56 hytr by selenafresgo

SUMMARY SURGICAL ROBOT FIRM TO INVEST $500M IN GEORGIA, HIRING 1,200

QATAR AIRWAYS GROUNDS 13 AIRBUS A350S AS FUSELAGE DEGRADING

REBOUNDING GLOBAL ECONOMY HELPS FILL ORDER BOOK AT SIEMENS

GM POSTS $2.8B PROFIT, BUT CAUTIOUS TONE SINKS SHARE PRICE

NINTENDO SEES DWINDLING IMPACT FROM PANDEMIC MEGAHIT GAME

UBER’S RECOVERY ACCELERATES, BUT WORRIES ABOUT LOSSES LINGER

KIDS AND CARS: TODAY’S TEENS IN NO RUSH TO START DRIVING

READY TO HIRE YOUR FIRST EMPLOYEE? PREP WITH THESE 6 STEPS

ROBOTIC POLICE DOGS: USEFUL HOUNDS OR DEHUMANIZING MACHINES?

THE FIVE BEST HYBRID SUVS YOU CAN BUY

2NM RACE: EXPLORING THE LIMITS OF THE SILICON-BASED PROCESSOR

106

SEC’S GENSLER SAYS CRYPTO INVESTORS NEED MORE PROTECTION

126

FAMILIES URGE USING NEW DNA TECH TO ID PEARL HARBOR UNKNOWNS

132

SQUARE TO BUY INSTALLMENT PAYMENT FIRM AFTERPAY IN $29B DEAL

142

SONY’S PROFITS GAIN ON ‘DEMON SLAYER,’ DIGITAL CAMERA DEMAND

146

DATING CHANGED DURING THE PANDEMIC; APPS ARE FOLLOWING SUIT

150

ZOOM TO PAY $85M FOR PRIVACY MISCUES AT START OF PANDEMIC

158

NLRB PRELIMINARY FINDING REVIVES LABOR ORGANIZING AT AMAZON

162

REESE WITHERSPOON SELLS HELLO SUNSHINE, JOINS NEW COMPANY

170

IN ‘THE SUICIDE SQUAD,’ AN ANTI-CAPTAIN AMERICA ROMP

174

EMILY BLUNT TRANSCENDS OVERSTUFFED ‘JUNGLE CRUISE’

186

MASK GUIDANCE DIVIDES PARENTS HEADING INTO NEW SCHOOL YEAR

194

TYSON FOODS, MICROSOFT TO REQUIRE VACCINATION FOR US WORKERS

204

RUSSIA BLAMES SPACE STATION LAB INCIDENT ON SOFTWARE FAILURE

212

CHINA’S TENCENT LIMITS GAMING FOR MINORS AFTER MEDIA OUTCRY

218

A RESTRICTIVE OLYMPICS HAS REMINDERS OF NBA, WNBA BUBBLES

224

DRIVE TO CHARGE PACKAGERS FOR RECYCLING, BUT INDUSTRY FIGHTS

232

SURGICAL ROBOT FIRM TO INVEST $500M IN GEORGIA, HIRING 1,200

A California company that makes surgical robots will invest $500 million in an Atlanta-area expansion, hiring 1,200 new workers by 2024. Intuitive Surgical, based in Sunnyvale, California, announced its plans this week. It’s one of the largest announcements in terms of jobs and investments in Georgia this year. Intuitive said it already has about 180 employees at an office in Peachtree Corners, northeast of Atlanta. The company said it would build out a larger campus in the Gwinnett County suburb in phases by 2024. The company says it will create 08

750,000 square feet (70,000 square meters) of space for manufacturing, engineering, medical worker training and administration. One of the robot systems can cost $2 million or more. Surgeons worldwide used the company’s robots to perform more than 1.2 million procedures in 2020, Intuitive said. Its best-known product is the da Vinci Surgical System. Marie Hodge Gordon, a spokesperson for the Georgia Department of Economic Development, said she couldn’t say how much incentives would be worth to Intuitive because the state has not yet signed a final agreement. Intuitive could claim various tax breaks, including an income tax credit allowing it to annually deduct $1,250 per job from state income taxes, up to $7.5 million over five years, as long as workers make at least $28,000 per year. Intuitive faces rising competition but told investors last month that it wants to continue to build out its offerings as a way of fighting new entrants to the market. “We still think this is a great opportunity to continue to invest in ecosystem of products and capabilities at this point in time before a competition really gets any kind of toehold,” Chief Financial Officer Marshall Mohr said on a conference call. “And so we’re going to continue to invest.” “Intuitive needs a highly educated, committed, and diverse workforce; quality infrastructure; and the right geography to meet the rising demand for minimally invasive surgical technologies,” Intuitive CEO Gary Guthart said in a statement Wednesday.

QATAR AIRWAYS GROUNDS 13 AIRBUS A350S AS FUSELAGE DEGRADING

Qatar Airways said Thursday it grounded 13 Airbus A350s over what it described as fuselages “degrading at an accelerated rate” in the long-range aircraft, further escalating a monthslong dispute with the European airplane maker over the issue. While Airbus declined to specifically discuss the announcement, Qatar Airways’ decision to

ground the aircraft raised questions about the A350s’ carbon composite fuselage, designed to make the twin-aisle aircraft lighter and cheaper to operate by burning less jet fuel. Qatar Airways also is one of the world’s top operators of the aircraft. In its statement, Qatar Airways said it had been monitoring the degradation beneath the paint on the fuselage of the aircraft for some time. It described the issue as a “significant condition,” without elaborating. “Following the explicit written instruction of its regulator, 13 aircraft have now been grounded, effectively removing them from service until such time as the root cause can be established and a satisfactory solution made available to permanently correct the underlying condition,” the airline said in its statement. Qatar Airways has a fleet of 53 Airbus A350s in both its 1000 and 900 series. The airline has another on order with the Toulouse, Francebased airplane manufacturer, making its total order of 76 aircraft — the most of any airline worldwide. In June, Qatar Airways said it wouldn’t take any more A350s unless the problem was fixed. Airbus declined to specifically discuss Qatar Airways’ grounding. “As a leading aircraft manufacturer we are always in talks / working with our customers,” a statement said. “Those talks we keep confidential. We have no further comment on our customer’s operations.“ Currently, Singapore Airlines is the world’s top operator of the A350, with 56 now in its fleet. The airline did not respond to a request for 16

comment. In America, Delta Air Lines has 15 in its fleet. The Atlanta-based carrier did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The A350 has a list price as much as $366.5 million, though buyers often get discounts in bulk deals. Qatar Airways CEO, Akbar al-Baker, is known for his hard-changing, confrontational approach in negotiating with manufacturers and others. The airline will be the crucial carrier for fans attending the upcoming FIFA 2022 World Cup in this Arabian Peninsula country.

