Author: rpnadmin

At the end of the Civil War, a Union soldier and Baptist minister founded a school in Raleigh, North Carolina, to provide formerly enslaved people with religious literacy. Now that same school – Shaw University – wants to provide literacy of a new kind: AI literacy. Starting next year, Shaw’s divinity school plans to offer a new degree track: a Doctor of Education (or Ed.D) in Artificial Intelligence and Moral Agency. As AI spreads and performs more and more tasks traditionally done by humans, the divinity school wants to get ahead of the curve and probe its moral implications. “We…

Starbucks shares soared Wednesday after the coffee giant reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue and profit and raised its financial outlook for the year. The Seattle company said global same-store sales in its fiscal third quarter rose 7.9%, which was well above the 5.7% increase Wall Street was expecting, according to analysts polled by FactSet. Same-store sales also were up 7.9% in the U.S. during the April-June period, the company said. Starbucks said it now expects global same-store sales to grow 6% for its full fiscal year. The company previously forecast same-store sales to grow 5% for the year. The company also…

Anti-collision alarms went off in two Delta Air Lines planes in Atlanta after one plane, trying to land, got too close to the second, which had just taken off. The incident occurred Monday after one pilot’s decision to do a go-around maneuver, delaying the landing to ensure the runway was clear, got his plane too close to another plane that had just taken off. “Delta Air Lines flight 2472 was departing from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport when it crossed in front of Delta Air Lines flight 1568, which had executed a pilot-initiated go-around because another aircraft was slow to exit…

NEW YORK — A man was sentenced Wednesday to six months and a week behind bars for ramming his car into the Chabad Lubavitch world headquarters, the Jewish institution in New York where his lawyer said he’d been trying to win acceptance as he struggled with psychological issues. Dan Sohail, 36, was sentenced in Brooklyn federal court by a judge who declined a recommendation by prosecutors that he force Sohail to remain behind bars for another eight months. The sentence clears the way for the New Jersey man, who has already spent six months in detention, to be released in…

A witness to a fatal shooting in Houston by a federal immigration agent was released from a detention center Wednesday after spending weeks in custody following the deadly encounter. Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego was one of three men riding in a work van July 7 being driven by Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, who was shot by an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. Salgado Araujo was shot after the van was stopped by federal agents driving unmarked vehicles. Rojas Pliego has disputed the Trump administration’s account of the shooting in court documents, calling it a “lie.” A federal judge this week…

Film producer Jason Cloth, who financed “Joker,” “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” and dozens of other movies, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on wire fraud charges in connection with what prosecutors say was a $100 million Ponzi scheme. The indictment against Cloth, 60, was unsealed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Chicago. Cloth was arrested the same day in Los Angeles, where he made his first court appearance, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois said. The indictment alleges Cloth solicited money from investors, telling them the funds would be used for a film or a video…

SEATTLE — Bullets recovered from two bystanders killed during a shootout at a Seattle festival last weekend do not appear to have come from the gun that a 15-year-old arrested at the scene was firing, police said in court documents filed Wednesday. The King County prosecutor’s office filed charges of first-degree assault with a firearm enhancement as well as unlawful possession of a handgun by someone under 18. In a statement supporting the charges, police said the teen was seen firing an untraceable ghost gun into a crowd, but preliminary testing of bullets recovered from two bystanders killed showed they…

The U.S. Department of Education has opened an investigation into the Minnesota Department of Education to ensure compliance with the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment after a complaint was received on behalf of parents regarding the use of “transgender dolls” in schools. The probe, announced Wednesday, stems from a complaint filed with the department’s Student Privacy Policy Office by the advocacy group Defending Education.  According to the department’s announcement, “MyGenderDolls” feature removable, interchangeable internal and external genitalia, gender-neutral names, and clothing for both sexes, and are described as expected to be available to Minnesota educators for use with students as…

A former football teammate of Nolan Wells is preparing to file a defamation lawsuit against social media users who accused him of involvement in the 18-year-old’s death, an accusation his attorney calls baseless and dangerous. Bart Edmiston Jr., a 21-year-old punter at the University of Wyoming who played alongside Wells at Ocean Springs High School, said through attorney Russ Latino that he received a “credible death threat” tied to online speculation, and that the FBI and state and local law enforcement have been notified. Mr. Latino said in a Facebook post announcing his representation that defamatory statements “are putting Bart,…

Maine Democratic Senate nominee Troy Jackson has deleted multiple social media posts supporting his ill-fated predecessor, Graham Platner. Mr. Platner faced a growing tide of calls to drop out of the race after multiple ex-girlfriends accused the oyster farmer of sexual abuse. He has denied the allegations. Only a select few posts naming Mr. Platner remain on Mr. Jackson’s social media, including two posts in which he urged Mr. Platner to withdraw from the race. Before Mr. Platner exited, high-profile U.S. lawmakers and state officials backed his campaign. One of those was Mr. Jackson, the former Maine Senate president. Mr.…