wolf bet casino By ALEXANDRA OLSON and CATHY BUSSEWITZ NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart’s sweeping rollback of its diversity policies is the strongest indication yet of a profound shift taking hold at U.S. companies that are revaluating the legal and political risks associated with bold programs to bolster historically underrepresented groups in business. The changes announced by the world’s biggest retailer followed a string of legal victories by conservative groups that have filed an onslaught of lawsuits challenging corporate and federal programs aimed at elevating minority and women-owned businesses and employees. The risk associated with some of programs crystalized with the election of former President Donald Trump, whose administration is certain to make dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion programs a priority. Trump’s incoming deputy chief of policy will be his former adviser Stephen Miller , who leads a group called America First Legal that has aggressively challenged corporate DEI policies. “There has been a lot of reassessment of risk looking at programs that could be deemed to constitute reverse discrimination,” said Allan Schweyer, principal researcher the Human Capital Center at the Conference Board. “This is another domino to fall and it is a rather large domino,” he added. Among other changes, Walmart said it will no longer give priority treatment to suppliers owned by women or minorities. The company also will not renew a five-year commitment for a racial equity center set up in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd. And it pulled out of a prominent gay rights index . Schweyer said the biggest trigger for companies making such changes is simply a reassessment of their legal risk exposure, which began after U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June 2023 that ended affirmative action in college admissions. Since then, conservative groups using similar arguments have secured court victories against various diversity programs, especially those that steer contracts to minority or women-owned businesses. Most recently, the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty won a victory in a case against the U.S. Department of Transportation over its use of a program that gives priority to minority-owned businesses when it awards contracts. Companies are seeing a big legal risk in continuing with DEI efforts, said Dan Lennington, a deputy counsel at the institute. His organization says it has identified more than 60 programs in the federal government that it considers discriminatory, he said. “We have a legal landscape within the entire federal government, all three branches — the U.S. Supreme Court, the Congress and the President — are all now firmly pointed in the direction towards equality of individuals and individualized treatment of all Americans, instead of diversity, equity and inclusion treating people as members of racial groups,” Lennington said. The Trump administration is also likely to take direct aim at DEI initiatives through executive orders and other policies that affect private companies, especially federal contractors. “The impact of the election on DEI policies is huge. It can’t be overstated,” said Jason Schwartz, co-chair of the Labor & Employment Practice Group at law firm Gibson Dunn. With Miller returning to the White House, rolling back DEI initiatives is likely to be a priority, Schwartz said. “Companies are trying to strike the right balance to make clear they’ve got an inclusive workplace where everyone is welcome, and they want to get the best talent, while at the same time trying not to alienate various parts of their employees and customer base who might feel one way or the other. It’s a virtually impossible dilemma,” Schwartz said. A recent survey by Pew Research Center showed that workers are divided on the merits of DEI policies. While still broadly popular, the share of workers who said focusing on workplace diversity was mostly a good thing fell to 52% in the November survey, compared to 56% in a similar survey in February 2023. Rachel Minkin, a research associated at Pew called it a small but significant shift in short amount of time. There will be more companies pulling back from their DEI policies, but it likely won’t be a retreat across the board, said David Glasgow, executive director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at New York University. “There are vastly more companies that are sticking with DEI,” Glasgow said. “The only reason you don’t hear about it is most of them are doing it by stealth. They’re putting their heads down and doing DEI work and hoping not to attract attention.” Glasgow advises organizations to stick to their own core values, because attitudes toward the topic can change quickly in the span of four years. “It’s going to leave them looking a little bit weak if there’s a kind of flip-flopping, depending on whichever direction the political winds are blowing,” he said. One reason DEI programs exist is because without those programs, companies may be vulnerable to lawsuits for