The Newspaper

Florida’s Supreme Court may soon resolve the question of whether police may detain a vehicle’s passenger simply because the driver committed a minor traffic infraction. On Friday, the state’s Fifth District Court of Appeal reversed a prior decision and certified conflict with appellate decisions in other districts, packaging the ruling for the high court’s review.

In this case, Edwin Aguiar was riding in the front seat of a car that had a burned out brake light. A Daytona Beach police officer also noticed the driver forgot to buckle up, so he activated his emergency lights. The driver pulled over in a restaurant parking lot, and Aguiar hopped out. The officer yelled at Aguiar to get back in the car.   Continue reading “Florida Court Gives Police Right To Detain Innocent Passengers”

New York Post – by Yoav Gonen

Mayor de Blasio insisted he’s never received gifts from the deep-pocketed businessmen suspected of giving lavish presents to high-ranking NYPD members in exchange for favors.

“No, no gifts,” de Blasio said at a Wednesday press conference.

Hizzoner said he met Jona Rechnitz, an Upper West Side real estate investor, and Jeremy Reichberg, a Borough Park leader, in 2013.   Continue reading “De Blasio swears he never took gifts from shady businessmen”

Free Beacon – by Ali Meyer

An auditor for the Government Accountability Office told lawmakers  Wednesday that in the next few years the federal government will owe more than our entire economy produces.

Gene Dodaro, the comptroller general for the Government Accountability Office, testified at the Senate Budget Committee to provide the results of its audit on the government’s financial books.   Continue reading “Auditor: Government Will Owe More Money Than Entire Economy Produces”

Philly.com – by Stephanie Farr, Mark Fazlollah, and Jeremy Roebuck

The former commander of the Philadelphia Police Department’s Firearms Identification Unit died of an apparent suicide Wednesday, a day before he was scheduled to face questions from prosecutors about thefts from the department, law enforcement officials said.

A police spokeswoman confirmed that Lt. Vincent J. Testa, 53, who worked in North Philadelphia’s 39th District, was found unresponsive at his residence by his girlfriend Wednesday morning. Police declined to release a cause of death but said that there were no signs of foul play.   Continue reading “Ex-head of police gun unit is found dead before scheduled questioning”

Tech Dirt – by Timothy Geigner

We all know that society is going straight down a hellish toilet bowl. We know this mostly because everyone says so. Violence is rampant, sex is carried out with all the care of discussing the weather, and generally we’re squashing morality like it was a bug walking across the concrete. And we all know who the real culprits of all this immorality are: teenagers.    Continue reading “All Those Evil Violent Video Games Apparently Failed At Turning Kids Into Deviant Murder-Terrorists”

Chicago Tribune – by Celeste Bott

SPRINGFIELD — State lawmakers are confronting what has become a common problem in the digital age: How to provide law enforcement with the tools to investigate online threats and cybercrimes while also making sure privacy and free speech are safeguarded.

Lawmakers are considering a series of new bills aimed at giving police more power to investigate online crimes and also to tap into technology to hold people accountable for posting video of crimes.   Continue reading “Illinois legislators consider bills on policing social media”

MassPrivateI

According to the St. Louis Dispatch article, Ferguson agreed to DOJ mandated police reform but only if they could raise taxes so citizens could pay for it.

“While voters approved a half-cent sales tax increase on Tuesday, they rejected a Ferguson city plan to increase property taxes.”

“Both measures were intended to offset a $2.9 million budget deficit.”   Continue reading “Ferguson agreed to police reform but only if they could raise taxes so citizens could pay for it”

NBC 4 New York

Bystanders didn’t take long to call police last month when they spotted a couple of suspicious men skulking around a New Jersey train station taking photos of security cameras. Port Authority cops turned on lights and sirens and rushed to the scene in hour traffic.

But when they got there, the officers were shocked to find that the emergency they had rushed to was only a test. The suspicious men? Port Authority’s own security analysts.   Continue reading “Port Authority Cops Say Surprise Terror Drills Pose Danger to Officers, Public”

Washington Examiner – by Paul Bedard

A tax advocacy group on Wednesday revealed that Americans spend more on taxes than their whole budget for food, clothing and housing.

The Tax Foundation, in its annual report on when the nation as a whole has earned enough to pay its taxes, announced the date as April 24.   Continue reading “Americans spend more on taxes than food, clothing, housing combined”

IB Times – by Eric Markowitz

The story of how the FBI finally tracked down notorious fugitive Lynn Cozart, using its brand-new, $1 billion facial recognition system, seems tailor-made to disarm even the staunchest of skeptics.

