You’ve seen snakes on a plane, but how about an orca? Billionaire owner of the Indianapolis Colts Jim Irsay has offered $20M and his cargo plane to fly Lolita, a killer whale who’s been in captivity for 53 years, back to her home in the San Juan Islands. "She's healthy, I've got the money, let's move her," Irsay said. If this doesn’t work out, we will happily take her as an emotional support animal on our next flight.

In today's edition:

• Fruit fly future is female

• Heroic 87-year-old Maine woman

• Jimmy Hoffa and the mob

 🔑 Key Stories

Fitch Downgrades US Credit

Credit rating agency Fitch downgraded the US government’s credit rating

• The US Treasury issues bonds, which they must repay with interest within a certain time frame. Like individuals, governments have credit ratings which assess how likely they are to pay their debts on time

• The US government recognizes 3 credit agencies: Fitch Ratings, Moody’s, and Standard & Poor’s

• On Tuesday, Fitch downgraded the US’ credit from “AAA” – its highest rating – to “AA+.” It said it has seen a “steady deterioration” in US fiscal management and a growing government debt rate

Dig Deeper

• The treasury secretary called Fitch’s decision “arbitrary and based on outdated data,” adding that the “American economy is fundamentally strong.” A White House official said the decision “defies reality”

• Several major US stock indexes fell on Wednesday in response to the news

No Men Needed?

Cambridge scientists genetically engineered fruit flies to give birth without the presence of sperm

• Some animals reproduce sexually (i.e., with two parents); others produce asexually (i.e., with one). Parthenogenesis is the process by which females become pregnant and give birth without a male

• Per a new study published in the journal Current Biology, Cambridge researchers genetically altered fruit flies to reproduce asexually. Of the genetically modified flies, 11% reproduced asexually

• Researchers said it is “unlikely” that that research could be applied to mammals, such as humans

Dig Deeper

• Previous studies have mimicked parthenogenesis in mice, frogs, and other animals that don’t naturally undergo the process. But they did so by modifying egg cells in Petri dishes, not inducing parthenogenesis in females

China’s Minor Mode

China proposed new regulations to limit how long children can use smartphones

• On Wednesday, a Chinese government division proposed guidelines to create a “minor mode” on electronics

• That mode would limit children under age eight to 40 minutes of smartphone use daily; ages eight-15, no more than an hour; and ages 16-17, no more than two hours

• The regulations would also regulate what content kids can see in order to “promote the core values of socialism” and the “traditional culture of China”

Dig Deeper

• It is unclear what companies would be responsible for creating/enforcing the rules if they become law

• The announcement follows several other moves by China to crack down on children’s screen time in recent years. In 2019, it restricted children to 90 minutes of online video game usage per weekday. Two years later, it tightened that to just three hours of online video game usage per week

Tensions Mount Over Niger

Rising tensions over Niger have generated the prospect of an international war in West Africa

• Niger, a poor West African country, was a close ally of the West with a democratically-elected leader. The US and France each had a base and 1,000+ troops there. Last week, Niger’s military overthrew the pres.

• ECOWAS – an economic group to which Niger belongs – then threatened to invade if Niger’s military doesn’t step down by Sunday

• Niger’s military has said it will defend itself. Two neighboring countries – both ruled by their militaries – have said an attack on Niger is an attack on them

Dig Deeper

• Foreign governments have evacuated hundreds of their employees from Niger this week. On Tuesday, US officials said they stand with Niger’s deposed president and that there remains a “narrow opportunity” to reverse the coup

Erase Yourself from the Web

Together with Incogni

Data brokers make money off your personal information every day. They buy your data – SSNs, DOB, home addresses, health information, contact details – and sell it to the highest bidder

• Incogni is a personal data removal service that scrubs your personal information from the web

• It contacts and follows up with data brokers around the world on your behalf. It can take hundreds of hours for an individual to do that

• With Incogni, you can kick back and worry less about identity theft, health insurers raising your rates based on info from data brokers, robo calls, scammers taking out loans in your name, and all the other terrible things bad actors do with personal data (we at Roca are certainly tired of spam calls!)

