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Starting Jan. 1, older adults on Medicare will spend no more than $2,000 a year on prescription drugs when a new price cap on out-of-pocket payments from the Inflation Reduction Act goes into effect. Experts say the change is expected to provide major relief for cancer patients who often struggle to afford their medications due to the high cost of cancer drugs. > Watch NBC Bay Area News 📺 Streaming free 24/7 Diana DiVito, of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, recalls the shock she felt after she got her first co-payment for the cancer drug Imbruvica in 2016. The 83-year-old was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a type of blood cancer that begins in the bone marrow, in 2005. She underwent treatment, including chemotherapy, and went into remission. When she had a recurrence, she started taking Imbruvica. By 2021, DiVito had spent $56,000 out-of-pocket on the daily pill. “The co-pays blew me away,” said DiVito, who added she’s been on limited income since her husband died in 2023. “It started out the first year was $8,500 out of pocket, and then it went up about $1,000 every year after that.” The new price cap will apply to all prescription drugs under Medicare Part D; it won’t apply to drugs given to patients in the hospital or other health care settings, such as chemotherapy or anesthesia. Medicare recipients will also have the new option of spreading their payments out over the course of the year , rather than paying a large co-payment all at once. Before the change, people on Medicare typically had to spend $7,000 or more out of pocket on their prescription drugs before they qualified for so-called catastrophic coverage, when insurance kicks in and covers most of the drug’s cost. Under this coverage, patients are charged a small co-payment or a percentage of a drug’s cost, usually 5%. Typically, DiVito would hit catastrophic coverage almost immediately after her plan reset each January. While that helped with costs for most of the year, it meant the first few prescriptions she filled were financially painful. Anticipating the cap next month, DiVito said she has much less stress and is spending a little more freely. “I’m being a little more generous with my grandchildren this Christmas,” she said. Millions expected to benefit The Inflation Reduction Act’s $2,000 price cap comes after years of public outcry about the soaring cost of prescription drugs , including cancer medications, in the United States. The law introduced the cap gradually, starting with a cap of $3,250 on out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs in 2024. More than 65 million people, mainly older adults, are enrolled in Medicare. A study published in September in JAMA Network Open found that annual out-of-pocket costs for cancer medications averaged $11,284 for Medicare Part D beneficiaries in 2023. (Part D refers to coverage for prescription drugs.) A separate report from the nonprofit group AARP found that 3.2 million Medicare recipients are expected to see savings from the out-of-pocket cap in 2025. By 2029, the number is expected to increase to 4.1 million enrollees. The report didn’t break down savings for people with certain conditions, such as cancer. However, research shows about 60% of cancer cases occur in adults 65 and older. On average, 1.4 million enrollees who reach the out-of-pocket cap from 2025 to 2029 are estimated to see annual savings of $1,000 or more, the AARP report found, and just over 420,000 will see savings of more than $3,000. Mary and Jim Scott of Oregon are among the Medicare enrollees expecting to see savings next year. In 2023, the couple’s out-of-pocket prescription drug expenses skyrocketed to $8,000, up from their previous annual average of $240. It was a difficult year during which Jim, 83, faced multiple serious health issues, including congestive heart failure, an acute kidney injury and bladder cancer. The new cap won’t apply to drugs given in a health care setting (these are covered under Medicare Part B), meaning Jim will still be responsible for the costs of chemotherapy not covered by his insurance. Still, Mary, 73, said the change offers a sense of relief after more than a year of struggling with the soaring costs of cancer care, making it easier for the couple to stay afloat and focus on what matters most: Jim’s health, their grandchildren, their dog and their garden. “We’re not planning any amazing trips. We’re still needing to live our low-key lives,” Mary said. “But by the end of the summer, maybe we’ll be able to put up some new siding on the house and do a few things that we’ve deferred.” Living on fixed incomes Juliette Cubanski, deputy director of the Medicare policy program at KFF, a nonprofit group that researches health policy issues, noted that in the nearly 20 years since Medicare Part D was introduced, there has never been an annual cap on out-of-pocket costs. She co-wrote an analysis that found about 1.5 million people on Medicare had out-of-pocket prescription drug costs exceeding $2,000 in 2021 and would have benefited from the cap. Of the 1.5 million, about 200,000 Medicare enrollees spent $5,000 or more for their prescriptions that