divert 3 letters

DIVERT Crossword Clue & Answer

All solutions for divert, top answers for: divert, top answers for divert crossword clue from newspapers, definition of divert.

• send on a course or in a direction different from the planned or intended one; withdraw (money) and move into a different location, often secretly and with dishonest intentions

Anagrams of divert

Divert crossword puzzle solutions.

50 Solutions - 4 Top suggestions & 46 further suggestions. We have 50 solutions for the frequently searched for crossword lexicon term DIVERT. Furthermore and additionally we have 46 Further solutions for this paraphrase.

For the puzzel question DIVERT we have solutions for the following word lenghts 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10.

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What is the best solution to the riddle divert.

Solution AMUSE is our most searched for solution by our visitors. Solution AMUSE is 5 letters long. We have 9 further solutions of the same word length.

How many solutions do we have for the crossword puzzle DIVERT?

We have 50 solutions to the crossword puzzle DIVERT. The longest solution is DISCOURAGE with 10 letters and the shortest solution is BOW with 3 letters.

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With help from our search you can look for words of a certain length. Our intelligent search sorts between the most frequent solutions and the most searched for questions. You can completely free of charge search through several million solutions to hundreds of thousands of crossword puzzle questions.

How many letters long are the solutions for DIVERT?

The lenght of the solutions is between 3 and 10 letters. In total we have solutions for 8 word lengths.

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Clue: Divert

Referring crossword puzzle answers, likely related crossword puzzle clues.

• Steer clear of

Recent usage in crossword puzzles:

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• Penny Dell Sunday - May 5, 2019
• Newsday - Jan. 11, 2019

Divert (Crossword clue)

We found 11 answers for “divert” ..

If you haven't solved the crossword clue Divert yet try to search our Crossword Dictionary by entering the letters you already know! (Enter a dot for each missing letters, e.g. “T.RN AW..” will find “TURN AWAY”.)

• Divert (11)
• Divert brook (1)
• Divert in a specified direction (1)
• Divert to a narrow road, it is an... (1)
• Divert with morning exercise (1)
• Divert, as a train (1)
• Divert, as funds (1)
• Divert, as the mind or attention (1)
• Divert, in a way (1)
• Diverted (5)
• Diverted a stream at its source (1)
• Diverted surgically, as fluid (1)
• Diverted, entertained (1)
• Diverti or penti ending (1)
• Divertimento (2)
• Diverting (6)
• Diverting ruses (1)
• Diverting spectacle (1)
• Divertingly (1)
• Divertissement (2)
• Diverts (2)
• Diverts agreeably (1)
• Diverts attention from bad music (1)
• Diverts traffic (1)
• Diverts, in a way (1)
• Explosion sound (2)
• Name-dropping (1)
• Slide down the slopes (1)
• Espresso servers (1)
• Tone following fa (1)
• Contaminated (9)
• Marvellous, excellent (1)
• Criminal charge (1)
• Geographical combo (3)
• Thin wire nails (1)
• Cranky TV bartender (1)
• Eisenhower jacket (1)
• February 1885 event (1)
• Lease topic (2)

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Crossword Solver > Clues > Crossword-Clue: Divert

DIVERT Crossword Clue

Synonyms for divert.

We found 60 Synonyms

• Desert drivers (100%)
• Big-headed river diver (90.63%)
• diverting (89.13%)
• Diverts (89.13%)
• diverted (89.13%)
• Divert, as funds (75%)
• Divert, in a way (75%)
• Diverts, in a way (75%)
• DIVERT water (75%)
• APPETIZER THAT DIVERTS AT (75%)
• Tot diverter
• DIVERT water
• Rain diverter
• Tot's diverter
• Water diverter
• Find diverting

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• The Sun Coffee Time Crossword
• 15 February 2024

While searching our database we found 1 possible solution for the: Divert crossword clue.  This crossword clue was last seen on 15 February 2024 The Sun Coffee Time Crossword puzzle . The solution we have for Divert has a total of 5 letters.

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• Hero-worship
• Microscopic
• School subject

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Unscrambler and Scrabble Word Finder

Word unscrambler, words made by unscrambling the letters d i v e r t, 6 letter words made by unscrambling the letters in divert, 5 letter words made by unscrambling the letters in divert, 4 letter words made by unscrambling the letters in divert, 3 letter words made by unscrambling the letters in divert, 2 letter words made by unscrambling the letters in divert.

Above are the results of unscrambling divert. Using the word generator and word unscrambler for the letters D I V E R T, we unscrambled the letters to create a list of all the words found in Scrabble, Words with Friends, and Text Twist. We found a total of 50 words by unscrambling the letters in divert. Click these words to find out how many points they are worth, their definitions, and all the other words that can be made by unscrambling the letters from these words. If one or more words can be unscrambled with all the letters entered plus one new letter, then they will also be displayed.

Unscrambled words using the letters D I V E R T plus one more letter

Definitions of divert, typing word game - click "play now" to start.

Unscramble DIVERT

Divert unscrambles and makes 63 words, 63 unscrambled words using the letters divert, 6 letter words made by unscrambling letters divert, 2 words found, 5 letter words made by unscrambling letters divert, 8 words found, 4 letter words made by unscrambling letters divert, 24 words found, 3 letter words made by unscrambling letters divert, 19 words found, 2 letter words made by unscrambling letters divert, 10 words found, how many words can be made from divert.

Above are the words made by unscrambling D I V E R T (DEIRTV) . Our unscramble word finder was able to unscramble these letters using various methods to generate 63 words ! Having a unscramble tool like ours under your belt will help you in ALL word scramble games!

How many words can you make out of DIVERT?

To further help you, here are a few word lists related to the letters DIVERT

• 6 letter words
• Words That Start With D
• Words That End With T
• Words That Start With DIVERT
• Words That Contain DIVERT
• Words That End With DIVERT
• Different ways to Scramble DIVERT

D I V E R T Letter Values in Word Scrabble and Words With Friends

Here are the values for the letters D I V E R T in two of the most popular word scramble games.

The letters DIVERT are worth 10 points in Scrabble

Words With Friends

The letters DIVERT are worth 11 points in Words With Friends

If You Unscramble DIVERT... What Does It Mean?

Definition of divert when unscrambled.

If we unscramble these letters, DIVERT, it and makes several words. Here is one of the definitions for a word that uses all the unscrambled letters:

• To turn aside; to digress.
• To turn aside; to turn off from any course or intended application; to deflect; as, to divert a river from its channel; to divert commerce from its usual course.
• To turn away from any occupation, business, or study; to cause to have lively and agreeable sensations; to amuse; to entertain; as, children are diverted with sports; men are diverted with works of wit and humor.
• Click here for the full meaning of Divert
• Is Divert a Scrabble Word ?
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More Information on the Letters DIVERT

• Permutations of DIVERT
• Anagrams of DIVERT
• Words With Letters

Unscrambling DIVERT for Other Word Scramble Games

• Unscramble DIVERT For Word Scramble Games
• Unscramble DIVERT Letters For Anagrams
• DIVERT in Text Twist
• DIVERT in Scrabble
• DIVERT in Words With Friends
• DIVERT in Jumble
• Unscramble The Word DIVERT
• DIVERT Unscramble For All Word Games

Scrambling the Letters in DIVERT

According to our other word scramble maker , DIVERT can be scrambled in many ways. The different ways a word can be scrambled is called "permutations" of the word.

