U.S. President Donald Trump slammed actor George Clooney and wife, human rights lawyer Amal, after the couple acquired French citizenship. French authorities fast-tracked granting citizenship to the Clooneys and their children on Dec. 26, a move that became public earlier this week. France's Foreign Minister Jean-Nol Barrot backed the process, stressing the couple's philanthropic work.
The Red Planet might be a lot more like Mad Max than we'd realized. read more
As regulators press Meta to crack down on rogue advertisers on Facebook and Instagram, the social media giant has drafted a "playbook" to stall them. Internal documents seen by Reuters reveal its tactics, including efforts to make scam ads "not findable" when authorities search for them.
The move follows a series of others made by the Trump administration against the recommendation of vaccines. read more
Finnish police on Wednesday seized a ship sailing from Russia on suspicion of sabotaging an undersea telecoms cable ... read more
@#6 ... threatening the measles elimination status that the U.S. has held for a quarter-century. ...
Yup.
This may be the result of our HHS Secretary, a person who seems to have been espousing an anti-vax for years for his personal monetary benefit. Dead Americans for more personal wealth.
How R.F.K. Jr. Has Turned His Public Crusades Into a Private Windfall (2023)
www.nytimes.com
... The causes Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has championed have brought him admiration, criticism -- and tens of millions of dollars. ...
n 2021, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earned more than $500,000 as the chairman and top lawyer at Children's Health Defense, the nonprofit organization that he has helped build into a leading spreader of anti-vaccine falsehoods and a platform for launching his independent bid for the White House.
The compensation was almost three times as high as the amount paid to the organization's president, but it was not Mr. Kennedy's biggest source of income. ...
@#36 ... ... You're just against mail in voting because the more people voting the less likelihood Republicans win their campaigns. That's all there is to it. ...
Georgia's GOP House Speaker says vote-by-mail system would be 'devastating to Republicans' (April 2020)
thehill.com
..."... a multitude of reasons why vote by mail in my view is not acceptable," [Georgia state House Speaker David] Ralston went on, before adding "the president said it best, this will be extremely devastating to Republicans and conservatives in Georgia." ...
"The things they had in there were crazy. They had things, levels of voting that if you ever agreed to, you would never have a Republican elected in this country again," [fmr Pres] Trump said...
@#34 ... Drop boxes are the least of the problems I'm concerned with. ...
Yet, here in Connecticut, there was a significant issue with drop-boxes.
Bridgeport election probe expands; four more operatives charged (July 2025)
ctmirror.org
... The state criminal investigation involving election crimes in Bridgeport grew Wednesday with the arrests of four more people, nearly two years after a judge tossed out the results of the city's 2023 Democratic mayoral primary because of widespread allegations of absentee ballot fraud.
Robert Anderson, Maria Hernandez, Elsie Mercado and Silvia Ramos turned themselves in Wednesday at the Connecticut State Police barracks in Bridgeport.
They were charged with illegally taking possession of voters' absentee ballots during the primary between Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim and his Democratic challenger John Gomes. ...
There is even video (widely shown on CT TV news) of ballots being stuffed.
4 charged with absentee ballot misconduct in 2019 Bridgeport election (June 2024)
www.ctpublic.org
... Four campaign workers are facing charges of misuse of absentee ballots in connection with Bridgeport's 2019 mayoral primary election, including a high-ranking member of the city's Democratic Town Committee.
Chief State's Attorney Patrick J. Griffin announced Tuesday that inspectors from his office arrested the four on charges of unlawful possession of absentee ballots and other election-related criminal offenses.
Those charged include Wanda Geter-Pataky, the vice chairwoman of the Bridgeport Democratic Town Committee, and Alfredo Castillo, a member of Bridgeport's city council, along with campaign workers Josephine Edmonds and Nilsa Heredia, according to Griffin's office.
"Integrity of our voting process is vital to our democracy," Griffin said in a written statement. "I appreciate the attention and time the Statewide Prosecution Bureau put into these investigations. I hope these prosecutions will send a message that deters tampering with election results in the future in Connecticut."
The four defendants are scheduled to appear in Bridgeport Superior Court on June 24. A lawyer representing Geter-Pataky did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It was not immediately clear whether the other defendants had hired legal representatives.
News of the arrests comes more than four years after Bridgeport's closely-contested 2019 mayoral race, in which incumbent Mayor Joe Ganim was reelected to another term.
However, allegations of absentee misconduct prompted an investigation by the State Elections Enforcement Commission, which referred the case to the state's top prosecutors after conducting a probe that lasted more than three years.
In the interim, allegations of election misconduct surfaced again in Bridgeport, this time garnering national attention. A judge ordered the city to redo its 2024 mayoral election after a video surfaced that appeared to show Geter-Pataky stuffing papers into a ballot drop box.
An investigation into the video is still underway. The charges announced Tuesday pertain only to the race four years earlier. ...
fwiw, Bridgeport politics are known here in CT to be, ummm, I'll be kind, different from the rest of the state.
Nearly 1 million ballots are in the mail as Utah's voting begins
archive.sltrib.com
... Let the voting begin.
County clerks mailed out an estimated 920,000 ballots Monday for the June 28 primary election.
All-by-mail voting is occurring in 20 of Utah's 29 counties and will involve about three of every four registered voters in the state. ...
Securing Your Mail Ballot
vote.utah.gov
... Utah has been voting by mail for over a decade, and it has proven to be a secure and accessible way to vote. Keep reading below for more information: ...
@#8 ... How is Mr Musk "training" his AI?
And for what purpose? ...
xAI silent after Grok sexualized images of kids
arstechnica.com
... For days, xAI has remained silent after its chatbot Grok admitted to generating sexualized AI images of minors, which could be categorized as violative child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) in the US.
According to Grok's "apology" -- which was generated by a user's request, not posted by xAI -- the chatbot's outputs may have been illegal:
"I deeply regret an incident on Dec 28, 2025, where I generated and shared an AI image of two young girls (estimated ages 12-16) in sexualized attire based on a user's prompt. This violated ethical standards and potentially US laws on CSAM. It was a failure in safeguards, and I'm sorry for any harm caused. xAI is reviewing to prevent future issues."
Ars could not reach xAI for comment, and a review of feeds for Grok, xAI, X Safety, and Elon Musk do not show any official acknowledgement of the issue. ...
I saw on the evening NYC TV news here...
Shortly after his inauguration, Mayor Mamdani has been mingling among the people of NYC ...
NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani greets commuters on subway, announces Office of Mass Engagement
abc7ny.com
Mayor Zohran Mamdani announces action to make New York City housing more affordable
abc7ny.com