How will you spend your 67 minutes next Thursday?
- On Monday, a 9th Circuit District Court judge gave a major victory to the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) in its signature litigation, Jewel v. NSA and Schubert v. Obama, lawsuits which seek to end the covert dragnet digital surveillance of Americans first ordered by President Bush in October 2001 and continued by the Obama Administration. Within the context of cross-motions for summary judgment (motions to decide the case 'on the papers' before trial), and a renewed government motion to dismiss the Jewel case outright, Judge White of the Northern District of California rejected the NSA's effort to invoke the state secrets privilege as a total bar to the litigation, even as he found that the doctrine would otherwise bar significant information upon which the plaintiffs were relying to prove their case. In so ruling, the judge highlighted that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) preempts invocation of the state secrets privilege upon which the Executive Branch has historically relied to get litigation challenging their post 9-11 spying programs dismissed. In a footnote, Judge White also denied a stay of his decision pending appeal, citing the recent revelations about the expansion of PRISM and advising that the Court may well order the parties to provide further briefing on that issue.
- NTSB continues to expedite its investigation into the rare plane crash that occurred on July 8 at San Francisco International Airport (SFO, to us Bay Area denizens) when Asiana Airlines Flight 214 clipped the breakwater at the end of one of SFO's runways while landing and crash landed, killing two students on holiday. We've learned from preliminary investigation so far that (a) the pilot was still in training on the 777 and was attempting to land this jet at SFO for the first time; (b) the too-low-too-slow landing may have been controlled not by the pilot on visual approach as originally cleared by the tower at SFO, but instead by automated programming; (c) there was a90-second delay between the crash of the jet and the commencement of evacuations and (d) some passengers were on the tarmac severely injured for nearly ½ hour with other passengers doing what they could to keep them alive until ambulances arrived. Indeed, NTSB has been so forthcoming that the pilots' union folks criticizing it for releasing 'too much information.' Given that the normal flight path of jets landing in SFO passes right over my house, this entire situation is IMO a timely reminder that the safety of airplanes and their passengers, however rarely they crash, depends completely upon the training, level heads and reflexes of people.
- Following the close of evidence on Wednesday, and closing arguments on Thursday and Friday, the jury was charged in the trial of George Zimmerman for his killing of Trayvon Martin . Before the case was turned over, Judge Nelson agreed to instruct the jury on the lesser included offense of manslaughter as requested by the State of Florida, but denied a request to include instruction on 3rd degree felony murder grounded in child abuse. Who knows if (by the time this open thread authored on Thursday is posted on Sunday) whether the jury will take the manslaughter option, the second degree murder option, or the not guilty option. Who knows how long they will deliberate before a verdict. However, to the extent that media punditry is to be believed, there is overwhelming pundit opinion that the State of Florida botched this murder trial, badly. To me, it raises the reasonable inference that its heart wasn't really in it. Considering what happened (nothing) before public outcry about the inexcusable death of another young innocent Black male child forced the State's hand, it all makes perfect (depressing) sense. And in this, Charles Blow speaks for me. Whatever the outcome, Rest in peace, Trayvon Martin.
- Taking a well-needed break before having its 38th vote to repeal 'Obamacare' (known to normal people as the 'Affordable Care Act') the House on Thursday finally passed its version of a farm bill. The bill, in keeping with the Republicans "compassionate conservative" approach, neatly preserves the 90% subsidy to farmers, guts funding for implementation of new food safety regulations and strips funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, what normal people call 'Food Stamps') completely from the bill all at the same. The divergence between the House version of the bill and the Senate version currently up for consideration make the House version a non-starter. Just to show how much they care, House Republicans have promised to introduce a new bill related to food stamp funding "when there is consensus." The number of folks who will starve waiting for that consensus is currently not known.
- Because. . .well just because they want to, hedge funds, start-ups and buyout companies may now freely advertise their opportunities for you to lose your life savings. This week, the Securities and Exchange Commission repealed through rulemaking an 80-year prohibition on mass advertisements of 'private offerings' to the general public. This prohibition arose from the debacle of the Great Depression and was intended to protect potentially-vulnerable market investors from fraud. While the SEC insists that mechanisms should put in place to insure that these investment vehicles remain available only for accredited (i.e. wealthy and sophisticated) investors, the SEC did not itself actually impose meaningful verification requirements to ensure that. Thus, the rule remains that an offeror need only have a "reasonable basis " to conclude that an investor actually has the $200,000 in annual income and net worth (excluding their home) of $1,000,000 that makes it legal to invest in private offerings. I suspect that the hedge fund industry is going to be using the same rigorous verification process that mortgage underwriters used when they were busy inflating the real estate bubble to generate investment paper for the secondary markets. Look for hedge fund paperwork indicating that a gardener earns $200,000 a year any day now.
- Following a 14-day bench trial, Apple was found to have played a 'central role' in a conspiracy to violate antitrust law in connection with eBooks pricing. DOJ brought litigation against Apple and (until they settled and were dismissed out) all of the 'Big Six' publishing houses, who all wanted to charge more for ebooks than Amazon's price point of $9.99 (as if $10 for 5 cents of pixels isn't already outrageous). The second stage of trial, at which monetary damages will be considered, is forthcoming.
- Nelson Mandela (Madiba to those who love him) remains in critical but stable condition in hospital at Pretoria, where he has been for a month. Madiba's 95th birthday is on July 18 of this week, which also serves as international Mandela Day. In honor, won't you find 67 minutes this week to further the cause of peace and justice wherever you find yourself in the world?
- Sweden apparently has finally realized that human beings fucking their animals does not equal a consensual sexual relationship.