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| Presented By Bank of America |
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| Axios AM |
| By Mike Allen ·May 30, 2021 |
| 🏎️ Happy Sunday! The Indy 500 roars back today (Green flag: 12:45 p.m. ET) with a massive crowd, back in its normal Memorial Day weekend slot after moving to August last year, Axios' Jeff Tracy writes: - 135,000 fans (40% of capacity) will throng the enormous Indianapolis Motor Speedway — the largest sporting event since the pandemic began.
Smart Brevity™ count: 1,097 words ... 4 minutes. Edited by Fadel Allassan. |
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| 1 big thing: Megadrought imperils West |
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| Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios |
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| The fastest-growing parts of the U.S. are also the fastest-warming, Axios' Andrew Freedman writes. - Why it matters: The Southwest —the new magnet for tech workers — is drying out. The West is facing worst-in-a-century drought conditions. And California's infernos could start as soon as June.
One climate researcher says California's Sierra Nevada Mountains saw one of the fastest snow melt-outs in history this year. - The drought is particularly severe in the Colorado River Basin and northern California. Scientists and public officials warn that the California wildfire season is likely to be severe, due to the combination of dry vegetation and above-average temperatures.
- This comes on the heels of the worst fire season in state history, which turned the skies above San Francisco a "Blade Runner" orange last year.
What's next: Climate studies show that as the world continues to warm, the Southwest will become drier and hotter. That increases stress on water amid a population boom in Arizona and Nevada. - Despite short intervals of wetter years, parts of the West, including California, are suffering through an emerging, human-caused "megadrought" that began in 2000.
- This drought, measured using soil moisture data and tree rings, is the second-worst in the past 1,200 years.
Share this story. |
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| 2. Summer sticker shock |
| Graphic: Reuters Prices are expected to keep rising this summer, pushed up by bottlenecks for materials/labor + surging consumer demand, Reuters reports. - This "Memorial Day Weekend price index" (graphic above) showed leisure-related prices up about 4.3% since the pandemic began— more than overall consumer prices, which rose 3.1% over that period.
Axios' Felix Salmon tells me, though, that inflation fears are overdone: - Consumer prices aren't the real problem — we don't even notice when prices on Amazon go up and down. What matters are the big things: housing, healthcare and college.
When people say "inflation," Felix notes, what they often mean is the feeling that a good lifestyle is increasingly unaffordable. That's not really a function of retail prices. - And inflation figures reflect genuinely higher living standards for hourly workers. Which feels like a tradeoff worth making.
Go deeper: Axios' Felix Salmon, "Don't fear inflation." |
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| 3. American arms race: Gun sales spike |
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| Shell-case evidence markers dot the parking lot outside a banquet hall in Hialeah, Fla., today. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images |
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| "Americans have been on an unusual, prolonged buying spree fueled by the coronavirus pandemic, the protests last summer and the fears they both stoked, the N.Y. Times' Sabrina Tavernise reports (subscription). - A week this spring broke the record for federal background checks — 1.2 million, the most since
About a fifth of all Americans who bought guns last year were first-time gun owners, according to new data from Northeastern University and the Harvard Injury Control Research Center. - New owners were less likely than usual to be male and white: Half were women, a fifth were Black and a fifth were Hispanic, The Times reported in its exclusive look at the data.
⚡ Breaking ... In Miami early today, two people were killed, and 20 to 25 others injured, when three people got out of an SUV carrying assault rifles and handguns and started "shooting indiscriminately into the crowd" outside a concert, Axios' Fadel Allassan reports. - Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo "Freddy" Ramirez III said: "Every weekend it is the same thing. This is targeted, this is definitely not random." (Miami Herald)
🔮 Flashback ... Axios' Bryan Walsh in January: U.S. gun sales hit all-time high. |
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| A message from Bank of America |
| From the U.S. Air Force to the business world |
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| Erika Paulo had served on active duty for eight years when she joined Bank of America's Veterans Associate Program. "Bank of America's military assistance program presented so many amazing opportunities to practice service before self, which is very important to me." |
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| 4. Amazing photo |
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| Photo: Polly Irung/Reuters |
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| These are the three known survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre, which began 100 years ago tomorrow — Hughes Van Ellis, 100 ... Lessie Benningfield Randle, 106, known as Mother Randle ... and Viola Fletcher, 107, who's the oldest living survivor, and older sister of Van Ellis. |
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| 5. Beach towns can't staff T-shirt shops |
| Niala Boodhoo, host of our "Axios Today" podcast, spotted this sign Friday on the boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach, Del. Photo: Niala Boodhoo/Axios A Washington Post headline cleverly captures the problem .. "Help Wanted: An airbrush artist to save the summer. - "Beach towns and vacation spots across the country are struggling to hire enough workers, part of a nationwide labor shortage," The Post's Todd Frankel reports.
