Alaska Senate passes bill to detain witnesses

08-05-2006 • Fairbansk Daily News Miner

Under the proposed law, police would be allowed to subpoena, photograph, fingerprint and hold witnesses or people who have information that would aid investigations.

Homeland Security nabs Free Stater from home

08-03-2006 • Keene Free Press

For the third time in the last four days, Keene resident Russell Kanning finds himself in Federal custody. The 36-year-old libertarian activist isn't in trouble for selling drugs, threatening officials or endangering anyone. Instead, he's t

Freedom Via Military Dictatorship

08-03-2006 • Bovard Blog

A draft Bush administration plan for special military courts seeks to expand the reach and authority of such “commissions” to include trials, for the first time, of people who are not members of al-Qaeda or the Taliban and are not directly involved i

Bush Admin. appeals domestic spying ruling

8-1-2006 • AP

The Bush administration appealed a court decision Monday that allowed a lawsuit to go forward challenging the president's warrantless domestic spying program. In rejecting government claims that the suit could expose state secrets and jeopardi

States collecting DNA from arrestees

07-31-2006 • By John Gramlich, Special to Stateline.org

With civil libertarians crying foul, seven states have authorized police to take DNA samples from those arrested for – but not convicted of – certain crimes.

New maximum-security jail to open at Guantanamo Bay

07-31-2006 • By Andrew Buncombe in Washington - The Independent

New permanent prison will open in the Cuban enclave in the next few weeks. Camp 6, a state-of-the-art maximum-security jail built by a Halliburton subsidiary, will be able to hold 200 prisoners.

9th Circuit Carves Out Yet Another 4th Amendment Loophole...

07-29-2006 • CNET News

"Even so, the border search doctrine is not limited to those cases where the searching officers have reason to suspect the entrant may be carrying foreign contraband. Instead, 'searches made at the border...are reasonable simply by virtue of

Cell Phone Picture Called Obstruction Of Justice

07-27-2006 • NBC10 News

"They threatened to charge me with conspiracy, impeding an investigation, obstruction of a investigation. … They said, 'You were impeding this investigation...by taking a picture of the police officers with a camera phone,'"

Feds move to share intelligence faster

7-27-2006 • USA Today

Teams of Homeland Security officers will eventually be assigned to all of the nation's 38 "fusion" centers, where law enforcement agents investigate tips, tighten security and handle disasters, said Charles Allen, the department's c

Feds urge domestic eavesdropping law

7-27-2006 • Washington Post

Senior Justice Department and intelligence officials urged Congress yesterday to approve new laws to accommodate the government's controversial warrantless eavesdropping program. Arguing that the 1978 law governing surveillance of terrorists i

Feds sue Missouri over phone records!

07-26-2006 • USA Today

The federal government sued two members of the Missouri Public Service Commission on Tuesday to stop them from seeking information about customers records that telephone companies may have given to the NSA. The lawsuit, filed in US District Court in

Game Wardens seize "illegal" fish!!

07-25-2006 • Portland(ME) Press Herald

"They treated me like a criminal," said Cuong Ly, who escaped from Vietnam 25 years ago. "I lived under communism and I felt like I'm back there again." Ly, 45, said his pet koi were like family members and their confiscatio

Marshals: Innocent People Placed On 'Watch List'

•

The air marshals told 7NEWS that they're required to submit at least one report a month. If they don't, there's no raise, no bonus, no awards and no special assignments.

The world according to Rupert Murdoch

07-24-2006 • By Nicholas Wapshott in New York

(and the master of the media Universe says...) "John McCain? I like him very much." ('Nuff said)

Serving and Protecting In Charlotte, N.C.

07-23-2006 • The Charlotte Observer

A Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer shot and killed a cell phone tower worker early Thursday morning while the man was making a routine upgrade to the network.

Report on Chicago Police Torture Is Released

07-19-2006 • By JODI RUDOREN - New York Times

After four years, more than 700 interviews and $6 million, the prosecutors said that they could prove at least three cases, involving five fired or retired officers.

Attorney General: Bush blocked eavesdropping probe

7-19-2006 • AP

President Bush personally blocked a Justice Department investigation of the anti-terror eavesdropping program that intercepts Americans' international calls and e-mails, administration officials said. Bush refused to grant security clearances

Time to Curb Rise in Deadly Paramilitary Police Raids

07-17-2006 • CATO Institute - Radley Balko

The last 25 years have seen a 1,300 percent increase in the number of paramilitary raids on American homes. The vast majority of these are to serve routine drug warrants, including for offenses as trivial as marijuana possession

Crashing the Wiretapper's Ball

07-16-2006 • Wired Magazine

They were government officials, telephone company honchos, military officers, three-letter-agency spooks and cops, all brought together by salesmen dealing in the modern equipment of surveillance.

Insurers to test implantable microchip

7-17-2006 • AP

Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans to implant patients suffering from chronic diseases with a microchip that will give emergency room staff access to their medical information and help avoid costly or serious medical errors, the insurer said

U.S. Senators Launch RFID Caucus [I say chip all the weasels]

7-17-2006 • eWeek

2 US senators, Byron Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota, and John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, launched the U.S. Senate RFID Caucus in mid-July to educate colleagues about the potential uses and benefits of RFID.

Students victimized in illegal drug raid to receive payments

07-14-2006 • TheState.com

Students searched during a 2003 drug raid by police at Stratford High School are eligible for compensation of between $6,000 and $12,000 apiece, now that a federal judge has approved a $1.6 million class-action settlement.

Bush Would Let Secret Court Sift Domestic Spying Process

7-14-2006 • Washington Post

After months of resistance, the White House agreed to allow a secret intelligence court to review the legality of the National Security Agency’s program to conduct wiretaps without warrants on Americans suspected of having ties to terrorists.

FBI Agents Suggest Blowing Up Government Buildings

07-11-2006 • Bovard Blog

Earlier in the day, the FBI admitted that two people working for the agency planted the idea of blowing up government buildings, including and FBI office in Miami, with members of an alleged South Florida terror group known as the Liberty City 7.

Public Defenders?

07-12-2006 • Popular Mechanics

"The response we usually get is, 'Holy s---!'" Nieves says. "That's the reaction we want. We are in the business of scaring people--we just want to scare the right people."

Is Wal-Mart Canada's New RFID Strategy a Hint of a Gentler Wal-Mart CIO?

7-12-2006 • PC magazine

When Wal-Mart corporate wants to change a policy or procedure, it's fond of trying it in a small way in an out-of-the-way place to see if it works. How voluntary any program can be when it comes from the world's largest retailer to its list o

US Judge to Rule on Legality of Warrantless Wiretaps

7-11-2006 • AFP

Those [FISL] warrants are obtained in a secret court which has only denied three requests in nearly 30 years and which allows law enforcement to initiate surveillance before the warrant is obtained, Michael Steinberg, legal director of the ACL

Couple sues Lake Forest Park police for barging in without warrant

07-11-2006 • Seattlepi.com

A young North Seattle couple is suing the Lake Forest Park Police Department after an officer entered their home at night without a search warrant in an effort to find a friend of theirs wanted on a misdemeanor drunken-driving charge.