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Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.) said she doesnt know whether her fellow home-state senator will run for reelection and hasnt asked him about it. But a presidential bid? He might hes talking about it, she said.

Theres no sugar-coating the dire position in which Manchin finds himself. After Democrats dominated West Virginia for decades, the state has gone full-blown MAGA in recent years. Former President Donald Trump won it by nearly 40 percentage points in 2020, and there are only 14 Democrats left in West Virginias 134-member state legislature. Manchins approval rating has plummeted, with 55 percent of voters giving him a thumbs down, according to a recent Morning Consult poll.

But interviews with 18 elected officials, strategists and political observers in West Virginia and Washington, D.C. reveal that Manchin isnt quite being left for dead yet. Even Justices former pollster said it would be unwise to count Manchin out.

There is a reason that Joe Manchin is basically the last standing Democrat in a state that has had a red tsunami since 2014, said Mark Blankenship, a West Virginia-based GOP pollster who worked for Justices 2020 gubernatorial campaign. You cant say that its impossible for him to win because hes won so much.

West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) announces his Senate campaign.|Chris Jackson/AP Photo

Manchins GOP colleagues agreed with the sentiment: You cant take Joe for granted. Hes a formidable politician, said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who appeared as a featured speaker at Justices campaign kickoff last month.

The early investment from McConnells allies at the group One Nation could save Republicans money next year if it nudges Manchin toward the exit. Otherwise, the GOP will have to spend millions convincing West Virginia voters to part ways with a man who has not lost an election since the 1990s. Without Manchin on the ballot, many operatives see the state as an automatic flip, and Republicans can redirect their money toward other crucial battleground states.

It would be nice if we didnt have to, said Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) when asked if his party would need to spend money if Manchin retires. Well see how it all plays out.

Manchin first joined the West Virginia state legislature in 1982 at the age of 35. He served in both chambers before departing to run an unsuccessful primary campaign for governor in 1996. It was the only race he ever lost. He ended up supporting the Republican nominee over the woman who beat him for the Democratic nomination.

Four years later he became West Virginias Secretary of State and won the governorship in 2004. In 2010, he made the jump to the Senate, campaigning in a special election seat left open by Democrat Robert Byrds death.

Democrats best hope of keeping Manchins seat in 2024 involves him seeking reelection and a brutally messy Republican primary that leaves the eventual nominee bruised and broke.

Justice, while wealthy and well-liked, does not have the GOP field to himself. Also in the race is Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.), a conservative hardliner who trounced a fellow member in a Republican primary for a House seat in 2022. He is planning on running to Justices right with the help of $10 million from the anti-tax Club for Growth super PAC.

Democrats and Republicans alike said Manchin has been able to hold onto elected office in the past in part due to his skills as a retail politician, a key advantage in a state of only 1.7 million people.

He is the best face-to-face politician Ive interacted with outside of Bill Clinton, said Patrick Hickey, a political scientist who previously worked at West Virginia University. He has that Clinton-esque ability to make everybody feel like hes your friend and hes listening to you and hes concerned about you.

In 2012, Hickey said he invited Manchins GOP opponent, John Raese, to class. Within a week, he said, Manchin came into his class to glad-hand students.

Manchin, a moderate, has benefited from distancing himself from national Democratic leaders for years. During his first Senate campaign, he fired at Democrats cap-and-trade bill in an ad. His vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 was credited with helping save him in that years Senate race. But Manchins favorability rating took a nosedive last year after he voted for and helped write President Joe Bidens Inflation Reduction Act. Thats left many of the few remaining Democrats in West Virginia feeling pessimistic about Manchins chances for holding on, regardless of his history.

I dont think he can pull it out, said Deirdre Purdy, chair of the Calhoun County Democratic Party. My county has so few Democrats in it, I cant even get a full committee together.

Manchin is now threatening to vote to repeal Bidens signature climate legislation with Republicans, arguing that Biden has extended electric vehicle tax credits beyond the laws specifications.

Given the states deep-MAGA hue, some in the GOP think it doesnt even matter whether Justice or Mooney wins the nomination because either will defeat Manchin. This states now solidly Republican, said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Manchin has given few clues about whether he will run for reelection except to say that he wont make a decision until the end of the year. Amid that vacuum of information, political insiders have desperately tried to read the tea leaves.

