Katherine Albrecht is a consumer privacy expert and VP of Start Page and Start Mail, a private search engine and email service. She discussed the latest news in the rapidly evolving field of chip technology, including wearable tech, and how the prospect of microchipping humans may become a foregone conclusion unless a movement of resistance is realized. She outlined how the credit card industry has recently switched over to the use of chip cards instead of magnetic stripes, as these types of transactions are more secure. Banks and credit card companies were motivated to make the switch because of huge data breaches, such as what happened at Target, she cited.

In the US, most of the new chip cards don't contain RFID "spychips" as they do in Europe, where they can just tap their card against a terminal scanner, she reported. Yet, Albrecht believes that the plan is to eventually rollout the contactless RFID (also called NFC or "near field communication") version cards in the US. She expressed concern about this because these types of chips could be injected into the hand, and this correlates with the prophetic 'end times' warning in the Bible about people needing the "mark of the beast" in order to buy or sell.

Already, wearable devices like the Apple watch allow people to make transactions, and Albrecht believes credit cards will eventually be phased out entirely in favor of NFC-enabled devices such as cell phones, as a predecessor to having a chip embedded in the human body. Companies are now working on ways in which they could incorporate cell phone technology directly into the human body, and allow users to have the phone display projected on the back of their hands, she cautioned.

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Midweek Open Lines were featured in the latter half, with a special hotline set up for police officers to call in. The officers concurred that they do not go out looking to shoot people, and it's typically an action of last resort to defend themselves. John, an officer from St. Louis, remarked that they are definitely watching over their shoulders since the recent shootings. A policeman from Southern California commented that he had noticed officers stopping fewer people for minor violations of late. Jacob, a cop from Austin, talked about recently undergoing a 'Pokemon Go' training, in which the game players were classified as "fanatics."

News segment guests: Joe Gomez, John M. Curtis, Howard Bloom, Steve Kates