Tag Archives: database

North Carolina Doesn’t Want You to See Footage From Its Police Body Cameras

by ToniaR25ivfco Posted on July 13, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Amid a resurgence of nationwide protests sparked by smartphone videos of police shootings of black men, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed into law on Monday a bill that will severely restrict public access to footage from police body camera and dash cams.

House Bill 972 requires a court order before any such footage may be released to journalists or members of the public, which also means that police departments cannot voluntarily release footage without a judge’s approval. Under the new law, police chiefs get the final say on whether or not people caught on camera—or their lawyers—will be allowed to view the relevant footage. If the chief says no, the subject will have to successfully sue the department to gain access.

The law’s passage is sure to rankle some Black Lives Matter activists, who have repeatedly called for even greater access to police video footage in the wake of disputed police shootings of black subjects. Gov. McCrory said he signed the bill to “ensure transparency,” and that while recordings of police interactions with the community could be helpful, they can also “mislead and misinform.” In drafting the bill, McCrory added, lawmakers grappled with how technology “can help us, and how can we work with it so it doesn’t also work against our police officers.”

Susanna Birdsong, director of the North Carolina ACLU, believes the new law will hurt—not help—transparency in policing. “There really should be some minimum guarantee of access to the recordings by someone other than the police,” she told me.

People involved in incidents recorded by the police, as well as their attorneys, should be able to view the footage without exception, Birdsong says. And law enforcement agencies should have protocols in place for the timely release of footage when it’s in the public interest—for example, in cases in which officers use physical force to subdue a person. The process, she adds, should not require any court’s approval.

The law, Birdsong adds, could have consequences for reporting on law enforcement. Before, a news organization could go directly to a local police department to request access to footage or put pressure on city officials to make it happen, but now “that avenue is foreclosed.”

The bill’s primary sponsors were Reps. John Faircloth, Allen McNeil, and Pat Hurley. (Faircloth is a former police chief while McNeil was once a sheriff’s deputy.) The legislation was crafted at the urging of the Legislative Committee on Justice and Public Safety, a bipartisan panel convened earlier this year to consider criminal justice issues. The committee heard from civil rights groups, community organizers, and law enforcement before announcing its findings in June. Among the recommendations: The state should pass an act providing that police camera footage is not part of the public record.

The bill’s authors, according to Birdsong, were lobbied by law enforcement groups, including the North Carolina Sheriffs Association and the North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police. And while the advisory committee heard from the ACLU and others who opposed such a recommendation, the authors consulted with few nonpolice stakeholders on their bill’s language. “The language in the bill very much reflects that,” Birdsong says. (None of the bill’s key sponsors responded to requests for comment.)

New Hampshire, Minnesota, and Louisiana also recently passed laws restricting public access to police body-cam footage. But many jurisdictions provide reasonable access to such recordings, Birdsong told me. Consider Chicago’s new effort in transparent policing, created in the wake of heavy criticism of city officials for their handling of police videos. In May, the city’s police review board launched a database of audio and video recordings, police reports, and other documents related to more than 100 open investigations into misconduct by officers. The database, which is accessible to the public, includes more than 300 videos from body cameras, police dash cams, and cellphones.

At least one North Carolina police chief thinks his state’s new law is a bad idea. “I would rather let our video tell the story—good, bad or indifferent—than someone who has a cellphone who has the opportunity to edit it,” Fayettevile police chief Harold Medlock told the Charlotte Observer. “Sometimes we do ourselves a great disservice by not disclosing as much information as we can.”

Taken from:  

North Carolina Doesn’t Want You to See Footage From Its Police Body Cameras

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, ProPublica, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on North Carolina Doesn’t Want You to See Footage From Its Police Body Cameras

Trump Campaign Corresponded With Its White Nationalist Delegate Long After "Database Error"

by BBWWilbert Posted on May 10, 2016

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

On Tuesday, Mother Jones broke the story that the Trump campaign had selected William Johnson, a prominent white nationalist leader, as a California delegate. The Trump campaign responded with the following statement:

Yesterday the Trump campaign submitted its list of California delegates to be certified by the Secretary of State of California. A database error led to the inclusion of a potential delegate that had been rejected and removed from the campaign’s list in February 2016.

