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Carol City Elementary unveils book vending machine in effort to motivate youth literacy

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:40:12 GMT

There’s a new vending machine at Carol City Elementary School in Miami Gardens — but this one dispenses a love of reading.The school on Friday afternoon celebrated the arrival of a book vending machine, a fun and unique way to motivate youth literacy.Students will receive tokens based on good behavior, achievements and attendance. The tokens can then be used to dispense books.“It gives them the opportunity to choose the book of their choice to read in their personal time, for leisure,” said Tiffany Davis, the school’s principal, “so it’s not just an assignment; it’s something that they want to do.”The nonprofit DonorsChoose, along with Carter’s-OshKosh B’Gosh children’s clothing company, helped Carol City Elementary acquire Scholastic books to fill the machine.

16-year-old boy dies on way to hospital after shooting in Hallandale Beach

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:40:12 GMT

Police are investigating a shooting in Hallandale Beach that claimed the life of a 16-year-old boy.According to Hallandale Beach Police, units responded to a ShotSpotter alert along the 800 block of Foster Road, just after 9:30 p.m., Thursday.Responding officers arrived to find not victim at the scene.Someone tried to drive the teen, who was suffering from a gunshot wound, to the hospital but stopped in the area of Southwest 21st Avenue and Hollywood Boulevard to call for help.Despite lifesaving measures, officials said, the teen did not survive.If you have any information on this shooting, call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS. Remember, you can always remain anonymous, and you may be eligible for a reward of up to $5,000.

White House completes $50 million revamp of high-security Situation Room

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:40:12 GMT

(CNN) — The White House Situation Room, the high-security complex beneath the West Wing where presidents watch history unfold and receive top-secret intelligence, has undergone a much-needed makeover for the first time in 15 years.The yearlong gut renovation saw the ground dug out five feet to remove concrete and cables, the walls stripped to the studs, and the entire room refitted with enhanced security and technology. The government’s bill came in slightly north of its $50 million budget, according to Marc Gustafson, the Situation Room’s director who joined the White House to oversee the project and its team of contractors who all required varying levels of security clearances to work on site.“The stonemason didn’t need top secret,” Gustafson said with a laugh, noting that the later phases of construction were more sensitive than the early groundwork.While the name suggests a singular enclosure, the Situation Room complex features three boardrooms of graduating size...

Judge denies Mark Meadows’ request to move his Georgia election subversion case to federal court

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:40:12 GMT

By KATE BRUMBACK (Associated Press)ATLANTA (AP) — A judge on Friday denied Mark Meadows’ request to move his Georgia election subversion case to federal court, ruling that the Trump White House chief of staff must fight the charges in state court instead.U.S. District Judge Steve Jones in Atlanta wrote in a 49-page ruling that Meadows “has not met even the ‘quite low’ threshold” to move his case to federal court, noting that the question was whether the actions at issue were related to his role as a federal official.“The evidence adduced at the hearing establishes that the actions at the heart of the State’s charges against Meadows were taken on behalf of the Trump campaign with an ultimate goal of affecting state election activities and procedures,” Jones wrote. “Meadows himself testified that working for the Trump campaign would be outside the scope of a White House Chief of Staff.”The ruling is a big early win for ...

Biden administration to invest $26M in airline safety technology to prevent close calls between planes

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:40:12 GMT

The Biden administration said Friday it will invest more money in aviation safety and consider requiring planes to be equipped with technology designed to prevent close calls around airports.The moves come after a string of close calls at airports around the country. Federal investigators have begun looking into seven such incidents since January, and those are only the most serious ones.The White House said it is investing $26 million in new safety measures, including automation to alert air traffic controllers about planes that are heading for the wrong runway. The money will also outfit more airports with radar systems that track the movement of planes on runways and taxiways.Separately, the Federal Aviation Administration asked an internal advisory panel of experts to make recommendations on how to require systems that would alert pilots if they are lined up to land on the wrong runway or a taxiway, or when the runway they have chosen is too short.Many new airline jets are equip...