year. “So, for people who need really expensive drugs or who take a lot of medications where the monthly cost adds up, they may have had to pay several thousands of dollars out of pocket each year,” she said. Many people on Medicare are retired and live on fixed incomes, Cubanski said, meaning people often go deep into debt or even bankrupt. Arthur Caplan, the head of the division of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, said that’s especially true for cancer patients: A survey from the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network published in May found that nearly half of cancer patients have medical debt, despite most being insured. “We have many emerging treatments for cancer,” Caplan said. “They are hugely expensive.” Cubanski said that even for those who don’t spend more than $2,000 a year, the cap is still important. “The unfortunate truth is we’re all one scary diagnosis away from needing an expensive drug,” she said. Is $2,000 a year still too high? George Valentine, 73, of Philadelphia, said he was at his annual physical in 2002 when his doctor noticed something unusual in his test results. Further testing revealed he had chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The medications he needed came with a hefty price tag — around $14,000 a month. While he was working in the information technology industry, this wasn’t a major issue because his job-based health insurance included an out-of-pocket maximum, which he hit every year. However, when Valentine retired in 2019, he discovered a significant gap in Medicare’s coverage. Unlike his previous insurance, Medicare had no out-of-pocket spending limit, leaving him responsible for 5% of his medication costs after reaching the catastrophic coverage phase. “Five percent of $14,000 is a lot of money,” he said. “I would get to the catastrophic phase by February in any given year, and for the rest of the year I had this burden of $700 or around there every month and it never ended.” Valentine, now an advocate for the PAN Foundation, a patient financial assistance group for people with life-threatening chronic conditions, said he would prefer the out-of-pocket cap in the New Year to be “zero.” Still, he added, with the $2,000 cap he can now at least sleep at night. “All that matters is when I hit $2,000, I’m done,” he said. This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:Vasko's 4 TDs power Coastal Carolina past Georgia State 48-27 to become bowl eligible\��&�˖���q�>�+E�7*6��{t�xA�4�0�݇�`7�ƴ\I~Lr�]Ț%z�8J�� JV?,�cp�~����KO�)��'�����D���L{:�M�����C�s����h���.�Q�B�8����[ �|�G�f�Jr)L��>^��>�ٚ"���Q�d�lv��k��dH�,������z��Mg���mc.UJ#�JT�(uxNU�\u c��jC�}u�|G��"8z�vm�F��m��.}� �,N��:Yɻ��K �����`�Wʌ=�ZA�Z�K��r#7�绺�>��Y���GC�]��dT����W��uEH[]-���bc �w�aq�5dL��l�=��ǫl�%��B/%G�f�zZ���}�[c��}��p��X�H��p�D��&���ypWTX��_�2�T�D -��|��H?�&�P*���Or�J�j�X����ɕ��u#���[�xW��:�t��d�o�!�7�Ad]�R�[��Ch�T`��� ��`��d。

The chief of a First Nation in central British Columbia says potential unmarked graves have been identified at the site of the former Lejac Indian Residential School after nearly two years of geophysical survey work. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * The chief of a First Nation in central British Columbia says potential unmarked graves have been identified at the site of the former Lejac Indian Residential School after nearly two years of geophysical survey work. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? The chief of a First Nation in central British Columbia says potential unmarked graves have been identified at the site of the former Lejac Indian Residential School after nearly two years of geophysical survey work. Nadleh Whut’en Chief Beverly Ketlo says the community has always known children were buried at the institution because many of their graves are marked in a cemetery. A statement from the First Nation says the institution had a cemetery on its grounds since it was founded in 1922, but findings so far suggest a number of unmarked graves have not been accounted for. It says a preliminary report from a ground-penetrating radar and magnetometry survey identified several geophysical signals consistent with burials. The statement announcing the report and its findings on Saturday did not provide an estimate of the number of potential unmarked grave sites. Ketlo says the nation is sharing information as officials receive it because “survivors have a right to know.” She discussed the report and its findings at a news conference in Fraser Lake, B.C., located about 160 kilometres west of Prince George. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. The Lejac Indian Residential School operated from 1922 to 1976, run by the Roman Catholic church under a contract with the Canadian government, with up to 7,850 Indigenous children, including day school students, attending. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 30, 2024. Advertisement Advertisement The Free Press acknowledges the financial support it receives from , which makes our coverage of religion possible.Hill scores 26 as Arkansas State knocks off Coastal Carolina 97-67Princess Kate's hilarious confession to fans on Christmas Day as her children 'wait'

