The 42,000 commercial apartment non-renewals represent a complete withdrawal from the commercial apartment market in California. The other 30,000 non-renewals would impact homeowners, rental dwellings, and other property insurance policies, according to State Farm.

The announcement applies to California customers only. The company said those impacted will be notified between July 3 and Aug. 20.

So, what should State Farm customers do if the company’s latest announcement impacts their policy?

Here’s what insurance experts recommend:

• Customers should shop for another insurance policy by asking for recommendations from trusted sources or seeking an independent insurance agent.
• Utilize the California Department of Insurance shopping tools available on their website.
• Compare multiple policies, shop smart and choose the best coverage that suits your needs.
• Call the state’s insurance consumer hotline at 800-927-4357.
• Buy insurance through the California Fair Plan if you strike out in the normal marketplace.

Regardless of the latest announcement, State Farm said that it will continue working with the Department of Insurance, Gov. Gavin Newsom and other policymakers as they pursue reforms “to establish an environment in which insurance rates are better aligned with risk.”

In February, the state’s insurance department announced proposals to reform California’s insurance regulations. The new proposal would allow insurance companies to switch from using historical data to catastrophe modeling, meaning companies would calculate projections of future risk when raising rates and pass on the cost of reinsurance to consumers.

The new changes are expected to take effect at the end of the year.

Last year, State Farm announced it would stop accepting new insurance applications for all business and personal property in California.

Since then, other companies like Allstate have announced similar moves.

State Farm, California’s largest insurer as of 2022, said the move would impact 2% of its total policies in the state and was made to ensure “long-term sustainability."

The 42,000 commercial apartment non-renewals represent a complete withdrawal from the commercial apartment market in California. The other 30,000 non-renewals would impact homeowners, rental dwellings, and other property insurance policies, according to State Farm.

The announcement applies to California customers only. The company said those impacted will be notified between July 3 and Aug. 20.

“This decision was not made lightly and only after careful analysis of State Farm General’s financial health, which continues to be impacted by inflation, catastrophe exposure, reinsurance costs, and the limitations of working within decades-old insurance regulations. State Farm General takes seriously our responsibility to maintain adequate claims-paying capacity for our customers and to comply with applicable financial solvency laws. It is necessary to take these actions now,” the company said in a statement.

The company also said it will continue working with the Department of Insurance, Gov. Gavin Newsom and other policymakers as they pursue reforms “to establish an environment in which insurance rates are better aligned with risk.”

In February, the state’s insurance department announced proposals to reform California’s insurance regulations. The new proposal would allow insurance companies to switch from using historical data to catastrophe modeling, meaning companies would calculate projections of future risk when raising rates and pass on the cost of reinsurance to consumers.

The new changes are expected to take effect at the end of the year.

Last year, State Farm announced it would stop accepting new insurance applications for all business and personal property in California.

Since then, other companies like Allstate have announced similar moves.

"You've earned it, and it's a right everyone should have in this country," Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas.) said. 

As many as 27 million Americans don't have access to paid time off. 

Texas Congressman Greg Casar and Rhode Island's Seth Magaziner are co-sponsors of the "Protected Time Off Act." It would give all full-time workers ten paid days off every year.

"Maybe it's to take care of family members or just because they need a break. And that's OK. We want to normalize that. It's OK to take a vacation every once in a while," Magaziner (D-R.I.) said. 

Those ten days would be in addition to existing state laws for paid sick time or family and medical leave. 

Ruth Martin is with MomsRising, a parents' advocacy group. 

"Too many of us are missing our baby's first smile or our parents' last breath because we cannot get away from work," Martin said. 

However, some business groups say a broad government mandate isn't the best answer for different companies with different needs.

"Ten days of paid leave may be the perfect number, but it's certainly not going to be everybody," National Retail Federation Vice President of Government Relations & Workforce Development Edwin Egee said. 

Egee says adding a federal law on top of existing state and local laws could create difficulties for employers.

"So, we feel like if there's going to be some sort of federal solution here it should pre-empt those state and local laws," Egee said. 

Egee says his group is working with lawmakers to find a solution that isn't one-size-fits-all. 

The bill has support across both houses but not both parties. So far, several Democrats have signed on to the House bill, with a similar version being introduced in the Senate.

There's no proof of this, of course. But in our current age of evidence-free accusations, you don't need no stinkin' proof.

Kensington Palace says Kate is recovering from abdominal surgery and probably won't resume her royal duties until after Easter, which is all very straightforward.

But conspiracy theorists think otherwise.

They say she's missing and possibly no longer among the living, and that the royals are scrambling to cover it up, including use of a body double in a recent video.

As one Twitter user put it (in all caps, as befitting the finest conspiracy theories): "KATE MIDDLETON IS PROBABLY DEAD." The post included skulls and screaming emojis, just to demonstrate its veracity.

Needless to say, conspiracy theories almost always turn out to be nonsense. But the internet in general, and social media in particular, are unusually adept at dressing up nonsense in that-may-be-true clothing.

