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B.C. man awarded $800K in damages after being injured by defective bear bangerBharti Jain is senior editor with The Times of India, New Delhi. She has been writing on security matters since 1996. Having covered the Union home ministry, security agencies, Election Commission and the ‘prime’ political beat, the Congress, for The Economic Times all these years, she moved to TOI in August 2012. Her repertoire of news stories delves into the whole gamut of issues related to terrorism and internal strife, besides probing strategic affairs in India’s neighbourhood. Read More How to make healthy Oats Palak Chilla for a kid's tiffin 10 best Fried Chicken dishes from around the world 10 ways to use turmeric in winters 10 animals not allowed as pets in India 10 types of Dosa and how they are made Animals and their favourite foods 9 nuts to eat daily for hair growth in winters How to make South Indian Podi Dosa at home From tigers to cheetahs: India’s big cats and where to find them Weekend Special: How to make Multigrain Thaalipeeth
The methods state agencies employ for identity proofing and authentication in online public benefits applications play a crucial role in determining how efficiently applicants can access essential services. And as governments increasingly digitize their services, balancing the needs of security, accessibility, and equity becomes paramount, with identity proofing and authentication forming the backbone of digital identity management in public benefits systems. However, a new from the Beeck Center for Social Impact (BCSI) says that while the landscape of identity proofing and authentication in U.S. federal and state public benefits applications is evolving, there was only incremental progress in 2024. The new report looks at identity proofing and authentication practices across six federally funded, state-administered programs to understand when and how states use account creation, authentication, and identity proofing in initial online public benefits applications. “The way state agencies structure online account creation processes and requirements for applicants and beneficiaries to prove who they are may impact whether and how quickly individuals can apply for and start receiving benefits,” the report says, noting that while some states are adopting innovative practices and offering greater flexibility, challenges still remain in achieving equitable and effective digital identity management. By prioritizing human-centered, risk-based approaches and fostering cross-sector collaboration, the report says, state agencies can enhance the accessibility and security of public benefits systems, ensuring that all eligible individuals can access the support they need. “By documenting the landscape of current practices, this project aims to help the broad ecosystem of peer states, federal agencies, advocates, academics, and civic tech organizations identify states that are taking unique, unusual, or potentially promising approaches,” the BCSI report said, noting that “the dataset also identifies states that are putting up potential barriers through their implementation of account creation, authentication, and identity proofing.” The report says that in 2024, identity proofing requirements increased only slightly, with 42 applications implementing such measures compared to 37 in 2023. Identity proofing was most common in unemployment insurance applications, reflecting the high fraud risk associated with these benefits. However, applications for programs like MAGI Medicaid also showed a significant presence of identity proofing requirements, with 52% of applications incorporating such steps. By contrast, applications for Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) assistance remained the least likely to include identity proofing, with only one state, Michigan, employing optional identity proofing in its combined application process for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, WIC, and childcare. The timing of identity proofing steps can significantly impact user experience and system efficacy. Of the applications requiring identity proofing, 21 placed this step before an applicant could initiate the application process, while 11 integrated it into the application itself. The placement of identity proofing at the start of the process may inadvertently create barriers for individuals unable to complete this step due to technical difficulties or insufficient documentation. Such barriers, the BCSI report says, could result in eligible individuals being excluded from the application process entirely, with their struggles not being reflected in system metrics like abandonment rates. Some states, however, adopted an optional approach to identity proofing, allowing users to skip this step initially or proceed with the application even if identity verification failed. This practice, observed in 19 applications, mitigates potential exclusion while still facilitating eventual verification through alternative means. Diverse methods of identity proofing are employed across states, reflecting varying levels of risk tolerance and resource