Latest news with #Hinman
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Yahoo
Woman accused of DUI in deadly Urbana crash makes first court appearance
URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) — A Champaign woman made her first appearance in court on Monday to face charges that she caused a crash that killed a 2-month-old baby last month. Kartila Brooks appeared via Zoom in the courtroom of Judge Brett Olmstead for arraignment on four counts of aggravated DUI. Three of the counts were for causing great bodily harm, Class 4 felonies, and the fourth was for causing death, a Class 2 felony. Champaign gas station robbed at knifepoint, Crime Stoppers looking for tips '(The counts) claim that you had, within two hours of driving a motor vehicle, a THC concentration of five nanograms or more per milliliter of blood, and you were involved in a motor vehicle crash,' Olmstead explained. The crash Brooks was allegedly involved in happened March 13 in Urbana. Police determined that a GMC Envoy did not stop at the intersection of Philo Road and Colorado Avenue and crashed into three vehicles. 'The driver of the last vehicle struck described the defendant's vehicle as flying through the intersection and becoming airborne at one point,' Assistant State's Attorney Brooke Hinman said. 'The collision was captured on surveillance video from a nearby gas station, which demonstrated that the defendant's vehicle did not slow down at a stop sign but entered the intersection at a high rate of speed.' Hinman said on-board data from the Envoy showed it was traveling 48 miles per hour one second before the crash, and there was no attempt to apply the brakes. One of the vehicles involved in the crash was a Chrysler minivan driven by Evelyn Huang. The GMC t-boned Huang's van, striking the middle of the driver-side sliding door. That's where Huang's 2-month-old daughter was seated. The baby died from her injuries the day after the crash. Hinman said Huang suffered a fracture to her neck and sternum in the crash. Huang's oldest daughter, age 10, suffered a broken arm and her middle daughter, age 9, suffered a broken collarbone and wrist. One dead, four hospitalized after Piatt Co. crash 'Surveillance footage from a nearby apartment complex showed Evelyn's vehicle was in the correct lane of travel and captured no violations of traffic laws by the victim, Evelyn,' Hinman added. Hinman also said that Brooks told officers that she suffers from epilepsy and that she did not recall what happened before the crash. She initially 'strongly denied' having a seizure but later claimed that she did have a seizure and just did not remember it. Medical records, Hinman said, showed Brooks did have two prior seizures, and she had been advised not to drive until six months had passed since her last seizure. Brooks denied receiving this information. 'An officer at the crash scene noticed a strong odor of burnt cannabis in the GMC and found a partially burnt cigarello,' Hinman said. 'The defendant told officers her children drive the vehicle and often leave cannabis in it.' A blood draw taken at the hospital, however, showed she was high. Hinman said it showed a THC level of 12.7 nanograms per milliliter of blood, double the legal limit to drive a car. Urbana PD launches online police report system 'When confronted with these blood tests, the defendant admitted to smoking cannabis about an hour before driving and indicated she smoked a little much for her, but not too much,' Hinman said. Urbana Police said further testing by the Illinois State Police confirmed the excessive amount of THC in Brooks' blood, and she was arrested on Friday. On Monday, making her first court appearance, the Public Defender was appointed as Brooks' counsel, and she waived her right to a preliminary hearing. She then entered a plea of not guilty. A pretrial hearing was scheduled for May 20. In addition, with criminal charges now filed against Brooks, Judge Olmstead dismissed the traffic tickets that had been issued to her after the crash. On the subject of pretrial detention, a hearing on that was continued to Tuesday. Olmstead ordered temporary overnight detention until that hearing could be held. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Switchyards bringing ‘neighborhood work club' to Birmingham
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — A new concept of shared workspace being billed as the first 'neighborhood work club' will be coming to Birmingham this spring. Switchyards, a company with 24 clubs across the country where members can have 24/7 access to quiet spaces to work and network, will open its 25th club in Birmingham's Avondale neighborhood on May 19 in a 4,200-square-foot space located at 3606 Sixth Avenue South, just a few blocks from Avondale Park. Brandon Hinman, creative director for Switchyards, said the club will be limited to 250 members, which will be opened on May 15. Membership costs start at $100 per month, which includes access to all other Switchyards clubs across the country. For Hinman, Birmingham felt like a perfect city to open Switchyards' newest club. 'We love neighborhoods and we love cities,' Hinman said. 