ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A semiconductor research facility in upstate New York was selected as one of three national technology centers and will receive up to $825 million in funding as part of a broader federal effort to boost the United States' competitiveness in the industry.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer made the announcement Thursday.
The Albany NanoTech complex was selected by federal officials as the national headquarters for research into a cutting-edge semiconductor technology known as extreme ultraviolet, or EUV, lithography. The lab will have the most advanced chip-making machinery in the world and allow researchers from the semiconductor industry to collaborate with their university counterparts, according to Schumer, the Senate's Democratic majority leader.
“When you do the high-end research, which will be done here, and you can make the most advanced chips in the world, it makes sure that our military has the edge," Schumer said in a telephone interview. "It makes sure our economy and our companies have the cutting edge, as well,”
The National Semiconductor Technology Center Extreme Ultraviolet Accelerator is scheduled to begin operating next year. The contract for it stems from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, which was designed to create more high-tech jobs and help the United States compete with international rivals like China. The Biden administration has set a goal for the U.S. to make 20% of the world’s advanced chips.
The Albany lab's selection also advances longstanding efforts by Schumer and other government officials to make upstate New York a global center of semiconductor research and manufacturing.
Gov. Kathy Hochul late last year announced a partnership with the semiconductor industry to fund construction of the EUV Center.
The Biden administration announced in February that the government would provide $1.5 billion to the computer chip company GlobalFoundries to expand its domestic production north of Albany and in Vermont. And in April, the administration announced an agreement to provide $6.1 billion in government support for Micron Technology to produce advanced memory computer chips near Syracuse, New York; and in Boise, Idaho.
“This is going to make upstate New York the center of semiconductor research, not just for America, but for the world,” Schumer said.
The Department of Commerce has not yet announced where the other two national technology centers will be.
FILE - Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., talks after a policy luncheon on Capitol Hill, Sept. 24, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A grand jury in Nevada has again indicted Nathan Chasing Horse on charges that he sexually abused Indigenous women and girls for decades, reviving a sweeping criminal case against the former “Dances with Wolves” actor.
The 21-count indictment unsealed Thursday in Clark County District Court expands on the 48-year-old's previous felony charges of sexual assault, lewdness and kidnapping to also include charges of producing and possessing child sexual abuse materials.
It comes after the Nevada Supreme Court in September ordered the dismissal of Chasing Horse's original 18-count indictment, while leaving open the possibility for charges to be refiled. Proceedings in the case by then had been at a standstill for more than a year while Chasing Horse challenged it.
The court sided with Chasing Horse, saying in its scathing order that prosecutors had abused the grand jury process.
Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson quickly vowed to seek another indictment. Neither Wolfson nor Chasing Horse's lawyer, Kristy Holston, immediately responded Thursday to phone or emailed requests for comment.
Best known for portraying the character Smiles A Lot in the 1990 movie “Dances with Wolves,” Chasing Horse was born on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota, which is home to the Sicangu Sioux, one of the seven tribes of the Lakota nation.
After starring in the Oscar-winning film, authorities have said, he propped himself up as a self-proclaimed Lakota medicine man while traveling around North America to perform healing ceremonies.
He is accused of using that position to gain the trust of vulnerable Indigenous women and girls, lead a cult and take underage wives. Chasing Horse had pleaded not guilty.
His lawyer had also argued that the charges should be dismissed because, the former actor said, the sexual encounters were consensual. Authorities say one of his accusers was younger than 16, the age of consent in Nevada, when the abuse began.
Chasing Horse's arrest last January reverberated around Indian Country and helped law enforcement in the U.S. and Canada corroborate long-standing allegations against him, leading to more criminal charges, including on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana. Tribal leaders had banished Chasing Horse in 2015 from the reservation amid allegations of human trafficking.
He has remained jailed in Las Vegas since his arrest.
When the Nevada Supreme Court ordered the dismissal of Chasing Horse's initial indictment, the judges said they were not weighing in on his guilt or innocence, calling the allegations against him serious. But the court said that prosecutors improperly provided the grand jury with a definition of grooming without expert testimony, and faulted them for withholding from the grand jury inconsistent statements made by one of his accusers.
Chasing Horse's legal issues have been unfolding at the same time lawmakers and prosecutors around the U.S. are funneling more resources into cases involving Native women, including human trafficking and murders.
FILE - Nathan Chasing Horse sits in Las Vegas court, April 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Ty O'Neil, File)
