Wall Street Journal (subscription) | NATO Moves to Shore Up Vital Supply Line Wall Street Journal (subscription) STANAI, LithuaniaThe North Atlantic Treaty Organization brought two battle groups together Tuesday in a drill meant to demonstrate the alliance's ability to keep open vital supply lines between Poland and Lithuania, shoring up what military ... |
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NATO Moves to Shore Up Vital Supply Line - Wall Street Journal (subscription)
WASHINGTONMeeting the 2 percent NATO defense spending target isnt just about allies bringing tanks and artillery to the table, U.S. Army Europe Commander Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, said Tuesday.
The U.S. has often said NATO countries should step up to the plate and spend 2 percent of its GDP on defense and the rhetoric heated up when President Donald Trump, on the campaign trail, criticized allies for not paying their share.
Hodges agreed that allies should spend more on defense, but its not the typical weapons or equipment that is needed. Im not looking for more German tank battalions or more British artillery battalions. Countries are doing that, he said, adding, but ways that they can contribute to the alliance, improve infrastructure, improve freedom of movement and help provide ammunition.
The U.S. Army and its NATO and Eastern European allies have been working to deter Russia from advancing beyond its illegal annexation of Crimea for several years. Russia continues to wage hybrid warfare in Ukraine and intelligence and information wars elsewhere in the region, keeping Baltic States and other European nations on high alert.
NATO is also nearly complete deploying multinational battalions to Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania, another contribution to deterring Russia.
With units and troops from the U.S. Army and its allies spread over huge swaths of territory, Hodges said its far more important for allies to contribute in ways that enhance freedom of movement across borders and large territories by providing heavy equipment transport and other transportation, guaranteeing rail access and improving rail heads in order to be able to move a brigade by rail in 48 hours.
Hodges noted the U.S. Army's heavy equipment transport vehicles used to carry M1 tanks exceed weight requirements based on European road laws and it is having to lease 18 vehicles.
Somebody should be paying for that. I shouldnt be paying for 18 British HETs, Hodges said.
Allies could also buy fuel and ammunition and provide storage sites, he added.
Beyond immediate deterrence, Hodges noted the U.S. Army and its allies have to be prepared to fight a peer adversary now and into the future and that means developing capability rapidly that will allow them to go up against countries like Russia.
The Army never invested in long-range fires, for instance, Hodges said, because it knew it could rely heavily on the U.S. Air Force. But that wont be the case when going up against a country like Russia during a lengthy land operation in the future.
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US Army Europe chief: NATO allies should bolster infrastructure - DefenseNews.com
Published time: 20 Jun, 2017 18:30
A NATO Hummer has crashed into a car carrying four female students in Lithuania, sending three of them to hospital, local media reports.
The NATO SUV collided with the VW Passat on Tuesday afternoon as the military vehicle was turning off a minor road at around 50 kilometers per hour.
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Preliminary reports suggest the NATO driver was at fault as he did not make way for the Passat according to the news portal Delfi. As a result, three of the students from a local college were hospitalized with head injuries and two of them were taken to Kaunus.
The driver of the Passat, another female student, as well as the two occupants of the NATO vehicle were unhurt.
The Lithuanian military confirmed the driver, a US soldier from the 2nd Battalion of the Minnesota National Guard, was sober and in uniform when the accident happened. After the crash, the driver and his passenger, also an American, jumped out of their vehicle to administer first aid to the girls until the ambulance arrived.
The US troops are in the country to take part in the ongoing Iron Wolf 2017 military drills, part of the broader Saber Strike exercises underway in the Baltic states and Poland.
The maneuvers, which began last week in southern, central and eastern Lithuania, are meant to test the capabilities of the German-led Forward Presence Battalion Battle Group, also comprising soldiers from Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway. Polish, Portuguese, British and American troops are also taking part in the drills which involve around 5,300 military personnel.
READ MORE:5,000+ NATO troops to take part in Iron Wolf drills in Lithuania
Russia has consistently warned that NATOs military buildup along its western borders is a threat to its national security as well and jeopardizes regional stability. In February, Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed NATO for provoking a conflict with Moscow and using its newly-declared official mission to deter Russia as a pretext for its massive military expansion.
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Three injured as NATO SUV crashes into car carrying Lithuanian students - RT
VR Systems provides voter registration software and hardware to elections offices in eight states. Courtesy of VR Systems hide caption
VR Systems provides voter registration software and hardware to elections offices in eight states.
The Florida elections vendor that was targeted in Russian cyberattacks last year has denied a recent report based on a leaked National Security Agency document that the company's computer system was compromised.
The hackers tried to break into employee email accounts last August but were unsuccessful, said Ben Martin, the chief operating officer of VR Systems, in an interview with NPR. Martin said the hackers appeared to be trying to steal employee credentials in order to launch a spear-phishing campaign aimed at the company's customers.
VR Systems, based in Tallahassee, Fla., provides voter registration software and hardware to elections offices in eight states.
"Some emails came into our email account that we did not open. Even though NSA says it's likely that we opened them, we did not," Martin says. "We know for a fact they were never opened. They did not get into our domain."
VR Systems COO Ben Martin told NPR that no elections vendor would send customers software updates once voting had begun, which it had in this case. Dina Ivory/Courtesy of VR Systems hide caption
Instead, Martin said, the company isolated the suspicious emails and alerted law enforcement authorities, who it was already working with because of two attempts to break into state voter registration databases earlier last summer.
The NSA document said that at least one of the company's email accounts was "likely" compromised based on information uncovered later in the spear-phishing campaign. That attack took place days before the November election and involved fake emails sent to as many as 122 local election officials in an apparent effort to trick them into opening attachments containing malicious software.