availability. Unemployment insurance (UI) applications, for instance, have seen an increasing reliance on biometric solutions, with 24 state workforce agencies utilizing technologies like ID document upload paired with live selfies for verification. By comparison, non-UI programs predominantly relied on knowledge-based verification or document submission, either in person or through the mail. The report says biometric methods often offer high levels of accuracy but can also raise concerns about privacy and accessibility. For example, individuals without access to necessary technology or those uncomfortable with biometric data collection may face difficulties completing the process. “Recognizing that beneficiaries and applicants have different levels of comfort with and access to technology, benefits administering agencies can offer beneficiaries and applicants choices about when and how to create accounts or verify their identities, if those identity management steps are relevant for a particular online interaction,” the BCSI report says. The report also says that “if applicants and beneficiaries are unable to use self-service pathways to regain access to their account when they forget or lose their password, this can drive up calls to call centers and prevent people from responding to important notices or requests for information.” A key element of effective identity proofing is offering applicants choices about how they verify their identities. The report says that in 2024, 21 agencies were found to provide multiple pathways for identity proofing, such as choosing between self-service biometric verification, video calls, or in-person verification at kiosks or post offices. This flexibility acknowledges the diversity in applicants’ circumstances and technological access, promoting inclusivity. Authentication practices in public benefits applications also varied widely, reflecting different priorities in security and user experience. In 2024, 75% of applications required users to create an account to apply online, a figure consistent with 2023. Account creation requirements were particularly prevalent in unemployment insurance applications. Among applications requiring account creation, 76% mandated the provision of an email address, underscoring the central role of email in digital identity management. Single sign-on (SSO) systems were used in 36 applications, enabling users to access multiple government services with a single set of credentials. While SSOs streamline the user experience, they also can introduce challenges if stringent security requirements, such as mandatory identity proofing, are universally applied across services with differing risk levels. Fourteen applications permitted login via third-party credentials, such as Facebook, Google, or ID.me, offering additional flexibility but raising concerns about data privacy and interoperability. Authentication methods also included layering multiple factors to enhance security. Of the reviewed applications, 79% employed at least one additional authenticator alongside passwords. These measures included one-time passcodes sent to email addresses or phones, security questions, and authenticator apps. While 56% of applications offered multiple authenticator types, enabling users to choose the most convenient option, there were notable gaps in adopting modern and secure practices. For instance, only one state, Michigan, utilized passkeys as an authentication option, which the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) identifies as a phishing-resistant authenticator. Security questions, though still used by 27 applications as the sole authenticator, exemplify an outdated practice that offers minimal security benefits, the BCSI report says, noting that such questions are susceptible to breaches and can create unnecessary friction for users. NIST’s guidelines do not recognize security questions as a reliable authenticator, highlighting the need for agencies to modernize their practices. Another significant challenge in authentication lies in ensuring that measures work effectively for diverse user populations. For example, requiring a one-time passcode sent via text may exclude individuals without reliable access to a mobile phone. Similarly, processes that demand specific technological capabilities, such as downloading an authenticator app, may not be feasible for all applicants. Human-centered design principles, which prioritize the needs and constraints of users, are critical in addressing these challenges. An emerging area of interest is the integration of phishing-resistant authenticators and risk-based authentication approaches. These methods adjust security requirements based on the sensitivity of the transaction or the user’s behavior, offering a tailored balance between security and usability. As public benefits programs explore such innovations, they must remain mindful of equity implications, ensuring that security enhancements do not inadvertently disadvantage vulnerable populations. The report states that identity proofing and authentication processes must be viewed as integral components of the broader service design for public benefits applications, and that effective implementation requires close collaboration among state agencies, federal partners, and technology vendors. BCSI said partnerships with organizations like are instrumental in developing guidelines that address the unique needs of public benefits programs. These collaborations aim to create frameworks that promote access while safeguarding sensitive data. | | | | | | |Luke Humphries defeats Luke Littler to retain Players Championship Finals titleDolphins look like completely different teams with and without Tua Tagovailoa this season
