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GM’s Cruise to slash fleet of robotaxis by 50% in San Francisco after collisions

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:16:42 GMT

(CNN) — California authorities have asked General Motors to “immediately” take some of its Cruse robotaxis off the road after autonomous vehicles were involved in two collisions – including one with an active fire truck – last week in San Francisco.California’s Department of Motor Vehicles confirmed to CNN that it is investigating “recent concerning incidents involving Cruise vehicles in San Francisco.”“The DMV is in contact with Cruise and law enforcement officials to determine the facts and requested Cruise to immediately reduce its active fleet of operating vehicles by 50% until the investigation is complete and Cruise takes appropriate corrective actions to improve road safety,” the department said in a statement.That means Cruise, which is the self-driving subsidiary of General Motors, can have no more than 50 driverless cars in operation during the day, and 150 in operation at night, according to the department.The California DMV said that Cruise has agreed to the request, and...

Sketch and surveillance video released in assault and kidnapping case near Fort Lauderdale

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:16:42 GMT

NEAR FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (WSVN) — The Broward Sheriff’s Office Special Victims Unit released a sketch of an individual involved in a disturbing case of sexual assault and attempted kidnapping. Detectives have also released surveillance footage showing the suspect’s vehicle.The incident occurred around 3 a.m. on Saturday, August 12, in unincorporated Broward County near the 2900 block of West Sunrise Boulevard. According to the victim, an adult female, she was seated on a curb when an unfamiliar man driving a dark-colored pick-up truck pulled up and propositioned her with money for sexual favors. Rejecting the suspect, she began to walk away.Subsequently, the man exited his vehicle, forcibly grabbing the victim’s arm, and compelling her into the truck, according to authorities. Authorities said despite the victim’s struggle, the suspect managed to overpower her outside the vehicle and sexually assault her.The victim was able to break free from the susp...

United Airlines pilot charged in bizarre ax attack caught on video in Denver International Airport lot

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:16:42 GMT

DENVER (KCNC) — A United Airlines pilot has been charged in a bizarre ax attack earlier this month in which he savaged a parking arm at a Denver International Airport employee parking lot, causing an estimated $700 in damage. Police say the pilot, Kenneth Henderson Jones, told them “He just hit his breaking point.”Video of the incident on on Aug. 2 obtained by CBS News Colorado showed the 63-year-old pilot armed with a full-sized ax. In the video, he chops at the parking arm at the exit gate of an employee parking lot 23 times until he knocked the parking arm off its base. After that, Jones scuffles at length a few minutes later with an airport employee who saw what happened and tried to take the ax away from the pilot. The pilot only surrenders the ax after a second Denver International Airport employee intervenes and helps wrestle it away. Airport administrators described it as a “physical struggle” with no injuries.Adams County authorities have charg...

UK antitrust enforcer to Microsoft: You can’t bully us

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:16:42 GMT

LONDON — In the high-stakes game of Big Tech deal-making, Microsoft — and not the British antitrust enforcer — blinked first.After enduring a fierce, four-month-long lobbying campaign led by senior Microsoft executives, the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said on Tuesday it had rejected the U.S. tech giant’s plea to revisit its original decision to block a major gaming merger.Instead, Microsoft has submitted a new, restructured takeover of Activision for the British watchdog to review, under which it will sell the rights to stream existing and new Activision PC and console games to rival French game maker Ubisoft. The rights Ubisoft will acquire outside of the European Economic Area will be exclusive.As the CMA’s biggest merger investigation post-Brexit, the case has been seen as a litmus test for the regulator now that Britain is out of the bloc. Before Brexit, the European Commission had jurisdiction over competition merger investigations, meaning if the U.K. was st...

Mediterranean diet during pregnancy improved 2-year-olds’ cognitive, social abilities

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:16:42 GMT

(CNN) — Mothers who followed the Mediterranean diet while pregnant improved their children’s cognitive, social and emotional development at age 2 compared with children whose mothers did not follow the diet, according to a new randomized clinical trial.“At year 2 the children’s brains are harvesting some of the benefits that they received in their adequate nutrition during their intrauterine life,” said Dr. Miguel Martínez-González, a professor of preventive medicine and public health at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain, in an email. He was not involved in the study.“No other dietary model possesses such an impressive accrual of scientific evidence as the traditional Mediterranean diet,” said Martínez-González, who is also an adjunct professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.The Mediterranean diet, which features simple, plant-based cooking, has been shown in studies to reduce the risk for diabetes, high ch...

