Auggie
Auggie's JournalAs Congress grapples with AI regulation, will California step up?
San Francisco Chronicle / July 17, 2023
SACRAMENTO — Much of the debate about whether the government should regulate artificial intelligence has centered on Congress, where top AI voices have testified in highly publicized hearings.
But with a gridlocked Congress, some lawmakers and tech experts see the much more agile California Legislature as a key player in the debate. Gov. Gavin Newsom told The Chronicle he’s also starting to focus on the issue.
Newsom said he’s taking a “deep dive” into artificial intelligence now that he’s wrapped up budget negotiations for the year. In an interview at the end of last month, he said he spent his day in San Francisco getting briefed on the technology “from the source.”
SNIP
“We’ve been diving very deep into the subject matter and trying to figure all this damn stuff out,” Newsom said.
Link (probably paywall): https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/california-ai-regulation-18160972.php
Highlights from the link:
• Assembly Member Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, D-Orinda, introduced the first major California bill to regulate AI.
• The bill would have banned companies from using AI-powered algorithms that discriminate against people, but was shelved in the Assembly Appropriations Committee in May.
• Bauer-Kahan said she thinks the Committee balked at the potential costs to enforce her bill in the face of a projected $31 billion budget shortfall.
• Regulations being advanced by the European Union would require companies to disclose information about how their AI systems work and limit the use of facial recognition software.
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Thrilled to see Newsom taking a lead. I think it would help having the European Union doing parallel research.
It's a make-or-break moment for California's insurance commissioner
Opinion by Joe Garofoli, San Francisco Chronicle / July 17, 2023
California has the strongest insurance protections for consumers in the country. It’s time — with top insurers refusing to write new policies in the state — for Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara to flex them to tell Big Insurance to back off, advocates say.
SNIP
“What we need right now is courage,” Harvey Rosenfield, the founder of Consumer Watchdog who wrote California’s landmark insurance law embodied in Proposition 103, told me. “He’ll (Lara) either step up — or he will fold.”
Rosenfield and other consumer advocates say Lara has the power under Proposition 103 — which voters approved in 1988 — to force insurers to write policies under the law when there is a shortage.
Lara disagrees. “What they’re saying is simply not supported by law (according to) our legal team,” he told me. There isn’t a shortage now because there are more than 100 insurers still selling policies in California and top insurers haven’t left the state, Lara has said, they’ve just paused expanding.
LINK: https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/joegarofoli/article/ricardo-lara-insurance-18197757.php
Highlights from the link:
• Allstate Insurance isn’t writing new policies in California. Neither is State Farm Insurance. Auto insurance is getting harder to get, too.
• When Rosenfield crafted Prop. 103 he envisioned the insurance commissioner as a fearless warrior, someone ready to pound the bully pulpit on behalf of beleaguered consumers.
• Lara has been dogged by concerns that he’s too tight with the industry he regulates, accepting more than $270,000 in campaign contributions from 56 people with ties to the industry ... after pledging not to take donations from the people he was going to regulate.
John Garamend (California’s first elected insurance commissioner): “My predecessors kissed the insurance industry’s butt here for 100 years, and consumers got screwed for it. Damn right I’m confrontational. I’ve kicked butt instead of kissed it.”
• Lara: “The only consideration I have is protecting consumers and doing the right thing for consumers in California.”
• Rosenfield: “If he doesn't handle this correctly and (doesn’t) use the power that Proposition 103 gives him, then I don't see how he comes out of this as a candidate for further public office.”
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I voted for Lara in the last election because he's a Democrat and I'll always support the party. But Lara's campaign contributions, and the tight ties with the insurance industry, were as much an issue in the last election as they are now.
I agree with consumer advocates -- time to step up.
BTW, "100 insurers still selling policies in California" doesn't necessarily equate to good or even adequate coverage, or that these companies operate in the best interests of consumers.
Yankees 'most motivated' to trade for Ohtani (report)
MLB.com / July 13, 2023
Will the Angels trade Shohei Ohtani before the Aug. 1 Trade Deadline? That question has been asked myriad times already and will be asked much more as we near that key date. But let's set that aside for one second and instead ask another question: If the Angels make Ohtani available, which club would be the likeliest to go after him? Sources have told ESPN's Buster Olney that the Yankees are that club.
"You start with the Yankees. The Yankees, the Yankees, the Yankees," Olney said Thursday, before mentioning the Rangers and Rays as other teams that could make an effort to acquire the two-way superstar before the Deadline.
