News Times: August 2024

Mediaite

Kids At Trump Rally Crack Up Host With Killer Impression Of Trump And His Secret Service Agents

By News Here - 13:07

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Mediaite

JUST IN: Plane Crashes Into Residential Neighborhood Setting Blaze and Leaving Thousands in Portland Without Power

By News Here - 13:07

Screenshot/X

A fiery plane crash in a suburb of Portland, Oregon, left thousands of people in the area without power Saturday morning as emergency services personnel assessed the damage and potential loss of life.

A short clip that quickly went viral on X (formerly Twitter) showed flames and a column of smoke billowing from a residential area.

BREAKING: Thousands without power after small plane crashes into residential neighborhood in Fairview, Oregon

pic.twitter.com/V0x65E0tgK

— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) August 31, 2024

Police confirmed the crash but offered few details.

A small aircraft has crashed into residential neighborhood in Fairview. PIO is responding. Media staging area is NE Sandy and Fairview Parkway.

— Multnomah Co. Sheriff’s Office (@MultCoSO) August 31, 2024

Portland’s ABC affiliate reported a small plane crashed in a neighborhood in the community of Fairview. It was unclear as of the time of publication if anyone was killed. The outlet reported:

Gresham Fire, Portland Fire, Portland Airport Fire and the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office have responded to the scene. The Port of Portland issued a statement Saturday morning: “Around 10:20 a.m. today, a small general aviation aircraft crashed near the Troutdale Airport. Port of Portland Fire has sent a crash vehicle and battalion chief for support at the scene, and the Gresham Fire Department is the agency in charge.”

Images purporting to show the crash and its immediate aftermath were widely shared online:

Hearing reports of a plane crash or something in Fairview. (not my video) pic.twitter.com/kFAq22bDSu

— Committeeperson-Elect Swoosh (@SwooshMcDuck) August 31, 2024

Smoke plume over Fairview with lots of customers now without power. #portland #orwx pic.twitter.com/K4tingRXzt

— Garret Hartung (@HartungWx) August 31, 2024

A “small” plane just crashed in Fairview north of I-84 a little bit ago. Pretty big emergency response. Multiple homes on fire and lots of power outages. pic.twitter.com/kYjIKblst8

— The Tortured Florist Department (@paintnpdx) August 31, 2024

The Portland General Electric power outage map showed clusters of customers across the metro area without electricity:

Screenshot/Portland General Electric

This story is developing.

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JUST IN: Kamala Harris Tweets Scorching Rebuke Of Trump ‘Political Stunt’ On Arlington ‘Sacred Ground’

By News Here - 12:07

AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson

Vice President Kamala Harris posted a lengthy statement on social media Saturday in which she accused former President Donald Trump of using dead soldiers as political props and also questioned his respect for veterans.

Trump grabbed negative attention this week after he and members of his campaign visited Arlington National Cemetary on Monday to commemorate the third anniversary of the 13 American service members killed in a suicide bombing in Kabul during the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

The Trump campaign was accused this week of using the former president’s trip to Arlington as a photo op. A cemetery employee also claimed members of Trump’s staff were pushy and disrespectful. It is illegal to film, cemetery officials later clarified.

The Army in a rare statement commented on the issue, writing, Participants in the August 26th ceremony and the subsequent Section 60 visit were made aware of federal laws, Army regulations and DoD policies, which clearly prohibit political activities on cemetery grounds.”

Harris, the Democratic nominee and Trump’s opponent in September, posted a statement on X/Twitter blasting Trump and to accusing him of having no respect veterans or military service.

As Vice President, I have had the privilege of visiting Arlington National Cemetery several times. It is a solemn place; a place where we come together to honor American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service of this nation.

It is not a place for politics.

And…

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 31, 2024

The full statement:

As Vice President, I have had the privilege of visiting Arlington National Cemetery several times. It is a solemn place; a place where we come together to honor American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service of this nation.

It is not a place for politics.

And yet, as was reported this week, Donald Trump’s team chose to film a video there, resulting in an altercation with cemetery staff. Let me be clear: the former president disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt.

