Latest news with #TomWilliams
Hypebeast
29-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Hypebeast
Anti Social Social Club's Latest Collaboration Celebrates 20 Years of The Breakfast Club
Summary: Anti Social Social Club(ASSC) has teamed up with one of London's favourite brunch spots,The Breakfast Club, to release a limited-edition capsule that celebrates the restaurant's 20th anniversary. The collection includes bold graphic hoodies, tees and an apron that feature co-branded designs, blending London's brunch culture with ASSC's rebellious streetwear spirit. Since its inception in 2014, the Los Angeles-based streetwear brand's unique and unexpected collaborations have helped to propel its cult-like following. Key design features in the collection include ASSC's capitalised logo coupled with a 'yolk yellow' Breakfast Club logo cleanly placed underneath. (It's the same color the founders painted the café back in 2005 when they first opened, long before the avocado-and-egg-obsessed era took rise.) Playful graphics are also seen sprinkled across select pieces including cartoon characters of an egg, bacon, and a salt shaker – visuals that channel the eatery's unapologetic love for comfort-food through a contemporary streetwear lens. Adding to the overall wholesomeness of the collaboration, the café's original location on D'Arblay Street in Soho, London, served as the perfect backdrop to the campaign shoot, with both front of house staff and chefs modelling pieces from the collection. The restaurant is even updating its official uniform policy and staff across Breakfast Club locations nationwide will be wearing pieces from the ASSC collaboration, helping to kick off the company's 20th year with a fresh look. 'This might just be the coolest thing we've ever been a part of,' says Tom Williams, Head of Marketing at The Breakfast Club. The collection launches exclusively through ASSC'swebsiteon August 2.
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
BNSF aims to grow carload traffic with rail service upgrades
BNSF Railway carries more intermodal, coal, and grain traffic than any other railroad. And now it's looking to boost its relatively small carload network through a combination of improved service, more frequent customer switching, and tighter partnerships with its top short line connections. 'We know intermodal's a big part of the growth future. We've developed the ag [agriculture] shuttle network on the bulk side, and we certainly like our bulk network,' BNSF Chief Marketing Officer Tom Williams said in a recent interview. 'I don't want it to be lost that we care very much about that single-car merchandise network, too.' Over the past year BNSF has taken steps to improve the efficiency of its merchandise network, starting with pushing down terminal dwell at its hump yards and emphasizing on-time train departures. Those efforts paid off as BNSF posted all-time best terminal dwell figures in May. For the second quarter, terminal dwell was 21.9 hours, a 17% improvement compared to the second quarter of 2024. And — bucking the long-term industry trend — BNSF has increased service frequency for 225 of its merchandise customers. A carload facility that received three days of service per week, for example, might now see a BNSF local on its spurs five days a week. Some five-day-per-week customers, meanwhile, went to daily service. 'And that, in total, equates to about 21,000 additional annualized service days per year,' Williams said. The hope is that the more frequent local service will lead to volume growth once the industrial economy rebounds. The railway's Short Line Select program, rolled out last fall to improve interchange performance, has cut dwell nearly in half on participating short lines. Volume on the Short Line Select railroads is up around 5% this year, compared to flat volumes on other short line connections as well as the balance of BNSF's merchandise business. 'The whole name of the game of what we've been doing in the merchandise network is improving the velocity,' Williams said. The combination of more efficient terminals and more frequent local service helps cars spin faster from origin to destination and return. Car-miles per day are up 25% compared to a year ago, which shaves two days off the transit time for a car that moves 1,000 miles. What this means is that customers can move the same amount of freight using fewer cars, or put their suddenly surplus cars to work hauling more freight. 'It's good for us, it's good for the customers,' Williams said. 'We've reduced the inventory year over year by 20%.' Amid these operational improvements, BNSF in June introduced a new First Mile/Last Mile group that includes the 13 people from its Shortline Development and Industrial Products Business Development teams. Their focus is on understanding the needs of BNSF's merchandise customers. 