Ryder CEO Greg Swienton retiring, COO getting promoted

Trucking giant Ryder will get a new CEO in two weeks, as the Miami-Dade company announces the retirement of Gregory Swienton and the promotion of current COO Robert Sanchez to the top job.

Ryder, which leases commercial trucks and manages supply operations for companies around the world, saw revenues and profits increase this year, but has also been cutting costs and selling part of its fleet to combat slowing sales. Swienton, 63, joined Ryder as president in 1999 and was promoted to CEO a year later. Sanchez, 47, will become the company’s fifth CEO since its founding in 1933 by a Miami Beach construction worker named Jim Ryder. One of three Fortune 500 companies south of Palm Beach County, Ryder employs about 700 people at its headquarters in western Miami-Dade.

Sanchez becomes CEO on January 1, and Swienton will retain the title of chairman of the board until Ryder’s annual meeting in May, when that title will pass to Sanchez, too, the company said in a press release issued Monday morning.

E. Follin Smith, an independent director on the board, said in a statement in the company press release: “We sincerely thank Greg Swienton for leading Ryder to an improved sustainable business model, significantly enhanced financial performance, and an organization-wide commitment to business integrity.”

Swienton said Monday he was ready to end his career and begin enjoying a retirement with family, particularly grandchildren living in Texas, where he and his wife own a home.

“I had my seventh grandchild on Nov. 28th. There are many things pulling you in life,’’ Swienton said in a joint telephone call with his successor, Sanchez. “I’ve been working for 41 years straight.”

A 19-year veteran at Ryder, Sanchez has served as head of the company’s largest division, global fleet management solutions, and as chief financial officer. He was born in Miami, a graduate of Christopher Columbus High School and the University of Miami.

Sanchez said his main goal would be “to continue the good work Greg has done here at Ryder.” He noted that Ryder’s primary business is as an out-sourcer — with companies turning over their supply operations to Ryder as a cost saver. That leaves Ryder plenty of room to grow, since “there is still a very large part of the market that is not outsourced.”

Following the news Ryder stock dropped almost 2 percent by midday Monday, to $48.75 a share, on a day when most stock indices were posting gains.

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Child dies from injuries after being hit by car

A 7-year-old struck by a vehicle in a Lauderhill neighborhood street Saturday night has died, police said on Sunday.

The child was struck at around 7 p.m. on the 5700 block of Northwest 27th Court.

No names have been released.

The driver has been identified only as a 20-year-old female.

The cause of the accident is still under investigation, said police spokesman Capt. Rick Rocco.

The child was transported to Broward Health Medical Center in critical condition immediately after the incident, police said.

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Viral Justice: Domestic Abuse Victim Calls Out Attacker on Facebook

Amber Taylor had been living in a Missouri motel with her boyfriend, Austin “Wildboi” McCauley, until this week, when he reportedly beat her unconscious with a baseball bat.

Two days later, the 23-year-old took a picture of herself recovering from her injuries and posted it to McCauley’s public Facebook page, calling him out for his abuse and prompting his arrest.

Since its posting online, the photo has accumulated almost 10,000 “Likes” and close to 1,000 comments. Its caption includes the sentence, “I’m not the only girl he’s done this to but I’m not scared anymore I’m going to speak up.”  

McCauley has since been arrested and charged with second-degree domestic assault.

MORE: Savannah Dietrich Calls Out Her Attackers, Sees Them Punished

In her interview with news station WDAF, Taylor explained she wanted to expose her boyfriend’s true nature to the people who thought they knew him best. “I just wanted his friends to actually see the true him,” she said.

The young mother reports that she’s not only received support from McCauley’s own friends, but also from people across the country. “I’m actually glad that I have people that are writing me and telling me they care. Because being with him, I didn’t get to have any friends.”

This isn’t the first time social media has provided an outlet for a victim in need of support. Earlier this year, 17-year-old Savannah Dietrich violated a court order when she announced the names of her two underage attackers on her public Twitter account. Though the maneuver had her facing contempt charges, Dietrich and her parents reported it was necessary to bring attention to what they characterized as the unfair nature of her trial.

