TSU AD: Miraculous recovery of football player Christion Abercrombie ‘touching lives’

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TSU AD: Miraculous recovery of football player Christion Abercrombie ‘touching lives’

By LEE JOHNSON | Nashville Voice

When Tennessee State University’s Christion Abercrombie suffered a life-threatening injury in a football game against Vanderbilt last season, many thought the worst. But the middle linebacker’s amazing recovery is inspiring hope and a belief in miracles.

“He’s touching a lot of folks’ lives,” said TSU Athletics Director Teresa Phillips.

Abercrombie was rushed to Vanderbilt University Medical Center following the Sept. 29 incident and underwent emergency brain surgery. He wasn’t expected to make it through the night. But then his mother began to pray, and she asked others to do the same.

“We’re expecting a miracle,” said Staci Abercrombie, Christion’s mother, at a news conference a few days after the surgery. “Each day is a battle. But he’s a strong young man. He’s fighting. We just have to continue to pray.”

Something miraculous started to happen. Gradually, Christion’s condition began to improve. Doctors couldn’t explain what was happening but marveled at the faith of Staci Abercrombie, and other supporters.

“You inspire us,” one of the doctors told the Abercrombie family.

Months later, Christion is inspiring people worldwide with his amazing recovery. A person who wasn’t expected to survive is now running and working out, almost like he was before the injury.

Christion recently completed therapy sessions at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, where he lives. He said he’s slowly regaining his memory and credits God for the recovery he’s made.

“Believe in God, because without Him, nothing is possible,” Christion said.

On April 27, his miraculous improvement will be on display for millions to see when he announces the fifth-round pick for the Tennessee Titans at the NFL Draft, which is in Nashville April 25-27.

Following the Titans’ announcement, Christion tweeted: “God never disappoints.”

It’s uncertain whether he will play football again, but Christion said he does plan to return to TSU and complete his degree in sports management.

But whatever he decides to do, Phillips said Christion’s recovery has already impacted the lives of countless people, including hers.

“It really changed me because I’m more of a pessimist than an optimist,” Phillips said. “Many times we speak about miracles, but I don’t know if folks really believe they occur.

However, when things like that happen, when you witness it, I believe our maker really tries to help us get something out of it.”

A GoFundMe has been set up to help Christion and his family. To donate, visit www.gofundme.com/tennessee-state-univ-athletics-dept.

 

 

House votes to restore net neutrality rules

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House votes to restore net neutrality rules

By Seth Fiegerman, CNN Business

(CNN) — The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill to restore net neutrality protections that were repealed by President Donald Trump’s Federal Communications Commission in a controversial move more than a year ago.

The bill, called the Save the Internet Act, would reinstate protections that require internet service providers to treat all online content the same. Providers would once again be explicitly prohibited from blocking, speeding up, or slowing down access to specific online services.

Its passage represents a victory for Democrats, technology companies and consumer advocacy groups who have loudly protested the FCC’s repeal of the rules, but it may only be a symbolic victory. The bill must also pass the Republican-controlled Senate and be approved by President Trump.

On Monday, the White House said it “strongly opposes” the bill, signaling that President Trump would veto it. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday the bill was “dead on arrival in the Senate.”

“This legislation is a big-government solution in search of a problem,” Ajit Pai, the chairman of the FCC, said in a statement after the bill’s passage Wednesday. “The Internet is free and open, while faster broadband is being deployed across America. This bill should not and will not become law.”

The latest legislative effort comes amid a legal showdown over the repeal. A collection of tech companies, advocacy groups and nearly two dozen states sued the FCC last year to challenge the repeal. Oral arguments in the case, Mozilla versus the FCC, were heard in February.

A number of states, including California, Washington and Vermont, pushed forward with their own net neutrality rules, despite the FCC asserting authority to prevent states from pursuing laws inconsistent with the net neutrality repeal. Some agreed not to enforce the laws pending the outcome of the Mozilla case.

“Net Neutrality is now one step closer to being reinstated as the law of the land,” Gigi Sohn, a counselor to former FCC chairman Tom Wheeler and a staunch supporter of net neutrality, said in a statement Wednesday.

The net neutrality rules were first approved by the FCC in 2015, during the Obama administration, and were intended to keep the internet open and fair. The Republican-led FCC voted to repeal the protections in late 2017.

In the absence of an explicit ban on these actions, providers are required to publicly disclose any instance of blocking, throttling or paid prioritization. It will then be evaluated based on whether or not the activity is anti-competitive.

