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Scott County Auditor: Candidate Guide available online
Scott County Auditor: Candidate Guide available online

Yahoo

time24-06-2025

  • Politics
  • Yahoo

Scott County Auditor: Candidate Guide available online

Scott County Auditor Kerri Tompkins has announced that the Candidate Guide is available via the Iowa Secretary of State's Office for the City-School Election this fall and can be found here. 'I encourage candidates to turn in their packets early in the filing period to allow time for any concerns,' Tompkins said. 'We also have great resources linked to our website, including a video that explains how to review the full process with specific details.' Candidates must turn in their completed candidate packets to the designated filing clerks: the applicable School Secretary or City Clerk. The Auditor's Office does not accept these packets. The Regular City-School Election filing period begins Monday, Aug. 25 and ends at 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 18. The City of Davenport is the only city in Scott County that may have a Primary Election. Therefore, the dates and requirements for Davenport differ from the rest of the county. Their filing period begins Monday, Aug. 11 and ends at 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 28. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Drink driver banned for a second time following crash
Drink driver banned for a second time following crash

Powys County Times

time23-06-2025

  • Powys County Times

Drink driver banned for a second time following crash

A POWYS man knocked out and trapped in his vehicle after he crashed it after drinking with friends has been banned from the roads for a second time. Kelly Tompkins, 51, crashed his Vauxhall Combo van in Llanwnog, near Caersws, on the night of February 22 this year. He admitted drink driving when he appeared at Welshpool Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, June 17. Prosecutor Helen Tench said the single vehicle road traffic collision occurred on the B4568 at The Vicarage, Llanwnog, at around 10pm. 'Police had a call about a collision involving a white Vauxhall van, in which the driver was still trapped,' said Mrs Tench. 'The fire service were on the scene and the driver was trapped, but he managed to get himself out. 'Alcohol was smelt by officers and he was slurring his words and unsteady on his feet. The vehicle had rolled. He was taken to hospital. 'The defendant said he did not have much recollection of the crash and thought it was in a different place. 'He admitted driving and couldn't remember what he'd been drinking that evening.' Mrs Tench said Tompkins had a previous drink driving conviction from 2016. A reading showed Tompkins had 172 milligrams of alcohol in his blood – the legal limit is 80 micrograms. Acting for the defendant, of Llanwnog, Gurleen Kaur said: 'He was compliant with officers, he even thanked them during police interview, in which he was honest and held his hands up. 'He had been in with friends drinking. He said he wanted to get away and ended up driving, which was a big mistake. He is remorseful. 'He is in employment as a farm engineer, he manages hen sheds. This is secure, despite the loss of his licence, although it will limit his employment. It would impact out of hours issues.' Ms Kaur said Tompkins' niece was reliant on him financially and she said it would be 'incredibly difficult' for him to do any unpaid work due to being in full time employment, with the job being a very demanding one. She said he had no convictions since his 2016 drink driving offence and he would welcome a chance to complete a drink driving awareness course. Magistrates ordered a report and probation officer Carl Atkinson said: 'He says he has no memory of the event as he was knocked out. 'He takes full responsibility for his actions. This is his third offence, which are all related to alcohol, which poses concern." Magistrates disqualified Tompkins for three years but offered him the chance to reduce this by allowing him to undertake a drink driving rehabilitation course. He will be made the subject of a 12-month community order, which will include 10 rehabilitation activity requirement days. He was also fined £362 and must pay a £114 surcharge and £85 costs.

Artificial intelligence is getting tougher to spot in Kentucky: Media studies expert helps tell the difference
Artificial intelligence is getting tougher to spot in Kentucky: Media studies expert helps tell the difference

Yahoo

time12-06-2025

  • Yahoo

Artificial intelligence is getting tougher to spot in Kentucky: Media studies expert helps tell the difference

