When EJ Sablan, 22, played for the Father Duenas Memorial School Friars soccer team, he was one of the best strikers the school had ever produced. After the 2021 season, during which he led the Friars to a championship, he was named the Independent Interscholastic Athletic Association of Guam (IIAAG) most valuable player. Soon after earning the IIAAG MVP title, Sablan and his family relocated to Puyallup, Washington, where he joined the Emerald Ridge High School Jaguars boys soccer team. As a Jaguar, his role shifted. He was tasked with playing in the backfield, focusing on keeping the ball out of his team’s net - a role he excelled in. After a standout 2023 season as a defender, Sablan earned a spot on the All-South Puget Sound first team. A different school. A different position. The same results. Sablan, no matter the situation, environment or position, continued to make a name for himself. Now, about a year and a half later, Sablan’s determined play and hard work have earned him recognition at the next level. Sablan, who plays midfielder for the Linfield College Wildcats in McMinnville, Oregon, has been named to the All-Northwest Conference (NWC) second team. “I am blessed to be able to perform at the rate that I am. The endless support of God, my family, my teammates and coaches is what keeps me going and inspired to perform well throughout the season,” Sablan said. “Getting nominated for All-NWC second team is just the beginning of my journey. Although I am grateful, I am not satisfied, as I want to achieve bigger and better things.” Sablan told The Guam Daily Post that he enjoys being a midfielder, a position where he can make the greatest difference and showcase his skills as both a defender and an offensive playmaker. “I do enjoy being a midfielder. It gives me the opportunity to compete in the middle of the field, where, in my opinion, games are won,” he said. “I am not too eager to be a striker because, as a midfielder, I get to express myself - finding opportunities to score but also assisting my teammates and getting everyone involved.” Midway through the 2024 season, during a game against the University of Puget Sound Loggers, Sablan found his footing and delivered a breakout performance. Although Linfield trailed 3-0 and eventually lost 3-2, Sablan scored both of the Wildcats’ goals. “This was one of the best experiences I’ve had in my collegiate career,” Sablan said. “The endless fight my team showed is what makes it one of my proudest moments in my Linfield career.” Over the two years Sablan has played for the Wildcats - an NCAA Division III team in the Northwest Conference - the team has recorded an 8-27-5 record. Despite being part of a struggling program, Sablan remains positive and optimistic. "My experience with Linfield soccer has been nothing but good,” he said. “Although the results aren’t what we wanted or expected, I’m just truly blessed to be able to play the sport I love and continue my journey. Every time I step on the field, I’m one step closer to playing professionally and giving back to the community that raised me.”
WASHINGTON — Jimmy Carter, the earnest Georgia peanut farmer who as U.S. president struggled with a bad economy and the Iran hostage crisis but brokered peace between Israel and Egypt and later received the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian work, has died, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on Sunday. He was 100. A Democrat, he served as president from January 1977 to January 1981 after defeating incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford in the 1976 U.S. election. Carter was swept from office four years later in an electoral landslide as voters embraced Republican challenger Ronald Reagan, the former actor and California governor. ADVERTISEMENT Carter lived longer after his term in office than any other U.S. president. Along the way, he earned a reputation as a better former president than he was a president -- a status he readily acknowledged. His one-term presidency was marked by the highs of the 1978 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, bringing some stability to the Middle East. But it was dogged by an economy in recession, persistent unpopularity and the embarrassment of the Iran hostage crisis that consumed his final 444 days in office. In recent years, Carter had experienced several health issues including melanoma that spread to his liver and brain. Carter decided to receive hospice care in February 2023 instead of undergoing additional medical intervention. His wife, Rosalynn Carter, died on Nov. 19, 2023, at age 96. He looked frail when he attended her memorial service and funeral in a wheelchair. Carter left office profoundly unpopular but worked energetically for decades on humanitarian causes. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 in recognition of his "untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development." Carter had been a centrist as governor of Georgia with populist tendencies when he moved into the White House as the 39th U.S. president. He was a Washington outsider at a time when America was still reeling from the Watergate scandal that led Republican Richard Nixon to resign as president in 1974 and elevated Ford from vice president. "I'm Jimmy Carter and I'm running for president. I will never lie to you," Carter promised with an ear-to-ear smile. Asked to assess his presidency, Carter said in a 1991 documentary: "The biggest failure we had was a political failure. I never was able to convince the American people that I was a forceful and strong leader." ADVERTISEMENT Despite his difficulties in office, Carter had few rivals for accomplishments as a former president. He gained global acclaim as a tireless human rights advocate, a voice for the disenfranchised and a leader in the fight against hunger and poverty, winning the respect that eluded him in the White House. Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his efforts to promote human rights and resolve conflicts around the world, from Ethiopia and Eritrea to Bosnia and Haiti. His Carter Center in Atlanta sent international election-monitoring delegations to polls around the world. A Southern Baptist Sunday school teacher since his teens, Carter brought a strong sense of morality to the presidency, speaking openly about his religious faith. He also sought to take some pomp out of an increasingly imperial presidency - walking, rather than riding in a limousine, in his 1977 inauguration parade. The Middle East was the focus of Carter's foreign policy. The 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, based on the 1978 Camp David Accords, ended a state of war between the two neighbors. Carter brought Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland for talks. Later, as the accords seemed to be unraveling, Carter saved the day by flying to Cairo and Jerusalem for personal shuttle diplomacy. The treaty provided for Israeli withdrawal from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and the establishment of diplomatic relations. Begin and Sadat each won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1978. By the 1980 election, the overriding issues were double-digit inflation, interest rates that exceeded 20% and soaring gas prices, as well as the Iran hostage crisis that brought humiliation to America. These issues marred Carter's presidency and undermined his chances of winning a second term. ADVERTISEMENT HOSTAGE CRISIS On Nov. 4, 1979, revolutionaries devoted to Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, seized the Americans present and demanded the return of the ousted shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was backed by the United States and was being treated in a U.S. hospital. The American public initially rallied behind Carter. But his support faded in April 1980 when a commando raid failed to rescue the hostages, with eight U.S. soldiers killed in an aircraft accident in the Iranian desert. Carter's final ignominy was that Iran held the 52 hostages until minutes after Reagan took his oath of office on Jan. 20, 1981, to replace Carter, then released the planes carrying them to freedom. In another crisis, Carter protested the former Soviet Union's 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by boycotting the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. He also asked the U.S. Senate to defer consideration of a major nuclear arms accord with Moscow. Unswayed, the Soviets remained in Afghanistan for a decade. Carter won narrow Senate approval in 1978 of a treaty to transfer the Panama Canal to the control of Panama despite critics who argued the waterway was vital to American security. He also completed negotiations on full U.S. ties with China. Carter created two new U.S. Cabinet departments -- education and energy. Amid high gas prices, he said America's "energy crisis" was "the moral equivalent of war" and urged the country to embrace conservation. "Ours is the most wasteful nation on earth," he told Americans in 1977. ADVERTISEMENT In 1979, Carter delivered what became known as his "malaise" speech to the nation, although he never used that word. "After listening to the American people I have been reminded again that all the legislation in the world can't fix what's wrong with America," he said in his televised address. "The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America." As president, the strait-laced Carter was embarrassed by the behavior of his hard-drinking younger brother, Billy Carter, who had boasted: "I got a red neck, white socks, and Blue Ribbon beer." 'THERE YOU GO AGAIN' Jimmy Carter withstood a challenge from Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination but was politically diminished heading into his general election battle against a vigorous Republican adversary. Reagan, the conservative who projected an image of strength, kept Carter off balance during their debates before the November 1980 election. Reagan dismissively told Carter, "There you go again," when the Republican challenger felt the president had misrepresented Reagan's views during one debate. ADVERTISEMENT Carter lost the 1980 election to Reagan, who won 44 of the 50 states and amassed an Electoral College landslide. James Earl Carter Jr. was born on Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia, one of four children of a farmer and shopkeeper. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1946, served in the nuclear submarine program and left to manage the family peanut farming business. He married his wife, Rosalynn, in 1946, a union he called "the most important thing in my life." They had three sons and a daughter. Carter became a millionaire, a Georgia state legislator and Georgia's governor from 1971 to 1975. He mounted an underdog bid for the 1976 Democratic presidential nomination, and out-hustled his rivals for the right to face Ford in the general election. With Walter Mondale as his vice presidential running mate, Carter was given a boost by a major Ford gaffe during one of their debates. Ford said that "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration," despite decades of just such domination. Carter edged Ford in the election, even though Ford actually won more states -- 27 to Carter's 23. Not all of Carter's post-presidential work was appreciated. Former President George W. Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, both Republicans, were said to have been displeased by Carter's freelance diplomacy in Iraq and elsewhere. ADVERTISEMENT In 2004, Carter called the Iraq war launched in 2003 by the younger Bush one of the most "gross and damaging mistakes our nation ever made." He called George W. Bush's administration "the worst in history" and said Vice President Dick Cheney was "a disaster for our country." In 2019, Carter questioned Republican Donald Trump's legitimacy as president, saying "he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf." Trump responded by calling Carter "a terrible president." Carter also made trips to communist North Korea. A 1994 visit defused a nuclear crisis, as President Kim Il Sung agreed to freeze his nuclear program in exchange for resumed dialog with the United States. That led to a deal in which North Korea, in return for aid, promised not to restart its nuclear reactor or reprocess the plant's spent fuel. But Carter irked Democratic President Bill Clinton's administration by announcing the deal with North Korea's leader without first checking with Washington. In 2010, Carter won the release of an American sentenced to eight years hard labor for illegally entering North Korea. Carter wrote more than two dozen books, ranging from a presidential memoir to a children's book and poetry, as well as works about religious faith and diplomacy. His book "Faith: A Journey for All," was published in 2018. ______________________________________________________ This story was written by one of our partner news agencies. Forum Communications Company uses content from agencies such as Reuters, Kaiser Health News, Tribune News Service and others to provide a wider range of news to our readers. Learn more about the news services FCC uses here .
