Tag: oregon

The first humanoid robot factory is about to open

A factory planning to pump out 10,000 two-legged robots a year is taking shape in Salem, Oregon — the better to help Amazon and other giant companies with dangerous hauling, lifting and moving.

Why it matters: Agility Robotics says that its RoboFab manufacturing facility will be the first to mass-produce humanoid robots, which could be nimbler and more versatile than their existing industrial counterparts.

  • China seems to think so: Beijing recently announced a goal of mass-producing humanoid robots by 2025.

Driving the news: Agility Robotics, which makes a bot named Digit that’s being tested by Amazon, plans to open RoboFab early next year, inaugurating what CEO Damion Shelton calls “the world’s first purpose-built humanoid robot factory.”

  • “We’ve placed a very high priority on just getting robots out there as fast as possible,” Shelton, who’s also a co-founder, tells Axios.
  • “Our big plan is that we want to get to general-purpose humanoids as soon as we can.”
  • There’s a growing backlog of orders for Digit, which the company says is the first commercially available human-shaped robot designed for warehouse work.

Where it stands: Agility has produced about 100 robots since its founding in 2016, and plans to move Digit production from its Tangent, Oregon headquarters to the more spacious 70,000-square-foot RoboFab facility in the coming months.

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Oregon Democratic candidate vows to ‘reclaim her sexuality’ after footage of her working as a $500-per-hour dominatrix at Manhattan BDSM dungeon was leaked, leaving her ‘hyperventilating and crying’

A Democratic Congressional Candidate is ‘reclaiming her sexuality’ after a clip of her working at a Manhattan BDSM dungeon was leaked.

Courtney Casgraux, 41, is a self-described ‘international businesswoman’ who is running for a seat in the United States House of Representatives for Oregon‘s first district.

The single mother of a teenage son was exposed in a video leaked on Reddit for working as a dominatrix in Manhattan during hers 20s and 30s. 

Casgraux would charge clients $500 for playing the dominant role in BDSM activities.

The California native returned to the BDSM industry when she began working at Donatella’s Dungeon – a hidden S&M club in Midtown Manhattan, The New York Post reported.

She launched her campaign to represent Portland‘s western suburbs on June 7 – a few months later she discovered provocative footage of her working as a BDSM dominatrix had been leaked to the public on Reddit.

The bombshell August 31 leak shocked Casgraux and left her in a state of panic: ‘I was like, “Who did this?” and I just started calling every single person that I pretty much knew from my past … I was like hyperventilating, crying,’ she said.

She described the upsetting moment she saw the video: ‘My heart just kind of sinked in and I went psycho.’

The political candidate never discovered who exposed her in the Reddit post – she thinks that whoever is responsible was attempting to ‘shame’ her.

‘To shame me for something that helped create the life that I have today where I have opportunity … made me really mad. Because it felt like an attack on women, not just an attack on me,’ she said.

She is now reclaiming her sexuality – starting with a Playboy campaign collaboration.

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Oregon Is Removing a Requirement for High School Students to Show ‘Essential Skills’ Before Graduating

Last week, the Oregon Department of Education unanimously voted to remove a requirement for Oregon high schoolers to demonstrate basic mastery in reading, writing, and mathematics in order to graduate. The requirement, which was most often met using students’ standardized test results, has been paused since 2020.

According to state documents, the “Assessment of Essential Skills” benchmark is typically met when a student meets a cutoff score in a statewide standardized test, though alternatives can be used for students who opt out of the test, such as samples of classroom work or scores from other tests like the SAT or ACT.

While score cutoffs have been unavailable since the pause in 2020, a state guide from the 2016-2017 school year lists the cutoff for one popular test, the Smarter Balanced test, which student take in their 11th grade year, as a score of 2515 for reading and 2543 for math. Based on score percentile data from 2017-2018, assessments would put those scores roughly in the 25th and 45th percentiles respectively (assuming no major changes in student performance over one year). 

