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washingtonpost.com
My travel hack saves so much time and stress — I never have to look at airport screens
The cyber-savvy millennial even gave online audiences a glimpse at how well her hack works, demonstrating the easy breeziness of accessing traveling info for her upcoming jaunt.
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nypost.com
Jenny McCarthy Recalls Playboy Parties Filled With Ugly Men “Over 70 Years Old” On ‘WWHL’: “Viagra Central”
"There were only hot women and the ugliest dudes," McCarthy said.
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nypost.com
Expert on essential tips for a financial spring cleaning
With the arrival of spring, it's the perfect time to declutter your finances and address pressing financial matters. CBS News business analyst Jill Schlesinger offers expert advice on how to refresh and organize your financial life.
cbsnews.com
Pollen-proof your home this allergy season with these 8 simple steps
Sneeze season is upon us, much to the dismay of allergy sufferers. “Transforming your home into a pollen-free safe place is not just about cleanliness; it’s about creating a lifestyle that prioritizes your wellbeing, especially during peak allergy seasons."
nypost.com
Tom Cruise flashes muscular abs while hanging out at Hollywood landmark
Tom Cruise showed off his muscular abdominal muscles while on location at the iconic Hollywood sign on the Santa Monica Mountains in Los Angeles.
foxnews.com
Ukraine Fightback Forces Thousands of Kids to Evacuate Inside Russia
Belgorod Regional Governor TelegramA region of western Russia on the border with Ukraine is evacuating around 9,000 children after a series of shelling and missile attacks which have been blamed on Kyiv, an official announced.Vyacheslev Gladkov, the governor of the threatened Belgorod region, said the children would be moved further to the east away from the border. The decision comes amid constant attacks in the area, where anti-Kremlin Russians have also recently attempted to make armed incursions into Russia.A total of 16 people have been killed and another 98 wounded throughout the region this week, Gladkov said, according to the BBC. Students were kept home from school on Monday and Tuesday in Belgorod City while shopping centers were also ordered to close on Sunday and Monday. The first cohort of 1,200 children are set to be evacuated on Friday.Read more at The Daily Beast.
thedailybeast.com
IDF officer thought to be held hostage by Hamas actually killed by terrorists on Oct. 7: officials
Cpt. Daniel Perez was killed while serving as a platoon commander in the 7th Armored Brigade’s 77th Battalion.
nypost.com
Mom who left toddler home alone to starve to death while she vacationed for 10 days learns her fate
A judge told Kristel Candelario that unlike her daughter, she will be fed and given water in prison.
nypost.com
Uber-style pricing is coming for everything
The fast food chain Wendy’s recently came under fire for plans to charge fluctuating prices based on demand, but much of our economy already uses dynamic pricing. | Getty Images More and more industries are adopting “dynamic pricing” — and consumers aren’t happy. In the future, the ideal time to eat a burger won’t be when you’re hungry and really hankering for one. It’ll be the oddest, most awkward hours — late mornings or afternoons, the middle of the night on a Tuesday — the slices of time when prices will be lowest. Not unlike your Uber ride, fast food prices will go up or down depending on demand. At least, this is the world people imagined when fast food chain Wendy’s revealed it would be tinkering with “dynamic pricing,” a broad term that describes any strategy where prices fluctuate based on supply and demand — like flights and Uber rides. The uproar was swift and sonorous; Wendy’s tried to clarify that it would use the strategy to offer lower prices, not to raise them when traffic is highest, but the reputational damage was done. In countless headlines, Wendy’s was accused of using surge pricing on food at a time when steep food prices at both restaurants and grocery stores have left many people drastically tightening their belts. Above all, the Wendy’s fiasco also highlights an uncomfortable truth: It feels impossible to know what to expect to pay for anything. There are a lot of reasons for this — inflation, hidden fees, tipping creep — but one simple one is that we’ve been in the trenches of dynamic pricing for a long time. Between flights, hotels, concerts, car insurance, electricity, gas, Ubers, and online retailers like Amazon, many sellers adjust their prices using the trove of data at their fingertips to predict what people might pay at any given moment. Restaurants are just dipping their toes in an arena that Amazon and Uber seem to have perfected. A history of how prices are decided For most of human history, buying or selling anything involved the dance of haggling. Americans abandoned the practice in part thanks to the Quakers, who thought it was immoral that some people paid more for the same thing than others. Fixed prices were transparent and fair. Then, as an episode of NPR’s Planet Money explains, the boom of huge department stores in the late 1800s made it cumbersome to individually parley over thousands of items — so the price tag was born. Of course, prices on these tags