Gen Z is reversing a decades-long decline in teen employment.

• Why it matters: Working for pay can be a key rite of passage for teens as they grow up. But it's not nearly as common as it used to be, Axios' Erica Pandey writes.

"There is something lost when there are more young people who enter the workforce after college with no work experience," says Jean Twenge, a psychologist and author of the book "Generations."

🧮 By the numbers: In the 1980s, nearly two-thirds of 16- to 19-year-olds were working or actively looking for work.

• That's been steadily falling since then. Teens' labor force participation rate dropped especially low among millennials in the 2000s.
• But Gen Z is starting to bring teen jobs back: The share of teens working or looking for work recently hit a 14-year high — 38%.
• In the coming weeks, employers will add 1.3 million summer jobs for young workers, the firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas predicts.

🔬 Zoom in: Several factors are driving the uptick in teen employment.

1. Younger workers' wages have been rising faster than those of other age groups.
2. Many teens are getting part-time jobs to help their families cover daily costs as inflation squeezes budgets, says Andrew Challenger of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
3. The demand for labor in jobs teens typically hold — at shops and in restaurants — is still high.

Reality check: While teen employment is rising, it's unlikely it'll ever get close to the higher rates for Boomers and Gen X-ers, Challenger says.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a shot to make the June presidential debate, playing spoiler to the Biden and Trump campaigns that want a 1-1 match-up.

• Why it matters: Kennedy would be the first independent presidential candidate to make the debate stage in 32 years — just the third in presidential debate history, Axios' Erin Doherty reports.

🎯 The qualifying terms: Get on enough state ballots to add up to 270 electoral votes, and hit 15% in four quality national polls.

• Kennedy appears to have met the polling requirement in three polls. He has until June 20 to qualify in a fourth.
• Five states (35 electoral votes) confirmed to ABC News that Kennedy had qualified for the ballot — Delaware, Hawaii, Michigan, Oklahoma and Utah.
• The Kennedy campaign says it's at 201 eligible electoral votes. It claims it has submitted signatures for ballot access in seven states (139 electoral votes) with enough signatures for eight other states.

Reality check: What matters is what each state's top election official decides.

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This satellite view shows a "tornado scar" after a powerful twister ripped through the heart of Greenfield, Iowa — population: 2,000 — last week.

• The death toll from the tornado outbreak that damaged multiple communities across the heartland this weekend has risen to at least 20.

In Cooke County, Texas, two young children were among at least seven people killed in a tornado.

• Deaths were also reported in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kentucky.

Get the latest.

Nearly 1,500 joint service members spent around four hours placing American flags in front of more than 260,000 headstones at Arlington National Cemetery ahead of Memorial Day.

President Biden and former President Clinton will team up for a big-ticket fundraiser in suburban Virginia in late June, hosted by former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, Axios' Hans Nichols reports.

• Why it matters: The June 18 event will be the third manifestation of a successful fundraising formula that includes an evening with two (or three) Democratic presidents for the price of one.

It follows the "three presidents" extravaganza in New York in April, and a planned event with Biden, Clinton and former President Obama in L.A. in mid-June, hosted by George Clooney.

• The New York event brought in $26 million for Biden's re-election effort.

First Lady Jill Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will also attend the inside-the-Beltway fundraiser.

• McAuliffe, former DNC chairman and longtime confidant of both presidents, will host at his home in McLean, Va.

Keep reading.

The most interesting story in yesterday's Washington Post was on Page A3 — and 1,221 days late.

• It turns out The Post's former Supreme Court reporter, Bob Barnes, did a front-yard interview with Justice Samuel Alito on Jan. 20, 2021 — President Biden's inauguration day — about the upside-down American flag that had flown outside the justice's home in Fairfax County, Va.
• The Post decided it wasn't a story, until The New York Times broke the news on May 16 — 3 years, 4 months later.

Why it matters: The flag — which Alito attributed to his wife, Martha-Ann Alito — raised ethics questions that were heightened after The Times reported last week on a second provocative flag flown at an Alito property.

💬 What they're saying: Cameron Barr, the Post's former senior managing editor, told Semafor's Ben Smith that he takes responsibility for the decision.

• "I agreed with Bob Barnes and others that we should not do a single-slice story about the flag, because it seemed like the story was about Martha-Ann Alito and not her husband," Barr said.
• "In retrospect, I should have pushed harder for that story."

🎥 Now it can be told: The Post's weekend story revealed the epic scene back in 2021. Barnes — who covered the court for 17 years, and retired in 2023 — went to the Alitos' home to check a tip, and "encountered the couple coming out of the house":

"Martha-Ann Alito was visibly upset by his presence, demanding that he 'get off my property.' As [Barnes] described the information he was seeking, she yelled, 'It's an international signal of distress!'

"Alito intervened and directed his wife into a car parked in their driveway, where they had been headed on their way out of the neighborhood. The justice denied the flag was hung upside down as a political protest, saying it stemmed from a neighborhood dispute and indicating that his wife had raised it."

"Martha-Ann Alito then got out of the car," The Post continues, "and shouted in apparent reference to the neighbors: 'Ask them what they did!'"

• "She said yard signs about the couple had been placed in the neighborhood. After getting back in the car, she exited again and then brought out from their residence a novelty flag, the type that would typically decorate a garden. She hoisted it up the flagpole. 'There! Is that better?' she yelled."

Asked for comment by Axios, The Post noted that the weekend story addresses why the account wasn't published at the time:

"The Post decided not to report on the episode at the time because the flag-raising appeared to be the work of Martha-Ann Alito, rather than the justice, and connected to a dispute with her neighbors, a Post spokeswoman said. It was not clear then that the argument was rooted in politics, the spokeswoman said."

Read the Post story (gift link — no paywall).

Elon Musk's AI startup — xAI — has completed one of the largest-ever fundraising rounds in the industry, amassing $6 billion from powerful backers like Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.

• Why it matters: xAI will use the cash to launch its first products and supercharge developing new tech, the company said in a blog post.

Musk said on X that xAI's valuation before this raise was $18 billion.

• Go deeper: xAI in the "Muskonomy"

The evolution of "jeggings," the jeans-leggings hybrid of the 1980s, is the sweatpant jean — loungewear with an elastic waistband and a printed-on denim design.

• "[It's] comfy enough for WFH-spoiled waistlines and presentable enough for airports and even certain workplaces," The Wall Street Journal's Rory Satran writes.

👖 The most popular, and arguably most believable, pair of sweatpant jeans comes from the American label Rag & Bone. Their viral style, the "Sofie," has a wide leg and retails for $225.

• The company is expanding its sweatpants-meets-jeans line to jackets and shorts.