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Gene Hackman's personal collection goes to auction

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Gene Hackman’s personal collection goes to auction



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Nov. 14, 2025, 2:54 PM ESTBy Mike CaliaEveryone knows Walmart. But not everyone outside Wall Street and corporate America knows of its CEO, Doug McMillon, the same way they know of Tesla’s Elon Musk, Disney’s Bob Iger or JPMorgan Chase’s Jamie Dimon.Yet, McMillon’s impact on the American consumer over the past 12 years is arguably as big, if not bigger, than any of those three. With affordability top of mind from Main Street to Pennsylvania Avenue, he built on Walmart’s reputation for low prices while pushing the company to embrace technologies that have helped it compete with — and sometimes vanquish — its competitors. He did so while weathering economic and political headwinds that, at times, threatened to make the company the face of big business run amok. Even with critics on all sides, Walmart remains popular with shoppers.“McMillon has been a transformational leader who embraced technology to modernize WMT’s operating model and strengthen its long-term competitive positioning,” Steven Shemesh, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, wrote using Walmart’s ticker symbol.When McMillon steps down in January, he will leave behind a company that reaches into almost every community in the country.It’s the biggest retailer and grocer in the United States, with more than 4,600 brick-and-mortar locations. Over the past decade, it has become an e-commerce giant, too. Walmart is also the largest private employer in the country, with 1.6 million U.S. associates. It’s got another 5,500 stores abroad, as well.Even Bentonville, the once-sleepy city where Walmart’s headquarters is based, has become a hot spot with fancy amenities — and high costs — more in line with major metropolitan areas than with rural Arkansas.McMillon’s tenure has been especially kind to the company’s long-term investors: Walmart’s stock price has gained about 300% since he took over in 2014. The company’s market value stands above $800 billion, comparable with JPMorgan’s and four times larger than Disney’s.McMillon, now 59, started as a Walmart associate when he was in high school in the 1980s, when the company was already well on its way to global supremacy. At the time, Walmart was criticized for gobbling up market share from five-and-dime stores in rural areas, while it also stomped over once-giant chains such as Sears, Kmart and Toys R Us. Walmart to allow customers to shop using ChatGPT02:34By the time McMillon climbed the ladder all the way to become Walmart’s fifth CEO in 2014, the company was king of the consumer mountain. But it was facing a new wave of competition from value-conscious rivals, from dollar-store chains to e-commerce behemoth Amazon.Walmart had also become a cultural symbol — and, sometimes, a punchline — for the struggles of working-class Americans in the country’s vast rural and exurban areas. The 1995 novel “Where the Heart Is,” later turned into a movie starring Natalie Portman, depicts a young, pregnant woman who secretly moves into a Walmart. So-called “Walmart moms” were a prized voter bloc in several recent presidential elections. Walmart is often criticized for its labor and business practices. Bernie Sanders, the progressive U.S. senator from Vermont, has ripped the company for years over what he has called its “starvation wages.” Sanders and other critics say the company doesn’t pay its fair share in taxes, while at the same time many of its hourly employees rely on food stamps and Medicaid — both taxpayer-funded safety net programs — to make ends meet.Walmart has attempted to address some concerns under McMillon. It has boosted pay and benefits for many employees and added fresher brands to its inventory while maintaining low prices. It has also supercharged its tech and e-commerce strategies, including its Walmart+ membership program, and renovated hundreds of stores. Its growth also led to some problems for customers, including scam sales from third-party sellers on its Walmart’s online marketplace, as well.As inflation took off starting in 2022, several of these initiatives enabled Walmart to snap up market share among families earning six-figure incomes, but who were still looking for lower prices. Walmart also emerged stronger from the early days of the Covid pandemic, ramping up its e-commerce and delivery programs and retooling its global supply chains at a time when Americans weren’t leaving home.“Doug’s leadership has focused on creating an environment where people are not afraid to experiment and try new things,” Neil Saunders, managing director of retail at GlobalData, wrote in an email to NBC News. “That has helped Walmart to future-proof itself.”The company’s now-diminished rival, Target, has slumped in the post-pandemic years after struggling with supply chain and inventory snafus. Target has also faced backlash from consumers earlier this year for dropping its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and products. Walmart also backed off its DEI initiatives under pressure from the Trump administration and conservative activists — but it didn’t take anywhere near the heat that Target did.Still, the McMillon-era Walmart was never far from political controversy, including when it tightened its gun and ammunition sales in 2019 following a mass shooting in Texas. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has praised McMillon’s Walmart — and picked fights with it. In recent weeks, the president touted Walmart’s yearly Thanksgiving meal deal package as evidence his policies were making things more affordable. While it is less expensive than last year’s version, the deal includes fewer, and cheaper, items — showing that even Walmart isn’t immune to inflationary pressures.That was clear in the spring, too, when the company said it would have to raise some prices because of Trump’s tariffs. The president lashed out on social media, warning: “Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain.”Walmart didn’t back off, but McMillon said on an earnings call that tariff effects were “gradual enough that any behavioral adjustments by the customer have been somewhat muted.” Indeed, the company raised its sales and profit revenue outlook for the year, heading into the holiday shopping season.And this was made possible largely because of how the company reshaped itself under McMillon’s stewardship. Even as he retires, handing off to successor John Furner, it would take a lot to “roll back” Walmart’s dominant position.“Furner is taking over one of the most desirable seats in corporate America,” wrote Scot Ciccarelli, an analyst with Truist Securities. He “just needs to continue to execute against the game plan they have already put in place.”Mike CaliaMike Calia is the managing editor for business and the economy at NBC News.
