• As a veteran NYC legal reporter, I've now watched Sean 'Diddy' Combs beat the odds twice.
• Wednesday's racketeering and sex-trafficking acquittals follow a 2001 guns-and-bribery trial victory.
• The throughlines? Combs' reckless behavior and some persuasive, expensive lawyering.

Back in 2001, he was "Puffy."

For two months, Sean "Puffy" Combs strode through a dense press scrum and into his Manhattan guns and bribery trial wearing a different crisp, shiny suit each day.

I remember neckties and matching pocket squares. And one morning, before the judge took the bench, he sat at the defense table, arms outstretched, as defense attorneys Johnnie Cochrane and Ben Brafman sat on either side, affixing his cufflinks.

"If it doesn't make sense, you must find for the defense," the late Cochrane, a dapper dresser best known for his defense of OJ Simpson six years earlier, quipped for reporters.

I covered that state-level case for the New York Post, watching as Combs, then 31, won a full acquittal after his lawyers convinced a jury that he did not fire a bullet from a 9mm semiautomatic Smith & Wesson into the ceiling of a Times Square nightclub.

Jurors also acquitted him of offering his chauffeur $50,000 to take the rap for another gun found under the seat of the Lincoln Navigator he shared with then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez. Combs had faced up to 15 years in prison in that case.

"This has changed me and matured me," he promised after the happy outcome, saying he had given up nightclubbing in favor of church-going.

On Wednesday, 24 years later, I watched as a senior correspondent for Business Insider as a very different-looking Combs won surprise acquittals on federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges in a federal courthouse barely a block south of where the prior trial was held. A jury found him guilty of lesser Mann Act charges related to transporting his victims for prostitution.

This Combs — now "Diddy" — remains in custody, as he has for the past 10 months. Each day of the trial, he was escorted into the courtroom by federal marshals, wearing jail-approved khakis and a rotation of five thin, blandly colored sweaters over white collared shirts.

His hair is mostly gray now, deprived by his jailers of the "Just For Men" brand dye that one of his personal assistants testified he kept in his toiletry bag.

A quarter century ago, Sean "Puffy" Combs exuded swagger in court — even something approaching menace. "I'm a human being," I remember him saying as he glowered at me in the hallway once, unhappy about his coverage.

But Sean "Diddy" Combs could be Puffy's pleasant uncle, passing out Post-it notes full of advice and encouragement from his seat at the defense table like so many half-wrapped Jolly Roger candies.

"GREAT JOB!!!" read a note I once saw him hand lead attorney Marc Agnifilo.

Each morning and again at day's end, Diddy greeted most of his nine lawyers with hugs and fist bumps.

Puffy, circa 2001, was too aloof to be a hugger of attorneys — not until the verdict, when Combs, Brafman, and Cochran leaned in for a euphoric, seated embrace.

But there are throughlines linking then and now.

For both trials, an international press corps was drawn, moth-to-flame, by the certainty of a celebrity defendant and the hope that a still-bigger celebrity might steal the show.

J-Lo had been briefly in custody soon after the nightclub shooting, after a stolen gun was found inside her and Combs' chauffeured car. She was not charged, and while she testified at Combs' grand jury, neither side called her as a trial witness.

This time around, Kanye, too, disappointed; his cameo appearance at Combs' courthouse last month was over in a blink, 30 minutes tops. He was turned away from the courtroom by federal marshals, and Combs, like many in the press, didn't even see him.

Combs' recklessness is another parallel.

His lawyers acknowledged in closing arguments last week that Combs used drugs and committed domestic violence.

Federal agents testified at trial that they seized three AR-15 rifles with defaced serial numbers when search warrants were executed at Combs' homes in March, 2024, at a time when prosecutors allege he knew he was under investigation.

Combs was not charged for the weapons, and maintained through his lawyer that the guns belonged to his security guards.

"His brazenness is unmatched," lead prosecutor Maurene Comey told US District Judge Arun Subramanian during successful arguments against bail on Wednesday.

"He's an extremely violent man with an extraordinarily dangerous temper, who has shown no remorse and no regret for his violence toward multiple victims," she said.

There was reckless behavior the last time Combs was arrested, too. An evening of clubbing with a gun-toting entourage nearly cost Combs his freedom and burgeoning career as a multimillionaire music and lifestyle entrepreneur.

New York Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon sentenced Combs codefendant Jamal "Shyne" Barrow to 10 years in state prison. (Barrow, then 21, had the unfortunate timing of running out of the club and into the arms of two arriving cops, a recently-fired gun still warm in his waistband.)

