q-phil 。

Mayor Todd Gloria has added his voice to growing community opposition to a proposed 23-story hotel and residential tower in Pacific Beach. “While I am a staunch advocate for affordable housing, this project is an extreme application of the state Density Bonus Law that fails to meet the spirit or intent of California’s affordable housing policies,” he said in an email update to constituents just before Christmas. The mayor noted “significant community concerns,” and added, “I share many of the reservations about the project.” The Vela project at 970 Turquoise Street in Pacific Beach would include 139 hotel rooms and 74 residential units, 10 of which would be deed-restricted for affordable housing. The developer is Kalonymus LLC , a Los Angeles-based real estate firm. We have launched our year-end campaign. Our goal: Raise $50,000 by Dec. 31. Help us get there. Times of San Diego is devoted to producing timely, comprehensive news about San Diego County. Your donation helps keep our work free-to-read, funds reporters who cover local issues and allows us to write stories that hold public officials accountable. Join the growing list of donors investing in our community's long-term future. Gloria said the city is requesting assistance from the California Department of Housing and Community Development to ensure that the development, if it proceeds, complies with all state housing regulations. He said his office is also working with state Sen. Catherine Blakespear to introduce legislation amending the Density Bonus Law to strengthen safeguards on projects that include affordable housing. “San Diego has led the way in addressing the affordable housing crisis, but we cannot allow pro-housing policies to be exploited for projects that fail to serve our community’s needs,” Gloria said. Get Our Free Daily Email Newsletter Get the latest local and California news from Times of San Diego delivered to your inbox at 8 a.m. daily. Sign up for our free email newsletter and be fully informed of the most important developments.After-hours movers: Intuit, NetApp, Ross Stores, GAP

Black plastic kitchen utensil risks were overstated. But you should still toss them, group says

Ireland blamed Northern Ireland Office for ‘damaging leaks’, records showNEW YORK (AP) — Daniel Penny chose not to testify and defense lawyers rested their case Friday at his trial in the death of an agitated man he choked on a subway train. Closing arguments are expected after Thanksgiving in the closely watched manslaughter case about the death of Jordan Neely , 30. The encounter between Penny, a white Marine veteran, and Neely, a homeless Black man with mental health and drug problems, has been drawn into U.S. political divides over race, public safety and cities’ ability to handle mental illness and social ills. Penny, 26, has pleaded not guilty. Many criminal defendants don’t take the stand, and juries are routinely instructed that they cannot hold defendants’ silence — a constitutional right — against them. One of Penny’s lawyers, Daniel Kenniff, noted after court that jurors did hear from Penny, in the form of his recorded statements to police minutes and hours after he put Neely in a chokehold. “Virtually everything he said then is consistent with credible testimony of his fellow passengers,” Kenniff said. Penny told police that he wrapped his arm around Neely’s neck, took him to the floor and “put him out” because he was angrily throwing things and making threatening comments. Penny said on police video that he hadn’t wanted to injure Neely but rather to keep him from hurting anyone else. RELATED COVERAGE Pathologist disputes finding that Marine veteran’s chokehold caused subway rider’s death Sister of ex-Marine charged in subway chokehold death testifies to his ‘calm’ spirit and patriotism Former Marine misused a combat technique in fatal chokehold of NYC subway rider, trainer testifies A number of other passengers testified that they were scared of Neely and relieved that Penny grabbed hold of him. A man who later stepped in and held down Neely’s arms, however, told jurors that he urged Penny to let go but that the veteran kept choking Neely for a time. Prosecutors say Penny meant to protect people but recklessly used too much force, overlooking Neely’s humanity and making no effort to spare his life. City medical examiners ruled that the chokehold killed Neely. A pathologist hired by Penny’s defense disputed that finding . Prosecutors, defense lawyers and the judge are set to meet Monday to hash out jury instructions.A recent study that recommended toxic chemicals in black plastic products be immediately thrown away included a math error that significantly overstated the risks of contamination, but its authors are standing by their conclusions and warn against using such products. Published in the peer-reviewed journal Chemosphere , experts from the nonprofit Toxic-Free Future said they detected flame retardants and other toxic chemicals in 85% of 203 items made of black plastic including kitchen utensils , take-out containers, children's toys and hair accessories. In a blog post, Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill University's Office for Science and Society in Canada, explained that the Toxin-Free Future scientists miscalculated the lower end of what the EPA considered a health risk through a multiplication error. Instead of humans being potentially exposed to a dose of toxic chemicals in black plastic utensils near the minimum level that the EPA deems a health risk, it's actually about one-tenth of that. (Dreamstime/TNS) The study initially said the potential exposure to chemicals found in one of the kitchen utensils approached the minimum levels the Environmental Protection Agency deemed a health risk. But in an update to the study, the authors say they made an error in their calculations and the real levels were "an order of magnitude lower" than the EPA's thresholds. The error was discovered by Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill University's Office for Science and Society in Canada. In a blog post, Schwarcz explained that the Toxin-Free Future scientists miscalculated the lower end of what the EPA considered a health risk through a multiplication error. Instead of humans being potentially exposed to a dose of toxic chemicals in black plastic utensils near the minimum level that the EPA deems a health risk, it's actually about one-tenth of that. Though Schwarcz said the risks outlined in the study aren't enough for him to discard his black plastic kitchen items if he had them, he agreed with the authors that flame retardants shouldn't be in these products in the first place. "The math error does not impact the study's findings, conclusions or recommendations," said Megan Liu, a co-author of the study who is the science and policy manager for Toxic-Free Future . She added that any traces of flame retardants or toxic chemicals in cooking utensils should be concerning for the public. Flame retardants are getting into commonly used items because black-colored products are being made from recycled electronic waste, such as discarded television sets and computers, that frequently contain the additives. When they're heated, the flame retardants and other toxic chemicals can migrate out. If you're wondering whether your old black plastic spoon or other utensils are a part of this group, Liu shared some more guidance. It's nearly impossible to know whether a black plastic product is contaminated. That's because these products that include recycled e-waste don't disclose a detailed list of all ingredients and contaminants in the product. Liu said it's also unclear how many types of flame retardants are in these black plastic products. Some of the products that researchers tested in this recent study "had up to nine different harmful chemicals and harmful flame retardants in them," she said. Anytime you're looking for the type of recycled plastic a product is made of you're going to look for a number within the chasing arrows (that form a triangle) logo. Recycling symbols are numbered 1 to 7 and we commonly associate the numbers with what we can toss in our blue recycling bins. The 1 through 7 numbers stand for, respectively, polyethylene terephthalate, high-density polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), low-density polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene or Styrofoam, and miscellaneous plastics (including polycarbonate, polylactide, acrylic, acrylonitrile butadiene, styrene, fiberglass and nylon). The study found higher levels of toxic flame retardants in polystyrene plastic, which is labeled with the number 6, said Liu. There isn't a definitive timeline of when recycled electronic-waste started to be incorporated into black plastic products specifically, but e-waste started to get recycled in the early 2000s, Liu said. The way computers, cellphones, stereos, printers and copiers were being disposed of previously was to simply add them to a landfill without reusing salvageable parts. But as the National Conference of State Legislatures notes, electronics production required a significant amount of resources that could be recovered through recycling. Recovering resources such as metals, plastics and glass through recycling used a fraction of the energy needed to mine new materials. However, the study pointed out that flame retardants and other chemical contaminates have been detected in and near e-waste recycling