Happy birthday Nikola Tesla, Cool, Inventions, Fun with Science, Nerds!, Science Under Siege; Surveillance and Privacy, Tech Tracking; Explosive

Happy birthday Nikola Tesla

• NYC Nikola Tesla Exhibit Opens in Queens, In Time For His 157th Birthday
• The Oatmeal: Why Nikola Tesla was the greatest geek who ever lived
• Epic Rap Battles of History Season 2: Nikola Tesla vs Thomas Edison

Cool

• Skydiver Felix Baumgartner breaks sound barrier
• World's Roundest Object!—Come for the shiny ball, stay for the hunky bearded scientist.
• Inside the world's most 'impossible' science project
• A Roller Coaster That'll Leave You Weightless for Eight Long Seconds
• How pixels could make tanks invisible—"When you 'lose yourself' inside the world of a fictional character while reading a story, you may actually end up changing your own behavior and thoughts to match that of the character, a new study suggests."

Inventions

• The Hollow (Thermoelectric) Flashlight
• This Guy Reinvented the Wheel ... by Turning It Into a Cube
• How Science Invented a Remarkable New Harder-Than-Diamond Nanomaterial

Fun with Science

• When scientists get too honest...
• If great scientists had logos...
• xkcd: Science Mnemonics

Nerds!

• Portlandia - Nerd PSA
• At last! Science draws a line between geeks and nerds
• Gor: The Most Ridiculous Nerd Fantasy Ever

Science Under Siege

• GOP's 7 most jaw-dropping "scientific" theories Salon
• The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science
• Flipside: Bill Nye, Firebrand for Science, is a Big Man on Campus—"William Sanford Nye, better known as Bill Nye the Science Guy, has gone from TV host to fierce defender of scientific issues that have been polemicized for religious, political and even economic reasons." NYT

Surveillance and Privacy

• Spain says U.S. tipoff led it to query Bolivian flight
• A Patriot Act History Lesson: How Warnings Were Mocked in the Senate—"In 2006, Russ Feingold anticipated exactly how the government would stretch, exploit, and abuse vague language -- and was derided for it."
• US must fix secret Fisa courts, says top judge who granted surveillance orders—"James Robertson breaks ranks and says he was shocked to hear of changes to allow broader authorisation of NSA programs."
• Tiny Utah-based ISP makes a name for itself by rebuffing government snoops—"Meet Xmission, the internet service provider embracing transparency as it shields customers from warrantless authorities."
• Anyone Brushing Off NSA Surveillance Because It's 'Just Metadata' Doesn't Know What Metadata Is
• NSA Blackmailing Obama? Interview with Whistleblower Russ Tice
• The Lyndon Johnson tapes: Richard Nixon's 'treason'

Tech Tracking

• Security-Enhanced Android: NSA Edition
• Montana the first state to pass spy law—"Montana made history this spring after passing the first state law to prevent the government from spying on anyone in the state by tracking personal information stored in their electronic devices."
• The Pirate Bay founder is raising money for spy-proof messaging app
• Warning: Cover Up Your Webcam When Not in Use—"The BBC has uncovered an entire industry centering on the buying and selling of access to compromised webcams, especially those owned by women."
• Facebook Graph Search is scary good—"Social media stalking has never been so easy. And guess what: You can't opt out." Salon

Explosive

• Texas Lawmakers Too Busy Targeting Abortion Providers to Deal With Exploding Fertilizer Plants—"More than two months after the deadly explosion in West, Texas, the state has done almost nothing to prevent future disasters."
• Quebec train crash death toll rises to five as police search for more victims—"Train operator says the locomotive may have been shut down after it had been parked for the night, releasing air brakes." Evidence points to that likelihood.
• Blast from the Past: Hindenburg mystery solved after 76 years—"Scientists believe that a series of events sparked by static electricity lead to the 1937 explosion."

And Justice for Some..., Police State, Law and Disorder, Retaliation, Scot Free, Accountability, Bad Cops; Surveillance and Privacy, Journalism; Egypt

And Justice for Some...

