Daily Archives: August 6, 2022

SCOTUS decision prompts 10th Circuit to toss prisoner’s lawsuit over alleged assault by guard – coloradopolitics.com

Posted: August 6, 2022 at 8:06 pm

Following a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision closing the door on lawsuits for various violations of constitutional rights, the federal appeals court based in Denver has agreed an inmate may not sue a federal prison guard for allegedly assaulting him in his cell.

Anderson Coutinho Silva, who is incarcerated at the U.S. PenitentiaryAdministrative Maximum Facility in Florence, ran into resistancefrom the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in his attempt to seek monetary damages from the guard who reportedly entered his cell while he was restrained, jumped on him, and called in other guards to cut off Silva's clothes.

Such lawsuits against federal employees are legally known as a "Bivens remedy," which the Supreme Court has applied to a limited set of constitutional violations. But after the Court's conservative majority in June severely restricted the scope of Bivens remedies to other constitutional rights, a three-judge panel for the 10th Circuit felt obligated to dismiss Silva's complaint.

"First and foremost, we are left in no doubt that expanding Bivens is not just 'a disfavored judicial activity,'" explained Senior Judge Bobby R. Baldock in an Aug. 1 order, "it is an action that is impermissible in virtually all circumstances."

The concept of a Bivens remedy stems from a 1971 Supreme Court decision, Bivens v.Six Unknown Named Agents.In that case, federal narcotics officers entered a man's home without a warrant, arrested and strip searched him. A majority of the Court decided plaintiff Webster Bivens could sue for a violation of the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

Since then, the Supreme Court has recognized a Bivens remedy exists for two other scenarios: sex discriminationunder the Fifth Amendment and deliberate indifference to an inmate's serious medical needs under the Eighth Amendment.

However, Baldock noted in the 10th Circuit's order, the Supreme Court subsequently"performed its own version of Bonapartes retreat from Moscow and progressively chipped away at the decision to the point that very little of its original force remains."

In early June, the Court handed down a 6-3 decision inEgbert v. Boule, in which the majority said a man who was allegedly beaten up by a U.S. Border Patrol agent may not sue for excessive force. While dissenting Justice Sonia Sotomayor believed theEgbertcase was "substantially similar" to that of Webster Bivens, the majority concluded Bivens remedies are not availablewhen Congress or the executive branch is "better equipped" to create a method for addressing constitutional violations.

For the Border Patrol, that amounted to an administrative process for handling grievances. Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the majority, added that it is irrelevant whether such processes "do not provide complete relief" to someone whose constitutional rights are violated.

In Silva's lawsuit, he alleged corrections employee Brandon Shaw entered his cell, out of view of the security cameras, and beat him physically. Shaw reportedly radioed three other guards who "helped Officer Shawl (sic) hold me down and attacked me. ... They then took me to the restraint cell and cut my cloths (sic) off."

Silva, who represented himself, also claimed a guard threatened Silva if he did not drop his complaint. The lawsuit sought $10 million in damages, the discipline of all officers involved, and Silva's relocation from the Florence prison.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael E. Hegarty evaluated Silva's claims and recommended dismissing the lawsuit. A Bivens remedy, Hegarty concluded, was not available for the excessive force claim Silva was alleging, in large part because there was already a process for handling such complaints: filing an administrative grievance with the prison.

Silva protested that the prison's procedures were not as effective as a lawsuit.

"The institution grievance process has never worked since guards will not discipline other guards. That is why the defendant wants nothing more than to have everythingstay in-house where defendant's employer will sweep everythingunder the rug," Silva wrote.

Nonetheless, U.S. District Court Senior Judge Christine M. Arguello signed off on Hegarty's recommendation. Silva appealed to the 10th Circuit.

Represented by lawyersfrom Georgetown University Law Center and the nonprofit group Rights Behind Bars, Silva argued his claim of excessive force stemmed from the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Because the Supreme Court had already approved of a Bivens remedy under the same constitutional amendment failing to provide medical care to inmates Silva contended his lawsuit should be allowed to proceed.

"If this would be an extension of Bivens, it would be the most modest of modest extensions," attorney Samuel Weiss told the 10th Circuit panel during oral arguments in March. The government countered that excessive force and deliberate indifference to medical needs were not the same, and the court should not unilaterally permit inmates to sue for assaults by federal prison officials.

"It is certainly true that if there is a new claim and a new way for prison guards to be sued involving the use of force, they will have to hesitate and think twice," warned Assistant U.S. Attorney Karl L. Schock. "Now it may be that Congress decides thats a good thing. But that is a policy judgment that should be made by Congress."

Shortly after oral arguments, the Supreme Court issued its decision inEgbert.Baldock, writing for the panel, concluded the Supreme Court had given clear instructions not to expand a Bivens remedy to lawsuits like Silva's. Because excessive force is different from medical indifference, and given the existence of the prison's grievance process, Silva could not hold Shaw liable.

"We heed the Supreme Courts warning and decline Plaintiffs invitation to curry the Supreme Courts disfavor by expanding Bivens to cover his claim," Baldock wrote.

TheEgbertdecision reverberated through the federal judiciary almost immediately. In addition to Silva's case, a federal judge in Colorado recently dismissed a transgender inmate's similar assault claim against a prison guard, citing the restrictive new guidance from the Supreme Court.

"The law was already heading in this direction even beforeEgbert, but I thinkEgbertjust reinforces how rare the case will be today in which federal officers can be sued for damages for even the most egregious violation of our constitutional rights,"Stephen I. Vladeck, a professor at theUniversity of Texas School of Law, told Colorado Politics at the time.

The case is Silva v. United States et al.

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SCOTUS decision prompts 10th Circuit to toss prisoner's lawsuit over alleged assault by guard - coloradopolitics.com

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Appeals Court Upholds City Ordinance Related to Strip Club Restrictions – tallahasseereports.com

Posted: at 8:06 pm

By Jim Saunders, The News Service of Florida

TALLAHASSEE In a legal battle rooted in the discovery of a 13-year-old human trafficking victim working as a dancer, a federal appeals court Monday largely upheld restrictions that Miami Beach placed on nude strip clubs.

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments that a city ordinance unconstitutionally imposed increased worker-identification requirements on strip clubs and allowed the city to inspect logs of workers entering and leaving the establishments.

The court, however, found that the city overstepped its legal authority when it required clubs to confirm that dancers are U.S. citizens, legal residents or otherwise eligible to work in the country.

