Tech

State Politics < Politics < News Next Story > Dome: UNC leader Tom Ross lambasts bill allowing guns on campus NC NAACP president, 16 other protestors arrested outside NC Senate

(Raleigh News & Observer) In the strongest statement so far against the Republican legislature, a group of 50 protestors marched into the legislative building Monday and blocked the tall gilded doors to the N.C. Senate chamber in an act of civil disobedience that led to 17 arrests.

N.C. NAACP President William Barber led the protest, standing in the rotunda on the second floor to read an indictment against the Republican-led legislature for denying Medicaid coverage to as many as 500,000 poor people, cutting unemployment benefits and proposing legislation to divert money from public education and require a voter ID at the polls.

Barber said the preponderance of actions from the GOP lawmakers demanded a strong statement. “There must be a witness in the face of extremism and regressive public policy,” Barber said, calling Gov. Pat McCrory and legislative leaders this generation’s “George Wallaces.”

Read the rest HERE!

Millions of middle-class jobs lost to technology

(Blue Ridge Now) Five years after the start of the Great Recession, the toll is terrifyingly clear: Millions of middle-class jobs have been lost in developed countries the world over.

And the situation is even worse than it appears.

Most of the jobs will never return, and millions more are likely to vanish as well, say experts who study the labor market. What’s more, these jobs aren’t just being lost to China and other developing countries, and they aren’t just factory work. Increasingly, jobs are disappearing in the service sector, home to two-thirds of all workers.

They’re being obliterated by technology.

Year after year, the software that runs computers and an array of other machines and devices becomes more sophisticated and powerful and capable of doing more efficiently tasks that humans have always done. For decades, science fiction warned of a future when we would be architects of our own obsolescence, replaced by our machines; an Associated Press analysis finds that the future has arrived.

Read the rest HERE!

New governor launches state tour in Asheville, visits Charlotte on Wednesday

(Carolina public Press) With the Blue Ridge mountains as a backdrop, new North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory kicked off a statewide tour Monday, pledging to “listen and learn” – and then get to work.

McCrory made his first appearance outside Raleigh as governor before more than 300 people gathered in a mountainside pavilion. It was the first stop of a tour that will take him to Greensboro and New Bern on Tuesday and Charlotte on Wednesday.

“What we want to do this week is visit the rest of the state and listen and learn,” he announced. “This is not just to have a speech; it’s to have a dialogue.”

McCrory, Charlotte’s former mayor, was sworn in Saturday. He’ll deliver his inaugural address this Saturday, capping a weekend of balls and a parade.

Read the rest HERE!

U.N. Conference Slyly Introduces Resolution to Gain Control of Internet—in Middle of Night

(The Weekly Standard) In the middle of the night at a U.N. conference in Dubai, the presiding chairman of the International Telecommunication Union conference surveyed the assembled countries to see whether there was interest in having greater involvement in the U.N. governing the Internet. A majority of countries gave their approval.

With a sufficient majority supporting the U.N. becoming more active in controlling the Internet, the chairman put forth a resolution. The chairman, though, insisted the survey “was not a vote.”

The resolution was supported by Cuba, Algeria, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia; the United States opposed it.

The proposed resolution resolves that the secretary general of the U.N. “continue to take the necessary steps for ITU to play an active and constructive role in the multi-stakeholder model of the Internet,” according to a draft of the text.

“While it is our understanding that the resolutions made at the WCIT are non-binding, the Secretary-General might treat them as binding, which effectively creates a dangerous mandate for the ITU to continue to hold discussions about internet policy into the future,” accessnow.org writes, responding to this proposed text.

Read the rest HERE!

Feds pick NC ocean waters for offshore wind farms

(Raleigh News Observer) The U.S. Department of Interior identified a combined sector that’s larger than any such previously designated for hosting the 400-foot turbines. Two of the maritime blocks are between Myrtle Beach and Wilmington, while one lies beyond the Outer Banks, across from Kitty Hawk, Nags Head and Manteo.

A host of developers are expected to express interest, setting the stage for a federal lease auction as early as next year to allow projects to move forward. North Carolina’s ocean waters are considered to have some of the best wind resources along the East Coast. What’s more, the offshore areas picked by the feds have the advantage of being near populated regions with existing transmission capacity and other infrastructure needed to move gigawatts of electricity onto the power grid.

