NEW YORK (AP) — Opponents of workplace diversity programs are increasingly banking on a section of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to challenge equity policies as well as funding to minority-owned businesses.

Section 1981 of the act was originally meant to protect formerly enslaved people — or Black people specifically — from economic exclusion. But now the American Alliance for Equal Rights — a group run by Edward Blum, the conservative activist who challenged affirmative action in higher education and won — is citing the section to go after a venture capital fund called the Fearless Fund, which invests in businesses owned by women of color. A federal appeals court temporarily blocked funding for Fearless Fund’s grant program as the case proceeds.

Conservative activists have brought lawsuits using the 1981 section against other companies and institutions, including insurance company Progressive and pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. The cases are being monitored carefully as the battle over racial considerations shift to the workplace following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling ending affirmative action in college admissions.

While the 1981 statute had been used well before the latest affirmative action ruling to prove reverse discrimination, Alphonso David, Fearless Fund’s legal counsel who serves as president & CEO of The Global Black Economic Forum, said that there’s a “coordinated use of Section 1981 now that we did not see before.”

Here’s what’s happening and what the impact could be:

What is Section 1981?

The 1866 Civil Rights Act is a federal law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, and ethnicity when making and enforcing contracts. Section 1981 specifically grants all individuals within the U.S. jurisdiction the same rights and benefits as “enjoyed by white citizens” regarding contractual relationships.

However, the Supreme Court’s 1976 McDonald v. Santa Fe Trail Transportation decision broadened those protections, ruling Section 1981 prohibits racial discrimination in private employment against white people as well as people of color.

“It’s a very clever game plan,” said Randolph McLaughlin, a civil rights attorney and law professor at Pace University, referring to the use of the 1866 law. “They want to turn civil rights law upside down.”

The standard of proof for the 1981 section is high. That’s because of the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Comcast v. National Association of African American-owned Media establishing that the plaintiff who sues for racial discrimination under the section bears the burden of showing that race was the central cause in denying a contract opportunity — as opposed to merely a motivating factor.

Why not rely on Title VII instead?

Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects employees and job applicants from employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. If the plaintiff opts to sue via Title VII, then he or she needs to file a charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. That’s a process that takes up to 180 days. After that, the plaintiff can file a lawsuit. Choosing the 1981 route is much quicker.

Section 1981 is also broader than Title VII, which generally applies to employers who have 15 or more employees, legal experts said. Also under Title VII, a plaintiff can recoup only up to $300,000 in compensatory and punitive damages total. Section 1981 has no limitation.

Title VII does have a lower standard of proof than Section 1981. Plaintiffs only have to show race was a motivating factor, not a central cause.

Why is the case against the Fearless Fund potentially significant?

In its lawsuit, American Alliance For Equal Rights seeks relief by arguing that the fund’s Fearless Strivers Grant Contest, which awards $20,000 to Black women who run businesses, violates Section 1981 by excluding some people from the program because of their race.

Attorneys for the Fearless Fund have argued in court filings that the grants are donations, not contracts, and are protected by the First Amendment.

David, the Fearless Fund’s legal counsel, says that if these types of grants are considered contracts, one can make the argument that grants issued in many other forms and contexts could also be considered contracts.

“Think of every foundation out there that issues grants,” David said. “They issue grants to people of different demographic groups. They issue grants only to women. They issue grants to survivors of earthquakes. Are those all contracts?”

Angela Reddock-Wright, an employment and Title IX attorney and mediator based in Los Angeles, believes it is “very possible” that the case could end up at the Supreme Court.

“Ideally, the court would decline to hear this matter on the grounds that Section 1981 was not intended to cover matters such as this, but this court appears to operate under different rules and standards,” she said.

What impact have similar lawsuits had?

Some companies have already changed their criteria for their diversity fellowship programs.

Law firms Morrison Foerster and Perkins Coie opened their diversity fellowship programs to all applicants of all races in October, changes the companies said were in the works before Blum filed lawsuits against them. He subsequently dropped them. Previously, the programs for first year law students had targeted students in historically underrepresented groups.

