Taco Bell announces three new menu items after crispy chicken nuggets trial run
Following its limited release of crispy chicken nuggets, the fast-food chain will be introducing a crispy chicken taco for $2.79, a crispy chicken burrito for $5.49, and crispy chicken strips, which will include two pieces for $3.99.
The new items will officially hit locations nationwide June 17.
'Crispy chicken is having a moment, but our fans made it a movement,' Taylor Montgomery, Chief Marketing Officer at Taco Bell, said in a press release.
'So, we decided to bring our sell-out Nuggets recipe to the formats that defined our brand because true innovation means elevating the icons, not replacing them. We're not like every other chicken spot out there, we're doing crispy chicken the only way we know how: full of flavor and unmistakably Taco Bell.'
Each new menu item features one of Taco Bell's new crispy chicken strips, which are made from 'all-white meat chicken, marinated in fan-favorite, zesty jalapeño buttermilk flavor, and breaded with crispy tortilla chips and breadcrumbs.'
The menu will also feature two sauces: a new spicy ranchero sauce, a creamy sauce made with Anaheim and jalapeño chiles, tomatoes, garlic, and onion, and an avocado ranch sauce.
The announcement comes after Taco Bell re-launched its Crispy Chicken Nuggets for eight weeks in April. The move followed a December 2024 trial run where the chain sold out of the nuggets in less than one week.
The return of the chicken nuggets was part of Taco Bell's 'journey to become a go-to destination for crispy chicken,' according to a press release at the time.
'We're a taco place doing chicken our own way and like all our best moments, it's a little unexpected – because we've never been about following the rules,' Montgomery said in a statement. 'The demand for our nuggets was off the charts, which is why we're looking at making crispy chicken permanent to give our fans what they are telling us they want.'
When Taco Bell's Crispy Chicken Nuggets launched and subsequently sold out in December, 'roughly 5 million Americans' nationwide had bought the dish, with the nuggets included in 'almost one in six orders,' according to the press release.
Taco Bell is the latest fast food restaurant to add chicken strips to its menu. Last month, McDonald's added to its line-up of McNuggets to include McCrispy Strips, which were paired with a Creamy Chili Dip.
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Chicago Tribune
2 hours ago
- Chicago Tribune
President Donald Trump promises clean water. His proposed budget guts needed protections.
President Donald Trump promises clean water for every American, but his latest budget eviscerates federal funding to replace toxic lead pipes, filter out forever chemicals and keep sewage out of lakes and streams. Clean water grants to states would be cut to $303.5 million, down from $2.76 billion set aside in President Joe Biden's last budget. Illinois' share would dip to $11 million, compared with $105.5 million this year. States loan the money to cities and towns at low interest rates, enabling communities to spread out the cost of critical government services people take for granted, such as replacing leaky street mains, maintaining treatment plants and rehabbing water towers. Principal payments often are waived for low-income municipalities. Under Biden the government expanded decades-old programs to speed up the removal of lead pipes in older cities like Chicago and begin to protect Americans from forever chemicals — cancer-causing compounds also known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS. Trump and his far-right acolytes are pushing to shortchange those efforts in part to award tax breaks that largely would benefit the ultra-wealthy. The Republican-controlled Congress appears to be along for the ride. 'These programs are key reasons why we have cleaner water across the country,' said Mary Gade, who served as Midwest administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under Republican President George W. Bush. 'What they are doing is creating a chaotic situation where we won't be able to provide basic protections.' Among other things, the loan programs this year will replace 16 miles of water mains in Chicago, build a station to receive Lake Michigan water in west suburban Yorkville and finance new pumps in northwest suburban Lake Zurich. Scores of other projects were delayed even before Trump moved to all but eliminate the grant programs. In 2023, the EPA estimated $650 billion is needed nationwide during the next 20 years to catch up. To put that into further perspective, as of June 24 the Chicago Department of Water Management had only replaced 8,915 of more than 400,000 lead service lines across the city. Asked how significantly pared-down grant programs square with Trump's promises of a clean, healthy environment, the EPA issued a statement: 'These resources reflect the administration's commitment to environmental stewardship, cooperative federalism, and delivering results that make a real difference in Americans' lives. EPA is focused on returning the agency to administering core statutory obligations as Congress intended.' Congress created what are known as state revolving funds to carry out the goals of the Clean Water Act, one of the bedrock environmental laws approved by bipartisan majorities during the early 1970s. Illinois received more than $72 million this year for wastewater projects and $33 million to protect drinking water. In May, the Illinois EPA approved $10 million in loans for Chicago to replace lead service lines next year as part of a $138 million outlay for similar projects statewide. Replacements worth another $239 million were delayed because funding wasn't available, according to state records. If Illinois only gets $11 million in revolving fund grants next year, as Trump is proposing, the waiting list will get longer. Other projects that could be on the chopping block include a new well and treatment plant in Cary and new filtration equipment in Fox Lake to remove PFAS from drinking water. Trump's proposed cuts follow the agenda of Project 2025, an anti-government blueprint written in part by Russell Vought, now chief of the White House budget office. The spending plan Vought's office drafted for Trump would further reduce federal support for clean water, air and energy programs gutted last week by congressional Republicans. 