Justices Troubled By Their Earlier Ruling On Public Employee Speech Rights

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A majority of the justices on the U.S. Supreme Court seemed disconcerted Monday by the consequences of one of the court's own rulings on the free speech rights of public employees.

Eight years ago, the conservative court majority, by a 5-4 vote, said public employees have no First Amendment protection for speech "pursuant to his official responsibilities." But Monday, in a case involving subpoenaed testimony in a criminal case, the court seemed headed in a different direction.

The case was brought by Edward Lane, an Alabama official who was fired after he testified truthfully that a state legislator was a ghost employee being paid by the taxpayers for no work.

Lane managed a program for at-risk juvenile offenders that was run out of Central Alabama Community College. After he was hired, he conducted an audit and found that one of the program's employees, a state legislator named Suzanne Schmitz, was a no-show employee in his department.

Lane says that people in his office warned him not to tangle with Schmitz because of her influence, but when she repeatedly refused to come to work, he fired her.

Soon after, he says, the FBI was investigating public corruption in Alabama, and Lane was subpoenaed to testify first before a grand jury, and later at Schmitz' two fraud trials. After Lane's first trial testimony, he was fired by the president of the community college, Steve Franks.

"He told me to clean out my office that day, like I had done something wrong," Lane recalled in an interview on the Supreme Court steps Monday. "When I got in my car, I was in tears. I felt no doubt that it was in retaliation" for testifying.

So Lane sued, contending his First Amendment right to free speech had been violated when he was fired for testifying. A federal appeals court ruled that under its own previous rulings, and under a 2006 Supreme Court decision, public employees have no free speech rights when they testify about information they learn on the job.

Lane appealed to the Supreme Court, and in oral arguments Monday the justices signaled that the lower court had gone too far.

Mark Waggoner, representing the former college president who fired Lane, repeatedly quoted back to the justices their own words from that 2006 decision, Garcetti v. Ceballos.

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Justices Troubled By Their Earlier Ruling On Public Employee Speech Rights

Federal judge: Delayed access to court records raises First Amendment concerns

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Courthouse News editor sees nationwide plagueand hell get a chance to make his case

Its been a routine for generations of legal beat reporters: Every weekday afternoon, at courthouses across the United States, a reporter steps behind the records counter and thumbs through the lawsuits filed that day, looking for news.

This custom is endangered, though, and not just because files have moved online, or because there arent as many legal beat reporters as there used to be. Many state courts now keep new civil cases out of sight of the press and public for days, and sometimes even weeks, after theyre filed.

Its a nationwide plague, said Bill Girdner, the founder and editor of Courthouse News Service.

But now, a federal trial court in California will have to determine whether the standard delays at a local courthouse are permissibleafter a higher court ruled that Girdners complaints raise First Amendment concerns.

Based in Pasadena, CA, Courthouse News is a wire service that specializes in civil litigation and covers the courts for both its own website and around 3,000 subscribers, including the Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, and other major news organizations.

In 2011, Courthouse News sued the Superior Court of Ventura County, CA, after the court stopped letting the newswires local correspondent see every new civil suit on the day it was filed. A federal judge dismissed the case. But Courthouse News appealed, and on April 7 a panel of three Ninth Circuit judges ruled that the trial court had to hear the case.

Circuit Judge Kim McLane Wardlaws opinion said the case presents an important First Amendment question and thus should be heard in federal court.

Though the government may sometimes withhold information without violating the expressive rights protected by the First Amendment, the First Amendment right of access to public proceedingswhere it appliesis inextricably intertwined with the First Amendment right of free speech, Wardlaw wrote.

The opinion doesnt specifically find that Courthouse News is entitled to records access under the Constitutionthats what the trial court will have to determine. But Wardlaw notes that federal appellate courts have widely agreed that the First Amendment right of access extends to civil proceedings and associated records and documents.

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Federal judge: Delayed access to court records raises First Amendment concerns

United Church of Christ sues over North Carolina ban on same-sex marriage

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. A group of Charlotte-area ministers have helped launch the country's first faith-based challenge to a same-sex marriage ban, claiming in a lawsuit filed Monday that North Carolina's laws block them from practicing their religion.

The local religious leaders, who include a rabbi, are joined by colleagues from Asheville and Raleigh along with a national denomination, the United Church of Christ. All of them support the rights of same-sex couples to marry.

They say state prohibitions, including a constitutional amendment passed by voters in 2012, violate their First Amendment right of freedom of religion.

