Sprinklr (NYSE:CXM) Exceeds Q3 Expectations, Stock SoarsJOHOR BAHRU – All autogates at the Bangunan Sultan Iskandar (BSI) customs, immigration and quarantine (CIQ) complex are now operational and huge crowds at the bus halls have started to disperse. At press time, about 46 autogates at the bus arrival and exit halls and KTM station have been reactivated in stages on late Dec 8. “The situation is slowly returning to normal, and we expect everything to be back to normal soon,” a security official said, adding that the autogates have been down since noon on Dec 8 due to a massive technical glitch. The official said the cause of the widespread failures of all autogates at the bus halls and the KTM station leading to Singapore has yet to be identified. At the height of the outage, tens of thousands of people were stuck at BSI for up to four hours while immigration officers had to manually clear people for travel. Immigration had also activated contra lanes to divert travellers at the entry and exit bus halls. However, all immigration clearance for cars, motorcycles and heavy vehicles were spared from the glitch. Other government agencies were also functioning without any issues at the complex. “This has never happened before at the JB CIQ, and it comes at the worst time, especially on a Sunday with a huge number of people, including Singaporeans, coming in for the long school holidays. “Some of them have been stuck for hours due to the long lines at the bus arrival and exit halls,” the official said, adding that additional security was brought in to ensure order at the complex. Singapore’s Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) also issued a travel advisory asking people to delay their journey to Johor Baru to help ease the situation. Earlier, many members of the public took to social media to express their frustration about the long delays. – THE STAR/ ASIA NEWS NETWORK
San Diego Unified weighs plans for 1,000 affordable homes for school district employees
Majority caucus petitions Speaker to urgently recall Parliament to address critical business
TRAVERSE CITY — A Tech Talk will occur at 3 p.m. Nov. 25 at Peninsula Community Library. Learn about United States surveillance and China’s Social Credit System. Contact: 231-223-7700. TRAVERSE CITY — Old Mission Peninsula native Tim Carroll will answer history questions at 2 p.m. Nov. 26 at Peninsula Community Library. TRAVERSE CITY — Santa’s House will be open from 5-8 p.m. Nov. 29 and Dec. 6, 13 and 20. Visitors are welcome from noon to 3 p.m. Nov. 30 and Dec. 1, 7-8, 14-15 and 21-22. The house is located at the corner of State and Cass streets. Meet Santa and drop off letters in the mailbox. ELK RAPIDS — The Downtown Elk Rapids Tree Lighting will occur at 6 p.m. Nov. 29. Santa will arrive on his sleigh. The tree is located in front of Bayfront Beach and Bike on River Street. TRAVERSE CITY — Lipstick Jodi, The Marsupials and Super Nuclear will take the stage at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 29 at The Alluvion. Admission is $15 at MyNorthTickets.com . NORTHPORT — The Holiday Arts and Crafts Sale is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 30 in the Village Arts Building and Willowbrook Mill. The Northport Arts Association is hosting this event. GLEN ARBOR — The Glen Arbor Holiday Market is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 30 at Glen Arbor Town Hall. More than 25 vendors will sell jewelry, home goods and other locally-made art. INTERLOCHEN — Families are invited to play games at 10 a.m. Nov. 30 at Interlochen Public Library. All ages are welcome. For more details, call 231-276-6767. GLEN ARBOR — Santa will meet kids from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 30 at the M22 Glen Arbor Wine Patio. Families can get their photo taken, too. Admission is free. PETOSKEY — The Frost and Flora Wreath Crafting Workshop will go from 1-3 p.m. Nov. 30 at the Inn at Bay Harbor. Materials are included in the $119 class fee. Space is limited. Sign up via innatbayharbor.com/events . TRAVERSE CITY — The Write Michigan Short Story Contest is open to Michigan residents until Nov. 30. Entry is $10 per adult and free for kids and teens at writemichigan.org . LELAND — Applications for the 2025 Leelanau Press Research Fellowship will be accepted until Nov. 30. A $2,500 grant award is available for research projects that emphasize Leelanau County history and culture. Recipients are asked to provide an article, book, presentation, podcast or exhibition of their project after 12 months. This final product will be placed in the Leelanau Historical Society’s collection. To apply, see https://tinyurl.com/5n93atwf . Questions: 231-256-7475; info@leelanauhistory.org . TRAVERSE CITY — Dan Smith was named Veteran of the Year 2024 by the Grand Traverse Area Veterans Coalition. The annual ceremony took place at the Traverse City American Legion Post. Smith is an Elks Lodge member and former co-chair of the Elks Lodge No. 323 Veterans Committee.
