Copyfight; Net Neutrality; NSA Spying; Tech Trouble, Law and Disorder; Patents; Amazon.com; Facebook; Wikipedia; Gaming; Car Trouble, GM

Copyfight

• 15 years ago, Congress kept Mickey Mouse out of the public domain. Will they do it again?—"On October 27, 1998, President Clinton extended copyrights, starving the public domain of new works for 20 years." Lobbyists haven't stopped. WaPo
• Netflix Could Be Classified As a 'Cybersecurity Threat' Under New CISPA Rules
• Philip Morris attacks Marlboro parody, runs into "Web bully's worst enemy"—"Public Citizen: 'You7r client's targets may be addicted, but they aren't stupid.'"
• Dogecoin Users Outraged Over Trademark
• King Candy's Trademark Attempt at Crushing The Banner Saga
• MPAA Targets Reddit Community Over Movie Piracy—Streisand effect ensues.
• Ottawa Citizen: Apology to David Bowie

Net Neutrality

• The Father of Net Neutrality Returns to Do Battle With Comcast
• We don't need net neutrality; we need competition—"Op-ed: 'Unbundled access' actually works."
• Net Neutrality Protesters Arrested At Google HQ—Barking up the wrong tree?

NSA Spying

• Americans as 'vulnerable' to NSA surveillance as foreigners, despite Fourth Amendment—"By manipulating internet traffic to push American data outside of the country, the NSA can vacuum up vast amounts of US citizen data for intelligence purposes, a new report warns."
• NSA queried phone records of just 248 people despite massive data sweep—'Transparency report reveals agency performed queries on 248 people in 2013, despite collecting data on millions of Americans."
• New N.S.A. Chief Calls Damage From Snowden Leaks Manageable—"The director of the National Security Agency, Adm. Michael S. Rogers, described the steps the agency is taking to ensure that no one else can download the information taken by Edward J. Snowden, a former defense contractor." NYT
• NSA spying is a bigger diplomatic strain than Iraq invasion
• US to extend privacy rights to EU citizens
• A review of the Blackphone, the Android for the paranoid—"Custom-built with privacy in mind, this handset isn't for (Google) Play."

Tech Trouble

• The world wide web may be fracturing into a bunch of regional internets
• China's cure for teenage internet addiction is worse than the supposed disease
• Busted: Microsoft-hired agency paying bloggers to write pro-IE posts
• Yup, 1-800-COLLECT is still in business—and charging massive fees—"$42.55 for a 6-minute collect call? It happened to one Ars reader."
• Broken promises: Verizon, Google, and the Chromebook data debacle—In a face-saving move, Google gives $150 credit to those affected.
• Warning over USB chargers after woman dies from apparent electrocution

Law and Disorder

• Aaron Swartz's father: He'd be alive today if he was never arrested
• It's Official: The Supreme Court Is Pro-Cable Oligopoly—Adios Aereo.
• Kleargear Ordered To Pay $300k To Utah Couple
• San Francisco orders parking spot auction app to cease-and-desist—"Parking Monkey CEO: new, innovative firms 'should be regulated and not banned.'" This one's different from Uber.

Patents

• How the Supreme Court might kill software patents
• Patents Are Eating the World and Hurting Innovation
• People, Not Patents
• How Patents Are Stopping Your Microwave From Being Awesome
• White House poised to name patent reform opponent as new head of Patent Office

Amazon.com

• Amazon accused of 'bullying' smaller UK publishers
• As Amazon slugs it out with the big publishers, authors are left cowering
• France passes "anti-Amazon" bill aimed at helping small bookstores—"Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti also called out Amazon's 'dumping strategy.'"
• What's the True Cost of Amazon's Quick Deliveries?
• "Amazon Was a Prison," Says Former Worker

Facebook

• Facebook fights 'largest ever' US court data request
• Facebook tinkered with users' feeds for a massive psychology experiment—Probably not illegal but bordering on unethical. What happened?
• Study: People Hate Happy Couples on Facebook

Wikipedia

• US National Archives enshrines Wikipedia in Open Government Plan, plans to upload all holdings to Commons
• The Unbearable Bureaucracy of Wikipedia—"The legalistic atmosphere is making it impossible to attract and keep the new editors the site needs."
• Wikipedia editors hit with $10 million defamation lawsuit
• Comms agencies "intend to do right" by Wikipedia
• Wikipedia drug entries often inaccurate or outdated, study finds

Gaming

• Meet the developer who spent 13 years making his childhood game Exclusive
• I won't buy Battlefield Hardline at launch, and neither should you
• Watch the brouhaha over 'Watch Dogs'
• "Game Critics Aren't Professionals, They Just Pretend To Be"
• Team Fortress 2: Expiration Date—MOAR.

Car Trouble

• Auto parts price-fixing probe rattles industry
• Ford to pay owners for overstating MPG
• Terrified Of Tesla, NADA Launches Campaign To Tout Benefits Of Franchise Dealerships
• Car industry struggles to solve air bag explosions despite mass recalls
• Volkswagen Once Tried To Kill A Journalist Because Of This Car

GM

• Texas Woman Convicted Of Manslaughter Learns GM Ignition Switch Caused Fiancé's Crash Death
• Blame for 'switch from hell' falls heavily on one GM engineer
• GM recalls 511,508 Camaros for ignitions you can switch off with your knee
• New General Motors Recall Includes Best Sellers—"G.M. said it was recalling more than half a million more vehicles, including full-size pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles that can suddenly switch into neutral." NYT
• GM hit with $10 billion lawsuit—"A new lawsuit says General Motors Co should compensate millions of car and truck owners for lost resale value, potentially exceeding $10 billion, because a slew of recalls and a deadly delay in recalling cars with defective ignition switches has damaged its brand."

