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Today's letter writer "Cabinet appointments" presents an open-and-shut case for what sounds like objectivity in vetting cabinet appointments: Credentials. If they've got them, they're in. So where does character fit in? Nowhere in the writer's analysis. But we all know that character matters more than job qualifications. That kind of common sense is hard-wired in all of us. History is full of "qualified" actors -- you name it, politics, sports, entertainment, education -- whose lack of character sorely and often gravely disappointed their supporters. For my money I'd take someone with little job experience and a whole lot of character over someone with great job experience and unquestionably questionable character. In their book "Becoming A Person of Influence" John Maxwell and Jim Dornan spell it out: "Credentials are transient. Character is permanent. Credentials turn the focus to rights. Character keeps the focus on responsibilities. Credentials add value to only one person. Character adds value to many." Rick Rappaport Oro Valley Disclaimer: As submitted to the Arizona Daily Star. Follow these steps to easily submit a letter to the editor or guest opinion to the Arizona Daily Star. Respond: Write a letter to the editor | Write a guest opinion Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. Catch the latest in Opinion Get opinion pieces, letters and editorials sent directly to your inbox weekly!
SAINT CHARLES, Mo. (AP) — Jaylon McDaniel's 22 points helped Lindenwood defeat IU Indianapolis 81-63 on Saturday night. McDaniel shot 9 of 12 from the field and 4 of 6 from the free-throw line for the Lions (5-6). Markeith Browning II scored 18 points while going 8 of 19 (1 for 3 from 3-point range) and added seven rebounds, five assists, and three steals. Reggie Bass shot 3 for 6 (2 for 5 from 3-point range) and 6 of 7 from the free-throw line to finish with 14 points, while adding seven rebounds and six assists. Paul Zilinskas finished with 18 points for the Jaguars (5-8). IU Indianapolis also got 13 points and two steals from Jarvis Walker. Alec Millender also recorded 11 points and five assists. NEXT UP Lindenwood's next game is Thursday against Tennessee Tech at home, and IU Indianapolis visits Florida International on Saturday. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .Brewer's 20 lead Florida International over Stetson 81-72On the first day of the new legislative session, Assemblymember Avelino Valencia, D-Anaheim, introduced Assembly Constitutional Amendment 1 (ACA 1). The proposal would double the amount of state funds that could be placed in the Budget Stabilization Account (BSA) from 10% to 20% of the annual budget. The ostensible reason for the increase is to address the very real problem of revenue volatility. Because California is overly reliant on high income earners who generate massive amounts of capital gains and stock option funds in boom years, it is vulnerable to big drop-offs in revenue during the bust years. Indeed, revenue volatility has been such a large problem that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger created the California Commission for the 21st Century Economy to come up with solutions. Regrettably, while there was a broad consensus that something should be done about the boom and bust cycle, the commissioners could not agree on what to do about it. The goal of placing more funds in reserve because of volatility makes sense, if it can be accomplished without violating the letter and the spirit of Gann spending limit. Unfortunately, ACA 1, in its current form does just that. Here’s how. Just a year after Proposition 13’s passage in 1978, California voters approved the Gann spending limit which, like Prop. 13, sought to restrain the size and growth of government. But unlike Proposition 13, which was a direct limit on taxation, Gann attempted to limit government spending. It limited the growth of state and local government expenditures to a base-year level adjusted annually to reflect increases in population and inflation. Initially, the Gann limit performed as designed and resulted in a modest rebate to taxpayers in 1987. But subsequent measures backed by special interests weakened the Gann limit by creating exceptions for education and transportation spending as well as substituting a far more generous inflation factor. Ironically, after these changes, most public finance observers – including yours truly – wrongfully assumed that California would never again bump up against the limit. But a big surplus in fiscal year 2022-23 put the state on the brink of reaching that limit. While that collision was briefly avoided due to COVID-19, California once again is confronted with a Gann issue that can no longer be ignored. For taxpayers, the best outcome would be to let the Gann limit run its course and return money to taxpayers “by a revision of tax rates or fee schedules within the next two subsequent fiscal years.” Cal.Const., Art. XIIIB, Section 2(a)(2). This is consistent with the plain language of Gann and is more than warranted given California’s heavy tax burden. Related Articles Opinion Columnists | End the IRS’s worldwide tax grab Opinion Columnists | Mass