"In talking with sources yesterday, they see the Yankees as potentially being the most motivated, because Gerrit Cole, Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton -- they are middle-aged players right in the prime of their careers," Olney added. "This is the Yankees' window to win now."
More speculation (offseason free agency) at the link: https://www.mlb.com/news/shohei-ohtani-rumors
I imagine trading for Ohtani would deplete the Yankee farm system and/or cost one or two long-term signed veterans. That's a big gamble for one rental player, though I bet New York thinks it might help entice him to sign as a free agent. Would it be a plus in the playoffs? For sure.
Here's who has been helped (or hurt) by the shift limits
mlb.com
One half of the way through the first season with baseball’s new shift limitations on the books, the rules have done more or less what they were expected to do.
They’ve definitely made some impact (batting average on balls in play is up by 7 points), but not by an earth-shattering amount (it’s only back to what it was in 2018-'19). It's helped very specifically on certain types of balls (pulled grounders and liners from lefty batters, which are up by 36 points), while not affecting strikeout rates (which are slightly up, though not by much).
SNIP
By evaluating Statcast data in a similar way as we did back in the spring when previewing who might be most likely to benefit, we’ve been able to come up with a list of the hitters who have gained the most hits that were likely due to positioning.
Most estimated hits gained due to positioning rules, 2023
14: José Ramírez
13: Jarred Kelenic
12: Josh Naylor, Kyle Tucker Anthony Santander
10: Anthony Rizzo, MJ Melendez
9: Bryce Harper
8: Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager, Jason Heyward, Adley Rutschman, Shohei Ohtani, Ryan McMahon
https://www.mlb.com/news/players-helped-or-hurt-by-shift-limits-in-2023
Nota bene (from the link): Estimates based on Statcast data, since there’s never going to be an entry in the box score that reads this exact ball definitely wouldn’t have been a hit last year.
I think the worst pitchers in the league should play in the All Star game
Let's celebrate the direction Manfred is taking baseball: screw tradition, just score runs.
NL 13, AL 9 (for example)
Now that's entertainment!
Just finished streaming 24 seasons of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Hadn't seen a single episode until last year when I said "damn, I've never seen a single episode."
It's one heck of a time machine: Clinton, 9-11, internet and www acceptance, cell phones, social media, the war on terror, Bush, Obama, etc., plus advances in police work ... all events and more inevitably were touched upon or became major plot elements.
Pretty decent show IMHO.
Shohei Ohtani and free agency money
I'm hearing contract numbers discussed ranging from $500 million to $700 million.
Who will bite?
Kansas City @ Cleveland game on 7-7 ...
was played in one hour, fifty-one minutes.
Helped that Cleveland pitched a two-hit shut out.
Pitch clock. Wow.
California's fastest-growing city is now majority Asian
San Francisco Chronicle / July 6, 2023
The Asian population is growing across the country, and three cities in the Bay Area’s Tri-Valley have some of the fastest-growing Asian communities.
Dublin, Pleasanton and San Ramon were among the top 10 largest cities, with at least 30% of their population identifying as Asian, that had the highest growth since 2010, an analysis of census data shows.
Dublin is the fastest growing city in California overall and its Asian population is fueling that growth. In the last decade, the suburban city’s Asian population grew from about 12,000 in 2010 to nearly 39,000 in 2020 — a 219% increase, according to census data. The Asian populations in Pleasanton and San Ramon — two other Tri-Valley area cities — grew by 94% and 68%, respectively, during the same 10-year period.
The Tri-Valley has had an infusion of new residents who are seeking better housing opportunities and school districts, said Steve Minniear, a volunteer city historian in Dublin.
Paywall link: https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/dublin-pleasanton-asian-population-18171246.php
According to the link, Dublin, Pleasanton and Livermore are the places that tend to have housing options young families are looking for -- bigger houses with room for kids and/or parents.
More than three tons of July 4 trash left behind at Lake Tahoe beach
An environmental nonprofit said Wednesday that it picked up more than three tons of trash and debris from Zephyr Cove on the eastern shore of Lake Tahoe following the Fourth of July holiday.
Clean Up The Lake founder Colin West said Wednesday morning’s trash haul was the worst he has seen in his five years of doing environmental clean-up work.
“It was destroyed,” he said of the beach. “I thought I’d come out and use a trash grabber, but I was bending over scooping with my hands, and we even went to get rakes.”
In all, the group picked up more than 6,300 pounds of trash, West said.
More at the paywall link: https://www.sfchronicle.com/tahoe/article/tahoe-july-4-trash-pickup-18185891.php
https://twitter.com/ActiveNorCal/status/1676638204945133568
Really, California?
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