Author: Joe from MassPrivateI

The Heritage Foundation – by Evan Bernick and Paul Larkin

Brandy Berning spent the night in a Florida jail because she used a cell phone to film a traffic stop on I-95.[1] George Thompson of Fall River, Massachusetts, claimed that he was verbally abused, arrested, and locked up overnight for filming a profane police officer with a cell phone from his front porch. The officer was across the street in full view and within earshot of anyone who happened to be passing by his home.[2]Most recently, Florida police arrested and charged Lazaro Estrada with obstruction of justice for peacefully filming an arrest with his cell phone on a public street.[3]   Continue reading “Filming the Watchmen: Why the First Amendment Protects Your Right to Film the Police in Public Places”

AZ Central – by Megan Cassidy

A Phoenix man is suing a Maricopa County Sheriff’s deputy after he says the deputy collided with his truck and then handcuffed the plaintiff when he tried to write down the deputy’s license-plate number.

Detective Steve Chervenak denies the allegations of assault, false imprisonment and civil-rights violations, and instead claims the driver was combative, forcing Chervenak to detain him for safety concerns. The case is making its way through federal court.   Continue reading “Suit: Deputy caused crash, handcuffed other driver”

Washington’s Blog

Spying On – and Blackmailing – Politicians, Generals, Judges, Lawyers and Citizens

The newly-published revelations from Edward Snowden show that the NSA and FBI spied on anAmerican citizen running for political office:

The NSA also surveilled a U.S. citizen while he ran for political office:https://t.co/UzFya8ltmjpic.twitter.com/3jZdsYxQRG

Continue reading “High-Level NSA Official: the NSA Has Become “J. Edgar Hoover On Super Steroids””

Washington Post – by Eugene Volokh

So argued a U.S. Patent & Trademark Officer examiner, in refusing to register the mark. Fortunately — though more than four years after the application was filed, and nearly two  years after the initial hearing on appeal — the decision was reversed. (This happened late last fall, but I just ran across the case in a recent Westlaw query, and hadn’t seen any reference to it before.)

Federal trademark law provides that people can’t register trademarks that contain “immoral, deceptive, or scandalous matter” or that “may disparage … persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, or bring them into contempt, or disrepute.” The examining attorney concluded that the mark was indeed “scandalous” and “disparag[ing].” To quote the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board,   Continue reading “Can’t register trademark with Statue of Liberty holding silenced gun because that would be ‘shocking, offensive and disparaging’?”

Tech Dirt – by Tim Cushing

The Los Angeles Police Department has obtained tons of data over the past several years and that amount of data increases exponentially every year. In addition to its criminal databases, it also collects thousands of license plate time-and-location data points every day and has deployed other forms of surveillance (like Stingray devices), gathering even more data surreptitiously.

Of course, the LAPD feels it can be trusted with all of this data. It claims to have controls in place to prevent unauthorized access to information related to non-criminal Los Angeles citizens. Working with Palantir, the LAPD has instant access to a vast amount of gathered data — a database so impressive it spent a bit of time bragging about it to a CNN reporter. (via Lowering the Bar)   Continue reading “LAPD Exposes Login To Data Harvesting Software During Interview With CNN”

Truthstream Media – by Aaron Dykes

Americans on all sides have rejected Common Core and expressed resentment for the role of the Gates Foundation in forcing it upon the already declining education system.

Opposition to Common Core has gained such momentum on all sides of the debate, and for various reasons, that major outlets are now telling Bill Gates to butt out of education, and instead go home with his billions.    Continue reading “Teacher outrage stalls Bill Gates’ Common Core push”

EAG News – by Vivian Hughbanks

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A bill to reauthorize federal funding for newborn DNA collection passed the U.S. House of Representatives by voice vote—meaning without a vote record—on June 26.

Currently, the Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act of 2007 mandates collecting blood samples from every newborn by heel prick. Labs then screen the samples for diseases. While many states allow for discarding the samples at that point, this bill would collect each newborn’s DNA in federal databases for subsequent medical research and, in one state, tracking its owners’ education progress.    Continue reading “Rhode Island may use DNA to track students; Federal bill passes House”

KAKE News

SALINA, Kan. — Maybe he found the droids he was looking for. In any case, a man dressed as a “Star Wars” storm trooper caused a brief lockdown at a Salina business yesterday.

KSAL News reports that around 1p.m. Monday, Salina police officers were dispatched to the report of a possibly armed man in the 100 block of South 7th Street.

An area business owner and another man were working when they noticed the “trooper” outside carrying a gun. One of the men thought he may have been carrying an AK-47, and called 911.   Continue reading “Storm trooper prompts lockdown at Kansas business”

CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) – Massachusetts General Hospital plans to begin questioning all patients about their use of alcohol and illegal drugs starting this fall, even if they are at MGH for a totally unrelated issue.

Dr. Sarah Wakeman, director of substance abuse disorders at Mass. General, told WBZ NewsRadio 1030’s Carl Stevens the purpose is to make substance abuse treatment part of mainstream medical care.   Continue reading “Massachusetts General Hospital To Quiz All Patients About Use Of Alcohol And Illegal Drugs”

Fox News

An Ohio dad lost his job at McDonald’s and may face jail after he reportedly believed his son got on a church van Sunday, but instead, the boy popped up at a nearby Family Dollar store.

WXYZ.com reported  that Jeffrey Williamson, who lives in Blanchester, thought all of his children boarded a church van, but his 8-year-old son apparently never got on and instead wanted to play in the neighborhood.   Continue reading “Ohio dad criticizes arrest after son skips church, found in nearby store”

MassPrivateI

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (James “Least Untruthful” Clapper, presiding) has released its first ever transparency report. So, what have our intelligence agencies been up to for the last calendar year? Well, a little of this and whole lot of that, all of it broken down into numbers that don’t really provide that much transparency.

The figure that first stands out is related to the Section 702 program. As defined in intelspeak, the 702 program:
facilitates the acquisition of foreign intelligence information concerning non-U.S. persons located outside the United States, creating a new, more streamlined procedure to collect the communications of foreign terrorists.In plain English, the Section 702 program does this:    Continue reading “America’s spy agencies issue more than 50 pen register requests per day!”

The Free Thought Project – by Matt Agorist

Fatima Doumbouya had no idea of the horrors that would ensue for simply choosing to have her baby in her own home.

Earlier this month Doumbouya, with her husband at her side, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl in the comfort of their own home.

For six days they enjoyed being new parents before deciding that it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to get their newborn baby screened for any health issues.   Continue reading “Police Confiscate Healthy Baby Because it Was Born at Home”

Common Dreams – by Andrea Germanos, June 26, 2014

A group of teachers [held] a rally Thursday evening in Seattle to denounce education reform measures they say have been an attack on public education and let corporate interests and high-stakes testing trump real student learning.

The target of their protest: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, whom the teachers say has used its monetary power to push corporate reforms and is symbolic of measures—like Common Core Standards and over-testing—that don’t let educators be the decision makers of education policies.   Continue reading “Teachers to Gates Foundation: Stop Pushing Corporate Education Reform!”

Police State USA

A little-known police tactic allows cops to covertly enter private residences, perform searches, seize property, and then leave quietly without notifying the homeowner. These searches, affectionately known as “sneak and peek” warrants, have been performed at a rapidly rising rate since 9/11.   Continue reading “‘Sneak & peek’ warrants allow police to secretly enter homes without notice”