10.

I'm Carla Zoo.

Salty your host for the next 10 minutes of news.

First story were explaining.

This Thursday involves lawsuits that could lead to changes in the U.

S.

Real estate industry.

And it's significant because that industry is very important to the U.

S.

Economy.

Here's what's happening.

Several lawsuits have been filed in the United States.

The suits accused the National Association of Realtors, America's largest trade association, of illegally conspiring with other companies to keep thes higher than they should be when homes are bought and sold.

The fees being debated are the commission's the percentage of AH home sale price that Realtors get.

For decades, they've been hovering at around 6%.

When it's time to find a new home, 87% of buyers will enlist the help of a real estate agent.

That agent might search the listings or so physical between for negotiations and draw up a contract.

Ultimately, that agent will probably get about 3% of the sale price of the house for $500,000.

House that's $15,000 the seller's agent will get another 3%.

So here's a question.

Would you pay that much money to real state agents if you knew you had a choice.

That question is at the heart of a class action lawsuit that's challenging the very basis on which the Realtor profession rests.

6% commission.

Today, 50% of buyers find their new home online themselves.

But let me still use agents to close the deal.

The lawsuit alleges that the National Association of Realtors, with its 1.3 million members, has colluded to keep commissions Hi, using something called the multiple listing service.

The multiple listing service is like the originals alot.

It was born more than 100 years ago when local boards of real estate agents decided to file their listings to a central location and restrict access to license peak.

It's controlling all of that.

Information meant they could charge high fees for their service is eventually in 1950 the Supreme Court ruled that realtors had engaged in an illegal price fixing conspiracy.

After that, realtors associations were careful not to make any official rules about what conditions had to be.

But by then, the 6% commission was commonplace, and it hasn't changed much since.

What is that 6% by expertise, AH buyer's agent can help shoppers find the right house, negotiate its price and help with all the complexities of the home buying process.

A listing agent can help sellers get the home on the multiple listing service so others can see it and negotiate the best price for the seller.

But something has changed in recent years.

More Americans air going online to do some of the legwork and finding a home they like.

Some argue that because that can mean less work for real estate agents, those agents should receive smaller commissions than they have in decades past, resulting in less money in fees for buyers and sellers and Maur left in their pockets.

Agents argue that without their guidance, Americans could make worst decisions when buying and selling and wind up paying in other ways down the road.

It's not only the real estate industry that's been affected in the information age, take the travel industry, with more people going to websites to book trips online.

Fewer are using travel agents, and the number of travel agencies in America has shrunk by almost 50% since the year 2000.

We don't know yet if the new real estate lawsuits could lead to reduced fees in that industry and make it less desirable for Realtors toe work in.

But that's why these cases are being so closely watched around the country.

In 1930 floor, the Federal Communications Commission replaced what organization, wireless telegraph and signal company, American Telegraph Company, Federal Radio Commission, or Pony Express.

It was the federal radio commission, which had become outdated, that the FCC replaced.

Today, the independent U.

S government agency makes rules for all forms of mass communication, and it's considering a new plan that could reduce the amount of robo calls people get.

If it's approved, It would take effect later this year, and what the new rule would do is allow telecommunications companies to automatically block certain robo calls from reaching your phone.

Part of the reason why they haven't all done this yet is because they've had concerns about whether it would be legal.

This FCC rule would officially say it is not.

All robo calls are fake or illegal.

A dentist may use one to remind you of an appointment.

Ah, pharmacy may used one to say it.

Prescriptions ready.

It's the unwanted robo calls the spam or scam ones that companies would be trying to stop.

In 2018 more than 47.8 billion robo calls were made in the U.

S.

It's estimated that nearly half of all calls made to US cell phones will be spam in 2019.

So how did these calls actually work To make the call?

A phone isn't ACTUALLY being USED.

A computer is Robo calls are made using what's called voice over Internet Protocol or VoIP.

For sure, it's the same technology used in popular APS like Face Time and Skype.

And it's important because no international phone bill means robo calls are incredibly cheap and easy to make.

And while the computer generates a random number to call, it's also generating a false number to show up on your caller I d.

Disguising its identity, a process called spoofing and with neighbor spoofing the number on your caller, I D is meant to look almost identical to yours to increase the likelihood that you pick up.

But if you call that number back your local pizza shop mine, answer instead.

Because these computers are often spoofing with riel phone numbers.

Now, according to the FCC, your best bet is to not answer calls from unknown numbers in the first place.

Since answering a robo call lets the computer No, you might engage in that case, Get ready for even more robo calls.

Now that you're on the hot list, you'll also be prompted to connect with an actual person who will either try to sell you a product or, worse yet, trick you into a scam to inform you that the I.

R s is filing lawsuit against you now in the United States, the majority of these calls are illegal under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

But because robo calls can originate from anywhere in the world, it's extremely difficult to enforce the law.

The heavy fines have been slapped on robo callers in the past.

In the meantime, phone companies are working on systems that more effectively identify and block illegal robo calls.

But for now, robo callers will likely keep on calling you way have a bit of a space odyssey for 10 out of 10 today.

People have always had a fascination with Skye, But ever since humans went from Onley looking up to actually going up.

The impact has gone well beyond science.

It's affected our culture.

So get ready to blast off on a retrospective of space and its influences on society.

Decades space has been the ultimate source material, from music ground control to Major Tom to science fiction, Live Long and prosper images Iraq to video games Yeah, but with the advent of NASA's man in space programs in the late 19 fifties came unmistakably space inspired architecture, pop culture and trends that the astronauts do something you do in space.

They drank after astronaut John Glenn drank it in orbit.

The powdered orange drink was launched into the public's consciousness despite it having bean on grocery shelves for three years.

The space age fashion trend of the sixties was popularized by designers like Andre Acreage and Paco Rabanne Rebound, memorably designing the costumes for the 1968 cult film Barbarella, starring Jane Fonda.

Then there were the missions themselves, dramatized into best sellers and onto the big screen.

Uh, this is Houston, uh, again, please, Houston, we have a problem.

While the real life pictures of the Apollo astronauts inspired some of the most iconic cultural images that endure to this day.

To infinity and beyond makes sense that any time a rocket man or woman steps into a pair of moon boots and Jetsons off to a galaxy far, far away, it would be the right stuff to barber.

Elevate the imagination up all over the place, generating the kind of buzz that goes light years beyond drama to the known Atlas and making something oddity or alien come right down to Earth.

I'm Carla Zoos making space for puns on CNN Tent.