Morning Headlines - Thursday, May 18, 2023

U.S. and World Headlines

DeSantis To Launch Presidential Campaign Next Week

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to make his entry into the 2024 presidential campaign official next week, three people familiar with the planning tell CBS News.

His plans to file papers with the Federal Election Commission formalizing his presidential candidacy is timed to coincide with a Miami gathering of some of the governor's most generous longtime donors, who are expected to receive briefings on campaign strategy and requests to help raise significant sums of cash for his bid, three people familiar with the plans said.

A more formal kickoff event is expected to be held closer to June 1, according to those familiar with his plans.

Biden Would Defeat Trump By An Even Bigger Margin Than In 2020 If Election Was Held Today, New Poll Claims

President Biden would defeat former President Donald Trump by an even bigger margin than in 2020 if the election was held today, a new poll claims.

There were 1,571 registered voters polled between May 10-13, revealing that Biden would lead Trump 47 percent to 40 percent, according to the WPA Intelligence survey results shared with The New York Post.

In 2020, Biden defeated Trump by 4.5 percent in the popular vote, but if the election were held today, Biden would win by a whopping seven percent, the poll claimed.

Deutsche Bank To Pay $75 Million To Settle Lawsuit By Epstein Accusers

Deutsche Bank AG has agreed to pay $75 million to settle a lawsuit by women who say they were abused by the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, and accused the German bank of facilitating his sex trafficking.

The accord resolves claims in a proposed class action in Manhattan federal court by Epstein's accusers, and was confirmed by their lawyers late on Wednesday. Court approval is required.

Epstein had been a Deutsche Bank client from 2013 to 2018. He died in August 2019 in jail while awaiting trial for sex trafficking, in what New York City's medical examiner called a suicide.

The Wall Street Journal reported the settlement earlier and said the bank did not admit wrongdoing, citing people familiar with the matter.

8-Year-Old Girl Dies In U.S. Border Patrol Custody In Texas

An 8-year-old girl died after suffering a "medical emergency" while in U.S. Border Patrol custody in Texas on Wednesday, authorities said.

The girl and her family were being held at a facility in the city of Harlingen, next to the Mexico border, Customs and Border Protection said in a statement. No more details have been released about the girl's identity.

"Emergency Medical Services were called to the station and transported her to the local hospital where she was pronounced dead," the statement said, adding that the Office of Professional Responsibility would conduct an investigation as is standard protocol in the case of a death.

Where AI Evolves From Here

Microsoft researchers say the latest model of OpenAI's GPT "is a significant step towards AGI" — artificial general intelligence, the longtime grail for AI developers.

If you think of AI as a technology ascending (or being pushed up) a ladder, Microsoft's paper claims that GPT-4 has climbed several rungs higher than anyone thought.

Microsoft released the "Sparks of Artificial General Intelligence" study in March, and it resurfaced in a provocative New York Times story Tuesday.

• The researchers found that "GPT-4 can solve novel and difficult tasks that span mathematics, coding, vision, medicine, law, psychology and more, without needing any special prompting."
• Among other remarkable responses, they asked GPT-4 how to stack "a book, 9 eggs, a laptop, a bottle and a nail," and it provided a plausible plan.

Three key terms to understand in this realm are generative AI, artificial general intelligence (AGI), and sentient AI.

Wisconsin Headlines

Wisconsin Assembly Passes Shared Revenue Bill As Vos Says Republicans Are 'Done Negotiating'

Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said May 17 that Republicans were “done negotiating” on a bill that would increase state aid to local governments, unveiling a new proposal that Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and the GOP-controlled Senate have yet to agree to.

The Assembly passed the latest version hours after Evers expressed optimism that a bipartisan agreement could be reached. But he was not included in the discussion that led to the latest proposal, which boosts the increase in aid for local governments from at least 10% to 15% but retains provisions that Milwaukee and Evers had objected to.

“We are done negotiating,” Vos said. “We have negotiated in good faith literally for months.”

La Crosse Woman Sentenced To 5 Years For Methamphetamine Trafficking

Timothy M. O’Shea, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Kojoua Vu, 33, La Crosse, Wisconsin was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley to 5 years in federal prison for possessing 50 grams or more of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute.  The prison term will be followed by 5 years of supervised release. Vu pleaded guilty to this charge on January 26, 2023.

On August 18, 2021, Vu sold an ounce, or approximately 28 grams, of methamphetamine to a confidential informant in La Crosse.

On October 28, 2021, law enforcement officers pulled over Vu’s car in La Crosse. She had a bag containing 30 grams of methamphetamine in her coat pocket, and a bag containing 195 grams of methamphetamine was found under the driver’s seat of the car. Vu admitted to possessing the methamphetamine and when officers told her that they had completed a controlled buy on her, she asked, “Was it three days ago?” This response led the officers to believe that Vu was still regularly selling methamphetamine. 

Officers also executed a search warrant at the residence in Onalaska, Wisconsin where Vu was believed to be living with her boyfriend. Additional methamphetamine, a large quantity of cash, and drug trafficking paraphernalia were found at the residence.

State Supreme Court Rejects Sex Crime Victim's Lawsuit Bid

A majority of the state supreme court Wednesday rejected a sex-crime victim's bid to sue her abuser's supervisors, ruling she ran out of time under the statute of limitations for the relevant laws.

The 38-year-old woman was sexually assaulted beginning when she was 13 by Shelton Kingcade, who's a former Madison girls high school basketball coach. The assaults continued for several years.

In 2016 in Dane County court, Kingcade was sentenced to more than a decade in prison.

The woman's lawsuit against Kingcade's supervising group the Amateur Athletic Union stated the sports organization was aware or should have been aware Kingcade was hired despite having a 1990 sex crime conviction. It also stated the AAU failed to properly supervise Kingcade.

Officer Involved Critical Incident Investigation In Mequon, Wis.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) is investigating an officer involved critical incident in Mequon, Wis. that occurred on the afternoon of Wednesday, May 17, 2023.

At approximately 3:31 p.m., Mequon Police Officers responded to a report of shots fired in the 3100 block of Bonniwell Road in Mequon, Wis. When officers arrived, the subject was barricaded in a residence. The subject eventually exited the residence and discharged a firearm towards officers who then exchanged gunfire and struck the subject. Officers attempted to render aid; however, the subject was pronounced deceased at the scene.

No law enforcement officers were injured in this incident.

Could Wisconsin Be A Climate Haven? Great Lakes Region Could Be Attractive, But Some Effects Are Unclear

Snowbanks blocked Colleen Rooney’s view of the water when she and her husband first arrived at their new lakeside home in rural Vilas County last month.

"I actually had to hire someone to come take a skid loader and get the snow away from the garage so we could unload the truck," Rooney said.

The mounds of snow stood in stark contrast to the hot, arid desert they had left behind in Las Vegas. She and her husband Jim had lived there since 2000, but Rooney said she was done with 115-degree heat.

"You just didn't go anywhere when it was 115 degrees outside," she said. "Just to walk from your car to a grocery store across that blacktop was brutal, so you'd go shopping after the sun went down."