Category Archives: Progress

Liz Truss is to lift a ban on fracking despite a leaked government report suggesting little progress has been made in reducing and predicting the risk of earthquakes caused by the practice, the Guardian can reveal.

The first drilling licences in nearly three years are expected to be issued as early as next week, sources said, in a move that will reignite claims of another broken 2019 Conservative manifesto pledge.

Given fears about spiralling energy bills, the new prime minister announced last week that she would end the moratorium on extracting our huge reserves of shale, which has been in force across England since November 2019.

A long-awaited report by the British Geological Survey (BGS) was promised to be published, but it has been held up owing to the Queens death. The report, seen by the Guardian, admits that forecasting fracking-induced earthquakes and their magnitude remains a scientific challenge.

It says there are still significant existing knowledge gaps and that problems remain with identifying potential new fracking sites that may be able to handle earthquakes with a magnitude of 3.0.

Existing rules require drilling to stop if tremors of 0.5 or more are caused. But fracking companies are reportedly lobbying for that to be substantially increased.

Kwasi Kwarteng, the former business secretary who is now the chancellor, asked the BGS in April to look into new techniques to help reduce the risk of earthquakes and their magnitude, and whether sites outside Lancashire could be better suited for drilling.

In its report, the BGS offers little evidence that there has been enough progress since the fracking ban to meet a 2019 manifesto promise that it would only be resumed if the science shows categorically that it can be done safely.

The limited number of fracking sites in the UK makes it impossible to determine with statistical significance the rates of induced seismicity and means it is difficult to make a valid comparison with other countries, the report says.

It cites research from the US and Canada which found that 1% of fracking wells were linked to earthquakes with magnitudes above 3.0, but in some areas this rose to up to 30%.

While modelling in the US has helped to identify faults that are most likely to rupture during drilling, the report says, enough information was available in only a few areas and more data is needed in other basins in the UK to apply this more widely.

Given other industries are allowed to create earthquakes of higher magnitudes than fracking, the BGS says consistent risk targets could be helpful for all energy-related industries that present a risk of induced earthquakes.

Greenpeace said it was clear there have been no significant breakthroughs in the science of prediction and management of earthquakes caused by fracking. The charitys chief scientist, Dr Doug Parr, said: For the Truss government to reverse its position on shale gas on the back of this would simply be breaking a clear promise on which they were elected.

Making estimates of maximum magnitudes before and during drilling also remains challenging, according to the BGS. Attempts made at Preston New Road, where drilling was abandoned, show some promise but provide estimates that are lower than the maximum observed magnitude, the report adds.

Fracking has proved particularly contentious in Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire, and there remains some residual concern around Sussex after wide-scale protests against a drilling attempt in Balcombe a decade ago.

There is also thought to be a split around Truss new cabinet table which will not include the Conservative peer Zac Goldsmith, who has been sacked as an environment minister raising further fears about Trusss commitment to tackling climate change.

Kwarteng wrote in his letter to the BGS that fracking was not the solution to near-term price issues, while Jacob Rees-Mogg, who replaced him as business secretary, earlier this year called shale gas very clean and dismissed concerns about tremors.

Other senior Tories sought to pile pressure on the government by calling the fracking ban un-Conservative. More than 30 MPs and peers including the former minister David Frost wrote to Boris Johnson in February saying drilling for shale gas would be a reliable energy source and bring investment to the UK.

The go-ahead for fracking companies to start the process of exploratory drilling could come as early as next week, after the end of the official mourning period for the Queen.

The government claims gas could start flowing in less than six months, but experts say it would take years, is far less accessible than once thought and would do little to reduce energy bills.

There are 93 exploratory drilling licenses already granted for 159 areas of the country, 75% of which are related to fracking, which will be automatically reactivated once the moratorium on fracking is lifted. Areas that could see drilling stretch from Sussex, Surrey and Dorset, to the Midlands, Yorkshire, Cheshire and Lancashire.

Companies have to seek planning permission to start drilling. However, the Guardian revealed this year that only a handful of MPs would support fracking in their area.

