If the words that come to mind when thinking about shapewear include uncomfortable or suffocating, you’re not alone. While shapewear has justifiably received its reputation, the past few years have proven that change is possible, even for undergarments.

Celebrities are known to wear shapewear under their red carpet dresses to smooth and slim, so it’s only natural that this rebirth of comfortable shapewear is partially credited to influential figures, such as Kim Kardashian and Lizzo. However, if you’re not one to jump on the latest trends, here are 10 slimming and affordable shapewear alternatives to Skims and Yitty.

One of the primary reasons shapewear is known for being uncomfortable is that it used to be tailored to one specific body type. Luckily, there are now a ton of styles to choose from in a plethora of forms. While the common forms focus on slimming the waist and hips, you can also find shapewear to smooth your arms, legs and back.

Shapewear is often chosen with a specific outfit in mind, which can help narrow down the options. For dresses, common bottom styles include long shorts or a slip. If you don’t want panty lines, you may opt for a thong or midlength shorts for a shorter cocktail dress. There are also options with two different leg styles to conceal your shapewear if you have a long slit.

The top of the outfit is just as important as the bottom. You can choose from a skinny strap, a thick strap or a strapless one. Some include a built-in bra with support, while others do not. There is also a style that ends below the bra.

While all shapewear offers compression, there are a variety of levels. If you want to wear something every day, try to find a shapewear piece such as high-waisted briefs or a camisole with moderate compression. However, those looking for smoothing and slimming in an evening dress may want more compression. Less compression tends to be more comfortable, while high compression is ideal for a night out.

Instead of buying a size down to try and suck everything in, stick to your actual size. If shapewear is too small, it becomes uncomfortable, can cause bulges and will roll up or down.

Most shapewear is a neutral color because it’s supposed to be the shade of your skin. This will help it remain unseen, even if a garment is slightly see-through. Shapewear comes in various colors, including white, beige, brown and black.

[ Spanx High-Waisted Power Short Shapewear ]

The no-slip strip on the waistband ensures these high-waisted shorts won’t be rolling down all day. They’re also available in regular and plus sizes.

Sold by Amazon

[ Maidenform Open Bust Body Shaper ]

This body shaper targets the tummy, waist and back for all-day coverage. Plus, the open bust allows you to wear your own bra and prevents bulges.

Sold by Amazon

[ Bali Lace ‘N Smooth Firm Control Body Shaper ]

In addition to offering firm control on the tummy, waist and rear, the lace allows it to be worn as a trendy bodysuit. This body shaper also features a built-in underwire bra for additional support.

Sold by Amazon and 

[ Shapermint High Waister Body Shaper Shorts ]

These high-waisted body shaper shorts offer slimming to the waist, tummy, rear and thighs. Plus, you can clean them in the washing machine.

Sold by Amazon

[ Naomi and Nicole Unbelievable Comfort Hi Waist Brief ]

With silicone gripper elastic at the inner rear leg openings, you don’t have to worry about these briefs curling or riding up. Additionally, they are available in sizes up to 5X.

Sold by Amazon and 

[ Yummie Convertible Camisole Shapewear ]

If you’re looking for a piece of shapewear for everyday use, this camisole offers just the right amount of compression. In addition, since the straps convert to several styles, you can wear it with many outfits.

Sold by Amazon

[ Squeem Strapless Waist Cincher ]

For ultimate waist shaping, this corset-style waist cincher with internal flexible steel bones is the ideal choice. Plus, the fabric is composed of natural rubber and cotton, making it comfortable and discreet under clothes.

Sold by Amazon

[ SlimMe Smoothing Arm Compression Shaper ]

Shapewear isn’t just for the lower body, and this arm compression shaper is the perfect example. It holds sagging skin, reduces jiggle and is thin enough to layer under clothing.

Sold by Amazon

[ ShaperQueen High Waister Thong Shaper Panty ]

This high-waisted shapewear offers the best of tummy control while offering a thong for invisible panty lines. It also features anti-slip bones to keep the top from rolling down.

