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The Senate Finance Committee is launching an investigation to determine whether a charity intended to help disabled veterans deserves its tax-exempt status after doling out millions of dollars to a direct-mail company.

Newly released documents have reignited the debate in Washington over whether Obama administration officials granted too much access to filmmakers making a movie about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Brian Todd reports on newly-released docs, new complaints about Hollywood's access to OBL raid info.

Rep. King explains why he's concerned that there's "too much collaboration" between Hollywood and the Obama admin.

MIAMI (AP) — U.S. forecasters predicted Thursday that this year's Atlantic hurricane season would produce a normal number of about nine to 15 tropical storms, with as many as four to eight of those becoming hurricanes.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its initial outlook for the six-month ...

Popehat | Protecting freedom of expression, and condemning its enemies, benefits everyone — conservatives, liberals, and so forth.

Steve Watson | FBI unit to spy on all communications, including skype conversations.

guardian.co.uk | Mere 22% of respondents say that Britain would be better off without the monarchy.

RT | Six fire crew members were injured while trying to quell a massive blaze that engulfed the nuclear-powered submarine USS Miami.

CBSDC: Groups Concerned Over Arming Of Domestic Drones:

With the use of domestic drones increasing, concern has not just come up over privacy issues, but also over the potential use of lethal force by the unmanned aircraft.

Drones have been used overseas to target and kill high-level terror leaders and are also being used along the U.S.-Mexico border in the battle against illegal immigration. But now, these drones are starting to be used domestically at an increasing rate.

The Week | New app 'can give users real-time updates on which nightspots are full of women, or men, and how old or young the crowd is.'

POTLATCH, Idaho (AP) — This small community in the forested, western foothills of the Rocky Mountains was created as a company town to house workers for the nation's largest white pine sawmill, and its tidy homes and straight, tree-lined streets are a testament to its planners.

But the town has ...

David E. Robinson | If the financial system were in conformity with reality, most taxes would have no reason to exist.

Warrantless GPS tracking before Jones was a fishing expedition, and, “[i]n this case, the DEA agents had their fishing poles out to catch Lee.” The exclusionary rule had to apply, and the good faith exception would not be applied for lack of binding precedent in the circuit. United States v. Lee, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71204 (E.D. Ky. May 22, 2012):

Finally, the "purpose and flagrancy of the official misconduct" weighs against attenuation. Brown, 422 U.S. at 604. This last factor is often the "most important," United States v. Shaw, 464 F.3d 615, 630 (6th Cir. 2006), because "[t]he primary focus of attenuation analysis is whether or not the deterrent purpose of the exclusionary rule is served by suppression," United States v. Gray, 491 F.3d 138, 155 (4th Cir. 2007) (Wilkinson, J.). Although the DEA agents' misconduct was not flagrant, the Sixth Circuit has explained that police officers act with an unlawful purpose when they perform an "investigatory" search, that is, "when officers unlawfully seize a defendant "in the hope that something might turn up.'" United States v. Williams, 615 F.3d 657, 670 (6th Cir. 2010) (quoting Brown, 422 U.S. at 605); see also Shaw, 464 F.3d at 631 (noting that "Brown made it clear that the requisite "quality of purposefulness' can be demonstrated when the [misconduct], in design and execution, is investigatory in nature"). The Seventh Circuit agrees that an illegal search has an unlawful purpose when it is "undertaken in an effort to advance the investigation or to embark on a fishing expedition." United States v. Reed, 349 F.3d 457, 465 (7th Cir. 2003).

In this case, the DEA agents had their fishing poles out to catch Lee. Admittedly, the agents did not intend to break the law. But they installed a GPS device on Lee's car without a warrant "in the hope that something might turn up." Williams, 615 F.3d at 670. (quoting Brown, 422 U.S. at 605). When suspicious behavior did, in fact, turn up, they alerted the Kentucky State Police. By doing so, they set in motion a chain of events that ended with Lee's arrest. Their unlawful purpose means that the third attenuation factor also weighs in favor of suppression.