Marriage Equality, LGBTQ, Politics and Media, Homophobia; Religion, Church and State, Sex Abuse Scandal; Rape, Trafficking, Revenge Porn

Marriage Equality

• Federal appeals court: Gays have right to marry—"A federal appeals court ruled for the first time Wednesday that gay couples have a constitutional right to marry, extending the movement's legal winning streak and bringing the issue a big step closer to the U.S. Supreme Court."
• Judge throws out Indiana's same-sex marriage ban—A stay has been granted.
• Reagan Appointed Judge Expands Louisiana Marriage Case To All Same-Sex Couples
• Battle over same-sex marriages in St. Louis headed to court
• 34 gay couples issued marriage licenses in Boulder Co.
• 45 Years After Stonewall, Oklahoma Still Awaiting Marriage Equality
• GOP Senator Collins says she supports gay marriage
• Republican Senator Says Republicans Must Abandon Same-Sex Marriage Issue To Win Elections
• Ben Carson's breathtaking marriage equality compromise: Don't let gay people get married—"'I don't think I can impose my will on any two consenting adults,' Carson says but clearly does not mean." Salon
• Wis. GOP Candidate: Marriage Equality Will Lead to Sibling Marriages

LGBTQ

• Biden: Gay rights take precedence over culture
• Town Votes To Give Fired Lesbian Police Chief Her Job Back, Strips Mayor Of Power
• Former defrocked United Methodist pastor Frank Schaefer will get back pay, credentials restored
• Unearthing The Surprising Religious History Of American Gay Rights Activism

Politics and Media

• Why I Outed Gay Republicans: A decade later, I'm still not sorry.—"The reaction to these early posts was mixed, with some people backing me and others yammering that I was invading politicians' right to privacy. To the latter group, I pointed out that these very politicians were making my private life—and the lives of millions of other LGBT Americans—a very public political issue." Politco
• Inside George W. Bush's Closet
• Rep. Paul "Skip" Stam Compares LGBT North Carolinians to Pedophiles on House Floor
• Susan Rice challenges LGBT community to amplify message that 'gay rights are straight up human rights
• US ambassador officially celebrates LGBT Pride Month in the Philippines
• CNBC Panel Gets Awkward When Host Refers To Apple CEO Tim Cook As Gay

Homophobia

• Uganda Lashes Out at U.S. Sanctions; Will Hurt 'Most Vulnerable'—"Admonitions from Kampala follow last week's news of fresh U.S. sanctions, including the loss of millions in funding for a new health institute and visa denials."
• Gay couple targeted in homophobic attack by teenage gang on east London street
• Yankton Teen Alleges Discrimination From Name Tag

Religion

• Berlin House of One: The first church-mosque-synagogue?
• Mormons Expel Founder of Group Seeking Priesthood for Women NYT
• Blast from the Past: 'Kumare': Fake Guru Exposes Real, Desperate Desire to Believe

Church and State

• Roy Moore's twisted history: Islam and Buddhism don't have First Amendment protection, chief justice says
• GOP House Candidate: Islam Not A Religion, Not Protected By Constitution
• Wiccan says he was barred from giving invocation—"A member of the Wiccan faith says he was set to give the opening invocation at a Huntsville City Council meeting until the plan was publicized and he was asked about his faith. He was then told he was no longer invited."
• NC religious schools in line to get voucher money
• North Carolina: Student-led prayer bill signed into law

Sex Abuse Scandal

• Vatican defrocks ex-ambassador in sex abuse case—"The Vatican has defrocked its former ambassador to the Dominican Republic for sexually abusing boys. It's the first time a top papal envoy has been convicted of the crime and signals that Pope Francis is serious about imposing "zero tolerance" for abuse, regardless of rank."
• Seattle Archdiocese to pay $12.1 million to settle sex abuse lawsuit
• St. Ignatius: Settlement talks ordered in Catholic school, parish sex-abuse case
• Betrayed by Silence—"For decades, leaders of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis have been reassigning, excusing and overlooking sexually abusive priests among their ranks. Some received additional retirement benefits. In August, a top church lawyer, shocked at what she saw, brought the story to MPR News. What happened next is still unfolding."
• Church, Police give conflicting answers on child sex abuse—"The Catholic Church in Malta and the police have given conflicting details regarding priests involved in child sex abuse cases since 2010."
• Sleeping with boys was 'common practice': royal commission on sex abuse in Wollongong
• On sex abuse, pope's problems both simple and complex

Rape

• How Did the FBI Miss Over 1 Million Rapes?—"Systematic undercounting of sexual assaults in the US disguises a hidden rape crisis."
• How BBC star Jimmy Savile got away with allegedly abusing 500 children and sex with dead bodies WaPo
• 'We demand justice': Kenyans protest after men who brutally raped girl sentenced to cut grass
• Pakistani police say boyfriend admits woman was raped, murdered after refusing sex with his friends
• No quick fix for India's rape crisis

Trafficking

• FBI targets pimps, rescues 168 children in nationwide crackdown
• D.C. police officer admits prostituting girls WaPo
• Activist Resigns Amid Charges of Fabrication NYT
• Brides for sale: Vietnamese women, young girls trafficked to China
• Nepal adoptions chief raped and groomed orphans for prostitution, claims British teacher
• U.S. human trafficking report drops four nations to lowest tier
• Fighting sex trafficking with Jesus: How the religious right’s "healing" hurts—"New campaigns claim to fight sex trafficking with 'love and the power of Christ.' And their influence is growing." Salon

Revenge Porn

• Feds arrest "most hated man on the Internet" in revenge porn hacking case
• Houston woman wins $500,000 in 'revenge porn' lawsuit
• Woman Posted Explicit Material Inside Walmart—She gave away fliers of her naked husband's alleged mistress.
• 'Revenge porn' victims receive boost from German court ruling—"Koblenz court orders man to delete nude images of ex-partner, even though he had shown no intention of publishing them."
• Man faces trial over 'revenge porn' website

Workers and Wage Slaves, Maximum Age, Minimum Wage, On the Job; Banks and Wall Street, Taxes, Class Warfare, Antiestablishmentarianism, Homeless; Chinese Exodus; Tau Day; Science Under Siege; Earth and Moon, Space Travel; Universe

