Air travel in the United States is on the rise in 2023. According to a survey by Forbes Advisor, 49 percent of Americans plan to travel more in 2023 than they did in 2022. However, we have seen a number of challenges accompany this increase in demand, particularly during the summer travel season.

The modern marvel of commercial aviation allows for travel across our country and around the globe. Air transportation isn’t just about traditional ticketed passengers – general aviation and air cargo are also critical components of our economy.

As airports and airlines have struggled to manage greater demand, travelers have become all too familiar with disruptions in flight plans. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, more than 1-in-5 flights have been affected by delays this year. Furthermore, with the added challenges of staffing and pilot shortages, weather-related delays are more difficult to troubleshoot. These factors underscore the need for improvement and innovation in the aviation industry.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), each day 45,000 flights carrying 2.9 million passengers are served by the national airspace system (NAS) — a network administering equipment, facilities, services, and manpower in American domestic and oceanic airspace.

Congress considers legislation to reauthorize the FAA every five years, and we last enacted comprehensive FAA legislation in 2018. The deadline for FAA reauthorization is September 30 of this year. This week I supported the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act. This important legislation to reauthorize FAA passed on a 351-69 overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, and I’m glad the House came together to ensure our nation’s aviation system has the resources and stability necessary to serve Americans.

In a dynamic and rapidly growing field, commonsense policy is needed to keep pace with aerospace innovations. This legislation streamlines the safe and efficient testing of new technologies, such as Advanced Air Mobility, have the potential to change our everyday lives and help the U.S. compete globally.&nbsp;

To enhance the experience for the traveling public, the House bill also includes improvements to air traffic control systems and infrastructure. By increasing annual funding for the Airport Improvement Program (AIP) and cutting red tape, airports across the country — including the ones serving Nebraska’s Third District — will be able to better maintain and improve their facilities for passengers and airlines. Additionally, the bill invests in aviation workforce growth and paves the way for much-needed updates in air travel safety administration.

As the birthplace of flight, the United States has long been on the leading edge of aeronautical advancements. According to an FAA report, the aviation sector contributes to over five percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and the NAS is on track to facilitate travel for 1 billion passengers this year.

Maintaining the valuable economic impact, scientific leadership and high safety standards of the American aviation industry are critical to continued success and innovation in American aviation.

Adrian SmithAir travel in the United States is on the rise in 2023. According to a survey by Forbes Advisor, 49 percent of Americans plan to travel more in 2023 than they did in 2022. However, we have seen a number of challenges accompany this increase in demand, particularly during the summer travel season.The modern marvel of commercial aviation allows for travel across our country and around the globe. Air transportation isn’t just about traditional ticketed passengers – general aviation and air cargo are also critical components of our economy.As airports and airlines have struggled to manage greater demand, travelers have become all too familiar with disruptions in flight plans. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, more than 1-in-5 flights have been affected by delays this year. Furthermore, with the added challenges of staffing and pilot shortages, weather-related delays are more difficult to troubleshoot. These factors underscore the need for improvement and innovation in the aviation industry.According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), each day 45,000 flights carrying 2.9 million passengers are served by the national airspace system (NAS) — a network administering equipment, facilities, services, and manpower in American domestic and oceanic airspace.Congress considers legislation to reauthorize the FAA every five years, and we last enacted comprehensive FAA legislation in 2018. The deadline for FAA reauthorization is September 30 of this year. This week I supported the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act. This important legislation to reauthorize FAA passed on a 351-69 overwhelmingly bipartisan vote, and I’m glad the House came together to ensure our nation’s aviation system has the resources and stability necessary to serve Americans.In a dynamic and rapidly growing field, commonsense policy is needed to keep pace with aerospace innovations. This legislation streamlines the safe and efficient testing of new technologies, such as Advanced Air Mobility, have the potential to change our everyday lives and help the U.S. compete globally.&nbsp;To enhance the experience for the traveling public, the House bill also includes improvements to air traffic control systems and infrastructure. By increasing annual funding for the Airport Improvement Program (AIP) and cutting red tape, airports across the country — including the ones serving Nebraska’s Third District — will be able to better maintain and improve their facilities for passengers and airlines. Additionally, the bill invests in aviation workforce growth and paves the way for much-needed updates in air travel safety administration.As the birthplace of flight, the United States has long been on the leading edge of aeronautical advancements. According to an FAA report, the aviation sector contributes to over five percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and the NAS is on track to facilitate travel for 1 billion passengers this year.Maintaining the valuable economic impact, scientific leadership and high safety standards of the American aviation industry are critical to continued success and innovation in American aviation.

Leadership and Innovation in Aviation

<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/07/22/a-she-cession-no-more-after-covid-dip-womens-employment-hits-all-time-high/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

After fears of a “she-cession” during the pandemic, women have returned to the workforce at unprecedented rates.

Much of the gain reflects a boom in jobs traditionally held by women, including nursing and teaching.&nbsp; Many good-paying jobs in fields such as construction and tech management are still dominated by men, a continuing challenge for states trying to even the playing field for women workers.

In June, the national share of employed women ages 25-54, considered prime working age, hit 75.3%, the highest recorded since the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey started reporting the numbers in 1948. The share of women 25-54 working or looking for work also hit a new high of 77.8% in June, the third straight month it beat the previous record of 77.3% from 2000.

“It’s good news that women are finding jobs in this economy at a greater rate than they were previously,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute. She noted that brisk hiring in health care and government has helped more women find jobs.

But there is still a gap between rates of men and women in the workforce overall in every state except Vermont. As of March 2022, the latest figures available, the largest gap is 18 percentage points in Arizona, where 89.6% of prime-age men have jobs compared with 71.4% of women. The smallest is in Maine, where 77.8% of men in that age range have jobs compared with 77.3% of women.

In Nebraska, 83.9$ of prime-age women had jobs as of that date, the nation's highest share. But that's in a state where 91.8% of men had jobs.

Mothers of young children&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://stateline.org/2020/09/28/mothers-are-3-times-more-likely-than-fathers-to-have-lost-jobs-in-pandemic/">lost work at three times the rate</a>&nbsp;of fathers early in the pandemic as they struggled to supervise remote learning sessions. Even when schools and day cares reopened in person, they often closed down unexpectedly during outbreaks, drawing out<a target="_blank" href="https://stateline.org/2022/02/24/working-parents-face-continued-chaos-despite-reopened-schools/">&nbsp;employment woes</a>&nbsp;for many working women with children. Combined with early pandemic job losses in tourism and hospitality, fields where many women hold jobs, women’s employment dipped as low as 63.4% in April 2020, the lowest since 1984.

For some women, getting back to the workforce after the pandemic slump in women’s employment is a relief, and in some cases hybrid work has created the flexibility they need to return to jobs.

“It really means a lot because apart from the feeling that you’re contributing to your family, which is so important in today’s world, there’s just more fulfillment as a person,” said Deepika Gosain of Fremont, California. She started work in April as a learning and development specialist at a surgical company, finding that hybrid work helped her return to the workforce after taking several years off to care for two young children.

Health care and education represented the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t21.htm">biggest gains</a>&nbsp;for women in the past year, between June 2022 and June 2023, comprising about 778,000 of the 2 million jobs added for women, according to a Stateline analysis. Government and hospitality jobs added another 727,000 jobs for women.

Jobs in construction and tech management remain stubbornly male dominated, however. Men are 96.5% of carpenters and nearly 74% of computer system managers, for example.

Karen Arrigo-Hill is looking for work in financial tech again after taking a break to raise young children. Like Gosain, she’s used the networking group Women Back to Work for tips on California jobs for women who have taken breaks from work. She also participates in an&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://inthelabpm.com/">incubator program</a>&nbsp;for underrepresented genders in tech, called In the Lab Product Management.

“The biggest thing I notice is all the support there is for the women who took a career break for caregiving and want to return to work in technology,” Arrigo-Hill said. “This process of returning is a long process, and it really helps.”

States such as California, Massachusetts and New York are working to get more women into male-dominated fields.

A&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://pluralpolicy.com/app/legislative-tracking/bill/details/state-ny-2023_2024-a823/1066391">Democratic-sponsored bill in</a>&nbsp;the New York State Assembly calls for $500,000 in funding to get more women into high-wage jobs, including construction and some tech fields, where they make up less than 25% of workers.

Elsewhere in the region, the state-funded Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women in June recommended passage of a legislative&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://pluralpolicy.com/app/legislative-tracking/bill/details/state-ma-193rd-h3544/1195571">resolution</a>&nbsp;saying that COVID-19 had an outsized effect on women, including on their jobs, and that “prejudices against gender and race have served to make it difficult for women to fill roles demanded by society and their professions.” In its annual report, the commission&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://malegislature.gov/Bills/193/SD2640">urged passage</a>&nbsp;of bills that would provide more day care and improve&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://stateline.org/2022/05/26/pay-transparency-laws-raise-womens-salaries-and-slightly-lower-mens/">pay transparency</a>, which can lead to women earning higher salaries.

California has budgeted $30 million over the last two years to&nbsp;helping&nbsp;more women&nbsp;get jobs in construction, including grants for apprenticeships and child care.

“When we spoke with women in construction, they told us childcare costs were one of the biggest barriers to working in the trade,” said Katie&nbsp;Hagen,&nbsp;director of the state Department of Industrial Relations,&nbsp;in a&nbsp;statement.

In Wisconsin, using state, local and private funding, the Operation Fresh Start Build Academy is helping 21-year-old Naomi Knowles&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.operationfreshstart.org/blog/categories/build-academy">train for a career</a>&nbsp;in construction. On a recent day she hung drywall in a home under construction in Deerfield.

“Being the only girl on a crew of all men, it feels like a lot of pressure,” Knowles said. “They expect you to be less than them. But I’ve proven them wrong. I love the people and I love the results — seeing this house go from studs to walls in here and siding. It’s amazing.”

