Latest news with #DavidOlson
Chicago Tribune
29-06-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Sharp drop in arrests, other long-term crime trends shown in new Cook County data dashboard
Throughout 2019, Chicago police officers made nearly 80,000 arrests before scaling them back significantly during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic the following spring. Now five years later, that drop appears not to be just a COVID-era blip: In recent years, arrests have rebounded slightly, but annually police still are recording tens of thousands of fewer arrests than they did in 2019. The trend is among a number of long-term shifts in how the criminal justice system operates in Cook County, according to Loyola University researchers who in partnership with local officials produced a data project that seeks to shed light on how 'shocks to the system' like the pandemic have reshaped how crime and violence are handled in Chicago. The publicly available data dashboard, unveiled by officials on Tuesday, integrates information from police, the court system, jails and prisons with the goal of creating a fuller picture of how cases move through the system from start to finish. It's funded by the MacArthur Foundation's Safety and Justice Challenge and was developed in conjunction with Loyola University Chicago by David Olson and Don Stemen, co-directors of Loyola's Center for Criminal Justice. 'It's a strategic tool to be able to note big trends and for the county stakeholders to use internally in terms of how we talk to each other about overall trends and strategies,' said Ali Abid, deputy director of the Cook County Justice Advisory Council, adding that officials felt it was important to make it available to the public and the media as well. The dashboard comes at a time when the justice system is still adjusting to major changes, like the elimination of cash bail in 2023 in addition to the massive upheaval brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. The system is also experiencing new shifts that may continue to transform how justice looks in Cook County, such as the shuttering of the electronic monitoring program run by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart and the policy changes brought by State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke since she took office in December. 'What we've been seeing for a decade is a shift in thinking about how we respond to crime,' said Olson. Olson said Cook County is the only large county he is aware of with a data system like this one. He noted that it is not designed to explain why changes are happening but rather help stakeholders spot patterns. 'Part of it is to illustrate the interconnectedness of the system despite the fact that agencies are at different levels of government, different branches of government,' he said. Even though, according to the dashboard, arrests have declined since the pandemic — with police in total making more than 47,000 arrests in 2024 compared with more than 78,000 in 2019 — the researchers noted that incidents reported to police have not seen the same sustained sharp decrease, an indication that police practices may be shifting. '(Arrests have) gone up a little bit since 2020 but certainly are not back to the levels that you saw before COVID,' Stemen said. In particular, drug arrests have declined significantly. 'I don't think anyone would interpret this as a 60% drop in drug use in Chicago, but a change in policing habits,' Olson said. And among those who are charged with a drug offense, a greater share of those people are being sentenced to probation, according to the researchers. 'The use of prison has gone down,' Olson said, as a reliance on diversion and community supervision has grown. Meanwhile, arrests for weapons offenses have risen in recent years, according to the dashboard, with more than 5,300 made in 2024 versus around 4,600 in 2019. So far this year, the dashboard has also tracked a rise in the jail population, as well as an increase in people being ordered detained by judges while their cases are pending, though Olson and Stemen cautioned that the 2025 data so far makes up a small sample of the total data. The Tribune earlier this year reported on a recent uptick in the population of Cook County Jail, as officials examined possible factors such as the new state's attorney's policy-making and judicial decisions. 'It's at least on a trend where it seems like it will continue to increase for a while, but at a certain point it should plateau,' Olson said.
