Author: admin

• The Masters Tournament is drawing hundreds of private jets to Augusta, Georgia.
• The golf competition has become a top event for private jet operators.
• To manage the influx, the Augusta Regional Airport has hired extra staff and expanded its facilities.

As The Masters teed off on Thursday at the rarefied Augusta National Golf Club, at the small regional airport 11 miles away, hundreds of private jets were undertaking their annual pilgrimage to the billionaires’ favorite golf tournament.

On Thursday, nearly 300 aircraft arrived at the Augusta Regional Airport, about five times the typical number of arrivals and departures combined, according to data from FlightAware.

The aircraft, many registered to charter and fractional ownership companies like NetJets and VistaJet, came from tony locations, such as Palm Beach, Florida, and Hilton Head, South Carolina.

To prepare for the influx this year, the airport, which charges as much as $4,000 per aircraft to land, hired additional staff, increased the number of fuel trucks, and expanded aircraft parking, according to a letter sent to aircraft operators.

“It’s organized chaos to us,” Lauren Smith, the Augusta Regional’s assistant director of marketing and public relations, told Business Insider ahead of last year’s tournament, during which third-party flight tracking data showed more than 2,100 private flights flying in and out of the airport.

The Masters, along with the Super Bowl and Formula 1 races, is one of the biggest events of the year for private jet operators, who use the golf tournament to market and mingle with their wealthy clientele.

NetJets hosts an annual party with A-list entertainment, and Wheels Up, which booked over 150 flights to and from the tournament last year, opens a clubhouse for its members, where golf personalities record live podcasts and a fashion illustrator captures guests’ outfits.

VistaJet rents a private home nearby and hosts its members for programming, including dinners, live entertainment, and visits from golf insiders.

“We give them something they never want to get rid of,” Matteo Atti, the chief marketing officer of VistaJet’s parent company, Vista Global, told Business Insider of his company’s membership perks last year.

The Masters is a premier event on the billionaire social calendar. In past years, the jets of Nike CEO Phil Knight and investor Herbert Allen Jr. have made the trip.

While official tickets to the Masters, given out through a lottery system, are relatively inexpensive — $160 per day, at most — they are hard to come by. Though the tournament prohibits reselling tickets, they are available on resale sites, where they cost exponentially more. In the days leading up to the event, resale passes were going for upward of $50,000.

Once you’re through the door, though, rest assured that your food won’t cost much. The price of the tournament’s famous pimento cheese sandwich hasn’t budged in years: $1.50.

• The Trump Administration is calling on gamers to apply to be air traffic controllers.
• Officials think gamers have quick thinking skills and can stay focused under pressure.
• The FAA is accepting applications between April 17 and April 27, no college degree required.

The US government is targeting a group whose hyper-reactive skills align with one of its most demanding jobs: Gamers.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Friday that the Federal Aviation Administration will accept applications for air traffic controller jobs from April 17 through April 27.

The role, which is about 3,000 controllers short and chronically understaffed, opens to the public only a few times a year.

This campaign specifically targets young people without college degrees whose “useful skills” include multitasking, spatial awareness, strategy, and problem-solving.

The FAA thinks that those “active in gaming” may fit the bill: “Feedback from controller exit interviews reinforces this, with several controllers pointing to gaming as an influence on their ability to think quickly, stay focused, and manage complexity,” the agency said.

It added that roughly 200 million people — about 65% of Americans — regularly play video games.

A callout to gamers has been done before. Under former President Joe Biden, the Federal Aviation Administration launched a “Level Up” hiring campaign in 2021 that explicitly targeted gamers as potential candidates.

The FAA also hopes to attract talent with high paychecks: it said controllers can earn six figures annually within about three years on the job. Though securing higher paychecks often requires advancing quickly and getting based in high-cost-of-living cities.

New controllers, who must first graduate from the Oklahoma City training academy, earn about $55,000, according to pay scales previously reviewed by Business Insider. The highest-paid controllers, who have many years of experience at the US’ busiest airports, earn more than $225,000 a year.

There are almost 11,000 active air traffic controllers, with another 4,000 in training. April’s hiring window will close after 8,000 applicants. Eligible candidates must be under 31 when applying, be a US citizen, speak fluent English, and meet specific physical and mental fitness standards.

