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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina lawmakers on Wednesday enacted a law over the governor’s veto that would diminish the powers afforded to his successor and other other Democratic statewide winners in the Nov. 5 elections. In a 72-46 vote, the Republican-dominated House overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto a week after the GOP-controlled Senate voted to do the same. Like during the Senate vote, opponents to the power-shifting bill sat in the gallery and disrupted the chambers’ floor proceedings. More than 150 people gathered on the third floor — more than the House gallery could seat. They chanted “shame” as the override vote completed and continued to yell as they were escorted out. After warning disruptors they would face arrest if they didn’t quiet down and leave the building, General Assembly police arrested one woman who refused to leave, said police Chief Martin Brock, adding that she would face charges of trespassing, resisting arrest and violating building rules. Many provisions within the 132-page law seek to diminish powers afforded to Gov.-elect Josh Stein, incoming attorney general Jeff Jackson, the next Democratic lieutenant governor and the schools superintendent. They all take office early next month. One of the most significant changes shifts the power to appoint State Board of Elections members from the governor to the state auditor, who will be a Republican next year. RELATED COVERAGE Republican-led states are rolling out plans that could aid Trump’s mass deportation effort Election Day has long passed. In some states, legislatures are working to undermine the results Tight race for the North Carolina Supreme Court is heading to another recount For decades, the governor has selected its five members, with the governor’s party usually taking three seats. The enacted law transfers that power to the state auditor starting in spring. This, in turn, means Republicans will likely hold majorities on the state board and the county election boards. The legislation also weakens the governor’s authority to fill vacancies on the state Court of Appeals and Supreme Court and prevents the attorney general from taking legal positions contrary to the General Assembly in litigation challenging a law’s validity. Several post-election deadlines will move up under the law after Republican complaints that counties took too long to count provisional and absentee ballots, especially in light of an extremely close Supreme Court race . The veto override took place in the final days of a lame-duck General Assembly session where Republicans hold exactly the number of seats necessary to override vetoes without help from Democrats. That won’t be the case much longer — barring a successful election protest that would flip a race’s result — after Democrats picked up one more House seat in the general elections. Despite ultimately succeeding in their override, House Republicans had some difficulty staying unified. Some GOP lawmakers from western North Carolina — where Hurricane Helene caused historic flooding — initially voted against the measure last month. But all three — Reps. Mike Clampitt, Karl Gillespie and Mark Pless — ended up voting to override the veto. Part of the criticism levied against the bill centered on the $252 million of Helene recovery funds attached to it, most of which can’t be spent until the General Assembly acts again. In his veto message , Cooper called the bill a sham in which Republicans used Helene and “disaster relief” in its title to mask unconstitutional political power grabs — a message repeated by House Democrats and Stein. “It is despicable for the Republicans in the General Assembly to use folks’ incredible need for aid to cloak their political pettiness,” Stein said in a statement after Wednesday’s vote. Other opponents to the bill said at a Wednesday news conference that GOP lawmakers weren’t serving western North Carolinians and instead were undermining democracy. “Western North Carolina is not a toy to be played with. It is not an opportunity to exploit. It is not a place to be so violently disrespected,” said Sam Stites, a Transylvania County staff member from advocacy group Just Economics of Western North Carolina. Republicans point out they had already allocated more than $900 million to Helene relief since October, with plans for more funding next session. Caldwell County Republican Rep. Destin Hall, who is expected to be the House speaker next year, further defended the bill’s executive power shifts as the legislature’s constitutional right. “This body is entirely committed to helping folks in this state with storm relief,” Hall said. “So, in my opinion, what’s happened is political football has been made out of this bill.” It’s likely the new law will soon be mired in litigation — just like eight years ago, after Republicans passed laws weakening Cooper’s powers just before he took office. “Of course it’s going to go to court,” outgoing House Speaker Tim Moore, a congressman-elect, told reporters after the vote. “That’s just the way it is.” The House also secured for the November 2026 statewide ballot a proposed constitutional amendment to require all North Carolina voters show photo identification before voting. The constitution currently only specifies that it’s required for in-person voting. ID exceptions are afforded now and would continue with the amendment, and laws separate from the state constitution already direct voters to provide a photo ID copy when voting by mail.
It’s a rare sight when Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce aren’t on the same page. And even when they aren’t, they’ve shown the ability to still make magic happen like they did during KC’s second preseason game when Kelce ran the wrong route and Mahomes improvised, throwing him a behind-the-back pass that ended up going for a first down. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Thanks for the feedback.
