote software that sampled images of the paintings, following my hand movements, and assigned each color sampled from the paintings to its corresponding chord. Then, he fed this sequence of chords into a neural network that has memorized most of the last 500 years of keyboard music. He prompted the network to "dream" of new sequences based on the color-chord sequences and the history of Western music to create pages of sheet music.
When I heard that music played back to me, it brought tears to my eyes. It was just a rough version of what I heard while painting, but I thought, "There it is."
I took the music back to Anthony, the pianist. Amazingly, I could point to the sheet music and tell him what compositions I was listening to while painting, and he'd say, "Yes, I can see it in the chords." The Indian ragas, the Gregorian chants, the Ligeti, and Ornstein — they were all there.
Still, the music was largely a series of chords at that stage. Anthony said we could have melodies if we rearranged it a bit.
AI is still a tool that needs human oversight
Guffogg's piece, Only Through Time Time is Conquered, was the basis for the sonata Cardella played for guests at the Venice Biennale.
Shane Guffogg
We composed music for several paintings and have played it for audiences worldwide. We held a concert last month at the Forest Lawn Museum in Los Angeles, where I also had a few paintings in a show. The audience could look at the paintings while Anthony played, which was a profound experience. A couple of people cried.
At the launch of my latest exhibition during the opening week of the Venice Biennale, Anthony played the world premiere of a sonata he composed inspired by my painting, Only Through Time Time is Conquered, to a live audience. After the performance, I talked to several people, and they said they could see where the colors and the notes met on the painting. It was something they had never experienced.
I know many people are very afraid of AI, and I, too, see it as a tool that needs human oversight. It's not a means to an end. Still, it opened up many possibilities and enhanced my creative process. I don't know if I could have unlocked the musicality in my paintings in a real way without it.
Investors should be wary of coming Fed rate cuts, Black Swan investor Mark Spitznagel warned.
That's because the Fed is only cutting rates in response to a weakening economy, Spitznagel told Reuters last week.
The US could see a recession and major stock crash before rates head lower, he predicted.
Rate cuts by the Federal Reserve may not be the boon investors are hoping for. That's because the Fed is only likely to ease monetary policy when the economy is slammed with a recession and the market is flailing, according to famous "Black Swan" investor Mark Spitznagel.
According to the CME FedWatch tool, investors are expecting one to two cuts to come in 2024, which are expected to be bullish for stocks.
But the only way the Fed will cut rates is if central bankers see a significant weakening in the economy — meaning the US could see a downturn and a market plunge before interest rates come down, Spitznagel warned.
"Be careful what you wish for," Spitznagel told Reuters. "People think it's a good thing the Federal Reserve is dovish, and they're going to cut interest rates … but they're going to cut interest rates when it's clear the economy is turning into a recession, and they will be cutting interest rates in a panicked fashion when this market is crashing."
Most economists think the US is likely to avoid a recession this year, according to a survey conducted by the National Association of Business Economics. But high rates still threaten to spark a downturn by tightening financial conditions for businesses and households. The potential for an economic correction is especially stark when considering the huge amount of debt taken out over the last decade, when interest rates were ultra-low, Spitznagel said.
"This economy is built on low interest rates," he said. "There are lag effects when you reset interest rates like we had."
Spitznagel's hedge fund is known for its ultra-bearish takes on the market, counting "The Black Swan" author Nassim Taleb among its advisors. Both commentators have cast stark warnings for stocks and the economy over the past year, with Spitznagel in particular warning of one of the largest debt bubbles in history, which could spark the worst stock market collapse since 1929.
Universa's investment strategy is poised to gain on seemingly unpredictable Black Swan events. Famously, the fund pulled a 4,144% return on its investments during the pandemic stock crash.
Most forecasters on Wall Street share a cautiously optimistic view of both stocks and the economy for the rest of this year, assuming that inflation continues to trend lower while the economy continues to grow. 38% of investors said they were bullish on stocks over the next six months, according to the AAII's latest Investor Sentiment Survey.
Hello! Apparently, wealthy corporate climbers have a new obsession: a $7,000 chair. The Herman Miller Eames lounge chair and accompanying ottoman have become the pinnacle of status for a certain group of rich, young American men.
Meta: Wall Street may have shown Tesla leniency, but Meta didn't enjoy the same leeway. Despite reporting better-than-expected first-quarter earnings, weak guidance for the second quarter and outsized AI investments spooked investors. Mark Zuckerberg preached patience.
Microsoft: AI spend was also the name of the game at Microsoft. The tech giant pledged to keep investing in the tech as demand for its AI and cloud services continued to rise.
Alphabet: Q1 results blew past expectations, notching a 15% year-over-year revenue bump. Alphabet also issued a $0.20 per share dividend — its first ever — joining its Big Tech peers like Microsoft, Apple, and Meta, in the dividend club.
Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez/BI
How to buy a sports team
Thanks to a rush of billionaires looking to buy teams, investment banks up and down Wall Street are tripping over each other to work on sports deals.
With sports dealmaking on the rise, BI mapped out the top investment bankers — from the bulge brackets to the boutiques — helping steer these deals. The list includes top banks like Goldman Sachs, as well as smaller firms like The Raine Group.
PE firm. New Story has purchased other local school chains, creating what it calls one of the largest special-education companies in the US.
To some, private equity's business model appears antithetical to special education. It's a concept that has former staff, researchers, and US senators worried.
LinkedIn influencers are becoming more popular, with some amassing followings of millions of people. The platform's shift from uncool to in-demand has created a unique opportunity for crafty PR firms.
Some firms are offering executives — or "thought leaders" — ghostwriting and editorial services. In some cases, PR pros manage all aspects of an exec's LinkedIn presence, from writing to analytics.
"I make it a point to visibly leave the office toward the end of the working day and to enforce strict rules around maximum working hours so that employees can enjoy work-life balance."
The Insider Today team: Matt Turner, deputy editor-in-chief, in New York. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Lisa Ryan, executive editor, in New York.
The author is a recent college grad working remotely.
Courtesy of Eibhlis Gale-Coleman
I moved back home after college and started a freelance business from my childhood bedroom.
I love the freedom of remote work, but I worry I'm missing out on the professional world.
This isn't the life I imagined for myself, but I'm making the best of it.
I began writing as a freelance journalist halfway through my degree when I was 20. This was mid-COVID, with the world shut down and lectures online. At the time, it seemed totally logical to build my career remotely. I'd ping off pitches, complete remote internships, and build my portfolio — all from the haven of my childhood bedroom, specifically from bed.
For context, my childhood room has no desk. And with my parents working from home, there was no quiet space to work apart from my bedroom. I'm on the extreme end of the Gen Z remote worker movement; I've quite literally built my career from under my covers.
I sometimes head out to my gym's café or local library and travel lots for work. But overall, you'll find me in that same spot when I'm home. It's comfortable, but I'm missing out on part of the professional world.
I can't deny the positives of my remote, freelance life
As a journalist living in the UK, I could be in a much more difficult financial situation. Luckily, I don't have the expense of living in London, the UK's main hub of journalism, because I live at home with my parents.
There's no doubt that I've saved tons of money. I'm in a stronger financial situation because I've been able to stay outside London, and I've still made some genuinely wonderful long-distance connections.
Secondly, I built my career entirely remotely, so nobody expects me to actually be anywhere. There's no entering negotiations over hybrid work agreements; I've been at my own location of choice from day one. This means I travel when I want and have no tedious commute.
I love the freedom that comes with remote working. In reality, I'm not curled up in a "bed office" all the time. This process has given me the flexibility to pick other unorthodox "offices" all over the world. Perhaps I wouldn't have taken that risk if I'd gone straight for an in-person role.
I have a nagging feeling I'm missing out on a huge part of the professional world
I'm feeling a bit left out of traditional career building, and I'm also feeling a sense of isolation and loneliness. Is it purely fear of missing out or a genuine sense of loss? I'm not too sure.
Gaining professional development and feedback has been an uphill battle; it's easier to learn and improve with that hand-me-down knowledge from senior staff. I missed out on those casually dropped pieces of golden wisdom over coffee breaks and computer screens.
I did manage to secure some great online internships to learn the ropes. But there's no denying that an in-person, full-time role would have been much more rewarding. In-person feedback and presence are just so valuable.
Looking at the abundance of work experience placements and on-the-job staff training available now, I have a slight tinge of regret. I'm also frustrated that I missed so much organic networking and friendship-building.
Networking is important because of how my career has developed
Most recently, I've started consciously trying to dress professionally for myself and work from an outside-my-four-walls location for a few hours a day. That's definitely shifted the loneliness.
I also make a point to attend industry events. I've got to be much more conscious of networking and socializing; otherwise, the days just slip away in my bedroom with no connections to show.
As an introvert, entering those networking events feels even more daunting as I know almost nobody. Instead of having team connections to fall back on, I'm constantly in free fall mode. I've missed out on having that safety net that most professionals develop in the workplace.
It's not the career progression I imagined for myself
Is it what I envisioned as a young teen? Was I scurrying around on coffee runs as I elbowed my way up the journalism ranks? Definitely not. Pinging emails off asking for internships while swinging my legs off my bed has been my reality instead. It didn't mirror that Hollywood trope that every young journalist secretly craves.
I've missed out on all the office dynamics, and there's no denying it; sometimes, staring at a laptop screen alone can feel like Groundhog Day.