When a political operative who has served as an adviser to both Manchin and Justice attended Justices campaign launch, it set off speculation among Republicans that Manchin may not run. Larry Puccio, Manchins former chief-of-staff and longtime friend, would only go to the event, the thinking went, if he had gotten a signal from the senator that hes bowing out. A GOP strategist close to Justice said Puccio will not have an official role on Justices Senate team, but the governor will talk to him about the race and campaign.

Some Democrats cautioned against reading into it, however. According to a person close to Manchin, Puccio will support Manchin for any office he seeks.

Puccio did not respond to a request for comment.

Jonathan Kott, a former senior adviser to Manchin, said he believes Manchin is truly undecided on another Senate run. In the 2018 election, Manchin waited until January days before the filing deadline to tell his colleagues that he was seeking reelection.

This is just who he is, he said. He just doesnt focus on the campaign till he has to. Hes busy being a senator for West Virginia and legislating. Hell sit down with his family, I would guess sometime in like December, and thats when theyll make a decision. Im pretty sure thats what he did last time.

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Early in 2019, GPT-2 was announced by OpenAI, the private, nonprofit company that now includes $11billion in investments from Microsoft Corporation. Compared to what was to follow, the development was relatively quiet. Claudia Slowik and Filip Kaiser write in the Neoteric blog, On March 15, 2022, OpenAI released the new version of GPT-3 called text-davinci-003. This model was described as more capable than previous versions of GPT. Moreover, it was trained on data up to June 2021, making it way more up-to-date than the previous versions of the models (trained on data up to Oct 2019). It was with the 3.5 series of text and code completion versions that GPT took off. With the 4.0 version, released in November 2022, an all-out scramble launched to create interfaces, apps and associated products to facilitate new and expanded access.

Google is one of the many firms engaged in efforts to catch up with the OpenAI release. After a flawed demo at the release of Googles Bard, The Decoder reports that Googles two large AI research centers, DeepMind and Google Brain AI, have pulled together to support the Gemini project, a large language model that will have a trillion parameters.

It was less than a month and a half ago, on March 30, 2023, that Auto-GPT was posted on GitHub by developer Significant Gravitas. As Wikipedia explains, Auto-GPT is an AI agent that given a goal in natural language, can attempt to achieve it by breaking it into sub-tasks and using the internet and other tools in an automatic loop. It uses OpenAIs GPT-4 or GPT-3.5 APIs, and is among the first examples of an application using GPT-4 to perform autonomous tasks.

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With Auto-GPT, we have crossed the virtual Rubicon from the relatively simple-step activities of earlier GPT models to a process of sequencing independent steps to a complex feedback loop of multiple activities and assessments toward a defined outcome. Sabrina Ortiz writes in ZDNet, This means that Auto-GPT can perform a task with little human intervention, and can self-prompt. For example, you can tell Auto-GPT what you want the end goal to be and the application will self-produce every prompt necessary to complete the task. Ortiz suggests, The applications promising, autonomous abilities may make it our first glimpse of artificial general intelligence (AGI), a type of AI that can perform human-level intellectual tasks The Github demo shows sample goal prompts such as Increase net worth, grow Twitter Account, Develop and manage multiple businesses. The applications limitations listed on Github do warn that Auto-GPTs output, May not perform well in complex, real-world business scenarios. However, the results users have been sharing show that Auto-GPT can deliver some really impressive (and helpful) results.

The development of generative AI has been so rapid that we have seen calls to pause development. Yet these calls are more of alarm rather than any reasonable expectation that worldwide research on such a hot topic will be delayed in any way. Such a pause would be impossible to enforce, given the number and diverse locations of sites performing research in this field.

Led by developments in generative AI, we are on our way to AGI. It will not be a straightforward path, and there are numerous high hurdles to overcome, but we have passed an inflection point with the capabilities of Auto-GPT. Ben Lutkevich of Tech Target writes:

Artificial general intelligence (AGI) is the representation of generalized human cognitive abilities in software so that, faced with an unfamiliar task, the AGI system could find a solution. The intention of an AGI system is to perform any task that a human being is capable of AGI is considered to be strong artificial intelligence (AI). Strong AI contrasts with weak or narrow AI, which is the application of artificial intelligence to specific tasks or problems. IBMs Watson supercomputer, expert systems and self-driving cars are examples of narrow artificial intelligence.

