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AI presents political peril for 2024 with threat to mislead voters

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:25 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Computer engineers and tech-inclined political scientists have warned for years that cheap, powerful artificial intelligence tools would soon allow anyone to create fake images, video and audio that was realistic enough to fool voters and perhaps sway an election.The synthetic images that emerged were often crude, unconvincing and costly to produce, especially when other kinds of misinformation were so inexpensive and easy to spread on social media. The threat posed by AI and so-called deepfakes always seemed a year or two away. No more. Sophisticated generative AI tools can now create cloned human voices and hyper-realistic images, videos and audio in seconds, at minimal cost. When strapped to powerful social media algorithms, this fake and digitally created content can spread far and fast and target highly specific audiences, potentially taking campaign dirty tricks to a new low.The implications for the 2024 campaigns and elections are as large as they are troubl...

Child social media stars have few protections. Illinois aims to fix that

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:25 GMT

CHICAGO (AP) — Holed up at home during the pandemic lockdown three years ago, 13-year-old Shreya Nallamothu was scrolling through social media when she noticed a pattern: Children even younger than her were the stars — dancing, cracking one-liners and being generally adorable. “It seemed innocuous to me at first,” Nallamothu said. But as she watched more and more posts of kids pushing products or their mishaps going viral, she started to wonder: Who is looking out for them?“I realized that there’s a lot of exploitation that can happen within the world of ‘kidfluencing,’” said Nallamothu, referring to the monetization of social media content featuring children. “And I realized that there was absolutely zero legislation in place to protect them.”Illinois lawmakers aim to change that by making their state what they say will be the first in the country to create protections for child social media influencers. Nallamothu, now 15, raised her concerns to Illinois state Sen. David Koe...

Chicago Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson prepares to take office

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:25 GMT

CHICAGO — Chicago will get a new mayor Monday when Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson is sworn in.Johnson will arguably be the most progressive mayor Chicagoans have elected. WATCH: Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot leaves city hall for last time He will become the 57th mayor and the leader of America's third-largest city.His administration will face several challenges on day one, including choosing a new police superintendent and coming up with a plan to fight violence, which normally spikes during the upcoming Memorial Day weekend and summer. On Saturday, Brandon Johnson resigned as a Cook County Commissioner. His full resignation letter is below. “Today, I announced my resignation from the Cook County Board of Commissioners. As excited as I am about my future as mayor of Chicago, I am also sobered and humbled to be leaving my constituents and colleagues on the Board, because together, we have done so much important work to transform Cook County government.“As I look back on these last fou...

Weekend Break: Sneakerhead University

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:25 GMT

CHICAGO — WGN Weekend Morning News stopped by Sneakerhead University for Weekend Break. Love the WGN Morning News? We love you, too. And you can have all the hijinks delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign up and subscribe to our WGN Morning News newsletter. Sneakerhead University is located at 133 South State Street in Chicago.

A Mother's Day surprise for WGN's Gaynor Hall

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:25 GMT

CHICAGO — WGN Weekend Morning News Anchor Gaynor Hall had a surprise during the Mother's Day show.Love the WGN Morning News? We love you, too. And you can have all the hijinks delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. Sign up and subscribe to our WGN Morning News newsletter. You can watch this story in the player above.

Linda Yaccarino thanks Musk for opportunity, shares excitement to 'build Twitter 2.0'

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:25 GMT

(The Hill) – Incoming Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino thanked Elon Musk on Saturday for her new role at the social media company and shared her excitement to “build Twitter 2.0."“Thank you @elonmusk! I’ve long been inspired by your vision to create a brighter future,” Yaccarino tweeted. “I’m excited to help bring this vision to Twitter and transform this business together!”“I see I have some new followers,” she added in her thread. “I’m not as prolific as @elonmusk (yet!), but I’m just as committed to the future of this platform.""Your feedback is VITAL to that future. I’m here for all of it," Yaccarino continued. "Let’s keep the conversation going and build Twitter 2.0 together!"Musk announced on Friday that Yaccarino would take over as CEO, while he would transition into a new role as executive chair and chief technology officer. The billionaire had previously promised in December that he would step down as CEO “as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job.” ...

