Current Events in April 2018

Rose Acre Farms of Seymour, Ind., is recalling more than 206.7 million eggs that may be contaminated with Salmonella Braenderup.

Twenty-two illnesses have been reported to date.

The following eggs, from plant number P-1065 with the Julian date range of 011 through date of 102 printed on either the side portion or the principal side of the carton or package, are being recalled:

Lot Codes 011 – 102

The eggs were distributed from the farm in Hyde County, N.C., and reached consumers through retail stores and restaurants via direct delivery in Colorado, Florida, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia.

What to do

Customers who purchased the recalled products should immediately discontinue using them and return them to the place of purchase for a full refund.

Consumers with questions may contact the company at (855) 215-5730 from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. (EST).

Badass Helmet Company is recalling 64 Metalhead 2.5 helmets.

The helmets may not adequately protect the wearer in the event of a head impact during a motorcycle crash, increase the risk of injury.

What to do

Badass Helmet will notify owners, and issue a full refund.

The manufacturer has not yet provided a notification schedule.

Owners may contact Badass Helmet customer service at 1-866-334-3563.

Consumers must give consent

The first legal cannabis product in Texas was delivered to a six-year-old girl in February who suffers from epilepsy. Advocates hailed the delivery as a major step forward for Texas consumers who find relief from cannabidiol (CBDs) -- a chemical in cannabis that does not get users high but is thought to have medical benefits.

Though the feds have not made CBDs available to marijuana researchers, a cache of anecdotal evidence and research conducted in other countries suggests that it can control epileptic seizures in some patients

The young patient was able to receive CBDs under Texas’ Compassionate Use Act, a restrictive law that legalized CBDs in the state in 2015 but was not implemented until February of this year.

Since then, numerous CBD products have appeared on store shelves in Texas this year -- and Texas officials are now threatening to take them away.

Officials with the Texas Department of State Health Services are warning retailers that they are not allowed to sell CBDs under the state law. The state health department is currently considering a proposal that would give inspectors authority to confiscate unauthorized CBD products from store shelves.

An agency spokesman told the Dallas Morning News that the state is simply trying to comply with federal anti-drug laws. The enforcement would not apply to dispensaries that are allowed to sell CBDs under the state’s Compassionate Use Act.

Taking a step back

Obtaining CBDs under Texas’ recently implemented law remains incredibly difficult. Under the Compassionate Use program, only people suffering from epilepsy who have tried two FDA-approved treatments, and found them to be ineffective, can receive the substance. Even then, the patients must receive a recommendation for CBD oil  from a doctor who is listed on the state’s Compassionate Use Registry -- and only 20 doctors are currently on the list for the entire state.

What’s more, only three dispensaries have received authorization from the Texas Department of Public Safety to grow and distribute CBD products under the Compassionate Use Program. The chief executive of Compassionate Cultivation, one of the approved dispensaries, is nonetheless speaking out against the state’s potential CBD crackdown on unapproved dispensaries.

“It’s troubling to me that a great percentage of Texans will no longer be able to achieve that benefit,” Denton told the Texas Tribune.  “If you are just taking a product away from people that has helped them, but not giving them a legal solution, then I think that is a step back.”

In January, a University of California, San Diego weed researcher told ConsumerAffairs that the anecdotal evidence into the potential medical benefits of CBD was “astonishing.”

But because the Drug Enforcement Agency has only made weed and not CBD oil available to researchers, "there is virtually no research on the health benefits of CBD,” he said.

Despite the urging of more than 40 states and the Trump administration, the U.S. Supreme Court couldn’t come to a decision regarding how sales taxes should be paid for online purchases.

By the end of Tuesday’s hearing, there didn’t appear to be enough votes to overturn Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, a 1992 ruling which prevented states from collecting any sales tax from retail purchases made over the internet or other e-commerce route unless the seller had a physical presence in the state.

The participating states argued that they’re losing billions of dollars in lost tax revenue because online merchants don’t have to collect state sales tax. And since consumers are making more and more of their purchases online, the tax revenue is becoming increasingly critical to state governments.

“Our small businesses on Main Street are being harmed because of the unleveled playing field created by Quill, where out-of-state remote sellers are given a price advantage,” said Marty Jackley, South Dakota’s attorney general.

