• Congressional Staff for a Ceasefire Now is a group of more than 150 Capitol Hill staffers.
• One organizer told BI they've protested on Capitol Hill to amplify their constituents' voices.
• They also say the organizing has given staff an excuse to stay during an otherwise difficult time.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with an organizer involved with Congressional Staff for a Ceasefire Now, a group of Capitol Hill staffers pressuring lawmakers to support a cease-fire in Gaza. The staffer has been granted anonymity in order to speak freely without fear of retaliation from their office. This essay has been edited for length and clarity.

At the end of October, when we saw how Israel was beginning to conduct its war in Gaza, I and several other staffers on Capitol Hill were really, really concerned.

We had heard from thousands upon thousands of constituents who were writing to us, emailing us, calling us, and commenting on our offices' social media accounts, urging our bosses to call for a cease-fire in Gaza.

There was initially just a group of four or five of us that were ready to do something, which gradually grew to a group of roughly a dozen staffers.

Our first major action was a flower vigil on the House steps on November 7, one month after the Hamas attack on Israel. The goal was to directly confront lawmakers with the fact that there is dissent among their staff with how they are handling this, while making it clear that we don't stand by our bosses' decisions to whitewash this and to look the other way.

We recognized not just the civilian lives lost in Gaza, but also the 1,200 civilian lives lost in Israel during the horrible attacks on October 7. We laid 10,000 flowers — one for each civilian in both Israel and Gaza who had been killed at that point.

Our group has since grown to more than 150 staffers, and we've taken several other actions and demonstrations. In February, after the US cut off funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), we held a fundraiser that brought in more than $8,500. We've also read the names of more than 300 infants who've been killed in Gaza.

This month, we marched to the steps of the Capitol before a vote on a bill to force President Joe Biden to provide withheld aid to Israel, insisting that Congress try to save Rafah instead.

During our public demonstrations, many of us — including me — wear items such as masks or sunglasses in order to maintain our anonymity.

My boss is largely convinced that they're right on most things. But they've been willing to listen.

I work for a House Democrat who has endorsed Biden's plan for a negotiated, two-sided cease-fire — but that's absolutely not far enough.

I believe Israel has not only an obligation but a responsibility to unilaterally implement a cease-fire and conduct itself differently in this conflict if they actually are hoping to secure hostages and eliminate Hamas.

I also believe that somewhere between one-third to one-half of the more than 90 lawmakers who have called for a cease-fire — including my boss — have used that term under pressure, and use varying definitions of the term that avoid placing the responsibility on Israel to actually secure one.

There are varying degrees to which lawmakers are willing to listen to their staffers on this issue. My own boss is stubborn and largely convinced that they're right on most things, but they've been willing to listen, which I admire them for. To that end, we've had several staff-level conversations over the last several months.

Recently, I told my boss that they should be focusing more on the reality on the ground today rather than just continuing to harken back to October 7.

Some senior staff in my office seem to know I'm involved with this effort — and they've made comments here and there to prove it. But I'm almost positive that the lawmaker I work for doesn't know, and that if they did, there would be genuine repercussions.

If they're not listening to us in our offices, we have to find a way to get through to them.

Some people say that it's not our place as staff to be doing any of this, and that it's simply our job to carry out our boss's wishes.

When it's constituents saying this, I understand: They don't understand exactly how congressional offices work, they don't know how Congress functions. But I think it is an argument in bad faith when it's made by other staffers or by lawmakers.

We are the people engaging with constituents. Members of Congress aren't on the phones, do not respond to emails, and do not respond to social media comments in almost all cases. We have seen an unprecedented influx of constituent sentiment in support of a cease-fire, and in some lawmakers' offices, that sentiment is not being listened to at the most senior level.

So if they're not listening to us at our offices, we have to find a way to get through to them.

We want to show that at all levels of our government — from civilians, to staffers, to administration officials, to military members who have resigned in protest of this conflict and the way it's being handled — there is dissent, and there is a price to pay for not listening to your constituents.

If there's a sliver of a chance that you can make a difference, I believe you have a duty to stay.

Others might say that if we don't agree with what our bosses are doing then we should quit. But it's not that simple.

If you're high profile enough where you can make a national story by quitting at the State Department, the White House, or the military, that can be a really important and impactful decision to make.

But if you're an office where there is even a sliver of a chance of making a difference, I believe you have a duty to stay there. You don't know who's going to step in and replace you in that job. You don't know if they're going to hire someone who just does not believe in the humanity of the Palestinian people.

Personally, I haven't considered resigning, but I've drawn personal lines for myself: I won't write content that I feel is grossly out of line with the human values that I support.

Thankfully, I work in an office where — slowly but surely — it seems like the ship is turning. Even though I think my boss is turning a blind eye to more things that I'm comfortable with, I continue to believe that their mind is still changing and is not rigid on this. That is enough for me to see a reason to stay on.