'We want their funding to be shut down so that the EPA can't do all of the rules against our energy industry because they have no bandwidth financially to do so,' Vought told supporters of his pro-Trump think tank in 2023, according to a video first reported by ProPublica, a nonprofit journalism organization. 'We want to put them in trauma.' People outside Trump's MAGA orbit have sharply criticized the dramatic changes. 'If approved (by Congress), we believe these cuts … will have unintended yet foreseeable negative impacts for business, jobs growth and economic development,' a bipartisan group of former environmental officials from 31 states wrote in a June 23 statement. 'This is a reckless and short-sighted proposal that will lead to higher levels of toxic pollution in the air we breathe and water we drink across the nation,' said Michelle Roos, executive director of the nonprofit Environmental Protection Network, a group of former U.S. EPA officials. 'This is a wrecking ball approach that would gut America's frontline defense for protecting people's health and environment.' Nicole Cantello, president of the union for EPA employees based in Chicago, said morale at the agency is far worse than it was during Trump's first term. 'The Trump people talk out of both sides of their mouths,' Cantello said. 'They repeatedly attack people who believe in the agency's mission. It breaks your heart.' More than 270 EPA employees from across the country signed a letter last week condemning what they called the Trump administration's moves to benefit polluters, reverse progress to address pollution in low-income communities of color and dismantle the agency's science office. On Thursday, 144 of the agency officials who signed the letter received emails saying they had been placed on leave for two weeks 'pending an administrative investigation.'


Los Angeles Times
2 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Is Hollywood inspired by the CIA, or the other way around?
LANGLEY, Va. — At CIA headquarters, beyond the handsome granite seal on its lobby floor and a wall of stars carved in honor of the agency's fallen, experts are at work in the complex tasks of spycraft: weapons-trained officers, computer engineers, virologists, nuclear scientists. But there are also storytellers, makeup artists, theater majors and ballerinas — Americans who probably never thought their skills would match the needs of a spy agency. Yet the CIA thought otherwise. Though it rarely gets the spotlight, there's a revolving door of talent between the country's premiere intelligence agency and its entertainment industry, with inspiration and influence often working both ways. The agency is targeting professionals at the intersection of arts and technology for recruitment, CIA officers told The Times, and continues to cooperate with entertainment giants to inspire the next generation of creative spies. This month, the agency is assisting a New York Times bestselling author on a young adult book examining the foundations of the CIA laid during World War II. Scenes from a major upcoming film production were just shot at its headquarters, a logistical feat at an intelligence campus tucked away in the Virginia suburbs behind rings of security perimeters, where officers roam cracking down on Bluetooth signals. Another popular streaming TV series will be back at Langley to film this fall. But their collaboration goes far deeper than that, officers said. Creative minds in Hollywood and the entertainment industry have long had a role at the Central Intelligence Agency, devising clever solutions to its most vexing problems, such as perfecting the art of disguise and harnessing a magician's ability to cast spellbinding illusions. Indeed, in the 1950s, a magician from New York named John Mulholland was secretly contracted with the agency to write a manual for Cold War spies on trickery and deception. These days, the officers said, creative skills are more valuable than ever in such a technologically complex world. 'You're only limited by your own imagination — don't self-censor your ideas,' said Janelle, a CIA public affairs officer, granted the ability to speak under her first name at the request of the agency. 'We're always looking for partners.' David McCloskey, a former CIA analyst and author of 'Damascus Station' and other spy thrillers, offered several theories on why the agency might be interested in fostering a robust relationship with Hollywood, calling it 'a two-way street.' 'There definitely have been operational applications for espionage,' McCloskey said. 'It's probably the exception to the rule, but when it happens, it's compelling.' It's easy to see why CIA leaders would be interested in Hollywood, he said, in part to shape impressions of the agency. 'But their bread and butter business is receiving people to give secrets,' he continued, 'and part of that is getting close to people in power.' 'The closer you are to Hollywood,' McCloskey added, 'that's a really interesting 'in' to having a lot of interesting conversations.' Some of the CIA's most iconic missions — at least the declassified ones — document the agency's rich history with Hollywood, including Canadian Caper, when CIA operatives disguised themselves as a film crew to rescue six American diplomats in Tehran during the Iran hostage crisis, an operation moviegoers will recognize as the plot of 'Argo.' ''Argo' was almost too far-fetched to even believe,' said Brent, an in-house historian at CIA headquarters. 