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A boy who was kidnapped from a park in California when he was six has been reunited with his family after 70 years, The Guardian reported on the 22nd. According to the article, Luis Armando Albino was reunited with his family in Oakland for the first time in 70 years in June with the help of an online ancestor search, police, and the FBI.

Albino, who was born in Puerto Rico, was separated from his family on February 21, 1951, when he was in a park in West Oakland with his older brother Roger Albino when he was tricked by a Spanish-speaking woman who promised to buy him candy.

After being kidnapped, Albino lived as the son of a couple living in the eastern region, served in the Marines during the Vietnam War, and worked as a firefighter after his discharge. The search for Albino began in 2020 when his niece, Alida Alequin (63), took an online DNA test for fun. Alequin found out that there was a man whose test results matched 22% of his, and began investigating, thinking that he could be his kidnapped uncle, but at the time, there were no significant results. However, early this year, he reported this to the Oakland Police Department after finding an old newspaper article with Albino’s photo at the Oakland Public Library. The police later re-investigated Albino’s disappearance and confirmed that Albino was the missing boy through DNA tests on Albino and his younger sister, Alequin’s mother. On June 24, Albino visited Oakland with the assistance of the FBI and was reunited with his younger sister, Alequin’s mother, and his older brother, Roger Albino.

Roger Albino, who had been investigated by the police several times since his brother went missing, died last month, two months after finding his brother. Alequin, who played a crucial role in finding his maternal uncle, said that his maternal grandmother never gave up hope that her son was alive until he passed away in 2005, and that even though he had been missing for over 70 years, Albino was always in the hearts of his family.

The White House on the 17th denied former President Donald Trump’s remarks that the assassination attempt on him was due to the rhetoric of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, saying, “I have never incited violence in any way.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said this during a briefing that day, saying, “President Biden and Vice President Harris have always strongly condemned violence in all its forms.” Regarding the assassination attempt on him that took place at his golf course on the 15th, former President Trump said in an interview with Fox News the day before, “He believed the rhetoric of Biden and Harris,” and “he acted on that belief.”

Former President Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance, also criticized the Democratic camp’s designation of former President Trump as a “threat to democracy” in a speech he gave in Atlanta, Georgia the previous day. Vance also mentioned that no one tried to kill Democratic presidential candidate Harris. When asked about Vance’s statement that day, Spokesperson Jean-Pierre criticized, “That kind of rhetoric is dangerous.” He added, “People respect certain national leaders,” and “When you are the leader of a country, people listen to what you say.”

Meanwhile, the White House announced that Vice President Harris also spoke with former President Trump that afternoon, following President Biden. The White House reported that in a “brief and polite” call, Vice President Harris said she was glad that former President Trump was safe.

The final sentence has been handed down for the driver of the car that killed two high school girls in front of Oakton High School in Virginia in June 2022. The driver of the car that killed two high school girls was found guilty in April and was sentenced to four years in prison at the sentencing trial held on the 6th. The driver of the car that was hit was Usman Shahid, who was 18 years old at the time, and was driving 81 miles per hour in a 35-mph zone when he struck the sidewalk.

This killed 15-year-old Leeyan Hanjia Yan and 14-year-old Ada Gabriela Martinez Nolasco, both students at Oakton High School, and injured another student. The jury recommended a sentence of four years, and the judge could have sentenced him to a maximum of four years or a reduced sentence, but he followed the recommendation and sentenced him to four years. He was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release.

The victim’s family said, “We respect the court’s decision, but we don’t know if four years is enough,” adding, “We’ve been living a life of hell every day since the accident.” Ahn Yang’s mother said, “I allowed my friends to go to the nearby IHOP to celebrate the end of the semester on the day of the accident… I even moved closer to the school so that I could walk to school… Every night when I go to bed, tears run down my face,” expressing irreversible regret and pain.

Meanwhile, the defence attorney emphasized that he was a minor with no criminal record and argued, “He wanted to show off his new car like any other 18-year-old boy,” but added, “He has been punished and continues to be punished and will have to live with it for the rest of his life.”

The final sentence was handed down two years after the accident, but the victim’s family said they plan to file another lawsuit.

While the details have not been disclosed yet, the family said, “There is no way to avoid it. There is no place to go, no place to hide, no one to talk to, and no medicine to take,” adding, “This is why we live in hell.”

Police are investigating a series of “smash and grab” incidents overnight in the Washington area, including Fairfax and Montgomery counties, in which thieves broke into businesses’ windows and made off with items in a matter of seconds.

According to police, at least 10 businesses were damaged beginning around 1 a.m. on the 27th in northwest Washington, D.C., Montgomery County, Maryland, and Fairfax County, Virginia. In Fairfax County, a nail salon and waxing business were robbed at Tysons Shopping Centre around 5 a.m. The suspects were seen arriving in a black BMW with no license plates.

