Author: Joe from MassPrivateI

Tehran Times – by Catherine Shakdam

Apartheid is a crime against humanity. Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their liberty and property. It has perpetuated a system of gross racial discrimination and inequality. It has systematically incarcerated and tortured thousands of Palestinians, contrary to the rules of international law. It has, in particular, waged a war against a civilian population, in particular children … If you want peace and democracy, I will support you. If you want formal Apartheid, we will not support you. If you want to support racial discrimination and ethnic cleansing, we will oppose you—wrote Nelson Mandela in a letter to Thomas Friedman, a prominent journalist and writer for the New York Times.   Continue reading “Israel’s ethnic cleansing: The real face of terror”

The Daily Caller – by Blake Neff

Students could have advertisements directed at them by Coca-Cola due to holes in existing privacy laws, one expert testified Wednesday during a House hearing on the data security of American schoolchildren.

Joel Reidenberg, who directs the Center on Law and Information Policy at Fordham Law School, told joint hearing of two House subcommittees that the privacy risks of growing digital efforts in education are grossly underappreciated.   Continue reading “Student Data Could Be Sold To Coke, Expert Warns On Capitol Hill”

Lew Rockwell – by William Norman Grigg

Although government-aligned media outlets generally are faithful stenographers for the coercive caste, the same is not true of social media. YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter have fatally undermined the official narrative that law enforcement is a noble calling by offering critics the means to document and publicize the criminal violence and pervasive corruption that characterize the profession. Thus it’s not surprising that police are seeking to ban Facebook pages that document police misconduct and demand accountability.

“There are anti-anti-police pages starting whose main purpose isn’t to engage the anti-police pages intellectually, but just to report and get them banned,” warns LRC reader Buddhadev Chakraborty. “Examples of these pages are Stop the Cop Haters, and Night of Blue Lights.”   Continue reading “Privileged Purveyors of State Violence Seek to Ban — Or Cage — Their Critics”

Houston Chronicle – by Brian Rogers

Scores of pending criminal cases and past convictions could be in jeopardy in the wake of revelations that a former Houston Police crime lab technician resigned after an internal investigation found evidence of lying, improper procedure and tampering with an official record.

Former DNA lab technician Peter Lentz worked on 185 criminal cases, including 51 murders or capital murders, according to letters sent out by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office and obtained by the Houston Chronicle through an open records request.   Continue reading “Scores of cases affected after HPD crime lab analyst ousted”

Turn It Off

SACRAMENTO, June 24, 2014 – In the face of opposition lobbying from the California Sheriffs Association and two former NSA analysts, the California Assembly Public Safety Committee voted unanimously to approve a bipartisan bill which creates a mechanism to turn off all material support and assistance, including water and electricity resources, from California to federal mass surveillance programs. The vote was 7-0.

Dubbed the 4th Amendment Protection Act, Senate Bill 828 (SB828) passed the State Senate last month by a vote of 29-1, and is just two votes away from reaching Gov. Brown’s desk.  If signed into law, it would ban the state from participating in, or providing material support or resources to any federal agency engaged in the “illegal and unconstitutional collection of electronic data or metadata, without consent, of any person not based on a warrant that particularly describes the person, place, and thing to be searched or seized.”    Continue reading “California Assembly Panel Votes Unanimously to Turn off Resources to the NSA”

ProPublica – by Minhee Cho

Continue reading “Restraints and Seclusion in Public Schools”

Philly.com – by Stephanie Farr

MassPrivateI

This is the most disturbing story I’ve had the displeasure to write about, not only does Big Brother spy on us, our families & kids they’re collecting their Iris’s!

Worcester, MA – It takes less than a minute to enter a child’s information into a national missing person’s database. All it takes is a photo, some general information like height and weight, and a quick scan of your eyes.

It’s happening across the country! Continue reading “Police/DHS are entering kids Iris’s into a NATIONAL DATABASE”

Huffington Post – by Nigel Duara

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge has affirmed the legality of the U.S. government’s bulk collection of phone and email data from foreign nationals living outside the country — including their contact with U.S. citizens — in denying a man’s motion to dismiss his terrorism conviction.

