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A growing number of House Democrats is warning of a government shutdown in their opposition to Sen. Joe Manchin IIIs energy plan.

Senate leaders plan to attach the West Virginia Democrats yet-to-be-released legislation to a must-pass stopgap spending measure by the end of the month to prevent the federal government from shuttering, a move that dozens of far-left members and climate hawks in the House are threatening to bat down.

Their numbers have grown in recent days from 72 to 77, underscoring the desire among Democrats to betray Mr. Manchin.

Leaders promised him that Congress would pass a bill that would streamline energy projects of all forms in exchange for his support of the partys tax and climate spending law.

The opposition is loud and only getting louder, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ral M. Grijalva said in a statement that accompanied a second letter to Democratic leaders on Monday.

Mr. Grijalva, Arizona Democrat, is leading the charge against Mr. Manchins energy plan, arguing that it would only spur more domestic fossil fuel production and undermine the $370 billion for climate action in Democrats tax and climate law.

He is demanding a standalone vote on permitting reform to let these dirty permitting provisions stand up to congressional scrutiny on their own.

I encourage leadership to listen to its caucus and keep us out of a shutdown standoff that nobody wants, Mr. Grijalva said. Now is not the time to roll the dice on a government shutdown.

It remains to be seen whether Democrats are bluffing or if they are willing to face blame for a government shutdown just weeks before the November midterm elections.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a democratic socialist who caucuses with Democrats, told reportershe is lobbying House Democrats against the proposal.

We should not be lumping the production of more fossil fuel and carbon emissions into the same agreement, he said.

Another Democratic climate hawk, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, told The Washington Times she will remain undecided until the bill text is released.

Meanwhile, Mr. Manchin reiterated that the only way energy permitting reform passes would be via a crucial piece of legislation like the stopgap spending measure.

Were all in the same mindset that permitting is extremely important. Im so tickled that theyre all in the same mindset, he said. Should be a no-brainer.

In addition to getting their own members on board, Democrats will need at least 10 Senate Republicans to keep the government open.

GOP senators released their own energy proposal Monday, beating Mr. Manchin to the punch amid frustration that Republicans have not been included at the table.

The legislation, led by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, would go several steps further than Mr. Manchins plan but also bears many similarities with it.

Mr. Manchin suggested the GOPs plan is further evidence of bipartisan support for overhauling how the countrys energy projects are approved, which often takes several years.

Ms. Capitos proposal, backed by 38 GOP senators, would give states more power over energy production within their borders, including the ability to carry out oil and natural gas projects on federal lands in their states.

It also would weaken environmental rules by instituting Trump-era regulations meant to streamline project approvals.

A significant area of overlap with Mr. Manchins plan is the inclusion of approving the stalled Mountain Valley Pipeline, a $6.6 billion natural gas project in West Virginia thats nearly completed but has faced legal hurdles for years.

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Democratic resistance to Sen. Joe Manchin energy plan grows amid threats of government shutdown - Washington Times

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Democrats are once again interfering in a GOP primary election, meddling in New Hampshire's Senate race to boost the candidate they view as easier to beat in the general election, but this time a Republican group is spending on the airwaves to offset the Democrats' gamble.

According to reports, the Sen. Chuck Schumer-aligned Senate Majority PAC is expected to spend around $3.5 million to help secure a primary win for Republican candidate Don Bolduc, who is largely viewed as the weaker general election candidate to take on Senator Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., who is seeking re-election this fall.

While the Democrats are spending big to help Bolduc, Republicans are hoping to offset the Democrats' strategy by spending millions to run ads against him to help boost his rival GOP candidate, state Senator Chuck Morse, who is viewed by many as a more competitive general election candidate for the Republicans.

DEMOCRATIC PAC POURS THOUSANDS INTO AD BOOSTING FAR-RIGHT, PRO-TRUMP CANIDIDATE IN THE LATEST MEDDLINE ATTEMPT

GOP Senate candidate and retired Army general in New Hampshire Don Bolduc. (Fox News)

"Bolduc lost his first race. He accused President Trump's team of election rigging and said no person of honor could work for Trump," reads an ad from the Sen. Mitch McConnell-linked White Mountain PAC.