While the math cutoff in particular might seem high, both ranges would barely put test takers just a few points into the “Level 2” range in Smarter Balanced’s 4-level scoring range. Level 2 scores are defined by the testing organization as meaning that a student has a “partial understanding of and ability to apply the knowledge and skills associated with college content readiness,” adding that a student in this level would need “support” to be ready for college.

While not every high school graduate can or should go to college, if a high school student can’t even demonstrate “partial” understanding of the subject matter of their classes, letting them continue on to their senior year and graduate high school without additional intervention is clearly irresponsible.

However, critics have framed the extra remediation many low-performing Oregon students receive as damaging. Department of Education officials opposed the policy in part because “higher rates of students of color, students learning English as a second language and students with disabilities ended up having to take intensive senior-year writing and math classes,” extra remediation that “denied those students the opportunity to take an elective,” according to The Oregonian. 

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Trans-identified male violently beats female student in Oregon middle school

A young female student was violently beaten by a trans-identified male in the hallway of an Oregon public school.

The shocking incident occurred at Hazelbrook Middle School in the Tigard Tualatin School District, which is right outside of Portland, Oregon.

The brutal beatdown captured on video shows the trans-identified student, a biological male, throwing multiple blows to the female student’s head after he violently grabbed her hair, yanked her back and forth, then knocked her down flat in the school hallway.

As the girl lay on the ground, he viscously grabbed her by the hair, dragging the girl across the ground before violently assaulting her further.

“I didn’t do anything! I didn’t do anything!” the victim can be heard pleading to the trans attacker, according to the video.

“Touch me again, b-tch,” the trans student threatened before walking away.

The female student stands up and walks over to the person filming the incident in tears and says, “I can’t breathe.”

The victim’s mother posted about her daughter’s “horrific” attack on social media, demanding answers from the school and threatening legal action against the trans attacker.

“Yesterday my daughter was attacked at school by a biological male student dressed as a girl. I cannot even put into words my anger at the situation after watching this horrific video nor my distraught knowing I can’t do anything because I will ultimately, end up in jail. To the school- Where were the supervisors? Why wasn’t anyone present in the hallways? I don’t want excuses, I want answers. Of course, the coward that he is fled after putting hands on her,” the mother said.

“HIS name is, [omitted] and as of right now the police cannot find him. We WILL be pressing charges. I want everyone to see this video. I want everyone to share this video. Assaulting someone is never ok BUT a boy/man should NEVER lay hands on a girl/woman and that’s on the parents for not raising a decent human being. Clearly, [omitted] isn’t a human of good values or morals,” she continued.

“In fact, he doesn’t seem like a good human being at all. He is known for being a bully and has done this to several girls. He is clearly, targeting females. [Omitted], if you see this just know we are coming for you and we will not stop until you are punished in the court of law to the furthest extent. You will NOT get away with this,” the mother said.

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Oregon’s Drug Problems Were Not Caused by Decriminalization

Three years ago, 58 percent of Oregon voters approved Measure 110, a groundbreaking ballot initiative that eliminated criminal penalties for low-level possession of illegal drugs. Last week, a group called the Coalition to Fix and Improve Ballot Measure 110 proposed two versions of an initiative aimed at reversing that reform, and recent polling suggests most Oregonians are open to the idea.

There are two main reasons for that reversal of public opinion, neither of which goes to the heart of the moral and practical case for decriminalization. Oregonians are understandably troubled by the nuisances associated with public drug use, and they are dismayed that, despite Measure 110’s promise of more funding for treatment, opioid-related deaths have continued to increase.

The main idea behind Measure 110 was that consuming politically disfavored intoxicants should not be treated as a crime. Since drug use itself violates no one’s rights, it is hard to argue with that premise.

Eliminating criminal penalties for drug possession, however, does not require tolerating conduct that offends, incommodes, or alarms people who have an equal right to use sidewalks, parks, and other taxpayer-funded facilities. That problem—which many major cities face, regardless of whether they routinely arrest people for drug possession—is distinct from drug use per se, just as disorderly alcohol-related conduct is distinct from drinking per se.

