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PHILADELPHIA — A woman arrested in connection with an illegal buttocks-enhancement injection that left a patient sickened last month is considered a "person of interest" in the death of a tourist who underwent a similar procedure last year, police said Thursday.

Padge Victoria Windslowe, 42, was arrested Wednesday night as ...

PHOENIX (AP) — America's self-proclaimed toughest sheriff finds himself entangled these days in his own thorny legal troubles: a federal grand jury probe over alleged abuse of power, Justice Department accusations of racial profiling, and revelations that his department didn't adequately investigate hundreds of Arizona sex-crime cases.

Rather than seek ...

TRENTON, N.J. — Civil rights organizations are calling for investigations into the New York Police Department's surveillance of Muslims in the U.S. Northeast.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut said Thursday it is among 10 groups that asked for investigations in letters to state police, cities and the presidents ...

The possibility, not even the probability, of remote wiping of a cell phone with applications for nearly all phones, is enough to justify entering the phone to get its number. The question of a more detailed search is saved for another day. United States v. Flores-Lopez, 10-3803 (7th Cir. February 29, 2012):

This appeal requires us to consider the circumstances in which the search of a cell phone is permitted by the Fourth Amendment even if the search is not authorized by a warrant. Lurking behind this issue is the question whether and when a laptop or desktop computer, tablet, or other type of computer (whether called a “computer” or not) can be searched without a warrant—for a modern cell phone is a computer.

. . .

A modern cell phone is in one aspect a diary writ large. Even when used primarily for business it is quite likely to contain, or provide ready access to, a vast body of personal data. The potential invasion of privacy in a search of a cell phone is greater than in a search of a “container” in a conventional sense even when the conventional container is a purse that contains an address book (itself a container) and photos. Judges are becoming aware that a computer (and remember that a modern cell phone is a computer) is not just another purse or address book. “[A]nalogizing computers to other physical objects when applying Fourth Amendment law is not an exact fit because computers hold so much personal and sensitive information touching on many private aspects of life. ... [T]here is a far greater potential for the ‘intermingling’ of documents and a consequent invasion of privacy when police execute a search for evidence on a computer.” United States v. Lucas, 640 F.3d 168, 178 (6th Cir. 2011); see also United States v. Walser, 275 F.3d 981, 986 (10th Cir. 2001); United States v. Carey, 172 F.3d 1268, 1275 (10th Cir. 1999); cf. United States v. Comprehensive Drug Testing, Inc., 621 F.3d 1162, 1175-77 (9th Cir. 2010); United States v. Otero, 563 F.3d 1127, 1132 (10th Cir. 2009). An iPhone application called iCam allows you to access your home computer’s webcam so that you can survey the inside of your home while you’re a thousand miles away. “iCam—Webcam Video Streaming,” http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/icam-webcam-videostreaming/id296273730?mt=8 (visited Feb. 6, 2012, as were the other web sites that we cite in this opinion). At the touch of a button a cell phone search becomes a house search, and that is not a search of a “container” in any normal sense of that word, though a house contains data.

A complication in this case is that, remarkably, the record does not indicate the brand, model, or year of the defendant’s cell phone, so we do not know how dumb or smart it is. But does that matter? Even the dumbest of modern cell phones gives the user access to large stores of information.

. . .

We said it was conceivable, not probable, that a confederate of the defendant would have wiped the data from the defendant’s cell phone before the government could obtain a search warrant; and it could be argued that the risk of destruction of evidence was indeed so slight as to be outweighed by the invasion of privacy from the search. But the “invasion,” limited as it was to the cell phone’s number, was also slight. And in deciding whether a search is properly incident to an arrest and therefore does not require a warrant, the courts do not conduct a cost-benefit analysis, with the invasion of privacy on the cost side and the risk of destruction of evidence (or of an assault on the arresting officers) on the benefit side of allowing the immediate search. Toting up costs and benefits is not a feasible undertaking to require of police officers conducting a search incident to an arrest. Thus, even when the risk either to the police officers or to the existence of the evidence is negligible, the search is allowed, United States v. Robinson, supra, 414 U.S. at 235, provided it’s no more invasive than, say, a frisk, or the search of a conventional container, such as Robinson’s cigarette pack, in which heroin was found. If instead of a frisk it’s a strip search, the risk to the officers’ safety or to the preservation of evidence of crime must be greater to justify the search. Campbell v. Miller, 499 F.3d 711, 717 (7th Cir. 2007), citing Mary Beth G. v. City of Chicago, 723 F.2d 1263, 1273 (7th Cir. 1983). Looking in a cell phone for just the cell phone’s phone number does not exceed what decisions like Robinson and Concepcion allow.