Still, I'm grateful for the remote opportunities and freedom my career path has given me. I love jumping straight out of bed, boarding a plane, and sitting on a beach — all within a workday. I just have to remind myself to pencil in some industry events soon so I don't become a total recluse.
Nightly stays in a historic train caboose from the 1970s will be available soon..
Courtesy of Ray and Karen Devite
Real-estate investors Ray and Karen DeVite weren't sure what to do with land they bought in Xenia, Ohio.
One night, Karen spotted a historic 1970s caboose on Facebook Marketplace and got inspired.
Now, the couple is budgeting at least $400,000 to build an Airbnb park for train enthusiasts.
One Ohio couple is all-in on ambitious project to turn historic train cabooses into short-term rental getaways.
Ray and Karen DeVite spoke to Business Insider about the project, which all began with a fateful Facebook Marketplace scroll. The couple had purchased land in Xenia, Ohio with the intention of developing it. One night, Karen was scrolling Facebook and by chance saw an advertisement for a historic train caboose.
"When I put in 'trains', I was just expecting to find some lights or lanterns," Karen told BI. "I sure wasn't expecting to find a full-sized caboose."
Now, the couple has a historic 1970's Chessie System caboose and 1950's Nickel Plate Road caboose, purchased from the same seller they found on Facebook.
The DeVites unknowingly tapped into a massive community of train enthusiasts and have been connected with historic caboose fans through Facebook groups. They're expecting to host many of them once the cabooses are ready for overnight guests by the summer.
For those interested in pursuing similar projects, Ray's advice is to "just go for it."
"You can't anticipate everything, you just learn along the way," he said.
Here's how the project is unfolding:
The DeVites had some experience in real-estate investing, before purchasing a tract of land in Xenia, Ohio — located 20 minutes west of Dayton.
The Chessie System caboose.
Courtesy of Ray and Karen Devite
One night, Karen found a 1970's Chessie System train caboose for sale on Facebook marketplace. Initially, she was just looking for lights.
The Chessie System caboose lifted by a crane.
Courtesy of Ray and Karen Devite
The couple immediately saw the potential for an Airbnb and bought the caboose in October 2023. They also picked up another historic 1950's caboose from the same seller.
The Nickel Plate Road caboose.
Courtesy of Ray and Karen Devite
With two on the lot, the DeVites are now budgeting at least $400,000 to flip and rent out five train cars altogether.
Ray DeVite poses with the Nickel Plate Road Caboose.
Courtesy of Ray and Karen Devite
Renovating has not been easy for the two cabooses, which are around 400 square feet each.
The Xenia, Ohio home of the cabooses.
Courtesy of Ray and Karen Devite
Unexpected costs, like $16,000 for a "tap-in fee" for local water access, have piled up.
The Xenia, Ohio home of the cabooses.
Courtesy of Ray and Karen Devite
But the joy the cabooses bring has been infectious. When they were moved to the property on a tractor trailer, it felt like a special event. "You just don't see a train every day going through your neighborhood," Ray told BI.
The Nickel Plate Road caboose.
Courtesy of Ray and Karen Devite
Xenia is well-known for a network of paved bike trails, so the DeVites also hope to entice bike enthusiasts with the future rentals.
The Chessie System caboose.
Courtesy of Ray and Karen Devite
Renovation is underway in the Chessie System caboose. The DeVites hope to host their first guests this summer.
Inside the Chessie System caboose.
Courtesy of Ray and Karen Devite
The Chessie System caboose includes a coupla, where there will be lofted beds. Stairs are being built into the storage space.
The Chessie Sytems caboose is expected to be completed in a few months.
Courtesy of Ray and Karen Devite
The couple is also trying to keep the cabooses as authentic looking as possible, while updating plumbing, heating, and air. Karen plans to decorate each space with train-themed items.
Mid-progress on the Chessie System caboose.
Courtesy of Ray and Karen Devite
Eventually, the DeVites plan to list the cabooses for $150 to $200 per night on Airbnb.
Updates are being installed daily inside the caboose.
Courtesy of Ray and Karen Devite
The DeVites have already tapped into the train enthusiast community, who are anxious to stay on the premise. Some have already reached out to share their memories of different trains.
Nightly stays in a historic train caboose from the 1970s will be available soon..
Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Donald Trump.
SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images; Dave Sanders-Pool/Getty Images
Mark Meadows has requested Supreme Court to recognize immunity for president's subordinates.
He's criminally charged alongside Trump for a plot to erase Biden's electoral win in Georgia.
One of Trump's own Supreme Court appointees seemed to draw the opposite conclusion.
Before the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in former President Donald Trump's immunity case, Mark Meadows tried to get his foot in the door.