"What lingers is an urge to question reality, misinformation experts say," The New York Times observes. "Lately, despite extensive and incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, the same sense of suspicion has contaminated conversations about elections, race, healthcare and climate."

Whitney Phillips, an assistant professor of media, ethics and digital platforms at the University of Oregon, told the paper that conspiracy theories are way to process "a really precarious, scary and unsettling moment."

"The darkness that is characterizing our politics is going to insert itself into even the more lighthearted articulations of speculation," she noted. "It just speaks to a sense of unease in the world."

Whatever it is, the subgenre of dead celebrities in the universe of conspiracy theories has long been one of the most baffling forms of misinformation.

Most famously, many people bought into the notion that Paul McCartney died in a car crash in the 1960s. After all, there are all these clues if you play Beatles songs backwards, or parse the images on album covers.

For the record, Paul isn't dead.

It would be nice if people stopped killing off celebs prematurely. But that would mean accepting official accounts of their well being (or lack thereof).

In this polarized age of questioning all information sources -- the more official, the more questionable -- it's easier for some people to just assume the worst.

And also for the record, John was both the Walrus and the Egg Man.

Starting April 1, hundreds of thousands of fast food workers will be guaranteed a wage of at least $20 an hour, $4 above the current rate.

While touted as a much-needed raise for a large sector of lower-income workers, Assembly Bill 1228 will certainly impact the bottom line for franchisees like Harper-Howie. But that alone, she says, is not why she and many of her counterparts feel unfairly targeted.

“We, as business owners, are not opposed to minimum wage increases,” Harper-Howie recently told KTLA 5 News. “One of our primary objections is that this wage increase only applies to us. Why isn't everyone getting an increase if, fundamentally, [the current] wage is not adequate for people to live? Who then are the customers that are going to be able to afford to pay for our food?"

The bill, authored by Assemblymember Chris Holden (D-Pasadena), evolved during a battle over workers’ rights and the legal liabilities of fast-food franchisees. The negotiations led to an agreement between the Service Employees International Union and the California Restaurant Association that landed on the $20 rate.

Inflation and the rising cost of living have prompted countless labor actions in California since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. By most accounts, $16 per hour, the state's current minimum wage, is difficult to live on, not to mention raise a family in California's urban areas.

“We did not just raise the minimum wage to $20 an hour for fast food workers,” Holden said after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 1228 in September 2023. “We helped a father or mother feed their children, we helped a student put gas in their car, and helped a grandparent get their grandchild a birthday gift.”

Franchise owners like Harper-Howie didn’t have a seat at the negotiating table, she says.

“At the end of the day, this law came to pass as a result of negotiations. We were not a part of those negotiations. We did not feel as though we had someone in the room, and we certainly would have advocated differently on our behalf.”

Holden's office did not respond to KTLA's request for comment.

The Franchisee

There is an inherent Robin Hood narrative to many labor battles, including this one. Advocates will point to record corporate profits and soaring executive salaries to argue that too much wealth is being accumulated at the top and not enough is “trickling down” to workers.

Wealth inequality is a very real social, economic and political issue, and the gap is particularly wide for Black families in the United States.

Kerri Harper-Howie and her sister, Nicole, were raised at that intersection.

In the 1980s, their mother, a social services worker, and her father, a Los Angeles police officer, took a giant leap of faith by cashing in their retirement savings to buy a McDonald’s franchise in Inglewood, where they lived.

The gamble paid off.

Their first McDonald’s restaurant was a success, and Patricia Williams soon acquired a second location. After the couple divorced, Patricia sold the two McDonald’s locations to purchase five more.

“To trade in that type of stability for an opportunity to become business owners was a big risk for them. I consider my mother and my father as being incredibly brave, and I'm just so grateful that they were willing to take the chance,” Kerri recalls.

While taking over the family business from her aging mother was never Kerri’s original intention - she instead became an employment lawyer in Los Angeles - her career outlook changed after she gave birth to her first son.

“I think it was a combination of having a child and being so close geographically to my family business that I started to get a new vision of what it meant to have the opportunity to carry on a legacy.”

Kerri and her sister now employ over 1,000 workers at their 21 franchises, many of which are located in lower-income neighborhoods such as Inglewood and Compton. She is among good company at McDonald's where a large percentage -perhaps as many as 50%- of franchises are owned by people of color in California.

Raising Menu Prices

While fast food franchise owners and executives, including those at McDonald's, have announced they will raise menu prices to offset the April 1 wage hike, Kerri says she is determined to keep her prices affordable for her core customers while exploring other efficiencies.

“It's not the only thing that we're doing because the truth of the matter is, you can't raise prices enough. It would be unaffordable," she says. “There are cost savings that we can do behind the scenes, and other ways to be more efficient … but this means less profitability for us, and we will absorb that. We will take less.”

If, or when, restaurants raise menu prices starting April 1, it will have a broader impact on millions of people; about 70% of Californians eat fast food every week.

