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Netflix had another blowout quarter 2024-07-18 20:21:06+00:00 - Netflix reported its second-quarter earnings on Thursday. New subscriber numbers surpassed analysts' expectations at just over 8 million. The streaming service has been luring more viewers by cracking down on password sharing. Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read preview Thanks for signing up! Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time by visiting our Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of the email. Advertisement Netflix's subscriber numbers grew more than expected during its second quarter, the latest sign that the company's password crackdown is working. The streamer attracted 8.05 million new subscribers for the quarter, helped by shows including the third series of "Bridgerton" and "Baby Reindeer." Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected 4.9 million new subscribers. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in .
Airlines are scrambling to fix the unsustainable crisis caused by too many cheap flights 2024-07-18 20:20:11+00:00 - By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time by visiting our Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of the email. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read preview It may not feel like it, but there are a lot of cheap flights to be had this summer — and the influx of low-priced, often money-losing economy seats has airlines scrambling. "The unprofitable capacity is just not sustainable," United Airlines' chief commercial officer Andrew Nocella told investors Thursday. Despite reporting a 23% increase in second-quarter profits over the prior year, United's earnings guidance for the upcoming third quarter fell short of Wall Street expectations. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. "This is a quarter where industry capacity growth has exceeded still solid demand," CEO Scott Kirby said on the earnings call. Advertisement In recent months, airlines have flooded the market with economy-class seats, leading to lower airfares as carriers cut prices to fill their planes as travel demand soars. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, pictured at Boeing's South Carolina plant in 2022, said capacity growth outstripped strong travel demand in Q2. LOGAN CYRUS/Getty Images According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, average ticket prices in June were the cheapest in 15 years, excluding the COVID-19 pandemic years of 2020 and 2021. And in July, TSA screenings hit a record. But as labor, fuel and other overhead costs remain high, airlines — especially low-cost carriers — have sold seats at a loss in a desperate attempt to generate as much revenue as possible. "The pressure other US airlines are experiencing today is due in large part to their unprofitable flying in many domestic markets," Kirby said. Advertisement Nocella added: "In the past, the magnitude of the worst flying has never been this bad for the lower-margin airlines," the United CCO said. Low-cost airlines are bearing the brunt of the pain Delta CEO Ed Bastian also questioned the long-term financial viability of the business strategy of low-cost carriers during the airline's earnings call last week. Related stories "You cannot, if you are on the lower end of the industry's food chain, continue to post losses, particularly given the health of the demand set we've seen over these last couple of years," Bastian said. The carrier kicked off a series of bad news for airlines earlier in June, posting disappointing earnings that sent the entire sector down. Delta CEO Ed Bastian, pictured onstage at CES in 2019, questioned the long-term viability of money-losing low-cost airlines. Steve Marcus/Reuters Southwest Airlines, for example, lost $231 million in the first quarter of 2024, while fellow low-cost carriers Spirit and Frontier lost $143 million and $26 million, respectively, during that same period. Advertisement The most effective and direct method of addressing this issue for airlines is to slow the introduction of additional seats for sale. Something airlines are quickly working to do. "It was inevitable that carriers would begin to cancel this unprofitable flying, and you see that happening in earnest in the second half of August," Kirby said, echoing similar projections by Delta. Based on upcoming flight schedules, Kirby said the airline expects domestic capacity growth across the industry to decrease by 5% by the fourth quarter of 2024. United Airlines said Q2 revenue from premium cabins such as Polaris increased 8.5% . United Airlines In addition to capacity reduction, the US mainline carriers are leaning on their premium, higher-margin cabins to help cover the losses. Advertisement United reported an 8.5% revenue increase during the second quarter from its premium cabins, such as Polaris business class and domestic first class. Delta is also banking on its premium cabins, which accounted for 56% of its second-quarter revenue. In addition, Alaska Airlines announced this week that it's retrofitting its Boeing 737 fleet to add 1.3 million first-class and premium economy seats annually. The retrofit starts in September and will ensure that each Alaska Boeing 737 has 16 first-class and 30 premium economy seats. American Airlines will report its second-quarter performance on July 25.
Netflix Adds 8 Million Subscribers 2024-07-18 20:09:39+00:00 - Netflix added 8 million subscribers in its last quarter, the streaming company said in its earnings report on Thursday, bringing its global subscription base to 278 million. Shows like the third season of “Bridgerton,” “Baby Reindeer” (which landed 11 of Netflix’s industry-leading 107 Emmy nominations on Wednesday), “The Roast of Tom Brady,” which attracted the company’s largest live audience ever, and films like the French horror movie “Under Paris” and “Atlas” starring Jennifer Lopez propelled the streaming giant to net income of $2.1 billion and revenue of $9.5 billion, a 17 percent increase from the same period last year. The company said it was slightly raising expectations and now predicted revenue growth of 14 to 15 percent for the year. Netflix now offers subscriptions to an advertising-supported service for $6.99 a month in 12 countries. That tier now accounts for more than 45 percent of all sign-ups in those markets. The company has also been investing more heavily in live events, including a recent three-year deal with the N.F.L. to stream games on Christmas Day.
