“Misreported numbers for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects totaled at least $465 million, according to the audit. Another $384 million was categorized as ‘in progress’ or lacked any documentation.”
“Randall Schriver, the Defense Department’s top Asia official, said the $45 billion total for the year includes $5 billion for Afghan forces and $13 billion for U.S. forces inside Afghanistan. Much of the rest is for logistical support. Some $780 million goes toward economic aid.”
“Personal information, along with your biometric data, resides in a database tied to your ID number. The system crunches all of this into a composite score that ranks you as ‘safe,’ ‘normal’ or ‘unsafe.’ Based on those categories, you may or may not be allowed to visit a museum, pass through certain neighborhoods, go to the mall, check into a hotel, rent an apartment, apply for a job or buy a train ticket. Or you may be detained to undergo re-education, like many thousands of other people. A science-fiction dystopia? No. This is life in northwestern China today if you are Uighur.”
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/03/opinion/sunday/china-surveillance-state-uighurs.html
“Lauri Love, who has Asperger’s syndrome, is accused of involvement in a series of hacks in 2012 and 2013 into computers at agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. army, the Missile Defense Agency and the Federal Reserve. Charged with multiple offences in three U.S. indictments, he had been facing a life prison sentence in the United States if found guilty, a fate which he has said could lead him to taking his own life.”
“A motorist who was ticketed last summer for ‘provocation’ for flipping off an Indiana state trooper has filed a federal lawsuit saying the citation violates his First Amendment rights.”
Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2018/02/indiana_man_argues_he_has_cons.html
“It’s safe to assume Campbell wouldn’t have gotten so much free publicity if he simply announced he was quitting the FBI to join CNN.”
“Multiple exchange-traded securities that are also supposed to be bets on calm markets were halted Tuesday after losing the majority of their value overnight.”
“The next election season, already well underway here, will showcase a younger generation of Democrats that is more liberal and personally invested in standing up to President Donald Trump’s Washington than those leaving office. That means staking out the most liberal stance on issues such as single-payer health care in California, a highly expensive initiative that failed in the legislature last year. The push is in response to the uncertainty surrounding health-care revisions in Washington, but it is estimated to cost twice the state’s annual budget.”
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/California-Democrat-s-blueprint-for-the-election-12550853.php
“The FISA court has always done a dismal job of overseeing the vast surveillance regime it helped spawn. FISA provided a stamp of legitimacy for perpetual deceit and perhaps the worst trampling of constitutional rights in American history. Regardless of the outcome of the current brawl, Washington must radically decrease secret surveillance of the American people.”
“With the ticker HBLK, the fund has a management fee of 0.65 per cent and seeks to replicate the performance of the Harvest Blockchain Technologies Index; an index designed in-house to track the performance of issuers in both the large-cap blockchain segment and the emerging blockchain segment exposed to the development and implementation of blockchain technologies in North America. At the same time, two other providers are looking to access the ever-growing popular blockchain technology. Both First Trust Portfolios Canada and Evolve Funds Group Inc. have filed preliminary prospectuses with regulators this week for blockchain funds.”