KTLA 5 News consumer reporter David Lazarus believes the industry has reached a crossroads.

“Once upon a time, the fast-food industry was a key point of entry into the workforce for young people. The industry could argue that it was providing valuable work experience to younger folk and that this in part justified low wages,” Lazarus says. “In more recent years, however, older workers have also turned to fast-food gigs due to economic necessity. Those people have a reasonable expectation of a living wage – or at least a fair minimum wage.”

Instead of raising prices, Lazarus believes fast food franchises should return to their roots.

“The secret sauce of the fast-food industry is volume. Price inflation is held in check by the sheer quantity of burgers and whatnot being sold. The onus on franchisees is to price products accordingly, or to find ways to sell more of those products.”

Panera Bread Controversy

In late February, Newsom found himself fending off controversy when Bloomberg reported that negotiations over the minimum wage bill led to an exemption for Panera Bread and billionaire franchise owner Greg Flynn, a longtime Newsom donor.

AB-1228 excludes quick-service restaurant chains that bake and sell their own bread.

Newsom fiercely denied Flynn was granted an exemption, and the billionaire later announced he, too, would raise employee wages to $20 on April 1.

Still, an explanation for the bakery carve-out has not emerged.

According to The Associated Press, a signed confidentiality agreement prevents groups involved in the negotiations from talking about them.

The Panera Bread controversy, Harper-Howie insists, highlights flaws in the legislative process that led to a flawed law.

“What it hopefully does going forward is introduce a level of transparency that perhaps did not exist in the negotiation of this deal and will prevent situations like this from happening again.”

As the Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots both surge again, we wanted to investigate just how a big-spending, risk-taking person could guarantee that they win the biggest jackpots. 

Here’s the breakdown.

• The odds of winning Mega Millions are one in 302,600,000 based on the total number of possible ticket combinations.

• The odds of winning Powerball are one in 292,201,338 - also based on the total number of possible combinations.

Those odds never change. So, under the basic premise that if you (or you and your friends) spend $2 per ticket: 

• It would cost you $605,200,000 to buy one of each possible Mega Millions combination to guarantee a win.

• It would cost you $584,402,696 to buy one of each Powerball ticket to guarantee a win.

That’s the math. So conceivably yes, you could guarantee a winning ticket.

The next big thing is to make sure the winning jackpot is big enough to make it worth it.

As of Thursday, the Mega Millions jackpot is projected to be $977 million, but the cash option is only $461 million. So, you wouldn’t want to spend $605 million to win $461 million. Not a smart investment.

However, the annual installments are projected to be $977 million. So yes, if you have the cash and you’re fine with being paid back over a couple of decades, you could take the annual installments tonight and win big. But the lottery tells us that most people take the cash because they can invest much better on their own.

Once you have the available funds to make your huge lottery ticket purchase, the lottery says logistics might get in the way. Each ticket machine can print ten numbers on a ticket at a time.  But you need 302,600,000 numbers... so at least 30 million tickets. Even printing tickets constantly, if you could find a retailer to man the machine 24 hours a day, you’d probably run out of time before the drawing.

So, you would need to plan carefully for what would be the biggest office pool of all time. But then how many people are splitting that money - and is it still worth it?

Maybe yes. Maybe not.

If you’re still reading this and think it's totally crazy, know that a group of investors tried this before… and almost beat the system!

February 1992, the New York Times reported on a group of investors in Virginia.

“One investment group came tantalizingly close to cornering the market on all possible combinations of six numbers from 1 to 44. State lottery officials say that the group bought tickets for 5 million of a possible 7 million combinations, at $1 each, in a lottery with a $27 million jackpot. Only a lack of time prevented the group from buying tickets for the remaining 2 million combinations.”

The State of Virginia actually held public hearings after the stunt and enacted new rules to ensure that people standing in line could still get their lottery tickets and not be boxed out by someone tying up the machine to buy their millions.

So now you know.

Carolyn Becker at the California Lottery told KTLA that it’s really fun to work out the math on the back of the napkin, but no one can realistically do it.

And here’s the simple reason why.

Just because you get a winning ticket doesn’t mean that another random person in another state, or perhaps several others, won't also hit the same combination.

What if you went through all that work, organized a group to buy every single winning ticket, and then some guy went to Hawthorne’s Blue Bird Liquors in Los Angeles, plunked down two dollars, and struck gold? Then you and your army of friends/investors/risk-takers would be in the hole for hundreds of millions of dollars in what would be the greatest lottery fail of all time.

“Eligible customers will be able to access live games, pre and postgame coverage, as well as game replays via MLB.com and the MLB app using their existing Spectrum credentials,” the company announced Tuesday.

Spectrum is offering its internet and mobile services for a promotional price of $49.99 as of Tuesday afternoon.

The deal is open to new and existing Spectrum customers who live in the “Dodgers home television territory,” according to a news release.

