DICKINSON — The end of January marks a critical time for teams across Southwest North Dakota. Wins are starting to become premium value, and standings are starting to take shape across all sports.

South Heart @ Hettinger-Scranton — Boys Basketball — Friday, Jan. 30

The Eagles are in the middle of the pack in the District 7 standings, sitting at fifth in the conference with a 1-1 record. South Heart is coming into Friday’s contest winning its last two outings, earning its first District 7 win over New England, 69-49, and then a tight non-conference win over Trenton, 67-58.

The game against New England was a back-and-forth first half, but the Eagles took control in the final 16 minutes, outscoring the Tigers 44-24. Garett Bargmann put up 29 points, which led all players on the floor.

The Nighthawks are heading into Friday’s game dropping their last two games, with the most recent being a close 59-56 loss to Divide County. Hettinger-Scranton led at half time, 25-23, but couldn’t pull away with a win. Gavin Parnow and Aidyn Fisher had strong performances in the game, with 19 and 18 points respectively.

Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. MST at Scranton High School.

Trinity @ Killdeer — Girls Basketball — Friday, Jan. 30

The Titans and Cowboys have played some really close games in the past. But the first meeting between the two clubs was a

lopsided affair that saw the Titans escape with a 55-36

win at the Knights of Columbus Activities Center.

Now the scene will shift to Killdeer in the final contest of the season-set. The Titans have been in some extremely tight games recently and have come out on both sides of the table. Trinity narrowly defeated Shiloh Christian, 46-44, to improve to 6-2 in Region 4 play and 8-6 overall.

The Cowboys are still searching for some consistency. Killdeer is riding a two-game losing skid and has losses in four out of its last five games.

Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. MST at Killdeer High School.

Devils Lake @ Dickinson High — Girls Hockey — Saturday, Jan. 31

Jacob Cheris / The Dickinson Press

The last time these two teams met, the Mavericks won in a 2-1 overtime decision. Saturday’s contest is the back half of a back-to-back home weekend, where DHS will take on Grand Forks on Friday.

Saturday’s game is the best chance DHS has to get in the win column. The Firebirds are currently sitting in last place in the conference and don’t have a win this season. They’ve also struggled to put the puck in the back of the net, scoring just 10 goals through 13 games.

Dickinson (4-10, 1-10-2) was in a tight first period with Bismarck Century last Friday, but things once started to turn sideways in the second period, when the Patriots scored two goals on 19 shots and held DHS to three.

Puck drop is slated for 1 p.m. MST at the West River Ice Center.

Jacob Cheris covers a variety of high school and college sports. A graduate of Penn State University’s class of 2023, with a degree in broadcast journalism, he covered Penn State Men’s Hockey for three years. Jacob also covers Big Ten Hockey for College Hockey News.

BISMARCK, N.D. (North Dakota Monitor) – A committee has forwarded six candidates to Gov. Kelly Armstrong to be the next justice of the North Dakota Supreme Court.

The court seeks a replacement for Justice Daniel Crothers, who announced late last year his plans to retire in February after 20 years on the bench.

The six contenders are:

• Philip Axt, a Bismarck resident and solicitor general for the North Dakota Attorney General’s Office
• Mark Friese, a Fargo defense attorney
• Michael Hurly, a judge for Northeast Judicial District in Rugby
• Ryan Norrell, a Bismarck attorney who served as counsel to former Gov. Doug Burgum
• Jacob Rodenbiker, an assistant U.S. attorney who lives in Fargo
• Kirsten Sjue, a judge for the Northwest Judicial District in Williston

Armstrong, a Republican, can appoint someone from the pool of six, ask the committee for more nominees or refer the matter to the election ballot for a public vote.

The committee could have forwarded up to seven names. A total of 12 candidates applied.

The voting members of the nominating committee are Justice Jerod Tufte, Eric Lahlum, Taylor Olson, Laura Mihalick, Paul Forster and Garth Rydland.

FARGO, N.D. (Valley News Live) – North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley is among 35 state attorneys general demanding Elon Musk’s xAI company take immediate action to stop its Grok chatbot from creating nonconsensual sexual images of real people, including children.

In a letter sent to xAI on January 23, the coalition expressed “deep concern” about artificial intelligence-produced deepfake nonconsensual intimate images created through Grok, which is integrated with the X social media platform.

“Grok merits special attention given evidence that it both promoted and facilitated the production and public dissemination of such images, and made it all as easy as the click of a button,” the attorneys general wrote.

The attorneys general acknowledge xAI has taken some steps to address the issue, including implementing technical measures and meeting with state officials. However, they say those efforts “may not have completely solved the issues.”

Scale of the Problem

The letter cites multiple analyses documenting Grok’s image generation capabilities.

According to the attorneys general, one analysis found that over half of 20,000 images generated by Grok between Christmas and New Year’s depicted subjects, even those appearing to be children, in minimal attire.

Another analysis cited in the letter determined that Grok was producing vastly more nonconsensual intimate images than the most popular “nudifying” websites.

‘Feature, Not a Bug’

The attorneys general argue xAI purposefully designed Grok to generate explicit content, developing a “spicy mode” and marketing these capabilities as selling points.

“The ability to create nonconsensual intimate images appeared to be a feature, not a bug,” they wrote.

According to the letter, Grok allowed users to alter innocuous images of women without their knowledge or consent, depicting them in sexually explicit scenarios. Most alarmingly, the attorneys general claim the tool altered images of children to depict them in minimal clothing and sexual situations.

Legal Concerns

The creation and dissemination of child sexual abuse material is a crime. Various state and federal civil and criminal laws also forbid the creation of nonconsensual intimate images.

The coalition is calling on xAI to:

• Ensure Grok can no longer produce nonconsensual intimate images
• Eliminate content already produced
• Suspend users who created these materials
• Report creators to relevant authorities
• Give X users control over whether their content can be edited by Grok
• Ensure safeguards don’t merely place harmful content behind a paywall

The attorneys general noted xAI’s unique position connecting AI tools directly to a social media platform with hundreds of millions of users makes its actions “of utmost importance.”

“The steps you take to prevent and remove NCII will establish industry benchmarks to protect adults and children against harmful deepfake nonconsensual intimate images,” they wrote.

The bipartisan coalition includes attorneys general from Connecticut, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming, as well as American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

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