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Community opposition shuts down Santa Rita Jail expansion project indefinitely

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:25 GMT

A contentious plan to build a new mental health facility at the Santa Rita Jail has been tabled indefinitely, prompting celebration from community advocates who successfully lobbied against the project and sending Alameda County back to the drawing board.The expansion would have added more than 40,000 square feet to the Dublin jail complex — already one of the largest in the nation — by constructing a new stand-alone building for mental health services. The building was to contain treatment rooms as well as offices for Alameda County’s department of Behavioral Health.Related ArticlesCrime and Public Safety | Alameda County to pay $7 million, reform jail training after settlement with family of Maurice Monk The county estimated construction costs at $81 million, with about $26 million coming from county taxpayers.The state of mental health services at the jail has been under scrutiny for years. The vast majority of those incarcerated in the 3,489-capacity ...

Large AI dataset has over 1,000 child abuse images, Stanford researchers Find

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:25 GMT

By Davey Alba and Rachel Metz | BloombergA massive public dataset used to build popular artificial intelligence image generators contains at least 1,008 instances of child sexual abuse material, a new report from the Stanford Internet Observatory found.LAION-5B, which contains more than 5 billion images and related captions from the internet, may also include thousands of additional pieces of suspected child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, according to the report. The inclusion of CSAM in the dataset could enable AI products built on this data — including image generation tools like Stable Diffusion — to create new, and potentially realistic, child abuse content, the report warned.The rise of increasingly powerful AI tools has raised alarms in part because these services are built with troves of online data — including public datasets such as LAION-5B — that can contain copyrighted or harmful content. AI image generators, in particular, rely on datasets that include pairs of images ...

Stolen San Jose statue will cost up to $100,000 to replace. Where will the money come from?

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:25 GMT

A statue stolen out of a San Jose park and then recovered at a scrapyard earlier this year will cost the city up to $100,000 to replace — but no money currently exists to remake it, city officials say.The likeness of 1600s-era Indian ruler Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj riding a horse, installed over two decades ago as a symbol of friendship between the sister cities of San Jose and Pune, the ninth-most-populous city in India, was swiped from Guadalupe River Park in January. The statue, sawed off at the hooves, was then found days later by this news organization, sitting next to a Coke machine at a metal scrapyard that has had multiple run-ins with law enforcement for years.A police investigation never found a culprit. The statue is believed to be made of iron and worth up to $800 as scrap metal. It is currently in the city’s custody.San Jose officials said the sister-city program gets very little funding and cannot cover the cost of remaking the monument, which included a ...

'Dying To Stay Here': The plight of black people in Silicon Valley

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:25 GMT

(BCN) -- A local economist startled by the staggering disparities pushing African Americans to the margins in Santa Clara County is launching a video and podcast project hoping to bring more attention to the issue.Chuck Cantrell's "Dying to Stay Here" video was formally released at CreaTV studios in San Jose earlier this month. The roughly nine-minute film overviews racist societal structures and business cycles that disproportionately punish African Americans in the expensive Silicon Valley, making it harder to live in the region."Marginalized people are the canaries in an economic coal mine. African Americans are singing a song," Cantrell told San Jose Spotlight.Cantrell, an African American economist and San Jose planning commissioner, evaluated 18 different sets of public data focused on health, employment, infant mortality, school populations, wealth gaps and unhoused populations, among other areas."It's publicly available data, I didn't do anything people can't go and discover...

Climate commission report sets guidelines for aggressive state action

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:25 GMT

As Maryland officials put the finishing touches on a plan for how the state should hit its aggressive goals for combating climate change, an adjacent report from a longstanding advisory body offers some clues on what the final recommendations might include.The annual report of the Maryland Commission on Climate Change, which guides the work of the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE), was released last week, and it’s an expansive document with a range of short-, middle- and long-term strategies.The commission has existed in one form or another for 15 years, but as the state intensifies its efforts to fight climate change and fine-tunes its legislative and regulatory arsenals, the commission has seen its stature and political influence elevated. Its work may be even more consequential under the administration of Gov. Wes Moore (D), who has vowed to make the state a national leader in climate policy.“There’s an agenda that these recommendations are leading to,” said Kim Coble,...