Construction is an important field for women to get into because the pay can be good, there’s a labor shortage, and a college degree isn’t necessary, according to a forthcoming report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in Washington, D.C. Since the pandemic started, there are 126,000 more women working in construction for a total of 1.1 million, though women&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t21.htm">still make up only 14%</a>&nbsp;of workers in the industry.

“The percentage is so low for women that it can easily send the message that this is clearly a sector just for men,” said Ariane Hegewisch, the group’s program director for employment and earnings. The U.S. Commerce Department is also&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.commerce.gov/news/blog/2022/10/secretary-raimondo-calls-more-women-construction-industry-nabtu-tradeswomen-build">pushing to double the number of women in construction</a>&nbsp;as federally funded infrastructure projects ramp up.

Vermont is the only state where prime-age women work at a greater rate than men: 83% compared with 81% for men. Vermont may be unique because of its mix of jobs, said Mathew Barewicz, the state’s labor market information director. “Vermont has a diverse industry composition without an overreliance on typically male-dominated industries [like] mining, transportation, finance.”

Progress in bringing more women to the workplace is likely to continue, said Beth Almeida, a senior fellow at the progressive Center for American Progress think tank specializing in women’s economic security.

“This generation of women ages 25-54 have more college degrees than any other generation of women, and having college degrees is a very strong predictor of labor force attachment,” Almeida said.

“They’ve made a substantial financial investment in their future. But their employment is very impacted by caregiving, because women have a greater responsibility when it comes to family.”

This article first appeared in the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2022/02/18/iowa-man-fights-to-save-his-hunting-preserve/">Stateline</a>,&nbsp;a sister&nbsp;site of the Nebraska Examiner in the States Newsroom network.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/7/1690111313012.jpeg" alt="Naomi Knowles participates in a training program for construction workers in Deerfield, Wis. Women’s employment is at an all-time high, but fields such as construction and tech management remain male dominated. (Courtesy of Mustang Christie/Operation Fresh Start)" />
 <figcaption>Naomi Knowles participates in a training program for construction workers in Deerfield, Wis. Women’s employment is at an all-time high, but fields such as construction and tech management remain male dominated. (Courtesy of Mustang Christie/Operation Fresh Start)</figcaption>
 </figure>By Tim Henderson<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/07/22/a-she-cession-no-more-after-covid-dip-womens-employment-hits-all-time-high/">Nebraska Examiner</a>After fears of a “she-cession” during the pandemic, women have returned to the workforce at unprecedented rates.Much of the gain reflects a boom in jobs traditionally held by women, including nursing and teaching.&nbsp; Many good-paying jobs in fields such as construction and tech management are still dominated by men, a continuing challenge for states trying to even the playing field for women workers.In June, the national share of employed women ages 25-54, considered prime working age, hit 75.3%, the highest recorded since the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey started reporting the numbers in 1948. The share of women 25-54 working or looking for work also hit a new high of 77.8% in June, the third straight month it beat the previous record of 77.3% from 2000.“It’s good news that women are finding jobs in this economy at a greater rate than they were previously,” said Elise Gould, a senior economist at the left-leaning think tank Economic Policy Institute. She noted that brisk hiring in health care and government has helped more women find jobs.But there is still a gap between rates of men and women in the workforce overall in every state except Vermont. As of March 2022, the latest figures available, the largest gap is 18 percentage points in Arizona, where 89.6% of prime-age men have jobs compared with 71.4% of women. The smallest is in Maine, where 77.8% of men in that age range have jobs compared with 77.3% of women.In Nebraska, 83.9$ of prime-age women had jobs as of that date, the nation's highest share. But that's in a state where 91.8% of men had jobs.Mothers of young children&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://stateline.org/2020/09/28/mothers-are-3-times-more-likely-than-fathers-to-have-lost-jobs-in-pandemic/">lost work at three times the rate</a>&nbsp;of fathers early in the pandemic as they struggled to supervise remote learning sessions. Even when schools and day cares reopened in person, they often closed down unexpectedly during outbreaks, drawing out<a target="_blank" href="https://stateline.org/2022/02/24/working-parents-face-continued-chaos-despite-reopened-schools/">&nbsp;employment woes</a>&nbsp;for many working women with children. Combined with early pandemic job losses in tourism and hospitality, fields where many women hold jobs, women’s employment dipped as low as 63.4% in April 2020, the lowest since 1984.For some women, getting back to the workforce after the pandemic slump in women’s employment is a relief, and in some cases hybrid work has created the flexibility they need to return to jobs.“It really means a lot because apart from the feeling that you’re contributing to your family, which is so important in today’s world, there’s just more fulfillment as a person,” said Deepika Gosain of Fremont, California. She started work in April as a learning and development specialist at a surgical company, finding that hybrid work helped her return to the workforce after taking several years off to care for two young children.Health care and education represented the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t21.htm">biggest gains</a>&nbsp;for women in the past year, between June 2022 and June 2023, comprising about 778,000 of the 2 million jobs added for women, according to a Stateline analysis. Government and hospitality jobs added another 727,000 jobs for women.Jobs in construction and tech management remain stubbornly male dominated, however. Men are 96.5% of carpenters and nearly 74% of computer system managers, for example.Karen Arrigo-Hill is looking for work in financial tech again after taking a break to raise young children. Like Gosain, she’s used the networking group Women Back to Work for tips on California jobs for women who have taken breaks from work. She also participates in an&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://inthelabpm.com/">incubator program</a>&nbsp;for underrepresented genders in tech, called In the Lab Product Management.“The biggest thing I notice is all the support there is for the women who took a career break for caregiving and want to return to work in technology,” Arrigo-Hill said. “This process of returning is a long process, and it really helps.”States such as California, Massachusetts and New York are working to get more women into male-dominated fields.A&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://pluralpolicy.com/app/legislative-tracking/bill/details/state-ny-2023_2024-a823/1066391">Democratic-sponsored bill in</a>&nbsp;the New York State Assembly calls for $500,000 in funding to get more women into high-wage jobs, including construction and some tech fields, where they make up less than 25% of workers.Elsewhere in the region, the state-funded Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women in June recommended passage of a legislative&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://pluralpolicy.com/app/legislative-tracking/bill/details/state-ma-193rd-h3544/1195571">resolution</a>&nbsp;saying that COVID-19 had an outsized effect on women, including on their jobs, and that “prejudices against gender and race have served to make it difficult for women to fill roles demanded by society and their professions.” In its annual report, the commission&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://malegislature.gov/Bills/193/SD2640">urged passage</a>&nbsp;of bills that would provide more day care and improve&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://stateline.org/2022/05/26/pay-transparency-laws-raise-womens-salaries-and-slightly-lower-mens/">pay transparency</a>, which can lead to women earning higher salaries.California has budgeted $30 million over the last two years to&nbsp;helping&nbsp;more women&nbsp;get jobs in construction, including grants for apprenticeships and child care.“When we spoke with women in construction, they told us childcare costs were one of the biggest barriers to working in the trade,” said Katie&nbsp;Hagen,&nbsp;director of the state Department of Industrial Relations,&nbsp;in a&nbsp;statement.In Wisconsin, using state, local and private funding, the Operation Fresh Start Build Academy is helping 21-year-old Naomi Knowles&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.operationfreshstart.org/blog/categories/build-academy">train for a career</a>&nbsp;in construction. On a recent day she hung drywall in a home under construction in Deerfield.“Being the only girl on a crew of all men, it feels like a lot of pressure,” Knowles said. “They expect you to be less than them. But I’ve proven them wrong. I love the people and I love the results — seeing this house go from studs to walls in here and siding. It’s amazing.”Construction is an important field for women to get into because the pay can be good, there’s a labor shortage, and a college degree isn’t necessary, according to a forthcoming report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in Washington, D.C. Since the pandemic started, there are 126,000 more women working in construction for a total of 1.1 million, though women&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t21.htm">still make up only 14%</a>&nbsp;of workers in the industry.“The percentage is so low for women that it can easily send the message that this is clearly a sector just for men,” said Ariane Hegewisch, the group’s program director for employment and earnings. The U.S. Commerce Department is also&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://www.commerce.gov/news/blog/2022/10/secretary-raimondo-calls-more-women-construction-industry-nabtu-tradeswomen-build">pushing to double the number of women in construction</a>&nbsp;as federally funded infrastructure projects ramp up.Vermont is the only state where prime-age women work at a greater rate than men: 83% compared with 81% for men. Vermont may be unique because of its mix of jobs, said Mathew Barewicz, the state’s labor market information director. “Vermont has a diverse industry composition without an overreliance on typically male-dominated industries [like] mining, transportation, finance.”Progress in bringing more women to the workplace is likely to continue, said Beth Almeida, a senior fellow at the progressive Center for American Progress think tank specializing in women’s economic security.“This generation of women ages 25-54 have more college degrees than any other generation of women, and having college degrees is a very strong predictor of labor force attachment,” Almeida said.“They’ve made a substantial financial investment in their future. But their employment is very impacted by caregiving, because women have a greater responsibility when it comes to family.”This article first appeared in the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2022/02/18/iowa-man-fights-to-save-his-hunting-preserve/">Stateline</a>,&nbsp;a sister&nbsp;site of the Nebraska Examiner in the States Newsroom network.

A ‘she-cession’ no more: After COVID dip, women’s employment hits all-time high

LINCOLN, NE –&nbsp;Governor Jim Pillen has appointed Chris Langemeier to fill a vacancy on the Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) Board of Directors. Langemeier will represent Subdivision 11, which covers counties in the northeastern area of the state.

Langemeier fills the open seat of NPPD board representative Fred Christensen, who passed away in early April. He will complete Christensen’s six-year term, which ends January 8, 2025.

Langemeier is a real estate broker and appraiser with Land Mark Management &amp; Realty, Inc., in Schuyler, NE. He previously served as state senator from 2005 – 2012 and more recently, was director of the Loup River Public Power Board.

