🌊 We Shall Fight on the B Train

Happy anniversary of Charlie Sheen’s firing.

One of the highest-profile meltdowns in Hollywood history culminated 13 years ago today when CBS fired Charlie Sheen from Two and a Half Men. At the time, Sheen was the highest-paid actor on TV, raking in ~$2M per episode. But, unfortunately, his “tiger blood” got the best of him. During his partying run that made "Sinatra, Flynn, Jagger, Richards, all of them look like droopy-eyed armless children," he ended up in the hospital multiple times and was going off the rails in his personal life. CBS suspended the show, and after he challenged his boss to a fight and called him a "stupid, stupid little man" on the radio, they fired him. Sheen truly had done enough drugs to kill Two and a Half Men.

In today's edition:

And so much more!

–Max, Max, Jen, and Alex

KEY STORY

NYC Subway Crime

New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) deployed 1,000 National Guard soldiers and State Police officers to New York City’s subway system

• In January, NYC’s subway system witnessed a 47% surge in major felonies compared to the same month a year prior. The city also witnessed three subway murders over the first two months of 2024

• On Tuesday, Mayor Eric Adams (D) announced the city would reinstate random bag checks in the subway. “People who don’t want their bags checked can…not enter the system,” he said

• A day later, Hochul announced the state would deploy 750 guardsman and 250 police to the subway to “conduct bag checks in the city’s busiest stations”

Dig Deeper

• Adams – a former NYC police officer who has pledged to combat crime – was noticeably absent from Hochul’s press conference

• Hochul also proposed amending NY law to allow judges to ban violent criminals from using the system. She will also direct an additional $20M to help subway riders experiencing mental crises

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• The prevalence of data mining is disturbing. It’s a lucrative game for many companies, but to individuals it can be downright devastating

• Consider the many ways in which scammers or even individuals with whom you've severed ties could exploit your online information

• Sure, you can locate and delete your information from these platforms – but the process is an enormous hassle to tackle alone

Dig Deeper

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KEY STORY

Middleton Rumors Grow

Speculation over Kate Middleton has grown after the UK’s army uploaded and then deleted a post listing her as an attendee at a June 8 event

• In January, UK officials announced that Middleton – the Princess of Wales – had undergone an abdominal surgery. They said she would not resume public duties until Easter

• Middleton has since disappeared from public view, fueling rumors that her condition is worse than officials have let on or that something else is amiss

• On Tuesday, the UK’s army listed her as an attendee for a June event; hours later, it deleted that without providing explanation

Dig Deeper

• Several popular rumors claim that Middleton’s condition is worse than publicly acknowledged, or that the surgery had gone bad; some speculated she was in a medically-induced coma

• Others speculated she and William are on the verge of a divorce

• On March 4, Middleton was photographed riding in a car with her mother – the first time since December 25 that she was photographed in public. Yet Middleton still hasn’t spoken publicly

KEY STORY

V-Day Picture Controversy

The Veterans Affairs (VA) secretary reversed a memo banning the above photo from VA facilities

• A photographer took the picture the day Japan surrendered to the US in WWII. It later emerged that the two people hadn’t known each other, and the woman said decades later she had been “grabbed”

• On Tuesday, a VA official ordered VA facilities to remove the photo, saying it depicts a “non-consensual act”

• A copy of that memo went viral, causing an uproar. Hours later, the VA secretary publicly walked back the memo, writing on X, “Let me be clear: This image is not banned from [VA] facilities”

Dig Deeper

• The VA secretary reportedly didn’t know about the memo until a copy of it went viral

• The White House press secretary later said, “I can definitely say that the memo was not sanctioned,” and a VA spokesperson confirmed that the memo “has been rescinded”

KEY STORY

Garcia’s Viral Posts

Amid a series of disturbing X posts, boxer Ryan Garcia alleged that “elites” tied him up and forced him to watch child abuse, among other claims