Dodger fans are looking forward to a highly anticipated season. The “Boys in Blue” are considered to be a World Series favorite and could set a franchise attendance record as fans pack Dodger Stadium to see players like Shohei Ohtani in action.

The SportsNet LA streaming agreement is only available for the 2024 season as Spectrum tests out if sports fans favor a streaming-only option or a broadband-telephone-streaming bundle when it comes to watching their favorite teams, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The sale of single-family homes statewide climbed 12.8% in February after January saw sales up nearly 15% over the prior month.

Median prices were also higher in every region.

The San Francisco Bay Area, with the state’s highest median home price of $1,256,000, saw sales and prices climb by double digits month over month and year over year, according to CAR.

Southern California, where the median single-family home is $825,000, saw prices climb by a modest 5% last month and nearly 11% over February of last year.

“Home sales are actually increasing throughout the United States, and it has a lot to do with lower interest rates at the beginning of the year,” Oscar Wei, the Association's deputy chief economist, told KTLA 5 News. “Interest rates hit a high of around 8% in October of last year and then started declining a little because inflation started to ease.”

As of March 19, the average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 6.74%, according to government-backed lender Freddie Mac, which is still far from the all-time low of 2.65% that homebuyers enjoyed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even small declines in mortgage rates, Wei says, are appealing to prospective homebuyers, many of whom were sitting on the sidelines as rates soared.

“You can only delay so long,” Wei says. “You want to expand your family. You want to buy a bigger house because you have additional people in your household. You can put it off for maybe six months or a year, but then eventually, you have to make a decision.”

Wei, however, cautions that California home sales might not continue their gains through March as mortgage rates have edged higher in recent weeks.

“It would not be a surprise if we start seeing some softening this month and maybe in April, but I do believe that, as we move more into the home-buying season, we will probably see some improvement in both price and sales," he said.

February 2024 California Single-Family Home Sales

MIAMI, Fla. (WTAJ) -- For more than 100 years, a war has raged between Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and now Subway restaurants are chiming in with a massive change to their soda machines in the U.S.

Subway, one of the world's largest restaurant brands, announced Tuesday that it had entered a 10-year agreement with PepsiCo to supply its U.S. restaurants, leaving Coke behind in what Restaurant Business Online called a "rare shift."

Under the agreement, starting on Jan. 1, 2025, Subway will offer Pepsi products, including Pepsi, Pepsi Zero Sugar, MTN DEW, Starry, Tropicana, Lipton, Aquafina water and Gatorade. The company said franchisees will have the option to carry a larger selection of Gatorade flavors.

"The partnership with PepsiCo is an exciting milestone in our journey to become America's favorite place to eat, drink and work," said Doug Fry, President of Subway, North America. "It is a win-win for everyone, as it brings a delicious suite of beverage and snack choices to our guests, driving additional consideration of these menu items, while also providing cost-effective, streamlined solutions to our franchisees."

The deal will take several months to roll out once it begins in 2025, the company said, but it will streamline the company's beverage and snacks by being under one supplier -- PepsiCo.

Subway also announced that its deal with the Frito-Lay brand was extended through 2030.

"The agreement with Subway represents two iconic companies coming together to further their commitment to delivering operational excellence and driving breakthrough innovation for consumers across the U.S.," said Anne Fink, President of PepsiCo Global Foodservice. "Together, we're elevating the consumer experience with dynamic beverage and snack offerings — including those that appeal to a broad spectrum of consumers — bringing new flavors to Subway fans in a powerful way."

PepsiCo is also the current Subway beverage provider in several regions around the world, including Canada, Germany, the Nordics and the Netherlands.

Another fast food brand, Culver's, announced a similar switch last year, ditching its partnership with Pepsi in exchange for Coca-Cola products.

On Sunday, the satellite multichannel distributor announced its new “No Locals” packages, which allow customers to opt out of local programming for as long as they want. Customers who use this new feature will receive a corresponding discount, saving them $12 a month or $144 annually.

“Consumers have been voting with their wallets for years that pay TV -as currently constructed- is too expensive and restricts their choices,” said Rob Thun, DirecTV’s chief content officer, in a statement.

“Our new ‘No Locals’ package enables customers to take an important step forward in culling out certain types of content they may no longer care to watch and better balance the price they are willing to pay.”

Customers can use the new feature to “opt out of their usual local station access during non-peak programming months – like the summer – and then resume in the fall or whenever they choose,” a news release said.

Customers can switch their local package configuration over the phone by calling customer service. The ability to make the change online will be available soon, according to the company.

Feeds from local stations are typically the center of disputes between entertainment companies and their cable and satellite distributors. Last year, Spectrum cable customers couldn’t watch Disney-owned channels after a previous agreement between Disney and Charter Communications expired.

Weeks later, the two companies reached a deal that allowed Spectrum cable customers to access Disney+, but channels like Freeform and Disney Junior were dropped from the cable lineup.

DirecTV and Nexstar Media Group, the parent company of KTLA, had a similar disagreement last year that was eventually resolved.

