"Why it is so important to own physical gold in the actual context and why the spot price doesn't matter that much in determining the real value of gold. We try to explain this by making an historical parallel with the Titanic shipwreck." Continue reading →
"Three years ago Aaron Greenspan had a hot mobile payments startup on his hands that was poised to take a bite out of the entrenched card networks. Launched in April 2010, FaceCash signed up 25 Bay Area merchants and 500 consumers to use its novel technology, which combined mobile bar code scanning and photo identification. A Subway franchise in Palo Alto tested the service. Some suggested FaceCash could become the next blockbuster payments innovator after Jack Dorsey's Square. Then regulators put Greenspan out of business." Continue reading →
"For the simple crime of smoking marijuana, Texas man Joshua Hill’s family is destroyed forever. The government took Hill’s two-year old daughter away from him because he was caught smoking pot while she was asleep. But under the watch of Child Protective Services (CPS), Hill’s child was abused and eventually murdered by foster parents. Was Hill’s 'crime' of smoking marijuana worse than the state’s prescription of removing his child from the home and placing her into a foster system with as much as 10 times higher risk of abuse?" Continue reading →
"It’s not ‘conspiracy’ and it’s not fraud, the DHS has literally created an imaginary ‘border’ within the United States that engulfs 100 miles from every single end of the nation. Within this fabricated ‘border’, the DHS can search your electronic belongings for no reason. No reason whatsoever is required under their own regulations. This ‘border’ even includes where the US land meets oceans in addition to legitimate borders with Mexico and Canada. As a result, you have over 197 million citizens suffocated in these 100 mile ‘border zones’ that include major cities like New York City, Houston, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia." Continue reading →
"As a senator, Obama wanted 1. to limit bulk records collection; 2. to require government analysts to get court approval before accessing incidentally collected American data. 3. the executive branch to report to Congress how many American communications had been swept up during surveillance; 4. to restrict the use of gag orders related to surveillance court orders; 5. to give the accused a chance to challenge government surveillance; 6. the attorney general to submit a public report giving aggregate data about how many people had been targeted for searches; 7. the government to declassify significant surveillance court opinions." Continue reading →
"Morgan County State’s Attorney Robert Bonjean said Monday that he is not anticipating prosecuting an eavesdropping charge against Randy Newingham — at least not at this time. For the public at large, this does not mean that recording on-duty officers will never be prosecuted in Morgan County. 'We’ll review those reports and we’ll continue to monitor the decision from the 7th Circuit court,' Bonjean said. 'I don’t foresee myself making any blanket decision, just taking it on a case by case basis.' Newingham had his cellphone confiscated after he showed police a recording he had made of himself having a conversation with an on-duty officer on a golf cart." Continue reading →
"Plaintiffs in the suit complained that under ATS' PlatePass program, for example, $10.75 was automatically billed from their credit card to cover a 75 cent toll. The $11 million payment comes on top of the $4.2 million that ATS will pay to red light camera ticket recipients in New Jersey as part of a settlement for illegally issuing tickets at intersections where the yellow signal timing was not justified. Ticket recipients in that case began receiving post cards this week. The settlement agreement leaves it between ATS and Hertz to decide whether 'one or both' companies should pay the refunds." Continue reading →
"FEMA sends out Amber Alerts from cell towers in locations near the abduction. The alerts can pop up on new phones with Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) capabilities, or phones that get the corresponding software update. It’s a voluntary system, and participating wireless companies were required to add WEA services to their phones by April 7, 2012. Californians were angry and confused about the Amber Alert, scared by an alarming phone notification they didn’t know they had. The reaction mirrors New Yorkers’ response a few weeks ago, when the first New York City mobile Amber Alert woke people up at 4 in the morning." Continue reading →
"President Barack Obama on Tuesday night condemned Russia and some African countries for persecuting gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals. 'I’ve been very clear that when it comes to universal rights, when it comes to people’s basic freedoms, that whether you are discriminating on the basis of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, you are violating the basic morality that I think should transcend every country,' he said on NBC’s The Tonight Show with host Jay Leno. 'And I have no patience for countries that try to treat gays or lesbians or transgender persons in ways that intimidate them or are harmful to them.'" Continue reading →
"The former executive director of the Republican Party of Los Angeles County was arrested last Friday for allegedly sexting with a 16-year-old girl. The girl told officers that Scott Hounsell, 30, had engaged in sexually explicit chats with her via a social media website. Police did not say what social media website was used. Hounsell was arrested by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. He was released on $40,000 bail Friday afternoon. Firedoglake noted that Hounsell had mocked New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner on his personal Twitter account." Continue reading →