This is nothing new from Donald Trump. This is a man who has called our fallen service members “suckers” and “losers” and disparaged Medal of Honor recipients.

A man who, during a previous visit to the cemetery, reportedly said of fallen service members, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”

This is a man who is unable to comprehend anything other than service to himself.

If there is one thing on which we as Americans can all agree, it is that our veterans, military families, and service members should be honored, never disparaged, and treated with nothing less than our highest respect and gratitude.

And it is my belief that someone who cannot meet this simple, sacred duty should never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States of America.

I will always honor the service and sacrifice of all of America’s fallen heroes, who made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of our beloved nation and our cherished freedoms. I mourn them and salute them. And I will never politicize them.

—

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Harris Dominates New Round of Polls, Beating Or Tying Trump In Every Major Swing State

By News Here - 12:08

AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson

A new round of polls from Morning Consult and Bloomberg News suggests that Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris is beating or tied with former President Donald Trump in every major swing state.

According to the survey of 4,962 registered voters conducted between August 23 and 27, Harris leads by 2 points in Georgia and North Carolina, 3 points in Michigan, 4 points in Nevada and Pennsylvania, a whopping 8 points in Wisconsin, and tied with Trump in Arizona.

In July, the same poll found that Trump boasted a lead over President Joe Biden in all of those states except for Michigan and Wisconsin.

New Bloomberg/Morning Consult polls, via @playbookdc:

Wisconsin
Harris 52
Trump 44

Pennsylvania
Harris 51
Trump 47

Nevada
Harris 49
Trump 45

Michigan
Harris 49
Trump 46

NC/Georgia
Harris 49
Trump 47

Arizona
Harris 48
Trump 48

Averages not as good. PA lead worth watching. pic.twitter.com/1iaRkliFZg

— Greg Sargent (@GregTSargent) August 30, 2024

The results come as welcome news going into Labor Day weekend and the home stretch of the campaign.

Harris’s lead in Pennsylvania is particularly noteworthy given the state’s outsized importance in the Electoral College. On Thursday, elections analyst Nate Silver’s electoral forecast model shifted to favor Trump for the first time since August 3, giving the former president a 52.4% chance of reclaiming the White House.

He called Pennsylvania the “one big reason” for the shift, noting that it is “the tipping-point state more than one-third of the time” in his model “and where it’s been quite a while since we’ve seen a poll showing Harris leading (including two new polls today).”

“The model puts a lot of weight on this recent data because of all the changes in the race,” he wrote. “And you can see why it thinks this is a problem for her: if she’s only tied in Pennsylvania now, during what should be one of her stronger polling periods, that implies being a slight underdog in November.”

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The Best Deals on Ryobi Tools During Home Depot's Labor Day Sale

By News Here - 11:54

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Mediaite

Ben Shapiro Argues Harris is Bringing ‘Corgi’ Tim Walz to CNN Interview to Start ‘Humping Dana Bash’s Leg’ If She Flounders

By News Here - 12:08

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro previewed Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D)’s upcoming interview with CNN by comparing Walz to a “very eager” corgi that would start “humping Dana Bash’s leg” if Harris flounders.

After noting how the presidential race between Harris and former President Donald Trump is a dead heat, Shapiro argued, “Kamala Harris is pre-taping that interview today because of course they were never going to allow her live in front of a camera by herself” and would have her “emotional support dog Tim Walz there” so she can “pet him and feel good.”

“He’s like a corgi of politics: very eager not particularly bright,” said Shapiro of Walz.

“And then if things start to get a little out of control, like, you know, she’s asked a real question, Tim Walz can jump in and start gesticulating wildly with his hands and being a weirdo. So that’ll be really exciting,” he continued. “She’s going to need his help because here’s the problem: Every time she goes off script, of course, she’s a disaster area.”

He returned to the comparison shortly thereafter.