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An Introduction to Quantum ComputingSlowing the impulse

Britain should follow Australia’s lead and ban young people from social media, according to a leading campaigner for the protection of childhood. The Australian Parliament last week backed the world’s toughest measures to stop under-16s using social media – and tech companies could fines of nearly £26million if they do not enforce new rules. Former Conservative MP Miriam Cates, a senior fellow at the Centre for Social Justice and GB News presenter, hopes Australia will blaze a trail for Britain to follow. She wants children denied access to “dreadful” content which encourages suicide, self-harm and misogyny and exposes them to pornography – and she is concerned they can be “contacted by people they don’t know” and “bullied by people they do know”. Ms Cates is also alarmed that algorithms encourage young people to spend hours staring at screens. “They are not being outside, they are not making face to face contact, they are not reading, they are not studying they are not doing sport – all those things that children really need to grow into competent adults,” she said. A further goal is encouraging smartphone manufacturers to produce phones which allow children to make calls, send texts, use digital train tickets and access maps – but not download apps. “I think that’s the answer really but Government will have to incentivise that to make it happen,” she said. Her call comes as Labour MP Josh MacAlister works to change the law so headteachers will have a legal requirement to make schools “mobile-free zones”. His draft law would raise the age of “internet adulthood” from 13 to 16 – making it harder for companies to use children’s data to “push addictive content”. Children’s Commissioner for England Dame Rachel de Souza said: “Too many children are still routinely exposed to significant and damaging online harms including violence, pornography and other material that promotes harmful behaviour. We have heard too many stories of children causing harm to themselves, or others, on the back of material they have been exposed to online.” Dame Rachel said she was “really impressed” by the action in Australia, adding that “we need to start here with holding the social media companies properly to account for their laissez faire approach to children’s safety”. Sir Peter Wanless, the chief executive of the NSPCC children’s charity, did not favour a “blanket ban”, saying this would “penalise children for the failures of tech companies to make their sites properly safe for young users”. A Government spokeswoman said there are “no current plans to implement a smartphone or social media ban for children,” adding: “We are focused on finding the best way of ensuring young people are kept safe while also benefiting from the latest technology. By next summer, the Online Safety Act will bring in protections for children to make sure their experiences online are appropriate for their age. “We have recently set out new priorities on online safety, including ensuring safety is baked into platforms from the start, and launched a research project looking at the links between social media and children’s wellbeing. This will help build the evidence base to inform future action.”

ANN ARBOR, Michigan — Michigan defensive lineman is skipping his final college season to enter the NFL draft. , a key part of the Wolverines’ 2023 national championship team, announced his decision Thursday on X, formerly known as Twitter. Fellow Michigan interior lineman Mason Graham had already declared for the draft. Both are projected as likely first-round picks. The 6-foot-3, 339-pound was a third-team Associated Press All-American. He had 32 tackles, 6 1/2 tackles for loss and a pair of fumble recoveries. helped Michigan upset Ohio State in the Big Ten regular-season finale, making four tackles. Cornerback Will Johnson and tight end Colston Loveland have also declared for the draft leading up to Michigan’s game against No. 11 Alabama in the ReliaQuest Bowl. Copyright © 2024 The Washington Times, LLC.BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) — Don McHenry scored 29 points as Western Kentucky beat Kentucky Wesleyan 91-71 on Saturday. McHenry also contributed four steals for the Hilltoppers (9-3). Braxton Bayless added 18 points while going 7 of 10 (3 for 3 from 3-point range) while they also had five rebounds. Julius Thedford went 6 of 13 from the field (3 for 7 from 3-point range) to finish with 17 points. It was the sixth straight win for the Hilltoppers. The Panthers were led in scoring by Quentin Toles, who finished with 15 points and six assists. Kentucky Wesleyan also got 14 points and six rebounds from Fatih Huyuk. Kennedy Miles also had 14 points and five assists. Western Kentucky took the lead with 5:32 remaining in the first half and did not relinquish it. The score was 46-41 at halftime, with Bayless racking up 13 points. Western Kentucky pulled away with an 8-0 run in the second half to extend a four-point lead to 12 points. They outscored Kentucky Wesleyan by 15 points in the final half, as McHenry led the way with a team-high 19 second-half points. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .

Trump threatens 100% tariff on BRICS nations if they act to undermine U.S. dollar

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 21, 2024-- Sunny Health & Fitness , a trailblazer in cardio equipment for over 20 years, is entering an exciting new phase of innovation and evolution. As a leader in the fitness industry, Sunny is not only enhancing its cardio offerings with cutting-edge technology to elevate users' fitness journeys but is also expanding into a comprehensive, one-stop lifestyle brand. With the launch of the Sunny Strength Line , the brand is redefining strength training with a sleek, high-performance collection designed for the fit, design-conscious consumer. This marks a bold new chapter in Sunny’s growth, delivering style, power, and innovation to home gyms everywhere at an affordable price. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241221265768/en/ From Strength to Strength - Unveiling the Sunny Strength Line (Photo: Business Wire) Strength, Style, and Innovation—Designed for the Modern Home Gym The Sunny Strength Line represents the perfect fusion of power and aesthetics. Whether you're an emerging athlete or just someone who values top-quality fitness gear at home, this collection delivers both superior performance and eye-catching design. From heavy-duty machines like racks, benches, and smith machines to stylish free weights, dumbbells, bars, and accessories, every product is engineered to meet the needs of those who want to build muscle and enhance strength, all while maintaining the sleek, modern look of their living spaces. Explore the Sunny Strength video to see how power meets style in this new strength training equipment line: https://youtu.be/j7KcpKa1iyE . Sunny Health & Fitness understands that today’s fitness enthusiasts demand equipment that not only performs but also complements their lifestyle. The Sunny Strength Line was created with versatility, functionality, and design in mind, giving you everything you need to take your strength training to the next level without compromising on the aesthetic of your home gym. With a thoughtfully curated color palette, this is strength training that combines exceptional performance with stunning design. Performance-Driven Strength Training for Every Fitness Journey Building muscle and enhancing strength are cornerstones of living a healthy and active lifestyle, and the Sunny Strength Line is specifically designed to support individuals in achieving these goals. Whether you’re a beginner or want to train like a pro, the line’s diverse range of products ensures there’s an ideal solution for every fitness level and training style. This equipment is built to deliver maximum performance, allowing users to progress efficiently in their strength training and take their fitness to new heights. Sunny Health & Fitness is committed to helping people not only get stronger but also get smarter about their fitness journey. The SunnyFit app , a key part of their digital transformation, offers personalized workout plans, fitness tracking, and progress monitoring—guiding users as they level up their performance. With this seamless integration of high-quality equipment and cutting-edge technology, the Sunny Strength Line provides everything you need to build muscle, boost endurance, and achieve long-term success. About Sunny Health & Fitness For more than two decades, Sunny Health & Fitness has been a leader in the fitness industry, providing affordable, high-quality solutions for home and commercial gyms alike. With its expanding range of strength equipment and digital tools like the SunnyFit app , the company is dedicated to helping individuals reach their fitness goals with style, innovation, and performance. View source version on businesswire.com : https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241221265768/en/ CONTACT: Hanna Kim (626) 968-1000 hannak@sunnyhealthfitness.comVisit website:SunnyHealthFitness.com Download SunnyFit now:SunnyFit.com KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: SOFTWARE MEN LIFESTYLE SPECIALTY CONSUMER ELECTRONICS CONSUMER APPS/APPLICATIONS TECHNOLOGY FITNESS & NUTRITION RETAIL WOMEN HEALTH HOME GOODS SOURCE: Sunny Health & Fitness Copyright Business Wire 2024. PUB: 12/21/2024 06:00 PM/DISC: 12/21/2024 06:00 PM http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241221265768/enSales in the semiconductor industry are surging thanks to the secular trends of artificial intelligence (AI) and electric vehicles (EVs). The semiconductor market is forecast to reach more than $600 billion in 2024, and rise to $1 trillion by 2030, making investments in chip companies a good way to capitalize on this growth. Two semiconductor industry leaders to consider are Wolfspeed ( WOLF 0.57% ) and Nvidia ( NVDA 3.08% ) . The former commands over 50% market share in the silicon carbide (SiC) wafer sector, while the latter captured headlines as its stock soared over 170% in 2024, through the week ending Dec. 13, thanks to its leadership in AI semiconductors. Both offer innovative technologies that make them attractive investments. Let's examine Wolfspeed and Nvidia to help you assess which is the better semiconductor stock for the long haul. A look at Wolfspeed What makes Wolfspeed a compelling investment is its focus on silicon carbide (SiC). The company developed the first commercial SiC wafers in 1991. They offer many advantages over the silicon widely used in the semiconductor industry today, particularly for EVs. Silicon carbide enables EVs to travel longer distances and reduce charging time. Wolfspeed believes its SiC sales will eventually grow to $3 billion in annual revenue as the EV market expands. For comparison, in the company's 2024 fiscal year, ended June 30, sales were $807.2 million. SiC's potential sounds promising, but the company has several hurdles to overcome first. It is trying to ramp up production at its SiC manufacturing plants, but the costs are high. For example, it generated sales of $194.7 million in its fiscal first quarter, ended Sept. 29, but the cost of revenue was $230.9 million. As a result, gross profit of $77.4 million at the end of fiscal 2024 turned into a loss of $36.2 million in the first quarter. It's also facing a cyclical downturn , causing softness in sales. Its $194.7 million in first-quarter revenue was down from $197.4 million in the previous year. The drop in sales, lack of profitability, and high production costs contributed to the resignation of Wolfspeed's CEO in November. Nvidia's AI strengths With the rise of AI, Nvidia has turned into a semiconductor powerhouse. It is now the world's leading semiconductor company by market cap. CEO Jensen Huang anticipated the need for accelerated computing in 1999 and introduced the graphics processing unit (GPU). Accelerated computing uses a dedicated processor to tackle intense tasks, such as the data crunching done by AI systems, rather than rely on a single CPU to do it all. This pioneering work in GPUs set the company up to enjoy massive sales to the cloud computing industry, where AI systems are housed. In its fiscal third quarter, ended Oct. 27, Nvidia's revenue reached a record $35.1 billion, an impressive 94% increase year over year. This led to a quarterly gross profit of $26.2 billion, nearly double the prior year's $13.4 billion. Nvidia's AI products are just getting started. The company is rolling out its latest computing architecture, called Blackwell. The new platform "pushes the boundaries of scientific computing," according to management. It will be a key revenue driver. Huang said current systems were trained on the human-generated data that existed before AI. Now, AI is starting to learn from its own synthetically produced content. This requires more computing power, which Blackwell delivers. "And so, we're seeing a lot of demand coming from a lot of different places," Huang said, indicating customers continue to crave his company's products for AI. Choosing between Wolfspeed and Nvidia Between Wolfspeed and Nvidia, the latter's strong sales, robust profits, and the ongoing demand seem to make it the clear choice between these two semiconductor giants. However, stock valuation is another important consideration. Comparing Wolfspeed and Nvidia using the price-to-sales ratio (P/S), a metric measuring how much investors are willing to pay for every dollar of sales, is revealing. Data by YCharts . Wolfspeed's recent struggles have resulted in its stock dropping over 80% this year through Dec. 13. Consequently, its P/S is the lowest it's been in years, while Nvidia's has done the opposite thanks to its AI success. Hence, Wolfspeed stock emerges as the better value, and could potentially deliver more upside over the long run, if the company can rebound from its current challenges. But because it faces a number of near-term headwinds, only investors with a high risk tolerance should consider purchasing shares. For others, Nvidia's success to date and the opportunities for continued sales growth with Blackwell make it the better long-term investment in the semiconductor sector.

