NewsTrust - Civil Liberties - Most Recent Stories: News (Mainstream)

World leaders seek answers on US collection of communication data

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Alan Travis, Louise Osborne, Lizzy Davies, Jon Boone, David Smith, Kim Willsher, Patrick Kingsley, Miriam Elder - Jun. 11 (News Report) - Data protection chiefs and analysts in EU, Pakistan, South Africa and Canada express concerns at revelations in leaks Leading Europeans, from Angela Merkel down to information chiefs across the continent, are lining up to grill American counterparts on the Prism surveillance programmes , amid mounting fury that the private information of EU nationals will have been caught up in the data dragnet.

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Supreme Court Says Police Can Take D.N.A. Samples

Mon, 03 Jun 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Adam Liptak - Jun. 03 (News Report) - Supreme Court Says Police Can Take D.N.A. Samples

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Government Seeks to Fine Companies for Not Complying With Wiretap Orders

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Wired - By Kim Zetter - Apr. 30 (News) - It isn’t often that communications companies push back against government requests to monitor customers and hand over information about them, but a government task force is seeking to make it even harder for companies to say no. The task force is pushing for legislation that would penalize companies like Google, Facebook and Skype that fail to comply with court orders for wiretapping, according to the Washington Post. The cost of non-complying would be an escalating series of fines, starting at tens of thousands of dollars. Fines that remained unpaid after 90 days would double daily.

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House honors ‘four little girls’ killed in Birmingham church bombing

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Ed O'Keefe - Apr. 25 (Special Report) - The House voted Wednesday to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the four young girls killed in the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., a seminal moment in the civil rights movement. ...

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A historic moment for same-sex marriage arrives before Supreme Court

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Robert Barnes - Mar. 26 (News Report) - A four-year legal battle to extend the right of marriage to same-sex couples no matter where they live gets its moment before the Supreme Court on Tuesday in historic oral arguments difficult to imagine even a decade ago. ...

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Google Concedes That Drive-by Prying Violated Privacy

Tue, 12 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By David Streitfeld - Mar. 12 (News Report) - The $7 million fine was for the secret collection of personal information from wireless networks as Google photographed houses and offices for its maps service.

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Shahbag protesters versus the Butcher of Mirpur

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Tahmima Anam - Feb. 13 (News) - Abdul Quader Mollah has finally been convicted of war crimes committed in Bangladesh in 1971. Now a huge popular protest in Dhaka's Shahbag district is demanding the death penalty It all began with a victory sign. When Abdul Quader Mollah, assistant secretary-general of Bangladesh's Jamaat-e-Islami party, emerged from the supreme court on the afternoon of Tuesday 4 February, he turned to the press waiting outside, smiled, and made a victory sign. An odd reaction for a man just sentenced to life in prison. Mollah smiled because for him, a man convicted of beheading a poet, raping an 11-year-old girl and shooting 344 people during the 1971 Bangladesh war of independence – charges that have earned him the nickname the Butcher of Mirpur – the life sentence came as a surprise . Earlier this month, a fellow accused, Abul Kalam Azad, who is reputed to have fled to Pakistan, was sentenced to death in absentia . When Mollah emerged from the courthouse, a group of online activists and bloggers ...

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DOJ kill list memo forces many Dems out of the closet as overtly unprincipled hacks

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Glenn Greenwald - Feb. 11 (News Analysis) - Last week's controversy over Obama's assassination program forced into light many ignored truths that were long obvious This past week has been a strangely clarifying political moment. It was caused by two related events: the leak of the Justice Department's "white paper" justifying Obama's claimed power to execute Americans without charges, followed by John Brennan's alarming confirmation hearing (as Charles Pierce wrote: "the man whom the administration has put up to head the CIA would not say whether or not the president of the United States has the power to order the extrajudicial killing of a United States citizen within the borders of the United States "). I describe last week's process as "strange" because, for some reason, those events caused large numbers of people for the first time to recognize, accept and begin to confront truths that have long been readily apparent. Illustrating this odd phenomenon was a much-discussed New York Times article on Sunday by Peter Baker which ...

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Gay marriage supporters delighted at result of MPs' vote

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Alexandra Topping - Feb. 06 (News Report) - Peter Tatchell describes bill as being 'of huge symbolic importance' as campaigners celebrate outside parliament When the moment came, it was joyous and loud. There were deafening cheers as the gay marriage bill passed its first parliamentary hurdle in the House of Commons last night from supporters squeezed into a committee room anxiously waiting the result. "As a boy I never thought this moment would happen in my lifetime," said Greg Leonard, 44. "It's really quite emotional". Asked if he was married, he grabbed his partner's leg. "Not yet," he said. Supporters of the bill had gathered outside parliament as MPs were casting their votes. Archie Young, a 20-year-old actor, was among those who cheered as a lorry driver parped his horn and gave a big thumbs-up to the crowd. "This bill will go down in history as an actual groovy piece of legislation," he said. "It is up there with civil rights and the legalisation of homosexuality. This will be the moment when gay people can get married to ...

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Obama Sets Goal to Broaden Equality

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By Michael D. Shear - Jan. 21 (News Analysis) - Unlike the last time Barack Obama took the oath of office, the nation is not in the midst of economic crisis and two wars, but he still faces many challenges.