For the most part, staff are not wholly responsible, or even largely responsible, for the votes that their bosses take.

We have already made an impact

One thing that's been really reassuring for me is how cross-cutting this issue is, especially at a time when politics is more polarized than ever.

We've had Democrats and Republicans at some of our House protests, as well as Israelis and Palestinians, people who are Jewish or Muslim, who are every religion and identity in between.

I think that staff action, and demonstrating how constituents are feeling about this issue, is responsible for having so many members of Congress not only calling for cease-fire in one way one form or another, but actually being comfortable for the very first time in history with the idea of conditioning aid to Israel.

We've given staff the courage to speak up in their offices and to have those kinds of conversations with their bosses. And I think that we have been essential to providing staff an excuse to stay in a time when working in this institution is incredibly difficult.

Unless and until the government is responding to constituents, we continue to plan to be their voice in the halls of power.

• American Airlines is rolling out a new premium-heavy cabin on its future Boeing 787 aircraft.
• Upgrades include sliding doors in business class and more privacy in premium economy.
• The highly-anticipated design improves upon the carrier's older, but still competitive Dreamliners.

After years of poor customer service strategies and dated cabins, American Airlines has been developing new products and technologies to improve its operations — especially as business travel continues to rebound.

Among its most anticipated upgrades is a brand-new three-class cabin coming to its future Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, with improvements like sliding doors in the "Flagship Suite" business class and more privacy and storage in premium economy.

The design will also be retrofitted onto existing Boeing 777-300ERs and Airbus A321Ts, American's transcontinental jet. The airline will eventually replace the latter with the yet-to-be-certified Airbus A321XLR, which will also come equipped with the Flagship Suites.

However, American will leave its existing 787 cabins — which are less premium-heavy — as is.

This means the 787-9 Dreamliners will differ across the fleet, but a buttoned-up soft product will create consistency across the planes and keep the current cabin competitive with mainline rivals like Delta Air Lines.

American has about 60 Boeing 787 Dreamliners in its fleet. Another 3 equipped with the new cabin should be delivered this year.

The airline initially had six Dreamliners scheduled for delivery, but ongoing quality issues on Boeing's 787s have delayed some deliveries.

As a result, some international flights were cut, with routes like New York to Rome and Buenos Aires both losing a daily frequency. Meanwhile, seasonal flights, like Dallas/Fort Worth to Kona, Hawaii, will not fly at all this winter.

All of American's 787-9s, existing and future, have 3 classes: business, premium economy, and regular coach.

The cabin retrofits throughout American's fleet will effectively eliminate international first-class — a product the airline said in 2022 that customers simply weren't buying.

In its place, American has added more premium seats — upping business class from 30 seats on the current 787s to 51 in the new Flagship version.

The biggest differences are at the front of the plane in business class, with the Flagship Suite adding sliding doors and a 'preferred' first row.

The current 787-9s feature American's staple Flagship Business product without the Flagship Suites, while the future 787-9s will feature the same Flagship Business brand but with the new Flagship Suite and the special front-row preferred seat.

The main new feature is the door. Airlines worldwide, like Air India, British Airways, Qatar Airways, and now American, have embraced the sliding door in a bid to attract customers who prioritize privacy.

Delta Air Lines boasts a sliding door in some of its Delta One seats, though United Airlines has yet to add the perk to its Polaris business-class product.

American says the 'distinguished front row experience' builds on the Flagship Suite by adding more space and exclusive amenities.

The special amenities, which will also be on the Boeing 777s, include a Nest Bedding mattress pad and pajamas, a throw blanket, a memory foam pillow, and an exclusive amenity kit.

The Flagship Suite Preferred is a "business plus"-type seat seen on other carriers like JetBlue Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways but without the pizzazz of a second companion seat to dine or chat with friends or meet with colleagues.

The doors and exclusive first row are absent from the current 787-9s, but the jets still have the expected amenities like televisions and beds.

All the carrier's 787-9 business class seats are lie-flat with a television and an accompanying remote, WiFi, storage, an adjustable tray table, power, and tabletop space.

The Flagship version offers more overall space and luxe touches, like wood designs and the staple American branding.

Plus, the 1x2x1 seating configuration will remain consistent, meaning every passenger will have direct aisle access.

Carriers like Air India, British Airways, and Germany's Lufthansa still sport dated business class cabins with window seats that are boxed in.

This can inconvenience the aisle seat passenger if the window seat customer has to go to the lavatory or stretch their legs.

While the hard product differs considerably, American is introducing consistency in the soft product.

Over Memorial Day weekend, American introduced a new inflight experience for business and premium economy cabins on more than 300 international and transcontinental flights — not just the 787.