"They tried to pretend to be us to leverage our relationship with our customers," said Martin.
But Martin noted that while the NSA says the emails were made to look as if they came from VR Systems, they were sent from a phony email address vr.elections@gmail.com. He said his company does not use Gmail and never sends its customers documents in the form of email attachments. He added that no elections vendor would send customers software updates once voting had begun, which in this case it had.
"That's why I believe most of our customers knew immediately that this was bogus," said Martin. The company was alerted to the fake emails by one of its customers, and Martin said it immediately warned its other customers. So far, there is no evidence that any of the recipients opened the attachments or had their systems infected with the malicious software.
Still, cybersecurity experts say the attempted attacks are a clear sign of Russian interest in interfering with U.S. elections either by manipulating votes or causing chaos at the polls. Some have warned that vendors might be exploited to gain access to local or state voting systems.
In this case, the NSA report concluded that the purpose of the malicious software was "to establish persistent access or survey the victim for items of interest to the threat actors." While last year's attacks appeared to only involve voter registration systems, some experts say such systems can be used as a gateway to actual voting machines.
The Senate and House intelligence committees will explore Russia's efforts to interfere in U.S. elections last year and how to prevent future attacks at two hearings on Wednesday. Former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson will appear before the House committee. The Senate panel will hear from current U.S. intelligence officials and state election experts.
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Despite NSA Claim, Elections Vendor Denies System Was Compromised In Hack Attempt - NPR
When Edward Snowden walked out of the NSA in 2013 with thumb drives full of its most secret files, the agency didn't have a reliable list of peoplelike Snowdenwho had privileged access to its networks. Nor did it have a reliable list of those who were authorized to use removable media to transfer data to or from an NSA system.
That's one of the alarming revelations in a Department of Defense Inspector General report from last year. The report, which was ordered by Congress, reviewed whether the NSA had completed some of the most important initiatives it has started in response to the Snowden leak to make its data more secure. The New York Times obtained the DOD IG report via FOIA.
The most shocking detail in the report is that even at the new National Security Agency data center in Utah, "NSA did not consistently secure server racks and other sensitive equipment" in data centers and machine rooms. At the Utah Data Center and two other facilities, the report stated, "we observed unlocked server racks and sensitive equipment." The finding that the NSA wasn't locking down all its server racks was first disclosed and reported in a House Intelligence Committee Report on Edward Snowden's leaks released in December.
But the more fundamental problem revealed in the report is that the NSA has done little to limit the number of people who have access to what are supposed to be the most protected hardware the NSA has.
The IG report examined seven of the most important out of 40 "Secure the Net" initiatives rolled out since Snowden began leaking classified information. Two of the initiatives aspired to reduce the number of people who had the kind of access Snowden did: those who have privileged access to maintain, configure, and operate the NSA's computer systems (what the report calls PRIVACs), and those who are authorized to use removable media to transfer data to or from an NSA system (what the report calls DTAs).
The government's apparent lack of curiosity is fairly alarming
But when DOD's inspectors went to assess whether NSA had succeeded in doing this, they found something disturbing. In both cases, the NSA did not have solid documentation about how many such users existed at the time of the Snowden leak. With respect to PRIVACs, in June 2013 (the start of the Snowden leak), "NSA officials stated that they used a manually kept spreadsheet, which they no longer had, to identify the initial number of privileged users." The report offered no explanation for how NSA came to no longer have that spreadsheet just as an investigation into the biggest breach thus far at NSA started. With respect to DTAs, "NSA did not know how many DTAs it had because the manually kept list was corrupted during the months leading up to the security breach."
There seem to be two possible explanations for the fact that the NSA couldn't track who had the same kind of access that Snowden exploited to steal so many documents. Either the dog ate their homework: Someone at NSA made the documents unavailable (or they never really existed). Or someone fed the dog their homework: Some adversary made these lists unusable. The former would suggest the NSA had something to hide as it prepared to explain why Snowden had been able to walk away with NSA's crown jewels. The latter would suggest that someone deliberately obscured who else in the building might walk away with the crown jewels. Obscuring that list would be of particular value if you were a foreign adversary planning on walking away with a bunch of files, such as the set of hacking tools the Shadow Brokers have since released, which are believed to have originated at NSA.
NSA headquarters in Maryland. Image: MJB/Flickr
The government's apparent lack of curiosityat least in this reportabout which of these was the case is fairly alarming, because it is a critically important question in assessing why NSA continues to have serious data breaches. For example, it would be important to know if Hal Martin, the Booz Allen Hamilton contractor accused of stealing terabytes of NSA data in both hard copy and digital form, showed up on these lists or if he simply downloaded data for decades without authorization to do so.
Even given the real concern that Russia or someone else might have reason to want to make the names of PRIVACs and DTAs inaccessible at precisely the time the NSA reviewed the Snowden breach, the NSA's subsequent action does provide support for the likelihood the agency itself was hiding how widespread PRIVAC and DTA access was. For both categories, DOD's Inspector General found NSA did not succeed in limiting the number of people who might, in the future, walk away with classified documents and software.
With PRIVACs, the NSA simply "arbitrarily" removed privileged access from some number of users, then had them reapply for privileged access over the next 3 months. The NSA couldn't provide DOD's IG with "the number of privileged users before and after the purge or the actual number of users purged." After that partial purge, though, NSA had "a continued and consistent increase in the number of privileged users."