'It's almost more Hollywood than Hollywood.' Canadian Caper was both inspired by Hollywood and relied on Hollywood talent. Agent Tony Mendez had been a graphic artist before joining the agency and helping craft the mission. Another key player was John Chambers, the makeup artist who gave the world Spock's ears on 'Star Trek' and won an honorary Oscar for his trailblazing simian work on 'Planet of the Apes.' He was awarded the CIA's Intelligence Medal of Merit for his work on the covert rescue effort. Just a few years before, Howard Hughes, then one of the world's richest men and a tycoon in media, film and aerospace, agreed to work with the CIA to provide cover for an effort by the agency to lift a sunken Soviet nuclear submarine off the floor of the Pacific Ocean. Deploying Hughes' Glomar Explorer under the guise of mineral extraction, the CIA was able to salvage most of the sub before The Times broke a story blowing its cover — 'the story that sunk our efforts,' in CIA parlance. And another mission was made possible thanks to a device invented by a professional photographer — a gadget that later became the inspiration of an over-the-top scene in the blockbuster Batman film 'The Dark Knight.' In Project Coldfeet, CIA agents gathering intelligence on a Soviet station erected on a precariously drifting sheet of ice in the Arctic needed a reliable extraction plan. But how does one pick up an agent without landing a plane on the ice? The answer was the 'skyhook': Balloons lifted a tether attached to a harness worn by an agent high into the sky. A CIA plane snagged the tether and carried the agent off to safety. In 'The Dark Knight,' Batman makes a dramatic escape deploying the same kind of balloon-harness contraption. CIA leadership often says that acceptance into the agency is harder than getting into Harvard and Yale combined. Yet the agency still has challenges recruiting the type of talent it is looking for — either in reaching those with unconventional skills, or in convincing them that they should leave secure, comparatively well-paid, comfortable jobs for a secretive life of public service. It is no easy task managing work at the agency, especially with family, CIA officials acknowledged. Deciding if and when to share one's true identity with their children is a regular struggle. But Janelle said the CIA tells potential recruits there is a middle ground that doesn't require them to entirely abandon their existing lives. 'People don't have to leave their companies to help their country and to work with CIA,' Janelle said. 'People come here because they love their country and know they can make a difference.' Janelle is part of a team that regularly engages with creatives who want to portray the agency or spies as accurately as possible. 'Some producers and directors reach out and they do care about accuracy,' Janelle said, 'but they ultimately pick and choose what's going to work for the film or show.' CIA analysts have also been known to leave the agency for opportunities in the entertainment industry, writing books and scripts drawing from their experiences — so long as they don't track too closely with those experiences. Joe Weisberg, the writer and producer behind the television series 'The Americans,' and McCloskey, who is working on a fifth novel focused on U.S. and British intelligence, were both part of the agency before launching their writing careers. And as CIA alumni, they had to submit their works for review. 'There's a whole publication and classification-review process,' Brent said. That process can be a bit of a slog, McCloskey said: 'They quite literally redact in black ink.' But it is far more difficult for nonfiction writers than novelists. 'There could be bits of tradecraft, or alluding to assets, or people at the agency, which are clear no's,' McCloskey said. 'But with novels, it's not that hard to write them in a way to get them through the review board.' Try as they may, studios often repeat the same falsehoods about the CIA, no matter how often they are corrected. Officers and agents aren't the same thing, for one. And as disappointing as it may be for lovers of spy thrillers, the majority of officers are not licensed or trained to carry weapons. 'One thing Hollywood often gets wrong is the idea that it's one officer doing everything, when it's really a team sport here,' Janelle said. 'Zero Dark Thirty,' an Oscar-winning film released in 2012 about the hunt for Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, was widely acclaimed but criticized by some within the intelligence community over the credit it lends a single, fictional CIA analyst for tracking him down. McCloskey sympathizes with the writer's dilemma. 'I can't have 35 people on a team. From a storytelling standpoint, it just doesn't work,' he said, acknowledging that little in the field of espionage is accurately captured on screen, even though there are plenty of former spies available to work as consultants. 'There's no lack of sources to get it right,' he said. 'It's that the superhero spy — the Jack Ryans and Jason Bournes — are pretty much the Hollywood representation of espionage.' However inaccurately glorified and dramatized, the agency hopes that Hollywood's work can keep the revolving door moving, inspiring atypical talent to join its ranks. 'We have architects, carpenters, people who worked in logistics,' Brent said. 'People might not realize the range of skill sets here at CIA.' And as Canadian Caper showed, sometimes spycraft requires stagecraft. It's possible that what's needed most to complete the next mission won't be oceanography or data mining, but costume design. Or maybe another ballerina.