REBOUNDING GLOBAL ECONOMY HELPS FILL ORDER BOOK AT SIEMENS

Germany’s Siemens AG raised its outlook for the year Thursday, joining other major European industrial companies in signaling that the economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic is gathering pace despite parts shortages and concerns over the spread of the delta variant. Rebounding global demand for infrastructure and manufacturing software led to a sharp increase in orders in the April-June quarter at Munich-based Siemens AG, with an order from U.S. rail company Amtrak a large contributor. Siemens said orders saw “double-digit growth in all industrial businesses and reporting regions.” The engineering and manufacturing company raised its outlook for its fiscal year, joining Volkswagen and Airbus in raising their predictions for business performance amid a global recovery from the worst of the pandemic shutdowns in the April-June quarter a year ago. Siemens cautioned that its business could be affected by the same shortage of semiconductors for electronic components that has forced production cutbacks among automakers. It said it was also seeing higher costs for raw materials, parts and freight services. The company said its order book increased by 47% to 20.5 billion euros ($24.2 billion). The figure was boosted by 2.8 billion euros in contracts awarded by Amtrak for 73 trains to be built at the company’s factory in Sacramento, California. The order book also benefitted from an order for passenger coaches in the Czech Republic and a signaling system in Taiwan. In addition,

Siemens saw strong increases in orders for industrial software. Part of the current strong manufacturing demand was due to companies increasing production to fill inventories and reserves to mitigate risks that their supply chains might be disrupted. Siemens CEO Roland Busch said in a statement that the company was benefitting from “the strong economic recovery in our key industrial verticals. These include, for example, the automotive industry, machine building and electronics, but also the infrastructure market, including areas such as power distribution, data centers and transportation.” Siemens raised its forecast for net income this year to 6.1 billion-6.4 billion euros, from the earlier outlook for 5.7 billion-6.2 billion euros. Net profit for the most recent quarter, the company’s fiscal third, was 1.48 billion euros, up from 535 million in the year-ago quarter. The net income figure benefited from a positive swing in income from discontinued operations, which showed a loss of 403 million euros in the year-earlier quarter.

Simply Better Living

SUPERSTEAM+ BUILT-IN WALL OVEN ™

SSC2489DS

The Sharp® SuperSteam+ Built-In Wall Oven is the start of a cooking revolution. With Wi-Fi enabled IoT features, the innovations within this steam oven are a perfect match for modern cooking needs. While regular steam only reaches 212°F, the SuperSteam+ oven can create superheated steam up to 485°F. Steam this hot can roast meats and caramelize sugars so your food can be brown and crispy on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside. With the Sharp SuperSteam+ Oven, you can grill without smoke, roast without drying, and get the roasty-toasty, tasty results you desire.

SEE FOR YOURSELF

Get started right away with built-in recipes and download the Sharp SuperSteam+ Oven app* to enable the smart features and access custom recipes powered by SideChef.

The new Sharp SuperSteam+ Built-In Wall Oven features Steam Bake for superior breads, and Water Bath for cheesecakes, custards and puddings.

www.sharpusa.com | simplybetterliving.sharpusa.com *Mobile Application and Home Assistant Skill available upon commercial release. © 2020 Sharp Electronics Corporation. All rights reserved. Sharp, Supersteam™ Oven and all related trademarks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sharp Corporation and/or its affiliated entities. Product specifications and design are subject to change without notice. Internal capacity calculated by measuring maximum width, depth and height. Actual capacity for holding food is less.

GM POSTS $2.8B PROFIT, BUT CAUTIOUS TONE SINKS SHARE PRICE

General Motors posted a healthy $2.8 billion second-quarter profit this week, but its cautious outlook for the rest of the year spooked investors. The Detroit automaker made the strong profit despite a global shortage of computer chips that have forced it and other companies to temporarily close factories. While GM raised its outlook for the year, it also cautioned about high commodity prices and lower production due to the chip shortage, and it warned that the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus could hamper its supply chain. The cautious tone rattled investors, who pushed GM shares down almost 9% after the announcement. 31

Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson predicted that GM would produce 100,000 fewer vehicles in the second half of the year compared with the first, even as other companies forecast improvements in semiconductor production. GM said it managed the shortage well and was able to divert scarce chips to factories that make higher profit pickup trucks and large SUVs. But Edward Jones Industrials analyst Jeff Windau said investors are building some uncertainty into GM’s stock price after the company forecast $3.5 billion to $4.5 billion worth of increased costs in the back half of the year. “Obviously there’s some shutdowns, and there’s just concerns with how things are evolving,” Windau said. “Expectations have been rising over the last couple of months. This just kind of comes back and potentially resets the bar a little bit.” GM announced that pickup truck plants in Flint, Michigan; Silao, Mexico; and Fort Wayne, Indiana; would be closed next week due to the chip shortage. Production is to resume on Aug. 16. But factories in Tennessee and Mexico that make cars and SUVs that were down since July 19 will come back on line Monday. Even with the caution, GM told the same story as competitors Ford, Stellantis and others reporting strong profits, saying that high prices and healthy demand for expensive pickup trucks and luxury SUVs overcame inventory shortages. GM boosted its net income guidance for the full year to $7.7 billion and $9.2 billion, and pretax earnings to a range of $11.5 billion to $13.5 billion from $10 billion to $11 billion. 32

Executives said that they expect tight inventory and high prices to continue through the year as the chip shortage lingers into 2022. Yet CEO Mary Barra warned that the fastspreading coronavirus delta variant could cause supply chain problems down the road. The company also has plans to handle future shortages by collaborating with semiconductor manufacturers, she said. “There is still more variability than I’d like to see,” Barra said. “This is something we will work our way out of, and it won’t be an issue as we move forward over a little bit longer period of time.” The average GM vehicle sold for nearly $44,000 from April through June, the company said, and it was up nearly $3,000 over that in July. Jacobson said the high prices at present come from high demand for more higher priced trucks and SUVs with a “very rich mix” of options being purchased by consumers. Barra said the prices will subside a bit as inventory grows, but she still expects them to be strong as GM adds electric vehicles to its lineup. Excluding one-time items, GM made $1.97 per share, beating Wall Street estimates of $1.82. Revenue was $34.2 billion, which also exceeded analysts’ estimates of $29.92 billion, according to FactSet. The profit would have been $1.3 billion higher if not for recall costs, including $800 million to fix a battery fire problem in older Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles, the company said. Barra said GM had a little more than 200,000 vehicles in stock, enough to supply 25 days of consumer demand. That’s far short of the normal 34

inventory. Automakers like to have around a 60-day supply on dealer lots for customers to pick from. A task force of Detroit auto companies and the United Auto Workers announced that factory workers would be required to wear masks again due to the delta variant. Asked if GM would require employees to be vaccinated, Barra hinted that may be coming. “We are evaluating multiple choices that we can make, but our intent is always to keep our employees and our customers safe,” she said. GM said it produced about 200,000 more vehicles in the first half of the year than it did during the same period in 2020, largely because factories were shut down last year as the pandemic grew. Yet the consulting firm LMC Automotive estimated that GM production from April through June was down 38% from the same quarter in 2019, the last comparable quarter of normal production. Jacobson said the semiconductor shortage should start to ease in the fourth quarter, so fourth-quarter production will be higher than the third. “You can see light at the end of the tunnel as we’re getting toward that,” he said. Barra also announced two new electric vehicles coming as part of GM’s plan to introduce more than 30 globally by 2025. She said the Chevrolet brand will roll out a full-size electric cargo van, and GM also will sell a medium-duty electric or hydrogen fuel cell truck platform that can be used for service and utility vehicles such as school buses, bucket trucks and wreckers. 37