Solomon told me Thursday that he would have sentenced Combs to three and a half years in prison and remanded him on the spot, had he been convicted of gun possession for the firearm police recovered under the front seat of the Navigator.

Combs could have received more time, the now-retired judge said, given that the car had fled up Eighth Avenue with Combs and J-Lo in the back seat and the NYPD in pursuit.

"Another gun came flying out the car from the back seat" during the chase, Solomon recalled.

Another through-line — good lawyering.

"He had Ben, one of the best criminal defense lawyers in the city, and of course Johnnie Cochrane," Solomon said of the 2001 trial.

"And it worked. They certainly had enough to find him guilty," Solomon said.

"That weapon in the car — there was a presumption of possession," Solomon said. "Maybe it was jury nullification, who knows."

"He's a lot of things to a lot of different people. He's probably helped a lot of people make a lot of very good music, helped a lot of careers, started a lot of businesses," he added.

Combs' acquittal on sex trafficking and racketeering means he no longer faces a potential life sentence. He faces anywhere from zero jail time to as much as 20 years in federal prison for the two counts he was convicted of on Wednesday: transporting two ex-girlfriends across state lines to engage in sex acts with male escorts — the so-called "freak offs" at the heart of the trial.

"It's a partial win. He didn't win this case. He still faces considerable time," Solomon said.

"Oh my god I certainly would," he said when asked if he'd give Combs' prison time if he were once again Combs' judge.

"I would give him a lot of time," he added. "Because of what he did in the past, obviously, his background, and the violence involved here now. A leopard doesn't change his spots."

• The recent NCAA settlement allows schools to directly pay athletes.
• That will be a boon for players in top-earning sports like football and men's basketball.
• Other sports, however, might see cuts, which could raise Title IX issues.

DI track and field athlete Sabrina Oostburg isn't celebrating the recent NCAA settlement, which allows colleges to pay athletes directly.

The Belmont University student said she was standing next to a volleyball player and two football players when the news came out. One of the football players reacted positively and then turned to the volleyball player to get her take.

"It's good for you because you're going to get paid, but some of your female athlete friends might get cut," Oostburg recalled the volleyball player saying.

The recent settlement, which ended multiple antitrust cases against the NCAA, sets up a system in which football players will likely get the lion's share of the money. The settlement's back-pay portion, for example, allocates 75% to football, guided by how much revenue the sport brings in.

Colleges that opt into the settlement can pay up to $20.5 million to their athletes for the year starting July 1 (with increases in subsequent years).

"It's going to be focused on football, basketball," Craig Weiner, a partner and litigator at Blank Rome, told Business Insider.

While schools are free to distribute the money to different teams as they wish, there is a clear incentive for them to want to remain competitive in football to generate revenue. That could mean some athletic programs — if we take that 75% figure as guidance — will need to cover $15 million in new expenses to pay football players.

Where is the money going to come from? Oostburg said she's worried about cuts to her team and others that don't make money for the college. She fears they could lose roster spots, places where they practice and train, or even snacks.

"I think you're going to see cuts potentially in the non-revenue sports," Weiner said. "As far as support, athletic facilities, athletic support. Money that is that is earmarked to help the non-revenue producing sports, because they're going to focus on the money makers."

The settlement ruling could create Title IX issues

The skew toward football and men's basketball in the $2.8 billion back-pay part of the settlement has already attracted a legal challenge.

Dan Ain, an attorney at Reavis, Page, Jump, noted that current and former DI female athletes had filed an appeal. They argued that 90% of the back pay going to former football and men's basketball players was a violation of Title IX, which requires schools to give male and female athletes equitable opportunities.

Ain also pointed out that Judge Claudia Wilken, who oversaw the case, said that athletes could sue if they felt there was any infringement on Title IX due to the nature of the revenue share model.

"This is new territory for schools," Ain said. "Schools, for the first time, will be deciding how to allocate tens of millions of dollars in revenue share to individual athletes. The expectation right now is that the distribution is going to be grossly unequal between men and women, and that will open schools up to Title IX litigation."

Athletes have to run their deals through a clearinghouse

Oostburg said she also had concerns about a new clearinghouse that will oversee deals athletes strike on their own with brands, called NIL deals (short for "name, image, and likeness").

Athletes with deals of over $600 will have to report them to the clearinghouse, operated by Deloitte, which will determine the athlete's value. If the deal is higher than their assessed value, it can't go through. Athletes who don't report deals or violate them by taking something of a different value could have their eligibility taken away.

