International Labor Day, Whistleblow While You Work; Banks and Wall Street; Net Neutrality and Broadband; Obamacare, Health Issues; US Politics, Class Warfare; Vote Machinations, Campaign Finance Deform; Sterling Racism; Oh Canada, South Korea Ferry, World News, RIP Bob Hoskins

International Labor Day

• Thousands of workers mark May Day—From protests in Istanbul to parades in Moscow.
• Jobless must sign on every day: Government to dock money from long-term unemployed if they do not comply
• France agrees workers can give days off to colleagues with sick children
• Subway leads fast food industry in underpaying workers
• Recovery Has Created Far More Low-Wage Jobs Than Better-Paid Ones—"The strongest employment growth after the recession has been in low-wage work, at places like strip malls and fast-food restaurants, according to a new report." NYT
• $10.10 wage bill set to die—On a federal level.
• Hawaii lawmakers vote to increase hourly minimum wage to $10.10
• Seattle Announces $15 Minimum Wage, Highest In The U.S.
• "I'm gonna need you to come in on Saturday": How "Office Space" got the modern workplace just right—"Cubicles, layoffs, TPS report, flair -- 'Office Space' bombed at the box office, but endures because it was right." Salon

Whistleblow While You Work

• Court Considers Whistleblower Free Speech Rights
• Obama Administration Argues in Favor of Right to Fire Public Employees Who Testify at Corruption Trials
• Justices Troubled By Their Earlier Ruling On Public Employee Speech Rights
• Probe looks at Marine higher-ups suspected in retaliation against whistleblower—"Maj. Weirick stripped of duties after accusing Gen. Amos of meddling in prosecution."
• VA Hospital Whistleblower: Top Official Knew About Secret Waiting List, Wanted to Further Her Career
• Whistleblower lawsuit exposes health company for Medicare fraud—"Louisiana-based home health company will have to pay over $150 million in a settlement to a former employee in a whistleblower case."
• Mortgage Whistleblower Stands Alone as U.S. Won't Join Lawsuit

Banks and Wall Street

• It's Good – no – Great to be the CEO Running a Huge Criminal Bank
• Pa. judge upholds sale of widow's home over $6 tax bill
• U.S. Set to Bring Criminal Charges Against Banking Giants—"Federal prosecutors are reportedly preparing to file charges against Credit Suisse and BNP Paribas, defying the notion that Wall Street giants are 'too big to jail.'"
• Rigged market? SEC busts the NYSE—"The SEC charged the New York Stock Exchange and two affiliated exchanges for "failure to comply with the responsibilities" of following securities laws."

Net Neutrality and Broadband

• Your complete guide to the murder of net neutrality LATimes
• The Internet Is About to Become Worse Than Television
• Elizabeth Warren Blasts FCC Net Neutrality Plan: 'Just One More Way The Playing Field Is Tilted'
• Google and Netflix are considering an all-out PR blitz against the FCC's net neutrality plan
• Don't Expect Google's Help in Saving Net Neutrality
• The FCC's Flimsy Defense of Fake Net Neutrality
• State laws that ban municipal Internet will be invalidated, FCC chair says
• Welcome to Comcast Country—"Philadelphia has become a company town where the cable TV giant wields vast influence." NYT

Obamacare

• The Biggest Reason People Didn't Sign Up For Obamacare
• Obamacare Now Widely Accepted As Here to Stay
• Once opposed to ACA, now a convert—"Dean Angstadt fells trees for a living. He's a self-employed, self-sufficient logger who has cleared his own path for most of his 57 years, never expecting help from anyone. And even though he'd been uninsured since 2009, he especially wanted nothing to do with the Affordable Care Act."
• Obamacare Enrollees Emboldened To Leave Jobs, Start Businesses
• Looking for complaints, Rick Scott instead finds praise for Obamacare
• A sneaky lie that left 750,000 Floridians without health coverage—"They lied to you.Not a big, bald-faced lie. Not a get-a-load-of-this lie."
• OOPS: Senate Candidate Pitches Obamacare Replacement That’s Already Failed
• Red States Hatch Plans To Block Obamacare Even If Dems Take Over
• Boehner concedes ACA repeal 'isn't the answer'
• The Fact Checker: The bogus claim that Obamacare has boosted the number of uninsured—Four Pinnochios. WaPo

Health Issues

• Oregon Supreme Court: State can immunize children in its custody
• 'Superbugs' that can overpower antibiotics are spreading: WHO
• American homes harbor antibiotic-resistant "superbug" MRSA
• Deaths from measles outbreak may be 'inevitable' as cases surge in US
• Saudi Arabia reports pilgrim infected with MERS
• New Virus Related To Smallpox Is Found In Republic Of Georgia

US Politics

• Of Course The U.S. Is An 'Oligarchy' — We Keep Electing The Rich
• Why Does the Right Have Such a Problem with History?—"[W]e're fascinated by how often leaders and activists on the far right misquote the Founders and get so much else about our nation's history so incredibly wrong — especially since they often portray themselves as uniquely informed about what makes America exceptional."
• Republicans pass tax breaks, but don't pay for them
• If you dispute Chris Christie's budget estimates, he'll go after you — even if you're right

Class Warfare

• Paul Ryan Won’t Let Poor People Testify At Hearing About Poverty
• South Dakota GOP Senate Candidate Compares Food Stamp Recipients To Animals
• Rare Indian Burial Ground Quietly Destroyed for Million Dollar Houses
• Millionaire reportedly filmed beating girlfriend 117 times will not face jail time
• Top 1% taking lion's share of global growth, OECD says—"37% of growth in last 30 years has gone to Canada's wealthiest."
• California’s bid to tax companies who don’t share the wealth WaPo
• Brazil poor get welfare rise and tax cuts from Rousseff—"Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff has announced a 10% increase in social security payments as well as tax cuts for the less well-off."