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta Just Spent $14.8B on AI--and Triggered a Big Tech Breakup
Meta (NASDAQ:META) is going big on AI without going through the front door of regulatory review. The tech giant just dropped $14.8 billion for a 49% nonvoting stake in Scale AI, a startup that helps label data for some of the biggest names in artificial intelligence. The twist? Meta's stake doesn't give it control, meaning it doesn't automatically trigger antitrust scrutiny. But the deal still sends ripples: Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), one of Scale's high-profile customers, has reportedly walked away, and others could be rethinking their ties. Meta gains the talent, including 28-year-old CEO Alexandr Wang (who now joins Meta but stays on Scale's board), while insulating itself from direct regulatory heat at least on paper. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Sign with META. This comes at a time when the U.S. government's posture on AI deals is in flux. Under President Trump, the signal from antitrust enforcers has been mixed skepticism of Big Tech, yes, but also a desire not to clamp down too hard on the pace of AI development. That gray area might be why deals like this are structured so carefully. Experts say Meta's minority, nonvoting stake was likely designed to stay under the radar and it might work. Smart move, said Boston College antitrust professor David Olson. They've given themselves some cover. Still, Senator Elizabeth Warren has already called for an investigation, warning the deal could give Meta an unfair advantage if it leads to dominance in the AI arms race. Meanwhile, history shows a pattern. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) have each pulled off similar talent-and-tech grabs from AI startups with little resistance so far. The FTC opened inquiries but hasn't followed up with action, and some say the cases are now gathering dust. Whether Meta's Scale AI play gets the same pass remains to be seen. If this becomes the new blueprint for AI dealmaking, we might be entering an era of high-stakes, low-visibility acquisitions where the biggest moves don't look like takeovers, but work like them anyway. Investors are watching closely. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta Just Spent $14.8B on AI--and Triggered a Big Tech Breakup
Meta (NASDAQ:META) is going big on AI without going through the front door of regulatory review. The tech giant just dropped $14.8 billion for a 49% nonvoting stake in Scale AI, a startup that helps label data for some of the biggest names in artificial intelligence. The twist? Meta's stake doesn't give it control, meaning it doesn't automatically trigger antitrust scrutiny. But the deal still sends ripples: Google (NASDAQ:GOOG), one of Scale's high-profile customers, has reportedly walked away, and others could be rethinking their ties. Meta gains the talent, including 28-year-old CEO Alexandr Wang (who now joins Meta but stays on Scale's board), while insulating itself from direct regulatory heat at least on paper. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 4 Warning Sign with META. This comes at a time when the U.S. government's posture on AI deals is in flux. Under President Trump, the signal from antitrust enforcers has been mixed skepticism of Big Tech, yes, but also a desire not to clamp down too hard on the pace of AI development. That gray area might be why deals like this are structured so carefully. Experts say Meta's minority, nonvoting stake was likely designed to stay under the radar and it might work. Smart move, said Boston College antitrust professor David Olson. They've given themselves some cover. Still, Senator Elizabeth Warren has already called for an investigation, warning the deal could give Meta an unfair advantage if it leads to dominance in the AI arms race. Meanwhile, history shows a pattern. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) have each pulled off similar talent-and-tech grabs from AI startups with little resistance so far. The FTC opened inquiries but hasn't followed up with action, and some say the cases are now gathering dust. Whether Meta's Scale AI play gets the same pass remains to be seen. If this becomes the new blueprint for AI dealmaking, we might be entering an era of high-stakes, low-visibility acquisitions where the biggest moves don't look like takeovers, but work like them anyway. Investors are watching closely. This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Pierce County school district suspends its controversial free speech policy
A staff expression policy that regulates Peninsula School District staff members' speech as employees has been suspended. The school board suspended Policy 5254 in a unanimous vote at their meeting on May 20. 