DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ The College Board’s Secret Apology
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Hundreds participate in the National Action Network demonstration in response to Gov. Ron DeSantis's rejection of a high school African American history course, Tallahassee, Feb. 15. Photo: Alicia Devine/Associated PressGov. “I have patiently and quietly watched the ubiquitous interviews and media assertions that AP would not make changes at the behest of any group beyond professors, teachers, and students,” wrote Nishani Frazier , a University of Kansas professor who sits on the AP course’s development committee. “If this is so, which student, professor, or teacher suggested adding black conservatives to the course over Combahee River Collective?”

☆ Ron DeSantis’s Disney Oversight Board to Consider Nullifying Agreements
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Arian Campo-Flores | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Photo: APAn oversight board named by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is scheduled to meet Wednesday and consider a proposal to declare null and void agreements struck by Walt Disney Co. in February that retained much of the company’s control over the land near Orlando that houses its theme parks. At its meeting last week, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board of supervisors, which oversees a special tax district that includes Walt Disney World Resort, criticized agreements cemented by the company shortly before the new board, aligned with Mr. DeSantis, took over. Disney went before the board’s prior leadership, which it essentially handpicked under a previous structure that the state Legislature and Mr. DeSantis overhauled, and secured approvals for the next 30 years on zoning, infrastructure and air rights that the company might need if it chooses to expand Disney World.

☆ Biden’s ‘Four More Years’ Sounds Like a Prison Term
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Gerard Baker | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Journal Editorial Report: Competitors emerge, and the age issue persists. Images: Shutterstock/Zuma Press Composite: Mark KellyFour more years. Have 48 months ever loomed as a more unnerving slog through domestic political strife and rising global insecurity? It should be a moment for hope for at least half the country. This time around four more years sounds like a parole board’s answer to a prisoner’s appeal.

☆ Meet Jelly Roll, the Rapper Turned Country Singer Rousing Nashville
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Alan Light | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

1 on rock radio while the mid-tempo “Son of a Sinner” topped the country radio chart, and Jelly Roll held the No. 1 spot on Billboard’s emerging artist chart for 25 straight weeks, the longest run in that ranking’s history. The Bridgestone show is chronicled in a new documentary, “Jelly Roll: Save Me,” premiering on Hulu on May 30. He’s living proof that anything is possible.”As Jelly Roll’s profile grows, he’s not slowing down his nonstop work habits. He is very strong in who he is and what he wants to say as an artist.

☆ Vitalia Diatchenko: Poland's state-owned airline refuses boarding to Russian tennis player
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Sammy Mncwabe | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Poland’s state-owned airline LOT refused to board Russian tennis player Vitalia Diatchenko in line with restrictions introduced following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the carrier said in a statement to CNN on Wednesday without naming her. Diatchenko was denied boarding a LOT flight departing from Cairo on Monday as she was traveling to Calvi in Corsica via Warsaw and Nice to play at a tournament. “The provisions of the regulation introduce restrictions at certain border crossings, including airport crossings, in relation to citizens of the Russian Federation traveling from outside the Schengen area,” the airline said. IOC president Thomas Bach defended the latest recommendations citing tennis as an example that participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes “works” despite the war. Bach also blasted some European governments as “deplorable” for what he calls their “negative reactions” to the organization’s stance on Russia

It will not work,” said Martin Garcia, chairman of the DeSantis-picked Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board of supervisors. Wednesday’s moves are the latest escalation in the fight between DeSantis and Disney as DeSantis moves toward a 2024 presidential bid. Disney responded by suing DeSantis, the board and Florida Department of Economic Opportunity acting secretary Meredith Ivey, seeking to block the board’s moves. But the special district also freed Disney from bureaucratic red tape and made it cheaper to borrow to finance infrastructure projects around its theme parks, among other significant advantages. DeSantis then targeted Disney’s special governing powers.

