X-ray full-body scanners to be taken out of U.S. airports

“According to Bloomberg News, OSI Systems, the company that makes the scanners, was unable to write a software program that would cover passengers’ genitals. The TSA has terminated its $5 million contract with OSI’s Rapiscan unit, which was awarded to the company with a software fix in mind. The TSA removed 76 of the Rapiscan machines from the nation’s busiest airports in 2011. The remaining 174 machines will now be decommissioned. The TSA plans to switch over to scanners manufactured by a company called L-3 Communications Holdings, which use radio signals rather than X-rays to scan passengers for weapons.” Continue reading

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Supreme Court to consider if silence can be evidence of guilt

“The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider whether a suspect’s refusal to answer police questions prior to being arrested and read his rights can be introduced as evidence of guilt at his subsequent murder trial. Salinas’ lawyer argued that his client deserved a Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, even though he had not been under arrest or read his rights under the landmark 1966 decision Miranda v. Arizona. Last April, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the conviction but noted that federal appeals courts are split as to whether ‘pre-arrest, pre-Miranda silence is admissible as substantive evidence of guilt.'” Continue reading

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DOJ sends bundle of completely censored documents in response to ACLU lawsuit

“Responding to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Department of Justice (DOJ) turned over a bundle of documents that are completely blacked out. The lawsuit was filed after the DOJ ignored a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking information on how the agency interpreted a 2011 Supreme Court decision that bans law enforcement from using GPS technology to track Americans without a warrant. The Department responded to the lawsuit with 111 pages of attorney memos, but only two pages are legible. The rest are covered by large black rectangles that blot out all useful information.” Continue reading

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Kim Dotcom poised for return with Megaupload successor

“Internet tycoon Kim Dotcom will launch a new file-sharing site at his Auckland mansion on Sunday, exactly a year after armed police arrested him at the same venue in the world’s largest online piracy case. Dotcom’s new venture, mega.co.nz, aims to recreate the success of his Megaupload empire, which boasted 50 million daily visitors and accounted for four percent of all Internet traffic before it was shut down after the police raid. Details of the planned service are scarce, but the site promises to use state-of-the-art encryption methods that mean only users, not the site’s administrators, know what they are uploading.” Continue reading

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U.S. attorney defends handling of Aaron Swartz case as ‘appropriate’

“A US prosecutor at the center of a controversy over the handling of a case involving an Internet activist who committed suicide has defended the government’s actions as ‘appropriate.’ Assistant US Attorney Carmen Ortiz expressed regret over the death of Aaron Swartz, who was accused of illegally copying and distributing millions of academic articles from a database but said prosecutors were merely doing their job.” Continue reading

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Texas’ Second Amendment Preservation Act

Janice Cookston
WeTexans.com Archives
originally https://web.archive.org/web/20131116034946/http://wetexans.com:80/texas-second-ammendment-preservation-act/
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UPDATE: There is a provision in this bill that we believe effectively invalidates all its noble rhetoric.  Sec 46.16 (c)(4) provides a defense against prosecution. Surely all federal agents will argue that what they are doing is constitutional.  We Texans’ contributor Dwayne Stovall makes the following observation: Texas State Representative John Otto (District 18) filed H.B. 553, the “Second Amendment Preservation Act,” on January 17th.   “The Constitution was designed for times like these—when emotions run … Continue reading

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Iran plans to phase out dollar, euro in foreign trade: Econ. min.

“Iran’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Shamseddin Hosseini says the country plans to phase out dollar and euro in its future international transactions after the US and the European Union (EU) imposed sanctions on Iran. ‘[Iranian] government has made up its mind to phase out vehicle currencies such as dollar and euro in its [foreign] trade,’ Hosseini told reporters. He added that after the imposition of sanctions on Iran by the US and the EU, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) immediately moved to change the country’s hard currencies reserves into euro and gold which ‘was beneficial to the country.’.” Continue reading

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