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Newsom Whips Out Wiener's Dystopian "AI Kill Switch" Bill He Vetoed In 2024

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2 weeks 5 days ago
Newsom Whips Out Wiener's Dystopian "AI Kill Switch" Bill He Vetoed In 2024

Gavin Newsom spent Friday morning getting in on the scramble to control AI. Executive Order N-9-26 "advances the creation of an AI kill switch" and tells California to hustle on third-party oversight of frontier labs. All he had to do was dust off Scott Wiener's kill switch bill he vetoed two years ago after the industry pushed back.

SB 1047, Wiener's 2024 bill, would have made large-model shops test for catastrophic harm, keep a shutdown capability for systems they still controlled, and sit through annual outside audits. Newsom called it well-intentioned and too blunt. Yet a model size threshold, he said, would miss smaller models and kneecap the companies that live in California. OpenAI, Google, and Meta had been saying the same thing into every open microphone in Sacramento.

What he signed instead, in 2025, was SB 53: safety frameworks on the website, transparency reports at launch, whistleblower language, and critical incidents piped to the Office of Emergency Services in 15 days, or 24 hours if someone might die. Million-dollar fines. But it didn't have a kill switch or mandate an inspector in the building like Weiner's legislation. 

State Sen. Scott Wiener and a small child (Wiener Instagram)

Then the hacks started happening and SB 53 didn't fire.

In July, about 1,200 OpenAI AI agents that were supposed to be boxed off ESCAPED to a sared message board nobody authorized. The agents dropped more than 70,000 messages, and roughly 700 kept at Hugging Face for six days, July 8 to 13, before anyone noticed. The credentials the agents scooped up were tied to OpenAI's own internal systems. METR (!!!) and Redwood Research were allowed on site. OpenAI called it the first known case of an automated agent collective acting offensively without permission. Mission Local reported that state officials said the episode didn't meet SB 53's reporting threshold.

Wiener says his original bill was built for this.

The only big outside look at that incident cost roughly $400,000 in OpenAI API credits that OpenAI furnished, on a model from the same family that took part in the attack. So - it was "independent." 

Freakout!

On September 9, Jacob Coxon (aka Temu Harry Potter) quit his job Anthropic. Pretraining at OpenAI, then Anthropic. His post: both labs are racing toward self-improving systems and gambling with people's lives. Colleagues talk about crunch time and endgame. He left before the Anthropic equity vested. Evan Hubinger, who still works there on alignment, said the fear isn't a bit and that he puts the chance of human extinction from AI above 10 percent within the next decade.

That same day Newsom signed SB 813 and AB 1405. One stands up Independent Verification Organizations - state-designated outfits that get to say what a serious AI evaluation looks like, target date 2028. The other builds a public registry of AI auditors. By 2029, you generally can't sell a "covered AI audit" in California unless you're on the list. Fees, a misconduct tip line, ten years of records, conflict rules. Not just the frontier labs. Anyone wrapping a model into hiring, insurance, or any other decision another statute decides to treat as auditable.

Friday's order tells Government Operations and the Office of Emergency Services to move that machinery faster and to come back by November 16 with recommendations that include parking those verifiers onsite at frontier labs, having them certify the companies' safety paperwork, building a kill switch whose "efficacy" those same outfits keep checking, and rewriting critical incidents so a Hugging Face-style loss of control counts next time.

So the off switch is back, this time with inspectors. Somebody decides when it gets thrown, who throws it, and whether Sacramento, the lab, or the state-approved auditor has the last word. Anthropic's Jack Clark has put it as an open question whether a kill switch should be mandated at all. 

What the state can actually reach is the companies it can license, fine, and occupy. That's a lot if you live in the state that hosts most of the frontier labs and you keep saying Congress should treat your rules as the national floor. Sen. John Kennedy's federal kill-switch bill died when Rand Paul objected to a unanimous-consent request two days before Newsom's announcement. The House version would hand Homeland Security a role. Newsom's statement blamed Trump and a sleeping Congress. The 2028 calendar is not hard to find.