still changed from time to time. But it was a laborious process; employees would spend their shift placing new price stickers on every item, the paper price labels on shelves would have to be manually replaced, and in the case of restaurants, menus would have to be reprinted. Still, there has long been experimentation in adjusting prices for supply and demand, to capture gaps in profit that merchants suspected they might be missing out on. In 1999, for example, Coca-Cola tested (but did not roll out) vending machines whose prices would rise as the temperature did. “In my classes, we call it ‘perfection pricing,’” says Stephen Zagor, a Columbia University business professor with expertise in the restaurant and food sectors. “It’s a model that obviously has been around for a while in lots of different forms.” The age of Big Data put dynamic pricing into hyperdrive, unlocking more granular, speedier price changes. “It can be done on a very, very microscopic basis,” says Zagor. Different stores in different parts of a single city can use two separate pricing strategies based on the demographic data the company has. Amazon, for example, reportedly changes prices millions of times per day, with the average product’s price shifting every 10 minutes. The FTC, which sued the e-commerce giant last year accusing it of being an illegal monopoly power, alleges that Amazon used an algorithm to test whether competitors would match the company’s price increases on certain products and keep their own price high if they did match. The FTC estimates that Amazon made about an extra $1 billion in revenue through this automated pricing process. Amazon has said that it no longer uses the algorithm and that it was a brief experiment to see whether its price-matching system could lead to unsustainably low prices. (Over a decade ago, Amazon’s algorithm did go haywire and priced a book at almost $24 million.) “I think that you see dynamic pricing in places where you also see a lot of market power,” says Ron Knox, a senior researcher and writer at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Amazon has so much pricing power in part because it’s “one of the world’s best collectors of consumer data.” A glance at a product’s price history on Camelcamelcamel, a site that tracks price changes on Amazon’s marketplace, shows just how volatile the shifts can be. In extreme cases, it can rise to the level of price gouging; during the Covid-19 lockdowns, Amazon came under fire for price hikes upward of 400 percent on essential items. The price of a pack of 50 disposable face masks on the site went up a massive 1,000 percent, according to a report from Public Citizen. Price gouging isn’t unique to online marketplaces, but the ease and fine-grained detail with which online stores can adjust what they charge has turned the price tag into a more amorphous concept. The wide-ranging spectrum of dynamic pricing we deal with today is only possible in an era when incredible amounts of data can be harvested and analyzed rapidly. Car insurance companies like Progressive or Root now offer a smartphone app to measure how well you drive, giving you a personalized rate based on that. We’ve known for a long time that consumers predicted to be higher spenders — derived from signs like whether they’re using an expensive iPhone or a cheaper Android, a spendy MacBook or a more affordable PC laptop — see different, pricier options at the top when searching for things like flights or hotel rooms. A study published in a Belgian newspaper last year claimed that the Uber app displayed higher prices if a customer’s phone’s battery was low, though Uber has denied the charges. A lawsuit filed against DoorDash last year argued that it charged higher fees to iPhone users, which, again, the company denies. The issue is that in many cases, consumers have little clarity on what pricing algorithms involve. While consumers understand that businesses want and need to make money, “What people don’t like is opacity,” says Erin Witte, director of consumer protection at the Consumer Federation of America. The process of arriving at the price you see — which may be different than what a neighbor sees — is a confusing black box. When dynamic pricing comes for your food That price swings that are commonplace for flights are being applied to food is a hard pill to swallow for many reasons. While flights and concert tickets have a limited supply of seats, fast food doesn’t have such obvious supply constraints, so charging by demand feels even more alien. Then there’s the fact that food is also a daily necessity, one that has already become magnitudes more expensive in the last few years. Overall, between January 2020 and January 2024, food away from home prices rose almost 28 percent. Fast food meals in that period rose almost 30 percent. In just 13 months between late 2021 and late 2022, Wendy’s raised prices by 35 percent, according to the restaurant price data platform Pricelisto. The average price of its menu right now is $6.03, more expensive than Taco Bell, McDonald’s, and Starbucks, though cheaper than Burger King’s average of $7.44. Last year, Wendy’s profits rose by 8 percent over the previous year. Bruce Bennett/Getty Images From 2021 to 2022, Wendy’s average menu price went up by about 35 percent, according to restaurant price data platform Pricelisto. It’s possible