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Reprinting Georgia legal code violates copyright law, US federal judge rules


RT
Fri, 31 Mar 2017 11:56 UTC
Legal code
© Global Look Press via ZUMA Press
A federal judge has ruled against a website that published Georgia's state laws and annotations online, finding that the legal code is entitled to copyright protection.

Last Thursday, US District Judge Richard Story ruled that annotations to Georgia's legal code are protected under copyright laws and ordered the website that published them for free to take them down.

The case began in 2015, when Georgia sued the website, Public.Resouce.org for posting free copies of the Official Georgia Code Annotated (OCGA) on their site. Georgia argued that publishing the state's laws amounted to a "form of 'terrorism'"

Carl Malamud, the president of the nonprofit website Public Resource, has run the site for years with the goal of making government information more available.

The complaint argues that making the annotations publically available would mean "the State of Georgia will be required to either stop publishing the annotations altogether or pay for development of the annotations using state tax dollars."
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Eagle

Interview: Incredible struggle of a European commando who led Syrian Arab Army forces in the battle for Aleppo


21st Century Wire
Fri, 31 Mar 2017 12:54 UTC
Syrian soldiers in Aleppo
© AFP 2016/ GEORGE OURFALIAN
One man's incredible story, defending the people of Aleppo...

On this past episode of the SUNDAY WIRE SHOW host Patrick Henningsen spoke with a special guest Patrice, a western special forces commando with an incredible story - a man who by happenstance, became caught-up in an emerging conflict, and who found himself leading a platoon on the front lines with the Syrian Arab Army defending the residents of Aleppo against a terrorist occupying army in that country's six year war against Western and Gulf-backed Jabhat al Nusra and ISIS terrorists.

21st Century Wire's associate editor, Vanessa Beeley, met with Patrice when she was covering the liberation of East Aleppo in December 2016 and following in the tracks of the Syrian Arab Army and allies, as they cleansed each district of the terrorist and extremist occupiers, releasing the Syrian civilians from a five year brutal, sectarian imprisonment. She had this to say:
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Handcuffs

Ex-con refugee 'released early' from Greece only to allegedly murder, rape German student


RT
Fri, 31 Mar 2017 12:54 UTC
refugee arrested handcuffs migrant immigration
© Mustafa Andaleb / Reuters
German prosecutors have charged an Afghan migrant with the murder and rape of a 19-year-old medical student in Freiburg. The suspect already served a prison term for a similar offense in Greece but was released early.

Officials in the southwestern German city of Freiburg, home of one of Germany's elite universities where the incident had taken place, announced the charges on Thursday.

The prosecution team accused the suspect known as Hussein K. of having "attacked, strangled and raped" Maria Ladenburger, a 19-year-old medical student who disappeared while on her way home from a party on October 16, 2016.
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Stock Down

Dennis Kucinich: Our political economy is designed to create poverty and inequality

Dennis Kucinich
The Nation
Mon, 06 Mar 2017 13:22 UTC
homeless man
© AP Photo / Tony Dejak Kenny Chapman, 53, receives coins from a man in downtown Cleveland on February 28, 2017. Chapman has been homeless for about 10 years.
Let me begin by sharing with you the story of an inner-city Cleveland family of seven, two adults and five children all under the age of 11.

The family did not own a home. They were renters. As the family grew, it became ever more difficult to find rent. At one point the old car in which they roamed the city in search of rent became their living quarters. Evenings, the father and mother and a newborn slept in the car's front seat, and the four other children, in the back.

They found rent by understating the number of children, which, when discovered, led to eviction and the same cycle of wandering as urban nomads. The father, a truck driver, had a war-related injury that occasionally required medical treatment, taking him out of work. Bills piled up, which led to garnishments. The mother suffered from post-partum depression, compounded by noisy, rambunctious children.
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X

Iowa governor signs bill to blocks minimum wage hike approved in several counties


RT
Fri, 31 Mar 2017 11:57 UTC
The State Capitol building in Des Moines, Iowa
© wikipedia.org wikipedia.orgThe State Capitol building in Des Moines, Iowa
Tens of thousands of Iowa workers who received a raise in Iowa could see their pay cut after the governor signed a bill that would roll back the minimum wage throughout the state.

On Thursday, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad (R) signed House File 295, which prohibits any county or city in the state from exceeding the statewide minimum wage of $7.25.

The statewide minimum wage is the same as the federal minimum and has remained at $7.25 since 2008.

The bill passed the Iowa House on March 9 with a 56-41 vote, and the Senate on March 27 with a 29-21 vote along party lines. After signing it into law, Branstad said using different minimum wage standards "create[d] confusion." He says the bill "provides uniformity through the state on Iowa's minimum wage."
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Heart - Black

Alberta RCMP officer charged with 2 counts of sexual assault, breach of trust


CTV News
Fri, 31 Mar 2017 13:29 UTC
Jason Tress
© Zachary Cormier/Red Deer ExpressConst. Jason Tress, shown here in a photo from February 2016, is charged with two counts of sexual assault and two counts of breach of trust involving three different women.
An Alberta Mountie has been charged with sexual assault and other offences following an investigation by the province's police watchdog.

