Good morning and welcome to Thursday. Pro tip: If you ever want to read a brand new sentence, just google “Florida man” along with the date.

Try it today and you’ll find gems like: “Florida Man Arrested After Praising the Lord While Highway-Surfing His Cadillac.”

Florida, man… ain’t no place like it.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news takes 4.16 minutes to read.

"No person is happy unless they believe they are."

–Publilius Syrus (85 BC – 43 BC)

In yesterday’s Speed Round about TerraUSD, the third-largest stablecoin in the world, we wrote that its price dropped to a record low of ~30 cents on Monday, when it actually occurred on Wednesday (last-minute edits🤦‍♀️). 

As of last night, TerraUSD’s price had rebounded to ~78 cents.

Plus, a clarification: Atlanta rappers Young Thug and Gunna were arrested alongside 26 other alleged gang members accused of conspiring to violate Georgia's RICO act.

The NCAA updated its name, image, and likeness (NIL) guidelines this week for the first time since they were implemented last summer, specifically targeting a loophole that allowed groups of boosters to skirt the rules.

💰 What’s going on?... Shortly after NIL laws came into effect last July, many boosters began pooling money to form businesses called “collectives” that facilitated NIL deals for athletes at their favorite schools.

• As it turns out, many of these collectives had been signing deals violating the NCAA’s only rule when it comes to NIL: no paying a player specifically to attend a certain school. 
• The rule had always applied to individual boosters, but this week’s change explicitly covers collectives as well.
• The NCAA said it may pursue the most outrageous violations that occurred over the past 10 months, but its “focus is on the future” in regards to the updated rules.

✋ Yes, but… Nearly two dozen states have laws on the books prohibiting schools and the NCAA from punishing athletes for accepting money from third parties. The new guidelines, if enforced by the NCAA, could lead to legal challenges that industry consensus says “would be incredibly difficult for the NCAA to win,” per Axios.

US inflation remained near a four-decade high in April per the latest Consumer Price Index released yesterday, declining slightly to an annualized rate of 8.3% (from 8.5%). It’s the first time inflation has decreased in eight months.

💵 By the numbers...

• The core index, which excludes the often-volatile categories of food and energy, rose at an annual rate of 6.2%. 
• Energy costs were up 30.3% year over year and food prices rose 9.4%, the largest 12-month jump since 1981.
• The cost of airfare surged a record 18.6% compared to a year ago, largely driven by higher fuel prices and an increase in demand for travel.

📝 The bottom line: While the latest report shows that US inflation has likely peaked, the figures underscore the breadth of price increases in the economy and, when combined with firm wage growth, suggest high inflation will persist for some time, Bloomberg reports. Translation: We're not quite through this yet.

More than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year, a roughly 15% increase from the previous record set in 2020, per new CDC data published yesterday. This translates to one death from an overdose every ~5 minutes.

💊 By the numbers...

• Fentanyl – a drug ~50 times stronger than heroin – and other synthetic opioids were responsible for 71,000+ deaths, up 23% from the year before.
• There was also a 23% increase in deaths involving cocaine, and a 34% increase in deaths involving meth and other stimulants.
• Geographically, overdose trends were experienced unevenly. Alaska saw a 75% year-over-year increase in deaths, the largest of any state; on the flip side, overdose deaths in Hawaii fell by 2% last year. But only three states – New Hampshire, Maryland and of course Hawaii – saw a year-over-year decrease.

📸 Big picture: The US has recorded more than one million overdose deaths since 2000, with more than half of those coming over the past seven years.

• A peer-reviewed study published in January found US adolescents and young adults lost an estimated 1.2 million years of life from unintentional drug overdoses between 2015 and 2019.

+IMPORTANT: If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357.

The end of the school year is almost here, finally. But as we know all too well, we’ll blink and it’ll be September again.😨

💪 Level up… What you do this summer can make all the difference in the classroom this fall. If you want to help your or your staff's teaching development, Mud & Ink Teaching offers 3 ways to get the job done:

• Enjoy the benefit of a completely neutral mentor with 1:1 coaching or group sessions!
• Book a presentation on curriculum design in English language arts, poetry instruction, best practices in lesson design, and more!
• Check out one of the workshops here – or even book your own!

🍎 Mud & Ink was founded by Amanda Cardenas, a 13-year English teacher, Golden Apple Scholar, staff development leader, presenter of national development events/conferences, and guest on countless interviews and podcasts! When a taste for adventure meets a passion for teaching, teachers turn to Mud & Ink.

➡️ Level up your teaching this summer with Mud & Ink.

One day after discontinuing the iPod, Apple is no longer the most valuable company in the world. Coincidence?🤔

😒 Not exactly… Oil giant Saudi Aramco, whose full-year profit last year more than doubled due to soaring oil prices, closed trading yesterday valued at $2.43 trillion. Apple shares fell more than 5%, pegging the company’s current value at $2.37 trillion.

• Saudi Aramco’s stock is up more than 27% so far this year.
• Over that same period Apple has fallen 16%, erasing around $500 billion in market value.

💻📉 The big picture: While the surge in oil prices is good for Aramco’s profits, near record-high inflation is driving the Fed to raise interest rates at the fastest pace in more than two decades. And as we’ve previously reported, higher interest rates usually lead to slower (or negative) growth for tech stocks because it reduces the value investors place on their future earnings.

• In the four day period following the Fed raising interest rates by half a point, tech giants lost more than $1 trillion in value.