For athletes like Oostburg in "non-revenue" sports, NIL deals — often driven in part by their social media footprint — are the biggest money-making opportunity.

"That does concern me," Oostburg said. "If I get a deal over $600 and they decide, no, that doesn't make sense for someone like a track athlete like me to get a $1,000 deal."

• Top CEOs have shared their book recommendations.
• Books like "Good to Great" and "The Lean Startup" offer insights on leadership and innovation.
• Business leaders emphasize deep reading as a tool for career growth.

Not a fan of fiction? Top CEOs have shared their favorite reads that help them navigate the world.

From Bill Gates' fascination with memoirs to Citadel founder Ken Griffin's suggestion that you may have chosen the wrong career if you don't enjoy reading about your own field, literature could serve as your compass, especially during an era that may be less than friendly to fresh graduates.

Business leaders from across the industry have emphasized the value of deep reading and have recommended a range of books, many aimed specifically at those just starting their careers.

Here is your summer reading guide, according to business leaders who have reached the peak of their careers.

'Good to Great' by Jim Collins

In a recent interview with S&P Global, Citadel founder Ken Griffin recommended "Good to Great," which outlines the keys to running a business, such as building a good team.

The book lays out what separates good companies from truly great ones, highlighting the importance of humility in leadership and the importance of getting the right people on board with the "First Who, Then What" concept. Collins argues that great companies prioritize building a strong team first, because who you work with matters more than having the perfect plan from the start.

'Business Adventures' by John Brooks

Former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates once wrote in his personal blog that Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, sent him a copy of "Business Adventures" as his favorite book, which features a collection of 12 essays about financial and corporate life in the US.

The book dives into classic cases from Wall Street and corporate America — like the rise and fall of Xerox and the Ford Edsel disaster — showing how companies succeed or stumble based on leadership decisions, market forces, and human behavior.

'The Lean Startup' by Eric Ries

LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman appeared on Eric Ries' podcast to recommend "The Lean Startup," a book about entrepreneurship and building a resilient business.

The book teaches lessons on real-world experimentation, rapid iteration, and launching quickly with a "minimum viable product" instead of starting out with a very elaborate product.

'Chasing Hope' by Nicholas Kristof

In a personal blog called Gates Notes, cofounder and former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates called "Chasing Hope" a "terrific memoir" and credited veteran journalist Nicholas Kristof for inspiring his philanthropic work.

Blending personal storytelling with a deep sense of purpose and resilience, Kristoff shares his experiences as a journalist covering global crises and injustices. The book teaches valuable lessons on how ordinary people can make an extraordinary impact in the face of overwhelming circumstances, and how to maintain a sense of hope in difficult moments.

'Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World' By Adam Grant

Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd recommended "Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World" during her appearance on "The Tim Ferriss Show" podcast in June  2018. The book focuses on how people can drive change without conforming to the status quo.

For someone starting out, the book provides practical advice on how to express new ideas, challenge the existing standards without burning bridges, and build influence among peers who are similarly new to the field.

'High Output Management' by Andy Grove

Recommended by Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky in September 2024 during his keynote at a Y Combinator event in San Francisco, "High Output Management" is where Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel, shares his experiences on how to build and run a successful company.

The book breaks down the fundamentals of effective management in clear, actionable terms and provides a practical toolkit for those new to leadership roles. Grove's approach emphasizes output over effort, which could be crucial for young entrepreneurs aiming to grow fast without losing focus or quality.

• Several lawmakers told BI that they still don't use AI chatbots like ChatGPT or Grok.
• Some cite the risk of "hallucination," while others worry about retaining their thinking skills.
• "I still like to compose original thoughts," one House Democrat told BI.

AI has become a big topic on Capitol Hill, and some lawmakers are finding ways to use it in their daily lives.

But while some are using Grok to come up with one-liners, asking ChatGPT to punch up speeches, or deploying AI to scrutinize their own records, plenty of their colleagues still haven't gotten into it.

"I haven't had the chance to really explore the tools," Democratic Rep. Gabe Vasquez of New Mexico told BI. "I'm a little behind the times in that sense."

There's no single reason why. Some remain skeptical about the technology's ability to provide reliable information. Others fear that if they use it, they'll erode their own faculties. At least one has publicly fought with an AI chatbot on X. And often, it simply comes down to a lack of interest.

For Sen. Tim Kaine, it's a combination of several of those things.

"I feel like I'm so comfortable with my ability to access information that I don't really need it," the Virginia Democrat said, explaining that he's never used AI chatbots "voluntarily."

