The fastest-growing parts of the U.S. are also the fastest-warming, Axios' Andrew Freedman writes.

• Why it matters: The Southwest —the new magnet for tech workers — is drying out. The West is facing worst-in-a-century drought conditions. And California's infernos could start as soon as June.

One climate researcher says California's Sierra Nevada Mountains saw one of the fastest snow melt-outs in history this year.

• The drought is particularly severe in the Colorado River Basin and northern California. Scientists and public officials warn that the California wildfire season is likely to be severe, due to the combination of dry vegetation and above-average temperatures.
• This comes on the heels of the worst fire season in state history, which turned the skies above San Francisco a "Blade Runner" orange last year.

What's next: Climate studies show that as the world continues to warm, the Southwest will become drier and hotter. That increases stress on water amid a population boom in Arizona and Nevada.

• Despite short intervals of wetter years, parts of the West, including California, are suffering through an emerging, human-caused "megadrought" that began in 2000.
• This drought, measured using soil moisture data and tree rings, is the second-worst in the past 1,200 years.

Share this story.

Prices are expected to keep rising this summer, pushed up by bottlenecks for materials/labor + surging consumer demand, Reuters reports.

• This "Memorial Day Weekend price index" (graphic above) showed leisure-related prices up about 4.3% since the pandemic began— more than overall consumer prices, which rose 3.1% over that period.

Axios' Felix Salmon tells me, though, that inflation fears are overdone:

• Consumer prices aren't the real problem — we don’t even notice when prices on Amazon go up and down. What matters are the big things: housing, healthcare and college.

When people say "inflation," Felix notes, what they often mean is the feeling that a good lifestyle is increasingly unaffordable. That’s not really a function of retail prices.

• And inflation figures reflect genuinely higher living standards for hourly workers. Which feels like a tradeoff worth making.

Go deeper: Axios' Felix Salmon, "Don't fear inflation."

"Americans have been on an unusual, prolonged buying spree fueled by the coronavirus pandemic, the protests last summer and the fears they both stoked, the N.Y. Times' Sabrina Tavernise reports (subscription).

• A week this spring broke the record for federal background checks — 1.2 million, the most since government records begin in 1998.

About a fifth of all Americans who bought guns last year were first-time gun owners, according to new data from Northeastern University and the Harvard Injury Control Research Center.

• New owners were less likely than usual to be male and white: Half were women, a fifth were Black and a fifth were Hispanic, The Times reported in its exclusive look at the data.

⚡ Breaking ... In Miami early today, two people were killed, and 20 to 25 others injured, when three people got out of an SUV carrying assault rifles and handguns and started "shooting indiscriminately into the crowd" outside a concert, Axios' Fadel Allassan reports.

• Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo "Freddy" Ramirez III said: "Every weekend it is the same thing. This is targeted, this is definitely not random." (Miami Herald)

🔮 Flashback ... Axios' Bryan Walsh in January: U.S. gun sales hit all-time high.

These are the three known survivors of the Tulsa Race Massacre, which began 100 years ago tomorrow — Hughes Van Ellis, 100 ... Lessie Benningfield Randle, 106, known as Mother Randle ... and Viola Fletcher, 107, who's the oldest living survivor, and older sister of Van Ellis.

• They're shown in a horse-drawn carriage Friday as they attended the Black Wall Street Legacy Festival in Tulsa.

A Washington Post headline cleverly captures the problem .. "Help Wanted: An airbrush artist to save the summer.

• "Beach towns and vacation spots across the country are struggling to hire enough workers, part of a nationwide labor shortage," The Post's Todd Frankel reports.

Why it matters: What happens during the 14 weeks between Memorial Day and Labor Day makes or breaks the entire year for these shops, The Post notes.

What's happening: One factor is the "disappearance of seasonal foreign workers — students who ... work summer jobs on temporary visas in resort towns from Cape Cod to the Wisconsin Dells."

• "A ban on foreign worker programs imposed by former president Donald Trump was allowed to expire in March by President Biden. But foreign workers still face pandemic travel restrictions and visa backlogs."

Axios from Tel Aviv author Barak Ravid reports: The leader of Israel's right wing Yamina party, Naftali Bennett, said today that he's moving forward with joining opposition leader Yair Lapid to form a power sharing government that would oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

• Why it matters: A "change government" would make Bennett prime minister and bring an end to 12 years of Bibi's rule — and could break the political crisis that has led to four elections in two years.

Keep reading.

A year ago, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was struggling to contain COVID, the state's economy was in tatters, and cases and deaths were rising.

• Now his stature has risen as he heads into his reelection race next year — and he's a top-tier Republican for 2024 if former President Trump doesn't run, AP's Bobby Caina Calvan writes.

Why it matters: DeSantis remained defiant in the face of attacks on his hardline opposition to mask mandates and lockdowns.

• "Hold the line. Don't back down," he told a crowd at a party fundraiser in Pittsburgh in May. "And in the state of Florida, with me as governor, I have only begun to fight."

The diplomatic thriller "Oslo," now on HBO and HBO Max ... "Adapted from the Tony Award-winning play of the same name, 'Oslo' is based on a true story of negotiations that led to the 1993 Oslo Accords, a landmark face-to-face agreement between Israel and the PLO:

Behind the scenes, a Norwegian diplomat, Mona Juul, and her social scientist husband hatched an intricate, top-secret, and sometimes comical scheme to gather an unexpected assortment of players at an idyllic estate just outside Oslo. ...

Renowned Broadway director Bartlett Sher came up with the idea for the play after talking to the Norwegian couple who orchestrated the back-channel talks at their kids' soccer matches.

L.A. Times TV critic Lorraine Ali calls it "a look behind the curtain at a process that seems impossible today."

• Watch the trailer.

Twins third baseman Josh Donaldson yesterday scored the 2 millionth run in baseball's storied history, on Nelson Cruz's ground-rule double off Royals right-hander Ervin Santana in the first inning, MLB.com writes:

• "Official MLB history dates to 1876, when the National League began play."
• "[T]he first run came on April 22 of that year — in the first game of the season, between the Boston Red Stockings, now the Braves, and the Philadelphia Athletics."

Spotted yesterday in Westerly, R.I., by an Axios AM reader who asked to remain in stealth mode.