DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Lithium Battery Fire Traps Drivers in Sweltering Heat on California Highway
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-27 | by ( Hank Sanders | More About Hank Sanders | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Drivers were stuck in traffic in 109-degree heat on a California highway on Saturday for hours as the authorities struggled to extinguish a fire involving a truck carrying lithium ion batteries that had overturned on Friday. Emergency services received calls around 6:30 a.m. local time about a truck that had crashed near Baker, Calif., in the northbound lanes of I-15, a major highway that leads travelers to Las Vegas. The northbound lanes were closed beginning at 8:30 a.m., and the southbound lanes at 9 a.m. The southbound lanes reopened shortly after 2:30 p.m. on Friday, according to the California Highway Patrol. The northbound lanes remained closed as of 5 p.m. on Saturday, according to the California Department of Transportation.

Organizations: California, Patrol, California Department of Transportation Locations: California, Baker, Calif, Las Vegas

☆ Tennessee Gas Station Clerk Stole $1 Million Lottery Ticket, Police Say
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-24 | by ( Hank Sanders | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A Tennessee gas station clerk’s plan to cheat a customer out of a $1 million lottery ticket and to claim it for himself was thwarted after store video captured the clerk pretending to throw the ticket away and then celebrating after retrieving it from the trash, according to prosecutors. He went to Tennessee Lottery’s district office in Nashville on July 16 to cash the seven-figure winning ticket, according to court documents. But lottery employees became suspicious after analyzing Mr. Patel’s identification and hearing his story about finding the ticket in the trash, court documents said. The lottery employees then asked police to review video from the Shell station in Murfreesboro where the ticket was bought, the local station WSMV reported. “He knew it was a winning ticket,” Lt. Steve Craig of the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office said in an interview on Wednesday.

Persons: Meer Patel, Patel, “, Steve Craig Organizations: Shell, Sheriff’s Locations: Tennessee, Murfreesboro, Tenn, Tennessee Lottery’s, Nashville, Rutherford

☆ An Oscar Mayer Wienermobile Rolls Over. The ‘Hotdoggers’ Are OK.
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-23 | by ( Hank Sanders | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

You might expect to see litter, trash or even roadkill on the side of a highway. But a 3,600-pound hot dog? Just after 11 a.m. Monday, employees of Oscar Mayer were driving one of the company’s promotional Wienermobiles on an Illinois highway when the driver hit another car, lost control, overcorrected and rolled the vehicle on its side, the Illinois State Police said. Video taken after the collision showed two people — “hotdoggers,” as the company calls them — climbing out of the passenger-side door and hopping down to safety. Later, a tow truck crane arrived, scooped up the Wienermobile and carried it away.

Persons: Oscar Mayer Organizations: Illinois State Police, Social Locations: Illinois, Oak Brook

☆ How to Guard Against Scams Tied to the CrowdStrike Crash
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-20 | by ( Hank Sanders | Emmett Lindner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the hours after the American cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike deployed a flawed software update that crippled critical businesses and services around the world, scammers pounced. Government agencies and businesses have warned that the panic caused by the CrowdStrike crash on Friday has given criminals an opening to take advantage of customers who are looking to reschedule flights, access banking information or fix their technology. CrowdStrike provides cybersecurity for some 70 percent of Fortune 100 companies, so the crash led to widespread failures that grounded planes, crippled businesses, disrupted 911 emergency systems and delayed banking transactions. Thieves online are using the confusion to carry out a variety of scams, including phishing attempts, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said. The National Cyber Security Center in the United Kingdom issued a similar statement noting that an “increase in phishing referencing this outage has already been observed.”

Persons: CrowdStrike, pounced, ” Organizations: Government, Fortune, Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Security Agency, Cyber Security Locations: U.S, United Kingdom

☆ Fire Badly Damages Sanctuary of a Landmark Church in Dallas
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-20 | by ( Hank Sanders | Ruth Graham | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A fire that broke out Friday at the First Baptist Dallas church, a landmark in the city’s downtown, appeared to cause major damage to an old part of the church complex. The church’s pastor, the Rev. Robert Jeffress, said that he understood from his conversations with fire officials that in the fire’s final phase, the roof of what is known as the historic sanctuary had collapsed. “We will have to see about whether we try to recreate it or do something else,” he said in an interview. Dallas Fire-Rescue did not immediately provide information about the fire, but a spokesman told The Dallas Morning news that part of the structure had collapsed.

Persons: Robert Jeffress, ” Organizations: First Baptist Dallas, Dallas, Dallas Morning

Richard Simmons, who for years was the face of home fitness through his wildly popular videos and energetic personality, died on Saturday morning in Los Angeles. A representative for Mr. Simmons, Tom Estey, confirmed Mr. Simmons’s death. The Los Angeles Fire Department and the Los Angeles Police Department responded to an address linked to Mr. Simmons at 10 a.m. on Saturday. At his Beverly Hills exercise studio, Slimmons, and in his videos and DVDs, Mr. Simmons exuded an enthusiastic can-do spirit to inspire people of all ages and fitness levels to get moving. Mr. Simmons stretched and jumped in contrast to other fitness gurus of the 1980s, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, who exuded movie-star looks and charm.

Persons: Richard Simmons, Simmons, Tom Estey, Arnold Schwarzenegger Organizations: Los Angeles Fire Department, Los Angeles Police Department, Fire Department, Beverly Locations: Los Angeles

☆ Are You an AT&T Customer? Here’s What to Know About the Data Breach
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-12 | by ( Hank Sanders | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Nearly all customers of the telecommunications company AT&T were affected by a cyberattack that exposed phone records of calls and texts from May 2022 through October 2022, and on Jan. 2, 2023, the company said Friday. If you are an AT&T customer, here is what you need to know about the breach. AT&T will contact you by text, email or U.S. mail if your account was affected by the cyberattack, the company said. But AT&T also said that “nearly all” customers had been affected by the breach. So if you were a customer from May 1, 2022, to Oct. 31, 2022, or on Jan. 2, 2023, your phone logs were most likely exposed.

