Latest news with #Cheney
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
University of Utah robotics team wins national competition at Kennedy Space Center
The University of Utah robotics club claimed the grand prize at the NASA Lunabotics Challenge at the end of May, ending the previous champions' combined 15-year winning streak. The Utah Robotics club was awarded the $5,000 Lunabotics Artemis Award for achieving the highest cumulative score in the competition, which required students to design and build a robot capable of performing construction tasks on a simulated moon surface. They also won first place for presentation and demonstration of their work, largest construction, community outreach and sportsmanship, bringing home $9,000 in awards overall. The win felt like a true underdog story for the engineering students, according to Utah Student Robotics President Brycen Cheney. The team competed against 50 groups from universities all over the United States and became the first group from a university other than Iowa State University or the University of Alabama to win the grand prize since the challenge was introduced in 2010. After winning third place in the Lunabotics challenge in 2024, Cheney says the engineering club made several changes to improve their chances of winning the next competition. The group underwent changes in leadership, improved their communication systems and grew from 9 to 45 members in the past year, who all played a role in the year-long event. 'There was just constantly, almost every night in the last week, (students) giving their time. From my perspective, I think that's the biggest thing that led us into the win, was really diving into communication engineering, and the fact that we had so many people doing so much leading up to the competition,' said Cheney. The Systems Engineering Design Challenge culminates in a live competition at the Kennedy Space Center each year, but the Lunabotics Challenge is completed over two semesters. Teams must apply the NASA systems engineering process to design, develop and build their lunar robot and submit a STEM engagement report, systems engineering paper and a proof of life video to qualify for the competition. When building their lunar robot prototype, Cheney says Utah Student Robots had to get creative due to their very limited budget. The team repurposed used materials like wheelchair motors and a PlayStation controller, but also relied on donations from the community to bridge the gap in their budget. It cost around $8,000 to build the robot and $13,000 to travel to Florida for the qualifying competition and final competition. 'I think a huge thing that helped us was the support (we received),' said Jacob Wilson, Utah Student Robotics mechanical lead. 'Because of the sponsors, because of the donations that we got, because of the funding that people put in towards this club, we were able to ... be innovative for this type of competition, to better ourselves. They were huge in donating some materials or at least decreasing some prices of materials so we could obtain certain parts of our robot.' Metal Supermarkets Salt Lake City was one of their main sponsors who provided aluminum, alloy steel and square box tubing to build the robot's wheels, digging bucket, chassis and arms. Utah Student Robotics took their competition preparations a step further by designing and building a home test pit similar to what is used at the Kennedy Space Center to help them train for the competition. This helped them practice using the robot to complete tasks like digging in, dumping and traversing lunar regolith simulant — a substance similar to the dirt found on the moon — as well as dodging craters and rocks. '(The lunar dirt) is extra rough,' said Cheney. 'It compacts, it's more dense than water, but it also fluffs up lighter than any powder that I've ever seen. So our most difficult challenge for sure was actually getting the robot to drive on this just insane type of sand.' More than 20 members of Utah Student Robotics participated in presenting and demonstrating their robot's abilities at Lunabotics, several even driving themselves and the robot from Utah to Florida for the competition. Some of the student engineers acted as mission control at the competition, where they had to control the robot with its controller from a separate room, using only a live camera feed to direct its movements to complete tasks. Others were involved in maintaining the equipment between each run so it would perform at its best. Cheney says his team invested a significant amount of time and effort into the Lunabotics Challenge because it provided an opportunity for them to apply their education in a practical setting. 'In school, you get to learn a lot of things ... but you don't get to actually do engineering,' he said. 'For us, this was a chance to really learn what it means to be an engineer, to solve a real problem.' The Lunabotics Challenge was created by NASA to let students be part of innovating for their Artemis campaign to explore the moon and learn to live and work there, preparing for eventual human missions to Mars. They plan to land the first woman and person of color on the moon and establish mankind's first long-term presence on the moon. Many of the engineers on the Utah Student Robotics team share the same passion for space exploration and were excited to contribute to the Artemis campaign through Lunabotics, according to Wilson, who hopes to work for NASA someday. 'There's something that I feel whenever I've gone to Kennedy Space Center that it just I don't think people understand,' said Wilson. 'It's kind of the feeling that you get when, you're huddled around watching the Olympics. ... I get this huge amount of pride, and this hope for a better tomorrow, the hope that people will be able to come together and we'll all be able to see human accomplishments rise to the occasion.'