According to Google, this is the definition of permutation: a way, especially one of several possible variations, in which a set or number of things can be ordered or arranged.

How is this helpful? Well, it shows you the anagrams of divert scrambled in different ways and helps you recognize the set of letters more easily. It will help you the next time these letters, D I V E R T come up in a word scramble game.

DIRVET RDEIVT DERVIT EVRDIT IRVDET IRVEDT IVDERT RIVDET VRDIET EVIDRT EDRVIT IRDVET IVDRET REIDVT RDVEIT DIREVT RIDEVT RDIEVT ERVIDT EIVRDT DERIVT RDEVIT IDEVRT VDIERT VDREIT EVDIRT IDVERT IERDVT VDIRET DEIRVT RVDEIT IDERVT REVIDT EDRIVT VIDERT VIEDRT IVERDT VERDIT REDIVT IRDEVT EIDRVT VRIDET

We stopped it at 42, but there are so many ways to scramble DIVERT !

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UNC board slashes diversity program funding to divert money to public safety resources

FILE - Students work on assignments and listen to organizers as they sit inside the encampment protest in Polk Place on University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, N.C., April 29, 2024. On Monday, May 13, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees approved a change that would divert $2.3 million of diversity funding to go toward public safety and policing. The vote to shift more funding to public safety comes as continued pro-Palestinian protests on UNC’s campus have resulted in several arrests in recent weeks. (AP Photo/Makiya Seminera, File)

FILE - Students and other community members sit outside tents in University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s central grounds, Polk Place, as part of an encampment protest, April 29, 2024. On Monday, May 13, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees approved a change that would divert $2.3 million of diversity funding to go toward public safety and policing. The vote to shift more funding to public safety comes as continued pro-Palestinian protests on UNC’s campus have resulted in several arrests in recent weeks. (AP Photo/Makiya Seminera, File)

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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — As North Carolina’s public university system considers a vote on changing its diversity policy, the system’s flagship university board voted Monday to cut funding for diversity programs in next year’s budget.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees approved a change that would divert $2.3 million of diversity spending from state funds to go toward public safety and policing at a special meeting to address the university’s budget. The board’s vote would only impact UNC-Chapel Hill’s diversity funding, which could result in the loss of its diversity office.

UNC will join the ranks of other notable public universities that have stripped diversity spending, such as the University of Florida in Gainesville, which announced in a March memo it was reallocating funds to faculty recruitment. But unlike UF, which implemented its funding rollback after the state Legislature passed a bill banning diversity program spending at state universities, UNC “set the tone” on funding cuts before the North Carolina Legislature stepped in, budget chair Dave Boliek said.

“We’re going ahead and, you know, sort of taking a leadership role in this. That’s the way I view it,” Boliek said on Monday after the vote.

The change would go into effect at the start of the 2024-2025 fiscal year on July 1, Boliek said. Any jobs that could be impacted would occur after that date, although Boliek said he wasn’t sure how many positions may be affected.

But the decision about whether the spending cut would remove UNC’s Office of Diversity & Inclusion will be up to the university’s flexible management plan, which is operated by interim Chancellor Lee Roberts and his team. The diversity office has 12 staff members , including a chief diversity officer, according to its website.

The budget, which includes the $2.3 million amendment, will now be submitted to the University of North Carolina Board of Governors, UNC spokesperson Kevin Best said in an email.

The vote to shift more funding to public safety comes as continued pro-Palestinian protests on UNC’s campus have resulted in several arrests in recent weeks. The budget committee vice-chair Marty Kotis said law enforcement has already been forced to react to protests, but they need more funding to keep the university “safe from a larger threat.”

“It’s important to consider the needs of all 30,000 students, not just the 100 or so that may want to disrupt the university’s operations,” Kotis said. “It takes away resources for others.”

But Boliek, who is also running for state auditor in Tuesday’s runoff elections, said the timing of the reallocation was “happenstance” and that internal conversations on diversity spending cuts have persisted for almost a year.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions last year — in which UNC was sued for its admission policies — the board has continually considered how it should handle university diversity programs, he said. Diverting more money toward public safety was also a concern for the board in the aftermath of a fatal August shooting on the UNC campus that left one faculty member dead.

“It makes sense where we can take money that I believe is not being productively used and put it to something that is more productive, and that is providing public safety,” he said.

Before the start of North Carolina’s short legislative session, Republican House Speaker Tim Moore told reporters there was interest in pursuing anti-DEI legislation but wanted to let university boards review their diversity policies first.

At least 20 states have seen Republican bill proposals seeking to limit diversity and inclusion programs in several public institutions such as universities.

Now, all eyes are on the UNC Board of Governors, whose 24 members are expected to vote next week on changing its diversity policy after the board’s university governance committee voted to reverse and replace the rule last month. The change would alter a 2019 diversity, equity and inclusion regulation that defines the roles of various DEI positions at 17 schools across the state — and it would appear to eliminate those jobs if the policy is removed.

If the alteration is approved, it will take effect immediately.

Letters to the Editor

Corporate marketplace has controlled the growing extremism in gop.

The attraction of the label Make America Great Again is both its simplicity and its vagueness. The words, initials, and a red hat signal a brand, an association, a connection to a particular political group without really saying anything. There are no definitions, no attempts to describe what, why, when, where, or how; just the absolute loyalty to the who.

But if we try to kick the tires, to find out when that Greatness started to fade, we are led to 1980. In another great irony, the losses and anxiety they imagine were largely instigated by another of their stated heroes, Ronald Reagan.

His record includes the destruction of union driven prosperity for the middle class, the deleted FCC Fairness Doctrine’s resultant promotion of right wing propaganda and disinformation, the deregulations leading to the S&L crisis and 747 failures, the treason of negotiating with Iran not to release the hostages, the Iran Contra scandal of making deals with and supporting terrorists, 138 administration officials with criminal conduct, legalizing corporate stock buybacks that divert money from workers and enrich the wealthy, rescinded the moratorium now allowing those pervasive and annoying drug ads on TV, touted the “voodoo/ trickle-down economics" of tax cuts from 73% to 28- believed to somehow generate tax revenues, increasing national debt 180% from less than $1 trillion to almost 3, slashed funds for education, schools, and the environment saying “trees cause more pollution than automobiles do,” squandered budget on the failed “Star Wars” program, used a southern strategy of dogwhistle racial division and opposition to civil rights measures, ignored the AIDs epidemic, caused increased crime rates, poverty, and unemployment.

Look closely at his sinister nine-word quotation: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” What he was really saying, “I’m a libertarian and the market will save you.” It is indeed the corporate marketplace that has since controlled the growing extremism and cultism of the GOP. It’s not a good idea to vote for someone who doesn’t believe in government of the people. How is profit-driven inflation and fear-mongering working out for you?

Allen BrandBremen

Local GOP officials continue silent approval

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

On Thursday April 25th, Justice Sotomayor and Trump lawyer Sauer had this exchange:

"If the president decides that his rival is a corrupt person and he orders the military or order someone to assassinate him, is that within his official acts that for which he can get immunity?" Sotomayor asked.

