Good morning. After we sent out yesterday's newsletter, we received an incredible number of email replies from subscribers who are also English teachers calling us out for messing up our indefinite articles and mistakenly referring to Radia founder Mark Lundstrom as “a MIT-trained rocket scientist” instead of “an MIT-trained rocket scientist.”

The simplest explanation (and the true one) is that we had the words after “a” transposed in a previous version and forgot to change the article. But alas, English teachers, you’re right, that’s not a good enough excuse. We write news, and asking you to pay attention to our articles when we can’t even do the same is a double standard – and we despise those.

Anyways. We promise to do better, so please pay attention to our articles today?🥺 We have some good ones covering how:

• ⚖️ SCOTUS is weighing in on free speech and social media censorship
• 🏪 Retailers are altering the self-checkout process
• 🏀 March Madness is officially here

… and more.

🚀⏰ Ready, Set, Go: Today’s news should be about a 5.25-minute read.

P.S. First time reading? Subscribe here for free.

“Don't try to be young. Just open your mind. Stay interested in stuff.”

–Betty White (1922-2021)

Yesterday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that will decide a key First Amendment question in the online era: at what point do the US government's attempts to remove misinformation on social media cross into unconstitutional censorship of free speech?

Some quick background: The case centers around the US government’s strategy in recent years to combat what it frames as misinformation posted online, which involves dozens of federal officials contacting various platforms about removing or demoting certain posts.

The policy stood until last July, when a federal judge issued a ruling that barred key government officials from contacting social media companies about their content moderation efforts.

• The judge said individuals at those agencies violated the First Amendment by "coercing" or "significantly encouraging" social media platforms into moderating their content about a range of topics, including Covid vaccines and foreign election interference (specifically, the 2020 Hunter Biden laptop story).

But that ruling appears likely to be overturned by SCOTUS. In yesterday’s arguments, a majority of Justices seemed to agree with US officials who said they were seeking to inform and persuade social media platforms to address false information – not compelling them to do so. This distinction, they argued, means the government’s actions don’t violate the First Amendment.

• On the flip side, the plaintiffs argued the government essentially did compel social media platforms to remove posts, since US officials frequently combined their private demands with public references to potential adverse consequences against social media firms, like antitrust reforms or changes to the Section 230 internet liability law.

👀 Looking ahead… The Supreme Court will publish a final decision in the case before the end of its term in late June or early July.

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🇬🇧🇺🇸 A UK entrepreneur is standing trial for orchestrating what’s been deemed the “largest fraud in Silicon Valley history.” The case centers around former UK tech mogul Mike Lynch, who allegedly falsified accounts to inflate revenues for his software company Autonomy, then sold it to Hewlett-Packard for $11.7 billion in 2011. Shortly after the deal, HP wrote down Autonomy’s value by $8.8 billion, with most of that figure attributed to serious accounting improprieties. Lynch will be tried on 16 counts of wire and securities fraud in San Francisco over the next three months, and could spend up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

🇨🇺🧠 New research on the mysterious "Havana syndrome" is raising more questions. Havana syndrome first emerged among US government employees stationed abroad in 2016, with ~1,500 cases reported across 96 different counties to date. The syndrome carries symptoms consistent with head trauma, including dizziness and extreme headaches. However, in a pair of studies published yesterday, scientists with the National Institutes of Health found no physical evidence of brain injury in patients with Havana syndrome, as well as no significant clinical differences between those patients and other people who had similar jobs.

🇦🇺 Uber will pay $178 million to compensate Australian taxi drivers. In a class-action lawsuit filed in 2019, some 8,000 local taxi drivers alleged that Uber illegally operated in four Australian states when it first came to the country in 2012, causing losses to authorized taxi operators. Uber said it never knowingly broke the law, since rideshare regulations didn’t exist at the time, but agreed to pay the financial settlement to avoid a trial.

If you have a toddler whose favorite phrase is “I can do it myself!”, you may want to tread lightly at Dollar General. The retailer recently announced that it’ll be eliminating self-checkout at 300 locations over the next six months, in addition to revamping its policies related to customers who like to… do it themselves.

Here is what’s changing at Dollar General’s 14,000+ stores with self-checkout:

• The self-checkout registers in ~9,000 of those stores will become "assisted checkout options."
• Self-checkout purchases in the remaining Dollar General stores will be limited to five items or less.