But offshore wind energy remains among the most expensive forms of electricity today, and building a wind farm in the sea has proven an elusive goal in this country. The industry is still distrusted by some as a subsidy-dependent boondoggle, even though advocates depict wind energy as a clean and safe alternative to mining, fracking, energy imports and nuclear waste.

An offshore wind farm long planned in Nantucket Sound off Cape Cod in Massachusetts is tied up in legal challenges, while plans to build one in Delaware waters fell through in recent weeks because of the likely expiration of federal tax incentives for these multibillion dollar projects.

Read the rest HERE!

Star Trek Into Darkness – Extra Footage Japanese Teaser

NC law enforcement want your text messages stored

(MyFox8.com) Associations representing law enforcement and the North Carolina SBI are pushing congress to force wireless companies to store your text messages.

The groups want wireless companies to store your text messages for up to two years so they can pull your records in case you are suspected or accused of a crime.

According to the ACLU, most of the major wireless companies don’t store text messages. While law enforcement say it will help in solving crimes, privacy groups say the government would be going too far.

“I just think that’s more government control, its big brother,” said Leslie Brown of Winston-Salem. “One more step into just total control into our lives.”

If approved, law enforcement would still be required to obtain a court order to retrieve text messages. Privacy groups also point out that, if approved, wireless companies could pass the cost of saving text messages on to its customers.

Read the rest HERE!

U.N. to Seek Control of the Internet

(The Weekly Standard) Next week the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union will meet in Dubai to figure out how to control the Internet. Representatives from 193 nations will attend the nearly two week long meeting, according to news reports.

“Next week the ITU holds a negotiating conference in Dubai, and past months have brought many leaks of proposals for a new treaty. U.S. congressional resolutions and much of the commentary, including in this column, have focused on proposals by authoritarian governments to censor the Internet. Just as objectionable are proposals that ignore how the Internet works, threatening its smooth and open operations,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

“Having the Internet rewired by bureaucrats would be like handing a Stradivarius to a gorilla. The Internet is made up of 40,000 networks that interconnect among 425,000 global routes, cheaply and efficiently delivering messages and other digital content among more than two billion people around the world, with some 500,000 new users a day.

Read the rest HERE!

Clear Channel quietly prunes scores of staff as debt cliff induced by Bain Capital buyout nears

(Toledo Blade) Last week’s exit of controversial WSPD-AM 1370 talk-radio host Brian Wilson follows a yearlong pattern of dismissals, layoffs, and corporate maneuvering by Clear Channel Communications Inc. that has sent scores of people to the unemployment line.

Clear Channel, the largest radio station operator in the country, is partially owned by Bain Capital, which is the company founded and previously run by former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Debt-ridden Clear Channel, headquartered in San Antonio, has been quietly pruning its corporate structure since late 2011.

On-air talent and behind-the-scenes employees have been shown the door or programming has been eliminated in markets that include Los Angeles, Boston, Tampa, San Diego, Madison, Wis., Springfield, Mo., Oklahoma City, Nashville, and, most recently, Toledo.

“Obviously they are trying to pay down their monster debt with Bain Capital,” said Tommy Butter, who was laid off from top-40 station WRVW-FM in Nashville in March. “Obviously, they are trying to fire their way to pay that debt down.”

Mr. Butter declined to give his legal last name to The Blade, and uses “Butter” as his radio name.

Since last year, Clear Channel hasn’t announced widespread layoffs or cuts, despite the steady stream of departures.

Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners, two private-equity firms, finalized their $26.7 billion purchase of Clear Channel in July, 2008, loading the company with debt. According to Clear Channel’s Nov. 2 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company had $16.4 billion in debt.

Read the rest HERE!

Texas School District Reportedly Threatening Students Who Refuse Tracking ID, Can’t Vote For Homecoming

(Huffington Post) Weeks after Northside Independent School District in San Antonio rolled out its new “smart” IDs that tracks students’ geographic locations, the community is still at odds with the program.

The “Student Locator Project,” which is slated to eventually reach 112 Texas schools and close to 100,000 students, is in trial stages in two Northside district schools. In an effort to reduce truancy, the district has issued new student IDs with an embedded radio-frequency identification (RFID) chip that tracks the location of a student at all times.

The program officially launched October 1 at John Jay High School and Anson Jones Middle School. Without the badges — required to be worn around the neck — students cannot access common areas like the cafeteria or library, and cannot purchase tickets to extracurricular activities. WND reports that the district has threatened to suspend, fine or involuntarily transfer students who fail to comply and officials have noted that “there will be consequences for refusal to wear an ID card as we begin to move forward with full implementation.”

