Apple rolls out buy now, pay later service, with guardrails

• March 28, 2023

Apple is getting into the buy now, pay later space with a few tweaks to the existing model — including no option to pay with a credit card. The company will roll out the product to some consumers this spring, and will begin reporting the loans to credit bureaus in the fall.

Here’s what you need to know.

Since the start of the pandemic, the option to “buy now, pay later” has skyrocketed in popularity, especially among young and low-income consumers who may not have ready access to traditional credit.

If you shop online for clothes or furniture, sneakers or concert tickets, you’ve seen the option at checkout to break the cost into smaller installments over time. Companies like Afterpay, Affirm, Klarna, and Paypal already offer the service, typically with late fees for missed payments and the option to use a credit card or bank account to make installment payments.

Apple’s version, which is integrated with Apple Pay and facilitated by MasterCard, will require the consumer use a debit card and a bank account to make those payments, the company said, and will not charge flat or percentage late fees. Instead, missed payments will eventually result in the consumer losing access to these kinds of loans.

Apple said its buy now, pay later product will also offer fraud and consumer protections through MasterCard’s existing pay-by-installment model, and will charge merchants fees that “are competitive to other installment products in the market,” according to Mastercard spokesperson Raul Lopez.

How does buy now, pay later work?

Branded as “interest-free loans,” buy now, pay later services require you to download an app, link a bank account or debit or credit card, and sign up to pay in weekly or monthly installments. Some companies, such as Klarna and Afterpay, do soft credit checks, which aren’t reported to credit bureaus, before approving borrowers. This is how Apple’s product will operate as well. Most users are approved in minutes. Scheduled payments are then automatically deducted from one’s bank account or charged to one’s card.

The services generally don’t charge more than a customer would have paid up front, meaning there’s technically no interest, so long as one makes the payments on time.

But if a customer pays late, they may be subject to a flat fee or a fee calculated as a percentage of the total owed. These can run as high as $34 plus interest. If a customer misses multiple payments, they may be shut out from using the service in the future, and the delinquency could hurt their credit score.

In Apple’s case, the company said there will be no late fees, either flat or as a percentage — only the possibility of missed payments reported to credit bureaus, and a loss of access to the loans. If a user wishes to defer payments, or set up a different payment plan, Apple said they can contact support. Several services allow users to defer payments in this way.

Are my purchases protected?

In the U.S., buy now, pay later services are not currently covered by the Truth in Lending Act, which regulates credit cards and other types of loans (those paid back in more than four installments).

That means you could find it more difficult to settle disputes with merchants, return items, or get your money back in cases of fraud. Companies can offer protections, but they don’t have to. Apple’s protections are offered through Mastercard.

Lauren Saunders, associate director at the National Consumer Law Center, advises borrowers to avoid linking a credit card to buy now, pay later apps whenever possible. If you do, you lose the protections you get from using the credit card while also opening yourself up to owing interest to the card company.

“Use the credit card directly and get those protections,” she said. “Otherwise, it’s the worst of both worlds.”

Apple’s decision not to permit consumers to link a credit card to its buy now, pay later product means the consumer avoids stacking debt in this way.

​ Orange County Register 

Elvis Costello & The Imposters’ summer tour is coming to The Greek Theatre

• March 28, 2023

Elvis Costello & The Imposters will be stopping by The Greek Theatre in Los Angeles with its We’re All Going on a Summer Holiday Tour on Friday, June 16.

Costello and the band will also be joined by Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets on the 23-date tour.

Tickets for the show will be available to the general public at 10 a.m. Friday, March 31 at ticketmaster.com. There’s also a special presale starting at 10 a.m. Wednesday, March 29. Pre-sale for Citi Card members at citientertainment.com.

In February, Costello played the highly-acclaimed “100 Songs and More,” a 10-evening engagement at the Gramercy Theater in New York where he played more than 230 original songs, repeating only three titles. Additionally, Costello released the compilation “The Songs of Bacharach & Costello” on March 2. It’s a double album celebrating his nearly 30-year songwriting collaboration with Burt Bacharach.

