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Trendy tech not always best for getting job done

Companies that jump on the latest trendy technology a little too early are often stuck with the bill when it doesn’t turn out to fulfill all its promise. In Dublin, Ohio, taxpayers had to foot the bill for a K5 autonomous security robot the police department called “DubBot,” after it failed miserably at its job. According to a report by the website Futurism, which cited a Columbus Dispatch report, DubBot helped make no arrests and issued no tickets during its less-than-a-year on the job. Or, as the department spokesperson put it, it “wasn’t meeting operational ...

Namdar record not reassuring for Gateway

In 2024, mortgage foreclosure proceedings began for Gateway Center, the 1.5 million-square-foot office complex in downtown Pittsburgh. Wells Fargo Bank said in court documents that Hertz Gateway Center LP had neglected its duty to keep the property in “good and safe condition and repair.” The company also hadn’t paid the bills necessary to keep things running, with about 35 creditors on a list of shutoff notices. The high-profile property needed a white knight. On Tuesday, property manager CBRE confirmed someone had stepped in, purchasing the note for the $84 million ...

Exploitation is more than just hacking

Imagine someone picked the lock on your back door and walked inside. This person went through your mail, took your data and stole invasive and private images. It was all traded away to others, without your consent or your control. And then it happened to about 300 other people. The litany of crimes would stagger. It would start with breaking and entering, and move on to burglary. The act of forcing entry would be joined by the theft, by the exploitive images and by the distribution. It would be multiplied by the number of instances and again by the number of victims. The sentence ...

Mamdani’s victory strut Is premature

Yes, Mayor Zohran Mamdani's socialist picks just knocked off some Democratic incumbents in New York City. They included surprising defeats, especially that of Rep. Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Espaillat lost to Darializa Avila Chevalier, whose social media swims with past calls to abolish the police, free prisoners and stop deportations for any reason, presumably including murder. It's not like Espaillat's district was dominated by the young professionals who flocked to Mamdani. His electorate is 52% Hispanic and includes such non-hipster ...

‘40 acres and a mule’ — black reparation

To the Editor: Have you ever heard the story of the phrase “40 acres and a mule?” Although I enjoy history, I couldn’t recall this story. This was the first attempt to provide a form of reparations to newly freed slaves after the Civil War. Astonishingly radical, it called for the federal government to confiscate 400,000 acres of private property from Confederate landowners and methodically redistribute it to former black slaves. How did this all come about? Gen. Wiliam T. Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton met with 20 leaders of the black community, mostly Baptist ...

‘Top-notch’ officers’ lauded after flawless performance

Anyone who ever has harbored the foolhardy notion of trying to smuggle an illegal substance or item into the Blair County Prison was dealt an “eye-opener” by way of the June 5 Altoona Mirror article “Warden commends work to halt smuggling.” The lesson was that, to be successful, it will take a plan much more sophisticated than the one hatched to “funnel” illegal items to an inmate who was at the Station Medical Center on Ninth Avenue in Altoona for an appointment — and that an even-more-sophisticated plan is likely to be doomed to failure, with additional criminal charges ...