Hamilton Spectator
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Hamilton Spectator
Former US Rep. Charles Rangel, who spent nearly 50 years representing New York, has died
NEW YORK (AP) — Former U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, an outspoken, gravel-voiced Harlem Democrat who spent nearly five decades on Capitol Hill and was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, died Monday at age 94. His family confirmed the death in a statement provided by City College of New York spokesperson Michelle Stent. He died at a hospital in New York, Stent said. A veteran of the Korean War, he defeated legendary Harlem politician Adam Clayton Powell in 1970 to start his congressional career. During the next 40-plus years, he became a legend himself as dean of the New York congressional delegation and, in 2007, the first African American to chair the powerful Ways and Means Committee. He stepped down from that committee amid an ethics cloud, and the House censured him in 2010. But he continued to serve in Congress until his retirement in 2017 . Rangel was the last surviving member of the Gang of Four — African American political figures who wielded great power in New York City and state politics. The others were David Dinkins , New York City's first Black mayor; Percy Sutton, who was Manhattan Borough president; and Basil Paterson, a deputy mayor and New York secretary of state. 'Charlie was a true activist — we've marched together, been arrested together and painted crack houses together,' the Rev. Al Sharpton , leader of the National Action Network, said in a statement, noting that he met Rangel as a teenager. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries issued a statement calling Rangel 'a patriot, hero, statesman, leader, trailblazer, change agent and champion for justice who made his beloved Harlem, the City of New York and the United States of America a better place for all.' Rangel's voice was memorable Few could forget Rangel after hearing him talk. His distinctive gravel-toned voice and wry sense of humor were a memorable mix. That voice — one of the most liberal in the House — was loudest in opposition to the Iraq War , which he branded a 'death tax' on poor people and minorities. In 2004, he tried to end the war by offering a bill to restart the military service draft. Republicans called his bluff and brought the bill to a vote. Even Rangel voted against it. A year later, Rangel's fight over the war became bitterly personal with then-Vice President Dick Cheney . Rangel said Cheney, who has a history of heart trouble, might be too sick to perform his job. 'I would like to believe he's sick rather than just mean and evil,' Rangel said. After several such verbal jabs, Cheney hit back, saying Rangel was 'losing it.' The charismatic Harlem lawmaker rarely backed down from a fight after he first entered the House in 1971 as a dragon slayer of sorts, having unseated Powell in the Democratic congressional primary in 1970. The flamboyant elder Powell, a city political icon first elected to the House in 1944, was ill and haunted by scandal at the time. In 1987, Congress approved what was known as the 'Rangel amendment,' which denied foreign tax credits to U.S. companies investing in apartheid-era South Africa . The House censured him over ethics violations Rangel became leader of the main tax-writing committee of the House, which has jurisdiction over programs including Social Security and Medicare, after the 2006 midterm elections when Democrats ended 12 years of Republican control of the chamber. But in 2010, a House ethics committee conducted a hearing on 13 counts of alleged financial and fundraising misconduct over issues surrounding financial disclosures and use of congressional resources. He was convicted of 11 ethics violations. The House found he had failed to pay taxes on a vacation villa, filed misleading financial disclosure forms and improperly solicited donations for a college center from corporations with business before his committee. The House followed the ethics committee's recommendation that he be censured, the most serious punishment short of expulsion. 'Committed to fighting for the little guy' Rangel looked after his constituents, sponsoring empowerment zones with tax credits for businesses moving into economically depressed areas and developers of low income housing. 'I have always been committed to fighting for the little guy,' Rangel said in 2012. Rangel was born June 11, 1930. During the Korean War, he earned a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. He would always say that he measured his days, even the troubled ones around the ethics scandal, against the time in 1950 when he survived being wounded as other soldiers didn't make it. It became the title of his autobiography: 'And I Haven't Had A Bad Day Since.' A high school dropout, he went to college on the G.I. Bill, getting degrees from New York University and St. John's University Law School.
