State-Sponsored Surveillance & Looser Leisure Laws
January 19, 2023
Law Enforcement’s Dirty Database Secret
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden has asked the Justice Department to conduct a deeper investigation into his findings that hundreds of law enforcement agencies at the federal, state, and local levels have been accessing a database of over 150 million domestic and international money transfers. Typically, law enforcement agencies require court oversight to access personal information like bank records or emails, predicated on the records being relevant to an investigation into a person and usually requiring a subpoena or warrant to be secured. In this case, agencies were able to access people’s personal info at will.
The financial data is stored at a nonprofit called Transaction Record Analysis Center (TRAC). TRAC was set up in 2014 by the Arizona state attorney general’s office as part of an effort to curb the movement of drugs across the state’s Mexican border. The database takes information from financial services companies like Western Union, MoneyGram, DolEx, and Euronet, allowing agencies access to full names of senders and recipients, as well as transaction amounts. Western Union and MoneyGram do not notify customers that their information will be available to law enforcement agencies.
Wyden says TRAC allows law enforcement to “serve itself an all-you-can-eat buffet of Americans’ personal financial data while bypassing the normal protections for Americans’ privacy.” Over 600 law-enforcement entities have access to the database, from the FBI to small-town police departments.
According to the senator’s office, last year a sub-unit of the Department of Homeland Security issued a type of subpoena to access millions of money transfer records between residents of Mexico and the U.S. “This unorthodox arrangement between state law enforcement, DHS, and DOJ agencies to collect bulk money-transfer data raises a number of concerns about surveillance disproportionately affecting low-income, minority, and immigrant communities,” his letter to the Justice Department read. The database also allows users to search for people with terms like “Middle Eastern/Arabic names.”
Good News
- Columbia University names economist Nemat Shafik as first woman president (Reuters)
- Nobel laureate Maria Ressa cleared by Philippine court of tax evasion (CNN)
- Qantas plane lands safely after mayday call over Pacific (NBC)
Striking The Power Of The Powerful
- French workers are getting ready for a tough fight over the country’s pension system. A bill proposed last week would change France’s retirement age from 62 to 64, a move opposed by a majority of workers, who are already struggling to make ends meet. In order to fight the bill, workers have organized massive strikes, with one union even threatening to cut off lawmakers and billionaires from electricity supplies.
- Strikes are expected to begin today, spanning the transport, education, and energy sectors. Marches are also scheduled for major cities across the country, including Paris. While the pension changes are an unpopular move, unions might have a hard time getting people to strike – in recent years, they’ve failed to convert public anger into the massive social movements the French are known for.
- Philippe Martinez, leader of France’s second-largest trade union, called for workers to target the electricity supplies of the nation’s elite. “I suggest they also go see the nice properties, the nice castles of billionaires,” he said in an interview Wednesday. “It would be good if we cut off their electricity so that they can put themselves, for a few days, in the shoes of … French people who can’t afford to pay their bill.” A government official called the threats “unacceptable,” but he’s not exactly the most unbiased party.
Helicopter Hardship
- A helicopter carrying the entire leadership team of Ukraine’s interior ministry crashed near a kindergarten in the region of Kyiv on Wednesday, killing at least 14 people, including a child, and injuring 14 adults and 11 children. Besides the helicopter’s three crew members, six Ukrainian politicians died in the accident, including the Interior Minister, First Deputy Minister, and State Secretary. The death of Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky marks the highest-profile Ukrainian casualty since Russia’s invasion began.
- Ukraine has not officially announced a cause for the crash. When asked why a country at war had so many leaders aboard the same helicopter, government advisor Anton Gerashchenko said, “I think this bloody lesson will be a clear example for us that such high politicians and ministers cannot travel altogether.”
- According to multiple sources, local weather at the time of the flight was not ideal. CNN reported “grey skies and low visibility” in Kyiv on Wednesday. “It was very foggy and there was no electricity, and when there’s no electricity there are no lights on the buildings,” said a Kyiv local. The crash came at a key point in the war, with Russian forces bombarding infrastructure and civilians alike in recent weeks.