“Now Democrats — it is amazing, Democrat-media human centipede — they are trying to proclaim that this is nothing new. After all, when a presidential candidate selects a vice president, they very often do some sort of joint interview. Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney did a joint interview, Hillary Clinton – Tim Kaine, it’s pretty normal. The difference is: Usually the person who has been running for president has done a few interviews before being the nominee,” submitted Shapiro. “Kamala Harris has done zero public interviews before being the nominee or after being the nominee, as it turns out. The reason that she’s bringing along Tim Walz is to eat up the time. And because she’s hoping the Dana Bash over CNN will make the interview all about their relationship with one another and how how they’re really simpatico, how they’re going to work together in the White House and avoid all issues. And if there is an issue, again, the corgi jumps up and starts humping Dana Bash’s leg, presumably.”

“That is how this interview, they hope, is going to work,” he concluded.

Watch above via Ben Shapiro on X.

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Lifehacker

Don't Rely on a 'Monte Carlo' Retirement Analysis

By News Here - 11:55

How’s your retirement plan going? Chances are you have no idea—about one-fourth of Americans saving for retirement actually have no idea how much money they have salted away, and more than half of the people in the workforce who aren't contributing to a 401(k) think that they are.

Retirement is confusing, and often stirs up feelings of anxiety and dread. Will you have enough to live on? Will you be able to handle medical expenses in a world where booking a vacation to have major surgery is sometimes the best financial decision? And, most dreadful of all, will you simply run out of money and spend your final days in poverty?

Fun stuff. Many people rely on financial advisors of one sort or another to reassure and guide them, and there are a lot of sophisticated tools used by those professionals to give us some idea of how we’re doing and what our eventual retirement might be like. But there are a lot of variables to consider, most of which are outside our control. As a result, if you’ve spoken to a professional about retirement planning, you’ve probably encountered what’s called a Monte Carlo simulation—or you will, soon. These tools are helpful, but they’re also deceptive, and you shouldn’t rely on their projections.

What's a "Monte Carlo simulation"?

A Monte Carlo simulation is a sophisticated piece of software that takes a bunch of assumptions and variables, plugs them into a model, and runs hundreds or thousands (or even hundreds of thousands) of simulations to see how changing variables affect the outcome. Then it averages the outcomes to give you an idea of how likely various outcomes are.

In retirement planning, variables like inflation or market returns are given random values for each simulation. Run the simulation enough, and you get a general idea of how likely it is that your strategy will make your money last to a certain age. The results are typically displayed as a graph with a bell curve, where the most likely scenarios are in the middle and the outliers—the unlikely stuff—are at either end. You’ll also often be given a probability score that sums everything up; an 80% Monte Carlo score means your current plan has an 80% chance that your money will last.

Monte Carlo simulations are useful. They can test assumptions and reveal potential flaws in your plans or confirm that your strategy is sound. But the Monte Carlo score is often oversimplified, and you should never rely solely on a Monte Carlo simulation to confirm a retirement saving strategy, for four big reasons.

Monte Carlo simulations can't predict the unexpected

Monte Carlo simulations only know the data plugged into them—and can’t possibly anticipate unexpected events in their calculations. For example, financial theorist William J. Bernstein once pointed out that if you retired in January 1966, the first 17 years of your retirement occurred when the market returns of the S&P 500 were almost perfectly matched by the rate of inflation (a period known as The Great Inflation), essentially making returns on your investments zero.

Monte Carlo simulations can’t possibly account for stuff like that—they rely on assessing probability, not sifting in once-in-a-century financial weirdness or unforeseen market crashes. Even if it gives you a score of 100%, the chances of success are always lower if you factor in the chance of the unexpected.

There are different models

Something else to consider when you get a Monte Carlo score from your financial advisor is the software itself. You can find free Monte Carlo simulators online, after all, and chances are you have no idea if your financial advisor is working with a super-sophisticated, AI-assisted monster of a simulation or a homebrew Excel spreadsheet they first created in 1999. You also can’t know the methodology being used under the hood. If you trust your advisor, it makes sense to trust their simulation, of course—but keep in mind that if the software itself stinks, so will its results.

