Buy these dividend-paying regional bank stocks, Truist says
Large banks have many advantages over smaller counterparts, but several regional bank stocks remain standouts, according to Truist. Plus, they pay solid dividends. Bank stocks have largely reversed course after sinking on President Donald Trump 's tariff policy announcement in early April. The SPDR S & P Regional Banking ETF has seen four consecutive weeks of gains and is up about 5% so far this week. Yet the ETF is still down nearly 2% year to date. KRE YTD mountain SPDR S & P Regional Banking ETF in 2025. In this environment, Truist is being selective when it comes to small- and mid-cap (SMID) banks. "Amidst the uncertain macro backdrop, we favor a mix of names with outsize[d] organic growth opportunities driven by differentiated business models and/or footprint, potential to be disciplined participants in an eventual M & A revival, and leverage to positive cyclical trends as balance sheets turn over," a team of analysts led by David Smith wrote in a note on Monday. Since SMID-cap banks rely on customer relationships within a smaller geographic footprint, investors can look at differing economic conditions across the country, the analysts said. Here are four names Truist rates a buy, one in each geographic region. Old National Bancorp , in the Midwest, has a 2.49% dividend yield. The Evansville, Indiana-based bank recently closed its merger with Bremer Financial, expanding its footprint into new markets across Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota, analyst Brian Foran said. "The bank has a good track record on meeting and beating targets of previous large deals, and we see a path of maintaining mid-to-high teens [return on tangible common equity] and getting efficiency ratio below 50s, with more than 20% EPS accretion in 2026 generated from Bremer integration," he wrote. Shares are up 4% so far this year. Foran's $26 price target suggests nearly 16% upside from Tuesday's close. In the Northeast, Webster Financial is one bank that Smith likes. He has a price target of $61 on the stock, implying 15% upside. Headquartered in Stamford, Conn., the bank's footprint spans from New York to Massachusetts, he noted. It is one of the more profitable in his research universe, with its efficient operations and low-cost, diversified funding base, he said. "Webster also boasts some niche lending businesses and high capital levels, though we expect more focus on organic growth or buybacks near term," Smith wrote. "Although higher [commercial real estate] concentration and slower growth markets are concerns, we view them as offering diversification and see a compelling valuation." The stock yields 3.03% and has lost 3% year to date. With Synovus Financial , investors get a dividend equal to a current yield of 3.15%. The bank, headquartered in Columbus, Georgia, is in the middle innings of a self-improvement journey, analyst John McDonald said. It has an attractive footprint across five states in the Southeast, with 70% of its markets in high growth areas, he said. "The bank has streamlined its structure and slimmed exposures, and is now executing on organic expansion while delivering more consistent credit quality," McDonald wrote. "Stock trades at a valuation discount, and current profitability/franchise value offers an opportunity to shed legacy perceptions through consistent execution." He has a $56 price target on Synovus, suggesting it can move 13% above Tuesday's close. Synovus Financial is down 3% so far this year. Lastly, Western Alliance Bancorp , whose dividend equals a 1.91% dividend yield, is one of the fastest growing banks based on internal growth rather than mergers and acqusitions, Smith said. Headquartered in Phoenix, Western Alliance has shifted from a real-estate heavy, community bank to a diversified commercial bank with numerous niche businesses that provide attractive profit margins, he noted. "While above-average CRE and office concentration, coupled with a poor [global financial crisis] loan loss performance, give some investors concern on credit, WAL has transformed its balance sheet," Smith wrote. "Following a considerable liquidity & capital build after the bank was caught up in the March Madness of '23 that saw its industry-leading returns dip, Western Alliance is poised to once again be among the more profitable midsize banks." Truist's 12-month price target of $92 suggests 15.5% upside from Tuesday's close. The stock has slipped 4% year to date.
