FORT WORTH, Texas — David Seymour’s job over the next couple of weeks is to make sure that American Airlines flights take off on time and fly safely during one of the busiest travel periods of the year. Seymour is American’s chief operating officer, which means he oversees flight and airport operations for a carrier that figures to make about 6,500 flights a day between now and New Year’s Day. A West Point graduate and former U.S. Army infantry officer, Seymour joined America West Airlines in 1999. America West became US Airways, then merged with American in 2013. Seymour has held a variety of operations-related jobs and was promoted to his current post in 2020. Seymour spoke with The Associated Press recently about managing huge passenger numbers during the holidays and preventing people from getting on a plane before their boarding group is called. The answers have been edited for length and clarity. Q. How are you going to make sure American flights run on time during the holidays? A: There are many thousands of people running the airline every day. My job, honestly, over this period isn’t so much about managing the chaos, it’s managing really all the challenges, and we’ll call it the headwinds that come our way. And I would say the vast majority of those are the uncontrollable. Q. Such as? A: What’s going on the (air-traffic control) system around us. If there weren’t weather that we have to deal with and other complications that sometimes arise, running an airline would be pretty easy. Q. How will you recover from disruptions? A: Before the pandemic, we would have a big storm in the DFW (Dallas-Fort Worth) area or the Charlotte (North Carolina) area, and it would take us a couple of days (to recover). We set about coming through the pandemic and coming out that we are going to recover better than any carrier out there. Q. And how will you do that? A: By anticipating the weather. My team looks out constantly at what the weather is, looking at multiple weather forecasts to understand what’s coming, what could it do, and how are we prepared for that. Q. How much do you learn from big cancellation events? And how much do you learn from meltdowns at other airlines? A: The team here, they do an after-action review. We will look at it and say, ‘What could we have done better?’ And we archive that information. Now, to your other question about competitors. I’m not inside the other competitors’ operations centers and looking at how they do that. Their networks are set up differently than ours. We do ask ourselves, ‘OK, if something similar were to happen to us, what would we do?’ Q. With Christmas travel, what what are the big things you’re looking for? Is it weather? Air-traffic control problems? A: Weather is always a tough thing to predict. That’s really going to be one of the largest things because it has the potential for having the most impact. Controller-wise, we stay in touch with (the Federal Aviation Administration). We have a team out here that is in constant communication with the FAA, looking at what’s happening in the system, and we’re building contingency plans if they think there are going to be some challenges. Q. You need to deice planes. A: The only difference between summer and now is we have to deal with winter weather in some locations. So, deicing. But we’re ready for that. The technology we have right now with the deicing vehicles ... we’ve been able to reduce our throughput time on deicing by half and still meeting all the requirements that we need to in terms of adequately deicing the aircraft, but having one person do it. Q. Are the delays in deliveries of new planes from Boeing affecting your holiday season planning? A: No. Boeing needs to be successful, they need to be able to deliver quality aircraft, but we haven’t built our schedule for the holiday period that is dependent on getting any deliveries. We have enough buffer built in. Q. American recently expanded the rollout of technology to catch people who try to board the plane before their boarding group is called. What went into that decision? A: Our frequent and premium travelers look at (the technology to catch line-jumpers) as a benefit of being loyal to American Airlines. It’s a huge plus for our gate agents because they do like order. Q. Were people boarding out of order slowing down the boarding process? A: No. We just want a steady stream (of passengers) going in. The ability to get overhead bin space ... has gotten a lot better with some of the upgrades that we’ve done with larger overhead bins on the vast majority of our aircraft. We’re going to finish up the rest of the fleet in the next couple years with the large overhead bins. So that won’t be the issue, but that used to be a bit of that driver there. Get local news delivered to your inbox!Skobalj's 19 help UIC down La Salle 96-83
