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On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced that he appointed Chris Rocheleau, a former senior aviation official, as acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Rocheleau will be handling the response to the deadly collision Wednesday night of an American Airlines plane with an Army Black Hawk helicopter that sent both plunging into the Potomac River. He will serve in the position until President Trump’s nominee is confirmed by the Senate. Michael Whitaker, the FAA’s most recent administratora 30-year aviation industry veteran, who was unanimously confirmed as FAA administrator by the Senate in October 2023resigned on January 20, as President Trump took office, following continued public criticism from Elon Musk, Trump’s close adviser, who called on Whitaker to “resign.” Musks’s issues with Whitaker were personal, having to do with fines the Whitaker-led FAA proposed on SpaceX, Musk’s space-technology company, over alleged government violations in two of its rocket launches. Rocheleau has more than two decades of experience working for the FAA, serving in multiple roles, including acting associate administrator for aviation safety; chief of staff; assistant administrator for policy, international affairs, and environment; executive director for international affairs; and director of the office of emergency operations and investigations. Most recently, he served as an executive at the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA). Chris is an outstanding leader who will be good for the FAA, good for aviation, and good for the country, especially at this challenging time, said NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen in a statement. He has demonstrated excellence at every level in the government, military, and aviation industry. The American Airlines regional jet that collided with the Army helicopter had 67 people on board, including several figure skaters, among them 1994 world champions Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. On Thursday, the president falsely blamed a diversity push at the FAA for the midair collision, even blaming Democrats for their policies. Tennessee Garvey, a pilot and the chair of the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals, has pushed back against President Trumps comments. The plane wreckage is currently being housed in Hangar 7 at Reagan airport. A preliminary report into the investigation is expected to be released in a month.
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E-Commerce
One of the largest nonprofit blood centers in the country, New York Blood Center (NYBC), said in a statement on its website that it was hit with a ransomware attack over the weekend and is now experiencing disruptions in its services, including longer-than-normal processing times for blood donations, plus the cancelling and rescheduling of some blood donations. NYBC provides blood to over 200 hospitals in the northeast, including New York and New Jersey, and transfusion-related medical services to more than 500 hospitals across the nation. “At this time, we do not have a specific timetable for system restoration,” NYBC said in the statement. “We are working diligently with third-party experts to restore our systems as quickly and safely as possible.” What happened? On Sunday, January 26, NYBC Enterprises identified suspicious activity affecting its IT systems. It contacted cybersecurity experts who investigated and confirmed it was the result of a ransomware incident. We took immediate steps to help contain the threat, including taking certain systems offline, NYBC confirmed in its statement. The attack comes at a critical time, when blood donations in the U.S. are at a significantly low level. Currently, the New York and New Jersey region face a “blood emergency” resulting from a 30% drop in donations in recent weeks since the holidays, totaling 6,500 fewer donations and crippling the regions blood supply, according to the NYBC. What can I do to help? Donations typically decrease during the holidays, and this January poses additional challenges with colder than normal temperatures causing blood drive cancellations, and flu, COVID-19, and RSV symptoms reducing donor eligibility. Currently, donations of all blood types are urgently needed, especially Types O and B, which are down to a dangerously low 1- to 3-day supply. In the coming weeks, NYBC may have to do another push for more blood donations. If youre eligible, you can donate, but be prepared for the possibility of longer wait times or unexpected scheduling changes. Here’s more information about how to donate.
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E-Commerce
The return-to-office (RTO) push at companies such as Amazon and AT&Twhich both required employees to be back in the office full-time this monthhas been met with discontent and frustration from much of their workforces. Some Amazon employees have said they are looking for new jobs, if they haven’t left already, while people at both companies have reportedly struggled to even find an open desk. But other leaders are not letting the prospect of low morale or limited workspace derail their plans to return to the office full time in 2025. According to a memo obtained by Business Insider, the latest addition to the mix is Dell, which had already tested the waters with an RTO policy that applied to just a handful of departments. As of September, employees on the sales team and across a subset of other roles (including leadership positions) were asked to return to the office. Starting in March, however, Dell also will be “retiring the hybrid policy” and expect most employees to be in the office five days a week. The new mandate will apply to all employees who live within about an hour commute of a Dell officeregardless of whether they currently have a remote or hybrid arrangement. (A Dell spokesperson did not clarify whether employees who live farther would have to request an exemption or would automatically be allowed to continue working remotely.) According to Business Insider, employees who remained remote would not be put up for promotion without explicit approval from three senior leaders. This seems to be a slight shift from a policy Dell already had in place that rendered fully remote employees ineligible for promotion. “What we’re finding is that for all the technology in the world, nothing is faster than the speed of human interaction,” CEO Michael Dell wrote in the memo. “A 30-second conversation can replace an email back-and-forth that goes on for hours or even days.” In a statement to Fast Company, a Dell spokesperson added, “We continually evolve our business so we’re set up to deliver the best innovation, value, and service to our customers and partners. That includes more in-person connections to drive market leadership.” In his memo, the CEO noted that across departments that had started coming into the office, “we have seen these areas come alive with new speed, energy, and passion.” Other CEOs and business leaders have used similar rationale to justify bringing workers back to the office at least three days a week, with a growing number of companies ramping up to five days. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy echoed that sentiment when he announced that starting in 2025, the RTO policy would require employees to come into the office daily, rather than just three days a week. “When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant,” he wrote in a memo. “If anything, the last 15 months weve been back in the office at least three days a week has strengthened our conviction about the benefits.” Like Jassy, Michael Dell had previously expressed his support for remote work. As recently as late 2022, Dell had openly said, “From my experience, if you are counting on forced hours spent in a traditional office to create collaboration and provide a feeling of belonging within your organization, youre doing it wrong.” But as corporate America has shown over the past few years, he’s not the first business leader to make such a drastic reversal on remote workand certainly won’t be the last.
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E-Commerce
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