He does, however, encounter artificial intelligence involuntarily: Recently, his email client began furnishing him with AI-generated summaries of his email.

"It's like, first, I didn't ask for it. Second, it's got a high error rate," Kaine said. "Third, to do an AI summary of emails I can read myself is a use of energy, somewhere, that I have to feel like is kind of an excess."

'I still like to compose original thoughts'

BI spoke to roughly a dozen lawmakers in June about their use, or lack thereof, of AI chatbots like Grok and ChatGPT. Polling has shown that a growing number of Americans are using AI in the workplace, with a recent Gallup poll finding that 40% of employees use it a few times per year and 27% use it frequently or daily.

Republican Rep. Greg Murphy of North Carolina, who remains a practicing urologist in additional to his congressional duties, says he's "dabbled" with AI, primarily for medical questions.

He says he doesn't use it for his official work, and he doesn't want his staff to do so either.

"I don't want people writing speeches for me, or doing letters to constituents with that," Murphy said, adding that if his constituents "wanted something from ChatGPT, they could have Googled it themselves."

Sen. Josh Hawley, a fellow Republican, takes an even harder line against AI — he doesn't use AI chatbots out of principle.

"I don't trust it, I don't like it, I don't want it being trained on any of the information I might give it," the Missouri senator, a frequent critic of Big Tech, told BI.

Some lawmakers' reservations are rooted in their hesitance to rely on technology for something they already do themselves.

"I've just never felt the need, and I like being creative," Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York told BI. "Writing is a use-it-or-lose-it skill, and I don't want to lose it."

"I still like to compose original thoughts, and not rely on technology to help state what I feel," Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts said.

Large language models are also known to confidently deliver faulty information — known as "hallucination." For Sen. Elizabeth Warren, that's enough to discourage her from using it.

"I might as well go out on the street and ask a random person a question and see what words they come up with," the Massachusetts Democrat told BI. "Maybe they're right, but then again, maybe they're not, and the only way to know that is to do the research yourself."

• Mary Jane Surette, 65, faces job market challenges after a layoff from Kohl's.
• Surette feels her age may be affecting her job search, despite her extensive marketing experience.
• She remains determined to work but will retire in August if she can't find a new role.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Mary Jane Surette, a 65-year-old former senior marketing manager based in Boston, about reentering the job market as an older woman and retirement plans. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I've never cried over a layoff because I save tears for human beings, not for corporate America. I never love a job. I like a job, I love people.

I've been really fortunate to have had 40 years in the same marketing career. It's just a fabulous career, and I've enjoyed every experience. During my time in retail marketing, I've worked at many well-known national companies for over 25 years, including Bose, Gap, and Kohl's.

When I was laid off this past winter from my job at Kohl's, I wasn't prepared to consider retirement. I never even thought of it until I saw how bad the market was.

I'm 65, and I'm having trouble believing my age doesn't play a factor in why I'm not getting work. I've set August as the date I'll make a decision on retirement. I don't know how much more of this job market I can handle.

During other unemployment periods, it really felt like just a blip

I was working at Bose when the housing market crashed the economy, and sales of high-end consumer electronics basically stopped. There was a massive layoff that I was affected by.

Many people were out of work at that time. I was out of work for over a year. But my financial life was barely affected because the government leaders at that time extended unemployment benefits and required companies to pay COBRA benefits.

After I bounced back from the Bose layoff, my career continued to accelerate. The following 10 years were amazing for me professionally because I worked on some great teams. We were all learning, making mistakes, and having successes.

I went to Kohl's in 2022, where I stayed for three years, until I got laid off in February.

When I was laid off at Bose, we were given the heads-up at a big companywide meeting. At Kohl's, we didn't have that type of meeting. I was not surprised, but I was taken aback.

Sometimes I feel my age is negatively affecting my current job search

LinkedIn has always been a social networking site for working people and professionals; it was never meant to be a job board, but it has morphed into that. I found several potential jobs by cold applying on LinkedIn and had a few bad interview experiences in which I felt questions bordered on ageism.

After these experiences, I was kicking myself because I felt very defensive. I learned how to just say thank you and leave. If it's a rejection email, go eat a piece of cake or get a cup of tea. When it happens now, I don't dwell on it.

If it is my age affecting my search, I don't need to know anymore. At the beginning, I needed to know. I don't anymore because I know my value and my worth.

My age actually makes me a good job candidate

My list of strategies has to grow as I confront situations where I have to convince someone that I'm still a good candidate.

