AllGov – by Jeff Horwitz, Associated Press

The Justice Department urged a federal judge to keep some records sealed in a criminal proceeding linked to a former business associate of Donald Trump. Among prosecutors’ reasons: To avoid media attention.

The case is related to Felix Sater, a former Mafia informant and one-time business associate of Trump. Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge Brian M. Cogan unsealed more than 200 documents related to Sater.   Continue reading “Justice Dept. Wants to Keep Media Eyes off Court Records on Former Trump Associate’s Mafia Informant Work”

TechSpot -by Rob Thubron

While facial recognition technology has a number of positive uses, such as finding missing people, an alternative form of ID, and even tagging friends on Facebook, it does have worrying implications when it comes to privacy.

In Russia, a new face recognition app is becoming so popular that it could result in the end of public anonymity, according to a report in The Guardian.   Continue reading “Nightmare Russian facial recognition app is one step closer to the end of privacy”

Salon – by INGRID LEE AND STEPHEN TALBOT

William “Dub” Lawrence was a former sheriff who established and trained one of Utah’s first SWAT teams, only to watch in horror as that same unit killed his son-in-law in a controversial standoff years later. In Peace Officer, Dub, driven by an obsessive sense of mission, uses his investigative skills to uncover the truth about that incident and other officer-involved shootings in his community, while tackling larger questions about the changing face of police investigations nationwide.   Continue reading ““I founded the SWAT team that killed my son-in-law”: A former Utah sheriff speaks out against police violence”

Tenth Amendment Center – by TJ Martinell

CONCORD, N.H. (May 16, 2016) – A New Hampshire bill requiring courts to inform juries of their right to vote “not guilty” when “a guilty verdict will yield an unjust result” was killed by the state Senate.

House Bill 1270 (HB1270) originally passed in the House but died in the Senate on a voice vote last week.

A coalition of nine representatives, led by Rep. Daniel Itse, introduced the bill in January. The legislation would have amended current law on jury nullification and require the court to explain that right to the jury upon request of the defense.   Continue reading “New Hampshire Jury Nullification Bill Killed By State Senate”

EFF

San Francisco – On Thursday, May 19, at 10 am, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will urge a federal judge to let the public see records about “Hemisphere,” a massive drug enforcement database containing decades of telephone metadata.

Reporters at the New York Times uncovered the Hemisphere program in 2013. Funded by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, Hemisphere places AT&T employees inside law enforcement agencies to facilitate quick access to call records data—including who called who, when, and how long they spoke—typically without any court oversight. The New York Times found that investigators were encouraged to keep Hemisphere “under the radar” by using “parallel subpoenas” and then “walling off” Hemisphere information from public scrutiny.
Continue reading “Government Withholding Records About ‘Walled Off’ Law Enforcement Program”

AllGov – by Mark Landler, New York Times

WASHINGTON — President Obama came into office seven years ago pledging to end the wars of his predecessor, George W. Bush. On May 6, with eight months left before he vacates the White House, Mr. Obama passed a somber, little-noticed milestone: He has now been at war longer than Mr. Bush, or any other American president.

If the United States remains in combat in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria until the end of Mr. Obama’s term — a near-certainty given the president’s recent announcement that he will send 250 additional Special Operations forces to Syria — he will leave behind an improbable legacy as the only president in American history to serve two complete terms with the nation at war.   Continue reading “Obama at War Longer than any President in History”

Breitbart – by AWR Hawkins

Democrat lawmakers in California are preparing to launch “Gunpocalypse” on Monday, May 16.

The Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) warns that anti-gun lawmakers will be relentless in their legislative assault, as they want to secure success for their favorite gun control proposals before Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom (D) has a chance to step in and upstage them via his ballot initiative in November on background checks for ammunition.   Continue reading “California Democrats To Launch ‘Gunpocalpyse’ May 16”

MuckRock – by Beryl Lipton

Florence, Arizona, an hour’s drive southeast of Phoenix, is home to 10,000 people. Or maybe more like 25,000 people, depending on how you figure.

For what it’s worth, no less an authority than the U.S. Census Bureau choose the latter, including in their numbers as local Arizona residents the thousands of people in cells throughout the city. In fact, it’s how it counts inmates across the States, regardless of their actual state of origin. The discrepancy is just one variable in the matrix of how mass incarceration sets off ripple effects from individual to community to country whenever a prison comes to town. Particularly problematic are private prisons.   Continue reading “The Private Prison Primer: A tale of two prison towns”

CBS San Francisco – by Jackie Ward

OAKLAND (CBS SF) — Hidden microphones that are part of a clandestine government surveillance program that has been operating around the Bay Area has been exposed.