The new package option comes as TV providers continue to innovate to compete with various streaming services.

Premium content from entertainment companies like Walt Disney Co., NBCUniversal, and Warner Bros. goes straight to their respective streaming platforms, essentially eliminating the need for cable in many households.

For example, ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros Discovery are planning to launch a sports streaming platform later this year, which could also convince sports fans to cut the cord.

“National broadcast network content but has suffered a more than 40% decline in viewership since 2015, according to Nielsen Media Research. The major studios that own the national broadcast networks keep shifting top series producers and most buzzed about scripted shows that had bolstered local stations’ primetime lineups over to their streaming services instead.”

Costco, in its latest effort to crack down on non-members accessing members-only services, is limiting access to its food courts to Costco cardholders only, according to store representatives who spoke with Nexstar.

The policy itself isn’t exactly new — Costco’s food court is intended for paying members — though it hasn’t always been enforced at Costco locations where the food courts can be accessed via walk-up outdoor windows.

It now appears that Costco has decided to more strictly enforce the policy.

Many Costco customers (both members and non-members alike) first caught wind of Costco’s latest efforts earlier this month, via a Reddit post containing an image of a sign reportedly posted outside a Costco food court in the Orlando area.

“Effective April 8, 2024, an active Costco membership card will be required to purchase items from our food court,” reads the sign in the image. “You can join today. Please see our membership counter for details.”

Representatives from several Costco locations have since confirmed plans to more strictly enforce the policy moving forward, with multiple confirming the use of new signage at the food courts. One of the representatives claimed that all 18 Costco locations with outdoor food courts, specifically, had been instructed to ask food-court customers to verify their membership status.

Somewhat less clear is whether non-members with Shop Cards (Costco gift cards that can be used by non-members) will still be able to make purchases at the food court. The sign in the aforementioned Reddit post appears to indicate that anyone without an “active Costco membership card” would be turned away, though one Costco administrator in California said Shop Cards are still welcome for all Costco purchases, including food court items. 

Another, in Florida, said Shop Cards would not be accepted at that location’s food courts, though he claimed the policy was subject to change.

A representative for Costco’s corporate headquarters did not return multiple requests to clarify the current policy.

Costco’s new food-court signage is part of the retailer’s latest attempt keep non-members from accessing services intended for paying members. In June 2023, Costco had also announced its intentions to more strictly enforce its membership policy, which stipulates that only Costco members are allowed to make purchases at checkout — and not just anyone who happens to be carrying a valid membership card borrowed from a family member or friend.

Costco employees were soon observed checking for membership cards at the self-checkout areas. Some shoppers had also reported that they were asked to scan their Costco cards at a kiosk near the front of the store before they were allowed to shop.

Costco has previously explained that these and similar measures are necessary to provide value to paying members.

“Costco is able to keep our prices as low as possible because our membership fees help offset our operational expenses, making our membership fee and structure important to us,” a spokesperson for Costco told Nexstar.

The results of a recent study published in the International Journal of Hospitality Management suggest that restaurant patrons can be encouraged to tip a little extra if there’s a smiley-face emoji printed alongside the suggested gratuity on their check.

“We hypothesized that if we gave them this smiley face, or if it was kind of cute, it would elicit a more positive reaction,” co-author Sarah Lefebvre, Ph.D, an associate professor of marketing at Murray State University in Kentucky, told Nexstar of the study’s aim.

Lefebvre and co-authors Laura Boman, Ph.D, and Marissa Orlowski analyzed tipping behavior in three different circumstances, which including on-site dining and online ordering. In each case, when the total bill was presented, the subjects were prompted to select from a set of suggested gratuities with different emoji printed next to each amount: the lowest suggested gratuity was paired with a neutral emoji (not smiling or frowning), and increasingly larger amounts were accompanied by happier-looking emoji.

These types of prompts are not entirely unlike existing practices, whereby a restaurant operator might print the suggested monetary tip amounts (e.g., 18% = $9.00, 20% = $10, etc.) or even verbal prompts (e.g., 18% for “good” service, 20% for “great” service, etc.), Lefebvre said. Some servers might even draw a smiley face in pen on the check.

These methods work to a degree, though some have the unintended effect of irritating the customer, she said.

But smiley faces, as previous research has shown, may be similarly processed by the human brain as an actual smiling face — provoking a more positive response.

The results of the newer study seem to support the authors’ hypothesis, too: When presented with a spectrum of emoji alongside the suggested tip amounts (either on a printed receipt or a digital screen), the study’s subjects tipped an average of 11% more.

As Lefebvre notes, the study’s findings present yet another opportunity for restaurant operators to maximize tips for their employees — or at least prevent their clientele from getting agitated.

“A lot of customers are really pushing back against tipping, because they’re being asked to tip in so many circumstances,” Lefebvre said. “Providing a method that is easily implemented … gives operators an easy way to take action to benefit the employee.”

Lefebvre herself, however, admits that tipping culture in the U.S. has gotten “out of control,” pointing to COVID-era tipping practices that persist in a post-COVID world.