Sold by Amazon

[ Wacoal Convertible Shaping Body Briefer ]

For versatility, this body briefer gets an extra point. The straps can be convertible to several styles or taken off entirely for a strapless look. It also features a built-in underwire bra, so you don’t have to wear any other bulky undergarments.

Sold by Amazon

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The Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art will move to Virginia Wesleyan University.

The museum is currently located in an older building at 2200 Parks Ave on a wooded patch of Virginia Beach-owned land that makes it difficult for travelers to spot from the interstate.

It will be housed in a 30- to 35,000-square foot facility off Smith Drive and will be built over the next couple of  years. Construction costs are estimated at $25 million, according to Virginia Wesleyan President Scott D. Miller.

Gary Ryan, director and CEO of Virginia MOCA, said in a news release: “While Virginia MOCA remains an independent museum, our collaboration with VWU will allow us to do even more of what we do best: create groundbreaking exhibitions and engage the community in thought-provoking artistic experiences … we are now bolstered by our partnership with VWU and its amazing educational resources.”

Miller is hopeful that designs for the complex will be ready by September, after which construction will begin and is expected to take 14 to 18 months.

Deferred maintenance of the museum’s current facility “had become a major issue,” according to Miller, who added that Wesleyan Drive, where the school is located, is “one of the gateways to the city.”

Museum leadership and university officials started discussing a partnership last summer and began engaging donors for support. The $25 million was donated by three local philanthropists: Jane Batten, Joan Brock, and Susan and David Goode.

Colin Warren-Hicks, 919-818-8139, [email protected]

By HALELUYA HADERO (AP Business Writers)

NEW YORK (AP) — UPS has reached a tentative contract agreement with its 340,000-person strong union, potentially averting a strike that threatened to disrupt logistics nationwide for businesses and households alike.

The agreement was announced after UPS and the Teamsters came back to the negotiating table Tuesday to talk over remaining sticking points in the largest private-sector contract in North America. Both sides had already reached tentative agreement on a host of issues but remained at odds on things like pay for part-time workers who make up more than half of the UPS employees represented by the union.

The Teamsters called the tentative agreement “historic” and “overwhelmingly lucrative” in a prepared statement. It includes, among other benefits, higher wages and air conditioning in delivery trucks.

“Together we reached a win-win-win agreement on the issues that are important to Teamsters leadership, our employees and to UPS and our customers,” Carol Tomé, UPS chief executive officer, said in a written statement. “This agreement continues to reward UPS’s full- and part-time employees with industry-leading pay and benefits while retaining the flexibility we need to stay competitive, serve our customers and keep our business strong.”

The company said the five-year agreement covers U.S. Teamsters-represented employees in small-package roles and is subject to voting and ratification by union members.

The union, which had long threatened a strike, boasted about the “historic wage increases” for its members, saying existing full- and part-time UPS Teamsters will get $2.75 more per hour in 2023, and $7.50 more per hour over the length of the contract.

It said the agreement includes provision to increase starting pay for part-time workers to $21 per hour, up from $16.20 today. It also reiterated prior concessions it got from the company, such as making Martin Luther King Day a full holiday for the first time and ending forced overtime on drivers’ days off.

Members of the Teamsters, angered by a contract they say was forced on them five years ago by union leadership, clashed with UPS over pay as profits for the delivery company soared in recent years. Union leadership was upended last year with the election of Sean O’Brien, a vocal critic of the union president who signed off on that contract, James Hoffa, the son of the famous Teamsters firebrand.

The two side had reached a tentative agreement early on safety issues, including equipping more trucks with air conditioning equipment. Under the agreement, UPS said it would add air conditioning to U.S. small delivery vehicles purchased after January 1, 2024.

Profits at UPS have grown more than 140% since the last contract was signed as the arrival of a deadly pandemic drastically transformed the manner in which households get what they need.

Unionized workers argued that were the ones shouldering growth at the Atlanta company and appeared dead set on righting what they saw as a bad contract.