Boston man faces federal charge in connection with armed robberies in Jamaica Plain, Dorchester

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:16:42 GMT

A 33-year-old man from Boston is now facing a federal charge, in addition to state charges for a string of armed robberies that affected businesses in both Jamaica Plain and Dorchester.The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts announced that Akeem Lahens was charged with one count of Affecting Commerce by Armed Robbery, months after the robberies occurred in April and May 2023.The announcement came as Lahens remains in state custody, following his arrest back on May 5, after both a Boost Mobile and Cricket Wireless in Jamaica Plain were robbed in late April by a suspect armed with two large knives. A similar robbery also took place at a Dunkin Donuts in Dorchester a day before Lahens’s arrest.“Law enforcement believed that the robberies were connected and the perpetrator was likely the same person, as the suspect’s appearance in surveillance footage and witnesses descriptions was the same,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office stated in a news ...

Trump’s co-defendants begin to turn themselves in at Fulton County jail

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:16:42 GMT

(CNN) — The first two of President Donald Trump’s co-defendants surrendered at the Fulton County jail on Tuesday, setting the tone for how the defendants will be processed and how the case will progress.John Eastman, a right-wing lawyer who advised Trump on plots to disrupt Congress’ certification of the 2020 election results, turned himself in at the jail on Tuesday, shortly after Scott Hall, a bail bondsman in Atlanta.They had signed a bond agreement with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Monday. Hall was given an inmate identification number and released after spending roughly an hour at the jail on Tuesday.Willis has charged Trump and 18 of co-defendants of participating in schemes to meddle with Georgia’s election results.All 19 defendants are expected to surrender ahead of a Friday deadline set by Willis when she unveiled last week’s sweeping indictment over attempts to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.Trump, who agreed to a $200,000...

Commandos pluck 2 children from dangling cable car in Pakistan; 6 more people wait for rescue

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:16:42 GMT

By RIAZ KHAN (Associated Press)PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Army commandos dangling from helicopters plucked two children from a broken cable car suspended hundreds of meters (feet) above a canyon Tuesday in a remote part of Pakistan, the military said. Four more children and two adults still awaited rescue as night fell.The military said in a statement that the rescue mission was still underway. Footage on TV stations showed a child in a harness being pulled to safety. The commandos’ rope could be seen swaying in the wind against the mountainous landscape.An expert described the rescue as extremely delicate because the wind generated by the helicopter blades could further weaken the remaining cables holding the car aloft.Relatives of those trapped prayed while anxiously watching the operation unfold. The rescue also transfixed the country as Pakistanis crowded around televisions in offices, shops, restaurants and hospitals.According to Pakistani TV stations, some of those ...

Massachusetts police misconduct database sheds light on discipline used by agencies

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:16:42 GMT

More than a quarter of the cops whose disciplinary records are listed in a state database received a suspension of between one and five days for their misconduct, according to data released Tuesday.The disciplinary records database maintained by the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission details thousands of allegations of misconduct against officers, the disciplinary outcomes, and some details of the incidents.It offers a first glimpse at the backgrounds of local police officers and allows the public to scrape data to glean more information on bad behavior dating back to December 1984 through Jan. 31.Roughly 17% of police officers listed in the database received a written reprimand for their alleged misconduct. Another 12% got a written warning or letter of counseling and just over 9% were subject to retraining, according to the database.Less than 1% of officers in the database were demoted or offered a last chance agreement and just over 5% were handed a suspension of bet...

Maxine Hong Kingston, bell hooks among those honored by Ishmael Reed’s Before Columbus Foundation

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 06:16:42 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Maxine Hong Kingston, Darryl Pinckney and the late bell hooks were among the authors honored this year by the Before Columbus Foundation, a nonprofit co-founded by Ishmael Reed that celebrates multicultural literature.Established in 1976, the Before Columbus Foundation each year presents American Book Awards to both fiction and nonfiction writers. Kingston, best known for her memoir “The Woman Warrior,” received a lifetime achievement prize. Pinckney was cited for his memoir “Come Back in September,” and hooks, who died in 2021, was given a special award for criticism. On Tuesday, the foundation also announced awards for Ayanna Lloyd Banwo’s novel “When We Were Birds,” Leila Mottley’s “Nightcrawling: A Novel,” Everett Hoagland’s poetry collection “The Ways” and Bojan Louis’ “Sinking Bell: Stories.” Other winners included Edgar Gomez’s memoir “High Risk Homosexual”; Aidan Levy’s biography of jazz great Sonny Rollins, “Saxophon...