The strategy, which was based on customer feedback and relies on a rotating collection of amenities, touches everything from bedding to dining.

While Flagship First is being sunset across the fleet and is not on 787s, the cabin will get its own set of luxe amenities like more bedding and pajamas.

Business class will get luxury amenity kits, a dual-sided pillow, new international cuisines, and slippers, among other perks.

The dual-sided pillow was developed based on customer preference to have different materials on each side, so American added a cool-touch fabric on one side and a traditional fabric on the other.

Behind business class is the premium economy cabin, which American introduced in 2016.

The company's current and future 787s will both have premium economy, the latter sporting 32 seats — 11 more than what is on existing Dreamliners.

American said customer demand drove the capacity increase.

Significant changes include adding a winged headrest for better privacy and a larger seatback screen.

The existing Dreamliners have 38 inches of pitch, 19 inches of width, and a large adjustable headrest without the wings.

Both cabins will sport a 2×3×2 layout.

However, the new product will carry over the footrest, power ports, and TV remote.

Based on the renderings, American's new premium economy will add a cubby between the seats for more storage.

Some American premium economy seats also have a legrest.

Similar to business, premium economy travelers will get an enhanced soft product with a new amenity kit, a lumbar pillow, and a throw blanket.

The new amenities are cabin-specific, with both business and premium economy getting headphones but the latter receiving "noise-reducing" versus the former's "noise-canceling."

Stretching to the back of American's 787 planes is the regular economy cabin. The old Dreamliners will have more coach seats.

American designed its new Dreamliners to be more premium-heavy, catering to a growing demand for premium leisure products and a rebound in business travel.

The new planes will have 161 regular economy seats, The Points Guy reported. That compares to the 234 seats on the current 787s, according to American.

This includes extra legroom and regular coach seats, which have 35 and 31 inches of pitch, respectively. The legroom is competitive with Delta and United.

The old economy product also has a handheld remote accompanying the seatback screen. A video of the new seats doesn't show a remote.

The current 787-9 aircraft have a television with a handheld remote, but a video on American's YouTube channel showing the future economy cabin does not show a remote installed on the seatback nor in the armrest.

American told Business Insider in an email statement on Wednesday that details surrounding the remote are not yet public.

Both economy versions, however, will sport new amenities, including a fleece blanket and a pillow.

American didn't leave out regular coach when it made all of its soft product upgrades to business and premium economy.

American customers flying on its 787 can expect the old cabin until the new Dreamliners arrive — including on a new route to Australia.

American announced in February that it would launch its first-ever route to Brisbane, Australia, in October, flying daily from its hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

The route would use American's newly delivered Dreamliners, which are equipped with the Flagship Suites and upgraded premium economy, but the plan has been scrapped.

Instead, an existing 787 will fly the inaugural journey until American eventually gets its highly-anticipated new Dreamliners.

• "There could be hell to pay" if private credit markets wobble, Jamie Dimon said.
• He warned that there are bad actors in the industry, and they'll likely be the source of any issues.
• "I don't think it's systemic, but I do expect there to be problems."

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said private credit could spark turmoil if the opaque sector of financial markets weakens. 

"There could be hell to pay," he said at a conference on Wednesday. "I've seen a couple of these deals that were rated by a rating agency and, I have to confess, it shocked me what they got rated. So, it reminds me a little bit of mortgages."

The private credit market—a corner of finance dominated by non-bank lenders who originate loans to private businesses—has grown rapidly in recent years. Although returns on these assets have increasingly outpaced the S&P 500 since the early 2000s, risks in the industry are not well known, the IMF noted in April.

In Dimon's view, some players in the space are "brilliant," and the sector succeeds in filling financial needs for firms that may be overlooked by larger institutions. 

"But not all the people doing it are good," Dimon said. "And the problems in financial markets are often caused by the 'not good one,' the people that make the mistakes."

Issues could start to crop up as retail investors are increasingly exposed to the space and come face-to-face with private-credit assets that might be illiquid, improperly marked, or not stress-tested, he said.

"Retail clients tend to circle the block and call their senators and congressmen," Dimon said, and later concluded: "

At the same time, JPMorgan is looking to step deeper into this space itself, with the bank looking to acquire a private-credit firm to grow its footprint in the sector, Bloomberg reported. According to the outlet, the lender has also put aside $10 billion for direct lending.

• Staatsburgh was the home of financier Ogden Mills and his wife, socialite Ruth Livingston Mills.
• The Gilded Age mansion, completed in Dutchess County, New York, in 1896, features 79 rooms.
• The Mills had tickets for the Titanic's second trip, which never happened since it sank in 1912.

When New York City socialite Ruth Livingston Mills inherited her family's country estate known as Staatsburgh in 1890, she felt it wasn't grand enough to entertain her sophisticated friends.