The 24 million packages UPS ships on an average day amounts to about a quarter of all U.S. parcel volume, according to the global shipping and logistics firm Pitney Bowes. As UPS puts it, that’s the equivalent of about 6% of nation’s gross domestic product.

Member voting begins Aug. 3 and concludes Aug. 22.

UPS has the largest private-sector contract with workers in North America and the last breakdown in labor talks a quarter century ago led to a 15-day walkout by 185,000 workers that crippled the company.

If a strike occurred, logistics experts had warned that other shipping companies wouldn’t have had the capacity to handle all the packages that would flow their way. Customers who shop online could have faced more shipping fees and longer waits.

The deal averts a big crisis in shipping just as merchants were in the throes of the back-to-school shopping season, the second largest sales period behind the winter holidays.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association, a national retail trade group that counts retailers like Best Buy, CVS Health and Kohl’s as members, called the tentative pact “an enormous relief to retailers, who have been navigating the possibility of a strike and the associated uncertainty for weeks.”

“We’ve learned all too well over the last several years the impact supply chain disruptions can have,” the group said in a statement. ”We’re grateful that this challenge, which would have had a price tag in the billions of dollars and a long runway for recovery, was avoided.”

_______

Matt Ott contributed to this report from Washington, D.C. and Anne D’Innocenzio contributed from New York City.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bronny James, son of NBA superstar LeBron James, was hospitalized after going into cardiac arrest while participating in a practice at Southern California on Monday, a family spokesman said Tuesday.

The spokesman said medical staff treated the 18-year-old James on site and he was transported to a hospital, where he was in stable condition after leaving the intensive care unit.

“We ask for respect and privacy for the James family and we will update media when there is more information,” the spokesman said. “LeBron and Savannah wish to publicly send their deepest thanks and appreciation to the USC medical and athletic staff for their incredible work and dedication to the safety of their athletes.”

Bronny James announced in May that he would play college basketball for the Trojans. He is an incoming freshman and was one of the top high school prospects in the country.

It was a case of necessity being the mother of invention.

Almost six decades ago, Teressa Bellissimo tossed some chicken in a mix of butter and hot sauce at her Anchor Bar restaurant and gave us Buffalo wings, named for the city of their creation.

That was 1964, and we are still in pursuit of the perfect wing.

And with National Chicken Wing Day upon us on July 29, it’s time to celebrate with a dozen, or two, at Chesapeake area restaurants.

We don’t mean to ruffle any feathers, but we’ve come up with five places that we think have wings worth crowing about, at least at the moment.

In my defense, I’ve been a judge at numerous chicken wing contests over the decades and in my career as a food journalist during the past quarter-plus century, I’ve hunted and pecked for the best yardbird near and far.

Our picks come from places we’ve enjoyed and which have really stood out.

No doubt there are other great wings out there, but here are some that tempted my tastebuds; perhaps they will yours as well. If you have a favorite that’s not listed here, email and let me know at [email protected].

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Bad Habits Wing & Oyster Bar

Bad Habits Wing & Oyster Bar has wings right in their name, and I’ve enjoyed dining here throughout the years.

Bone-in and boneless wings are available. Don’t get me started on boneless wings; I’m a traditionalist. A baker’s dozen sauces from wing phenom Lendy’s are options to coat your order, available in increments of six, starting with a half-dozen. Celery sticks and housemade ranch or blue cheese are de rigueur.

I picked Garlic-Parmesan, Old Bay, and Wasabi-Teriyaki. Each wing was crispy and hot, and each had a good coating of their respective sauce.

I enjoyed all three, but the Garlic-Parmesan was the standout. A buttery sauce was the conduit for a pronounced, but not over done, garlic profile, and the wing was coated in a good amount of nutty, grated parmesan cheese. All of the elements worked perfectly together.

The Old Bay was a very close second. These wings are purely dry rub, and while the Old Bay flavor is forward on the palate, it’s not overwhelming. The familiar tang was pleasant, and the saltiness lip-smacking satisfying.

Although third in my picks, the Wasabi-Teriyaki was also a very tasty wing. The can’t-put-your-finger-on-it umami-ness of the teriyaki sauce was prevalent, with a slight green heat essence on the back end.