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Forbes
27 minutes ago
- Forbes
The Unlikely Group Getting Rich Off Dave's Hot Chicken's $1 Billion Deal
'How late did you guys stay out last night?' jokes Dave's Hot Chicken CEO Bill Phelps. The 69-year-old, who joined the Los Angeles-based spicy chicken chain in 2019 after leading Blaze Pizza and Wetzel's Pretzels, is sitting next to his second in-command, Dave's president and COO Jim Bitticks, another Blaze alumnus, on one side of a large conference room table in Forbes' Jersey City office. On the other side are two of Dave's four cofounders, Arman Oganesyan, 33, and Dave Kopushyan, 34, who do indeed look like they're on their way to (or from) a big night out. Kopushyan, a cook who is the brand's namesake, is coolly dressed in a white T-shirt and blue-washed jeans covered in Black stars. Oganesyan, meanwhile, dons a bright pink and orange Versace silk shirt, matching pink sunglasses and a Hermes belt with shorts, his arms and legs exposed to show intricate tattoos. Though both claim no mischief the night prior, the duo have plenty to celebrate. Their visit to Forbes is the last stop on a whirlwind two-day press tour following the June 2 announcement that Dave's sold 70% of its business to Roark Capital – the private equity giant that owns Subway, Dunkin', Buffalo Wild Wings among other restaurant brands – at a $1 billion valuation. After the interview, they're hopping on a private jet from Teterboro Airport back to Los Angeles. Dave's was founded in 2017 by Oganesyan, Kopushyan, and brothers Tommy and Gary Rubenyan. All four were children of Armenian immigrants who grew up together in East Hollywood and high school dropouts. They started the business as a pop-up in a parking lot near where they grew up. Their cayenne-coated, Nashville-style chicken, which comes in six different spice levels (the hottest of which, 'The Reaper' requires buyers to sign a waiver), gained an immediate cult following. Continued social media hype around the brand, which says its brand organically generates millions of views a week on TikTok, along with a cadre of celebrity investors including rapper Drake helped turn Dave's into a $620 million (2024 systemwide sales) business with over 300 global locations — and a prime takeover target. The Dave's original pop-up was set up in the parking lot of a random apartment building in East Hollywood. Dave's Hot Chicken The four cofounders, who were at one time so broke they say they struggled to pool together the $900 needed to launch the first Dave's popup, are now richer than they ever imagined. Each owned roughly 10% of the business prior to the sale and is selling around 80% of their stakes, amounting to around $80 million (pre-tax). 'The money's in our accounts,' says Oganesyan, who admits he Googled whether Roark could request the money back. 'Wires are permanent. Even if you mistakenly wire money to somebody, you can't take it back.' (The day before announcing the Roark deal, Oganesyan, a former standup comedian who is Dave's chief business officer, posted a photo of himself sitting on the hood of an electric blue McLaren with the caption: 'Patiently waiting for all my relatives in Armenia to call and ask me for money.') It's quite a jump from the last time they cashed out. The founders previously sold half the business – Dave's had just one location at the time – for $2 million in 2018 to an investor group led by CEO Phelps and the Hollywood producer John Davis, son of billionaire oil and entertainment tycoon Marvin Davis (d. 2004) who is now a prominent food investor. (The pair had having previously worked together on Wetzels, which Phelps founded, and on Blaze Pizza.) 'I fell in love with the boys. There was something about them,' says Davis, who claims he knew from the beginning: 'This is a $1 billion company.' It was really Phelps and Davis who helped it grow so big so fast and, while the duo have worked on the other two restaurant concepts together, this one is the most successful concept to date in terms of the company's ultimate valuation. Phelps and Davis both made 250 times their initial investment. According to Davis, he and Phelps were the largest shareholders in the company at the time of the sale to Roark, with roughly equal stakes. (Davis declined to share his ownership stake but says he still kept some after the sale.) Phelps, who also declined to reveal his ownership stake, says he sold off half of his shares and adds that he and the rest of his investment group voted to give away a chunk of their earnings to create a bonus pool for Dave's executives and employees, around 20 of whom will become millionaires. 'The average bonus for the support people all the way down to assistant restaurant manager level was about $100,000,' adds COO Bitticks. A lot of things had to go right for Dave's to end up where it did. One important factor was the founders' timely bet on chicken. 