"It would depend on the hypothetical," Sauer responded. "From what we can see, that could well be an official act."

Sauer made a similar assertion during Trump's immunity hearing before the D.C. Court of Appeals in January, telling judges that a president could order Seal Team Six to assassinate a political rival and still be immune from prosecution — unless they were first impeached and convicted by Congress.

Recently, Sotomayor argued that position, and the broader argument for presidential immunity, was deeply concerning.

“I am having a hard time thinking… that ordering the assassination of a rival, that accepting a bribe and countless other laws that could be broken for personal gain, that anyone would say that it would be reasonable for a president or any public official to do that,” she said.

Trump, facing charges that he stole classified documents and incited the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, is hoping that the Supreme Court's right-wing majority will render a ruling that would at the very least delay his trials. If he wins in November, Trump could make the cases against him go away, indefinitely, by firing prosecutors or even pardoning himself.

In LEG over the years, I’ve asked local elected officials to speak out on the disturbing words and actions of this twice-impeached and indicted man. My hope was to at least, have someone in the Republican Party stand up like Liz Cheney bravely did.

Liz Cheney was willing to give up all, to stand up for democracy and her seat in power was secondary. Do local GOP officials put power over country?

Bob MuckensturmLancaster

UNC-Chapel Hill board slashes diversity funding to divert money to public safety resources

RALEIGH, N.C. — As North Carolina’s public university system considers a vote on changing its diversity policy, the system’s flagship university board voted Monday to cut funding for diversity programs in next year’s budget.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Board of Trustees approved a change that would divert $2.3 million of diversity funding to go toward public safety and policing at a special meeting to address the university’s budget. The board’s vote would only impact UNC-Chapel Hill’s diversity funding, which could result in the loss of its diversity office.

The vote to shift more funding to public safety comes as continued pro-Palestinian protests on UNC’s campus have resulted in several arrests in recent weeks. The budget committee vice-chair Marty Kotis said law enforcement has already been forced to react to protests, but they need more funding to keep the university “safe from a larger threat.”

“It’s important to consider the needs of all 30,000 students, not just the 100 or so that may want to disrupt the university’s operations,” Kotis said. “It takes away resources for others.”

After approving the change in the budget committee, the full board passed the measure at the end of the special meeting. Budget chair Dave Boliek, who is also running for state auditor in Tuesday’s runoff election, said it gives the university an “opportunity to lead on this” and get ahead of the vote by the University of North Carolina Board of Governors’ on its diversity policy.

Last month, the statewide board’s Committee on University Governance  voted  to reverse and replace its DEI policy for 17 schools across the state. The change would alter a 2019 diversity, equity and inclusion regulation that defines the  roles of various DEI positions  — and it would appear to eliminate those jobs if the policy is removed.

The full 24-member board is scheduled to vote next week on the policy change. If the alteration is approved, it will take effect immediately.

For more from NBC BLK,  sign up for our weekly newsletter .

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Adapting to the Abyss: Passive Ventilation in the Deep-Sea Glass Sponge Euplectella aspergillum

Giacomo falcucci, giorgio amati, gino bella, andrea luigi facci, vesselin k. krastev, giovanni polverino, sauro succi, and maurizio porfiri, phys. rev. lett. 132 , 208402 – published 16 may 2024, see research news: how water flows inside a sea sponge.

• No Citing Articles
• Supplemental Material
• Introduction.—
• Computational framework.—
• Results and discussion.—
• Conclusions.—
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We analyze the flow physics inside the body cavity and downstream the deep-sea glass sponge Euplectella aspergillum . We provide evidence that the helical skeletal motifs of the sponge give rise to a rich fluid dynamic field, allowing the organism to scavenge flow from the bottom of the sea and promoting a spontaneous, organized vertical flow within its body cavity toward the osculum. Our analysis points at a functional adaptation of the organism, which can passively divert flow through the osculum in unfavorable, low ambient currents, with no need for active pumping, with potential repercussions in functional ecology, as well as the design of chemical reactors, air-treatment units, and civil and aeronaval structures.

• Received 6 March 2023
• Accepted 9 April 2024

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.208402

© 2024 American Physical Society

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Research News

How Water Flows inside a Sea Sponge

Published 16 may 2024.

A deep-sea sponge’s intricate skeleton converts the horizontal flow of ocean currents into a vertical flow through the sponge’s body—a mechanism that helps with the sponge’s filter feeding.

See more in Physics

Authors & Affiliations

• 1 Department of Enterprise Engineering “Mario Lucertini”, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Via del Politecnico 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
• 2 Department of Physics, Harvard University, 33 Oxford Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA
• 3 SCAI - SuperComputing Applications and Innovation Department - CINECA, Via dei Tizii 6, 00185 Rome, Italy
• 4 Università Niccolò Cusano - Telematica Roma, Via don Gnocchi - 00100 Rome, Italy
• 5 DEIM - School of Engineering, University of Tuscia, Via del Paradiso 47, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
• 6 Department of Ecological and Biological Sciences, University of Tuscia, Largo dell’Università snc, 01100 Viterbo, Italy
• 7 School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Clayton Campus, Melbourne 3800, Victoria, Australia
• 8 Centre for Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Perth 6009, Western Australia, Australia
• 9 Italian Institute of Technology, Piazzale Aldo Moro 1, 00185 Rome, Italy
• 10 Center for Urban Science and Progress, Department of Biomedical Engineering, and Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New York University Tandon School of Engineering, 370 Jay Street, Brooklyn, New York 11201, USA
• * [email protected]
• † These authors contributed equally to this letter.
• ‡ [email protected]

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Vol. 132, Iss. 20 — 17 May 2024

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Computational model for the study of passive ventilation in E. aspergillum . (a) Computational model of the complete E. aspergillum , adapted from [ 13 ]. (b),(c) Side and top views of the four regions of the computational domain considered for the quantification of the flow characteristics: D 1 is the body cavity; D 2 is the skeletal structure and neighboring fluid domain; D 3 is the quiescent zone downstream of the organism, which extends 8 radii downstream D 2 ; and D 4 is the outer fluid zone from the anchor up to 5 radii above the organism and extending 12 radii downstream.

Passive ventilation through the body cavity of E. aspergillum . (a) Sketch of passive ventilation: the undisturbed flow (left) is deviated by the skeletal motifs of the organism and penetrates through the body cavity. Here, the flow is diverted upward, toward the osculum, and exits the sponge. (b) Statistical distribution of the vertical component of the velocity u z (in lattice units) inside the body cavity at Re = 20 , 50, 100, 500, and 2000; average values in lattice units are 1.15 × 10 − 3 , 0.68 × 10 − 3 , 2.05 × 10 − 3 , 6.64 × 10 − 3 , and 5.82 × 10 − 3 , respectively. (c)–(e) Streaklines colored according to the velocity magnitude (reported in lattice units) of the excurrent flow from the osculum: (c)  Re = 20 , (d)  Re = 100 , and (e)  Re = 2000 ; the streaklines are seeded from the osculum.