How long will it take to develop strong AI? No one knows for certain. Almost certainly, it will take years, but perhaps not the decades that had been previously predicted. We must remember just how quickly the current GPT and associated models have emerged.

What will widespread AGI mean? Again, no one knows for sure. What we do know is that many more human jobs will be performed by strong AI programs. The computers and AI programs will work tirelessly, efficiently and effectively. Of course, there will still be the need for many humans engaged in a myriad of tasks that are not best completed by AGI. We may see shorter workweeks for humans. New human-staffed careers may evolve to employ the displaced workers.

The implications for education are many. Will we still need the knowledge to perform tasks that are regularly completed by AI? Knowledge of how to direct and expand AIs expertise in these areas will be essential. What human skills and abilities will be in most demand? Human values and ethics will be essential to guide programs if we are to coexist comfortably. AGI may be able to extend our knowledge and information in math and the sciences. Perhaps it will bring new insights and opportunities in the arts and humanities that have been in decline at universities in recent years.

With the advent of Auto-GPT, there is now a vision of a pathway for generative AI to take on increasingly multivariate tasks. Ever more complex objectives will be assigned to these more advanced AI apps. We must be vigilant to assure that human values and ethics guide the development in the coming months and years.

We also must carefully monitor the advent of AI in our career fields so that we are not caught unaware when there are reductions in the human workforce due to computer-generated efficiencies. This will require communication, collaboration and shared vision among researchers, corporations and educators. We will do well to recall the warning of Aldous Huxley nearly a century ago that the Brave New World may await those who exclusively value efficiency and technology over human emotion and individuality.

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AI, or artificial intelligence, is a branch of computer science that is designed to understand and store human intelligence, mimic human capabilities including the completion of tasks, process human language and perform speech recognition. AI is the leading innovation in technology today and its primary goal is to eliminate tedious tasks and assist in immediately accessing extremely detailed and hyper-focused information and data.

AI has the ability to consume and process massive datasets and develop patterns to make predictions for the completion of future tasks.

While the interest in AI around the world is growing, the science poses an existential crisis for jobs, companies, whole industries and potentially human existence. In March, Goldman Sachs released a report and warned the public of the threat to jobs that AI, and ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by AI research company OpenAI, poses. The report revealed that jobs with repetitive responsibilities and some manual labor are at risk for automation. The report concludes that 300 million jobs could be affected by AI.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FAQ

In simple terms, artificial intelligence is computer science that is capable of completing tasks that humans already perform or require human intelligence to complete.

AI uses technology to learn and recreate human tasks. Currently, in some situations, AI has the ability to perform human tasks better than we do, which poses a threat to the workforce.

While it may seem AI has only recently become popular or relevant to society, it has been used in many ways for years.

Reactive machines are task specific and a basic form of AI. They react to the input provided to them and offer the same output. In the form of reactive machines, AI does not learn new concepts. These machines apply datasets and respond with recommendations based on already existing inputs.

An example of reactive machines is the recommendations section in Netflix. whereby TV shows and movies are recommended by the streaming service to a user based on their search and watch history.

FIVE DISTURBING EXAMPLES OF WHY AI IS NOT QUITE THERE

Limited memory understands by storing previously captured and learned data and builds knowledge for the future based on its findings. An example of limited memory is self-driving cars.

Self-driving cars use signals and sensors to detect their surroundings and make driving decisions. The cars compute where pedestrians, traffic signals and low-light conditions exist, in order to drive more cautiously and avoid accidents or traffic errors.

Theory of mind means that humans have thoughts, feelings, emotions, desires, etc. that impact their day-to-day behaviors and decisions. While early adaptations of AI struggled with theory of mind, it has since made astonishing improvements. In order for AI to procure theory of mind, it must understand that everyone has feelings and develop the ability to change its behaviors as humans do.

An example of theory of mind for humans is to see a wilted plant and understand that it needs to be watered in order to survive. In order for AI to have theory of mind, it will need to do the same.

AI, ChatGPT specifically, has passed a theory of mind test commensurate with 9-year-old ability, as of February 2023.

Finally, when AI is self-aware, the stages of development will be complete. Self-awareness for AI is the most challenging of all AI types as the machines will have achieved human-level consciousness, emotions, empathy, etc. and can commiserate accordingly.