Bob Newhart, comedy legend and star of 'The Bob Newhart Show' and 'Elf,' dead at 94 2024-07-18 20:08:49+00:00 - By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . You can opt-out at any time by visiting our Preferences page or by clicking "unsubscribe" at the bottom of the email. Access your favorite topics in a personalized feed while you're on the go. download the app Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. Read preview Comedy icon Bob Newhart, whose deadpan delivery made him a legend of television and the silver screen, died on Thursday, according to his longtime publicist Jerry Digney. He was 94. Known for his comedic timing, the "Bob Newhart Show" and "Newhart" star was one of the funniest men of the 20th century. The Emmy winner gave us one of the most memorable series' finales of all time with his beloved CBS comedy. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Though he was best known for his comedy albums and shows, Newhart made cameos on "Desperate Housewives," "ER," and, most notably, "The Big Bang Theory" in recent years. Disney fans may recognize his voice from "The Rescuers" and its sequel where he voiced the protagonist mouse, Bernard. Advertisement Newhart also starred opposite Will Farrell in the beloved Christmas comedy "Elf." Before he had audiences laughing, Newhart said he never knew what he wanted to do when he grew up. He told the Television Academy Foundation he hoped he'd be remembered as "someone who was on time, who knew his lines, didn't bump into the furniture, and never let anybody catch him at acting." Breaking through into comedy in the '50s Young Bob Newhart initially didn't consider comedy a career. Gerald Smith/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images Born George Robert Newhart in Oak Park, Illinois, the comedian grew up in a middle-class family with a father who sold plumbing and heating supplies; his mother, who was a housewife; and three sisters. Influenced by cartoonist and humorist James Thurber, writer Max Shulman, and radio greats Fred Allen and Jack Benny, Newhart credited learning how to tell stories from them and his father, who he said was a pretty good story teller. Advertisement "I never thought of comedy as career. I was much too practical for that. I had a degree in management, a minor in accounting," Newhart told the Television Academy. From 1952 to 1954, Newhart was drafted into the United States Army where he worked as a personnel manager during the Korean war. Newhart said he hated it. Afterwards, he worked as an accountant and copywriter for a short time. He found the accounting work dull, but was constantly told he was funny so Newhart decided to give comedy a try. Related stories When he was bored, he and a coworker would do comedy routines over the phone at the office and they eventually started recording them. The tapes were sent out to radio stations and a few of them were interested in routines, which the two kept up for awhile until it wasn't cost-effective to send out anymore. Newhart continued to try his luck solo. "They thought I was out of my mind," Newhart told the Television Academy of his family's thoughts on his comedy dreams. "My mother and father couldn't really understand what I was doing." Advertisement He took part-time jobs in order to sustain his dream. Eventually, Newhart was invited to do one of his popular one-sided phone call routines at the local Chicago Emmy awards between Abraham Lincoln and his press agent. In 2007, Newhart told Conan O'Brien that "Abe Lincoln Vs. Madison Avenue," which you can listen to below, is "maybe the best piece of writing I ever did." It was a hit and ABC hired him in 1958 shortly afterward to do a "man on the street" routine. One of Newhart's friends, a disc jockey, Dan Sorkin, later introduced Newhart to the head of talent at Warner Bros. Records. The new record label signed him the following year after hearing three of Newhart's recordings. His first comedy album, "The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart," was released in 1960 and it was a hit. It was the first comedy album to become number one on the Billboard charts and Newhart later won Grammys for album of the year and best new artist. AV Club said it "changed stand-up comedy forever." Advertisement From comedy albums to a short-lived variety sitcom Bob Newhart doing stand-up comedy on "The Ed Sullivan Show." Hulton Archive via Getty Images Newhart's first album was selling so well and so fast that Warner Bros. released a second album from the comedian six months later, "The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back." It won a Grammy for best comedy performance — spoken word the same year. Over the next 11 years, he released seven more albums, including "Bob Newhart Faces Bob Newart" (1964) and "Best of Bob Newhart" (1971). "The first two albums flowed like a dam burst. You had these ideas," Newhart told Billboard. "'Retirement Party' was based on my background in accounting, "Grace L. Ferguson Airline" was based on plane flights I had taken while in service, looking for the cheapest way to get back home. And then it became harder. They dammed up the dam. The good ideas come full born, it's like giving birth." Bob Newhart during the first season of "The Bob Newhart Show," performing one of his popular telephone jokes. NBCUniversal/Getty After, NBC gave Newhart his own variety show in 1961 simply called "The Bob Newhart Show." Even though it won a Peabody and Primetime Emmy for outstanding program achievement in 1962 NBC canceled the series after one season. He also appeared on a short-lived CBS variety series with Carol Burnett called "The Entertainers." Advertisement In the '60s, Newhart could be seen on "The Dean Martin Show," "The Ed Sullivan Show," in movies like "Hell is for Heroes" and "Hot Millions," and at nightclubs. "The Bob Newhart Show" and "Newhart" Newhart on "The Bob Newhart Show." CBS/MTM When "The Bob Newhart Show" launched in 1972, it was an instant hit despite going up against "Sanford and Son" and "M*A*S*H." The CBS comedy about a Chicago psychologist, Dr. Bob Hartley, ran for six seasons. Its style partially inspired the types of comedies we would see later with "Seinfeld," "Roseanne," and even "The Big Bang Theory." He eventually guest-starred on the latter. In 2017, Newhart told Variety the series remains timeless because of a suggestion he made. Advertisement "I told the writers this show is going to be syndicated and we are going to look pretty silly in 20 years if we are doing a Gerald Ford joke. And I was right," said Newhart. "It's easy to write topical jokes, but you are going to look stupid. They all agreed." Another suggestion that Newhart made was that his character didn't have any children because he "didn't want to be the dumb father that seemed to be in every sitcom." The comedian returned to TV in 1982 with an eight-season run of "Newhart" where he played a Vermont innkeeper. The last scene of the finale was a shocker when it revealed the entire series was nothing more than a dream of Newhart. More than that, it revealed that the show existed within the world of Newhart's other show, "The Bob Newhart Show." Bob Newhart played author and innkeeper Dick Loudon on "Newhart." 20th Century Fox / MTM According to Entertainment Weekly, it was Newhart's wife, Ginnie, who came up with the finale idea. The finale is considered television's best by Rolling Stone, EW, and TV Guide. Advertisement Newhart was inducted into Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 1993, an achievement the comedian said was the proudest moment in his career. "The Big Bang Theory" and his first Emmy win Bob Newhart on set of "The Big Bang Theory" with Kaley Cuoco. Monty Brinton/CBS After appearances on "The Simpsons," "NCIS," and two more shows "George & Leo" and "Bob," Newhart began a recurring role on CBS' "The Big Bang Theory" in 2013. Newhart played Arthur Jeffries/Professor Proton, the star of a science show Sheldon Cooper grew up watching, on the longtime comedy for five seasons. Though Sheldon fanboyed over Jeffries, the scientist found Dr. Cooper incredibly irritating. Professor Proton died on the show, but lived on as a "Star Wars" Force ghost who gave Sheldon advice. The fan-favorite role won Newhart his first Primetime Emmy in 2013 for outstanding guest actor in a comedy series. Newhart married his wife, Virgina "Ginny" Quinn, in January 1963. He is survived by his wife, four children (Robert, Timothy, Jennifer, and Courtney), and 10 grandchildren. Advertisement Kirsten Acuna contributed to this obituary.
Long Beach breaks ground on $1.5B railyard expansion at port to fortify US supply chain 2024-07-18 20:03:46+00:00 - LOS ANGELES (AP) — U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and other officials visited the port of Long Beach on Thursday to break ground on a $1.5 billion railyard expansion project that will more than triple the volume of rail cargo the dock can handle annually. Dubbed “America’s Green Gateway,” the project will expand the existing railyard and link the port to 30 major rail hubs around the country. It aims to streamline rail operations to reduce the environmental impact, traffic congestion, and air pollution caused by cargo trucks. “This work builds a rail network on a port that more than triples the volume of cargo that can move by rail to nearly five million containers a year — the kind of throughput that’ll keep America’s economy humming and keep costs down with benefits in every part of this country,” Buttigieg said. This project and others funded by the Biden administration aim to make American supply chains more resilient against future disruptions and to fix supply chains upended by the pandemic, he said. Long Beach is one of the busiest seaports in the country, with 40% of all shipping containers in the United States coming through it or Los Angeles’ ports. During the pandemic, these ports dealt with unprecedented gridlock, with dozens of ships waiting off-shore and shipping containers piling up on the docks because there weren’t enough trucks to transport them. The project is scheduled for completion in 2032. The railyard expansion means there will be a depot for fueling and servicing up to 30 trains at the same time and a place to assemble and break down trains up to 10,000 feet long. It will add 36 rail tracks to the existing 12 and expand the daily train capacity from seven to 17, overall contributing to meeting the port of Long Beach’s goal of moving 35% of containers by on-dock rail. One train can haul the equivalent of 750 truck trips’ worth of cargo. Without that train, the cargo would have to travel via truck to the downtown Los Angeles railyards, increasing traffic on Interstate 710 and increasing truck pollution in surrounding communities, according to project materials. “We should never forget the single most important piece of all of this is the health impacts,” said U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, who was once the mayor of Long Beach. “The ability for families ... to breathe healthier air, to be free of cancer and asthma, to know that they can raise their children in a community that is cleaner and safer.” Remarks were also delivered by Long Beach’s current mayor, Rex Richardson, Long Beach Harbor Commission President Bobby Olvera Jr., the port’s CEO, Mario Cordero, and others. The rail upgrade is one of 41 projects across the U.S. that were awarded funds from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Mega Grant Program, receiving $283.4 million from the federal government. To date, it has acquired more than $643 million in grant funds. The investment is part of the $1 trillion in infrastructure investments included in a bipartisan law signed by President Joe Biden in 2021.
Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle were once called 'the prom king and queen of MAGA land.' Here's a timeline of their relationship. 2024-07-18 20:00:45+00:00 - November 2007: Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle ran in the same circles before they started dating. Donald Trump Jr. and Vanessa Trump (left) with Kimberly Guilfoyle (second from right) at an event in New York City. NEIL RASMUS/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images Guilfoyle and Trump Jr. were photographed together at events in New York City in 2007 and 2008. At the time, they were in other relationships. Guilfoyle was married to Democratic politician Gavin Newsom from 2001 to 2006, and she was first lady of San Francisco during his time as mayor. After they divorced, she married businessman Eric Villency in 2006 and had a son in 2007. The couple divorced in 2009. Trump Jr. married model Vanessa Haydon in 2005. They divorced in March 2018 and share five children.
Stellantis tells owners of over 24,000 hybrid minivans to park outdoors due to battery fire risk 2024-07-18 19:57:57+00:00 - AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) — Stellantis is telling the owners of more than 24,000 plug-in hybrid minivans to park them outdoors away from buildings, and to stop charging them due to the possibility of battery fires. The company said Thursday that it’s recalling certain 2017 through 2021 Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrids, mainly in North America. Some are being recalled for a second time. All can still be driven. Stellantis, maker of Jeep, Chrysler, Ram and other vehicle brands, said its investigation is ongoing but the company has linked the problem to a rare abnormality in individual battery cells. The risk of fires is reduced when the battery is depleted. A company review of warranty data discovered seven fires within the group of vans being recalled. All happened when the vehicles were turned off, and some occurred during charging, Stellantis said. Four customers reported symptoms of smoke inhalation. Engineers are still testing the remedy, which involves a software update designed to detect the battery abnormality. If a problem is found, dealers will replace the high-voltage battery at no cost to owners. Owners will be notified by mail when to take their minivans in for service. After July 24, they can go to recalls.mopar.com or checktoprotect.org and key in their vehicle identification numbers to see if their vans are part of the recall. Later models have an improved manufacturing process and are not being recalled, the company said. The recall comes six months after U.S. safety regulators began investigating a 2022 recall of nearly 17,000 of the vans. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in documents that it would review the effectiveness of the recall and try to understand the cause of the battery fires.
Bob Newhart, sitcom pioneer and beloved 'Elf' actor, dies at 94 2024-07-18 19:55:00+00:00 - Bob Newhart, the former accountant who rose to comedy superstardom with a mathematical precision in timing a deadpan routine down to a decimal point, died Thursday, according to his publicist. He was 94. Newhart certainly looked the part of the weary everyman that he played so well on the comedy albums that launched his career, and on the two major sitcoms that bore his name — “The Bob Newhart Show,” which ran on CBS from 1972 to 1978, and “Newhart,” which ran on the same network from 1982 to 1990. But there was as much Stan Laurel as there was Oliver Hardy in Newhart’s repertoire, said actor Peter Scolari, a friend and co-star on “Newhart” through most of the 1980s. It’s just that Newhart chose to leave most of the wildest slapstick for his scene partners. By the time he auditioned for the show during its third season, Scolari was already an established television veteran. Still, he was nervous enough reading opposite Newhart that he started stammering. “And I remember Bob looking at me, he had gotten this little (smirk) in the corner of his mouth,” recalled Scolari in an interview before his death in October 2021. “And he said, ‘You realize only one of us can do the stammering bit.’” The cast of "Newhart." Back row: Peter Scolari as Michael Harris, Julia Duffy as Stephanie Vanderkellen, and Tom Poston as George Utley. Front row: Bob Newhart as Dick Loudon and Mary Frann as Joanna Loudon. The series ran from Oct. 25, 1982, to May 21, 1990. CBS Photo Archive via Getty Images That took the pressure off Scolari. “He kind of set me on my path,” the younger actor said. Newhart’s own path included plenty of milestones along the way: two hit sitcoms and a major recurring stint on a third, a variety show, 14 feature films and millions of albums sold. He won three Grammy Awards and two Emmys five decades apart, and the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. Not bad for a kid from a blue-collar suburb of Chicago. Born on Sept. 5, 1929, in Oak Park, Illinois, the son of a part owner of a plumbing supply company and a homemaker and the brother of three sisters, there was little in the first 30 years of his life to foreshadow the success that would come over the next six decades. The product of a Catholic upbringing — one of his sisters, Mary Joan, became a nun — Newhart seemed destined for a proper buttoned-down job, especially after graduating with a business degree from Loyola University of Chicago in 1952. After serving in the Army for two years during the Korean War, Newhart picked up where he left off, enrolling in law school. Newhart, however, objected to that career path. Dropping out and then in his mid-20s, Newhart logged time first as an accountant and then as a copywriter. That’s when he found his true passion. Teaming with friend Ed Gallagher, the two started spitballing improvised comedy routines. They tried their hand at recording them, but shortly afterward his partner got a job offer in New York, and the duo abruptly became a solo act. A local disc jockey, though, had heard enough of Newhart to make an introduction to the head of Warner Brothers Records, according to Newhart’s official bio. The resulting contract led to the album “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart,” and almost instant fame before Newhart even had a chance to establish himself on the stand-up circuit. Not that it mattered: Once the album landed, he became a sellout draw in nightclubs and theaters across the country. “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart” became the first comedy album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard charts. “The Bob Newhart Show” featuring, from left, Bill Daily as Howard Borden, Bob Newhart as Chicago psychologist Bob Hartley, and Suzanne Pleshette as Emily Hartley in the episode “The Last TV Show” in 1973. CBS via Getty Images “People kept telling me you’re funny, you should go to New York, and I said, ‘I’m going to give this a shot,’” Newhart told “TODAY” in 2017. “I was just about to go back into accounting, and I got this recording contract.” “Most comedians, most stand-ups, spend 20 years in the trenches. I had to learn at the top. It was tough.” Newhart approached comedy with economic precision, honing his craft by watching other comedians and seeing what they did well — especially his idol, Jack Benny. One of Newhart’s trademark schticks was doing phone calls in which only his half of the conversation could be heard, allowing the audience members to fill in the blanks with their imaginations. His first album notched three Grammys (album of the year, best new artist and best comedy performance: spoken word) in 1962. NBC handed the budding star his own variety show, the “Bob Newhart Variety Show,” which earned high praise — it won the Emmy for best comedy series in 1962 — but low ratings. The show was canceled after just one season. Comedian Bob Newhart and his bride, Virginia Quinn, kiss during a toast at a reception that followed their marriage in St. Victor Roman Catholic Church in West Hollywood, Calif., on Jan. 12, 1963. David