FBI Tells Telecom Firms to Boost Security Following Wide-Ranging Chinese Hacking Campaign
fortune ox 2024
。
Europe’s stunning high-tech luxury train
They were nation builders, businesspeople, warriors, athletes, artists and inspirations. They did what few of us ever do; now they’ve done the one thing that everyone must do. The famous people who passed away in 2024 all made their mark on the world, not necessarily positively or heroically. Here are their own words to shed some light on who they were, what they did and what they learned. “India is on the move again; we shall make the future happen .” — Manmohan Singh , widely credited as the architect of India’s economic reform program, notably during his decade as prime minister, 92, Dec. 26 “Rickey’s gotta go!” — Recurrent on-field exclamation of Rickey Henderson , base-stealing legend (and former Blue Jay) who played Major League Baseball for 25 years, 65, Dec. 20 “I was brought home (after being born), handed over to my dad in his arms (and) he takes me in his arms, puts his lips to my ear and recites the tabla rhythms into my ears .” — Zakir Hussain , one of India’s most accomplished classical musicians who introduced tabla to global audiences and worked with George Harrison and Yo-Yo Ma among many others, 73, Dec. 15 “We lost a lot of good people, you know. They didn’t do nothing . But we never know what’s going to happen in a war.” — Bob Fernandez , survivor of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor who later worked as a forklift driver in California, 100, Dec. 11 “I am not a prophet. I really base all that on intuitiveness, the fact that I spend such an incredible amount of time with audiences and how they think.” — The Amazing Kreskin , entertainer and mentalist familiar to generations of TV viewers and born George Joseph Kresge Jr., 89, Dec. 10 “I have been considered a writer who writes from rage and it confuses me. What else do writers write from?” — Nikki Giovanni , the poet, author , educator and public speaker who spent decades as a literary celebrity, 81, Dec. 9 “I’m actually sick and tired of hearing the government talk about trafficked women and underaged children as if we don’t care about those issues. We care about those issues and I actually think we’re helping. ” — Alan Young , a lawyer and York University legal scholar known for leading the challenge of Canada’s prostitution laws, 69, Dec. 7 “And even though I’m alone now, the phone still rings. I have some wonderful friends who have helped me through so much. It still doesn’t fill the empty gap in my heart, but it helps .” — Debbie Nelson , estranged mother and frequent lyrical target of rapper Eminem, 69, Dec. 2 “I don’t believe in jogging. It extends your life — but by exactly the amount of time you spend jogging.’’ — Academy Award winner Marshall Brickman , longtime Woody Allen collaborator who co-wrote the books for “Jersey Boys” and “The Addams Family,” 85, Nov. 29 “There was nothing more fun when ‘Airplane!’ came out and because no one knew us (screenwriters), we could go to the movie and sit with a full house and bathe ourselves in that laughter. ” — Jim Abrahams, co-writer of beloved spoof as well as “The Naked Gun” and more, 80, Nov. 26 “People say, ‘You’re still here?’ I said, ‘I never left.’ ” — Joe Zuger , American former player and general manager who won Grey Cups for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and stayed in Steeltown thereafter, 84, Nov. 25 “And if you want to meet the real Emma, meet me ... Emma had to be tough and ruthless at times: but then so am I. I have to be, as a businesswoman.” — Barbara Taylor Bradford , a British journalist who became a publishing sensation in her 40s with the saga “A Woman of Substance” featuring retail baroness Emma Harte, and wrote more than a dozen other novels that sold tens of millions of copies, 91, Nov. 24 “I thought (disdainfully), ‘Great, a guy with a bad jacket and an equally bad moustache who doesn’t care what you have to say — that’s the guy I want to be .’” — Chuck Woolery , on pausing his singing and acting ambitions to become the affable host of game shows like “Wheel of Fortune” and “Love Connection,” 83, Nov. 23 “My biggest contribution was giving the kids the faith that they can be the best among the best.” — Bela Karolyi , the larger-than-life coach who led Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton to Olympic gold while revolutionizing the sport of gymnastics, only to see his legacy hurt by allegations of abusive coaching, 82, Nov. 15 “The cohort from 20 to 39 are ... quite frankly, putting the rest of us in a challenging position ... Don’t blow this for the rest of us.” — John Horgan, justifying a COVID lockdown during his tenure as former B.C. premier, 65, Nov. 12 “(Charles) Mingus use to say the damnedest thing about me years ago. He’d say, ‘Well, Roy Haynes. You don’t always play the beat, you suggest the beat!’ ... If I leave out a beat, it’s still there ... You’ve got to use a little imagination in there.” — Roy Haynes , pioneering jazz drummer who performed with legends like Charlie Parker, Lester Young and Sarah Vaughan, 99, Nov. 12 “Coaching has that image of obsessed men driven to a point where they’ll destroy their lives. I’ll be damned if I’ll destroy my life.” — John Robinson , easygoing veteran football coach who enjoyed many years of success at the University of Southern California and with the Los Angeles Rams, 89, Nov. 11 “Dance is bigger than the physical body. When you extend your arm, it doesn’t stop at the end of your fingers, because you’re dancing bigger than that; you’re dancing spirit.” — Judith Jamison , regal and passionate performer who had a decades-long career atop modern dance starting with Alvin Ailey’s famed dance company which she later led, 81, Nov. 9 “Racing has been good to me in a lot of way. It’s been very unfortunate in other ways. The way I look at it, life, not racing, has presented me with some difficult times ... Life is a gift and death can come at anytime. You can’t do anything about it.” — Bobby Allison , racer and NASCAR Hall of Famer crippled and given brain damage by a career-ending crash, 86, Nov. 9 “I’m an African American man who wasn’t supposed to make it. And somehow I beat the system. I want to be an inspiration .” — Tony Todd , actor known for his haunting portrayal of a killer in the horror film “Candyman” and roles in many other films and television shows, 69, Nov. 6 “Education got us into this mess and education will get us out of it.” — Murray Sinclair , the Anishinaabe senator and renowned Manitoba lawyer who led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, 73, Nov. 4 “Since I was a little kid, I’ve always heard the people that don’t wanna do the work . It takes work, man. The only place you find success before work is the dictionary, and that’s alphabetical.” — Quincy Jones , the multi-talented music titan whose vast legacy ranged from producing Michael Jackson’s historic “Thriller” album to writing prize-winning film and TV scores and collaborating with Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and hundreds of other recording artists, 91, Nov. 3 “You have to find your centre and roll with the punches because that’s a hard thing to do: to have people pity you ... Just trying to explain to people that I’m OK is tiresome.” — Teri Garr , the quirky comic actress who co-starred in “Young Frankenstein” and won an Oscar nomination for “Tootsie” and then battled multiple sclerosis for decades, 79, Oct. 29 “What you can do is prepare yourself to be open; open for the pipeline to open and the magic to flow down through us. It means leaving yourself behind. It’s not a question of, Oh God, don’t let me f—k up, or anything like that. It’s a question of, ‘Here I am. Work me, Lord .’” — Phil Lesh , a classically trained violinist and jazz trumpeter who found his true calling reinventing rock bass guitar as a founding member of the Grateful Dead , 84, Oct. 25 “I don’t know (how I should be remembered). Maybe as a person who liked to give 100 per cent in anything I do.” — Fernando Valenzuela , the Mexican-born phenom for the Los Angeles Dodgers who inspired “Fernandomania” while winning the National League Cy Young Award and Rookie of the Year in 1981, 63, Oct. 22 “It’s a very sad memory because I watched young American Rangers get shot, slaughtered — and they were young. I was 19 at the time. These kids were younger than me ... I will never forget the sight of seeing those brave young men fighting and dying as they struggled to get off the beach .” — George Chandler , British D-Day veteran who sought to counter sometimes glamorous depictions of the landings by recalling the horrors he witnessed escorting U.S. troops to the beaches of northern France as a young Royal Navy gunner, 99, Oct. 20 “I never worked with a stinker. How great is that!” — Mitzi Gaynor , the effervescent dancer and actor who starred in the 1958 film “South Pacific” and appeared in other musicals with Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly, 93, Oct. 17 “We make the headlines only with blood. No blood, no news.” — Yahya Sinwar , Hamas’ top leader and mastermind of its Oct. 7, 2023 attack, 61, Oct. 16 “For me, learning to relax has always been quite a hard thing to do because I feel like if I’m not moving forward, then I must be going backwards.” — Liam Payne , former One Direction singer found dead after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, 31, Oct. 16 “If we ignore the technology for a moment and consider the stories and themes, mass culture appears to circle endlessly around the same trail, meeting on its path again and again the same characters in roughly the same stories. It is a good general rule that the more successful a work of mass culture, the more it will conform to a pattern with which our grandparents were on intimate terms.” — Robert Fulford , former Star columnist, broadcaster, author and prominent figure in Canadian journalism for seven decades, 92, Oct. 15 “You and I have to continue fighting for equal pay for equal work. I get up each day with that on my mind, because I need to make a difference.” — Lilly Ledbetter , a U.S. women’s equality activist whose fight for pay equity led to passage of the monumental Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, 86, Oct. 12 “I had a blazing row with a (Labour-supporting) girlfriend from Hackney and she said ‘If you feel like that — go and join the bloody SNP,’ so I did.” — Alex Salmond , who turned his Scottish National Party’s dream of power into reality even though he didn’t see his vision of an independent country come true, 69, Oct. 12 “I used to run a department with 350 people and I have never seen anything in my life as dysfunctional as what I (saw in) network television — sales people who don’t sell, producers who don’t produce, bookers who don’t book.” — Mike Bullard , Canadian standup comedian and former Bell Canada executive who hosted his own late-night TV show for years but marred his career with criminal convictions, 67, Oct. 11 “All this introspection. I hate it!” — Ethel Kennedy , the wife of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who raised their 11 children after he was assassinated and remained dedicated to social causes for decades thereafter, 96, Oct. 9 “Be tolerant to each other and remember nobody is better or worse than you, we are only different. Appreciate that.” — Lily Ebert , one of the last remaining survivors of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, 100, Oct. 9 “I am so grateful to God for giving me the gift of 48 years with my daughter. And I accept that He knew when it was time to take her.” — Cissy Houston , a two-time Grammy-winning soul and gospel artist who knew triumph and heartbreak as the mother of Whitney Houston, 91, Oct. 7 “Every summer, three things are going to happen, the grass is going to get green, the weather is going to get hot, and Pete Rose is going to get 200 hits and bat .300.” — Pete Rose , baseball’s career hits leader and fallen idol who undermined his historic achievements and Hall of Fame dreams by gambling on the game he loved and once embodied, 83, Sept. 30 “When you take the elevator to the top, please don’t forget to send it down , so that someone else can take it to the top (as well).” — Dikembe Mutombo , basketball Hall of Famer and longtime global ambassador for the game, 58, Sept. 30 “From my background and the generation I came up in, honour and serving your country were just taken for granted. So, later, when you come to question some of the things being done in your name, it was particularly painful.” — Kris Kristofferson , soldier turned legendary singer-songwriter behind “Me and Bobby McGee” and many more, 88, Sept. 28 “It’s true I don’t tolerate fools, but then they don’t tolerate me ... Maybe that’s why I’m quite good at playing spiky elderly ladies.” — Maggie Smith , the masterful, scene-stealing actor who won an Oscar for the 1969 film “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” and gained new fans in the 21st century via “Downton Abbey” and the Harry Potter films, 89, Sept. 27 “I would not recommend three days in jail to anyone, much less three years. But I must be honest: I needed to go through what I did to develop the character I had when I became a