FEMA: Irma Damaged Or Destroyed 90 Percent Of Homes In Florida Keys

As emergency workers scour the Florida keys for victims of Hurricane Irma in need of food, water and medical attention, FEMA administrator Brock Long estimates that 25 percent of homes in the Keys were destroyed, and another 65 percent damaged when the storm rolled through with 130 mph winds.

“Basically, every house in the Keys was impacted,” he said.

FEMA: 90% of Florida Keys' homes damaged or destroyed pic.twitter.com/HIdMvbbudj

— Fox News (@FoxNews) September 12, 2017

Via Fox:

Brock Long, a Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, said preliminary estimates suggested that 25 percent of the homes in the Keys were destroyed and 65 percent sustained major damage.

As road repairs progress, some residents were allowed to return to their properties for a first look after the devastation – while the lower keys, including Key West with its 27,000 residents, are still off limits.

“It’s going to be pretty hard for those coming home,” Petrona Hernandez told Fox News. Hernandez’s concrete home on Plantation Key with 35-foot walls was unscathed, unlike others a few blocks away. “It’s going to be devastating to them.”

Just south of the town of Islamorada on Matecumbe Key, 57-year-old Donald Garner checked on his houseboat, which sustained minor damage. Nearby, three other houseboats were partially sunk. Garner had tied his to mangroves.

“That’s the only way to make it,” said Garner, who works for a shrimp company.

Consumer credit reporting agency Equifax has already been hit with over 30 lawsuits over what may be the largest breach of sensitive information in U.S. history – at least 23 of which are class-action filings, and all of them representing individuals.

On Tuesday, Massachusetts AG Maura Healey – a Democrat who in March led the state in suing the Trump administration over the travel ban – announced her intent to take Equifax to court, the first such lawsuit from a state prosecutor’s office over a data breach which has affected up to 143 million Americans. “In all of our years investigating data breaches, this may be the most brazen failure to protect consumer data we have ever seen,” said Healey.

In a press release, the Mass AG’s office is claiming that Equifax did not “maintain the appropriate safeguards to protect consumer data,” which is a violation of state consumer protection and privacy laws.

While Equifax offered people a free credit monitoring service which initially waived the right to sue the company, they later clarified that customers could sue if they sent Equifax written notice within 30 days. Yesterday, the company said that use of the free credit monitoring service does not waive the right to take legal action.

Via CNN: 

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said the clarification came as a result of conversations with his office.

“The victims of this breach shouldn’t also have to worry that they’ve waived their legal rights simply because they were trying to protect themselves. That’s why my office reached out to Equifax last week about the terms of use,” he said in a statement.

Schneiderman’s office is currently investigating the breach, as are attorneys general in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Illinois.

Regulators and investigators across the country have already begun to dig into the scope and disclosure of the hack – including safeguards and procedures Equifax had in place prior to the attack. The NY AG’s office begun an investigation into the breach last week, along with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the FBI.

Setting sale before the storm

Separate of the lawsuits, a bipartisan group of senators called upon federal prosecutors to investigate stock sales by three Equifax executives before the company publicly disclosed the hack, generating nearly $2 million in proceeds shortly after the breach was detected.

SEC filings show that Equifax CFO John Gamble sold $946,000 worth of shares on Aug 1, while two other executives sold shares and exercised options worth nearly $850,000.

The lawmakers, led by senators John Kennedy (R-LA) and Jack Reed (D-RI) is asking the SEC and the FTC to look into the sales.

“As part of your investigations, we request that you conduct a thorough examination of any unusual trading, including any atypical options trading, for violations of insider trading law,” the senators wrote. “We request that you spare no effort in your investigations and in enforcing the law to the fullest extent against anyone who is found to be at fault.”

Former Citigroup Chief Vikram Pandit predicts that up to 30 percent of back-office banking jobs could disappear in the next five years due to developments in artificial intelligence and robotics.

In a Singapore interview with Bloomberg Television’s Haslinda Amin, Pandit said “Everything that happens with artificial intelligence, robotics and natural language — all of that is going to make processes easier,” adding “It’s going to change the back office.”