The alcohol comparison is instructive in another way. Even during Prohibition, which banned the production and distribution of “intoxicating liquors,” drinking was not a crime. The situation created by Measure 110 is analogous, with all the dangers that criminalizing the drug supply entails.

Just as alcohol prohibition exposed drinkers to the potentially deadly hazards of bootleg booze, drug prohibition forces users to rely on black-market products of uncertain provenance and composition. Measure 110 did nothing to address that problem, which has led to record numbers of drug-related deaths across the country.

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Bloodthirsty female kingpins of nationwide sex trafficking ring circulated videos showing brutal torture of rivals

The depraved ringleaders of a Queens-based, nationwide sex-trafficking and prostitution ring with “significant” ties to “China” posed for cheery selfies hours after a victim they targeted was “viciously beaten by a rolling pin,” prosecutors said.

The doe-eyed duo —  manager Yuan Yuan Chen and her boss Rong Rong Xu —  were part of a Flushing-based sex ring that extended all the way to Oregon and included hundreds of sex workers, most of whom were migrants from China forced to hand over their passports, according to U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace.

Prosecutors said both women made numerous trips from Flushing’s Chinatown to China.

Yuan Yuan Chen, 30, was indicted on September 15 after Xu, 31, was arrested last year.

The selfie they took together — just hours after allegedly siccing enforcers on rival sex workers at a Kansas hotel in 2020 — was included in paperwork prosecutors filed to deny Chen bail

In “complete disregard for the victim,” the two women “posed for nearly a dozen ‘selfies,’  smiling and having fun, hours after the victim . . . had been viciously beaten with a rolling pin,” prosecutors wrote.

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America’s First ‘Shroom Clinic’ Opens In Oregon

America’s first licensed health clinic to sell ‘magic mushrooms’ opened in June in Oregon and has been swamped with surging demand. The waitlist for the clinic exceeds 3,000 people, some of whom are searching for ways to treat depression and PTSD. 

No prescription or referral is needed for Epic Healing Eugene, but customers must be over 21 to receive psilocybin services. 

AP News said some customers complained the ‘mind-bending’ experience is too costly: 

“A client can wind up paying over $2,000, which helps cover service center expenses, a facilitator and lab-tested psilocybin. Annual licenses for service centers and growers cost $10,000, with a half-price discount for veterans.” 

Even though The Oregon Psychiatric Physicians Association opposed legalizing psilocybin in 2020, voters thought otherwise and also decriminalized the possession of hard drugs. 

Epic Healing Eugene’s owner Cathy Jonas told AP that providing legal access to mushrooms is a ‘dream come true’: 

“The plant medicines have communicated to me that I’m supposed to be doing this thing.”

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Opponents of Measure 114 gun laws say case is about “individual rights” in trial opening

In opening statements Monday, lawyers for two people suing over Oregon’s new gun laws said Ballot Measure 114′s provisions are the “most significant threat to [the right to bear arms] Oregonians have faced in nearly 165 years.”

“This case is not about public health, public safety or public concern,” plaintiffs’ attorney Tony Aiello told Judge Robert Rascio. “This is about individual rights. This is about the individual right to self defense and the right to bear arms to secure that right.”

Aiello said plaintiffs in the state trial plan to show that Measure 114, approved by voters last year, effectively limits Oregonians to owning only antique firearms. He said Measure 114 regulates firearms that were plentiful prior to 1859, the year Article I, Section 27 of the Oregon constitution — the section protecting the right to bear arms — was ratified.

The new laws would ban high capacity magazines holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition, require a completed background check to buy or transfer a firearm and require a person to take training and receive a permit to purchase a firearm. Raschio, an Oregon Circuit Court judge based in Harney County, blocked the new laws from taking effect in December pending this week’s trial.