Miami Beach passed the ordinance after police discovered that the 13-year-old girl was working as a nude dancer at Club Madonna after running away from home and being taken by four adult captors, according to the ruling. The club challenged the ordinance, leading to years of legal battling.

In part, the club argued that the ordinance violated First Amendment rights. Mondays ruling agreed that the ordinance implicates the First Amendment because it singles out an industry that engages in expressive activity for special regulation, but the panel concluded that the measure did not violate the rights.

The ordinances core identification and record-keeping requirements are necessary to achieve the citys stated and obviously important interests in preventing human trafficking and barring minors from dancing nude on a public stage, said the 54-page main opinion, written by Judge Stanley Marcus and joined fully by Judge Richard Story and partly by Judge Kevin Newsom. The requirement that workers or performers produce two forms of identification instead of just one which the club says is unnecessarily burdensome combats the rampant use of counterfeit forms of identification on Miami Beach and reduces the likelihood that a victim of human trafficking or a minor will perform onstage. Given the significant latitude we afford policymakers, and our obligation to defer to a legislative bodys reasoned judgment, we hold that these core identification-verification and record-maintenance requirements are reasonable when measured against the statutes aims.

The appeals court, which upheld a ruling by a federal district judge, also rejected a challenge to part of the ordinance allowing the city to inspect documents and worker logs upon demand. The club argued that the ordinance violated a prohibition on warrantless searches under the U.S. Constitutions 4th Amendment.

But in upholding that part of the ordinance, the panel pointed to extensive regulation of the adult-entertainment industry.

Based on a substantial history of heavy regulation, we conclude that the nude dancing and adult entertainment industry is closely regulated for Fourth Amendment purposes so that no reasonable expectation of privacy could exist for the proprietor, the opinion said. From limitations concerning the hours of operation, to zoning restrictions, to prohibitions on their ability to serve alcohol, to rules governing the very size of the establishments, adult entertainment businesses are routinely and pervasively regulated by cities and municipalities.

The court, however, agreed with the club that the city could not require establishments to verify that dancers are citizens or otherwise eligible for employment. Marcus wrote that federal law governs such requirements, and Congress provided an exemption for verifying the employment eligibility of contract workers or casual hires.

Here, the ordinance fails the relevant constitutional test because, by requiring certain businesses to verify the employment eligibility of independent contractors and casual hires, it obstructs federal law, the opinion said.

Marcus wrote that the unconstitutional part of the ordinance was severable and did not prevent the other requirements from being in effect.

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Appeals Court Upholds City Ordinance Related to Strip Club Restrictions - tallahasseereports.com

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LETTERS: The law, our rights and abortion | Letters | wacotrib.com – Waco Tribune-Herald

Posted: at 8:06 pm

I have several questions about abortion law enforcement and the Grace Act proposal. Dont prosecutors and law enforcement prioritize their efforts every day? Any group that has a role in public safety, health care, emergency management, protective services, etc. must set priorities so they can address the most urgent needs first. Wont they continue to do it, even in the event of alleged abortion activity?

Speaking of protective services, if the existing rights of children will now apply to the unborn, will we be allowed and required to report suspected child neglect of a fetus to Texas Child Protective Services?

Finally, this question is for the sincerely honest people whose religious beliefs led them to work and pray to end abortion: Did you first work and pray to end rape, incest, sexual coercion, grooming and exploitation of women and girls? It seems that not getting those sins out of the way led directly to a significant amount of the current sin of abortion.

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It was disconcerting to read two professors of religion (Blake Burleson, July 9, and Jack Hill, July 21) write in support of a womans right to abort her preborn child.

If Burleson and Hill have respect for the Bibles authority and church history, they should know that all our rights come from God, or as Christian philosophers might argue, natural law. First-century Christians prohibited the practice of abortion in the Didache.

No one has a right to commit an act of violence against an innocent human being in this case, the newly developing, prenatal child in a mothers womb. Such a right is not justified under any basic understanding of Christian Scripture.

Job 31:15, asks the penetrating question, Did not the one who made me in the womb also make them? Did not the same God form us both in the womb? Jeremiah 1:5, states, I chose you before I formed you in the womb; I set you apart before you were born ...

Just a few weeks pregnant with Messiah Jesus, Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth, then six months along in her pregnancy of John the Baptist. Luke 1:41 records the poignant moment, When Elizabeth heard Marys greeting, the baby leaped inside her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth concluded, ... How could this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

If, indeed, the Scriptures declare that God-ordained life is growing in a mothers womb from conception (Ruth 4:13, Psalm 51:5), then what right, pray tell, can exist to justify the killing of that preborn human life?

The Fourth Amendment to our Constitution was cited in Roe v. Wade as one basis for a right to privacy, allowing a woman to end the life of her developing baby through abortion. The amendment actually says, The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated ... Nothing there about a right to take the developing life of a preborn human being in a mothers womb.

Inalienable rights are derived, as our Declaration of Independence states, from our Creator. No Christian theologian has a right to conclude any differently.

A womans right to control her own body comes to an end when a genetically different human being is present and growing in her womb.

Then, the inalienable right to life must be extended to that preborn baby, as well.

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Corporations Aren’t People but They Can Be Psychopaths – North Coast Journal

Posted: at 8:06 pm

Manipulative, deceitful, aggressive, remorseless, lacking empathy and affect all are classic definitions of psychopathic social behavior, according to psychiatric evaluations. These are traits also emblematic of today's legal fictions called corporations entities that have taken control of our democracy and our lives, entities that exist only for the purpose of increased revenue and profit, without innate moral impulse. It is time we finally grapple with the problematic status of "legal person" or "corporate personhood" now granted by law, and call corporate behaviors out for what they are and do.

The financial power corporations wield, spending billions of dollars to lobby and litigate, exerts massive influence in the selection of judges, lawmaking and elected officials to a degree far beyond the power of any of us as individuals. It also binds those legally bribed recipients to their will and bidding.

Corporate power under the guise of constitutionally sanctioned "personhood" has invaded every aspect of individual life in our nation criminal justice, education, environment, housing, press and media, health and safety. To maximize profits, they control availability and cost of consumer goods, from gasoline to prescription drugs to infant formula. Subsidized by taxpayer dollars, they manipulate and corrupt regulatory processes with the goal of attaining total privatization of all public amenities. The ultimate goal is restricting the role of government solely to that of maintaining military and police power.