Workers and Wages Slaves

• Meet 204 Republicans Who Don't Want to Punish Companies That Steal Workers' Wages
• Days After Decrying Flat Wages, McConnell Proposes Lowering Wages by $13 Billion
• How Walmart's Low Wages Cost All Americans, Not Just Its Workers
• Canada: Walmart wrong to fire unionized workers, high court says—"Supreme Court rules 5-2 in favour of 190 Quebec who lost jobs after first unionized Walmart shut its doors."
• Unions Fear This SCOTUS Case Could Bring Their 'Final Destruction'
• American Workers Need Overtime Protections
• Qatar police respond to fight at Sheraton Doha hotel

Maximum Age

• Tech industry job ads: Older workers need not apply
• Faygo accused of age discrimination - by founder's grandson
• Miss Delaware, 24, loses crown for being too old
• Singer sued for being too old and ugly for Pink cover band

Minimum Wage

• Zillow's Rich Barton on the $15 minimum wage, Uber regulations, and why the U.S. is filled with entrepreneurial 'freedom fighters'
• Ikea to raise its average minimum hourly wage to $10.76 LA Times
• Massachusetts: Minimum wage increase doesn't add up to a living wage—"The state's new $11 minimum wage –the highest in the nation -- will make low-wage workers' lives a little more stable, and less stressful. But not necessarily comfortable."
• A Minimum Wage That Makes More Sense—"Accounting for regional price differences is sound strategy when setting state or local minimum wages." NYT

On the Job

• Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed (The Real Reason For The Forty-Hour Workweek)
• Taking a Vacation May Actually Save Your Career—"Workaholism is hurting the American economy."
• Unblinking Eyes Track Employees: Workplace Surveillance Sees Good and Bad—"Abundant data, smart software and cheap sensors are beginning to make it possible to measure and monitor employees as never before." NYT
• An Employee Dies, and the Company Collects the Insurance—"Many companies insure their employees’ lives with themselves as beneficiaries, a practice some deride as immoral. But companies say the policies, for which they get tax breaks, help them bolster pensions and health care." NYT
• Obama Says US Should Offer Paid Maternity Leave—Right-wingers say no [Salon]
• North Dakota coffee shop has no employees, runs entirely on the honor system…and it's working
• Job interviews reward narcissists, punish applicants from modest cultures

Banks and Wall Street

• Ex-Goldman Trader Calls $8.25 Million Bonus Unfair, Told Mom He'd Get More—They really are too big to jail.
• New York attorney general accuses Barclays of 'dark pool' fraud
• Grassley's Hunt For An Obama Insider Trading Scandal Backfires On GOP
• House GOP Staffer Allegedly Changed His Story In Insider Trading Probe
• House Passes Bill To Aid Koch Brothers, Deregulate Wall Street
• China's commodity-lending fraud just got $15 billion bigger

Taxes

• Krugman: Sympathy for the Trustafarians NYT
• Higher taxes do not kill jobs—"County-level BLS data tell the true story about job growth."
• Tax cuts in Kansas have cost the state money — and job creation's been terrible WaPo
  

Class Warfare

• Robert Reich on America's Koch Problem
• In US, over 75 per cent of conservatives say the poor 'have it easy'
• Elizabeth Warren says the U.S. economy is rigged. Many conservatives agree. WaPo
• Conspiracy of the plutocrats: Secrets of the wealth-inequality explosion revealed Salon
• Detroit's Water War: a tap shut-off that could impact 300,000 people—"A right-wing state and corporate push to cut off water is economic shock therapy at its most ruthless and racist, but resistance is growing."
• Debtors Prisons Are Taking the US Back to the 19th Century—"In recent years, more and more cells have been filled with poor individuals who are caught in a vile trap, unable to pay court fines."
• What wealth gap? Danish welfare narrows disparity WaPo

Antiestablishmentarianism

• The open source revolution is coming and it will conquer the 1% - ex CIA spy—"The man who trained more than 66 countries in open source methods calls for re-invention of intelligence to re-engineer Earth."
• Nick Hanauer: The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats Politico
• The United States Of Cruelty—"We are cheap. We are suspicious. We will shoot first. It does not have to be this way. Like Lincoln before us, it is time to do something about it."

Homeless

• 73-year-old veteran loses his job for allegedly giving a muffin to a homeless man
• Chinese tycoon's free lunch for homeless New Yorkers backfires—"Controversial businessman Chen Guangbiao angered homeless people in New York after promising them $300 each and failing to deliver."
• Flipside: Woman launches mobile showers for the homeless—"A San Francisco woman creates a "shower bus" to help accommodate the city's 3,500 homeless people. Vanessa Johnston reports."

Chinese Exodus

• Disappointed Immigration Applicants Sue Canada—"More than 1,400 Chinese plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit against the Canadian immigration authorities after Canada announced it was canceling its immigrant investor program along with tens of thousands of outstanding applications." NYT
• Mainland Chinese line up for Australia's 'millionaire visa'
• Cashed-up Chinese students turn to Australia
• China targets officials who sent families abroad—"China's anti-graft campaign is now targeting officials who have sent their spouses and children abroad, where they can create channels to potentially funnel illicit gains and establish footholds for eventual escape from the mainland."

