(WASHNGTON) — Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm can relate to Americans’ anxiety over electric vehicles.
The former governor of Michigan and longtime EV owner (who currently drives a Ford Mach-E) says she has experienced her own challenges with public charging on road trips. She has heard from drivers who are reluctant to give up their eight-cylinder engines and large trucks and SUVs for an electric model. But she is convinced that more Americans will soon realize the benefits of owning one, helping to change the current anti-EV rhetoric in this country.
“The Ford F-150 is a great example of a big car that has gone electric. But people have to make their own decisions,” Granholm told ABC News in an interview Thursday. “I get it — nobody is gonna force anybody to make these decisions. I honestly think … as the price of the electric vehicle comes down, and it has dropped 23% year-over-year, and the price of operating the car and not having to go to the gas station and being able to ‘fill it up’ for much less and more conveniently, honestly, I think it’s going to sell itself.”
She added, “People love their cars. And I think they’ll love their EVs, too.”
Tesla, which commands 56% of the U.S. electric vehicle market, has largely been responsible for the boost in EV sales, which hit a record of nearly 1.2 million units in 2023. According to data from Edmunds, the average transaction price of a new EV last December was $62,526 versus the industry average of $48,408.
Tesla on Wednesday said it sold 1.8 million vehicles in 2013, a 35% jump from 2022, but warned that sales growth would be “notably” slower this year. The carmaker has slashed prices on its popular Model 3 and Model 7 models to maintain its market share. The company’s shares tanked on Thursday even with the announcement of a “next generation low-cost vehicle” coming in late 2025.
Electrifying the U.S. auto industry is a top priority for President Joe Biden. The federal government has provided millions of dollars in funding for the expansion of the nation’s public charging infrastructure, including the maintenance of broken or nonfunctioning chargers. Sales of new electric vehicles totaled 7% of the U.S. market in 2023 though Biden’s goal is to reach at least 50% by 2030.
Owning an electric vehicle and supporting the industry’s push to go green eclipses blue state and red state politics, Granholm argued.
She pointed to the thousands of workers in the South who work on assembly lines building electric SUVs and batteries for major automakers like Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Ford, Volkswagen, Volvo and Genesis. Mercedes-Benz, for example, invested $1 billion in a state-of-the-art battery factory in Alabama. Hyundai Motor Group has teamed up with LG Energy Solution on a $4.3 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Georgia.
“All of those factories that I was talking about regarding building electric vehicles and electric vehicle batteries, 60% of them are going into red states. So, you know, people in red states love their EVs, too, and are working at these factories,” Granholm said. “I just think that over time, the political nonsense about it will die down and people’s experience will speak much more loudly.”
She went on, “For those who care about global warming [and] climate change, EVs are a solution for them. For those who care about cost, EVs are a solution for them. For those who care about power, EVs are a solution.”
ABC News’ complete interview with Secretary Granholm will be published on Monday, Jan. 29.
(NEW YORK) — Shares of Tesla plummeted more than 10% in afternoon trading on Thursday, less than 24 hours after the company reported earnings that fell short of expectations and cautioned of sluggish sales over the duration of this year.
Revenue and profits missed analyst expectations over the three months ending in December, according to the earnings report released on Wednesday.
In all, the company delivered 1.81 million cars in 2023, more than it had in any previous year, the earnings report said. However, Tesla has cut prices as it faces increased competition, putting downward pressure on the company’s revenue.
Further, the company’s vehicle delivery growth “may be notably lower” in 2024, Tesla said in the earnings release.
“Tesla is nothing more than a struggling car company,” Gordon Johnson, CEO and founder of data firm GLJ Research, who is bearish on Tesla, told investors in a note Thursday reviewed by ABC News.
For its part, Tesla said the slowdown owes to the company’s focus on developing a “next-generation vehicle” that will arrive as soon as the second half of 2025. That improved vehicle will supercharge sales, the company said.
“Our company is currently between two major growth waves,” the earnings report said. “The first one began with the global expansion of the Model 3/Y platform and the next one we believe will be initiated by the global expansion of the next-generation vehicle platform.”
The explanation, echoed during a conference call Wednesday, failed to allay the concerns of Dan Ives, a managing director of equity research at the investment firm Wedbush, who is typically bullish on the company.
The conference call, Ives told ABC News in a statement, amounted to a “trainwreck.”