Why it matters: What happens during the 14 weeks between Memorial Day and Labor Day makes or breaks the entire year for these shops, The Post notes. What's happening: One factor is the "disappearance of seasonal foreign workers — students who ... work summer jobs on temporary visas in resort towns from Cape Cod to the Wisconsin Dells." - "A ban on foreign worker programs imposed by former president Donald Trump was allowed to expire in March by President Biden. But foreign workers still face pandemic travel restrictions and visa backlogs."
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| 6. 🇮🇱 Breaking: Bibi faces ouster |
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| Naftali Bennett (left) and Benjamin Netanyahu. Photos: Gali Tibbon/AFP via Getty Images; Alexander Zemlianichenko/AFP via Getty Images |
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| Axios from Tel Aviv author Barak Ravid reports: The leader of Israel's right wing Yamina party, Naftali Bennett, said today that he's moving forward with joining opposition leader Yair Lapid to form a power sharing government that would oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. - Why it matters: A "change government" would make Bennett prime minister and bring an end to 12 years of Bibi's rule — and could break the political crisis that has led to four elections in two years.
Keep reading. |
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| 7. DeSantis rises as COVID falls |
| President Trump greets Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last September at West Palm Beach International Airport. Photo: Evan Vucci/AP A year ago, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was struggling to contain COVID, the state's economy was in tatters, and cases and deaths were rising. - Now his stature has risen as he heads into his reelection race next year — and he's a top-tier Republican for 2024 if former President Trump doesn't run, AP's Bobby Caina Calvan writes.
Why it matters: DeSantis remained defiant in the face of attacks on his hardline opposition to mask mandates and lockdowns. - "Hold the line. Don't back down," he told a crowd at a party fundraiser in Pittsburgh in May. "And in the state of Florida, with me as governor, I have only begun to fight."
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| 8. 🎞️ What we're watching: "Oslo" |
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| Ruth Wilson and Andrew Scott in "Oslo." Photo: Larry D. Horricks/HBO |
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| The diplomatic thriller "Oslo," now on HBO and HBO Max ... "Adapted from the Tony Award-winning play of the same name, 'Oslo' is based on a true story of negotiations that led to the 1993 Oslo Accords, a landmark face-to-face agreement between Israel and the PLO: Behind the scenes, a Norwegian diplomat, Mona Juul, and her social scientist husband hatched an intricate, top-secret, and sometimes comical scheme to gather an unexpected assortment of players at an idyllic estate just outside Oslo. ... Renowned Broadway director Bartlett Sher came up with the idea for the play after talking to the Norwegian couple who orchestrated the back-channel talks at their kids' soccer matches. L.A. Times TV critic Lorraine Ali calls it "a look behind the curtain at a process that seems impossible today." |
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| 9. ⚾ MLB's 2 millionth run |
| Minnesota Twins' Josh Donaldson scores MLB's 2 millionth run, according to Elias Sports Bureau. Photo: Jim Mone/AP Twins third baseman Josh Donaldson yesterday scored the 2 millionth run in baseball's storied history, on Nelson Cruz's ground-rule double off Royals right-hander Ervin Santana in the first inning, MLB.com writes: - "Official MLB history dates to 1876, when the National League began play."
- "[T]he first run came on April 22 of that year — in the first game of the season, between the Boston Red Stockings, now the Braves, and the Philadelphia Athletics."
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| 10. 1 smile to go: Reader photo |
| Special to Axios Spotted yesterday in Westerly, R.I., by an Axios AM reader who asked to remain in stealth mode. |
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| A message from Bank of America |
| Post-military careers take flight |
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| Bank of America recognizes the invaluable contribution that veterans have made to our country and works to create opportunities for them to bring their talents to the civilian working world. This is Former C-17 pilot and current Bank of America employee Erika Paulo's story. |
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| 📬 Have a great holiday weekend. Please invite your friends, family, colleagues to sign up here for Axios AM and Axios PM. |
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