Vote Machinations

• Voter ID Is the Real Fraud—"A federal judge struck down Wisconsin’s voter-identification law, making it clear that the law was a harmful solution in search of an imaginary problem." NYT
• Judge Halts Minnesota Online Voter Signup System
• Young Republicans likelier to vote in midterms than Democrats: survey
• People Trust Democrats, But That Doesn't Mean They'll Vote for Democrats
• Pundit Who Was Dead Wrong In 2012 Is Now Questioning Nate Silver

Campaign Finance Deform

• What Happens When a Dark Money Group Blows Off IRS Rules? Nothing.—"The Government Integrity Fund spent most of its money on election ads, despite IRS rules prohibiting a social welfare nonprofit from doing so."
• A long con for Tea Party PACs?—"Conservatives who donate to Tea Party PACs probably assume they're helping like-minded candidates. In practice, it doesn't quite work out that way."
• Senate Democrats Plot Vote To Overturn Citizens United In 2014
• Flipside: Lawrence Lessig Launches MayOne, The "Super PAC To End All Super PACs"—"The free culture activist and Harvard professor launched a super PAC today. Its goal: To create a revolution of political reform in the midterm elections through a wave of small donations."

Sterling Racism

• Clippers Owner Donald Sterling to GF -- Don't Bring Black People to My Games ... Including Magic Johnson
• NBA: Donald Sterling receives lifetime ban
• GOP Congressman Falsely Claims Donald Sterling Is A Democrat
• Mark Cuban's 'Slippery Slope' Comment Is Why No One Thinks The NBA Will Force Donald Sterling To Sell The Clippers

Oh Canada

• How Obama Shocked Harper as Keystone's Frustrator-in-Chief
• Canada Supreme Court rejects Harper Senate reform plan
• Pauline Marois loses seat, Parti Québécois loses power—Her party had controversial measures.
• Canadian mail service to scrap all home deliveries—"Older residents angered over cost-cutting decision by Canada Post to make first G20 country without door-to-door service."
• Rob Ford takes leave as recent drug video emerges

South Korea Ferry

• South Korean shipwreck survivors: Passengers told 'don't move' as ship sank
• Video of fleeing ferry captain angers Koreans
• Ferry disaster's toll on South Korea's national psyche
• 3 arrested over evidence, call center raided in South Korea ferry probe
• South Korean president apologizes for response to ferry sinking
• Dead part-time employees ignored by Sewol owner—"The owner of the sunken ferry Sewol refused coverage of funeral costs for part-time employees of the ship, according to Kookmin Ilbo Wednesday."

World News

• British Officials Portrayed Reagan as a "Bozo"
• David Cameron would quit as Prime Minister after general election if he could not deliver on in-out EU referendum pledge
• 'Bring children to pee in Hong Kong': Mainlander starts campaign after public urination clash—"Call for action may break mainland law; call of nature may cost HK$2,000."
• Norway: Wealthy man 'forgot' boat in Swedish harbour
• German porn star dropped by Neo-Nazi party for having sex with black male

RIP Bob Hoskins, 1942–2014

War on Terror, FBI Entrapment, Domestic Terror, Israel and Palestine, NYT Fraud; Surveillance and Privacy, Whistleblowers, Tech Tracking, Your Rights Online; Net Neutrality, Comcast vs. Netflix; Haxx0red

War on Terror

• Supreme Court rejects hearing on military detention case—"The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to President Barack Obama's administration by declining to hear a challenge to a law that allows the U.S. military to indefinitely detain people believed to have helped al Qaeda or the Taliban."
• US senators remove requirement for disclosure over drone strike victims
• Judge Dismisses Case Against Blackwater Defendant
• State Department Gives 87% of Afghan Funds to Only Five Recipients
• Nursing mom wins $75K settlement from TSA over airport incident

FBI

• Dzhokhar bombshell: FBI pressed Tamerlan to become informant
• At the Tribeca Fest: Two bold documentaries expose FBI spying and entrapment
• FBI knew of zero-day attack on websites, let hackers use it—"NY Times reports Sabu directed attacks with Plesk exploit after arrest."

Domestic Terror

• Why it's time to take domestic terrorism seriously
• Minnesota militia member facing jail despite failure to prove terror plot
• Reports Back Op-Ed Linking Vets to Hate Groups
• Concerns growing about militia members at Bundy ranch

Israel and Palestine

• Abbas denounces murder of Jews in Holocaust as 'most heinous crime in modern era'
• Israeli push for visa-free travel to US faces test—"A campaign to allow Israelis to enter the United States without a visa is gaining steam in Congress, but is still running into a brick wall with the Obama administration over the U.S. government's most elementary demand: that the Jewish state provide the same treatment at its borders to all Americans, even if they are Arab or Muslim."
• MKs pan Kerry for saying Israel could become 'apartheid'—"Anti-Defamation League also slams Washington's top diplomat, who warned of aftermath of talks' collapse." Kerry goes oooops [Politico] but gets his message across.

NYT Fraud

• 'New York Times' Admits It Agreed to 'Gag Orders' in Israel
• New York Times Admits It Pushed Fabricated Evidence about Iraq, Syria and Ukraine
• In 'A Fragile Trust,' Jayson Blair Tries to Give Answers—"Samantha Grant's documentary, 'A Fragile Trust,' comes a decade after the fraud scandal at The New York Times perpetrated by the reporter Jayson Blair." NYT

Surveillance and Privacy

• Surveillance court rejected Verizon challenge to NSA calls program—"A ruling said that another judge's criticism of the NSA's data collection had been considered and rejected." WaPo
• Telecom firm fails in first known FISA court surveillance challenge—"Unnamed company challenged metadata surveillance in court for the first time but lost, an unsealed order reveals."
• Where's the White House on Warrantless Email Snooping?
• Mathematicians at the NSA and GCHQ: Is it ethical to work for spy agencies?
• DC thinks it can silence a new Snowden, but the anti-leak hypocrisy is backfiring—"The Obama administration's latest secrecy guidelines would make Deep Throat spin in his grave. Good thing the floodgates are about to open on drones"

Whistleblowers

• Pentagon Papers Whistleblower Says Americans Have 'Lost the Republic'—"Daniel Ellsberg says that whistleblowers are the last people able to stand up to the federal government."
• The glamorous life of a whistleblower: Working a dead-end job for minimum wage—"Long before Snowden made headlines, Peter Van Buren shined light on the State Dept. Then the other shoe dropped..." Salon
• Hillary Clinton Mocks Snowden, Displays Her Ignorance When It Comes to Whistleblowers

