Trump's base goes to war with incoming officials over US visas for foreign talent
Carrie Fisher's death has given Billie Lourd a "deeper appreciation" of the "little moments" in life. The 32-year-old actress has taken to social media to pay a glowing tribute to her late mother, who died in December 2016, aged 60. Alongside a throwback photograph, Billie - who has Kingston, four, and Jackson, two, with Austen Rydell - wrote on Instagram: "It has been 8 years since my mom died. As my son would say “that’s a lot!” I always dread this day. I spend so much time leading up to it thinking about how awful I’m going to feel. And my dread is usually right. I woke up this morning with a dark cloud over me. "But when my kids woke up the dark cloud dissipated and made way for bright glowing sunshine. Her death anniversary is like an emotional tropical storm. It pours rain a lot of the day but between the storms the light is more beautiful than on any day without storm clouds. There are no rainbows without rain. (sic)" Billie subsequently explained how her mom's death has changed her own outlook on life. She continued: "There’s a great Anne Lamott quote, grief is “like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly - that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp”. And that describes how I feel today perfectly. Yes the grief weather is cold and yes I may have a limp but I am absolutely dancing through life (oops I quoted wicked?). And I am actually a better dancer with my limp. "My grief has given me a deeper appreciation for all the little moments of life. So today I am griefful (griefy but grateful). I watch the magic that is my son and daughter and I know she is a piece of that magic. And I feel all the things. The grief. The joy. The longing. The magic. The emptiness. The fullness. And it all coexists in a profound way. Sending my love to everyone out there who needs it. [heart emoji] (sic)"
Rescuers Use Heat-Seeking Drone to Find Man, 78, Who Vanished While Going to Get His Mail: ‘A Miracle’WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Monday announced that he is commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment just weeks before President-elect Donald Trump , an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes office. The move spares the lives of people convicted in killings , including the slayings of police and military officers, people on federal land and those involved in deadly bank robberies or drug deals, as well as the killings of guards or prisoners in federal facilities. The decision leaves three federal inmates to face execution. They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev ; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of life Synagogue in 2018 , the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history. “I’ve dedicated my career to reducing violent crime and ensuring a fair and effective justice system,” Biden said in a statement . “Today, I am commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal death row to life sentences without the possibility of parole. These commutations are consistent with the moratorium my administration has imposed on federal executions, in cases other than terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder.” Reaction was strong, both for and against. A Trump spokesperson called the decision “abhorrent.” “These are among the worst killers in the world and this abhorrent decision by Joe Biden is a slap in the face to the victims, their families, and their loved ones." said Trump spokesman Steven Cheung. "President Trump stands for the rule of law, which will return when he is back in the White House after he was elected with a massive mandate from the American people.” Heather Turner, whose mother was killed during the 2017 robbery of a Conway, South Carolina, bank, blasted the decision in a social media post, saying Biden didn't consider the victims of these crimes. “The pain and trauma we have endured over the last 7 years has been indescribable,” Turner wrote on Facebook, describing weeks spent in court in search of justice as “now just a waste of time.” “Our judicial system is broken. Our government is a joke,” she said. "Joe Biden’s decision is a clear gross abuse of power. He, and his supporters, have blood on their hands.” Some of Roof's victims supported Biden's decision to leave him on death row. Michael Graham, whose sister Cynthia Hurd was killed by Roof, said Roof's lack of remorse and simmering white nationalism in the U.S. means Roof is the kind of dangerous and evil person the death penalty is intended for. “This was a crime against a race of people who were doing something all Americans do on a Wednesday night — go to Bible study,” Graham said. “It didn’t matter who was there, only that they were Black.” The Biden administration in 2021 announced a moratorium on federal capital punishment to study the protocols used, which suspended executions during Biden's term. But Biden actually had promised to go further on the issue in the past, pledging to end federal executions without the caveats for terrorism and hate-motivated, mass killings. While running for president in 2020, Biden's campaign website said he would “work to pass legislation to eliminate the death penalty at the federal level , and incentivize states to follow the federal government’s example.” Similar language didn't appear on Biden's reelection website before he left the presidential race in July. “Make no mistake: I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss,” Biden's statement said. “But guided by my conscience and my experience as a public defender, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, vice president, and now president, I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level.” He took a political jab at Trump, saying, “In good conscience, I cannot stand back and let a new administration resume executions that I halted.” Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has spoken frequently of expanding executions. In a speech announcing his 2024 campaign , Trump called for those “caught selling drugs to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts.” He later promised to execute drug and human smugglers and even praised China's harsher treatment of drug peddlers. During his first term as president, Trump also advocated for the death penalty for drug dealers . There were 13 federal executions during Trump's first term, more than under any president in modern history, and some may have happened fast enough to have contributed to the spread of the coronavirus at the federal death row facility in Indiana. Those were the first federal executions since 2003. The final three occurred after Election Day in November 2020 but before Trump left office the following January, the first time federal prisoners were put to death by a lame-duck president since Grover Cleveland in 1889. Biden faced recent pressure from advocacy groups urging him to act to make it more difficult for Trump to increase the use of capital punishment for federal inmates. The president's announcement also comes less than two weeks after he commuted the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were released from prison and placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic, and of 39 others convicted of nonviolent crimes, the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history. The announcement also followed the post-election pardon that Biden granted his son Hunter on federal gun and tax charges after long saying he would not issue one, sparking an uproar in Washington. The pardon also raised questions about whether he would issue sweeping preemptive pardons for administration officials and other allies who the White House worries could be unjustly targeted by Trump’s second administration. Speculation that Biden could commute federal death sentences intensified last week after the White House announced he plans to visit Italy on the final foreign trip of his presidency next month. Biden, a practicing Catholic, will meet with Pope Francis, who recently called for prayers for U.S. death row inmates in hopes their sentences will be commuted. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has long called for an end to the death penalty, said Biden's decision is a “significant step in advancing the cause of human dignity in our nation” and moves the country “a step closer to building a culture of life.” Martin Luther King III, who publicly urged Biden to change the death sentences, said in a statement shared by the White House that the president "has done what no president before him was willing to do: take meaningful and lasting action not just to acknowledge the death penalty’s racist roots but also to remedy its persistent unfairness.” Madeline Cohen, an attorney for Norris Holder, who faced death for the 1997 fatal shooting of a guard during a bank robbery in St. Louis, said his case “exemplifies the racial bias and arbitrariness that led the President to commute federal death sentences,” Cohen said. Holder, who is Black, was sentenced by an all-white jury. Weissert reported from West Palm Beach, Florida. Associated Press writers Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, and Jim Salter in O'Fallon, Missouri, contributed to this report.
Trump asks US Supreme Court to pause law threatening TikTok ban
The emergence of tools that allow people to efficiently produce novel and detailed online reviews with almost no work has put , service providers and consumers in uncharted territory, watchdog groups and researchers say. have long plagued many popular consumer websites, and Yelp. They are typically traded on private social media groups between fake review brokers and businesses willing to pay. Sometimes, such reviews are initiated by businesses that offer customers incentives such as gift cards for positive feedback. But AI-infused text generation tools, popularized by OpenAI’s , enable fraudsters to produce reviews faster and in greater volume, according to tech industry experts. The deceptive practice, which is , is carried out year-round but becomes a bigger problem for consumers during the , when many people rely on reviews to help them purchase gifts. Fake reviews are found across a wide range of industries, from e-commerce, lodging and restaurants, to services such as home repairs, and piano lessons. The Transparency Company, a tech company and watchdog group that uses software to detect fake reviews, said it started to see AI-generated reviews show up in large numbers in mid-2023 and they have multiplied ever since. For a report released this month, The Transparency Company analyzed 73 million reviews in three sectors: home, legal and medical services. Nearly 14% of the reviews were likely fake, and the company expressed a “high degree of confidence” that 2.3 million reviews were partly or entirely AI-generated. “It’s just a really, really good tool for these review scammers,” said Maury Blackman, an investor and advisor to tech startups, who reviewed The Transparency Company’s work and is set to lead the organization starting Jan. 1. In August, software company DoubleVerify said it was observing a “significant increase” in mobile phone and smart TV apps with reviews crafted by generative AI. The reviews often were used to deceive customers into installing apps that could hijack devices or run ads constantly, the company said. The following month, the Federal Trade Commission sued the company behind an AI writing tool and content generator called Rytr, accusing it of offering a service that could pollute the marketplace with fraudulent reviews. The FTC, which this year banned the of fake reviews, said some of Rytr’s subscribers used the tool to produce hundreds and perhaps thousands of reviews for garage door repair companies, sellers of “replica” designer handbags and other businesses. Max Spero, CEO of AI detection company Pangram Labs, said the software his company uses has detected with almost certainty that some AI-generated appraisals posted on Amazon bubbled up to the top of review search results because they were so detailed and appeared to be well thought-out. But determining what is fake or not can be challenging. External parties can fall short because they don’t have “access to data signals that indicate patterns of abuse,” Amazon has said. Pangram Labs has done detection for some prominent online sites, which Spero declined to name due to non-disclosure agreements. He said he evaluated Amazon and Yelp independently. Many of the AI-generated comments on Yelp appeared to be posted by individuals who were trying to publish enough reviews to earn an “Elite” badge, which is intended to let users know they should trust the content, Spero said. The badge provides access to exclusive events with local business owners. Fraudsters also want it so their Yelp profiles can look more realistic, said Kay Dean, a former federal criminal investigator who runs a watchdog group called Fake Review Watch. To be sure, just because a review is AI-generated doesn’t necessarily mean its fake. Some consumers might experiment with AI tools to generate content that reflects their genuine sentiments. Some non-native English speakers say they turn to AI to make sure they use accurate