free man.” — Eugene “Mercury” Morris , two-time Super Bowl champion with the Miami Dolphins and linchpin of the team’s perfect 1972 season before a jail stint in the 1980s, 77, Sept. 21 “You can’t talk about peace nor agreement while terror is used as the main argument.” — Alberto Fujimori , whose decade-long presidency began with triumphs righting Peru’s economy and defeating a brutal insurgency only to end in autocratic excess that later sent him to prison, 86, Sept. 11 “God made a path for my music to reach each generation .” — Frankie Beverly , who with his band Maze inspired generations of fans with his smooth, soulful voice and lasting anthems including “Before I Let Go,” 77, Sept. 10 “One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can’t utter .” — James Earl Jones , who overcame racial prejudice and a severe stutter to become a celebrated icon of stage and screen, 93, Sept. 9 “We always tried to not be a rock ‘n’ roll store, not be a jazz store, not be a symphonic store . The whole music world is not that big. You can be all things to all people in the music world, and still be small.” — Jack Long , Canadian jazz musician and the founder of the musical instrument retail giant Long & McQuade, 95, Sept. 4 “I think melody will make a comeback. Everything is a cycle. When you walk out of a movie today, you’re not whistling a song. Where’s Henry Mancini?” — Sérgio Mendes , the Brazilian bossa nova impresario and pianist who helped popularize the genre in the ’60s, 83, Sept. 5 “(Brian Mulroney’s) strategy ever since I have been covering him as a reporter has been to blame the media for his troubles and find out who their sources are.” — Stevie Cameron , Canadian investigative journalist who authored books on topics ranging from allegations against Mulroney to the murders of women on a B.C. pig farm, 80, Aug. 31 “When my time does end here, you know, I hope people remember me as a good person off the ice, a good teammate and just a good person.” — NHL star Johnny Gaudreau , killed with younger brother Matthew when they were hit by a car while riding bicycles in their home state of New Jersey, 31, Aug. 29 “It’s as old as Shakespeare and as old as Socrates. It’s an extremely powerful theatre that tells us about ourselves and about the people on trial. And I think it’s ever fascinating.” — Linda Deutsch , writer for The Associated Press who for nearly 50 years covered the biggest U.S. trials from Charles Manson to O.J. Simpson to Phil Spector, 80, Sept. 1 “Fashion is what is given to you through the media, magazines. Style is what you slip into (to) face the mirror and smile.” — Betty Halbreich , considered fashion’s leading personal shopper , who made the search for the right clothing a kind of quest for dignity and self-knowledge, 96, Aug. 24 “It was the culmination of all of the misconceptions and stereotypical roles that I had lived and seen being offered to me. It was like a reward for having suffered those indignities.” — John Amos , who earned an Emmy nomination for his role in the seminal 1977 miniseries “Roots” after starring as the family patriarch on the hit 1970s sitcom “Good Times,” 84, Aug. 21 “Death will find me worn down from having lived so much, but I want to meet it with a smile, feeling free and satisfied.” — Maria Branyas , American-born Spaniard considered the world’s oldest person , 117, Aug. 19 “ Screaming helps . At least then you know if whether the person you’re screaming at is listening. Then go in the other room and count to 10.” — Phil Donahue , pioneering daytime talk show host, on the secret to his 44-year marriage, 88, Aug. 18 “A taxi driver in Tokyo told me, ‘So you are a Frenchman? Like Alain Delon?’ They only knew two French names in Japan: de Gaulle and Delon .” — Alain Delon , famously handsome French actor, on fame after starring in the movie “Purple Noon,” 88, Aug. 18 “Cancer survivors need to hear words like that, and they need to know in their heart that they are true .” — Former Conservative MP and cabinet minister Chuck Strahl , on then-PM Stephen Harper urging him to keep contributing amid a cancer fight, 67, Aug. 13 “It’s the people who aren’t artists who sacrifice. Artists somehow stumble onto the best life in the world, and I have no complaints.” — Gena Rowlands , hailed as one of the greatest actors to ever and a guiding light in independent film, 94, Aug. 14 “Her infirmities were so dreadful that she did not want to go on living ... (we) both shared the belief that we have a right to determine our own destinies so I could not stop her.” — Jacques Delisle , retired Quebec judge who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in his wife’s shooting death, insisting it was assisted suicide , 89, Aug. 10 “I realized the impact Google was going to have when I started using it in 1998 when it was just getting started. One day I couldn’t access the service and realized I couldn’t get my work done.” — Susan Wojcicki , a pioneering tech executive who played a key role in Google’s creation and served nine years as YouTube’s CEO, 56, Aug. 9 “In my mind if there’s another gay baseball player or two — or 10 or 25 or 100 — they’re just people you walk by every day. Like I did, they just want to play the game. And it’s a difficult enough game already without something else on your mind.” — Billy Bean , who in 1999 became the second former Major League Baseball player to come out as gay, 60, Aug. 6 “The Al-Aqsa flood (the Oct.7 attack) was an earthquake that struck the heart of the Zionist entity and has made major changes at the world ... We will continue the resistance against this enemy until we liberate our land, all our land.” — Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh , killed by bomb in Tehran, July 30 “There was nothing like this at the time. There were romance books, but this was different...these books were girl-driven. I felt that I was putting life in the hands of girls...these girls ran the ship. They ran the action.” — Francine Pascal , a onetime soap opera writer whose “Sweet Valley High” novels and the ongoing adventures of twins Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield and other teens captivated millions of young readers, 92, July 28 “My body routinely produces fresh and insistent signs of its mortality, and within the surrounding biosphere of the news and entertainment media it is the fear of death — 24/7 in every shade of hospital white and doomsday black — that sells the pharmaceutical, political, financial, film, and food products promising to make good the wish to live forever .” — Lewis H. Lapham , the scholarly patrician who edited Harper’s Magazine for nearly three decades, 89, July 23 “There’s nothing else I can play.” — A humble John Mayall , pillar of the British blues scene whose band the Bluesbreakers gave the world Eric Clapton and many other stars, 90, July 22 “As the gap between the haves and the have-nots increases, the likelihood of violence will increase; it’s not rocket science. When people are excluded, neglected, ignored, deprived of opportunity, violence becomes a viable option for them. How do we change those conditions ?” — Louis March , longtime Toronto anti-violence activist, 68 , July 20 “My audience has always expected me to tell them where I’m coming from, and I don’t see any reason to disappoint them.” — Lou Dobbs , conservative veteran cable TV host who was a founding anchor for CNN and later was a nightly presence on Fox Business Network for more than a decade, 78, July 18 This is for Richard Ouzounian’s interview with Bob Newhart. I will send another photo separately. Thank you, David Horowitz 310-279-2291 “When I started, I thought I might have five years, and that was fine. I pictured myself like an elevator operator, and people in the corner would say, ‘That guy used to be Bob Newhart .’ ” — Bob Newhart , the genial funnyman whose career lasted from a smash hit album in 1960 through TV in the 2010s, 94, July 18 “Be very careful. Have lots of fun. And stay brave.” — Bella Thomson , known on TikTok as Bella Brave , known for her courageous struggle at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto with several rare health conditions, 10, July 14 “Pain is manageable, you know living without a breast is manageable , it’s the worry of your future and how your future is going to affect the people that you love.” — Shannen Doherty , the “Beverly Hills, 90210” star whose life and career were roiled by breast cancer and tabloid stories, 53, July 13 “There’ll always be some weird thing about eating four grapes before you go to bed , or drinking a special tea, or buying this little bean from El Salvador ... If you watch your portions and you have a good attitude and you work out every day you’ll live longer, feel better and look terrific.” — Richard Simmons , television’s hyperactive court jester of physical fitness who built a mini-empire in his trademark tank tops and short shorts, died Saturday, 76, July 13 “I still hold old-fashioned values and I’m a bit of a square. Sex is a private art and a private matter. But still, it is a subject we must talk about.” — Dr. Ruth Westheimer , the diminutive sex therapist who became a pop icon, media star and best-selling author through her frank talk about once-taboo bedroom topics, 96, July 12 “What I love about art is that it is what I am. It makes my spirit and my spiritual life complete. There isn’t any other reason .” — Alex Janvier , Albertan considered one of Canada’s greatest painters and member of the so-called Indian Group of Seven, 89, July 10 “Until the screenwriter does his job, nobody else has a job. In other words, he is the a—hole who keeps everyone else from going to work.” — Robert Towne , the screenwriting legend who won an Academy Award for his original script for “Chinatown,” 89, July 1 “Amazing. When you think everything’s finished, it’s only the beginning.” — Orlando Cepeda , the slugging Boston Red Sox first baseman who became a Hall of Famer and honoured at Fenway Park, 86, June 28 “I’ve been painting all along ... All of this has been a way to try to put paint on my table . You know, every painter I know has a day job ... I just happened to luck into a day job that’s extraordinary and a lot of fun and buys a lot of paint.” — Martin Mull , whose droll, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on sitcoms, 80, June 27 “Find what you like and let it kill you .” — Singer, songwriter, satirist and novelist Kinky Friedman , who led the alt-country band Texas Jewboys, toured with Bob Dylan and dabbled in politics, 79, June 27 “I remember saying , ‘If you guys don’t get sober with me, I’m going to go start a sober band.’ And I was smoking crack while I’m saying that. I was just a big fireball of chaos ... running from my emotions, just submerging myself in psychoticness. And loving it.” — Seth Binzer , alias Shifty Shellshock, lead singer of alt-rock’s Crazy Town, 49, June 24 “You’ve got the Telegraph-Journal carted all around the province (expensively) but it’s one of the few vehicles in the province that ties the province together a little bit .” — Canadian billionaire businessman James K. Irving, owner of New Brunswick newspapers and much more, 96, June 21 “Well, it’s not that complicated. I’m an actor. I can play a Russian oligarch, or a pauper. I can play whomever I like as long as I like them .” — Donald Sutherland , the towering Canadian actor whose acclaimed career spanned more than six decades, 88, June 20 “I remember the last season I played. I went home after a ballgame one day ... tears came to my eyes. How can you explain that? It’s like crying for your mother after she’s gone ... I loved baseball and I knew I had to leave it.” — Willie Mays , exuberant baseball legend , 93, June 18 “You can only perceive real beauty in a person as they get older.” — Anouk Aimée , the radiant French star and dark-eyed beauty of classic films including Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” and Claude Lelouch’s “A Man and a Woman,” 92, June 18 “At 95, time is not on my side, and neither is silence. I simply want to add my name and say, ‘ Me too .’ ” — Janis Paige , a popular actor in Hollywood and on Broadway musicals who later revealed a sexual assault by department-store heir Alfred Bloomingdale, 101, June 2 “They nail you to the cross ... I’m a legend already .” — Infamous Canadian serial killer Robert Pickton , convicted of six murders and suspected of many more, 74, May 31 “I was on air for 18 hours that day (John Lennon was killed), which was a historic one for radio. Everyone of our generation turned off their TVs and listened. It was the only appropriate way of grieving .” — Broadcaster Bob Mackowycz Sr. , whose visionary radio programming injected a certain artistic flair into Toronto’s cultural scene, 75, May 29 “My bike is my gym, my wheelchair and my church all in one. I’d like to ride my bike all day long but I’ve got this thing called a job that keeps getting in the way .” — Bill Walton , NBA Hall of Famer, longtime broadcaster and notorious free spirit, 71, May 27 “I always looked at myself as a failure. I thought I had a lot of talent that was just a waste of talent ... Just persevere, and when you get tired of fighting let someone else fight for you .” — Grayson Murray, PGA golfer, 30, May 25 “The game is over, but we won the game .” — Deathbed utterance of Albert S. Ruddy , a colourful, Canadian-born producer and writer who won Oscars for “The Godfather” and “Million Dollar Baby,” 94, May 25 “All the animals we had really did teach us enough about love that we understood it outside of any human definition.” — Caleb Carr , survivor of an abusive childhood who became a bestselling author and lifelong cat lover, 68, May 23 “As one family member told me, it’s simply a really good bad idea.” — Morgan Spurlock , a documentary filmmaker who ate at McDonald’s every day for a month the Oscar-nominated 2004 feature “Super Size Me,” 53, May 23 “Greed is all right, by the way. I want you to know that. I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself .” — Ivan F. Boesky , the flamboyant stock trader whose cooperation with the government cracked open one of the largest insider trading scandals in the history of Wall Street , 87, May 20 “I am proud of being a defender of human rights and of people’s security and comfort as a prosecutor wherever I was .” — Ebrahim Raisi , so-called “Butcher of Tehran,” hardline prosecutor turned uncompromising president of Iran only to die in a helicopter crash, 63, May 19 “I’ve been shy all my life ... Maybe it’s because my father died when I was 4 ... I was extremely small, just a little guy who was there, the kid who created no trouble. I was attracted to fantasy, and I created games for myself .” — Dabney Coleman , the mustachioed character actor who specialized in smarmy villains like the chauvinist boss in “9 to 5” and the nasty TV director in “Tootsie,” 92, May 16 “There’s no sugar-coating cancer (but) I will never forget the outpouring of support I received from you (constituents) throughout my treatment. Your incredibly kind words and generous deeds helped my family and I through very dark days .” — Toronto Coun. Jaye Robinson , 61, May 16 “I don’t want to start any rumours, but (Daniel Sedin’s son) looks an awful lot like Henrik .” — Longtime TSN broadcaster Darren “Dutchy” Dutchyshen , joking about hockey’s Sedin twins, 57, May 15 “A story is not like a road to follow ... it’s more like a house. You go inside and stay there for a while, wandering back and forth and settling where you like and discovering how the room and corridors relate to each other, how the world outside is altered by being viewed from these windows. And you, the visitor, the reader, are altered as well by being in this enclosed space, whether it is ample and easy or full of crooked turns, or sparsely or opulently furnished. You can go back again and again, and the house, the story, always contains more than you saw the last time .” — Nobel laureate Alice Munro , the Canadian literary giant among the world’s most esteemed contemporary authors and short story writers, whose legacy is now being recast by personal scandal, 92, May 13 “ I had the choice to go on at Acadia or learn about business from the best teacher available anywhere — my father. I went with the best teacher.” — Arthur L. Irving , son of New Brunswick industrialist K.C. Irving who spent a lifetime growing the oil business his father founded and died as one of the 10 richest Canadians with a net worth of $6.4 billion, 93, May 13 “I was in high school in Toronto in Grade 13 when I was called up for my first game (against Montreal). Punch Imlach came in the dressing room to announce the starting lineup; Tim Horton, Allan Stanley, Red Kelly, Frank Mahovlich ... and me .” — Ron Ellis , who played over 1,000 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs and was a member of Canada’s team at the 1972 Summit Series, 79, May 11 “The first thing (Steven Spielberg) said to me was, ‘When your scene is done, I want everyone under the seats with the popcorn and bubblegum.’ So, I think we did that .” — Susan Backlinie , actress who played the first person killed by the titular shark in “Jaws,” 77, May 11 “In science-fiction films, the monster should always be bigger than the leading lady .” — Cinema maestro Roger Corman , who cranked out hundreds of low-budget films over six decades and helped launch the careers of Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron and Ron Howard, 98, May 9 “Hollywood is a narcotic, not a stimulant. It wants to sell you something. Literature wants to tell you something. ” — Rex Murphy , Newfoundland-born pundit and wordsmith whose often-blistering commentaries sustained a decades-long career in Canadian media, 77, May 9 “All the people that work in music ... want you to think that they are in it for art and art alone. Then when you present them with something (that) might not reach all of the chain stores — when you present them with something that is a manifestation of their pretence — they blanch .” — Steve Albini , outspoken music producer/engineer who worked with Nirvana and many more, 61, May 7 “A lot of guys are more skillful than I am with the guitar. A lot of it is over my head. But some of it is not what I want to hear out of the guitar .” — Duane Eddy , a pioneering guitar hero for his reverberating electric sound on instrumentals such as “Rebel Rouser” and “Peter Gunn,” 86, April 30 “I left this profession, I stopped, I did a farewell show ... I was ashamed, but I came back, and as quickly as possible. It’s the most beautiful job in the world .” — Jean-Pierre Ferland , the singer-songwriter who became a fixture of Quebec’s cultural landscape over a career that spanned more than six decades, 89, April 27 “Make sure you enjoy the game. If you don’t, you’re in the wrong business ... Hockey fans are abreast of times. They know what’s going on. You don’t have to teach them anything .” — Bob Cole , the voice of hockey in Canada (and “Hockey Night in Canada”) for decades, 90, April 24 “You wake up every day. You summon up energy from somewhere. I don’t know how .” — Terry Anderson , a U.S. journalist held hostage for nearly seven years during Lebanon’s civil war, 76, April 20 “ My dad always told me that the harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.” — Roman Gabriel , the first Filipino-American quarterback in the NFL and the league MVP in 1969, 83, April 20 “Harnessing all that energy (in youth orchestras) and that enthusiasm and that passion, and galvanizing it into a totally, totally unified conception and not just conception but — what’s the word? — realization ... I berate them more than I would, but I hope always with a twinkle in my eye .” — Andrew Davis , the acclaimed British conductor who led the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for 13 years, 80, April 20 “I’d go to one school for a year and then the other the next. I had two sets of friends and spent a lot of time in the back seat of a Greyhound bus. Ramblin’ was in my blood .” — Guitar legend Dickey Betts , who co-founded the Allman Brothers Band and wrote their biggest hit, “Ramblin’ Man,” 80, April 18 “Baseball has been good to me since I quit trying to play it .” — Whitey Herzog , World Series champion and former manager of the St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals, 92, April 15 “We don’t need to SELL the news. The networks hype the news to make it seem vital, important. What’s missing (in 22 minutes) is context, sometimes balance, and a consideration of questions that are raised by certain events .” — Robert MacNeil , Canadian-born journalist who created the even-handed PBS newscast “The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour” in the 1970s and co-anchored it for two decades, 93, April 12 “I’m absolutely, 100 per cent, not guilty .” — O.J. Simpson , the football star, actor and pitchman whose shocking arrest for double murder and subsequent acquittal shone a light on American race relations, 76, April 10 “I’m not a ‘me’ person. I’m into sharing and communication, into telling stories. I’m not your typical underground artist ... I want to bring comics back to the ’30s, instead of reliving the ’60s.” — Trina Robbins , artist, writer and editor of mainstream and underground comics and pioneering woman in a male-dominated field, 85, April 10 “That name (the god particle) was a kind of joke, and not a very good one. An author, Leon Lederman, wanted to call it ‘that goddamn particle’ because it was clear it was going to be a tough job finding it experimentally. His editor wouldn’t have that, and he said OK, call it the God particle,’ and the editor accepted it. I don’t think he should’ve have done, because it’s so misleading.” — Nobel Prize-winning physicist Peter Higgs , on conceiving of the so-called “God particle” that helped explain how matter formed after the Big Bang, 94, April 8 “I’m the pioneer. I was the first one in Michigan who said marijuana should be legal, and they said I was totally nuts.” — John Sinclair , a marijuana activist whose 1969 imprisonment was immortalized in a John Lennon song, 82, April 2 “A historian is somebody who studies the facts, the historical facts — somebody who is tied to what actually happens ... I am just a dreamer — my dreams rest upon a historical basis .” — Maryse Condé , historical novelist and prolific “grande dame” of Caribbean literature, 90, April 2 “We had to please ourselves, and we weren’t easy to please .” — Joe Flaherty , comic actor of “SCTV” fame, 82, April 1 “The Marines changed it. They said that an enlisted man would never beat up a drill sergeant ... ‘If you don’t do this well, Mr. Gossett, we’re going to have to kill you .’” — Actor Louis Gossett Jr. , on the script for “An Officer and a Gentleman,” for which he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, 87, March 29 “Eloquence is no substitute for a record .” — Joe Lieberman , former U.S. Democrat-turned-independent senator, 82, March 27 “Babar was my friend and I invented stories with him, but not with kids in a corner of my mind. I write it for myself .” — Laurent de Brunhoff , who revived his father’s popular picture-book series about an elephant-king and presided over its rise to a global, multimedia franchise, 98, March 22 “I’m ready to go see Winnie Ruth .” — Richard C. “Dick” Higgins , one of the last remaining survivors of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on following his wife of 60 years into death, 102, March 19 “Whether it’s Mr. Redford or Pacino or Hackman, once they see that I’m there, they aren’t going to let me win that tennis match. We hit the ball very hard. That’s why I’m brought in .” — M. Emmet Walsh , character actor seen everywhere from “Blood Simple” to “My Best Friend’s Wedding,” 88, March 19 “ I knew the sky would not fall . I knew that people would, within a very short time, generally accept it as just an evolution of our society. And some, particularly my own age group are still a little mad at me, but the vast majority of people, I think, are quite indifferent to it.” — Roy McMurtry , politician who as Chief Justice of Ontario paved the way for same-sex marriage, 81, March 19 “I love you but hate everything you stand for .” — Rose Dugdale , rejecting her father’s wealth and privilege in England to become an IRA militant and bomb maker, 82, March 18 “Climbing Everest says that you have done something extraordinary, that you have stepped outside the routines of ordinary life, endured hardship and accepted a great challenge ... There is only one highest place on Earth. ” — David Breashears , a mountaineer, author and filmmaker who co-directed and co-produced a 1998 IMAX documentary about climbing Mount Everest, 68, March 14 “The only way you get ahead is if you see something that no one else sees and it’s a little crazy .” — Gerald Levin , businessman and architect of famously disastrous AOL-Time Warner merger, 84, March 13 “Each day I try to do something kind for someone else. And I believe in what Oscar Wilde said : ‘Always forgive your enemies; it annoys them.’” — Malachy McCourt , thespian, barkeep and best-selling memoirist, 92, March 11 “I don’t sit around and worry about it. I’m dying a lot . It doesn’t make any difference.” — Paul Alexander , Dallas man who spent most of his life in an iron lung, 78, March 11 “Our audience knows we’re not going to load up on heavy metal or set fire to the drummer — although on some nights we’ve talked about it .” — Steve Lawrence , a singer who kept Tin Pan Alley alive during the rock era, 88, March 7 “There’s life after 100 ... I want to give it all I’ve got .” — Eleanor Collins , Canadian jazz legend who worked with other greats like Dizzy Gillespie and fellow Canadian Oscar Peterson, 104, March 3 “I’m often asked what my favourite, my most important building is. I’m going on the record right now. This is it .” — Architect Antoine Predock , on the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, 87, March 2 “In ’24, the power of showing up as your whole self authentically (and) intentionally is the resistance — ain’t no half steppin ’. ” — Jay Williams , beloved Scarborough educator who served as a role model to thousands of teenagers as a progressive Black man in the field of education, 40, Feb. 29 “You had an option, sir. You could have said, ‘I am not going to do it. This is wrong for Canada, and I am not going to ask Canadians to pay the price .’” — Debate knockout blow from Brian Mulroney, Canada’s 18th prime minister whose legacy is dominated by the free-trade agreement with the U.S., 84, Feb. 