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New Delhi [India], May 16 (ANI): <keyword id="9766785" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="Lok-Sabha-elections-2024" source="Orion">Lok Sabha elections 2024</keyword> have seen a <keyword id="20108198" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="voter-turnout" source="keywords">voter turnout</keyword> at polling stations of about 66.95 per cent so far, as approximately 451 million people have voted during the first four phases of ongoing general elections. In a bid to encourage voters to exercise their franchise in large numbers, ECI has enhanced its targeted interventions to reach out to every eligible voter. The Commission led by CEC Rajiv Kumar along with ECs Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, further directed CEOs of the states going to poll in the fifth, sixth and seventh phases to timely distribute voter information slips to all electors and enhance outreach activities. "Commission strongly believes that partnership and collaboration are essential pillars of the voter awareness programme. It's heartening to see that, at the Commission's request, different institutions, influencers and celebrities with significant reach are working enthusiastically on a pro-bono basis," Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said. Further, he added that a higher voter turnout would be a message from Indian voters to the world, about the strength of Indian Democracy. He urges all the voters to cast their vote in huge numbers, as voting day is not a holiday but a day of pride, by participating in the festival of democracy. According to an official release, various <keyword id="21686177" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="voter-awareness-drives" source="keywords">voter awareness drives</keyword> and campaigns have been carried out by stakeholders in collaboration with ECI. Telecom Service Providers such as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Bharti Airtel Limited, Jio Telecommunication, and Vodafone-Idea Limited are reaching out to every mobile user in the respective parliamentary constituency through push SMS/Flash SMSs, outbound dialling calls to mobile users, RCS (Rich Communication Services) messaging and WhatsApp messages/alerts. These activities are carried out two/three days before the poll and even on the poll day, in regional languages, with an appeal to vote. ECI has collaborated with BCCI for voter awareness activities during the ongoing IPL season. The voter awareness messages and songs are being played at different stadiums during the cricket matches. The most innovative aspect of this campaign is the administration of voter's pledges by cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar in a pre-recorded video message, at various IPL venues. Further, voter awareness messages are integrated into cricket commentary. Cricketers from 10 IPL teams have encouraged voters to participate in the <keyword id="19895394" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="lok-sabha" source="keywords">Lok Sabha</keyword> elections in 2024 with their recorded voter awareness messages. A voting day alert was sent to all Facebook users pan India to inform and inform the voters about the general elections and to nudge them to participate in the festival of democracy, the release mentioned. The release further stated that WhatsApp personalised messages have begun on polling day. Google India is contributing through its iconic feature of Google Doodle on poll days and banners appearing on YouTube, Google Pat and other Google platforms. The Retail Association of India has been actively engaging with voter awareness activities, through their retail network, whereby retail chains are encouraged to celebrate the election as a festival. The vast network of post offices and banking institutions was utilised by ECI to reach out to a wide and diverse audience across the length and breadth of the country. In collaboration with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the parliamentary elections campaign logo "Chunav ka Parv, Desh ka Garv" has been integrated with the IRCTC portal and tickets. Voter awareness announcements have been integrated with the public address system at all railway stations. The logo stickers are used on coaches of the superfast trains. In collaboration with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, hoardings on voter awareness have been installed in about 16,000 retail outlets. In collaboration with the Ministry of Civil Aviation, airlines are making an inflight announcement with an appeal message to participate in the ensuing elections. Voter guides are being kept in aircraft seat pockets. Apart from this, many airports are providing space for the display of voter awareness messages. Selfie points have been installed at airports in 10 major cities viz. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Patna, Chandigarh, and Pune. Cinema theatres across the country are playing ECI voter awareness films and ECI Song Main Bharat Hoon, Hum Bharat Ke Matdata Hai, at regular intervals, as a part of the Public Service Awareness (PSA) film. Sansad TV is creating short films on Unique Polling Stations set up in remote corners of the country by the election machinery after navigating difficult terrains to demonstrate the challenges in ensuring voting at the last mile. AMUL, Mother Dairy and other milk co-operatives have started branding their milk pouches with the message 'Chunav Ka Parv, Desh ka Garv' and encouraging voters through social media platforms. AMUL is also encouraging voters with its unique messaging through AMUL Girl Topical advertisements in newspapers. Prasar Bharati: Doordarshan has produced, various short films, including appeals from constitutional functionaries like President of India, Vice President of India, and Chief Justice of India, among others. Further, unique polling stations are being covered by the regional Kendra's audio-visual documentation. Music App Spotify is running a campaign called 'Play Your Part', and they have issued print advertisements, and curated the playlists for the elections, on their app. Payments app PhonePe has integrated voter awareness message into their app and is actively encouraging voters. BookMyShow has launched an integrated campaign, titled "Aaj Picture Nahi, Bigger Picture Dekho," to raise awareness among voters. MakeMyTrip is running a campaign titled 'MyVoteWalaTrip', whereby discounts are offered to citizens going to vote. Food delivery platforms such as Zomato and Swiggy are disseminating voter awareness messages through their platforms and social media activities. Grocery App Blinkit changed its logo to "Inkit" for the elections, incorporating a message encouraging people to "Go out and Vote" as a tagline. Uber India is reaching out to voters through multi-channel messaging (in-app, emails, push notifications), offering discounts for rides to polling stations, and amplifying voter awareness messages on social media platforms. Bike app Rapido has been encouraging voters with a free ride to vote. Urban Company has launched 'I Have Voted Campaign' to encourage voters. Tata Neu app, serving as the Tata Group's group-wide consumer-facing mobile app, prominently features the "Cast Your Vote" animated banner on its homepage, with additional initiatives currently underway. Truecaller is enhancing its layout by displaying voter awareness message during outbound calls Some other independent initiatives are Mankind Pharma #VotingVirgin campaign, clothing brand Neeru's "Vote ki Taiyaari" TVC, Tinder's "Every Single Vote Counts" campaign, creatively curated social media post by Matrimonial sites like Jeevansathi.com, etc and discounts for voting by popular brands such as Shoppers' Stop, MakeMyTrip, Chroma and many more. Four phases of Lok Sabha polls have been held and the voting will conclude on June 1 with results on June 4. The remaining phases will be held on May 20, May 25, and June 1.

451 million voters! First four phases of Lok Sabha elections witness 66.95% voter turnout so far

<ul class="summary-list"><li>In a new book, David Enrich takes a deep dive into the 127-year-old law firm Jones Day.</li><li>Donald McGahn, a partner at Jones Day, left the firm to serve as Trump's White House counsel.</li></ul>In February 2015, Don McGahn arrived at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. McGahn was a star lawyer in conservative circles; he had spent years representing a who's who of Republican politicians and causes. His crowning achievement had been several years on the Federal Election Commission, where, to the delight of GOP lawmakers, McGahn helped water down campaign-spending regulations and slowed the agency's rulemaking to a crawl.These days McGahn was a partner at the international law firm Jones Day, part of a new team devoted to helping Republicans win elections and stay out of trouble. Trump, who was preparing to launch a bare-bones presidential campaign, was trying to bolster his credibility among conservative voters.<h2>That was why McGahn was at Trump Tower</h2>The lawyer rode a golden elevator up to the twenty-sixth floor and was led into Trump's office. Trump was sitting behind his cluttered desk. After what seemed like an hour of small talk, Trump got to the point. What do you charge? he asked."My hourly rate is $800," McGahn replied."No shit," Trump exclaimed. "Good for you."Later that month, Trump began taking steps to show that his easy-to-dismiss candidacy was for real. To underscore his seriousness, he mentioned that he had hired McGahn. "I'm not doing this for enjoyment," Trump said. "I'm doing this because the country is in serious trouble." (In perhaps a more telling sign of his seriousness, Trump also noted that he was holding off on another season of Celebrity Apprentice, his NBC reality show.)