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A U.S. judge on Friday blocked a new Florida law restricting drag performances, the third time this month federal courts have enjoined laws backed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that concern gender or LGBTQ matters. In all three cases, the issues supported by DeSantis , a Republican presidential candidate, lost on grounds the laws appear to infringe on people's constitutional rights. In Friday's decision, U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell of the Middle District of Florida granted an injunction preventing the state from enforcing a law that bans minors from attending obscene live performances, calling it too broad. DESANTIS SHUTS DOWN FLORIDA SCHOOL'S ‘DRAG & DOUNUTS’ EVENT FEATURING DRAG QUEEN ‘MOMMA’ ASHLEY ROSE: REPORT The judge refused to dismiss the law entirely, meaning the underlying lawsuit challenging it will go forward. The governor's office said the judge was "dead wrong" and predicted the state would win on appeal. "Of course it...

Pew Research Center : A survey of ~305 experts on their expectations for digital advances by 2035, like AI systems and smart eyewear and earbuds, and concerns over the darker sides   —  They have deep concerns about people's and society's overall well-being.  But they also expect great benefits in health care, scientific advances and education

New York City spent approximately $50,000 in a one-year period to resettle dozens of migrants in different parts of the U.S. — including Florida and Texas — as well as other countries, including South American nations and even China. The city spent $50,000 between April 2022 and April 2023 to rehouse 114 migrant households to states across the country, according to data obtained by Politico. The top three states were Florida (28 households), Texas (14) and North Carolina (6). The outlet also reported that five households were sent to other countries, including Peru, China, Ecuador and Venezuela. The existence of transportation programs out of the city for migrants are neither new nor hidden. The city in September announced the formation of Humanitarian Emergency Response and Relief Centers, which provide services to migrants including "settlement options" via family connections both in and outside of the Big Apple. NYC MAYOR ERIC ADAMS SUES 30 NEW YORK COUNTIES FOR REFUSI...

Lisa O'Carroll / The Guardian : The EFJ and media experts condemn the latest European Media Freedom Act draft that would let national security agencies place spyware on journalists' phones   —  Move to allow spyware to be placed on reporters' phones would have a ‘chilling effect’, say media experts

A handful of House Democrats refused to say this week whether they believe women should be allowed to have an abortion up until the moment of birth. Asked by Fox News Digital whether they would support any limitation on abortion, four Democrats – Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Adam Schiff of California, Juan Vargas of California and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia – would not answer the question. With the exception of Vargas, the Democrats largely ignored the abortion questions altogether, just ahead of the first anniversary of the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Vargas, although he did not answer the question directly, told Fox News that he believes "women should be able to chose their own healthcare" and that he "shouldn't decide for them." HE PERFORMED ABORTIONS. NOW HE'S PRO-LIFE AND DEDICATED TO CHRIST: 'YOU HAVE TO CHANGE THE HUMAN HEART' House Republicans were also asked the same question, with Reps. Tim ...

Bloonface / Café Lob-On : The Twitter-to-Mastodon migration that started in November 2022 failed because of Mastodon's exclusionary culture, decentralization making the UX worse, more   —  I've been using fediverse stuff (Mastodon and, most recently, Calckey - I'm just going to use “Mastodon” as shorthand here …

A package of bipartisan measures bolstering affordable housing in Wisconsin has received final approval from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, while Republicans have signed off on more than half a billion dollars to pay for the effort. PUBLIC SCHOOL READING INSTRUCTION OVERHAUL CLEARS WISCONSIN ASSEMBLY Evers signed five bills into law Thursday establishing loan programs for builders and landlords and making it easier for developers to get permits for new residences. One of the measures sets limits on who can challenge permitting decisions and requires that local governments approve permits for residential housing projects that don't violate local standards. Meanwhile, Republicans who control the Legislature's budget-writing committee set aside $525 million on Thursday to fund the new loans, which are targeted to projects that improve aging units, expand infrastructure such as roads and utilities to serve affordable housing, or convert vacant commercial buildings into affordable...

One of two IRS whistleblowers who sounded the alarm on the Justice Department’s handling of a criminal investigation into Hunter Biden identified himself as gay man and a Democrat while insisting his motivations are not political.  "I'm an American, and my allegiances are to my country and my government," one of the whistleblowers told the House Ways and Means Committee in a transcript released Thursday . "I'm also a gay man. I have a husband, two dogs, a home, and a life full of family and friends. But above all else, I'm a human being." The whistleblower continued, "My sexuality doesn't define me as a person. It's just who I love. I'd like to say one more thing regarding this topic of sexuality, especially since it's the start of Pride Month . But people have said that I'm gay and people have said, because I'm gay and that I am working as the case agent on this investigation, that I must be a far-left liberal, perfectly ...