The earnings report has shaken the “near-term confidence” previously endorsed at Wedbush, Ives added. “But we remain firm on a long-term bull thesis around Tesla and the broader AI story set to take hold,” he added.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk drew attention last week when he said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that he’s seeking greater voting control of the electric carmaker, threatening to otherwise pursue major projects such as artificial intelligence outside of the company.
The Tesla board, Musk said, should grant him 25% voting control, an amount that would nearly double the vote share currently afforded to Musk through his stake in the company.
The company has also faced government inquiries over risks posed by some of the technology in its vehicles.
In December, Tesla agreed to recall about 2 million cars over a safety issue tied to its autopilot system, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said. Earlier this month, the company recalled an additional 1.6 million vehicles exported to China, citing a problem with the car’s assisted steering system.
The uncertainty that looms over the company, Ives said, amounts to a “bitter pill to swallow for the bulls.”
An exterior view of the Dunkin’ Donuts restaurant in Muncy, Pennsylvania, June 10, 2023. (Paul Weaver/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Lactose intolerant coffee drinkers who opt for nondairy alternatives like soy, almond or oat milk in their drinks at Dunkin’ may pay as much as $2 more for the alternatives, which a new potential class-action lawsuit claims could constitute discrimination.
The suit, filed last month in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, seeks class certification and represents 10 Dunkin’ customers who say they purchased beverages “that contained non-dairy milk alternatives” between 2018 and 2023, and “paid a surcharge” for either “plant-based or lactose-free milk” in California, New York, Texas, Colorado, Massachusetts and Hawaii.
According to legal documents obtained by ABC News, the plaintiffs named in the suit all suffer from lactose intolerance and milk allergies, making it medically necessary “to avoid consuming drinks that contain milk.”
Depending on the date and location, the customers were charged anywhere from 50 cents to $2.15 extra for the substitution, the filing states.
The lawsuit seeks damages amounting to no less than $5,000,000, and plaintiffs demanded a jury trial.
On Friday, Dunkin’ filed a waiver that acknowledged the lawsuit. The company has until March 4 to respond.
The lawsuit specifically points to the “allergen statement” displayed in Dunkin’ stores that advises customers to inform a barista if they have a food allergy before placing an order.
“Dunkin will modify its regular beverage offerings to remove sugar or use sugar-free sweeteners at no additional charge for those persons with diabetes or who need to control weight,” the lawsuit states. “However, they only accommodate those with lactose intolerance or allergies to milk by imposing a surcharge. There is no expertise or additional work required of Dunkin employees that would substitute whole milk or fat-free milk in place of 2% regular milk, or who would make caffeine-free or sugar-free beverages, to also be able to substitute Non-Dairy Alternatives such as soy, almond, coconut, oat, or other lactose-free ‘milk’ in place of 2% regular milk.”
The lawsuit claims that because lactose intolerance and milk allergies are both considered disabilities, Dunkin’s “conduct violates the Americans with Disabilities Act,” as well as state anti-discrimination laws where the respective customers purchased their beverages.
The ADA states that public entities are required to make “reasonable modifications” to policies or practices when it’s necessary for an individual with a disability to afford their goods, services, facilities, privileges or advantages.
As cited in the lawsuit, the ADA also states that “a public accommodation may not impose a surcharge on a particular individual with a disability or any group of individuals with disabilities to cover the costs of measures, such as the provision of auxiliary aids, barrier removal, alternatives to barrier removal, and reasonable modifications in policies, practices, or procedures, that are required to provide that individual or group with the nondiscriminatory treatment required by the Act or this part.”
In this case, plaintiffs claimed Dunkin’ violated the ADA due to the failure “to make modifications that are necessary to afford goods and services to persons with lactose intolerance but instead imposes a surcharge on this group, purportedly to cover the cost of such measures.”
Dunkin’ did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on the lawsuit. The Massachusetts-based coffee chain has not yet issued a public statement on the matter.
Martin Shkreli, former chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals AG, exits court in New York, US, on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023. (Bloomberg / Contributor/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Martin Shkreli’s lifetime ban from the pharmaceutical industry was upheld by a federal appeals court in New York on Tuesday.
A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Shkreli was punished appropriately for antitrust violations.
Shkreli increased the price of the antiparasitic drug Daraprim — an anti-malaria medication often prescribed for HIV patients — by 4,000%, from $17.50 per pill to $750 per pill in 2015.
Shkreli, a former pharmaceuticals CEO who was nicknamed “Pharma Bro” after hiking the cost of the lifesaving drug, was convicted of securities fraud and had faced a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
In 2018, Shkreli was convicted of securities fraud and other offenses and was sentenced to seven years in prison.