Tech Tracking

• The White House Wants to Issue You an Online ID
• Verizon's mobile advertising will now use your desktop browsing habits
• Reddit Frontpage Ads Get Location Targeting

Your Rights Online

• Brazilian Congress passes Internet bill of rights
• Russia Internet sovereignty: Vladimir Putin is tightening his grip on the Internet
• Weibo: We can't censor our users enough to satisfy the Chinese government Salon

Net Neutrality

• If John Kerry Thinks the Internet Is a Fundamental Right, He Should Tell the FCC
• Congress screwed up net neutrality, not the FCC
• Obama Has Not Kept His Promise to Enforce Net Neutrality
• Internet service providers charging for premium access hold us all to ransom—"An ISP should give users the bits they ask for, as quickly as it can, and not deliberately slow down the data."
• Could new net neutrality rules fuel piracy?
• The Costs of Internet 'Fast Lanes'
• FCC Offers E-mail Address to Field Neutrality Complaint
• Turncoat? FCC says new Internet 'fast lane' rules won't kill net neutrality
• FCC chairman says he won't let ISPs snuff out the next Google or Amazon—"'I won't hesitate' to declare ISPs common carriers, Wheeler writes."

Comcast vs. Netflix

• Comcast Has About 76 Lobbyists Working Washington On The Time Warner Cable Merger. This is Why.
• Comcast sells 1.4 million customers to Charter ahead of Time Warner Cable merger
• Comcast accuses Netflix of lying as public feud escalates
• After Comcast, Netflix signs traffic deal with Verizon

Haxx0red

• U.S., UK advise avoiding Internet Explorer until bug fixed
• Zero-day Flash bug under active attack in Windows threatens OS X, Linux too—"Adobe issues emergency update for exploits targeting Syrian dissidents."
• After Heartbleed, NSA reveals some flaws are kept secret—"The White House explains the government's process when deciding whether to withhold knowledge of a security vulnerability -- 'There are legitimate pros and cons to the decision to disclose.'"
• Tech giants, chastened by Heartbleed, finally agree to fund OpenSSL —Thousands of sites and devices still vulnerable.
• Easter egg: DSL router patch merely hides backdoor instead of closing it—"Researcher finds secret 'knock' opens admin for some Linksys, Netgear routers."
• You've Got Hacked: AOL Confirms 'Significant Number' of Mail Users Hit

War on Terror, Torture, FBI, Police State; NSA Spying, Surveillance and Privacy; Whistleblowers; Big Data, Tech Tracking; Your Rights Online, Free Speech

War on Terror

• House Democrat Renews Push To End Controversial 9/11 Rules Of War On Terror—"A top Democrat on the House intelligence committee is spearheading a renewed effort to end the administration's controversial, 9/11-era counterterrorism rules of war."
• Obama ordered to divulge legal basis for killing Americans with drones—"Appeals court will have the veil of secrecy lifted in targeted killing program."
• Judge slaps State Department over Blackwater—"A federal judge is calling for an investigation of the State Department over years of delays in prosecuting Blackwater security guards in the shootings of dozens of Iraqi citizens in 2007."
• New York police end Muslim surveillance program—"A special New York Police Department unit that sparked controversy by tracking the daily lives of Muslims in an effort to detect terror threats has been disbanded, police officials said Tuesday."
• US Has A 'Secret Exception' To Reasonable Suspicion For Putting People On The No Fly List
• Was the police response to the Boston bombing really appropriate?—"It's time we had a frank discussion about how the government reacted after the Boston Marathon bombing." WaPo
• Obama signs into law 'terrorist' UN envoy visa ban
• TSA Gives Full-Body Pat-Downs to 2-YO Boy, Older Sister

Torture

• On CIA abuses, denial does Americans no favors
• ACLU: Don't Let the Torturer Play Censor
• Spanish judge defies pressure to scrap Guantanamo torture case against Bush

FBI

• Guantánamo hearings halted amid accusations of FBI spying on legal team—"Allegations surfaced Monday that the FBI turned a member of a 9/11 defendant's defence team into a secret informant."
• Covert Inquiry by F.B.I. Rattles 9/11 Tribunals—"The F.B.I.'s inquiry became the focus of the pretrial hearings at Guantánamo this week, after the contractor who was visited by the F.B.I. disclosed it to the defense team." NYT
• The FBI Is Trying to Recruit Muslims As Snitches by Putting Them On No-Fly Lists
• Facing gun charges, Ayyub Abdul-Alim accuses Springfield police, FBI of planting weapon
• FBI Abruptly Walks Out On Senate Briefing After Being Asked How 'Insider Threat' Program Avoids Whistleblowers
• FBI Keeps Secret How Massive Facial Recognition Database Will Work—It will contain 52 million images by 2015.

Police State

• Eyes Over Compton: How Police Spied on a Whole City—"A sergeant in the L.A. County Sheriff's Department compared the experiment to Big Brother, even though he went ahead with it willingly. Is your city next?"
• LA Sheriff's Dept. On New Surveillance Program: We Knew The Public Wouldn't Like It, So We Kept It A Secret
• State of Surveillance: Police, Privacy and Technology
• Police Want your Home Video Surveillance Footage
• Austrlalia: Civil liberties fears at boom in police surveillance operations

NSA Spying

• Snowden reporting lands Guardian and Post Pulitzers—"The publications were recognized for revealing 'widespread secret surveillance.'"
• Greenwald: Rep. King's Condemnation A 'Badge Of Honor'
• The Most Bizarre Response To The Pulitzers Yet, From The Guy Who Authorized CIA Torture
• Journalists who broke NSA story in Guardian dedicate award to Snowden—"Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Ewen MacAskill accept George Polk award as Barton Gellman of the Washington Post is also honoured."
• Snowden revelations 'good for society'—"By two to one, British people say it was good, not bad, for society that newspapers reported the materials given to them by Edward Snowden."
• Edward Snowden installed as Glasgow University rector
• Snowden op-ed explains reasons for calling out Putin on live TV—"The whistleblower again speaks up to spark debate on state surveillance."
• Clapper bans US intelligence employees from 'unauthorised' media contact
• How the NSA shot itself in the foot by denying prior knowledge of Heartbleed vulnerability
• Snowden email service Lavabit loses contempt appeal