In 2017 alone, it’s estimated that states could have collected as much as $13.4 billion in additional online sales taxes, according to the General Accountability Office.

Who should make the decision?

However, a handful of justices raised concerns about the heavy-handed impact collecting sales tax would have on small businesses who are codependent on internet sales. The estimates of how much it would cost internet businesses to comply with the proposed tax laws ranged from $12 to $250,000.

“Is there anything we can do to give Congress a signal that it should act more affirmatively in this area?” Justice Sonia Maria Sotomayor asked.

Sotomayor’s contention got buy-in from George S. Isaacson, a lawyer for the internet retailers, who said a national solution should come from Congress instead of the Supreme Court.

But Sotomayor or Isaacson’s argument didn’t get much support. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said that “it would be very strange for us to tell Congress it ought to do something in any particular area.” And both Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan raised the point that if Congress hasn’t acted on the question, then was Congress good with the status quo?

Chief Justice Roberts also commented that the problem might be taking care of itself.

“The bigger e-commerce companies find themselves with a physical presence in all 50 states,” he said, “so they’re already covered.”

The Trump administration is all in on the sales tax initiative. President Trump has minced no words about how Amazon deals with taxes and shipping. Amazon, while not part of this suit, does collect sales tax on goods it sells directly, but it places the tax responsibility on the shoulders of any third party who sells items via Amazon.

A group of 34 tech companies have signed an agreement to refrain from helping world governments wage cyberwar on each other.

Microsoft, Facebook, Cisco, Cloudflare, Github, and Oracle are among the top tech and security companies that have signed on to the Cybersecurity Tech Accord. In the agreement, the companies pledge to “empower civilians online and to improve the security, stability and resilience of cyberspace.”

“We will not help governments launch cyberattacks against innocent citizens and enterprises from anywhere, and will protect against tampering or exploitation of their products and services through every stage of technology development, design and distribution,” the accord states.

Joining forces

Microsoft president Brad Smith, who spearheaded the effort to organize this alliance, says that tech companies can be a powerful force if they work together to strengthen cybersecurity protection.

“This tech sector accord will help us take a principled path towards more effective steps to work together and defend customers around the world,” Smith said in a statement. He added that he sees the cybersecurity accord as a precursor to some sort of “digital Geneva Convention.”

"It aligns the resources, expertise and thinking of some of the world's most important technology companies to help to build a trusted foundation for technology users who will benefit immensely from a more security connected world,” Smith said.

Four main commitments

The agreement centers around four key principles:

• Strong defense. The companies are committed to building a stronger defense against malicious code. To achieve this goal, the companies will launch new security practices and new features for companies.

• No offense. The companies pledge not help governments launch cyber attacks against “innocent citizens and enterprises.” They will also protect their products and services from tampering and exploitation.

• Capacity building. The companies vow to do more to empower developers, as well as the people and business who use their technology.

• Collective action. The companies aim to strengthen their existing relationships and build new partnerships with the goal of improving technical collaboration, coordinating vulnerability disclosures, sharing threats, and minimizing the threat of malicious code.

Follows a string of cyberattacks

The pact comes less than a year after the WannaCry ransomware virus, which targeted Windows vulnerabilities. Another major attack followed closely behind, and also targeted Windows PCs.

“The devastating attacks from the past year demonstrate that cybersecurity is not just about what any single company can do but also about what we can all do together,” Smith said.

Apple, Amazon, Twitter, and Google have not yet signed the Tech Accord. However, the agreement remains open to membership requests from “new private sector signatories, large or small and regardless of sector.”

The crush of last-minute tax filers crashed an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) computer network, so the tax agency is extending the tax deadline through today.

“Individuals and businesses with a filing or payment due date of April 17 will now have until midnight on Wednesday, April 18,” the IRS said in a statement. “Taxpayers do not need to do anything to receive this extra time.”

According to the announcement, the IRS encountered system issues Tuesday morning. Taxpayers were still able to file their tax returns electronically if they were using software and the IRS's Free File. Taxpayers using paper to file and pay their taxes at the deadline were not affected by the system issue.

What failed was the part of the IRS network that allows taxpayers to pay their taxes electronically. Direct Pay failed early in the day – reportedly from the large number of people trying to access it – and wasn't restored until late in the afternoon.

