>>> COMING UP NEXT ON ARIZONA HORIZON:REACTION TO PRESIDENT TRUMP PUBLICLY PUSHING THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO GO AFTER THE PRESIDENT'S POLITICAL OPPONENTS.TONIGHT: AN UPDATE ON ARIZONA'S BIO-SCIENCE ROAD-MAP.AND, WE'LL WE'LL HEAR ABOUT ROBOTIC DOGS AND HOW THEY CAN BE USED FOR DANGEROUS SEARCH AND RESCUE MISSIONS.

THOSE STORIES AND MORE, NEXT, ON ARIZONA HORIZON.

>> Arizona horizon made possible by contributions of your friends at Arizona PBS.

>>> GOOD EVENING AND WELCOME TO ARIZONA HORIZON.

I'M TED SIMONS.

PRESIDENT TRUMP RECENTLY URGED U. S. ATTORNEY GENERAL PAM BONDI TO PURSUE CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST 2- OF THE PRESIDENT'S PERCEIVED ENEMIES: FORMER FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY, AND NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL LETITIA JAMES, WHO SUED THE PRESIDENT AND HIS BUSINESSES FOR HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS.

THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT'S APPARENT WILLINGNESS TO MOVE AGAINST THOSE WHO'VE CROSSED THE PRESIDENT IS SPARKING BI-PARTISAN BACKLASH.FOR MORE ON THIS, WE'RE JOINED BY ATTORNEY MARK KOKANOVICH, FROM BALLARD-SPAHR.

Good to see you.

Thank you for coming in.

We appreciate it.

>> Thank you for coming in.

Ted.

>> It's clear what's going on.

I don't like these people, they crossed me, what do you make of this?

>> We are not supposed to go after political opponents in criminal prosecutions.

That's against the justice manual.

Itself was in place when I was prosecutor here.

Going back to justice Jackson when he was the Attorney General ral in 1940.

He gave a wonderful speech they looked to.

I teach to my students you shouldn't prosecute people based on goals.

Prosecutors have the most power of anyone in our society to do injustice and justice.

It takes discretion to do that.

You don't have to go back to justice Jackson for those sorts of pronouncements.

Look at the current Attorney General Pam BONDI.

She issued a memo as most do to set forth the principals of prosecution they will be operating under.

Each one has a different take on priorities.

She set forth hers.

In that memo.

I encourage everyone to read justice Jackson's speech that's still relevant and Pam's memo that says we shouldn't weaponize the justice department.

We shouldn't base prosecutions on political motives.

The President is calling for that and it sparked bipartisan backlash.

>> They said this is what happened to him.

They can't youd it law fair.

They said they were going after Donald Trump during his Presidency and during his impeachments.

The question is, let's go ahead with that argument.

Say it did.

Should he be able to go after these people?

Some of these people are law enforcement officials.

>> He was prosecuted but there is a difference between the way he's going about it and prior administrations have gone about it.

Not to say they got it right either.

There is a lot of disagreement about whether and how you should every prosecute political opponents when you are the party in power.

The prior administration prosecuted people that were republicantions and democrats.

Famously, democrats were prosecuted for fraud that were high ranking politicians that were democrats under the prior administration they were convicted.

There was a special council and special councils are also fraud.

It wasn't the Attorney General ral of the United States commanded by Biden in public to go after political opponents.

>> It looks like the border czar, there are FBI agents that got a video of him taking a bag of what is reportedly $50,000 in a bribe.

The White House denied it.

It's there on the video.

We need to find out what that is but the White House doesn't care?

What's going on here?

>> That's another example of just this.

You make decisions based upon political affiliations rather than the fact.

We'd like our justice department to make decisions based on the facts and law and not if they have an R or D before their name.

>> Does this country really want that right now.

It's so divided and partisan.

I can image a lot of folks saying go get him?

>> The Attorney General BONDI's memo said we don't want that.

Trump ran against weaponizing the justice department at times.

It's not a popular thing.

The Department of Justice has justice in it's name.

It doesn't show favor to one party or another because of affiliation.

I believe the people who would want retribution are shortsighted.

We don't want that in the United States.

We distinguished ourselves, historically, for not being like that.

That path way, it's not good for justice or the economy.

It's not good for society or mental health.