As with PRIVACs, the NSA "could not provide supporting documentation for the total number of DTAs before and after the purge" and so was working from an "unsubstantiated" estimate. After the Snowden leak, the NSA purged all DTAs and made them reapply, which they did in 2014. The NSA pointed to the new number of DTAs and declared it a reduction from its original "unsupported" estimate. When asked how it justified its claim that it had reduced the number of people who could use thumb drives with NSA's networks when it didn't know how many such people it had to begin with, the NSA explained, "although the initiat[iv]e focused on reducing the number of DTA, the actions taken by NSA were not designed to reduce the number of DTAs; rather they were taken to overhaul the DTA process to identify and vet all DTAs." The IG Report notes that the NSA "continued to consistently increase the number of DTAs throughout the next 12 months."
When, in 2008, someone introduced a worm into DOD's networks via a thumb drive, it decreed that it would no longer use removable media. Then, after Chelsea Manning exfiltrated a bunch of documents on a Lady Gaga CD, the government again renewed its commitment to limiting the use of removable media. This report reveals that only in the wake of the Snowden leaks did the NSA get around to developing a vetted list of those who could use thumb drives in NSA's networks. Yet as recently as last year, Reality Winner (who, as an Air Force translator, was presumably not a privileged access user at all) stuck some kind of removable media into a Top Secret computer, yet the government claims not to know what she downloaded or whether she downloaded anything at all (it's unclear whether that Air Force computer came within NSA's review).
When contacted with specific questions about its inability to track privileged users, the NSA pointed to its official statement on the DOD IG Report. "The National Security Agency operates in one of the most complicated IT environments in the world. Over the past several years, we have continued to build on internal security improvements while carrying out the mission to defend the nation and our allies around the clock." The Office of Director of National Intelligence did not immediately respond with comment to my questions.
Yet this issue pertains not just to the recent spate of enormous data breaches, which led last month to the worldwide WannaCry ransomware attack using NSA's stolen tools. It also pertains to the privacy of whatever data on Americans the NSA might have in its repositories. If, three years after Snowden, the NSA still hasn't succeeded in limiting the number of people with the technical capability to do what he did, how can NSA ensure it keeps Americans' data safe?
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The NSA Has Done Little to Prevent the Next Edward Snowden ... - Motherboard
Circa News has been covering the alleged abuses of the intelligence community against Americans. They noted how the unmasking protocol for intercepts collected by the National Security Agency changed under the Obama administration, supposedly to better catch terrorists prepping for lone wolf attacks, could open Americans up to political espionage. Then, they wrote about how the FBI may have illegally shared spy data on Americans with unauthorized parties who did not have clearance to view such information. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) wrote a ten-page ruling listing hundreds of privacy violations committed by the FBI when gathering information during the tenure of then-FBI Director James Comey. Now, a former NSA contractor has filed a lawsuit against James Comey, allegedly a covering up the illegal methods that are being used to monitor Americans and violate their constitutional privacy rights. Once again, John Solomon and Sara Carter were on the case.
The contractor Dennis Montgomery reportedly took multiple hard drives containing 600 million classified documents to prove how the intelligence community is violating Americans privacy. He was granted immunity, but the FBI never followed through. The FBI has documentation of them taking possession of the hard drives. Montgomery alleges that over 20 million Americans identities were illegally unmasked:
A former U.S. intelligence contractor tells Circa he walked away with more than 600 million classified documents on 47 hard drives from the National Security Agency and the CIA, a haul potentially larger than Edward Snowden's now infamous breach.
And now he is suing former FBI Director James Comey and other government figures, alleging the bureau has covered up evidence he provided them showing widespread spying on Americans that violated civil liberties.
The suit, filed late Monday night [June 12] by Dennis Montgomery, was assigned to the same federal judge who has already ruled that some of the NSA's collection of data on Americans violates the U.S. Constitutions Fourth Amendment, setting up an intriguing legal proceeding in the nations capital this summer.
Montgomery says the evidence he gave to the FBI chronicle the warrantless collection of phone, financial and personal data and the unmasking of identities in spy data about millions of Americans, This domestic surveillance was all being done on computers supplied by the FBI," Montgomery told Circa in an interview. "So these supercomputers, which are FBI computers, the CIA is using them to do domestic surveillance."
[]
Montgomery alleges that more than 20 million American identities were illegally unmasked - credit reports, emails, phone conversations and Internet traffic, were some of the items the NSA and CIA collected.
He said he returned the hard drives to the FBI, a fact confirmed in government documents reviewed by Circa.
As Congress wallows in Russian collusion hysteria, maybe they should also put these under the microscope since a) its more grounded in reality; and b) there appears to be an actual paper trail.
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It appears the NSA hasn't learned much since Ed Snowden left with several thousands of its super-secret documents. Agency officials were quick to claim the leaks would cause untold amounts of damage, but behind the scenes, not much was being done to make sure it didn't happen again.
A Defense Department Inspector General's report obtained via FOIA lawsuit by the New York Times shows the NSA fell short of several security goals in the post-Snowden cleanup. For an agency that was so concerned about being irreparably breached, the NSA still seems primed for more leakage. Charlie Savage reports:
The N.S.A. failed to consistently lock racks of servers storing highly classified data and to secure data center machine rooms, according to the report, an investigation by the Defense Departments inspector general completed in 2016. The report was classified at the time and made public in redacted form this week in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by The New York Times.
The agency also failed to meaningfully reduce the number of officials and contractors who were empowered to download and transfer data classified as top secret, as well as the number of privileged users, who have greater power to access the N.S.A.s most sensitive computer systems. And it did not fully implement software to monitor what those users were doing.
Let's not forget the NSA wants to be engaged in ensuring the cybersecurity of the nation. It's repeatedly asked for more power and a better seat in the CyberWar room. But it doesn't even take its OWN security seriously. The NSA told its oversight it was engaging in 40 "Secure the Net" initiatives, directly after the first Snowden leak. Two years later, it told Congress it had completed 34 of 40 STN initiatives. The term "completion" apparently has multiple definitions, depending on who's using the word. The IG sampled only seven of the initiatives and found four were mostly done and three were nowhere near completed. Extrapolating from the sampling, it's safe to assume the NSA's internal security efforts are only slightly more than half-baked.
