ABM Industries Incorporated (NYSE:ABM) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript June 6, 2023 ABM Industries Incorporated beats earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $0.9, expectations were $0.86. Operator: Greetings, and welcome to the ABM Industries Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal […] ABM Industries Incorporated (NYSE:ABM) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript June 6, 2023 ABM Industries Incorporated beats earnings expectations. Reported EPS is $0.9, expectations were $0.86. Operator: Greetings, and welcome to the ABM Industries Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Mr. Paul Goldberg, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations for ABM Industries. Thank you. You may begin. Paul Goldberg: Good morning, everyone, and welcome to ABM’s Second Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. My name is Paul Goldberg, and I’m the Senior Vice President of Investor Relations at ABM. With me today are Scott Salmirs, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Earl Ellis, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Please note that earlier this morning, we issued our press release announcing our second quarter 2023 financial results. A copy of the release and an accompanying slide presentation can be found on our website abm.com. After Scott and Earl’s prepared remarks, we will host the Q&A session. But before we begin, I would like to remind you that our call and presentation today contain predictions, estimates, and other forward-looking statements. Our use of the words, estimates, expects, and similar expressions are intended to identify these statements and they represent our current judgment of what the future holds. While we believe them to be reasonable, these statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially. These factors are described in the slide that accompanies our presentation as well as our filings with the SEC. During the course of this call, certain non-GAAP financial information will be presented. A reconciliation of historical non-GAAP numbers, and the GAAP financial measures is available at the end of the presentation and on the company’s website under the Investor tab. And with that, I would like to now turn the call over to Scott. Scott Salmirs: Thanks, Paul. Good morning, and thank you all for joining us today to discuss our second quarter results. ABM generated solid results in the second quarter, delivering 2.3% organic revenue growth and strong adjusted EBITDA growth. We achieved these results through our consistent focus on cost controls, implementing price escalations, and driving organic growth in our manufacturing and Distribution, Aviation, and Education segments. These factors more than offset the impacts from a still challenging labor market, continued supply chain constraints, lower work orders, and the slow recovery of office occupancy for commercial real estate. Our financial and operational performance speaks to the resilience of our business model, our end market diversification, and most importantly, the talent and dedication of our team. In all, ABM generated second quarter revenue of $2 billion, with an adjusted EBITDA margin of 7.2%, which included the benefit of earnings from the prior period parking project as discussed last quarter. Despite a more challenging macroeconomic environment than we anticipated, we remain on target to achieve our 2023 financial goals. We continue to be focused on driving growth across the company and capturing our share of the many opportunities before us. In fact, for the first six months of 2023, we generated $918 million in new sales, up from $791 million last year. We also continue to invest in our future including our ELEVATE initiatives, which will enhance our operational efficiency and deliver an improved experience for both clients and our team members. I’ll now discuss the demand environment for each of our industry groups. Let’s begin with B&I. Office density rates in the second quarter remained at relatively stable levels at approximately 50% on a blended basis. Although commercial office space remains fairly well occupied Tuesday through Thursday, many employees continue to work remotely on Monday and Friday. This trend is likely to continue as employers accommodate remote and hybrid work. This pattern of office usage limits demand for certain higher-margin work orders like carpet cleaning, freight elevator service, and large gathering cleanups, which are largely driven by office density. As a result of the reduction in office density, we are beginning to see a consolidation of office space in metro markets as clients reduce their footprint when their leases expire. Although we have not yet experienced a resulting contraction and scope of work, we anticipate that further increases in vacancy rates could create additional pressures on our business. However, we feel that we’re very well positioned given our commercial real estate profile, which is heavily concentrated within Class A newer properties. Although Class A buildings are still impacted, it’s to a much lesser degree than Class B and Class C properties. We also believe that as tenants migrate towards higher quality buildings, it will stabilize on our multi-tenant portfolio. Additionally, a sizable portion of our commercial real estate exposure is an engineering, which tends to be more stable as HVAC and electrical systems need to be maintained regardless of occupancy density. Moving to Aviation. Activity in the leisure and business travel markets, including related parking and transportation has essentially returned to pre-pandemic levels. Accordingly, as we go forward, we anticipate our aviation revenue growth will be reflective of the overall travel market growth rate complemented by new business opportunities. In fact, we recently won a multimillion-dollar expansion of passenger transportation services at two major U.K. airports. We also expect continued growth in our ABM Vantage parking solution which enhances revenue for clients and improves the travel experience. Demand in manufacturing and distribution continues to be solid, benefiting not only from expansion within existing logistics and e-commerce clients but also from new business and new end markets. For example, we added over $30 million in new contracts in the semiconductor market in the second quarter alone. We also saw growth with a leading aerospace company. further highlighting our successful efforts to broaden our client base in attractive end markets. We expect revenue growth in our M&D segment to remain on pace for the remainder of the year. In Education, the addition of sizable new clients in the fourth quarter of 2022 and new business wins in this fiscal year has helped drive mid-single-digit organic revenue growth in this segment. We have a strong pipeline of new business opportunities, and I’m confident ABM will continue our positive growth trajectory given our competitive positioning. From a margin perspective, segment margin remains above pre-pandemic levels, and we anticipate that further labor market normalization will support the margin progress we’ve achieved. Moving to Technical Solutions. The demand environment for EV charging infrastructure and microgrids remains positive as our ATS backlog exceeds $440 million. Furthermore, after a slow start to the year, hampered by macroeconomic concerns, market conditions are slowly improving for our Infrastructure Solutions business as evidenced by a significant contract win with a school district in Western Pennsylvania, which includes upgrades for lighting and HVAC as well as multiple building enhancements. Turning to eMobility. As we discussed on our last call, we expect the pace of EV charger installations to accelerate in the second half of the year as we begin to deliver on several new programs, including one for a large automotive dealer network. RavenVolt generated approximately $30 million in second quarter revenue, completing multiple projects, including the installation of power resiliency systems to two major retailers and a multinational consumer goods company. Similar to EV, we expect growth to accelerate in the back half of this year as long-awaited materials begin to arrive. Overall, we continue to be excited about the long-term outlook for ATS and believe we’re at the beginning of what will be a multiyear runway of strong growth. In fact, to support this growth opportunity, we recently announced our plan to construct an electrification center that will establish ABM as the clear leader in electrification infrastructure turnkey solutions. The planned facility in the Atlanta area will house multiple solutions serving the eMobility, power resiliency, and electrification sectors, creating first of it’s kind EV ecosystem hub. Turning to ELEVATE. We made significant headway on our planned initiatives during the second quarter, including the initial successful deployment of our cloud-based ERP system and 15 integrated boundary systems. Our initial implementation focused on our Education segment and the results have been more than encouraging. As we progress forward, future implementations will move through each industry segment on a programmed and managed pace as we leverage our collective learning and experience. In addition, we extended the reach of our workforce productivity and optimization tool, which provides our teams with advanced analytics for productivity levels across their portfolios. This capability has been critical for optimizing labor usage in our commercial real estate markets. We are also approaching the pilot launch of a new mobile application for our frontline team members, a key digital enabler for the ELEVATE program. Lastly, we continue to make progress on our ESG journey. For the first time, ABM has been named to the Diversity Inc. list of noteworthy companies This, among many other distinctions and awards, reflects our culture and our drive to lead away in DEMI. I couldn’t be proud of where our company is heading despite the macroeconomic headwinds and the challenges in commercial real estate. The mixture of our end markets the resiliency of our culture and the extraordinary talent of our teammates will allow us to continue on our accelerated path. Now I’ll turn it over to Earl for the financials. Earl Ellis : Thank you, Scott, and good morning, everyone. For those of you following along with our earnings presentation, please turn to Slide 5. Second quarter revenue increased 4.5% to $2 billion, comprised of organic revenue growth of 2.3% and growth from acquisitions of 2.2%. Moving on to Slide 6. Net income in the second quarter was $51.9 million or $0.78 per diluted share, up 6% and 8%, respectively, as compared to last year. The increase in GAAP net income was driven by higher income from operations, especially in our Aviation segment, and tight expense controls partially offset by higher interest expense, labor costs, and lower volume of higher-margin work orders. Adjusted net income was flat at $60.2 million, adjusted earnings per diluted share was $0.90, up 1% from the prior year period. Adjusted net income and adjusted EPS primarily reflects higher income from operations and effective cost controls offset by higher interest expense. Adjusted EBITDA increased 15% over the prior year to $137 million, and adjusted EBITDA margin was 7.2% versus 6.5% last year. This performance was boosted by the recognition of revenue connected with the previously mentioned Aviation parking project as associated expenses were recorded in prior periods. Excluding the impact from the parking project, adjusted EBITDA was $124.4 million, up 5% over last year, and adjusted EBITDA margin was 6.6%. Now turning to our segment results beginning on Slide 7. B&I revenues declined 0.5% year-over-year to $1 billion. Organic revenue declined 2%, mainly reflecting a lower volume of work orders, including disinfection versus the prior year and expected attrition of certain client contracts from the Able acquisition. Operating profit in B&I decreased slightly to $76.2 million, and operating margin was 7.6%, essentially flat with the prior year. Aviation revenue increased 22% to $227.2 million, marking the eighth consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue growth. This improvement was driven by the recognition of the previously mentioned parking project revenue as well as increased leisure and business airline traffic, along with related growth in parking activity. Aviation’s operating profit was $23.6 million, including $12.6 million of parking project earnings versus $9.6 million in the prior period. Margin was 10.4% compared to 5.2% last year. Adjusting for the parking project, operating profit was $11 million and margin was 5.1%. Turning to Slide 8. Manufacturing and distribution revenue grew 5% to $373.2 million, reflecting favorable market demand and expansion with clients in the life sciences and semiconductor market. Operating profit decreased 3% to $40.8 million, and operating margin declined 80 basis points to 10.9%. The decreases in operating profit and margin primarily reflects labor cost inflation and changes in mix. Education revenue increased 6% to $216.7 million, benefiting from the addition of new clients in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2022. Education operating profit was $11.8 million, essentially flat versus the prior year period while our margin was down slightly to 5.4%. Technical Solutions revenue grew 15% to $168.4 million, driven by the contribution from RavenVolt. Organic revenue declined 6%, largely due to the timing of large EV charger installation programs, which are weighted to the second half of the year and the delay of some infrastructure solution projects. Backlog in ATS is over $440 million, supporting our expectations for a strong back half of the year. Of note, RavenVolt generated nearly $30 million in revenue in the second quarter, aided by the receipt of delayed materials. ATS’s operating profit was $10.2 million, and margin was 6% compared to operating profit of $10.6 million and margin of 7.2% last year. The decreases in margin and profit were largely driven by changes in service mix and the amortization of intangibles related to the RavenVolt acquisition. Moving on to Slide 9. We ended the second quarter with total debt of $1.5 billion, including $58.6 million in standby letters of credit, resulting in a total debt to pro forma adjusted EBITDA ratio of 2.6 times. At the end of Q2, we had available liquidity of $503.2 million, including cash and cash equivalents of $71.2 million. Free cash flow in the second quarter was $16 million, and we expect a solid back half of the year in terms of free cash generation. Interest expense was $21.1 million in the second quarter, up $13 million from the prior year period and up over $1 million sequentially from Q1. The increase was due to significantly higher interest rates as well as a year-over-year increase in total debt. Now let’s move on to our full-year fiscal 2023 outlook, as shown on Slide 10. We now expect GAAP EPS to be in the range of $2.52 to $2.72, up $0.09 from our prior outlook, driven by a benefit from changes in items impacting comparability, primarily related to the fair value of contingent consideration. Our outlook for the adjusted EPS remains unchanged at $3.40 to $3.60. Interest expense is now expected to be around $80 million for the full year, reflecting recent Fed actions and the forward yield curve. This forecast is about $6 million above the high end of the previously estimated range. Our tax rate before discrete items is anticipated to be between 29% and 30%. And as mentioned last quarter, we expect to grow full-year adjusted EBITDA at a mid-single-digit rate. Additionally, we are increasing the low end of the range for adjusted EBITDA margin by 10 basis points. and now expect it to be between 6.5% and 6.8% for the full year. We now expect full-year 2023 free cash flow to be in the range of $240 million to $270 million before the final installment of our CARES Act payment of $66 million, which was made in Q1 and combined integration and elevate cost of approximately $75 million to $80 million. This represents a $30 million decrease from our prior forecast, largely driven by expected working capital needs to support growth in our ATS segment in the second half and higher interest expense. With respect to the cadence of quarterly adjusted EPS, we expect approximately 45% to 50% of full-year adjusted earnings per share to be generated in the first half of the fiscal year. consistent with our prior guidance. We anticipate Q3 adjusted EPS will not be materially different from Q2 2023. With that, let me turn it back to Scott for closing comments. Scott Salmirs: Thanks, Earl. In late 2021, around the time we announced our initial ELEVATE targets, the average U.S. inflation rate for the full year 2021 was 4.7%. The 10-year T-bill was approximately 1.5%, and the unemployment rate has trended down to 4% from the pandemic high of 15%. Today, the 10-year T-bill rate is over 200 basis points higher. Inflation peaked at 9% in 2022 and is currently close to 5%. And the job market for blue-collar labor is as challenging as it has ever been. Despite these headwinds, we’ve delivered on our financial goals, expanded our business and service offerings, and achieved important progress towards our 2025 target. Today, ABM is stronger and better positioned than ever before. Our success reflects our resilient business model, the benefits from our ELEVATE investments, and consistent execution by the ABM team. As we move forward, I’m confident in our ability to build value for our stakeholders as we work tirelessly towards achieving our goals, underpinned by the strength of our core business ABM continues to evolve into a higher-growth, higher-margin facility solution provider. So, with that, let’s take some questions. Q&A Session Follow Abm Industries Inc (NYSE:ABM) Follow Abm Industries Inc (NYSE:ABM) We may use your email to send marketing emails about our services. Click here to read our privacy policy. Operator: [Operator Instructions]. Our first question comes from the line of Sean Eastman with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question. Sean Eastman: Thanks, for taking my question. So, I just wanted to start on ATS. It sounds like RavenVolt is blowing and going now. It sounds like the EV charging side on pace for a second half ramp. I just wanted to round that out with a discussion on the bundled energy solutions piece and just how customer decision-making is trending in light of the weak macro conditions. Scott Salmirs: Yes. No, that’s a great question, Sean. Look, it’s still slow, probably slower than we’d like, but it’s not a reflection of our market share or sales pipeline or even the viability of the offering. It’s more about the fact that what we’ve seen just across the board, some clients are in pause mode right now, right, the economics get a little bit more challenging in that segment because of interest rates. But we just won — I mentioned in my opening remarks, we won a really nice job in Western Pennsylvania. And the pipeline is strong. So, I think for us, it’s waiting for clients to pull the trigger because it upgrades that they know they need because if you look at the core of it, right, you’re retrofitting a facility that needs retrofitting, right? So, it’s a question of getting the school board together and giving the high sign to pull the trigger. So, we’re as confident as ever. It’s just a little bit more on the delay side, but we’re hoping the back half will be stronger. And that’s a nice thing about ATS because we’re still diversified. And in addition to the bundled energy solutions, as you point out, we have the microgrid solution now where with RavenVolt, our EV is starting to ramp up. And we do have a core electrical and mechanical business on top of that, that we don’t talk about a lot, but that’s also part of the underpinning. So, it’s nice to have diversification in that segment. Sean Eastman : Okay. Thanks for that Scott. And then I guess maybe just to finish it off on ATS. I mean where should the margins be? Obviously, the first half, we’ve had supply chain, we’ve had kind of a project timing, air pocket. I mean, I’m just trying to get an expectation for where we should be run rating when everything is up on planned for ATS. Scott Salmirs: Yes. Historically, when it’s humming, it’s high single digit, right? And there’s no reason that it won’t get back to that. I think it’s like that higher-margin stuff, which is the bundled energy solutions and the microgrids are the ones that just haven’t kicked in yet, right? And even Sean EV, which we said is lower margin. That’s really because we’ve been playing in the dealership market, which is like onesie, twosies, like if you have a large-scale contract with an automaker like BMW, you’re putting two or three in per dealership. It’s not the scale you want, we’re moving more to a fleet orientation where we can go to a facility and put in 100 charges and get the scale. So that’s part of our ramp-up strategy as well. So, I’m confident over time we’ll squarely get back into that high single-digit margin range. Sean Eastman : Okay. Got you. And then one more, just relative to the work order dynamic, I feel like over the past two years, we’ve been anchored from — in terms of like work orders going from pandemic highs down to normalized. But now we’re talking about lighter vacancy rates and maybe that normalized work order level having some downside. How should we think about that, Scott, and whether there’s risk to margins around a step down to below normal work orders. What have we seen historically there? Scott Salmirs : Yes. So, look, I think we’re getting back down to pre-pandemic levels and that’s really a reflection right now of hybrid work. So, here’s the way to think about, maybe this will give you some clarity, right? When you think about work orders, right, it ranges from people calling for the freight elevator because they’re getting furniture deliveries. They’re having a birthday celebration. So, they want two porters to come up because they’re having a pizza party. It’s spotting on staying carpets. So, all those onetime things, and now when people are in the office three days a week instead of five days a week, you get less of those calls on the Mondays and Fridays and we were still stabilized during hybrid at a higher rate than we were pre-pandemic, and we’re really encouraged by that. I think the overlay now that’s brought it down incrementally more is just the state of the economy. People are watching what they’re spending. So, I think that’s a little bit of an overhang. So, if I were to look into the future when we have a recovery, I’m willing to bet that work orders will pop back up again and pop back up again at higher than pre-pandemic levels. So, I think we have this temporary double overhang now. But just to round out the question, I do not think on a percentage basis, we’re going to see much more deterioration. Now, volumetrically maybe because revenues can be compressed a little bit, but that will be on dollars, not margin percentage. I feel like we’re kind of — where we are now is kind of pretty stabilized. Sean Eastman: Okay, thanks. I’ll turn it over. Appreciate it. Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Justin Hauke with Baird. Please proceed with your question. Justin Hauke : Hi, good morning. I wanted to ask just to kind of big picture clarify some of the guidance moving pieces because with the margin moving up a little bit despite the — and the EPS held despite the incremental interest expense. Just the moving pieces on that. What was a little bit better and a little bit weaker? And maybe specifically, the corporate cost control, which it seems like that’s continued to kind of come in a little bit better than expected. So maybe just the outlook for what you’re looking at for corporate for the back half of the year? Earl Ellis : Sure. Absolutely. I’ll take that one. So, when we look at kind of what happened throughout quarter 2, we continue to see some headwinds in the shape of lower work orders, which actually has had a dip in the margin as well as continued pressure in the labor market. So, we’ve continued to see labor inflation, which good news is we’ve been able to offset a large majority of that through price escalations. When we see — looked at the quarter, we also had the flow-through from last year’s parking project, that was able to offset that. And so, when you look at the call up in margins, part of that was actually the flow-through that we actually got from the previously deferred parking. So, what we feel really good about is that in spite of the continued challenges that we’re seeing in margins, we’re still able — so if you actually even back out the flow-through of the parking project from last year, our margins for the quarter were 6.6%. And so, in spite of the continued challenges that we’re actually seeing, we feel really, really pleased that we’re still being able to deliver within the midpoint of our range. Justin Hauke : Okay. And just the corporate expense, maybe like a dollar run rate, what you’re kind of thinking in the back half of the year? Earl Ellis : Yes. So, I would say that when we look at corporate expenses, I would say that the — over the — you expect an average of about $60 million in corporate expenses, excluding kind of like the items impacting comparability. Justin Hauke : Great. And then I guess the second question, just on the parking segment. I mean even backing out the onetime here. Your organic growth rates there have been really strong. And it kind of sounded like in your prepared remarks that maybe you’re expecting that to kind of decelerate when you talked about more market trends. I just want to understand what you mean by that and what you’re thinking about for kind of the growth rate of that segment? What is the market trend for the back half of the year? Scott Salmirs : Sure. I mean look, I think generally speaking, like from an industry standpoint, I think parking revenues are kind of stable now. Like hybrid work is in place. So, it is what it is. The — because like for us, we have our parking business in two kind of key segments, the real estate side, commercial real estate and then on aviation. And I think in both of those segments, we’re pretty stable. So, I think it’s more normalized now. But what we’re excited about is we have our vantage parking offering, which is something that’s really — it’s a new technology, it’s insightful, it works to help give insights to clients on revenue management and so for us, it’s about this new productized offering that’s going to help us accelerate it. So, we’re hoping that in the parking segment, not only do we continue to grow, but hopefully a little bit ahead of the market because of some of the innovative stuff we’re doing. But, I would say walking that back a large measure we’re kind of out stabilization in the parking business as an industry. Justin Hauke : And I apologize. I meant the aviation segment and the adjusted for the parking item, your growth rate there has been in the high single digits. I guess what I was more asking about is, what is your expectation for the deceleration from that? Or why was it so strong in the first half? Is that just kind of the recovery in aviation volumes and now you’re saying those are recovered and they should kind of moderate to more low single digit, or? Scott Salmirs : That’s right. That’s exactly right. Travel has been well, you know, right. Anything around travel and leisure has been so up. So, I think at this point, and I think we did say a little bit in the prepared remarks, we feel like we are back to pre-pandemic levels and maybe even then some. We do think there’s a bunch of people that are catching up, in terms of travel. So, I think you’ll see more of a stabilization but still nice steady growth. Justin Hauke: Great. Okay, thank you very much. Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Faiza Alwy with Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your question. Faiza Alwy : Yes. Hi, good morning. I just wanted to follow up again on the technical solution side of the business. So, walk us through, you mentioned that you have a project backlog of $440 million, are you expecting that all of that will be recognized as revenue this year? Just walk us through the timing of what’s going on with the project delays? And when do you expect to fulfill those projects? Earl Ellis : Sure, Faiza. No, no. That will all be recognized this year. So typically speaking, ATS in general has always been the back half of the year story. And just to put some color around it, we do a lot of work in school systems. So, think about the fact that in July and August, the schools aren’t occupied, especially K-12. So that’s the time that you go in, and you do a lot of the infrastructure work. So that’s why a lot of this is back half loaded. So, for us, backlog means, again, signed contracts that get initiated. So, a lot of that’s going to happen in Q3 and Q4, really more Q4 than Q3. And that will be the initiation. So, I can’t give you a precise exactly how much of 440 will be in year. But it’s a really strong sign that we have backlog at that level. But it’s — think of it as initiating the projects in Q4 and they ramp through Q1 and even a little bit into Q2. Faiza Alwy : Okay. And then just so I’m clear because the delays are related. Is it more supply oriented? Or is it more demand-oriented. Because it’s — I was under the impression that it was more supply related. But some of your comments today are leading me to believe that maybe it’s more on the demand side, kind of ready to… Scott Salmirs : No, actually sorry [indiscernible]. Faiza, it’s a combination of both. It’s a little bit on demand side on the bundled energy solutions on the microgrids, it’s all about the supply chain. And specifically, batteries and some of the switch gear. Now, we are encouraged because what was happening, and I think you would see this from some of the competitors in our industry. At the beginning of the year, what would happen is something would take 10 weeks and then 10 weeks to get the item, and then maybe a month later, you’d get another order for something and you go to the manufacturer, like, “Oh, no, no, now it’s taking 12 weeks. And then you’d call again, it’s like, now it’s taking 14 weeks. It’s all starting to stabilize now. And that’s the key for us. So, if something pre-pandemic took six weeks and now it’s taking 10. As long as it stays taking 10, you could be planful, you can manage around it and we’re seeing that stabilization. So, the majority of the problem, especially on the RavenVolt side has been supply chain oriented definitely not demand oriented. The pipeline is really, really robust. Faiza Alwy : Okay. Good. Sorry, I’m just a little unclear, that’s why I just want to follow up because — so if it is on the RavenVolt side, that wouldn’t impact your organic revenue. So, explain to me a little bit more in terms of what’s driving the decline in organic revenue? Scott Salmirs : Yes. So, if you — let’s just pull out RavenVolt for a second. So, there’s two core segments there. There is EV and there’s bundled energy solutions. And both of those are more demand side. And for different reasons, EV because we were just winding down a big project with the dealership, and we’re now ramping up a big project with an automotive company. So, you’re seeing that delay to the back half. So that was just timing, but demand timing, not supply chain timing. And the other one is bundled energy solutions, which is what I talked about a few seconds ago, which is really the fact that we have the backlog, we have the orders book, but clients aren’t pulling the trigger because they’re just doing a general pause. But again, we’re starting to see that loosen up a bit. Now that I think the market is thinking that interest rates are starting to stabilize. And if it is what it is, then you start making those decisions. Faiza Alwy : Got it. Thank you, thank you for indulging me on all the detail. And then just maybe if I can follow up on the ELEVATE initiatives. You mentioned a few things. Give us a sense of how you’re thinking about timing there? I know you’ve talked about the end state being maybe a couple of years ago, talk about how you’re thinking about getting to that end state, what are some of the next initiatives that we should expect going forward? Scott Salmirs : Sure. I mean, look, we are on track with ELEVATE. And the big core in terms of infrastructure is our ERP transformation, and that’s a two-year process, because we’re doing it by industry group which just had the successful launch of our education group literally like a month ago, and it’s gone way better than we even expected. Because the ERP implementations are always bumpy and it went really well. And now we’re landing our next industry group, which will happen early next year. So, the infrastructure side is on track and going better than we hope. And then other things are all in progress. We launched hyper targeting for sales growth. You saw in — or heard in the prepared remarks, we had another unbelievable first six months of the year of new sales. So that’s a reflection not only of our sales team in terms of just the culture of our people, but the hyper targeting tool. And we’re now piloting our workforce management which is going to create efficiency in the field. And this month, we’re releasing our ABM Connect, which is our digital application to start connecting us in real time to the people out in the field, which is going to be a real game changer for us. And even that is probably a 12- to 18-month journey if not longer to actually get it deployed across 100,000 people, as you can imagine. But, things are going as planned. So, we’re — hopefully, you can sense the enthusiasm. Faiza Alwy: Great. Thank you so much. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of David Silver with CL King & Associates. Please proceed with your question. David Silver : Yes. Hi, good morning. Thank you. I would like to maybe just drill down a little bit on the RavenVolt performance to date. And I’m wondering if you — maybe if you wouldn’t mind discussing how the performance of the business aligns or how it compares to kind of your initial expectations? And then in particular, I noticed you booked to change to the fair value of contingent consideration. Could you just maybe talk about what drove you to make that adjustment this quarter? Thank you. Scott Salmirs : Sure. I’ll take the first part of it. We’re as encouraged as ever about RavenVolt. I think probably even more so than we did the transaction because, microgrids are so compelling right now. And the backlog is phenomenal, and the team is phenomenal. So, I think if there was any level — I don’t even want to use the word disappointment, it’s just a supply chain and you can’t control that. And it’s the same thing that everyone in our industry is facing. But again, we see light at the end of the tunnel, and we’re hoping for a strong back half of the year. But I’ll let Earl talk to the accounting treatment because that’s in his wheelhouse. So, Earl, you can take it away. Earl Ellis : Sure, Scott. So, on a quarterly basis, we do a mark-to-market valuation on the contingent consideration. And when we look at the outlook, as Scott just mentioned, we’re still very positive on the deal model. However, there’s some timing challenges as we articulate in regards to supply chain timing, which has actually deferred some of the revenue and earnings that would have actually happened in year one into future years. And then just based on the GAAP accounting of that, you actually then discount that back with a high discount rate, which then resulted in this reduction in the liability. So again, I would really chalk it up to timing as opposed to anything different from a value case basis. David Silver : Yes. Thank you. That’s kind of where, what I was wondering about. I appreciate you targeting that. My other question would be kind of more about the office market, the commercial market, which seems to be in the news quite a bit. You certainly addressed it right up front. But I’m just wondering if maybe you could — Scott, if maybe you would share kind of a multiyear outlook, a two- or three-year outlook. In other words, I think what we’re saying is the office market and the motivations and whatnot for the tenants has changed. And for yourself to keep growing in that area, I’m guessing you’re going to have to take share or offer higher — a bundle of higher-value services. So, from your perspective, I mean, what continued, I guess, evolution in your value proposition or in your offering into the commercial market will be necessary for you to kind of deal with the current trends towards lower occupancy rates and remote work or hybrid work arrangements in order to kind of continue to kind of maintain your position and ideally grow, grow your share, grow your profitability in there? Thank you. Scott Salmirs : Sure. Well, listen, there’s certainly going to be pressure in commercial real estate. That’s pretty obvious. For us, so far, as we’ve mentioned, it’s really only been around the work order side because of hybrid and the economy. So, when you drill down into ABMs portfolio in B&I, David, don’t forget that, or you may not have the insight to this, but a third of our revenues in B&I is around engineering and parking. And those are really stabilized depending on office density, because it doesn’t matter how dense the floor is, you still need “engineers” in the basement, working on the mechanical and electrical business, that doesn’t change. And parking, as we said, is stabilized. So, you’re really talking about the janitorial piece that has some of the exposure. But then you look at ABM’s portfolio, and we are way predominantly Class A buildings, newer buildings, bigger buildings, which are the ones that are going to survive the best and if anything, we’ve seen those have positive absorption as compared to the rest of the market because we’re seeing B and C tenants from B and C buildings rather migrating into Class A buildings. So, I think for us, we’re pretty protected. It will be choppy for the next several quarters, there’s no question about it. Leases expire even in A buildings and as they take a little less space, the next tenant has to come in, they’re going to have a year or so to build their space. So, there’ll be some choppiness. But I think, again, we’re so mitigated because of the portfolio that we have. And don’t forget, again, as a whole, we’re diversified. We’ve been investing in end markets like ATS, manufacturing and distribution, which is another hedge for us. And then lastly, David, what I would say is you think about the ELEVATE investments and just hyper targeting just in general for — on the growth side to help us mitigate some of the compression in the real estate market. So, I think we’re doing all the things we can and we actively manage these challenges. We’ve seen some of these downturns before in the segments, look at even the pandemic when schools were closed and airports were closed and B&I accelerated. So now we may be in a period where there is less acceleration in B&I, but as we talked about, aviation is doing great and ATS is doing great. David Silver : Thank you for that. I just have a quick one here, but you touched on ERP and what the history of many other companies has been with their different implementation issues. And I’ve certainly been an observer of a number of them. Just so I know, but in the event that maybe costs rise a little bit above expectations, with the implementation of your ERP system. Would that extra outlay be treated? Would it be capitalized? Or would it be expense? Do you have a sense of that at this point? Scott Salmirs : Yes. We’re right on our target. So, we’re not talking about cost overruns at this point. We feel really good and have really good line of sight into what the expense profile looks like in the next couple of years. So, that’s not in our narrative cost overruns. Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, our final question this morning comes from the line of Timothy Mulrooney with William Blair. Please proceed with your question. Tim Mulrooney : Scott, Earl, good morning. Most of my questions have been answered, so I’ll keep this quick. But last quarter, you all gave the headwinds from work orders. I think it was $35 million. And you said you’d expect that, I think, to more normalize. So, you didn’t admit this quarter, is that because there really wasn’t a headwind year-over-year or if there wasn’t, if you can quantify it for us? Scott Salmirs : Yes. We’re talking about maybe $15 million. It hasn’t been much. And again, I do think we’re heading into this more stabilized rate right now. So yes. I think this is — we’re actually given everything that’s happening in the environment and where hybrid is and as I said, where the overall economy is, we were actually pleased that it wasn’t more acute. Earl Ellis : Yes. Because I mean, I think what we talked about last quarter was the anticipated reduction in disinfection related work orders, which that will become a non-story starting in Q3, Q4 as that kind of like precipitates. I think what the potential headwinds that we’ll be seeing potentially in the future are really around just based on what Scott earlier alluded to with regards to the hybrid environment and the potential for reduction in work orders where, again, right now, we’re now at kind of call it free-COVID levels, which are typically about 5% of revenue. Tim Mulrooney : Yes, that’s kind of how I’m thinking about it, or how I interpreted Scott’s comments earlier is like, look, pre-pandemic work order of 4% to 5%. All else equal, you’d expect that to be higher on a go-forward basis. But there’s some macro headwind stuff that’s kind of pulling it back to that 4%, 5%. Is that the right way to think about it? Earl Ellis : That’s exactly right. Scott Salmirs : Exactly right. And again, what I would reiterate is that even during — before the economy started turning in the last few months, even before that, with hybrid, we were still about pre-pandemic level. So, it’s almost like kind of this new kind of cost control that we’re seeing is what pushed us back to pre-pandemic levels. So, we’re optimistic, Tim, that we’re going to get back above that when the economy turns. Tim Mulrooney : Understood. Last one from me, guys. Thank you. Does it make sense to prioritize your capital allocation on debt reduction near term versus M&A and buybacks and other things to help reduce that incremental interest burden? Or are you comfortable at 2.6 times? Thank you. Earl Ellis : Yes. Good question. When we looked at our cash flow, which generally is weighted more in the back half, we do feel like it’s going to provide us with ample flexibility to do both of those things, which would include paying down debt in addition to potentially doing some very small share buybacks. And when I talk about share buybacks, it really would be most likely limited to the anti-dilutive nature of our share-based compensation. But the good news is we feel that with our strong cash flows, we’ll be able to limit our net leverage exposure. Tim Mulrooney: All right. Thank you. Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our question-and-answer session. I’ll turn the floor back to Mr. Salmirs for any final comments. Scott Salmirs : I just want to thank everybody for participating and the interest level, again, very, very much appreciate it. We hope everyone is having a good start to — good start to the summer, and we’re looking forward to coming back to you in Q3 with an update on all things ABM. So, have a great summer, everybody. Operator: Thank you. This concludes today’s conference call. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation. Follow Abm Industries Inc (NYSE:ABM) Follow Abm Industries Inc (NYSE:ABM) We may use your email to send marketing emails about our services. Click here to read our privacy policy......»»