At the time of his sentencing, Shkreli apologized for his “disgraceful judgment” and dispensed with his prior criticisms of the court and his conviction.
“The only person to blame for me being here is me,” he said. “There is no government conspiracy to take down Martin Shkreli. I took down Martin Shkreli with my disgraceful and shameful actions.”
After serving about five years, Shkreli was released from prison early in May 2022.
After the Federal Trade Commission sued him a court ordered the lifetime ban and made him repay $64 million.
Shkreli argued the lifetime ban was excessive and limited his public speech. The appellate court found the ban was a reasonable measure to protect the public from future price-fixing.
“Given Shkreli’s pattern of past misconduct, the obvious likelihood of its recurrence, and the life-threatening nature of its results, we are persuaded that the district court’s determination as to the proper scope of the injunction was well within its discretion,” according to the opinion.
Shkreli’s company, Vyera Pharmaceuticals, settled allegations it suppressed competition for Daraprim, its most valuable drug, and filed for bankruptcy last year.
(NEW YORK) — With tax season set to kick off next week, the IRS is launching a new initiative to redesign and simplify common tax documents.
The changes will eventually apply to around 170 million letters that are sent out to individual taxpayers every year. The notices, for example, remind taxpayers of how much they owe, that they have made an error on their returns, or that they have been victims of identity theft.
The current IRS forms are often complicated, confusing and filled with legal jargon. The redesigned versions are shorter with clearer language about the steps taxpayers need to take in the specific notice they receive.
“We need to put more of these letters into plain language, something an average person can understand without needing to hire a tax or legal professional,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said on a call with reporters Tuesday.
Letters affecting about 20 million taxpayers will be redesigned for the current 2024 tax season. Werfel said the goal is to cover 90% of all notices sent to taxpayers by next year’s filing season.
“This is a big undertaking to the IRS, and it will take time and resources” Werfel said, crediting funding that was made available through the Inflation Reduction Act.
That legislation, passed in August 2022, allocated $80 billion to the IRS over 10 years, as part of a push to modernize the agency. Some of those funds have since been clawed back amid ongoing spending fights in Congress.
The IRS says the new “Simple Notice Initiative” builds on a previous effort to improve paperless processing, making it easier for taxpayers to submit documents online.
The 2024 tax filing season officially kicks off on Jan. 29.
(NEW YORK) — Venmo, Zelle and Cash App are leaving consumers vulnerable to fraud that’s “draining bank accounts of significant sums of money,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in letters to the companies that own those financial apps. He demanded they increase protections.
Bragg’s letters said he was writing “in response to a growing number of incidents” involving fraud and theft “through the exploitation of your company’s mobile financial applications on personal electronic devices such as iPhones.”
Peer-to-peer payment services now handle an estimated $1 trillion in payments and the district attorney said “frauds and scams have proliferated” as usage climbs.
In the past year, there have been thefts stretching from Los Angeles, where several people were robbed of thousands of dollars through Venmo at knifepoint, to Orlando, where a woman had thousands drained from her Venmo after a child asked to use her phone. Similar thefts and robberies have been publicly reported in West Virginia, Louisiana, Illinois, Kansas, Tennessee, Virginia and elsewhere across the United States.
“These crimes involve an unauthorized user gaining access to unlocked devices and then draining bank accounts of significant sums of money, making purchases with mobile financial applications, and using financial information from the applications to open new accounts,” Bragg’s letters said. “Offenders also take over the phone’s security by changing passwords, recovery accounts, and application settings. The ease with which offenders can collect five- and even six-figure windfalls in a matter of minutes is incentivizing a large number of individuals to commit these crimes, which are creating serious financial, and in some cases physical, harm to our residents.”
The district attorney called on Venmo, Zelle and Cash App to adopt additional security measures, including imposing limits on transactions, requiring secondary verification of up to a day and better monitoring of unusual activity.
“I am concerned about the troubling rise in illegal behavior that has developed because of insufficient security measures connected with your software and business policy decisions,” Bragg’s letters said.
He is requesting meetings with the companies.
Paypall, the owner of Venmo; Square Inc, the owner of Cash App; and Zelle did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
(NEW YORK) — A children’s clothing brand is facing criticism for the way it handled one employee’s request to work remotely while her newborn son was treated in the neonatal intensive care unit.
