Beekeeper Nick French never knows what he’ll find when he opens up his hives for the first spring inspections. Of the 40 hives he manages in Parker, Colo., French loses about one-quarter of his colonies every year.

“I work all summer long to raise healthy bees, but there are no guarantees they’ll make it through the winter,” says French, founder of Frangiosa Farm.

Recent years have been especially hard on beekeepers. The latest research shows that beekeepers have lost almost a third of their hives over the winter — and replacing them is expensive. “Losing bees is like watching dollar bills fly out the window,” says Tanya Phillips, beekeeper and founder of Bee Friendly Austin.

A few creative beekeepers have come up with a new source of funding: They’re inviting bee supporters to “adopt a hive.”

Most programs operate with similar models. Adopters pay a fee in exchange for honey from their “adopted” bees and an adoption certificate acknowledging their support.

The Adopt A Bee program at Frangiosa Farm was introduced in 2012. The one-time adoption fees per hive range from $45 to $130 (the latter gets you three jars of honey). French signed up 25 adopters the first year; last year, the number of adopters jumped to 300.

Adopting a hive is about more than increasing honey sales — it’s a matter of survival, says French.

“In any other industry, you’d go out of business with the kind of losses beekeepers experience,” French says. “I couldn’t keep going without community support.”

The programs take advantage of public concern and raise awareness of the plight of bees.

Beekeepers are experiencing average annual losses of more than 30 percent, according to Bee Informed Partnership, a nonprofit collaboration of universities and research labs studying honeybee losses.

In managed colonies (hives raised by beekeepers), losses can be caused by a number of factors, including parasites, pesticides, loss of forage and colony collapse disorder, according to David Tarpy, a professor and extension apiculturist for North Carolina State University.

Beekeeper Nick French of Frangiosa Farms loses about one-quarter of his colonies every year. Last year, he had 300 adopters sign up for his farm’s adopt-a-bee program. Courtesy of Nick French/Frangiosa Farms hide caption

toggle caption Courtesy of Nick French/Frangiosa Farms

Bees are essential to the health of the food supply. More than 100 different crops — about one-third of the foods we eat — depend on pollination from bees and other pollinators. While native bees do some of the work, it’s honeybees that do the bulk of the pollination for agricultural crops.

“Honeybees provide a service that native bees cannot,” Tarpy says. “And beekeepers face uncertainty every single year about whether or not they’ll have enough bees to match pollination demands.”

Of course, beekeepers can add more bees, but the options come at a great expense.

Packages of bees to populate a new hive are upwards of $100 per hive. Splitting the bees from an existing hive into two new hives is free — but it curbs honey production as bees work to populate their new colonies and boost honey stores.

And when infectious diseases like American foulbrood strike, beekeepers often burn affected hives to prevent it from spreading, triggering expenses for new equipment.

The concept of adopt-a-hive programs is catching on. In addition to the four-year-old program at Frangiosa Farm, there is a similar initiative at University of Hawaii, Hilo.

In Jacksonville, Fla., the Bee Friends Farm program promises adopters will make 60,000 new friends when they adopt a hive for $35. The fee covers adoption benefits like a bottle of honey, adoption certificate and a photo of a hive with the adopter’s name on it.

Bee Friendly Austin introduced an Adopt-a-Beehive program this spring. Rather than use the $49 adoption fee to cover the cost of her bee losses — which Phillips estimates are just between 5 and 10 percent of her colonies per year, thanks to the temperate Texas climate — Phillips plans to use adoption fees to support new beekeepers. The fees from all hive adoptions will be donated to the launch of a local master beekeeper program.

“The only way to help the bees is to teach people how to raise them right,” Phillips says. Without the additional financial support, beekeepers would be forced to raise the price of honey to offset the costs of colony losses.

The combination of support for bees and beekeepers alike make Tarpy a fan of the programs.

“It’s a powerful means of giving everyday citizens a chance to support our beleaguered honeybee population by supporting those who manage their colonies,” he says. “It’s a lot easier to replace bees than to replace beekeepers.”

Jodi Helmer is a North Carolina-based journalist covering food and farming.

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Lawmakers and labor unions in California have reached a deal to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.

The tentative agreement would end a lengthy dispute between California Gov. Jerry Brown and unions, Danielle Karson reports for NPR.

Under the new deal — which still needs to go before the state legislature — the minimum wage would increase gradually over the next six years.

The minimum wage in the state increased to $10 in January, under legislation passed in 2013.

Labor unions in California have been pushing for another increase, but lawmakers weren’t biting. Then the unions led a campaign to put the question of a wage hike before state voters in November — and days ago, one such initiative qualified for the ballot.