• Garcia is an elite lightweight boxer and influencer. He’s scheduled for a headline fight this April

• On Sunday, a video posted to Garcia’s official X account appeared to show him dead. His father said that Garcia was “trolling the wrong way,” and Garcia later implied his account was hacked

• On Tuesday and Wednesday, though, Garcia released a series of posts in which he spoke in tongues, talked about aliens, claimed an earthquake will destroy Hollywood and Las Vegas, and more

• In a live conversation with Andrew Tate, Garcia said “the elites” had tied him up and forced him to watch child abuse and that “Bohemian Grove” – a California retreat for elites – “is real”

Dig Deeper

• Many fighters expressed concerns about Garcia’s mental health and called for his upcoming fight to be postponed or canceled

• Some social media users have alleged that Garcia was being made to look crazy to discredit his allegations

RUNDOWN
Some Quick Stories for the Office

🗳️ Representative Dean Phillips (D-MN) dropped out of the presidential race. Phillips – who called Biden too old to run – endorsed Biden

🤖 On Wednesday, OpenAI claimed that Elon Musk left the organization not over a dispute about its for-profit status — which he claimed in a lawsuit last week — but because he wanted to be CEO and to control its board

🇺🇸 The US SEC enacted a rule that requires some large companies to disclose their emissions. Environmental activists say the rule falls short; meanwhile, 11 Republican-led states vowed to challenge it in court

🚓 San Francisco voters approved policies which the city’s progressive council had rejected that expand police powers and require drug-screening and treatment for welfare recipients

💸 The other day, at Roca's team lunch, we were chatting about how so many of us made 2024 goals to be better about saving money. We want to save money—some for vacation, others for a car—but it's just tough. Then our staff writer suggested we try some of the money-saving strategies he found with FinanceBuzz. The idea from their 8 tips & tricks to save more money is simple yet impactful: Start with one, and watch the savings grow!*

COMMUNITY
Weekly Debate

Most news companies repress ideas they don’t agree with. We are different. To prove it, we’re making this a place where people can have a free and open debate. Each week we lay out a debate on Monday and feature responses below, replies to those the following day, and so on.

This week’s Roca Wrap asked: Are food companies exploitative?

Have additional thoughts? Keep the debate going by replying to this email!

Today’s poll is sponsored by Incogni*

POPCORN
Some Quick Stories for Happy Hour

🐼 “Sirs, is that a panda?” Six Indian nationals were arrested at Bangkok’s airport trying to smuggle a red panda and 86 other animals out of the country

🤓 #Noodlegate: A Vancouver teacher faces a three-day suspension for encouraging his ninth-grade gym class to hit each other with pool noodles, resulting in one student’s glasses breaking

🥒 The pickle monster: New Jersey police are searching for an unidentified man who dunked his head in a convenience store’s large pickle bin

🥶 Wisconsin Tough: Republican candidate for Senate Eric Hovde – shown above throwing an axe – posted a shirtless video on X breaking through ice on a lake outside his Madison, Wisconsin

🎵 In a dark desert courtroom…: New York prosecutors abruptly ended a criminal trial against three individuals accused of plotting to sell unauthorized handwritten lyrics from the Eagles’ “Hotel California”

🍺 El Swástico: German police arrested an 18-year-old Italian Lazio soccer club fan for giving a Hitler salute in the beer hall where Hitler founded the Nazi party. Other Lazio fans sang fascist songs

ON-THE-GROUND
Roca in Serbia

We send our co-founder Max Frost to investigate topics around the world and he writes about them here. He’s currently writing from Serbia. Subscribers receive the full stories.

In Belgrade, I connected with an EU official. We agreed to meet at a café, but while traveling there, I made a wrong turn. 

I ended up in a dystopian compound of cement highrise buildings. There was no one around. Grass was growing through the cracks and it was dark out with no lights. Using my phone flashlight, I navigated down a series of uneven steps. While walking through here I thought, “Why would the EU want this place?”