“We had altruistic motivation,” Lefebvre said of tipping service workers during the pandemic. “We were tipping them in a reciprocal behavior. They were taking a risk and we weren’t.”

Many of today’s consumers, though, are starting to resent being asked to tip at quick-service or minimal-service establishments where they previously hadn’t been prompted, experts believe.

“People think it’s manipulative, they resent it, and their perceptions of service go down,” Michael Lynn, a professor of marketing and management communication at Cornell University, previously told Nexstar.

The trouble is, these prompts aren’t likely to go away anytime soon. Lynn, citing a study from researchers at Purdue and Temple Universities, said these newer practices are generally effective at soliciting higher gratuities from customers, despite leaving them with negative emotions.

Smiley-face emoji, at least, might alleviate some of that aggravation, especially in settings where the waitstaff or service workers deserve a little extra, Lefebvre and her co-authors suggest.

“There’s an uncomfortable feeling, or an irritation when dealing with tip requests,” Lefebvre told Nexstar. “We wanted to know, how do we make this a more positive experience?”

It made sense: grab-and-go. People are busy. You may have even seen the little timers Starbucks used to put on the brewers to dump the coffee when it got too old.

If you’ve been to Starbucks lately, you may have seen them toss the old brewing machines in the back and roll out shiny new cylinders where the old coffee machines used to be. 

The new machines are called the “Clover Vertica.” That’s Starbucks-speak for a new way to brew coffee. And other chains may be taking notice.

Starbucks calls it an innovation in production: no longer do you need to “batch and brew” the coffee and waste an entire urn when it’s not needed. Instead, with a couple of turns of a dial, a custom cup of coffee is ground and brewed as soon as you order it, with up to six different coffee choices.

The upside, according to Starbucks, is reduced waste - and time saved for the baristas.

The verdict: This customer found the coffee comes out hot and tasty. It seems much hotter than what comes out of batch brewing, although Starbucks tells KTLA they come out at the same temperature.

Maybe that’s just the difference between freshly brewed and a batch that has been sitting. There might still be a learning curve with stores as well.

Recently, at one southern California location, the Clover Vertica wasn’t working, and they couldn’t offer drip coffee that morning. At another, the two cashiers seemed to be slowed down, both working to take orders and brew those single cups.

Will this be a better innovation than Starbucks Olive Oil coffee, Oleato. We’ll wait to see.  

But there’s no question that coffee innovation is where it’s at, and this new technology cuts to the core of American consumers.

Basic drip coffee is still the king.  According to the National Coffee Association, 63% of all Americans had a cup of coffee in the past day- some 440 million cups of coffee across the U.S. each day, enough to fill four Olympic-size swimming pools. And a majority of Americans still prefer TRADITIONAL coffee to specialty drinks, although lattes remain the most popular specialty drink.

So what do you do if Starbucks ISN’T your thing? Coffee can be very personal, and everyone has their favorites.

KTLA wanted to know what the other big coffee retailers are doing. We reached out to some of the nation’s other top coffee giants to see if they’re going to follow Starbucks into single-brew land:

Dunkin': They're selling 60 cups of coffee each second: some 5,000,000 cups each day. They’ve batch-produced coffee for years, and donuts too. They did not respond to tell us if single-serve was on the horizon.

McDonald's: This fast food giant serves nearly 8 million cups of coffee a day. McCafe has come a long way since the early days, but there's no word if they’ll move to custom cups.

Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf: It grew up in the 1960s in Southern California and says "history" was made in 1987 when a barista made the first ice-brewed drink there. They replied to KTLA but didn't offer any specifics.

Dutch Bros: They started with a pushcart in Grants Pass, Oregon, back in the early 90s. They are now known for their traditional windmill design and drive-thrus. Dutch Bros tells us all their drinks are ‘hand-crafted’ (but not necessarily single-brewed), and they hand-pull the espresso.

Peet's: Alfred Peet opened his first shop in Berkeley, California nearly 60 years ago, ushering in what the company calls a ‘revolution that forever changed the expectations of American coffee drinkers." Will they change expectations again? They’re not saying.

Philz: A San Francisco staple. The company says, “Something as simple as a cup of coffee has the power to transform your everyday into something special." They say they’ve already been doing Brewed-To-Order coffee one cup at a time.

Tim Hortons: Special mention to this Canadian staple. It is Canada’s largest retail chain serving 5 million cups of coffee each day.  The company says 80 percent of all Canadians visit a Tim Hortons at least once a month.

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, many restaurants will have limited-time deals guests won’t need luck to uncover.

Here are the restaurants Californians can visit to receive limited-time deals in honor of the holiday.

Krispy Kreme: Customers wearing green can receive a free green O’riginal Glazed doughnut at participating locations. The doughnut chain is also offering a St. Patrick’s Day Doughnut Collection that includes four doughnuts: Luck of the Rainbow, Shamrock Cookie N’ Kreme, Plaid Party, and Shooting Shamrock.