• Loss Of Timber Payments Cuts Deep In Oregon—"Amelia Templeton of Oregon Public Broadcasting reports that in Josephine County, the sheriff has laid of 80 percent of his deputies and no longer arrests people."
• Oregon woman raped after police refuse to send out response unit—"Local police in Oregon, USA fail to respond to emergency calls and advise residents to 'consider relocating to an area with adequate police services.'"
• Parents Say Detroit Police Refuse To Charge Men Who Killed Their Son—"Could Detroit's money trouble be holding up justice in a high-profile double murder case?" It probably is.

Police State

• White House gives Homeland Security control of all communication systems
• How did America's police become a military force on the streets?
• "Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book": The new warrior cop is out of control—"SWAT teams raiding poker games and trying to stop underage drinking? Overwhelming paramilitary force is on the rise." Salon

Law and Disorder

• Police Commandeer Homes, Get Sued—"Henderson police arrested a family for refusing to let officers use their homes as lookouts for a domestic violence investigation of their neighbors, the family claims in court."
• ATF settles with landlord after flawed sting—"The landlord, David Salkin, asked the ATF to pay to cover damage to the building and unpaid utility bills. ATF supervisors in Milwaukee and regional headquarters in St. Paul refused. When Salkin pressed his case, an ATF attorney warned him to stop contacting the agency or it may be considered threatening a federal agent." Emphasis mine.
• Cameras Catch Mystery Break-In at Whistleblower's Law Firm
• Court OKs Barring Smart People From Becoming Cops
• LeVar Burton explains how not to be killed by police—"The 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' actor gives a step by step guide to not being the next victim." Salon

Retaliation

• State trooper gives pass to Iowa governor's driver—"[T]he department placed the investigator who initiated the pursuit, Special Agent in Charge Larry Hedlund, on administrative leave. Hedlund's attorney said Tuesday the personnel action was retaliation for the agent complaining to superiors that the trooper driving the governor was improperly given a pass after putting public safety at risk. A Branstad spokesman denied that allegation."
• Document reveals detective's doubts about Zimmerman's story—"Sanford detective Chris Serino, who originally recommended that George Zimmerman be charged with manslaughter, has been moved to uniform patrol on the graveyard shift, but the department says it’s not a demotion of the 15-year veteran."
• Canada: Cop suing RCMP claims bullying and intimidation—"A North Vancouver RCMP officer on leave from the force for post-traumatic stress disorder says the Mounties are trying to bully her out of her position after she launched a lawsuit against them.

Scot Free

• In 150 shooting, the FBI deemed agents faultless NYT
• Judge Finds Cop Not Guilty of Assault after Refusing to Watch Video of Assault
• Texting while judging: Judge texted assistance to prosecutors during trial(s)
• The Mob and Angela Clemente—"For nearly 15 years, Angela Clemente has sought to prove that the federal government has looked away from dozens of murders committed in New York by those it paid to work as informants." NYT
• No Charges For Cop Who Killed Man In Williamsburg Crosswalk

Accountability

• Occupy Oakland protesters awarded $1m over police violence during arrests—"12 activists to split compensation, including $500,000 for one woman who suffered permanent hearing loss during protests."
• Culpeper Cop Who Shot and Killed Patricia Cook Sentenced to Three Years in Prison
• Azelle Rodney death: Met police had 'no lawful justification' for shooting—"Marksman could be prosecuted over death of unarmed man after official inquiry rules his evidence was 'not to be accepted.'"

Bad Cops

• Felony Arrest Of Student Who Bought Water Riles Many In Virginia
• Texas Trooper Shoves 74-Year-Old Then Arrests Her For Felony Assault When She Hits Him With Her Purse
• Out of Control: Deaf woman calls 911 as she's beaten black and blue by Washington police officers 'because she didn't hear their orders'
• 2 bikini-clad women sue over body cavity search on the side of highway
• Mistrial declared in case of cop accused of killing girl

Surveillance and Privacy

• Edward Snowden: 'The US government will say I aided our enemies'
• Ireland's High Court refuses to grant arrest warrant for Snowden
• Snowden links NZ to US spy programme
• Opinion: The NSA spies, and Democrats look away
• Interview with NSA expert James Bamford—"The NSA has no constitutional right to secretly obtain the telephone records of every American citizen on a daily basis, subject them to sophisticated data mining and store them forever."
• Court Rejects State Secrets Defense in Dragnet Surveillance Case
• Here's what can go wrong when the government builds a huge database about Americans
• NYC cases show how crooked officers misuse FBI database for cyber snooping, other offenses