NINTENDO SEES DWINDLING IMPACT FROM PANDEMIC MEGAHIT GAME

Nintendo’s April-June profit declined 13% from the same period the previous year, when the hit game “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” dramatically boosted sales. Nintendo Co.’s profit for the fiscal first quarter totaled 92.7 billion yen ($843 million), down from 106 billion yen, the Japanese maker of “Super Mario” and “Pokemon” games said Thursday. Quarterly sales fell 10% to 322.6 billion yen ($2.9 billion). Sales of the Switch consoles dropped nearly 22% during the quarter to 4.45 million units, mainly because of the sales decline of the smaller Switch Lite, dedicated to handheld playing. The regular Switch works for both traditional athome and portable play. “Animal Crossing,” released in March last year, didn’t sell as well this year as it did in the AprilJune quarter the previous year, when 10 million units were snatched up.

“Animal Crossing” sales totaled 1.26 million in April-June, for cumulative sales of 33.9 million. More than 89 million of the Switch machines have been sold so far around the world, according to Nintendo. Kyoto-based Nintendo has been a primary example of a Japanese company that received a boost from people turning to at-home entertainment during the coronavirus pandemic. But analysts don’t expect such fortunes to last as normal activities resume with vaccine rollouts. That change is expected to hurt Nintendo, which tends to attract casual game users, more than rivals such as Sony and Microsoft, which have products that draw so-called core gamers. A closure to pandemic times may also coincide with a peak in the life cycle, or duration of consumer appeal, of the Switch. Questions also remain about Nintendo’s ability to profit from the growing mobile game sector, as well as from next-generation consoles that may evolve with new technology such as virtual reality. A big plus for Nintendo is its wealth in intellectual property, which means lucrative merchandizing and theme parks. Nintendo kept its forecasts unchanged for the full fiscal year through March 2022 at 340 billion yen ($3.1 billion) in profit on 1.6 trillion yen ($14.5 billion) in sales. That marks a 29% profit drop and a 9% sales decline from the previous year. The Switch platform continues to drive sales, according to Nintendo, with 2.07 million units of 43

the “New Pokemon Snap” software sold during the April-June period. Games in the works for the fiscal year include “The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD” and “Mario Party Superstars,” as well as Pokemon games. Nintendo said it’s also adding a Switch model with “a vibrant OLED display” to attract buyers.

It said digital downloads of games decreased nearly 25% on year for the quarter, while its mobile business was little changed. “In regard to business risk, the extended impact of both COVID-19 and the global semiconductor shortage creates a state of continued uncertainty, with the possibility of future impact on production and shipping,” Nintendo said.

UBER’S RECOVERY ACCELERATES, BUT WORRIES ABOUT LOSSES LINGER

Uber’s ride-hailing service is regaining the momentum that it lost during the pandemic, but it’s coming at a cost that’s raising more doubts about the company’s ability to make money. At the same time, Uber’s unprofitable delivery service is still growing at a torrid pace, indicating that some homebound habits may be here to stay, even though people are going out again. Those two trends produced Uber’s best quarterly report since the pandemic clobbered the San Francisco company 17 months ago. The results announced for the April-June period included a rare profit that investors glossed over to focus on ongoing losses in Uber’s operations. The second-quarter profit stemmed from a one-time gain of $1.4 billion to recognize recent increases in the values of Uber’s stakes in China’s leading ride-hailing service, Didi, and a self-driving car division that it recently handed off to Silicon Valley startup, Aurora. 48

Those accounting adjustments eclipsed Uber’s losses in its business, enabling the company to post a second-quarter profit of $1.14 billion, or 58 cents share, reversing a loss of $1.78 billion suffered in the same three-month period of 2020, during the early throes of the pandemic. Revenue for the quarter totaled $3.93 billion, more than doubling from the dismal conditions at the same time last year when most people were still stuck at home and not looking for rides to go anywhere. The revenue figure exceeded the estimate of $3.76 billion among analysts surveyed by FactSet Research. But Uber investors tend to focus more on an unorthodox measure called “adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.” The company had previously pledged to become profitable under that yardstick by the final three months of the year — a promise CEO Dara Khosrowshahi reiterated — only to take a step back during the second quarter with a loss of $509 million. While that was lower than a year ago, the latest quarterly loss came after an adjusted loss of $359 million during the first three months of the year. The larger loss was largely due to the bonuses and other incentives Uber is offering to drivers to rejoin its ride-hailing service after many quit because of safety concerns during the worst of the pandemic. In the U.S., it’s also competing against Lyft, which is also trying to lure back drivers. Uber is expecting the need for driver incentives to taper off, enabling it to reduce its adjusted loss for the current quarter ending in September to $100 million or less before turning into an small adjusted profit during the final three months of the year. 51

Investors, though, clearly remain skeptical. Uber’s stock dropped more than 4% in extended trading after the mostly upbeat second-quarter report came out. The shares had already fallen by more than 30% from their peak of about $64 in February. Uber, though, had mostly a positive story to tell during the past quarter. The highlights included a total of 1.51 billion rides provided — more than doubling from the same time last year. The company’s ride-hailing revenue also more than doubled from last year to $1.62 billion. Despite those strides, ride-hailing revenue was still about 30% below its levels at the same time two years ago, long before the pandemic upended the economy. Total rides were down about 10% from two years ago. Khosrowshahi told analysts during a conference call that the ride-hailing service was nearly back to full strength. But he conceded a shortage of drivers in some major markets like San Francisco and New York is resulting in higher fares than Uber believes will be acceptable to passengers over time. However, things are starting to shift, Khosrowshahi said, with the number of ridehailing drivers and delivery couriers increasing by about 420,000 since February in the U.S. As it has been doing in recent quarters, the service that Uber built up to deliver take-out food and groceries is bringing in even more money. The company’s delivery revenue totaled nearly $2 billion, more than doubling from a year ago. But the delivery service also is piling up losses as it expands.