☆ Americans are getting worried about the job market
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-25 | by ( Bryan Mena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Washington, DC CNN —US consumer confidence worsened in April as Americans become more pessimistic about the job market. The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index, which measures attitudes toward the economy and the job market, fell to 101.3 in April, down from 104 in March and marking the lowest level since July 2022. “Compared to last month, fewer households expect business conditions to improve and more expect worsening of conditions in the next six months. They also expect fewer jobs to be available over the short term.”That matches government figures showing the labor market has begun to show some cracks. Employers added 236,000 jobs in March, the smallest gain in two years, and job openings fell below 10 million for the first time since May 2021.

☆ Google CEO Sundar Pichai made $226 million last year
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and Google’s parent company Alphabet, made nearly $226 million in 2022, according to a new filing from Alphabet. It is a big boost for Pichai, who made just over $6 million in 2021 and $7.4 million in 2020. Pichai’s stock boosts come every three years, in 2019 he received a similar package of $281 million. Ballooning CEO compensation has been a controversial topic in recent years. The vast majority of Cook’s 2022 compensation — about 75% — was tied up in company shares, with half dependent on share price performance.

☆ Tesla shareholder group complains Elon Musk is too distracted to run company
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Chris Isidore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —A group of progressive Tesla shareholders want the company’s board of directors to make CEO Elon Musk concentrate more on one of his many jobs, that of running the EV automaker. In addition to his role at Tesla (TSLA), Musk also leads Twitter, SpaceX, the Boring Company, and Neuralink, among others. The letter says that the investors signing the letter own $1.5 billion worth of Tesla shares, which represents well less than 1% of Tesla shares. By comparison, Musk owns or has options to purchase about $118 billion worth of Tesla shares, representing 20% of the stock. “Tesla needs a board that will ensure that the CEO is focused on addressing its challenges,” said the letter.

☆ Will the Police Commissioner Punish a Top Officer Defended by Adams?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Maria Cramer | Chelsia Rose Marcius | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The officer, Tabatha Foster, has filed a lawsuit in State Supreme Court in Queens in which she said that in the 2015 incident, Chief Maddrey had choked her and thrown her to the ground. Chief Maddrey has denied the allegations. If Chief Maddrey “gets a light punishment or no punishment at all, it is demoralizing to the hundreds of cops who have been given 25 days or 30 days for doing lesser things,” he said. “It shows the police are not held to a higher standard when they’re in the upper echelons of the Police Department.”An internal affairs investigation cleared Chief Maddrey, said his lawyer, Lambros Y. Lambrou. Mr. Lambrou called the police review board’s decision “complete nonsense” and said the chief wants the case heard in a department trial.

☆ Meta stopped labeling Covid-19 content after finding it did little to combat misinformation, Oversight Board says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Facebook rolled out the labels in early 2021, after coming under criticism for the spread of Covid-19 misinformation on its platforms during the first year of the pandemic. Meta should not relax its approach to Covid-19 misinformation as the company has proposed, the Oversight Board added. In the past, Meta has touted its ability to direct users to the Covid-19 information center. The labels were automatically applied to content that Meta’s automated tools determined were about Covid-19, the Oversight Board said. (Meta provided examples of a NIT and a FAXIT in its July 2022 request for Oversight Board guidance on whether it should relax its Covid-19 misinformation policy.)

The report made 51 recommendations, including moving to a clearer monetary policy framework and greater accountability. LEGISLATE FINANCIAL STABILITY ROLE"The Review seeks a firmer foundation for the RBA’s financial stability role and clarification of the scope of its responsibilities. IMPROVE PROCESSES"The RBA and Monetary Policy Board should make changes to deepen the Board’s deliberation on monetary policy and ensure it is open to a wide range of inputs. STRENGTHEN TRANSPARENCY"Monetary Policy Board members should be more accountable for their role in setting monetary policy. There must be a clear division of responsibilities within the RBA between the Governance Board, Monetary Policy Board and Payments System Board."

☆ What intersectionality actually means and why it matters
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Leah Asmelash | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Here’s what you should know about intersectionality – what exactly it means, and why it matters. Co-founder and executive director of the African American Policy Forum Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the phrase intersectionality in 1989. As part of that larger movement, terms like intersectionality and intersectional feminism became much more prevalent in left-leaning circles. People practice Judaism differently, and thus different sects may face different problems. In that group alone, there may be LGBTQ+ men, men from lower economic backgrounds or men with disabilities.