Journalism

• How Do You Know When President Obama Is Lying? MSNBC Won't Tell You
• How The Guardian Broke the Snowden Story—"... and what it says about the British media company's emerging threat to The New York Times."
• Details of Reporter Hastings' Death Remain Elusive

Egypt

• Video: Meet the 12-year-old Egyptian boy who wonderfully explains his country's crisis
• Video shows anti-Mursi protesters thrown off building in Alexandria—The perperator has been arrested.
• Video captures military sniper firing into a crowded pro-Morsi protest in Cairo
• Muslim Brotherhood accuses Egypt's new president of being secretly Jewish
• Egypt acquits 12 anti-Morsi bloggers of inciting violence
• Most Egyptians Don't Want a Secular Government
• Egypt's new age of unrest is a taste of things to come—"Mass street protests are symptom of unsustainability of IMF model in the face of environmental and energy challenges."

Video Game Day; CFAA; Copyfight, Digital Media; The Business of Show, Online Content, Ads; Tech Tracking, It's a Spy, Spy, Spy World; Surveillance and Privacy

Video Game Day

• Conan O'Brien plays Injustice: Gods Among Us
• Drawing arbitrary 8-bit images by playing Tetris
• I, Battlestation
• "We get it": EA will re-think Origin, try to make it more about gamers
• The failure of BioShock Infinite: Writing games like movies—"Op-Ed: It's high time game developers respected the medium they work with."
• Ryse: Son of Rome Quick Time Events Complete Themselves If Players Miss Them—"...as developer Crytek doesn't want players to feel frustrated with the brutal experience." Is this video game or a movie?
• The Truth About Video Games and Gun Violence—"Do brutal games lead to mass shootings? What do three decades of research really tell us?"
• Opinion: Video games don't create violence in society, they reflect it

CFAA

• You May Not Like Weev, But Your Online Freedom Depends on His Appeal
• Introducing Aaron's Law, a Desperately Needed Reform of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
• Terms of Service; Didn't Read

Copyfight

• Reject DRM and you risk walling off parts of the web, says W3C chief—But as one Slashdot user notes, with accepting DRM, "you GUARANTEE that parts of the Web will become walled off."
• US Chamber Of Commerce: Bollywood Is So Successful Without Strong Copyrights That It Will Fail Unless India Strengthens Its Copyrights
• New ebook DRM will change the text of a story to prevent piracy
• Filmmakers' group tries to reshape treaty that would benefit the blind—"Group says accord could undermine protections important for filmmakers, publishers and other major industries." They failed.
• Sony: New Video Players Should Be Internet Connected to Beat Pirates

Digital Media

• Copies, Rights & Copyrights: Really Owning Your Digital Stuff
• You don't own your Kindle books, Amazon reminds customer
• For the First Time, You Can Actually Own the Digital Comics You Buy

The Business of Show

• Pandora and Royalties—Certain parties have been spreading misinformation on Pandora's business practices.
• Lynda Obst: Hollywood's completely broken—"When you stopped buying DVDs and started streaming on Netflix, Hollywood's economics changed. So did the movies." Salon
• Time Warner Cable Sued Over Lakers and Dodgers Channels—"A class-action lawsuit charges that subscribers are being required to pay higher fees without the ability to opt out of the channels."

Online Content

• Can BuzzFeed Be Stopped?
• SunTimes/DarkTimes: Front pages, June 26, 2013
• The Onion: Please Click On Our Website's Banner Ads

Ads

• Sky Deutschland campaign will pipe ads straight into train passengers' skulls
• Turn off banner ads on your 2013 Panasonic TV—Rather annoying having to do this in the first place on your own TV.
• FTC to search engines: Make it clear which results are ads—"The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is repeating its warning from 2002 that it's not easy to distinguish paid search results from other results."
• AdBlock Plus lets some advertisers pay to play Salon
• It's official: SEO spam is out of control