deportations are bad for everyone’s liberties Opinion Columnists | The draconian penalties that Hunter Biden escaped affect people whose fathers can’t save them Opinion Columnists | California politicians suddenly discover inflation in aftermath of election Opinion Columnists | How California ranks as the most active political state But ACA 1 might prevent taxpayer refunds due to the change in treatment of transfers into the budget stabilization account. Under Gann, the state and local governments may create reserve accounts, like the BSA, but those transfers are subject to Gann’s spending limits. On the other hand, spending out of a reserve account is not so limited. As currently drafted, it appears that ACA 1 would exempt transfers out of the reserve account – currently permissible under Gann – but would also exempt appropriations into the BSA: Section (i) provides, “Transfers to the Budget Stabilization Account pursuant to this section do not constitute appropriations subject to limitation as defined in Article XIII B.” This appears to create a fund into which unlimited funds can be appropriated, guaranteeing that taxpayers will never get a refund of their tax dollars. There are better ways to address revenue volatility without injury to the goal of the Gann Spending Limit, which was enacted to provide a modicum of spending restraint in a state that doesn’t have any. California taxpayers need something more than a rainy day fund that’s all slush. Jon Coupal is president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
India turning into world’s Deep Tech Hub as reforms reverse brain drain: Hardeep Singh Puri
Topline President-elect Donald Trump’s Defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth gets low marks in a new AP-NORC poll—even as skeptical GOP senators appear to be warming to confirming him, despite reports of concerning drinking habits and alleged sexual misconduct that have complicated his Senate confirmation process. Timeline Get Forbes Breaking News Text Alerts : We’re launching text message alerts so you'll always know the biggest stories shaping the day’s headlines. Text “Alerts” to (201) 335-0739 or sign up here . What To Watch For Hegseth, or any cabinet nominee that requires Senate approval, can afford to lose only three Republican votes to be confirmed for the job as the GOP will hold a slim 53-47 majority beginning next year. Other GOP senators have expressed support for Hegseth, including Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., who told Politico after meeting with him that he is a “strong nominee” who “pledged that the Pentagon will focus on strength and hard power—not the current administration’s woke political agenda.” How Were The Sexual Assault Allegations Against Hegseth Made Public? The sexual assault allegations first surfaced in a memo sent to Trump’s transition team from a woman who said she was friends with the accuser. The memo was obtained by multiple news outlets several days after Hegseth was nominated by Trump on Nov. 12. What Are The Allegations About Hegseth’s Drinking? In addition to the NBC News report Tuesday in which his former Fox News colleagues raised concerns about his drinking—with two of them saying they smelled alcohol on him at least a dozen times before he went on air— The New Yorker published an article Sunday alleging he had been intoxicated at work in the past. The article alleged there was a whistle-blower reporter from when Hegseth was president of Concerned Veterans for America that said he was “repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity,” and that he had to be restrained at least once. The whistle-blower report also mentioned an incident in which Hegseth allegedly drunkenly chanted “Kill All Muslims!” while on an official tour in Ohio. Three people with knowledge of Hegseth’s time at CVA told The New Yorker he was forced to step down from his role there in part because of his abuse of alcohol on the job. What Is Hegseth’s Response To The Sexual Assault Allegations? Hegseth has firmly denied the allegations through his lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, who said Hegseth paid the woman a settlement in 2020 as part of a nondisclosure agreement. Parlatore said Hegseth entered into the agreement when he learned the woman and her husband hired a lawyer and told other people she planned to file a lawsuit against him. Hegseth told police he was intoxicated that night and did not know why the accuser returned to his hotel room with him, but that they had consensual sex, according to the police report. He said the woman, who was staying at the hotel with her husband, “showed early signs of regret” the next morning, and he assured her that he would not tell anyone about the encounter, the report states. Has Hegseth Been Charged With A Crime? No. Police recommended the case to the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office for review, but charges were never filed. What Are Hegseth’s Views On The Military? Hegseth—who served in the National Guard—has intensely criticized military leadership, castigating their handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal. He has also drawn controversy for criticizing diversity initiatives