1. Southwest Airlines has grounded more than 125 planes, resulting in dozens of cancellations, after discovering it missed inspections on those aircraft. The airline expects to have much of the inspections conducted by Wednesday morning.
2. The Inglewood, California, City Council has OK’d a $2 billion plan to build a football stadium for a possible NFL team in the greater Los Angeles area. Three clubs have shown interest in relocating: the San Diego Chargers and both former Los Angeles teams, the Oakland Raiders and the St. Louis Rams. FleishmanHillard has been working to keep the Rams in Missouri.
3. Progressive is working on something involving users’ tweets, but experts aren’t sure what. The insurance company began tweeting at users who had mentioned its ads in a disparaging way this week. It told The Wall Street Journal: "It’s a fun social project involving (spokeswoman) Flo using the tweets in a fun way."
4. Fox News host Bill O’Reilly’s claims about reporting on the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination are also under scrutiny, according to a Tuesday post by press watchdog Media Matters for America. Two former colleagues of his threw cold water on claims that he was nearby when an associate of Lee Harvey Oswald killed himself.
5. Agency MCSquared has sued actress Sharon Stone for failing to show up at a speaking appearance in Ecuador, according to the New York Daily News. Groups in the country are in a long-running legal battle with Chevron over pollution they claim was left by Texaco’s operations there.
6. Former Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) has joined Waxman Strategies, his son’s firm, as chairman. The agency specializes in grassroots public affairs work and strategic communications.
7. Private equity firm TPG Capital has brought on Adam Mendelsohn to lead communications as MD and head of external affairs. He’s a former communications adviser to basketball star LeBron James. The firm is suing former comms leader Adam Levine after accusing him of leaking sensitive documents to The New York Times.
Seven things PR pros need to know on Wednesday morning, 2.25.2015
Southwest grounds dozens of planes; Progressive is up to something on Twitter; NFL stadium plan for greater Los Angeles approved; More O'Reilly claims under the microscope.
