“Whenever you’re engaging vendors, what’s their training data?” Idziak said. “From a fair lending perspective, we have ECOA, so you can’t discriminate based on sex, race, or national origin. But if you have a vendor from outside the space that’s come in saying, ‘Hey, I’m going to help you underwrite your loans,’ one, what data do they train on? Two, how does it do its thinking, and how is it producing the result? Because for ECOA adverse action notices, you need to have a reason. You can’t just say ‘The AI said so.’ Well, why did it say so? ‘I don’t know. It’s a black box.'”
What regulators are looking for
A central concern is whether AI tools are staying in their lane. Regulators are asking whether systems can access or pull in data they were never meant to see, a risk that gets serious fast when tools are designed to connect information across multiple platforms. Vendor chains are getting the same treatment, with supervisors pressing banks on whether third-party AI providers and their subcontractors are held to the same standards as the banks themselves.
Michelle Bowman, the Fed’s vice chair for supervision, signaled in an April speech that the existing toolkit may not be enough.
“Today, banks are relying on existing risk-management frameworks to guide their use of AI,” Bowman said. “While these supervisory tools are intended to support banks in applying sound governance and risk management, we should assess whether our supervisory guidance is fit for the future.”
Experts are concerned that formal guidance, when it does arrive, risks being outdated before the ink is dry. The technology is moving faster than the regulatory process was built to handle.
There are a lot of things you could do with $135 in the financial markets. You could, for example, have used it to buy one share of Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, at its IPO valuation of $135 per share.
That got me thinking: Is there any cryptocurrency with the same type of moonshot potential as SpaceX? Preferably, this cryptocurrency would offer the same type of diversification as SpaceX, which is far more than just a space exploration company. It would also be available at a price of $135 or lower.
That’s a big ask, of course, but I’ve found a cryptocurrency that satisfies all three conditions. I’m talking about Ethereum(ETH +2.38%), the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency.
Moonshot potential
Ethereum has had an epic run since its debut, soaring in value by approximately 55,600%. It’s hard to imagine it repeating the same type of performance over the next decade, but it may still have plenty of rocket fuel left to deliver stratospheric returns to investors.
Image source: Getty Images.
Wall Street strategist Tom Lee, for example, thinks Ethereum is going to $62,000. If so, then that’s a potential head-spinning 37x gain based on today’s prices.
Those out-of-this-world returns are being driven by Ethereum’s historic dominance in decentralized finance (DeFi). As the worlds of Wall Street finance and blockchain finance continue to blur, Ethereum will only become more valuable.
Don’t forget: Ethereum is one of the few cryptocurrencies to have been to outer space. In 2021, SpaceX brought a node of the Ethereum blockchain to the International Space Station (ISS), to see if it had what it takes to work in outer space. (Spoiler alert: It did.)
Diversification
Unlike Bitcoin, which is primarily just a store of value, Ethereum has many real-world use cases. The most obvious use cases are in finance, of course, thanks to Ethereum’s innovative use of smart contracts.
Ethereum is now getting ready to pivot into artificial intelligence. According to founder Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum can provide the underlying infrastructure for innovative AI projects.
How to put $135 to work
Even after its recent market slide, Ethereum is not cheap. It currently trades for $1,670, so we’ll have to look for other options if we want to stick to our $135 budget.
That’s easier than it sounds, thanks to the launch of spot Ethereum ETFs in July 2024. The most popular of these, the iShares Ethereum Trust(ETHA 1.02%), currently trades for approximately $12.50. With $135, you’d be able to pick up 10 shares of the iShares Ethereum Trust ETF, and still have some money left over.
If history is any guide, that $135 investment could appreciate over time. If you had invested that $135 in Ethereum in 2015, you’d have $75,200 today. You wouldn’t be Elon Musk rich, of course, but you might just have enough money to afford a future trip to Mars aboard a SpaceX rocket.
U.S. Bank has another Double Bonus shopping opportunity, offering double rewards on all purchases made through the Shopping Deals website or Chrome browser extension. Plus there are a couple of new additions this time around. Check out more details about this promotion below.
Offer Details
During June 24-26, 2026, Bonus Days offers four opportunities for U.S. Bank customers to earn and save:
All U.S. Bank-branded credit and debit cardholders can get 10% off gift cards purchased through The Gift Card Shop. All cardholders can double their “always-on” 5% discount on dozens of gift cards from well-known national brands by visiting and using promo code BONUSDAYS when purchasing with their U.S. Bank-branded card (limited to one order per customer).