The concern among net neutrality advocates is that the repeal risks giving internet providers too much control over how online content is delivered. It may also make it harder for the next generation of online services to compete if they have to pay up to be placed in a so-called internet fast lane.

“Simply put, large corporations should not be in charge of deciding what Americans see online,” Rep. Jim McGovern, a Democrat and chairman of the House Rules Committee, said at a hearing on Monday. “A free and open internet is a critical part of enabling free speech and allowing our digital economy to thrive.”

Conservative groups and Republican lawmakers pushed back against the attempt to undo the net neutrality repeal, arguing that it would grant the government too much control over the internet. The Trump administration said the bill would “return to the heavy-handed regulatory approach of the previous administration.”

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Uber and Lyft may look the same, but their visions are not

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Uber and Lyft may look the same, but their visions are not

By Seth Fiegerman and Sara Ashley O’Brien,

CNN Business(CNN) — At first blush, it can be hard to tell Uber and Lyft’s businesses apart. Both companies offer rides on demand, from a mix of cars, bikes and scooters. They rely on a vast workforce of independent contractors, many of whom drive for both companies. Uber and Lyft even share certain large investors, and now they are going public back to back.

But look under the hood and there’s a clear difference in their strategies. Lyft wants to be a consumer transportation company; Uber wants to be more like Amazon.

Uber filed paperwork on Thursday for what is expected to be the biggest public offering of the year. In addition to shedding light on its signature ride-hailing service, Uber uses the filing to tout its freight shipping and meal deliveries businesses.

In an included letter to shareholders, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says the company is “still barely scratching the surface when it comes to huge industries like food and logistics.”

Lyft, by comparison, explicitly says it is not interested in these supplementary business lines. “We are solely focused on consumer transportation,” Lyft cofounder John Zimmer said in a video pitch to investors last month ahead of its IPO. “Not food. Not trucking.”

Uber and Lyft are at the forefront of shaping the future of transportation, city infrastructure and even what it means to work. But their filings to go public serve as a reminder that the two companies have long had diverging approaches and ambitions.

Lyft set out to end car ownership primarily in the United States with a suite of alternative transportation options; Uber would say that too, but it’s also working to upend and capitalize on the movement of people and products in countries all over the world.

To help explain Uber’s varied ambitions, the company has repeatedly compared itself to Amazon, which began by selling books before expanding with a vast array of services and products. “Cars are to us what books are to Amazon,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said at one event last February. A few months later, Khosrowshahi declared that Uber wants to be “the Amazon for transportation.”

In its filing, the company even mentions Amazon as a competitor, specifically for its Uber Eats business. Lyft does not mention Amazon as a competitor in any context.

But, Uber’s investments have at times veered far afield from transportation. The company is said to be testing an on-demand staffing service called Uber Works. More recently, Uber began testing a program to rent kitchen space to restaurants as part of its meal-delivery service.

In that sense, Khosrowshahi has adhered to the strategy of Travis Kalanick, Uber’s co-founder and former CEO, who was ousted in 2017 as the company battled a series of scandals. Under Kalanick, Uber expanded rapidly to several continents and invested in self-driving cars, meal deliveries and freight shipping. It also tested delivering convenience store products and delivering flu shots. On the transportation product side, Uber has explored a wider, and arguably flashier, range of transportation options than Lyft, including boats, helicopters and flying cars.

On the one hand, this approach has the potential to embed Uber deeper into the fabric of our lives and provide new revenue streams for the company. Uber Eats is now a billion-dollar business. It generated nearly $1.5 billion in 2018, up from $587 million the year prior, according to the filing.

But the broader mix of investments also risks “muddying the waters” for public market investors who are trying to understand Uber’s business and how to properly value it, according to Kathleen Smith, principal at Renaissance Capital, which manages IPO-focused exchange-traded funds. “Complexity doesn’t help in valuation,” she said.

It may also add to concerns about Uber’s history of steep losses. “They’re throwing a lot of things at the wall,” Smith said. “I wouldn’t mind hearing that if it were like Google, and it makes a ton of money.” But Uber reported losing $1.8 billion in 2018. (Lyft lost nearly $1 billion in the same year.)

Some industry watchers believe Uber’s decisions to launch more services are a byproduct of it consistently raising more money than Lyft through its aggressive fundraising efforts.

