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POSSIBLE TOPICS: ELECTION INFO; Ian Bremmer; Pearland to prioritize home repairs for low-income residents with federal grant funds; Montgomery County officials discuss inflation, tax rate as budget workshops begin; No evidence of fraud in Harris County’s November 2022 election, but one person charged with theft; Houston drivers need all the help they can get. Researchers are flooding them with warning data.; When Trump comes to town, he brings excitement, leaves unpaid bills; Through the roof — My journey into the surreal, infuriating future of homeowners insurance.; It’s rare that a presidential candidate is delivered an opportunity on a platter to enunciate what she’s for and against.; ‘The coffee was still hot’: IDF general says troops were ‘minutes’ from catching Sinwar; New PFAS-Busting Method Destroys 100% of ‘Forever Chemicals’ Overnight;

Welcome to Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig where we discuss local, state, national, and international stories. 

Thinkwing Radio with Mike Honig (@ThinkwingRadio) is now on Wednesdays at 11AM (CT) or Thursdays at 6PM on KPFT 90.1 FM-HD2, Houston’s Community Media. You can also hear the show:

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Except for timely election info, the extensive list of voting resources will now be at the end.

1. ELECTION INFO: Be correctly registered for the fall General elections.
   1. The deadline to apply for a mail ballot is October 25. Click here for the application. Please fill it out, print it, and mail it to our office before the deadline.
   2. Early Vote Centers will be open from Monday, October 21– Friday, November 1 (Mon-Sat: 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. Sun:12 p.m. – 7 p.m. )
   3. Vote Centers will accept voters from 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, November 5.
   4. Visit our “What’s on my Ballot?” page and enter your name or address to see all the contests and candidates you are eligible to vote on! (You can bring handwritten notes or printed sample ballots to the voting booth; just be sure to take it with you when you leave.)
2. IN other election news, Ian Bremer is someone I follow, and he recently pointed me to some new polling from 538 showing the “latest national polling average for 2024 election: Harris @ 45.5%, Trump @ 43.4%, Kennedy @ 5.1%.”
   1. MIKE: This national polling is very encouraging, but what I’d like more coverage of is how this breaks down to potential total electoral votes. As we know, in the US, national popular vote doesn’t matter.
   2. MIKE: At the bottom of this blog post, I’ve included reference links to both Ian Bremer’s post and the latest 538 link I could find.
   3. REFERENCE: Ian BremmerIan Bremmer, Following • Following President at Eurasia GroupPresident at Eurasia Group 4d•
   4. REFERENCE: 538 Latest Polls — FIVETHIRTYEIGHT.COM
3. Pearland to prioritize home repairs for low-income residents with federal grant funds; By Rachel Leland | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 5:22 PM Aug 13, 2024 CDT / Updated 5:22 PM Aug 13, 2024 CDT. TAGS: Pearland (TX), HUD, Community Development Block Grant program (CDBG),
   1. Pearland in its upcoming fiscal year will prioritize home repairs for low-income residents using grant funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
   2. On Aug. 12, Pearland City Council voted unanimously to approve an action plan for using funds awarded through HUD’s Community Development Block Grant program to fund projects for low-income Pearland residents, with the bulk of the funds going to support home repairs.
   3. The CDBG program provides annual grants to cities with a population of more than 50,000 to develop viable urban communities by addressing homelessness, affordable housing challenges, aging infrastructure and economic hardships for people earning low to moderate incomes, according to HUD’s website.
   4. For fiscal year 2024-25, HUD awarded Pearland $456,770 in funds, which is less than the city received in each of the two previous years, according to a city staff presentation.
   5. City staff recommended spending most of this year’s funds on housing repairs, Pearland Grant Manager Michael Rawlinson said. …
   6. Pearland, which has been a recipient of CDBG funds since 2006, will also be able to use the HUD funds for new qualifying neighborhoods this year, due to those areas becoming eligible, said Joel Hardy, Pearland grants and special projects administrator. …
   7. Pearland will submit the approved action plan to HUD for approval by Aug. 16, Rawlinson said.
   8. MIKE: There’s not much I can add to this story except … good! This is how government is supposed to work.
4. Montgomery County officials discuss inflation, tax rate as budget workshops begin; By Jessica Shorten | COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM | 5:21 PM Aug 13, 2024 CDT / Updated 5:21 PM Aug 13, 2024 CDT. TAGS: Montgomery County (TX), Property Tax, Inflation,
   1. Montgomery County commissioners faced several decisions on the first day of budget workshops on Aug. 13 as they discussed the possibility of raising the tax rate to near the voter-approval rate amid inflation.
   2. Amanda Carter, budget director for the county, told commissioners the county’s fiscal year 2024-25 budget would likely require a tax rate increase due to increases from inflation and spending over the past several fiscal years. …
   3. Tax Assessor-Collector Tammy McRae compared the statutory no-new-revenue and voter-approval tax rates to the tax rate Carter used to build the base preliminary budget for FY 2024-25.
   4. Proposed budget base rate: $0.3696 per $100 valuation
   5. No-new-revenue rate: $0.3480 per $100 valuation
   6. Voter-approval rate: $0.3875 per $100 valuation
   7. The preliminary budget brought before commissioners totalled $455.18 million before any additional department or capital improvement requests.
   8. According to data provided to the court by McRae, $23.03 million in new revenue will be by property taxes in 2025; however, Carter said the court has already obligated $19 million through previous court actions, such as staff funding.
   9. “The situation is we cannot continue doing exactly the same services at the same price,” Carter said. “You can see that in a lot of the departments’ budgets, … there’s not a single department that got the exact budget that they requested.”
