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  • Figure skater Alysa Liu retired for two years: How the time away helped her skating

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    Whoever said “quitters never win,” never met Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu. Liu’s figure skating comeback has been remarkable: The 20-year-old is a two-time Olympic gold medalist in the Milan Cortina Games and a 2025 world figure skating champ.Her free skate on Olympic ice on Thursday clinched the 20-year-old the gold, marking the first time a U.S. woman won an individual figure skating gold since 2002.”My family is out there. My friends are out there. I had to put on a show for them,” Liu told the Associated Press afterward. “When I see other people out there smiling, because I see them in the audience, then I have to smile, too. I have no poker face.”She sat in third place after the short program and is the top American in those standings. The approach she took was one with no pressure on herself.”I’m OK if I do a fail program. I’m totally OK if I do a great program,” she said after the short program, according to the Associated Press. “No matter what the outcome is, it’s still my story.”Looking at her career and why she leftLiu became the youngest U.S. figure skating champ at 13. She’s the first female figure skater to land a quadruple jump in international competition.But at age 16, she announced her retirement from figure skating. Liu said she hated skating by that point and had been planning her exit for a year before she did it. Liu had skated since the age of 5. Skating can be a solitary and controlled sport. She craved teen normalcy, time with friends and freedom. She put her skates in the closet and said she didn’t miss the ice at all. “I left the sport completely,” Liu said. “Like I wouldn’t step in the rink. Honestly, I was low-key traumatized.”Liu spent the next two years making up for lost time. She spent time with her siblings in Oakland, California. She’s the oldest of five kids. She hung out with high school friends, graduated and traveled the world, including hiking in the Himalayas. She enrolled at UCLA and picked up a new sport: skiing. Skiing reminded her of skating because of the sensation of the cold air on her skin. One day, she ventured into a rink with a friend. And, she didn’t hate it. In fact, she enjoyed it. Making a comeback She started skating again for fun and then floated the idea of coming out of retirement to her longtime coach, Phillip DiGuglielmo. “I said, ‘Please don’t.’ I really did. I said, ‘Please don’t. Respect your legacy as an Olympic bronze medalist,’” DiGuglielmo said.DiGuglielmo had coached Liu since she was 5. “We had a Zoom call for two hours,” DiGuglielmo said. “The story is, I had a lot of glasses of wine over those two hours. And she talked me into a comeback.”Liu and DiGuglielmo resumed training for just seven months, and she won the 2025 World Figure Skating Championships. DiGuglielmo said no one has taken a two-year break from skating and pulled off such a feat. “It makes me think if I was one of those athletes, I’d be like, ‘Why did I just skate for the last year? I could have taken a vacation for two years. But that’s Alysa. She’s different,” DiGuglielmo said. Liu pointed out that she left her sport while still in puberty. At 20, she’s physically and mentally stronger. And, she’s competing on her own terms, taking an active role in choreography, competition and training. “I have a perspective not many of the athletes in the sport have,” Liu said. “So many people, their goal is the Olympics, and when they get there, and it’s over, they don’t know what to do. I’m really just doing this for fun.”PHNjcmlwdCB0eXBlPSJ0ZXh0L2phdmFzY3JpcHQiPiFmdW5jdGlvbigpeyJ1c2Ugc3RyaWN0Ijt3aW5kb3cuYWRkRXZlbnRMaXN0ZW5lcigibWVzc2FnZSIsKGZ1bmN0aW9uKGUpe2lmKHZvaWQgMCE9PWUuZGF0YVsiZGF0YXdyYXBwZXItaGVpZ2h0Il0pe3ZhciB0PWRvY3VtZW50LnF1ZXJ5U2VsZWN0b3JBbGwoImlmcmFtZSIpO2Zvcih2YXIgYSBpbiBlLmRhdGFbImRhdGF3cmFwcGVyLWhlaWdodCJdKWZvcih2YXIgcj0wO3I8dC5sZW5ndGg7cisrKXtpZih0W3JdLmNvbnRlbnRXaW5kb3c9PT1lLnNvdXJjZSl0W3JdLnN0eWxlLmhlaWdodD1lLmRhdGFbImRhdGF3cmFwcGVyLWhlaWdodCJdW2FdKyJweCJ9fX0pKX0oKTs8L3NjcmlwdD4=

    Whoever said “quitters never win,” never met Olympic figure skater Alysa Liu.

    Liu’s figure skating comeback has been remarkable: The 20-year-old is a 2025 world figure skating champ and an two-time Olympic gold medalist in the Milan Cortina Games.

    Matthew Stockman/Getty Images

    Alysa Liu of Team United States competes in the Women’s Single Skating – Short Program on Feb. 6, 2026.

    Her free skate on Olympic ice on Thursday clinched the 20-year-old the gold, marking the first time a U.S. woman won an individual figure skating gold since 2002.

    “My family is out there. My friends are out there. I had to put on a show for them,” Liu told the Associated Press afterward. “When I see other people out there smiling, because I see them in the audience, then I have to smile, too. I have no poker face.”

    She sat in third place after the short program and is the top American in those standings. The approach she took was one with no pressure on herself.

    “I’m OK if I do a fail program. I’m totally OK if I do a great program,” she said after the short program, according to the Associated Press. “No matter what the outcome is, it’s still my story.”

    Looking at her career and why she left

    Liu became the youngest U.S. figure skating champ at 13. She’s the first female figure skater to land a quadruple jump in international competition.

    But at age 16, she announced her retirement from figure skating. Liu said she hated skating by that point and had been planning her exit for a year before she did it.

    Liu had skated since the age of 5. Skating can be a solitary and controlled sport. She craved teen normalcy, time with friends and freedom. She put her skates in the closet and said she didn’t miss the ice at all.

    “I left the sport completely,” Liu said. “Like I wouldn’t step in the rink. Honestly, I was low-key traumatized.”

    Liu spent the next two years making up for lost time. She spent time with her siblings in Oakland, California. She’s the oldest of five kids. She hung out with high school friends, graduated and traveled the world, including hiking in the Himalayas. She enrolled at UCLA and picked up a new sport: skiing.

    Skiing reminded her of skating because of the sensation of the cold air on her skin. One day, she ventured into a rink with a friend. And, she didn’t hate it. In fact, she enjoyed it.

    Making a comeback

    She started skating again for fun and then floated the idea of coming out of retirement to her longtime coach, Phillip DiGuglielmo.

    “I said, ‘Please don’t.’ I really did. I said, ‘Please don’t. Respect your legacy as an Olympic bronze medalist,’” DiGuglielmo said.

    DiGuglielmo had coached Liu since she was 5.

    “We had a Zoom call for two hours,” DiGuglielmo said. “The story is, I had a lot of glasses of wine over those two hours. And she talked me into a comeback.”

    Alysa Liu reacts after competing in the figure skating women's single free skating final during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan on Feb. 19, 2026.

    WANG Zhao / AFP via Getty Images

    Alysa Liu reacts after competing in the figure skating women’s single free skating final during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Milano Ice Skating Arena in Milan on Feb. 19, 2026.

    Liu and DiGuglielmo resumed training for just seven months, and she won the 2025 World Figure Skating Championships. DiGuglielmo said no one has taken a two-year break from skating and pulled off such a feat.

    “It makes me think if I was one of those athletes, I’d be like, ‘Why did I just skate for the last year? I could have taken a vacation for two years. But that’s Alysa. She’s different,” DiGuglielmo said.

    Gold medalist Alyssa Liu of Team United States celebrates after the medal ceremony for the Team Event on day two of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Milano Ice Skating Arena on Feb. 8, 2026, in Milan, Italy.

    Andy Cheung/Getty Images

    Gold medalist Alyssa Liu of Team United States celebrates after the medal ceremony for the Team Event on day two of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Milano Ice Skating Arena on Feb. 8, 2026, in Milan, Italy.

    Liu pointed out that she left her sport while still in puberty. At 20, she’s physically and mentally stronger. And, she’s competing on her own terms, taking an active role in choreography, competition and training.

    “I have a perspective not many of the athletes in the sport have,” Liu said. “So many people, their goal is the Olympics, and when they get there, and it’s over, they don’t know what to do. I’m really just doing this for fun.”

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  • Canine Companions honors legacy of Harris Rosen with service dog in training

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    MR. HARRIS. ROSEN. YES. GOOD GIRL. MEET LITTLE ROSEN, A SIX MONTH OLD GOLDEN RETRIEVER FULL OF SPUNK, LIFE, AND A WHOLE LOT OF LOVE. THERE YOU GO. SHE’S NAMED AFTER SOMEONE WHO ALSO BROUGHT A LOT OF LOVE TO ANYONE WHO CROSSED THEIR PATH. MR. HARRIS ROSEN, THE LONGTIME ORLANDO PHILANTHROPIST AND ENTREPRENEUR WHO DIED IN 2024 AT THE AGE OF 85, ONE OF THE MANY, MANY ORGANIZATIONS HE SUPPORTED WAS CANINE COMPANIONS. NEARLY 30 YEARS. WE’VE HAD A PARTNERSHIP WITH THE ROSEN HOTELS AND RESORTS, AND MR. ROSEN REALLY STARTED THAT PARTNERSHIP WITH CANINE COMPANIONS. AND AS A WAY TO HONOR HIM THIS YEAR, WE NAMED A PUPPY ROSEN. AND REALLY, IT NOT ONLY SIGNIFIES THE RELATIONSHIP WITH MR. ROSEN, BUT THE ENTIRE ROSEN FAMILY, MUCH LIKE MR. ROSEN, LIVED A LIFE OF SERVICE PUPPY. ROSEN WILL DO THE SAME. SHE’S TRAINING AT CANINE COMPANIONS TO BECOME A SERVICE DOG. WAIT. LET’S GO. YES. GOOD GIRL. ADELE MOSES IS ONE OF THE STAFF MEMBERS RAISING ROSEN UNTIL IT’S TIME TO MOVE ON TO PROFESSIONAL TRAINING. SHE’S JUST STARTING TO LEARN HER BASIC OBEDIENCE AND STARTING TO GO OUT INTO PUBLIC TO LEARN HOW TO JUST BE CALM AND HAPPY IN ALL SORTS OF DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS AROUND PEOPLE AND NOVEL THINGS IN THE WORLD. AND SHE’S DOING A REALLY GOOD JOB SO FAR, ROSEN. SHAKE. IT’LL TAKE ABOUT TWO YEARS BEFORE ROSEN GRADUATES AND MATCHES WITH SOMEONE WHO LIVES WITH A DISABILITY. CANINE COMPANIONS DOES AN EXTENSIVE INTERVIEW PROCESS WITH ALL OF OUR CLIENTS TO MAKE SURE THAT WE CAN MEET THE NEEDS THAT THEY HAVE WITH ONE OF OUR DOGS. AND THEN WE ALSO KNOW ABOUT THE DOG FROM BIRTH UNTIL ABOUT A YEAR AND A HALF. SO WE LOOK AT THE DOG STRENGTHS, WE LOOK AT THE PERSON’S STRENGTHS AND THEIR NEEDS AND TRY TO MATCH THE BEST DOG FOR THAT PERSON. AND THE ROSEN FAMILY SAYS IT MEANS A LOT TO KNOW THIS ADORABLE PUP WILL BRING JOY TO SOMEONE’S LIFE, JUST LIKE MR. ROSEN DID. MR. ROSEN’S LEGACY IS STILL ALIVE, AND IT’S GOING TO CONTINUE THROUGH LITTLE PUPPY, ROSEN AND CANINE COMPANIONS AND ALL THE OTHER GREAT WORK THAT THEY’RE DOING. AND PUPPY ROSEN IS JUST THE SWEETEST LITTLE THING. THANK YOU TO CANINE COMPANIONS FOR INVITING WESH 2 AND ME TO GO OUT THERE AND MEET HER AND HEAR ABOUT HOW SHE’

    Canine Companions honors legacy of Harris Rosen with service dog in training

    Harris Rosen supported Canine Companions for three decades.

    Updated: 3:29 PM EST Feb 14, 2026

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    One four-legged friend is working on becoming a service dog through Canine Companions, and she is doing so while carrying on the legacy of a philanthropic giant in Central Florida.Puppy Rosen, a lively 6-month-old golden retriever, is named after Harris Rosen, the Orlando philanthropist and entrepreneur who died in 2024 at the age of 85. Harris Rosen supported Canine Companions for many years. “Nearly 30 years, we’ve had a partnership with Rosen Hotels and Resorts, and Mr. Rosen really started that partnership with Canine Companions. And as a way to honor him this year, we named a puppy Rosen. And it not only signifies the relationship with Mr. Rosen, but the entire Rosen family,” said Cathy Rodgers, executive director of Canine Companions.Much like how Harris Rosen lived a life of service, puppy Rosen will do the same when she becomes a service dog.Adele Moses, a staff member at Canine Companions, is raising Rosen until she moves on to professional training. “She’s just starting to learn her basic obedience and starting to go out into public to learn how to be calm, happy in all sorts of different environments around people and novel things in the world, and she’s doing a really good job so far,” Moses said.It will take about two years before Rosen graduates and matches with someone who lives with a disability. “Canine Companions does an extensive interview process with all of our clients to make sure that we can meet the needs that they have with one of our dogs. And then, we also know about the dog from birth until about a year and a half. So, we look at the dog’s strengths, we look at the person’s strengths and their needs, and try to match the best dog for that person,” Moses explained. The Rosen family says it means a lot to know the adorable pup will bring joy to someone’s life, just like Harris Rosen did. “Mr. Rosen’s legacy is still alive, and it’s going to continue through little puppy Rosen and Canine Companions and all the other great work that they’re doing,” said Amanda Kruse with Rosen Hotels and Resorts.