Human error is a factor

Monte Carlo simulations have to make a lot of assumptions to run their models, and one of the most unreliable is that you—yes, you—will hold up your end of the bargain. You might tell your advisor that you plan to save a certain amount in your retirement accounts, cut down your spending when you retire, and be perfectly happy living a small, quiet life in a paid-off house—then go kind of nuts when you finally do retire and spend lavishly as you experience a kind of YOLO fever. In other words, these simulations often assume you will robotically do what you should do for decades and decades, despite the entirety of human history demonstrating how sketchy we all are.

The opposite is true, too. If your Monte Carlo score is low, the simulation doesn’t know that you’re actually quite adaptable and will change all your spending and saving habits on a dime the moment you sense trouble brewing in your accounts. The simulation thinks you’ll run out of money in 20 years, but you’ll find a way to make it last 40.

Does that mean the simulation is useless? No, it just means you can’t assume it tells you everything.

Monte Carlo scores can be deceptive

Finally, Monte Carlo scores can be deceptive if taken at face value. If you run 5,000 simulations and your money lasts through 4,000 of them, you get a score of 80%. That’s pretty good, right? But that also means your current plan failed 20% of the time—if you were told you had a 20% chance of dying if you did something, you probably wouldn’t be too complacent about it.

Plus, Monte Carlo scores can be changed just by tweaking the variables. Change the assumption about inflation rates, or assume that you’ll put an extra 5% of your income into your IRA, and that 80% might suddenly become 90%—but it doesn’t really mean much. All it can do is let you test out different scenarios and get a rough idea of how on—or off—the mark you are.

And that’s not nothing—Monte Carlo simulations have their uses. If nothing else they give you some idea of how your current retirement plan will work if things remain more or less as expected and you do exactly what you think you will (including, you know, living long enough for any of this to matter). But don’t make the mistake of hearing a high Monte Carlo score and assuming that you’re all set for the future.

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Mediaite

Gold Star Families Back Trump in Dispute Over Arlington Photo Op: We Wanted These Moments ‘Respectfully Captured’

By News Here - 12:07

(Photo by Andrew Leyden/NurPhoto via AP)

Gold Star families who met with former President Donald Trump during his visit to Arlington National Cemetery put out a message of support for him following a controversial photo-op.

The GOP nominee visited the cemetery to lay wreaths at the graves of U.S. servicemembers who died during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. However, an official physically blocked members of Trump’s team, which reportedly resulted in an altercation, because only cemetery representatives are allowed to take videos and photographs in Section 60 — an area in the gravesite where recent U.S. casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan are buried.

The cemetery put out a statement about the alleged altercation between Trump’s team and the cemetery official. “Federal law prohibits political campaign or election-related activities within Army National Military Cemeteries, to include photographers, content creators or any other persons attending for purposes, or in direct support of a partisan political candidate’s campaign,” according to the statement. “Arlington National Cemetery reinforced and widely shared this law and its prohibitions with all participants.”

However, Gold Star families released a statement on Wednesday claiming that the former president had the approval to take videos and photographs during his visit to the burial site.

“We would like to express our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to President Donald J. Trump for his presence at the recent section 60 gathering, honoring our children and their fallen brothers and sisters,” the statement read. “On the three-year anniversary of the Abbey Gate Bombing, the president and his team conducted themselves with nothing but the utmost respect and dignity for all of our service members, especially our beloved children.”

From the Abbey Gate Gold Star families and Purple Heart recipients who were at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday. pic.twitter.com/u1YfJlZe2i

— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) August 28, 2024

The statement was made on behalf of the Families of Sergeant Taylor Hoover, Sergeant Nicole Gee, and Purple Heart recipients retired USMC Sergeant Taylor Vargas-Andrews, and retired USMC CPL. Kelsee Lainhart.

The families added, “We had given our approval for President Trump’s official videographer and photographer to attend the event, ensuring these sacred moments of remembrance were respectfully captured and so we can cherish these memories forever. We are deeply grateful to the president for taking the time to honor our children and for standing alongside us in our grief, offering his unwavering support during such a difficult time. His compassion and respect meant more than words can express.”