29 “I’m paranoid about everything in my life. Even at home. On my stationary bike, I have a rear-view mirror .” — Richard Lewis , indelibly neurotic U.S. comedian, 76, Feb. 27 “If they’re told to feed you caviar tomorrow, they’ll feed you caviar. If they’re told to strangle you in your cell, they’ll strangle you .” — Incarcerated Russian opposition leader Alexander Navalny , on his jailers, 47, Feb. 16 “The Spinners are still here and still singing for our people who want to hear us. And that’s not going to change. We’ll still be there for them .” — Henry Fambrough , as the last living original member of the hitmaking ’70s band, 85, Feb. 7 “If you can’t handle ‘Tie My Pecker to My Leg,’ you’re not gonna like the rest of the show. But if I don’t run a few people off, I haven’t done my job .” — Mojo Nixon , raw and rootsy musician, actor, and radio DJ, 66, Feb. 7 “Probably 75 per cent of the people in this town (Nashville) think I’ll fail, and the other 25 per cent hope I fail .” — Toby Keith , crafter of hit pro-American country-music anthems such as the controversial “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue,” 62, Feb. 5 “My problem wasn’t my drug use and alcohol abuse. My problem was I couldn’t get along in the world with people. Everything bothered me, to a great degree .” — Wayne Kramer , abrasive co-founder of the protopunk Detroit band the MC5, 75, Feb. 2 “There are so many people that came before me who I admired and whose success I wanted to emulate ... And hopefully I can inspire someone else to do good work as well.” — Carl Weathers , former NFL and CFL linebacker who became a film star in the “Rocky” movies, “Happy Gilmore,” and more , 76, Feb. 1 “I wouldn’t know what to do if I wasn’t moving or telling a story to you or singing a song .” — Chita Rivera , dancer, singer and actress who garnered 10 Tony nominations, winning twice, and was in the original production of “West Side Story” in a long Broadway career, 91, Jan. 30 “I can remember my first big-league hit, but when you only get three you can remember them all .” — Jimy Williams , former Blue Jays manager, on his brief major-league playing career, 80, Jan. 26 “It wasn’t the age of smiling women. It had to be much more broody and I was way too cherubic .” — Melanie (Safka), singer-songwriter of “Brand New Key” fame, on her era, 76, Jan. 23 “Everybody is trying to tell you something different, and they’re always putting obstacles in your way. You have to fight for what you believe in, and you have to defend yourself constantly. It’s a matter of confidence.” — Norman Jewison , Canadian director nominated for seven Oscars, on directing , 97, Jan. 20 “When we started, it was all about music. By the time it ended, it was all about litigation.” — Mary Weiss , the lead singer of the 1960s pop group the Shangri-Las, whose hits included “Leader of the Pack,” 75, Jan. 19 “You miss three times in a row and that’s all you get. Moving forward, lessons to be learned.” — Shawn Barber , Canadian pole-vault record holder and 2015 world champion, 29, Jan. 17 “It took me to a special place ... I saw that it brought joy and happiness to other people when I played, so I wanted to take it to a higher place by bringing in some Cajun, country, blues, rock and jazz.” — Jo-El Sonnier , Cajun music titan , 77, Jan. 13 “Probably the worst decision of my political life. David won and he deserved to.” — Ed Broadbent , longtime New Democratic Party leader, on losing his first leadership campaign to David Lewis, 87, Jan. 11 “Football for me was a deliverance. Looking back, I can say: Everything went according to how I’d imagined my life. I had a perfect life .” — Franz Beckenbauer , who won the World Cup both as player and coach and became one of Germany’s most beloved personalities with his easygoing charm, 78, Jan. 7 “If I had lived by any maxim as a reporter, it was that every person is an expert on the circumstances of his life .” — Joseph Lelyveld , a former executive editor and foreign correspondent for The New York Times, who won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction for his book “Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White,” 86, Jan. 5 “We had long hair and beards and were looking very bedraggled. Our feet were in tatters — I don’t think we looked very much like soldiers .” — Maj. Mike Sadler , a legendary Second World War navigator who guided Britain’s SAS in daring behind-the-lines night raids, describing crossing 180 kilometres of North African desert on foot, 103, Jan. 4 “These days anybody is a celebrity and, frankly, there’s nothing to celebrate . Reality TV? I live my life in reality. I want (to watch) something special, not pretty people with little talent trying to get famous.” — Actor David Soul , blond half of crime-fighting duo “Starsky & Hutch” in the popular 1970s TV series, 80, Jan. 4
RCBC exec calls for united front against scams
From revisiting the political scandal that sparked a cultural reckoning in Canberra to a rich-lister’s unravelling, there were no shortage of court battles being waged — or defended — by the top end of town in 2024. We revisit some of the cases that dominated headlines and left us shocked, perplexed, and — at times — even entertained. Brittany Higgins defended a defamation action launched by Senator Linda Reynolds. Credit: Composite image/Holly Thompson Villain or victim? Reynolds v Higgins It was a story of an alleged rape in the halls of Parliament House and a covert political cover-up, and like all “fairytales”, it needed a villain. That was how WA Senator Linda Reynolds’ lawyer Martin Bennett began the five-week-long trial in her defamation suit against former staffer Brittany Higgins and her husband David Sharaz, the most high-profile case to go before WA’s civil courts in 2024. The former defence minister sued Higgins over social media posts accusing her of mishandling the former staffer’s alleged rape by Bruce Lehrmann in March 2019 — a claim that was later aired by the media and created a storm that led to Reynolds’ political demise. Higgins fiercely defended the action on the basis her posts were true, but opted against taking the stand at the eleventh hour amid concerns for her health. The trial, which the pair mortgaged and sold their homes to pursue, pored over the events of 2019 in excruciating detail, dragged in high-profile figures — from former prime minister Scott Morrison to broadcaster Peta Credlin — and threw private texts into the public arena we imagine the parties would have preferred to remain private. It also spawned fresh evidence Reynolds now wants to use as a weapon in her bid to have Higgins’ $2.4 million compensation claim probed by the corruption watchdog. Lehrmann has maintained his innocence since his 2022 criminal trial was aborted due to juror misconduct, but a Federal Court judgment found, on the balance of probabilities, that he did rape Higgins. Lehrmann is now appealing that ruling. Justice Paul Tottle is expected to hand down a judgment in the court row in the New Year, but we suspect there won’t be any winners in this saga. Western Australia’s mining dynasty, of which the nation’s richest person Gina Rinehart is the most famous member, was embroiled in a court fight over the rights to the Hope Downs projects in the state’s iron-rich Pilbara region. Credit: Marija Ercegovac Gina Rinehart: 1, Bianca and John: 0 The high-stakes clash over the Hope Downs iron ore project , which pitted Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart against two mining dynasties and her eldest children, occupied two floors of the Supreme Court for more than six months in 2023. And yet still, there was unfinished business in the battle for the multibillion-dollar asset. The case made headlines again in April, when Rinehart’s eldest children lost an eleventh-hour bid for 82 top secret documents their billionaire mother claimed were protected by legal privilege. The pair, who have been locked in a bitter battle with their mother over mining assets left behind by their pioneer grandfather Lang Hancock, believed the files might aid their pursuit for ownership of Rinehart-led Hancock Prospecting’s sprawling mining tenements in the state’s north-west. But Justice Natalie Whitby ruled the pair had insufficient evidence, lashing the handling of the case and its burden on the public justice system after revealing the court book spanned 6000 pages. “To say that the resources dedicated to these privilege claims was grossly disproportionate to the issues in the dispute is an understatement,” she wrote. Ouch... We’re still awaiting a judgment from Justice Jennifer Smith on the broader row. We hope Justice Smith is not spending the whole festive season “in the area of or contiguous to” her desk and what we imagine is a very lengthy draft judgment. Beleaguered Mineral Resources boss takes on media to keep court row quiet He gained a reputation as the uninhibited billionaire mining boss behind Mineral Resources’ meteoric rise, but it would be what Chris Ellison kept hidden that would be his downfall. Depressed lithium prices, sweeping cost cuts and a debt-laden balance sheet saw Ellison declare it the “shittiest time” to be a managing director in one newspaper interview. Just a few months later, he would announce plans to vacate the top job, undone by an exposé in the Australian Financial Review detailing his involvement in an alleged decade-long tax evasion scheme. But as shareholders were demanding answers and the corporate regulator was beginning its own probe, Ellison’s lawyers were busy fighting to keep the media from undoing sweeping gag orders over documents filed in his now-settled row with a former contracts boss. The documents were central to the two-year court row MinRes, Ellison and self-proclaimed whistleblower Steven Pigozzo had been fighting on several fronts until inking a peace deal in July — which featured explosive allegations of misconduct. While a string of Pigozzo’s claims had been republished by the media, much of the case had been covered by suppression orders which were broadened when both parties asked that more than 16 legal documents be permanently removed from the case file. “The non-publication orders are sought to fortify matters raised previously about allegations that were not just irrelevant but scandalous,” Ellison’s lawyer told the court. WA Health, scientist ink top-secret stem cell patent peace deal She was the face of Royal Perth Hospital’s state-of-the-art cellular therapy facility, the Perth scientist behind a medical invention that saw her wheeled out by the health department’s publicity team to showcase its life-changing research. That was until the day of Dr Marian Sturm’s retirement in 2021, when the health service dragged her to court demanding compensation and that the licence agreement for the invention be torn up. The three-year medicine ownership battle came to an abrupt end in March after the East Metropolitan Health Service and Sturm’s company Isopogen inked a top-secret peace deal. The lawsuit centred around intellectual property rights to an improved method of manufacturing mesenchymal stromal cells used to treat inflammatory illnesses, which Sturm developed in 2007 and registered in her name and that of her capital-raising vehicle Isopogen. Sturm’s relationship with the EMHS soured amid claims she had breached her contract by asserting ownership over the medicine, which saw Isopogen, two former employees, the state’s own patents attorneys and its insurer embroiled in a bitter legal pursuit with the health service. The parties claimed they had reached a mutually acceptable, confidential settlement which provided a comprehensive framework for “an ongoing relationship”. A spokesperson for the health service told this masthead that gag order extended to how much this three-year sparring match cost the taxpayer. How convenient. Vegan activist Tash Peterson, partner cop $280k bill in defamation row She’s not quite the “top end of town”, but we couldn’t take a look back at the biggest civil cases of 2024 without referencing the whopping damages bill handed to Perth’s most prominent animal rights activist. In November, Tash Peterson and her partner were ordered to pay $280,000 in damages to the owners of a Perth veterinary clinic for defamation after a bizarre dispute in 2021. The dispute, which was later circulated on social media, was sparked after Peterson and Jack Higgs spotted two cockatiels in a large cage at the front of Dr Kay McIntosh and Andrew McIntosh’s Bicton Veterinary Clinic. What unfolded was a bizarre tirade in which Peterson accused the clinic of “advertising animal slavery” — despite neither of the birds being able to survive in the wild — and of eating their own patients. Peterson and Higgs had claimed their tirade was justified as honest opinion, defending the content on the basis it was substantially true and a matter of public interest. But the part of the trial that managed to capture the most attention were revelations about just how deep Peterson’s pockets were, with the V-Gan Booty Pty Ltd entity behind her burgeoning OnlyFans account generating more than $380,000 in earnings in 2022 alone. We suspect this won’t be the last we see of Peterson. Get alerts on breaking news as happens. Sign up for our Breaking News Alert .
