Take Five: Fed In A Hole

According to a report from Expedia, interest in trips to France is surging around the Summer Olympics—and Yvelines tops the list. Whether you’re hoping to explore ancient cities or lounge on the beach, summertime travel is about to be top-of-mind for just about everyone. And if you haven’t heard of Yvelines, it’s about to be on your radar.

The EV maker saw its shares flirt with 52-week lows on Thursday as its troubles continued to mount. In an email obtained by CNBC Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk informed staffers that the severance packages sent to some of the 14,000 workers laid off this week were “incorrectly low.”

Colorado has the second-lowest gas prices in the country — for now. The statewide average price is $3.16 for a gallon of regular unleaded gas, 51 cents below the national average. The statewide average is down from $3.58 per gallon at the same time in 2023 and up about 10 cents on the month, AAA Colorado said Thursday. “Coloradans should make the most of comparatively low prices while they can,” Skyler McKinley, regional spokesman for AAA, said in a statement. McKinley said expectations of an upcoming robust summer travel season coupled with the federally mandated switchover to reformulated gas mean it likely won’t be long until Colorado’s gas prices climb to above the national average. In 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency classified Denver and the northern Front Range as “severe” violators of federal air quality standards, which requires motorists to use a special blend of gasoline that reduces harmful emissions.

A private jet charter firm that was bailed out by Delta Airlines last year is laying off 65 employees as it ceases operations at a Jefferson County airport. New York-based Wheels Up informed the state of the cuts at the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport in a Wednesday letter. The layoffs will occur by June 16, Chief People Officer Brian Kedzior wrote, and affect all Wheels Up employees based at the airport except for “selected administrative and office employees that will be maintained due to their role supporting other Wheels Up’s locations.” Those affected are generally mechanics and technicians, according to the letter. Wheels Up said in a press release issued after this story was initially published that the cuts in Jefferson County were part of a larger corporate restructuring.

In a recent report, we found that generative AI has important shortcomings regarding freedom of expression and access to information. Google recently made headlines globally because its chatbot Gemini generated images of people of color instead of white people in historical settings that featured white people. Adobe Firefly’s image creation tool saw similar issues.

Adams County may soon land its third large-scale battery manufacturing plant, one producing more affordable and environmentally safer batteries. The Colorado Economic Development Commission approved $1,053,000 in state Strategic Fund incentives on Thursday morning to Project Eleven, the code name for a startup developing sodium-ion battery technologies. “The main drivers for the location decision are incentives, a business-friendly tax environment, access to talent and renewable energy policies,” Michelle Hadwiger, director of global business development at the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade told commissioners. State support, which will come in the form of cash rather than the usual tax credit, is tied to the creation of 162 jobs over five years at a research and development campus and a battery foundry in Commerce City.