Once the machine has learned to be self-aware, it will have the ability to form its own identity.

This stage of self-awareness is not currently possible. In order for self-awareness to become a possibility, scientists will need to find a way to replicate consciousness in a machine.

WHAT ARE THE DANGERS OF AI? FIND OUT WHY PEOPLE ARE AFRAID OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a coaching company in Chicago, found in an April report that ChatGPT could replace 4.8 million jobs in the future. Specifically, ChatGPT would replace job roles that are repetitive and predictable including copywriters, customer service representatives, cashiers, data clerks, drivers and more.

Individuals with graduate degrees are most fearful of losing their jobs to AI and nearly 69% of them emphasized their fear of it, according to a Tidio survey. While humans are becoming increasingly alarmed by AI, we are already using it in our daily lives in ways people might not even realize.

Here are some of the most popular and typical ways were already leveraging AI.

Facial recognition is being used mostly by law enforcement to identify criminals and assess potential threats. Individuals use it daily to access smart devices and through social media like Facebook photo tag recommendations.

Determining violations of community guidelines, facial recognition, and translation tools for language interpretation are just a few ways social media is operating alongside AI.

Google Home, Amazon Alexa and Apple Siri are all examples of voice assistants that employ AI. Voice assistants use natural language processing and are capable of discovering patterns and behaviors among users in order to conserve preferences and offer results to consumers. The more you use them, the more the voice assistant will learn.

ARE YOU READY FOR AI VOICE CLONING ON YOUR PHONE?

Smart home devices are used in a variety of ways including the protection and security of your home. Technology like Ring doorbells and Nest security systems use AI to detect movement and alert homeowners.

Voice assistants like Siri and Alexa are also examples of smart devices.

Search engines like Google, Bing and Baidu use AI to improve search results for users. Recommended content based on initial search terms are provided to users every time they search. Search engines use natural language processing, a branch of AI, to recognize search intent in order to provide exemplary results.

For example, if you search for "rose" results for the pink wine rose, the flower rose, Rose the singer or rose the verb may appear. When you provide context to your search, AI assimilates and suggests results.

If youre using Google to query "Marylin Monrow," the search engine giant suggests the correct search term and results for "Marilyn Monroe." Search engines are using AI to grasp spelling, context, language and more in order to best satisfy users.

AI is also the power behind the rapid adaptation of search results. Trillions of searches are performed every year and humans dont have the ability to comb through results but AI does.

When you come home from a long day at work to relax on the couch and throw on Netflix, youre leveraging AI to help you choose the next TV show or movie youll watch. When you log onto Instagram or Facebook and a suggested list of new followers or friends appears, youre experiencing the power of AI. When you open your Google Maps app and type "gas" into the search bar to locate the closest gas station near you, youre using AI to make your life easier.

Artificial narrow intelligence or ANI is also known as "Weak" AI. ANI systems are capable of handling singular or limited tasks and are the exact opposite of strong AI, which handles a wide range of tasks.

Example of ANI include Apples Siri, Netflix recommendations and the weather app where you can check the weather for the day or the week. While Siri has the ability to assist with numerous tasks like announce calls or text messages, play music, shortcut smart device apps and more, it struggles with tasks outside its immediate capabilities.

ANI systems are not self-aware or and do not possess genuine intelligence, according to deepAI.org.

ANI uses datasets with specific information to complete tasks and cannot go beyond the data provided to it Though systems like Siri are capable and sophisticated, they cannot be conscious, sentient or self-aware.

"LLMs have a broader set of capabilities than previous narrow AIs, but this breadth is limited," said Ben Goertzel, expert in Artificial General Intelligence, in a Fox News Digital Opinion article. "They cannot intelligently reason beyond their experience-base. They only appear broadly capable because their training base is really enormous and covers almost every aspect of human endeavor."

Artificial general intelligence or AGI is AI that can perform any intellectual task a human can, according to medium.com. AGI capabilities vary from consciousness to self-awareness. We have seen adaptations of life with AGI in movies like "Her" and "Wall-E."

In the Pixar animation film "Wall-E," the sad, lonely robot meets another, Eve, and they fall in love. In this film, while the characters are sentient, they are AGI systems. In addition to "Wall-E," the 2013 film "Her" stars Joaquin Phoenix. "Her" is also an AGI system as she outgrows her first owner and goes out to be on her own.