CHICAGO — The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation launched a new online licensing system this fall, the first phase in a plan to modernize the management and licensing process for service providers across the state. The system improvements are part of efforts to make doing business easier and more efficient for Illinois service providers, the department said. The Comprehensive Online Regulatory Environment, or CORE, opened on Oct. 30, nearly a year after the Illinois General Assembly passed House Bill 2394, a measure authorizing the IDFPR to upgrade its antiquated system that had led to long waiting periods for licensing and renewals. The new system will “eliminate the need for paper applications, give applicants more control over their application materials, and help prevent deficient applications from being submitted,” according to a statement from IDFPR. Treto The agency calls CORE the first part of a multiphase approach by IDFPR to, over the next two years, ensure applications for more than 300 license types and records for more than 1.2 million professionals are properly transitioned. The first professions to be licensed under the new system are clinical psychologists, music therapists and nail technicians. “Everyone wanting to earn a living in Illinois in the 21st century should have tools of the times available so they can be licensed and get to work as soon as possible,” IDFPR Secretary Mario Treto Jr., said in the statement. Music therapists On May 27, 2022, Gov. JB Pritzker signed Senate Bill 2243, which created a music therapy license for Illinois practitioners within the IDFPR. Music therapy is a form of treatment that incorporates “clinical & evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship” according to the American Music Therapy Association website. “We have been waiting for 2 1/2 years since our bill was passed for this new system to come,” said Mia Iliopoulos Krings, president of the Illinois Association for Music Therapy, in an interview. Instead of immediately allowing music therapists to apply for a license two years ago, Krings said that the department “didn't want to put us in the old system for us to just have to go into the new system.” Since the system’s launch, Krings praised how easy and efficient it was to complete the application process. “They have been working incredibly fast and efficiently in getting everything back to us. For example, I applied on Friday night on Nov. 1. I heard back by 8:30 a.m. Monday morning,” Krings said. She said her fellow music therapists posted their issued licenses on Facebook and shared similar experiences of a rapid response. Krings’ experience now is vastly different from what many Illinois professionals experienced in the past. Panache Perkins, director and an instructor of Your School of Beauty in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, said that before the digitization, the IDFPR was “still in 1997,” with “old school” public servants stacking “pieces of paper applications into a 75-year-old filing system.” “They (IDFPR) lose paperwork all the time, because they don’t have the right system,” she said. With new integrated software and technology services provided by Tyler Technologies, however, the department’s CORE system will “notify prospective licensees directly within the system when applications are received, reviewed, and licenses are issued by the department—eliminating the need for paper mail and email responses,” according to IDFPR’s statement. Financial barriers for business The IDFPR’s mission is “to protect the residents of Illinois” through licensing and regulating industries and professions that offer services to the public. But some say these licenses can serve as a financial barrier to doing business. The initial music therapy license is $400 and renewal costs $300. In preparation for hardships, the Illinois Association for Music Therapists held a benefit concert to raise funds to help pay for the licenses for members in need. Two years ago, state lawmakers created the Comprehensive Licensing Information to Minimize Barriers Task Force, or CLIMB, to “investigate how occupational licensing of low-to-moderate-income occupations relates to economic inequities in Illinois and to recommend reforms,” according to a statement from the task force. Last month, CLIMB released a study of their two-year findings, and recommended easing licensing burdens for specific professions. The study recommended that hair braiders, for example, should be exempt from having a license. CLIMB’s research found that “requiring a license to braid hair does not enhance public safety but does disproportionately impact individuals from minority communities,” according to the statement. Perkins said she disagrees with that recommendation. “People’s addiction to social media has changed the (standard) that licensing set. Now everyone thinks they can do it,” she said. She also said braiders may not know proper hair care, how to properly clean their tools or prevent traction alopecia – a type of hair loss caused by tension from tight hair styles. There are 33 states that do not require a license for hair braiders; an increase of 21 from 2016. This includes Indiana, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, according to the CLIMB. Perkins said she has been working in the beauty industry since she was 16 years old, noting, “my grandmother inspired me to go into cosmetology.” Perkins’s grandmother, Mildred Dixon, opened Your School of Beauty 