In a column expressing skepticism that Donald Trump's proposed "Department of Government Efficiency" will be able to accomplish, an expert at the Brookings Institution, who played a key part in former Vice President Al Gore's "Re-inventing Government" initiative, told the Washington Post's Dan Balz that the incoming administration is in for a dose of political reality. With the president-elect selecting wealthy entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to head up the off-the-cuff department, Elaine Kamarck pointed to multiple instances where cuts would be unpalatable to Trump's MAGA fans . ALSO READ: The America-attacking Trump is coming for our military — and then he's coming for us As Balz wrote, Musk and Ramaswamy "have huge ambitions and no humility about what they are undertaking," before adding, "What they have talked about amounts to a wholesale attack on federal agencies designed to eliminate thousands of regulations, reduce the federal workforce by an order of magnitude that could cripple the delivery of vital services, and effect cost savings that would amount to nearly one-third of the federal budget, or the entire discretionary part of the budget and then some." Karmack cited the Border Patrol, with 19,000 Border Patrol agents, and asked where the cuts would come from when border security was the main plank of the Trump campaign. According to Balz, "There are about 1,800 air traffic controllers, she said. Would Trump’s team cut that workforce significantly, causing potential flight cancellations and disruption?" with Kamarck predicting " “It will take about a week and Congress will say, ‘Hey, you can’t do this." "And how deeply would he try to cut the workforce at the Social Security Administration, at the risk of checks not being sent out promptly or other breakdowns in a program that he has otherwise vowed not to touch?" Balz asked. With Ramaswamy and Musk boasting, "We expect to prevail," Balz wrote, "Those words no doubt reflect the aggressive approach the president-elect and his advisers hope to take once he is sworn in. Meanwhile, executive branch employees are bracing for what could be coming and opponents are preparing to resist through legal and other channels. Whether Trump’s shock troops, led by Musk and Ramaswamy, are truly ready will be known soon." You can read more here .
In an advancement for minimally invasive care, a first-ever procedure using two separate surgery robots was successfully completed. A urologist at the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center successfully removed a prostate gland using advanced robotic systems. The procedure combined Levita’s Mars surgical platform with Intuitive Surgical’s Da Vinci SP single-port robot. “This marks the first time two different systems have been used together in a single robotic procedure, and it highlights the versatility of Levita’s Mars platform. The magnetic component of Mars added significant value by improving precision and enabling improved access to key areas of the pelvis,” said Jeffrey Cadeddu, a urologist and professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center, in a statement. In November, medical researchers trained a robot system using imitation learning from surgical videos and performed complex procedures autonomously, advancing robotic surgery toward independent operations without detailed programming. Robotics advance care During the prostate removal surgery, Levita’s MARS platform was used to manipulate internal organs using its patented magnetic positioning system. This allowed for precise tissue retraction with the aim of improving visualization and protecting nerves related to sexual function and urine continence. Adjacent to the prostate gland are the neurovascular bundles that control erectile function and urine continence. The Da Vinci SP robot supplied the single-port capabilities needed for this intricate urological procedure. The surgical team demonstrated a preview of robotic-assisted surgery’s future, where several systems work in tandem to produce the best possible outcomes, by integrating the two systems. According to Levita, the innovative surgery highlights the benefits of combining robotic systems for advanced patient care. The Da Vinci SP robot offers precise single-port access, while the MARS platform uses magnetic technology to minimize incisions and enhance surgical maneuverability. Together, these technologies deliver a tailored approach to meet complex surgical needs. “This procedure demonstrated that the MARS platform is both an independent surgical solution and also a powerful enhancement to traditional console-based robotic systems. By combining technologies, we’re creating a new standard for surgery that prioritizes patient safety, efficiency, and better outcomes,” said Alberto Rodriguez-Navarro, CEO and founder of Levita Magnetics, in a statement . Nearing autonomy In an earlier exercise, Stanford researchers trained a da Vinci Surgical System robot in key tasks—needle handling, tissue lifting, and suturing—using imitation learning. The robot demonstrated skills comparable to human surgeons by analyzing data from wrist-mounted cameras on da Vinci systems during surgeries. These recordings, gathered globally, provide extensive training material. The model, inspired by machine learning techniques, processes robotic movements using kinematic calculations instead of textual input. By focusing on relative movements rather than absolute ones, researchers overcame inaccuracies in the da Vinci system. According to researchers, the approach enabled the robot to perform tasks autonomously, such as resuming a procedure after picking up a dropped needle. The model significantly reduces the time required to train surgical robots, which previously needed years of precise coding for each action. With imitation learning, robots can generalize tasks from diverse procedures within days, advancing autonomous surgery while enhancing precision and reducing errors.