"The core protection of the First Amendment is that government may not regulate religious beliefs or take sides in religious controversies," says Jonathan Martel, a Washington, D.C., attorney helping with the case.

"Marriage performed by clergy is a spiritual exercise and expression of faith essential to the values and continuity of the religion that government may regulate only where it has a compelling interest."

The lawsuit was expected to be formally announced in 10:30 a.m. Monday press conference at Holy Covenant United Church of Christ. Church pastor Nancy Allison is one of the persons suing Attorney General Roy Cooper and other state officials, asking that the federal courts in the Western District of North Carolina strike the laws down.

It becomes the 66th legal challenge to marriage bans now in the courts, three of them in North Carolina. But it is the first to attack same-sex marriage bans on religious grounds, said Charlotte attorney Jake Sussman, lead counsel for the group.

It also marks the first time an entire denomination has joined the marriage battle. UCC, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, has more than 1.1 million members and 5,100 local churches. North Carolina is home to more than 24,000 members and 155 churches, including Holy Covenant in Charlotte and Trinity Reformed in Concord.

Joining the denomination and clergy as plaintiffs are same-sex couples in Charlotte, Asheville, Concord and Huntersville. They say the state laws violate their equal-protection and due-process rights under the 14th Amendment.

Betty Mack and Carol Taylor of Asheville have been in a committed relationship for 41 years, the lawsuit says. The women, both in their 70s, say they want to be married in their Unitarian Universalist church, and that they have requested a license but have been turned down.

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United Church of Christ sues over North Carolina ban on same-sex marriage

4/25/14 – More China uncertainty, Missourian bitcoin warning, BadLepricon malware – Video

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4/25/14 - More China uncertainty, Missourian bitcoin warning, BadLepricon malware
http://moneyandtech.com/apr25-news-update/ Wrap up your week with today #39;s top news in Money Tech: China continues to shake the bitcoin price, which dropped...

By: Money Tech

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4/25/14 - More China uncertainty, Missourian bitcoin warning, BadLepricon malware - Video

The Bitcoin Group #27 (Live) – China Bans Bitcoin Again – Politics – Dark Market – Bitcoin VC – Video

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The Bitcoin Group #27 (Live) - China Bans Bitcoin Again - Politics - Dark Market - Bitcoin VC
Donate: 18EQEiQBK1X2DyDL5Y18j78iw4NuNHoLej Featuring... Andreas Antonopoulos (http://antonopoulos.com/), Davi Barker (http://shinybadges.com), Derrick J. Fre...

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The Bitcoin Group #27 (Live) - China Bans Bitcoin Again - Politics - Dark Market - Bitcoin VC - Video

Bitcoin Vies with New Cryptocurrencies as Coin of the Cyber Realm

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As hundreds of altcoin knockoffs are minted online, bitcoins no longer dominate as the principal form of digital currency

Hundreds of bitcoin knockoffsaltcoins, as they are commonly calledhave been built. Credit: Casacius via Wikimedia Commons

At a bitcoin conference in Miami this January, Jeffrey Tucker, a laissez-faire economist and libertarian icon, made an unexpected observation. There are people in this room who would think bitcoin is a little old-fashioned, he quipped. Well, that was fast. After all, it was only five years ago that bitcoin appeared on the scene and provided the world with the first open-source, decentralized alternative to government controlled currencies. And its really only in the last year that bitcoin has begun to gain traction as a payment option. Now bitcoin faces competition. Hundreds of bitcoin knockoffsaltcoins, as they are commonly calledhave been built. The software that underpins bitcoin is open-source, so anyone can copy and tweak the code to create their own digital currency. You can even pay someone to do it for you: The owner of a Web site called Coingen, for example, promises to start a new bitcoin clone for anyone who pays a fee of 0.05 bitcoin. All you have to do is give it a name. Some of these new altcoins are truly innovative. People have made bitcoin versions that process transactions faster, consume less energy or better protect user privacy. Other iterations differ from bitcoin only in their branding and implementation. For example, a few altcoins are intended to serve specific geographical communities. Last month an altcoin called auroracoin was distributed to the people of Iceland to serve as a nation-specific digital currency. (Of course not all altcoins attempt to create an improved product. Many are pump-and-dump schemes. Someone will make a new version of bitcoinusually tweaking minor features of the protocolhype it as the new best thing and then cash out as soon as the coins take on a bit of value.) Regardless, altcoins are now advancing the evolution of digital currency at a rate that bitcoin, as a relatively established project, can no longer keep pace with. Although none of these altcoins have yet flourished enough to surpass bitcoin in either value or rate of adoption, many are doing well enough to prove one point: the alternative currency experiment is far from over.