With the help of her husband, financier Ogden Mills, she oversaw a massive renovation that transformed the home into a Gilded Age mansion modeled after the royal palaces of Europe.

Located in Staatsburg, New York, about 100 miles from New York City, Staatsburgh is now a museum that continues to preserve the home's extravagant furnishings and rich history. Take a look inside.

Staatsburgh, once the fall home of Ogden Mills and Ruth Livingston Mills, offers guided tours of the historic estate.

Adult tickets for hour-long tours cost $10 each and can be reserved online. The full schedule is available on Staatsburgh's official website.

I entered through the gift shop, which was full of apparel, accessories, and books about the Hudson Valley.

Unlike other historic mansions I've toured where the visitor's center is located in what was once a guest house or carriage house, Staatsburgh's reception desk is on the ground floor of the original home itself.

The tour began in an exhibition space on the first floor, where our tour guide gave us a brief history of the Mills family.

Ruth Livingston Mills came from "old money." The Livingston family descended from Scottish nobles, and their ancestors fought in the Revolutionary War and signed the Declaration of Independence. Ruth's great-grandfather, Morgan Lewis, served as the third governor of New York and purchased the Staatsburgh estate in 1792. Ruth inherited the home in 1890, according to Staatsburgh's official website.

Ogden Mills was known as "new money," a financier who served as President Herbert Hoover's Secretary of the Treasury.

Ruth and Ogden wed in 1882 and had three children.

The room also featured a section about the Titanic, which the couple had tickets for.

Ruth and Ogden Mills had tickets for the Titanic's second voyage, but it never happened since the ship sank on its maiden voyage in 1912.

Staatsburgh offers special "Tales of the Titanic" mansion tours led by costumed guides.

We then walked outside, where our guide shared that the grass surrounding the opulent home used to be farmland.

When Ruth inherited the house, the backyard was planted with corn. In order to prepare the residence for entertaining her posh New York City guests, she had the crops replanted elsewhere on the property.

The estate grounds are now known as Mills Memorial State Park.

Our guide also pointed out ongoing preservation efforts on the home's exterior.

In the 1950s, Staatsburgh's exterior was sprayed with gunite to preserve the facade. However, the active ingredient in gunite is asbestos, and it turned the house gray.

The white area in the photo above shows where the asbestos has been abated. Most of the front of the home has been restored, but the project is ongoing.

Staatsburgh's two wings were added in 1895, expanding the home from 25 rooms to 79.

The renovation cost $350,000 in 1895, or about $11 million in today's dollars.

When I walked into the entrance hall, the well-preserved decor transported me back to the Gilded Age.

The English oak wood paneling on the walls was meant to evoke the decor of English royalty.

Ruth hung portraits of her prominent ancestors in the entryway to impress her guests.

The portrait on the far left depicts Morgan Lewis, the third governor of New York and Ruth's great-grandfather. Next to him is his daughter, Margaret.

Next to Margaret is Judge Robert Livingston, a statesman and attorney, followed by Chancellor Robert Livingston, who helped draft the Declaration of Independence, swore in President George Washington, and negotiated the Louisiana Purchase under President Thomas Jefferson.

The grand staircase was reminiscent of the one on the Titanic.

The last three steps were wider than the others to leave room for women's gowns to cascade behind them in elegant, dramatic entrances.

A side table featured an issue of The Boston Daily Globe with a headline about the Titanic sinking, emphasizing the family's connection to the tragedy.

Ruth's cousin, John Jacob Astor, was the richest man in the world when he died in the Titanic disaster. His body was recovered two weeks later, identified by the initials sewn into his jacket and the engraved gold watch in his pocket.

Ascending the stairs provided a wider view of the entrance hall.

The furniture was arranged differently when the Mills family took up residence there, but everything in the room was original to the home.

The painted ceiling on the stairwell concealed a 10,000-gallon water tank above.

The home had its own water system with a pump house on the property that filtered water into a steel-reinforced tank.

Female visitors stayed in guest bedrooms upstairs, while male visitors slept downstairs.

Alice Roosevelt was good friends with the Mills' twin daughters and a frequent guest at Staatsburgh.

A replica of a maid's room was built on the second floor by lowering the ceiling and narrowing the walls to display the smaller space.

Maids slept on the third floor, while male servants such as footmen and butlers slept downstairs. Servants at Staatsburgh worked six days a week and had their own rooms, a rarity in the Gilded Age.

The male servants' quarters on the ground level included a dining room, lounge, and kitchen suite.

The male servants' quarters were used as the New York State Parks Taconic Regional Headquarters until 2009, and the area is undergoing restoration.

Before dinner, guests would line up in the oval room to be escorted into the dining room.

A detail-oriented hostess, Ruth would be at the front of the line to be escorted into dinner by the highest-ranking gentleman.