Tau Day

• The brain injury that made me a math genius—"Twelve years ago, Jason Padgett had never made it past pre-algebra. And then a violent mugging changed everything." Salon
• Notation, notation, notation: a brief history of mathematical symbols—The symbols we use every day have fascinating and surprisingly recent origins, explains author Joseph Mazur in his new book."
• The secret history of numbers: How math shapes our lives in amazing, unpredictable ways—"The relationship between people and numbers is so much more fascinating than simple dollars and cents." Salon

Science Under Siege

• Universities 'get poor value' from academic journal-publishing firms—"Research finds secrecy over contracts has stopped some institutions realising they are paying too much for journals."
• The U.S. Should Invest In Science, Not War
• Neil DeGrasse Tyson: US need not lose its edge in science—"The famed astrophysicist says there's a reason some chemical elements are named for places in the US -- and that we don't have to leave those glory days in the past."
• Asia's Cult of Intelligence—"With its 'cult of ignorance and anti-intellectualism' the U.S. risks falling behind rivals in Asia."
• xkcd: People are stupid

Earth and Moon

• Largest Active Volcano on Earth Rumbles Back to Life—"Recent quake swarms signal that magma is squeezing into Mauna Loa's magma storage chambers in the same spots below where the 1984 eruption occurred."
• Earth and Moon Are 60 Million Years Older Than Previously Believed
• Traces of another world found on the Moon—"Researchers have found evidence of the world that crashed into the Earth billions of years ago to form the Moon."
• The Moon is Now a Wi-Fi Hotspot
• Strange New World Discovered: The 'Mega Earth'

Space Travel

• A Klingon is currently commander of the International Space Station
• Astronaut Sally Ride and the Burden of Being The First
• The Curiosity rover has been on Mars for one Martian year. It celebrated by taking a selfie. WaPo

Universe

• Big Bang blunder bursts the multiverse bubble—"Premature hype over gravitational waves highlights gaping holes in models for the origins and evolution of the Universe, argues Paul Steinhardt."
• Light from huge explosion 12 billion years ago reaches Earth
• NASA detects mysterious signal ​240 million light years away from Earth
• The Timey Wimey Spacey Wacey Explanation of Relativity
• Avoiding "Sagan Syndrome." Why Astronomers and Journalists should pay heed to Biologists about ET.
• Star Within a Star: Weird Stellar 'Hybrid' Discovered—Red supergiant replaced its core with a neutron star.workers
• Collection of three supermassive black holes detected
• Mystery object in lake on Saturn's moon Titan intrigues scientists—"Nasa's Cassini probe took image last year as it passed by planet's largest moon – nothing seen when other images taken."
• Titan's Atmosphere May be Older than Saturn, a New Study Suggests

Phone Warrants Warranted, NSA Spying, Surveillance State, Your Privacy; Bad Cops, Authoritah, Cuffed, Killed, K9; Ticket, Speed, Crash, Morgan, Road Rage; Fatigue

Phone Warrants Warranted

• Supreme Court Says Phones Can't Be Searched Without a Warrant—A stunning 9-0 decision. NYT
• The most important sentence in the Supreme Court's cell phone privacy ruling
• What to do if police try to search your phone without a warrant

NSA Spying

• SCOTUS cellphone ruling resonates in NSA fight—"Chief Justice John Roberts's 28-page paean to digital privacy was like music to the ears of critics of the NSA's metadata program, which sweeps up details on billions of calls and searches them for possible links to terrorist plots." Politico
• Snarky Lawmaker Reminds Former NSA Chief That Selling State Secrets Is Illegal
• Over NSA worries, Germany ends government contract with Verizon—"Rare meaningful response after US revealed its spying on German chancellor."
• Denmark's ties with the NSA are deeper than previously thought
• NSA-proof messaging app Wickr gains £17m in funding
• Blimp flies over NSA's Utah Data Center to protest 'illegal mass surveillance program'

Surveillance State

• Surveillance: It's Worse Than You Think
• U.S. Says It Spied on 89,000 Targets Last Year, But the Number Is Deceptive
• New Data Shows FBI Issued More Than 19k National Security Letters in 2013
• Theresa May: There is no surveillance state—Bwahahahaha!
• Researchers uncover government digital surveillance tool—"A program used by governments around the world to access and monitor a person's digital footprint across mobile networks and the internet has been uncovered by two sets of researchers who have broken down how it works."

Your Privacy

• The Senate's New Cybersecurity Bill Threatens Net Neutrality
• Massachusetts high court orders suspect to decrypt his computers
• PRISM, Local Edition: NY DA Employs 381 Secret Orders to Gather Complete Digital Dossiers from Facebook
• Why the Supreme Court May Finally Protect Your Privacy in the Cloud
• Why Apple really cares about your privacy

Bad Cops

• Massachusetts SWAT teams claim they're private corporations, immune from open records laws—"Unusual law enforcement counsels that operate the SWAT teams say they aren't public entities." WaPo
• Major murder case collapses in new 'police corruption' scandal—"Scotland Yard is facing serious questions after the prosecution of a man charged with murder quietly collapsed following an investigation into alleged police corruption."
• White Detroit Police Lieutenant Files Discrimination Complaint Against Department—"A lieutenant in charge of the Detroit Police Department's drug unit says he was the victim of racial discrimination and subjected to a hostile work environment for reporting wrongdoing."
• Cleveland grand jury indicts six officers in deadly 2012 chase
• Denver police chief orders review of alcohol abuse reports in ranks
• Miami, Okla. officer indicted by a Grand Jury for her part in alleged scheme to protect the arresting officers
• SC sheriff latest to be charged in past 4 years—"... making him the eighth sheriff in the state to face criminal charges or investigations...."
• Police officer accused of recording men in bathroom, soliciting oral sex online
• Police Officer Fired For Secretly Filming Chief Having Sex In Ambulance

Authoritah

• Sheriff's deputy sought crazed vengeance after his car is egged by teens, charging documents show
• Mass. state trooper treats man like criminal for failing to show "respect"
• Roanoke Rapids police cleared in use of stun gun on autistic teen
• How Poor Young Black Men Run from the Police

Cuffed

• Officer tried to save handcuffed Clive man who drowned—"How a life jacket came off of a Clive man who was handcuffed when he went off a police boat and drowned will be a key part of the Missouri Highway Patrol's investigation into the incident, officials said."
• Durham police says teen shot self, family accuses officials of withholding facts
• Video released of local bodybuilder, Daniel Saenz, shot by El Paso police officer—Grand jury refuses to indict [Salon].
• Utah Democrat Fights Back After Police Smash Spinal Cord Stimulator: Running for State Rep. on Anti-Police State Platform