KIDS AND CARS: TODAY’S TEENS IN NO RUSH TO START DRIVING

Michael Andretti has a 21-year-old son with zero interest in obtaining a driver’s license. Rideshare apps get him where he wants to go. In New Jersey, the 16-year-old daughter of a local short track racer took a five-minute driving lesson on a golf cart through their yard before turning over the keys. “That’s it, I’m done. Don’t like it,” Kat Wilson told their father. The teenage rite of passage of rushing to the DMV on your birthday to get that plastic card that represents freedom has changed dramatically over the last 30 years. Data collected from the Federal Highway Administration and analyzed by Green Car 57

Congress showed that in 2018 approximately 61% of 18-year-olds in the U.S. had a driver’s license, down from 80% percent in 1983. The number of 16-year-olds with licenses decreased from 46% to 25% in the same period. The trend that began with millennials has been amplified by Generation Z, with teens citing myriad reasons for putting off or avoiding getting a driver license. Some prefer more environmentally friendly transportation options, some found driving too stressful and some just don’t care about cars. The pandemic closed New York state motor vehicle offices, but Ian Hoffman said he had his permit but could take the train into the city when needed. He’s headed this fall to his freshman year at the University of Miami with no pressing need to legally formalize his ability to drive. In suburban Boston, high school senior Celeste Robinson has relied on friends with cars or public transportation. “There is the question of independence, at least that’s what I’m told all the time,” Robinson said. “But I’m an anxious person and driving does seem intimidating to me. I’ve tried it and it just feels very hard. And I do love public transportation, so I plan things very much in advance and make sure I can get a train there.” Although market research firm J.D. Power found that millennials accounted for 32% of new car sales in 2020, higher than any other age group and ahead of baby boomers for the first time, Gen Z is content waiting for wheels. “I hate cars, I don’t trust people driving them, especially in New Jersey, and I see a lot of accidents and it’s scary. When someone pulls 59

into our lane, maybe from a parking lot, I just automatically tense up,” said Kat Wilson, who never caught the motorsports bug despite father Donnie Wilson regularly racing local short tracks. It’s a conundrum facing the automobile industry as carmakers look to make their vehicles appealing to tomorrow’s drivers. Kat Wilson can’t differentiate a Toyota Camry from a Chevrolet Malibu or Honda Accord, which are all among the top-selling sedans in the country. On the flipside, Hoffman has an eye for luxury highperformance vehicles. “I’ll see a Lamborghini or a really nice Mercedes or a Bentley and stop — ‘Oh, wow, that’s a really cool car,’” Hoffman said. “I can appreciate a nice car and recognize the difference between a nice car and a crappy car, but if somebody asked me if I was a car guy, I wouldn’t say yes.” The automakers are addressing the issue with the obvious — a generation raised on technology likely will be most interested in cars with the newest features and connectivity. Ford’s flagship muscle car has always been the Mustang and now the company offers an electric version Mach E equipped with a 15.5-inch touchscreen display that combines cloud-based connectivity, over-the-air update capabilities and enhanced voice recognition. A “Drive Experience” feature allows the operator to set the interior sound, lighting, responsiveness to one of three moods: Unbridled, Engage or Whisper. “A big screen” is what teen drivers want, said Mark Rushbrook, global director of Ford Performance Motorsports. 61

“I think what is important to them is staying connected in a safe way,” Rushbrook said. “The vehicle is an extension of their iPhone or their screen device, they want to stay connected and bring their music and everything else with them into the car.” Mark Reuss, president of General Motors, said he believes there is still a market for teens who care about more than just Apple CarPlay and USB ports. “You still have to deliver connectivity in something people love to look at and be seen in,” Reuss said. “That generation has not been lost. They still want a great looking car, great looking interior and have fun driving it, and I don’t care if it’s a turbo-charged three cylinder (fuel efficient car) or a 660 horsepower blown LT4 (high-performance vehicle). “Driving a fun car doesn’t have to be the most expensive, most powerful car. There’s lots of different ways to make cars appealing and that doesn’t go away.” Veteran NASCAR driver Ryan Newman is a selfprofessed “car guy” with a nearly 10,000-square foot garage full of classic cars, including one of only eight 1957 Custom Royal Lancer Super D500s built by Dodge. He learns everything he can about his cars, refurbishes them back into drivable condition and knows exactly what’s under the hood. Newman believes kids can learn to love cars the way he did if adults just showed them how. “Get them involved, cars aren’t at their fingertips in real life,” Newman said. “God gave us our senses to go out and enjoy them and

just by enjoying them on a video game is not the right way to do it.” Cole Kleis, 20, of Napa, California, attends Colorado State University at Pueblo, majoring in automotive industry management. He took his first job in a dealership at age 12 cleaning cars, sweeping floors and helping in the parts department. Kleis was given more responsibility over the years and used his time to learn as much as he could. He can change a transmission, replace an alternator, diagnose the weird sounds and, in his free time, he is restoring a 1938 Packard Six initially purchased brand new by his great-grandparents. “I grew up with old cars and love just about every type,” said Kleis, who aims to one day run his own car dealerships. The key for the auto industry is to not only identify gearheads such as Kleis, but also build cars that entice his peers to get their license and start driving. There’s a large portion of Gen Z that has wishes and wants in a car that automakers never before had to consider. “The only things that I occasionally look into are the advances in the electronics, the really new stuff,” said Robinson, the Boston high school student. “A lot of the brands are pretty standardized anymore in terms of safety, so I’m not really concerned about ‘Oh, will my car break down?’ For me, it is ultimately going to be about ‘Do I think this car is pretty? Is it in my price range?’ and for someone like me, ‘Is it electric? Is it hybrid? Will it affect the universe?’”

READY TO HIRE YOUR FIRST EMPLOYEE? PREP WITH THESE 6 STEPS

Despite the pandemic, the IRS received more than 7 million requests for new employer identification numbers between January 2020 and June 2021, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. As those businesses grow, many will reach an important milestone: hiring their first employees. Here are six things business owners should do first.

1. MAKE SURE YOU NEED HELP First, look for signs that your business can’t move forward without assistance. If you’re “personally at capacity” and receiving more orders than you can handle, it may be time to hire someone, says Phelan Spence , a services and financial analysis associate at JumpStart, a Cleveland-based nonprofit that works with entrepreneurs. 69

Hiring may also be on the horizon for business owners who are missing deadlines, fielding customer complaints or thinking about taking on a big project.