Our tour group gasped in awe upon walking into the stunning dining room, exactly as Ruth Mills intended.

The green Italian and French marble walls were decorated with 18th-century Belgian tapestries. The Mills would also decorate the room with plants from their greenhouse.

The floor was constructed with 1-inch-thick Vermont marble to deaden the sounds of the kitchen below.

The table was set with the Mills family's original Tiffany & Co. china.

The table could seat up to 30 people when fully extended. Meals lasted around two hours and included eight to 10 courses of mostly French cuisine.

The gilded ceilings were embellished with ornate gold designs.

Typical of the Gilded Age, even the ceilings were works of art.

The base of the fireplace was decorated with Chinese guardian lion statues known as foo dogs.

The bronze lion statues had brass eyes that glowed when the sun shone on them.

Servants took food to the dining room via a dumbwaiter in the butler's pantry.

Located off the dining room, the butler's pantry featured a speaking tube for communication with the kitchen.

The butler's pantry included a display of Titanic china set replicas.

Different classes of passengers on the Titanic dined off different china patterns.

We then moved into the drawing room, named for where the family and guests would withdraw after dinner.

Our tour guide described the drawing room as Ruth's "she shed" where female family members and guests would socialize and take tea.

Our guide pointed out how the backs of the chairs were not as faded as the seats because of the upright posture women maintained.

Women's corsets in the Gilded Age didn't enable them to fully sit down.

She also pointed out the oldest artifact in the room: a set of three ancient Greek urns.

The urns date back to 400 to 600 BCE.

The Mills family would play games of bridge in their ornate library.

Their collection of books included rare artifacts such as George Washington's diaries.

Ruth also had a French-style boudoir, a private space to write correspondence and plan parties.

A large portrait of Ruth hung on the wall on the left.

Ruth's bedroom was modeled after royal palaces in Europe, with her bed up on a pedestal and the walls upholstered with damask silk.

Her and Ogden's suites were on the main level, which was unusual in the Gilded Age, but Ruth had a heart condition that made it difficult for her to go up and down flights of stairs.

The tour ended with Ogden's room, which was noticeably smaller and less ostentatious than Ruth's.

Ogden called Ruth "Tiny," and her nickname for him was "Sweet."

Even though Staatsburgh was just a two-hour drive from New York City, I felt like I'd visited a European palace.

According to our tour guide, 95% of the items inside Staatsburgh are authentic to the home and the Mills family, providing a historically accurate portrayal of how the wealthiest members of high society lived during the Gilded Age.

• A dated-looking 1950s-era home in tech billionaire hot spot Palo Alto is listed for $2 million.
• Its listing agent posted a video tour that shocked people, who said its look didn't match its price.
• The agent said the ask is typical for the area, where owners include Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page.

The adage "location, location, location" is especially true in California, where a property's ZIP code can significantly impact its price tag.

Case in point: a newly listed 1950s-era home in Palo Alto that's causing a stir on social media — not for its beauty but for its $2 million price tag.

The 5,311-square-foot, three-bedroom home is located in Palo Alto's Barron Park neighborhood, which neighborhood ranking site Niche describes as a hip residential area with a population of just under 5,000.

One of the few original residences left on its block, the house has wood-paneled walls and vintage floral wallpaper, with floors covered in scuffed hardwood and green shag carpeting.

When the property hit the market earlier this month, listing agent Olivia McNally posted a video of it on Instagram, revealing its asking price would be $2 million. To McNally's surprise, her clip received 11.9 million views, 219,000 shares, and 40,500 comments.

Many social-media users expressed disbelief that an outdated-seeming house in a modest-looking California neighborhood could fetch such a steep price.

"You can buy 20 of those in the Midwest for the same amount," one user wrote. Another asked, "Is this a joke?"

McNally, a real-estate agent in the San Francisco Bay Area who represents the home's seller, told Business Insider that the skeptics and naysayers simply don't understand Palo Alto's real-estate market.

Palo Alto, known as the birthplace of Silicon Valley, lies at the epicenter of the tech universe. The city of about 69,000 residents sits 35 miles southeast of San Francisco and serves as the headquarters of many tech giants, including Apple, HP, and Intel.

It's also home to many billionaires, including Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Roku founder and CEO Anthony Wood. Consequently, property values in the area are among the highest in the nation.

Redfin data shows the median sale price in Palo Alto reached $3.4 million in April, far above the US median sale price of $432,900 during the same time period.

Despite its condition, the home at 604 Chimalus Drive is incredibly desirable — in part because of the land on which it sits.

"In the Bay Area, there's hardly any land left," McNally told Business Insider. "When land does become available, people will pay a premium for the dirt. That's really what they're buying here — the dirt in this Barron Park neighborhood."