That initiative would gradually raise wages by a dollar a year for the next five years, and “impose future increases with inflation,” The Los Angeles Times reports.

Gov. Brown hopes the new deal between legislators and unions will “preempt the need for putting a wage initiative on a ballot,” Danielle Karson reports.

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Dyson, the U.K.-based manufacturer known for its cutting-edge, bagless vacuums, bladeless fans and wheelless wheelbarrows (“ballbarrows”) could be working on an electric car, according to government documents titled “National Infrastructure Delivery Plan 2016-2021.”

The Guardian reported Wednesday that the U.K. government says it will spend £174 million, nearly $250 million,€” to help Dyson develop “a new battery electric vehicle at their headquarters in Malmesbury, Wiltshire.”

On Thursday, the documents cited by The Guardian said that “the government is providing a grant of up to £16m to Dyson to support research and development for battery technology at their site in Malmesbury.”

The newspaper also wrote:

“Dyson recently reported profits up 20% in 2015, driven by strong growth in China, and said it plans to invest £1bn in battery technology over the next five years. Last October, Dyson bought solid-state battery company, Sakti3, for $90m, which founder Sir James Dyson said had ‘developed a breakthrough in battery technology.’

“Asked if the company was, as the government suggested, developing an electric car, a Dyson spokesman said: ‘We never comment on products that are in development.’ “

Last year, however, Dyson CEO Max Conze said he was “ruling nothing out” when asked about making electric cars, the Independent reported.

According to Business Insider, “big name automakers like Tesla, BMW and others have invested significant resources into the research and development of EVs that can go faster and farther. And as a result, the market share of EVs continues to grow.”

According to the article, the number of electric vehicles registered in the U.K. grew by 392 percent from 2014 to 2015.

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The rumor mill is on.

A report by an Israeli newspaper, citing anonymous industry sources, pointed the finger at an Israeli company as the firm helping the FBI get inside the locked iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters.

The paper, Yedioth Ahronoth, has been known to plug Israeli companies. But the stakes to uncover the unnamed “third party” working with the FBI are tremendously high. The newspaper report got picked up by Reuters in Tel Aviv and from there, rippled through the tech blogs.

So what’s the company? Its name is Cellebrite. It’s a regular government contractor and promotes itself as a mobile forensics software provider.

Is it really the company helping the FBI bypass the need for Apple’s special software to see inside this famous iPhone? We don’t know.

What we have is a lot of speculation — and a lot of skepticism.

The FBI’s response is that the agency cannot comment on the identity of the third party that’s assisting it. Cellebrite, too, has not commented to NPR and told other media little beyond the fact that it has worked with the Justice Department.

National security blogger Marcy Wheeler traced the bread crumbs of court documents filed in relation to the San Bernardino investigation and another federal investigation involving another locked iPhone to arrive at the suspicion that the FBI did ask Cellebrite to open the phone used by Syed Rizwan Farook.

But just as much, this could be a brilliant publicity stunt by Cellebrite.

Stoking the rumors was a new contract, posted in the government database on Wednesday but dated March 21 — the day when the FBI announced it may have found a new solution — for services from Cellebrite USA. Forensics experts quickly sought to dispel this particular contract’s relevance, attributing it to software licensing renewal and pointing to the meager $15,278 price tag and given “principal place of performance” of Chicago, not San Bernardino.

At this time, no concrete evidence is pointing at Cellebrite. And we don’t know for sure what method the FBI is testing, either. Apple lawyers have indicated that they would like the government to disclose the method it would use to get inside Farook’s iPhone. But it’s also entirely possible the FBI will ask to keep both the vendor and the method classified.

What The Method Might Be

What we do know is that there have been several alternative ideas floating in the security community about how the FBI could overcome the iPhone security features preventing the agency from hooking the phone up to a computer and trying unlimited passcodes to find the right one without triggering a content wipeout.

In fact, FBI Director James Comey faced several questions about one technique in a congressional hearing. At the time, Comey testified that he was confident that government experts had considered all options before seeking a court order for Apple to write special software. Later, the FBI said the worldwide attention to the case had brought new alternatives to its attention and one of them, it decided to test.

Computer forensics researcher Jonathan Zdziarski argues that because the FBI has asked courts for only two weeks to test the viability of the new method, it’s likely not highly experimental. It’s also likely not something destructive, like the “decapping” method that relies on physically shaving off tiny layers of the microprocessor inside the phone to reveal a special code that would let investigators move the data and crack the passcode.