Current controllers come from a variety of backgrounds — many joined from the military or from specialized aviation schools. Others are picked off the street with no prior experience, but they still have to pass knowledge and aptitude tests.

The industry is desperate

The renewed focus on gamers reflects the government’s urgent effort to broaden its hiring pool for a job that leaves little room for error, as a system that has been understaffed for years faces delays, overworked controllers, and mounting safety concerns.

Those pressures were underscored by the midair collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army helicopter over Washington, DC, in January 2025 that claimed 67 lives, which investigators have linked in part to staffing levels in the tower that night.

The 43-day government shutdown in late 2025 further underscored the system’s fragility, when mass controller callouts triggered thousands of flight disruptions and forced regulators to cut 10% of flights to manage capacity.

The FAA said there has been improvement, thanks to Duffy’s “supercharged” hiring plan, which has added bonuses for new hires, incentives for controllers to stay on in other roles after the mandatory retirement age of 56, and changes to speed up training by more than five months.

The agency said it met its hiring goal for the 2025 fiscal year, adding more than 2,000 new controllers, and that it’s already almost halfway toward its 2026 goal, with nearly 1,200 new hires to date.

• I sent my son abroad at 13 to help him grow more independent.
• Over time, my kids became capable adults with skills and confidence.
• Now I look to my children for advice, guidance, and inspiration.

As a mom, I’ve made a few what-was-I-thinking parenting decisions.

The first, and perhaps the most consequential, was choosing to send my oldest son to work on a banana plantation in Australia for 10 weeks the summer prior to his freshman year of high school. I believed it would accelerate his maturity and help him develop a worldview that might broaden his horizons in the future.

I did it to fulfill my primary goal in raising my five children — to guide them from total dependence to independence while they lived under my roof.

My son was 13 when he left, which, because he was the first of my kids to reach that age, didn’t seem that young at the time. He celebrated his 14^th birthday in the Outback and returned home brimming with newfound wisdom and confidence. None of his siblings chose to replicate this trip, which was fine with me once I realized 13 was a really young age to send a child to the other hemisphere.

My kids know more than me

In preparation for the plantation work, his team learned rudimentary construction skills, such as laying bricks and pouring concrete. When he returned home, he proved how adept he’d become by mixing concrete for a memorial stone for his dog, who died while he was away.

As I watched him patiently cure the cement, I realized this kid knew a lot more than any of the rest of us. From that day forward, he was the one to fix the cracks in the front pathway, level the driveway, and lay the bricks for the patio.

Six years later, he asked me how I’d made the decision to leave home when I was his age. It was his way of preparing me for his departure, one of the best decisions he’s ever made.

My kids set an example for me

Even though I was sad to see him go, I didn’t discourage him from moving from Boston to San Francisco. Those first few months on the West Coast were challenging, but it didn’t take long for him to find his footing. Within the year, he enrolled in art school and today has a flourishing career as an artist in LA.

His fearlessness set an example for me, who, a few years later, followed him westward. Upon our arrival, this oldest child, now well established, helped his youngest sibling and me set up housekeeping. He recommended the car dealer, the bank, and the furniture store with the best deals. He even suggested which barber his youngest brother should use.

Now I’m the one asking questions

My children do not just offer practical advice. They inspire me. Three are talented artists making names for themselves. On those rare occasions when we gather to share a meal, I walk away praying that their artistic genius will spark my own creativity. I ask them how they come up with ideas. I stalk — I mean follow — them on social media to learn how they promote their work. I talk to them about business plans and strategies that lead to success.

It’s no longer appropriate for me to offer suggestions

What I don’t do is offer them professional advice. That was a tough pivot for me. For too many years, it was my job to review homework and make suggestions on how to improve an essay or refine a research paper. I learned the hard way that these professionals no longer need that.

My son, who’s a photographer, has kept a 3-year-old email from me in his inbox as a reminder that Mom doesn’t know what she’s talking about. I honestly don’t remember writing that I thought the subjects of his photo essay should smile more, but I did.

I welcome their advice

I don’t mind when they offer me advice. In fact, I welcome it. I want my son, who works in finance, to recommend investment opportunities. I want my daughter, who has a talent for decorating, to suggest the color for my bedroom walls. I’m open to them telling me how best to interact with my grandchildren.