LINCOLN, NE –&nbsp;Governor Jim Pillen has appointed Chris Langemeier to fill a vacancy on the Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) Board of Directors. Langemeier will represent Subdivision 11, which covers counties in the northeastern area of the state.Langemeier fills the open seat of NPPD board representative Fred Christensen, who passed away in early April. He will complete Christensen’s six-year term, which ends January 8, 2025.Langemeier is a real estate broker and appraiser with Land Mark Management &amp; Realty, Inc., in Schuyler, NE. He previously served as state senator from 2005 – 2012 and more recently, was director of the Loup River Public Power Board.

Governor Pillen Makes Appointment to District 11 NPPD Board

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Friday that new commitments by Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and other companies that are leading the development of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/artificial-intelligence">artificial intelligence technology</a>&nbsp;to meet a set of AI safeguards brokered by his White House are an important step toward managing the “enormous” promise and risks posed by the technology.

Biden announced that his administration has secured voluntary commitments from seven U.S. companies meant to ensure that their AI products are safe before they release them. Some of the commitments call for third-party oversight of the workings of the next generation of AI systems, though they don't detail who will audit the technology or hold the companies accountable.

“We must be clear eyed and vigilant about the threats emerging technologies can pose," Biden said, adding that the companies have a “fundamental obligation” to ensure their products are safe.

“Social media has shown us the harm that powerful technology can do without the right safeguards in place," Biden added. “These commitments are a promising step, but we have a lot more work to do together."

A surge of commercial investment in generative AI tools that can write convincingly human-like text and churn out new images and other media has brought public fascination as well as concern about their ability to trick people and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-science-business-artificial-intelligence-afb4618ff593db9e3e51ecbd91dc3eef">spread disinformation</a>, among other dangers.

The four tech giants, along with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and startups Anthropic and Inflection, have committed to security testing “carried out in part by independent experts” to guard against major risks, such as to biosecurity and cybersecurity, the White House said in a statement.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/hacking-jailbreaking-chatgpt-bing-defcon-biden-ai-97b963db084800f11b26b8a023b1713f">That testing</a>&nbsp;will also examine the potential&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/child-welfare-algorithm-investigation-9497ee937e0053ad4144a86c68241ef1">for societal harms</a>, such as bias and discrimination, and more theoretical dangers about advanced AI systems that could gain control of physical systems or “self-replicate” by making copies of themselves.

The companies have also committed to methods for reporting vulnerabilities to their systems and to using digital watermarking to help distinguish between real and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-america-donald-trump-ap-top-news-elections-artificial-intelligence-21fa207a1254401197fd1e0d7ecd14cb">AI-generated images or audio known as deepfakes</a>.

Executives from the seven companies met behind closed doors with Biden and other officials Friday as they pledged to follow the standards.

“He was very firm and clear” that he wanted the companies to continue to be innovative, but at the same time “felt that this needed a lot of attention,” Inflection CEO Mustafa Suleyman said in an interview after the White House gathering.

“It’s a big deal to bring all the labs together, all the companies,” said Suleyman, whose Palo Alto, California-based startup is the youngest and smallest of the firms. “This is supercompetitive and we wouldn’t come together under other circumstances.”

The companies will also publicly report flaws and risks in their technology, including effects on fairness and bias, according to the pledge.

The voluntary commitments are meant to be an immediate way of addressing risks ahead of a longer-term push to get Congress to pass laws regulating the technology.

Some advocates for AI regulations said Biden’s move is a start but more needs to be done to hold the companies and their products accountable.

“A closed-door deliberation with corporate actors resulting in voluntary safeguards isn’t enough,” said Amba Kak, executive director of the AI Now Institute. “We need a much more wide-ranging public deliberation, and that’s going to bring up issues that companies almost certainly won’t voluntarily commit to because it would lead to substantively different results, ones that may more directly impact their business models.”

While voluntary, agreeing to submit to “&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/hacking-jailbreaking-chatgpt-bing-defcon-biden-ai-97b963db084800f11b26b8a023b1713f">red team” tests</a>&nbsp;that poke at their AI systems is not an easy promise, said Suleyman.

“The commitment we’ve made to have red-teamers basically try to break our models, identify weaknesses and then share those methods with the other large language model developers is a pretty significant commitment,” Suleyman said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said he will introduce legislation to regulate AI and is working closely with the Biden administration "and our bipartisan colleagues” to build upon the pledges made Friday.

A number of technology executives have called for regulation, and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-white-house-harris-578d623e473b0eeb3fa3e4728d7e9868">several attended an earlier White House</a>&nbsp;summit in May.

Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a blog post Friday that his company is making some commitments that go beyond the White House pledge, including support for regulation that would create a “licensing regime for highly capable models.”

Some experts and upstart competitors worry that the type of regulation being floated could be a boon for deep-pocketed first-movers led by OpenAI, Google and Microsoft as smaller players are elbowed out by the high cost of making their AI systems adhere to regulatory strictures.

The White House pledge notes that it mostly only applies to models that “are overall more powerful than the current industry frontier,” set by recent models such as OpenAI's GPT-4 and image generator DALL-E 2 and similar releases from Anthropic, Google and Amazon.

A number of countries have been looking at ways to regulate AI, including&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ai-act-artificial-intelligence-europe-regulation-94e2b38703b38fdbfabc9580f845ef9a">European Union lawmakers</a>&nbsp;negotiating sweeping AI rules for the 27-nation bloc that could restrict applications deemed to have the highest risks.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently said the United Nations is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-un-big-tech-first-5a184197c4281365866b5963d56f84ea">“the ideal place”</a>&nbsp;to adopt global standards and appointed a board that will report back on options for global AI governance by the end of the year.

Guterres also said he welcomed calls from some countries for the creation of a new U.N. body to support global efforts to govern AI, inspired by such models as the International Atomic Energy Agency or the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The White House said Friday that it has consulted on the voluntary commitments with a number of countries.

The pledge is heavily focused on safety risks but doesn't address other worries about the latest AI technology, including the effect on jobs and market competition, the environmental resources required to build the models, and copyright concerns about the writings, art and other human handiwork being used to teach AI systems how to produce human-like content.

Last week, OpenAI and The Associated Press announced a deal for the AI company to license AP’s archive of news stories. The amount it will pay for that content was not disclosed.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/7/1690031816449.png" alt="Biden announced that his administration has secured voluntary commitments from seven U.S. companies meant to ensure that their AI products are safe before they release them.-White House image" />
 <figcaption>Biden announced that his administration has secured voluntary commitments from seven U.S. companies meant to ensure that their AI products are safe before they release them.-White House image</figcaption>
 </figure>WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Friday that new commitments by Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and other companies that are leading the development of&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/hub/artificial-intelligence">artificial intelligence technology</a>&nbsp;to meet a set of AI safeguards brokered by his White House are an important step toward managing the “enormous” promise and risks posed by the technology.<div><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tg2FNynmToM?start=11" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>Biden announced that his administration has secured voluntary commitments from seven U.S. companies meant to ensure that their AI products are safe before they release them. Some of the commitments call for third-party oversight of the workings of the next generation of AI systems, though they don't detail who will audit the technology or hold the companies accountable.<div><blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Today, I was joined by leaders from American companies driving innovation in AI to announce their voluntary commitments for responsible innovation. These commitments – which companies will implement immediately – underscore the principles of safety, security, and trust. <a href="https://t.co/6kvrcl4krv">pic.twitter.com/6kvrcl4krv</a>&mdash; President Biden (@POTUS) <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1682519577920503812?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 21, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></div>“We must be clear eyed and vigilant about the threats emerging technologies can pose," Biden said, adding that the companies have a “fundamental obligation” to ensure their products are safe.“Social media has shown us the harm that powerful technology can do without the right safeguards in place," Biden added. “These commitments are a promising step, but we have a lot more work to do together."A surge of commercial investment in generative AI tools that can write convincingly human-like text and churn out new images and other media has brought public fascination as well as concern about their ability to trick people and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-science-business-artificial-intelligence-afb4618ff593db9e3e51ecbd91dc3eef">spread disinformation</a>, among other dangers.The four tech giants, along with ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and startups Anthropic and Inflection, have committed to security testing “carried out in part by independent experts” to guard against major risks, such as to biosecurity and cybersecurity, the White House said in a statement.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/hacking-jailbreaking-chatgpt-bing-defcon-biden-ai-97b963db084800f11b26b8a023b1713f">That testing</a>&nbsp;will also examine the potential&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/child-welfare-algorithm-investigation-9497ee937e0053ad4144a86c68241ef1">for societal harms</a>, such as bias and discrimination, and more theoretical dangers about advanced AI systems that could gain control of physical systems or “self-replicate” by making copies of themselves.The companies have also committed to methods for reporting vulnerabilities to their systems and to using digital watermarking to help distinguish between real and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-america-donald-trump-ap-top-news-elections-artificial-intelligence-21fa207a1254401197fd1e0d7ecd14cb">AI-generated images or audio known as deepfakes</a>.Executives from the seven companies met behind closed doors with Biden and other officials Friday as they pledged to follow the standards.“He was very firm and clear” that he wanted the companies to continue to be innovative, but at the same time “felt that this needed a lot of attention,” Inflection CEO Mustafa Suleyman said in an interview after the White House gathering.“It’s a big deal to bring all the labs together, all the companies,” said Suleyman, whose Palo Alto, California-based startup is the youngest and smallest of the firms. “This is supercompetitive and we wouldn’t come together under other circumstances.”The companies will also publicly report flaws and risks in their technology, including effects on fairness and bias, according to the pledge.The voluntary commitments are meant to be an immediate way of addressing risks ahead of a longer-term push to get Congress to pass laws regulating the technology.Some advocates for AI regulations said Biden’s move is a start but more needs to be done to hold the companies and their products accountable.“A closed-door deliberation with corporate actors resulting in voluntary safeguards isn’t enough,” said Amba Kak, executive director of the AI Now Institute. “We need a much more wide-ranging public deliberation, and that’s going to bring up issues that companies almost certainly won’t voluntarily commit to because it would lead to substantively different results, ones that may more directly impact their business models.”While voluntary, agreeing to submit to “&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/hacking-jailbreaking-chatgpt-bing-defcon-biden-ai-97b963db084800f11b26b8a023b1713f">red team” tests</a>&nbsp;that poke at their AI systems is not an easy promise, said Suleyman.“The commitment we’ve made to have red-teamers basically try to break our models, identify weaknesses and then share those methods with the other large language model developers is a pretty significant commitment,” Suleyman said.Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said he will introduce legislation to regulate AI and is working closely with the Biden administration "and our bipartisan colleagues” to build upon the pledges made Friday.A number of technology executives have called for regulation, and&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-white-house-harris-578d623e473b0eeb3fa3e4728d7e9868">several attended an earlier White House</a>&nbsp;summit in May.Microsoft President Brad Smith said in a blog post Friday that his company is making some commitments that go beyond the White House pledge, including support for regulation that would create a “licensing regime for highly capable models.”Some experts and upstart competitors worry that the type of regulation being floated could be a boon for deep-pocketed first-movers led by OpenAI, Google and Microsoft as smaller players are elbowed out by the high cost of making their AI systems adhere to regulatory strictures.The White House pledge notes that it mostly only applies to models that “are overall more powerful than the current industry frontier,” set by recent models such as OpenAI's GPT-4 and image generator DALL-E 2 and similar releases from Anthropic, Google and Amazon.A number of countries have been looking at ways to regulate AI, including&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/ai-act-artificial-intelligence-europe-regulation-94e2b38703b38fdbfabc9580f845ef9a">European Union lawmakers</a>&nbsp;negotiating sweeping AI rules for the 27-nation bloc that could restrict applications deemed to have the highest risks.U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently said the United Nations is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-un-big-tech-first-5a184197c4281365866b5963d56f84ea">“the ideal place”</a>&nbsp;to adopt global standards and appointed a board that will report back on options for global AI governance by the end of the year.Guterres also said he welcomed calls from some countries for the creation of a new U.N. body to support global efforts to govern AI, inspired by such models as the International Atomic Energy Agency or the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.The White House said Friday that it has consulted on the voluntary commitments with a number of countries.The pledge is heavily focused on safety risks but doesn't address other worries about the latest AI technology, including the effect on jobs and market competition, the environmental resources required to build the models, and copyright concerns about the writings, art and other human handiwork being used to teach AI systems how to produce human-like content.Last week, OpenAI and The Associated Press announced a deal for the AI company to license AP’s archive of news stories. The amount it will pay for that content was not disclosed.

