Mainstream News

Woman Wants Possessions Back After Bank Repossessed Wrong House

"Barnett, who had been away from the house for about two weeks, said she had to crawl through the window of her own house in order to get in after she used her own key that did not work. Some of the items in her house had been hauled away, others were sold, given away and trashed. It turns out the bank sent someone to repossess the house located across the street from Barnett’s house, but by mistake broke into hers instead. She called the McArthur Police about the incident, but weeks later, the chief announced the case was closed. She presented the bank president with an $18,000 estimate to replace the losses, but he refused to pay." Continue reading →

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McCain: $1 coin could lead to bigger tips for strippers

"Sen. John McCain has a wish for any exotic dancers who might feel the pinch from legislation he’s backing that would do away with the dollar bill and replace it with a dollar coin: Shake what your momma gave you and make more moolah. The Arizona Republican joined Sens. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.) in introducing the COINS Act last month. Advocates for the measure contend that saying sayonara to George Washingtons in favor of coins would save the government billions of dollars." Continue reading →

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The Creepy, Long-Standing Practice of Undersea Cable Tapping

"More than 550,000 miles of flexible undersea cables about the size of garden watering hoses carry all the world's emails, searches, and tweets. Together, they shoot the equivalent of several hundred Libraries of Congress worth of information back and forth every day. In 2005, the Associated Press reported that a submarine called the USS Jimmy Carter had been repurposed to carry crews of technicians to the bottom of the sea so they could tap fiber optic lines. The easiest place to get into the cables is at the regeneration points -- spots where their signals are amplified and pushed forward on their long, circuitous journeys." Continue reading →

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House protects surveillance program before passing military spending bill

"After fierce debate over the limits of domestic spying, the House on Wednesday voted to protect the federal government's ability to collect phone records and other data related to U.S. citizens who aren't suspected of terrorism. The Obama administration lobbied against Amash's amendment, and members of congressional intelligence committees defended the NSA's actions. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., said it was 'a false narrative that the federal government is taking in the content of American phone calls and emails.' She said there was more information about U.S. citizens in a phone book than in the NSA database." Continue reading →

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Bitcoin gets big bets from Silicon Valley

"Dot-com pioneers and fresh-faced 20-somethings alike are founding companies to help transact the virtual currency. Are those chasing Bitcoin headed for a gold rush, or fool's gold? Nick Holland, a Javelin Strategy analyst in Boston, is among those who believe math-based currencies like Bitcoin, which enable transactions from one user to another without official oversight or high fees, could upset the centuries-old tradition of paper money -- much as user-generated Wikipedia all but replaced the venerable Encyclopaedia Britannica." Continue reading →

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The Government’s Perilous Bitcoin Chase

"Nothing can strip the shine off a cool trend as quickly as national security officials sharing how it is poised to become a cutting-edge tool in terrorists’ ongoing death-to-America project. As such, I want to thank David Cohen, the Treasury’s Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, and John Carlin, acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security—distinguished and otherwise delightful members of a panel I moderated at the Aspen Institute’s National Security Forum this past weekend—for casting a sinister shadow over what I had previously assumed to be the harmless if quirky Bitcoin craze." Continue reading →

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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 →

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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 →

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China Orders Ban on New Government Buildings

"Debt-fueled spending by local governments, partly for new buildings but also for roads, sewers, water systems and other projects, has been a growing worry in recent years for Beijing policy makers, as well as for economists and credit-rating agencies around the world. Most tallies of total local government debt in China tend to be in the vicinity of $2 trillion, equal to three months of China’s entire economic output, but some estimates are even higher. A clear loophole in Tuesday’s directive is that it does little to rein in spending by enterprises partly or entirely owned by government entities." Continue reading →

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Basta ‘La Casta’: No End in Sight to Italy’s Economic Decline

"Italy, despite being the third-largest economy in the euro zone after Germany and France, finds itself in dire straits, having been in decline for years. Its GDP has dropped by 7 percent since 2007. But economic growth only tells part of the story. More than half a million industrial jobs have been lost since 2007, and 15 percent of the country's industrial capacity is gone, says Luca Paolazzi, head of research for Confindustria, Italy's leading industry association. Paolazzi, Italy is experiencing an 'unprecedented process of deindustrialization.' According to Confindustria, the Italian economy faces a tax burden that is 20 percent higher than in Germany." Continue reading →

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