Latest news with #RickSmith
Business Wire
17-07-2025
- Business
- Business Wire
Tri Counties Bank and FHLBank San Francisco Donate $180,000 to Affordable Homeownership
CHICO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Tri Counties Bank, in partnership with the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco (FHLBank San Francisco) through its Empowering Homeownership Matching Grant Program, awarded grants totaling $180,000 to Self-Help Enterprises (SHE), Greater Sacramento Urban League (GSUL), and the San Francisco Housing Development Corporation (SFHDC). 'These grants, combined with the dedicated efforts of our nonprofit partners, empower families to invest in their financial futures by turning the dream of homeownership into reality," said Rick Smith, President and CEO of Tri Counties Bank. #MemberFDIC Share 'Tri Counties Bank is proud to partner with FHLBank San Francisco to support more affordable housing throughout California,' said Rick Smith, President and CEO of Tri Counties Bank. 'These grants, combined with the dedicated efforts of our nonprofit partners, empower families to invest in their financial futures by turning the dream of homeownership into reality.' FHLBank San Francisco launched the Empowering Homeownership matching grant program in 2022 to expand access to affordable homeownership opportunities for low-, moderate-, and middle-income individuals and families. As a member financial institution, Tri Counties Bank can request matching donations from FHLBank San Francisco at a ratio of $2 for every $1 Tri Counties Bank contributes, up to a maximum of $200,000, to approved housing counseling agencies like SHE, GSUL, and SFHDC. 'We've invested millions in educating and empowering aspiring homeowners through our matching grant programs, including the Empowering Homeownership grant program,' said Eric Cicourel, Community Investment Officer at FHLBank San Francisco. 'By partnering with member financial institutions like Tri Counties Bank and supporting local housing counseling agencies, we aim to equip families with the knowledge, resources, and confidence to make informed housing decisions—and to help make the American dream of homeownership more accessible to all.' SHE is a nationally recognized community development organization whose mission is to work together with low-income families to build and sustain healthy homes and communities. Their $75,000 grant will underwrite homeownership counseling services that provide guidance and support to individuals and families at every stage of the homebuying process, helping them to make informed decisions and build long-term financial stability. GSUL has been committed to empowering communities and changing lives in the Greater Sacramento region since 1968. Through focused efforts to empower, educate and employ youth and families, they have assisted thousands of Sacramentans gain meaningful employment; access safe, affordable and stable housing; reach their educational goals; overcome health disparities; and improve their overall health and wellness. Their $60,000 grant will support their HUD-certified housing counseling program, which includes guidance on homebuying, foreclosure prevention, rental counseling, and homelessness prevention. SFHDC fosters financial stability through the development of affordable housing, the facilitation of homeownership, and the economic empowerment and revitalization of neighborhoods in San Francisco. Their $45,000 grant assists their Financial Empowerment Center, which provides HUD-certified workshops and counseling services, covering homebuyer education, rental guidance, financial literacy, and pre- and post-purchase support. To learn more about the FHLBank San Francisco's community programs, visit About Tri Counties Bank Established in 1975, Tri Counties Bank is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TriCo Bancshares (NASDAQ: TCBK), headquartered in Chico, California with corporate offices in Roseville, South San Francisco, and Bakersfield, with assets of nearly $10 billion and 50 years of financial stability. Tri Counties Bank is dedicated to providing exceptional service for individuals and businesses throughout California with more than 75 locations, advanced mobile and online banking, and access to approximately 40,000 surcharge-free ATMs nationwide. As California's Local Bank, Tri Counties Bank prioritizes serving clients with local bankers and local decision-making, backed by corporate philanthropy, community engagement, employee volunteerism and investments. Recognized by various publications as among the Top Workplaces and Best Banks, Tri Counties Bank recruits and retains diverse and talented team members. Visit to learn more. Member FDIC. Equal Housing Lender. NMLS #458732. About the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco is a member-driven cooperative helping local lenders in Arizona, California, and Nevada build strong communities, create opportunity, and change lives for the better. The tools and resources they provide to their member financial institutions — commercial banks, credit unions, industrial loan companies, savings institutions, insurance companies, and community development financial institutions — propel homeownership and expand access to quality housing and boost economic development. Together, with their members and other partners, they are making the communities they serve more vibrant and resilient.