facilities, in indoor air and dust at formal e-waste recycling facilities in Canada, China, Spain and the U.S. It also noted contamination in soil samples surrounding e-waste recycling sites in China and Vietnam. The safest nontoxic material options for kitchen utensil are wood and stainless steel. The 20th century brought airplanes, radio, television, the internet, and plastic. Lots of plastic. That plastic is now showing up on shorelines, forming islands in oceans, and generating mountains of translucent trash on land. Around 700 species of animals in the sea have been found to interact with plastic daily. Companies across every industry face pressure to reduce the amount of plastic they produce. Seventy-two percent of the world's largest have made voluntary commitments to reduce their plastic waste, according to a Duke University analysis. One industry, in particular, has greatly benefited from advancements in single-use plastic technology: the medical industry. Only in recent years have businesses and academics in the field begun to talk about minimizing their impact on our environment like beverage manufacturers and other consumer goods-producing businesses. Medical Technology Schools analyzed academic studies published in the National Library of Medicine , the American Medical Association , and news reports to shed light on the medical community's use of plastics through history, their environmental problems, and proposed solutions to reduce their impact. And the impact can be significant. A single hospital patient generates nearly 34 pounds of waste a day —as much as a quarter of it is plastic. The COVID-19 pandemic only worsened the problem. The pandemic pushed hospital capacity to the brink and led to a massive increase in personal protective equipment and medical supply usage. Medical-grade masks and other protective equipment like face shields, made mostly of nonrenewable plastics, were in high demand. In 2020, the World Health Organization estimated that the international need for PPE manufacturing would boost 40% to address the public health crisis. Hospitals needed an estimated 89 million masks, 76 million gloves, and 1.6 million goggles every month of the pandemic. To date, nearly 677 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered, each requiring their own plastic syringe, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Global consulting firm Frost & Sullivan estimated that the U.S. would produce a year's worth of medical waste in just two months due to the pandemic. The World Economic Forum warned that the COVID-19 crisis threatened to " stall and even reverse progress " to reduce large plastic waste. It's a challenge researchers acknowledge today as they search for solutions. Plastics introduced an era of ultraconvenience to the world. It makes our clothes. It's made bike helmets and airbags possible. And it's a cheap material to produce, meaning it's cheap for consumers too. Almost as importantly, it's durable and incredibly easy to make into complex shapes—a trait that helped plastics invented in the mid-20th century quickly replace more expensive metal and wooden goods. That adoption extended to the medical field, where the single-use nature of plastics represented a move toward more hygienic tools for physicians and hospitals. But it wasn't plastic's sanitary qualities that the industry first latched onto. Like so many other technical advancements, convenience and cost were the initial driving factors. That they were more conducive to creating a sterile environment for patients was a benefit that health care began to tout closer to the end of the 20th century. PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, replaced glass bottles previously used to hold IV solution and replaced rubber tubing used throughout hospital settings. Plastic has also become the go-to material for making syringes and catheters. Plastic products are generally made from chemicals derived from the oil and natural gas refining process. Chemists use those byproducts to create synthetic materials with malleable and durable chemical structures. The low cost of these materials has helped medical device-makers support better health outcomes for communities across the U.S. since the 1900s. No longer was health care priced at rates only the elite could afford—it was accessible to a much larger swath of the public. In the last decade, the U.S., in particular, has emerged as a massive market for medical plastics. The country generally accounts for nearly half of the global market for medical devices. Plastic's durability is not only a benefit but a detriment to the environment, as the material can take many years to deteriorate when it enters landfills or trashes oceans. Estimates vary widely, but scientists ballpark that depending on the kind of plastic and the environment in which it decomposes, it could take dozens to thousands of years to break down entirely. COVID-19, which remains a burden for health care systems, isn't the only force raising the stakes for a health care industry pressured to reduce reliance on plastics or find ways to reuse them. Global annual production of plastic has doubled in the last two decades , according to the Environmental Protection Agency. As the U.S. looks toward the future, its aging population is another factor that could exacerbate the rate at which medical plastics end up in landfills. People require more medical care as they age, and aging baby boomers are expected to place increased demand on the medical device industry. At the same time, governments are under pressure to lower health care costs, which have become unaffordable even for those insured . As recently as 2021, researchers lamented a lack of data on efforts to recycle medical plastics. Around 350 hospitals participate in Practice Greenhealth's Environmental Excellence Awards . Practice Greenhealth is an organization working to help hospitals increase their sustainability. It's one of the few sources of hospital sustainability data, and its roster of participating hospitals represents a small fraction of the more than 6,000 hospitals operating in the U.S. To meet the need to reduce plastic waste generation, some hospitals are moving away from using plastic in certain applications. Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center replaced health care workers' disposable plastic isolation gowns with reusable cloth gowns at its hospitals in the last decade, saving money and preventing literal tons of medical waste. It also implemented a process for sterilizing and incinerating the boxes that hold used needles, allowing them to be reassembled and reused in a health care setting. Recycling plastic medical waste is complicated by the potential for contamination and the need to separate contaminated and noncontaminated waste; once separated, they can be broken down with heat or treated with chemicals and reprocessed. However, using chemical methods to break down and dispose of plastics has drawbacks. Over 200 nongovernmental organizations signed a letter in 2023 urging the Biden administration to end federal support for methods like these, arguing they generate toxic pollutants. The Vinyl Council of Australia is working with hospitals to recover used materials made of PVC . The materials are broken down into tiny pieces, washed and heated at high temperatures, and remade into things used outside medical settings. In the U.S. and Europe, there's the Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council, a coalition of companies working in the health care device space that includes DuPont, Johnson & Johnson, and Medtronic. In 2021, the HPRC, advised by professionals at Kaiser Permanente and other health systems, rolled out a medical waste recycling pilot project with hopes of scaling it across more hospitals. Story editing by Ashleigh Graf. Copy editing by Paris Close. Photo selection by Clarese Moller. This story originally appeared on Medical Technology Schools and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio. Sign up here to get the latest health & fitness updates in your inbox every week!

Punjab unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has distanced itself from the statement of Union minister Ravneet Singh Bittu’s remarks on Narain Singh Chaura , who made a life attempt on Sukhbir Singh Badal. Bittu had suggested that Chaura should be honoured with the title of “Qaum Da Heera” (gem of the community). In a statement issued on Sunday, BJP national executive member Manoranjan Kalia said the recent statement of Bittu eulogising the attacker was not the party’s line. READ | Sukhbir Singh Badal attacked: ‘Why accused not arrested’, ask Akali leaders “Any statement scoring brownie points politically which has the cascading effect of damaging the political and social fabric of Punjab, thereby denting communal harmony, should be avoided,” Kalia said. He added that the BJP had already condemned the December 4 attack on Sukhbir. Drawing parallels with his grandfather’s assassination, Bittu, while talking to media persons, said, “When Beant Singh ji was assassinated, 17 others lost their lives, leaving families orphaned. The SAD honoured the individuals in such cases at the Golden Temple. Now it is their turn to reciprocate by supporting Chaura with similar magnanimity.” “If my grandfather’s killer, Balwant Singh Rajoana, is being termed Quam Da Heera, Chaura should be given the same treatment by Akali Dal and SGPC,” Bittu said.

