From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
COLON, Mich. — Anyone who has ever taken an Uber ride knows it’s convenient and very popular so one man in St. Joseph County has found a way to make ride sharing more scenic.
Timothy Hochstedler calls it Amish Uber.
He is adding some horsepower to ride sharing. The newest taxi service in Colon has four wheels, four legs and good gas mileage. Continue reading “Amish man starts “Uber” ride service with his horse and buggy”
Boing Boing – by Cory Doctorow
Comcast Xfininty’s login page had an easily found bug that allowed anyone to gain access to the Social Security Numbers and partial home addresses of over 26.5 million customers.
Comcast spokesapologist David McGuire says the company patched the bug quickly after being notified of its existence by security researcher Ryan Stevenson, and added that the company “take[s] our customers’ security very seriously,” adding that the company didn’t think anyone had exploited the bug. Continue reading “Comcast breach exposes 26.5m customers’ Social Security Numbers and partial addresses”
If you still value your privacy, I urge you to stay away from major league sporting events.
Yesterday, CLEAR biometrics announced that they have installed biometric fingerprint scanners at Seattle’s CenturyLink and Safeco Fields concession stands.
But the story does not end there. Continue reading “MLB and NFL fans submit their faces and fingerprints to buy food, beer and tickets”
A grand jury will indict a ham sandwich.
The corollary, of course, is “if that’s what the prosecutor wants.” And prosecutors rarely want their ham sandwiches indicted.
An unarmed man shot in the stomach by Officer Sarah Stumler of the Louisville Metro Police recently discovered the corollaries of this truism still hold, even if the city is giving the victim $1.8 million in taxpayer cash to settle his lawsuit. Continue reading “Cops Go To Wrong House, Kill Innocent Man, Receive A Free Pass From Local Grand Jury”
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (KRON/CNN) – You wouldn’t think a little girl selling cookies would be a controversial thing, but in one Iowa neighborhood, it is.
Police in Cedar Falls say they’ve received three different calls to police in the span of five days.
They are all because of a 10-year-old girl selling water and homemade cookies. Continue reading “Police called multiple times on girl selling homemade cookies”
Baltimore Sun – by Luke Broadwater
Baltimore City Council members concerned about lobbying efforts to privatize the city’s water supply unanimously approved legislation Monday that, if approved by voters, would make Baltimore the first major city to ban the sale or lease of the water system.
City Council President Bernard C. “Jack” Young waived council rules to allow for fast-tracked approval of a charter amendment that will go to voters on the November ballot. Continue reading “Baltimore could become first major U.S. city to ban sale of its water system”
Last week I thought I saw it all, when I learned that Waldo Photos is trying to convince parents that “facial recognition at summer camps is fun.”
I thought, things could not get any crazier.
That was until I heard of a company called SmartDrive Systems (SDS). Continue reading “SmartDrive claims in-cab truck surveillance cameras are “saving the planet””
Courthouse News – by Edward Ericson, Jr.
BALTIMORE (CN) — Blaming police corruption in Baltimore for the death of a father of a 10, a family claims in federal court that the 86-year-old patriarch died in a car crash because officers were preoccupied with planting drugs at the scene.
They say Davis had been driving with his wife on April 28, 2010, when they were struck by a car driven by Umar Burley, who was fleeing members of the city police department’s Gun Trace Task Force.The firm Azrael Franz brought the Aug. 2 complaint in Baltimore on behalf of the nine living children of Elbert Davis Sr., as well as a son of the 10th child, who is deceased. Continue reading “Baltimore Accused of Eluding Payouts on Police Corruption”
CLARE COUNTY, Mich. — An 80-year-old grandmother was jailed for the first time in her life because she had a small amount of cannabis at home, but her Michigan medical marijuana card expired.
Delores Saltzman and her son Mark told FOX 17 cannabis saved her life: it worked up her appetite when she was sick; helped her heal after surgeries; and eases her pain from ongoing health conditions. They are disturbed a deputy jailed her overnight for using her medicine. Continue reading “80-year-old grandmother who uses medical marijuana put in jail for small amount of cannabis after card expires”
A Marion County Sheriff’s Office deputy arrested on theft and misconduct charges is accused of stealing five shotguns from a deceased Salem man’s home.
