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Call the bots! NYPD rolls out robot police dog

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:39:53 GMT

NEW YORK — New York City officials unveiled three new high-tech policing devices Tuesday, including a robotic dog that critics called creepy when it first joined the police pack 2 1/2 years ago.The new devices, which also include a GPS tracker for stolen cars and a cone-shaped security robot, will be rolled out in a manner that is “transparent, consistent and always done in close collaboration with the people we serve,” said police Commissioner Keechant Sewell, who joined Mayor Eric Adams and other officials at a Times Square press conference where the security robot and the mechanical canine nicknamed Digidog were displayed.“Digidog is out of the pound,” said Adams, a Democrat and former police officer. “Digidog is now part of the toolkit that we are using.”The city’s first robot police dog was leased in 2020 by Adams’ predecessor, former Mayor Bill de Blasio, but the city’s contract for the device was cut short after critics de...

Orioles’ Cole Irvin explains origins of team’s ‘homer hose’ celebration: ‘It’s all in good fun’

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:39:53 GMT

Ryan Mountcastle returned to the Orioles’ dugout after a two-run home run Monday and realized he was once again responsible for debuting a water-themed celebration.His double Wednesday against the Texas Rangers marked the first time Baltimore’s sprinkler-then-spray method of commemorating a two-base hit went into effect. After his blast against the Oakland Athletics, Mountcastle saw teammates at the end of the dugout prepping what has been dubbed the “homer hose,” a funnel connected to a tube that one player pours a bottle of water into, with the Oriole on the other end drinking it.“I’m just the inaugural celebration guy,” Mountcastle said. “We don’t have a triple one yet. I probably won’t be the first for that one.”The team’s obsession with water stems from its spring training talent show, when Adley Rutschman, Gunnar Henderson, Terrin Vavra, Kyle Stowers and Colton Cowser put on what Rutschman referred to as a...

Talking boxing with Kent Greene, the man who once TKO’d a young fighter named Cassius Clay

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:39:53 GMT

Rick Kogan | Chicago TribuneThe old boxer answers the door of his south suburban home with a smile and a firm handshake and he moves across his living room and sits in a chair and tells stories about when he was young and strong and beating the daylights out of people.“I was a good boxer,” Kent Greene says. “There was this one fight in 1958 when I won the Chicago Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions. Fought a guy named Loomis Oglesby. He was from Kansas City. I won by decision. Oglesby was a soldier who was later killed in Vietnam.”Greene will be turning 84 years old in a couple of months but the names from his past come to him with clarity, his memory as fit as he is, looking maybe 20 years younger than the calendar indicates.Of all the names he recalls, there are two most notable: Cassius Clay and Muhammad Ali.“When we first met I was 17 and a half and he was 16,” says Greene. “We fought at the old Chicago Stadium in the quarterfinals of the Golden Gloves. We had no idea what tha...

Bahamas cruise capacity to swell with Nassau revamp, new Disney, Royal Caribbean and Carnival destinations

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:39:53 GMT

Richard Tribou | (TNS) Orlando SentinelThe Bahamas have lined up the capacity to take in thousands of more cruise passengers in the coming years with the planned development of private destinations for Disney, Carnival and Royal Caribbean as well as a soon-to-open overhaul of the port of Nassau.The latest cruise line approval came last month as the government gave the OK for Royal Caribbean to develop a 17-acre portion of Paradise Island in Nassau, already the busiest cruise port destination in the world.Called The Royal Beach Club at Paradise Island, it will be on the western edge of the strip of land that runs alongside the waterway through which ships bring more than 3.5 million passengers a year. Plans are for it to open in 2025.The new venture will offer private cabanas, pools, beach access and Bahamian-styled barbecue with local music and artists on site.The project is a public-private partnership under which Bahamians are invited to own up to 49% of the beach club’s equity, t...

FBI warns airport, hotel, shopping mall cell phone charging stations risky

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:39:53 GMT

Harried traveler beware: those dangling chords from a free charge kiosk at an airport or other public area that seem like a lifesaver could actually be a bed of serpents, authorities warn.“Avoid using free charging stations in airports, hotels or shopping centers. Bad actors have figured out ways to use public USB ports to introduce malware and monitoring software onto devices,” the FBI’s Denver field office recently tweeted. “Carry your own charger and USB cord and use an electrical outlet instead.”The phenomena known as “juice jacking” is not new, nor was the FBI the first agency to try to put out the word.“Be aware that juicing up your electronic device at free USB port charging stations … could have unfortunate consequences. You could become a victim of ‘juice jacking,’ a new cyber-theft tactic,” the Federal Communications Commission warned in an October 2021 bulletin.The trick is that the design of smartphones uses the same port for charging as it does for data transfer —...