A government spokesperson said the survey was commissioned to advise on the latest scientific evidence on shale gas extraction and said any suggestion that the BGS was asked to justify fracking was demonstrably untrue, given the review had clear, publicly available terms of reference.

The spokesperson added: Making the most of our own gas resources makes us less dependent on imports and helps maintain the security of the UKs energy supply in both the short and long-term. Drawing on lessons from around the world, we will make sure it is done as safely as possible and where there is local support.

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Liz Truss to lift fracking ban despite little progress on earthquake risk - The Guardian

When you are reaching for a long-term, challenging but attainable goal, you need more than aspirations, you need a team and a plan.

Twenty years ago, over 100 Arizona leaders came together to develop a plan to build our bioscience sector with guidance from experts at Battelle and support from the Flinn Foundation. The result was Arizonas Bioscience Roadmap.

Today, Arizonas bioscience sector is performing at historically high levels after the creation of the Roadmap placed the state on a long-term trajectory toward success.

READ ALSO:Learn more about Arizona Bioscience Week

READ ALSO: Heres how Arizona bioscience sector is making a difference

The vision for Arizonas Bioscience Roadmap is for the state to become globally competitive and a national leader in the biosciences in such fields as precision medicine, cancer, neurosciences, and bioengineering by 2025. Today, the Roadmap is guided by Arizonas Bioscience Roadmap Steering Committee, comprised of about 135 leaders from the public and private sectors in science, health care, business, academia, and policy.

The Flinn Foundation supports the Steering Committees efforts and commissions the collection, analysis, and public release of the performance metrics as they have done since the launch of the Roadmap.

And since the 2002 launch of Arizonas Bioscience Roadmapthe states long-term strategy to guide the biosciencesthe increases are striking: from 73,000 to 133,000 in bioscience jobs, including hospitals; $34 million to $240 million in venture capital; $133 million to $297 million in NIH funding; and $273 million to $623 in academic R&D.

Over the last 20 years, Battle followed by TEConomy Partners has measured and reported the latest performance analysis. Reports commissioned by the Flinn Foundation and shared with the community shows the progress Arizona is making in bioscience jobs, wages, venture capital, National Institutes of Health research funding, and university research and development. The next data report is scheduled to be released in 2024.

The evidence is strongArizonas dedication to advancing the biosciences over the past 20 years has paid substantial dividends for our economy and health, said Tammy McLeod, Ph.D., Flinn Foundation president and CEO. We have made groundbreaking discoveries and clinical advancements at our universities, research institutes, and hospitals. Weve launched companies, established innovation hubs, and boosted the state economy through tough periods. And there is more to come.

Arizonas Bioscience Roadmap is a long-term strategic plan originally commissioned by the Flinn Foundation in 2002 and updated in 2014 with the goal of Arizona becoming globally competitive and a national leader in select areas of the biosciences by 2025. The Roadmap features five overarching goals, as well as strategies and potential actions, to help the state achieve this vision.

Thegoalsinclude:

Forming anentrepreneurial hub;

Turningresearch into practice;

Developingbio-talent;

PromotingArizonas convergence of research, health care, and commercializationto economic partners in neighboring states, Canada, and Mexico; and

Enhancing the states collaborative gene reputation.

Get the facts: Flinn.org/Bioscience

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AZ Big Media Mapping 20 years of progress in Arizona's bioscience sector - AZ Big Media

The Pittsburgh Steelers didnt just have a bad run defense in 2021, they finished dead-last; 32nd out of 32 teams. While improving the offense was the front offices main goal this off-season, returning the run defense to prominence was on the to-do list as well. Over the years, Steelers defenses have become known for stopping the run (and rushing the passer). The team made several moves to make sure the run defense wasnt as bad this season.

