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McConnell Seeks to Boost U.S. Spy Powers

The changes McConnell is seeking mostly affect a cloak-and-dagger category of warrants used to investigate suspected spies, terrorists and other national security threats. The surveillance could include planting listening devices and hidden cameras, searching luggage and breaking into homes to make copies of computer hard drives.

Source: Breitbart, April 10, 2007

Abolition of Electoral College under way

Maryland's state legislature already has given approval to a proposal that would, in conjunction with other states' efforts, eliminate the college, and similar plans have already been approved by single legislative houses in Hawaii, Colorado and Arizona. In seven more states – Washington, Montana, California, New Mexico, Louisiana, West Virginia and Connecticut – the plans have been endorsed by legislative committees.

Source: WorldNetDaily, April 6, 2007

Civilians could be facing mandatory anthrax shots

Not only has the highly controversial anthrax vaccine returned as mandatory for members of the U.S. military, but now a medical expert who testified before Congress on the dangers of those shots is warning that under some circumstances civilians could be facing government-ordered anthrax vaccinations.

Source: WorldNetDaily, April 4, 2007

Federal Judge Strikes Down Law Protecting Children from Porn as Violating Free Speech

A US district court judge stuck down a 1998 law passed by Congress against Internet pornography that made it a crime for commercial website operators to let children under 18 view pornographic materials.

Source: Life Site, March 22, 2007

Organ Harvesting Before "Brain-Death" Increasingly Common, Concerned Doctors Warn

Organ harvesting from patients before brain-death has been declared is a rapidly increasing trend in U. S. hospitals, the Washington Post reported March 18, alarming doctors and ethicists about the dubious ethics behind the practice.

Source: Life Site, March 21, 2007

Photocopiers may hold sensitive data

That's because most digital copiers manufactured in the past five years have disk drives - the same kind of data-storage mechanism found in computers - to reproduce documents.

As a result, the seemingly innocuous machines that are commonly used to spit out copies of tax returns for millions of Americans can retain the data being scanned.

Source: The Age, March 14, 2007

Navy dismisses chaplain who prayed 'in Jesus' name'

"There's a Unitarian system of religion that's aimed at Christians," John Whitehead, founder of the The Rutherford Institute, told WND. "It boils down to that. We're seeing it all across the country, with council prayers, kids wanting to mention Jesus. What's going on here is it's generally a move in our government and military to set up a civic religion."

Source: WorldNetDaily, January 12, 2007

Pro-life students sue schools over censorship

High school students from across the nation, claiming they feel like second-class citizens after being denied First Amendment rights by school administrators for quietly participating in an annual pro-life demonstration, are fighting back in court.

Source: WorldNetDaily, January 5, 2007

US 'licence to snoop' on British air travellers

Britons flying to America could have their credit card and email accounts inspected by the United States authorities following a deal struck by Brussels and Washington.

Source: Telegraph (online), January 1, 2007

Justice Dept. Database Stirs Privacy Fears

The Justice Department is building a massive database that allows state and local police officers around the country to search millions of case files from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal law enforcement agencies, according to Justice officials.

Source: The Washington Post (online), December 26, 2006

Non-Lethal Weapon Makes Targets Feel Like They're on Fire

The ADS, or Active Denial System, fires an invisible beam that penetrates the top 1/64th of an inch on a target's skin, hitting sensitive pain receptors and causing a burning sensation some have likened to being dipped in molten lava.

When the target steps out of the beam's path, the pain goes away instantly, causing no permanent damage and leaving no marks, bruises or burns.

Source: ABC News (online), December 10, 2006

Revealing x-ray machine raises privacy concerns in US

But critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union, say the machine can display graphic images of nude bodies and its use will pave the way to widespread abuse of the images taken, with some possibly being posted or traded on the Internet.

Source: Breitbart, December 4, 2006

U.S. rates travelers for terror risk

Without their knowledge, millions of Americans and foreigners crossing U.S. borders in the past four years have been assigned scores generated by U.S. government computers rating the risk that the travelers are terrorists or criminals.

Source: Seattle PI, December 1, 2006

Judge Strikes Down Bush on Terror Groups

A federal judge struck down President Bush's authority to designate groups as terrorists, saying his post-Sept. 11 executive order was unconstitutional and vague.

Source: MyWay, November 29, 2006

High court will not stop review of reporters' phone records

The U.S. Supreme Court will allow federal prosecutors to begin reviewing the phone records of New York Times reporters Judith Miller and Philip Shenon, even though the newspaper has said the review may compromise the confidentiality of its reporters' sources.