Morrison Foerster’s fellowship program now caters to students with demonstrated commitments to equity and diversity. Perkins Coie announced that it had opened its fellowship programs to all applicants, regardless of their race, gender or LGBTQ identity. In a statement, Perkins Coie said the changes arose as part of updates to its diversity and inclusion policies following the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action.

Last February, Pfizer dropped race-based eligibility requirements for a fellowship program designed for college students of Black, Latino and Native American descent. A judge had dismissed a lawsuit filed by the conservative nonprofit Do No Harm, which claimed Pfizer’s program violated Section 1981, but Do No Harm is appealing the ruling.

“What would work in (companies’) favor is to lower their profile,” said University of Virginia’s Distinguished Professor of Law George Rutherglen. “Which means they do not explicitly consider race in making these decisions. Look to other conditions and requirements that might achieve the same objective.”

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NEW YORK (AP) — Black Friday marks a return to familiar holiday shopping patterns, but inflation is weighing on consumers.

Elevated prices for food, rent, gasoline and other household costs have taken a toll on shoppers. As a result, many are reluctant to spend unless there is a big sale and are being more selective with what they will buy — in many cases, trading down to cheaper stuff and less expensive stores.

Shoppers are also dipping more into their savings, turning increasingly to “buy now, pay later” services like Afterpay that allow users to pay for items in installments, as well as running up their credit cards at a time when the Federal Reserve is hiking rates to cool the U.S. economy.

Such financial hardships could help drive shoppers to look for bargains.

Isela Dalencia, who was shopping for household essentials like detergent at a Walmart in Secaucus, New Jersey, earlier this week, said she’s delaying buying holiday gifts until Cyber Monday — the Monday after Thanksgiving — when online sales rev up. Then, she will wait again until the week before Christmas to get the best deals, unlike last year when she started buying before Black Friday.

“I am shopping less,” Dalencia said, noting she will spend about $700 for holiday gifts this year, one-third less than last year.

Katie Leach, a social worker in Manhattan, was also browsing the aisles at Walmart but said she will start holiday shopping during the first week of December as usual. This time, however, she’ll be relying more on bargains, her credit card and “buy now, pay later” services to get her through the shopping season because of surging prices on food and other household expenses.

“The money is not going as far as last year,” Leach said.

This year’s trends are a contrast from a year ago when consumers were buying early out of fear of not getting what they needed amid clogs in the supply network. Stores didn’t have to discount much because they were struggling to bring in items.

But some pandemic habits are sticking around. Many retailers that closed stores on Thanksgiving Day and instead pushed discounts on their websites to thin out crowds at stores are still holding onto those strategies, despite a return to normalcy.

Major retailers including Walmart and Target are again closing their stores on Thanksgiving. And many moved away from doorbusters, the deeply marked down items offered for a limited time that drew crowds. Instead, the discounted items are available throughout the month, on Black Friday or the holiday weekend.

Against today’s economic backdrop, the National Retail Federation — the largest retail trade group — expects holiday sales growth will slow to a range of 6% to 8%, from the blistering 13.5% growth of a year ago. However, these figures, which include online spending, aren’t adjusted for inflation so real spending could even be down from a year ago.

Adobe Analytics expects online sales to be up 2.5% from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31, a slowdown from last year’s 8.6% pace when shoppers were uncertain about returning to physical stores.

Analysts consider the five-day Black Friday weekend, which includes Cyber Monday, a key barometer of shoppers’ willingness to spend, particularly this year. The two-month period between Thanksgiving and Christmas represents about 20% of the retail industry’s annual sales.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Airline travelers are not only facing sticker shock this Memorial Day weekend, the kickoff to the summer travel season. They’re also dealing with a pileup of flight cancellations.

More than 1,500 flights were canceled as of 9:50 p.m EDT Saturday, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. That followed more than 2,300 cancellations on Friday.

Delta Air Lines suffered the most among U.S. airlines, with more than 250 flights, or 9% of its operations, eliminated on Saturday. Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, where Delta is based and has its largest hub, experienced heavy travel delays. On Saturday, 5% of the flights there were canceled, while 16% were delayed.

Delta noted in an email to The Associated Press that Saturday’s cancellations were due to bad weather and “air traffic control actions,” noting it’s trying to cancel flights at least 24 hours in advance this Memorial Day weekend.