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Tim Walz Has In-Depth Discussion About Gutters on Popular TikTok Show : ‘The Most Neglected Part of Home Ownership’

By News Here - 12:08

Screenshot via Subway Takes

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz appeared on the TikTok series Subway Takes for a lengthy discussion about the importance of gutter maintenance.

Subway Takes usually has host Kareem Rahma asking strangers on the New York subway for a hot take — an opinion on something considered controversial or unpopular — and letting them rant about it for roughly a minute. On Tuesday, the TikTok account released a special episode with the vice presidential candidate.

For the episode, which began with Rahma simply asking, “So what’s your take?” Walz went into great detail about gutters being “neglected.”

@subwaytakes Episode 172: The most neglected part of home ownership is THE GUTTERS feat #TimWalz Hosted by @KAREEM RAHMA Shot by @Anthony DiMieri @Willem Holzer Edited by Anthony DiMieri Associate producer @Ramy #podcast #subway #hottakes #subwaytakes #interview #nyc #newyorkcity #timwalz #homeimprovement #diy #homes #minnesota ♬ original sound – Subway Takes

WALZ: My take is the most neglected part of home ownership is the gutters. It’s personal for me.

RAHMA: 100% agree.

WALZ: I’ve had problems with gutters before. You get your basement wet. You get ice dams. It causes a lot of problems.

RAHMA: It’s not good.

WALZ: No, it is not — but there are fixes. Now, the other dangerous thing is that when you live in Minnesota, fall’s a great time of year. There’s a lot of leaves. You gotta get up on a ladder —

RAHMA: And they get stuck in the gutter. The leaves get stuck in the gutter. I’ve seen many a man fall off a ladder.

WALZ: Many a man — seriously. But there’s a fix. You can put a gutter helmet over the top of it.

RAHMA: A gutter helmet?

WALZ: It covers it and lets the water go through. It keeps it out of your house. I see this all the time.

When Rahma asked how often Walz looks at gutters, he admitted he does it “quite often.”

“I try not to be judgmental on people,” Walz continued, “but when I see a well-tended gutter, it says a lot about somebody.”

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Lifehacker

Five Signs That a Political Donation Request Is a Scam

By News Here - 11:54

Right now, your phone and inbox are likely inundated with requests for political donations. These texts, emails, and phone calls often describe things in desperate terms, placing the outcome of an election squarely on your shoulders. You might want to donate to the candidates you support, or to fund the causes that are in line with your beliefs, but it's important to be aware that many of these donation solicitations are scams, often buttressed by clever social engineering and slick AI-generated imagery or media. If you want to donate, how can you know that you’re donating to the real deal and not to a political scam?

Best practices

First, you can avoid practical all political donation scams by following a couple of simple best practices:

Never click on any link sent to you (via email, text, or social media). If you’re persuaded by the messaging, look up the official campaign site or political action committee (PAC) you want to donate to.
Always research any organization or PAC before you give them money—the Federal Election Commission (FEC) maintains a list of registered PACs. If it’s not on the list, don’t donate.
Never give in to pressure on the phone—there’s no reason you need to donate by giving out your credit card information right then and there. Just tell the person you’re convinced and you’ll donate via the website.
Always use a credit card—never send a check or use a debit card. Credit cards have robust protections against scams, and shady PACs sometimes urge you to send a check because it’s so much harder to stop payment and claw your money back.

If you like the ease and convenience of simply responding to a text or clicking on a link, you can try looking for one of these signs that you’re dealing with a political donation scam:

It involves TikTok

If you’re being solicited for political donations on TikTok, or being directed to a TikTok account for donation information, it’s a scam. TikTok banned all political fundraising a few years ago, and has some pretty strict rules around political content in general. That means that just seeing TikTok somewhere in the process is a tipoff that someone is either looking to scam you, or at the very least trying to run under the radar.

They request personal data

There are only two questions an organization seeking political contributions should ask you (see below)—if the text, email, or phone caller wants your personal information (address, etc.), they’re probably more about identity theft or selling your information to marketers than the political cause. All anyone needs to take your donation is your credit card info and your name.

