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File photo of an unpicked tomato.
Image: Toony.
Old Main street Market located in Chandler, Texas (US).
Image: Paul Budd.
File photo of an abandoned farmhouse located in Andrews, Texas.
Image: Billy Hathorn.


          • Items here are not published articles. Please be advised. They are held here as formatting examples only.--Bddpaux (talk) 19:03, 31 December 2024 (UTC)



Some citizens of the US state of Texas have expressed a range of feelings over heavy rains seen across much of the state this summer. The city of Tyler and surrounding area have seen at least eight days of rain thus far in June. This, following 4 consecutive summers where drought conditions racked much of the state's farms.

Dale Barnes manages a produce stand found at Old Main Street Market in the city of Chandler. On Saturday, he told Wikinews that many local growers have complained of recent heavy rains damaging crops by causing "rot or mildew." However, Barnes stated most farmers selling at the market are presently selling 60 - 80% of what their farms will produce for the entire season. The same day, a Tyler man said, "I'm not a farmer, but this rain has been making my yard grow so fast, I can barely keep it mowed."

Rice farmers in the southern part of the state have praised recent rainfall, reducing the heavy expense of irrigation. Lake Sam Rayburn, a reservoir upon which many Texans depend is presently full, for the first time in five years. All week central Texas farmers and ranchers have been praising above average rainfall for this time of year. Some are even expecting record crops thanks to the recent rains. Robert Fleming, a rancher in central Texas told reporters he expects his corn crop this year to be "record breaking" due to heavy rains. A representative from the Texas Farm Bureau told reporters that farmers attitudes around the state are positive. He added, "Rain will do that."


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 This article features first-hand journalism by Wikinews members. See the collaboration page for more details.
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 This article features first-hand journalism by Wikinews members. See the collaboration page for more details.


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I want to dig into this business at a later date

Sunday, December 15, 2024

California
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Image: OpenAI.

On Saturday, police said Suchir Balaji, 26, was found dead in his apartment in San Francisco, California, United States when they arrived there to conduct a "well-being check". Balaji was known as a whistleblower of the artificial intelligence company OpenAI after publicly denouncing its business practices during the development its chatbot software application ChatGPT.

San Francisco's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled his death a suicide. Police said they found no evidence of foul play.

OpenAI is an artificial intelligence company.

His death was confirmed by OpenAI. A spokesperson for the company said it was "devastated" by the news of Balaji's passing.

Balaji studied computer science at the University of California in Berkeley. He spent four years employed as a researcher for OpenAI, and left the company in August after becoming disallusioned with its business practices.

Balaji was publicly critical of OpenAI's business practices, alleging the company violated US copyright law in order to develop ChatGPT. Furthermore, he charged that ChatGPT would render many people and firms commercially unviable by utilizing their content to make improvements to OpenAI's artoficial intelligence systems.

In an October story published by the New York Times, Balaji expressed these concerns regarding OpenAI, and was quoted saying "If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company."

OpenAI was involved in legal matters relating to data-sharing, as North American news publishers filed lawsuits against the company, alleging illegal use of their articles for software training. The company argued that the software was "grounded in fair use and related international copyright principles that are fair for creators and support innovation", and defended its business practices by contending that its software models are "trained on publicly available data."

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Briefs and Shorts

Texas wildfire stuff

Thursday, February 19, 2026

File photo of a Bureau of Land Management fire fighter from 2015

On Tuesday afternoon, wildfires have swept across parts of Texas and Oklahoma, and were stretching into the US state of Kansas; officials expressed worries over the panhandle region's dry conditions, in addition to its flat topography as an exacerbating condition contributing to the spreading fires. A local news outlet Texas Standard noted dry weather and high winds as driving factors for the spread of the fire. As of Tuesday mid-day, according to a report by ABC 7 News, the affected areas included Beaver, Texas, Hartley, Potter, Oldham, Donley, Armstrong, and Lipscomb. The fires were less than 25% contained on Tuesday early afternoon, officials said.

On Saturday, Wikinews reporter checked status page at Texas A&M Forest Service Incident and noted there were four contained fires sized 428 (named "Canadian Bridge"), 275 ("Korn"), 127 ("Arbor"), and 11 ("Turquoise") acres, and two uncontained fires: one sized 18428 acres ("8 Ball") which was 40% contained, and 13500 acres ("Lavender") which was 80% contained.

The "Lavender fire" affected parts of Oldham and Potter counties, which caused a mandatory evacuation order from Amarillo authorities for the Valley de Oro area. Another, "8 Ball fire", at Donley and Armstrong, was four miles east of Goodnight, among others. Authorities in the area issued a mandatory evacuation order for Howardwick. Officials did not designate names for several other fires.

Amidst the event, on Tuesday, Xcel Energy shut power down for roughly 15,000 customers in multiple counties to decrease the risk of wildfires, which was later restored to nearly all customers on Wednesday afternoon.

Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt declared a state of emergency for Beaver, Texas, and Woodward counties.

The 8 Ball and Lavender fires have been fully contained as of Sunday, February 22.


File photo of a Bureau of Land Management fire fighter from 2015
Image: Bureau of Land Management.

On Thursday, KWTX-TV in Texas reported that Central Texas firefighters, including from Robinson, Texas, near Waco, had deployed north to the Texas Panhandle to fight wildfires. Steve Sullivan, chief of the Robinson Volunteer Fire Department, said the deployment was his department’s first through the Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System (TIFMAS). He said, "We deployed for the first time ever during the Kerrville flooding but this is Robinson Fire Department’s first wildland TIFMAS deployment, and it’s been a very interesting and active deployment for us."

The department was part of the team fighting the Lavender fire, which burned more than 18,000 acres, according to Sullivan.

More than 43,500 acres across the state have suffered damage from wildfires, which burned during much of February. Earlier in February, firefighters from East Texas deployed north to the Texas Panhandle to fight the Lavender and 8 Ball fires.


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Sources

Wikinews
Wikinews
 This article features first-hand journalism by Wikinews members. See the collaboration page for more details.
Wikinews
Wikinews
 This article features first-hand journalism by Wikinews members. See the collaboration page for more details.
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