McNally said that the home's seller inherited the property from her parents, who owned it for 59 years. Initially, she planned to keep it and rent it out. However, as managing the property became difficult, she thought it would be wiser to sell it and create generational wealth for her children.

The property has already attracted 10 offers, McNally said on Tuesday, nine of which are all cash and free of contingencies.

With many offers surpassing the home's asking price, she foresees a bidding war and expects a swift sale.

"When you find a property like this — well under market value — you can either do one of two things: either completely fix it up, or tear it down and rebuild it," she said. "Obviously, a developer is going to rebuild it and sell it off to someone else."

• The operator of San Francisco's sleeping "pods" lashed out at city officials amid an ongoing row. 
• Brownstone Shared Housing says it's been waiting for approval for its $700-a-month pods for months.
• Planning officials say the company still needed to complete important safety upgrades.

The company behind San Francisco's $700-a-month tiny sleeping "pods" has accused city officials of worsening the city's homelessness problem as it battles a lengthy investigation.

James Stallworth, CEO of Brownstone Shared Housing, told Business Insider that San Francisco Planning Department staff had an "adversarial attitude toward housing."

Brownstone says it is waiting for city officials to approve a change-of-use request so it can continue operating its 4-foot-high sleeping pods in Mint Plaza.

City officials told BI that Brownstone still needed to complete important safety upgrades to comply with the law.

The pods made headlines late last year after proving a hit with some tech workers seeking affordable accommodation in central San Francisco. Officials later claimed the pods were illegally installed without a residential building permit.

Daniel Sider, chief of staff at the San Francisco Planning Department, said in a statement: "Brownstone built a Gen Z pod farm in the dark of night, got caught, and has shown an unwillingness to safely accommodate their tenants or follow the law."

He said his staff had extended a "helping hand since day one" of the process.

While Brownstone still operates the pods for existing residents, Stallworth said city planners had asked the company not to add more residents until it had approved the pods — a process that's taken almost eight months.

"The fact that the process has taken this long is an embarrassment to the city and highlights why there are still thousands of people sleeping on the street," Stallworth said in an email statement.

City officials say Brownstone has "repeatedly failed" to provide basic drawings required for review, and "straightforward questions have gone unanswered."

"Without their cooperation, we don't have a way to move things forward," Sider said.

Growing waiting list

Stallworth said the waiting list for the pods has grown to more than 50 people while the company waited to resolve the dispute with city officials.

He said the list of applicants included several AI entrepreneurs who see the accommodation at Mint Plaza "as the best way to participate in the growing AI community in San Francisco."

Tech workers who have lived in the pods have previously praised the accommodation for its affordable price and buzzy environment.

Christian Lewis, a tech startup founder, posted photos of his experience in one of the pods on X, claiming that "several AI founders and indie hackers" also lived in the pods.

He said in the post: "I'm just trying to stay within the city of San Francisco without paying $4,000 a month or getting stabbed, and I think this is a great solution so far. There's a lot of cool people here too."

'Nonsense'

Stallworth said that he had felt building and planning employees were making the process too difficult.

"It has taken nearly a year to get a simple change of use," he said. "The planning department is the reason why San Francisco's homelessness problem hasn't been solved."

Sider called that claim "nonsense," adding that San Francisco was "an excellent location for new homes, and new rules from the state, the mayor, and our board of supervisors make housing dramatically more straightforward to build citywide."

• Elon Musk is rehiring some of the Tesla Supercharger staff he fired in April, Bloomberg reported.
• He made similar moves in the early days of his Twitter takeover in 2022.
• The billionaire CEO's firing and hiring practices have drawn criticism and lawsuits.

Elon Musk appears to be trigger-happy when it comes to firing his employees.

Tesla is rehiring some of the nearly 500 Supercharger staff members Musk fired in April as a cost-saving measure amid challenging times at the EV company, Bloomberg reported earlier this month.

Sound familiar? That's because he's done this before.

Six months after he took over Twitter in 2022 and swiftly reduced head count by about 90%, Musk said he would try to rehire some of the people he laid off, expressing some regret over his decision.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures," Musk told CNBC's David Faber in May 2023. "So there's no question that some of the people who were let go probably shouldn't have been let go."

This fire-and-rehire tactic has been suggested to be a deliberate gambit by Musk.

In an interview with Lex Fridman, Walter Isaacson, Musk's biographer, said the mass layoffs at Twitter were part of Musk's "delete-delete-delete" approach to managing his companies. The author said the CEO believed "if you don't end up adding back 20% of what you deleted, then you didn't delete enough in the first round because you were too timid."

Since founding his first company in the late '90s, Musk has risen to become one of the most prominent entrepreneurs of the 21st century — and arguably one of the busiest. On top of Tesla and X, Musk also runs SpaceX, Neuralink, AI startup xAI, and an underground tunnel company. His business ventures have made him one of the richest men in the world.