    CENTRAL FLORIDA, USA —

    One four-legged friend is working on becoming a service dog through Canine Companions, and she is doing so while carrying on the legacy of a philanthropic giant in Central Florida.

    Puppy Rosen, a lively 6-month-old golden retriever, is named after Harris Rosen, the Orlando philanthropist and entrepreneur who died in 2024 at the age of 85.

    Harris Rosen supported Canine Companions for many years.

    “Nearly 30 years, we’ve had a partnership with Rosen Hotels and Resorts, and Mr. Rosen really started that partnership with Canine Companions. And as a way to honor him this year, we named a puppy Rosen. And it not only signifies the relationship with Mr. Rosen, but the entire Rosen family,” said Cathy Rodgers, executive director of Canine Companions.

    Much like how Harris Rosen lived a life of service, puppy Rosen will do the same when she becomes a service dog.

    Adele Moses, a staff member at Canine Companions, is raising Rosen until she moves on to professional training.

    “She’s just starting to learn her basic obedience and starting to go out into public to learn how to be calm, happy in all sorts of different environments around people and novel things in the world, and she’s doing a really good job so far,” Moses said.

    It will take about two years before Rosen graduates and matches with someone who lives with a disability.

    “Canine Companions does an extensive interview process with all of our clients to make sure that we can meet the needs that they have with one of our dogs. And then, we also know about the dog from birth until about a year and a half. So, we look at the dog’s strengths, we look at the person’s strengths and their needs, and try to match the best dog for that person,” Moses explained.

    The Rosen family says it means a lot to know the adorable pup will bring joy to someone’s life, just like Harris Rosen did.

    “Mr. Rosen’s legacy is still alive, and it’s going to continue through little puppy Rosen and Canine Companions and all the other great work that they’re doing,” said Amanda Kruse with Rosen Hotels and Resorts.

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  • Discover the Mysteries of the Root Chakra and How It Influences Pet Behavior! | Animal Wellness Magazine

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    Join renowned animal communicator Joan Ranquet on a journey to uncover the secrets of the root chakra and its impact on pet behavior.

    Training, positive reinforcement, and increased activity and stimulation can help you manage unwanted or unhealthy behaviors in dogs and cats. And while these are crucial components, there’s often an important piece missing: chakra care. Animals have chakras just like humans, and when they’re unbalanced or blocked, it can lead to mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, sexual, behavioral, and relationship issues. Let’s learn more about the root chakra, or first chakra, from animal communication expert Joan Ranquet!

    Exploring the Basics of the First Chakra

    There are eight chakras, each one acting as an energy center in the body that regulates physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. The first chakra relates to survival, the herd, the environment, security, safety, and sense of self. It’s associated with the color red and emotions like excitement, enthusiasm, passion, anger, fury, and frustration.

    The first chakra sits at the base of the spine (why it’s also called the root chakra), which is also the base of the tail. For this reason, tail position can tell you a lot about how your furry friend is feeling. For example, tail wagging can indicate happiness, but it can also signal reactivity, like a rattlesnake poised to strike.

    Ways the First Chakra Impacts Pet Behavior

    Because the first chakra symbolizes survival, an imbalance or blockage results in fight, flight, or freeze behavior. This can manifest as insecurity, instability, timidity, and reactivity. In fact, the health of the first chakra can impact just about every aspect of a dog’s or cat’s life, including how they react to:

    • Meeting new people or animals
    • Getting along with other animals in the house
    • Riding in a car
    • Going on a walk
    • Taking a trip to the veterinarian
    • Having nails trimmed or teeth brushed

    For instance, leash reactivity can stem from a dog feeling like they lack an emotional leader. Frustration and aggression can be caused by masking pain or discomfort. Ultimately, the health of the first chakra—and confident, positive behavior—depends on your companion animal feeling safe and secure.

    Pet Behavior and Root Chakra Tips from the Expert!

    Unwanted behaviors are challenging, but “animals can evolve out of their wounding…They can also truly heal and settle with great guardians and guidance,” says Joan.

    A regular exercise routine is critical. Joan explains that in the wild, animals release adrenaline and stress by running from threats. So with domesticated animals, daily exercise prevents stress from building up.

    Furthermore, when you’re calm and grounded, you can transfer those emotions to your dog or cat. A calming technique like the bladder sweep can do wonders for the first chakra: “Take your hand and stroke the animal from the top of the head all the way to the end of the tail 3 times, and then stroke from the top of the head all the way down the back and down the hind legs to the outside toe. Repeat 3 times with each leg.”

    In her new book, Animal Chakra Healing, Joan explores the eight chakras and provides additional techniques and resources.

    Visit her website to learn more about the root chakra, read a free sample, and order a copy!

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    Animal Wellness is North America’s top natural health and lifestyle magazine for dogs and cats, with a readership of over one million every year. AW features articles by some of the most renowned experts in the pet industry, with topics ranging from diet and health related issues, to articles on training, fitness and emotional well being.

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  • 5 Tips For Training a Stubborn Dog

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    Last updated on By Puppy Leaks Leave a Comment

    Training a dog can be one of the most rewarding experiences for owners, but if your dog is a bit stubborn it can feel like an uphill battle. Stubborn dogs—often breeds like Bulldogs, Huskies, or Terriers—aren’t necessarily disobedient; they might just be independent dogs who need a tailored approach. The good news? With the right strategies even the most independent and/or stubborn dog can learn new tricks. Today I’ll share five practical tips to help you train your stubborn dog.

    And remember — stubborn dogs aren’t bad dogs, they’re some of the best (and cheekiest) dogs I know. Like us our dogs all have unique personalities, and sometimes that just requires a slightly different approach to training.

    Use Positive Reinforcement Consistently

    Dogs, even stubborn and independent ones, respond best to rewards rather than punishment. Instead of scolding for bad behavior remember to focus on using praise and treats for good actions.

    For example, if your dog ignores the “sit” command wait patiently and reward them the moment they comply. High-value treats like small pieces of chicken or cheese can motivate even the most reluctant learners. Consistency is key—everyone in the household must use the same commands and rewards to avoid confusion. Over time, this builds trust and makes training feel like a game rather than a chore.

    Keep Training Sessions Short and Fun

    Long training sessions can bore or frustrate any dog, especially young and stubborn ones. You should aim for several 5-10 minute training sessions a few times a day to keep your dog’s attention.

    And don’t forget to incorporate play, like using toys or games, to keep things engaging and fun. If your dog loves fetch, teach your dog the “drop it” command to kill two birds with one stone, teaching them a practical cue while making a game of it. This approach will use your dog’s natural excitement and energy for interactive play while preventing burnout.

    And remember — ending on a positive note reinforces success and leaves them eager for the next session.

    Establish A Routine

    Stubborn dogs thrive on structure. Set a daily routine for meals, walks, and playtime to establish what’s expected of your dog at any given time. It’s an easy way to teach good manners while feeling natural, letting them develop good behaviors on a consistent basis. A predictable environment reduces anxiety and makes them more receptive to commands.

    Use tools like leashes or crates to guide behavior gently. For instance, if your dog pulls on walks, stop moving until they relax—this teaches patience. Another favorite tip of mine is to use snuffle mats or interactive toys to have your dog “work” for their meals versus free feeding. It may sound weird, but scavenging is on our dogs DNA, so it hones in on their natural abilities and gives them plenty of mental stimulation.

    Address Underlying Issues

    Sometimes a dog may lose interest or become stubborn from boredom, lack of exercise, or even health problems. Ensure your dog gets plenty of physical and mental stimulation through puzzle toys, agility courses, or scent work games. If the behavior persists consult your vet to rule out health issues that may be contributing to your dog’s lack of interest.

    Breeds with high intelligence like Border Collies can act out and become destructive if under-stimulated. Tailoring activities to their natural instincts can turn a “stubborn” dog into an enthusiastic trainee. For example, high prey dogs will probably love playing with a flirt pole, and it helps them burn off a tun of energy. Not all dogs can go with one walk a day to fulfill their exercise demands, some will need additional activities throughout the day.

    Be Patient and Seek Professional Help if Needed

    Patience is your greatest ally when it comes to dog training. Stubborn dogs may take longer to learn, but rushing can lead to setbacks. Remember to celebrate small wins and avoid frustration. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither is a well trained dog.

    If progress stalls and you’re at a complete loss consider a professional trainer or behaviorist who specializes in positive methods. There’s nothing wrong with asking for help, especially when it comes to something as complicated as dog training since there’s so many methods available.

    Recommended Reading:

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  • Has ICE agent training been reduced to 47 days?

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    The fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman in her car by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jan. 7 brought more scrutiny on Trump-era training requirements. 

    On CNN’s “State of the Union” Jan. 11, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., told anchor Jake Tapper the Trump administration had shortened ICE agents’ training time while scaling up its hiring. 

    “Remember we’re beefing up ICE 10,000 more agents,” Warner said. “They are not getting the traditional five months training. Literally, Jake, the training for the ICE agents now is 47 days. Why 47 days? Because Donald Trump is the 47th president.”

    He also used this figure Jan. 8 when talking to a liberal commentator and Jan. 12 on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

    Other lawmakers, social media posts and journalists repeated the same line in the days after ICE officer Jonathan Ross shot Renee Good. 

    The Trump administration has confirmed to multiple news organizations it shortened the duration of immigration agent training, while taking issue with some outlets’ framing and declining to answer follow-up questions. Neither ICE nor DHS responded to PolitiFact’s queries. We were unable to confirm whether the number of training days is connected to Trump’s status as the 47th president.

    Ross had been a deportation officer with the agency since 2015, The Associated Press reported, so he was subject to earlier, longer training standards. 

    Warner, who did not respond to PolitiFact, said on CNN that the investigation into Good’s killing needed to be completed before people reached conclusions.  

    When Tapper pointed out to Warner that the ICE agent who shot Good “had at least 10 years experience,” Warner said, “So be it, and again that’s why there ought to be an investigation.” 

    Immigration and Customs Enforcement trainees practice shooting a handgun at the indoor firing range at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers in Brunswick, Ga. on Aug. 21, 2025. (AP)

    Trump’s ICE shortened training, but reports vary on how much

    The training talking point stems from The Atlantic August story “Fast Times at Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” Reporter Nick Miroff wrote that training for new deportation officers had been reduced from about five months to 47 days, citing three unnamed officials. 

    “Administration officials have cut that time roughly in half, partly by eliminating Spanish-language courses,” the report said. “Academy training was shortened to 47 days, three officials told me, the number picked because Trump is the 47th president. DHS officials said the training will run six days a week for eight weeks.” 

    A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told the Washington Examiner that The Atlantic’s reporting was “false,” because training is eight weeks. The Examiner story, however, cited ICE acting director Todd Lyons as confirming an eight-week training schedule of six work days per week. That amounts to 48 training days.

    The frequently asked questions page on ICE’s career website reflects the outdated training schedule, saying new deportation officers will complete almost five months of training — five weeks of language and 16 weeks of law enforcement.

    The AP in August reported the agency “cut Spanish-language requirements to reduce training by five weeks,” citing Caleb Vitello, who runs ICE training. Vitello told AP the Spanish-language training that was cut would be supplemented with translation technology services.

    News organizations and administration officials have reported training times shorter than 48 days in recent months:

    • An unnamed DHS official told NBC News in October that ICE had originally shortened its training from 13 to eight weeks before shortening it again to six weeks.

    • Government Executive, a news outlet that covers federal agencies, reported Jan. 5 that DHS has shortened ICE agent training from six months “to around six weeks.” 

    DHS has not offered clarity about new officer training since the Minneapolis shooting. A senior DHS official told People magazine Jan. 8, “Training to become an Enforcement and Removal Operations officer is 8 weeks long,” and declined to specify the number of days. 

    “The official did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for clarification, since eight weeks matches the timeframe that The Atlantic previously reported,” it reported. 

    Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement speaks to the press on the agility course at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers in Brunswick, Ga. on Aug. 21, 2025. (AP)

    ICE officer who shot Good had 10 years experience, additional training 

    Having worked for ICE for a decade, Ross would have followed the previous 16-week training schedule and five-week language program. 