• Last week, we asked Roca readers about spam calls. 82% of Roca readers said they had received a spam call in the past week. Incogni can help by removing your contact information from the data brokers responsible for those unwanted calls

Dig Deeper

• While other personal data removal services only focus on one type of data broker, Incogni helps remove your personal information from all broker types, including People Search Sites. Roca readers exclusively get 55% off Incogni annual plans with code ‘ROCA10’

🍿 Popcorn

ICYMI

• Justin Tru-done: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, announced their separation. They married in 2005 and have three children

• Sorry… prank call! US Capitol Police found no shooter and no one injured after reports of a possible active shooter in the US Capitol. Police suspect a “bogus call” prompted the lockdown

• Kicking the gambling habit: Former University of Iowa kicker Aaron Blom and current Iowa State QB Hunter Dekkers face accusations of placing hundreds of bets on their own team’s games

Wildcard

• Anne Frank burger and Hitler fries please: A fast food restaurant in Argentina has sparked outrage by serving items named after Anne Frank and Adolf Hitler. The restaurant has since removed the items

• Snack attack: An 87-year-old Maine woman reportedly fought off a 17-year-old boy who broke into her home, then gave him snacks to distract him while calling 911

• Grand Theft Google: A Google Street View car evaded Indiana police at 100 mph and crashed into a creek after a 12-mile chase. He told police that he “worked for Google and was scared to stop” 

👇 What do you think?

Today’s poll is sponsored by Incogni. Use code ‘ROCA10’ to scrub your phone number from data brokers with the help of Incogni

Today's Question:

Do unions help or hurt a country’s labor market?

Reply to this email with your answers!

See yesterday's results below the Wrap! 

🌯 Roca Wrap

where did Jimmy Hoffa go?

Jimmy Riddle Hoffa was born in 1913, in Brazil, Indiana. His father, a coal miner, died when Hoffa was seven, leaving his family in poverty and forcing Hoffa to drop out of school.

Hoffa’s family moved to Detroit in 1924, where he worked as a manual laborer. One job was at a food distribution center where the pay and benefits were poor.

In protest, Hoffa and his co-workers refused to unload a delivery of strawberries until their demands were met. Fearing the strawberries would spoil, Hoffa’s bosses gave in.

Hoffa went on to become one of Detroit’s most influential union organizers, a dangerous job at the time. Often on the front line of violent pickets, he joined a fast-growing union called The Teamsters.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters represented US delivery and truck drivers. Working for the organization in the 1930s, Hoffa became well-known as capable and tough. By the late-1930s, Hoffa was a powerful Detroit-area Teamsters leader.

At the time, organized crime was intertwined with labor. In exchange for contracts and corrupt deals, the mob provided unions with muscle and connections. And within a mob-linked union like the Teamsters, mob support was invaluable for consolidating power – as Hoffa aspired to do.

In 1957, the Teamsters’ president was called to testify in front of the Senate about union links to organized crime. Harshly interrogated by Robert F. Kennedy, a prominent lawyer, he pleaded the fifth 117 times. In the testimony’s wake, he declined to seek re-election, paving the way for Hoffa to become Teamsters president in 1957.

Hoffa – who didn’t drink or smoke – was known for working constantly.

“I have more fun here working than anybody can have on a golf course or any sport you can name,” he said of work. Under him, the Teamsters became the US’ largest union.

Hoffa wielded its 2.3M members and mob ties to negotiate better pay and benefits for union members. “Jimmy Hoffa has put more bread and butter on the tables for American kids than all his detractors put together,” a Democratic Congressman said in 1964.

Hoffa came under investigation, though, particularly by RFK, whom JFK, his brother, placed in charge of the Justice Department in 1961. RFK had made a name for himself by fighting organized crime and launched investigations into the Teamsters.

RFK and Hoffa also had a notorious dislike for each other. RFK considered Hoffa a criminal who used organized crime to secure power. Hoffa saw the Kennedys as everything he was not: Privileged, proper, and elite.

Investigations found that Hoffa had used union funds for business investments and had bribed jurors in a criminal case. In 1967, Hoffa turned himself in to serve a five-year prison term.

While imprisoned, he faced further accusations related to misuse of union pension funds. A year later, RFK was killed in what some believe was a mob-linked assassination.

Hoffa was so popular that despite his imprisonment, the Teamsters re-elected him president in 1968. Unable to manage the union’s day-to-day activities, he assigned a trusted ally, Frank Fitzsimmons, to serve as interim president.

Under Fitzsimmons, the Teamsters drew closer to the mob, creating vast kickback schemes and directing pension funds toward mob-linked investments. Hoffa would later accuse Fitzsimmons of “selling out to mobsters” and “making vast loans from the billion‐dollar Teamster pension fund to known mobsters.”