There is such a thing as common good that is necessary in a productive, healthy and stable society. We all need housing, safe food and air, health care, education and dependable infrastructure. Privatizing these amenities makes them available only to the wealthy, weakening the whole of society and creating anger, frustration and cynicism with democracy itself.

Now, with corporations as "persons," it is extremely difficult to curtail their profit-driven activities. For example, those of us working for healthcare justice through the formation of a unified, publicly financed, universal healthcare system, face the prospect of corporate healthcare insurance companies taking refuge from accountability for waste, abuse and fraud by posing as "persons" with equal constitutional rights to "privacy" and freedom from "discrimination." Already, as "persons" with free speech and equal protection under the law, corporations feel blameless in marketing cigarettes and other dangerous and unhealthy products to children, desecrating the environment, loosening gun laws and a whole plethora of antisocial, destructive-but-profitable endeavors.

Turning corporations into persons began gradually. In the 1886 U.S. Supreme Court decision Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, the court appeared to grant a corporation the same rights as an individual under the 14th Amendment. Since that time, judges have acted in accordance with the concept of "corporate personhood," allowing companies to hold property, enter contracts, to sue and be sued, just like a human being striking down local, state and federal laws designed to protect actual citizens from corporate harm. Since then, hundreds of decisions favoring corporate interests have been enshrined in the fiction that, as "persons," corporations enjoy such constitutional rights as free speech, religious freedom, privacy and protection from discrimination and self-incrimination.

In a sweeping expansion of corporate rights, the 2010 case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (FEC), SCOTUS ruled that political speech by corporations is a form of free speech that is covered under the First Amendment. Money itself was enshrined as "speech." Thus has evolved SCOTUS's complicity as handmaiden to corporate hegemony. Witness SCOTUS's recent evisceration of the Environmental Protection Act and overturning New York gun regulations.

As well, corporations now may hide behind the safeguards against regulatory searches stated in the Fourth Amendment. This ruling dramatically expanded the already outsized political influence of wealthy donors, corporations and special interest groups, and allowed the creation of super PACS where the source and spending of monies is secret.

Since the Citizens United decision, Move to Amend was created as a national, non-partisan, grassroots organization that seeks to blunt corporate power by amending the United States Constitution to end corporate personhood. HJR (House Joint Resolution) 48, introduced by Rep. Pramila Jayapal in 2021-2022, proposes such an amendment stating the rights protected by the Constitution are the rights of natural persons only. This amendment requires federal, state and local governments to regulate election contributions and expenditures, and requires that any such contributions be publicly disclosed. It also prohibits the judiciary from construing the spending of money to influence elections to be speech under the First Amendment or abridging the freedom of the press. HJR 48 is currently under consideration with 100 co-sponsors in the House and 25 in the Senate.

Even as a U.S. Supreme Court reversal is unlikely and a constitutional amendment to undo Citizens United would be difficult, there are still interim policy solutions available. HR1, the For the People Act, passed the House in 2021 but was stymied in the Senate. That bill would expand voting rights, change campaign finance laws to reduce the influence of money in politics and ban partisan gerrymandering. Only public pressure will force our representatives in the Senate to end the filibuster and pass this bill while we work on amending the Constitution.

In our first paragraph, above, we identified the hallmarks of psychopathic corporate behavior. The Corporation, a 2004 documentary (free on YouTube), expands on this proposition following the traits of various corporations that fit these criteria in an entertaining and informative format. Coming soon is The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel (see the trailer at http://www.movetoamend.org), revealing how corporations are taking over society with more sophisticated branding as socially conscious entities. Move to Amend has sponsored and will be promoting this upcoming, eye-opening Canadian film.

We'll never have an authentic democracy so long as corporations are granted the same rights as individuals. That's why Move to Amend educates and organizes to abolish corporate constitutional rights. The reckless pursuit of profit without regard to the wellbeing of the planet or the humans that live here should be rejected.

Please join Move to Amend to protect our rights against the frightening encroachment of corporate hegemony. Start by signing its petition online, (www.movetoamend.org/amendment) and checking out its calls to action. It's beyond time to remove corporate psychopathy from the commonwealth.

Corinne Frugoni (she/her) is a retired local family practice physician. She lives in Arcata. Patty Harvey (she/her) is a retired professor who taught at College of the Redwoods. She lives in Willow Creek. They are co-directors of the combined organizations, Humboldt chapters of Health Care for All-CA and Physicians for a National Health Program.

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Corporations Aren't People but They Can Be Psychopaths - North Coast Journal

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EV drivers might not be pumped over mileage taxes – The Highland County Press

Posted: at 8:06 pm

By Eric FeltenRealClearInvestigations https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2022/08/02/electric_car_drivers_why_you_might_not_be_pumped_over_privacy-jolting_mileage_taxes_845286.html

The environmental impact of electric cars may still be unknown, but leaders are growing concerned about the threat they pose to the financing of the nations highway system. Because freeways and bridges are funded, in large part, through federal and state taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel, the battery-powered future will test whether roads can just be paved with good intentions.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are trying to devise new ways to raise that fuel tax revenue, which in fiscal year 2020 delivered $35 billion to the federal government and an additional $51 billion to state and local governments. But experts say that proposed fixes to the anticipated highway funding shortfall involving charging drivers for the miles they travel by tracking their movement pose a significant threat to personal privacy and liberty.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, passed with bipartisan support last year, authorized the Department of Transportation to launch new pilot programs to test ways to collect necessary fees. These include a range of high-tech means such as accessing location data from third-party on-vehicle diagnostic devices, smart phone applications, telemetric data collected by automakers, motor vehicle data obtained by car insurance companies, data obtained from fueling stations, and any other method that the Secretary [of Transportation] considers appropriate.

Location data that is, information about where people are and where theyve been is highly sensitive, said Lee Tien, legislative director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit that defends civil liberties in cyberspace. It can reveal what they do, who theyre with, where they worship, what medical procedures theyre having.

While the infrastructure act authorizes a pilot program to test collecting the personal information needed to charge drivers for their use of roads and highways, it doesnt answer the far thornier questions about how to protect that data. Will only the feds track drivers? Will each state and locality that currently depends on fuel taxes also monitor drivers? If so, will the data be pooled? Will destinations be tracked along with mileage?