traditional discrimination. “Really think carefully about the risks in all directions on this topic,” Glasgow said. Walmart confirmed will no longer consider race and gender as a litmus test to improve diversity when it offers supplier contracts. Last fiscal year, Walmart said it spent more than $13 billion on minority, women or veteran-owned good and service suppliers. It was unclear how its relationships with such business would change going forward. Organizations that that have partnered with Walmart on its diversity initiatives offered a cautious response. The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, a non-profit that last year named Walmart one of America’s top corporation for women-owned enterprises, said it was still evaluating the impact of Walmart’s announcement. Pamela Prince-Eason, the president and CEO of the organization, said she hoped Walmart’s need to cater to its diverse customer base will continue to drive contracts to women-owned suppliers even if the company no longer has explicit dollar goals. “I suspect Walmart will continue to have one of the most inclusive supply chains in the World,” Prince-Eason wrote. “Any retailer’s ability to serve the communities they operate in will continue to value understanding their customers, (many of which are women), in order to better provide products and services desired and no one understands customers better than Walmart.” Walmart’s announcement came after the company spoke directly with conservative political commentator and activist Robby Starbuck, who has been going after corporate DEI policies, calling out individual companies on the social media platform X. Several of those companies have subsequently announced that they are pulling back their initiatives, including Ford , Harley-Davidson, Lowe’s and Tractor Supply . Walmart confirmed to The Associated Press that it will better monitor its third-party marketplace items to make sure they don’t feature sexual and transgender products aimed at minors. The company also will stop participating in the Human Rights Campaign’s annual benchmark index that measures workplace inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees. A Walmart spokesperson added that some of the changes were already in progress and not as a result of conversations that it had with Starbuck. RaShawn “Shawnie” Hawkins, senior director of the HRC Foundation’s Workplace Equality Program, said companies that “abandon” their commitments workplace inclusion policies “are shirking their responsibility to their employees, consumers, and shareholders.” She said the buying power of LGBTQ customers is powerful and noted that the index will have record participation of more than 1,400 companies in 2025.Favorites to win, sleeper teams, players to watch

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — Icelanders voted to elect a new parliament Saturday after disagreements over immigration, energy policy and the economy forced Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson to pull the plug on his coalition government and call an early election. This is Iceland’s sixth general election since the 2008 financial crisis devastated the economy of the North Atlantic island nation and ushered in a new era of political instability. Opinion polls suggested the country could be in for another upheaval, with support for the three governing parties plunging. Benediktsson, who was named prime minister in April following the resignation of his predecessor, struggled to hold together the unlikely coalition of his conservative Independence Party with the centrist Progressive Party and the Left-Green Movement. “My expectation is like, something new going to happen, hopefully," said Hörður Guðjónsson, voting in the capital, Reykjavik. “We always have had these old parties taking care of things. I hope we see the light now to come in with a younger people, new ideas.” Iceland, a nation of about 400,000 people, is proud of its democratic traditions, describing itself as arguably the world’s oldest parliamentary democracy. The island’s parliament, the Althingi, was founded in 930 by the Norsemen who settled the country. Fierce weather in the sub-Arctic nation threatened to hamper some voters getting to polling stations on Saturday, with heavy snow blocking roads in many areas. The weather could also delay the delivery of ballot boxes to counting centers after polls close at 10 p.m. (2200GMT). Voters are choosing 63 members of the Althingi in an election that will allocate seats both by regional constituencies and proportional representation. Parties need at least 5% of the vote to win seats in parliament. Eight parties were represented in the outgoing parliament, and 10 parties are contesting this election. Turnout is traditionally high by international standards, with 80% of registered voters casting ballots in the 2021 parliamentary election. A windswept island near the Arctic Circle, Iceland normally holds elections during the warmer months of the year. But Benediktsson decided on Oct. 13 that his coalition couldn’t last any longer, and he asked President Halla Tómasdóttir to