Meta pauses teen access to AI characters

Officers, not technology, stop huge drug drop into Stony prison

Stony Mountain Institution officers intercepted $1.8 million worth of drugs and other banned items Sunday in one of the largest reported seizures in recent years at Manitoba’s only federal prison.

Jake Suelzle, president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers’ prairie region, said employees spotted a drone while it delivered packages containing contraband.

“What marks this one a little bit unique is the (Correctional Service of Canada) just invested a significant amount of money into a drone detector, and this drone detector sure showed its worth when it didn’t detect at all,” he said Tuesday. “No alarm was raised when this package was dropped.”

In a news release that offered limited details, the correctional service said the items, including THC concentrate, were found in packages thanks to the “vigilance” of employees.

‘Where are they going to go?’: encampment policy blamed for homeless people sleeping outside thrift store

The owner of a Portage Avenue thrift shop says the city’s encampment ban has pushed dozens of homeless people from tent communities to spaces near her store.

Susan Lockhart, who runs Just Like New to You at 635 Portage Ave., says anywhere from 25 to 50 people can be found at any given time behind the store and along the back lane stretching between Sherbrook and Furby streets.

“Where are they going to go?” she said Wednesday from her shop. “I was just here on the weekend and I couldn’t get to our back door. There were people everywhere. Mattresses.”

Earlier this week, the city reported 275 people were known to be living in 72 encampments across Winnipeg — down from 100 encampments housing about 700 people last September. The report also noted that 141 sites have been remediated since the city’s encampment policy came into effect in November.

Meta pauses teen access to AI characters

Meta is halting teens' access to artificial intelligence characters, at least temporarily, the company said in a blog post Friday.

Meta Platforms Inc., which own Instagram and WhatsApp, said that starting in the “coming weeks,” teens will no longer be able to access AI characters “until the updated experience is ready”

This applies to anyone who gave Meta a birthday that makes them a minor, as well as “people who claim to be adults but who we suspect are teens based on our age prediction technology.”

The move comes the week before Meta — along with TikTok and Google's YouTube — is scheduled to stand trial in Los Angeles over its apps' harms to children.

Klein’s entrance adds spark to ho-hum mayoral race

Until this week, Winnipeg’s mayoral race looked less like a democratic contest and more like a coronation.

Dynacare strike set to begin before hearing into essential services agreement

Hundreds of Dynacare lab employees are expected to hit the picket line Tuesday, hours before a labour board hearing to determine whether they are essential workers.