Here's what you can expect if you're trying to fly while the Canadian wildfire smoke continues to impact the Northeast.....»»

Investment management company Ave Maria recently released its “Ave Maria World Equity Fund” first quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, the fund returned 6.87% compared to the MSCI All Country World Index’s 7.30% return. You can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to […] Investment management company Ave Maria recently released its “Ave Maria World Equity Fund” first quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the first quarter, the fund returned 6.87% compared to the MSCI All Country World Index’s 7.30% return. You can check the top 5 holdings of the fund to know its best picks in 2023. Ave Maria World Equity Fund highlighted stocks like Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:PAC) in its Q1 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Guadalajara, Mexico, Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:PAC) manages and operates airports. On June 7, 2023, Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:PAC) stock closed at $180.69 per share. One-month return of Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:PAC) was -1.02%, and its shares gained 25.01% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:PAC) has a market capitalization of $9.13 billion. Ave Maria World Equity Fund made the following comment about Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:PAC) in its Q1 2023 investor letter: “Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:PAC) operates 12 airports in Mexico and two airports in Jamaica. The company is benefiting from a recovery in air travel following the Covid-19 related shutdowns. Longer-term, the company is a key beneficiary of an expanding middle class and ongoing capacity expansions designed to increase throughput and commercial revenue.” Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:PAC) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 6 hedge fund portfolios held Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:PAC) at the end of first quarter 2023 which was 4 in the previous quarter. We discussed Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:PAC) in another article and shared the list of best airport stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2023 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.   Suggested Articles: Top 10 Worst Places to Retire in Florida 16 Rental Car Companies, Ranked from Worst to Best 10 Warren Buffett Stocks Other Billionaires Are Loading Up On Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey......»»

"We are advising Googlers to work from home if possible and limit their exposure to outdoor air," a Wednesday memo obtained by CNBC read. The Statue of Liberty is covered in haze and smoke caused by wildfires in Canada.Amr Alfiky/Reuters Wildfires in Canada are sending smoke to cities across the northeastern US.  In a memo to staff on Wednesday, Google told office workers in NYC to work from home, per CNBC. Company site leads in New York said air quality in many parts of the region had reached "unhealthy" levels. As the sky in New York City turns orange from Canada's wildfire smoke and air quality reaches unhealthy levels, Googlers have been told to work from home.In a memo on Wednesday, Google's site leads in New York City told employees they should stay home, as the air quality in many parts of the region had reached "unhealthy" levels, CNBC reported.The company's hybrid workweek policy requires employees to work from the office three days a week."We are advising Googlers to work from home if possible and limit their exposure to outdoor air," the memo — which CNBC obtained — read."Terraces across our New York campus will remain closed today," the memo said.Advisory notices were sent to employees in the Detroit area, Washington, D.C., Virginia, Pittsburgh, and North Carolina, per the report.Canadian employees in Toronto and Waterloo have also been notified, per CNBC. The country is on track to experience its worst-ever wildfire season, officials warned on Monday.Google's memo told staffers to remain indoors, "avoid vigorous physical activity," and run their air conditioners with clean filters, CNBC reported. Those who are already on the company's campuses were told that Google's HVAC and air-filtration systems "maintain a high quality of air inside our offices even in these circumstances," per the report.The US government has issued air quality warnings across the Midwest and Northeast, telling people to limit time spent outdoors. The air in New York City smelled strongly of burning timber, Insider reported. Smoke from the wildfires got so bad on Wednesday afternoon that it prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to slow or stop flights into LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport due to reduced visibility, Insider reported.Both airports are now operating with ground delays. John F. Kennedy International Airport remains unaffected so far, Insider reported.Google did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment sent outside regular business hours. Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

Flights headed to LaGuardia International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport and Philadelphia International Airport faced delays as smoke from wildfires in Canada affected visibility surrounding those airports, the Federal Aviation Administration said Wednesday. “The FAA has taken steps to manage the flow of traffic into the New York City area due to reduced visibility from wildfire smoke,” the agency said in a statement. Later in the day, the FAA said it would be “slowing traffic” from the East Coast and Midwest for flights headed to Philadelphia. All three airports were under “ground delay” status, according to FAA data. Departures to La Guardia faced delays of nearly two hours, on average, according to FAA data. Flights taking off from LaGuardia were delayed an average of 30 minutes. Flights coming into Newark were being delayed on average of 82 minutes, with roughly half-hour delays for flights to Philadelphia, the FAA said. Shortly after 2 p.m., the FAA noted that “The agency will adjust the volume of traffic to account for the rapidly changing conditions.” According to FlightAware data, there were 248 delays and 13 cancellations at LaGuardia, with 162 delays and 31 cancellations at Newark. JFK International Airport had 73 delays and six cancellations, according to FlightAware. Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news......»»