The idea that’s garnering the most focus is something called chip cloning, or mirroring or transplantation. The method entails de-soldering the so-called NAND flash chip (the phone’s version of hard drive) from the phone’s board and sticking it into a chip reader that saves all the data from the memory chip and about the chip (including things like its serial number) into a file that gets copied onto another similar chip.

Then, it works sort of like saving your place in a video game: Investigators could try some passcodes without the fear of the self-wipe function because they can reload, or re-image, the chip again and again.

“We don’t know yet that this is 100 percent doable, but we do know it’s feasible,” Zdziarski told NPR about the method in an interview last week, before the news of a third-party alternative broke.

He said the technology wasn’t tremendously expensive and, in fact, has been showcased in a video of a techie in a Chinese mall performing this procedure to help people get a memory upgrade for their iPhones.

NPR’s Aarti Shahani contributed to this report.

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This is the time of year when millions of travelers are making summer vacation plans. Analysts expected record numbers to book flights to international destinations.

Their outlook was so optimistic because global passenger traffic had shot up 7.1 percent in January, compared with last year, according to the International Air Transport Association. “The record load factor is a result of strong demand for our product,” Tony Tyler, CEO of the trade group, said in a statement earlier this month.

But then explosions hit in Brussels on Tuesday. At least 30 people were killed and hundreds wounded in attacks at Brussels’ main international airport and on a subway.

Travelers, once again, were the victims of barbarism. For now at least, that dims the outlook for travel and tourism.

All flights to and from the Belgian capital were canceled Tuesday, causing carriers to divert to other airports, or even other countries. For example, Delta Air Lines says it sent a Brussels-bound flight to Amsterdam. Eurocontrol says the Brussels’ Zaventem airport will remain closed on Wednesday.

Even airlines without direct flights into Brussels are feeling the turbulence; they have European code-share partners that got hit with disruptions. Deutsche Lufthansa said it canceled 11 flights to Brussels and Emirates Airline had to divert a flight to Duesseldorf, Germany.

All of that put a damper on the European tourism sector at a critical time: This Sunday is Easter, a peak travel period for Europeans enjoying a spring break.

Amid the jitters about travel disruptions, shares of Air France-KLM fell 4 percent Tuesday. American Airlines’ stock closed down 1.6 percent to $42.76. Delta and United also slipped more than 1 percent.

How long the dip will last is anyone’s guess. But travel stocks typically slip after a terrorist attack, and then bounce back as travelers recover from their initial shock.

For example, in the weeks following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the U.S, travel bookings plunged. But in subsequent years, they rose to record levels. That rebound pattern has held up in the aftermath of attacks on tourists and travelers in Bali (2002), Madrid (2004), London (2005) and Paris (2015).

It’s possible this latest attack could have a longer impact because terrorists for ISIS may be causing more alarm. Belgium is now at a Level 4 terror alert — the highest level.

Government officials around the world are reacting, too. Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade changed its travel advisory for Belgium from “a high degree of caution” to “reconsider your need to travel.”

In this country, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says it is “stepping up security at its three major airports, the bridges and tunnels and Port Authority Bus Terminal.”

But within the aviation industry, officials continue to be optimistic about the long-term future because so many people want to travel.

Ben Baldanza, the former chief executive of Spirit Airlines, discussed the Brussels attack with NPR’s Morning Edition host Renee Montagne on Tuesday. Baldanza, who is now on the board of Icelandic low-cost carrier WOW Air, said he was confident air travel would bounce back as it always does.

The Brussels attacks “won’t affect in a meaningful way the long-term view of air travel,” Baldanza said. “People want to see the world; people want to engage in commerce and meet friends.”

His words were echoed by the International Air Transport group, which put out a statement. Aviation “brings the world together and fosters greater understanding of people and cultures. Those who commit terrorist acts know and fear this, and it is why air travel is so often a target,” chief executive Tyler said.

“But terrorists will never succeed in destroying the fundamental urge and right of people to travel, explore and learn about the world,” Tyler said.

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Andrew Grove, one of the most influential figures in Silicon Valley, who led Intel Corp. through the rise from a startup to a chip giant, died on Tuesday at the age of 79.

Intel confirmed the news of his death, saying that Grove played a key role in the move from memory chips to microprocessors, turning the company into the dominant brand that it is today as the chips helped ring in the age of the personal computer — and later finding their way into a wide variety of digital electronics like cameras, phones and home appliances.

Grove “combined the analytic approach of a scientist with an ability to engage others in honest and deep conversation, which sustained Intel’s success over a period that saw the rise of the personal computer, the Internet and Silicon Valley,” Intel Chairman Andy Bryant said in a statement.