Applebee's: The restaurant chain will offer $5 Tipsy Leprechaun and the $7 Pot O’ Gold Daq-A-Rita at participating locations.

Jack in the Box: Customers can receive a free Oreo Cookie Mint Shake on St. Patrick’s Day. The company will also be “creating a technological miracle” when a real rainbow appears over its Tustin location at 14002 Newport Ave.

Dairy Queen: Customers can purchase the new Mint Brownie Blizzard Treat and Under The Rainbow Shake at their nearest DQ location.

Insomnia Cookies: Guests who visit a location wearing green can receive a free cookie on Sunday.

Bar Louie: On St. Patrick’s Day, guests can enjoy $3 green beers, $4 Jameson Sidecars, and $5 Guinness Draughts.

Beginning on March 17, express self-checkout lanes will debut at nearly 2,000 stores nationwide. The new lanes allow customers to purchase 10 items or less, the company announced Thursday.

Store leaders will have the flexibility to open more lanes as needed, but Target announced those express self-checkout lanes will be open during the busiest shopping times.

Consumers and businesses have a complex relationship with self-checkout lanes. A study published in February 2021 found that 67% of shoppers said they had experienced a failure while using a self-checkout machine.

Retailers have also shared that installing the machines can be expensive and lead to higher shoplifting rates than traditional checkout methods, according to The Atlantic.

Despite the hardship, they can still be found in stores like Walmart, Costco and Dollar General.

As for Target, the retailer is still investing in human cashiers in addition to self-checkout lanes.

“We’re opening more traditional lanes staffed by our team members across all our stores for guests who have more in their Target carts, need a helping hand, or just enjoy connecting with our team to help them get on their way sooner,” a news release said.

“We’re also continuing to invest in additional training to ensure that our teams can continue to provide great guest service during the checkout.”

Target customers can also get their daily essentials without walking into a physical location through Drive Up and same-day delivery services.

Customers can also utilize the company’s order pickup services.

During the latest episode of the “Inside Trader Joe’s” podcast, host Matt Sloan shared that more mini totes will be in stores by late summer, specifically by late August or early September.

Sloan also shared that the company bought enough mini canvas totes to last for several weeks.

The 2.99 totes quickly became a viral sensation when they were released in February. Various videos posted to social media show customers quickly grabbing the bags as soon as they hit shelves.

Some have even compared the item's popularity to the Stanley Cup craze earlier this year.

The popular bags come in four colors: green, red, yellow and blue.

Here are the restaurants Californians can visit to receive limited-time deals in honor of the foodie holiday.

• 7-Eleven and Speedway: The popular convenience stores will offer their loyal members a large pizza with any flavor for $3.14. The deal can be redeemed at 7-Eleven, Speedway and Stripes stores nationwide.

In addition to the pizza deal, 7NOW users will have access to $14 off $30 and free delivery deal with the promo code PIDAYDEAL. The deal can only be used on purchases of $15 or more.

• BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse: The restaurant chain will be offering one-topping mini pizzas for $3.14. The deal is only available to dine-in customers.

• Blaze Pizza: Customers can receive any 11-inch pizza for $3.14 on National Pi Day. The in-store offer can be redeemed once per person and is only available for original dough pizzas. Customers will have to pay an upcharge for specialty crusts like gluten-free or cauliflower. It’s important to note that Blaze locations at Crypto.com Arena, UCLA and Harbor Blouvard in Anaheim won’t participate in the deal.

• California Pizza Kitchen: Rewards members can get an Original BBQ Chicken, Pepperoni, or Traditional Cheese pizza for $3.14 with a minimum $25 purchase. The offer is only available to dine-in customers.

• Digiorno: Beginning on Pi Day, consumers who receive a damaged pizza via delivery or carry-out can turn that mishap into a Digiorno pizza coupon.

“Those who experience pizza delivery or carry-out fails can upload an image of their damaged ‘za to DIGIORNOPizzaRescue.com and receive a Digiorno pizza coupon. The coupon amount will be based on the extent of the damage,” a news release said.

• Pieology: Rewards members can get two free perks on National Pi Day when they order a Create Your Own Pizza or Calzone. Rewards include drinks, side salads and cookies.

• Pizza Hut: Customers can receive a free large one-topping pizza when they purchase a large pizza until Thursday. More information about the deal can be found on their website.

• Burger King: Royal Perks members can enjoy a free Hershey’s Sundae Pie with the purchase of $3.14 or more on Thursday, according to Food and Wine.

The two companies are pitching this as a super-convenient service for patients, and it is.

But a closer look raises questions.

The way this works is you first go to Lilly's direct-sales website, LillyDirect. If you don't have a prescription for Zepbound or other available meds, Lilly will connect you with a third-party telehealth service, where an online doctor can write you a prescription.

Your order can then be transferred to Amazon, which will deliver the drugs in a couple of days or less.

Easy-peasy.

But is this good healthcare?