>> The President mentioned Adam shift.

We also mentioned James comby and Laeticia James.

Apparently the justice department will go after George now and try to find out something from him because he seemed to finance candidates and ideas that are opposite of the President.

You mentioned something important.

Donald Trump won't be President forever.

Republicans won't be in the White House forever.

Do we expect this to happen when democrats take over?

>> Let's hope not.

There is reason for hope.

Just a few things.

There are guardrails aside from prosecutors.

Prosecutors are the first line of defense to say no to exercise discretion and human kindness along with truth and other values to make decisions about who to prosecute.

There is a reason we say someone is making a federal case out of it.

The loneliest immigration offense costs a lot of money to taxpayers.

It cost money for the defense attorneys.

>> It's very expensive to bring a federal case.

One protection we have is the grand jury.

We V seen them reject prosecution they would indict a ham sandwich.

They are not indicting people throwing ham sandwiches.

The judges look very carefully at cases they believe are political motives.

Whether it's democrats or motives.

President Trump got favorable rulings when he was the defendant because there was a perception among some there were political prosecutions.

We see that as well in Arizona.

There are democratic administration prosecuting republicans.

They usually get good rulings because they worry about the balance.

>> We are running out of time.

Are you worried about the balance you see here in Washington?

>> Yes, I am worried.

I am worried but hopeful.

That's the way I am as an attorney and person.

There is a lot of reason for hope.

We have far more in common than what divides us.

They would like a Department of Justice and not the bidding of whatever polymertition.

>> Great conversation.

Good to have you here.

>>> The bioscience road map two decades ago.

Accelerating discovery in Arizona.

The foundation commissioned a new road map for the ecosystem.

We welcome WELCOME MARY O-REILLY, THE FLINN FOUNDATION'S VICE PRESIDENT OF BIOSCIENCE RESEARCH PROGRAMS.

what is the bioscience road map?

>> It's how to build a sector in Arizona.

Historically it's focused as an economy on tourism, copper, etc.

Over the number of use they found if we'd like to utilize what's happening in the universities a lot of good research what's happening in the economy we need to diversify.

We look at specialization.

Among many of stakeholders we work with institutions and have determined the biosciences focusing on diagnostic tools.

It's a scenario where we can excel.

>> Why was it considered an area where you can excel.

The northeast and San Diego.

They were way ahead of us.

Early on so many far ahead of us but we caught up a bit.

>> Yes, we have, 140,000 people employed in Arizona.

That includes 100,000 or so in the hospital system and across industry.

Really what we are looking at is the replenished of industry.

These companies are strong in our economy.

We leverage a lot of information and assets we have.

>> Define bioscience?

>> That's a hard question.

It's everything to do with life.

The development of a pacemaker.

How do we make sure we have, you know, desert resistant crop?

That's all apart of this and interesting area to work in.

>> I thought it was interesting the agriculture aspect.

Enhancing crops and ferrettizers.

Making them safer and stronger.

That's part of the deal,.

>> It is.

Companies like this are a good example.

Now they actually have plants when they are thirsty they turn a different color.

If you have a larger field they will determine which ones need water.

>> A lot of great things can happen here.

>> We had the first bioscience road map and an update in -- >> 2014.

>> 2014, we have this one here.

What's the difference.

>> What I'd say, we have a lot of very well-established organizations like Mayo Clinic.

Like the phoenix science Corp.

Our universities, Arizona state university in Tucson.

Thaw are all close to $1 billion of research investment on an annual basis.

We are gaining straight.

We are number eight in the country for medical clinical trials.

We are gathering speed.

>> Yeah, sounds like it.

The goal is to be recognized as a leader.

The collaborative jean.

What is that and how do you get it done?

>> That's a straight of Arizona.

We are not as old and well-established.

Organizations work well together.

The hole question can we work better together.

Can the three universities collaborate.

Can we collaborate with our systems and what's being developed in one area will see and benefit a patient.

That's the goal.

>> Accelerating research into impact.

That's part of the next generation of the road map here.

Has it been a problem or you just want to get it better.

>> Certainly want to get it better.

There are many issues translating good research into products.

Funding, we need to figure out how to better fund areas.

I know everyone looks for money.

This is a really good investment, how to fund and bring more venture capitalist into the space.

How to build more into the health systems.