Here’s how Fresh Air described Grove in 1996:

“Grove was born in Hungary and emigrated to the United States in 1956. He spoke very little English when he arrived. By 1960, Grove had received a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering degree from the City College of New York and in 1963, he received his Ph.D from the University of California, at Berkeley. Grove participated in the founding of Intel and became its president in 1979 and chief executive in 1987. He has written several articles and books, his newest book ‘Only the Paranoid Survive’ reveals some of the philosophy and strategy behind his success.”

Grove’s move, in fact, was an amazing personal story, detailed by the Venture Beat:

“As András Gróf growing up in Budapest, Hungary, Grove was born on September 2, 1936. He was nearly killed at age 4 when he contracted scarlet fever, and it gave him a life-long hearing disability. …

When he was eight, the Nazis occupied Hungary and deported nearly 500,000 Jews to concentration camps. His mother took on a false identity and was saved by friends. His father was taken to a labor camp. … Grove revealed this early history of his life in an interview with Time magazine, when he was named Man of the Year in 1997.

During the Hungarian Revolution, when he was 20 years old, he decided to flee across the Iron Curtain to Austria. He said he had to crawl through the mud across the border. He made his way to the United States in 1957, and he changed his name to Andrew S. Grove.”

And, according to the Business Insider, Steve Jobs used to call Grove his mentor, while Marc Andreessen often says that Grove’s the man who built Silicon Valley.

Grove and his wife, Eva, were married for 58 years and had two daughters and eight grandchildren, according to Intel.

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An Ivorian soldier stands guard on March 18, 2016 at the site of a jihadist shooting rampage at the beach resort of Grand Bassam. STR/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption STR/AFP/Getty Images

It’s exactly a week since al-Qaida gunmen opened fire indiscriminately on swimmers and diners last Sunday at a popular beachfront weekend getaway in Grand Bassam, the historic former capital of Ivory Coast.

Bassam, as the sleepy, pretty town is known, is a short 25-mile ride from the economic capital and main city, Abidjan. Bassam is much favored by local families and visitors, including children of all ages.

March 13 was a lazy, sweltering Sunday, as swimmers frolicked in the warm Atlantic Ocean waters, sunbathers enjoyed a day outdoors, and visitors and tourists sat down for lunch at hotels and restaurants overlooking the sea.

That’s when al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, by its own admission, claims its black balaclava-clad militants, toting heavy weapons, first sprayed the palm-fringed beach. They fired in and out of the water before turning their weapons from the beach to the diners.

At least 19 Ivorians and foreigners were killed in the carnage. One body, with a bullet to the head, washed up midweek, fueling concern that others may follow.

The deadly assault on Grand Bassam was the third in five months in West Africa on a former French colony. Mali’s capital Bamako was first in November, with a siege on the Radisson Blu Hotel, favored by foreigners. Then the January siege in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, on the Splendid Hotel and Cappuccino cafe. Foreigners were among the 20 people killed in Bamako and 30 killed in Ouagadougou.

Analysts argue that Ivory Coast could have become the latest target of al-Qaida’s regional franchise, in retaliation for the country’s close relations with Paris. France intervened militarily in neighboring Mali in 2013, leading an offensive to dislodge extremist fighters who had occupied the north for about a year.

France retains a military presence in all three countries, with an army and air force base on the outskirts of Abidjan.

Officials Seek Stability

Now Grand Bassam’s Etoile du Sud hotel and other beachside establishments have become the targets and Ivory Coast is reeling. This country, once an oasis of peace, security, stability and prosperity, is emerging from a devastating decade of political violence and a civil war. The economy was on the rebound.

The tourist industry is worried.

Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara chairs an extraordinary cabinet meeting in the resort town of Grand Bassam on March 16, 2016. Sia Kambou/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Sia Kambou/AFP/Getty Images

President Alassane Ouattara hastened to reassure his compatriots, expatriates and Ivory Coast’s international partners and investors. On Wednesday, he took his entire team to Grand Bassam for their weekly cabinet meeting — in solidarity, the president told NPR.

“We came to show our sympathy, our compassion to the victims. To their memory, to the families of the victims,” Ouattara said.

“To show that Côte d’Ivoire will never forget them and that it’s important for life to continue.” Though he added, “Although we are mourning, we want everyone to know that Côte d’Ivoire is united and that Côte d’Ivoire remains a land of hospitality.”

Earlier, Ouattara said Ivorians should not be intimidated by the attacks perpetrated by “cowardly terrorists” and that such actions would not be tolerated. After laying a wreath outside the Etoile du Sud hotel Wednesday, he said Ivory Coast would not allow terrorists to sabotage the country’s economic recovery.