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — At this point the past two seasons, the San Francisco 49ers were fighting for playoff positioning rather than their playoff lives. After snapping a three-game losing streak with a lopsided win last week against Chicago, the Niners head into a Thursday night division showdown against the Los Angeles Rams hoping to play with the same kind of desperation in a game they almost certainly need to win to get to the postseason. "I think just across the board as a team, everybody had just a bit more of sense of urgency and I think we executed and played together as a team, and we didn't let off," quarterback Brock Purdy said. "Really liked that. But, that was last week so now it's on to this week and how can we do that again?" After getting outscored by 53 points in losses at Green Bay and Buffalo, the 49ers (6-7) played their most complete game of the season to keep their playoff hopes alive. People are also reading... While some credited a feeling of desperation or speeches from players such as Purdy and Deommodore Lenoir for the turnaround, linebacker Fred Warner said it was more about execution than anything else. "We didn't go out there in Green Bay, we didn't go out there in Buffalo saying, 'Let's just hope that we win.' Trust me, I felt desperate as hell going into both those games," he said. "It just didn't work out. ... It didn't happen because last week we decided we wanted to. This was weeks in the making." Whatever the reason, the results were obvious to anyone watching, including the Rams (7-6), who had their own signature performance to boost their playoff chances. Los Angeles held off Buffalo 44-42 to remain one game behind Seattle in the NFC West race and a game ahead of the 49ers and Arizona in the tightly packed division. Coach Sean McVay knows his team will need a similar performance to beat San Francisco and earn a season sweep. "I saw they certainly had a very dominant performance," he said. "If there's anything that you do know, it's a week-to-week league. Humility is only a week away. They have excellent coaches, excellent personnel and really good schemes. No matter what's really happened in terms of the trajectory of the injuries, they're going to be ready to go." Puka power Puka Nacua is in dominant form with 33 catches for 458 yards and three TDs in the Rams' past four games, highlighted by a 162-yard performance last week against Buffalo in which he also scored his first rushing TD. Nacua was injured for these clubs' first meeting this season — but last year, he broke the NFL's single-game rookie receptions record with 15 in his first game against San Francisco, and he set the NFL rookie season records for catches and yards receiving during his visit to Santa Clara last January. "He's a tough football player," 49ers defensive coordinator Nick Sorensen said. "Some guys are just competitive. He's got size, he doesn't go down easy. Some things you can't measure and he's just got it." Deebo's struggles The least productive four-game stretch of Deebo Samuel's career sent the frustrated wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers to social media. In a now-deleted post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Samuel said the reason he gained only 97 yards from scrimmage the past four games was not that he was struggling but that he wasn't getting the ball. His teammates and coaches believe he will get back to his All-Pro form soon. "I want to get Deebo the ball every play if I could," Purdy said. "I want to have him break all the records as best as possible. I want Deebo to do Deebo things." Defense declining The Rams defense got shredded twice in the past three weeks by Saquon Barkley's Eagles and Josh Allen's Bills, dropping the unit to 27th in total defense. LA's vaunted young pass rush led by rookie Jared Verse has no sacks in its past two games and just three in the past four games. Considering Purdy drove the Niners to 425 yards in the teams' first meeting this season without Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle or Samuel, the Rams' offense might need yet another prolific game to overcome its defense's weaknesses. Under pressure With Nick Bosa sidelined the past three games, the 49ers have had to generate pass rushes from different sources. They had a season-high seven sacks last week with Yetur Gross-Matos getting three and Leonard Floyd two. The 32-year-old Floyd has 5 1/2 sacks in his past four games. "Leonard's just an Energizer bunny," Shanahan said. "It's crazy with him being one of the older guys and stuff and how many different teams he's been to, but I've played against him enough and felt that." Bosa has a chance to return this week and is listed as questionable. AP Sports Writer Greg Beacham in Los Angeles contributed to this report Get local news delivered to your inbox!How major US stock indexes fared Friday, 12/27/2024