dissolve the Althingi. “The weakness of this society is that we have no very strong party and we have no very strong leader of any party,’’ said Vilhjálmur Bjarnason a former member of parliament. “We have no charming person with a vision ... That is very difficult for us.” Despite the electoral headwinds, Benediktsson expressed confidence that his Independence Party could emerge on top. “It was an uphill battle for my party, initially, but as we moved on into the election campaign, I think things started to turn our way and I feel that this will be a very exciting election day,” he said. The splintering of Iceland's political landscape came after the 2008 financial crisis, which prompted years of economic upheaval after the country's debt-swollen banks collapsed. The crisis led to anger and distrust of the parties that had traditionally traded power back and forth, and prompted the creation of new parties ranging from the environment focused Left-Green Alliance to the Pirate Party, which advocates direct democracy and individual freedoms. “This is one of the consequences of the economic crash,’’ said Eva H. Önnudóttir, a professor of political science at the University of Iceland. “It’s just the changed landscape. Parties, especially the old parties, have maybe kind of been hoping that we would go back to how things were before, but that’s not going to happen.” Like many Western countries, Iceland has been buffeted by the rising cost of living and immigration pressures. Inflation peaked at an annual rate of 10.2% in February 2023, fueled by the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. While inflation slowed to 5.1% in October, that is still high compared with neighboring countries. The U.S. inflation rate stood at 2.6% last month, while the European Union’s rate was 2.3%. Iceland is also struggling to accommodate a rising number of asylum-seekers, creating tensions within the small, traditionally homogenous country. The number of immigrants seeking protection in Iceland jumped to more than 4,000 in each of the past three years, compared with a previous average of less than 1,000. Repeated eruptions of a volcano in the southwestern part of the country have displaced thousands of people and strained public finances. One year after the first eruption forced the evacuation of the town of Grindavik, many residents still don’t have secure housing, leading to complaints that the government has been slow to respond. But it also added to a shortage of affordable housing exacerbated by Iceland’s tourism boom. Young people are struggling to get a foot on the housing ladder at a time when short-term vacation rentals have reduced the housing stock available for locals, Önnudóttir said. “The housing issue is becoming a big issue in Iceland,'' she said. Danica Kirka reported from London. Jill Lawless contributed to this report from London.Chandigarh: Farm leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal was discharged from Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH), Ludhiana late Friday night amid mounting anger and protest of the farmers against his detention in the wee hours of Tuesday - hours before he was to begun his fast-unto-death at Khanauri border to press for farmers demands including minimum support price for their crops. However, police maintained that Dallewal was not detained but was taken to DMCH in Ludhiana from his medical tests as he has been unwell. The police held that the government was concerned about Dallewal’s health and it was in this wake that his proper medical check was important; according to media reports, Dallewal has been on medication even though he has recovered from prostate cancer and that he was also down with pneumonia last month. Meanwhile, according to media reports, Dallewal reached the Khanauri border protest site later after he was discharged from the DMCH and started his fast-unto-death later in the evening. The leaders of the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (non-political) and the Kisan Mazdoor Morcha leaders including Sarwan Singh Pandher said that the farmers would gherao chief minister Bhagwant Mann’s residence in Sangrur on December and would also resume their ``Delhi march’’ on December 6. Nonetheless, there were reports that the farmers might cancel their December 1 CM residence gherao protest. However, unlike their February "Delhi march’’ when the farmers had tried to move towards Delhi on their tractor trolleys but were stopped by at Shambhu and Khanauri borders by security forces, they would now move undertake a foot-march towards Delhi and in batches, he held. It may be recalled that a large number of farmers have been camping at Shambhu and Khanauri borders between Punjab and Haryana since February 13, last, after their "Delhi Chalo’’ tractor march was stopped by security forces at the said two points – Shambhu and Khanauri borders of the two states. Later, the farm leaders had also held a series of meetings with Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Nityanand Rai and Arjun Munda in Chandigarh in February but these had failed to make a headway.

