Congress splits on two war powers resolution votes

WASHINGTON — The House and Senate, in votes Thursday on ending the Iran war, came to different conclusions, but the majority of voting members of Congress said it is time to bring U.S. troops home.

The House, for the second time, formally called on President Donald Trump to end the war, approving 214-208 a nonbinding concurrent resolution (H Con Res 89) by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash.

The Senate, in an 47-49 vote, fell just short of discharging from the Foreign Relations Committee a binding joint resolution (S J Res 180) by Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., that would halt U.S. involvement in the conflict.

Despite the conflicting results, the votes indicate that political pressure on Trump to find a way out of the war is at a minimum not decreasing, as the conflict itself has flared in recent weeks and may widen further.

—CQ-Roll Call

Santa Monica implements AI-powered cameras to target motorists blocking bike lanes

Artificial intelligence cams are now employed to catch bike lane violators in Santa Monica.

The Automated Bike Lane Enforcement system, the first in California, uses AI technology to target motorists who illegally park or stop in the nearly 40 miles of bike lanes that run along the beach and throughout the city.

Trevor Thomas, senior transportation planner with the city of Santa Monica, said the city’s goal is to use the technology to create a safer city for its residents.

Hayden AI, the software manufacturer behind the tech, created an artificial intelligence network that has recorded all of the city’s bike lanes. The program is specific to the city of Santa Monica and will only be enforced within city limits.

—Los Angeles Times

Formerly endangered ospreys bounce back in record numbers in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania may now have more ospreys than in pre-Colonial times, according to a biologist with the Pennsylvania Game Commission.

Osprey nest reports have increased 37-fold since the 1980s, according to surveys for the third Pennsylvania Bird Atlas. Unlike bald eagles, which glide as they fish, ospreys hover over the water, then dive, punching through the water’s surface.

Also known as a fish hawk, the brown and white raptors with dark wrist patches are almost 2 feet long and have a wingspan approaching 6 feet.

This spring, a local nature photographer was surprised to see an osprey defending its nest on a platform near a water tower in Sharpsburg. Steve Gosser of McCandless was looking for a fish crow when he came upon an osprey waiting for its mate to return to the nest.

—Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Many quake deaths may have been avoidable, report says, faulting Venezuela’s response

Many of the more than 5,000 people killed in Venezuela’s devastating twin earthquakes might have survived had authorities mounted a professional emergency response during the critical first 72 hours after the disaster, according to a new report that sharply criticizes the government’s handling of the crisis.

Released Thursday, exactly one month after the June 24 earthquakes struck Venezuela’s northern coast, the report argues that years of neglected emergency preparedness, the militarization of disaster response and the deterioration of the country’s civil protection system transformed a natural disaster into a far deadlier humanitarian catastrophe.

The report, prepared by the Washington-based advocacy group Miranda Center for Democracy, comes as authorities announced late Wednesday that the official death toll had climbed to 5,398, with 16,740 injured, 6,462 people rescued, 17,907 left homeless and 23,335 still living in 107 temporary camps.

Officials also said the earthquakes destroyed 190 buildings and severely damaged 856 others.

—Miami Herald