Flow excurring through the osculum at different Re regimes. (a) Ratio between Φ ˙ and the flow entering the body cavity (see Table  1 ), as a function of the Re number. (b) Skeletal motifs with overlaid characteristic lengths. (c),(d) Detailed view of the streaklines diverted toward the osculum at Re = 100 and 2000, respectively; the velocity magnitude is reported in lattice units.

Makeup of the excurrent flux from the osculum. (a) Partition of the inlet-facing mantle of the body cavity into four surfaces of equal area. (b) Bar chart of the flux excurring through the osculum, as a function of the entrance height along the body cavity for different Re ( H 1 , gold; H 2 , green; H 3 , red; and H 4 , blue). (c)–(e) Streaklines of the flow through the body cavity and the osculum according to the different entrance height in the organism for (c)  Re = 20 , (d)  Re = 100 , and (e)  Re = 2000 ; the streaklines are seeded from the inlet-facing mantle.

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Cyberattack hits Ascension hospitals' computer networks: 'It's affecting everything'

Ascension hospitals in Michigan and across the U.S. were hit Wednesday by a cyberattack that disrupted its computer network which continued to affect its clinical operations Thursday morning, leading the nonprofit, St. Louis-based health system to urge its business partners to sever online connections to its system.

"We detected unusual activity on select technology network systems, which we now believe is due to a cyber security event," Ascension said in a statement posted on its website . "At this time we continue to investigate the situation. We responded immediately, initiated our investigation and activated our remediation efforts. Access to some systems have been interrupted as this process continues.

"Our care teams are trained for these kinds of disruptions and have initiated procedures to ensure patient care delivery continues to be safe and as minimally impacted as possible. There has been a disruption to clinical operations, and we continue to assess the impact and duration of the disruption."

With computers offline, 'It's like the 1980s or 1990s'

Employees noticed the computer network problems about 7 a.m. Wednesday, said three workers who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of job repercussions.

"There was a security concern, so they shut down the system," one physician told the Free Press. "It's affecting everything."

Another Ascension Michigan doctor said: "We have no access to medical records, no access to labs, no access to radiology or X-rays, no ability to place orders.

"We have to write everything on paper. It's like the 1980s or 1990s. You go to the X-ray room to look at the X-rays on film, you call the lab they tell you what the results are over the phone. So it's just much more cumbersome, but we do have training for these moments."

A nurse told the Free Press on Wednesday evening that Ascension hospitals were still accepting patients by ambulance who were medically unstable and in need of lifesaving treatment. But those who were more stable and could be taken to other nearby hospitals for care were diverted because of the computer network outage.

"I just hope it doesn't last very long because certainly patient care will be negatively impacted," a physician said. "The data that shows that during computer network downtime, your risk of an adverse event goes up."

More: Increasingly common, health care cyberattacks now even target patients with ransom

More: More than 1 million Michiganders affected by Welltok cyberattack

Ascension said it is working with Mandiant , a cybersecurity consulting company, to investigate and help determine what information, if any, was compromised in the cyberattack.

"Should we determine that any sensitive information was affected, we will notify and support those individuals in accordance with all relevant regulatory and legal guidelines," Ascension said in a statement.

Attack comes as Ascension aims to spin off Michigan hospitals

A Catholic health system, Ascension has 140 hospitals and 40 senior care facilities across 19 states and the District of Columbia. It reported in May that it had 134,000 employees.

In Michigan, the health system operates 15 acute-care hospitals, but is in the midst of trying to close deals that would split off eight of its southeastern Michigan hospitals and combine them with Detroit-based Henry Ford Health. Additionally, three of its hospitals in mid-Michigan and northeastern Michigan, along with a stand-alone emergency center and nursing home, are to be acquired by Midland-based MyMichigan Health.

If those deals are completed, only the following Ascension Michigan hospitals will remain as part of the health system's national holdings:

• Ascension Allegan Hospital in Allegan
• Ascension Borgess Hospital in Kalamazoo
• Ascension Borgess-Lee Hospital in Dowagiac
• Ascension Borgess-Pipp Hospital in Plainwell

Breaches threaten protected health information, more

Cyberattacks are becoming increasingly common in health care, often affecting protected health information along with other data, such as account numbers, Social Security numbers, phone numbers and addresses.

In April, Cherry Street Services Inc., also known as Cherry Health, alerted 180,747 Michigan residents that their personal information had been compromised in a ransomware attack that occurred on Dec. 21.

"Third-party forensic experts were retained to assist in an investigation of the nature and scope of the breach," said Danny Wimmer, press secretary for state Attorney General Dana Nessel. "While unable to pinpoint (the) root cause of the breach, through the investigation Cherry was able to discern the types of data compromised: full name, address, date of birth, phone number, health insurance information, patient ID number, provider name, service date, diagnosis/treatment information, prescription information, financial account information and/or Social Security Numbers, and the identity of the persons impacted."

That's not all.

More than 1 million Michiganders were affected by a cybersecurity breach at Welltok Inc., a software company contracted to provide communication services for Corewell Health's southeastern Michigan properties along with a healthy lifestyle portal for Priority Health, an insurance plan owned by Corewell. Though the breach occurred in May 2023, it wasn't until November 2023 that people were notified.

A  ransomware attack took down the computer network  at McLaren Health Care's 14 Michigan hospitals in late August and early September 2023, affecting about 2.5 million patients. The health system acknowledged that it also could have leaked some patient data onto the dark web. A ransomware gang known as  BlackCat/AlphV  claimed responsibility for the cyberattack, posting online that it stole 6 terabytes of McLaren's data.

And in late August 2023, the University of Michigan  shut down its campus computer network  after a hacker got access to the personal information of students and applicants, alumni and donors, employees and contractors, as well as the personal health information of research study participants, and patients of the University Health Service and the School of Dentistry.

Contact Kristen Shamus: [email protected]. Subscribe to the Free Press .

I accidentally befriended my ex-husband’s wife. Hax readers give advice.

Letter writer befriended a neighboring mom and her kids — without knowing she is married to her ex-husband.

We asked readers to channel their inner Carolyn Hax and answer this question. Some of the best responses are below.

Dear Carolyn: In my early 20s I was married briefly and soon divorced. Logistically, it was as easy as divorces go since we were young, didn’t have kids and there wasn’t a lot of material stuff to fight over. However, it was rough for a couple of years for me mentally. My ex’s behavior was selfish and immature, and I came away from the whole thing with a low opinion of him.

Life goes on and, 15 years later, I am married with young children. It turns out my ex-husband and his family — with children the same age as mine — is my neighbor from the street behind us. At first I didn’t know this, and a friendship started as my kids played with his kids at the neighborhood park while his wife and I talked. We developed a nice playdate kind of friendship, and she came over for coffee frequently. Her husband, my ex, travels for work a lot so I never saw him on these occasions. The last name is fairly common, so I never made the connection.

Now their kids are signed up for neighborhood swim team with mine, and I saw his name on the email group and I know it’s him because his first name has an unusual spelling. I feel like moving away now, which I know is ridiculous. I dread the idea of seeing him at all and especially as the father of my kids’ friends and the husband of my new friend.

I know I need to get over this, somehow, but how? And how do I tell my neighbor that I am her husband’s ex, and that I pretty much hate him?