The three the NSA failed to implement are of crucial importance, especially if it's looking to keep its in-house documents safe at home. From the report [PDF]:
NSA officials did not effectively implement three PRIVAC [Privileged Access]-related STN initiatives:
- fully implement technology to oversee privileged user activities;
- effectively reduce the number of privileged users; and
- effectively reduce the number of authorized DTAs [Data Transfer Agents].
First off, the NSA -- prior to the Snowden leaks -- had no idea how many users had privileged access. Post-Snowden, things hardly improved. Considering the tech capabilities of the agency, it's incredibly amusing to see how the NSA "tracked" privileged users.
NSA officials stated they used a manually kept spreadsheet, which they no longer had, to identify the initial number of privileged users.
Pretty much useless, considering this number the NSA couldn't verify (thanks to its missing spreadsheet) was supposed to be used to establish a baseline for the planned reduction in privileged users. Despite missing this key data, the NSA moved ahead, "arbitrarily revoking access" and asking users to reapply for privileged status. It then reported a reduction by citing the number of users it denied restoration of access privileges. It did not factor in any new users it granted privileged access to or tally up the number of accounts it never bothered to revoke.
As the fully-redacted chart presumably points out (according to the text above it), the NSA had a "continued and consistent increase in the number of privileged users once the [redacted] enrollment process began."
The NSA also claimed it had reduced the number of DTAs. And again, the NSA had no receipts.
Although repeatedly requested, NSA officials could not provide supporting documentation for the total number of DTAs before and after the purge or the actual number of users purged.
The NSA's objectively-terrible internal controls (again) ensured no number could be verified.
NSA did not know how many DTAs it had because the manually kept list was corrupted during the months leading up to the security breach.
The NSA handled these missing numbers the same way it had privileged users: it made up a new baseline, arbitrarily decided it could show a downtrend in DTAs, and delivered this as "proof" of another completed security initiative.
The report points out repeatedly the NSA's failure to provide documentation backing its STN claims -- either from before the initiatives took force or after they supposedly hag been completed. The IG's comments note the NSA's response to the report ignored its detailed description of multiple failures in order to spin this as a "win" for the agency.
Although the Director, Technology Directorate NSA/CSS Chief Information Officer, agreed, he did not address all the specifics of the recommendation. Therefore, we request that the director provide additional comments on the final report that identify specific actions NSA will take.
Here's how the NSA portrayed the report's findings:
While the Media Leak events that led to Secure the Net (STN) were both unforeseen and serious, we consider the extensive progress we made in a short time to be a "good news" story.
Sure, if you consider a half-done job securing NSA assets to be "good news," rather than just an ongoing series of security holes left halfway unplugged while agency officials testify before Congressional oversight in front of a "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED" banner backdrop.
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Oversight Report Shows NSA Failed To Secure Its Systems Following The Snowden Leaks - Techdirt
The National Society of Accountants and their Scholarship Foundation announced this week that 30 students have been awarded this year's annual scholarships, receiving $37,950 in all.
This year's scholarships ranged from $500 - $3,000. Undergrad and graduate students were chosen based on their notable academics, leadership, activities on and off campus, career goals, and individual financial need.
These students are the best and brightest candidates working to earn accounting degrees, stated NSA Scholarship Foundation president Sharon Cook. We are pleased to support them and look forward to having them join the accounting profession.
The NSA's Scholarship Foundation has now provided over $1 million to students pursuing an accounting career since its inception in 1969.
Below are the 2017 scholarship winners, listed alongside their current universities, NSA Affiliated Organization or scholarship, and scholarship value:
For more information on the NSA's Scholarship Foundation, head to organization's site here.
Sean McCabe is a senior editor with Accounting Today.
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NSA Scholarship Foundation names 2017 recipients - Accounting Today
Chicago Sun-Times | The NRA shuns a Second Amendment martyr Chicago Sun-Times Last Friday, a Minnesota jury acquitted the cop who killed Castile of second-degree manslaughter, demonstrating once again how hard it is to hold police accountable when they use unnecessary force. The verdict also sends a chilling message to gun ... Disturbing Video Released of Fatal Police Shooting of Philando Castile Prominent black NRA defender criticizes ruling in Philando Castile case Trevor Noah Takes on the NRA's Racist Hypocrisy |
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Photo: Cathy Zuraw / Hearst Connecticut Media
Second amendment group opposes lawsuit in Sandy Hook shooting
The Connecticut Citizens Defense League has filed a brief opposing a lawsuit that would hold manufacturers and sellers of the gun used in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting liable for the crime.
The suit filed by the families of 10 victims argues that makers and distributors of the AR-15-style rifle used in the shooting recklessly marketed it to civilians, ignoring the risks that it would be misused. The suit was thrown out by a lower court, and the families have appealed to have it reinstated.
CCDLs brief against the reinstatement argues that the firearm is 25 percent as powerful as a regular hunting rifle, because it uses lightweight ammunition. It also states that crime statistics show that ordinary handguns are more than 15 times more likely to be used by mass shooters than the model of firearm chosen by Adam Lanza.
If the defendants are held liable in this case, then, it will set a precedent that would expose businesses to legal liability each time they sell virtually any type of firearm in Connecticut, the CCDL news release states.