Smith / AP file Newhart had better fortune offstage: He married Virginia “Ginny” Quinn on Jan. 12, 1963, a marriage that would last until she died in 2023 and produced four children — sons Robert and Timothy and daughters Jennifer and Courtney. He also became good friends with another popular comic of the era, Don Rickles, with whom he would travel across the globe on shared vacations with their wives over the ensuing years. Newhart released seven more comedy albums and continued to dabble in television. He hosted NBC’s “Tonight Show” for a three-week stretch during one of Johnny Carson’s salary disputes with the network. Newhart later said that he thought he was being groomed as a potential replacement for Carson. The perfect TV vehicle that had to date eluded him came in 1972 with the premiere of “The Bob Newhart Show.” Playing Dr. Bob Hartley, an exasperated psychologist and husband to a much more emotionally stable school teacher (Suzanne Pleshette), provided the opportunity to perfect the straight-man role that would mark much of the rest of his career. Over the show’s successful six-season run, he even got to use his trademark one-sided phone call schtick. Four years after the end of his first major sitcom hit, “Newhart” debuted. The titular star played Dick Loudon, a do-it-yourself book author who is running a Vermont inn with his wife, played by Mary Frann. Once again, the joke was usually on him, as a collection of oddball friends, neighbors and guests came and went from his orbit. But for all the joking going on in front of the studio audience, he was a “consummate professional” backstage, said William Sanderson, who played the local bumpkin Larry, whose brothers Darryl and Darryl perpetually followed in his wake. The cast and show creators of "The Bob Newhart Show." CBS Photo Archive via Getty Images “I had years of subsequently working for different bosses and you really appreciate Bob’s professionalism, not to mention his incredible sense of humor,” said Sanderson, who had been bartending as much as acting in the New York theater scene when he landed his big break. “I quickly saw the way he treated the crew, which had a lot of the same people from his first show. He didn’t believe in keeping the audience late at night. He would try to finish by 10 or 11 o’clock to get them home.” Scolari, who played the producer of Loudon’s television show in “Newhart,” became a real-life friend and golf buddy of his mentor’s over the course of the show. But he never stopped trying to keep up when the camera started rolling. “If you made Bob Newhart laugh, I mean come on, you must be somewhere in the right direction,” said Scolari. “And you don’t get that just anywhere, because there aren’t too many iconic geniuses around.” The similarity between the two lead characters he would be most associated with was so obvious that Newhart played it for laughs in the 1990 “Newhart” series finale. In that episode, Hartley wakes up next to his original on-screen wife — a role reprised by Pleshette in one of the most memorable cameos in television history — to realize that the whole eight seasons of the story set in Vermont had been just a dream. “A one-trick pony should not be underestimated,” said Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. “Because if the one trick that that pony does is good enough, it can last an entire career. If at the end of the act, it sprouts wings and flies away, you don’t need any more tricks than that.” Bob Newhart as Professor Proton on "The Big Bang Theory." CBS Newhart struggled to find the same level of success in the 1990s with his next sitcom, “Bob” (1992), which lasted only one and a half seasons. Five years later, his next attempt at a signature show, “George & Leo,” proved an even bigger disappointment, canceled in the midst of its first season. But Newhart managed a third act. He found renewed popularity in the 21st century with a memorable supporting role in the 2003 movie “Elf,” playing opposite Will Ferrell, and then a recurring role as the former host of a children’s science show named Professor Proton on “The Big Bang Theory.” “What was important about ‘Big Bang Theory’ is that it brought that Newhart character that he had perfected over his entire, long career and brought it to a whole new audience,” said Thompson. “There were a lot of people who saw him ... who probably never had seen an episode of either of his two previous sitcoms.” The role also gave him a long-overdue actor Emmy, for outstanding guest actor in a comedy series.
New study finds increasingly positive link between money and happiness 2024-07-18 19:55:00+00:00 - This just in: money apparently does buy happiness. A new study conducted by a senior fellow at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania found an increasingly positive association between money and happiness. Matt Killingsworth, who tracks happiness for his large-scale research project, trackyourhappiness.org, sampled 33,269 employed US adults aged 18-65 with household incomes of at least $10,000 each year, who answered questions on a scale called “satisfaction with life”. Killingsworth also used data from the ultra-wealthy (people with a median net worth between $3m and $7.9m), which is often lacking and difficult to obtain. “Perhaps rich people are disinclined to spend their free time taking surveys,” said the study, Money and Happiness: Extended Evidence Against Satiation, which is self-published and not peer-reviewed. The data showed the happiness gap between wealthy and middle-income participants was wider than between middle- and low-income participants. In a 2024 Pew Research report titled The State of the American Middle Class, middle-income Americans are defined as those “living in households with an annual income that is two-thirds to double the national median household income”, which is around $74,580, according to the US census. “The difference in life satisfaction between the wealthy and those with incomes of $70-80,000 [per year] was nearly three times as large as the difference between $70-80,000 [per year] and the average of the two lowest income groups,” Killingsworth’s study said. His study also found wealthy individuals were “substantially and statistically significantly happier than people earning over $500,000 each year”. Killingsworth told the Guardian he was surprised by how big the overall difference in happiness is between people who are wealthy and those who are low income. “Money is just one of many things that matters for happiness, and a small difference in income tends to be associated with pretty small differences in happiness,” Killingsworth said. “But if the differences in income/wealth are very large, the differences in happiness can be, too.” These findings are counter to a widely covered 2010 study that found happiness rises with income, but plateaus at around $75,000. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Headlines US Free newsletter Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion So why might rich people be happier? The answer may seem obvious, but Killingsworth said it’s “more fundamental and psychologically deeper than simply buying more stuff”. He said: “A greater feeling of control over life can explain about 75% of the association between money and happiness. So I think a big part of what’s happening is that, when people have more money, they have more control over their lives. More freedom to live the life they want to live.” Killingsworth said his interest in studying happiness stems from wanting to understand how to make life better. “Ironically, part of the reason I’m so interested in happiness is because money alone – which we’re already pretty motivated to pursue – is just one small part of the overall equation for happiness. So part of the reason I study happiness is to broaden our horizons beyond things like money.” He added: “What would we do differently if we took happiness seriously? As individuals, families, organizations and societies? It’s a long-term question, and not one that we will instantly have perfect answers to.”