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Bitcoin Vies with New Cryptocurrencies as Coin of the Cyber Realm

'The Rise And Rise Of Bitcoin' Filmmaker: 'There Is No Answer Yet'

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As the films title indicates,The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin is the Mross brothers love letter to bitcoin and itspotential to transform the global economy. The documentary provides unprecedented insight into the peculiar but growing bitcoinsubculture and introduces us to some entrepreneurs who have risked their livelihood and freedom to make bitcoinmore accessible to the general public.

Nick and Dan Mross came to New York last week to debut The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, where they discussed the confounding complexities of bitcoinwith International Business Times.

International Business Times: "The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin" addresses the difficult question of what bitcoinis, exactly. The film does a really good job of illustrating how hard it is to explain it by comparing bitcoin's comprehensibility to the early days of the Internet. Even now, most of us can't explain exactly what the Internet is, even though it's an essential part of our lives. Do you think there will come a time when bitcoin will be so embedded in our culture that we won't have to define exactly what it is?

Dan Mross: I do ... Every day when you use the Internet, you use a DNS system, and most people have no idea what that is. Right now, bitcoinis a protocol ... and there's nothing built on top of it. We're just dealing with the raw material itself. You have to have a pretty deep knowledge of how it all works to use bitcoinnow, but there are startups that will make it more accessible for everyone.

IBT: I had previously thought of bitcoinas kind of wanting to take over federally backed currency, but after watching the documentary, it looks like that's not the case, at least not right now. It seems like they need to coexist ...

Dan: I'm really glad you said that because that's what a lot of people hear about bitcoin... that these anarchist groups are going take down the banks with this thing. That's the impression you get on the news, or that it's about money laundering. But it's just a protocol. That's what we wanted to show.

Nick Mross: It's a tool, and a lot of people can use it for different things. And if there are bad actors, they are separate from bitcoin itself. That's what we wanted to show in the film -- it's this technology, and it's not really tied to any one thing. How [bitcoin and centralized currency] will coexist across the globe will be interesting to see. But we're hoping here in the U.S. that it finds a way to work within the current banking system.

IBT:Bitcoin has an open-source foundation, which is for the most part considered to be very secure, but the recently discovered Heartbleed bug exposed how easily a simple typo can wreak serious havoc. Did Heartbleed prompt anyone in the bitcoin community to rethink OSS? What is the worst-case scenario?

Dan:The Heartbleed security bug was a very bad problem, but security flaws occur in both open and closed source software. Open source software allows the greatest number of people to do auditing and testing, so I still firmly believe it to be a better development methodology. Bitcoin would not be possible any other way without fundamentally altering the properties that allow it to function as a global currency

IBT: I still feel like I don't fully understand how bitcoin can be used. I haven't noticed anywhere in New York where you can use bitcoin to buy a cup of coffee. Is that where we are going?

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'The Rise And Rise Of Bitcoin' Filmmaker: 'There Is No Answer Yet'

Bitcoin the movie: It just had to happen

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If youre still a bit clueless as to what Bitcoin is, you might want to head to New York and catch a screening of The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin at the Tribeca Film Festival.

The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin is a documentary made by brothers Nicholas and Daniel Mross. Daniel is a software developer and a former Bitcoin miner, while Nicholas was the one in charge of documenting the Bitcoin world as experienced by his brother.

The film dives into the world of Bitcoin just as Daniel got involved with it in 2011. It goes into the basics of Bitcoin, such as mining, terms used, what exchange markets are, the whos-who of the Bitcoin community, and everything a newbie needs to know before deciding if he or she wants to get involved in a cryptocurrency that has gained a lot of attention, especially in 2013 when its value hit the $1,000 mark.

The film also lightly touched upon the controversies the Bitcoin community was faced with in recent months, such as the arrest of BitInstant CEO Charlie Shrem, the fall of Mt.Gox, the FBIs takedown of the Silk Road, and the controversial fingering of one Dorian Nakamoto as the real Satoshi Nakamoto.

The film presents these bumps in the road as events of little consequence to the Bitcoin community; something that had to happen for the cryptocurrency to mature.

We wanted to stress, too, that bitcoin is a piece of software and its public domain. So anything that you tie to it, any externalities, dont actually have to do with it.

