*By Carlo Versano*
Boeing announced on Monday that Dennis Muilenburg, the aerospace giant's CEO, was resigning effective immediately. David Calhoun, Boeing's chairman, will replace Muilenburg as chief executive on Jan. 13. Until then, Boeing CFO Greg Smith will be elevated to interim CEO, the company said.
Boeing's board reportedly decided over the weekend that it was time for Muilenburg to leave, nearly 14 months to the day since a Boeing 737 Max operated by Lion Air crashed off the coast of Indonesia, sending the company into the biggest crisis in its corporate history. Less than six months after that Lion Air flight crashed, another Max jet operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed. The two accidents, believed to be a combination of pilot error and faulty software, killed a combined 346 people.
Muilenburg was faulted for Boeing's early response to those two crashes, the second of which led to an unprecedented global grounding of the entire 737 Max fleet earlier this year. Since then, he became the face of the chastened company, testifying to Congress and apologizing to family members while Boeing technicians worked around the clock on a software fix to the system, known as MCAS, that's believed to have caused two otherwise routine commercial flights to fall from the sky.
Just last week, Muilenburg made the decision to temporarily stop production of the 737 Max entirely, at least until the FAA gave the go-ahead for the software fix. Then, over the weekend, the company took another morale hit when its Starliner space capsule had to abort an unmanned mission to the ISS because its internal clock was set wrong.
Shares of Boeing rose nearly 3 percent on the announcement of Muilenburg's departure.
The Rev. Al Sharpton is set to lead a protest march on Wall Street to urge corporate America to resist the Trump administration’s campaign to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The New York civil rights leader will join clergy, labor and community leaders Thursday in a demonstration through Manhattan’s Financial District that’s timed with the anniversary of the Civil Rights-era March on Washington in 1963. Sharpton called DEI the “civil rights fight of our generation." He and other Black leaders have called for boycotting American retailers that scaled backed policies and programs aimed at bolstering diversity and reducing discrimination in their ranks.
President Donald Trump's administration last month awarded a $1.2 billion contract to build and operate what's expected to become the nation’s largest immigration detention complex to a tiny Virginia firm with no experience running correction facilities.
Chipmaker Nvidia is poised to release a quarterly report that could provide a better sense of whether the stock market has been riding an overhyped artificial intelligence bubble or is being propelled by a technological boom that’s still gathering momentum.
Cracker Barrel said late Tuesday it’s returning to its old logo after critics — including President Donald Trump — protested the company’s plan to modernize.
Low-value imports are losing their duty-free status in the U.S. this week as part of President Donald Trump's agenda for making the nation less dependent on foreign goods. A widely used customs exemption for international shipments worth $800 or less is set to end starting on Friday. Trump already ended the “de minimis” rule for inexpensive items sent from China and Hong Kong, but having to pay import taxes on small parcels from everywhere else likely will be a big change for some small businesses and online shoppers. Purchases that previously entered the U.S. without needing to clear customs will be subject to the origin country’s tariff rate, which can range from 10% to 50%.
Southwest Airlines will soon require plus-size travelers to pay for an extra seat in advance if they can't fit within the armrests of one seat. This change is part of several updates the airline is making. The new rule starts on Jan. 27, the same day Southwest begins assigning seats. Currently, plus-size passengers can pay for an extra seat in advance and later get a refund, or request a free extra seat at the airport. Under the new policy, refunds are still possible but not guaranteed. Southwest said in a statement it is updating policies to prepare for assigned seating next year.
Cracker Barrel is sticking with its new logo. For now. But the chain is also apologizing to fans who were angered when the change was announced last week.
Elon Musk on Monday targeted Apple and OpenAI in an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the iPhone maker and the ChatGPT maker are teaming up to thwart competition in artificial intelligence.
