• CA Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a settlement with the El Monte Union High School District.
• The settlement involves a corrective plan for the district over its handling of sexual misconduct cases.
• One of the district’s schools was the focus of a 2023 investigation by Business Insider.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Friday that his office reached a settlement with the El Monte Union High School District.

The settlement follows what Bonta described as years of “mishandling” sexual harassment, assault, and abuse complaints from students.

In 2023, Business Insider published an extensive investigation into allegations of misconduct at Rosemead High, a school in the district.

The state opened an investigation into the district in 2024. It examined conduct from 2018 through fall 2025 and reviewed more than 88,000 documents and nearly 200,000 emails. Investigators also interviewed 26 administrators, along with staff, former students, and other witnesses.

Speaking at a press conference in Los Angeles County, Bonta said that, under the settlement, the California Department of Justice and the school district will implement a four-year corrective plan that would permanently enjoin the district from violating state and federal laws governing sexual misconduct in schools.

The El Monte Union High School District serves roughly 9,500 students across eight campuses.

“Every child deserves to learn and grow in a safe and supportive school environment,” the attorney general said in a statement on Friday. “Today’s settlement marks a beginning, not an end.”

“I am hopeful that the District will move swiftly to implement the reforms required by this settlement, and my office will be monitoring closely to ensure its compliance,” Bonta added.

As part of the settlement, the district must appoint a state DOJ-approved compliance coordinator, roll out a centralized electronic complaint system, and expand access to education and mental health services for those who report misconduct. Officials will also be required to maintain a list of substitute teachers barred from reappointment following sustained findings of sexual harassment.

“At El Monte Union High School District, student safety and well-being remain our highest priorities,” El Monte Union High School Superintendent Edward Zuniga said in a statement included in Bonta’s press release.

“This agreement reflects our continued commitment to strengthening systems that support safe, inclusive, and respectful learning environments. Through enhanced protocols, increased transparency, and expanded training for staff, students, and families, we are reinforcing our responsibility to protect every student and ensure they feel supported, valued, and ready to learn.”

• Taylor Frankie Paul’s “Bachelorette” season was canceled amid an investigation into an alleged domestic violence incident.
• Paul’s historic casting had promised to breathe new life into the decades-old franchise.
• ABC pulling the plug on the season underscores the “Bachelor” franchise’s inflexibility.

Taylor Frankie Paul’s “Bachelorette” season was shaping up to be the Most Dramatic Season Ever. Now, it will go down in history as the Most Dramatic Season to Never Exist.

In September, the decision to cast 31-year-old Paul, a TikToker and the star of Hulu’s hit reality series “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives,” as the next Bachelorette was framed as a groundbreaking change of pace for the famously risk-averse juggernaut. The long-running franchise’s ratings have been in steady decline since the late 2010s, so things were finally dire enough to cast their first lead from outside the franchise. Enter Paul, a messy single mom whose exploits on “Mormon Wives” had already buoyed ABC’s Disney-owned sister network to record-breaking ratings.

It was a surprisingly big swing for the network that was praised for promising to breathe new life into the franchise. But when you swing that big, you have to be ready to whiff spectacularly.

That’s what happened on Wednesday, when the network made the decision to pull the plug on Paul’s season of “The Bachelorette” amid a police investigation into a February incident of alleged domestic violence between Paul and her ex, Dakota Mortensen, and the leak of a disturbing video from Paul’s previously reported altercation with Mortensen in 2023.

Never mind the gauntlets of already-completed press, the estimated $8.2 million in TV promos, or the fact that the season had already wrapped filming and was set to premiere in three days’ time. The dream was over for Paul.

Perhaps it’s time the dream of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” is, too.

Casting Taylor Frankie Paul was always going to be risky

Chaos has always been Paul’s brand. Before Paul was poised to be the star of not one but two television shows, she was the self-destructive and eminently watchable leader of MomTok, a loose collection of Mormon moms who make TikToks together in Utah. Though the women gained followings for their perfect barrel curls and silly dancing videos, it was a bombshell 2022 video of Paul admitting to “soft swinging” with other members of MomTok and their husbands that catapulted her and her circle of friends to infamy — and got them a Hulu reality show.

