"California was home to the Haight-Ashbury counterculture movement, the Grateful Dead and Cheech & Chong. It’s also the home state of Richard Nixon, who birthed the modern drug war, and Ronald Reagan, the president who made Nixon’s war metaphor all too literal. Today, we’ll look at cannabis in California up until about the late 1960s."
"Although 'knock-and-talk' policing has become a thinly veiled, warrantless—lethal—exercise by which citizens are coerced and intimidated into 'talking' with heavily armed police who 'knock' on their doors in the middle of the night, the Supreme Court will not make the government play by the rules of the Constitution. The lesson to be learned: the U.S. Supreme Court will not save us. No one is coming to save us: not the courts, not the legislatures, and not the president."
"Encrypted messaging startup Telegram plans to launch its own blockchain platform and native cryptocurrency, powering payments on its chat app and beyond. With cryptocurrency powered payments inside Telegram, users could bypass remittance fees when sending funds across international borders, move sums of money privately thanks to the app’s encryption, deliver micropayments that would incur too high of credit card fees, and more."
"Tech companies and many cyber security experts have said that any measure ensuring that law enforcement authorities are able to access data from encrypted products would weaken cyber security for everyone. U.S. officials have said that default encryption settings on cellphones and other devices hinder their ability to collect evidence needed to pursue criminals."
"Police officials vow that they will proceed to implement the censorship program even if no new law is enacted. They insist that no new laws are necessary by pointing to a pre-internet censorship law enacted in 1983 — during the time Brazil was ruled by a brutal military dictatorship that severely limited free expression and routinely imprisoned dissidents."
"Advocates say camera-mounted drones could help protect officers and others by collecting crucial information during high-risk situations or searches without jeopardizing their safety. For many privacy advocates and police critics, however, the drones stir Orwellian visions of unwarranted surveillance or fears of militarized, weapon-toting devices patrolling the skies. LAPD brass, along with police commissioners, tried to ease those concerns last fall by promising careful restrictions on when the drones would be used, and strong oversight of the pilot program."
JACKSON, Miss. (Jan. 10, 2018) – A bill introduced in the Mississippi Senate would end all state support and cooperation with the implementation and administration of Obamacare. Passage of this bill would set the stage to bring down the federal health care act in Mississippi. Sen. Michael Watson (R- Pascagoula) introduced Senate Bill 2175 (SB2175) on…
ALBANY, N.Y. (Jan. 9, 2017) – Two bills introduced in the New York state legislature would nullify in practice some Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rules that deny access to experimental treatments by terminally ill patients. Asm. Linda Rosenthal (D-Manhattan) introduced Assembly Bill 3932 (A3932) with 10 co-sponsors while Sens. Kemp Hannon (R-Nassau) and Sen.…
This week, I appeared on the Foreign Policy Focus podcast to talk about state action and foreign policy. Now, you might be asking, how can actions at the state level impact U.S. foreign policy? Well, as I explained to FPF host Kyle Anzalone, quite significantly. Most people assume nullification can only be effective in limiting…
JACKSON, Miss. (Jan. 10, 2018) – A bill introduced in the Mississippi Senate would end Common Core in schools throughout the state. Sens. Angela Burks Hill (R-Picayune) and Michael Watson (R-Pascagoula) introduced Senate Bill 2053 (SB2053) on Jan. 3. The legislation would void Common Core standards and create a framework to establish state standards to…