“Uber has entered more businesses and more markets over time than Lyft because it has always had much more cash to burn,” said Hubert Horan, an independent transportation consultant who has been a vocal critic of Uber and Lyft. “And it needs to keep coming up with PR narratives about a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”

If so, that may only continue as Uber is expected to raise much more money from its IPO than Lyft, potentially paving the way for it to invest in an even wider mix of products and services in the years to come.

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Buying a $1 Italy dream house just got even easier

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Buying a $1 Italy dream house just got even easier


By Silvia Marchetti, CNN

(CNN) — What’s stopping you buying one of those homes that Italy keeps selling for less than the price of an espresso?

Maybe it’s the fear of buying something sight-unseen, or anxiety over bureaucratic red tape and labyrinthine regulations?

Well, you might just have run out of excuses.

Two Italian destinations, hoping to revive declining communities by luring new residents with homes priced at a little over a dollar, have launched websites that promise to match buyers with their dream property, relatively fuss-free.

So if you spot a photo of a house you like online, you can apply for one even before jumping on a plane.

“I’ve created a special task force of young volunteers who assist buyers, liaising with convenient construction firms for the restyle,” says Paolo Caruso, mayor of Zungoli, one of the villages offering bargain-rate houses.

“Transparency is key but people must really come see for themselves the beauty of the place, taste the great food and breathe the fresh healthy air.”

Zungoli is a tiny rural village, shaped like a snail, in the Campania region near Naples and the Amalfi Coast.

Cheese grottoes

Set atop a sandstone hill, it’s a maze of caves and zig-zag, circular alleys connected by huge, uneven grass-covered cobblestone steps that wind up to a stunning fortress.

Named one of Italy’s Most Beautiful Villages in 2015 in a national award, it straddles the Apennine Mountains, equidistant from the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian coasts.

Medieval bridges lead to a cluster of blue, pink, green and yellow pastel-colored farm dwellings and dome-shaped aristocratic mansions where just 1,000 people live. Bright flowers adorn street corners and grapevines grow over arches and old olive mills.

Inside multi-layered Byzantine caves once used as storage rooms during the Crusades, teardrop-shaped Caciocavallo cheeses are now hung to season.

Sounds good? Well here’s how you get a slice of the action… and maybe some of that cheese.

Step uno: Head to Zungoli’s official website — www.comunezungoli.it. On the left column, there’s a link titled “Case in vendita a €1.”

You might need Google Translate to help you out at this point, or some rudimentary knowledge of Italian (which would be no bad thing anyway if you’re thinking of living there.)

Step due: Click on the link and you’ll see dozens of 50- to 100-square-meter dwellings listed. They’re all in need of some TLC, so you’ll need some imagination.

Step tre: Download the application form for the property you like. At this point you commit to renovating one within three years and must explain the type of project — be it a private house, B&B or artisan shop.

Step quattro: Attach a copy of your ID and forward everything to the mayor’s office by email or mail.

Step cinque: If your plan is approved, Caruso will send you a contract and then it’s up to you to fly over to Italy and close the deal.

The catch: As with all these cheap home deals, buyers must pay a €2,000 security deposit and commit to refurbishing the property.

Work needs to start within a few months. Once it’s complete and the purchase deed is made, the deposit is refunded.

There are tax deductions of up to 85% for any restyling works.

Rustic attractions

Zungoli has a unique setting and a lot to offer — guided trekking and cycling tours regularly explore the wild and pristine landscape.

Once plagued by bandits and criss-crossed by pilgrimage routes and shepherd trails, known as tratturi, the terrain is dotted with Roman coins often filled with ancient coins.

For 6,000 years, nomadic shepherds led their herds across its pastures into neighboring Puglia, a tradition now celebrated in festivals and in rustic local dishes like chiapparelle e bietole — ravioli stuffed with chard.

But it’s not stuck in the past.

“We want to make things easy for new buyers”, says Caruso. “My town has upgraded infrastructure, public LED lights and great Wi-Fi. Piazzas and pavements have just been revamped. Life quality is important.”

Honey paradise

If even that process sounds too complicated, the larger Italian town of Mussomeli, in Sicily, has made it even easier, creating a new multilingual real estate agency to handle its €1 houses deals.

Photos of dwellings can be checked via the website www.case1euro.it, which features an interactive map that has detailed information on each building — and it’s all in English.

Many of the abandoned stone farm dwellings are in good shape and need only minimal work.

“Original owners calls us each day to dispose of their old houses,” says heritage councillor Toti Nigrelli. “There are 100 on sale now and potentially another 400 are suitable.

