DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ The NFL Draft’s Best Athlete Is Also Its Greatest Enigma
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Andrew Beaton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Kent Lee Platte is a former Navy cryptologist who also happens to be one of the most useful people decoding one of the NFL draft’s biggest puzzles: Why a quarterback named Anthony Richardson, who had a completely forgettable college career, is one of the hottest prospects in the sport. When Platte applied his coding wizardry to football, he invented a metric that crunches a host of pre-draft testing data into a single number for every player. His formula takes information like how fast a player runs and how high he jumps and distills it into what he calls a Relative Athletic Score, a nifty grade that’s popular among draft pundits and helpful for quantifying someone’s traits compared with his peers.

☆ Ron DeSantis, facing challenges at home, will test presidential ambitions overseas
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Steve Contorno | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

While in Israel, DeSantis will also keynote an event hosted by The Jerusalem Post and the Museum of Tolerance Jerusalem. The trip will spotlight DeSantis’ foreign policy credentials as he inches toward a White House bid. DeSantis’ predecessor, now-US Sen. Rick Scott, embarked on more than a dozen trade missions during his tenure as governor. Eleven Florida Republicans have endorsed Trump over DeSantis so far – including seven last week. State lawmakers have also balked at a provision in DeSantis’ immigration package that would eliminate in-state tuition for undocumented residents.

WASHINGTON, April 19 (Reuters) - A former Venezuelan treasurer, who also served as an aide to late President Hugo Chavez and was convicted in the U.S. of money laundering, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday. A Florida jury in December convicted Diaz, as well as her husband Adrian Velasquez, on two counts of money laundering and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in association with a corruption scheme in Venezuela. U.S. District Court Judge William Dimitroulea in Florida sentenced Diaz and her husband, who also received 15 years, on Wednesday, the Justice Department said. Diaz, Velasquez and Gorrin purchased and paid expenses related to private jets, yachts, mansions, champion horses and a designer fashion line in South Florida, prosecutors said. (This story has been refiled to remove an extraneous word in paragraph 4)Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Cynthia OstermanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ One of the most prolific pro-Russia propaganda channels is run by a former US Navy officer living in Washington
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A popular English language Pro-Russia social media account is run by a former Navy officer, according to online reports. The account helped to spread the leaked Pentagon documents that originated on Discord. Bils told WSJ that 15 other people help her run the account. Bils, who had secret security clearances as a Navy officer, told WSJ she did not help to leak the documents, WSJ reported. Insider reached out to emails associated with Donbass Devushka and Bils but did not immediately receive a response.

☆ Social-Media Account Overseen by Former Navy Noncommissioned Officer Helped Spread Secrets
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Yaroslav Trofimov | Bob Mackin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A social-media account overseen by a former U.S. Navy noncommissioned officer—a prominent online voice supporting Russia’s war on Ukraine—played a key role in the spread of intelligence documents allegedly leaked by Airman First Class Jack Teixeira, reposting files from obscure online chat rooms. A purported Russian blogger known as Donbass Devushka, which translates as Donbas Girl, is the face of a network of pro-Kremlin social-media, podcasting, merchandise and fundraising accounts. But the person who hosted podcasts as Donbass Devushka and oversees these accounts is a Washington-state-based former U.S. enlisted aviation electronics technician whose real name is Sarah Bils.

☆ Another SEAL parachuting death highlights the inherent danger of US special operators' go-to infiltration method
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Stavros Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Deadly accidentsNaval Special Warfare operators perform a free-fall jump in Alaska in September. The incident, which likely happened during as part of a pre-deployment workup, is still under investigation, according to Naval Special Warfare Command. Despite that danger, however, free-fall parachuting is also extremely valuable as an insertion method for special-operations units. The Navy SEAL community — especially the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, formerly known as SEAL Team 6 — is well-versed in free-fall operations. Most US special-operations units have recognized the value of free-fall parachuting and have incorporated it into their training.