Delta announced on its website on Thursday that from July 1 to Aug. 7, it would reduce service by about 100 daily departures, primarily in parts of the U.S. and Latin America that Delta frequently serves.

“More than any time in our history, the various factors currently impacting our operation — weather and air traffic control, vendor staffing, increased COVID case rates contributing to higher-than-planned unscheduled absences in some work groups — are resulting in an operation that isn’t consistently up to the standards Delta has set for the industry in recent years,” said Delta’s Chief Customer Experience Officer Allison Ausband in a post.

Airlines and tourist destinations are anticipating monster crowds this summer as travel restrictions ease and pandemic fatigue overcomes lingering fear of contracting COVID-19 during travel.

Many forecasters believe the number of travelers will match or even surpass levels in the good-old, pre-pandemic days. However, airlines have thousands fewer employees than they did in 2019, and that has at times contributed to widespread flight cancellations.

People who are only now booking travel for the summer are experiencing the sticker shock.

Domestic airline fares for summer are averaging more than $400 for a round trip, 24% higher than this time in 2019, before the pandemic, and a robust 45% higher than a year ago, according to travel-data firm Hopper.

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Peloton is replacing its CEO, cutting jobs and reining in ambitious expansion plans after badly misjudging the staying power of the exercise-at-home trend that propelled its sales early in the pandemic.

John Foley first pitched the idea for Peloton in 2011, hoping to disrupt the industry. He will give up the CEO position and become executive chair at Peloton Interactive Inc. The company is also cutting almost 3,000 jobs.

Barry McCarthy, who served as CFO at Spotify as well as at Netflix, will take over as CEO, the company said Tuesday.

Peloton’s shares surged about 25% Tuesday, despite the company reducing its annual outlook for sales and subscriptions and reporting a big loss for its fiscal second quarter.

Peloton has been on a wild ride for the past two years during the pandemic. Company shares surged more than 400% in 2020 amid COVID-19 lockdowns that made its bikes and treadmills popular among customers who pay a fee to participate in Peloton’s interactive workouts. But nearly all of those gains were wiped out last year as the distribution of vaccines sent many people out of there homes and back into gyms.

Peloton’s initial success also created competition, with companies peeling away customers by selling cheaper bicycles and exercise equipment. High-end gyms also jumped into the game, offering virtual classes that once were Peloton’s biggest draws. All the while, Peloton misjudged the slowing demand and kept churning out its products.

“The problem for Peloton isn’t that it has a bad product. Nor is it that there is no demand for what it sells,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail in a note published Tuesday. “The central problem is one of hubris and bad judgment. Peloton incorrectly assumed that the demand created by the pandemic would continue to curve upward.”

In a conference call with analysts on Tuesday, Foley acknowledged that the company expanded its operations too quickly and overinvested in certain areas of the business.

“We own it. I own it, and we are holding ourselves accountable,” said Foley, noting he will be working closely with the new CEO. “That starts today.”

Peloton has had to address previous missteps. In May, it halted production of its Tread+ treadmills, after recalling about 125,000 of them less than a month after denying they were dangerous. One was linked to the death of a child, while others were linked to 29 injuries. Last August, the company cut the price of its main stationary bike — the product that was the cornerstone of its original popularity — by $400 because of slower revenue growth.

Peloton also found itself entangled in a marketing debacle in December. Its stationary bike was used in the first episode of “Sex and the City” spinoff “And Just Like That,” but not in a flattering way. One of the characters, Mr. Big, dropped dead after a ride on a Peloton. The company reportedly knew about the product placement but not the plot line, leaving it scrambling to respond to the negative attention.

And last week, there were reports that Amazon or Nike might buy the company. Those that pushed for the sale of Peloton continued to do so this week, with activist investor Blackwells Capital asking again for the company to be sold despite the change in leadership.

Wall Street analysts were divided over whether the latest moves set up Peloton for a sale or position it to remain independent.

“I think the moves, as a whole, do not signify that Peloton is throwing in the towel. I believe this means they are going to slim down, refocus, and stay independent,” said Raj Shah, North America lead for tech, media, and telecom at digital consulting firm Publicis Sapient.