Tyson Alualusreturn to the lineup certainly helped, along with the additions ofLarry OgunjobiandDeMarvin Leal. The team also letKeith Butlerwalk as defensive coordinator, replacing him withTeryl Austin. Austin has been on the staff for four years now and understands what it takes to have an elite defense. After one week, the progress is obvious under the new defensive coordinator. Austin provided insight into his defenses performance in Week 1 against theCincinnati Bengals via Josh Rowntree of 93.7 The Fan:

Still got a long way to go. I think were better, but we got a long way to go, Weve got to do better, Austin said via Rowntree. We gave up one big run on that fourth down play. Other than that, I thought we stood up and played tough. Its a long season, and weve got to continue to do that. Well find out at the end of the year how good we really are.

Cincinnati Bengals running back, Joe Mixonended the day with 82 rushing yards on 27 carries. Despite the large workload, the run defense did well in slowing him down. As Austin mentioned, he did break free for a big chunk, a 31-yard gain to be exact. If you wipe out that run, he ran for under two yards per carry in his other 26 carries. The signs are definitely trending upward for the run defense, and that opening performance was against a very good running back and an improved offensive line as well.

Austin and the defense will have their work cut out for them again in Week 2 this Sunday against the New England Patriots, known as a run-first team.Damien HarrisandRhamondre Stevenson lead a two-headed monster in the Patriots backfield. They may run the ball even more this weekend with quarterbackMac Jonesdealing with a rib injury. His status for the game is in doubt at the moment, but even if he plays, he wont be at full health.

Austin is clearly encouraged by the run defenses progress, and hes right. There is still a long way to go in their improvements. This week will provide another good test, and shortly after, the Steelers will faceNick Chubband theCleveland Browns. By then, we should know if this run defense has returned to form. The defense will need another big game by the defensive line this weekend, asCam Heyward, Ogunjobi, and Alualu headed the physicality up front.

What do you expect from this teams run defense in 2022? What do you think they will finish in that department? What needs to happen for them to build off their Week 1 performance? Share your opinions in the comment section below, and on our social media!

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Steelers Defensive Coordinator Teryl Austin Encouraged By Run Defenses Progress In Week 1; Acknowledges Theres Still A Long Way To Go - Yardbarker

Since 2016, when we partnered with the AI community to create the PyTorch framework for AI research, open collaboration has been essential to its success. With thousands of contributors who have built more than 150,000 projects on it, PyTorch has become one of the leading platforms for research and production across the AI community.

Today, Mark Zuckerberg announced that the project will transition to a newly launched PyTorch Foundation, which will be part of the nonprofit Linux Foundation, a technology consortium whose core mission is the collaborative development of open-source software.

The creation of the PyTorch Foundation ensures that decisions will be made in a transparent and open manner by a diverse group of board members for many years to come. The governing body will be composed of representatives from AMD, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Meta, Microsoft Azure and Nvidia, with the intention to expand further over time.

PyTorch was built with an open-source, community-first philosophy, and that wont change with the transition to the Foundation. When researchers and developers open-source their code, others around the world can share their work, learn from each others advances and then contribute back to the AI community.

Going forward, the frameworks contributors will benefit from the robust governance, diverse leadership and additional investments provided by the new PyTorch Foundation partners. The Foundation will strive to adhere to four principles: remaining open, maintaining neutral branding, staying fair and forging a strong technical identity. One of its main priorities will be to keep a clear separation between the business and technical governance of PyTorch.

At Meta, we will continue to invest in PyTorch and use it as the primary framework for our AI research and production. The transition itself wont mean any changes to PyTorchs code, core project or developer operating models.

Weve worked consistently to nurture the community-driven growth that has fueled PyTorchs success, committing hundreds of engineers to the framework and supporting product development and community outreach.

Open science is at the core of our work in AI, whether its releasing code for large language models, self-supervised computer vision systems,innovative new datasets, embodied AI platforms and much more. We believe this approach enables the fastest progress in building and deploying new systems that will address real-world needs and answer fundamental questions about the nature of intelligence. With the creation of the PyTorch Foundation, the entire AI community is positioned to push the field forward in countless exciting new ways.