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​ Orange County Register 

Orange County’s only cancer specialty hospital will open in 2025

• March 28, 2023

In November, Heidi Paolone received a heart-wrenching diagnosis: She had a rare form of stage 3 ovarian cancer.

Paolone was referred to City of Hope, a cancer research and treatment hospital, and had surgery at its Duarte facility, about 60 miles from her home in Cota de Caza. But with City of Hope set to open Orange County’s only cancer specialty hospital in Irvine in the fall of 2025, she is excited at the prospect of care a shorter distance from home.

City of Hope unveiled to-scale replicas of some of the planned hospital’s rooms and features on Tuesday, March 28, in an effort to solicit feedback about the design, layout and functionality from stakeholders, patients, doctors and the community at large. That’s in line with its “philosophy of wanting to be a neighbor,” said Annette Walker, president of City of Hope Orange County.

The replicas included the care team station, patient rooms, a pharmacy, a laboratory, a CT scan suite and fluoroscopy procedure area.

The design layout was intended to be less of a “sterile environment” and more comforting and welcoming, Cynthia Powers, vice president and associate chief nursing officer at City of Hope Orange County, said.

For example, she said, medical paraphernalia is tucked away out of sight in patient rooms to declutter and “really focus on the aesthetics.” Counters at care team stations are low so nurses and physicians can speak and acknowledge patients, she said, rather than have them go unnoticed.

Walker said City of Hope did extensive research on Orange County to determine the cancers that had the greatest need in choosing specialists in gynecology, hematology-oncology, dermatology, breast cancer and bone marrow. An integrated medicine specialist was also hired.

“We do have some Eastern methodologies that will be incorporated in our supportive care departments such as acupuncture, meditation,” Walker said. “We are doing some clinical trials on CBD and the effect of CBD on eliminating some of the symptoms of chemotherapy.”

The experience of walking through the mock design was “unique and special,” said Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan.

The new cancer campus will be “a groundbreaker not only for Irvine but for all of Orange County,” Khan said, because residents will not have to travel for care.

“Seeing the growth of not only the hospital industries but also the MedTech in Irvine really goes to show that people here care about the community,” Khan said.

According to data provided by City of Hope, before its cancer center opened, nearly 20 percent of cancer patients left the county for advanced cancer care.

City of Hope is investing more than $1.5 billion, some of that funding coming from philanthropy, in the 73-bed cancer campus that will span over 122,000 square feet, adjacent to the City of Hope’s outpatient cancer center that opened in August. Prior to the opening of the outpatient center, the hospital brought in more than 500 people to provide feedback on the design.

“As soon as I walked into the lobby here, I just felt like I could breathe,” Paolone said. “It’s not how it looks; it’s how it made me feel. I didn’t feel like I was in this scary, sterile place. It just felt warm.”

​ Orange County Register 

Fed official: Bank rules under review in wake of SVB failure

• March 28, 2023

The Federal Reserve’s bank supervisors warned Silicon Valley Bank’s management as early as the fall of 2021 of risks stemming from its unusual business model, a top Fed official said Tuesday, but its managers failed to take the steps necessary to fix the problems.

The Fed official, Michael Barr, the nation’s top banking regulator, said during a Senate Banking Committee hearing that the Fed is considering whether stronger bank rules are needed to prevent a similar failure in the future.

Silicon Valley Bank’s management was deficient, Barr said. In particular, he said, the interest rate model the bank used “was not at all aligned with reality.”

The timeline that Barr laid out for when the Fed had alerted Silicon Valley’s management to the risks it faced is earlier than the central bank has previously said the bank was on its radar screen.

Tuesday’s hearing was the first formal congressional inquiry into the March 10 collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the subsequent failure of New York-based Signature Bank, the second- and third-largest bank failures in U.S. history.

The failures set off financial tremors in the U.S. and Europe and led the Fed and other government agencies to back all deposits at the two banks, even though nearly 90% of both banks’ deposits exceeded the $250,000 insurance threshold. The Fed also established a new lending program to enable banks to more easily raise cash if needed.