2. KNOW YOUR NUMBERS Before hiring full- or part-time employees, your cash flow should be steady enough to support regular paychecks . Business owners need to plan for expenses beyond wages, including Social Security, Medicare and payroll taxes, and, in many states, workers’ compensation. Benefits like health insurance add additional costs. 71

At the same time, bringing in a new employee can help you generate more revenue by expanding your capacity. Spence says metrics like average monthly sales and average revenue per sale can help you understand how hiring someone will affect your finances and when it’s time to take that step. “(Hiring is) not necessarily tied to a date — it’s really tied to hitting that number of customers or number of projects or products or services,” Spence says.

3. FIND PROFESSIONAL SUPPORT Outside experts can help you navigate the hiring process. That team might include an attorney, bookkeeper, accountant and HR consultant. “Make sure that you get the advice of a professional to kind of lead you along the way,” says Angel Washington, owner of Clevelandbased medical billing and coding business Consult 2 Code . “You just want to make sure you do everything right from the beginning so you don’t have to go back and fix things.” Expert advice can help you stay compliant with employment law, like understanding when you can hire independent contractors and when you need employees, and making sure new hires fill out the necessary tax forms. 74

4. SET UP PAYROLL AND ACCOUNTING SYSTEMS When a business owner hires a new employee, they need to gather certain documents for tax and legal reasons. And when they pay that employee, they need to withhold money for tax and insurance payments. “When you’re at this stage, it is really important to start thinking about your systems and invest a little bit of time and energy in your systems,” Spence says. Those systems could include payroll software, most of which can automatically withhold funds from paychecks, or accounting software, which you can use to keep your finances organized as your business grows. 76

5. POSITION NEW EMPLOYEES FOR SUCCESS Your first employee is the first person that you are entrusting your vision to, says April D. Halliburton, founder and president of virtual HR company All-4-HR . Halliburton is also a volunteer mentor with SCORE, a nonprofit organization that offers business owners free resources, including webinars and how-to guides about hiring employees. Start by writing a clear job description, Hallburton says, and don’t rely totally on a template because “10 different companies are going to have receptionists doing things 10 different ways.” Halliburton encourages business owners to work with an HR professional to create an employee handbook so employees know how to navigate the workplace. Also, consider creating manuals that walk new employees through key tasks. “I think you make the biggest impact within the first few months,” Halliburton says. “The last thing you want to do is not give the effort and energy that is needed when you’re hiring your employees and growing your staff and culture.”

6. GET READY TO LET GO Washington started Consult 2 Code as a solopreneur. She now has a team of seven, including full- and part-time employees as well as independent contractors. Washington thinks most entrepreneurs “want to do things ourselves because our name is the brand and the brand is our name.” But hiring a team has allowed her to step back from day-to-day tasks and focus on running and growing her business. “Being able to let go was really hard,” Washington says. “But once you do let go, you can finally be able to breathe.” 81

ROBOTIC POLICE DOGS: USEFUL HOUNDS OR DEHUMANIZING MACHINES?

If you’re homeless and looking for temporary shelter in Hawaii’s capital, expect a visit from a robotic police dog that will scan your eye to make sure you don’t have a fever. That’s just one of the ways public safety agencies are starting to use Spot, the best-known of a new commercial category of robots that trot around with animal-like agility. The handful of police officials experimenting with the four-legged machines say they’re just another tool, like existing drones and simple wheeled robots, to keep emergency responders out of harm’s way as they scout for dangers. 85

But privacy watchdogs — the human kind — warn that police are secretly rushing to buy the robots without setting safeguards against aggressive, invasive or dehumanizing uses. In Honolulu, the police department spent about $150,000 in federal pandemic relief money to buy their Spot from robotics firm Boston Dynamics for use at a government-run tent city near the airport. “Because these people are houseless it’s considered OK to do that,” said Jongwook Kim, legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii. “At some point it will come out again for some different use after the pandemic is over.” Acting Lt. Joseph O’Neal of the Honolulu Police Department’s community outreach unit defended the robot’s use in a media demonstration earlier this year. He said it has protected officers, shelter staff and residents by scanning body temperatures between meal times at a shelter where homeless people could quarantine and get tested for COVID-19. The robot is also used to remotely interview individuals who have tested positive. “We have not had a single person out there that said, ‘That’s scary, that’s worrisome,’” O’Neal said. “We don’t just walk around and arbitrarily scan people.” Police use of such robots is still rare and largely untested — and hasn’t always gone over well with the public. Honolulu officials faced a backlash when a local news organization, Honolulu Civil Beat, revealed that the Spot purchase was made with federal relief money.

Late last year, the New York Police Department starting using Spot after painting it blue and renaming it “Digidog.” It went mostly unnoticed until New Yorkers starting spotting it in the wild and posting videos to social media. Spot quickly became a sensation, drawing a public outcry that led the police department to abruptly return Digidog to its maker. “This is some Robocop stuff, this is crazy,” was the reaction in April from Democratic U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman. He was one of several New York politicians to speak out after a widely shared video showed the robot strutting with police officers responding to a domesticviolence report at a high-rise public housing building in Manhattan. Days later, after further scrutiny from elected city officials, the department said it was terminating its lease and returning the robot. The expensive machine arrived with little public notice or explanation, public officials said, and was deployed to already over-policed public housing. Use of the high-tech canine also clashed with Black Lives Matter calls to defund police operations and reinvest in other priorities. The company that makes the robots, Boston Dynamics, says it’s learned from the New York fiasco and is trying to do a better job of explaining to the public — and its customers — what Spot can and cannot do. That’s become increasingly important as Boston Dynamics becomes part of South Korean carmaker Hyundai Motor Company, which in June closed an $880 million deal for a controlling stake in the robotics firm. 91

“One of the big challenges is accurately describing the state of the technology to people who have never had personal experience with it,” Michael Perry, vice president of business development at Boston Dynamics, said in an interview. “Most people are applying notions from science fiction to what the robot’s doing.” For one of its customers, the Dutch national police, explaining the technology includes emphasizing that Spot is a very good robot — well-behaved and not so smart after all. “It doesn’t think for itself,” Marjolein Smit, director of the special operations unit of the Dutch national police, said of the remote-controlled robot. “If you tell it to go to the left, it will go to the left. If you tell it to stop, it will stop.” Earlier this year, her police division sent its Spot into the site of a deadly drug lab explosion near the Belgian border to check for dangerous chemicals and other hazards. Perry said the company’s acceptable use guidelines prohibit Spot’s weaponization or anything that would violate privacy or civil rights laws, which he said puts the Honolulu police in the clear. It’s all part of a year-long effort by Boston Dynamics, which for decades relied on military research grants, to make its robots seem friendlier and thus more palatable to local governments and consumer-oriented businesses. By contrast, a lesser-known rival, Philadelphiabased Ghost Robotics, has no qualms about weaponization and supplies its dog-like robots to several branches of the U.S. military and its allies. “It’s just plug and play, anything you want,” said Ghost Robotics CEO Jiren Parikh, who was critical of Boston Dynamics’ stated ethical 95

