MOSCOW — TWO years ago today, three journalists and I worked nervously in a Hong Kong hotel room, waiting to see how the world would react to the revelation that the National Security Agency had been making records of nearly every phone call in the United States. In the days that followed, those journalists and others published documents revealing that democratic governments had been monitoring the private activities of ordinary citizens who had done nothing wrong.

Within days, the United States government responded by bringing charges against me under World War I-era espionage laws. The journalists were advised by lawyers that they risked arrest or subpoena if they returned to the United States. Politicians raced to condemn our efforts as un-American, even treasonous.

Privately, there were moments when I worried that we might have put our privileged lives at risk for nothing — that the public would react with indifference, or practiced cynicism, to the revelations.

Never have I been so grateful to have been so wrong.

Two years on, the difference is profound. In a single month, the N.S.A.’s invasive call-tracking program was declared unlawful by the courts and disowned by Congress. After a White House-appointed oversight board investigation found that this program had not stopped a single terrorist attack, even the president who once defended its propriety and criticized its disclosure has now ordered it terminated.

This is the power of an informed public.

Ending the mass surveillance of private phone calls under the Patriot Act is a historic victory for the rights of every citizen, but it is only the latest product of a change in global awareness. Since 2013, institutions across Europe have ruled similar laws and operations illegal and imposed new restrictions on future activities. The United Nations declared mass surveillance an unambiguous violation of human rights. In Latin America, the efforts of citizens in Brazil led to the Marco Civil, an Internet Bill of Rights. Recognizing the critical role of informed citizens in correcting the excesses of government, the Council of Europe called for new laws to protect whistle-blowers.

Beyond the frontiers of law, progress has come even more quickly. Technologists have worked tirelessly to re-engineer the security of the devices that surround us, along with the language of the Internet itself. Secret flaws in critical infrastructure that had been exploited by governments to facilitate mass surveillance have been detected and corrected. Basic technical safeguards such as encryption — once considered esoteric and unnecessary — are now enabled by default in the products of pioneering companies like Apple, ensuring that even if your phone is stolen, your private life remains private. Such structural technological changes can ensure access to basic privacies beyond borders, insulating ordinary citizens from the arbitrary passage of anti-privacy laws, such as those now descending upon Russia.

...

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/05/opinion/edward-snowden-the-world-says-no-to-surveillance.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&_r=1

The first-ever "female Viagra" came one step closer to coming to market,  as a key advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration voted Thursday afternoon to recommend that the FDA approve the drug with conditions.

The committee voted 18-6 to recommend that the FDA approve flibanserin, a drug designed to boost the low sexual desire of otherwise healthy women.

The FDA usually follows the recommendations of its advisory committees, but not always. Its decision is expected by the end of the summer. The agency has already rejected the drug twice, saying the potential side effects of fainting, nausea, dizziness, sleepiness and low-blood pressure outweighed its benefits. Even on Thursday, the committee described the drug benefit as "moderate" or "marginal."

But after an afternoon of emotional testimony from women who suffer from low sexual desire, a condition called Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder, the majority of committee members said that, with proper warning labels and education, the drug, even with a moderate benefit, should be made available to women who now have nothing.

More...http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/06/04/widely-varying-views-of-female-viagra-emerge-at-fda-hearing/

Ancient underground tunnel that links Colosseum with remains of gladiatorial training barracks could be restored with donation from Kuwait

An ancient underground tunnel that links the Colosseum with the remains of a gladiatorial training barracks could be restored and opened to the public thanks to a donation from Kuwait.

Generations of gladiators lived and trained in the Ludus Magnus or Great Gladiatorial Training School, the largest such facility in Rome, which was located just a few hundred yards from the amphitheatre.

The remains of the training school can still be seen, squeezed between two busy roads in the shadow of the Colosseum and frequently littered with rubbish.

The authorities in Rome have long wanted to restore the archaeological site and open up the tunnel which leads from the barracks into the bowels of the Colosseum.

Gladiators would don their helmets and armour and collect their weapons before walking through the torchlit passageway to emerge onto the sandy arena of the amphitheatre, in scenes depicted memorably by the Ridley Scott film Gladiator, starring Russell Crowe.