— Small World

Small World: “And how do I tell my neighbor that I am her husband’s ex, and that I pretty much hate him?” You do the first and not the second. You need to tell your friend right away, explaining how seeing her husband’s name in print made you realize that he was the same person you had been married to briefly. Then, give her time to absorb the information.

As for the husband, if you were married in your early 20s and it’s 15 years later, consider that you really don’t know him anymore. He’s had 15 years to mature (as have you), and he may be very different from the man you divorced. Try to think of him as a new acquaintance. Maybe you never come to like him, but maybe you can see him as your friend’s husband who is just one of hundreds of people in your life that you don’t know very well.

Small World: Think of all the good that can come of this, and how it can resolve what you carried with you when you left the marriage! Wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t have to hate anybody? Really, this is win-win-win situation! Your kids have new friends, you have a new friend (the wife), and you can resolve your negativity toward your ex just by being happy in your second marriage and loving his new family.

About Carolyn Hax

Small World: Do what is comfortable for you. As the ex’s wife has not become a best friend yet, it’s entirely fair to share your apprehensions with her and tell her you may need to step back. You needn’t say anything nasty about the ex. You can just say that the entire experience was draining, or scarring, or sad, or whatever it is you feel, and that you don’t want to put yourself in that place again. It’s going to be difficult enough for you to cross paths at the swim meets, so I would make sure you do what will make you peaceful and present to your own family.

Some prior busted relationships, whether they end in divorce or just a breakup, are just too painful to carry with us into the future. Women often get told to “take the high road,” which often means chewing our insides out while we put on a happy face for someone else. Do what is best for you and your family, and give yourself a lot of credit for moving forward and creating a beautiful life for yourself.

— Best For You

Small World: Oh my goodness, what an unpleasant coincidence. First, I think you need to make sure this person is indeed your ex, unusual name notwithstanding. Tell your friend you know it’s awkward, but you have just noticed her husband’s name, and you think he might be your ex-husband. If your suspicions are indeed correct, rather than telling her that you hate him, or talking about your past, perhaps let her ask you questions. Assuming she knows he was married before, she probably has heard of you. She may have heard his narrative of your marriage and divorce and have some preconceived notions of what you were like back then. It may be unsettling for her to reconcile you, her friend, with a historical character in her husband’s life.

Once the cat is out of the bag, you can figure out how to move forward. It doesn't sound like you will need to see your ex much, since you haven’t run into him yet, so hopefully you can maintain a friendship with her.

Small World: Don’t let your opinion of your ex-husband sabotage what might be great friends for your kids and maybe even a friendship for you. I would mention it to your ex-husband’s new wife just to clear the air. Explain how you only recently realized this situation. When you meet your ex, as will eventually happen, you could start by telling him what a nice person his new wife is. He could hardly say anything negative to you after an opening like that!

— New Friend

Every week, we ask readers to answer a question submitted to Carolyn Hax’s live chat or email. Read last week’s installment here . New questions are typically posted on Thursdays, with a Monday deadline for submissions. Responses are anonymous unless you choose to identify yourself and are edited for length and clarity.

More from Carolyn Hax

From the archive:

When the woman you’re seeing admits an affair in her past

He didn’t want kids. We broke up. Now he has kids. What the heck?

Shut out from girls’ night out with friends from college

Burger-and-fry guy moves in with adventurous, healthy cook

Estranged dad debates reconciling with ‘queen’ daughter

Sign up for Carolyn’s email newsletter to get her column delivered to your inbox each morning.

Carolyn has a Q&A with readers on Fridays. Read the most recent live chat here . The next chat is June 7 at 12 p.m.

Resources for getting help. Frequently asked questions about the column. Chat glossary

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Why the Equal Rights Amendment Is Again a Hot Topic in New York

The proposed amendment to the State Constitution has become a divisive culture-war issue that encompasses abortion, discrimination and transgender athletes.

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By Grace Ashford and Claire Fahy

Reporting from the State Capitol in Albany, N.Y.

The former congressman rocked back and forth, his face turning red as he jabbed his finger in the air. It had been 18 months since Lee Zeldin lost his bid to become governor of New York, and now he was back at a rally in Albany, with a new war to fight.

The enemy was a proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the State Constitution. But instead of attacking the amendment’s signature purpose — safeguarding abortion protections — Mr. Zeldin, a Republican, railed against what he framed as the Democrats’ secret agenda: forcing sports teams to welcome transgender athletes.

“There has been no greater attack on women’s rights and girls’ rights in the State of New York throughout any of our lifetimes than Proposition 1 in November,” he said at the rally in the State Capitol earlier this month.

The amendment, he added, was an “attempt by New York Democrats to deceptively put abortion on the ballot, when in reality it was a full-fledged attack on women’s rights, free speech, girls’ sports, rule of law and much more.”

As Election Day approaches, the fight over the amendment has taken on an outsize role in New York, even in a pivotal election year when the presidency, the House and state legislative races are on the ballot.

Voters were to decide the fate of the amendment in a binding statewide referendum this November, but that is now in flux. Last week, a state judge in western New York declared that Democratic lawmakers had made procedural errors in putting the referendum on the ballot, and ordered it removed. On Tuesday, the Democratic state attorney general, Letitia James, formally appealed the ruling.

The uncertainty surrounding the proposed amendment underscores the deep divisions between Democrats and Republicans and the ways that both parties have used it to fuel campaign rhetoric.

Democratic supporters say the Equal Rights Amendment would help safeguard the rights of women and anyone else confronted with discrimination based on race, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or other characteristics. (New York already has a number of anti-discrimination laws, but, advocates say, these protections could be removed by a future Legislature if political winds change. Amending the constitution is a more permanent measure.)

Republicans have tried to shift the focus away from the threat to abortion, an issue that Democrats have successfully used to win a number of high-profile races across the country. Polling shows that a vast majority of Americans support abortion access, and voters, even in Republican-led states, have consistently voted to preserve it.

Instead, Republicans have focused their efforts on what they see as a more persuasive argument: barring transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports. A Siena College poll released in April showed that 66 percent of New York voters appeared to share Republicans’ concerns, telling pollsters that they believed that high school athletes ought to be required to compete in the gender category they were assigned at birth.

On Long Island, the Nassau County executive, Bruce Blakeman, issued an executive order barring transgender athletes from more than 100 county athletic facilities, unless they agreed to compete according to their assigned gender. The order was struck down in court last week largely on procedural grounds; Mr. Blakeman has said he will appeal the ruling.

Those opposing the amendment include the Coalition to Protect Kids, which describes itself as a nonpartisan group “composed of New Yorkers from all walks of life dedicated to defeating the so-called Equal Rights Amendment.”

The group has rebranded the measure the “Parent Replacement Act,” raising the prospect that the amendment’s passage would override parental decision-making on medical issues such as transgender health care and vaccines. (The amendment’s architects say that it would have no impact on medical decisions involving minors.)

Filings show that the bulk of the group’s funding so far has come from the anti-abortion activist Carol N. Crossed, vice president of the New York chapter of Feminists Choosing Life, and the author of a book about the women’s suffrage movement entitled “Vintage Tweets: Suffrage Era Postcards.”

Amending the Constitution in New York is a multiyear process requiring the approval of two separately-elected legislatures, as well as a voter referendum. From the outset, the Democrats’ goal was to get the initiative on the ballot in 2024, when they predicted higher turnout would ease its passage.

