Honolulu Police Used a Robot Dog to Patrol a Homeless Encampment

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Todd Feathers at Vice.com:

Despite widespread public outrage at police departments’ use of Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot, law enforcement agencies continue to look for ways to experiment with the headless, quadrupedal machine.

One of the more creative examples comes from Honolulu, where police spent more than $150,000 in COVID-19 relief funding to purchase a Spot robot to take body temperatures, disinfect, and patrol the city’s homeless quarantine encampment. 

Not mentioned in this article — did the robot dog actually accomplish anything? Did it actually reduce crime or improve health?

The California recall election against Gov. Newsom could be as early as August

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From this article: California Lawmakers Agree to Reimburse Recall Costs, by Matthew Renda on Voice of San Diego:

Democratic lawmakers in California vowed to reimburse local jurisdictions for the approximately $200 million in costs associated with the likely impending recall election of Governor Gavin Newsom.

Lawmakers also indicated the recall election could take place earlier than November, possibly as early as August.

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Mitch Wagner

Magneto: These new ‘magnetic’ vaccine mutants are extremely disappointing — Alexandra Petri at The Washington Post.

I met the people who were saying that metal objects now stuck to them because of their vaccines and gave them a whole recruitment speech about how they were the next stage in evolution, but once I said the word “evolution,” they looked at me doubtfully. Then I asked them to show off their abilities, and — I hate to say this but, have you ever been at a friend’s amateur magic show, where the magic show is not going quite as was hoped, and there’s a lot of saying “hold on” and “wait, hang on” and “sorry” as they fail several times running to identify your card, and then a dead bird falls unprompted out of someone’s hat? Frankly, that would have been an improvement.

Mitch Wagner

Virginia teacher reinstated after speaking out against school pronoun policy — Minyvonne Burke at NBC News.

A Virginia judge ordered a Loudoun County school to reinstate a teacher who was suspended after he spoke out against a proposed policy requiring educators to address students by their preferred pronouns.

Leesburg Elementary School teacher Byron “Tanner” Cross was placed on leave after he said he would not address students by their preferred pronouns.

Cross says addressing students by their preferred pronouns is against his religious beliefs. Where does it say anything about transgender people in the Bible?