MARTIN, Tenn. (AP) — Losing a Cabinet nominee to the confirmation process isn't unheard of for incoming presidents — including for Donald Trump when he was elected the first time. Chad Chronister's announcement Tuesday that he was pulling out of consideration to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration makes the Hillsborough County, Florida, sheriff the second of Trump's picks to withdraw after being announced as leaders of the incoming administration. The withdrawal follows Matt Gaetz's decision to pull his name last month from consideration for attorney general — amid continued fallout over a federal sex trafficking investigation . Together, the moves are the first indications of resistance that the president-elect could face from his own party, including picks facing allegations of sexual misconduct or other questions. Here's a look at some recent difficulties with presidential Cabinet picks and some of the criticism for Trump's current slate: Republicans voicing their doubts Chronister — whose name was announced on Saturday as Trump's DEA pick — was met with swift condemnation from some conservative figures over his enforcement of lockdown measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, Chronister arrested the pastor of a megachurch who held services with hundreds of people and violated a safer-at-home order in place aimed at limiting the spread of the virus. U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky, was among those airing public complaints, saying Chronister should be “disqualified” for the arrest. After Gaetz was chosen last month, Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Judiciary Committee member who is among Trump's top Senate allies, predicted he would “have to answer some tough questions” in a confirmation hearing. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a Trump critic, said of Gaetz, “I do not see him as a serious candidate.” Other Trump picks face questions, too. Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for defense secretary, was accused by a woman of sexually assaulting her in 2017. Hegseth has denied her allegations. Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman chosen to be director of national intelligence, has expressed sympathy for Russia and repeated false Russian theories about Ukrainian bioweapons. Gabbard, a military veteran who became one of Trump’s top 2024 surrogates, has attracted criticism for meeting with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and has voiced skepticism that Assad was behind chemical attacks on his own people. Nikki Haley, who was the last major GOP opponent against Trump for this year’s presidential nomination, argued against confirming Gabbard, saying the post was “not a place for a Russian, Iranian, Syrian, Chinese sympathizer.” Haley also said Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — Trump's pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services — should face “hard questions” from senators due to his opposition to vaccines and other views decried by public health officials. “He’s a liberal Democrat, environmental attorney trial lawyer who will now be overseeing 25% of our federal budget and has no background in healthcare,” Haley said. “So some of you may think RFK is cool, some of you may like that he questions what’s in our food and what’s in our vaccines, but we don’t know, when he is given reins to an agency, what decisions he’s going to make behind the scenes.” Republicans will have 53 votes in the Senate in January and can break 50-50 ties with Vice President-elect JD Vance. That means four Republicans would have to break ranks to defeat any nominee if all Democrats oppose a Trump pick. This has happened before — including to Trump Every recent president has had some doomed Cabinet nominations — including Trump himself. In early 2017, Trump’s choice for labor secretary was the first Trump nominee to withdraw his name from consideration. Fast food CEO Andrew Puzder’s exit came after Republicans expressed concern over his failure to pay taxes promptly on a former housekeeper who wasn’t authorized to work in the U.S., and Democrats had complaints about Puzder’s business record and remarks about women and workers at his company, which owns Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. Puzder’s name has been floated recently again as a possible pick in Trump’s second administration. Trump also ousted his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, after just weeks on the job because Flynn wasn’t truthful about his contacts with Russian officials during the transition. The first year of Trump’s first term, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned after his costly travel triggered investigations that overshadowed the administration’s agenda and angered his boss, serving less than eight months. According to the Brookings Institution, which tracks presidential administration turnover, Trump’s first term resulted in the turnover of a total of 14 people, nearly twice the amount — 8 people — of President George H.W. Bush’s term in office, a distant second place. Other presidents' picks Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and both Bush and his son George W. Bush all had to come up with new names after nominees for their Cabinets ran into trouble. Obama took three tries to find a secretary of commerce. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson withdrew his name after the word surfaced that a grand jury was investigating allegations of wrongdoing in the awarding of contracts in his state. Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire backed out citing “irresolvable differences” with the policies of the Democratic president. In 2001, Linda Chavez — George W. Bush's pick for labor secretary — swiftly withdrew after it emerged that she had housed an immigrant living in the country illegally. Bill Clinton went through several attempts at selecting an attorney general, nominating Janet Reno after both of his first two choices withdrew over word that they had hired people who had been in the U.S. illegally for household work and babysitting. The Senate rejected George H.W. Bush’s defense secretary pick, former Texas Sen. John Tower, in 1989 after several waves of reports over allegations of alcohol abuse and womanizing. ___ Associated Press writer Nancy Benac in Washington contributed to this report. ___ Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP Meg Kinnard, The Associated Press
Washington, Nov 25 (AP) Amazon has introduced a handful of robots in its warehouses that the e-commerce giant says will improve efficiency and reduce employee injuries. Two robotic arms named Robin and Cardinal can lift packages that weigh up to 50 pounds. A third, called Sparrow, picks up items from bins and puts them in other containers. Proteus, an autonomous mobile robot that operates on the floor, can move carts around a warehouse. The bipedal, humanoid robot Digit is being tested to help move empty totes with its hands. And there's also Sequoia, a containerised storage system that can present totes to employees in a way that allows them to avoid stretching or squatting to grab inventory. Amazon says Robin is currently being used in dozens of warehouses. The others are in a testing stage or haven't been rolled out widely. But the company says it's already seeing benefits, such as reducing the time it takes to fulfil orders and helping employees avoid repetitive tasks. However, automation also carries drawbacks for workers, who would have to be retrained for new positions if the robots made their roles obsolete. In October, Amazon held an event at a Nashville, Tennessee, warehouse where the company had integrated some of the robots. The Associated Press spoke with Julie Mitchell, the director of Amazon's robotic sortation technologies, about where the company hopes to go from here. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Q: When you're working on robotics, how long does it typically take to roll out new technology? A: This journey that we've been on has taken a couple of years. Luckily for us, we've been at this for over a decade. So we have a lot of core technology that we can build on top of. We started these particular robots - Cardinal and Proteus - in this building in November 2022. We came in and began playing around with what it would look like to pack and move a production order. Less than two years later, we are at scale and shipping 70 per cent of the items in this building through that robotics system. Q: So, two years? A: We talk about “build, test and scale” and that's about a two-year cycle for us right now. Q: It's challenging to build robots that can physically grab products. How does Amazon work through that? A: As you can probably imagine, we have so many items, so it's an exceptional challenge. We rely on data and putting our first prototype in a real building, where we expose it to all the things we need it to do. Then we drive down all the reasons that it fails. We give it a lot of sample sizes in a very short period of time. For example, a couple of years ago, we launched our Robin robotics arm – a package manipulation robot – and we're at 3 billion picks. So the ability to launch into our network, rapidly collect data, scale and iterate has enabled us to go fast. The challenge itself can be boiled down to three simple things: you need to perceive the scene, plan your motion and then execute. Today, those are three different parts of our system. Artificial intelligence is going to help us change all of that, and it's going to be more outcome-driven, like asking it to pick up a bottle of water. We're on the verge, so that's why I'm personally excited to be here at the onset of generative AI and use it to dramatically improve the performance of our robotics. Q: How do you think about the impact of automation on Amazon's workforce as you're developing the technology? A: With the technology we've deployed here, we're creating new roles for individuals that can acquire new skills to fulfil those roles. And these new skills are not something that is too difficult to achieve. You don't need an engineering degree, Ph.D. or any really technical skills to support our robotics systems. We designed the systems so they're easy to service and train on the job to be a reliability maintenance engineer. We are working backwards from the idea that we