Hulu learned early in filming “Mormon Wives” that the very qualities that made Paul a compelling reality-television character would also make her a liability. In 2023, the show paused production when Paul was arrested after an altercation with Mortensen and was charged with aggravated assault, child abuse, and domestic violence in the presence of a child. She pleaded guilty to the aggravated assault charge — a third-degree felony — in exchange for the other charges being dropped, and entered a plea of abeyance for 36 months, after which time the charge would be lessened to a misdemeanor if she abided by the terms of her probation.

“Mormon Wives” chronicles this incident in its very first episode, airing police bodycam footage of a distraught Paul being arrested at her home in Utah. The next episode picks up a year later, with Paul pregnant with Mortensen’s child and the couple back together. (Their child, Ever True, was born in March 2024.)

Throughout the show’s four seasons, Paul has emerged as one of the most compelling, frustrating, and mesmerizing characters on reality television. She takes the arrest and subsequent therapy and treatment hard, sobbing onscreen in moments that feel too private to be broadcast to the world. She repeatedly admits to being at fault in the 2023 incident in interviews and on “Mormon Wives.”

She prostrates herself so deeply at the altar of accountability that she can only counterbalance it by doing something so self-destructive — posting shady TikToks about her friends, sleeping with Mortensen the night before leaving to film “The Bachelorette” — that she’s forced to repeat the cycle anew.

That’s all to say that ABC should have seen this coming. The fact that they didn’t or couldn’t course-correct in time underscores the Bachelor Nation’s Achilles’ heel: inflexibility.

After over 50 seasons of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” combined, plus dozens more spinoffs, the franchise has done precious little to evolve as the pool of reality dating shows has become increasingly crowded. Its efforts to increase racial diversity among the cast have backfired several times, and its format of dates and rose ceremonies has remained almost entirely unchanged over two decades. A change in showrunners and a new aesthetic for the 10th season of the spinoff “Bachelor in Paradise” caused a minor stir, mostly serving as a reminder of just how stale the flagship series has become by comparison.

For all the promo material that boasted Paul’s “Bachelorette” season would “break the mold,” ABC dropped their star the moment her signature brand of chaos — not to mention her previously known 2023 arrest, which acts as part of her origin story on season one of “Mormon Wives” — became a drawback to the network instead of a selling point.

Whatever you think of the leaked video, of Paul and Mortensen’s relationship dynamic, and whether either of them should have a platform or be on reality television while both openly battling issues with addiction and mental health, the fact remains that “The Bachelorette” tried and failed to have it both ways. The most frustrating part is that the franchise may learn the wrong lesson from the fiasco.

‘The Bachelor’ franchise needs to stop pretending its leads are role models

From the moment a gaggle of women stepped out of the limo in the series’ groundbreaking 2002 premiere, “The Bachelor” has been committed to selling the idea of a romantic fairy tale. Red roses are currency toward earning the man or woman of your dreams. Contestants talk about meeting the love of their life, of the engagement they’ve been dreaming of since they were little girls. Overnight dates are still called the “Fantasy Suites.”

While two-plus decades of competitive romance have softened some of the franchise’s buzzwords into meta-commentary on the show itself (who is “here for the right reasons?“), the show’s operating principle still rests on the idea that its lead is the most perfect person worthy of “finding love.”

The concept of casting a complex, deeply flawed woman as a romantic lead was inspired and would no doubt have made for a compelling season of television. But the show chose Paul without considering the shackles it would inherently place on her. Bachelor Nation viewers still expect leads to be unimpeachable role models — Taylor Frankie Paul was a fascinating choice because she got famous precisely because she is not.

Where this leaves “The Bachelorette,” ABC, Paul, Mortensen, and the rest of the “Mormon Wives” cast remains to be seen. Disney Entertainment, Paul, and Mortensen have all released statements that emphasize they will be “focusing on family” amid the news; filming for the fifth season of “Mormon Wives” is currently on pause.

But as the dust settles in Hollywood and Salt Lake City, Paul shouldn’t be the only one doing some repenting. Scrapping the season shouldn’t teach ABC brass that risks aren’t worth taking. It should show them that if they’re going to shake up the franchise, they can’t expect one woman’s unpredictable personality to provide an advertiser-safe earthquake that will do the work of dozens of top producers and executives.