   10. Precinct 3 Commissioner James Noack said the county needed to prioritize cost-of-living increases, noting the county would need to increase the tax rate. Carter reiterated that with the deadline to put a voter-approval tax rate election, or VATRE, on the ballot Aug. 19, the county will likely legally not have appropriate time to approve a tax rate election. However, the county does have $14 million to work with to fund positions and any new requests before reaching the voter-approval rate. …
   11. Contention arose between commissioners regarding how the county would fund positions in law enforcement and other departments in the coming days following presentations from the five constable precincts requesting more deputies.
   12. While no positions were approved officially during the meeting, the court requested all departments seeking additional personnel return on Aug. 15 to discuss funding options.
   13. Budget workshops will run from 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. on Aug. 14-15. These workshops can be livestreamed on the county’s website.
   14. MIKE: The live stream link is embedded in the article.
5. No evidence of fraud in Harris County’s November 2022 election, but one person charged with theft; By Jen Rice, Staff writer | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM | Aug 13, 2024. TAGS: Harris County (TX) Elections, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, Ballot Paper Shortage,
   1. The Texas Rangers concluded an investigation into Harris County’s highly scrutinized November 2022 election, finding no evidence that there was an attempt to sway the results, District Attorney Kim Ogg announced Tuesday.
   2. The election, marred by a ballot paper shortage that impacted voters at some polling locations across the county, sparked state legislation and more than 20 lawsuits based partly on Republican claims that county officials had deliberately allocated an insufficient amount of ballot paper to polls in conservative areas in an effort to disenfranchise GOP voters.
   3. [Ogg said Tuesday,] “Some have said this (shortage) was directed at one party. … Our investigation has not found that to be so.”
   4. However, a former county election employee now faces charges of theft and tampering with government documents. Ogg said investigators found that Darryl Blackburn, who oversaw supplies, was working two full-time jobs during the 2022 election, which she said led to his failure to properly allocate ballot paper — a conclusion that Democratic party leadership swiftly disputed.
   5. “Mr. Blackburn not only stole thousands of dollars from Harris County, in the sense that he lied on time sheets,” Ogg said. “Much more importantly, he stole individuals’ right to vote, a basic constitutional right in our democracy, because people on both sides were delayed in their voting, halted in their voting, rerouted in their voting.”
   6. A Chronicle investigation found some of Harris County’s 782 polling locations did run out of paper on Election Day. But because of Harris County’s countywide voting system, voters turned away from one location were able to go to another polling place, typically about a mile away.
   7. Harris County Democratic Party chair Mike Doyle, who attended Ogg’s news conference, blasted the district attorney for arguing that Blackburn’s alleged crime affected the election.
   8. “This guy may well have double dipped,” Doyle said, “but it’s just another way to repeat the lie that there was an election that somebody didn’t get to vote at, which we know after weeks of testimony and years of digging, they never came up with anybody.”
   9. According to investigators, Blackburn held a full-time job in the oil and gas industry while also working full-time for Harris County, signing false time sheets and submitting a false application for paid parental leave. On Election Day, he claimed that he worked 18 hours with the county while also getting paid for his job in The Woodlands, clocking a total of 26 hours of work that day, investigators said. …
   10. MIKE: There is more detail in the story about the financial fraud perpetrated against Harris County by Mr. Blackburn, as well as more detail about allegations, investigatory findings, etc.
   11. MIKE: It’s worth noting here that Kim Ogg recently endorsed Ted Cruz for re-election to the US senate, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that Ogg wouldn’t miss an opportunity to throw some shade at an election in a Democratic-controlled county where the election was run by elected and appointed Democrats.
   12. MIKE: The actual take-aways from this story are that there was no intent to sway or shape the election results; that there is not one Harris County voter who has turned up in the investigation who felt dissuaded or cheated out of their opportunity to vote; and that the actual crime was an effort to financially defraud both Harris County and the oil & gas company for which Mr. Blackburn worked remotely.
   13. MIKE: Another takeaway not mentioned in the story is that DA Ogg has only 4 and a half months left in her term as Harris County DA, an expiration for which most Harris County citizens should be grateful.
6. Houston drivers need all the help they can get. Researchers are flooding them with warning data.; By Dug Begley, Transportation Writer | HOUSTONCHRONICLE.COM | Aug 9, 2024. TAGS: Houston, Local transportation, Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT),
   1. Driving around Houston — with its chaotic intersections, aggressive and distracted drivers, fast streets and errant pedestrians and cyclists — can test even seasoned motorists’ skills. Local transportation officials and Texas researchers will soon spend millions in federal funds to turn the streets into a test of how technology can make them safer.
   2. Texas A&M Transportation Institute [TTI], with local partners, installed equipment at dozens of intersections in Houston and College Station aimed at leveraging the data already collected by transportation officials and broadcasting it practically instantaneously to drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. The work is related to $60 million in federal funds aimed at further study of so-called vehicle-to-everything or V2X technology.
   3. “In a world where Amazon can tell me my package is five stops away, (transportation systems) should tell me a bicyclist or vulnerable road user is on the road,” said Federal Highway Administrator Shaileen Bhatt.
   4. TTI will spend $19.2 million from the federal grant on the project, called TRUST, for transforming roads unleashing smart technology. …
   5. As tech inside and outside vehicles improved over the past two decades, researchers have turned greater attention to getting all the information into the hands of drivers in the hopes that information, distilled for their use, can warn them of hazards and other things vital to safe driving. …
   6. The advantages of the systems, when widely deployed, are myriad. Among the scenarios officials noted as possible uses: Drivers could be warned immediately of stopped vehicles on the freeway because sensors would know the exact location of every single vehicle in an area; Bicyclists could be identified, and drivers warned as they approach them simply because intersection cameras would detect them based on speed, classify them as a cyclist and note their presence to approaching cars and trucks; Wearable sensors could alert drivers, not only when they are in a construction zone, but when a worker or workers are standing within a few feet of active travel lanes; Vehicles or mapping software on a smartphone could give a driver feedback to maintain a set speed in order to cross intersections without stopping, as opposed to racing from red light to red light; Flooded roads, a common sight in Houston, could be identified and drivers warned almost immediately, relying on the existing system of sensors in key locations.
