Ford swings to $1.8 billion in Q1 net income as sales, pricing rise
Ford’s adjusted earnings before interest and taxes rose 45 percent to $3.4 billion. A majority of that — $2.6 billion — came from Ford Blue, the company’s gasoline-powered business.
Legislature approves DeSantis-backed illegal immigration crackdown
TALLAHASSEE — Florida lawmakers approved a sweeping immigration bill Tuesday, fulfilling a top item on Gov. Ron DeSantis’ legislative agenda.
The immigration crackdown requires businesses with 25 or more employees to check the work status of new hires for permanent positions through a federal database called E-Verify.
Another provision mandates hospitals compile financial data on the cost of treating patients without legal status. It also allocates $12 million for a controversial program to transport migrants from Florida to Democratic parts of the country.
The House voted 83-36 to send the immigration bill to DeSantis.
Supporters said action is needed for an immigration crisis that isn’t being addressed by the federal government.
“Let’s be clear: This bill is not about legal immigration This is addressing an illegal problem that we have in this country,” said Rep. Chase Tramont, R-Port Orange.
Rep. Kiyan Michael, the bill’s sponsor, recounted how her son was killed in a car wreck involving a driver who was in the country illegally.
Freightliner unveils eM2 medium-duty electric truck
The eM2 is one of Freightliner’s electric options for fleet owners hoping to make the zero-emission transition.
Senate OKs Disney monorail rules, sends bill back to House
TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Senate on Tuesday backed a measure that would lead to state oversight of Walt Disney World’s monorail system, as Gov. Ron DeSantis’ fight with the entertainment giant continues to expand.
The Republican-controlled Senate voted 26-14 along almost-straight party lines to pass the bill (HB 1305), which includes requiring the Department of Transportation to inspect Disney’s monorail system.
The House passed a version of the broad transportation bill last week. But the Senate made changes, meaning the measure will have to go back to the House for a final vote.
Senate Transportation Chairman Nick DiCeglie, R-Indian Rocks Beach, said the monorail-inspection requirement is simply “about safety.”
“I personally, obviously, don’t think it is unreasonable for a monorail system that carries 150,000 people a day to have the state and their experts oversee in, what I think, is a very reasonable process that they have,” DiCeglie said.
The bill would require state oversight of “any governmentally or privately owned fixed-guideway transportation systems operating in this state which are located within an independent special district created by a local act which have boundaries within two contiguous counties.” That definition would apply to Disney.
‘Godfather of AI’ leaves Google, warns of tech’s dangers
By MATT O’BRIEN and WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS (AP Business Reporters)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sounding alarms about artificial intelligence has become a popular pastime in the ChatGPT era, taken up by high-profile figures as varied as industrialist Elon Musk, leftist intellectual Noam Chomsky and the 99-year-old retired statesman Henry Kissinger.
But it’s the concerns of insiders in the AI research community that are attracting particular attention. A pioneering researcher and the so-called “Godfather of AI” Geoffrey Hinton quit his role at Google so he could more freely speak about the dangers of the technology he helped create.
Over his decades-long career, Hinton’s pioneering work on deep learning and neural networks helped lay the foundation for much of the AI technology we see today.
There has been a spasm of AI introductions in recent months. San Francisco-based startup OpenAI, the Microsoft-backed company behind ChatGPT, rolled out its latest artificial intelligence model, GPT-4, in March. Other tech giants have invested in competing tools — including Google’s “Bard.”