Late Sunday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said that resolving the two banks, including reimbursing depositors, would cost its insurance fund $20 billion, the largest such impact in its history. The FDIC plans to recoup those funds through a levy on all banks, which will likely be passed on to consumers.

Sen. Sherrod Brown, the Ohio Democrat who leads the committee, suggested that the government’s rescue of SVB’s depositors, which included wealthy venture capitalists and large tech companies, had caused “justified anger” among many Americans.

“I understand why many Americans are angry — even disgusted — at how quickly the government mobilized, when a bunch of elites in California were demanding it,” Brown said.

Republican members of the committee focused their fire on the Fed and other regulators for failing to prevent SVB’s failure. The Fed has been criticized by advocacy groups for not adequately responding to red flags about the bank’s management.

“I hope to learn how the Federal Reserve could know about such risky practices for more than a year and failed to take definitive, corrective action,” said Sen. Tim Scott, Republican from South Carolina. “By all accounts, our regulators appear to have been asleep at the wheel.”

Several senators have introduced bills that would tighten bank regulation or raise the FDIC’s $250,000 threshold. But given the partisan divisions in Congress on those issues, few expect such proposals to become law.

Silicon Valley’s deposits were heavily concentrated in the high-tech sector, which made it particularly vulnerable to a downturn in a single industry. It had bought long-term Treasurys and other bonds with those funds.

The value of those bonds fell as interest rates rose. When the bank was forced to sell those bonds to repay depositors as they withdrew funds, Silicon Valley absorbed heavy losses and couldn’t pay its customers.

Barr said that depositors withdrew $42 billion — equal to about a quarter of the bank’s assets — on the Thursday before the bank failed. On Friday morning, it faced an additional $100 billion in withdrawal requests.

Barr said the Fed’s review of Silicon Valley’s collapse will consider whether stricter regulations are needed, including whether supervisors have the tools needed to follow up on their warnings. The Fed will also consider whether tougher rules are needed on liquidity — the ability of the bank to access cash — and capital requirements, which govern the level of funds a bank needs to hold.

​ Orange County Register 

Police: Nashville shooter bought 7 guns before school attack

• March 28, 2023

By JONATHAN MATTISE

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The shooter who killed three students and three staff members at a Christian school in Nashville legally bought seven weapons in recent years and hid the guns from their parents before carrying out the attack by firing indiscriminately at victims and spraying gunfire through doors and windows, police said Tuesday.

The violence Monday at The Covenant School was the latest school shooting to roil the nation and was planned carefully. The shooter had drawn a detailed map of the school, including potential entry points, and conducted surveillance of the building before carrying out the massacre, authorities said.

The suspect, Audrey Hale, 28, was a former student at the school. Hale did not target specific victims — among them three 9-year-olds and the head of the school — but did target “this school, this church building,” police spokesperson Don Aaron said at a news conference Tuesday.

Hale was under a doctor’s care for an undisclosed emotional disorder and was not known to police before the attack, Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake said at the news conference.

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If police had been told that Hale was suicidal or homicidal, “then we would have tried to get those weapons,” Drake said. “But as it stands, we had absolutely no idea who this person was or if (Hale) even existed.”

Hale legally bought seven firearms from five local gun stores, Drake said. Three of them were used in Monday’s shooting.

Hale’s parents believed their child had sold one gun and did not own any others, Drake said, adding that Hale “had been hiding several weapons within the house.”

Hale’s motive is unknown, Drake said. In an interview with NBC News on Monday, Drake said investigators don’t know what drove Hale but believe the shooter had “some resentment for having to go to that school.”

Drake, at Tuesday’s news conference, described “several different writings by Hale” that mention other locations and The Covenant School. There also was a map of the school and a drawing about how Hale would potentially enter the school.

“There’s quite a bit of writing to it,” he said.

Police have released videos of the shooting, including edited surveillance footage that shows the shooter’s car driving up to the school, glass doors being shot out and the shooter ducking through one of them.

