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U.S. adds 227,000 jobs in strong November rebound
DETROIT (AP) — In the waning days of President Joe Biden's administration, the government's highway safety agency is proposing voluntary safety guidelines for self-driving vehicles. But a rule from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration putting the plan in place won't be approved before the end of Biden's term in January and likely will be left to whoever runs the agency under Republican Donald Trump. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whom Trump has named to co-lead a “Department of Government Efficiency” to cut costs and regulations, has floated the idea of him helping to develop safety standards for self-driving vehicles — even though the standards would affect Tesla's automated driving systems. At present there are no federal regulations that specifically govern autonomous vehicles, and any regulation is left to states. However, self-driving vehicles must meet broad federal safety standards that cover all passenger vehicles. Under the agency's proposal, released on Friday, automakers and autonomous vehicle companies could enroll in a program that would require safety plans and some data reporting for autonomous vehicles operating on public roads. To apply companies would have to have independent assessments of their automated vehicle safety processes, and there would be requirements to report crashes and other problems with the vehicles. Companies would have to give NHTSA information and data on the safety of the design, development and operations of the vehicles. The agency would decide whether to accept companies into the program. But auto safety advocates say the plan falls short of needed regulation for self-driving vehicles. For instance, it doesn't set specific performance standards set for the vehicles such as numbers and types of of sensors or whether the vehicles can see objects in low-visibility conditions, they said. “This is a big bunch of nothing,” said Missy Cummings, director of the autonomy and robotics center at George Mason University and a former safety adviser to NHTSA. “It’ll be more of a completely useless paperwork drill where the companies swear they’re doing the right thing.” Michael Brooks, executive director of the nonprofit Center for Auto Safety, said one of the few good things about the plan is that companies will have to report data on crashes and other problems. There have been reports that the Trump administration may want to scrap a NHTSA order that now requires autonomous vehicle companies to report crashes to the agency so it can collect data. A message was left Friday seeking comment from the Trump transition team on crash reporting requirements. Brooks said the incoming administration probably will want to put out its own version of the guidelines. NHTSA will seek public comment on the plan for about 60 days, then the plan would have to wind its way through the federal regulatory process, which can take months or even years. “It is important that ADS (Automated Driving System) technology be deployed in a manner that protects the public from unreasonable safety risk while at the same time allowing for responsible development of this technology, which has the potential to advance safety,” the proposed rule says. The agency concedes that in the future, there may be a need for NHTSA to set minimum standards for self driving vehicle performance that are similar to mandatory safety standards that govern human-driven cars. But the agency says it now doesn't have data and metrics to support those standards. The voluntary plan would help gather those, the proposal said.
Students surprised with Christmas cheer; Salvation Army receives donations
HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. (AP) — Trey Robinson had 20 points in Northern Kentucky's 58-47 win over South Carolina State on Saturday. Robinson added five rebounds for the Norse (7-6). Sam Vinson scored 12 points and added five rebounds. Randall Pettus II shot 3 for 9, including 2 for 5 from beyond the arc to finish with eight points. Colin McKenzie led the Bulldogs (6-8) in scoring, finishing with 13 points. Omar Croskey added eight points for South Carolina State. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .Two-time Olympic gold medalist Carlos Yulo is in giving-back mode WHAT A YEAR it has been for Carlos “Caloy” Yulo. He did the incredible and carry an entire country’s hopes on his shoulders — on the way to notching an unprecedented two golds in the Paris Olympics — and reap a resulting well-deserved windfall. But even before he shot to greater prominence through his Olympic feat, Mr. Yulo was already a proud Global Team Toyota Athlete (GTTA) — under the mobility brand’s Start Your Impossible (SYI) program. This is Toyota’s first-ever global corporate initiative — inspired by Olympic and Paralympic athletes “who are constantly challenging their impossible.” SYI supports some 250 athletes from 49 markets worldwide. Caloy is one of two Filipino GTTAs, with champion para swimmer Ernie Gawilan being the other. Incidentally, in Asia, Toyota calls its GTTAs “dual heroes” because they are not only sports heroes but champions for doing social good as well. When we were in Paris to catch the tail end of the Paralympics, we got to talk to both Caloy and Ernie. Even then, Mr. Yulo expressed how he envisioned giving budding athletes much-needed coaching, motivation, and support. Recently, he collaborated with Toyota Motor Philippines (TMP) for the Start Your Impossible Gymnastics Camp held over the course of two days at the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines (GAP) MVPSF Gym in Manila. The camp is part of the embodiment of this commitment to give back to the community, “aiming to inspire and empower young gymnasts by providing opportunities to help them become better athletes.” Caloy enlisted the help of his own team, led by coach Aldrin Castañeda of GAP, not only to vet the participants but also to manage the warmup exercises and subsequent training of the 30 youngsters aged seven to 16 from Metro Manila, Davao, and Cebu. Caloy also sought the assistance of his own sports nutritionist Jeanette Aro to advise the kids and their parents on what constitutes a proper diet for these gymnasts. So what’s next? I asked Caloy at a subsequent question-and-answer session. “We’re looking for those with potential, and we plan for them to continue training here more intensively,” he said in Filipino. “This clinic won’t mean anything without a next step for them. Even if I don’t get to train them myself, I look forward to training with them — to at least give them a program of training.”