NoneAnytime an NFL kicker misses a late-game field goal or extra point that effectively decides the outcome, they are naturally going to be the scapegoat. On Sunday, that's likely to be the case for the Washington Commanders' Austin Seibert, who blew his chance to tie the game in the final minute following a remarkable 86-yard touchdown by Terry McLaurin. AUSTIN SIEBERT JUST MISSED THE EXTRA POINT FOR THE TIE pic.twitter.com/6yX8ZTLUpC Seibert will want to have that one back, but even on the kick in question, he was not the only one to blame. A low snap by long snapper Tyler Ott put Seibert in an unfortunate position, and he could only do so much. Even regardless of who was to blame for the missed kick, though, it was far from the only reason Washington lost. Kliff Kingsbury's offense was stale through the first three quarters. John Bates had an inexcusable fumble. Then, there was the kickoff return TD that Washington allowed immediately after the offense had brought them within a score. If there was any one play that cost Washington the game, it was that. Not Seibert's missed kick. Had the Commanders not allowed that touchdown, all they'd have needed to do is hold Dallas to a three-and-out in what would have been an extremely conservative offense. Then after getting the ball back, they'd have needed a field goal to tie or a touchdown to take the lead. Assuming that the rest of the game would have still played out the same way, Washington would have forced that three-and-out, and would have scored that touchdown courtesy of Terry McLaurin . Even if Seibert still misses the extra point, that's a 23-20 Commanders lead with very little time on the clock. Seibert will shoulder most of the blame for Washington's loss. But make no mistake: he was far from the only culprit.
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Planned Parenthood, the nonprofit organization that provides reproductive and sexual healthcare, is reporting a surge in demand for long-acting and permanent contraceptive options following the recent presidential election. Nationally, Planned Parenthood Health Centers saw vasectomy appointments increase by 1,200 percent. IUD appointments, meanwhile, increased by more than 760 percent, while birth control and gender-affirming appointments increased by 350 percent and 140 percent, respectively. RELATED STORY | Trump would veto legislation establishing a federal abortion ban, Vance says Planned Parenthood said the uptick "reflects patients' intensified concerns over preserving their reproductive choices as political uncertainties grow." “We’re seeing record numbers of patients making proactive reproductive health choices to help secure their ability to control pregnancy outcomes,” said Rebecca Gibron, CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawaii, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky. “In a landscape where reproductive health care access is increasingly under threat, expanded access to effective contraception options — supported by essential programs like Title X and Medicaid — has become even more urgent.” RELATED STORY | Patients have paid over $1 million for contraception care that should be free Planned Parenthood of Northern New England also reported a rise in people volunteering with the organization, which operates 15 clinics in the region. CEO Nicole Clegg said it reflects a growing concern among Americans that they may not be able to access the care that they need in the future. "The day after the election and in the weeks since, our health centers have opened their doors, and our staff has done what they’ve always done: care for our patients," Clegg said in a statement. "We understand the fear and the uncertainty, and unfortunately, we anticipate more chaos and confusion in the coming months and years."Denton ISD has hired nearly all of the school security officers required by House Bill 3. One such armed officer is required on every campus in the district, and 20 out of 24 of them are already on the job in DISD. Mary Martin, the director of the district’s safety and security division, said the officials hired have a combined 423 years of experience in law enforcement. Jeff Russell, a Denton ISD area superintendent and lead administrator on the year-old safety and security team, said Martin wasted no time in fulfilling the school board’s expectations for campus security. The district has an established network of school resource officers, a group of trained and active police officials. When the 88th Legislature passed HB 3 in 2023, Texas schools had a short list of choices to comply with the new law: They could staff