Bad Habits is at 1464 Mount Pleasant Road. Call 757-842-6565 or visit https://www.facebook.com/badhabitswingandoysterbar.

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Big Woodys

The menu at Big Woody’s offers a huge variety of wings, including the ability to get all drums or all flats, and with 17 sauces and rubs available. My partner Doug and I ordered two dozen, and mixed-and-matched the offerings.

My first bite was with the mild variety, to establish a baseline of flavor. There was a pleasant crispness to the skin, but without being overdone. It yielded nicely to a generous amount of moist, flavorful meat inside.

The sauce for the wing was indeed mild; for my own palate I may get the hot next time. Still the sauce was very flavorful, with lots of notes of butter and a subtle bit of heat coming through.

Our Jack Daniels wings had an underlying sweetness, and a layered savoriness that resonated with the whiskey flavor. Think of a dense barbecue sauce with bourbon undertones.

The Caribbean Citrus had a great tropical, fruity flavor, but was offset with some moderate heat. It was sweet, it had heat, it was delicious.

My favorite, however, had to be the Kickin’ Hickory. Just the right amount of spice mixed with a barbecue sauce amped up with some great hickory smokiness that made me chew on the bone just a little bit longer than the others.

Big Woody’s is located in Great Bridge, 123 N. Battlefield Blvd., Chesapeake; call 757-436-1919, and also at Chesapeake Square, 4200 Portsmouth Blvd., Chesapeake; call 757-966-2656. Visit https://bigwoodys.net/.

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The spot

Some say it ain’t nothing but a chicken wing. They’ve obviously not had the chicken wings at The Spot, a small, unadorned eatery in the Mount Pleasant Village shopping center in Chesapeake.

Forget what you think of wings, which most folks know as a mix of drums and flats. Yes, they are delicious and great for a meal or snack. But these pieces are just part of the poultry picture.

Wings at The Spot are the whole wing: the tip, jointed to the flat, jointed to the drum. They are large, very large; you are getting three pieces in one. So know this going into the meal as not to get your feathers ruffled.

I picked the Wing Dinner, which comes with three whole wings and two side dishes. Side dishes are subject to availability, and during this visit I enjoyed green beans and candied yams. I also added a side of Momma Sauce to make the wing ding complete.

The wings, cooked to order, came out piping hot. I worked on disjointing them first, separating them each. A perfect, crispy exterior gave way to moist, delicious meat underneath. The coating was simply and wonderfully seasoned with salt and pepper, allowing for the full flavor to shine. The meat was succulent, and I pulled off bits and dunked it in the Momma Sauce, a piquant, vinegary-slightly sweet barbecue style offering.

The Spot is at 1457 Mount Pleasant Road. Call 757-546-3463 or visit https://www.facebook.com/thespotfamilyrestaurant1/.

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Tossed and Sauced

There’s a delicious selection of wings at Tossed and Sauced; perfect for celebrating National Chicken Wing Day.

Choose from an order ranging from six to 48 and then selecting traditional, boneless, or vegan. There’s heat levels to consider across the spectrum of sweet and spicy, barbecue, dry rubs, and others like Strawberry Sriracha, Peach Pineapple Pepper, and PBJ. Yes, PBJ.

We love the Dr Pepper BBQ, an addictive, messy, wet sauce thickly coating perfectly cooked wings. The sauce had just a hint of its namesake soda, with a complexity and richness that paired wonderfully with the white meat chicken underneath.

This was a highly addictive offering, and we’ll be back for more.

Wings are fresh, never frozen, and sauces are made daily, which is evident in each bite.

Tossed & Sauced is at 200 N. Battlefield Blvd., Chesapeake. Call 757-548-4243 or visit www.TossedAndSauced.com.

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Windy City Pizza

One of the most natural combinations in the culinary world is that of chicken wings and pizza. But we have found that while most pizza places carry wings, only some give as much attention to the poultry parts as they do their pies.