U.S. Bank rewards credit cardholders can receive discounts on merchandise within the Rewards Center throughonline banking or the U.S. Bank Mobile App, accessing the Rewards Center and clicking Bonus Days Deals under Merchandise.
U.S. Bank business and consumer rewards cardholders can earn double rewards through Shopping Deals by logging into online banking or the U.S. Bank Mobile App, accessing the Rewards Center and clicking Shopping Deals. Bonus rewards for Shopping Deals will be dependent on merchant restrictions.
U.S. Bank consumer credit and debit cardholders can earn double cash back when they activate their offers through Cash Back deals by logginginto online banking or the U.S. Bank Mobile App and activating Cash Back Offers located on the dashboard.Cash Back deals will show up as a statement credit.
This U.S. Bank Double Points promotion can be a good opportunity to stack with deals such as 15% back on home Improvement deal, 10% back at CVS and more.
In this aerodrome finance price prediction cryptocurrency video i go over the aero token and why im hopeful of new all time highs for this base altcoin!
The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division determined on June 10 that the University of California, Davis School of Medicine illegally considers race in admissions, violating the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (SFFA) and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
The finding caps a six-month investigation and marks the third medical school the DOJ has flagged in recent weeks.
SFFA banned race-conscious admissions in 2023, but the DOJ says some schools are using socioeconomic proxies to reach the same result. UC Davis’ case is notable because, according to the Department, administrators openly described their approach as a workaround and pitched it to other schools.
Medical schools receive substantial federal funding, which Title VI ties to non-discrimination compliance. UC Davis currently holds about $3.47 million in active federal grants, per the DOJ’s findings letter.
The Details
At the center is the “Davis Scale,” a model that scores applicants on eight socioeconomic factors (including parental income, parental education, and whether an applicant grew up in a medically underserved area) and weighs that score alongside GPA and MCAT results.
The DOJ argues the scale functions as a stand-in for race. The Department points to documents in which Davis Med’s Associate Dean of Admissions, Dr. Mark Henderson, described the method as “class-based affirmative action” and said “that’s how we skirted the issue,” citing the overlap between class and race.
By the school’s own tracking, the share of “underrepresented in medicine” students rose from 24% in 2011 to 58% in 2023. In 2024, UC Davis described itself as the third most diverse medical school in the country, behind only historically Black institutions.
By The Numbers
The DOJ’s review of 2023–2025 admissions data found that 93% of white and certain Asian admittees had MCAT scores at or above the average Black admittee’s. It also found Black and Hispanic applicants were admitted at rates up to six times higher than white and Asian applicants who, on average, had stronger academic metrics.
How This Connects
Admissions standards carry real financial weight for the students who get in. Doctors already graduate with some of the heaviest amounts of student loan debt in the country and The College Investor has reported an average medical school debt around $202,000, with roughly 71% of doctors leaving school with loans. Debates over who gets a seat play out against the backdrop of a credential that routinely costs new physicians six figures before residency pay even begins.
The DOJ says it will pursue settlement negotiations to bring UC Davis Medical School into compliance. If those talks fail, the Department says it will sue. It also signaled continued monitoring of medical schools nationwide.
Pakistan says the United States and Iran have reached an agreement to end the war and open the Strait of Hormuz, offering relief to the global economy more than three months since the war began.
Full details of the deal were not immediately available. The signing will be Friday in Switzerland. It is not clear how quickly the strait might reopen to all traffic. The U.S. previously said it would ease its blockade of Iranian ports as the strait reopens, and would agree to relax sanctions to allow Iran to sell more of its oil and strengthen its battered economy.
U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed a deal had been reached with Iran and said he had authorized an end to the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz.
“Congratulations to all!” he wrote on social media, without providing details. He added, “Ships of the World, start your engines. Let the oil flow!”
Iranian state media reported Pakistan’s statement after a day in which Israel, sidelined from the negotiations, attacked Beirut’s southern suburbs and posed a threat to the discussions nearing an end.
“Both sides have declared the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon,” Pakistan said, adding that mediators this week will facilitate meetings to “lay the foundation for the technical talks.”
The deal largely returns to a status that existed before the war, but with thousands of people dead and Iran wielding a new source of negotiating pressure with its ability to influence transits of the strait. The waterway is crucial to significant shipments of oil, natural gas and related products like fertilizer, and its effective closure rocked the global economy.
Of the stated targets by the U.S. and Israel when they launched the war on Feb. 28 with strikes that killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Tehran still has a missile program, support for armed proxies in the region like Hezbollah in Lebanon and a stockpile of highly enriched uranium for its nuclear program.