'The two hottest new concepts in the restaurant world are coffee and chicken,' says John Gordon, a restaurant industry expert who is the founder of Pacific Management Consulting Group. In 2010, chicken overtook beef as the most popular meat in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. A seemingly insatiable appetite for the protein has helped chicken joints including Raising Cane's, Wingstop and Dave's rank among the fastest growing restaurant chains in America in recent years. Oganesyan says it was this burgeoning trend that prompted him to approach his friend Kopushyan, who he met in middle school, back in 2017. It was a tough sell at first. Kopushyan, who previously worked as a line cook at famed chef Thomas Keller's Bouchon restaurant in Los Angeles, was a vegetarian working at Elf Cafe, a veggie restaurant on Sunset Boulevard. But after a month of lobbying, Oganesyan managed to convince his friend, who developed a recipe he says is 98% the same as the one Dave's currently sells. The pair recruited Tommy Rubenyan and his older brother Gary, who would later help put up the money to open the first store. The operation was extremely scrappy. Though they initially floated the idea of selling out of a food truck, they decided to do the pop-up instead, borrowing tables and chairs from their families and using the $900 to buy a fryer and heat lamps. Dave's is known for its nuggets and sliders, which it sells with pickles, fries and Dave's signature sauce. Dave's Hot Chicken A rave review from local food blog Eater LA five days into business made Dave's an overnight sensation. Within a year, they opened their first restaurant in East Hollywood. Despite being in an area Phelps describes as a 'dump' – 'we would never approve that site today,' adds Bitticks – Dave's food went so viral that the founders claim the restaurant ended the year doing $5 million in sales. 'It was the cult following,' says Phelps. 'It was what they created through Instagram, the [Eater LA] article… It drew people to the restaurant like crazy and there would be two hour lines for that store.' The brand initially relied heavily on marketing its products through Instagram. But it's also become a big hit on TikTok, where it's trendy for people to post videos of themselves eating and reviewing Dave's' sliders, nuggets and fries. Not surprisingly, the founders say there was immediate interest from investors. They shrugged off most inquiries but one stood out: A post-it note left with the restaurant's manager. 'It just said 'founders call John Davis,' recalls Kopushyan. Davis is one of Hollywood's most prolific producers with more than 115 credits – including 'Predator' and 'Doctor Dolittle' – and $8 billion in box office earnings for the films he's backed. Over the past three decades, he's also made a name for himself as a successful early backer of early-stage fast-casual concepts. In 1997, Davis bought into Wetzel's Pretzels, an Auntie Annie's competitor founded by Phelps and Rick Wetzel (Davis and his investment group sold their stake in the business in 2008 at a valuation of $36 million). Davis and Phelps teamed up again in 2012 when they became two of the earliest investors in Blaze Pizza, another restaurant concept founded by Wetzel and his wife Elise. They sold their minority stake in the 380 restaurant chain for an estimated $250 million in 2017. Davis, who is also an investor in Pop-up Bagels, has a simple formula for building winning restaurant brands: bring on board his posse of trusted investors including Phelps, actor Samuel L. Jackson and celebrity investment advisor Paul Wachter ('we just go from deal to deal'), take the biggest ownership stake, install his own management team and install a celebrity to help rep the brand. Davis did exactly this with Dave's, convincing Phelps, who he'd worked with at both Wetzel's and Blaze, to run the brand instead of retiring. Immediately after the deal, Dave's began franchising with the help of a management team almost entirely carried over from Blaze. A recent text exchange between Dave's Hot Chicken investor John Davis and cofounder Arman Oganesyan, who kept the post-it note Davis left at the first restaurant in August 2018. John Davis Dave's second restaurant opened in 2019 and then six more the next year, according to data from the restaurant industry data collector Technomic. They targeted franchisors who had owned a Blaze, Wetzel's or another fast casual restaurant previously. Phelps also helped several executives, including Bitticks and Dave's CFO James McGehee, buy franchise locations (Bitticks owns three currently and has plans to open up two more). Dave's founders now own a combined seven locations. By 2022, a year after Dave's announced rapper Drake as its big celebrity backer (Drake is a client of Wachter's, who helped bring him into the deal, according to Davis), they'd opened nearly 100 locations, many of them in California. They've since more than tripled that number, expanding into 46 different states and seven countries. Dave's systemwide sales