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Greg Palast at Chicago GreenFestival this Sunday - Invitation Greg wants to thank you for your support with a special gift. He will be the featured speaker this Sunday and would love to meet you in person and say hi. We have arranged for 20 free guest spots for our supporters. If you would like one or two complimentary tickets you must reply to this note before Sunday. Additional tickets can be purchased at the door. Greg would love to meet with you at the book signing station after his presentation. The presentation will be: Billionaire Ballot Bandits: The Theft of 2012 Greg tells weird, hilarious and sick stories of the billionaires who are bankrolling the GOP; with hot new info on the Koch Brothers as well as the filthy rich you've never heard of ––from his new "kick ass" [Nomi Prins] book Vultures' Picnic. When and Where: Sunday, May 6, 2012 1 pm Main Stage Navy Pier (Hall A) located at 600 East Grand Avenue Chicago Click here for more info about the Chicago GreenFestival Here's what Greg has been up to recently: - BP Cover-up 'They Knew.' - Part 1 - BP Cover-up: Bribery, George Bush and WikiLeaks - Part 2 Best wishes, The Palast Team

If you're in Chicago this weekend - please stop by at the Main Stage at the Navy Pier for Greenfest

I'll be the featured speaker this Sunday and would love to meet you in person and say hi.

I've arranged for 10 free guest spots for our supporters (first come first serve).

If you would like one or two complimentary tickets please send an e-mail to palastreport[at]gmail.com before Sunday 10.

Additional tickets can be purchased at the door or online for $10.

I'd love to meet with you at the book signing station after my speech.

The presentation will be:

Billionaire Ballot Bandits: The Theft of 2012

Weird, hilarious and sick stories of the billionaires who are bankrolling the GOP; with hot new info on the Koch Brothers as well as the filthy rich you've never heard of ––from my new "kick ass" [Nomi Prins] book Vultures' Picnic.

When and Where:

Sunday, May 6, 2012

1 pm

Main Stage

Navy Pier (Hall A)

located at 600 East Grand Avenue

Chicago

Click here for more info about the Chicago GreenFestival

If you haven't seen this already... here's what I've been up to recently:

- BP Cover-up 'They Knew.' - Part 1

- BP Cover-up: Bribery, George Bush and WikiLeaks - Part 2

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LAS VEGAS (AP) -- After receiving scant attention in the Republican presidential race, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson is hoping to run on the Libertarian ticket....

Defendant can’t relitigate his motion to suppress in a 2255 which was decided on the merits on appeal without an IAC claim. United States v. Reed, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 61806 (N.D. Fla. March 8, 2012).*

The intrusion by detention was minimal here and led to consent, and defense counsel was not ineffective for not pursuing that ground because it would lose on the merits. Woodson v. State, 2012 Ind. App. LEXIS 214 (May 2, 2012).*

Officers who entered after no answer to knocking at a door of the location of a disturbance call were entitled to qualified immunity. This was a reasonable response to a perceived need. They were inside two minutes. Burke v. Sullivan, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 9042 (8th Cir. May 3, 2012).*

It isn’t required that the affiant actually viewed child pornography to get a search warrant, at least as long as somebody did and reported it to the affiant. It is not required to attach the photographs to the search warrant application. Even if some were computer generated images, there was still probable cause. United States v. Ranke, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 9118, 2012 FED App. 0471N (6th Cir. May 3, 2012)*:

Next, Defendant argues that the affidavit was insufficiently detailed. He points out that the affidavit does not indicate how Detective Pitts determined that the images were of a minor and that Detective Pitts' description of a boy "apparently masturbating" suggests that he never actually viewed the images personally. Defendant claims these deficiencies were compounded when Detective Pitts failed to attach the images to the affidavit for the state court judge's independent review.

The implication, to the extent one exists, that Detective Pitts never viewed the images personally, as well as his failure to attach the photographs to the search warrant affidavit, are both factors that should have played into the state court judge's probable cause analysis. However, neither precluded the judge from issuing the search warrant. First, an officer is entitled to rely on information supplied by other officers or agencies for the purposes of a search warrant affidavit, provided that the information and its sources are accurately described for the reviewing judge's independent evaluation. See United States v. Yusuf, 461 F.3d 374, 385, 48 V.I. 980 (3d Cir. 2006); United States v. Jenkins, 525 F.2d 819, 823 (6th Cir. 1975) (per curiam). Detective Pitts fulfilled that requirement when he provided an accurate description of the circumstances under which he "received information from federal authorities" regarding the greeting card, the accompanying photographs, and the incriminating evidence discovered in Brown's cell. Likewise, Detective Pitts' failure to attach the photographs themselves did not prevent the search warrant from being issued. A magistrate judge need not view all the evidence personally to make its decision, and the probable cause stage only requires an affidavit to show the "'probability or substantial chance of' possession of images of actual children; 'an actual showing' that the images depicted real children" is not required. Lapsins, 570 F.3d at 765 (citing Gates, 462 U.S. at 243 n.13).

