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  • Business jet crashes at North Carolina airport; deaths reported

    Deaths have been reported after a business jet crashed while attempting to land at a regional airport in North Carolina, according to a local sheriff.“I can confirm there were fatalities,” Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell said. Campbell did not elaborate on how many people were killed.Video above: Crash scene at Statesville Regional Airport in North CarolinaThe jet crashed while attempting to make a landing at Statesville Regional Airport around 10:15 a.m. Thursday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The Hearst Television National Investigative Unit found that FAA records show the plane that crashed was a Cessna 550 Citation, a smaller jet often used by businesses. This Citation was built in 1981 and last certified for flight in March of this year.Flight plans show the plane was bound for Sarasota, Florida, and had three additional flights planned for Thursday. From Sarasota, the plane had planned to fly to Treasure Cay International Airport in the Bahamas before returning to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and then to Statesville by evening.Flight tracking data reviewed by the National Investigative Unit shows the jet departed Statesville Regional at approximately 10:06 am. The jet reached its highest altitude — approximately 2,000 feet — less than two minutes after departure and about a mile from the airport, and then it began to descend.It continued descending and at approximately 11 miles from the airport, the plane turned back and made an attempt to fly directly back to the airport. The final recorded data point, about nine minutes after takeoff, shows the plane less than a half-mile from the airport near the Lakewood Golf Club about 800 feet of altitude and approximately 109 mph. On its website, the airport says it provides corporate aviation facilities for Fortune 500 companies and several NASCAR teams. The airport, about 45 miles north of Charlotte, is currently closed. This is a developing story. Check back for updates. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    STATESVILLE, N.C. —

    Deaths have been reported after a business jet crashed while attempting to land at a regional airport in North Carolina, according to a local sheriff.

    “I can confirm there were fatalities,” Iredell County Sheriff Darren Campbell said. Campbell did not elaborate on how many people were killed.

    Video above: Crash scene at Statesville Regional Airport in North Carolina

    The jet crashed while attempting to make a landing at Statesville Regional Airport around 10:15 a.m. Thursday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

    The Hearst Television National Investigative Unit found that FAA records show the plane that crashed was a Cessna 550 Citation, a smaller jet often used by businesses. This Citation was built in 1981 and last certified for flight in March of this year.

    Flight plans show the plane was bound for Sarasota, Florida, and had three additional flights planned for Thursday. From Sarasota, the plane had planned to fly to Treasure Cay International Airport in the Bahamas before returning to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and then to Statesville by evening.

    Flight tracking data reviewed by the National Investigative Unit shows the jet departed Statesville Regional at approximately 10:06 am. The jet reached its highest altitude — approximately 2,000 feet — less than two minutes after departure and about a mile from the airport, and then it began to descend.

    It continued descending and at approximately 11 miles from the airport, the plane turned back and made an attempt to fly directly back to the airport. The final recorded data point, about nine minutes after takeoff, shows the plane less than a half-mile from the airport near the Lakewood Golf Club about 800 feet of altitude and approximately 109 mph.

    On its website, the airport says it provides corporate aviation facilities for Fortune 500 companies and several NASCAR teams. The airport, about 45 miles north of Charlotte, is currently closed.

    This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Perplexity’s Clash with New Publishers Continues Despite Revenue-Sharing Efforts

    Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas previously worked at OpenAI. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

    Perplexity AI, a startup that has previously come under fire from online publishers, is attempting to rebuild trust with media players through revenue-sharing agreements. But that effort hasn’t stopped complaints about how the company surfaces content. Its latest challenge comes from Japanese media groups Nikkei and Asahi Shumbun, which today (Aug. 26) filed a joint lawsuit accusing Perplexity of copyright infringement.

    Co-founded in 2022 by CEO Aravind Srinivas, Perplexity has quickly become a leader in A.I.-powered search and is currently valued at $18 billion. Unlike traditional search engines that return links, Perplexity responds to queries by summarizing information found online, accompanies by citations.

    Perplexity did not respond to Observer requests for comment on the lawsuit.

    Nikkei, which owns the eponymous Japanese newspaper and the Financial Times, and Asahi Shumbun claim that Perplexity has been storing and resurfacing their articles since at least June 2024, a practice the publishers describe as “free riding” on journalists’ work. The lawsuit, filed in a Tokyo District Court, demands that the A.I. company delete stored articles, stop reproducing publisher content, and pay each media company 2.2 billion Japanese yen ($15 million) in damages.

    The suit also alleges that Perplexity ignored robot.txt safeguards implemented by the news publishers to block unauthorized crawling and sometimes presented articles alongside incorrect information, a move the publishers argue “severely damages the credibility” of their newspapers.

    This is not Perplexity’s first clash with news publishers. Earlier this month, Yomiuri Shimbun, another major Japanese newspaper, filed its own lawsuit against the company. U.S. outlets have also raised challenges.

    Last year, Condé Nast, Forbes and The New York Times all threatened legal action over alleged copyright infringement. Perplexity is currently battling a 2024 lawsuit from Dow Jones and The New York Post—both owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp—claiming that the startup misused content to train A.I. models. A court recently rejected Perplexity’s bid to dismiss that case.