Then I emerged onto a modern office plaza where the official was sitting outside a Starbucks-esque cafe waiting for me. I posed the question to him directly. 

“It’s in our mandate to expand and to have enlargements happen,” the official – who spoke on a condition of anonymity – said. 

“There's also the consideration that if Serbia and the rest of the [candidate] countries do not become EU members, that very much opens the door for malign influences from Russia, China, the UAE, and other third actors.”

Was the EU wrong to admit Bulgaria and Romania – two relatively poor and corrupt formerly communist countries – in 2007?

The EU had learned from that, he said, which is part of why it has become harder for countries like Serbia to join today. 

I then asked: Couldn’t joining the EU also harm Serbia, by enabling the exodus of young people – “brain drain” – to wealthier European countries? 

“I mean, I know the EU's job isn't to look out for Serbia, right? It's to look out for the EU.”

He said the EU would require Serbia to enact economic and political reforms that would help it grow and become a better place to live. He also predicted that while joining the EU would cause a “big exodus,” it would also lead migrants to bring back know-how and capital from the EU, helping Serbia prosper. Beyond that, he said, the EU would require Serbia to enact economic and political reforms that would help it grow and become a better place to live. 

He painted this as part of a broader history: Serbs had been bringing back knowledge from Central and Western Europe for centuries: “When you look at the nice architecture in the center of town, usually the architects were Serbs that grew up in Vienna or studied there and came back.”

He added that many people want to leave Serbia not because of money, but because of political polarization. Economically speaking, he said, Serbia was an “outlier” compared to the rest of the former Yugoslavia. While its economy once relied on low-skilled labor to fill factories, it now has industry, modern infrastructure, and a thriving tech scene. 60% of investment in the Balkans goes to Serbia, he said. While most of that used to go to low-value industries, it’s now going to the tech sector and research and development centers.

Still, he said many trends are negative: The country’s government was below the EU minimum in many areas, he said, adding that in some places –accountability, transparency, corruption, organized crime – the situation has gotten worse in recent years. 

The conversation turned to Serb history, which led me to ask, “In which of the Balkan Wars was Serbia the bad guy?”

No pause: “All of them, that’s not up for discussion. But I think it’s much more nuanced when it comes to the onset of war and the reasons for it.”

He gave the example of Croatia: He claimed that the Western narrative is that the Serb army invaded Croatia to make sure it would remain part of a Serb-led empire (Yugoslavia). In reality, he said, there was an extremely nationalistic Croatian government within Yugoslavia. That government made direct links to the fascist Croatian government, alarming its Serb minority. They declared independence as Yugoslavia fell apart, prompting Croatia to crush the insurrection. Yugoslav forces came to their aid, sparking the war. 

He described a similar situation in Bosnia, and said that regarding the outbreak of war, Serbia wasn’t as much the bad guy as many think. Where Serbia became the bad guy was the extent of war crimes committed by Serb forces, who operated with the full backing of Serbian state security. 

He added that Serbs do make valid claims about the war – for example, that they were ethnically cleansed in Bosnia and Croatia – but that their society has failed to own up to their crimes, which were the worst. 

“It's mostly like, ‘Let's disregard all the crimes that were committed by the Serbs. And let's point out that Serbs were also victims.’” 

“So there needs to be a lot of reconciliation with history here, and I don't see that happening.”

And without that, will the EU ever accept Serbia?

Reply to this email to let us know what you think!

ROCA WRAP
Person of the Week: Rosemary Smith

Rosemary Smith often felt like an outsider.

She was born in a Dublin suburb in 1938 to a Protestant father and a Catholic mother, a complicated situation in majority-Catholic Ireland. Tall – 5’ 11” – with unusual ash blond hair, she often thought of her young self as a “freak.”

While frequently running away and fighting with her mother, Rosemary gave up on conventional school at age 15 and enrolled at a fashion design house.