By ALEXANDRA OLSON and CATHY BUSSEWITZ NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart’s sweeping rollback of its diversity policies is the strongest indication yet of a profound shift taking hold at U.S. companies that are revaluating the legal and political risks associated with bold programs to bolster historically underrepresented groups in business. The changes announced by the world’s biggest retailer followed a string of legal victories by conservative groups that have filed an onslaught of lawsuits challenging corporate and federal programs aimed at elevating minority and women-owned businesses and employees. The risk associated with some of programs crystalized with the election of former President Donald Trump, whose administration is certain to make dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion programs a priority. Trump’s incoming deputy chief of policy will be his former adviser Stephen Miller , who leads a group called America First Legal that has aggressively challenged corporate DEI policies. “There has been a lot of reassessment of risk looking at programs that could be deemed to constitute reverse discrimination,” said Allan Schweyer, principal researcher the Human Capital Center at the Conference Board. “This is another domino to fall and it is a rather large domino,” he added. Among other changes, Walmart said it will no longer give priority treatment to suppliers owned by women or minorities. The company also will not renew a five-year commitment for a racial equity center set up in 2020 after the police killing of George Floyd. And it pulled out of a prominent gay rights index . Schweyer said the biggest trigger for companies making such changes is simply a reassessment of their legal risk exposure, which began after U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in June 2023 that ended affirmative action in college admissions. Since then, conservative groups using similar arguments have secured court victories against various diversity programs, especially those that steer contracts to minority or women-owned businesses. Most recently, the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty won a victory in a case against the U.S. Department of Transportation over its use of a program that gives priority to minority-owned businesses when it awards contracts. Companies are seeing a big legal risk in continuing with DEI efforts, said Dan Lennington, a deputy counsel at the institute. His organization says it has identified more than 60 programs in the federal government that it considers discriminatory, he said. “We have a legal landscape within the entire federal government, all three branches — the U.S. Supreme Court, the Congress and the President — are all now firmly pointed in the direction towards equality of individuals and individualized treatment of all Americans, instead of diversity, equity and inclusion treating people as members of racial groups,” Lennington said. The Trump administration is also likely to take direct aim at DEI initiatives through executive orders and other policies that affect private companies, especially federal contractors. “The impact of the election on DEI policies is huge. It can’t be overstated,” said Jason Schwartz, co-chair of the Labor & Employment Practice Group at law firm Gibson Dunn. With Miller returning to the White House, rolling back DEI initiatives is likely to be a priority, Schwartz said. “Companies are trying to strike the right balance to make clear they’ve got an inclusive workplace where everyone is welcome, and they want to get the best talent, while at the same time trying not to alienate various parts of their employees and customer base who might feel one way or the other. It’s a virtually impossible dilemma,” Schwartz said. A recent survey by Pew Research Center showed that workers are divided on the merits of DEI policies. While still broadly popular, the share of workers who said focusing on workplace diversity was mostly a good thing fell to 52% in the November survey, compared to 56% in a similar survey in February 2023. Rachel Minkin, a research associated at Pew called it a small but significant shift in short amount of time. There will be more companies pulling back from their DEI policies, but it likely won’t be a retreat across the board, said David Glasgow, executive director of the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at New York University. “There are vastly more companies that are sticking with DEI,” Glasgow said. “The only reason you don’t hear about it is most of them are doing it by stealth. They’re putting their heads down and doing DEI work and hoping not to attract attention.” Glasgow advises organizations to stick to their own core values, because attitudes toward the topic can change quickly in the span of four years. “It’s going to leave them looking a little bit weak if there’s a kind of flip-flopping, depending on whichever direction the political winds are blowing,” he said. One reason DEI programs exist is because without those programs, companies may be vulnerable to lawsuits for traditional discrimination. “Really think carefully about the risks in all directions on this topic,” Glasgow said. Walmart confirmed will no longer consider race and gender as a litmus test to improve diversity when it offers supplier contracts. Last fiscal year, Walmart said it spent more than $13 billion on minority, women or veteran-owned good and service suppliers. It was unclear how its relationships with such business would change going forward. Organizations that that have partnered with Walmart on its diversity initiatives offered a cautious response. The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, a non-profit that last year named Walmart one of America’s top corporation for women-owned enterprises, said it was still evaluating the impact of Walmart’s announcement. Pamela Prince-Eason, the president and CEO of the organization, said she hoped Walmart’s need to cater to its diverse customer base will continue to drive contracts to women-owned suppliers even if the company no longer has explicit dollar goals. “I suspect Walmart will continue to have one of the most inclusive supply chains in the World,” Prince-Eason wrote. “Any retailer’s ability to serve the communities they operate in will continue to value understanding their customers, (many of which are women), in order to better provide products and services