“This was such a bad
idea Yachnukovy was forced to leave the country. Let's try it here!”
(Are Crimean ripples becoming waves of change in Moscow?)
After
Ukraine, Russians brace for repressions
Russians are facing a
new wave of repressive measures in a Kremlin bid to bolster domestic
control after its annexation of Ukraine's breakaway Crimea, say human
rights activists.
Several bills proposed
by lawmakers here this week seek to prevent the kind of street
demonstrations that gripped Ukraine's Kiev earlier this winter,
leading to the ouster of Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych.
… Anti-Kremlin
activists say Moscow is introducing the same restrictions on protests
that were passed in January by Yanukovych's government and led to an
uproar among the people and Yanukovych's ouster.
"This is exactly
what caused the protests in Kiev to get violent in January,"
Ponomaryov said.
"There is nothing
good about this," Ponomaryov added. "Lawmakers are
scrambling to show the president how loyal and patriotic they are."
I didn't know that the
TSA (Coast Guard, actually) had their own (not quite) judges.
Perhaps some of my lawyer friends could explain that what I see as
bias is in fact objective justice?
Papers, Please!
reports:
The
TSA has assessed
a $500 civil penalty against “Naked
American Hero” John Brennan, who removed
all his clothes at a TSA checkpoint at the Portland, Oregon,
airport in 2012 to show that he wasn’t carrying any weapons or
explosives and in protest of the TSA’s practices.
Read more on Papers,
Please!
[From
the article:
Just as the checkpoint
staff the TSA calls “Transportation Security Officers” are
not law enforcement officers, so-called “Administrative Law
Judges” are not judges or officers of any court. The “formal
administrative hearing” was held in a courtroom (rented for the
day by the TSA from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court), but it was not a
trial and was not a proceeding of any actual court.
… ALJ
Jordan explicitly recognized that he had no authority to consider
whether Mr. Brennan’s conduct was protected by the First Amendment
or whether the TSA’s regulations or actions were otherwise invalid.
… We’ve posted
our own complete
audio recording of the formal administrative hearing, as well as
ALJ Jordan’s decision
and findings.
The rest of the TSA’s records about this case
remain secret. On May , 2013, we filed a FOIA
request for all TSA or Coast Guard records related to the TSA’s
complaint against Mr, Brennan. The TSA denied our request for
expedited processing of this request, and to date has provided
neither any response nor any estimated date for when it will respond.
ALJ Jordan found,
among other things, that Mr. Brennan “was not angry, belligerent or
abusive to any TSA officer” or Port of Portland police officer.
“He did not use profanity or vulgarity; nor did he try to assault
any TSA officer” or police officer. He “was polite and
courteous” according to the testimony of both TSA and police
personnel.
Mr Brennan “was never
‘ordered’ to put his clothes on,” according to uncontested TSA
testimony, and he “was never told that his actions were interfering
with TSA officers’ duties… that his actions were interfering with
the screening process [or] that his actions were causing TSA to be
less efficient in the performance of their duties.”
In spite of this, ALJ
Jordan decided
that Mr. Brennan had “interfered
with screening personnel in the performance of their screening
duties” because, he alleged, some TSA staff were “distracted”
from their duties by his nudity (although none of them actually
testified that they or anyone else were distracted). ALJ Jordan
found
that Mr. Brennan’s “actions constituted a distraction” and that
“TSA screeners do not have to warn someone that their actions are
interfering with their duties.”
We discussed this in
last Friday's Privacy Seminar. The Panel strongly recommended this
site.
HHS has recently added
another training module to its offerings. The latest is on EHRs and
HIPAA:
OCR
has six educational programs for health care providers on compliance
with various aspects of the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules. Each
of these programs is available with free Continuing Medical Education
(CME) credits for physicians and Continuing Education (CE) credits
for health care professionals. They are available at Medscape.org
and on
OCR’s Medscape Destination page:
'cause we don't have
enough lobbies?
Apple,
IBM, others form patent reform lobby
Major US companies
including Ford, Apple and Pfizer have formed a lobbying group aimed
at pushing back at some changes to the patent system members of
Congress have proposed, saying these measures would hinder protection
of valuable inventions.
The group is concerned
about pending legislation aimed at fighting so-called patent
assertion entities (PAEs), companies which produce nothing but
instead buy up patents and then attempt to extract licensing fees or
sue for infringement.
Called the Partnership
for American Innovation, the group warned that steps to stop the PAEs
could also hurt truly innovative companies.
For my students, who
should be learning to write for today's technology.
How
To Write A Great Lede When Writing For The Web
Writing
for the Web is a skill that’s easy to learn but difficult to
master. One of the hardest elements is concocting a great
lede; ledes being the one chance you have of persuading
readers to commit to an article in full. Which is exactly what
you’re doing in your head right about now.
For my musical students
– if they can get those buds out of their ears.
– With MusicBox
you’ll get bundles of kickass songs – customized to your tastes –
from independent artists delivered straight to your inbox twice per
month. The list of participating artists is deep and wide, so you’re
going to get exposure to a variety of genres. Hip hop, country, rock
‘n roll, blues, jazz, mash-ups. The Boxes usually consist of 2-3
songs.
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