Biden under intense pressure from Democrats to drop out of election against Trump 2024-07-18 19:47:00+00:00 - U.S. President Joe Biden in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington on April 15, 2024. As President Joe Biden isolated at his beach house in Rehoboth, Delaware, on Thursday after testing positive for Covid, he faced renewed pressure from leading Democrats to drop out of the 2024 election contest against former President Donald Trump. Biden, who for weeks has flatly rejected calls to step aside and allow another nominee to take his place, is now said to be more open to listening to top Democrats about the risk of him remaining in the race. He has also reportedly asked advisers in recent days whether they believe his vice president, Kamala Harris, could beat Trump in November. "We're close to the end," a person close to Biden told NBC News. The pressure on the 81-year-old Biden stems from concerns that after his June 27 debate, if he remains the nominee he will not only cost Democrats the White House, but also cost the party its majority in the Senate and doom its chances of retaking the House. Former President Barack Obama has privately expressed concerns to Democrats about the viability of Biden's candidacy, both the Associated Press and The Washington Post reported. Biden served two terms as Obama's vice president, and the 44th president still has unrivaled influence within the Democratic party. The two Democratic leaders in Congress — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, both of New York — have told Biden in recent days that his presence on the party ticket could cost them majorities in both chambers of Congress. Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., told the Reuters news service late Wednesday that Biden is "working towards" a decision that will "put the country first." Hickenlooper did not explicitly call on Biden to drop out, saying that was "his decision to make." "But certainly there's more and more indications that that would be in the best interests of the country, I think," the senator said. Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the Democratic nominee for one of the state's two Senate seats, openly called for Biden to drop out of the race Wednesday. Schiff and Hickenlooper joined about 20 other Democrats in Congress who have made similar public calls. Schiff is close to Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic former House speaker. CNN reported Thursday morning that Pelosi told Biden recently that he cannot beat Trump and that he could doom Democratic chances of winning a House majority if he insists on remaining in the race. Sen. Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat who to date has fully supported Biden's plan to stay in the race, told NBC News on Thursday he had heard "growing concerns" from voters in his state this week. "I've talked to a lot of people in our state that have concerns ever since the debate," Casey said. "But I think my position has been very clear, and I think I think the president will do what he's always done, which is put the best interests of the country first."
Ticketmaster offers four tickets for $80 to select shows amid summer concert slowdown 2024-07-18 19:36:00+00:00 - Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation are offering a promotion through the end of July that lets users purchase four tickets for $80 to select shows. The offer is good for thousands of shows — but not all of them, and is limited by geographic area. And you need a code to unlock the deal, according to an FAQ page. The 4-for-$80 deal was offered last year too, and has been available before that. But it comes against the backdrop of a slowdown in the live events space this summer as consumers show increasing signs of spending fatigue. According to data shared with NBC News last month by TicketIQ, the "get-in" price of a ticket to major live festivals including Coachella and Bonnaroo were both down year over year. And some major acts, including Jennifer Lopez and The Black Keys, had either revised their summer tour plans or were canceling them outright. However, the slowdown is not universal, as stars including the Eagles, Creed and Olivia Rodrigo continue to sell out and/or add dates this year. The list of participating events for the 4-for-$80 deal can be found at LiveNation.com/SummersLive. Once an event is selected, choose “4 Tickets,” then look for the “Summer 4 Pack Offer” ticket type, and click “Unlock.” Users then must input a code received via email to unlock the offer and add to cart. This process will automatically add one 4-pack of tickets to the cart. Proceed to checkout, where the price will automatically show up as $80 ($20 per ticket), and complete the purchase.
Bye-bye bitcoin, hello AI: Texas miners leave crypto for next new wave 2024-07-18 19:08:00+00:00 - Just off of Interstate 20, in the heart of West Texas, is a town of 125,000 people called Abilene. Once a stopping point along a cross-country cattle trail in the days of the American Old West, the small outpost is now getting into the burgeoning artificial intelligence business. Houston-based tech company Lancium and Denver-based Crusoe Energy Systems announced on Thursday morning a multibillion-dollar deal to build a 200-megawatt data center just outside Abilene that is designed to “meet the unique needs of AI companies” — such as enabling advanced cloud computing for applications like medical research and aircraft design. It is the first phase of a larger 1.2-gigawatt build-out. Lancium President Ali Fenn told CNBC that at full capacity, this will be one of the largest AI data center campuses in the world, in the latest example that the race to power AI — and leave bitcoin mining behind — is accelerating. “Data centers are rapidly evolving to support modern AI workloads, requiring new levels of high-density rack space, direct-to-chip liquid cooling and unprecedented overall energy demands,” said Chase Lochmiller, Crusoe’s co-founder and CEO. There are a lot of synergies between the bitcoin mining and AI infrastructure businesses. Mining firms have expansive data centers, with access to fiber lines and large amounts of power across the U.S. They’re exactly the types of facilities needed for compute-intensive AI operations, which means their sites and technology are in high demand. Meanwhile, miners need to diversify. Following the bitcoin halving in April, an event that happens about once every four years, the business of generating new tokens has become much less profitable. JPMorgan Chase analysts wrote in a report in June that “some operators are feeling the financial pinch from the recent block reward halving, which cut industry revenues in half, and are actively exploring exit strategies.” With the burgeoning AI industry in need of capacity and bitcoin miners in search of new ways to generate returns on their hefty investments, mergers, financings and partnerships are rapidly coming together. Bitcoin miners pivot to AI Lancium and Crusoe join a long list of miners looking to trade bitcoin for artificial intelligence, and so far, the strategy appears to be working. The combined market capitalization of the 14 major U.S.-listed bitcoin miners tracked by JPMorgan hit a record high of $22.8 billion on June 15 — adding $4.4 billion in just two weeks, according to a June 17 research note from the bank. Bit Digital, a bitcoin miner that now derives an estimated 27% of its revenue from AI, said in June that it had entered into an agreement with a customer to supply Nvidia GPUs over three years at a data center in Iceland, in a deal that is expected to generate $92 million in annual revenue. It’s paying for the general processing units, in part, by liquidating some of its crypto holdings. Hut 8, based in Miami, said it raised $150 million in debt from private equity firm Coatue to help it build out its data center portfolio for AI.
Bissell recalls more than 3.5 million steam cleaners due to burn risk 2024-07-18 19:05:00+00:00 - Bissell is recalling more than 3.5 million steam cleaners sold across the U.S. and in Canada because the handheld products can spew hot water or steam, potentially burning users, the company said Thursday in a notice posted by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The recall involves multiple models of the Bissell Steam Shot Handheld Steam Cleaners in the model series 39N7 and 2994, with "STEAM SHOT" or "POWER STEAMER" printed on the side. Colors include, green, pink, blue, orange, white, back, purple and red. Bissell has received 183 reports of hot water or steam escaping from the product, including 157 reports of minor burn injuries, according to the recall. Bissell has received more than 150 reports of consumers sustaining minor burns while using the company's recalled steam cleaner. Bissell Manufactured in China, the steamers were sold online and in stores including Amazon, HSN (formerly known as Home Shopping Network), Target and Walmart from August 2008 through May 2024 for between $35 and $40, according to the recall notice. About 3.2 million of the steamers were sold nationwide, with about 355,000 sold in Canada, according to Bissell. People who own the recalled steamers are urged to stop using them and to contact Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Bissell to receive a $60 credit or a $40 refund. Instructions can be found here. The announcement follows the April recall of more than 2 million Black+Decker garment steamers blamed for scalding dozens of users. The CPSC in November said HSN would pay a $16 million fine for waiting years to disclose a dangerous defect in millions of clothes steamers before recalling them in 2021.
