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BOZEMAN, Mont. – Aurora, a self-driving trucking company, is making waves in Bozeman with its innovative technology and job creation. The company uses LIDAR, a tool that employs lasers and photonics to create a 3-D picture of the environment. Montana State University and Gallatin College have developed programs to educate students in photonics, preparing them for real-world applications. Some students have already secured positions with Aurora. Mayor Terry Cunningham of Bozeman emphasized the local impact, saying, "The genius folks who are creating those sparks and those innovations get to stay here in the place that they love, because of the innovations that they created. But also, for folks like Aurora who are creating businesses from that technology." Aurora has already introduced 70 tech jobs to the Bozeman area, with more on the horizon. Governor Greg Gianforte, who has a background in high tech, highlighted the state's role in fostering industry growth. "We've been reducing regulations. We've been reducing the tax burden. We've been making IT investments in education. And this really creates an environment where entrepreneurs can succeed in the private sector," he said. The new Aurora Bozeman location will function as a LIDAR testing and research facility, further contributing to the area's technological advancement.
Keller: Is Trump's cabinet confirmation process showing checks on his power? For many of President-elect Donald Trump's critics, the election result raised a chilling question - what restraints would there be on his use of presidential power? WBZ-TV political analyst Jon Keller has more.Ken Sugiura: Georgia Tech’s 8-overtime defeat reveals a new reality in rivalry with GeorgiaMangal Prabhat Lodha receives highest vote share in Mumbai; Out of 1,37,911 votes cast, he secured 101,197
Indian teenager admits to ‘some nerves’ in bid for world chess crownMerus Announces FDA Approval of BIZENGRI® (zenocutuzumab-zbco) for NRG1+ Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma and NRG1+ Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) Based on Safety and Efficacy Data From the eNRGy Study
New to the Street Show 614 Premieres Tonight on Bloomberg Television at 9:30 PM PST, Featuring HPB High Performance Battery AG With CEO Sebastian HeinzUnitedHealthcare CEO kept a low public profile. Then he was shot to death in New York
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Butte County Sheriff Kory L. Honea said the 911 calls reported “an individual on campus who had fired shots at students," and said that the shooter did not appear to have a connection to the school.US officials recommend encrypted messaging to evade #hackers in telecom networks
By REBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The picture of who will be in charge of executing President-elect Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration and border policies has come into sharper focus after he announced his picks to head Customs and Border Protection and also the agency tasked with deporting immigrants in the country illegally. Trump said late Thursday he was tapping Rodney Scott, a former Border Patrol chief who’s been a vocal supporter of tougher enforcement measures, for CBP commissioner. As acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Trump said he’d nominate Caleb Vitello, a career ICE official with more than 23 years in the agency who most recently has been the assistant director for firearms and tactical programs. Related Articles They will work with an immigration leadership team that includes South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as head of the Department of Homeland Security ; former acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement head Tom Homan as border czar ; and immigration hard-liner Stephen Miller as deputy chief of staff. Customs and Border Protection, with its roughly 60,000 employees, falls under the Department of Homeland Security. It includes the Border Patrol, which Scott led during Trump’s first term, and is essentially responsible for protecting the country’s borders while facilitating trade and travel. Scott comes to the job firmly from the Border Patrol side of the house. He became an agent in 1992 and spent much of his career in San Diego. When he joined the agency, San Diego was by far the busiest corridor for illegal crossings. Traffic plummeted after the government dramatically increased enforcement there, but critics note the effort pushed people to remote parts of California and Arizona. San Diego was also where wall construction began in the 1990s, which shaped Scott’s belief that barriers work. He was named San Diego sector chief in 2017. When he was appointed head of the border agency in January 2020, he enthusiastically embraced Trump’s policies. “He’s well known. He does know these issues and obviously is trusted by the administration,” said Gil Kerlikowske, the CBP commissioner under the Obama administration. Kerlikowske took issue with some of Scott’s past actions, including his refusal to fall in line with a Biden administration directive to stop using terms like “illegal alien” in favor of descriptions like “migrant,” and his decision as San Diego sector chief to fire tear gas into Mexico to disperse protesters. “You don’t launch projectiles into a foreign country,” Kerlikowske said. At the time Scott defended the agents’ decisions , saying they were being assaulted by “a hail of rocks.” While much of the focus of Trump’s administration may be on illegal immigration and security along the U.S.