    Perplexity has since tried to ease tensions by launching revenue-sharing programs that give outlets a portion of the ad revenue generated from their material. The program has attracted partners such as Time Magazine, Fortune and the German news site Der Spiegel. Perplexity also recently unveiled plans to give publishers around 80 percent of the sales from Comet Plus, a news service expected to launch later this year.

    For now, the media industry remains divided on how to handle the rise of A.I. Some, like the Associated Press, Vox Media and The Atlantic, have signed licensing deals with OpenAI. Others remain wary. The New York Times is suing OpenAI and Microsoft over unauthorized use of its content, while Canadian startup Cohere was hit with a similar lawsuit this year from more than a dozen news publishers. Thompson Reuters has also accused A.I. platform Ross Intelligence of copyright infringement in a case that dates back to 2020.

    Perplexity’s Clash with New Publishers Continues Despite Revenue-Sharing Efforts

    Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly

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  • Pat Sajak’s final ‘Wheel of Fortune’ airs Friday. What to know about his spin as host

    Pat Sajak’s final ‘Wheel of Fortune’ airs Friday. What to know about his spin as host

    Pat Sajak will wind down his record-breaking spin hosting “Wheel of Fortune” on Friday night. Here’s what to know about the game show icon’s decades-long tenure on the show.

    When does Sajak’s final episode air?

    The “Wheel of Fortune” Season 41 finale, titled “Thanks for the Memories,” airs at 7:30 p.m. Friday on KABC-7. Thursday’s penultimate episode will include a farewell message from Sajak’s longtime co-host, Vanna White.

    How long has Sajak hosted?

    Sajak has hosted the Hangman-style game show for more than 40 years, stepping in for original host Chuck Woolery after its seventh season in 1982, when “America’s Game” still aired on daytime television.

    “Wheel of Fortune” debuted in 1975 with Woolery and Susan Stafford leading the show before the “Love Connection” host departed over a salary dispute with NBC. Legendary producer Merv Griffin hired Sajak and famous letter-turner White in 1982, and the two have become fixtures of the series. In 2019, Sajak scored the Guinness Book of World Records title for longest career as a game show host on the same show. He will retire with almost 8,000 episodes to his name.

    He earned three Daytime Emmy Awards as game show host during his run and a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. He also has a People’s Choice Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame credited to his “Wheel” run.

    In 2021, “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” premiered in prime time on ABC with Sajak usually serving as host.

    Why is Sajak stepping down?

    The 77-year-old announced his retirement a year ago, writing on X (formerly Twitter) that the current season would be his last. In an interview with his daughter, “Wheel” social correspondent Maggie Sajak, the host said that he could continue hosting the show if he wanted to but felt he needed to exit on his own terms.

    “I’d rather leave a couple years too early than a couple years too late,” he said, adding, “I’m looking forward to whatever’s ahead.”

    Who’s taking over ‘Wheel of Fortune’? And when?

    Ryan Seacrest will become the new “Wheel of Fortune” host in September.

    ( Associated Press)

    Less than a month after Sajak revealed his retirement, “American Idol” and “On Air” host Ryan Seacrest announced that he would step into the emcee’s shoes. At the time, Seacrest lauded his predecessor for the way Sajak “always celebrated the contestants and made viewers feel at home.”

    Seacrest, who signed a multiyear deal with Sony Pictures Television last June, will begin the new gig in September.

    White is set to remain on “Wheel of Fortune” for the next two years. She has previously filled in for Sajak as host on a few occasions and, before the brief search for Sajak’s successor came to an end, fans campaigned for White to replace her longtime colleague.

    What did Sajak do before ‘Wheel’?

    It’s hard to think about Sajak doing anything other than soliciting consonants and vowels or declaring a player “bankrupt,” but his storied career began long before “Wheel of Fortune.”

    Born and raised in Chicago, Sajak got his broadcasting start as a newscaster and announcer at a small radio station, looking to broadcast legends Arthur Godfrey, Dave Garroway, Steve Allen and Jack Paar for inspiration to shape his TV personality. He served in the U.S. Army in the late 1960s and was sent to Vietnam, where he hosted a daily show for Armed Forces Radio in Saigon shouting “Good morning, Vietnam!” each day.

    After being discharged, he worked at small radio stations in Kentucky and Tennessee, spending several years as a staff announcer, talk show host and weatherman at Nashville’s WSM-TV. A talent scout for NBC-TV in Los Angeles spotted him and brought him onboard in 1977 to serve as the local NBC station’s primary weatherman. In 1981, Griffin asked him to assume hosting duties on “Wheel” when it still aired during the day on NBC, well before the syndicated version premiered in 1983.

    “The nice thing about working in local TV in L.A.,” Sajak has said, “is that decision makers are watching you every night.”

    The avuncular host has joked that he spent 40 years doing “a part-time job pretending it was full-time,” given how the show’s shooting schedule has allowed him to tape several episodes at a time.