Police around the world are using artificial intelligence-powered cameras to crack down on behavior like texting behind the wheel and driving without a seat belt. The traffic cameras, which use AI to detect and flag certain driving behaviors , might make it easier to prosecute more people than ever before for driving infractions. And the use of the cameras is quickly spreading. Acusensus, an Australian company, has worked with governments in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States to roll out some of the AI traffic cameras. Its camera system, called “ Heads Up ,” uses AI to catch drivers who are texting while driving or aren’t wearing seat belts. The Heads Up cameras take pictures of every vehicle that passes by them, capturing images of their license plates, as well as their front seats. AI analyzes the images and determines how likely it is that a violation occurred, assigning each one a “confidence level.” The cameras have been widely tested in the U.K. , where nearly half of the country’s police forces have tried them, and in Australia, where they’ve sparked debates about privacy and drawn media attention . David Kelly, Acusensus’ vice president of government solutions, said that if the software doesn’t detect anything, a picture is deleted. However, if the software does detect a violation, a human officer inspects the image to determine whether it depicts an offense. “If there’s no violation, we’re not saving the data. There’s no data for us to save. And if, when it’s reviewed, if there’s no citation that’s issued, there’s no data that’s saved,” Kelly said. Kelly said that local governments decide what happens to photos of violations and that Acusensus doesn’t keep violations data. Kelly said he wasn’t able to share the total number of cameras that have been set up, saying that “planned maintenance” affects the total and that the company defers “to our clients to release that information if they choose.” A recent news release from Transport for Greater Manchester, where the Heads Up system was going through a two-month temporary trial , reported that more than 3,200 people were found not wearing their seat belts or texting and driving. In the United States, the cameras function differently from those in the U.K. and Australia. Acusensus has cameras in Georgia and North Carolina that use its “ Heads Up Real Time Solution .” The Heads Up Real Time system in the United States sends images to nearby police officers, allowing them to stop drivers before violations occur. The other Heads Up product used internationally sends the pictures to law enforcement officials as part of an evidence package, and they can mail out tickets to offending drivers. Kelly said an automated ticketing program, such as Heads Up, would require state legislation to authorize its use. Speed and red light cameras are already familiar to U.S. drivers, capturing license plates and sending tickets by mail. With speed cameras, the devices usually use detectors to measure vehicles’ speeds. If a camera detects that a vehicle is speeding, it will take a picture of the license plate and send a citation to the owner through the mail. Red light cameras work similarly, and photos are usually reviewed by law enforcement officers, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures . With AI systems like Acusensus’, police officers are able to find vehicles that have violated the law and stop them in real time and detect more complex behaviors. “With a ticket in the mail, you get it three weeks later, and you’re like, ‘Wait a second. I don’t remember that,’ but in this instance, you’re able to change that behavior immediately,” Kelly said. “When we’re talking with law enforcement, that’s something that they like. They really like the ability to be able to engage with the driver and to make that stop and to change that behavior immediately.” In the United States, Heads Up Real Time targets only commercial vehicles. First Sgt. Christopher Knox of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety said three mobile cameras are set up in the state, usually in areas with high collision rates, such as multilane highways. Since North Carolina began using Heads Up Real Time last year, seat belt violations have risen sixfold and phone violations have increased ninefold, Acusensus said in a news release . Beyond state law enforcement, Acusensus has partnered with multiple U.S. universities to trial the Heads Up cameras, including the University of Alabama and the University of California, San Diego — whose programs are ongoing. With the UC San Diego program, cameras have been set up in the San Diego area, capturing images of commercial truck drivers practicing “unsafe driving practices,” such as speeding, using cellphones and failing to wear seat belts. On a website describing the program, the university says the technology identifies the behaviors “anonymously.” At the University of Alabama, Kelly said, the studies focus on passenger cars. Kelly also said Acusensus had a brief demonstration of the cameras at Louisiana State University. According to Govspend, a database of government contracts and purchases, there were eight sites