The decision runs counter to the court’s previous ruling that the smell of burnt cannabis by itself is not sufficient reason for a vehicle search. The two rulings create a situation in which, though it is illegal to smoke pot in a vehicle, drivers are protected from a search based only on the smell of burnt cannabis, but are not protected from a search based on the smell of raw marijuana. The ruling came in the case of Vincent Molina, of Moline, who was a passenger in a vehicle that was stopped by a state trooper for speeding on I-88 in Whiteside County, near the Iowa border, in December 2020. After the trooper said he smelled raw cannabis coming from the open window of the car, he searched it and found several marijuana joints in the center console, and cannabis in a sealed box in the glove compartment. Molina was charged with misdemeanor possession because he wasn’t transporting the cannabis in the proper container. The trial court ruled the search was not justified because possession of small amounts of marijuana has been legal in Illinois since the beginning of 2020. The appeals court reversed the ruling. The case was combined at a high court hearing with the case of Ryan Redmond, in which the court ruled that the smell of burnt cannabis by itself was not grounds for a search . While it’s illegal to smoke pot in a private vehicle, the court suggested that the smell of burnt cannabis could come from smoking before getting into the car. “In short, while cannabis is legal to possess generally, it is illegal to possess in a vehicle on an Illinois highway unless in an odor-proof container,” the court wrote in the Molina case. “The odor of raw cannabis strongly suggests that the cannabis is not being possessed within the parameters of Illinois law. And, unlike the odor of burnt cannabis, the odor of raw cannabis coming from a vehicle reliably points to when, where, and how the cannabis is possessed — namely, currently, in the vehicle, and not in an odor-proof container.” Justice Mary K. O’Brien, joined by Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis, wrote a strong objection to the 4-2 ruling. Justice Lisa Holder White did not take part in the vote. “I dissent from the majority opinion simply to point out the absurdity of this inconsistency,” O’Brien wrote. “It makes no sense to treat raw cannabis as more probative when the odor of burnt cannabis may suggest recent use, whereas the odor of raw cannabis does not suggest consumption. If the crime suggested by the odor of burnt cannabis is not sufficient for probable cause, then certainly the crime suggested by the odor of raw cannabis cannot be either.” Defense attorney James Mertes said he would appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. “This means that the privacy rights of motorists in Illinois have been turned over to the police officer’s sense of smell,” Mertes said. “While we certainly respect the decision of the court, we share the view of the dissenters that this creates a constitutional absurdity.” State lawmakers previously removed the requirement for storing pot in an odor-proof container in a vehicle from the law legalizing weed , but they did not remove that requirement from the vehicle code. The state Supreme Court suggested that those laws should be made consistent. “I have always understood that the issues at stake are much more important than just my case,” Molina said in a statement through his lawyer. “I am discouraged by the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision, but I am encouraged to now ask that this matter be decided by the United States Supreme Court.”
SAN FRANCISCO — The parents of a former OpenAI researcher known for recently blowing the whistle on the company’s business practices are questioning the circumstances of their son’s death last month. In an interview this week, Suchir Balaji’s mother and father expressed confusion and shock over his sudden passing, expressing doubt their son could have died by suicide, as determined by the county medical examiner. The family hired an expert to perform an independent autopsy but has yet to release the report’s findings. “We’re demanding a thorough investigation — that’s our call,” said Balaji’s mother, Poornima Ramarao. San Francisco police found Balaji dead in his Lower Haight apartment on Nov. 26, less than a week after his 26th birthday. The San Francisco Medical Examiner’s Office later told this news agency his death was ruled a suicide, though a final autopsy report has yet to be released while the office completes toxicology tests. Earlier this month, San Francisco police officials said there is “currently, no evidence of foul play.” Balaji’s death sent shockwaves throughout Silicon Valley and the artificial intelligence industry. He garnered a national spotlight in late October when he accused his former employer, OpenAI, of breaking federal copyright law by siphoning data from across the internet to train its blockbuster chatbot, ChatGPT. His concerns backed up allegations aired in recent years by authors, screenwriters and computer programmers who say OpenAI stole their content without permission, in violation of U.S. “fair use” laws governing how people can use previously published work. Media companies have been among those to sue the company, including The Mercury News and seven of its affiliated