Reached again by Mother Jones late Tuesday, Johnson said he would resign as a delegate if asked to do so by the campaign. “I accept Trump’s explanation,” he said, regarding the statement. “I don’t want to gainsay the Trump campaign. If I am not removed from the database, I will resign.”

Although the Trump campaign blamed a “database error” for including Johnson as a delegate, the campaign corresponded with him personally just over 24 hours ago. Trump’s California delegate coordinator, Katie Lagomarsino, sent Johnson a congratulatory email on Monday, and when he asked for clarification about how to send his completed pledge form back to the campaign, she replied. Here is the email exchange (with the personal contact information redacted by Mother Jones):

Mother Jones also has a copy of the pledge form discussed in the email exchange, which Johnson signed and sent to the Trump campaign on Monday. You can see his pledge here.

Update, 6pm PDT: ABC News‘ Candace Smith reports that Johnson may remain a Trump delegate per California regulations:

Link:

Trump Campaign Corresponded With Its White Nationalist Delegate Long After "Database Error"

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, solar, solar power, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Trump Campaign Corresponded With Its White Nationalist Delegate Long After "Database Error"

Sanders Threatens to Sue Democratic Party in Data Breach Dustup

by NicholaHertz Posted on December 18, 2015

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

At a press conference Friday afternoon, Jeff Weaver, Bernie Sanders’ campaign manager, threatened legal action against the Democratic National Committee for cutting off the Sanders’ presidential campaign from critical voter data, such as addresses and phone numbers of potential supporters. The DNC took this step after a Sanders campaign staffer on Thursday accessed private voter data belonging to the Hillary Clinton campaign in a breach that the Sanders campaign has denounced.

“We will be in federal court this afternoon seeking immediate relief,” Weaver said. Our data “has been stolen by the DNC.”

Weaver’s threat was the latest move in a serious—and complicated—digital dustup involving the Sanders and Clinton campaigns, the DNC, and a contractor hired by the Democratic Party to maintain voter data for various campaigns. This contractor, NGP VAN, is supposed to keep data for different campaigns separate. But on Thursday, news broke that at least one member of the Sanders campaign accessed Clinton campaign data when a firewall temporarily went down. Evidence surfaced Friday that more than one staffer of the Sanders campaign had access to the Clinton campaign voter data, and that some of the information had been downloaded.

The Sanders campaign immediately fired a staffer responsible and is undertaking an internal review into what happened and who else was involved. But the Sanders campaign insists that fault also belongs to the DNC and NGP VAN for the firewall failure. “Given that it is the DNC’s responsibility to secure the voter data file, the DNC failed in this regard,” the campaign said in a statement released Friday.

In response to the breach, the DNC revoked access for the Sanders campaign to this database—which includes crucial voter data collected by the campaign itself—until the campaign can prove it has destroyed any Clinton campaign data that it downloaded. The Sanders campaign needs this information in order to maintain contact with voters and reach out to supporters, especially as the initial voting and caucusing approaches. The lawsuit threat is an indication of how serious the situation is for the Sanders campaign.

The incident has given the Sanders campaign an opportunity to bolster its long-running claim that the DNC favors Clinton, though the party insists that is not true. “This is taking our campaign hostage,” Weaver said of the DNC’s action.

As of Friday afternoon, the Clinton campaign had said nothing about the breach or the threatened lawsuit. Saturday is the third Democratic debate, and it may well be that Sanders and Clinton address this issue there.

Update: The Clinton campaign commented on the situation.