>> You'd like to see that would accelerate all of this.

>> We can talk about money and having things like an fund would be excellent.

I think it's the collective and just making sure we have the right level of support.

People are engaged.

All of this is so important.

Every single one of us would benefit from having a great health system.

They are coming down the stream.

Collectively, our politicians have to be engaged.

We need a good education system.

This is a large group of people we have to work for.

We are under a lot of pressure.

We need to work together.

>> This is part three, correct?

>> It is.

>> Thank you for sharing.

>> Thank you.

>>> RESEARCHERS ARE TRAINING A ROBOTIC DOG EQUIPPED WITH ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE AND OTHER TECHNOLOGY TO TAKE ON TASKS RANGING FROM SEARCH AND RESCUE MISSIONS TO GUIDING THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED.JOINING US NOW IS RANSALU SENANAYAKE, FROM ASU'S IRA A. FULTON SCHOOLS OF ENGINEERING.

AND HE'S GOT A FRIEND WITH HIM, "SPARK-E. "

This is a robotic dog.

>> Yes, it's a robotic dog with intelligence.

>> First of all spark-E with an E at the end.

Why do we need these?

>> They make our lives safer.

>> It's equip with AI cameras.

We have AI inside the computer.

>> Cameras and voice interface so you can talk to it.

>> Yeah.

>> Does it talk back.

>> It can't talk back for federal agents.

>> Does it bark?

>> It doesn't park.

>> That's the next one.

It looks like.

Where are the sensors?

How many does it have and where are they located.

>> The sensor it's here and has a camera and microphone and then it has models.

>> Does it has sensors on it's feeing.

>> If you have something here.

>> If you put it on the sidewalk it'd say each other.

>> This looks like what WAYMO has.

>> It's sim technology.

>> How long did it take to develop?

>> We get previous robots and we develop AI to do did I have ren tasks like search and rescue and support dogs for the visually impaired.

>> So, when you do a search and rescue mission we are very important.

You go to areas where you wouldn't want a person or another animal to go.

>> Yeah, think of a collapsed building and chemicals.

We don't want people to go there, right.

>> Yes.

>> It's a way to assess the situation and look at what we really want to detect and later send a human.

>> Now the camera, is itself a realtime camera?

Can you see what sparky sees?

>> Yeah.

>> Is it a wide angel.

Does it move it's head to get different angels.

>> It has to move it's body.

>> Really.

>> Yeah, yeah.

>> Battery powered.

>> It's battery powered.

>> How long does it last?

>> Four hours.

>> Is this a basic robot or more dance things.

>> It's one of the last weekend on multiple surfaces.

This is how it dropped off.

You have similar technology.

Different things than this one.

>> This robot, I don't want to get it in trouble here.

Can it jump?

>> Yes, it can jump.

>> Can we try?

>> We don't have enough space.

>> Can it duck?

>> It does.

>> It just ducked.

The dog just ducked.

>> Basically, that gets a smaller entry point.

>> Exactly.

>> It can jump and do that kind of stuff?

>> Yes.

>> How many people are in play with this thing?

>> The hardware, you know, it's many iterations in different factories.

We basically redo all of the AI to, you know, like talk with it and detect different objects if it's a search and rescue mission.

In my lab we have 50 students that are undergraduate.

Mostly computer science students developing this A.I.

>> This helps the visually impaired.

This could be a guide dog.

>> Right, right.

>> We are partnering with some of the visually impaired institutes to do the first guide dog to understand what their needs are and enable they're day-to-day lives and become much more safer.

>> Can sparky get back on her feet.

Oh, there we go.

Look at that son of a gun.

He's ready to go.

No questions asked.

You don't have to feed itself or anything.

>> That's your vision to get robots out there doing things to help in all Mainer of ways.

>> That's the good thing about this kind of trouble.

We do different things.

For instance, at one time it's the support dog.

Tomorrow it can be the search and rescue mission.

>> That's fantastic.

>> Congratulations RANSALU.

This is one of the most amazing guests.

Can he wave good-bye?

>> Yeah, sure.

>> He's dancing.

>> That's close enough.

he just fell over again.

[ LAUGHTER ] >> We will get you out of here before we cause my more damage.

>> Thank you.

>> That's it for now.

I'm Ted Simons.

Have a great