By MICHELLE L. PRICE WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — An online spat between factions of Donald Trump’s supporters over immigration and the tech industry has thrown internal divisions in his political movement into public display, previewing the fissures and contradictory views his coalition could bring to the White House. The rift laid bare the tensions between the newest flank of Trump’s movement — wealthy members of the tech world including billionaire Elon Musk and fellow entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and their call for more highly skilled workers in their industry — and people in Trump’s Make America Great Again base who championed his hardline immigration policies. The debate touched off this week when Laura Loomer , a right-wing provocateur with a history of racist and conspiratorial comments, criticized Trump’s selection of Sriram Krishnan as an adviser on artificial intelligence policy in his coming administration. Krishnan favors the ability to bring more skilled immigrants into the U.S. Loomer declared the stance to be “not America First policy” and said the tech executives who have aligned themselves with Trump were doing so to enrich themselves. Much of the debate played out on the social media network X, which Musk owns. Loomer’s comments sparked a back-and-forth with venture capitalist and former PayPal executive David Sacks , whom Trump has tapped to be the “White House A.I. & Crypto Czar.” Musk and Ramaswamy, whom Trump has tasked with finding ways to cut the federal government , weighed in, defending the tech industry’s need to bring in foreign workers. It bloomed into a larger debate with more figures from the hard-right weighing in about the need to hire U.S. workers, whether values in American culture can produce the best engineers, free speech on the internet, the newfound influence tech figures have in Trump’s world and what his political movement stands for. Trump has not yet weighed in on the rift. His presidential transition team did not respond to questions about positions on visas for highly skilled workers or the debate between his supporters online. Instead, his team instead sent a link to a post on X by longtime adviser and immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller that was a transcript of a speech Trump gave in 2020 at Mount Rushmore in which he praised figures and moments from American history. Musk, the world’s richest man who has grown remarkably close to the president-elect , was a central figure in the debate, not only for his stature in Trump’s movement but his stance on the tech industry’s hiring of foreign workers. Technology companies say H-1B visas for skilled workers, used by software engineers and others in the tech industry, are critical for hard-to-fill positions. But critics have said they undercut U.S. citizens who could take those jobs. Some on the right have called for the program to be eliminated, not expanded. Born in South Africa, Musk was once on an a H-1B visa himself and defended the industry’s need to bring in foreign workers. “There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent,” he said in a post. “It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley.” Trump’s own positions over the years have reflected the divide in his movement. Related Articles National Politics | Trump threat to immigrant health care tempered by economic hopes National Politics | In states that ban abortion, social safety net programs often fail families National Politics | Trump vows to pursue executions after Biden commutes most of federal death row National Politics | Elon Musk’s preschool is the next step in his anti-woke education dreams National Politics | Trump’s picks for top health jobs not just team of rivals but ‘team of opponents’ His tough immigration policies, including his pledge for a mass deportation, were central to his winning presidential campaign. He has focused on immigrants who come into the U.S. illegally but he has also sought curbs on legal immigration , including family-based visas. As a presidential candidate in 2016, Trump called the H-1B visa program “very bad” and “unfair” for U.S. workers. After he became president, Trump in 2017 issued a “Buy American and Hire American” executive order , which directed Cabinet members to suggest changes to ensure H-1B visas were awarded to the highest-paid or most-skilled applicants to protect American workers. Trump’s businesses, however, have hired foreign workers, including waiters and cooks at his Mar-a-Lago club , and his social media company behind his Truth Social app has used the the H-1B program for highly skilled workers. During his 2024 campaign for president, as he made immigration his signature issue, Trump said immigrants in the country illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country” and promised to carry out the largest deportation operation in U.S. history. But in a sharp departure from his usual alarmist message around immigration generally, Trump told a podcast this year that he wants to give automatic green cards to foreign students who graduate from U.S. colleges. “I think you should get automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country,” he told the “All-In” podcast with people from the venture capital and technology world. Those comments came on the cusp