Yakima
Yakima police use AI-powered license plate readers to find suspects' cars in real time
In the past five months, Flock Safety cameras have allowed Yakima-area law enforcement officers to arrest an accused kidnapper and child molester, identify a fatal hit-and-run suspect and recover a record number of stolen vehicles. "It's one officer that never sleeps," Yakima Police Capt. "Most of our criminals move throughout the area in a vehicle and this will limit that ability." Flock cameras have helped police recover 37 stolen vehicles, arrest 28 violent persons, serve 19 warrants and locate 16 missing persons -- just in the last month. According to the Yakima Police Department's transparency portal, they have 33 automated license plate recognition cameras placed across the city -- all enabled with artificial intelligence that's helping agencies across the county solve crimes.
The unseen scars of those who kill via remote control
Kevin Larson crouched behind a boulder and watched the forest through his breath, waiting for the police he knew would come. It was Jan. 19, 2020. He was clinging to an assault rifle with 30 rounds and a conviction that, after all he had been through, there was no way he was going to prison. Larson was a drone pilot -- one of the best. He flew the heavily armed MQ-9 Reaper, and in 650 combat missions between 2013 and 2018, he had launched at least 188 airstrikes, earned 20 medals for achievement and killed a top man on the U.S.' most-wanted terrorist list. The 32-year-old pilot kept a handwritten thank-you note on his refrigerator from the director of the CIA.
Judge blocks Postal Service changes that slowed mail delivery
Fox News senior judicial analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano weighs in on debate over USPS and mail-in voting. A U.S. judge on Thursday granted a request to temporarily block controversial Postal Service changes that have been accused of slowing mail nationwide, calling them "a politically motivated attack " ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Judge Stanley Bastian in Yakima, Wash., said he was issuing a nationwide preliminary injunction against the USPS sought by 14 states that sued the Trump administration and the Postal Service. The states, all led by Democratic attorneys general, challenged the Postal Service's so-called "leave behind" policy, where trucks have been leaving postal facilities on time regardless of whether there is more mail to load. They also sought to force the Postal Service to treat election mail as first-class mail.
Robot kayaks found the basin of an Alaskan glacier is melting 100 TIMES faster than models showed
Seaborne robots have made a startling discovery beneath a 20-mile glacier in Alaska. The technology found the massive rivers of ice may be melting under the LeConte Glacier much faster than previously thought. Scientists programmed autonomous kayaks to swim near the icy cliffs of the glacier to measure the'ambient meltwater intrusions', which shows how much fresh water is flowing into the ocean from underneath the glacier. The study found ambient melting was 100 times higher than models had estimated. This is the first time experts have been able to analyze plumes of meltwater - the water released when snow or ice melts, where glaciers meet the ocean- because the feat is far too dangerous for ships due to falling ice of slabs from the glacier.