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Announcing the PyTorch Foundation to Accelerate Progress in AI Research - Facebook

Commentary

The Biden administration has released a very strange executive order. It hardly makes any sense. Its called Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American Bioeconomy.

Thats a lot of bio stuff. Here is a screenshot. This is not English. Its something else.

The only real takeaway from these 5,000 words of gibberish is that the Biden administration really favors bio everything. Bio means you. It means all of us.

Commentators quickly went to the conclusion that this executive order has something to do with transhumanism, the idea that in the future computers and people will blur into a single new form that will gradually substitute human intelligence as we know it with artificial intelligence, and hence create something better than ever.

Its odd. I dont recall Bidens having campaigned on this goal. I have no clue where the administration found the stoned and deluded techno geek silly enough to pound out this gobbledygook. Maybe they borrowed an essay from an Adderall-fueled Ivy sophomore doing an all-nighter for the final in an easy-A class on futurism.

Yes, it rightly gives rise to memories of Victorian-era novels like Frankenstein, which serve as great warnings of the abuse of science in service of the pretense of knowledge. The end result is only tragedy. This seems perfectly obvious to anyone schooled in the history of politics and its unity with science.

Incredibly, this strange obsession with getting to the singularity by force has not been set back at all by the experience of the last three years. Sciencefake science backed by no evidence or experienceruled, overriding the will of the people and their representatives. The administrative state, under the guidance of experts, attempted a full manipulation of the human experience, ending choice and freedom for billions of people on the theory that doing so would somehow control and outwit a tiny pathogen.

They completely failed, and left devastation behind. Every measure of human experience has turned south. Educational outcomes have plummeted as child abuse rose. Excess deaths are extremely high and not from COVID but from lockdowns. Enterprise has been severely harmed. The cause of economic freedom in the United States and around the world has been set back 40 years at least.

The scandal is so intense that it is hard to think about, which is why so many people are just ready to move on and forget, as people do following a natural disaster or war. Some memories are too painful. The problem with not remembering, however, is that we dont learn either. That means that we dont apply the lessons.

Clearly, the Biden administration has learned nothing. But heres a more frightening thought. What happened to us some people might actually consider to be progress. This is a serious concern.

We need only look back to Anthony Faucis September 2020 co-authored essay from Cell. This is the one that called for a new infrastructure of human existence. Strip away on the verbiage, and you have a terrifying dystopian vision. Its a world without cities, without fossil fuels, without pets, without meat, without human migration, and without any freedom whatsoever.

The essay begins with the claim that things started going wrong with the human experience 12,000 years ago. Thats when people first started migrating around, planting crops, and domesticating animals, and trading. This unleashed disease, they report. Presumably before then, when we were living by rivers like impoverished and wretched worms, we were disease free even though few humans lived more than 25 years.

Its a very strange and even terrifying piece of writing but it serves as a reminder. Well-to-do, privileged, powerful, and highly educated people can dream up and believe incredibly stupid things. Its like there is no check on their imaginations. They often possess unconstrained imaginations, as Thomas Sowell explained.

Its time we started taking crazy people seriously. For generations, for example, elites have complained about overpopulation. We hardly paid attention to their ramblings but its all too creepy to contemplate. After all, despite the anodyne term overpopulation, what they are really saying is that there are far too many people and we will all be better off if many of them die and those left be restricted in their ability to procreate.

Weve all listened to this prattle for decades and never imagined for an instant that they would get their way. And yet, when you look at how COVID patients were treated in the early months of the pandemic, shoved in small rooms alone and vented until they kicked the bucket by the thousandsthis approach rather than permitting doctors to give humane therapeuticsone really does wonder what was going on here.

Looking back to generations earlier, we bump into another elite class of intellectuals whose minds were utterly possessed by eugenic fantasies of curating the human race to the point of perfect purity by eliminating everyone they deemed to be unfit. Read any of the high-level journals from the 1890s to the 1930s and this stuff is as hard to miss as it is hard to read. We knew by the mid-1940s, when the horrifying reality of death camps became impossible to deny, exactly where this line of thinking led, and henceforth it became unfashionable.

