Auditor: 100,000 Dashcam Videos Disappear from SPD Database
May 12th, 2013Your what hurts?
Via: Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
More than 100,000 dashcam videos have disappeared from the Seattle Police Department, prompting city investigators to recommend the department do a better job of tracking and saving those videos.
Bill Gates, Jeb Bush, Oprah and Warren Buffett Meeting on South Carolina Island
May 12th, 2013Via: WBTW:
Bill Gates, Chairman of Microsoft and one of the richest people in the world, is spending time in the Lowcountry.
WCBD confirmed the American business magnate is at the Sanctuary on Kiawah Island.
Suspicion was raised when nearly 20 very expensive jets were seen lined up at the Charleston International Airport on Johns Island.
Officials with the Beach Company confirmed to WCBD that other big names such as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, TV host Oprah Winfrey and Billionaire Warren Buffet flew into the Charleston Executive airport on Johns Island Wednesday night.
Other prominent people said to also be staying there this weekend are Jeb Bush and Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The famous guests were attending a two day long conference led by Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Officials say the meeting was about the foundation Gates and his wife Linda run.
Bloomberg Spied on Market Data Subscribers
May 11th, 2013Via: CNN:
That was the unsettling realization Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) executives came to a few weeks ago when a Bloomberg reporter inadvertently revealed the surveillance capabilities reporters from the news and financial data provider have over users of Bloomberg terminals.
Traders throughout the financial world depend on Bloomberg terminals for real-time data on markets of all kinds as well as news and instant messaging. The machines reportedly rent for $20,000 a year and are used by thousands of subscribers, bringing in a substantial portion of the company’s revenue.
In a recent conversation with a Goldman executive, a Bloomberg reporter mentioned that a partner at the bank hadn’t logged into his terminal recently. This prompted concern from Goldman that Bloomberg journalists could be tracking users on the terminals, a bank spokesman said.
The news was reported earlier by the New York Post.
Bloomberg spokesman Ty Trippet said the company had quickly addressed Goldman’s concerns.
“Limited customer relationship data has long been available to our journalists, and has never included clients’ security-level data, position data, trading data or messages,” he said in an email.
Journalists also couldn’t see what news stories users read and what securities they viewed, though they could access details on when users had logged into their terminals, when they became subscribers and what sorts of functions they were using.
“In light of [Goldman’s] concern as well as a general heightened sensitivity to data access, we decided to disable journalist access to this customer relationship information for all clients,” Trippet said.
Cops Beat Woman For Filming Another Beating
May 11th, 2013Via: Alternet:
Baltimore police beat up a woman and smashed her camera for filming them beating up a man, telling her: “You want to film something bitch? Film this!” the woman claims in court.
Cryptogon Reader Sent $20
May 11th, 2013MW sent $20 back in April. Thank you.
Police Practice for Gunbattle with… ‘Angry Parents at a School’
May 11th, 2013[???]
Via: KOMO Repost by MoxNews:
Former Dictator Efraín Ríos Montt Convicted of Genocide in Guatemala
May 11th, 2013“President Ríos Montt is a man of great personal integrity and commitment. … I know he wants to improve the quality of life for all Guatemalans and to promote social justice.”
—U.S. President Ronald Regan, 1982
Via: Independent:
Former dictator Efrain Rios Montt’s conviction of genocide is a historic moment in a country still healing from a brutal, three-decade civil war and his trial offered Guatemala’s oppressed indigenous communities their first chance to be heard, human rights activists said.
Relatives of those killed and activists celebrated the 80-year sentence handed down by a tribunal to Rios Montt on Friday, a sweet moment in their long struggle to punish the former dictator who presided over one of the bloodiest chapters of a war that killed some 200,000 people, mainly indigenous Mayans.
During the trial Ixil Mayans, who have long suffered discrimination, stood up and testified about mass rapes, the killings of women and children, and other atrocities that authorities had often denied took place.
Research Credit: almaverdad2
FBI Documents Suggest Feds Read Emails Without a Warrant
May 11th, 2013Via: ACLU:
New documents from the FBI and U.S. Attorneys’ offices paint a troubling picture of the government’s email surveillance practices. Not only does the FBI claim it can read emails and other electronic communications without a warrant—even after a federal appeals court ruled that doing so violates the Fourth Amendment—but the documents strongly suggest that different U.S. Attorneys’ offices around the country are applying conflicting standards to access communications content (you can see the documents here).
Last month, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the ACLU received IRS documents indicating that the agency’s criminal investigative arm doesn’t always get a warrant to read Americans’ emails. Today we are releasing these additional documents from other federal law enforcement agencies, reinforcing the urgent need for Congress to protect our privacy by updating the laws that cover electronic communications.
Research Credit: ottilie
Dad Who Died During Arrest ‘Begged for His Life’; Witness Videos Seized
May 11th, 2013Via: The Bakersfield Californian:
Blood stains are still visible on the sidewalk at the corner of Flower Street and Palm Drive, where a Bakersfield man struggled with as many as nine officers and later died this week.
David Sal Silva, 33 and the father of four young children, died early Wednesday morning after deputies say he fought with them and CHP officers who’d responded to a report of a possibly intoxicated man outside Kern Medical Center.
The Kern County Sheriff’s Office says Silva resisted, a canine was deployed, more law enforcement arrived, batons were used and the man later had trouble breathing. He was taken to KMC, where he died. An autopsy was slated for Thursday, but no results have been released.
Some witnesses apparently took cellphone video of the incident but deputies moved quickly to seize the phones. The Sheriff’s Office, after releasing a statement Wednesday and naming its officers Thursday, declined all further comment.
People who say they witnessed the incident as well as Silva’s family members described a scene in which deputies essentially were beating a helpless man to death. They were indignant that cellphone video had been taken away by deputies.
Research Credit: pookie
Mysterious Aircraft Puzzles Quincy Residents
May 11th, 2013Via: Patriot Ledger:
The Federal Aviation Administration knows what’s up there but it’s not telling the public.
A slew of Quincy residents have been complaining and calling police and the city about an aircraft that appeared about two weeks ago and has been taking wide, repeated loops in the air, between about 7 p.m. and 4 a.m.
Residents from Wollaston to West Quincy describe a low-pitch humming sound coming from the aircraft. Some have said it’s reminiscent of a drone, which is an unmanned aircraft operated by remote control.
“It’s not a drone,” FAA spokesman Jim Peters said. “It’s an authorized flight and we are aware of it.”
Peters declined to make any further comment.
Research Credit: HPLovecraft666