Excerpt from: 

Sanders Threatens to Sue Democratic Party in Data Breach Dustup

Posted in Anchor, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Sanders Threatens to Sue Democratic Party in Data Breach Dustup

These Nail Polish Brands Contain a Chemical That Could Mess With Your Hormones

by LukeSackett Posted on October 19, 2015

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

Want some toxins with that mani-pedi?

A new study by researchers at Duke University and the Environmental Working Group found that a common nail polish chemical and suspected endocrine disruptor called TPHP is leaching into the bodies of polish-wearers.

TPHP, also known as TPP, is commonly used as a fire retardant in furniture and a hardener in plastic goods. According to the authors, research suggests that the chemical causes changes in hormone regulation, metabolism, and reproductive systems.

The study, published today in Environmental International, found that women who painted their nails with polishes containing TPHP saw a sevenfold increase of a TPHP metabolite (a substance formed when the body metabolizes TPHP) just 10 to 14 hours after painting their nails.

“It is very troubling that nail polish being marketed to women and teenage girls contains a suspected endocrine disruptor,” said Johanna Congleton, a co-author of the study, in a press release. “It is even more troubling to learn that their bodies absorb this chemical relatively quickly after they apply a coat of polish.”

TPHP is a common addition to nail polishes; an analysis of EWG’s Skin Deep database found that about half of all nail polishes—or 1,500 polishes in the database—contain the chemical, including popular brands like OPI, Sallie Hansen, and Revlon. (Below are a few big-name brands; here‘s the complete database.)

Environmental Working Group

To figure out if the chemical was being absorbed from fumes or directly from the nails, some women in the study wore gloves and applied polish to synthetic nails, while others applied polish directly to their own nails. The TPHP metabolite levels of the former group didn’t change significantly while the latter group saw a sevenfold increase, suggesting that fumes weren’t the main vehicle for the chemical. Nails are impermeable to most molecules, so the researchers theorize that the chemical leached through the cuticles, or that another ingredient in the polish made the nails more permeable.

It’s still unknown if the levels of TPHP coming from nail polish are harmful to the body, as most of the studies on the effects of TPHP have been conducted on animals.

It’s also unknown if there’s a less toxic chemical that could replace TPHP in nail polishes. The chemical acts as a plasticizer, making the polish flexible but durable. It may have replaced a chemical called DBP, which fell out of popularity when it was found to be a hormone disruptor. If companies move away from TPHP, as they did with DBP, the challenge is making sure the replacement isn’t just as toxic as the original. “I’m assuming that if you need a plasticizer, there are other options available,” said Congleton in an interview. “But I would want to be able to identify what those are and make sure the right questions have been asked.”

Continued here: 

These Nail Polish Brands Contain a Chemical That Could Mess With Your Hormones

Posted in Anchor, Everyone, FF, GE, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on These Nail Polish Brands Contain a Chemical That Could Mess With Your Hormones

Soon You Might Actually Be Able to Tell How Much Added Sugar Is in Your Food

by DemetriIra Posted on July 28, 2015

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

When the popular news quiz show Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! hosted the country’s Surgeon General, Vicek Murthy, last weekend, he was confronted with the question: What’s your one weakness? “Sweets,” he answered, “I like bread pudding and cheesecake, in particular.”

Many of us can identify with the hankering for the occasional piece of cheesecake after dinner. But lots of the added sugar you inhale probably doesn’t come in the form of dessert. Rather, Americans get much of their sweetening in the form of beverages—especially soda—and packaged foods that at first glance seem snacky or savory (yep, one serving of hoisin sauce has two whole teaspoons; barbecue sauce one and a half). While the World Health Organization has suggested that adults should get no more than 5 percent of their daily calories from added sweeteners—that’s about 6 teaspoons—the average American ingests roughly five times that amount every day.