want to employ more skilled labor. These opportunities are obviously higher paid than the entry level jobs in our buildings. And partnering with MIT has helped us understand what matters most to our team as we're deploying these technologies across our network. Q: Are you experiencing any challenges as you introduce these robots in your warehouses? A: Not in the adoption. We're integrating it. But these are complex systems and this is the real world, so things go wrong. For example, we had bad weather due to the storms in the Southeast. When I look at the robotics systems data, I can tell the weather is bad outside because that dramatically affects how the ship dock works. When trucks don't arrive on time or when they can't leave, you see bottlenecks in the building in strange ways. Containers build up, we have to put them in different places, and then humans need to recover them. So communication between what our robotics system is doing and what we need employees in the building to do to recover is important. It's a collaboration of automation and humans to deal with real-world problems. It's not a matter of having robotics take over but making it one system of humans and robotics working together to accomplish the goal of shipping the product. (AP) PY PY (This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)
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ORLANDO, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 26, 2024-- OneRail today announced its No. 66 ranking on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 TM — a ranking of the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech and energy tech companies in North America, now in its 30th year. Deloitte Fast 500 measures the growth of companies in the last three years, and OneRail grew 2,082% during that time frame. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241126001147/en/ OneRail Ranked 66th Fastest-Growing Company in North America on the 2024 Deloitte Technology Fast 500TM. With a real-time connected network of 12 million drivers, OneRail matches the right vehicle for the right delivery so brands lower expenses and increase capacity to rapidly scale their businesses. This people-plus-platform approach features a 24/7 USA-based exceptions team who maintain a 98% on-time delivery rate. (Graphic: Business Wire) “OneRail's revenue growth is a direct reflection of our commitment to solving the most pressing challenges retailers and wholesalers face today,” OneRail Founder and CEO Bill Catania said. “By expanding our OmniPoint ® platform capabilities, we've empowered businesses to meet the rising demand for same-day delivery, while maintaining their delivery promise. Our ability to streamline the last mile, optimize performance and deliver reliability has positioned us as a trusted partner in a rapidly evolving logistics landscape.” “For 30 years, we’ve been celebrating companies that are actively driving innovation. The software industry continues to be a beacon of growth, and the fintech industry made a strong showing on this year’s list, surpassing life sciences for the first time,” said Steve Fineberg , vice chair, U.S. technology sector leader, Deloitte. “Significantly, we also saw a breakthrough in performance of private companies, with the highest number of private companies named to the list in our program’s history. This year’s winners have shown they have the vision and expertise to continue to perform at a high level, and that deserves to be celebrated.” “Innovation, transformation and disruption of the status quo are at the forefront for this year’s Technology Fast 500 list, and there’s no better way to celebrate 30 years of program history,” said Christie Simons , partner, Deloitte & Touche LLP and industry leader for technology, media and telecommunications within Deloitte’s Audit & Assurance practice. “This year’s winning companies have demonstrated a continuous commitment to growth and remarkable consistency in driving forward progress. We extend our congratulations to all of this year’s winners — it’s an incredible time for innovation.” OneRail previously ranked 24th as a 2023 Technology Fast 500 award winner. OneRail has continued its growth story in 2024, recently announcing $42 million in Series C financing lead by Aliment Capital, having been named to FreightWaves’ FreightTech 25 at number 19, being honored on Forbes’ 2024 and 2023 lists of America’s Best Startup Employers, and having been selected as 2024 Last Mile Company of the Year for the SupplyTech Breakthrough Awards. OneRail was also recognized in the 2024 Gartner® Hype CycleTM for Supply Chain Execution Technologies , 2024 Gartner® Hype CycleTM for Smart City Technologies, as well as the 2024 Gartner® Market Guide for Last Mile Delivery Technology Solutions. Overall, 2024 Technology Fast 500 companies achieved revenue growth ranging from 201% to 153,625% over the three-year time frame, with an average growth rate of 1,981% and median growth rate of 460%. About the 2024 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Now in its 30th year, the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 provides a ranking of the fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences, fintech, and