Others maintain the change-up means a sale is more likely to occur: “We believe Foley leaving makes it more likely that Peloton ultimately sells the company and the board clearly has major decisions to make in the days/weeks/months ahead,” wrote Wedbush analysts Daniel Ives and John Katsingris.

Also on Tuesday, Peloton announced that it was cutting 2,800 jobs, including approximately 20% of corporate jobs at the New York City company. The instructors who lead interactive classes for Peloton will not be included in cuts, nor will the content that the company relies on to lure users.

Peloton said it’s winding down the development of its Peloton Output Park factory in Ohio. It will also reduce its owned and operated warehousing and delivery locations and will instead ramp up its third-party relationships.

Peloton is looking to reduce its planned capital expenditures for this year by about $150 million. The restructuring program is expected to result in approximately $130 million in cash charges related to severance and other exit and restructuring activities and $80 million in non-cash charges. The majority of the charges will be recorded in fiscal 2022.

The company also slashed its full-year sales outlook and now expects a range of $3.7 billion to $3.8 billion. That’s down from a prior range of $4.4 billion to $4.8 billion, which it announced last November. It originally had expected $5.4 billion.

Peloton anticipates it will finish the year with roughly 3 million connected fitness subscribers, compared with previous estimates of 3.35 million to 3.45 million.

Peloton reported a net loss of $439.4 million, or $1.39 per share for its fiscal second quarter, which ended Dec. 31,2021, compared with net income of $63.6 million, or 18 cents a share, a year earlier. Total revenue increased more than 6% to $1.13 billion. Analysts had expected a loss of $1.24 per share on sales of $1.14 billion, according to FactSet.

The company anticipates at least $800 million in annual cost savings once its actions are fully implemented.

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Macy’s will furlough a majority of its 130,000 workers with its stores dark.

The company on Monday said it is transitioning to an ’’absolute minimum workforce” needed to maintain basic operations.

Online operations won’t be hit as hard.

Employees who are enrolled in health benefits will continue to receive coverage with the company covering 100% of the premium.

“We expect to bring colleagues back on a staggered basis as business resumes, “the company said.

Macy’s closed all of its stores this month, more than 500, as the coronavirus spread.

To survive, it has suspended its dividend, drawn down its line of credit, frozen hiring, and spending, and cancelled orders. Macy’s is now evaluating all financing options.

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Black Friday enthusiasts woke up before dawn and traveled cross-state to their favorite malls in search of hot deals, kicking off a shortened shopping season that intensified the scramble between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

But the ever-growing popularity of online shopping and holiday discounts that started weeks earlier dampened the frenzy. This year, more people got a head start on gift-hunting, lured by deals from retailers trying to compensate for the shorter season.

The shopping season is the shortest since 2013 because Thanksgiving fell on the last Thursday in November — the latest possible date it could be.

Shoppers up since the wee hours slept in chairs at Nashville’s Opry Mills mall, known for its outlet stores. Outside, deal-seekers were still fighting for parking spots by midmorning.

Haley Wright left Alabama at 4 a.m. to arrive at the Tennessee mall by 7 a.m. She makes the annual trip because she says the stores offer better deals and a more fun environment than the shops back home.

“I let my husband do the online shopping; I do Black Friday,” she said.

The National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group, baked the shorter season into its forecast, but it says the real drivers will be the job market. It forecasts that holiday sales will rise between 3.8 percent and 4.2 percent, an increase from the disappointing 2.1 percent growth in the November and December 2018 period that came well short of the group’s prediction.

NRF expects online and catalog sales, which are included in the total, to increase between 11% and 14% for the holiday period.

Last year’s holiday sales were hurt by turmoil over the White House trade policy with China and a delay of nearly a month in data collection because of a government shutdown.

Marshal Cohen, the chief industry analyst at market research firm NPD Group Inc., says he doesn’t believe a shorter season will affect overall sales, but early discounts will likely diminish Black Friday’s impact. In terms of the busiest day of the year, it will be a toss-up between Black Friday and the last Saturday before Christmas.

“We still have the same amount of money to spend regardless of whether the season is longer or shorter,” he said.

More than half of consumers started their holiday shopping early this year, and nearly a quarter of purchases have already been made, according to the annual survey released by the NRF and Prosper Insights & Analytics.