Imagine standing at a bus stop, talking to your friend and having your conversation recorded without you knowing.  It happens all the time, and the FBI doesn’t even need a warrant to do it.   Continue reading “Hidden Microphones Exposed As Part of Government Surveillance Program In The Bay Area”

Raw Story – by Alexander Rosenmann

This week, a Chicago Midway International Airport passenger recorded a two-minute long video, which has since gone viral, illustrating the excruciating long line for TSA screenings:

Watch:   Continue reading “TSA: You Could be a Terrorist if you have use Good Posture have Sweaty Palms, Fidget or Whistle”

Huffington Post

An appeals court ruled on Friday that more than 6,000 pages of the so-calledSenate torture report cannot be made public because they consist of congressional records that are not subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, which only covers federal agencies.

The unanimous ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Washington made clear that records that Congress shares with federal agencies can’t be disclosed if there’s a “clear intent” by lawmakers “to control the document.”    Continue reading “American Public Is Not Entitled To See Full Senate Torture Report, Court Rules”

MassPrivateI

As recent DHS bulletins prove, DHS run Fusion Centers have made job security their number one priority. Time after time we see bulletins warning Americans of possible attacks that mightoccur. Over the years, DHS has claimed terrorists might target shopping malls, sports stadiums,Disney the list is nearly endless.

A recent Fusion Center bulletin, warns police of “self-radicalized” actor(s), and homegrown violent extremists targeting public transportation centers.   Continue reading “DHS admits to using scare tactics, to target photographers and activists”

Tenth Amendment Center

CONCORD, N.H. (May 12, 2016) – Last week, a New Hampshire Senate committee passed a bill that represents an important first step to reform and restrict asset forfeiture, but bowed to law enforcement pressure and amended out sections that would have removed “policing for profit” incentives from state law. The move by the committee reveals the power and aggressiveness of the law enforcement lobby.

Rep. Dan McGuire (R-Merrimack), along with 10 bipartisan legislators, introduced House Bill 636 (HB636) in January. The legislation would reform New Hampshire law by requiring a criminal conviction before prosecutors could proceed with asset forfeiture. Under the proposed law, prosecutors would also have to prove by clear and convincing evidence that the property was derived from, or used in, the commission of a crime. Under current law, the state can seize assets even if a person is never found guilty of a crime, or even arrested.   Continue reading “New Hampshire Asset Forfeiture Bill Unmasks Power of Police Lobby”

EAG News – by Victor Skinner

ATLANTA – Parents of two Atlanta Public Schools students are fuming after their daughters were accosted by local transit police and forced into a “truancy van” on their way to school.

Twins Carrie and Colleen Miller attend Grady High School, about 2.5 miles from their house, and the girls and a friend decided to walk to school last Wednesday when a substitute bus driver failed to pick them up, WXIA reports.
Continue reading “Students walking to school ordered into ‘truancy van’ 50 yards from campus”

9News – by Kyle Clark

BRIGHTON, COLO. – We have never been happier to report on a mistake than we were Wednesday.

Because if this mistake was real, it would have been terrible.

9NEWS and other media outlets usually take tweets from official law enforcement Twitter accounts pretty seriously. So imagine what happened when we saw tweets popping up around 9 a.m. about an elementary school in Brighton being evacuated for a huge explosion, a chemical leak and a train crashing into a building. They branded the situation #BrightonChaos.   Continue reading “‘Brighton chaos’ was a false alarm”

MassPrivateI

It took seven years and a Supreme Court ruling, to acquit three men of a bogus crime linking them to a gang. Back in 2009, the Seattle police claimed, the music on a person’s cell phone was an indicator of gang activity.

“Three men had their convictions for assault overturned when the Washington Supreme Court found Latin music on one of the men’s cellphones was not evidence of association with a gang.”    Continue reading “The music on your phone can get you arrested”

The Register – by Darren Pauli

Vanguard Cybersecurity man David Levin was arrested after exploiting and disclosing SQL injection vulnerabilities that revealed admin credentials in the Lee County state elections website.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement says the 31-year-old Estero man hacked into Lee County state elections website on 19 December. Levin (@realdavidlevin) faced three third-degree felony counts of property crime. Levin was released on a US$15,000 bond.   Continue reading “Researcher arrested after reporting pwnage hole in elections site”

American Intelligence Report – by Kristan T. Harris

An FOIA request filed by Kristan T. Harris of the American Intelligence Report resulted in the release of hundreds of documents related to former United States Naval Intelligence officer, author and radio broadcaster William (Bill) Cooper from Eagar, Arizona.   Continue reading “FBI Documents Reveal Heavy Surveillance of Broadcaster William Cooper (Behold A Pale Horse)”

Breitbart – by Caroline May

Nearly one in six young men (between the ages of 18-34) in the U.S. were either jobless or incarcerated in 2014, according to a new government report. It details a striking amount of male alienation that has been on the rise since the 1980s.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), out of the 38 million young men in the U.S. in 2014, 16 percent were jobless (5 million or 13 percent) or incarcerated (1 million or 3 percent). The share of young men without a job or in prison has increased substantially since 1980, when just 11 percent of young men fit into either category.   Continue reading “CBO: Nearly 1 in 6 Young Men in U.S. Jobless or Incarcerated”