🎥 Biden: Tech firms agree to artificial intelligence safeguards

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A deadlocked jury prompted a mistrial Saturday in the South Florida trial of rapper&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/music-arts-and-entertainment-general-news-1d18682869f344d6aef35280a8a29b69">YNW Melly</a>&nbsp;on charges that he murdered two of his friends five years ago.

The 12-member panel could not reach a unanimous verdict after three days of deliberations. Broward County prosecutors, who had been seeking the death penalty, will likely choose to retry the case with a new jury. A unanimous verdict is required to convict or acquit a defendant.

Broward Circuit Judge John Murphy twice asked the jurors to keep deliberating after they said they were deadlocked, but relented after they came back a third time.

Prosecutors say YNW Melly, whose legal name is Jamell Demons, shot Anthony Williams and Christopher Thomas Jr. while they were all inside a Jeep. Williams and Thomas were both part of the YNW collective, known respectively as YNW Sakchaser and YNW Juvy.

Prosecutors said the shooting was part of a gang action, while defense attorneys said that claim lacks credibility because Demons and the victims were close friends.

According to prosecutors, Demons, Williams and Thomas were riding in a Jeep driven by Cortland Henry, known as YNW Bortlen, after a recording session in Fort Lauderdale on Oct. 26, 2018. They say Demons fatally shot Williams and Thomas. Henry is charged as an accomplice in the case and will be tried separately.

After killing Williams and Thomas, prosecutors said Demons and Henry drove the bodies to an area near the Everglades, where they shot at the back and passenger sides of Henry’s Jeep from the outside to make it look like Williams and Thomas had been the victims of a drive-by shooting.

But prosecutors say ballistics tests show the pair were shot from inside the Jeep.

Defense lawyers focused on the fact that the gun was never recovered. They also told jurors that YNW Melly had no apparent motive for the crime.

YNW Melly had his breakout in 2017 and went on to work with Kanye West on “Mixed Personalities,” which was released in January 2019, a month before Demons, 24, was arrested on murder charges.

By ASSOCIATED PRESSFORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A deadlocked jury prompted a mistrial Saturday in the South Florida trial of rapper&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/music-arts-and-entertainment-general-news-1d18682869f344d6aef35280a8a29b69">YNW Melly</a>&nbsp;on charges that he murdered two of his friends five years ago.The 12-member panel could not reach a unanimous verdict after three days of deliberations. Broward County prosecutors, who had been seeking the death penalty, will likely choose to retry the case with a new jury. A unanimous verdict is required to convict or acquit a defendant.Broward Circuit Judge John Murphy twice asked the jurors to keep deliberating after they said they were deadlocked, but relented after they came back a third time.Prosecutors say YNW Melly, whose legal name is Jamell Demons, shot Anthony Williams and Christopher Thomas Jr. while they were all inside a Jeep. Williams and Thomas were both part of the YNW collective, known respectively as YNW Sakchaser and YNW Juvy.Prosecutors said the shooting was part of a gang action, while defense attorneys said that claim lacks credibility because Demons and the victims were close friends.According to prosecutors, Demons, Williams and Thomas were riding in a Jeep driven by Cortland Henry, known as YNW Bortlen, after a recording session in Fort Lauderdale on Oct. 26, 2018. They say Demons fatally shot Williams and Thomas. Henry is charged as an accomplice in the case and will be tried separately.After killing Williams and Thomas, prosecutors said Demons and Henry drove the bodies to an area near the Everglades, where they shot at the back and passenger sides of Henry’s Jeep from the outside to make it look like Williams and Thomas had been the victims of a drive-by shooting.But prosecutors say ballistics tests show the pair were shot from inside the Jeep.Defense lawyers focused on the fact that the gun was never recovered. They also told jurors that YNW Melly had no apparent motive for the crime.YNW Melly had his breakout in 2017 and went on to work with Kanye West on “Mixed Personalities,” which was released in January 2019, a month before Demons, 24, was arrested on murder charges.

Murder trial of rapper YNW Melly ends in mistrial after jury deadlocks; retrial likely

KANSAS CITY (AP) —Movie theater operator AMC has ditched plans to charge more seats for seats with better sightlines after rival chains did not follow along.

AMC began the pilot program five months ago in three U.S. markets where it said it charged slightly more for better seats, and less for those in the front of the theater and others with inferior views.

AMC said its competitors didn’t raise or cut prices on any of their seats based on location. The company said because it wants its pricing to remain competitive, it’s ending the pilot program in the coming weeks and there will be no attempt to roll out those changes nationwide.

AMC also found that more than three out of every four guests who previously sat in the preferred sightline section continued to choose seats in that section, even with a slight up-charge. But it saw little to no increase in people buying front row seats that were cheaper.

AMC first announced the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/amc-ticket-prices-7dbf4b9ddc7d531e252c21b790e860be">pilot program</a>&nbsp;in February.

AMC, based in Leawood, Kansas, said it's now going to focus on testing more spacious seating for the front row with seats that recline at some U.S. locations later this year.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/2/1675797951504.png" alt="Google image" />
 <figcaption>Google image</figcaption>
 </figure>KANSAS CITY (AP) —Movie theater operator AMC has ditched plans to charge more seats for seats with better sightlines after rival chains did not follow along.AMC began the pilot program five months ago in three U.S. markets where it said it charged slightly more for better seats, and less for those in the front of the theater and others with inferior views.AMC said its competitors didn’t raise or cut prices on any of their seats based on location. The company said because it wants its pricing to remain competitive, it’s ending the pilot program in the coming weeks and there will be no attempt to roll out those changes nationwide.AMC also found that more than three out of every four guests who previously sat in the preferred sightline section continued to choose seats in that section, even with a slight up-charge. But it saw little to no increase in people buying front row seats that were cheaper.AMC first announced the&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/amc-ticket-prices-7dbf4b9ddc7d531e252c21b790e860be">pilot program</a>&nbsp;in February.AMC, based in Leawood, Kansas, said it's now going to focus on testing more spacious seating for the front row with seats that recline at some U.S. locations later this year.

Plan to charge more for good seats in movie theaters falls flat

<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/07/21/despite-pushback-veterans-group-plans-to-host-national-speaker-who-opposes-trans-athletes/">Nebraska Examiner</a>

LINCOLN — Bill Williams says he’s received hateful emails, lost a couple of financial sponsors and even been criticized in a letter to a local newspaper after an organization he co-founded announced it was featuring a speaker opposed to transgender rights.

Critics, he said, are saying Patriotic Productions — best known for organizing more than a dozen “honor flights” for veterans to visit Washington, D.C. — is straying beyond its mission to “honor U.S. military veterans.”

None of that, Williams said Friday, will deter the Omaha-based nonprofit from hosting an event featuring Riley Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer and an outspoken opponent of allowing trans females to compete against biological female athletes.

“We’ve wandered outside our mission before,” he said.&nbsp;“It’s a great opportunity, a great platform, for (Gaines) to talk about her first-hand experience in competing against a biological male.”

“In some circles that’s controversial,” Williams added. “The vast majority of Americans know it’s unfair.”

Gaines, who has appeared several times on Fox News, will speak at a Patriotic Productions-sponsored event Aug. 27 at Embassy Suites in La Vista.

Gaines tied for fifth at the 2020 NCAA championships in the 200-yard freestyle with Lia Thomas, a University of Pennsylvania swimmer who became the first openly transgender woman to compete in the female events. Thomas won the 500-yard freestyle race.