principles as “selective morality” because of the company’s past involvement with the military. Parikh added that his company doesn’t market its four-legged robots to police departments, though he said it would make sense for police to use them. “It’s basically a camera on a mobile device,” he said. There are roughly 500 Spot robots now in the wild. Perry said they’re commonly used by utility companies to inspect high-voltage zones and other hazardous areas. Spot is also used to monitor construction sites, mines and factories, equipped with whatever sensor is needed for the job. It’s still mostly controlled by humans, though all they have to do is tell it which direction to go and it can intuitively climb stairs or cross over rough terrain. It can also operate autonomously, but only if it’s already memorized an assigned route and there aren’t too many surprise obstacles. “The first value that most people see in the robot is taking a person out of a hazardous situation,” Perry said. Kim, of the ACLU in Hawaii, acknowledged that there might be many legitimate uses for such machines, but said opening the door for police robots that interact with people is probably not a good idea. He pointed to how Dallas police in 2016 stuck explosives on a wheeled robot to kill a sniper, fueling an ongoing debate about “killer robots” in policing and warfighting. “There’s the potential for these robots to increase the militarization of police departments and use it in ways that are unacceptable,” Kim said. “Maybe it’s not something we even want to let law enforcement have.” 97

THE FIVE BEST HYBRID SUVS YOU CAN BUY

Buying a hybrid vehicle is typically a smart way to help save money on gas and reduce your carbon footprint compared to a conventional gasoline-only vehicle. Not long ago your shopping choices were largely limited to hybrid hatchbacks and sedans, but the hybrid SUV market has expanded considerably the past few years. The latest hybrid SUVs can get impressive fuel economy while providing plenty of cargo space, a higher ride height, available all-wheel drive and cutting-edge technology features. Media experts have picked five of the best new hybrid SUVs on sale today. They are presented in alphabetical order, and all prices include the destination charge.

2021 FORD ESCAPE HYBRID Base price: $29,920 Fuel economy: 40-41 mpg combined The recently redesigned Ford Escape is a fine crossover SUV, but it’s the Escape Hybrid that stands out in Ford’s lineup. It’s also current top99

ranked hybrid SUV. Available with front- or allwheel drive, the roomy and comfortable Escape Hybrid offers excellent fuel economy without sacrificing much in terms of performance. We also like the Ford’s available in-car tech and driver aids as well as the generally smooth ride quality. As with some rivals, Ford also offers a plug-in hybrid variant with an estimated 37 miles of electric-only range. The biggest drawback is the Escape’s cargo space, which is slightly less than what some rival small SUVs offer. Standard features on the base Escape Hybrid SE include dual-zone automatic climate control, an 8-inch touchscreen, and Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone integration. Driver aids include blind-spot monitoring and lane departure mitigation.

2021 HONDA CR-V HYBRID Base price: $31,785 Fuel economy: 38 mpg combined The Honda CR-V is one of the favorite small SUVs, and the fuel-efficient hybrid model is no different. While it’s a bit more expensive than some of its competitors, the CR-V Hybrid comes well equipped with lots of standard tech and safety features. All-wheel drive — optional on most rivals — is standard here too. Experts found the CR-V Hybrid comfortable and spacious, with many clever storage bins in the cabin for your phone, drinks and other small items. Notable standard features on the base CR-V Hybrid EX include LED lighting, remote start, keyless entry and ignition, and driver aids such as adaptive cruise control and blind-spot monitoring.

100

Buying a hybrid no longer means sacrificing utility and space for the sake of fuel efficiency 101

102

2022 HYUNDAI TUCSON HYBRID Base price: $30,235 Fuel economy: 37-38 mpg combined The Hyundai Tucson Hybrid is one of the latest hybrid SUVs to hit the market, and it immediately impressed with a comfortable ride, a spacious interior and loads of standard tech. An excellent warranty and a relatively low base price make it all the more compelling. The Tucson Hybrid’s interior is handsome and well appointed, offering a slightly more premium feel than some rivals. All-wheel drive is available for drivers who need it, and Hyundai also offers a plug-in hybrid that allows for an estimated 32 miles of electric range. The biggest downside is slightly worse fuel economy than its rivals. Standard features on the base Tucson’s Blue Hybrid trim level include roof rails, tinted rear windows, LED lighting, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and driver aids such as blind-spot monitoring and adaptive cruise control.

103

104

2021 TOYOTA HIGHLANDER HYBRID Base price: $39,910 Fuel economy: 35-36 mpg combined If you need more space than what these other hybrids offer, the three-row Toyota Highlander is well worth a look. There are larger threerow SUVs out there, but few can match the Highlander Hybrid’s fuel economy. Like the Toyota RAV4, the Highlander Hybrid doesn’t cost significantly more than the standard model, making it all the more appealing. The Highlander Hybrid is comfortable and well equipped from the get-go with standard features including LED headlights, a power liftgate, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as well as three-zone climate control. All-wheel drive is available as an option on all Highlander Hybrids.

2021 TOYOTA RAV4 HYBRID Base price: $29,975 Fuel economy: 40 mpg combined The Toyota RAV4 is one of America’s best-selling vehicles and, like the Escape, its hybrid version makes a better case for itself than the standard model. For only slightly more money than the standard model, the RAV4 Hybrid offers significantly better fuel economy and quicker acceleration. It’s spacious and comfortable and comes standard with all-wheel drive. There’s also the RAV4 Prime plug-in hybrid that offers 42 miles of all-electric range on a full battery. Toyota also comes with standard driver aids such as adaptive cruise control and lane departure warning as well as features including LED headlights, dualzone automatic climate control, and a 7-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. 105

106

2nm Race

EXPLORING THE LIMITS OF THE SILICON-BASED PROCESSOR

107

Apple changed the game when it announced its M1 silicon processor, pushing the boundaries of what some thought was possible. Since then, big chipmakers are now bending the laws of physics to create nano transistors that can compete, and power the next generation of smartphones, desktops, televisions, and other devices. For consumers, it means huge innovations are just around the corner, alongside more powerful technologies.