Yet what made her an outcast in school – including her height and blond hair – made her an asset in fashion. She became a model and found herself in the inner circles of Ireland’s socialites.

In the late 1950s, one of those socialites – Delphine Biggar, the wife of a racing champion – came to Rosemary for help unrelated to fashion. Biggar had landed the opportunity to drive in an upcoming race and was hoping Rosemary would be her navigator.

Once in the car together, the pair realized Rosemary was much better suited to drive. So she took the wheel – and from that moment, knew she was meant to be a driver. Rosemary said that behind the wheel, she finally felt free – from low self-esteem, family drama, and societal expectations.

And she was a great good driver: In the style that would become her trademark, she never shied from speed but maintained an exceptional ability to navigate the sharp corners with precision and grace.

Not long after, Rosemary was contacted by Sally Anne Cooper, an English heiress who wanted to do something exciting before her upcoming marriage: The Monte Carlo rally.

The weeklong, 1,000 km-plus rally course covered several mountains in a test of endurance and speed for both drivers and cars. She wanted Rosemary to be her driver; Rosemary accepted on the spot.

The pair stood out among the male drivers on the starting line: Sally wore a mink coat and carried a picnic basket; Rosemary wore a full face of makeup and had crimson nails. She styled her hair so blond waves would come up under her helmet.

During the race, Rosemary caught the attention of Norman Garrad, a manager for a company that had produced the 1963 Hillman Imp racecar. Sales of the Imp were lukewarm, and the brand was struggling with an identity crisis.

In desperate need of a boost, Garrad wanted Rosemary, with her glamorous appearance and racing talent, to be the face that would rejuvenate the Imp's image. Rosemary – eager to keep driving – agreed. 

Rosemary quickly proved she was much more than her looks: Driving the Imp two years later, she won the Tulip Rally, a demanding 3,000 km race through five countries, becoming the first woman to win. She went on to compete in the highest-profile international rallies, finishing 21 of 24, although male competitors wouldn’t take her seriously.

At the start of the 16,000-mile London to Mexico rally in 1970, a director of a British car manufacturer told her, “If you get as far as Dover, we will be very pleased with you.” Of 96 teams at the start of the race, only 23 finished. Of those, Rosemary was 10^th.

“In the beginning I was a dizzy blonde, the young one with…false eyelashes,” she said. But as she continued to place in prestigious rallies, she gained “grudging acceptance.” Rosemary’s success brought the Imp – and herself – to international fame.

While the media didn't shy away from covering her personal challenges, including a brief marriage and four miscarriages, Rosemary said driving maintained her sense of freedom. She raced until her 60s and stayed close to the track during retirement by establishing a youth driving school.

A few months before Rosemary turned 80, Formula One – needing a test driver for its 800 horsepower Renault Sport Formula Sportscar – approached Rosemary. “I didn’t think twice. I never have,” Rosemary said after setting a record as the oldest person to drive an F1 car.

Rosemary passed away in December from cancer at age 86.

Before she died, she requested a song be played at her funeral: Abe Holzmann’s “Blaze Away.”

Reply to this email to let us know what you think!

ROCA WRAP
Person of the Week: Rosemary Smith

Rosemary Smith often felt like an outsider.

She was born in a Dublin suburb in 1938 to a Protestant father and a Catholic mother, a complicated situation in majority Catholic Ireland. Tall – five foot eleven – with unusual ash blond hair, she often thought of her young self as a “freak.”

While frequently running away and fighting with her mother, Rosemary gave up on conventional school at age 15 and instead enrolled at a fashion design house.

Yet what made her an outcast in school – including her height and blond hair – made her an asset in fashion. She became a model and found herself in the inner circles of Ireland’s socialites.

In the late 1950s, one of those socialites – Delphine Biggar, the wife of a racing champion – came to Rosemary for help unrelated to fashion. Biggar had landed the opportunity to drive in an upcoming race and was hoping Rosemary would be her navigator.

