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CONIFER, Colo. — Authorities in Colorado say they're investigating how well their emergency telephone notification system works because some residents who signed up never got a warning about a wildfire.

Jefferson County sheriff's spokesman Mark Techmeyer said Friday that an unknown number of people who signed up weren't called.

The ...

OMAHA, Neb. — Lottery ticket lines swelled Friday as the record Mega Millions jackpot grew to $640 million, thanks to players who cast aside concerns about long odds and opened their wallets for a shot at what could be the biggest single lotto payout in the world.

A café worker ...

Use of a metal detector to enter a building does not limit consent to just that. If it alerts, there is implied consent to a further search. Otherwise, don’t try to go in. Here, defendant was trying to carry drugs into a homeless shelter, and the metal detector went off. Here, it all ripened to reasonable suspicion. People v. Hurt, 2012 NY Slip Op 02408, 2012 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2333 (1st Dept. March 29, 2012):

We reject defendant's argument that his implied consent was limited to the magnetometer search. When a person sets off a magnetometer by passing through it, the person can reasonably expect that security personnel will not permit entry into the restricted premises without taking whatever measures are necessary to find out what triggered the magnetometer. Otherwise, the magnetometer would have little value.

Since defendant never abandoned his attempt to enter the shelter, he implicitly consented to an expanded search. Defendant was free to cut off the search by turning around and walking out. The officer did nothing to suggest otherwise, and defendant never indicated that he no longer wished to enter.

Another environmental welfare recipient teeters on the edge of bankruptcy.

Plaintiff was a part of the Bradley Manning/Wikileaks support network, and his computer was seized in Chicago by DHS after he passed through Customs and was waiting for a flight to Boston and he was questioned about his connection to Manning. The court concludes the seizure was valid, but the 49 day detention stated a claim for unreasonableness of the seizure. Also, his First Amendment claim survives a motion to dismiss. House v. Napolitano, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 42297 (D. Mass. March 28, 2012):

Considering these factors in light of Supreme Court precedent, it cannot be said that the search and seizure of House's laptop and other electronic devices was so intrusive as to require any particularized suspicion. House contends that the search of a laptop and electronic devices implicates one's "dignity and privacy interests," not because there was any disrobing, physical search of his person, force used or exposure to pain or danger, but because such devices contain information concerning one's thoughts, ideas and communications and associations with others. However, such a search of a laptop computer or other electronic devices does not involve the same "dignity and privacy interests" as the "highly intrusive searches of the person" found to require some level of suspicion such as strip searches or body cavity searches. Flores-Montano, 541 U.S. at 152. The Supreme Court has not explicitly held that all property searches are routine or that such searches are categorically incapable of implicating the "dignity and privacy interests of the person being searched," Id., but the search of one's personal information on a laptop computer, a container that stores information, even personal information, does not invade one's dignity and privacy in the same way as an involuntary x-ray, body cavity or strip search of person's body or the type of search that have been held to be non-routine and require the government to assert some level of suspicion.

ACLU’s page on case; ACLU press release on order.

If the purpose here is to turn Trayvon Martin's death into a national black-white face-off, instead of a mutual search for truth and justice, it is succeeding marvelously well.

Motion to suppress computer searches denied without prejudice, and the government is ordered to provide the computer search protocol to the defense so it can be determined whether the search was overbroad. United States v. Fu-Tain Lu, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 144395 (N.D. Cal. September 16, 2010):

The defense argues, however, that Agent Zaborowski's search was improper because the mirror images should have been turned over to a magistrate or third party to monitor any off site search. By engaging a third party to monitor the search of intermingled documents, the defendants contend that their Fourth Amendment rights could have been adequately protected. See id. at 595-96. The court finds, however, that Agent Zaborowski's method of searching adequately protected defendants' rights. By using software and word searches, the government avoided looking at documents that were likely to be outside the scope of the warrant. In a search of hard copy documents at a site, agents necessarily look at many documents that they do not seize because they are outside the scope of the warrant. With the method used by Agent Zaborowski, assuming he made appropriately narrow word searches, only those documents that had a likelihood of being within the scope of the warrant were examined by human eyes. Thus, potential Fourth Amendment concerns were minimized. Although Tamura and United States v. Comprehensive Drug Testing, Inc., 579 F.3d 989, 997-9 (2009) suggest that when documents within the scope of a warrant are intermingled with documents not covered by the warrant and the documents are removed from the site for later review, the further search should be with the approval of a magistrate. However, Tamura did not consider the Government's utilization of a word search that would avoid looking at most, if not all, documents outside the scope of the warrant. It is doubtful that the method used by Zaborowski for searching electronically stored documents even existed at the time of Tamura. In Comprehensive Drug Testing the searching agents were exposed to drug testing records of non-parties whose privacy rights were clearly violated, a very different situation than that in the present case.

For the reasons stated, the court orders as follows:

1. Defendants' motion to suppress evidence is denied without prejudice to reconsideration if the defense discovers that the Government did a search of the mirror images that was not reasonably designed to find only documents, files or data described in the warrant;

2. The Government is to turn over the mirror images of the hard drives and thumb drives in its possession to the defense;

3. The mirror images of the hard drives and thumb drives are to be maintained in their present state by defense counsel or a third party escrow;

4. The Government is to return the eight 1.44MB floppy disks to defendants without reviewing them, is not to use them against defendants at trial and must destroy the CD onto which the floppy disks were copied;

5. The Government is to provide the defense with the word searches it used as best they can be reconstructed; and

6. The Government is to provide the defense with copies of any documents, files or data from the mirror images it book marked or otherwise selected or copied.