Los Angeles Times
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Former U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel of New York dies at 94
NEW YORK — Former U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, an outspoken, gravel-voiced Harlem Democrat who spent nearly five decades on Capitol Hill and was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, died Monday at age 94. His family confirmed the death in a statement provided by City College of New York spokesperson Michelle Stent. He died at a hospital in New York, Stent said. A veteran of the Korean War, Rangel defeated legendary Harlem politician Adam Clayton Powell in 1970 to start his congressional career. During the next 40-plus years, he became a legend himself — a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, dean of the New York congressional delegation and in 2007, the first African American to chair the powerful Ways and Means Committee. He stepped down from that committee amid an ethics cloud, and the House censured him in 2010. But he continued to serve in Congress until his retirement in 2017. Rangel was the last surviving member of the Gang of Four — African American political figures who wielded great power in New York City and state politics. The others were David Dinkins, New York City's first Black mayor; Percy Sutton, who was Manhattan Borough president; and Basil Paterson, a deputy mayor and New York secretary of state. Few could forget Rangel after hearing him talk. His distinctive gravel-toned voice and wry sense of humor were a memorable mix. That voice — one of the most liberal in the House — was loudest in opposition to the Iraq War, which he branded a 'death tax' on poor people and minorities. In 2004, he tried to end the war by offering a bill to restart the military service draft. Republicans called his bluff and brought the bill to a vote. Even Rangel voted against it. A year later, Rangel's fight over the war became bitterly personal with then-Vice President Dick Cheney. Rangel said Cheney, who has a history of heart trouble, might be too sick to perform his job. 'I would like to believe he's sick rather than just mean and evil,' Rangel said. After several such verbal jabs, Cheney hit back, saying Rangel was 'losing it.' The charismatic Harlem lawmaker rarely backed down from a fight after he first entered the House in 1971 as a dragon slayer of sorts, having unseated Powell in the Democratic congressional primary in 1970. The flamboyant elder Powell, a city political icon first elected to the House in 1944, was ill and haunted by scandal at the time. Rangel became leader of the main tax-writing committee of the House, which has jurisdiction over programs including Social Security and Medicare, after the 2006 midterm elections when Democrats ended 12 years of Republican control of the chamber. But in 2010, a House ethics committee conducted a hearing on 13 counts of alleged financial and fundraising misconduct over issues surrounding financial disclosures and use of congressional resources. He was convicted of 11 ethics violations. The House found he had failed to pay taxes on a vacation villa, filed misleading financial disclosure forms and improperly solicited donations for a college center from corporations with business before his committee. The House followed the ethics committee's recommendation that he be censured, the most serious punishment short of expulsion. Rangel looked after his constituents, sponsoring empowerment zones with tax credits for businesses moving into economically depressed areas and developers of low income housing. 'I have always been committed to fighting for the little guy,' Rangel said in 2012. Rangel was born June 11, 1930. During the Korean War, he earned a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. He would always say that he measured his days, even the troubled ones around the ethics scandal, against the time in 1950 when he survived being wounded as other soldiers didn't make it. It became the title of his autobiography: 'And I Haven't Had A Bad Day Since.' A high school dropout, he went to college on the G.I. Bill, getting degrees from New York University and St. John's University Law School. Hajela and Attanasio write for the Associated Press.
Boston Globe
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Former US Representative Charles Rangel of New York dies
He stepped down from that committee amid an ethics cloud, and the House censured him in 2010. But he continued to serve in Congress until his retirement in 2017. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Rangel was the last surviving member of the Gang of Four — African American political figures who wielded great power in New York City and state politics. The others were David Dinkins, New York City's first Black mayor; Percy Sutton, who was Manhattan Borough president; and Basil Paterson, a deputy mayor and New York secretary of state. Advertisement Few could forget Rangel after hearing him talk. His distinctive gravel-toned voice and wry sense of humor were a memorable mix. That voice — one of the most liberal in the House — was loudest in opposition to the Iraq War, which he branded a 'death tax' on poor people and minorities. In 2004, he tried to end the war by offering a bill to restart the military service draft. Republicans called his bluff and brought the bill to a vote. Even Rangel voted against it. Advertisement A year later, Rangel's fight over the war became bitterly personal with then-Vice President Dick Cheney. Rangel said Cheney, who has a history of heart trouble, might be too sick to perform his job. 'I would like to believe he's sick rather than just mean and evil,' Rangel said. After several such verbal jabs, Cheney hit back, saying Rangel was 'losing it.' The charismatic Harlem lawmaker rarely backed down from a fight after he first entered the House in 1971 as a dragon slayer of sorts, having unseated Powell in the Democratic congressional primary in 1970. The flamboyant elder Powell, a city political icon first elected to the House in 1944, was ill and haunted by scandal at the time. Rangel became leader of the main tax-writing committee of the House, which has jurisdiction over programs including Social Security and Medicare, after the 2006 midterm elections when Democrats ended 12 years of Republican control of the chamber. But in 2010, a House ethics committee conducted a hearing on 13 counts of alleged financial and fundraising misconduct over issues surrounding financial disclosures and use of congressional resources. He was convicted of 11 ethics violations. The House found he had failed to pay taxes on a vacation villa, filed misleading financial disclosure forms and improperly solicited donations for a college center from corporations with business before his committee. The House followed the ethics committee's recommendation that he be censured, the most serious punishment short of expulsion. Advertisement Rangel looked after his constituents, sponsoring empowerment zones with tax credits for businesses moving into economically depressed areas and developers of low income housing. 'I have always been committed to fighting for the little guy,' Rangel said in 2012. Rangel was born June 11, 1930. During the Korean War, he earned a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. He would always say that he measured his days, even the troubled ones around the ethics scandal, against the time in 1950 when he survived being wounded as other soldiers didn't make it. It became the title of his autobiography: 'And I Haven't Had A Bad Day Since.' A high school dropout, he went to college on the G.I. Bill, getting degrees from New York University and St. John's University Law School.
