Category: Tech

But out of hundreds of officials who responded to the scene, according to the report, only a handful have faced any consequences so far.

On Thursday, the DOJ released its long-awaited report summarizing its investigation into how police and other officials handled the May 24, 2022, Uvalde, Texas, school shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead.

Despite nearly 400 officers and first responders arriving on the scene, officers didn’t take on the shooter until 77 minutes after he had entered the building because of a series of communication and leadership failures.

The DOJ’s scathing report details how officers hesitated to confront the shooter, violating training for how to handle active shootings.

Here’s a list of the agencies involved in the incident and what repercussions they faced — if any — for failing to save more lives that day.

Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Department

The district’s police chief, Pete Arredondo, was fired three months after the shooting, over accusations that he failed to do his duty as commander of the scene.

Two months later, the district police department suspended all of its officers after months of criticism for their handling of the deadly shooting.

Two officers were put on administrative leave, while a third chose to retire. The district’s other police officers were offered other jobs in the district, the schools said at the time.

The DOJ report says the UCISD PD didn’t do any internal investigations.

Customs and Border Patrol

A tactical team from the US CBP called BORTAC — which operates within 100 miles of the border, including Uvalde — was responsible for finally taking down the shooter, despite local police’s warnings to stay outside.

The CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility typically waits for criminal investigations to be completed before starting its own administrative one.

The Uvalde County District Attorney’s investigation into possible charges hasn’t finished as of January 2024, over a year since the shooting.

After waiting 9 months for the District Attorney’s local criminal investigation to wrap up, the CBP decided to start its own review anyway. No findings have been released.

Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office

The county sheriff’s office hasn’t started an internal investigation, but the DOJ report says it’s common practice for agencies to wait for a criminal investigation to be finished before starting their own administrative one.

The DOJ report does say, however, that waiting to start an investigation slows the process down.

Uvalde Police Department

The Uvalde Police Department (UPD) launched its own internal investigation into the incident, which hasn’t finished, according to the DOJ report.

The UPD also coordinated with the Texas Department of Public Safety (TXDPS) on an independent, external investigation, sharing evidence like police body camera footage, with the TXDPS, according to the report.

However, the TXDPS has not shared its data back with the City of Uvalde to help the UPD’s internal investigation, the report says.

Lt. Mariano Pargas — the acting UPD police chief at the time of the shooting — was suspended from his position a few months later while the city investigated if he had failed to take command of the scene.

He later stepped down from his position, after facing backlash from victims’ families, the Texas Tribune reported.

Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas Rangers

The director of the TXDPS Steve McCraw has said that seven of his members were investigated for their actions the day of the shooting, and their cases are currently being reviewed, according to the DOJ report.

Two TXDPS employees were fired, including a ranger, and one state trooper who was being investigated has resigned, according to the DOJ.

According to the Texas Tribune, the state trooper who resigned was later hired by Uvalde school’s police department, but the school backtracked after parents protested.

The four other officers were cleared and kept their jobs, the Texas Tribune reported.

In February 2023, state police said no other officers would be disciplined, according to the Associated Press.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives

The ATF completed an investigation into the firearm used in the shooting, including the “hellfire trigger” the shooter had attached to make the AR-15 fire at a higher rate.

The ATF found that the design, marketing, and instructions for the “hellfire” device proved that its sole purpose was to turn a weapon into a machine gun.

And so, the weapon the shooter used is considered a machine gun under federal law, according to the DOJ report.

But the report notes that the crime scene investigators nearly didn’t spot the “hellfire” trigger; someone had thrown it out into a classroom trash can after the tragedy.

When you buy through our links, Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

The Super Bowl is less than a month away, and we’re here to help you prep for the big game with lots of great discounts on big-screen TVs. Retailers like Amazon and Best Buy have already started offering great Super Bowl TV deals on displays from top brands like LG, Samsung, and Sony. 

The best Super Bowl TV deals right now include $1,000 off a huge 98-inch TCL 4K TV. You can also save $200 on the already affordable 65-inch Hisense U6K, which is our pick for the best TV you can buy on a budget. Check out our full U6K 4K TV review for more details on why it’s such a great display for the money. 

