Schools turn to artificial intelligence to spot guns as companies press lawmakers for state funds

https://apnews.com/article/school-safety-guns-artificial-intelligence-legislation-336b9ec34df538d93d4f06e34b11c9b1

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas could soon offer up to $5 million in grants for schools to outfit surveillance cameras with artificial intelligence systems that can spot people carrying guns. But the governor needs to approve the expenditures and the schools must meet some very specific criteria.

The AI software must be patented, “designated as qualified anti-terrorism technology,” in compliance with certain security industry standards, already in use in at least 30 states and capable of detecting “three broad firearm classifications with a minimum of 300 subclassifications” and “at least 2,000 permutations,” among other things.

Only one company currently meets all those criteria: the same organization that touted them to Kansas lawmakers crafting the state budget. That company, ZeroEyes, is a rapidly growing firm founded by military veterans after the fatal shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/rcna151183

Biden taps Obama, George Clooney, Julia Roberts and the Clintons for mega fundraisers

One high-profile event will feature a contest with Clooney and Roberts on social media platforms to engage grassroots donors, according to details first shared with NBC News.

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s campaign plans to host a major fundraiser in Los Angeles next month with former President Barack Obama and Hollywood superstars George Clooney and Julia Roberts, according to a campaign official.

The star-studded lineup is expected to boost Biden’s fundraising efforts at a time when Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee are aiming to close the cash gap now that the former president has won the delegates needed to secure the nomination, allowing him to use all the GOP tools at his disposal.

The high-profile Biden event, set for mid-June, will feature a contest with Clooney and Roberts run across the campaign’s social media platforms to engage grassroots donors, as well as top celebrities and surrogates, according to details first shared with NBC News. The two Academy Award winners will also lend their names for campaign emails and text messages, in hopes of attracting more contributions.

The campaign plans to promote the Los Angeles fundraiser in a fashion similar to the glitzy evening Biden held with Obama and former President Bill Clinton in New York City in late March, which brought in $26 million. Biden campaign aides said that amount was a Democratic fundraising record for a single event.

The president is also expected to hold a fundraiser with Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the East Coast early this summer, according to a source familiar with the plans, first shared with NBC News.

“We’re not under any illusion that he’s not going to narrow the gap,” a Biden campaign adviser said. “But what he can’t get back is the time we’ve had with all this money to do what we’ve done.”

Biden just concluded a West Coast fundraising swing through Northern California and the Seattle area this weekend, raking in $10 million in two days, according to a source familiar with the total amount who first shared the details with NBC News.

News of another marquee fundraiser comes as the campaign is bracing for new campaign finance filings that may for the first time show Trump’s campaign eating into what had been Biden’s biggest advantage so far in the 2024 race.

The Biden campaign ended March with $85.5 million in cash on hand after raising $43.8 million that month — nearly tripling the Trump campaign’s haul in that period, according to the most recent filings with the Federal Election Commission. The Biden campaign’s financial position when factoring in the Democratic National Committee is almost double that of Trump and the Republican National Committee — $131 million versus $67 million.

Team Biden’s strong March was boosted by the three-presidents fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall. But Trump answered back quickly with his own high-dollar affair in Palm Beach, Florida, in early April. His campaign said the event raised $50.5 million, portions of which will likely be reflected in the next FEC filing.

The Republican National Committee said this month that along with the Trump campaign it expects to report raising a combined $76 million in April.

The Biden campaign expects to release its April fundraising figures closer to the May 20 deadline. One campaign official said it’s to be expected that Trump’s fundraising would pick up now that the Republican nomination fight is over, but insisted that Biden’s fundraising pace remains strong.

Speaking with reporters last week, Biden campaign communications director Michael Tyler said regardless of what Trump’s tally is from April, the president’s campaign has long been leveraging its cash advantage to build out a significant re-election effort on the ground and boost its message across the battleground state airwaves.

“I’ll take that over whatever dollar figure Trump and his team actually end up filing in their report,” Tyler said.

Biden attended only two high-dollar fundraisers — in Chicago and the New York area — in April. One New York-based Biden campaign donor who serves on the national finance committee said the number of events featuring not just Biden but other surrogates has “dried up” as donors felt tapped out after the event with Obama and Clinton. But the donor expects the pace to pick up again this summer.