newspapers, and, separately, The New York Times. In an interview with The New York Times published in October 2024, Balaji described his decision to leave the generative artificial intelligence company in August while suggesting that its data collection practices are “not a sustainable model for the internet ecosystem as a whole. “If you believe what I believe, you have to just leave the company,” he told the newspaper. By Nov. 18, Balaji had been named in court filings as someone who had “unique and relevant documents” that would support the case against OpenAI. He was among at least 12 people — many of them past or present OpenAI employees — to be named by the newspaper in court filings as having material helpful to their case. His death a week later has left Balaji’s parents reeling. In an interview at their Alameda County home this week, his mother said her only child “was an amazing human being, from childhood.” “No one believes that he could do that,” Ramarao said about his taking his own life. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment but in a statement to Business Insider said it was “devastated” to learn of Balaji’s death and said they had been in touch with his parents “to offer our full support during this difficult time.” “Our priority is to continue to do everything we can to assist them,” the company’s statement read. “We first became aware of his concerns when The New York Times published his comments and we have no record of any further interaction with him. “We respect his, and others’, right to share views freely,” the statement added. “Our hearts go out to Suchir’s loved ones, and we extend our deepest condolences to all who are mourning his loss.” Related Articles National News | Court rules Georgia lawmakers can subpoena Fani Willis for information related to her Trump case National News | U.S. homelessness up 18% as affordable housing remains out of reach for many people National News | Most Americans blame insurance profits and denials alongside the killer in UHC CEO death, poll finds National News | Another jackpot surpasses $1 billion. Is this the new normal? National News | Most Americans blame insurance profits and denials alongside the killer in CEO death, poll finds Born in Florida and raised in the Bay Area, Balaji was a prodigy from an early age, his mother told this news agency. He spoke her name at 3 months old; at 18-months he would ask “me to light a lamp to cheer me up” and could recognize words at 20 months, she said. Balaji appeared to have a knack for technology, math and computing, taking home trophies and earning renown, including in the 2016 United States of America Computing Olympiad. In 2020, he went to work for OpenAI — viewing the company’s then-commitment to operating as a nonprofit as admirable, his mother said. His opinion of the company soured in 2022 while he was assigned to gather data from the internet for the company’s GPT-4 program, the New York Times reported. The program analyzed text from nearly the entire internet to train its artificial intelligence program, the outlet reported. Ramarao said she wasn’t aware of her son’s decision to go public with his concerns about OpenAI until the paper ran his interview. While she immediately harbored anxiety about his decision — going so far as to implore him to speak with a copyright attorney — Ramarao also expressed pride in her son’s bravery. ‘He kept assuring me, ‘Mom, I’m not doing anything wrong — go see the article. I’m just saying, my opinion, there’s nothing wrong in it,” said Ramarao, herself a former employee of Microsoft who worked on its Azure cloud computing program. “I supported him. I didn’t criticize him. I told him, ‘I’m proud of you, because you have your own opinions and you know what’s right, what’s wrong.’ He was very ethical.” After leaving the company, Balaji settled on plans to create a nonprofit, one centering on the machine learning and neurosciences fields, Ramarao said. He had already spoken to at least one venture capitalist for seed funding, she said. “I’m asking, like, ”How will you manage your living?’ ” Ramarao said. She recalled how her son repeatedly tried to assuage any concerns about his finances, suggesting that “money is not important to me — I want to offer a service to humanity.” Balaji also appeared to be keeping a busy schedule. He turned 26 while on a backpacking trip in the Catalina Islands with several friends from high school. Such trips were commonplace for him — in April he went with several friends to Patagonia and South America. Balaji last spoke to his parents on Nov. 22, a 10-minute phone call that centered around his recent trip and that ended with his talking about getting dinner. “He was very happy,” Ramarao said. “He had a blast. He had one of the best times of his life.” Ramarao remembers calling her son shortly after noon on Nov. 23 but said it rang once and went to voicemail. Figuring that he was busy with friends, she didn’t try visiting his apartment until Nov. 25, when she knocked but got no answer. She said she called authorities that evening but was allegedly told by a police dispatch center that little could be done that day. She followed up Nov. 26, and San Francisco police later found Balaji’s body inside his apartment. Ramarao said she wasn’t told of her son’s death until a stretcher appeared in front of