   7. “What this adds is situation awareness of a much larger space,” said Robert Brydia, a senior research scientist and head of TTI’s system reliability division.
   8. That larger space, with every vehicle, cyclist and pedestrian plugged into it, then becomes more efficient, officials said.
   9. “If it means getting transit vehicles to their destination, and the people who rely on transit to get to their jobs on time, that is a benefit with traffic signal prioritization,” Bhatt said.
   10. Unlike drivers, the sensors can see well beyond obstructions, such as stopped buses or around corners at intersections.
   11. It can also track those hazards and distribute that information almost immediately. Currently, online traffic maps such as Apple Maps, Google or Waze are dependent on what is relayed back to a major traffic data clearinghouse, such as Houston TranStar, along with speed data from cellphone users.  
   12. The V2X use researchers are studying in Houston uses much more real-time data, broadcast in a very specific location. Current traffic information can tell someone when there is a crash on the freeway, taking minutes to report the crash and then minutes more to clear it. V2X could immediately tell vehicles – and drivers – exactly when traffic is stopped and exactly when it is moving again in each and every lane.
   13. That instantaneous information also helps the system respond. …
   14. Working with Houston Public Works, the Texas Department of Transportation and others, Brydia and other researchers will test the V2X systems in specific locations around Houston and College Station. In downtown Houston, around the George R. Brown Convention Center, the systems will track how well they can relay real-time traffic data and specifics about pedestrians. Along Texas 6 in Fort Bend County, a dozen consecutive intersections are outfitted so officials can see performance along the fast-moving, wide and confusing street.
   15. The technology will also be used on Interstate 45, Texas 249 and U.S. 290 from downtown Houston north toward College Station.
   16. With some high-end exceptions — including Cadillac, Audi and Mercedes models — most drivers will not have immediate access to the information. Though the technology could trickle into some smartphone apps such as Travel Safely. Apps, such as Apple Maps or Google, could also start integrating the information in, though one challenge will be how demanding that will be on someone’s smartphone battery. Testing for now is limited to the vehicles researchers will use, as well as their own analysis of how the systems relay information.
   17. Those that do have the tech, however, will see everyone else, officials said, improving safety across the road and making travel by fleets more efficient, transit trips potentially faster and safer in crowded areas such as the A&M campus.
   18. Eventually, more and more vehicles, smartphones, and even bicycle and wearable devices could come to consumers. Researchers also said the systems to communicate information in intersections will be critical to all autonomous driving systems. As cars communicate with each other along with traffic signals, sensors at crosswalks and other items, it means [fewer] things for drivers to monitor on their own.
   19. Greater information, no matter who is driving, leads to safer streets, researchers said.
   20. “The U.S. has tolerated 40,000 roadway fatalities for decades and it is not recognized as the public health threat that it is,” Winfree said. “This is a step in addressing that with better awareness.” …
   21. MIKE: This all sounds very interesting, and may even be helpful to drivers, motorcyclists, and bike riders as the information becomes available to more and more vehicles.
   22. MIKE: I am, however, concerned about driver distraction from information overload. In my opinion, that means that how this possibly overwhelming new data is presented to drivers needs to be carefully considered so that it’s a net benefit, and so that it doesn’t detract from safety.
7. When Trump comes to town, he brings excitement, leaves unpaid bills; By: Jenna Martin | DAILYMONTANAN.COM (501(c)3| August 8, 2024 12:39 pm (ABOUT DAILY MONTANAN). TAGS: Donald Trump, Montana, Unpaid Invoices, Donald Trump Campaign,
   1. Former President Donald Trump [was] scheduled to be in Bozeman [last] Friday for an 8 p.m., rally at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse at Montana State University. While rallies of presidential candidates are known to bring large crowds and media attention, they also bring a slew of logistical and technical challenges. …
   2. Trump’s campaign has been notorious for flaking on bills for security. According to a 2019 report from the Center for Public Integrity, Trump owed more than $840,000 to various city governments, and likely more, as Trump’s campaign does not acknowledge a single one of these city governments as debt in his federal campaign financial disclosures. 
   3. In Billings, the protective measures put in place for his September 2018 rally resulted in 1,362 overtime hours between Billings PD and the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s office: 951 hours from the former, and 411 hours from the latter, bringing the total cost to $58,830. 
   4. While the Yellowstone Sheriff’s office did not bill Trump’s campaign for the $12,930 cost it incurred – a standard practice the office follows for all political campaigns – Billings PD did, and as of the publication date of this article, that $45,900 bill has been left unpaid. 
   5. Earlier that year, Vice President Mike Pence and Donald Trump Jr. also made stops in Billings. The vice president spoke at a public rally on July 25, also at MetraPark, organized by America First Policies. Donald Trump Jr. spoke at the Republican Convention in Billings on June 22. 
   6. According to an internal memo sent to city council on Sept. 13, 2018, Vice President Mike Pence’s July 25 visit required 647.50 hours of overtime pay, totalling $31,200. Donald Trump Jr.’s visit ran $5,000 in overtime pay, bringing the total amount spent by the Billings Police Department alone on security for Trump’s campaign rallies in Billings in 2018 to $82,100. 
   7. Billings isn’t alone. Missoula county commissioners also sent a bill to the Trump campaign in 2018 for nearly $13,000 for public safety staffing costs. The county requested $10,835.41 for officer salaries, $1,059.26 for dispatcher salaries, $693.72 for Office of Emergency Management salaries, and $334.43 for miscellaneous expenses. According to Missoula County Communications Manager Allison Franz, that bill has also not been paid. 