Surveillance and Privacy

• Banksy Is Believed To Be Behind Eavesdropping Mural Near British Spy HQ
• UK Spies Considered Using Kinect, Microsoft 'Concerned'
• Reference Note on Russian Communications Surveillance

Whistleblowers

• U.S. Army Rejects Clemency for WikiLeaks Source Manning
• Bureau of Prisons Throws CIA Torture Whistleblower John Kiriakou's Children Out of Visitors Room
• Julian Assange book to recount clash with Google chief Eric Schmidt

Big Data

• Canadians' mental-health info routinely shared with FBI, U.S. customs—"Privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian found attempted suicide calls uploaded to international database."
• HMRC to sell taxpayers' financial data—"Firms could buy 'anonymised' financial details under scheme described by senior Tory MP as 'borderline insane.'"
• Dutch Student Sells All of His Personal Data for 350 Euros

Tech Tracking

• It's Time to Encrypt the Entire Internet
• Is Your VPN / Proxy Working? Check Your Torrent IP-Address
• Protests Continue Against Dropbox After Appointment of Condoleezza Rice to Board NYT
• Google updates TOS to clarify email scanning process—"New paragraph in the Web giant's terms of service is intended to more clearly explain the manner in which software automatically scans and analyzes the content of emails."
• When the restaurant you Googled Googles you back—"It's not the thought that counts; unexpected in-person customization feels icky."
• "Brightest Flashlight" Android app disclosed location of 50 million people, but FTC imposes no fine

Your Rights Online

• China launches campaign to purge Internet of porn, rumors and, critics say, dissent WaPo
• Mexico Marches Against New Internet Censorship Laws—¿Qué está pasando en México?
• Russian social network founder says he has been fired—"The founder of Russia's most popular social network site says he has been fired and that allies of President Putin have taken over his site."
• Two anonymous Twitter accounts blocked in Turkey—"Accounts linked to the spread of government corruption allegations appeared blocked less than a week after the social network agreed to shutter some accounts." In related news, Turkey denies saying it would leave the internet.
• Secret Plan to Advance Global Internet Censorship. ISPs to Act as "Internet Police"—"To be Implemented under TPP Auspices."

Free Speech

• The Aereo Case Isn't About the Future of TV. It's About the Future of Speech.
• Andrew Coyne: Free speech withers when we abandon judgment, proportion, open-mindedness and tolerance
• xkcd: Free Speech

War on Terror, CIA Torture Report, Drones, Cuban Twitter; NSA Spying, Surveillance and Privacy; Tech Cases, Censorship, Press; CNN and MH370

War on Terror

• Blast from the Past: US dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war—"Secret document details American plan to bug phones and emails of key Security Council members." And Britain too.
• Rand Paul Says Dick Cheney Pushed for the Iraq War So Halliburton Would Profit
• Judge blasts FBI over Saudi family investigation
• Anti-terror surveillance law used in Iowa grain spy probe—"Investigators used a law designed to eavesdrop on foreign spies and terrorists when they probed Chinese seed company officials suspected of stealing trademark hybrid corn from Iowa."
• Government breaches at all-time high, press blunder under-reports by millions—"This is one of those articles that spoils your faith in mankind. Not only are government security incidents fully into holy-cow territory, the press is reporting numbers three magnitudes too low because someone misread a chart and everyone else copied that report."

CIA Torture Report

• Senate votes to release parts, not whole, of torture report—"Select aspects of the lengthy Senate report on CIA torture will be made public. The whole thing should be released." Salon
• Declassify: The Importance of Releasing the CIA Torture Report—"Unless a Senate committee votes to release the 6,300-page document, the Bush Administration's illegal, ineffective interrogation policies are bound to return."
• Leak the CIA report: it's the only way to know the whole truth about torture—"Unless, of course, you think spies redacting 6,300 pages of their own sins is transparency. Look how much leaks told us this week."
• State Department Official Freaks Out That Declassifying CIA Torture Report Might Make The World Angry
• Michael Hayden Says Dianne Feinstein Too 'Emotional' To Be Objective On Intelligence Report
• U.S. senator gets so angry at Cheney's torture defense that he offers to waterboard him
• Pelosi: Former VP Dick Cheney 'set the tone' for the CIA's use of torture
• Liz Cheney, Juan Williams Clash Over CIA Torture Report
• Tony Blair 'knew all about CIA secret kidnap programme'—"Former British PM was 'fully briefed' on CIA's interrogation programme after Sept 11 attacks."
• Jon Stewart Rips Cheney, Rumsfeld For Taking America 'Back To The Torture'
• It's Time the CIA Gets Some Serious Oversight
• Using the 'Top Secret' Stamp to Hide Lies and War Crimes—"By letting the CIA vet the torture report, the White House and Congress are giving Americans a new reason to have contempt for an illegitimate classification system."

Drones

• Suit challenging drone strikes that killed Americans, 16-year-old boy is tossed—"Judge says drone killings are US military and president's prerogative."
• Artists install massive poster of child's face in Pakistan field to shame drone operators
• Triathlete injured by "hacked" camera drone—"Operator claims someone 'channel hopped'control away." Who can say with 100% certainty armed military drones can't be hacked as well?

Cuban Twitter

• US Secretly Created 'Cuban Twitter' to Stir Unrest
• #CancelCastro: Why Is U.S. Policy Toward Cuba So Absurd?
• The Fall of Internet Freedom: Meet the Company That Secretly Built 'Cuban Twitter'
• Secret 'Cuban Twitter' program poses challenge for bloggers and exiles—"Finding that program funded by USAid could be damaging to groups working to increase access to technology, say analysts."
• The "Cuban Twitter" Scam Is a Drop in the Internet Propaganda Bucket

NSA Spying

• Snowden Speaks: A Vanity Fair Exclusive—"The most significant leaker in recent history spoke with Vanity Fair for an exclusive, comprehensive story about his life."
• Edward Snowden: US government spied on human rights workers—'Whistleblower tells Council of Europe NSA deliberately snooped on groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International."
• Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald address US campaigners via video—"Whistleblower and journalist warn human rights activists of dangers of NSA collection of metadata." Such as there being "no legal means currently exist to challenge such activities or to see penalties for such abuses."
• Snowden to Receive Truth-Telling Prize—"Edward J. Snowden and the journalist Laura Poitras, who helped him disclose the documents on government surveillance, will receive a Ridenhour prize." NYT
• DOJ Apologizes For Misleading FISC Concerning Evidence; Hints Strongly That It Used Opportunity To Destroy Evidence
• If President Obama wanted the NSA to quit storing phone metadata, he'd act now—"Obama's pen, not Congress, could stop NSA bulk telephone metadata collection immediately."
• Supreme Court passes on NSA bulk phone surveillance case—"Case will head to appeals court first, but will likely end up with the Supremes."
• NSA logs reveal flood of post-Snowden FOIA requests | Al Jazeera America
• Merkel ally says U.S. assurances on NSA spying 'insufficient'
• How Much Is NSA Spying Costing In Lost Productivity?

