DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 19, 2025--
NBCUniversal (NBCU), in partnership with longtime global mobility partner Graebel Companies, Inc., won a coveted Brandon Hall Group Silver award for excellence in the Talent Mobility category. The 2025 Brandon Hall Group Excellence in Action Awards™ recognize organizations of all sizes and industries that are committed to enhancing employee engagement, fostering a people-centric culture, and enhancing productivity through employee feedback.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251219670772/en/
The award recognizes NBCU’s commitment to improving the relocation experience for its lump sum mobile employees. NBCU, which relocates hundreds of employees annually to support its global operations, identified an opportunity to evolve its lump sum relocation policy—preserving the flexibility valued by early-career hires while strengthening the guidance and support provided. NBCU turned to Graebel to serve as a strategic partner in co-designing solutions to improve the lump sum experience, specifically by enhancing Graebel’s CitySwitcher® digital move planning tool. By leveraging direct feedback from one-to-one interviews with NBCU employees, along with trends from more than 50,000 lump sum recipients across Graebel’s global client base, the teams designed a more guided, personalized relocation experience that connects employees with vetted suppliers, educational resources and expert support—reducing stress, increasing platform adoption, and positioning NBCU as an employer of choice.
“NBCU set a clear vision for a more supportive, tailored relocation experience and we were honored to help bring it to life,” said Ron Dunlap, CEO and President of Graebel. “Their leadership and feedback helped shape enhancements to CitySwitcher, ensuring employees receive educational resources and trusted support at every step. This Silver award celebrates NBCU’s commitment to their people—and the results that come from true partnership.”
Entries were evaluated by a panel of veteran, independent senior industry experts, Brandon Hall Group analysts, and executives based on initiatives, measurable impact, key metrics, employee testimonials and organizational impact stories.
“The Excellence in Action Awards honor organizations that have made extraordinary commitments to elevating their people. These winning programs demonstrate how thoughtful design, intentional culture-building, and authentic employee engagement can transform the workplace experience. Each honoree represents a powerful example of what it means to put people at the center of business success,” said Rachel Cooke, Brandon Hall Group Chief Operating Officer and leader of the Excellence Awards program.
The NBCU and Graebel win was announced on December 10, 2025; all winners are listed at https://excellenceawards.brandonhall.com/winners/. Excellence Award winners are scheduled to be honored at Brandon Hall Group's Excellence Conference in February 2026.
About Graebel
Graebel Companies, Inc. is a leading provider of global workforce mobility solutions for some of the most recognizable brands in the world and their employees in 165 countries. Since its founding in 1950, Graebel has innovated and grown to deliver excellent relocation service and results for clients, all while remaining family-owned and focused on people-first mobility. With custom technology solutions, Graebel develops and implements mobility strategies that help companies attract and retain talent; respond faster to global market trends; maximize return on mobility programs; and create exceptional experiences that make global talent mobility more humane and as seamless as possible. As a full-service relocation management company (RMC), Graebel addresses every part of the mobility lifecycle for employers and employees, including services for departure and move management, destination, settling-in and ongoing assignments. For more information, visit Graebel.com. Here’s to the world ahead ®.
About NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal is one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies. We create world-class content, which we distribute across our portfolio of film, television, and streaming, and bring to life through our global theme park destinations, consumer products, and experiences. We own and operate leading entertainment and news brands, including NBC, NBC News, NBC Sports, Telemundo, NBC Local Stations, Bravo, and Peacock, our premium ad-supported streaming service. We produce and distribute premier filmed entertainment and programming through our powerhouse film and television studios, including Universal Pictures, DreamWorks Animation, and Focus Features, and the four global television studios under the Universal Studio Group banner, and operate industry-leading theme parks and experiences around the world through Universal Destinations & Experiences, including Universal Orlando Resort, home to Universal Epic Universe, and Universal Studios Hollywood. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation. Visit www.nbcuniversal.com for more information.