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Aaron's Law

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 00:00:00 -0800

Atlantic Monthly - By Lawrence Lessig - Jan. 16 (Special Report) - A week ago, Aaron Swartz -- social activist, geek genius -- took his own life. Facing the choice between a federal prosecutor who insisted that he either accept the label "felon" and go to jail or fight a million-dollar lawsuit against 13 felony indictments, Aaron took the third option, and hanged himself. And with that we all lost an incredible soul, one who had literally spent half of his 26-year-old life doing nothing except working for (at least his conception of) the public good. Aaron's alleged "crime" was that he used MIT's network to access a database of academic journal articles (JSTOR) and download millions of those articles to his laptop computer. He didn't "hack" the network to secure those downloads: MIT is a famously open network. He didn't crack any special password system to get behind JSTOR's digital walls. He simply figured out how JSTOR was filing the articles that he wanted, and wrote a simple script to quickly gather those articles and then copy them to his machine.

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Supreme Court Terminates Warrantless Electronic Spying Case

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0700

Wired - By David Kravets - Oct. 10 (News Report) - The Supreme Court closed a 6-year-old chapter Tuesday in the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s bid to hold the nation’s telecoms liable for allegedly providing the National Security Agency with backdoors to eavesdrop, without warrants, on Americans’ electronic communications in violation of federal law.

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China concludes trial of flamboyant police chief

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0700

The Guardian - By Tania Branigan - Sep. 18 (News) - Wang Lijun, who brought about downfall of Bo Xilai, faced charges of taking bribes and 'bending law for selfish ends' The trial of the flamboyant Chinese police chief who brought about the downfall of leader Bo Xilai concluded in south-western China on Tuesday, one day after a secret hearing took place behind closed doors. Wang Lijun faced charges of taking bribes and "bending the law for selfish ends", state news agency Xinhua reported. It described the hearing as an "open trial", although it took place under tight security before a carefully selected audience. Foreign journalists were not permitted to attend. Lawyer Wang Yuncai – no relation of her client, and one of two defence representatives – said Wang's relatives had been in court and that the judgment would be made at a later date. She made no further comment, saying people should wait for the court's announcement. Earlier she said that the first session, regarding defection and abuse of power charges, had been held behind ...

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Five Social Issues On November Ballots

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0700

All Things Considered - By Joel Rose - Aug. 18 (Special Report) - There's a lot at stake in the fall election, including control of Congress and the White House. But important questions will also be decided at the state level. Ballot initiatives will let voters in several states decide on issues ranging from same-sex marriage to marijuana legalization.

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Texas Executes Man Despite His Claims Of Low IQ

Wed, 08 Aug 2012 00:00:00 -0700

All Things Considered - Aug. 08 (Special Report) - A Texas man convicted of killing a police informant two decades ago was executed Tuesday evening after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected arguments that he was too mentally impaired to qualify for the death penalty.

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Obama Says Same-Sex Marriage Should Be Legal

Thu, 10 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Jackie Calmes, Peter Baker - May. 10 (News Report) - President Obama on Wednesday ended nearly two years of “evolving” on the issue of same-sex marriage by publicly endorsing it in a television interview, taking a definitive stand on one of the most contentious and politically charged social issues of the day.

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Obama: Gay couples should be able to marry

Thu, 10 May 2012 00:00:00 -0700

ABC News - By Rick Klein - May. 10 (News Report) - President Obama today announced that he now supports same-sex marriage, reversing his longstanding opposition amid growing pressure from the Democratic base and even his own vice president.

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Hotel's Free Wi-Fi Comes With Hidden Extras

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Brian X. Chen - Apr. 07 (News Report) - A Web engineer notices an odd glitch while using the wireless access at a Courtyard Marriott in New York -- and discovers that the hotel's Internet service is injecting advertising code into every Web page he visits. A site selling the technology for this system refers to it as "Web experience manipulation."

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44 - Politics and policy in Obama's Washington.

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Post - By Matt DeLong - Oct. 02 (News Report) - Speaking at an event hosted by a prominent gay advocacy group, President Obama on Saturday night chastised the his GOP presidential rivals for failing to speak up when some members of the audience at a debate last month booed a gay soldier.

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Awlaki death rekindles legal debate on targeting Americans

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - Oct. 01 (News Analysis) - The slaying of two Americans renews questions about whether killing U.S. citizens is legal under rules of war or constitutes an extrajudicial execution in violation of U.S. and international law. The killing of two Americans by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen has reignited a debate about whether targeting U.S. citizens — even terrorists — is legal under the rules of war or constitutes an extrajudicial execution that ignores their rights.

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Discharged for Being Gay, Veterans Seek to Re-enlist

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By James Dao - Sep. 04 (Investigative Report) - .By some estimates, hundreds of gay men and lesbians among the more than 13,000 who were discharged under the policy have contacted recruiters or advocacy groups saying they want to re-enlist after the policy is repealed on Sept. 20.

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Ban on enforcement of 'don't ask, don't tell' policy is suspended

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Carol J. Williams - Jul. 16 (News) - A federal appeals court late Friday temporarily suspended its ban on enforcement of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, reversing course for the second time this month on how and when the Pentagon must stop discharging gay soldiers and sailors.

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Ex-Spy Alleges Bush White House Sought to Discredit Critic

Thu, 16 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By James Risen - Jun. 16 (News) - A former senior C.I.A. official says that officials in the Bush White House sought damaging personal information on a prominent American critic of the Iraq war in order to discredit him.

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Judge appears skeptical about throwing out Prop. 8 ruling because of jurist's sexuality

Tue, 14 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

Los Angeles Times - By Maura Dolan - Jun. 14 (News Report) - Can a gay judge rule on same-sex marriage? Legal scholars and judges have debated for decades where to draw the line when it comes to potential personal conflicts of jurists, whether over race, gender or religion.

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How state legislatures could affect the 2012 elections

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0700

The Politico - By Molly Ball - Jun. 05 (News) - Across the country, state legislatures are embroiled in partisan battles over election-law changes that, by design or effect, could play a significant role in determining the outcome of the presidency.

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