hit $617 million last year, up from $392 million in 2023, the Technomic data shows. In 2020, sales were just $22 million. It's not uncommon for trendy food restaurants to hit the gas too quickly on their brick and mortar growth, then suffer when they fall out of style. This is what happened with Subway, which was acquired by Roark last year for over $9 billion after shuttering nearly a quarter of its locations over the past decade. Blaze, Phelps and David' previous venture, shut 30 locations, or 10% of its total stores, last year, according to Kevin Schimpf, senior director of industry research at Technomic. Blaze's sales also dropped from $400 million in 2023 to $357 million in 2024. When asked whether their chain has any reservations about growing too quickly, Dave's leadership is dismissive. 'We understand this business really well,' says Bitticks of Dave's. 'We're going to go from opening 80 restaurants last year to roughly 155 this year, to almost 165 or 170 next year. That's the kind of growth we can maintain.' The company isn't worried about competitors. 'I went into a Popeye's and had their spicy chicken sandwich and said, 'We're going to be rich,' says Phelps. Even beloved brands like Chick-Fil-A and Raising Cane's don't rattle him, citing the eating patterns of his two young adult sons. 'They eat out twice a day,' he says. 'It's not like you only have one shot to eat out this week and it's either Dave's or Raising Cane's.' They're talking a big game but, at least for now, Dave's is still a small fry. According to Phelps, the average Dave's restaurant brings in around $3 million a year in sales (EBITDA margins are between 18% and 20%); data from Technomic suggests that number is closer to $2.5 million. This outpaces the likes of Popeyes, which recorded around $1.9 million in average sales at its more than 2,400 locations last year. But Dave's sales pale in comparison to some of its more ferocious competitors: Chick-Fil-A averaged $9.3 million at its free-standing and drive-thru restaurants last year, while Raising Cane's reportedly hit $6.2 million in average unit volume. Roark began circling Dave's five years ago when it had just 15 locations. The owners joked that the private equity firm was 'stalking' the brand as they were constantly being courted at conferences or, in Phelps' case, even one time on the golf course. Before Dave's Hot Chicken, Bill Phelps cofounded and ran Wetzel's Pretzels until 2019. Dave's Hot Chicken In the end, the owners were keen enough on the $1 billion offer and worried enough about Trump's tariffs and ensuing economic uncertainty that they rushed to close the deal through a 'truncated sales process' after agreeing to the deal initially in January, according to Bitticks. 'The [mergers & acquisitions market] has been very quiet,' echoes Gordon, the restaurant analyst. Plus, there's another good reason for Dave's to get the deal done now: 'Eating out is a form of entertainment,' says Gordon. 'You need to sell when the concept is hot.' What's trending one day may not be trending the next. And as a business deeply rooted in trends, Dave's may be particularly vulnerable to changing cultural tides. Davis, for his part, says it was largely his decision for Dave's owners to cash out when they did. 'We have to take care of our investors and give them the opportunity to get out what they want,' he says. 'What I recommended to all of them is when everything is perfect, that's the time to get out.' He adds that Roark's experience is going to 'open up' Dave's to foreign markets, which his team doesn't have as much expertise in. 'This concept is going to be really good in foreign countries.' Dave's has already sold the rights to open more than 1,000 franchise locations in the U.S., the U.K., the Middle East and Canada over the next five years. Despite the celebratory parade around the sale, Dave's founders and execs insist they are not walking away any time soon. None are contractually obligated to stay on now the Roark deal is done, but they all say they're planning to do so. Oganesyan remains Dave's chief brand officer, while Kopushyan is chief culinary officer. They highlight that they continue to hold a stake in the brand as well as multiple franchise locations. Plus, they say none of the now 55 employees at Dave's HQ have left the company since it was founded seven years ago. As for the customers who may be concerned about what will happen to Dave's in the hands of private equity: 'Our whole journey, when we were in the pop up, people were saying 'Oh when you guys get a store the quality is going to go down.' Then when we started franchising, people were like 'Oh my gosh, the franchising quality is going to go down,'' says Oganesyan. 'Every step of the way, people were always like that. And I think what I was always trying to get across to people is, as long as you have founders and people within the brand who care about the food, they care about the experience, the quality will never go down.'