☆ Moonbin, Member of K-Pop Band ASTRO, Dies at 25
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Livia Albeck-Ripka | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Moonbin, a member of the K-pop band ASTRO, died on Wednesday at his home in Seoul. The pop star’s death was confirmed by the band and its management agency in a statement in Korean posted to Twitter. “On April 19, ASTRO member Moonbin suddenly left us and has now become a star in the sky,” the agency said. Moonbin, born Jan. 26, 1998, was an actor, dancer and model as well as a singer, who also performed as part of the band Moonbin & Sanha. ASTRO, originally a six-person male K-Pop group, shot to fame in 2016 with their debut EP “Spring Up.” They were named to Billboard’s top 10 list of new K-Pop groups that year.

☆ Ron DeSantis allies on Disney oversight board threaten company with taxes, rate hikes and affordable housing
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Steve Contorno | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

“It really is shameful what Disney tried to do,” board chairman Martin Garcia said. However, Disney in February reached agreements with the outgoing board that seemed to render the body powerless to control the entertainment giant. Garcia said that the agreements went unmentioned by a representative for Disney when the two sides met soon after DeSantis appointed the new board. “Our board truly wished to work with Disney,” Garcia said. The board plans to vote at its April 26 meeting to void the previous agreements reached with Disney.

KARACHI, Pakistan, April 13 (Reuters) - Pakistan's debt continues to be sustainable, International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday, after the government reiterated it had completed all requirements to receive a critical bailout from the IMF. Pakistan's finance ministry on Thursday said IMF deputy managing director Antoinette Moniso Sayeh was confident of signing the staff level agreement very soon. Pakistan's government reiterated on Thursday it has completed all requirements to receive the critical bailout money from the fund following a meeting with Sayeh. "The finance minister also shared that all the international obligations have been addressed in time," the finance ministry said in a news release. On Wednesday, Pakistan's finance ministry release a statement following talks with the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Director Jihad Azour.

April 11 (Reuters) - Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's newly formed oversight board is seeking to assert control over development in two cities where Walt Disney World Resort is located, the latest twist in a battle for authority over the company's Florida theme parks. A resolution, seen on Tuesday by Reuters, would give the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board the power to review and evaluate development in the 25,000-square acres of property in and around Walt Disney Co's (DIS.N) theme parks. The district would hold "superior authority and control" over planning, zoning and other land use in the cities of Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, under a Florida law that formed the state-appointed oversight board. A spokesperson for Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake did not respond to Reuters' request for comment. A spokesperson for the oversight board referred inquiries to an attorney, who was not immediately available for comment.

☆ HSBC spinoff: Bank's top execs face tense shareholders in Hong Kong calling for a breakup
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Michelle Toh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Quinn addressed those complaints head-on Monday, saying “our profits in Hong Kong and the UK are no longer being dragged down by underperformance elsewhere. Mark Tucker, chairman of HSBC, left, and Peter Wong, chairman of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, departing following the bank's shareholders meeting in Hong Kong on Monday. They argue that if the lender cordoned off its activities in Asia, it would no longer have to expose Hong Kong shareholders to requests in other jurisdictions. Christine Fong, a district council member in Hong Kong, said she represented about 500 small shareholders who had been affected by the dividend cancellation. An HSBC bank branch in Hong Kong last July.

☆ US consumer confidence improved in March
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

The business group’s Consumer Confidence Index increased to 104.2 in March from an upwardly revised reading of 103.4 the month before. The March headline index saw a boost from consumers’ improved levels of confidence for the six-month-ahead time frame. The Expectations Index increased to 73 from 70.4 in February, while the Present Situation Index dipped to 151.1 from 153. The Conference Board’s confidence index and the University of Michigan’s twice-a-month consumer sentiment index are two leading gauges of consumers’ attitudes toward the current and future strength of the economy. Although the two indexes typically track similarly over time, the consumer confidence index is more influenced by employment and labor market conditions, while the Michigan sentiment index has a greater emphasis on household finances and the impact of inflation.