Shrink and efficiency are behind the moves. “Shrink” – a term for what happened to Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig in Downsizing and also what retailers use to refer to lost inventory due to theft, weather, errors, etc. – is the biggest driver behind Dollar General’s elimination of self checkout. In last Thursday’s earnings call, CEO Todd Vasos revealed that those 300 locations were the most impacted by theft and inventory loss.

And, speaking on the moves more broadly, he said: “This is intended to drive traffic first to our staffed registers, with assisted checkout options available as second or third options to reduce lines during high volume times.”

Other retailers are also revamping self-checkout. Target implemented a new policy this week that limits customers going through self-checkout to 10 items or less, while Walmart is empowering its individual store managers to experiment with different ways to use its self-checkout lanes.

Better sales, better income, better profitability, better margins… the financials are great for NVIDIA. They’re the inventors of GPU, which is currently driving advances in AI, gaming, and cryptocurrency mining.

But did you know GPU only accounts for less than 20% of NVIDIA’s revenue? Where is the rest coming from, and why is it driving the stock’s price through the roof?

Watch this video from Forecaster and learn why NVIDIA’s stock has skyrocketed and could still be undervalued.

Buzzer beaters, epic comebacks, historic upsets, and dominating performances – March Madness is officially back. The men’s tournament tips off later this evening, while the women’s bracket hosts its first two games tomorrow.

Some stats and storylines:

• While No. 1 overall seed and 2023 national champion UConn may seem like an attractive pick to win the men’s tournament, they’ll be facing an uphill battle if history is any indication. Since Florida won back-to-back national titles in 2007, no defending champ has advanced past the Sweet 16 in men’s March Madness.
• On the women’s side, the bracket is expected to be one of the most exciting in NCAA history. Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark is playing in her final collegiate games, top-seeded South Carolina is looking to finish out an undefeated season, and defending champ Angel Reese and her LSU squad are seeking back-to-back titles.

When it comes to gambling, the stakes are high. Overall, Americans are projected to wager $2.7 billion on the men’s and women’s March Madness tournaments through legal sports books this year, per the American Gaming Association.

🎰 Fun fact: The odds of someone achieving a perfect March Madness bracket are 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 (aka 9.2 quintillion). But if you know a little something about basketball, the odds drop to 1 in ~120 billion.

💬 Quoted… “Big news gamers I’m going to be filming the largest game show in history and releasing it on Prime Video! Over 1,000 contestants, $5,000,000 prize, and many other world records.”

• What do you get when you combine competition-focused antics and giving away oodles of money? MrBeast’s YouTube formula – which is just about to hit Amazon Prime Video and get supercharged like it’s adding a Hemi. Per MrBeast in a recent podcast interview: “[Beast Games on Prime will be] like our normal videos, but just 20 times better […] I have a bigger budget. Money’s not a constraint.” And the world’s biggest YouTuber, with 245 million subscribers on his main channel, is no stranger to big-ticket videos: he sank $3.5 million of his own money into creating a real-life version of Squid Game in 2021, which as of this writing has racked up ~590 million views.

🦶📈 Stat of the Day: Similar to how a muscular six-pack signifies core strength, well-spaced toes are an indication of superior foot health – and a growing number of people are joining Rex Ryan on the foot-focused train, according to a new Wall Street Journal report. Last year, sales of “toe spreaders” (☝️) grew at an annual rate of 40%-175% across several footcare companies, with major athletes including tennis legend Novak Djokovic and NFL tight end Greg Kittle endorsing the tool as crucial for improving balance and stability. And it’s not just athletes who reap the benefits – a 2009 peer-reviewed study found the presence of toe deformities and toe weakness leads to an increased risk of falls in older folks.

🤔 Did You Know?... 1 out of every 3 Americans live in just four states: California, Texas, Florida, and New York, which have a combined population of ~112 million people.

📰 Worth a Read: Why you almost never see a clock at malls, casinos, or grocery stores → (The Hustle)

• ☝️ Banksy, the world-renowned anonymous street artist, confirmed the creation of a new mural that appeared overnight on a residential building in north London on Sunday.

BUSINESS & MARKETS

in partnership with BestBodiesforLife

• 💰 US markets closed up across the board (S&P: +0.6%; Dow: +0.2%; Nasdaq: +0.8%). | 🧶 Crafts retailer Joann filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
• 🚗🗳️ The UAW said 4,000+ hourly workers at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, have filed for an election to join the union; if successful, the workers would become the first current US employees of a foreign automaker to join a union.
• 🏢 Deloitte has reportedly launched its biggest reorganization in a decade.

