Good news for SoCal lovebirds impatient to reach the spontaneous marriage capital ASAP: Construction on a high-speed rail line connecting the LA area and Vegas kicked off yesterday.

Brightline West, a subsidiary of the company behind the Brightline Miami-Orlando rail link, is undertaking the $12 billion project, hoping to launch service in time for the LA Olympics in 2028.

Billed as “America’s first true high-speed passenger rail system,” Brightline West expects its electric trains to:

• Dash between the LA metro area and Vegas in just over 2 hours, compared with a 4-hour-minimum traffic-troubled drive.
• Carry at least 11 million passengers on the 218-mile journey per year, with 25 trains each way daily.

It’ll be quick: Reaching 186 mph, its locomotives will be the fastest in the country, outspeeding the Amtrak Acela, which maxes out at just over 150 mph on parts of the Northeast Corridor between Boston and DC.

The US plays catch-up

The US has been a slow coach in the high-speed rail department, with just a few hundred miles of tracks that allow for speeds above 100 mph. Meanwhile, in China:

• About 26,000 miles of high-speed rail have been built since 2008, connecting major population centers and remote parts of the country.
• The speed on a 1,050-mile train ride from Beijing to Harbin averaged 211 miles per hour as of 2022, per CNN.

Other countries such as Spain, France, and Japan also have extensive high-speed rail networks that cover much of their territory.

Big picture: Brightline West isn’t the only high-speed train on the way in the US—there are multiple rail projects in the works across the country, including an effort to speed up the Acela and a proposed Houston-Dallas link. But many plans don’t get beyond the blueprint stage, derailed by cost overruns and legal challenges.—SK

Behind every microchip is a truck hauling the precious minerals it’s made of. The mining company that owns this truck pays ~$75k every six months to change the tires.

That’s why Global Air Cylinder Wheels (GACW) created a new wheel to last the vehicle’s lifetime.

Named one of 2023’s best inventions by TIME, the Air Suspension Wheel (ASW) is 100% recyclable, doesn’t overheat, and doesn’t shed rubber. With $3m+ in sales already, this has the potential to make waves across mining, construction, the military, and more.

It’s a $280b global market opportunity for GACW. But you have only the next six days to join them! Become one of GACW’s earliest shareholders by April 29.

The first ever criminal trial of a former US president is underway. Prosecutors kicked off the trial of Donald Trump yesterday by arguing that the ex-president committed election fraud in 2016 by paying off adult film actress Stormy Daniels to bury an embarrassing story about her relationship with him in the lead-up to the vote. Trump’s attorney countered, “There’s nothing wrong with trying to influence an election. It’s called democracy.” The former publisher of the National Enquirer, who allegedly engaged in “catch-and-kill” schemes to hide damaging information about Trump, briefly testified as the first witness in the case, and will continue today.

Columbia took classes virtual amid pro-Palestine protests. Columbia University opted not to have in-person classes yesterday as tensions rose on campus after the arrest last week of more than 100 protesters calling on the school to divest from companies connected to Israel, and Jewish leaders expressed concern for students’ safety following antisemitic incidents near Columbia. It’s not the only Ivy roiled by protests: Police arrested 47 demonstrators supporting Palestine at Yale yesterday. Dozens of protesters were also arrested yesterday at NYU, where a “Gaza Solidarity” encampment had been set up.

SCOTUS appears ready to side with cities regulating homelessness. During oral arguments yesterday, the majority of the high court seemed prepared to allow cities to ban sleeping outdoors in public spaces even if they don’t provide shelter. The case, considered the most important legal battle concerning homelessness in decades, has created unusual political alliances: Some liberal cities have joined with conservative groups as they try to address public encampments. But the justices appeared divided along more typical ideological lines, with the conservative judges seeming more sympathetic to an Oregon city’s argument that local communities should be able to decide how to handle the problem.

After trudging through years of tanking sales that screamed “who want me?,” clothing company Express, which also owns Bonobos and UpWest, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday and announced it’s slimming its in-person presence.

Closing sales begin today at 95 of the 500+ US Express locations and at all 10 UpWest stores. Express will continue to sell online as usual while it prepares for a potential sale to a group of property investment firms led by brand manager WHP Global.

• Express had almost $1.2 billion in debt and $1.3 billion in assets as of March 2 after sustaining multimillion-dollar operating losses from 2020 through 2022.
• Revenue is down ~10% from 2019.

What went wrong? Ever since WFH came to stay, consumers haven’t bought as much of the office formalwear that fills Express racks. The retailer didn’t adapt to the broader “casualization” of fashion, while its competitors did, GlobalData managing director Neil Saunders said. Plus, its clothes just kind of look like…clothes, and fail to stand out, he argued.

Zoom out: A few other retailers have already declared bankruptcy this year, including another Ohio-based store, fabric seller Joann.—ML

The next big thing in outdoor cooking. And yeah, we mean big. The newest addition to the Ooni oven lineup is the supersized Koda 2 Max. This gas-powered oven has a massive 24-inch cooking surface, two independently controlled cooking zones, and a brand-new, Bluetooth-enabled Digital Temperature Hub. What’ll you serve up first?

Faced with rising prices and disappointing shows, an increasing number of Americans are putting “cancel streaming subscription” reminders in their GCal, the NYT reported.

The number of “serial churners,” or cost-savvy customers who hop between streaming services, is on the rise, according to new data from subscription research firm Antenna.

• Nearly 30 million subscribers canceled three or more streaming subscriptions in the last two years. These customers accounted for ~40% of all new subscriptions and cancellations in 2023.
• But that doesn’t mean they’re gone for good: A third resubscribed to the service they canceled within six months.

Big picture: As transient subscribers become the norm, streaming services are scrambling to adapt. The planned joint sports venture from Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery seeks to emulate the success Disney has found from bundling so far. Others are turning to incentives, like Peacock. Right before hosting the NFL playoffs this year, the platform offered new subscribers a one year subscription for half price. The play was successful: The platform scored a big increase in subscribers, but its cancellation rates stayed average.

Meanwhile, at Netflix…which boasts a much lower cancellation rate than any other platform, the company announced last week that it’s going to stop reporting quarterly subscriber numbers, citing engagement as a better metric for success.—CC

Stat: Things are starting to get back to normal for Emirates after it had to cancel hundreds of flights due to flooding from historic rainfall in Dubai, but the airline still has a major organizational challenge ahead of it: It’s got 30,000 pieces of luggage that need to be returned to customers. This goes way beyond just having an Airtag in your bag to help track it down. CEO Tim Clark published a letter over the weekend apologizing to passengers whose plans were disrupted, and said a task force has been assembled to deal with the plethora of left-behind luggage.

Quote: “Things already happen outside regular hours and you need to keep on top of that to some degree—but that’s very different to something happening to, say, Apple at 2am or even 4pm on a Saturday. What do you do then?”

Your day-trader friend who’s always got half an eye on their second monitor when you’re trying to have a conversation could soon become even more distracted. According to the Financial Times, the New York Stock Exchange is polling market participants on whether they’re eager to have 24/7 trading, as the SEC weighs a proposal from startup 24 Exchange to open an all hours exchange. While some may be jonesing to buy stocks at 3am without any of the currently necessary workarounds, one institutional broker told the newspaper that going always on could create staffing headaches.

Read: Historical markers are everywhere in America. Some get history wrong. (NPR)