I agreed to take a salary cut. I'm not looking to take my manager's or anybody else's job on the team, and I can bring more to employers at a better price. I'm not young, and I'm not having kids. I don't need maternity leave. I'm stable. I actually bring more to the table than a younger worker would because of all of that.

I'm still hunting, I also have a career coach, and she said that eventually, if I keep doing this, I'll find something.

I am of retirement age, but I'm not ready to retire

As I look on LinkedIn, I don't see many women my age posting or looking for jobs. I think we're invisible, and we've chosen to remain invisible.

I want to keep working because I really like my job. When I'm actively managing, I think of the people I'm mentoring and managing as the future of this business, this company, or some other company.

But right now, I think about how I could actually do something to help people, rather than selling pencils, toothpaste, and underpants. I could actually go up and do something with all this talent and knowledge I have.

That's when I think, "I have to keep working because I can't be invisible. I have to speak to these young women in the workplace." That keeps me going, but the answer isn't clear yet. By August, either it's going to happen or it's not going to happen.

My possible retirement feels forced

One well-meaning friend said, "Maybe you should color your hair. It could get you a job." And I said, "But I wouldn't want to work for a company that's going to hire me based on the color of my hair."

I wear this as a crown. This is my pride and joy. I earned every one of these gray hairs. I love it. Nope, it's staying with me. It's who I am.

My retirement wouldn't be voluntary. I had no plans to retire, never even considered it. My goal was to hit 70 when I'd max out my Social Security.

If you have a retirement or layoff story that you would like to share, please email the reporter, Agnes Applegate, at [email protected].

• Handwrytten uses robots, and sometimes AI, to create notes that appear as if a person wrote them.
• Founder David Wachs told BI the company aims to help customers stand out in a digital world.
• Most of the company's clients are businesses, though consumers use the service, too, he said.

Writing thank you notes might be one job plenty of people would be willing to let AI and robots take over.

Turns out, they already are.

The company Handwrytten deploys artificial intelligence to help customers whip up notes and then uses an army of robot scribes, gripping ballpoint pens, to write them.

"The vast, vast, vast majority of the time, you'd never have an idea that it's written by a machine," David Wachs, founder and CEO of the Tempe, Arizona, company, told Business Insider.

After all, we're in a moment in which tech boosters say our digital counterparts will soon free us from work, scrub clean our to-do lists, and wade deeper into our personal lives.

Using technology to recreate the intimacy of a handwritten note also raises questions about authenticity, etiquette, and breaking through the everyday onslaught of emails, DMs, and text messages.

"Everybody's getting so much electronic communication. What really stands out as old-fashioned communication," Wachs said.

He founded Handwrytten in 2014 after leaving a text-messaging startup he'd launched a decade earlier. As he was departing that company, he wanted an easier way to send the handwritten goodbye notes he was drafting for employees and key clients because they would carry more weight than a digital message.

Avoiding the 'uncanny valley'

In order to make sure the letters don't look too perfect, Wachs said the robots vary letter shapes, line spacing, the left margin, and the strokes that join letters together.

"We do all this stuff to try to create the most accurate human writing, without falling into that uncanny valley," Wachs said.

Using robots that can write in nearly three dozen styles of penmanship — some of which carry alliterative names like Enthusiastic Erin and Slanty Steve — the company sends about 20,000 cards a day to customers or, more often, directly to the recipient.

Most of Handwrytten's customers are businesses, though about 20% to 30% are individual consumers, Wachs said. Clients include companies hoping to engage with customers, recruiters looking to soften up executive prospects, and nonprofits that want to stay close to donors. Sales grew about 30% in 2024, Wachs said.

In recent years, the company gave users the option of having AI write all or part of the messages.

"Our slogan has always been 'Your words in pen and ink,' but half the time now it's not your words, it's ChatGPT," he said.

What matters, Wachs said, is that the resulting note looks real to the recipient. He said that many people assume custom digital messages like emails and texts have been written with AI, which, Wachs said, then discounts their effectiveness.

Does it count?

As a tactile throwback, a letter written by a robot is real enough for many Handwrytten customers, Wachs said.

While the intent of a letter meant to look handwritten might be genuine, Lizzie Post, great-great-granddaughter of protocol maven Emily Post and coauthor of the book "Emily Post's Business Etiquette," told BI she believes something is lost by using a robot.

Post said a note that someone actually writes by hand is special, not because it shows effort on the part of the sender, but because a person's penmanship — even if it's imperfect — is unique to them and to a moment.

"It makes that handwritten version that much more precious and amazing and special," Post said.

Wachs said that critics have a point when they say part of writing a letter is to demonstrate that someone took the time to do it. Yet, he said, many people are simply too busy.

