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Dowden’s ‘hit squad’ aims to replace civil service jobs with AI

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:41 GMT

LONDON — Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden has set up a new unit dedicated to using AI to streamline the functioning of government, fight welfare fraud and help process asylum claims.Outlining the new £5 million “Incubator for AI” in a briefing on Monday, Dowden said the emerging technology could be a “significant downward driver” in reducing the size of the civil service, which he said had ballooned because of Brexit and the COVID pandemic. “I’m a Conservative, I want the smallest possible state and the best possible outcomes,” Dowden told a pack of journalists.Dowden said the unit would likely look at how AI could be used in areas such as tackling welfare fraud; asylum and immigration processing and in how the public interact with the healthcare service.“What I see with this is a transformative tool to be able to enhance the pace of technology in a way that can help us deliver better outcomes with fewer inputs, and ultimately, that should be able to save taxpayers...

Joe Andruzzi Foundation serves up support ahead of Thanksgiving with meal baskets for cancer patients and their families

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:41 GMT

Former Patriots offensive lineman Joe Andruzzi and the Joe Andruzzi Foundation are serving up some support ahead of Thanksgiving. On Monday, the foundation handed out meal baskets to dozens of cancer patients and their families in North Attleboro. “We’re giving back here at the Joe Andruzzi Foundation, helping cancer patients through this great holiday called Thanksgiving,” Andruzzi said. For 15 years, the Andruzzi Foundation has been helping families living with cancer.In Monday’s event, the foundation distributed more than 70 Thanksgiving meal baskets to families who need them. The mission hits close to home after Andruzzi’s own battle with cancer in 2007. Though he is now cancer free, Andruzzi said he knows others are still fighting their own battle. “When you’re battling cancer, you got to choose between putting food on your table or buying your medicine,” Andruzzi said. “We don’t want anybody to choose that. That’s why we step in and try to help them co...

Travel Troubles

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:41 GMT

Big week, folks! Lotta travel to be had and for much of the week, we good! the only issue will be a sizable storm plowing the Northeast Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday, rain will be in play from Chicago to Detroit, Pittsburgh and Atlanta with some thunderstorms likely in Atlanta. Quiet weather dominates west of the Mississippi. Here in New England, dry road conditions expected from sun up to sun down.The issue will be mid evening Tuesday until Noon Wednesday. That is when the storm has its greatest influence on travel here in the Northeast. Plan on rain for much of southern New England but I do think for a few hours, interior southern New England will have some snow before changing over to rain by midnight Tuesday night. Here is the snow potential map for late Tuesday evening (our first snow map of the season—try to contain your excitement)…By Wednesday morning, even the higher elevations will be too warm for snow so travel conditions should just offer wet roads (not w...

Ravens TE Mark Andrews has an ‘outside chance’ to return this season from ankle injury

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:41 GMT

Ravens tight end Mark Andrews has an “outside chance” to play again this season after tests showed his ankle injury was not as severe as initially feared, coach John Harbaugh said.Andrews was injured by a hip-drop tackle from Bengals linebacker Logan Wilson on the Ravens’ first drive last Thursday. Harbaugh said after the game the injury was serious and likely season-ending.“Nothing’s completely definitive yet,” he said Monday. “My understanding is, in talking with our trainer and doctors, that it wasn’t as bad as initially feared right after the game. … It’s a little cleaner than we thought based on the MRI. He’s going to be involved with Dr. [Robert] Anderson down there in Charlotte over the next few days, and we’ll know more.”Harbaugh declined to say when Andrews might have a chance to return under the most optimistic scenario. “I don’t want to say that it’s definitive by any stretch, ...

No more waiting list — for now — as Chicago Cubs make season tickets available for immediate purchase

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:41 GMT

Chicago Cubs fans wanting season tickets no longer need to hold off until their name comes up on the waiting list.The Cubs released season tickets to the public Monday, including a new 20-game plan with seats available in the field box outfield, upper box infield, upper box midfield and upper box outfield sections. Fans also can purchase a 40-game plan or full season tickets.The Cubs created a waiting list for season tickets around 2003, and during the team’s peak seasons it could take a few years for fans to reach the top. The Cubs anticipate they will need the list again in the near future.For now, though, anyone can buy season tickets while there is inventory this offseason.“We do have a limited amount of season tickets still remaining,” Cale Vennum, senior vice president of Marquee 360, which oversees Cubs ticketing, told the Tribune. ”We’ve seen that growing back since COVID, as you’ve seen attendance increase each year since we returned to f...