of Trump’s budding alliance with tech industry figures, but he did not make the idea a regular part of his campaign message or detail any plans to pursue such changes.As a father of three young children, state Sen. Donovan Fenton has learned how to be patient. The Keene Democrat says he’ll likely have to use that skill a lot next year in the N.H. Senate, which is controlled by Republicans, 16-8. In this year’s session, the GOP had a 14-10 edge. In any case, Fenton, who represents much of the Monadnock Region, said in a recent interview that he is always ready to work across the political aisle on any bill, no matter the partisan split. Among those sitting across that aisle will be Ruth Ward, R-Stoddard, a five-term senator, whose district includes Acworth, Charlestown, Gilsum, Langdon, Marlow and Stoddard. One issue they differ on is the Education Freedom Accounts program, New Hampshire’s school voucher system. The program uses taxpayer dollars to pay for parents to send their children to private, religious or home schools, which Fenton says drains sorely needed money from public schools. Ward would like to see the program expanded. To qualify, a student’s family income may not exceed 350 percent of the poverty level, or $109,200 per year for a family of four. Ward, who chairs the Senate Education Committee, is the co-sponsor of a bill that would open Education Freedom Accounts to everybody, no matter how much they earn. “You should not need to undergo a means test for the program,” she said in an interview Thursday. “If you want to leave your local school and go somewhere else, you should be able to do that without having to worry about how much money you earn.” She acknowledged that proposals to expand the voucher system are contingent in part on the state’s revenue picture. Lawmakers will be drawing up a new, two-year budget next year. House Bill 1665, which would have increased the allowable income to qualify for the program, did not pass earlier this year. It would have upped that income amount to five times the federal poverty level, or $156,000 a year, and would have cost taxpayers $43.4 million, bringing the program’s annual price tag to $66 million. Fenton called it “an absolutely horrible bill.” He said the school voucher system lacks academic and financial accountability. “We have no idea if this program is successful,” he said. “Whereas when we spend money on public education, we audit it, we track it, we test it. This program has none of that.” On other topics, Fenton said he will be backing legislation in 2025 to promote housing stability, improve veterans’ benefits, make free lunches available to more public school students and increase funding for rail trails. He is also supporting creation of a study committee to look at the problem of school bullying. These bills are in the proposal stage and actual legislative wording is not available yet. Fenton, who was reelected in November to his second Senate term, also said he will be supporting a renewed legislative attempt by Rep. Terry Roy, R-Deerfield, to have the state join most others in reporting to the national background check system when courts have determined that a person poses a danger to themselves or others. Such people are prohibited under federal law from acquiring or possessing a gun, and the national system would advise a gun seller not to go through a transaction in these cases. Roy’s bill passed the N.H. House this year but died in the Senate. Ward joined other Senate Republicans in a party-line vote to table the bill, removing it from further consideration. She is co-sponsoring proposals for the next legislative session that would invalidate out-of-state driver’s licenses issued to undocumented immigrants. “If you have somebody here who is not a legal citizen but has a driver’s license issued by another state that is more lenient than New Hampshire, I think we indeed need to take a good look at that issue,” Ward said. She has also signed on to a proposal that would raise the minimum age for sports betting in New Hampshire. That age now is 18, while most states set it at 21. “A lot of kids get hooked on this kind of betting,” Ward said. “They are spending a lot of money and sometimes get into trouble with their finances with that.” On a different educational issue, N.H. House Speaker Sherman Packard, R-Londonderry, is backing an effort next year to create “a parental bill of rights,” the third time over the past two years that this kind of legislation has been proposed. Ward has been supportive of such legislation, while Fenton has been adamantly against. Such bills are aimed at protecting or strengthening parental rights as related to their public school students. Proponents argue that this would ensure they are properly informed of what their child is experiencing at school. Opponents say parents already have the rights being sought, and that these measures, nevertheless, would put school teachers and administrators in untenable situations. The N.H. Legislature returns to session on Jan. 8.