"Often, the choice is not Handwrytten note or actual handwritten note. The choice is Handwrytten note or nothing," he said.

Wachs, whose business relies on 55 workers and 185 robots, said that the results are convincing enough to help job seekers, business owners, marketers, and others distinguish themselves.

"My wife will receive notes from her friends that use our service," Wachs said. "And she'll be like, 'Wow, they have beautiful handwriting."

• Robinhood boomed during the pandemic as budding day traders signed up to trade meme stocks.
• CEO Vlad Tenev said on a podcast that many have since embraced passive investing.
• Tenev described two main types of Robinhood users as "motorheads" and "folks that buy minivans."

The meme-stock craze helped make trading app Robinhood a household name, but its CEO said some users have shifted from YOLO-style bets on SPACs and crypto toward long-term, passive investing.

Passive investing in broad index funds has been in vogue for years and heralded by the likes of Warren Buffett as a way of avoiding the costs and risks of active trading, like transaction fees and picking the wrong stock.

Robinhood became synonymous with speculative day traders during the COVID-19 pandemic, pioneering the commission-free stock-trading model while drawing fire for gamifying investing with digital confetti and other visual cues.

The fintech company "kind of turned back the clock" on the shift toward simply owning the index, its CEO, Vlad Tenev, said. But traders on its platform have warmed to passive investing, he said on an episode of Bloomberg's "Odd Lots" podcast released this week.

"A lot of people trade more actively at first and then eventually end up doing more passive investing — mostly because they don't want to put in the time, they have other things to do, so they prefer all of their investments to be hands-off," he said.

'Motorheads' and minivan buyers

While some traders on the platform are active traders with the latest tech, others are casual retirement savers, Tenev added.

He likened the first group to "motorheads" who care about performance, high speeds, and harnessing the latest tech. "These are the folks that are strapped into their battle stations, and they have nine screens," he joked, adding that some are "incredibly sophisticated and wealthy, and they even have Bloomberg terminals."

The other group is "the mass market" and consists of "folks that buy minivans," he said. "They want a relatively hands-free and low-friction way of investing and saving for the long term, and we have products that serve both of those," he added.

Tenev pointed to the growth of Robinhood users using products such as retirement accounts. Robinhood's assets under custody in traditional Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and Roth IRAs soared by about 600% last year to over $13 billion, according to its latest full-year earnings.

On a February earnings call, Tenev said people were now "comfortable moving in hundreds of thousands of dollars into Robinhood."

Robinhood's net revenue grew by 58% last year to nearly $3 billion, helping it swing from a pre-tax loss of about $500 million in 2023 to a nearly $1.1 billion profit in 2024. The improving financials have fueled a roughly four-fold rise in Robinhood's stock price over the past 12 months, lifting its market value to north of $80 billion.

Bullish retail investors and new products have also helped drive the rise. Robinhood's stock spiked earlier this week after it announced it was rolling out tokenized investing in Europe.

The first explosion set off a chain of blasts in southeastern Rome.

The third round of Wimbledon continues on Friday with another stacked slate of matches, including top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka and Carlos Alcaraz.

There's a chance you might be craving some fast food on Friday and we have you covered.

Your neighborhood grocery store might have modified hours or even shut its doors altogether.

Popular food chains like TGI Friday's, Sonic, and Krispy Kreme will offer tasty deals and discounts on July 4.

This country has suffered tyrants before. We are not as divided as we may appear.

The punk rap duo's net worth is set to take a massive hit, experts tell Newsweek.

There are some programs where people can have some of their student loan debt cancelled in exchange for volunteer service.

Over 1,000 Americans cross into the seven-figure class each day, but most belong to a non-stereotypical group of "everyday millionaires."

Trump's approval rating varies widely, from a +44 percent net approval rating in Wyoming to a net -47approval rating in Hawaii.

The number of Americans looking to leave the US is rising, especially among LGBTQ+ individuals, companies helping expats report.

• Waymo is Alphabet's robotaxi service, formerly known as the Google Self-Driving Car Project.
• Waymo is available to the public in several US cities and has plans to expand.
• The robotaxi company faces other competitors, including Tesla and Zoox.

Waymo is a robotaxi service owned by Google's parent company, Alphabet. Since opening its service to the public in 2020, Waymo has said it has provided millions of paid, fully autonomous rides.

The company continues to expand its service, in part by partnering with other ride-hailing platforms, and has begun testing its robotaxis outside the US.