“This project is my life mission but had I dealt with it on my own, I would have gone nuts.”

Honeysuckle and eucalyptus are found across this sweet patch of land. Mussomeli’s name stems from the latin Mons Melis, aka the “Hill of Honey,” and local delicacies include honey-coated guastedde buns and cuddureddi fried milk-soaked doughnuts.

‘Sea of clouds’

The fertile green farmland is dotted with old sulfur mines, sanctuaries, Roman necropolises and traces of primitive settlements.

The town, rising on a 700-meter high hill, has views of the Etna volcano and the Valley of Temples. A local weather phenomenon called the “Sea of Clouds” can be seen from the top.

“Looking down you see the valley covered in a dense blanket of clouds as if the town were suspended mid-air. We want customers to experience all this,” says Nigrelli.

The historic center is divided into districts all of which, he swears, have different climatic features depending on which side of the hill you stand.

Sounds like the ideal place?

Step uno: Email the agency with a list of houses you like and download the documentation, following the instructions. It’s all pretty straightforward.

Step due: You still need to fly over to see exactly what you’re getting, especially since the purchase cannot be done by email or telephone. So you need to fix an appointment and a tour of the houses.

Step tre: The local agents will arrange a meeting with the notary and draw up an agreement under which you must commit to refurbishment within three years or forfeit a €5,000 security deposit.

Interested buyers will be given a guided tour of the town, visiting top sites and tasting the local cuisine. The agency’s staff will assist every step of the way.

The catch: “There’s a €400 fee for such tailored services to be paid only at the end if a €1 house is actually purchased,” says Nigrelli.

Mystical vibe

Anyone taking the private tour will see Mussomeli’s panoramic piazzas, lavish gold-colored Baroque buildings and winding alleys leading to one of Italy’s most breathtaking fortresses, dubbed the Enchanted Castle.

Clinging like a spider on a pointed rock with steep, twisting staircases, the castle is said to conceal Saracen treasure and is haunted by the ghost of a murdered soldier.

It’s not the only eerie presence.

The phantoms of three girls, who were locked up by their jealous and tyrannical father and starved to death, have been heard crying at night. According to storytellers, they were found dead having chewed their own shoes for sustenance.

Actors dressed in medieval clothes often animate the castle while religious parades create a mystical vibe.

One festival, Batticchié, sees folks re-enact Sicilian daily life from the 1940s while enjoying local dishes such as ‘mbriulate — a bread bun stuffed with olives, onions and pork.

Delicious. And not just the food.

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How Nationwide Program Supports Early Childhood Education

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How Nationwide Program Supports Early Childhood Education

(StatePoint) Today, there is more awareness that the future of the world is in the hands of young children. It’s understood that between birth and 5 years of age, the brain develops rapidly to build the foundation of cognitive and character skills necessary for success in school, health and life. It is now widely accepted that the same dollar will go much further if invested early than it will later on, and more research is showing that quality early childhood education reduces dropout rates, poverty and crime, while improving the skills of the workforce of tomorrow.

However, inequality in early childhood education produces inequality in ability, achievement, health and adult success.

One example of a program leading the charge to move the needle is PNC Grow Up Great, a bilingual initiative to help children from birth through age 5 prepare for success in school and in life, now celebrating its 15th anniversary. Grow Up Great goes beyond the classroom, supporting learning and social-emotional development at home and across communities, by providing free resources and tools to parents, guardians, teachers and caregivers.

When PNC employees chose this philanthropic focus in 2004, investing in early childhood education generally did not have the widespread support it does today. Fifteen years ago, in its headquarters state of Pennsylvania, the government didn’t have a line item in its budget for early childhood education, and fewer than 2,400 3- and 4-year-olds were enrolled in state-funded preschool programs. In 2017, more than 28,000 3- and 4-year-olds were enrolled in Pennsylvania state-funded preschool programs, according to research done by the National Institute for Early Education Research.

A lot has changed in 15 years, but one thing has remained the same, PNC’s focus on and commitment to improving access to quality early childhood education. To date, more than 5 million children across the country have been supported through PNC’s grants and educational programming. Employees spent more than 100,000 hours volunteering for Grow Up Great in 2018, up 13 percent from 2017.