Khamenei’s son is now supreme leader, though he has not been seen in the public since the war began. His approval was needed for Iran to sign off on the deal.
Iran has wanted a ceasefire deal to include the fighting in Lebanon, where Israel has pushed its invasion deeper than at any point in over a quarter-century as it targets Hezbollah. Tehran also has sought the release of billions of dollars in frozen funds.
The emerging deal had been sharply criticized by Israel’s government, and by critics in Trump’s own Republican Party. Some said it did not improve on the terms of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that Trump withdrew the U.S. from during his first term and still describes as “bad.”
After the war began, Iran attacked Israel and several Arab Gulf nations with missiles and drones. A ceasefire was reached on April 7. Ten days later, the U.S. military imposed its blockade. A historic face-to-face meeting between Vice President JD Vance and Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf ended without success.
Throughout negotiations, Trump alternatively threatened to destroy Iranian infrastructure, even its civilization, and praised the relationship with Iran as “more professional” as his administration sought an exit from the war with midterm U.S. elections coming later this year.
Iran’s government, with its own tensions around hardliners as it scrambled to replace several top officials killed in the war, repeatedly expressed wariness of negotiations after rounds of talks last year and early this year ended with U.S. and Israeli attacks.
Tehran has emphasized that it wanted a deal to focus on ending the war, with discussions put off until later on its nuclear program — the issue at the center of it all.
Iran has 440.9 kilograms (972 pounds) of uranium that is enriched up to 60% purity, a short, technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90%, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is peaceful and has not publicly committed to giving up the enriched uranium, which is believed to be buried under three nuclear sites that were badly damaged by U.S. strikes last year.
At times, the U.S. had sought the removal of the enriched uranium from Iran as part of a deal. Russia has offered to take it. At other times, Trump said he wanted the uranium destroyed.
Few platforms in the history of the live music business are credited with breaking as many artists as the Vans Warped Tour.
For nearly a quarter of a century, from 1995 to its “final” cross-country run in 2018, Warped Tour was a traveling carnival of punk rock, ska, emo, metalcore, and hip-hop whose stages served as a launchpad for the likes of Blink-182, Fall Out Boy, Paramore, My Chemical Romance, Sum 41, Good Charlotte, and countless others.
The Warped Tour format was unlike any other major festival: bands were listed alphabetically with no billing hierarchy, and set times were only announced on the day, scrawled on a giant inflatable board at the entrance, meaning fans had to show up early, make snap decisions, and discover acts they’d never planned to see.
It all came from the mind of Kevin Lyman, who got his start throwing punk shows in Long Beach, California, and stage-managing Lollapalooza in 1991.
“The No Doubts, the Sublimes, [the] Quicksands – those bands were willing to take a leap of faith with me,” Lyman recalls of Warped’s inaugural lineup.
“That was a group of peers [who] really wanted something like this, and they let me be the [torch] bearer to go forward with it and take the lumps, the good and the bad.”
What followed was a 25-year run, which became what’s believed to be the longest-running touring music festival in North American history. It also became a testing ground for rising rock stars during pop punk and emo’s mainstream crossover in the late nineties and 2000s, and its influence rippled from fans to bands and the wider industry.
“I started getting calls from band members going, ‘Man, I just got told, if we don’t get on Warped, we don’t get pushed.’ And that was a little hard,” he remembers. “I never built [it] to be in a position of having that much influence over someone chasing their dream.
“The labels were out there scouting, too. They were looking at our Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands every day; six to eight bands playing on that stage every day that we’d vetted from thousands [of submissions].
“Everyone goes, ‘Don’t you listen to the band?’ I watched the front of the stage. If there were six kids singing those songs as passionately as 1,000 kids would sing Bad Religion when I was working in a club, that group had something.”
Lyman drew it all to a close in 2019, but after a six-year hiatus, brought Warped back in 2025 in partnership with Live Nation-backed Insomniac Events.
It was an emphatic return: the festival’s three two-day stops, in Washington, D.C., Long Beach, and Orlando, sold a combined 240,000 tickets, with the Long Beach stop alone drawing over 40,000 fans a day.
Lyman says that the revived event is appealing to a new generation of rock fans.
“Last year was an anomaly. We sold out without announcing bands,” he says. “I would never bring [Warped Tour] back as a complete nostalgia play,” he adds. “I wanted to pay homage [to the past], of course. But we had to look to the future – of fans, brands, and bands.
“But the cool thing about last year [and] it’s not science, [but] about a third of the people that came to Warped last year were at their first festival or even first concert. That was pretty impressive.