Smoke from Canadian wildfires has prompted ground stops at Newark and LaGuardia airports in New York. : People stand in a park as the New York City skyline is covered with haze and smoke from Canada wildfires on June 7, 2023 in Weehawken, New JerseyEduardo Munoz Alvarez/GettyWildfire smoke has prompted ground stops and delays at Newark and LaGuardia airports in New York.Visibility is as low as 5 miles in Queens, per the National Weather Service.The smoke is being carried south from more than 420 fires across Canada.Thick smoke from enormous wildfires burning across Canada poured into the northeastern U.S. on June 7, reducing visibility and prompting the FAA to slow or stop flights into LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport."The FAA has taken steps to manage the flow of traffic into the New York City area due to reduced visibility from wildfire smoke," FAA spokesperson told Insider."The agency will adjust the volume of traffic to account for the rapidly changing conditions."Both Newark and LaGuardia were on ground stops on Wednesday afternoon, meaning all inbound flights were halted. Both airports are now operating with ground delays. So far, John F. Kennedy International Airport remains unaffected.The FAA's National Airspace System Status site showed average delays of over 80 minutes for arrivals at Newark, and nearly two hours for arrivals at LaGuardia as of 2:19 pm ET.The smoke was from huge wildfires encompassing more than 420 fires across Canada, including massive blazes in northern Quebec.Weather conditions carried the smoke hundreds of miles into the U.S., blanketing cities across the northeast from New York to Maryland in a thick haze. According to the National Weather Service, visibility was reduced to 5 miles Queens and a little as 4 miles in Newark."A real joy to be experience my own NY smoke journey," tweeted one traveler at Newark, posting a picture of the haze on the tarmac.A real joy to be experiencing my own NY smoke journey at Newark airport pic.twitter.com/CTtVi76QXh— Daniel Susser (@internetdaniel) June 7, 2023Another traveler tweeted a "surreal" video of a landing at LaGuardia airport through thick, yellow haze at roughly 12:45 pm ET on Wednesday.Surreal scene from the air on approach to #LGA. #smoke #nyc #abc7ny pic.twitter.com/jfjN2SElJY— Josh Einiger (@JoshEiniger7) June 7, 2023Updated at 6/7/2023 at 2:23 pm ET to reflect new FAA statements and current conditions.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

AI bots like ChatGPT are going to befriend us. But because they can't replicate human relationships, they'll also leave us lonelier than ever. Americans are trapped in a loneliness epidemic and AI chatbots like ChatGPT could make it even worse.Anna Kim for InsiderAmericans are trapped in a loneliness epidemic. Across the country, people are having fewer social interactions, spending more time alone, and reporting fewer close friends. These trends aren't just a symptom of the COVID-19 pandemic — while the last few years may have accelerated the loneliness crisis, the shift toward a more solitary life has been happening for years.A new report from the US surgeon general finds that social activities of all kinds have declined, and it compared the health impact of this increasing loneliness to smoking 12 cigarettes a day. My own research found that Americans are in the throes of a "friendship recession" with people reporting smaller social circles and fewer close friends. This rising tide of isolation is particularly acute among young people: The time that Americans between the ages of 15 and 24 spend with friends has declined considerably over the past two decades, according to the surgeon general's report, from an average of 2.5 hours a day to just 40 minutes. It seems as if everything in modern life is conspiring to perpetuate the loneliness problem — from the design of our technology to where we build our homes. We already know how addictive social media can be: Nearly one in three Americans reports being online "almost constantly," according to the Pew Research Center, while a 2018 study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania showed that social media helps fuel feelings of loneliness. The latest development that threatens to make this loneliness crisis even worse is the rise of artificial intelligence. The release of OpenAI's ChatGPT in late 2022 has led to an explosion of interest in the potential to integrate AI-driven chatbots into our lives. Derek Thompson, a writer at The Atlantic, suggested that AI in its current manifestation is mostly a diversion, a waste of time. That may be true, but as previous technologies have shown us, it's crucial to take stock of the ways in which AI could shift our lives before it becomes ubiquitous.We've already seen how dependence on technology can weigh on our mental health, and now chatbots and other AI programs could further replace the critical social interactions that help us build community. Many Amercians already harbor this worry: A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found that one of Americans' top concerns with AI is the technology's inherent "lack of human connection." Our time on earth is limited. While the convenience of AI could provide many benefits, it can't replace time spent with real, living people. What do we lose when we lose the little interactions?Humans have used technology to handle dangerous, monotonous, and menial tasks for generations. And there are definitely areas where AI chatbots could be useful — especially when it comes to business. Software developers are using AI to streamline the coding process, lawyers are using it to help draft legal briefs, and some businesses are experimenting with chatbots in customer-service roles. While the use cases could boost a business' bottom line, it's important to be clear-eyed about the problems that arise from using AI to replace routine social exchanges. No human interaction is meaningless. Small acts of kindness (or cruelty) can have far-reaching effects, and even relationships with people we don't know well can be valuable. Sociologists have dubbed these brief encounters as "weak social ties" — a brief chat with a neighbor, a compliment from a stranger, or the barista at the local coffee shop asking how you've been. While the interactions often seem trivial, the benefits of these encounters are significant. Interviewing New York City residents living alone during the pandemic, the sociologists Eric Klinenberg and Jenny Leigh found that people missed being around "familiar strangers," an experience that gave them a sense of place and belonging. Studies have shown that interacting with a wide array of people on a regular basis makes us happier, and my own research has shown that when it comes to friendships, more is better. One of the profoundly important parts of developing social ties — whether strong or weak — is that they connect us to places and people we might not otherwise have access to. It might be a potential job opportunity or an introduction to a new community, such as a book club, religious congregation, or sports league. In a 2021 survey, we found that nearly half of young adults made a close friend through their existing friendship network. Our current friendships beget new friendships.Using AI to automate these interactions, both trivial and more substantial, would deprive people of their mental and social benefits. The pandemic already gave us a glimpse at what happens when these ties fray: a rising number of airport freakouts, more frequent fighting in schools, and a general increase in antisocial behavior, among others. When we spend less time with each other, we lose practice in getting along in shared spaces. This is why AI is such a poor substitute for real-world interactions. We need to spend more time with each other.Artificial IntimacyThe shift toward AI relationships isn't just a theoretical possibility: Some entrepreneurs and companies are already working to create chatbot-driven connections. Caryn Marjorie, a 23-year-old influencer with more than 1.8 million Snapchat followers, recently released CarynAI — an "immersive AI experience" featuring videos of Marjorie that she says provide a "virtual girlfriend" for those willing to pony up $1 per minute. According to Marjorie's site, the GPT-4-powered chatbot replicates Marjorie's voice and personality to the point that it feels like "you're talking directly to Caryn herself." While Marjorie stands to make a tidy profit from CarynAI — based on a recent beta test she estimated that the chatbot could generate $5 million in monthly revenue — she also says the goal in developing the AI avatar was to "cure loneliness" for her overwhelmingly male fan base. While it has garnered a lot of attention, CarynAI isn't the first attempt at providing people with companionship through an AI chatbot. Replika, another AI-chatbot friend marketed to people who are "lonely, depressed, or have few social connections" launched in 2017. The company behind Replika has over 10 million registered users, and the chatbot receives millions of messages each week. Snap recently deployed its own AI chatbot, called My AI, aimed at supplementing social interactions on the app. In an interview with The Verge, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said: "The big idea is that in addition to talking to our friends and family every day, we're going to talk to AI every day."One problem that's already apparent is the amount of time users are spending with chatbots like CarynAI. Although many are designed to wind down conversations after a designated period of time, there are no enforced limits, and Marjorie's manager told The Washington Post that many fans are already spending hours each day sharing intimate thoughts and feelings with the bot.Instead of using it to strip away users' humanity, AI technology should enhance social opportunities.At least in the early iterations, AI chatbots appear to offer the next step in the curation of individualized experiences — another way to mold our world to our own preferences and mirror our own thoughts. Replika promises that it is "always here to listen and talk. Always on your side." But that's not a realistic model for most relationships, which should be built on a foundation of give-and-take and mutual obligation, rather than one-way devotion. In a review of Replika, Joshua Bote of the San Francisco Chronicle put it succinctly: "Replika, in its total fealty to its users, mostly serves as a vessel for users' wants and needs." The chatbot is unlikely to ask a user for a favor, much less encourage them to address destructive or selfish behavior.As I argued in a recent newsletter, this kind of one-way relationship is a poor substitute for traditional friendship:"The relationships that matter are formative. They change us. They provide us opportunities to practice forgiveness, patience, and kindness. The most valuable relationships are those that motivate us to become better. Relationships that do not require empathy and understanding rob us of the very things that make them so important."Most of us do not become better people through sheer force of will. Rather, our relationships give us reason to make difficult choices and changes. We make sacrifices for the people we love and who love us. In doing so, we can become the best version of ourselves. A problem for Gen ZGrowing up, my brothers and I would often complain to my parents that we were bored. After explaining to us that this was not their problem, they would typically shoo us outside and we would wander the neighborhood. Sometimes we would bump into friends or talk to neighbors. If we were feeling ambitious, we would bike over to a few local shops. That world of casual interaction that my brothers and I grew up in is largely gone. Teens especially are spending far less time with each other out in the real world. In the late 1970s, more than half of high-school seniors saw their friends every day, but that dropped to only 28% in 2017. Today, young people can wander around the limitless expanse of the internet while parked in their basement or bedroom.Gen Z may be uniquely predisposed to seek out relationships with AI-generated avatars. Not only are they more comfortable using technology in this way, compared to previous generations, young adults are also participating less often in traditional social activities like having regular family dinners, attending religious services, or playing sports. In a 2021 study, we found that only 38% of Gen Zers grew up having daily meals with their family. In contrast, more than three-quarters (76%) of baby boomers report that they had daily meals with their family when they were young. More structured social outlets, such as youth sports, are experiencing a rapid decline.Young people are not only entering adulthood with fewer close friends than in the past, but fewer opportunities to forge new social connections. Other than social media, young adults have diminishing options to connect with their peers. But social media presents its own risks. The surgeon general recently said that social media represents a "profound risk of harm" to adolescent mental health, which has worsened in recent years. A way AI could potentially make things betterThis doesn't mean there aren't opportunities for AI to enrich our lives in some ways, especially for people who face challenges that limit more traditional social opportunities. Brown University and the Hasbro toy company were awarded a $1 million National Science Foundation grant to develop AI pets to help seniors with everyday tasks, such as remembering to take medication. My colleague Brent Orrell recently wrote about how AI chatbots might allow neurodivergent people to better navigate challenging social dynamics. In researching new AI chatbots, I was struck by the missed opportunity for disconnected people to forge new connections. What if instead of substituting for human connections that people are lacking, AI chatbots could connect lonely people to each other in an attempt to foster personal connections? Imagine an AI chatbot that identifies people with similar interests or needs and then brokers an introduction and encourages real-world social interactions. Think of it as a mutual friend. Instead of using it to strip away users' humanity, AI technology should enhance social opportunities.While there may be upsides to the technology, my own studies on human connection and our social lives make me concerned about leaning on AI to avoid the unpleasant realities of human existence. No one goes through life without ever feeling lonely. It's a fundamental and universal human experience. The goal should not be to avoid these feelings, but to use these experiences to inform our decisions about how we want to live and what really matters to us.Artificial intelligence is poised to transform American society, but making things easier is not always an improvement, especially when it comes to social interactions. As Klinenberg, the sociologist, notes: "Efficiency is the enemy of social life." The solution to loneliness is not to develop increasingly clever social distractions, but to go outside and wander around. What we need now more than ever are safe and accessible public spaces for people to wander.Daniel Cox is director of the Survey Center on American Life and research fellow in polling and public opinion at the American Enterprise Institute.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

More than 200 passengers on the flight had to sleep on the floor of a local school overnight as they await another plane to pick them up. Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft as seen on final approach flying for landing at London Heathrow airport In August 2022.Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images An Air India plane heading to San Francisco was forced to land in Siberia, Russia, on Tuesday.  The plane had to make an emergency landing after an engine failure, Air India said. Passengers had to sleep on the floor of a school overnight, social media videos show. An Air India plane flying to San Francisco was forced to land in a remote town in Siberia after developing engine problems, according to multiple reports. The Boeing 777, carrying 216 passengers and 16 crew, was forced to land in Magadan, Russia, on Tuesday, Air India said in a statement.Magadan is a port town located on the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk in northeastern Russia. It takes around eight hours to travel there by air from Moscow. The group is still waiting for a backup plane to pick them up and bring them to San Francisco, according to the statement. Air India said the flight from New Delhi is expected to leave for Magadan on Wednesday evening.Vedant Patel, a US State Department spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday that it was likely that American citizens were on the flight given it was bound for the US, though he was unable to indicate how many. Due to the remoteness of the airport, passengers ended up staying the night in a local school, the statement and social media posts indicated. Pictures posted by a man who said his mother was on the flight show people sleeping on mattresses on the floor of the school. Another video shows rows of mattresses set up on what appears to be a basketball court. Insider was unable to independently verify footage. Girvaan Kaahma, a 16-year-old passenger who was on the flight with his relatives, told the Associated Press that his family hadn't been able to use their credit cards to buy items from the vending machine due to sanctions over Russia's war on Ukraine.Air India said in its statement that "all passengers were eventually moved to makeshift accommodations, after making sincere attempts to accommodate passengers in hotels locally with the help of local government authorities."The airline did not immediately respond to Insider's request for further comment.The emergency landing comes a day after Scott Kirby, the CEO of United Airlines, raised the question of whether foreign carriers that fly to the US over Russian airspace should be banned."What's going to happen if an airline lands in Russia with some prominent US citizens on board? That is a potential crisis in the making," he said, according to Al Jazeera and other outlets.Russia barred most airlines from flying over its airspace in retaliation to Western sanctions put in place after its invasion of Ukraine. However, some Indian, African, Chinese, and Gulf-based carriers are still allowed to fly over Russia.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