"Bolduc endorsed Joe Biden's disastrous withdraw from Afghanistan and said the U. S. Should team up with the Taliban. Don Bolduc even accused Governor Sununu of being a Chinese communist sympathizer and a supporter of terrorism. Don Bolduc's crazy ideas won't help us defeat Maggie Hassan," the ad continued.

11 SENATE RACES WILL DETERMINE WHETHER DEMOCRATS OR REPUBLICANS CONTROL THE CHAMBER AFTER MIDTERM ELECTIONS

Republican Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire endorsed state Senate President Chuck Morse in the state's GOP Senate primary. (Fox News)

A different McConnell-linked group, Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) announced last week that it plans to spend $23 million in the Granite State senate race this fall.

"Maggie Hassan's weak record of rubber-stamping Joe Biden's inflationary spending and taxes has hurt Granite Staters, and they know it. This is a top-tier pickup opportunity for us, putting the Senate majority within reach," SLF President Steven Law recently told Fox News.

Democratic New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan is seeking reelection this fall. (Sen. Maggie Hassan reelection campaign)

Democrats meddling in GOP primaries is not a new strategy this cycle. Democrats have already poured tens of millions into GOP primaries to promote in many cases candidates that Democrats argue are a threat to democracy.

In May, Trump-backed Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano was boosted to victory in the state's Republican gubernatorial primary with more than $840,000 in ads run by the campaign of his now-opponent, current Democrat state Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

In July, the Democratic Governors' Association spent nearly $2 million running ads boosting Trump-backed Maryland Republican gubernatorial nominee Dan Cox, in his primary against former state lawmaker Kelly Schulz, who was backed by outgoing Republican Gov. Larry Hogan.

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New Hampshire's primary election will take place on Tuesday, September 13, 2022.

Fox News' Paul Steinhauser and Brandon Gillespie contributed to this report.

Aubrie Spady is a Freelance Production Assistant for Fox News Digital.

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Democrats meddle in another key GOP primary, but this time Republican PAC spends big to offset their effort - Fox News

Yet another prominent Republican has backed Democrat Mike Collier in the Texas Lieutenant Governor election. What are we to make of these cross-party endorsements?

DALLAS The landscape continues to shift in the race for Texas Lieutenant Governor.

"As we become more and more diverse in the state of Texas, our leadership needs to adapt to that diversity and try to represent all of the people in the state of Texas -- even the ones with whom we have philosophical disagreements," Seliger said on this week's episode of WFAA's Yall-itics podcast. "I think thats very important. Dan Patrick is an extremist."

If nothing else, Mike Collier certainly appreciates the help, acknowledging that the sudden GOP support for his candidacy is energizing his campaign all across the state.

The Democrat thinks he knows why its happening, too. He said to Y'all-itics that he thought it represented more than just some disgruntled Republicans.

"I think theyre concerned about the direction of the state," told the podcast this week. "The Lieutenant Governor has outsized influence on where we go as a state -- and we are not headed in the right place."

While significant, Senator Seligers support isnt necessarily surprising. There has been bad blood between Seliger, a Republican from Amarillo, and incumbent Texas Lt. Gov. Patrick for years.

Seliger didnt endorse the Republican incumbent for re-election in 2018, either -- although he also didnt actively support anyone else in the race. (Seliger is quick to point out that Patrick didnt endorse him that year either.)

Fast forward four years and, with Seliger retiring at the end of this year, the gloves are now off. Patricks campaign has described Seliger and Republican Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley, who also recently said hell vote for Collier and who is also retiring at the end of the year, as "dinosaurs" searching for relevance.

We invited Patrick to join us on either Yall-itics or "Inside Texas Politics" this week to expand on that statement. A spokesman for his campaign told us he was unavailable.

As for Seliger, he said hes backing Collier partly for the state of Texas and partly for the Texas Senate. He said he felt the Republican caucus in the Senate has long been working under the threat of demotion.

"In 2017, the lieutenant governor made a big pronouncement that he had 30 priorities, 30 legislative priorities," Seliger said. "No other lieutenant governor had really done something like that. I voted against two of them -- and, for that, I lost my chairmanship and I lost membership on things like the finance committee, which was a real slap in the face to the people in west Texas. And thats the way the Senate runs [under Patrick]."

The question now becomes whether these Republicans supporting a Democrat is a canary in the coal mine for the Texas GOP or just a passing fad.

