From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
NEW IBERIA — State Police are investigating the death of a New Iberia man who apparently shot and killed himself while handcuffed in an Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office vehicle Sunday night, officials said.
Victor White III, 22, was reportedly fighting with others in the 300 block of Lewis Street when deputies, responding to a call, arrived at 11:22 a.m., Trooper 1st Class Stephen Hammons said in a news release. Continue reading “Man kills himself in backseat of Iberia Parish deputy’s car”
Tenth Amendment Center – by Michael Boldin
A Missouri bill to strictly limit drone use passed out of the state House on Monday by a vote of 109-44. It now moves on to the Senate for consideration.
HB1204, the “Preserving Freedom from Unwarranted Surveillance Act,” would ban law enforcement agencies in Missouri from using a “drone or other unmanned aircraft to gather evidence or other information pertaining to criminal conduct or conduct in violation of a statute or regulation except to the extent authorized in a warrant.” Continue reading “Missouri house bans warrantless drone spying, 109-44”
Washington Post – by EUGENE VOLOKH
So holds Rhein v. Pryor (N.D. Ill. Mar. 20, 2014). At this stage of the proceedings, there has been no fact finding based on the plaintiffs’ allegations, so one cannot assume that the defendants indeed behaved the way the plaintiffs claim. I quote the case only to show what legal theories can be brought if government officials do indeed act in the ways the plaintiffs allege. Here are the factual allegations; note that a FOID card is a Firearm Owners Identification Card that is required under Illinois law to possess guns: Continue reading “Free speech, right to bear arms, search and seizure, and due process claims based on gun seizure can go forward”
Not one Wall Street executive has been criminally prosecuted in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Why not?
The Justice Department says — well, it’s not easy to prove intent.
Peter Henning asks — if that’s the case, why don’t we have a recklessness standard for corporate executive wrongdoing? Continue reading “A Recklessness Standard for Corporate Executive Wrongdoing”
The Augusta Chronicle – by Sandy Hodson
Both houses of the Georgia General Assembly have now voted in favor of a bill that empowers for-profit private probation companies and conceals from the public information on how much probationers pay local governments and the companies and even the number of people on probation.
Efforts by some legislators to institute what they saw as safeguards and accountability provisions were stripped from the bill once it moved to the Senate’s non-civil judiciary committee, led by Sen. Jesse Stone, R-Waynesboro. The lawyer is one candidate on a short list to fill the State Court judgeship in Burke County – a court that contracts with a private probation company. Continue reading “Georgia Legislature passes private probation bill”
The Daily Caller – by Robby Soave
A second grader’s answers to a Common Core-aligned math worksheet were marked as incorrect because they weren’t “friendly” enough… even though they were the right answers.
A screenshot of the worksheet was posted to Twitter. The teacher wrote that even though the questions — addition and subtraction problems — were solved correctly, the student used the wrong technique to arrive at the answers. Continue reading “This Common Core math problem asks kids to write the ‘friendly’ answer, instead of the correct one!”
Many people use Yelp to find out about a business before they give them their business, but one Midtown business owner threatened to sue over some bad reviews.
As CBS 2’s Sonia Rincon reported Friday, Matthew Brand saw the great reviews on Yelp for Ron Gordon Watch Repair, at 280 Madison Ave. So he decided to take his watch there for repair. Continue reading “Man Threatened With Defamation Lawsuit Over Negative Yelp Review”
A Florida woman is suing Volusia County and the city of New Smyrna Beach after police officers forced her to poop in her front yard and undress in front of them while they searched her house for meth.
Dawn Brooks says officer brought her outside in handcuffs, and then refused her requests to use the bathroom indoors. They “told her to ‘just use the restroom right there’ in the front yard, which plaintiff did,” according to a district court judge’s summary of the incident. Continue reading “Florida Woman Claims Police Made Her Poop on Her Lawn During Meth Bust”
Article first appeared in privacysos.org:
FirstNet is a public/private cooperative surveillance and information exchange enterprise—avast network to share Americans’ personal information—conceived by and written into law with the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012. By law, FirstNet’s purpose is to “create a nationwide, wireless, interoperable, public safety broadband network,” a euphemism that means, “increase the ease with which government agencies share private and public information about people.” By consolidating the placement of points of reference and interoperability for each potential node of state, local, commercial, and other communications networks, FirstNet is a blueprint for making surveillance data-sharing national, lightning-fast, and independent from the insecure, heavily monitored public internet. Continue reading “FirstNet America’s national ‘First Responder’ surveillance & spying network”
This video has multiple parts. The relevant part for this site is between the 0:37 – 3:30 time. Summary – Senator Pat Roberts (Kansas) is standing up for citizen’s rights (pilots in this case), and the Constitution. He is being stonewalled by the feds.