Surveillance and Privacy

• Assange: US Annexed Whole World Through Surveillance
• As gov't discusses expanding digital searches, ACLU sounds caution—"Proposed changes not 'minor'—'it is a major reorganization of judicial power.'"
• Big Brother's Facebook: UK, US intelligence 'infiltrating' social media
• Mohamed Mohamud deserves new trial due to 'unconstitutional' surveillance, lawyers argue
• EU court rules against requirement to keep data of telecom users
• Yahoo fixes Flickr invitation bug that leaked real names and email addresses—"Privacy flaw on photo sharing website initially dismissed as ‘working as designed’ and not making sensitive data available."
• FireChat's anonymous, off-grid messaging app arrives on Android
• Google Chrome bug: To Listen Without Consent – Abusing the HTML5 Speech
• Critical crypto bug in OpenSSL opens two-thirds of the Web to eavesdropping—"Exploits allow attackers to obtain private keys used to decrypt sensitive data."
• Big Data Is A Civil Rights Issue

Tech Cases

• The inside story of MIT and Aaron Swartz—"More than a year after Swartz killed himself rather than face prosecution, questions about MIT's handling of the hacking case persist." Despite all their claims of neutrality, "e-mails illustrate how MIT energetically assisted authorities in capturing him and gathering evidence — even prodding JSTOR to get answers for prosecutors more quickly — before a subpoena had been issued." In related news, one artist is printing 250,000 pages of pirated JSTOR documents, in Tribute to Aaron Swartz
• Former Yahoo employee alleges he was harassed, threatened and lost job because of online interactions—"Ross Dmochowski, a 42-year-old tech professional, was unprepared when his online chats resulted in a bomb threat under his name that brought FBI agents to his Livermore home -- and contributed to his getting fired in September from his $120,000-a-year job at Yahoo."
• Barrett Brown Signs Plea Deal in Case Involving Stratfor Hack—"Barrett Brown, whose case became a cause célèbre after he was charged with crimes related to the Stratfor hack, has agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors, according to court filings." Complete with a gag-order... sigh.

Censorship

• Australia: Border Protection forces Facebook content removal through Twitter
• Google Appeals Turkey YouTube Blackout WSJ
• Philippines: Inching Toward Censorship
• Net Censors Arrested In China For Taking Bribes To Delete Unflattering Posts As Well As The 'Harmful' Ones
• US plan to end ICANN oversight could lead to 'Net censorship, lawmakers say

Press

• NSA Uses Corporate News to Spread Propaganda and Silence Dissent
• The Blade, pair of journalists who were held file FBI complaints
• Legal Schnauzer blogger freed from jail after 5 months; had been held on contempt charge

CNN and MH370

• CNN's Missing Plane Coverage Turns Up Garbage—In more ways than one.
• CNN, what do you even do anymore?—"Jon Stewart mocks CNN for its continued non-news coverage of Flight MH370." Salon
• Larry King Calls CNN's MH370 Coverage "Abysmal" While Ripping Networks' Use Of "Breaking News"—Bread and circuses.
• CNN 'Breaking News' 31 Days After MH370 Vanished: 'Families Frustrated by Media Coverage'
• Fox News Host Defends CNN's Plane Coverage: It's Not Just For The Ratings

Workers and Wage Slaves, Minimum Wage, Unemployment, Occupational Hazards, Whistleblowers; Banks and Wall Street, Class Warfare; Politics of Lying, Koch Suckers, Corruption, Bridgegate, Vote Machinations; Obamacare, Abortion and Birth Control, War on Women

Workers and Wage Slaves

• Former CEO: There Is No One Representing Low-Wage Workers
• Wal-Mart manager speaks out about his store's ugly reality—"From no time off, to working multiple roles at once, here's what's really going on at the mega-chain." Salon
• Goodwill paying disabled employees pennies per hour—"Advocacy groups push to end subminimum wage law, which allows bosses to give scant payment to people with disabilities."
• Blueberry lies: WSJ spearheads disingenuous effort to keep exploiting farm workers—"When the government recently stepped in to protect low-paid laborers, the conservative establishment lost its mind." Salon
• Apple, Google lose bid to avoid trial on tech worker lawsuit

Minimum Wage

• Connecticut senate approves bill to raise minimum wage to $10.10
• $28.25: the minimum wage D.C. would need to support a modest 2-bedroom WaPo
• White House urges higher pay for tipped workers
• Edwards calls on Maryland Senate to restore wage hike for tipped employees—"Our tax dollars are actually subsidizing the profit line of employers who are not paying a minimum wage."
• SeaTac Workers Fight for Their 15

Unemployment

• Only 11% of the long-term unemployed find work again a year later
• Long-term jobless face a dark future in U.S.: study
• Jobless father of 4: Awaiting lifeline from Congress

Occupational Hazards

• Study: Welfare recipients spend millions on ATM fees—Punishing the poor.
• Interns are now protected against sexual harassment in New York City—"New bill adds the Big Apple to growing list of cities establishing greater safeguards for unpaid workers." Salon
• Fit-to-work tests: Atos quits contract—"The firm that carries out assessments of whether disability claimants in Britain are fit to work is quitting its contract early, the government says."