AGI systems learn, execute, reason, and more but do not experience consciousness.

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Artificial superintelligence or ASI is the type of AI most people are fearful of. It will have the ability to surpass human intelligence in a number of ways including creativity, self-awareness, problem-solving and more. ASI, if ever created, will have the ability to be sentient. While people are worried about AI becoming sentient, the technology is years away from such capabilities.

In 2018 at South by Southwest tech conference SXSW in Austin, Texas, Elon Musk expressed his concerns over AI and regulations regarding the development of ASI.

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What is AI? | National | foxbangor.com - FOX Bangor/ABC 7 News and Stories

On May 27, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger will attain the age of 100. Over the last few months, I have been involved in authoring an historical essayKissinger at 100 His Complex Historical Legacy.

The essay is scheduled to be published around the time of Kissingers birthday by the Jandoli Institute, the public policy center for the Jandoli School of Communication at St. Bonaventure University. The institutes executive director is Rich Lee, a former State House reporter who also served as Deputy Communication Director for former Governor Jim McGreevey. I will also be developing a podcast regarding my essay.

For me, this project is truly a career capstone, utilizing all my analytic skills developed over a lifetime. This includes, inter alia, my studies as a political science honors scholar as a Northwestern University undergraduate, my service as a Navy officer, my years as a corporate and private practice attorney, my career as a public official, including my leadership of two major federal and state agencies, my accomplishments as a college professor, and my most recent post-retirement career as an opinion journalist.

Whether one is an admirer or critic of Dr. Henry Kissinger, there is no question that he has been a transformative figure, with a greater impact on American history than any 20th century American other than our presidents. Researching his life and career is truly a Sisyphean endeavor.

Kissinger has authored thirteen books, a plethora of articles, and numerous media appearances. In jocular fashion, I have told friends and family members that researching Henry Kissinger is like studying the Torah you never finish it!

So about a month ago, I thought that I had finished all my Kissinger research until I had the good fortune to meet with a friend of mine who also, unbeknownst to me, was a friend of Henry Kissinger. When I informed him of my Kissinger project, he proceeded to display for me on his I phone numerous photos of him and the legendary Dr. K!

Then, he asked me what were my research sources. I proudly told him the list of my readings, video tape viewings, and interviews. He responded by saying, Very good, but you have a critical omission. You did not read the book, The Age of AI (artificial intelligence) and Our Human Future.

The book was co-authored by Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, and Daniel Huttenlocher, the Inaugural Dean of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. For ease of reference, and with all due respect to his co-authors, I will refer to this work as the Kissinger AI book.

I told my friend that I was aware of the book, but I had chosen not to include it in my essay because of my focus on Kissinger as a foreign policy maker and diplomat. My friend, however, admonished me, You do not understand. For Henry, his involvement with AI is a legacy item.

So I immediately ordered the book. My friend was correct. The Kissinger AI book should be a must read for high governmental officials, New Jersey and federal. Every New Jersey cabinet member and authority executive director should have this book on his or her desk.

Within the last month, AI has become a growing arena of national focus, sparked in large part by the resignation of Dr. Geoffrey Hinton from his job at Google. Dr. Hinton is known as the Godfather of AI. He resignedso he can freely speak out about the risks of AI. A part of him, he said, now regrets his lifes work.

In New Jersey, late last year, a bill was introduced in the Assembly, A4909, which would mandate thatemployers could use only hiring software that has been subjected to a bias audit, which looks for any patterns of discrimination. It would require annual reviews of whether programs comply with state law.

The bill was generated because of increasing concern that a growing number of AI systems had either a gender, racial, or disability bias. As an example,Reuters reported in 2018that Amazon had stopped using an AI recruiting tool because it penalized applicants with resumes that referred to womens activities or degrees from two all-womens colleges.

In February, NorthJersey.com journalist Daniel Munoz authored a comprehensive column dealing with AI and its potential dangers and biases in the hiring process. Included in the column was an interview with Assemblywoman Sadaf Jaffer (D-Mercer) a prime sponsor of this legislation.

It should be noted that the Kissinger AI book strongly recommends the auditing of AI systems by humans, rather than self-auditing by machines themselves. The human auditing can both increase the effectiveness of the AI while mitigating its dangers.