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
House GOP Fears Trump-Elon Breakup Might Get In ‘Big, Beautiful' Bill's Way
House Republicans are hoping the public breakup between President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk does not last very long for the sake of the 'big, beautiful' reconciliation bill. Thursday's news cycle was dominated by the clash between the President and the world's richest man and their petty attacks on each other — which included mentions of Jeffrey Epstein, impeachment, black-eye makeup, as well as a back and forth over the contents of the reconciliation package the House recently passed. The showdown between the two appears to have House Republicans worried that more unwanted attention — pointing to the poison pills in the House package — would be on the reconciliation bill they are calling the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. As we've been reporting for some time, House Republicans have attempted to disguise their sweeping cuts to the social safety net by referring to the changes as 'reforms' like enacting work requirements for Medicaid, among other things. 'I just hope it resolves quickly, for the sake of the country,' House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told CNBC Friday morning. Other House Republicans are also preaching deescalation for the sake of the bill they spent weeks fighting with each other over. 'Both of them have paid a tremendous price personally for this country, and I think at the end of the day, they're both going to put the country first,' Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX) said, according to Politico. 'And them working together is certainly far more better for the country.' Meanwhile, Department of Government Efficiency caucus Chair Aaron Bean (R-FL) said Friday he was 'shocked and dismayed' to see his 'two friends fighting,' adding that he remains optimistic that the former allies can work it out. 'I believe there's a Diet Coke in their future, that they can settle it and cooler heads will prevail,' Bean said. 'We need them together. We need to be united, and we're stronger together. So I'm very optimistic that there will be a happy ending very soon.' — Emine Yücel A look into Rep. Nancy Mace's (R-SC) dirty stalling tactics that helped her ultimately block Democrats on the House Oversight Committee from subpoenaing Elon Musk this week — even though not enough Republicans were initially present to override the effort. Some thoughts on the creator of Succession's new, satirical movie Mountainhead, and what it tells us about our current cultural moment, as the Fox News echo chamber, social media and AI merge to create a society in which reality is elusive. Let's dig in. Washington was consumed with drama related to Elon Musk on Thursday afternoon as the megabillionaire who spearheaded the so-called Department of Government Efficiency launched into a public social media spat with President Trump. But turmoil surrounding the President's former ally actually started earlier that morning when tensions over Musk essentially caused the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to short circuit and grind to a halt. This bizarre scene was a perfect distillation of how Congress is (or depending on your view, isn't) working in the second Trump era, with MAGA partisans going to cartoonish lengths to protect the president and his allies from scrutiny. The episode took place in a hearing that was nominally about the use of artificial intelligence. In his opening remarks, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) noted how Musk, whose DOGE minions have used AI to siphon up federal data and slash government programs, has changed that conversation. 'Optimizing the federal government's use of technology has long been a bipartisan priority of this committee,' Lynch said. 'We cannot sit here, however, and have the traditional bipartisan conversation about federal IT modernization without acknowledging the fact that the Trump administration, Elon Musk, and DOGE are leading technology initiatives that threaten the privacy and security of all Americans and undermine our government and the vital services it provides.' Following those remarks, Lynch moved to subpoena Musk to appear before the committee. His motion was quickly seconded. After last year's election, Republicans have a majority in the House and its committees. But at the time of Lynch's motion, one Democratic member said only six of the 25 Republicans on Oversight were present. These absences theoretically meant the Democrats had a temporary majority needed to issue the subpoena. However, this effort to have the committee dedicated to oversight provide some actual oversight of Musk was quickly derailed. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who was serving as chairwoman, almost immediately called to 'suspend' the proceedings. She then presided over a more than twenty minute delay as she strained the bounds of normal procedure to buy time for her colleagues to make their way to the hearing. The extended interlude was filled with surreal scenes as Democratic members attempted to question Mace and move forward with business as usual. At one point, even though Republicans were evidently outnumbered and outvoted, Mace declared that they had won a voice vote to consider a motion to table Lynch's motion. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) attempted to speak at this point and was shut down. 'I love you,' Mace said to him. 'This is not debatable.' Mace did not respond to a request for comment. At another point, as she swatted away Democrats' efforts to hold the vote, Mace seemed to wink. She also called Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) 'babe' when the congresswoman asked to do a roll call 'so we can determine if y'all really have the votes.' 'No ma'am,' Mace replied. As Democrats began to openly note that Mace's stonewalling appeared to be a fairly unprecedented effort to allow absent Republican members the time to filter in, Mace continually shut down discussion and efforts to hold a vote. One Republican member responded to an inquiry about whether they were following rules by noting that Democrats had lost the last election. That comment made the situation on Capitol Hill quite plain: After winning the election, Trump and his partisans are willing to throw out any traditional rule book. After about twenty minutes and twenty seven seconds, Mace allowed the vote to proceed. As she checked the numbers with the clerk, it was apparent the Republicans were still coming up short. Mace then allowed Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), who had since slipped in, to vote. With those two final additions and the twenty minute-plus standstill, Republicans were able to table the effort to subpoena Musk by a vote of 21-20. In a statement to TPM, Lynch accused the GOP members of ' refusing to exercise Congressional authority on behalf of the American people to demand answers and accountability for the destruction, chaos, and cruelty Elon Musk and DOGE have unleashed on our government and on communities nationwide.' 'It is disturbing that Republicans would rather shield the richest man in the world from testifying publicly than fight for the folks who rely on VA health care, Social Security benefits, weather services, humanitarian aid, scientific research, and more vital programs and services that have been decimated by Elon Musk's chainsaw,' Lynch said, adding, 'The Oversight Committee was made for this moment, and Republicans are failing the American people by refusing to do their jobs. Just because Elon Musk has turned in his ID badge does not mean he can walk away from the monstrosity he has created and the permanent damage left in his wake.' — Hunter Walker 'I call this alternate reality, I call this place where these folks live, Bullshit Mountain,' Jon Stewart told the crowd during The Rumble in the Air Conditioned Auditorium debate with Bill O'Reilly in 2012. 'On Bullshit Mountain,' Stewart went on, 'our problems are amplified and the solutions simplified.' Bullshit Mountain would become Stewart's enduring metaphor for Fox News in the second half of the Obama presidency. It was a convenient shorthand to explain how Fox pundits could routinely espouse conspiratorial nonsense or fixate on an obscure event with seemingly no broad implications for the American public and use it as proof positive of the country's imminent collapse. Bullshit Mountain was an acknowledgment that the two major political parties didn't merely have different opinions on how to solve the country's problems, but increasingly were living in two different realities with entirely different problems. There was also the non-subtle accusation of cynicism in the name Bullshit Mountain. Maybe the audience believed this crap, but the executives and the anchors knew it was bullshit, right? In Jesse Armstrong's breakout show, 'Succession,' he satirized a fictional version of the Murdoch empire which took us behind the scenes of Bullshit Mountain. In Armstrong's interpretation of this world, there were the serious people who understood how to play the game and accumulate power, and those who were not serious, who didn't know how to play the game, or worse, didn't know it was a game at all. In his follow-up to Succession, HBO's new made-for-TV movie Mountainhead, Armstrong seems to acknowledge that Bullshit Mountain may no longer be a place created and controlled by serious people, that the bullshit from which the mountain is made may have broken confinement and swamped us all. Bullshit Mountain may now be where we all live — our dominant reality. Centered on a foursome of ultrarich tech founders (all men) who gather at a mountain lodge for a poker game as the world falls apart after the release of the AI-powered social network they all had some role in creating, Mountainhead depicts a world where seriousness might be a detriment to world dominance. 'Nothing means anything and everything is funny,' the founder of the AI social network explains when confronted by a litany of abuses enabled by his product, including a video of a kid juggling severed feet. The technology these founders have created has effectively dissolved any sense of shared reality by allowing anyone to create and propagate alternate realities which leads to the unraveling of the global order. But more interesting than the consequences of this technology, which we are in many ways already aware of, is the way in which the founders have isolated themselves from their own reality, both intentionally and unintentionally. After about 30 mins of dialogue laced in the idiomatic gibberish of Silicon Valley … 'first principles' .. 