Killed

• Albuquerque ordered to pay $6m over man's wrongful killing by police—"Ruling says officers were not acting in self-defence when they shot dead a man with schizophrenia in his backyard in 2011."
• Video shows Albuquerque police killing homeless man
• 1 of 2 victims found in suitcases was from Minn.—"According to WTMJ, the [murder] suspect is a former West Allis police officer."
• City of Oxnard Agrees to Multimillion Dollar Settlement—"Oxnard paying record $6.7 million for police shooting death of innocent man."
• Dallas to pay $900000 to family of unarmed man killed by police
• Family of WWII vet killed by beanbag gun files suit—95-year-old man came out with a knife.
• Witness: Man fatally shot by Jersey City police asked 'Why did you shoot me?'—"You shouldn't have been wrestling with us."
• Prisoner: I cleaned up skin of inmate scalded in shower; human-rights groups call for federal intervention

K9

• Owners have questions after police shoot dog in home—"'I thought my dog would still be there, I may have wanted to bury my dog in my backyard. Who told you to take my dog away?' [Hope Lane] asked. The blood had also been cleaned up by police."
• Investigation underway into why officer shot dog in its own yard
• Police: Dog's throat cut; Officer charged with animal cruelty
• 2nd officer suspended in slitting of dog's throat
• Salt Lake man wants police officer who killed his dog fired
• Australia: ACT police officer removed from frontline duties after capsicum-spraying dog

Ticket

• Chief judge of Broward issues statement: Trust us—"Broward residents can trust the justice system — despite the spectacle of three sitting judges facing criminal charges for allegedly driving while under the influence, the county's chief administrative judge said Monday."
• Parma resident ticketed for sign warning of drunken driving checkpoint
• Chicago: Quinn signs bill banning police ticket quotas
• Florida Supreme Court: Early red-light cameras were illegal
• Man gets traffic ticket for running stop sign when video shows he clearly stopped—According to the police chief, "the law says you stop at the stop sign, you move forward, stop again, until you can see that the intersection is clear and then you go." What?
• Robin Hooder sentenced to jail in connection with city parking dispute
• Man sues L.A., saying his parking ticket violates the 8th amendment
• Open data saves New York City drivers from parking tickets—"Here's a great example of how making government data open can directly benefit you."

Speed

• Speed Kills Your Pocketbook
• Sometimes Faster is Better
• Blast from the Past: Montana: No Speed Limit Safety Paradox

Crash

• Staggering toll: Car crashes cost $871 billion a year
• Emma Czornobaj guilty in 2 highway deaths after stopping for ducks
• Husband, Wife Killed After Colliding in Head-On Crash
• We Should Denounce Drowsy Driving
• Texts worse than drink-driving
• 4 in 10 Teens Admit Texting While Driving
• Volkswagen - Eyes on the road

Morgan

• Truck Driver Charged With Causing Crash That Injured Tracy Morgan
• Tracy Morgan crash: Truck driver hadn't slept for 24 hours, documents say
• Tracy Morgan's rep: Leg amputation rumors are false
• Comedian Tracy Morgan moved to rehab center as condition improves
• Walmart says it will take 'full responsibility' if their truck caused fatal crash

Road Rage

• Man with 150 arrests gets 5 years for fatal hit-and-run
• Man Killed Trying to Stop Daughter from Drunk Driving—She's gonna have to live with that for the rest of her life.
• Motorcyclist who filmed, uploaded police flight video to serve hard time—"Defendant Ali's GPS anklet from unrelated offense clocked him in at 115 mph."
• Driver, 60, caught 'using cell phone jammer to keep motorists around him off the phone'
• Motorcyclist Clocked At 150+ MPH On I-75 Speaks Out
• Car fleeing from police goes through park, nearly hits children—Fourteen-year-old was driving.
• Teens' attempted car theft foiled by stick shift
• Teenager's £13,000 car stolen and taken for 15-minute joyride... but thief drove so well it helped bring down his insurance costs

Fatigue

• Just Days Before Tracy Morgan Accident, Senate Moved To Weaken Trucker Fatigue Rules
• Air traffic controllers still work compressed 'rattler' schedules—Also: Your Safety Depends on Air Traffic Controllers Who Are Still Working Crazy Shifts
• Worker fatigue cause of health care mistakes, study finds

World Drug Day, DEA, Habersham, Bad Cops, Militarization, Legalization and Decriminalization, Medical Marijuana, Colorado, Prison, Death Penalty, Innocence, Trial and Error, Law and Disorder, Fuzz-y, Recording

World Drug Day

• Branson: The War on Drugs Has Failed, So Let's Shut it Down
• States Undo Food Stamp Felon Bans—"Two states are taking small steps away from a little-known aspect of the war on drugs."
• Reduced sentences urged for non-violent drug offenders
• City of Chicago Files Lawsuit Blaming Painkiller Marketing for Prescription Drug Epidemic
• Having authoritarian parents increases risk of drug use in adolescents, European study finds
• New drug called Snapchat hospitalising users—"Australian police have issued a warning about a new drug called Snapchat, branded with the Snapchat logo and based on bath salts."
• Mexican Drug Cartel May Have Penetrated Rural Ohio Town, Police Say

DEA

• Is DEA Dazed & Confused Over Industrial Hemp?—"The Department of Agriculture needs hemp seeds for critical research. Why is the DEA trying to stop them?"
• Mass. Doctors Say DEA Pressuring Them To Resign From Medical Marijuana Companies—"Several Massachusetts doctors associated with prospective medical marijuana dispensaries are reportedly facing intense pressure from the federal government to cut ties with those companies."
• DEA obstructs research into medical marijuana: report—"Study says agency should not be in charge of scheduling drugs or giving access to drugs for medical research."