<div type="image" title="Servants of the Damned cover" height="2775" width="1838" msid="94254849" hostid="261"></div>One day in the spring of 2015, McGahn took a Jones Day associate over to Trump Tower. The associate was eager to soak up campaign experience, and McGahn figured the fledgling Trump campaign would be an interesting experience for the young lawyer. The associate would get a firsthand glimpse of how some no-frills campaigns functioned. Also, unlike those with professionally run outfits, the Trump folks wouldn't mind a random lawyer showing up. "I can't take you to Rick Perry's campaign, because they're serious," McGahn told his colleague.The meeting was with Cory Lewandowski, who was the campaign's manager, and Alan Garten, a longtime Trump Organization executive. After sandwiches at the Trump Grill in the building's lobby, the men moved upstairs to the nerve center of the Trump Organization. They sat in Lewandowski's little office, down the hall from Trump's large one.<h2>The meeting was completely unstructured</h2>Lewandowski showed off the campaign's new letterhead, and he asked for the lawyers' input on their talking points on issues like abortion (Trump had previously been pro-choice).Toward the end of the meeting, Lewandowski asked about how to account for the campaign's use of Trump's private jet. The campaign would have to reimburse Trump for flights; was it okay if they just guessed how much each trip cost? McGahn patiently informed them that, no, they could not just guess, there were rules about this, and they needed to be followed."These guys are morons," McGahn told the associate afterward. (McGahn disputed the quotes attributed to him, in particular the word "moron." "I certainly have some go-to phrases, but that is not one of them," he said. He added that "many of the folks I met in New York were quite sharp and impressive in their chosen fields—though many of them had little or no political experience.")<div type="image" title="David Enrich" height="5976" width="3984" msid="94254850" hostid="261"></div>On April 23, 2015, a check for $6,451.38 arrived at Jones Day. It was the first payment from the Trump campaign. McGahn and his colleagues hadn't done much work for Trump yet, but it was time for him to start paying.Trump's reputation for shortchanging his lawyers (and banks and contractors and customers) was well-known. Trump had tried to wriggle out of what he owed one attorney after another, ranging from solo practitioners to partners at big firms.Back in the 1990s, a lawyer at a white-shoe firm had done some work for Trump.<h2>The bill came to about $2 million, and Trump refused to pay</h2>After a while, the lawyer lost patience, and he showed up, unannounced, at Trump Tower. Someone sent him up to Trump's office. Trump was initially pleased to see him—he didn't betray any sense of sheepishness—but the lawyer was steaming. "I'm incredibly disappointed," he scolded Trump. "There's no reason you haven't paid us."Trump made some apologetic noises. Then he said: "I'm not going to pay your bill. I'm going to give you something more valuable." What on earth is he talking about? the lawyer wondered. "I have a stallion," Trump continued. "It's worth $5 million." Trump rummaged around in a filing cabinet and pulled out what he said was a deed to a horse. He handed it to the lawyer."This isn't the 1800s," the lawyer stammered once he regained the capacity for speech. "You can't pay me with a horse." After the lawyer threatened to sue, Trump eventually coughed up at least a portion of what he owed.Jones Day, too, wanted to be paid with money. So a decision was made that Trump would pay a regular retainer. In addition, there would be a strict schedule for disbursing any other fees or reimbursements. (McGahn said there was not an unusual payment schedule. "The Trump campaign was billed in regular order and paid regularly," he told me.)<h2>Even after that timetable was established, Jones Day lawyers—including some working for the Trump campaign—doubted it would hold</h2>"We figured he wouldn't pay, and that would be the end of it," one told me. But against all odds, Trump paid and paid again. Within a few months, he'd forked over tens of thousands of dollars—including more than $29,000 on June 16.That same day, McGahn was back at Trump Tower. He stood on the mezzanine level of the lobby as Donald and Melania Trump descended on an escalator to a makeshift, flag-studded stage, where Trump formally launched his candidacy. McGahn watched the small crowd go nuts. Then he listened as his client laced into immigrants and the Beltway establishment. Outside, storm clouds gathered, and a light rain began to fall.Editor's note: Taylor Budowich, a spokesperson for former President Donald Trump, provided this statement: "The media's obsession with amplifying false attacks and fake news against President Trump is embarrassing, yet the reality is President Trump is stronger today than ever before and he will continue to advance his America First agenda through the Midterms and beyond."Excerpted from the book <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/servants-of-the-damned-david-enrich?variant=40153396346914" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SERVANTS OF THE DAMNED: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice</a> by David Enrich. Copyright © 2022 by David Enrich. From Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. Reprinted by permission.David Enrich is the Business Investigations Editor at The New York Times and the #1 bestselling author of "Dark Towers". His new book "Servants of the Damned" is now on sale.