Its just a computer program. People are using it a lot of different ways, and thats what we tried to show, that theres a lot of different ways people are using it. So, to tie it to just one-particular-use cases, is a little bit short-sighted, I think, Daniel stated.

After the premier screening of the film, a panel was held which was moderated by New York Times financial markets reporter Nathaniel Popper. Daniel and Nicholas were open to questions from attendees who were mostly from the Bitcoin community, and surprisingly, Shrem was also in attendance albeit wearing an ankle monitor as hes currently under house arrest for money laundering charges. Shrem tried to make light of the situation he is currently facing and remains positive for his future, Bitcoin, and his involvement in the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin belongs to everyone, theres a place for Bitcoin in the heart of every person. Someday 10 years from now, 20 years from now Bitcoin will be powering underlying infrastructure of our banking system, or the way I send money to you, or to me, or from one person in China to pay for a surgery that needs to happen at 2:00 in the morning on a Saturday night, or for anything, Shrem stated.

Shrem added that he sees Bitcoin as the peoples currency and anyone can be involved in it.

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Enforcers get Junior League title

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Wednesday, April 30, 2014

The Enforcers, who also topped the double-round robin regular season with their 9-1 record, got the methodical win, as they registered six earned runs and utilized their pitchers to hold off the Comets batters.

Kier Agda, Virgil Secharmidal, and Ethan Babauta pitched for the Enforcers and combined for only three hitters and gave up no earned run in seven innings to help their team clinch the championship and foil the Comets bid for another upset. The third-seeded Comets, who incidentally handed the Enforcers their lone loss in the season after pulling off a 7-6 win in a classic 19-inning game, marched into the finals after stunning the second-ranked Falcons in the semis, 9-5.

In the finals, the Comets got into the board early, as their first two batters Vincent Keremius and Lorenzo Sebaklim reached home at the top of the first off Agdas pitching error and an Enforcers booboo at third base, respectively. Agda then settled down at the mound and got his first strike against third batter Austin Indalecio and the Enforcers starting pitcher later stranded runners at third and second after earning his second strikeout for the third out. The Comets were earlier called for the second out on a 5-3 putout play.

The Enforcers also lit up the scoreboard in the first inning, which ended in a deadlock, 2-all, after Secharmidal led off for the team and made it home off a Comets error at left field and a passed ball drove Agda home The game remained in a deadlock after two complete innings with Secharmidal stranding two Comets runners and getting two more strikeouts after relieving Agda early in the second inning. Secharmidal was then called for a hit by pitch at the start of the top of the third and leadoff batter Aurel Mendiola went to reach home after another mistake from the former to put the Comets back into the drivers seat, 3-2.

However, the Comets quickly lost the upper hand at the bottom third, as the Enforcers racked up four runs. Babauta hit an RBI double, Shakobe Rangamar drilled an RBI single, and Garnet Martin lasted a two-run single to help the Enforcers turn the tables on the Comets, 6-3.

The Enforcers never looked back from thereon, as Secharmidal found his rhythm in the next two innings after an early struggle in the third. He picked up two ground balls in the fourth inning and threw to first base for two outs and the Comets were done after only three batters, as Sebaklim returned to the dugout after a 5-3 putout play.

In the fifth inning, Secharmidal started a big defensive stop for Enforcers, as he got hold off a short shot from Kobe Santos and threw to second base to tag out Mendiola. The Comets were then charged with a double play, as second baseman Travis Camacho threw to first baseman Ton Muna, who beat Santos for the third out and stranded a runner at third. Muna earlier caught a fly ball for the first out.

After failing to score in the fourth and fifth, the Comets got their fourth and final run at the top of the sixth inning off an Enforcers error at shortstop, however the Enforcers countered with two runs at the bottom sixth to keep their distance. Babauta got another double, which brought Nathan Nogis home at the bottom of the sixth. Nogis earlier had a bunt that helped Secharmidal reach home.

Holding a four-run lead, going into the top of the last inning, the Enforcers turned to Babauta to close the game. He started his pitching chores by walking Indalecio, who was eventually beaten to second, while second batter Austin Hocog was tagged out at third. Mendiola batted third, walked to first, stole second, while fourth batter Santos also had a walk. With runners on first and second and two outs, Babauta faced fifth batter Franco Masga, who hit a grounder. Babauta then stepped into the play, picked up the ball, and threw to Muna for the third out and the Enforcers title-clinching victory.

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Enforcers get Junior League title