But even in heavily Democratic New York, no ballot measure is a sure bet. In 2021, an initiative to expand voting by mail that Democrats considered a fait accompli was defeated after a well-funded opposition campaign from the state Conservative Party.

The loss has haunted New York Democrats, who are determined not to repeat the mistake.

Last year, a coalition called New Yorkers for Equal Rights announced they intended to raise $20 million to support the initiative . Carolyn Maloney, a former congresswoman who is now the president of the New York chapter of the National Organization for Women, stepped in to assist with the fund-raising effort.

Recent changes to campaign finance rules further raised expectations for the fund, which organizers said would be spent on mailers, television ads and organizing. But the most recent available filings with the State Board of Elections show that in its first year, the coalition raised just $1.2 million.

Organizers said that they were not concerned with the slow progress on fund-raising, which they said would continue to ramp up as the election neared.

“New Yorkers are clear; they see the threats,” said Sasha Neha Ahuja, campaign director for the coalition, which includes the New York Civil Liberties Union, the New York Immigration Coalition, 1199 S.E.I.U. and the N.A.A.C.P. “They see what’s happening in Florida. They see what’s happening in Arizona.”

In the past months, the campaign has stepped up efforts, organizing 25 days of action alongside grass-roots groups from Long Island to Buffalo.

For now, Democrats may have to divert their energy to challenging the court ruling of Justice Daniel J. Doyle, a Republican in Livingston County, about 60 miles east of Buffalo. The judge ruled that Democratic leadership in New York had failed to receive an opinion from the state attorney general — a necessary step before amending the State Constitution.

Proponents of the amendment noted that lawmakers had followed the same process used in 18 past ballot initiatives, half of which are now law.

Chris Brown, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, was unimpressed with the Legislature’s defense that this was how these things had been done for years. His argument was simple, he said — their way was wrong.

“It’s not that complex,” Mr. Brown said.“ They could have avoided this if they had followed the process.”

Even if Democrats had followed proper procedure, Marjorie Byrnes, a Republican assemblywoman and one of the plaintiffs in the case, said that the amendment was being fueled by overblown concerns about women’s health and abortion.

Neither issue, she said, needed to be protected by the Constitution. “The Democrats control both houses, they control the governor’s mansion,” she said. “They don’t need a constitutional amendment.”

But Senator Liz Krueger, one of the primary architects of the amendment, said that the Republicans were misrepresenting what it would do. She said the underlying message was that New Yorkers should “not be discriminated against based on gender, which I’m very comfortable explaining to people and I think the vast majority of New Yorkers, frankly, regardless of party, don’t really have an issue with.”

Grace Ashford covers New York government and politics for The Times. More about Grace Ashford

Claire Fahy reports on New York City and the surrounding area for The Times. She can be reached at [email protected]. More about Claire Fahy

L.A. County captures 96 billion gallons of water during ‘super year’ of storms

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Heavy rains this winter and spring sent torrential flows down local creeks and rivers, and L.A. County managed to capture and store a significant amount of that stormwater, officials say.

To be exact, they snared an estimated 295,000 acre-feet of water since last October, or 96.3 billion gallons.

That’s enough water to supply about 2.4 million people a year — nearly one-fourth of the county’s population.

“This year has really been a super year,” said Mark Pestrella, director of L.A. County Public Works.

Aggressive and impactful reporting on climate change, the environment, health and science.

The county, working with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and other agencies, was able to capture and store this amount of water thanks in part to investments totaling more than $1 billion since 2001, Pestrella said. Some of the money has gone toward raising dams and increasing the capacity of spreading grounds, where water is sent into basins and then percolates underground into aquifers.

“Our investments are paying off,” Pestrella said.

The county has also spent more than $1 billion since 2001 on removing sediment from reservoirs to ensure their water-catching capacity isn’t diminished.

A large portion of the funds have come from the L.A. County Flood Control District, which receives revenues from property taxes.

Money for stormwater-catching infrastructure has also come through the Safe, Clean Water Program , which was established after county voters passed Measure W in 2018.

Though the amount of runoff captured since October has been substantial, the county’s facilities took in more water during the major storms over the previous 12 months — an estimated 626,000 acre-feet, or enough to supply about 5 million residents for a year.

The last two wet seasons have dumped exceptional amounts of rain, approaching the record set between 1888 and 1890 .

The runoff has collected behind 14 county dams and flowed downstream to spreading grounds that recharge groundwater at 27 county-operated facilities. Much of the water collected over the past winter is now banked underground.

Not only does the captured rain add to the supplies of local cities, it’s much cheaper than importing water from Northern California or the Colorado River.

Storm runoff that doesn’t get captured flows into the Pacific Ocean via the San Gabriel and Los Angeles rivers, as well as other waterways.

Capturing more stormwater and reducing reliance on imported water are among the main goals of L.A. County’s water plan, which the Board of Supervisors adopted in December .

Climate & Environment

L.A. County aims to collect billions more gallons of local water by 2045

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors has adopted the county’s first water plan, which outlines how the region must stop importing 60% of its water by 2045.

Dec. 6, 2023

County officials developed the plan to make the region more resilient to the effects of climate change, including more severe droughts as well as storms that are projected to unleash more intense downpours. By 2045, the plan calls for L.A. County to become 80% reliant on local water supplies by capturing more stormwater, recycling wastewater and boosting conservation.

“We know with weather volatility, we have to save every drop of water that we can. So this has to continue to be a trend that we invest in,” said Lindsey P. Horvath, chair of the Board of Supervisors.

Horvath said she was pleased to see the amount of rainwater captured, and that the county’s plan lays out a path for taking advantage of downpours when they come.

“The more we see investment in infrastructure, the more we’re going to be able to capture and make a difference, and keep that water resource local.”

Officials at the L.A. Department of Water and Power said the agency captured about 99,000 acre-feet of stormwater between Oct. 15 and April 15 — a portion of that through joint efforts with the county.

That included more than 12,200 acre-feet of stormwater that flowed into the city’s Tujunga Spreading Grounds, which was expanded in a project completed in 2022.

“We’ve been really building capacity to catch major storm flows,” said Martin Adams, the DWP’s general manager. “The fact that we actually caught more is directly the result of the efforts that the water agencies have made locally to grab that water before it gets to the ocean.”

Since 2008, the DWP has invested more than $130 million in stormwater infrastructure projects.

City officials plan to further boost local water supplies by investing in more stormwater capture, as well as recycling wastewater and cleaning up contaminated groundwater in the San Fernando Valley.

Projects that divert storm runoff for storage underground make economic sense, Adams said.

“If we put water in the ground, it makes us more drought-proof, it makes us more resilient,” Adams said. “We’re going to have a much bigger portion of the city’s water supply right here under our old feet.”

Pestrella said L.A. County officials are working toward a goal of doubling the area’s stormwater capture capacity.

L.A.’s water supplies are in good shape. But is the city ready for the next drought?

Current conditions are promising, but L.A. must maintain its ethos of conservation and prepare for an inevitable return to dry times ahead, LADWP officials say.

April 15, 2024

Environmental advocates have supported efforts to harness more runoff, recycle water and lessen reliance on supplies from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and the depleted reservoirs of the Colorado River .

