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Obama to Sign Historic Opioid Addiction Bill, Regrets Cynical G.O.P. Underfunding

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President Obama has reluctantly agreed to sign into law a bill that purports to address the rise in opioid abuse in the United States. Obama said he would not veto the legislation, after it cleared its final legislative hurdle on Wednesday, in a 92-2 Senate vote.  Democrats have begrudgingly supported the measure, characterizing it as an under-funded election year ploy. “While the President will sign this bill once it reaches his desk because some action is better than none, he won’t stop fighting to secure…

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Cash-Strapped Flint Receives First Nod From Congress

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The House approved of meager relief measures on Wednesday intended to help the city of Flint deal with its drinking water crisis. A more substantial aid package, however, remains stalled in the Senate. Two amendments were attached to the Interior Department spending bill on Wednesday. One proposal would help fund a drinking water testing program in Flint, and the other permits Michigan to forgive loans it made to the city to finance public water services. The measures were introduced by Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), a lawmaker…

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DHS Set to “Fully” Establish Post-Wikileaks Employee Surveillance Program, “Insider Threat,” By Year’s End

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An internal surveillance program established in the wake of Wikileaks’ Cablegate publications is set to be “fully operational” throughout the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) by the start of 2017. Department classified computer networks that share information with 23 other federal agencies will soon be equipped with “monitoring technology,” according to Congressional testimony given Wednesday by DHS officials and a US Coast Guard (USCG) Rear Admiral. The “Insider Threat” program had been mandated across all federal agencies “that operate or access classified computer networks” by President…

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Admin. Stretches Definition of Congressional Approval for War in Lawsuit Over ISIL Campaign

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The Obama administration is seeking to dismiss a lawsuit brought against it, which alleges that the military campaign against the Islamic State (ISIL) is being illegally waged. In court filings this week, Department of Justice lawyers argued that the current war effort against ISIL—known as Operation Inherent Resolve—does not violate the War Powers Act. The 1973 law restricts the President’s powers to commit the US military to a sustained armed conflict for more than 60 days without Congressional approval. The legislature has yet to formally…

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Al Franken, Like Many of Us, Has Questions About Pokemon Go’s Privacy Policy

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A United States Senator is unimpressed with Pokemon Go’s “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” approach to data-mining. Al Franken (D-Minn.) wrote a letter on Tuesday to John Hanke the CEO of Niantic, which last week released the widely-popular mobile app-based game. Franken asked the executive a number of questions, mostly concerning “the extent to which Niantic may be unnecessarily collecting, using, and sharing a wide range of users’ personal information without their appropriate consent.” “From a user’s general profile information to their precise location data and…

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Federal Judge Grounds “Stingray” Evidence Gathered Without a Warrant

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A federal court has for the first time dismissed evidence obtained using a cell site simulator, ruling that the government must obtain a warrant before employing the surveillance technology. Also known as a “stingrays,” the gadgets are in wide use by federal and local police to track down suspects based on their cell phone information. They are often mounted on an airplane and flown over a community, pinging cell phones below until pinpointing the location of a target. In the case before US District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan…

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Eric Holder Ignored Internal Calls to Prosecute HSBC for Money Laundering

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Federal prosecutors reportedly sought a guilty plea from HSBC in 2012, after the bank was caught laundering money and helping governments bust US sanctions, but the initiative was ignored by top Justice Department officials. The allegation was made earlier this week in a report compiled by Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee. The probe alleges that DOJ officials backed off any move to prosecute the London-based bank after pressure from the British government. In December 2012, the Justice Department and HSBC reached a $1.9…

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Sanders Cites Dem Platform, Public Option As Basis For Endorsing Clinton

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The rivals for the Democratic nomination put the race behind them on Tuesday, and appeared together on stage in New Hampshire where Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for President. Sanders noted a “significant coming together” between the two campaigns in recent weeks, which have seen both Clinton and the Democratic establishment methodically tack to the left while drafting the party’s platform. “We produced, by far, the most progressive platform in the history of the Democratic Party,” Sanders told the crowd.…

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With Congress Weighing TPP, Top Dem Asks State for Updates on Malaysian Slave Labor, Mass Grave Investigation

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Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) requested regular updates from the State Department on the Malaysian government’s inquiry into last year’s discovery of mass graves on its soil. Cardin asked for routine reports on the aftermath of the findings in a Senate committee hearing on Tuesday, after noting Congress is considering closer economic ties with Malaysia—via the Trans Pacific Partnership. The tombs, which were found in May 2015 along the Malaysian-Thailand border, contained 139 migrant slave laborers. “I would just make a request–that because of the sensitivity of Malaysia, and…

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Pentagon Sends Two Gitmo Detainees to Serbia

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The number of detainees remaining at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility dropped to 76 this week, following the transfers of two prisoners to the Government of Serbia. The Pentagon announced the transfers of Tajik national, Muhammadi Davlatov, and Yemeni-born Mansur Ahmad Saad al-Dayfi in a statement on Monday. The men had been imprisoned at Guantanamo since 2002. One of the detainees, al-Dayfi was cleared for transfer last October, after an inter-agency review board overturned a prior determination in 2010 that he was too dangerous for…

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Netflix and Jail? Federal Appeals Court Says Password Sharing is Forbidden by CFAA

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A federal appellate court in San Francisco last week ruled that password sharing can be illegal, in a case that could have a chilling effect on access to content-streaming sites like Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBOGO and others. The circuit said in a 2-1 ruling that David Nosal violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) when he accessed proprietary data owned by his former employer. While the court concluded that the ruling shouldn’t be read too broadly—because, it held, Nosal was stealing trade secrets—it did…

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