“Ahmed Mohamed’s avoidable ordeal raises serious concerns about racial profiling and the disciplinary system in Texas schools. Instead of encouraging his curiosity, intellect, and ability, the Irving ISD saw fit to throw handcuffs on a frightened 14 year-old Muslim boy wearing a NASA t-shirt and then remove him from school.”
A music company’s demand that YouTube take down a 29-second home video of two children dancing to a song by Prince backfired Monday when a federal appeals court used the case to make it harder for copyright-holders to act against brief, non-commercial uses of their material.
Video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1KfJHFWlhQ)
Source (http://www.sfgate.com/music/article/Demand-that-mother-remove-home-video-from-YouTube-6503900.php)
The court said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) gave unconditional approval of the insecticide sulfoxaflor in 2013, even though it was clearly toxic to honeybees, and the manufacturer failed to conduct required tests of its impact on not just adult bees, but also brood and colony strength.
The EPA violated its own rules and procedures, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision said. And in an unusual move, it took the added step of overturning the EPA’s approval because “given the precariousness of the bee populations,” leaving the insecticide on the market would create greater environmental risks than pulling it.
(http://www.startribune.com/court-revokes-epa-approval-of-insecticide-harmful-to-bees/326524291)
A federal judge said Thursday, September 10, he will issue an order condemning parts of three streets in West Roxbury, giving the property to a company that plans to build a natural gas pipeline through the neighborhood and setting the stage for construction to possibly start within weeks.
The ruling allows Algonquin Gas Transmission to take possession of what is currently city property under Washington, Grove and Centre Streets in West Roxbury.
Algonquin brought the city to court seeking an order that would force the city to give it the property. Lawyers for Boston argued that Algonquin had not proved the easements were necessary.
A city attorney said Boston will explore its appeal options.
Later proceedings will determine how much Algonquin will pay Boston for the property.
3 cops respond to burglary at wrong house. Homeowner is shot, 1 of the cops is shot by a cop, the cops kill a dog.
A university mathematician found something that didn’t add up, and now she’s suing the state of Kansas to make sure every vote counts.
Wichita State University statistician Beth Clarkson requested Sedgwick County release election records for the recent election.
This week, Secretary of State Kris Kobach asked a judge to block that request.
Kobach argued the records are not part of the open records act, and said they’re covered under the same issues from a previously rejected lawsuit.
In Sedgwick County, the voting tapes record every stroke a voter makes on the machine.
The Election Commissioner there said the tapes are 385 feet long and are stored in 42 boxes.
The mathematician wanted to examine the voting tapes after something didn’t add up.
Clarkson explained, “I don’t understand why those patterns are there, the patterns are very definitely real. But we don’t know what’s causing them or why they’re there. They do fit what would be expected if election fraud is occurring, and that’s very concerning.”
A local Kansas City news station picked up this story I posted about earlier (https://plus.google.com/+DaneLaBonte/posts/c13tHg7we7Z)
A core sample pulled from the concrete of the Cocoli Locks where cracks and leaks have appeared does not bode well for the Panama Canal expansion project, which is on a strict deadline for completion in April 2016.
The crack and subsequent leaks appeared recently in the concrete of one of the interior chambers of the new Cocoli Locks on the Pacific side of the waterway during testing of the new locks.
A federal appeals court Friday overturned an earlier decision against the federal government’s bulk collection of telephone data from millions of Americans.
The program, struck down in a 2013 federal district court opinion and since altered by President Obama and Congress, was allowed to stand — at least for now — by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The panel sent the case back to district court for further hearings.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon ruled in 2013, in a lawsuit brought by conservative activist Larry Klayman, that the legal challenge to the massive surveillance program — disclosed that year by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden — would likely succeed. He issued a preliminary injunction against it but suspended the order to allow an appeal by the Justice Department.
Since then, the program was upheld by a federal court in New York, struck down by an appeals court there, and altered by Congress.
Beginning in November, phone companies will retain the data, and the NSA only can obtain information about targeted individuals with permission from a federal court.
The NSA program now has a 2-2 record in federal courts. In New York, a district judge had upheld it, but a panel of the the 2nd Circuit federal appeals court overturned that ruling in May. It said the program “exceeds the scope of what Congress has authorized” under the USA Patriot Act, which the government said permitted the massive data collection.
(http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/08/28/nsa-phone-surveillance-court/71303750)
Police allegedly leave mother kneeling naked crying on the floor with her children beside her, curse at her to be quiet. One resident allegedly has an injured back, another’s fractured wrist was re-fractured. Not even an apology, allegedly.
danelabonte 