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum." Section 1.10.32 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum", written by Cicero in 45 BC "Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?" 1914 translation by H. Rackham "But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?" 1914 translation by H. Rackham "But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?" To keep reading, please log in to your account, create a free account, or simply fill out the form below.Govt accelerates e-governance drive with ambitious digital transformation efforts
In what’s become an all-too-familiar story for taxpayer funded technology projects, another Washington state IT upgrade is falling further behind schedule and over budget. The state’s Office of Financial Management last week again postponed ambitious plans to move dozens of state systems, for everything from driver licensing fees to foster care payments to state pension checks, onto a cloud-based platform called Workday. The massive project, dubbed One Washington and initially set to launch its first phase in mid 2022, had already been pushed back to July 2025. Now, it won’t go live until July 2026 at the earliest, and possibly not until January 2027. Project costs, which had already jumped from the original estimate of $144 million for the first phase to around $291 million, are also expected to rise again — unwelcome news as the state faces a $10 billion to $12 billion shortfall over the next four years. OFM said it won’t know how much by until next month, but the numbers could be large. A draft budget request by OFM in September asked for $501 million over the next four fiscal years, though that figure includes subsequent phases of the Workday upgrade as well as expenditures that were planned for earlier in the project but have been delayed. OFM postponed the first phase of One Washington after tests showed that more than a third of 113 affected state agencies, which together handle some $43 billion in transactions a year, weren’t ready to run those financial processes via Workday. OFM is eager to avoid problems of the kind that marred the $340 million Workday upgrade at the University of Washington, which launched last year despite concerns that it wasn’t ready. But the One Washington delay also follows a damning “quality assurance” report issued last month by an outside consultant that flagged numerous weaknesses. Among the findings, OFM isn’t able to closely track progress at each state agency; efforts to test the agency systems are inadequate; and OFM’s new budget request is “significantly higher than expected” and well above what some other states are spending on similar upgrades. That’s all landing poorly with state lawmakers, who say One Washington’s repeated problems are undermining confidence in the state’s ability to execute critical but complicated IT projects. Legislators need “some degree of surety that even with more money we can get where we need to be” on One Washington, said state Sen. Lisa Wellman, D-Mercer Island. “And I have no confidence that is the case.” Lawmakers are especially frustrated that the problems continue despite the state’s massive outlays to Deloitte, the high-profile consultant helping run One Washington, and the state’s second biggest IT contractor. Over the next four years alone, Deloitte could be paid around $160 million for One Washington, based on earlier estimates provided by Deloitte to OFM. Identifying problems of the kind that have hobbled One Washington — “that is Deloitte’s job,” said state Sen. Joe Nguyen, D-West Seattle, chair of the Environment, Energy & Technology Committee and Ways & Means Committee vice-chair. A heavy lift To be clear, One Washington was never going to go smoothly. Part of a broader state initiative to replace aging state technology, One Washington aims to modernize and centralize state financial processes now run on roughly 280 different computer systems, many of them decades old and costly to maintain or keep secure. Many of those older systems will simply be replaced by Workday, a sophisticated “enterprise” platform that is used by many governments and universities. However, around 40 state agencies plan to keep using some “legacy” computer systems, which will need extensive modification to be compatible with Workday — modifications that OFM worried wouldn’t be ready for a July 2025 launch. Pushing back the launch by 12 to 18 months will ensure every agency is prepared “so that when Workday goes live, we don’t break things downstream,” said Amy McLean, OFM’s spokesperson for One Washington. Breaking things is a real risk. Glitches in the University of Washington’s Workday rollout, also managed by Deloitte, led to $90 million in delayed vendor payments and disrupted the school’s vital system of federal grants, though many of those problems have since been addressed. The stakes are far higher with One Washington, which touches crucial state operations, including payments to hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians. Trying to “go live” with Workday before those processes were ready “would cause catastrophic failure” in crucial state operations, OFM said. A failed launch