Latest news with #Toma
Sunday World
05-07-2025
- Sunday World
Sacked car wash worker stabbed his ex-employer while attempting to break into his home
George Toma (47) pleads guilty to stabbing Mircea Maties and and his nephew Darius Maties in Co. Roscommon. A sacked car wash worker stabbed his former employer and his nephew after attempting to enter their home through an upstairs window, Roscommon Circuit Court has heard. George Toma of no fixed abode pleaded guilty to trespassing with a knife, burglary, production of an article capable of inflicting serious injury, and assault causing harm to Mircea Maties and Darius Maties. The court heard that Toma was having financial issues in his native Romania when he was hired by Mircea Maties to work at his car wash business in Brackernagh, Ballinasloe, Co Galway. He was initially housed in an apartment with another employee and began working at Crystal Clean Car Wash. He received a €1,000 loan to help his financial situation, which he paid back in €100 deductions from his weekly wages. On December 10, 2024, Mercia Maties terminated Toma's employment after becoming suspicious that Toma was stealing from the business while he was away. Mr Maties said that the number of cars being washed did not correspond with the records kept on the premises and that the CCTV had been turned off. Later that day at 7.20pm Toma broke the lock and gained access to the premises and slept the night there. Toma charged his phone overnight before leaving at 7am the following morning with a knife he took from the premises. Roscommon Courthouse Today's News in 90 Seconds - July 5th On December 15, Toma gained access to 9 Gleann Ard, Ballaghaderreen - a property maintained and managed by Mr Mercia Maties for a Dublin-based company - and took a two-metre ladder from the premises. At approximately 4am that morning, the 47-year-old used the ladder to climb up to an upstairs window of Mercia Maties' home at 7 Gleann Ard, Ballaghaderreen. Darius Maties, a nephew of Mercia Maties, woke to the sound of Toma attempting to pry open the window. Mercia Maties, his wife and seven-year-old daughter were also in the house at the time. Recognising Toma, Darius Maties screamed and told his uncle that Toma was outside his bedroom window. Mercia Maties went downstairs and retrieved a baseball bat as Toma attempted to enter through the window. Upon seeing Toma, Mercia Maties shouted at Toma, who fell off the ladder and landed on the ground in front of the patio window. Mercia Maties went downstairs and saw Toma moaning on the ground and went to check on him. Toma then drove a knife at Mercia Maties, stabbing him in the chest through his t-shirt. He told his nephew to get back into the house before Toma attempted to enter the house via the patio door. Toma managed to get part of his body inside the patio door and began swinging the knife. Darius Maties was stabbed in the shoulder during the exchange before they forced Toma out of the room. Toma then left the scene. Merica Maties' wife called the emergency services and both men were conveyed to hospital via ambulance. Merica Maties required stitches for his wounds while Darius Maties was left with a minor scar at the top of his arm. They were released from hospital the following day. When cautioned before being arrested at Pound Street, Ballaghaderreen, at approximately 8pm that evening, Toma said: 'Problem with boss, no money for me.' He was conveyed to Castlerea Garda Station where he was interviewed twice. He cooperated fully with gardaí. During his interview, Toma claimed he had gone to the house to retrieve €10 of stolen jewellery and cash he claimed he was owed by Mercia Maties. He maintained that Mercia Maties had exploited him during his employment and that he stabbed him accidentally on the night he attempted to enter his house. Toma later pleaded guilty to all charges on June 18, 2025. He has no previous convictions and had been living in Ireland for approximately six months at the time of his offences. The court heard that Toma has a wife and child living in Romania and had been sending money to them while employed by Mercia Maties. In a victim impact statement read to the court, Mercia Maties said he lived in constant fear that his attacker would return to the house since the event. A separate victim impact statement from his wife heard that she had been diagnosed with post traumatic stressed disorder since the incident. Darius Maties said he had experienced persistent fear anxiety and difficulty sleeping since the incident. He has been prescribed diazepam to treat his stress and has experienced memory lapses and had difficulty concentrating. Defending barrister Mr Rob Lowe, BL, said his client was the father of an eight-year-old child with a good work ethic and said he intended to return to Romania. Judge Kenneth Connolly remanded Toma in custody to appear before Longford District Court on July 30 for sentencing.