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Second amendment group opposes lawsuit in Sandy Hook shooting - Danbury News Times
David Jadon 2:39 p.m. ET June 20, 2017
David Jadon(Photo: CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)
After more than a month of bad decisions, Indian River County School administrators finally have displayed some smarts. It took an honors student's steadfast belief in the First Amendment, and worldwide attention, to make it happen.
That honors student J.P. Krause, a top student, rising seniorand the winner of the vote for Vero Beach High School's senior class presidency never knew what hit him. His classmates in hisAdvanced PlacementU.S. History class asked him to give a speech in support of his campaign, and his teacher encouraged him to do so. He gave a lighthearted, 2016 presidential campaign-inspired, 90-second speech, and his classmates laughed.
Krause said he was for liberty while his opponent was for higher taxes. He said he was opposed to the rival high school Sebastian River, and his opposing candidate was for it. Krause proposed building a wall between the two schools and making the other school pay for it. Joy Behar of "The View" later said on national television that J.P.'s off-the-cuff speech was "smart."
MORE |Superintendent overturns principal's call on Vero Beach High School class election
"Smart" Behar had that right. Indeed, the very next day after the speech the day of the election Krause represented Vero Beach High in a national academic competition. He came in 10th individually while his Vero Beach team came in third nationally.
Smart.
Unfortunately, Krause had no idea trouble was afoot back at home. School administrators had learned of his campaign speech and decided it amounted to harassment. Of course, Krause had not harassed anyone in the speech, and anyone who saw the videoand knew Krauseknew he didn't and wouldn't have done so.
The principal disqualified Krause from the officeKrausewon fair and square, and punished him to boot. To add insult to injury, the principal decided the campaign speech should be entered into Krause's permanent disciplinary record as harassment.
Not so smart.
Laurence Reisman: Trump effect puts international spotlight on Indian River County school issue
When Larry Reisman of this newspaper heard about Krause, he wrote about the unfairness of the situation. Reisman called attention to the fact that Krausehad First Amendment rights the school did not consider. Pacific Legal Foundation, for whom I am working as a summer clerk, then got wind of it. Pacific Legal represents individuals and businesses when the government violates their constitutional rights. Punishing Krause for his humorous campaign speech clearly violated Krause's First Amendment rights.
Our Founding Fathers did not design the First Amendment to protect feelings. While under certain circumstances schools have the right to punish or censor student speech, this case did not fit those circumstances. Courts have ruled that school policies that go too far to censor speech are unconstitutional. So it is here.
A classmate had recorded the speech; the video demonstrated beyond dispute the school had wronged Krause.
Within days, the entire world had seen the video. Those on the left side of the aisle, including Whoopi Goldberg and Behar on "The View," and those on the right, including "Fox & Friends" and National Review, all sided with Krause. So did Univision, the New York Daily News and the London Daily Mail. The world took his side because reasonable people on the left, right and center know the First Amendment provides the bedrock for all of our freedoms.
The global attention finally caused some smarts at the local schoolhouse.
Sadly, this local uproar exemplifies a broader phenomenon across the country, where different viewpoints are censored or restricted by both college and high school administrators. The Founding Fathers and First Amendment scholars have recognized the importance of the "marketplace of ideas." Without it, free speech cannot truly exist.
Upon entering college, campuses greet students with free speech zones, oppressive speech regulations, banned speakers, safe spaces and censorship.Once the epicenter of discussion, debate and learning, campuses have become segregated intellectually, no longer challenging students to stand up, speak and engage civilly with one another.
Americans of all political stripes must speak up to put a stop to this nonsense.
J.P. Krause did nothing wrong. To the contrary, he is a champion of the First Amendment, standing up for his right to speak when so many others would bow down. Vero Beach High School should be proud of its new senior class president. The rest of the world is.
David Jadon, a summer law clerk at Pacific Legal Foundation, is a rising third-year law student at the University of Florida College of Law. Pacific Legal Foundation is representing J.P. Krause free of charge in his dispute with the Indian River County School Board.
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Guest column: National debate leads to First Amendment smarts at Vero Beach High School - TCPalm
Be careful not to skim over potential First Amendment challenges to commercial speech regulations in labeling cases. By whey of example, the Eleventh Circuit recently found that the actions of the Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and the Chief of the Florida Bureau of Dairy Industry violated Ocheesee Creamery LLCs First Amendment rights related to the labeling of its products.Ocheesee Creamery LLC v. Putnam, 851 F.3d 1228 (11th Cir. 2017).
Ocheesee Creamery is a dairy company that produces milk and other dairy products. One such product is an all-natural, additive-free 100% skim milk, which Ocheesee Creamery labels as skim milk on the product packaging.
Florida law restricts the sale of milk and other milk products not classified as Grade A products. A Grade A designation requires that any vitamin A that is lost or removed from a product during the skimming process be replaced. Because Ocheesees product did not qualify for this Grade A designation, the state of Florida notified Ocheesee that its all-natural skim milk did not meet the definition of milk and, thus, Ocheesee could only sell this product if it was labeled as imitation skim milk. Ocheesee refused since the only ingredient in its product was, in fact, skim milk. Ocheesee also refused to add vitamin A back into its all-natural product. Ocheesee Creamery filed a lawsuit challenging this restriction in the Northern District of Florida, which found in favor of the State.
On appeal, the Eleventh Circuit applied the Supreme Courts test for evaluating restrictions on commercial speech, which was set forth inCentral Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission, 447 U.S. 557 (1980). UnderCentral Hudson, a court considering a restriction on commercial speech must first determine whether the speech is protected under the First Amendment. The First Amendment protects commercial speech unless it 1) concerns unlawful activity or 2) is false or inherently misleading. The Eleventh Circuit found that neither of these exceptions applied to Ocheesee in this case.