Rite Aid banned from using facial recognition technology in stores for five years

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:25 GMT

Rite Aid has been banned from using facial recognition technology for five years over allegations that its surveillance system was used incorrectly to identify potential shoplifters, especially Black, Latino, Asian or female shoppers.The settlement with the Federal Trade Commission addresses charges that the struggling drugstore chain didn’t do enough to prevent harm to its customers and implement “reasonable procedures,” the government agency said.Rite Aid said late Tuesday that it disagrees with the allegations, but that it’s glad it reached an agreement to resolve the issue. It noted in a prepared statement that any agreement will have to be approved in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.Rite Aid announced last fall that it was closing more than 150 stores as it makes its way through a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy process.Rite Aid Corp., based in Philadelphia, has more than 2,000 locations. The company has struggled financially for years and also faces financial risk from lawsuits ov...

Singer-songwriter from Virginia comes out on top on ‘The Voice’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:25 GMT

The new champion of “The Voice” is a singer-songwriter from Fredericksburg, Virginia.Singing competition “The Voice” finished Tuesday night with local fan favorite Michael Huntley singing his heart out and making it to the top.The win marked the second championship for his coach, Niall Horan, formerly of the band One Direction.During the finale, Huntley sang a duet with Horan of “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” by Bob Dylan.“He has taught me that I can be myself in this industry,” Huntley said during the finale about being coached by Horan. “I can be my goofy, Huntley self, and I love that.”The 33-year-old father got his start singing on stages across Virginia. Now, he gets to take home the top $100,000 prize and a record deal.After two years of college, Huntley moved to Nashville to pursue music, but he eventually moved back to Virginia in 2016, according to his NBC bio. He has two children and has worked as a booki...

A winning record on the line when Syracuse and USF meet in the Boca Bowl

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:25 GMT

Boca Raton Bowl: Syracuse (6-6, ACC) vs. South Florida (6-6, American), Dec. 21, 8 p.m. Eastern (ESPN)Line: Syracuse by 3, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.Series record: South Florida leads 8-2.WHAT’S AT STAKE?The winner gets to go into the offseason with a winning record — 7-6. Syracuse is seeking its first bowl win since 2018 and first time posting consecutive winning seasons since 2012 and 2013. South Florida hasn’t won a bowl game since 2017 and hasn’t finished with a winning record since 2018.KEY MATCHUPUSF’s passing defense against Syracuse’s mystery passing game. This is an incredibly odd matchup. USF gave up 301.2 yards per game through the air this season — the most in the country. With primary starter Garrett Shrader hurt, Syracuse plans to start redshirt freshman Braden Davis. He went 1 for 1 passing in the regular season. Safe guess: expect more of the wildcat that Syracuse ran well this season.PLAYERS TO WATCHSyracuse: RB LeQuint Allen. Syracuse ...

Syracuse, USF finishing 2023 in the Boca Bowl, and both sides have futures to be excited about

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:25 GMT

BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) — Syracuse and South Florida are playing in the Boca Raton Bowl with a winning season at stake. That said, both programs are already looking past the 2023 season finale and with good reason.The futures are bright, regardless of what happens Thursday.Syracuse — with new coach Fran Brown making an immediate and massive impact on recruiting — has a group of newcomers arriving in Central New York headlined by Ohio State transfer quarterback Kyle McCord. And South Florida recently unveiled the first renderings of what will be its long-sought on-campus stadium with groundbreaking scheduled next year and a first game target of 2027.So, yes, winning the Boca Bowl and finishing 7-6 will make one of these teams happy. There are much bigger things on the collective minds of both programs.“We feel like our program is definitely trending in a great direction,” said Syracuse interim coach Nunzio Campanile, who took over for the fired Dino Babers and will continue to lead the...

Pedro “La Divaza” Figueira llega con su chispa y estilo único a La Casa de los Famosos 2024

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:47:25 GMT

La Jefa de la La Casa de los Famosos sigue sorprendiendo a sus fans y a las celebridades que se unirán a la nueva temporada del reality #1 de la TV hispana que estrena en vivo el 23 de enero del 2024 por la casa de los realities, Telemundo. En esta ocasión le tocó a Pedro “La Divaza” Figueira, el reconocido creador de contenido LGBTTTIQ+ de los más grandes de Latinoamérica que convivirá con otros famosos, incluyendo a los ya anunciados Thalí García, Gregorio Pernía, Lupillo Rivera y Maripily Rivera. Más famosos formarán parte de esta novela de la vida real que viene con más drama, tensión y sorpresas en su nueva edición.Nacido en Venezuela, Figueira comenzó a incursionar en YouTube relatando la situación de su país natal, llamando la atención de la audiencia a nivel nacional e internacional. Su contenido gira en torno a críticas de premiaciones anuales, vlogs, comedia y temas de relevancia social desde la sin igual forma de ser de La Divaza. ¿Lo reconoces?...