☆ Republicans are seeking wealthy, self-funding candidates to help the party win a Senate majority in 2024, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

GOP leaders are seeking out wealthy Senate candidates to counter Democratic fundraising successes. In recent cycles, some GOP candidates have used outside spending to mitigate spending disparities. Last year, Democratic Senate nominees in the six most competitive races outraised their GOP counterparts by $288 million, per Politico. The well-known doctor poured $26.8 million of his own funds into his unsuccessful Senate campaign, according to OpenSecrets. Dolan, who put more than $10.5 million into his 2022 Senate bid, could face Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.

☆ Senators propose raising US commercial pilots mandatory retirement age
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( David Shepardson | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, March 21 (Reuters) - A group of seven U.S. senators on Tuesday proposed legislation to raise the mandatory commercial pilot retirement age to 67 from 65, in a bid to address airline industry staffing issues. The proposal, which would require pilots over age 65 to pass a rigorous medical screening every six months, follows complaints of pilot shortages by many regional airlines. The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) opposes proposals to increase the retirement age. Graham previously noted that in 2007 the United States raised the mandatory retirement age from 60 to 65, and "the sky did not fall." Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has previously said he does not support raising the pilot retirement age.

☆ Sen. Mark Kelly flew with Russian pilots in the Navy and with NASA, and he said the Russian fighter jet running into a US drone shows 'how incompetent they are'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Sarah Al-Arshani | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A US drone crashed after a Russian fighter jet clipped its propeller over the Black Sea last week. Sen. Mark Kelly, a former Navy combat pilot, said it was an example of Russia's incompetence. He said the incident last week where a Russian fighter jet dumped fuel on and then clipped the propeller of a US military drone shows how "reckless" and "incompetent" they are. I mean, I flew with Russian pilots, fighter pilots who couldn't fly formation. Kelly compared the fighter jet incident to the "incompetence that we see on the battle field every day in Ukraine."

☆ Russian jet's collision with a US drone shows Russia may have a fighter pilot 'problem,' former US aviators say
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Ryan Pickrell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

A Russian fighter jet collided with an American drone this week after harassing it. The collision was likely unintentional, and former US naval aviators say that it could point to problems with Russian fighter pilots. A State Department official said it "probably was the result of profound incompetence on the part of one of these Russian pilots." Russian military failures in Ukraine have altered this view, he continued, "and now, you've got something like this." Charles Larkin Sr./US Air Force via AP"The tactical portion here is that poor training or poor decision making by a Russian pilot caused a collision," Snodgrass said.

☆ Israeli protesters paint 'red line' leading to Supreme Court after Netanyahu spurns compromise
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Maayan Lubell | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

JERUSALEM, March 16 (Reuters) - Jerusalem woke on Thursday to the sight of a long red line painted by protesters along roads leading to Israel's Supreme Court, hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a compromise deal for his government's planned judicial overhaul. Drone footage showed a small group of people in protective suits spraying a wide red stripe along mostly deserted roads leading from a police and magistrate's compound up to the Supreme Court in central Jerusalem. A slogan stencilled in red onto the road in Hebrew, Arabic and English by the side of the road read: "Drawing the line." The hard-right government's drive to limit Supreme Court powers while increasing its own power in selecting judges has caused alarm in Israel and abroad about the country's democratic checks and balances as protests have swelled for weeks. His nationalist-religious coalition says the Supreme Court too often overreaches and intervenes in political matters it has no mandate to rule on.

☆ Richard Rosenberg, former Bank of America chief who doubled its assets, dies
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Lananh Nguyen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW YORK, March 5 (Reuters) - Richard Rosenberg, the former Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) chief executive who presided over a spree of acquisitions that doubled the bank's assets, has died. Rosenberg, a former Navy commander, served as the bank's chairman and CEO from 1990 to 1996. He took the helm as the industry was deregulating and orchestrated several major deals including a $4 billion merger with Security Pacific National Bank, one the largest banking deals of its time. They have since swelled to more $3 trillion after more deals, including the purchase of Merrill Lynch during the 2008 financial crisis. He joined Bank of America in 1987 to run its California operations, helping the company to swing to a profit from losses.