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SPORTS, MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

• 🎤 Former CNN host Don Lemon released a recent interview with X CEO Elon Musk that Lemon claims led to the billionaire canceling Lemon’s deal to host a new show on X.
• 📰 Sports Illustrated will remain in physical form (magazine) after its parent company, Authentic Brands Group, announced a deal with Israeli publisher Minute Media.
• ⚽🤝 NWSL franchises are changing hands: The San Diego Wave sold for a reported $113 million late last week – a National Women’s Soccer League record by ~2x – while Seattle Reign FC was sold yesterday for $58 million; additionally, Angel City FC is currently seeking a new control investor at a team valuation north of $180 million.

SCIENCE, SPACE & EMERGING TECH

in partnership with Incogni

• 🤖📲 Apple is in talks with Google to build its AI engine Gemini into the iPhone, per a new Bloomberg report; Apple has also reached out to OpenAI about a potential deal involving ChatGPT.
• 🛰️ NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has finally sent a comprehensible message back to Earth, after four straight months of sending unreadable data.
• 🤖 Nvidia unveiled a new generation of AI chips and related software at its developer conference yesterday.

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MISCELLANEOUS

• 🚫 The Environmental Protection Agency announced a ban on the last legal form of asbestos in the US; the carcinogen is linked to 40,000+ American deaths/year.
• 🗳️ Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is reportedly expected to name California attorney Nicole Shanahan as his running mate on a third-party presidential ticket.
• ⚖️ Former President Trump and his co-defendants in a New York civil fraud case said they’ve been unable to secure the $464 million bond needed to appeal the decision against them, per a court filing yesterday. (From the Left | From the Center | From the Right)

CLICKBAIT

• 🐍🍽️ The newest high-protein superfood? Snakes.

Here are five stats from this past week that made our team go “whoa.” Hopefully you will, too.

• 📝🤭 37% of all US workers say they lie frequently on their resume, while an additional 33% say they’ve lied “once or twice.” (Read more)
• 💒 US marriage rates rebounded to pre-pandemic levels in 2022, with 2.1 million marriages, while divorces rates fell to 2.4 per 1,000, continuing a downwards trend this century (-40%). (Read more)
• 🏘️📉 Average home prices in Austin, Texas, have fallen 11% since a recent peak in 2022, representing the largest drop of any US metro area over that period. (Read more)
• 📚 A record-high 4,240 books were flagged for censorship in US schools and libraries last year, marking a 65% increase from 2022, per the American Library Association. (Read more)
• 🇺🇸❄️ 25% of all cocaine users worldwide reside in the US (from the UN via Harper’s). (Read more)

Yesterday, we covered a lawsuit against the NCAA filed by a group of female college athletes, who allege the organization violated their Title IX rights by allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports.

❓ Our question to you: In your opinion, should transgender athletes be allowed to compete in women’s sports?

• 👍 Yes: 20%
• 👎 No: 67%
• 🤷 Unsure/other: 13%

Click here to read some of the best longform responses.

+Note on sample size: We received 5,408 votes and 517 longform responses.

👆 Meet Romeo, a 65-year-old manatee who has spent the last 57 years suffering from unsafe living conditions at an aquarium in Miami.

When a video went viral a few months ago of Romeo in his solitary and heartbreaking living conditions (manatees are social creatures and need to be around others of their kind), a movement kicked off to rescue him and his female counterpart named, rightfully, Juliet. 

• It turns out, a lawsuit to move the manatees had already begun months prior. And just last week, Romeo and Juliet were safely transported to their new home at ZooTampa.
• The transportation of the elderly and heavy pair was no easy task – the animals are a casual 2,000–3,000 lbs apiece. A whole team of animal rescuers from UrgentSeas, a whistleblower organization exposing zoos and aquariums through direct action and advocacy, was deployed to get them to Tampa safely. 

💬 What they're saying: Phil Demers, co-founder of UrgentSeas, told the Tampa Bay Times that “it’s a beautiful thing” to hear the manatees were safely and successfully relocated.

Now thats a real-life love story if we've ever heard one🥰.

⛹️‍♂️ Trivia: Who was the model for the official NBA logo?

🩸 True or False?... O negative is the universal receiver blood type.

🤔 Riddle Me This: The more there is, the less you see. What am I?

(keep scrolling for the answers)

⛹️‍♂️ Trivia: Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers legend Jerry West

🩸 T/F: False, O negative is the universal donor. AB positive is the universal receiver

🤔 Riddle: Darkness