AI bots like ChatGPT are going to befriend us. But because they can't replicate human relationships, they'll also leave us lonelier than ever. Americans are trapped in a loneliness epidemic and AI chatbots like ChatGPT could make it even worse.Anna Kim for InsiderAmericans are trapped in a loneliness epidemic. Across the country, people are having fewer social interactions, spending more time alone, and reporting fewer close friends. These trends aren't just a symptom of the COVID-19 pandemic — while the last few years may have accelerated the loneliness crisis, the shift toward a more solitary life has been happening for years.A new report from the US surgeon general finds that social activities of all kinds have declined, and it compared the health impact of this increasing loneliness to smoking 12 cigarettes a day. My own research found that Americans are in the throes of a "friendship recession" with people reporting smaller social circles and fewer close friends. This rising tide of isolation is particularly acute among young people: The time that Americans between the ages of 15 and 24 spend with friends has declined considerably over the past two decades, according to the surgeon general's report, from an average of 2.5 hours a day to just 40 minutes. It seems as if everything in modern life is conspiring to perpetuate the loneliness problem — from the design of our technology to where we build our homes. We already know how addictive social media can be: Nearly one in three Americans reports being online "almost constantly," according to the Pew Research Center, while a 2018 study by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania showed that social media helps fuel feelings of loneliness. The latest development that threatens to make this loneliness crisis even worse is the rise of artificial intelligence. The release of OpenAI's ChatGPT in late 2022 has led to an explosion of interest in the potential to integrate AI-driven chatbots into our lives. Derek Thompson, a writer at The Atlantic, suggested that AI in its current manifestation is mostly a diversion, a waste of time. That may be true, but as previous technologies have shown us, it's crucial to take stock of the ways in which AI could shift our lives before it becomes ubiquitous.We've already seen how dependence on technology can weigh on our mental health, and now chatbots and other AI programs could further replace the critical social interactions that help us build community. Many Amercians already harbor this worry: A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found that one of Americans' top concerns with AI is the technology's inherent "lack of human connection." Our time on earth is limited. While the convenience of AI could provide many benefits, it can't replace time spent with real, living people. What do we lose when we lose the little interactions?Humans have used technology to handle dangerous, monotonous, and menial tasks for generations. And there are definitely areas where AI chatbots could be useful — especially when it comes to business. Software developers are using AI to streamline the coding process, lawyers are using it to help draft legal briefs, and some businesses are experimenting with chatbots in customer-service roles. While the use cases could boost a business' bottom line, it's important to be clear-eyed about the problems that arise from using AI to replace routine social exchanges. No human interaction is meaningless. Small acts of kindness (or cruelty) can have far-reaching effects, and even relationships with people we don't know well can be valuable. Sociologists have dubbed these brief encounters as "weak social ties" — a brief chat with a neighbor, a compliment from a stranger, or the barista at the local coffee shop asking how you've been. While the interactions often seem trivial, the benefits of these encounters are significant. Interviewing New York City residents living alone during the pandemic, the sociologists Eric Klinenberg and Jenny Leigh found that people missed being around "familiar strangers," an experience that gave them a sense of place and belonging. Studies have shown that interacting with a wide array of people on a regular basis makes us happier, and my own research has shown that when it comes to friendships, more is better. One of the profoundly important parts of developing social ties — whether strong or weak — is that they connect us to places and people we might not otherwise have access to. It might be a potential job opportunity or an introduction to a new community, such as a book club, religious congregation, or sports league. In a 2021 survey, we found that nearly half of young adults made a close friend through their existing friendship network. Our current friendships beget new friendships.Using AI to automate these interactions, both trivial and more substantial, would deprive people of their mental and social benefits. The pandemic already gave us a glimpse at what happens when these ties fray: a rising number of airport freakouts, more frequent fighting in schools, and a general increase in antisocial behavior, among others. When we spend less time with each other, we lose practice in getting along in shared spaces. This is why AI is such a poor substitute for real-world interactions. We need to spend more time with each other.Artificial IntimacyThe shift toward AI relationships isn't just a theoretical possibility: Some entrepreneurs and companies are already working to create chatbot-driven connections. Caryn Marjorie, a 23-year-old influencer with more than 1.8 million Snapchat followers, recently released CarynAI — an "immersive AI experience" featuring videos of Marjorie that she says provide a "virtual girlfriend" for those willing to pony up $1 per minute. According to Marjorie's site, the GPT-4-powered chatbot replicates Marjorie's voice and personality to the point that it feels like "you're talking directly to Caryn herself." While Marjorie stands to make a tidy profit from CarynAI — based on a recent beta test she estimated that the chatbot could generate $5 million in monthly revenue — she also says the goal in developing the AI avatar was to "cure loneliness" for her overwhelmingly male fan base. While it has garnered a lot of attention, CarynAI isn't the first attempt at providing people with companionship through an AI chatbot. Replika, another AI-chatbot friend marketed to people who are "lonely, depressed, or have few social connections" launched in 2017. The company behind Replika has over 10 million registered users, and the chatbot receives millions of messages each week. Snap recently deployed its own AI chatbot, called My AI, aimed at supplementing social interactions on the app. In an interview with The Verge, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said: "The big idea is that in addition to talking to our friends and family every day, we're going to talk to AI every day."One problem that's already apparent is the amount of time users are spending with chatbots like CarynAI. Although many are designed to wind down conversations after a designated period of time, there are no enforced limits, and Marjorie's manager told The Washington Post that many fans are already spending hours each day sharing intimate thoughts and feelings with the bot.Instead of using it to strip away users' humanity, AI technology should enhance social opportunities.At least in the early iterations, AI chatbots appear to offer the next step in the curation of individualized experiences — another way to mold our world to our own preferences and mirror our own thoughts. Replika promises that it is "always here to listen and talk. Always on your side." But that's not a realistic model for most relationships, which should be built on a foundation of give-and-take and mutual obligation, rather than one-way devotion. In a review of Replika, Joshua Bote of the San Francisco Chronicle put it succinctly: "Replika, in its total fealty to its users, mostly serves as a vessel for users' wants and needs." The chatbot is unlikely to ask a user for a favor, much less encourage them to address destructive or selfish behavior.As I argued in a recent newsletter, this kind of one-way relationship is a poor substitute for traditional friendship:"The relationships that matter are formative. They change us. They provide us opportunities to practice forgiveness, patience, and kindness. The most valuable relationships are those that motivate us to become better. Relationships that do not require empathy and understanding rob us of the very things that make them so important."Most of us do not become better people through sheer force of will. Rather, our relationships give us reason to make difficult choices and changes. We make sacrifices for the people we love and who love us. In doing so, we can become the best version of ourselves. A problem for Gen ZGrowing up, my brothers and I would often complain to my parents that we were bored. After explaining to us that this was not their problem, they would typically shoo us outside and we would wander the neighborhood. Sometimes we would bump into friends or talk to neighbors. If we were feeling ambitious, we would bike over to a few local shops. That world of casual interaction that my brothers and I grew up in is largely gone. Teens especially are spending far less time with each other out in the real world. In the late 1970s, more than half of high-school seniors saw their friends every day, but that dropped to only 28% in 2017. Today, young people can wander around the limitless expanse of the internet while parked in their basement or bedroom.Gen Z may be uniquely predisposed to seek out relationships with AI-generated avatars. Not only are they more comfortable using technology in this way, compared to previous generations, young adults are also participating less often in traditional social activities like having regular family dinners, attending religious services, or playing sports. In a 2021 study, we found that only 38% of Gen Zers grew up having daily meals with their family. In contrast, more than three-quarters (76%) of baby boomers report that they had daily meals with their family when they were young. More structured social outlets, such as youth sports, are experiencing a rapid decline.Young people are not only entering adulthood with fewer close friends than in the past, but fewer opportunities to forge new social connections. Other than social media, young adults have diminishing options to connect with their peers. But social media presents its own risks. The surgeon general recently said that social media represents a "profound risk of harm" to adolescent mental health, which has worsened in recent years. A way AI could potentially make things betterThis doesn't mean there aren't opportunities for AI to enrich our lives in some ways, especially for people who face challenges that limit more traditional social opportunities. Brown University and the Hasbro toy company were awarded a $1 million National Science Foundation grant to develop AI pets to help seniors with everyday tasks, such as remembering to take medication. My colleague Brent Orrell recently wrote about how AI chatbots might allow neurodivergent people to better navigate challenging social dynamics. In researching new AI chatbots, I was struck by the missed opportunity for disconnected people to forge new connections. What if instead of substituting for human connections that people are lacking, AI chatbots could connect lonely people to each other in an attempt to foster personal connections? Imagine an AI chatbot that identifies people with similar interests or needs and then brokers an introduction and encourages real-world social interactions. Think of it as a mutual friend. Instead of using it to strip away users' humanity, AI technology should enhance social opportunities.While there may be upsides to the technology, my own studies on human connection and our social lives make me concerned about leaning on AI to avoid the unpleasant realities of human existence. No one goes through life without ever feeling lonely. It's a fundamental and universal human experience. The goal should not be to avoid these feelings, but to use these experiences to inform our decisions about how we want to live and what really matters to us.Artificial intelligence is poised to transform American society, but making things easier is not always an improvement, especially when it comes to social interactions. As Klinenberg, the sociologist, notes: "Efficiency is the enemy of social life." The solution to loneliness is not to develop increasingly clever social distractions, but to go outside and wander around. What we need now more than ever are safe and accessible public spaces for people to wander.Daniel Cox is director of the Survey Center on American Life and research fellow in polling and public opinion at the American Enterprise Institute.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

In a statement to Insider, Florida's Division of Emergency Management confirmed it sent migrants on what it called "voluntary" flights to California. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration says the recent flights of migrants from Texas to California were all voluntary.Getty Images Ron DeSantis' administration admitted it was behind the migrant relocation flights to California. Until now the Florida governor and 2024 president candidate has been mum about the trips.  The agency behind the program shared an edited video of the migrants celebrating a trip.  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration confirmed it's behind the recent flights sending migrants from Texas to California — and insisted that the trips were all voluntary and the immigrants were treated well."Through verbal and written consent, these volunteers indicated they wanted to go to California," Amelia Johnson, the deputy director of communications and external affairs at the Florida Division of Emergency Management, told Insider.Johnson said a contractor "ensured they made it safely" to Catholic Charities, a nongovernmental agency. The charity did not immediately reply to inquiries from Insider to confirm or deny its involvement.Until now, Florida authorities have been mum about the flights, the first of which landed in Sacramento, California, on Friday and the second of which landed at the airport in on Monday. Migrants who were on the first flight arrived at a Catholic church. DeSantis held a bill signing on Tuesday, but uncharacteristically did not take questions from the press afterward. The Florida Division of Emergency Management shared a 2-minute-20-second-long video with Insider of migrants the agency said boarded the flights.Video and photos showed the apparent migrants filling out paperwork, riding what seemed to be a party bus, boarding a charter plane, giving thumbs up, celebrating, and saying they were "treated super well" and thanking someone off-screen. It's unclear when the videos and photos were taken, and which of the two flights was represented.A migrant had told The New York Times that men and women approached him at an El Paso, Texsas, shelter and asked if he wanted to go to California. He added that the group told him no one was obligated to go."I don't know what is their motivation to organize these trips," the immigrant told the Times. "I don't know if it's political or part of the government. They didn't tell us anything."Florida's emergency management agency provided Insider with a table that listed other government officials who had relocated migrants, including Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and Democratic Mayor Eric Adams of New York City."The relocation of those illegally crossing the United States border is not new," Johnson said. "But suddenly, when Florida sends illegal aliens to a sanctuary city, it's false imprisonment and kidnapping."The comment was referring to remarks Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and the state's attorney general, Rob Bonta, made. Newsom floated the idea of pressing "kidnapping charges" against DeSantis by invoking a section of the criminal code that penalizes people who forcibly bring people into "the limits of the state."Sacramento is the capital of California and the city from which Newsom governs. California's governor is a prominent figure in the Democratic Party and a policy foil to DeSantis who frequently criticizes him. After Florida officials took credit for the flights, Newsom's office released a statement calling the video of the migrants "exploitative propaganda being peddled by a politician who has shown there are no depths he won't sink to in his desperate effort to score a political point."The migrant relocation flights are paid for with $12 million in Florida taxpayer dollars. In recent weeks, DeSantis also expanded restrictions on undocumented workers in Florida. DeSantis acknowledged in September that his administration orchestrated another plane carrying 49 migrants from San Antonio, Texas, to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. It's something he brags about frequently on the 2024 campaign trail, accusing Democrats of vitue signalling on illegal migration while being unwilling to assist in aid.He also used the stunts to criticize President Joe Biden for turning a "blind eye" toward the issue. DeSantis is scheduled to go to Sacramento for a fundraiser on June 19, according to the Sacramento Bee. He has promised that if elected president, he would resume building a border wall between the US and Mexico and reinstitute the "remain in Mexico" policy, which requires migrants to wait across the border until their asylum cases can be heard. DeSantis is the top 2024 nomination rival to President Donald Trump, whose hard-line, anti-immigration rhetoric and actions whipped up his base and led to numerous lawsuits and public backlash.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

