Latest news with #Hurd
USA Today
02-07-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Alaska woman lands massive halibut, describes moment as ‘highlight of my life'
A woman from Fairbanks, Alaska, has taken the lead in the annual Valdez Halibut Derby with a catch last Friday that tipped the scale at 144.2 pounds. Melissa Hurd told Alaska's News Source that the hookup was subtle until the giant halibut began to run, at which point 'it felt like I had hit a tree or something.' Hurd's catch put her in the top spot in a competition that runs through August and offers a grand prize of $10,000. ALSO: Wild horses shown trying to outrun grizzly bear; not all of them succeed Her lead is unlikely to hold – since 1991 only two anglers have won the derby with catches weighing fewer than 200 pounds – but Hurd was excited simply to have joined the 100-pound club when it comes to Pacific halibut. 'We could see the size of that thing and to know that I had pulled this thing from the bottom of the ocean up to the surface – so fun,' she boasted. 'Just the highlight of my life.' Alaska's News Source reported that the potentially dangerous halibut was 'shot' by the captain before it was brought onto the boat. It's worth noting that the average weight of Pacific halibut caught in the Prince William Sound region weighs 30-40 pounds. But in the past, several 'barn door' halibut exceeding 300 pounds have been caught. The Valdez Halibut Derby record, set in 2017, stands at 374 pounds. For comparison, the all-tackle world record for Pacific halibut is 459 pounds. That giant was caught out of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, in 1996.
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
CO Rep. Jeff Hurd reacts to anti-ICE protests in his district and nationwide
WASHINGTON, D.C. (KREX) – The anti-ICE immigration protests in Los Angeles have inspired pop-up demonstrations of solidarity nationwide, including in Colorado Congressman Jeff Hurd's 3rd district. On the heels of a reportedly peaceful protest last night at Grand Junction's Lilac Park, the republican congressman sat down with WesternSlopeNow from D.C. with a message for protesters in his district and beyond. 'We should not be celebrating lawlessness and destruction of private property,' says Hurd. 'It sows chaos. It hurts families. It hurts communities. Now, by contrast, what we saw in Grand Junction was a peaceful protest. That's an example of the First Amendment properly used.' While the congressman shared support for peaceful protests in his district, he also supports the very thing they are protesting against: President Trump's immigration policies and ICE. 'I stand with the president and with ICE and with law enforcement when it comes to securing our borders and keeping our community safe,' says Hurd. 'When you stop the flow of drugs and crime into our community, that's something that the president campaigned on and something that I campaigned on.' But protesters in his district tell WesternSlopeNow, fighting criminals isn't the whole story. 'There's people getting kidnapped out of their immigration appointments and being told that they shouldn't be here when they're trying to do the right thing,' says protester Stephanie Dedduang. 'They are not just taking criminals. They are trying to arrest around 3,000 people a day in order to make this million-people deportation quota.' Demonstrations against ICE and the administration are scheduled to continue this weekend at the No King's Day protests in Grand Junction. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Former Colorado GOP vice chair challenges Jeff Hurd in 2026 race for Congress
Hope Scheppelman, who is running in the Republican primary to represent Colorado's 3rd Congressional District, is seen at left standing with President Donald Trump in a photo from 2024 on the homepage of the Colorado Republican Party's website. (Colorado Newsline) Hope Scheppelman, former vice chair of the Colorado Republican Party, is challenging U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd in the 2026 race to represent Colorado's 3rd Congressional District. Scheppelman, of Bayfield, said Hurd 'tricked and lied to CD3 voters last year' and has since 'exposed himself as just another liberal elitist who is dead set against President (Donald) Trump and the millions of MAGA citizens like me' in a press release announcing her candidacy. She is a U.S. Navy veteran and former health care professional and business owner. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Hurd, a Grand Junction Republican who started his first term in Congress in January, won voters in the district by promising 'a different style' from his predecessor, U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Windsor Republican and MAGA provocateur who moved districts after she was reelected by under 600 votes in 2022 and now represents the 4th Congressional District. Hurd has been one of the more moderate Republicans in Congress since he took office. 