And today, on Twitter, Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald (D-Camden) stated as follows: The power that Artificial Intelligence possesses makes it a potentially dangerous tool for people looking to spread misinformation. This is why I will be introducing legislation that looks to limit the harmful uses it has on election campaigns.

The beneficial effects of AI are real, as are the dangers. The politics of AI is the subject of increasing focus at both the national and New Jersey level.

The Kissinger AI book is highly relevant to all AI issues, both federal and state. The three-fold focus of the book makes it an indispensable basic guide to AI politics.

First, it gives a concise, contextual definition of AI. Second, it describes in depth the potential benefits and dangers of AI. Third, it proposes some solutions of a beginning nature to deal with the emerging negative impacts of AI.

In terms of contextual definition, the Kissinger AI book describes two empirical tests of what constitutes AI.

The first is the Alan Turing test, stating that if a software process enabled a machine to operate so proficiently that observers could not distinguish its behavior from a humans, the machine should be labeled intelligent.

Second is the John McCarthy test, defining AI as machines that can perform tasks that are characteristic of human intelligence.

The Kissinger AI book also describes the impact of AI on the reasoning process, so integral to decision making. The three components of reason are information, knowledge, and wisdom. When information becomes contextualized, it leads to knowledge. When knowledge leads to conviction, it becomes wisdom. Yet AI is without the reflection and self-awareness qualities that are essential to wisdom.

This lack of wisdom, combined with three essential features of AI magnifies its enormous danger in certain situations: 1) Its usefor both warlike and peaceful purposes; 2) its massive destructive force; and 3) its capacity to be deployed and spread easily, quickly, and widely.

The most alarming feature of AI is on the horizon: the arrival of artificial general intelligence (AGI). This means AI capable of completing any intellectual task humans are capable of, in contrast to todays narrow AI, which is developed to complete a specific task.

It is the growing capacity of unsupervised self-learning by AI systems which is facilitating the potential of the arrival of AGI. With AGI comes autonomy and autonomy in weapons systems increases the potential for accidental war.

The potential of AI leading to accidental war, along with the two above mentioned dangers publicized in New Jersey of AI generated job discrimination and political disinformation are the negative aspects of AI which will receive the most focus in the forthcoming debate.

Yet AI is not without its extremely beneficial uses, most notably in the development of new prescription drugs. So the obvious task of government, federal and state, is to filter out the dangers and facilitate the beneficial uses.

As a first step, the Kissinger AI book recommends that new national governmental authorities be created with two objectives: 1) America must remain intellectually and strategically competitive in AI; and 2) Studies should be undertaken to assess the cultural implications of AI.

In New Jersey, the best way to governmentally meet this challenge would be to create a new cabinet level Department of Science, Information, and Technology.

We currently have in New Jersey the Commission on Science, Information, and Technology, which with limited funding does a most commendable job in fulfilling its mission, namely: Responsibility for strengthening the innovation economy within the State, encouraging collaboration and connectivity between industry and academia, and the translation of innovations into successful high growth businesses.

A Department of Science, Information, and Technology would have three additional powers: 1) Regulatory powers regarding auditing, self-learning, and AGI; and 2) the ability to commission more in-depth studies regarding AI cultural impact; and 3) the ability to coordinate scientific policy throughout the executive branch. Obviously, an increased level of funding would be necessary to execute these three functions.

I also have a recommendation for the first New Jersey Commissioner of Science, Innovation, and Technology, State Senator Andrew Zwicker (D-Middlesex). His brilliance and competence as a scientist as demonstrated from his service at the Princeton Plasma Laboratory and his proven integrity and ethics in state government make him an ideal candidate for this role.

And to Henry Kissinger, my fellow Jew, I say to you: Mazal Tov on your 100th birthday! And like Moses in the Torah, may you live at least 120 years!

Alan J. Steinberg served as regional administrator ofRegion2 EPA during the administration of former President George W. Bush and as executive director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission.

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The Politics of Artificial Intelligence (AI) - National and New Jersey ... - InsiderNJ

Sen. Denny Hoskins, R-Warrensburg, and Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, on the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the Senate floor in Jefferson City. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

JEFFERSON CITY Missourians hoping to place bets on sporting events will have to wait at least another year after Republican infighting in the Missouri Senate left a handful of high-profile issues unresolved as the Legislature adjourned for the year Friday.

