Latest news with #Sine
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Austin Mayor says city had a good legislative session
AUSTIN (KXAN) — In a 'The Watson Wire' issued Tuesday, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson walked through what impact Texas' legislative session will have on the city. Recapping Texas' 89th Legislative Session 'There will continue to be some tension (as there always has been). We will often disagree (on so many things). And those in control of the Capitol will continue to make it harder and harder for all cities (not just Austin) to do what you, the residents, need us to do to be successful and to promote quality of life (ugh),' Watson wrote. Bills that would have had significant impact on Austin included a bill to bring Austin under state control and another that would eliminate the city's light rail. 'District of Austin' bill voted down by Texas House committee That bill to knock out light rail? Authored by former Austin City Council Member Ellen Troxclair. 'We've spent a considerable amount of time and resources over the past two legislative sessions defending this voter-approved investment in light rail primarily because a legislator who used to serve on the Austin City Council (but no longer lives in Austin) pushes it,' Watson wrote. 'Twice now, it's failed.' KXAN reached out to Rep. Troxclair's office for her response to Watson. A bill that passed in Austin's favor included one to strengthen the Austin Firefighters Retirement Fund. Watson also expressed support for several housing bills that passed, calling the topic 'a rare area of bipartisan opportunity' where Austin can lead. 'I'm really proud that Austin and many of our local housing experts have been helping to lead the statewide conversation about housing supply and affordability. Many of the tools that were first proposed and championed by the City of Austin to address housing affordability have been expanded statewide,' he said. Watson also said that he and other local leaders had productive talks with lawmakers during the session. 'Overall, Austin had a good session. There are some things we'll need to sort out and some things we aren't crazy about. But, as a general rule, hard work paid off,' he wrote. Headers in the newsletter included 'Live and Let Sine Die,' 'Sine Die with a Smile,' 'Sine Die Alone,' and 'Sine Die Another Day.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
WA lawmakers honor late state senator: ‘Bill Ramos made Washington better'
Washington lawmakers on Sunday honored the late state Sen. Bill Ramos, an Issaquah Democrat who died suddenly April 19 while running on a trail near his home. Democrats and Republicans alike remembered Ramos for his professional contributions to the state — but also for who he was as a person. Senators adopted a resolution commemorating Ramos on Sine Die, the last day of the 2025 session. Ramos' kindness, integrity and warmth made an indelible mark on his colleagues. So did his problem-solving nature and willingness to stand up for women and what's right, his peers said. Ramos was 69. He's survived by his wife, King County Council member Sarah Perry; two adult children, Maya and Max; and dog, Sadie. Ramos had served the 5th Legislative District since 2019, first as a state House representative and later in the upper chamber. State Sen. Javier Valdez, a Seattle Democrat, remembered meeting then-candidate Ramos in 2018. 'When you first meet Bill Ramos, you hear his laughter — but that smile — I mean, just so contagious about how happy he was, wherever he went,' Valdez said. 'Nothing ever could get him down. And there he was, just being Bill Ramos.' Valdez also noted that Ramos was a proud founding member of the state's Latino Democratic Caucus. Sen. Rebecca Saldaña donned a suit and tie on Sunday. She said even though the tie was a bit crooked, she didn't want to redo it because Ramos had tied it for her, a gesture that meant a lot. Saldaña, a Seattle Democrat, said that apart from Ramos' fierce loyalty and kindness, he'd become enraged by the injustices experienced by others. His lasting presence reminds lawmakers to be courageous and get their 'steps in,' she added, eliciting laughter. 'I have been honoring him by doubling down on bringing my tennis shoes here more often, and making sure that I am walking and enjoying this most beautiful place that we have called home … in Washington state, among these trees and the waters and our salmon,' she said. 'And I don't take it for granted.' Senate Vice President Pro Tempore John Lovick said he'd read a quote on a walk that morning: 'Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.' 'Senator Ramos had to be one of the kindest people I've ever met,' the Mill Creek Democrat continued. Ramos, who previously worked in the U.S. Department of Transportation, served as vice chair of the state Senate Transportation Committee. Sen. Marko Liias of Edmonds, the committee's chair, called Ramos a 'bridge builder.' He also underscored Ramos' deep love for his wife. During Liias' speech, he referenced a group of House members seated in the Senate gallery. Throughout his 18 years in the Washington state Legislature, Liias said, he'd never seen House representatives in the gallery on Sine Die. Ramos brought lawmakers together, even after his passing, Liias said. 'Bill Ramos represented the very best of us,' the Democrat continued. 'Bill Ramos made us all better, and Bill Ramos made Washington better.'