☆ Oklahoma Voters Strike Down Recreational Marijuana
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Adolfo Flores | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Voters in Oklahoma Tuesday rejected a bid to legalize marijuana for recreational use, according to the Associated Press, nearly five years after a decision to allow large-scale cultivation of the drug in the state turned it into a leading source of black-market weed. Roughly 62% of voters said “no” to State Question 820, with more than 99% of precincts reporting, according to the Oklahoma State Election Board’s unofficial results.

☆ Despite East Palestine toxic train disaster, railroads still want single-person crews
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( Chris Isidore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

The rail safety legislation, introduced in Congress Wednesday with bipartisan support, would include a prohibition on single-person crews. There is no such existing law or federal regulation requiring both an engineer and a conductor to be on a train. The Association of American Railroads confirmed that its position in favor of one-person crews has not changed. “No data shows a two-person crew confined to a cab is safer, and train crew size should continue to be determined through collective bargaining,” a statement from UP. But it might have one or two provisions which are deal breakers for the unions, such as allowing single-person crews.

☆ Boeing CEO Calhoun just missed out on a $7 million bonus. But he still got a raise
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-04 | by ( Chris Isidore | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Boeing CEO David Calhoun missed out on a $7 million bonus last year, but still got a raise. Boeing’s proxy filing Friday disclosed that when Calhoun started as CEO of Boeing in January of 2020, the board gave him a $7 million bonus package if he completed a list of goals by the end of 2023. Because of that, the company’s filing said Calhoun will not get the $7 million. And in February the board awarded Calhoun 25,000 shares of Boeing stock as a retention bonus. In May last year, Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair — Europe’s largest discount carrier, which has ordered nearly 400 jets from Boeing since 2010 — let loose a profanity-laced criticism of Boeing management.

☆ Ericsson Compliance Chief to Leave as Company Remains Under U.S. Scrutiny
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Mengqi Sun | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +2 min

Ericsson AB said its chief compliance officer will leave the company, as the telecommunications-equipment company continues to clean up its ethics and compliance programs following a bribery settlement. Laurie Waddy, who joined Stockholm-based Ericsson in April 2019 as compliance chief, will leave the company after almost four years, the company said Tuesday. Jan Sprafke, Ericsson’s head of compliance for Europe and Latin America, will become interim compliance chief while the company searches for a permanent successor. Mr. Sprafke will report to the company’s chief legal officer and the board’s audit and compliance committee. Ms. Waddy will work with Mr. Sprafke during the transition on issues related to the compliance functions and the company’s U.S.-mandated monitorship, according to Ericsson.

☆ Here are answers to 5 key questions about the labor board’s severance agreement rule change
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Jeanne Sahadi | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Can my employer no longer ever require that I stay quiet in exchange for severance? Normally there is a six-month window akin to a statute of limitations to bring an alleged violation to the board’s attention. So can employers now never require me to stay mum about the company as a condition of receiving severance? It’s easy to forget, but there is no legal requirement for employers to offer laid off workers severance. “There’s a real risk to employees that the case will have a negative impact on the size of severance packages going forward,” he said.

☆ Yellen says World Bank nominee's credentials will overcome selection criticism
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( David Lawder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BENGALURU (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Saturday that she believes the strong qualifications of the U.S. nominee to lead the World Bank, ex-Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga, will overcome any criticism of the selection process. FILE PHOTO: Ajay Banga, President and CEO Mastercard attends the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland January 19, 2017. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich/File PhotoIn an interview, Yellen affirmed her support for the longstanding tradition of the United States choosing the World Bank’s leader and Europe choosing the head of the International Monetary Fund. As the World Bank’s largest shareholder with 16.35% of its voting power, the United States wields strong influence over the bank’s policies, and the lender’s president works closely with the Treasury Department. Yellen is pressing the World Bank to refine a package of sweeping reforms aimed at vastly expanding its lending resource and mission to tackle climate change and other global challenges.

Search resuls for: "Board’s"

25 mentions found