My children have become wise adults. I think it’s a combination of life experience, book learning, and their innate abilities to figure things out. I appreciate learning from what they’ve learned along the way, and now it’s my turn to benefit from their guidance.

• OpenAI said someone threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman’s San Francisco home early Friday morning.
• The San Francisco Police Department has a suspect in custody.
• OpenAI praised the SFPD’s quick response and said that no one was harmed during the incident.

San Francisco police say they have a 20-year-old male in custody after someone threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman‘s mansion early Friday morning.

Officers responded to a North Beach residence at approximately 4:12 a.m. local time for a fire investigation, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department, Allison Maxie, said in a statement. No one was injured and the fire was contained to an exterior gate, the spokesperson said.

OpenAI later confirmed that the attack occurred at Altman’s $27 million estate in the Russian Hill neighborhood of San Francisco.

The suspect fled on foot, and his description was later broadcast to all officers, according to SFPD.

At around 5:07 a.m., officers responded to OpenAI’s office, where they said an unknown man was threatening to burn down the building. Officers quickly realized the man making the threats matched the description of the individual who threw the Molotov cocktail at Altman’s home, the police spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for OpenAI praised SFPD’s quick response.

“Early this morning, someone threw a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman’s home and also made threats at our San Francisco headquarters. Thankfully, no one was hurt,” a spokesperson for the AI company said. “We deeply appreciate how quickly SFPD responded and the support from the city in helping keep our employees safe.”

SFPD said that charges are still pending and the investigation is ongoing.

Once just a mainstay in Silicon Valley and the startup scene, Altman has become an international fixture who has traveled with President Donald Trump and met one-on-one with numerous other foreign leaders.

At the same time, views of AI in the US have cratered in recent months. Criticism of OpenAI spiked in the wake of the company’s decision to announce a deal with the Pentagon just hours after Anthropic refused to agree to the Department of Defense’s contractual demands.

• New data showed consumer sentiment slipped to a record low in April.
• Rising gas prices are affecting people’s view of the economy.
• Other economic issues, like the frozen job market, are probably worsening the dreariness.

Americans’ economic mood can be succinctly described in one word: Terrible.

While inflation soars as conflict with Iran drags on and shows up at the gas pump, consumer sentiment is plummeting. University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index, which tracks how American consumers feel about economic conditions, fell to 47.6 in April — a record low and a nearly 11% decline month-over-month.

The overall sentiment index combines views of how the economy is doing right now with what Americans think is going to happen in the near future, and both crashed this month.

“Demographic groups across age, income, and political party all posted setbacks in sentiment, as did every component of the index, reflecting the widespread nature of this month’s fall,” Joanne Hsu, University of Michigan’s director of surveys of consumers, said in a release.

It’s not the first time in recent years that sentiment has tanked at the same time costs spike. The last low was in June 2022, at 50, when inflation rose to 9.1%, and gas prices hit record highs amid Russia’s war in Ukraine and a broader inflationary spiral.

Now, sentiment is worse than the plunges seen in the wake of the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of that can likely be chalked up to the very real, immediate price hikes showing up at the pump. New consumer price index data showed gas prices increased by a record 21% over the month in March, and accounted for about three-fourths of the overall monthly CPI increase of 0.9%.

“Much higher gasoline prices, the lower stock market, and volatile news headlines are biting down on consumer sentiment,” said Nationwide economist Oren Klachkin. “We don’t see sentiment recovering in short order since high gas prices are likely to stick around at least in the short term, adding to ongoing cost of living frustrations.”

Beyond gas, the trickle-down effect of rising oil and energy prices has shown up in everyday purchases and has tampered with Americans’ vacation planning — something likely to lead to a more dreary outlook.

“Airlines are raising prices because of higher jet fuel,” Gbenga Ajilore, chief economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said. “Transportation costs are rising because of higher diesel prices which filter into the goods we pay for with Amazon, UPS, FedEx.”

The general malaise may also be exacerbated by a dreary jobs outlook. Consumers’ assessments of their own personal finances fell by 11%, according to the University of Michigan’s survey, and Americans surveyed by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York increasingly don’t think they’d find a new job in the next three months if they lost theirs today.

Dreary sentiment might be here to stay as the effects of the conflict with Iran keep prices high and drag on the economy.