that the spread of dynamic fast food pricing is being hastened by the understandable grumbling over prices. “There are people who eat in fast food restaurants because it’s basically all they can afford,” says Zagor. It’s not just Wendy’s. The entire fast food industry is “struggling with managing value perception for the people who are going to spend the least,” says Zagor. Charging different prices at different times of the day could drive more customers to their restaurants and drive-thrus without having to bring regular prices back down. After all, fast food prices already vary depending on menu item, as well as by region and city. (A Dave’s Single burger in a location in Dublin, Ohio — where the company is headquartered — is $5.49 before tax, compared to $6.99 at a New York City location.) Recently, several fast food chains, including Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, have reported stalling sales possibly due to price increases. Fast food revenue has gone up in the last few years as many chains have been charging more and more, but traffic still hasn’t quite recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Fast casual and fast food joints have been especially struggling to regain lunchtime visits in certain regions, such as in major cities whose downtown commercial centers are no longer buzzing with office workers. In New York, lunchtime restaurant transactions were down 23 percent in spring 2023 compared to early 2019, according to a report from the reservation platform Toast. Variable pricing for food also isn’t new to the restaurant industry, particularly in fine dining where eating is more about the experience of high-quality food and ambiance than it is about filling caloric needs, as fast food is more likely to be. More so than fast food, dynamic pricing is “very likely to come around to table service restaurants,” says Zagor, not only for the food itself but even for the tables. Reservations for the best seat in the establishment at primetime on a Friday or Saturday, for example, could come at a higher cost than a midday reservation during the week. Dynamic pricing could even come to grocery stores as more US retailers install electronic shelf labels that allow merchants to effortlessly tweak prices for thousands of products. The price of price volatility The uproar over Wendy’s dynamic pricing plans underscores not just the public anger over higher food costs, but also that framing can make all the difference when it comes to consumer psychology. Call it a happy hour, a Tuesday-night special on chicken wings, there isn’t a controversy — but a “dynamic” price, or even worse, a “surge” price, is immediately inflammatory, even though the truth is that “the moment you bring a price down, it means there’s a price that is lower and one that’s higher,” says Marco Bertini, a marketing professor at ESADE Business School in Barcelona. “It’s a tricky way of saying exactly the same thing.” But psychologically, this semantic trick is pretty important. Otherwise, the imagination runs wild with scenarios of nervously sweating in a long line, glancing at the price of french fries on the digital menu ticking up. Better yet, experts say, fast food companies will probably continue injecting heaps of data into algorithms that identify which menu items could use a bump at a particular time of day, but package them as serendipitous promos and discounts — not as a standing lower price offered at off-peak hours. After Wendy’s landed in hot water, competitors came out of the woodwork swearing they would never do such a thing. Burger King even offered a promo for a free burger that it called “No Urge to Surge.” Dynamic pricing today may be unavoidable, but what consumers crave is a baseline of stability and clarity on how much we’re paying and why. There’s something unshakably disorienting about prices changing so quickly and finding our wallets beholden to a set of algorithms we’re not privy to. “It gives the feeling that we’re being manipulated a little bit more than we think we need to be,” says Zagor. Dynamic pricing, with the speed and detail with which it’s utilized today, allows businesses to optimize prices — for businesses, it can eliminate a lot of the uncertainty over whether they’re getting maximum profit. But that can come at the expense of more uncertainty for consumers. “We have this tension between ultimate efficiency for a business and consumer fairness,” says Witte. People are more accepting of shifting prices if they feel they can game the algorithm a bit too, like knowing what driving behaviors can impact my car insurance rate. But if they have no control over the prices they’re offered, either because the rules of the algorithm are unclear or because they’re being charged more for an aspect of their life that they can’t change — like paying a higher price for an Uber due to a nasty storm — that’s a lot more frustrating. The uncertainty consumers feel with dynamic pricing isn’t just about how much they’re paying; it’s “uncertainty about what others are paying,” says Bertini. What if others are getting a better deal than me? The beauty of the price tag was that it eliminated such anxieties. But it’s unlikely that dynamic pricing in the food industry will be shoved back into Pandora’s box. No matter what you call it, you should be sure to always double-check the price tag.