Whats not unfashionable, however, is for ruling-class intellectuals to dabble in insane ideological imaginings and using the power of the state to realize them. At their cocktail parties and private events, especially those lucky enough to tap into the bank balances of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, they will toss off bromides about how humans and machines will soon merge and thus enable the deserving few to live forever on this earth.

Its a line of thought that would be jeered in any machine-shop break room anywhere in the world. But the ruling-class elites who think this way have constructed social bubbles where they never have to confront real people with common sense. Between their private jets, private clubs, private dining rooms, and remote villas with five times more servants than residents, they can persist in such illusions for decades.

When one considers the lockdowns and mandates of 202022, you gain the picture of a world ruled by just such people and ideas. It was completely delusional but the people who did this to us were truly convinced that they were doing exactly the right thing. They have a different view of progress than you and I.

The idea of progress itself traces to the late Middle Ages. It meant longer lives, more opportunities, the democratization of prosperity, human rights for ever more people, and laws that restrained the power ambitions of crazy people. Through fits and starts and with some dramatic interruptions in the form of war and depression, we saw the gradual unfolding of the idea of progress. We began to imagine a timeline of the historical trajectory that generally trended in an upward direction, at least as we understood that term.

Not everyone shares that view. By every measure we have experienced terrible setbacks in this upward trajectory. We are less free, less prosperous, and therefore less hopeful than weve been in decades. The grim reality, however, is that some peoplemany of them still in chargelook at the work of their hands and are proud of a job well done. Its the Jokers view of what constitutes progress.

When we try to make sense of this new executive order, keep this point in mind. It makes sense to someone somewhere, and that person had enough access to power to get it into print.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

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Progress and Its Deluded Enemies - The Epoch Times

CINCINNATI, Ohio Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor didnt give a definitive update on receiver Tee Higgins status for Sundays game against Dallas, but he came awfully close.

I feel good about it, Taylor said. We are not there all the way about, but I feel really good about it. He practiced today, contact deal. Were good.

He participated in Wednesdays practice in a limited capacity, but was unavailable on Thursday for personal reasons.

Higgins, who had two catches for 27 yards before getting injured in the opener, was the Bengals second-leading receiver last season with 74 catches and 1,091 yards. He put up similar numbers in his rookie year as a second-round pick out of Clemson with 67 catches and 908 yards.

RELATED: Bengals confident in depth at receiver if Tee Higgins cant go against Cowboys

Fellow wide receiver Trent Taylor (hamstring) was also on the injury report this week. He played through the injury against the Steelers and was on the field for 14 snaps, which Taylor said was more than the team was expecting him to play.

He missed Wednesdays practice, but didnt have any issues the rest of the week.

We were planning last week just keeping him as punt returner then he had to play receiver and got through it, so of course, he was a little tight this week, Zac Taylor said. But hell be good to go.

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Tee Higgins making encouraging progress back from concussion ahead of Dallas trip - cleveland.com

Some of the ten Yosemite National Park wildfires ignited in this month 9-15-22

Yosemite, CA Yosemite fire crews have extinguished or contained three of the ten wildfires that were ignited in the park this month.

Yosemite National Park Fire officials report that since September 5th, fire, aviation, and partner resources have responded to multiple new lightning strikes in the park. They added, No closures or evacuations are associated with these incidents at this time. All are or were less than 1/4 acre and have been contained or are being suppressed unless otherwise noted (below). Overall, fire conditions in the higher elevations have moderated in the last week, although fuels remain extremely dry.

To view the smoke outlook for the Red and Rodgers Fires, click here. Park officials released the below-updated fire activity on the ten fires:

RODGERS FIRELocation: Northwest of Rodgers Canyon and southwest of Pleasant ValleyElevation: 8,100Discover date: August 8, 2022Size: 2,774Cause: LightningTotal personnel: 15No recent fire history; burning in mixed conifer and red fir litter, and dead and down logs. A segment of trail in RodgersCanyon from Neall Lake to the junction with Table Lake is temporarily closed due to fire activity. A slight increase inactivity was observed yesterday due to drier conditions.

