HOUSTON (Reuters) -U.S. oil bosses generally collected huge paychecks last year on the back of high energy prices and record profits, with Exxon Mobil Corp's chief executive winning a 52% increase.

The largest U.S. oil company on Thursday disclosed Chief Executive Darren Woods was paid $35.9 million last year.

Oil company workers did not see the same level of increases with median annual compensation for workers declining at several big energy companies. The median pay for an Exxon worker fell 9% last year to $171,582 while Chevron's median worker pay dropped 12%, to $161,488, filings showed.

The two largest U.S. oil majors posted record profits in 2022 on high energy prices and costs cuts measures including payroll reductions. Exxon posted the most among Western oil majors, $56 billion. Chevron's profit more than doubled in 2022 to a record $36.5 billion.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exxon-paid-ceo-woods-35-144612188.html

Next time you're filling up...

NEW YORK (AP) — Al Jaffee, Mad magazine’s award-winning cartoonist and ageless wise guy who delighted millions of kids with the sneaky fun of the Fold-In and the snark of “Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions,” has died. He was 102.

Jaffee died Monday in Manhattan from multiple organ failure, according to his granddaughter, Fani Thomson. He had retired at the age of 99.

Mad magazine, with its wry, sometimes pointed send-ups of politics and culture, was essential reading for teens and preteens during the baby-boom era and inspiration for countless future comedians. Few of the magazine’s self-billed “Usual Gang of Idiots” contributed as much — and as dependably — as the impish, bearded cartoonist. For decades, virtually every issue featured new material by Jaffee. His collected “Fold-Ins,” taking on everyone in his unmistakably broad visual style from the Beatles to TMZ, was enough for a four-volume box set published in 2011.

Readers savored his Fold-Ins like dessert, turning to them on the inside back cover after looking through such other favorites as Antonio Prohías’ “Spy vs. Spy” and Dave Berg’s “The Lighter Side.” The premise, originally a spoof of the old Sports Illustrated and Playboy magazine foldouts, was that you started with a full-page drawing and question on top, folded two designated points toward the middle and produced a new and surprising image, along with the answer.

https://apnews.com/article/al-jafee-mad-magazine-cartoonist-dies-f676fbeb190b44c8aa4abcb0daa5d571

The wrestling entertainment giant WWE, known for its manufactured storylines, is facing real controversy after fans noticed it used an image of the Auschwitz concentration camp to promote a match on Saturday.

The image appeared in a five-minute video introducing a WrestleMania 39 contest between stars Dominik and Rey Mysterio. The shot, which appeared in the pre-show ahead of the live broadcast, was used as b-roll accompanying Dominik's comments about being a hardened criminal.

The Auschwitz Memorial called the WWE "shameless" in a statement on Twitter.

"The fact that [an] Auschwitz image was used to promote a WWE match is hard to call 'an editing mistake,' " the museum wrote. "Exploiting the site that became a symbol of enormous human tragedy is shameless and insults the memory of all victims of Auschwitz."

https://www.npr.org/2023/04/06/1168348949/wwe-wrestlemania-auschwitz-dominik-mysterio?utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=npr&fbclid=IwAR3tPB3SFU7yzD3J8bgRw-WBY6etkNk2INprHTJoyhmnnr-vRK7_sV70Agg

Source: Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s government on Sunday called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council to “counter the Kremlin’s nuclear blackmail” after Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed plans to station tactical atomic weapons in Belarus.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry condemned the move in a statement Sunday and demanded an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

“Ukraine expects effective action to counter the Kremlin’s nuclear blackmail by the U.K., China, the U.S. and France,” the statement read, saying these countries “have a special responsibility” regarding nuclear aggression.

Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, tweeted Sunday that Putin’s announcement was “a step towards internal destabilization” of Belarus that maximized “the level of negative perception and public rejection” of Russia and Putin in Belarusian society. The Kremlin, Danilov added, “took Belarus as a nuclear hostage.”

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-belarus-tactical-nuclear-weapons-3aed32661ae3c218c59117d1ce593777?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=news_tab#lfpusznhoo36blqwki

https://twitter.com/AnnevanLeur/status/1637045521033330688

Elon Musk’s bodyguards follow him around the office—even to the restroom, Twitter employee says

An employee at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters said he feels Musk doesn’t trust his workers.

https://fortune.com/2023/03/07/elon-musk-bodyguards-twitter-office-restroom/amp/

Watch your six; bud…

Super Bowl ads will tout Jesus ‘gets us’ to the masses

https://apnews.com/article/religious-super-bowl-ad-campaign-he-gets-us-424b36089913ff4a8639bbcf20c14ae3

When ‘tax exempt’ organizations can afford Super Bowl ads…

https://twitter.com/travisakers/status/1616274690938638338

Source: Department of Justice

Founder and Majority Owner of Bitzlato, a Cryptocurrency Exchange, Charged with Unlicensed Money Transmitting


BROOKLYN, NY – A complaint was unsealed this morning in federal court in Brooklyn charging Anatoly Legkodymov, a Russian national and senior executive of Bitzlato Ltd. (Bitzlato), a Hong Kong-registered cryptocurrency exchange, with conducting a money transmitting business that transported and transmitted illicit funds and that failed to meet U.S. regulatory safeguards, including anti-money laundering requirements. Legkodymov was arrested last night in Miami and is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. French authorities and the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) are taking concurrent enforcement actions.

Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; Lisa O. Monaco, Deputy Attorney General for the Department of Justice; Kenneth A. Polite, Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division; Brian C. Turner, Associate Deputy Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI); and Michael J. Driscoll, Assistant Director-in-Charge, FBI, New York Field Office, announced the arrest and charge.

“Institutions that trade in cryptocurrency are not above the law and their owners are not beyond our reach,” stated U.S. Attorney Breon Peace. “As alleged, Bitzlato sold itself to criminals as a no-questions-asked cryptocurrency exchange, and reaped hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of deposits as a result. The defendant is now paying the price for the malign role that his company played in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.”

“Today the Department of Justice dealt a significant blow to the cryptocrime ecosystem,” stated Deputy Attorney General Monaco. “Overnight, the Department worked with key partners here and abroad to disrupt Bitzlato, the China-based money laundering engine that fueled a high-tech axis of cryptocrime, and to arrest its founder, Russian national Anatoly Legkodymov. Today’s actions send the clear message: whether you break our laws from China or Europe—or abuse our financial system from a tropical island—you can expect to answer for your crimes inside a United States courtroom.”

Read more: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/founder-and-majority-owner-bitzlato-cryptocurrency-exchange-charged-unlicensed-money