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — A U.S. woman was sentenced to life in prison without parole Thursday for killing a pregnant acquaintance and cutting her baby boy alive from her womb.

Kathy Coy agreed to the sentence in a deal last month in which she avoided a possible death penalty by ...

PHOENIX (AP) — A grandfather who forced his grandsons on two grueling hikes in the Grand Canyon in searing August heat was found guilty of child abuse after a trial in which the three boys described going without food and water and being choked and kicked during the long treks.

Investigators ...

First God created idiots: practice for creating politicians 7-21-11

Let's try to educate the world 3-31-11

The U.S. Senate voted Thursday to kill a controversial proposal pushed by Republicans that would have allowed employers to opt out of providing health care coverage they disagree with on moral grounds.

CHARDON, Ohio — A teenager was charged Thursday with killing three students in a school shooting, the first step in proceedings that could see him charged as an adult and facing the possibility of life without parole if convicted.

The charges filed in Geauga County juvenile court accuse T.J. Lane, ...

Pioneering conservative author, blogger and polemicist Andrew Breitbart died suddenly of natural causes at the age of 43, his website Big Journalism confirmed in a posting this morning.

The Los Angeles coroner's office confirmed that Mr. Breitbart died shortly after midnight at UCLA Medical Center, ABC News Radio reported Thursday ...

HARRISBURG, Ill. — Jeff Rann had ample warning that terrible weather was approaching before dawn. A frantic call to his wife from his mother-in-law alerted them to reports that a tornado was barreling down, and Mr. Rann heard the deafening wail of storm sirens.

He was among those who survived ...

President Barack Obama hosted a dinner to salute soldiers recently back from Iraq -- marking his first major tribute to the veterans since officially withdrawing all troops from the nation.

The person answering the door at a motel room said he’d been staying there two days. That was apparent authority for consent to the police to enter. Even if the actual fact was he stayed there one day, the officer still would have seen apparent authority, and that was not IAC for not developing that fact. United States v. Livingston, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25558 (W.D. Okla. February 28, 2012).

Defendant concedes that the marijuana patch in this case was in open fields, but he contends the police entered his curtilage to get a photograph of it. Even if true, that would not have tainted the warrant here when it was excised from the lawfully obtained information. United States v. Simmons, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25615 (D. Me. February 28, 2012).*

Regardless of whether the officer violated Miranda in defendant’s equivocal statement about marijuana in his car in a national park, the officer already had probable cause for a search of the car. United States v. Lehman, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25754 (E.D. Cal. February 28, 2012).*

Defense counsel did, in fact, challenge the search so no IAC for failing to do so. United States v. Davis, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24939 (D. Kan. February 28, 2012).*

Republican leaders and the White House sent signals Wednesday of possible detente on jobs and energy legislation, but they offered few specifics and congressional Democrats questioned whether any progress would ensue.

WASHINGTON — A carbonated brew guzzled on college campuses is the focus of an intense write-in campaign urging federal regulators to take some buzz out of a sweet alcoholic drink sometimes referred to as "blackout in a can."

The Federal Trade Commission is looking at a wave of complaints about ...

The principals in a business subjected to a search warrant had “standing” (which the court notes was a word rejected by SCOTUS). Storing records there is still an expectation of privacy. A second place was a residence owned by the corporation that they kept business stuff in, and they came and went at will. They had “standing” there, too. United States v. Ferguson, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24929 (E.D. Mich. February 27, 2012):

The government argues that the Ferguson defendants' bare assertion that they were permitted to store personal belongings at the 500 Griswold offices is insufficient to support a reasonable expectation of privacy. However, as discussed below, the rule in United States v. Jeffers, 342 U.S. 48, 52 (1951), indicates that if defendant Ferguson Enterprises were permitted to store business records in the search locations, they should be permitted to challenge the government's seizure of those records. In addition, in United States v. Waller, 426 F.3d 838 (6th Cir. 2005), the Sixth Circuit held that the owner of an apartment did not have authority to consent to a search of the defendant's luggage that was stored in the apartment because there was an understanding between the owner and the defendant that the luggage was private. Id. at 845-46. This holding implies that a defendant has a reasonable expectation of privacy in goods stored by permission at a third party's residence.

The Bible-Belt is Unbuckled 11-10-11

Mass immigration and amnesty will not save Social Security 11-10-11

A day after Republicans signaled possible compromise with the White House on energy issues, President Barack Obama called Thursday for Congress to vote in the coming weeks on ending billions of dollars in subsidies for the oil industry.