Axios
26-06-2025
- Health
- Axios
California LGBTQ+ youth lose suicide hotline support
The Trump administration is removing suicide counselors for LGBTQ+ youth from the 988 crisis hotline. Why it matters: Those kids already face barriers to mental health care in California. President Trump is targeting a group that is more than four times as likely than its peers to attempt suicide. Driving the news: Starting July 17, callers will no longer be connected to the Trevor Project 's specialized hotline, because the service ran out of congressionally directed funding, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. The hotline's general services will remain available. What they're saying: "This is devastating, and we fear there will be compounding consequences. It is intentionally cruel for this to happen during Pride month," said Lance Toma, CEO of the San Francisco Community Health Center. Zoom in: The San Francisco metro area is home to the highest concentration of LGBTQ+ people in the U.S., per 2021 Williams Institute estimates. Stunning stat: 35% of LGBTQ+ young people in California, including 39% of transgender and nonbinary youth, seriously considered suicide in the past year, according to a 2024 survey by The Trevor Project. Both figures are slightly lower than the nationwide statistics. Between the lines: As some providers scale back services for LGBTQ+ youth, Toma told Axios that his organization will continue to provide gender-affirming medical care, case management and mental health services through their drop-in clinic TransThrive, and housing support via the Taimon Booton Navigation Center. "Right now, LGBTQ+ youth need to know they are not alone. They belong. And we are fighting for them," Toma said. State of play: California lands near the middle of the pack when it comes to using 988, which launched in 2022 to help address America's mental health crisis. By the numbers: California saw a rate of 25.5 contacts per 1,000 people last year, making it the 21st-highest in the nation, per new research published in JAMA Network Open. The national average was 23.7. Alaska (45.3) and Vermont (40.2) had the highest 988 contact rates among states in 2024, while Delaware (12.5) and Alabama (14.4) had the lowest.
Chicago Tribune
20-06-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
‘Pretty remarkable': West Aurora's Zach Toma is the 2025 Beacon-News/Courier-News Baseball Player of the Year
One day can change your life. West Aurora pitcher Zach Toma found that out on April 3. When he woke up that sunny morning, the junior left-hander knew that he would be on the mound. But he had no idea what was in store for him — and what was in store for his opponent. Toma ended up with 20 strikeouts in a stunning no-hitter for a 9-0 win over Joliet Central, and suddenly, people outside of the Blackhawks' program were talking about the talk of the town. 'It got posted on Prep Baseball Report, I was the player of the week, and after that, things started to roll in for me,' Toma said. 'They invited me to all-state games and that will do a lot for me.' Especially after Toma, the 2025 Beacon-News/Courier-News Baseball Player of the Year, struck out the first 15 batters of the game. That performance shocked everyone in attendance. The only thing preventing Toma's effort from being a perfect game was a dropped third strike on the second-to-last batter. It even prompted a phone call to former coach Dave Rowell. 'Pretty remarkable,' West Aurora coach John Reeves said. 'I called (Rowell) and said, 'Did you ever see anything like that?' He had some pitchers that were drafted, but that's pretty remarkable. '(Toma) was like, 'Why aren't they hitting the ball?' I said, 'Just keep executing your pitches.' He got noticed then. We knew what kind of player he was. At that point, people knew who he was.' But Toma still was taken aback as the game unfolded. 'I've had games like that where I'll strike out the first six guys,' Toma said. 'It got to a point where it kept going. Everything was working for me. It almost felt like it was fake for a little bit.' Toma rolled that momentum into a dominant season, both on the mound and with the bat. Besides going 7-2 with 99 strikeouts and a 1.07 ERA in 65 1/3 innings for West Aurora (27-7). Toma also was a force in the middle of the order, batting .459 with six homers and 46 RBIs. As a pitcher, he only allowed 35 hits and 16 walks. At the plate, he also scored 33 runs and added 10 doubles. His RBI total came up only two shy of the program's single-season record. 'He put in the hard work in the offseason,' Reeves said of Toma. 'He played football, which I think playing another sport is helpful. When he came back over the summer, he got taller and thicker. Once football was done, he was in the weight room. 'We even thought he could have been better. For us, we're excited about next year, what he can bring to the table as a senior, learning the game more, understanding how to pitch better and just maturing as a player.' Bartlett coach Alex Coan has been on the other end of Toma's game and came away impressed. 'He's by far one of the best pitchers in the state,' Coan said. 'I will go to war for that on. Locates well, mixes it up really well.' College interest started to ramp up for Toma after the no-hitter, with several schools making contact. The only question now remains — hitting or pitching? 'I would love to go to college and hit,' he said. 'I love hitting. I've always been a good pitcher. I worked hard and it showed with the bat. If I could go two-way, that would be the dream.' The attention only figures to increase this summer with his new travel team, Top Tier West. An extensive travel schedule and a star-studded roster figure to bring plenty of attention his way. 'It's a lot of driving, but I think it's worth the amount of attention we're getting,' Toma said. 'The nerves are there. They've always been there. I'm very excited, especially with the new team. 'I have to work harder to get seen more. It's that feeling of I have to be better and I have to work hard to make myself look good in front of these college coaches.'