Trump once tried to pay a $2 million legal bill with a horse, a new book reveals. His reputation for shortchanging lawyers made the firm that helped him win the 2016 election doubt they would get paid at all.

Washington, An international team of <keyword id="49623" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Astronomers">astronomers</keyword> has discovered a trio of hot worlds larger than <keyword id="6359982" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="earth">Earth</keyword> orbiting a much younger version of our <keyword id="24879" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Sun">Sun</keyword> called TOI 451. The system resides in the recently discovered Pisces-Eridanus stream, a collection of stars less than 3 per cent the age of our solar system that stretches across one-third of the sky. The researchers believe that the newly discovered planetary system, detailed in The Astronomical Journal, will provide researchers with the rare chance to study a group of growing <keyword id="6448742" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Planets">planets</keyword>. The planets were discovered in images taken by <keyword id="6360409" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword>'s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) between October and December 2018. Follow-up studies of TOI 451 and its planets included observations made in 2019 and 2020 using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which has since been retired, as well as many ground-based facilities. Archival infrared data from NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) satellite suggests the system retains a cool disk of dust and rocky debris. Other observations show that TOI 451 likely has two distant stellar companions circling each other far beyond the planets. "This system checks a lot of boxes for astronomers," said lead researcher Elisabeth Newton, Assistant Professor at Dartmouth College in Hanover, <keyword id="822202" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="New-Hampshire">New Hampshire</keyword>, US. "It's only 120 million years old and just 400 light-years away, allowing detailed observations of this young planetary system. And because there are three planets between two and four times Earth's size, they make especially promising targets for testing theories about how planetary atmospheres evolve." The young star TOI 451, better known to astronomers as CD-38 1467, lies about 400 light-years away in the constellation Eridanus. It has 95 per cent of our Sun's mass, but it is 12 per cent smaller, slightly cooler, and emits 35 per cent less energy. TOI 451 rotates every 5.1 days, which is more than five times faster than the Sun. Even TOI 451's most distant planet orbits three times closer than Mercury ever approaches to the Sun, so all of these worlds are quite hot and inhospitable to life as we know it. Temperature estimates range from about 1,200 degrees Celsius for the innermost planet to about 450 degrees C for the outermost one. TOI 451b orbits every 1.9 days, is about 1.9 times Earth's size, and its estimated mass ranges from two to 12 times Earth's. The next planet out, TOI 451 c, completes an orbit every 9.2 days, is about three times larger than Earth, and holds between three and 16 times Earth's mass. The farthest and largest world, TOI 451 d, circles the star every 16 days, is four times the size of our planet, and weighs between four and 19 Earth masses. Astronomers expect planets as big as these to retain much of their atmospheres despite the intense heat from their nearby star. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/mobile/news/comparison-between-realme-x7-pro-5g-and-xiaomi-mi-10i-mobile-phones-with-price-and-specifications/articleshow/80873224.cms">Realme X7 Pro 5G vs Xiaomi Mi 10i – best mid-range device under ₹30,000 in India</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/defense/news/experts-say-india-and-china-both-need-to-show-their-voters-that-they-won-in-ladakh-for-the-disengagement-to-be-successful/articleshow/80876036.cms">Experts say India and China both need to show their voters that they won in Ladakh⁠ for the disengagement to be successful</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/ecommerce/news/why-grofers-may-allow-an-american-blank-cheque-firm-to-buy-it-out-instead-of-fighting-ambani-and-bigbasket-for-ipo/articleshow/80874979.cms">Here’s why Grofers may allow an American “blank cheque” firm to buy it out instead of fighting Ambani and BigBasket for IPO</a>

Astronomers discover three planets orbiting younger Sun-like star