How unthinkable it was, not so long ago, that a presidential election would pit a candidate fathered by an African against another condemned as un-Christian....

How unthinkable it was, not so long ago, that a presidential election would pit a candidate fathered by an African against another condemned as un-Christian....

How unthinkable it was, not so long ago, that a presidential election would pit a candidate fathered by an African against another condemned as un-Christian....

How unthinkable it was, not so long ago, that a presidential election would pit a candidate fathered by an African against another condemned as un-Christian....

How unthinkable it was, not so long ago, that a presidential election would pit a candidate fathered by an African against another condemned as un-Christian....

How unthinkable it was, not so long ago, that a presidential election would pit a candidate fathered by an African against another condemned as un-Christian....

How unthinkable it was, not so long ago, that a presidential election would pit a candidate fathered by an African against another condemned as un-Christian....

How unthinkable it was, not so long ago, that a presidential election would pit a candidate fathered by an African against another condemned as un-Christian....

How unthinkable it was, not so long ago, that a presidential election would pit a candidate fathered by an African against another condemned as un-Christian....

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — While 81-year-old Warren Buffett's health has been on investors' minds, many shareholders at Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting said Saturday that they aren't that worried about Buffett's prostate cancer diagnosis.

More than 30,000 people are expected to fill Omaha's downtown arena and overflow rooms to hear Buffett ...

Officers entered onto the curtilage of defendant’s property before they could smell a grow operation and hear the equipment. That was a Fourth Amendment violation, and it vitiated alleged consent and the good faith exception to a later warrant. United States v. Lopez, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 61707 (S.D. Fla. May 2, 2012):

Here the Court finds that the area within the Target Residence's metal fence and gates—and specifically the areas occupied by Officers Bartra, Rios, and Benavides at the time they smelled marijuana and heard the sounds of marijuana-grow-house equipment— constituted curtilage subject to fundamental Fourth Amendment protections. The area was close in proximity to the residence, was enclosed within the metal fence and contiguous gates, and was shielded by the fence's white paneling to block observation from outside. Although the driveway may have been used for ingress to and egress from the property, and although the driveway gate did not contain obstructive paneling, the closed, locked mechanical gate clearly delineated the driveway as a private area which visitors—and thus the investigating officers—were not expected to encroach. See, e.g., Edens v. Kennedy, 112 F. App'x 870, 875 (4th Cir. 2004); United States v. Hambelton, No. 1:08cr26-SPM, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25139, 2009 WL 722284, at *4 (N.D. Fla. 2009). Moreover, although at one point Perez opened the gate so that he and Ricano could exit, one cannot say that this brief opening of the gate converted the driveway into only a semi-private area through which visitors were free to travel. See Fernandez v. State, 63 So. 3d 881, 884 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2011) ("[T]he momentary opening of the gate for the defendant to leave was not an open invitation to the public, or by extension to the police, to enter. ... No salesman or visitor could have entered the enclosed curtilage during the momentary opening. The momentary opening of the gate for the express purpose of leaving did not alter the Dunn expectation-of-privacy factors.") The Court thus finds that the area from which officers first smelled marijuana constituted "curtilage" and that the officers' physical entry into that area implicated Defendants' Fourth Amendment protections.

NYTimes.com: Wireless Carriers Who Aid Police Are Asked for Data by Eric Lichtblau:

WASHINGTON — A leading House Democrat is demanding information from the country’s biggest cellphone companies about their role in helping local police departments conduct surveillance and tracking of suspects and others in criminal investigations.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mitt Romney will need independent voters in November, but he isn't abandoning his "severely conservative" record....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mitt Romney will need independent voters in November, but he isn't abandoning his "severely conservative" record....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mitt Romney will need independent voters in November, but he isn't abandoning his "severely conservative" record....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mitt Romney will need independent voters in November, but he isn't abandoning his "severely conservative" record....