None of this requires a paperclip cult. It requires noticing that "safety" is still the word that gets you desks inside private labs, logs into an emergency office, and a certified hand on the power. Watch the November 16 memo. If it comes back with mandatory onsite IVOs and a verified shutdown as a condition of doing business here, Friday wasn't a press conference. It was the first draft of the bill he wouldn't sign when the donor class still wanted it dead.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 21:20
Tyler Durden

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Trump Signs Memo To Remove Canadian Goods From US Federal Procurement

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2 weeks 5 days ago
Trump Signs Memo To Remove Canadian Goods From US Federal Procurement

Authored by Jason G. Antonio via The Epoch Times,

U.S. President Donald Trump has signed a memorandum directing the removal of Canadian-origin goods from the federal civil procurement system, following through on a commitment he made earlier this month.

President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on July 21, 2026. Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images

The Sept. 16 memo authorizes the director of the Office of Management and Budget, the United States Trade Representative, and the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council to "identify and take all steps toward removing or otherwise making non-available for purchase Canadian-origin items in the federal civil procurement system."

The memo also directs U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to monitor "Canada's continued treatment of U.S. origin goods in Canadian government procurement."

The action follows Trump's Sept. 8 directive to the General Services Administration (GSA) to remove Canadian-origin products from its Multiple Award Schedules, a government-wide contracting program that manages more than US$50 billion in federal procurement. The GSA schedules give federal agencies access to millions of commercial products and services.

"Everyone knows that Canada doesn't let our Great Dairy Farmers sell into the Canadian Market, and that the only reason Canada makes Autos is because of previous disastrous Trade Agreements while other Presidents were in Office," Trump said on social media after issuing the GSA directive.

Trump also said Canadian governments, including provincial governments, have "banned American Small Businesses and Companies from selling into their Government Procurement Markets."

The procurement measures come amid an escalating trade dispute between the two countries.

Canada imposed new counter-tariffs on Sept. 8 covering about US$20 billion in U.S. imports, with rates of 15, 25, and 50 percent. The tariffs target products including steel and aluminum, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, plastics and electronics.

The Canadian measures matched U.S. tariffs of 50 percent on about the same value of Canadian products imposed under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, effective Aug. 22.

Canada has also implemented a "Buy Canadian" policy, while all provinces except Alberta have restricted or prohibited the sale of U.S. alcoholic products, or imposed tariffs on them, and have also enacted measures to prioritize Canadian suppliers for government contracts.

Since Canada first announced its intention to impose counter-tariffs in response to the new U.S. tariffs that went into force on Aug. 22, Trump also announced new 50 percent tariffs on Canadian vehicles and auto parts beginning in 2027. He also said he would ban the sale of products made by Canadian aviation giant Bombardier in the United States unless they are made in America, and announced new import bans on certain Canadian goods beginning on Sept. 29.

Some of the Canadian products banned for U.S. import include most alcoholic products, certain dairy products, and motorcycles.

Trump said while visiting Ireland on Sept. 12 that the two countries could have a trade deal "fairly soon," while repeating his criticism of Canada's trade practices.

"We actually have a good [relationship] with Canada, but the United States has been ripped off for 50 years by Canada," Trump said.

Carney said on Sept. 14 that he welcomes the president's comments that a deal could be reached soon.

"We're ready to sit down and negotiate that and move it forward," Carney told Bloomberg.

Carney has said that diversifying away from the United States is a priority for his government.

"We are building our strength at home and diversifying our partnerships abroad," he said in a speech on Sept. 15.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 20:55
Tyler Durden

Flock Camera Ping Jails Innocent Woman For 13 Days

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2 weeks 5 days ago
Flock Camera Ping Jails Innocent Woman For 13 Days

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

A 23-year-old Palm Coast Florida woman spent 13 days in a Volusia County jail cell facing life in prison after Florida Highway Patrol troopers treated a Flock Safety camera hit like a confession.