DHS Faces Backlash Over App Used To Grant Would-Be Illegal Immigrants Entry To US Authored by Brad Jones via The Epoch Times, Critics have accused the Biden administration of downplaying the number of potential illegal immigrants that could enter the United States under two separate programs used to grant “humanitarian parole” to applicants who use a mobile phone app to book appointments at U.S. ports of entry. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), under the direction of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, expanded the CBP One app in April 2022. Erin Heeter, a DHS spokesperson, told the Epoch Times via email that as of June 1, DHS increased CBP One appointments from 1,000 to 1,250 a day, which amounts to nearly 40,000 appointments per month. However, it’s unclear how many people are included in such appointments, for example whole families, married couples, or single migrants, which means the actual number of people entering the U.S. on humanitarian grounds could be much higher. Humanitarian parole allows people to temporarily enter the U.S. if there is a “compelling emergency and there is an urgent humanitarian reason or significant public benefit,” according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. In addition, 30,000 humanitarian parole cases a month are already allowed under a program specifically for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans and their immediate family members known as CHNV announced in January. “CHNV is separate, and anyone who is approved through CHNV would be screened, vetted, and if approved, receive an advanced travel authorization to then fly into the U.S., not arrive at a land Port of Entry,” Heeter said. “CBP One for those in northern Mexico is a tool to request appointments. Each individual or family is assessed on a case-by-case basis once they arrive, not before.” The border wall near San Diego, Calif., on May 31, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) According to DHS data, even if only one person per appointment is admitted to the U.S. under both processes, more than 800,000 total migrants per year would be allowed into the country on humanitarian grounds. The recent increase in appointments is a continuation of the Biden administration’s “expansion of lawful pathways and opportunities to access them, including CBP One appointments,” Heeter said. “The process cuts out smugglers while also providing a safe, orderly, and humane process for noncitizens to access ports of entry instead of attempting to enter the United States unlawfully. We are continuing to enforce consequences for migrants who cross unlawfully, and those who do not establish a legal basis to remain in the United States will be removed,” she said. FOIA Request Foiled Todd Bensman, a senior fellow on national security at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and author of the book “Overrun: How Joe Biden Unleashed the Greatest Border Crisis in U.S. History,” told Epoch Times he has been stonewalled by DHS in his quest for more accurate figures on CBP One entries. DHS did not comply with Bensman’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and a subsequent demand letter seeking accurate numbers sent to Mayorkas on March 24 by a group of House Republicans led by U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin, said Bensman. “Mayorkas just blew them off,” he said. “They never got them.” CIS has since sued CBP demanding it comply with the law regarding the FOIA request and render information about the total number of foreign nationals who have applied for humanitarian parole using the online CBP One system since the program’s inception as a pilot program in 2021, as well as the locations of all foreign airports from which CBP One migrants departed and U.S. airports that received foreign nationals approved through the program, among other details. The American public has a right to know how many migrants are entering the country on humanitarian grounds using CBP One, Bensman said. With the May 11 expiration of Title 42, which allowed Border Patrol agents to deny migrants entry into the U.S. during the Covid-19 pandemic for public health reasons, the Biden administration claimed the U.S. would return to tougher Title 8 policies and penalties for migrants who cross the border illegally. But, that doesn’t appear to be happening, Bensman said. Migrants captured by US Border Patrol agents go through a processing center near San Diego, Calif., on May 31, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Clarity on whether a CBP One “appointment” means one individual or an entire of family of migrants is also key to understanding the scope of this massive new wave of migration, he said. “It’s important to know how many represent a single appointment. It used to be one person, one appointment as far as I know, and a family of four would have to do four applications,” he said. “I think they have changed that.” Bensman said humanitarian parole applications via the CBP One app are not the same as asylum claims, which require a “credible fear” of returning to one’s country of origin. “It’s not an asylum program of any sort. It never was, and it’s never been envisioned as such,” he said. Bensman said at a recent speaking engagement and book signing in Orange County, California, that although there have been spikes in illegal migration in the past, the sheer magnitude of this wave that began a day after Biden’s inauguration in January, 2021, is unlike any other. “We have seen nothing like this in American history. This is the worst border crisis,” he said. “This one is sustained for years now. This one is different.” If migration continues at current rates, Bensman expects more than 10 million immigrants will have entered illegally by the end of the President Joe Biden’s four-year term. According to an analysis by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, a record-breaking 5.5 million illegal immigrants crossed into the U.S. under the Biden administration as of October 2022. ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ Manny Bayon, a National Border Patrol Council union leader in San Diego, told the Epoch Times that the Biden administration has orchestrated a “back door deal” for migrants who show up at a port of entry without a pre-arranged appointment on the CBP One app, so they are still able to apply for humanitarian parole. An entire family of migrants can be processed at each “appointment” and granted humanitarian parole, he said. DHS is “fudging” the numbers, he said, to make it appear as though the administration’s immigration policies are working smoothly, and that far fewer migrants are entering the country. Handprints show an illegal border crossing near San Diego, Calif., on May 31, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) But, that’s not the case, he said. “It’s all smoke and mirrors,” Bayon said. “When they’re actually going through a port of entry and being released, they’re undocumented migrants but they’re not illegal anymore.” In the week preceding the Title 42 expiration, Bayon said the Border Patrol was holding 26,000 to 28,000 migrants nationwide. The once-steady flow of busloads of “illegal entrant aliens” that had been sent to inland Border Patrol stations in Indio, Murrieta and Blythe in California’s Riverside County for more than two years “dried up,” about a week after Title 42 expired, and would-be illegal border crossers now appear to be using the CBP One app to schedule appointments at ports of entry such as San Ysidro and Otay Mesa, Bayon said. From these land ports of entry, and others, migrants from more than 160 countries are moved to processing facilities run by non-government organizations, or NGOs, such as one in Otay Mesa, before being released and transported to their chosen destinations in the U.S. Deliberate Deceit? Chris Harris, a retired Border Patrol agent and former union leader in San Diego, told The Epoch Times the Biden administration keeps changing immigration nomenclature and confusing the public about how many people are actually entering the U.S. Harris dismissed the DHS narrative that the number of migrants entering the U.S. “illegally” has dropped dramatically since Title 42 expired, and accused the White House of going from “misfeasance” to “malfeasance” on the border crisis, he said. “It’s very difficult to figure out what the real numbers are. They keep changing the terms and what they mean,” he said. “And now, they’re playing games with the parole system.” Harris also suspects DHS deliberately uses the term “appointment” to mislead the media to believe one “appointment” means only person. He contends humanitarian parole should not be granted to entire nations such as in the case of the CHNV program. Under the law, humanitarian parole is supposed to be granted on a case-by-case individual basis, “not whole swaths of people,” he said. “So, I don’t know how you can say all Venezuelans or Cubans or Haitians can come in for parole. It’s a misuse of the law.” Migrants who qualify for humanitarian parole are issued temporary visas—usually for one or two years, before they are supposed to apply for renewal—but according to Harris and Bayon that’s not an accurate picture of what’s really happening. Tijuana, Mexico seen through the US border wall near San Diego, Calif., on May 31, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Harris, who served with the Border Patrol for more than 20 years under four administrations starting with President Bill Clinton before retiring in 2018, said the Biden administration has been the least transparent. “They are the most opaque that we’ve ever seen,” he said. “We do have an open border,” he said. “De jure we don’t, but de facto we do.” The administration refuses to answer questions and breaks up numbers into different categories that are difficult for the press and the public to find and understand. “They had a very simple reporting system on numbers before, and now it is gibberish,” he said. Former President Donald Trump’s policies were curbing illegal immigration, Harris said. “It was working fantastically well—lowest numbers ever,” he said. “He did fantastic stuff on the border.” Texas Suing Meanwhile, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over the CBP One app, claiming it allows immigrants to unlawfully enter the U.S. In a press release, Paxton said the app is the Biden administration’s attempt to “circumvent” the law to “streamline” the process of illegal immigration. He said federal law is clear that “those entering the country illegally should be expelled from the United States, except in rare circumstances.” “However, the Biden border app does not and cannot verify that an illegal immigrant would qualify for an exception, which would prevent them from being deported,” Paxton said in the release. Tyler Durden Tue, 06/06/2023 - 14:40.....»»

The Fleet Reach service from Viasat (VSAT) combines both satellite and terrestrial connectivity for faster speed, increased signal strength and lower latency. Inmarsat Maritime, an operating business of Viasat Inc. VSAT, recently announced the launch of Fleet Reach Coastal LTE service for seamless broadband connectivity near the coast or while docked in a port. Powered by Fleet Xpress, a uniquely flexible solution that leverages some of the most advanced satellite constellation, the service is likely to be available on regional plans for vessels operating in one region or multi-regional plans for those sailing around the globe.Fleet Reach combines both satellite and terrestrial connectivity for faster speed, increased signal strength and lower latency. It forms an integral part of Inmarsat ORCHESTRA, the “network of networks,” which uses multiple technologies in multiple orbits for uninterrupted connectivity. Fleet Reach constantly monitors signal quality and selects the right technology (from mobile terrestrial technologies and satellite connectivity) to ensure an always-on connection.In addition, the service is fortified by improved security credentials to maintain the safety and integrity of data and protect users from the hazards of cyber espionage. With the average vessel spending up to 40% of its time in-ports or in coastal areas, the service offers seafarers an opportunity to stay connected with their families or business endeavors.With more than 40 years of experience, Inmarsat operates a diverse portfolio of mobile telecommunications satellite networks, boasting a multi-layered global spectrum spanning L-band, Ka-band and S-band airwaves. It has established itself as a key player in the mobility segment and has achieved an edge in network design with its multi-dimensional mesh network.Viasat recently completed the buyout of Inmarsat to create a leading communications service provider with complementary assets and enhanced scale for offering affordable, secure and reliable connectivity. The combined company intends to integrate the spectrum, satellite and terrestrial assets of both firms to create a framework incorporating multi-band, multi-orbit satellites and terrestrial air-to-ground systems that can deliver higher speeds and greater density of bandwidth at high-demand locations like airport and shipping hubs and low latency at a lower cost.In particular, the merged entity boasts a broad portfolio of spectrum licenses across the Ka-, L- and S-bands and a fleet of 19 satellites in service with an additional 10 spacecraft under construction and slated for launch within the next three years. The global Ka-band footprint will support bandwidth-intensive applications driven by L-band assets that support all-weather resilience and highly reliable, narrowband and IoT connectivity. It will help unlock greater value by incorporating Viasat’s state-of-the-art beamforming, end-user terminal and payload technologies and hybrid multi-orbit space-terrestrial networking capabilities.The stock has gained 24.4% over the past year against the industry fall of 14.2%.Image Source: Zacks Investment ResearchViasat currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.Key PicksInterDigital, Inc. IDCC, sporting a Zacks Rank #1, delivered an earnings surprise of 170.89%, on average, in the trailing four quarters. In the last reported quarter, it pulled off an earnings surprise of 579.03%. It has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 13.9%.It is a pioneer in advanced mobile technologies that enables wireless communications and capabilities. The company engages in designing and developing a wide range of advanced technology solutions, which are used in digital cellular and wireless 3G, 4G and IEEE 802-related products and networks.Akamai Technologies, Inc. AKAM, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), delivered an earnings surprise of 4.9%, on average, in the trailing four quarters. It has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 10%.Akamai is a global provider of content delivery network and cloud infrastructure services. The company’s solutions accelerate and improve the delivery of content over the Internet, enabling faster response to requests for web pages, streaming of video & audio, business applications, etc. Akamai’s offerings are intended to reduce the impact of traffic congestion, bandwidth constraints and capacity limitations on customers.Turtle Beach Corporation HEAR, carrying a Zacks Rank #2, is another key pick. It develops, commercializes and markets gaming headset solutions for various platforms, including video game and entertainment consoles, handheld consoles, personal computers, tablets, and mobile devices under the Turtle Beach brand.Turtle Beach is well positioned to benefit from quality products and enjoys a solid foothold in its served markets. Its headsets are suited for learning and working remotely via video or audio conferencing. It has long-term earnings growth expectation of 16%. Top 5 ChatGPT Stocks Revealed Zacks Senior Stock Strategist, Kevin Cook names 5 hand-picked stocks with sky-high growth potential in a brilliant sector of Artificial Intelligence. By 2030, the AI industry is predicted to have an internet and iPhone-scale economic impact of $15.7 Trillion. Today you can invest in the wave of the future, an automation that answers follow-up questions … admits mistakes … challenges incorrect premises … rejects inappropriate requests. As one of the selected companies puts it, “Automation frees people from the mundane so they can accomplish the miraculous.”Download Free ChatGPT Stock Report Right Now >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Akamai Technologies, Inc. (AKAM): Free Stock Analysis Report InterDigital, Inc. (IDCC): Free Stock Analysis Report Viasat Inc. (VSAT): Free Stock Analysis Report Turtle Beach Corporation (HEAR): Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research.....»»