Once in the car together, the pair realized Rosemary was much better suited to drive. So she took the wheel – and from that moment, knew she was meant to be a driver. Rosemary said that behind the wheel, she finally felt free – from low self-esteem, family drama, and societal expectations.

And she was a great good driver: In the style that would become her trademark, she never shied from speed but maintained an exceptional ability to navigate the sharp corners with precision and grace.

Not long after, Rosemary was contacted by Sally Anne Cooper, an English heiress who wanted to do something exciting before her upcoming marriage: The Monte Carlo rally.

And she was a great good driver: In the style that would become her trademark, she never shied from speed but maintained an exceptional ability to navigate the sharp corners with precision and grace.

Not long after, Rosemary was contacted by Sally Anne Cooper, an English heiress who wanted to do something exciting before her upcoming marriage: The Monte Carlo rally.

The weeklong, 1,000 km-plus rally course covered several mountains in a test of endurance and speed for both drivers and cars. She wanted Rosemary to be her driver; Rosemary accepted on the spot.

The pair stood out among the male drivers on the starting line: Sally wore a mink coat and carried a picnic basket; Rosemary wore a full face of makeup and had crimson nails. She styled her hair so blond waves would come up under her helmet.

During the race, Rosemary caught the attention of Norman Garrad, a manager for a company that had produced the 1963 Hillman Imp racecar. Sales of the Imp were lukewarm, and the brand was struggling with an identity crisis. 

In desperate need of a boost, Garrad wanted Rosemary, with her glamorous appearance and racing talent, to be the face that would rejuvenate the Imp's image. Rosemary – eager to keep driving – agreed. 

Rosemary quickly proved she was much more than her looks: Driving the Imp two years later, she won the Tulip Rally, a demanding 3,000 km race through five countries, becoming the first woman to win. She went on to compete in the highest-profile international rallies, finishing 21 of 24, although male competitors wouldn’t take her seriously.

At the start of the 16,000-mile London to Mexico rally in 1970, a director of a British car manufacturer told her, “If you get as far as Dover, we will be very pleased with you.” Of 96 teams at the start of the race, only 23 finished. Of those, Rosemary was 10th.

“In the beginning I was a dizzy blonde, the young one with…false eyelashes,” she said. But as she continued to place in prestigious rallies, she gained “grudging acceptance.” Rosemary’s success brought the Imp – and herself – to international fame.

While the media didn't shy away from covering her personal challenges, including a brief marriage and four miscarriages, Rosemary said driving maintained her sense of freedom. She raced until her 60s and stayed close to the track during retirement by establishing a youth driving school. 

A few months before Rosemary turned 80, Formula One – needing a test driver for its 800 horsepower Renault Sport Formula Sportscar – approached Rosemary. “I didn’t think twice. I never have,” Rosemary said after setting a record as the oldest person to drive an F1 car.

Rosemary passed away in December from cancer at age 86. Before she died, she requested a song be played at her funeral: Abe Holzmann’s “Blaze Away.”

Reply to this email to let us know what you think!

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COMMUNITY
Treasure Hunt

Welcome to the weekly Roca treasure hunt! The rules are simple:

• Every day we give a hint. You get one guess, which you submit by emailing [email protected] with a Google street view screenshot

• Unlock an extra hint each Thursday once you refer five friends

• The first person to guess the answer wins this week’s prize: A free year of Roca premium!

Clue 1: 311

Clue 2: A King's game and a companion's check

Clue 3: Two by two (or add 10 and 3)

Clue 4: I don't hear Mick, but I hear a tambourine

Know the answer? Send the Google street view screenshot to [email protected].

EDITOR’S NOTE
Final Thoughts

Our office is divided between those who follow the UK monarchy news like mentioned above and those who think of Harry Truman and Meghan Trainor before they think of ex-royal couple when they hear “Harry and Meghan”. Which camp do you fall into?

See you tomorrow,

— Max, Max, Alex and Jen