Ford Foundation's outgoing president joins the board of Obama Foundation
The Obama Foundation, the Chicago-based nonprofit of former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama focused on encouraging active involvement in democracy through initiatives like the My Brother's Keeper Alliance and the Obama Youth Jobs Corps, announced Monday that Walker would join the board on Nov. 1.
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USA Today
10 minutes ago
- USA Today
Raising Cane's opening new locations in 6 states in August. Here's where.
Raising Cane's is continuing its expansion this summer. After opening five new restaurants in July, the Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based chain known for its chicken fingers said in a statement to USA TODAY it is opening seven more locations across six states in August, including its first restaurant in the Long Beach, California area. Other states getting new locations include Florida, Wisconsin and Maryland, among others, Raising Cane's said in an emailed statement on July 28. Here's what to know about this month's Raising Cane's openings. Which states are getting new Raising Cane's locations? New restaurants are scheduled to open at the following locations on the following dates, according to the chain: What is Raising Cane's? The company sells chicken sandwiches and chicken finger combos including crinkle-cut fries, Texas Toast, coleslaw and Cane's sauce, which the company says is made with a "special blend of spices." Raising Cane's owner Todd Graves initially planned to call his restaurant Sockeye's, a nod to the salmon he once fished in Alaska. However, a friend suggested he name the company after his yellow Labrador Retriever, Raising Cane, who spent lots of time at the construction site of the first Raising Cane's location at the north gates of Louisiana State University. The dog, Cane I, served as the company's mascot until he died in 1998, according to the chain. He was friendly and loved to wear Graves' sunglasses. Raising Cane's second mascot, Cane II, stepped into her role in 1999. She was a therapy dog who visited hospital patients around the country. As the company mascot, Cane II spent time at the company's Restaurant Support Office and attended community events until 2016. Most recently, Cane III, born in 2017, was appointed mascot. "She loves visiting Raising Cane's Restaurants and receiving belly rubs from crewmembers," the company said, noting that Raising Cane's fans can follow her on social media at @RaisingCane3. Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Email her at sdmartin@ Gabe Hauari is a national trending news reporter at USA TODAY. You can follow him on X @GabeHauari or email him at Gdhauari@
Axios
10 minutes ago
- Axios
Beijing's hackers are playing the long game
Chinese hackers are targeting more sensitive U.S. targets than ever — not to smash and grab, but to bide their time. Why it matters: Beijing is investing in stealthy, persistent access to U.S. systems — quietly building up its abilities to disrupt everything from federal agencies to water utilities in the event of escalation with Washington. Even the most routine spying campaign could leave China with backdoors to destruction for years to come. Driving the news: At least three China-based hacking groups exploited vulnerable SharePoint servers in the last month, according to Microsoft. Researchers at Eye Security, which first discovered the SharePoint flaws, estimates that more than 400 systems were compromised as part of the SharePoint attacks. In this case, hackers also stole machine keys. That means the attackers can regain access whenever they want — even after the system is patched — unless admins take rare manual steps to rotate keys. The big picture: China's state-linked hackers have been growing in sophistication over the last few years as they focus more on targeting technology and software providers with hundreds of customers, often including government agencies. By the numbers: More than 330 cyberattacks last year were linked to China, double the total from 2023, according to CrowdStrike data shared with the Washington Post. Those numbers continued to climb in early 2025, according to CrowdStrike. Between the lines: At least three major Chinese government teams have been targeting U.S. networks in recent years. Volt Typhoon has focused on breaking into endpoint detection tools to burrow deep into U.S. critical infrastructure, including pipelines, railways, ports and water utilities. Their goal is to maintain persistent access and be prepared to launch destructive attacks in the event of contingencies such as a war over Taiwan, experts say. Salt Typhoon, known for its compromises of global telecom networks, has focused on traditional espionage and spying. This group tapped cell phones belonging to President Trump, Vice President Vance and other top government officials. The FBI believes that threat is now "largely contained." Silk Typhoon — which has been linked to a recent breach of the U.S. Treasury Department and is known for the global 2021 Microsoft Exchange hacks — has been ramping up its work in recent months. The group uses previously undetected vulnerabilities, known as zero-days, to break into networks. Zoom in: Researchers at cybersecurity firm SentinelOne have uncovered more than 10 patents tied to Silk Typhoon's work — a rarity among nation-state hackers. The patents — detailed in a report published Thursday — suggest the group was at one point developing new offensive tools, including to encrypt endpoint data recovery, conduct phone and router forensics and decrypt hard drives. The researchers also found that Silk Typhoon has links to at least three private sector companies. The intrigue: Beijing's growing reliance on private contractors adds another layer of complexity — shielding state involvement while expanding capability. A DOJ indictment released last month details how the Shanghai State Security Bureau directed employees at tech companies to hack into computers across U.S. universities and businesses to steal information. A trove of leaked documents stolen from private Chinese contractor I-Soon early last year also highlighted how hired hackers targeted several U.S. government agencies, major newspapers and research universities. State of play: China's growing cyber prowess comes as the Trump administration has diminished resources for its own cyber defenses. At least a third of the workforce at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has left through voluntary buyouts, early retirements or layoffs. The Trump administration also wants to cut its budget. Yes, but: The administration is expected to invest heavily in its own offensive cyber powers — with $1 billion from the "One Big Beautiful Bill" heading to the Pentagon for just that purpose.