Habersham

• Raid that injured toddler based on info from informant
• Investigation into botched Habersham County drug raid growing
• D.A.: "I did not tell Habersham county sheriff there was nothing to investigate" in flashbang baby case
• A SWAT team blew a hole in my 2-year-old son Salon

Bad Cops

• Jury awards more than $2 million to family of pastor killed by narcotics task force WaPo
• Family sues over drug raid of wrong house: San Bruno residents claim multiple violations for June incident
• Man angry after police break into and damage his truck over dubious marijuana suspicion
• These pot searches by police don't pass the smell test
• Seattle police seize more than 2K illegally grown pot plants—"Detectives, however, didn't arrest anyone and said they were only interested in bringing the operation numbers down to the legal limits."
• Police Department Sued For Allegedly Seizing Pot Plants—"A group of medical marijuana patients on the Big Island of Hawaii are suing to get back pot plants that were allegedly seized wrongfully by police."
• Thousands of Rapists Are Not Behind Bars Because Cops Focus on Marijuana Users

Militarization

• Report: SWAT Teams Armed With Military Equipment Spend Most of Their Time Waging the Drug War
• Here's The Crazy Cache Of Military Weapons Arizona's Cops Have At Their Fingertips
• Scenes from militarized America: Brookline, Mass., and the Michigan State Police WaPo
• Report Points To 'Dangerous Militarization' Of U.S. Law Enforcement
• The Police States of America: Five stories that prove we've lost the battle against police

Legalization and Decriminalization

• Yes, We Cannabis—"Has the legalization of marijuana in America become inevitable?"
• Cops Like Me Say Legalize All Drugs. Here's Why.—"Who exactly is prohibition supposed to be helping? After many years of enforcing drug laws as a police officer, my experience with an addicted family member changed my attitude for good."
• Attorney says marijuana wrongly classified as dangerous drug, federal prosecution unfair—Separately, the FDA is looking into this.
• "Evergreen" reveals the weird lessons of Washington's weed battle—"After Colorado and Washington, we're on the way toward national legalization. But will liberals get left behind?" Salon
• Delaware Might Be The Next State To Legalize Marijuana
• Texas GOP Won't Pass the Marijuana
• Philadelphia City Council Votes to Decriminalize Marijuana—It's a veto-proof vote, not that it will matter to the police.
• Jamaica to decriminalize personal marijuana possession
• Anti-marijuana candidate loses in Uruguay primary
• Pope condemns efforts to legalize marijuana—Booooo.

Medical Marijuana

• Florida governor signs law allowing limited medical marijuana use
• Sheldon Adelson Bankrolls Anti-Medical Marijuana Push—"Mogul gives $2.5M to Florida referendum opponents."
• Families celebrate new Iowa marijuana law—Gov. Terry Branstad signed Senate File 2360, legalizing medical marijuana.
• New York Is About to Legalize Medical Marijuana (But With No Smoking Allowed)
• Uruguay set to allow doctors to prescribe cannabis

Colorado

• Despite dire predictions, Denver crime falls over 10 percent in wake of pot legalization
• No Colorado marijuana stores found selling to minors in police checks
• Colorado's poster boy for 'stoned driving' was drunk off his gourd—"Earlier media reports played up Keith Kilbey's pot use, made no mention of alcohol." WaPo
• After 5 Months of Sales, Colorado Sees the Downside of a Legal High NYT
• Hershey's sues Colorado pot candy company

Prison

• Unsealed records allege brutality, corruption in Denver Jail & witness intimidation by police
• Los Angeles: Ex-Deputy Says He Was Trained To Beat Up Inmates Then Cover It Up
• Jurors hear of deputies' attempt to coerce FBI agent—'She told the lies, she testified before a federal grand jury, in an attempt to find out the details of the FBI's civil rights investigation into county jails."
• Judge's Decision to Hear Inmates' Case Threatens Practice of Solitary Confinement NYT
• Censored and 'Obscene' in Solitary—"After a huge hunger strike to protest the state prison system's inhuman conditions, California is threatening to ban any written material deemed 'oppositional to authority and society.'"
• Deaf inmate sues Oregon prison system for not providing sign-language interpreters—Instead, the Department of Corrections "required Mr. VanValkenburg to train inmates to act as interpreters for him, who were unqualified and failed to keep Mr. VanValkenburg's information confidential."
• Texas inmates sue over lack of air conditioning
• Georgia Police Left Two Teenagers In A Holding Cell With No Lights Or Food For An Entire Weekend
• Prisoners freed after cops struggle with new records software—"Officers didn't get enough training on the new system, which went live June 1, according to Dallas's police chief."
• Modern-Day Slavery in America's Prison Workforce—"Why can't we embrace the idea that prisoners have labor rights?"
• Even America's most liberal states imprison more people than nearly any other country in the world
• This Is How Much More States Spend On Prisoners Than On Students

Death Penalty

• Is It Legal to Try Executing Someone Twice?—"The Ohio Supreme Court will decide whether Romell Broom should be put to death—again."
• Texas execution appeal on drug secrecy grounds rejected by US supreme court—"Robert James Campbell's attorneys had demanded Texas officials disclose the source of drugs intended to execute him."
• Autopsy Shows Just How Royally Oklahoma Screwed Up Clayton Lockett's Execution—"Preliminary findings suggest the inmate's executioners had no clue what they were doing."