Jon Victor / The Information : Source: Jacob Devlin, who quit Google to join OpenAI in January 2023 after complaining Bard was being trained on ChatGPT data, has returned to Google   —  Jacob Devlin, a prominent artificial intelligence researcher who left Google for rival OpenAI in January after complaining internally …

The Maine House voted Thursday to give workers up to 12 weeks of paid leave to deal with illness, care for a relative or birth of a child by joining other New England states in creating a paid family medical leave program. The 79-65 vote followed a party-line vote the day before in the Senate, putting the bill on track for approval in the Democratic-controlled Legislature . Democratic Gov. Janet Mills is reviewing recent changes to the bill. MAINE LAWMAKERS VOTE TO INCLUDE LANGUAGE ABOUT STATE'S OBLIGATION TO NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBES IN CONSTITUTION "Maine is currently the only state in New England that doesn’t offer any version of (paid family medical leave). Now, we’ve taken another significant step closer to joining them," said Rep. Kristen Cloutier, D-Lewiston, who sponsored the bill with Sen. Mattie Daughtry, D-Brunswick. The proposal, to be funded through a payroll tax split between workers and employers and capped at 1% of wages, would allow up to 12 weeks a yea...

New York Times : A profile of Michael Kives, a Hollywood agent turned investor, as FTX's bankruptcy lawyers sue his VC firm K5 Global to recover ~$700M that SBF had invested   —  Michael Kives, a former Hollywood agent, connected FTX's founder to Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Bill Clinton and others.

Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie says he's inching up in the latest GOP nomination polls because of his very vocal criticism of former President Donald Trump . But those same surveys also indicate that Christie's favorable ratings are well underwater among likely Republican primary voters, with respondents in one poll saying the former two-term New Jersey governor is the GOP candidate they're least likely to support. Christie, who two weeks ago launched his second White House bid, said in a Fox News Digital interview in New Hampshire on Thursday that his game plan for pumping up his favorable ratings is to "come up here, and you campaign." "Remember this," Christie said. "Eight years ago when I came up here, my unfavorables were upside down 25 points in the first poll. And on primary night, my favorables were up plus 30, so a 55-point swing. You know, look, people get to know me, I usually do pretty well." WHO'S IN AND ...

Rashi Shrivastava / Forbes : New York-based Captions, an AI-powered video editing app, raised a $25M Series B led by Kleiner Perkins, bringing its total funding to $40M at a $250M valuation   —  The video editing software, designed for “talking videos,” has been used by 3 million creators to date and stands at a $250 million valuation.

The names of two people who signed Rep. George Santos' $500,000 bond were unsealed in federal court in New York on Thursday.  Santos' father, Gercino dos Santos, and his aunt, Elma Preven, signed the bond unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, according to the unsealed document, enabling the Republican freshman congressman's pretrial release last month as he awaits trial on federal charges of fraud, money laundering and theft of public funds. Santos, R-N.Y., pleaded not guilty on May 10 to a 13-count indictment that alleges he duped donors, stole from his campaign, lied to Congress about being a millionaire and cheated to collect unemployment benefits he didn’t deserve. He was released from federal custody by posting bond. Though his bond signers did not have to put up the $500,000 up front, they would be on the hook financially if Santos violated the terms of his release, which include surrendering his passport and remain either in Ne...

Rebekah Valentine / IGN : Filing: Microsoft says Xbox “lost the console wars”, with a 16% share of console sales in 2021, behind Nintendo and PlayStation, and a 21% installed base share   —  Xbox “in third place” behind PlayStation and Nintendo, with a sales market share of 16%.

Julia Love / Bloomberg : Sources: Twitter resumed paying Google Cloud for its services; the companies are negotiating a partnership that could include ads and Google using Twitter's API   —  Twitter has resumed paying Google Cloud for its services, patching up a relationship that became strained after Elon Musk acquired …

The Michigan Supreme Court said Wednesday it will hear a major case involving changes to the minimum wage and sick leave, and the power of lawmakers to interfere with the results of petition drives. The court's decision could put more money in the pockets of low-wage workers, especially in the restaurant industry. MICHIGAN COURT THROTTLES PLANNED MINIMUM WAGE HIKE Advocates in 2018 submitted more than 280,000 valid signatures to raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2022, followed by annual inflation adjustments , and eventually eliminate a lower tipped wage in restaurants. The Republican-controlled Legislature adopted the changes in 2018 — a possible step — instead of letting voters have their say. But lawmakers returned a few months later and watered them down by a simple majority vote. NEW YORK MINIMUM WAGE HIKE BECOMES LAW AS HOCHUL SIGNS OFF ON $229B BUDGET Then-Gov. Rick Snyder, also a Republican, signed the legislation into law, triggering years of legal challenges...

