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Good morning. For the US Postal Service, your dog protecting its home turf against mail carriers is no joke. This weekend the USPS kicked off National Dog Bite Awareness Week to…raise awareness around aggressive dogs going after the people who deliver your mail. The USPS said that dogs attacked more than 5,300 of its employees while delivering the mail last year, with Houston, LA, Dallas, and Cleveland recording the most incidents.

Neal Freyman

MARKETS: YEAR-TO-DATE

Nasdaq

13,240.77

S&P

4,282.37

Dow

33,762.76

10-Year

3.699%

Bitcoin

$27,204.60

Oil

$71.87

*Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 1:00am ET. Here's what these numbers mean.

  • Markets: With the debt ceiling crisis averted, strong jobs numbers, and the AI hype cycle at fever pitch, the tech-heavy Nasdaq clinched its sixth-straight winning week last week—its longest weekly win streak since 2020. But some investors think this rally could crack like a hard-shell taco. Bearish bets on the stock market from hedge funds and other speculators are at their highest levels since 2007, the WSJ reported.
  • Energy: In a surprise move, major oil exporter Saudi Arabia announced it would cut production even more to boost oil prices that have been sagging hard under the gloomier economic outlook. Gotta pay Ronaldo, Benzema, and (maybe) Messi somehow…
 

SPORTS

Should taxpayers pitch in for a new Vegas stadium?

Las Vegas skyline Ethan Miller/Getty Images

That’s the thorny question Nevada’s lawmakers could answer as soon as today, as they decide whether to offer up to $380 million in public funds to help build a baseball stadium in Las Vegas for the Athletics.

How we got here: The A’s want to move to Vegas from Oakland, where an embarrassing <9,000 people watch their games at an antiquated stadium on the East Bay. But, like many other sports clubs in the past few decades, the A’s want relocation assistance: They’re asking for tax credits and bonds from Nevada to help foot the bill for their planned $1.5 billion, 30,000-seat stadium in Vegas.

Whether or not to fork over the money has divided various groups in Nevada, which relies on tourism and entertainment for a disproportionate share of its economy.

  • Business interests, including the influential Culinary Union, say the baseball stadium could create jobs and get more tourists to spend on the Strip before and after games. Nevada’s GOP Gov. Joe Lombardo is also in support.
  • Opponents say the public would benefit more if the $380 million were spent on basically anything other than a baseball stadium for a team owned by the billionaire heir to the founders of Gap.

For economists, the debate is settled

Roger Noll, professor emeritus of economics at Stanford who studies stadium financing, told the AP that new sports stadiums do not typically boost residents’ incomes and that there is “no serious contrary view” among his colleagues. For the incentives to be justified, Noll said the Las Vegas Athletics would need to attract a whole lot of new people from outside the region—something he doesn’t see happening for a baseball team in a city already bursting with entertainment options (like the Golden Knights playing for the Stanley Cup, for example).

Big picture: This consensus from economists hasn’t stopped governments from continuing to fund stadiums. In recent years, public financing has been approved for the new homes of the Buffalo Bills and the Tennessee Titans, while Nevada pitched in $750 million to bring the Raiders from Oakland to Vegas.

     

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WORLD

Tour de headlines

F-16 aircraft are seen above the US Capitol building after a flyby over Nationals Park stadium in Washington, DC on March 30, 2023 F-16s fly over the Capitol building earlier this year. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

Sonic boom from fighter jets rocks DC. People around the nation’s capital were shocked to hear a mysterious “boom” sound yesterday at about 3:10pm. Turns out the source was F-16 fighter jets traveling at supersonic speeds to intercept a Cessna aircraft that was not responsive. That private plane crashed in Virginia about 20 minutes after the boom was heard. As of last night, authorities did not know why the pilot was unresponsive or how many people were on board.

Signal error blamed for Indian rail disaster. The crash that killed 275 people and injured hundreds more on Friday night was caused by an error in the electronic signal system, officials said. The system mistakenly guided a passenger train to travel along a track that made it collide with a freight train and derailed cars from that passenger train rolled over to another track, causing a second passenger train to derail. India will conduct a full investigation into how this happened, and the stakes are high: About 22 million people ride trains in India per day, according to the AP.

A Utah school district banned the best-selling book of all time. The Davis School District in Utah is removing the King James Bible from its elementary and middle schools after a parent complained it was too violent and vulgar to be read by children. It might not stop there: On Friday, another parent from the same school district issued a complaint about the Book of Mormon, which is a religious text of Utah’s own Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Last year, the state’s GOP government passed a law that bans “pornographic or indecent” books in schools.

ENTERTAINMENT

Directors make peace with Hollywood studios

Screengrab of a director's clapper from the Disaster Artist The Disaster Artist/A24

Even as the Hollywood writers strike grinds on, the folks who put their words into Action! agreed to a tentative contract agreement with the major studios.