Innocence

• Man who served 26 years in prison in arson case is suing Ionia police, prosecutor—"The lawsuit says the defendants conspired to create a false case ...."
• 5 Exonerated in Central Park Jogger Case Will Settle Suit for $40 Million—"The five men whose convictions in the brutal 1989 beating and rape of a female jogger in Central Park were later overturned [Salon] have agreed to a settlement of about $40 million from New York City." NYT
• Man cleared in '89 NYC killing plans $162M claim—' A man recently exonerated in a 1989 New York City killing that happened while he was visiting Disney World filed papers Tuesday outlining plans to seek $162 million from the city, one of his lawyers said." WSJ
• For a Respected Prosecutor, An Unpardonable Failure—"Evidence of a convicted murderer's possible innocence sat buried in a case file for more than two decades. Now, a prosecutor in Brooklyn will have to answer for the mistake."
• Proposed Michigan law: Pay exonerated prisoners
• When Innocent People Go To Prison, States Pay

Trial and Error

• Chemical Reaction—"[T]he high court ruled—in a unanimous exercise of comic power—that the federal government should never have been using an international chemical weapons treaty to prosecute a jealous wife in the first place."
• Marshall: The Law Is An Ass—On SCOTUSBlog's press credentials denial.
• Ex-U.S. attorney takes stand: 'I don't owe anyone $100 billion'—"Former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is no stranger to the inside of a federal courtroom, but on Tuesday he found himself in an unusual position: on the witness stand testifying at a bizarre trial of a sovereign citizen follower who allegedly had tried to place a bogus $100 billion lien on his residence."
• More Time Sought for Robber Who Was Homesick for Prison
• Man Killed Hours After Jury Accidently Acquits Him—"Unable to reach a verdict, Pearson's jury mistakenly signed a not-guilty form Wednesday — despite the judge later learning jurors had actually deadlocked. After his release, Pearson, 37, went to a relative's house and within hours he was killed in a fight."
• Cleveland man collapses, dies outside courtroom after judge issues sentence
• Man curses judge and gets 364 days in jail for contempt

Law and Disorder

• Thief Forgets To Log Off Facebook After Burglarizing Home
• Woman dials 999 over ice cream sprinkles row
• Man calls for help during home invasion, gets voicemail
• 3 men escape from Canadian jail using helicopter—The Transporter unavailable for comment. Wow...
• Police Say Woman Was Strangled In Her Bathtub Soon After Posting On Facebook Picture Of A Large Amount Of Money
• Va. man dies in hole dug in sand on Outer Banks beach
• Man dies in wood chipper accident

Fuzz-y

• Woman shoots at would-be home intruders—They were allegedly impersonating the police.
• Florida man charged with impersonating cop after pulling over real detective
• Police drop case of protester arrested for impersonating a police officer while wearing a pig mask

Recording

• Putting cameras on police officers is an idea whose time has come WaPo
• Can Cop-Worn Cameras Restore Faith In New Orleans Police?
• Blast from the Past: As More Police Wear Cameras, Policy Questions Arise
• Jail video police swore 'did not exist' released in brutality complaint—"Gaps in video raise new questions about case of disabled man alleging mistreatment."
• Woman charged with wiretapping for filming cops wins $57,000 payout—"Settlement follows appeals court declaring 'First Amendment' right to record."
• New York Photojournalist Wins $200,000 Settlement from Incident Caught on this Video
• Drones in L.A.: South Bay man flies aircraft to monitor police
• Pittsburgh Investigating Officer's Violent Exchange At Gay Pride Event
• Facebook Video Shows Cops Grab Man's Camera, Assault Him and his 58-Year-Old Mother
• Woman Attacks Man for Flying Camera Drone over Public Beach in Connecticut—And gets caught lying about the attack but charges may be dropped.
• Video: Toddler Tries To Stop Attack On Mother—Was the fight over a guy?

World Cup, Sports Corruption; Europe, Asia; MH370; Religion; Media and Transparency, Political Partisanship, Obamanation; Vote Machinations, Campaign Finance Deform; Grand Ol' Tea Party; Immigration, Race and Racism; Your Government Inaction

World Cup

• Iran arrests 2 over World Cup video—"Iran's official IRNA news agency says police have arrested two people who appeared in an online video of young people singing and dancing in support of the country's World Cup football team."
• Defying ban, Iranian women watch World Cup with men in public
• Neo-Nazi Banners, Blackface, and Homophobic Chants: World Cup Fans Behaving Badly
• Suarez World Cup bite sets off Twitter meme frenzy—"Harkening Mike Tyson's famous gnawing of Evander Holyfield's ear, the soccer star is pictured wearing a dog cone, with fangs, as Hannibal, and more."
• Miguel Herrera Is the Most GIF-Worthy Man at the World Cup, Perhaps on Earth
• Cristiano Ronaldo, James Milner, Mario Balotelli, Olivier Giroud: The hottest soccer players at the World Cup
• Bravery of young security officer prevents massacre in Beirut—"Hunch by security officer prevents potential massacre as scores of people were watching World Cup match, but it also costs his own life."

Sports Corruption

• Football match-fixing: Ghana deal casts cloud over World Cup finals in Brazil—Is this what the $3 million is for?
• Fifa Bosses 'Secretly Doubled Their Salaries'—"Football chiefs are accused of upping their pay to £118,000 to compensate for lucrative bonuses that have now been axed."
• U.S. Senator Calls On FIFA To Relocate 2022 World Cup Out Of Qatar
• Nobody Wants To Host The 2022 Olympics—"The next Olympics to be awarded, a little more than a year from now, will be the 2022 Winter Games. Rather than going to the strongest bid, the games may end up going to the last city standing--a long list of potential hosts have given up on their Olympic dreams because the whole thing is one huge, useless waste of money."
• Banks Wary of Construction Companies After Olympic Debacle

Europe

• Polish foreign minister says country's alliance with US worthless—"According to a transcript of recordings obtained by Wprost, Radislaw Sikorski said 'we gave the US a blow job.'"
• Polish MPs ridicule Cameron's 'stupid propaganda' aimed at Eurosceptics—"Secretly taped expletive-laden conversation reveals EU fallout from prime minister's plans to curb migrants' benefits access."
• Italy arrests 95 in mafia dragnet, solves century-old murder
• Roma boy left unconscious after being savagely beaten and tortured during vigilante attack in Paris suburb
• Tens of thousands march in London against coalition's austerity measures—"An estimated 50,000 people in London addressed by speakers, including Russell Brand, after People's Assembly march."