vox.com
Biden fails to acknowledge Hunter's out-of-wedlock daughter during Women's History Month event at White House
President Biden failed to acknowledge Navy Joan Roberts, the estranged daughter of his son Hunter Biden, during remarks at a Women's History Month event at the White House.
foxnews.com
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle subtly demoted on Buckingham Palace website
The Sussexes awoke on Tuesday to their profiles sitting all the way at the bottom of the royal webpage that lists all of the members of the Firm.
nypost.com
Ariana Grande se divorcia oficialmente de Dalton Gomez
Ariana Grande y Dalton Gomez están divorciados.
latimes.com
‘Sister Wives’ star Garrison Brown’s sister Madison details his mental health struggles before suicide: ‘It wasn’t a lack of love’
"Mental health is so important, and I don't think we talk about it enough, and I don't think we do enough to bring awareness," Madison said on Instagram.
nypost.com
Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul: El circo boxístico y las reglas falsas que inundan las redes
Jake Paul negó rotundamente reportes de las supuestas reglas para su combate contra el legendario Mike Tyson, que incluye un ‘tag team’ con su hermano Logan.
latimes.com
Over-the-counter birth control pills are now available in the US and online
Online sales for Opill, a progestin-only pill (POP), began Monday, and so far the estrogen-free pills are available to purchase on Amazon and directly from Opill.com.
nypost.com
Brooklyn Beckham's Father-in-Law Backs Trump
Nelson Peltz told the "Financial Times" of his vote in the upcoming election: "It will probably be Trump and I'm not happy about that."
newsweek.com
House Republicans to introduce bill ending federal funding for medical schools with DEI, 'race-based mandates'
House Republicans are sponsoring the EDUCATE Act, which aims to eliminate federal funding, including student loans, for medical schools with DEI practices.
foxnews.com
Belgorod Video Shows Russian Village Ravaged by Strikes: 'Not Habitable'
The clip shows huge destruction in the village, days after Kyiv-aligned volunteer military units launched an incursion.
newsweek.com
Spotify pagó 9.000 millones de dólares en regalías en 2023. Esto es lo que impulsó el crecimiento
Spotify pagó el año pasado 9.000 millones de dólares en derechos de autor por streaming el año pasado, según dijo el martes el gigante del streaming en su reporte “Alto y Claro”.
latimes.com
A Better Tax Code Is Possible If We Demand It
If we really wanted a people-focused tax code, there are a few things we could implement right now. 
newsweek.com
'Big puppy dogs' or 'burglars'? A town braces for hungry bears awakening from hibernation
Pine Mountain Club residents brace for hungry black bears emerging from hibernation. Tensions arise as some seek coexistence, while others want eradication.
latimes.com
How to bet on March Madness | 2024 NCAA Tournament guide
Our betting expert teaches you how to bet on March Madness in 2024 so you can wager on your favorite teams throughout the highly anticipated NCAA tournament.
nypost.com
Cat Has Unexpected Reaction After Brother Missing for 2 Weeks Is Back Home
The cat owner told Newsweek: "Their strong bond has always been evident since they were kittens."
newsweek.com
Remains of WWII soldier ID'd 8 decades after he was killed
Officials have identified the remains of Noah C. Reeves, a U.S. Army soldier killed in action in 1944.
cbsnews.com
Satellite Photos Show Locations of China's Aircraft Carriers
China's three aircraft carriers, Liaoning, Shandong and Fujian, were captured in satellite imagery shared online.
newsweek.com
Angel Reese fumes over ‘weird’ AI photos of herself ahead of March Madness
LSU women's basketball forward Angel Reese shared a concerning message about the creation of alleged fake AI photos of her.
nypost.com
Oprah Winfrey opens up about using weight-loss medication in new TV special
In a heartfelt return to prime-time, Oprah Winfrey confronts the complex issues of obesity and the associated shame, sharing her personal journey with weight and discussing the impact of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic.
