School Will Not Back Down Over Five-Year-Old Girl's Bubble Gun "Terroristic Threat"A school that suspended a five-year-old girl for “threatening” class mates with a Hello Kitty bubble gun will not back down on the issue, refusing to retract a statement describing the girl’s actions as “terroristic”.
As we reported last week, the incident occurred on January 10th, when the girl, whose identity is being protected, declared she was going to shoot other children, and then herself with a pink toy gun that fires bubbles composed of ... (more)
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TSA Toys With the SerfsMedia in all its guises -- mainstream, alternative, print and broadcast -- has been agog the last few days over the TSA's retiring some of its porno-scanners from airports. Indeed, you might assume from all the hype that the TSA itself is disappearing; hard to believe the press can spare that much space and energy from its w... (more)
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Can the DEA Hide a Surveillance Camera on Your Land?A case that began with reports of suspicious activity in northeast Wisconsin forest land last spring may be headed for the US Supreme Court. That's because a US district court judge ruled in the case last fall that it was okay for the DEA to enter the rural property without a warrant and install surveillance cameras that were used to help convict five members of a family on charges they were growing marijuana.
The ruling last October came in a motion to suppress the evidence o... (more)
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Why Did The Secret Service Take Over Aaron Swartz's Case Two Days Before He Was ArrestedMany have noted that the US Attorneys had made a new filing on the day that Aaron Swartz committed suicide. While the filing may look like just a standard procedural filing, some are pointing out that it highlights some highly unusual activity in the case. It had to... (more)
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European Newspapers Seek Royalties for Linking and Citing to News Content Expanding copyright to allow rent seeking for linking would break the fabric of the Internet. Links and citations to articles do not infringe copyright, as links do not copy, distribute, or perform any copyrighted work. Despite some desperate assertions of the contrary, copyright protection of links is not enshrined in law. Newspapers, however, are pushing for legislation to support this dangerous claim, regardless of the implications it would have for free speech.
The Internet h... (more)
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Texas Judge Rules Schools Can Force RFID Chips on StudentsIn the fall of last year the San Antonio Northside School District in Texas announced that they would track students with RFID (radio frequency identification) chips in their student badges.
One student, sophomore Andrea Hernandez, was suspended for refusing to wear the tracking device and took the matter to court.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia ruled in favor of the school district claiming they have the right to expel Hernandez for refusing to abi... (more)
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Does Facebook Help the Prosecution, But Not Defense?From Wired’s Ryan Tate:
[P]rosecutors generally have an easier time than defense attorneys getting private information out of Facebook and other social networks, as highlighted in an ongoing Portland murder case. In that case, the defense attorney has evidence of a ... (more)
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Developer Of Bookmaking Software Gets Full Kim Dotcom Treatment For 'Promoting Gambling'The government's war on online gambling is really ridiculous in a variety of ways. Initially, it was driven by a weird mix of moralist groups, backed by offline casinos who didn't want the competition -- all leading to a bill that effectively (through convoluted means) banned online gambling as a part of a law to protect our ports. The casinos are now regretting their initial support for this law, because they want to get into the online gambling world themselves. But the law is in pl... (more)
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Rapid DNA: Coming Soon to a Police Department or Immigration Office Near YouIn the amount of time it takes to get lunch, the government can now collect your DNA and extract a profile that identifies you and your family members.
Rapid DNA Analyzers--machines with the ability to process DNA in 90 minutes or less--are an operational reality and are being marketed to the federal government and state and local law enforcement agencies around the country. These machines, each about the size o... (more)
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The Meaning of GPSI am one of those people who has a seriously deficient sense of direction. In other words, I feel lost most of the time. It’s been this way since I was very young. My parents would take me camping. As soon as I walked out of eyesight of the tent, I was lost and they had to come find me.
As I grew older, the problem never improved. In school, I could never find classrooms or even the buildings. I had to follow people I knew were in the same class. I would leave stores and tur... (more)
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