☆ 3 suspicious objects have been downed across North America this week. Officials have no idea where 2 of the UAP came from and the pilots who shot them down can't agree on what they even look like.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

US fighter aircraft shot down an object threatening airspace over Alaska yesterday. On Saturday, another unknown object, described as "cylindrical," was shot down over Canada. Here is what we know about the object shot down on Friday. The object shot down on Saturday was spotted in the Northern Canadian territory of Yukon. It is unclear if the object shot down off the Alaskan coast was of similar size or shape.

☆ Why China's and Russia's 5th-generation stealth jets don't quite live up to the hype, according to a former US Navy pilot
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Peter Suciu | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Those jets have advanced features but aren't quite as advanced as US stealth jets, a former Navy pilot says. However, a copy of a fifth-generation fighter does not actually make it one. Russia's Sukhoi Su-57Russian Su-57 fighter jets. A Russian Su-57 fighter jet. Associated PressThough the Chinese and Russian aircraft are likely highly capable warbirds, some US aviation experts have suggested they shouldn't rightfully be considered "fifth-generation."

☆ Former CIA Director says it'd be 'impulsive' to try to shoot down China's spy balloon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( Katie Balevic | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Former CIA Director John Brennan said it'd be "impulsive" to shoot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon. Brennan told NBC News that China may have sent the balloon to test the US' response. The US defense department said it was a spy balloon, possibly flying over sensitive US sites to collect information. The former CIA director also questioned whether Chinese President Xi Jinping was "personally aware of this balloon flight." As of Saturday afternoon, the balloon had been spotted soaring over North Carolina as it drifted east on air currents.

☆ Shooting down a suspected Chinese spy balloon could be a lot harder than it sounds, former Navy pilot says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Natalie Musumeci | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Shooting down the suspected Chinese spy balloon is harder than it seems, a former Navy pilot told Insider. The military said there were also concerns that shooting the balloon down could result in safety risks from falling debris. Still, some have urged that the Chinese balloon be shot down, despite the risks. Yu said that the US has the "capability" to shoot down the balloon, but doesn't have "the will." The Pentagon, however, has insisted it is a surveillance balloon, but there are no immediate plans to shoot it down.

☆ Here's what happens when US Navy special operators go up against dolphins trained to keep them out of sensitive bases
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Stavros Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The US Navy has been training dolphins and sea lions to detect undersea threats since the 1960s. "Those mammals were very real and very scary," a former US Navy SEAL officer told Insider. The program tested out a number of animals but found dolphins and sea lions to be the best suited for the mission. The US military wasn't the only one using dolphins and sea lions to protect its warships and ports. BUD/S course instructors "have a sadistic tendency to scare the shit out of students before open-water swims," the former Navy SEAL officer said.

☆ How US Navy SEALs train new special-operations units to make the seas into 'our playground'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Stavros Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

US Navy SEALs travel around the world to train with other countries' special-operations forces. In 2022, SEALs in Europe trained with Croatia's ZSS, a relatively new special-operations unit. Through these training deployments, US Navy SEALs help new special-operations units to become proficient in new missions and skill sets. When it comes to progression of training, SEALs use the same "crawl, walk, run" approach they employ in their own training. These relationships with foreign special-operations units give US special operators access to almost any region of the world.

☆ For the 2nd year in a row, Iran is sailing its biggest warship around the world to show off its growing navy
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Constantine Atlamazoglou | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Iranian warships left Iran in September on what one official said was a journey around the world. Visiting far off landsIranian navy Makran near the Strait of Hormuz in May 2021. They have repeatedly seized Iranian arms shipments bound for Yemen and have often had tense encounters with Iranian warships. Iran has also started an indigenous shipbuilding program to grow its navy, which is designed to defend the Persian Gulf. "Yet the focus of Iran will continue to be the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, and the Indian ocean.

