Author: Joe from MassPrivateI

Washington Post – by Aaron C. Davis and Peter Hermann

It began with tweets from D.C. police in late December: “CRITICAL MISSING” trumpeted one alert about a 13-year-old girl with a ponytail and pink slippers who was last seen outside her home in Southeast Washington. The siren echoed through cyberspace, retweeted 113 times, reposted by as many more on Instagram and Facebook. When the girl returned home hours later, that news was retweeted just 13 times.

A similar scenario soon began playing out daily, part of a new police initiative to tap the power of social media to locate missing children — a 21st-century version of the milk carton.   Continue reading “No, there is no spike in missing girls in D.C.; how tweets created a crisis”

MassPrivateI

Imagine going through a metal detector before you check into your hotel room, imagine being patted down and searched before you get inside your hotel. Imagine Disney using facial biometrics to spy on everyone in your family.

Well imagine no more, it’s already happening.   Continue reading “Disney installs metal detectors, bag searches and pat downs at hotels and park entrances”

RT

UN rights experts have voiced concerns over bills recently introduced by a number of US states aimed at restricting the right to assembly, saying they are “undemocratic” and violate international human rights obligations adopted by Washington.

“Since January 2017, a number of undemocratic bills have been proposed in state legislatures with the purpose or effect of criminalizing peaceful protests,” the UN’s top experts on freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, David Kaye and Maina Kiai, said in a recent statement.   Continue reading “US anti-protest bills ‘undemocratic’ & ‘alarming’ trend against free speech – UN”

KOMO News 4

BELFAIR, Wash. (KOMO) – A homeowner was arrested Saturday morning after he shot and killed an intruder who was taking a shower in his home, Mason County sheriff’s deputies said.

Mason County Coroner Wes Stockwell identified the man who was killed as Nathaniel Joseph Rosa, 31, of Bothell.   Continue reading “Deputies: Homeowner arrested after fatally shooting intruder in shower”

New York Daily News

Imagine a world where, as you drive into — or even walk through — New York City, your face is scanned and compared to a list of suspected terrorists or other serious criminals. Would this make you feel safe?

Now, imagine that the technology is error-prone, and may misidentify innocent people as suspects. What about now?   Continue reading “Smile! You’ve just been identified by face recognition technology”

The Daily Bell

If government had the citizens best interests at heart, we wouldn’t have to worry when they planned an exercise for our safety. In fact, it would be a good thing, if we could trust the government, that they were training so hard to keep us safe in the event of an emergency.

But the government does not care about the citizens and is not interested in keeping us safe. You cannot trust the government, and that is why it is always a bit terrifying to find out they have a Homeland Security exercise planned.   Continue reading “Another DHS “Exercise” Planned: The Risk of Terrorism Drills Becoming Reality”

AnonHQ – by AnonWatcher

The cashless society may only be three years away in Australia. In Sweden,they’re on track to becoming the first.

The cashless society, for Australia and other nations, is a big plus for the governments. It means accounting for billions in lost tax revenue every year. Instead of paying cash-in-hand for a job, and pocketing the dollars if no receipt is required, by 2020, the option is likely to be defunct in Australia.   Continue reading “Governments Designed Cashless Society to Save Tax Dollars, Leaving You Out of Pocket”

Fox 5 – by Dave Collins, AP

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – Connecticut lawmakers are considering whether the state should become the first in the country to allow police to use drones outfitted with deadly weapons, a proposal immediately met with concern by civil rights and liberties advocates.

The bill would ban the use of weaponized drones, but exempt police. Details on how law enforcement could use drones with weapons would be spelled out in new rules to be developed by the state Police Officer Standards and Training Council. Officers also would have to receive training before being allowed to use drones with weapons.   Continue reading “Connecticut considering weaponizing police drones”

Watchdog – by M.D. Kittle

MADISON, Wis. – Law-abiding gun owners would no longer be required to obtain a license in order to carry a concealed firearm in Wisconsin, under a bill being circulated for sponsorship.

The Right To Carry Act, co-authored by state Sen. David Craig, R-Town of Vernon, and state Rep. Mary Felzkowski(formerly Mary Czaja) R-Irma, “simplifies state law while reducing the cost to citizens who chose to protect themselves and their families,” according to a co-sponsorship memo sent out Tuesday morning.   Continue reading “Bill would make Wisconsin a ‘constitutional carry’ state”

The Guardian – by Olivia Salon

Approximately half of adult Americans’ photographs are stored in facial recognition databases that can be accessed by the FBI, without their knowledge or consent, in the hunt for suspected criminals. About 80% of photos in the FBI’s network are non-criminal entries, including pictures from driver’s licenses and passports. The algorithms used to identify matches are inaccurate about 15% of the time, and are more likely to misidentify black people than white people.   Continue reading “Facial recognition database used by FBI is out of control, House committee hears”

HSLDA – by Mike Donnelly

West Virginia Senate Education Chair Kenneth Mann (R-Monroe, 10), has teamed up with Democratic senators Michael Romano and Ron Stollings to propose an alarming law that would effectively prohibit homeschooling and order CPS investigations if parents wanted to homeschool children who had accrued 10 absences without acceptable excuse.

Sen. Romano was a principal opponent of the West Virginia homeschool modernization act that was signed by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin last year. Senator Jeffrey Mullins is listed as co-sponsor but has reportedly stated he would either remove his name from the bill or oppose it.   Continue reading “Proposed Bill Would Treat Homeschooling as Abuse”

The Guardian – by Thomas Hedges

On Thursday, Donald Trump released a preliminary budget proposal that calls for a $52bn increase in military spending. But just last December, a Washington Post investigation found that the Pentagon had buried a report that outlines $125bn in waste at the Department of Defense. That gap between lawmakers’ calls to blindly increase spending at DoD versus those of internal auditors to curtail its waste isn’t a new problem, and it’s one that, without pressure, won’t be resolved any time soon.   Continue reading “The Pentagon has never been audited. That’s astonishing”

The Daily Sheeple – by Lily Dane

On July 17, 2014,  Eric Garner, a 43-year-old NY resident, was confronted by the NYPD for allegedly selling “untaxed” cigarettes.

That confrontation resulted in Garner’s death after NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo put the man in a chokehold.   Continue reading ““Cruel Irony”: Cop Who Killed Eric Garner Still Working, But Employee Who Leaked Info On Cop Pressured To Quit, May Face Charges”

The Newspaper

Every judge in a California traffic court case has a personal financial stake in the verdict, and that violates the due process rights of motorists, Howard Herships argued in a case currently before the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

The motorist is suing the California Judicial Council, the state organization led by Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye that is responsible for setting the dollar figures for the traffic tickets that add $1.8 billion annually to the state’s Trial Court Trust Fund. Herships has standing because he received two red light camera tickets for turning right on red. The Vehicle Code sets the fine for that infraction at $35, but after all of the judicially imposed fees, the fine rises to nearly $500 each. Herships was unable to pay the $1000 in fines, an amount that quickly ballooned to $1610 with late fees, so his license was suspended.   Continue reading “California Man Sues Traffic Court Over Conflict Of Interest”