The event is billed as a “call to action” and is described as being “not about politics or transgender” but about “safety, fairness and common sense.”

It also touches on the controversial issue of whether trans females should be allowed to compete in athletic contests against biological females.

Passage of a similar, hot-button, culture wars issue — banning gender-affirming procedures for minors —<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/05/22/nebraska-gov-jim-pillen-signs-abortion-gender-care-restrictions-into-law/">&nbsp;touched off an unprecedented</a>, session-long series of filibusters in the Nebraska Legislature this year in which angry words were often exchanged between state senators.

The sponsor of the bill on blocking minors from transgender procedures, State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha, will appear at the Gaines event. She is also the sponsor of another bill, the “The Sports and Spaces Act.”

That proposal, Legislative Bill 575, would block biological males from competing in K-12 sports designed for biological females, and block biological males from using school bathrooms and locker rooms designated for females.

While the Nebraska bill failed to advance this year, at least 20 states now ban trans athletes from joining sports that align with their gender at birth, according to&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-transgender-women-sports-ban-athletes-1c58c20cac2b191e323e4376d7949a2d">the Associated Press</a>. The&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/06/22/a-growing-number-of-nebraska-lawmakers-seeks-to-avoid-another-fight-on-trans-youth-in-2024/">Sports and Spaces Act</a>&nbsp;could advance to debate next year.

Williams said he and his wife, Evonne, have 11 grandchildren, including five granddaughters, and feel “very strongly” that this is the right thing to do.

“If we don’t stand up for females now, what’s going to happen to them?” he said of his granddaughters.

A “Public Pulse”&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://omaha.com/eedition/sunrise/articles/featured-speaker/article_32612e92-2a15-5254-935f-4a92ac1384aa.html">writer to the Omaha World-Herald on July 13</a>&nbsp;said she was “disappointed and angered” that an organization dedicated to honoring veterans was promoting a speaker who promotes “trans discrimination.”

“I struggle to understand why this organization would host an event featuring such a divisive, anti-trans speaker. Many transgender Americans are proudly serving our country right now and many others have served honorably or died serving in the past,” stated the letter, signed by Mary Ann Folchert of Omaha.

When asked about the event, State Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue had a similar response, saying that it “disrespected” the mission of honoring veterans.

“I think it’s inappropriate for those who served to be utilizing resources to get involved in culture wars,” Blood said.

Williams said it wasn’t the first time that Patriotic Productions has sponsored events or speakers that were non-military.

In 2020, amid the backlash against the police custody killing of George Floyd, the organization sponsored two “Back the Blue” events. The mother of one of the murder victims of spree killer Nikko Jenkins also spoke at one Patriotic Productions event, Williams said.

But, he added, the organization has never endorsed a political candidate and doesn’t plan on getting involved in the state legislative debate over trans participation in sports.

“I don’t think that’s our deal,” Williams said. “(Gaines)&nbsp;deserves freedom of speech … so we’re going to give her the opportunity.”

The Riley Gaines event asks for a $250 per person donation and includes sponsorship opportunities of up to $5,000.

Sponsors of past Patriotic Productions events include U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts and his wife, Susanne Shore, and Sandhills Global, founded by Tom Peed. Peed has made headlines recently for donating $2 million toward the unsuccessful Lincoln mayoral candidacy of former State Sen. Suzanne Geist,and for&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/07/13/top-gop-donor-tom-peed-hosts-house-speaker-kevin-mccarthy-in-lincoln-at-dinner/">hosting U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy</a>, the Speaker of the U.S. House, at a dinner at his family’s Lincoln steakhouse.

Jordy Bahl, a star softball pitcher who recently transferred from the National Champion University of Oklahoma Sooners to her home state school, the University of Nebraska, will introduce Gaines at the event. Carol Frost, an Olympic discus thrower and mother of former NU football coach Scott Frost, will also speak about the impact of Title IX on women’s athletics.

Patriotic Productions is hosting a more traditional veterans event on July 29 at 10 a.m. Memorial Park in Omaha.

It will be a “remembrance ceremony” in honor of the 70th anniversary of the signing of the armistice agreement to end the war in Korea.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/7/1690026144053.jpeg" alt=" Patriotic Productions, founded by Bill and Evonne Williams, is best known for a series of “honor flights” it has organized for veterans to see war memorials in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy of Patriotic Productions)" />
 <figcaption> Patriotic Productions, founded by Bill and Evonne Williams, is best known for a series of “honor flights” it has organized for veterans to see war memorials in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy of Patriotic Productions)</figcaption>
 </figure>By Paul Hammel<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/07/21/despite-pushback-veterans-group-plans-to-host-national-speaker-who-opposes-trans-athletes/">Nebraska Examiner</a>LINCOLN — Bill Williams says he’s received hateful emails, lost a couple of financial sponsors and even been criticized in a letter to a local newspaper after an organization he co-founded announced it was featuring a speaker opposed to transgender rights.Critics, he said, are saying Patriotic Productions — best known for organizing more than a dozen “honor flights” for veterans to visit Washington, D.C. — is straying beyond its mission to “honor U.S. military veterans.”None of that, Williams said Friday, will deter the Omaha-based nonprofit from hosting an event featuring Riley Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer and an outspoken opponent of allowing trans females to compete against biological female athletes.“We’ve wandered outside our mission before,” he said.&nbsp;“It’s a great opportunity, a great platform, for (Gaines) to talk about her first-hand experience in competing against a biological male.”<h2>‘Controversial’ in some circles</h2>“In some circles that’s controversial,” Williams added. “The vast majority of Americans know it’s unfair.”Gaines, who has appeared several times on Fox News, will speak at a Patriotic Productions-sponsored event Aug. 27 at Embassy Suites in La Vista.Gaines tied for fifth at the 2020 NCAA championships in the 200-yard freestyle with Lia Thomas, a University of Pennsylvania swimmer who became the first openly transgender woman to compete in the female events. Thomas won the 500-yard freestyle race.The event is billed as a “call to action” and is described as being “not about politics or transgender” but about “safety, fairness and common sense.”It also touches on the controversial issue of whether trans females should be allowed to compete in athletic contests against biological females.Passage of a similar, hot-button, culture wars issue — banning gender-affirming procedures for minors —<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/05/22/nebraska-gov-jim-pillen-signs-abortion-gender-care-restrictions-into-law/">&nbsp;touched off an unprecedented</a>, session-long series of filibusters in the Nebraska Legislature this year in which angry words were often exchanged between state senators.The sponsor of the bill on blocking minors from transgender procedures, State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha, will appear at the Gaines event. She is also the sponsor of another bill, the “The Sports and Spaces Act.”That proposal, Legislative Bill 575, would block biological males from competing in K-12 sports designed for biological females, and block biological males from using school bathrooms and locker rooms designated for females.<h2>20 states have bans</h2>While the Nebraska bill failed to advance this year, at least 20 states now ban trans athletes from joining sports that align with their gender at birth, according to&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://apnews.com/article/congress-transgender-women-sports-ban-athletes-1c58c20cac2b191e323e4376d7949a2d">the Associated Press</a>. The&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/06/22/a-growing-number-of-nebraska-lawmakers-seeks-to-avoid-another-fight-on-trans-youth-in-2024/">Sports and Spaces Act</a>&nbsp;could advance to debate next year.Williams said he and his wife, Evonne, have 11 grandchildren, including five granddaughters, and feel “very strongly” that this is the right thing to do.“If we don’t stand up for females now, what’s going to happen to them?” he said of his granddaughters.A “Public Pulse”&nbsp;<a target="_blank" href="https://omaha.com/eedition/sunrise/articles/featured-speaker/article_32612e92-2a15-5254-935f-4a92ac1384aa.html">writer to the Omaha World-Herald on July 13</a>&nbsp;said she was “disappointed and angered” that an organization dedicated to honoring veterans was promoting a speaker who promotes “trans discrimination.”“I struggle to understand why this organization would host an event featuring such a divisive, anti-trans speaker. Many transgender Americans are proudly serving our country right now and many others have served honorably or died serving in the past,” stated the letter, signed by Mary Ann Folchert of Omaha.When asked about the event, State Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue had a similar response, saying that it “disrespected” the mission of honoring veterans.<h2>‘Inappropriate’</h2>“I think it’s inappropriate for those who served to be utilizing resources to get involved in culture wars,” Blood said.Williams said it wasn’t the first time that Patriotic Productions has sponsored events or speakers that were non-military.In 2020, amid the backlash against the police custody killing of George Floyd, the organization sponsored two “Back the Blue” events. The mother of one of the murder victims of spree killer Nikko Jenkins also spoke at one Patriotic Productions event, Williams said.But, he added, the organization has never endorsed a political candidate and doesn’t plan on getting involved in the state legislative debate over trans participation in sports.<h2>‘She deserves freedom of speech’</h2>“I don’t think that’s our deal,” Williams said. “(Gaines)&nbsp;deserves freedom of speech … so we’re going to give her the opportunity.”The Riley Gaines event asks for a $250 per person donation and includes sponsorship opportunities of up to $5,000.Sponsors of past Patriotic Productions events include U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts and his wife, Susanne Shore, and Sandhills Global, founded by Tom Peed. Peed has made headlines recently for donating $2 million toward the unsuccessful Lincoln mayoral candidacy of former State Sen. Suzanne Geist,and for&nbsp;<a href="https://nebraskaexaminer.com/2023/07/13/top-gop-donor-tom-peed-hosts-house-speaker-kevin-mccarthy-in-lincoln-at-dinner/">hosting U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy</a>, the Speaker of the U.S. House, at a dinner at his family’s Lincoln steakhouse.Jordy Bahl, a star softball pitcher who recently transferred from the National Champion University of Oklahoma Sooners to her home state school, the University of Nebraska, will introduce Gaines at the event. Carol Frost, an Olympic discus thrower and mother of former NU football coach Scott Frost, will also speak about the impact of Title IX on women’s athletics.Patriotic Productions is hosting a more traditional veterans event on July 29 at 10 a.m. Memorial Park in Omaha.It will be a “remembrance ceremony” in honor of the 70th anniversary of the signing of the armistice agreement to end the war in Korea.

