--:-- [Upbeat music fades out, and the hosts introduce themselves]
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm Georgia Howe, and this is your Morning Wire afternoon update.
--:-- John Bickley: I'm John Bickley, the Daily Wire editor-in-chief, and we're glad you're joining us.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's Friday, April 5th, and we've got a lot to cover today.
--:-- John Bickley: That's right. Let's start with the economy. The numbers are in, and it's not looking good.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The economy added 303,000 new jobs, but oil prices spiked to $91 a barrel on Friday.
--:-- John Bickley: And that's got economists worried about a new round of inflation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The higher oil cost has already hit the pumps, and consumers are paying 6% more per gallon of gas since last month.
--:-- John Bickley: JPMorgan Chase forecast that oil will reach $100 a barrel by September.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But not everyone is worried. Investment analyst Meredith Whitney believes there won't be a recession in 2024.
--:-- John Bickley: And the Fed will not cut rates.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Larry Summers has a great expression that he thinks the Fed has itchy fingers.
--:-- John Bickley: But I don't think the Fed needs to have itchy fingers because the economy is doing well.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And it's not as if if they don't cut rates, the economy is going to fall off the cliff because that's just not going to happen.
--:-- John Bickley: The consumer's too strong, and also we're in an election year.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And both, you know, Biden has shown that he has really no problem spending money.
--:-- John Bickley: Trump, his record, he didn't have any problem spending money.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So you've got consumer spending and the government spending, and that going to clearly lead to continued economic growth.
--:-- Georgia Howe: In other news, New York City agreed to pay $1 million to settle a lawsuit by women who were forced to remove their hijabs when arrested.
--:-- John Bickley: Police insisted the women remove their head covering before being photographed.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The class action lawsuit was brought by two women, but the payout will be distributed among all of the women who filed a similar claim.
--:-- John Bickley: The NYPD changed its policy back in 2020 and now allows religious garments to be worn for photographs, as long as they don't obstruct the face.
--:-- Georgia Howe: NYPD spokesperson Nicholas Paolucci said the agreement carefully balances the department's respect for firmly held religious belief with the important law enforcement need to take arrest photos.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Boeing paid Alaska Airlines $160 million in compensation for the door panel blowout.
--:-- John Bickley: According to a regulatory filing, this was an initial payment for a pre-tax loss and loss of revenue caused by the incident.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The accident happened back on January 9th when a Boeing MAX 9 was flying 16,000 feet above the ground.
--:-- John Bickley: No one was injured in the incident.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Federal Aviation Administration grounded the MAX 9 for several weeks while it conducted an inspection.
--:-- John Bickley: The planes are now flying again.
--:-- Georgia Howe: A farm worker in Texas has tested positive for bird flu.
--:-- John Bickley: This version of the H5N1 avian flu was detected in 2020 and has spread across wild birds, backyard hens, and commercial poultry.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The flu has now been found in cattle in Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, Idaho, and Texas, where the farm worker was infected after direct contact with the cows.
--:-- John Bickley: The CDC says they're monitoring the avian flu very closely, and the risk to humans is very low.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller says consumers do not need to worry about eating eggs or even dairy.
--:-- Sid Miller: Consumers need not worry. None of the chicken, none of the eggs got into the food system.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Even cooking eggs takes care of the pathogen.
--:-- Sid Miller: The egg farm will be back in full production in three to four months.
--:-- Georgia Howe: There's a lot of unknowns about how this transferred to cattle.
--:-- Sid Miller: We now think it moves from cow to cow. We didn't think that at first.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So we've got a lot of research to do.
--:-- Sid Miller: But the milk also never entered the food chain.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Any dairy products that have been pasteurized are just fine.
--:-- Sid Miller: I don't think there's anything to worry about that.
--:-- Georgia Howe: You might want to lay off the raw milk or unpasteurized dairy products for a little while until we figure this out.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Americans' property taxes rose in 2023, up nearly 7% from last year.
--:-- John Bickley: The average property tax bill was just over $4,000.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Real estate data from Adam found the most expensive property tax states are Illinois, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
--:-- John Bickley: The 10 most expensive states were all in the Northeast and Midwest.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The CEO of Adam says inflation is partly to blame, along with the rising costs for city and county services.
--:-- John Bickley: Some homeowners are being forced to sell their homes due to the rising property tax assessments, and landlords are increasing rents to cover the costs.
--:-- Georgia Howe: How much money do you need to retire?
--:-- John Bickley: According to a survey by Northwestern Mutual, most Americans believe they need $1 million before exiting the workforce.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That's up from $750,000 last year.
--:-- John Bickley: But your personal retirement number could be much higher or lower than this.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The problem is most Americans only have $65,000 in savings.
--:-- Mitchell Krause: It's up to you to know your financial situation. Really take the time and understand your situation.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Most people don't have a budget. Most people don't know how much money they have.
--:-- Mitchell Krause: They don't know how far that will go in retirement.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And a little bit of research can either prod you to go a little bit further or put your mind at ease.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And finally, Forbes has released its annual billionaires list.
--:-- John Bickley: You'll recognize several of the names.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos took the number two and three spots, but fell behind Bernard Arnault, the CEO of luxury brand LVMH, who is now the richest man in the world.
--:-- John Bickley: The richest female in the world with $99 billion is number 15 on the list, Francois Bettencourt Myers.
--:-- Georgia Howe: She's the granddaughter of the founder of L'Oreal.
--:-- John Bickley: And for the first time ever, Taylor Swift earned billionaire status after raking in hundreds of millions of dollars from her Eros tour.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Swift came in at number 2,545 on the rich list.
--:-- [Closing music starts playing]
--:-- Georgia Howe: Those are your drive home updates this afternoon.
--:-- John Bickley: To learn more about these stories, go to dailywire.com.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And for more in-depth discussion of the biggest stories of the day, listen to the latest full episode of Morning Wire every morning.
--:-- [Closing music continues to play until the end of the segment]