RED FIRELocation: Between Red Creek and Illilouette CreekElevation: 7,800Discover date: August 4, 2022Size: 8,383 acresCause: LightningTotal personnel: 224Fire History: Burning in the 2001 Hoover Fire footprint in red fir, lodgepole pine litter. Trail closures exist on segmentsheading out the Illilouette drainage from Glacier Point area to Merced Pass Lake. Some isolated pockets of heat remain, especially on the southeastern edge, and crews remain on scene to check the fires progress along Lookout Ridge.

ASPEN FIRELocation: Northeast of Aspen ValleyElevation: 6,200Discover date: September 4, 2022Size: 26 acres, 100% contained and in patrol statusCause: under investigationFully suppressed, patrol statusFire History: Burned within the 2013 Rim Fire footprint in snags and whitethorn. With drier weather, some isolatedsmokes from the interior of the fire were observed yesterday, but the fire remains well contained.

CHIQUITO FIRE patrol statusLocation: Chiquito Pass/Chain Lakes area, near the parks southeast boundaryElevation: 9100Discover Date: September 10, 2022

TURNER FIRE patrol statusLocation: east of Alder Falls, along Turner Ridge, northeast of the Wawona Road above Alder CreekElevation: 6700Discover Date: September 10, 2022

EMPIRE FIRE crew on scene, working on containment.Location: near Empire Meadows, Badger Pass areaElevation: 6500Discover Date: September 10, 2022Size: acre

WOLF FIRE outLocation: Along Tioga Road, east of White WolfElevation: 8000Discover Date: September 10, 2022OBELISK FIRE patrol statusLocation: East of Starr King Meadow/ west of Lake Obelisk/Mt. ClarkElevation: 9,750Discover date: September 9, 2022

RANCH FIRE outLocation: Northeast of Hetch Hetchy ReservoirElevation: 4,000Discover date: September 7, 2022

ALDER FIRE patrol statusLocation: North of Alder Creek, northwest of WawonaDiscover date: September 5, 2022

Written by Tracey Petersen.

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Crews Make Progress On Yosemites Ten Wildfires - MyMotherLode.com

The North Carolina Supreme Court has broken new ground in protecting the rights of criminal defendants in recent years, even as other Southern courts have backtracked. North Carolina's high court, which has a 4-3 Democratic majority, has ruled along party lines to limit long sentences for juvenile offenders and cracked down on the longstanding problem of racism in jury selection.

But that progress could come to a halt next year, depending on the outcome of this year's high court election.

Two Democratic seats are on the ballot in November, and a national Republican group has pledged to spend millions of dollars to help flip at least one of those seats, which would give Republicans a majority. Court of Appeals Judges Richard Dietz and Lucy Inman are the Republican and Democratic candidates, respectively, for one seat. Justice Sam Ervin, an incumbent Democrat, is running for reelection against Republican Trey Allen, a former clerk to conservative Chief Justice Paul Newby.

The court has had a Democratic majority since 2016. Since then, it has issued groundbreaking rulings in criminal cases.

Emily Coward of the Inclusive Juries Project at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, said in an interview that recent rulings have sent a message to judges that the high court won't "rubber stamp" their dismissals of challenges to jury selection.

"Now you have to show your work," she said.

In February, the court cited jury selection concerns in overturning the conviction of a defendant for armed robbery and possessing a firearm. The prosecutor had struck two of the three Black members of the jury pool, and both were women. The court said the prosecutor's lack of specificity regarding their elimination undermined the argument that it was a "race neutral" choice: "He only referred to the two Black women collectively, twice referring to 'their body language' without any further specification."

The North Carolina Supreme Court said that defendants can use a "wide variety of direct and circumstantial evidence" to show that prosecutors discriminated. The justices also warned that racism in jury selection "undermines the credibility of our judicial system as a whole, thus tearing at the very fabric of our democratic society."