'I think over the past few months since we implemented the policy, the board has heard quite a bit from the community,' board member David Olson, who made the motion, said at the meeting. ' ... I would have to admit that there was some unintended impact of the policy, mostly that there's a lot of misunderstanding, ambiguity about the policy, what the potential intent was.' Policy 5254 states that the district can regulate employees' expression when they 'speak within their official capacity' and thus represent the district. Employees' free speech is protected under the First Amendment when they speak as individual citizens 'on a matter of public concern,' but they may still receive 'disciplinary action up to and including termination' if their expression 'has an adverse impact on district operations and/or negatively impacts an employee's ability to perform their job for the district,' according to the policy. The policy describes staff expression to include 'the performance of job responsibilities and how (staff) represent the district in their use of district email accounts, school district buildings, district property, classrooms and how they present themselves to students.' It also includes a line about social media: 'Employees who use social media platforms are encouraged to remember that the school community may not be able to separate employees as private citizens from their role within the district.' The board adopted Policy 5254 in October 2024, and has heard several public comments at board meetings since then criticizing the policy's breadth and possible impact on staff, according to The News Tribune's reporting. One member of the Minter Creek Elementary Parent-Teacher Association told the board at the April 22 meeting that the staff expression policy has silenced some teachers from speaking out about the district's controversial plan to switch principals across several schools starting in July. In a statement shared at the school board meeting on May 6 and posted online, Superintendent Krestin Bahr addressed a number of concerns shared by parents and staff including those around the staff expression policy. 'We value the input of our educators,' Bahr said at the meeting. 'Feedback from our staff informs ongoing decision-making, though we remain bound by confidentiality and professional standards ... Staff are not just permitted, but encouraged to have honest conversations with their principals and share their perspectives.' She also said that a workgroup would be taking place later in May to 'help clarify the policy's enforcement,' working with the district's 'labor partners to ensure it protects employee voice while upholding (their) shared professional responsibilities.' School Board President Natalie Wimberley asked Superintendent Bahr prior to the vote May 20 to provide an update on the group gathered to discuss the policy and its implementation. Bahr said that district staff and union members visited another school district where the policy first originated to learn more about that district's process and reasons for adopting it. Based on the apparent differences between that district and the Peninsula School District's approach to the policy, she supports the policy's suspension, she said at the meeting. After the vote, Peninsula Education Association president Carol Rivera told the board during public comment that the association supports the policy suspension and 'welcomes the opportunity' to work with the district's task force on the policy. The Peninsula Education Association is the district's teachers' union.
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Scientists Tweaked LSD's Molecular Structure and Created a Wild New Brain Drug
A team of researchers at the University of California, Davis, made small tweaks to the molecular structure of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) to see if it could be turned into an effective brain-healing treatment for patients that suffer from conditions like schizophrenia — without risking a potentially disastrous acid trip. As detailed in a new paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month, the researchers created a new compound called JRT by shifting the position of just two atoms of the psychedelic's molecular structure. With the two atoms flipped, the new drug could still stimulate brain cell growth and repair damaged neural connections, while simultaneously minimizing psychedelic effects, in mice. "Basically, what we did here is a tire rotation," said corresponding author and UC Davis chemistry professor David Olson in a statement. "By just transposing two atoms in LSD, we significantly improved JRT's selectivity profile and reduced its hallucinogenic potential." In experiments involving mice, the team found that JRT improved negative symptoms of schizophrenia without worsening other behaviors associated with psychosis. While it's still far too early to tell if JRT could be effective in humans as well, the team is hoping that the new drug could become a powerful new therapeutic, especially for those suffering from conditions like schizophrenia. "No one really wants to give a hallucinogenic molecule like LSD to a patient with schizophrenia," said Olson. "The development of JRT emphasizes that we can use psychedelics like LSD as starting points to make better medicines." "We may be able to create medications that can be used in patient populations where psychedelic use is precluded," he added. Olsen and his colleagues hope their new drug could provide an alternative to drugs like clozapine, a schizophrenia treatment, without negative side effects like an inability to feel pleasure and a decline in cognitive function. Interestingly, it also proved a powerful antidepressant in early experiments involving mice at doses 100-fold lower than ketamine, a popular anesthetic used for the treatment of depression and pain management. But before it can be tested in humans, the team still has plenty of work to do. "JRT has extremely high therapeutic potential," Olsen said in the statement. Right now, we are testing it in other disease models, improving its synthesis, and creating new analogs of JRT that might be even better." More on LSD: Former CEO Sues Company That Fired Him for Microdosing LSD in an Investor Meeting
