NY1 News

The city has agreed to pay $75 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that claimed the NYPD issued hundreds of thousands of unjustified criminal summonses.

The city’s Law Department says judges threw out 900,000 of them from 2007 to 2015 because they were deemed legally insufficient.   Continue reading “City Agrees to Pay $75M to Settle Lawsuit Accusing NYPD of Issuing Unjustified Criminal Summonses”

Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 – by Beau Berman

NEW KENSINGTON, Pa. — Two Westmoreland County police officers are on leave from their departments after being seen hitting a handcuffed suspect in a Facebook video.

The Westmoreland County district attorney’s office is now investigating.

One officer is from the New Kensington Police Department and the other is from the Arnold Police Department. Neither has been publicly identified. New Kensington Police Chief James Klein held a brief news conference Friday night.   Continue reading “Facebook video shows police punching, standing on handcuffed suspect in New Kensington”

CBS Baltimore – by Devin Bartolotta

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — A mother is outraged after her third grader came home from school with three of his teeth missing. She says his elementary school performed a dental procedure she never knew about.

A Baltimore City mom is looking for answers: Why did the school allow serious dental work — without making a single phone call to parents.   Continue reading “Mom Outraged, School Dental Program Removes Child’s Teeth Without Her Knowing”

The Oregonian – by Jessica Floum

Portland Fire & Rescue will start a pilot program in which firefighters and paramedics make home visits to help chronically ill patients recently discharged from a local hospital avoid readmission.

The City Council unanimously adopted the program Wednesday. Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center will contract city firefighters, paramedics and nurses to check on at-risk patients it discharges to homes in Portland.    Continue reading “Portland firefighters to visit homes, check on chronically ill”

WISN

A Milwaukee man alleges that sheriff’s deputies interrogated him and treated him “like a criminal” at Mitchell International Airport following a simple interaction with Sheriff David Clarke on board a flight from Dallas, according to a formal complaint he filed with the county.

“I literally hadn’t done anything wrong, but I was treated as a threat and I was detained,” Dan Black wrote of his Sunday afternoon experience after deplaning American Airlines 1534 in Milwaukee.   Continue reading “Milwaukee man accuses Sheriff Clarke of abuse of power after airport detention”

Computer World – by John Ribeiro

The Central Intelligence Agency on Wednesday updated rules relating to the collection, retention and dissemination of information on Americans, including putting a limit of five years on holding certain sensitive data and introducing restrictions for querying the data.

The announcement by the spy agency comes a few days before President-elect Donald Trump takes charge, and could address concerns expressed by civil rights groups about the collection and handling of information on Americans in the course of overseas surveillance. Such information is collected by the CIA under Executive Order 12333.  Continue reading “CIA updates rules for collecting and retaining info on Americans”

MassPrivateI

In nearly every state, doctors and pharmacists are being forced to spy on drug prescription users. The name of the national prescription drug spying program is called ‘PMP InterConnect‘.

“PMP InterConnect facilitates the transfer of prescription monitoring program (PMP) data across state lines. It allows participating state PMPs across the United States to be linked, providing a more effective means of combating drug diversion and drug abuse nationwide.”
Continue reading “Feds force doctors & pharmacists to spy on 60% of Americans”

KCRA 3 News

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) —

A former Contra Costa County sheriff’s deputy was arrested Friday in connection with a shooting at a Sacramento house party, Sacramento police said.

Kyle E. Rowland, 23, was booked into the Sacramento County Jail on five counts of attempted murder and is being held without bail, according to jail records. No one was hurt in the shooting.   Continue reading “Police: Ex-Contra Costa County deputy fired shots at Sacramento party”

Public Discourse – by Adam J. MacLeod

Laws that give municipal officials and their private contractors power to issue tickets via traffic cameras confer powers of both criminal and civil law while excusing them from the due process duties of both criminal and civil law.

The traffic-camera ticket: like a parking ticket, it looks lawful enough. When they receive one, most people simply write the check. It seems like the sensible and law-abiding thing to do.
Continue reading “That Time I Turned a Routine Traffic Ticket into the Constitutional Trial of the Century”

Tech Dirt – by Tim Cushing

The Obama administration has responded to calls to declassify the full CIA Torture Report with a “will this do?” promise to lock up one copy in the presidential archives. While this ensures one copy of the full report will survive the next presidency, it doesn’t make it any more likely the public will ever see more than the Executive Summary released in 2014.

Other copies may still be scattered around the federal government, many of them in an unread state. The Department of Defense can’t even say for sure whether its copy is intact. Meanwhile, an ongoing prosecution in which the defendant is alleging being waterboarded by the CIA has resulted in an order to turn over a copy of the full report to the court.  Continue reading “DOJ, Obama Administration Fight Order Requiring The Full CIA Torture Report To Be Turned Over To The Court”

MassPrivateI

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) otherwise known as the Dept. of Commerce plans to evaluate facial biometrics for the government.

Beginning next month, the NIST will begin evaluating facial recognition technology algorithms. The NIST calls it the ‘Face Recognition Vendor Test‘ (FRVT).    Continue reading “Feds want facial biometrics that can idenitfy people based on facial hair, skin tone, weight and more”

Tenth Amendment Center – by Mike Maharrey

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (Jan. 16, 2017) – A so-called  “Constitutional Carry” bill filed in the Indiana House would make it legal for most Hoosiers to carry a firearm without a license, and foster an environment hostile to federal gun control.

Rep. Jim Lucas (R) and three cosponsors introduced House Bill 1159 (HB1159) on Jan. 9. The legislation would repeal the law requiring a person to obtain a license to carry a handgun in Indiana. If passed, any person otherwise legally authorized to carry a handgun could carry concealed without a permit. The law would still allow Indiana residents to obtain a license so they can carry in states that have conceal carry reciprocity with the state.   Continue reading “Permission Not Required: “Constitutional Carry” Bill Introduced in Indiana”

KRTV – by Aja Goare

BILLINGS – A Fishtail man who admitted he transported 178 pounds of methamphetamine into Montana in a major drug smuggling operation was recently sentenced to more than five years in federal prison.

Brett Clouse, 36 of Fishtail, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Billings to 63 months in federal prison on Wednesday for his role as a courier in a large-scale drug operation.   Continue reading “Former deputy sentenced to prison for trafficking 178 lbs of meth”

Liberty Blitzkrieg – by Michael Krieger

Welcome to “everyone I disagree with works for Putin,” the UK version.

UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn sits on the polar opposite of the political spectrum in most respects from U.S. President elect Donald Trump, yet they are both being accused of the same blasphemy — wanting peace with Russia. Here’s what I’m talking about, from The Independent:   Continue reading “UK Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn Accused of “Collaborating with Russia” for Wanting Peace”

Forbes – by Thomas Fox-Brewster

The rapid spread of connected devices that can listen and locate has been a boon for law enforcement. Any new technology hooked up to the web has the potential to become a surveillance device, even if it’s original purpose was benign, as shown in a 2016 Arkansas murder investigation where Amazon was asked to hand over audio from a suspect’s Echo.

But such information and much more, I’ve learned, has long been retrievable from cars. Indeed, court documents reveal a 15-year history of what’s been dubbed “cartapping,” where almost real-time audio and location data can be retrieved when cops order vehicle tech providers to hand it over.   Continue reading “Cartapping: How Feds Have Spied On Connected Cars For 15 Years”