A deadly barrage of storms has been dumping seismic amounts of rain on California over the past few weeks. On Monday, millions across the state experienced an “atmospheric river” that dropped a month’s worth of rain in one day. And as the downpours continued yesterday, 90% of the state’s population (which equates to 10% of the entire US population) was under flood watch. Forecasters estimate more than 20 trillion gallons of water will have fallen on California by mid-January.

Surely all this water will cure the state of the devastating drought that’s parched it over the last few decades, right?

Not quite

In fact, most parts of California are simultaneously under drought and flood emergencies, a bizarre consequence of climate change that will likely stick around—despite more rainstorms projected to hit the state throughout the rest of the month.

Experts say California would need a lot more rain to completely reverse the drought that has put the Southwest in its driest condition in 1,200 years. One scientist told the WaPo that these storms are like getting a normal monthly paycheck after several months of not getting paid at all—the influx is welcome, but your bank account will still be depleted.

Another problem: Right now, there’s too much water and nowhere to put it. While California has gargantuan reservoirs to store rainwater and snow melt, most of the state has received rainfall anywhere from 400% to 600% above average since the storms began a few weeks ago. And once reservoirs are full, the water just flows into the ocean.

• For instance, Lake Cachuma Reservoir in Santa Barbara County was hovering around 30% capacity in early December. After rising 34 feet yesterday, it’s expected to start overflowing Friday or Saturday.
• Plus, in cities like LA (which has received around three inches so far), rainwater can’t be collected because it’s been contaminated by road runoff.

The current state of the storms: Around 93,000 customers were left without power as of 11pm ET yesterday and the death toll has risen to 17. Mudslides and flooding have forced residents of many areas, including the ritzy neighborhoods of Montecito, to evacuate.—MM

🪓 “David’s Demolition Day” has arrived. Today, Goldman Sachs will begin laying off up to 3,200 employees (~6% of its total workforce) as part of its largest cost-cutting efforts since the 2008 financial crisis. The bank has been hit hard by the market downturn and dealmaking drying up, plus its highly anticipated plans to build a consumer business failed to find…any consumers. We’re sure CEO David Solomon will have more to say about his restructuring plan on Goldman’s earnings call next Tuesday.

Biden launches another student debt overhaul. While the Biden administration’s student loan debt wipeout is held up in court, the Education Dept. is moving ahead with another student debt revamp to lessen the burden for borrowers. This proposal would change the rules of existing income-driven repayment plans to slash the payments millions of borrowers need to make on their loans by more than 50%, allowing them to pay off their debt more quickly. As for the broader student loan cancellation plan, the Supreme Court is expected to hear the case next month.

France could make seniors work longer, and unions are angry. The French government released plans to gradually raise the age of retirement by two years, to 64, in the hopes it’ll boost employment among seniors and put funds back into its strained pension system. But French unions, which staged massive protests the last time this plan was floated, have already made plans to strike on Jan. 19 in opposition to the move, which they call unjustified. But even at 64, the retirement age in France would still be lower than it is in other higher-income countries.

Microsoft is reportedly preparing for its largest startup investment in history: a $10 billion stake in OpenAI that could value the research lab at $29 billion. OpenAI is the creator of potentially groundbreaking AI tools like ChatGPT, the multitalented chatbot that can code in Python and help high schoolers cheat on English essays.

What’s in it for Microsoft? The company has already invested $1 billion in OpenAI, but thinks an even tighter relationship would help it better compete with Big Tech rivals like Google (which reportedly declared a “code red” over ChatGPT’s threat to its search dominance).

But Microsoft’s AI ambitions go beyond just integrating ChatGPT know-how into its own search engine, Bing. The company wants to use OpenAI’s tools in its Office suite—and it’s already experimenting with algorithms to help users craft emails in Outlook.

So, what is OpenAI? It was founded in 2015 as a mission-based AI research organization by a roster from Silicon Valley’s A-list, including Elon Musk. Its stated goal is to develop safe AI for the benefit of humanity.

But OpenAI has plenty of critics who have called it out for ethical concerns, a lack of transparency, and abandoning its mission for profits.

Zoom out: A slew of buzzy AI product releases in 2022 has startup investors forgetting they ever heard the word “metaverse.” Languishing in the prolonged crypto winter and facing an uncertain economic environment, many venture capitalists see the field as the next big thing to shovel money into.—SK

As tractors have evolved to include high-tech features like self-driving capabilities, GPS, obstacle detection, and—soon, with any luck—League of Legends compatibility, they’ve become all but impossible for farmers or third-party shops to repair. But on Sunday, John Deere committed to making that easier.

Together with the American Farm Bureau Federation, the company signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that’s aimed at providing farmers with greater access to tools, diagnostic codes, and manuals. Until now, the company’s high-tech tractors could only be repaired by authorized dealers due to software locks, which farmers claimed raised costs and caused delays (and even led to some farmers hacking their tractors).

While this represents a victory for the burgeoning right-to-repair movement, advocates are wary of the MOU’s lack of enforcement measures and certain sections in the agreement, including one that gives John Deere (or the AFBF) the ability to withdraw from the deal if any federal or state right-to-repair legislation is enacted.

Zoom out: This isn’t the first time a deal like this has been made in the private sector. In 2018, a similar agreement was reached between a lobbying group representing Deere and the California Farm Bureau, but many of the promises didn’t come to pass.—MK

Stat: Chicagoans have a lot of time to contemplate what the Bears should do with the No. 1 NFL Draft pick. That’s because Windy City drivers wasted an average of 155 hours sitting in traffic last year, making Chicago the worst US city for congestion, according to INRIX’s global traffic scorecard. Traffic picked up in cities all over the world last year, to match (and in some cases exceed) pre-pandemic levels. London was found to be the most congested city globally.

Quote: “We are not, and will not be, a ‘climate policymaker.’”

In a speech in Stockholm, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said it’s not his job to play climate cop for the global financial system. Powell has heard from critics in both directions that the Fed should play a larger (or smaller) role in promoting environmental sustainability in the financial world. Powell also emphasized the need for the Fed to maintain its independence, since political influence could disrupt necessary—but unpopular—interest rate hikes to stamp out inflation.

Read: The gripping obituary of a Frenchman whose forgeries saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust. (New York Times)

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Always worth a scan: MIT Tech Review’s 10 breakthrough technologies for 2023.

History Maps: It’s pretty much exactly what the title suggests (but seriously—this site is very cool).

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Typeface trivia

Where are you most likely to see this font, called Clearview, in your daily life?

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