Kara Lopez and Jeremy Samora arrived at Denver’s Cherry Creek Shopping Center as soon as it opened Friday to snag deals on candles and lotions at Bath & Body Works.

A half-hour later, they sat with their purchases sharing a thermos of hot chocolate, a tradition Lopez started years ago when she had to wait in line for the store to open and the first shoppers inside got gifts like stuffed animals. It’s more relaxed these days, but Lopez likes it that way.

“I like the mall but not when it’s full of people,” she said.

Adobe Analytics predicts a loss of $1 billion in online revenue from a shortened season. Still, it expects online sales will reach $143.7 billion, up 14.1 percent from last year’s holiday season.

Adobe Analytics said Thanksgiving Day set records for online shopping. Consumers spent $4.2 billion on Thanksgiving, a 14.5 percent increase from the holiday a year ago. Black Friday was on track to hit $7.4 billion.

As online sales surged, some retailers including Costco.com and H&M grappled with brief outages, according to technology company Catchpoint.

Target reported Friday that 1 million more customers used its app to shop Black Friday deals compared with last year. The discounter said customers bought big-ticket items like TVs, Apple iPads and Apple Watches.

Walmart worked to ease long lines with technology allowing shoppers to check out with sales associates in the aisles. The retail giant said its most popular deals included TVs, Apple AirPods and “Frozen” toys.

In Europe, though, Black Friday drew a backlash from activists, politicians and even consumers who criticized the U.S. shopping phenomenon as capitalism run amok. Climate demonstrators blocked a shopping mall near Paris and gathered in front of Amazon’s headquarters. Workers at Amazon in Germany went on strike for better pay. Some French lawmakers called for banning Black Friday altogether.

In the U.S., attention Friday turned to malls, which are fighting for traffic as online shopping grows.

At Mall of America, the country’s largest shopping mall, crowds were expected to exceed the 240,000 count on Black Friday from a year ago, said Jill Renslow, senior vice president at the Bloomington, Minnesota-based mall.

Maria Mainville, a spokesman at Taubman Centers, which operates a little over 20 malls in the U.S., says that its centers reported strong customer traffic since earlier this week. That’s different from last year when Black Friday and Thanksgiving drew the majority of the crowds for the period.

At some malls, some shoppers were surprised at the relatively thin crowds.

Two Bath & Body Works saleswomen wearing reindeer antler headbands shouted about promotions at a trickle of shoppers walking through Newport Centre in Jersey City, New Jersey.

“It looks empty for Black Friday,” said Latoya Robinson, a student who lives in New York and planned to stop by Forever 21 and Macy’s to shop for herself.

In Kansas, Kassi Adams and her husband drove 50 miles (80 kilometers) to Town East Mall in Wichita, even though the couple was nearly done with their holiday shopping. They were surprised to see how few people were there and even boasted about getting a choice parking spot.

“There is really not much of a crowd to fight,” she said.

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Walmart is rolling out a health care pilot program for its employees that will come up with a curated list of high-quality providers but offer fewer choices than under the current plan.

Through the program, Walmart will help employees connect with local doctors in areas like primary care, cardiology and obstetrics. It is working with Nashville-based data analytics company Embold Health, which will cull through vast amounts of data from public and private insurance plans to come up with recommended providers based on effectiveness and cost-efficiency. Walmart will, in turn, use that data to curate a list for employees.

“It’s a thoughtful approach to a goal of better health and better health care,” said Adam Stavisky, senior vice president US benefits, Walmart during a media call on Wednesday.

The program will cover U.S. Walmart and Sam’s Club workers in Orlando and Tampa Florida, the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area and Northwest Arkansas starting Jan. 1. A human personal health care assistant will also be available for workers in North and South Carolina as a go-to resource on billing questions, making an appointment and understanding a diagnosis.

The goal is for the services to eventually be available to the 1 million Walmart and Sam’s Club workers and family members on the company’s health insurance program. The retailer also plans to share its practices with other companies.

The downside of the program is that employees will be faced with fewer doctor choices. Walmart says that workers can use doctors who are not on the company’s curated list but it will cost more.

Walmart executives say it’s hoping to remove a meaningful chunk of unnecessary health care cost for the company and its employees. Overall, employers that provide health coverage have long been frustrated by costs that rise faster than inflation and wages. Benefits experts say other approaches to keep costs down, like raising the deductibles, haven’t worked so companies are focusing more on how people use the health care system.