Owning a fancy iPhone signals success, wealth, and tech savvy. Walking around with ski goggles on your face, when you're not skiing, is just strange. Apple Vision Pro headset has a fatal flaw: They are nerd goggles.Apple Apple is a master at turning technical computing devices into luxury status symbols. Mixed-reality headsets are the company's biggest challenge yet.  If Apple can't make them work on a huge scale, they probably won't become the next big tech platform.  This is the reality for Apple's Vision Pro mixed-reality headset: It's another pair of nerd goggles that will make most people look decidedly uncool.Apple is usually a master at turning technical gadgetry into desirable status symbols. For now, the Vision Pro has failed to do pull this off.Scott Galloway doesn't always make the best calls on the future of technology, but the NYU marketing professor hit the nail on the head when describing the magic of Apple products back in 2017."The No. 1 signal of wealth, the No. 1 signal of power and the No. 1 signal of your likelihood of a random sexual encounter and a greater selection set among potential mates is the iPhone," he said. "An iPhone is saying to the opposite sex or to a potential mate, 'I have good genes. You should mate with me.'"Owning a fancy iPhone signals success, wealth, and tech savvy.A green text from someone from an Android phone, on the other hand, can elicit judgment, as Android devices are generally cheaper. The response may not be honorable, but it's often the case. It's a big part of what made the iPhone the most profitable computing device in history and helped Apple's market valuation skyrocket to $2.8 trillion.A similar thing happens when a person walks by at the airport holding a MacBook, wearing AirPods Max headphones, and sporting a high-end Apple Watch. This person is pretty cool.Now, imagine that same person wearing the Pro Vision headset at the airport. They are going to look either silly or disconnected from reality. At best, wearing this device on your face will suggest that you love video games and Apple devices intensely — so intensely that you may not have much love left for other humans. There's a market for that, but it's a lot smaller than the one created by the iPhone.  It's noteworthy that many of the Vision Pro images Apple shared on Monday were of women — rather than geeky male gamers — wearing the device. One photo shows a woman on a phone with the gadget set back on her head -- so you can see her whole face.Its hard to imagine Apple Vision Pro ever becoming cool.AppleI put all this to a close friend who lives, and dates, in New York City. We talk sometimes about technology, Apple, and related topics. She's one of those people who can't help herself from reacting negatively to green iMessage bubbles, so she's an Apple fan usually. Would she be impressed by a guy wearing a $3,499 Apple Pro Vision headset? "Definitely not," she replied. "Won't work."Why?"Nothing that makes you look worse will work on your face," she said. Of course, other Apple devices have stumbled out of the gate, only to go on to major success and prove doubters wrong. AirPods and the Apple Watch come to mind. And this is only the first iteration of Apple's headset. The ultimate goal is probably to pack all the prowess of the Vision Pro into a cool slim pair of glasses. Many people look cool in glasses, including Scott Galloway and my friend who lives in New York.If any tech company can create glasses with these capabilities, it will be Apple. However, Mark Gurman, the top Apple reporter, recently wrote that Apple's AI glasses were postponed indefinitely due to "technical challenges.""Apple's initial dream of offering a lightweight pair of AR glasses that people could wear all day now appears many years away — if it happens at all," he wrote in January. So, it's nerd goggles for now. Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

A previous flight arrived Friday, and the migrants who arrived Monday carried paperwork tying them to the DeSantis administration, officers told Insider. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.Justin Sullivan/Getty Images and Sean Rayford/Getty Images A second flight carrying roughly 20 migrants landed in Sacramento on Monday.  Another plane arrived over the weekend.  Officials suspect Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is behind it.  A second plane carrying roughly 20 migrants landed in Sacramento, California, on Monday, and the people involved were carrying paperwork that links them to Florida, the California attorney general's office said. Special agents from the California Department of Justice were on the ground with the migrants at the airport, representatives from the office told Insider. Monday's revelation comes after 16 migrants from Venezuela and Colombia arrived by plane on Friday and were dropped off at a Catholic church. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is also a 2024 presidential candidate, has yet to speak publicly about the matter. His office did not reply to a series of questions from Insider, but in September the governor acknowledged his administration orchestrated another plane carrying 49 migrants from San Antonio, Texas, to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.DeSantis frequently rolls out surprise announcements that create backlash — enough to gin up national headlines that cause liberals to seethe, while endearing himself to conservatives. The paperwork in question showed Florida's emergency division, as well as contractor Vertol Systems Company, administered the travel. A representative from Florida's emergency division confirmed the office hadn't released a statement about the flights but didn't respond to a list of questions from Insider. DeSantis frequently boasts about the Martha's Vineyard stunt in speeches, including on the 2024 presidential campaign trail. California Gov. Gavin Newsom suggested on Twitter that investigators were considering kidnapping charges under the state's laws and called DeSantis a "small, pathetic man." He and California Attorney General Rob Bonta have already said they think DeSantis is responsible for the flights. Speaking to CNN on Sunday, Bonta accused DeSantis of demonstrating "pettiness, lack of substance," as well as "xenophobia," "discrimination and racism." Asked to weigh in Monday, before news of the second flight was made public, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the practice of relocating migrants "dangerous and unacceptable.""You're putting a lot of pressure on these state and local areas," she said in a press conference.If DeSantis is behind the latest round of flights, it would show he was taking direct aim at Newsom, who has criticized DeSantis' policies and whose government is centered in Sacramento, the state's capital. Newsom is considered a rising star in the Democratic Party, perhaps even a presidential contender someday, but has said he fully supports President Joe Biden's reelection bid. In an interview with Insider in April, Newsom called DeSantis' actions on numerous matters, including immigration, "performative" and "very destructive."DeSantis is scheduled to go to Sacramento for a fundraiser on June 19, according to the Sacramento Bee. The governor has accused localities who say they support illegal immigration of being hypocrites on the matter, arguing that blue states virtue signal on undocumented migration, while border states take on the vast majority of aid and are overwhelmed. In recent weeks DeSantis expanded restrictions on undocumented workers in Florida and allocated $12 million toward migrant relocation programs. DeSantis has framed the policies as a direct response to Biden's immigration policies, saying that the president turned a "blind eye" to the issue. DeSantis has promised that if elected president he would resume the border wall between the US and Mexico and reinstitute the "remain in Mexico" policy, which requires migrants to wait across the border until their asylum cases can be heard. DeSantis is the top 2024 nomination rival to President Donald Trump, whose hard-line, anti-immigration rhetoric and actions whipped up his base and led to numerous lawsuits and public backlash.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

Jesse Collier tried hidden city ticketing through Skiplagged and made the layover city her final stop, but she ran into a big problem when the she was asked to check her bag at the gate. Jesse Collier found herself in a nightmare situation after she tried hidden city ticketing through Skiplagged.Jesse Collier Jesse Collier used a travel hack called "skiplagging" to find cheaper tickets for her vacation. She purchased a flight with a layover, but skipped the second leg to get off in the layover city. Collier details how she got separated from her luggage and spent her vacation in the same clothes she boarded the plane in. What are you willing to do to save a buck in travel? Some might rough it up in a hostel, others might stuff all their outfits in a carry-on or break an airline policy or two.I did the latter and tried hidden city ticketing via Skiplagged.Hidden city ticketing is when you purchase a flight with a layover, but never get on the second leg, so your destination is the layover city.This travel "hack" is a gray area. It's not illegal, but it is against many airlines' Terms and Conditions — you know, that box you check when you legally agree to abide by policies you didn't read.I had just gotten laid off from my job and decided to take a spontaneous multi-state, cross-country vacationBeing in between jobs made me conscious of my spending, so I was hunting for a good deal. I managed to find reasonably-priced accommodation, but one-way flights from LAX to NYC were around $400, which was a lot for me.That's when I saw an ad for Skiplagged, which championed its hidden city ticketing hack. In my case, the trip was from Los Angeles to New York City to Buffalo. I would be hopping off in NYC and going along my merry way — or so I thought.I booked the flight and really thought I was a genius. I told my mom, husband, and my best friend Becky that I found a great deal. $146 for a cross-country flight! Who could beat it?The catch of hidden city ticketing is that you cannot check a bagThis is because the bag would go to the final destination (in my instance, Buffalo). I stuffed my rolling carry-on bag with all the warm clothes and necessities I needed to visit the east coast in February. It wasn't easy, but I made it work. Seconds after arriving at LAX, my smug travel hacking persona was taken over by an anxious mess. What if this doesn't work? What if they make me gate-check my bag? If you've ever scored a really cheap plane ticket, it's more than likely that you're sitting at the back of the plane and you're in the absolute worst boarding group you could ever imagine. While those instances are not the end of the world, it usually means one thing: overhead bins are full and you're forced to gate-check your bag.After making it through security, I noticed my boarding group number — 5 — and nervously laughed to myself. Who knew they went that low?I sat at the gate for 40 minutes and racked my brain trying to figure out what to do if they asked me to check my bag. The gate attendants warned us about a full flight over the speaker, letting us know that we will likely be asked to check our carry-ons.Boarding Group 5 was finally called and I slowly walked up to the gate. Before she even looked at me, the attendant had her hand out to collect my bag. I scanned my pass while she wrapped a tag around the handle.I nervously asked if I could get my bag in New York. "I can't gate-check it." she said, and then politely motioned for the next guest to approach. And that was the end of the conversation.I spent the entirety of the 5-hour flight trying to figure out how to get out of this messI realized I had two options: follow my bag to Buffalo and come back to NYC, losing a day or so of travel, or abandon my bag and see what I can do to get it back.Neither of those options were how I wanted to spend my first couple of days in New York City.As the flight landed, I had an idea — and it wasn't my proudest moment. I pulled out my makeup compact and rubbed my eyes, one by one, smudging my mascara. I wiped some black residue off my eyelid and dabbed it underneath my eye. I looked at my reflection and saw my eyes were red and I looked like hell. Good.As I exited the plane, I gave my best sick-girl look to a gate attendant, and said, "I'm supposed to go to Buffalo but I just came down with something on the flight and I feel really sick. Is it possible to get my bag?"The kind woman empathized but didn't know how to help me. She told me that I should really see a doctor, though, then sent me to another department at the airport. But they also didn't help me and told me to call the customer service line.Either way, my bag was already on the plane to Buffalo.I spent the next two days in the same clothes I boarded the plane inI found myself caught in this cycle of calling the customer service line, being told they would put my bag on a plane to New York City and I could either have it delivered or go pick it up, only to be ghosted hours later and be told my bag never made it on that plane.I wanted to feel bad for myself, but really it just felt like karma. I thought that this is what I get for lying and breaking the rules.I learned a trip costs more than just moneyIn my extensive research on how to get my bag back, I found out that some airlines have banned people who are caught trying to do exactly what I did.Multiple airlines, including the one I used, have since attempted to sue Skiplagged for encouraging these practices. The last thing I need as a broke traveler is to be blacklisted by one of the largest airlines in the US.I finally got my bag delivered to my Airbnb, but not without paying $60 in delivery fees.Hidden city ticketing is positioned in the travel community as a "travel hack," but I'll tell anyone who asks that it's rarely worth the hassle. Sure, it can save you money — for me, it saved around $200 — but there was an added cost I never accounted for: my time and peace of mind. I spent two days in New York City on the phone and my computer, agonizing over whether I would get my luggage back. Those two days could have been spent enjoying a pretzel in Central Park, seeing the Book of Mormon, or eating delicious pizza — all of which are more enjoyable than waiting on hold with an airline.There are better ways to save a buck in travel. I'll happily pay $200 if that means I don't have to wash my undergarments in a sink to re-wear them.Jesse Collier is the creator of Road Jess Traveled and helps people save, plan, and book their dream vacations. Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

An airport grounds services company at Dublin Airport said it is conducting an investigation after a man's remains were never unloaded from a plane. One man's remains were accidentally left on a plane at Dublin Airport due to an unloading mistake and flown back to Greece.Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty One man's remains were accidentally left on a plane at Dublin Airport and flown back to Greece.  His family was reportedly waiting with a hearse at the airport.  The company in charge of airport grounds services said it is investigating the incident.  An Irishman who passed away in Greece was transported by plane to Dublin Airport but an unloading mistake resulted in his coffin being flown all the way back to Greece, Irish newspaper the Sunday Independent reported. On May 22, the man's remains were transported in a coffin on an Aegean Airline plane from Athens International Airport to Dublin Airport where his family had been waiting for him with a hearse, per the Sunday Independent. Details surrounding his death have not been revealed. However, due to a "misload," the coffin wasn't spotted by grounds service and thus never unloaded from the plane, the newspaper wrote. He was then flown back to Greece. Swissport, the company responsible for ground handling at Dublin Airport, reportedly resolved the situation by arranging for the man's body to be returned on another flight the next day, the newspaper wrote.Swissport did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment about the incident. Insider also contacted Aegean Airlines via Twitter but did not immediately hear back. In a statement to the Sunday Independent, Swissport said it had apologized to the family of the deceased man and is conducting an internal investigation into how the blunder occurred.Aegean Airlines is the biggest airline group in Greece and was ranked one of the best regional airlines in Europe by Skytrax in 2022.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»

After the second world war, passenger air travel quickly became much more common, thanks to improvements in technology and safety. Over the decades since, traveling by air has become much safer than traveling by car. Even so, many people have a fear of flying, in part because of the potential for catastrophic occurrences, no matter […] After the second world war, passenger air travel quickly became much more common, thanks to improvements in technology and safety. Over the decades since, traveling by air has become much safer than traveling by car. Even so, many people have a fear of flying, in part because of the potential for catastrophic occurrences, no matter how rare they are. One of these is terrorism.  To find the deadliest commercial flight bombings, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the Aviation Safety Network’s database on sabotage and airplane bombs. Bombings are ranked by the number of fatalities. All other data included is from the database. The ASN has tracked airplane bombings since 1949. In most incidents, all of the passengers are killed. In the early days of air travel, planes were bombed to gain life insurance money. Others were attempts by spouses to kill their partners with timebombs.  Political reasons became a primary motive for airplane bombings as the pace of air travel accelerated in the succeeding decades. Libyan terrorists were responsible for two of the four most lethal bombings on our list – Pan Am Flight N739PA that killed 270 people over Lockerbie, United Kingdom, in 1988, and UTA Flight N54629 that killed 170 people over the Ténéré desert, in Niger, in 1989.  Two Chechen suicide bombers succeeded in destroying two Russian Tupolev jets on the same day, Aug. 24, 2004. These bombings killed a combined 90 people. The attacks occurred during the Second Chechen War. (These are the countries hit hardest by terrorists.) Another infamous attack that occurred in 1989 was the bombing of Avianca Flight HK-1803 that killed 107 people near Bogotá-Eldorado Airport in Colombia. Five years after the bombing,  Dandeny Munoz-Mosquera, an assassin with the Medellin drug cartel, was convicted in connection with the attack. He allegedly had arranged to place the bomb aboard the aircraft to kill two informers who were cooperating with Colombian authorities. (These are 22 airports where the most gun incidents made the news this year.) Click here to see the deadliest commercial flight bombings. Sponsored: Find a Qualified Financial Advisor Finding a qualified financial advisor doesn’t have to be hard. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you with up to 3 fiduciary financial advisors in your area in 5 minutes. Each advisor has been vetted by SmartAsset and is held to a fiduciary standard to act in your best interests. If you’re ready to be matched with local advisors that can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now......»»