For decades, researchers and doctors have been sounding the alarm about the negative health risks associated with a diet too rich in added sugars—from obesity, poor nutrition, diabetes, and even heart disease. But as I’ve written about in the past, even if you’re concerned about your levels of added sugar intake, it’s nearly impossible to tell how much you might be eating: Current food labels don’t require added sugar to be listed. There’s even indication that food companies have gone to great lengths to keep that information hidden from the public’s eyes. The US Department of Agriculture used to list added sugars for popular products in online, but the database was removed in 2012 after companies claimed that added sugar amounts should be considered trade secrets.

So in March, the Food and Drug Administration proposed revising nutrition labels to include added sugars on packaged foods. And on Friday, the agency went even further by proposing to require that packaged food companies must also include a percent daily value of added sugar on the nutrition label. (The daily value would be based on the recommendation that added sugar not exceed 10 percent of total calories, or roughly 12 teaspoons of sugar a day).

The FDA has already received pushback from industry groups about the attempt to make added sugar quantities more transparent; the Corn Refiner’s Association questioned the agency’s “statutory authority to do so” and complained of a lack of “credible scientific evidence.” Meanwhile, Kellogg argued that the proposal “to distinguish added sugars…may confuse consumers.” Of course, Kellogg happens to be the world’s “second largest producer of cookies, crackers, and savory snacks.”

Original source – 

Soon You Might Actually Be Able to Tell How Much Added Sugar Is in Your Food

Posted in alo, Anchor, Anker, Casio, FF, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Radius, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Soon You Might Actually Be Able to Tell How Much Added Sugar Is in Your Food

California is No. 1 in prepping for climate change

by EugenioD07 Posted on October 9, 2014

CALIFORNIA LOVE

California is No. 1 in prepping for climate change

By

9 Oct 2014 5:09 PM

Share

Share

California is No. 1 in prepping for climate change

×

California, I’m coming home. Because duh: The hippie-tacular Golden State leads the nation in prepping for climate change. A new 50-state tracking tool developed by the Georgetown Climate Center charts state-by-state progress in climate adaptation plans, and shows which ones have been plucky enough to hit their goals. California is at the head of the pack, of course, and is trailed closely by — you guessed it — Massachusetts and New York.

Georgetown Climate Center

California has one of the longest wish lists in the nation, anyway, with 345 separate climate goals. The sad truth is that achieving 48 of its 345 goals actually puts it way out front. Another sad truth is that just 14 states have finalized any kind of climate action plan at all (not surprisingly, most of those are coastal).

California’s successes so far have a lot to do with prioritizing the issues. The state, for example, has created a “Planning for Sea Level Rise Database,” installed tools to identify and reduce climate-related health vulnerabilities, and even has a bill that’ll require lighter-colored pavement to reduce the effects of urban heat islands. So maybe Cali is just going for the low-hanging fruit here, but hey, at least it’s picking the stuff. (And it’d better before the fruit dries out completely.)

Source:
California leads on climate change, says 50-state tool

, USA Today.

Find this article interesting?

Donate now to support our work.Share

Please

enable JavaScript

to view the comments.

Get stories like this in your inbox

AdvertisementAdvertisement

Read the article: 

California is No. 1 in prepping for climate change

Posted in Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, Prepara, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on California is No. 1 in prepping for climate change

Solar Power for Your Home – A Bright Idea

by DanielaTrevizo Posted on February 20, 2014

Project in Nieuwland Amersfoort consists of solar panels on over 500 homes and utility buildings. Photo: flickr/enecomedia

Homeowners looking to lower their utility bill and environmental footprint are finding a bright idea in solar power generation.  According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, Americans added more solar power generating capacity during the third quarter of 2013 than ever before – 186 megawatts, up almost 50% year over year!  Increased consumer demand and advancements in technology are leading homeowners to strongly consider installation.

For some homeowners, solar panels are still simply too expensive.  However, you shouldn’t let initial sticker shock scare you off.  Some retailers and utility companies offer lease (vs. buy) options, lessening the upfront investment costs.  According to a recent FoxBusiness personal finance article, ‘Experts say the leasing process of a solar panel system is similar to leasing a car or even getting cable service.  Most don’t require a down payment, but will lock in a rate homeowners will pay each month for as long as 20 years. The rate may be fixed over the contract period or it may rise on an annualized basis. Either way, experts say the savings compared to consumers’ current and future electricity rates will be greater during the life of the contract.  The solar panel company or installer is responsible for any panel maintenance or repairs.’