That can mean offering coverage that steers patients away from expensive hospitals for routine imaging exams or pushes them toward doctors that are considered higher quality.

Walmart had already seen positive results through its so-called Centers of Excellence Program, which began six years ago and involves flying employees with serious conditions to out-of-state hospitals with highly-ranked doctors in a bid to cut health care costs. I

t found that half of its workers participating in the program who were initially diagnosed as needing spine surgery ultimately did not. And once they were given a different treatment plan, they recovered quickly and avoided a surgery they didn’t need.

“Employers ultimately want people to get the right care in the right setting,” said Paul Fronstin, an economist with the Employee Benefit Research Institute. “Their concern is waste, paying for things people don’t need and paying for care that is potentially harmful. They want people to be healthy, they want them to be productive and at work.”

As part of the pilot program, Walmart is expanding its telehealth program where workers get diagnosed with a live doctor via video. Currently, Walmart offers basic telehealth to nearly everyone on its medical plans for minor medical issues like a sore throat.

However, as of Jan. 1, workers in Colorado, Minnesota and Wisconsin can opt to access a personal online doctor and a team to manage chronic conditions like diabetes as well as preventative care.

Associated Press Health Writer Tom Murphy in Indianapolis contributed to this report.

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Walmart is rolling out an unlimited grocery delivery subscription service this fall as it races to gain an advantage in the competitive fresh food business.

The service will charge an annual membership fee of $98 for subscribers to access unlimited same-day delivery, which will be offered in 1,400 stores in 200 markets. By year-end, it will extend to a total of 1,600 stores — or more than 50 percent of the country.

The move allows the nation’s largest grocer to further tap into time-starved shoppers looking for convenience at a time when Walmart is locked in an arms race with Amazon and others to expand fresh-food delivery — one of the fastest-growing e-commerce sectors.

“We know this level of convenience resonates” with our customers, said Tom Ward, senior vice president of digital operations at Walmart U.S. “If you need milk, bananas and birthday presents, this is a fantastic solution.”

The grocery services will be fulfilled by local stores and require a minimum order of $30. With same-day delivery, there’s a four-hour minimum wait time between placing an order and having it delivered. Walmart will also allow shoppers to order groceries online and pick them up at their local store or curbside for free. Curbside pickup is available at 3,000 stores and will expand to another 100 stores by the end of the year.

About 100,000 items, which include fresh food and pantry staples as well as select general merchandise like lightbulbs and basic toys, qualify for both grocery pickup and delivery. Walmart will also offer a monthly subscription option for $12.95; customers will still be able to pay a per-delivery fee of $7.95 or $9.95 for same-day delivery if they decide against the subscription service.

Walmart says it will rely on its more than 45,000 personal shoppers to pick products off store shelves to fulfill orders. It will also continue using the same patchwork of delivery services as before, including Postmates and DoorDash.

Walmart is facing increasing pressure to expand its fresh grocery delivery service amid fiercer competition in that space. About two years ago, its key rival Amazon purchased Whole Food Market Inc. and now is offering same-day grocery delivery in various cities. Meanwhile, AmazonFresh costs $14.99 a month and is available to Amazon Prime customers, who pay an annual membership fee of $119, in select cities.

Grocery delivery startup Shipt, whose store partners include Costco and Piggly Wiggly, currently charges $99 annually. Target, which bought Shipt in December 2017, announced in June a new option for Shipt shoppers to pay a per-order fee of $9.99 for the first time. It also integrated Shipt on Target.com. And last year, Instacart slashed its annual subscription fresh grocery service fee to $99 from $149.

Amazon changed consumer expectations when it launched two-day delivery for Prime members back in 2005 and forced other retailers to step up their game. But then the online behemoth needed to cut the delivery time in half to make its membership more attractive since others like Walmart offered free two-day deliveries without any membership.

This past spring, Amazon cut its two-day delivery to one day for Prime members. Soon after, Walmart began rolling out free next-day delivery for its most popular items with a minimum order requirement of $35. It plans to roll out the service to 75 percent of the U.S. population by year-end.

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