Leif Ames

Small business owners say they’re being unfairly targeted – but disability advocates say violations must be dealt with

Rodrigo Nogueira was met with a surprise in April 2025 when lawyers contacted him out of the blue. They asked whether he needed legal assistance over a summons his restaurant received for violating Title III of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA).

It was the first he had ever heard of it. The lawsuit listed 35 violations against No More Cafe, his restaurant in Manhattan’s East Village.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: Mistral Chief Executive Arthur Mensch has accused leading global artificial intelligence companies of using the debate over the safety of the technology as a cover-up for their "negligence." "The debate that we've seen in the U.S. has been a cover for the negligence of some of our competitors," Mensch told CNBC's Annette Weisbach, adding that it was necessary to make systems that can contain the AI agents. [...] "When you give them a lot of tools, those systems [AI agents] are very dynamic, so they can go and do things that you do not expect," Mensch told CNBC. "You need to have the right monitoring in place, and the enterprises we work with, we give them those kind of monitoring systems," he said. Mistral also develops AI models but takes a different approach to OpenAI and Anthropic by working with individual companies to create custom AI tools to suit their needs and integrate them with their businesses. But unlike its competitors, Mistral has no plans to slow down development of advanced models. The lead that U.S. labs have is "not extremely large," Mensch said, adding that his company was confident that its next-generation model will close the gap "very significantly." "We have been raising the capital needed to scale the compute that we need to train bigger and more powerful models, in order for us to own our own destiny," he said. Earlier this month, Mistral raised 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) in fresh funding led by memory chip giant Samsung, as it looks to position itself as a European alternative to rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic.

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During the 29 September US Senate judiciary committee hearing, the Republican senator Eric Schmitt accused Jack Smith, the former special counsel, of attending an Atlanta Hawks basketball game in Atlanta. Schmitt insinuated that Smith was in the area when Fani Willis, the Fulton county district attorney, revealed she'd had a relationship with fellow prosecutor Nathan Wade. Smith, who led two criminal cases against Donald Trump in 2023, clarified he had attended an Iowa Hawkeyes v Maryland Terrapins game in February 2024 to watch Caitlin Clark

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Douglas Carter, 71, who has spent more than four decades on death row, was released on bail until new trial begins

A Utah man who has spent more than four decades on death row was released from jail after newly analyzed DNA evidence showed that he was not connected to a 1985 homicide.

Douglas Stewart Carter, now 71, walked out of the Utah county jail late on Monday night after a judge ordered his release on bail. He will have to wear a GPS monitoring device until a new trial begins.

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More than 100 people have said they were injured by the ride in California, which reaches up to 76mph

Six Flags has permanently shut down its embattled X2 rollercoaster in Valencia, California, the company announced on Tuesday, as a groundswell of past riders have come forward with allegations of serious injuries.

X2, a Magic Mountain park favorite, which reaches up to 76mph (about 122km/h) and has seats that can rotate 360 degrees, had been closed since mid-July.

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Conservative majority temporarily lifts lower-court decision as liberal justices dissent from ruling

The Trump administration may deport immigrants to a “third country”, or a country other than their homeland, without providing them an opportunity to dispute due to humanitarian concerns, the supreme court said in a brief order on Tuesday.

The six-justice conservative majority of the high court temporarily lifted a lower court decision that determined immigrants being deported to a third country needed notice to argue they are at risk of persecution.

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Strategy includes increased security funding for synagogues, and focus on folding Jewish history into public school education

Zohran Mamdani debuted a sweeping plan Tuesday to combat antisemitism and hate crimes against Jewish people in New York City, moving to assuage concerns from critics who see his steadfast denunciations of Israel as antisemitic.

The strategy includes increased security funding for synagogues, an increased focus on folding Jewish history into public school education, and a pledge to highlight important Jewish cultural and religious sites in the mayor’s day-to-day governance of the city.

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State passes law banning local, state and federal officers from using gloves that deliver painful electric shocks

California has passed a law Tuesday banning local, state and federal law enforcement officers from using gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks to people.

The ban on shock gloves will take effect next year and remain in place until 2030. It comes weeks after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) moved to equip its officers with the gloves, which are designed to gain compliance from combative individuals. Last month, the agency awarded a nearly $17m contract to buy 6,000 pairs.

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Caleb Flynn convicted of aggravated murder in shooting of Ashley Flynn, a schoolteacher and volleyball coach

A former Ohio music pastor who once appeared on American Idol was found guilty Tuesday of killing his wife while having an affair.

Caleb Flynn, 40, was found guilty of aggravated murder, in the February shooting of Ashley Flynn, 37, a schoolteacher and volleyball coach.

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‘Yellow 2120’ has been driven out of other Altadena neighborhood crawlspaces but he just keeps coming back

He’s back: the 550lb bear made famous after he took up residence under an Altadena home in November 2025 is wandering the Los Angeles neighborhood again after he moved in and out of the crawlspace of another home.

“Yellow 2120”, as the black bear has been tagged, was spotted in the crawlspace of a home on Minoru Drive on Monday.

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More than 25,000 people have been deported to 29 countries under ⁠the policy implemented last year, according to a tally by human rights groups

For some context, it’s worth remembering that Smith had a two-volume report of his findings as a result of his criminal investigations – that resulted in two indictments against the president after his first term. The first focused on Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, while the second on the president’s retention of classified documents.

However, in February, a Trump-appointed federal judge permanently barred the justice department from releasing the second volume of Smith’s report.

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McDonald's is reportedly using AI-powered pricing tools to recommend menu prices based on what customers near individual restaurants are willing to pay. Franchisees technically retain control over final prices, but some told Reuters they feel pressured to follow the algorithm's recommendations. "A corporate document reviewed by the publication shows that McDonald's tracks adherence to the platform, and notes any deviations from the algorithm's price recommendations," reports Engadget. From the report: Reuters got a look at the interface that franchisees use to access this technology and it's pretty creepy. Messages show stuff like "your restaurant is showing MEDIUM SENSITIVITY to price" based on "customer willingness to pay in your area." Cost differences at nearby locations can be stark. Researchers found that a Bic Mac at a Fresno, California store cost $5.69, but the same burger cost $6.89 at another branch two miles down the road. That's a 21 percent difference. The company acknowledges that using this dynamic pricing system could open up franchisees to legal hurdles, all while continuing to push the platform. The pricing portal's terms of service reportedly warns that owners "may be competitors of each other" and "it is particularly important for all Users of the Tool to understand and comply fully with antitrust and competition laws." The document also reiterates that franchisees are "always free to determine the final price," thus potentially absolving corporate from any antitrust concerns. McDonald's has decried Reuters' reporting as "speculative and uninformed." The company says the pricing portal is "a tool, not a mandate, designed to provide restaurant-specific recommendations to help franchisees deliver value for customers and make informed business decisions." The company has been using some version of this technology since at least 2019, according to Reuters. In 2023, however, CEO Kempczinski boasted to investors that it had developed proprietary tools to evaluate pricing at individual restaurants.

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