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More states enact salary transparency laws to fight gender, racial pay gaps
To combat gender and racial wage gaps, nearly a dozen states recently have enacted pay transparency laws that require employers to be more open about the wages and benefits they offer. Most of the laws require employers to disclose wages in job postings and some bar them from asking a job candidate about their salary […]
As millions lose federal help to pay for internet, some areas aim to fill the gap
In the small North Carolina town of Bryson City, just outside Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Kathleen Wain raises two grandchildren in her subsidized-rent apartment, taking them to sing in a church choir on weekends. For the past year and a half, Wain has received a discount on her internet service through a short-term federal […]
States race to restrict deepfake porn as it becomes easier to create
After a 2014 leak of hundreds of celebrities’ intimate photos, Uldouz Wallace learned that she was among the public figures whose images had been stolen and disseminated online. Wallace, an actress, writer and social media influencer, found out the images were ones her ex had taken without her consent and had threatened to leak. Over […]
Absence of AI hospital rules worries nurses
For nurse Judy Schmidt, the beeping monitors hooked up to critical patients at the Community Medical Center in Toms River, New Jersey, were just a normal part of the whirlwind of activity in the intensive care unit. But looking back on her work about a decade ago, Schmidt said she realizes those machines were using […]
Native nations with scarce internet are building their own broadband networks
On the Hopi Reservation’s more than 1.5 million acres of desert landscape in northeast Arizona, most residents live in villages atop arid mesas. Below ground, there’s a network of copper wires that provides telephone and internet service. Hopi Telecommunications in 2004 bought the company that had installed them, but has been struggling ever since to upgrade the […]
What is artificial intelligence? Legislators are still looking for a definition.
Back in March, Hawaii state Sen. Chris Lee introduced legislation urging the U.S. Congress to consider the benefits and risks of artificial intelligence technologies. But he didn’t write it. Artificial intelligence did. Lee instructed ChatGPT, an AI-powered system trained to follow instructions and carry out conversations, to write a piece of legislation that highlights the […]
Was that chicken cutlet grown in a lab? These states want you to know.
Select U.S. restaurants have begun serving laboratory-grown chicken, spurring long wait times for reservations by diners curious to taste it. In June, the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave final approval for a few California-based companies to begin selling lab-produced chicken across the country. While it may be years before lab-grown meat is available at grocery […]
As employers expand artificial intelligence in hiring, few states have rules
As artificial intelligence finds its way into aspects of everyday life and becomes increasingly advanced, some state legislators feel a new urgency to create regulations for its use in the hiring process. Artificial intelligence, commonly known as AI, has been adopted by a quarter of businesses in the United States, according to the 2022 IBM […]
School districts struggle to implement new laws on sexually explicit books
RICHMOND, Va. — Although a new Virginia law requires schools to inform parents when sexually explicit materials are used in the classroom, some districts are using that law as the basis to go further and remove certain books from schools altogether. Book ban requests across the state often have cited the Virginia law, which was signed last year by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. […]
Republican states arm teachers, fortify buildings in another year of school shootings
As another school year defined by mass shootings ends in America, Republican-led state legislatures passed measures this session to fortify schools, create guidelines for active shooter drills and safety officer responses, and allow teachers to be armed. Firearm restrictions, however, were a nonstarter in red states trying to curb school shootings. The legislation pushed by GOP lawmakers […]