Asia

• China jails 'New Citizens' Movement' activists—"China has handed down lengthy jail terms to three anti-corruption activists who had called for officials to disclose their personal wealth."
• Chinese police shoot dead 13 attackers in restive Xinjiang
• In Hong Kong, an Unofficial Election Draws Beijing's Ire NYT
• Chinese warships to join US in drills off Hawaii for first time
• Japan failed to report 640 kg of nuclear fuel to IAEA
• North Korea blasts film featuring James Franco and Seth Rogen plotting assassination of Kim Jong Un—This means war.
• Google removes Singapore hate blog against Filipinos

MH370

• 'A bungled inquiry': 100 days after MH370 went missing it is clear Malaysia officials hiding information National Post
• Malaysian Jet Was in Controlled Flight After Contact Was Lost, Officials Suspect NYT
• Australia: Waiting for Malaysians before announcing new MH370 search area

Religion

• Festival of Dangerous Ideas: 'Honour killings are morally justified' talk cancelled
• Christian woman freed after death sentence ruled 'faulty' in Sudan—NISS says, not so fast.
• Malaysian court to Christians: You can't say 'Allah'

Media and Transparency

• The media's moral center: How John Oliver became the sheriff of cable news' wild west—"The 'Last Week Tonight' host digs deeper and pushes his audience harder than either Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert." Salon
• Jon Stewart Is A More Trusted News Source Than MSNBC, Study Says
• Lawmakers unveil major changes to FOIA—"Reform legislation emerges from Senate committee that would overhaul Freedom of Information Act, increase transparency."
• Wal-Mart 'edits' a New York Times op-ed—The fact check fudges facts.
• Hacking trial: Coulson guilty, Brooks cleared of charges

Political Partisanship

• Americans Have Less Confidence In Congress Than Just About Anything, Ever
• Let's Stop Kidding Ourselves: 90 Percent of Congressional Incumbents Will Win Re-election—"All signs tell us that incumbents should be grabbed by their lapels and shoved to the curb—but most won't be."
• Americans have not become more politically polarized—Maybe, maybe not. WaPo

Obamanation

• Jindal: People Ready For 'Hostile Takeover' Of DC
• South Dakota Republican Party Passes Resolution Calling For Obama's Impeachment
• New report destroys Gov. Sam Brownback's bid to blame President Obama for Kansas budget crisis

Vote Machinations

• Want to Suppress the Vote? Stress People Out—"The latest science-of-politics study suggests that GOP voter intimidation tactics may be more effective than liberals have feared—for biological reasons."
• Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand plans to introduce legislation to allow voters to register online—"Under Gillibrand's proposal, states with existing online access would expand their system beyond those with state-issued IDs to let more young people, seniors, minorities and the poor to access and update their own voter records online."
• GOP's voter fraud humiliation: Turns out Wisconsin's worst case is a Republican—"Maybe the real reason Scott Walker and Reince Preibus think their state needs tougher laws is a guilty conscience." Hypocrites. Salon
• Racist tactic emerges in GOP primary fight—"Rachel Maddow reports on how Mississippi Republican candidate Thad Cochran's appeal for African-American votes is being met by conservative supporters of his tea party opponent, Chris McDaniel, with 'poll watchers,' to discourage black voters."
• Wilson precinct official removed—Woman who wasn't able to vote: "I am not rich — just a mom who wanted to vote. And I did ask for a provisional ballot. But I didn't get it."
• Fifty Years After Freedom Summer, the Voting Rights Act Is Needed More Than Ever

Campaign Finance Deform

• Calif. lawmakers seek constitutional convention on Citizens United
• 4 Key Takeaways About Scott Walker's Alleged "Criminal Scheme"—"Here's what you need to know about the probe targeting the Wisconsin governor and two of his aides."
• Senate Democrats Re-up Their Dark-Money Disclosure Bill—and Dare GOPers to Block It
• Mayday PAC: The Super PAC Built to Destroy Super PACs

Grand Ol' Tea Party

• Thad Cochran Defeats the Tea Party -- And So Does Everyone Else
• Losing Tea Party Candidate Refuses to Concede in Mississippi Runoff
• The staggering price of crushing the tea party Politico
• Tea Party's embarrassing irony: How its ideal nation rejects basic American beliefs Salon
• In a Do-Nothing Congress, Blake Farenthold is Enjoying the View—"Blake Farenthold, the tea party congressman from Corpus Christi, has settled into a routine where distraction is just part of the job."
• Tea party, police clash in western Wisconsin town—Also: Wisconsin Police Chief and Tea Party Battle Over Bridge Signs and Gay Dating Websites
• Darrell Issa's flailing search for his white whale
• GOP Rep's Chief Of Staff Resigns After Porn Star Tweets Photo Of His Penis

Immigration

• Obama tells Mexico: Illegal-immigrant children won't get to stay
• Limbaugh Floats Theory That Obama Planned Influx Of Undocumented Minors At Border
• Honduras to ask U.S. not to deport Honduran kids
• Few immediate consequences for child immigrants
• Mass migrant graves unearthed in Texas—"Researchers discover mass graves near US-Mexico border containing bodies of unidentified migrants in body bags."

Race and Racism

• Prominent Republican Lawyer Says Ted Cruz Sounds Like A Racist
• Texas Commissioners Unintentionally Vote In Favor Of Slavery Reparations
• Arizona GOPer: 'We All Need To Stomp Out' Spanish TV Stations, Newspapers—¡Ay caramba!
• If Affirmative Action Is Doomed, What's Next? NYT
• Redditor's discovery leads to white supremacist investigation at Army base
• Joe Dorsey's Big Fight: How An Unknown Boxer Knocked Out Segregation In Louisiana
• Stunning Portraits of Mixed-Race Families

Your Government Inaction

• You paid a fee for 31 years that went nowhere
• Opponents Barred From Speaking As Cobb County Approves Braves Stadium
• Congress Is Weighing Some Bafflingly Bad Ideas for Fixing Our Crumbling Bridges and Roads
• How many people would be 'out of work' if USPS eliminates Saturday delivery? WaPo
• Why Can't We Simplify Our Tax System? It Turns Out, We Can.