NBCU and Graebel win talent mobility award for global relocation management partnership
The Justice Department faces a Friday deadline to release its files on Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender and wealthy financier known for his connections to some of the world’s most influential people, including President Donald Trump, who had tried to keep the files sealed. The records could contain the most detailed look yet at decades of investigations into Epstein’s sexual abuse of young women and underage girls.
Ahead of Trump’s Friday evening visit to Rocky Mount, North Carolina, some residents say they can't escape an economic squeeze. Trump is visiting presidential battleground states to champion his economic policies ahead of next year's consequential midterm elections.
And Trump’s “blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers off Venezuela’s coast is raising new questions about the legality of his military campaign in Latin America, while fueling concerns that the U.S. could be edging closer to war.
The Latest:
Several blue tarps have been hung outside the institution to block views of the work that’s apparently underway. A photographer saw the letter “D” on an exterior wall before the final tarps were hung.
The Kennedy Center’s board voted on Thursday to give the venue a new name: The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. Democratic members of Congress and others insist that a name change requires action by Congress.
The Kennedy Center is the latest building to have Trump’s name added to it. The president recently added his name to the building for the U.S. Institute of Peace.
▶ Read more about Trump’s moves to put his name on federal buildings
The Justice Department filed a notice of appeal late on Thursday in a pair of consolidated lawsuits brought by Harvard and the American Association of University Professors, extending a standoff over White House demands for reforms at the Ivy League school.
A federal judge ordered the reversal of billions of dollars in funding cuts to the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university. The case has tested the government’s power over higher education.
Harvard said in a statement that university officials remain confident in their legal position.
“The federal district court ruled in Harvard’s favor in September, reinstating critical research funding that advances science and life-saving medical breakthroughs, strengthens national security, and enhances our nation’s competitiveness and economic priorities,” Harvard said.
▶ Read more about Trump’s pressure campaign targeting elite colleges
The White House says it’s looking into how a YouTube creator’s livestream appeared to take over a White House website.
The livestream sharing commentary on investing appeared for at least eight minutes late Thursday on whitehouse.gov/live, where the White House usually streams live video of the president speaking.
It’s unclear if the White House website was hacked or if the video was linked accidentally by someone in the government.
Matt Farley, who posts as @RealMattMoney, said in an email to The Associated Press that he had no idea what happened.
“If I had known my stream was going to go super public like that I would be dressed a bit nicer and had a few more pointed topics! And it likely wouldn’t have been about personal finance,” Farley wrote.
One-third of the more than 7,500 arrests made during the operation were immigration-related, according to official figures reviewed by The Associated Press.
Activists and immigrants say arrests are frequent and frightening. A lawsuit alleges they are often unlawful. And with no end in sight to the surge in law enforcement in the city, there is no indication the immigration arrests will end.
A federal judge recently blocked widespread immigration arrests without warrants. Trump’s Republican administration says the D.C. mission is intended to fight crime and calls it a resounding success.
Health care is a much higher concern for Americans than it was a year ago, according to a new AP-NORC poll: About 4 in 10 U.S. adults named health care or health issues, up from about one-third in last December’s poll.
Older adults were more likely to name health care as a top issue, particularly people between the ages of 45 and 59, who may have higher health care costs but aren’t yet eligible for Medicare.
The changes could return health care to center stage in next year’s midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress, and could put Republicans on the defensive on a key issue. Health care costs are set to rise for millions of Americans in the new year, after a series of cuts.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X that the president’s announcement scheduled for 1 p.m. will be “more incredible deals that will lower prices of drugs and pharmaceuticals.”
Trump has already announced deals with several drug makers, including AtraZeneca and Pfizer, to lower the cost of prescription drugs for Medicaid.
A simmering battle over the future of Trump’s political movement exploded on one of the right’s biggest stages as prominent conservative influencers used Turning Point USA’s annual youth conference to attack each other and their competing visions.