Whistleblowers

• Dish Fined $250,000 For Blacklisting Whistle Blowing Employee
• HMRC criticised for using terror laws against tax whistleblower—"Public accounts committee chair says tax official's use of powers to track down journalist had 'shocked her to the bones.'"
• Why must whistleblower employees stand alone?

Banks and Wall Street

• Ex-Madoff employees found guilty of conspiracy
• Bank of America to pay $9.3 billion to settle mortgage bond claims
• Bad News Drew Citi CEO to Rush Home—"Results of 'stress test' mean Corbat had to hurry to reassure staff and investors."
• U.S. Banks Enjoy 'Too-Big-To-Fail' Advantage: Fed Study
• 'Inevitable glitches' ahead for U.S. anti-tax evasion law: IRS
• Wal-Mart sues Visa for $5 billion over 'swipe fees'
• The Case That Could Rock the Occupy Movement—"Cecily McMillan faces up to seven years in jail on charges of assaulting a police officer, sending a chilling message to Occupy protesters."

Class Warfare

• Krugman: Wealth Over Work—"Making America safe for oligarchy." NYT
• It's Ugly—"Sen. Bernie Sanders discusses Republican proposals to cut food stamps with Rev. Al Sharpton on MSNBC."
• Georgia may soon drug test food stamp recipients

Politics of Lying

• Some conspiracy theories aren't cheap
• Conservatives Have Figured Out A Disturbingly Effective Strategy: Tell Lots And Lots of Lies
• Explainer: Who Can Lie to Congress?

Koch Suckers

• Koch-Funded Network Jumps To Defend Billionaire Brothers Against Democratic Attacks
• The Koch brothers' influence on college campus is spreading
• Out-of-county anti-taxer prompts confrontation in Chesterfield—"A spirited public hearing on a proposed tax increase in Chesterfield County turned ugly Wednesday night when a conservative activist for a national organization got into a confrontation with an audience member."

Corruption

• Calif. Lawmakers Vote to Suspend Sen. Leland Yee, 2 Other Senators
• Mayor Cannon resigns after corruption arrest
• Hidden cameras catch lobbyists, AZ lawmakers wining and dining

Bridgegate

• Chris Christie's 'Bridgegate' given a $1-million coat of whitewash
• Christie: I Can't Recall What Port Authority Exec Told Me During Lane Closures
• Attorney For Former Christie Aide Unloads On Governor's Self-Exoneration

Vote Machinations

• New G.O.P. Bid to Limit Voting in Swing States—"Already, nine states, under Republican control, have passed measures making it harder to vote since the beginning of 2013." NYT
• Wisconsin governor signs bill ending early weekend voting—Also forcing them (non-Republicans... sshhh) to skip work in order to vote.
• North Carolina ordered to release documents in voter law challenge—"North Carolina legislators who shaped sweeping voting changes, including requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, must provide some emails and other documents to groups challenging the law, a federal judge has ruled."
• Arkansas: State GOP seeks to intervene in lawsuit over voter ID

Obamacare

• White House Delights In Taunting Republicans Who Mocked Early Obamacare Numbers
• Obamacare Still Needs To Overcome Hurdles After Enrollment Deadline
• Bill Clinton to Democrats: Don't run from a fight Politico
• The House Republican Mess—"Did you see what happened yesterday in the House of Representatives? Yup, another example of a dysfunctional Republican Party."
• Why Funny or Die entered the Obamacare wars—"The comedy website released its second viral Obamacare video on Tuesday. Here's why." Salon

Abortion and Birth Control

• Appeals court upholds Texas abortion restrictions behind a devastating health crisis in the state—"The panel of judges ruled that the law 'does not impose an undue burden on the life and health of a woman.'" Salon
• New abortion clinic planned for Texas as law closes facilities
• Who uses birth control? Irresponsible people, says state senator
• W.Va. gov. vetoes 20-week abortion ban bill
• In 2014, why are we still arguing about birth control?
• New Anti-Abortion Debate: Just How Extreme Are We?
• When Anti-Abortion Harassment Gets Personal

War on Women

• Inside The GOP's Attempt To Change Its 'War On Women' Image—"The 2014 campaign cycle is shaping up to be a war over women, and a slew of PR firms on both sides are up for the challenge."
• Jimmy Carter: Not Supporting Equal Pay Is Abuse Against Women
• Democrats seize on equal pay as a midterm issue
• Sidestepping Equal Pay Attacks, Greg Abbott Tries To Accuse Wendy Davis Of Gender Discrimination—Perry calls equal pay debate 'nonsense.'
• California's 'Close The Gap' Tour Is Demanding Gender Equality In Politics

Workers and Wage Slaves, Labor Pains, Occupational Hazards, Minimum Wage, Amazon.com, Whistleblowers; Banks and Wall Street, Accountability, Housing; Class Warfare

Workers and Wage Slaves

• Capitalism with a human face
• College Grads Taking Low-Wage Jobs Displace Less Educated
• For Job-Hunting Teenagers, the Market Is Brutal
• Canada: Unpaid internships focus of growing backlash
• Walmart's Anti-Union Training Documents Demand "Loyalty"
• My Life as a Retail Worker: Nasty, Brutish, and Poor—"After veteran reporter Joseph Williams lost his job, he found employment in a sporting-goods store. In a personal essay, he recalls his struggles with challenges millions of Americans return to day after day."
• Obama Will Seek Broad Expansion of Overtime Pay—"President Obama this week will direct the Labor Department to revamp its regulations to require overtime pay for millions of workers." And as expected, Republicans oppose it. NYT
• Opinion: Reduce the Workweek to 30 Hours—"Workers on shorter hours are under less stress, get sick less often and are more loyal. Plus a shorter workweek is better for the environment." NYT

Labor Pains

• The world watches the US on labor abuse
• GOP Bill to 'Save American Workers' Would Actually Strip Health Care From a Million Workers, CBO Reports
• After 12 years of war, labor abuses rampant on US bases in Afghanistan—"More than a year after Obama’s executive order outlawing forced labor on US military bases, exploitation remains."
• Nowhere Close: The Long March from Here to Full Employment
• Can Germany Reform American Labor Relations?—"German corporations are far more respectful of worker rights—and may have more influence on future US developments than our politicians realize."