According to a Salem police probable cause statement, Sean Thomas Banks was on-duty when he met a Keizer woman at the home of her recently deceased father in Oct. 2015. Continue reading “Salem police: Deputy stole guns from dead man’s home while on duty”
BALLSTON SPA — A state health inspector shut down a 7-year-old boy’s lemonade stand after vendors at the nearby Saratoga County Fair complained that he appeared to be running a professional operation that competed with their stands, a state official said Monday.
Just a day after the state issued an apology to Brendan Mulvaney, the state Health Department on Monday said he’ll need a permit if he reopens his stand. Continue reading “DOH: State closed boy’s Ballston Spa lemonade stand after Saratoga County fair vendors complained”
The Acadiana Advocate – by Ben Meyers
A criminal justice expert says Avoyelles Parish law officers who wrestled a Marksville man off a tractor while serving an arrest warrant last year used too much force, needlessly escalating a confrontation that ended with the man’s death. A second expert said he doesn’t agree the officers used excessive force, but said they may have acted negligently by failing to administer aid once Armando Frank was unconscious.
A video recording of the arrest, obtained by The Advocate, shows officers growing frustrated with Frank, 44, after he refuses to step down from a tractor near a Walmart store along La. 1. A use-of-force expert who reviewed the 10-minute recording at the newspaper’s request says the law officers escalated the exchange by placing Frank in a choke hold and attempting to yank him off the tractor. Continue reading “Louisiana man dies after officers put him in choke hold; experts disagree on excessive force or not”
An Ohio police chief died from an accidental fentanyl overdose after the drugs were removed from his department’s evidence room, officials said Wednesday.
Kirkersville Police Chief James Hughes Jr. was found unresponsive in his home May 25 and pronounced dead shortly after, the Newark Advocate reported. An autopsy revealed he died from “acute intoxication by fentanyl.” Continue reading “Ohio police chief fatally overdosed on drugs taken from evidence room, investigators say”
DETROIT (WJBK) – Detroit Police Chief James Craig said on Thursday that he is concerned by video that shows an officer punching a naked woman at Detroit Receiving Hospital, specifically because the woman’s back is turned and the officer continued to punch her.
Video was sent only to FOX 2 from a woman who was inside Detroit Receiving Hospital, visiting a family member. She heard the commotion break out in the hall near the room she was in and recorded video of three police officers trying to subdue the naked woman. Continue reading “Detroit police chief concerned about video showing officer punching naked woman”
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) filed legislation today to block the online publication of blueprints that can be used to make fully functioning 3D-printed guns.
“These 3D-printed plastic firearms can evade our detection systems and are a direct threat to our national security,” Nelson said at a Capitol Hill press conference Tuesday to announce the legislation. “And we are going to let these go up on the internet tonight at midnight?” Continue reading “Nelson files bill to block publication of 3D-printed gun blueprints”
There is nothing and I mean nothing that can justify using facial recognition to spy on kids at summer camps.
But don’t take my word for it.
Leave it to the great American police state and Waldo Photos to make it “fun to use facial recognition.” Continue reading “Waldo Photos claims it is “fun to use facial recognition’ at summer camps”
Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell has launched a comprehensive inquiry into secret deputy cliques and is looking into whether gangs that condone illicit behavior are operating within his ranks, he said Thursday.
McDonnell’s announcement at a meeting of the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission comes two weeks after allegations surfaced that as many as 20 deputies at the Compton Station have matching tattoos featuring a skeleton holding a rifle.
The Criminal Criminal Justice (sic) System
The United States has the highest incarceration rates in the world. The US not only has a far higher percentage of its population in prison than allegedly “authoritarian” governments, but also has a larger total number of citizens imprisoned than China, a country with four times the US population. The US is by far the largest prison camp in the world. Continue reading “The United States Is The Largest Prison Camp In The World”
A non-profit association of law-enforcement personnel is being used to track where people drink and much more.
Iowa is preparing to use the National Liquor Law Enforcement Association’s (NLLEA) “Place of Last Drink” or POLD to collect data on businesses and drivers. Continue reading “A police run non-profit has created a national tracking program called “Place of Last Drink””