Gallery: Reaction to the Ferguson Decision
November 26th, 2014Season’s Greetings. Wow.
Top Obama Bundler Accused of Child Rape
November 26th, 2014Via: USA Today:
Conservatives complain that President Obama gets a free pass from the media, which acts as a de-facto public-relations shop for the Democrat in the White House. Never has that charge seemed truer than now as an ugly rape scandal unfolds on the West Coast.
On Wednesday, Portland, Ore. police arrested Terrence Patrick Bean, who has been charged with two felony counts of having sex with a minor last year. This man is not just any old guy accused of having sex with a 15-year-old – he’s a big-money Democratic donor and liberal political activist with connections inside the Obama White House. Bean raised more than a half-million dollars for Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign.
“Bean has been one of the state’s biggest Democratic donors and an influential figure in gay rights circles in the state,” reports oregonlive.com. “He helped found two major national political groups, the Human Rights Campaign and the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and has been a major contributor for several Democratic presidential candidates, including Barack Obama.”
Related: The Franklin Scandal
More Troops Ordered to Ferguson After Night of Chaos
November 25th, 2014Via: New York Times:
After a chaotic night of demonstrations that erupted in many fires, frequent bursts of gunshots, looting and waves of tear gas, Gov. Jay Nixon said early Tuesday that he would send additional National Guard troops to help quell the worst violence this battered St. Louis suburb has seen since a white police officer shot and killed an unarmed black teenager in August.
The hours of unrest followed the announcement on Monday evening that a grand jury had chosen not to indict the officer, Darren Wilson, for the death of Michael Brown. St. Louis County reported that 61 people had been arrested.
Secret Malware in European Union Attack Linked to U.S. and British Intelligence
November 25th, 2014Via: First Look:
Complex malware known as Regin is the suspected technology behind sophisticated cyberattacks conducted by U.S. and British intelligence agencies on the European Union and a Belgian telecommunications company, according to security industry sources and technical analysis conducted by The Intercept.
Regin was found on infected internal computer systems and email servers at Belgacom, a partly state-owned Belgian phone and internet provider, following reports last year that the company was targeted in a top-secret surveillance operation carried out by British spy agency Government Communications Headquarters, industry sources told The Intercept.
The malware, which steals data from infected systems and disguises itself as legitimate Microsoft software, has also been identified on the same European Union computer systems that were targeted for surveillance by the National Security Agency.
The hacking operations against Belgacom and the European Union were first revealed last year through documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. The specific malware used in the attacks has never been disclosed, however.
The Regin malware, whose existence was first reported by the security firm Symantec on Sunday, is among the most sophisticated ever discovered by researchers. Symantec compared Regin to Stuxnet, a state-sponsored malware program developed by the U.S. and Israel to sabotage computers at an Iranian nuclear facility. Sources familiar with internal investigations at Belgacom and the European Union have confirmed to The Intercept that the Regin malware was found on their systems after they were compromised, linking the spy tool to the secret GCHQ and NSA operations.
No Indictment for Ferguson Officer
November 25th, 2014Via: USA Today:
A white police officer will not face charges for fatally shooting an unarmed black teenager in a case that set off violent protests and racial unrest throughout the nation.
A St. Louis County grand jury declined to indict officer Darren Wilson, 28, for firing six shots in an August confrontation that killed 18-year-old Michael Brown, St. Louis County prosecutor Robert McCulloch said Monday night.
Crowds of protesters filled streets near the Ferguson police station following the announcement. A police car and stores were set on fire, other stores were looted, gunfire was heard and bricks were hurled. Police said they had been fired on and responded with smoke bombs and pepper spray before using tear gas.
Police later said they came under heavy automatic weapon fire, and some buildings were left to burn because of the danger. County police said an officer suffered a gunshot wound, but it was unclear if it was because of the protest violence.
Protests sprang up in cities from New York to Los Angeles and remained mostly peaceful. At least half a dozen commercial airline flights into St. Louis were diverted out of concerns about the unrest.
Australia: Networks Told They Need to Play Fair with Solar Customers, or Die
November 24th, 2014Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in New Zealand.
I’m working with a Cryptogon reader in New Zealand to get a solar power system installed at her property. Below is an email that I wrote to her about the New Zealand electricity cartel’s absurd and futile resistance to solar.
In short, the greedier they are and the worse they screw us, the sooner we’ll be free of them:
NZ is the most solar hostile country in the OECD. I used to bitch and moan about this, but I’m now seeing the silver lining:
The government won’t do anything to break up the electricity cartel in this country, because the government is in on it. It’s a total scam that screws us and benefits the government and people who bought the energy company shares (formally public assets). *shocker*
But it’s the power companies’ greed and inflexibility that are going to make storage so much more attractive here over the next couple of years.