    Ross also received specialized training after being selected for ICE’s special response team, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told AP. 

    Before becoming an ICE agent, Ross served in the Indiana National Guard and was deployed to Iraq and also worked as a Border Patrol field intelligence officer.

    Our ruling

    Warner said immigration agents “are not getting the traditional five months training. … The training for the ICE agents now is 47 days.”

    News outlets and Homeland Security officials reported cuts to the length of ICE training during Trump’s second term, reducing it from about five months to six days a week for eight weeks. That’s 48 days of training over a 56-day period. (What it has to do with Trump’s status as 47th president is outside of the scope of this fact-check.) Ross, the ICE officer who shot and killed Good, had been with the department for about 10 years.

    Two news organizations have since reported that the duration of training was further reduced to about six weeks; spokespersons from DHS and ICE did not respond to our requests for confirmation.

    In the big picture, ICE officers’ training time has been significantly shortened to a period at or near what Warner cites. The statement is accurate but needs clarification, so we rate it Mostly True.

    RELATED: Experts question Kristi Noem calling Renee Good a ‘domestic terrorist.’ Here’s what it means 

    RELATED: Viral AI images spur false claims about ICE agent in fatal Minneapolis shooting

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  • This CEO laid off nearly 80% of his staff because they refused to adopt AI fast enough. 2 years later, he says he’d do it again | Fortune

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    Eric Vaughan, CEO of enterprise-software powerhouse IgniteTech, was unwavering as he reflected on the most radical decision of his decades-long career. In early 2023, convinced generative AI was an “existential” transformation, Vaughan looked at his team and saw a workforce not fully on board. His ultimate response: He ripped the company down to the studs, replacing nearly 80% of staff within a year, according to headcount figures reviewed by Fortune.

    Over the course of 2023 and into the first quarter of 2024, Vaughan told Fortune, IgniteTech replaced hundreds of employees, declining to disclose a specific number. “That was not our goal,” he told Fortune. “It was extremely difficult … But changing minds was harder than adding skills.” It was, by any measure, a brutal reckoning—but Vaughan insists it was necessary, and said he’d do it again.

    For Vaughan, the writing on the wall was clear and dramatic.

    “In early 2023, we saw the light,” he told Fortune in an August 2025 interview, adding he believed every tech company was facing a crucial inflection point around adoption of artificial intelligence. “Now I’ve certainly morphed to believe that this is every company, and I mean that literally every company, is facing an existential threat by this transformation.”

    Where others saw promise, Vaughan saw urgency—believing failing to get ahead on AI could doom even the most robust business. He called an all-hands meeting with his global remote team. Gone were the comfortable routines and quarterly goals. Instead, his message was direct: Everything would now revolve around AI. “We’re going to give a gift to each of you. And that gift is tremendous investment of time, tools, education, projects … to give you a new skill,” he explained. The company began reimbursing for AI tools and prompt-engineering classes, and even brought in outside experts to evangelize.

    “Every single Monday was called ‘AI Monday,’” Vaughan said, with his mandate for staff that they could work only on AI. “You couldn’t have customer calls; you couldn’t work on budgets; you had to only work on AI projects.” He said this happened across the board, not just for tech workers, but also for sales, marketing, and everybody else at IgniteTech. “That culture needed to be built. That was the key.”

    This was a major investment, he added: 20% of payroll was dedicated to a mass-learning initiative, and it failed because of mass resistance, even sabotage. Belief, Vaughan discovered, is a hard thing to manufacture.

    “In those early days, we did get resistance, we got flat-out, ‘Yeah, I’m not going to do this’ resistance,” he said. “And so we said goodbye to those people.”

    The pushback: white collar resistance

    Vaughan was surprised to find it was often the technical staff, not marketing or sales, who dug in their heels. They were the “most resistant,” he said, voicing various concerns about what the AI couldn’t do, rather than focusing on what it could. The marketing and salespeople were enthused by the possibilities of working with these new tools, he added.

    This friction is borne out by broader research. According to the 2025 enterprise AI adoption report by Writer, an agentic AI platform for enterprises, one in three workers say they’ve “actively sabotaged” their company’s AI rollout—a number that jumps to 41% of millennial and Gen Z employees. This can take the form of refusing to use AI tools, intentionally generating low-quality outputs, or avoiding training altogether. Many act out because of fears that AI will replace their jobs, while others are frustrated by lackluster AI tools or unclear strategy from leadership.

    Writer’s chief strategy officer Kevin Chung told Fortune the “big eye-opening thing” from this survey was the human element of AI resistance.

    “This sabotage isn’t because they’re afraid of the technology,” he said. “It’s more like there’s so much pressure to get it right, and then when you’re handed something that doesn’t work, you get frustrated.”

    He added Writer’s research shows workers often don’t trust where their organizations are headed.

    “When you’re handed something that isn’t quite what you want, it’s very frustrating, so the sabotage kicks in, because then people are like, ‘Okay, I’m going to run my own thing. I’m going to go figure it out myself.’” You definitely don’t want this kind of “shadow IT” in an organization, he added.

    Vaughan said he didn’t want to force anyone.

    “You can’t compel people to change, especially if they don’t believe,” he said, adding belief was really the thing he needed to recruit for.

    Company leadership ultimately realized they’d have to launch a massive recruiting effort for what became known as “AI innovation specialists.” This applied across the board: to sales, finance, marketing, and elsewhere. Vaughan said this time was “really difficult” as things inside the company were “upside down … We didn’t really quite know where we were or who we were yet.”

    A couple of key hires helped, starting with the person who became IgniteTech’s chief AI officer, Thibault Bridel-Bertomeu. That led to a full reorganization of the company that Vaughan called “somewhat unusual.” Essentially, every division came to report into the AI organization, regardless of domain.

    This centralization, Vaughan said, prevented duplication of efforts and maximized knowledge sharing—a common struggle in AI adoption, where Writer’s survey shows 71% of the C-suite at other companies say AI applications are being created in silos and nearly half report their employees have been left to “figure generative AI out on their own.”

    No pain, no gain?

    In exchange for this difficult transformation, IgniteTech reaped extraordinary results. By the end of 2024, the company had launched two patent-pending AI solutions, including a platform for AI-based email automation (Eloquens AI), with a radically rebuilt team.

    Financially, IgniteTech remained strong. Vaughan disclosed the company, which he said was in the nine-figure revenue range, finished 2024 at “near 75% Ebitda”—all while completing a major acquisition, Khoros.

    “You multiply people … give people the ability to multiply themselves and do things at a pace,” he said, touting the company’s ability to build new customer-ready products in as little as four days, an unthinkable timeline in the old regime. In the months since, Vaughan told Fortune in an early 2026 statement, the company has only kept growing its headcount, recruiting globally for AI Innovation Specialists across every function, from marketing to sales to finance to engineering to support.

    What does Vaughan’s story say for others? On one level, it’s a case study in the pain and payoff of radical change management. But his ruthless approach arguably addresses many challenges identified in the Writer survey: lack of strategy and investment, misalignment between IT and business, and the failure to engage champions who can unlock AI’s benefits.

    The ‘boy who cried wolf’ problem

    To be sure, IgniteTech is far from alone in wrestling with these challenges. Joshua Wöhle is the CEO of Mindstone, a firm that provides AI upskilling services to workforces, training hundreds of employees monthly at companies including Lufthansa, Hyatt, and NBA teams. He recently discussed the two approaches described by Vaughan—upskilling and mass replacement—in an appearance on BBC Business Today.

    Wöhle contrasted the recent examples of Ikea and Klarna, arguing the former’s example shows why it’s better to “reskill” existing employees. Klarna, a Swedish buy-now, pay-later firm, drew considerable publicity for a decision to reduce members of its customer support staff in a pivot to AI, only to rehire for the same roles.

    “We’re near the point where [AI is] more intelligent than most people doing knowledge work. But that’s precisely why augmentation beats automation,” Wöhle wrote on LinkedIn.

    A representative for Klarna told Fortune the company did not lay off employees, but has instead adopted several approaches to its customer service, which is managed by outsourced customer service providers who are paid according to the volume of work required. The launch of an AI customer service assistant reduced the workload by the equivalent of 700 full-time agents—from roughly 3,000 to 2,300—and the third-party providers redeployed those 700 workers to other clients, according to Klarna. Now that the AI customer service agent is “handling more complex queries than when we launched,” Klarna says, that number has fallen to 2,200. Klarna says its contractor has rehired just two people in a pilot program designed to combine highly trained human support staff with AI to deliver outstanding customer service. 

    In an interview with Fortune, Wöhle said one client of his has been very blunt with his workers, ordering them to dedicate all Fridays to AI retraining, and if they didn’t report back on any of their work, they were invited to leave the company.

    He said it can be “kinder” to dismiss workers who are resistant to AI: “The pace of change is so fast that it’s the kinder thing to force people through it.” He added he used to think if he got all workers to really love learning, then that could help Mindstone make a real difference, but he discovered after training literally thousands of people that “most people hate learning. They’d avoid it if they can.”

    Wöhle attributed much of the AI resistance in the workforce to a “boy who cried wolf” problem from the tech sector, citing NFTs and blockchain as technologies that were billed as revolutionary but “didn’t have the real effect” that tech leaders promised.

    “You can’t really blame them” for resisting, he said. Most people “get stuck because they think from their work flow first,” he added, and they conclude AI is overhyped because they want AI to fit into their old way of working. “It takes a lot more thinking and a lot more kind of prodding for you to change the way that you work,” but once you do, you see dramatic increases. A human can’t possibly keep five call transcripts in their head while you’re trying to write a proposal to a client, he offers, but AI can.

    Ikea echoed Wöhle when reached for comment, saying its “people-first AI approach focuses on augmentation, not automation.” A spokesperson said Ikea is using AI to automate tasks, not jobs, freeing up time for value-added, human-centric work.

    The Writer report notes companies with formal AI strategies are far more likely to succeed, and those who heavily invest in AI outperform their peers by a large margin. But as Vaughan’s experience shows, investment without belief and buy-in can be wasted energy. “The culture needed to be built. Ultimately, we ended up having to go out and recruit and hire people that were already of the same mind. Changing minds was harder than adding skills.”

    From the vantage point of early 2026, Vaughan reflected in a statement to Fortune, monthly all-hands meetings look nothing like they used to: “We killed the format of reviewing goals and metrics. Now teams demo what they built.” He wanted to stress something else: Despite the drastic actions he took to restructure, he still doesn’t think he’s ahead of the curve.

    “We’re just not getting run over from behind yet,” he said. “The pace of change in AI is relentless. If we don’t keep pushing, keep learning every single day, we’re toast.”

    For Vaughan, there’s no ambiguity. Would he do it again? He doesn’t hesitate: He’d rather endure months of pain and build a new, AI-driven foundation from scratch than let an organization drift into irrelevance.

    “This is not a tech change. It is a cultural change, and it is a business change,” he said, adding he doesn’t recommend others follow his lead and swap out 80% of their staff.

    “I do not recommend that at all,” he said. “That was not our goal. It was extremely difficult.”

    But at the end of the day, he added, everybody’s got to be in the same boat, rowing in the same direction. Otherwise, “we don’t get where we’re going.”

    A version of this story was published on Fortune.com on August 17, 2025.

    More on AI in the workplace:

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    Nick Lichtenberg

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  • The Top 15 Highest-Paying Jobs for 2026 That Don’t Require a Degree

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    As questions about the value of a traditional college degree (or at least the value of studying certain subjects at college) intensify, reports suggest some Gen-Z youngsters are turning away from the idea of college education and are looking to learn a trade. A new study from online resume service Resume Builder underlines the value of this kind of hands-on work in an era when AI is expected to slowly expand into many different industry sectors, upending the job market as it goes. Resume Builder’s analysis found the top 15 jobs for 2026 that don’t require a college degree, and some of the job titles and salary levels are eye-opening. 

    The top job per Resume Builder’s list is “Elevator and escalator installer and repairer.” This technology-centric, safety-critical engineering job is expected to lead to a median annual salary of $106,580 next year—with the top 10 percent of workers topping $149,250. In 2024, there were about 24,000 of these jobs, but by 2026 a growth of five percent is expected. It may be a surprising job title to see on top of a non-college job list, but if you think about it, it makes great sense: as of now, AI and robotics wouldn’t threaten this job (though AI may be a useful tool to help predict if an escalator or elevator may fail, and appropriate AI tools might suggest fixes for an engineer looking at unexpected problem.) The job also comes with legal and insurance burdens other jobs don’t, due to the safety issues of the infrastructure in question.

    The number two job is a bit more conventional: Transportation, storage, and distribution manager, with a median annual salary of $102,010, and a top 10 percent salary of over $180,000. We live in an era of convenient home shopping, and goods always need to move from point A to point B to support business processes in many different industry sectors, so, like jobs involving death and taxes, this career is a probable long-laster. The number of managers in this sector is also expected to jump six percent over 2024’s figure, so there’s growth here too, and likely a fair number of job openings.