Though public pressure on the court still didn’t result in the attackers receiving jail time, they were sentenced to harsher punishments than were originally conceived before Dietrich went public with their names. And in the melee, the teenager inadvertently rallied a nation’s support, serving as an example of how self-advocacy can facilitate healing.

That may be the take-away for Hillary Adams as well. The disabled daughter of Texas judge, William Adams, Hillary was the subject of her father’s relentless beatings and secretly videotaped one of those incidents. Seven years later, she posted the video online. Though Adams was already grown up and no longer living with her father, she claimed the posting had more to do with holding him personally accountable, even if the law wouldn’t.

Trauma sufferers often report that keeping abuse a secret is a move that backfires, creating a greater sense of personal shame, no matter how blameless they may be. But social media is an accessible avenue they can use to tell their stories, offering survivors the chance to shed their shame and reclaim their dignity.

Do you think social justice can really be achieved with social media? Would you use it to get justice? Let us know what you think in the Comments.

Related Stories on TakePart:

• Anna Breslaw’s 600-Word Sprint: The V-Word Dialogues

• Despite His ‘Legitimate Rape’ Fail, Todd Akin is Still a Senate Contender

• In U.S., a New Definition for Rape

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A Bay Area native, Andri Antoniades previously worked as a fashion industry journalist and medical writer.  In addition to reporting the weekend news on TakePart, she volunteers as a webeditor for locally-based nonprofits and works as a freelance feature writer for TimeOutLA.com. Email Andri | @andritweets | TakePart.com

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Riveting Details Emerge from CT School Rampage

As morning turned to afternoon on Friday, further details continued to emerge from Newtown, CT, a tight-knit community shaken by a massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School that took the lives of innocent students and teachers, in addition to the gunman, reportedly identified as Adam Lanza.

RELATED: President Fights Tears as He Addresses Nation

As President Barack Obama touched on in his tear-jerking press conference, this is not the first time the nation has witnessed a tragedy of this kind. The recent mass shooting at an Aurora, CO movie theater is just one instance of such violence. Columbine High School and Virginia Tech also resonate as prime examples.

Hollywood's biggest stars were quick to react to the news on Twitter and made an outcry for stricter gun control regulations.

Watch the video for ET's complete coverage of today's biggest headline.

RELATED: Celebs Tweet Reactions to CT School Shooting

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Fuel spill in Staten Island waters confined: Coast Guard

The US Coast Guard says a fuel spill from a cargo tank on a barge has been "pretty much confined" to the Staten Island waters where it originally occurred.

Spokesman Charles Rowe says cleanup of the spill is continuing, with thousands of gallons of oil-tainted water removed.

The spill from a leaking tank occurred Friday at about 11:20 p.m. It's unclear how much of the 112,000-gallon tank's oil had spilled.

The leak has stopped.

Rowe said booms had been deployed to contain the spill, with the majority of the oil concentrated around the barge. He said some had gone into the harbor and isolated patches had been seen on the Staten Island and New Jersey shorelines.

Rowe said booms had been placed to protect a bird sanctuary in the area.

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Miami in spotlight at AVCC, other entrepreneurship events

Entrepreneurs from around the world took the stage during this packed week of entrepreneurship events in Miami: Florida International University’s Americas Venture Capital Conference (known as AVCC), HackDay, Wayra’s Global DemoDay and Endeavor’s International Selection Panel.

The events, all part of the first Innovate MIA week, also put the spotlight on Miami as it continues to try to develop into a technology hub for the Americas.

“While I like art, I absolutely love what is happening today... The time has come to become a tech hub in Miami,” said Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez, who kicked off the venture capital conference on Thursday. He told the audience of 450 investors and entrepreneurs about the county’s $1 million investment in the Launch Pad Tech Accelerator in downtown Miami.

“I have no doubt that this gathering today will produce new ideas and new business ventures that will put our community on a fast track to becoming a center for innovative, tech-driven entrepreneurship,” Gimenez said.

