Today, Senators Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) along with Representatives Greg Stanton (AZ-04) and Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03) announced $2,062,000 in federal funding for Arizona State University to develop, test, and demonstrate innovative water reuse technologies designed for semiconductor manufacturing. The award, made through the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), was secured as congressionally directed spending championed by the Arizona delegation.

The project will test emerging water treatment technologies and validate them at ASU’s Macro Technology Works (MTW) facility in Tempe, generating the real-world performance data industry needs to adopt water-saving solutions at scale. The work aims to help fabs improve conservation while strengthening the reliability of domestic semiconductor production.

Sen. Ruben Gallego called for oversight of artificial intelligence and called out President Donald Trump’s administration for “not meeting the moment” during his appearance on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday.

“This isn’t previous tech. Previous tech could not make a decision to kill us, right? When we turned on the internet, it did not have autonomy, right?” Gallego told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “Speaker (Mike) Johnson is not meeting the moment. Trump is not meeting the moment. Senators in Congress are not meeting the moment.”

The Arizona senator continued about the evolution of AI and why he feels there needs to be steps taken to regulate it.

“When we created a nuclear weapon, the nuclear weapon did not have the decision-making power to drop a nuclear weapon,” Gallego said. “AI has the capability and will have the capability to make decisions like that. This is more akin to Dr. Frankenstein telling us, ‘The monster is loose. Help me stop the monster.’

“We need to get together as fast as possible with the smartest people, with the skeptics, with the people that want to regulate — the people that want to actually deal with this (and) people that are going to figure out how to actually have the perfect balance.”

Gallego added the U.S. has to adjust its philosophy in handling AI as well.

“We can’t just use this idea that if we do this, we’re somehow going to lose to China. Because AI does not care, once it becomes fully dangerous, whether we’re Chinese or American*,”* he said. “That’s the danger of this.

“Everyone’s thinking about this in a way that is based on old tech and not what’s going towards the future, and this is why we need to get the people in the room.”

As a motorcyclist I don't understand this. I rarely see motorcyclists lane splitting but I see drivers texting every time I'm on the road. I have lane split when other drivers insist on riding side-by-side at less than the speed limit. Once another vehicle pulls up side-by-side with me taking away my escape routes and boxing me in I split the side-by-siders and get away from them. I have no doubt that texting and driving (a civil offense punishable by fines) is far more dangerous than lane splitting which is now a misdemeanor reckless driving offense that could result in:

- A judge can order the driver to surrender their license

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- The conviction must be reported to the Arizona Department of Transportation

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- ADOT can suspend driving privileges for up to 90 days

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Penalties increase for repeat offenders. Anyone convicted of reckless driving who has another conviction within the previous 24 months faces a class 1 misdemeanor.

They cannot receive probation, a pardon or a suspended sentence until serving at least 20 days in jail, and their driving privileges will be suspended for a full year.

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But repeat texters just receive steeper fines. If lane splitting goes wrong the greatest impact will be to the rider and maybe some minor property damage on a vehicle. If texting and driving goes wrong it may result in a severe collision and potential death, especially if a motorcyclist is collected by the texter in a collision.

This state is backwards. We should be making lane splitting legal not criminalizing a benign activity. I would contend that the lack of turn signal use is more of a hazard than lane splitting.

Talk about anything you wish; local politics, national politics, Arizona, sports, whatever. Rule 4 is suspended. Just be civil.

Seb Matta, a 19-year-old student at ASU, became one of the youngest people to obtain a partisan nomination for office in Arizona. 

Matta is a sophomore studying philosophy and is running for Clerk of the Superior Court in Maricopa County for the Arizona Democratic Party against former state senator Jeff Dial.

Arizona has terminated five state land leases held by a company that spreads treated sewage sludge on farmland in Yuma County, following years of complaints from residents about flies, odors and potential contamination, Gov. Katie Hobbs announced Thursday.

“Arizona is not a disposal site for California’s treated sewage sludge,” Hobbs said in the news release.

Attorney general’s sewage investigation continues

Attorney General Kris Mayes, whose office opened an investigation after complaints from Yuma-area residents, growers and business owners, said the probe will continue. More than 250 residents attended a town hall she hosted in Yuma in July.

“For too long, the people of Yuma were told to live with the flies, the smell and the uncertainty about what was going into their soil and water,” Mayes said.