💰📉 Zoom out: All three major US indexes finished yesterday in the red on the heels of the latest CPI report. (Dow: -1.0% | S&P: -1.7% | Nasdaq: -3.2%)

• ☝️ A celebrity doctor’s LA mansion sold for nearly $46 million at auction this week; the ~21,000 square-foot house features a movie theater, a champagne-tasting room, and a car museum basement straight out of Iron Man.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

• 🎰 US casinos reported the highest monthly revenue in industry history this past March ($5.31 billion), according to a new report from the American Gaming Association.
• 🔎 The SEC and FTC are both investigating Elon Musk over his late disclosure of a sizable stake in Twitter last month, sources told the WSJ.
• 🤝 Embattled EV startup Lordstown Motors announced the closure of a $230 million deal to sell its Ohio factory to Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn. (Background from the DONUT)

SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🍿 Netflix plans to launch a lower-priced ad-supported tier by the end of this year, according to an internal memo obtained by the NY Times. | Disney reported 137 million total streaming subscribers yesterday, a 7.9 million quarter-over-quarter jump. 
• 💰 Chicken Soup for the Soul, which owns Crackle, agreed to buy Redbox in an all-stock deal valuing the video rental company at around $36 million (but $375 million including debt).
• ⚾ Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich hit for the cycle yesterday for the third time in his career, tying an all-time MLB record. (One fun thing: all three cycles came against the Reds.)

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

• 🪐💧 China’s Zhurong Mars rover discovered evidence suggesting that water was present on the red planet for much longer than scientists previously thought.
• 👁️ Scientists at the University of Utah were able to restore the communication ability of eyes collected from post-mortem donors, opening the door for new methods of brain and vision research, per a new peer-reviewed study.
• 👓 Google teased its latest AR glasses at the company's annual developer conference yesterday; they give the wearer the ability to see spoken languages translated right in front of their eyes; the tech giant also unveiled its first smartwatch, the Pixel Watch.

EVERYTHING ELSE

• 📝 An initial US gov’t report found hundreds of Native American children died at federal boarding schools during the 19th and 20th centuries; the report was commissioned after the discovery of unmarked graves at similar schools in Canada.
• 🇮🇱🇵🇸 Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot and killed yesterday while reporting on an Israeli military raid; Al Jazeera and the two reporters she was traveling with blamed Israeli forces, while Israel initially suggested she was killed by stray fire from Palestinian troops.
• ⚖️ Relatives of victims of last year’s Surfside condo collapse reached a proposed $997 million settlement to resolve wrongful death claims.
• 🏛️ A Democrat-backed bill to codify the abortion protections from Roe v. Wade into law failed to pass yesterday, as expected, after it didn’t reach the 60-vote threshold to overcome the Senate filibuster; Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) joined all 50 Republicans in voting against the measure. (From the Left | From the Right | See the 360° View)

💬 Quoted… “I have no idea how to fly the airplane."

• A passenger with no flying experience successfully landed a small private plane in Palm Beach, FL, on Tuesday after the pilot suffered a medical emergency.

📉 Stat of the Day: ⅔ of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck as of March, according to a report from LendingClub.

🌎 Around the World: The government of Thailand is sending out one million free cannabis plants after a new law goes into effect in June allowing people to grow marijuana at home.

🤯 Did You Know?... The hairstyle worn by Princess Leia in Star Wars was inspired by the women of the Mexican Revolution, most notably guerrilla fighter Clara de la Rocha.

📖 Worth a Read: Thanks to Remote Work, Many in Gen Z May Never Work in an Office. Will It Matter? → (WSJ)

🔴 A generic Republican congressional candidate (29%): “I think the federal government needs more balance right now – we are way too far left for my comfort. Republicans tend to be better fiscally than Democrats, so I’d like to see them try to combat inflation.”

🔵 A generic Democratic congressional candidate (36%): “Major topics like climate change will only be solved with a party that admits it's a real threat. While I don’t have much love for either party, Democrats at least have some members with good ideas, and actually fight for working people.”

🟣 A third party candidate (13%): “Two-party politics is too divisive, both sides spend a lot of time on BS rather than taking care of important issues like making life better for American citizens.”

😬 I’m not sure (13%):“I don’t align myself with any political party. I think each candidate should be judged on their own merit, capability, and unique stance rather than just which party they align with.”

🤷‍♀️ Who votes anyways? (9%): “I won’t turn 18 until after this year’s midterms.😕”

+Note on sample size: We received 9,446 responses. Some may have been lightly edited for grammar or clarity.

Earlier this week, we mentioned Texas-based art collector, Laura Young, who found a unique marble bust for $34.99 at Goodwill four years ago.

• She had bought the seemingly fake statue as a decoration for her house, but as Laura looked closer, she couldn't help but think there might be more to its story.

🕵️‍♀️ Uncovering history... After meeting with art consultants and museums around the world, it turned out that Laura's find was worth a little more than 35 bucks.

• The bust is from Germany and was once installed in the courtyard of Pompejanum – a villa owned by the King of Aschaffenburg in the late 1st-century AD.

While no one is sure how the statue ended up in a Texas Goodwill, Laura is glad to have played "a small part of [its] long and complicated history." The sculpture is now on display at the San Antonio Museum of Art through May 2023, after which it'll be returned to Bavaria, Germany.

❓ Trivia: Who directed The Nightmare Before Christmas?

🦘 True or False?... Kangaroos can’t hop backwards.

🤔 Riddle Me This: What grows when it eats but dies when it drinks?

(keep scrolling for the answers)

👆 Check out the referral prizes you can get just for introducing people you know to little old us. 

What to do: Copy your unique link below, then send it to anyone you think would like the DONUT.

❓ Trivia: Henry Selick, not Tim Burton (he was the creator and one of the producers)

🦘 T/F: True

🤔 Riddle: Fire 🔥🔥