Brad Feld, an early-stage investor and a founder of TechStars, cautioned that won’t happen overnight. Building a startup community can take five, 10, even 15 years, and those leading the effort, who should be entrepreneurs themselves, need to take the long-term view, he told the audience via video. “You can create very powerful entrepreneurial ecosystems in any city... I’ve spent some time in Miami, I think you are off to a great start.”

Throughout the two-day AVCC at the JW Brickell Marriott, as well as the Endeavor and Wayra events, entrepreneurs from around the world pitched their companies, hoping to persuade investors to part with some of their green.

And in some cases, the entrepreneurs could win money, too. During the venture capital conference, 29 companies —including eight from South Florida such as itMD, which connects doctors, patients and imaging facilities to facilitate easy access of records — competed for more than $50,000 in cash and prizes through short “elevator’’ pitches. Each took questions from the judges, then demoed their products or services in the conference “Hot Zone,” a room adjoining the ballroom. Some companies like oLyfe, a platform to organize what people share online, are hoping to raise funds for expansion into Latin America. Others like Ideame, a trilingual crowdfunding platform, were laser focused on pan-Latin American opportunities.

Winning the grand prize of $15,000 in cash and art was Trapezoid Digital Security of Miami, which provides hardware-based security solutions for enterprise and cloud environments. Fotopigeon of Tampa, a photo-sharing and printing service targeting the military and prison niches, scored two prizes.

The conference offered opportunities to hear formal presentations on current trends — among them the surge of start-ups in Brazil; the importance of mobile apps and overheated company valuations — and informal opportunities to connect with fellow entrepreneurs.

Speakers included Gaston Legorburu of SapientNitro, Albert Santalo of CareCloud and Juan Diego Calle of .Co Internet, all South Florida entrepreneurs. Jerry Haar, executive director of FIU’s Pino Global Entrepreneurship Center, which produced the conference with a host of sponsors, said the organizers worked hard to make the conference relevant to both the local and Latin American audience, with panels on funding and recruiting for startups, for instance.

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Two die in unrelated crashes in Broward

Two people died in separate Broward traffic accidents on Saturday morning, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office.

Shortly after 4 a.m., Andre Caesar, 41, crashed a 2012 Velocity motor scooter into the driver’s side of a tow truck backed into a driveway at 3370 NW 39th St. in Lauderdale Lakes. The tow truck, which was unloading a vehicle at a residence, had its headlights and taillights on, BSO detectives said.

Caesar, of Fort Lauderdale, was not wearing a helmet. He was taken to Broward Health Medical Center, where he died at around 5 a.m.

In an unrelated incident shortly after 6 a.m., Tiago Rodriguez, 28, apparently lost control of a 1999 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup truck he was driving and crashed into a concrete utility pole. He had been heading eastbound on McNab Road and trying to exit on the off ramp to Southwest 17th Street in North Lauderdale. Detectives do not know why Rodriguez lost control of the truck.

Rodriguez, of Margate, was also taken to Broward Health Medical Center, where he died at about 7:15 a.m.

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Manitoba Tories to oust youth president over social media comments

WINNIPEG – An official with Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative party is being ousted over social media comments about aboriginals.

Brayden Mazurkiewich, the president of the party’s youth wing, is being asked to resign over a post on his Facebook page today.

The post concerns a planned urban reserve on a former Winnipeg military base, and says the land was designed for — quote — “hard-working men and women of the military, not free-loading Indian.”

Party president Ryan Matthews says the comments are unacceptable.

Matthews says if Mazurkiewich doesn’t quit voluntarily, the party’s management committee will convene next week to deal with the matter.

Mazurkiewich was not immediately available for comment.

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Riveting Details Emerge from CT School Rampage

As morning turned to afternoon on Friday, further details continued to emerge from Newtown, CT, a tight-knit community shaken by a massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School that took the lives of innocent students and teachers, in addition to the gunman, reportedly identified as Adam Lanza.