PlayStation CEO says AI won't replace humans in game developmentJames, Quigley and Hayes combine for 59 points as No. 20 NC State women beat Coastal Carolina 89-68

Human Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of Amazon.com, Inc. ( NASDAQ:AMZN – Free Report ) by 28.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,977 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 885 shares during the period. Human Investing LLC’s holdings in Amazon.com were worth $741,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in AMZN. PayPay Securities Corp grew its stake in Amazon.com by 64.6% in the second quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 163 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 64 shares during the period. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new position in Amazon.com in the third quarter valued at about $37,000. Bull Oak Capital LLC acquired a new position in Amazon.com in the third quarter valued at about $45,000. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc grew its stake in Amazon.com by 650.0% in the second quarter. Christopher J. Hasenberg Inc now owns 300 shares of the e-commerce giant’s stock valued at $58,000 after acquiring an additional 260 shares during the period. Finally, Values First Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Amazon.com in the third quarter valued at about $56,000. 72.20% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds. Insider Buying and Selling at Amazon.com In other Amazon.com news, SVP David Zapolsky sold 2,190 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.00, for a total value of $427,050.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 62,420 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,171,900. This trade represents a 3.39 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website . Also, insider Jeffrey P. Bezos sold 2,996,362 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.85, for a total value of $625,790,203.70. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 917,416,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $191,602,535,437.60. This represents a 0.33 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . In the last quarter, insiders have sold 6,030,183 shares of company stock valued at $1,252,883,795. 10.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders. Analysts Set New Price Targets View Our Latest Analysis on Amazon.com Amazon.com Trading Up 2.9 % Shares of NASDAQ:AMZN opened at $227.03 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $2.39 trillion, a P/E ratio of 48.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.46 and a beta of 1.16. Amazon.com, Inc. has a 1 year low of $143.64 and a 1 year high of $227.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $197.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $188.12. Amazon.com ( NASDAQ:AMZN – Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The e-commerce giant reported $1.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.14 by $0.29. The business had revenue of $158.88 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $157.28 billion. Amazon.com had a return on equity of 22.41% and a net margin of 8.04%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.85 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Amazon.com, Inc. will post 5.29 EPS for the current fiscal year. Amazon.com Profile ( Free Report ) Amazon.com, Inc engages in the retail sale of consumer products, advertising, and subscriptions service through online and physical stores in North America and internationally. The company operates through three segments: North America, International, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). It also manufactures and sells electronic devices, including Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TVs, Echo, Ring, Blink, and eero; and develops and produces media content. Read More Five stocks we like better than Amazon.com Why Are Stock Sectors Important to Successful Investing? Fast-Growing Companies That Are Still Undervalued How to Invest in the Best Canadian Stocks Top Cybersecurity Stock Picks for 2025 What Percentage Gainers Tell Investors and Why They Don’t Tell the Whole Story Archer or Joby: Which Aviation Company Might Rise Fastest? Receive News & Ratings for Amazon.com Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Amazon.com and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .The Boxing Day sales are already starting with some of the UK's biggest retailers slashing prices. Argos has launched its sale event and now Currys has joined the party with the technology store cutting costs across a swathe of devices. There are hundreds of discounts in this latest event, so to help you go shopping, Express.co.uk has been online and picked the best 8 offers available right now. Here are our top 8 Currys Boxing Day deals Samsung Galaxy S24 FE NOW £574 - PLUS - get a free Galaxy Chromebook worth £299 BOXING DAY DEAL: The Galaxy S24 FE offers big specs on a smaller budget. It gets a 6.7-inch screen, triple lens rear camera, fast processor and decent battery life. Right now, this buying one will get a free Chromebook worth £299. SEE THE GALAXY FE DEAL HERE Fitbit Versa 4 NOW £129 - SAVE £50 BOXING DAY DEAL: Fitbit still offers one of the best ways to track your health and the Versa 4 is a solid option. This wearable will monitor your heart rate, steps, calories and even how stressed out you are. SEE THE FITBIT DEAL HERE Google Pixel 8a NOW £369 - SAVE £130 BOXING DAY DEAL: Don't want to spend a fortune on a new phone? The Pixel 8a offers plenty of features for under £370 with this device getting a 6.1-inch screen, dual cameras and speedy Tensor processor. SEE THE PIXEL DEAL HERE Samsung 43-inch TV NOW £2599 - SAVE £70 BOXING DAY DEAL: Samsung still makes some of the best TVs in the business and you don't have to spend big to get a decent display. Currys is currently dishing out the DU7100 model for £259 - that's £70 off the usual price. It features 4K visuals, smart features and free content via Samsung TV Plus. SEE THE SAMSUNG TV DEAL HERE Sony WH-1000XM5 NOW £245 - SAVE £54 BOXING DAY DEAL: Sony's WH-1000XM5 headphones are some of the best cans in the business with these music makers featuring long battery 30-hour battery life, fast charging and incredible sound with top-notch Active Noise Cancellation. SEE THE DEAL HERE Apple iPad NOW £289 - SAVE £50 BOXING DAY DEAL: The iPad 10th Gen was slashed in price for Black Friday, now the deal is back with £50 off the usual price. This top tablet is powered by the A14 Bionic processor, gets a Liquid Retina display and is compatible with the latest Apple Pencil. SEE THE IPAD DEAL HERE Apple iPhone 14 NOW £549 - SAVE £50 BOXING DAY DEAL: The iPad 10th Gen was slashed in price for Black Friday, now the deal is back with £50 off the usual price. This top tablet is powered by the A14 Bionic processor, gets a Liquid Retina display and is compatible with the latest Apple Pencil. SEE THE IPAD DEAL HERE JVC TV NOW £119 - SAVE £40 BOXING DAY DEAL: This budget TV from JVC comes with Roku technology included. That means you get full access to a swathe of smart features and apps such as Disney+, Netflix and more SEE THE JVC DEAL HEREJosh Isner is the president of Axon Enterprise and has been with the company for over 15 years. In this podcast, he joins Motley Fool analyst Jason Moser to discuss: Why Axon is like the Apple of law enforcement. How immersive technology improves police training and retention. The role of drones and humanoids in public safety. To catch full episodes of all The Motley Fool's free podcasts, check out our podcast center . To get started investing, check out our beginner's guide to investing in stocks . A full transcript follows the video. This video was recorded on Dec. 15, 2024. Josh Isner: We're seeing virtual reality as a major disruptor in training. The reason is retention. We see that when you train in virtual reality, retention goes up about 40% versus conventional in person training, and it makes sense because you're living those scenarios in a very real, convincing way. You're not firing taser probes at a person running around in a Velcro suit or at a stationary target, instead you're confronting real world scenarios that are modeled after real incidents that have happened in policing, and you're training on those under tremendous stress. The best part of all is, you can do it as many times as you want in as many different locations as you want. Mary Long: I'm Mary Long, and that's Josh Isner. He's a president at Axon Enterprise. Axon builds tasers and body cameras for law enforcement officers. They also have a cloud based evidence management system and immersive augmented reality technologies that help police departments better train and prepare officers for stressful, very high stakes situations. Fool analyst Jason Moser caught up with Josh to discuss why Jason thinks of Axon as the Apple of its industry, the ways Axon is using artificial intelligence, augmented reality and drones to save lives, and how humanoids could be the next big innovation in law enforcement. Jason Moser: I like to view Axon as the Apple of public safety, and that's a compliment in every way. You guys make market leading hardware. You've developed a tremendous ecosystem of software and services to support it all. Can you just give us a quick breakdown of the actual business? What are the major segments of the business and what are you guys excited about these days? Josh Isner: For sure. We do a lot at Axon. I appreciate that compliment. That's about as lofty of a compliment as we could have. That's very nice of you. Thank you. We do look at Apple as a good analogy to how our products complement each other. We really have two core businesses. One is the iPhone, iTunes model for body cameras for police. You have your iPhone, which is your body camera, and then your version of iTunes as a police officer is called evidence.com, and that's all of your digital evidence is managed. All of the video coming off your body camera, video coming from CCTV, in car video, drones, really any source of video, it's all housed in evidence.com, and we house over 30 times the amount of video in the Netflix library currently on evidence.com. This is a massive, massive data set. That's core business number one, the core business number two is very different, it's our less lethal technologies business, and tasers or conducted electrical weapons are the thing there. We've been in that business since 