The Sunday Fix: March 10th

SOTU, Northwood Golf Club, Federal Spending and More

Guess who’s back? Your favorite Sunday newsletter!

Sorry for being MIA the last couple of weeks - between some travel and life busyness, the Sunday Fix took the hit. I was informed that my brother-in-law is unaware of what is happening in the world because the Sunday Fix is his only news source. If nothing else, I am back this week to catch him up on things.

I am now about 15 months into this newsletter journey. It’s been fun, especially hearing from you when you’ve learned something or had a laugh from something you’ve read. That said, writing weekly is tough and I think I’m going to mix things up. To keep this fun for me and in your inbox regularly, I’ve decided to shift to a monthly cadence for the time being.

I may change the format going forward, but this week is regular scheduling programming. Thanks for tagging along on this adventure.

Enjoy the Sunday Fix? Share below - the more the merrier

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Sunday Selection

News worth knowing about.

SOTU

Well, the 2024 presidential campaign is in full swing as of this week. President Biden delivered what many have called a “fiery speech” in the State of the Union address this past Thursday. 32 million people tuned in, up 18% over last year’s speech. Interestingly (but not surprisingly), only 5% of viewers were between the age of 18-34.

Biden covered a slew of topics and compared himself to Lincoln and FDR, taking shots at Republicans, big Pharma, corporations, and the Supreme Court. On several occasions, Biden sparred with Republicans directly, including with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green. Speaking of Green, Biden had a great reaction to seeing her in a “MAGA” hat as he entered the chamber.

Overall, Biden did better than many thought he would, myself included. He lacked many of the expected blunders and brought an energy that seemed counter to his “Sleepy Joe” nickname. The Biden Campaign said they brought in $10M in the 24 hours after the campaign. As of January, the Biden Campaign had $56M in the bank compared to Trump’s $30M.

Some other highlights if you’re interested:

• ABC: Sen. Katie Britt gives Republican Response: fairly consistent reaction to this speech was “that was weird”

• Today: SOTU Highlights

• Biden Campaign: Post SOTU Campaign Commercial Release

Oregon Re-Criminalization

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek will sign a bill that re-criminalizes possession of certain drugs, including fentanyl and heroin. This comes three years after the state became the first to decriminalize the possession and use of all drugs. In January, Kotek declared a “fentanyl state of emergency” in preparation for this legislative change.

More Oregonians are dying from drug overdoses than ever before, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting. In fact, three Oregonians were dying every day from an overdose as of 2023. Good chart below from Families Against Fentanyl that puts the Oregon / Washington crisis in perspective.

In April of 2023, the US DOJ released a report about the fentanyl epidemic in the US. In it, they said:

“Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 49, and it has fueled the opioid epidemic that has been ravaging families and communities across the United States for approximately the past eight years,” the statement reads. “Between 2019 and 2021, fatal overdoses increased by approximately 94%, with an estimated 196 Americans dying each day from fentanyl.”

Vice did an interesting segment on the Sinaloa Cartel’s fentanyl smuggling operations. Worth a watch

Skin Cancer Device

The FDA has cleared a first-of-its-kind handheld device that uses AI to non-invasively detect skin cancer. DermaSensor, the Miami-based device maker announced the news on Wednesday, according to Forbes.

The device can detect all three common types of skin cancer—basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and melanoma, which is the most deadly form of skin cancer—and signal to physicians whether a suspicious lesion should be investigated further

DermaSensor is noted to have had 96% sensitivity across all forms of cancer and across different skin types. Another study revealed that the use of the device reduced the number of missed skin cancer diagnoses by half. Good stuff!

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The Fix’s Picks

Summarizing and linking to some of my favorite reads, podcasts, photos, and clips from the weekend.

Duo Taqueria

This is awesome. Duolingo, a publicly traded EdTech company that teaches languages, supposedly operates a taqueria outside their HQ in Pittsburgh. You get a discount if you speak Spanish, too.

Anyways, in their annual SEC filings, they have a line for “Other” revenue, accounting for ~$700K in sales in 2023. According to the footnote, that’s mainly Duo’s Taqueria.

Good find by @RyanReeves_

Federal Spending

Alright, definitely a boring topic. BUT I liked how straightforward this chart was related to the US federal spending. No idea how to wrap my head around $1.7T Deficit. All I know is that is a big number.

If you want to go deep and see a bunch of accountants fight over why the Corporate Income Tax is so low, check out the reddit thread here.

Northwood Golf Club

The story of Northwood Golf Club, a family-owned, 9-hole golf course in the Redwoods in California. Erik Anders Lang always does great videos, this one included. Some golf, some life advice - worth a watch.

AI Scams

Quicker read from The New Yorker, “The Terrifying A.I. Scam That Uses Your Loved One’s Voice”. With AI, scammers are now using 45-second audio clips to emulate voices of specific people. They leverage that “voice” to target loved ones of those individuals and demand money.

Vending Machine Side Hustle

The latest trending side hustle appears to be vending machines. A WSJ article highlighted Jaime Ibanez, a 23-year-old YouTuber with 500K subscribers who runs 51 vending machines around Texas.

On the surface, vending machines have some attractive qualities as a side business: low startup cost, simple operations, good margins. However, upon another look, they also have some drawbacks: 1) competition is steep - there are three million vending machines in the US and 2) single machines aren’t all that lucrative - the average machine brings in $525 in monthly revenue.

Read the full story on vending machines here from the WSJ.

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The Best of the Rest

All the funny or wise content I came across to kick your week off right

Tree Throwing

Lincoln Navigator

COVID from a Dog’s Perspective

This is cheesy, but it made me smile.

Alright! That’s a wrap. Thanks for reading. See you next Sunday!