Former Citi CEO Vikram Pandit says automation will wipe out 30% of 'back-office" banking jobs within 5 years. $C pic.twitter.com/j5byJzWSEf

— ZeroPointNow (@ZeroPointNow) September 13, 2017

Banks have already started to roll out automated systems

While Vikram Pandit’s prediction is bad news for back-office employees, banks have already begun to use AI and machine learning in a big way.

From stock picking quants such as those currently under development by iBankCoin (to be rolled out in Exodus), to “robo-advisors” which handle client portfolios deemed too small to justify a costly human broker, to high frequency trading (HFT) algos, to intelligent fraud detection systems which detect and adapt to fraudulent behavior – banks are becoming increasingly reliant on automated systems.

JPMorgan ($JPM) Chase invested $600 millio0n in 2016 for “emerging fintech solutions,” and have been integrating automation wherever possible. The bank is gunning for legal jobs with their “Contract Intelligence” platform (COiN) which “analyze(s) legal documents and extract important data points and clauses.” According to Techmergence.com, manually reviewing 12,000 annual credit agreements requires approximately 360,000 hours. With COiN, the same agreements are able to be reviewed in seconds. How is a recent law school grad with $150k in debt supposed to compete?

Showcasing Innovation: A quick look at how $JPM is using machine learning. #JPMInvestorDay pic.twitter.com/ZxAngU2jTw

— J.P. Morgan (@jpmorgan) February 28, 2017

JPM is also using their “Emerging Opportunities Engine” introduced in 2015 to help identify clients “best positioned for follow-on equity offerings,” and the firm is also rolling out an internal virtual assistant using a ‘natural language interface’ to manage an initial 120,000 employee help-desk requests.

Wells Fargo ($WFC) announced their “Artificial Intelligence Enterprise Solutions” group in February, led by EVP and head of the bank’s Innovation Group, Steve Ellis. Their goals are to “…increase connectivity for the company’s payments efforts, accelerate opportunities with artificial intelligence, and advanced application programming interfaces to corporate banking customers.”

In other words; optimize banking operations currently handled by slow and inefficient humans.

In April, Wells Fargo tested an AI-driven chatbot via Facebook Messenger with several hundred employees. The virtual assistant is designed to provide basic tasks such as resetting passwords and accessing account information.

“AI technology allows us to take an experience that would have required our customers to navigate through several pages on our website, and turn it into a simple conversation in a chat environment. That’s a huge time-saving convenience for busy customers who are already frequent users of Messenger.” – Steve Ellis, head of Wells Fargo’s Innovation Group

Bank of America ($BAC) is jumping into AI with their “intelligent virtual assistant” named Erica – a chatbot which leverages “predictive analytics and cognative messaging” to give financial advice to the firm’s more than 45 million customers. Erica is also a 24/7 mobile banking assistant, available to perform “day-to-day transactions”

Yesterday at #Money2020, @DigitalMMoore revealed innovative new capabilities coming to mobile and ATM. Watch the replay to catch up: pic.twitter.com/G1Tg0ymxbU

— Bank of America News (@BofA_News) October 25, 2016

“We want to be there for customers in the moments that matter most. Incorporating artificial intelligence into our mobile banking offering will help customers manage their simple banking needs more efficiently and consistently, which then allows our specialists in our financial centers to spend more time with customers to understand their more complex needs and help them improve their financial lives.” -Thong Nguyen, president of Retail Banking, Bank of America

Citibank ($C)has invested heavily in startup Feedzai, a fraud detection company which uses AI and “machine based learning” to pour through vast amounts of data and conduct large-scale analyses of potentially fraudulent behavior.

While AI will help banks survive in a world of thinning margins and fierce competition, the back offices of a bank is where many debt-laden graduates grind out their start in the industry – working 14 hour days to claw their way up the ladder. With entry level banking jobs beginning to evaporate, living the dream in finance is about to become much more difficult.

Canada’s Financial Accountability Office of Ontario says a planned $15 / hr minimum wage hike by 2019 is a ‘weak weapon in the war on poverty,’ and could result in a net loss of 50,000 jobs.