1993. We're on our 10th version of the taser, aptly called Taser 10. Certainly, the intent there is to make this technology so good that a bullet will never have to be fired in policing. That's a very lofty goal, but that is what we're on a mission to do is to offer a police officer the same amount of stopping power, but make sure at the end of it that the suspect is alive. Those are the two core businesses. Then we've got these interesting businesses that we've built off of them on the taser side, virtual reality training is one of our fastest growing businesses. On the video side, AI, analytics, different tools that you can use within your digital evidence management platform like automated redaction and sharing and being able to view multiple feeds that are time sync. Those are the types of follow on opportunities there are, as well as a records management product that's very closely married to digital evidence. We operate those two businesses at the company in a way that allows them to be scrappy and entrepreneurial, and we've seen a lot of growth in both over the last five or seven years here. Jason Moser: Something we all think about as investors is your competitive landscape. There's no obvious Pepsi to your Coke or Coke to your Pepsi, if you prefer. But what I'm getting at is competition. Who do you consider your main competitors today? Josh Isner: Sure. There are plenty of competitors in the body camera space. The one I think people will have heard of before is Motorola . They're very active in this space, and that's probably our major competitor in the body camera space. But what I say a lot about Axon is our main competition is the status quo. Ultimately, government is not built to be on the front end of adoption. Their procurement cycles are lengthy and protracted and their budget cycles are such that things take time. A lot of times it's about convincing the end user that this technology they're deploying is going to have a return on investment is going to make them more efficient. It's going to allow them to keep communities safer. But a lot of times in government, it can be challenging to move the technological ball down the field. I'd say that's really the competition that we're most focused on. Jason Moser: Got you. Getting back to that immersive technology angle because I made a recommendation of Axon in our augmented reality and beyond service because of the work that you all have been doing in immersive technology, particularly in training. It seems like it makes perfect sense. But we've also seen that adoption of immersive technology, it's still slow going in many cases, particularly more with the mass consumer. But what does your future look like there? Do you feel like you all are reaping the returns on that investment? Is that something you plan to continue building out? Josh Isner: When we talk about our mission Jason, a lot of people think about the taser as the main apparatus to protect life. Certainly, you can make that argument very easily. But I would say there's a second component of that, which is revolutionizing the way police officers train. Historically, the idea of sending everyone in your department to one location in a city having them fire consumables once or twice a year and then certifying them to go out and perform at the highest level in the most stressful situations they could ever possibly imagine. Personally, I think that's a disservice to police officers, and I think they deserve better than that. We're seeing virtual reality as a major disruptor in training. The reason is retention. We see that when you're trained in virtual reality, retention goes up about 40% versus conventional in person training, and it makes sense because you're living those scenarios in a very real convincing way. You're not firing fake taser probes at a person running around in a Velcro suit or at a stationary target, instead you're confronting real world scenarios that are modeled after real incidents that have happened in policing, and you're training on those under tremendous stress. The best part of all is, you can do it as many times as you want and in as many different locations as you want. In terms of actually preparing police officers for what they're about to face in the field, we truly believe virtual reality is a major, major component of that and fast follow would be augmented reality. It's turned into a nice business. Our partner is HTC on the headsets, and then we build all the custom content for police officers. It's one of our fastest growing businesses. We've had at Axon, and I think it's only two or three-years-old. It's really still got a lot of white space looking ahead. Jason Moser: That's great. You actually answered a question I was going to ask in regard to the hardware and the software. It sounds like like you mentioned, you're working with HTC on the hardware side and then building out the software, those experiences on your end, is that right? Josh Isner: Absolutely. We're we've been in the police training business since 1993. All of our users go through taser certification training and so forth. For us, we feel like we're really close to the experience already, and that informs better content, better scenarios, and ultimately better outcomes in the field. Jason Moser: I'm curious, given the success that you all have witnessed in the immersive technology space, as it applies to your business, beyond Axon, are there any use cases for immersive technology that have caught your attention or the attention of leadership there at the company? Josh Isner: Sure. I think the big opportunities for us outside of just training police officers in immersive technologies is we serve other markets as well, whether it's military, whether it's enterprises that are doing private security details, international government. For us, it's about diversifying the content within VR to really hit home the major use cases for each one of our customer segments. We also actually offer VR training to civilians, and it's called community engagement training. What it allows you to is it allows you to put yourself as a civilian in the police officers shoes and then see the same event unfold from the civilians perspective. I think it builds a little bit of mutual understanding of what each side in some of these incidents is going through, and it's particularly valuable in terms training police officers on how to deal with subjects that are going through a mental health crisis or that are hard of hearing and that have Alzheimer's. Some of these edge cases that do happen commonly in America today. Then, it gives a person on the other side of the body camera that same benefit of being able to see how those scenarios unfold. Jason Moser: That's great. Then leaping from immersive technology on into AI because you knew this was coming. It's all about AI these days. In your recent shareholder letter, I was reading through, and you all noted the AI era plan, which I think is really compelling. For our listeners, can we dig into exactly what the AI era plan is all about, and how are you as a company investing in AI to make your business better? Josh Isner: Sure thing. We'll start with the AI era plan. We're really excited about what the future holds for this offering. We announced it in mid October, and actually this week, we've seen the plan already pass several city council meetings, and that is particularly encouraging because in government, generally, when you go to market with something, you're not seeing deals transpire two months later. But I think that the value of the plan and the types of efficiencies it lends to police officers. The AI era plan is essentially a collection of all of our AI tools today, but it also future proofs you. Meaning, if you sign up for today on a five year contract, every AI feature Axon makes over the next five years is included in that plan. It's a very economical way to lock in the future of AI as a governmental agency and have cost control around it. Some of the things in that plan our products like Draft one, which analyzes body camera video and audio transcripts and writes the first draft of the police report for the officer. Today, we hear police officers spend about 50% of their time writing reports, and we drive that number down to about 10-20% of their time. Essentially, we're giving police officers back more than a day a week of time to be out in the community, doing what they do best, which is fighting crime. The officer still has to edit the transcript, make sure everything looks right put in some key identifiers and so forth. That's a really big part of the process to make sure that revision occurs from the human. But you're starting with the ball on the 10 yard line and looking to go into the end zone here. It's a really compelling value proposition for the customer. We think over the next year, we're positioned to launch seven or eight more of those types of products. This AI bundle is really gaining a lot of interest, and we're very excited about what the future holds for it. Jason Moser: That's very exciting to hear the launches, the roll outs that you all are planning. That was my assumption was that this was something that would just continue to iterate and evolve. Something I love seeing in your shareholder letters are the testimonials from your customers regarding the products and the services. I wonder in regard to AI era, your investments in AI, are there any stories in particular? Is there feedback in particular that stands out to you? Something that makes you all say, "Yes, we are absolutely on the right path here." Josh Isner: I actually think it's feedback coming from the prosecutors themselves. We knew the police officers would be really excited about this in that it's less administrative work at the end of every shift. But we didn't know how prosecutors would feel about it, because they're saying, "hey, how should we think about this evidence? It's written by an AI model at least the first draft of it is." We've seen a lot of promising support and acceptance of these reports in the courtroom already. I think early on the critics were like, "hey, will this actually make it through the legal process?" We're seeing that it is. To see prosecutors say, "Hey, the quality of these reports is much better, and they're getting generated faster." It's a win, win, and that feedback is really encouraging because the workflows don't really stop with just the police department. They have to go to the DA's office. They have to go to the public defender or the defense