Swifties, your wildest dreams can come true: A newspaper is now hiring a full-time “Taylor Swift reporter.” The company that owns USA Today posted the role on its website this week, and the Roca office has been awfully quiet since. Is it normal for everyone on your team to ask for "hypothetical reference letters” in a span of three hours?

In today's edition:

• Pandemic unemployment fraud

• Coca-Cola launches new AI soda

• Jimmy Buffett: The man

 🔑 Key Stories

NFLPA Calls for Grass

The head of the NFL Players Association (NFLPA) called on the league to change its fields to natural grass following Aaron Rodgers’ injury on Monday

• For years, the NFLPA and some players have claimed that turf – synthetic grass used in 16 of 32 NFL stadiums – increases injury risks. The NFLPA has presented data that it says shows turf is more dangerous than grass

• On Monday, quarterback Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles tendon on a turf field during his fourth play as a New York Jet

• On Wednesday, the head of the NFLPA released a statement alluding to that injury and demanding the NFL switch all of its turf fields to natural grass

Dig Deeper

• The NFLPA claims that between 2012 and 2018, players had a 32% higher rate of non-contact knee injuries on turf than on regular grass. It also found that players had a 69% higher rate of non-contact foot or ankle injuries on turf

• Some players reiterated the NFLPA's demands; others, such as the Jets' head coach, attributed Rodger’s injury to the way he was tackled, not the surface he was standing on. The NFL has also challenged the NFLPA’s injury data and suggested the difference between real grass and turf is small or nonexistent

Inflation Rises in August

Inflation rose to 3.7% on an annualized basis in August

• Inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 and then fell for 12 consecutive months to 3% this June. It then rose in July to 3.2%

• The US Bureau of Labor Statistics released inflation data on Wednesday showing that inflation in August was 3.7%. Prices grew .6% on a monthly basis in August, up from .2% in July

• Analysts attributed much of August’s inflation growth to gas prices, which rose 10.6% in August from a month before

Dig Deeper

• Overall, both CPI and core inflation were roughly what economists had predicted. Some analysts expressed optimism, arguing that gasoline prices will likely decline in the fall as people drive less and gas production increases. Others warned the result will cause the Federal Reserve – tasked with keeping inflation near 2% – to continue to take aggressive action to fight inflation, increasing recession risks

Roiland Accusations

Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland inappropriately pursued young fans, several of whom were underage, NBC News reports

• Roiland was the voice actor for both Rick and Morty. He was charged in 2020 with domestic abuse and false imprisonment; those were dropped this March

• On Wednesday, NBC released a report citing 11 people who claimed Roiland pursued them when they were young. Nine had sexual relations with him; three of them said they were underage when Roiland first reached out to them. One alleged sexual assault

• Roiland’s lawyer called the allegations “defamatory”

Pandemic Unemployment Fraud

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) claimed up to 15% of all pandemic unemployment insurance (UI) payments were fraudulent

• The US spent ~$900B on pandemic UI benefits, which included larger weekly payments and expanded coverage to workers that traditionally aren’t eligible for UI, such as some delivery workers

• On Tuesday, GAO – a nonpartisan watchdog – claimed that fraud accounted for “between $100B and $130B,” or 11%-15%, of all UI payments

• The Department of Labor (DoL), which distributed the UI payments, disputed that and said it was likely lower

Dig Deeper

• The GAO is one of several agencies investigating pandemic fraud

  This June, the U.S. Small Business Administration estimated $200B of the $1.2T in loans provided to small businesses – ~17% – was given to “potentially fraudulent actors”

• Then last month, the Justice Department announced an anti-fraud “sweep” had resulted in 371 criminal charges related to $836M in allegedly stolen funds. As of June, the DoL disclosed that it had ~163,000 pending cases related to alleged UI fraud

🍿 Popcorn

ICYMI

• Mitt out: Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said he will not run for re-election next year, citing the fact that he will be in his 80s next term. His current term expires in January 2025 

• ET, llamar la casa: A self-proclaimed ufologist presented two alleged 1,000-year-old “nonhuman” alien corpses to Mexico’s Congress. Scientists say they’re likely human corpses

• Birkenstonks: Popular shoemaker Birkenstock filed for an initial public offering (IPO). It will trade under the ticker “BIRK” on the NYSE

Wildcard

• Boebert booted: Security reportedly ejected House Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) from “Beetlejuice: The Musical” in Denver for “unruly” behavior throughout the show

• Taste the future: Coca-Cola launched Coca-Cola Y3000, a limited-edition flavor co-created with AI. The flavor is supposed to taste like Coca-Cola from the future

• U Cal Brawling: Protests and fights erupted at a Berkeley, California landlords’ cocktail party celebrating the end of the city’s eviction moratorium

👇 What do you think?

Today's Question:

Was pandemic spending in your country… justified? Justified, yet poorly implemented? Or not justified?

Reply to this email with your answers!

See yesterday's results below the Wrap! 

🌯 Roca Wrap

James (Jimmy) Buffett was born on Christmas Day in 1946 in Pascagoula, Mississippi. He spent much of his early years along the shores of the nearby Gulf of Mexico. 

To a young Jimmy, the Gulf of Mexico represented “the doorway to a world of adventure.” His parents and his grandfather – employees of the Alabama Drydock and Shipbuilding Company and a steamship captain, respectively – fueled his love of the sea with stories from their jobs.