LEXINGTON, Ky. (FOX 56) — Artificial intelligence continues to evolve rapidly, especially in the media space. While it may have been easier to spot AI-generated material in recent years, it's getting harder. 'The danger comes when we don't believe anything, when we go from skepticism to cynicism. And that's the real danger of AI,' Al Tompkins from the Poynter Institute for Media Studies told FOX 56 News. It's a technology that's evolved a lot in a short amount of time and begs the question, can we always believe what is seen? Search underway in Lexington for man accused of trafficking cocaine, fentanyl, marijuana 'All of those old, reliable detections. Like they've got too many fingers, or their eyes look weird or something, the depth of field in the photograph doesn't make sense. All of those are starting to fall by the wayside,' Tompkins said. 'Ask yourself, where did this come from? How did this start? Who's behind it? And the second thing I would say to you is, remember that disinformation mostly turns on emotion.' Tompkins has spent his career teaching journalists how to dig a little deeper and avoid being tricked when something appears real online. And there's a lot online that can easily trigger a firestorm of comments and shares, sometimes by design. 'We saw this, for example, with the California wildfires; we've certainly have seen it with the protests out in California, that sometimes we see images that align with what's actually going on but the images might be from some other place, or they might not be real at all,' Tompkins said, pointing out it's a lot easier to create deceptive material during breaking news situations or during conflicts like the Russia/Ukraine war and Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Tompkins noted that when you have high emotions, judgment is running low. Some readers might remember an AI-generated image of a young girl that went viral during Hurricane Helene last October; she's not real, but at first glance, it's easy to assume she is. Late last month, Google unveiled an update to its generative video model, Veo 3. The technology can now create short, high-quality videos with natural sounds that are entirely artificial. 'I think it's far more useful to educate people about how to use internet capacity, how to use artificial intelligence capacity. Education is the elixir for a lot of this. Not so much legislation,' Tompkins said, adding it's especially important for less tech-savvy generations to keep up. He said that artificial intelligence detector technology has been mostly able to keep up, but especially with audio and video, it's not quite foolproof. Funeral arrangements released for former Kentucky Rep. Charles Miller Artificial intelligence is getting tougher to spot in Kentucky: Media studies expert helps tell the difference Lexington man who escaped Lee County jail by imitating brother arrested And keep in mind there's the extreme possibility that something that appears to be AI-generated at first actually is real. 'There are extraordinary things that occur that just don't seem possible. You know, if we saw that video of the Hindenburg blowing up, I don't think any of us would believe it until we had some eyewitnesses that were truly believable,' he said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Wexford school's graduation is filled with pride and sense of achievement
Wexford school's graduation is filled with pride and sense of achievement

Irish Independent

time01-06-2025

  • Entertainment
  • Irish Independent

Wexford school's graduation is filled with pride and sense of achievement

Families, teachers, and students gathered on Thursday, May 22, to celebrate the years of hard work and growth the students recently completed. Speeches were made by their year head, Ms. Tompkins, Deputy Principal Mr. O'Toole and Principal Mr. Glynn. Some of the students reflected on their time in Creagh including Head Prefect Felicia Cojan and Deputy Head Prefect Andrew Smith. MCs for the evening were Kasandra Kozar and Luke Quinlan Johnson. Furthermore, the GP area in the college was decorated with flowers and student artwork. Each student was called up individually to receive their graduation certificate, with applause and cheers echoing around the room. Special awards were presented for achievements in academics, sports, and leadership. The evening featured musical performances by students which added added sentiment to the event. Refreshments were enjoyed by all at the end of the ceremony and the strong bonds between classmates and staff were evident throughout the evening. The event celebrated not just an ending, but new beginnings as students look forward to their next chapter. Student of the Year for the class of 2025 was awarded to Marcel Kupczak and the Spirit of Creagh Award went to Jennie Grimes.