Until recently, North Carolina's high court was the only one in the South that had never ruled that a prosecutor discriminated during jury selection. Coward noted that Alabama's appellate courts have ruled for defendants in dozens of cases. Despite decades of statistics and other evidence that prosecutors had been trained to mask discriminatory jury selections, in North Carolina "it was like the appellate courts were never going to reverse a conviction," Coward said.

But in May 2020, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled in favor of Cedric Hobbs, ordering the judge to take another look at the jury selection. As in this year's case, the court noted that the prosecutor's justification for striking Black jurors was vague and inconsistent. On the same day, the court ruled in favor of another defendant in a similar case.

The court found in all of these cases that judges had given prosecutors too much leeway, or that judges had imposed too high a bar for finding discrimination. Civil rights attorney Ian Mance of Emancipate NC noted in an interview that justices are now holding prosecutors to a higher standard. "Defendants across the state can get fairer juries," he said. And as Coward pointed out, "diverse, inclusive juries prevent wrongful convictions."

In these decisions, the North Carolina court applied the test articulated in Batson v. Kentucky, a 1986 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court told lower courts how to determine if discrimination occurred. For decades, Coward said, Batson was "widely recognized as a pretty abysmal failure. Nowhere was that more true than in North Carolina."

But that is changing. Coward also pointed to two decisions in 2020 that overruled lower court decisions to bar lawyers from discussing racial bias in their cases. "It's really breaking new ground for the court to talk about the value of having fully fleshed out conversations about racial justice in the courtroom," she said.

Chief Justice Newby dissented in nearly all of these cases.In Hobbs, he argued that the judge had "appropriately considered the evidence."

In August 2020, Newby wrote a lengthy dissent when the court struck down a law passed by the Republican-controlled legislature that would have returned several people to death row. The defendants had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment under the 2012 Racial Justice Act, which allowed people to challenge death sentences on the basis of racial discrimination, including bias in jury selection. The Republican-led state legislature voted to repeal the Racial Justice Act in 2013 and to apply the repeal retroactively to people whose sentences had been commuted.

In striking down the repeal law, the court said that requiring the defendants to be re-sentenced to death violates the state constitution's "double jeopardy" clause.

Then-Chief Justice Cheri Beasley, who is Black, wrote a decision that was joined in full by Earls and Justice Mike Morgan, the other two Black justices."The same racially oppressive beliefs that fueled segregation manifested themselves through public lynchings, the disproportionate application of the death penalty against African-American defendants, and the exclusion of African-Americans from juries," Beasley wrote.

In his dissent, Newby, who is white, argued that those three justices"may have a larger purpose: to establish that our criminal justice system is seriously and perhaps irredeemably infected by racial discrimination."

After Republicans swept North Carolina appellate court races in 2020, Democrats who formerly held six of the seven high court seats had only a one-vote majority. Newby, a former prosecutor who has denied the existence of racism in the criminal justice system, narrowly won the leadership position over Beasley, a former public defender.

The court's current 4-3 Democratic majority has continued to break new ground. In June, for example, the justices voted along party lines to put a constitutional limit of 40 years on sentences for crimes committed by juveniles. The majority reasoned that any sentence longer than that is a "de facto sentence of life without parole," which violates the state constitution's ban on cruel or unusual punishment.

Justice Anita Earls, a former civil rights lawyer, wrote the opinion. "When a child commits a murder, the crime is a searing tragedy and profound societal failure," it said. "Even a child has agency, of course But there are different considerations at issue when sentencing a juvenile offender." A longer sentence, the decision said, "deprives the juvenile of a genuine opportunity to demonstrate he or she has been rehabilitated and to establish a meaningful life outside of prison."

Newby began his dissent by defining the phrase "judicial activism" and accusing the majority of it. He argued that his colleagues were "legislating" by limiting sentences for juveniles to 40 years and setting "dangerous criminal policy." Newby wrote that the court should've considered the brutality of the murders committed.

The other Republicans on the court Justices Tamara Barringer, who previously served as a GOP legislator, and former prosecutor Phil Berger Jr., son of state Senate leader Phil Berger joined Newby's dissent in the juvenile case as well as other high-profile rulings.