Tech Tracking

• U.S. taps undersea cables' data with help from telecom companies—Powered by Team Telecom™!
• AT&T prepping sale of customers' anonymous location information and Web, app usage data
• Twitter to allow advertisers to target your browsing history, email addresses; here's how to opt out
• This Student Project Could Kill Digital Ad Targeting
• Never Give Stores Your ZIP Code. Here's Why

It's a Spy, Spy, Spy World

• Brazil Voices 'Deep Concern' Over Gathering of Data by U.S.—'Brazil's foreign minister said his government would press the United Nations to take action that 'preserves the sovereignty of all countries.'" NYT
• Snowden Reveals How GCHQ in Britain Soaks Up Mass Internet Data
• Documents: Sweden wiretapping Russia for the NSA—Connected to Sweden and UK's veto of the EU parliament spy investigation?
• Snowden Interview: NSA 'In Bed Together with the Germans'
• Snowden reveals Australia's links to US spy web
• Why "we only spy on foreigners" doesn't work any more for the NSA
• Dempsey: Snowden has hurt US ties with others

Surveillance and Privacy

• Daniel Ellsberg: Snowden made the right call when he fled the U.S.—As a reminder, Mr. Ellsberg is the man behind the publication of the Pentagon Papers.
• EFF to ask Supreme Court to stop NSA's phone spying program NYT
• Bolivia joins the party, also grants asylum for Edward Snowden
• Top Democrat Calls For Sanctions Against Countries Aiding NSA Leaker
• In Secret, Court Vastly Broadens Powers of N.S.A. NYT
• U.S. defends secrecy of unique surveillance court—"The Obama administration on Friday urged a secret U.S. court that oversees surveillance programs to reject a request by a civil liberties group to see court opinions used to underpin a massive phone records database."
• NSA Rejecting Every FOIA Request Made by U.S. Citizens
• NSA recruitment drive goes horribly wrong
• Blowback from the White House's vindictive war on whistleblowers—"Edward Snowden is explicit: seeing whistleblowers like me punitively treated only motivates citizens of conscience more."
• Privacy Is Lost, and We Are All To Blame—"Where will the next generation of Americans draw the line on surveillance?"

Restore the Fourth; Force of July, Politics; War on Terror, Gitmo, Collateral Damage; Surveillance and Privacy, NSA, Skyjacking, Snowden

Restore the Fourth

• Hundreds join New York City march to 'Restore the Fourth'—"Hundreds marched through New York City on Independence Day to protest the National Security Agency's mass surveillance program."
• Protesters march on NSA's Utah Data Center
• 40 Best Signs From The "Restore The Fourth" Rallies

Force of July

• Poll: Founders wouldn't be pleased
• Krugman: E Pluribus Unum—"America’s ever-changing and enduring identity is worthy of a special holiday salute." NYT
• 7 myths about the 4th of July—"Did you know American independence was actually declared two days before Independence Day? Neither did we." Salon

Politics

• Flag-Waving to Death
• Patriotism not thoughtless nationalism
• One Nation, Incentivized and Disincentivized
• We're Not a Christian Nation—"Despite what many on the Christian right claim, America was not founded as a Christian nation. Author Fred Rich on why we should be afraid of their agenda on our Independence Day."
• Is the South Dragging the Rest of the Nation Down?—"Why poor white Southerners keep voting for policies that screw them and how this hurts the rest of the nation."

War on Terror

• The War on Terror is a Fraud: How the West has Fostered Radical Islam and Actively Keeps it Alive.
• Army Spying Campaign Leads to Anti-War Activists Being Labeled 'Domestic Terrorists'
• What the TSA has in common with the NSA: unreasonable searches—"The NSA's surveillance and the TSA's hands on your junk: it's all a violation of citizens' privacy and our constitutional rights."

Gitmo

• Guantanamo criticised over inmate death—"Report obtained by Al Jazeera indicates failings by guards at Guantanamo Bay contributed to inmate's suicide."
• Gitmo Detainees to Be Force-Fed at Night Out of Respect for Ramadan—The hunger strike is on day 150 and counting.
• A Letter From Guantanamo

Collateral Damage

• U.S. Has Nothing to Say About 10-Year-Old Killed in Drone Strike
• New Report Documents the Human Cost of U.S. Drone Strikes in Yemen—"Human rights activists interview witnesses to the strikes' civilian casualties."
• Emails From a Dead Man—"What happens when an Iraqi man named Omar begins corresponding with refugee processing bureaucracies, overseen by the State Department."