desired and no one understands customers better than Walmart.” Walmart’s announcement came after the company spoke directly with conservative political commentator and activist Robby Starbuck, who has been going after corporate DEI policies, calling out individual companies on the social media platform X. Several of those companies have subsequently announced that they are pulling back their initiatives, including Ford , Harley-Davidson, Lowe’s and Tractor Supply . Walmart confirmed to The Associated Press that it will better monitor its third-party marketplace items to make sure they don’t feature sexual and transgender products aimed at minors. The company also will stop participating in the Human Rights Campaign’s annual benchmark index that measures workplace inclusion for LGBTQ+ employees. A Walmart spokesperson added that some of the changes were already in progress and not as a result of conversations that it had with Starbuck. RaShawn “Shawnie” Hawkins, senior director of the HRC Foundation’s Workplace Equality Program, said companies that “abandon” their commitments workplace inclusion policies “are shirking their responsibility to their employees, consumers, and shareholders.” She said the buying power of LGBTQ customers is powerful and noted that the index will have record participation of more than 1,400 companies in 2025.AP Business SummaryBrief at 10:35 a.m. EST

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OpenAI’s ChatGPT platform and Sora video generator have gone offline and are currently not responding to user queries. Social media accounts began posting about the outage around 1:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, which coincided with a surge of reports to Down Detector . The company confirmed the outage in a blog post at 2 p.m. ET stating, “we are currently experiencing an issue with high error rates on ChatGPT, the API, and Sora. We are currently investigating and will post an update as soon as we are able.” OpenAI provided that update just 18 minutes later, explaining that, “this issue is caused by an upstream provider and we are currently monitoring.” Just after 3 p.m. ET, the company added, “we are continuing to work on a fix for this issue,” though there is currently no timeline for when service might be restored. OpenAI has suffered similar outages in the past few months. ChatGPT was knocked offline in a widespread outage in June that also impacted Google Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, and Perplexity. Earlier in December, the Sora video generation model ran into “technical difficulties” just days after its release to Plus and Pro subscribers . In both cases, the company was able to resolve those respective issues within a few hours. This outage comes on the heels of the company’s “12 Days of OpenAI ” event that saw the release of numerous new products, including the full version of its o1 reasoning model (plus a teaser for its successor, called o3 ), as well as the Sora text-to-video model, and new capabilities for its Canvas and Advanced Voice Mode features.Path of Exile 2 Servers Starting to Hold as Player Queues Lessen

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YORK — Dale Sweek took a job at the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services because it paid well. He only stayed there, though, because he thought he could help people. But after six years of working at the women’s prison in York, Sweek said, he had been through so much physical and mental stress that he was “broken down.” He thought of the coworker who had a heart attack shortly after retiring. He read research that indicated correctional staff have higher rates of heart disease and higher blood pressure than even other law enforcement officers. Another major reason Sweek said he left his position in 2023 was the way things were run at the women’s prison. Guards like Sweek are more than just security. During his time at the prison, Sweek provided emergency medical care, took care of individuals experiencing mental health episodes and inspected buildings for safety and sanitation. The way the prison handled issues in those areas worried Sweek and was echoed in the stories of a handful of incarcerated individuals at the prison interviewed by the York News-Times. People are also reading... 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Driver of car dead after crash in downtown Lincoln; part of O Street closed Nebraska medical marijuana petitions ruled valid; law set to go into effect Dec. 12 One incarcerated woman said she was locked in a shower cell for 20 hours with no food or bedding after refusing to go to the mental health unit. Another individual provided records suggesting the prison’s administration willingly ignored over 20 complaints about ventilation and air conditioning in one of the facility’s buildings. Sweek did not speak to the specific concerns detailed by the incarcerated individuals for this story, but he shared the incarcerated individuals’ frustration about the prison’s available mental health resources and the sanitation and safety of the facility. Warden Angela Folts-Oberle declined an interview request, but a spokesperson for the prison answered questions over email. “NCCW has a mental health department that supports the needs of individuals in all areas of the facility, including individual therapy, group therapy and clinical programming. NDCS policy also establishes specific timeframes for mental health professionals to meet with certain individuals,” wrote the department’s spokesperson, Dayne Urbanovsky. “The NCCW safety and sanitation officer completes rounds and inspections consistently throughout the facility and holds quarterly meetings with facility leadership to review data and recommendations,” she said. Urbanovsky said the facility is accredited by the American Correctional Association, most recently in February 2024. She said the accreditation process involves “file reviews, evaluations and an on-site inspection of the facility by ACA auditors.” Locked in a shower cell for 20 hours Maya Shields, 24, said she was locked in a shower cell with no bedding or food for 20 hours in September of this year. Shields is currently housed in the prison’s Behavior Intervention and Programming Unit, or, BIPU, which is women’s prison’s highest security unit. BIPU consists of a series of secure, single-person cells along a hallway. The showers in BIPU are also secure, individual