 |
|
|
|||||
Vivek Ramaswamy, the Cincinnati-born biotech entrepreneur who departed the Department of Government Efficiency initiative on President Donald Trump’s first day, was expected to launch his bid for Ohio governor Monday.Ramaswamy, 39, is set to kick off his campaign in Cincinnati, joining the 2026 Republican primary just a month after presumed frontrunner and then-Lt. Gov. Jon Husted left the running to take a U.S. Senate appointment.Ramaswamy sought the GOP nomination for president in 2024 before dropping out to back Trump, who later tapped him to cochair the efficiency initiative with billionaire Elon Musk. A near-billionaire himself, Ramaswamy has promoted his ties to Trump as he lines up key endorsements and donors in the governor’s race, but the president has made no formal endorsement yet.Ramaswamy joins a competitive GOP primary field to succeed Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, 78, a veteran center-right politician who is term-limited.Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced a bid for the seat in January and Heather Hill, a Black entrepreneur from Appalachia, also is running. Dr. Amy Acton, the former state health director who helped lead Ohio through the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, is running as a Democrat.They will compete in a former bellwether state that has tacked reliably red in recent years, having voted for Trump three times by more than 8 percentage points. Republicans also hold every statewide executive office, a majority on the Ohio Supreme Court and supermajorities in both legislative chambers.Ramaswamy, who is Hindu, outlined the 10 core beliefs featured in his presidential campaignled by “God is real” followed by “there are two genders”in the 2024 book, Truths: The Future of America First. He first rose to political prominence with his 2021 book, Woke Inc: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam, a scorching critique of corporations that he said use social justice causes as a smokescreen for self-interested policies.He seeks to buck the traditional route to Ohio’s governorship, which runs through extensive government service often stretching decades, and instead mount a Trump-style ascent into the job directly from the business world.The formula has worked for Vice President JD Vance and U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, two political newcomers who won Senate seats with the help of Trump’s endorsement in 2022 and 2024, respectively. But Ramaswamy will test it in a state government-level race for the first time in recent memory.DeWine passed Ramaswamy over to appoint Husted to the Senate seat vacated by Vance, citing Husted’s decades of elective experience. The gubernatorial bid by Husted, a former Ohio House speaker and secretary of state, had locked down many key endorsements and wealthy donors, who are now largely free agents.Yost joined the race as rumors circulated that Ramaswamy was planning a run. Since then, however, Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague and Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose have endorsed Ramaswamy. Julie Carr Smyth, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
Confusion and chaos loom as hundreds of thousands of federal employees begin their workweek on Monday facing a deadline from President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting chief, Elon Musk, to explain their recent accomplishments or risk losing their jobs.Musk’s unusual demand has faced resistance from several key U.S. agencies led by the president’s loyalistsincluding the FBI, State Department, Homeland Security, and the Pentagonwhich instructed their employees over the weekend not to comply. Lawmakers in both parties said that Musk’s mandate may be illegal, while unions are threatening to sue.Trump over the weekend called for Musk to be more aggressive in his cost-cutting crusade through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and posted a meme on social media mocking federal employees who “cried about Trump and Elon.”Musk’s team sent an email to hundreds of thousands of federal employees on Saturday giving them roughly 48 hours to report five specific things they had accomplished last week. In a separate message on X, Musk said any employee who failed to respond by the deadlineset in the email as 11:59 p.m. EST Mondaywould lose their job.Mass confusion followed on the eve of the deadline as some agencies resisted the order, others encouraged their workers to comply, and still others offered conflicting guidance.One message on Sunday morning from the Department of Health and Human Services, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., instructed its roughly 80,000 employees to comply. That was shortly after the acting general counsel, Sean Keveney, had instructed some not to. And by Sunday evening, agency leadership issued new instructions that employees should “pause activities” related to the request until noon on Monday.“I’ll be candid with you. Having put in over 70 hours of work last week advancing Administration’s priorities, I was personally insulted to receive the below email,” Keveney said in an email viewed by the Associated Press that acknowledged a broad sense of “uncertainty and stress” within the agency.Keveney laid out security concerns and pointed out some of the work done by the agency’s employees may be protected by attorney-client privilege: “I have received no assurances that there are appropriate protections in place to safeguard responses to this email.”Democrats and even some Republicans, including Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, were critical of Musk’s ultimatum.