Mother delivers own baby thanks to Missouri 911 dispatcher's help

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:25 GMT

PIKE COUNTY, Mo. (KTVI) — A Missouri mother safely delivered her own baby boy in a car thanks to the help of a Pike County 911 dispatcher.Christie Rosenstengle welcomed baby Reece into the world on May 11 in her and her husband's car. It was about 1:30 a.m., and Rosenstengle's husband, Kaleb, was driving them to the hospital when Rosenstengle said it was time."As soon as we were about to pull off in Eolia, I said my water's going to break... You have to stop. Stop the car. Pull over." Can folded dollar bills on the ground be deadly? What to know On the other end of the phone was a Pike County 911 dispatcher Faith Cooper."The operator, she was fantastic," Rosenstengle said. "She asked us 'How far apart are her contractions?' Like, trying to help us establish if we needed to pull over if we needed to keep going."Her contractions were less than 3 minutes apart."She taught Kaleb through helping me deliver the baby, and he's done it before," Rosenstengle said. "But it was cool to have ...

Escaped Ohio inmate back in custody

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:25 GMT

WAPAKONETA, Ohio (WDTN) — An Ohio man who escaped the Auglaize County Jail in Wapakoneta was back in custody Sunday. According to the Auglaize County Sheriff's Office, law enforcement was looking for 30 year-old Brendan Reed. He was said to have escaped the jail on Saturday, May 13 around 12:30 p.m. and was last seen just south of the office, near the Wapakoneta Water Treatment Plant. Can folded dollar bills on the ground be deadly? What to know Authorities say he left by forcing open a locked door and fled from the the jail.Originally, he was being held on a drug violation, the sheriff's office said in a release.The sheriff's office said Reed was back in custody Sunday, but didn't immediately offer additional details on his capture.

Another day with a wet forecast

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:25 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Happy Mother's Day.Showers with a few embedded areas of heavy rain moved into Fayette County shortly before 4:30 Sunday morning. The rain progressed to the north to provide a wet start to the day throughout Fayette and Lee Counties spreading west into Bastrop County. By 7:00 a.m. one of the gauges at La Grange had measured .46" while another near Giddings picked up .32". Preliminary 24-hour rainfall totals The Flood Warning for the Middle Yegua Creek near Dime Box was cancelled before 8 a.m. Flood stage was at 9' and dropping. The outlook for today finds the majority of the showers and thunderstorms in our eastern counties. Very late in the afternoon into early evening is when we are looking at some of this rain spreading into the Hill Country.The eastern counties measure the majority of this afternoon's rainThe updated flood threat for today has eastern Fayette County in the moderate category (3 of 4). The rest of Fayette, eastern Bastrop, all of Lee and much of ...

STUDY: Texas voted largest Gen-Z workforce

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 18:11:25 GMT

KDAF (DALLAS) — Gen Z is known for meeting many historical feats in America. From technology to politics and now, according to SmartAsset, a financial resources website, Gen-Zers in Texas are taking over the workforce nationally."Gen Z makes up more than a fifth of the workforce in the top five cities. These include Tucson, Arizona; Madison, Wisconsin; Lincoln, Nebraska; Norfolk, Virginia and Lubbock, Texas," the study mentions. Everything's bigger in Texas including our workforce in Lubbock. The city has the most significant number of Gen-Zers in the workforce."The highest concentration of Gen Z workers can be found in Lubbock, Texas. 25.60% of the city’s workforce are Gen Z workers. By comparison, the lowest concentration is found in Fremont, California (6.36%)," the study reported.Wow, 25.60 % is roughly 35,500 workers in Lubbock, TX! This makes sense when you take into account that they are a college town; with Texas Tech bringing most of the younger population.For the complete ...