If the franchise is going to stay afloat, it needs to find something new, entertaining, and poignant to say about modern dating and the concept of a happy ending. At one time, Paul’s casting represented a chance to do exactly that. Pulling her season shows the network was more interested in juicing ratings, as long as the outcome wasn’t as messy as its lead. Perhaps it’s time to question if ABC cast her for the wrong reasons.

• Annie Altman’s sexual abuse lawsuit against her brother Sam Altman has been dismissed.
• A judge ruled her claims against the OpenAI CEO were too late, but she could refile.
• He greenlit Sam Altman’s defamation countersuit.

A federal judge has tossed a lawsuit brought by the sister of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman alleging he sexually abused her as a child.

Annie Altman’s allegations were brought too late for her lawsuit to survive, US District Judge Zachary Bluestone ruled Friday.

Bluestone, however, gave Annie Altman’s lawsuit a lifeline by allowing her to refile it using Missouri’s particular Childhood Sexual Abuse law, which offers an extended statute of limitations. He gave her until April 3 to file a new lawsuit.

In the same Friday order, the judge greenlit a countersuit from Sam Altman accusing Annie of defamation and of abusing the legal process.

Annie Altman filed her lawsuit in a federal court in Missouri in January 2025. She alleged that Sam Altman, who is nine years older than her, sexually abused her between 1997 and 2006, beginning when she was three years old, when they were growing up in Clayton, Missouri.

Sam Altman has denied the allegations. In a public statement following the filing of the lawsuit, he, his two younger brothers, and their mother said Annie Altman had “mental health issues.”

Sam Altman’s countersuit said that his sister made up the allegations of sexual abuse — posting them on social media as well as including them in her lawsuit — after their family declined her “demands for unrestricted financial support” in light of her mental health issues.

“One of the only points of agreement in this case is that the claims are disturbing — particularly so if they prove true but nonetheless unfortunate if not,” Bluestone wrote in his Friday ruling.

Ryan Mahoney, an attorney representing Annie Altman, said she plans to file a new lawsuit.

“The Court’s ruling relates to procedural matters, which have no bearing on the substance of Ann Altman’s claims,” Mahoney told Business Insider. “The Court granted leave for Ms. Altman to file an amended complaint, which we will do promptly.”

An attorney for Sam Altman declined to comment for this story.

• Box CEO Aaron Levie said AI token consumption won’t be limited to engineers.
• Levie said AI token usage will only increase among workers who properly use AI.
• Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he would be upset if an engineer didn’t use equivalent of half of their salary on tokens.

Box CEO Aaron Levie says tech companies won’t be the last to see AI budget balloon.

“This will of course start in engineering, where we already know developers can run multiple agents in parallel, or have projects going over night,” Levie wrote on X. “But this eventually hit the rest of knowledge work as well.”

As examples, Levie cited legal and sales as two areas that could become big token users.

Tokens determine how AI is measured and how its consumption is priced. They are units of text, a word or part of a word — essentially the building blocks of Large Language Models, which power popular chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, or xAI’s Grok. Importantly, tokens are not a flat fee, and AI companies tend to charge more for using the most advanced models and asking more complicated questions.

Levie’s post was in response to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang‘s view that he would be “deeply alarmed” if an engineer being paid $500,000 didn’t use AI tokens equivalent to at least half of that salary.

“That $500,000 engineer at the end of the year, I’m going to ask them how much did you spend in tokens? If that person said $5,000, I will go ape something else,” Huang said during an episode of the “All-In Podcast” published on Thursday.

Levie said, “This underlying concept and trend is going to be very real, because workers who properly leverage AI are only going to consume more of it.

“Their compute budgets are just going to monotonically go up over time,” he wrote.

It won’t just be workers either, Levie said. Agents, which can run during all hours, are likely to be the biggest token consumers.

“These aren’t chatbot workflows answering a simple question, but agents that are running and processing through incredible amounts of data at scale, and generating all new forms of information,” he wrote.