“If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it’s like, please put a dose of compassion in this,” Curtis, whose state has 33,000 federal employees, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “These are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages. . . . It’s a false narrative to say we have to cut and you have to be cruel to do it as well.”Newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel, an outspoken Trump ally, instructed employees to ignore Musk’s request, at least for now.“The FBI, through the Office of the Director, is in charge of all of our review processes, and will conduct reviews in accordance with FBI procedures,” Patel wrote in an email confirmed by the AP. “When and if further information is required, we will coordinate the responses. For now, please pause any responses.”Ed Martin, interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, sent his staff a message Sunday that may have caused more confusion.“Let me clarify: We will comply with this OPM request whether by replying or deciding not to reply,” Martin wrote in the email obtained by the AP, referring to the Office of Personnel Management.“Please make a good faith effort to reply and list your activities (or not, as you prefer), and I will, as I mentioned, have your back regarding any confusion,” Martin continued. “We can do this.”Officials at the Departments of State, Defense, and Homeland Security were more consistent.Tibor Nagy, acting undersecretary of state for management, told employees in an email that department leadership would respond on behalf of workers. “No employee is obligated to report their activities outside of their Department chain of command,” Nagy wrote in an email.Pentagon leadership instructed employees to “pause” any response to Musk’s team, according to an email from Jules Hurst, the deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness.The Homeland Security Department, meanwhile, told employees that “no reporting action from you is needed at this time” and that agency managers would respond, according to an email from R.D. Alles, deputy undersecretary for management.Thousands of government employees have already been forced out of the federal workforceeither by being fired or through a “deferred resignation” offerduring the first month of Trump’s second term. There is no official figure available for the total firings or layoffs so far, but the AP has tallied hundreds of thousands of workers who are being affected. Many work outside of Washington.Musk on Sunday called his latest request “a very basic pulse check.”“The reason this matters is that a significant number of people who are supposed to be working for the government are doing so little work that they are not checking their email at all!” Musk wrote on X. “In some cases, we believe non-existent people or the identities of dead people are being used to collect paychecks. In other words, there is outright fraud.”He has provided no evidence of such fraud. Separately, Musk and Trump have falsely claimed in recent days that tens of millions of dead people over 100 years old are receiving Social Security payments.Meanwhile, thousands of other employees are preparing to leave the federal workforce this coming week, including probationary civilian workers at the Pentagon and all but a fraction of U.S. Agency for International Development staffers through cuts or leave. Peoples reported from New York. Associated Press writers Byron Tau, Ellen Knickmeyer, Matthew Perrone and Tara Copp in Washington and Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, contributed to this report. Steve Peoples, Eric Tucker and Amanda Seitz, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
Fabric and craft retailer Joann Inc. is officially shutting down all of its stores following a turbulent bankruptcy process. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January for the second time in less than a year, initially saying it would keep its stores open while restructuring its debt. However, just weeks after the filing, Joann reversed course and announced it would close 500 of its roughly 800 locations, as Fast Company reported. The closure of those stores was just the beginning. As part of the ongoing bankruptcy proceedings, Joann held an auction on February 21 to sell off its assets. A limited liability company called GA Joann Retail Partnership, which is a subsidiary of “asset disposition” company GA Group, emerged as the winning bidder, and will now oversee the complete liquidation of Joanns remaining operations. The move is still subject to court approval. What happens next for Joann? A final sale hearing has been scheduled for February 26 in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. This hearing will formally approve the asset sale, paving the way for the complete wind-down of Joanns operations across the country. Despite the imminent closures, Joann has assured customers that it will offer substantial discounts during its going-out-of-business sales. These sales will begin immediately at all locations, allowing customers to purchase the remaining inventory at discounted prices. Joanns website and mobile app will also remain operational, enabling online shoppers to make their final purchases before the company ceases all operations entirely. The end of an era for the crafting community The collapse of the national retail chain marks an end to what was once a dominant force in the fabric and crafting world. Joann had been a go-to retailer for crafters, quilters, and sewing enthusiasts for decades. Its decline underscores the ongoing struggles faced by traditional brick-and-mortar retailers amid rising competition from online stores and shifting consumer habits. Joanns closing is expected to have lasting effects on crafters, as the retailers stores were not only places to shop but also hubs for classes, events, and a sense of community.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||