   8. Some municipalities, like Great Falls, don’t submit requests for payment, instead eating the cost from their own budgets. The Great Falls Tribune reported Trump’s July 5 visit to Great Falls cost the city, Cascade County and Montana Highway Patrol a total of $57,236, none of which was submitted for payment to Trump’s campaign. 
   9. In total, in 2018 alone, Trump’s campaign cost various city and state departments – whether they billed for reimbursement and weren’t paid, or never billed at all – at least $150,000 in taxpayer money. 
   10. “It’s a lot for a budget,” [said Billings Police Department Public Information Officer Lt. Matt Lennick]. “It’s not something that’s built into our initial budget that we plan every year.”
   11. Trump’s rallies, while similar in size to other candidates, consistently have higher security costs. For one, he is a former president, which comes with an added layer of security compared to other candidates. 
   12. For example, Trump’s October rally in Missoula had an estimated 8,000 attendees and cost Missoula County nearly $13,000 while Bernie Sanders 2016 rally had 9,000 attendees and the mayor’s spokeswoman told NBC Montana that the cost to the city was minimal, resulting in only five paid hours in police overtime. The rest of the cost was covered by Secret Service.
   13. Trump’s rallies are also known for their large crowds of protestors, an added safety concern for all parties involved. 
   14. “It’s important that your local sheriff is the one handling protestors because we know these people,” says Cascade County Sheriff Jesse Slaughter, adding that no matter the cost, law enforcement will always be up for the job. “As local law enforcement it’s our duty to protect the process of our elections and keep our community safe when candidates and presidents show up.” 
   15. The total cost for Gallatin remains to be seen. Sheriff Dan Springer declined requests for comment and City of Bozeman Communications and Engagement Specialist Allison Killip directed all questions regarding potential costs to Trump’s campaign. 
   16. It’s unknown whether or not the assassination attempt at Trump’s July 13 Pennsylvania Rally will drive security costs further. 
   17. Montana State University, however, will at least get some money ahead of time.
   18. “Anyone who rents the Fieldhouse has to put down a deposit,” says university spokesman Mike Becker, which amounts to the first day’s cost of $3,250. “If they cancel, they’d owe $6,500.” 
   19. MIKE: There have been stories and rumors for years that Trump, who is notorious for not paying, or short-paying his contractors, as well as stories about Trump’s campaigns not paying invoices for venues, security, and other costs incurred by his rallies.
   20. MIKE: This is one of the few recent stories I could find with details.
   21. MIKE: There are rumors, though I cannot find a source I trust, that say “the real reason Trump landed in Billings, Montana, and then drove 2 hours to Bozeman [was that he] couldn’t land at Bozeman because [Trump] still owes the airport $12,000 from the 2020 election.” The implication being that if Trump landed at Bozeman, the Bozeman airport might impound Trump’s plane until the invoice was paid. You can see a post about that at this link on X.
   22. MIKE: Some further responses to this post give additional information as to why it might be accurate.
   23. MIKE: I don’t know whether this assertion is true or not, but Trump’s long and documented history of non-payment and underpayment of legal invoices lends it a lot of credence.
8. MIKE: A Tuesday night email from the LGBTQ+ Caucus at TheCaucus[dot]org said that, “The Board of the Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus has voted to endorse Amanda Edwards in the CD-18 Precinct Chair Election happening Tuesday, August 13. We believe she is the best candidate to carry the torch forward and represent the 18th Congressional District.”
   1. MIKE: The Harris County Precinct Chairs met on Tuesday night. In news from Charles Kuffner, the precinct chairs have chosen former Mayor Sylvester Turner to take the late Sheila Jackson Lee’s place on the November ballot. You can read Kuff’s story at the link I’m providing on my blog post.
   2. MIKE: One of the comments that Kuff excerpted from Houston Landing was that, “Acknowledging his age of 69 and previous battle with a form of bone cancer, Turner promised to be a bridge candidate to a younger generation and said he would serve only one term.”
   3. MIKE: That comment from Turner puzzles me. Why wait? At 69, Turner is no spring chicken. Why not just pass the generational torch now, perhaps to runner-up Amanda Edwards? If Turner really believed he could be an inter-generational bridge, he could have run to fill the remaining few weeks of Jackson Lee’s term without taking a place on the ballot for a full 2-year term in the House.
   4. MIKE: I suggest reading Kuff’s piece. He has some additional remarks on the subject.
9. This next article from Business Insider raises some interesting privacy questions as well as some insights into how insurance companies are assessing their risks without your knowledge — Through the roof — My journey into the surreal, infuriating future of homeowners insurance.; By Albert Fox Cahn | BUSINESSINSIDER.COM | Aug 7, 2024, 4:54 AM CDT. TAGS: Homeowners Insurance, Traveler’s Insurance, Aerial Surveillance,
   1. MIKE: This article is written in first person, and I’ll read it that way.
   2. It was already a hectic day when my insurance broker left a frantic voicemail telling me that my homeowner’s insurance had lapsed. … Suddenly, any leak, fire, or tree branch falling onto the hundred-year-old Hudson Valley house that’s been in my family for nearly 40 years could wipe out my bank account. … How did I let this happen? Did I forget to update a credit card? Did I miss a bill? Did I do something wrong with the policy? But when I checked my records, even the Travelers website, there was nothing.
   3. … When I finally reached my insurance broker, he told me the reason Travelers revoked my policy: AI-powered aerial surveillance. My finances were imperiled, it seemed, by a bad piece of code.
   4. I take privacy and surveillance extremely seriously — so seriously that I started one of the leading think tanks on the topic, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. But while I study surveillance threats around the country for a living, I had no idea that my own insurance company was using my premium dollars to spy on me. Travelers not only uses aerial photography and AI to monitor its customers’ roofs, but also wrote patents on the technology — nearly 50 patents, actually. And it may not be the only insurer spying from the skies.