Melania Trump will attend the RNC but not speak, breaking a longstanding tradition 2024-07-18 19:03:33+00:00 - A year ago this spring, when the 2024 presidential campaign was just kicking off, it seemed evident that Melania Trump, wife of former President Donald Trump, had decided to give it a miss. Little has changed since then. Her continued detachment from campaign events and rallies, her absence in all the primaries save Florida’s (where she voted), her skipping her husband’s lengthy hush money trial and his June 28 debate against President Joe Biden come alongside the strong speculation that she won’t live full-time in the White House again should Trump be re-elected. Her silence will end an unbroken tradition that goes back to Barbara Bush in 1992 of first ladies and candidates’ spouses giving significant addresses at conventions. All of it taken together seems only to confirm that her distance from Trump’s political life will continue no matter what happens Nov. 5. Melania Trump has, it is true, held two campaign fundraisers for the Log Cabin Republicans at her homes; but by contrast, first lady Jill Biden has held frequent fundraising tours with multiple destinations. Jill Biden, described as “defender-in-chief” of her husband’s campaign by the Economist, and described by The New York Times as “comforter-in-chief” to some jittery Democrats, has visited red states and blue ones, often alone, and been an actively political surrogate for her husband. Melania Trump’s limited appearances could not be in starker contrast. Though she has been harder to find, Melania Trump is planning to attend the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee. However, unlike she did in 2016 and 2020, this time she does not plan to speak. Her silence will end an unbroken tradition that goes back to Barbara Bush in 1992 of first ladies and candidates’ spouses giving significant addresses at conventions. As long as she is visible at the convention, even if she’s silent, Melania Trump will win plaudits from Trump fans, many of whom only want more of her. Still, her silence and her rare appearances are further evidence, as Katie Rogers noted recently, that Melania Trump has significantly reshaped the role of first lady: “She broke open the role and actually showed us [that] you don’t have to do anything with it if you don’t want to.” For more than a century, whether they desired it or not, first ladies have been highly visible campaigners. As many American women got to vote for the first time in 1920, for example, Florence Harding eagerly stood on her front porch, in what was called the Front Porch Campaign, hosting tens of thousands of visitors alongside her husband, President Warren G. Harding. Similarly, Eleanor Roosevelt called for Franklin D. Roosevelt’s unprecedented third term during her “no ordinary time” speech at the Democratic convention in 1940, a step that, as First Ladies Association for Research and Education President Nancy Kegan Smith notes, “was credited with helping FDR to unify the convention.” Two decades later, Lady Bird Johnson was the first to take to the hustings on her own, with the whistle-stop tour in 1964 — a bold venture into a hostile South that helped bring about LBJ’s victory. Pat Nixon was the next to appear at a convention, in 1972, thrilled to offer remarks about her husband, Richard Nixon, following an eight-minute standing ovation. Then in 1992, Barbara Bush, already known for a significant speech at Wellesley College, had the opportunity to speak “about the centrality of family … in a model of conciliatory rhetoric,” as scholar Myra Gutin explains. Since then, first ladies’ speeches at conventions have often focused on family matters; Hillary Clinton spoke of children and family in 1996, as did Michelle Obama in 2008: “I come here as a wife; I come here as a mom.” In 2012, Michelle Obama further highlighted hers and President Barack Obama’s humble family histories. In 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic, Jill Biden offered a speech “as a mother and a grandmother” from a classroom at a high school where she once taught. Both Melania Trump’s speeches in 2016 and 2020 were similarly focused on family, addressing mothers like herself — and women as a whole. First ladies’ speeches at conventions have often focused on family matters. This theme of family was also echoed by Melania Trump this past weekend in the wake of the assassination attempt on her husband. In an effort to reach across the aisle, she pointed out that “every single politician is a man or a woman with a loving family.” Her statement was heartfelt and empathic, calling for Americans to see each other as “human beings.” Considering her absence during so much of the campaign so far, her outspokenness at this moment was notable — and will likely carry significant political weight. Her comments, of course, stand in stark contrast to the way her husband told supporters to "fight like hell" right before the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Melania Trump’s words were important in humanizing her husband, and they suggest that GOP strategist Alex Conant is overlooking something significant when he claims that “people vote for the presidential candidate, not their spouse or their vice president.” This is because for more than a century now, whether they are particularly interested in politicking or not, first ladies have served their spouses’ campaigns immeasurably, by humanizing and broadening their appeal. With her statement, Melania Trump did just that after the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. And Jill Biden’s call to her in the wake of the attack underlined the sisterhood of first ladies, all of whom know that what happened Saturday is what each of them dreads the most.