Additional World News
- Belarus’ opposition leader denounces her trial as a farce (AP)
- Can EU anger at Biden’s ‘protectionist’ green deal translate into effective action? (Guardian)
- Alvin Chau: Macau gambling kingpin jailed for 18 years (BBC)
- Church of England refuses to back same-sex marriage (ABC)
- Iranian man who beheaded 17-year-old wife jailed for eight years (BBC)
- Chinese who lost relatives to COVID angry at failure to protect elderly (Reuters)
- As its only remaining elected officials depart, Haiti reaches a breaking point (NPR)
- Twitter ‘verified’ check marks bought by Taliban appear to have been removed (Guardian)
“The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.” – Aldous Huxley
One For The Books
- The GOP-dominated state House Judiciary Committee in North Dakota began considering a law on Tuesday that would ban books containing “sexually explicit” content, which would include depictions of sexual or gender identity. So far, the committee has only heard arguments but has not held a vote.
- The measure will apply to visual depictions of “sexually explicit” content. Librarians who refuse to remove the offending books face up to 30 days in prison. Republicans have led the charge to have books containing depictions of LGBTQ+ relationships removed, but thus far, the laws have focused on school libraries.
- Critics say the ban amounts to government censorship, banning content that isn’t actually harmful. House Majority Leader Mike Lefor, a supporter of the bill, claimed (without evidence) that children being introduced to such horrifying concepts as gender fluidity could lead to addiction, self-esteem issues, divorce, and more.
Pursuit Of Power Plants
- Energy officials announced that another power substation in North Carolina was damaged by gunfire this week. This attack took place at a power substation in Thomasville, and officials found a transformer had been damaged. Luckily, EnergyUnited said none of their customers experienced an outage.
- Thomasville is about an hour away from Moore County, where two power substations were damaged in early December by gunfire – that instance left tens of thousands of people without power. Those, and this most recent incident, have yet to be solved by police.
Additional USA News
- Ron DeSantis proposes policy permanently banning Covid-19 vaccine and mask requirements and other pandemic mitigation measures in Florida (CNN)
- Suspect who allegedly tried to abduct barista through drive-thru window arrested (ABC)
- Girl, 13, leads Nebraska troopers on 100-mph chase with boy, 11, in the passenger seat, officials say (NBC)
- An Army lieutenant pepper-sprayed by Virginia police during a traffic stop was awarded $3,600 (CNN)
- Derek Chauvin’s lawyer is expected to ask a court to throw out his murder convictions (NPR)
- U.S. Supreme Court mulls Turkish lender Halkbank’s bid to avoid charges (Reuters)
- Texas Gov. Greg Abbott previews push for school choice and property tax cuts in third inaugural address (CNN)
- Michael Cohen, Trump’s former “fixer,” meets with Manhattan D.A. investigators (CBS)
Everybody Cut Loose
- Sweden is looking to brighten up its long gray winters with a bit of dancing. The country’s center-right government has announced that it wants to lift a law requiring restaurants, nightclubs, and other happy places to apply for permits if they want to allow their patrons to dance.
- On Thursday, the coalition government proposed changes allowing venues to simply register with police if they want to hold dances, instead of going through more complex licensing procedures. Registering with police can be done verbally, and can be done for free, while current dancing licenses cost 700 kroner ($67). Previously, venues could lose liquor and business licenses if their patrons were caught shimmying with no permission to dance.
- “It is not reasonable for the state to regulate people’s dance,” said Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer. “By removing the requirement for a dance permit, we also reduce bureaucracy and costs for entrepreneurs and others who organize dances.” The Swedish parliament voted unanimously to remove the dance-permitting law, but the rule has somehow survived for the last 20 years.
Additional Reads
- Art professor sues after firing over Prophet Muhammad images (AP)
- No jail time for bowhunting couple Josh and Sarah Bowmar in poaching case (CBS)
- Fisherman missing after going overboard while hooking ‘huge’ tuna on fishing trip (ABC)
- The world’s oldest person, Sister André of France, dies at age 118 (NPR)
- What’s behind Canada’s drastic new alcohol guidance (BBC)
- Getty Images is suing the creators of AI art tool Stable Diffusion for scraping its content (The Verge)
- Atmospheric dust may have hidden true extent of global heating (Guardian)