campuses with school marshals ; allow a trained district employee to carry a firearm on campus; hire trained and commissioned peace officers; or hire an officer from a private security company. “I’m going to ... flash back a year ago from August, when we did our House Bill 3 presentation and what we said we would do with this unfunded mandate,” Russell said. “We said we would pursue excellence. We said that our neighboring districts were going to pursue compliance, but that’s not good enough for the students of Denton ISD.” Martin, who has been a teacher and a police officer, said the biggest challenge in the past year was working through the Texas Education Agency’s District Vulnerability Assessment. “I had no idea what it was,” Martin said. “But I found out real quick. We get that done every four years. And TEA chose us, as the district of this size, to be the first one to do [the assessment] with all of their new TEA investigators.” Martin said TEA assessed 75% of the district’s campuses. The security team toured campuses with TEA investigators. They found that Denton ISD has been improving, Martin said, and the district earned praise from investigators on health services that are related to emergency response. “We are the only district that they had seen that tagged our [Automated External Defibrillators], kind of like fire extinguisher tabs, so they could go to it and they could see the last check, and that it was current and up to date,” Martin said. “They actually are taking that to other districts across the state. They felt that was well thought out.” By law, Texas public schools are required to have at least one automatic defibrillator on each campus. The devices are used to treat people suffering cardiac events. Texas school districts are also legally required to provide CPR ano defibrillator training to employees and volunteers each year. Aside from tackling the state’s vulnerability assessment, Martin and the team have spent the past year recruiting people to fill security positions. In filling the new security posts, Martin said, the team hired officers with experience in patrol, SWAT, traffic and accident investigation, and school resource officer work. The new hires also have experience in mental health investigation, university policing, firearms training and leading trainees through Texas Commission on Law Enforcement training. At least one of the security officers had served as a school resource officer for Denton ISD before. Martin said the team has working partnerships with seven police departments in the district’s attendance zone: Denton, Aubrey, Corinth, Denton County Sheriff’s Department, Elm Ridge, Little Elm and Oak Point. The new hires join a team that serves students during the school year and during summers and that hosts camps and a police explorer program. New security officers will join school resource officers in connecting with students and cultivating communities on campus. The team spent the first year “not knowing that’s what this program was going to be about,” Martin said. “But that’s exactly what this program is about. And we hope to continue that with the work that each of our SSOs are doing. SSOs are doing that in partnership with our SROs, and then just continually strengthening the safety and the security of our school district through this large partnership.” Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request.Toxic site is leaking cancer-causing chemicals in Grand Prairie, Texas. When will it be cleaned?
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SWITCH Mobility to redefine urban across India, Europe, GCC with launch of two new low floor electric city buses – EiV12 and E1(ANNews) – When respected Fort McMurray-based Métis entrepreneur and artist Lisa Marie Bourque unexpectedly died in an April vehicle collision, Alberta’s chief medical examiner originally categorized it as a suicide. But after Bourque’s family requested a fatality inquiry, the examiner changed the manner of death to accidental—a move the family’s lawyer said is unprecedented in his experience. “I have not seen this type of amendment by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner before in my years in legal practice and so this in my opinion is an extraordinary outcome to our request for a fatality inquiry into the circumstances of Lisa’s passing,” lawyer Alex Yiu wrote in an email to Bourque’s common law spouse, Manferd Bishop, who provided it to Alberta Native News. Bourque died on April 27 after she crashed into a water truck that was parked on Highway 69, with the immediate cause of death listed in the coroner’s report as “blunt chest injuries.” She was 47. As the founder of the Fort McMurray Métis Trading Post and the New Dawn Métis Women’s representative for Region 1 of the Métis Nation of Alberta (MNA), Bourque was a high-profile member of the Métis community in Alberta and a regular fixture at cultural events in the region. “You talk to anybody from Fort Chip, McMurray, Anzac, Conklin, Janvier, Lac La Biche, everybody knows her. There isn’t one person who thought she committed suicide,” said Bishop, who owns a towing company in Fort Mac. When Bourque died, the MNA issued