'When the people of CD3 learn what Jeff Hurd has really been up to in D.C., I know they will choose a real conservative who will fight for them and our real-world local interests, not the sold-out liberal elitists in BOTH parties who are thrilled with Hurd's betrayal of our common sense values,' Scheppelman said. The press release announcing Scheppelman's run said Hurd earned a primary from the MAGA wing of Colorado's GOP. She was vice chair of the Colorado Republican Party under former chair Dave Williams, who broke party norms by endorsing candidates in primary elections across the state, favoring many MAGA Republicans who lost their races. A group of Republicans attempted to oust Williams and other party leaders, but that effort was halted by the courts. Party members voted Scheppelman out as vice chair after one term in the position. If elected to Congress, Scheppelman's campaign website says she would prioritize ending the fentanyl crisis and securing the border; defending agriculture, water rights and landowners; improving rural health care, Medicare and Medicaid; restoring American energy independence; empowering parents and reforming education; defending constitutional rights and 'Western values'; honoring and supporting veterans; and strengthening rural economies and small business growth. The 3rd District encompasses the Western Slope and the southwest corner of the state, sweeping east to include Pueblo, Otero and Las Animas counties. Hurd has already raised over $700,000 for his reelection campaign. Two Democrats, Alex Kelloff and Kyle Doster, have also filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission declaring their run for the seat in the Democratic primary. Party primary elections in Colorado will take place in June 2026. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Michigan food assistance recipients talk survival with federal cuts to benefits impending
Melissa Miles speaks during a Michigan state Senate Housing and Human Services Committee meeting on June 10, 2025. | Photo: Anna Liz Nichols As a grandmother the last thing Detroit resident Kathleen Hurd wants to have to do is tell her grandchildren she has been raising for the past decade that their family has to choose between paying for housing or clothes or food. But as a federal spending plan that would cut billions of dollars from food assistance makes its way through Congress, Hurd told Michigan lawmakers Tuesday she's worried that she won't be able to shield her grandchildren from experiencing the effects. The federal spending plan, known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, is a plan endorsed by President Donald Trump to align federal spending with the values of the administration. Amongst other cuts, the plan would eliminate nearly $300 billion in funding to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which provides food assistance to 1.5 million Michigan residents, roughly 15% of the state's population. 'As a parent, you try not to put the stress and the concerns of adulthood on children… so to have to possibly say to my grandchildren, 'well, we either have to eat or not have a place to live, or we have to eat, but not be able to get those shoes or whatever it is that they need… is very concerning to me,' Hurd told Michigan lawmakers on the state House Housing and Human Services Committee. Her request to lawmakers and her prayers are for her family and other families to not have to make children have to wonder where their next meal will come from, Hurd told lawmakers. Food banks and pantries in Michigan have raised concerns with the Trump administration making cuts to food assistance programming, outside of the Big Beautiful Bill, in recent weeks, but the cuts expected in congress' plan has leaders in Michigan urging federal officials to consider the human impact across states. Cuts to food assistance will cost Michigan about $900 million, the Michigan State Budget Office said in a memo earlier this month, adding that more than half of SNAP participants are families with children. Michigan having to take over the cost of SNAP food assistance, which is currently 100% federally funded, presents a 'ticking time bomb' for the state, Sen. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor), chair of the committee, said. SNAP also boosts the state's economy, Dwayne Haywood, senior deputy director of the Economic Stability Administration in the state health department said. A significant portion of Michigan's children and senior citizens rely on SNAP benefits in their household, Haywood said, but ultimately 70% of households receiving benefits have employed individuals. And Michiganders use their SNAP funds locally, at businesses and farmer's markets totalling $3.6 billion in the state in 2023, he added. 'You can only imagine the cost directed to market. It will be a cost. It will be… devastating [for] farmers,' Haywood said of the agriculture sector, a top industry in Michigan. 'That will certainly hurt us as we try to help our residents understand healthy eating…everyone in the community will be greatly impacted.' Hunger is a powerful motivator and not always for good, Sen. Sue Shink (D-Northfield Township) said, remembering her childhood, hearing about how her father's family in Detroit had struggled to ensure every family member could eat, with some loved ones resorting to illegal activity in order to put food on the table. 'I heard from his cousins who would eat less to make sure that my dad had enough food,' Shink said. 'I will tell you, as the daughter of somebody who went through that, who saw the incredible damage that it did to my dad, and who knows the damage that it did to me that I still do carry every day. We don't want to do that to our people.' The American Dream shouldn't just be survival, Melissa Miles, a resident of Hillsdale County told lawmakers. Currently, Miles said she's a student at Eastern Michigan University, raising an immunocompromised four-year-old as a single mom who relies on SNAP. Hers is a story of survival, Miles said, as she is attending school to better herself and create a bigger future for her and her child, but it is dependent on her ability to not have to worry where her child's next meal might come from. 'If my family didn't have SNAP, I can't bear to think how much sicker my child would be. I'm here today asking you to think about… Michigan families,' Miles said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
We used AI for retirement planning advice and were surprised by what we found