Additional video, from Officer Rex Engelbert’s bodycam, shows a woman greeting police outside as they arrive at The Covenant School on Monday and telling them that all the children were locked down, “but we have two kids that we don’t know where they are.”

The woman then directs officers to Fellowship Hall and says people inside had just heard gunshots. Three officers, including Engelbert, search rooms one by one, holding rifles and announcing themselves as police.

The video shows officers climbing stairs to the second floor and entering a lobby area, followed by a barrage of gunfire and an officer yelling twice: “Get your hands away from the gun.” Then the shooter is shown motionless on the floor.

Police identified Engelbert, a four-year member of the force, and Michael Collazo, a nine-year member, as the officers who fatally shot Hale.

Aaron said there were no police officers present or assigned to the school at the time of the shooting because it is a church-run school.

Police response times to school shootings have come under greater scrutiny after the attack in Uvalde, Texas, in which 70 minutes passed before law enforcement stormed the classroom. In Nashville, police have said 14 minutes passed from the initial call to when the suspect was killed, but they have not said how long it took them to arrive.

Surveillance video shows a time stamp of just before 10:11 a.m., when the attacker shot out the doors. Police said they got the call about a shooter at 10:13 a.m. but have not said precisely what time they arrived, and the edited bodycam footage didn’t include time stamps. A police spokesperson didn’t respond to an email Tuesday asking when they arrived or whether any version of the video includes time stamps.

During the news conference, Drake did not answer a question directly about how many minutes it took police to arrive. At about 10:24 a.m., 11 minutes after the call was received, officers engaged the suspect, he said.

“There were police cars that had been hit by gunfire. As officers were approaching the building, there was gunfire going off,” Drake said.

“We feel, our response right now, from what I’ve seen, I don’t have a particular problem with it. But we always want to get better. We always want to get there in two or three minutes,” he said, adding that traffic was “locked down” at the time.

Traffic was indeed stopped along a nearby two-lane road with a turning lane as police tried to weave their way to the school.

Police have given unclear information on Hale’s gender. For hours Monday, police identified the shooter as a woman. Later in the day, the police chief said Hale was transgender. After the news conference, Aaron declined to elaborate on how Hale identified.

In an email Tuesday, police spokesperson Kristin Mumford said Hale “was assigned female at birth. Hale did use male pronouns on a social media profile.” Later Tuesday, at the news conference, Drake referred to Hale with female pronouns.

Authorities identified the dead children as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney. The adults were Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61.

The website of The Covenant School, a Presbyterian school founded in 2001, lists a Katherine Koonce as the head of the school. Her LinkedIn profile says she has led the school since July 2016. Peak was a substitute teacher, and Hill was a custodian, according to investigators.

The Covenant School, founded as a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church, is in the affluent Green Hills neighborhood just south of downtown Nashville. The school has about 200 students from preschool through sixth grade, as well as roughly 50 staff members.

President Joe Biden said he had spoken to the police chief, mayor and senators in Tennessee. He pleaded with Congress to pass stronger gun safety laws, including a ban on “assault weapons.”

“The Congress has to act,” Biden said. “The majority of the American people think having assault weapons is bizarre, it’s a crazy idea. They’re against that.”

Before Monday’s violence in Nashville, there had been seven mass killings at K-12 schools since 2006 in which four or more people were killed within a 24-hour period, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University. In all of them, the shooters were males.

The database does not include school shootings in which fewer than four people were killed, which have become far more common in recent years. Just last week alone, for example, school shootings happened in Denver and the Dallas area within two days of each other.

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Denise Lavoie in Richmond, Virginia, John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia, and Stefanie Dazio in Los Angeles.

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​ Orange County Register 

Seven dead, dozens missing in Ecuador landslide

• March 28, 2023

By Patricia Oleas and Cesar Olmos | Associated Press

ALAUSI, Ecuador — A huge landslide swept over an Andean community in central Ecuador, burying dozens of homes, killing at least seven people and sending rescuers on a frantic search for survivors, authorities said Monday.