THE 2-NANOMETER RACE Though it would be unfair to give Apple all of the credit for innovations in the nano transistor industry, there’s no denying that the Cupertino company had companies running scared. For the first time, Apple could develop and manufacture its industry-leading

108

phones, laptops, and accessories in-house, without relying on third parties like Intel and their schedule to push out new products. As a result, many technology companies brought forward announcements of their own cutting-edge chips, and in May, IBM announced its “breakthrough” semiconductor design, developing a chip with 2-nanometre nanosheet technology for the first time. The company boasted that the processor could improve performance by as much as 45%, using the same amount of power as its predecessors, or 75% less energy than its 7 nanometer-based chips. IBM’s test chip, a prototype of its future mass-produced version, can fit an eye-watering 50 billion transistors on the chip no bigger than a fingernail, and dependent on testing, the company hopes

109

110

it can be sold to manufacturers for use in a whole host of devices from 2025 - just three short years away. Speaking of the new chip, IBM Research vice president Mukesh Khare said that “everything is built with atomic precision,” adding that “most advanced manufacturing in the world is in about 7nm and some are in 5mn, and we are here to show we could put together a 2nm transistor. That means this industry will keep going for the next decade, that’s what these results mean.” Many have been quick to compare the performance of IBM’s new 2-nanometer chip with Apple’s new M1 chip, but Khare said it wouldn’t be fair to do. “It’s comparing apples and oranges in this case because the M1 chip is a product using existing technology, older technology,” he said, adding that IBM’s breakthrough technology would blow it out of the park. The news comes at a time when the world continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, which is continuing to cause supply chain disruptions due to chip shortages. Even Apple, who is no longer at the behest of some of these third-party chipmakers, warned investors in its latest earnings call that it could face disruptions in the coming months, and those disruptions could impact iPhone 13 shipments. IBM says that innovations like the 2-nanometer chip take years to develop and that it provides companies with the confidence they can continue to invest in such technologies. It also teased that the company was working on chips that were smaller than 2-nanometers, which could pave the way for even greater innovations and technological possibilities in the years and decades ahead. Image: IMB

111

112

“Apple, a dabble into its own chips has offered an uncountable number of benefits, and for the rest of the sector, it’s served as a wake-up call that the world of tech cannot sit still.”

113

For now, though, 2-nanometer chips are in sight, and giants like Samsung, Tesla, and Apple will be figuring out how to utilize their power and performance. It’s important to note that it’s not just IBM that has been working on 2-nanometer chips, and Apple supplier TSMC has also confirmed plans to begin production on the technology in the next couple of years. The Taiwanese government has now approved TSMC’s plan for a 2nm process, according to Nikkei Asia, and production will begin in 2023, meaning they could be used in iPhones from 2024, likely the iPhone 16 if the company follows traditional naming. It’s also reported that TSMC’s Arizona plant will open in 2024 to produce Apple’s A-series and M-series chips, which is separate from their new 2-nanometer chips. As we continue to look to the future of nanometer production, it’s also worth noting that Intel has revealed its plans to work on tech below 1-nanometer in what it calls the ‘angstrom era of semiconductors’. It’s no secret that Intel has struggled in recent years, and its delays and challenges are one of the primary reasons why Apple decided to begin working on its own chips to reduce reliance on third parties, despite buying the company’s modem business for 5G. However, now that Intel has fired the first shot towards a future beyond 2-nanometer processors, the company is once again attractive to manufacturers and investors, and with the right personnel and strategy, it could turn around its fortunes in time.

114

115

116

APPLE’S M-SERIES CHANGING THE GAME When Apple announced its first M1-powered devices in late 2020, the company received an overwhelming amount of praise from technology fans and professionals. Tom’s Guide said that the chip “was a computing revolution” offering “remarkably fast performance” over its predecessor, and TechRadar said, “If Apple wanted to launch something revolutionary, it certainly managed that.” Early data from January 2021 found that the rise in work from home and the introduction of the M1 chip helped Apple ship 6.9 million Macs in the fourth quarter of last year, up from the 5.2 million it shipped in the same 2019 period, with the M1 chip reportedly one of the biggest pulls. And with Apple now slowly reworking its entire Mac range with new design language, such as the 24-inch iMac announced earlier this year, 2021 looks set to be a bumper year for the company’s computing sales - all thanks to M1. But what’s perhaps even more interesting is the impact the M1 chip has had on the wider technology landscape, and how a more fragmented manufacturing environment could lead to even greater levels of innovation. Microsoft, for example, reacted to the launch of the M1 chip by confirming plans to work on its own Surface ARM chips to compete with Apple, and several others, including Google, have confirmed their own ARM intentions. Things really start to get interesting, though, when you look ahead to the future and the launch of the M1X or M2 chip, which has reportedly entered production ahead of 117

118

119

a new MacBook Pro release. Production began in April, reportedly to give Apple time to manufacture enough chips to meet the demand of the MacBook Pro, which is set for a fall or winter release. A report from Nikkei suggests that the M2 will continue to integrate CPU, GPU, and the Neural Engine on the same chip, but it does not go into any of the specifics of the new chip. Some reports suggest Apple is working on chips that could offer 64 and 128-cores, perhaps for the Mac Pro, and it’s likely to be suped-up compared to the current entry-level M1 chip, which is also used in the new iPad Pro refresh. Whether we’ll see a significant leap forward from the first to the second generation remains to be seen, but it’s clear that all eyes are on Apple for the future.

A POST-SILICON WORLD Whilst tech giants rely on silicon every day for their integrated circuits, some argue that the end of silicon could be in sight. IBM revealed its plans to move beyond silicon in the future, thanks to a whole host of new materials and replacements that could succeed the current technology. What’s more, the current semiconductor shortage has brought to light the reliance and dominance of silicon, and firms are naturally now looking for other options to help weather future storms and shortages. Some are even turning to gallium nitride (GaN), because it is easier and faster to produce than silicon chips, among other benefits. A quick cast back to the days before silicon: Germanium, for instance, is a great semiconductor, but it was eventually forced out of the semiconductor market as it was easier to obtain silicon. And 120

121

122

though silicon remains one of the most effective materials, as companies look to improve speed and power consumption, silicon could soon be a thing of the past. Indeed, the faster a transistor can be switched, the higher the potential speed of a processor, but the power that’s consumed by an integrated circuit scales with speed as well. However, the ‘hairy chip’ could serve as its replacement, a carbon nanotube arranged in a hexagonal pattern. These tubes are less than two nanometers but can extend for microns in length, allowing them to form different 123

circuit elements and ultimately be shaped to meet the demands of a particular device. Two-dimensional carbon is another option, as graphene offers a single layer of carbon atoms and has the potential for higher transistor switching speeds. Molybdenum disulfide serves as another replacement, behaving more like silicon, but it’s pricy, meaning silicon will likely remain preferred for at least the next decade. With Apple reportedly set to save $2.5 billion when it completes its transition to M1

124

chips, it’s clear why more and more companies are making the move to their own custom products. However, a tumultuous year has proven that companies need to diversify and reduce their reliance on one source, and thus in the decades ahead, we’ll likely see even greater variations and innovations that will allow for better-performing devices that power our everyday lives.