Below, our deal experts have highlighted all of the top discounts so far, and we expect more savings to pop up as we get closer to the Super Bowl on February 11. We’ve mostly focused on big-screen sets to offer the most immersive viewing experience for the big game, but we’ve also included a few smaller models that are going for great prices. If you’re looking for more discounts, check out our full roundup of all the best TV deals right now. 

10 best Super Bowl TV deals right now

How to shop for a TV for watching sports

If you’re looking for a new TV with sports in mind, we recommend focusing on 4K models in larger screen sizes to get the most immersive experience. The best 4K TVs use an OLED display or an advanced LED screen, often branded as QLED, with local dimming. These TVs deliver the highest contrast, deepest black levels, and most accurate colors.

Midrange and high-end QLED models are also known for their impressive brightness, with top options offering up to 2,000 nits, which can make them the best fit for watching sports in living rooms that let in a lot of light. However, the best OLED TVs are still bright enough for most rooms and then have better viewing angles than most QLEDs, which makes them excellent for Super Bowl parties where guests may be sitting off to the side of the display.

If you want a budget-friendly TV for casual viewing and don’t care about getting high-end contrast or color, an entry-level LED panel should do the job. Though picture quality won’t be as impressive as more expensive OLED and QLED models, several cheap LED TVs still have decent performance and solid smart TV streaming.

• Burger King’s owner is buying the chain’s largest franchisee in a deal valued at $1 billion. 
• Restaurant Brands International plans to invest $500 million remodeling 600 Burger Kings.
• The move comes as Burger King has pushed for remodels of top outlets while closing others. 

Burger King’s owner is going into the flipping business.

Restaurant Brands International, the parent company of Burger King and Popeyes, announced plans Tuesday to buy more than 1,000 fast-food restaurants from its largest Burger King franchisee.

The deal with New York-based Carrols Restaurant Group, which also includes 60 Popeyes restaurants, is valued at $1 billion.

RBI said it plans to invest $500 million in modernizing roughly 600 Burger King restaurants. After rapidly remodeling the stores over the next five years, the company plans to “put them back into the hands of motivated, local franchisees,” Tom Curtis, president of Burger King US and Canada, said in a statement.

RBI said the acquisition and flipping of the Burger King restaurants are an “exciting accelerator” to its overall “Reclaim the Flame” plan. The $400 million turnaround plan, first introduced in September 2022, calls for upgrading 800 of the company’s top fast-food restaurants.

At the time, the company said it would earmark $250 million for remodeling restaurants owned by Burger King franchisees “in good standing.” The operators also agreed to increase their royalty rate in exchange for receiving capital.

With the Carrols acquisition, RBI said it “expects to significantly accelerate” the rate of remodels at Carrols restaurants from 45 planned in 2024 to 120 per year over the next five years.

RBI said in a Tuesday conference call with investors that the strategy is to sell a smaller number of remodeled restaurants to new or existing Burger King franchisees who live close to the communities where the stores operate. New operators would own 50 restaurants or fewer.

The company said the remodeled Carrols restaurants will
lead by example” as the goal is to fully modernize all restaurants by around 2028.

As of September 30, 2023, RBI has funded a total of $45 million in high-quality remodels and relocations, restaurant technology, kitchen equipment, and building enhancements, according to a regulatory filing.

Stephens analyst Joshua Long said the acquisition “makes sense” for RBI as the “Carrols organization is viewed as a strong operator.”

“We believe this transaction supports the broader Reclaim the Flame plan by accelerating the brand revitalization efforts already underway while also filling the Burger King remodel pipeline with stores that offer strong and improving operations,” Long wrote in a note.

The acquisition comes as Burger King has struggled with relevancy while rivals such as McDonald’s and Wendy’s have made gains with consumers through nostalgic marketing campaigns and the introduction of breakfast, respectively.

Burger King has been trying to refresh the brand for a few years. In 2021, the chain overhauled logos and branding for the first time in 20 years, returning to a classic look that emphasized the Whopper and natural colors.