cbsnews.com
Aileen Cannon Removal Calls Grow Over Latest Filing
The judge in Donald Trump's classified documents trial has long faced criticism for her rulings in the federal case.
newsweek.com
Israel’s military says its forces are still operating at Al-Shifa Hospital.
nytimes.com
Monday's high school baseball and softball scores
Monday's Southern California high school baseball and softball scores.
latimes.com
Pro-Trump Lawyer Stefanie Lambert Responds to Dominion Leak Claims
Attorney charged with tampering with voting machines was using confidential information obtained in a defamation case, Dominion's lawyers claim.
newsweek.com
Jam Master Jay's sons talk about verdict in father's murder
The children of late Run D-M-C star DJ Jam Master Jay are speaking out for the first time since two men were convicted last month of murdering their father more than 20 years ago. CBS New York anchor Maurice DuBois spoke to them at "Scratch DJ Academy," which was co-founded by their father.
cbsnews.com
What Happens If Trump Can’t Get a Half-Billion-Dollar Bond?
Donald J. Trump’s lawyers told a judge that their client could not come up with collateral that would stave off efforts to collect a $454 million judgment. He has six days left.
nytimes.com
Bernie Sanders Changing an 84-Year Trend Gets Support From Republicans
A new poll found that 4 in 10 Republicans support Sanders' bill to change working hours for millions of Americans.
newsweek.com
WWE needs to look in the mirror after AEW’s star-studded free agency haul
AEW was the clear winner in pro wrestling free agency and WWE shouldn’t take that lightly.
nypost.com
Trump sues ABC News, George Stephanopoulos for defamation
Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, is suing ABC's "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos and ABC News for defamation over his interview with Rep. Nancy Mace.
foxnews.com
Donald Trump's Right Leg Prompts Speculation
"Something is definitely going on with his right leg. He's been dragging it for months," Trump critic Ron Filipkowski said online.
newsweek.com
New Kate Middleton Picture Editing Scandal
A Kate Middleton photograph of her children with Queen Elizabeth II has been doctored, according to a picture agency.
newsweek.com
Over 450 Jewish Hollywood creatives denounce Jonathan Glazer’s ‘Zone of Interest’ Oscars speech in open letter
"We refute our Jewishness being hijacked for the purpose of drawing a moral equivalence between a Nazi regime that sought to exterminate a race of people, and an Israeli nation that seeks to avert its own extermination," the open letter read.
nypost.com
Konstantin Koltsov, former NHL player and boyfriend of tennis star Aryna Sabalenka, dead at 42
Konstantin Koltsov, a former Pittsburgh Penguins forward and boyfriend of tennis star Aryna Sabalenka, has died, the NHL team said. He was 42.
foxnews.com
Equinox myths debunked — from eggs to equal night and daylight
Because the spring equinox equates to the first match strike of fiery Aries season, there's plenty of smoke around the myth and meaning of this day of days.
nypost.com
When will mortgage refinancing be worth it again? Here's what experts say
Mortgage refinancing has recently been out of reach for many homeowners. Here's when experts expect that to change.
cbsnews.com
Trump sues ABC, George Stephanopoulos for defamation after host accused him of rape in Mace interview
Former President Donald Trump has filed a defamation lawsuit against ABC News and George Stephanopoulos, claiming his reputation was tarnished by the anchor saying multiple times on-air that Trump had been found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll. Trump filed the lawsuit in federal court in Miami on Monday over a viral interview between...
nypost.com
Shakira addresses rumor she discovered ex Gerard Piqué’s alleged cheating via a jam jar
The "Hips Don't Lie" singer recalled putting her "career on hold" while married to the soccer star, with whom she shares sons Milan and Sasha.
nypost.com
Richard Simmons Says He’s “Not Dying” Hours After Claiming He Is In Cryptic Social Media Post: “Sorry For This Confusion”
Simmons is "very healthy and happy," in fact.  
nypost.com
Gold mine collapse in Russia traps at least 13 workers, officials say
At least 13 miners in Russia were trapped hundreds of feet underground when part of a gold mine collapsed in Eastern Siberia’s Amur region, officials said.
foxnews.com
Banksy's latest artwork appears as message of environmentalism
The cherry tree that serves as the basis for the mural "should be bursting forth with leaves." It's not – so Banksy seemingly painted them on.
cbsnews.com