Not everyone will be thrilled with their AI compute budgets. Venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya said he had to tell 8090, his startup software company, to stop using Cursor, a popular AI coding tool, after seeing just how much the firm was spending on tokens.

“Our costs have more than tripled since November of 25,” Palihapitiya said a previous episode of the “All-In Podcast.” “Between the inference cost that we pay AWS, which is ginormous, between our cost with Cursor, between Anthropic, we are just spending millions.”

Levie said companies “will have to figure out how they budget for this.”

“It likely won’t be an IT budget item over time, but ultimately owned and allocated by the business,” he wrote. “Maybe the CFO is ultimately the head of AI :-).”

• Hermès unveiled a collection of luxury leather charging accessories for Apple products priced up to $5,150.
• The Hermès Paddock Solo charger offers MagSafe wireless charging for $1,250.
• It’s not the first time the luxury brand has designed a product for Apple.

Hermès just dropped a new lineup of accessories for fashionistas and tech enthusiasts to obsess over — with one piece priced over $5,000.

The French luxury brand is extending its over a decadelong relationship with tech giant Apple, with a new set of leather goods designed to fit your Apple devices.

Apple and Hermès have previously teamed up on Apple Watch bands, while Apple has also collaborated with labels like Issey Miyake on limited-edition iPhone accessories.

The stars of Hermès’ spring tech collection are a series of wireless charging accessories. It starts with a $1,250 Paddock Solo charger that’s designed for one device at a time using MagSafe technology. Like many of Hermès’ leather goods, it’s made from calfskin.

A step up from the Paddock Solo charger is the Yoyo, which Hermès says can charge two devices, like an iPhone, AirPods, or Apple Watch, at the same time. The Yoyo, like the Solo, comes with a USB-C power cord for recharging the wireless charger — but no power adapter.

It will run you about $1,750.

For $4,225, you can get a wireless charger with a case that charges two MagSafe devices at once.

For those who want the ultimate luxury experience from Hermès and Apple, a larger case is available to hold all your fancy charging accessories. The $5,150 Paddock Duo Charger and Grand Paddock Case combine a wireless charger with two MagSafe zones for dual charging with a calfskin leather case that can hold more than one accessory.

And if you want to top off your brown leather collection with a matching iPhone cardholder, Hermès has you covered. For $810 — more than Apple’s new $599 MacBook Neo — you can add a MagSafe calfskin cardholder to your cart.

Most pieces in this Hermès collection cost more than a MacBook Air. Apple sells similar charging cases on its official website that hold charging accessories, and those cost under $100.

Hermès, however, is known for its exclusive leather goods, like the Birkin bag, that sell for millions and are hard to get.

Still, at these prices, maybe next time Hermès could throw in a wall adapter to go with its leather-bound cases.

Apple and Hermès did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the collection.

• I traveled by train from New York to Eastern Canada for seven days with just a backpack.
• I was thankful I packed light, but there were a few items I wished I had brought on the trip.
• I was glad I brought laundry sheets and quick-dry clothing, but I should’ve packed more socks.

In August 2022, I decided to do something I’d never done before — leave my home for seven days with just a backpack.

I spent a week visiting Canada for the first time. And I didn’t want to bring a carry-on luggage because my plans had me constantly on the move.

I traveled by train from NYC to Niagara Falls, New York, and walked into Niagara Falls, Canada, on foot. Three days later, I took a bus up to Toronto for a night. From there, I traveled by train to Montreal and Quebec City, spending one night in each city before flying home to New York.

I explored each destination on foot, taking photos and notes along the way. I also stayed in a variety of accommodations, from Airbnbs to luxury hotels.

While packing light made the trip easier, I did forget a few critical items.

I used a 32-liter backpack for my weeklong trip to Canada.

I used a 32-liter backpack, the largest one I own, to hold everything I brought. I packed my work computer, camera, and chargers; my tripod, toiletries, and medications; one packing cube stuffed with clothing; and additional necessities, like a raincoat, a tote, and a pair of comfy shoes.

I think I did pretty well for my first time packing this light, but I missed a handful of items.

One of the most important things I packed was laundry sheets so I could wash my clothes every couple of days.