Buffett enrolled at Auburn University in 1964 but the guitar quickly became a distraction.

Unable to balance his interests in music and girls with his classes, he flunked out in 1966 before returning to school at the University of Southern Mississippi and graduating in 1969. After graduation, he played for a band in New Orleans, and then worked as a journalist for Billboard magazine in Nashville.

Buffett had limited success in his early music career.

It wasn’t until 1971, when a friend convinced him to visit Key West, Florida, that he found his niche.“When I found Key West and the Caribbean, I wasn’t really successful yet,” Jimmy said in 1989. “But I found a lifestyle, and I knew that whatever I did would have to work around my lifestyle.”

1970s Key West was not the tourist-friendly town it is today.

It “was the last outpost of smugglers, con-men, artists, and free-spirits who simply couldn't run any further south in the mainland United States,” Buffett’s website says. It was there that he found the songwriting inspiration that would make him famous.

Buffett relocated to Key West and worked as a sailor, street busker, and performer, finding inspiration in the laid-back lifestyle. “It was a gay town. It was a hippie town. It was a local fisherman’s town,” he said. “You want a melting pot? It was just that. It never ceased to give me ideas or…stories from which those first songs came.”

One of those songs – which talked of getting drunk and having sex – was too suggestive for the radio but became an underground favorite. Another was about a gas station robbery.

In 1973, he released his first significant album, "A White Sport Coat and a Pink Crustacean," which reached #43 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart. He used the money from album sales to buy his first boat.

Jimmy’s career changed forever in 1977 with the release of "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes” which featured the hit single, "Margaritaville.” The song – which evoked a laid-back lifestyle and tropical escapism – not only launched him to fame but marked the beginning of a business empire.

Buffett said that around that time, his priorities started to change.

“I could wind up like a lot of my friends did, burned out or dead, or redirect the energy,” he told The Washington Post in 1989. “I’m not old, but I’m getting older. That period of my life is over. It was fun — all that hard drinking, hard drugging. No apologies.”

He turned his energy into other ventures, like writing.

A year before that interview, he published a collection of fictional stories, followed by several books, with many becoming best-sellers. He’s one of only a few writers to top The New York Times’ fiction and nonfiction bestseller lists.

He continued making albums throughout the 1980s and 90s, ultimately releasing 27. Yet Margaritaville continued to be Jimmy’s best-known song.

Claiming to want to let as many people taste the Margaritaville lifestyle as possible, in 1987, he opened a Key West restaurant dedicated to the song.

The Margaritaville restaurant would expand into a billion-dollar brand. It has since grown to include stores, hotels, bars, frozen shrimp, restaurants, daiquiri makers, beer, water parks, a SiriusXM radio station, luxury resorts, tequila, footwear, chips, salsa, casinos, and retirement villages.

The success made Buffett a billionaire, with Margaritaville’s holding company earning $1.5-2B annually. Buffett held a 28% stake in the company; other investors include Warren Buffett — a longtime friend, but not a relative, of Jimmy.

This year, Forbes estimated Buffett’s net worth at $1B, with $570M attributed to his music and the rest from other ventures. Last week, Jimmy Buffett’s website announced his death at age 76 from a rare and aggressive form of skin cancer.

While he may be gone, his legacy lives on in Margaritaville .

If you have thoughts, let us know at [email protected]!

 🌊 Roca Clubhouse

Yesterday's Poll:

Have you taken an over-the-counter decongestant in the past six months?
Yes: 44%
No: 56%

Yesterday's Question:

Do you think humans will find definitive proof of extraterrestrial life in your lifetime?

Deb from Boulder, Colorado: "Extraterrestrial life in some form, yes. But not human life. There have to be untold amounts of evolution to arrive at human life as we know it. For that to happen again seems unfathomable."

Jane from Morrison, Illinois: "Absolutely! It’s already a given! A person who doesn’t think so hasn’t been listening.”

David from Bolton, New York: “Look no further than Washington D.C. Beware. They are among us”

Asher: “No, I don't think we'll find definitive proof of alien life. The chances of finding another planet with the necessary components for life including our perfect atmosphere and sun and gravity and oceans and carbon dioxide and oxygen... it's just too unlikely; even in an infinite universe. I think we'll find other cool discoveries in the universe, discoveries that will show us how small and tiny we are when looking at the grand scheme of things”

Yesterday's Wrap Replies:

Yesterday’s Wrap recounted the story of Army Captain Larry Taylor, who recently received a Medal of Honor for disobeying direct orders in 1968.

Tammy from Owensboro, KY: “This was a wonderful story, I got goose bumps reading it. Thank you and special THANKS to our military.”

Gilbert from Melbourne, Australia: “The Larry Taylor story is absolutely incredible”

Mary-Anne: “I am so glad that he received his medal before he dies. He was a true hero. I am grateful for his disobedience, because sometimes you alone have to make that call. God bless him. He is a real soldier and a real hero.”

🧠 Final Thoughts

Thanks to everyone who emailed us about yesterday’s Wrap! We love hearing when our Wraps resonate with our readers. If you have any ideas for more stories like that, please drop us a line.

In the meantime, we hope the fall weather, wherever you are, is as nice as it is in New York today.

—Max and Max