The feuding threatened to eclipse efforts to memorialize Charlie Kirk, the charismatic Turning Point founder who was assassinated in September.
First up Thursday night was Ben Shapiro, who described Tucker Carlson and others as grifters and charlatans, guilty of misleading their audiences with falsehoods and conspiracy theories. Shapiro sharply criticized the former Fox News host for interviewing outspoken antisemite Nick Fuentes on his podcast, calling it “an act of moral imbecility.”
Barely an hour later, Carlson took the same stage and mocked Shapiro’s attempt to “deplatform and denounce” people who disagree with him: “I watched it,” he said. “I laughed.”
The U.S. Secretary of State plans to take reporters’ questions Friday in the State Department briefing room, with the main topics expected to surround Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas peace efforts, and the Trump administration’s increasing military pressure on Venezuela.
Rubio’s year-end appearance comes amid key meetings on Gaza and Russia-Ukraine in Miami on Friday and Saturday after a tumultuous year in U.S. foreign policy.
Rubio has also assumed the role of national security adviser and emerged as a staunch defender of Trump’s “America First” priorities on issues including visa revocations and restrictions, deportations, a radical overhaul in foreign assistance and a shakeup of the State Department bureaucracy.
Trump has directed his administration to work as quickly as possible to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug. However, the executive order does not legalize marijuana under federal law, and it’s not the final word. The proposed change still requires federal regulatory approval.
But the change could make the marijuana industry more profitable, facilitate new research on medicinal uses and nudge federal policy closer to a more tolerant approach already in place in many states.
Possessing marijuana is a federal crime punishable by fines and prison time. Selling or cultivating marijuana is a more serious offense, punishable by prison sentences of five years to life, depending on the quantity of the drug. That would not change.
Rather, Trump is proposing to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a less dangerous Schedule III substance. Changing marijuana to a Schedule III drug could save hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes for businesses licensed to sell marijuana in states where it is legal, said Rachel Gillette, a Denver attorney who leads the firm’s cannabis industry practice.
▶ Read more about the proposed reclassification
Health care is a growing concern for Americans, according to a new AP-NORC poll that asked people to share their top priorities for the government to address in 2026.
The uptick on health care was much sharper than on other commonly mentioned issues. It comes after Trump’s administration reduced spending on Medicaid, a safety net program for poor people, and decided to end coronavirus pandemic-era subsidies for the Affordable Care Act, essentially guaranteeing that millions of people will see a steep rise in costs early next year.
Despite the spike in health care concerns, immigration and broader worries about rising costs remain pressing issues, according to the December poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
But Americans are also less confident that the government will be able to make progress on the important problems facing the country in 2026. About 66% of U.S. adults say they are “slightly” or “not at all confident,” down from 58% last year.
▶ Read more about the poll’s findings
The release of the Epstein files by the Justice Department has long been demanded by a public hungry to learn whether any of Epstein’s rich and powerful associates knew about — or participated in — the abuse. Epstein’s accusers have also long sought answers about why federal authorities shut down their initial investigation into the allegations in 2008.
Bowing to political pressure from fellow Republicans, Trump on Nov. 19 signed a bill giving the Justice Department 30 days to release most of its files and communications related to Epstein, including information about the investigation into Epstein’s death in a federal jail.
The Justice Department hasn’t said exactly when during the day it intends to make the records public.
Adding to the anticipation, House Democrats released several dozen more photos Thursday from among more than 95,000 that the House Oversight Committee received after issuing a subpoena for images Epstein possessed before he died in a New York jail cell in 2019.
▶ Read more about the files
President Donald Trump listens as Dr. Ilana Braun, chief of Dana-Faber cancer Institute's Adult Psychosocial Oncology Service, speaks after the president signed an executive order reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
FILE - Gary Rush, College Park, MD, holds a sign before a news conference on the Epstein files in front of the Capitol, Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)