Ticker: Wall Street closes its worst week in the last 3 with a quiet finish

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:40:12 GMT

Stocks drifted to a slightly higher close on Wall Street but still closed out their first losing week in the last three. The S&P 500 rose 0.1% Friday following three straight days of declines. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 75 points, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.1%.Treasury yields held relatively steady, helping to keep trading quiet. Strong reports on the economy earlier in the week sent yields higher and raised worries the Federal Reserve may keep interest rates higher for longer. High rates can slow inflation, but they hurt investment prices.X, formerly Twitter, sues California over content moderation lawElon Musk’s social media platform formerly known as Twitter has sued the state of California over a law requiring social media companies to publish their policies for removing offending material such as hate speech, misinformation and harassment.The first-of-its-kind legislation was signed into law a year ago by California Gov. Gavin Newsom. In a lawsuit filed Fri...

Injured Orioles closer Félix Bautista plays catch, but Brandon Hyde ‘wouldn’t put any stock into it’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:40:12 GMT

Two weeks to the day after exiting the mound in the ninth inning with a right elbow injury, Orioles All-Star closer Félix Bautista played catch on the field before Friday night’s game at Fenway Park.It was the second time Bautista played catch since he was placed on the 15-day injured list Aug. 26 with an injury to his ulnar collateral ligament, a day after he left a strike away from closing out a victory against the Colorado Rockies. Bautista also threw earlier this week during the team’s series at the Los Angeles Angels, manager Brandon Hyde said, but Hyde suggested that the sessions don’t dramatically change Bautista’s outlook, saying Bautista playing catch is “not really” significant.“I wouldn’t put any emphasis, positive or negative,” Hyde said. “He was playing a little bit of catch. Just kind of see how he feels.“I wouldn’t put any stock into it.”After playing catch, Bautista walked, glove in ha...

Amazon to require some authors to disclose the use of AI material

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:40:12 GMT

After months of complaints from the Authors Guild and other groups, Amazon.com has started requiring writers who want to sell books through its e-book program to tell the company in advance that their work includes artificial intelligence material.The Authors Guild praised the new regulations, which were posted Wednesday, as a “welcome first step” toward deterring the proliferation of computer-generated books on the online retailer’s site. Many writers feared computer-generated books could crowd out traditional works and would be unfair to consumers who didn’t know they were buying AI content.In a statement posted on its website, the Guild expressed gratitude toward “the Amazon team for taking our concerns into account and enacting this important step toward ensuring transparency and accountability for AI-generated content.”A passage posted this week on Amazon’s content guideline page said, “We define AI-generated content as text, images, or translations created by an AI-based...

Haverhill man gets 8+ years in prison for identity fraud-based car theft scheme

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:40:12 GMT

The leader of a years-long conspiracy, a Haverhill man stole identities to purchase nearly 50 vehicles from dealerships across Massachusetts and several other states, gaining more than $2 million in cars and other merchandise.U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris sentenced Alvin Rivera, 40, to 8 1/2 years in prison and ordered him to pay $389,141 in restitution to the identity theft victims he and his co-conspirators used to load up on the cars and merch.From October 2017 to September 2020, Rivera provided stolen identity information to co-conspirators to buy late-model vehicles at Bay State car dealerships. They also applied for 100% financing, according to the state’s U.S. Attorney’s Office.“In support of the applications, the co-conspirators provided stolen biographical information from real United States citizens, fraudulent Puerto Rico driver’s licenses and Social Security cards in those identities, as proof of identification,” a release from the office states. “The co-consp...

Hurricane Lee could hit Boston, NYC, but still too early to know for sure: meteorologists

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:40:12 GMT

While some models are forecasting Hurricane Lee to hit the East Coast next week, with Boston and New York City potentially taking the brunt of the impact, meteorologists say it’s still too early to know if and when the storm will arrive.The category 4 hurricane, capable of generating waves of up to 15 feet, charged through warm Atlantic waters on Friday and threatened to unleash heavy swells across the northeast Caribbean. It became the season’s first Category 5 storm before weakening slightly.Two models — the European and American — project Lee either hitting Boston directly, or scraping along the coast of Cape Cod before heading into the Canadian Maritimes. Heavy rains and a deadly storm surge would be present in both scenarios.But residents across Greater Boston and New England should not be alarmed, as of now, said Bryce Williams, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Boston office.“I can tell you that we don’t know if it’s going to impact New England at this point. ...