Wednesday, June 14, 2023

And another day of acknowledging it’s serious, House Republican dysfunction, Southern Baptists and women pastors, ‘extreme’ water recycling, Cosby sued some more, discipline in schools, more on AI, and the first human synthetic model embryos comes to a close:

“The DeSantis playbook on race and education is just an updated edition of what I saw in the South in the 1960s.” — Dan Rather

Republicans privately acknowledge Trump's legal woes are serious this time. Many GOP operatives who spoke with NBC News said the federal indictment is serious — and could cause problems for the party.

The dysfunction among House Republicans is getting worse. A mutiny last week among the GOP’s far-right faction spells trouble for Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and everyone else.

Democrats and Republicans share core values but still distrust each other. A survey published on Wednesday finds that when asked about core values including fairness, compassion and personal responsibility, about nine in 10 Democrats and Republicans agreed they were very or extremely important. Yet only about a third of either group said they believed the same was true for the opposing party.

In affirmative action and student loan cases, some see backlash to racial progress in education. Now, both affirmative action and the student loan cancellation plan — policies that disproportionately help Black students — could soon be dismantled by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Johns Hopkins pulls 'lesbian' definition after uproar over use of 'non-men' instead of 'women'. Johns Hopkins University removed an online glossary of LGBTQ terms and identities this week after its definition of the word "lesbian" used the term "non-men" to refer to women and some nonbinary people and fueled an online uproar.

Olympic sprinter Tori Bowie died from childbirth complications, autopsy finds. The autopsy found that possible complications contributing to Bowie's death included respiratory distress and eclampsia — the onset of seizures or a coma related to preeclampsia, a high blood pressure disorder that can occur during pregnancy.

Daniel Penny indicted by grand jury in Jordan Neely subway death. The Marine veteran was indicted on a second-degree manslaughter charge in the May death of the homeless street performer.

Southern Baptists refuse to take back megachurch because it has women pastors. The Southern Baptist Convention has refused to welcome Saddleback Church back into its fold, rejecting an appeal by the California megachurch over its February ouster for having women pastors. Southern Baptist church representatives at their annual meeting here also rejected a similar appeal by a smaller church, Fern Creek Baptist of Louisville, Kentucky, which is led by a woman pastor.

These Western Cities Are Turning to “Extreme” Water Recycling. “There is no reason to only use water once,”...“we now have technologies to enable us to process and reuse water over and over, at the scale of a city, a campus, and even an individual home.”

Bill Cosby sued in Nevada by 9 women who accuse him of sexual assault. Nine women filed a sexual assault lawsuit against Bill Cosby in Nevada on Wednesday, just weeks after the state passed a law eliminating the statute of limitations for civil cases. The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for Nevada, accuses Cosby of using his “enormous power, fame and prestige” to isolate and sexually assault each of the nine women named in the lawsuit.

We need to rethink discipline in schools. Teachers or authority figures are far more likely to give white children a second chance when it comes to misbehavior than they are to Black students. But more specifically in regard to discipline and out-of-school suspension, there’s quite a bit of work that’s tried to disentangle these factors over time. We know that for any given behavioral infraction, Black students in particular are not only more likely to experience punishment, but the severity of the punishment that they experience is also worse than their white counterparts.

Scientists report creation of first human synthetic model embryos. A team of researchers in the United States and United Kingdom say they have created the world’s first synthetic human embryo-like structures from stem cells, bypassing the need for eggs and sperm. These embryo-like structures are at the very earliest stages of human development: They don’t have a beating heart or a brain, for example. But scientists say they could one day help advance the understanding of genetic diseases or the causes of miscarriages.

How Europe is leading the world in the push to regulate AI. Lawmakers in Europe signed off Wednesday on the world’s first set of comprehensive rules for artificial intelligence, clearing a key hurdle as authorities across the globe race to rein in AI.

Radio station gets part-time AI DJ based on its midday host. The radio station noted that AI Ashley isn’t fully replacing “traditional Ashley,” which has been a huge concern for a lot of local DJs. Radio stations have cut down their broadcasts in recent years due to rising costs or in a shift to embrace tech like AI.

The Beatles are releasing their ‘last’ record. AI helped make it possible. Artificial intelligence has been used to extract John Lennon’s voice from an old demo to create “the last Beatles record,” decades after the band broke up, Paul McCartney said Tuesday. McCartney, 80, told the BBC that the technology was used to separate the Beatles’ voices from background sounds during the making of director Peter Jackson’s 2021 documentary series, “The Beatles: Get Back.” The “new” song is set to be released later this year, he said.

RIP Cormac McCarthy. He was 89.

Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.

Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.