Earlier in the day, officials had reported 16 deaths, but President Guillermo Lasso put the confirmed toll at seven as he arrived Monday night at the scene of the disaster in Alausí, about 137 miles south of the capital, Quito. Officials also raised the number of people reported missing to 62.

Lasso lamented the tragedy and promised people in the town that “we will continue working” on the search effort.

Ecuador’s Risk Management Secretariat said more than 30 people were rescued after the mountainside collapsed around 10 p.m. Sunday. It said 23 people were injured.

“My mother is buried” under the mud, said Luis Ángel González, 58, who also lost other family members Sunday. “I am so sad, devastated. There is nothing here, no houses, no anything. We are homeless (and) without family.”

The risk management agency estimated 500 people and 163 homes were affected by the disaster, which also destroyed a portion of the Pan-American Highway.

The governor of Chimborazo, Ivan Vinueza, told The Associated Press that some of the injured were taken to area hospitals. He said officials had urged people to evacuate the area after landslides and cracks began to develop about two months ago. Some followed the advice, and by Saturday, as tremors intensified, others fled.

Area residents told local media they heard tremors on the mountain before the landslide, which was estimated to be about 150 meters (490 feet) wide and nearly a half mile (700 meters) long. It swept away trees, homes and other buildings. More than fifty houses were buried under tons of mud of debris.

The emergency response agency said 60% of potable water service in the area was affected by the landslide. The communication’s office of the presidential office said some schools would be switching to online classes.

Firefighters from a half dozen cities were dispatched to the area to help. Rescuers focused on the flanks of the landslide where they found traces and debris of houses.

Rescuer and paramedic Alberto Escobar said it was unlikely more survivors would be found because of the time that had elapsed.

He said the search would continue as long as it did not rain.

Video from cameras connected to the country’s emergency service network showed people fleeing their homes with help from neighbors. It also showed people transporting appliances and other belongings in vehicles.

Survivors, many housed in temporary shelters, cried over their misfortune.

Among them was the Zuña family, who were staying at the Iglesia Matriz de Alausí, where rooms for catechism or parish meetings were adapted with bunk beds days ago after authorities declared an emergency in the area due to the risk of landslides.

Sonia Guadalupe Zuña said her mother was reluctant to leave what they had built over the years.

“We went to the shelter, but my mother didn’t want to,” Zuña said. “Later, my daughter went to convince her. When they walked along the rails, everything collapsed. They arrived covered in dirt and crying.”

Save for the clothes they had on, Zuña’s family lost everything.

“I don’t know where, but we’re all leaving,” she said crying. “My parents taught us that by working hard, you get material things, but being together is priceless.”

Associated Press writers Gonzalo Solano in Quito and Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, Venezuela, contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Coachella 2023: The Glitch Mob, Disco Wrek, Mr. Carmack to play the Do Lab

• March 28, 2023

The Do Lab, the famous electronic and house music and arts stage located inside the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, has revealed its lineup for the two-weekend affair taking over the Empire Polo Club in Indio April 14-16 and April 21-23.

It includes more than 50 acts and features Do Lab veterans The Glitch Mob, Australian duo Flight Facilities, the new project of Party Favor & Baauer aka Dylan & Harry, and the mashup of Grammy-nominated artists A-Trak and Dave 1 under the moniker The Brothers Macklovitch.

The Do Lab stage has been an intricate part of Coachella for the past 16 years and 2023 also marks the 20th anniversary of Lightning in a Bottle, the boutique festival that puts on the stage with the immersive art leaders Do Lab. The stage is known for its interactive crowd, colorful structures, electronic beats and occasional aerial dancers gliding above the crowd.

Surprise guests are also expected each weekend. Previous surprises have included sets by Diplo, Skream, Subtronics, Dom Dolla, John Summit, Madeon, SG Lewis and DJ Hanzel.

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The lineup for weekend one includes ALUNA, Andreas One, BAMBII, Bora Uzer, Carlita, Carré b2b Samwise, Daily Bread, DJ Tennis, Dylan & Harry (Party Favor & Baauer), Elif, Flight Facilities, Franky Wah, Henry Pope, Kasablanca, KIMONOS, Little Dinosaur, Maria Tambien, Mild Minds, Miss Javi, Mr. Carmack, Phantoms, SOHMI, The Brothers Macklovitch, The Glitch Mob and Whipped Cream.

