Category: Breitbart
Teachers’ Unions Sue To Block Tax Cut Referendum From Appearing on Ballot
Massachusetts teachers’ unions are suing to block residents from being able to vote on a statewide tax cut, asking the state’s supreme court to keep it off the ballot in November.
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‘Do it NATIONWIDE!’ Florida mandates English-only driver’s tests, following Trump’s lead
Florida announced on Friday that all driver’s license tests will be conducted in English. This decision comes after President Trump signed an executive order nearly a year ago declaring English the official language of the United States.
The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles declared that the state is taking “a leading role in highway safety by requiring all driver license exams be taken in English and without an interpreter.”
‘There is no better way for a state to test for trucker English proficiency than to administer the CDL knowledge and skills tests in, well, English.’
The new policy, which will apply to knowledge and skills exams for all driver’s license classifications, will take effect on February 6.
The FLHSMV explained that the previous policy allowed knowledge exams for most non-commercial driver’s licenses to be offered in multiple languages. Knowledge exams for commercial learner’s permits and commercial driver’s licenses have been offered in English and Spanish.
“To implement this change, FLHSMV has updated its driver license testing system statewide. Language translation services will no longer be permitted for knowledge or skills examinations, and any printed exams in languages other than English will be removed for use,” the department stated. “FLHSMV remains committed to ensuring safe roadways for all Floridians and visitors by promoting clear communication, understanding of traffic laws, and responsible driving behavior.”
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Photo by: Lindsey Nicholson/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) called the new policy a “good reform,” noting that drivers “need to be able to read the road signs.”
Eric Daugherty of Florida’s Voice declared the move “a massive win.”
“English. Do it NATIONWIDE!” Daugherty wrote. “Florida does it right.”
Carline Jean/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
The Small Business in Transportation Coalition applauded Florida for implementing the English-only testing policy.
“Like most things in life, we need to start with common sense. There is no better way for a state to test for trucker English proficiency than to administer the CDL knowledge and skills tests in, well, English. In the state of Florida, at least, common sense will now prevail effective February 6th. We hope other states will follow,” SBTC Executive Director James Lamb stated.
This new policy follows an executive order Trump issued last March, declaring English to be the official language of the federal government.
“To promote unity, cultivate a shared American culture for all citizens, ensure consistency in government operations, and create a pathway to civic engagement, it is in America’s best interest for the Federal Government to designate one — and only one — official language. Establishing English as the official language will not only streamline communication but also reinforce shared national values and create a more cohesive and efficient society,” the EO said.
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Violent repeat offenders — 1 was arrested 14 previous times — accused of attempted murder, sexual abuse in two Chicago cases
Two violent repeat offenders — one of whom had been arrested 14 previous times — are accused of attempted murder, sexual abuse, and aggravated battery in separate cases in Chicago.
The first suspect is accused of sexually abusing a woman inside a Chicago Transit Authority elevator at the Jackson Red Line station in the Loop on Tuesday, CWB Chicago reported.
Briana Bush last week also was charged with three counts of aggravated battery in connection with the stabbing of a 24-year-old man, the outlet said.
Kurtis Porter is charged with criminal sexual abuse by force and aggravated battery of a transit passenger, the outlet said.
Porter allegedly followed a 29-year-old woman into the elevator around 5:40 p.m., the outlet said, adding that police said CTA security video shows Porter obstructing the surveillance camera upon entering the elevator.
The victim told police Porter exposed himself, sexually abused her, and grabbed her face during the attack, the outlet said.
Police and CTA distributed an internal bulletin that included images of Porter, the outlet said, adding that a CTA supervisor recognized Porter hours later and notified nearby patrol officers.
Judge Shauna Boliker on Friday ordered Porter detained, the outlet said. Cook County Jail records indicate that Porter — a 30-year-old — is behind bars on no bond.
More from CWB Chicago:
CPD records show Porter has been arrested 14 other times since becoming an adult in 2014, mostly for misdemeanors, but court files show nearly all of those charges were dropped. The only exceptions were a 2019 domestic battery case that ended with court supervision he did not complete satisfactorily and two trespassing charges at the same Old Town building that resulted in a 14-day sentence in November.
Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune
The second suspect — a 21-year-old female already on probation in connection with a violent 2024 robbery aboard a CTA train — has been charged with attempted murder, CWB Chicago said in a separate story.
Briana Bush last week also was charged with three counts of aggravated battery in connection with the stabbing of a 24-year-old man, the outlet said.
Officials told the outlet Bush was fighting the man and a 37-year-old woman aboard a Red Line train at 69th Street on Jan. 5 when Bush allegedly stabbed the man and left the scene. The victim was taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center in fair condition, the outlet added.
Judge Luciano Panici Jr. detained Bush at the state’s request, the outlet said.
Bush had been on probation in connection with a group robbery aboard a Red Line train in July 2024, the outlet said, citing court records.