For me, the first red flag is having to purchase through Lilly's own site. This is reminiscent of recent moves by airlines to cut out travel agents and force travelers to purchase tickets through each carrier's site.

That prevents people from comparison shopping. Maybe not such a big deal if you know exactly what you want, but it's nice to see what deals or alternatives competitors might have.

The second red flag is the telehealth service. The online doctors Lilly will hook you up with are under no obligation to write a prescription, or to favor Lilly's drugs over those of other manufacturers.

But they're clearly incentivized to do so. Otherwise, they could jeopardize their relationship with the drugmaker.

Then Amazon enters the picture. The e-commerce behemoth runs its own online pharmacy, and having exclusive deals with pharmaceutical companies translates to more business.

These developments are extraordinary. They cut out traditional doctors and traditional drugstores.

But is that a good thing?

It's fair to wonder if you'd receive better guidance by visiting your own doctor, relating your situation, and asking him or her what the best course of treatment might be.

It's entirely possible the answer could be a prescription for an Eli Lilly drug. But it might not be.

Lilly's third-party telehealth physician is paid in part by Lilly to write prescriptions. How do you think that's going to play out?

It's also reasonable to wonder if prescription drugs -- especially new prescriptions -- are something that should be easy to get. Maybe a barrier or two that slows the process can ultimately be in the patient's best interest.

The biggest question, perhaps, is whether all this high-tech efficiency will result in lower drug prices. It should, economically speaking.

But don't hold your breath.

Dollar Tree plans to close about 600 Family Dollar stores in the first half of this year and 370 Family Dollar and 30 Dollar Tree stores over the next several years.

Dollar Tree acquired Family Dollar for more than $8 billion in 2015 after a bidding war with rival Dollar General, but it has had difficulty absorbing the chain.

On Wednesday, Dollar Tree said that it would record a $950 million impairment against the trade name Family Dollar, on top of a $1.07 billion goodwill charge. Family Dollar will spend more than $594 million closing or rebranding stores, essentially erasing profits from the holiday season.

“This dramatic cull is the coup de grâce in the rather botched acquisition of the Family Dollar chain, which has caused Dollar Tree nothing but hassle since it was completed back in 2015,” wrote Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData. “Basically, almost ten years on, Dollar Tree is still sifting through the mess it inherited and has not been able to completely turn around,” Saunders said.

Saunders said in an emailed statement that nearly 12% of current Family Dollar stores will be closing over the next three years.

Shares of Dollar Tree tumbled 14% at the opening bell Wednesday.

For the three months ended Feb. 3, Dollar Tree lost $1.71 billion, or $7.85 per share. A year earlier the Chesapeake, Virginia, company earned $452.2 million, or $2.04 per share.

Stripping out certain items, earnings were $2.55 per share, which is still short of the per-share earnings of $2.67 expected on Wall Street, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research.

Revenue climbed to $8.64 billion from $7.72 billion, a bit below Wall Street's estimate of $8.67 billion.

Dollar Tree has been attracting consumers that have been stung by inflation as they seek to cut spending. During the quarter, sales at Dollar Tree stores open at least a year climbed 6.3%, with traffic up 7.1%. While more shoppers were heading to stores, they were closely watching how much they spent, with average ticket down 0.7%.

At Family Dollar, sales at stores open at least a year slipped 1.2%. Traffic edged up 0.7%, but average ticket fell 2%.

For fiscal 2024, Dollar Tree anticipates earnings between $6.70 and $7.30 per share. Revenue is expected in a range of $31 billion to $32 billion.

Analysts polled by FactSet expect full-year earnings of $7.04 on revenue of $31.68 billion.

Dollar Tree expects first-quarter earnings of $1.33 to $1.48 per share on revenue in a range of $7.6 billion to $7.9 billion.

Wall Street anticipates first-quarter earnings of $1.70 on revenue of $7.68 billion.

Beginning on March 14, also known as Pi Day, consumers who receive a damaged pizza via delivery or carry-out can turn that mishap into a Digiorno pizza coupon.

“Those who experience pizza delivery or carry-out fails can upload an image of their damaged 'za to DIGIORNOPizzaRescue.com and receive a Digiorno pizza coupon. The coupon amount will be based on the extent of the damage,” a news release said.

The company will use “AI-enabled pizza technology” to determine how damaged the pizza is and how much the coupon will be worth.

A pizza that is:

• Zero-30% damaged equals a $1 off coupon
• 31% - 60% damaged equals a $1.50 off coupon
• 60% - 100% damaged equals a $2 off coupon

The limited-time promotion will be available until April 11.

“Many of us have experienced the frustration of getting a pizza delivered or picking one up for carry-out and transporting it home to only open it up to find it damaged. We want to relieve that disappointment by offering discounts to consumers in hopes we can make their pizza nights less stressful and more delicious,” Kimberly Holowiak, senior brand manager for Digiorno, said in a statement.

Consumers can use the coupons at their local grocery or convenience stores.