California Dreamin': GOP's Chance To Flip The Golden State Authored by Mike Robertson via American Thinker , Ahead of the gubernatorial election this fall, pundits are buzzing with something Californians haven’t heard in years: a real chance to flip the Golden State red - at least with a new governor in Sacramento. Thanks to its top-two primary system, in which the top two finishers advance to Nov...
California Dreamin': GOP's Chance To Flip The Golden State Authored by Mike Robertson via American Thinker , Ahead of the gubernatorial election this fall, pundits are buzzing with something Californians haven’t heard in years: a real chance to flip the Golden State red - at least with a new governor in Sacramento. Thanks to its top-two primary system, in which the top two finishers advance to November regardless of party, this is more than possible. This election cycle matters more than most for the Republican Party, and for the people of California. The Golden State has suffered under one-party Democrat rule for more than fifteen years, and the results are shocking. Despite some recent dips in violent crime, years of soft-on-crime policies have left neighborhoods scarred by retail theft waves, open drug markets, and a homelessness crisis that defies solution. Businesses keep fleeing - California led the nation in net out-migration again in 2025, with roughly 216,000 residents packing up and leaving, many taking jobs and tax revenue with them. Housing remains wildly unaffordable, earning the state an F grade from Realtor.com for sky-high prices relative to incomes and regulatory barriers to new construction. Paychecks don’t stretch, education rankings lag (California sits around 24th–37th nationally, depending on the metric), and the state’s aggressive green-energy mandates have driven up electricity and gas costs while water infrastructure struggles to keep pace. Then came the January 2025 Southern California wildfires . Fire hydrants ran dry, water pressure failed in Pacific Palisades and elsewhere, and critics slammed the response for poor preparation and coordination - exactly the kind of governance failure that leaves residents wondering who’s in charge. All of this flows from Blue authorities: sanctuary-state policies that shield illegal immigrants at the expense of public safety, endless fights with the Trump administration, and a relentless push for DEI and...
Walt Disney Company says technology at California theme park will prevent fraud and streamline re-entry Disneyland, the beloved California adventure park, has outfitted some entrance lanes with facial recognition technology, a move its parent company says will prevent fraud and streamline re-entry. At certain entrance lanes, a camera will capture images of visitors, which can be converted via biom...
Walt Disney Company says technology at California theme park will prevent fraud and streamline re-entry Disneyland, the beloved California adventure park, has outfitted some entrance lanes with facial recognition technology, a move its parent company says will prevent fraud and streamline re-entry. At certain entrance lanes, a camera will capture images of visitors, which can be converted via biometric technology into unique numerical values, according to the Walt Disney Company’s website. Continue reading...
Earnings Call Insights: Robinhood Markets, Inc. (HOOD) Q1 2026 Management View "We announced a few weeks ago that Robinhood will be the broker and sole initial trustee for the Trump Accounts under the direction of the U.S. Department of the Treasury." (Co-Founder, President, CEO & Chairman of the Board Vladimir Tenev) "Over 5.5 million American children are already signed up. Over 60 million, 6-0,...
Earnings Call Insights: Robinhood Markets, Inc. (HOOD) Q1 2026 Management View "We announced a few weeks ago that Robinhood will be the broker and sole initial trustee for the Trump Accounts under the direction of the U.S. Department of the Treasury." (Co-Founder, President, CEO & Chairman of the Board Vladimir Tenev) "Over 5.5 million American children are already signed up. Over 60 million, 6-0, are eligible." (CEO Tenev) "In Q1, we saw record levels across Prediction Markets, Futures, Index Options, Shorting and Margin." (CEO Tenev) "We're really spending time getting ready for the Q2 launch of our JV with Susquehanna. This is our exchange Rothera, and that's coming later this quarter." (CEO Tenev) "Robinhood Banking grew 5x since the last earnings." (CEO Tenev) "Over $2 billion in net deposits. Over 125,000 funded customers." (CEO Tenev) "A 40% direct deposit rate." (CEO Tenev) "Gold credit cards have also surpassed 800,000 customers with annualized purchase volume, APV, of $15 billion." (CEO Tenev) "We're on track to surpass 1 million cards and $100 million ARR this year and well before the end of the year as well." (CEO Tenev) "We plan to launch crypto in Canada around midyear." (CEO Tenev) "We have received in-principle approval from regulators in Singapore to offer a comprehensive suite of brokerage services there." (CEO Tenev) "Revenues grew 15% to $1.07 billion." (Chief Financial Officer Shiv Verma) "Adjusted OpEx and SBC was $607 million, and this included $14 million of costs related to Rothera and Trump Accounts that actually were not included in our outlook." (CFO Verma) Outlook "We expect to invest an incremental $100 million into building Trump Accounts with approximately half of these in Q2 as we prepare to launch." (CFO Verma) "Our work for Trump Accounts is contracted on a cost-plus basis with a small margin. So we expect revenues to exceed cost for this project." (CFO Verma) "We are raising our full year 2026 outlook for adjusted OpEx and SBC by ...