A year ago, if you had asked me whether you should use artificial intelligence to help with your retirement planning, I would have said, absolutely not. Artificial intelligence officially went mainstream in 2023 — a year that marked its leap from cubicles of tech geeks into the daily lives of average Americans. Since then, AI's reach has grown rapidly. Today, average Americans are turning to AI for all sorts of everyday tasks and diversions: planning vacations, creating recipes out of ingredients in the fridge and pantry, writing college essays, producing videos, and creating action figures. Why Obama's former budget director is now sounding alarms about debt Treasury Secretary Bessent has a plan to bring down long-term yields. But will it work? I'm hosting a Memorial Day barbecue. Would it be so bad to ask my guests to make financial contributions? 'Is this a good tax strategy or a sham transaction?' My mother wants to give me her home. I have a plan to avoid taxes. Rising bond yields give stock-market investors the yips. Watch these levels. And it's not just personal use. AI is increasingly embedded in the workplace, where workers — or at least those not yet displaced by AI — are using it for data analysis, content creation, vibe coding, customer service, and digital marketing So if you asked me today whether it's a good idea to use AI for retirement planning, my answer would be yes — provided you can become proficient in what's known as prompt engineering. Prompt engineering is the practice of crafting clear, specific instructions or questions to get more accurate and relevant responses from AI tools like ChatGPT. I say this for several reasons. I've been experimenting quite a bit with AI and getting feedback from subject matter experts who are thoroughly impressed with the responses I'm getting back from AI systems like Gemini Deep Research. For instance, I asked Gemini Deep Research to develop a retirement spending plan based on research by Michael Hurd and Susann Rohwedder, both of Rand, which showed that spending declines on a real basis 1–2% over the course of retirement, as well as research by David Blanchett, then with Morningstar, which showed expenditures decrease in real terms for retirees throughout retirement and then increase toward the end. Afterward, I shared AI's report with Hurd and Blanchett. 'This is terrific,' said Hurd. And Blanchett said: 'Looking at the analysis, it looks pretty accurate and straightforward… High level. I'd say I'm excited about the potential role of AI when it comes to helping people get more personalized advice/guidance around things like retirement versus what you might see reading an article online or something.' Another reason to pay attention to AI in retirement planning comes from the work of Andrew Lo, a professor at MIT, and Jillian Ross, a doctoral student who collaborates with him. Together, they are exploring whether large language models like ChatGPT can provide reliable financial advice to everyday investors. Early results suggest the potential is there. In their paper Can ChatGPT Plan Your Retirement?, Lo and Ross argue that AI-powered financial advisers, often referred to as robo advisers, could represent the future of financial planning. However, they note that these tools still require significant improvement before they can truly replace human advisers. One key area of development is the ability for AI to exhibit more humanlike traits, such as empathy and an understanding of each person's emotional relationship with money. Lo and Ross also emphasized the importance of embedding ethical standards into AI systems. These standards should reflect a fiduciary duty, meaning the AI must always act in the best interest of the client, rather than in the interest of its creators or affiliated companies. If these improvements can be achieved, the authors believe AI financial advisers could dramatically expand access to quality financial planning. By combining deep analytical capabilities with a more personalized, human approach, AI could help make professional-level advice available to people who might not otherwise afford it. In a separate paper titled Generative AI from Theory to Practice: A Case Study of Financial Advice, Lo and Ross outlined the next step in this evolution. They point to finance-specific large language models as the future of robo-advisory services. Looking ahead, Lo and Ross envision a transformation of retail investment where everyone with investible wealth can make optimal investment decisions aligned with their life goals – essentially a 'full democratization of finance.' And reason number three has to do with my discussions with James Mallory, a professor at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, one of the colleges of Rochester Institute of Technology. Mallory, who has degrees in computer science and electrical engineering technologies, demonstrated for me how someone could use AI to handle complex financial calculations that previously required extensive spreadsheet work. 'With AI, you could run a simple table or do a complex Monte Carlo analysis,' said Mallory. 