Cascadia today: Microsoft AI helped kill in Gaza + feds ax collaborative program + the mystery of Opal Whiteley
Microsoft AI aided surveillance & targeting in Gaza
An investigative feature at the Guardian found that Redmond-based Software giant Microsoft provided its Azure AI services to Israel's military surveillance agency, Unit 8200, which used it to target Palestinians. Using Azure, Unit 8200 recorded and scanned every mobile phone call made in Gaza, and used the information for targeting attacks, the Guardian found. The reporting project was done in conjunction with +972 Magazine, also reported that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella met with Unit 8200's leader in 2021 and enthusiastically supported the surveillance program.
The Associated Press reported in May that Microsoft had provided AI to the Israeli military, but in an online statement from Microsoft claimed it had no evidence AI has been "used to target or harm people in the conflict in Gaza." In May, two Microsoft employees who led a protest against their company's involvement in the war on Gaza during the company's 50th anniversary celebration were fired. The group No Azure for Apartheid has been coordinating protests against Microsoft's involvement in the Gaza war, in which more 61,000 Palestinians (including 18,000 children) have died and where the region now faces a brutal famine.
Portland pays $3.75 million in police shooting
OPB reports that the city of Portland will pay $3.75 million to the estate of a Black man who was mistakenly shot by a Portland Police Bureau officer in 2022. The officer shot and killed Immanueal Clark after mistaking him for a suspect in a robbery. The payout is the largest settlement for a wrongful death in the city's history. In other criminal justice news, KUOW reports that the Washington Department of Corrections is being sued for inadequate care for trans inmates. And in Oregon, governor Tina Kotek is working with the legislature to expand access to public defenders, Oregon Capital Chronicle reports. The legislature increased public defense funding by nearly 15 % after more than 4,000 defendants were without legal representation across the state in May.
Trump axes program joining loggers & environmentalists
Columbia Insight reports on cuts in Trump's federal budget to the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program, a program that brought together the US Forest Service, environmentalists, and logging companies in an effort to prevent clashes between the groups like those over the spotted owl in the 1990s. Though some environmental groups and timber organization were critical of the program, Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley noted the program had widespread support across Cascadia, noting it was:
“a proven, bipartisan model that delivers healthier forests and stronger communities instead of litigation and conflict.”
The mystery of Opal Whiteley
OPB writes about early 20th century Oregon writer Opal Whiteley, who gained fame for her diary as a child prodigy, but faced criticism after many claimed the book was a fraud and written when Whiteley was an adult. A new OPB documentary suggests that Whiteley, who died in 1992 and was in mental institutions for much of her life, was on the autism spectrum.
--Andrew Engelson