Moreover, the Gross panel pointed out that allowing "post-hoc rationalization" by police would create the "perverse" incentive for police officers to detain any individual going about their daily routines in the hope of turning up an outstanding warrant. Gross, 662 F.3d at 405. The same perverse incentive is present here: if Lee's seatbelt violation were an intervening circumstance, police could install tracking devices with impunity so long as they waited until the subject of their surveillance commits a minor traffic violation. Accord Maryland v. Wilson, 519 U.S. 408, 423 (1997) (Kennedy, J., dissenting) (describing the "almost countless circumstances" that allow the police to stop a vehicle). At that point, the police could stop them and search for evidence of illegal activity. Thus, the Court agrees with Judge Ingram that the police misconduct was guided by an impermissible purpose. See R. 33 at 16. Because none of the three factors favor attenuation, the Court must suppress all evidence that derived from Metzger's illegal search, including the traffic stop, the search of Lee's car, and his subsequent confession.

. . .

This Court is also not the first district court to confront the question of whether to apply the good-faith exception after Jones. In the Ninth Circuit, where binding circuit precedent authorized warrantless GPS monitoring, three district courts have applied the good-faith exception to defeat the defendant's motion to suppress. United States v. Aquilar, No. 4:11-cr-298-BLW, 2012 WL 1600276, at *2 (D. Idaho May 7, 2012); United States v. Leon, No. CR 09-00452, 2012 WL 1081962, at *3 (D. Haw. Mar. 28, 2012); United States v. Nwobi, No. CR 10-952(C)GHK-7, 2012 WL 769746, at *3 (C.D. Cal. Mar. 7, 2012). A district court in the Eighth Circuit did the same, also holding that the officer's reliance on binding circuit precedent triggered the good-faith exception. United States v. Amaya, No. CR-11-4065-MWB, 2012 WL 1188456, at *7-8 (N.D. Iowa Apr. 10, 2012). But in the Third Circuit, where there was no appellate ruling on warrantless GPS tracking, one district court refused to extend the good-faith exception. United States v. Katzin, No. 11-226, 2012 WL 1646894, at *9-10 (E.D. Pa. May 9, 2012). Applying the good-faith exception in the absence of binding appellate precedent would, in that court's eyes, "effectively eviscerate the exclusionary rule." Id. at *9. If law enforcement could "rely on non-binding authority, particularly in the face of other, contrary non-binding authority," officers would "beg forgiveness rather than ask permission in ambiguous situations involving ... basic civil rights." Id.

See Wired.com: Pot Prosecution Goes Up in Smoke Due to Warrantless GPS Tracking by Kim Zetter.

Guest host Regis Philbin and David Letterman discuss using political humor on late night television.

Daily Mail | Will.i.am: "Climate change should be the thing that we are all worried and concerned about as humans on this planet."

By Collin Levy The U.S. attorney made his name abusing the legal process for the sake of high-production value political trials.

Prosecutor’s opening statement reference to defendant’s refusal to consent to a search was reversible error in a possession case where the defendant denied knowledge a gun was in the car. Rose v. State, 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 8026 (Fla. 1st DCA May 22, 2012):

We hold that the trial court erred by overruling Appellant's objection and that this error was not harmless here. See Bravo v. State, 65 So. 3d 621 (Fla. 1st DCA 2011) (reversing conviction where trial court allowed impermissible testimony regarding defendant's refusal to consent to search of home without a warrant); Gomez v. State, 572 So. 2d 952, 953 (Fla. 5th DCA 1990) (holding "[c]omment on a defendant's denial of permission to search a vehicle, although not exactly the same thing as comment on a defendant's right to remain silent, since the Fourth Amendment is involved rather than the Fifth, constitutes constitutional error of the same magnitude.") (footnote omitted); see also Ramet v. State, 209 P.3d 268 (Nev. 2009) (holding that state may not introduce evidence that defendant refused to consent to warrantless search, as "defendant's invocation of his Fourth Amendment right cannot be used as evidence of a crime or consciousness of guilt," and citing Gomez and other federal and state decisions, but recognizing that error may be harmless).

VOA News | 'The government declared Thursday a holiday to give people more time to cast ballots.'

Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones | Hundreds of classes cancelled as ACC loses 10,000 students.