RELATED: President Fights Tears as He Addresses Nation

As President Barack Obama touched on in his tear-jerking press conference, this is not the first time the nation has witnessed a tragedy of this kind. The recent mass shooting at an Aurora, CO movie theater is just one instance of such violence. Columbine High School and Virginia Tech also resonate as prime examples.

Hollywood's biggest stars were quick to react to the news on Twitter and made an outcry for stricter gun control regulations.

Watch the video for ET's complete coverage of today's biggest headline.

RELATED: Celebs Tweet Reactions to CT School Shooting

Read More..

Connecticut victims ID'd as police uncover 'very good evidence' of shooter's motives

The unhinged gunman who slaughtered 26 children and adults yesterday in a elementary school arrived with guns blazing — blasting his way into the building, according to Connecticut State police.

“He was not voluntarily let into the school at all,” Connecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance said at a Saturday morning press conference outside Sandy Hook Elementary School, where Adam Lanza unleashed one of the worst massacres in US history before committing suicide.

“He forced his way into the school.”

THE POST'S COVERAGE OF THE CONNECTICUT MASSACRE

NEWTOWN GUNMAN'S MOM TOOK HIM TO SHOOTING RANGES

AFP/Getty Images

Distraught relatives leave a Newtown fire station after hearing news of their loved ones from officials yesterday.

PHOTOS: SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SHOOTING

RAW SOUNDS OF NEWTOWN TRAGEDY

Vance said investigators at the school, as well as a secondary crime scene — the home of Lanza’s mother, Nancy, who was also found dead — have uncovered “very good evidence,” that will be able to “paint the how, and more importantly, the why.”

But the investigation won’t be completed for up to two days or longer, Vance cautioned.

“We have done everything we need to do to peel back the onion,” Vance said at the press conference, which was delayed over two hours.

Lanza — a string bean-thin goth kid described by friends as a “genius” — first shot his mother then drove to the school in her car with at least three of her guns: a Glock and a SIG Sauer, and a .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle. And the gunman had access to even more guns than the trio found at the school — cops recovered a .45-caliber Henry repeating rifle, a .22-caliber Marlin rifle, and a .30-caliber Enfield rifle, a law enforcement source told CNN.

After shooting his way into the building, Lanza, dressed in black and wearing a bullet-proof vest — opened fire in two classrooms at around 9:30 am.

A hero custodian ran through the hallways sounding the alarm, and teachers quickly scrambled to protect their young charges, locking classroom doors as they waited for sick sound of gunfire to stop.

The school’s beloved principal, Dawn Hochsprung — who started the morning with cheery messages on Twitter — was among the dead.

On Thursday, Lanza was involved with an “altercation” with four school staffers, according to NBC.

Only one of those staffers — a teacher shot in the foot — survived yesterday's carnage.

Vance described that teacher as “instrumental” to the investigation.

As soon as investigators are done combing through every “crack and crevice” inside and outside the building, officials would release a list of all the names of the victims — 20 of whom are children, Vance said. He did say that all of the victims had been identified.

Vance added that a trooper or an officer has been assigned to parents to help “maintain their solitude.”

Vance refused to name Lanza, 20, and said the shooter’s name would be released at the same time as the victims.

The senseless killings touched families across the region and the globe.

“The members of the NYC Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association join the nation and the world in sending our thoughts and prayers to all of those who lost a loved one in the senseless shooting at the Sandy Hook school, especially to our colleague Lt. James Giblin, whose nephew was lost to this tragedy,” said PBA president Patrick J. Lynch said.

“We will also keep the first responders, the police, EMS and everyone whose difficult job causes them to deal with the aftermath of this tragedy in our thoughts and we stand ready to offer any assistance we can give to help them get through this horrific event. We pray that we will never see another tragedy like this again.”

A crisis intervention team from Yale University is being set up to help stunned residents of bucolic Newtown — a close-knit community of about 27,000 that’s 60 miles northeast of New York City — cope with the tragedy.

With Post Wire Services

gbuiso@nypost.com

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