within the military, and calling for the dismissal of military leaders he believes are connected to “woke” policies. He has publicly and privately advocated for members of the military accused of war crimes. Meanwhile, The Guardian reported Hegseth wrote in his 2020 book “American Crusade” that if President Joe Biden won the election, the military and police would be “forced to make a choice” and that there would be “some form of civil war.” Trump has previously suggested he would use the military to go after domestic political opponents, which he described as “the enemy from within.” What Has Hegseth Said About Women In The Military? In his 2024 “The War on Warriors,” recapped by The Guardian , Hegseth wrote that only men should serve in combat roles. “If we’re going to send our boys to fight—and it should be boys—we need to unleash them to win,” he wrote, adding they need “to be the most ruthless” and “the most uncompromising. The most overwhelmingly lethal as they can be.” Hegseth reiterated his stance in a recent podcast, telling host Shawn Ryan on Nov. 7 “I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn’t made us more effective.” What Has Trump Said About Hegseth? Trump called Hegseth a “warrior” and “a true believer in America First” in a statement announcing the nomination on Nov. 12. The statement touts his service in the Army National Guard and his deployments to Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan, along with his eight years as a Fox News host. A spokesperson for Trump’s transition team told the Associated Press in response to the police report being made public that it “corroborates what Mr. Hegseth’s attorneys have said all along: the incident was fully investigated and no charges were filed because police found the allegations to be false.” The police report does not say whether officials made a determination about the allegations. Further Reading New Sexual Assault Allegation Details Against Pete Hegseth Emerge: Here’s What To Know As Trump Defends Defense Secretary Nominee (Forbes) Police Report Details 2017 Sexual Assault Allegation Against Pete Hegseth (Forbes) Trump’s Defense Secretary Pick Pete Hegseth Named In 2017 Sexual Assault Probe (Forbes)All Wright scores 26 and Valparaiso earns 93-77 win over Central MichiganIf this was the year companies adopted AI to stay competitive, next year will likely be about customizing AI solutions for their specific needs. "The next phase of development will move beyond generic LLMs towards tuned and highly optimized end-to-end solutions that address the specific objectives of a business," Aidan Gomez, the , an AI company building technology for enterprises, wrote in a post on LinkedIn last week. "AI 2.0," as he calls it, will "accelerate adoption, value creation, and will help fundamentally transform how businesses operate." He added: "Every company will be an AI company." Cohere has partnered with major companies, including software company Oracle and IT company Fujitsu, to develop customized business solutions. "With Oracle, we've built customized technology and tailored our AI models to power dozens (soon, hundreds) of production AI features across Netsuite and Fusion Apps," he wrote. For Fujitsu, Cohere built a model called Takane that's "specifically designed to excel in Japanese." Last June, with global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company to develop customized generative AI solutions for the firm's clients. The work is helping the startup "build trust" among more organizations, Gomez previously told Business Insider. To meet the specific needs of so many clients, Gomez has advocated for . He says they are more cost-effective than building large language models, and they give smaller startups a chance to compete with more established AI companies. But it might be only a matter of time before the biggest companies capitalize on the customization trend, too. OpenAI previewed an advancement during its that allows users to fine-tune o1 — their latest and most advanced AI model, on their own datasets. So, users can now leverage OpenAI's reinforcement-learning algorithms to customize their own models. The technology will be available to the public next year, but OpenAI has already partnered with companies like Thomson Reuters to develop specialized legal tools and researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to build computational models for identifying genetic diseases. Cohere did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Read the original article on
Brewer's 20 lead Florida International over Stetson 81-72Pressing FuelEU deadline demands attention