Obama has been a key part of Biden’s fundraising efforts. In April, the campaign launched a series of digital ads featuring Obama and Biden pitching viewers to make small-dollar donations. In the year since Biden kicked off his re-election effort, small-dollar solicitations from Obama have helped generate more than $17 million, the campaign said.

Wisconsin Supreme Court to revisit ruling that banned most ballot drop boxes

Oral arguments kick off Monday in a case with major ramifications for how the 2024 election will be run in the battleground state.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/wisconsin-supreme-court-ballot-drop-boxes-rcna151422

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments Monday in a pivotal case that will determine the future of absentee ballot drop boxes in the battleground state’s elections.

The case will give the court’s liberal majority the opportunity to reverse a ruling the court made less than two years ago — when conservatives held the majority — that significantly reduced the number of absentee ballot drop boxes in the state.

If the court’s current 4-3 liberal majority overturns that ruling, it could result in a return of the widespread use of absentee ballot drop boxes for the upcoming presidential election.

Democrats and progressives in the state filed numerous briefs in the case urging the court to overturn its 2022 decision. Conservative groups and the Wisconsin Republican Party have filed several briefs in support of upholding the current rules regarding drop boxes.

“They make voting more accessible and possible for people. That’s the reason we support it,” said Jay Heck, the executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin, the state’s branch of the national nonpartisan government watchdog group. Common Cause Wisconsin filed an amicus brief in the case pushing for the 2022 ruling to be overturned.

“Despite worries and claims by election deniers and conspiracy theorists, drop boxes were not used for any nefarious purpose like they’ve claimed,” he said.

Following the 2020 election, the use of drop boxes for absentee ballots was repeatedly criticized by former President Donald Trump and his allies, who falsely claimed that the practice led to widespread voter fraud.

Wisconsin GOP Chairman Brian Schimming, whose party also filed an amicus brief in the case, said his worries about returning to a wider use of drop boxes included “the possibility for hijinks” by Democrats and “the security of drop boxes,” but that “our primary concern here is that the law gets reversed.”

“The law keeps moving around in this state unnecessarily,” he said, which could create “confusion” and “chaos” during voting.

“I’m not hostile to looking at things differently,” Schimming said, “but we’re six months away” from the election and “we have a Supreme Court who feels as though they’re the second Legislature.”

The Wisconsin Elections Commission, which oversees elections in the state, implemented more lenient rules regarding drop boxes at the outset of the Covid pandemic in 2020. Wisconsin law does not weigh in on the use of drop boxes, which has contributed to the continuing legal situation on the issue.

In a 4-3 decision, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in July 2022 that Wisconsin voters casting absentee ballots would no longer be able to drop them in boxes located anywhere except the offices of election clerks.

The state’s high court ruled that only the state Legislature — which is controlled by Republicans — has the power to enact laws and policy regarding absentee ballot drop boxes, not the Wisconsin Elections Commission.

Auroras lighting up night skies across the United States are becoming a free, multi-day music festival for the eyes, likely to return Saturday and Sunday, and possibly into next week, federal forecasters said.

In addition to the U.S., there have reports of sightings in Germany, Switzerland, China, England and Spain. The timing is not bad for viewers, although aurora spotters may have to be up at last call to get the best look.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasters say the geomagnetic storm activity underlying the bursts of northern lights will likely return at full strength on Sunday. The latest forecasts from the center have Earth-affecting geomagnetic storm activity taking place Monday and possibly into Tuesday.

"Severe and extreme" geomagnetic storms were likely, NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center said in a forecast statement.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/auroras-expected-continue-week-view-us-rcna151840

Auroras expected to continue as forecast calls for geomagnetic storm activity into next week

/Viewing area and timing in the U.S./

The phenomena are rarely viewable in the United States, and if they are, it's usually for those in the northern reaches of the continent. But the intensity of the geomagnetic storms has pushed the viewing area further south this weekend, with reports of sightings in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.

The predominance of a dark new moon that began May 7 could clear the stage once again for the northern lights to shine. The moon is about one-fifth full this weekend, according to NASA. But federal forecasters said earthly storm activity, mostly rain, was expected on Sunday from Kansas to Texas, where viewing might not be as easy as it has been.

Viewing is usually best just on either side of midnight — roughly from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. — experts say. Saturday night and Sunday night look like show nights, and Monday viewing seems possible, if not likely.

Since Friday, there have been at least three readings of G5 intensity from the geomagnetic storm, using a scale of 1-5, with G5 being "extreme" in energy, according to the Space Weather Prediction Center.