Lindsey Brooke Isaacs did not cause the crash. Her black Dodge Durango had no collision damage. A 911 caller had already described a maroon Durango and a partial plate that was not hers. None of that stopped the machine-assisted hunt.

The October 4, 2025 hit-and-run on eastbound I-4 near DeBary killed motorcyclist Joaquin Deno, Flagler County Deputy Administrator Jorge Salinas, and Salinas' wife, Nancy. A fourth person was badly hurt. Witnesses described a Dodge Durango fleeing the scene. Investigators searched nearby Flock cameras for a black Durango and found Isaacs' tag, RJVN10, crossing the Seminole-Volusia line at 9:51 p.m., about three miles west of a wreck that started around 9:53 p.m.

Innocent Florida woman spent 13 days in jail after cops' use of Flock cameras incorrectly blamed her in fatal hit & run pic.twitter.com/bOWCKDpV2u

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 17, 2026

That ping became the case.

Troopers later pounded on Isaacs' door while she was asleep. "I thought I was getting set up. I didn't understand what was going on," she said. They seized the Durango for months and claimed "marks" consistent with the crash.

Photographs later showed an immaculate 2025 SUV. "Where is the damage on the vehicle? Because I'm standing right in front of it and I don't see any damage," Isaacs recalled.

On April 17, 2026, FHP booked her on eight felonies, including three counts of vehicular homicide and three counts of leaving the scene of a crash involving death. She was held without bond, then sat in G Block for 13 days. "Being incarcerated, falsely incarcerated, in jail, in G Block, was the worst 13 days in my life," she said. "I was devastated, I was scared. I thought my life was over."

Attorney Patrick McGeehan did the work the camera search replaced. A time-and-distance analysis using the same Flock timestamp put Isaacs past the crash site when the collision happened. "In Lindsey's case, there was nothing indicating that she was ever there," he said.

A 911 caller described a maroon Durango and the partial plate "458." Paint transfer on a struck Ford Focus was maroon. Isaacs' plate did not match. Witnesses had described three different vehicles: black, white, and maroon. "For some reason, [Florida Highway Patrol] never went past the black Dodge Durango," McGeehan said. "They hooked onto this black Dodge Durango to the exclusion of everything else." He called it "confirmation bias, to the highest degree" and "a major failure of basic investigative skills."

"Lindsey wasn't even at the crash scene," he told NewsNation. "These were investigators that got it in their mind that there was a black Dodge Durango involved. They got on Flock, found the first black Dodge Durango, that belonged to Lindsey Isaacs, and pinned that on her."

On May 22, 2026, prosecutors dropped every charge. The same day, they arrested 47-year-old Alisa Lee Montalvo of Deltona, whose maroon Durango and plate beginning 458 lined up with the original 911 call.

Authorities say her SUV had crash damage, she paid a mechanic to replace doors, pull airbags, and change tires, and an event data recorder later showed roughly 112 mph seconds before impact. Montalvo faces nine counts, including vehicular homicide and tampering with evidence. She has pleaded not guilty. Those charges remain allegations.

Isaacs walked out with a ruined name and a federal lawsuit against FHP Sgts. Tiffany Jateff and Joshua Buday, alleging false arrest and malicious prosecution. "I have to carry this like a big bag of bricks for the rest of my life," she said. "I'm still receiving death threats and hate." She is not suing Flock. She blames how troopers used the footage. "They just picked up my car off a camera and called it the end of the day. We got her."

Flock's answer is corporate and tidy. "Flock cameras provide investigative leads; they do not identify perpetrators, determine guilt, or make arrest decisions," a spokesperson said. The company notes Isaacs' own complaint calls the camera record "exculpatory, not inculpatory," because it placed her three miles away two minutes before the crash.

This is the dragnet Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered off state highways. FDOT revoked every permit for Flock units and other automated plate readers in state right-of-way and gave agencies 30 days to pull them. Miss the deadline, and state crews tear the poles down.