DSIRE, the Database of State Incentives for Renewable & Efficiency, offers comprehensive information about federal and state incentive programs for implementing solar and other renewable energy projects at home.  Tax credits, rebates and other incentives may be available in your area so check out this important resource.

Some utility providers even allow homeowners to sell unused solar power generation back to the grid, also helping offset costs of implementation.

CNNMoney Editor-at-large David Whitford recently installed a 15-panel, 3.75 kilowatt system on the roof of his Boston home.  He shares that the system replaces about 80% of his family’s grid draw.  And, over the promised 25 year life span of the equipment, the system will cut his household’s footprint by 62 tons of CO2 – not to mention the $25,000 in utility bill savings.  Whitford’s total upfront cost was just under $13,000.  But, thanks to state and federal incentives, his ROI will be less than five years.

In a newly formed partnership, Phoenix homebuilder Taylor Morrison and retailer SolarCity announced a solar option on all new Phoenix-area homes.  The partners outline that homeowners can reap the benefits of solar power generation for little to no upfront costs.  The partnership will make it possible for home buyers to save up to thousands on their utility bills, and will also enable them to lock in their solar electricity costs for decades into the future. Taylor Morison is the first national homebuilder in Arizona to offer SolarCity’s solar systems to homebuyers without increasing the purchase price of their homes.

earth911

Follow this link: 

Solar Power for Your Home – A Bright Idea

Posted in alo, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, Hoffman, Omega, ONA, PUR, solar, solar panels, solar power, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Solar Power for Your Home – A Bright Idea

President Obama Finally Releases His Surveillance Reform Plan, and It’s Pretty Weak Tea

by DemetriusGallag Posted on January 17, 2014

Mother Jones

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd”>

President Obama gave his big surveillance speech today, and it was pretty limited. Aside from some fairly vague promises about new oversight and greater transparency, here were his most important concrete proposals:

  1. The Director of National Intelligence will conduct an annual review of FISA court opinions with the aim of declassifying opinions that have “broad privacy concerns.”
  2. Obama will ask Congress to create a “panel of advocates” that will represent the public’s privacy interests in FISA cases.
  3. New restrictions will be placed on the use of “incidental” collection of surveillance of US persons in criminal cases.
  4. National Security Letters will remain secret, but secrecy won’t be indefinite unless the government demonstrates a “real need” to a judge. Companies receiving NSLs will be allowed to release broad reports about the number of requests they get.
  5. Bulk telephone records will continue to be collected. However, in the future the database can be queried only after getting FISA approval. The NSA will be allowed to perform only 2-hop chaining rather than the current 3-hop standard. A new group will investigate alternative approaches to the government itself holding the telephone database.
  6. Within some unspecified limits, there will be no more bugging of foreign leaders.

This is fairly weak tea. Nonetheless, I’m pretty certain that we wouldn’t have gotten even this much if it weren’t for Edward Snowden. This is why I support Snowden’s disclosures despite the fact that I’m not happy about every last thing he’s disclosed. Obama’s attempt to suggest that he would have done all this stuff even without Snowden’s disclosures strikes me as laughable.

You can read a full copy of the presidential directive accompanying Obama’s speech here.

UPDATE: I should be a little clearer about why I think this is weak tea. Of these items, only the first five concern domestic surveillance. #1 and #2 are pretty hazy, with the DNI apparently having full control over this new declassification regime and the public being represented in FISA cases only by a “panel of advocates,” a phrase that somehow strikes me as a bit weaselly. But we’ll see.

#3 is very important if the new restrictions are pretty tight. But that’s not clear yet.