That’s not the case at Windy City Pizza, one of our favorite places to grab a pizza. We love their Chicago-style deep dish pie, but we also love their wings, large portions with a tasty slathering of sauce.

From the four styles offered, we picked the Sweet Red Chili. It was a very nice balance of sweet and heat, and neither of too much either way. A glossy sheen provided a first taste of sweetness, with some of the chili coming up on the finish to make you sweat just a little bit.

You can get as few as five pieces, something we recommend if you are also ordering one of the classic pies.

Windy City Pizza also has a location in Virginia Beach.

Windy City Pizza is at 480 Kempsville Road, Chesapeake. Call 757-410-5550 or visit www.WindyCityVB.com.

Of note: we are still thinking about wonderful wings we’ve also had at The Dirty Buffalo, Pho 79, and Redbone’s Raw Bar Seafood Grill.

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More wings things

On a wing and a prayer

So what is a chicken wing?

Culinarily, it can refer to one of three specific parts.

First: the drumette, which is one of the more recognizable pieces, looks like a small drumstick, and has an abundance of white meat.

Second: the flat, which is an oblong piece with white meat inside to parallel bones.

Third: the tip, a small bony end, sometimes attached to the flat, but usually discarded.

A note on boneless wings; they just aren’t our thing. We feel a wing without a bone is just a glorified chicken nugget.

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Dip tips and tricks

Cooking wings at home, or bringing back some from a restaurant? We eschew dipping in ranch for the first wing condiment conceived all those years ago in Buffalo: a rich, tangy blue cheese dip.

Make mine at home; it’s quick and easy, and can be used for wings, crudités like carrots and celery, or chips.

Here’s how to make my Blue Cheese Dip:In a medium bowl, add 1 cup sour cream, 1/2 cup plain Greek your, 1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles, 1/2 cup milk, 1 tablespoon garlic powder, 1 tablespoons dried onion flakes, 1 teaspoon parsley flakes, and a dash each of celery seed, paprika and ground black pepper. Stir until well blended, cover, and chill at least two hours before serving. Add more milk if dip is too thick.

Patrick Evans-Hylton, [email protected]

FUKUOKA, Japan (AP) — Swimming will set up an “open category” that will include transgender competitors, the governing body of the sport said Tuesday.

World Aquatics president Husain Al-Musallam said the event would take place in the future among other races but gave no details. Reports suggest it could be this year.

“This is a very complex topic,” Al-Musallam said at the World Aquatics Congress in the southwestern Japanese city of Fukuoka. “But I am delighted to tell you today that we are now making plans for the first trial of an open category, and we hope to be able to confirm all the details soon.

“Our sport must be open to everybody,” he said.

World Aquatics had previously banned transgender competitors from major events like the Olympics and world championships.

The topic has been divisive and many governing bodies in major sports have avoided it. And there will be many questions to answer as the first trial event unfolds under the eyes of lawyers and scientists.

“It was very important that we protected fair competition for our female athletes,” Al-Musallam said. “But you have heard me say many times there should be no discrimination. Nobody should be excluded from our competitions.”

In March 2022, American swimmer Lia Thomas won the women’s 500-yard freestyle at the NCAA championships in Atlanta, becoming the first transgender woman to claim a national title in swimming.

Thomas became a leading symbol of transgender athletes — stirring both opposition and support — when she joined the University of Pennsylvania women’s swim team after competing for three years on the men’s squad at the Ivy League school.

A man was killed in a shooting in Newport News early Tuesday morning.

Police responded to the 800 block of Old Oyster Point Road near the intersection with J. Clyde Morris Boulevard following a report of a shooting at about 12:46 a.m. Officers at the scene found a man outside suffering from a gunshot wound.

The man was taken to a hospital where he later died, according to police. Police have not yet released his name.

The investigation is ongoing. No further details have been made available.

Anyone with information about this shooting is encourage to submit an anonymous tip by calling the Crime Line at 1-888-LOCK-U-UP or by using the P3Tips mobile app.