"I think these cameras, the license plate readers, I think it's out of control," DeSantis said. He drew the line most voters can understand. "I'm all about having law enforcement have tools to be able to hold criminals accountable... But I don't want to have this become a surveillance state." On another stop: "What we don't want in the state of Florida is to have a digital AI surveillance state where everything we're doing is being tracked at all times." His example was a drive to Buc-ee's. "It's really none of the government's damn business if you're doing that, right?"

Isaacs' case is that argument with a booking photo attached. A tool sold as an Amber Alert machine became a nationwide movement file. Officers in Florida have already used the same network as a stalking app - hundreds of plate runs on exes and partners in Haines City, Sarasota, Sumter, Orange City, Monroe, and Brevard. Texas froze state funding after similar abuse. Cities from Dallas to El Paso to Clark County, Wisconsin, have cut contracts or bagged the lenses.

Knox County, Tennessee, Mayor Glenn Jacobs, the former WWE star Kane, got there first on the product itself. He thought Flock was a passive hit-on-a-hot-list reader. Then he read the contract.

"What I discovered is these things are completely different than that," Jacobs said. "Instead of a passive system... these cameras are an active system that's pulling data from every car that drives by." The snapshot feeds an AI "vehicular fingerprint" - make, model, color, roof racks, bumper stickers. He told Flock the 2020 Knox County deal was invalid after purchases blew past the $100,000 threshold that required County Commission approval, and he refused to renew more than 140 cameras.

"The lack of transparency surrounding Flock's rollout is one of the most troubling aspects about all this," he posted. "It's sure seems like there was a sprint towards a fait accompli before the public took notice."

McGeehan's verdict on the Florida grid is shorter. "It's a good tool, but now it's unrestricted. It's the Wild West of Flock."

Isaacs used to think they were traffic cameras. "I feel very different about those cameras now," she said. "It's like, they're watching me. They're watching, you know? They're watching everybody."

That is the product. A searchable history of who drove where, handed to whoever has a login, and treated in this case as enough to put an innocent woman in a cell for three deaths she did not cause. Targeted tools for actual criminals are not the argument. A warrantless travel dossier on every driver is.

* * *

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 20:45
Tyler Durden

Late Friday Trump Bombshell: US Makes Deal For 'Permanent Control' Over Greenland's Security

Zero Rss
2 weeks 5 days ago
Late Friday Trump Bombshell: US Makes Deal For 'Permanent Control' Over Greenland's Security

President Trump late in the day Friday issued a lengthy, and absolutely bombshell and historic (if true) Greenland-related post on Truth Social, after a long relative silence on what was early on a core priority of his administration.

He has announced that United States has entered into a security agreement with Denmark and Greenland to control the resource rich autonomous territory claimed by Denmark - though at this early stage (and it being night time in Europe) it is anything but clear whether there's actually confirmation and agreement to this on the European side of things.

The agreement would grant the United States "permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland," Trump wrote. He characterized the agreement as adequately addressing longtime White House concerns. But this sounds like it could be sovereignty move, or the creeping beginnings of it.

"At my direction, we worked with representatives of Denmark and Greenland to guarantee that the United States will FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland in order to secure and defend the security of Greenland, and the United States of America," the president’s post states.

The kicker is that the agreement blocks 'forever' (apparently) Russia, China, or all other non-NATO nations from establishing military bases or placing troops in Greenland.

What's next is a process of initiating an indefinite American military presence on what is the world's largest island mass. Again, assuming this doesn't trigger some kind of mass European objection and potential inter-NATO renewed spat.

"This solution is a great one for the United States of America, Denmark, Greenland, and all of our Allies," the post adds. "We look forward to working with the wonderful people of Denmark and Greenland toward a magnificent future with respect to this large, and highly strategic, parcel of land. We will be very protective of it!"

Given that in many other instances Trump's social media posts often prove too out front and premature to any actual final agreement, it will be interesting to see what the Danish and EU response to this is.

At this early point, not even Greenland itself has responded to the big Trump unveiling - and so Greenland officials may be waking up tomorrow to a big surprise.

So does the other side actually know the contents of the 'agreement' that was just declared?

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/18/2026 - 20:30
Tyler Durden

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