To the disappointment of many liberals and Democrats who eagerly supported Jill Stein’s recount efforts, the recent recounts in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin are unlikely to have an effect on the results of the 2016 presidential election.

In November, a group of computer security experts urged the Hillary Clinton campaign to ask for a recount on the basis of possible voter machine hacking. As yet, no direct evidence of hacking has been found, nor has the recount turned up any discrepancies.
Already, six counties in Wisconsin have completed their ballot recounts and have reported that the margin remains unchanged. While Oakland and Ingham counties were the first to start their recounts in the Detroit area, others will follow in the coming days. Although many Hillary supporters are still holding out hope, the recounts haven’t revealed anything new.

That’s because the majority of votes cast in Michigan and Wisconsin were done so on paper ballots, rather than on electronic voting machines. Making the switch to paperless technology is appealing to Americans across the board, both for cost-saving and environmental reasons. In fact, if only 20% of American households opted for electronic billing instead of paper invoices, we’d save 151 million pounds of paper every year. But while paperless options are gaining in popularity worldwide, election security experts say that paper is actually the most accurate and secure method of voting.

J. Alex Halderman is a professor at the University of Michigan and one of the cyber security experts who pushed for a recount. Contrary to popular opinion, Halderman says that hacking voting machines is incredibly easy to do — and it doesn’t matter if a computer is hooked up to the internet or not. If voting software is infected with malware before being loaded onto each individual voting machine, those votes can be controlled and modified, regardless of whether a voting machine has direct internet access.

But even if some voting machines were hacked in this manner — and there is no evidence that is the case — not all of these machines produce any kind of physical record of the votes cast. That means that in counties where electronic voting machines were used, a recount of these votes wouldn’t reveal anything sinister without a physical paper ballot against which to double-check the results.

This is why security experts are stressing the safety and reliability of paper ballots. When voters fill out a paper ballot, their vote is scanned into a computer for counting. This method is called optical scan voting. Alternatively, voters can vote on a computer screen that then prints out a paper record of their choice. This record is called a voter-verifiable paper audit trail. Either one of these options involves a paper voting record that cannot be modified by infected software or misconstrued by machines or by humans.

Yet, surprisingly, about half of U.S. states have no laws that require paper ballots to be manually examined; the majority of the rest only do spot-checking.

And according to experts like Haldernman, that makes the U.S. election system incredibly vulnerable to manipulation.

“Much more needs to be done to secure America’s elections, and important new safeguards could be put in place by 2018. States still using paperless voting machines should replace them with optical scan systems, and all states should update their audit and recount procedures. There are fast and inexpensive ways to verify (or correct) computer voting results,” Halderman wrote recently. “Officials need to begin preparing soon to make sure all of these improvements are ready before the next big election.”

Last month, one’s pup’s plight went viral. Now, he’s been given a reason to wag his tail once more.

When a Detroit family was evicted in September, they left some possessions out on the curb. Among their discarded assets were some furniture, a mattress, and a loyal friend. Boo, the family dog, refused to leave the sidewalk for a month, often sleeping on the abandoned mattress.

After a heart-wrenching image of a sleeping Boo went viral, a kind neighbor reached out to Mike Diesel, founder of Detroit Youth and Dog Rescue. Diesel immediately headed over to Boo’s curbside surveillance spot in an attempt to gain the dog’s trust.

It took over 11 hours and lots of tasty grub (including a Sausage McMuffin), but Boo finally started to accept Diesel’s kind gestures. He allowed Diesel to put a collar on him and take him for a walk, marking the first time Boo dared leave his lookout since his family moved away.

The pair then sat on a blanket for about an hour, enjoying the sunshine and each other’s company. Eventually, Boo allowed Diesel to pick him up and put him in his truck. From there, they headed straight for the vet.

The sweet, gentle dog was suffering not only from heartbreak, but from another heart condition, too. After veterinary tests were conducted, Boo was found to be heartworm positive. Unfortunately, this condition is far from rare: an estimated one million dogs test positive for heartworm each year in the United States. Luckily, Boo started treatment the very next day for his heartworm and is in otherwise excellent health.

Now, the Detroit Youth and Dog Rescue is seeking a foster home, and subsequent forever home, for Boo. Given all the attention he’s received, the organization hopes he will have no trouble finding owners who will be just as loyal and loving as he is.

The bodies of two men from Jackson County have been found in Lake St. Clair after family reported them missing over the weekend.

Father and son duo Timothy Hughes, 59, and Daniel Hughes, 24, reportedly went out to the lake on Saturday, October 22, for a duck hunting trip. They left their home around 5 a.m. and were due back that same night. When they didn’t return by nightfall, however, their family members became concerned and alerted the authorities, who then sent out search parties to find the two missing men.

The pair’s pickup truck and boat trailer were found parked at the Lake St. Clair Metropark boat launch in Harrison Township around 2 a.m. on Sunday. The Macomb County marine division, along with U.S. and Canadian Coast Guard forces, implemented a search-and-rescue mission in and around the lake.

Daniel Hughes’s body was found around 9 a.m. on Sunday, in Canadian waters about four miles away from Seaway Island. Timothy Hughes’s body was uncovered in the same location several hours later. Their boat was also reportedly found in the surrounding area.

More than 38 million Americans participate in hunting and fishing throughout the year, most without incident. The cause of these deaths remains unknown, pending investigation. Their families have been notified.

“It was not the happy rescue we were praying for,” said a relative, Stacy Hughes. “We have lost a husband, father, grandpa, son, brother and uncle. Our worlds have been shook and we’re not sure what this means for us. But we do know that we have each other, we have an amazing support system and we have a Lord that will surround us in comfort.”

A foreclosure crisis is on the brink in Detroit and city residents are looking for a solution.

Detroit has had foreclosure problems for over a decade and it doesn’t look like it’s getting any better. Detroit’s foreclosure issues are linked to the national crisis that hit the U.S. thanks to risky bank loans and missed payments.

“Massive, shocking, unbelievable, unprecedented, destructive,” said Jerry Paffendorf, CEO of Loveland Technologies, a real estate data company. Paffendorf was referring to Detroit’s foreclosure crisis and referenced the Wayne County Tax Auction that sold 13,712 homes in the city.

In 2013, one out of every 96 homes reported a foreclosure filing. That number is closer to one out of 200 homes now and is even higher in some areas, like Detroit, where one out of every three homes has been foreclosed in the last decade.

According to Model D, the Storehouse of Hope Community Land Trust plans on holding onto the land as it re-sells the actual house, rather than selling the entire property back to former homeowners.

This model of property selling is called a “land trust,” and is designed to keep a property in the possession of community residents.

“The person can sell the house, deed the house to a family member, they can do all the things that a typical owner does but they don’t control the land,” said Rev. Joan Ross, a member of Detroit’s Land Trust Coalition. “The grounding is in place to prevent speculators from taking the land, taking the houses, and just forcing us out.”

Another plan to stop the foreclosure crisis is through public demand of federal assistance. In late September, a public meeting was held that demanded federal Helping Hardest Hit Funds be used to stop foreclosures related to evictions and water shutoffs.

Workers World reports that 14,000 families had their water shut off in April with 11,000 more scheduled for termination. Thousands more families are expected to face eviction this October.