That trend is significant and powerful. The company has made a difference by leveraging its influence with the business community, policymakers and other key stakeholders to garner support for quality early childhood education. And teaming with partners that share its goals such as Sesame Workshop, Fred Rogers Productions and the National Head Start Association. Working with The Pew Charitable Trusts and Committee for Economic Development, they launched the first-ever summit of the nation’s top economists to explore the economic impact of investment in early education.

“All children deserve to begin their lives on equal footing and receive high-quality early learning experiences that have a lifelong positive impact,” says Sally McCrady, chair and president of the PNC Foundation. “Fortunately, we are making progress and look forward to the day that vision becomes a reality.”

The first-ever photo of a black hole is expected very soon

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The first-ever photo of a black hole is expected very soon

By Jack Guy, CNN

(CNN) — It’s been a great year so far for space fans, with a partial solar eclipse, super blood wolf moon eclipse, and a Venus and Jupiter conjunction wowing onlookers.

Now there may be another exciting development to look forward to: the first ever photos of a black hole.

Scientists from the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration will present a “groundbreaking result” from the project on April 10, according to a media advisory.

Anticipation is building ahead of the event, which will feature simultaneous press conferences in cities across the world and live streams in different languages.

“Have you heard that something is brewing on April 10th? It’s no joke!” reads a tweet from the collaboration.

The collaboration, called EHT, is a global network of telescopes that has been attempting to capture the first photograph of a black hole ever.

The first target is Sagittarius A, the site of a supermassive black hole 26,000 light years away from Earth, and the second is at the center of a galaxy known as M87.

Black holes are made up of huge amounts of matter squeezed into a small area, according to NASA, creating a massive gravitational field which draws in everything around it, including light.

In their attempt to capture an image of a black hole, scientists combined the power of eight radio telescopes around the world using Very-Long-Baseline-Interferometry, according to the European Southern Observatory, which is part of the EHT.

This effectively creates a virtual telescope around the same size as the Earth itself.

Dong Lai, astronomy professor and black hole expert at Cornell University believes that the EHT team is gearing up for a big reveal.

“My guess is EHT will produce an image of the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy and also an image of one at the center of the nearby galaxy M87,” said Lai, who is not involved in the EHT project, in a press release.

“More precisely, these are images of radiating hot gas orbiting very close to the black hole. The strong gravity — the ‘event horizon’ — of black holes create a dark shadow with a distinct shape where no light can be seen.”

As Lai explained, it’s hard to see black hole shadows clearly because any images are blurred by interstellar gas, which presents a complicated challenge for the EHT team.

You can watch Wednesday’s press conference in English via the European Commission YouTube channel or the National Science Foundation live stream at 9 a.m. ET.

The existence of black holes is universally accepted among today’s astronomers, but there is still a lot that we don’t know about them.

In June 2018, researchers at Australian National University found the fastest-growing black hole ever seen in the universe.

The supermassive black hole, known as a quasar, is growing so fast it can devour a mass the size of the sun every two days.

And in January 2019, scientists saw the oldest black holes in the universe for the first time.

More than 13 billion years after they formed, the light that was released to create these distant massive black holes is now reaching our telescopes.

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Smart Ways to Protect Your Smartphone

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Smart Ways to Protect Your Smartphone

(StatePoint) When you check out the latest smartphones from Apple, Google or Samsung, you’ll notice they have something in common: glass designs. Why? Glass allows for wireless charging, better connection signals, bigger display screens, and truth be told, glass feels great and looks beautiful. But these features come with a price — durability. Compared to metal or plastic, glass cracks, shatters, scratches and can get slippery.

Fortunately, there’s guidance available for consumers wondering about the durability of new phones. When new smartphones launch, SquareTrade, an Allstate company that provides highly-rated protection plans to millions of smartphone owners, conducts independent durability tests with their SquareTrade Breakability Robots that drop, bend, tumble and dunk devices to see how they survive everyday activities.

These tests recently found that the latest Apple iPhones and Samsung Galaxy phones all shatter on the first drop from six feet, no matter if they fall face-down or back-down.

This is bad news for consumers, as repairs are more expensive than ever. A screen repair can cost over $300 and a non-screen repair nearly $600.

Faced with these steep repair costs and the fact that many of these phones are $1,000 or more to purchase, it’s more important than ever to take steps to protect them. Here are three easy ways to start protecting your phone.

Get a Screen Protector

While sitting in your pocket or purse, your phone can rub against different objects (like keys), scratching the glass. Screen protectors placed over your phone’s glass screen will prevent this. While scratches usually won’t affect the usability of a device, they can be annoying visually and impact the resale value, which is something to consider if you’re buying a phone for $1,000.