The high court had agreed to decide whether former presidents can enjoy legal immunity from criminal charges for actions taken during their presidency.
Trump hoped that a decision would scuttle the indictment against him over his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election — a result that now seems unlikely, even though the trial will likely be delayed until after the 2024 presidential election.
Meadows, a former Republican member of Congress, served as Trump's chief of staff in the final year of his White House administration. He was criminally charged alongside Trump in a separate case, brought by the Fulton County District Attorney's Office in Atlanta, over a plot to erase now-President Joe Biden's electoral victory in Georgia.
Despite the lower-court losses, Meadows nonetheless asked the Supreme Court to recognize that the president's subordinates should have immunity from criminal prosecution — in both federal or state-level cases — because they were just doing their job by following the president's instructions.
His lawyers said the court should recognize immunity for Meadows even if Trump himself doesn't have immunity.
"If the Court addresses or resolves the question whether a president may act in a non-official capacity while in office and thereby lose the protection of presidential immunity, the Court should make clear that its ruling does not reach the conduct of subordinate federal officials who, like Meadows, generally assisted the former President as part of their federal roles," his lawyers wrote in an amicus brief to the Supreme Court.
A Trump appointee had the opposite approach
In Thursday's hearings, the Supreme Court didn't directly take up the issue.
But Justice Neil Gorsuch — a Trump appointee to the court — seemed to draw the opposite conclusion.
In a series of questions to Trump's lawyer, John Sauer, Gorsuch indicated he believed that subordinates' liability was a helpful deterrent that would thwart presidents from committing crimes.
"If the president gives an unlawful order, call in the troops, all the examples we've heard, every subordinate beneath him faces criminal prosecution, don't they?" Gorsuch asked Sauer.
Sauer, citing historical arguments from the Constitutional Convention, agreed that "co-agitators" of the president "could be prosecuted" as long as the conduct fit a criminal statute.
"Oh, we've got lots of statutes," Gorsuch replied. "The criminal law books are replete. But, I mean, do you agree, is that one check that's available?"
As the thinking goes: Because the president's employees don't want to go to jail, it's hard for presidents to commit crimes, because their subordinates would refuse to do their unlawful bidding.
"The idea is, generally, if a president is doing something criminal, they're doing it through some kind of principal-agent relationship, they're not doing the deed themselves," Anthony Michael Kreis, a Constitutional law professor at Georgia State University, told Business Insider. "And so probably more often than not, there's going to be some kind of conspiracy-based crime."
George Terwilliger, an attorney representing Meadows, told Business Insider that Gorsuch was speaking about "orders from the president that could be discerned as unlawful on their face," which he said wasn't relevant to the amicus brief.
He pointed to another exchange from the hearing between Justice Department lawyer Michael Dreeben and a different Trump appointee, Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Barrett said a potential form of immunity could protect former presidents from state prosecutions rather than leaving too much discretion at the hands of the Justice Department.
"A lot of the protections that you're talking about are internal protections that the federal government has, protections in the Department of Justice, which obviously are not applicable at the many, many, many, many state and local jurisdictions across the country," Barrett said.
Donald Trump and Neil Gorsuch.
Carolyn Kaster/AP
The issue came up a few other times in Thursday's hearing — all in instances where the justices seemed unsympathetic to the idea that government employees would have immunity for breaking the law.
Justice Samuel Alito, another conservative appointee, said that SEAL Team Six would be "bound" by military rules "not to obey unlawful orders."
"One might argue that it is not plausibly legal to order SEAL Team Six — and I don't want to slander SEAL Team Six because, seriously, they are honorable," Alito said.
Fulton County prosecutors have alleged that Trump, Meadows, and more than a dozen other political allies played parts in a far-reaching conspiracy to convince Georgia state officials to hand Trump a false victory in the 2020 election.
The indictment specifically alleges that Meadows met with Georgia state and Republican party officials and Trump campaign lawyers while planning to stop the certification of Biden's win.
On one day, Meadows even traveled to Georgia to observe an audit even though the process was closed to the public, according to the indictment. A few days later, he texted an election official offering the assistance of the Trump campaign, the indictment says.
In the US Constitution, the president has no role in certifying electoral votes. And by appearing to act on behalf of the Trump campaign — rather than the White House — Meadows appeared to be acting in a private capacity rather than in his role as chief-of-staff, Kreis said.
Kreis told Business Insider that Meadows's request for "trickle-down immunity" was inconsistent with precedent, and with past cases where employees in the Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan administrations have been criminally convicted for actions they took while in office.
"I think as a society generally, too, we don't find it consistent with the rule of law to just say, 'I was just following orders, I didn't know,'" he said. "That's just not consistent, again with the rule of law, but it's also not consistent with past practices in history."