Gavin Stone, 757-712-4806, [email protected]

By PAUL J. WEBER and VALERIE GONZALEZ (Associated Press)

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Justice Department on Monday sued Texas Gov. Greg Abbott over a newly installed floating barrier on the Rio Grande that is the Republican’s latest aggressive tactic to try to stop migrants from crossing into the U.S. from Mexico.

The lawsuit asks a federal judge in Austin to force Texas to remove a roughly 1,000-foot (305-meter) line of bright orange, wrecking ball-sized buoys that the Biden administration says raises humanitarian and environmental concerns. The suit claims that Texas unlawfully installed the barrier without permission between the border cities of Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras, Mexico.

The buoys are the latest escalation of Texas’ border security operation that also includes razor-wire fencing, arresting migrants on trespassing charges and sending busloads of asylum-seekers to Democratic-led cities in other states. Critics have long questioned the effectiveness of the two-year operation, known as Operation Lone Star. A state trooper’s account this month that some of the measures injured migrants has put the mission under intensifying new scrutiny.

In anticipation of the lawsuit, Abbott sent President Joe Biden a letter earlier Monday that defended Texas’ right to install the barrier. He accused Biden of putting migrants at risk by not doing more to deter them from making the journey to the U.S.

“Texas will see you in court, Mr. President,” Abbott wrote.

The Biden administration has said illegal border crossings have declined significantly since new immigration restrictions took effect in May. In June, the first full month since the new polices took effect, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said migrant encounters were down 30% from the month prior and were at the lowest levels since Biden’s first full month in office.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that Abbott’s policies as a whole have made it difficult for U.S. Border Patrol agents to access Rio Grande.

“Those are unlawful actions that are not helpful and is undermining what the president has put forward and is trying to do,” she said.

In a letter last week, the Justice Department gave Texas until Monday to commit to removing the barrier or face a lawsuit. The letter said the buoy wall “poses a risk to navigation, as well as public safety, in the Rio Grande River, and it presents humanitarian concerns.”

The state deployed the buoys without notifying the International Boundary and Water Commission or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Mexico’s secretary of state asked the federal government to intervene, saying the barrier violates international treaties.

The lawsuit is not the first time the Biden administration has sued Texas overs it actions on the border.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2021 accused the state of usurping and even interfering with the federal government’s responsibility to enforce immigration laws after Abbott empowered state troopers orders to stop vehicles carrying migrants on the basis that they could increase the spread of COVID-19.

___

Gonzalez reported from McAllen, Texas.

By KELVIN CHAN and BARBARA ORTUTAY (AP Business Writers)

Goodbye, Twitter. Hello, X.

Elon Musk has unveiled a new “X” logo to replace Twitter’s famous blue bird as he follows through with a major rebranding of the social media platform he bought for $44 billion last year.

The X started appearing at the top of the desktop version of Twitter on Monday, but the bird was still dominant across the smartphone app. At Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco, meanwhile, workers were seen removing the iconic bird and logo Monday until police showed up and stopped them because they didn’t have the proper permits and didn’t tape off the sidewalk to keep pedestrians safe if anything fell.

As of early afternoon, the “er” at the end of Twitter remained visible.

The haphazard erasure of both the physical and virtual remnants of Twitter’s past were in many ways typical of the chaotic way Musk has run the company since his reluctant purchase.

“It’s the end of an era, and a clear signal that the Twitter of the past 17 years is gone and not coming back,” said Jasmine Enberg, an analyst with Insider Intelligence. “But the writing was on the wall: Musk has been vocal about transforming Twitter into platform X from the start, and Twitter was already a shell of its former self.”

It’s yet another change that Musk has made since acquiring Twitter that has alienated users and turned off advertisers, leaving the microblogging site vulnerable to new threats, including rival Meta’s new text-based app Threads that directly targets Twitter users.

Musk had asked fans for logo ideas and chose one, which he described as minimalist Art Deco, saying it “certainly will be refined.” He replaced his own Twitter icon with a white X on a black background and posted a picture of the design projected on Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters.

“And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” Musk tweeted Sunday.

The X.com web domain now redirects users to Twitter.com, Musk said.