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
This Ukrainian tech company is working to beat Russia's electronic warfare without hard-wiring drones to an operator
Ukrainian company is developing technology to help drones resist Russia's electronic warfare. Sine is focused on better communication between operators and drones, including non-GPS navigation. Its swarm technology is currently being tested with the Ukrainian army, its executives said. A Ukrainian drone technology company is working to defeat Russia's intense electronic warfare, but it isn't hard-wiring them like fiber-optic drones. Top executives told Business Insider that their work aims to completely change how operators work with drones as uncrewed systems continue to dominate the battlefield. Sine develops communication platforms for uncrewed aerial vehicles operating in contested and GPS-denied environments, growing problems in modern conflicts like the war in Ukraine. It began focusing on designing solutions for drone communication challenges in 2022, and it started mass production the next year. Sine uses non-GPS navigation systems to avoid jamming, relying on time-of-flight calculations to determine location. Its products are being employed by over 50 drone makers in Ukraine, as well as some outside of the country, it said. The company's co-founder and CEO Andriy Chulyk told BI that knowing the battlefield is critical to designing technology for a war, especially when the goal is to defeat the electronic warfare capabilities of a major military power. "You should try and test different kind of things" and be connected with the Ukrainian military "to receive constant feedback," he said. Sine's data chips are as small as an SD card and designed to facilitate drone navigation to targets without satellites. Many off-the-shelf drone systems and GPS-guided munitions rely on satellite information, but drones equipped with Sine technology depend on signals from a communication module that keeps track of the drone's location in a way that is somewhat reminiscent of the pre-GPS "dead reckoning" by pilots. Sine's hardware and software tools are intended to provide reliable navigation and flight control, as well as resistance to GPS jamming. The company is also working on how to keep drones flying on radio signals even in contested environments filled with frequency jamming, electronic warfare that involves flooding frequencies with noise to disrupt signals. Chulyk and Sine's Chief Strategy Officer Andriy Zvirko said that their drone parts are self-produced and affordable, both of which are crucial to scaling up operations. When it comes to comms technologies for drones, "it's not only about price; it's about how they work," Zvirko said. "It's so hard to find a good provider. That's why we created our own because we have seen this gap on the market." Many of Sine's products are active on the battlefield, but one of its newer focuses being tested with the Ukrainian army is drone swarming, which involves using autonomy to pilot multiple drones to targets. Drone swarming isn't a new concept, but Chulyk and Zvirko said that many drone developers have different ideas of what the capabilities look like. Their vision involves an operator being able to run multiple uncrewed vehicles at once and switch to the drone they want to at a given moment. "We believe," Chulyk said, "it will make our military forces more effective because it will be possible to operate a lot of drones in the same time from one or two operators." Sine is working to achieve autonomy in drone technology, but a key challenge is the amount of data that it needs to calculate for navigation and precision. Artificial intelligence hasn't seen widespread usage on the battlefield yet, Ukraine's special drone unit Typhoon told BI this month, but such a capability could fundamentally change drone warfare and help overcome electronic warfare — the drone can continue flying on to its target even if the signal is severed. Fiber-optic drones arose as a countermeasure to electronic warfare issues but aren't seeing extensive use just yet either, at least not compared to regular FPV drones. The drones are hard-wired to the operator, ensuring a reliable connection, but they have their own cons, including potentially limited range and environmental obstacles. The benefit though is that they can't be jammed by radio frequency jammers that have complicated drone operations. Jamming has created a battlespace where drone units have to work harder and smarter to identify how the enemy is trying to sabotage their drones and how they need to adapt their systems to fly and get to their targets. It's also demanding more from industry. Read the original article on Business Insider
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Blueprint Acquires SANIL, Forging NIL Collective Force Among Rivals