Still, that doesn't mean Musk is particularly good at running those companies, critics say.

"Organizations can be poorly run and still be financially viable," Alec Levenson, a senior research scientist at the University of Southern California Marshall Center for Effective Organizations, told Business Insider.

"If you have good enough margins, if you have strong enough loyalty from your customers, then you can still have good financial results," Levenson added. "But I guarantee you the results would be that much better if the management practice is improved and you can do it without hurting the bottom line."

A culture of distrust

When it comes to Musk's fire-rehire approach, Levenson told BI that the tactic is an ineffective way of managing bloat at an organization and may only sow distrust within a company.

"If you have good management practices and good leadership from top to bottom in the organization, then the people who are in different leadership positions at different should know who are the better employees and who are not in terms of their contribution," he said.

Other management practices by Musk have been criticized before and, in some cases, accused of breaking labor laws.

At Tesla, for example, Musk told his employees that he would personally approve all new hires, according to an email obtained by Business Insider.

Human resources experts argued that the practice is an inefficient use of a CEO's time and tells workers responsible for hiring personnel that they can't be relied on to do their job.

"To have one of the most successful entrepreneurs and someone who's running two very important organizations get down into the weeds like that is the worst use of his time," Levenson said of Musk's role at X and Tesla. "What that says is that you don't trust anybody that's sitting in management — all the layers between you and them."

Musk is also known to have fired employees who disagreed with his decisions.

Weeks after his takeover of Twitter, now known as X, Musk had a team look through the company's internal messages to find employees who appeared to be insubordinate and later fired those workers, The New York Times reported.

Several ex-employees who previously spoke with Business Insider's Kali Hays also said they felt they were fired because of their thoughts on Musk.

A similar incident occurred at SpaceX when a group of employees were fired shortly after they sent an open letter in 2022 to the company's leadership, calling Musk's behavior "a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us."

The National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Musk, accusing the SpaceX CEO of unlawfully firing the employees.

Levenson told BI that one way to address employee concerns or disagreements, at least within the company, is to establish open lines of communication for employees to express any internal issues.

In March, the NLRB also accused Musk's SpaceX of forcing fired or laid-off employees to sign illegal severance agreements that barred them from speaking against the company or joining class-action lawsuits.

Musk's management practices have also been challenged in court.

Former janitors at Twitter's New York office sued Musk in June 2023, claiming they are owed "hundreds of thousands of dollars in back wages."

Other former Twitter employees and executives have sued Musk, accusing him of unpaid severance pay.

"This is the Musk playbook: to keep the money he owes other people and force them to sue him," according to a lawsuit filed by four former Twitter executives. "Even in defeat, Musk can impose delay, hassle, and expense on others less able to afford it."

Spokespeople for Musk, Tesla, X, and SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• Donald Trump has reportedly sold one of his personal jets to a Republican donor. 
• Trump's Cessna Citation X has changed registration to a Dallas-based real estate entrepreneur. 
• The sale of the jet comes as Trump is facing almost $500 million in legal bills. 

Donald Trump has seemingly sold one of the planes from his prized fleet of private jets to a Republican donor.

As Business Insider previously reported, on May 13, Trump's 1997 Cessna Jet was deregistered from the Trump Organization's DT Air Corp.

It was then registered to a company called MM Fleet Holdings LLC, based in Dallas, Texas, Federal Aviation Administration records show.

Mehrdad Moayedi, an Iranian-American real estate developer based in Dallas, has been identified by The Daily Beast as the owner of MM Fleet Holdings LLC.

Aside from purchasing the private jet, Moayedi has previously used his earnings to regularly donate to the Republican Party.

From 2019 and 2020, his donations to the Trump campaign totaled $245,000.

In the last five years, he has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to other Republican candidates and organizations, including $50,000 to the Ted Cruz Victory Fund and $34,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Moayedi's new jet, which can accommodate up to nine passengers, was regularly seen along Trump's campaign trail in 2020 as its smaller size allowed it to fly into smaller airports.

The plane's tail number, DT725, features a pair of personal details, with the 725 referencing the New York City address of Trump Tower, which sits at 725 Fifth Avenue, and the "DT" symbolizing Trump's initials.

Now, the presidential candidate will have to turn to the rest of his multimillion-dollar fleet, such as the famous Boeing 757 private jet known as "Trump Force One."

It is not known how much the Cessna jet was sold for, but the model is estimated to cost around $10 million, according to private jet broker evoJets.

It's not enough to make a significant dent in the $454 million fine Trump was ordered to pay by New York Court in March. The court found that the former president had committed fraud by overstating the value of his assets by more than $350 million.

Trump has also been ordered to pay $83.3 million to writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her during a civil trial involving sexual assault allegations. He has secured a bond to stop her from collecting the payment while he appeals the verdict.