These questions are arising as the Biden administration demands more energy-related data across the board as it seeks to achieve its ambitious climate change goals. The Securities and Exchange Commission, for example, wants almost all U.S. companies to tally and disclose the total amount of carbon emitted in producing their products. The Federal Highway Administration and the Department of Transportation proposed new regulations in July requiring states to measure carbon dioxide emissions associated with transportation and report those figures to the federal government. States will be required to establish emissions targets aligned with national policy established by Bidens climate-related executive orders.

Advocates of new highway user fees acknowledge the threat to privacy and promise to find ways to protect sensitive information. Asked about the risks posed by tracking vehicles, Rep. Sam Graves of Missouri, ranking Republican member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, pointed to a previous statement: For years, I have been talking about the need to eliminate the gas and diesel taxes. Its time to move this solution toward reality, but in doing so, we must ensure that privacy concerns are addressed.

The Department of Transportation isnt taking on these issues from scratch. For more than a decade, DOT has been awarding grants to states willing to work out the kinks in a pay-as-you-go system. Pilot programs have been funded in states such as Minnesota, Iowa, and Nevada. The Nevada Vehicle Miles Traveled Fee Study found The greatest barrier to public acceptance is recognized as insuring driver privacy to the greatest extent allowed by available technology.

Asked by RealClearInvestigations about such concerns, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation said, "Privacy is of paramount importance and a requirement that has to be addressed in the pilot programs."

Drivers have proved to be accepting of technologies that track travel when they offer obvious benefits, such as skipping toll booths or fighting crime. E-ZPass shares data with law enforcement agencies conducting criminal investigations in accordance with subpoenas, court orders or amber alerts.

At Capitol Hill hearings last year, witnesses assured lawmakers that threats to privacy could be overcome. Peter J. Basso, chair of the Mileage-Based User Fee Alliance said, The pilots are showing the technical viability of a mileage-based system, and are showing how to address questions of protection of personal privacy and data security.

But privacy experts such as Theodore Claypoole, an Atlanta lawyer who edits the HeyDataData blog, cautions that concerns might increase if such tracking becomes universal.

He said a lot of people do understand they are less anonymous on the road than they used to be. Cars these days come default-set to gather and horde data on their drivers. What app doesnt reveal its users geo-locations? Insurance companies place bugs in some cars to tell what kind of drivers we are. Every day we are stalked by the Billion-Byte Beast, and yet we remain relatively blas about it. But gathering information on our driving for tax purposes is something different, says Claypoole. Its the federal government, not businesses, hoovering up our sensitive information. Do we find this more frightening, or less so?

Similarly, once it used to be difficult to collect comprehensive information about someones movements. It might take a team of field agents the FBI has traditionally used five cars to tail a single suspect in an automobile. Surveillance used to have what privacy scholars call high transaction costs. Those costs served as a protection of ones privacy.

The Supreme Court has wrestled with the question of protecting privacy in an age of tracking devices, but hasnt resolved what happens to ones personal information when it is being lawfully collected. In a 2012 decision, United States v. Jones, the court considered whether police could place a GPS device on a suspects car without a warrant. The court ruled, 9-0, that such tracking was an unreasonable search that violated the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.

But that ruling did not settle the question of what the government could or couldnt do with the same sort of information when it is, in essence, freely handed over. In a concurring opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted that the biggest threats to privacy may come from technologies that invite surveillance: With increasing regularity, the Government will be capable of duplicating the monitoring undertaken in this case by enlisting factory- or owner-installed vehicle tracking devices or GPS-enabled smartphones.

It turns out that people are not as quick to give up freedoms as one might think. The Government Accountability Office published a report in January on the state-level user-fee pilot programs. The GAO wrote, Many state DOT officials told us that drivers felt concerned that a government-administered mileage fee system may track their location and collect personal data. They reported that public acceptance of mileage fee systems remains limited by concerns about protecting privacy.

Recently, some abortion-rights activists worry that states with strict anti-abortion laws might prohibit travel to other states for the purpose of obtaining an abortion. (Missouri has already considered such a law.) Could vehicle tracking be used to identify individuals who cross a state border and drive to the address of an abortion provider?

Privacy advocates suggest that activists may not want there to be digital tire tracks showing them driving to the sites of controversial political rallies such as on Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington.

Convincing the public that the government will protect their privacy and wont track their travel, the GAO found, made for major challenges facing mileage fee systems. Minnesota DOT officials were blunt about the lack of trust people have in the tech-enabled state: The public does not want governments to have their travel or personal information.

Privacy advocates tell RCI that sooner or later highway funding will move to user fees and probably sooner, given the effect electric vehicles will have on fuel tax revenues. And yet, for all the assurances made in pilot programs that privacy will be protected, the public remains unconvinced. Will the government have to change those attitudes, or will rules be made by bureaucrats? Will voters have a say in whether and how their travels are tracked? Or will they find that the decision has been made for them?

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EV drivers might not be pumped over mileage taxes - The Highland County Press

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Hi, I’ll be your ransomware negotiator today but don’t tell the crooks that – The Register

Posted: at 8:05 pm

Interview The first rule of being a ransomware negotiator is that you don't admit you're a ransomware negotiator at least not to LockBit or another cybercrime gang.

Instead, these negotiators portray themselves as simply company representatives, said Drew Schmitt, a professional ransomware negotiator and principal threat analyst at cybersecurity firm GuidePoint Security.

"The biggest reason is because most ransomware groups specifically and explicitly say: 'We don't want to work with a negotiator. If you do bring a negotiator to the table, we're just going to post your stuff anyway,'" Schmitt told The Register.Hence the need to masquerade as a regular employee.

Ransomware is, of course, malware that once on a network scrambles all the valuable files it can find, and demands a payment to decrypt and restore the information. Lately, gangs also steal copies of the data prior to encrypting it so that they can leak or sell it if the demand isn't paid. Sometimes they just siphon the files and don't bother to encrypt them. Sometimes the crooks use the purloined files to harass or exploit a victim's customers or users. There's all manner of things extortionists can do and demand once they are on your computers and have your data.

Schmitt said he negotiates one or two ransoms a month, and victim organizations range from very small businesses to major enterprises, spanning all industries. Manufacturing, technology, construction, government, and healthcare were the hardest hit in the second quarter of this year, according to research done for his company's latest extortionware report.