Organizations: AT

☆ Costco Raises Membership Fees for First Time in 7 Years
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-11 | by ( Hank Sanders | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Costco is increasing its annual fee for members by more than 8 percent in the United States and Canada, the first increase in seven years, the company announced on Wednesday. Beginning Sept. 1, the fee for customers who shop at Costco Wholesale stores will increase by $5 to $65 annually for the basic Gold Star Membership and by $10 to $130 annually for customers with the Executive Membership. “The fee increases will impact about 52 million paid memberships, a little over half of which are Executive,” a spokesman for Costco, the Washington State-based membership wholesale retail store, said in a statement. “As a reminder, we last raised our membership fees in the U.S. and Canada in June 2017.”The announcement did not specify whether people who purchase annual memberships before Sept. 1 will see a charge for the difference or if they can enjoy the lower price until they pay for a second year in 2025. Costco did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Thursday.

Persons: ” Organizations: Costco, Costco Wholesale, Washington State Locations: United States, Canada, U.S

☆ Mythical Sword’s Disappearance Brings Mystery to French Village
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-06 | by ( Hank Sanders | William Lamb | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As legend has it, a sword from God given to Roland, an 8th century military leader under Charlemagne, was so powerful that Roland’s last mission was to destroy it. When the blade, called Durandal, proved indestructible, Roland threw it as far as he could, and it sailed over 100 miles before slicing through the side of a rock face in the medieval French village of Rocamadour. That sword, as the story goes, sat wedged in the stone for nearly 1,300 years, and it became a landmark and tourist attraction in Rocamadour, a small village in southwestern France, about 110 miles east of Bordeaux. So residents and officials there were stunned to discover late last month that the blade had vanished, according to La Dépêche du Midi, a French newspaper. An officer with France’s national police force in Cahors, a town 30 miles southwest of Rocamadour, said that the sword disappeared sometime after nightfall on June 21, and that the authorities opened an investigation after a passerby reported the next morning that it was missing.

Persons: Roland, Charlemagne Organizations: France’s Locations: Rocamadour, France, Bordeaux, Cahors

☆ Your Hologram Doctor Will See You Now
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-29 | by ( Hank Sanders | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A patient walks into a hospital room, sits down and starts talking to a doctor. Only in this case, the doctor is a hologram. It might sound like science fiction, but it is the reality for some patients at Crescent Regional Hospital in Lancaster, Texas. In May, the hospital group began offering patients the ability to see their doctor remotely as a hologram through a partnership with Holoconnects, a digital technology firm based in the Netherlands. Each Holobox — the company’s name for its 440-pound, 7-foot-tall device that displays on a screen a highly realistic, 3-D live video of a person — costs $42,000, with an additional annual service fee of $1,900.

Organizations: Crescent Regional Hospital, Holoconnects Locations: Lancaster , Texas, Netherlands

☆ An Alabama Town’s New Mayor Was Locked Out. 3 Years Later, He Will Return.
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-26 | by ( Hank Sanders | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Nearly four years after Patrick Braxton won the mayoral election for the small town of Newbern, Ala., in November 2020, he could soon get to serve his first term. Mr. Braxton said in a lawsuit that, after he won the election, he never received access to manage the town’s finances, was barred from opening the municipal mailbox and was even locked out of the town hall, after the locks had been changed twice in six months. Finally, on Friday, Newbern and Mr. Braxton filed a settlement agreement that, if approved by Judge Kristi K. DuBose of the Southern District of Alabama, will allow Mr. Braxton to begin his first term — three and a half years after it started. “Every time I turned a corner, there was another obstacle in my way,” Mr. Braxton, a handyman who has long worked as a community volunteer, said in an interview.

Persons: Patrick Braxton, Braxton, Newbern, Judge Kristi K, DuBose, ” Mr Organizations: Southern, Southern District of Locations: Newbern, Ala, Southern District, Southern District of Alabama

☆ 260 McNuggets? McDonald’s Ends A.I. Drive-Through Tests Amid Errors
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-21 | by ( Hank Sanders | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Stop!” two friends screamed with humorous anguish on a TikTok video as an A.I. drive-through misunderstands their order, tallying up 240, 250 and then 260 Chicken McNuggets. In other videos, the A.I. So when McDonald’s announced in a June 13 internal email, obtained by the trade publication Restaurant Business, that it was ending its partnership with IBM and shutting down its A.I. tests at more than 100 U.S. drive-throughs, customers who had interacted with the service were probably not shocked.

Persons: McDonald’s Organizations: IBM Locations: U.S

☆ Wreckage of Shackleton’s Last Ship Is Found Off Coast of Canada
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-13 | by ( Hank Sanders | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Endurance, the ship that carried Ernest Shackleton on his ill-fated attempt to cross Antarctica in 1915, spawned one of the greatest survival stories in the history of exploration and now holds a revered place in polar history. The Quest sailed on for another 40 years until it sank on a seal-hunting voyage off Canada’s Atlantic coast in 1962. He knew almost immediately that a final discovery in the life of one of history’s most revered explorers had been made. “This is the last big Shackleton event,” Alexandra Shackleton, the explorer’s granddaughter, said in an interview, referring to the discovery of the Quest. “There won’t be anything else as important as this.”

Persons: Ernest Shackleton, Shackleton, John Geiger, ” Alexandra Shackleton, ” Locations: Antarctica, Weddell, Newfoundland and Labrador

Search resuls for: "Hank Sanders"

13 mentions found