“And this year we’re seeing a two-to-one ratio of new credit cards to [returning ones]. It’s not scientific either, but it’s an indicator that we’re attracting a new audience again.”
“It was too close to my soul. I couldn’t just sell it. I knew someone would have wrecked it in a year.”
Kevin Lyman
Warped Tour is returning in 2026 with dates in D.C. (June 13-14), Long Beach (July 25-26), Montreal (August 21-22), Mexico City (September 12-13), and Orlando (November 14-15).
In addition to appealing to a new generation of fans, Lyman says keeping ticket pricing accessible is a non-negotiable. “Since 1995 I’ve had the lowest-[priced] tickets for festivals,” he claims, adding: “The entry point to a festival has become quite high.” Today, two-day general admission passes for Warped Tour start at $149.
Beyond the festival, Lyman is an associate professor in the Music Industry program at the University of Southern California, and a recently honored recipient of the Canadian Live Music Association’s Global Impact in Live Music award, presented to him in Toronto.
Here, Lyman discusses Warped Tour’s 2026 return, why the live industry needs a reality check on pricing, his approach to artist discovery, and the one thing he’d change about the music business…
HOW DO YOU KEEP ticket prices accessible WHEN COSTS ARE RISING EVERYWHERE?
It’s always been a challenge. Since 1995 I’ve had the lowest-[priced] tickets for festivals. But having this new partner with Insomniac, they’ve been very supportive, and even helped me keep the ticket price lower last year than I thought it could be.
They invest in culture. They invest in their community, the EDM community.
They don’t look at it as short-term. They don’t look at it as ‘this’ show. They’re looking at it as a long-term investment in the community, and that’s a great partner to have.
WARPED TOUR HAS ALWAYS BEEN FAMOUS FOR ITS RANDOMIZED SCHEDULES – SET TIMES DECIDED ON THE DAY, NO OFFICIAL HEADLINERS, BANDS LISTED ALPHABETICALLY. WHERE DID THAT PHILOSOPHY COME FROM?
That stemmed from being the stage manager of Lollapalooza in 1991. I’d worked in clubs for so long, 320 nights a year, and I’d see opening bands play as people were coming into the venue. I watched Henry Rollins, one of the most intense performers in history, going for it on a big stage with empty seats sometimes.
“I watched Henry Rollins, one of the most intense performers in history, going for it on a big stage with empty seats sometimes.”
And I would just sit there and go, “What if I could put him on right between Siouxsie and the Banshees and Jane’s Addiction? How would that have changed the trajectory of an artist like him?”
Kevin Lyman
So when I started Warped, I did everything differently. I started doing my posters alphabetically. We were the first ones to do that, because I hated dealing with billing. Billing is the biggest waste of time in music, in my opinion.
Then it was like, mix up the schedule, because I watched bands get lulled into a certain spot on a bill. It wasn’t challenging for them. Warped was a controlled chaos that kept you a little off balance. I put Katy Perry on right before Bring Me the Horizon, or right after Pierce the Veil, and she got to be a better live artist because of that. You were challenged to get those people back to your stage.
“BILLING IS THE BIGGEST WASTE OF TIME IN MUSIC. PEOPLE ARGUE ABOUT IT FOR WEEKS. GET OUT THERE AND PROMOTE.”
In Long Beach [in 2025], we were supposed to open the doors at 11, and we had to open at nine.
We had 45,000 people through the doors at 11 in the morning. That first band, probably 15,000 people ran to that stage. Either that’s a catalyst for their future, or they’re going to have the most amazing video to show their grandchildren of when they were playing [to] 15,000 people.
WARPED TOUR HELPED BREAK BLINK-182, FALL OUT BOY, PARAMORE, MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE, AND MANY OTHERS. HOW MUCH OF AN A&R ROLE WERE YOU AWARE YOU WERE PLAYING AT THE TIME?
I was in a lucky position, because a lot of times when someone has a festival, they do a lot of favors, putting young bands on. I was able to put the best musical band on my shows.
I think I had a pretty good ear, but honestly, I think I’m kind of tone deaf. I really am. But I can hear the emotion in the music [and] I can tie that into the live show. That’s why we could sign Flogging Molly or Gogol Bordello. I was trying to make it emotionally successful, not commercially successful.
That memory of seeing Gogol Bordello live and getting splashed with red wine and people crowd-surfing on your head? I think we’re in a society [where] we all just need to mosh sometimes, physically, mentally, emotionally.