Occupational Hazards

• UK: Vulnerable man starved to death after benefits were cut—"44-year-old died months after sickness and housing benefits were stopped following Atos fitness-for-work assessment."
• Fired for urinating in a box, a Minnesota factory worker takes a company to court
• McDonald's workers sue for wage theft
• USIS fires manager for pressuring employees to work overtime without pay WaPo
• Intellectually disabled woman paid $1.25 an hour wins landmark case
• Enron Billionaire Brags About Being Expert on Cutting Pensions

Minimum Wage

• Reich: The Real Job Killers
• Highest Minimum-Wage State Washington Beats U.S. Job Growth—"When Washington residents voted in 1998 to raise the state's minimum wage and link it to the cost of living, opponents warned the measure would be a job-killer. The prediction hasn't been borne out."
• Real World Evidence That Increasing The Minimum Wage Doesn't Cost Jobs
• Minimum Wage Boost Would Cut Food Stamp Tab by $4.6 Billion WSJ
• All of the Arguments Against Raising the Minimum Wage Have Fallen Apart
• Why GOP should support raising minimum wage
• Dem Guv. Candidate Wants To Raise Minimum Wage Above Obama Proposal
• Buffett: I'd love to see minimum wage at $15 an hour
• Warren: Minimum wage hike needed to 'stop income inequality in America' WaPo
• F.D.R. Makes the Case for the Minimum Wage—"No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country." NYT

Amazon.com

• U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear Amazon workers' security check case—"The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Monday to hear a case that could determine whether companies such as Amazon.com Inc must pay workers for the time they spend waiting to clear security checks at the end of their work shifts."
• How Crowdworkers Became the Ghosts in the Digital Machine—"Since 2005, Amazon has helped create one of the most exploited workforces no one has ever seen."
• Worse than Wal-Mart: Amazon’s sick brutality and secret history of ruthlessly intimidating workers—"You might find your Prime membership morally indefensible after reading these stories about worker mistreatment." Salon
• Family: Stricken Amazon worker unnoticed for 8 hours
• The Amazon Effect: Staples To Close 225 Stores, Says It's Now Making Half Of All Sales Online

Whistleblowers

• U.S. justices extend employee whistleblower protections—"The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday said whistleblower protections apply not just to publicly traded companies but also to subcontractors that do business with them."
• JPMorgan whistleblower gets $63.9 million in mortgage fraud deal
• Playboy Must Pay $6 Million to Fired Executive in Largest Federal Whistleblower Verdict Ever

Banks and Wall Street

• Wall Street average bonus rose 15% in 2013—Pretty much double the current Federal minimum wage.
• Does the SEC force its employees to insider trade?—"Here's a twist in the government's recent crackdown on insider selling: One of the main regulators tasked with policing the illegal practice may be instructing its employees to do just that."
• UBS traders tried to rig key Hong Kong interest rate
• George Soros blasts 'parasite' banks—"George Soros, the billionaire investor, has warned that little has changed since the 2008 crisis in the 'parasite' banking sector."
• Obama Still Wants To Kill Wall Street's Favorite Tax Loophole—Time to tax Wall Street.
• Republicans joining populists in ending corporate welfare for banks WaPo
• 15 Vermont Towns Vote to Start a Public Bank that Works for Them, Not Wall Street

Accountability

• SEC investigating Citigroup over Mexico fraud: Source—Citigroup has confirmed it [NYT].
• Bank of America back in court over $2.1 billion fraud penalties
• London gold-fix banks accused of manipulation in U.S. lawsuit: report
• U.S. regulator sues 16 banks for rigging Libor rate
• Bankers Behaving Badly Face 6-Year Bonus Clawback by BoE—"Misbehaving bankers and their bosses will have to hand back bonuses up to six years after they pocket them under a rule the Bank of England is proposing to prevent excessive risk-taking." NYT
• Senate confirms Wall Street critic for Treasury Department post—"The U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved Federal Reserve Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin to be the No. 2 official at the Treasury Department, backing a critic of Wall Street to help coordinate an overhaul of financial regulations."

Housing

• Bank told to pay $3.2M for 'shocking' foreclosure—"A New Mexico judge has issued a $3.2 million judgment against Wells Fargo & Co. for foreclosing on a man's home after his death, even though he had a purchased an insurance policy through the bank that would have paid the remaining balance on his mortgage."
• Wells Fargo made up on-demand foreclosure papers plan: court filing charges
• Wall Street buyers snap up thousands of local homes for rentals
• Key senators agree on plan to replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—"The bipartisan proposal would slowly shrink the housing finance companies and replace them with a scaled-back government guarantee for mortgages."
• Watchdog faults FBI for making mortgage fraud a low priority—"The FBI ranked mortgage fraud as its lowest criminal threat after the height of the financial crisis, even though the U.S. Justice Department had said that investigating mortgage fraud was to be a priority, a report by a department watchdog said on Thursday."

Class War

• Jon Stewart Hits Back At Fox Host For Trying To 'School' Him On Food Stamps
• Gina Rinehart takes aim at Australia's 'entitlement mentality', points to Thatcher
• Park 'lounging' law rankles local family—"A local family says their afternoon at a local park was ruined after a homeless person complained to police that they were lying down. Under the city code, visitors to parks cannot 'sleep or protractedly lounge' on seats, benches or other areas." All because of anti-homeless ordinance.
• All fish in public lakes are public—Rich lodge owner lays claim over lake.
• Court ruling in land dispute could threaten bike trails

Comcast Merger, Broadband and Wireless; Copyfight and Piracy; Patent Trolls; Digital Life, Tech Death; CIA Senate Spying; Snowden, SXSW, Surveillance and Privacy, Media and Whistleblowers, Cybersecurity

Comcast Merger

• Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal to face antitrust probe
• Time Warner Cable Deal Sets Comcast's D.C. Lobbying Machine in Motion
• Comcast spreads cash wide on Capitol Hill Politico
• Top Official Can't Rule on Cable Merger—"The Justice Department official, William Baer, represented NBCUniversal during its takeover by Comcast and is therefore forbidden from considering the merger." NYT
• Our Rights Shouldn't Come with an Expiration Date