    In third place, possibly given a boost by the rocket-propelled growth in power-hungry computer data centers needed to power the AI revolution, is work as an “electrical power-line installer and repairer.” This is skilled and potentially risky work, which fits the median salary of over $92,000 (with the top 10 percent earning over $126,000). Growth of jobs in this sector is expected to hit seven percent over 2024’s number, showing exactly how critical power line workers are. As well as AI power demands, we can guess that clean power initiatives and the rise in EVs may be contributing to the popularity of this kind of work.

    The rest of the list is also fascinating. Take a look:

    • Aircraft and avionics equipment mechanic and technician (Median annual salary: $79,140)
    • Detective and criminal investigator (Median annual salary: $77,270)
    • Locomotive engineer (Median annual salary: $75,680)
    • Wholesale and manufacturing sales representative (Median annual salary: $74,100)
    • Flight attendant (Median annual salary: $67,130)
    • Property, real estate, and community association manager (Median annual salary: $66,700)
    • Water transportation worker (Median annual salary: $66,490)
    • Food service manager (Median annual salary: $65,310)
    • Heavy vehicle and mobile equipment service technician (Median annual salary: $62,740)
    • Athlete and sports competitor (Median annual salary: $62,360)
    • Chef and head cook (Median annual salary: $60,990)
    • Insurance sales agent (Median annual salary: $60,370)

    In an email to Inc., Eva Chan—one of Resume Builder’s career experts—notes that “one of the biggest job search myths is that ‘no degree’ means ‘no education,’ when some of the fastest routes to higher pay are built on practical training.” She added that “people who do best without a four-year degree aren’t looking for shortcuts, they’re choosing a path with clear requirements and then following through. With a solid plan and the motivation to build job-ready skills, a high-paying career can be much closer than most job seekers think.” Her argument is backed up by a recent report that says that in the AI era, one highly tempting career path guaranteed to skirt the job threat inherent in AI tools is to work and study to get a state license in almost any career where this carries weight—like being a CPA or an electrician.

    Resume Builder’s advice for people pursuing non-college degrees is valuable: firstly, the company advises young people to pursue “alternative” education paths, because they “allow job seekers to respond to market demand faster than traditional degree paths, helping them gain qualifications and earn higher pay sooner.” This could include vocational training or apprenticeships—both popular options for Gen-Z, and for many companies. Conducting your own research is also advised during the job-seeking process, including “networking, informational interviews, and reviewing resume samples or templates,” which can also help job seekers “better understand employer expectations and stand out during the hiring process.” In an era when AI tools are being over-used by applicants and perhaps HR teams too, this makes sense.

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    Kit Eaton

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  • Failed emergency alerts during L.A. firestorms eroded public trust. How to fix a broken system?

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    During the first days of the January firestorms, Los Angeles became a case study in what can go wrong with emergency alerts and evacuations.

    In Pacific Palisades there was chaos Jan. 7 as people in the foothills tried to flee, only to hit traffic gridlock. Then when the Eaton fire erupted in Altadena, evacuation orders did not go out to residents of the west side until five hours after flames began to threaten homes in the area. All but one of the 19 people confirmed dead in the Eaton blaze were on the west side.

    Two days later a wireless evacuation warning intended for residents near a new fire near Malibu Canyon mistakenly was blasted out across a metropolitan area of 10 million people. Officials sent out a correction about 20 minutes later, but a stream of erroneous alerts continued to buzz phones throughout the night and following morning, stoking confusion and panic in communities 40 miles from any active fire.

    For many Angelenos, the chaos and uncertainty around evacuations and alerts compounded the terror of the deadly fires. But the snafus had a more troubling impact: eroding trust. Some residents turned to unofficial apps like Watch Duty. Others were so shaken they concluded they could not rely on the government at all.

    Los Angeles is not the first community to experience life-threatening emergency alert failures during fast-moving fires. In the last decade small towns in California, Tennessee and Hawaii experienced glaring emergency alert shortfalls as climate change has intensified wildfire risks.

    But the failures of L.A. County to issue timely and precise evacuation alerts — first to too few people in Altadena and then to too many — shocked emergency management experts across the country. Why was the nation’s most populous county, built on land vulnerable to intense fire, flooding and earthquakes, not more prepared?

    “What we’re learning is that, when the chips are down in some of the most dire scenarios, the people and systems responsible for public warnings don’t appear to be up to the task,” said Thomas Cova, a geography professor at the University of Utah who specializes in emergency management. “This would not be that surprising in inexperienced, unprepared, or under-resourced jurisdictions, but it is surprising in L.A. County.”

    The McChrystal Group after-action report on the Eaton and Palisades fires found the county operated with “unclear” and “outdated” policies when deciding when to send evacuation alerts, and its emergency staff lacked training and a clear chain of command.

    Nearly a year after the fire, however, we still do not know exactly what went wrong in west Altadena.

    L.A. County officials have failed to account for why alerts to west Altadena were delayed. And while independent reports have been published, they have shed little light, other than saying there were problems with coordination, staffing and training.

    “Without an explanation for west Altadena,” Cova said, “the specific lesson has yet to be learned.”

    The delayed alerts may not have been a result of one error.

    “Cascading failure is a common theme amongst disasters,” said Michael Gollner, associate professor of mechanical engineering at UC Berkeley who leads its Fire Research Lab.

    To prepare for the next wildfire — or any other catastrophic disaster — there are several steps L.A. County and other agencies can take to make sure they alert people in harm’s way.

    Improve coordination, situational awareness and training

    One of the big takeaways of the Palisades and Eaton fires is county staff lacked basic training and a clear chain of command.

    The McChrystal after-action report found the county struggled to adequately monitor events as they unfolded and lacked streamlined coordination tools. Policies and protocols on alerts, it said, were “unclear” and “contradictory” and did not explicitly outline the chain of command for decisions to issue evacuation warning or orders.

    The report recommended that the county update its policies and standard operating procedures and make sure that first responders and emergency management clearly understand their roles and responsibilities on evacuation alerts.

    It also urged the county to make the Office of Emergency Management, which operates as a subdepartment under the Chief Executive Office, its own department. Shortly after the report was published, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors approved a motion to restructure the OEM into an independent department. Its “lack of autonomy and fragmented authority,” the motion said, “currently undermines its ability to coordinate emergency management effectively.”

    To enhance coordination, the report also recommended the county establish a mandatory wildfire and evacuation training program for law enforcement and leverage technology for situational awareness training. OEM, it said, should train more people in essential Emergency Operations Center roles, such as alert and warnings systems and situational awareness.

    One way to improve coordination and situational awareness, Cova said, could be to train emergency managers the way air traffic controllers are trained with simulators. Another could be to use some kind of automated or artificial intelligence system to alert emergency managers based on where the fire is and where it is heading.

    Invest more funding in emergency management

    Many emergency management experts were startled after the January fires to learn that the L.A. County Office of Emergency Management’s annual budget is just $15 million. That lags significantly behind the budgets of similarly sized jurisdictions, such as New York City ($88 million) and Cook County, Ill. ($132 million).

    The McChrystal report dubbed L.A. County’s emergency staffing “fundamentally inadequate,” noting it has 37 employees to mitigate risk for around 10 million people.

    The L.A. County Board of Supervisors has directed the Chief Executive Office to evaluate OEM’s staffing and funding. The office is expected to issue a report in the next week.

    In an October interview with The Times, Kevin McGowan, director of L.A. County’s OEM, suggested that a lack of resources led to “trade-offs” and “coordination and communication challenges.” Boosting his budget and staff, he said, was a key priority.

    McGowan said he already started to create six new positions. That would bring L.A. County emergency management staff up to 43, a figure that still lags way behind similarly sized jurisdictions. New York City has more than 200 emergency management staffers serving 8.5 million people.

    Training on clearer messages

    Even when wireless emergency alerts were sent out during the January firestorms, many were written poorly and did not have enough detail for such a vast metropolitan area, according to Jeannette Sutton, associate professor in the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity at the University at Albany who specializes in warnings.

    “Almost every single one of them is incomplete,” Sutton said.

    The biggest culprit, she said, was the message that echoed all over the county: It referenced a fire “in your area” without specifying a location and did not reference a time. The confusion the message stoked as it echoed throughout the county over the next 24 hours could have been avoided, Sutton said, if it contained more precise information.

    “An EVACUATION WARNING has been issued for Calabasas/Agoura Hills,” for example, instead of “An EVACUATION WARNING has been issued in your area.”

    Should the state or federal government step in?

    California has taken a number of steps over the last decade to improve local alert systems.

    After counties encountered a spate of alert problems as they responded to a series of destructive wildfires in 2017, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services published statewide alert and warning guidelines and standardized alert language. It also developed best practices for county emergency plans and set up the Wildfire Forecast and Threat Intelligence Integration Center to coordinate how wildfire threats are identified, analyzed and communicated to the public.

    But the state guidelines are recommendations, not requirements. State officials — and many local leaders — tend to resist the idea of across-the-board rules. The state’s 58 counties have vastly different geographies, populations and budgets, they argue, so it does not make sense to impose disaster preparedness plans from on high.

    Still, many experts say there is a need for a more unified approach to the nation’s patchwork, privatized emergency alert system. Some urge the federal government to step up, noting that problems with alerts are not just a local or state problem — jurisdictions across the nation face similar challenges.

    Training around alerts and warnings at a national level is extremely poor, Sutton said. While the Federal Emergency Management Agency operates the Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS), the national system providing emergency public alerts through mobile phones using Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) and to radio and television via the Emergency Alert System, she said, its role is limited.

    “We do not have an organization that is responsible for delivering training at the national level,” Sutton said. “You might think that that’s the role of FEMA or of the IPAWS program, but they have focused almost entirely on technological capabilities of pushing the button and the message getting out through the broadcast. They do not focus on the messages themselves.”

    In May, U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach) published a report on L.A. County’s emergency alert failures and called for more federal oversight of the nation’s emergency alert system. In September, U.S Rep. Kevin Mullin (D-San Mateo) introduced a bipartisan bill, Resilient Emergency Alert Communications and Training (REACT) Act, that would direct FEMA to provide more federal resources and authorize $30 million annually for local emergency officials to improve their alert and warning systems.

    But the Trump administration appears to have little appetite to invest in disaster preparedness.

    “At the federal level, things have kind of stalled,” Sutton said.

    If the Trump administration follows through on its vow to make drastic cuts to FEMA, Sutton said, it’s not clear what will happen to the IPAWS program or whether the federal government will back off entirely from strengthening the nation’s preparedness for disasters.

    “Are they going to even focus on preparedness?” Sutton said. “Or are they going to say, ‘Hands off, we’re done.’ I don’t know.”

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    Jenny Jarvie

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  • Natomas teachers ready to strike over contract disputes

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    Educators in Natomas have informed the district of their readiness to strike if a new contract is not secured, marking a significant development in ongoing negotiations.The Natomas Teachers Association, representing more than 600 educators, has been working without a contract since June. Outside the Natomas Unified School District Wednesday evening, dozens gathered in support of the Natomas Teachers Association, chanting, “We can’t wait!” and “When we fight, we win!” They are advocating for a new contract with fully paid benefits and competitive wages.Ashley Battle, a parent of a student in the district and the wife of a teacher, said that educators are the backbone of the district and are being underpaid. “If you’re not paying them, how are they supposed to support their family? You want them to support everyone else’s child, but you don’t want to pay to help them support themselves?” Battle said. Battle brought these concerns to the board meeting, where dozens of teachers, parents, and students filled the room. Nico Vaccaro, president of the NTA, also spoke to the board, urging the district to use its millions of dollars in reserves to pay teachers more.”We know they have the ability to reprioritize their budget with the resources that they have. And that’s what we’re asking for,” Vaccaro said. KCRA 3 reached out to the district about the ongoing contract negotiations. They replied with an emailed statement reading:“We value our employees and prioritize providing competitive salaries and high-quality programs for our students. Even with the staffing crisis across California and the nationwide shortage of teachers, Natomas Unified has a high fill rate with 98.4% of our classrooms filled with credentialed teachers. For the classroom positions that are not filled, fully credentialed contractors or substitute teachers serve our students while recruitment efforts continue and candidates are in the hiring process.While prioritizing employee compensation, we are committed to being good stewards of our district finances. Our reserve protects us against unexpected expenses or changes in funding. This allows us to continue to pay staff, utilities and other basic services, all while maintaining consistent support to students. Reserves should not be used to fund ongoing salary or benefit increases, as reserves are one-time funds that are gone once they are spent, much like a savings account. In NUSD, the category that NTA leadership frequently refers to as the budget for “consultants” or “contractors” covers a wide range of professional services for the district. These funds provide more than just training and professional development to teachers and contractors who fill vacant certificated staff positions. They actually include expenses for essential services such as fire and safety requirements, heating/air conditioning maintenance, routine and preventative pest control, needed classroom repairs, vital health services for our students, after-school programs, staff training to implement state-required curriculum and assessments, and general district operations. Without allocating funding for these areas, we would not be able to provide these necessary services for our students and staff.”Vaccaro presented the board with a copy of the union’s strike readiness petition, which he said more than 90% of their members have signed. “While we do not want to strike, we are ready to strike if that’s what it takes to reprioritize the NUSD’s budget for our schools and our students,” he said. The Natomas Teachers Association will return to the negotiation table on Dec. 10.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. —

    Educators in Natomas have informed the district of their readiness to strike if a new contract is not secured, marking a significant development in ongoing negotiations.