The chain spent much of 2022 paring down menus to simplify operations and give customers a better ordering experience. Last year, the chain also introduced chicken wraps.

In May 2023, Kobza said the chain would close up to 300 to 400 restaurants during the fiscal year. He said that would equal the number of closures the chain closed during the pandemic. Last year, Burger King operators closed dozens of restaurants in Florida, New York, Nebraska, Utah, and Minnesota.

Are you a fast-food insider with insight to share? Got a tip? Contact this reporter via email at nluna@insider.com or via Signal encrypted at 714-875-6218.

The film, a musical remake of the 2004 Tina Fey comedy of the same name, was a clear hit among females and 18- to 34-year-old moviegoers who represented the bulk of its opening weekend viewers, the Associated Press reported.

But the studio’s decision to deemphasize that the film was a musical in certain marketing materials may have confused some attendees, according to exit polls the company shared with Variety.

While 75% of respondents said they knew it was a musical before buying a ticket, “16% left the theater ‘disappointed’ by the genre,” Variety reported. The remaining 9% were neutral about it.

The decision to downplay the musical aspects of the film mirrored similar tactics from studios like Warner Bros. Entertainment, which kept musical details to a minimum in its marketing push for the December release of “Wonka.”

For “Mean Girls,” the goal was to emphasize the film’s comedic aspects rather than its songs to draw in a broader audience, according to Marc Weinstock, Paramount’s president of worldwide marketing and distribution.

Weinstock told Variety that “people tend to treat musicals differently” and that “it could be considered a musical but it appeals to a larger audience.”

The company didn’t avoid musical elements in its marketing entirely. The opening of its first trailer, released in theaters ahead of “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” screenings, began with singing, for example.

The company also added a musical note to the “A” on the film’s title.

“There are hints to it without being overbearing,” Weinstock said.

The most recent National Blood Collection and Utilization Survey, administered by the Department of Health and Human Services, found that blood donations by teens and young adults have steadily declined over the last decade. From 2019 to 2021, the survey says blood donations from people 16 to 18 dropped by a whopping 60%.

“If that trend continues, we’re going to be in a very difficult situation,” Dr. Claudia Cohn, chief medical officer for the Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies, told NBC.

In April 2023, the Red Cross launched a t-shirt campaign with Snoopy standing in front of the large Red Cross logo, hoping that the campaign would attract more young people to give blood, The New York Times reported at the time. The campaign quickly went viral on TikTok. One video about the campaign gained more than four million views in just a few days.

Gehrie told NBC the campaign was overwhelmingly successful with more than 70,000 people under 35 donating in the months after its launch. Still, he estimated that the organization will need an additional 8,000 donations every week this month to meet hospital demands.

Gehrie speculated that minimum height and weight requirements on who can donate blood imposed by the FDA in 2015 might be part of the reason fewer young people are donating blood, according to NBC. Anyone who donates blood must weigh at least 110 pounds, and there are additional height and weight requirements for those under 18.

“We had a lot of high school donors that were deferred,” Gehrie told the outlet. “We don’t want those young donors to get the impression that because they were deferred for that reason, that they can never donate again.”

“It will give every child born in Flint a fair shot at a bright future,” Whitmer said on X.

The program provides expectant moms with $1,500 during pregnancy and another $500 each month throughout a baby’s first year, according to the Rx Kids website. The website says the program is the “first-ever citywide cash prescription program for pregnant moms and babies.”

Baltimore has also experimented with a guaranteed income for mothers. In its program, the city offers $1,000 to young mothers every month to spend however they want. Some recipients told Business Insider the deal was so good they initially thought it was a scam.

Flint’s Rx Kids expects to serve 1,200 infants each year and has enough funding to run for at least three years, though it is “aiming to deliver cash to Flint families for as long as possible,” the program’s FAQ page says.

“Raising kids is expensive and society should come alongside to support families,” the website says. “For most people, a child’s birth is a joyous event. For too many families, though, income plunges, and poverty spikes right before a child is born and remains high throughout the first year. These first months of life are critical for a baby’s development; it’s also when their families are struggling the most.”