John Deere & Co. backs off diversity policies, following Tractor Supply 2024-07-18 18:33:00+00:00 - John Deere is joining a list of large American companies backing off from diversity policies in the face of conservative criticism. The maker of John Deere tractors and other agricultural machinery on Tuesday said it would no longer participate in "social or cultural awareness" events. The company will also audit its mandated training materials to make sure they do not contain "socially motivated messages," Moline, Illinois-based John Deere said in a statement posted on social media. The move comes only weeks after retailer Tractor Supply shut down its corporate diversity efforts, and illustrates the growing pressure on companies to shelve diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The announcements by both companies come amid an online campaign by conservative activists that mark another chapter in an ongoing debate about the efficacy and fairness of policies aimed at making organizations more diverse and inclusive. For decades, many U.S. corporations, colleges and other organizations have followed DEI principles, but the ideas gained momentum four years ago following a Minneapolis police officer's murder of George Floyd. In the aftermath of his death, many companies pledged to beef up their DEI efforts to make their staff more racially and culturally representative. The Supreme Court's 2023 ruling ending affirmative action in college admissions further emboldened the movement by conservative and anti-DEI activists to seek the end of such policies in the workplace. "War on wokeness" At the forefront in slamming both John Deere and Tractor Supply on the platform X, conservative political commentator and filmmaker Robby Starbuck called John Deere's announcement "another huge win in our war on wokeness." Still, the company's steps are insufficient, Starbuck posted, who called on the company to completely remove its DEI policies. Brentwood, Tennessee-based Tractor Supply did just that last month, axing all of its DEI roles and goals. It also promised to no longer submit data to the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's biggest advocacy group for LGBTQ+ rights. Starbuck, a 35-year-old Cuban American, told The Associated Press that "it's not lost on me my kids would benefit from this stuff," but he opposes hiring decisions that factor in race, as well as DEI initiatives, employee resource groups that promote non-professional activities and any policies that in his view allow social issues and politics to become part of a company culture. "People should go to work without having to feel like they have to behave a certain way in order to be acceptable to their employer," he said. Eric Bloem, vice president of programs and corporate advocacy at the Human Rights Campaign, described John Deere's decision "disappointing," calling it "a direct result of a coordinated attack by far-right extremists on American business." National Black Farmers Association President John Boyd, Jr., on Wednesday called for the resignation of Deere CEO John May and a boycott of the company, saying John Deere "continues to move in the wrong direction" in regards to DEI and has "failed to show its support" for Black farmers since NBFA's founding. The organization also noted John Deere's announcement came a month after the company agreed to pay $1.1 million in back wages and interest to 277 Black and Hispanic job applicants after the Labor Department alleged hiring discrimination. Target last month said it was reducing the count of stores carrying Pride Month-related merchandise after the retail chain had in the prior year faced "confrontational behavior" that had threatened workers' safety. — The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Boeing case puts a spotlight on plea agreements involving corporate defendants 2024-07-18 18:29:20+00:00 - After two jetliner crashes killed 346 people, a $2.5 billion settlement that let Boeing avoid criminal prosecution failed to resolve questions about the safety of the aerospace giant’s planes. Federal prosecutors now accuse the company of failing to live up to terms of the 2021 settlement. Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to a felony fraud charge in a new deal with the Justice Department. The department hopes to file the detailed plea agreement Friday, but says it may need “a few more days.” Experts on corporate behavior say whether the new agreement has a more lasting impact on safety than the earlier settlement could come down to how much power is placed in the hands of an independent monitor who is assigned to oversee Boeing for three years. Prosecutors made the appointment of such a monitor a condition of the plea deal, which also calls for Boeing to pay a new $243.6 million fine. “Your real concern is protecting against the loss of future lives in future crashes, and that is something that the monitor can have more impact on than simply the amount of the fine,” said John Coffee, a law professor at Columbia University who studies corporate governance and white-collar crime. The finalized plea and sentence are due to be filed in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth, Texas. The filing will give a more precise description of how the compliance monitor will be chosen and the scope of the monitor’s duties. Already, the government appears to have backed away from a plan that would given Boeing the biggest role in picking the watchdog. Families of some of the passengers who died in the crashes have said they plan to oppose the agreement. They want a trial, not a plea deal, and they say Boeing should pay a $24 billion fine. Paul Cassell, a lawyer for the families, said the relatives of crash victims should have the right to propose a monitor for the judge to appoint. The Justice Department initially planned to select a monitor from a list of three nominees submitted by Boeing, and would ask the company for more names if necessary, according to participants in a June 30 briefing that department officials gave to passengers’ families and their lawyers. The deal that Boeing agreed to “in principle” a week later said the Justice Department would seek candidates through a public job posting on its website and then select one “with feedback from Boeing.” The precise extent of the company’s role was left unclear. Once the department and Boeing settle on a choice, prosecutors will tell U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor. If he doesn’t object within 10 days, the appointment would go through. The person picked would need to meet “specific qualifications” laid out in the posting and the department’s guidelines on selecting monitors in criminal cases, according to the filing. The monitor will oversee Boeing’s compliance with the plea agreement during a three-year probation period, during which the official will write “a confidential annual report for the government,” and file an executive summary with the court. The use of monitors as part of plea agreements with companies convicted of crimes reflects prosecutors’ reluctance to issue indictments and take the cases to trial. Brandon Garrett, a Duke University law professor who tracks criminal cases involving corporations, said prosecutors long worried that a criminal indictment could destroy a large, publicly traded company, so they tended to favor out-of-court settlements in the most serious cases. That changed, he said, after the financial crisis of 2008, and the concern became that companies were being treated as “too big to jail,” a phrase Garrett used in the title of his 2014 book. The effectiveness of plea deals and deferred prosecution agreements that allow defendants – like Boeing in 2021 – to avoid criminal liability came into question. “Especially when you had companies repeatedly getting prosecuted, something needs to change — maybe these companies really should get a criminal record,” Garrett said. “That’s when we started to see ... more large cases where companies would be convicted.” Nadia Milleron, whose 24-year-old daughter, Samya Stumo, died in the second of two fatal 737 Max crashes, said the Boeing plea deal is much better than the settlement reached three-and-a-half years ago. In January 2021, the Justice Department agreed not to prosecute the company for conspiring to defraud the U.S. government, a charge based on allegations that Boeing misled regulators who approved the 737 Max nearly a decade ago. Still, Milleron and relatives of other crash victims want a trial that might unearth more details about discussions inside Boeing leading up to, and even after, the crashes, which occurred in 2018 in Indonesia and 2019 in Ethiopia. It appeared likely that the Justice Department would permanently drop the 2021 charge until this January, when a panel covering an unused emergency exit blew off a Max jet during an Alaska Airlines flight. The Federal Aviation Administration increased its oversight, and the agency’s chief said manufacturing problems at Boeing “don’t seem to be getting resolved.” The Justice Department defends its decision to seek a plea deal by saying that it includes the most serious punishment possible under the charge facing Boeing. “We should be asking whether these prosecutions are working and what can be done to make them more effective,” Garrett said. He suggested that the judge could take an active role in monitoring Boeing to make sure the company complies with the new agreement after violating the old one. Coffee, the Columbia law professor, said the key to whether the deal deters Boeing from future violations will be a strong and independent monitor. “Companies fear a free agent roaming around in their files,” he said. “On the other hand, if there isn’t some ability for the monitor to directly go to the court and say ‘They are not living up to the terms of the agreement,’ you have an ineffective monitor.” In one notorious case, prosecutors blocked a federal judge in New York from releasing a monitor’s reports about HSBC, a London-based bank that entered a deferred prosecution agreement over allegations that it failed to prevent a Mexican drug cartel from laundering money. “I’m not saying we shouldn’t have deferred prosecution agreements, but they tend to be negotiated to be strongly in the interests of the defendant,” he said. The judge in the Boeing case has indicated that after the Justice Department submits details of the plea agreement, he will give relatives of the victims seven days to lodge objections. The government and Boeing then will have 14 days to respond. The January 2021 decision by the Justice Department not to prosecute Boeing came in the final days of the Trump administration. In 2022 and 2023, federal prosecutions of corporations rose modestly under the Biden administration, according to figures from the U.S. Sentencing Commission. “We are in an election year, so we will be looking to see how that focus by the Department of Justice plays out after the election in November and whether the focus on corporate crime remains the same,” said Kya Henley, a former public defender in Maryland who now represents companies and individuals in white-collar cases. “Everyone gets to set their agenda.” ___ Koenig reported from Dallas. Cathy Bussewitz in New York contributed to this report.