The part of the network that allows taxpayers to pay their taxes in installments was also affected, but it has since been restored.

Busiest tax day of the year

“This is the busiest tax day of the year, and the IRS apologizes for the inconvenience this system issue caused for taxpayers,” said Acting IRS Commissioner David Kautter. “The IRS appreciates everyone’s patience during this period. The extra time will help taxpayers affected by this situation.”

Consumers who used commercial tax preparation services were also affected by the outage. A spokesperson for Intuit told CNBC that consumers using the company's service should continue filing their taxes normally. She said that returns filed while the IRS system was down were held until it was working again.

The extension moves the tax-filing deadline two days beyond its traditional date. The normal April 15 deadline was extended to April 16 this year because of a District of Columbia holiday on Monday.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers are once again pushing the the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to soften its attitude on marijuana.

Representatives Phil Roe ( R-Tenn) and Tim Walz (D-Minn), who both lead the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, on Monday introduced the VA Medicinal Cannabis Research Act of 2018.

The bill would give the VA authority to conduct its own research into cannabis, in particular to study whether it is beneficial to veterans suffering PTSD, chronic pain, and other conditions. The agency would also have to supply congress with regular reports about their research efforts, according to an early draft of the bill.

Opening up ability to research

The proposal is just the latest that lawmakers have made over the years to encourage the VA to study cannabis. A wealth of research suggests that medical marijuana can be a viable alternative to more addictive and dangerous drugs.

The push to get the VA office to take marijuana seriously has reached a new urgency as veterans and others across the United States are in the grips of a deadly opioid epidemic. Lawmakers have repeatedly asked the VA to explore marijuana as a possible alternative to opioids, but the agency has responded by claiming that federal law restricts their ability to conduct such testing, as the Military Times reported.

“It’s time the VA did a formal study,”  Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif) told the publication. “Rather than risk becoming dependent on opioids, these veterans find relief in medical cannabis. … I want to bring these brave men and women the relief they deserve. This legislation will finally allow the VA to perform research on medical cannabis.”

Pushing past current prohibitions

Last year, the VA rolled out new rules allowing doctors to discuss marijuana with veterans who request information. But discussing marijuana is about all the doctors can do, according to the agency’s rules.

“Providers are prohibited from completing forms or registering Veterans for participation in a State-approved marijuana program,” the agency said at the time, citing the Federal Controlled Substances Act that criminalizes marijuana at the federal level.

Following the arrest of two African American men at one of its Philadelphia locations, Starbucks has announced that it will close 8,000 stores for an afternoon to educate employees on how to combat racial bias.

The announcement comes after a phone call to police from a Starbucks manager last week led to the arrest of two men who were waiting on a friend. Video footage of the arrests went viral over the weekend, sparking a frenzy of outrage on social media. The video appeared to show no cause for police involvement.

Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson issued a statement saying the incident was both “disheartening” and “reprehensible.” He also met with the two men arrested and apologized for how they were treated.

Now, the CEO has announced that Starbucks employees will be receiving “racial bias training” to help ensure that an incident like the one that occured last week doesn’t happen again.

Training developed with guidance from experts

The announcement explains that on May 29, thousands of Starbucks locations won’t open to the public because 175,000 of its employees will be receiving bias training.

“On May 29th, we will close our company-owned stores in the US to conduct racial-bias training in order to address implicit bias, promote conscious inclusion, and prevent discrimination so everyone feels safe and welcome at Starbucks,” the company said.

The training will be developed with input from experts that include former Attorney General Eric Holder, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative Bryan Stevenson, and Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

Starbucks said it will also “review the effectiveness” of the training.

Addressing racial bias

Starbucks said it recognizes that racial bias is a problem that it needs to address.

"I've spent the last few days in Philadelphia with my leadership team listening to the community, learning what we did wrong and the steps we need to take to fix it," Johnson said.

"While this is not limited to Starbucks, we're committed to being a part of the solution," he said. "Closing our stores for racial bias training is just one step in a journey that requires dedication from every level of our company and partnerships in our local communities."

The company said it is “ashamed” of what happened at the Philadelphia location. The employee who called the police no longer works for the company.

Southwest Airlines says it is accelerating its engine inspection program after an exploding Boeing 737 engine nearly caused a flight to crash Tuesday morning.

