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By JENNIFER McDERMOTT and LINLEY SANDERS WASHINGTON (AP) — As the United States rapidly builds massive data centers for the development of artificial intelligence, many Americans are concerned about the environmental impact. Worries about how AI will affect the environment surpass concerns about other industries that worsen climate change, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. The results of the poll, conducted in September, suggest that as AI reshapes work, communication and culture, it’s also sparking anxieties about how the growing energy demands…

By KEVIN FREKING WASHINGTON (AP) — They’re divided along party lines on policy. They’re divided on the government shutdown. And now federal lawmakers are divided on the demolition of the East Wing of the White House to make room for the 90,000-square-foot ballroom that President Donald Trump wants to build. The stunning images of the teardown this week have left Democratic lawmakers incensed. Republicans, meanwhile, are likening it to a long line of White House renovations over the years. There was Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s swimming pool addition, now covered over, they said. There was Barack Obama’s basketball court, a tennis…

By ANDREW DALTON The indictments announced Thursday of a poker cheating ring involving NBA figures and backed by the mafia emphasized their alleged high-tech cheating methods. But the con tactics they described are as old as poker itself, familiar from heist movies and James Bond films. Shady shuffles came not from quick-handed card sharks, but tricked-out machines. Instead of mirrors or guys in the corner peeking over shoulders, there were X-ray tables and high-tech contact lenses. Low-tech signals between players and old-fashioned beatings for debtors allegedly were used too. Here’s a look at how the alleged fraudsters rigged the games,…

By LISA LEFF Target said Thursday that it is eliminating about 1,800 corporate positions in an effort to streamline decision-making and accelerate initiatives to rebuild the flagging discount retailer’s customer base. About 1,000 employees are expected to receive layoff notices next week, and the company also plans to eliminate about 800 vacant jobs, a company spokesperson said. The cuts represent about 8% of Target’s corporate workforce globally, although the majority of the affected employees work at the company’s Minneapolis headquarters, the spokesperson said. Chief Operating Officer Michael Fiddelke, who is set to become Target’s next CEO on Feb. 1, issued…

By Deborah Brennan, CalMatters California lawmakers are demanding answers after a live fire demonstration over Camp Pendleton Saturday led to a misfire that rained shrapnel on Interstate 5, striking two California Highway Patrol vehicles. An artillery shell exploded over the freeway during a celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Marine Corps, attended by Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Pieces of shrapnel scattered on the closed roadway and struck a patrol vehicle and motorcycle. ALSO SEE: Key Camp Pendleton document has no approved artillery firing locations west of I-5 “I was very disappointed, because I…

By DAVID BAUDER NEW YORK (AP) — Some politicians carry threats to their livelihood in the palms of their hands. News stories in recent weeks about offensive or ill-advised text messages have blown up the careers of several young Republicans in a chat group, led a nominee for a White House job to drop out, threatened the campaign of a Democrat running for Virginia attorney general and embarrassed a federal prosecutor. Memories are still fresh of this spring’s inadvertent inclusion of a journalist on a Signal chain where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other leaders discussed military strikes, possibly the…

EL SEGUNDO — With the Lakers set for a matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night, Coach JJ Redick went down a game film rabbit hole on the team that eliminated them in five games in a first-round playoff series last spring. A rabbit hole so deep that Redick found himself watching film from his own career involving a player he now coaches and a former teammate who now plays for the Golden State Warriors, whom the Lakers lost to in their season opener on Tuesday night. “I actually, at one point, was watching inverted pick-and-rolls when I was…

By BERNARD CONDON NEW YORK (AP) — Intel has posted a profit in its first quarterly report since the U.S. government became a major shareholder in the struggling chipmaker. The one-time American tech icon reported a net income of $4.1 billion, or 90 cents per share, in the three months ending in September, up from a loss of $17 billion, or $3.88 per share, a year earlier. Revenue climbed 3% from last year to $13.7 billion. Stock in the company rose nearly 8% in after-hours trading to $41.10, adding to strong gains since the United States invested in the summer.…

Jonathan Rinderknecht, accused of setting a blaze that became the destructive Palisades fire, wanted to talk to the U.S. District Court judge in downtown Los Angeles about being locked up. “Can I actually say something about the detainment?” the 29-year-old said Thursday afternoon, Oct. 23, before his attorney, Steve Haney, cut him off and asked the judge for a break to speak to Rinderknecht in private. Ten minutes later, Rinderknecht returned, extended his left hand to a hand sanitizer bottle and wiped his hands behind his back. Both he and Haney then responded, “Not guilty” to three federal charges of…

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday finalized plans to open the coastal plain of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to potential oil and gas drilling, renewing a long-simmering debate over whether to drill in one of the nation’s environmental jewels. U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced the decision Thursday that paves the way for future lease sales within the refuge’s 1.5 million-acre coastal plain, an area that’s considered sacred by the Indigenous Gwich’in. The plan fulfills pledges made by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to reopen this portion of the refuge to possible development. Trump’s bill…