66 years ago to train men and women to begin their careers in the beauty industry. Perkins said the beauty industry is among the most essential occupations and that it should be regulated accordingly. “Cosmetologists work closely with products that dermatologists prescribe and recommend. We were also essential during the pandemic,” Perkins said. However, she also acknowledged the state’s antiquated licensing system impacts how cosmetologists are regarded and can run their businesses. She said she doesn’t think licensing is a barrier. “If you can do enough ‘heads’ to pay taxes on your work, then you can pay the money to get your license,” she said, adding that this evokes a larger issue about how people see their futures. “If you’re not trying to get your license,” she said, “you’re also not thinking about your (long-term) future.” Gov. J.B. Pritzker on July 31 signs legislation that will make it illegal for companies hold mandatory meetings in which workers would be subjected to the employer’s views on religious or political matters, including unionization. Nicole Jeanine Johnson is a graduate student in journalism with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, and a Fellow in its Medill Illinois News Bureau working in partnership with Capitol News Illinois. Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. 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REGINA - A report from Saskatchewan's privacy commissioner says hackers obtained health records of more than 7,200 residents earlier this year. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * REGINA - A report from Saskatchewan's privacy commissioner says hackers obtained health records of more than 7,200 residents earlier this year. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? REGINA – A report from Saskatchewan’s privacy commissioner says hackers obtained health records of more than 7,200 residents earlier this year. The report says the breach affected Innomar clinics, which offer lab testing in four locations across the province. It says hackers gained access to a server in January at one of the organization’s affiliate companies, allowing them to access Innomar’s systems. The report says the company took immediate steps to contain the breach and notified patients in May. It adds there is no evidence of ongoing unauthorized activity and the company has taken steps to prevent a future breach. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. The privacy commissioner has recommended the company offer those affected credit monitoring for at least 10 years. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 3, 2024. Advertisement
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On November 20, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) and Department of Justice (“DOJ”) announced parallel charges against Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, his nephew Sagar Adani, business associate Cyril Cabanes of Azure Power Global Ltd, and other senior business executives in connection with an alleged $250 million bribery scheme in violation of U.S. securities laws and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”). The Adanis, executives of Adani Green Energy Ltd., an Indian renewable-energy company, were charged with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud to obtain funds from U.S. investors and global financial institutions through false statements involving one of the world’s largest solar energy projects. The charges against the Adanis and their associates underscore the transnational reach of U.S. securities laws and the FCPA. Under the SEC Whistleblower Program, individuals from across the globe can anonymously report securities fraud and FCPA violations and may qualify for monetary awards. Adani Indictment: A $250 Million Bribery Scheme According to the DOJ, between 2020 and 2024, the defendants agreed to pay more than $250 million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain lucrative energy contracts with the Indian government, which were projected to generate more than $2 billion in profits. Allegedly, Adani Green raised $750 million from investors through the sale of corporate bonds, including $175 million from U.S. investors. As alleged, Gautam S. Adani, Sagar R. Adani and Vneet S. Jaain caused the Indian Energy Company to raise capital using false and misleading statements in connection with U.S. loans totaling more than $2 billion and Rule 144A bond offerings for more than $1 billion underwritten by international financial institutions and US investors. They also were charged with conspiracy to misrepresent the Indian Energy Company’s anti-bribery and corruption practices in order to avoid scrutiny. “The Criminal Division will continue to aggressively prosecute corrupt, deceptive, and obstructive conduct that violates U.S. law, no matter where in the world it occurs.” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Miller. Beyond bribery, Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal, Deepak Malhotra and Rupesh Agarwal allegedly conspired to obstruct the grand jury, FBI and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigations into the bribery scheme by deleting electronic materials related to the scheme. The SEC’s complaint against Gautam and Sagar Adani charges them with violating Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 (“Securities Act”), Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”), and Rule 10b-5 thereunder, and with aiding and abetting violations of Section 17(a)(2) of the Securities Act, Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act, and Rule 10b-5(b) thereunder FBI Assistant Director in Charge Dennehy stated, “The FBI maintains its steadfast mission to expose all corrupt agreements, especially with international governments, and protect investors from related harm.” How Indian Whistleblowers Can Use U.S. Laws to Report Corruption Under the SEC Whistleblower Programs, individuals with original information on securities fraud or FCPA violations may be eligible for awards of 10-30% of monetary sanction collected when their information leads to a successful enforcement action of over $1 million. Critically, whistleblowers can report anonymously through the SEC Whistleblower Program, keeping their confidentiality intact. As the Adani indictment shows, SEC actions can include conduct which occurs overseas and the Commission’s whistleblower program covers individuals all across the globe. The SEC has received thousands of whistleblower tips from foreign whistleblowers and has issued numerous awards for conduct occurring overseas. According to the program’s latest annual report , India was the foreign country with the third highest number of whistleblower tips submitted in Fiscal Year 2024. The anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA “prohibit U.S. persons and businesses (domestic concerns), U.S. and foreign public companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States or that are required to file periodic reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission (issuers), and certain foreign persons and businesses acting while in the territory of the United States (territorial jurisdiction) from making corrupt payments to foreign officials to obtain or retain business .” Since 2011, the SEC alone has fined 11 companies in connection to bribery in India. Last year, the American-based Albermale Corp., a specialty chemicals company, received a penalty of $103 million to settle with the SEC for bribes paid for sales in public-sector oil refineries, including in India. The long arm of U.S. whistleblower laws under the FCPA can effectively address corruption in India, allowing Indian whistleblowers to report corruption and bribery of government officials by companies with U.S. investors. In 2022, the DOJ and SEC imposed over $1.5 billion in sanctions in FCPA cases, according to a new report by FCPA Clearinghouse. Other transnational U.S. whistleblower laws include the Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”) and Sanctions Whistleblower Program , which covers misconduct under the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) as well as violations of U.S. sanctions. The AML program also covers trade in informal markets and with informal players under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act and Sections 5 and 12 of the Trading With the Enemy Act . Indian nationals can use these laws to combat the corrupt practices of transnational conglomerates. The globalized nature of today’s economy causes many major bribery schemes to fall under the purview of the U.S. government. Foreign national whistleblowers now stand a chance against collusion between big industry and government cronyism.The Week 13 college football schedule includes 10 games featuring SEC teams involved. Keep reading to see up-to-date results and key players. Watch college football all season long on ESPN+ , Fubo and Paramount+ . Ole Miss vs. Florida | UMass vs. Georgia Florida 24 – Ole Miss 17 Florida won as a 12.5-point underdog. The matchup went under the 56.5-point total. Georgia 59 – UMass 21 UMass covered the 42.5-point spread in the loss. The matchup covered the 55.5-point total. No. 7 Alabama Crimson Tide at Oklahoma Sooners No. 15 Texas A&M Aggies at Auburn Tigers Vanderbilt Commodores at LSU Tigers Not all offers available in all states, please visit BetMGM for the latest promotions for your area. Must be 21+ to gamble, please wager responsibly. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, contact 1-800-GAMBLER .
No. 2 Ohio State takes control in the 2nd half and runs over No. 5 Indiana 38-15 COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Will Howard passed for two touchdowns and rushed for another, TreVeyon Henderson ran for a score and No. 2 Ohio State beat previously undefeated No. 5 Indiana 38-15. All Ohio State has to do now is beat Michigan at home next Saturday and it will earn a return to the Big Ten championship game for the first time since 2020 and get a rematch with No. 1 Oregon. The Ducks beat Ohio State 32-31 in a wild one back on Oct. 12. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.Bodo Delegation Meets Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Presents Key Demands
MENLO PARK, Calif. , Dec. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Meta Platforms, Inc. (Nasdaq: META ) board of directors today declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.50 per share of the company's outstanding Class A common stock and Class B common stock, payable on December 27, 2024 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on December 16, 2024 . Contacts Investors: Kenneth Dorell [email protected] / investor.fb.com Press: Ryan Moore [email protected] / about.fb.com/news/ SOURCE Meta
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Dutch Government Proposes Strict 20M Population Cap by 2050 Amid Immigration CrackdownJosh 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.