I've also seen initial demands of $25 million ... they are all over the place

He said he once saw a ransom demand from a "less-sophisticated group" who wanted just $2,000."But I've also seen initial demands of $25 million," he added. "So they are all over the place."

Schmitt said he has, on two occasions, negotiated ransoms down to zero dollars. "Both in different kinds of healthcare, that when we went to the table and said, 'Hey, we're a healthcare organization. We're responsible for saving lives,' they basically said, 'We're sorry. We're going to give you a free decryptor.'"

Of course, these are the outliers, and some groups such as Hive specifically target the healthcare industry on the assumption that because lives and highly sensitive personal data are at stake, among other factors, hospitals are more likely to pay up to make the whole mess go away.

In fact, a report earlier this year from Sophos stated that 66 percent of surveyed healthcare organizations were hit by ransomware in 2021 up from 34 percent the year before, representing a 94 percent increase.

As ransomware and pure extortion become solid sources of income for miscreants, there's naturally been a rise in demand for things like cyber-insurance and ransomware negotiators, who act as intermediaries between the ransomware gang and the victim. Sometimes you may want to put someone between you and the crims, someone who can make the cryptocurrency payment happen, or haggle down the demand, or get the decryptor from the extortionists, and so on.

According to research published in March by Palo Alto Networks' incident response team, the average ransom demand in 2021, for attacks it was aware of, was $2.2 million, a 144 percent increase from the year prior. Meanwhile, the average payment last year jumped to $541,010, up 78 percent from 2020.

Schmitt started working in incident response (IR) and threat intelligence about six years ago, and said he "fell into" ransomware negotiations in 2019.

"It was a natural progression of working in incident response," he said. As ransomware infections became more prevalent, Schmitt started moving up the IR ladder and playing various roles in the investigation and response process. "And one of those ended up being a negotiation with a threat actor."

Back in the day, circa 2019, these negotiations happened via email. But since then, ransomware gangs have matured and evolved business operations to include instant messaging with victims to figure out deals, affiliates to help spread the malware, and employees with non-technical remits, as the larger, above-ground world learned through the Conti leaks earlier this year.

These days, most crime groups have their own websites through which they operate, and some have PR and marketing departments as well as in-house help desks.

Rather than faff about with email, "now it's usually just a URL" directing a victim to the extortionists' Tor-hidden website, and communication between victim and crook happens in a chat box displayed within the Tor browser, Schmitt said. This is the point at which Schmitt usually gets called in to help with the incident response and, sometimes, ransomware negotiations.

The negotiation process itself involves bringing all the key business units to the table: C-suite executives, cybersecurity analysts, lawyers, HR, and PR representatives.

"All the critical teams that are going to be involved in the administrative response in addition to the technical response," Schmitt said. "All of those players are going to be involved to determine what the negotiation strategy looks like."

The first question they need to answer, however, is whether to negotiate with the criminals at all.

US federal agencies say organizations should not pay ransom demands [PDF], and some private security firms even suggest this exposes businesses to subsequent ransomware attacks. Regardless, it's not a simple question to answer, and the decision to negotiate or not is two-pronged, we're told.

How is this going to impact our brand if we're exposed on a ransomware leak site?

"One is looking at it from a purely technical perspective," Schmitt said. This includes determining if the company has the capacity to restore from backups data scrambled by the ransomware, decrypt the files with a free tool, or otherwise bring the IT environment back online without paying a ransom.

"And then the other side is legally based," he said. "This is where you start answering questions about: how is this going to impact our brand if we're exposed on a ransomware leak site? How is this going to potentially impact compliance if we have certain types of data exposed on a ransomware leak site? What are the risks associated with this, and what are our options?"

One thought that Schmitt said doesn't usually come up in the discussion unless the criminal gang has been sanctioned by the US Treasury or a similar body, in which case it's illegal to pay a ransom to them is the ethics of paying a ransom that, in turn, finances additional illicit activities and potentially oppressive regimes that back or orchestrate ransomware campaigns.

"If I'm being totally honest, there's just not a lot of discussion of kind of where the funds go after the fact," he admitted.

LockBit remains the most prolific gang over the past two years, Schmitt said, adding that Conti also kept his fellow negotiators busy before that group disbanded to form other gangs.

And each of these crime orgs have their own quirks, histories, and methods, which can be useful to know and exploit during the negotiation process.

"We keep detailed notes of all the interactions that we have from various threat groups, and then we use that to our advantage this technique might work better than that technique, or this group is known to negotiate, or you can't push that group very long before they'll get bored and move on," Schmitt said. "They all have traits that we use to make sure we're not pushing the wrong buttons and giving us the highest chance of success, for lowering the ransom as much as possible."

However, the criminals have typically done their homework, too. For example: researching a victim organization's cyber insurance policy.

"Fairly often, we'll see this as a negotiation tactic," Schmitt said. "'We've found your insurance policy, we know you have coverage in the amount of $10 million, so this is where we start.'"

Paying the initial demand doesn't happen very often. There's always some bargaining and quibbling. Corporations also have to factor in recovery costs and other expenses related to the security breach when figuring out what kind of budget they have to tackle the problem, he said.

"But this is where we start," Schmitt commented, referring to the initial demands. "And really from there, it is the traditional back and forth negotiation process that you would see in many other business applications or trying to buy a car."

If, that is, you're locked in a room with the car salesperson for days on end while they threaten to leak your private information on a website for all to see, and when they may decide to raise the asking price if you take too long to reach a deal.

Schmitt admitted it's a high-anxiety job. "The stakes are really high," he said. "With incident response in general, and especially ransomware, it's really high stress.

"For more of the clients you're working with, it's the worst point in their career and it might be the worst point they're ever going to have, and you're thrust into that situation of trying to help them get out of the worst time of their career."

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Hi, I'll be your ransomware negotiator today but don't tell the crooks that - The Register

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The Bahamas Islands – Discover 16 Unique Island Destinations

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Select any one of our 16 islands and start exploring. Let the adventure begin.

Click to select the island you would like to explore in The Bahamas

Experience the boating capital of The Bahamas in the one-of-a-kind island chain known as The Abacos. Sailing, fishing, award-winning golf, and quaint colonial island towns are all waiting to be discovered in this sun-drenched destination in the northern Bahamas.

TCB | Treasure Cay International Airport

MHH | Leonard M. Thompson Airport

YAS | Sandy Point Airport

Acklins and Crooked Island offer a stunningly secluded getaway by a shimmering lagoon. From bonefishing and birdwatching to exploring the serene island town of Long Cay, this destination is a hallmark of undisturbed Out Islands charm.