“I can’t say I’m surprised, but I think it’s a very selfish decision,” said Hannah Thoreson of Baltimore, Maryland, who’s used Twitter since 2009 for work and personal posts.

“There are so many small businesses and so many nonprofits and so many government agencies and things like that all around the world that have relied on Twitter for many years to push their message and reach people,” she said. “And they all have the Twitter icon on everything from their website to their business cards.”

Changing all this costs time and money, she added, not to mention the confusion that comes with a previously unknown brand name.

“I mean, do you want to get rid of the Coca-Cola brand if you’re Coca-Cola? Why would you do that?” said Thoreson, who now primarily uses Mastodon.

Musk, CEO of Tesla, has long been fascinated with the letter X and had already renamed Twitter’s corporate name to X Corp. after he bought it in October. In response to questions about what tweets would be called when the rebranding is done, Musk said they would be called Xs.

The billionaire is also CEO of rocket company Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly known as SpaceX. And he started an artificial intelligence company this month called xAI to compete with ChatGPT. In 1999, he founded a startup called X.com, an online financial services company now known as PayPal.

Additionally, he calls one of his sons, whose mother is singer Grimes, “X.” The child’s actual name is a collection of letters and symbols.

Musk’s Twitter purchase and rebranding are part of his strategy to create what he’s dubbed an “ everything app ” similar to China’s WeChat, which combines video chats, messaging, streaming and payments. Musk has made a number of drastic changes since taking over Twitter, including a shift to focusing on paid subscriptions, but he doesn’t always follow through on his attention-grabbing new policy pronouncements.

Linda Yaccarino, the longtime NBC Universal executive Musk tapped to be Twitter CEO in May, posted the new logo and weighed in on the change, writing on Twitter that X would be “the future state of unlimited interactivity — centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking — creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities.”

But ad industry analysts were less certain about X’s prospects.

“Musk supporters will likely celebrate the rebrand, but it’s a gloomy day for many Twitter users and advertisers,” Enberg said. “Twitter’s corporate brand is already heavily intertwined with Musk’s personal brand, with or without the name X, and much of Twitter’s established brand equity has already been lost among users and advertisers.”

Some predicted the new name will confuse much of Twitter’s audience, which has already been souring on the social media platform following Musk’s other modifications, including limiting the number of tweets users can read each day. The new threshold is part of an $8-per-month subscription service Musk rolled out earlier this year in an attempt to boost Twitter revenue.

Whether advertisers will ever return depends on how successful the rebranding is and whether Musk is able to accomplish his goal of creating an “everything app.” That remains to be seen, said ad expert Mark DiMassimo.

“Advertisers care about what they’re buying. So if his strategies work, I don’t think advertisers could care less about what he calls it,” DiMassimo said.

“I think changing the name is just a way for him to say, ‘Stop having Twitter expectations, this is a new thing, judge it as a new thing,’” he added. “And you know, that only works if the new thing works.”

Twitter users also pointed out that few people refer to Alphabet, Google’s parent company since 2015. Facebook renamed itself Meta in 2021, but its collection of apps — Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook — still retain their own brands and logos.

Twitter’s recognizable blue bird logo went live more than a decade ago in 2012, replacing an earlier bird logo ahead of the company’s Wall Street debut as a publicly traded company.

“I’m sad to see it go. It had a great run,” said the logo’s designer, Martin Grasser. “But 11 years, 12 years is really long for a corporate identity to stick around. It feels like the platform is changing and they have a new direction and it makes sense” that they would pick a new logo to signal those changes.

___

AP Technology Writer Matt O’Brien in Providence, Rhode Island, AP Business Writer Mae Anderson in New York and AP Video Journalist Haven Daley in San Francisco contributed to this story.

RICHMOND (AP) — The FBI is looking into the death of an intellectually disabled inmate at a Virginia prison who’s been identified as “a possible victim of a crime,” the agency said in a document reviewed Monday by The Associated Press, months after a federal lawsuit was filed alleging the man was fatally beaten by correctional officers.