On Wednesday, NIL collective operator Blueprint Sports announced that it was acquiring its competitor Student Athlete NIL (SANIL), bringing the name, image and likeness activities of 70 Division I programs—and a combined nine figures of annual NIL deal flow—under one roof. The deal establishes a formidable force in the athletic department third-party space, positioning Blueprint to expand its corporate ambitions even further. More from Paige Bueckers Uses 'Ripple Effect' to Shape Business Strategy Georgia, Alabama NIL Bills Could Face Legal Challenges Former NCAA Investigator Launches Athlete Arbitration Forum Blueprint and SANIL have worked off a similar business model, charging service fees for handling the logistical work of managing NIL donations to collectives and distributing funds to athletes. While Blueprint primarily served for-profit collectives in Power Four schools, SANIL focused on Group of Five institutions, many of which were organized as nonprofits. In an interview, Blueprint CEO Rob Sine told Sportico the merged company will offer distinct services for both Power Four and Group of Five schools, including new agreements with universities to serve as their NIL service agency. 'We aim to integrate every one of our 70 schools into this model moving forward,' Sine said. Wednesday's announcement comes less than seven weeks before the House v. NCAA settlement goes before a judge for final approval, paving the way for schools that opt into the agreement to pay their athletes a combined $20.5 million next year. Come July, the NCAA will allow its members to directly engage in NIL deals with athletes. In anticipation of these developments, schools across the country have been actively trying to adapt to a new financial framework, hiring athletic department 'general managers' and creating other positions more familiar to pro sports teams' front offices. Blueprint hopes to further capitalize on the demand for outside expertise to supplement its staffing changes. The Blueprint-SANIL merger serves as just the latest example of consolidation among NIL companies. In November, sports software provider Teamworks acquired Basepath, the NIL platform that had served as the backend tech apparatus for Blueprint Sprint. (Blueprint will now utilize SANIL's tech platform.) Sine noted that there had been ongoing, though intermittent, discussions between the two companies over the past six months, which commenced after SANIL founder Jason Belzer stepped down as the company's CEO last July and was succeeded by Chris Brown. As part of the merger, Brown will now become chief operating officer of Blueprint. While CEO, Belzer publicly called out Blueprint's controversial relationship with a sister nonprofit, the BPS Foundation, which enabled donors to receive tax deductions for their contributions that ultimately went to for-profit collectives. Sine, in addition to serving as CEO of Blueprint, had been the foundation's president. 'That is a business decision they made, and if they are making a profit, that is great,' Belzer told Sportico for a story published last January. 'But we don't view that as a long-term sustainable business opportunity, and if we feel something is not ethically aligned with our long-term business strategy, we are not going to engage in that business today or tomorrow.' The BPS Foundation dissolved last year after informing donors that it had received letters of inquiry from the IRS and multiple state attorneys general. According to its 2023 tax return, the foundation paid Blueprint Sports a seven-figure service fee that fiscal year. Sine suggested the acquisition might not have occurred if not for SANIL's leadership change, noting differences in strategy with Belzer. 'The former CEO had done a good job of establishing the company, but he and I didn't see eye-to-eye on everything,' Sine said. Belzer, aside from being a shareholder, will not have a role in Blueprint. Despite earlier reservations, Belzer expressed support for the union when reached by phone Wednesday. 'There are no entities that have done more true NIL deals than SANIL and Blueprint,' Belzer said. 'It only makes sense to bring them together to give the best offerings and best data.' He said the 'ultimate goal' for Blueprint now is to fully capture every NIL dollar that isn't flowing directly through a school—and that it was primed to do this. Blueprint remains in acquisition mode, with Sine stating, 'We're looking for key pieces of data and services.' Left to be seen is how this merger stirs the rest of the college sports marketing industry, including multimedia rights (MMR) companies like Learfield and Playfly. 'In a perfect world, I want to be complementary,' said Sine. 'But [the merger] also creates new waves of selling and generating revenues. We understand how to do corporate sponsorships for athletes, which we think is different from [MMR companies] traditionally selling (school) marks.'(This story has been updated in the first paragraph to summarize the total market share for the combined entity.) Best of MLS Franchise Valuations Ranking List: From LAFC to CF Montréal Tennis Prize Money Tracker: Which Player Has Earned the Most in 2025? Who Is Josh Harris, the Washington Commanders' Owner? Sign in to access your portfolio
