Author: Reporter

The federal civil service now under attack was a path to the middle class for these Black retirees

Evelyn Seabrook was able to buy a home even though she had only a high school diploma. Glenn Flood worked his way up the career ladder to become a public affairs officer for former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. And Calvin Stevens had a dual military and federal service career that took him to high levels in both. Now in their late 70s and early 80s, the three retirees are part of a generation of Black Americans who used the military and federal civil service to pursue the American dream. They acknowledge there were challenges. But they believe they received...

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Former Vice President Mike Pence emerges as one of a few Republicans willing to challenge Trump 2.0

His group spent nearly $1 million on ads opposing Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump’s pick to lead the nation’s health agencies. He’s delivering speeches urging the president to stand with longstanding foreign allies and lobbying members of Congress while aides write letters and opinion columns. On February 17 he posted an article he penned more than a decade ago on the limits of presidential power after Trump claimed that, “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” Mike Pence is emerging as one of the last Republicans in Washington willing to publicly criticize the new administration....

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The AI boom: Microsoft’s data centers may give Three Mile Island a new life for supplying power

The owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant said that it plans to restart the reactor under a 20-year agreement that calls for tech giant Microsoft to buy the power to supply its data centers with carbon-free energy. The announcement by Constellation Energy comes five years after its then-parent company Exelon shut down the plant, saying it was losing money and that Pennsylvania lawmakers had refused to subsidize it. The plan to restart Three Mile Island’s Unit 1 comes amid something of a renaissance for nuclear power, as policymakers are increasingly looking to it to bail...

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AI may not steal many human jobs after all but it might make some people work more efficiently

Imagine a customer service center that speaks your language, no matter what it is. Alorica, a company in Irvine, California, that runs customer-service centers around the world, has introduced an artificial intelligence translation tool that lets its representatives talk with customers who speak 200 different languages and 75 dialects. So an Alorica representative who speaks only Spanish can field a complaint about a balky printer or an incorrect bank statement from a Cantonese speaker in Hong Kong. Alorica wouldn’t need to hire a rep who speaks Cantonese. Such is the power of AI. And, potentially, the threat: Perhaps companies...

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Humanity may just be scratching the surface on the scope of climate-changing damage from methane leaks

The amount of the powerful climate-changing gas methane spilling out of oil and gas equipment, coal mines, and landfills globally is nowhere near fully documented and what is known is “only scratching the surface” according to the CEO of one the companies that tracks methane with its own satellites. Rather than improving, the methane emissions problem is worsening according to Stephane Germain of GHGSat. “The past year, we’ve detected more emissions than ever before,” he said. Since late 2023, GHGSat satellites detected about 20,000 sites worldwide that qualify as super-emitters, or sites hemorrhaging at 220 pounds of methane per...

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Now Hiring: Some important ways to guard against falling for scammers offering fake jobs

Between finding openings, sending out your resume and interviewing, looking for a job is tough. Now a growing trend of scammers impersonating recruiters is making it even harder. In the last year, job scams have been on the rise, according to Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit that helps consumers when their identities are compromised. Because most job seekers turn to online platforms for employment, scammers impersonate companies and recruiters to trick people into giving them money or personal information. “We’ve really seen tremendous growth in job scams,” Velasquez said. “I think...

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