In their opening statement, lawyers defending the new rules for the Oregon Department of Justice said the court must determine if large capacity magazines are considered “arms” under the state constitution, and thus protected, a question they said had already been resolved by the Oregon State Court of Appeals.

“The Court of Appeals rejected the idea that semiautomatic firearms are protected arms,” attorney Anit Jindal said. “Indeed, evidence at trial will confirm that large capacity magazines were not commonly used for self defense in 1859.”

In his opening statement in defense of Measure 114, Jindal said the new restrictions are a reasonable public safety response to the risk posed by large capacity magazines. They plan to call witnesses who will show how those magazines allow shooters to continue firing without reloading and have increased the lethality of mass shootings.

“Taken together, the testimony of defendant’s experts will demonstrate to the court, that large capacity magazines increase the number of firearms homicides and the frequency and fatality of mass shootings,” Jindal said.

He added that they will also show that large capacity magazines are rarely used in self defense, that the permit-to-purchase system is a reasonable public safety measure and that time restrictions in that requirement are consistent with the history of the right to bear arms.

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Oregon medical group blames Libs of TikTok after being exposed for denying woman breast cancer treatment over her gender critical views

After an Oregon breast cancer patient was dismissed from the medical practice where she was getting treatment due to her refusal to believe men are women, the medical group doubled down and backed their initial reaction, which was to ban her from the practice. 

The Richmond Family Medicine Clinic, part of OHSU, in Portland, Oregon, said that they are taking “measures to guard against harassing behavior.”

In an email obtained by The Post Millennial, the medical clinic also complained that the account from their former breast cancer patient as to how she was dismissed was shared by Libs of TikTok.

Marlene Barbera, who was set to receive a mastectomy later this month due to her breast cancer, took issue with a trans flag displayed in the office and had asked if she could be treated in a place that did not have a trans flag. In response, she was banned from the practice. Barbera has also had trouble seeking treatment elsewhere, due to her objection to trans ideology.

Barbera shared the information on her own account as well.

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‘Jealous’ transgender woman murdered three sex workers because they were ‘more attractive than she could ever plan to be’, criminologist suggests

A transgender woman who killed three sex workers in 1990 may have been motivated by jealousy, a criminologist has suggested. 

Donna Perry – who used to be known as Douglas Perry before undergoing gender reassignment surgery in 2000 – murdered 26-year-old Yolanda Sapp, 34-year-old Nickie Lowe, and 38-year-old Kathy Brisbois. 

Their naked or partially exposed bodies were found dumped on the banks of the Spokane River in Washington state. 

When finally arrested connection with the crimes five years ago, she claimed that she had transitioned into a female to stop her male persona from being violent.

‘Douglas didn’t stop, Donna stopped it,’ Perry told police about the killings, according to an affidavit filed in January 2014. ‘I’m not going to admit I killed anybody, I didn’t. Donna has killed nobody.’

When asked if Doug was responsible, she responded: ‘I don’t know if Doug did or not, it was 20 years ago and I have no idea whether he did or did not,’ according to ABC News. 

And crime expert Brian Frederick told Channel 5’s latest episode of Making a Serial Killer. which is available on My 5, that Perry may have picked the victims based on their looks. 

‘I can imagine that there was also a little bit of jealousy,’ he told the documentary.

‘He picked some attractive victims, perhaps more attractive than he could ever plan to be as Donna and he felt that they were squandering this beauty by giving sex to other men who didn’t necessarily have the purpose that he had. He was mission oriented.’

Jim Dresback, a former Spokane detective, said that Perry’s former girlfriend Claire-Anne – who was also a sex worker who suffered with cocaine addiction – may have served as motivation as well.

‘It was interesting that Claire-Anne was booked in to jail on the night that two of these people were killed,’ he told the programme.

‘Now she’s back in jail again and that makes Doug Perry mad and then he finds somebody to take out on. 

‘And the first people he’s gonna look at are the people that maybe he thinks are standing in the way.’

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