Patriots veteran leader believes players aren’t locked in amid another losing seasonADHD can be diagnosed by looking at brainwaves. Here's the neuroscience behind itTimes News Network Ludhiana: Dakha Police have filed a case against three persons, including two brothers, who allegedly stole gold jewellery from their sister’s house in Mandiani village . One of the accused, Mandeep Singh Mani of Kotmaan has been arrested while Jaswant Singh Bamba of Mandiani and Kala Garg, owner of a jewellery shop in Sidhwan Bet area, are yet to be arrested. The complainant, Sandeep Kaur of Mandiani village, told the police that she has been running a boutique to support her two children after her husband’s death. She said that her brothers, Mandeep Singh and Jaswant Singh, who lived in her maternal aunt’s house in the same village since childhood, were frequent visitors to her house. Maharashtra Jharkhand Maharashtra Alliance View i Party View Seats: 288 Results Majority: 145 BJP+ 229 MVA 47 OTH 12 Results : 288 / 288 BJP+ WON Jharkhand Alliance View i Party View Seats: 81 Results Majority: 41 INDIA 56 NDA 24 OTH 1 Results : 81 / 81 INDIA WON Source: PValue On the day of the incident, she said that she locked the house and went to the boutique. She alleged that her brothers opened the locks of her house and stole an 11 gram necklace, one tola earrings, chain and locket of 8 grams, two rings of 10 grams and two earrings of 10 grams. She added that she came to know about the theft on Nov 16, after which she talked to her brothers. The complainant said that Mandeep told her that he had stolen the gold in collusion with Jaswant, after which they sold it to a jeweller from Sidhwan Bet. She said that when she confronted the jeweller, he started making excuses. Investigating officer, ASI Tarsem Singh confirmed that police had arrested one of the accused, Mandeep Singh, in the case. He added that two of the three accused are siblings of the complainant but one had been adopted by his maternal aunt in childhood. We also published the following articles recently Linda McMahon Takes the Podium: What She Said About Her Cabinet Future Linda McMahon, former WWE executive and Small Business Administration head, has been nominated by President-elect Donald Trump as U.S. Secretary of Education. McMahon emphasized her commitment to inclusive education, combining traditional methods with practical training, and engaging with stakeholders. Her nomination, though unconventional, highlights her business acumen and experience, potentially bringing a fresh perspective to education reform. 2 brothers arrested for Rs 5 lakh burglary in locked house Two brothers, Azhar Ali and Sarwar Ali, were apprehended by Teela Jamalpura police for allegedly burglarizing a house in their neighborhood. The homeowners returned from a wedding to discover their lock broken and jewelry worth Rs 5 lakh missing. A swift police investigation led to the suspects' arrest and the complete recovery of the stolen valuables. Kiara Advani faces backlash as she shows off her gold toothbrush; fan says, "Juthi, its from the hotel shes staying at" Bollywood actress Kiara Advani playfully showcased a golden toothbrush on her Instagram, attributing it to her Sindhi heritage known for their love of extravagance. While some fans found it amusing, others criticized her for flaunting wealth, sparking a debate about celebrity lifestyles and online criticism. The incident highlights the fine line between playful sharing and perceived ostentation on social media.