Surveillance and Privacy

• Glenn Greenwald: Top Officials Are Lying to Our Faces About Government Spying
• Tech companies are cooperating with US intelligence agencies more than you think
• 'French PRISM' revealed: All communications tracked, metadata collected

NSA

• We can handle the truth on NSA spying
• NSA recruitment drive goes horribly wrong
• Want to See Your NSA or FBI File? Here's How...

Skyjacking

• Bolivia rejects 'strange, illegal' US extradition request for Snowden
• Spain Claims It Was 'Told' Snowden Was On Morales' Flight
• South American leaders demand apology in plane row

Snowden

• CIA whistleblower to Snowden: 'Do not cooperate with the FBI'
• These charts show how the Edward Snowden story is overwhelming the NSA story
• Snowden is more distraction than traitor—"NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden is being used to distract Americans from the truth behind spying allegations."

Crappy Independence Day, Journalism, Surveillance and Privacy, Wikileaks; Vote Machinations; Public-Private Partnerships, Environment; Abortion and Birth Control; Egypt, World News

Crappy Independence Day

• Can American democracy survive its betrayal by the government?—"The unbalance among the three branches of government is threatening democracy."
• Remember the Obama Scandals? That Used to Be a Thing
• Blast from the Past: Sen. Russell Feingold's Statement on the USA PATRIOT Act

Journalism

• Howard Kurtz And CNN Panel Shred David Gregory Over Greenwald Interview: 'Outright Unfairness'—David Gregory's just a mere mouthpiece flapping his journalistically-empty lips thanks to the administration's hand way up his puppet chute.
• Meet the "Journalists Against Journalism" club! Salon
  
• Glenn Greenwald, Louisiana's Law On Concealed Carry Reporting, And The Criminalization Of Journalism
• Soledad O'Brien Joining Al Jazeera America—She actually asked the hard questions.
• CNN airs Zimmerman's SSN, phone number
• Why "real journalists" hate Sean Parker's wedding Salon
• Michael Hastings Sent Panicked Email Hours Before Car Crash

Surveillance and Privacy

• Snowden case: France apologises in Bolivia plane row
• EU envoys meet over claims of U.S. spying on European allies
• James Clapper, EU play-acting, and political priorities
• When states monitored their citizens we used to call them authoritarian. Now we think this is what keeps us safe—"The internet is being snooped on and CCTV is everywhere. How did we come to accept that this is just the way things are?"
• USA Protests—"The USA government has done something that’s made all the world furious but the American people has remained dormant to the matter. We have seen people revolt against the system all over the world, with the most recent in Brazil and Egypt, but USA protests are almost inexistent."

Wikileaks

• WikiLeaks trial: Prosecution rests after calling 80 witnesses
• WikiLeaks says MasterCard lifts 'financial blockade'—But along with Visa, they started banning VPN providers, which limits one's options to protect one's privacy online.
• WikiLeaks Approved as Political Party in Australia—"The founder of the whistleblowing organization, Julian Assange, says he will run for a Senate seat in the upcoming federal election."

Vote Machinations

• GOP could pay price for gerrymandering
• In North Carolina, voting procedure changes loom—"The GOP chairman of the state Senate rules committee, Sen. Tom Apodaca, said he would move quickly to pass a voter ID law that Republicans say would bolster the integrity of the balloting process. GOP leaders also began engineering an end to the state's early voting, Sunday voting and same-day registration provisions, all popular with black voters. Civil rights groups say the moves are designed to restrict poll access by blacks, who vote reliably Democratic."
• Dark Money Group Spent On House Race, Then Told IRS It Didn't

Public-Private Partnerships

• Six Months After Leaving Office, Most US Senators Already Land Corporate Boards or Lobby Gigs
• Virginia: Star Scientific CEO financed shopping spree for first lady—Her husband, the governor, has been receiving other "perks."
• Virginia Outsources Taxpayer Refund System, Private Companies Profit

