(The Guardian) — A church in northern China was demolished this week, the second in less than a month, sparking fears of a wider campaign against Christians as authorities prepare to enforce new laws on religion. Police cordoned off the area around the Golden Lampstand Church church in Linfen, Shanxi province, on Sunday before construction […]
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Oregon Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court ruling that ordered Sweet Cakes by Melissa owners Aaron and Melissa Klein to pay $135,000 in “emotional damages” to two lesbian women for declining to make a cake for their same-sex “wedding” in 2014. “[G]iven BOLI’s detailed factual findings about the effect of […]
(Washington Post) — A Michigan woman will spend seven days in jail after she defied a judge’s order to have her 9-year-old son vaccinated. Rebecca Bredow was sentenced for contempt of court Wednesday, nearly a year after an Oakland County judge ordered her to have her son vaccinated. Bredow had been given until Wednesday to […]
(The Guardian) — Federal and state police will be given real-time access to passport, visa, citizenship and driver’s license images for a wide range of criminal investigations – not just identifying terrorism suspects – following agreement between federal, state and territory leaders. Malcolm Turnbull told reporters the facial biometric matching agreement signed off by the […]
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — A police detective in Utah is now under investigation after angrily arresting a nurse and dragging her screaming out of the hospital when she declined to allow him to withdraw blood from an unconscious crash victim without a warrant, as per the police department’s agreement with the hospital. According to […]
(Fox Business) — A Wisconsin tech company says they are about to become the first business in the U.S. to offer microchip implants to its employees. Three Square Market (32M), a River Falls-based software design company, says starting August 1st, it will be offering microchips to all their employees. The chips will be implanted underneath […]
(Washington Post) — Major technology companies and civil liberties groups have joined Facebook in a closed courtroom battle over secret government access to social media records. Facebook is fighting a court order that prohibits it from letting users know when law enforcement investigators ask to search their political communications — a ban that Facebook contends […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Democratic privacy advocate and libertarian-minded Republican are asking the nation’s top intelligence official to release more information about the communications of American citizens swept up in surveillance operations. The request by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky adds to a chorus of calls for […]
(Biometric Update) — Earlier this week, the Knesset passed the biometric database law in its second and third readings after all concerns were addressed and resolved, according to a report by Israel National News. The move comes a couple months after the Knesset extended Israel’s biometric database pilot program until February 28, in light that […]
(Orange County Register/Herald and News) — Our nation’s institutions of higher learning are supposed to be repositories of knowledge, enriched by the free flow of information and competition of ideas, but they are increasingly failing in this mission. Sadly, college campuses, which tend to embrace liberal ideologies, including tolerance, oftentimes are among the most intolerant […]