Get a Case

A case is the most obvious way to protect your phone, but it’s important to remember their effectiveness varies. For example, you should look for a case with a lip that rises above your phone’s screen. At the same time, you don’t want one that’s so bulky it won’t fit in your pocket. Before you buy any case, be sure to read its reviews to learn how it’s worked in the real world.

Get a Protection Plan

Screen protectors and cases can help protect your phone — but unfortunately, they don’t make them invincible. A whopping 66 percent of smartphone owners say they’ve experienced some kind of damage in the past year.

For a small monthly fee, protection plans provide coverage against the rising costs of repairs due to accidents like cracked screens and liquid damage, plus hardware failures. Considering that repairs can now cost up to $599 (the same retail cost as the most expensive version of the first Apple iPhone), they’re definitely a smart choice for consumers. Plans can be purchased from SquareTrade for as little as $8.99 a month.

Accidents and hardware failures happen. But with a three-step protection strategy, your device will last longer and function more smoothly until your next upgrade.

The frightening future of robocalls: Numbers and voices you know

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The frightening future of robocalls: Numbers and voices you know

By Samantha Murphy Kelly, CNN Business

(CNN) — It’s a scene from a modern-day horror movie: The call is coming from inside the house.

But it’s not just any call. It’s from you.

This played out one recent Wednesday evening when my iPhone’s caller ID flashed my own phone number, along with a picture of my face. It was a robocall using spoofing technology to pretend it was calling from my own number.

I picked up and tried to sound menacing: “Can I help you?”

It was an automated pre-recorded message from “Microsoft” claiming my computer license was expiring. Knowing the drill, I wasn’t surprised to hear I had 24 hours to respond before going to jail.

I get more scam calls than actual calls — after all, nearly 30% of all calls made each day are robocalls — but a call from my own number was a new one for me.

Yet some experts warn this is just a mild taste of bigger dangers to come: a world where you receive robocalls calls from numbers you recognize and the person on the other end sounds like someone you know.

Spoofing, a form of robo-calling, is increasingly common. It’s when someone makes a call from a voice-over-IP service, such as Skype, and are able to enter a host number. While a carrier must provide a number when a call is made from a cell phone or landline, any number sequence can be entered via a VoIP service, whether it’s a made up number, a number in your address book, or one from the White House. It’s so easy, anyone could do it.

Because a scammer knows you’re more likely to pick up if you recognize the caller, they might enter a number they think is in your address book. They could even one day use voice manipulation technology to impersonate that person. (Think deepfakes for robocalls).

Tarun Wadhwa, founder of tech advisory firm Day One Insights, argues that it’s easy for strangers to find out who is close to you and what their personal details are from social media or other websites. Years of large-scale data breaches have exposed millions of people’s phone numbers, addresses, passwords and credit card information online, making it easier for them to be pulled into a scheme.

“It’s going to be like Photoshop — something so easy, widespread, and well known that we stop tracking how it’s being used against people personally and don’t find it surprising,” said Wadhwa, who’s spent years studying issues related to identity, forgery technologies and cybersecurity.

Wadhwa worries this type of forgery technologies could also ruin relationships and reputations.

“I can easily imagine situations in which these sorts of voice-mimicry technologies are used to sow confusion, extort people and make fraud and scams far more precise,” he said.

Some startups are already working on voice manipulation technology. Others are using AI to generate voices that can banter just like real humans.

Last year, Google showed off its AI-powered Duplex assistant that showed how a person could make dinner reservations over the phone without knowing the receptionist wasn’t a person. The technology, which sounded alarmingly realistic and could keep the conversation going with the caller, caused a stir. Critics are concerned it’ll be hard for the average person to differentiate who’s real and not on the phone, blurring the line between automated and authentic conversations.

But Alex Quilici, CEO of robocall-prevention app YouMail, said it will take substantial work on the scammer’s end to make this happen.

“Building a fake computer voice right now is a decent amount of work,” Quilici said. “If I wanted to build one that sounded like you, for example, I’d need to get a ton of samples of you saying specific phonemes, and train a computer model on that.”

He argues easier, yet still sophisticated, spoofing might entail getting a call from a friend’s number saying they’re in jail and you need to bail them out. Or it could mean a call from your child’s number from someone pretending to be a doctor, asking you to come to the hospital — only to be burglarized when you’re out.