Founder of Fandango Dies After Plunge From Manhattan Hotel 2024-07-18 18:23:18+00:00 - J. Michael Cline, the co-founder of Fandango, an online ticketing company that changed how Americans went to the movies, died this week after falling from the twentieth floor of a Manhattan hotel, according to the police. New York City police officers, who responded to a 911 call at the Kimberly Hotel on Tuesday, “found an unconscious and unresponsive male with injuries indicative of a fall from an elevated position,” a spokesman for the police said in a statement. The medical examiner’s office ruled the death a suicide. Mr. Cline, who was 64, co-founded Fandango in 2000 and left the company in 2011, according to his LinkedIn profile. The company — familiar to many from its splashy logo, an orange “F” in the shape of a ticket stub — was later acquired by Comcast and is currently owned by NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. For years, the company dominated movie-ticket sales, handling ticketing for several major theater chains and making money by charging a processing fee for online ticket sales and by selling advertising on its site.
UK house purchases delayed by problems with Chaps payments system 2024-07-18 18:01:00+00:00 - House purchases were delayed on Thursday because of problems with a crucial payments system, the Bank of England has said. There were claims that the issue could have affected a number of homebuyers and movers, with some “stuck waiting for the green light” and loaded-up removal vans parked in driveways, though at 4.30pm on Thursday the Bank said service had been restored. Earlier in the afternoon, the Bank said a “global payments issue” was affecting its automated Chaps payments system for high-value and time-critical transactions, which processes about £350bn a day. It added that the issue – which the Bank did not elaborate on – was delaying some payments, “including some house purchases”. The Chaps system is used by solicitors and conveyancing firms to complete housing and other property transactions. Meanwhile, individuals will often use it to buy high-value items such as a car or to pay a deposit for a house, while banks and other financial firms use it to pay one another large sums. The Bank later said: “We are pleased to confirm that the third party supplier has restored service following their earlier issues, and Chaps payments are settling as normal.” It added: “We expect that all payments received by the Bank today [Thursday] will be settled by the end of the day.” It was not clear how many house purchases had been delayed, or what impact this may have had on those affected. Before the announcement that service had been restored, Anthony Codling, housing analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said: “The Chaps collapse could leave hundreds of homebuyers out in the cold.” He added that on average there were about 4,000 housing transactions a day. This is not the first time technical issues have caused the Chaps system to fall down: it was hit by problems in August 2023, and there was an almost 10-hour outage in October 2014 which prompted an apology from former Bank governor Mark Carney and an official investigation. skip past newsletter promotion Sign up to Business Today Free daily newsletter Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Enter your email address Sign up Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy . We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. after newsletter promotion Jack Tutton, director at broker SJ Mortgages, said: “Typically, lenders send funds to solicitors the day before completion. Friday is the busiest day for transactions to go through, so this couldn’t have happened on a worse day.” Hannah Bashford, director at Model Financial Solutions, said people looking to complete on a house purchase today “may be left high and dry with nowhere to move to if funds aren’t passed through the system in time to complete”. Retail payment systems such as card payments, bank transfers and cashpoints were unaffected by the problems.
Why haven’t Senate Republicans called on Bob Menendez to resign? 2024-07-18 17:46:36+00:00 - Sen. Bob Menendez was already facing a bleak political and legal future, but things went from bad to worse for the New Jersey Democrat after a jury found him guilty on 16 federal corruption counts. Ahead of the verdict, most of his colleagues in the Senate Democratic conference had called for Menendez’s resignation, and after the verdict, the number grew — quickly. Indeed, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wasted no time in calling for Menendez to step down. Others, including Sens. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Jacky Rosen of Nevada, raised the prospect of expelling their criminal colleague if he failed to resign. But it was a point from another member of the Senate Democratic leadership that stood out for me. NBC News reported: Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the Senate president pro tempore, accused Republicans of a double standard on whether people convicted of felonies should hold positions of power as the GOP rallies around Donald Trump as its presidential nominee. “I strongly reiterate my call for him to step down,” Murray said in a written statement. “No one is above the law — it’s pretty straightforward. Now if only my Republican colleagues would apply the same standards to the convicted felon who is running for President of the United States as their nominee.” In fact, while the list of Senate Democrats calling on Menendez to resign grew — and continues to grow — there was no comparable push among Senate Republicans. GOP senators learned that one of their colleagues had just been convicted on corruption charges, but they made no real effort to show him the door. Circling back to our earlier coverage, there might very well be an ideological dimension to this: When it comes to foreign policy, Menendez is to the right of most of his Democratic colleagues. Senate Republicans could be content to have him stick around because, on matters related to international affairs, they agree with him quite a bit — and no matter which Democrat replaced him, the GOP would almost certainly disagree with him or her more. But Murray’s point is ultimately the more persuasive one: If Republicans were to agree that Menendez’s crimes leave him unfit for office, it would almost certainly mean that Donald Trump is equally unsuitable for positions of public trust. For most Democrats, there’s no inconsistency to reconcile: They’re comfortable saying Trump has disqualified himself and showing Menendez the door. But for the GOP, it’s apparently easier to stay silent on Menendez than to try to explain why the senator should resign but the Republican Party’s felonious presumptive nominee should return to the White House. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
18 Silk and Great Value brand plant-based milk alternatives recalled in Canada amid listeria deaths, illnesses 2024-07-18 17:46:00+00:00 - Toronto —Two people have died in Canada of listeria bacterial infections after consuming plant-based milk alternatives sold under the brands Silk, made by Danone, and Walmart's Great Value, the country's federal health ministry said Wednesday in an updated notice. More than a dozen products have been recalled. The ministry said 10 more individuals – eight in Ontario and one each in Quebec and Nova Scotia — had fallen ill and were admitted to hospitals between August 2023 and this month in cases possibly linked to the products. Almost 60% of the people with the listeria infections were over the age of 60, the ministry said. "Many people who became sick reported drinking recalled plant-based beverages before their illnesses occurred," Health Canada said. The French food giant Danone, which owns the Silk brand, said on its website that the recalled drinks were made in a third-party manufacturing facility. It said the factory was closed for all operations while work continued to confirm the origin of the listeria infections. "Although the investigation is still underway to determine the exact cause, we have acted quickly, preventatively recalling all Silk refrigerated beverage products produced in this third-party manufacturing facility," Silk Canada said on its website. "We will not resume operations there until the investigation has been completed and we are satisfied with the resolution." "The news in this notice is devastating and our most sincere sympathies go out to the families and loved ones during this difficult time," Danone Canada president Frédéric Guichard said in a statement, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Walmart Canada listed the recall notice, which includes three of the company's Great Value brand products sold in the country, on its website. Listeria infection, or Listeriosis, is a bacterial illness that can affect anyone who consumes contaminated food. It can cause serious illness, including infections that can spread to the brain and or the blood. Symptoms include fever, diarrhea, vomiting, muscle aches, confusion and loss of balance in severe cases, according to the Health Canada advisory. "While healthy individuals can fall ill from listeria infection, the disease can be fatal for unborn babies, newborns, individuals over age 60, and those with weakened immune system," according to Health Canada. Last week, Canada's food inspection agency announced a recall of 18 Silk and Great Value refrigerated beverages due to possible listeria contamination. According to the notice, the drinks included oat, almond, and coconut refrigerated beverages.