cells, Shields said. Shields said she went into the shower cell and refused to come out after guards said they were taking her to a different unit at the prison, a unit focused on mental health that she said is for individuals who are incapable of taking care of themselves. Eventually, Shields said, the guards decided to leave her in the shower cell. But when she then asked to leave or at least be given food or bedding, she said, she was given nothing and had to stay there for almost a full day. They told her to use the shower water to drink and the drain to relieve herself, she said. Urbanovsky did not directly respond to a question about Shields’ situation but said BIPU is “mission-specific housing that addresses an individual’s behavior and risk posed to others.” She said individuals incarcerated in BIPU get six hours outside their room each day, time that may be spent with other people. Shields said the prison uses both BIPU and the mental health unit to put away people who have mental health or behavioral issues. “They don’t know what to do with people that have behavioral issues so they just lock them away,” Shields said during a phone interview. Carol Wilkins, who has been incarcerated in York since 2010, said in an in-person interview that she has spent time in both BIPU and the mental health unit. She said she struggled with isolation in BIPU but said the mental health unit, which has unit-specific programming, was actually “a really good program” for her — the first time she was there. She said going through the programming again hasn’t helped her. Sweek said that as a guard one of the hardest things about working at the women’s prison was working with people struggling with mental health issues, especially people in the mental health unit. “Seeing those inmates — they’ve committed crimes, but you know they shouldn’t be there because their mental health is so bad. They should be in a mental health facility,” Sweek said. That’s something that Shields has argued in an essay for the Nebraska Criminal Justice Review about the use of segregation on people with mental health issues, writing, “I feel people with severe mental health issues should reside in a facility with actual proper medical care & treatment.” “This prison has potential,” Wilkins said, praising some staff members, including the warden, but felt like more resources needed to go toward it, as opposed to the men’s prisons. She said this was especially true of BIPU and the mental health unit. For one thing, Wilkins said, the mental health unit needs a new coat of paint and a new intercom system. ‘It starts at the top’: Air quality in the A+B wings of North Hall For over two years, Sweek said, he was in charge of doing safety and sanitation inspections at one of the prison’s buildings. He said it felt like the administration never listened to the suggestions he made – whether it was about rusty metal bunks, mold on the ceiling or issues with the prison’s water. “You are supposed to report these things, and then you go to the top and then it’s supposed to trickle down into maintenance and things are supposed to get fixed or replaced and they don’t want to listen to you,” Sweek recalled. In April and May of 2022, Chris Henderson, a transgender man incarcerated at the prison, and 20 other individuals incarcerated at the women’s prison wrote grievances to Folts-Oberle about problems with the exhaust system and air conditioning in the A+B wings of the prison’s North Hall. Sweek said the air in North Hall was a regular issue when he was there. “They usually get it fixed as soon as they can, but they usually put a Band-Aid on it,” he recalled. Each of the grievances, copies of which Henderson shared with the News-Times, received the same response, saying there were no issues with the air temperature and that a contractor had been contacted to service the exhaust system. At the bottom of each grievance appears to be a signature from the prison’s warden, Folts-Oberle. Henderson also wrote to the Office of the Ombudsman, which investigates civilian complaints against state agencies and employees, about the heating and cooling systems in the A+B wings of North Hall. The ombudsman office’s reply in July 2022, Henderson said, disappointed him. “I addressed your concerns with Warden Folts-Oberle, and she stated that the facility has not received any complaints about the air conditioning not working in North Hall,” an assistant ombudsman wrote to Henderson, according to a copy of the letter Henderson shared with the News-Times. The warden’s claim to the ombudsman that she had received no complaints appears to contradict the more than 20 responses to grievances about air conditioning with her signature. But over email, Urbanovsky doubled down on Folts-Oberle’s assertion that there were no grievances filed about the air conditioning in North Hall during that time. “We completed a search of our grievance records and there were no grievances located regarding a non-working air conditioner in North Hall A & B wings from March 1, 2022, to July 31, 2022,” Urbanovsky wrote. Henderson was disappointed by what the warden told the ombudsman’s office. “If the warden is doing this, what does that mean for people under her? She sets the standard,” Henderson said. The ombudsman’s response also bothered him. “I was pissed, but I wasn’t surprised by it. The people who are supposed to help us didn’t go past the warden,” Henderson said, referring to the ombudsman’s response. Ombudsman Julie Rogers said her office encourages incarcerated individuals to use the grievance process on any issues to see if they can get issues handled themselves. If that’s not working, then her office intervenes. They are mainly focused on seeing if the agency is going to solve the problem — whatever the problem is, she said. Rogers said her office does not currently have any complaints about heating or air at the women’s prison. Sweek suggested cases like this weren’t uncommon — things regularly didn’t get fixed. Eventually, for Sweek, trying to improve prison conditions and help incarcerated individuals suffering with mental health issues caused his own health to suffer. That’s why he felt like he ultimately had to leave. He blamed prison leadership for not taking the suggestions of the people under them seriously enough. While he felt that a lot needed to change, Sweek said, “It starts at the top. It starts at the warden, and that trickles down.”