    The Natomas Teachers Association, representing more than 600 educators, has been working without a contract since June.

    Outside the Natomas Unified School District Wednesday evening, dozens gathered in support of the Natomas Teachers Association, chanting, “We can’t wait!” and “When we fight, we win!” They are advocating for a new contract with fully paid benefits and competitive wages.

    Ashley Battle, a parent of a student in the district and the wife of a teacher, said that educators are the backbone of the district and are being underpaid.

    “If you’re not paying them, how are they supposed to support their family? You want them to support everyone else’s child, but you don’t want to pay to help them support themselves?” Battle said.

    Battle brought these concerns to the board meeting, where dozens of teachers, parents, and students filled the room.

    Nico Vaccaro, president of the NTA, also spoke to the board, urging the district to use its millions of dollars in reserves to pay teachers more.

    “We know they have the ability to reprioritize their budget with the resources that they have. And that’s what we’re asking for,” Vaccaro said.

    KCRA 3 reached out to the district about the ongoing contract negotiations. They replied with an emailed statement reading:

    “We value our employees and prioritize providing competitive salaries and high-quality programs for our students. Even with the staffing crisis across California and the nationwide shortage of teachers, Natomas Unified has a high fill rate with 98.4% of our classrooms filled with credentialed teachers. For the classroom positions that are not filled, fully credentialed contractors or substitute teachers serve our students while recruitment efforts continue and candidates are in the hiring process.

    While prioritizing employee compensation, we are committed to being good stewards of our district finances. Our reserve protects us against unexpected expenses or changes in funding. This allows us to continue to pay staff, utilities and other basic services, all while maintaining consistent support to students. Reserves should not be used to fund ongoing salary or benefit increases, as reserves are one-time funds that are gone once they are spent, much like a savings account.

    In NUSD, the category that NTA leadership frequently refers to as the budget for “consultants” or “contractors” covers a wide range of professional services for the district. These funds provide more than just training and professional development to teachers and contractors who fill vacant certificated staff positions. They actually include expenses for essential services such as fire and safety requirements, heating/air conditioning maintenance, routine and preventative pest control, needed classroom repairs, vital health services for our students, after-school programs, staff training to implement state-required curriculum and assessments, and general district operations. Without allocating funding for these areas, we would not be able to provide these necessary services for our students and staff.”

    Vaccaro presented the board with a copy of the union’s strike readiness petition, which he said more than 90% of their members have signed.

    “While we do not want to strike, we are ready to strike if that’s what it takes to reprioritize the NUSD’s budget for our schools and our students,” he said.

    The Natomas Teachers Association will return to the negotiation table on Dec. 10.

    See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

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  • The Role of Interactive Toys in Reducing Anxiety and Aggression in Dogs | Animal Wellness Magazine

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    It’s hard on pet parents when dogs act out of aggression or anxiety, but these behaviors communicate a problem you must address. Sometimes, the problem might be physical, like pain or discomfort. However, these behaviors can also stem from stress. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to relieve stress-related aggression and anxiety, and interactive toys are an excellent tool at your disposal.

    Supporting Dogs with Anxiety

    Canine anxiety comes in many forms, and outward signs and symptoms include:

    • Hiding or retreating to a corner or safe spot
    • Constant whining
    • Physical signs like their ears down or their tail between the legs
    • Abnormal behavior, such as chewing destructively or pacing

    Common anxiety triggers are loud noises like fireworks or being left alone. However, it can also be related to trauma, stress, pain, or aging. If your dog shows symptoms, talk to your veterinarian.

    Typical solutions to anxiety include providing immediate comfort, using calming tablets or sprays to reduce stress, and ensuring your dog gets enough mental and physical stimulation. For example, dogs with separation anxiety may find comfort in a cuddly or squeaky toy that helps them feel less alone and more secure. What’s more, squeaky toys excite a dog’s prey drive, giving them positive feedback and stimulation when they play with the toy.

    Managing Aggression in Dogs

    Aggression is always a worrying behavior. Canine aggression can be caused by lack of stimulation, boredom, and anxiety. Again, consult with your veterinarian, a trainer, or a dog behaviorist for professional advice, but part of the solution for managing aggression can include using interactive toys to provide:

    • More exercise to burn off excess energy.
    • Entertainment to stave off frustration and b
    • Greater socialization to build animal and human bonds.
    • Anxiety and stress relief because interactive toys and games stimulate and distract.
    • Comfort and security, as dogs can develop positive emotional connections with toys through learned association.
    • Lessons in impulse control that help prevent dogs from hoarding or acting aggressively if people try to interact with their toys.

    What To Look for in Interactive Toys for Dogs

    The world of dog toys is a huge business with endless varieties, and buying the right one for your dog requires some consideration. Here are some tips:

    • Your dog’s size will determine the type of toys you can get, but most are available in multiple sizes. Just make sure there are no small parts a dog can break off and swallow.
    • Age also plays a key part in the selection process. For example, an older dog won’t have the reflexes to catch a high-velocity rubber ball and may prefer something softer and less unpredictable.
    • Consider how a toy will impact their behaviour and address anxiety or aggression. Durability should be high on the list for aggressive dogs.
    • Toys that deliver treats are a great way to support a dog that’s anxious around food.
    • For dogs with trouble sleeping, try a cuddly toy that doesn’t have uneven shapes or hard parts.
    • Some toys make a noise through squeakers or rattles or have different materials to provide textures and grab points to make them easy to carry and fling.
    • Clicker training can be a valuable complement to toys, helping to reinforce positive behaviors and reduce anxiety or aggression through consistent, reward-based methods.
    • Whatever type of toy you buy, make sure it’s durable and made with safe, non-toxic materials.

    Aggression and anxiety can be a challenge in dogs, but consistent training and socialization, positive reinforcement, and interactive toys can address the root cause and help your dog become calmer and more balanced.


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    Jennifer Sy

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  • Want Better Results From Your Gen-Z Employees? Tell Them the ‘Why’ Behind Every Task

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    Every generation differs from the one before, especially in the workplace — as media reports never stop telling us. Millennials were famously “lazy,” Boomers are (according to younger workers) pretty much stick-in-the-muds, and Gen-Z? Well, they’re a completely different kettle of fish, even at work. They’re reportedly quick to quit, sensitive to mental health matters and keen to shun boring office traditions.

    A new report highlights a subtly different aspect of working with Gen-Z staff, which may help you understand some of the difficulties managers report when wrangling Gen-Z workers through the day. Gen-Z won’t just hop to it when you “order” them to work. It may not be so much a case of generational entitlement, nor disrespect for their elders. Gen-Z may just need to be told why a task is important before they agree to tackle it.

    Writing for Psychology Today, Georgia-based executive coaching expert Tim Elmore points out that sports brand Nike has tried a new campaign to appeal to younger customers: the new “Why Do It?” push, a play on the famous “Just Do It” motto, is all about “igniting that spark for a new generation, daring them to step forward” according to Nike’s chief marketing officer Nicole Graham. 

    He says the trick to motivating and training Gen-Z workers rests on presenting the “why” reasons behind tasks right from the beginning. It helps younger workers “see the big picture,” which motivates them “to invest more time and energy,” Elmore explains. Allowing workers to peep behind the curtain is also a powerful motivational maneuver, he notes, since it can foster better decision-making, creativity and problem-soling, because people may make “wiser choices” if they know a project’s overall context. It can even increase employee ownership. This could be the most important aspect of telling workers why, he says, since once they “buy into both ‘what” and “why,’ they ‘own’ their job instead of ‘renting’ it.” 

    As to why Gen-Z needs this kind of support, which older managers may easily dismiss as young, inexperienced workers making demands above their station, Elmore suggests it’s partly due to the way Gen-Z voraciously consumes social media—a system that sometimes allows them to “see everything” about parts of the world in ways that just weren’t possible before. This may be driving the high anxiety Gen-Z suffers, as well as their frustration with what they may perceive to be a lack of transparency from management or company cultures that simply encourage a “do it because I said so” mentality. Gen-Z may need more “whys” than older workers because some “know too much and need to be convinced it’s worth it to step into action and become involved,” he writes, while others need an explanation “because they know too little,” since they’ve never had a full-time job before and need a leadership figure to walk them through the process. 

    In a Reddit discussion on the way Gen-Z behaves at work, some commenters wrote opinions that showed conflict with the way Gen-Z workers behave. “I won’t go as far as labeling Gen Z as lazy, but the entitlement is real,” one person wrote, arguing that “they would rather quit rather than work through challenges because they think they work isn’t supposed to be hard or stressful.” 

    But another Reddit user explained things in a way that chimes with Elmore’s thinking. Gen-Z workers are “largely immature in my experience,” they said, adding “but they’ll grow out of it.” The reasons may be because “they missed out on a lot of the social aspects of college,” the user wrote, noting that they think “they just need the number of years they spent in online college to get to the maturity level that previous generations had when they finished regular college. Not their fault, of course.” The user also added they’ve had to do a “lot more coaching for Gen Z people than others seem to have needed,” which chimes with explaining more “whys,” as Elmore suggests. But they concluded with a sentiment that may appeal to savvy business leaders: “I just like to help them learn.”

    This aligns with other reports that say Gen-Z really wants more on-the job training than their older colleagues. 

    All of this may play into they way you manage your youngest workers. If they seem slow to get going on freshly set tasks, it might not be because they’re lazy: it’s just that they need to see the reasoning behind the tasks before they commit to them.

    The early-rate deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, November 14, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

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    Kit Eaton

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  • News We Love: Dog training programs aim to give shelter pets, inmates a new ‘leash’ on life

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    IT’S A PROGRAM TRULY GIVING PUPS A NEW LEASH ON LIFE AS THEY WALK THE CORRIDORS OF LOUISIANA PRISON. YEAH. THE PARTNERSHIP, A COLLABORATION WITH THE SPCA, THE DOG SCHOOL AND THE LOUISIANA CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTE. AND THIS WHOLE THING OPENS THE DOOR TO MORE PETS FINDING FOREVER HOMES WHILE GIVING INMATES A GREATER PURPOSE. FROM BEHIND THE GLASS TO BEHIND BARS. THESE ARE DOGS PULLED FROM KILL SHELTERS. THESE ARE INMATES THAT HAVE DONE HEINOUS CRIMES. BOTH ARE THINGS THAT PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO THINK ABOUT OR DON’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT, BUT TOGETHER THEY FORM A UNIQUE PLACE FOR SECOND CHANCES. IT’S IT’S TOTALLY LIFE CHANGING FOR MY INMATE TRAINERS. A NEW LEASH ON LIFE FOR BOTH THE INMATES AT CIW AND SAINT GABRIEL. AND THESE DOGS FROM THE LOUISIANA SPCA THAT HAVE BEEN OFTEN OVERLOOKED. THE TRAINING PROGRAM, SPEARHEADED BY BROOKE DUFOUR, PITS THE TWO TOGETHER, HELPING THESE SHELTER PETS FIND FOREVER HOMES. AND IN RETURN GIVES THESE WOMEN PURPOSE. WE TAKE ABOUT 5 TO 6 DOGS. THEY’RE TAKEN FROM OUR FACILITY TO THE ACTUAL INSTITUTION, AND FROM THERE THEY’RE PAIRED WITH THEIR HANDLER, OR THEY’RE INCARCERATED INDIVIDUAL. THE HANDLERS TRAIN THE PUPS. EVERYTHING FROM POTTY TRAINING, DOOR TRAINING, KENNEL TRAINING, REALLY WHATEVER MANNERS THEY NEED TO GET ADOPTED. IF WE HAVE DOGS THAT ARE ROCK STARS, LIKE THEY’RE JUST LEARNING EVERYTHING, THEN WE TRY TO MAKE THEM SERVICE DOGS. AND AFTER THE SIX WEEKS ARE UP, THE DOGS GRADUATE. FETCHING THAT DIPLOMA AND HOPEFULLY A FOREVER FAMILY. I THINK IT’S A REWARDING EXPERIENCE. IT’S ALL ENCOMPASSING BUT ALSO A VERY REWARDING EXPERIENCE. AND IT’S AT THE HEART OF OUR MISSION AS WELL. A MISSION THAT’S ALSO UNLEASHING HEARTS, LEAVING EVERYONE INVOLVED WITH VALUABLE SKILLS FOR A STABLE FUTURE. RANDI RANDI WDSU NEWS. SO FAR, 18 DOGS HAVE GRADUATED SINCE THAT PROGRAM STARTED JUST ABOUT A YEAR AGO, WITH FIVE MORE SET TO JOIN THE RAN

    Louisiana dog training programs aims to give shelter pets, inmates a new ‘leash’ on life

    The New Leash on Life program is giving inmates and shelter dogs a second chance at success

    Updated: 12:52 PM EDT Nov 1, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    It’s a program giving pups a second chance as they walk through the corridors of Louisiana prisons. The New Leash on Life program is a partnership with the LASPCA, The Dog School and the Louisiana Correctional Institute. “These are dogs from kill shelters. These are inmates that have done heinous crimes. Both are things that people don’t want to think about or don’t want to talk about,” said Brooke Defore, who oversees the New Leash on Life program. For six weeks, 5 to 6 shelter dogs from the LASPCA live with inmates at LCIW in St. Gabriel. Their inmate handlers teach them everything from potty training, kennel training, door training, essentially whatever manners they need to get adopted. “I think it’s a rewarding experience. It’s all encompassing, but also a very rewarding experience,” said Christian Moon, with the LASPCA. “It’s at the heart of our mission as well.”If the dogs are exceptional, they could then go back to help veterans or those with special needs. “If we have dogs that are rock stars, like they’re just learning everything, then we try to make them service dogs,” said Defore. By taking dogs overlooked behind glass kennels and taking them behind bars, it’s opening the door to getting them into forever homes while also giving inmates a greater purpose. So far, 18 dogs have graduated, with about five more waiting in the wings.For more information about the program or The Dog School, visit https://thedogschool.net/.