First, the Eleventh Circuit held that Ocheesees use of the term skim milk on its product label was not unlawful because the states position was that under Florida law Ocheesee could call its product skim milk as long as the label also indicated that the product was imitation milk. Second, the Eleventh Circuit held that Ocheesees use of the term skim milk was not inherently misleadingor even, according to the Court, potentially misleadingbecause it was a statement of objective fact. As a result, the Court concluded, Ocheesees commercial speech on its all-natural skim milk label was constitutionally protected.
The Court then proceeded to applyCentral Hudsonsthree-pronged intermediate scrutiny test. Under this test, the Court must determine: 1) whether the asserted governmental interest is substantial; 2) whether the regulation directly advances the governmental interest asserted; and 3) whether it is not more extensive than is necessary to serve that interest.
The Eleventh Circuit focused its analysis on the third prong of the test, finding that Floridas restriction is clearly more extensive than necessary to achieve its goals. The Eleventh Circuit noted that there had been extensive negotiations between Ocheesee and the State concerning the language used on Ocheesees all-natural skim milk label, and pointed out that numerous less burdensome alternatives existed and were discussed by the State and the Creamery during negotiations that would have involved additional disclosure without banning the term skim milk. Consequently, the Court concluded that the restriction was more extensive than necessary to achieve the goals of preventing deception and ensuring adequate nutritional standards. The Court thus concluded that Floridas restriction of Ocheesees commercial speech violated the First Amendment and vacated the district courts grant of summary judgment in favor of the State.
The Eleventh Circuits decision offers some reassurance to companies that the First Amendment provides some protection for objectively truthful descriptions of their products, even in the face of restrictions imposed by various state labeling laws, although this protection continues to be balanced against the state interests served by these laws.
2017 Proskauer Rose LLP.
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PARSIPPANY Council President Louis Valori continued tointerrupt Bill Brennan during a public session regarding the Township Budget on Thursday, June 8.
Mr. Valori as well as Township Attorney John Inglesino keptinterrupting Mr. Brennan during his comments regarding the budget, and how Inglesino and Mayor James Barberio are a pair of criminals. He contents there is a Criminal Conspiracy going on.
Mr. Brennan said Your are violating my constitutional right tofree speech, you dont like the content of my speech, and you are calling me names, you areallegedly that Iam an embarrassment. Yes, you said I should behave myself. This is the third time youinterrupted me. You know what, I am speaking my mind in an open public forum. Now you are passing notes back and forth and interrupting me. May I have my three minutes? May I have my three minutes? So you are telling me that I dont get my three minutes? You were able to interrupt me the whole time. I didnt get to finish what I had to say. I am not putting the mic down. I insist that if I violated a law, I would be charged. I have three minutes. Iam not goingvoluntarily I am not disrupting the meeting. I wasdisrupted the three minutes which I was given to speak. I was given three minutes to speak. Am I under arrest? Yes, and I want to go on the record before I leave that I did not get my three minutes, I was interruptedrepeatedly. I will take this up in a Civil Suit with this municipality.
Mr. Brennan was escorted from the Council Chambers by two Parsippany Police Officers that were on duty during the Council Meeting.
Requests for comments from Mayor James Barberio, Council President Louis Valori, Council Vice President Robert Peluso and Councilman Carifi and dePierro went unanswered.
Editors Note: The video is only a segment where Brennan speaks. The complete video of the Council Meeting of Thursday, June 7 can be seen by clicking here.
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One one level, Ripple is another cryptocurrency in an ever-growing list of fledgling products, hoping to earn a place in the wider world of business and finance. While the value of Ripple's currency, XRP, is well below $1 per unit, making it a mere fraction of the value of Ethereum or Bitcoin, Ripple nonetheless sports the third-largest portion of market capitalization as compared with the rest of the cryptocurrency industry. But aside from its growing position as a currency, Ripple is drawing more and more attention from banks and financial institutions around the world for another crucial reason, too: the blockchain technology behind the currency itself.
A recent profile on Ripple by American Banker reveals that the San Francisco-based startup has its sights set on creating an "internet of value," a worldwide network system for financial transactions. Ripple's goal is nothing less than the ultimate freeing of monetary value, allowing assets to flow instantly and seamlessly between mobile systems, public blockchains, and bank ledgers. The goal is a massive one, and yet Stefan Thomas, Ripple's chief technology officer, stands behind his company's ability to enhance banking around the world. "We're not the disruptors, we're not the guys who come in and tear everything down," he stresses.
For the time being, though, Ripple seems to occupy at least two different spaces. First comes the cryptocurrency side, and success in that area has not come as quickly as some would have liked. John Light, a consultant working with multiple startups that have integrated Ripple's technology into their systems, indicated that Ripple has "had something of an identity crisis about who their customer is, and what problem they are trying to solve."
First, the company aimed to build a new currency that would improve upon Bitcoin. This was a key component of the instantaneous transactions goal, as Bitcoin has been racked with problems relating to the system's processing capacity which has left some users waiting for days for their transactions to clear. Beyond that, though, Ripple differed from Bitcoin and other digital currencies further, even at its earliest stages. Ripple's leaders disagreed with other cryptocurrency enthusiasts who suggested that the new currencies could replace banks or even government currencies. Rather, Ripple aimed from the beginning to work with banks to make global assets even more liquid.
With roughly 60 financial institutions around the world sporting Ripple technology, the company is seeing its vision begin to take shape. However, the fact that the currency itself has not gone away makes the list of offerings that Ripple presents somewhat confusing. If banks and investors around the world are to continue to gain interest in Ripple, it seems that the company will be best served by streamlining its offerings further into the future.