In case you missed it in The Sun the week of May 19, 2025
In case you missed it in The Sun the week of May 19, 2025

Yahoo

time24-05-2025

  • Business
  • Yahoo

In case you missed it in The Sun the week of May 19, 2025

May 24—The following stories from this week appeared on and in The Jamestown Sun. Students, faculty, staff and administrators of Victory Christian School as well as parents and Jamestown Area Chamber of Commerce ambassadors marked the completion of the school's new addition on Friday, May 16, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. "It's going to benefit the church and benefit the community of Jamestown to have this space," said Mike Woodley, executive director of Victory Christian School. Beginning this fall, Victory Christian School will offer classes for students prekindergarten through ninth grade. The school offered classes for students prekindergarten through eighth grade this past school year. A new grade will be added each year with the addition of 12th grade in 2028. Victory Christian School launched its $5 million "Growing Together" capital campaign in April 2024 for the construction of the new addition with a goal of starting a high school. Woodley said $4.2 million has been raised of the $5 million goal. The Stutsman County Commission in a 4-0 vote on Tuesday, May 20, appointed Benjamin Tompkins to serve on the board. Tompkins was one of 11 applicants who applied to fill the vacant seat on the county commission."I'm very excited," Tompkins said. "I think that I can bring a lot of perspective that not everybody gets to see." The other applicants were George Barnes, John Baumgartner, Paul Belzer, Dernel Denning, Steven Gerszewski, John Grabinger, Daren Peterka, Trever Sahr, Taylor Vining and Alan Williams. Tompkins took the oath of office and filled the vacant seat after he was appointed on Tuesday. The vacancy was created after the death of Commissioner Jerry Bergquist on April 24. Bergquist was elected to the commission in November 2022. Tompkins will hold the office at least until the next general election. North Dakota Century Code 44-02-05 says the appointee holds office until the appointee's successor is elected at the next general election that occurs at least 95 days after the vacancy and the successor has qualified. The next general election cycle is in 2026. The Jamestown Building, Planning and Zoning Committee unanimously recommended approval on Tuesday, May 20, of a minor subdivision in northeast Jamestown . The final plat of the Buffalo Estates First Addition is a replat of a portion of Horizon Estates First Addition. Buffalo Estates First Addition is located east of the Two Rivers Activity Center between 25th and 27th Avenue Northeast and north of 5th Street Northeast. There is no street for 25th Avenue Northeast at the location. In related business, the Building, Planning and Zoning Committee unanimously recommended approval of the future land use plan amendment for Buffalo Estates First Addition from vacant/agricultural to a single-family residential district. The committee also unanimously recommended approval to introduce the first reading of an ordinance to amend and reenact ordinance No. 1556 of the city code by amending the district map to change the zoning of blocks one and two of the Buffalo Estates First Addition from a one-family residential district to a one-family residential and duplex or two-family residential district. The reason for the requests of the future land use plan and zoning map amendments is "to have the optimum ability to develop the area between single-family homes and single-family attached homes," according to the applications. The Jamestown chief of police says an ordinance is needed that would impose fees for repeat offenders of false burglar or fire alarms at businesses in Jamestown. Scott Edinger, chief of police, told the Jamestown Police and Fire Committee on Thursday, May 22, that the discussion for an ordinance is in the preliminary stages. He said the Jamestown Police Department has responded to an average of 218 false alarm calls per year for the past 10 years. In a letter to the Jamestown City Council, Edinger wrote that less than 0.25% of the alarms the Jamestown Police Department responds to have any actual emergency involved. Edinger said many of the false burglar alarm calls are at the same businesses. Fire Chief Jim Reuther said the Jamestown Fire Department is also experiencing a lot of false fire alarm calls. Mayor Dwaine Heinrich said city staff should research what can be put in an ordinance and present it to the City Council. Edinger said the ordinance should be in place starting on Jan. 1, 2026. "That gives us an opportunity to get this information out to the businesses," he said. No action was taken on the issue. The status of funding for Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center and other facilities operated by the U.S. Geological Survey through its Ecosystems Mission Area is still unclear even after the House of Representatives passed the Trump administration-sponsored budget bill on Thursday, May 22. Sen. John Hoeven's office replied in an email to a request for information before the budget bill passed the House of Representatives by saying, "We checked with the Department of the Interior regarding the Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center. DOI is evaluating their facility options and no budget decisions have been made at this point regarding staffing or funding." Rep. Julie Fedorchak's office did not provide information regarding the status of funding for the Ecosystems Mission Area the morning after the budget bill passed during the overnight hours. Various media outlets and national and regional wildlife and ecological organizations have reported that the Ecosystems Working Group and its laboratories around the country will be eliminated as part of budget cuts going into the next federal fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1.

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