The controversy erupted into public view last week when Ying Liu, the founder and CEO of Kyte Baby, a company that sells infant sleep sacks and clothing made with bamboo material, took to TikTok to issue an apology to the employee, identified as Marissa, whose parental leave request was denied.
“Hey guys, it’s Ying. I wanted to hop on here to sincerely apologize to Marissa for how her parental leave was communicated and handled in the midst of her incredible journey of adoption and starting a family,” Liu, a mother of five, according to the Kyte Baby website, said in the 90-second video, posted to Kyte Baby’s TikTok account on Jan. 18. “I have been trying to reach out to her to apologize directly as well.”
Liu said in the video that Kyte Baby “prides itself” on being a “family-oriented company,” and said she would be reviewing the company’s human resources “policy and procedures,” in light of the incident.
The employee, Marissa, reportedly adopted a son who was hospitalized in the NICU following his birth in late December. ABC News has not been able to reach the employee for comment.
Liu’s apology, which received more than two million views, drew criticisms from some TikTok users who characterized it as inauthentic and not going far enough to support the employee. Other commenters threatened to boycott the brand.
Shortly after posting the first video, Liu posted a second video on TikTok in which she acknowledged the first apology was “scripted” and “wasn’t sincere.”
She explained in the second video that she was the leader who “vetoed” Marissa’s request to work remotely while her son was in the NICU, saying, “I own 100% of that.”
“When I think back, this was a terrible decision,” Liu said. “I was insensitive, selfish and was only focused on the fact that her job had always been done on-site and I did not see the possibility of doing it remotely.”
Liu also said in the video, which received six million views, that she agreed with people who said Kyte Baby needs to set an example as a women-led business focused on baby products.
“I think a lot of comments are right. We need to set the example because we are in the baby business,” she said. “I want to [go] above and beyond in protecting women and giving them the right protection and benefits when they’re having babies.”
Spotlight on lack of protections, flexibility for parents
The Kyte Baby controversy has turned a spotlight on the lack of paid protections for new parents in the United States.
Currently, the U.S. is part of only a small pool of countries worldwide that do not guarantee paid leave.
Just one-quarter of all U.S. workers have access to paid family leave from their employer, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Under current U.S. policy — the Family and Medical Leave Act — employees who qualify can take time off to care for a newborn or loved one or recover from illness without fear of losing their job, but in many cases the leave is unpaid.
Some commenters on TikTok also raised the issue of a lack of protections for adoptive parents in the U.S., questioning whether the outcome would have been different had the Kyte Baby employee carried her baby.
The backlash against Kyte Baby denying its employee’s request for remote work also comes as working moms continue to rebuild following the coronavirus pandemic, during which approximately 3.5 million moms of school-age children had to leave active work, shift into paid or unpaid leave, lost their job or exited the labor market altogether, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
While many women had to leave the workforce due to child care issues, the pandemic also highlighted the benefits of remote work, particularly for working moms. Since last year, the participation rate for women in the workforce between the ages of 25 and 54 has been at an all-time high, according to researchers from the Brookings Institution. Researchers attributed that rise, in part, to the increased ability to telework.
Despite those figures, many employers have instituted or continued to push for in-office mandates over the past year, arguing that returning to the office contributes to greater productivity, collaboration and overall workplace culture. Cities themselves say the shift in remote work at some companies has also forced them to reconsider what to do with empty or unfilled office buildings, with some attempting to convert unused space into housing.
Kyte Baby pledges to change its maternity leave policy
While much of the backlash against Kyte Baby focused on the company doing too little, too late, the company was applauded by some for apologizing and course-correcting in wake of the outcry.
“We all make mistakes. The fact that you are owning it and making it right is what matters. Change comes from learning, learning comes from mistakes,” wrote one commenter.
A spokesperson for Kyte Baby told ABC News in a statement Monday that the company is revising its maternity leave policy.
The spokesperson said the employee in question, Marissa, has “declined” the company’s offer to return to her position at Kyte Baby.
“We continue to apologize to both Marissa and our Kyte Baby community for the handling of her maternity leave. Over the last few days our team has been working to make changes to ensure that something like this does not happen again. We are revising our maternity policy to give new parents, both biological and nonbiological, more time off and creating a better process to support our employees,” the spokesperson said.
According to the spokesperson, Marissa worked with Kyte Baby as an on-site employee in the company’s photo studio, and had been with them for “a little over seven months” when she made the remote work request.