Collier would have you believe it's the former. He said hes met with at least a dozen elected, Republican officials in person about supporting his election. His campaign later told us the figure was likely well over two dozen in actuality.

"Sometimes its OK to be seen walking into their office," Collier told Y'all-itics, smiling. "Sometimes we meet someplace else so that nobody can see."

Votebeat Editorial Director Jessica Huseman said the Republican endorsements for Collier actually reflect a national trend. Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization that closely follows elections and voting on a local level.

Huseman has spent a lot of time talking to Texans -- residents and politicians alike. And she told Y'all-itics that, while nothing may change this November, Texas could be looking at some shakeups in 2024 or 2026.

"We're already seeing a generational shift in Texas," Huseman said. "So, if the Republican Party is feeling like they have to move back on some of their most extreme positions right now, I think that that sort of sets the stage for a leftward movement in the state -- like slow, and comparatively not as left as other states. But, y'know, Texas can't really get any farther right."

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Republicans are lining up to endorse a Democrat in the race for Lt. Gov. Is this a canary in the coal mine for the Texas GOP? - WFAA.com

Its difficult to convince users to switch search engines. Thats one reason why public search service startups rarely succeed. Another is that its expensive to index a huge number of websites (Google has an estimated tens of billions of pages indexed), but one Y Combinator-backed company, Andi, is undeterred forging ahead to build an AI assistant that provides answers instead of links when searching online.

Andi was founded by Angela Hoover, who registered for YCs Startup School after dropping out of college and got into YCs Winter 2022 Batch. After working overseas in construction and with Microsoft as a data center project administrator, Hoover met Andis co-founder, Jed White, at the Denver airport upon her return to the U.S.

Hoover and White who had a background in AI and search, specifically content quality ranking, querying and classification talked about how bad web search had become for things like travel and what it would take to build a new type of search engine from scratch.

Gen-Z hates Google. To us, search is broken. We live on our phones in messaging apps with visual feeds like TikTok and Instagram, Hoover told TechCrunch in an email interview. Shes not conjecturing Google execs have admitted as much. I hear my friends say constantly that Google sucks. Search results are overwhelmed with ads, SEO spam and clutter. Gen-Z is so desperate for an alternative that were using TikTok as a search engine. We hate the invasive creepy ads, and how Google is Big Brother and surveils everything.

Image Credits: Andi

Hoover offers Andis AI-powered assistant as an alternative. The general-purpose system attempts to find and extract answers to questions, combining large language models akin to OpenAIs GPT-3 with live web data.

Behind the scenes, Andi extracts information from web results ranked for relevance to the question being asked as well as overall quality (although its not clear how Andi defines quality). Depending on the subject matter, the platform uses different AI systems tailored for specific verticals (e.g. factual knowledge, programming or consumer health) and language models that generate answers by combining knowledge across multiple sources (e.g. Wolfram Alpha, Forbes, The New York Times, etc.).

Its one step beyond Googles featured snippets, which pull text from webpages to answer commonly asked questions, and closer to so-called cognitive search engines such as Amazon Kendra and Microsoft SharePoint Syntex that draw on knowledge bases to cobble together answers. Startups like Hebbia, Kagi and You.com also leverage AI to return specific content from the web in response to queries as opposed to straightforward lists of results.

So what sets Andi apart? Unlike some of its competitors, Hoover claims it doesnt charge for its service nor record personally identifiable information. Andi also doesnt log and store searches or the results people read or click on, only using coarse location data to improve the relevance of search results.

Even when we add the option for user accounts in future, we will only collect and retain sufficient data to help our customers use the service effectively, when they want to create an account or be remembered between devices and sessions, and to improve the service we provide, Hoover said. Users tell us that Andi can save them 15 or 20 minutes searching, and have been asking us to let them use it with their own team and personal data As we improve the question answering tech and add support to connect to private data sources, we think this has massive potential.

Image Credits: Andi

To filter out info that might be misleading or patently untrue Hoover says that Andi uses techniques including blocklists and ranking metrics. Misinformation is an evolving issue, of course one Google itself has struggledwith. But Hoover expressed confidence in the technical steps Andi has taken to mitigate the impact.