'post-human'… 'decel' … 'p(doom)' … 'game theory' … 'chunky numbers' … you realize these characters have nothing meaningful to say to each other, whether socially or in response to the global catastrophe they helped create. While there is a tinge of the tragic in their inability to communicate emotionally with each other, there is also something powerful in the artifice of their language, which protects them from having to meaningfully take responsibility for their actions. Viewing the potential collapse of the world through their screens, a vantage point from which nothing can be known for certain, the artificiality of their language lends an artificiality to the events, regardless of whether or not they are really happening. The collapse of a country's economy gets referred to as 'de minimis,' news of the mayor of Paris's assassination becomes an example of the 'compound distillation effect of the content.' But when the four characters end up bunkered in the basement, erroneously fearing retaliation from Iran's Revolutionary Guard, it's clear that they are as susceptible to the fake reality their technology has created as any of its users. Whether you find Mountainhead successful satire may depend on your priors. However, in the wake of DOGE, Elon's takeover and remaking of Twitter and the enthusiasm with which our major AI companies are cheerleading a new cold war with China, it's hardly a work of speculative fiction. In Jon Stewart's farewell speech from the Daily Show in 2015, he claimed that the bullshitters were getting lazy and that vigilance was our best defense. But his framing assumed a continued dichotomy between the bullshitters and the bullshited. He didn't offer any advice on what to do when there's no longer a difference. — Derick Dirmaier
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Experts uncover unexpected benefits of combining solar panels with livestock: 'Enough ... energy to power 70,000 homes'
The Myrtle solar farm in Brazoria County, Texas, is a shining example of sustainability that spans 2,400 acres of former pasture land and eliminates the need for fuel-powered lawnmowers. The facility, which was completed in 2023, is one of many renewable energy projects that have helped keep the state in the top three for installed solar capacity, alongside California and Florida. It is run by TotalEnergies, a Paris-based oil company, and features 705,000 photovoltaic cells and a herd of grass-munching sheep to help maintain the landscape, according to a report by ABC13. "Myrtle renewable power plant consists of two parts. One is a solar power plant of 380 megawatts that is generating enough clean and clear energy to power 70,000 homes," said Ahmed Sari, a construction manager who oversaw the project and spoke to the outlet. The solar power plant is complemented by a 225-megawatt battery storage system that's connected to support the local electrical grid as needed. These are crucial to expanding renewable resources such as solar and wind, helping store energy for use during peak demand hours. Agrivoltaics is a term used to describe the combination of solar power and farming, which frequently produces harmonious results. Many of these facilities use the shade provided by solar panels to give solace to crops and livestock while fostering natural habitats for pollinators. "We have sheep grazing under the solar panels in order to control vegetation in a very sustainable manner," said Marie Maitre, Total's external communications manager, per the report. The sheep get to enjoy a considerable amount of grazing land and shade, and groundskeepers don't need to use gas-guzzling lawnmowers or dangerous pesticides. This reduces maintenance costs, potentially lowering rates for consumers. Solar and wind installations accounted for 97.8% of all new U.S. electrical capacity in the first quarter of 2025, while dirty fuels such as gas and oil made up the meager difference, proving that the shift to more sustainable energy sources is gaining traction. Tesla and Honda have made deals to power their local operations with solar power generated in the state, and a new photovoltaic facility began production earlier this year. Do you think solar panels are an eyesore? Absolutely not Only in certain areas They always look bad I don't have an opinion Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Recent data showed that Texas has nearly 80% more solar, wind, and battery capacity combined than California, although the Golden State may have an edge in solar installations alone. A little competition can only help in our quest to shift to sustainable energy and ditch pollution-generating alternatives. "We are going to need all the energy types that we can have in order to meet the growing demand for energy of our growing world population," Maitre concluded. Join our free newsletter for weekly updates on the latest innovations improving our lives and shaping our future, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