Along with a furious, last-minute failed push to tax and regulate wagering on sports, a chaotic final day in the upper chamber meant the demise of a bid to reduce the states personal property tax on vehicles. The Senate also failed to sign off on a proposal to make it harder to alter the state constitution before the final gavel sounded.

The House had a higher success rate as it chugged toward adjournment. Among a flurry of bills that moved to Gov. Mike Parsons desk is a proposal designed to provide more access to banks for companies involved in the marijuana business.

Pot businesses have had trouble finding banking options because many financial institutions dont want to handle accounts for companies selling a product federal officials consider illegal.

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While the GOP-majority House moved smoothly to wrap up its work Friday, the Senate was the scene of parliamentary sparring between Senate Majority Leader Cindy OLaughlin, R-Shelbina, and Sen. Bill Eigel, a Weldon Spring Republican who is considering a run for governor in 2024.

OLaughlin attempted to run a tight ship in her first year as floor leader, sticking to a schedule that had most senators out of the building at dinner time rather than enduring lengthy overnight debates.

Hoping to end an impasse that had tied up the Senate on Thursday, OLaughlin used a series of procedural motions to push a sports betting bill to the forefront of the days action.

But, the sponsor of the measure, Sen. Denny Hoskins, an ally of Eigel, set the bill aside without debate, ending an effort to bring Missouri in line with nearly all of its surrounding states when it comes to gambling on sports.

Sports gambling has passed easily out of the House for the past two years. But Hoskins, R-Warrensburg, has blocked its advance, saying the expansion of gambling must also address illegal slot machines that have flooded the state.

Eigel attempted to position his personal property tax reduction legislation on the floor, but was defeated on a 26-8 procedural vote, leading him to resume a filibuster he had started Thursday by reading a book about former President Ronald Reagan.

Political theater

OLaughlin, in her first year as the floor leader in the chamber, soon adjourned the chamber, decrying what she called political theater that resembles mud wrestling.

She accused Eigel of tying the Senate in knots when he doesnt get his way.

People bring legislation to the floor that they cannot get passed and then, in retaliation for that, they hang up the business of the Senate for hour after hour after hour, OLaughlin said. Were not all running for governor. We just want to do the work of the Senate. We need cooperation from everyone to get that done.

Eigel scoffed at his colleagues, saying they chose to debate sports betting, which would financially benefit Missouri sports teams, rather than his plan to reduce personal property taxes, which would help everyone who owns a vehicle.

The theater of Jefferson City will go on long after we gavel out today, Eigel said. Nobody got into politics because they were intent on being nice.

After taking a nearly four-hour break to let tempers cool, the Senate returned to more gridlock from Sen. Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, who has burned up hours of time this session filibustering various bills in order to push his initiatives.

In this case, he bemoaned the Senates failure to approve legislation restricting the foreign ownership of farmland. Sen. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, joined Moon in stalling action in the Senate.

Freshman Sen. Travis Fitzwater, R-Holts Summit, said he questioned running for the Senate last year after serving in the House for eight years.

I didnt want to be here for this very reason, Fitzwater said, adding that his colleagues who gummed up the session were selfish.

The people of Missouri deserve better, Fitzwater said.

Republican egos

House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, decried the grievance politics in the Senate, saying Republican egos are standing in the way of progress on issues that affect Missourians.

House Speaker Dean Plocher, R-Des Peres, said the Senates failure on reforming the initiative petition process could lead to the restoration of abortion rights via the ballot.

If the Senate fails to take action on IP reform, I think the Senate should be held accountable for allowing abortion to return to Missouri, Plocher said.

Senate President Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, said he is embarrassed Missouri doesnt have sports betting when nearly all surrounding states allow it and are generating tax revenue when people place bets.

Rowden suggested that Eigel and Hoskins had a problem with OLaughlin deciding which bills get to be debated.

Maybe they dont like a woman being in charge, he told the Post-Dispatch.

Eigels tax legislation, which is likely to be a centerpiece of his gubernatorial run, would exempt vehicles at least 10 years old from the personal property tax.

The bill also cuts the personal property tax assessment rate from 33.3% to 31%. Currently, personal property is assessed at a third of its real value, which local governments then tax.