There's no employment confirmation

If it’s a PAC asking for a donation, the one question they must ask you is who your employer is. That’s because legitimate PACs are forbidden by law from accepting money from federal contractors and foreign nationals, so it’s necessary for them to make sure you’re neither before they accept your money. That means if they don’t ask this question, you’re probably dealing with a scammer who does not care.

The financials are bad

If you’re thinking about donating to a PAC because they seem to support issues that you support, you should check them out before doing anything. Start with the FEC list mentioned above to make sure it’s a legitimate, registered organization. But you should also look up the PAC and visit the website the committee has set up (Open Secrets has a search page where you can find a lot of information about PACs). If you can’t identify anyone or there’s no contact information, it might be better to skip this donation and direct your cash elsewhere.

You should easily find a list of the people in charge and financial information, including a breakdown of how much of the money they raise goes anything but actually advocating for a cause. For example, Open Secrets found a bunch of PACs that spent anywhere from 74% to 93.5% of the money they raised on “fundraising”—meaning they blew it all on internal stuff like salaries, bonuses, and other “administrative” costs. If you can’t find this info, or it looks like they spend more on office space than advocacy, skip the link.

They request nonstandard payments

Finally, any political donation request that wants a non-standard form of payment is a scam. All legitimate campaigns and PACs accept credit cards. If the process of giving them money is convoluted or requires using only one very specific method of payment (like cryptocurrency, or gift cards) and claims good old-fashioned credit cards are no good, it’s almost certainly a scam.

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Beware of These Red Flags at a ‘Buy Here, Pay Here’ Car Dealership

By News Here - 12:55

Buying a car can be a necessity but also a real challenge—especially if you have poor credit or are currently unbanked. While folks with “superprime” credit scores can get a used car loan with an average APR of around 6.8% right now, people dragging a “subprime” score of under 600 might get socked with an APR of close to 19%—or even higher.

And that’s if you can even get a loan in the first place. If you desperately need to buy a car and can’t get traditional financing from a bank or a regular car dealership (who usually partner with third parties to offer financing), you do have one final option: The “Buy Here, Pay Here” car dealership. These small dealerships specialize in selling cars to people who can’t get traditional financing, and usually advertise that they don’t care about your credit score and won’t do a credit check. This is all true, but while most Buy Here, Pay Here dealerships are legitimate businesses offering a necessary service, you need to be very careful to avoid some of the more “scammy” tactics you might encounter while on their lot.

How does a Buy Here, Pay Here loan work?

A Buy Here, Pay Here car dealership operates very much like any other car dealership: You pick out a car, then work out the financing. The major difference is that the dealership itself is offering the financing. As a result, they’re free to skip the credit check, and can set the terms of the loan however they want (within the limits of local laws, of course). You buy the car from them, borrow the money for the purchase from them, and pay them back directly (sometimes you’re even required to physically show up at the dealership to make your payments).

If you can’t swing a traditional loan for a car, this can be a godsend—but there are obvious downsides.

Limited choice. Most BHPH dealerships calculate how much you can borrow from them first, then show you the cars within that price range. That list of available cars might be depressingly short, and the cars on it depressingly old and busted.
High interest. The interest rates at Buy Here, Pay Here dealerships are very high—typically around 20%, and sometimes even higher if they can legally get away with it. The high rates also make it difficult to refinance the loan even if your credit improves.
Aggressive repayment. Some BHPH dealers require weekly loan payments, which can be hard to keep up with.
Insurance. Because you’re overpaying for the car (especially once the huge amount of interest is factored in), even if you get full insurance coverage on the car, you almost certainly won’t get enough in any settlement to pay off the loan in the event that it gets totaled, leaving you to make payments on a car that no longer exists.
High down payment. Because you have a low credit rating, many Buy Here, Pay Here dealers require large down payments as a condition of the loan.

If, despite these drawbacks, you decide that a Buy Here, Pay Here dealer is your best route for buying a car, be careful. While most of these car dealers are legitimate (if expensive), there are some scam-adjacent practices to watch out for.

No loan is too big

The whole point of a Buy Here, Pay Here car dealership is that they’ll loan money to people who can’t get a loan elsewhere—but if the dealership aggressively advertises that they will loan you any amount without a credit check, think twice. That’s a sign that their business is more about loan defaults than selling cars or even profiting from interest on loans.