    It’s a program giving pups a second chance as they walk through the corridors of Louisiana prisons.

    The New Leash on Life program is a partnership with the LASPCA, The Dog School and the Louisiana Correctional Institute.

    “These are dogs from kill shelters. These are inmates that have done heinous crimes. Both are things that people don’t want to think about or don’t want to talk about,” said Brooke Defore, who oversees the New Leash on Life program.

    For six weeks, 5 to 6 shelter dogs from the LASPCA live with inmates at LCIW in St. Gabriel. Their inmate handlers teach them everything from potty training, kennel training, door training, essentially whatever manners they need to get adopted.

    “I think it’s a rewarding experience. It’s all encompassing, but also a very rewarding experience,” said Christian Moon, with the LASPCA. “It’s at the heart of our mission as well.”

    If the dogs are exceptional, they could then go back to help veterans or those with special needs.

    “If we have dogs that are rock stars, like they’re just learning everything, then we try to make them service dogs,” said Defore.

    By taking dogs overlooked behind glass kennels and taking them behind bars, it’s opening the door to getting them into forever homes while also giving inmates a greater purpose.

    So far, 18 dogs have graduated, with about five more waiting in the wings.

    For more information about the program or The Dog School, visit https://thedogschool.net/.

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  • Steal Citigroup’s AI Training Rule to Ensure Successful Adoption at Your Company

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    As AI capabilities evolve swiftly and continuously, some big corporate names are weaving the technology deeply into their day-to-day operations. Salesforce is a leading example, with the sales software company already claiming it’s saving it $100 million a year. But report after report suggests that few of these AI integration efforts include one final, critical step like the one the global bank Citigroup is taking. It’s now mandating that most of its workers learn how to properly prompt AI systems.

    The decision was announced last week in a LinkedIn posting from the bank’s head of technology and business enablement, Tim Ryan, HRDive reports. AI prompt training is now required for all workers who can access the bank’s AI tools — about 180,000 people. Apparently, if you’re already well versed in AI prompts, the training will last only about 10 minutes, and beginners should expect it to take about 30 minutes. That’s not much time, but the training is clearly not intended to be comprehensive or a deep dive, which would waste hundreds of thousands of hours of workers’ time. Citi’s approach is to give everyone a light introduction that boosts the average employee’s ability to use AI.

    The bank reportedly doesn’t require its staff to use AI, in contrast to other AI integration efforts — in April 2024, for example, Moderna’s CEO hit the headlines when he told staff he expected them to use AI at least 20 times a day. Citi’s intention is to make the most of AI’s promise to tackle basic mundane tasks and free workers up to work on more productive parts of their jobs. The system has been prompted over 6.5 million times during 2024, Ryan said. That would equate to about 36 prompts for every employee.

    Prompt engineering is at heart a simple idea: it’s learning how to choose and then reshape the questions you ask of an AI chatbot in order to steer it toward producing exactly the responses you need. Think of it as being like tasking an intern to build, say, a template Powerpoint presentation for you — give them a general idea, then look at their first effort and refine your instructions so they ultimately include all the elements you’d like. AI tools require a similar process, and sometimes requires the user to provide very carefully chosen language. 

    For some experts, prompt engineering could morph into a whole career, and prompting may become as much a part of the average workday as sending emails or Slacking your coworkers. Earlier this year, Slack’s chief marketing officer predicted that staff would soon be talking with AIs in the office more than they talk to their colleagues.

    This may seem like a bleak future, but it’s undeniable that learning to properly use an AI system is one way to ensure your company sees a return on its new, buzzy tech investment. But many reports suggest that when companies roll out AI they simply aren’t informing their staff how and when to use it, nor offering appropriate training. At best this means leaders may be missing out on some of the worker efficiency and productivity boosts that the tech can offer, and at worst it could lead to a one of their employees leaking sensitive company information out by say, entering secret fiscal data into a third-party AI system.

    What’s the lesson here for you and your AI-using workforce?

    It’s simple. If you haven’t already invested in some training time, you should. AI is already powerful enough to simplify certain tasks, and as AI agent technology improves it can even take on typical time-munching office tasks like automatically filling in digital timesheets or helping workers file expenses claims — necessary, but unproductive uses of their precious work hours. 

    The other thing to remember is that AI training shouldn’t be a one-shot affair. The tools are advancing so quickly that you should plan a regular schedule to refresh your workers on the latest tools that are on offer.

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    Kit Eaton

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  • 5 Ways to Build Connection That Impacts Learning

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    When you think about how you educate your workforce, what comes to mind? Most employers send out passive content while overlooking other interaction modes for learning that feel too time-consuming or unfamiliar. But overlooking these comes at a price: a lack of real connection with learners. In 2025, we’ll spend more than five hours a day on our phones—nearly an hour more than last year—and most of that is passive consumption rather than active connection. Unfortunately, education and training tend to follow this same pattern.

    Transformation doesn’t come from consuming more content. As I shared in my TEDx talk, “How Microlearning and Connections Transform Us: The Power of Being Present,” transformation comes from small, intentional moments of connection—with others and with ourselves. These small moments are at the heart of microlearning. When paired with authentic connection, they become one of the most underestimated forces for change in our personal and professional lives.

    How microlearning works

    At its foundation, microlearning delivers bite-sized content designed to accommodate shrinking attention spans and cognitive limits. The content targets a well-defined outcome or understanding instead of overwhelming learners with multiple concepts over a short period. We frequently consume short content everywhere we look, from AI-generated social media and articles to video shorts that vie for our attention.

    Research often focuses on how to use microlearning designs to combat shrinking attention spans and limited cognitive processing. But what if microlearning is about connection rather than content? Connecting with multiple learners creates emotional resonance that strengthens memory, and taking the time to connect with oneself releases neurotransmitters that make us feel better. The shift to connection matters: 45 percent of young workers report loneliness and social isolation at work, and older generations report more severe mental health consequences.

    Microlearning should go beyond passive content to connection. By focusing on connection, microlearning educates while building meaningful relationships among employees. And that’s where real learning sticks.

    How to build those connections through microlearning

    Here are five ways to repurpose microlearning to build connections:

    1. Be present.

    The act of being present is simple but powerful. Often, our minds are miles away from the moment. Be aware of where your mind is in each moment with your employees—and encourage them to be aware of where their minds are as well—so that you can be present for each other.

    2. Ask for input.

    Ask employees what they want to learn. We tend to disseminate information without bringing learners’ input into the conversation. The first step of learning is holding someone’s attention, so it’s critical to know what interests them.

    3. Allow for reflection.

    If you’re trying to change a behavior or connect with another employee, you must first understand if they’re ready to change. Allow time for learners to consider their own needs and feelings and how those relate to their personal and professional goals.

    4. Embed meaningful discussions.

    Many organizations have employees who are spread across multiple locations. Build in time for virtual discussions on work-related and non-work-related topics. Embedding these conversations into microlearning cultivates a community of learning by providing opportunities for buy-in and feedback that can happen anytime, anywhere.

    5. Recognize wins and encourage your team.

    Make recognition a central part of your culture. Give shout-outs in meetings, write notes of gratitude, or surprise team members with gift cards or company swag. Recognition doesn’t have to be big to be meaningful—what matters is consistency. Everyone wants to feel seen, valued, and appreciated. Use everyday moments with each other as opportunities to acknowledge effort, celebrate wins, and strengthen connections across the team.

    As technology accelerates and distractions multiply, the organizations that thrive will be those designing learning that educates minds and connects hearts. The real future of workforce education is greater than smarter employees—it’s authentically connected humans.

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    Dr. Gina Anderson

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  • Runners test cross-training theory to prepare for marathons

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    Orangetheory classes in Orlando are helping runners prepare for marathons by offering a comprehensive workout that combines running, rowing, and strength training to boost endurance and prevent injuries.Inside the class, the focus is on heart rate, hustle, and sweat, providing a full-body workout that benefits runners of all levels.”It’s really a full-body workout, which is great. You’re getting everything,” Orangetheory Coach Danielle Sisco said.”We break it all down and we’re really just trying to build a stronger body, build up your metabolism and have you leaving feeling fantastic, ” Orangetheory Fitness Coach Thomas Stoakes said. The workout split at Orangetheory includes running, rowing, and strength training, designed to enhance endurance, build strength, and prevent injuries.”One thing I’ve learned: runners love running, lifters love lifting. We do it all here. But those that just hone in on running tend to be more injury-prone. That durability you build on the weight floor goes miles out on the course,” Stoakes said. Stoakes, gearing up for his fifth full marathon, and Sisco, training for her first half-marathon, are among those benefiting from the balanced approach.”I feel like having been focused on lifting legs and getting my legs stronger and then strength training as a whole… It’s made me a stronger runner. I didn’t realize that I could be faster from lifting, but I do feel like that’s what happened for me,” Sisco said.The misconception that one must choose between strength training and running is dispelled in these classes, where cross-training in the Orange Room enhances every mile on the road.”My basis at Orangetheory, I wasn’t sure how great I was going to be running outside because I mostly ran here, but it’s translated so well. My training in here has really helped me with my training outside,” Sisco said.Every rep and stride in the class brings runners one step closer to their finish line, demonstrating the power of cross-training in marathon preparation.

    WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. —

    Orangetheory classes in Orlando are helping runners prepare for marathons by offering a comprehensive workout that combines running, rowing, and strength training to boost endurance and prevent injuries.

    Inside the class, the focus is on heart rate, hustle, and sweat, providing a full-body workout that benefits runners of all levels.

    “It’s really a full-body workout, which is great. You’re getting everything,” Orangetheory Coach Danielle Sisco said.

    “We break it all down and we’re really just trying to build a stronger body, build up your metabolism and have you leaving feeling fantastic, ” Orangetheory Fitness Coach Thomas Stoakes said.

    The workout split at Orangetheory includes running, rowing, and strength training, designed to enhance endurance, build strength, and prevent injuries.

    “One thing I’ve learned: runners love running, lifters love lifting. We do it all here. But those that just hone in on running tend to be more injury-prone. That durability you build on the weight floor goes miles out on the course,” Stoakes said.

    Stoakes, gearing up for his fifth full marathon, and Sisco, training for her first half-marathon, are among those benefiting from the balanced approach.

    “I feel like having been focused on lifting legs and getting my legs stronger and then strength training as a whole… It’s made me a stronger runner. I didn’t realize that I could be faster from lifting, but I do feel like that’s what happened for me,” Sisco said.

    The misconception that one must choose between strength training and running is dispelled in these classes, where cross-training in the Orange Room enhances every mile on the road.

    “My basis at Orangetheory, I wasn’t sure how great I was going to be running outside because I mostly ran here, but it’s translated so well. My training in here has really helped me with my training outside,” Sisco said.

    Every rep and stride in the class brings runners one step closer to their finish line, demonstrating the power of cross-training in marathon preparation.