-Mexico border, Kerlikowske also stressed the importance of other parts of Customs and Border Protection’s mission. The agency is responsible for securing trade and international travel at airports, ports and land crossings around the country. Whoever runs the agency has to make sure that billions of dollars worth of trade and millions of passengers move swiftly and safely into and out of the country. And if Trump makes good on promises to ratchet up tariffs on Mexico, China and Canada, CBP will play an integral role in enforcing them. “There’s a huge amount of other responsibility on trade, on tourism, on cyber that take a significant amount of time and have a huge impact on the economy if it’s not done right,” Kerlikowske said. After being forced out under the Biden administration, Scott has been a vocal supporter of Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda. He has appeared frequently on Fox News and testified in Congress. He’s also a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. In a 2023 interview with The Associated Press, he advocated for a return to Trump-era immigration policies and more pressure on Mexico to enforce immigration on its side of the border.Raiders coach Antonio Pierce on final play vs. Chiefs: ‘We heard a whistle on our sideline’
Kerala a jewel in India's startup crown: TharoorHeat star Jimmy Butler seen serving up cocktails made with his coffee. How to order one in Miami.Luke Kromenhoek throws 3 TD passes as Florida St. ends six-game skid vs. Charleston Southern
Chinese modders create laptop-style PlayStation 5 with its own screen but now battery
What began as a promising opportunity towards a better life turned into a harrowing ordeal for Junaeid Hossain Parbez Ariyan, 25, of Narsingdi's Belabo. He fell prey to an international human trafficking syndicate and was forced to work for an online scam gang operating in Myanmar's Karen State. Ariyan was among approximately 300 individuals, including women, held captive in at least 10 confinement centres near the Thai-Myanmar border. Thirteen of these victims are Bangladeshis. The captives are subjected to work under inhumane conditions and tortures. On October 18, Ariyan managed to flee from one of those confinement centres, which are guarded by armed members of Karen insurgent groups and criminal gangs. He jumped into a river, surviving an arduous trek through hills and forests. He returned home on November 14 and shared his harrowing experiences with this newspaper recently. DREAM TURNS INTO NIGHTMARE Ariyan had previously been working in Dubai's hospitality sector. In August, he was enticed by the promise of a lucrative computer operator job in Thailand, offering a salary of US $1,200–$1,500 -- twice his salary in Dubai. Convinced by a broker, Noman, a Dubai expatriate from Feni, and recruited after an online interview with a Chinese recruiter, Ariyan and four of his Bangladeshi roommates left for Thailand on August 12, hoping for a better life. Upon arriving in Bangkok, they were taken to Mae Sot, a Thai town near the Myanmar border. The six-hour drive ended abruptly when they were transferred into pickup vans, escorted by armed men, and driven through hilly roads and dense forests. "For the first time we realised we have made a grave mistake," Ariyan said. Then the group was made to cross the Moei River on a boat, and they reached Karen, a region plagued with insurgency. The victims were taken to a compound operated by Chinese syndicates. Their mobile phones were confiscated, and they were coerced at gunpoint to sign contracts obligating them to generate US $200,000 each through online scams within 18 months, or face prolonged servitude. The captives were forced to work 17 hours per day. Their task was to create fake social media IDs using cellphone numbers of different countries and befriend targets worldwide, posing as attractive women, to scam them. Afterwards, they would lure targets into investing in fake e-commerce platforms, embezzling significant sums of money. Ariyan said he alone generated US $25,000 before his escape. Each of the captives is given a target to befriend 80 targets a day. Failing to meet quotas resulted in brutal punishments. "We were beaten, subjected to electric shocks, and burnt with hot frying pans. Some women endured additional horrific treatment, such as being forced to stand for hours with heavy water drums on their shoulders," Ariyan said. He said at one point he gained the confidence of a Chinese boss and got his mobile phone back and secretly informed their terrible conditions to families and relatives. They sought the government's help but to no avail. "Seeing no light at the end of the tunnel, I got frustrated and attempted to commit suicide several times," Ariyan said in tears. A DARING ESCAPE On October 18, while escorting a Pakistani victim to a clinic near the Moei River, he saw an opportunity to escape. He jumped into the river despite being fired at by armed guards. After swimming for over 45 minutes, he reached the Thai side of the river. As the gang members started searching for him, he trekked through hills and forests to escape them, before reaching a road after over eight hours. "My