firm's office, and eventually they have to go to the courtroom. Making sure that whatever we build really withstands the captured courtroom workflow, as we call it, is a really big part of the process. Jason Moser: That's terrific. When I wrote up a recommendation for Axon in August of 2023, and I noted in that piece that today Axon is a very US centric business with international operations representing really only around one fifth of total revenue right now, not even really, just around one fifth. But down the road, I saw where founder and CEO Rick Smith he anticipates those tables turning to where the international business represents closer to 80% of the overall total, which I mean, that's exciting from an investor's perspective because it gives us a very clear view of ultimately the market opportunity and what y'all are trying to do. I'm just curious, how is that international expansion going? Josh Isner: For sure, it's going great. We're excited about the results that we're seeing from our international team this year. They're on track, and we're feeling really good about the progress we've made. One of the highlights of the year was we hired a new chief revenue officer who's based in Europe named Cameron Brooks, and historically, he was the head of AMIA for Amazon Web Services, and our big push in Europe is to unlock the Cloud. There's some data sovereignty issues there. There's different objections to the Cloud market by market. To have someone who's been so successful driving cloud adoption in that exact customer base, that was a great fit for us. Cameron came in in April and we've rebuilt some of the team, we've rebuilt a lot of our go to market strategy and process, and we're already seeing that lend itself to better results. I certainly think International will continue to grow call it a 20-30% clip over the next couple of years as we build more of that foundation. But for the long term, we'll hit a much steeper part of that curve as some of these sales cycles to start to conclude. These are major customers. I think Rick's right. I think we will have failed if our international business is not bigger than our domestic business as just a function of a TAM. There's far more police officers internationally than there are in the United States. some of these countries, take Italy, for example, they have almost 200,000 officers spread across their two main police forces in the country that's five times the size of NYPD. The centralization of these police forces makes it a little harder to break in on the front end, and it's a slow process. But once you're in the sheer scale that you're looking at versus going city by city in the United States, it's a totally different ballgame. We're very optimistic that we're going to start to see some of these national police forces adopt our products in larger quantities over time and really propel our international business forward. Jason Moser: That's really encouraging to hear. Now, you mentioned earlier in the interview drones, and that's been another topic of discussion, obviously, as the drone space starts to mature and become a little bit more of a thing. Your company Axon, you recently acquired a little drone company called Dedrone, which I feel like that was really fascinating acquisition from a number of angles, has expanded your market opportunity considerably. That total addressable market. It's expanded that considerably, and it feels like that business could go a lot of different ways. We see in the shareholder letters, this idea is drone as a first responder opportunity. But what's the initial strategy with your drone aspirations today? Josh Isner: Sure, thing. Drone as a first responder, DFR is at the center of it. We really believe that the first police technology to include humans that arrive to a scene is going to be a drone. the reason that's so important is because it can give the police officer and the dispatcher more situational awareness as they arrive to a scene. One of the things we see a lot today, unfortunately, is very sad is police officers tend to be ambushed. There's a call for domestic violence or something like that, police officer walks up to the front door and they're ambushed and killed, and something like a drone as a first responder could mitigate that. Some of our customers using DFR already, we also saying some of these calls for service get resolved by the drone versus ever having to send a human there in the first place. Maybe it was an erroneous call or maybe it was something broke out, but then people scattered. Whatever the case is to not have to send a police officer when they're not needed is also very valuable. When you take that workflow of drones as a first responder, there's really a couple components. There's the actual drone hardware, and that's a space as far as outdoor drones we're not in right now. We partner with the premier US made drone company called Skydio. But we do all the infrastructure to allow those drones to fly. Part of DFR is actually what's called BV loss beyond visual line of sight. Today, if you can believe it, a police officer to run a DFR mission needs to be standing on a rooftop and watching the drone the whole time. If the drone flies out of sight, there better be someone down range on a different rooftop pending it off and watching this drone fly. Essentially what Dedrone does is it allows you to watch the drones and have complete situational awareness through a user interface, as opposed to humans conducting these missions. You can get a waiver from the FAA to be able to administer DFR this way. Think of Dedrone as the blueprint for how and where the drones are actually going to fly and the awareness around them. That's a big part of the process. Then the third part is all of the streaming and video and situational awareness capabilities coming from the drone camera to your dispatch a real time crime center. That's our power alley. We have a product called Axon Respond that allows the live streaming of those drones back to RTCC. It's really those three components. It's the drone, it's the infrastructure, and it's the streaming and situational awareness. Jason Moser: The drone opportunity is obviously just getting really started today. It's exciting. As I mentioned, it's really expanded your total addressable market, rather significantly. I'm going to ask you to try to predict the future here a little bit. What I'm going to try to do? Let's see it around the corner, if we can. Beyond drones, what would you say could? Not necessarily will be, but what would you say could be Axon's next big market opportunity? Josh Isner: Sure. It's funny you say see around corners because that's one of our core expressions for that. That's one of the things we ask our employees to do every day. I think when we do that well, it's a major competitive advantage for us. In this case if we're looking far out into the future, I bet humanoid robots will be major parts of public safety. Jason Moser: That's fascinating. Josh Isner: When you think about what's the best way to ensure a safe outcome? In an intense policing scenario, it's to get the human out of there. It's to have the human in a place remotely where they can control the robot. But the amount of stress they're feeling in that moment, versus if they were there and there was a threat to their own safety, it's just two different environments. When you can remove the human and make them remote and then still be dictating the use of force decisions because necessarily foresee a future where humanoid robots will be making their own use of forced decisions. If we can put the human in a far better environment to make those decisions, I think we see much safer outcomes for everyone. Certainly it'll be a few years before the technology is there, and it's available at a price that can be deployed in mass, but I certainly think that day is coming. Jason Moser: That makes a lot of sense, and certainly something exciting that we shareholders can keep an eye out for. I want to wrap our interview up here on a little bit of a lighter note. I understand you love golf. I feel like this interview was meant to be I was a PGA club professional in a former life, so I've been playing golf all my life as well. [laughs] For me I've always drawn parallels between golf, life and investing. I wonder if you ever think of it that way and if so, how do you feel like golf makes you better at your job or better in life? Josh Isner: Sure thing. I love that question. I owe a lot to the game of golf. I'm not sure I would have gotten into the college that I got into if I wasn't a golfer, and I played golf there for a little while, and it's still a major part of my life to this day. In general, whether it's golf or other sports, one of the things we say a lot at Axon is next play. I don't know that there's a game where that's more relevant than golf. Your last shot, whether it was good or bad, no longer matters. The only thing that matters is what you're going to do when you're standing over the ball this time at that moment especially given how much success we've had at Axon over the last two or three years, it's like, "Hey, we're next play." Nobody is patting themselves on the back right now. one of the things we say loud is you don't get a pat on the back for doing your job. That's what's expected here. That next play mindset is particularly important. When you're having a lot of success. It's really easy look past what just happened and focus on the future when something didn't go well, when something's going great, you tend to wallow in the success, and that's not the behavior we're looking for here at Axon. Learn that from golf, learn that from other sports. But certainly if you don't have that mindset in golf, as it's going to be a really long day out there. Jason Moser: Josh, this has been a real pleasure. Thank you so much for your time today. Josh Isner: Thank you very much, Jason, and congrats on all of your success, and thanks for letting me be a part of it today. I appreciate it. Jason Moser: Absolutely. Mary Long: As always, people on the program may have interest in the stocks they talk about, and the Motley Fool may have formal recommendations for or against. Buy or sell stocks based solely on what you hear. All personal finance content follows Motley Fool editorial standards and are not approved by advertisers. The Motley Fool only picks products that it would personally recommend to friends like you. I'm Mary Long. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow, Fools.

