US

Senate blocks bid to speed pipeline from Canada

AP - U.S. News - Fri, 2024-11-29 12:48
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Democratic-controlled Senate has rejected a Republican bid to speed approval of an oil pipeline from Canada to Texas....
Categories: Associated Press, News, US

New ads pitch Marine Corps' kinder, gentler side

AP - U.S. News - Fri, 2024-11-29 12:48
WASHINGTON (AP) -- They've long been known as devil dogs, leathernecks and "the first to fight." But U.S. Marines, with their self-described expertise in "killing people and breaking things," now want to promote their kinder side as well....
Categories: Associated Press, News, US

VA takes steps to prevent more cemetery errors

AP - U.S. News - Fri, 2024-11-29 12:48
WASHINGTON (AP) -- After reporting that it had found 102 more misplaced headstones or markers and 21 graves missing markers at its cemeteries, the Veterans Affairs Department told lawmakers Thursday that it's trying to prevent future errors by requiring contractors to keep headstones at gravesites undergoing renovations and by conducting daily inspections....
Categories: Associated Press, News, US

E-mails show White House input on Sherrod ouster

AP - U.S. News - Fri, 2024-11-29 12:48
WASHINGTON (AP) -- White House officials were in close contact with the Agriculture Department in the hours leading up to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack's decision to fire USDA employee Shirley Sherrod in 2010, according to nearly 2,000 pages of internal emails released by the administration....
Categories: Associated Press, News, US

Coroner: Philly cardinal died of natural causes

AP - U.S. News - Fri, 2024-11-29 12:48
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- Natural causes led to the death of a former Philadelphia archdiocese leader the day after he was ruled competent to testify at the child endangerment trial of a longtime aide, according to a county coroner who investigated after a suburban prosecutor deemed the timing peculiar....
Categories: Associated Press, News, US

Full Titanic wreck site is mapped for 1st time

AP - U.S. News - Fri, 2024-11-29 12:48
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine (AP) -- Researchers have pieced together what's believed to be the first comprehensive map of the entire 3-by-5-mile Titanic debris field and hope it will provide new clues about what exactly happened the night 100 years ago when the superliner hit an iceberg, plunged to the bottom of the North Atlantic and became a legend....
Categories: Associated Press, News, US

Hacker arrested in NYC cooperated from Day 1

AP - U.S. News - Fri, 2024-11-29 12:48
NEW YORK (AP) -- In his Twitter postings, the elite computer hacker known as "Sabu" urged followers to resist the U.S. government and its agents....
Categories: Associated Press, News, US

Hacker arrested in NYC cooperated from Day 1

AP - U.S. News - Fri, 2024-11-29 12:48
NEW YORK (AP) -- In his Twitter postings, the elite computer hacker known as "Sabu" urged followers to resist the U.S. government and its agents....
Categories: Associated Press, News, US

Hacker arrested in NYC cooperated from Day 1

AP - U.S. News - Fri, 2024-11-29 12:48
NEW YORK (AP) -- In his Twitter postings, the elite computer hacker known as "Sabu" urged followers to resist the U.S. government and its agents....
Categories: Associated Press, News, US

House passes bipartisan bill to help startups

AP - U.S. News - Fri, 2024-11-29 12:48
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Showing that they can on occasion work together, House lawmakers on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a package of bills making it easier for small businesses and startups to raise the capital they need to grow and hire new workers....
Categories: Associated Press, News, US

Pat Robertson: Pot should be legal, like alcohol

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Rev. Pat Robertson says marijuana should be legalized and treated like alcohol because the government's war on drugs has failed.

The outspoken evangelical Christian and host of "The 700 Club" on the Virginia Beach, Va.-based Christian Broadcasting Network he founded said the war on drugs ...