    “The great benefit is [my wife] Lesley and I could spend time together and do things,” he told his daughter in an interview posted this week on the “Wheel of Fortune” YouTube channel. “And I could watch you guys grow up and go to the games and all that kind of stuff that work might have taken me away from.”

    What else is on Sajak’s résumé?

    During his tenure, Sajak has entertained generations of fans, inspired “Saturday Night Live” and “South Park” jokes and generated numerous headlines about his behavior with contestants. He also briefly hosted the short-lived late-night talk show “The Pat Sajak Show” in the late 1980s and played himself in a number of films and TV shows, including “The A-Team,” “227,” “Airplane II: The Sequel,” “Santa Barbara,” “The King of Queens,” “Just Shoot Me!” and “Fresh Off the Boat.”

    “We became part of the popular culture … more importantly became part of people’s lives,” he said in a recent interview with his daughter, who made her “Wheel” debut as a 1-year-old when she joined her dad onstage. The Princeton and Columbia University grad has been the show’s social correspondent since 2021.

    Pat sajak also has helped reformat the show, adding the Toss Up puzzle to contribute more content each episode, plus the idea of the $100,000 Toss Up.

    But his awkward dad jokes have raised eyebrows in recent years, with the stalwart host fully committing to an odd voyeurism quip while bantering with White during a 2023 episode. He also has landed in hot water for asking her if she liked watching opera in the buff and repeatedly raised social media hackles when he mocked and pranked a contestant over her fear of fish, poked fun at a man and his long beard by referring to him as one of Santa’s helpers, and put a winning contestant in a chokehold.

    What’s next for Sajak?

    Sajak said he’s looking forward to time to “with my crossword puzzles” and family. He will continue his duties as chairman of the Hillsdale College Board of Trustees, a position he took up in 2019.

    Nardine Saad, Alexandra Del Rosario

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  • ‘I consider it a win’: Jennifer Siebel Newsom on California’s women on boards law

    ‘I consider it a win’: Jennifer Siebel Newsom on California’s women on boards law

    Is there a solution to the contentious state of U.S. politics? Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the first partner of the state of California, thinks so, but it requires more women leaders.

    “The threefold answer: focusing on our common humanity; getting more women into leadership, especially mothers and women of color; and then obviously, we’ve got to call out those who are profiting off of dividing us,” Newsom said during Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in Laguna Niguel, Calif., last week.

    Gender equity has been a priority for Newsom, an award-winning filmmaker and wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom. “One of the initiatives we’ve taken on is SB 826, and making sure that this bill was implemented in a way that benefited women and represented California women,” she said. The California landmark law requires the representation of women on corporate boards of companies headquartered in the state.

    “In 2018, when SB 826 was first signed, what we found was that 15.5% of the seats on public company boards were held by women,” Newsom said. Today, 33% of public company board seats in California are held by women, she said. However, there’s still work to do. “Latinos represent 20% of the California population and are less than 2% of public company board seats,” she said.

    Along with the progress Newsom noted, there’s also been some pushback. The conservative legal group Judicial Watch challenged the law. And in May, Superior Court Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis ruled the law violated the right to equal treatment.

    “Another judge gave the law a stay in September of this year,” Newsom said. “But regardless, people have moved in the direction of recognizing the value of women’s leadership.”

    “Do you consider it a win, generally speaking, regardless of what happens legally?” Fortune’s Michal Lev-Ram asked Newsom. 

    “I consider it a win,” she said. “There are so many benefits to women in leadership.” Other states are trying to implement initiatives similar to California’s SB 826, Newsom said. “But it’s important for us to lead in California on these issues,” she said.   

    California also has positioned itself as a safe haven for women from states where abortion has been banned. The state has invested more than $200 million dollars in reproductive health, Newsom said. “Part of our reproductive health care package is making sure that we don’t criminalize women for miscarriages on top of abortions, and that we don’t criminalize providers who are actually trying to protect women, whether in state or out of state,” she said. 

    “They can’t profit off of exploiting our kids any longer“

    Newsom is also focusing on the mental health of adolescents. “Increases in depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, that was already happening, but the pandemic, obviously, just pulled the curtain back on that,” she said.

    Newsom’s organization, The California Partners Project, is examining how new content and distribution technologies are affecting adolescent mental health. The goal is to clarify and communicate the warning signs and best practices around media and technology.

    The California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act was signed into law by Gov. Newsom in September. The bill requires online platforms to proactively evaluate whether their product design or services, including algorithms and ads, may present a danger to minors.

    “We’re trying to slowly wake companies up to the fact that they can’t profit off of exploiting our kids any longer,” First Partner Newsom said.  

    Realizing your power

    Newsom is going to testify against Harvey Weinstein in the second trial in Los Angeles. She did not comment on the case. But Newsom shared her perspective on realizing her power. 

    “I think I first discovered my power when I made my documentary Miss Representation, Newsom said. We premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and sold [the documentary] to the Oprah Winfrey Network in 2011. I remember standing in the audience at Sundance; it was standing-room only, and a sold out audience.”

    An audience member asked, “‘So, what did you discover making this film?’” Newsom recalled. “And I said, I found my voice.” 

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    Sheryl Estrada

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