language in the reviews they write. “It can help with reviews (and) make it more informative if it comes out of good intentions,” said Michigan State University marketing professor Sherry He, who has researched fake reviews. She says tech platforms should focus on the behavioral patters of bad actors, which prominent platforms already do, instead of discouraging legitimate users from turning to AI tools. Prominent companies are developing policies for how AI-generated content fits into their systems for removing phony or abusive reviews. Some already employ algorithms and investigative teams to detect and take down fake reviews but are giving users some flexibility to use AI. Spokespeople for Amazon and Trustpilot, for example, said they would allow customers to post AI-assisted reviews as long as they reflect their genuine experience. Yelp has taken a more cautious approach, saying its guidelines require reviewers to write their own copy. “With the recent rise in consumer adoption of AI tools, Yelp has significantly invested in methods to better detect and mitigate such content on our platform,” the company said in a statement. The Coalition for Trusted Reviews, which Amazon, Trustpilot, employment review site Glassdoor, and travel sites Tripadvisor, Expedia and launched last year, said that even though deceivers may put AI to illicit use, the technology also presents “an opportunity to push back against those who seek to use reviews to mislead others.” “By sharing best practice and raising standards, including developing advanced AI detection systems, we can protect consumers and maintain the integrity of online reviews,” the group said. banning fake reviews, which took effect in October, allows the agency to fine businesses and individuals who engage in the practice. Tech companies hosting such reviews are shielded from the penalty because they are not legally liable under U.S. law for the content that outsiders post on their platforms. Tech companies, including Amazon, Yelp and Google, have sued fake review brokers they accuse of peddling counterfeit reviews on their sites. The companies say their technology has blocked or removed a huge swath of suspect reviews and suspicious accounts. However, some experts say they could be doing more. “Their efforts thus far are not nearly enough,” said Dean of Fake Review Watch. “If these tech companies are so committed to eliminating review fraud on their platforms, why is it that I, one individual who works with no automation, can find hundreds or even thousands of fake reviews on any given day?” Consumers can try to by watching out for a few , according to researchers. Overly enthusiastic or negative reviews are red flags. Jargon that repeats a product’s full name or model number is another potential giveaway. When it comes to AI, research conducted by Balázs Kovács, a Yale professor of organization behavior, has shown that people can’t tell the difference between AI-generated and human-written reviews. Some AI detectors may also be fooled by shorter texts, which are common in online reviews, the study said. However, there are some “AI tells” that online shoppers and service seekers should keep it mind. Panagram Labs says reviews written with AI are typically longer, highly structured and include “empty descriptors,” such as generic phrases and attributes. The writing also tends to include cliches like “the first thing that struck me” and “game-changer.”
Yes, the U.S. health care system is the most expensive in the world
Colorado is gearing up for the rugged Big 12 schedule, but first the Buffaloes wrap up their nonconference slate with two more games, starting Friday night when they host South Dakota State in Boulder, Colo. Colorado (7-2) has won two straight after competing in the Maui Invitational, most recently a 72-55 win over in-state rival Colorado State. Now the focus turns to South Dakota State and shoring up issues before conference play. "Defensively, we're understanding what our jobs are. Now, we're not where we need to be for sure," coach Tad Boyle said. "But we're making strides in that area. And I think the guys are getting used to playing with each other, understanding each other." The Buffaloes lost a lot of talent from last year's NCAA Tournament team but boast some quality players. Andrej Jakimovski (13.0 points per game), Julian Hammond III (12.3 ppg) and Elijah Moore (12.0 ppg) lead the team in scoring. Sophomore big man Bangot Dak has shown he can be a force after scoring a career-high 16 points in the win over Colorado State. The Jackrabbits (8-4) are coming off a 77-63 loss at Nevada on Wednesday night and complete a two-game trip in Boulder. South Dakota State is led by senior center Oscar Cluff, who tops the team in scoring (17.3 points) and rebounding (11.0) but had a subpar night against Nevada when he scored a season-low six points while battling an ankle injury. "I wish he was feeling a little better," coach Eric Henderson said of Cluff. "He's going to be fine, but he's still nursing that ankle a little bit." Freshman Joe Sayler is second on the team in scoring at 12.8 ppg and has reached double figures in each of the last three games. Sophomore Kalen Garry is third on the Jackrabbits in scoring at 9.6 per contest, an average that has been hurt by his last three games when he has averaged just 5.3 points. --Field Level MediaTrudeau, Carney push back over Trump’s ongoing 51st state comments
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CALUMET CITY — Dolton-Calumet City Elementary School District 149 has informed parents a mealworm was found this week on a middle school table where students were eating lunch. Rumors circulated on social media of students coming home sick after finding bugs in their spaghetti. However, District 149 Superintendent Maureen White said Thursday she received no reports of children falling ill and the single mealworm found on the table did not come from the kitchen. “There was absolutely no mealworm in the food or in the food supply, and not even where the food is prepared,” White said. “It was a hoax.” White said students told her the mealworm was brought to the table as part of a social media challenge. However, she said the district took “precautionary measures” to sanitize the cabinets where food trays are stored and clean tables more frequently. “We’re just doing an extra clean to assure that there are no bugs of any kind getting on the table,” White said. This time lapse video by the JG-TC's Herm Meadows shows a cicada molting recently in Charleston. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!
Austin Public Library: Library an important resource