During wartime, one of America’s most solemn duties is to take care of its veterans. So why do careless government workers keep putting our vets at risk? That happened last January at a Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in Birmingham, Alabama, when an employee’s portable hard drive containing Social Security numbers of more than [...]

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Viacom wants to know which videos YouTube employees have watched and uploaded to the site, and Google is refusing to provide that information, CNET News has learned.
This dispute is the reason the two companies, and lawyers representing a group of other copyright holders suing Google, have failed to reach a final agreement on anonymizing personal [...]

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When Mayor Nutter announced late last year that he was hiring D.C. Charles Ramsey as his police commissioner, I said I would keep an open mind but I was dismayed at his treatment of anti-war protesters and his frequent clashes there over civil rights. So far, I’ve been mostly impressed with Ramsey — murders have [...]

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SURPRISE, Ariz. — A 97-year-old Surprise woman who has voted in the past 19 presidential elections said she finds herself a casualty in the voter ID battle.
Shirley Preiss cannot register in Arizona for the November elections without proof of citizenship.
“I’m a legal American,” Preiss said. “I’m born here. Born and raised in America.”
The Arizona law [...]

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“So I recently discovered a great new running trail one evening- beautiful rolling dirt with old, moss-covered trees. Deer and owls, and not another human being to be found. Only problem is that the trail lay beyond a barb-wire fence, and a “No Trespassing” sign.
Went back a week or two later, found the end, and [...]

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The nation’s biggest electronics retailer has told the Federal Communications Commission that the agency lacks the authority to punish Best Buy for screwing up its digital transition TV selling rules. “The Commission never before has claimed, asserted, or exercised direct or ancillary jurisdiction over retailers, or retail practices, of the nature that is asserted” by [...]

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This is why I’m a libertarian. If you give the government a power, they will find a way to abuse it. It doesn’t matter how benign or legitimate that power may seem on it’s surface. Some public official will find a way to torture the definition of a term to serve either his/her own agenda, [...]

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The Bush administration said yesterday that it plans to start using the nation’s most advanced spy technology for domestic purposes soon, rebuffing challenges by House Democrats over the idea’s legal authority.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff (pictured) said his department will activate his department’s new domestic satellite surveillance office in stages, starting as soon as possible [...]

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You know what sucks? A lot of people in the US won’t protest something much more important, but these guys in Norway, who obviously don’t have a war or loss of freedoms to protest, are still taking to the streets to voice their dissent.
In this clip she says the protesters in San Francisco will not [...]

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Yes this is a long article, but it is well worth the read. Interesting to see an organization not designed to make money, make a lot of money… wait, that’s not even the scary thing, how about the security of the new e-passport? Ugh.
The United States has outsourced the manufacturing of its electronic passports to [...]

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In 1993, the dawn of the Internet age, the liberating anonymity of the online world was captured in a well-known New Yorker cartoon. One dog, sitting at a computer, tells another: “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” Fifteen years later, that anonymity is gone.
It’s not paranoia: they really are spying on you.
Technology companies [...]

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WASHINGTON–In the long-running Real ID staring match, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security ended up being the first to blink.
Homeland Security announced Wednesday that all 50 states and the District of Columbia will be technically Real ID-compliant by the May 11, 2008 deadline–even though many states actually have rejected the concept and have zero plans [...]

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SAN JOSE, Calif. - Attorney General Michael Mukasey warned Friday that the huge profits generated from piracy and counterfeiting are increasingly flowing into the coffers of terrorist groups.
In remarks to Silicon Valley executives at the Tech Museum of Innovation, Mukasey said the economy and national security of the United States are increasingly threatened by violations [...]

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Check out some of the background stories that have been leading up to this:

Goldman Sachs Creates Private Stock Exchange for Unregistered Securities, Clients with $100 Million Minimum
NASDAQ to Open Unregulated Private Stock Exchange for Investors with a Minimum of $100 Million in Assets
Big Traders Dive Into Dark Pools

In other words, if you thought equities were [...]

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Nipple ring search procedures faulty, TSA admits
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) — The Transportation Security Administration said Friday its officers at a Texas airport appear to have properly followed procedures when they allegedly forced a woman to remove her nipple rings — one with pliers — but acknowledged the procedures should be changed.Mandi Hamlin, at center [...]

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