Source: RCFP, November 28, 2006

U.S. to Require Passports for Nearly All

Nearly all air travelers entering the U.S. will be required to show passports beginning Jan. 23, including returning Americans and people from Canada and other nations in the Western Hemisphere.

Source: Breitbart, November 21, 2006

A New Strategy to Discourage Driving Drunk

In the first phase of the plan, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, backed by a national association of state highway officials and car manufacturers, will announce here on Monday a campaign to change drunken driving laws in 49 states to require that even first offenders install a device that tests drivers and shuts down the car if it detects alcohol.

Source: The New York Times (online), November 20, 2006

Judge: Times Must Reveal Anthrax Sources

A federal judge ordered The New York Times to disclose a columnist's confidential sources as part of a libel lawsuit filed over the newspaper's coverage of the 2001 anthrax attacks.

Source: Breitbart, October 23, 2006

Source: WorldNetDaily, October 7, 2006

Congress approves Internet gambling ban bill

Most forms of Internet gambling would be banned under a bill that received final U.S. congressional approval early Saturday....

The bill, a compromise between earlier versions passed by the two chambers, would make it illegal for banks and credit card companies to make payments to online gambling sites.

The Washington Post (online), September 30, 2006

School strip searches mandated by House

Even though student molestations seem to be reaching epidemic proportions in schools across America, the House of Representatives has approved a tough new anti-drug and anti-weapon law that would require local districts to develop search policies – including strip searches – with immunity against prosecution for teachers and staff.

Source: WorldNetDaily, September 23, 2006

Census Bureau Loses Hundreds of Laptops

Lost or stolen from the Census Bureau since 2003 are 217 laptop computers, 46 portable data storage devices and 15 handheld devices used by survey takers.

Although the number of people affected isn't known, the Commerce Department reports that passwords, encryptions and other safeguards were in place. Nothing so far indicates a misuse of any information.

Source: MyWay, September 22, 2006

HP Spy Scandal Hits New Weirdness Level

"It betrays a type of corporate culture that is so self-obsessed, (that) really considers itself not only above the law, but above I think ethical decency, that you have to ask yourself, where did the shame come in?" said Charles King, an analyst with Pund-IT Research.

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, senior associate dean at the Yale School of Management, said the HP affair stands out even against similar episodes from the past, such as the 1991 incident in which Procter & Gamble Co. persuaded authorities to mine 803,000 phone bills to track leaks to a Wall Street Journal reporter.

Source: Breitbart, September 20, 2006

First-Grader Suspended Over Plastic Squirt Gun

A Missouri mother is angry that her first-grader was suspended from school over a plastic toy gun.

Source: NewsNet5, September 20, 2006

House acts to require voters to prove citizenship

In a move to crack down against illegal immigrants voting in U.S. elections, the House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to require Americans to provide proof of U.S. citizenship to vote in federal elections.

Source: Reuters, September 20, 2006

U.S. Says AP Photog Linked to Insurgents

The Pentagon defended its monthslong detention of an Associated Press photographer in Iraq, asserting that it has authority to imprison him indefinitely without charges because it believes he had improper ties to insurgents.

But journalism organizations said that covering all sides in the Iraq war sometimes requires contacts with insurgents. They called on the Pentagon to either bring charges against photographer Bilal Hussein so he can defend himself, or release him.

Source: Breitbart, September 19, 2006

US federal judge declares boating illegal in all US navigable waters

In a rather bizarre ruling that has marine industry officials worried, Judge Robert G. James of the United States District Court, Western Division of Louisiana, has said that it is criminal trespass for the American boating public to boat, fish, or hunt on the Mississippi River and other navigable waters in the US.

Source: International Boat Industry (IBI, online), September 14, 2006

Deeper Spying Is Seen in Hewlett Review

A secret investigation of news leaks at Hewlett-Packard was more elaborate than previously reported, and almost from the start involved the illicit gathering of private phone records and direct surveillance of board members and journalists, according to people briefed on the company’s review of the operation.

Source: The New York Times (online), September 18, 2006

Wars, disasters prompting deployment of new robots

Equipped with "eyes," "ears" and "noses," improved mobility and manual dexterity plus rudimentary "intelligence," many newfangled machines are being tested for use in military situations and civilian catastrophes.

Source: The Seattle Times (online), September 1, 2006

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