Most lenders have a limit to how much they’ll lend people—even people with solid credit scores—because they don’t want to make a loan you can’t handle. But some shadier Buy Here, Pay Here places are happy to see you default on a loan you can’t possibly pay back, because they keep your down payment, repossess the car, and resell it to someone else—possibly with a similarly oversize loan.

Spot delivery

If the salesperson at the Buy Here, Pay Here lot isn’t too concerned about finalizing your financing deal and suggests you just take the car home while they iron out the loan details, walk away. You’ll almost certainly get a phone call telling you that there was a problem, and now you have to come up with more money for the down payment to make the loan work, or that the interest rate discussed won’t work and will be much higher. It’s called “spot delivery” and it leverages the fact that you already think of the car as bought, pressuring you to agree to any new terms they suggest.

GPS trackers

Many Buy Here, Pay Here dealerships require GPS trackers in the car until you pay off the loan. While this is legal in most areas (as long as you consent, though consent is typically required to get the loan approved), not only is it a privacy concern but it also suggests—again—that their business is more about repossessing cars than selling them or even servicing loans. The presence of the tracker means they expect you to default, and they’ve decided to streamline their busy schedule of repossessions to make it easier on themselves. If the dealer insists on this, you should look elsewhere for your car, if you can.

Poor condition

Finally, this isn’t a scam so much as a huge red flag: Buy Here, Pay Here dealerships sometimes differ from traditional car dealerships in terms of the work they put into used cars before reselling them. The cars may be beat up and visibly used, as few of these dealers will invest in new upholstery or smoothing out dings and dents in the body. But if the car is in really poor condition, it’s good idea to think twice, even if the price seems fair, because that implies the dealer isn’t even doing the basic maintenance necessary to keep the car in good operating condition before you take possession. If you’re also pressured to pay extra for a service contract, you’re skimming awfully close to scam territory.

If you need a vehicle but your credit score is too low to get traditional car financing, a Buy Here, Pay Here dealership might be a way forward. But know what you’re getting into (a lot of interest and onerous terms), and keep your eyes open for signs that the dealership is being more predatory than they have to be.

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Apple Just Announced Its Big iPhone 16 Event

By News Here - 11:54

Apple has officially announced its big September event. Members of the media received invites Monday morning to the event, with the tagline "It's Glowtime." Whether it was an in-person invitation or a message welcoming journalists to watch the event online, Apple confirmed the presentation will kick off Sept. 9 at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) from Apple Park.

That's all the invite confirmed, but it's easy to read through the lines on this one. A September Apple event means hardware announcements, and, in this case, that means the iPhone 16. Apple is planning on releasing four new iPhones this year under the 16 line, which will resemble previous models in many ways. There will be a standard and large base model (iPhone 16 and 16 Plus) and a standard and large Pro model (iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max). However, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, the Pros will have larger displays and a dedicated shutter button for taking photos.

All four iPhones will be designed for Apple Intelligence, Apple's upcoming suite of generative AI features coming with iOS 18.1. This will likely play a big part of Apple's event, considering the Apple logo's design in the invite is reminiscent of Apple Intelligence's Siri. It's not clear what significance "Glowtime" has to Apple Intelligence or any other rumored Apple announcement, so we'll just have to see.

Gurman also says Apple will be refreshing the Apple Watch this year: The Series 10 will have a thinner chassis, but a larger display, keeping up the theme of more screen real estate. (Maybe "Glowtime" refers to more glow from larger displays?) AirPods will also get a refresh, with upgrades to both the base models and the "mid-tier" earbuds, the latter of which will get noise cancellation for the first time.

How to watch Apple's big iPhone 16 event

Apple will host a livestream of the event on the company's website. Just head to the company's Apple Events page on Sept. 9 by 10 a.m. PT, and you'll be able to catch the presentation.

That said, the company is also streaming the event through the Apple TV app, as well as through the official Apple YouTube page.

from LifeHacker https://ift.tt/wdiqbUK

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