Latest news with #Raeside
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How drones, self-driving robots could help with food insecurity in Arlington
The city of Arlington held a demonstration Wednesday, May 14, for a project to integrate technology with the local food bank to improve delivery of food to people with mobility challenges. The city of Arlington and its partners showed electric and autonomous air and ground vehicles at Julia Burgen Park playground at 1009 Ruby St. They will be used to test the delivery of about 150 boxes of nonperishable food to Arlington households this week. The event showcased adjustments for the Multimodal Delivery pilot program, a two-year project funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to test and evaluate the use of no-emission or low-emission uncrewed aircraft and ground robots to deliver food to individuals who are underserved. New data released by Feeding America's Map the Meal Gap, shows Texas surpassed California as the most food insecure state in the country with 5.4 million people who are food insecure. Tarrant County has the 12th largest food insecure population in the country with 337,350 people experiencing food insecurity, the data shows. The increase in population in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and inflation have hurt working class families, as has inaccessibility in rural communities, said Stephen Raeside, chief external affairs officer of Tarrant Area Food Bank. The Tarrant Area Food Bank serves 13 counties, which take in 10,000 square miles, and delivers 1.5 million meals a week with only 140 employees, creating a logistical challenge, Raeside said. 'We have to be very efficient, adaptable, nimble, and we think delivery through autonomous vehicles could be part of that formula to distribute even more food,' Raeside said. The project started in October 2023 with a $780,000 grant, with the first year used for planning and preparation. The first demonstration was held in September 2024, and information gained from that was used to revise and expand on the demonstration held Wednesday morning. The city and its partners will use the information learned from this week's demonstration to analyze and report on the lessons they learned later this year. There is no immediate plan to fully launch the project in the future. 'One of our goals at the city is that, by testing these types of things and doing these demonstrations, we give people the opportunity to learn about how the technology works, hopefully feel more comfortable with it, and then, as it grows and expands, there's more opportunities for everyone,' said Ann Foss, transportation planning and programming manager for the city of Arlington. Other partners, including the North Central Texas Council of Governments, helped with community engagement and outreach and more technical aspects, such as energy and cost analysis. UT Arlington has helped with community engagement and outreach, and faculty and students from the engineering department have helped with the technical aspects of the project. Airspace Link is a software and management company that helped create a system for communication and tracking. Other partnerships include the drone delivery company Aerialoop, which provides the aircraft, and Mozee, a Dallas-based autonomous vehicle manufacturer, which provides the ground robot. Shawn Taikratoke, CEO of Mozee, said mobility equals freedom, and the company wanted to help people dealing with food insecurity because of transportation issues. 'Roughly half of America has no access to mass transit, as of right now, and so being able to bridge that gap is a big deal for us,' Taikratoke said.
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Don't Make Me Laugh by Julia Raeside review – did you hear the one about the toxic standup?
Ali Lauder isn't having the best 40th birthday. The heroine of Julia Raeside's debut novel has already had a humiliating run-in with the wife of the colleague she's been sleeping with, and been brushed off by Paul Bonatti, the celebrity comedian she's supposed to recruit to host a new radio show – a show she'd hoped might signal her breakthrough as a producer. Now, thanks to a backstage tipoff, she's learned that Bonatti, her boss's pick, is 'not a good choice if any women work at your radio station'. Don't Make Me Laugh is, at its most straightforward, a robustly funny and fleetingly soulful revenge caper, set in a comedy world that's about to have its (long-overdue) #MeToo moment, but Raeside's freewheeling style – a perfect match for lonely, lackadaisically flawed Ali – allows her to edge into some discomfiting, provocatively grey areas. Because while Bonatti is clearly a dangerous creep, it's a certain type of self-styled 'good guy' that the author dares to expose here. Ali, retreating to the bar to take stock of her lamentable love life and career, falls into conversation with another famous standup, Ed Catchpole. Older and endearingly shambolic, attentive and eager to listen, Ed quickly comes to embody all the care and devotion that's missing from her life. He's even up for presenting that radio show. Early on Raeside delights in dangling, then dashing, the notion that we might be in romcom territory No spoilers are required to reveal that he's not at all the cosy, cardigan-wearing fantasy saviour that he initially seems. That he's no Bonatti, either (to quote Ed himself: 'I'm a cunt, but I'm not that cunt'), makes the ensuing drama all the more arresting. As Ali tries to wean herself off the intense emotional intimacy with which he's reeled her in, she's made acutely aware of the overlap between revulsion and residual lust, for instance, and forced to examine the boundary – troublingly porous, in Raeside's telling – between coercion and collusion. Don't Make Me Laugh is not without missteps. A handful of chapters told from Ed's point of view are heavy-handed, adding little. And it should probably be noted that the only decent male character here – Ali's depressive dad – is deceased. On the whole, though, it's a confident interweaving of action and ethics, building towards an ingenious Edinburgh fringe finale and revelling as it goes in the heavy-drinking grubbiness of a certain kind of unattached London life. It's also full of droll turns of phrase and genuine laughter – never a given in a novel about comedy, least of all one tackling the industry's ingrained misogyny. Ali's married colleague, for instance, appears seductively capable when glimpsed out of the corner of her eye. Looked at straight-on, 'he was a furious teacher waiting for a minibus'. Early on Raeside delights in dangling, then dashing, the notion that we might be in romcom territory. It's not a narrative entirely devoid of romance, however. On the same night that Ali meets Ed, she also encounters two young women who will introduce her to a group of underground activists named Scold's Bridle. Slowly but surely, Ali falls for that quaint-seeming, still vital concept: the sisterhood. The reader will be right behind her. • Don't Make Me Laugh by Julia Raeside is published by Bedford Square (£16.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy from Delivery charges may apply