One passenger on the New York to Dallas flight died and several others were injured as the pilot struggled to land the crippled aircraft at Philadelphia.

Jennifer Riordan, a 43-year-old mother of two, was listed as the fatality. She was seated next to a window that shattered when debris from the exploding engine hit it. The loss of pressurization nearly pulled the passenger through the small opening. She died at a Philadelphia hospital after the plane made an emergency landing.

Many passengers took to social media to sing the praises of Southwest pilot Tammie Jo Shults, who calmly informed air traffic control that part of her aircraft was missing. Once the plane was on the ground, passengers said Shults stood by the plane's exit and thanked each passenger for their bravery during the ordeal.

First female F-18 pilot

Shultz has plenty of experience in difficult situations. She is a U.S. Navy veteran and the first woman to fly F-18s, making hundreds of carrier landings. The 56-year-old aviator later served as a navy flight instructor.

Passengers said they heard a loud noise not long after the plane took off from Laguardia Airport and felt a steep drop, with oxygen masks falling from the overhead compartment. Metal debris from the plane's engine broke out the window where Riordan was seated.

“We are deeply saddened to confirm that there is one fatality resulting from this accident,” the airline said in a statement. “The entire Southwest Airlines Family is devastated and extends its deepest, heartfelt sympathy to the customers, employees, family members and loved ones affected by this tragic event.”

Investigation underway

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating to determine why the engine exploded. In the meantime, Southwest said it would step up inspections of CFM56 engines, the type that failed. The airline said the acceleration is being done “out of an abundance of caution” and expects the inspections to be completed within 30 days.

Passengers aboard another Southwest flight over the weekend said they feared for their lives when the Boeing 737 attempted to land in a violent thunderstorm. Flight 3461, from Fort Lauderdale to New Orleans, encountered violent weather as it approached Louis Armstrong Airport.

Lauren Bale, an employee of WWL-TV in New Orleans, was a passenger on the flight and told the station she thought the plane was going to crash.

“I wasn't sure what was going to happen,” she told the station. “I was texting my family. It seemed we were really close to the ground, and just the way the plane was moving back and forth and everyone screaming, it was really intense.”

The plane aborted the landing in New Orleans and touched down safely in Panama City, Fla.

A report by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) raises concerns about the long-term future of many members of the millennial generation.

The report, based on an analysis of an adult competency assessment, shows nearly half of millennials in the U.S. have low literacy skills and even more lack the ability to understand and work with numbers.

“These numbers are sobering because the findings presented in this report show that skills are associated with an array of important outcomes including employment opportunities, wages, and benefits,” the authors write.

The report also makes the point that literacy and numeracy are not only connected with economic returns but play a critical role in uniting society and democracy.

More likely to be unemployed

The report by ETS researchers Anita Sands and Madeline Goodman suggests millennials with low skills are more likely to be unemployed, out of the labor force, working in low-skill occupations, and earning low incomes.

They are also less likely to have health care coverage than those with higher skills. Societally, they are less likely than their higher-skilled peers to have trust in others, be engaged in civic affairs, and feel as though they can influence government.

Rapid and fundamental change

The authors say millennials are more vulnerable than previous generations because they came along at a time when America was undergoing rapid and fundamental changes. A manufacturing economy, which previously supported a broad middle class, was transitioning to a service and information economy, requiring education and skill.

“This shift impacted many facets of American life, not least of which is the nature of work and the need for higher level literacy and numeracy skills,” the authors write.

Unfortunately for millennials, the economy provides fewer sustainable economic opportunities to people who lack higher-level skills. The work that is available to those with lower skills often carries risks without providing benefits, such as retirement plans, health insurance, and sustainable wages.

The report sounds an alarm for a generation entering adulthood that may be ill-equipped to cope with a changing world. It concludes that the millennial generation is not just at risk, but future generations as well.

Koch Foods of Fairfield, Ohio, is recalling approximately 119,480 pounds of beef rib-shaped patties.

The products may be contaminated with extraneous materials -- specifically thin blue plastic pieces.

There have been no confirmed reports of adverse reactions due to consumption of these products.

The fully cooked, not shelf stable rib-shaped items, produced on July 8, 2016, are being recalled:

• 30-lb. bulk boxes containing 6 plastic shrink-wrapped unlabeled packages of “Fully Cooked Rib-Shaped Beef Patty With BBQ Sauce” and identified by case code “67329” and lot number “JTM 16190” represented on the label.