<ul><li>US <keyword id="6354298" type="DEFINITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Stocks">stocks</keyword> finished down on Tuesday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index led the Dow and the S&amp;P 500 indexes.</li><li>Investors likely have their eyes on Tuesday night's presidential debate, where President Donald Trump will square off with former Vice President Joe Biden.</li><li>Negotiations about additional fiscal stimulus to help combat the economic decline spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic continued on Tuesday.</li><li>The negotiations between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are set to continue on Wednesday.</li><li><a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/indices">Watch major indexes update live here</a>.</li></ul>US stocks finished the day lower on Tuesday, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100, the Dow, and the S&amp;P 500 indexes all sliding into the close.Investors have their eyes on Tuesday night's presidential debate, where President Donald Trump will square off with Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, for the first time.The heightened politics heading into the November election have reduced investors' hope that Congress will soon pass an additional stimulus package. But House Democrats on Monday <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stimulus-checks-coronavirus-details-house-democrats-pelosi-mnuchin-2020-9">proposed a COVID-19 relief package worth $2.2 trillion</a>. It would restore the $600 weekly unemployment benefit and has many measures designed to appeal to Republicans, including aid to the airline industry.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin discussed the stimulus package on Tuesday during a nearly one-hour phone call. Negotiations are set to continue on Wednesday.Here's where US indexes stood soon after the 4 p.m. market close on Tuesday:<ul><li><a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/index/s&amp;p_500?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingestmp;utm_medium=ingest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">S&amp;P 500</a>: 3,335.38, down 0.48%</li><li><a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/index/dow_jones?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingesttm_medium=ingest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dow Jones industrial average</a>: 27,451.81, down 0.48% (132 points)</li><li><a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/index/nasdaq_composite?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingesttm_medium=ingest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nasdaq composite</a>: 11,085.25, down 0.29%</li></ul>Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stock-picks-to-buy-best-global-industrial-software-companies-bofa-2020-9?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingestgest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BANK OF AMERICA: Buy these 11 stocks to profit as e-commerce and robotics revolutionize their businesses and keep them growing faster than peers</a>A measure of consumer confidence <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/consumer-confidence-surges-economic-recovery-hopes-stimulus-conference-board-2020-9">posted its biggest spike in 17 years</a> as consumers bounce back from the economic decline caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/jpmorgan-spoofing-case-pays-fine-admits-wrongdoing-market-manipulation-traders-2020-9-1029631935">JPMorgan agreed to pay</a> the largest-ever penalty to the Commodity Futures <keyword id="6368158" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="trading">Trading</keyword> Commission, $920 million, and admit wrongdoing to resolve a criminal investigation into "spoofing" trades spanning eight years.<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-outlook-investors-sleep-through-presidential-debate-ubs-says-2020-9-1029629888">UBS said</a> that while investors could expect the presidential debate to produce little policy substance, it could matter which candidate is thought to be the winner."Perceptions of performance and whether candidates were able to change the views of floating voters does make a difference," UBS said.The economist Mohamed El-Erian <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stocks-market-outlook-investors-fed-stimulus-el-recovery-el-erian-2020-9-1029629525#">said on Monday</a> that investors shouldn't hold out hope for additional stimulus from Congress or the Federal Reserve.Goldman Sachs said that a Democratic sweep in November would be "<a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-debate-democratic-election-sweep-lift-corporate-profits-goldman-2020-9-1029630909">modestly positive</a>" for US corporate earnings.Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/investing-advice-best-hedges-defensive-assets-portfolio-shifts-john-normand-2020-9?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingestgest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">JPMORGAN: The best defenses against stock-market crashes are delivering their weakest results in a decade. Here are 3 ways to adjust your portfolio for this predicament.</a><a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/gold-price">Gold</a> rose as much as 0.93%, to $1,899.14 per ounce. In a note on Tuesday, UBS laid out <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/gold-price-investors-buy-election-strategy-reasons-why-presidential-ubs-2020-9-1029632437">three reasons investors should buy gold</a>.Oil prices slid as investors questioned whether demand would sharply bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/oil-price?type=wti" target="_blank" rel="noopener">West Texas Intermediate crude</a> fell as much as 5.32%, to $38.41 per barrel. <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/commodities/oil-price?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingest?utm_source=markets&amp;utm_medium=ingestts&amp;utm_medium=ingest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brent crude</a>, oil's international benchmark, fell 4.87%, to $40.43 per barrel, at intraday lows.