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Yahoo
Judge in Sara Sharif care proceedings was stalked by irate dad months before fateful decision
The judge who ruled that murdered schoolgirl Sara Sharif should live with her father was herself the victim of a stalking campaign from an irate dad in the months before she made that fateful decision, it can now be revealed. Judge Alison Raeside oversaw a series of family court hearings about Sara's care in the years before the ten-year-old was murdered by her father Urfan Sharif and stepmother Beinash Batool. The judge's identity was initially cloaked in secrecy by a more senior judge, but can be reported on Friday for the first time. Judge Raeside was called to the Bar in 1982 and first appointed as a District Judge in 2000. In 2019, she became the designated family court judge sitting in Surrey. The previous year, Judge Raeside had fallen victim to a stalking campaign by a father who had appeared before her in family proceedings. The Standard reported how Nyron Warmington, from Croydon, pursued Judge Raeside for nine months, branding her a 'vile monster' in a series of threatening messages. He targeted the Judge after she barred him from contacting his daughters, calling her 'odious' and posting messages referring to her home address and her own children. Using the pseudonym 'Equality for Fathers', Warmington posted on Instagram and Facebook about 'monsters working in the UK courts', and referred to guns and violence as he threatened the judge between May 2018 and January 2019. Bristol crown court heard how Judge Raeside reported Warmington to police after she was alerted to his social media posts. Warmington was jailed for a year in August 2019, and a few months later the judge was called upon to adjudicate an application by Sharif to be granted custody of his daughter. Judge Raeside made the decision that Sara could live with her father, after receiving a report from a social worker backing the move. It is now known that the little girl was subjected to horrendous violent abuse at the hands of her father and stepmother before she was ultimately murdered. Judge Raeside, 66, has four adult children with her husband, Mark Raeside KC, a fellow circuit judge. In November 2023 she spoke on an episode of the 'Women Who Work' podcast, revealing her thoughts on parenting and the challenges of being a judge. In the chat, she supported the idea of judges being able to work from home, and also commented that it is 'very odd' that judges are never given feedback on their work. 'I've never had an appraisal', she said. 'Imagine that. You don't get any feedback. No-one tells you if you are any good.' Judge Raeside was appointed as Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr's nominated representative on the HM Courts and Tribunal Board last year. Her work in one case was put under scrutiny in March 2019 when a High Court judge criticised the way she had decided on the care of a 14-year-old boy. Mr Justice Newton concluded Judge Raeside's hearing of the case had been 'fundamentally flawed' because she had conducted private conversations with a youth charity – without the knowledge of either parent. The boy's mother complained that the conduct of the judge was unfair, lacked transparency, and undermined the decision-making process. Mr Justice Newton concluded: 'These are serious charges against an experienced judge, endeavouring to do her very best for this boy, caused I have no doubt by the mother's extreme behaviour. 'It is, I regret to say, a matter which has caused me very considerable anxiety.' In another reported case from 2020, Judge Raeside approved a plan for a little girl who acts 'very aggressively' towards a 'doll daddy' to be withdrawn from her mother's care. Judge Raeside concluded the five-year-old girl had been alienated from her father by her mother, and referenced a psychologist report that the girl had been seen playing 'violent games' directed at a 'daddy' doll. The work of the family courts has traditionally been shrouded in secrecy, with tough reporting restrictions imposed on most cases. In the last year, the family courts have been opened up to more scrutiny, with journalists now allowed to report many of the cases, as long as parties remain anonymous to protect the welfare of the children. Sharif and Batool are both serving life sentences for Sara's murder, after being convicted at an Old Bailey trial. After criminal proceedings ended, journalists sought to report the family proceedings that had pre-dated the murder. Sara's name was mentioned in those court hearings within days of her birth in 2013. Allegations were made against Sharif by his ex-wife that he was violent and controlling, while there were concerns aired in the proceedings that children had been injured. Judge Raeside, who was involved in care proceedings between 2013 to 2015, heard the domestic abuse allegations. She has now been named alongside Judge Peter Nathan and Judge Sally Williams, who also conducted family court hearings in Sara's case. Mr Justice Williams ruled in December last year that the media could not name the judges, in a judgment that included a string of attacks on the integrity of journalists. A collection of media organisations challenged that decision on open justice grounds, and Sir Geoffrey Vos, sitting in the Court of Appeal, said the High Court judge had got 'carried away' and 'undoubtedly behaved unfairly'. The Court of Appeal then overturned the ban, allowing Judge Raeside and her colleagues to be named. The court also heard that all three judges wanted 'to convey their profound shock, horror and sadness about what happened to Sara Sharif'.