Weekend two will be A Hundred Drums, Ali Farahani b2b Patrik Khach, Arodes, Cloonee, DEVAULT, Disco Wrek (Disco Lines b2b Ship Wrek), DJ Susan, Elephant Heart, Emmit Fenn, Flamingosis, Giolì & Assia, Hank K, HOLLY b2b Machinedrum, it’s murph, Jo Jones, Little Foot, Maddy O’Neal, Michaël Brun, Mikey Lion, ODD MOB, Of The Trees, PARALEVEN, Patricio, SYREETA and The Funk Hunters.

​ Orange County Register 

LA-Orange County homebuying slumps 36% to slowest February on record

• March 28, 2023

Homebuying’s slump in Los Angeles and Orange counties pushed sales down 36% in a year to the slowest February on record.

Sales of 4,907 homes in the two counties were down 2,765 from February 2022, according to data from CoreLogic.

So, just how slow is that?

It was the slowest February for sales in records dating to 1988.
Third lowest sales total for any month.
The year’s percentage sales drop ranked second-largest over 35 years.
It’s 41% below the average February sales pace dating to 1988.

Surging mortgage rates cut buying power by 25% in a year, making Southern California’s high home prices even more unaffordable. Economic skittishness and soaring inflation didn’t help. In the six-county Southern California region, sales fell 38% in the past year to 11,068. The median sales price fell 0.3% to $690,000.

Purchasing pause

Los Angeles County had 3,392 closings, up 10% in a month but 38% lower in a year. Orange County had 1,515 sales – up 17% in a month but 31% lower in a year.

And consider how prices moved.

In Los Angeles County, the $765,000 median was up 0.3% in a month, but it’s 4% lower in a year. It’s also 12% off the $865,000 record high set in April 2022.

Orange County’s $957,750 median was up 0.8% in a month, but it’s 2% lower in a year. It’s also 9% off the $1,054,000 peak of May 2022.

Payment pain

Pricier financing is clearly a culprit: The 30-year mortgage averaged 6.3% in February vs. 3.8% 12 months earlier.

My trusty spreadsheet tells me Los Angeles County buyers got an estimated house payment that’s 27% pricier – $3,772 per month on the $765,000 median vs. $2,968 on a year ago’s $800,000 home. And that assumes having $153,000 for a 20% downpayment.

In Orange County, buyers got a payment that’s 30% higher – $4,723 monthly on the $957,750 median vs. $3,635 on a year ago’s $980,000 home. The downpayment was $191,550 or 20%.

Single-family homes

Sales: Los Angeles County’s 2,344 transactions were up 4% in a month but 36% lower in a year. Orange County’s 922 closings were up 11% in a month and 30% lower in a year.

Prices: Los Angeles County’s $830,000 median was up 4% in a month but 4% lower in a year. Orange County’s $1,070,000 median was down 3% in a month and 8% lower in a year.

Condos

Sales: In Los Angeles County, 828 units sold —  up 26% in a month and 41% lower in a year. In Orange County, 430 sold —  up 22% in a month and 36% lower in a year.

Prices: Los Angeles County’s $637,500 median was up 2% in a month and 3% lower in a year. Orange County’s $725,000 median was up 14% in a month and 1% higher in a year.

New homes

Sales: Los Angeles County builder sold 160 units —  up 31% in a month but 45% lower in a year. Orange County had 163 new residences sold —  up 48% in a month but 21% lower in a year.

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Prices: Los Angeles County’s $883,750 new-home median was down 1% in a month but 5% higher in a year. Orange County’s $1,236,000 median was down 3% in a month but 30% higher in a year.

Builder share: In Los Angeles County, new homes were 4.7% of all closings last month compared to 5.3% 12 months earlier. Orange County’s 10.8% share last month compares to 9.4% 12 months earlier.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com

​ Orange County Register