Waymo's beginnings

Waymo was initially formed by Google and was known as the Google Self-Driving Car Project. After seven years of research and development, it eventually spun out into its own company in 2016. Alphabet remains the majority owner of the company.

Google started developing Waymo and its self-driving technology in 2009 at the Google X lab, which was led by Google cofounder Sergey Brin. Sebastian Thrun, a pioneer in the self-driving industry, was chosen to lead the project.

After almost two years of testing the technology, Google and The New York Times revealed its existence in late 2010.

US lawmakers raised concerns at the time about the lack of regulations for this new technological frontier. Google was a prominent supporter, lobbying for regulation. By 2012, Nevada's Department of Motor Vehicles had licensed a self-driving Prius running Google's software, marking the first time that a self-driving vehicle had been licensed in the United States.

In 2022, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai distanced Waymo and Alphabet's other subsidiaries from Google by granting them more autonomy to design job structures and compensation outside Google's job architecture.

Waymo was affected by Google layoffs in 2023, when the company cut roughly 8% of staff.

Despite the restructuring, Waymo's offices are still located in Mountain View, California, just a short drive from the Googleplex, Google's global headquarters.

What does Waymo do?

As of 2025, Waymo provides driverless taxi services throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta. In Austin and Atlanta, Waymo offers its service through Uber's ride-hailing app.

In 2014, Google was granted a patent for a transportation service involving automated vehicles that would be funded by advertising fees. That May, Google unveiled a prototype autonomous vehicle that did not contain a gas pedal, brake pedal, or steering wheel.

In 2015, they gave their first fully autonomous ride to a legally blind friend of principal engineer Nathaniel Fairfield; unlike earlier tests, there was no police escort, no test driver, and it was not on a closed course.

In 2016, the self-driving car project was spun out of Google and made a subsidiary of Google's parent company, Alphabet Inc. At this time, the company also ordered 100 Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans to test the technology.

Waymo announced a partnership with Jaguar in 2018 to build up its fleet of robotaxis, using the legacy automaker's all-electric I-PACE SUV. The company also partnered with Hyundai and the Chinese EV company Zeekr to expand its robotaxi models.

Waymo started its public operations in Phoenix in 2020. By May 2025, Waymo said it had surpassed 10 million paid rides across its operating cities.

To increase its robotaxi fleet, Waymo built a 239,000-square-foot factory in Mesa. With the new facility, Waymo said it will retrofit more than 2,000 I-PACE vehicles with autonomous capabilities throughout 2026.

The company also has shared ambitions to license its autonomous technology to automakers. In April 2025, the company said it was in early talks with legacy automaker Toyota, with plans to bring autonomous driving to personally owned vehicles.

Who can take a Waymo?

So far, Waymo operates in Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Austin, and Atlanta. The robotaxis can only operate within geo-fenced areas, meaning they cannot freely travel in every part of the city, including highways and some airports. Waymo says it will expand its service to highways, but it has not provided a timeline.

Prospective riders within operating areas can download the Waymo One app and hail a robotaxi. In Austin and Atlanta, riders have to toggle through the Uber app to request a robotaxi. Like major competitors, riders are quoted the fare while booking.

Waymo ride prices are based on the distance and time of a trip, and a minimum price is charged for all trips. In April 2023, when a Business Insider reporter tested the technology in Phoenix, a five-mile, 20-minute Waymo ride cost $11, the same price as an Uber trip to the same location.

Waymo doesn't disclose pricing data, but a third-party study published in June 2025 showed that Waymo's robotaxis are more expensive than Uber and Lyft, costing around $5 more than the average ride from its competitors.

Is Waymo safe?

Waymo says its driverless vehicles are safer than human drivers, but as with any technology that remains a work in progress, autonomous taxis are not perfect.

Data from Waymo provided to the California Public Utilities Commission showed that the company's robotaxis were involved in at least 419 collisions between March 2022 and March 2025.

Still, an analysis by Business Insider found that Waymo significantly reduced the rate of collisions during those three years. Between March and May 2022, the rate of collisions was about 147 per 100,000 rides. Between January and March 2025, the rate reduced to about 7 collisions per 100,000 rides.

When comparing human drivers over the same distance within the company's operating cities, Waymo says its autonomous driver experiences 93% fewer pedestrian crashes with injuries and 79% fewer crashes with airbag deployments.

Waymo's robotaxis have been documented experiencing some technical issues, however. One rider told Business Insider that his Waymo ride was stuck driving in circles. A San Francisco resident recorded footage of the robotaxis honking at each other at a Waymo depot.

Who are Waymo's competitors?

