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GOP presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he's looking at ways to keep President Biden off the ballot due to the "invasion of 8 million" at the southern border — though he said he also believes efforts to bar former President Trump from the ballot are wrong. "I do think the US Supreme Court is going to have to take the case," DeSantis told reporters following a campaign event in Iowa Friday . "I do think they're going to have to rein this in, because I just think if you look at it, it just becomes too different." But DeSantis said in the meantime that Florida is looking at whether it could block Biden from the ballot for policies he says have led to an "invasion" of immigrants into the U.S. over the southern border . "You could make a case — we're actually I'm actually looking at this in Florida now. Could we make a credible case that Biden, because of the invasion of eight million?" DeSantis said...

Benj Edwards / Ars Technica : Hands-on with Midjourney v6: generates highly detailed images that sometimes seem unrealistic, a different approach to prompting compared to v5, and more   —  As Midjourney rolls out new features, it continues to make some artists furious.  —  In December, just before Christmas …

Ann Carrns / New York Times : The US IRS starts testing its free, “mobile friendly” direct e-filing system with some low- and moderate-income taxpayers in 12 US states   —  Residents of 12 states are eligible to participate if they meet certain criteria.  But the agency's plans have already met resistance from tax preparation companies.

Attorney General Merrick Garland is warning Friday that the U.S. is "witnessing a deeply disturbing spike in threats against those who serve the public," as the country continues to battle a "scourge in violent crime."   Garland spoke in Washington, D.C., as he gathered leaders from the Justice Department’s law enforcement components – including the FBI, ATF, DEA and U.S. Marshals Service – to discuss combating violent crime and prosecuting and deterring those who would criminally threaten public servants.  "Violent crime is not just a threat to people's physical safety, it is a threat to their ability to freely go about their daily lives. Violent crime isolates people and communities. It deepens the fractures in our public life, and when it is not addressed can undermine people's trust in the government and in each other," Garland said. "This department and our state and local partners will not rest until every community in our country is...

Emma Roth / The Verge : A developer finds that Google seems to be working on an upgraded version of Bard called Bard Advanced that will be available through a Google One subscription   —  Google appears to be working on an upgraded version of Bard called “Bard Advanced” that will be available through a paid subscription …

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy went viral on social media for his response to a reporter's question asking him if he condemns "White supremacy and White nationalism." "Of course I condemn any form of vicious racial discrimination in this country. But I think that the presumption of your question is fundamentally based on a falsehood that really is the main form of racial discrimination we see in this country today," Ramswamy told a reporter from the Washington Post on the campaign trail in Iowa on Wednesday. "Institutionalized racism is institutionalized racial discrimination that we see that doesn’t come from somehow discriminating against people on the basis of some tentative White supremacy," Ramaswamy continued. "It’s based on affirmative action. It’s based on actually discriminating against people on the color of their skin in a way that’s actually institutionalized today." Ramaswamy said that "questions and f...

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called out Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday, labeling his migrant busing policy "a remarkable failure of governance."  Mayorkas, who faces impeachment proceedings in the House for his handling of the illegal immigration crisis, blamed Abbott, a Republican, for failing to cooperate with officials in Democrat-led cities that have been overwhelmed by migrant arrivals.  "Let me identify one fundamental problem here, and that is the fact that we have one governor in the state of Texas who is refusing to cooperate with other governors and other local officials," Mayorkas said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." Emphasizing the need for the country to "stand united" on immigration, Mayorkas said, "it's a remarkable failure of governance to refuse to cooperate with one's fellow local and state officials."  HOUSE HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE SETS FIRST MAYORKAS IMPEACHMENT HEARING Abbot b...

Jay Peters / The Verge : Twitch changes its sexual content policies again and says it won't allow streamers to “imply or suggest that they are fully or partially nude”   —  Twitch is changing its sexual content policies again, this time to prohibit implied nudity on the platform.

A federal judge has ruled that former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis must pay over $260,000 in attorney fees and expenses following her court case relating to her refusal to issue marriage licenses to a same-sex couple. Davis was briefly jailed in 2015 for her refusal, and she was subsequently taken to court. Courts have also ruled that she must pay $100,000 in damages to the two men she had refused to work with. Davis' attorneys are expected to appeal Tuesday's ruling. Davis spent five days in jail for ignoring court orders to issue licenses to same-sex couples following a 2015 Supreme Court ruling allowing gay marriage. She argued that she was acting "under God's authority," and was freed after a judge ordered her deputies to issue the licenses without her approval. POPE FRANCIS ALLOWS PRIESTS TO BLESS SAME-SEX COUPLES Davis had run for re-election to the county clerk office in 2018, but she lost to a Democrat. She had argued that she would be able to cer...

FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, is refusing to attend House Republicans’ planned trip to the southern border, he told fellow lawmakers on Tuesday, arguing that those being affected by the migrant crisis are "tired" of such events. "I commend Speaker Johnson’s efforts to take a group of House Republicans to the Texas border tomorrow so that any members unaware of the depths of the threat to our citizenry may become fully informed. However, I will not be attending," Roy wrote in a letter to colleagues which was obtained by Fox News Digital. "Our people – law enforcement, ranchers, local leaders – are tired of meetings, speeches, and press conferences. So, for those of us who have already witnessed this crisis dozens of times, it’s past that time. It’s time to act with urgency." Roy urged the House GOP majority to leverage government funding talks to force Democrats in the Senate and White House to pass H.R. 2, Republicans’ border security bill wh...

A Maryland county claims under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, it can create a school board seat that only illegal immigrants can vote for, according to reports. The Washington Times reported that Howard County officials appeared before a federal court of appeals last month and defended its current process of having a school board seat occupied by a student, in which only public school students are allowed to vote for. Some Howard County residents are challenging the practice on the basis of it being unconstitutional discrimination in voting, particularly against the county general electorate and students at religious schools who cannot vote for the student seat. An attorney for the challengers, Michael Smith, told the publication it is a "zero-sum game." He explained that empowering students to choose one of the eight school board members takes away power from the general electorate. ATTEMPT TO BAR TRUMP FROM 2024 BALLOT GAINS STEAM DESPITE ‘DUBIOUS’ AND ‘D...

Bloomberg : Sources: ASML canceled shipments of some machines to China at the request of the US, weeks before export bans on the chipmaking equipment came into effect   —  - ASML canceled shipments of a liminted number of devices  — Biden is cracking down on Beijing's semiconductor industry

With a wary eye over the future of the federal courts, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts warned Sunday of the perils of artificial intelligence (AI) when deciding cases and other important legal matters. His remarks came in the annual year-end report issued by the head of the federal judiciary, which made no mention of current controversies surrounding his court, including calls for greater transparency and ethics reform binding the justices. Noting the legal profession in general is "notoriously averse to change," Roberts urged a go-slow approach when embracing new technologies by the courts. "AI obviously has great potential to dramatically increase access to key information for lawyers and non-lawyers alike," he said. "But just as obviously it risks invading privacy interests and dehumanizing the law." TOP REPUBLICAN TALKS AI ARMS RACE: 'YOU'LL HAVE MACHINES COMPETING WITH EACH OTHER' "But any use of AI requires caution an...

Michael Acton / Financial Times : A look at the challenges faced by Apple's $85B/year services business, as the company faces key US court cases and prepares to allow app sideloading in the EU   —  Landmark EU regulation and crucial US court cases due in 2024 will test the tech company  —  Apple faces a legal reckoning in 2024 …

U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, one of the most prominent Democrats from the Dallas area, died on Sunday at the age of 88.  The Dallas Morning News also confirmed her death with an unnamed source close to the family. No cause of death was given. Johnson was born in Waco and grew up in the segregated South. Dallas' once-segregated Union Station was renamed in her honor in 2019.  She served in the U.S. House for three decades after becoming the first registered nurse elected to Congress and the first Black chief psychiatric nurse at Dallas' Veterans Affairs hospital.  Johnson went on to become the first Black woman to chair the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and she also led the Congressional Black Caucus. She left office in January after repeatedly delaying her retirement. Before Congress, she served in the Texas legislature. Her own experience with racism helped spur her to get involved in politics. She recalled that officials at the VA hospit...

John Kruzel / Reuters : In his year-end report, US Chief Justice John Roberts says any use of AI “requires caution” and that the judicial system “will be significantly affected by AI”   —  Artificial intelligence represents a mixed blessing for the legal field, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts …

Leslie Katz / New York Times : A profile of Alexander Reben, who will become OpenAI's first artist in residence for three months starting January 2024, amid a debate over the use of AI in art   —  Alexander Reben is taking his tech-savvy perspective to OpenAI, a company that some in the art world believe is a threat to their future.

J. Edward Moreno / New York Times : The lawsuits against AI companies could shape the future of copyright or may simply serve as leverage for plaintiffs to secure more favorable licensing deals   —  The use of content from news and information providers to train artificial intelligence systems may force a reassessment of where to draw legal lines.