...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/11651780/Gladiator-school-to-be-restored-in-Rome.html

On the two-year anniversary of when his leaks detailing secret spy operations at the National Security Agency first emerged, landing like a thunderclap around the world, the former intelligence contractor appears more confident than ever that his actions have permanently altered the surveillance debate.

"The balance of power is beginning to shift," Snowden said in a statement provided to select news organizations by Amnesty International and Privacy International. "With each court victory, with every change in law, we demonstrate facts are more convincing than fear."

Snowden has good reason to be riding high after the Senate broke a logjam this week to pass the first significant reform to government surveillance practices since the nation began supercharging its spying powers after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The USA Freedom Act, which was swiftly signed into law by President Obama, will effectively end the NSA's bulk collection of U.S. call data—the first program exposed by a Snowden-fueled article in The Guardian on June 5, 2013.

But the Freedom Act only deals significantly with one of the NSA's many spying operations—one that has been deemed illegal by a federal appeals court, ineffective by two government review panels and not even that desired by some high-ranking officials.

More...http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/edward-snowden-is-not-going-away-20150604

You’re a Criminal in a Mass Surveillance World – How to Not Get Caught

Sometimes you just get lucky.

I was in Amsterdam when the Snowden story broke. CNN was non-stop asking politicians and pundits, “Is Edward Snowden a traitor?” Those who said he betrayed America also said something else: Mass surveillance is only an issue if you’re a criminal. If you’ve got nothing to hide then you’ve got nothing to fear.

The Snowden story hit me upon my return from – of all places on earth – the Secret Annex of the Anne Frank House. The Secret Annex is where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis for two years. It was during this period of hiding in terror that Anne wrote her world-famous diary. In it she confided, “I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I’ve never met.”

I say I was lucky because the cosmic unlikeliness of my Secret Annex visit coinciding with Snowden’s mass surveillance revelations led to some revelations of my own. My understanding of law, criminality, and mass surveillance coalesced into a horrifying picture.

It turns out we’re all criminals in a mass surveillance world. The only question is whether we’ll get caught. Let me explain.

What Makes a Criminal?

Merriam-Webster defines crime as “activity that is against the law.” Law is defined as a “set of rules made by the government.” Thus a criminal is someone who breaks government rules.

The law as a whole is an ever-expanding collection of rules that politicians (“lawmakers”) decree and occasionally repeal. Laws are as moral as the politicians who make them.

Simply put, laws are the rules politicians make up, and criminals are people who break them.

It floored me to realize: Anne Frank was, in fact, a criminal. She was a fugitive of the law.

We can express outrage at the designation since Anne did nothing wrong. And we can debate which rules of any particular regime are tolerable or repugnant. But our opinions don’t change the fact that “criminal” is a government-defined standard imposed on us, the governed.

A law-abiding citizen was obligated to turn Anne into the police. To assist her was a crime. In America the Fugitive Slave Law obligated law-abiding citizens to turn in runaway slaves, and assisting them was punishable by 6 months in jail and a $28,000 fine (in today’s dollars).

In early colonial America masturbation, blasphemy, and homosexuality were crimes punishable by death. Virtually any act you can think of has been criminalized by one regime or another. Being a law-abiding citizen only means you comply with whatever rules politicians have imposed on you.

Throughout history we observe only a slight overlap between the endless supply of laws governments impose on people and the handful of acts we all agree are morally wrong: theft, assault, rape, murder.

More...https://bananas.liberty.me/youre-a-criminal-in-a-mass-surveillance-world-how-to-not-get-caught/

Americans are just going to have to trust the EPA’s 44 years of experience dealing with environmental issues when it comes to figuring out ways to cope with man-made global warming, says the agency’s chief.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy told Big Think in an interview that while there are limits to how much the federal government can do for issues like global warming, the public needs to trust how the EPA translates the “complicated” science into real-life actions.

“Well I think we all have to recognize the strengths and limitations of government action,” McCarthy said. “But here’s what I think we can do at the federal level more effectively. We can speak to the science because it’s complicated and we do a lot of research and we do a lot of translation of the science into what it means for people so that the decisions can be made on the basis of real science and on the basis of a real technical understanding.”

“That’s how it has worked in EPA’s career for 44 years at EPA is we’ve listened to the science and the law and we have let solutions take off in the marketplace which is where the cheapest, most effective always win,” McCarthy said. “That’s why EPA can move environmental standards forward so effectively and grow jobs at the same time.”