Susan Hughson, with the Alberta Serious Incident Response Team, said the allegations involve three women in separate incidents.

Hughson said the Mountie was on duty in two of the alleged cases, including one at the Red Deer RCMP detachment last year. One of the sexual assault charges allegedly happened in rural Alberta in 2012.

Const. Jason Tress, 30, faces two counts of sexual assault involving two women and two counts of breach of trust, including one involving a third woman.

"Sexual assaults are difficult enough for people who have been sexually assaulted, it would seem reasonable that it's only more difficult for those women or children or victims when the perpetrator is a police officer," she said Thursday.
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Blackbox

Huge manhole explosion shakes lower Manhattan during rush hour, starting three fires, shattering windows and prompting evacuations of nearby buildings

Ashley Collman
Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 31 Mar 2017 12:57 UTC
manhattan manhole explosion
Firefighters are battling multiple manhole fires after an explosion early Friday morning in downtown Manhattan, at 12th Street and Broadway
A large explosion was heard in lower Manhattan early Friday morning, near the Union Square area.

According to firefighter scanner activity, the explosion was caused by a manhole blast that several manholes on fire.

The explosion occurred just after 7am, at the intersection of Broadway and East 12th Street - near the landmark bookstore, The Strand.

It's unclear if anyone was injured in the incident or what sparked the blast, but trucks for the city's gas provider, ConEdison, were on the scene.
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Sheriff

Connecticut lawmakers propose ban of weaponized drones, exempting police

Dave Collins
Fox5 NY
Fri, 31 Mar 2017 12:25 UTC
Police drone
© roboticstomorrow.com
Connecticut lawmakers are considering whether the state should become the first in the country to allow police to use drones outfitted with deadly weapons, a proposal immediately met with concern by civil rights and liberties advocates.

The bill would ban the use of weaponized drones, but exempt police. Details on how law enforcement could use drones with weapons would be spelled out in new rules to be developed by the state Police Officer Standards and Training Council. Officers also would have to receive training before being allowed to use drones with weapons.


Comment: The training police have received thus far has led to the Police State we now live in. Are they going to teach the officers to treat people respectfully and not tase them or gun them down in cold blood with drones when they feel 'threatened'?


"Obviously this is for very limited circumstances," said Republican state Sen. John Kissel, of Enfield, co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee that approved the measure Wednesday and sent it to the House of Representatives. "We can certainly envision some incident on some campus or someplace where someone is a rogue shooter or someone was kidnapped and you try to blow out a tire."

North Dakota is the only state that allows police to use weaponized drones, but limits the use to "less lethal" weapons, including stun guns, rubber bullets and tear gas.

Five states - Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Vermont and Wisconsin - prohibit anyone from using a weaponized drone, while Maine and Virginia ban police from using armed drones, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Several other states have restricted drone use in general.
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Laptop

Online suicide game "Blue Whale Challenge" spreads to France

Justin Postlethwaite
The Connexion
Mon, 27 Mar 2017 12:32 UTC
Social network 'game' from Russia is now claiming French victims
Laptop at Night
© Unknown
Parents in France are being warned about the Blue Whale Challenge, an online phenomenon that encourages youngsters to undertake dangerous dares and self-harm.

The craze is believed to have led to 130 suicides in six months in Russia, where it originated. In France, several cases of suspicious death have been reported and now education authorities are on high alert.

Like the Ice Bucket Challenge, the Blue Whale Challenge involves encouraging participants, via social networks, to face everyday challenges. The difference is that these are intended to lead the 'players' to death on the 50th day, thereby 'winning' the game.

Challenges at the beginning include drawing a whale on a leaf or getting up at night to listen to sad music. As days pass, participants are invited to cut themselves and finally to jump from the roof of a building or to hang themselves.

Comment: More information about the Blue Whale Challenge can be found here.

RT covered the story in 2016.



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Heart - Black

Japan kills more than 300 minke whales in annual Antarctic hunt


The Guardian
Fri, 31 Mar 2017 12:20 UTC
A dead minke whale onboard the Nisshin Maru, part of the Japanese whaling fleet, at sea in Antarctic waters.
© Glenn Lockitch/AFP/Getty Images A dead minke whale onboard the Nisshin Maru, part of the Japanese whaling fleet, at sea in Antarctic waters.
Whaling fleet returns to port after slaughtering hundreds of minke whales, in defiance of moratorium on hunting and global criticism

A Japanese whaling fleet returned to port on Friday after an annual Antarctic hunt that killed more than 300 of the mammals, as Tokyo pursues the programme in defiance of global criticism.

The fleet set sail for the Southern Ocean in November, with plans to slaughter 333 minke whales, flouting a worldwide moratorium and opposition led by Australia and New Zealand.

The fleet consisted of five ships, three of which arrived on Friday morning at Shimonoseki port in western Japan, the country's Fisheries Agency said.

More than 200 people, including crew members and their families, gathered in the rain for a 30-minute ceremony in front of the Nisshin Maru, the fleet's main ship, according to an official of the Shimonoseki city government.
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