"Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has declared a state of emergency for blizzard that could bring near 3 feet of snow. Patrick signed an executive order banning all vehicles from roadways starting at 4 p.m. today. Ban applies to all roadways, including highways and secondary roads. Any one caught driving after 4 p.m. faces up to one year in jail and $500 fine." Continue reading →
"The leader of an Amish cult — who allegedly ordered followers to forcibly cut the beards and hair of those who criticized his leadership — was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The 67-year-old Samuel Mullet Sr. was convicted not just of assault but of hate crimes, as prosecutors said the victims’ right to religious expression was violated. The sentence sat between what the government asked for — life in prison — and what the defense sought, which was at most two years. Fifteen others implicated in the crimes were sentenced to between one and seven years in prison." Continue reading →
"Arizona State Representative Michelle Ugenti has proposed a bill that would make it a class 5 felony to impersonate someone online 'with the intent to harm, defraud, intimidate or threaten.' That last part, obviously, limits the purely parodical accounts, but the definitions of those words could be quite broad, and the risk of an overly broad interpretation is quite real. Considering that class 5 felonies in Arizona come with a 'presumptive sentence of a year and a half imprisonment,' you would hope that the definitions here would be a lot clearer." Continue reading →
"In an amazing victory for privacy advocates and drone activists, yesterday, Seattle’s mayor ordered the city's police agency to cease trying use surveillance drones and dismantle its drone program. The police will return the two drones they previously purchased with a Department of Homeland Security grant to the manufacturer. In May of last year, we urged concerned citizens to take their complaints to their local governments, given Congress has been slow to act on any privacy legislation. The events of Seattle proves this strategy can work and should serve as a blueprint for local activism across the country." Continue reading →
"It's been three weeks since an Oak Harbor city councilmember started a national controversy by trying to kick out a wounded Army veteran who was legally carrying a weapon during a council meeting. Councilmember Rick Almberg then walked out. The council was met by 160 people Tuesday night, many who were packing heat. The city council eventually voted to overturn the ban, which the interim city attorney had told the members was unconstitutional. The council did not call for the resignation of fellow member Almberg, which a few people had called for." Continue reading →
"Florida seafood importer Abner 'Abbie' Schoenwetter spent years in a U.S. federal prison for supposedly violating the laws of Honduras... even though the Honduran government proved he was innocent. In an appalling miscarriage of justice, Schoenwetter lost his thriving business and years with his family. This shocking true story warns of the U.S. government creating new criminal laws that affect every American -- a problem known as overcriminalization." Continue reading →
"So, it is the worst of times and it is the best of times. It is the worst of times in terms of the expansion of federal administrative law. It is the best of times in terms of the inability of central governments to impose their plans on their populations apart from a vast expansion of the money supply, which is going to lead to the undermining of the welfare state and the destruction of federal legitimacy in the eyes of the people. It is more of a train wreck than it is a tipping point. It is more of a collision between assertions on paper in Washington versus the expansion of monetary digits, which is also taking place in Washington." Continue reading →
"Some Americans claim that we have had police states during other wartimes and that once the war on terror is won, the police state will be dismantled. Others claim that government will be judicious in its use of the power and that if you are doing nothing wrong you have nothing to fear. These are reassurances from the deluded. The Bush/Obama police state is far more comprehensive than Lincoln’s, Wilson’s, or Roosevelt’s, and the war on terror is open-ended and is already three times longer than World War II. The Police State is acquiring 'squatter’s rights.' Moreover, the government needs the police state in order to protect itself from accountability." Continue reading →
"The question is: how much farther must we travel down this road before people will be compelled to admit that 'the land of the free' is more a reassuring myth than a description of the land in which we actually live—to recognize that the freedoms to go shopping and browse the Web are not enough to make a society genuinely free?" Continue reading →
"The man's sister, who works nearby, tried to advise officers that he was suffering from epilepsy and not under the influence of drugs, but the lawsuit says officers ignored her. Lynn was booked into jail on charges of resisting arrest, public intoxication and a felony count of disarming a police officer. Lynn's lawyer wrote that he never knowingly tried to grab the officer's Taser during the struggle, and the charges against Lynn were dismissed on Nov. 28, 2012. His lawsuit alleges false arrest, assault, false imprisonment and excessive force by the IMPD officers." Continue reading →