These concerns come at a time when robocalls are more rampant than ever and fewer people are picking up calls from unknown numbers. Americans received 26.3 billion robocalls last year — a 46% surge from 2017 — and this March alone set a new monthly record with 5.23 billion robocalls, according to data from YouMail. Meanwhile, the Federal Communications Commission says unwanted calls are the biggest consumer complaint made to the agency each year. (It received 7.1 million complaints about robocalls in 2017).

I typically don’t answer calls from unknown numbers, but the one from myself was hard to resist. According to Quilici, even just picking up the phone may be a mistake. Answering a robocall lets scammers know my number is active and that I am willing to pick up.

“Spoofing is becoming more and more common as scammers try to call with numbers that are less likely to be blocked,” he said. “You’re not blocking your own number, and you are more likely to answer numbers that look local.”

The FCC’s efforts to crack down on robocalls have been slow moving. In November 2018, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai sent letters to carriers, including Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, to encourage them to embrace a caller authentication framework.

“Combating illegal robocalls is our top consumer priority at the FCC,” Pai said in a statement. “That’s why we need call authentication to become a reality — it’s the best way to ensure that consumers can answer their phones with confidence. By this time next year, I expect that consumers will begin to see this on their phones.”

The telecom industry is working on a tool called Stir/Shaken to identify and trace spoofing efforts could have the biggest potential to curb robocalls. AT&T, Comcast and Verizon have already completed tests, and other providers have pledged to embrace Stir/Shaken by the end of 2019. (AT&T owns CNN’s parent company, WarnerMedia.)

But because it involves massive crossover — a person using an AT&T wireless phone will need to be verified when they call a Comcast landline — it’s a challenging technical undertaking. Some experts like Wadhwa worry the solutions could be somewhat obsolete by the time they hit the market.

In the meantime, robo-blocking apps like YouMail can play an out-of-service message when a known robo-number comes in. The message makes it seem like your number is disconnected, so scammers won’t call you back. Meanwhile, carriers like Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile offer free-to-download apps that auto-block these types of calls. For a monthly charge of several dollars, the apps can reverse lookup the caller.

Robocalling scammers rely on cheap technology that works on a large scale, but new schemes could get smarter and pose an even bigger threat in the future.

“If we don’t get a hold on this, I believe we’ll look back on robocalls as a much easier problem to deal with than what’s coming down the pipeline,” Wadhwa said.

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The hunt for Trump’s tax returns enters next phase

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The hunt for Trump’s tax returns enters next phase

By Lauren Fox, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration has just days to respond to a request from House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal to turn over six years of President Donald Trump’s business and personal tax returns.

But, while the deadline is Wednesday, the showdown for the tax returns is expected to last much longer as both sides dig in.

What happens next is not immediately clear, though the legal posturing on both sides suggests that a court battle could be on the horizon. Before that, however, expect the team behind the President and the team behind Neal to produce a lot of paperwork supporting why they’re right and the other is wrong.

Trump has been clear he has no intention of making this fight easy. On Friday, his lawyers sent a letter to the Department of Treasury’s counsel dismissing the request for tax returns as a politically-motivated pursuit, writing that “Ways and Means has no legitimate committee purpose for requesting the President’s tax returns or return information. While the committee has jurisdiction over taxes, it has no power to conduct its own examination of individual taxpayers.”

“The idea that you can use the IRS as a political weapon is incorrect as a matter of statutory law and constitutionally” Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” “We should not be in a situation where individual private tax returns are used for political purpose. What stops another party from doing the same thing by the way.”

But, Neal — who spent months preparing a case to obtain Trump’s tax returns — won’t take no for an answer. Using a little-known provision in the tax code, the Massachusetts Democrat is requesting the tax returns under 6103, a statute that allows the chairman of House Ways and Means panel to make requests for individuals’ tax information. Neal and Democrats have argued that the law clearly states that if the chairman asks for the information, the secretary of the Treasury “shall furnish” it.

“This was a very reasonable approach,” Neal told reporters last week. “We wanted to make sure that the case we constructed was one that stood up under the critical scrutiny of the courts.”

He added that if the IRS still doesn’t respond they will decide on next steps but he assured us “surely there will be one.”

An aide close the process told CNN that Neal is expected to send at least one followup letter, reiterating his request maybe even more, but that the steps after that are still being discussed. Tax law experts are divided about whether or not Neal would issue a subpoena on top of his request or whether the 6103 authority implies the power to receive the information on its own. In that case, the question is whether a subpoena actually undermines the chairman’s 6103 authority.