Originally posted here:
Ripple Cryptocurrency Aims to Make Global Assets Liquid - Investopedia
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By Brad Chacos
Senior Editor, PCWorld | Jun 20, 2017 11:19 AM PT
Its a bad time to be building a mainstream gaming PC or an Xbox One X-rivalling rig. Cryptocurrencys current price bubble ravaged Radeon pricing and availability weeks ago, and now that its nigh impossible to find a Radeon RX 570 or RX 580 at reasonable costs, Nvidias graphics cards are drying up, too.
Searching Newegg for the GeForce GTX 1060 shows only two 3GB versions available, and theyre going for $20 to $30 over the cards $200 MSRP. You can find many more 6GB GTX 1060 cards, but theyre all selling at wildly inflated prices as well. The 6GB cards dipped down to $240 or less around the time the Radeon RX 580 launched, but now every model except one sells for $270 to $310and that lone exception still sells for $260. A similar situation exists on Amazon, with only a single backordered EVGA 3GB GTX 1060 going for anything near MSRP.
The GeForce GTX 1070 finds itself in even more dire circumstances. Ostensibly a $380 graphics card, the cheapest one you can find on Newegg right now is $472, and most are going for more than $600. The cheapest GTX 1070 I can find on Amazon costs $450. Do not buy a GTX 1070 at those prices. Many models of the more potent GeForce GTX 1080 still sell for $500, or slightly more for customized versions. Picking that up over a $600 GTX 1070 is a no-brainer for gamers.
PCWorlds guides to every Nvidia GeForce and AMD Radeon graphics card can help you figure out what every modern GPU is capable of, while our guide to the best graphics cards for PC gaming provides a more holistic view of todays hardware market.
Pricing history for Zotac's GTX 1060 AMP! graphics card.
The story behind the story: Mainstream graphics card prices are skyrocketing due to pricing bubbles for cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and Zcash, which rely on GPU horsepower to operate. Check out PCWorlds coverage of why its impossible to buy Radeon cards if you want to know more.
Miners may be making money hand over fist, but the craze is making it damned near impossible to build a gaming PC without breaking the bank. Nvidias rumored to be creating a specialized GPU mining graphics card to compensate, but until these bleak times subside, your best bet for finding a reasonably priced GPU is probably to find used hardware in your local area. Its no surefire bet, though, as even second-hand and older graphics cards are increasing in price in response to the overwhelming demand.
Senior editor Brad Chacos covers gaming and graphics for PCWorld, and runs the morning news desk for PCWorld, Macworld, Greenbot, and TechHive. He tweets too.
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Nvidia GeForce prices skyrocket as cryptocurrency miners snap up supply - PCWorld
The People's Bank of China (PBoC) has issued a new warning alleging that cryptocurrency projects are misusing its name in an effort to defraud investors.
Issuedon 15th June,the announcementsought to make public the issue, while clarifying thatthe central bank has not issued any digital currency or authorized any institution to do so. Adding to that, it reiteratedthat there is no digital currency marketing team at the PBoC, nor does the institution consider applications of the technology legal tender.
The PBoC went so far as to warn Chinese consumers that so-called "digital currencies issued by PBoC" could be a part of a pyramid scheme.
The PBoC concluded that:
"We call on the public to establish a correct concept of money, cherish the RMB and maintain a normal circulation of RMB together."
In broader context, the comments are the latest that find China's central bank stepping up its regulation of the cryptocurrency sector. (Earlier this year, it sought to aggressively police domestic exchanges amid a surge in the bitcoin price.)
Lending plausibility to the scams, they also come at a time when the PBoCis actively increasing its blockchain research and development, and former representatives of the institutionhave begun to up about the technology and its potential impact.
RMB image via Shutterstock
The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Have breaking news or a story tip to send to our journalists? Contact us at [emailprotected].
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Warning: Cryptocurrency Scams Are Posing as China's Central Bank - CoinDesk
Finman began investing in bitcoin in May 2011 at the age of 12, thanks to a $1,000 gift from his grandmother and a tip from his brother Scott.
Though he's close with his family which he calls the "Elon Musk version of the Kardashians" growing up in "small town" Idaho outside of Coeur d'Alene wasn't easy. Finman was especially frustrated with his high school teachers, and begged his parents to let him drop out at 15.
"(High school) was pretty low quality," he said. "I had these teachers that were all kind of negative. One teacher told me to drop out and work at McDonald's because that was all I would amount to for the rest of my life. I guess I did the dropout part."
Surprisingly, his parents who met pursuing their Ph.D.s at Stanford agreed. Finman sold his first bitcoin investments at the end of 2013, when they were valued at $1,200 a piece.
With the $100,000 Finman launched an online education company called Botangle in early 2014 that would allow frustrated students like him to find teachers over video chat. He also used the funds to move to Silicon Valley, did some fun things like meet Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and traveled.
"I really liked Colombia," he said. "It was fun, but a little sketchy. Some interesting stuff happened. I was held up at gunpoint there, which is pretty scary, but I have this emergency button I programmed in Android that puts you on speaker but turns off audio automatically and dials [a local emergency number]."
"Maybe I'll turn that into an app," he added. "It's handy."
It was hard getting people to take a 15-year-old tech entrepreneur seriously, Finman admitted. He recalled being called in to interview with a "really, really high-up" unnamed Uber executive, who instead of listening to his Botangle pitch discouraged him and told him he would never win the bet with his parents.
Eventually he found a buyer for Botangle's technology in January 2015. The investor offered either $100,000 or 300 bitcoin, which had dropped in value at that time to a little more than $200 a coin. He took the lower cash value bitcoin deal because he believed it was "the next big thing."
"My parents asked 'Why don't you take the more cash?"' Finman explained. "But I thought of it more of an investment."
Since then, Finman has been managing his family and his own bitcoin investments. He's also kept busy on other projects, including working with NASA to launch a rocket through the ELaNa project. One thing he won't do is go back to school.
"I never got my GED, and I don't see the value in it," Finman said. "The purpose of that would be to get another education level and get a job. I had to learn through running a business. Instead of writing essays for English class, I had to write emails to important people."
Although the rest of his family has degrees his brother Scott went to Johns Hopkins at 16 and now has an enterprise software company, while his other brother Ross went to Carnegie Melon at 16 for robotics and is now pursuing his Ph.D. at MIT he's happy learning about the real world from experience.
"The way the education system is structured now, I wouldn't recommend it," Finman said. "It doesn't work for anyone. I would recommend the internet, which is all free. You can learn a million times more off YouTube and Wikipedia."
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This high school dropout who invested in bitcoin at $12 is now a millionaire at 18 - CNBC
Bitcoin remains a thriving cryptocurrency, but its reputation as a cool, futuristic currency for savvy individuals may have just received a mortal blow. Along with a sampling of dinosaurs, shushing emoji, and many more, the Unicode Consortiums 10.0 version of the Unicode Standard also includes the Bitcoin symbol.
The timely addition wont appear as a traditional bubble-like emoji, but rather a regular Unicode character, the currencys B-like symbol. Unicode 10.0 is dropping today, though the long delay for Bitcoins arrival its been around for almost a decade now could be due to the process for proposing new emoji and icons to the Unicode Standard. Still, its arguably the most mainstream Bitcoin has ever been: its no longer so unknown that your parents couldnt pop off a quick reference to it in the same text about siblings or your family pet.
Unicode 10.0 is expected to add 56 new emoji, 8,518 characters, and four new scripts. For a complete breakdown with images, check out Emojipedia.
Excerpt from:
Your mom will soon be able to text the Bitcoin symbol, along with a bunch of new emoji - The Verge
Psoriasis, an autoimmune disease that causes itchy, red scale to appear on the skin, is no stranger to the three million people who suffer from it. While itchiness is the most common symptom, in many cases patients also experience painfully inflamed tendons as well joint stiffness.
Unfortunately, the condition remains incurable, but scientists are pointing to a likely remedy to make the disease less insufferable. Thats right, cannabis has some pretty awesome effects on psoriasis.
In a 2007 study researchers concluded that cannabinoids can inhibit the buildup of dead skin cells and other symptoms of psoriasis. The study, which was published in the Journal of Dermatological Science, used different types of cannabinoids including, THC (cannabis most psychoactive component), CBD (one of cannabis least active ingredients) and cannabinol and cannabigerol (other cannabis compounds) all of which were used to examine cannabis anti-inflammatory effects.
Researchers concluded, The cannabinoids tested all inhibited keratinocyte proliferation in a concentration-dependent manner. In other words, the four different cannabinoids they tested were all able to block the buildup of dead skin.
Why does this matter? Well, psoriasis is, essentially, the rapid accumulation of dead skin cells on the surface of the epidermis. So cannabis ability to stop that accumulation is a win, for people battling the inherited disease.
In a not so formal study, researchers at Gwynedd Cannabis Club in Wales, conducted a 9 day experiment in which they treated one subject with acute psoriasis, using cannabis oil. Prior to the experiment, the subject had been using a chemotherapy drug called Methotrexate, known to treat rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis.
However, the side effects of the drug included fever, diarrhea and increased the chance of infection.
During the 9 day study, the subject was given three doses of topical daily, for nine. Following the treatment, the subject reported no adverse side effects and even noted how she was able to go swimming with her family, which is something she had been limited in doing, due to her psoriasis.
Now, while this study is majority anecdotal, it still serves as another example of cannabis healing powers for people with psoriasis especially in cases where conventional pharmaceuticals cant seem to get it right.
Read more from the original source:
Marijuana May Be The Hero Psoriasis Patients Need - The Fresh Toast
Australias rising foodie scene has been capturing the eye of gourmands for years, and now its status as a global powerhouse of great cuisine has been recognised on a global stage. Two Australian cities have been listed in Booking.coms list of 25 of the best cities for food in the world, ahead of even Florence and Rome.
More than 12,000 respondents were surveyed, listing Melbourne as the sixth-best city in the world for food, with Sydney coming in at number 17.
Read more: How to have better bowel movements while on holiday
The survey also revealed that 75 per cent of travellers would likely travel somewhere renowned for its great food and drink.
Some of the most popular places for food in the world are Asia and South America, as well as Greece, Australia and Spain. Here are the top 25 destinations for food around the world, according to the survey.
Booking.com visitors rated the South Yarra region as the place to go in Melbourne, and the restaurants in Sydneys CBD as the best in the city.
Read more: 8 free things to do in Sydney
Hong Kong, with its skyscraper-studded skyline, notably took out the top placing with its huge variety of dishes on offer, everything from dim sum, kau kee beef brisket, wonton noodles and poon choi (Chinese casserole).
Sao Paulo took out the second-place rank for its smart bistros and gourmet restaurants. A visit to Sao Paulo isnt complete without sampling the nations signature dish, the Brazilian feijoada (black bean and meat stew).
Tokyo is another that blew travellers away for its food it has more Michelin-starred restaurants than New York and Paris combined. The fusion of ultramodern meets traditional is widely regarded as Tokyos focal point, which translates heavily into its food scene.
Its interesting to note none of the nations in the United Kingdom featured on the list, showing Australias diverse cultural landscape.
Melbourne even outranked Florence, Milan and Rome what many would think to be the food capitals of the world. Cheers to that!
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Melbourne and Sydney ranked amongst the food capitals of the world - Starts at 60