The independent watchdog group, established by Ontario’s Financial Accountability Officer Act of 2013, gave the conservative estimate – adding that job losses could be “larger than the FAO’s estimate.”

[T]here is evidence to suggest that the job losses could be larger than the FAO’s estimate,” the FAO said. “Ontario’s proposed minimum wage increase is both larger and more rapid than past experience, providing businesses with a greater incentive to reduce costs more aggressively –Financial Post

This stunning admission from a liberal government-mandated independent think tank validates the argument against the “fight for $15” minimum wage hike endorsed by Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election.

Won’t help low income families

The FAO also said that “higher minimum wages are not an effective way to alleviate poverty,” as a paltry 27 percent would reach low income households. Instead, most of the benefits would flow to those above the low-income cutoff.

“As a result, the income gains from Ontario’s proposed minimum wage increase would be relatively broadly distributed across all households and not concentrated on low-income families,” the FAO said. “Since minimum wages target low-wage workers, but not necessarily low-income families, raising the minimum wage would be an inefficient policy tool for reducing overall poverty.”

Ontario government defends the hike

Ontario’s very liberal government claims the province’s strong economy allows them to increase the minimum wage, along with a host of new labor and employment reforms, such as mandated sick days for workers.

“We don’t believe that anyone in Ontario who works full time should be struggling to pay their rent, put food on their tables or care for their families — especially when the provincial economy is doing so well,” provincial Labour Minister Kevin Flynn said, adding “The moral and economic evidence supporting this fundamental belief is without question. We will not back down from this commitment.”

Canadian conservatives warn of catastrophe

While liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government says the bump in Ontario’s minimum wage will help low income workers, conservative leader Patrick Brown said “When it comes to the increasing minimum wage, they’re giving Ontario businesses two options: lay off staff or raise prices. Some businesses will have no choice but to do both.”

Last week it was reported that Hina Alvi, the wife of indicted Pakistani DNC IT staffer Imran Awan, had struck a deal with federal prosecutors to return to the U.S. from Pakistan during the “last week of 2017” to face conspiracy and bank fraud charges.

Alvi and her children fled to the safety of Pakistan in early 2017, so her voluntary return, which was structured with an arrest to be made “not in front of her children” seems a bit odd.

Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ) says that Alvi’s return may be part of a broader immunity deal with prosecutors in return for a “significant” and “pretty disturbing” story about Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the FL congresswoman and possible concubine of Satan.

“I don’t want to talk out of school here but I think you’re going to see some revelations that are going to be pretty profound.  The fact that this wife is coming back from Pakistan and is willing to face charges, as it were, I think there is a good chance she is going to reach some type of immunity to tell a larger story here that is going to be pretty disturbing to the American people.”

“I would just predict that this is going to be a very significant story and people should fasten their seat belts on this one.”

More via ZeroHedge: 

Of course, this follows speculation that surfaced last week suggesting that even if the Awans were originally acting to protect/extort Debbie Wasserman Schultz, that may have all changed on April 6, 2017 when Imran seemingly led U.S. Capitol Police directly to her laptop.  Per The Daily Caller:

U.S. Capitol Police found the laptop after midnight April 6, 2017, in a tiny room that formerly served as a phone booth in the Rayburn House Office Building, according to a Capitol Police report reviewed by The Daily Caller News Foundation’s Investigative Group. Alongside the laptop were a Pakistani ID card, copies of Awan’s driver’s license and congressional ID badge, and letters to the U.S. attorney. Police also found notes in a composition notebook marked “attorney-client privilege.”

The laptop had the username “RepDWS,” even though the Florida Democrat and former Democratic National Committee chairman previously said it was Awan’s computer and that she had never even seen it.

The laptop was found on the second floor of the Rayburn building — a place Awan would have had no reason to go because Wasserman Schultz’s office is in the Longworth building and the other members who employed him had fired him.

Shocking satellite imagery from NASA satellites taken before and after Hurricane Irma reveal several Caribbean islands left devastated by the Category 5 storm, which saw sustained winds up to 185 MPH:

Via NASA: 

These natural-color images, captured by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite, show some of Irma’s effect on the British and U.S. Virgin Islands. The views were acquired on August 25 and September 10, 2017, before and after the storm passed. They are among the few relatively cloud-free satellite images of the area so far.

The most obvious change is the widespread browning of the landscape. There are a number of possible reasons for this. Lush green tropical vegetation can be ripped away by a storm’s strong winds, leaving the satellite with a view of more bare ground. Also, salt spray whipped up by the hurricane can coat and desiccate leaves while they are still on the trees.

Images taken before and after from the ground reveal the extent of the devastation: 

Same palce before:after #IrmaHurricane2017 #USVI #StJohn #nothingleft We're about to be forgotten re: FL and TX – don't forget us. Help us. pic.twitter.com/2ZhJzCj4SV

— Pat Connolly (@Connolly_Strong) September 10, 2017

More from Mongoose Junction in #STJ #StJohn #VI #USVI after #HurricaneIrma Source: David Knight, Jr. pic.twitter.com/fPI3pkPEKu

— ericabivens (@ericabivens) September 7, 2017

Virgin Gorda

We spent day on Virgin Gorda helping with water, supplies, shelter. Incredible spirit from everyone here https://t.co/U0m3Kf1APM #Irma pic.twitter.com/t0BinWSIdg

— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) September 8, 2017

Barbuda and Antigua

Via NASA:

The destruction is also clearly visible on Barbuda. This small island in the eastern Caribbean was directly hit by the category-5 storm early on September 6. These images were acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites. The left image shows Barbuda on August 21, 2017. The right image shows the ravaged landscape on September 8.

In contrast, vegetation on Antigua appears relatively healthy and intact. With the storm’s center passing to the north, the island sustained less damage. Ground reports noted that by September 7, electricity had been restored to most of the island, and the international airport reopened.

Some pictures of #Barbuda pic.twitter.com/H3zU0KJgzw

— ZeroPointNow (@ZeroPointNow) September 6, 2017

After wreaking havoc on the Bahamas, the 650 mile wide hurricane bled off much of its energy after scraping across Cuba – slowing it down to a Category 4 by the time it swept across the Florida Keys, and reaching Category 3 by the time it struck Marco island just south of Naples, FL.

Irma rolled past Tampa as a Category 1 early Monday, having caused widespread flooding, power outages, and structural damage affecting at least nine states from eastern Mississippi to the Carolinas.

The combined damage from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma could top $290 billion according to AccuWeather President Joel Meyers. “We believe the damage estimate from Irma to be about $100 billion — among the costliest hurricanes of all time. This amounts to 0.5 of a percentage point of the GDP of $19 trillion,” Myers said. “We estimated that Hurricane Harvey is to be the costliest weather disaster in U.S. history, at $190 billion, or 1 full percentage point of the GDP.”

Federal investigators with the National Transportation Safetty Board are reportedly set to find that Tesla, Inc.’s ($TSLA) self-driving system should share the blame in a fatal 2016 crash in which a Model S sedan collided with the side of a truck, killing former Navy Seal Joshua Brown.

The NTSB meets Tuesday to submit its findings, which will be subject to revision by board members. A preliminary report, however, concluded that Tesla’s automated system allowed Brown to effectively let the car drive itself for ‘long periods without steering or apparently even looking at the road,’despite warnings from Tesla that customers should maintain awareness over driving conditions and keep their hands on the wheel.

Brown, 40, was driving near Williston, FL on May 7, 2016 when his Tesla struck the side of a truck trailer that was making a left turn in front of him. There is no evidence that the car attempted to slow down or make evasive maneuvers, according to the NTSB.

Via Bloomberg: 

Brown, who “loved technology,” believed the Tesla automation has saved lives, according to a statement released by his family on Monday through their attorneys. “We heard numerous times that the car killed our son,” said the statement issued by the law firm Landskroner Grieco Merriman LLC. “That is simply not the case.”

The statement also praised Tesla for improving its Autopilot software after the accident, changes it said were a direct result of the crash.

Tesla didn’t provide an immediate comment on the draft conclusions. The company said in a statement last year that customers had to acknowledge Autopilot’s limitations before it would allow the systems to operate. Every time the system is engaged, it reminds drivers: “Always keep your hands on the wheel. Be prepared to take over at any time.”

Following the accident, Tesla released an upgrade to its autopilot program which makes it more difficult for drivers to ignore warnings to put their hands on the steering wheel – stopping the car if the warnings are ignored and only resuming function after the car has been parked.

Tesla also modified how the auto-pilot system detects potential obstructions, such as the ability to identify the white side of a tractor trailer vs. a bright sky. The upgraded system emphasizes the use of radar over cameras, according to a company statement.

Broad implications

Bloomberg also reports that the safety board’s findings and recommendations could have broad implications for how self-driving technology is phased in on vehicles and trucks, and it comes as Congress is debating legislation to spur autonomous vehicle systems. Tech and auto companies are pouring billions of dollars into a race to develop self-driving vehicles, which carmakers from Tesla to Volvo Cars say could be deployed in less than 10 years.

Class action

A class-action lawsuit was filed in a California court in April against the automaker, alleging that the Tesla autopilot system is “dangerously defective” when engaged – with cars sometimes veering out of lanes, braking for no reason, or failing to stop when approaching other vehicles.

In response, Tesla said that they never claimed the vehicles have “full self-driving capability,” adding that the suit misrepresented the facts and is nothing more than a “disingenuous attempt to secure attorney’s fees.”

According to the Wall St. Journal, several of President Trump’s lawyers were so concerned about ‘possible legal complications’ related to the Russia probe that they wanted him to step down as senior White House adviser.

Via WSJ:

Among their concerns was that Mr. Kushner was the adviser closest to the president who had the most dealings with Russian officials and businesspeople during the campaign and transition, some of which are currently being examined by federal investigators and congressional oversight panels. Mr. Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and confidant, has said he had four such meetings or interactions.

Advisers were also worried about Kushner’s failure to include of contacts with ‘dozens of foreign officials’ on his official disclosure forms, which congressional Democrats seized upon in June – demanding Kushner’s security clearance be revoked pending investigation.

“When there are credible allegations that employees may be unfit to continue accessing classified information, security clearances are supposed to be suspended while the allegations are investigated.”

“Mr. Kushner reportedly failed to disclose contacts with dozens of foreign officials on his security clearance application.”

READ IT HERE: Like #Flynn, #Kushner Failed to Disclose Meetings with #Russians. Dems letter to the #WhiteHouse pic.twitter.com/wPZYfarQQl

— House OversightDems (@OversightDems) June 21, 2017

Mueller investigation

A month before Kushner’s failure to disclose foreign contacts hit the wires, reports surfaced that the Presidential advisor was under investigation by FBI Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, as reported by the Washington Post and confirmed by journalist Yashar Ali.

It's jared Kushner have confirmed this with four people. I'm not speculating

— Yashar Ali ? (@yashar) May 19, 2017

In addition to the disclosure issues, Kushner may face heat over meetings with Russian government officials at a time the Kushner family sought financing for a $1.8 billion building on Fifth Avenue in New York.

The White House has said that the subsequent meeting with the banker was a pre-inauguration diplomatic encounter, unrelated to business matters. The Russian bank, Vnesheconombank, which has been the subject of U.S. sanctions following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, has said the session was held for business reasons because of Kushner’s role as head of his family’s real estate company. -WaPo

Kushner also came under fire for allegedly trying to establish a diplomatic ‘back channel’ with Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, “in a meeting which “occurred in Trump Tower, where we had our transition office, and lasted twenty [to] thirty minutes,” Kushner wrote in an 11 page statement submitted to Congress in July, adding “Lt. General Michael Flynn (Ret.), who became the President’s National Security Advisor, also attended … I stated our desire for a fresh start in relations.”

“I did not suggest a ‘secret back channel,'” he wrote. “I did not suggest an on-going secret form of communication for then or for when the administration took office. I did not raise the possibility of using the embassy or any other Russian facility for any purpose other than this one possible conversation in the transition period. We did not discuss sanctions.”