'This isn't about us going to the customer and telling them this is our network and … you fit it or you don't,' Williams said. Rather, BNSF wants to collaborate with its carload customers, learn how rail fits into their supply chains, and how local service tweaks could better fit their needs and lead to growth, he explained. Short Line Select, meanwhile, aims to tighten the commercial relationship with top connecting railroads. Participating lines include Genesee & Wyoming's Alabama & Gulf Coast Railway, Burlington Junction Railway, Genesee & Wyoming's Portland & Western Railway, TNW Corporation's Texas Northwestern Railroad and Red River Valley & Western, and Watco's Timber Rock Railroad. 'One-third of our carload freight originates or terminates on a short line,' said Mark Ganaway, who leads BNSF's shortline team. 'That's a significant portion of our business. We needed a way to move from transactional relationships to strategic partnerships.' Last year BNSF handled 2.43 million merchandise carloads, a figure that does not include coal or grain. 'Interchanging more than 260,000 carloads per year, G&W and BNSF have an outstanding partnership. Having two G&W railroads — Alabama & Gulf Coast Railway in the east and Portland & Western Railroad in the west — participate in the BNSF Shortline Select program is a natural step in the evolution of our relationship,' said Kimberly Thompson, a vice president of sales and marketing at G&W. 'BNSF's program taps into the strengths of both a Class I and a short line to broaden both of our market reach and drive more traffic to rail as a safer and more sustainable alternative to trucking.' BNSF is adding shortline transload locations to its Premier Transload Program directory. It's also expanding its Certified Sites to include locations on short lines. The sites are rail-served properties that are ready for development. Among them: A site in the Mobile Gateway Park on the AGR in Alabama and a site on the Portland & Western that's 45 miles north of Portland and will emphasize import/export containerized traffic. The next step in BNSF's merchandise growth efforts will be improving the suite of technology tools that customers use to interact with the railroad, said Williams. Traditionally, BNSF has purchased off-the-shelf technology applications. Now it's building an in-house tech team that will develop BNSF-specific systems. Customers should see improvements rolled out over the next six to 18 months, Williams said. Subscribe to FreightWaves' Rail e-newsletter and get the latest insights on rail freight right in your Goldman Sachs advising BNSF on potential merger Analysis: UP-NS rail merger spotlights individual legacies in a legacy business Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern in merger talks: WSJ Report: Investment firm advising Union Pacific on potential rail merger The post BNSF aims to grow carload traffic with rail service upgrades appeared first on FreightWaves. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Black America Web
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Black America Web
100 Things You Didn't Know About Barack Obama
Source: Tom Williams / Getty Former President Barack Obama made history in 2008 when he was elected the 44th president of the United States, becoming the first Black person to hold the nation's highest office. His election marked a transformative moment in American history—one shaped by hope, resilience, and a belief in the power of collective progress. Obama's life story reflects the promise of the American dream. Born Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Hawaii, to a Kenyan father and a mother from Kansas, he was raised by his mother and grandparents. His grandfather served in World War II under General Patton, and his grandmother rose from a secretary to a middle-management position at a bank, instilling in him the values of hard work, education, and perseverance, according to The Obama White House Archives. With the support of scholarships and student loans, Obama worked his way through college and later moved to Chicago, where he began his career as a community organizer. There, he helped empower neighborhoods hit hard by the decline of the steel industry, an experience that shaped his lifelong commitment to public service. He went on to earn his law degree from Harvard, where he became the first African American president of the Harvard Law Review . After graduating, Obama returned to Chicago to teach constitutional law, lead a voter registration drive, and remain deeply involved in grassroots activism. His political career began in the Illinois State Senate, where he championed ethics reform, tax relief for working families, and expanded access to healthcare. As a U.S. Senator, he forged bipartisan efforts on issues such as government transparency, nuclear nonproliferation, and lobbying reform. Elected president in 2008 and reelected in 2012, Obama's presidency focused on economic recovery, healthcare reform, environmental action, and restoring America's standing on the global stage. His leadership was defined by a message of unity, dignity, and progress, and a belief that public service is one of the highest callings. Since leaving office, Obama has continued to inspire and lead through the Obama Foundation, promoting civic engagement, leadership development, and global dialogue for the next generation of changemakers. You knew him as president, but here are 100 surprising facts you might not know about our former commander in chief. 