set up in Louisiana. Kelly said that no colleges’ programs involve law enforcement and that the programs are focused on collecting data about unsafe driver practices. He added that Acusensus is confirming the violations it has found and is preparing a report for the researchers. He said the company isn’t sharing violation images with UC San Diego or the University of Alabama. Kelly added that for the college programs “all data is deleted at the end of the program” and that no personally identifiable information is collected. Acusensus’ website says it has multiple measures to protect the privacy of those captured in the images, including a “secure network architecture that heavily restricts and traces all access” and the blurring of parts of images that will be presented for humans to review. Acusensus also encrypts the images, making them accessible only to the government agencies receiving them. It also said its AI system is trained to learn how to detect violations without storing past images. Acusensus’ privacy policy reiterates that “our access to and use of personal information is fairly minimal and limited to that required for our part of the operation of the overall solution” and that “our solutions operate with privacy protections as agreed with our clients (typically government or enforcement agencies).” However, when it comes to ensuring people’s privacy isn’t violated, Daniel Solove, an intellectual property and technology law professor at George Washington University Law School, is skeptical of Acusensus’ model. “There has to be real oversight to make sure they are doing what they say they’re doing and then oversight to make sure that if they don’t do it, [there is] a penalty for not doing it,” Solove said. “So they say, ‘Oh, yeah, we’ll delete it,’ but will they? I don’t know. I mean, unless there’s accountability, that’s a meaningless statement to me.” In Queensland, Australia, where Heads Up is being used, the government insists that its residents have nothing to worry about when it comes to privacy. On its website , the Queensland government has disclosed that “two privacy impact assessments have been independently undertaken by an external service provider,” and it has made the reports open to the public. Acusensus said in a news release that in a trial in Queensland in 2020, more than 15,000 people were detected using their cellphones and over 2,200 people were detected not wearing seat belts. The Queensland government reported that since it set up the cameras, road deaths have gone down by 7.1%. Knox said that in North Carolina, when an image is found to have recorded a violation, it will be kept to be added to an investigative file and that when a case is dismissed, images are disposed of. He said the only people who have access to the images are the prosecutors and the investigating officers. Knox said the images aren’t shared externally in any way but added that he wasn’t sure whether any external agency or organization enforced that provision. “We’ll [sic] admittedly hear some folks raise some privacy concerns, because these cameras are set up at an angle to be able to [look] into the cabin of a truck, but I think folks generally understand and appreciate that distracted driving is an issue,” Ben Greenberg, president of the North Carolina Trucking Association, told Fox News . Jolynn Dellinger, a senior lecturing fellow at Duke University School of Law who specializes in privacy law and policy and tech ethics, said there may be a trade-off between privacy and safety when it comes to enforcement systems such as Acusensus’. “As technology becomes more and more powerful, privacy necessarily can shrink in proportion to the power of that technology,” Dellinger said. “It may be a case where, in this case, privacy should be compromised for this greater good, but it’s still important to recognize that it is a privacy interest.” She added that it is important to remember that the technology can provide a more efficient way to enforce the law. In every state except Montana, texting and driving is illegal , and depending on the state, it can even be illegal to simply have your phone in your hand while you’re driving, regardless of whether it’s being used. Failing to wear a seat belt isn’t as heavily punishable, with only 35 states having laws for seat belts that allow officers to issue tickets solely because of the lack of seat belt use. All states where Acusensus has installed cameras have primary laws for seat belt use. Although the use of seat belts is high, with 91.9% of drivers using them last year , commercial truck drivers are less likely to drive with them on; 14% of commercial motor vehicle drivers say they don’t wear them, according to a 2016 survey conducted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Texting while driving is a growing concern in the United States. According to a Pew Research study , drivers distracted by their phones while driving was people’s No. 1 concern when it came to road safety, with 78% of people finding it a major issue. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that over 3,000 people died in vehicle crashes that involved distracted drivers in 2022.