Waymo faces competition from several companies, including Tesla's robotaxi, Amazon's Zoox, and a few other software-focused companies that have autonomous technologies.

In June 2025, Tesla began offering driverless rides with 10 to 20 cars operating within a geo-fenced area of Austin. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said the company can quickly expand its service and took multiple shots at Waymo, saying that the Alphabet company's robotaxis cost more to expand.

Amazon-backed Zoox is building a purpose-built robotaxi — meaning the vehicle will have no steering wheels and will only be used as a taxi — and is testing in several US cities as of July 2025. The company announced in June 2025 the opening of its 220,000 square-foot production facility in California.

There are also software-oriented companies such as Wayve and May Mobility that develop autonomous technologies and are seeking to provide robotaxi services by partnering with ride-hailing platforms.

For example, May Mobility, an Ann Arbor-based company founded in 2017, has partnered with Lyft to deploy an autonomous fleet in Atlanta in the summer of 2025.

Robotaxis also operate outside the US. In China, driverless taxis are quickly expanding with companies like Baidu's Apollo Go and WeRide.

In March 2025, Waymo deployed 25 Jaguar I-PACE SUVs to Japan to begin mapping out parts of Tokyo.

• Soda company Olipop mandates a week of PTO this summer to prevent burnout and boost performance.
• Its 'Summer Recharge' program includes a $1,000 vacation stipend for four employees each month.
• Olipop offers remote work, unlimited PTO, and plans to expand perks.

Need a reason to take a vacation? At Olipop, employees don't have a choice.

The prebiotic soda brand valued at $1.85 billion recently launched a program requiring its staff of roughly 220 to take at least one full week of PTO. It's also raffling off a $1,000 stipend to four employees each month from June to September to spend on their vacation.

"I have no concern that our employees, writ large, should be able to afford a vacation, but things are expensive, right?" Olipop CEO Ben Goodwin told Business Insider, adding that he wants to send an "ultra clear" message about Olipop's workplace.

The company said the "Summer Recharge" initiative is intended to prevent burnout, boost performance, and model a healthier relationship with PTO.

Olipop CEO Ben Goodwin said the idea came about after the company launched a summer program for customers to win a soda-inspired hotel suites or one of 5,000 influencer-style PR Boxes for just five cents.

After seeing data about US workers not using all their allotted PTO, Goodwin decided to create a similar program for Olipop's employees.

A survey published by Eagle Hill Consulting last November found that 48% of US employees anticipated having unused vacation days by the end of the year, and over one-third of respondents said they hadn't taken a vacation at all in the past year. 85% of the 1,387 survey respondents said they would support a requirement to use a minimum number of vacation days a year.

Olipop offers unlimited time off. Goodwin said that while unlimited PTO can give employees a sense of freedom, these sorts of policies can lead to employees taking less time off. That notion "was unacceptable," he said and he didn't want it happening at his company.

Goodwin said it's "really important" that the company effectively facilitates employees' work-life balance. He says that Olipop's employees are hard workers and that, since its founding in 2018, he can count on one hand the number of employees who haven't pulled their weight.

Goodwin described the Olipop work environment as "intense" and said the staff is competitive and mission-oriented. Last year alone, the company had nearly 400,000 applicants, he said.

While Goodwin invests heavily in employee wellness, he said he is still working on his own ability to disconnect from his job.

"I have to take somewhat extreme measures to really, like, take a breather," Goodwin said, adding that he needs to leave the country to detach himself.

Goodwin said that Olipop has experienced triple-digit growth nearly every year since its inception, and he has to maintain his performance by following routines like exercise and therapy.

Mandatory summer vacation isn't the only perk Olipop offers. Rather than investing in office facilities, Olipop runs remotely and pays significant costs in employee benefits and perks.

The company pays for employees to have a gold PPO plan and covers 95% of insurance costs, Goodwin said. Olipop also offers department off-sites, a party at the end of the year with a DJ and a hotel stay, new hire orientations, and a program for leadership called Olipop Leadership University.

As a relatively small company in a high-growth phase, Goodwin said he has no plans to pull back these perks. In fact, he said he's in active discussions with Olipop's new head of people about expanding some initiatives. Goodwin said he's exploring the launch of a "company rainy day fund for employee emergencies."

To Goodwin, it's all part of the company's mission to benefit others. He also said it creates incentive for employees to perform better.

"How much time do you want to spend using punitive measures to keep your employees in line, and how much do you want to use incentivization and meaning to inspire them in the same direction?" Goodwin said.

The CEO added that you can "tell which model we prefer."