“Even if the prices of gasoline and diesel start to come down after the conflict resolves, the effect on the economy will be more long-lasting,” Stephen Kates, a financial analyst at Bankrate, said. “Fuel prices will not fall as quickly as they rose.”

Do you have a story to share about how rising prices and volatility are affecting your economic outlook? Contact these reporters at jkaplan@businessinsider.com and mhoff@businessinsider.com.

• While many people move to Florida for retirement, Karen Meadows and her husband did the opposite.
• The couple left their calm, slow-paced life in Panama City Beach for a faster one in Brooklyn.
• At first, many things about moving to NYC, like the subway, scared Karen, but now she feels at home.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Karen Meadows, a 62-year-old Floridian who moved to New York in 2024. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

My husband and I have been married for 34 years, and we spent 17 of those years living in Panama City Beach, Florida. It’s where I raised both of my kids and where I started my running coaching business and a 10K charity race.

Panama City Beach was a gorgeous place to live, with beautiful skies every day, clear blue water, and pure white sand. While it was a touristy area, when we first moved there, it was still pretty sleepy during the off-season. That’s actually why I got into the racing business — I was really bored, and there wasn’t that much to do.

However, over the time we lived there, it became more popular.

Many people move to Florida to retire because it’s quiet and has a slower pace of life. But for me, I wanted to move somewhere with more energy.

In 2024, my husband and I moved to New York. It’s funny because the first thing everybody says about our move is, “Oh my God, you did the opposite.” And they’re right.

To be honest, at first, I was afraid to live in New York. And I’ll tell you, most days I’m still a little bit afraid. But I’m a huge believer in the idea that your brain is your central governor; it rules everything, and that the second you start restricting yourself because of fear, or thinking you should slow down, you will.

In New York, there are so many people to see and things to do. I’m more active, and living here is keeping me positive about aging.

We moved to be closer to our children

Moving to New York was definitely driven by our children. In 2020, my son was accepted to Columbia University. My daughter also attended Boston University and now lives in New Jersey. My husband and I really wanted to be closer to them.

We did have some issues selling our house in Florida. It was a really pretty home, but it also had a lot of quirky touches. On top of that, there was so much new construction that we were facing a lot of competition.

I took the first decent offer we received. By that point, I didn’t care about trying to squeeze out more money — I felt like my mental health was worth more than that. We made enough from the sale to put some money in the bank and feel like we could downsize comfortably.

There’s such a big contrast between New York and Florida. It made it pretty stressful trying to figure out where to live. But my son introduced me to Williamsburg in Brooklyn, and I liked that it had plenty to do while feeling a little less hectic than Manhattan.

When we first moved to Williamsburg, we lived in an old converted loft building. When our lease was up there, we moved to Three Williamsburg Wharf in 2025. We live in a two-bedroom, two-bath unit and pay around $8,700 a month. Our corner unit has a view of the Brooklyn skyline and overlooks the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which I love because you can see so much going on.

Coming from a big house, a two-bedroom apartment is a huge downsize. And while I thought I wouldn’t like renting, I’ve never been happier. There’s a lot less to worry about; there are no property taxes, and everything gets done for you. I also love the sense of community here, from wine tastings and Super Bowl parties to the people I’ve met in the building.

Moving to New York was a risk, but I’ve found a new community

I’ve always been a bit of a risk-taker, and I think it’s important to challenge yourself.

That’s part of why I’m such a dedicated runner — I regularly train for marathons, and I’ve run the New York City Marathon and the Boston Marathon many times.

Still, moving to a new place comes with plenty to worry about.

Some of the fears I’ve had to overcome in New York included learning to use the subway — my son showed me how to use maps, which made it much less intimidating — and getting comfortable driving in a busy city.

The way I got over that fear was by driving more. I also started volunteering with North Brooklyn Angels, a nonprofit food delivery service. Doing that community work has also helped me become more social.

In addition to volunteering with North Brooklyn Angels, I’ve joined the North Brooklyn Runners Club, started a book club, and recently begun volunteering with City Harvest, a food rescue organization. These groups have been especially important to me because I left behind my whole life and many of my friends in Florida. I also love helping people in need.

I know I probably could have moved somewhere more laid-back, warmer, and with lower taxes, but I love New York. I’m almost 63, and I feel better and more alive than ever. Life feels freer, I’m more engaged, and there’s still so much to explore.