could also affect the state’s financial accounting process and hurt its creditworthiness, according to an August report by the state auditor’s office. OFM said one of the project’s biggest challenges has been a chronic shortage of IT staff, made worse by the pandemic, to help agencies prepare their systems. The project also suffered from extensive executive turnover in its earlier phases, McLean said. More fundamental challenges were highlighted in last month’s quality assurance report, which was prepared by Gartner Consulting. For example, One Washington was structured so that OFM and the various agencies operate in “parallel” to each other on the project, without sufficient interaction, which made it hard for OFM to monitor “agency progress and obstacles,” Gartner said. Gartner also criticized procedures to test the “readiness” of the agencies’ legacy systems for Workday. In some cases, tests showed only that legacy systems could share data with Workday, but didn’t confirm whether the systems would actually be fully operational once Workday was launched. Gartner also said One Washington’s first round of system tests yielded a success rate that was higher than Gartner typically finds in such big projects. Moreover, when Gartner interviewed staff at various agencies, it found “an apparent mismatch of expectations as what counts as ‘passing’ a testing scenario and what counts as ‘failing,’” according to the report. Specifically, “agencies expressed there were several occurrences during the testing process where they thought the test ‘failed’, however the test was marked as ‘passing’ or as ‘user error.’” OFM acknowledged Gartner’s criticisms when it decided to postpone the launch. The agency said it was addressing those criticisms, but in a presentation last week noted that “while (One Washington) is working on improvements, without significant changes in these areas going forward, there is a risk that the Program will have difficulty achieving a new go-live date.” OFM had also adopted measures to prevent a premature launch. Workday will only go live if OFM and the agencies have successfully tested modifications at 38 financial systems that have been identified essential in the shift from the current financial system to Workday. Still, lawmakers are frustrated the state took so long to make these course corrections. Nguyen worries Washington is now so reliant on IT contractors like Deloitte that agency managers are less and less able to oversee complicated technology projects He also thinks OFM failed to put enough pressure on individual agencies to ensure they’re ready for Workday. “Right now, the mindset is, ‘well, we built this platform — if [agencies] don’t use it, it’s their fault,’ “ Nguyen said. McLean, OFM spokesperson, said OFM is looking at ways to hold agencies more accountable but also to better support them with resources and personnel to make the necessary changes. “We’re really focused on finding the right dynamic of executive accountability along with support from the program,” McLean said. “You can’t really have one without the other.” Nguyen is glad OFM is retooling its management strategy, but he says he’ll insist on meeting personally with staff at agencies still working on legacy systems so that he can personally assess their readiness. “That’s great they have a new date,” Nguyen said of One Washington’s 2026 launch window. But after so many problems, he adds, “I don’t believe them.”Apple faces calls to remove new AI notification feature on iPhones after it generated inaccurate news summariesPittsburgh quarterback Eli Holstein was carted off the field with 5:32 left in the first quarter with an apparent left ankle injury during Saturday's Atlantic Coast Conference game against host Louisville. The freshman was sacked at the Panthers' 49-yard line by Louisville's Ashton Gillotte, who rolled on the quarterback's ankle. Holstein was in a walking boot as he was helped to the cart. Holstein missed last week's game against Clemson after suffering a head injury in the loss to Virginia two weeks ago. Holstein was 3-for-5 passing for 51 yards and an interception before exiting. Nate Yarnell, who threw for 350 yards in the loss to Clemson, replaced Holstein. --Field Level Media
NEW YORK (AP) — Keith Higgins Jr. had 16 points in Lehigh's 60-59 win over LIU on Saturday. Higgins also contributed three steals for the Mountain Hawks (4-6). Tyler Whitney-Sidney shot 4 for 12, including 2 for 5 from beyond the arc to add 11 points. Ben Knostman had 10 points and shot 3 of 4 from the field and 3 of 4 from the free-throw line. Jamal Fuller finished with 20 points and eight rebounds for the Sharks (4-11). LIU also got 16 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks from Shadrak Lasu. Blake Lander finished with 10 points. Higgins scored eight points in the first half and Lehigh went into the break trailing 35-28. Knostman led Lehigh with nine points in the second half as their team outscored LIU by eight points over the final half. Lehigh plays Neumann at home on Sunday, and LIU hosts Le Moyne on Friday. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .Boston City Council member is arrested on fraud and theft charges