Newsweek
3 hours ago
- Newsweek
Gen Z Are Living in Fear of Layoffs
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. A growing number of Gen Z Americans are worried about losing their jobs in the event of an economic downturn—despite signs the broader labor market remains stable. A new report from Allianz Life shows that 64 percent of Gen Z workers fear they could be laid off in the next year, up from 55 percent just a few months ago and significantly higher than the 45 percent of millennials and 41 percent of Gen Xers who share the same concern. The findings show a growing generational divide in workplace confidence, and these fears are not necessarily unfounded. Along with the headline-grabbing job culls in the federal government which began earlier this year, a throng of companies have already laid off workers so far in 2025, including Microsoft, UPS, Dell, BP and others. What's more, a July 2 report by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas found that job cuts have soared to their highest midyear total since the COVID-19 pandemic. "It can definitely lead to you feeling expendable," David Rice, a HR expert at People Managing People, told Newsweek. "You don't feel you have influence at that stage of your career and the idea of freelancing or contract work probably feels like the Wild West to many of them." Perception Vs. Data Despite the rising concern, labor market indicators have shown relative strength in recent months. The unemployment rate remains low and overall layoffs have stayed low, according to the most recent Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS). Job growth has also increased, with U.S. employers posting 7.8 million vacancies in May, the Labor Department reported Tuesday, up from 7.4 million in April Rice said perception matters just as much as data. "They've not weathered many storms like this," he said of Gen Z workers. "Many of them still have very raw skill profiles, and all this is happening at a time when entry-level jobs are said to be in flux." Columbia Business School professor Rita McGrath said that Gen Z's uncertainties around layoffs are still well-founded, given that their positions at work can often be precarious. "If you're young, it's often kind of last hired, first fired, and if companies aren't hiring and if they are trying to lay people off, they might be cutting their youngest, least-experienced workers who aren't yet providing a lot of value to their companies," she told Newsweek. Composite image created by Newsweek. Composite image created by Newsweek. Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty/Canva Where Layoffs Are Happening Much of Gen Z's concern may stem from the industries they're entering. Sectors like tech, retail, media and government have seen notable job losses in the past year, and younger workers are often overrepresented in these areas. "Tech has seen one of the biggest booms in layoffs," Rice said. "Is it a coincidence that it's the sector developing AI and starting to think it needs less people? No, I don't think it is." Jason Leverant, president and COO at staffing firm AtWork Group, agrees that younger workers are being disproportionately affected by news from the tech world. "This is likely shaping the fear and uncertainty that we're seeing from Gen Z," he told Newsweek, adding that it could be a "great catalyst" for young professionals to look at other industries where their skills might be better utilized. Still, Rice warned that it's not just tech. "Media has been laying people off en masse for 20 years... and the mass layoffs in government has created a ton of uncertainty." Financial Pressures Economic anxiety isn't happening in a vacuum. Younger workers are entering the job market under a mountain of student debt and facing high costs, particularly in cities. "Student debt is astronomical," Rice said. "The average graduate finishes school with around $77,000 in debt... Rent is out of control in most major cities. This generation doesn't have assets because they simply can't afford the price." He added that housing costs have outpaced income growth by a wide margin: "Since 1985, the average price of a house has increased 408 percent, but median household income has only increased 241 percent," which further demonstrates the financial pressures on workers. In cities like New York, even a seemingly solid salary may not go far. "If you've landed a job in the NYC metro area as a young person making $80,000 a year... your CEO has ordered everyone back to the office in a metro area where a studio apartment costs $3,200 a month," he continued. "Does an economic downturn sound threatening to your ability to sustain yourself? Of course it does." AI Anxiety Emerging technologies are also contributing to Gen Z's fears, with the rise of artificial intelligence being one of the most profound changes to how we live and work in recent memory. In a recent World Economic Forum survey, 41 percent of global companies said they expect to reduce their workforce in the next five years due to AI. "Is it a coincidence that tech is laying people off and building AI tools at the same time? I don't think so," said Rice. "It creates this feeling that you're training yourself for a job that might not even exist by the time you're good at it." Rice argued that the impact of AI is especially acute for workers in creative, administrative, and technical support roles—jobs that were once considered safe entry points but are now at the center of the AI frontier. "A lot of early-career roles are being reimagined or eliminated entirely. That makes it harder for young workers to even get a foot in the door," he said. Still, AI may not necessarily be an imminent job killer. Leverant believes the anxiety surrounding AI is certainly worthwhile, but perhaps premature. "AI is a tremendous efficiency-gaining tool, and not really able to truly take jobs away... yet," he said. "There are many, many jobs that exist in the economy today that require human hands to get the work done." Still, the pace of change is disorienting, especially for workers still trying to build up their skill set. The uncertainty around where AI is headed—and how fast—adds a psychological burden to an already complex job market. "Right now, we don't have clear pathways for adapting to AI disruption," Rice said. "There's no universal AI literacy program, no standard upskilling route. It's just constant headlines and speculation, and that's enough to make anyone anxious—especially if you're just starting out."