Despite pushback, veterans group plans to host national speaker who opposes trans athletes

NEW YORK (AP) — In the winter of 2010, shortly after police discovered the remains of his roommate and three other women buried on a remote stretch of Long Island shoreline, Dave Schaller provided detectives with a description of the person he believed to be the killer.

More crucially, Schaller told them about his truck.

The man they were looking for was a towering, Frankenstein-like figure with an “empty gaze” who drove a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche, Schaller recalled telling investigators. The man’s size stuck out, as did his unusual pick-up truck, which he’d used to flee the house Schaller shared with Amber Costello.

On that night, Schaller said he came home to find the stranger threatening Costello, an occasional sex worker, who had locked herself in the bathroom. The two men came to blows, with the hulking intruder eventually leaving in the truck.

Prosecutors say Costello was last seen alive on Sept. 2, 2010, as she left her home to meet that same client. A witness saw a dark-colored truck drive by the house again shortly after she left.

“When they told me she was dead, he was the first person who jumped in my head,” Schaller told The Associated Press. “I’ve been picturing his face for 13 years.”

On July 14,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/long-island-serial-killings-arrest-gilgo-beach-c3af339961c00276429908b1dd20dc19">police arrested Rex Heuermann</a>&nbsp;on charges of killing Costello and two other women, Melissa Barthelemy and Megan Waterman. He is the prime suspect in the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Heuermann, an architect who worked in Manhattan, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The arrest marked a stunning breakthrough in the hunt for a serial killer who had eluded investigators and whose crimes gripped Long Islanders since the bodies of four women — all of them sex workers — were found wrapped in burlap near Gilgo Beach.

Within months, the remains of six other bodies, including a toddler, were discovered elsewhere along the same beach highway. Heuermann has not been accused in any of those cases. Police have said the deaths may be the work of multiple killers.

The arrest has brought a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/long-island-heuermann-serial-killer-gilgo-e8496c5bb2c1878ae8be00adb343c935">measure of relief to families of the victims</a>&nbsp;at a moment when the trail appeared to have gone cold. But as new details emerge about how police finally caught the alleged killer, they’ve also raised questions about whether investigators adequately pursued a key lead — Schaller's description of the stranger and his truck —that may have helped solve the case sooner.

“This was crucial information, and I don’t know why they didn’t share it,” said Rob Trotta, a county legislator who worked as a Suffolk County Police detective until 2013. “They made some serious blunders here.”

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney, who inherited the investigation when he took office in 2022, said the key to unraveling the case was the description of the truck, discovered by a state investigator after the launch of a new task force formed to take a fresh look at the evidence.

When they ran it through a vehicle records database, one of the results turned up a hit: A man who owned a Chevy Avalanche lived in a neighborhood that investigators were already zeroing in on as the suspect’s likely location because of a sophisticated analysis of cellphone location data and call records. Heuermann fit the physical description provided by Schaller, too: He was 6 feet, 4 inches (193 centimeters) tall and weighed 240 pounds (109 kilograms).

Tierney told the AP he did not know why police had not run a search earlier, but suggested the piece of information may have been “lost within a sea of other tips and information.”

He stressed there were other elements that ultimately helped investigators arrest Heuermann, including new technology that helped match samples of DNA to the suspect.

“What solved this case was a lot of dedicated investigators, analysts and attorneys from a bunch of agencies getting together and collaborating,” he said.

But for Schaller, any feelings of relief over the arrest were soon eclipsed by anger and confusion.

Speaking out for the first time since the arrest, he said he had met with homicide detectives on multiple occasions during the initial years of the investigation.

During one of their final meetings, roughly two years after the women went missing, he said he picked the truck's model out of a line-up of photographs provided by the detectives.

“I gave them the exact description of the truck and the dude,” he said. “I mean come on, why didn’t they use that?”

The question has vexed some law enforcement officials as well. Two high-ranking officials who worked closely on the case and attended briefings between 2011 and 2013 said they never heard anything about a witness statement describing the suspect and his vehicle.

The law enforcement officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose information about the investigation.

According to a vehicle history report, Heuermann bought the pickup — a dark green, first-generation edition — at a Chevrolet dealer on Long Island in 2002 and transferred ownership to his brother, Craig, in South Carolina in 2012.

Authorities seized the vehicle last week. In a search warrant, they said they were looking for other clues in the vehicle or at property the brothers owned in Chester County, South Carolina, such as DNA, fluids, fingerprints, phones and what they described as possible “trophies” that may have belonged to the victims — clothing, jewelry, Bibles or photos.

Investigators said they were also looking for any electronics, video recordings and writings related to the killings; burlap; duct tape; guns and ammunition; cutting tools; and a specific type of paper towel from the Bounty Modern Print Collection.

While it’s not clear whether investigators pursued the tip about the vehicle before last year, those involved in the case pointed to fierce divisions between the various law enforcement agencies — as well as overlapping scandals that engulfed Suffolk County — as a potential explanation for a key clue slipping through the cracks.

Shortly after taking over the Suffolk County police department in 2012, James Burke moved to end cooperation with the FBI amid federal scrutiny of his own misconduct.

Four years later, Burke was sentenced to 46 months in prison after he was found to have conspired to cover-up his beating of a man who had discovered sex toys and pornography inside his car.

The federal inquiry would also lead to prison sentences for Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota, who oversaw the early years of the Gilgo Beach case, as well as the county’s top anticorruption prosecutor, Christopher McPartland.

“This was a dark cloud over the community,” recalled Tim Sini, who succeeded Burke as police commissioner and later became the county’s district attorney. “When you have the police department and the district attorney’s office blocking the FBI, that does not engender trust in law enforcement.”

Sini said he inherited an investigation that was “in disarray,” with detectives blocked from cooperating not only with federal investigators, but with the neighboring police department in Nassau County, where Heuermann lived.

He declined to say if he knew about the description of a suspect and its vehicle, but noted that his office invested heavily in technology that allowed investigators to track data from cellphone towers used by the suspect’s burner phone.

The arrest, Sini said, was the result of painstaking detective work that spanned multiple administrations and relied on a wide range of evidence. But, he added, “I wouldn’t call it a major success. The case should’ve been solved earlier."

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/7/1690025920460.jpeg" alt="Authorities search the home of suspect Rex Heuermann, Tuesday, July 18, 2023, in Massapequa Park, As new details emerge about how police finally caught the alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer, they've also raised questions about whether investigators adequately pursued a key lead that may have helped solve the case sooner. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)" />
 <figcaption>Authorities search the home of suspect Rex Heuermann, Tuesday, July 18, 2023, in Massapequa Park, As new details emerge about how police finally caught the alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer, they've also raised questions about whether investigators adequately pursued a key lead that may have helped solve the case sooner. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)</figcaption>
 </figure>By Jake OffenhartzNEW YORK (AP) — In the winter of 2010, shortly after police discovered the remains of his roommate and three other women buried on a remote stretch of Long Island shoreline, Dave Schaller provided detectives with a description of the person he believed to be the killer.More crucially, Schaller told them about his truck.The man they were looking for was a towering, Frankenstein-like figure with an “empty gaze” who drove a first-generation Chevrolet Avalanche, Schaller recalled telling investigators. The man’s size stuck out, as did his unusual pick-up truck, which he’d used to flee the house Schaller shared with Amber Costello.On that night, Schaller said he came home to find the stranger threatening Costello, an occasional sex worker, who had locked herself in the bathroom. The two men came to blows, with the hulking intruder eventually leaving in the truck.Prosecutors say Costello was last seen alive on Sept. 2, 2010, as she left her home to meet that same client. A witness saw a dark-colored truck drive by the house again shortly after she left.“When they told me she was dead, he was the first person who jumped in my head,” Schaller told The Associated Press. “I’ve been picturing his face for 13 years.”On July 14,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/long-island-serial-killings-arrest-gilgo-beach-c3af339961c00276429908b1dd20dc19">police arrested Rex Heuermann</a>&nbsp;on charges of killing Costello and two other women, Melissa Barthelemy and Megan Waterman. He is the prime suspect in the death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes. Heuermann, an architect who worked in Manhattan, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.The arrest marked a stunning breakthrough in the hunt for a serial killer who had eluded investigators and whose crimes gripped Long Islanders since the bodies of four women — all of them sex workers — were found wrapped in burlap near Gilgo Beach.Within months, the remains of six other bodies, including a toddler, were discovered elsewhere along the same beach highway. Heuermann has not been accused in any of those cases. Police have said the deaths may be the work of multiple killers.The arrest has brought a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/long-island-heuermann-serial-killer-gilgo-e8496c5bb2c1878ae8be00adb343c935">measure of relief to families of the victims</a>&nbsp;at a moment when the trail appeared to have gone cold. But as new details emerge about how police finally caught the alleged killer, they’ve also raised questions about whether investigators adequately pursued a key lead — Schaller's description of the stranger and his truck —that may have helped solve the case sooner.“This was crucial information, and I don’t know why they didn’t share it,” said Rob Trotta, a county legislator who worked as a Suffolk County Police detective until 2013. “They made some serious blunders here.”Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney, who inherited the investigation when he took office in 2022, said the key to unraveling the case was the description of the truck, discovered by a state investigator after the launch of a new task force formed to take a fresh look at the evidence.When they ran it through a vehicle records database, one of the results turned up a hit: A man who owned a Chevy Avalanche lived in a neighborhood that investigators were already zeroing in on as the suspect’s likely location because of a sophisticated analysis of cellphone location data and call records. Heuermann fit the physical description provided by Schaller, too: He was 6 feet, 4 inches (193 centimeters) tall and weighed 240 pounds (109 kilograms).Tierney told the AP he did not know why police had not run a search earlier, but suggested the piece of information may have been “lost within a sea of other tips and information.”He stressed there were other elements that ultimately helped investigators arrest Heuermann, including new technology that helped match samples of DNA to the suspect.“What solved this case was a lot of dedicated investigators, analysts and attorneys from a bunch of agencies getting together and collaborating,” he said.But for Schaller, any feelings of relief over the arrest were soon eclipsed by anger and confusion.Speaking out for the first time since the arrest, he said he had met with homicide detectives on multiple occasions during the initial years of the investigation.During one of their final meetings, roughly two years after the women went missing, he said he picked the truck's model out of a line-up of photographs provided by the detectives.“I gave them the exact description of the truck and the dude,” he said. “I mean come on, why didn’t they use that?”The question has vexed some law enforcement officials as well. Two high-ranking officials who worked closely on the case and attended briefings between 2011 and 2013 said they never heard anything about a witness statement describing the suspect and his vehicle.The law enforcement officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose information about the investigation.According to a vehicle history report, Heuermann bought the pickup — a dark green, first-generation edition — at a Chevrolet dealer on Long Island in 2002 and transferred ownership to his brother, Craig, in South Carolina in 2012.Authorities seized the vehicle last week. In a search warrant, they said they were looking for other clues in the vehicle or at property the brothers owned in Chester County, South Carolina, such as DNA, fluids, fingerprints, phones and what they described as possible “trophies” that may have belonged to the victims — clothing, jewelry, Bibles or photos.Investigators said they were also looking for any electronics, video recordings and writings related to the killings; burlap; duct tape; guns and ammunition; cutting tools; and a specific type of paper towel from the Bounty Modern Print Collection.While it’s not clear whether investigators pursued the tip about the vehicle before last year, those involved in the case pointed to fierce divisions between the various law enforcement agencies — as well as overlapping scandals that engulfed Suffolk County — as a potential explanation for a key clue slipping through the cracks.Shortly after taking over the Suffolk County police department in 2012, James Burke moved to end cooperation with the FBI amid federal scrutiny of his own misconduct.Four years later, Burke was sentenced to 46 months in prison after he was found to have conspired to cover-up his beating of a man who had discovered sex toys and pornography inside his car.The federal inquiry would also lead to prison sentences for Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota, who oversaw the early years of the Gilgo Beach case, as well as the county’s top anticorruption prosecutor, Christopher McPartland.“This was a dark cloud over the community,” recalled Tim Sini, who succeeded Burke as police commissioner and later became the county’s district attorney. “When you have the police department and the district attorney’s office blocking the FBI, that does not engender trust in law enforcement.”Sini said he inherited an investigation that was “in disarray,” with detectives blocked from cooperating not only with federal investigators, but with the neighboring police department in Nassau County, where Heuermann lived.He declined to say if he knew about the description of a suspect and its vehicle, but noted that his office invested heavily in technology that allowed investigators to track data from cellphone towers used by the suspect’s burner phone.The arrest, Sini said, was the result of painstaking detective work that spanned multiple administrations and relied on a wide range of evidence. But, he added, “I wouldn’t call it a major success. The case should’ve been solved earlier."