As a pilot and a citizen myself, I follow the theme on this site (thanks for educating me!), and have not succumb to the aggressive nature of the police. I’m tested often, and my only crime is being sued for a divorce. Now I’m having to fight to see my kids. I have 50/50 shared parenting, and still have trouble seeing my children – and I was the stay at home Dad! Continue reading “Even Pilots are made to Bow Under the Thumb of Aggression”
Mother Jones – by Mariah Blake
In February, a group of Food and Drug Administration scientists published a study finding that low-level exposure to the common plastic additive bisphenol A (BPA) is safe. The media, thechemical industry, and FDA officials touted this as evidence that long-standing concerns about the health effects of BPA were unfounded. (“BPA Is A-Okay, Says FDA,” read one Forbes headline.) But, behind the scenes, a dozen leading academic scientists who had been working with the FDA on a related project were fuming over the study’s release—partly because they believed the agency had bungled the experiment. Continue reading “Scientists Condemn New FDA Study Saying BPA Is Safe: “It Borders on Scientific Misconduct””
The Raw Story – by David Edwards
The state of Tennessee has asked to execute a record number of death row inmates — and a new law means that the state can plan it all in secret.
According to the Times Free Press, officials have asked the state Supreme Court for permission to execute 10 inmates, the largest request ever. Continue reading “New law allows Tennessee to plan record number of executions — and keep details secret”
Seven of the top 12 shareholders of Facebook and Monsanto are identical.
Even more to the point, three of the top five shareholders are the same.
The top shareholder, at the moment, in Monsanto is The Vanguard Group, which is number two on the list of top Facebook shareholders. Continue reading “Facebook and Monsanto: top shareholders are identical”
Fierce Vaccines – by Nick Paul Taylor
The United Kingdom has lagged behind some of its European neighbors in compensating people who developed narcolepsy after receiving GlaxoSmithKline’s ($GSK) swine flu vaccine. While Finland agreed to pay out in 2011, the U.K. was still knocking back claimants in 2012. Now, though, the U.K. government is reportedly readying to pay 60 people $1.7 million each. Continue reading “Report: U.K. facing $100M compensation payout relating to GSK’s swine flu vaccine”
HONOLULU (AP) — Honolulu police officers have urged lawmakers to keep an exemption in state law that allows undercover officers to have sex with prostitutes during investigations, touching off a heated debate.
Authorities say they need the legal protection to catch lawbreakers in the act. Critics, including human trafficking experts and other police, say it’s unnecessary and could further victimize sex workers, many of whom have been forced into the trade. Continue reading “Hawaii law lets police have sex with prostitutes”
A parking ticket, traffic citation or involvement in a minor fender-bender are enough to get a person’s name and other personal information logged into a massive, obscure federal database run by the U.S. military.
The Law Enforcement Information Exchange, or LinX, has already amassed 506.3 million law enforcement records ranging from criminal histories and arrest reports to field information cards filled out by cops on the beat even when no crime has occurred. Continue reading “U.S. Navy database tracks civilians’ parking tickets, car accidents & more”
The FBI must explain why it withheld records from a graduate student about an alleged assassination plot against the leaders of Occupy Houston, a federal judge ruled.
Ryan Noah Shapiro is a doctoral candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology whose research includes “the policing of dissent, especially in the name of national security” and “exploring FBI and other intelligence agency efforts to subvert the Freedom of Information Act,” according to his profile on MIT’s website. Continue reading “FBI must explain it’s assassination plot against Occupy movement leaders”
The Advocate, March 10, 2014
Corporate Crime Reporter
CBS New York
MassPrivateI 
Cop Block- by Michael 
Jon Rappoport
Yahoo News – by SAM EIFLING
MassPrivateI 
MassPrivateI