...

http://dailycaller.com/2015/06/03/epa-chief-just-trust-us-on-climate-science/#ixzz3c7WpS8kC

[Nevada Passes Largest Tax Hike in State History]

Nevada Passes Largest Tax Hike in State History

The Nevada legislature approved the state's largest-ever tax hike that will raise up to $1.1 billion in new and extended taxes to initiate far-reaching reforms in Nevada's struggling K-12 education system.

In a 30 to 10 vote Sunday, the Assembly approved all three major facets of Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval's tax plan, including his "Nevada Revenue Plan," which is a hefty hike on cigarette taxes and the continuation of a group of formerly temporary business taxes called the "sunsets."

On Monday, the Nevada Senate passed the tax increase 18 to 3, ensuring the bill would now go to Sandoval for signature.

Sandoval, Nevada's popular Republican governor elected by a large margin to a second term in November, made the tax increase the centerpiece of his legislative agenda this year. The state has struggled to fund education for decades. Democrats, who had held the majority in the Legislature for two sessions before Republicans took both houses this year, had tried and failed to pass a new business tax in 2011 and 2013.

In an effort to win support from more conservative Republicans, Sandoval linked his call for a tax increase to sweeping education reforms, including what has been described as the most robust parents' choice measure—which funnels money to families with children in private school—in the country.

Passage of the bill required a two-thirds majority in the Assembly, which was easily achieved after Sandoval's staff put on a "full-court-press" lobbying effort over the past few days that drew the ire of anti-tax conservative leader Assemblyman Ira Hansen, R-Sparks.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/06/01/nevada-tax-hike-sandoval-education/28309841/

======
Elements of the plan include:

- A hike in the business license fee. The fee for corporations would rise from the existing $200 a year to $500, while the fee for the rest of the business entities would remain at $200.

- A hike in the payroll tax. Sandoval's plan raises the state's existing modified business tax from 1.17 percent to 1.475 percent of wages beyond the first $200,000 a company pays out each year and sets the rate at 2 percent of those wages for the mining industry and financial institutions. Companies would still get to deduct health care premiums for employees from the calculation.

- A "Commerce Tax" on gross revenue. Industry-specific tax rates will apply to businesses with more than $4 million in Nevada revenue each year. Businesses can count 50 percent of their commerce tax bill as a credit against their modified business tax bill — a provision that's intended as a perk to those who employ people. The commerce tax aims to capture more money from capital-intensive businesses such as mines and those that do business in Nevada but aren't based here.

- A flexible payroll tax rate. The plan allows the state to lower the modified business tax rate if revenues from the new commerce tax and MBT rate bring in more revenue than projected.

- An extension of "sunset taxes." More than $500 million of the plan comes from making a set of expiring payroll and sales taxes permanent.

- Cigarette taxes. The bill raises a tax on cigarette packs by $1, which is expected to generate about $100 million over two years.

More...[url][http://www.newsmax.com/US/US-Sandoval-Tax-Plan/2015/06/01/id/648093//url]

Courtesy of RonPaulForums where he was elected by major support,
Thomas Massie just got all three of his amendments passed in the House tonight!

The amendments were part of HR 2578: "Making appropriations for the Departments of Commerce and Justice, Science, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2016, and for other purposes."

The first Massie Amendment:
An amendment, offered by Mr. Massie, to prohibit the use of funds to be used in contravention of section 7606 ("Legitimacy of Industrial Hemp Research") of the Agricultural Act of 2014 by the Department of Justice or the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Passed 289-132 with bipartisan support and more Democrats voting in favor than Republicans - http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2015/roll288.xml

The second Massie Amendment:
An amendment, offered by Mr. Massie, to prohibit the use of funds to treat ammunition as armor piercing for purposes of chapter 44 of title 18, United States Code, except for ammunition designed and intended for use in a handgun.
Massie posted about this on his Facebook page. It passed 250-171 with Republicans accounting for 238 of the Ayes - http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2015/roll289.xml

