Apple is reportedly in talks with miners to get thousands of tons of cobalt, a key ingredient in iPhone batteries. The tech giant is considering buying a five-year supply of the metal to sustain production of its devices. Cobalt is also used to make electric vehicles, so Apple may be acting on fears of a shortage in the coming years.
Amazon quietly launches a line of over-the-counter health products. The e-commerce giant reportedly brought in a private label manufacturer to make drugs similar to Mucinex and Advil. Analysts say this could be good for consumers as it may encourage pharmacies to lower prices.
President Trump asks the Justice Department to make bump stocks illegal following the Parkland shooting. Newsweek's Gersh Kuntzman says bump stocks are the "lowest of the low-hanging fruit" in the push for gun reform. Kuntzman says regulating these devices doesn't even qualify as gun control since there are already laws on the books restricting machine guns. Bump stocks, which convert guns into automatic weapons, weren't used in the Parkland shooting, but they were used in the Las Vegas shooting last year.
Actress Lori Loughlin talks about playing Aunt Becky on "Full House" and "Fuller House," and her Hallmark show "When Calls the Heart." Loughlin plays Abigal Stanton in the Hallmark period drama. She says she fought to make her character the town mayor in the show to highlight strong female leads. Loughlin also discusses how pleased she's been with fan reaction to "Fuller House." Netflix recently announced the show would return for a fourth season.
Joe Cecela, Dream Exchange CEO, explains how they are aiming to form the first minority-controlled company to operate an exchange in U.S. history. Watch!
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
At 100 years old, the Goodyear Blimp is an ageless star in the sky. The 246-foot-long airship will be in the background of the Daytona 500 — flying roughly 1,500 feet above Daytona International Speedway, actually — to celebrate its greatest anniversary tour. Even though remote camera technologies are improving regularly and changing the landscape of aerial footage, the blimp continues to carve out a niche. At Daytona, with the usual 40-car field racing around a 2½-mile superspeedway, views from the blimp aptly provide the scope of the event.
You'll just have to wait for interest rates (and prices) to go down. Plus, this deal's a steel, the big carmaker wedding is off, and bribery is back, baby!