'We love Birmingham and its iconic neighborhoods, so this was a no-brainer.' In each Switchyards club, there is an open floorplan for working, as well as individualized phone booths for those who need to take calls. There is also free coffee provided. Hinman said Switchyards' aim is to be a kind of 'third place' between home and the office. 'We've had 'third places' for food and other things, but not as much for work,' he said. 'That is what makes this unique.' Colloquially, 'third places' refer to places outside of home and work where people tend to congregate, be it a bar, bookstore, cafe or park. Oftentimes, these places would be open afterhours and serve people looking for community outside of the typical '9-to-5' lifestyle. Sociologist Ray Oldenburg explored the cultural and anthropological significance of 'third places' in different communities in his 1989 book 'The Great Good Place.' 'The character of a third place is determined most of all by its regular clientele and is marked by a playful mood, which contrasts with people's more serious involvement in other spheres,' Oldenburg wrote. 'Though a radically different kind of setting for a home, the third place is remarkably similar to a good home in the psychological comfort and support that it extends…They are the heart of a community's social vitality, the grassroots of democracy, but sadly, they constitute a diminishing aspect of the American social landscape.' Hinman said Switchyards has strived to make each club a mixture of 'the best parts of working in a coffee shop, a college library and a hotel lobby.' 'In all of our Switchyards, I want people to feel two things: something functional and practical to solve a need, as well as feeling something when you're here,' he said. Switchyards first began in 2019 in Atlanta, where it now has 12 clubs. Last year, the company received $5 million in capital investment from Bullpen Capital. According to Rough Draft Atlanta, this funding would allow the company to open an estimated 200 locations across the country over the next five years. Hinman said 10 Switchyard clubs were opened last year and that the company aims to open 15 more in 2025. An open house of the club will be held May 14, the day before memberships go on sale. For more information, click here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Lawmakers vote down a second bill to regulate intoxicating hemp products in Missouri
State. Rep. Dave Hinman, a Republican from O'Fallon, speaks with Jeff Altmann, a lobbyist for the Missouri Hemp Trade Association, about his bill to regulate intoxicating hemp products on Tuesday (Rebecca Rivas/Missouri Independent). A second proposal backed by Missouri's hemp industry to regulate products like hemp-THC seltzers and edibles was defeated in a House committee Thursday morning, after the hemp-beverage distributor who helped draft the bill emailed committee members that morning asking them to kill it. The 5-7 vote in the House General Laws committee came after Republican state Rep. Dave Hinman of O'Fallon, the bill sponsor, spent hours last week trying to come up with a compromise among the splintered hemp industry leaders on regulations. The same committee voted down a bill backed by the Missouri Hemp Trade Association last week in a 1-13 vote. CONTACT US After that defeat, Hinman incorporated a number of the hemp association's requests into an amended version of his bill, which he presented Thursday. State Rep. Ben Keathley of Chesterfield, the chair of the committee, applauded Hinman's attempt to bring the hemp leaders together. 'A lot of interests are working against each other in this bill, and it's very difficult to come up with something that everyone's going to be happy with,' Keathley said. 'I think the bill sponsor put together a good package that allows us to do the most important thing of protecting Missouri children.' Hinman's amended bill addressed some of the concerns committee members had about costs of testing and increased the sales tax on these products to be the same as marijuana products, 6%. The bill also addressed concerns by hemp companies, he said, by allowing small-scale beverage manufacturers to self distribute and increased the maximum amount of THC per container. But the fatal flaw that bill drafter Steven Busch, owner of Krey Distributing, could not support was allowing the continued sale of THC-A flower, which looks and acts very similar to marijuana buds. Busch said he's had discussions with Hinman previously about his concerns that THC-A is an unstable compound of the cannabis plant that becomes intoxicating when heated. And that process can happen when it sits on the shelf too long, he told committee members in emails and text messages Thursday morning. Hinman told the committee he spoke with several industry experts who advised him the instability could be addressed by proper packaging requirements, which the bill included. Earlier this week, Busch had told Hinman, whom he says he still highly respects, that he was pulling his support for the bill. 'It would really jeopardize the whole industry if they keep trying to push THC-A as hemp,' Busch told The Independent in an interview Thursday. 