In Montgomery County, a Japanese restaurant, nail salon, waxing shop, gas station, deli, and pharmacy located in the Echo Glen Shopping Centre in Bethesda suffered considerable damage, including broken windows and theft of cash. In Washington, D.C., another waxing shop, Thai restaurant, and nail salon located on Connecticut Avenue Northwest were robbed by two thieves.

CCTV obtained by the police shows that there were two or three thieves involved, but it is not yet confirmed whether all the crimes were committed by the same thieves. Prior to this incident, on June 25, a mixed group of six men and women entered the Chanel store, a luxury goods store in Tysons Galleria department store, wearing masks, sprayed fire extinguisher on the security guard, and then quickly stole the store’s merchandise and ran away.

Construction of Virginia Tech’s Potomac Yards Campus in Northern Virginia is nearing completion, and it is expected to begin full-scale operation, including accepting new students, as early as next year.

According to local media outlet ‘alxnow,’ the first building of Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus located in Potomac Yards is almost complete, and classes will begin for students starting in January next year.

The building, dubbed ‘Innovation Campus Academic Building One,’ is an 11-story, 300,000-square-foot building on a 3.5-acre campus site, with two additional 150,000-square-foot campus buildings to be built in the future. The building will house classes, research, laboratories, offices, and support spaces for graduate programs in computer science and computer engineering.

“The Potomac Yards campus will be a steppingstone for growth in the Washington area tech ecosystem,” school officials said. “It’s very important because it’s close to relevant companies and the federal government, and it’s a great opportunity for the school to grow.” Meanwhile, the school is located near the Potomac Yards-VT Metrorail station, Reagan National Airport, and Amazon’s North American headquarters.

CEO Starbucks, the world’s largest coffee chain headquartered in Seattle, announced on the 13th that it has appointed Brian Niccol, CEO of American fast-food chain Chipotle Mexican Grill, as its next CEO and executive chairman of the board. CEO Laxman Niccol, who had been

leading Starbucks since March of last year, stepped down from his position along with the announcement of the new CEO, taking responsibility for poor performance.

Starbucks has been struggling this year due to high prices and boycotts, with sales declining. Starbucks was hit hard by the boycott

movement when allegations spread that it supported Israel in the Gaza War that broke out in October of last year and provided funding to the Israeli government and military.

Since CEO Niccol took office in March of last year, Starbucks’ stock price has fallen by more than 20% as of the previous day. During this period, the U.S. stock market has been bullish.

New CEO Niccol is evaluated to have successfully led management innovation since leading Chipotle in 2018. During his tenure as CEO, Chipotle’s profits increased by about sevenfold and the stock price rose by about 800%, Starbucks said.

“Brian’s incredible track record speaks for itself,” said current Starbucks Chairwoman Mellody Hobson. “He is a culture communicator with a wealth of experience and a proven track record of driving innovation and growth.”

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz also said, “I have long admired Brian’s leadership,” and “I believe he is the leader Starbucks needs at this turning point. I respect and fully support him.”

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) previously reported that activist hedge funds Elliott Management (hereinafter Elliott) and Starboard Value recently acquired shares in Starbucks and demanded management innovation to support the stock price.

However, Chairwoman Hobson told the WSJ that the appointment of Nicole as CEO did not reflect discussions with activist investors.

An anti-nuclear billboard recently erected at a Tacoma intersection is drawing attention from pedestrians, but reactions are mixed, KOMO News reports. The

billboard, a cartoon of a bewildered boy holding an ice cream cone and surrounded by nuclear missiles, reads, “Did you know that the most heavily deployed nuclear weapons in the world are just 34 miles from here? Let’s abolish them.” The billboard,

erected by the advocacy group Global Zero Centre for Nonviolence (GZCNA) at the intersection of 6th Avenue and Stevens Street in Tacoma, is targeting the nuclear missiles stationed at the Kitsap-Banger Naval Base in Hood Canal, 34 miles away.

“We have a responsibility to eliminate the nuclear weapons because there could be an accidental missile or nuclear warhead at Bangor Base, and if Bangor Base is targeted in a nuclear war, our residents would be killed,” GZCNA’s Glenn Milner told KOMO News.

But one resident said, “We have to use nuclear weapons to survive a nuclear war. I’ve lived here my whole life, and I’ve never worried about Bangor Base nuclear weapons.” Another resident said, “That’s ridiculous. It’s not fair that other people have nuclear weapons, and we don’t.”

On the other hand, some residents supported GZCNA, saying someone should have already put up an anti-nuclear message and that more billboards like this should be on Tacoma’s streets. The group put up its first billboard last year and added four more this year: Seattle, Tacoma, Everett and Lake Forest Park.

Hyundai and Kia are being sued for allegedly collecting personal information such as drivers’ driving habits and driving data through smart connectivity applications and secretly selling it without the consent of the vehicle owners. The claim is that insurance companies that received this driver information analysed the drivers’ driving habits, such as acceleration and sudden braking, and used them to raise vehicle insurance premiums, causing damages.