Parker Hannifin Corp. stock outperforms competitors despite losses on the day
U.S. Supreme Court justices have yet to decide whether they'll hear a case involving West Virginia's transgender sports law of 2021. WASHINGTON (WV News) — The bid by the West Virginia Attorney General's Office to have the U.S. Supreme Court decide the constitutionality of the state's 2021 transgender sports law remains pending. Morrisey Attorney General Patrick Morrisey's office filed July 11 asking the Supreme Court to take up the case. That came after the Fourth Circuit decided the state's transgender sports law — the Save Women's Sports Act — violated rights protected in the Constitution. Since West Virginia's initial petition, led by West Virginia Solicitor General Michael R. Williams, Deputy Attorney General Curtis R.A. Caperhart and West Virginia Assistant Solicitor General Spencer J. Davenport, several friend of the court briefings have been filed, while the respondent, the lawyers for a transgender West Virginia girl from Harrison County, responded Oct. 15 and the state replied two weeks later. The case was distributed for conference among the justices Nov. 15 and Nov. 22, but there's been no decision yet from the justices on whether they will hear the case. According to the brief from West Virginia, the two questions to consider are: Whether Title IX prevents a state from consistently designating girls' and boys' sports teams based on biological sex determined at birth; and "whether the Equal Protection Clause [of the U.S. Constitution] prevents a state from offering separate boys' and girls' sports teams based on biological sex determined at birth." The attorneys for the child, B.P.J, are Elizabeth Reinhardt of Cooley LLP in Washington, along with Cecillia D. Wang and David D. Cole of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation in Washington, Aubrey Sparks and Nicholas Ward of the America Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia Foundation; and Tara L. Borelli of the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund Inc. of Decatur, Georgia. The child's attorneys frame the questions this way: "Does West Virginia's categorical ban violate Title IX as applied to B.P.J.?", and "does West Virginia's categorical ban violate the Equal Protection Clause as applied to B.P.J.?" However, the child's lawyers say the matter doesn't rise to the level of U.S. Supreme Court intervention. They contend that the office of Morrisey — who will become West Virginia's governor in January — is seeking "to create a false sense of national emergency when nothing of the sort is presented by this case." "This case involves one transgender girl — 14-year-old B.P.J. — and her as-applied challenge to H.B. 3293, a West Virginia law passed in 2021 that categorically bars transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams," the child's lawyers wrote. "B.P.J. socially transitioned in third grade; she has a West Virginia birth certificate officially recognizing her as female; and she has never gone through endogenous puberty — meaning that she has never experienced the effects of testosterone on her body that cisgender boys typically experience. "She was entering middle school when H.B. 3293 was passed, and she has been playing school sports since that time due to injunctions issued by the courts below. No other transgender girl is known to be affected by H.B. 3293 other than B.P.J. "Particularly given the lack of any circuit split on the questions presented, forthcoming federal regulations addressing transgender participation in athletics, and the interlocutory posture of this as-applied challenge — which the Fourth Circuit remanded to the district court for further development of the record — there is no reason for this Court to step in." The West Virginia Attorney General's Office lawyers see it much differently. "Schools have long separated sports into boys’ and girls’ teams. Drawing this line guaranteed that women and girls had a real chance to compete safely and fairly. Important laws like Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 then ensured that boys’ and girls’ sports teams received equal support. Women’s sports flourished," they wrote. But the Fourth Circuit majority's "holding upends the Title IX and equal protection frameworks," they wrote. "It tacitly overturns countless cases upholding sex distinctions for bathrooms, prisons, physical-fitness tests, and more. It rewrites Title IX, a law designed to protect female athletes, into one that subordinates their interests to those of certain males. It dispenses with any meaningful effort to determine how males are similarly situated to females when it comes to sports ... "The Fourth Circuit’s decision will produce a 'commingling of the biological sexes in the female athletics arena” that will 'significantly undermine the benefits' that separate sports teams 'afford[] to female student athletes.' ... This Court should set things right. The