Winning start for Van Nistelrooy as Leicester beat West HamThe UK Government was warned that a “save David campaign” for UUP leader Lord Trimble would ruin progress made under the Good Friday Agreement. Extensive confidential documents in the lead-up to the collapse of Northern Ireland’s institutions in 2002 have been made available to the public as part of annual releases from the Irish National Archives. They reveal that the Irish Government wanted to appeal to the UK side against “manipulating” every scenario for favourable election results in Northern Ireland, in an effort to protect the peace process. In the years after the landmark 1998 Good Friday Agreement, a number of outstanding issues left the political environment fraught with tension and disagreement. Mr Trimble, who won a Nobel Peace Prize with SDLP leader John Hume for their work on the Agreement, was keen to gain wins for the UUP on policing, ceasefire audits and paramilitary disarmament – but also to present his party as firmer on these matters amid swipes from its Unionist rival, the DUP. These issues were at the front of his mind as he tried to steer his party into Assembly elections planned for May 2003 and continue in his role as the Executive’s first minister despite increasing political pressure. The documents reveal the extent to which the British and Irish Governments were trying to delicately resolve the contentious negotiations, conscious that moves seen as concessions to one group could provoke anger on the other side. In June 2002, representatives of the SDLP reported to Irish officials on a recent meeting between Mr Hume’s successor Mark Durkan and Prime Minister Tony Blair on policing and security. Mr Blair is said to have suggested that the SDLP and UUP were among those who both supported and took responsibility for the Good Friday Agreement. The confidential report of the meeting says that Mr Durkan, the deputy First Minister, was not sure that Mr Trimble had been correctly categorised. The Prime Minister asked if the SDLP could work more closely with the UUP ahead of the elections. Mr Durkan argued that Mr Trimble was not only not saleable to nationalists, but also not saleable to half of the UUP – to which Mr Blair and Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid are said to have laughed in agreement. The SDLP leader further warned that pursuing a “save David” campaign would ruin all they had worked for. Damien McAteer, an adviser for the SDLP, was recorded as briefing Irish officials on September 10 that it was his view that Mr Trimble was intent on collapsing the institutions in 2003 over expected fallout for Sinn Fein in the wake of the Colombia Three trial, where men linked to the party were charged with training Farc rebels – but predicted the UUP leader would be “in the toilet” by January, when an Ulster Unionist Council (UUC) meeting was due to take place. A week later in mid September, Mr Trimble assured Irish premier Bertie Ahern that the next UUC meeting to take place in two days’ time would be “okay but not great” and insisted he was not planning to play any “big game”. It was at that meeting that he made the bombshell announcement that the UUP would pull out of the Executive if the IRA had not disbanded by January 18. The move came as a surprise to the Irish officials who, along with their UK counterparts, did not see the deadline as realistic. Sinn Fein described the resolution as a “wreckers’ charter”. Doubts were raised that there would be any progress on substantive issues as parties would not be engaged in “pre-election skirmishing”. As that could lead to a UUP walkout and the resulting suspension of the institutions, the prospect of delaying the elections was raised while bringing forward the vote was ruled out. Therefore, the two Governments stressed the need to cooperate as a stabilising force to protect the Agreement – despite not being sure how that process would survive through the January 18 deadline. The Irish officials became worried that the British side did not share their view that Mr Trimble was not “salvageable” and that the fundamental dynamic in the UUP was now Agreement scepticism, the confidential documents state. In a meeting days after the UUC announcements, Mr Reid is recorded in the documents as saying that as infuriating as it was, Mr Trimble was at that moment the “most enlightened Unionist we have”. The Secretary said he would explore what the UUP leader needed to “survive” the period between January 18 and the election, believing a significant prize could avoid him being “massacred”. Such planning went out the window just weeks later, when hundreds of PSNI officers were involved in raids of several buildings – including Sinn Fein’s offices in Stormont. The resulting “Stormontgate” spy-ring scandal accelerated the collapse of powersharing, with the UUP pulling out of the institutions – and the Secretary of State suspending the Assembly and Executive on October 14. For his part, Irish officials were briefed that Mr Reid was said to be “gung ho” about the prospect of exercising direct rule – reportedly making no mention of the Irish Government in a meeting with Mr Trimble and Mr Durkan on that day. The Northern Ireland Secretary was given a new role and Paul Murphy was appointed as his successor. A note on speaking points for a meeting with Mr Murphy in April showed that the Irish side believed the May elections should go ahead: “At a certain stage the political process has to stand on its own feet. “The Governments cannot be manipulating and finessing every scenario to engineer the right result. “We have to start treating the parties and the people as mature and trusting that they have the discernment to make the right choices.” However, the elections planned for May did not materialise, instead delayed until November. Mr Trimble would go on to lose his Westminster seat – and stewardship of the UUP – in 2005. The November election saw the DUP emerge as the largest parties – but direct rule continued as Ian Paisley’s refused to share power with Sinn Fein, which Martin McGuinness’ colleagues. The parties eventually agreed to work together following further elections in 2007. – This article is based on documents in 2024/130/5, 2024/130/6, 2024/130/15

Former President Jimmy Carter has died at the age of 100. The 39th president of the United States was a Georgia peanut farmer who sought to restore trust in government when he assumed the presidency in 1977 and then built a reputation for tireless work as a humanitarian. He earned a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Carter died Sunday, more than a year after entering hospice care, at his home in Plains, Georgia. At age 52, Carter was sworn in as president on Jan. 20, 1977, after defeating President Gerald R. Ford in the 1976 general election. Carter left office on Jan. 20, 1981, following his 1980 general election loss to Ronald Reagan. Here's the latest: Grandson Jason Carter says Plains kept his grandparents humble Jason Carter is now the chairman of The Carter Center’s board of governors. He said his grandparents “never changed who they were” even after reaching the White House and becoming global humanitarians. He says their four years in Washington were just one period of putting their values into action and that the center his grandparents founded in Atlanta is a lasting “extension of their belief in human rights as a fundamental global force.” Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter traveled the world advocating for democracy and fighting disease, but Jason Carter said they weren’t motivated by pity, or arrogance that a former American president had all the answers — they ventured to remote places because they could “recognize these people.” They too were from “a 600-person village” and understood that even the poorest people “have the power ... the ability ... the knowledge and the expertise to change their own community.” President Biden mourns his predecessor As reaction poured in from around the world, President Joe Biden mourned Carter’s death, saying the world lost an “extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian” and he lost a dear friend. Biden cited Carter’s compassion and moral clarity, his work to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless and advocacy for the disadvantaged as an example for others. Biden said he is ordering a state funeral for Carter in Washington. Pelosi says Carter’s life ‘was saintly’ in devotion to peace Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is remembering Carter as a man steeped “in devotion to public service and peace.” The California Democrat said in a statement Sunday that Carter was committed to “honoring the spark of divinity within every person,” something she said manifested in “teaching Sunday school in his beloved Marantha Baptist Church, brokering the landmark Camp David Accords to pave the way to peace or building homes with Habitat for Humanity.” Pelosi also said Carter led “perhaps the most impactful post-presidency in history.” Historical praise from the United Kingdom