The recalled products, bearing establishment number “EST. 20795” inside the USDA mark of inspection, were shipped to a distributors nationwide for institutional use.

What to do

Customers who purchased the recalled products should not consume them, but discard them or return them to the place of purchase.

Consumers with questions about the recall may contact Mark Kaminsky at (847) 384-5940.

An international team of researchers may have accidentally engineered an enzyme that could help mitigate the global plastic pollution crisis.

The enzyme is able to digest polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic, of which hundreds of millions of tons are produced each year in the form of plastic bottles. PET plastics, which were first patented in the 1940s, can linger in the environment for centuries.

However, researchers from Britain’s University of Portsmouth and the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory say they may have serendipitously discovered an enzyme that can eat PET plastic.

How the enzyme was discovered

The discovery was made while examining the structure of a natural enzyme believed to have come of age in a Japanese recycling center. The bacterium had naturally evolved to eat plastic.

When the team tweaked the structure of the enzyme by adding some amino acids, tests showed that it made the molecule even better at breaking down PET plastic.

“What actually turned out was we improved the enzyme, which was a bit of a shock,” said lead researcher John McGeehan, a professor at the University of Portsmouth in the UK. “It’s great and a real finding.”

The enzyme’s plastic-eating abilities were enhanced by the slight alteration, which McGeehan says is “really exciting because that means that there’s potential to optimize the enzyme even further.”

The discovery could be a step toward eliminating the huge swaths of plastic waste often found floating in oceans or washed up on beaches all over the world, the researchers said.

Speeding up the enzyme

The researchers are currently working on improving the enzyme further to allow it to be used industrially to quickly break down plastics.

"Serendipity often plays a significant role in fundamental scientific research and our discovery here is no exception," said McGeehan. "Although the improvement is modest, this unanticipated discovery suggests that there is room to further improve these enzymes, moving us closer to a recycling solution for the ever-growing mountain of discarded plastics."

The research has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A federal judge ruled that consumers in Illinois could proceed with a class action lawsuit over the facial recognition technology that helps Facebook power its Tag Suggestions tool.

The suit alleges that the company’s facial recognition features violate an Illinois privacy act by storing biometric info without users’ explicit consent. The Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) requires consent before companies can collect biometric data.

Judge James Donato, a federal judge in San Francisco, dismissed Facebook’s argument that the law didn’t apply to it because its servers aren’t located in the state.

"Plaintiffs' claims are sufficiently cohesive to allow for a fair and efficient resolution on a class basis," Donato wrote in his ruling.

Fines could amount to billions

The lawsuit could clear the way for millions of the site’s users to sue the company for using their image without permission. Violations of BIPA typically incur a fine of between $1,000 to $5,000.

“A class action is clearly superior to individual proceedings here. While not trivial, BIPA’s statutory damages are not enough to incentivize individual plaintiffs given the high costs of pursuing discovery on Facebook’s software and code base and Facebook’s willingness to litigate the case...Facebook seems to believe that a class action is not superior because statutory damages could amount to billions of dollars,” Donato wrote.

The class action will consist of users in Illinois "for whom Facebook created and stored a face template after June 7, 2011,” he said.

The company has altered the controversial feature in the time since it was first rolled out to users back in 2011 by adding a more direct notification alerting users to the facial recognition features. However, the lawsuit is based on the earlier collection of user data.

Facebook told Reuters that it “continue[s] to believe the case has no merit and will defend [itself] vigorously.”

Tesla has again pressed pause on the production of its Model 3 electric vehicles -- cars billed as the "world’s first mass-market electric vehicle." It’s the second time this year the automaker has shut down production.

The company is spinning news of the production halt the best it can.

"Our Model 3 production plan includes periods of planned downtime," a Tesla spokesperson said in a statement. "These periods are used to improve automation and systematically address bottlenecks in order to increase production rates."

That response is essentially a carbon copy of what the company offered last month when production of the Model 3 hit its first roadblock. Despite being behind in its production goals, Tesla estimates the temporary suspension will last five days at the most.

