Alternative News

Senate Votes Against Fourth Amendment Protection Act

"Yesterday evening, the U.S. Senate voted on amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Amendments Act Reauthorization Act of 2012, H.R.5949, including one introduced by Sens. Rand Paul and Mike Lee. The amendment, known as the Fourth Amendment Protection Act extends Fourth Amendment guarantees to electronic communications and requires specific warrants granted through FISA courts in order to obtain this information. The amendment failed, 79-12." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSenate Votes Against Fourth Amendment Protection Act

Senate votes to extend warrantless wiretapping powers

"The law was set to expire at midnight on Friday, but the Senate’s vote means it will almost certainly be extended through December 2017. The extension continues warrantless wiretapping powers that apply even in the event that one person participating in the communication is an American citizen, despite the Fourth Amendment’s requirement for court oversight. It was originally passed in 2008 as a means of granting top Bush administration officials and the telecommunications companies legal immunity against suits over wiretaps that even the former president once claimed to be illegal." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSenate votes to extend warrantless wiretapping powers

2012 in Review: Biometric ID Systems Grew Internationally… And So Did Concerns About Privacy

"Around the world, systems of identification that employ automatic recognition of individuals’ faces, fingerprints, or irises are gaining ground. Biometric ID systems are increasingly being deployed at international border checkpoints, by governments seeking to implement national ID schemes, and by private-sector actors. Yet as biometric data is collected from more and more individuals, privacy concerns about the use of this technology are also attracting attention. Below are several examples of the year’s most prominent debates around biometrics." Continue reading →

Continue Reading2012 in Review: Biometric ID Systems Grew Internationally… And So Did Concerns About Privacy

Another woman arrested for defending herself against the TSA

"A South Korean woman visiting this country and, of course, having no idea that she was required to undergo physical assault as a condition of getting on a plane, was arrested at Orlando International Airport. 39-year-old Hyunjoo Kim was being groped by a TSA agent when she allegedly 'slapped' said agent." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAnother woman arrested for defending herself against the TSA

High School Student Arrested for Doodling?

"A 16-year-old high schooler in Egg Harbor City, NJ, was arrested after doodling in his notebook what may have been either weapons or a magic hand with flames coming off it, or perhaps something else. Concerned by the boy’s notebook, a Cedar Creek High School staff member called the local police, who searched the school and the teen’s home with sniffer dogs. The boy was charged with possession of a weapon, an explosive device, and was placed in Harborfields Detention Center. The boy’s mother explained that her son, who had no history of violence or threat-making, regularly assembled and dissambled electronics as a hobby." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHigh School Student Arrested for Doodling?

Liberty Dollars banned at U.S. Numismatic Convention

"So-called Liberty Dollars, the creation of Bernard Von NotHaus and the National Organization for the Repeal of the Federal Reserve Act and the Internal Revenue Code, more commonly known by the acronym NORFED, will not be part of the April 24-27, 2013 74th Anniversary Convention of the Central States Numismatic Society in Schaumburg, Ill., according to a statement issued by convention General Chairman Kevin Foley. Although the underlying criminal conviction of Von NotHaus has been the subject of controversy and criticism, Foley said, the fact remains that the Secret Service has determined that the Liberty Dollars are counterfeit." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLiberty Dollars banned at U.S. Numismatic Convention

Experimental Private Rocket Makes Highest Test Hop Yet

"A privately built rocket prototype that could lead to a completely reusable spaceflight system has passed its biggest test yet — a 12-story hop and smooth landing. In the latest test at SpaceX's proving grounds in MacGregor, Texas, the Grasshopper rocket flew for 29 seconds and reached a height of more than 130 feet (40 meters). A video of the Grasshopper test flight shows the rocket soaring up into the Texas sky, then smoothly descending to land on four spindly legs." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingExperimental Private Rocket Makes Highest Test Hop Yet

Thomas Naylor, RIP

"Thomas died recently of heart failure, in Vermont, the state he and his Second Vermont Republic organization dreamed of having secede from the American Empire he so loved to hate. It’s doubtful if that group will continue without him, but the Vermont Commons folks and others like-minded will keep the dream alive. He tended to stress what I came to call the Push reasons for secession—that is, it allows a state to get out from under an inept, dysfunctional, and evil empire so as not to go down with its inevitable collapse, and it frees it from the taxes, wars, regulations, and entangling alliances of that empire." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThomas Naylor, RIP

Free Staters Not Welcome in New Hampshire

"Democratic State Rep. Cynthia Chase calls them 'the single biggest threat the state is facing today.' 'There is, legally, nothing we can do to prevent them from moving here to take over the state, which is their openly stated goal. What we can do is to make the environment here so unwelcoming that some will choose not to come, and some may actually leave. One way is to pass measures that will restrict the 'freedoms' that they think they will find here.... Cheshire County is a welcoming community but not to those whose stated goal is to move in enough ideologues to steal our state, and our way of life.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFree Staters Not Welcome in New Hampshire