The third Massie Amendment:
An amendment, offered by Mr. Massie, to prohibit the use of funds by the National Institute of Standards and Technology to consult with the National Security Agency or the CIA to alter cryptographic or computer standards, except to improve information security.
This passed overwhelmingly with bipartisan support 383-43. Not surprisingly Peter King voted against it (one of 5 Republican votes of nay). My understanding is this amendment makes it so funds can't be used to help the NSA or CIA to give backdoor access for surveillance. The Intercept article describes it well and praises Massie.

http://clerk.house.gov/floorsummary/floor.aspx?day=20150603&today=20150603

The Transportation Security Administration abysmally failed an internal investigation into its ability to stop undercover Department of Homeland Security agents’ attempts to breach security with potential weapons or bombs, according to an explosive new report revealed by ABC News. The report notes that the test exposed the fact that TSA officers at “dozens” of US airports failed to catch DHS “red team” members armed with potential weapons or bombs in 95% of 70 attempts.

One such agent made it through security with a fake bomb strapped to his back despite setting off a magnetometer and enduring a subsequent pat-down.

“We know that the adversary innovates and we have to push ourselves to capacity in order to remain one step ahead.

• ur testers often make these covert tests as difficult as possible,” read a 2013 TSA blog cited by ABC News describing the methods used by covert DHS red team agents, who attempt to blend in with passengers and sneak weapons through security to test the TSA’s capabilities.

Video and more...http://truthinmedia.com/tsa-fails-dhs-security-test-allows-weapons-bombs-to-breach-security-67-of-70-times/

[it appears the cost of blow-jobs has gone from just-plain-cheap to "well, why not?" As one intrepid reporter ventured into the Otsuka red-light district of Toshima Ward discovered, the fee for an oral session at a “pink salon” starts as low as 2,000 yen ($16!)]

Despite proclamations by Kuroda, Abe, and various other elected (and unelected) officials that the 'deflation mindset' is gone from Japan, it appears one segment of the population is keenly aware of the ongoing deflationary market for one staple item. Just as we warned was occurring in America, it appears the cost of blow-jobs has gone from just-plain-cheap to "well, why not?" As one intrepid reporter ventured into the Otsuka red-light district of Toshima Ward discovered, the fee for an oral session at a “pink salon” starts as low as 2,000 yen ($16!).

...


On Friday, data released by the internal affairs ministry indicated that Japan’s annual inflation rate for April was zero. The report showed that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic revival plan is being hampered by falling prices, particularly for fuel and consumer electronics. The report did not mention blow-jobs, but, according to Takarajima (July), prices for such services in Tokyo remain low as the overall commercial sex industry continues to face hard times.
 
A writer for the magazine travels to the Otsuka red-light district of Toshima Ward to discover that the fee for an oral session at a “pink salon” starts as low as 2,000 yen.

More...http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-31/abenomics-fail-japanese-slack-jawed-oral-sex-price-deflation

“It’s clear President Obama is beginning his final assault on our Second Amendment rights by forcing his anti-gun agenda on honest law-abiding citizens through executive force,” Luke O’Dell, the vice president of political affairs at the National Association for Gun Rights, told The Hill.

In particular, the Justice Dept.’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) wants to revive a 1998 proposal that would ban those convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence from owning a gun.

“That could be a person who spanked his kid, or yelled at his wife, or slapped her husband,” Michael Hammond, legislative counsel for the Gun Owners of America, stated.


The ATF also wants to revoke gun rights from those the government declares “mentally unfit,” which is easy to do because the official diagnostic system for mental disorders in the U.S., the DSM-5, is so broad that almost every form of human behavior can be “diagnosed” as some type of mental illness.

For example, in 2012 the Department of Veteran Affairs sent out letters to veterans stating that based on “evidence,” their “competency” was under review and if the bureaucrats decided to rate the veterans “incompetent,” they would be prohibited from “purchasing, possessing, receiving or transporting a firearm or ammunition.”

“The letter provides no specifics on the reasons for the proposed finding of incompetency; just that is based on a determination by someone in the VA,” Constitutional attorney Michael Connelly, J.D. wrote on the subject.

The National Rifle Association warned that such regulations “creates disincentives for those who need mental health treatment to seek it, increasing whatever risks are associated with untreated mental illness.”

“A person who experienced a temporary reaction to a traumatic event or who has trouble handling household finances may well be treated the same as a violent psychopath,” the NRA said.

