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Michigan couple back from Gaza

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — A Detroit-area couple trapped in Gaza like hundreds of other U.S. citizens described the roar of bombs and the fear of not making it home after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. Unable to leave, Zakaria and Laila Alarayshi hunkered down. “I was crying,” Zakaria Alarayshi, 62, told reporters Wednesday at the Arab American Civil Rights League offices in Dearborn, Michigan. “Everyone was scared. Bombs everywhere. When I go to sleep, we cannot sleep. Maybe I’ll sleep in a chair for 30 minutes a day.” He feared the bombs eventually would find ...

GMs’ autonomous vehicle unit recalls cars for software update

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors’ Cruise autonomous vehicle unit is recalling all 950 of its cars to update software after one of them dragged a pedestrian to the side of a San Francisco street in early October. The company said in documents posted by U.S. safety regulators on Wednesday that, with the updated software, Cruise vehicles will remain stationary should a similar incident occur in the future. The Oct. 2 crash prompted Cruise to suspend driverless operations nationwide after California regulators found that its cars posed a danger to public safety. The state’s Department ...

Governors call for more funds to secure places of worship

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Democratic group of governors led by Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer have joined national leaders in calling for an increase in funding for security at places of worship as concerns grow over threats against Jewish and Muslim communities sparked by the Israel-Hamas war. Governors of 10 states and the territory of Puerto Rico sent a letter Wednesday, first obtained by The Associated Press, that was addressed to leaders in both chambers of the U.S. Congress. It calls for an increase in funding to the federal Nonprofit Security Grant Program, which is set to give ...

Effort to remove Michigan GOP chair builds momentum as infighting and debt plague party

LANSING — Former staunch allies of Michigan GOP Chairwoman Kristina Karamo, who assumed the role following an unsuccessful secretary of state campaign, are now uniting to remove her as the party remains mired in infighting and hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. It’s a swift fall for Karamo, an election conspiracy theorist who in February was overwhelmingly elected by grassroots activists to lead the state party through the next presidential election until early 2025. Michigan Republicans were coming off historic losses in the 2022 midterms, and Karamo promised to rebuild the ...

Does an AI tool help boost adoptions?

BRUNSWICK, GEORGIA — Former social worker Thea Ramirez has developed an artificial intelligence -powered tool that she says helps social service agencies find the best adoptive parents for some of the nation’s most vulnerable kids. But an Associated Press investigation has found that the Family-Match algorithm has produced limited results in the states where it has been used, raising questions about the ability of artificial intelligence to solve such enduring human problems. Two states dropped the tool with only a few adoptions at the end of their initial pilots. Social workers ...