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Toma's AI voice agents have taken off at car dealerships – and attracted funding from a16z
When Monik Pamecha co-founded AI voice startup Toma in early 2024, he hadn't anticipated spending the summer months sweating in Bible Belt car dealerships. He and co-founder Anthony Krivonos were still focused on banking and healthcare customers when the dealers came knocking. 'They just called us up and said 'we are drowning in phone calls,'' Pamecha described that initial contact in an interview with TechCrunch. Seeing an opportunity to pivot into a far less-regulated space than banking or healthcare, Pamecha and Krivonos set up a test: They decided to have their voice agent call essentially every car dealership in the country multiple times. Over the span of a few weeks they found those calls were only picked up 45% of the time. The co-founders packed their bags. And like some sort of modern reinterpretation of the movie Tommy Boy, they set out to tour a dozen car dealerships in Oklahoma and Mississippi to get a better understanding of how these businesses work. They got their hands dirty both figuratively and literally; Pamecha said his wife was surprised by the grease stains on his clothes when he returned home. That commitment paid off. Not only did they win customers, they got the dealers' full charm offensive. The founders shared home-cooked meals – a sometimes awkward-but-funny affair given Pamecha's vegetarianism, he said – and were invited to tour the Corvette Museum. At least one dealer even asked the Toma founders to tag along to a shooting range. Seema Amble, a partner at a16z who led the $17 million that Toma has raised to date, said the pair were 'effectively living at these dealerships, going to these dealers' family barbecues, really understanding how they operate.' 'We invest in a lot of the next-generation of vertical AI companies, a lot of the best founders have just lived and breathed with these customers to understand what's going on under the hood,' she told TechCrunch. 'No pun intended.' The insights from that trip helped Pamecha and Krivonos sharpen the Toma voice agent into a tool that is already in use at more than 100 dealerships around the country. The AI helps customers schedule service appointments, handle parts orders, answer sales questions, and more. Along with a16z, Pamecha and Krivonos attracted investment from Y Combinator (they created Toma at YC in January 2024), the Scale Angels fund, and auto industry influencer Yossi Levi, also known as the Car Dealership Guy. Levi told TechCrunch that dealerships struggle with phone calls in part because it's hard to predict volume. 'It ebbs and flows. Sometimes you're overwhelmed with demand. Other times there's not enough demand, and matching staffing and properly training that staff for a consistent experience is just not an easy thing to do,' Levi said. AI has 'provided an opportunity for dealers to really standardize that process, and deliver a richer customer experience that is consistent.' Pamecha said Toma's onboarding process involves training on a dealers' customer calls for a week or two to give the AI some context. This is important because while dealerships broadly do the same things, there can be a lot of variance in the details. Some dealers might service more diesel engines, for example. Dealerships also run lots of custom promotions for both sales and service. After that initial burst of training, the Toma AI starts taking calls, handing off to human employees if and when it gets stumped. Those handoff calls get analyzed, too, in order to reinforce the AI model to better help that specific dealership. On the business side, Toma operates a subscription model. As the AI agents can handle more parts of a dealership's operations, those dealers will have to pay up for those extra capabilities. The Series A 'comes at a great time' for Toma, according to Pamecha. The startup only hired its first true sales employee within the last few weeks. Before that, it was still largely Pamecha and Krivonos hustling like they did across the country last summer. Without that trip, though, Pamecha said he's not sure Toma would have reached this point. 'It has been one of the best experiences of my life,' he said. 'I feel like we've all become friends, and I think it all comes from a place of like, feeling their pain. I think they see that we feel the pain, too.' This article originally appeared on TechCrunch at
TechCrunch
05-06-2025
- Automotive
- TechCrunch
Toma's AI voice agents have taken off at car dealerships – and attracted funding from a16z