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  • Why Leaders and Workers Think Differently About Workplace Safety Risks

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    Workplace safety is very much in the news at the moment, thanks to reports about “bad doors” and weak ergonomic design in workspaces, the threat of heat-related injuries at work, and AI’s role in boosting safety on the job. But a new study sheds a different and slightly worrying light on the topic, which may cause you to rethink your workplace safety and education programs. The report, from Colorado-based small business insurer Pie Insurance, shows that there are wide gaps between what employers think about certain key safety issues, and how their employees view those same risks.

    The insurer noted in its 2025 Small Business Employee Voice on Workplace Safety Report that both staff and leaders agree that around half of all workplace injuries can be prevented. Still, more than two-thirds of employee respondents said they remain concerned about safety at work, industry news site InsuranceBusinessMag notes. Fully 58 percent have actually witnessed workplace injuries happening in the last year, and 43 percent say they’ve sometimes felt pressured by their companies to work in conditions that were actually unsafe. This may be a “it’s an emergency get it done, we need this now,” leadership mentality, or it may be a sign of deeper disregard for safety matters — but the fact that over four in 10 of all workers surveyed feel like this is concerning.

    One main area where employees and workers disagree on workplace safety is mental health. Pie’s report says that mental health has become the leading workplace safety worry among workers: 32 percent of those surveyed identified it as the top issue. This may surprise some, since “safety” has been traditionally a word connected with physical injury risks — Pie’s survey supports this, with 20 percent of respondents calling it their top concern, while 9 percent rated environmental issues at the top and 4 percent chose equipment safety. 

    Where workers and employers disagree is shown most clearly in how each group envisions support systems for mental health issues. Fully 91 percent of employers say they’re confident about support, but just 62 percent of employees agree. The matter is of serious concern to workers, though, with 36 percent saying that work stresses carry over to impact their personal lives, affecting their motivation, anxieties and sleep.

    Pie’s study also found a disconnect between how employees feel about reporting safety issues — 17 percent of respondents said they didn’t feel comfortable doing it. Of these people, over one in three feel this way because they worry their company will retaliate, a third feel like it would make them seem like a “difficult” worker, and 31 percent simply don’t report because they feel like it would result in zero mitigation actions by their employer. 

    Another gap exists over training on workplace safety, with 63 percent of surveyed employers saying they offer properly formatted training, but just 29 percent of workers say they get regular safety training and fully 28 percent said they’ve never had any.

    What’s your big takeaway from this? You may, after all, think that you’re properly in tune with your workers when it comes to safety, and there may even be a pretty large number posted next to that “days since last accident:” sign.

    The fact is that you and your staff may not be singing from the same sheet music. Pie’s data suggests that gaps between employee and employer attitudes are much more common than you think.

    InsuranceBusinessMag points out another issue that may arise from this disconnect: data show smaller and medium-size companies are “increasingly expanding into higher-risk work to remain profitable.” As they do this, workplace safety risks and costs and, as a result, insurance issues will multiply, spotlighting workplace safety.

    It might be time to revisit your workplace safety protocols, run a training session with your staff, and promise them that if they report issues they spot there will be no reprisals. Addressing workplace mental health could also be a priority, and that’s something you can affect by checking and modifying company culture. Offering perks like flexible working or hybrid work solutions, and even getting training yourself on how to spot and help your worker’s mental health problems are good first steps.

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    Kit Eaton

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  • 1 in 7 Jobs Are at Risk of AI Automation, SHRM Says

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    As AI insinuates itself more deeply into our everyday and work lives, a new report underlines the paradigm-breaking impact the technology may have on the job market. A huge proportion of all U.S. workers are at a high risk of being replaced by automated AI systems. This represents a threat that could drive unemployment up and rattling the economy. But a separate report by the World Economic Forum suggests that one way to mitigate against this outcome is a dramatic reskilling and job redesigning effort. All of this news could feed into your plans for deploying AI tools in your company.

    The new report, from the world’s largest HR association, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), warns that 15 percent of all American jobs (just above one in seven, and affecting 23.2 million people in total) are at risk of being displaced by automatic processes, HRDive notes. 

    The types of job that most likely to be affected is one where at least half of the task list can be automated. This includes all forms of automation, including physical tools like robotics as well as artificial intelligence. This means the threat is nuanced, and, as many reports before have shown, some types of job are more at risk than others. For example, SHRM’s report estimates 39.7 percent of software development work is highly automated and at risk from AI, as is a similar share in “mathematical” occupations (financial analysis, perhaps). But just 7.3 percent of the work in the “education and library” professions is automated. 

    The report also suggests that 7.8 percent of U.S. work product — about 12 million jobs — is already at least 50 percent completed using generative AI tech.

    This might raise the specter of mass unemployment, with images not far removed from Great Depression-era poverty and unrest swirling in your head. But SHRM also notes that a “significant majority of employment faces nontechnical barriers to automation displacement.”

    This means that many types of work include processes, preferences, physical issues and so on that prevent the job being automated, and thus protects them from AI—at least for now. These types of work have emphasize “interpersonal skills and/or relatively low-tech tools,” such as “many education and health care occupations.” SHRM says “client preferences are the most common” reason for not worrying about AI encroaching on these jobs: people still prefer dealing with people.

    Another perspective on the AI threat was expressed in a new report from the World Economic Forum, addressing the new AI “dual workforce challenge, of “balancing overcapacity and talent shortages.” The report cites a global survey of C-suite executives, of which 92 percent said they had up to 20 percent “workforce overcapacity,” meaning they have more workers than they need . By 2028 that figure is expected to rise to 30 percent overcapacity by about half of the leaders surveyed. At the same time, 94 percent of the leaders say they face “critical” AI talent shortages.

    The WEF report suggests the issue affects many workplaces already, and the shift is only going to get more pronounced as AI technology improves and becomes more capable and widely used. What was once AI “experimentation” is now “structural disruption,” the report says. 

    The answer to the issue, the WEF says, is “reskilling at scale,” combined with “redesigning roles for human-AI collaboration,” and “embedding workforce planning into core strategy.” The report basically calls for using HR departments to smooth the transition between the “legacy” way of working (without AI) into the modern way, as companies integrate AI. Agentic AI has the promise of “workforce empowerment,” and  can “boost efficiency, resilience and competitiveness,” the WEF thinks while companies “stuck in pilot mode risk falling behind.”

    The WEF thinks it’s time for a dramatic upheaval in the workplace, pivoting around the skills needed to operate AI tools. Think of it as the equivalent of the arrival of PCs and printers in the office: typewriters were no longer necessary, and a whole new skillset among workers of all types was needed, The adjustment required rethinking jobs and also reskilling workers on the new tech en masse.

    What’s the takeaway for you and your company?

    Simply that if you’re deploying AI tools across your company — without the intent of outright replacing any of your workers — you need to make your plans very clear, and communicate the goals you’re aiming for by using AI. Your HR team may also need extra budget, time and direction in order to plan a large-scale ongoing, education program to teach workers how to use AI tools to boost their efficiency. You could also consider upskilling talented workers who’ve had their time freed-up by AI, by giving them expanded roles — an option that could help grow your business.

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    Kit Eaton

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  • Why Some Companies Adopting AI May Be Running Before They Can Walk

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    If you’re tracking tech news headlines, it may seem like AI is being used everywhere, from the workplace to the classroom and even kids’ entertainment. A new report shows exactly how much the business world has embraced the promise of AI, finding that a startlingly high proportion of corporate (and government) written content is actually already being written by AI tools.

    This supports many AI proponents who argue that the tech doesn’t so much replace people in their jobs, but instead takes on simple, mundane tasks, freeing workers up to tackle more productive things. But a different study that assesses how workers who are using AI feel may give you pause. Its finding could possibly push you to reconsider when and how you roll out new AI tools to assist your workforce in their daily tasks.

    In the study scientists looked across online data sources, examining text published between January 2022 and September 2024 and found that on average 17 percent (about one in every seven words) of published corporate and governmental written material was created by AIs—not by human hands. As science news outlet Phys.org notes, this includes materials from job posts to press releases. The start date for the data sweep is important, since it covers the period in late 2022 when ChatGPT was arguably the first new-generation AI to become publicly available. The scientists noted that this rate is likely to increase in time. And this makes sense, given the constantly increasing number of AI tool releases, combined with increasing capabilities of newer AI models. 

    The data tally with other reports about sweeping AI adoption, and with findings that AI is taking on so many simple workplace duties normally meted out to entry-level workers that some Gen-Z people freshly hitting the job market are having a hard time finding work.

    AI tools use for corporate writing tool is also increasing despite the known risks of relying on the technology, which can fabricate information and try to pass it off as real—potentially exposing corporate AI users to legal harm if the material is then published without human fact checking.

    Meanwhile, a separate report from San Francisco software firm Asana found that knowledge workers (essentially most office-based jobs that rely on computer interactions) would happily delegate 27 percent of their work to AI agents right now, if they could. They also expect this figure to rise to over 40 percent in the next three years. That figure may sound surprising, because it’s nearly half of their entire workload. 

    Not all AI tools are the same, however, and this report relates to next-generation AI systems called agents, rather than query-response AI systems like ChatGPT. AI agents are more advanced than the simpler generative AI tools that may be used to, say, help an HR team craft a job posting or a PR team to shape a press release. Agents have a degree of autonomy and can complete tasks in an online environment automatically — like filling in a time sheet on a website, for example. 

    ​​But the Asana data highlights an issue with AI use, that also reflects on the data concerning AI business writing. While 82 percent of the knowledge workers Asana interviewed agreed that they needed proper training to use AI agents in an effective manner, just 38 percent of companies now provide that training. In a media release, Asana noted that without foundational training, teams can’t “provide effective oversight or course correction.” This means if AI-induced errors happen and are then built into products or publications the company uses, “errors repeat” and “trust erodes further.” 

    Essentially this suggests the people who are being asked to use AI by their managers — perhaps responding to corporate-level demands to find efficiencies and boost worker output via AI tools—are distrustful of the tech, partly because they’re not being trained to use it. This may sow discontent at management decisions. HRDive notes that 54 percent of the knowledge workers surveyed said AI agents were creating extra work, as teams had to correct or redo tasks, instead of saving the company time and money.

    Combined, the two reports paint a picture of businesses rushing to maximize AI tool use by their workers, including in public-facing corporate writing and in daily tasks by office staff, with little regard for the actual impact on company efficiency. Many aren’t even attempting to train staff on the proper use of this powerful new tech. Ultimately this could see rapid AI rollouts eroding worker efficiency.

    The big takeaway for your own company is that if you’re giving AI tools to your staff, they need proper training if you expect to see measurable returns on investment. AI outputs require human checking and rechecking before they go into public-facing products or inform corporate decisions, and this may actually be adding to your staff workloads rather than easing them. Talking to your staff about the AI tools they need and are actually finding useful is the mark of a tech-savvy leader today.

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    Kit Eaton

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  • ‘We can’t sit on the sidelines’: LGBTQ+ candidates step up amid threats to queer rights

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    San Diego City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert doesn’t generally agree with political parties redrawing congressional maps to gain power.

    But after President Trump persuaded Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to redraw his state’s maps in order to improve Republican chances of retaining control of Congress in 2026, Von Wilpert said she decided California’s only option was to fight back with new maps of its own, favoring Democrats.

    There’s too much at stake for LGBTQ+ people and other marginalized Californians to do otherwise, said Von Wilpert — who is bisexual and running to unseat Republican incumbent Rep. Darrell Issa, a Trump ally whose district in San Diego and Riverside counties will be redrawn if voters approve the plan.

    “We can’t sit on the sidelines anymore and just hope that the far right will play fair or play by the rule book,” said Von Wilpert, 42. “If we don’t fight back now, I don’t know what democracy is going to be left for us to fight for in the future.”

    San Diego City Councilmember Marni von Wilpert is challenging Republican incumbent Rep. Darrell Issa, whose Southern California district would be redrawn if voters approve the redistricting plan of California Democrats.

    (Sandy Huffaker / For The Times)

    Von Wilpert’s challenge to Issa — who did not respond to a request for comment — makes her part of a growing wave of LGBTQ+ candidates running for office at a time when many on the right and in the Trump administration are working aggressively to push queer people out of the American mainstream, including by challenging drag queen performances, queer library books and an array of Pride displays, and by questioning transgender people’s right to serve in the military, receive gender-affirming healthcare, participate in sports or use public restrooms.

    They are running to counter those efforts, but also to resist other administration policies that they believe threaten democracy and equality more broadly, and to advocate around local issues that are important to them and their neighbors, said Elliot Imse, executive director of the LGBTQ+ Victory Institute.

    The institute, which has trained queer people on running for and holding political office since 1991, has already provided 450 people with in-person training so far this year, compared with 290 people all of last year, Imse said. It recently had to cap a training in Los Angeles at 54 people — its largest cohort in more than a decade — and a first-of-its-kind training for transgender candidates at 12 people, despite more than 50 applying.

    “LGBTQ+ people have been extremely motivated to run for office across the country because of the attacks on their equality,” Imse said. “They know the risk, they know the potential for harassment, but those fears are really overcome by the desire to make a difference in this moment.”