Cozart, a former security guard in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, was convicted of deviant sexual intercourse in 1996. According to court filings, he had molested his three juvenile children, two girls and one boy, from 1984 through 1994. It wasn’t until May 11, 1995, that the children’s mother came forward and told the Pennsylvania State Police what Cozart had been doing. He was convicted, but he failed to show up for his sentencing hearing in April 1996. Federal agents raided his home, interviewed family members and released photos of the man to the general public.   Continue reading “The FBI Now Has The Largest Biometric Database In The World. Will It Lead To More Surveillance?”

Yahoo News

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Reuters) – A Kentucky lawyer, a former administrative law judge and a psychologist were indicted for conspiring to commit more than $600 million in disability fraud by submitting phony medical papers, according to court documents unsealed on Tuesday.

Eric Christopher Conn, a lawyer based in Stanville – about 130 miles east of Lexington – faces 18 counts, including three counts of mail fraud, three counts of wire fraud and five counts of money laundering after his indictment by a grand jury for the U.S. District Court in Lexington, Kentucky.   Continue reading “Three Kentucky men indicted in $600 million federal fraud case”

AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s top health officials are stepping up calls to require doctors to log in to pill-tracking databases before prescribing painkillers and other high-risk drugs.

The move is part of a multi-pronged strategy by the Obama administration to tame an epidemic of abuse and death tied to opioid painkillers like Vicodin and OxyContin. But physician groups see the proposed requirement to check the databases as overly burdensome, another time-consuming task that takes away from patient care.   Continue reading “Federal officials, advocates push pill-tracking databases”

Courthouse News Service – by ERIK DE LA GARZA

SAN ANTONIO (CN) – The family of a paranoid schizophrenic who died after a cocaine-fueled fight with police cannot sue the officers for civil rights violations, a federal judge ruled.

Pierre Abernathy, 30, clashed with San Antonio police after an officer spotted the diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic driving in the wrong direction on Aug. 4, 2011.   Continue reading “Family Can’t Sue Police for Son’s Beating Death”

Papers, Please!

The curious incident of the dog named “Dash” has spotlighted a type of outsourced surveillance and control of our everyday activities that typically operates invisibly but that is much more pervasive than most people in the USA imagine.

We were contacted last week by KTVU News to help explain what happened to Bruce Francis, a disabled San Francisco man whose online request to send a check to pay the person who walks his service dog was refused by Chase Bank. The memo line on the check read, “for Dash”, Dash being the name of Mr. Francis’ dog.   Continue reading “How does your bank know your dog’s not a terrorist?”

Huffington Post – by Nick Wing

An Oklahoma sheriff and his deputy were arrested last week on charges of bribery and extortion stemming from a traffic stop in which the two men used a controversial law enforcement tool known as civil asset forfeiture to seize cash from a motorist.

Wagoner County Sheriff Bob Colbert and Deputy Jeffrey Gragg maintain they did everything by the book in December 2014, when they took $10,000 in cash — drug proceeds, they claimed — from a vehicle following a stop. But a grand jury disagreed, and on Thursday returned an indictment alleging that Colbert and Gregg had conspired to get the driver and his passenger to hand over the cash in exchange for not pursuing drug charges.   Continue reading “Sheriff Arrested For Extortion After Allegedly Shaking Down Driver — Which Is Somehow Usually Legal”

The Daily Sheeple – by Joshua Krause

Second Amendment supporters have always warned of the “slippery slope” that leads to all out gun control. That analogy is never more appropriate than when the subject of California’s gun laws comes up. By all appearance the state has hit that slope hard, and won’t stop tumbling, which is the only reasonable explanation for their latest gun control push. Gavin Newsom, the former mayor of San Francisco turned Lieutenant Governor of California, has recently proposed a doozy of a ballot measure.   Continue reading “The Next Gun Control Push: Ammunition Background Checks”

Dallas Morning News – by Dave Lieber

BELTON — Houston Miller hustles to the exit door of the Bell County adult probation department, his blond ponytail flopping halfway down his back.

The 19-year-old must get to his new $8-an-hour shipping clerk job so he can pay $1,800 in fines, fees and court costs. He got busted with a pinch of pot.   Continue reading “Watchdog: Pay-or-go-to-jail policy makes probation officers bill collectors”

KSHB 4

SUGAR CREEK, Mo. – There’s a new ordinance in Sugar Creek, Missouri, that restricts the use of agriculture on properties in the city.

Nathan Athans believes it’s a witch hunt against him.

Athans grows several different types of vegetables on his lawn and loves tending to his garden.   Continue reading “New city ordinance forces family to destroy their vegetable garden”