Feverpitched/Getty Stock Image A conflicted Reddit user is struggling with his decision to purchase a home without taking into consideration his new girlfriend's opinion — and wondering if he did the right thing. The user, a single dad who goes by the name Swimming-Age-2944 on the website, in the popular AITA (which stands for "Am I the A------?") forum that he’s been looking for a home for over a year for himself and his two sons. The user said he bought the home they’ve been living in when his children were little and he has since grown unhappy with its location. “I absolutely hate living where I am living,” the user wrote. “My work is 30 minutes away and the boys' school is 45 minutes away.” The dad said he finally came across a listing that was seemingly perfect for him and his boys. Related: “A house came on the market in a neighborhood five minutes from work and 10-15 minutes from the boys' school, and was listed well below market value,” he said. “My realtor called me, I saw it that same day, and made an offer. The offer was accepted.” That's when an issue arose. The original poster said that before purchasing the home, he began dating a new woman in February 2024. He described the relationship as both casual and non-exclusive until September, when he wrote that things became more serious. In those four months, the topic of starting a family was discussed, the user wrote. “My GF has indicated that she wants to have kids, she has no kids currently,” he said. “I am definitely open to that, but have told her only after dating at least a couple of years.” So when he broke the “good news” about the home purchase to his girlfriend, the original poster said she didn’t share in his excitement. “She was less than thrilled. She asked why I did not 'consult' her,” the user continued. The dad shared how difficult it’s been for him to find an available home given the current real estate market, and said he felt a sense of urgency to make an offer. “I had to move quickly. I explained all this, but she is still upset,” the user wrote about trying to explain the situation to his girlfriend. He said his sister offered some perspective on what might be going through the girlfriend's mind: "My GF is thinking that this is the home her kids are potentially going to be raised in,” the user wrote. “I can see that, but I feel that it is a little premature to expect I will consult my GF of 4 months before buying a home. That is moving a little too fast from my perspective.” The original poster also hopped into the comment section to affirm that his girlfriend "knew" he had been looking at houses for over a year, and had even accompanied him to view some of them. In the comments, users generally affirmed the original poster's decision to buy the home for himself and kids — without his partner's input. “You’ve only been exclusive since September, sure she might be imagining a life with you but doesn’t mean she has a say in your housing now,” wrote one user. Related: “As a single dad, your primary responsibility is to your children,” said another AITA commenter. “You have the right to make choices that prioritize your and your kids' well-being." Yet another user commented, “It’s too soon in the relationship for her to force an opinion on a house you bought with your money, regardless of her biological clock.” Read the original article onConcerns raised over hospitality staff after smoking curbs ditchedNo. 8 Maryland women’s basketball beats No. 19 Michigan State, 72-66
Trump to Supreme Court: Delay TikTok ban until after his inaugurationWASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump's transition team on Tuesday signed an agreement to allow the Justice Department to conduct background checks on his nominees and appointees after a weekslong delay. The step lets Trump transition aides and future administration staffers obtain security clearances before Inauguration Day to access classified information about ongoing government programs, an essential step for a smooth transition of power. It also allows those nominees who are up for Senate confirmation to face the background checks lawmakers want before voting on them. Teams of investigators have been standing by to process clearances for Trump aides and advisers. FILE - Susie Wiles watches as Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a caucus night party in Des Moines, Iowa, Jan. 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File) "This agreement with the Department of Justice will ensure President Trump and his team are ready on Day 1 to begin enacting the America First Agenda that an overwhelming majority of our nation supported on Election Day," said Susie Wiles, Trump's designate to be White House chief of staff. The announcement came a week after the Trump transition team signed an agreement with the Biden White House to allow transition staff to coordinate with the existing federal workforce before taking office Jan. 20. The White House agreement was supposed to have been signed by Oct. 1, according to the Presidential Transition Act, and the Biden White House issued both public and private appeals for Trump's team to sign on. Security clearances are required to access classified information, including on ongoing operations and threats to the nation, and the Biden White House and outside experts emphasized to Trump's team the importance of having cleared personnel before Inauguration Day so they could be fully briefed and ready to run the government. President-elect Donald Trump arrives before the launch of the sixth test flight of the SpaceX Starship rocket Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024 in Boca Chica, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Pool via AP) Republican Senators also insisted on FBI background checks for Trump's nominees before they face confirmation votes, as has been standard practice for decades. Lawmakers were particularly interested in seeing the findings of reviews into Trump's designated nominee for defense secretary, former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, and for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence. "That's why it's so important that we have an FBI background check, a committee review of extensive questions and questionnaires, and a public hearing," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Monday. John Thune, incoming Senate Republican leader, said the Trump team "understands there's going to have to be a thorough vetting of all these nominees." Among President-elect Donald Trump's picks are Susie Wiles for chief of staff, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state, former Democratic House member Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general. Susie Wiles, 67, was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and its de facto manager. Trump named Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of state, making a former sharp critic his choice to be the new administration's top diplomat. Rubio, 53, is a noted hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, and was a finalist to be Trump's running mate on the Republican ticket last summer. Rubio is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries,” Trump said of Rubio in a statement. The announcement punctuates the hard pivot Rubio has made with Trump, whom the senator called a “con man" during his unsuccessful campaign for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. Their relationship improved dramatically while Trump was in the White House. And as Trump campaigned for the presidency a third time, Rubio cheered his proposals. For instance, Rubio, who more than a decade ago helped craft immigration legislation that included a path to citizenship for people in the U.S. illegally, now supports Trump's plan to use the U.S. military for mass deportations. Pete Hegseth, 44, is a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” and has been a contributor with the network since 2014, where he developed a friendship with Trump, who made regular appearances on the show. Hegseth lacks senior military or national security experience. If confirmed by the Senate, he would inherit the top job during a series of global crises — ranging from Russia’s war in Ukraine and the ongoing attacks in the Middle East by Iranian proxies to the push for a cease-fire between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah and escalating worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea. Hegseth is also the author of “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” published earlier this year. Trump tapped Pam Bondi, 59, to be attorney general after U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration. She was Florida's first female attorney general, serving between 2011 and 2019. She also was on Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment trial in 2020. Considered a loyalist, she served as part of a Trump-allied outside group that helped lay the groundwork for his future administration called the America First Policy Institute. Bondi was among a group of Republicans who showed up to support Trump at his hush money criminal trial in New York that ended in May with a conviction on 34 felony counts. A fierce defender of Trump, she also frequently appears on Fox News and has been a critic of the criminal cases against him. Trump picked South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a well-known conservative who faced sharp criticism for telling a story in her memoir about shooting a rambunctious dog, to lead an agency crucial to the president-elect’s hardline immigration agenda. Noem used her two terms leading a tiny state to vault to a prominent position in Republican politics. South Dakota is usually a political afterthought. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, Noem did not order restrictions that other states had issued and instead declared her state “open for business.” Trump held a fireworks rally at Mount Rushmore in July 2020 in one of the first large gatherings of the pandemic. She takes over a department with a sprawling mission. In addition to key immigration agencies, the Department of Homeland Security oversees natural disaster response, the U.S. Secret Service, and Transportation Security Administration agents who work at airports. The governor of North Dakota, who was once little-known outside his state, Burgum is a former Republican presidential primary contender who endorsed Trump, and spent months traveling to drum up support for him, after dropping out of the race. Burgum was a serious contender to be Trump’s vice presidential choice this summer. The two-term governor was seen as a possible pick because of his executive experience and business savvy. Burgum also has close ties to deep-pocketed energy industry CEOs. Trump made the announcement about Burgum joining his incoming administration while addressing a gala at his Mar-a-Lago club, and said a formal statement would be coming the following day. In comments to reporters before Trump took the stage, Burgum said that, in recent years, the power grid is deteriorating in many parts of the country, which he said could raise national security concerns but also drive up prices enough to increase inflation. “There's just a sense of urgency, and a sense of understanding in the Trump administration,” Burgum said. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran for president as a Democrat, than as an independent, and then endorsed Trump . He's the son of Democratic icon Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated during his own presidential campaign. The nomination of Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services alarmed people who are concerned about his record of spreading unfounded fears about vaccines . For example, he has long advanced the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism. Scott Bessent, 62, is a former George Soros money manager and an advocate for deficit reduction. He's the founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management, after having worked on-and-off for Soros Fund Management since 1991. If confirmed by the Senate, he would be the nation’s first openly gay treasury secretary. He told Bloomberg in August that he decided to join Trump’s campaign in part to attack the mounting U.S. national debt. That would include slashing government programs and other spending. “This election cycle is the last chance for the U.S. to grow our way out of this mountain of debt without becoming a sort of European-style socialist democracy,” he said then. Oregon Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer narrowly lost her reelection bid this month, but received strong backing from union members in her district. As a potential labor secretary, she would oversee the Labor Department’s workforce, its budget and put forth priorities that impact workers’ wages, health and safety, ability to unionize, and employer’s rights to fire employers, among other responsibilities. Chavez-DeRemer is one of few House Republicans to endorse the “Protecting the Right to Organize” or PRO Act would allow more workers to conduct organizing campaigns and would add penalties for companies that violate workers’ rights. The act would also weaken “right-to-work” laws that allow employees in more than half the states to avoid participating in or paying dues to unions that represent workers at their places of employment. Scott Turner is a former NFL player and White House aide. He ran the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term in office. Trump, in a statement, credited Turner, the highest-ranking Black person he’s yet selected for his administration, with “helping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities.” Sean Duffy is a former House member from Wisconsin who was one of Trump's most visible defenders on cable news. Duffy served in the House for nearly nine years, sitting on the Financial Services Committee and chairing the subcommittee on insurance and housing. He left Congress in 2019 for a TV career and has been the host of “The Bottom Line” on Fox Business. Before entering politics, Duffy was a reality TV star on MTV, where he met his wife, “Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy. They have nine children. A campaign donor and CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Write is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking — a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. Wright also has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change. He said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight.” The Energy Department is responsible for advancing energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States. Wright also won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm. Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term. President-elect Donald Trump tapped billionaire professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon to be secretary of the Education Department, tasked with overseeing an agency Trump promised to dismantle. McMahon led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s initial term from 2017 to 2019 and twice ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut. She’s seen as a relative unknown in education circles, though she expressed support for charter schools and school choice. She served on the Connecticut Board of Education for a year starting in 2009 and has spent years on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. Brooke Rollins, who graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in agricultural development, is a longtime Trump associate who served as White House domestic policy chief during his first presidency. The 52-year-old is president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a group helping to lay the groundwork for a second Trump administration. She previously served as an aide to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and ran a think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Trump chose Howard Lutnick, head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and a cryptocurrency enthusiast, as his nominee for commerce secretary, a position in which he'd have a key role in carrying out Trump's plans to raise and enforce tariffs. Trump made the announcement Tuesday on his social media platform, Truth Social. Lutnick is a co-chair of Trump’s transition team, along with Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who previously led Trump’s Small Business Administration. Both are tasked with putting forward candidates for key roles in the next administration. The nomination would put Lutnick in charge of a sprawling Cabinet agency that is involved in funding new computer chip factories, imposing trade restrictions, releasing economic data and monitoring the weather. It is also a position in which connections to CEOs and the wider business community are crucial. Doug Collins is a former Republican congressman from Georgia who gained recognition for defending Trump during his first impeachment trial, which centered on U.S. assistance for Ukraine. Trump was impeached for urging Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden in 2019 during the Democratic presidential nomination, but he was acquitted by the Senate. Collins has also served in the armed forces himself and is currently a chaplain in the United States Air Force Reserve Command. "We must take care of our brave men and women in uniform, and Doug will be a great advocate for our Active Duty Servicemembers, Veterans, and Military Families to ensure they have the support they need," Trump said in a statement about nominating Collins to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. Karoline Leavitt, 27, was Trump's campaign press secretary and currently a spokesperson for his transition. She would be the youngest White House press secretary in history. The White House press secretary typically serves as the public face of the administration and historically has held daily briefings for the press corps. Leavitt, a New Hampshire native, was a spokesperson for MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump, before joining his 2024 campaign. In 2022, she ran for Congress in New Hampshire, winning a 10-way Republican primary before losing to Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas. Leavitt worked in the White House press office during Trump's first term before she became communications director for New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump's choice for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been tapped by Trump to be director of national intelligence, keeping with the trend to stock his Cabinet with loyal personalities rather than veteran professionals in their requisite fields. Gabbard, 43, was a Democratic House member who unsuccessfully sought the party's 2020 presidential nomination before leaving the party in 2022. She endorsed Trump in August and campaigned often with him this fall. “I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community,” Trump said in a statement. Gabbard, who has served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades, deploying to Iraq and Kuwait, would come to the role as somewhat of an outsider compared to her predecessor. The current director, Avril Haines, was confirmed by the Senate in 2021 following several years in a number of top national security and intelligence positions. Trump has picked John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman who served as director of national intelligence during his first administration, to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency in his next. Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence during the final year and a half of Trump's first term, leading the U.S. government's spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic. “I look forward to John being the first person ever to serve in both of our Nation's highest Intelligence positions,” Trump said in a statement, calling him a “fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans” who would ensure “the Highest Levels of National Security, and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.” Trump has chosen former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to serve as his pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency . Zeldin does not appear to have any experience in environmental issues, but is a longtime supporter of the former president. The 44-year-old former U.S. House member from New York wrote on X , “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI.” “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water,” he added. During his campaign, Trump often attacked the Biden administration's promotion of electric vehicles, and incorrectly referring to a tax credit for EV purchases as a government mandate. Trump also often told his audiences during the campaign his administration would “Drill, baby, drill,” referring to his support for expanded petroleum exploration. In a statement, Trump said Zeldin “will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.” Trump has named Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as the new chairman of the agency tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband. Carr is a longtime member of the commission and served previously as the FCC’s general counsel. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and President Joe Biden to the commission. Carr made past appearances on “Fox News Channel," including when he decried Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' pre-Election Day appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” He wrote an op-ed last month defending a satellite company owned by Trump supporter Elon Musk. Rep. Elise Stefanik is a representative from New York and one of Trump's staunchest defenders going back to his first impeachment. Elected to the House in 2014, Stefanik was selected by her GOP House colleagues as House Republican Conference chair in 2021, when former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was removed from the post after publicly criticizing Trump for falsely claiming he won the 2020 election. Stefanik, 40, has served in that role ever since as the third-ranking member of House leadership. Stefanik’s questioning of university presidents over antisemitism on their campuses helped lead to two of those presidents resigning, further raising her national profile. If confirmed, she would represent American interests at the U.N. as Trump vows to end the war waged by Russia against Ukraine begun in 2022. He has also called for peace as Israel continues its offensive against Hamas in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon to target Hezbollah. President-elect Donald Trump says he's chosen former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker to serve as U.S. ambassador to NATO. Trump has expressed skepticism about the Western military alliance for years. Trump said in a statement Wednesday that Whitaker is “a strong warrior and loyal Patriot” who “will ensure the United States’ interests are advanced and defended” and “strengthen relationships with our NATO Allies, and stand firm in the face of threats to Peace and Stability.” The choice of Whitaker as the nation’s representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an unusual one, given his background is as a lawyer and not in foreign policy. Trump will nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel. Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel's interests as it wages wars against the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah. “He loves Israel, and likewise the people of Israel love him,” Trump said in a statement. “Mike will work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East.” Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2016, has been a popular figure among evangelical Christian conservatives, many of whom support Israel due to Old Testament writings that Jews are God’s chosen people and that Israel is their rightful homeland. Trump has been praised by some in this important Republican voting bloc for moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump on Tuesday named real estate investor Steven Witkoff to be special envoy to the Middle East. The 67-year-old Witkoff is the president-elect's golf partner and was golfing with him at Trump's club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15, when the former president was the target of a second attempted assassination. Witkoff “is a Highly Respected Leader in Business and Philanthropy,” Trump said of Witkoff in a statement. “Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud." Trump also named Witkoff co-chair, with former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, of his inaugural committee. Trump said Wednesday that he will nominate Gen. Keith Kellogg to serve as assistant to the president and special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. Kellogg, a retired Army lieutenant general who has long been Trump’s top adviser on defense issues, served as National Security Advisor to Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence. For the America First Policy Institute, one of several groups formed after Trump left office to help lay the groundwork for the next Republican administration, Kellogg in April wrote that “bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties.” (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib) Trump asked Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, Trump announced in a statement Tuesday. The move puts Waltz in the middle of national security crises, ranging from efforts to provide weapons to Ukraine and worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea to the persistent attacks in the Middle East by Iran proxies and the push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah. “Mike has been a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy agenda,” Trump's statement said, "and will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of Peace through Strength!” Waltz is a three-term GOP congressman from east-central Florida. He served multiple tours in Afghanistan and also worked in the Pentagon as a policy adviser when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates were defense chiefs. He is considered hawkish on China, and called for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its involvement in the origin of COVID-19 and its mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uighur population. Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner , was a vocal spokesperson during the presidential campaign for Trump's priority of mass deportations. The 39-year-old was a senior adviser during Trump's first administration. Miller has been a central figure in some of Trump's policy decisions, notably his move to separate thousands of immigrant families. Trump argued throughout the campaign that the nation's economic, national security and social priorities could be met by deporting people who are in the United States illegally. Since Trump left office in 2021, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organization made up of former Trump advisers aimed at challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others over issues such as free speech and national security. Thomas Homan, 62, has been tasked with Trump’s top priority of carrying out the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history. Homan, who served under Trump in his first administration leading U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was widely expected to be offered a position related to the border, an issue Trump made central to his campaign. Though Homan has insisted such a massive undertaking would be humane, he has long been a loyal supporter of Trump's policy proposals, suggesting at a July conference in Washington that he would be willing to "run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.” Democrats have criticized Homan for his defending Trump's “zero tolerance” policy on border crossings during his first administration, which led to the separation of thousands of parents and children seeking asylum at the border. Dr. Mehmet Oz, 64, is a former heart surgeon who hosted “The Dr. Oz Show,” a long-running daytime television talk show. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate as the Republican nominee in 2022 and is an outspoken supporter of Trump, who endorsed Oz's bid for elected office. Elon Musk, left, and Vivek Ramaswamy speak before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at an Oct. 27 campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York. Trump on Tuesday said Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Ramaswamy will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency" — which is not, despite the name, a government agency. The acronym “DOGE” is a nod to Musk's favorite cryptocurrency, dogecoin. Trump said Musk and Ramaswamy will work from outside the government to offer the White House “advice and guidance” and will partner with the Office of Management and Budget to “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.” He added the move would shock government systems. It's not clear how the organization will operate. Musk, owner of X and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has been a constant presence at Mar-a-Lago since Trump won the presidential election. Ramaswamy suspended his campaign in January and threw his support behind Trump. Trump said the two will “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” Russell Vought held the position during Trump’s first presidency. After Trump’s initial term ended, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, a think tank that describes its mission as “renew a consensus of America as a nation under God.” Vought was closely involved with Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term that he tried to distance himself from during the campaign. Vought has also previously worked as the executive and budget director for the Republican Study Committee, a caucus for conservative House Republicans. He also worked at Heritage Action, the political group tied to The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Dan Scavino, deputy chief of staff Scavino, whom Trump's transition referred to in a statement as one of “Trump's longest serving and most trusted aides,” was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 campaign, as well as his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. He will be deputy chief of staff and assistant to the president. Scavino had run Trump's social media profile in the White House during his first administration. He was also held in contempt of Congress in 2022 after a month-long refusal to comply with a subpoena from the House committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. James Blair, deputy chief of staff Blair was political director for Trump's 2024 campaign and for the Republican National Committee. He will be deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs and assistant to the president. Blair was key to Trump's economic messaging during his winning White House comeback campaign this year, a driving force behind the candidate's “Trump can fix it” slogan and his query to audiences this fall if they were better off than four years ago. Taylor Budowich, deputy chief of staff Budowich is a veteran Trump campaign aide who launched and directed Make America Great Again, Inc., a super PAC that supported Trump's 2024 campaign. He will be deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel and assistant to the president. Budowich also had served as a spokesman for Trump after his presidency. William McGinley, White House counsel McGinley was White House Cabinet secretary during Trump's first administration, and was outside legal counsel for the Republican National Committee's election integrity effort during the 2024 campaign. In a statement, Trump called McGinley “a smart and tenacious lawyer who will help me advance our America First agenda, while fighting for election integrity and against the weaponization of law enforcement.” Jay Bhattacharya, National Institutes of Health Trump has chosen Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health. Bhattacharya is a physician and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, and is a critic of pandemic lockdowns and vaccine mandates. He promoted the idea of herd immunity during the pandemic, arguing that people at low risk should live normally while building up immunity to COVID-19 through infection. The National Institutes of Health funds medical research through competitive grants to researchers at institutions throughout the nation. NIH also conducts its own research with thousands of scientists working at its labs in Bethesda, Maryland. Jamieson Greer, U.S. trade representative Kevin Hassett, Director of the White House National Economic Council Trump is turning to two officials with experience navigating not only Washington but the key issues of income taxes and tariffs as he fills out his economic team. He announced he has chosen international trade attorney Jamieson Greer to be his U.S. trade representative and Kevin Hassett as director of the White House National Economic Council. While Trump has in several cases nominated outsiders to key posts, these picks reflect a recognition that his reputation will likely hinge on restoring the public’s confidence in the economy. Trump said in a statement that Greer was instrumental in his first term in imposing tariffs on China and others and replacing the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, “therefore making it much better for American Workers.” Hassett, 62, served in the first Trump term as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He has a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and worked at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute before joining the Trump White House in 2017. Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.