'If somebody wants a product like that, they can very easily get it at a dispensary and that's where it should be obtained.' The two defeats essentially knocked the hemp industry out of the race to get regulations passed, clearing a path for two opposing bills backed by the marijuana industry. The Missouri Cannabis Trade Association's two bills, which have both gained approval by House and Senate committees, would ban intoxicating hemp products from being sold outside of marijuana dispensaries – with the exception of hemp beverages, such as THC seltzers currently sold in bars and liquor stores. Busch said he's now switched his support to the MoCann bills, sponsored by Republicans state Rep. Chad Perkins of Bowling Green and state Sen. Nick Schroer of Defiance. His company distributes 11 different hemp beverages in eastern Missouri. 'They have all the protections that we need for our consumers and businesses in there to make the product safe and properly regulated,' Busch said. 'So I feel very confident that if they do pass, we're going to be in great shape. If they don't pass, we're going to be in no man's land again.' Hinman's bill allows beverages, edibles and vapes to continue to be sold outside of dispensaries, but be licensed and regulated under the Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control. Hinman said it was designed to protect about 2,000 hemp companies that will be 'destroyed' under the MoCann bills. Hinman respects Busch's work on his bill to try to protect the entire hemp industry, he said, and acknowledged that Busch could have chosen early on to simply protect the hemp beverage industry, which is what the MoCann bills do. With his and Baker's bill now out, Hinman said lawmakers will be faced with a very hard decision. 'The choice is to put all these family businesses out of business and put their employees out of work,' he said, 'and again feed into what I call a corporate monopoly, or to do something to protect kids.' The Missouri Hemp Trade Association has opposed every bill except Baker's, which only set an age restriction on purchasing the products in its final draft. Currently, there's no state or federal law saying teenagers or children can't buy intoxicating hemp products or stores can't sell them to minors — though some stores and vendors have taken it upon themselves to impose age restrictions of 21 and up. The products lawmakers are trying to regulate have THC derived from hemp – which often comes from outside of Missouri – and face no government oversight. In contrast, marijuana must be grown in Missouri, and the plants are tracked from seed to sale by state regulators. While the two products have the same effect, they fall differently under federal law. Federally, marijuana is a controlled substance, and hemp is legal – though several states have passed laws to prohibit intoxicating hemp products. Missouri legislators have tried for the past two years to do that as well. The main challenge the MoCann bills face is another year of complete inaction by lawmakers to regulate these products, said Andrew Mullins, executive director of MoCann. He believes his group's proposals address public health and safety and protect hemp businesses. 'That's why I believe we're still advancing and our coalition is building,' Mullins said, 'versus the disintegration of these various voices and needs.' Hinman said last week he sat down with several hemp association members and the group's three lobbyists, along with two lobbyists who represent individual hemp businesses. He incorporated a number of the association's requests, he said, including the THC-A provision. 'I made changes to my bill in good faith that they would be on board,' he said of the association, 'which now I regret making changes for them, as I think that's part of the big problem of why my bill was defeated.' Baker also expressed frustration with the association during a committee hearing last week when his bill was defeated. Jeff Smith, the hemp association's lobbyist, said that while organization doesn't support Hinman's bill it appreciates his efforts to 'craft a compromise, and we definitely plan to continue conversations to try and reach one.' Hinman, however, said for him and Baker, this is the end of the road. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Missouri lawmakers weigh the cost of regulating intoxicating hemp products
