Joe from MassPrivateI, Author at From the Trenches World Report

The Newspaper

The US House of Representatives voted 255 to 172 last Tuesday in favor of a ban on federal funding of red light cameras, speed cameras and automated license plate readers (ALPR or ANPR). Representative John Fleming (R-Louisiana) proposed the measure as an amendment to the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill which has yet to be taken up by the Senate.

“None of the funds made available by this act may be used to acquire a camera for the purpose of collecting or storing vehicle license plate numbers,” the House-passed language states. Continue reading “US House Approves Ban On Federal Traffic Camera Funding”

MLive – by Alex Mitchell

KALAMAZOO, MI — Police reports and recordings of a sometimes tense 40-minute encounter with a belligerent, rifle-toting man offers insight into how officers tried to defuse a volatile situation without infringing on his right to openly the gun on a city street.

On May 4, Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety officers responded to multiple reports of a man, possibly intoxicated, carrying a rifle along East Cork Street in the city’s Milwood neighborhood. Joseph Houseman, 63, was eventually persuaded to hand over the gun, which was returned to him the next day. Police considered but ultimately decided against seeking a misdemeanor charge of brandishing a firearm. Continue reading “Tense encounter between open-carry advocate and Kalamazoo police detailed in recordings, reports”

RT News

Nearly 95 per cent of terrorist arrests have been the result of FBI foiling its own entrapment plots as a part of the so-called post-9/11 War on Terror, a new study revealed.

According to the report entitled ‘Inventing Terrorists: The Lawfare of Preemptive Prosecution’, the majority of arrests involved the unjust prosecution of targeted Muslim Americans.

The 175-page study by Muslim advocacy group SALAM analyzes 399 individuals in cases included on the list of the US Department of Justice from 2001 to 2010. Continue reading “‘Inventing terrorists’: New study reveals FBI set up terrorism-related prosecutions”

Zero Hedge – by Tyler Durden

It is no secret that as the Fed’s centrally-planned New Normal has unfolded, one after another central-planner and virtually all economists, have been caught wrong-footed with their constant predictions of an “imminent” economic surge, any minute now, and always just around the corner. And yet, nearly six years after Lehman, five years after the end of the last “recession” (even as the depression for most rages on), America is about to have its worst quarter in decades (excluding the great financial crisis), with a -2% collapse in GDP, which has been blamed on… the weather. Continue reading “New York Times Says “Lack Of Major Wars May Be Hurting Economic Growth””

New York Times – by JESSICA SILVER-GREENBERG and MICHAEL CORKERY

In her early college years, when Charlette Williams started routinely mismanaging her finances and pushing her checking account balance into the red, she never thought the mistakes would haunt her five years later, she said. Now, she is paying a steep price.

Ms. Williams, a 25-year-old resident of Queens, is one of more than a million Americans who have been effectively blacklisted from the mainstream financial system because they overdrew their accounts or bounced a check — mistakes that routinely bedevil young and low-income consumers, financial counselors say. While Ms. Williams paid back Bank of America the roughly $700 that she owed, a record of her youthful transgressions remains in a vast private database, preventing her from opening a new account. Continue reading “Over a Million People Have Been ‘Black-Listed” by Banks”

SF Gate – by Sadie Gurman

DENVER (AP) — A federal judge has asked the U.S. attorney’s office to investigate whether Denver police officers broke the law when they spoke with a key witness in a federal civil rights lawsuit, the latest in a series of high-profile misconduct allegations against Denver police and sheriff’s deputies.

Judge John Kane also wants an investigation into patterns and practices of the police and sheriff’s departments. Court documents released Tuesday confirmed his request, first made during a Friday hearing in a lawsuit filed by Jamal Hunter. Continue reading “Judge wants probe of Denver police conduct in case”

Pittsburgh Post Gazette – by Clarece Polke

The days of hearsay “he said, she said” reports on school bus incidents might be over, at least in Pennsylvania.

Gov. Tom Corbett signed legislation in February allowing the use of audio recording devices on school buses, and many districts are taking advantage of the law. The recordings can be used for “disciplinary and security purposes,” the bill states. Video surveillance already was permitted.

Continue reading “New Pennsylvania law allows school districts to record student conversations on buses”

The Free Thought Project – by Matt Savoy

Over the last decade the United States has witnessed an all-out attack on the Constitution. Freedom to travel unmolested is becoming a thing of the past. Bi-partisan support from all levels of State and Federal government wage war on your ability to remain secure in your belongings and the freedom from unreasonable search and seizure.

Phone calls, emails, text messages, and any other forms of communication are being data mined by the state. Those that attempt to shed light on these state sponsored atrocities are labeled as terrorists and forced to flee the country or are indefinitely detained. The most recent of these “whistleblowers,” Edward Snowden, is a former technical contractor for the United States National Security Agency (NSA) and a former employee of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who leaked details of several top-secret U.S. and British government mass surveillance programs to the press. Continue reading “How to Beat Illegal Checkpoints Like a Pro”

The Seattle Times – by Mike Lindblom

Government-hired survey teams will soon ask hundreds of Washington state motorists to answer questions and provide samples of breath, saliva and blood — all to give safety and police agencies a clearer sense of how many people drive impaired.

The roadside surveys are voluntary, and participants will be paid up to $60, under the federally funded project this summer. Continue reading “Drivers can earn $60 with roadside blood test, breath check”

MassPrivateI

The Obama administration has been quietly advising local police not to disclose details about surveillance technology they are using to sweep up basic cellphone data from entire neighborhoods, The Associated Press has learned.