When Monik Pamecha co-founded AI voice startup Toma in early 2024, he hadn't anticipated spending the summer months sweating in Bible Belt car dealerships. He and co-founder Anthony Krivonos were still focused on banking and healthcare customers when the dealers came knocking. 'They just called us up and said 'we are drowning in phone calls,'' Pamecha described that initial contact in an interview with TechCrunch. Seeing an opportunity to pivot into a far less-regulated space than banking or healthcare, Pamecha and Krivonos set up a test: They decided to have their voice agent call essentially every car dealership in the country multiple times. Over the span of a few weeks they found those calls were only picked up 45% of the time. The co-founders packed their bags. And like some sort of modern reinterpretation of the movie Tommy Boy, they set out to tour a dozen car dealerships in Oklahoma and Mississippi to get a better understanding of how these businesses work. They got their hands dirty both figuratively and literally; Pamecha said his wife was surprised by the grease stains on his clothes when he returned home. That commitment paid off. Not only did they win customers, they got the dealers' full charm offensive. The founders shared home-cooked meals – a sometimes awkward-but-funny affair given Pamecha's vegetarianism, he said – and were invited to tour the Corvette Museum. At least one dealer even asked the Toma founders to tag along to a shooting range. Seema Amble, a partner at a16z who led the $17 million that Toma has raised to date, said the pair were 'effectively living at these dealerships, going to these dealers' family barbecues, really understanding how they operate.' 'We invest in a lot of the next-generation of vertical AI companies, a lot of the best founders have just lived and breathed with these customers to understand what's going on under the hood,' she told TechCrunch. 'No pun intended.' Techcrunch event Save now through June 4 for TechCrunch Sessions: AI Save $300 on your ticket to TC Sessions: AI—and get 50% off a second. Hear from leaders at OpenAI, Anthropic, Khosla Ventures, and more during a full day of expert insights, hands-on workshops, and high-impact networking. These low-rate deals disappear when the doors open on June 5. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | REGISTER NOW The insights from that trip helped Pamecha and Krivonos sharpen the Toma voice agent into a tool that is already in use at more than 100 dealerships around the country. The AI helps customers schedule service appointments, handle parts orders, answer sales questions, and more. Along with a16z, Pamecha and Krivonos attracted investment from Y Combinator (they created Toma at YC in January 2024), the Scale Angels fund, and auto industry influencer Yossi Levi, also known as the Car Dealership Guy. Levi told TechCrunch that dealerships struggle with phone calls in part because it's hard to predict volume. 'It ebbs and flows. Sometimes you're overwhelmed with demand. Other times there's not enough demand, and matching staffing and properly training that staff for a consistent experience is just not an easy thing to do,' Levi said. AI has 'provided an opportunity for dealers to really standardize that process, and deliver a richer customer experience that is consistent.' Pamecha said Toma's onboarding process involves training on a dealers' customer calls for a week or two to give the AI some context. This is important because while dealerships broadly do the same things, there can be a lot of variance in the details. Some dealers might service more diesel engines, for example. Dealerships also run lots of custom promotions for both sales and service. After that initial burst of training, the Toma AI starts taking calls, handing off to human employees if and when it gets stumped. Those handoff calls get analyzed, too, in order to reinforce the AI model to better help that specific dealership. On the business side, Toma operates a subscription model. As the AI agents can handle more parts of a dealership's operations, those dealers will have to pay up for those extra capabilities. The Series A 'comes at a great time' for Toma, according to Pamecha. The startup only hired its first true sales employee within the last few weeks. Before that, it was still largely Pamecha and Krivonos hustling like they did across the country last summer. Without that trip, though, Pamecha said he's not sure Toma would have reached this point. 'It has been one of the best experiences of my life,' he said. 'I feel like we've all become friends, and I think it all comes from a place of like, feeling their pain. I think they see that we feel the pain, too.'
