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Behind the Headlines
A towering figure of the financial world is passing the torch at one of the world’s most valuable companies, while a historic prison may be in line for a makeover.
Warren Buffett, the “Oracle of Omaha” widely considered the most successful investor of the 20th and early 21st centuries, surprised the financial world on Saturday by announcing his intention to step down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of the year. Buffett took majority control of Berkshire Hathaway, then a textile manufacturing business, in 1965 and turned it into his primary investment vehicle, becoming one of the world’s wealthiest people in the process. But Buffett is known as much for his humble demeanor—and belief that extreme wealth carries a moral obligation to benefit society—as he is for his financial acumen, which often defied conventional investment trends. Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chairman Greg Abel has been named to succeed Buffett as CEO by year’s end.
Back to AlcatrazU.S. Pres. Donald Trump recently announced his plans to reopen and expand Alcatraz, the storied prison located on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. The penitentiary housed such criminals as Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly and was the setting of several films based on the lives of real inmates, including Birdman of Alcatraz (1962), starring Burt Lancaster as self-made ornithologist Robert Stroud, and Escape from Alcatraz (1979) starring Clint Eastwood as Frank Morris. Alcatraz was also the site of an occupation by Native American activists in 1969, more than six years after the prison closed because of its high cost of operation.
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