Marshall gets rolling in UAlbany men's basketball's 93-50 win at Puerto Rico tournamentAnd he wanted one of them to start showing his all-conference form again. The Great Danes took advantage of an opportunity to check both of those boxes with a 93-50 win over the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez at the in the Puerto Rico Clasico tournament in San Juan. Killings played 14 players, only one of whom was out there for more than 20 minutes, and that was redshirt junior Amar’e Marshall, who scored 17 points on 6-for-9 from the field and 3 for 5 from 3-point range in 21 minutes. Marshall missed most of the preseason prep work with a thumb injury on his shooting hand, but Friday’s game showed he’s on the road back to where he was before the injury. “One of the priorities was to get Amar’e going,” Killings said via Zoom. “I don’t think he’s been as impactful as we want him to be and he wants to be. “But he’s probably practiced five times in six weeks. I think his instincts are coming back, his confidence is coming back, and we want to ride that wave through the next two games. If we’re going to win games, we need Amar’e Marshall to play really well.” UAlbany will play two more games in Puerto Rico, against Kansas City on Saturday and American on Sunday. Marshall showed some flashes of his old self in a 70-60 win over Siena in the Albany Cup at Broadview Center last Saturday, but Friday’s performance was more complete. Besides his scoring, he had five assists, three rebounds and two steals. “I was just trying to get into the groove of things, get that feeling of running up and down the court and tightening up my game,” Marshall said. “I feel like last time I hit the court, I was just playing sloppy.” “I think he’s an all-league player, and if he pushes himself, he’s Player of the Year in the league, so if we’re going to set the bar that high, I’ve got to be a little harder on what he’s doing out there,” Killings said. “This is a good step in the right direction.” The Great Danes (4-1) put the game away early, taking a 39-16 lead with over five minutes left in the first half. Marshall scored 10 points during that stretch. Byron Joshua had had 13 points and five assists for UAlbany, Aaron Reddish scored 12 and DeMarr Langford, Jr., scored 11. “Justin [Neely] had two great games. To see him come back and play that good, it shows how much firepower we’ve got,” Marshall said. “Everybody can have their night. It could be a different guy every day. I really enjoy playing for this team and feel like there’s multiple guys that can do it for us.” Wilkin Paulino, a 6-foot-3 combo guard out of Worcester, Massachusetts, has committed to join the Great Danes in 2025-26. "The New England native brings a level of toughness, competitiveness, and hunger that will help him find success early and have a positive impact as a freshman,” Killings said in a release this week. “We are excited about his recent growth as a player and believe his best basketball days are ahead of him.” Paulino plays AAU for The House We Built of the Hoop Group Elite AAU Circuit and currently attends Proctor Academy in Andover, New Hampshire, for which he was named team captain for the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 seasons. He is ranked the 11th-best player in New Hampshire according to the New England Recruiting Report. Heading into the season, Paulino is averaging 14.8 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. “The reason why I chose UAlbany is because of the coaching staff, and how they took really good care of me and my mother when we visited," Paulino said in the release. "I saw how everyone in the coaching staff took time out of their day to start a bond with me, it felt like home. They also have a plan for me and I 100% trust them. I'm super excited to get to work on and off the court.”
Jaland Lowe flirted with a triple-double as Pitt improved to 6-0 with a 74-63 win over LSU on Friday afternoon at the Greenbrier Tip-Off in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. Lowe finished with a game-high 22 points to go along with eight rebounds and six assists for the Panthers, who have won their first six games of a season for the first time since the 2018-19 campaign. It would have been the second straight triple-double for Lowe, who had 11 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists against VMI Monday. Ishmael Leggett chipped in 21 points and Cameron Corhen supplied 14, helping Pitt outshoot the Tigers (4-1) 44.4 percent to 37.3 percent overall. Vyctorius Miller and Jalen Reed recorded 14 points apiece for LSU, with Reed also snatching seven boards. Cam Carter contributed 11 points. Pitt took control in the first four-plus minutes of the second half, opening the period on a 13-0 run to build a 40-28 lead. The Tigers were held scoreless following the break until Carter converted a layup with 13:13 to go. It was still a 12-point game after Zack Austin hit a pair of free throws with 12:50 remaining, but LSU then rallied. Corey Chest, Reed and Jordan Sears each had a bucket down low for the Tigers during an 8-1 spurt that made it 43-38. However, Lowe stemmed the tide, answering with back-to-back 3-pointers to put the Panthers up 49-38 with 9:31 left. Miller did everything he could to keep LSU in contention, scoring eight points in a span of 1 minute, 23 seconds, with his four-point play getting the Tigers within 56-52 with 6:03 to play. But Pitt never let LSU get the upper hand, and it led by at least six for the final 5:05 of the contest. The Tigers had a 28-27 edge at intermission after ending the first half on an 8-2 run. LSU overcame a quick start by the Panthers, who raced out to a 12-6 advantage and led by as many as eight in the first 20 minutes of action. --Field Level Media
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