1. He liked HBO's Entourage . 2. He predicted UNC to win the Final Four. 3. He rooted for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Super Bowl. 4. His favorite basketball player is his daughter, Sasha. 5. He plans to vacation on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. 6. He and Bill Cosby are the only people to ever get free food from Ben's Chili Bowl. 7. He reads Harry Potter stories to his daughters. 8. He went to Wizards games and rooted for the Chicago Bulls. 9. He cursed and used the N-word in his audiobook, Dreams From My Father . 10. He has Jay-Z and Ludacris on his iPod. 11. He is a fan of show-tunes and gave an iPod full of them to the Queen of England. 12. He loves playing Scrabble. 13. He moved to Chicago and worked as a director of the Developing Communities Project after college. 14. The top contributors to his presidential campaign include Goldman Sachs, University of California, Citigroup Inc., Harvard University, and Time Warner. 15. He was introduced to dog meat (tough), snake meat (tougher), and roasted grasshopper in Indonesia. 16. 'His first car had so much rust that there was a rusted hole in the passenger door'- Michelle Obama. 17. He says his favorite children's book is Where the Wild Things Are . 18. He calls himself a mutt. 19. His favorite president is Abraham Lincoln. 20. During his first date with his wife, Michelle Obama, the duo went to see Do The Right Thing . 21. His height is 6 feet and a half inch. 22. His sister is a teacher. 23. He learned how to play cricket in Trinidad and Tobago. 24. He owns a pair of boxing gloves signed by Muhammad Ali. 25. He was born at the Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children. Source: Pool / Getty 26. He traveled to Kenya in 1988 and met many of his paternal relatives. 27. He traveled back to Kenya as a Senator in 2006 and was given a hero's welcome. 28. He has a beer named after him in Kenya. 29. He directed Illinois' Project Vote in 1992. 30. He collects Spider-Man and Conan the Barbarian comics. 31. He has a comic book with Spider-Man and a Barack the Barbarian comic book. 32. His favorite meal is his wife Michelle's shrimp linguini. 33. He worked in a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop as a teenager. Now he can't stand ice cream. 34. His daughter, Sasha, on the other hand, is a big fan of ice cream. 35. His favorite snacks are chocolate-peanut protein bars. 36. He is the first president with a Blackberry. 37. He uses an Apple Mac laptop. 38. He is left-handed. 39. His daughter's name, Malia, is Hawaiian. 40. He gets his hair cut once a week. 41. His favorite musical artists are Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. 42. His favorite show is The Wire. 43. His favorite artist is Pablo Picasso. 44. His grandfather was affiliated with the Kenyan revolutionary Mau Mau movement. 45. He and his wife donated $25,000 to the United Negro College fund. 46. He changed his name from Barry back to Barack in College to assert his identity. 47. He majored in Political Science at Columbia University. 48. He was in the Black Students' Union at both Occidental and Columbia. 49. His late father was a senior economist for the Kenyan government. 50. He keeps on his desk a carving of a wooden hand holding an egg, a Kenyan symbol for the fragility of life 51. His favorite drink is black forest berry iced tea 52. In high school, he was known as 'Barry.' Source: Brooks Kraft / Getty 53. He likes Beyonce's song, 'Single Ladies' 54. His daughter, Malia's godmother, is Jesse Jackson's daughter, Santita. 55. He can't bowl. 56. He hit three straight three-pointers at a military base. 57. He would have liked to be an architect if he were not a politician. 58. He can speak Spanish. 59. He kept a pet ape called Tata while in Indonesia. 60. He can bench press an impressive 200lbs. 61. He applied to appear in a Black pin-up calendar while at Harvard but was rejected by the all-female committee. 62. He was given the code name 'Renegade' by his Secret Service handlers. 63. He doesn't like young people wearing baggy pants. 64. He can't grow facial hair, only whiskers. 65. He wears Hart Schaffner Marx suits. 66. His father grew up herding goats. 67. His maternal grandfather fought in World War II. 68. He was only 1 of 3 black students at Punahou Academy in Hawaii. 69. He saw his father only once in 1971 for a Christmas visit. 70. He is distantly related to former Vice President Dick Cheney. 71. His high school yearbook picture inscription thanks 'Tut,' 'Gramps,' and the 'Choom Gang.' Choom is Hawaiian slang for 'pot smoking.' 72. His paternal grandfather was outright opposed to his son's marriage to Ann Durnham because he thought his son was neglecting his ex-wife and two children in Kenya. He was also concerned that Ann was white. 73. Some of his maternal ancestors were slave owners. 74. He did a good imitation of Jesse Jackson while he was at Harvard. 