Fourth Circuit’s splintered decision casts into doubt similar laws in at least 24 other States, sows confusion about antidiscrimination law, ignores scientific evidence, and renders school sports an un-administrable morass. In the end, the decision all but declares that any law recognizing differences between sexes is unlawful whenever that law runs counter to someone’s 'gender identity.'" The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 4 heard arguments over a Tennessee case that involves bans on transgender medical procedures, and is poised to rule. It's possible the high court's ruling in that case could moot, or at least partially moot, some of the issues in West Virginia's B.P.J. case. "The Supreme Court heard oral arguments [Dec. 4] in United States v. Skrmetti, arguably the most important transgender rights case the Court has ever heard," wrote Ian Millhiser, a senior correspondent for Vox. "The case asks whether discrimination against transgender people can violate the Constitution — and it appears most of the justices feel it does not. The likely result is that the Court will allow states to ban health procedures that enable gender-affirming care, both for minors and, potentially, adults," Millhiser wrote.Deep-pocketed investors have adopted a bearish approach towards Upstart Hldgs UPST , and it's something market players shouldn't ignore. Our tracking of public options records at Benzinga unveiled this significant move today. The identity of these investors remains unknown, but such a substantial move in UPST usually suggests something big is about to happen. We gleaned this information from our observations today when Benzinga's options scanner highlighted 27 extraordinary options activities for Upstart Hldgs. This level of activity is out of the ordinary. The general mood among these heavyweight investors is divided, with 29% leaning bullish and 70% bearish. Among these notable options, 2 are puts, totaling $100,450, and 25 are calls, amounting to $1,792,031. Expected Price Movements Analyzing the Volume and Open Interest in these contracts, it seems that the big players have been eyeing a price window from $30.0 to $100.0 for Upstart Hldgs during the past quarter. Insights into Volume & Open Interest Assessing the volume and open interest is a strategic step in options trading. These metrics shed light on the liquidity and investor interest in Upstart Hldgs's options at specified strike prices. The forthcoming data visualizes the fluctuation in volume and open interest for both calls and puts, linked to Upstart Hldgs's substantial trades, within a strike price spectrum from $30.0 to $100.0 over the preceding 30 days. Upstart Hldgs Option Activity Analysis: Last 30 Days Largest Options Trades Observed: Symbol PUT/CALL Trade Type Sentiment Exp. Date Ask Bid Price Strike Price Total Trade Price Open Interest Volume UPST CALL TRADE BEARISH 12/27/24 $38.55 $36.85 $37.3 $30.00 $167.8K 71 61 UPST CALL TRADE BEARISH 04/17/25 $15.4 $15.2 $15.2 $65.00 $158.0K 378 4 UPST CALL TRADE BULLISH 01/16/26 $42.5 $40.0 $42.5 $35.00 $136.0K 380 32 UPST CALL TRADE BEARISH 04/17/25 $12.55 $12.2 $12.32 $75.00 $123.2K 1.5K 106 UPST CALL TRADE BULLISH 02/21/25 $12.05 $11.8 $11.99 $67.50 $119.9K 129 103 About Upstart Hldgs Upstart Holdings Inc provides credit services. The company provides a proprietary, cloud-based, artificial intelligence lending platform. The platform aggregates consumer demand for loans and connects it to the network of Upstart AI-enabled bank partners. Upstart's platform includes personal loans, automotive retail and refinance loans, home equity lines of credit and small dollar loans. Where Is Upstart Hldgs Standing Right Now? Trading volume stands at 2,124,883, with UPST's price down by -6.71%, positioned at $67.2. RSI indicators show the stock to be is currently neutral between overbought and oversold. Earnings announcement expected in 46 days. What Analysts Are Saying About Upstart Hldgs In the last month, 3 experts released ratings on this stock with an average target price of $84.0. Turn $1000 into $1270 in just 20 days? 20-year pro options trader reveals his one-line chart technique that shows when to buy and sell. Copy his trades, which have had averaged a 27% profit every 20 days. Click here for access .* Reflecting concerns, an analyst from JP Morgan lowers its rating to Underweight with a new price target of $57.* An analyst from Needham has elevated its stance to Buy, setting a new price target at $100. * An analyst from Redburn Atlantic upgraded its action to Buy with a price target of $95. Options trading presents higher risks and potential rewards. Astute traders manage these risks by continually educating themselves, adapting their strategies, monitoring multiple indicators, and keeping a close eye on market movements. Stay informed about the latest Upstart Hldgs options trades with real-time alerts from Benzinga Pro . © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.