How a registry helped Minnesota reach “functional zero” in veteran homelessness

How a registry helped Minnesota reach “functional zero” in veteran homelessness.

Last week, Governor Tim Walz announced that Minnesota is the fifth state to effectively end veteran homelessness, a milestone known as “functional zero.” Functional zero does not mean veteran homelessness across the state has been eliminated, but it does mean that homelessness has become rare, brief or nonrecurring. Walz said the achievement represents years of focused work and targeted investments to support veterans and their families, such as the creation of Homeless Veteran Registry. The statewide tool identifies veterans experiencing homelessness and connects them to public services.

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Georgia election officials say an artificial intelligence agent developed by Anthropic accessed publicly available election data through the state’s Data Hub, but did not breach the state’s voter registration system or obtain individual voter records. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said his office investigated the activity after Anthropic contacted the state earlier this month to raise concerns that its Claude model accessed information on the state’s public-facing data platform. The investigation found that the agent accessed only publicly available information and nothing in restricted election systems.

A majority of K-12 schools and districts experienced a cybersecurity incident in the past year, with staffing shortages, budget constraints and gaps in artificial intelligence policies complicating efforts to protect school systems. According to a new report by the Center for Internet Security, the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center and the Consortium for School Networking, 34% of schools and districts said they experienced a cyber incident within the past year that affected day-to-day school operations — but only 66% dedicated cybersecurity staff.

OpenAI is imploring California Gov. Gavin Newsom to strengthen the state’s landmark artificial intelligence safety law. In a letter, the companies’ Head of U.S. and Canada Policy and Partnerships Chan Park called for amendments to Senate Bill 53, California’s Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act, including new requirements to monitor AI models during development, improve cybersecurity protections and report incidents involving unauthorized access to third-party systems.

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