US stocks slide as investors await further stimulus negotiations

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">Kimberly White/Getty</div></div></div>Airbnb, the $25 billion global hospitality behemoth, may have met its match. And right in its hometown of San Francisco.On Tuesday, November 3, the voters of San Francisco will vote on Proposition F, the citizens initiative that, if passed, will crack down on Airbnb's business. In the heart of Silicon Valley, a coalition of homeowners, neighborhood groups and tenants advocates gathered over 20,000 signatures to say "enough is enough."I have been an Airbnb host in San Francisco for about nine months. Last January I watched Katie Couric interview Airbnb's 34-year old billionaire CEO, Brian Chesky, and that's when I realized that something didn't add up right.<h2>Testing Airbnb's claims</h2>Couric asked Chesky if his company inspects its hosts' homes for safety and fire hazards. Chesky replied, "We want to be a gold standard," saying that he has 100 employees devoted exclusively to safety and that "hosts verify their IDs by connecting to their social networks and scanning their official ID or confirming personal details."So to test Airbnb's system, I signed up as a host. I took a few photos of my house, inside and out, uploaded them to the Airbnb website, and within 15 minutes my place was "live" as an Airbnb rental. No background check, no verifying my ID, no confirming my personal details, no questions asked. Not even any contact with a real human from their trust and safety team. Nothing.I could have used photos of my neighbor's house, or even photos saved from the website of Better Homes and Gardens. Within an hour, I had my first inquiry from a guest. Within a couple of months, I had over a dozen reservation requests that would have netted me at least $4,000 in short-term rental income. This had the makings of a seriously lucrative enterprise. Indeed, an accidentally leaked memo from huge real-estate developer Coldwell Banker Commercial estimated that a landlord could more than double net annual income by renting to Airbnb tourists than to local residents.I was both impressed and appalled at how easy Airbnb's website made it.When Couric asked Chesky about fire safety, instead of outlining his company's inspection procedures he replied that Airbnb, a company valued at $25 billion, offers free smoke and carbon monoxide detectors to its hosts. When Couric pushed a bit further, Chesky talked about their "self-administered" system. "We want to make sure that the codes and regulations are modernized," he said. "A lot of the laws are 20th-century laws, or sometimes even 19th-century laws, in the 21st century."I decided to take Chesky up on his "gold standard" offer of receiving a free and "self-administered" smoke and carbon monoxide detector for my Airbnb home. I requested one via the Airbnb website, and my query received the briefest of e-mail responses, directing me to a particular Airbnb webpage. But on that page, instead of offering me a free detector it offered me a free "Emergency Safety Card," saying I could use it to "list emergency numbers, exit routes, and other resources" for my guests.Apparently the offer for a free smoke detector had expired faster than a Groupon coupon. But the Airbnb representative didn't mention that, nor did Chesky in his interview with Couric.Besides the hosts, Airbnb has no quality control over the types of guests either. Neighbors suddenly find themselves living next door to a "hotel" where complete strangers are traipsing in and out, keeping tourist hours, in close proximity to children, seniors and other vulnerable populations. That's true of regular hotels as well, but usually they exist in areas that have been zoned for such activity.<h2>Who's really renting their places out?</h2>All of this revealed to me a "credibility gap" between the company's public face and reality.But the biggest gap of all is in how Airbnb portrays "regular people" hosts, who rent out spare rooms to tourists to make some extra money in these difficult times, as the face of its company. What could be wrong with that?<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">AP Photo/Bebeto MatthewsSupporters of Airbnb hold a rally outside City Hall, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015, in New York.</div></div></div>Here's what's wrong: an increasing amount of Airbnb's commercial activity in cities like New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles does not come from the listings of "regular people" who are merely renting out a spare room. Instead, it comes from professional landlords who are removing badly needed housing from the local market and making it available exclusively for tourists. Many of these landlords are evicting thousands of people and getting rid of rent-controlled housing.A <a href="http://www.ag.ny.gov/pdfs/Airbnb%20report.pdf">2014 investigation</a> by state attorney general Eric Schneiderman found that nearly 40 percent of Airbnb's $451 million in revenue, some $168 million in New York City alone, came from hosts who had at least three listings on the site. Data analyst Tom Slee plucked info from the Airbnb site in September and found that of the 30,268 listings in New York City, 44% of guest