More...http://www.infowars.com/obama-announces-draconian-unconstitutional-gun-regs-by-executive-fiat/

US military pilots complain hands tied in ‘frustrating’ fight against ISIS

U.S. military pilots carrying out the air war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria are voicing growing discontent over what they say are heavy-handed rules of engagement hindering them from striking targets.

They blame a bureaucracy that does not allow for quick decision-making. One Navy F-18 pilot who has flown missions against ISIS voiced his frustration to Fox News, saying: "There were times I had groups of ISIS fighters in my sights, but couldn't get clearance to engage.”

He added, “They probably killed innocent people and spread evil because of my inability to kill them. It was frustrating."

Sources close to the air war against ISIS told Fox News that strike missions take, on average, just under an hour, from a pilot requesting permission to strike an ISIS target to a weapon leaving the wing.

A spokesman for the U.S. Air Force’s Central Command pushed back: “We refute the idea that close air support strikes take 'an hour on average'. Depending on the how complex the target environment is, a strike could take place in less than 10 minutes or it could take much longer.

"As our leaders have said, this is a long-term fight, and we will not alienate civilians, the Iraqi government or our coalition partners by striking targets indiscriminately."

A former U.S. Air Force general who led air campaigns over Iraq and Afghanistan also said today's pilots are being "micromanaged," and the process for ordering strikes is slow -- squandering valuable minutes and making it possible for the enemy to escape.

“You're talking about hours in some cases, which by that time the particular tactical target left the area and or the aircraft has run out of fuel. These are excessive procedures that are handing our adversary an advantage,” said retired Lt. Gen. David Deptula, a former director of the Combined Air Operations Center in Afghanistan in 2001.

Deptula also contrasted the current air campaign against ISIS with past air campaigns.

The U.S.-led airstrikes over Iraq during the first Gulf War averaged 1,125 strike sorties per day, according to Deptula. He said the Kosovo campaign averaged 135 strikes per day. In 2003, the famous “shock and awe” campaign over Iraq saw 800 strikes per day.

More...http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/05/28/us-military-pilots-complain-hands-tied-in-frustrating-fight-against-isis/

Israel is hoping to receive $4.2-$4.5 billion a year in military aid from the United States for ten years, to counter the threat from Iran and oil-rich Middle East states that have been re-arming rapidly, a senior Israeli source has told Defense News

Under a 10-year deal signed in 2007, Israel receives just over $3 billion a year in American aid, with stipulations that over 70 percent of that aid has to be spent buying US military hardware. An extension of that agreement, running to 2028, was principally agreed on by Barack Obama during a visit to Israel in 2013, but according to Haaretz, talks on its terms have been “preliminary and unofficial.”
...
with stipulations that over 70 percent of that aid has to be spent buying US military hardware  MIC subsidies

http://rt.com/news/262505-israel-military-aid-us/

Federal Panel Lets Injunction Against Obama’s Immigration Actions Stand

A federal appeals court on Tuesday denied the Obama administration’s request to lift a hold on the president’s executive actions on immigration, which would have granted protection from deportation as well as work permits to millions of immigrants in the country illegally.

Two of three judges on a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, left in place an injunction by a Federal District Court judge in Brownsville, Tex. The ruling comes in a lawsuit filed by Texas and 25 other states against actions President Obama took in November. Many of the initiatives were scheduled to take effect this month.

The appeals court found that the states had sufficient legal grounds to bring the lawsuit and that the administration had not shown that it would be harmed if the injunction remained in place and the programs were further delayed.

Also denied was a request by the administration to limit the injunction to the states bringing the lawsuit. The ruling is a second setback for programs the president hoped would be a major piece of his legacy, raising new uncertainty about whether they will take effect before the end of his term and casting doubts on the confidence of administration lawyers that their case was very strong.

Demonstrators outside federal appeals court in New Orleans last month. A panel of the court decided Tuesday not to lift a hold on President Obama's immigration executive actions. Credit Gerald Herbert/Associated Press
The lawsuit was filed in December, and on Feb. 16, Judge Andrew S. Hanen of Federal District Court in Brownsville ordered a preliminary injunction on the programs while he ruled on the constitutional issues in the suit.