Over the past five years, Ivory Coast — the world’s top cocoa producer — has seen record growth and foreign investment. Tourism was also picking up.

Commerce minister Jean-Louis Billon says he doesn’t want to overstate the threat to the tourist industry posed by the militant attack.

“Of course we’re worried,” he says. “But, if you look at countries like Kenya or Tanzania, they have been affected in the past and investors didn’t leave the country because of terrorism.”

Billon says it’s a collective battle. “No one is safe against terrorism. But we need our growth to develop our country and we won’t stop our development because of terrorism.” He says Ivory Coast refuses to give ground “to those who want the economy to collapse, because that’s what they’re looking for.”

Investors Remain Confident

As if to bolster that confidence, potential investors from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce happened to be on a scheduled visit to Ivory Coast just when al-Qaida struck in the deadly assault.

The chamber’s executive vice president, Myron Brilliant, said the attacks have not put them off. “In no way will that deter our investment and trade relations here in Côte d’Ivoire,” he said.

“If anything, we feel very close to Côte d’Ivoire,” he said, “because we have suffered our own attacks in our country, in the United States. And so we understand what’s going on here, we understand the significance of it.”

Brilliant addressed journalists after talks this past week with the Ivorian president and cabinet ministers on his organisation’s wish to promote deeper investment and commercial ties between the U.S. and Ivory Coast.

He talked about expanding in areas such as energy, agrifood business, education, healthcare, travel and tourism. “There is a great need, a great opportunity for U.S. companies here in Côte d’Ivoire,” Brilliant said.

Fighting talk.

The same has come from Ivory Coast’s government, which has shifted up a gear and is full speed ahead after last Sunday’s al-Qaida onslaught. The government has announced almost $1 million in immediate assistance to the hotel and transport industries in Grand Bassam, as well as craftsmen and other local businesses hard hit by the attacks.

The authorities have also promised to beef up security, with patrols already in place up and down the 10-mile stretch of Bassam’s beachfront and beyond.

Security reinforcements were trucked in as VIP visitors, including presidents and top officials from neighboring West African countries and from the former colonial power, France, drove to Grand Bassam to lay wreaths in memory of those who perished.

Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy lays a wreath of flowers on March 18, 2016 in homage to the victims of a jihadist attack. Sarkozy was among several dignitaries to visit. Stringer/AFP/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Stringer/AFP/Getty Images

An Economy Driven By Tourism

The charming town of coconut palms swaying in the Atlantic ocean breeze and elegant, wooden colonial houses, relies heavily on tourism – local and international. UNESCO, the U.N.’s education, scientific and cultural agency, has designated Grand Bassam a world heritage site.

The government’s new security measures and assistance are cold comfort for Sylvie Kouao, although she thanked the president. Her beach restaurant — right by where the gunmen indiscriminately opened fire on adults and children — remains shut.

Kouao, 40, says they had to take cover, as terrified civilians were fleeing and dodging bullets. She has nightmares and is still trying to come to terms with the shock. What’s most troubling, says Kouao, is that a male cousin is still missing. They haven’t found him in or out of the water.

Clutching the hand of her 9-year-old son, Amadou, and stretching her other hand toward the almost-deserted beach, Kouao tells NPR that “life in Bassam is paralyzed. It has come to a standstill.”

“But we can’t just give up,” she adds. “We have to stand up. We must not be fearful. We must have courage that life will return to normal.”

Security forces camp in plastic chairs in front of Kouao’s restaurant. Opposite is a makeshift memorial, covered in wreaths. Young men stand around in the shade by the beach, under a marquee erected for VIPs and other visitors who continue to pay their respects.

Among the locals with little to do is Abou Lavisse Decky, leader of the local Bassamois musical group, Akanzou. Decky and his fellow singers strike up, a cappella, as mourners approach a growing collection of wreaths.

Just a week ago, the singers were serenading diners and entertaining tourists up and down the stretch of seaside restaurants and hotels. Such activities came to an abrupt end during the attacks.

Now they’re singing lyrics denouncing terrorism. “Non au terrorisme” — “no to terrorism” and “the attacks have robbed us of our jobs.” Decky says, “I come here to sing today for the memory of the people who died. I sing for them, because terrorism is a bad thing.”

As the group sings, “yako!” which simultaneously means “sorry” and “courage,” Decky implores Ivorians and foreigners to take heart, have courage and return to Grand Bassam.

Pointing to the empty beachfront, Decky tells NPR, “If the beach is closed, the economy of Grand Bassam is closed. I will come back to sing with my group. It’s my job, it’s my job,” he repeats in desperation. “I haven’t another job. So if I don’t come to sing, how can I have money to eat?”

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