75. He does a good job imitating Marlon Brando in The Godfather . 76. His schoolmates in Indonesia nicknamed him 'Curly Eyelashes.' 77. He used to work in construction. 78. He once said the three men he admired the most were Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King, Jr. 79. His name means 'one who is blessed' in Swahili. 80. His favorite book is Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. 81. His parents met in Russian class. 82. He enjoys playing poker. 83. He is distantly related to Brad Pitt. 84. He used to drive a Chrysler 300m. 85. He watches his daughter Sasha's basketball games. 86. He is the first president to appear on a late-night talk show. 87. He has said many of his friends in Indonesia were 'street urchins.' 88. He was nicknamed 'Bear' by his late grandmother. 89. He owns four identical pairs of black, size 11 shoes. 90. He carries a tiny Madonna and child statue and a bracelet belonging to a soldier in Iraq for good luck. 91. He promised Michelle he would quit smoking before running for president. He didn't. 92. Before he moved to the White House, he drove a Ford Escape Hybrid. 93. His cousin on Michelle's side is a rabbi. 94. His old desk in his Senate office once belonged to Robert Kennedy. 95. His daughter Sasha's real name is Natasha. 96. He has seven half-brothers and sisters in Kenya from his father's other marriages. 97. He worked as a summer associate at the Sidley Austin law firm in Chicago. 98. He lost a congressional election in Illinois to Bobby Rush in 2000. 99. He answers one letter a day from people across the country. 100. His favorite dish to cook is chilli. SEE ALSO: SEE ALSO 100 Things You Didn't Know About Barack Obama was originally published on
Wall Street Journal
05-06-2025
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Trump Ally Sen. Jim Banks Credits Elon Musk for Cost-Cutting Efforts
Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana told CNN he believes the Senate could address some of the concerns about deficits generated by the House tax bill. Photo: Tom Williams/Zuma Press
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Pride Month no more: Trump administration says June is Title IX Month
President Donald Trump's administration has officially declared that June will now be recognized as Title IX Month — not Pride Month. Sign up for the to keep up with what's new in LGBTQ+ culture and entertainment — delivered three times a week straight (well…) to your inbox! The U.S. Department of Education published a new report on Monday, June 2 announcing that June will now be about recognizing instead of Pride Month. The official statement reads: "The U.S. Department of Education (the Department) today announced that it is recognizing June as 'Title IX Month' in honor of the fifty-third anniversary of Title IX of the Educational Amendments (1972) being signed into law. June will now be dedicated to commemorating women and celebrating their struggle for, and achievement of, equal educational opportunity. Throughout the month, the Department will highlight actions taken to reverse the Biden Administration's legacy of undermining Title IX and announce additional actions to protect women in line with the true purpose of Title IX." The report also specified that the department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is kicking of the first-ever Title IX Month with two "investigations into the University of Wyoming and Jefferson County Public Schools in Colorado for allegedly allowing males to join and live in female-only intimate and communal spaces." The official page for the department also wrote in an X post: "By prohibiting sex-based discrimination in federally funded programs, #TitleIX opened countless athletic & academic opportunities for women & girls across the country. This month, we celebrate Title IX's 53rd anniversary & will take more action to protect women's hard-earned rights." News outlets reporting on this update have drawn parallels between this new Title IX Month replacing the long-standing recognition of June as Pride Month. "The Education Department announced Monday that June, typically known as Pride Month, would be honored as 'Title IX Month' as it works to undo Biden-era transgender protections," The Hill reported. Fox News reported, "Dept of Education labels June as 'Title IX Month' in wake of trans athletes winning girls' competitions." Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Title IX sign displayed in the U.S. Capitol building. Title IX is a federal civil rights law enacted as one of the Education Amendments of 1972. The main function of Title IX is to prohibit discrimination based on sex. The official language of Title IX reads: "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance." A Title IX explainer from Harvard University notes that "Title IX regulations guide how colleges and universities, including Harvard, must respond to sexual harassment and other sexual misconduct through appropriate grievance procedures, supportive measures, and related policies." This story is still developing…