#4 is nice, but doesn’t go very far. At a minimum, I’d like to see much tighter standards for issuing secret NSLs in the first place.

#5, if it’s implemented well, could be a genuine improvement. Records retention per se is something the government often mandates, and as long as the records are truly kept away from the intelligence community, accessible only via court order with an advocate aggressively arguing the public’s case, this is a useful reform.

Julian Sanchez tweets: “Initial verdict: A decent start, better than I expected, but we really need legislation to cement this, & the details will matter a lot.” That’s a little more optimistic than my initial verdict, but it’s probably fair. We really won’t be able to fully evaluate all this until we see what the detailed rules look like. Good intentions aren’t enough.

View original article: 

President Obama Finally Releases His Surveillance Reform Plan, and It’s Pretty Weak Tea

Posted in FF, GE, LG, ONA, Uncategorized, Venta | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on President Obama Finally Releases His Surveillance Reform Plan, and It’s Pretty Weak Tea

Fossil fuels beat renewables in race for state and local incentives

by Myrna Posted on December 3, 2012

Fossil fuels beat renewables in race for state and local incentives

By Philip Bump

Over the weekend, The New York Times launched a series considering how state and local incentives to private business benefit the localities that bestow them. The bottom line seems to be: not much. Incentives frequently fail to prevent companies from relocating or going out of business, and often cost huge amounts of money while returning very little value to the public.

Reading the report, we couldn’t help but wonder how those incentives — a combination of tax breaks, zoning changes, and contributions — broke down by industry. (Full disclosure: We have a bit of a chip on our shoulders about fossil fuels.) The report offers a teaser hint:

Far and away the most incentive money is spent on manufacturing, about $25.5 billion a year, followed by agriculture. The oil, gas and mining industries come in third, and the film business fourth. Technology is not far behind, as companies like Twitter and Facebook increasingly seek tax breaks and many localities bet on the industry’s long-term viability.

Third place is instructive, but not nearly enough. Happily, the Times also included a searchable database of incentives by company name. So we searched it.

First, a note on methodology. Here’s what the database contains:

The New York Times spent 10 months investigating business incentives awarded by hundreds of cities, counties and states. Since there is no nationwide accounting of these incentives, The Times put together a database and found that local governments give up $80.3 billion in incentives each year [stemming from] 1,874 [different] programs.

We searched the database for company names we associated with either the fossil fuel or renewable energy sectors, and threw in the following words for good measure: coal, oil, gas, ethanol, wind, solar. Some expected names didn’t appear (Solyndra; remember, this isn’t federal money); some appeared often but were too broad in scope to be included in our analysis of energy subsidies (Halliburton).

Now, the findings:

Of the 103 incentives we identified, fossil fuel companies received $2.5 billion compared to renewables’ $382 million — or more than six times as much.
Of the total for renewables, $118 million went from the state of Iowa to ethanol companies. Iowa also gave $1.2 million to Plymouth Oil.
The most generous state was Pennsylvania, but only due to the $1.6 billion it offered to Shell (something we covered here).
Excluding Pennsylvania’s largesse, the most generous state was Louisiana, which offered $426 million — all to fossil fuel companies.
If we’d included Halliburton, it would have added only about $15 million to the total.

A chart and some maps. In each map, the darker the color, the more money went to incentives. (Note: We excluded the Pennsylvania/Shell incentive from these because it dwarfed the other data.)

Click to embiggen.

Fossil fuel incentives, by state

Renewable incentives, by state

All energy incentives, by state

Here’s the spreadsheet we used to make these calculations. See something we missed? Leave it in the comments.

Philip Bump writes about the news for Gristmill. He also uses Twitter a whole lot.

Read more:

Business & Technology

,

Climate & Energy

,

Politics

Also in Grist

Please enable JavaScript to see recommended stories

Original article: 

Fossil fuels beat renewables in race for state and local incentives

Posted in GE, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Fossil fuels beat renewables in race for state and local incentives