Earnings Call Insights: Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) Q2 fiscal 2026 Management view "We had a very strong quarter and a great start to the first half of our fiscal year" and "based on our results and outlook, we are increasing our fiscal 2026 guidance," said "President, CEO & Director William Lansing". "We reported Q2 revenues of $692 million" and "delivered free cash flow of $214 million," while...
Earnings Call Insights: Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) Q2 fiscal 2026 Management view "We had a very strong quarter and a great start to the first half of our fiscal year" and "based on our results and outlook, we are increasing our fiscal 2026 guidance," said "President, CEO & Director William Lansing". "We reported Q2 revenues of $692 million" and "delivered free cash flow of $214 million," while "in Q2, we continued returning capital to shareholders through share repurchases, buying back $605 million," said "President, CEO & Director Lansing". "To support the goal of increased homeownership and bring the benefits of increased competition to the marketplace, we updated our FICO Score 10T performance model pricing in the FICO mortgage direct licensing program from $4.95 per score plus $33 funding fee to $0.99 per score plus $65 funding fee," said "President, CEO & Director Lansing". "B2B revenues were up 72%" and "second quarter mortgage originations revenues were up 127% versus the prior year," while "we do not anticipate share loss competition in any vertical," said "Executive VP & CFO Steven Weber". Outlook "Revenue guidance is now $2.45 billion," "GAAP net income guidance is now $825 million with GAAP earnings per share of $35.60," and "non-GAAP net income guidance is now $946 million with non-GAAP earnings per share of $40.45," said "President, CEO & Director Lansing". "We anticipate no loss of volume to Vantage in this fiscal year. That's in our -- that's assumed in our guide," and "we do have some lag built into the guidance based on the assumption that performance model will go live," said "President, CEO & Director Lansing" and "Executive VP & CFO Weber". Compared with the prior quarter’s call, management moved from "are reiterating our fiscal 2026 guidance" ("President, CEO & Director Lansing") to "we are raising our full year guidance" ("President, CEO & Director Lansing"). Financial results "We reported Q2 revenues of $692 million," "$264 million in GAAP...
Earnings Call Insights: T-Mobile US (TMUS) Q1 2026 Management View "We're here in Bellevue today ready to discuss another extraordinary quarter for T-Mobile." (CEO, President & Director Srinivasan Gopalan) "Our strategy is driven by widening differentiation, providing customers with the best network, best value and best experience... so that they don't need to make trade-offs anymore." "Our postpa...