More from CWB Chicago:
In that case, CTA surveillance footage allegedly showed Bush punching a 29-year-old man as he slept on the train near 95th Street and taking his phone. Police arrested Bush shortly after she fled the scene with the victim’s phone in her pocket, authorities said.
Bush was also charged with escaping electronic monitoring while awaiting trial in the robbery case, but prosecutors dropped that matter when she pleaded guilty to the robbery in September. Judge Peggy Chiampas sentenced Bush to two years of probation for the robbery.
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Can you tell the difference between the people on OnlyFans and the fakes making money on Fanvue?
Yes, a company called Fanvue has taken a step into the cyborg dystopian future with its introduction of an AI-based version of OnlyFans. New tech has made it possible and, for the moment, profitable to spin up non-human avatars — complete with voices, “personalities,” and, of course, finely tailored physical forms — to pull in the expanding audience of lonely and socially awkward or just tired, and mostly male, denizens of the fast-deteriorating cyber realm.
Fanvue, as with the bevy of similar startups hitting the internet, is essentially OnlyFans, but the twist is that the “creators” have open access to AI. Artificial voices, personages, events, acts, and so forth are all on offer in the new digital landscape. The voice, the hair, the body — none of it is real at all. Add a $100 million market capitalization, and you might see where this is going.
Maybe sites such as Fanvue force most women back into the real world, where they need to interact with other real humans.
With both Only Fans and its AI mimickers like Fanvue, creators upload content, followers subscribe, and whatever happens behind the paywall stays behind the paywall. (Just don’t violate the generous but firm guidelines in the Terms of Service.)
In the scramble to replace humanity online, Fanvue is, if not leading the pack, making bold strides into designing how that erasure goes down. The company boasts 200,000 “creators” on the platform, to whom it has paid out more than $500 million. Similar companies jockeying for position will likely fight over brand-name recognition and then be absorbed under some yet-to-be-determined single umbrella. Maybe it’s Fanvue. Or will OnlyFans simply buy them all?
OnlyFans creators do have at least some cachet with their existing followers. And until the next crop of perhaps less human-oriented followers steps up with debit cards in hand, the small contingent of OnlyFans creators who make a living (very attractive women) will probably continue to do well.
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Photo by PG/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
Maybe you have seen the clips of decidedly non-European men positioned in front of a camera, pantomiming, smiling, pretending. On the split screen, we can see how the Kling (or similar) motion control software instantly transmogrifies the middle-age Indian man (from the cases we’ve seen) into a rather convincing young, highly attractive, English-speaking female (to take just one of many iterations). She’s ready to talk to you! The opportunities for delusion, fraud, and manipulation by way of the human proclivity toward self-deceit just got multiplied a thousandfold. Customer service runarounds just got 10 times more convoluted.
The assumption is that, for millions if not billions of customers, video-to-video and image-to-video technology like Kling, which allows users to transfer specific motions, facial expressions, and gestures in live time from a reference video is more than enough to satisfy consumers as well as producers. Everybody wins!
Or not? Digital puppeteering can’t help but subvert the quality and value of human-to-human interaction — you know, that thing that started and perpetuates all of our experience on earth. Yet so dilapidated are our circumstances that it’s actually very hard to say whether or not this is an improvement in moral terms. You see, on the one hand, maybe sites such as Fanvue force most women back into the real world, where they need to interact with other real humans. On the other, maybe the price for artificial intimate interaction with digital entities stabilizes and even more young, shiftless, and financially abused men have nowhere else to turn but to simulated companions.
Justine Moore, a partner at A16z, gets credit for putting the puzzle together in a semi-viral X thread last week: “I predicted this in ’23 when I saw a few creators start using AI to sell voice clips and extra images. But now the future is here — anyone can be a hot girl online. It’s all thanks to NB Pro [and] Kling Motion Control.”
Consider that with these minor steps forward into really convincing motion transfer and voice technologies, the level of human discernment required to combat fraud, at every level, just shot through the roof. You get a FaceTime or X call from someone. Is it really that person? We are presented with an audio-visual clip of some sort, it’s labeled “BREAKING.” Maybe it looks important, or maybe the context really has immediate impact, but we won’t be entirely sure if it’s real.
Fanvue’s big step into a very particular timeline nightmare shouldn’t have been inevitable, yet it also seems foretold. It surely spells deep trouble — and signifies a turning point where we must make an active, daily choice to be, and not just seem to be, human.
Pope Leo asks US, Cuba to engage in ‘sincere and effective dialogue’
Pope Leo XIV on Sunday pressed the U.S. and Cuba to enter “a sincere and effective dialogue” following a recent rough patch in the two countries’ relations. “I have received the greatly troubling news regarding an increase in tensions between Cuba and the United States of America, two neighboring countries,” the pope said in a…