He came face to face with an alleged serial killer. 12 years later, his tip helped crack the case

NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Reserve launched a new instant payment service Thursday.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/8d6e9d6406398cb51ded58becceaacf4">FedNow allows banks and credit unions</a>&nbsp;to sign up to send real-time payments so they can offer customers a quicker way to send money between banks.

<a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/fednow_about.htm">FedNow,</a> which was first announced in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/other20190805a.htm">2019</a>, published a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/organizations">list of banks</a>&nbsp;and credit unions that are already signed up to the service. However, it might take longer for customers to be able to use the service with their bank.

Here’s what you need to know about FedNow.

FedNow offers instant payment services for banks and credit unions to transfer money for their customers. Unlike other private money-transferring services like PayPal or Venmo, FedNow services are not offered to customers directly through a third-party app or website. The services will only be available through banks or credit unions. However, once banks have adopted FedNow, they’re expected to make it available on their websites and apps.

Once a bank offers the FedNow services, customers will be able to send money instantly. The service is also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Among&nbsp;<a href="https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/organizations-certified">the banks</a>&nbsp;that will offer the FedNow services soon are Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase.

By creating FedNow, the Fed is making it quicker and more accessible for people to send and receive online payments. The Fed is also catching up with other countries that already have real-time payment systems like FedNow, including England, China, Sweden and India.

FedNow will also equip banks with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.clevelandfed.org/collections/speeches/2023/sp-20230712-update-on-the-federal-reserves-instant-payments-service">tools to identify and combat fraud attempts.</a>&nbsp;These tools include the ability for banks to flag suspicious accounts and limit the amount and frequency of payments by those accounts.

Customers, including individuals and businesses, whose banks or credit unions offer FedNow services will be able to send and receive money in real-time. If, for example, a customer wants to send money to a friend, both people have to bank with institutions that offer FedNow services.

WHAT ARE SOME SCENARIOS WHERE I CAN USE FEDNOW?

Given the speed of transactions, this service can be beneficial for customers in many ways.

— If your employer sends your paycheck through FedNow, the paycheck will be able to clear in seconds rather than days.

— If you forgot to pay your rent until the last minute, you will be able to send the money late at night without waiting to have it cleared the next business day.

FedNow is now live but it might take months or years for customers to be able to use this service, it all depends on when your bank makes it available.

WILL MY PRIVACY BE PROTECTED WITH FEDNOW?

The Federal Reserve and the FedNow service cannot access people’s bank accounts and it doesn’t have the authority for additional surveillance,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-banking-federal-reserve-fednow-429714320991">according to Fed officials</a>.

WILL FEDNOW REPLACE VENMO, PAYPAY OR OTHER SERVICES?

There are key differences between the FedNow service and apps such as Venmo and PayPal. FedNow is a service offered directly to banks and not to customers, which means FedNow does not have an app or website where customers will be able to send money to each other.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FEDNOW AND ZELLE?

While both FedNow and Zelle allow customers to make online transactions, there are some key differences. Zelle is a private app that works with some financial institutions while FedNow is backed by the Federal Reserve and is envisioned to be adopted by the majority of banks in the country.

Zelle lets you send and receive money instantly but the money might not be available for customers until days after the transaction. With FedNow, the Fed says the money will be available within seconds. Zelle has a customer-facing platform that allows customers to send money through their app while FedNow will not directly interact with customers but rather offer the services to banks.

Fed officials have stressed FedNow is unrelated to the notion of a government-run digital currency, which social media users also falsely claim would&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-FedNow-CBDC-223356937707">lead to the elimination of cash</a>.

“The Federal Reserve has made no decision on issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) &amp; would not do so without clear support from Congress and executive branch, ideally in the form of a specific authorizing law,” the agency wrote in a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/federalreserve/status/1644391858733187082">series of tweets</a>&nbsp;in April “A CBDC would not replace cash or other payment options.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2023/7/1689966177750.png" alt="“The Federal Reserve has made no decision on issuing a central bank digital currency.-Courtesy image" />
 <figcaption>“The Federal Reserve has made no decision on issuing a central bank digital currency.-Courtesy image</figcaption>
 </figure>NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Reserve launched a new instant payment service Thursday.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/8d6e9d6406398cb51ded58becceaacf4">FedNow allows banks and credit unions</a>&nbsp;to sign up to send real-time payments so they can offer customers a quicker way to send money between banks.<a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/fednow_about.htm">FedNow,</a> which was first announced in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/other20190805a.htm">2019</a>, published a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/organizations">list of banks</a>&nbsp;and credit unions that are already signed up to the service. However, it might take longer for customers to be able to use the service with their bank.Here’s what you need to know about FedNow.<h2>HOW DOES FEDNOW WORK?</h2>FedNow offers instant payment services for banks and credit unions to transfer money for their customers. Unlike other private money-transferring services like PayPal or Venmo, FedNow services are not offered to customers directly through a third-party app or website. The services will only be available through banks or credit unions. However, once banks have adopted FedNow, they’re expected to make it available on their websites and apps.Once a bank offers the FedNow services, customers will be able to send money instantly. The service is also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.Among&nbsp;<a href="https://www.frbservices.org/financial-services/fednow/organizations-certified">the banks</a>&nbsp;that will offer the FedNow services soon are Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase.<h2>WHY DID THE FED CREATE FEDNOW?</h2>By creating FedNow, the Fed is making it quicker and more accessible for people to send and receive online payments. The Fed is also catching up with other countries that already have real-time payment systems like FedNow, including England, China, Sweden and India.FedNow will also equip banks with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.clevelandfed.org/collections/speeches/2023/sp-20230712-update-on-the-federal-reserves-instant-payments-service">tools to identify and combat fraud attempts.</a>&nbsp;These tools include the ability for banks to flag suspicious accounts and limit the amount and frequency of payments by those accounts.<h2>WHO CAN USE FEDNOW?</h2>Customers, including individuals and businesses, whose banks or credit unions offer FedNow services will be able to send and receive money in real-time. If, for example, a customer wants to send money to a friend, both people have to bank with institutions that offer FedNow services.<h2>WHAT ARE SOME SCENARIOS WHERE I CAN USE FEDNOW?</h2>Given the speed of transactions, this service can be beneficial for customers in many ways.Here are some examples:— If your employer sends your paycheck through FedNow, the paycheck will be able to clear in seconds rather than days.— If you forgot to pay your rent until the last minute, you will be able to send the money late at night without waiting to have it cleared the next business day.<h2>WHEN WILL FEDNOW BE AVAILABLE TO ME?</h2>FedNow is now live but it might take months or years for customers to be able to use this service, it all depends on when your bank makes it available.<h2>WILL MY PRIVACY BE PROTECTED WITH FEDNOW?</h2>The Federal Reserve and the FedNow service cannot access people’s bank accounts and it doesn’t have the authority for additional surveillance,&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-banking-federal-reserve-fednow-429714320991">according to Fed officials</a>.<h2>WILL FEDNOW REPLACE VENMO, PAYPAY OR OTHER SERVICES?</h2>There are key differences between the FedNow service and apps such as Venmo and PayPal. FedNow is a service offered directly to banks and not to customers, which means FedNow does not have an app or website where customers will be able to send money to each other.<h2>WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FEDNOW AND ZELLE?</h2>While both FedNow and Zelle allow customers to make online transactions, there are some key differences. Zelle is a private app that works with some financial institutions while FedNow is backed by the Federal Reserve and is envisioned to be adopted by the majority of banks in the country.Zelle lets you send and receive money instantly but the money might not be available for customers until days after the transaction. With FedNow, the Fed says the money will be available within seconds. Zelle has a customer-facing platform that allows customers to send money through their app while FedNow will not directly interact with customers but rather offer the services to banks.<h2>WILL FEDNOW REPLACE CASH?</h2>Fed officials have stressed FedNow is unrelated to the notion of a government-run digital currency, which social media users also falsely claim would&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-FedNow-CBDC-223356937707">lead to the elimination of cash</a>.“The Federal Reserve has made no decision on issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) &amp; would not do so without clear support from Congress and executive branch, ideally in the form of a specific authorizing law,” the agency wrote in a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/federalreserve/status/1644391858733187082">series of tweets</a>&nbsp;in April “A CBDC would not replace cash or other payment options.”