visits are to hosts with multiple properties. (Slee shared the latest information with the author via email; here's <a href="http://tomslee.net/2014/5/the-shape-of-airbnbs-business.html">an example of earlier research</a> along the same lines.)These are not "regular New Yorkers" renting a spare room - not too many can afford to have control over multiple properties - they are professional operators who took on multiple leases in desirable locations.One of those operators, Robert "Toshi" Chan, was revealed to be the Airbnb "host" of more than 200 apartments in dozens of different buildings, known collectively as Hotel Toshi. Eventually, Toshi's illegal operation was shut down, and he <a href="http://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/372-13/mayor-bloomberg-chief-policy-advisor-feinblatt-one-million-dollar-settlement-and/">agreed to pay a $1 million settlement</a> for not obtaining proper hotel permits or insurance.Under political pressure, last year Airbnb kicked off some of the worst violators, but recent data indicates little has changed. Its service is eating up affordable housing for local residents.In San Francisco, various <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/business/item/Window-into-Airbnb-s-hidden-impact-on-S-F-30110.php">studies have found</a> that a third of Airbnb rentals are controlled by people with two or more listings, and 40 percent of revenue comes from Airbnb hosts with multiple listings.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Joey Cosco/Business InsiderAnti Airbnb protestors in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood in 2014.</div></div></div>In Los Angeles, <a href="http://www.laane.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/AirBnB-Final.pdf">another study</a> revealed that while a majority of hosts were "regular people," those rentals generated just 11 percent of the company's revenue. The other 89 percent was generated by professional landlords and agencies.Perhaps the biggest tragedy in all this is that at the core of Airbnb is a really good idea - it has cleverly used Web- and app-based technology to bust open a global market that connects tourists with financially strapped homeowners. After interviewing some of Airbnb's "regular-people" hosts, I'm convinced that this service legitimately does help them make ends meet.But by taking such a hands-off, laissez-faire attitude toward the professionalization of hosting by greedy commercial landlords and multiproperty agents, Airbnb has become its own worst enemy. As the number of victims piles up, it undermines its own "sharing and trust" ethos because Airbnb could easily meet cities half way: <ul><li>With one stroke of the computer mouse, Airbnb could "evict the evictors"- de-list from its website any professional landlords or property managers operating multiple properties as tourist hotels. It has the data and knows who they are.</li><li>Cooperate with cities like San Francisco, Santa Monica, and Portland, which require hosts to register with local agencies, by delisting any unregistered hosts.</li><li>Pay the same hotel occupancy taxes that hotels pay in all 34,000 cities in which Airbnb operates, or collect them from the hosts and turn them over to the cities.</li><li>Stop refusing to supply the data that cities need to enforce regulations and taxation, including the number of rental nights and rates charged by each host.</li></ul>Whatever its remarkable origin as a rags-to-riches story that began in Brian Chesky's living room, Airbnb is no longer simply a platform of "regular people" hosts. Instead, it has morphed into a giant loophole for professional real-estate operatives, allowing them to evade long-standing city laws that previously had protected the local housing stock by banning short-term rentals to tourists. The fast-growing company and its politically-connected investors have shown no interest in killing their golden goose.So some of the citizens of San Francisco have taken the matter into their own hands. Airbnb is clearly panicked - it is <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-spends-8-million-against-prop-f-2015-9">spending over $8 million</a> to defeat the ballot measure, while the neighborhood activists can't hope to match that. It's David vs Goliath in San Francisco. So goes the "sharing" economy.Steven Hill (<a href="http://www.steven-hill.com/" target="_blank">www.Steven-Hill.com</a>) is a Senior Fellow with the New America Foundation and the author of the book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250071585/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=1250071585&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stevenhillcom-20&amp;linkId=2QZBSXI6TL42BM3Y" target="_blank">Raw Deal: How the "Uber Economy" and Runaway Capitalism Are Screwing American Workers</a>. You can follow him on Twitter, @StevenHill1776 <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/stay-nyc-39-dollars-tiny-home-taxi-van-queens-airbnb-2015-8">You can get a room in NYC for $39 a night on Airbnb - you just have to sleep in a van in Queens</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="prMjIxdzqI9a5YWKOlUAGbhGm-RBFqYT" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

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