crony capitalism

ATS Settles PlatePass Rental Car Ticketing Lawsuit

"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 →

Continue ReadingATS Settles PlatePass Rental Car Ticketing Lawsuit

Bootleggers and Baptists on the Beach

"Last year, two young college graduates had a great business idea that has become a huge success in the beach town of Delray Beach, Florida. Observing the ordeal of vacationers lugging beach chairs and other heavy beach equipment for the long, hot walk to the beach, they introduced a free golf cart shuttle service called 'The Downtowner.' The Downtowner is always fully booked and for good reason; the young drivers are prompt, exceptionally polite and courteous, and it’s free! Not surprisingly, the city government of Delray Beach is apparently doing everything it can to drive The Downtowner out of business." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBootleggers and Baptists on the Beach

Obama administration task force wants to make unauthorized streaming a felony

"The U.S. Department of Commerce wants to crack down on the unauthorized streaming of video and audio content by reviving a provision of the Stop Online Piracy Act. In a report released last week, the Commerce Department’s Internet Policy Task Force called for the unauthorized streaming of copyrighted works to become a felony. 'While the willfully infringing reproduction and distribution of copyrighted works can be punished as a felony, willful violations of the public performance right are punishable only as misdemeanors,' the report stated. 'This discrepancy is an increasingly significant impediment,' the report continued." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama administration task force wants to make unauthorized streaming a felony

Bruce Schneier: The Public-Private Surveillance Partnership

"The primary business model of the Internet is built on mass surveillance, and our government’s intelligence-gathering agencies have become addicted to that data. The NSA is also in the business of spying on everyone, and it has realized it’s far easier to collect all the data from these corporations rather than from us directly. In some cases, the NSA asks for this data nicely. In other cases, it makes use of subtle threats or overt pressure. If that doesn’t work, it uses tools like national security letters. The result is a corporate-government surveillance partnership, one that allows both the government and corporations to get away with things they couldn’t otherwise." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBruce Schneier: The Public-Private Surveillance Partnership

8 Cities Where 911 Systems Recently Failed

"A watchdog agency has launched an official investigation into the system, which cost $88 million and has only been operational since May. In July, the New York Post reported that the system had crashed at least nine times in a single week. It's also drawn blame for leaving a crash victim unaided on a highway for almost two hours, and marooning a paramedic with a dead body. Made by a company called Intergraph Government Solutions—whose board is well stocked with former security officials from the George W. Bush administration—the software will soon be coming to Boston, which plans to spend $15 million on its contract." Continue reading →

Continue Reading8 Cities Where 911 Systems Recently Failed

Japan nuclear body says radioactive water at Fukushima an ‘emergency’

"Highly radioactive water seeping into the ocean from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant is creating an 'emergency' that the operator is struggling to contain, an official from the country’s nuclear watchdog said on Monday. This contaminated groundwater has breached an underground barrier, is rising toward the surface and is exceeding legal limits of radioactive discharge, he told Reuters. Countermeasures planned by Tokyo Electric Power Co are only a temporary solution, he said. Tepco’s 'sense of crisis is weak,' Kinjo said. 'This is why you can’t just leave it up to Tepco alone' to grapple with the ongoing disaster." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJapan nuclear body says radioactive water at Fukushima an ‘emergency’

Bill Gates: Flip-Flopping IP Hypocrite

"A couple decades ago, Bill Gates seemed to have some appreciation of the damage wrought by patent law. Yet over the years Microsoft relied on the other major form of intellectual property—copyright—to dominate aspects of the software industry, and then to use the monopoly profits to accumulate thousands of patents. These two forms of IP are then used together to squelch competition. Now that Gates has used state-granted IP monopolies to acquire billions of dollars that he can then use to be a bigshot philanthropist, he is all for patents (as my friend Rob Wicks says, Gates is 'America’s wealthiest welfare queen')." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBill Gates: Flip-Flopping IP Hypocrite

California: Treatment and fraud

"CNN has a pretty powerful investigative series on California’s dysfunctional treatment system. Over $185 million per year of state and federal money goes into California’s drug rehab counseling program, much of it lining the pockets of unscrupulous clinics who pay people $5 to sign in (or simply invent clients). While each state has a different system, the fraud and abuse in treatment is a national problem as the treatment industry has become a hugely lucrative business, with lots of taxpayer money to tap and tons of 'addicts' who are required to go through treatment because of their involvement in the criminal justice system." Continue reading →

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Brawl breaks out in Taiwanese legislature over planned nuclear plant

"Taiwanese lawmakers hurled water and wrestled each other to the floor of the island’s parliament Friday in a brawl which broke out during a debate on the fate of a controversial nuclear plant. Dozens of lawmakers from opposing camps clashed as they tried to seize the chamber’s podium and splashed water from cups and plastic bottles at each other. Two scuffling lawmakers from opposing parties fell onto the floor before they were pulled apart by others in footage broadcast live on television. The fourth nuclear plant is about 90 percent complete and due to come online in 2015, according to its operator the state-owned Taiwan Power Company (Taipower)." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBrawl breaks out in Taiwanese legislature over planned nuclear plant