AXP | Spring Point Airport

PWN | Pitts Town Point Airport

CRI | Crooked Hill Airport

Journey to the largest island in the Bahamas and explore natural wonders like no other. Left virtually untouched, Andros is home to breathtaking blue holes, coral reefs, underwater wrecks, national forests, and more.

ASD | Andros Town International Airport

SAQ | San Andros Airport

TZN | South Andros

Bordered by the Tongue of the Ocean, The Berry Islands are home to some of the most diverse and abundant sea life in The Bahamas. This unique marine destination comprises nearly 30 idyllic cays, most of which are uninhabited.

GHC | Great Harbour Cay Airport

CCZ | Chub Cay International Airport

World-class fishing, thrilling dives, and island adventure await on the storied island of Bimini. From diving with sharks and visiting shipwrecks to pursuing the prized blue marlin at sea, Bimini offers memorable experiences for intrepid travellers.

BIM | South Bimini Airport

NSB | North Bimini Airport

Surfing, kiteboarding, hikes through tropical landscapes to the highest point in The Bahamasyou might be surprised at what you find in quiet Cat Island. From historical sites to watersports and beachside bars, theres no shortage of things to do and see along the pink sands.

Discover colourful New England-style architecture, astounding natural beauty, and pristine clusters of sandbars and cays on these two picturesque Bahamas hideawayseach is unique and not to be missed.

GHB | Governors Harbour Airport

ELH | North Eleuthera Airport

From untouched beaches and breathtaking resorts to the famous swimming pigs, The Exumas is where the beauty of the Bahamas meets unforgettable adventure. Make memories like no other among crystal clear waters and four-legged friends.

GGT | Exuma International Airport

TYM|Staniel Cay Airport

Freeport Grand Bahama Island is a bustling paradise of island activities and fun in the sun. Experience the thrill of kayaking through mangroves, exploring underwater caves, off-roading through pine forests, and much more.

FPO | Grand Bahama International Airport

Those with a passion for birdwatching look no further than the island of Inagua. Situated in the southernmost part of The Bahamas, Inagua is home to three national parks serving as habitats for over 80,000 flamingos and 140 other species of birds.

IGA | Inagua International Airport

The shores of Long Island boast world-class bonefishing, thrilling encounters with marine life and thriving reefs, and the worlds second deepest blue hole. While adventure fills the waters, on land, life is tranquil and serene.

SML | Stella Maris Airport

LGI | Deadmans Cay Airport

An isolated and secluded escape, Mayaguana is an outdoor-lovers destination. Whether its a footprint-free beach or a far-off fishing spot, the island is the perfect blend of solitude and charm.

No other capital city boasts paradise as its neighbor. While Nassau promises big city thrills, nearby Paradise Island offers miles of natural wonder. Immerse yourself in an island experience that delivers the best of both worlds.

NAS | Lynden Pindling International Airport

Beyond the shorelines of Ragged Island, anglers will find remarkable deep-sea fishing. Bonefish, barracuda, tuna, and kingfish are just a few of the more common catches around the island, while the quaint settlement of Duncan Town is a quintessential island escape.

DCT | Duncan Town Airport

This hidden treasure of a destination boasts ancient Lucayan art, sprawling white sand beaches, thrilling dive siteseven a secret surf spot. A short boat ride away, Conception Island is perhaps one of the most well-preserved areas in The Bahamas.

RCY | Port Nelson Airport

San Salvador may be one of the smallest islands in The Bahamas, but it stands out amongst the larger destinations. Historic monuments, scenic lakes, tranquil beaches, and natural parks abound.

ZSA | San Salvador Airport

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The Bahamas Islands - Discover 16 Unique Island Destinations

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The 14 Best Things to do in The Bahamas – Lonely Planet

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With its turquoise waters, pillowy sand beaches and laid-back island attitude, everything really does seem better in The Bahamas.

With 16 major islands and 100,000 sq mi of some of the worlds clearest water, theres no shortage of island adventuring to be had whether its hitting the waves for a snorkeling expedition or unwinding with a frosty rum-laden beverage in hand.

If youre a water sports enthusiast, The Bahamas is a great destination for indulging in your passion. Snorkeling and scuba diving adventures await, with deserted islands and intimate coves providing an undisturbed peek at the marine life enjoying the warm, clear waters that surround the islands.

But if youd prefer to keep your itinerary close to shore, theres plenty to explore there as well. Need proof? Heres a list of the top things to do while in The Bahamas.

The 40-acre Lucayan National Park is one of the largest underwater cave systems in the world, two of which are open to the public for swimming and exploration. Located east of Freeport over on Grand Bahama Island, Lucayan is an ecological treasure, playing host to all six of Bahamas vegetation zones.

Before cooling off in the caves waters, walk or ride a horse along one of the park's paved paths and experience its mangrove swamps, rocky coppice landscape and singular hardwood forest.

Sharpen your negotiating skills and snag a few locally-made souvenirs at Nassaus frenzied Straw Market, located next to the tony boutique shops on Bay Street. Youll find vendors with individual stalls hawking all manner of wares, from straw purses and wood carvings, to touristy tees and hats.

Haggling isnt just acceptable in this open-air market, its encouraged. The Straw Market is open seven days a week from 8am to 8pm.

Who says careening down waterslides at breakneck speeds and giddily screaming the whole way through is strictly for kids? The Aquaventure attraction at Atlantis Paradise Island offers 141 acres of high speed water slides, winding lazy rivers and 11 swimming pools set amongst the ruins of Atlantis. Access to Atlantis is free for overnight guests of the resort, but you can pick up a day pass if youre staying elsewhere.

Atlantis isnt the only attraction on Paradise Island walk around to the east side of the island and youll discover the public entrance to Cabbage Beach, a two-mile stretch of pristine sand framed by swaying palm trees.

If the waters are a bit choppy, seek out one of the beachside huts where youll find a masseuse waiting to administer a muscle-melting massage set to the crashing waves of the ocean beyond.

Top 14 beaches The Bahamas

No, your eyes havent been taken over by an Instagram filter the sand on Pink Sands Beach in Harbour Island is indeed pink. The rosy pink hue is courtesy of microscopic coral insects with bright pink and red shells.