Citing security reasons, the U.S. has intervened in routine state public records cases and criminal trials regarding use of the technology. This has resulted in police departments withholding materials or heavily censoring documents in rare instances when they disclose any about the purchase and use of such powerful surveillance equipment. Continue reading “Obama administration advising police not to disclose details about surveillance”

Huffington Post – by TOM LoBIANCO

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A small but determined group of state lawmakers from some 30 states gathered in Indiana Thursday to lay the groundwork for something that has not happened since 1787 in Philadelphia: a convention to revise the U.S. Constitution.

The bar they would have to clear — winning approval from 34 state legislatures — seems impossibly high, but the group of roughly 100 legislators, most of them Republicans, is pressing on. Continue reading “Lawmakers Meet In Effort To Revise The US Constitution”

ABC News – by Yazhou Sun

Emergency dispatchers have a tough job answering life-altering calls to the most traumatizing events. They provide life-saving instructions to victims over the phone, and calm their nerves. However, one dispatcher in Columbus, Ohio, has “zero sympathy,” claimed one alleged rape victim.

The victim called 911 just after 4 a.m. last Sunday, according to ABC affiliate WSYX. She was staying with a friend at a house just off the Ohio State University campus. The caller said she was woken up by a stranger holding a gun to her head and forcing her to perform sex acts on him. Continue reading “911 Dispatcher Tells Rape Victim to ‘Quit Crying’”

Huffington Post – by Kevin Short

The alarming rate of school shootings across the country appears to have added an unsettling new item to parents’ list of “back to school” items: bulletproof armor for their children. Among such items, the Bodyguard Blanket, a portable, bulletproof covering for children, has seen its sales exceed its manufacturer’s expectations in less than two weeks on the market.

Stan Schone, managing partner at manufacturer ProTecht, told The Huffington Post that consumer response to the product has “far exceeded our wildest expectations” in the 10 days that the blanket has been available for purchase. Continue reading “Sales Of Bulletproof Blankets Beat Maker’s ‘Wildest Expectations’”

The Free Thought Project – by John Vibes

A police officer in Pennsylvania will not receive any charges after shooting and killing his pregnant wife. The unborn baby was also killed. There has been no mention of the officers name in any news reports, but the name of his deceased wife, Joan Miller has been released.

Miller was 34 years old at the time, and the unborn child was 22 weeks old. Continue reading “Cop Shoots and Kills Pregnant Wife and Unborn Child Then Walks Free”

Tech Dirt – by Tim Cushing

An interesting — and possibly harmful — ruling on public records requests has just been issued by the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. Although the ruling has a very limited jurisdiction, it could be used to push for similar legal activity elsewhere. Journalism student David Schick (who was last seen drawing the ire of Georgia State Attorney General Sam Olens over the release of public documents) has the story.

In a ruling earlier this month, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals set a precedent of allowing state officials to consider the purpose of a citizens’ public records request before handing over documents… Continue reading “Wisconsin Court Broadens FOI Exception, Allowing Government Agencies To Deny Requests Based On Perceived Motive”

Tech Dirt – by Mike Masnick

Not this again. We’ve noted many times in the past that the two popular “print on demand” t-shirt/merchandise operations online, CafePress and Zazzle, too frequently seem to quickly take down content based on bogus legal threats. Last year, after Zazzle caved in to threats from Homeland Security and the NSA over parody logos, a lawsuit was filed by Dan McCall, whose designs were taken down. The geniuses in the US government realized they were in trouble and admitted that there is no violation in parody logos. Continue reading “Hillary Clinton PAC Sends Bogus Takedowns Over Parodies On Zazzle And CafePress”

BuzzFeed – by Tasneem Nashrulla

The Bodyguard Blanket, made by ProTecht, is a bulletproof 5/16-inch pad that the company says is made from the same materials used by the U.S. military.

Steve Walker, a podiatrist who conceptualized the blanket, told The Oklahoman that the idea came to him after two tragedies: the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and the tornadoes in Oklahoma. He said the idea was to “stop that blunt-force trauma when that rubble is falling down on a child.”

Continue reading “A Company Has Designed A Bulletproof Blanket To Protect Kids During School Shootings”

Cheese Underground

A sense of disbelief and distress is quickly rippling through the U.S. artisan cheese community, as the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week announced it will not permit American cheesemakers to age cheese on wooden boards.

Recently, the FDA inspected several New York state cheesemakers and cited them for using wooden surfaces to age their cheeses. The New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets’ Division of Milk Control and Dairy Services, which (like most every state in the U.S., including Wisconsin), has allowed this practice, reached out to FDA for clarification on the issue. A response was provided by Monica Metz, Branch Chief of FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition’s (CFSAN) Dairy and Egg Branch. Continue reading “Game Changer: FDA Rules No Wooden Boards in Cheese Aging”

MassPrivateI

The U.S. Treasury Department said it sets limits while allowing the nation’s intelligence agencies to access reports that banks file on suspicious or large money moves by customers, including information about Americans.

Sets limits? The NSA, IRS & the FBI have access to our financial records. Continue reading “The U.S. Treasury dept. & other agencies are spying on our banking records”

Yahoo News – by Sam Hananel

WASHINGTON (AP) — Messages posted on Facebook and Twitter or sent in emails can be tasteless, vulgar and even disturbing.

But just when do they cross the line from free speech to threats that can be punished as a crime?

As the Internet and social networks allow people to vent their frustrations with the click of a mouse, the Supreme Court is being asked to clarify the First Amendment rights of people who use violent or threatening language on electronic media where the speaker’s intent is not always clear. Continue reading “Free speech or illegal threats? Justices could say”