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You know that bit in "The Avengers" where Tony Stark spreads his fingers apart in mid-air and the stuff on the screen in front of him instantly appears on displays throughout the room?

Cash-strapped Greek hospitals get strict about payment, even from broke new mothers

LONDON (AP) -- One day, the small espresso shop near the site of the London Games was the "Olympic" cafe. The next day, it was the "Lympic."...

The search warrant sought computer records for 2007, but the government’s computer search intentionally wasn’t limited and found incriminating records from 2003 and 2004. The government’s failure to limit the search violated the terms of the search warrant. Also, one defendant who had a desk and a computer in a common area had an expectation of privacy in both because nobody else used them. Moreover, the computer was password protected. United States v. Reeves, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68962 (D. N.J. May 17, 2012):

In particular, Special Agent Cassin testified that he had the ability to limit his search to the calendar year 2007 and search for documents that were created and modified in 2007. He also had the ability to search for the year "2007" or "/07," etc., in the body of the documents using a keyword search. Special Agent Cassin, however, testified that he did nothing to so limit his search and instead searched all the files on the Harbor House computers without regard to their date. Specifically, Special Agent Cassin disregarded the scope of the warrant by engaging in broad keyword searches of all the electronic files on the computers.

This is unreasonable and violates the Fourth Amendment. It is evident that Special Agent Cassin took no efforts to comply with the temporal scope of the warrant and disregarded the express date limitation contained therein. Special Agent Cassin did not conduct his search in a manner that minimized unwarranted intrusions upon privacy and his broad keyword search was more akin to "'general, exploratory rummaging" in Harbor House's computer files rather than a particular search in accordance with the express limitations of the search warrant. Andresen v. Maryland, 427 U.S. at 481. If the government felt they had enough probable cause to justify a search of Harbor House computers for all documents related to oysters and the Reeves Brothers, which is essentially what the government did, then the government needed to re-apply for a new warrant or put forth sufficient probable cause for such a broad search in their initial application. The government did neither in this case and thus their search is unreasonable as to the pre-2007 documents.

The government's reliance on United States v. Stabile, 633 F.3d 219, 241-42 (3d Cir. 2011) is misplaced. In Stabile, the government inadvertently found child pornography files on the defendant's computer while searching the computer for evidence of financial fraud. The discovery of the child pornography was inadvertent and immediately apparent due to the lurid names of the electronic files. Such files containing child pornography were in plain view of the searching agents and could thus be seized as evidence of crime.

The instant action is clearly distinguishable. There was no inadvertence by the government in finding the 2003 and 2004 incriminating documents at issue here. These documents would not have been retrieved if the search was limited pursuant to the terms of the search warrant which only authorized the government to search for documents created or modified from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007. The discovery of these two 2003 and 2004 documents was the result of the government's overly broad keyword search. ...

Kurt Nimmo | Stasibook takes on a side project -- to enrich insiders while taking the outsiders to the cleaners.

24 hours of news photos 22 May 2012

Plaintiff is civilly committed to the BOP having been found not guilty by reason of insanity in 2003 for an attempted airplane hijacking. The court concludes the DNA Act applies to him. Commey v. United States, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70425 (D. Mass. May 21, 2012):

No court has addressed the constitutionality of the DNA Act as applied to individuals civilly committed to BOP custody after being found not guilty by reason of insanity. In Weikert, the First Circuit applied the general Fourth Amendment totality of the circumstances analysis, balancing Weikert's expectation of privacy against the government's interest in taking his DNA. 504 F.3d at 11. Applying this analysis to Commey, civilly committed persons have a diminished expectation of privacy. Both the Supreme Court and First Circuit have compared the liberty interests of civilly committed persons to those of pretrial detainees. See Youngberg v. Romeo, 457 U.S. 307, 320 (1982); Davis v. Rennie, 264 F.3d 86, 102, 108 (1st Cir. 2001) (applying to civilly committed persons the legal standard for Fourth Amendment seizure claims brought by pretrial detainees). The Eighth Circuit has explicitly held that, when considering whether a particular search violates the Fourth Amendment, civilly committed persons have the same expectation of privacy as pretrial detainees. See Serna v. Goodno, 567 F.3d 944, 948-49 (8th Cir. 2009). In Mitchell, the Third Circuit balanced pretrial detainees' expectation of privacy against the government's interest in taking their DNA, and held that the DNA Act does not violate pretrial detainees' Fourth Amendment rights. 652 F.3d at 416.

Based on this caselaw, the court concludes that the government's important interests in monitoring and rehabilitating civilly committed persons, solving crimes, and exonerating innocent individuals outweigh Commey's privacy interests, given his status as a civilly committed person, "the relatively minimal inconvenience occasioned by a blood draw, and the coding of genetic information that, by statute, may be used only for purposes of identification." Weikert, 504 F.3d at 14.

Therefore, the DNA Act as applied to Commey does not violate the Fourth Amendment.

MOSCOW (AP) -- President Vladimir Putin targeted those who dare oppose him Tuesday, introducing draconian new fines for protesters and handing out Kremlin jobs to widely detested lieutenants despite the public anger they have generated....

FLINT, Mich. (AP) -- Jurors must decide whether strong physical evidence in the first trial from a series of stabbings in Michigan is outweighed by the mental health of a 35-year-old Israeli immigrant who is charged with murder....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell is declining to renew the endorsement he gave Barack Obama four years ago, when he called Obama "a transformational figure."...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell is declining to renew the endorsement he gave Barack Obama four years ago, when he called Obama "a transformational figure."...

HYDERABAD, India (AP) -- A passenger train rammed into a parked freight train and caught fire before dawn Tuesday in southern India, killing at least 25 people and injuring dozens more....

One of the country's biggest companies, the car firm Arnold Clark, describes many young Scots as "unsuitable" for work.

MORGAN HILL, Calif. (AP) -- Authorities have arrested a man in the kidnapping and death of a Northern California teenager whose disappearance more than two months ago has prompted hundreds of volunteers to turn out for organized searches....

Guatemala's former military leader Efrain Rios Montt faces a second trial on genocide charges, over the massacre of 201 people during the civil war.

Smartphones, caravans and pyramids inspire gardens

A man accused of murdering his wife was his usual "joking" self on the day she disappeared, a court hears.

Is the fountain pen a curious example of an old-fashioned object surviving the winds of change?

BEIJING (AP) -- First, videos of rude foreigners went viral in Chinese cyberspace, then a Beijing police crackdown on visitors without valid visas drew fervent applause, and finally, a state TV host urged his countrymen to toss out the "foreign trash."...

BEIJING (AP) -- First, videos of rude foreigners went viral in Chinese cyberspace, then a Beijing police crackdown on visitors without valid visas drew fervent applause, and finally, a state TV host urged his countrymen to toss out the "foreign trash."...