Author: SNAFU

Tech Firm

Megaupload, Kim Dotcom, and others filed their reply brief today in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals urging the Court to reverse the trial court’s finding of “Fugitive Disentitlement.”

Here is an excerpt from the reply brief:   Continue reading “Megaupload Files Reply Brief in Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Asking for Reversal of Fugitive Disentitlement”

ArsTechnica – by Julia Angwin, ProPublica

Since Edward Snowden exposed the extent of online surveillance by the US government, there has been a surge of initiatives to protect users’ privacy. But it hasn’t taken long for one of these efforts—aproject to equip local libraries with technology supporting anonymous Internet surfing—to run up against opposition from law enforcement.

In July, the Kilton Public Library in Lebanon, New Hampshire, was the first library in the country to become part of the anonymous Web surfing service Tor. The library allowed Tor users around the world to bounce their Internet traffic through the library, thus masking users’ locations. Soon after, state authorities received an e-mail about it from an agent at the Department of Homeland Security.   Continue reading “First library to support anonymous Internet browsing effort stops after DHS e-mail”

ArsTechnica – by Cyrus Farivar

Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom and his co-defendants have lost their bid to have their extradition hearing delayed yet again, the Court of Appeal of New Zealand ruled on Monday.

As of now, the hearing is set for September 21, 2015—the tenth time this hearing has been scheduled.   Continue reading “Nearly 4 years after raid, Dotcom loses bid to delay extradition hearing”

ArsTechnica – by Jon Brodkin

An innocent bystander who was holding a cell phone on his own property was shot last week, with officers saying they perceived an “imminent threat” because they mistook his phone for a gun, according to several news reports.

Danny Sanchez of Rancho Cordova, California, the unarmed man who was shot by police, reportedly underwent surgery Friday to remove bullet fragments from his leg. The officers who shot at him are reportedly on paid leave while the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department investigates the shooting.   Continue reading ““Dad, I’m shot”: Man with phone camera shot by police on his own property”

Missoulian – by Alison Noon

HELENA – Montana lawmakers prodded federal officials Wednesday for facts and reasons explaining the closure of roads on public lands around the state.

Members of the Environmental Quality Council took their first look at data detailing road access at a quarterly meeting in Helena.

Information from the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service shows at least 1,000 miles of the roughly 32,000 miles of federally controlled roads in Montana are closed to cars, trucks and snowmobiles.   Continue reading “Montana lawmakers press federal agencies to explain road closures”

Counter Current News

Late Friday night, neighbors heard gunshots near the scene of what seemed to be a common traffic stop. Now they are demanding answers from police who have so far refused to explain what happened when an officer shot an unarmed 25-year-old woman.

Salem, Oregon Police are saying only that an officer stopped Jacklynn Ford, 25, just after 10 p.m. on Friday.

Ford then allegedly ran away from the officer and without any explanation given thus far, the officer opened fire on her.   Continue reading “Woman Runs On Foot From Officer Who Then Shoots and Kills Her After Traffic Stop”

Counter Current News

A tense confrontation ensued on Sunday between police and a crowd of dirt bike riders and spectators. One of the officers escalated things to a ridiculous level when he pulled his gun and began aiming it towards the crowd of onlookers.

The incident was captured by City Paper photographer Noah Scialom, and posted to his Instagram.   Continue reading “Baltimore Cop Draws Gun On Dirt Bike Riders, Other Officer Tells Him ‘Put Your F*cking Gun Away!’”

KTVB – by Michael Winter

The Environmental Protection Agency took responsibility Friday for inadvertently polluting a Colorado river with 1 million gallons of toxic orange wastewater while trying to clean up an abandoned gold mine.

The spill occurred Wednesday morning at a long-closed Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colo., and fouled the Animas River, a 126-mile-long tributary of the San Juan River, part of the Colorado River system.   Continue reading “EPA pollutes Colo. river during mine cleanup”

Washington Post – by Alex Horton

I got home from the bar and fell into bed soon after Saturday night bled into Sunday morning. I didn’t wake up until three police officers barged into my apartment, barking their presence at my door. They sped down the hallway to my bedroom, their service pistols drawn and leveled at me.   Continue reading “In Iraq, I raided insurgents. In Virginia, the police raided me.”

Wizbang – by Michael Becker

This falls into our general category of “If Democrats Didn’t Have Double Standards They Wouldn’t Have Any!” This post focuses on a Democrat who’s made his career opposing Second Amendment rights for you and I and taking advantage of those same rights to defend himself.

Long time Anti-Gun Advocate State Senator R.C. Soles, 74, shot one of two intruders at his home just outside Tabor City , N.C. about 5 p.m. Sunday, the prosecutor for the politician’s home county said. Continue reading “Anti-Gun Senator Shoots Intruder Defends Himself with Second Amendment”

Gizmodo – by Chris Mills

Look, Microsoft. Just because I am Facebook friends with someone, doesn’t mean I want to share my wifi passwords with them.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happens by default in Windows 10. Anyone who I’m Outlook.com contacts with (spammers), Skype friends with (webcam strippers), or Facebook friends with (high school buddies turned webcam strippers) can connect to wifi networks that I have the password for.   Continue reading “Why the Hell Is Windows 10 Sharing My Wifi Passwords?”

KTVB – by Marco della Cava, USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO — Don’t send your old clunker of a retro-mobile to the automotive junk yard just yet. It may be the safest machine on the road.In an article published Tuesday, Wired magazine reports on how it engaged two hackers to see if they could take control of a Jeep Cherokee from the comfort of their living room while writer Andy Greenberg sat nervously at the wheel while the SUV cruised the highway at 70 mph.   Continue reading “Hack of connected car raises alarm over driver safety”

Western Livestock Journal – by THEODORA JOHNSON

An eastern Oregon family with a long history in ranching is fighting to keep its cow/calf operation afloat against an onslaught of blows from the federal government. Two members of the Hammond family have been charged under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 for starting two range fires that ended up on federal land.   Continue reading “Additional jail time for ranchers’ range fires?”

Detroit Free Press – by Bill Laitner

Three Oakland County children who refused to go to lunch with their father, as part of a bitter divorce and custody battle between their parents, are spending their summer in the county’s juvenile detention center, according to court records.

“We’ll review it when school starts, and you may be going to school there,” Oakland County Family Court Judge Lisa Gorcyca told the children during a June 24 hearing, referring to the center in Waterford Township called Children’s Village, where authorities house as many as 200 juvenile offenders.   Continue reading “Judge jails kids for refusing lunch with dad”

Counter Current News

Either accounts were recently presented to US District Judge Abdul Kallon in a lawsuit whose outcome is expected in a decision Monday. However the judge rules, it may end up determining whether police that work within schools as “School Resource Officers” are allowed to pepper-spray students for being “unruly.”

The suit explains that schools should “have the tools to help calm down a conflict,” but that should “not involve spraying chemicals in kids’ faces.”   Continue reading “School Cops Ask Judge To Let Them Pepper-Spray and Arrest ‘Unruly’ Students For ‘Misbehaving’”

Noozsaurus – by Patrick James

Well it “seems” that Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy has had quite a bit to say about the new concealed carry law that just recently went into effect in his state. Angry over Illinois joining the other 49 states in the Union to authorize some level of concealed carry, McCarthy went on the record during an interview with WVON AM 1690, with a thinly veiled threat to all carriers;   Continue reading “Chicago Top Cop Warns; Officers Will Shoot Concealed Carriers”