Mint
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Mint
Charles Rangel, former longtime US House lawmaker, dies at 94
Former U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, an outspoken, gravel-voiced Harlem Democrat who spent nearly five decades on Capitol Hill and was a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, died Monday at age 94. His family confirmed the death in a statement provided by City College of New York spokesperson Michelle Stent. He died at a hospital in New York, Stent said. A veteran of the Korean War, he defeated legendary Harlem politician Adam Clayton Powell in 1970 to start his congressional career. During the next 40-plus years, he became a legend himself — a founding member of the Congressional Black Caucus, dean of the New York congressional delegation, and in 2007, the first African American to chair the powerful Ways and Means Committee. He stepped down from that committee amid an ethics cloud, and the House censured him in 2010. But he continued to serve in Congress until his retirement in 2017. Rangel was the last surviving member of the Gang of Four — African American political figures who wielded great power in New York City and state politics. The others were David Dinkins, New York City's first Black mayor; Percy Sutton, who was Manhattan Borough president; and Basil Paterson, a deputy mayor and New York secretary of state. Few could forget Rangel after hearing him talk. His distinctive gravel-toned voice and wry sense of humor were a memorable mix. That voice — one of the most liberal in the House — was loudest in opposition to the Iraq War, which he branded a 'death tax' on poor people and minorities. In 2004, he tried to end the war by offering a bill to restart the military service draft. Republicans called his bluff and brought the bill to a vote. Even Rangel voted against it. A year later, Rangel's fight over the war became bitterly personal with then-Vice President Dick Cheney. Rangel said Cheney, who has a history of heart trouble, might be too sick to perform his job. 'I would like to believe he's sick rather than just mean and evil,' Rangel said. After several such verbal jabs, Cheney hit back, saying Rangel was 'losing it.' The charismatic Harlem lawmaker rarely backed down from a fight after he first entered the House in 1971 as a dragon slayer of sorts, having unseated Powell in the Democratic congressional primary in 1970. The flamboyant elder Powell, a city political icon first elected to the House in 1944, was ill and haunted by scandal at the time. Rangel became leader of the main tax-writing committee of the House, which has jurisdiction over programs including Social Security and Medicare, after the 2006 midterm elections when Democrats ended 12 years of Republican control of the chamber. But in 2010, a House ethics committee conducted a hearing on 13 counts of alleged financial and fundraising misconduct over issues surrounding financial disclosures and use of congressional resources. He was convicted of 11 ethics violations. The House found he had failed to pay taxes on a vacation villa, filed misleading financial disclosure forms and improperly solicited donations for a college center from corporations with business before his committee. The House followed the ethics committee's recommendation that he be censured, the most serious punishment short of expulsion. Rangel looked after his constituents, sponsoring empowerment zones with tax credits for businesses moving into economically depressed areas and developers of low income housing. 'I have always been committed to fighting for the little guy,' Rangel said in 2012. Rangel was born June 11, 1930. During the Korean War, he earned a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. He would always say that he measured his days, even the troubled ones around the ethics scandal, against the time in 1950 when he survived being wounded as other soldiers didn't make it. It became the title of his autobiography: 'And I Haven't Had A Bad Day Since.' A high school dropout, he went to college on the G.I. Bill, getting degrees from New York University and St. John's University Law School.
