THINK FOR YOURSELF: In a growing challenge to technology in schools, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the city’s public school system banned the use of artificial intelligence in elementary and middle school instruction for at least one year. The ban will applies to “all software that uses student-facing generative AI” for students through eighth grade.

  Chatbots will be prohibited across all grades, but the city will also establish twice-yearly AI literacy classes for public high school students.

  Mamdani said at a press conference; “The tech industry wants us to believe that AI in early education is not only inevitable, but that it is necessary. We do not see it that way. I have yet to see a study showing that AI is beneficial for students in elementary and middle school, with the exception of course of research sponsored by the very corporations that stand to profit.”   

  Public schools are wrestling with the effects of technology on the development of young minds. Schools are beginning to ban cellphones and the Los Angeles schools are temporarily blocking access to generative AI tools on student devices across all grades.

DEADLOCK: The Plymouth, Massachusetts judge in the Lindsay Clancy child murder trial sent the jury back to deliberations a second time yesterday after they reported that they are still unable to reach a verdict.

  If the jury comes back deadlocked one more time, Judge William Sullivan will have to declare a mistrial and the prosecution will have to decide whether to pursue a second trial. “You should consider that it is desirable that the case be decided,” Judge Sullivan said, “and that you have been selected in the same manner and from the same source from which any future jury would be.”

  Clancy admits strangling her three young children in 2023 but her defense says it was the result of postpartum psychosis, an argument that has been successful in other cases.

INFINITE SCROLL: 

— Workers at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts removed a statue called “Blue” that was a blocky representation of a human figure created by the late artist Joel Shapiro. The work was supposed to be a permanent fixture on the Kennedy Center grounds.

  Josef Palermo, the center’s former curator of visual arts and special programming, told The Washington Post he was given orders coming down from President Trump to “get rid” of all the outdoor artwork on the campus to make way for a new collection after two years of renovations. 

— President Trump placed a 100 percent tariff on foreign-made drones that weigh more than 55 pounds or have thermal imaging capacity in an effort to protect US industry primarily from Chinese-made drones. 

— Trump noted online that Apple maps has followed Google in re-identifying Lake Ontario as “Lake America.” You can always tell who has major business with Trump.

  The name-brand President also posted that; “Now that we have it under U.S.A. control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT??? Like America itself, it would be ‘hotter.’”

  In Trump’s world you just can’t name enough things after him or put his face in too many places. The US mint has begun issuing $1 gold-colored coins with Trump’s scowling face on them. The coins are already out of stock.

A BRICK: The NBA levied a penalty of $30 million and the loss of five first-round draft picks on the Los Angeles Clippers for skirting the salary cap rule. Owner Steve Ballmer, who made his fortune with Microsoft, was suspended for a year.

  It’s the biggest such punishment in the history of the NBA

  The Clippers and Ballmer were found to have circumvented the cap by finding off-court income for small forward Kawhi Leonard, who was fined $700,000. Also suspended were the Clippers’ presidents of business and basketball operations. Leonard’s own business manager is suspended and prevented from have business with anyone connected to the NBA for five years.

  Leonard previously played for the Toronto Raptors and has been traded back. 

THE OBIT PAGE: Feminist and journalist Gloria Steinem, a leader in the women’s rights movement that brought women out of the kitchen into the world at large, has died at age 92. No cause was given.

  Back in the 1960s and 70s in the age of hip-hugger jeans, Steinem with her long hair parted down the middle and tinted glasses was one of the most recognized figures in America.  She was a national lightning rod, beloved by women she inspired, hated by both men and women who clung to the world as it had been.

  Steinem broke into the world of journalism by getting a job as a bunny at the New York Playboy club and writing an exposé about the degrading conditions. Even then she faced scorn for trying to enter the male world of journalism. “The truth will set you free,” she used to say, “but first it will piss you off.”

 Steinem dated a string of high-powered men including the director Mike Nichols, and Mort Zuckerman, the real estate and publishing mogul. She never had children and married … once … at age 66.

  Always quick with an aphorism she would say, “When we started, there was not even a term for sexual harassment. It was just called life.”

THE SPIN RACK: Golfing great Tiger Woods pleaded no contest to lesser charges yesterday in his DUI arrest, agreeing to $1500 in fines and a five-year suspension of his drivers’ license. Woods became addicted to painkillers after a serious car accident in 2021.The judge warned him that if he’s caught driving he’ll go straight to jail. He can still drive a golf cart. — 

BELOW THE FOLD: A repeat sex offender known as the “butt sniffer,” stalking women in Glendale and Burbank California has been arrested again by Glendale police. Calese Crowder, 39, has been accused of crouching behind women and taking a whiff.

  This will find its way soon into a prime time police drama.

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