What happens to your keys and passwords after you die? Cory Doctorow looks at the various ways of giving loved ones access to your post-mortem online life.
On the topic of police dogs, someone in the comments posted this 2007 Grits for Breakfast post, in which a consultant expert on the use of K9s says the dogs are wrong about half the time. No idea how accurate that is, though it’s consistent with what cops from LEAP have told me.
Publishers Weekly interviews comic artist Peter Bagge, whose new book is a collection of the editorial comics he has written for Reason over the years.
Wired follows up on bCurtis Melvin’s work using Google Maps to annotate North Korea’s geography.
WalMart supports an employer health care mandate. Weirdly, this will likely win the company praise from its traditional critics. In truth, this really is an effort to impose expensive, government-enforced burdens on the company’s mom-and-pop competitors. Yet another example of how behemoth companies tend to welcome federal regulation, not shun it. More regs make it more difficult for upstarts to compete.
Stock up on Nyquil and Allerest now. The feds may ban them. Ridiculous. When you consider how many people benefit from the acetaminophen’s pain relief properties, 458 deaths per year sounds almost like a rounding error. (MORE: They want to ban Percocet and Vicodin, too.)
The Daily Show’s terrific reporting from Iran.
Husien Shehada, a 29-year-old unarmed Virginia man, was shot dead while vacationing in Florida this week. Police were apparently investigating reports of a man carrying a gun outside a nightclub. It doesn’t appear that he did anything wrong at all. The police bizarrely then interrogated the man’s brother and girlfriend about whether “they spoke Arabic,” then arrested the man’s brother for beating his girlfriend (he denies the charge). The cop who shot him was back on duty four days later, during which he was involved in a second fatal shooting. He’s now on paid desk duty. More here.
Posted in Forensics, General Criminal Justice, Police Professionalism
Length of original U.S. Constitution: 11 pages. Length of most recent energy/cap-and-trade/global warming bill: 1,200 pages.
Cross-dressing clown robs liquor store.
Sued if you do, sued if you don’t–the real problem with the Ricci case.
Good interview with Peter Neufeld, co-found of the Innocence Project.
There, I Fixed It.
Via John Tabin, if the U.S. Senate confirms Sotomayor, last week’s SCOTUS ruling granting criminal defendants the right to cross-examine forensic experts who author reports submitted into evidence may already be in trouble.
Police bring six cruisers, eight cops, a helicopter, and use pepper spray to break up . . . a fundraiser for a Democratic congressional candidate.
Cool Google Maps ap plotting the spots featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. That show makes me want to eat my television. Can’t believe Guy Fieri hasn’t come within 45 miles of D.C. yet, though.
Posted in General Criminal Justice, Innocence, Police Professionalism
I wholly endorse this idea. I’ve been taking the 20-minute post-lunch power nap for years, and it does wonders for productivity. Here’s a tip: Drink a cup of coffee (or, if you’re a caffeine fiend, a Five Hour Energy or Monster), then nap for 20-30 minutes. You’ll wake up alert, focused, and rested.
I’d like to hear the torture apologists explain what possible benefit we might have gained from, pardon my language, fucking crucifying an Abu Ghraib detainee (see page six). Why in the world would we not pursue charges against the people who did it? Did he provide valuable intelligence after he was dead? Are we worried that prosecuting the people who killed this detainee might make CIA interrogators reluctant to use crucifixion as an interrogation tool in the future? And wouldn’t that sort of be the point?
Fun with banner ads.
So remember how Obama and all the Very Serious People in Washington kept telling us how the stimulus bill needed to be passed post-haste, and anyone foolish enough to call for restraint, or who suggested that perhaps Congress and the public should be given more than 11 hours to review the bill in its final version before it was voted on were cast off as petty obstructionists? Here’s your pork- and corporate-welfare laden reality. When politicians tell you we don’t have time to be careful, it means they don’t want to give you the time to figure out what they’re actually doing. (Note: Link fixed. Note: No, really this time.)
This year’s winner of the World’s Ugliest Dog competition.
