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Google offers to fund wireless hotspots in San Francisco

“Google Inc is offering $600,000 to set up free wireless Internet hotspots in 31 public spaces in San Francisco, but city officials said they need to review annual maintenance costs before it could be approved. Google has previously funded public wireless projects in its home city of Mountain View, California, in New York Chelsea’s neighborhood and around Boston’s South Station. San Francisco officials say public Internet service is long overdue for a city that has eclipsed Silicon Valley as the epicenter of the startup ecosystem in recent years, attracting a dramatic influx of venture capital investment and young tech workers.” Continue reading →

Google strengthens Android security with NSA’s SELinux; TPM also coming

“Originally developed by programmers from the National Security Agency, SELinux enforces a much finer-grained series of mandatory access control policies. the other big security enhancement introduced in Android 4.3 is a more robust way to store cryptographic credentials used to access sensitive information and resources. ‘With the keychain enhancements, the system-wide keys are bound to a hardware-based root of trust process devices that support this,’ said Pau Oliva Fora, senior mobile security engineer at viaForensics. ‘The phone needs to have a secure element such as a Trusted Platform Module so that private keys can’t be stolen.'” Continue reading →

Bradley Manning Trial: ‘Aiding the Enemy’ Charge is a Travesty of Justice

“The government’s charge that Manning ‘aided and abetted the enemy,’ which carries a possible life-sentence in prison, is based on the argument that the information Manning leaked was of interest to Osama bin Laden and other terrorist organizations. But as Glenn Greenwald points out in a recent Guardian column, the prosecution’s theory poses a serious threat to the freedom of the press and turns virtually all leaks and whisteblowing into a form of treason. Since bin Laden claimed to have read and recommended Bob Woodward’s journalism, should Woodward also be locked in solitary confinement and stripped of his clothing?” Continue reading →

U.S. lawmakers blast Guantanamo’s $2.7 million per prisoner cost

“The current cost of operating the facility has jumped to $454 million in the fiscal year ended September 30, according to the U.S. Department of Defense, or about $2.7 million for each of the 166 inmates. Overall, $4.7 billion has been spent running Guantanamo since the facility opened in 2002. By comparison, super-maximum security prisons in the United States spend about $60,000 to $70,000 at most to house their inmates, analysts say. Advocates for closure also argue that holding prisoners for years without charge or trial is a stain on the United States. They say Guantanamo is a threat to national security because it is a powerful recruiting tool for militants.” Continue reading →

Spanish Pension Raids Spell Bad News for Bond Sales

“Spain’s Treasury may find one of its best customers less eager to buy its bonds as budget woes lead Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy to raid a government piggy-bank for a second year. Created in 2000 to guarantee pension payments in times of hardship, the 59.3 billion-euro ($78 billion) Fondo de Reserva was tapped for the first time in December for 7 billion euros to fund Christmas bonuses and a monthly increase for retirees. Further withdrawals will have taken an additional 4.5 billion euros by the end of this month, helping to pay for pensioners’ summer bonuses and tax refunds.” Continue reading →

How Putin Uses Money Laundering Charges to Control His Opponents

“The crux of Putin’s ability to punish dissenters revolves around Russia’s financial intelligence unit, Rosfinmonitoring. Putin created Rosfinmonitoring–under the direct control of the president and placed it in the charge of a fiercely loyal subordinate, Viktor Zubkov (also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the natural gas and oil giant Gazprom). Rosfinmonitoring, and the laws criminalizing money laundering (Russian Federal Law No. 115-FZ ), were established on the recommendation of the U.S. and European powers, who sought to institutionalize a global anti-money laundering regime in the 1990’s and early 2000’s.” Continue reading →

Detroit Bankruptcy: How to Fix Detroit in 6 Easy Steps

“The news is full of stories of Detroit, and understandably so. It’s an unmitigated disaster. But I know how to fix it. Seriously, I do! I have a plan that would cost the state of Michigan nothing – not a cent. It wouldn’t cost DC anything either, and it would turn Detroit into the most thriving city in North America. As a bonus, it would give the remaining property owners in Detroit a financial windfall. Here’s the plan.” Continue reading →

Republican battles for Medicaid funding turn to God and morality

“Most Republicans oppose Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as a costly, ineffective and unnecessary expansion of government. But some Republican governors, like Arizona’s Jan Brewer and Michigan’s Rick Snyder, have broken ranks to embrace the law’s Medicaid expansion as a practical way to help the poor while infusing their state budgets with billions of dollars in federal funding to pay for it. Ohio’s John Kasich has gone further. His message of morality goes straight to the Republican Party’s allegiance to traditional American values including charity, and should resonate with religious conservatives within its influential Tea Party faction.” Continue reading →