The placement of a GPS on defendant’s vehicle was authorized by binding precedent at the time, so Jones being decided after the fact requires Davis’s good faith exception be invoked. United States v. Leon, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 42737 (D. Haw. March 28, 2012):

The United States now concedes that Jones renders the placement and subsequent use of the GPS device unconstitutional. And so, the sole remaining issue in this case is whether the exclusionary rule applies, focusing on whether the agents acted with objective reasonable reliance on then-existing precedent permitting the attachment and subsequent use of a GPS tracking device. Based on the following, the court agrees with the Government that the exclusionary rule does not apply.

...

Unlike the placement of a GPS tracking device on the exterior of a vehicle in an area where a defendant has no legitimate expectation of privacy, neither Supreme Court nor Ninth Circuit binding precedent [United States v. McIver, 186 F.3d 1119 (9th Cir. 1999)] in 2009 authorized the agents to continuously monitor the location of the vehicle in public places for a prolonged period of time. Davis therefore is not directly controlling on this issue. Instead, the court must determine whether the agents exhibited "deliberate, reckless, or grossly negligent disregard for Fourth Amendment rights" or whether they acted "with an objectively reasonable good-faith belief that their conduct [was] lawful." Davis, 131 S. Ct. at 2427. And after examining precedent as of 2009, the court finds that the agents' conduct in the use of the GPS tracking device was objectively reasonable.

Like cement freshly poured from a Ready-Mix truck, temporary taxes have a habit of becoming as hard as a sidewalk.

Ohio distinguishes between “light” and “strong” odor of marijuana to determine whether smell is enough to search the trunk. Here, it was “strong.” State v. Ivery, 2012 Ohio 1270, 2012 Ohio App. LEXIS 1120 (11th Dist. March 26, 2012):

[*P25] However, the Ohio Supreme Court has also held that"[t]he odor of burnt marijuana in the passenger compartment of a vehicle does not, standing alone, establish probable cause for a warrantless search of the trunk of the vehicle." State v. Farris, 109 Ohio St.3d 519, 2006 Ohio 3255, 849 N.E.2d 985, ¶ 52 (where the officer detected only a "light" odor of marijuana and no contraband was found in the passenger compartment of the vehicle, a search of the trunk was improper).

[*P26] We hold that the search in this case falls under the automobile exception and that Shum did have probable cause to extend the search to include the vehicle's trunk. Many courts have found cases with similar circumstances to be distinguishable from Farris, such that a search into the trunk of the vehicle is proper under the automobile exception. ...

[*P27] In the present case, Shum testified that he smelled a "very strong" odor of marijuana upon approaching the car. In addition, after searching the interior of the car, he saw what he described as little "bits of marijuana." Upon speaking with Ivery, Shum was also informed that Ivery had been smoking marijuana that day. When considering all of these factors together, this case is distinguishable from Farris, and Shum had sufficient probable cause to search the trunk of the vehicle in addition to the interior.

You can't even casually surf the Internet on any given day without numerous reminders of just how radical President Obama is.

Obama's problem is not that missile defense is too complicated but that if people knew Obama's intentions of "flexibly" caving on missile defenses, they might think twice about giving him a second term.

It's more than a little shocking when someone makes a movie that deals harshly with abortion. This is Hollywood after all.

The National Public Radio station in Seattle is going before an ethics board Saturday after a pro-life media group filed a complaint accusing the station of airing a slanted story.

The Washington News Council Board of Directors is holding a hearing over a story aired by KUOW-FM in April 2011 ...

A Christian student group said this week that it will not apply to be recognized as an official club at Vanderbilt University because of the school policy making it mandatory that it accept nonbelievers as members - or even officers - of the organization.

Vanderbilt Catholic, a group for Catholic ...

ATLANTA | Autism cases are on the rise again, largely due to wider screening and better diagnosis, federal health officials said Thursday.

The rate of U.S. cases of autism and related disorders rose to about 1 in 88 children. The previous estimate was 1 in 110.

The new figure is ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — People queuing up for Mega Millions tickets aren't the only ones salivating over the record $540 million jackpot that could be won Friday - some state governments struggling through lean times know a hometown winner could bring a tax bonanza.

Taxes on a lump-sum payment option ...

A Missouri school district has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union over student access to pro-gay websites.

The Camdenton R-III School District in central Missouri will ensure that nonsexual websites on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues will be put on a customized ...

WASHINGTON

SEATTLE — Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn on Thursday proposed a series of police reforms in response to a damning federal report that came after several high-profile incidents involving minorities.

Mr. McGinn and police Chief John Diaz said among the 20 initiatives to be implemented over 20 months were ...

MIAMI | Newly released police video of a handcuffed George Zimmerman may be important for what it doesn't show: No obvious cuts, scrapes, blood or bandages. No clearly broken nose. No plainly visible evidence of a life-and-death struggle with Trayvon Martin.

As the furor over race and self-defense raged on ...