British Prime Minister Keir Starmer noted in a post on X the special contribution Carter made by brokering the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt and through his work with the Carter Center. “Motivated by his strong faith and values, President Carter redefined the post-presidency with a remarkable commitment to social justice and human rights at home and abroad,” Starmer said. Commemoration in New York City To commemorate Carter’s death, officials with the Empire State Building said in a post on social media that the iconic New York City landmark would be lit in red, white and blue on Sunday night, “to honor the life and legacy” of the late former president. The Obamas recall Carter's Sunday services In a statement issued Sunday, former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama said Carter’s beloved Maranatha Baptist Church “will be a little quieter on Sunday,s” but added that the late former president “will never be far away -- buried alongside Rosalynn next to a willow tree down the road, his memory calling all of us to heed our better angels.” Noting the “hundreds of tourists from around the world crammed into the pews” to see the former president teach Sunday school, as he did “for most of his adult life,” the Obamas listed Carter’s accomplishments as president. But they made special note of the Sunday school lessons, saying they were catalysts for people making a pilgrimage to the church. “Many people in that church on Sunday morning were there, at least in part, because of something more fundamental: President Carter’s decency.” A somber announcement The longest-lived American president died Sunday, more than a year after entering hospice care , at his home in the small town of Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died at 96 in November 2023 , spent most of their lives. “Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia,” The Carter Center said in posting about his death on the social media platform X. It added in a statement that he died peacefully, surrounded by his family. A Southerner and a man of faith In his 1975 book “Why Not The Best,” Carter said of himself: “I am a Southerner and an American, I am a farmer, an engineer, a father and husband, a Christian, a politician and former governor, a planner, a businessman, a nuclear physicist, a naval officer, a canoeist, and among other things a lover of Bob Dylan’s songs and Dylan Thomas’s poetry.” A moderate Democrat, Carter entered the 1976 presidential race as a little-known Georgia governor with a broad smile, outspoken Baptist mores and technocratic plans reflecting his education as an engineer. After he left office and returned home to his tiny hometown of Plains in southwest Georgia, Carter regularly taught Sunday School lessons at Maranatha Baptist Church until his mobility declined. Those sessions drew visitors from around the world. Former Vice President Gore remembers Carter for life "of purpose” Former Vice President Al Gore praised Jimmy Carter for living “a life full of purpose, commitment and kindness” and for being a “lifelong role model for the entire environmental movement.” Carter, who left the White House in 1981 after a landslide defeat to Ronald Reagan. concentrated on conflict resolution, defending democracy and fighting disease in the developing world. Gore, who lost the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush, remains a leading advocate for action to fight climate change. Both won Nobel Peace Prizes. Gore said that “it is a testament to his unyielding determination to help build a more just and peaceful world” that Carter is often “remembered equally for the work he did as President as he is for his leadership over the 42 years after he left office.” During Gore’s time in the White House, President Bill Clinton had an uneasy relationship with Carter. But Gore said he is “grateful” for “many years of friendship and collaboration” with Carter. The Clintons react to Jimmy Carter's death Former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, remember Carter as a man who lived to serve others. “Hillary and I mourn the passing of President Jimmy Carter and give thanks for his long, good life. Guided by his faith, President Carter lived to serve others — until the very end." The statement recalled Carter's many achievements and priorities, including efforts “to protect our natural resources in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, make energy conservation a national priority, return the Panama Canal to Panama, and secure peace between Egypt and Israel at Camp David." After he left office, the Clinton statement said, Carter continued efforts in "supporting honest elections, advancing peace, combating disease, and promoting democracy; to his and Rosalynn’s devotion and hard work at Habitat for Humanity — he worked tirelessly for a better, fairer world,” the statement said.Texas A&M signed the nation’s top-ranked recruiting class three years ago believing it had built a potential national title contender. Plenty of players from that heralded 2022 class could indeed be participating in the first 12-team College Football Playoff this month. They just won’t be doing it for the Aggies, who no longer have nearly half their 2022 signees. The list of 2022 recruits now with playoff contenders elsewhere includes Mississippi defensive lineman Walter Nolen, Oregon wide receiver Evan Stewart, Alabama defensive lineman LT Overton, SMU offensive tackle PJ Williams and injured Boise State receiver Chris Marshall. Texas A&M has done all right without them, going 8-4 as transfers filled about half the starting roles. Texas A&M represents perhaps the clearest example of how recruiting and roster construction have changed in the era of loosened transfer restrictions. Coaches must assemble high school classes without always knowing which of their own players are transferring and what players from other schools could be available through the portal. “It used to be you lost 20 seniors, you signed 20 incoming freshmen,” Duke coach Manny Diaz said. “You just had your numbers right. Now you might lose 20 seniors, but you might lose 20 underclassmen. You just don’t know.” Coaches emphasize that high school recruiting remains critical, but recent results suggest it isn’t as vital as before. The last two College Football Playoff runners-up – TCU in 2022 and Washington in 2023 – didn’t sign a single top-15 class in any of the four years leading up their postseason runs, according to composite rankings of recruiting sites compiled by 247Sports. This year’s contenders have shown there’s more than one way to build a championship-caliber roster. About half of No. 1 Oregon’s usual starters began their college careers elsewhere. No. 5 Georgia, which annually signs one of the nation’s top high school classes, has only a few transfers making major contributions. Colorado’s rise under Deion Sanders exemplifies how a team can win without elite high school recruiting. None of Colorado’s last four classes have ranked higher than 30th in the 247Sports Composite. Three ranked 47th or lower. “If anybody ever did the homework and the statistics of these young men – people have a class that they say is the No. 1 class in the nation – then five of those guys play, or four of those guys play, then the rest go through the spring and then they jump in the portal,” Sanders said. “Don’t give me the number of where you rank (in recruiting standings), because it’s like an NFL team," he added. "You always say who won the draft, then the team gets killed all year (and) you don’t say nothing else about it. Who won the draft last year in the NFL? Nobody cares right now, right?” Wisconsin's Christian Alliegro tries to stop Oregon's Evan Stewart, right, during the first half of a Nov. 16 game in Madison, Wis. Star quarterback Shedeur Sanders followed his father from Jackson State to Colorado in 2023, and Heisman Trophy front-runner Travis Hunter accompanied them. According to Colorado, this year’s Buffaloes team has 50 transfer newcomers, trailing only North Texas’ 54 among Bowl Subdivision programs. Relying on transfers comes with caveats. Consider Florida State's rise and fall. Florida State posted an unbeaten regular-season record last year with transfers playing leading roles. When those transfers departed and Florida State's portal additions this year didn't work out, the Seminoles went 2-10. “There has to be some type of balance between the transfer portal and high school recruiting,” said Andrew Ivins, the director of scouting for 247Sports. “I compare it to the NFL. The players from the transfer portal are your free agents and high school recruiting is your NFL draft picks.” A look at the composite rankings of recruiting sites compiled by 247Sports for the 2020-22 classes shows at least 40 of the top 100 prospects each of those years ended up leaving their original school. Coaches must decide which positions they’re better off building with high school prospects and which spots might be easier to fill through the portal. “The ones that have a ton of learning to