Environment

• Methane in Pennsylvania Groundwater May Originate in Fracked Gas Wells
• Oil Sands May Irrevocably Tar the Climate
• BP oil spill payments to be investigated by ex-FBI chief

Abortion and Birth Control

• Texas House committee approves abortion rules
• NC Lawmaker on Adding Abortion Ban to Anti-Sharia Bill: Republicans Are Scarier Than Muslims
• Sex Ed And Birth Control, Not Parental Notification Laws, Drove Down Teen Births In Minnesota

Egypt

• President Morsi overthrown in Egypt—Arrest warrants have been issued against the Muslim brotherhood.
• Egypt's "Revocouption" and the future of Democracy on the Nile
• Egypt: Islamists Torch Coptic Churches After Morsi Ousted
• 91 Women sexually assaulted in Egypt protests
• Amazing Human Shield Forms Around Women Protesters In Tahrir Square

World News

• Turkish court scraps plan to redevelop Taksim Square
• Portugal battles to ease crisis and market pressure
• Nelson Mandela family feud deepens as Mandla hits back

Surveillance and Privacy, Bolivia; World News; Free Speech; Dirty Money; Ecology

Surveillance and Privacy

• Rally to Restore Your Rights on July 4th
• Text of a July 2, 2013, letter to Edward Snowden from his father and father's attorney
• NSA revelations: why so many are keen to play down the debate—"The mass surveillance that Edward Snowden has exposed asks questions not only of government but of telecoms companies too."
• America's founders would be horrified at this United States of Surveillance—"How did we become so fearful and timid that we've given away essential liberties? Some are even afraid to speak up."
• To those who say 'trust the government' on NSA spying: Remember J. Edgar Hoover's FBI?
• FISA Court Judges Aren't Happy That The Public Is Upset Secret Court Issuing Secret Rulings Allowing NSA To Spy On Them
• Police State Canada: Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) Runs Massive Domestic Spying Program

Bolivia

• Bolivia denies Snowden on Morales' plane—"Bolivia is furious its president's plane was forced to make an emergency landing in Austria because of a rumour US fugitive Edward Snowden was on board." No such thing as sovereignity to the world police.
• 'Act of aggression': Bolivia to file UN complaint over airspace blockade
• Bolivia vs. Europe over Snowden-linked plane delay

World News

• Bulgarian protests continue, is the world watching?
• Showdown? Egypt's Morsy defies military 'ultimatum'
• Bug Found in Ecuador's Embassy in London—Where Assange is still holed up.
• Czech Businessman Resists Corruption—"A Czech businessman refused to bribe two officials, instead reporting them to the police. His actions came amid recent corruption scandals that have proliferated the Czech upper political ranks lately."
• Canada: Meet Neil, better known as Slurpy, the Rob Ford lookalike at centre of scrapped plot to film fake crack video

Free Speech

• In Uzbekistan, Everyone's A Pop Critic, Including The Government—"Uzbekistan's Culture and Sports Ministry has announced a ban on 'meaningless' songs that fail to 'praise the motherland.'"
• Insult someone on Twitter or Facebook? A crime in Grenada—"Lawmakers on the island of Grenada are tired of online "mischief." So they've banned it. How might this affect the nation's discourse?"
• First Evidence Of Iranian Internet Throttling as a Form of Censorship—"Internet security expert publishes first evidence that Iran uses internet throttling to prevent the spread of information during periods of public unrest." But there are signs of change.

Dirty Money

• EU charges 13 banks, ISDA, Markit with breaching EU antitrust rules—"Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays and Morgan Stanley also among banks charged."
• Major banks still vulnerable to money laundering, says top regulator—"Britain's major banks remain vulnerable to being used to fund terrorism and money laundering by criminal gangs, despite being fined billions of pounds in recent years for failing to crackdown on illegal financing."
• Judge OKs HSBC laundering penalty—'A judge in New York has approved a deal that will allow HSBC to pay a record 1.9 billion-dollar (£1.25 billion) penalty to settle claims that the British bank helped Mexican drug traffickers, Iran, Libya and others under US suspicion or sanction move their money around the world."
• OLAF may reopen Dalli case over Bahamas trip to 'move millions' - International Herald Tribune
• Vatican scandal: Two high-profile resignations follow arrest of monsignor