According to federal court documents, a Hyundai car owner named Mark Will (who lives in Illinois) recently filed a class action lawsuit against Hyundai and Kia, claiming that he was harmed by the automakers’ actions. In the complaint filed with the Federal Court for the Central District of California on July 29, the Hyundai owner claimed that “Hyundai and Kia shared the details of the vehicle owners’ driving data applications with data trading company Verisk Analytics, which then passed them on to auto insurance companies, which ultimately used them to calculate individual insurance premiums.”

Plaintiff Mark Will bought a new Hyundai Santa Fe in 2019, and between December 2023 and April 2024, Hyundai shared data about his driving habits with Verisk, which then passed that information on to the insurance company, causing Will’s insurance premiums to increase by about $250, according to the law firm Keller Roback in Santa Barbara, which represented the lawsuit. The plaintiffs allege that Hyundai’s Blue Link and Blue Link+, and Kia’s Kia Connect, commonly referred to as “connected car” applications, were originally intended to provide emergency services and promote safe driving, but Hyundai and Kia invaded drivers’ privacy and caused economic harm, such as higher insurance premiums, by sharing their data with data trading companies without their consent.

The defendants in the class action lawsuit include Hyundai and Kia in South Korea, their U.S. subsidiaries Hyundai Motor America and Kia America, and Verisk Analytics. The plaintiffs asked the federal court to order Hyundai and Kia to share driving-related information with data companies, along with actual and punitive damages through a jury trial. In relation to this, the New York Times (NYT) pointed out this issue in early March when it reported that some automakers, including Hyundai and Kia, were making millions of dollars a year by using customer driving data through transactions with auto insurance companies.

At the time, the NYT reported that “various driving information, such as hard braking or rapid acceleration while driving, is being secretly traded from automakers including GM, Hyundai, Kia, Mitsubishi, Honda, and Acura to auto insurance companies, and most customers are unaware that they have consented to the collection of such data.” According to the newspaper, some car owners have actually experienced increased insurance premiums due to driving habits such as speeding, sudden braking, and sudden acceleration, and in some cases, their auto insurance applications have been denied due to this.

The insurance companies cited driving habit data collected from smart connected applications as the basis for such measures. When such issues were raised, GM, which provides smart connection application services such as ‘OnStar’, announced at the end of March that it would be the first automaker to end data transaction contracts with data companies such as Verisk and LexisNexis.

At the time, GM spokesperson Kevin Kelly said, “Starting March 20, OnStar smart driver customer data will no longer be shared with LexisNexis and Verisk,” and “Customer trust is our top priority, and we actively comply with applicable policies related to customer personal information.”

This summer, New Jersey residents are increasingly complaining about their electric bills skyrocketing. A Parsippany resident complained on social media, “I just got my electric bill for July and it’s a whopping $782. I can’t believe it; my house is average-sized.” Another person agreed, saying, “I’m in the same situation,” and “My electric bill, which is usually $150-$160, suddenly jumped to $495.”

The spike in electric bills is attributed to the fact that New Jersey’s major electric companies raised their rates across the board on June 1, and the record-breaking heat wave has led to a surge in electricity Saczawa PSE&G, which primarily supplies power to northern New Jersey, raised its monthly rates by 9 percent, while JCP&L, a power company in central New Jersey, raised its rates by 8.7 percent.

But even after accounting for the rate increases, customers say they are being billed excessively. Experts say that the fact that last month was much hotter than the previous year is also a reason for the surge in electricity bills. This June was the second warmest June on average in New Jersey since 1985, but last June was unusually cold.

The analysis is that the rate increases and the fact that air conditioners were running much longer than usual this summer have led to high electricity bills. “The rate increase is too much,” said one JCP&L customer, “but it seems to be because the air conditioners were on all day because of the heat.” “The biggest factor in the increase in electricity bills this summer is the hot and humid weather,” said Christopher Hoenig, a JCP&L spokesman. “In general, air conditioners consume the most electricity in homes.”

Meanwhile, in New Jersey, there is an electric bill assistance program for low-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities. Application qualifications and detailed information for each assistance program can be found on the state website (nj.gov/dca/dhcr/offices/energy.shtml).

Arlington County, Virginia, has been named the nation’s top digital county for the third year in a row.

The Centre for Digital Government and the National Association of Counties (NaCo) have been ranking cities across the country with similar populations for the 22nd year in a row based on openness of public data, citizen-centricity, collaboration with experts and businesses, security, and innovation.

According to the rankings, Arlington County has ranked first for three consecutive years among cities with populations between 150,000 and 249,999 and has reached the top spot for the seventh time in history. Stafford County, Virginia, also ranked third in the nation in this announcement.

Arlington County received particularly high marks for its integrated payment system across all county departments, innovative use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in public safety calls, and cybersecurity training for county employees.

Meanwhile, Virginia’s Fairfax County ranked 2nd nationwide among cities with a population of over 1 million, and Prince William County ranked 3rd nationwide among cities with a population of 250,000 to 499,000.