It faced an uphill climb to win support from Democrats and Republicans, including OLaughlin, who said local governments would lose big chunks of revenue that helps pay for road maintenance, nursing homes and public safety.

Republicans in the House sought to keep both the tax and betting issues alive. After 2:30 p.m. Friday, with less than four hours before their adjournment deadline, the House sent a measure to the Senate that would slash personal property taxes and legalize sports betting.

I think were showing once again to the people of our state that the House continues to work and continues to really go above and beyond in trying to negotiate with the other side of the building, said Rep. Ben Baker, R-Neosho.

The Missouri House of Representatives concludes its business on Friday, May 12, 2023. Lawmakers, as is tradition, throw papers in the air to mark the end of the session.

The measure did not surface on the Senate floor before the day ended.

As for the next step in the sports betting saga, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Kansas City Royals have said they may begin collecting signatures to place a question on the 2024 statewide ballot asking if wagering on athletic events should be legalized.

Im sorry the session ended the way it did, OLaughlin said. We need to look forward to next year and we need to work hard on our relationships. I hope we come back with a renewed sense of collegiality.

Members of the Missouri House of Representatives throw papers into the air as part of the traditional paper toss marking the final moments on the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the House floor in Jefferson City.

Members of the Missouri House of Representatives throw papers into the air as part of the traditional paper toss marking the final moments on the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the House floor in Jefferson City.

Rep. Travis Wilson, R-St. Charles, gathers paper to throw into their air as part of the traditional paper toss marking the final moments on the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the House floor in Jefferson City. Photo by Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

J.J. Hurlbert, 4, the son of Rep. Josh Hurlbert, R-Smithville, helps members of the House pick up papers flung into the air as part of the traditional paper toss marking the final moments on the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the House floor in Jefferson City. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

Colleagues gather around Rep. Ashley Aune, D-Kansas City, center, on the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the House floor in Jefferson City. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

Rep. Josh Hurlbert, R-Smithville, plays with his daughter 17-month-old Rebekah, as his daughter Rose, 7, and J.J. visit him at this desk on the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the House floor in Jefferson City. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

Stella, 14, and Owen, 15, join their father House Speaker Dean Plocher, R-Des Peres on the dais on the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the House floor in Jefferson City. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

Rep. Brian Seitz, R-Branson, dons his Superman tie on the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the House floor in Jefferson City. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

Rep. Lisa Thomas, R-Lake Ozark, right, joins her colleagues as they throw papers into their air as part of the traditional paper toss marking the final moments on the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the House floor in Jefferson City. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

Rep. Ashley Aune, D-Kansas City, cools off on the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the House floor in Jefferson City. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

Rep. Brad Christ, R-St. Louis County, laughs during the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the House floor in Jefferson City.

Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, speaks on the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the Senate floor in Jefferson City.

Sen. Nick Schroer, R-Defiance, on the day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the Senate floor in Jefferson City. Photo by Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

Rep. Travis Wilson, R-St. Charles, bows to his colleagues after being called out on his "offensive" plaid jacket on the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the House floor in Jefferson City.

Senate President Pro Tem Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, on the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the Senate floor in Jefferson City. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

Sen. Lauren Arthur, D-Kansas City, dons Princess Leia braids on the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the Senate floor in Jefferson City. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

Senate Majority Leader Cindy OLaughlin, R-Shelbina, and Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, confer on the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the Senate floor in Jefferson City.

Sen. Lauren Arthur, D-Kansas City, dons Princess Leia braids on the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the Senate floor in Jefferson City. Photo by Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

Sen. Denny Hoskins, R-Warrensburg, and Sen. Bill Eigel, R-Weldon Spring, on the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the Senate floor in Jefferson City. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, introduces a guest on the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the House floor in Jefferson City. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

House Speaker Dean Plocher, R-Des Peres, talks on the phone on the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the House floor in Jefferson City. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

Rep. Jon Patterson, R-Lee's Summit, on the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the House floor in Jefferson City. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

Rep. LaKeySha Bosley, D-St. Louis, speaks in support of an emergency clause on legislation that would support maternal health for low-income mothers on the last day of the legislative session on Friday, May 12, 2023, on the House floor in Jefferson City. Photo by Laurie Skrivan, lskrivan@post-dispatch.com

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On final day, Missouri Republicans fail in bid to approve sports betting - St. Louis Post-Dispatch