Denton’s Walmart on South Loop 288 is launching a pilot program that equips some employees with body-worn cameras in an effort to mitigate theft and customer conflict. The Denton Record-Chronicle visited both Denton Walmart stores, located at 1515 S. Loop 288 and 2750 W. University Drive, on Thursday. A small number of employees were wearing the body cameras at the South Loop 288 store. The employees wearing the devices were located at the self-check-out stations and were greeters, who occasionally check customer receipts. Other employees throughout the Loop 288 store’s floor were not wearing body cameras at the time. A sign at the store’s entrances informs customers that there is video and audio recording at the store and that body-worn cameras are in use. There were not any employees seen wearing body cameras at the University Drive store on Thursday. Though the stores have in-house asset protection and contracts with the Denton Police Department to provide off-duty officer security, Walmart confirmed it’s looking for additional security measures. “While we don’t talk about the specifics of our security measures, we are always looking at new and innovating technology used across the retail industry,” Walmart said in a statement to USA Today. “This is a pilot we are testing in one market and we will evaluate the result before making any longer-term decisions.” An employee at a unspecified Walmart store posted a photo on Reddit of the devices in a charging station. A poster directs employees to wear the cameras at chest level and activate them if an interaction with a customer is escalating. It tells employees not to wear the cameras in associate spaces or bathrooms. The Denton Walmart stores have long been hot spots for shoplifting, assault and other criminal behavior. For example, during the week of Thanksgiving, Denton police arrested a man on an aggravated assault charge for allegedly barricading himself in the Walmart on University Drive and shooting arrows at employees and customers. No one was injured in that incident. However, multiple Walmart employees from both Denton stores have reported within the past year that they have been pushed, kicked and hit when confronting customers who are suspected of shoplifting, generally causing a disturbance or victimizing other customers. Other retailers, like TJX , which owns T.J. Maxx, HomeGoods and Marshalls, also equipped employees with body-worn cameras earlier this year. “It’s almost like a de-escalation where people are less likely to do something when they’re being videotaped,” said TJX Chief Financial Officer John Klinger, according to CNN . Back on Reddit, reactions from commenters who worked at various Walmart stores were mixed with some feeling the devices were a necessary improvement in employee safety and others worrying that turning on a camera may further escalate a confrontation. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. From minor traffic accidents to neighborhood watch updates, stay informed on public safety with the week’s top crime stories in your inbox every Wednesday morning. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request.Bamboo Technology's HereHear Virtual AI Therapist Joins Berkeley Skydeck IPP Program

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Tahj Brooks ran for a season-high 188 yards and three touchdowns in the final home game for Texas Tech's all-time leading rusher, and the Red Raiders rolled to a 52-15 victory over West Virginia on Saturday. Texas Tech (8-4, 6-3 Big 12) kept alive faint hopes for a bid in the Big 12 championship game by winning at least eight games in the regular season for the first time since 2009 under the late Mike Leach. The Red Raiders scored at 50 points for the second week in a row and had a resounding response to consecutive home losses. “It was a big deal for us to play well at home,” coach Joey McGuire said. “Our last two home games, we’ve had incredible crowds that had great energy, that had our backs and we played really, really bad. We were embarrassed.” Garrett Greene threw an interception and lost a fumble on Terrell Tilmon's strip sack in the final three minutes of the first half as the Mountaineers (6-6, 5-4) raised more questions about the future of coach Neal Brown by falling behind 35-3 before the break. Behren Morton threw for 359 yards and two touchdowns, including a 31-yarder to Caleb Douglas to put Texas Tech in front 42-3 early in the second