On the version of Hot off the Wire posted Jan. 30 at 6 a.m. CT:

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon-owned Ring will stop allowing police departments to request doorbell camera footage from users. In a blog post on Wednesday, Ring said it will sunset a tool that allows police to request and receive video captured by the doorbell cameras through Ring's Neighbors app. The company did not provide a reason for the change, which will be effective starting this week. Eric Kuhn, the head of Neighbors, said in the announcement that law enforcement agencies will still be able to make public posts in the Neighbors app. The update is the latest restriction Ring has made to police activity on the Neighbors app following criticism about the company’s relationship with police departments across the country.

NEW YORK (AP) — The influx of generative artificial intelligence software is transforming small businesses. Small business owners are using A.I. tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Bard and others to check grammar in emails, punch up marketing copy and research business plans. What’s more, bigger companies are developing tools specifically to help small businesses integrate A.I. into their operations in more advanced ways. For example, Microsoft’s Copilot lets users ask software to perform tasks like summarize an email or a Teams meeting, come up with key themes in a document, or draft emails in a conversational tone in Outlook.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Democratic lawmakers in Oregon have unveiled a sweeping new bill that would undo a key part of the state's first-in-the-nation drug decriminalization law. The bill would recriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs as a low-level misdemeanor. The lawmakers backing the bill say it would allow police to confiscate drugs and reduce public drug use. It would also create new diversion opportunities with the aim of steering people toward treatment instead of jail. The proposal comes as the fentanyl crisis has helped fuel growing pushback against the state's pioneering drug decriminalization law, which voters approved in 2020.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Democratic-aligned groups this week have filed campaign finance complaints against No Labels. They are hoping to crimp the centrist group's pipeline of campaign cash and force it to follow the same rules as formal political parties. For months, No Labels has stockpiled cash and diligently worked to secure ballot access for a potential third-party presidential bid. That has struck fear among allies of President Joe Biden that the effort could siphon away votes and hand the White House to Donald Trump. No Labels says the campaign finance complaints are part of a “coordinated conspiracy to subvert” the group.

Unions commanded big headlines last year, but that didn’t translate into higher membership numbers, according to government data released Tuesday. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said 10% of hourly and salaried workers were members of unions in 2023, or around 14.4 million people. That's an all-time low, and down slightly from 2022. The number of unionized workers in the private sector increased by 191,000 last year. That includes workers at auto companies, Las Vegas hotels and Hollywood studios, all of whom went through high-profile contract negotiations. But unions lost employees in the public sector, like teachers and police.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A Christian pastor says his small Ohio city would lose a beacon of light downtown if he has to close an around-the-clock ministry for homeless people and others seeking shelter. Pastor Chris Avell's Dad's Place church in the northwestern Ohio city of Bryan has drawn citations over zoning laws, fire ordinances and safety. The church filed a federal lawsuit Monday against the city, the mayor and other officials and says its right to religious freedom is at stake. Avell has pleaded not guilty to 18 criminal code violations. A lawyer for the city says officials deny treating any religious institution inappropriately.
Dozens of migrants who were rescued in August after 36 days at sea in a boat told the AP they survived without food and water and watched others die. AP originally published the story Migration-36 Days at Sea on December 18, 2023. AP correspondent Jaime Holguin reports on the story behind the story.






—The Associated Press
About this program
Host Terry Lipshetz is managing editor of the national newsroom for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the former producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate.
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