125

126

SEC’S GENSLER SAYS CRYPTO INVESTORS NEED MORE PROTECTION

The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission said that investors need more protection in the cryptocurrency market, which he said is “rife with fraud, scams and abuse.” Gary Gensler, appointed by President Joe Biden to lead the body that regulates securities markets, listed several areas where crypto needed to be reigned in or regulated, particularly with regard to money laundering, sanctions, tax collection and extortion via ransomware. “Right now, we just don’t have enough investor protection in crypto,” Gensler said in remarks to 127

the Aspen Institute’s forum on security, “Frankly, at this time, it’s more like the Wild West.” Digital currencies, like Bitcoin, have been left largely unregulated by major governments up to this point. In June, China ordered cryptocurrency mining operations shut down and banks started refusing to help customers with Bitcoin transactions. Although the SEC has brought and won dozens of cases against fraudsters, Gensler said the agency needs more authority from Congress — and more resources — to regulate the crypto markets. Gensler has been viewed as receptive toward cryptocurrency and other new financial technologies after a stint as a professor at MIT, where he focused his research and teaching on public policy as well as digital currencies and blockchain, the global running ledgers of digital currency transactions. Beyond the problems, Gensler said innovation in digital currencies “has been and could continue to be a catalyst for change in the fields of finance and money.” A Goldman Sachs employee for 20 years, Gensler surprised many with his toughness as a regulator at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission during the Obama administration. Gensler opened his remarks by saying he was not speaking on behalf of the SEC or its staff, but that he personally believes that regulation of cryptocurrencies would fall under his agency’s purview. Currencies such as the dollar or euro fulfill several key functions, Gensler said; they are a store of value, a unit of account and medium of exchange. By contrast, Bitcoin and other 128

129

cryptocurrencies are for now mostly “highly speculative” investments. When Congress defined what a security was in the 1930s, Gensler said, one of those definitions was as an investment contract — when “a person invests his money in a common enterprise and is led to expect profits solely from the efforts of the promoter or a third party.” That definition, which Gensler says should apply to cryptocurrency, has been tested and reaffirmed by the Supreme Court. Gensler noted that his predecessor at the SEC, Jay Clayton, testified in 2018 that he believed ICOs, or initial coin offerings, were securities and that “we have jurisdiction, and our federal securities laws apply.” Gensler said many crypto tokens are unregistered securities and don’t come with market oversight or proper disclosures to educate investors. That leaves prices open to manipulation and investors unprotected, he said. “These products are subject to the securities laws and must work within our securities regime,” Gensler said. “If we don’t address these issues, I worry a lot of people will be hurt.” The combined market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is currently more than $1.5 trillion. Tuesday’s event marked the first time the nonprofit Aspen Institute included a discussion about cryptocurrency in the forum on national security.

130

131

FAMILIES URGE USING NEW DNA TECH TO ID PEARL HARBOR UNKNOWNS

William Edward Mann enlisted in the Navy after graduating from high school in rural Washington state. A guitar player, he picked up the ukulele while stationed in Hawaii. He’s been presumed dead since Dec. 7, 1941, when Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor and set off a massive explosion that sank his battleship, the USS Arizona, launching the U.S. into World War II. Now, his niece is among some families of crew members who are demanding the U.S. military take advantage of advances in DNA technology to identify 85 sailors and Marines from the Arizona who were buried as unknowns. They say the military has disinterred and identified remains from other Pearl Harbor battleships and should do the same for their loved ones. “These men matter and they served. They gave their lives for our country. And they deserve the 132

Image: Caleb Jones

133

same honor and respect as any other service member past, present and future,” Teri Mann Whyatt said. The Arizona suffered more loss of life than any other ship at Pearl Harbor, with 1,177 dead. More than 900 went down with the ship and have remained entombed there ever since. As with remains on other sunken ships, the Navy considers those aboard the Arizona to be in their final resting place. The families are not advocating for them to be removed and identified. The issue is what to do with the 85 Arizona unknowns buried in a Hawaii cemetery. It emerged in February when the director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, which is tasked with finding and identifying the remains of U.S. service members from past conflicts, was asked during a Facebook Live meeting when the agency would disinter them. Kelly McKeague said his agency had spoken to the Navy about exhuming the Arizona unknowns and moving them to the ship without identifying them first. McKeague said it didn’t make “pragmatic sense” to identify them. That outraged some families who feared the 85 remains would be placed on the sunken battleship without ever being identified. The agency has since said it doesn’t plan to move the cemetery remains onto the ship. Rear Adm. Darius Banaji, the agency’s deputy director, said that was just a possibility discussed informally a few years ago. Banaji also said the agency doesn’t plan to disinter the remains and try to identify them because it lacks sufficient documentation. 134

Image: Elaine Thompson

135

Image: Elaine Thompson

136

The military has files on just half of those missing from the Arizona, he said. Of those, it has medical records — listing age, height and other information — for just half. It has dental records for only 130 men. Some documents are believed to have been destroyed with the battleship. Others may have been lost in a 1973 fire at a military personnel records office. And the military only has DNA samples from relatives of just 1% of the missing Arizona crew members. McKeague told The Associated Press that what he said about identifications not being pragmatic referred to the lack of documentation, not the cost. “We must apply our limited resources in a manner that is equitable to all families and to do so as efficiently and effectively as possible,” he said in a statement. The agency, which aims to find more than 80,000 service members missing from World War II and on, has successfully identified unknowns from the USS Oklahoma, another battleship that capsized during the Pearl Harbor bombing. In 2015, the agency dug up the remains of 388 Oklahoma sailors and Marines from the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, the same graveyard where the Arizona unknowns are buried. It acted after the military drafted a new policy allowing the disinterment of groups of unknown servicemen if it expected to identify at least 60% of the group. The agency had dental records, age and height information for the vast majority of the 137

Oklahoma unknowns. The military also had family DNA samples for more than 80%. The agency predicted it would identify 80% of the Oklahoma remains, which were buried comingled in 61 caskets. As of this month, it has identified 344, or 88%, and anticipates naming more. A group of families led by Randy Stratton, whose father, Donald Stratton, suffered severe burns as a sailor on the Arizona but lived to be 97, has drafted a petition demanding that the agency identify the 85 Arizona unknowns. He’s vowed to help families submit DNA samples. He’s also been pushing for the agency to use genetic genealogy techniques like those used by law enforcement to solve cold cases. Stratton said about 30 to 40 families of Arizona unknowns have joined him. From a scientific perspective, there isn’t much stopping the military from identifying the Arizona remains, said Michael Coble, associate director of the Center for Human Identification at the University of North Texas. “It’s definitely going to be a huge undertaking. But I think the technology has evolved that this kind of work could be done,” said Coble, who was chief of research at the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory from 2006 to 2010. The lab, which dates to 1991, has long used DNA to identify remains for the military. One newer method uses so-called SNPs, which are unique to an individual — except for identical twins — and provide a kind of fingerprint. The lab hasn’t been able to make much use of this technique because it’s been unable to obtain adequate SNP profiles from 138

Image: Elaine Thompson

139