U.S. moves step closer to Central Bank Digital Currency

Acting United States Attorney Susan Lehr announced that Russell L. Rucks, Sr., 52, of Lincoln, Nebraska, was sentenced today to 26 years’ imprisonment, for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine and a detectable amount of fentanyl, resulting in the death of one person and serious bodily injuries to two others, by Senior United States District Judge John M. Gerrard.&nbsp; Following his release from prison, Rucks will serve five years on supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.&nbsp; Rucks will also forfeit $5,084.00 in cash to the United States of America, and he was ordered to pay $9,700.00 in restitution to the mother of victim who died.

On July 24, 2021, a Lincoln woman called 911 after her fiancé collapsed after returning home from a trip to a gas station.&nbsp; Lincoln Fire and Rescue, (LFR), arrived and performed lifesaving measures, including administering two doses of Narcan.&nbsp; After the second dose of Narcan, the victim began to regain consciousness and was transported to a Lincoln hospital.&nbsp; The victim later told investigators he had been purchasing small amounts of cocaine about every seven to 10 days from Russell Rucks, Sr. for about a year.&nbsp; Just before his overdose, he said he met with Rucks and bought $20 worth of what he believed to be cocaine.&nbsp; He snorted the cocaine and suffered an overdose.&nbsp; Phone records for the victim and Rucks confirmed the victim had been communicating about drug transactions.&nbsp; A medical expert reviewed first responder and hospital records for the victim and found he faced a substantial risk of death had he not been given Narcan.

On July 27, 2021, two Lincoln men overdosed at a residence in Lincoln.&nbsp; Both were found unconscious.&nbsp; Both were given Narcan and were hospitalized.&nbsp; One of the victims died on August 19, 2021, but the other victim eventually recovered.&nbsp; The surviving victim told investigators he pooled money with the victim who died, and they bought what they believed to be cocaine from Rucks. The surviving victim said he and the victim who died both used the “cocaine” which led to their overdoses.&nbsp; Investigators found phone messages between the surviving victim and Rucks on the day of the overdoses in which the surviving victim arranged to meet with Rucks.&nbsp; Several items of drug paraphernalia, all containing drug residue, were seized from the residence where the two victims were found, and lab testing showed these items all contained cocaine and fentanyl.&nbsp; A medical expert reviewed the first responder and hospital records for both victims determined that one victim died due to ingesting cocaine laced with fentanyl and the other was seriously injured due to ingesting those substances.

On August 11, 2021, Rucks was arrested and found in possession of a small amount of cocaine.&nbsp; On the same day, his son, Russell Rucks, Jr., was also arrested and was found in possession of $1,634 in cash.&nbsp; A search warrant was executed at their Lincoln residence which resulted in the finding of 6.8 pounds of cocaine, a scale, and $3,950 in currency.&nbsp; Rucks, Sr. waived his&nbsp;Miranda&nbsp;rights and told investigators he had been selling what he believed to be cocaine in the months prior to his arrest.&nbsp;

Russell Rucks, Jr., faces similar charges and is awaiting trial currently scheduled to begin in October of 2023.

This case was investigated by the Lincoln/Lancaster County Narcotics Task Force (Lincoln Police Department, Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office and UNL Police Department) and the Nebraska State Patrol.

Acting United States Attorney Susan Lehr announced that Russell L. Rucks, Sr., 52, of Lincoln, Nebraska, was sentenced today to 26 years’ imprisonment, for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine and a detectable amount of fentanyl, resulting in the death of one person and serious bodily injuries to two others, by Senior United States District Judge John M. Gerrard.&nbsp; Following his release from prison, Rucks will serve five years on supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.&nbsp; Rucks will also forfeit $5,084.00 in cash to the United States of America, and he was ordered to pay $9,700.00 in restitution to the mother of victim who died.On July 24, 2021, a Lincoln woman called 911 after her fiancé collapsed after returning home from a trip to a gas station.&nbsp; Lincoln Fire and Rescue, (LFR), arrived and performed lifesaving measures, including administering two doses of Narcan.&nbsp; After the second dose of Narcan, the victim began to regain consciousness and was transported to a Lincoln hospital.&nbsp; The victim later told investigators he had been purchasing small amounts of cocaine about every seven to 10 days from Russell Rucks, Sr. for about a year.&nbsp; Just before his overdose, he said he met with Rucks and bought $20 worth of what he believed to be cocaine.&nbsp; He snorted the cocaine and suffered an overdose.&nbsp; Phone records for the victim and Rucks confirmed the victim had been communicating about drug transactions.&nbsp; A medical expert reviewed first responder and hospital records for the victim and found he faced a substantial risk of death had he not been given Narcan.On July 27, 2021, two Lincoln men overdosed at a residence in Lincoln.&nbsp; Both were found unconscious.&nbsp; Both were given Narcan and were hospitalized.&nbsp; One of the victims died on August 19, 2021, but the other victim eventually recovered.&nbsp; The surviving victim told investigators he pooled money with the victim who died, and they bought what they believed to be cocaine from Rucks. The surviving victim said he and the victim who died both used the “cocaine” which led to their overdoses.&nbsp; Investigators found phone messages between the surviving victim and Rucks on the day of the overdoses in which the surviving victim arranged to meet with Rucks.&nbsp; Several items of drug paraphernalia, all containing drug residue, were seized from the residence where the two victims were found, and lab testing showed these items all contained cocaine and fentanyl.&nbsp; A medical expert reviewed the first responder and hospital records for both victims determined that one victim died due to ingesting cocaine laced with fentanyl and the other was seriously injured due to ingesting those substances.On August 11, 2021, Rucks was arrested and found in possession of a small amount of cocaine.&nbsp; On the same day, his son, Russell Rucks, Jr., was also arrested and was found in possession of $1,634 in cash.&nbsp; A search warrant was executed at their Lincoln residence which resulted in the finding of 6.8 pounds of cocaine, a scale, and $3,950 in currency.&nbsp; Rucks, Sr. waived his&nbsp;Miranda&nbsp;rights and told investigators he had been selling what he believed to be cocaine in the months prior to his arrest.&nbsp;Russell Rucks, Jr., faces similar charges and is awaiting trial currently scheduled to begin in October of 2023.This case was investigated by the Lincoln/Lancaster County Narcotics Task Force (Lincoln Police Department, Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office and UNL Police Department) and the Nebraska State Patrol.

Lincoln Man Sentenced for Conspiracy to Distribute Cocaine and Fentanyl Resulting in Death and Serious Injuries

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Mega Millions has upped the ante by another $100 million.

The lack of a jackpot winner in the lottery game's latest drawing on Friday night sent the top prize soaring to an estimated $820 million.

The numbers drawn late Friday were: 29, 40, 47, 50, 57 and gold Mega Ball 25. No tickets were sold hitting all those numbers for the estimated grand prize of $720 million.

The estimated $820 million in the next drawing on Tuesday night would only be distributed to a winner who chooses an annuity paid over 29 years. Nearly all grand prize winners opt to take a cash payout, which for Tuesdays drawing is an estimated $422 million.

The potential jackpot is the fifth largest in the history of the game, Mega Millions said in a statement early Saturday.

Despite the game’s long odds of 1 in 302.6 million, players continue to purchase tickets as the size of the grand prize grows.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Mega Millions has upped the ante by another $100 million.The lack of a jackpot winner in the lottery game's latest drawing on Friday night sent the top prize soaring to an estimated $820 million.The numbers drawn late Friday were: 29, 40, 47, 50, 57 and gold Mega Ball 25. No tickets were sold hitting all those numbers for the estimated grand prize of $720 million.The estimated $820 million in the next drawing on Tuesday night would only be distributed to a winner who chooses an annuity paid over 29 years. Nearly all grand prize winners opt to take a cash payout, which for Tuesdays drawing is an estimated $422 million.The potential jackpot is the fifth largest in the history of the game, Mega Millions said in a statement early Saturday.Despite the game’s long odds of 1 in 302.6 million, players continue to purchase tickets as the size of the grand prize grows.The last time a Mega Millions player hit the top prize was April 18.Friday's drawing resulted in eight tickets matching five white balls for a $1 million prize. Two each were sold in Florida, New Jersey and North Carolina, with one in California and another in Michigan, Mega Millions said.The Powerball jackpot also was approaching near-record levels before a tiny neighborhood store in downtown Los Angeles sold the winning ticket for Wednesday's drawing, worth an estimated&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/powerball-jackpot-winner-california-9f0e98a47c96c2b3087a68b33195dd50">$1.08 billion</a>.Mega Millions is&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/religion-alabama-alaska-lotteries-business-86424cf8e2b7cccf8ae9d06f6652d559">played in 45 states</a>, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands.