Franklin signs contract extension worth $34.7 million – Williamsport Sun-Gazette

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Penn State head coach James Franklin directs his team during NCAA college football practice on the outdoor fields at Lasch in State College, Pa., Monday, July 31, 2017. (Joe Hermitt/PennLive.com via AP)

James Franklin is now the fourth-highest paid coach in college football after agreeing to a new six-year contract with Penn State that will guarantee him $34.7 million.

A contract extension seemed to be a given after Franklin led the Nittany Lions to a Big Ten title, 11-3 record and top 10 finish last season. The contract negotiations took longer than most expected, but both sides reached an agreement, and terms of the deal were announced Friday.

Franklin will earn an average of $5.8 million per year over the life of the contract, figuring in base salary and all additional income. He will be the highest-paid African-American coach in college football and the second-highest paid at any level of football, behind only Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers ($7 million).

Oddly enough, though, Franklin is still just the third-highest paid coach in the Big Ten East Division, behind Michigans Jim Harbaugh and Ohio States Urban Meyer (see fact box).

My family and I are very thankful to be a part of the Penn State community, Franklin said in a university release. I am pleased with the progress our program has made in the community, in the classroom and on the field.

I look forward to diligently working with President (Eric) Barron and Director of Athletics Sandy Barbour on implementing a plan that puts our university and our student-athletes in the best position to compete on the field and in life.

Franklins annual salary breakdown:

2017: $4,300,000

2018: $4,500,000

2019: $5,350,000

2020: $5,650,000

2021: $5,950,000

2022: $6,250,000

He also will be due an additional retention bonus at the end of each calendar year. That will pay him $300,000 each of the first four years, then $500,000 in 2021 and $1 million in 2022.

There also are significant bonuses, ranging from $200,000 just for getting to a bowl game, to $800,000 for winning a national title.

The contract buyout for Franklin, should he leave PSU, is relatively small by current standards. Its $2 million this year, but only $1 million over the final five years of the contract.

Franklin came to Penn State from Vanderbilt in 2014 and, despite dealing with heavy NCAA sanctions, went 7-6 each of his first two seasons. The Lions entered last season with some higher hopes, but got off to a 2-2 start that included losses at rival Pitt and a 49-10 blowout at Michigan.

Penn State got on a roll after the Michigan loss, winning its final eight regular-season games, including a stunning 24-21 victory over No. 2 Ohio State at Beaver Stadium. The Lions rallied to beat Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game to earn a berth in the Rose Bowl, where they lost a thriller to USC, 52-49.

Penn State finished last season ranked No. 7, and it is ranked in the top 10 in most major polls this preseason.

On top of the success on the field, Franklin and his staff have done an exceptional job in recruiting. The Lions currently have the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation, according to Rivals.com.

Add it all up, and it was obvious Franklin soon would be getting a new contract. His initial deal with Penn State was for six years and would have run out in 2019.

James and his staff have done an exceptional job with our football student-athletes and in all aspects of the football program, Barbour said in the university statement. His values are Penn States values and they resonate throughout every member of the organization and team he has built.

James is a tremendous leader of young men, motivating them to extend their reach and impact far beyond what they might have thought possible on the field, in the classroom and community. We are excited about continuing to work together to strive to make a lifetime of impact, win championships and celebrate many successes on and off the field along the way.

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Franklin signs contract extension worth $34.7 million - Williamsport Sun-Gazette

Steve Bannon made Donald Trump who he is – Chicago Tribune

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Stephen K. Bannon may be gone, but he won't soon be forgotten. Firing the chief strategist from the White House will bolster the frayed hopes of Chief of Staff John F. Kelly that he might somehow corral the raging bull in the Oval Office. Plenty of china has been smashed since January, but a few dishes maybe even the prized platter of tax reform could yet be rescued. Maybe.

But Bannon played a role for President Donald Trump that no one else can fill, one that Trump will pine for like a junkie pines for smack. The impresario of apocalyptic politics gave Trump a grandiose image of himself at a time when the real estate mogul was building a movement but had no real ideas.

Until Bannon came along, Trump was a political smorgasbord. He had been a Democrat, an independent and a Republican. He had been pro-choice and anti-abortion. He did business in the Middle East and tweeted about a Muslim ban. As for deep policy debates, he really couldn't be bothered. He was a vibe, a zeitgeist not a platform.

Bannon convinced him that he was something more than a political neophyte with great instincts and perfect timing. Trump, Bannon purred in his ear, was the next wave of world history. He painted a picture of Trump as a world-historical force, the revolutionary leader of a "new political order," as the strategist told Time magazine earlier this year.

Under the influence of a pair of generational theorists, William Strauss and Neil Howe, Bannon conceives of American history as a repeating cycle of four phases. A generation struggles with an existential crisis: the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War II. The next generation builds institutions to prevent a future crisis. The next generation rebels against the institutions, leading to a "Fourth Turning," in which the next crisis comes. Believing that another crisis is upon us, Bannon framed a role in Trump's imagination for the former real estate mogul to remake the world. To the list of crisis presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt they would add the name of Trump.

With Bannon gone, the White House might become a place less in love with conflict and chaos. But it is hard to think that Trump will be happy without aides who can paint such a picture for him. He will be looking for ways to keep in touch with his Svengali, because once you've been a Man of Destiny, it's hard to go back to being a guy who got lucky.

David Von Drehle writes a twice-weekly column for The Post. He was previously an editor-at-large for Time Magazine, and is the author of four books, including "Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and Americas Most Perilous Year" and "Triangle: The Fire That Changed America."

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Steve Bannon made Donald Trump who he is - Chicago Tribune

‘An Inconvenient Truth’: Did the Earth move for us? – Irish Times

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The release in 2006 of the documentary film An Inconvenient Truth was a surprise box office and critical hit, as well as a landmark moment in raising awareness about dangerous climate change.

Grossing more than $50 million, it became one of the most successful documentary films ever made, and was widely regarded as having reinvigorated the global ecological movement. It also earned its creator Al Gore a share of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Gores follow-up film, An Inconvenient Sequel Truth To Power, opens nationwide on August 18th.

For me, the film was an environmental epiphany an electrifying moment when everything Id been studying and trying to process emotionally for several years came crashing into focus.

By the time the final credits were rolling, I sensed my days of cynical indifference on this issue were over. Being a parent of what were then very young children sharpened its impact. After all, the timelines for catastrophe ran right through their future adult lives. Who, knowing this, could choose not to act? In Gores own words, doing nothing in the face of what we now know about climate change is deeply unethical.

I have asked some well-known figures from environmental science and campaigning for their impressions, then and now, of An Inconvenient Truth. Did the Earth move for them?

When it came out I remember feeling excited that someone had actually made a feature film about global warming. At that time it wasnt a big deal in the collective consciousness; most people hadnt really grasped the consequences of rising emissions.

I think the film had a huge impact on how we, as a society, understood climate change. It made the science of climate change accessible to a huge audience, and as an environmental scientist, I felt it helped give our work a boost and endorse our efforts for change.

Tragically, the resulting shift in awareness didnt translate in to policy changes. Even now, a decade later, we all still have our heads in the sand. We know the basic facts, we know the scale of destruction and injustice that climate change brings about, yet any real positive action is still dismissed as extreme. I hope the films sequel will help resolve this cognitive dissonance.

The International Panel on Climate Changes (IPCC) fourth assessment report came out later that year, and the real importance of the film is that it articulated the science to the public in a way that hadnt been done before.

Up till then, IPCC reports were seen as dusty old documents that were kept in a drawer. Al Gore showed their relevance by explaining the impact of climate change on us as individuals. Gore also provided leadership to the environmental movement at that time, someone they could coalesce around to express their particular concerns.

Some of the way he conveyed the science was populist, and you could pick holes in some of his arguments, as his critics tried so often to do, but the overall thrust of what he said in the film is true, and has been proven true ever since.

Gores first movie had a profound effect on me. Im embarrassed to admit it, but I cried when the credits came up because it was the moment I realised that, if we didnt solve climate change, everything was at risk. Yet the problem was so big I couldnt fathom how to fix it.

The original film did a great job raising awareness of climate change but it stopped short of providing much in the way of solutions. I think thats part of the reason it failed to make a huge impact with the public not everyone wanted to go to the cinema to get depressed.

However, Gores Climate Reality project, which came after the film, has had real impact. I am one of over 8,000 climate leaders in 126 countries who have been trained to give a version of his famous PowerPoint presentation. That may be its enduring legacy.

Has any public figure been more pilloried for their efforts to communicate the climate threat than Al Gore? Going back to his time as US vice-president, where he worked hard to put global warming on the political agenda, he has been under relentless attack from the well-funded forces of denial.

The release of An Inconvenient Truth in 2006 led to an intensification of the hate campaign against Gore that continues to this day.

In his original film one of Gores slides featured a graphic of the famous hockey-stick curve that my co-authors and I published in the late 1990s. This showed a dramatic spike in temperature over the past century.

Every bit as dramatic has been the quite extraordinary global growth in clean energy in the past 10 years. The deniers said it couldnt be done. They were wrong, yet again. Despite everything, there are still reasons for cautious optimism, and Al Gore can take a lot of credit for that.

The movie led to a breakthrough moment in public debate and media coverage of climate change. Suddenly it was a zeitgeist issue. Journalists were looking for the climate angle on almost everything. I remember reading an Irish Times profile of eight young women writers where six of them named climate change as a concern, and thinking weve made it.

Then came the economic crash, which knocked climate right off the political and media agenda. Irish vested interest groups have also worked hard to put protection of short-term private profit above longer-term public interest.

Personally, I liked the movie and the way Gore wove the story of his familys tobacco farming with his own discovery of the science of climate risk. And his nave hopes that evidence alone would sway his fellow Congress members.

There are two memorable quotes from the movie. One is the worry that people might swing from denial to despair without pausing in the middle for action. The other is that only thing preventing action is a lack of political will, and political will is a renewable resource.

Back in 2006, there was in fact a lot of political support for action on climate. The European Council that year agreed the 2020 (emissions reduction) targets. This happened around the time the film came out, and there is no doubt that it helped. Ive seen the tide go in and out on climate action over the years; An Inconvenient Truth was definitely a high-water mark.

Gores real achievement was in turning dry scientific information into easily understood, digestible material. For me, the wow moment in the film was that one graph (tracking projected carbon dioxide levels by mid-century) that went literally through the roof.

Having lived for a while in the US, I also liked the closing sequence featuring a shot of the river near his home, connecting him to the beauty of the place he grew up in Tennessee and the awareness that this really could all be lost.

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'An Inconvenient Truth': Did the Earth move for us? - Irish Times

This start-up added robots to help battle Amazon and Costco, but didn’t have to cut any jobs – CNBC

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Boxed CEO Chieh Huang says the company's biggest challenge in its early days was not having enough manpower.

"When we used to have those deluge of orders, we used to empty the entire corporate office, get a bus, and bring them here to the fulfillment center," Huang says.

Boxed packages and ships bulky items to customers directly from its warehouses, and is taking on the likes of Amazon and Costco.

The company started in 2013, in Chieh's parents' garage. Since then, it's expanded to four fulfillment centers and has turned to automation to help it keep up with demand. Boxed just finished fully automating its headquarters in Union, New Jersey, and saw its picking productivity increase by 600 to 700 percent.

Surprisingly, the company was able to keep its entire workforce thanks to retraining.

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This start-up added robots to help battle Amazon and Costco, but didn't have to cut any jobs - CNBC

Reverence For Robots: Japanese Workers Treasure Automation – Manufacturing.net

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Thousands upon thousands of cans are filled with beer, capped and washed, wrapped into six-packs, and boxed at dizzying speeds 1,500 a minute, to be exact on humming conveyor belts that zip and wind in a sprawling factory near Tokyo.

Nary a soul is in sight in this picture-perfect image of Japanese automation.

The machines do all the heavy lifting at this plant run by Asahi Breweries, Japan's top brewer. The human job is to make sure the machines do the work right, and to check on the quality the sensors are monitoring.

"Basically, nothing goes wrong. The lines are up and running 96 percent," said Shinichi Uno, a manager at the plant. "Although machines make things, human beings oversee the machines."

Thedebateover machines snatching jobs from people is muted in Japan, where birth rates have been sinking for decades, raising fears of a labor shortage. It would be hard to find a culture that celebrates robots more, evident in the popularity of companion robots for consumers, sold by the internet company SoftBank and Toyota Motor Corp, among others.

Japan, which forged a big push toward robotics starting in the 1990s, leads the world in robots per 10,000 workers in the automobile sector 1,562, compared with 1,091 in the U.S. and 1,133 in Germany, according to a White House report submitted to Congress last year. Japan was also ahead in sectors outside automobiles at 219 robots per 10,000 workers, compared with 76 for the U.S. and 147 for Germany.

One factor in Japan's different take on automation is the "lifetime employment" system. Major Japanese companies generally retain workers, even if their abilities become outdated, and retrain them for other tasks, said Koichi Iwamoto, a senior fellow at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry.

That system is starting to fray as Japan globalizes, but it's still largely in use, Iwamoto said.

Although data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development show digitalization reduces demand for mid-level routine tasks such as running assembly lines while boosting demand for low- and high-skilled jobs, that trend has been less pronounced in Japan than in the U.S.

The OECD data, which studied shifts from 2002 to 2014, showed employment trends remained almost unchanged for Japan.

That means companies in Japan weren't resorting as aggressively as those in the U.S. to robots to replace humans. Clerical workers, for instance, were keeping their jobs, although their jobs could be done better, in theory, by computers.

That kind of resistance to adopting digital technology for services also is reflected in how Japanese society has so far opted to keep taxis instead of shifting to online ride hailing and shuttle services.

Still, automation has progressed in Japan to the extent the nation has now entered what Iwamoto called a "reflective stage," in which "human harmony with machines" is being pursued, he said.

"Some tasks may be better performed by people, after all," said Iwamoto.

Kiyoshi Sakai, who has worked at Asahi for 29 years, recalls how, in the past, can caps had to be placed into machines by hand, a repetitive task that was hard not just on the body, but also the mind.

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Reverence For Robots: Japanese Workers Treasure Automation - Manufacturing.net

Automation on the rise in manufacturing – Vincennes Sun Commercial

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With changing technologies, some Dubois County manufacturers say theres no doubt the amount of automation they use within their facilities will increase in years to come.

Its a game-changer, Kevin Ward, plant manager at Kimball Hospitality, said of automation.

Kimball Hospitality is in the midst of a $4.4 million, two-year project the 16th Street Realignment Project which will install state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment in the plant, allowing the company to automate some of the labor performed by employees, such as moving product from station to station.

Automation is technology that automatically controls a process, such as tech involved with the manufacturing of a product. A recent study by Ball State Universitys Center for Business and Economic Research sought to find out how communities will be affected by automation. The study (How vulnerable are American communities to automation, trade & urbanization?) suggests that about half of U.S. jobs are at risk because of automation.

It puts about 59 percent of Dubois County jobs at risk.

As a workplace is automated, it is unlikely that all occupations will be eliminated, the study concludes. Rather, some jobs will be created, some will be destroyed, and others will be unaffected.

With Kimball Hospitalitys project, Ward doesnt expect the company to lose any employees.

The key before you automate is that you have to make sure your employees can accept that automation, he said, adding that the company began cross-training employees about two years ago in anticipation of increased automation.

He said Kimball Hospitalitys most capable computer network-controlled machine is 19 years old and was the best technology for its time. It, as well as other machines, will soon be replaced with machines that are more automated, allowing for more flexibility.

For example, say a customer orders a hotel room of furniture. Ward said a new automated machine will be capable of automatically changing over to run each piece of furniture one right after the other, a process called mixed-model.

The older machine can do mixed-model, but Ward said that because the changeover is not automated, the process takes too long.

Its about synchronizing the plant to orders, he said of the companys increased automation efforts. We want to be flexible so when a customer has a need, we can do it. We can now tailor the manufacturing process to a customers needs.

He said new technologies at the plant will allow the facility to produce more product when demand increases. When that happens, he said, the plant will need to hire additional employees.

Our human resources are driven by customer demand, he said.

Jasper-based MasterBrand Cabinets has also integrated automation into its cabinet manufacturing. Much of the technology is used for the movement and handling of materials.

We also have some plants looking at pick-and-place robots where an arm takes a piece and puts it in the machine and once finished, takes it out, said Scott Denhart, general manager of MasterBrands Ferdinand plant. The spraying of doors, theres robotics involved in that as well.

He said safety is one of the biggest drivers that led the company to automation.

Were always looking at reducing the opportunity for injury in the plant, Denhart said. A lot of injuries stem from the repetitive motion type of work.

He said automation can help with that. It also helps with quality control, keeping the product the same every time.

Theres also the old saying that a robot never takes a day off, he said. Theres reliability that that particular function is performed no matter what.

As automation evolves, Denhart said a business typically grows. He remembers when MasterBrand was producing 2,000-4,000 units per day. Now daily business is at about 10,000 cabinets a day.

He believes the value of the employee has not been lost during MasterBrands move to automation. Theres a human element in the production process.

Theres a certain amount of fitting parts together that is challenging for robots, Denhart said. Everyone (employees) is also responsible for ugly to obvious defects and not letting them out of the plant.

"How does a machine do that?

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God calls us to stand against inequality – Bryan-College Station Eagle

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White folk sometimes wonder, "If I'd been alive during the Civil War, or in Nazi Germany during the Holocaust, or in America during the Civil Rights Movement, what would I have done?" It's a self-examination where those of us who have not been historically marginalized and oppressed hope we are living righteous lives, walking upright in the sight of God and neighbor.

Since last Saturday's events in Charlotesville, Virginia, I've applied this questioning to Christian doctrine. The church incorporates an accountability of self to the crucifixion of Jesus during Holy Week. Good Friday services highlight the story of Pontius Pilate asking the people for their decision about whether to release Barabbas or Jesus, and they chant for Jesus to be crucified. Christians ask, "Would we have been among that crowd?" as we sing perhaps the most self-reflective hymn ever written: Were You There (When they Crucified my Lord)?

Today, I'm pondering a different moment in Jesus' ministry and what I would've done. It's in Luke's gospel. I'm sitting in the synagogue on the Sabbath day when Jesus, Joseph's boy, stands up and reads from the prophet Isaiah about the Spirit of the Lord being upon him to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to liberate the oppressed and to proclaim the year of God's favor. He sits down and says the reading has been fulfilled in our hearing. We're amazed, so Jesus capitalizes by teaching us that being blessed by God isn't just for us; it's also for outsiders, like those gentiles we customarily despise. The thought of extending blessings to people we're taught to revile, that we might be historically wrong about how we treat them and the thought of equality in the eyes of our God make us mad. We refuse to hear anymore of this offensive talk. The congregation is so filled with anger in defense of our pride that we drive Jesus out of the synagogue and out of town. We force him to the edge of a cliff and try to throw him over. That's when something inside me -- could it be the voice of God? -- says, "You might want to reconsider what you're doing."

I wasn't in Charlotesville last Saturday, but with news stories exposing what happened, I've been imagining it. There's a crowd of white supremacists waving Confederate and Nazi flags chanting, "Jews will not replace us," "blood and soil," and, "white lives matter." They have mobilized to defend the statue of Robert E. Lee from being taken down in the newly named Emancipation Park.

Some have come to counter this narrative, including an interfaith group of clergy. They are proclaiming the work that has yet to be done since the abolition of slavery: liberating people of color from living under the oppression of institutionalized racism in America. They admonish the white supremacists with a message that cuts to the core of the human condition: we belong to each other, and God made us to be equally included in the circle of this world's provisions, resources and all matter of dignity and goodness, that everyone would have access to those blessings. It sounds like Jesus echoing from a synagogue in antiquity to a town square in 21st century America.

Someone behind the wheel of a car doesn't want to hear any more of that offensive proclamation. He's so angry that he drives into that crowd of loud mouths. He injures some and kills a 32-year-old woman named Heather Heyer.

In the aftermath, a KKK leader tells WBTV in North Carolina he is "glad" people were injured and that Heyer died: "They were a bunch of communists out there protesting against somebody's freedom of speech, so it doesn't bother me that they got hurt at all." At Heyer's funeral, her parents call for forgiveness because "that is what the Lord would want us to do -- just love one another." They remember her life, saying that all she wanted was to show compassion, fight for equality, and put down hate. Pondering what to do now, one of Heyer's friends said, "What would Heather do? Heather would go harder. So that's what we're going to do. We're going to preach love. We're going to preach equality, and Heather's death won't be in vain."

If the spirit of the Lord was upon Jesus, and if Mother Teresa was right, that Christ has no hands or feet on earth but ours, then that still-speaking spirit is urgently upon us all. Last Saturday exposed that our questions of "What would I have done then?" have become "What will I do now?"

These are the days that test our standing before God and neighbor. "I call heaven and earth as my witnesses against you right now: I have set life and death, blessing and curse before you" (Deuteronomy 30:19a). So, what will it be? Will we choose to passively accept the self-inflating pride of systemic racism that deals in death toward historically and presently marginalized and oppressed people with whom our communal salvation is bound; or will we choose life by standing with and for our neighbors of color who are more terrified by our self-involved silence than by those of us who proudly defend hatred without wearing hoods?

The Rev. Dan De Leon is the pastor of Friends Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, College Station.

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God calls us to stand against inequality - Bryan-College Station Eagle

Lisa Morgan Mosley Has Announced The First Volume Of ‘Expressions Of Empowerment’ – Markets Insider

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ATLANTA, Aug. 16, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --Seasoned business leader Lisa Morgan Mosley, Founder of 212 Degrees Coaching Services,has announced the release date for her new self-help and personal growth book titled 'Expressions of Empowerment: An Introspective Guide for Personal and Professional Success (Volume I).' The book will be released on August 30th and will be available for sale on Amazon. With decades of experience in the corporate world, Lisa is known in the industry as an innate sales strategist that capitalizes on company's objectives, and this book is a reflection of her lifetime of engaging personal and professional experiences.

"Empowerment is a key to success, and this book is my effort to share insights of professional and personal success," said Lisa Morgan Mosley, the Author of this inspiring book. "This is the first volume and I look forward to future stories of enlightenment with additional volumes to follow," she added.

This book by Lisa is all about positivity and self-development to meet professional and personal goals in life. According to the reviews, the author has candidly shared her experience to fight negativity and hurdles through a positive sense of growth with motivation. Lisa's background clearly demonstrates that she is an experienced leader in multiple disciplines and a talented motivator and mentor who receives high praise from clients and peers alike for her teaching skills.

About Lisa Morgan MosleyLisa is a renowned American Business and Career Growth Coach with over 25 years of experience and a Master's Degree in Organizational Management. She is the Founder of 212 Degrees Coaching Services and an effective leader in such companies as Apple, AT&T, and FedEx. Lisa also developed curriculum and taught Sales and Marketing Research at Gwinnett Technical College. She is a graduate of The Coach Training Academy and credentialed through the Certified Coaches Alliance (CCA), a member of the International Coach Federation (ICF), and also a member of the National Association of Professional Women (NAPW).

To preorder your copy on Amazon, please visit: http://bit.ly/ExpressionsBook

Website 212degreescoaching.com

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SOURCE 212 Degrees Coaching Services

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Lisa Morgan Mosley Has Announced The First Volume Of 'Expressions Of Empowerment' - Markets Insider

Why this self-help guru only owns 15 things – Business Mirror

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NEW YORKIt was around 10 am on a sun-drenched summer morning, and James Altucher, perhaps, the worlds least likely success guru, was packing his worldly possessions, about 15 items, into a small canvas carry-on bag.

If I were to die, my kids get this bag, Altucher said sardonically as he packed away his laptop, iPad, three sets of chinos, three t-shirts and a Ziploc bag filled with $4,000 worth of $2 bills (People always remember you if you tip with $2 bills, he said), and departed a friends loft.

A few months ago, the boyish 48-year-old let the lease expire on his Cold Spring, New York, apartment, and dumped or donated virtually everything he owned, more than 40 garbage bags of sheets, dishes, clothes, books, his college diploma, even childhood photo albums. Since then, hes been bouncing among friends apartments and Airbnb rentals.

Its not that he is down on his luck. Several of the 16 books he has written, including his 2013 personal-empowerment manifesto, Choose Yourself, continue to sell briskly. His weekly podcasts, The James Altucher Show, featuring interviews with notables as diverse as Ron Paul and Luther Campbell of 2 Live Crew and Question of the Day, with Stephen Dubner, are downloaded about 2 million times a month.

Altucher is simply practicing what he preaches. Over the last half-decade, this former tech entrepreneur, venture capitalist and financial pundit has reinvented himself as a gimlet-eyed self-help guru, preaching survival in an era when the American dreamthe gold-embossed college diploma, the corner office, the three-bedroom homeseems like a sham. So one by one, he has shed all of them.

I have ambition, he said, to have no ambition.

In the past 25 years, income has gone down for the 18- to 35-year-olds, student-loan debt is at an all-time high, Altucher said over a lunch of zucchini pancakes at a Russian restaurant in the Flatiron district. We had $3 trillion in bailout money, and income inequality got higher than ever. People feel like they were scammed.

While there is no shortage of anger and confusion about the supposed waning of the American dream, what makes Altucher stand out are his Cassandra-like conclusions.

College, he says, is a waste of money. Although he graduated from Cornell, Altucher argues that the college degree is becoming a costly luxury in a world where millennials feel like debt serfs and entry-level professional jobs are scarce.

In a 2012 self-published book, 40 Alternatives to College, he argued that young adults could travel the world, educate themselves online and start a business with the same $200,000 they may spend on college.

Investing the money with even a 5-percent return would offer greater financial benefit over the course of a lifetime, he wrote in a blog post.

Similarly, he believes homeownership is a rip-off foisted upon unwitting citizens by a $14-trillion mortgage industry.

Its a total scam, he said in an online interview. Nobody should put more than 5 percent to 10 percent of their portfolio, their assets, in any one investment. But when people buy a home, they go crazy. They put like 50 percent, 60 percent, 70 percent of their net worth into this one investment. Its illiquid, so when times are hard, you cant sell it.

And he think stocks are a racket. Its a fierce worldview that is rooted in Altuchers own roller-coaster life.

In the 1990s as a young Silicon Alley start-up whiz, Altucher made millions with a web-design company, Reset Inc., that counted Sony and Miramax as clients.

Soon, he and his wife at the time, Anne (they divorced in 2010), were living in a 5,000-square-foot loft in TriBeCa that he bought for $1.8 million and spent another $1 million renovating. He felt flush enough to take a helicopter to Atlantic City, New Jersey, on weekends to play poker.

The lavish lifestyle did not fill his emotional void. Nobody should feel sorry for me, he said. I was really stupid, but I thought I was dirt poor. I felt like I needed $100 million to be happy. So I just started investing in all these other companies, and they were just stupid companies. Zero of these investments worked out.

As his fortunes collapsed, he was forced to sell his apartment for a $1-million loss (it was after the attacks of September 11, 2001).

To reclaim his wealth, he set his sights on the stock market. He read more than a hundred books on investing, and eventually wrangled a job writing for James Cramers site, TheStreet and, later, The Financial Times. Before long, his trademark hairdo, which looks like carnival cotton candy spun from steel wool, was a familiar sight on CNBC.

But his fortunes crumbled once again during the financial crisis that began in 2008. The hedge fund he started ran out of gas, various start-ups withered, writing gigs dried up. With few options open, he decided to chronicle his failures on a personal blog, which he named Altucher Confidential.

I just said, Ive made every mistake in the book: Heres what they are, Altucher said. To Wall Street friends, he seemed like Howard Beale, the anchorman in Network who had a meltdown on-air.

Instead of touting the latest hot mutual fund, he wrote posts, like 10 Reasons You Should Never Own Stocks Again. (Reason No. 1: Youre not that good at it.) He confessed thoughts of suicide.

Financial people were like watching a train wreck in real time, Altucher said. I had friends I hadnt talked to since high school call me and say, Hey, are you OK?

He soon discovered a sizable audience of people whose own dreams had just gone down the sinkhole. They, too, were looking to claw their way out.

The No. 1 search phrase on Google that takes people to my blog is I want to die, Altucher said.

By writing candidly about his own triumphs and flameouts, Altucher shows readers how they can succeed despite their flaws, not because of a lack of flaws, said Tim Ferriss, author of the best-selling 4-Hour self-improvement series. This is hugely refreshing in a world of rah-rah positive-thinking gurus who are all forced smiles and high-fives.

It helped that Altucher, despite his biting views on topics like college, maintained a positive tone. I am an optimist, he said. Theres a great novel from the 1960s by Richard Faria called Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me. Basically, Ive been down on the floor so many times, I know now that I can always bounce back, and it gets faster each time.

His philosophy is, perhaps, most clearly articulated in Choose Yourself, which he summarized over lunch like this: If you dont choose the life you want to live, chances are, someone else is going to choose it for you. And the results are probably not going to be pretty.

His fans swear by him. One reader, Beck Power, recently wrote an essay on Medium about how he inspired her to ditch a frustrating job to start her own online travel business. I dance in my underwear, she wrote. I dont have panic attacks anymore.

A talk he gave at a London church last year drew about 1,000 people, and fans have organized Choose Yourself meetups in cities around the world. On LinkedIn, where he publishes original free essays, Altucher has more than 485,000 followers and is ranked the No. 4 influencer, after Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Mohamed A. El Erian, the financier and author.

Altucher, in fact, disputes that he is a guru in the first place. I am not a self-help guy at all, he said.

Advice is autobiography, he added. I only say what has worked for me, and then others can choose to try it or not.

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Why this self-help guru only owns 15 things - Business Mirror

Facebook (FB) is locking down the technology for its smart … – Quartz – Quartz

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Today, Facebook is a dominant social networkthats not enough for CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He wants to help us see things that arent there.

Facebook is working on designing augmented reality glasses that could display digital objects in the physical world, according to a patent application filed Aug. 17. Zuckerberg had previously shown photos of similar glasses, saying that they would be the future of augmented reality, but he didnt reveal that Facebook was developing such a product. If the company creates its own AR hardware, it would have its own Apple-like computing platform, marrying both hardware and software.

Zuckerberg has been particularly vocal about stating that augmented reality will be the next big consumer tech platform after smartphones. Think about how many of the things you use [that] dont actually need to be physical, Zuckerberg told Recode earlier this year. You want to play a board game? You snap your fingers, and heres the board game.

The application for a waveguide display with two-dimensional scanner details a pair of glasses with transparent displays for lenses. Light would flow into the displays, which would distribute the light and refract it into a users eyes. Its unclear whether the image displayed would also be visible to those looking at the glasses.

The waveguide display may be included in an eye-wear comprising a frame and a display assembly that presents media to a users eyes, the patent application says.

This technology is being developed at Oculus, the virtual reality company Facebook acquired in 2014. One of the patents authors, a lead optical scientist at Oculus, previously helped build the optical system for Microsofts HoloLens, as noted by Business Insider. An executive at Oculus says the technology wont really be viable until 2022.

The field for developing augmented devices is growing, but the technology is tricky. Microsofts HoloLens is the first available, but its aimed mainly at academia, developers, and a handful of professional uses that Microsoft has touted. Apple and Magic Leap (partially funded by Google) reportedly are working on similar technologies.

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Facebook (FB) is locking down the technology for its smart ... - Quartz - Quartz

How technology is about to transform the way we save cash forever – Telegraph.co.uk

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Imagine walking into your bank and telling the cashier you wanted to open a savings account.

Youd expect to be offered a small choice of terms and rates and you probably would not expect any of those rates to be absolutely best in class.

What you would not expect is to be offered an enormous swathe of savings options including many accounts from other financial institutions. A Dutch bank, or a Swedish one? Yes, these lenders want your sterling savings too, it seems, and in the near future you may be able to save with them and get some exceptional rates via accounts operated by your own, existing banks.

Welcome to open banking something that sounds like technology jargon but which, whatever words you use, is real and revolutionary. And about to arrive in Britain.

I confidently predict it will change the way we save cash, and very quickly.

The British love cash. There is an inherent...

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How technology is about to transform the way we save cash forever - Telegraph.co.uk

Could technology be getting out of control? – Newsday

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Humanity has a method for trying to prevent new technologies from getting out of hand: explore the possible negative consequences, involving all parties affected, and come to some agreement on ways to mitigate them. New research, though, suggests that the accelerating pace of change could soon render this approach ineffective.

People use laws, social norms and international agreements to reap the benefits of technology while minimizing undesirable things like environmental damage. In aiming to find such rules of behavior, we often take inspiration from what game theorists call a Nash equilibrium, named after the mathematician and economist John Nash. In game theory, a Nash equilibrium is a set of strategies that, once discovered by a set of players, provides a stable fixed point at which no one has an incentive to depart from their current strategy.

To reach such an equilibrium, the players need to understand the consequences of their own and others potential actions. During the Cold War, for example, peace among nuclear powers depended on the understanding the any attack would ensure everyones destruction. Similarly, from local regulations to international law, negotiations can be seen as a gradual exploration of all possible moves to find a stable framework of rules acceptable to everyone, and giving no one an incentive to cheat because doing so would leave them worse off.

But what if technology becomes so complex and starts evolving so rapidly that humans cant imagine the consequences of some new action? This is the question that a pair of scientists Dimitri Kusnezov of the National Nuclear Security Administration and Wendell Jones, recently retired from Sandia National Labs explore in a recent paper. Their unsettling conclusion: The concept of strategic equilibrium as an organizing principle may be nearly obsolete.

Kusnezov and Jones derive insight from recent mathematical studies of games with many players and many possible choices of action. One basic finding is a sharp division into two types, stable and unstable. Below a certain level of complexity, the Nash equilibrium is useful in describing the likely outcomes. Beyond that lies a chaotic zone where players never manage to find stable and reliable strategies, but cope only by perpetually shifting their behaviors in a highly irregular way. What happens is essentially random and unpredictable.

The authors argue that emerging technologies especially computing, software and biotechnology such as gene editing are much more likely to fall into the unstable category. In these areas, disruptions are becoming bigger and more frequent as costs fall and sharing platforms enable open innovation. Hence, such technologies will evolve faster than regulatory frameworks at least as traditionally conceived can respond.

What can we do? Kusnezov and Jones dont have an easy answer. One clear implication is that its probably a mistake to copy techniques used for the more slowly evolving and less widely available technologies of the past. This is often the default approach, as illustrated by proposals to regulate gene editing techniques. Such efforts are probably doomed in a world where technologies develop thanks to the parallel efforts of a global population with diverse aims and interests. Perhaps future regulation will itself have to rely on emerging technologies, as some are already exploring for finance.

We may be approaching a profound moment in history, when the guiding idea of strategic equilibrium on which weve relied for 75 years will run up against its limits. If so, regulation will become an entirely different game.

Mark Buchanan, a physicist and science writer, is the author of the book Forecast: What Physics, Meteorology and the Natural Sciences Can Teach Us About Economics. He wrote thisfor Bloomberg View.

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Could technology be getting out of control? - Newsday

Encryption Technology Could Protect the Privacy of Your DNA – Gizmodo

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Your DNA is some of the most intimate information out thereencoded in it is information about your health, your personality, your family history. Its not hard to imagine how such sensitive details could be damaging should they fall into the wrong hands. And yet, the privacy practices of the people and programs handling that information isnt exactly up to snuff.

Researchers at Stanford, though, say they may have a fix for the lagging privacy protocols putting anyone whos ever done a DNA test at risk of indecent exposure. In a study published Friday in Science, researchers say that they have developed a genome cloaking technique that makes it possible to study the human genome for the presence of disease-associated genes without revealing genetic information not directly associated with the information being sought.

The hope, they wrote, is to lessen the concerns of genomic privacy violations and genetic discrimination that taint DNA testing.

Applying the principals of cryptography to human biology, researchers were able to correctly identify gene mutations in groups of patients responsible for causing four different rare diseases, as well as the likely cause of a genetic disease in a baby by comparing his DNA to his parents. They could also determine which out of hundreds of patients shared gene mutations. In doing all this, though, they also managed to keep 97 percent or more of the participants unique genetic information completely hidden from anyone other than the owners of the DNA.

To do this, they had each participant encrypt their genome using a simple algorithm on their computer or smart phone. The encrypted information was then uploaded into the cloud, and the researchers used a secure, multi-party computation to analyze it, revealing only the genetic information important to the investigation. They were able to do so within a matter of minutes.

In 2008, Congress passed the Genetic Information and Nondiscrimination Act, but both loopholes in the law and multipleCongressional actions threaten to erode protections that already exist, making people wary of the consequences of genetic testing. The protections of GINA, for example, do not apply to life insurance, long-term care, or disability insurance, meaning those companies are free to ask for genetic information and reject people deemed too risky. Some scientists have said that fears of genetic discrimination could impact the health of patients, if they refuse testing that could help doctors treat them, and could stymy medical research if patients wary of testing opt not to participate in studies.

Ultimately, we will have to strike a balance: A way to share the secrets of our biology with doctors and scientists, while also protecting our privacy.

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Encryption Technology Could Protect the Privacy of Your DNA - Gizmodo

Pentagon Looking to Draft Blockchain Technology for Security Purposes – Bitcoinist

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Jeff Francis August 19, 2017 10:30 am

Blockchain technology has proven itself to be invaluable for many different applications and now the Pentagon is looking at using blockchain technology to vastly bolster national security.

Theres no denying the fervent interest generated by blockchain technology. The primary focus of blockchain for many people is in cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin. However, an unlikely player is looking at this fascinating innovation: the Pentagon.

The Washington Times is reporting that the US military is looking into applications of blockchain technology to help heighten security across multiple arenas, such as fending off mega-hacks, tampering, and the hijacking of vehicles and satellites through cyber attacks. This focus on blockchain by the Pentagon has been strengthened as they see an increased threat due to Chinese intelligence services targeting commercial transactions.

Stop asking if any governments ARE looking at #blockchain. Start asking if any governments AREN'T (if not quietly): fewer responses to that.

Justin Doc Herman (@JustinHerman) August 16, 2017

The very nature of blockchain is leading to it being adapted for many different uses. The fact that blockchain is a decentralized ledger that is essentially tamper-proof has led many institutions, companies, and countries to use the database technology for their own specific needs.

Just last year, Estonia awarded Guardtime a contract to secure all of the countrys one million health records by using blockchain technology. The overall goal is to create a permanent record that will also eliminate fraud from the medical marketplace.

A consortium of 47 Japanese banks is using this distributed ledger technology to allow real-time domestic and international payments at a lower cost than before. Japan is also is in the trial phase of moving their entire property registry to a blockchain-based system.

Now the Pentagon is seriously working on how to use blockchain for their own specific purposes. Military analysts love that blockchain has such incredible security as any changes made to the database are sent out to all users, which means that the database as a whole will stay secure even if some of the users are hacked. NATO (of which the USA is a part of) launched the Innovation Challenge last year and asked participants to submit blockchain proposals for military logistics, procurement, and finance.

As for the Pentagon and U.S. military, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are looking to use blockchain as a secure messaging service that could even be used on the battlefield. DARPA writes:

If significant portions of the [Defense Department] back-office infrastructure can be decentralized, smart documents and contracts can be instantly and securely sent and received, thereby reducing exposure to hackers and reducing needless delays in DoD back-office correspondence.

Of course, the use of blockchain has many more possibilities for the Pentagon. DARPA could use blockchain to help develop an unhackable code, and a recent memo by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies goes into some detail on how blockchain can help protect the countrys national security industrial base (NSIB) from dangers posed by enemy networks that seek to harm the U.S. through the globalization of manufacturing supply chains.

Its fascinating to see how widely blockchain technology can be used. Its inherent security is a perfect fit for the military, and one wonders if well eventually see the Pentagon paying people in Bitcoin.

Do you think the Pentagon is wise to look at how to use blockchain technology to help increase national security? Let us know in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, PCMag.com

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Goodyear names new chief technology officer – Akron Beacon Journal

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Goodyear names new chief technology officer - Akron Beacon Journal

Obesity in Indian Country Is Mostly the Same; Why That’s Incremental Progress – Indian Country Today Media Network

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TRAHANT REPORTS The most fundamental question about government is this: Does it work? When does government tribal, state or federal actually make a difference in our lives?

There are two ways to answer that question, data and story. Data tells what happens over time, a reference point that ought to provide the proof of self-government. But story is what we tell ourselves about what works, and more often, what does not work. Ideally data and story lead us to the same conclusion.

Courtesy Trahant Reports

Mark Trahant, Trahant Reports

One problem with data is that it measures incremental progress. That should be a good thing. But when telling a story its awfully difficult to report that things are kinda, sorta getting better. We humans want clarity, a success story, right? Or even an outright failure.

Yet progress is often measured slowly.

We all know there is an epidemic of diabetes in Native American communities. Yet its also true that adult diabetes rates for American Indian and Alaska Natives have not increased in recent years, and there has been a significant drop in both vision-related diseases and kidney failures. Incremental progress.

Download our free report, Intergenerational Trauma: Understanding Natives Inherited Pain, to understand this fascinating concept.

Now a new study, one that is built on a massive amount of data, reports that obesity among Native American youth is mostly the same.

The prevalence of overweight and obesity among AI/AN children in this population may have stabilized, while remaining higher than prevalence for US children overall, according to a study published last month by the American Journal of Public Health. The study concluded that American Indian and Alaska Native youth still have higher rates of obesity than the total population, but those rates have remained constant for a decade. In other words: The problem is not getting worse. (At least, mostly.) This report is remarkable because it reflects a huge amount of data reports from at least 184,000 active patients in the Indian health system from across geographic regions and age groups. Most scientific studies rely on a small sample group, making it difficult to compare regions or even break down the data by gender or age. (So Native Americans who are treated outside of the Indian health system would not be included in this data.)

The results: In 2015, the prevalence of overweight and obesity in AI/AN children aged 2 to 19 years was 18.5 percent and 29.7 percent, respectively. Boys had higher obesity prevalence than girls (31.5 percent v. 27.9 percent). Children aged 12 to 19 years had a higher prevalence of overweight and obesity than younger children. The AI/AN children in our study had a higher prevalence of obesity than U.S. children overall in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Results for 2006 through 2014 were similar.

The findings show that the problem is not getting worse. And that is incremental progress.

To put this report into a policy context, think about the hundreds of programs that are designed to get Native American youth more active. Or the education campaigns to improve diet and to encourage exercise that occur every day across Indian country.

This is timely data because Congress must soon reauthorize the Special Diabetes Program for Indians. And this report is evidence that $150 million program works and its also worth a continued investment by taxpayers. (Remember: Chronic diseases, such as diabetes, are by far the most expensive part of health care. Every dollar spent on prevention saves many, many more down the road.)

The goal of course must be a decline in overweight and obesity statistics, not just stability. (And one warning sign in the report is that there was a slight increase in severe obesity even while the general trend is stable.)

The report, by Ann Bullock, MD, Karen Sheff, MS, Kelly Moore, MD, and Spero Manson, PhD, said there are many reasons for a higher obesity prevalence in American Indian and Alaska Native children but also said this was a relatively new phenomenon seen only in the past few generations. The explanations range from the rapid transition from a physically active subsistence lifestyle to the wage economy and sedentary lifestyle. Add to that the risk factors of poverty, stress and trauma.

Indeed, many AI/AN people live in social and physical environments that place them at higher risk than many other U.S. persons for exposure to traumatic events, the study found. Among children in a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development study, the experience of numerous negative life events in childhood increased risk for overweight by age 15 years. Another contributing factor to obesity in children living in lower-income households is food insecurity, which is the lack of dependable access to sufficient quantities of high-quality foods. Even before birth, stress and inadequate nutrition during pregnancy alter metabolic programming, increasing the risk for later obesity in the offspring.

Because obesity is a relatively new phenomenon seen only in the past few generations, there is much that can be done to reverse the trend. And that starts with making sure the problem is not getting worse. Then we can get healthier. Kinda, sorta, at least.

Mark Trahant is the Charles R. Johnson Endowed Professor of Journalism at the University of North Dakota. He is an independent journalist and a member of The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes. On Twitter @TrahantReports.

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Obesity in Indian Country Is Mostly the Same; Why That's Incremental Progress - Indian Country Today Media Network

Vikings 1st-Team Offense Makes Preseason Progress in Seattle – Vikings.com

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SEATTLE If the preseason is designed for teams to show progress from week to week, the Vikings offense certainly achieved its mission Friday night.

A week after Minnesotas first-team offense mustered just 34 yards on total offense in three series against the Bills, the Vikings gained 123 yards against Seattle in the same number of series.

Two key pieces of Minnesotas offense said the performance was a step in the right direction.

"We came out and executed. We came out and played better than we did last week, said Vikings wide receiver Stefon Diggs said. We played a lot longer than we played last week, too, so it's good to be out there for a while, get in a rhythm.

Added Vikings quarterback Sam Bradford: Obviously you want to go out there and you want to play great every time you step on the field. You know, I think from last week to this week we definitely made some progress, though, and I think we're going in the right direction.

Diggs and Bradford had a strong rapport all night as the wide receiver led the team with four catches for 65 yards. The biggest chunk of his production came on Minnesotas first series as Diggs and Bradford connected on a 39-yard gain down the left sideline.

"You know, honestly it was a play that we've probably had in for a while but haven't run it and decided to run it tonight, Bradford said. And it worked. Obviously Diggs did a really nice job of just kind of feeling the soft spot once he kind of got in there to that second level.

The protection was great, added Bradford, who went 7-of-11 for 95 yards. We were able to kind of create a big play right there."

The Vikings settled for a field goal on their opening drive but picked up 76 yards of offense against a Seattle defense that has been among the leagues best over the past few seasons. Minnesota had two penalties in the red zone before the field goal.

"Obviously it was nice to come out and move the ball on that first drive the way we did, Bradford said. Then the two negative plays kind of set us back, which was something that was a little disappointing, given the fact that it's been a point of emphasis of ours in the offseason.

I think there were some positives, Bradford added. We'll go back and look at the tape and see exactly what went on out there, but there's definitely some things that we can build on.

Vikings rookie running back Dalvin Cook also showcased his skills by gaining 50 yards on eight touches. The second-round pick had seven carries for 40 yards and a reception for 10 yards.

Cooks best sequence on the ground came when he tallied 33 yards on three straight carries during Minnesotas second drive.

We just have to keep attacking the defense, Cook said. Were getting more comfortable in what were doing.

It definitely felt good breaking a long run, Cook added about his 15-yard gain at the end of the first quarter. It gives the O-line some confidence and (helps us) establish ourselves early.

Added Bradford: "It was awesome [to see Dalvin]. We've seen it all camp, just what he's been able to do. I think we all know how talented he is, but for him to be able to do that tonight, he was close to breaking a few for some really long runs. Even what he was able to do tonight, it was great to see."

The Vikings will resume preseason play on Aug. 27 at U.S. Bank Stadium against the San Francisco 49ers.

Bradford said its a chance for his unit to keep making progress.

"Obviously the third preseason game is usually kind of the most real, or it's kind of your dress rehearsal before the regular season, Bradford said. I think to get out there next week and get some extended action, get into a rhythm, go out there and put a few things together.

I'm not sure what our week will be this week, but if we do have a game plan, it will be nice to kind of jump into a game plan and hit the film a little bit more over the week, he added. And then go out there and put it on the field.

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Farmers across the state share mid-summer crop progress – Greensburg Daily News

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Many Indiana crop farmers were surprised by the findings of last weeks USDA crop production report. The report, which shares national and state forecasting, is estimating similar corn and soybean yields to last year in Indiana.

In many areas of the state, farmers were expecting lower yields than forecasted by the USDA in its August report. Indiana crop farmers battled rough weather conditions this spring, with extreme rains in April, followed by many unseasonably cold days through the first week of May.

Indiana Farm Bureau spoke to several row crop farmers in various counties across the state to gauge the growth and pollination of their corn, specifically, and to discuss how their own fields appear to compare to the estimates issued last week.

Kevin Cox of TST Farms in Parke County explained the situation many Indiana row crop farmers are seeing this summer.

The corn that I planted early this spring is thin and the corn that I had to replant multiple times this spring is incredibly immature, explained Cox. In some areas, I have a nice, fully-developed ear of corn, but in many areas I have ears that are just beginning to be pollinated, which makes me about 30 days late on a lot of my corn.

Roger Hadley, corn and soybean farmer and Allen County Farm Bureau president, had to replant roughly half of his corn this spring and explained that his replanted corn is just now pollinating. The corn that he did not replant is thin.

When observing the crops while driving down the road, you feel good, but once you get above the crops, you can see the issues, he explained. This time of year, you shouldnt be able to see the ground from above. Thats not the case in my field.

Cox explains that when estimating your yields, you cannot simply consider the areas with zero corn due to flooding, but must consider the circle of crops around the flooded areas that is also affected.

Those surrounding crops may not be down to the ground, but its not fully developed corn, he said. It doesnt take a big area with zero crop to affect the overall field average.

Despite some skeptical farmers across the state, others are seeing results similar to previous years.

For our fields, I think things look ok right now, stated Jordan Brewer of Brewer Farms in Clinton County. The crops have grown out of that stage where you can see through them from the roads. The numbers did surprise me, but I have heard there are good results in the southern portion of the state.

One of those southern Indiana farmers agrees that things are looking as expected this year compared to past years in his area.

In southern Indiana, driving along the roads and observing the fields, it looks like it will be about as good as last year, said Paul France, who farms in Gibson County.

The USDA crop yield estimates are used by farmers and other agriculture professionals to plan the marketing and movement of the commodity throughout the year.

In the end, the market is always right, said Brewer. Individually, we may think that the yields will be different, but these reports are what we have to go off of, so we have to use these numbers going forward for our business.

Weather for the remainder of the growing season is still the main factor in determining the success of the corn crop in Indiana this year.

We just might be able to catch up if we have enough rain and warm weather for the rest of the season, but if there are any hiccups at all with the weather, there is no turning this around, said Cox.

Indiana farmers will have to wait until harvest to truly learn how their yields compare to the state and the rest of the county.

Until the combines roll, no one really knows the results, said Brewer.

Daily News

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Farmers across the state share mid-summer crop progress - Greensburg Daily News

It’s not Steve Bannon’s fault GOP made little progress on taxes, failed on health care: Analyst – CNBC

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Wall Street may be cheering the news that President Donald Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon is leaving the White House, but you really can't blame Bannon for the failure to make progress on the Republican agenda, the American Enterprise Institute's James Pethokoukis told CNBC on Friday.

"It's not because of Steve Bannon that the Republicans failed to pass health-care reform and the president seemed to have a very loose grasp on the details. Nor is it Steve Bannon's fault that tax reform very little progress has been made," the economic policy analyst for the conservative think tank said in an interview with "Closing Bell."

On Friday, the White House announced the controversial Bannon was departing. Bannon had been at odds with some members of the administration, including Trump's top economic aide, Gary Cohn. Wall Street had been fearful about a possible departure of Cohn, a former Goldman Sachs executive.

The news followed a week of outrage over Trump's comments on the deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Corporate and bipartisan political criticism was swift, fueling concerns about the future of the president's pro-growth agenda.

Terry Haines, senior political strategist at Evercore ISI, said that despite the division with the party, the GOP will still work to pass Trump's pro-growth agenda.

"Even though congressional Republicans are going to stay a bit farther away from Trump than they had before, and this was never really a marriage to begin with, they're still going to come together on things that matter, starting with tax reform."

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It's not Steve Bannon's fault GOP made little progress on taxes, failed on health care: Analyst - CNBC

Trump could undermine civil rights progress more than any other president – The Hill (blog)

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After barely eight months in office, President Trump has secured his legacy: If left unchecked, he will undermine civil rights progress in this country more than any president in modern history.

This week has shown previews of this dangerous agenda. And not for the reasons youre thinking.

While Trumps back and forth on whether he would condemn the white supremacist groups behind the deadly tragedy in Charlottesville lent the weight of the United States presidency to a racist worldview, we must also focus on the series of actions that prove those remarks are already being translated into an equally oppressive policy agenda.

Since beginning his campaign, Trump has fanned the flames of racism, bigotry, and xenophobia from calling Mexicans rapists, making a border wall one of his central campaign promises, implementing a Muslim travel ban, and using dog-whistle politics to talk in veiled terms about black communities.

While Trump may have campaigned in taglines, he has governed in tantrums, and, as a result, he has been ineffective at implementing much of this rhetoric, thanks to political and legal challenges. His most recent comments threaten to derail an already stalled agenda even further. However, despite a number of challenges to some of his more high-profile attacks on communities of color, Trump has effectively used executive action to significantly roll back civil rights enforcement in this country.

This month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it would investigate and potentially sue universities over affirmative action policies in admissions. Prior to that, DOJ made headlines when it argued that the Civil Rights Act does not protect people from discrimination against sexual orientationan argument which reversed the DOJs previous position and contradicted an appellate courts recent decision.

The DOJs briefing came on the heels of the president announcing via Twitter that he would ban transgender service members from serving in any capacity in the U.S. military. Such a ban would overturn the Defense Department's policy of allowing open service, and create an untenable level of uncertainty for the 15,000 transgender troops currently serving.

These high-profile announcements have come amidst of several less-reported but troubling civil rightsdevelopments, including announcements that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is dropping a crucial case on exclusionary housing policies; the administration plans tosignificantly limit the offices of civil rights at several agencies; and DOJ intends to take civil rightsenforcement out of the hands of career employees.

Just this week, amidst Trumps comments that have further emboldened white supremacists who see an opportunity in his presidency, HUD dealt another huge blow to fair housing when they announced the suspension of a rule that helps low-income families move to lower poverty communities. Without this rule, low-income families often families of color will continue to be segregated into lower opportunity communities, and it will be more difficult to achieve integrated neighborhoods.

By themselves, these announcements represent an all-out attack on principles of equality and fairness for vulnerable communities. But taken together, they illustrate a craven agenda singularly focused on destroying decades of progress on civil rights achievement and enforcement. We are being confronted with an administration that is emboldening white supremacists while simultaneously weakening civil rights protections. Viewed in this context, Trumps comments no longer seem terrifying because they were bizarre. They seem terrifying because they were not.

Maya Rupert is senior director for policy at the Center for Reproductive Rights. Cashauna Hill is executive director of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center. They are Public Voices Fellow of The OpEd Project.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

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Trump could undermine civil rights progress more than any other president - The Hill (blog)