☆ Factbox: California rampage is the latest U.S. mass shooting
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

In 2018, a former Marine combat veteran killed 12 people in a bar in Thousand Oaks. The deadliest shooting in modern California history was in 1984 when a gunman killed 21 people at a McDonald's restaurant in San Ysidro, near San Diego. - THOUSAND OAKS, Nov. 7, 2018 - A former Marine combat veteran killed 12 people in a bar in Thousand Oaks, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. - WASHINGTON, Sept. 16, 2013 - A former Navy reservist working as a government contractor killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard. - AURORA, July 20, 2012 - A masked gunman killed 12 people at a cinema in Aurora, Colorado.

Former Navy SEAL Daniel W. Swift was killed in Ukraine on Wednesday, a Navy official told NBC News Friday. Swift had been in active deserter status since March 11, 2019, the Navy Absentee Collection and Information Center said. The center said it did not know why Swift was in the eastern European country that has been at war with Russia for a year. Swift was a special warfare operator 1st Class and enlisted in the Navy on June 28, 2005. Swift is the sixth American known to have died fighting in Ukraine, according to State Department statements and reports from individual families.

House Dem whip says caucus will keep voting in speaker race House Democratic whip Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass, said her caucus will stick around and continue voting in the speaker race. Davidson suggested there are "a couple procedural paths" where McCarthy could become speaker if Republicans changed the threshold needed to win the election. The polarization is too great.” Cole said that for all the House GOP divisions, “there’s no question” that most members in the caucus are closer in policy and vision to the anti-McCarthy rebels than they are to centrist Democrats. As Biden celebrated an upgrade to an aging bridge linking Kentucky and Ohio, House Republicans deadlocked on the basic task of electing a speaker, foreshadowing what is likely to be two years of infighting. The McCarthy-aligned Congressional Leadership Fund and the conservative Club for Growth agreed to not pick sides in some competitive House GOP primary races in exchange for supporting McCarthy's bid for speaker.

☆ For 60 years, the US Navy has been training dolphins and sea lions to keep rivals away from its most sensitive hardware
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Gidget Fuentes | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

The US Navy has been training dolphins and sea lions to detect undersea threats since the 1960s. A US Navy trainer with a Mark 5 Marine Mammal sea lion in Key West in October 1990. The program worked with sharks, rays, and sea turtles but settled on dolphins and sea lions. US NavyThe Navy Marine Mammal Program's budget for 2023 provides $40 million for "food, medicine, veterinary care, husbandry, and facilities," Wilson said. A US Navy sea lion jumps into a riverine command boat during a mine-countermeasures exercise in Bahrain in November 2014.

☆ This veteran learned these 5 leadership tips in the Navy—they work in corporate America, too
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Ashton Jackson | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

As a combat-decorated former Navy SEAL, Marty Strong spearheaded combat missions and helped create special operations capabilities during his 20 years in uniform. And though Strong left the military decades ago, he still employs the strategies he learned to excel in business today. And you do that through training programs. But you have to also follow up on all those training programs with coaching, and eventually, mentoring programs." As a SEAL, Strong says being curious and "nimble" helped him problem-solve and create solutions for complex problems in the force.

☆ The most prominent election-deniers lost their races. But at least 172 have won so far.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Kayla Gallagher | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

So far, at least 172 election deniers have won their races. Of the election deniers up for election, at least 172 have won their elections as of Monday morning at 9:30 a.m. There are 104 election deniers who have lost their races as of 9:30 a.m. Election deniers who have won their racesHigh-profile Republicans who have won their 2022 midterm races include Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. Election deniers who could impact 2024 battleground states if electedOut of the election deniers on the ballot, 171 were favored to win and 46 were in races considered competitive by election watchers.

Search resuls for: "Former Navy"

25 mentions found