Inspired by the now-defunct Child Tax Credit — a pandemic-era relief effort championed by the Biden administration — the program’s cofounder H. Luke Shaefer said Rx Kids is “one way to help families in an effective, efficient way,” MLive reported.

Universal basic income programs and their like-minded cousins — guaranteed basic income programs like Rx Kids that target certain groups of people instead of entire populations — have been largely successful (even in Republican-led states that offer staunch opposition) at addressing poverty and homelessness.

• Lululemon founder Chip Wilson criticized the company’s ‘whole diversity and inclusion thing.’
• Former Lululemon employees of color said Wilson’s remarks and the company’s response failed its mission of increasing diversity.
• Lululemon has been plagued with diversity issues, and former employees are calling for change.

Thanks for signing up!

Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you’re on the go. download the app

Lululemon’s employees of color are making their voices heard after the company’s founder blasted its diversity initiatives.

In January, Lululemon founder Chip Wilson told Forbes that he doesn’t agree with the company’s “whole diversity and inclusion thing.”

“They’re trying to become like the Gap, everything to everybody,” Wilson said. “I think the definition of a brand is that you’re not everything to everybody.”

“You’ve got to be clear that you don’t want certain customers coming in,” he added.

Current and former employees of color at the athletic-wear company are speaking out against Wilson’s remarks, as well as what they say is a culture of racial insensitivity at Lululemon.

“The company has failed all Black employees and employees of color,” Michael Collins, a former Lululemon store manager, told Business Insider. “Nothing has changed since.”

Plagued by diversity issues

Some current and former employees said they’re not too surprised Wilson criticized Lululemon’s diversity efforts given his track record of making controversial statements.

In the years after he founded the company, Wilson said he chose the name “Lululemon” because he thought it would be “funny to watch” Japanese people try to pronounce the “L” sounds.

He has also blamed women’s bodies after Lululemon received complaints that its yoga pants were too sheer, and said he believes children in Third World countries should be able to work in factories for wages, calling it “single easiest way to spread wealth around the world.”

Wilson left the company in 2015 but remains the company’s largest individual shareholder.

After Wilson’s most recent comments about diversity, the company disavowed his viewpoints.

“Chip Wilson does not speak for Lululemon, and his comments do not reflect our company views or beliefs,” a spokesperson told the Business of Fashion in a statement.

“Chip has not been involved with the company since his resignation from the board in 2015 and we are a very different company today,” they added.

But even after Wilson’s departure, Lululemon employees have spoken out against the company’s culture, which they described as exemplifying “privileged white wellness,” as previously reported by Business Insider in 2021.

In November, Business of Fashion reported that Lululemon failed to live up to its mission of diversity and inclusion, and that Black employees were passed over for promotions, reprimanded, and fired.

Lululemon did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Employees are calling for change

Collins, the former store manager, said the company’s response to Wilson’s remarks was a “low blow” to people who work for Lululemon.

“It’s a slap in the face to everyone of color, because that’s a performative answer,” Collins said. “If you’re going to be proactive and change, you have to have a clean slate. You have to rehire and clean up the mess, which has been going on for so long.”

Miya Dotson, a former manager in Lululemon’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Action team, said the company’s “non-acknowledgment of the harm they’ve caused members of the Black community and other marginalized groups is outrageous.”

One current employee, who asked to remain anonymous because of the company’s strict media policy, told Business Insider he believes Lululemon is making an effort to improve its diversity and inclusion, citing the diverse makeup of the store he works at and the sensitivity training employees must go through.

The employee, who identifies as Black and gay, said Wilson’s statement “totally goes against what I am as a person and what I believe in,” and said the company should distance itself from Wilson altogether. He pointed out that Wilson’s criticism actually implies that Lululemon is trying to move toward increased diversity.

Dotson said Lululemon needs to change its leadership and address its issues head-on.

“The longer they try to put off the public image, the more they’re going to rot from the inside in terms of the fear and the values they’re disintegrating,” Dotson said.