Parents and students from the schools spoke out against the project last month. But now, WND is reporting that schools are taking the restrictions one step further.

Read the rest HERE!

Palm Scanners To Pay For School Lunch At Moss Bluff Elementary Has Parents Up In Arms, Call It ‘Mark Of The Beast’

(Huffington Post) KPLC 7 News, Lake Charles, Louisiana

Moss Bluff Elementary School in Louisiana is looking to streamline lunch payments by implementing a palm vein scanner program, but some parents aren’t pleased.

A letter to parents this week informed them of the new scanner that will allow the school’s nearly 1,000 students to move through the lunch line faster and with fewer payment mistakes — an issue that had arisen in the past, KPLC-TV reports.

While the letter notes that parents can opt their children out of the program, parent Mamie Sonnier told KPLC-TV that she was angry and disappointed by the program, as the scanner violates her beliefs. She contends that if the scanners actually make it to the school cafeteria, she’ll be transferring her kids to another school.

“As a Christian, I’ve read the Bible, you know go to church and stuff,” Sonnier said. “I know where it’s going to end up coming to, the mark of the beast. I’m not going to let my kids have that.”

Read the rest HERE!

Cellphone GPS tracking helps police, raises issues

(The Tennessean) The feds knew exactly where Trenton Rhodes was going.

As the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration tracked an interstate marijuana trafficking ring, agents watched as Rhodes went from Nashville to Humboldt County, Calif., an area they called the “marijuana cultivation capitol of California,” according to a federal search warrant.

They could do it because of what was in Rhodes’ pocket: a cellphone.

Police are increasingly tracking people’s movements by tapping into GPS technology in modern cellphones, allowing authorities to watch a person’s movement in real time or to follow his or her tracks. But a battle looms between public safety and privacy rights as challenges wend their way through the U.S. court system. Most recently, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that police didn’t need a warrant to track a Knoxville suspect’s movement through his cellphone in a drug investigation.

Read the rest HERE!

1.9 Billion Digits: Brazil’s Bid For Biometric Voting

(Brazil Mag) Brazilian have been using electronic voting machines for 15 years. The process has been streamlined and improved over the years. The system is centralized in the Federal Electoral Court (Tribunal Superior Eleitoral – TSE), which makes the hardware and the software, designs the security architecture, as well as controlling the voting and tallying election results.

So, for example, this past Sunday, in the runoff elections, a total of 400,000 voting machines were used. 1,609 of them presented problems or 0.402% of them. Most of the equipment was simply substituted; it was reported that in three precincts it was necessary for votes to be marked on paper ballots.

Meanwhile, a total of 1.1 million voters participated in a pilot program testing biometric voting machines that recognize voters by their fingerprints.

Read the rest HERE!

Report: Bank of America cutting 16,000 jobs by year’s end

(Charlotte Observer) Bank of America intends to cut 16,000 jobs companywide by year’s end as part of its ongoing efforts to trim expenses, The Wall Street Journal reported on its website late Wednesday.

The newspaper, citing sources familiar with a document given to top management, said the Charlotte-based bank has set a target head count of 260,000 by year’s end. That scenario means the company would lose its position as the largest employer in U.S. banking, the newspaper said.

Bank of America officials did not immediately return calls Wednesday night.

Cuts include 5,300 consumer-banking jobs and 3,200 in the unit that oversees new mortgages, the newspaper said. Additional reductions are expected in a unit that handles troubles loans.

Read the rest HERE!

Can a school get your kid’s Facebook password? Judge says no

(GigaOm) How far can a school go in punishing students for what they do on Facebook? One Minnesota middle school crossed the line, leading a federal judge to say it violated one girl’s basic rights.

The case involves a 12-year-old girl who used Facebook to diss the hall monitor, writing “[I hate] a Kathy person at school because [Kathy] was mean to me.” She also used the social network to talk about “naughty things” with a boy. When one of her “friends” ratted on her, the girl wrote on her Facebook wall, “I want to know who the f%$# told on me.”

Three school officials, including a counselor and a taser-wearing cop, came down hard. They interrogated her in an office and badgered the sobbing girl until she handed over her passwords. They proceeded to go through her Facebook and email accounts to find the “naughty” discussion she had with the boy.

Now, the school is in hot water. U.S. District Judge Michael Davis ruled that the school appears to have violated the girl’s free speech and privacy rights. He wrote:

Read the rest HERE!