In fact, research by William Busa of the Democratic political consulting group EQV Analytics found that the court's three Republican justices voted together in 93% of non-unanimous decisions this year, while Democrats did so less than half the time. Justices Ervin, who's on the ballot this year, and Morgan sometimes vote with the conservatives in criminal law cases. Last month, for example, Ervin voted with the conservative bloc in a case involving a defendant's request for a transcript of his previous trial.

In cases where the justices disagree, the Republicans are reliable votes in favor of prosecutors and against criminal defendants. Two of the three are former prosecutors.

If Republicans win both seats on this year's ballot, they'll have a 5-2 majority on the North Carolina high court. The GOP candidates, Allen and Dietz, are not former prosecutors, however. In fact, when Dietz was on the ballot in 2016, he mentioned the need to address perceived unfairness in the criminal justice system. Dietz' opponent, Judge Inman, is also acknowledging racism in the system and suggesting reforms.

Allen hasn't said much on the campaign trial about bias in the criminal justice system. But he's closely tied to Newby, whose administration hired him as lawyer for the Administrative Office of the Courts after its former lawyer was fired. Last year, Allen called Newby "the gold standard of conservative judges in North Carolina." Allen's Democratic opponent, Justice Ervin, authored one of the jury selection rulings in 2020.

If either Allen or Dietz wins and votes with the three sitting Republicans in nearly every criminal case, the conservatives will constitute a majority and the court could become a much tougher venue for criminal defendants. Like the Florida Supreme Court, which has recently scrapped precedents protecting the rights of people on death row, North Carolina's could rapidly overturn precedents protecting the rights of criminal defendants and others.

In the coming years, North Carolina justices could rule on important issues like whether people opposed to the death penalty can be banned from serving on capital juries.

The court could continue along its current path or set a different course, depending on who the voters choose this fall. While judicial races don't often get the same amount of attention as other statewide races, Coward said, "given that we have partisan judicial elections, you can't overemphasize the importance of an informed electorate."

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North Carolina's progress on criminal justice at stake in high court election - Facing South

Progress has stalled on investigations over North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens, with no prospects of arresting suspects 20 years after Pyongyang admitted to the kidnappings.

Japanese police have determined that 19 people were abducted by North Korea, including two children of Korean nationality who have disappeared. Another 871 have been identified as potential abductees.

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No progress in Japan's investigation into North Korean abduction suspects - The Japan Times

A big part of playing betas oftentimes is that some progress carries over into the full release. In terms of Modern Warfare 2, does the progress you made in the beta carry over to the full release? We have answers.

It seems that the progress you made in this beta will not carry over to the full game. People may be disappointed by the fact that theyll be grinding away for new guns just for that progress to be reset in the main game. To be fair, it would be a huge advantage to those who pre-ordered the game and played the beta a whole two days before everyone else. Let alone, participated in a beta where you can try out a wide array of weapons and loadouts.

Even if the cap for the beta goes to 30, it wouldnt be fair to people who missed out on these periods. Dont think that just opting out will be pointless either. There are rewards for people who hit certain levels in this beta. These are the cool things to expect once you hit these levels.

So, if you play a decent amount and get to 30, you may not have all the other things you worked to get, but you will have some cool gear to start with when the game comes out. Everything will have that slick black and green finish to them to fit with the games thematic color scheme.

What also is a bit cool is that players who participated in the beta and hit the first weeks cap of 15 followed by 30 for the second is that theyll be rewarded with these blueprints. Theyre essentially themed guns with their own preset attachments on them, working similarly to those other blueprint guns from the previous Call of Duty titles.

Its still a decent tradeoff to dedicate enough time to get a few goodies to commemorate that you were there to participate in the games online sphere ahead of launch.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 will release on October 27, 2022 on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series consoles, and PC.

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Does Modern Warfare 2 Beta Progress Carry Over to the Full Release? - Attack of the Fanboy