In a slightly grim twist, the waves crush their shells and mix the remains with the sand and coral on shore, creating the soft pink hue. The sand here is almost always cool, making the three-mile stretch of beach perfect for daytime strolls or sunbathing.

If you havent guzzled a daiquiri or three, did you really visit The Bahamas? Avoid falling victim to that question and get yourself to the Daiquiri (Daq) Shack, an open-air wooden hut known for its boozy blended concoctions using fresh tropical fruits and healthy pours of rum.

The island has many pretenders to the throne, but the original is located on Cable Beach. Look for the one with all of the visitor photos and business cards stapled to the walls and then after tipping your bartender, add one of your own.

When is the best time to go to The Bahamas

A former pirate hangout and playground for the rich and (in)famous, the luxuriously ornate grounds of the Graycliff Hotel have courted all manner of interesting characters for nearly 300 years.

While best known for their cigars, the mansion also houses one of the worlds largest wine cellars, and yes, a five-star restaurant. Think: high-end takes on traditional Bahamian cuisine. But make sure to call ahead for reservations the restaurant tends to be fully booked weeks in advance.

After youve checked the daiquiri off your Bahamas bingo card, your next stop is conch. Fried or fresh, the most popular spot to grab the islands unofficial dish is at the Fish Fry in Nassau. The collection of wooden shacks house individual vendors hawking fried and fresh conch along with Bahamian staples like plantains and rice.

The Fish Fry is open seven days a week, but its Friday and Saturday nights that invite a party-like atmosphere fueled by rum-spiked drinks and music.

The Cricket Club is where British ex-pats get their fill of Premier League Football, pints of Guinness and plates of Yorkshire pudding (along with a legit bangers and mash). Post up at one of the tables on the upper-level balcony and watch a cricket match on the pitch below. The balmy Caribbean breezes and ice-cold beer are just the things to take the edge off a sizzling tropical day.

Whats a visit to a Caribbean island without a bit of rum? John Watlings Distillery has been producing the sugar cane molasses-based liquor since 2003. The distillery uses coconuts to filter their juice, which might seem tropically gimmicky on the outset, but actually does the job.

Situated on the lush two-acre Buena Vista Estate, the distillery is open seven days a week for tours and tastings dont forget to pick up a half gallon of one of their estate cocktails to go.

Do you need a visa to go to The Bahamas?

While The Bahamas has plenty of natural beauty to keep you entertained, the island archipelago also has a decidedly glitzy side, and its on full display at the Baha Mar complex in Nassau.

Comprising the SLS, Grand Hyatt, and Rosewood resorts, the Baha Mar Casino ties all the properties together and can add largest casino in the Caribbean to its resume. Join the well-heeled crowd with a good-luck cocktail before hitting up one of the 119 live table games, 1,000 slot machines or placing a bet on a televised live sports game.

Thunderball Grotto is an underwater cave system best known for its star-turn in a James Bond movie. Located just west of Staniel Cay, the craggy aquamarine pool is perfect for a day of diving, swimming and snorkeling while channeling your inner international spy even if for just a few minutes.

Only a short 30-minute boat ride from Nassau, Rose Island is home to Sandy Toes, the quintessential Bahamian beach bar. Located on the shores of a secluded tropical island, you can opt to spend the day snorkeling in the surrounding crystal clear waters or romping around with the islands nine resident pigs (if thats something that interests you).

Afterwards, grab a frozen daiquiri from the bar and kick back in one of the islands rope hammocks.

Time to put your mask and fins to good use the barrier reef on Andros Island is the third-largest on the planet and offers a one-of-kind peek at the colorful array of marine life that inhabits the Caribbean waters. Known as the Big Yard, Andros is largely unpopulated, allowing much of the natural Bahamian terrain to remain wild and undisturbed.

But its the 190-mile barrier reef that steals the show, with its submerged shipwrecks, underwater blue holes, and schools of parrotfish, speckled scorpionfish, and blue tangs.

Dolphin Strangers Met in the Bahamas. Things Went Swimmingly. – The New York Times

Posted: at 8:01 pm

In 2013, a group of 52 Atlantic spotted dolphins, driven to migrate by unknown forces, left their home on the Little Bahama Bank in the northern Bahamas. They traveled 100 miles south to the island chain of Bimini, a destination already inhabited by a community of 120 Atlantic spotted dolphins.

When groups of social mammals meet, things can get tense. Run-ins between chimpanzee communities, for instance, are known for their violence. Adult male mammals, especially, are keen to defend territory and access to females.

But for the Atlantic spotted dolphins of Little Bahama Bank and Bimini, the mixing and mingling seems to have gone rather swimmingly, scientists found.

Two teams of researchers published papers recently about the growing dolphin community. Their analyses, unlike the dolphins, were not blended, and offered independent confirmation that dolphins from different groups formed strong bonds in a short time frame. The rare event provides new clues about how these brainy mammals organize their complex societies, and may help predict what may occur if climate change pushes populations together.

Denise Herzing, a marine mammal behavioral biologist at the nonprofit Wild Dolphin Project, and her colleagues watched dolphins on the Little Bahama Bank for almost 30 years and started tracking the 52 dolphins when they left.

We were curious how they were integrating, she said. Its a kind of a natural experiment.

Another team, the Dolphin Communication Project, observed dolphins at Bimini for 20 years. All of a sudden we were seeing so many adults that we didnt know, said Nicole Danaher-Garcia, a behavioral ecologist with the group. She was referring to the dolphins, not the other dolphin researchers, of course.

The aquatic mammals often spend their whole lives forming close bonds within their home group, Dr. Danaher-Garcia said. But at Bimini, they were forming new friendships with strangers in only a year.

Dr. Danaher-Garcias team tracked which dolphins spent time together from 2013 to 2018 and analyzed how individual animals touched each other. A lot of times youll see them rubbing their pectoral fins against one another. It kind of looks like theyre playing patty-cake, she said. A dolphin may rub its forehead on a pals belly, indicating an even stronger bond. You must like them, she said, and if theyre allowing you to do it, they must trust you. Such friendly gestures were common between males from the different groups, the team reported this week in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

The team didnt observe aggression between the newcomers and the original Bimini crew, the kind of conflict often seen in nature when mammal groups merge.

Thats very unusual, Dr. Danaher-Garcia said. Instead, her team saw the animals socializing, playing and getting frisky across original group lines, behavior more akin to that of bonobos.