“A subpoena is a tactical decision. It is not required,” said Andy Wright, former associate counsel for President Barack Obama.

Before the request was made last week, liberals on the committee had pushed Neal more and more publicly to seek Trump’s returns but Neal moved on his own timeline, cognizant of the political storm that would ensue after he sent his official letter.

Trump’s attorneys have also been preparing for the anticipated request, a source close to Trump’s legal team told CNN.

“We’ve been looking at this issue for several months,” the source said.

Why American may never see Trump’s tax returns

The legal road ahead is a long one. The 1920s era law is largely untested in court with vast questions remaining about how broad a chairman’s congressional authority is. While 6103 requests are made all the time for compiling research, the request of an individual’s personal tax returns as high-profile as the President has raised questions. And, if Neal gets the returns, there are questions about how much he would publicly be able to share.

Even if Neal obtained Trump’s tax returns and the other tax information he’s requested after a protracted legal battle, the public still won’t automatically see them. Instead, the chairman would get the returns and then under the law he alone would have the authority to look at them unless he designates others to see them. Those designees could include members of the committee or members of the Joint Committee on Taxation. Once those individuals have the power to look at the tax information, they are subject to harsh punishments if any of the information is leaked. That penalty is $250,000 fine and five years in prison per infraction. It’s serious.

If Neal wanted to make the returns public — and Neal has not said what he plans to do with the returns if he obtained them — there is a process. Neal would put the committee into a private session and then the committee would vote.

That would be a rare event. The last time Congress made the decision to disclose private tax information was during the fight over whether the IRS was discriminating against conservative groups. Then, however, the vote was bipartisan. Releasing Trump’s tax info would likely split along party lines.

What would the returns even show?

There are still real questions about how informational Trump’s tax returns would even be. Six years of returns including two while Trump was President will paint some picture, but not necessarily a comprehensive one. That is why while Neal is asking for tax returns, he is also asking for “all administrative files” including “workpapers, affidavits, etc.”

Tax returns can’t tell the committee everything, but the administrative files could be more revealing including worksheets and audit reports. This is where the committee would actually learn how the presidential audit process works, and if Trump was under audit as a private citizen.

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Shugga Hi Bakery & Café Selected as NFL Draft 2019 Vendor

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Shugga Hi Bakery & Café Selected as NFL Draft 2019 Vendor

Nashville, Tenn. – It has been months in the making, but soon Nashville will be the 2019 host of the National Football League (NFL) Draft. Each year the NFL Draft adds exciting, interactive events and activities to create a family football festival. This year, Shugga Hi Bakery & Café will be one of the local vendors working the event.

When Sandra Austin and Kathy Leslie followed their dream of opening a bakery and café in their neighborhood of East Nashville, they had no idea that their home city would host one of the biggest sport related events in the country. Excited to see Nashville being spotlighted, the two sisters researched how their business could be a part of the Draft. “As Native Nashvillians we love that major organizations like the NFL are seeing what we have always known; this city is a great place to do business,” explained Co-owner Sandra. “Once the Draft was definitely coming here, we knew we wanted to be a part of such a great occasion.” Their association with the Nashville Chamber of Commerce helped make that happen.

Through the NFL Business Connect program, Shugga Hi has been selected as one of 80 vendors approved to compete for business with NFL Draft contractors. Their restaurant will be providing hundreds of volunteer’s breakfast as they work to set up the festival footprint for the NFL Draft the weekend of April 25-27.

This year the event is expected to draw more than 300,000 people to the Middle, Tennessee area.

Business Connect is the National Football Leagues’ Supplier Diversity and Inclusion initiative supporting NFL special events. The program serves as a channel for diverse (minority, women, LGBT and Veteran owned) businesses to compete for contracting opportunities in NFL host cities. Shugga Hi is owned by two African-American women.

“We are so excited to have the opportunity to work alongside Business Connect and the NFL to provide a delicious meal to all the people working hard to make this event come true to Nashville,” said Co-Owner Kathy. “It is also important that all the visitors to Nashville have a chance to see how diverse we truly are.”

Shugga Hi is located at 1000 Dickerson Pike, Nashville, TN 37202 and will have normal operating business hours during the NFL Draft. All volunteers, NFL players and staff, as well as Nashville visitors are encouraged to visit and try some of the best food and desert the city has to offer. To learn more please visit www.shuggahibakeryandcafe.com.

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