It was the first legal challenge to the government’s bulk data-collection program of non-U.S. citizens living overseas after revelations about massive, warrantless surveillance were made public by former National Security Agency employee Edward Snowden.   Continue reading “Federal Judge Rules Warrantless Bulk Surveillance Is Legal”

Seattle PI – by Lynsi Burton

In what King County Sheriff John Urquhart called a “slap in the face,” a sheriff’s deputy is accused of stealing agency equipment, dealing steroids and pimping out his wife as an escort.

Darrion Holiwell, a 19-year veteran of the sheriff’s office, was a SWAT officer and the chief firearms instructor who worked at the Ravensdale Range where the agency’s SWAT team trained, in addition to local FBI agents and King County Jail staff.   Continue reading “King Co. Sheriff’s deputy charged with prostituting wife, theft, dealing steroids”

CNN – by Scott Bronstein, Drew Griffin and Nelli Black

(CNN) — Records of dead veterans were changed or physically altered, some even in recent weeks, to hide how many people died while waiting for care at the Phoenix VA hospital, a whistle-blower told CNN in stunning revelations that point to a new coverup in the ongoing VA scandal.

“Deceased” notes on files were removed to make statistics look better, so veterans would not be counted as having died while waiting for care, Pauline DeWenter said.   Continue reading “VA deaths covered up to make statistics look better, whistle-blower says”

Huffington Post – by Kevin Drawbaugh

WASHINGTON, June 23 (Reuters) – The Republican chairman of a congressional panel accused the U.S. Internal Revenue Service on Monday of hiding a former official’s emails related to a 2013 controversy involving IRS treatment of conservative groups.

Representative Darrell Issa criticized what he called “obstruction by the IRS” over emails written by Lois Lerner that the committee wants for review. The agency said last week it lost some of Lerner’s emails in a computer crash. Continue reading “Darrell Issa Slams IRS Over Emails In Tea Party Scandal”

The Newspaper

Utah state troopers who used a drug dog as a pretense to search a car belonging to an innocent woman are in legal trouble. The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit on Friday ruled that the victims could sue the troopers for spending two hours rifling through their vehicle without finding anything unlawful, in violation of their constitutional rights.

Utah State Trooper Brian Bairett had been running a speed trap on Interstate 15 when a Jeep driven by Sherida Felders passed through. Bairett said he developed probable cause during the traffic stop because she was nervous, had an air freshener and her license plate holder said “Jesus.” Continue reading “Federal Court: Cops Cannot Push Drug Dog Into Open Car Door”

Courthouse News

     CHICAGO (CN) – Suburban Chicago police shot a 95-year-old WWII veteran to death with bean bag rounds at short range because he refused to go to the hospital, his stepdaughter claims in court.

     Sharon Mangerson, stepdaughter of the late John Wrana Jr., sued the Village of Park Forest on Friday, and its police Officers Clifford Butz, Michael Baugh, Craig Taylor, Lloyd Elliot, Charlie Hoskins and Mitch Greer in Federal Court.   Continue reading “Police shot a 95-year-old WWII veteran to death with bean bag rounds because he refused to go to hospital”

Washington’s Blog

US and developed nations’ escalate “Big Lie” crimes in Earth’s tragic-comedy, centered in:

• Unlawful and lie-began war (here, here, here, here),
• So-called money (actually bank-created debt; here, here, here), and
• “Crime-coverage” by corporate media.

The solutions are pretty obvious:   Continue reading “Had enough ‘Big Lie’ crimes from US leaders to demand arrests, or do you need even more death, debt, lies?”

CBS Tampa

TAMPA, Fla. (CBS Tampa) – Students at the University of South Florida will be able to borrow drones from the university’s library beginning this fall semester.

WESH  reported that the Tampa campus will allow students to borrow the drones if they need them for their school-related projects.

This announcement comes a couple of days after the National Park Service announced a temporary ban on drones.   Continue reading “USF Students Can Borrow Drones From School’s Library”

Huffington Post – by Paul Elias

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Lawyers have been given the green light to scan the social media sites of jurors.

The American Bar Association says it’s ethical for lawyers to scour online for publicly available musings of citizens called for jury service — and even jurors in deliberations.

But the ABA does warn lawyers against actively “following” or “friending” jurors or otherwise invading their private Internet areas.   Continue reading “American Bar Association Gives Lawyers Green Light To Scan Jurors’ Social Media Sites”