half. Josh Kelly had 150 yards receiving. “I don’t think the first half of football defines who they are, who they are as individuals, who we are as a team,” Brown said of the Mountaineers. “Not pleased with that.” McGuire, who will have his third winning record in three seasons, called timeout with 5:57 remaining and his team leading 45-15 to take Brooks out of the game. Brooks was mobbed by teammates as the crowd gave him a standing ovation. Brooks ran for at least 100 yards in all 11 regular-season games he played, breaking the single-season school record of 10 he shared with Byron Hanspard and Bam Morris. Brooks pushed his career total to 4,557 yards in his first home game since breaking Hanspard's 1996 school record of 4,219 yards two weeks ago at Jones AT&T Stadium. Two of Brooks' TDs came on 2-yard runs from direct snaps, and the other was a 37-yarder when he stumbled on a cut but stayed on his feet and bounced off defensive back Ty French. Brooks has 17 TDs rushing this season and 45 for his career. Brooks set up one of his short TDs with a 30-yard catch. Jahiem White ran for 124 yards with a spinning 21-yard touchdown for West Virginia, and Greene had a 15-yard scoring toss to Rodney Gallagher III. Greene threw two picks. West Virginia: A perfect season on the road in the Big 12 ended with a thud. The Mountaineers were 3-0 away from home in conference before allowing 29 second-quarter points followed by another TD just 2:12 into the third. Texas Tech: Tight end Jalin Conyers, one of Brooks' fellow seniors playing his final home game, made up a for a dropped pass in the end zone with a juggling, diving catch for 18 yards to set up Morton's 1-yard scoring toss to Mason Tharp. Conyers, an Arizona State transfer, also had a 2-point conversion run on a swinging gate play from the PAT unit. Both teams are eligible for bowl games. At game's end, Texas Tech's fate for a spot in the Big 12 title game was still up in the air. ___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballSpartan Capital Securities is Pleased to Announce the Hiring of Vito Coviello, Chief Financial Officer

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The New York Rangers are reportedly set to sign Igor Shesterkin to the largest goaltending contract in NHL history. The Rangers and Shesterkin have agreed to an eight-year, $92 million deal worth $11.5 million per year, according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman . Shesterkin will be the first goaltender to earn more than $10.5 million per year. The reported extension eclipses the eight-year, $84 million deal Carey Price inked with the Montreal Canadiens in 2017. The news caps off a busy Friday for the Rangers, who reportedly traded captain Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks hours earlier. This article will be updated soon to provide more information and analysis. For more from Bleacher Report on this topic and from around the sports world, check out our B/R app , homepage and social feeds—including Twitter , Instagram , Facebook and TikTok .JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s attorney general has ordered police to open an investigation into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife on suspicion of harassing political opponents and witnesses in the Israeli leader’s corruption trial. The Israeli Justice Ministry made the announcement in a terse message late Thursday, saying the investigation would focus on the findings of a recent report by the “Uvda” investigative program into Sara Netanyahu. The program uncovered a trove of WhatsApp messages in which Mrs. Netanyahu appears to instruct a former aid to organize protests against political opponents and to intimidate Hadas Klein, a key witness in the trial. The announcement did not mention Mrs. Netanyahu by name, and the Justice Ministry declined further comment. But in a video released earlier Thursday, Netanyahu listed what he said were the many kind and charitable acts by his wife and blasted the Uvda report as “lies.” It was the latest in a long line of legal troubles for the Netanyahus — highlighted by the prime minister's ongoing corruption trial . Netanyahu is charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in a series of cases alleging he exchanged favors with powerful media moguls and wealthy associates. Netanyahu denies the charges and says he is the victim of a “witch hunt” by overzealous prosecutors, police and the media.