Earnings Call Insights: T-Mobile US (TMUS) Q1 2026 Management View "We're here in Bellevue today ready to discuss another extraordinary quarter for T-Mobile." (CEO, President & Director Srinivasan Gopalan) "Our strategy is driven by widening differentiation, providing customers with the best network, best value and best experience... so that they don't need to make trade-offs anymore." "Our postpaid net account additions of 217,000 in Q1... was up 6% year-over-year." (CEO, President & Director Gopalan) "In Q1, that translated to a really strong postpaid ARPA growth of 3.9%." "For yet another quarter, we were the fastest-growing ISP in America, adding over 0.5 million total broadband net additions." (CEO, President & Director Gopalan) "I'm excited about our announcement earlier today that we're entering into 2 additional JVs... to acquire GoNetSpeed, Greenlight Networks and i3 Broadband." "We're delighted to share today that we're connecting our 5G advanced network to Figure AI's F03 humanoid robots." (CEO, President & Director Gopalan) "This partnership... will allow us to explore how the T-Mobile 5G advanced network... can support the broader evolution of physical AI." "We returned $6 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and share buybacks." (CEO, President & Director Gopalan) "We are raising our expectation for total postpaid net account additions to be between 950,000 and 1,050,000." (Executive VP & CFO Peter Osvaldik) "We are also raising our full year core adjusted EBITDA guide... between $37.1 billion and $37.5 billion." Outlook "We continue to expect to deliver full year service revenue of approximately $77 billion." (Executive VP & CFO Osvaldik) "We continue to expect strong postpaid ARPA growth of between 2.5% and 3% for the full year." "We expect Q2 core adjusted EBITDA of approximately $9.4 billion." (Executive VP & CFO Osvaldik) "Our expectation for full year 2026 cash CapEx remains unchanged at approximately $10 billion." "We now expect adju...
Earnings Call Insights: Visa (V) Q2 fiscal 2026 Management View "In our fiscal second quarter, net revenue was up 17% year-over-year to $11.2 billion and EPS was up 20%." (CEO & Director Ryan McInerney) "Stablecoins and blockchain are significant opportunities, and we have established Visa's role as a key interoperability layer between this powerful infrastructure and real-world solutions for user...
Earnings Call Insights: Visa (V) Q2 fiscal 2026 Management View "In our fiscal second quarter, net revenue was up 17% year-over-year to $11.2 billion and EPS was up 20%." (CEO & Director Ryan McInerney) "Stablecoins and blockchain are significant opportunities, and we have established Visa's role as a key interoperability layer between this powerful infrastructure and real-world solutions for users." (CEO & Director McInerney) "Value-added services is an even bigger opportunity and has demonstrated its value as a key driver of our growth, now representing 30% of our net revenue, growing at 25% plus in constant dollars." (CEO & Director McInerney) "We recently announced the acquisition of Prisma... and Newpay... and help us to grow both our carded and non-carded business in Argentina." (CEO & Director McInerney) "We currently have a $7 billion annual run rate of stablecoin settlement volume, and it's growing fast, up more than 50% since last quarter." (CEO & Director McInerney) "Fiscal second quarter net revenue was up 17% year-over-year with the out-performance largely driven by higher-than-expected volatility, stronger-than-expected value-added services revenue and lower-than-expected incentives." (Chief Financial Officer Christopher Suh) "In Q2, we bought back $7.9 billion in stock, the highest quarterly buyback in Visa's history" and "in April, the Board of Directors authorized a new $20 billion multiyear share repurchase program, putting our total buyback capacity at approximately $33 billion." (CFO Suh) Outlook "We are increasing our total net revenue and EPS guide for the full year." (CFO Suh) "For net revenue growth, we now expect low double-digit to low teens." (CFO Suh) "This implies adjusted EPS growth in the low teens, also revised up from our prior outlook." (CFO Suh) "We expect Q3 net revenue growth in the low double digits" and "we expect third quarter EPS growth to be in the mid- to high single digits." (CFO Suh) "The Middle East conflict has introduc...
Authorities say the French-language platform Coco has been linked to crimes, including the sexual abuse of children, rape and murder France has launched a probe into the reappearance of a website that enabled Dominique Pelicot to recruit dozens of strangers to rape his heavily sedated wife, Gisèle, prosecutors said on Tuesday. Authorities say the French-language platform Coco has been linked to cr...
Authorities say the French-language platform Coco has been linked to crimes, including the sexual abuse of children, rape and murder France has launched a probe into the reappearance of a website that enabled Dominique Pelicot to recruit dozens of strangers to rape his heavily sedated wife, Gisèle, prosecutors said on Tuesday. Authorities say the French-language platform Coco has been linked to crimes, including the sexual abuse of children, rape and murder. The website, which was registered abroad, was shut down in June 2024. Continue reading...