Volokh: Concurring Opinions in Jones Lead FBI To Turn Off 3,000 GPS Devices, Considered a “Sea Change” Within the Bureau

FourthAmendment.com - News - Fri, 2024-11-29 12:48

Volokh: Concurring Opinions in Jones Lead FBI To Turn Off 3,000 GPS Devices, Considered a “Sea Change” Within the Bureau by Orin Kerr:

Earlier today, I sent off to law reviews a new draft article on the implications of the mosaic theory of the Fourth Amendment introduced in the GPS case, United States v. Jones — and specifically the majority opinion for the DC Circuit (under the name United States v. Maynard ) and the concurring opinions of Justice Alito and Sotomayor. A recent speech by the general counsel of the FBI suggests that I’m not the only one who thinks that the mosaic theory is a really big deal — and a lot more complicated than many realize:

A Supreme Court decision has caused a “sea change” in law enforcement, prompting the FBI to turn off nearly 3,000 Global Positioning System (GPS) devices used to track suspects, according to the agency’s general counsel.

When the decision-U.S. v. Jones-was released at the end of January, agents were ordered to stop using GPS devices immediately and told to await guidance on retrieving the devices, FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann said in a recent talk at a University of San Francisco conference. Weissmann said the court’s ruling lacked clarity and the agency needs new guidance or it risks having cases overturned . . .

Weissmann said it wasn’t Scalia’s majority opinion that caused such turmoil in the bureau, but a concurring opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito. Alito, whose opinion was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan, agreed with the Court’s conclusion in the case but wrote separately because his legal reasoning differed from the majority.

Alito focused not on the attachment of the device, but the fact that law enforcement monitored Jones for about a month. Alito said “the use of longer-term GPS monitoring in investigations of most offenses impinges on expectations of privacy.” . . .

In his talk at a University of San Francisco Law Review Symposium, Weissmann suggested that Alito’s concurrence means that several members of the court are concerned with long-term surveillance by technologies beyond GPS systems and that the FBI needs new guidance in order to ensure that evidence does not get thrown out.

“I just can’t stress enough,” Weissmann said, “what a sea change that is perceived to be within the department.”

. . .

. . .

Two dead after Pittsburgh clinic shooting, including gunman

PITTSBURGH — A gunman opened fire at a psychiatric clinic at the University of Pittsburgh on Thursday in a shooting that killed two people, including the gunman, and wounded seven others.

A man who was in a nearby waiting room when the gunfire erupted said people scrambled to hide and ...

Jury: U.S. can seize $330M in Stanford accounts

HOUSTON (AP) — The jury that convicted former Texas tycoon R. Allen Stanford of operating a massive Ponzi scheme found Thursday that there is sufficient evidence that $330 million in frozen foreign bank accounts he controlled is money he stole from investors, clearing the way for U.S. authorities to go ...

Miss. Supreme Court rules Barbour pardons valid

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the pardons issued by former Gov. Haley Barbour during his final days in office, including those of four convicted killers and a robber who had worked at the Governor's Mansion.

Mr. Barbour, a Republican who once considered running for ...

Jury: US can seize $330M in Stanford accounts

AP - U.S. News - Fri, 2024-11-29 12:48
HOUSTON (AP) -- The jury that convicted former Texas tycoon R. Allen Stanford of operating a massive Ponzi scheme found Thursday that there is sufficient evidence that $330 million in frozen foreign bank accounts he controlled money he stole from investors, clearing the way for U.S. authorities to go after the funds....
Categories: Associated Press, News, US

2 children found living in abandoned bus in Texas

AP - U.S. News - Fri, 2024-11-29 12:48
SPLENDORA, Texas (AP) -- The abandoned school bus had no engine and no front wheels. But there were crude curtains in the windows, an air conditioner and even bunk beds....
Categories: Associated Press, News, US

Shots fired at Pa. psych clinic; injuries reported

AP - U.S. News - Fri, 2024-11-29 12:48
OAKLAND, Pa. (AP) -- Someone opened fire Thursday afternoon at a psychiatric clinic outside Pittsburgh, injuring several people, police said....
Categories: Associated Press, News, US

NJ Muslims file federal suit to stop NYPD spying

AP - U.S. News - Fri, 2024-11-29 12:48
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Eight Muslims filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday in New Jersey to force the New York Police Department to end its surveillance and other intelligence-gathering practices targeting Muslims in the years after the 2001 terrorist attacks. The lawsuit alleged that the police activities were unconstitutional because they focused on people's religion, national origin and race....
Categories: Associated Press, News, US
Syndicate content