So, fine! Take the buyback rate down to the level of cigarette butts and bottle caps. Charge our neighbors without solar and us at night between 4X and 7X more that power. Hell, take it to zero. Solar is so evil that we should have to give them our excess electricity for free! Why not?
It just makes storage look better and better. The more pissed I get about this situation, the more I watch developments on the battery front. Solar isn’t going away. Most people realize that it just seems to make sense, even if they haven’t crunched the numbers.
My guess is that as some of the major battery systems start to roll out, watch the electricity cartel put the solar buyback rate up again to discourage people from getting batteries. Right now, they’re just trying to prevent people from getting the panels. The real trick will be to keep the people with the panels from getting batteries.
They’ll be faced with choice:
Do we want solar/battery customers to stay connected and paying us something, or do we get nothing from them ever again as they disconnect from the grid?
Right now, this scenario seems like it will never happen here, but give it just a couple of years. The emerging battery technology will really
upset the apple cart here—in a good way.Kevin
And now…
Via: RenewEconomy:
Australia’s major utilities are being advised they need to give fair treatment to local energy generation – such as rooftop solar and battery storage – if they are to avoid the so-called death spiral that threatens their business models.
A new report from the Institute of Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology in Sydney suggests local generation needs to be adequately rewarded to prevent mass defection from the grid from consumers unhappy about their treatment from utilities.
…
Solar households currently get paid little for any excess electricity they generate – 5.5c/kWh in some areas, a voluntary payment in others.
This means that consumers are now motivated to consume much of their solar power as they can on site, or to install batteries to store it for use later. This is expected to accelerate dramatically when gross feed-in tariffs expire in NSW and Victoria, and there is concern that when battery storage costs fall far enough, and/or consumers get irate or motivated enough, they will simply disconnect.
The response by utilities to hike fixed charges might address some of their short-term revenue problems, but ISF warns that it could accelerate grid defection and so make matters worse in the long run. High daily access charges also raise equity issues as low use, because low income households pay a disproportionate amount compared to the services they receive.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel Forced to Step Down
November 24th, 2014Via: NBC:
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is stepping down amid criticism of the president’s national security team on a series of global issues, including the threat posed by the militant group known as ISIS.
Senior defense officials confirmed to NBC News Monday that Hagel was forced to resign.
The officials say the White House has lost confidence in Hagel to carry out his role at the Pentagon. According to one senior official, “He wasn’t up to the job.”
Another senior administration official said that Hagel has been discussing a departure from the White House “for several weeks.”
Canadian Mom Gives Birth in U.S., Gets $1 Million Bill
November 24th, 2014Via: Newser:
Jennifer Huculak-Kimmel thought she’d dotted all the i’s. Six months pregnant in October of 2013, she was cleared by her doctor to vacation in Hawaii with her husband, and she made sure to get Blue Cross insurance coverage before her trip. Just two days in, though, her water broke and she was put on bed rest for six weeks with stern warnings about flying, even with a surgical team, reports CBC. She ended up having baby Reece nine weeks early, and her two-month hospital stay led to a $950,000 medical bill—and a letter from Blue Cross denying any coverage due to a pre-existing condition. In its letter, the company wrote: “Ms. Huculak was diagnosed and treated for a high-risk pregnancy in the six months prior to departure. … Any expenses incurred are not eligible under the terms of your policy.”
Regin: Top-Tier Espionage Tool Enables Stealthy Surveillance
November 24th, 2014Via: Symantec:
An advanced piece of malware, known as Regin, has been used in systematic spying campaigns against a range of international targets since at least 2008. A back door-type Trojan, Regin is a complex piece of malware whose structure displays a degree of technical competence rarely seen. Customizable with an extensive range of capabilities depending on the target, it provides its controllers with a powerful framework for mass surveillance and has been used in spying operations against government organizations, infrastructure operators, businesses, researchers, and private individuals.
It is likely that its development took months, if not years, to complete and its authors have gone to great lengths to cover its tracks. Its capabilities and the level of resources behind Regin indicate that it is one of the main cyberespionage tools used by a nation state.
Citigroup Executive Found Dead in Greenwich Village Bathtub With Throat Slashed
November 23rd, 2014Update: Suspected Suicide, Police Said
Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Via: Bloomberg:
The death of Shawn D. Miller, a Citigroup Inc. (C) managing director found dead in his apartment in New York, is a suspected suicide, police said.
—
Via: NBC:
Police are investigating the death of a Citigroup manager who was found in his Manhattan apartment bathtub with this throat cut.
Police say 42-year-old Shawn Miller was discovered Tuesday afternoon by his doorman at his Greenwich Village apartment after a friend asked to check on him. He was found with a slash wound on his neck in his bathtub.