In a statement, Ken Paxton, the attorney general of Texas, said Mr. Obama had tried to impose “a drastic change in immigration policy” without the consent of Congress. The appeals court decision is “a victory for those committed to preserving the rule of law in America,” Mr. Paxton said. “We will continue to fight the brazen lawlessness that has become a trademark of the Obama administration.”

More...http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/27/us/fifth-circuit-court-of-appeals-rules-on-obama-immigration-plan.html

President Obama's second-term agenda, it seems, is in the hands of the courts.

Same-sex marriage. Obamacare. Climate change. And now immigration. And in many cases, there is significant doubt about whether his signature initiatives will stand legal scrutiny.

The latest blow to Obama's second-term plans came Tuesday when a federal appeals court in New Orleans denied the administration's request to move forward with implementing his expanded executive action on immigration to defer deportation for millions of undocumented immigrants.

More...http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/05/26/obama-courts/

The world economy is disturbingly close to stall speed. The United Nations has cut its global growth forecast for this year to 2.8pc, the latest of the multinational bodies to retreat.

We are not yet in the danger zone but this pace is only slightly above the 2.5pc rate that used to be regarded as a recession for the international system as a whole.

It leaves a thin safety buffer against any economic shock - most potently if China abandons its crawling dollar peg and resorts to 'beggar-thy-neighbour' policies, transmitting a further deflationary shock across the global economy.

The longer this soggy patch drags on, the greater the risk that the six-year old global recovery will sputter out. While expansions do not die of old age, they do become more vulnerable to all kinds of pathologies.

A sweep of historic data by Warwick University found compelling evidence that economies are more likely to stall as they age, what is known as "positive duration dependence". The business cycle becomes stretched. Inventories build up and companies defer spending, tipping over at a certain point into a self-feeding downturn.

Stephen King from HSBC warns that the global authorities have alarmingly few tools to combat the next crunch, given that interest rates are already zero across most of the developed world, debts levels are at or near record highs, and there is little scope for fiscal stimulus.
"The world economy is sailing across the ocean without any lifeboats to use in case of emergency," he said.

More...http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11625098/HSBC-fears-world-recession-with-no-lifeboats-left.html

A woman was burned alive by depraved Islamic State militants after she refused to take part in an 'extreme sex act', a United Nations official has revealed.

Hundreds of women have been kidnapped by jihadi fighters who send the 'prettiest virgins' to slave markets in the Syrian city of Raqqa, where they are sold as sexual objects to the highest bidder.

Many are stripped naked and forced to undergo virginity tests before being sent to the twisted auctions, the UN's Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict has said.

Zainab Bangura discovered the gruesome extent of crimes against young women – particularly from Iraq's Yazidi minority community – after collecting information from Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3097033/ISIS-burn-woman-alive-refusing-extreme-sex-act-reveals-official.html#ixzz3bHopy7Ri

All six Baltimore police officers charged for the death of Freddie Gray have been indicted by a grand jury.

...

Officer Caesar Goodson Jr.: second degree depraved heart murder, involuntary manslaughter, second degree negligent assault, manslaughter by vehicle and gross negligence, manslaughter by vehicle criminal negligence, misconduct in office for failure to perform a duty regarding safety of a prisoner, reckless endangerment

Officer William Porter: Involuntary manslaughter, second degree negligent assault, misconduct in office for failure to perform a duty regarding safety of a prisoner, reckless endangerment

Lt. Brian Rice: Involuntary manslaughter, second degree negligent assault, misconduct in office for failure to perform a duty regarding safety of a prisoner and an illegal arrest, reckless endangerment

Officer Edward Nero: Second degree intentional assault, misconduct in office for an illegal arrest, misconduct in office for failure to perform a duty regarding safety of a prisoner, reckless endangerment

Officer Garret Miller: Second degree intentional assault, misconduct in office for an illegal arrest, misconduct in office for failure to perform a duty regarding safety of a prisoner, reckless endangerment

Sgt. Alicia White: Involuntary manslaughter, second degree negligent assault, misconduct in office for failure to perform a duty regarding safety of a prisoner, reckless endangerment

More...http://www.wfsb.com/story/29127927/2015/05/21/officers-indicted-in-freddie-gray-death

No matter whether these cops get prison terms or not, there's gonna be a significant wrongful death lawsuit by the family toward the BPD which will be footed by the local taxpayers - almost none of it will be paid by the parasites that did the looting. Interesting to see there's a Lieutenant on the list.