The February 2022 death of Charles Givens, who was serving time for murder at the Marion Correctional Treatment Center, is the subject of a federal lawsuit alleging Givens was “sadistically tortured” and beaten before being found unresponsive at the southwest Virginia facility.

“This case is currently under investigation by the FBI,” said an email from an FBI victim specialist addressed to an attorney for Givens’ sister. “A criminal investigation can be a lengthy undertaking, and, for several reasons, we cannot tell you about its progress at this time.”

The email was dated Sunday and shared with the AP by Kym Hobbs, Givens’ sister and the plaintiff in the lawsuit filed in February. Nothing in the message indicated the scope or target of the apparent investigation.

Hobbs, who said the email marked the first correspondence she’d had with the FBI about her brother’s death, said she welcomed the development.

“I’m hoping somebody will actually do something,” she said.

Dee Rybiski, an FBI spokeswoman in Richmond, declined to comment, noting the agency does not usually confirm or deny the existence of investigations.

Hobbs’ lawsuit alleges her brother had suffered routine abuse at Marion before a last fatal encounter. Details of the suit were first reported by NPR, which published a lengthy report in June that also raised broader questions about conditions at the facility that houses inmates with mental health issues.

According to the lawsuit, Givens suffered a traumatic brain injury after falling down a flight of stairs as a young child. It says that his intellectual and emotional development was limited to that of a 2nd- or 3rd-grade child and that he needed assistance and supervision with daily functioning the rest of his life. He also had Crohn’s disease, which caused him to sometimes defecate on himself, according to the lawsuit, which alleges that made Givens a “target of the Defendant correctional officers’ abuse.”

Hobbs said she was initially informed by a prison official that her brother, who had other underlying health conditions and had been recently ill, had died of natural causes. But around a week later, she received a call from a woman who said she’d heard through another inmate that Givens had been beaten.

An autopsy report reviewed by AP determined Givens’ cause of death was blunt force trauma of the torso and his manner of death was undetermined.

Attorneys for four correctional officers accused in the lawsuit of participating in beating Givens did not respond to emails or telephone messages seeking comment on the lawsuit and the letter describing the FBI investigation.

An attorney for a fifth officer accused of negligence for failing to intervene did not respond to an email and a phone message seeking comment.

All five have denied the allegations in their answer to the complaint and none has been charged with a crime.

The Department of Corrections has not responded to emailed questions about the matter, including queries sent last week and again Monday.

According to the lawsuit, Givens had been incarcerated at Marion since shortly after he pleaded guilty to two felonies in connection with the fatal 2010 shooting of Misty Leann Garrett. Garrett, 22, had been employed as a home health nurse for Givens’ mother, according to local news accounts.

The lawsuit and public records surrounding the case have raised broader questions about the conditions at the facility, including the disclosure that Givens and other inmates, according to the complaint, were hospitalized for hypothermia.

A special grand jury impaneled last year that found Givens’ death was “suspicious” said in a report that “nearly every witness” described living conditions in the prison sector housing mentally ill inmates as “unsuitable.”

“More than one witness had observed ice formed on the water in toilets. We find these conditions to be inhumane and deplorable,” the report said.

During Givens’ time there, he was taken to a hospital numerous times for what the lawsuit alleges were “injuries that are highly suggestive of correctional officer abuse and/or neglect,” including one incident in April 2018 for “assault by hot tap water.”

And in the last year of his life, Givens was taken to the emergency room four times for treatment of hypothermia, according to the lawsuit and medical records reviewed by AP.

The string of hospitalizations began in Feb. 2021, when Givens was treated for “hypothermia” and “hypothermic shock,” the lawsuit states. His initial body temperature was 87.2 Fahrenheit (30.6 Celsius), well below the normal body temperature of 97.6 to 99.6 (36.4 to 37.5 Celsius). A hospital admission record states that Givens was “found down on the cold concrete and hypothermic.”

On Feb. 5, 2022, Givens was declared dead at the treatment center after what the lawsuit alleges was a beating in an off-camera shower area of the facility.