   5. This didn’t just feel creepy and invasive — it felt wrong. Literally wrong: There was nothing wrong with my roof.
   6. … I don’t clean as often as I should. But I still take care of the essentials. Whether it’s upgrading the electrical or installing a new HVAC, I try to make sure my home is safe. But to Travelers’ AI, it appeared, my laziness was too big a risk to insure. Its algorithm didn’t detect an issue with the foundation or a concern with a leaky pipe. Instead, as my broker revealed, the ominous threat that canceled my insurance was nothing more than moss.
   7. Where there’s moisture, there’s moss, and if you leave a huge amount of it on a roof for a protracted period, it can undermine the roof’s lifespan. A small amount is largely harmless. Still, treating it couldn’t be simpler. Sure, I could have knocked out the moss sooner, but life was busy, and so it kept falling (and growing) between the cracks. Finally, in June, weeks before I knew my roof was being surveilled, I went to the hardware store, spent 80 bucks on moss killer, hooked the white bottle of chemicals up to the garden hose, and sprayed it on the roof. The whole thing took about five minutes. A few days later, much to my relief, the moss was dying. I thought it was the end of an entirely unmemorable story.
   8. Who knows. Maybe if I’d done that a month sooner, Travelers’ technology never would have flagged me, never would’ve said I was an insurance risk. But one of the deep frustrations of the AI-surveillance age is that as companies and governments track ever more of our lives in ever more detail, we rarely know we’re being watched. At least not until it’s too late to change their minds.
   9. While there’s no way to know exactly how many other Travelers customers have been targeted by the company’s surveillance program, I’m certainly not the first. In February, Boston’s ABC affiliate reported on a customer who was threatened with nonrenewal if she didn’t replace her roof. The roof was well within its life expectancy, and the customer hadn’t encountered any issues with leaks; still, she was told that without a roof replacement she wouldn’t be insured. She said she faced a $30,000 bill to replace a slate roof that experts estimated could have lasted another 70 years.
   10. Insurers have every incentive to be overly cautious in how they build their AI models. No one can use AI to know the future; you’re training the technology to make guesses based on changes in roof color and grainy aerial images. But even the best AI models will get a lot of predictions wrong, especially at scale and particularly where you’re trying to make guesses about the future of radically different roof designs across countless buildings in various environments.
   11. For the insurance companies designing the algorithms, that means a lot of questions about when to put a thumb on the scale in favor of, or against, the homeowner. And insurance companies will have huge incentives to choose against the homeowner every time. Think about it: Every time the AI gives the green light to a roof that actually has something wrong, the insurance company picks up the bill. Each time that happens, the company can add that data point to its model and train it to be even more risk-averse. But when homeowners are threatened with cancellation, they pick up the bill for repairs, even if repairs are unnecessary. If the Boston homeowner throws out a slate roof with 70 years of life left in it, the insurance company never knows it was wrong to remove it. It never updates the model to be less aggressive for similar homes.
   12. Over time, insurance companies will have every incentive to make the models more and more unforgiving, threatening more Americans with loss of coverage and potentially driving millions or billions of dollars’ worth of unnecessary home repairs. And as insurers face increasing losses due to the climate crisis and inflation, the pressure to push unnecessary preventive repairs on customers will only rise.
   13. A confusing coda to this whole ordeal was what Travelers said when I reached out with a detailed list of fact-checking questions and a request for an interview. In response, a spokesperson sent a terse denial: “Artificial intelligence analysis/modeling and drone surveillance are not a part of our underwriting decision process. When available, our underwriters may reference high-resolution aerial imagery as part of a holistic review of property conditions.”
   14. How did this make sense given what was written on Travelers’ own website and patent applications? Then the precision and slipperiness of the language started to stand out. What exactly counts as the “underwriting decision process”?
   15. When Travelers boasts online that its workers “rely on algorithms and aerial imagery to identify a roof’s shape — typically a time-consuming process for customers — with close to 90% accuracy,” does that classification not count as the underwriting process? And even though Travelers has flown tens of thousands of drone flights, are those not part of underwriting? And if AI and drones aren’t actually affecting customers, why file so many patent applications like “Systems and Methods for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Roof Deterioration Analysis”?
   16. It felt like the company was trying to have it both ways, boasting about using the latest and greatest tech while avoiding accountability for errors. When I brought these follow-up questions to the company, Travelers did not respond.
   17. Thankfully, my own roof isn’t going anywhere, at least not for now. A few hours after my panicked ordeal with Travelers began and I started to scramble to find new coverage, the situation resolved. Travelers admitted that it screwed up. It never conceded that its AI was wrong to tag me. But it revealed the reason I couldn’t find my cancellation notice: The company never sent it.
   18. Travelers may have invested huge sums in neural networks and drones, but it apparently never updated its billing software to reliably handle the basics. Without a nonrenewal notice, it couldn’t legally cancel coverage. Bad cutting-edge tech screwed me over; bad basic software bailed me out.
   19. Part of what is so disturbing about the whole episode is how opaque it was. When Travelers took aerial footage of my house, I never knew. When it decided I was too much of a risk, I had no way of knowing why or how.
   20. As more and more companies use more and more opaque forms of AI to decide the course of our lives, we’re all at risk. AI may give companies a quick way to save some money, but when these systems use our data to make decisions about our lives, we’re the ones who bear the risk. Maddening as dealing with a human insurance agent is, it’s clear that AI and surveillance are not the right replacements. And unless lawmakers take action, the situation will only get worse.
   21. The reason I still have insurance is simple consumer-protection laws. New York state won’t allow Travelers to revoke my insurance without notice. But why do we let companies like Travelers use AI on us in the first place without any protections? A century ago, lawmakers saw the need to regulate the insurance market and make policies more transparent, but now updated laws are needed to protect us from the AI trying to decide our fates. If not, the future looks unsettling. Insurance is one of the few things that protect us from the risks of modern life. Without AI safeguards, the algorithms will take what little peace of mind our policies give us.