The Directors Guild of America, the union representing film and TV directors, said it inked a “historic” three-year contract with producers that addresses some of their biggest concerns.

  • AI: The labor deal asserts that generative AI is not a person (huge) and that it cannot replace guild members’ responsibilities.
  • Gun safety: The contract bans live ammunition on set following the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during the filming of Rust in 2021.
  • Residuals: Foreign residuals—a type of royalty that’s been eroded in the streaming era—will get a 76% bump for the biggest streaming services.

The Guild and its negotiating leaders framed the contract as a big win for directors that gives them “unprecedented gains.” The union members will show whether they concur when they vote on the proposed contract tomorrow.

Big picture: The agreement with the directors resolves just one of three high-stakes labor negotiations in Hollywood right now. As you know, more than 11,000 writers have been striking for five weeks, and actors will also vote on whether to authorize a strike by 5pm PT today.

     

FROM THE CREW

The Crew

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CALENDAR

The week ahead

Tim Cook waving and saying thank you Apple via Giphy

WWDC: Apple will make its splashy entrance into the metaverse at its annual WWDC conference today. It’s expected to reveal its mixed-reality headset, as well as other updates such as iOS 17 and new Mac laptops.

They’re running: Former VP Mike Pence and former NJ Gov. Chris Christie, both Republicans, are expected to launch their campaigns for the White House this week. The GOP field also includes former President Trump (the current favorite for the nomination), Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

Sports: The NBA and NHL finals roll on, Manchester City goes for the treble in the Champions League title game on Saturday, but the most exciting sports action of the week might be the men’s and women’s College World Series tournaments. Throw those on the telly if you haven’t yet.

Everything else…

  • Tomorrow is the 79th anniversary of D-Day.
  • Prince Harry is expected to testify in his tabloid trial tomorrow, becoming the rare royal to take the witness stand.
  • The gang’s back with the 16th season of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia on Wednesday.

GRAB BAG

Key performance indicators

Taylor Swift performing Kevin Winter/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management

Stat: It could be cheaper for someone in Los Angeles to go to a Taylor Swift concert in Buenos Aires, Argentina, than in…Los Angeles. Swift announced on Friday that she’s adding shows in Latin America to her Eras Tour, and in Buenos Aires, where inflation is raging at more than 100%, some standing-room-only tickets are going for about $153, per Bloomberg. Meanwhile, the cheapest ticket on SeatGeek for Swift’s LA shows in August is more than $1,500. With round-trip plane tickets from LAX to Buenos Aires at ~$800 in November, the math kinda checks out.

Quote: “Unconstitutionally vague and substantially overbroad.”

US District Judge Thomas Parker ruled that Tennessee’s law restricting drag shows—the first of its kind in the US—was unconstitutional. Judge Parker, who was appointed by former President Trump, said that sexually explicit material is protected under the First Amendment, as is any artistic, scientific, or political speech. An example he cited: a woman imitating Elvis could be penalized under the law as a “male impersonator.”

Read: A catatonic woman awakened after 20 years. Her story may change psychiatry. (Washington Post)

NEWS

What else is brewing

  • Chuck Todd said he will step down as host of Meet the Press on NBC in September. Kristen Welker, the network’s co-chief White House correspondent, will replace him.
  • Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched in Poland against the government, which they say is pushing the country toward autocracy.
  • Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse grossed an impressive $120.5 million in its North American opening weekend. That’s the second-best domestic release of the year.
  • Hong Kong police detained pro-democracy activists marking the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. Hong Kong used to be the only city in China where remembrances were allowed…but no longer.
  • Eggs are going on sale. Wait, what?

RECS

Monday to-do list image

The self-help SparkNotes: Here are the condensed lessons from every self-help book.

Elevate your picnic game: These are the plates, bowls, and cups for your next grassy meal.

For the cat owners: Here are the 13 signals you need to know to understand what’s going on in your cat’s furry head.

Jaw-dropping music skills: Watch this guy play one lick on 100 different instruments. The fact that he owns all of them might be more impressive.

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GAMES

The puzzle section

Turntable: The rules of this game are simple—from the given letters, discover as many words as possible that are four or more letters long. Find the 38 words in today’s Turntable here.

What’s the link?

A list of WWE personnel
Donald Trump
Jesus
ATP Tour records
George W. Bush
A list of current UFC fighters
United States

What do these things have in common?

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AROUND THE BREW

The IT factor in healthcare

The IT factor in healthcare

Compliance and InfoSec will take the spotlight at our free virtual IT Brew event on June 21. Get the details here.

Enroll in our Financial Forecasting sprint kicking off today. You’ll learn how to make a company budget for the rest of the year and other valuable modeling skills.

Couldn’t get a ticket to Apple’s WWDC23? Subscribe to Tech Brew to learn how top tech companies like Apple are exploring the AR/VR space.

ANSWER

They are among the top 10 most-edited Wikipedia articles.

         

Written by Neal Freyman

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