• EXTREMISMStanford’s David A. Sklansky on Oath Keepers’ Seditious Conspiracy Convictions

    “Seditious conspiracy is a very serious crime. It means, basically, plotting to use force against the government of the United States, says Professor David A. Sklansky, criminal justice expert at Stanford Law School. These convictions “represented the jury’s unanimous conclusion, beyond a reasonable doubt, that what happened at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, wasn’t an innocent protest, but a criminal attack on the authority of the United States government.”

  • INDUSTRIAL POLICYIs Industrial Policy Making a Comeback?

    By Anshu Siripurapu and Noah Berman

    Industrial policy refers to government efforts to support particular industries that are considered strategically important, such as manufacturing. It has been employed in many countries, including the United States, though it fell out of favor in the 1980s. The Biden administration has pushed to support advanced manufacturing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, tumult in global supply chains, and the rise of China., in the process renewing the debate about the U.S. government’s role in shaping the economy.

  • EXTREMISMOath Keepers Members Found Guilty of Seditious Conspiracy

    Two leaders of the Oath Keepers were found guilty by a jury Tuesday, 29 November, of seditious conspiracy and other charges for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Their actions disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress that was in the process of ascertaining and counting the electoral votes related to the presidential election.

  • EXTREMISMWhat Is Seditious Conspiracy?

    By Masood Farivar

    The conviction on Tuesday of militia leader Stewart Rhodes in connection with the January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol marks the first time in more than two decades that the Justice Department has successfully used a criminal charge known as “seditious conspiracy.”

  • EXTREMISMOath Keepers Convictions Shed Light on the Limits of Free Speech – and the Threat Posed by Militias

    By Amy Cooter

    The conviction of two leaders of the Oath Keepers militia for seditious conspiracy – a rarely used, Civil War-era charge typically reserved in recent decades for terror plots – are the most significant yet relating to the violent storming of the Capitol, and have meaning that extends beyond those who were on trial. The Oath Keepers convictions illuminate two crucial issues facing the country: the limits of the American right to free speech and the future of the militia movement.

  • ELECTION SECURITYBrazil Court Rejects Jair Bolsonaro Election Challenge

    Three weeks after losing Brazil’s election by the narrowest margin seen in decades, outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro had filed a long-shot appeal claiming votes should be thrown out due to faulty voting machines.

  • SURVEILLANCEEFF's Atlas of Surveillance Database Now Documents 10,000+ Police Tech Programs

    By Dave Maass

    The EFF has created a searchable and mappable repository of which law enforcement agencies in the U.S. use surveillance technologies such as body-worn cameras, drones, automated license plate readers, and face recognition.

  • GUNSMore U.S. Adults Carrying Loaded Handguns Daily: Study

    The number of U.S. adult handgun owners carrying a loaded handgun on their person doubled from 2015 to 2019, according to new research. S larger proportion of handgun owners carried handguns in states with less restrictive carrying regulation, where approximately one-third of handgun owners reported carrying in the past month.

  • GUNSThis Gun Policy Platform Could Help Reduce Gun Violence by 28%: Researchers

    A new report with findings from Tufts University School of Medicine experts proposes policies molded from common ground found between gun owners and non-gun owners.

  • GRID RESILIENCEThe Benefits of Integrating Electric Vehicles into Electricity Distribution Systems

    By Nadia Panossian

    As the cost of EVs continues to decrease, the industry matures, incentives grow, and charging infrastructure improves, EVs could make up the vast majority of vehicles on the road in 2050. Many studies have looked at how increased electricity demand will affect the bulk power system in the United States, but public analysis of the impacts on the distribution system has been less prevalent.

  • WAR IN UKRAINEU.S. Imposes Sanctions on Network Supplying Russia with Weapons Tech

    The United States has imposed sanctions on a network of entities and individuals that it says are involved in supplying Russia with military technology to use in its war against Ukraine.

  • ARGUMENT: INSTITUTIONAL CULTUREThe Missing Review of FBI’s January 6 Intelligence and Law Enforcement Failures

    Much attention has been paid to the troubling institutional culture among agents at the U.S. Secret Service – agents who, according to Asha Rangappa.  sympathized with, and since minimized their advanced knowledge of, the violent assault on the Capitol on January 6. “It is time to focus similar attention on the FBI,” she writes.

  • ELECTION INTEGRITYNo Evidence of Any Voting Machine Compromised: CISA

    “We have seen no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was any way compromised in any race in the country”: CISA

  • ELECTION INTEGRITYVoters Largely Reject Election Deniers as Secretaries of State – but the Partisan Battle for Election Administration Will Continue

    By Thom Reilly

    It appears that voters have largely rejected the vast majority of chief election official candidates who ran their campaigns as election deniers. But this election season raises questions, and exposes flaws, about how senior election officials are selected in the U.S. The platforms of these election deniers who appeared on the 2022 midterm ballot illustrate the risk that this dynamic poses to ongoing voter trust and future election results.

  • ELECTION INTEGRITYU.S. Officials Hope Confidence Campaign Pays Off for Midterm Elections

    By Jeff Seldin

    “Americans should go to the ballot box with confidence,” Jen Easterly, the director of the Cybersecurity and Election Security Agency (CISA), told a cybersecurity forum late last month. Yet U.S. officials also acknowledge the threats to Tuesday’s elections are serious and are being treated with proper caution.