From the Trenches World Report
Enforce our Bill of Rights
Another Day in the Empire – by Kurt Nimmo
It was a fool’s errand.
On the day Donald Trump was elected his supporters asked him to pardon the founder and frontman of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange. They flooded social media demanding Assange be allowed to leave the Ecuadorian embassy in London without arrest and extradition to the United States.
Stone silence from Trump and his administration. Continue reading “The Murder of Julian Assange”
Officials in New Jersey fed up with federal inaction are flexing policy muscles rarely used to regulate gun dealers: local zoning codes that effectively ban firearm stores. To give the crackdown constitutional cover, they took cues from a recent federal court decision on the other side of the country.
Piscataway, a suburb of New Brunswick, currently does not have a single licensed gun dealer, according to listings by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. A resolution passed by the Town Council on June 14 is intended to keep it that way. The resolution bans gun stores from opening within 1,000 feet of schools, parks, health care facilities, and other sensitive locations. While the new zoning law does not explicitly forbid gun stores from opening in the suburb, it makes dealers subject to conditions that almost no location meets. Continue reading “Towns Create Gun-Store Free Zones, Confident Constitution Is on Their Side”
Hotels like the Wynn Las Vegas and the Marriott are installing Amazon listening devices in every room.
Two years ago, Geek Wire revealed that the Wynn Las Vegas hotel installed Amazon Echo devices in all their rooms. Continue reading “Hotels are installing Amazon listening devices in every room”
Illinois Policy – by Austin Berg
Paul Boron is 13 years old.
And he’s facing a felony eavesdropping charge that could change the course of the rest of his life.
His story stands as another chapter of controversy surrounding an eavesdropping law some experts have criticized as ripe for abuse and misapplication. Continue reading “Illinois 13-Year-Old Charged With Eavesdropping Felony For Recording Meeting With Principal”
California law enforcement organizations are in staunch opposition to a new bill which would restrict the circumstances under which police officers can use deadly force in the line of duty, reports Alexei Koseff of the Sacramento Bee.
Assembly Bill 931 would increase the state mandated standard for the use of lethal force from “reasonable” to “necessary” in order to become law. While the bill passed through its first policy committee on Tuesday, it faces an uphill battle in a state legislature that typically doesn’t cross law enforcement. Continue reading “California Cops Reject Bill That Would Limit Use Of Lethal Force”
ArsTechnica – by Jonathan M Gitlin
The most important safety feature on your car isn’t its airbag or even the seat belts—it’s the tires. This should be obvious; those four round black things are the only part of the vehicle to actually touch the road, after all. Sadly, most American drivers fail to take care of their tires, with 35 percent of drivers not able to tell if their tires are bald. When you consider that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found that vehicles with worn out tires were three times more likely to end up in a crash, you can see the problem. Continue reading “More than one in three drivers doesn’t know when their tires are bald”
A Schuylkill County man shot and injured an intruder who attacked him and attempted to set fire to home, according to state police.
The incident occurred at about 6 p.m. Sunday, at the home of 57-year-old man in North Manheim Township, police said.
Troopers did not say exactly where the shooting occurred. The also did not identify the homeowner. Continue reading “Pa. man shot intruder who attempted to set fire to his home: police”
Ron Paul Institute – by Ron Paul
When I was in Congress and had to regularly fly between DC and Texas, I was routinely subjected to invasive “pat-downs” (physical assaults) by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). One time, exasperated with the constant insults to my privacy and dignity, I asked a TSA agent if he was proud to assault innocent Americans for a living. Continue reading “Why Can’t We Sue the TSA For Assault?”
In recent years, Miami-Dade County has been held up as a model for how the criminal justice system should handle people with mental illness or developmental disabilities. Much of that can be attributed to the work of Circuit Judge Steve Leifman, who created a jail diversion program for those with mental illness and developed a framework for “crisis intervention training” to help cops handle calls involving people with mental health issues.
Now, Commissioner Rebeca Sosa wants to take the county’s efforts one step further. This week, she proposed a voluntary registry that would help Miami-Dade police identify residents with disabilities and mental illness. Continue reading “Miami-Dade Commissioner Wants Database of Mentally Ill Residents So Police Don’t Hurt Them”
Minneapolis police officers have repeatedly requested over the past three years that Hennepin County medical responders sedate people using the powerful tranquilizer ketamine, at times over the protests of those being drugged, and in some cases when no apparent crime was committed, a city report shows.