Manhattan DA sues Jim Jordan over Trump indictment inquiry

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:39:53 GMT

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and FARNOUSH AMIRI (Associated Press)NEW YORK (AP) — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg sued Rep. Jim Jordan on Tuesday, an extraordinary move as he seeks to halt a House Judiciary Committee inquiry that the prosecutor contends is a “transparent campaign to intimidate and attack” him over his indictment of former President Donald Trump.Bragg, a Democrat, is asking a judge to invalidate subpoenas that Jordan, the committee’s Republican chair, has issued or plans to issue as part of an investigation of Bragg’s handling of the case, the first criminal prosecution of a former U.S. president.U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, a Trump appointee who previously served as a federal bankruptcy court judge, declined Tuesday to take immediate action on the lawsuit. She scheduled an initial hearing for April 19 in Manhattan, the day before the committee plans to question, under subpoena, a top former prosecutor who was involved in the Tr...

Urologist accused of patient sex abuse, including of minors

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:39:53 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — A New York-area doctor was charged in an indictment unsealed Tuesday with sexual abuse of multiple male patients over several years, accused of using the prestige of two prominent medical institutions to make his actions seem medically necessary and appropriate.Darius A. Paduch, 55, of North Bergen, New Jersey, was charged in Manhattan federal court with sexually abusing patients, including two males who were allegedly attacked before they became adults. Authorities said the attacks occurred at one Manhattan hospital from at least 2015 through 2019, and afterward at a second institution on Long Island.At an initial court appearance, Paduch pleaded not guilty to the charges. In the event of a conviction, the charges could lead to a 10-year mandatory-minimum prison sentence or as much as life in prison. Paducah was detained with the expectation that his lawyer would make a bail argument at a future date. His attorney declined to comment.The indictment said Paduch had w...

Northwest Territories government spent $716,000 to address cybersecurity breach

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:39:53 GMT

YELLOWKNIFE — The Northwest Territories government says it spent $716,00 to address a cyberattack in November.It says it signed two work orders under existing contracts to help with containment, investigation and response efforts. The territory says the cybersecurity threat was contained and remediated without the exposure of personal or private information.The cyberattack was made public by Cabin Radio late last week after the local news organization reported that it received an anonymous tip. The territorial government has released few details, citing confidentiality reasons. Todd Sasaki, a spokesman for the Department of Finance, did not respond to questions about the date and time the attack occurred and how the territory’s information technology systems were affected.“Keeping the details of cybersecurity events and our response private makes it harder for cyber threat actors to exploit vulnerabilities or discover attack vectors,” Sasaki wrote in an email Tuesd...

Steve Murdock, Texas scholar who headed Census Bureau, dies

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:39:53 GMT

HOUSTON (AP) — Steve Murdock, a former state demographer of Texas who served one year as the director of the U.S. Census Bureau, during which he helped keep the 2010 census on track, has died. He was 75.Murdock died last Friday, according to Rice University in Houston, where he spent nearly a decade until his retirement in 2019.After being nominated to head the nation’s largest statistical agency by President George W. Bush, Murdock served in the job from January 2008 to January 2009, when he vacated the position with a change in administrations following the election of President Barack Obama.“When he accepted the job, Dr. Murdock knew that it would only be for one year until a new president took over and made his own appointee – a terrific example of someone who puts public service above personal gain or personal needs,” Robert Santos, the current director of the Census Bureau, said in a statement.Murdock was the first state demographer of Texas from 2001 to 2007. He also he...

Arkansas Gov. Huckabee Sanders signs parole changes into law

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 10:39:53 GMT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders approved an overhaul of the state’s sentencing laws Tuesday that will eliminate parole eligibility for certain violent offenses.The Republican governor signed into law legislation that will require anyone convicted of any of 18 violent offenses, including capital murder and rape, to serve 100% of their sentences. That section takes effect next year, so it doesn’t impact people sentenced before 2024.Another part of the law that takes effect in 2025 will require offenders convicted of several other offenses to serve at least 85% of their sentences.“No more letting violent offenders back on the street without serious prison time,” Sanders said at a bill signing ceremony at State Police headquarters.The sentencing overhaul comes as parts of Arkansas have seen a spike in crime in the past year. Arkansas’ capital of Little Rock reported a record number of homicides last year.Republicans in a number of states h...