   22. MIKE: As I noted at the beginning of this story, it was originally written in first person, so I read it this way. None of the issues reported in the story currently apply to me personally.
   23. MIKE: I will also note that contrary to the writer’s experience, I have found my current insurance agent of over 30 years to be very helpful and a pleasure to deal with.
   24. MIKE: That said, I’ll point out that on this show, I have often said that I currently worry less about artificial intelligence than I do about artificial stupidity. This story may be a prime example of that.
   25. MIKE: But there’s also another saying that applies here: Behind every computer error is a human error, and that’s what is at play here. Multiple human errors, actually.
   26. MIKE: Traveler’s humans put too much faith and power into their AI’s decision-making. Traveler’s humans then failed to give the AI proper oversight. In addition, the humans who wrote and maintain the software that should be connected to policy notifications also failed, thus contributing another human error.
   27. MIKE: Humans have a general tendency to trust people and institutions in power. They tend to trust their news sources. They tend to trust things they see on TV or hear on radio. They often even tend to trust what they see on social media.
   28. MIKE: In this case, the humans at Travelers are tending to trust their AI without actually verifying what it tells them, possibly because the information is attached to something called Artificial Intelligence.
   29. MIKE: Maybe my phrase, “Artificial Stupidity”, isn’t so silly after all. Maybe more humans need to view the results of AI statements and results with more skepticism as we move into the future.
   30. MIKE: Maybe I should add a new comment: “It ain’t actually Artificial Intelligence until it’s usually right.”
   31. MIKE: Your thoughts on this topic are invited on my show page on Facebook.
10. It’s rare that a presidential candidate is delivered an opportunity on a platter to enunciate what she’s for and against.; By Robert Reich| FACEBOOK | August 9, 2024. TAGS: Kamala Harris, Antitrust, Monopoly Practices, Google, Meta, Amazon, Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Lina Khan,
    1. … But Kamala Harris has now been delivered one — and it’s a silver platter, no less.
    2. First, some background. This week, in a stunner of a decision, Judge Amit Mehta of the District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that Google acted illegally to maintain a monopoly in online search.
    3. The U.S. government had accused Google of illegally cementing its dominance in search, partly by paying other companies like Apple and Samsung billions of dollars a year to have Google automatically handle search queries on their smartphones and web browsers.
    4. Judge Mehta agreed. “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” he ruled.
    5. The ruling is a bombshell that will affect all other government antitrust lawsuits against Big Tech. And there are many under the Biden-Harris administration.
    6. One of the major lawsuits underway is against Amazon. Last September, the FTC sued Amazon — alleging that it uses a set of interlocking anticompetitive and unfair strategies to maintain its monopoly power. The FTC said Amazon stopped rivals and sellers from lowering prices, overcharged sellers, and stifled innovation.
    7. The FTC is also suing Meta, accusing it of creating a monopoly in social media by buying potential competitors Instagram and WhatsApp. The FTC is also challenging Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of gaming company Activision Blizzard and is investigating Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI. The FTC has reportedly opened multiple investigations involving subsidiaries of Barry Diller’s IAC.
    8. The chair of the FTC is Lina Khan — perhaps the most effective FTC chair since Michael Pertschuk ran the agency in the late 1970s. (Full disclosure: [Reich] ran the policy staff at the FTC under Pertschuk.)
    9. Khan’s FTC shares antitrust jurisdiction with the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department, which brought the suit against Google. As part of the Justice Department, the assistant attorney general in charge of the Antitrust Division, Jonathan Kanter, is shielded from the wrath of Big Tech.
    10. So, billionaire Democratic donors are targeting Khan — and doing so publicly.
    11. It’s rare that major donors make the quid pro quo’s they want for their donations known publicly instead of doing so quietly through campaign bigwigs and senior White House staff.
    12. Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn, who has so far donated $7 million to the leading pro-Biden and Harris super PAC, spoke to CNN about his concerns about Khan. He said that if Harris wins in November, she should replace Khan: “Lina Khan is … a person who is not helping America,” Hoffman said, adding, “I would hope that Vice President Harris would replace her.” (He later clarified that he would support Harris regardless of whether she replaces Khan.)
    13. Why is Hoffman so negative about Khan? Presumably because Hoffman sits on the board of Microsoft.
    14. Another billionaire Democratic mega-donor, Barry Diller, chairman of IAC and Expedia, announced he would “donate the maximum” to the Harris campaign.
    15. But Diller is openly urging Harris to remove Khan. Diller charges that Khan is against “almost anything” business wants to do to grow efficiently. Asked if he would join others in lobbying Harris to replace Khan, he said, “Yeah, I would. I think she’s a dope.” (He later apologized for calling Khan a dope, but not for critiquing her policies.)
    16. Diller is upset with Khan because she’s investigating several IAC subsidiaries.
    17. All this provides a surprising opportunity for Kamala because it’s all out in the open — Hoffman’s and Diller’s donations, their requests that Harris get rid of Khan, and their personal financial interests in her doing so.
    18. Here’s what I recommend Harris do: Openly tell Hoffman and Diller she thinks Khan is doing a great job and wants her to stay at the FTC — and if they don’t like it, they can keep their money.
    19. Maybe Harris can find a way to fit this message into her acceptance of the nomination at the Democratic National Convention: “I’m not going to allow Big Tech to dictate public policy! No more big money in politics!”
    20. With this one gesture, Harris would shut the door to billionaire quid pro quos and demonstrate her independence from Big Tech’s big money.
    21. Can Harris afford to do this? I think so, especially given her surge of support from small donors. If she did this, I suspect her small-donor support would explode even more.
    22. It would also be good for America if Harris shut this door. Big money, especially from Big Tech, is the second-biggest threat to American democracy — after Donald Trump.