legs were bleeding from cuts I sustained while running through forest. I was so thirsty that I had to drink water from a maize field," he said. Weak and dehydrated, he stumbled upon a Buddhist monk who helped him contact local authorities. Ariyan spent weeks in a Thai shelter for trafficking survivors before being sent home with the assistance of the Thai government, NGOs, and the Bangladesh Embassy. He urged the government to take action to rescue other Bangladeshi victims still trapped in those centres. OTHER VICTIMS SEEK GOVT INTERVENTION Another victim, Mehedi Hasan Shanto, managed to call his sister around a month ago from one of those centres and requested to contact the government to rescue him. Sonia Akhter Kona, his sister, said they contacted foreign and expatriate welfare ministries requesting to rescue Shanto and others. Meanwhile, amid the increasing number of such incidents, the expatriates' welfare ministry has issued warnings against travelling to Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. The circular highlighted how individuals and organisations lure Bangladeshis with false promises of high-paying jobs, only to trap them in scam centres.CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jonathon Brooks doesn’t know how he’ll feel once Sunday comes, once his long-awaited debut for the Carolina Panthers is here. Same goes for Jonathon’s brother, Jordon. Same goes for his mother, Jennifer Donovan, too. The same probably is true for the throngs of people in Hallettsville, Texas, who’ve been reading all the injury news and calling anyone and everyone they know in Charlotte to get the latest update on their hometown hero. There’s one person who the family has been wondering about, specifically, though. He’s been the subject of the question Jennifer, Jordon and Jonathon have asked more and more lately, as the Panthers’ contest with the Kansas City Chiefs at 1 p.m. Sunday in Bank of America Stadium approaches. What would Dad think? “It’s funny because Jordon and I, we say that a lot, too,” Donovan told The Charlotte Observer over the phone earlier this week. “We just really wonder what Skip would be saying. How would he be reacting?” “Honestly, I don’t know,” Jordon began. He then laughed. “I mean, well, I do know.” James “Skip” Brooks would be happy, the son said. “And I can only imagine how happy he’d be.” When Jonathon Brooks makes his NFL debut Sunday, he’ll be playing for a lot of people. The second-round draft pick, who has missed the first chunk of his rookie season recovering from an ACL tear he suffered Nov. 11 of last year, will be playing for his friends. He’ll be playing for his teammates. He’ll be playing for his mother, who helped raise her shy kid from a small southern Texas town who has a gift for finding the open field. He’ll be playing for his brother, who he used to ride bikes with and jump on trampolines with and played living room football with until the end zone couches couldn’t take anymore. He’ll also be playing for his father, who fueled his football dream, who died in 2022 but who Brooks is convinced has been watching over him since. “I feel like I play for a bigger reason,” Jonathon said. “I play for God, my family.” As he always has. Even when it wasn’t easy. The 3 touchdowns the Brooks family won’t forget Ask about Jonathon, and there are three trips to the end zone that stick out in the Brooks family’s collective memory. It’s not hard to see why. The first came when Jonathon was a freshman at Hallettsville High. Jordon, then a senior, remembers it well. It was the seventh week of the 2017 football season, and Jonathon, who’d been tearing it up at the JV level, had gotten called up to varsity. The offense was less than 5 yards away from the end zone. For years, Jordon had seen what others hadn’t. That’s what happens when you’re two of nine grandchildren, part of a big family that featured three uncles and five aunts on Dad’s side and three uncles on Mom’s. It’s also what happens when you’re the son of Skip. Skip Brooks was born and raised in Shiner, Texas, a slightly bigger town than neighboring Hallettsville that is known for its Shiner Bock beer. He was a football player back in the day and used to tease his kids that he was a great running back, too — that they’re lucky they didn’t have video to show how elusive he was. Skip loved his boys and loved pushing them in their shared passion for football. He coached them at times when they were running around in the community’s youth leagues. Jordon acknowledges that “I know he’s my brother and all” but “the way he could see the field was insane at a young age.” And that’s why when coach called a handoff-counter-right on that Friday night in the fall of 2017, Jordon knew what would happen: a touchdown. With no planned celebration, Jonathon just sprinted to his brother, who’d already jogged to his position as a blocker on the PAT team, and jumped up and celebrated with a shoulder bump. A newspaper photographer captured it mid-air; that’s one of Jennifer’s favorite pictures in her scrapbook, she said. “I almost wish they were closer in age and could have more time playing together because it was just really a lot of fun,” Jennifer said. “Everybody in town was super excited.” The second memorable touchdown came four years later, while Jonathon was at Texas. A lot had happened in those four years. He’d go on long road trips with his