State Rep. Dave Hinman, a Republican from O'Fallon, toured the warehouse of St. Louis-based Triple High Seltzer, a hemp-derived THC beverage, on Feb. 7 with the company's founder Will Spartin (Rebecca Rivas/The Missouri Independent). How much it will cost to regulate intoxicating hemp products on sale in bars and liquor stores across the state has become a key flashpoint of the debate in the Missouri legislature. Year after year, hemp business owners and distributors have asked the state to impose age restrictions and testing requirements for intoxicating hemp products rather than ban them outright. The proposals always die over disagreements about how to enact the regulations — and who should enforce them. This year, lawmakers are considering multiple proposals that differ regarding what kinds of products are allowed and the cap on THC content, the psychoactive chemical that produces the high consumers look for in marijuana products. 'The governor is looking for a compromise and a set of rules and regulations that will keep businesses open, employees working and most of all protect Missouri residents and keep the consumer safe,' said Republican state Rep. Dave Hinman of O'Fallon, during a General Laws Committee hearing Tuesday on a bill he's sponsoring. Earlier this month, legislation allowing low-dose intoxicating hemp beverages to continue to be sold in grocery and liquor stores won the approval of committees in both the Missouri House and Senate. Both bills, backed by the Missouri Cannabis Trade Association, prohibit anything but beverages to be sold outside of state-regulated and licensed marijuana dispensaries. On Tuesday, Hinman criticized the MoCann-backed bills for potentially putting more than 2,000 small businesses 'out of business and move all of the hemp products into the constitutional marijuana monopoly.' Hinman's bill is backed by liquor distributor Steven Busch and establishes the same three-tier distribution system that the alcohol industry has long abided by. It offers guidelines for beverages, edibles, vapes and oils — such as proposing to limit edibles to only 5 mg of THC per serving and beverages to 10mg of THC per serving. However, like the MoCann-backed bills, it also prohibits products with a high amount of THC from being sold outside of marijuana dispensaries. Bills adding regulations to hemp-derived THC beverages advance in Missouri legislature The committee debated a bill earlier this month sponsored by Republican state Rep. Ben Baker of Neosho that is backed by the Missouri Hemp Trade Association that would set the limit to 100 mg of THC per serving for edibles. He argued that some people who use the products medicinally require a higher dose. Both Hinman and Baker's bills direct the Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control to issue and regulate the licenses, while having the Division of Cannabis Regulation oversee product testing. State agencies provided estimates regarding how much it would cost their departments to regulate the products for each of the four bills lawmakers have debated so far. For the hemp industry-backed bills, state agencies estimated high costs — about $20 million a year for Hinman's bill and $95 million for Baker's. The biggest expense is for regulating compliance for independent testing laboratories across the country, a requirement in both bills. The agencies' research estimated that the expense would eclipse the potential revenues from sales and license fees. 'In the best scenario, I would think we would try to get to a revenue neutral on it because we're allowing a product to be sold and people want it,' said Republican state Rep. Rudy Veit of Wardville on Tuesday. 'We shouldn't necessarily subsidize it.' At Tuesday's hearing, MoCann's lobbyist Tom Robbins argued that the bills the association supports – sponsored by Republicans state Sen. Nick Schroer of Defiance and state Rep. Chad Perkins of Bowling Green — do not have the high costs that the bills backed by the hemp industry. 'I don't know that there's an appetite to recreate the regulatory wheel with intoxicating products in places that kids go versus ours, which is zero dollars and removes the products from where kids can enter,' Robbins said. However, state agencies didn't provide complete cost estimates for the MoCann-backed bills because the agencies assumed they would prohibit 'all or nearly all' the intoxicating hemp products currently on the market. That's because the agencies assumed nearly all of them are made with a process that would be banned referred to as chemical conversion – or converting the cannabis compound CBD that's abundant in hemp into THC using chemicals. However, many hemp companies are not currently using this process, instead moving to the natural extraction process the MoCann bills allow for. The bill sponsored by Perkins requires randomized inspections and periodically testing of hemp-derived beverage products. The cost analysis for Perkins' bill states the Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control is 'not equipped' to do such testing and would have to pay a lab to conduct the testing of samples collected by the division. It states: 'The cost for this testing is unknown but is anticipated to be a significant cost.' A cost estimate for hiring a third-party laboratory was included in the bill sponsored by Baker — $73,908,288 per year. It's much lower in Hinman's bill, though it's unclear why because the testing requirements are very similar. Hinman agreed with several of the committee members that the cost of regulating these products shouldn't come out of the state's general revenue fund. 'If you're going to give the opportunity to retailers to sell this product, they should be paying for it again through the fees and taxes they pay,' Hinman said. 'I don't know where that sweet spot is, but I'm sure we can figure that out.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