Newsweek
02-07-2025
- Business
- Newsweek
AI Impact Awards 2025: Axon is Saving Police Officers Time and Headaches
National surveys report that police officers spend a significant portion of their time writing reports and conducting other administrative work. Axon's AI-powered report generator is a winner of Newsweek's AI Impact award in the category of Extraordinary Impact in Commercial Tool or Service for its ability to save law enforcement agencies and departments thousands of hours per week by streamlining and automating the report-writing process, thereby helping to address burnout and staff shortages within these organizations. "They're experiencing a ton of overtime. Officers are saying that they're having to stay late to get reports and stuff done," Axon founder and CEO Rick Smith told Newsweek. "We're getting officers able to complete their jobs in a reasonable amount of time and they're getting more time for patrol and things like training." Smith said that he founded his company in the wake of a shooting where two of his friends were killed. His plan was to make Tasers a safe alternative to owning a gun, with part of the mission being to protect life and make bullets obsolete. Smith shared that the Taser was controversial at the time and didn't really take off as a consumer product. However, in its early years, Axon grew its customer base through police departments, which were looking for alternatives to guns in de-escalation situations. To ensure that Tasers and other forms of police force were being used responsibly, Axon also got into the body camera business, which precipitated a new need for cloud video storage, another service Axon began offering. Smith estimates that Axon's servers host more video data than YouTube, though obviously they have fewer viewers. In addition to cloud storage, Smith launched a document management product with the goal of ultimately automating the writing process using AI. "We made a pretty big bet [around 10 years ago]," Smith said. "At some point, AI would be able to write your police report." Smith started following futurists and attending technology conferences to see where machine learning and generative AI were heading. He said the release of OpenAI's GPT-4 was the point at which he felt comfortable launching the AI report generator, Draft One. It uses body camera information and other records to help officers with a first draft of the incident reports they need to file from their activity in the field. A body camera can help generate automated first drafts of police reports using Axon's Draft One software. A body camera can help generate automated first drafts of police reports using Axon's Draft One software. Getty Images "I had this realization that police spend about half their time writing police reports," Smith said. "That's not really high value-add, it's an enormous expense." While the use of AI, particularly in law enforcement, can be controversial, Smith is not hesitant to lean into the opportunity presented by emerging technology. He shared that Axon retains an advisory board to proactively identify and address issues that skeptics may have. "Everything we have been successful at is typically 'zero to one' type stuff, and frankly, stuff that's fairly controversial," Smith shared. "At first, police had no interest in electrical weapons, and so we showed them the benefits. They didn't want our body cameras until the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson." More controversial uses of AI in law enforcement include facial recognition or software that predicts crimes, but Smith said Axon's foray into emerging tech was to solve what is essentially a business problem: police officers are spending less time in the field and more time writing reports, most of which do not get viewed by many people. When using Draft One for the first time, Officer Nathan Stoneking of the Lafayette Police Department in Indiana said, "That's probably a 25 to 30-minute long report, and you hit the narrative button and it cranks something out in a few seconds. There's a plethora of things that you can do with that extra hour or two hours in a 12-hour period." "You're automating a super expensive, very bureaucratic process. Nobody likes doing these. You have people who become police, this is a terrible part of the job for them," Smith shared. "They really dislike it. It's become a meme." One year after launch, Axon estimates Draft One has saved officers over 2 million hours across 100,000 reports. Some departments are saying officers are spending half the time, or less, on report writing. Leon County Sheriff's Office reports that average report-writing time reduced from 24.6 to 9.46 minutes. "Everything a cop does when they're sitting at a computer is some version of data input or manipulation in some sort of business process," Smith said. "We believe all of those things are important to support functions. They do have risks, so we're also going to need to be thoughtful about making sure that we keep humans in the loop. But those are support functions that our customers would generally love to automate as much as they can."
Boston Globe
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
May I have a word: Directions you can't easily follow
As it happens, this week I saw a book that was meant to be a mere decorative detail in a photo online but that I suspected might make a perfect birthday present for my stepdaughter. I needed, though, to enlarge the image to make sure I was reading the title right. It would never have occurred to me to take a photo and supersize it if I hadn't heard from John. Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up Of course, that's a book title, not squintstructions , as several readers — Michael Bohnen, of Newton; John Haneffant, of Boston; Tom Hayden, of Chelmsford; and Stephen L. Needles, of Newtown, Pa. — characterized the tiny words at issue. Advertisement Do product descriptions count as instructions? I would think so. Diane McNamara, of Amherst, wrote: 'More than once while showering in a hotel, I have had to get out and fetch my reading glasses in order to know which plastic container was shampoo and which conditioner. My suggestion is nanofont. ' David Mahoney, of Westford, observed that tiny 'print used on packaging to maximize space utilization is similar to the way some audio commercials are unintelligible because they are sped up to fit a 2-minute commercial into 15 seconds.' His suggestion for the coinage we're seeking was nano-notes . Advertisement Others who made use of nano were Thomas F. Schiavoni, of Boston: ' Nanoscription suggests reduced font size ( nano ) and something written ( script );' Rick Smith, of Wellesley, with nanoprint ; and Ed De Vos, of Newton, with nano-nono 'childlike chiding against tiny writing.' Another popular starting point was Lilliput , from Jonathan Swift's 'Gulliver's Travels.' I received Lilliputext, from May DeViney, of North Chelmsford; Lilliprint , from Judith Englander, of South Strafford, Vt., and Rick Smith, of Wellesley; and the name of an imaginary typeface, Lilliput New Roman , from John Michaels, of Peabody. Ed De Vos also proposed ' microfishy — a play off microfiche but capturing my skepticism that what is written was ever intended to be read.' Ann Souto, of Portsmouth, N.H., wrote: 'These no-read-ums look like gnats, not words!' Harry Eisenberg, of Wayland, liked no-read-ums too, and Pat Nicholson, of Falmouth, thought the tried and true no-see-ums would do. Bob Smith, of Roslindale, shared a whole lexicon of specialized terminology from 'various arts and sciences,' only some of which I've included here: ' speckifications , from architecture; diminishing relearns , economics; diminuwindow , music; microlar degeneration, ophthalmology; and vanishing pointers , painting.' Diane Tosca, of Taunton, didn't actually have a suggestion, but that didn't stop her from having her say: 'Re minuscule instructions, I suffer from optikill whenever I have to read those lens busters, especially if they're directions for eye drops. Sorry for my vitreous humor, which my pupils noticed became cornea over the years.' Advertisement Noreen Barnes, of Acton, wrote: 'What to call the tiny text on packaging that needs magnification to be read? I might describe it as in-font-esimal — like infinitesimal , a big word for 'very small.'' And May DeViney, similarly inspired, came up with infinitextimal. Both of those are great, but I'm going to award bragging rights to infinitextimal , because it's easier to understand, whether written or spoken. Well done, May – congrats! Now Jack Stein, of Milton, writes: 'We need a word to describe a person who clearly is not competent to provide advice on a particular subject but insists on doing so anyway.' Send your ideas for Jack's word to me at
Yahoo
18-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Median CEO Pay Topped $17.1 Million In 2024, While Median Employee Pay Increased Just 1.7%
The typical compensation package for S&P 500 CEOs rose by nearly 10% in 2024, according to an Associated Press CEO compensation survey. The median pay package for CEOs rose to $17.1 million in 2024, up 9.7% from the previous year. Meanwhile, median compensation for employees at these companies went up just 1.7% to $85,419. Additionally, the S&P 500 rose 23% in 2024, and profits for those companies went up 9%. "2024 was expected to be a strong year, so the (nearly) 10% increases are commensurate with the timing of the pay decisions," Dan Laddin, a partner at Compensation Advisory Partners, told AP. Don't Miss: Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing — Deloitte's fastest-growing software company partners with Amazon, Walmart & Target – Many are rushing to Raises for the average employee were "long overdue," according to Institute for Policy Studies Global Economy Project Director Sarah Anderson. Still, many workers in the U.S. struggle to pay their bills, especially lower earners. Top earners in the survey included Axon Enterprises' (NASDAQ:AXON) Rick Smith, who has a pay package valued at $164.5 million, GE Aerospace's (NYSE:GE) Lawrence Culp, Apple's (NASDAQ:APPL) Tim Cook, Carrier Global's (NYSE:CARR) David Gitlin, and Netflix's (NASDAQ:NFLX) Ted Sarandos. The bulk of the pay packages for these top earners consisted of stock or options awards, the survey found. The median stock award went up by 15% in 2024, while base salaries only grew by 4%. Trending: Maximize saving for your retirement and cut down on taxes: . "For CEOs, target long-term incentives consistently increase more each year than salaries or bonuses," Melissa Burek, a partner with Compensation Advisory Partners, told the AP. "Given the significant role that long-term incentives play in executive pay, this trend makes sense." Morningstar Sustainalytic Senior Director of Stewardship Jackie Cook also told the AP that there are benefits to tying CEO pay to performance, but noted that increased use of share-based pay has led to a "phenomenal rise" in CEO compensation "tracking recent years' market performance," which has "widened the pay gap within workplaces." At half the companies included in the survey, it would take the average worker 192 years to make what their CEOs make in one year, according to the AP. This pay ratio tends to be highest in industries where wages are low, like fast food or hospitality. "With CEO pay continuing to climb, we still have an enormous problem with excessive pay gaps," Anderson told the AP. "These huge disparities are not only unfair to lower-level workers who are making significant contributions to company value – they also undercut enterprise effectiveness by lowering employee morale and boosting turnover rates." Read Next: Here's what Americans think you need to be considered Shutterstock Up Next: Transform your trading with Benzinga Edge's one-of-a-kind market trade ideas and tools. Click now to access unique insights that can set you ahead in today's competitive market. Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga? APPLE (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report TESLA (TSLA): Free Stock Analysis Report This article Median CEO Pay Topped $17.1 Million In 2024, While Median Employee Pay Increased Just 1.7% originally appeared on © 2025 Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Bloomberg
17-06-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Taser-Maker Axon Triggers a NIMBY Backlash in its Hometown
When growing corporations talk about building new headquarters, one of the biggest questions is often whether the company will pull up stakes and relocate to another city in order to snag tax breaks and other relocation incentives. That wasn't the situation with Axon Enterprises. The company manufactures the non-lethal electroshock weapons known as Tasers, as well as the body camera technology widely used by police departments and private security companies around the world. Founded and based in Scottsdale, Arizona, Axon wanted to stay in its birthplace when it announced plans to build a new headquarters there last fall. Plans for a 400,000-square foot campus include a futuristic, sci-fi inspired office building that Chief Executive Officer Rick Smith said recalled ' bringing Captain James T. Kirk's phaser to life.'