a statement on Facebook calling Bourque “a beacon of light, tirelessly advocating for Indigenous rights and sharing her beautiful culture with unwavering pride.” “Her absence leaves a void that will be felt deeply at every gathering, every event, every moment where her infectious smile and boundless energy once filled the room,” the statement added. In a separate statement, McMurray Métis Local 1935 described Bourque as a “a champion for sharing her culture and advocating for the rights of all Indigenous people.” “She was at many events, whether it was to celebrate or advocate. Always beaming with pride for her culture, often seen standing and clapping at the back of the room while kids jigged, or models showcased Indigenous fashions,” read the statement. “Her absence will be felt at every artisan market, as her smile from ear to ear won’t be there to welcome us in.” Nancy Critchley, a close friend of Bourque’s who met her when they were both vendors at Treaty Days in Fort McKay several years ago, told Alberta Native News that Bourque “would have never taken her own life.” “There’s no way, not one speck of cell in my body, that believes that she committed suicide,” said Critchley, who is supporting Bourque’s family in their efforts to get answers about her death. Bishop noted that the medical officer’s finding of suicide had a practical impact on his family, precluding him from filing an insurance claim to help pay for her funeral, since the accident was deemed to be Bourque’s own fault. Critchley, who like Bourque is Métis, said she suspects the suicide designation was an effort to conceal how state negligence caused the death of an Indigenous woman. The only reason the medical examiner changed the manner of death, she added, was because Bourque’s family asked for a fatality inquiry, which she described as “covering up a cover up.” Bishop, who isn’t Indigenous, doesn’t think the suicide designation was an attempt to cover anything up, but the result of the limited information the RCMP provided to the medical examiner. The original medical examiner’s report, which Bishop provided to Alberta Native News, cited Bourque’s “major depression” and anxiety, the presence of antidepressants in her system, clear road conditions the day of her accident and a lack of brake marks on the road as reasons her “manner of death is best classified as suicide.” The autopsy report, citing multiple eyewitnesses, noted that Bourque “veered from her lane into the lane with the parked truck, and made no attempt to swerve away or slow down.” Conceding that Bourque struggled with anxiety, Critchley questioned the medical examiner’s conclusion that Bourque was severely depressed to the extent that she would deliberately crash her car. “I know a lot of people who are majorly depressed,” said Critchley. “My friend Lisa was not majorly depressed.” On Nov. 14, lawyer Yiu sent a letter to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) requesting a fatality inquiry into Bourque’s death, which often takes years to conclude, on Bishop’s behalf. In a Dec. 2 response to Yiu, chief medical examiner Dr. Akmal Coetzee-Khan said he conducted a “complete review of our office’s investigation” into Bourque’s death, adding that he’s received “several letters ... from friends and community members” echoing Yiu’s request. Upon reviewing the investigation into Bourque’s death with Dr. Daniel Smyk, who wrote the original medical examiner’s report, the physicians concluded “that based on the balance of probabilities, the death occurred accidentally,” Coetzee-Khan wrote to Yiu. An amended medical examiner’s report now notes that since completing its initial investigation, the OCME “received additional collateral information and background social history regarding Ms. Bourque which prompted a review of the findings and conclusions.” “There are still some aspects of the collision that are unclear, but given the new information, the manner of death has been amended to accidental,” Smyk wrote. While the original autopsy report said that Bourque “made no attempt to swerve away or slow down,” the amended version, citing an RCMP Technical Collision Investigation Report, noted that Bourque did move her foot from the accelerator pedal to the brake pedal, but by the time she did it was too late. Bishop noted that there were no traffic cones surrounding the stationary water truck, which would have provided an advance warning to Bourque to slow down. He added that police told him that there’s no legal requirement for there to be traffic cones or signage to protect drivers. Section 194 of Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Code requires the use of “lane control devices” if workers are put in danger of highway traffic. It doesn’t deal with risks to drivers. “I’ve towed for just under 50 years, I’ve been in McMurray just about 52 years now,” said Bishop. “The laws have to change.”McGhie scores 27, UC San Diego downs La Salle 72-67
ME concedes it was a mistake to declare the death of a respected Alberta Métis woman a suicide'It was a bit of a bombshell': Gondek criticizes province's withdrawal of CMRB funds
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