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools could be used to manipulate online audiences into making decisions – ranging from what to buy to who to vote for – according to researchers at the University of Cambridge. The paper highlights an emerging new marketplace for “digital signals of intent” – known as the “intention economy” – where AI assistants understand, forecast and manipulate human intentions and sell that information on to companies who can profit from it. The intention economy is touted by researchers at Cambridge’s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI) as a successor to the attention economy, where social networks keep users hooked on their platforms and serve them adverts. The intention economy involves AI-savvy tech companies selling what they know about your motivations, from plans for a stay in a hotel to opinions on a political candidate, to the highest bidder. “For decades, attention has been the currency of the internet ,” said Dr Jonnie Penn, an historian of technology at LCFI. “Sharing your attention with social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram drove the online economy.” He added: “Unless regulated, the intention economy will treat your motivations as the new currency. It will be a gold rush for those who target, steer and sell human intentions. “We should start to consider the likely impact such a marketplace would have on human aspirations, including free and fair elections, a free press and fair market competition, before we become victims of its unintended consequences.” The study claims that large language models (LLMs), the technology that underpins AI tools such as the ChatGPT chatbot, will be used to “anticipate and steer” users based on “intentional, behavioural and psychological data”. The authors said the attention economy allows advertisers to buy access to users’ attention in the present via real-time bidding on ad exchanges or buy it in the future by acquiring a month’s-worth of ad space on a billboard. LLMs will be able to access attention in real-time as well, by, for instance, asking if a user has thought about seeing a particular film – “have you thought about seeing Spider-Man tonight?” – as well as making suggestions relating to future intentions, such as asking: “You mentioned feeling overworked, shall I book you that movie ticket we’d talked about?” The study raises a scenario where these examples are “dynamically generated” to match factors such as a user’s “personal behavioural traces” and “psychological profile”. “In an intention economy, an LLM could, at low cost, leverage a user’s cadence, politics, vocabulary, age, gender, preferences for sycophancy, and so on, in concert with brokered bids, to maximise the likelihood of achieving a given aim (eg to sell a film ticket),” the study suggests. In such a world, an AI model would steer conversations in the service of advertisers, businesses and other third parties. Advertisers will be able to use generative AI tools to create bespoke online ads, the report claims. It also cites the example of an AI model created by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta, called Cicero, that has achieved the “human-level” ability to play the board game Diplomacy – a game that the authors say is dependent on inferring and predicting the intent of opponents. AI models will be able to tweak their outputs in response to “streams of incoming user-generated data”, the study added, citing research showing that models can infer personal information through workaday exchanges and even “steer” conversations in order to gain more personal information. The study then raises a future scenario where Meta will auction off to advertisers a user’s intent to book a restaurant, flight or hotel. Although there is already an industry devoted to forecasting and bidding on human behaviour, the report said, AI models will distill those practices into a “highly quantified, dynamic and personalised format”. The study quotes the research team behind Cicero warning that an “[AI] agent may learn to nudge its conversational partner to achieve a particular objective”. The research refers to tech executives discussing how AI models will be able to predict a user’s intent and actions. It quotes the chief executive of the largest AI chipmaker, Jensen Huang of Nvidia , who said last year that models will “figure out what is your intention, what is your desire, what are you trying to do, given the context, and present the information to you in the best possible way”.Hybrid star Travis Hunter and the Colorado Buffaloes looked to keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive as they faced the Kansas Jayhawks at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Week 13 of the 2024 season. Going into the game, Hunter, the junior from Suwanee, Georgia, had become the clear favorite to win the Heisman Trophy for his performance as both a wide receiver and a cornerback. But that didn't stop the officials from impacting the game on multiple instances where Hunter was involved. As Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels was attempting a quarterback run toward the end of the first half, Hunter was in a good position to make a tackle. However, the official accidentally got in Hunter's way, knocking the two-way player to the ground. This proved to be a key block as Daniels scampered for 31 yards, setting up a field goal for the Jayhawks. Travis Hunter got blocked by the ref 😅 pic.twitter.com/fyQIcmrNEP This wasn't the only play from Hunter the officials influenced. Earlier in the first quarter, Hunter and the Buffaloes were driving on their first possession of the game. When the receiver made a cut on his route at the 50-yard line, Kansas cornerback Cobee Bryant grabbed ahold of Hunter's jersey, causing quarterback Shedeur Sanders to overthrow him. The penalty went uncalled, and Colorado was forced to punt. Travis hunter was clearly held and the ref was right there and didn’t call a flag lmaoo pic.twitter.com/4FaY1H0mbh College football fans had their complaints about the officials in both cases, taking to social media to leave their comments. "The refs are just used to helping the home team in Arrowhead, I guess," a fan commented . "Crazy thing is this was no flag," another user said . "And probably the only possession they will put him 1 on 1 wit Trav. That boy was FOOD." "This definitely 6 if he not getting held," chimed in a third. "What is this crew doing???" asked a fourth. "Nasty no call that’s a TD lol," wrote a fifth. "An extra 30 yards because the ref got in his way the play should be blown dead if this happens," added a sixth. © Mike Watters-Imagn Images Hunter and the Buffaloes are in the midst of a four-game winning streak. With a win over the Jayhawks, Coach Prime and company would keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive. However, a loss could end that dream in Boulder. Related: Deion Sanders’ Interaction With Chiefs Coach Andy Reid Before Colorado-Kansas Related: College Football Fans Outraged After Dirty Hit on Shedeur Sanders In Colorado-Kansas