Ecology

• Africa's Western Black Rhino is Now Officially Extinct
• Over 30 Million Bees Found Dead In Elmwood Canada
• Japan's Whaling Is Not Science, Expert Witness Tells World Court
• Deforestation rising in Amazon countries outside Brazil
• All Coral Reefs Could Die by Century's End
• Dead fish fill Mexico reservoir—"Tens of thousands of dead fish have washed up on the banks of a Mexican reservoir, amid allegations that a local firm contaminated the water."
• Biggest Dead Zone Ever Forecast in Gulf of Mexico—"Oxygen-deprived area may be size of New Jersey, scientists say." Incidentally, an oil platform there hasn't stopped leaking for 9 years.

NSA Leaks, Surveillance and Privacy; Police State, NYPD, Bad Cops, Law and Disorder

NSA Leaks

• Snowden, in new statement, accuses Obama of using 'old, bad tools of political aggression'
• Edward Snowden's asylum options narrow—Ecuador is no longer viable.
• James Clapper is still lying to America—And trying to weasel out of his 'erroneous statements' to Congress. Salon
• Before Edward Snowden: "Sexual deviates" and the NSA—"When the last major defection hit the NSA, the government smeared the leakers as gay. New documents show they lied." Salon
• How a 30-year-old lawyer exposed NSA mass surveillance of Americans—in 1975—"Project SHAMROCK allowed the NSA to intercept telegrams sent by US citizens."

Surveillance and Privacy

• George W. Bush Defends PRISM: 'I Put That Program In Place To Protect The Country'
• How The Indian Government's 'Central Monitoring System' Makes The NSA Look Like A Paragon Of Restraint
• An MIT Project That Lets You Spy On Yourself
• Tell-all telephone—"Mobile phones are tracking devices that reveal much about our lives. One look at our interactive map of data provided by the Green party politician Malte Spitz shows why."
• Data privacy and PRISM: When politics and technology collide

Police State

• The ABCs Of The Surveillance State: Six Gun Toting Alcohol Agents Pounce On College Kid Buying Bottled Water
• Bill Maher says the immigration bill will "make the Border Patrol bigger than the FBI -- you could put one agent every 250 feet"—Politifact says TRUE.
• Major Change Coming To The Security Lines At Denver International Airport—"The change was tested Friday morning and travelers seemed to be on board. They involved TSA-trained dogs."

NYPD

• Outrage after Mayor Bloomberg says whites are stopped and frisked more frequently than minorities
• NYC Council Angers Mayor Bloomberg By Passing Two Bills Aimed At Curtailing The NYPD's 'Stop And Frisk' Program
• Diplomat And Wife Allegedly Called 'Terrorists' After Breastfeeding Incident—"Today in Absurd And Outrageous Breastfeeding Comments: A New York police officer has allegedly compared a diplomat's breastfeeding wife to a terrorist."

Bad Cops

• Dustin Fetz, Police Officer, Makes Zoe Brugger Shake Her Bra In Search For 'Drugs'
• William Davis, AM950 producer, jumped downtown, says cop said: "That's what you get"
• Teenager Commits Suicide After Police Launch Social Media Campaign Against Him—"When a teenager failed to appear in court on substance abuse charges, the police began cyber-bulling him on Facebook."
• Teen locked overnight in police van sues Fort Lee—"A third teenager who was locked in a police van overnight in below-freezing temperatures has filed a lawsuit against the borough, the Police Department and about a dozen named officers, and the three pending cases have been consolidated into one by a federal court judge."
• Cops Shoot Family Dog Just Because—"Police officers in a Chicago suburb sat in front of a home for 20 minutes, then without any provocation shot the family dog."