energy tech companies — both public and private — in North America. Technology Fast 500 award winners are selected based on percentage fiscal year revenue growth from 2020 to 2023. In order to be eligible for Technology Fast 500 recognition, companies must own proprietary intellectual property or technology that is sold to customers in products that contribute to a majority of the company’s operating revenues. Companies must have base-year operating revenues of at least US$50,000, and current-year operating revenues of at least US$5 million. Additionally, companies must be in business for a minimum of four years and be headquartered within North America. About OneRail OneRail is a leading omnichannel fulfillment solution pairing best-in-class software with logistics as a service to provide dependability and speed to help businesses meet their delivery promise. With a real-time connected network of 12 million drivers, OneRail matches the right vehicle for the right delivery so brands lower expenses and increase capacity to rapidly scale their businesses. This people-plus-platform approach features a 24/7 USA-based exceptions team who maintain a 98% on-time delivery rate. With its recent acquisition of Orderbot, a distributed order management solution, OneRail is integrating inventory and order management capabilities to enable store-shelf-to-doorstep visibility. By optimizing fulfillment processes, reducing costs and improving order accuracy, OneRail is committed to empowering clients and improving the customer experience. To learn more about OneRail, visit OneRail.com . About Deloitte Deloitte provides industry-leading audit, consulting, tax and advisory services to many of the world’s most admired brands, including nearly 90% of the Fortune 500® and more than 8,500 U.S.-based private companies. At Deloitte, we strive to live our purpose of making an impact that matters by creating trust and confidence in a more equitable society. We leverage our unique blend of business acumen, command of technology, and strategic technology alliances to advise our clients across industries as they build their future . Deloitte is proud to be part of the largest global professional services network serving our clients in the markets that are most important to them. Bringing more than 175 years of service, our network of member firms spans more than 150 countries and territories. Learn how Deloitte’s approximately 460,000 people worldwide connect for impact at www.deloitte.com . Deloitte refers to one or more of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, a UK private company limited by guarantee (“DTTL”), its network of member firms, and their related entities. DTTL and each of its member firms are legally separate and independent entities. DTTL (also referred to as “Deloitte Global”) does not provide services to clients. In the United States, Deloitte refers to one or more of the US member firms of DTTL, their related entities that operate using the “Deloitte” name in the United States and their respective affiliates. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting. Please see www.deloitte.com/about to learn more about our global network of member firms. View source version on businesswire.com : https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241126001147/en/ CONTACT: Media Inquiries: Diffusion PR for OneRail onerail@diffusionpr.com (646) 571-0120 KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA FLORIDA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: DATA MANAGEMENT RAIL APPS/APPLICATIONS TECHNOLOGY LOGISTICS/SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT TRANSPORT SOFTWARE SOURCE: OneRail Copyright Business Wire 2024. PUB: 11/26/2024 01:31 PM/DISC: 11/26/2024 01:32 PM http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241126001147/en
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Horoscope For November 26, 2024: Discover Astrological Insights For Every Zodiac SignCommanders running back Austin Ekeler has had two concussions this year. He’s still feeling the effects of the most recent one he suffered. Via Ben Standig of TheAthletic.com, Ekeler said during his weekly appearance on 106.7 The Fan that he’s experiencing concussion symptoms after suffering a brain injury during the Week 12 game against Dallas. He has since been placed on injured reserve. Ekeler said he has memory loss from the hit; he recalls nothing until he got into an ambulance that took him to a hospital. Ekeler said he had similar memory issues after his Week 3 concussion against the Bengals. Ekeler also said he’s experiencing lingering neck pain as a result of the latest injury. He has at least two prior concussions during his professional career. Ekeler, 29, entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the Chargers in 2017. He signed a two-year, $8.4 million contract with the Commanders earlier this year. In 11 games this season, he has 355 rushing yards, 346 receiving yards, and four touchdowns. His best seasons came in 2021 and 2021, with 1,558 yards from scrimmage and 20 touchdowns and 1,637 yards from scrimmage and 18 touchdowns, respectively.Adams has 19 as CSU Northridge defeats Denver 89-60