In this article, we are going to discuss 16 rental car companies, ranked from worst to best. You can skip our detailed analysis of the history of the car rental business, biggest player in the market, effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, shortage of vehicles, introduction of EVs and future prospects of the car rental industry […] In this article, we are going to discuss 16 rental car companies, ranked from worst to best. You can skip our detailed analysis of the history of the car rental business, biggest player in the market, effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, shortage of vehicles, introduction of EVs and future prospects of the car rental industry and go directly to 5 Rental Car Companies, Ranked from Worst to Best. Even before Karl Benz and Wilhelm Maybach invented the modern car that we know today, people had been renting out horses and carriages for centuries. In fact, the rental business has been around for thousands of years and even in ancient Rome, people used to rent out horses and chariots.  The earliest car rental records are from 1904, when a bicycle shop in Minneapolis started renting out cars. Then in 1912, Martin Sixt founded the first rental company ‘Martin Sixt Autofahrten’ in Bavaria with three vehicles. The company Sixt is still in existence today, with locations in over 100 countries.  Currently, the largest rental car company in the world is Enterprise Rent-A-Car. With approximately 10,000 offices in almost 100 countries, Enterprise currently boasts a fleet of over 2.1 million vehicles and over 80,000 employees worldwide. Enterprise had an estimated revenue of $30 billion in 2022 and ranks 16th in the Forbes Top 500 Private Companies List. Enterprise Holdings also incorporated the National and Alamo brands in 2007.  The Covid-19 pandemic had devastating effects on the overall travel travel industry and the rental car business was no exception. After years of steady and continuous growth, car operators had to eventually sell off huge parts of their fleet and Hertz, of the Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTZ), even filed for bankruptcy.  According to statistics by companies such as Sixt, Hertz and Budget, ridership numbers dropped by 61% during 2020, when only 17.3 million cars were rented in the U.S. This is in stark contrast to 2019, when the number of vehicles rented reached 44.5 million. Industry revenue also plummeted in 2020 and according to the United States Census Bureau, there was a drop of 19.7% between the industry revenue of the fourth quarters of 2019 and 2020. Also, 40,000 positions were eliminated in the American car rental industry in 2020, according to a report by the BLS Beta Labs. Major rental car operators also sold off more than 770,000 vehicles, or in other words, 1 in 3 vehicles that were previously rented out by these companies, were put out of service.  However, when the lockdowns were finally lifted and people began to travel again, the rental car businesses were faced with a new problem. After going into survival mode during the pandemic, the industry was not able to keep up with this sudden surge in demand in 2021, resulting in an acute shortage of vehicles and thus, sky-high prices. The semiconductor chip shortage, which was particularly rough on the auto-production industry, made matters even worse, creating a lack of inventory for car rental agencies to purchase from. Forbes has revealed that the average customer-cited rental fee at the end of 2022 was around $90 per day, compared to $76 in 2019.  Although Hertz filed for bankruptcy protection in May of 2020, the company has since agreed to a bankruptcy plan, and it escaped the financial doghouse in July 2021. In fact, the company is back in growth mode and even ordered a massive fleet of 100,000 Model 3 vehicles by Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA), to electrify its rental cars. More recently, the company has also added the Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) Model Y vehicles to its order. Although Hertz expected full delivery of its 100,000 EVs by the end of 2022, Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) was only able to deliver about half of them.  According to ReportLinker, the future of the global car rental industry looks promising and it is expected to reach an estimated $145.6 billion by 2027, with a CAGR of 6.7% from 2021 to 2027.  That said, here is a list of 16 Rental Car Companies, Ranked from Worst to Best.  nito/Shutterstock.com Methodology:  Renting a car in the U.S. has become easier now than it was during the rental car shortage. According to a recent study, renting a car for people in the United States has generally been a positive experience. The ACSI Travel Study 2022-23, shows that satisfaction with the industry has risen by 1% over the past year.  To keep our list as objective as possible, we’ve gone through several different reliable sources to collect data, such as American Customer Satisfaction Index Travel Study 2022-23, J.D. Power 2022 North America Rental Car Satisfaction Study, Jalopnik, Consumer Affairs, Travel + Leisure and Autoslash.  These rankings are based on several different factors, such as customer experiences, availability, prices, industry standings, conditions of the fleet, mobile apps etc.  We picked car rental companies that have appeared in these indexes and assigned them a score based on their rankings in each report. For instance, there are a total of 8 companies in the ACSI Travel Study 2022-2023, so the #1 company will get a score of 8/8=1 and the #2 company will get a score of 7/8=0.88 and so on. The same process was repeated for all the other indexes as well and, based on these reports, we determined an average score for each company and ranked it accordingly. The rental car companies are ranked from worst to best and the respective overall average scores are from a total of 1.   16. Payless Car Rental Average Overall Score: 0.01 Headquartered in Florida, Payless Car Rental company is owned by the Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CAR). Although Payless has decent baseline prices, its over 120 nationwide locations are mostly based at the biggest airports.  However, their low rates come at a high cost. As noted by sources, the aging and substandard car fleet of the company often causes problems and customers have often complained about confusing contracts, hidden fees, long wait times and “rude” representatives. It’s also very difficult to register a complaint with the company based on reviews. Even a class action lawsuit was filed against Payless back in 2016, due to the add-on charges it collects from its customers, making it one of the worst car rental companies in the United States.   15. Firefly Car Rental Average Overall Score: 0.03 Firefly is a low-cost and low-rated rental car company owned by Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTZ). This budget brand was developed by Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTZ) after it sold off Advantage Rent a Car, following the acquisition of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group. Customers of the company have often complained about hidden insurance costs and daily fees, staff unavailability, long wait times and not receiving their promised refunds on time.  14. Europcar Average Overall Score: 0.04 Although Europcar is technically a French company, it has thousands of locations worldwide, including many in the United States. With its over 9,000 employees worldwide, the company has been in business since 1949.  Europcar has often received complaints about customers having to pre-pay for fuel, additional insurance costs, unfair damage charges and other hidden costs.  13. E-Z Rent-A-Car Average Overall Score: 0.05 Founded in 1994, E-Z Rent-A-Car company is headquartered in Orlando, Florida. E-Z is owned by Advantage and in 2022, both companies agreed to pay $4.6 million to settle allegations that they overcharged customers who damaged their vehicles. Customers of E-Z have often complained about extra insurance fees, staff unavailability and non-consensual spiked daily rates.  12. Fox Rent A Car Average Overall Score: 0.07 As part of the Europcar Mobility Group, Fox operates 21 corporate locations across the U.S. and many other locations worldwide. The company has a workforce of over 1000 and boasts a diverse fleet of 20,000 vehicles, according to its website.  Although the company is known for its loyalty program, last-minute rentals and low prices, customers have often complained about hidden deposits for tolls, additional drivers and insurance. Its customer service has also often been reviewed as rude and unhelpful.  11. ACE Rent a Car Average Overall Score: 0.08 In 1966, Robert Sorenson and Ken Osterand founded the car rental company in Indianapolis, to meet the local demand of the surrounding neighborhoods. They started off with 10 Volkswagens and now the company has over 300 locations worldwide. ACE Rent a Car is now owned by the Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CAR).  Though the company has competitive prices in the budget car rental category, it has very limited locations in the U.S. and their rewards program is not popular among their customers either. Customers have also complained about long waiting times, unhelpful staff, hidden charges and poor fleet conditions.  10. Advantage Rent a Car Average Overall Score: 0.08 Advantage is a smaller company and although they have slightly higher prices than their customers, they offer newer, better and a wider array of vehicles to their customers. The major problem with the company is that it has only 6 locations nationwide and those are also all airport locations.  The company has also often received negative reviews for its lack of a loyalty program, hidden charges and overcharging its customers for damages.  9. Sixt Rent a Car Average Overall Score: 0.21 Founded in Germany in 1912, Sixt is the oldest rental car company in the world. With over 2,000 locations in more than 100 countries, Sixt entered the U.S. market in 2011. Though the company has over 100 locations in the country, they’re limited to 18 states only, but it is continuously expanding its footprint in the American market.  Sixt offers an efficient rewards program to its clients and the advantage here is that they can use their rewards card anywhere in the world because of the company’s dominating global presence. Sixt+ is also a very cost-effective and efficient long-term rental program offered by the company to its loyal clientele. The company is also known for its excellent customer service but clients have often complained about hidden insurance costs and other charges.  8. Thrifty Car Rental Average Overall Score: 0.29 Thrifty is a Florida-based rental car company, owned by Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTZ). Thrifty is a great choice for a budget car rental company and offers some of the most competitive prices in the market. The company also offers decent location-specific deals and discounts and its rewards program, Blue Chip, is efficient and simple to use.  Though it has a limited number of locations, the customer service isn’t always great and the company also charges excessive fees to drivers between 20-25 years of age, clients have overall had good experience with Thrifty.  7. Dollar Rent a Car Average Overall Score: 0.43 Founded by Henry Caruso in 1965, Dollar Rent a Car is also owned by Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTZ). The company has over 570 locations worldwide, including more than 250 in the U.S. and handles about 3% of the American market.  Dollar is a budget rental car company and offers some of the lowest rates in the industry. Although the company has received complaints about its customer service, Dollar is a good choice for a low-budget clientele and the company has also started easing its credit card requirements. Dollar also rents to 20-year olds in every state, which is a whole year younger than most other car rental companies.  6. Budget Rent a Car Average Overall Score: 0.47 Headquartered in New Jersey, Budget Rent a Car is a subsidiary of the Avis Budget Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:CAR). With its 1,300 nationwide locations and below-average prices, Dollar is a fine choice for people looking for cheaper and convenient deals. The company also offers a substantial discount (35% off base price) if you pay when you make the reservation.  On the flipside, it is not among the best reviewed car rental companies in America. The company has received mixed reviews about its customer service, dirty fleet and lack of points or other ways to earn free rentals.  Click to continue reading and see the 5 Rental Car Companies, Ranked from Worst to Best. Suggested Articles: 9 Biggest Rental Car Companies in the World 10 Best Car Stocks to Buy Now 12 Countries that Produce the Most Cars Disclosure: None. 16 Rental Car Companies, Ranked from Worst to Best is originally published on Insider Monkey......»»

This near-retiree has a house budget of about $375,000 and a desire for great weather for arthritis......»»

The airline said a customer was arrested after the Paris to Detroit flight was diverted to an airport in Canada on Friday. The Delta flight from Paris to Detroit was diverted to a Canadian airport.Nicolas Economou/Getty Images A Delta flight had to divert to Canada after a passenger became unruly on the flight, the airline said. The Delta jet was flying from Paris to Detroit but had to land at Stephenville to remove the passenger.  An airport official told WXYZ Detroit the passenger broke free of his restraints before the plane landed. A Delta flight made an unscheduled landing on Friday after a passenger reportedly became unruly and "broke free" of his restraints.Tracking data from FlightAware showed flight DL97 departed from Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport in France about 10:30 a.m. Friday local time and was bound for Detroit, Michigan. However, it diverted to Stephenville Dymond International Airport in Canada about six hours later.A Delta representative told Insider that a passenger was arrested after the plane landed."Delta has zero tolerance for unruly behavior, especially when it potentially compromises the safety of our customers and flight crew. This unruly customer was removed at Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador, and remanded to the custody of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police," the representative said.A Canadian airport official told WXYZ Detroit that a passenger broke free of his restraints on the flight and had to be held down by several other travelers until the plane landed in Canada.A video posted online by the ABC affiliate showed a passenger being led off the plane by police. He could be heard saying "What am I under arrest for?" in the video. Dena Haddad, a passenger on the flight, told WXYZ that the arrested man had been "violent and they wouldn't calm down."Stephenville Dymond Airport and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider. The flight departed for Detroit Metro Airport about 90 minutes later, according to FlightAware.Unscheduled landings due to unruly or aggressive passenger are rare but not unheard of. In April, a United flight turned back three hours into its journey after a "disruptive" passenger sat in a crew seat and got into a shouting match with flight attendants.And in February, CNN reported that an American Airlines flight made an emergency landing after a passenger who was denied a drink charged the cockpit.Read the original article on Business Insider.....»»