Balaji’s apartment. She was not allowed inside until the following day. “I can never forget that tragedy,” Ramarao said. “My heart broke.” Ramarao questioned authorities’ investigation of her son’s death, claiming that San Francisco police closed their case and turned it over to the county medical examiner’s office within an hour of discovering Balaji’s body. Ramarao said she and her husband have since commissioned a second autopsy of Balaji’s body. She declined to release any documents from that examination. Her attorney, Phil Kearney, declined to comment on the results of the family’s independent autopsy. Last week, San Francisco police spokesman Evan Sernoffsky referred questions about the case to the medical examiner’s office. David Serrano Sewell, executive director of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, declined to comment. Sitting on her living room couch, Ramarao shook her head and expressed frustration at authorities’ investigative efforts so far. “As grieving parents, we have the right to know what happened to our son,” Ramarao said. “He was so happy. He was so brave.” If you or someone you know is struggling with feelings of depression or suicidal thoughts, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline offers free, round-the-clock support, information and resources for help. Call or text the lifeline at 988, or see the 988lifeline.org website, where chat is available.None
A closer inspection of ash from burned rice hulls, the hard outer layer of rice grains, revealed a form of carbon that could nearly double the energy density of typical lithium-ion or sodium-ion batteries. This sustainable source of 'hard' carbon, which outperforms ordinary in battery electrodes, was discovered at the University of Michigan. This is the first demonstration of hard carbon made through combustion. It was previously thought hard carbon could only be made by heating biomass, such as agricultural waste, to about 1200°C (2200°F) in an oxygen-free environment like nitrogen or argon. Rather than importing graphite mined from China or Mexico, rice hull ash could provide a higher quality domestic material for making battery electrodes. The process is also more sustainable than producing graphite from biomass, which must be heated to 2000°C (3600°F) or higher—producing five to 10 tons of CO for every ton of battery-grade graphite. Although most rice hulls end up in landfills, burning rice hulls provides a source of electricity. Wadham Energy LP in the Sacramento Valley of California generates 200,000 megawatt-hours of electricity per year by burning the agricultural byproduct—enough energy to power about 22,000 homes. "The CO released while burning rice hulls comes from the same CO the rice plant took up from the atmosphere during photosynthesis, making the electricity produced green and carbon neutral," said Richard Laine, U-M professor of materials science and engineering and macromolecular science and engineering and corresponding author of the study recently in . With grown annually in the United States, there is plenty of room to scale up. In prior work, the research team demonstrated methods to partially remove the silica in rice hull ash which contains about 90% silica and 10% carbon. That silica can be used to produce used in solar cells or semiconductors. Once the silica is partially removed from the rice hull ash through a process called depolymerization, the remaining ash is about 60%-70% carbon. The leftover carbon was thought to be shapeless and disorganized, a material called amorphous carbon, based on the patterns made by X-rays shining through the material. However, spectroscopy techniques specialized for molecular-level detail revealed tiny islands of graphite that exist on the nanoscale (for scale, one nanometer is one billionth of a meter) within the amorphous carbon matrix. This blend of amorphous carbon dotted with graphite is called hard carbon. "Hard carbon can be produced by combustion in this case because as you burn away the carbon of rice hulls, you create a shell of silica around the remaining carbon and it bakes it like a pie," Laine said. When testing the electrochemical properties of hard carbon obtained from rice hull ash, it outperformed both commercial hard carbon and graphite as the anode of a lithium-ion battery, the point where charge flows out of the battery. A gram of commercial hard carbon accepts enough lithium to store about 500 milliampere-hours (mAh)—a unit of electrical charge often used to describe battery storage capacity. In contrast, a gram of graphite accepts about 370 mAh, meaning hard carbon batteries have about 50% higher energy density. Rice hull ash hard carbon exceeds both, with a storage capacity of more than 700 mAh—nearly double that of graphite. The nanoporous structure of the isolated hard carbon is thought to contribute to the increased lithium capacity. Turning into a valuable product, rice hull ash hard carbon can help meet the growing demand for batteries for use in and storing intermittent renewable energy while decreasing both cost and emissions. The team has applied for with the assistance of U-M Innovation Partnerships and is seeking partners to bring the technology to market. Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany also participated in this research through co-author Sylvio Indris. Wadham Energy supplied the hull ash used in the research.McClain's 14 lead Texas Southern over Texas A&M-Kingsville 80-72
