• Justice Department agrees 1986 snooping law should be reviewed

    The U.S. Justice Department said earlier this week that it supports reviewing legislation which allows U.S. law enforcement officials to read someone’s e-mails without a search warrant. The 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) states that federal authorities only need a subpoena issued by a federal prosecutor, not a judge, to search through a person’s e-mails which are older than 180 days or which have already been opened.

  • NRC rejects plan for Maryland nuclear reactor

    A plan to build a third nuclear reactor in southern Maryland was postponed last week as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) upheld an earlier decision to squash the project. the primary reason for the rejection is the fact that the applicant’s parent company, Electricite de France, is 85 percent owned by the French government. U.S. law forbids foreign ownership of U.S. nuclear reactors.

  • Widely used FBI surveillance method ruled unconstitutional

    A national security letters (NSLs) is an administrative subpoena which allows the FBI to ask Internet companies and communication service providers to turn over subscriber information on American customers, while prohibiting the providers from informing these customers that their personal information has been turned over to the FBI. Since the 9/11 attacks, the bureau has issued an average of 50,000 NSLs a year. A federal judge in California says this is “rendering the statute impermissibly overbroad.”

  • Fighting gun restrictions on the international scene

    The National Rifle Association (NRA) has taken its campaign against measures aiming to tighten gun control to the international level. The organization has been leading a campaign fight a UN treaty designed to restrict the flow of arms to conflict zones. The treaty is likely to pass, but the NRA appears to have enough support in the Senate to prevent ratification.

  • Gun manufacturers take action against states which passed tough gun laws

    Gun manufacturers are starting to push back against strict gun laws in some states by refusing to sell their products to law enforcement agencies in these states, or to employees of these agencies. So far, more than 110 specialty manufacturers of firearms have joined the movement, which calls itself the Firearm Equality Movement.

  • Tech companies, telecoms clash over cybersecurity executive order

    Last August a cybersecurity bill died in Congress amid partisan bickering. On 12 February this year, President Obama packed many of that bill’s elements into a cybersecurity executive order. To make the order more acceptable to some of its congressional and industry critics, the president introduced an exemption which would take large technology companies off the list of companies subject to the new cybersecurity standards. This exemption placated some of the original cybersecurity bill’s critics, but angered others, chief among them telecommunication companies.

  • Bipartisan proposal makes gun-trafficking a federal crime for the first time

    Lawmakers yesterday introduced a proposal to toughen federal penalties for people who illegally purchase firearms for someone else. The bill would make gun trafficking a federal crime for the first time, with penalties of up to twenty years for “straw purchasers.” The bipartisan proposal is an indication that Democrats and Republicans are exploring areas of agreement to reduce gun violence in the United States.

  • DHS official in charge of immigrant removal resigns

    On the same day it was reported that hundreds of illegal immigrants facing deportations were released from federal detention because of upcoming sequestration-related budget cuts, the senior DHS official in charge of arresting and deporting illegal immigrants announced his retirement. The administration says the retirement of the official, Gary Mead, is unrelated to the decision to release the detainees.

  • RFI for cybersecurity framework for critical infrastructure

    In his 12 February 2013 Executive Order, President Obama called for the development of a Cybersecurity Framework to reduce cyber risks to critical infrastructure such as power plants and financial, transportation, and communications systems. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) the other day issued a Request for Information (RFI) in the Federal Register as its first step in the process to developing that framework.

  • Background checks should be required for all firearm transfers: study

    In 2012, there were an estimated 467,321 firearm-related violent crimes in the United States, a 26 percent increase since 2008. There were 11,101 firearm homicides that year, and an estimated 55,544 injuries resulting from gun-related assaults requiring treatment in hospital emergency departments. Individuals who buy firearms from a license dealer must undergo a background check, but 40 percent of U.S. gun transactions are exempt from background checks because they occur between unlicensed private parties, such as people buying and selling at gun shows. That figure doubles, to more than 80 percent, for firearm sales that involve criminal intent.

  • Obama to issue cybersecurity executive order today

    President Barack Obama is expected to issue an executive order tomorrow to dealing protecting U.S. critical infrastructure from cyberattacks. The order will be issues one day after the president’s State of the Union address. The order will establish a critical infrastructure council which will be run by DHS and will include members of the Departments of Defense, Justice, and Commerce as well as the National Intelligence Office. The council will be tasked with formulating new regulations for federal agencies, or broadening regulations  already in place. The regulations will most likely include the sharing of data between private corporations and the federal government.

  • Chechnya president orders crackdown on wizards, sorcerers, and faith healers

    Ramzan Kadyrov, the president of Chechnya since 2005, was the driving force behind the Center for Islamic Medicine in Grozny, the largest Islamic folk hospital in Europe, where faith healers perform djinn (Islamic spirits) exorcisms by reading Quranic verses aloud. Kadyrov has changed his mind, and has now banned sorcery in the country, calling its practitioners “charlatans.”

  • Courts largely ignore immigration status in lawsuits: study

    When a person living in the United States without legal permission or suspected of doing so is involved in a work-related lawsuit, most courts disregard their immigration status when determining remedies, says a study from an expert in labor relations.

  • Biden argues new gun laws needed

    Vice President Joe Biden told regional law enforcement officials in Philadelphia on Monday that new gun laws are needed if gun violence is to stop. Biden pledged to take his message around the country.

  • Legislation to require Internet privacy baseline not around the corner

    The European Union has set tough privacy protection laws and is even considering a proposal which would set even stricter requirements on Internet companies, including allowing users to access and delete data collected on them. The United States, however, has very few privacy protection laws. Some argue this is a good thing.