father and brother — from San Antonio to Florida to California — to play football and get people to see him play. As a sophomore, Jonathon was offered a scholarship to Texas. As a senior, he lived up to that billing, putting up stats that made eyes across the country pop: 3,530 yards and 62 touchdowns on 350 carries. Who is this guy, and where is Hallettsville? That second special touchdown came late in the fourth quarter in a game against Rice. The Longhorns were on the good side of a blowout. Brooks took a handoff from the shotgun, ran left and sliced through the defense for a 17-yard score. That score was the only one he got in the 2021 season, when he backed up Bijan Robinson, now with the Atlanta Falcons. It was also the only collegiate touchdown his father saw. Skip Brooks passed away March 28, 2022, during a spring practice of Jonathon’s sophomore year. Kidney disease ran in the family, and he was on and off dialysis for years. A few months after restarting dialysis in December 2021, he underwent surgery, and complications from that surgery formed a blood clot, which ultimately killed him. The loss of Skip was an incalculable one for a Shiner community who adored him and a devastating one for the family who loved him. That leads us to the third touchdown — and to the many more thereafter. Jonathon and Jordon, a few weeks after the death of their father, each got tattoos on their forearms that read the date March 28, 2022 in roman numerals with “Dad” emblazoned over it. Every time Jonathon stomps into paydirt now — and every time he will in the future — the shy, small-town Texas kid taps his forearm, as if he’s ringing Skip’s heavenly doorbell, and points to the sky. ‘To finally live out his dream’ You’re probably familiar with Jonathon Brooks from here. After waiting two seasons to be the premier back at Texas — behind talents Roschon Johnson and Robinson — he broke out like everyone figured he would as a redshirt sophomore. In 11 games that 2023 season, he finished with 1,139 yards and 10 touchdowns rushing, enough to solidify him as one of the best running backs in the country. That 11th game, against TCU, Brooks tore his right ACL. That meant no NFL scouting combine. No Senior Bowl appearances. But that didn’t stunt Brooks’ NFL stock. The Panthers selected Brooks in the second round of this year’s draft, making him the first running back taken off the board. And despite reports of his timeline being ready by training camp — that it was a complete tear, making the recovery process potentially less complicated — the Panthers’ brass made it clear that they were content taking their time with Brooks. That time almost came two weeks ago, when Brooks was activated to the 53-man roster. But on Sunday, that time will finally come: Panthers coach Dave Canales said that he “fully expects” Brooks to make his debut against the Chiefs — and it’s possible to expect him to get more touches than he otherwise might, with typical third-down back Miles Sanders still nursing an ankle injury from Week 10. It might not be a lot of touches, of course. Panther running backs not-named Chuba Hubbard have only earned 42 rushes through 10 games. But the most memorable moments for Jonathon haven’t come in the biggest seasons, after all. They’ve come in the smaller moments. They’ve all involved his family, too: as a freshman in high school celebrating with his older brother; as a freshman at Texas scoring the last touchdown Skip saw; as a player now, every time he hits the end zone and points to his father. To Brooks, family is everything. And everyone can tell. “It would be amazing,” Ja’Tavion Sanders said Monday. The jovial rookie tight end said this when he was asked how he might feel when Jonathon — his Texas Longhorn teammate and next-door locker buddy who considers himself an honorary member of the Brooks family — finally makes his NFL debut. He said it in earshot of Brooks, who could only smile and shake his head as Sanders bragged on him. “All the trials and tribulations, and then him putting all the work in just to get back to this point and to ultimately have his debut, to finally live out his dream that he’s worked so hard for, I’ll be so excited,” Sanders continued. “Hopefully I’m in when he gets that first carry so I’m blocking for him.” Jonathon’s mother feels the same. Jordon does as well. They, too, have thought about Skip a lot — whether that be while walking their two golden doodles, Nala and Nova, or while Jordon chips away at getting his commercial driver’s license. Skip, after all, was an 18-wheel truck driver and carried lumber and pipes across the country while always finding ways to prioritize one of his joys: watching his sons play football. As Sunday approaches, the question gets louder: How would Dad feel? “I wonder that,” Jennifer said. “Because he was kind of an introvert. He didn’t show a whole lot. Didn’t say a whole lot, sometimes even. But I do want to believe that he would have some tears. I do. Just proud. Just feeling really happy that his child has done this. And he pushed it and wanted it so bad for him. I think he would probably have some tears. He might wipe them real quick so nobody sees. But I think he would be feeling quite a lot.” Skip would have every right to. He has every right to. As does his son. ©2024 The Charlotte Observer. Visit charlotteobserver.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.