Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

MAYS LANDING, N.J. (AP) — Prosecutors have announced they won’t proceed with a child abuse trial against Atlantic City’s superintendent of schools, just weeks after her husband — the seaside gambling resort’s mayor — was acquitted in the case.La’Quetta Small had been accused along with her husband, Mayor Marty Small Sr., of endangering and physically abusing their teenage daughter. She was to have been tried separately in the spring, but the viability of the prosecution was thrown into question last month when a jury found the mayor not guilty.The decision to abandon the case came after the couple’s daughter, who…

I grew up in rural Colorado, deep in the mountains, and I can still remember the first time I visited Denver in the early 2000s. The city sits on the plain, skyscrapers rising and buildings extending far into the distance. Except, as we drove out of the mountains, I could barely see the city – the entire plain was covered in a brown, hazy cloud.That brown, hazy cloud was mostly made of ozone, a lung-irritating gas that causes decreases in lung function, inflammation, respiratory symptoms like coughing, and can trigger asthma attacks.Denver still has air pollution problems, due in part…

In a sign of the demand, or hype, for AI startups, Emergent, an Indian startup building an AI “vibe-coding” platform, has raised $70 million less than four months after it raised a $23 million Series A. The Series B round was jointly led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 and Khosla Ventures, and values the startup at $300 million post-money, sources with knowledge of the deal told TechCrunch. The startup was previously valued at $100 million post-money, another source told TechCrunch. Prosus, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Together, and Y Combinator also participated. Emergent has now raised $100 million within seven months of…

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday that he owes Indiana Gov. Mike Braun some key lime pie and stone crabs for losing a bet after Indiana’s 27-21 win over Miami earned the college football team the national championship.DeSantis said at a news conference on nursing education that he will be sending the key lime pie, as well as stone crabs from the famous Miami Beach eatery, Joe’s Stone Crab, to the Indiana governor due to his losing wager on the Miami Hurricanes at the hands of the Indiana Hoosiers Monday night in Miami Gardens, Florida.The…

Pregnant women’s exposure to wildfire smoke — particularly in the third trimester — may increase the risk of autism in their children, according to new research, which looked at hundreds of thousands of births in Southern California.The study, published Tuesday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, is the first to examine a potential link between prenatal wildfire smoke exposure and autism. Earlier research has suggested that pregnant women’s exposure to air pollution more broadly, including smog spewed by vehicles, smoke stacks and lead, may be linked to the developmental disorder.The new research focused on exposures to PM 2.5, tiny…

BEIJING (AP) — China’s one-child policy, one of the harshest attempts at population control the world has seen, forced abortions on women, made sterilization widespread and led to baby daughters being sold or even killed, because parents wanted their only child to be a male.Now, experts say, the question is whether it was all necessary. China’s birth rate fell to record lows last year and its population has fallen for four years in a row, official statistics showed this week. Authorities, alarmed by the prospect of a shrinking workforce and an aging population, scrapped the policy in 2015.“It’s hard to…

It was not long ago that building a sophisticated app required a team of experienced programmers hovering over their keyboards. Now, AI has made it possible for a novice with no coding knowledge to whip up high-quality apps from scratch.Emergent, founded out of Y Combinator’s startup class of 2024 by twin brothers Mukund Jha and Madhav Jha, is one of the fastest-growing so-called “vibe coding” platforms, already boasting 5 million users and seeing annual recurring revenue soar from $50 million to $5 million in a little over a year.The company recently raised $70 million in Series B funding from Khosla…

One year ago, health officials confirmed that cases of measles were cropping up in a small town in western Texas.Soon, the virus had spread to neighboring counties in Texas. Other states began reporting their own measles outbreaks, including Utah and South Carolina.By the time 2025 ended, more than 2,200 cases had been confirmed, the highest number reported in the U.S. in 33 years, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.New map shows how to spot the measles risk level in your ZIP codeThe U.S. also saw its first measles deaths in more than a decide including…

Gig workers turn to apps like Uber and DoorDash to make money by offering rides and making deliveries.Some independent contractors have come up with another way to make money using the apps: Selling access to those apps to other people, according to a new survey.Forty-five percent of gig workers surveyed by TransUnion said that they had either rented or sold access to a gig work account on a gig work platform, the company said in a report released last week.Gig work apps such as Uber, DoorDash, and Walmart’s Spark have told Business Insider that they don’t allow users to share…

For years, Amazon was cast as Walmart’s great disruptor. Now, it’s borrowing from the retail giant it once sought to upend.The company is rolling out Walmart-inspired ideas, including “Supercenter” warehouses, a new distribution layer known internally as the “1DC” network, and microfulfillment centers within Whole Foods stores, according to internal documents obtained by Business Insider.The shift reflects a hard lesson: Mastery of e-commerce does not translate into dominance in groceries, particularly perishable items that drive frequent shopping. Walmart’s dense network of stores and distribution centers, designed to move everyday goods quickly and cheaply, has proved difficult to replicate.Nearly a decade…