Every other new search startup out there is making yet another weaker copy of Google with the same cluttered page of blue links targeted at a web browser, with more or less variation on ads and privacy practices, she averred. The content you see in [Andis] results is retrieved from the source live wherever possible, rather than from a stale index. The question answering is improving rapidly, and in many areas is already excellent.

In a quick experiment, I fed a couple of controversial queries into Andi and found that the search engine handled them quite adeptly, consistently pointing to factual sources. A search for Who really won the 2020 election? yielded the answer Joe Biden, while the query Are COVID-19 vaccines fake? pulled an article from Forbes debunking pandemic conspiracy theories.

Andi is still very much in alpha and intends to stay lean while it iterates based on feedback from early users, Hoover says. The startup will have tough decisions to make. As a New Yorker notes, search algorithms are susceptible to various biases, for example only prioritizing websites that use modern web technologies. They also open the door to bad actors. In 2020, Pinterest took advantage of a quirk of Googles image search algorithm to surface more of its content in Google Image searches.

As it wrestles with these issues, Andis team continues to suss out its business model. While the core service will remain free, Hoover says that Andi will eventually offer paid pro and business plans with premium features and API access, letting customers use Andis search and question-answering capabilities with paid content, personal data, and internal company and team data.

Image Credits: Andi

Paid features are probably the right route to go, considering Googles share of the global search market has held steady at more than 90% for most of the past decade. Bing trails with 3.4%, followed by Yahoo! (full disclosure: TechCrunchs parent company) at 1.34%, according to Statcounter.

To fund the development of these features and potential partnerships with alternative search engines, Andi recently raised $2.5 million, which including backing from YC, Gaingels, GoodWater Capital, K20 Fund, Acacia Venture Capital Partners, Fepo Capital and BBQ Capital, as well as a small family and friends round.

Weve kept our burn rate low, working as digital nomads out of Mexico to extend our runway, and staying frugal. Even after we add AI developers and increase our model training costs, we have well over two years of runway, Hoover said. Were using the funds to improve our proprietary generative AI for complex question answering, and the search of vertical searches and APIs tech that Andi uses to combine large language models with live data, especially: AI model development and training, adding some more AI developers to our team and hosting and inference costs as we start to grow usage once we get closer to product market fit At this early stage, were focused on making really great search that our users love, ahead of generating revenue.

Andi doesnt collect detailed metrics, but Hoover estimates that the search engine has around 5,000 users at present. Andi plans to add a full-time AI developer before the end of the year, which would bring its total headcount to three, including Hoover and White.

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Y Combinator-backed Andi taps AI to build a better search engine - TechCrunch

Employers must provide health insurance for full-time workers depending on the companys size. Did you know that some employers extend coverage to part-time workers, too? Tap or click here for 10 employers offering health insurance for people working less than 30 hours per week.

Whether youre looking for full or part-time work, the right skills will help you stand out to employers. While employment history is the first thing that comes to mind when crafting a resume, there are other, more practical strengths youll want to include.

Here are 10 skills employers look for to help you land your dream job.

Most people cant rely on a friend or family member to open the door to a job position or interview. Even if you do know someone, its not as important as what you have to offer.

LinkedIn compared the top skills professionals had in 2015 to those they have for the same jobs today. The result was a list of 20 skills found in 78% of jobs posted on LinkedIn from May 1 to July 31 worldwide.

The skills were divided into two categories: soft and hard.

Soft skills relate to how you work. Are you good with people? How well do you communicate and listen? Are you a team player, or do you work better independently?

Soft skills are difficult to measure and define. Its more of a general sense of what type of person you are and how it affects your performance. Reading the room is an essential soft skill.

No matter what you do, however, soft skills are important. Lets look at a common situation. Two people are employed at a company for roughly the same amount of time doing similar work. An opportunity for promotion comes up, and both are interviewed.

Employees with superior social skills can make a better case as to why they deserve the job. They know how to present themselves and their abilities. Theyll likely be the ones to land the new gig.

RELATED: Best gigs for seniors to make extra cash without a 9 to 5 job

Hard skills are easier to define. These are what you know and come from job experience and training. Are you good at taking dictation? Do you have experience using social media? How good are you with spreadsheets?

Hard skills can generally be measured for example, how many words per minute you can type or how proficient you are at a foreign language.

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10 skills you need to land the job you want right now - Komando