    23. MIKE: I find this to be an interesting perspective, and Reich may be correct on all counts. I’d like to know what you think. Drop comments under this show post on Facebook at the link provided here.
11. I’ll have some comments and caveats at the end of this story, but I think that it’s important to give a side of the Gaza war I don’t hear very often.– ‘The coffee was still hot’: IDF general says troops were ‘minutes’ from catching Sinwar; In broad interview, Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfus describes how troops found Hamas leader’s underground lair, talks of IDF’s successes in the war and importance of maintaining values. By ToI Staff | TIMESOFISRAEL.COM | 12 August 2024, 8:24 pm, TAGS: Israel & the Region, Dan Goldfus, 2023-2024 Israel-Hamas war, Yahya Sinwar, October 7 Hamas atrocities, Gaza Strip, Hamas tunnels, IDF Israel Defense Forces,
    1. The IDF was “minutes away” from capturing Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in a Gaza tunnel, the commander of the IDF’s 98th Division told Channel 12 News in an interview broadcast Sunday.
    2. Asked in the lengthy interview how close he came to catching the architect of Hamas’s October 7 invasion and slaughter in Israel, Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfus replied: “We were close. We were in his compound. We got to an underground compound. It was ‘hot.’”
    3. What does that mean? he was asked.
    4. “We found a lot of money there. The coffee was still hot. Weapons strewn around.”
    5. So it was minutes after he left?
    6. Goldfus replied: “Minutes, really.”
    7. Israel has said that Sinwar is “marked for death” as the architect of the October 7 attack, orchestrated along with Hamas military wing commander Muhammad Deif. Deif was killed by the IDF last month. Hamas’s overall leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an explosion in Tehran two weeks ago, for which Israel has not claimed responsibility. Sinwar has since been chosen to succeed him.
    8. The IDF aired a clip in February showing troops giving a tour of one of the tunnels that Sinwar, his family, and other senior Hamas officials had been using as a compound during the war.
    9. The video showed that the tunnel had two bathrooms, a stocked kitchen, an area to sleep in, and a separate room that the IDF said belonged to Sinwar himself, in which soldiers found a safe with millions in cash.
    10. Goldfus is one of the senior officers who has led the charge against Hamas in Gaza, and he has been appointed as the next head of the Northern Corps and Multi-Domain Joint Maneuver Array, and will soon be promoted to the rank of major general.
    11. Describing the military’s successes in its war against Hamas, Goldfus said IDF troops were successfully dismantling the terrorist organization both above and underground.
    12. “It doesn’t happen in two days. I know everyone wants it to happen fast, so do we, but we’re dismantling an infrastructure of many years,” he said.
    13. When the 98th Division first entered Khan Younis, he added, it took 10 hours to get past Hamas’s defenses, whereas when they launched another operation in the city last week, it only took an hour and a half.
    14. Asked whether he was obsessed with Hamas’s tunnel system, he replied that it was the organization’s center of gravity and it needed to be taken away for Hamas to be fully defeated.
    15. [He said,] “When I plan an operation now, I look first underground, and from there, I go above ground.”
    16. When troops have control of the tunnels, he added, “it means you can carry out much more complex activities because your freedom to act is much greater. It’s a real achievement. It’s where Hamas is and it’s their strength as of today, and we’re taking it apart.”
    17. Goldfus said that part of what enabled the army to succeed in Gaza was that “everyone came to their senses” after the initial shock of October 7, when thousands of Hamas soldiers breached the Gaza border, overrunning Israeli communities and IDF bases and killing some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking 251 hostages. …
    18. Despite his division’s successes in the war, Goldfus said he was still finishing his time as its commander in emotional turmoil.
    19. “We’re winning, and it’s very very important… On the other hand, there are 115 hostages still on the other side, and we need to do everything to get them back,” he said, adding that he had lost 182 soldiers since October 7, and regretted that he had not been able to visit all of their families.
    20. “That will happen now,” he said.
    21. Regarding criticism of the IDF following October 7, Goldfus said that it was natural and fair and that his job was to do everything he could to provide good answers for people’s questions.
    22. “We will give answers. We’re investigating, but we are also fighting and pushing forward,” he said. …
    23. The interview concluded with Goldfus being asked about what victory in the war looked like to him.
    24. First and foremost, he said, true victory would come when Hamas was fully defeated and unable to recover, but that it was essential that the army maintain its values in the process.
    25. “Our values are not for the enemy. Our values are for us, to protect us. I’m better than the other side, and I have no intention of becoming Hamas. I’m in the State of Israel, a Jewish democratic state, with everything that entails,” he said, adding that it was a mistake to think that the IDF’s values were an obstacle in combat.
    26. “In order to carry out the complicated, valuable, precise actions we do, the ones that destroy the enemy and overwhelm it above and below ground, we have to hold on to our values,” he said.
    27. The war in Gaza has been ongoing for 10 months since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel in which terrorists murdered some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages. The IDF believes 111 hostages remain, including 39 it has confirmed are dead.
    28. Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
    29. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 39,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 15,000 combatants in battle and some 1,000 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 attack. Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including schools and mosques.
    30. Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 332.
    31. MIKE: I’m no military historian, so I had to do some research to arrive at some figures.
    32. MIKE: Just as it’s important to always note in stories about the war that the Gaza Health Ministry counts Hamas combatants the same as civilian dead, it’s equally important to surmise that the 15,000 combatants that Israel claims to have killed probably includes some civilians.
    33. MIKE: I did a cursory search on historic ratios of civilians killed in war versus combatants.
    34. MIKE: First, a definition. The word “casualties” usually includes dead and wounded, but some of those tallies consider refugees and displaced persons as war casualties. Sometimes, the word “casualty” is used to mean killed in combat. In any case, the worst estimates are that civilian casualties in some wars can be as high as 90%, but in others have been estimated as low as 10%.