    “This isn’t about screaming we are trans, this is about screaming we are human — and showing that we are here, that we are competent leaders,” said Josie Caballero, voting and elections director at Advocates for Trans Equality, which helped run the training.

    Rep. Sarah McBride at the DC Blockchain Summit.

    Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.) at the DC Blockchain Summit in Washington on March 26, 2025. The summit brings together policymakers and influencers to discuss important issues facing the crypto industry.

    (Kent Nishimura / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

    Across the country

    Queer candidates still face stiff resistance in some parts of the country. But they are winning elections elsewhere like never before — Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware became the first out transgender member of Congress last year — and increasingly deciding to run.

    Some are Republicans who support Trump and credit him with kicking open the political door for people like them by installing gay leaders in his administration, such as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

    Ed Williams, executive director of the Log Cabin Republicans, an LGBTQ+ organization, said his group has seen “a surge in interest” under Trump, with “new members and chapters springing up across the country.” He said that “LGBT conservatives stand with President Trump’s fight for commonsense policies that support our schools and parents, put America first, and create opportunities for all Americans.”

    Ryan Sheridan, 35, a gay psychiatric nurse practitioner challenging fellow Republican incumbent Rep. Ann Wagner for her House seat in Missouri, said Trump has made the Republican Party a “more welcoming environment” for gay people. He said he agrees with Trump that medical interventions for transgender youth should be stopped, but also believes others in the LGBTQ+ community misunderstand the president’s perspective.

    “I do not believe that he is anti-trans. I do not believe he is anti-gay,” Sheridan said. “I understand the fear might be real, but I would encourage anybody that is deeply fearful to explore some alternative points of view.”

    Many more LGBTQ+ candidates, however, are Democrats or progressives — and say they were driven to run in part by their disdain for Trump and his policies.

    LGBTQ+ candidates at an LGBTQ+ Victory Institute training.

    LGBTQ+ candidates and prospective candidates listen to speakers at an LGBTQ+ Victory Institute training in downtown Los Angeles in September.

    (David Butow / For The Times)

    JoAnna Mendoza, a bisexual retired U.S. Marine, said she is running to unseat Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.) because she took an oath to defend the U.S. and its values, and she believes those values are under threat from an administration with no respect for LGBTQ+ service members, immigrants or other vulnerable groups.

    Mike Simmons, the first out LGBTQ+ state senator in Illinois, is running for the House seat of retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and leaning into his outsider persona as a gay Black man and the son of an Ethiopian asylum seeker. “I symbolize everything Donald Trump is trying to erase.”

    Texas state Rep. Jolanda Jones, who is a lesbian, said she is running for the House seat of the late Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Texas), in a historically Black district being redrawn in Houston, because she believes “we need more gay people — but specifically Black gay people — to run and be in a position to challenge Trump.”

    Colorado state Rep. Brianna Titone, who is running for Colorado treasurer, said it is critical for LGBTQ+ people — especially transgender people like her — to run, including locally. Trump is looking for ways to attack blue state economies, she said, and queer people need to help ensure resistance strategies don’t include abandoning LGBTQ+ rights.

    “We’re going to be extorted, and our economy is going to suffer for that, and we’re going to have to withstand that,” she said.

    Rep. Brianna Titone speaks at the Colorado State Capitol.

    Rep. Brianna Titone speaks during the general assembly at the Colorado State Capitol on April 23, 2025.

    (AAron Ontiveroz / Denver Post via Getty Images)

    Jordan Wood, who is gay, served as chief of staff to former Rep. Katie Porter of Orange County before co-founding the Constitution-backing organization democracyFIRST. He’s now back in his native Maine challenging centrist Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins.

    Collins, who declined to comment, has supported LGBTQ+ rights in the past, including in military service and marriage, and has at times broken with her party to stand in Trump’s way. However, Wood said Collins has acquiesced to Trump’s autocratic policies, including in recent budget battles.

    “This is a moment with our country in crisis where we need our political leaders to pick sides and to stand up to this administration and its lawlessness,” Wood said.

    Candidates said they’ve had hateful and threatening comments directed toward them because of their identities, and tough conversations with their families about what it will mean to be a queer elected official in the current political moment. The Victory Institute training included information on how best to handle harassment on the campaign trail.

    However, candidates said they also have had young people and others thank them for having the nerve to defend the LGBTQ+ community.

    Kevin Morrison, a gay county commissioner in the Chicago suburbs who is running for the House seat of Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), who is running for Senate, recently had that experience after defending a transgender high school athlete at a local school board meeting.

    Morrison said the response he got from the community, including many of the school’s alumni, was “incredibly positive” — and showed how ready people are for new LGBTQ+ advocates in positions of power who “lead from a place of empathy and compassion.”

    In California

    LGBTQ+ candidates are running across California — which has been a national leader in electing LGBTQ+ candidates, but never had an out transgender state representative.

    Maebe Pudlo, 39, is an operations manager for the SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition and an elected member of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council. She is also transgender, and running for the Central and East L.A. state Senate seat of María Elena Durazo, who is running for county supervisor.

    Pudlo, who also works as a drag queen, said that simply existing each day is a “political and social statement” for her. But she decided to run for office after seeing policy decisions affecting transgender people made without any transgender voices at the table.

    “Unfortunately, our lives have been politicized and trans people have become political pawns, and it’s really disgusting to me,” Pudlo said.

    Like every other queer candidate who spoke to The Times, Pudlo, who has previously run for Congress, said her platform is about more than LGBTQ+ issues. It’s also about housing and healthcare and defending democracy more broadly, she said, noting her campaign slogan is “Keep Fascism Out of California.”

    Still, Pudlo said she is keenly aware of the current political threats to transgender people, and feels a deep responsibility to defend their rights — for everyone’s sake.

    “This whole idea of rolling back civil rights for trans people specifically — that should be concerning for anybody who cares about democracy,” Pudlo said. “Because if they’ll do it to my community, your community is next.”

    Former Palm Springs Mayor Lisa Middleton speaks at a training event for LGBTQ+ candidates and prospective candidates.

    Former Palm Springs Mayor Lisa Middleton speaks at a training event for LGBTQ+ candidates and prospective candidates in L.A. in September. Also in the photo are, from left, LGBTQ+ Victory Fund President Evan Low, West Hollywood City Councilmember Danny Hang, Culver City Councilmember Bubba Fish and Virginia state Sen. Danica Roem.

    (David Butow / For The Times)

    Juan Camacho, a 44-year-old Echo Park resident also running for Durazo’s seat, said he feels a similar responsibility as a gay Mexican immigrant — particularly as Trump rolls out the “Project 2025 playbook” of attacking immigrants, Latinos and LGBTQ+ people, he said.

    Brought to the U.S. by his parents as a toddler before becoming documented under President Reagan’s amnesty program, Camacho said he understands the fear that undocumented and mixed-status families feel, and he wants to use his privilege as a citizen now to push back.

    Veteran California legislative leader Toni Atkins, who has long been out and is now running for governor, said the recent attacks on LGBTQ+ and especially transgender people have been “pretty disheartening,” but have also strengthened her resolve — after 50 years of LGBTQ+ people gaining rights in this country — to keep fighting.

    “It’s what it’s always been: We want housing and healthcare and we want equal opportunity and we want to be seen as contributing members of society,” she said. “We have a responsibility to be visible and, as Harvey Milk said, to ‘give them hope.’”

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    Kevin Rector

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  • Trump’s Ivy League deals are set to funnel cash to trade schools | Fortune

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    President Donald Trump’s campaign to squeeze billions of dollars out of Harvard University and other elite colleges looks set to create a windfall for US trade schools. 

    Trump wants Harvard to build one of its own, as part of a deal to restore frozen federal funding, according to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. “The Harvard Vocational School,” Lutnick said Thursday. “That’s what America needs.” 

    It was the latest outing for an idea that’s gained steam in the past month or so. Multiple US colleges are trying to hammer out financial agreements with the White House to settle charges of political bias and regain access to vital research grants. Many are reluctant to pay outright fines. But investment in career and technical training — a stated priority for Trump, who wants to revive US manufacturing — looks like a compromise both sides can abide.

    How it will work in practice remains unclear, even at the college that’s gone furthest down this road.

    Brown University agreed to spend $50 million over ten years on workforce training in its home state of Rhode Island as part of a settlement. Brown is still figuring out a process for allocating grants, which will go to existing programs and organizations. The college will decide on recipients “in the coming weeks,” said Brian Clark, a spokesperson for Brown. 

    As yet, there’s no indication the state’s Democrat-led government will play a role. Rhode Island’s Department of Labor and Training said there’s been no coordination with the college. “Brown will facilitate these grants independent of the Department,” said Edwine Paul, its chief public affairs officer.

    ‘Everybody in Rhode Island’

    When that process gets underway, it’s likely to trigger a stampede of applicants.

    Amy Grzybowski calls the Brown settlement “an amazing opportunity” for institutions like hers. She’s vice president of workforce development and community relations at the New England Institute of Technology, a nonprofit private college in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, which develops its curriculum with local employers. Programs for welding and shipfitting, for instance, were set up in partnership with General Dynamics Electric Boat, which makes Navy-class submarines in the state. 

    “We have reached out to express interest” in the Brown grants, Grzybowski said. “Along with, I’m sure, everybody in Rhode Island.”

    Harvard hasn’t gotten to this stage, and talks on a settlement have dragged in recent weeks. The college has signaled that it’s open to investing $500 million in workforce programs as part of a possible deal to restore more than $2 billion in research grants.

    Lutnick’s suggestion for a new vocational school with Harvard’s name attached evokes the prospect of Ivy League-credentialed plumbers and electricians – which may not be as farfetched as it sounds.

    Princeton University runs an apprenticeship program, partially funded by the Department of Energy, which offers training in more than a dozen fields including welding and cybersecurity. Harvard itself earlier this year announced a Careers in Construction program of training and apprenticeships in the Boston area. 

    Alisha Hyslop, chief policy officer at the Association for Career and Technical Education, said she could envision Harvard’s graduate schools partnering with apprenticeship programs or offering short-term, skills-based credentials.

    “There has been a rise in four-year universities embedding industry certifications in their programs, especially in technology, AI, and coding,” she said. “Harvard could easily get involved.” 

    Workforce investments didn’t feature in the administration’s settlement with Columbia University, showing these aren’t the only pathways to an agreement. Still, with plenty more schools lined up to seek deals, the idea evidently has appeal for Trump.

    The president in April signed an executive order to “refocus young Americans on career preparation.” He’s talked up vocational programs as a cultural and economic foil to elite universities. But he doesn’t seem keen to fund them out of federal coffers.

    Trump has proposed eliminating the Labor Department’s $200 million annual budget for supporting adult education at community colleges, much of which funds vocational and skills-based programs. The department has also halted its Job Corps program, effectively shutting down 99 career training centers nationwide.

    Instead, the president hasn’t been shy about wanting elite colleges to foot the bill. He wrote on Truth Social in May that he was considering slashing $3 billion in funding from Harvard and giving it to trade schools.

    It’s “the Robin Hood approach,” according to Kathleen deLaski, founder of the vocationally focused Education Design Lab and a senior adviser at Harvard’s Project on Workforce. 

    DeLaski said she and her team proposed a similar initiative over a decade ago, called “Share the Wealth,” which didn’t get much traction with Harvard and its peers. She doesn’t support the Trump administration’s broadside against Harvard. But “if they are going to extract a pound of flesh from wealthy colleges, I’d rather have it earmarked for less-resourced parts of higher ed than be a tax going back to the national coffers,” she said.

    ‘Extorting Money’

    Trump isn’t the first president who’s sought to bolster technical education and fill gaps in the labor force. It was a priority for Joe Biden too. Supply chain disruptions in the pandemic, and trade tensions with China, have persuaded Washington that key industries should be brought back home – and they’ll need skilled workers.

    Given the economic importance, some analysts say it’s the government that should be providing cash and making key decisions.

    “I don’t think extorting money from Ivy League institutions is any way to finance workforce development,” said Braden Goetz, senior policy adviser at the New America think tank. “If it’s publicly funded, taxpayers and policymakers have a say in how it’s used. If we’re relying on Harvard or Brown to decide how to spend it, it may not be in the best interest of the people.”

    Wherever the money ultimately comes from, a shift toward vocational funding and away from the traditional college model is what the US economy needs, according to Nick Moore — effectively the country’s top policymaker in the field, as deputy assistant secretary at the Education Department’s Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education.

    Moore, who attended Harvard as an undergraduate, said he doesn’t view a potential redistribution of wealth from his alma mater to vocational programs as a punishment so much as a corrective. He hopes to see similar shifts across the sector.

    “Our current workforce system is not sufficient to meet our economic trajectory,” he said. “And there is probably no industry that is more removed from market dynamics than higher education.”

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    Liam Knox, Bloomberg

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