Laundry sheets are small, dry, scented squares that look like dryer sheets, but they’re actually pads of laundry detergent that turn into a bubbly soap when mixed with water. They’re great for on-the-go use, and I like to pack them when traveling so I can do my own laundry in sinks and then air-dry my items.

I’m glad I came prepared so I could pack fewer clothes without spending time and money at a laundromat.

Laundry sheets allowed me to pack fewer outfits, but I wish I’d brought more socks because they took longer to air-dry than the rest of my clothes.

I only brought five pairs of socks for this trip. I thought it would be enough, considering I planned to do my own laundry, but I wish I had packed one pair for each day rather than trying to wash and rewear some of them.

Drying my socks took much longer than the rest of my clothes, and waiting for them made me leave for the day later than I expected a couple of times.

My quick-dry clothing dried much more quickly in the sun, and I’m glad I brought some.

For clothing, I brought a couple of quick-dry shirts, shorts, and pants made of thin, moisture-wicking materials that dry quickly in the sun.

Most of my quick-drying clothes are from Under Armour or Prana and are good for exercise, but I thought they’d serve a dual purpose on this trip, considering my laundry strategy. During my trip, I dried my freshly laundered clothing on hotel room balconies and Airbnb porches, and it never took longer than 20 minutes.

I wish I had packed pajamas to make the evenings more comfortable.

Once it was time for bed the first night, I couldn’t believe I had forgotten to pack pajamas. I was so focused on preparing for each day, I forgot to consider my nighttime routine.

Although pajamas are bulkier than much of the other clothing I brought, it would have been worth it to pack them to have a comfy pair of sweats to sleep in, instead of my daytime clothes.

I’m glad I remembered to use a packing cube to keep my clothing from taking up too much room in my backpack.

I think packing cubes make backpack organization easier.

I used one packing cube to stuff all my clothing into, and it took up less space in the bag by keeping it compact.

I’m also glad I packed a tote bag to keep some items separate and easier to access during my travels, like my phone, wallet, and headphones.

On travel days, I used the tote to separate and hold personal belongings I’d want to use on trains or buses so that I could stuff my backpack into the overhead bin.

This made it easy to quickly find items I needed, such as my headphones, and also kept my bulky backpack out of the way. By stowing my backpack on the shelf above me, I was able to maximize leg room, too.

But I wish I’d remembered to bring a portable charging battery for long days of exploring when my phone nearly died.

Some days, I was out of my hotel room for 12 hours at a time, and not every train I rode had an outlet. During these times, I had to use my phone less to conserve battery life.

Since I was traveling solo, I couldn’t risk letting my phone die for safety reasons. But I wish I had brought a portable battery pack so I could have used my phone as much as needed to snap extra pictures or take notes.

For those long days of exploring, I’m glad I packed Mio, a caffeinated, fruity addition to water that also packs in B vitamins.

In the summertime, I drink Mio every morning, a caffeinated fruit-flavored addition to water with B vitamins. I can’t stand drinking hot coffee in the heat, and I find it gives me the extra jolt of energy I need.

Since I visited Canada in the summer, I brought my Mio, and it helped me feel comfortable and alert while on the go.

I thought it would have been nice to pack some tea bags as well, since all my hotels had hot water available.

While on the road, I noticed that every hotel and Airbnb I stayed in had a kettle or a pod coffee maker, so I could have easily boiled water.

Since I enjoy tea and my lodgings were cool and climate-controlled, I would have loved to sip on a freshly brewed cup. Next time, I’ll bring my favorite flavors since each tea bag is so small.

I was glad I packed my reusable water bottle, so I didn’t have to purchase disposable plastic water bottles to stay hydrated throughout my trip.

Hydration while traveling is important, and bringing your own water bottle can save you money while limiting your use of plastic bottles, which also helps the environment.

I thought bringing my own water bottle also saved me time and space since my backpack has a water bottle holder on the side.

Ultimately, I think I did a good job packing light for this trip, but bringing a few additional items would have made my trip more comfortable without weighing me down.

Next time I pack for a trip like this, I’ll definitely reach for my backpack and packing cubes, but I won’t forget my socks, my pajamas, or my tea.