do - tight end, quarterback, interior offensive line, inside linebacker, safety, where they are the communicators - they are the guys that are processing a lot of information,” Florida’s Billy Napier said. “Those are the ones in a perfect world you have around for a while. “It’s easier to play defensive line, edge, corner, receiver, running back, tackle, specialists. Those are a little bit more plug-and-play I’d say, in my opinion," Napier said. "Either way, it’s not necessarily about that. It’s just about we need a certain number at each spot, and we do the best we can to fill those roles.” Colorado head coach Deion Sanders, right, congratulates place kicker Cristiano Palazzo after he kicked an extra point during the second half of Friday's game against Oklahoma Stat in Boulder, Colo. Power Four programs aren’t the only ones facing a balancing act between recruiting high schools and mining the transfer portal. Group of Five schools encounter similar challenges. “We’re recruiting every position and bringing in a high school class,” Eastern Michigan coach Chris Creighton said. “That’s not going to be maybe 24 scholarship guys like it used to be. It might be more like 16. It’s not four d-linemen necessarily, right? It might be three. It might not be three receivers. It might be two. And it might not be five offensive linemen. It’s two to three.” The extra hurdle Group of Five schools face is the possibility their top performers might leave for a power-conference program with more lucrative name, image and likeness financial opportunities. They sometimes don’t know which players they’ll lose. “We know who they’re trying to steal,” Miami (Ohio) coach Chuck Martin quipped. “We just don’t know who they’re going to steal.” The obstacles facing coaches are only getting steeper as FBS teams prepare for a 105-man roster limit as part of the fallout from a pending $2.8 billion NCAA antitrust settlement. While having 105 players on scholarship seems like an upgrade from the current 85-man scholarship limit, many rosters have about 125 players once walk-ons are included. Nebraska coach Matt Rhule said last week his program would probably end up with about 30-50 players in the portal due to the new roster restrictions. All the added dimensions to roster construction in the college game have drawn parallels to the NFL, but Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck believes those comparisons are misleading. “When people talk about college football right now, they’re saying, ‘Oh, we have an NFL model,’ or it’s kind of moving toward the NFL,” Fleck said. “First of all, it’s nothing like the NFL. There’s a collective bargaining agreement (in the NFL). There’s a true salary cap for everybody. It’s designed for all 32 fan bases to win the Super Bowl maybe once every 32 years – and I know other people are winning that a lot more than others – but that’s how it’s designed. In college football, it’s not that way.” There does seem to be a bit more competitive balance than before. The emergence of TCU and Washington the last couple of postseasons indicates this new era of college football has produced more unpredictability. Yet it’s also created many more challenges as coaches try to figure out how to put together their rosters. “It’s difficult because we’re just kind of inventing it on the fly, right?” Diaz said. Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, foreground right, dives toward the end zone to score past San Francisco 49ers defensive end Robert Beal Jr. (51) and linebacker Dee Winters during the second half of an NFL football game in Orchard Park, N.Y., Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus) Houston Rockets guard Jalen Green goes up for a dunk during the second half of an Emirates NBA cup basketball game against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr) South Carolina guard Maddy McDaniel (1) drives to the basket against UCLA forward Janiah Barker (0) and center Lauren Betts (51) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer) Mari Fukada of Japan falls as she competes in the women's Snowboard Big Air qualifying round during the FIS Snowboard & Freeski World Cup 2024 at the Shougang Park in Beijing, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong) LSU punter Peyton Todd (38) kneels in prayer before an NCAA college football game against Oklahoma in Baton Rouge, La., Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. LSU won 37-17. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) South Africa's captain Temba Bavuma misses a catch during the fourth day of the first Test cricket match between South Africa and Sri Lanka, at Kingsmead stadium in Durban, South Africa, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe) Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, left, is hit by Baltimore Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey, center, as Eagles wide receiver Parris Campbell (80) looks on during a touchdown run by Barkley in the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough) Los Angeles Kings left wing Warren Foegele, left, trips San Jose Sharks center Macklin Celebrini, center, during the third period of an NHL hockey game Monday, Nov. 25, 2024, in San Jose, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez) Olympiacos' Francisco Ortega, right, challenges for the ball with FCSB's David Miculescu during the Europa League league phase soccer match between FCSB and Olympiacos at the National Arena stadium, in Bucharest, Romania, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru) Brazil's Botafogo soccer fans react during the Copa Libertadores title match against Atletico Mineiro in Argentina, during a watch party at Nilton Santos Stadium, in Rio de Janeiro, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado) Seattle Kraken fans react after a goal by center Matty Beniers against the San Jose Sharks was disallowed due to goaltender interference during the third period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in Seattle. The Sharks won 4-2. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson) New York Islanders left wing Anders Lee (27), center, fight for the puck with Boston Bruins defensemen Parker Wotherspoon (29), left, and Brandon Carlo (25), right during the second period of an NHL hockey game, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024, in Elmont, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) Jiyai Shin of Korea watches her shot on the 10th hole during the final round of the Australian Open golf championship at the Kingston Heath Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake) Mathilde Gremaud of Switzerland competes in the women's Freeski Big Air qualifying round during the FIS Snowboard & Freeski World Cup 2024 at the Shougang Park in Beijing, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Andy Wong) Lara Gut-Behrami, of Switzerland, competes during a women's World Cup giant slalom skiing race, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024, in Killington, Vt. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) New York Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin cools off during first period of an NHL hockey game against the Boston Bruins, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024, in Elmont, N.Y. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson) Brazil's Amanda Gutierres, second right, is congratulated by teammate Yasmin, right, after scoring her team's first goal during a soccer international between Brazil and Australia in Brisbane, Australia, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Pat Hoelscher) Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers (89) tries to leap over Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Joshua Williams (2) during the first half of an NFL football game in Kansas City, Mo., Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga) Luiz Henrique of Brazil's Botafogo, right. is fouled by goalkeeper Everson of Brazil's Atletico Mineiro inside the penalty area during a Copa Libertadores final soccer match at Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko) Gold medalists Team Netherlands competes in the Team Sprint Women race of the ISU World Cup Speed Skating Beijing 2024 held at the National Speed Skating Oval in Beijing, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan) Minnesota Vikings running back Aaron Jones (33) reaches for an incomplete pass ahead of Arizona Cardinals linebacker Mack Wilson Sr. (2) during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr) Melanie Meillard, center, of Switzerland, competes during the second run in a women's World Cup slalom skiing race, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024, in Killington, Vt. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) England's Alessia Russo, left, and United States' Naomi Girma challenge for the ball during the International friendly women soccer match between England and United States at Wembley stadium in London, Saturday, Nov. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth) Get local news delivered to your inbox!