Pioneering model Dayle Haddon dies after suspected carbon monoxide leak
Share Tweet Share Share Email It is hard to visualize how undergoing a warehouse process could get faster and have higher accuracy. Well, thanks to thermal label warehouse systems, this is now a reality. These systems facilitate the labeling of unlabeled goods and enable monitoring of stocks. Various procedures for managing, storing, and shipping of goods are altered. Employing thermal labels in warehouses facilitates the reduction of errors in manual work. Every item is registered, monitored, and sent. These systems do away with manual labeling, thus enhancing and expediting order and stock management. An improvement in business processes is experienced with the use of thermal labels because errors, wastages, and unproductively are worked upon. Thermal labels are handy in the warehouse, from the point of reception to shipment, and everything in between. Introducing thermal labeling helps warehouses with a competitive advantage. Let us understand the impact thermal labels are having on warehouse logistics and what efficiency drives. What Are Thermal Labels and How Do They Change the Way Warehouses Operate? – Understanding Thermal Labeling Technology Thermal labeling is using printers that do not use ink to apply a label that is a label maker without ink. It has several concerns, such as paper quality being sensitive to heat. But this approach guarantees speed, precision, and improved working sustainability. It is a smart eco-friendly replacement for conventional labeling techniques. Looking at it from a production standpoint, having to place a label on a product requires a lot of time and resources. If a label can be produced easily and economically, it can save both a lot of time and resources. – Cost-effective and reliable Thermal labels don’t need toner, or ink, which lowers overall cost. These labels are printed in special warehouses, which reduces smudging and fading. The aggravation is if a warehouse is rough on handling during transportation, which is a normal event for some labels. But for thermal labels, the lightweight materials make activating cost low alongside helping them get the job done easily. – Labels that are easily understandable With thermal labels, these label templates offer sharper bar codes, are easier to read product names, and much more. This helps in stock taking and enhancing the processes involving warehouses. Visibility of the labels also lessens the chance of mis-scanning. This enhances inventory accuracy in all the warehouse activities. The Role of Thermal Labels in Barcode Systems for Warehouse Efficiency – Addressing inaccuracy in barcode scanning Thermal labels make it easier to read bar codes, thus speeding up inventory management. This minimizes errors and tracking of items is done correctly. Faster and easier scanning is made possible thanks to the barcodes on items. Such measures allow workers to perform their roles more efficiently. – Enhancing efficiency in inventory management Bar codes that are easily visible enable workers to quickly scan items. This helps in minimizing slow periods while items are being received, sorted and while shipping is happening. More effective scanning increases accuracy. This ensures inventory restocking and the shipping of items occurs at a faster rate. – Elimination of errors caused by humans Thermal labels play a key role in the identification and tracking of each product, ensuring there is minimal misunderstanding. This leads to fewer problems in inventory management as well as order fulfillment. Uniform and clearly readable labels do not cause confusion. This leads to better efficiency of warehouse activities. Merging Thermal Labels with WMS (Warehouse Management Systems) – How Thermal Labels Mechanisms Collaborate With WMS WMS ensures that warehouse operations run as smoothly as possible through the use of real-time data. If this is paired with thermal labels, the stock count is part and automatically updated, which reduces the likelihood of errors occurring. This minimizes manual work and stops the entry of stale information as all data is live. – Automated WMS Updates on Inventory Levels WMS is supreme at inventory replenishment as thermal labels automatically adjust the inventory count while reducing the chances of the counts being wrong. It helps avoid running out of stock or having too much of a certain stock. This helps in optimizing occupancy and inventory allocation across the stockroom. – Employing WMS Would Be Ideal For Businesses Looking To Cut Back On Labor Costs Implementing thermal labels & WMS discourages excessive manual tagging of items, which only leads to loss of focus on more essential parts of work at the stockroom. Such features can also be great multivalents, as they will also help reduce errors made by workers while entering data. Simplifying the process increases reliability and keeps maximum flow from operations. Thermal Labeling and its Impact on Enhancing Efficiency of Warehouse Operations – Reduction in Time Taken to Print and Paste Thermal Stickers If you are comparing thermal printers with inkjet or laser printers, thermal ones are a clear winner, as they are much faster and efficient. It would also reduce the number of delays taking place thanks to the tag assembling of many prints. Most importantly, it’ll improve the over efficiency of a business. – Picking & Packing Efficiency As the work of the employees goes into thermal picking and thermal labeling, the chances of them making errors while packing items are reduced significantly, which leads to the order being completed faster, reducing the time for each transaction to be processed. It means good management of the entire shipping process. – Addressing Blockades Whenever there is an excessive presence of operators manually labeling, it causes disruption of inventory management, but because of thermal passing, the entire bottleneck is avoided, leading to an increase in productivity. Order labeling is simplified, resulting in faster delivery. Common Problems Faced During Thermal Labeling In A Warehouse Setting 1. Issue With Print Durability & Fading In a warehouse setting, issues such as exposure to light & heat lead to fading of the thermal labels, however to avoid that, one can use the right type of label material in order to protect it from getting faded. Using heat sensitive labels which contain relevant designs and instructions would help, and be crucial in an interview situation, especially since it is required throughout all warehouse processes. Because of factors like moisture, light and heat, the chances of the pinholes or voids which form on the thermal label over time create visibility issues even for employees working in the labeling department. 2. Like All Instruments Printers Need Care: Calibration & Maintenance When printers are not properly maintained, the chances of misprints increase, so ensuring pump repairs or cleaning can help fix that issue, but ideally, employees should check for print heads contamination because of the need to calibrate the devices regularly. Regular inspection means purchasing instruments with consistent results and a greater printing mechanism. 3. Label Placement and Scanner Utilization Improper label positioning or alignment lead to scanning faults. Proper placement achieves compatibility of thermal labels with scanners. Labels are placed in such a manner that barcodes are not covered. Which aids in effective scanning or reading of the codes. 4. Troubleshooting Printing Problems Whenever printing problems occur, first ensure the labels are compatible and change the configuration. Issues related to bad prints can be rectified through printer servicing. Regular calibrating is essential to maintain good print quality. To be accurate in printing and to get consistent results from labels. Conclusion Warehouse systems using thermal labels are changing the way warehouse logistics are done today. Such systems allow firms to effectively manage their barcodes, scanning and even processing an order with only needing a fraction of the time compared to the traditional ways. The time efficiency that thermal labels bring around further increases the potential productivity of a warehouse. As business expands, investing in thermal labeling technology becomes essential. With more streamlined systems, warehouses can function even faster, which proves to be critical in the modern supply chains. FAQs What is a thermal label warehouse system? A thermal label warehouse system employs heat-sensitive and labelling labels with thermal printers to carry out inventory counting and packing and dispatching items. How do thermal labels improve barcode scanning in warehouses? Thermal labels have high definition barcodes that help with the stockpile system as well as help lower the errors that occur when scanning items. How does the use of thermal labels with WMS improve the work of the warehouse? Using thermal labels in global labels and WMS allows the inventory to be updated in real time, which improves inventory control and effectiveness in order execution. In what ways is the use of thermal printing technology in labeling of warehouses time saving? Using thermal labels substantially reduces the time taken by picking, packing, and shipping processes because of the quick printing and affixing of the labels. Thermal printers have certain limitations. Are there any solutions to these problems? Problems like flying labels and wrong prints can be avoided by employing the right material, affixing in the right way, and using the appropriate printer settings and maintenance. Related Items: thermal label , Warehouse Systems Share Tweet Share Share Email Recommended for you How to tell if a label is a thermal label? Comments
Alabama took time to get cranked up, then tallied 54 points in the middle two quarters in handing No. 15 Michigan State its first loss, 82-67 on Friday in the West Palm Beach Classic in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Aaliyah Nye finished with 18 points, Zaay Green had 17 and Essence Cody posted 16 points and eight rebounds for unranked Alabama (11-1), which scored only nine points in the first quarter yet led 9-8. Julia Ayrault had 18 points for Michigan State (11-1), which trailed by 22 points going to the fourth quarter. Theryn Hallock posted 14 points off the bench and Grace VanSlooten had 10 points, but the Spartans were hurt by 25 turnovers. No. 1 UCLA 70, Creighton 41 Kiki Rice scored a game-high 20 points and Angela Dugalic posted a 13-point, 14-rebound double-double as the Bruins remained unbeaten with a blowout of the Bluejays in Los Angeles. Led by Rice's 10 first-quarter points, UCLA (12-0) jumped out to a 26-4 lead entering the second quarter. The Bruins, who shot 40.9 percent from the floor, never trailed while dominating in rebounds (59-26) and points in the paint (34-14). The Bluejays, who had an eight-game winning streak snapped, shot just 23.3 percent from the floor (14 for 60). Morgan Maly scored 15 points on 3-of-12 shooting, hitting all eight of her free-throw attempts. Kennedy Townsend added 10 points. No. 11 Ohio State 84, Stanford 59 Cotie McMahon scored 16 points as six Buckeyes had double-figure totals in the Bay Area Women's Classic in San Francisco. Madison Greene's 15 points along with 14 apiece from Ajae Petty and Chance Gray were also boosts for Ohio State (12-0), which made half of its 70 field-goal attempts. Taylor Thierry had 12 points and reserve Ava Watson added 11. Nunu Agara scored 17 points for Stanford (8-4), which was hampered by 19 turnovers and 39-percent shooting from the field. The Cardinal made just two of 16 attempts from 3-point range. No. 16 Kentucky 84, Belmont 78 Georgia Amoore hit seven 3-point shots on the way to scoring 23 points, but the host Wildcats had trouble putting away the Bruins before prevailing in Lexington, Ky. Kentucky (10-1) trailed 39-33 at halftime before going ahead in the third quarter. Amelia Hassett's 16 game points, which included four 3-point baskets, and Dazia Lawrence's 15 points were boosts for the Wildcats, who are 7-1 at home. Teonni Key and Clara Strack added 12 points apiece. Jailyn Banks scored 23 points for Belmont (5-6), which finished with a 34-32 rebounding advantage but shot only 44.6 percent from the field. No. 18 Tennessee 92, Richmond 67 Talaysia Cooper racked up 17 of her 24 points in the second half as the Volunteers topped the Spiders in the West Palm Beach Classic contest in Fort Lauderdale. The Volunteers (10-0) led 47-39 at halftime before pouring it on. They shot 51.4 percent (37 of 72) for the game, with Cooper going 10-for-18. Ruby Whitehorn provided 15 points off the bench on 7-for-11 shooting, and Samara Spencer had 11 points. Rachel Ullstrom led Richmond (9-3) with 19 points, while Maggie Doogan had 14. The Spiders got only three points from bench players compared to Tennessee's 35. No. 20 Michigan 96, Akron 55 Greta Kampschroeder poured in 23 points as the Wolverines won their first true road game of the season in Akron, Ohio. Kampschroeder accounted for five of Michigan's 12 baskets from 3-point range. Jordan Hobbs had 13 points, reserve Yulia Grabovskaia notched 12 points and Olivia Olson added 11 for the Wolverines (10-2), who made 20 of 24 free throws. Michigan is 2-2 in neutral-site games. Akron (5-6), which committed 29 turnovers, was led by Shelbee Brown's 14 points. No. 22 Iowa 92, Northern Iowa 86 Lucy Olsen's 21 points helped the host Hawkeyes in a tight nonconference victory in Iowa City. Northern Iowa (5-6) was within 83-81 with less than three minutes to play but went more than two minutes without scoring. Addison O'Grady added 18 points as the Hawkeyes (10-2) remained perfect at home through five games. Hannah Stuelke and reserve Taylor McCabe both had 15 points. Iowa shot 50 percent from the field and 20-for-22 on free throws. Maya McDermott scored 30 points on 12-for-26 shooting for Northern Iowa. Teammate Kayba Laube, who made five 3s, posted 20 points. --Field Level Media
BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s embassy in Lebanon suspended consular services Saturday, a day after two relatives of deposed Syrian President Bashar Assad were arrested at the Beirut airport with allegedly forged passports. Also on Saturday, Lebanese authorities handed over dozens of Syrians — including former officers in the Syrian army under Assad — to the new Syrian authorities after they were caught illegally entering Lebanon, a war monitor and Lebanese officials said. The embassy announced on its Facebook page that consular work was suspended “until further notice” at the order of the Syrian foreign ministry. The announcement did not give a reason for the suspension. Two Lebanese security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said the suspension was ordered because the passports belonging to Assad’s relatives — the wife and daughter of one of his cousins — were believed to have been forged at the embassy. Assad’s uncle, Rifaat Assad — who has been indicted in Switzerland on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity — had flown out the day before on his real passport and was not stopped, the officials said. The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported Saturday that 70 Syrians, including former army officers, were handed over by a Lebanese security delegation to the security forces of the new Syrian government, led by the former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS. Three Lebanese judicial officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the report. Regional countries have been quick to establish ties with Syria’s new rulers. Delegations of Libyan and Bahraini officials arrived in Damascus on Saturday on official visits. HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, has largely succeeded in calming fears within and outside of Syria that his group would unleash collective punishment against communities that supported Assad’s rule or attempt to impose strict Islamic law on the country’s religious minorities. However, in recent days, sporadic clashes have broken out between the HTS-led security forces and pro-Assad armed groups. The country’s new security forces have launched a series of raids targeting officials affiliated with Assad and have set up checkpoints in areas with significant populations of the Alawite religious minority to which the former president belongs to search for weapons. There have also been ongoing tensions and clashes in northeastern Syria between Kurdish-led forces and armed groups backed by Turkey. Many Kurds have viewed the new order in Damascus, which appears to have strengthened Turkey’s hand in Syria, with anxiety. Ankara sees the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces — a key U.S. ally in the fight against the Islamic State group — as an affiliate of its sworn enemy, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which it classifies as a terrorist organization. The U.S. State Department said Saturday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had spoken with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to “discuss the latest developments in Syria.” “Secretary Blinken emphasized the need to support a Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political process that upholds human rights and prioritizes an inclusive and representative government,” the statement said, adding that they “also discussed the shared goal of preventing terrorism from endangering the security” of Turkey and Syria. On Saturday, hundreds of protesters convened by Kurdish women’s groups participated in a demonstration in the northeastern city of Hasaka to demand women’s rights in the new Syria. Perishan Ramadan, a participant from Hasaka, said the new government “is worse than Bashar” and that its leaders are Islamist extremists who “don’t accept any role for women.” While the country’s new leaders have not attempted to impose Islamic dress or other conventions, it remains to be seen what role women will have in the new order and whether they will hold political or government positions. "Women must be present in the new constitution for Syria,” said Rihan Loqo, spokeswoman for the Kongra Star women’s organization. "... Women’s rights should not be ignored.” Associated Press writers Hogir Abdo in Hasaka, Syria, and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington contributed to this report.NBA announces suspensions for players in Mavericks-Suns fight
PLAINS, Georgia (AP) — Newly married and sworn as a Naval officer, Jimmy Carter left his tiny hometown in 1946 hoping to climb the ranks and see the world. The untimely death of his father, a farmer who went by “Mr. Earl,” brought the submariner and his wife, Rosalynn , back to a rural life they thought they’d escaped. The lieutenant would never be an admiral. Instead, he became commander in chief. And, years after his presidency ended in humbling defeat, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The life of James Earl Carter Jr. ended Sunday at 100 where it began. Plains fueled the rise of the 39th U.S. president, welcomed him after his fall and sustained him during 40 years of service as a global humanitarian. With an optimism rooted in Baptist faith and an engineer's stubborn confidence, Carter showed a missionary zeal to solve problems and improve lives. “We shouldn’t judge presidents by how popular they are in their day," Carter biographer Jonathan Alter told The Associated Press. “We should judge them by how they changed the country and the world for the better. On that score, Jimmy Carter is not in the first rank of American presidents, but he stands up quite well.” Many Americans judged his presidency ineffective for failing to end an energy crisis, turn around the economy or quickly bring American hostages home from Tehran. He won widespread admiration instead for The Carter Center — which has advocated for public health , human rights and democracy since 1982 — and the many years he and Rosalynn swung hammers with Habitat for Humanity . Carter's allies relished that he and Rosalynn, who died Nov. 19, 2023, lived to see historians reassess his presidency . “He doesn’t quite fit in today’s terms” of a left-right, red-blue scoreboard, said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a repeat visitor during his own White House bid. Carter labeled himself “progressive” or “conservative." Republicans cast him as a left-wing cartoon. He could be classified a centrist, Buttigieg told the AP, “but there’s also something radical about the depth of his commitment to looking after those who are left out of society and out of the economy.” Carter's vow to restore America’s virtue after the shame of Vietnam and Watergate with a transparent, good-government approach didn’t suit Republicans who cast government as the problem. His efficiency mandate could put him at odds with Democrats. Still, he scored wins on the environment, education and mental health care ; expanded federally protected lands; began deregulating air travel, railroads and trucking; emphasized human rights in foreign policy ; and unlike later presidents, added a relative pittance to the national debt. Carter had charmed voters in 1976 , grinning enthusiastically and promising he would “never lie” to them. Once in Washington, he could seem like a joyless engineer, insisting that political rewards would follow facts and logic. Such tenacity worked well at Camp David as Carter brokered peace between Israel’s Menachem Begin and Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, but it failed him as the nation’s cheerleader, beseeching Americans to get past a “crisis of confidence.” Republican Ronald Reagan exploited Carter’s lecturing tone, saying “there you go again” in response to a wonky debate answer. “The Great Communicator” won all but six states. Carter later acknowledged an incompatibility with Washington insiders who looked down on his team as “country come to town.” His closest adviser was Rosalynn Carter, who joined his Cabinet meetings. When she urged him to postpone relinquishing the Panama Canal, Carter said he was “going to do what's right” even if meant he wouldn't get re-elected, recalled her aide, Kathy Cade. “She’d remind him you have to win to govern,” Cade said. Carter won by navigating divides on race, class and ideology. He offered himself as an outsider to Atlanta and Washington, a peanut farmer with a nickname who carried his own luggage. Born on Oct. 1, 1924 in a home without running water or electricity, he was raised by a progressive mother and racist father. He and Rosalynn privately supported integration in the 1950s, but he didn't push to desegregate schools, and there's no record of him supporting the 1965 Voting Rights Act as a state senator. Carter ran to the right of his rival to win the 1970 governor's race, then landed on the cover of Time magazine by declaring that “the time for racial discrimination is over.” He didn't befriend civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s family until he ran for president. “He very shrewdly took advantage of his own Southernness,” said Amber Roessner, a University of Tennessee professor who wrote a book on Carter’s campaign. Carter was the last Democratic nominee to sweep the Deep South. Then, as he did in Georgia, he used his power as president to appoint more nonwhites than all his predecessors had, combined. Many years later, Carter called it “inconceivable” that he didn't consult Rosalynn before moving their family back to Plains or launching his state Senate bid. He called the mother of their four children “a full partner" in government and at The Carter Center as well as at home. “I just loved it,” she said of campaigning, despite the bitterness of defeat. True or not, the label of a failed presidency had leading Democrats keep their distance for many years. Carter remained relevant as a freelance diplomat, writing more than 30 books and weighing in on societal challenges. Carter declared after Donald Trump's presidential victory that America was no longer a fully functioning democracy. But he also warned Democrats against moving too far left, lest they help re-elect him, and said many failed to understand Trump’s populist appeal. Pilgrimages to Plains became advantageous again for would-be presidents in recent years, and well into their 90s, the Carters greeted visitors at Plains’ Maranatha Baptist Church , where he taught Sunday School and where his last funeral will be held. In his farewell presidential address, Carter urged citizens who had embraced or rejected him to do their part as Americans. “The struggle for human rights overrides all differences of color, nation or language,” he declared. “Those who hunger for freedom, who thirst for human dignity and who suffer for the sake of justice — they are the patriots of this cause.” Carter pledged to remain engaged as he returned “home to the South where I was born and raised,” to where he had indeed become “a fellow citizen of the world.”Ange Postecoglou has said he is happy Pep Guardiola signed a contract extension at so he has a chance to "knock him off" the summit. City confirmed on Thursday that after agreeing a new two-year deal. Guardiola is seeking an unprecedented fifth consecutive league title but despite 's last silverware coming in 2008, Postecoglou has never hidden his ambition of returning Spurs to serious challengers for the game's biggest prizes. When asked in a news conference whether there was any part of him that wanted Guardiola to leave City after a period of sustained success, Postecoglou said: "I look at it the other way -- 'imagine you knock him off?' That would be something, eh? And I'm at the stage of my life where I'd rather have a chance of knocking him off than missing that opportunity. In the right way, obviously. "I think when greatness is around, you want to be around it. Hopefully it challenges you to be like that as well. "I love the fact that there is a massive target out there that can seem insurmountable. It does for me anyway, raises my level, gets me going. "I keep saying, I lived the experience of equalisation of sport in Australia and it is great from a competitive point of view because everybody believes they can win but after a while I used to get frustrated with it because excellence tends to be capped at a certain point. It is up to everyone else to bridge that gap. "I love the challenge of that and I never see that as a bad thing." Postecoglou also insisted he had no concerns about the integrity of Premier League officiating despite . The 42-year-old was suspended last week by referees' body Professional Game Match Officials Limited pending an investigation after footage emerged in which he appeared to make derogatory remarks about and their former manager Jürgen Klopp. "I'm not across the detail of it but firstly, he's obviously made some poor decisions, made a big mistake," Postecoglou said. "He's a human being so you worry about his welfare. I'm sure he's getting good support around him. With our officials, rightly so, we hold them to the highest possible standard because of those things but I don't think just because one person makes a mistake that necessary means ... I'm not silly to think every official is perfect, like no manager is perfect or anyone else. We all make mistakes. "I never lose faith in the officialdom because if you do then it is a very slippery slope. I've worked in a couple of leagues where that was always kind of the undertone and I hated it because you kind of questioned everything. "I don't want to do that. I believe the officials. I believe in the integrity of the officials. I'll always abide by their decision-making and accept it."
Retirement: 4 ways to maximize your 401(k) contributions before the year ends
fortune ox 2 demo
fortune ox 777
fortune ox 7788
fortune ox bg