She said it was possible that like bonobos, they use sexual behaviors to ease the tension. At times, this bacchanal can look like a ball of dolphins. You cant really tell whos touching whom and whats going on, she said.

Like both bonobos and chimpanzees, dolphins live in fission-fusion societies where they make strong bonds between individuals but can break those bonds and forge new ones. This kind of bonding between individuals in different groups is not seen among many mammals, said Diana Reiss, a marine mammal scientist and cognitive psychologist at Hunter College who was not part of either study. To see such social flexibility within groups that didnt previously live together is pretty exciting, Dr. Reiss said.

Dr. Danaher-Garcias team suspects Biminis geography, with ample shallows as well as abundant access to deep water for foraging, makes for more amiable interactions because the dolphins likely dont need to fight over space.

But that doesnt mean it was all frictionless. Dr. Herzings group did see some aggressive behaviors, such as dolphins slapping or ramming heads, that are typical when males fight over mating opportunities. Her group mapped the cetaceans associations from 2015 to 2020 and reported the results last week in the journal Marine Mammal Science. But the fighting that Dr. Herzings team observed is not unusual and can occur within a single group of dolphins.

Dr. Herzings group has yet to publish its analysis of the types of touches that occurred in the newly mixed group. That team stayed on a boat further offshore observing the dolphins over longer days during the summer. In contrast, Dr. Danaher-Garcias project had a limited sample size that was more focused on males, as opposed to males and females, Dr. Herzing said, and might have missed some aggressive encounters.

They probably didnt see aggression, probably because there was nothing to fight over, she added.

There may also be a difference in how the two studies classify what counts as aggression, Dr. Herzing and Dr. Danaher-Garcia noted.

More research is needed to determine if the mixed dolphin groups are becoming more enmeshed through mating. The Wild Dolphin Project, Dr. Herzings team, is getting the scoop on this by collecting dolphin feces and analyzing the genetic material they contain to reveal the dolphins parentage.

Guido J. Parra, a behavioral ecologist at Flinders University who wasnt involved with either study, said there was value in researching these interactions. An understanding of social ties could help reveal how animal groups might respond to environmental change and aid in conservation. Researchers still have a lot to learn about the ecological factors that drive grouping, the role of individuals in shaping a social structure and the costs and benefits of banding together, Dr. Parra said.

That will be important as different dolphin populations may be pushed together. For example, in Bangladesh, rising seas encroached on a land boundary and brought river dolphins into contact with another dolphin species in the ocean, Dr. Herzing said.

We dont know exactly how species are going to fare she said.

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Bahamas: 17th century shipwreck gives up treasure of gold and jewels – Business Insider

Posted: at 8:01 pm

A trove of treasure has been discovered in the shipwreck of the 17th century Nuestra Seora de las Maravillas (Our Lady of Wonders) in the Bahamas.

The glittering finds include solid silver bars, a 5-foot, 9-inch long gold chain, in-tact pottery, a gold and emerald pendant, a pearl ring, two glass wine bottles, and a silver sword hilt of the soldier Don Martin de Aranda y Gusmn.

The finds are about to go on display at the new Bahamas Maritime Museum, created by the Government of the Bahamas, and Carl Allen, entrepreneur, explorer, philanthropist, and the founder of Allen Exploration, whose team uncovered the finds.

"When we brought up the oval emerald and gold pendant, my breath caught in my throat. How these tiny pendants survived in these harsh waters, and how we managed to find them, is the miracle of the Maravillas," Allen said in a press release sent to Insider.

Allen Explorations discovered the treasures sttrewn along an eight-mile stretch of the ocean floor.

In the statement, Allen spoke of the "tough history" of the shipwreck, saying it had been "heavily salvaged by Spanish, English, French, Dutch, Bahamian and American expeditions in the 17th and 18th centuries, and blitzed by salvors from the 1970s to early 1990s. Some say the remains were ground to dust."

He also added that "The sea bottom is barren," that "the colorful coral that divers remembered from the 70s is gone, poisoned by ocean acidification and choked by meters of shifting sand. It's painfully sad. Still lying on those dead grey reefs, though, are sparkling finds."

"The ship may have been obliterated by past salvage and hurricanes. But we're convinced there are more stories out there," project marine archaeologist James Sinclair said.

The new Bahamas Maritime Museum will open on August 8.

"For a nation built from the ocean, it's astonishing how little is understood about The Bahamas' maritime links," Dr. Michael Pateman, Director of The Bahamas Maritime Museum, said in the press release.

"Few know that the Indigenous Lucayan peoples, for instance, settled here 1,300 years ago. Or that the whole population, up to 50,000 people was forced out by Spanish guns, made to dive for pearls off Venezuela, and killed off in less than three decades. There was dazzling Old World culture in The Bahamas. The Lucayans, slave trade, pirates, and the Maravillas are core stories we're sharing in the museum."

According to the Bahamas Maritime Museum, the 17th century Nuestra Seora de las Maravillas was a two-deck Spanish galleon that sank on a voyage from the Americas to Spain carrying treasures, both as royal tax and private property.

The ship sank off the Little Bahama Bank on January 4, 1656, after a navigational error. Of the 650 on board, only 45 survived.

The wreck was quickly relocated after the ship sank, and for centuries people have tried their luck to find some of the sunken riches.

Explorer Robert Marx rediscovered the remains in 1972, and salvaged some of what was left. Further remains were salvaged by Herbert Humphreys between 1986 and the early 1990s

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Daily Archives: August 6, 2022

SCOTUS decision prompts 10th Circuit to toss prisoner’s lawsuit over alleged assault by guard – coloradopolitics.com

Appeals Court Upholds City Ordinance Related to Strip Club Restrictions – tallahasseereports.com

LETTERS: The law, our rights and abortion | Letters | wacotrib.com – Waco Tribune-Herald

Corporations Aren’t People but They Can Be Psychopaths – North Coast Journal

EV drivers might not be pumped over mileage taxes – The Highland County Press

Hi, I’ll be your ransomware negotiator today but don’t tell the crooks that – The Register

The Bahamas Islands – Discover 16 Unique Island Destinations

The 14 Best Things to do in The Bahamas – Lonely Planet

Dolphin Strangers Met in the Bahamas. Things Went Swimmingly. – The New York Times

Bahamas: 17th century shipwreck gives up treasure of gold and jewels – Business Insider

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