On multiple occasions, in the presence of police, Hennepin Healthcare EMS workers injected suspects of crimes and others who already appeared to be restrained, according to the report, and the ketamine caused heart or breathing failure, requiring them to be medically revived. Several people given ketamine had to be intubated. Continue reading “At urging of Minneapolis police, Hennepin EMS workers subdued dozens with a powerful sedative”
A Nassau County police officer and his wife have been arrested by Suffolk authorities on allegations they conspired to rob an Islandia casino, the Suffolk County district attorney’s office said Wednesday.
Officer Bruce Moeller and his wife, Christina Moeller, a cashier at Jake’s 58 Hotel & Casino, were taken into custody Tuesday and charged with fourth-degree conspiracy, according to court documents. The Moellers conspired between March 1 and June 4 to commit an armed robbery at the casino, according to felony complaints. Continue reading “DA: Nassau cop, wife charged with conspiracy to rob Islandia casino”
Yesterday the New York State Assembly approved a bill authorizing “extreme risk protection orders” forbidding firearm possession by people who allegedly pose a threat to themselves or others. A11148, which Gov. Andrew Cuomo is pushing, is similar to laws enacted in recent years by California, Washington, and Florida, and it poses similar due process issues.
It is tempting to think that would-be murderers can be identified before they act on their homicidal impulses, in which case taking away their guns or stopping them from buying guns could save lives without impairing the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans. Continue reading “Andrew Cuomo Pushes Bill That Would Make It Easy to Take Away People’s Gun Rights”
Bard College’s Center for the Study of the Drones released a report about law enforcement acquiring drones and what they found is troubling.
The report claims that at least 910 public safety agencies across the country are using drones. Continue reading “University police “heroes” use drones to spy on concertgoers”
If you take Prilosec or Zantac for acid reflux, a beta blocker for high blood pressure, or Xanax for anxiety, you may be increasing your risk of depression.
More than 200 common medications sold in the U.S. include depression as a potential side effect. Sometimes, the risk stems from taking several drugs at the same time. Now, a new study finds people who take these medicines are, in fact, more likely to be depressed. Continue reading “1 In 3 Adults In The U.S. Takes Medications Linked To Depression”
What’s a politician to do when it’s clear that people will vigorously resist attempts to restrict their lives? Well, you could empower government officials to arbitrarily punish anybody who might help them exercise their freedom. That’s the approach favored by three Democratic members of Congress, who appear to see the path to limiting private firearms ownership in harassing gun dealers and subjecting them to the whims of government officials.
Not that they’re the only legislators to wield regulations as bludgeons, but it’s always a lousy idea. Continue reading “Unable to Ban Guns, Lawmakers Want to Weaponize the ATF Against Gun Dealers”
The Takeout – by Allison Shoemaker
Castoreum is a yellowish, strong-smelling secretion that comes from the castor sacs found near the base of a beaver’s tail. It’s an FDA-approved food additive, and hey, you can now get whiskey that’s flavored with the stuff.
That knowledge comes courtesy of this piece from Food & Wine’s Mike Pomranz, which spotlights a nice little beaver musk whiskey made by Tamworth Distilling of New Hampshire. Fear not, castoreum is an FDA-approved food additive. That’s actually how this spirit came about. Tamworth’s team was looking to develop a new spirit, and in hopes of securing a speedy all-clear from the Alcohol And Tobacco Tax And Trade Bureau, they went straight to the FDA’s list of ingredients that are already considered safe. Castoreum understandably caught their attention. Continue reading “Great news, you can now buy whiskey flavored with beaver secretion”
CONCORD — A retired judge who was found having helped her husband hide money from the state is suing to try and get $400,000 in back retirement pay, health care and a permanent pension of nearly $90,000 a year.
Patricia Coffey stepped down in 2008 after the Supreme Court suspended her for three years without pay for helping her husband, ex-State Rep. John Coffey, to create a trust to hide assets while he was being disbarred for stealing money from an elderly Rye woman. Continue reading “Retired judge sues in attempt to secure $90k pension”
Washington Post – by Eli Rosenberg
Raimundo Atesiano had a statistic to tout at a town council meeting in Biscayne Park, a village of 3,000 in the middle of Florida’s Miami-Dade County.
The Biscayne Park Police Department, where Atesiano was chief at the time, had a clearance rate of 100 percent for burglaries, he said at the July 2013 meeting, according to federal court documents. Continue reading “Police framed a teen for four burglaries so chief could tout perfect clearance rate, prosecutors say”
The creepy ways Facebook spies on its users have been detailed in a bumper document presented to Congress.
They include tracking mouse movements, logging battery levels and monitoring devices close to a user that are on the same network.
The 454-page report was created in response to questions Mark Zuckerberg was asked during his appearance before Congress in April. Continue reading “The 18 things you may not realize Facebook knows about you”