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November 29, 2025
Nov. 29, 2025, 7:15 AM ESTBy Kevin CollierIdentity thieves have in recent years narrowed in on a particularly lucrative target: athletes on the verge of going pro.A report from the fraud detection company SentiLink found that NBA and NFL draft picks from a recent five-year period were far likelier than the average American to be victims of attempted financial fraud such as fake loans and credit cards taken out in their names.The figures have risen dramatically from 2020 through 2025. Of the NBA draft picks from that period, 20% saw suspicious credit activity such as credit card applications, and attempted auto and consumer lending loan applications. For NFL picks in the period, the figure was 15.2%. The national average is usually between 2-3%, the report found.The data only flags suspicious attempts to take out loans and does not track confirmed instances of identity theft.window.addEventListener(“message”,function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][t]+”px”;r.style.height=d}}});“Most draft prospects are young adults, typically 18–23 years old. This demographic often has limited credit histories, fewer active financial accounts, and inconsistent digital footprints,” the report found.“These characteristics make them ideal targets because fraudulent applications are less likely to trigger alerts associated with established credit behavior, and there is often less public information available to contradict a fraudulent application,” it said.The rise in identity fraud efforts around young athletes coincides with a national trend. While there are no comprehensive figures on how many Americans become victims each year, complaints to the Federal Trade Commission have risen nearly every year since it started tracking them in 2001, culminating in a record 6.5 million last year..James Lee, the president of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit that helps Americans deal with identity theft, said young athletes make sense as targets.“Professional athletes who are early in their careers make for easy targets because they are highly visible, are suddenly wealthy, but may not have the same level of personal protection and life skills to avoid being taken advantage of by professional criminals,” said Lee, who was not involved in the study. Trying to open a credit card or take out a bank loan in another person’s name often require little more than some basic information about that person, such as their name, current address, birthday and family. It usually also requires a Social Security Number, but those are hacked and traded by cybercriminals so frequently that they’re relatively easy to acquire.Athletes competing to go pro are heavily scrutinized and generally see little expectation of privacy. Their names, ages and basic biographical and family information are widely plastered across sports websites, and they often publicly advertise on social media. And the fact that they are likely to frequently move among their home, college, training camps and the city where they’re drafted means they may be less likely to see mailed credit alerts.The attempts also echo a spate of home burglaries that have plagued both leagues in recent years, particularly targeting them while they’re playing in high-profile away games. Victims include NFL stars such as Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Shedeur Sanders and NBA stars such as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic. The FBI is helping investigate the break-ins for potential ties to international crime rings, NBC News reported last week. The agency did not respond when asked if it was also tracking identity thieves who target athletes.SentiLink works with banks and other financial services to flag suspicious transactions and has a massive database of credit activity. Researchers at the company looked at the 1,292 NFL players drafted from 2020 to 2024, as well as the 288 NBA players drafted in that same period, and compared them to national averages.David Maimon, SentiLink’s head of fraud insight and the lead researcher on the study told NBC News that the data does not indicate a widespread organized criminal conspiracy and seems more like a phenomenon of more amateur criminals trying to take advantage of newly famous young men. He declined to share the names of which players have been particularly targeted, citing confidentiality agreements.Most identity theft attempts are not made public. But they can be amateur and brazen, while others can use modern technology and manipulation techniques.Some loan applications ask for a person to record a live video and move their head to prove their identity. But that can be easily fooled, Maimon said. Athletes’ pictures are easy to find online and there are plenty of AI tools that can convincingly deepfake their heads turning, he noted. Jason Rivarde, the commander of public affairs at the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana, said his office had arrested two people earlier this year for allegedly attempting to take out loans by posing as Cam Ward, Tennessee Titans quarterback and 2025 first overall draft pick, as well as his father. The pair were caught when an employee at a Jefferson County financial institution who had served them before recognized them trying to take out a loan in a third name, Rivarde said.The Wards and the Titans did not respond to requests for comment.The NBA and the NFL players unions both provide rookies with basic financial literacy training and recommend vetted financial advisers, spokespeople for the unions told NBC News.But it’s particularly hard for newly famous people to fully protect themselves from dogged identity thieves, especially if they have not yet hired advisers to handle their finances and closely watch their credit reports. Experts like Maimon say one of the best defenses is for everyone to keep their credit frozen, but that’s a tall order for an athlete who signs a major contract and is inclined to buy items that require a credit check, such as vehicles and property.Kevin CollierKevin Collier is a reporter covering cybersecurity, privacy and technology policy for NBC News.
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