THERE’S A LOT OF TALK IN THE MUSIC BUSINESS ABOUT ‘SUPERFANS’ RIGHT NOW. WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS ON HOW THE INDUSTRY IS APPROACHING THAT?
Unfortunately, our industry keeps talking about monetizing the superfan. It’s always about monetizing them. Reward those superfans. Give them experiences. Give them something, and then they become superfans organically.
If you can have an organic superfan, the monetization comes naturally. It’s not a forced monetization thing.
“REWARD THOSE SUPERFANS. GIVE THEM EXPERIENCES. GIVE THEM SOMETHING, AND THEN THEY BECOME SUPERFANS ORGANICALLY. THE MONETIZATION COMES NATURALLY.”
Those are the fans [that have allowed] bands like The Maine, Mayday Parade, and Less Than Jake to maintain a career of 30 years as band members – because they recognized that early and stuck with that model.
YOU RECENTLY RECEIVED THE GLOBAL IMPACT IN LIVE MUSIC AWARD IN TORONTO, PRESENTED BY SUM 41’S DERYCK WHIBLEY. HOW DID THAT FEEL?
I didn’t realize I had that much kind of an impact on [Deryck’s] life. He was very [generous] in his introduction to me. He related to when they were young and didn’t have anyone to go to [for] Thanksgiving, [and] we invited his band over, and they had Thanksgiving dinner with our extended families.
I was never one of those people [seeking adulation]. We’re workers, me and my wife. But to find out that I’ve been part of people’s lives — that I’ve allowed them to live this lifestyle for as long as they have — it’s been a pretty nice ride.
The clearest theme from the bands backstage [at the 2025 comeback] was when a band told me: “We play festivals as part of our business plan now, but coming back to Warped is like coming home.”
CONSOLIDATION IN LIVE MUSIC IS A MAJOR TALKING POINT today. WHAT’S YOUR VIEW?
Consolidation breeds innovation. You see it when the major agencies consolidate, then [they] lose people and those people go form smaller booking agencies. There are always people who want to create an alternative existence.
HAD THERE BEEN MANY ATTEMPTS TO ACQUIRE THE WARPED TOUR BRAND OVER THE YEARS?
Yeah. People were like, “You could have sold the name.” And I go, “No. It was too close to my soul. I couldn’t just sell it. I knew someone would have wrecked it in a year.”
IF YOU WERE IN YOUR TWENTIES TODAY WITH NO INFRASTRUCTURE, NO CONTACTS, AND NO CAPITAL, COULD YOU BUILD SOMETHING LIKE WARPED TOUR?
I think a young [promoter] needs to work like I did, for 12 years in the club, and build up those relationships to allow you to fail. I was allowed to fail that first year, but I’d made so many people look good, and worked so hard, and [had been] kind to people, that I was given a second chance.
A lot of people who come in [to the business now] might have the confidence, but they border on cockiness, [thinking]: ‘I don’t have to pay my dues.’”
Credit: agwilson/ShutterstockSimple Plan in concert at the Vans Warped Tour in Mountain View, CA in 2018
[In the early days], the No Doubts, the Sublimes, [the] Quicksands – those bands were willing to take a leap of faith with me. Then that second year, NOFX and Pennywise saw it. I’m doing some work with will.i.am [right now], and he walked in the room and gave me a giant hug and flipped right back to that parking lot, telling [me] how he made relationships in punk rock at Warped Tour that he never thought he’d have in life.
Those people gave me a second chance in ’96, and then things started strangely falling in place.
Blink was right on my bus [that] summer. They couldn’t afford the transportation costs. I remember paying them $250. And now they get seven figures or more for a festival. That’s not going to fit my economic model, but it’s awesome that they went that far, because our scene of music never went that far.
IF THERE WAS ONE THING YOU COULD CHANGE ABOUT THE MUSIC INDUSTRY, WHAT WOULD IT BE AND WHY?
I think these major companies that are reporting record profits should create a fund to support younger artists as overall tour support, and for the smaller clubs, to keep them in business. 100-to-500-seaters are closing left and right because they were built on a model of alcohol pays the bills and tickets sell. We’re losing all those venues.
There’s got to be a few million [dollars available] that can make our industry better – helping mental health, helping crew, artists, bands in need.
[If] these businesses are recording record profits, why don’t they give a little bit back to that artist [community] that we’re trying to keep alive? Our industry should support them a little more.Music Business Worldwide
Getting rid of clutter, fixing paint chips and making your home look straight out of a lifestyle magazine is a rite of passage for homeowners planning to sell their property. But that to-do list gets a bit longer if you’re also planning to save money on commissions and sell the property without a Realtor.