Sen. Rand Paul announced Wednesday afternoon he’s attempting to filibuster the extension of the Patriot Act, vowing to use all his legislative powers to try to end the snooping law.

The Kentucky Republican’s speech, which began at 1:18 p.m., is not technically holding up any legislation because the Senate is actually currently debating a trade bill, but Mr. Paul said his move was a filibuster nonetheless, as he vowed to hold the floor until he couldn’t go any longer.

“It’s time to end the NSA spying,” his official Twitter account said in a post at 1:36 p.m., as he was on the floor.

Mr. Paul is waging a lonely fight, demanding that the government stop snooping without probable cause or a warrant. That’s a step beyond even some of his other erstwhile civil libertarian allies who want to curtail the Patriot Act’s bulk collection, but would still allow government agents to go after the records of individuals without first seeking a warrant.
 
Indeed, the lonely fight was underscored by the scene on the Senate floor in the middle of the afternoon: Mr. Paul was the only senator present, save for the one Republican required to be in the presiding officer’s chair.
 
Armed with binders, file folders and a barely touched glass of water, he paced behind his desk on the right wing of the Senate, occasionally flipping through notes to find his place as he offered a lengthy discussion of the Obama administration’s duplicity in maintaining the National Security Agency’s snooping program.

Mr. Obama’s top intelligence official testified to Congress that they were not storing bulk information about Americans’ phone calls, when in fact they were doing that under the NSA’s program.

Congress is pushing up against a deadline for deciding what to do about three provisions of the Patriot Act that are slated to expire at the end of the month. Among those is Section 215, which the Bush and Obama administrations have claimed justifies the NSA program.

Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/may/20/rand-paul-filibusters-against-patriot-act-nsa-snoo/#ixzz3ailf6lRy

I thought this deserved a thread unto itself rather than just keep it tucked away in my other thread on Rand. He's about 5.5 hrs into this filibuster and may go long into the night and perhaps into the later morning or after noon. Remember the filibuster he did on drones a few years back? He'll get plenty of national news coverage by tomorrow as it was already front and center on The Drudge Report today, which is the most viewed public affairs website in the US and likely the world. This will definitely set him apart from the Presidential candidates pack and this is a huge issue considering the courts already ruled this bulk collection of data by the NSA is illegal and the US House passed the USA Freedom Act last week which would overturn the Patriot Act.

Live stream: http://www.politico.com/livestream/
Live blogging: http://iroots.org/2015/05/20/breakin...ate-floor-now/

Activism Alerts:
Call Congress now to ask them if they #StandWithRand? Get them on record and ask them to sunset the badly named 'Patriot Act.' Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121

Update: There are a handful of US House members joining on the Senate floor to support Rand and Democratic Senators Manchin (WV), Coons (DE), Wyden (OR), Tester (MT) and Heinrich (NM) & Republican Senators Lee (UT)and Daines (MT) have spoken on the floor along w/ Rand to support getting rid of this crap. This is Epic folks, do your part!

Tweet https://twitter.com/RandPaul/status/601079082676318208 and keep it standing or insert #StandWithRand in your tweets about this subject.

What lies on the dark side of the moon? The ruined civilization of our lunar forbearers? A pile of overplayed Pink Floyd records? The most exclusive Airbnb in the galaxy? China’s on the case, launching the first expedition of its kind, a journey to the moon’s untapped hemisphere.

The closest extraterrestrial body, the moon has done much to shape our history and mythologies. It’s been associated with Artemis and Greek conceptions of rebirth. It’s also connected with Chang’e, the Chinese goddess of the moon.

Hence the name of China’s latest probe, the Chang’e-4. The mission, part of China’s Lunar Exploration Program (CLEP), plans to land the probe and accompanying rover on the far side of the moon.

"We are currently discussing the next moon landing site for Chang’e 4," Chief lunar exploration engineer Wu Weiren told China Central Television. "We probably will choose a site that is more difficult to land and more technically challenging. Other countries have chosen to land on the near side of the moon. Our next move probably will see some spacecraft land on the far side of the moon."

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/science/20150519/1022336534.html#ixzz3adYjDw92