Former college championship swimmer Riley Gaines challenged Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., on Wednesday after he accused Republicans of promoting "hateful rhetoric" by questioning the rights of transgender youth. Gaines was on Capitol Hill as a witness for the Senate's hearing on LGBTQ civil rights, where Durbin said lawmakers need to be careful when talking about this issue. "At this point, I'd like to remind our colleagues, our children are listening, and they are in danger," Durbin said. "In fact, today, transgender youth are among the most at risk of homelessness, depression and death by suicide. So, when these young people who are already struggling hear politicians amplify hateful rhetoric that denies their very existence, what message does it send?" RILEY GAINES MOCKS MESSAGE APPARENTLY SENT TO HARVARD SWIM TEAM ABOUT LIA THOMAS Later in the hearing, Gaines pushed back and told Durbin he needs to think about biolo...

Aaron Holmes / The Information : Google files a US FTC complaint alleging Microsoft used Office 365 licensing terms to lock clients into Azure contracts; Microsoft changed its EU terms in 2022   —  After years of publicly alleging that Microsoft used its dominant position in enterprise software to push customers toward …

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) has prepped a revamped resolution to sanction Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Fla.) for his role in the Russia probe and former President Trump . We have a new, prospective timeline for when Schiff may in fact face censure, the second-most serious form of discipline in the House. Censure only trails expulsion. We expect action on Wednesday and Friday this week – with a likely censure of Schiff on Friday. But, this is subject to change.  Luna must first "notice" the new censure resolution, which we believe could happen on Wednesday. Luna would present the new measure on the floor. Like last time, Democrats would move to table or "set aside" the updated censure resolution. Twenty Republicans joined Democrats last week voting to table the resolution. That’s because the old censure plan included a $16 million fine. Some Republicans opposed the fine because they worried it would fuel a tit-for-tat. So, 20 GOPers voted to table the censure resoluti...

Todd Bishop / GeekWire : Apple machine learning leader Ali Farhadi, who sold Xnor.ai to Apple for ~$200M in 2020, departs to become the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence's CEO   —  Ali Farhadi, a computer vision specialist and startup founder who most recently led Apple's machine learning initiatives …

Hunter Biden will plead guilty to two tax violations and one gun felony in what Republicans are blasting as a "sweetheart" plea deal following a five-year investigation. Fox News has confirmed that the president's son will plead guilty to two counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax and one count of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance. "It’s no coincidence that less than a week after President Trump is arraigned by the DOJ, Hunter Biden is pleading guilty to a sweetheart deal with no jail time," Senator Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital in a statement. "The DOJ is going for the low-hanging fruit by charging Hunter Biden with a gun felony and two tax misdemeanors, after years of slow walking their investigation." "For AG Garland to maintain his mantra that there is one standard of justice is pathetic," Blackburn continued. "If the DOJ thinks t...

Tom Warren / The Verge : Google updates Chrome on iOS with a new mini Google Maps view and an option to add Calendar events by tapping a date on a site, and promises Google Lens support   —  Google is adding some more features to its Chrome iOS browser to tempt iPhone users away from Safari.

Ashley Capoot / CNBC : Roblox now lets eligible creators build mature content experiences for users 17 and up, who must verify their age with a picture of a government ID and a selfie   —  - Roblox announced eligible creators can build experiences featuring mature content for users aged 17 and older.

Pat Sajak's retirement from "Wheel of Fortune" will not mark his exodus from public life altogether. The long-time game show host will remain the chair of Hillsdale College's Board of Trustees , a position he has held since 2019. He served as vice chair from 2003 to 2019.  "Hillsdale College is fortunate to have an even closer relationship with Mr. Sajak," Hillsdale College executive director of media relations and communications Emily Stack Davis told Fox News Digital. "Since 2019, we have benefited from his wisdom, intellect, and good humor as chairman of Hillsdale’s board of trustees." Sajak has been an icon of radio and television for decades, Davis said. He hosted "Wheel of Fortune" for 42 years, starting shortly after the show premiered in 1975. ‘WHEEL OF FORTUNE’S VANNA WHITE DOESN'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT' THE END OF GAME SHOW WITH PAT SAJAK "There are few things more intimate than appearing in the living rooms of...