'You could have AI calculate RMDs based on your unique situation and show the actual mathematical formulas for doing so.' During our Zoom call, Mallory shared how someone could upload financial documents in the form of PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, or even screen captures or images from reputable brokerage firms or financial institutions, then ask AI to analyze them and generate retirement scenarios. The system could help evaluate a range of planning decisions, including: – Optimal Social Security claiming strategies– Roth IRA conversion timelines– Tax-efficient withdrawal strategies– Healthcare cost projectionsMallory demonstrated for me how to develop a plan using AI that could achieve a sample client's retirement goals. During our meeting we ran a typical client scenario to: – Not run out of money before age 95– Minimize required minimum distributions and maximize Roth conversions– Manage Medicare income-related monthly adjustment amount surcharges Into AI, we plugged in facts and circumstances: account balances, income sources and amounts, planned withdrawals, and assumptions for portfolio returns, inflation, and taxes. And then we made the request. We asked AI to generate a year-by-year table from current age to 95 showing:– IRA withdrawals– Roth withdrawals– Social Security income– Taxable account withdrawals– Remaining balances in each account– Estimated federal and state taxes paid annually– RMD projections once applicable– Highlight if/when funds may be depleted– A plain-language summary– Output in a downloadable Excel file and a Word summary– Use clear, short column headings– Follow plain text formatting (no bold, no hyphens, use commas instead of dashes)It could even run a Monte Carlo simulation at any confidence you wanted for success probability. Suffice it to say, AI generated exactly what we wanted. AI, said Mallory, is like having a hammer. 'I can build a school or a church with it, or I could hit somebody over the head with it,' he said. 'The hammer's not bad or good, it's just a tool, and it depends on what you are going to do with it. AI is the same way, and I've been playing around with it. With AI, we could run our own Monte Carlo analysis. We could figure RMDs, put in different numbers, dump tables, spreadsheets, etc.' Mallory is completely trusting of the computed results in ways I never was a year ago, when AI would typically get much wrong with respect to retirement and financial planning. He doesn't feel the need to talk to a subject matter expert for most of these kinds of routine things as long as the user has a basic knowledge to create and verify the input prompting questions and the outputs are at least 'in the ballpark' with what is expected to verify its accuracy. He doesn't need a sounding board for this, although he strongly suggested running the ideas by an investment professional before any big decisions are made. 'So you're 99% trusting of it, if not more?' I asked Mallory.'In financial planning, yes,' Mallory said. And why is that the case? 'For a couple reasons,' he said. 'One, I have found that none of the financial experts from different reputable firms agree on exactly how things should be allocated. One expert would say there is too much cash invested, where another may say it's fine for derisking. Some recommend an S&P 500 SPX rated portfolio with a percentage in bonds and cash, others believe in an equal weight S&P 500 fund with no cash and a percentage in bonds. For example, some say 80/20, some say 60/40, some say 60/30/10. To a lay person, that conflicting advice can be confusing.''And two,' he said, 'AI can tap into the entire world's body of financial knowledge and expertise to answer virtually any question someone might have.' In that sense, Mallory sees it as more reliable than any single human adviser or firm, since it can compare and synthesize a range of expert perspectives and recommendations. Mallory describes himself as a 'common user in the financial sector,' but emphasized that getting useful financial guidance from AI requires effective 'prompt engineering,' which means knowing how to ask the right questions in the right way. This, he believed, is where the value of a financial expert would be beneficial, designing the prompts. 'It's all about prompt engineering,' the professor said. 'For example, you might tell the AI, 'I want you to act as an expert in this area. Think through what an expert would do. What guidance does the government provide? What are the required minimum distribution rules at age 72 or 73? What are the formulas involved?'' Does all this mean that there's no use for financial advisers in the future? Not necessarily. Despite his enthusiasm for AI tools, Mallory acknowledged its limitations and emphasized that he still values expert guidance for the larger picture.'It's not a replacement for an adviser clearly, but it takes a lot of the heavy lifting and tedious financial calculations away,' he offers one important caution around privacy and security. He strongly advises against uploading any documents that contain account numbers, Social Security numbers, or other sensitive personal information. For birthdays, he recommends using only the month and year, and substituting fake names whenever possible. Even better, you can simply tell the AI the person's age along with a placeholder name. While large language models, or what many refer to as LLMs, may claim they don't store your data, the information still passes through the cloud at least once, which raises concerns. Many paid AI platforms promise not to use your data to train their models, but free versions may use your inputs to improve their systems, something users should be aware of. 'While AI offers transformative potential in finance, it also raises serious concerns about data privacy and the risk of algorithmic misuse in decision-making,' wrote the authors of The Roles of Alternative Data and Machine Learning in Fintech Lending: Evidence from the LendingClub Consumer Platform. So proceed with caution and good common sense. 'Like the hammer, be wise and selective how you use it,' Mallory said. After 25 years, I finally asked for separate checks — and my friends iced me out. Did I do something terrible? 'What we found horrified us': My elderly relative mistook charity envelopes for overdue bills — and gave thousands to other family members My ex-wife said she should have been compensated for working part time during our marriage. Do I owe her? My brother's 'good daughter' siphoned $70,000 from her father's accounts. Should she still get an inheritance? 'They will drown you too': My coworker found out I inherited money — and harassed me to give him a loan