The amount of water captured this year represents a significant step forward, said Conner Everts, executive director of the Southern California Watershed Alliance.

“It’s impressive how much more we’ve done now with the projects that have been in play in the last five to 10 years,” Everts said. “We have to be more reliant on local water supplies, and we have a great potential to continue to do that.”

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Ian James is a reporter who focuses on water in California and the West. Before joining the Los Angeles Times in 2021, he was an environment reporter at the Arizona Republic and the Desert Sun. He previously worked for the Associated Press as a correspondent in the Caribbean and as bureau chief in Venezuela. He is originally from California.

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2 federal investigations into Mesa police use of force closed in 2021. Here's what to know

As Phoenix officials await the findings from a sweeping federal probe of its Police Department, Mesa has quietly resolved two narrower U.S. Justice Department investigations into excessive use of force.

Another high-profile case, involving the death of a man at the hands of Mesa police, remains under review.

The FBI took the unusual step of sending Mesa letters to declare the cases closed, which came to light now after a formal Arizona Republic public records request.

The federal investigations and lawsuits into Mesa police officer use-of-force cases marked a tumultuous time for the department.

Several cases involving Mesa police officers from 2016 to 2018 prompted national scrutiny, including the beating of a man and a hotel shooting that led to the death of a Texas man.

Those cases prompted the FBI to open at least three civil-rights investigations in 2018.

Mesa Chief Ken Cost received two joint letters from the Justice Department and FBI on April 30, 2021, informing him two criminal civil rights investigations into three separate officers had been closed.

“This letter is to inform the Mesa Police Department of the conclusion of our criminal civil rights investigation involving a Mesa Police Department officer,” the letter states.

The two letters name Officer Johnte Jones and Officers Daniel Glover and John Santiago, separately.

Conclusion letters delivered to local police departments from the FBI or DOJ are not a common practice, Mesa police spokesperson Brandi Myers said.

Former police Chief Ramon Batista requested the department receive some follow-up from the two federal agencies. Three years later, the departments obliged.

Batista’s tenure with Mesa was marked by numerous use-of-force cases. He resigned in 2019.

Mesa police did not receive any additional guidance, recommendation or a formal report to the conclusion of those civil rights investigations, Myers confirmed.

The investigations were closed when Attorney General Bill Barr ran the DOJ.

Barr was appointed by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate in 2019. He cut back on the department's ability to oversee local police departments.

Myers said the only pending investigation the department is aware of is the DOJ’s investigation into former Mesa police officer Philip Brailsford ’s shooting of an unarmed man begging for his life at a Mesa hotel in 2016.

Mesa isn’t the only Arizona law enforcement agency investigated by the DOJ.

The Justice Department continues to investigate the Phoenix Police Department into claims of excessive force, discriminatory practices, retaliation against protesters, unlawful seizure of belongings, and mistreatment of people with mental health issues. That probe was launched in August 2021.

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office also has pending court orders that mandate changes to the agency to resolve a backlog of internal investigations into employee misconduct. The American Civil Liberties Union filed the racial profiling class-action lawsuit more than 15 years ago. That legal case has cost the county more than $250 million. The Sheriff's Office remains under review by court monitors.

The FBI did not respond to requests for comment about the Mesa Police Department.

Robert Johnson case

Jones was one of multiple Mesa police officers who punched and kneed 35-year-old Robert Johnson as he stood in the hallway of an apartment complex.

On May 23, 2018, police responded to reports that Johnson and a friend were trying to force their way into the apartment of Johnson's ex-girlfriend. A surveillance video shows five officers punch or knee Johnson after he didn't immediately follow orders to sit down. He was unarmed at the time.

Jones said in a police report that he kneed Johnson twice in the stomach and punched him six times in the face because Johnson leaned against a wall and extended his feet, instead of sitting on the floor as police had ordered.

Jones was one of four officers who were disciplined for the excessive use-of-force in 2019 and was placed on administrative duties following the outcome of an appeal to the recommended discipline.

He remains employed by the department, Myers confirmed.  

Johnson filed a civil-rights lawsuit against the city in the U.S. District Court of Arizona in 2019 demanding a jury trial and compensation for economic loss, medical expenses and attorney fees.

Jones, along with Officers Ernesto Calderon and Rudy Monarrez, were named in the lawsuit.

The city settled with Johnson in June 2022 for $350,000.

The letter from the FBI to Chief Cost did not name any other officers involved in the civil rights investigation.

Gabriel Ramirez case

On May 16, 2018, a video showed Officers Glover and Santiago appearing to rough up armed robbery suspect Gabriel Ramirez, then 15, after he was handcuffed.

The video also showed Ramirez repeatedly calling officers a derogatory term and arguing with them. The bodycam footage showed Santiago placing his foot on top of Ramirez as Ramirez lies face-first on the ground. Santiago put pressure on or near Ramirez's neck after the teen was handcuffed.

Glover also put pressure on the boy's neck, the video shows.

Santiago and Glover were put on leave during the investigation into their actions and later moved to administrative duties.

The two have retired from the Mesa Police Department, Myers said.  

Reporter Maritza Dominguez covers Mesa, Gilbert and Queen Creek and can be reached at   [email protected]  or 480-271-0646. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter:   @maritzacdom .

Are Markups Driving the Ups and Downs of Inflation?

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FRBSF Economic Letter 2024-12 | May 13, 2024

How much impact have price markups for goods and services had on the recent surge and the subsequent decline of inflation? Since 2021, markups have risen substantially in a few industries such as motor vehicles and petroleum. However, aggregate markups—which are more relevant for overall inflation—have generally remained flat, in line with previous economic recoveries over the past three decades. These patterns suggest that markup fluctuations have not been a main driver of the ups and downs of inflation during the post-pandemic recovery.

In the recovery from the pandemic, U.S. inflation surged to a peak of over 7% in June 2022 and has since declined to 2.7% in March 2024, as measured by the 12-month change in the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index. What factors have been driving the ups and downs of inflation? Production costs are traditionally considered a main contributor, particularly costs stemming from fluctuations in demand for and supply of goods and services. As demand for their products rises, companies need to hire more workers and buy more intermediate goods, pushing up production costs. Supply chain disruptions can also push up the cost of production. Firms may pass on all or part of the cost increases to consumers by raising prices. Thus, an important theoretical linkage runs from cost increases to inflation. Likewise, decreases in costs should lead to disinflation.

Labor costs are an important factor of production costs and are often useful for gauging inflationary pressures. However, during the post-pandemic surge in inflation, nominal wages rose more slowly than prices, such that real labor costs were falling until early 2023. By contrast, disruptions to global supply chains pushed up intermediate goods costs, contributing to the surge in inflation (see, for example, Liu and Nguyen 2023). However, supply chains have more direct impacts on goods inflation than on services inflation, which also rose substantially.