Jon / The Nexus Of Privacy : Amid ongoing Reddit protests, decentralized link aggregation and discussion forum projects Lemmy and KBin grow to a total of 70K+ MAUs and nearly 600 instances   —  Draft!  Work in Progress!  Feedback welcome! … Contents:  — Eight days later ...  - Experiment to find what approaches …

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the world's largest animal advocacy organization, was grilled on Twitter for claiming that people eat animals because of their "supremacy." "Supremacy is at the root of why people think it’s okay to eat other animals," the controversial group tweeted Saturday. Meat lovers immediately began flooding the comment section with responses such as "let me ponder this as I eat my burger." "I will fully admit I am supreme to animals. Feels good to be able to eat 100% beef fed beef tonight," one user wrote. PETA PRESIDENT PLANS TO DONATE HER FLESH FOR SIZZLING POST-DEATH HUMAN BARBECUE: ‘FRY UP WITH ONIONS’ "So why do animals think it's ok to eat other animals?" another user questioned. PETA hit back at the comment, claiming that the reason animals have to eat other animals is because they aren't capable of making "ethical decisions." "Most of the animals who ...

Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is proposing legislation that would require firearms dealers to try to sell a gun lock for every gun purchase made, a change she said would help prevent accidental shootings. The proposed legislation , known as the ‘‘Safe Storage Saves Lives Act,’, makes it a "requirement that a gun seller have a compatible gun lock available for every firearm for sale" and states that it "shall be unlawful for any person to offer a firearm for sale unless the person offers for sale a secure gun storage or safety device that is compatible with the firearm." The bill states that violators of the law would face a "penalty of not more than $1,000." "It’s horrifying that 4.6 million children in our country live in homes with a loaded and unlocked firearm," Tlaib said in a press release. FOX NEWS POLL: VOTERS FAVOR GUN LIMITS OVER ARMING CITIZENS TO REDUCE GUN VIOLENCE "Tragically, in Southeast Michigan , we have witne...

Marah Eakin / Wired : How Pixar used neural style transfer, a type of AI used to make photos look like popular artworks, to animate Ember, a lead character in its movie Elemental   —  It's harder to make fire than you might think.  But the Pixar team was determined to do the impossible.  —  Pixar had a problem.

John Carreyrou / New York Times : A look at the orchestrated downfall of Kyle Roche, co-founder of Roche Freedman LLP, known for suing crypto companies and getting a verdict against Craig Wright   —  Kyle Roche was a rising star in the field of cryptocurrency law — until his career imploded.  Who orchestrated his downfall?

Megan Graham / Wall Street Journal : Duolingo says the company significantly scaled back TV ads, and its DAUs growing 62% YoY to 20.3M in Q1 2023 is due in part to efficient social media marketing   —  The language-learning app now relies more on memes—helping it climb to 20 million daily active users

Washington Post : Hands-on with an Adobe Photoshop beta's Generative Fill AI feature, which lets users add objects to, remove content from, and expand images using text prompts   —  A new ‘generative fill’ AI capability can create joyful Photoshop edits — and frightening deepfakes

Lisa Bannon / Wall Street Journal : A look at US hospitals using sometimes flawed AI-based diagnosis tools, as some clinicians say they feel pressure from administrations to defer to the algorithm   —  Artificial intelligence raises difficult questions about who makes the call in a health crisis: the human or the machine?

The artist who sketched former President Donald Trump's arraignment last week in Florida responded to criticisms that he portrayed Trump as younger and more physically fit than reality. "It’s rare I get any kind of feedback," sketch artist William J. Hennessy Jr., 65, told the Boston Globe. Hennessy was one of three artists who captured Trump's appearance at his arraignment in federal court in Miami last Tuesday. Trump was indicted on 37 federal charges related to alleged willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice and false statements. Trump pleaded not guilty and slammed the charges as a "witch hunt." The sketches came under criticism by some on social media who claimed that Hennessy portrayed Trump as younger than his age of 77 and thinner than reality. GOP REACTIONS POUR IN AFTER TRUMP ARRAIGNED ON 37 CHARGES: 'DARK DAY FOR OUR COUNTRY' "Is this William J Hennessy Jr's audition to do Trumps of...