One thing after another

On top of the Model 3 foul-up, Tesla has had to answer for a slew of maladies since the first of the year. Those include a fatal crash of one of its semi-autonomous vehicles, complaints over unintended acceleration, a lawsuit charging Tesla with misleading customers about safety of its autopilot feature, the company’s credit status taking a hit on Wall Street, a voluntary recall of 123,000 of its Model S vehicles, and accusations that its safety standards are lax.

"Production hell" is how CEO Elon Musk referred to the succession of challenges his company has had to face. Musk also fessed up to putting too much hope in the Model 3’s automated assembly line.

"Yes, excessive automation at Tesla was a mistake," tweeted Musk when asked if his company was relying on too many robots. "To be precise, my mistake. Humans are underrated."

While the promises Tesla makes for its Model 3 are alluring -- "the highest safety ratings in every category" and "220 miles of range" -- interested buyers will need to be patient. Tesla lists the waiting time on a Model 3 at 12-18 months.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is issuing new Medicare cards to seniors, with random letters instead of Social Security numbers.

The Social Security numbers are being removed from the cards as a security precaution to prevent fraud. But true to form, scammers are exploiting the switch over in an attempt to defraud seniors.

AARP reports scammers are calling up Medicare recipients and pretending to be representatives from the government's healthcare program. The caller tells the victim that they need personal identifiers – including Social Security numbers and bank account information – to facilitate the switch to a new card.

According to AARP, here is some of the misinformation scammers are telling seniors:

• You must pay for your new Medicare card now or else you'll lose your Medicare benefits

• Medicare is updating its files and needs your bank and credit-card numbers

• Medicare is confirming your Social Security number before you can receive your new card

• Medicare needs your bank information to send you a refund on your old card

Many unaware of the new cards

None of these things are true. However, some seniors might fall for them because an AARP survey shows that 75 percent of seniors are unaware that new Medicare cards are being issued.

The survey shows other information gaps – 60 percent of seniors think they must pay for the new Medicare cards and half said they wouldn't question a phone call from someone claiming to be a Medicare rep.

Representatives of Medicare do not call consumers. The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud says seniors should just hang up on any caller claiming to be from Medicare. In actuality, they're crooks trying to scam you.

Medicare will actually send you an alert when your new card is in the mail. You can sign up for the alert here.

Once your new card arrives, destroy your old one; don't just toss it in the trash. It contains your Social Security number and can be used to steal your identity.

In its first-quarter earnings update, Netflix disclosed that it signed up 26 million new subscribers in the past year. In the first quarter alone, the streaming giant added 7.4 million subscribers worldwide.

Subscriber growth expectations were high prior to the release of the earnings report, but the company’s user growth was much higher than expected in the first quarter. Its earnings met expectations, and its revenue managed to top estimates.

Netflix said in its letter to investors that quarterly revenue grew 43 percent year-over-year in Q1, “the fastest pace in the history of our streaming business.” The results of the report caused Netflix shares to jump more than 5 percent in after-hours trading on Tuesday.

A new record for the first quarter

As of the end of March, Netflix had 125 million subscribers worldwide. The streaming giant reported $3.7 billion in revenue for Q1 and a net profit of $290 million.

Its higher-than-expected revenue in Q1 was due to a 25 percent increase in average paid streaming memberships, plus a 14 percent hike in the average subscription price. Netflix previously raised rates on its plans in the U.S. and other territories at the end of last year.

Going into the second quarter, the company said it expects 6.2 million global net additions -- an increase of 5.2 million from last year’s first quarter. Netflix expects content spending to hit between $7.5 billion to $8 billion for 2018, which is on par with previous estimates.

Adding more original series

The company announced earlier this year that it would be focusing on adding more original titles. Netflix said it will “continue to raise debt as needed to fund our increase in original content.” As of March 31, the company had $6.54 billion in long-term debt and $3.4 billion in long-term content payment obligations.

Netflix says that adding more original series, such as sci-fi thriller “Altered Carbon” and returning seasons of “Marvel’s Jessica Jones,” should help to fuel subscriber growth and retention.

“We’re investing in more marketing of new original titles to create more density of viewing and conversation around each title (i.e bigger hit in a nation or demographic),” the company said in the report.

“We believe this density of viewing helps on both retention and acquisition, because it makes our original titles even less substitutable. Because we operate in so many countries, we are able to try different approaches in different markets, and continue to learn.”