• Orange juice manufacturers face a supply crisis and are considering alternative fruits.
• Brazil and Florida's orange supplies are declining due to disease and poor weather conditions.
• It means prices are increasing while suppliers scurry for a solution.

The world's leading orange juice manufacturers may have to consider using alternative fruits as they face a supply crisis.

A report from Fundecitrus and CitrusBR said that the climate crisis and a citrus disease known as greening have caused Brazilian orange farmers to harvest their smallest crop in decades.

Brazil is the world's largest orange juice producer and exporter. The report predicted that Brazil's main orange-producing areas of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais will harvest 232.38 million 40.8kg boxes this year, a drop of 24.36% compared to the previous year.

"Should this production forecast hold true, this will be the second smallest crop since 1988-1989," it said.

Florida, the world's second-largest producer of orange juice, is also facing severe shortages due to disease and poor weather conditions, the Financial Times reported.

Kees Cools, president of the International Fruit and Vegetable Juice Association, told FT that recent shortages mark a "crisis."

"We've never seen anything like it, even during the big freezes and big hurricanes," he said.

In the past, orange juice providers avoided long-term shortages by freezing juice stock, which can be used for up to two years, the FT said. But even the frozen stock is dwindling because of a three-year shortage build-up, it added.

One major problem is citrus greening. This is an incurable disease caused by plant-feeding insects that make the tree's fruit bitter before ultimately killing the tree.

Since spreading throughout Florida in 2008, citrus greening has had disastrous effects when paired with the climate crisis. In the past 20 years, Cools told the FT, the state's supply of orange juice declined from 240 million boxes annually to 17 million annually.

Cools said manufacturers may have to consider using a different fruit, such as mandarin, as its trees are more resilient to weather patterns.

However, this would be a lengthy process. The IFU would have to request legislative changes in the Codex Alimentarius food standards code and in the US Food and Drug Administration, FT said.

Meanwhile, Harry Campbell, a commodity market data analyst at research group Mintec, told CNBC that manufacturers are likely to become "less reliant" on orange production by incorporating higher quantities of pear juice, apple juice, and grape juice in their blends.

The financial consequences are already coming into play. Concentrated orange juice futures rose to $4.92 on New York's Intercontinental Exchange on Tuesday, FT said. That's almost double compared to the previous year, the outlet added.

Meanwhile, the price of 16 ounces of orange juice cost the average US consumer an estimated $2.41 in 2019, compared to $3.41 by the end of 2023, according to the data gathering platform Statista.

Francois Sonneville, a senior beverages analyst at Rabobank, told The Guardian that consumer demand for orange juice has decreased by around a fifth in the past year because of price increases.

"The global orange juice industry is in crisis," he said.

"The Florida industry has all but disappeared, and Brazilian groves are plagued by disease, rising costs, and unfavorable growing conditions, leaving global orange juice supplies at their lowest point in decades."

"Until that point is reached where consumers are no longer willing to pay the premium for orange juice because it is at such low supply, prices will continue to drive up," Campbell told CNBC.

The International Fruit and Vegetable Juice Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• Satya Nadella recently met with Sam Altman to discuss a new OpenAI deal, The Information reported.
• OpenAI recently sealed a major deal with Apple, according to the outlet.
• Microsoft is reportedly concerned about how the deal could affect its product ambitions. 

Microsoft seems to be concerned about some of OpenAI's business dealings.

Satya Nadella recently met with Sam Altman to discuss an apparent deal between OpenAI and Apple, The Information reported.

According to the outlet, the OpenAI CEO recently reached an agreement with the iPhone maker to incorporate some OpenAI services into Apple products. Nadella was reportedly concerned about the potential impact of a deal on Microsoft's product ambitions, per the report.

Representatives for OpenAI, Apple, and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider, made outside normal working hours. Apple and OpenAI declined to comment to The Information.

Apple was said to be considering both Google and OpenAI for the deal, which could be worth billions.

If OpenAI has indeed reached an agreement with Apple, it would be a much-needed win for Altman.

The tech boss has faced heightened scrutiny after former employees and board members publicly criticized him.

Helen Toner, a former OpenAI director, recently accused Altman of lying to the board "multiple" times and "withholding information." 

Toner, who participated in November's ousting of the CEO, said Altman had also kept the board in the dark about the company's ownership structure.

Altman has also faced criticism from Jan Lieke, a former executive at OpenAI.

Leike quit OpenAI earlier this month, accusing the company of prioritizing "shiny products" over "safety culture and processes."

Tensions over the priorities within OpenAI had reportedly been brewing since Altman's brief ouster.

An insider told The Financial Times that Microsoft had pressured OpenAI to prioritize commercial products following the failed coup. The increased pressure from its largest investor reportedly amplified already-simmering tensions between executives.