When you buy through our links, Insider may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more

Alienware’s AW3225QF monitor represents a significant step forward for display technology, immediately securing a place as one of the best gaming monitors you can buy. The AW3225QF offers a 32-inch 4K OLED display with a 240Hz refresh rate. Though there are other 4K monitors out there, this is one of the first to use a QD-OLED panel, and it’s one of the few displays you can buy that combines a 4K resolution with such a high refresh rate.

OLED screens are celebrated for their ability to create deep black levels, high contrast, and stunning color accuracy without sacrificing responsiveness, but until recently, 4K QD-OLED panels were only available in large TV sizes that were inappropriate for monitors.

With the AW3225QF, Alienware has produced a monitor that can finally match and even outshine many of the best OLED TVs when paired with a PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. It sets a new bar for what premium gaming monitors should offer.

The display features a cool design with a subtle curve

The AW3225QF’s 32-inch screen has a gentle 1700R curve that’s hardly noticeable when viewing from directly in front, but it does help with seeing the edges of the display if you’re sitting less than two feet away. A thin bezel surrounds the screen and includes the Alienware branding beneath the display.

The monitor’s stand has forked feet and allows the screen’s height to be adjusted up and down by a range of about 4.3 inches. The stand allows left-right swivel and tilting as well, but you can’t rotate the monitor into landscape mode. For cable management, the stand has a slot to guide wires straight toward the back of the monitor and through the base.

A small joystick under the monitor will call up the menu, which includes settings, input control, and viewing presets. The power button is located on the right side of the monitor and denotes the power status with an LED light.

You can customize the color of the power button and two more lights located on the back of the monitor. The rear lights have an Alienware logo and the number 32, denoting the monitor’s size. The monitor’s menu offers 20 color choices in total.

The AW3225QF delivers top-notch image performance 

Simply put, Alienware’s AW3225QF sets a new standard for picture performance in a gaming monitor. Its QD-OLED panel maxes out at 4K resolution with a refresh rate of 240Hz. It’s one of the first wave of QD-OLED monitors to support 4K, and it’s one of the few monitors out there that can deliver 4K with a 240Hz refresh rate. Many gamers have turned to larger OLED TVs thanks to the display type’s fantastic contrast and response times, so it’s great to see purpose-built monitors of this type to fill that demand. 

The QD-OLED panel also uses Quantum Dot color technology, which helps improve the OLED screen’s brightness and allows for a deeper range of color versus a standard OLED display. Our pick for the best TV, the Samsung S90C, uses the same tech.

When it comes to picture quality, the AW3225QF is one of the best-looking displays I’ve seen, offering stunning contrast and vibrant colors, especially with HDR (high dynamic range) enabled. Atmospheric games like Resident Evil 2 demonstrate the OLED panel’s impressive pixel-level contrast in dark environments, while adventure games like Assassin’s Creed Mirage are a great showcase for the screen’s rich quantum dot colors that brighten up landscapes.

One of traditional OLED technology’s potential drawbacks is relatively low brightness, but the AW3225QF QD-OLED panel stands out with a peak brightness of 1,000 nits. To be clear, the monitor can only achieve that number in very small highlights when viewing HDR content, but it still bests most typical OLEDs. The solid brightness performance also works well with the monitor’s anti-glare coating, which helps reduce glare from sunlight. However, the screen’s brightness still can’t match what you’d get on a Mini LED monitor, like the Samsung Odyssey Neo G8.

And while the AW3225QF looks fantastic with most games, some HDR titles on PC can look washed out if not calibrated correctly. Windows has its own HDR calibration and auto HDR features, but those can clash with in-game HDR brightness and color settings. Generally, PS5 and Xbox do a much better job implementing HDR mapping without extra calibration, and the monitor has a special console mode for even better tone mapping.

The AW3225QF also supports Dolby Vision, an advanced HDR format that’s mostly used for film and TV but has been adopted by a few dozen games as well. The Xbox Series X fully supports Dolby Vision gaming, while the PlayStation 5 does not. Accessing Dolby Vision content can be difficult on PC, and the Nintendo Switch doesn’t support HDR at all.