In this Economic Letter , we consider another factor that might drive inflation fluctuations: changes in firms’ pricing power and markups. An increase in pricing power would be reflected in price-cost markups, leading to higher inflation; likewise, a decline in pricing power and markups could alleviate inflation pressures. We use industry-level measures of markups to trace their evolving impact on inflation during the current expansion. We find that markups rose substantially in some sectors, such as the motor vehicles industry. However, the aggregate markup across all sectors of the economy, which is more relevant for inflation, has stayed essentially flat during the post-pandemic recovery. This is broadly in line with patterns during previous business cycle recoveries. Overall, our analysis suggests that fluctuations in markups were not a main driver of the post-pandemic surge in inflation, nor of the recent disinflation that started in mid-2022.

Potential drivers of inflation: Production costs and markups

To support households and businesses during the pandemic, the Federal Reserve lowered the federal funds rate target to essentially zero, and the federal government provided large fiscal transfers and increased unemployment benefits. These policies boosted demand for goods and services, especially as the economy recovered from the depth of the pandemic.

The increase in overall demand, combined with supply shortages, boosted the costs of production, contributing to the surge in inflation during the post-pandemic recovery. Although labor costs account for a large part of firms’ total production costs, real labor costs were falling between early 2021 and mid-2022 such that the increases in prices outpaced those in nominal wages. This makes it unlikely that labor costs were driving the surge in inflation.

Instead, we focus on another potential alternative driver of inflation that resulted from firms’ ability to adjust prices, known as pricing power. As demand for goods surged early in the post-pandemic recovery, companies may have had a greater ability to raise their prices above their production costs, a gap known as markups. Following a sharp drop in spending at the height of the pandemic, people may have become eager to resume normal spending patterns and hence more tolerant to price increases than in the past. In fact, growth of nonfinancial corporate profits accelerated in the early part of the recovery (see Figure 1), suggesting that companies had increased pricing power. Some studies have pointed to the strong growth in nonfinancial corporate profits in 2021 as evidence that increased markups have contributed to inflation (see, for example, Weber and Wasmer 2023). However, the figure also shows that growth in corporate profits is typically volatile. Corporate profits tend to rise in the early stages of economic recoveries. Data for the current recovery show that the increase in corporate profits is not particularly pronounced compared with previous recoveries.

Figure 1 Profit growth for nonfinancial businesses

More importantly, corporate profits are an imperfect measure of a firm’s pricing power because several other factors can drive changes in profitability. For instance, much of the recent rise in corporate profits can be attributed to lower business taxes and higher subsidies from pandemic-related government support, as well as lower net interest payments due to monetary policy accommodation (Pallazzo 2023).

Instead of relying on profits as a measure of pricing power, we construct direct measures of markups based on standard economic models. Theory suggests that companies set prices as a markup over variable production costs, and that markup can be inferred from the share of a firm’s revenue spent on a given variable production factor, such as labor or intermediate goods. Over the period of data we use, we assume that the specific proportion of a company’s production costs going toward inputs does not change. If the share of a firm’s revenue used for inputs falls, it would imply a rise in the firm’s price-cost margin or markup. In our main analysis, we use industry-level data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) to compute markups based on the share of revenue spent on intermediate inputs. Our results are similar if we instead use the share of revenue going toward labor costs.

We compare the evolution of markups to that of prices, as measured by the PCE price index, since the recovery from the pandemic. In constructing this price index, the BEA takes into account changes in product characteristics (for instance, size) that could otherwise bias the inflation measure by comparing the prices of inherently different products over time. Similarly, based upon standard economic theory, our markup measure implicitly captures changes in those characteristics (see, for example, Aghion et al. 2023).

The post-pandemic evolution of markups

We examine the evolution of markups in each industry since the third quarter of 2020, the start of the post-pandemic recovery. Figure 2 shows that some sectors, such as the motor vehicles and petroleum industries, experienced large cumulative increases in markups during the recovery. Markups also rose substantially in general merchandise, such as department stores, and for other services, such as repair and maintenance, personal care, and laundry services. Since the start of the expansion, markups in those industries rose by over 10%—comparable in size to the cumulative increases over the same period in the core PCE price index, which excludes volatile food and energy components. However, the surge in inflation through June 2022 was broad based, with prices also rising substantially outside of these sectors. Thus, understanding the importance of markups for driving inflation requires a macroeconomic perspective that examines the evolution of aggregate markups across all sectors of the economy.

Figure 2 Cumulative changes in markups for salient industries

The role of aggregate markups in the economy

To assess how much markup changes contribute to movements in inflation more broadly, we use our industry-level measurements to calculate an aggregate markup at the macroeconomic level. We aggregate the cumulative changes in industry markups, applying two different weighting methods, as displayed in Figure 3. In the first method (green line), we match our industry categories to the spending categories in the core PCE price index for ease of comparison; we then use the PCE weights for each category to compute the aggregate markup. Alternatively, we use each industry’s cost weights to compute the aggregate markup (blue line). Regardless of the weighting method, Figure 3 shows that aggregate markups have stayed essentially flat since the start of the recovery, while the core PCE price index (gray line) rose by more than 10%. Thus, changes in markups are not likely to be the main driver of inflation during the recovery, which aligns with results from Glover, Mustre-del-Río, and von Ende-Becker (2023) and Hornstein (2023) using different methodologies or data. Markups also have not played much of a role in the slowing of inflation since the summer of 2022.

Figure 3 Cumulative changes in aggregate markups and prices

Moreover, the path of aggregate markups over the past three years is not unusual compared with previous recoveries. Figure 4 shows the cumulative changes in aggregate markups since the start of the current recovery (dark blue line), alongside aggregate markups following the 1991 (green line), 2001 (yellow line), and 2008 (light blue line) recessions. Aggregate markups have stayed roughly constant throughout all four recoveries.

Figure 4 Cumulative changes of aggregate markups in recoveries

Firms’ pricing power may change over time, resulting in markup fluctuations. In this Letter , we examine whether increases in markups played an important role during the inflation surge between early 2021 and mid-2022 and if declines in markups have contributed to disinflation since then. Using industry-level data, we show that markups did rise substantially in a few important sectors, such as motor vehicles and petroleum products. However, aggregate markups—the more relevant measure for overall inflation—have stayed essentially flat since the start of the recovery. As such, rising markups have not been a main driver of the recent surge and subsequent decline in inflation during the current recovery.

Aghion, Philippe, Antonin Bergeaud, Timo Boppart, Peter J. Klenow, and Huiyu Li. 2023. “A Theory of Falling Growth and Rising Rents.”  Review of Economic Studies  90(6), pp.2,675-2,702.

Glover, Andrew, José Mustre-del-Río, and Alice von Ende-Becker. 2023. “ How Much Have Record Corporate Profits Contributed to Recent Inflation? ” FRB Kansas City Economic Review 108(1).

Hornstein, Andreas. 2023. “ Profits and Inflation in the Time of Covid .” FRB Richmond Economic Brief 23-38 (November).

Liu, Zheng, and Thuy Lan Nguyen. 2023. “ Global Supply Chain Pressures and U.S. Inflation .” FRBSF Economic Letter 2023-14 (June 20).

Palazzo, Berardino. 2023. “ Corporate Profits in the Aftermath of COVID-19 .” FEDS Notes , Federal Reserve Board of Governors, September 8.

Weber, Isabella M. and Evan Wasner. 2023. “Sellers’ Inflation, Profits and Conflict: Why Can Large Firms Hike Prices in an Emergency?” Review of Keynesian Economics 11(2), pp. 183-213.

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