    35. MIKE: Thus, the figures are wide-ranging, depending on the era of the war and the method of counting and, importantly, the natures of the battlefields.
    36. MIKE: As might be expected, civilian casualties as a percentage are highest in high population urban zones, such as Gaza, which is almost entirely an urban, densely populated combat zone.
    37. MIKE: When looking at the Gaza Health Ministry figure of 40,000 dead versus the Israeli claim of about 15,000 combatants killed, those figures work out to about a 2:1 ratio of civilians killed versus combatants. That ratio would seem to give some veracity to both sides’ claims, since the ratio fits neatly into the middle of most of the historic averages, and would tend historically to the low end of the scale of civilian casualties compared to combatant casualties.
    38. MIKE: As one article from Times of Israel states, that kind of ratio belies the claim of genocidal intent by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Further, if 40,000 Gazans have died, including combatants, over 10 months of intense combat out of a population of over 2 million, that would also seem to contradict any claims of genocidal intent on the part of the IDF.
    39. MIKE: It might be fair to suggest that for the kind of combat taking place in Gaza, the civilian casualties, while appalling on a human scale, are actually relatively low compared to the potential death counts common in urban warfare.
    40. MIKE: I also feel that it must be pointed out that Hamas had to know the consequences it was bringing down onto the Gaza population before they launched their October 7^th massacre of mostly young, mostly unarmed civilian Jewish Israelis in the worst single mass killing of Jews since the Nazis of WW2.
    41. MIKE: I feel that it also must be pointed out that Hamas can stop the suffering of Gaza civilians at anytime by lowering their weapons and negotiating a surrender.
    42. MIKE: I have a saying that it takes two sides to make peace but only one to make war. I think that from all the news I read, neither side is particularly interested in making peace yet, each for their own reasons. So, the war will continue until that changes.
    43. MIKE: Underneath this article’s blog post, I’ve included three reference links I’ve used to support my remarks on this story. Whichever side of this war you are taking, I urge you to consider doing the same.
    44. REFERENCE: Civilian casualty ratio — From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    45. REFERENCE: The genocide claim against Israel doesn’t add up; The ratio of combatant-to-civilian casualties in Gaza should be recognized as a historical achievement of protecting civilian lives. By Shlomo Cohen and Yaacov Samet | TIMESOFISRAEL.COM | 2 June 2024, 4:41 pm
    46. REFERENCE: IDF airs footage of Hamas leader Sinwar in Gaza tunnel: ‘We’ll catch him, dead or alive’; Army said to identify terror chief, whose back is to camera along with family, by size of his ears and with AI; spokesperson says clip shows Hamas leaders only care for themselves. By Emanuel Fabian | TIMESOFISRAEL.COM | and ToI Staff 13 February 2024, 10:25 pm
    47. REFERENCE: The UN adjusted its Gaza fatality reporting. Here’s what the data does and doesn’t tell us.; By Madison Czopek, PolitiFact.com | STATESMAN.COM (Austin-American Statesman) | Published May 29, 2024.
12. Some additional news on a topic that this show has covered periodically for some time — New PFAS-Busting Method Destroys 100% of ‘Forever Chemicals’ Overnight; Ambient conditions and common materials help to break down one class of forever chemicals in just eight hours. By Adrianna Nine | EXTREMETECH.COM | August 5, 2024. TAGS: Forever Chemicals, Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), Perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), Nafion, Fluorine,
    1. Scientists in Japan have developed a new technique that breaks down 100% of treated “forever chemicals” overnight. With common equipment and the same eight hours it takes for you to get some shut-eye, their method fully disassembles two of the most common toxic manufacturing substances. It even allows one beneficial element, fluorine, to be recycled.
    2. Forever chemicals, formally known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), are a category of synthetic compounds used in several common fabrication processes. Firefighting foams, non-stick cookware, durable textiles, cosmetics, and some pesticides rely on PFAS, which are primarily used to control those materials’ interactions with water. Unfortunately, these compounds are known to leach into the water supply during and after manufacturing. Their chemical makeup makes them highly persistent, hence their “forever chemical” moniker; thanks to their entry into the water supply, they accumulate in plants, animals, and human bodies, increasing consumers’ risk of cancer, liver damage, thyroid disease, and other devastating health complications. 
    3. Forever chemicals’ numerous health risks have motivated scientists to devise new PFAS-busting techniques. A mounting stack of methods has managed to filter out or break down specific types of PFAS, including those that contain carboxylic acid. But forever chemicals’ numerous forms mean multiple strategies will be necessary to meaningfully reduce their presence in water—a goal the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finally introduced earlier this year. 
    4. Researchers at Japan’s Ritsumeikan University opted to tackle perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS) and Nafion (a fluorinated polymer, or FP), per their paper for the German Chemical Society’s journal … .
    5. [Using their reported process, more] than half of the PFOS degraded within the first hour. In two hours, that figure jumped to 80%. By the time the eight-hour mark rolled around, 100% of the PFOS had been broken down. The Nafion took some extra time, but within 24 hours, it was reduced by 81%. The entire process occurred at room temperature, too—a feat unto itself, as previous PFOS and Nafion disassembly techniques have required temperatures up to 400 degrees Celsius (752 degrees Fahrenheit). 
    6. The mild conditions required for Ritsumeikan University’s method also allow for the recovery of fluorine, an element essential for plastics manufacturing, electrical tower insulation, and some lithium-ion batteries. Future efforts to repurpose this PFAS-busting byproduct might open up the possibility of “a sustainable fluorine-recycling society,” the researchers write.
    7. MIKE: This sounds more promising than a method we reported here previously, as that one used very high temperatures and might be harder to scale up. This process might be ready to treat large batches industrial waste containing PFOS and PFAS on a somewhat advanced timeline. But we’ll have to wait and see.

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