Judge bans media cameras in Bryan Kohberger case, will broadcast trial on his own YouTube channel instead

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:41 GMT

Sally Krutzig | (TNS) Idaho StatesmanBOISE, Idaho — A court order from the judge overseeing the case against Bryan Kohberger, who is suspected of murdering four University of Idaho students, publicly released Monday outlines his news rules regarding cameras in the courtroom during Kohberger’s trial.Judge John Judge of Idaho’s 2nd Judicial District in Latah County previously said he’d permit cameras but wanted to have more “control over them.” In the court order, Judge said he will grant Kohberger’s motion to “remove cameras” operated by the media, including both video and still photography. Instead, a court-operated camera will livestream the trial, which the public will be able to watch online on Judge’s YouTube channel.The judge said in his order that this route “will ensure the public still has access to see the proceedings for themselves if they cannot attend hearings in person.” The ruling was filed at 5 p.m. Friday and made public through the Idaho judicial branch’s website Mo...

Meeting demand: Shippers prepared for holiday rush

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:41 GMT

Carriers like the U.S. Postal Service, FedEx and United Parcel Service have capacity to meet projected demand this holiday season, which is cheery news for shippers and shoppers alike.Like last year, there’s expected to be little drama compared to struggles during the pandemic when people hunkered down at home and turned to online shopping while major carriers including the Postal Service simultaneously struggled with absences and a flood of parcel shipments.Louis DeJoy, postmaster general, said the Postal Service goal is to make peak holiday season delivery “superior and routine.”All told, the parcel industry has a capacity of delivering more than 120 million parcels compared to a projected holiday peak of 82 million per day, slightly less than last year, said Satish Jindel, from ShipMatrix.But shoppers shouldn’t wait to the last minute. “It’s not a ticket to procrastination,” he said.This is the all-important season for shoppers, and it ac...

Circle K offering discount on gas ahead of Thanksgiving in these states

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:41 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- Circle K is celebrating the holiday season by offering a discount on gas in West Coast states ahead of Thanksgiving Day. Those in California, Oregon and Washington can enjoy savings of up to 40 cents off per gallon on Tuesday, Nov. 21 between 4 and 7 p.m. at participating Circle K locations part of the Circle K "Fuel Day Pop-up." The deal also gives customers 50% off car wash services all day at locations in those states. $1.99 gas: Sheetz drops prices for Thanksgiving week The move follows Sheetz, a convenience store chain in Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia, which is lowering its gas prices for Unleaded 88 gasoline to $1.99 per gallon through Monday, Nov. 27. Spend ‘Christmas on the Sand’ at La Jolla Christmas Parade & Holiday Festival There are several Circle K locations throughout San Diego County. Find the nearest Circle K near you on their online store locator. “Just in time for Thanksgiving get-togethers and road trips,...

Deep sea explorer Don Walsh, part of 2-man crew to first reach deepest point of ocean, dies at 92

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:41 GMT

Retired Navy Capt. Don Walsh, an explorer who in 1960 was part of a two-man crew that made the first voyage to the deepest part of the ocean — to the “snuff-colored ooze” at the bottom of the Pacific’s Mariana Trench — has died. He was 92.Walsh died Nov. 12 at his home in Myrtle Point, Oregon, his daughter, Elizabeth Walsh, said Monday.In January 1960, Walsh, then a U.S. Navy lieutenant, and Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard were sealed inside a 150-ton, steel-hulled bathyscaphe named the Trieste to attempt to dive nearly 7 miles (11 kilometers) below the surface. A bathyscaphe is a self-propelled submersible used in deep-sea dives.The two men descended to 35,800 feet (11,000 meters) in the Challenger Deep, the deepest point of the Earth’s oceans, part of the Mariana Trench, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) off Guam in the Pacific. After a descent of about five hours, the steel-hulled submersible touched down on what the log described as the “snuff-colored ooze” of silt ste...

Arizona county again rejects a bid to hand-count all 2024 ballots

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:30:41 GMT

KINGMAN, Ariz. (AP) — For the second time in nearly four months, officials in a northwestern Arizona county narrowly rejected a proposal to hand count all ballots in the 2024 election cycle rather than using electronic tabulating equipment.The 3-2 vote on Monday by the Mohave County Board of Supervisors against the proposal came a day after Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes told officials that approving the proposal would mean directing election workers to violate the law. She warned that her office would file a lawsuit if the measure was approved.A hand count was also rejected in early August after Board Chairman Travis Lingenfelter said he couldn’t justify the cost given that Mohave County’s budget deficit already stands at about $16 million. County election officials had said it would take 245 new workers and $1.1 million to count all ballots by hand.Lingenfelter, who voted against the measure both times, said he put the proposal on Monday’s agenda because he told state Sen....