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World News Today Live Updates on December 28, 2024 : Azerbaijani plane hit by Russian air defenses? Details of shocking new claims by White HouseJudge Arun Subramanian ruled to deny bail for Sean "Diddy" Combs on Friday. Both federal prosecutors and Combs' attorneys submitted their final letters about whether the music mogul should be allowed out on bail on Monday. Prosecutors argued that Combs’ attempt to influence witnesses while in jail “constitutes obstruction” of his criminal case. They also called out Combs’ “recent efforts to influence the jury pool” through a social media campaign organized by his children. Defense attorneys said that their client's conduct was protected free speech, meant to combat “outrageous claims about Mr. Combs” by “government agents, plaintiffs’ attorneys, and others with questionable motives.” Subramanian had asked the parties to submit these final arguments in writing and said he would issue a written decision on bail. Combs, who pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and prostitution charges, has offered to remain on home confinement in a three-bedroom apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side with 24/7 security guards and restrictions on visitors and communications. Last Friday, the defense called the proposed conditions “far more restrictive” than Combs faces in jail. They included limiting phone calls to lawyers, restricting visitors other than lawyers and specific family members, keeping a visitation log, and avoiding contact with witnesses or potential witnesses. However, federal prosecutors have said there are no conditions that can reduce Combs’ risk of tampering with witnesses or shaping the opinions of potential jurors. They also brought up a 2016 video of Combs attacking then-girlfriend and protégé Cassie Ventura in a hotel hallway, saying that it showed the danger he could pose to women if allowed out on bail. In court last Friday, prosecutors summarily said that Combs "cannot be trusted" to follow the rules of a pretrial release.Emmerdale stars confirm ‘satisfying’ Belle and Tom ending: ‘It feels right’
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Bitcoin shot past $100,000 for the first time on Thursday, taking the limelight away from stock markets that wavered as investors tracked political crises in France and South Korea. Oil prices fell modestly despite a move by the OPEC cartel and its allies to extend their supply cuts amid concerns about oversupply. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
One of the country's largest health insurers reversed a change in policy Thursday after widespread outcry, saying it would not tie payments in some states to the length of time a patient went under anesthesia. Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield said in a statement that its decision to backpedal resulted from "significant widespread misinformation" about the policy. "To be clear, it never was and never will be the policy of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield to not pay for medically necessary anesthesia services," the statement said. "The proposed update to the policy was only designed to clarify the appropriateness of anesthesia consistent with well-established clinical guidelines." Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield would have used "physician work time values," which is published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as the metric for anesthesia limits; maternity patients and patients under the age of 22 were exempt. But Dr. Jonathan Gal, economics committee chair of the American Society for Anesthesiologists, said it's unclear how CMS derives those values. In mid-November, the American Society for Anesthesiologists called on Anthem to "reverse the proposal immediately," saying in a news release that the policy would have taken effect in February in New York, Connecticut and Missouri. It's not clear how many states in total would have been affected, as notices also were posted in Virginia and Colorado . People across the country registered their concerns and complaints on social media, and encouraged people in affected states to call their legislators. Some people noted that the policy could prevent patients from getting overcharged. Gal said the policy change would have been unprecedented, ignored the "nuanced, unpredictable human element" of surgery and was a clear "money grab." "It's incomprehensible how a health insurance company could so blatantly continue to prioritize their profits over safe patient care," he said. "If Anthem is, in fact, rescinding the policy, we're delighted that they came to their senses." Prior to Anthem's announcement Thursday, Connecticut comptroller Sean Scanlon said the "concerning" policy wouldn't affect the state after conversations with the insurance company. And New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in an emailed statement Thursday that her office had also successfully intervened. The insurance giant's policy change came one day after the CEO of UnitedHealthcare , another major insurance company, was shot and killed in New York City.
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