Yahoo
13 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Frost CEO: Lending competition heating up
This story was originally published on Banking Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Banking Dive newsletter. Dive Brief: Frost Bank is experiencing stiffer competition for lending activity in its Texas markets, particularly in the commercial real estate sector, CEO Phil Green said Thursday. For San Antonio-based Frost, loans lost to other banks due to structure continued to increase in the second quarter, reaching the second-highest quarter ever for such losses. 'I think this represents the level of competition developing in the market,' Green said during Thursday's quarterly earnings call. Competition has intensified generally, but there's 'probably no more competitive asset class than commercial real estate,' Green said in an interview after the lender reported earnings. Past CRE issues led many lenders to 'put pencils down' for a period of time; now, with fewer deals to go around, 'whenever one raises their head, you get more people looking to participate,' Green said. Dive Insight: Texas has been a hotbed for bank expansion and merger-and-acquisition activity of late: Columbus, Ohio-based regional Huntington Bank said last month it's buying Dallas-based Veritex for $1.9 billion; Kalispell, Montana-based Glacier Bank is acquiring Mount Pleasant, Texas-based Guaranty Bancorp for $476.2 million; and Houston-based Prosperity Bancshares is buying American Bank for $321.5 million. And super-regionals U.S. Bank and PNC are among the bigger banks digging deeper into the state, which has seen population and business growth explode in recent years. Amid an increasingly competitive lending landscape, the rise in Frost's losses to structure 'just represents how aggressive banks are out there,' Green said during the earnings call. Other banks might be willing to offer a more lenient loan structure, with a longer interest-only period or a longer term, he said. Frost executives noted the $51.4 billion-asset bank's losses to pricing dropped by 28%. The lender didn't detail the size of the increase in losses due to structure. 'We want to compete on price. We don't want to lose good business to that,' Green told analysts during the call. 'But as it relates to structure, that's where you can get in trouble.' When asked whether there might be a point down the road at which the bank rethinks that approach to remain competitive, Green said, 'the grass is never greener on the other side of the fence of good credit quality.' 'I wouldn't see us making significant changes to our approach to credit structure,' he added. The Texas bank's average loans for the second quarter increased 7.2%, to $21.1 billion, year over year; that represented a 1.3% increase from the prior quarter, the bank said. Lending competition is coming from banks of all sizes, although Green said Frost is experiencing 'a little bit more pressure coming from smaller – maybe banks a little smaller than us,' he said. 'They're sort of waking up to having some money, I guess, to go into some of these asset classes, and they typically will be a little bit more aggressive on underwriting.' Frost CFO Dan Geddes added that competition has intensified particularly for larger loan opportunities. 'Larger, high quality – there's not a lot of them and so when they come around, it can get pretty competitive on both pricing and structure,' Geddes said. As Frost continues its expansion efforts in major Texas cities, the recent M&A activity in the state 'really is to our benefit,' Green said. 'If anything, it's going to make it more successful, I think, because you have an acquisition and you're trying to put two different companies together, and your customers are confused and your staff is confused, and there are lots of questions, and there's systems that have to be converted,' he said. 'And if we move into a market like that, and we're an alternative, I think it just really helps enhance our value proposition.' Those integrations offer Frost an opportunity to pick up both customers and bankers, he contended. 'I'm kind of looking forward, frankly, to some of this acquisition activity,' he said. Green reiterated Thursday the bank is uninterested in any acquisitions itself, and sees plenty of room to grow within Texas, rather than going outside the state. Frost, which opened its 200th branch in the Austin area in the second quarter, has doubled down on organic expansion in markets such as Houston, Dallas and Austin. By the end of the second quarter, the bank's expansion efforts – which begin in 2018 – had generated about $2.7 billion in deposits, $2 billion in loans and almost 69,000 new households as customers, Green said. The expansion represented about 37% of total loan growth and 44% of total deposit growth, year over year, and 24% of new commercial relationships were brought in through the expansion, Geddes said. The bank sees plenty more opportunity to fill out its presence in those major cities – and potentially in Fort Worth and San Antonio, or smaller communities like Fredericksburg and Kerrville – as it tracks where growth has been particularly robust and follows. 'There's so much more for us to mine out of these great markets,' he said. 'That's where our focus is going to be.' The bank's non-interest expenses jumped 9.5%, to $347.1 million, in the quarter, in part tied to hiring connected to the expansion. Frost expects overall expansion efforts to be accretive to earnings in 2026. Recommended Reading Frost CFO: 'We are that stable bank in Texas' Sign in to access your portfolio