Prison

• Kentucky to become most recent state to stop using private prisons
• Three States Dump Major Private Prison Company In One Month
• Mass incarceration's tragic success—"Get-tough policies have unfortunate side effects."
• Throwing children in prison turns out to be a really bad idea
• Flipside: Netherlands Closing Prisons Due to Lack of Prisoners

Law and Disorder

• Clark County Court to Patricia Doninger: YOU'RE FIRED—"Doninger heartlessly ignored the young mother's plea for help while two Clark County Court Marshalls tortured, groped and viciously attacked the Hispanic woman that was in court for a routine divorce case."
• Former Justice of the Peace To Be Charged With Murders In Kaufman County
• Lawyer convicted of trying "to hire fellow inmates in the Okaloosa County Jail, to kill Assistant State Attorney Russ Edgar."
• Slaton police arrest woman after request to see warrant
• Stephen Lawrence family and friends targeted by police 'smear' campaign

Workers, Wage Slaves, Sick Leave, Unemployment; Dirty Money, Bunk of America; That's Rich

Workers

• The Expendables: How the Temps Who Power Corporate Giants Are Getting Crushed—"America is now dotted with “temp towns” – places where it’s difficult to find blue-collar work except through a temp agency and where workers often suffer lost wages, no benefits and high injury rates."
• On-call shifts: The latest corporate shame—"[T]askmasters-in-suits have now redefined the term "hired" to mean that you're tethered to a corporation full-time, but you actually work and get paid for only the few hours a week when the boss calls."
• No, manufacturing jobs won’t revive the economy—"Stop claiming a factory boom will save the country and lift people up. Here's what these jobs really look like." Salon
• The Roberts Court on labor rights: be afraid. Be very afraid.—"[W]hile Justice Roberts and company were busy shredding the Voting Rights Act, they decided to trash the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act while they were at it. Title VII is the provision of the Act that prohibits employment discrimination."
• Greg Kaufmann on the Truth About American Poverty—"People are working and they're not getting paid enough to feed their families, pay their utilities, pay for their housing, pay for the healthcare… if you're not paying people enough to pay for the basics, they’re going to need help getting food."
• More Evidence That US Middle Class is Sliding Toward the Third World
• The 4 A.M. Army—"Every morning, hundreds of thousands of workers show up for jobs that are unseen, uncertain and underpaid—and vital to the U.S. economy."

Wage Slaves

• Employers Still Dodging Minimum Wage Law 75 Years After Its Passage
• Fast-Food Workers Denounce Wage Theft 'Crime Wave' At New York City Hearing
• Paid via Card, Workers Feel Sting of Fees—"For many hourly workers, paper paychecks have been replaced by prepaid cards, which often involve fees that can quickly add up and take a bite out of their pay." NYT

Sick Leave

• Forced to Work Sick? That's Fine With Disney, Red Lobster, and Their Friends at ALEC—"America's one of the only industrialized nations that doesn't mandate paid sick leave. These guys want to keep it that way."
• Florida Gov. Rick Scott Preemptively Blocks Paid Sick Leave—"If a worker or their child is sick, should they really be forced to choose between their health and their paycheck?"
• City Council overrides Mayor Bloomberg's veto of paid-sick leave bill in early morning session

Unemployment

• Krugman: War on the Unemployed NYT
• North Carolina Dropped From Federal Unemployment Program
• Tennessee ends $40 million in child allowances for unemployed

Dirty Money

• World Bank Insider Blows Whistle on Corruption, Federal Reserve
• Inside Anglo: the secret recordings—"Exclusive: Tapes reveal the lies and deception that led to the bank bailout."
• Where Are the Libor Cases Against U.S. Banks?—"It would look awfully strange if the U.S. government wound up targeting only foreign banks as part of its investigation into the manipulation of the London interbank offered rate."
• EU forges bank bailout deal to protect taxpayers—"Negotiations end in agreement on who should bear the brunt of losses caused by banking failure." Unfortunately, it will probably get ignored.

Bunk of America

• It's Official: Bank of America Has the Worst Reputation in the Banking Industry
• New Bank of America whistle-blower emerges: More customer abuse secrets—"Bank of America whistle-blower details latest scheme to abuse homeowners, evade settlement rules and pocket cash." Salon
• He chalks the line: City Attorney prosecutes man for writing anti-bank slogans in water soluble chalk—So much easier to go after the little guy. Update: He was found not guilty.
• Bank of America suit under scrutiny of settlement watchdog

That's Rich

• What's more important: a college degree or being born rich?—In related news, student loan rates double today, making it even harder for debts to be repaid.
• Chilean nanny to sue NY socialite family claiming she was a virtual slave
• Malibu homeowners who hide access to beautiful beaches foiled by $30K Kickstarter campaign