In 1971, then-President Nixon commuted Hoffa’s sentence if he refrained from certain union activities until 1980. Hoffa wanted to eventually retake control of the union, but Fitzsimmons and the mob – who had benefited from Hoffa’s absence – didn’t want that. An escalating feud led to allegations that both sides were plotting to kill the other.

On July 30, 1975, Hoffa went to a tavern on the outskirts of Detroit to meet two mobsters and settle their differences. The men weren’t there, though, and – with few other details – Hoffa disappeared.

Decades of searching have never found Hoffa’s body or produced an arrest. While Hoffa was declared legally dead in 1982 and it’s widely believed he was killed in a mob hit, the mystery of his disappearance has never been solved.

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

 🌊 Roca Clubhouse

Yesterday's Poll:

Preferred Uber service:
Ride-share: 30%
Delivery: 10%
Don’t use Uber: 60%

Yesterday's Question:

Can you fall in love with more than one person at once?

Jill: “Yes, because I find it so easy to love and it doesn’t mean I want to share my life with them. I have “loved” two people from my past for 45-48 years but, I will never be with them. I’m sure they don’t know this and now only you and your audience does.”

Madison from Raleigh, North Carolina: “No, you can’t. To me, love is a choice. You may be able to lust after multiple people at once, but love is something so much more significant. It’s choosing, each day, to show up, care, and do life with someone. You cannot give that kind of attention to more than one person.”

Jeremy from Pennsylvania: “Absolutely possible. Many civilizations, especially ancient ones, practiced polygamy and I have no doubt that some relationships had love between multiple partners.”

Thank you to all our Canadian readers who sent in thoughtful responses to our story on Canada’s new law that requires large tech companies such as Google or Meta to pay news publishers for circulating their content. We wanted to share a few of those responses below:

Josh: “Our current government is a complete joke. They couldn’t be more out of touch with the working class. They own all the main stream news so of coarse they don’t want it banned.”

Dennis: “I think the tech companies are right to not pay for Canadian news because the Canadian media is bought and paid for by the Canadian Liberal gov’t and they already control what Canadians can say and read.”

Charles from Toronto: “The government definitely overreached with the legislation, but they were basically goaded into it by giant Canadian media companies who have consistently for many decades chased free income via legislation, which they then turn into shareholder profits instead of any actual benefit for Canadians.The Liberal party has always been the corporate party, and this is no different. Everyone warned them how bad this would get. And yet it is still stunning that Meta has taken the extreme nuclear action of banning all news for Canadian users. This insane escalation means that Canadians on facebook and instagram will no longer have any access to real news -- but fake news and disinformation will continue to spread uncontrolled. To an average Canadian, this will likely just lead to extreme levels of radicalization as most people won't even truly understand that real news is gone from the platform. I'm not optimistic about where and how this ends.”

Kristen from Edmonton: “I support our federal government's decision because it is reasonable. Tech companies like Meta hold too much power and their unwillingness to work with the Canadian Government is proof of that. I personally believe social media sites shouldn't even have new sources on them. The comments section of news articles are absolutely appalling with everyone thinking they must state their opinion. Keeping news off social media would (hopefully) allow people to think for themselves and generate their own opinions again, rather than agreeing with what other people think.”

Dave: “I cant believe my country has come to this...but I guess we are a proving ground for the way the world will go...I dont hold much hope for reform...they are all bastards...just remember, do the opposite of what they say and you will be fine... praying for a better future”

Chris: “We all know the real reason for the law censoring news sources within Canada. The government is trying to ensure that Canadians are only allowed to get their news from the state sponsored Canadian Broadcasting Corporation because that way they control the narrative.”

Mike from Quesnel: “It was weird to get a notification on Facebook on the weekend saying that news wouldn't be available anymore. I get the idea behind the law but it wasn't done well, there was seemingly no collaboration with the tech companies and it feels like the Government was trying to force tech into a hole but they failed miserably. But the good news for me is that I get my info from Roca! (Pun intended)”

🧠 Final Thoughts

For anyone who wants more on Jimmy Hoffa, check out Martin Scorcese's 3.5-hour-long "The Irishman," which features Al Pacino as Hoffa. It's on Netflix, and while not the easiest watch, a worthwhile one!

Hope you're having great weeks. See you tomorrow.

–Max and Max