While it appears Kushner impressed Congress during closed-door testimony, it remains to be seen whether or not his dealings with foreign officials will pose a liability to the Trump administration, leaving no doubt as to why his father-in-law’s advisers were worried.

After Steve Bannon’s widely viewed interview with Charlie Rose on 60 Minutes Sunday night, professional photographer Peter Duke uploaded a video to YouTube explaining how CBS may have used color adjustments to make the former Trump advisor ‘look bad’ in the interview.

In the video’s description, Duke writes “It seems like 60 minutes would like you to listen less and look more at Steve Bannon. By subtly tweaking the color of the video, they make him look like a bleary-eyed drunk. I show you how they did it.”

Duke goes on to explain how CBS adjusted shots of Bannon to make his eyes and lips red by increasing saturation levels. One clue that photographic trickery was afoot is the difference in color between Bannon’s orange blinds when comparing shots of Charlie Rose and Bannon. Rose’s shots were noticeably ‘cooler,’ to make the host’s make-up more subtle.

GREAT VIDEO. Networks do this a lot. That's why conservatives seem to look so much better on Fox News. https://t.co/jWmP5YcYxQ

— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) September 11, 2017

CBS Responds

In response to Duke’s video, a representative for CBS curtly told decider.com “It’s nonsense.”

Duke, in response to CBS’s ‘Nonsense’ comment, told Gateway Pundit’s Joshua Caplan that “All professional video production uses color correction in the editorial process. Minor tweaks can be done in all digital video editing tools, but the majors use Avid Media Composer or Davinci Resolve to add the final finish to the work.

In addition to my experience as a photographer and technologist, I spent 5 years of my career working as creative director at a post-house that produced marketing videos, electronic press kits, for every major studio in Hollywood.”

INBOX: @peterdukephoto responds to CBS calling his Bannon-60 Minutes video "nonsense" pic.twitter.com/GrWJ8qyFQX

— Josh Caplan (@joshdcaplan) September 12, 2017

In a one-page ruling signed by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the Supreme Court issued a stay to the 9th circuit’s injunction on the Trump admin’s Executive Order banning travel from seven nations deemed to support terrorism.

The court denied a lower court ruling at the request of the Justice Department which would have allowed refugees an exemption to the ban by claiming resettlement organizations constitute “bona fide connections” to the U.S. – a loophole previously obtained by an estimated 24,000 refugees.

Temporary stay on refugees in travel ban case pic.twitter.com/lOtk7l26H9

— Adam Liptak (@adamliptak) September 11, 2017

“Today’s unanimous Supreme Court decision is a clear victory for our national security,” said Trump in a statement”…As President, I cannot allow people into our country who want to do us harm. I want people who can love the United States and all of its citizens, and who will be hardworking and productive,” adding”My No. 1 responsibility as commander in chief is to keep the American people safe. Today’s ruling allows me to use an important tool for protecting our Nation’s homeland.”

The Supreme Court made it clear that a limited version of the Executive Order can be enforced immediately, with a full hearing including oral arguments slated for October:

“An American individual or entity that has a bona fide relationship with a particular person seeking to enter the country as a refugee can legitimately claim concrete hardship if that person is excluded,” the court wrote. “As to these individuals and entities, we do not disturb the injunction. But when it comes to refugees who lack any such connection to the United States, for the reasons we have set out, the balance tips in favor of the government’s compelling need to provide for the Nation’s security.”

Hawaii will fight

Via Independent.co.uk

Neal Katyal, a lawyer representing the state of Hawaii in its suit against the ban, said on Twitter the he would fight the decision. Hawaii is one of more than a half-dozen states that have sued to block the ban since its implementation.

Lawyers have argued that the ban, which bars entry for refugees and residents of six Muslim-majority countries, constitutes a ‘Muslim ban’. Such a ban would violate constitutional prohibitions on favouring one religion over another. Two separate appeals courts have already ruled the ban unconstitutional.

Mr Trump, meanwhile, maintains the ban is a necessary national security measure.

Interestingly, six of the seven nations included in the travel ban forbid citizens from various nations based on nationality – including Israel, Algeria, Bangladesh, Brunei, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.