“Based on our maternity policy at the time, all parents, whether biological or non-biological, who have worked for the company for at least six months, but less than one year, receive two weeks paid maternity time and are required to sign a contract saying that they will return to their job for six months after their paid leave is complete. Employees with the company over one year receive four weeks paid maternity time and are required to sign a contract saying that they will return to their job for six months after their paid leave is complete,” the spokesperson said.
“Marissa was offered the standard package with two weeks maternity time, but given her son’s situation, was unable to sign the six-month contract. She did propose a remote option for her job that, in the moment, did not work for us since she worked a largely on-site position in our photo studio. We let her know that her job would be here if and when she opted to return. Marissa opted to leave at this point. However, upon reflection we should have taken more steps to accommodate her situation,” the spokesperson said.
“We’ve since realized that Kyte Baby needs to stand by their values of being a woman owned, family company,” they added. “We have reached out to Marissa directly and let her know that her job is here if and when she is ready to come back. We have also offered to work with her on a remote position. At this time Marissa has declined our offer. We are revising our maternity policy by Feb. 1 and will be updating our internal team at that time.”
(NEW YORK) — TikTok users are loud and proud, not just about their dance moves and style choices, but also when it comes to budgeting.
The recent #loudbudgeting trend, which has racked up nearly 10 million views and counting, is all about sharing your savings goals and shouting it from the proverbial rooftops, and TikTokkers and financial experts alike say the viral trend could help people cut back on impulse purchases and make smarter financial choices.
Among the vocal advocates behind loud budgeting is Lukas Battle.
“It’s not ‘I don’t have enough,’ it’s ‘I don’t want to spend,'” Battle explained in a now viral TikTok video.
Battle told “Good Morning America” that staying quiet about your finances and setting spending limits don’t have to be shrouded in shame.
“My friend wants to go out to dinner. I’m gonna just text them ‘loud budgeting’ this month. I think financial transparency with your friends is something that you don’t have to be embarrassed about,” Battle said.
With the cost of living and home prices still high, financial educator Tiffany Aliche of “The Budgetnista” told “GMA” people can use loud budgeting on their journey to achieving financial goals.
“Budgeting out loud, it’s not just the words, but also having these tools in place,” Aliche said. “It holds you accountable. But also, it allows the people that care about you to also hold you accountable.”
One way Aliche said she puts loud budgeting into action is to place a “deactivation sticker” on her credit card as a visual reminder to save money.
“Whenever I take out the card, it’s a physical reminder, because I’m budgeting out loud,” Aliche explained. “Is this a need? Is this a love? Because if it’s just a like or a want, that’s $10, $20, $30 less that I can put toward my [goal of a] dream trip.”
To get started with loud budgeting, Aliche recommends a few beginner tips.
Budgeting basics
Start a “money list.”
Check credit and debit card statements.
Divide your money into categories.
Write down your spending per month in each category.
Aliche also recommends taking the guesswork out of dividing your funds by asking your bank and/or employer to automatically split your paycheck into separate accounts.
Each account can be dedicated to a purpose or goal, such as one for bills, one for savings, and another for entertainment purchases.
(NEW YORK) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 38,000 for the first time ever on Monday, setting a record high and capping a steady rise that stretches back to last week.
The S&P 500 also reached a record high, closing at about 4,850.
The major stock indexes kicked off the year with sluggish performance but began to turn upward in the middle of last week.
The recent surge follows a stellar showing for markets in 2023, driven in large part by optimism about the prospects for a “soft landing,” in which inflation comes down to normal levels while the economy avoids a recession.
Investor enthusiasm about AI also helped drive returns.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Microsoft revealed Friday that some of its corporate email accounts were hacked by a Russian-backed group.
The tech company said in a blog post that its security team detected the attack on Jan. 12 and quickly identified the group responsible: Midnight Blizzard, “the Russian state-sponsored actor also known as Nobelium.”
In late November, the group allegedly used a “password spray attack,” where a user uses a single common password against multiple accounts on the same application, to “compromise a legacy non-production test tenant account and gain a foothold,” according to Microsoft.
The group then “used the account’s permissions to access a very small percentage of Microsoft corporate email accounts, including members of our senior leadership team and employees in our cybersecurity, legal, and other functions, and exfiltrated some emails and attached documents,” the company said.
The hackers allegedly were targeting email accounts for information related to Midnight Blizzard, Microsoft said.
“To date, there is no evidence that the threat actor had any access to customer environments, production systems, source code, or AI systems. We will notify customers if any action is required,” the company said.
The company said it is in the process of informing its affected users.