The monitor will note when a Dolby Vision-enabled game is being played, but in my experience with games like Halo Infinite and Ori and the Will of the Wisps, the feature doesn’t make a huge difference when compared to standard HDR10. The difference is more pronounced when streaming Dolby Vision movies from apps like Disney Plus.

The AW3225QF’s variable refresh rate (VRR) and auto low latency mode (ALLM) features, including G-Sync support, work as expected. Both Xbox and PlayStation consoles can enable these features seamlessly, and the OLED display showed no signs of screen tears or ghosting with VRR enabled.

The high 240Hz refresh rate makes the AW3225QF feel extra responsive and cuts down on input delay, a bonus when playing competitive games like Street Fighter or CounterStrike. Xbox and PlayStation are limited to a 120Hz refresh rate via HDMI due to their own hardware, but games like Spider-Man 2 and Call of Duty Modern Warfare III have specific graphics modes to take advantage of VRR and high refresh rates on consoles.

A picture-in-picture mode is also available, allowing you to split the screen between two different video inputs. This can be useful if you’re multitasking between two computers or want to share the screen between a console and your PC.

The monitor includes a pixel refresher to help avoid burn-in, which can occur when OLED panels display the same image for long periods of time. The menu has a panel health indicator to help notify you when you should turn the monitor off and run the refresher. We didn’t notice any image retention issues after about a month of regular use. The AW3225QF also includes features for calibration, like an on-screen refresh rate display and crosshair.

Plenty of video and USB ports but no built-in speaker

The AW3225QF doesn’t support built-in audio playback; there’s no headphone jack or digital audio output to connect to a speaker and no integrated speakers. That means you’ll need to find a separate audio solution while you game, whether you choose a headset, soundbar, or desktop speakers. However, one of the HDMI ports includes eARC to return HDMI audio to a receiver 

The monitor has a pair of HDMI 2.1 ports that make it an excellent companion for the PS5 and Xbox Series X, and it has a DisplayPort 1.4 input for PC gamers. Both connection types support up to 3840 x 2160 (4K) resolution and a 240Hz refresh rate. 

The AW3225QF also has four downstream USB ports to connect additional devices when you pair the display with a PC. Two USB type-A ports are located near the HDMI and DisplayPort inputs in the rear of the monitor. Another USB type-A port and a USB type-C port can be found underneath the monitor.

The downward-facing USB ports aren’t ideal for cable management, but they’re handy for connecting controllers, charging phones, and connecting other desktop devices. Each port supports USB 3.2 Gen 1 with a 5 Gbps transfer speed.

What are your alternatives?

There aren’t many true alternatives to the AW3225QF out right now unless you’re willing to downgrade from 4K resolution or opt for a non-OLED panel. Alongside the AW3225QF, Alienware just released the AW2725DF, a 27-inch 1440p QD-OLED monitor with an even higher refresh rate of 360Hz. Samsung announced a trio of new QD-OLED monitors arriving later in 2024, including two models with similar specs to Alienware’s offerings and an ultrawide display.

When it comes to current QD-OLED options, there are models like the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 and Alienware AW3423DW, which use an ultrawide 21:9 aspect ratio and max out at 3440 x 1440p resolution, which is great for PC gamers but less ideal for players on PS5 or Xbox.

Other monitors with standard OLED panels (without quantum dots) include LG’s UltraGear 27-inch and 45-inch ultrawide models.

Should you buy the AW3225QF monitor?

There’s no question that the AW3225QF is one of the top high-end gaming monitors you can buy if you want cutting-edge performance, but that performance comes at a premium price tag of $1,199. It boasts all of the latest features you could want from a gaming display, like 4K resolution, HDR support with Dolby Vision, an impressive 240Hz refresh rate, G-Sync support, and HDMI 2.1 compatibility for consoles.

The AW3225QF is the first OLED monitor on the market to offer all of these capabilities in one display and will likely be one of the few choices for some time. If you can afford it and you don’t mind missing out on smart TV features or built-in audio, this monitor sets a new benchmark for gaming displays.