Broadband and Wireless

• In Tennessee, four bills seek to reverse restrictions on public broadband—"Telco lobby angry about prospect of facing competition."
• Frustrated Cities Take High-Speed Internet Into Their Own Hands
• This is why Verizon gets away with charging customers more money
• Our $7 Billion Emergency LTE Network Appears Stuck In Corrupt, Bureaucratic Purgatory
• Ultra-fast 5G broadband to download a film in less than ONE SECOND
• True Detective Finale Crashes HBO GO—Took them 3.5 hours to come back online.
• Why a Netflix Price Increase Is Inevitable

Copyfight and Piracy

• US Solicitor General's Office, Run By Former Top MPAA Lawyer, Shockingly Sides With Broadcasters Over Aereo
• The world's largest photo service just made its pictures free to use—"Getty Images is betting their business on embeddable photos."
• 'Candy' Trademark Bully King Gets Trolled In Exquisite Fashion By 'Trademarkville'
• Popcorn Time Is So Good at Movie Piracy, It's Scary
• Dutch Supreme Court Agrees To Let Rights Group Collect Back 'You Must Be A Pirate' Taxes On Mp3 Players And Hard Drives

Patent Trolls

• Stalking trolls—"Intellectual property: After being blamed for stymying innovation in America, vague and overly broad patents on software and business processes could get the chop."
• Congress gets out club for patent 'trolls'
• Nintendo and HTC score a win against patent trolls
• German court dismisses $2 billion patent troll claim against Apple
• EFF goes to court, quashes patent troll's attempt to grab donor names—"Podcasting patent troll sought 1,300 EFF donor names; it's getting zero."

Digital Life

• 15 Theses About the Digital Future
• Study: 11% of Americans Think HTML Is an STD
• Keurig Insists Coffee DRM Brings 'Interactive-Enabled Benefits' And Is For Your Own Safety—Keep bullshitting.
• Yahoo will block Google and Facebook accounts from accessing its services
• Mozilla anger over Dell Firefox fee—Charging users to install the free browser.

Tech Death

• History's 15 Worst Named Tech Products
• RadioShack closing 1,100 stores after dismal holidays
• How QuarkXPress became a mere afterthought in publishing—"In the early '90s, Quark boasted 95% market share. In '99, InDesign arrived..."

CIA Senate Spying

• Feinstein: CIA searched Intelligence Committee computers—"Head of intelligence panel said agency appears to have violated Constitution and federal laws." What's Dianne complaining about? Isn't that what she's enabling the NSA to do anyway on ordinary citizens? WaPo
• Snowden accuses Senate intelligence chair of hypocrisy over CIA disclosures—"NSA whistleblower accuses Dianne Feinstein of double standards, pointing out her lack of concern about widespread surveillance of ordinary citizens."
• How CIA snooped on Senate Intel Committee's files—"It's easy to search someone's network when you hired the IT department."
• Why Does Congress Lack the Backbone to Oversee the CIA?—"The spy agency should pay a price for its intransigence. But not enough legislators are willing to defend the oversight role of their colleagues."
• Behind Clash Between C.I.A. and Congress, a Secret Report on Interrogations—"A dispute over a classified C.I.A. report has led to a bitter fight between the agency and the Senate Intelligence Committee, with each side accusing the other of spying on it." NYT
• CIA: We Only Spied On Senate Intelligence Committee Because They Took Classified Documents That Prove We're Liars
• The CIA has brought darkness to America by fighting in the shadows—"After 9/11 the agency was given free rein to break the rules but when allowed to play dirty abroad, it's difficult to stop at home."

Snowden

• Snowden: I raised NSA concerns internally over 10 times before going rogue WaPo
• Snowden Gives Testimony To European Parliament Inquiry Into Mass Surveillance, Asks For EU Asylum
• Snowden has shown the 'huge disparity of surveillance and power', says Gellman—"Government needs reminding that they work for us, says Pulitzer-winning reporter Barton Gellman, who describes Edward Snowden as ending an era of indifference to surveillance."
• Edward Snowden is Becoming the Face of Leadership in America—"He may not even be allowed back on American soil, but Edward Snowden is becoming a pioneer for an America that is finally beginning to value information and transparency over pride and fear."
• Weirdest Snowden leak yet: The NSA has an advice columnist—"'Ask Zelda' column was a favorite among staffers."

SXSW

• Kill the Snowden interview, congressman tells SXSW—"Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo wants organizers of South by Southwest Interactive to back out of their scheduled video conference interview of Edward Snowden." Fat chance.
• Edward Snowden speaks at SXSW, calls for public oversight of U.S. spy programs—And of Congress itself.
• Edward Snowden: 'They're setting fire to the future of the Internet' WaPo

Surveillance and Privacy

• Court Rejects NSA Bid to Hold Phone Data Longer—"A federal surveillance court has rejected the Obama administration's bid to hold onto millions of phone records beyond the current five-year limit."
• Julian Assange: 'We're heading towards a dystopian surveillance society'—"Wikileaks' founder Julian Assange joins Alex Wagner to discuss society 'heading towards surveillance totalitarianism,' his exile, censorship and why Edward Snowden 'has become a symbol.'"
• Digital surveillance: How you're being tracked every day
• Disney Bets $1 Billion on Technology to Track Theme-Park Visitors
• Judge orders Internet commenter's name revealed

Media and Whistleblowers

• Outgoing NSA chief hints at 'media leaks legislation' Politico
• The Guardian's Alan Rusbridger: 'It's Essential to Be Paranoid' NYT
• I got 30 months in prison. Why does Leon Panetta get a pass?—"The Espionage Act should be rewritten to deal with issues of intent and motive, and it should be enforced equally."

Cybersecurity

• Embarrassing stories shed light on U.S. officials' technological ignorance—"One U.S. official asked what an ISP is in preparation for cybersecurity negotiations with China."
• Why Your Mobile Device Isn't As Secure As You Think
• Stop Glorifying Hackers—"I would not learn for nine months that within my short, oblivious interval of defenselessness Guccifer had managed to capture a passwords list I had Gmailed to myself at the office." Maybe she should stop doing stuff like that in the first place.
• HTTPS can't be trusted to obscure private online activity
• Apple security rules leave inherited iPad useless, say sons—Sound like a necessary CYA on Apple's part.