DHS, DoD clashing over posting National Guard troops at the border for drug interdiction. The DoD’s got this one right. But here’s a pretty typical Obama line from the article: “President Obama has signaled that he is open to the idea, asking Congress for $250 million to deploy the National Guard while also saying he was “not interested in militarizing the border.” Obama has perfected the art of making a firm declaration of principle, just before taking action that directly violates that principle.
Posted in Dog Blogging, General Drug War, Police Militarization
Straight Outta’ Moscow.
Others have done the celebrity Facebook page gag before, but this one is pretty well-executed.
New report casts fresh doubt on “shaken baby syndrome.”
Another bizarre autopsy case in Mississippi: “His body organs were missing and he was stuffed with bed sheets.” Yes, Dr. Hayne is involved, though it isn’t yet clear just where in the chain of custody his initial autopsy came.
Police officer once again treads onto private land, shoots and kills the owner’s dog. And once again, witness accounts of the incident differ sharply from officer accounts.
Posted in Forensics, Police Militarization, Police Professionalism
Obama teams up with Philip Morris to crush the rest of the tobacco industry, eliminate safer tobacco products. It’s the regulatory state in action!
The last thing former Rep. Tom “Any Time, Any Matter” Davis needs is the title of “czar.” This would be a pretty horrible selection. Davis is not only no friend of electronic privacy, he’s a power-hungry career politician.
Burger King takes suggestive advertising to a whole new level.
Off-duty Chicago cop caught on video savagely beating a female bartender who refused to serve him sentenced to . . . probation.
Strange story: 16-year-old girl is the size of an infant, has barely aged.
Posted in Nanny State, Police Professionalism
Here’s one from Montgomery County, Maryland:
Kenyan immigrant Nancy Njoroge had been living in the United States for a year when a Montgomery County SWAT team burst into her Gaithersburg apartment at 4 a.m., handcuffed her and her two teenage daughters, and searched her apartment, court records show.
Police found nothing.
The reason: Njoroge lived in No. 202 of her apartment complex. The police had a search warrant for apartment 201.
After rejecting an offer from the county’s claims adjuster of a “couple of movie passes,” the American Civil Liberties Union is suing the county on the family’s behalf for unspecified damages, according to ACLU records filed in court.
The ACLU said the purpose of the lawsuit was to hold the police department accountable for its mistake.
“Officers had but one apartment to locate, in a quiet and well-lit hallway in the dead of night, without distraction and with clearly marked doors and numbers,” ACLU lawyer Fritz Mulhauser said in a letter to the county…
Court records don’t give a clear reason why the police raided the wrong apartment, and the county attorney assigned to the case did not respond to inquiries for the story. But in court records, a SWAT team leader indicated that it was an isolated incident.
The movie passes were a nice touch. The raid actually happened in 2005, but after negotiations with the county failed, the family filed its federal civil rights suit this month.
Posted in Police Militarization
The St. Pete Times runs a terrific in-depth investigation into Scientology.
Denver cop suspended for pulling gun on McDonald’s worker who took too long with his order.
Count me among those who find it irritating when someone checks their Blackberry as you’re talking to them. Not sure why there would be “debate” over whether or not this is rude.
World rarest insect found on ocean-protruding rock.
Iranian government trying to prevent Neda Soltan from becoming a martyr. I’d say they’re way too late. Meanwhile, more terrible stories emerge about others killed during the protests.
Posted in Police Professionalism
In Indianapolis:
Marye Minton, 70, and her 72-year-old husband were awoken early Thursday to officers banging on the door of their home…
Marye Minton said she is upset that the officers came inside and ordered her husband, who is in poor health, onto the ground.
“They said to him, ‘Get on the floor,’ like that, and see my husband’s had four strokes, and he can’t whoop anybody, he can’t do anything,” she said. “I’m very mad and I don’t want it to happen to another citizen.”
Officers were trying to serve a warrant for a man wanted on drug charges. The address listed on the paperwork was 4042. The Minton’s home is 4048, with both house numbers clearly marked.
But Major Mark Robinett of the Marion County Sheriff’s Department, who is in charge of warrant sweeps, said he was told that officers had a difficult time reading the addresses because of overcast skies.
Posted in Police Militarization
