10 July 20
Reader Supported News is surviving and maintaining services in the most challenging fundraising environment our organization has ever seen. But just barely. Today we ask for the support of all RSN readers who can afford to give. This will be a good fund-raiser.
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Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
Founder, Reader Supported News
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09 July 20
Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders greet the audience before the June 27 Democratic debate in Miami. (photo: Brynn Anderson/AP)
Bernie Sanders, Bernie Sanders' Facebook Page
Sanders writes: "While Joe Biden and I, and our supporters, have strong disagreements about some of the most important issues facing our country, we also understand that we must come together in order to defeat Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in modern American history."
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Officers armed with batons clear Seattle's Cal Anderson Park. (photo: AP)
I Was Arrested, Jailed and Assaulted by a Guard. My 'Crime'? Being a Journalist in Trump's America
Andrew Buncombe, The Independent
Buncombe writes: "Seattle's protesters existed in an uneasy half-life, partly tolerated by a mayor keen to avoid more violence, and despised by those who thought the police had been wrong to abandon the area. Then, on July 1, the city decided the experiment was over. It was time to clear the protesters."
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Andrew Buncombe, The Independent
Buncombe writes: "Seattle's protesters existed in an uneasy half-life, partly tolerated by a mayor keen to avoid more violence, and despised by those who thought the police had been wrong to abandon the area. Then, on July 1, the city decided the experiment was over. It was time to clear the protesters."
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Supreme Court. (photo: AP)
Supreme Court Rules Nearly Half of Oklahoma Is Indian Reservation
Richard Wolf and Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
Excerpt: "The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the eastern half of Oklahoma can be considered Native American territory, a decision the state warned could create 'civil, criminal and regulatory turmoil.'"
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Richard Wolf and Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
Excerpt: "The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the eastern half of Oklahoma can be considered Native American territory, a decision the state warned could create 'civil, criminal and regulatory turmoil.'"
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New York Police officer. (photo: Getty)
Germany Shuts Down Server Hosting #BlueLeaks at the Request of Trump Administration
Frank Bajak, Associated Press
Bajak writes: "At the behest of the U.S. government, German authorities have seized a computer server that hosted a huge cache of files from scores of U.S. federal, state and local law enforcement agencies obtained in a Houston data breach last month."
Frank Bajak, Associated Press
Bajak writes: "At the behest of the U.S. government, German authorities have seized a computer server that hosted a huge cache of files from scores of U.S. federal, state and local law enforcement agencies obtained in a Houston data breach last month."
The server was being used by a WikiLeaks-like data transparency collective called Distributed Denial of Secrets to share documents — many tagged “For Official Use Only” — that shed light on U.S. police practices.
The data, dating back to 1996, include emails, audio and video files and police and FBI intelligence reports. DDoSecrets founder Emma Best said the data, dubbed “BlueLeaks,” comes from more than 200 agencies. It has been stripped of references to sexual assault cases and references to children but names, phone numbers and emails of police officers were not redacted, said Best, who uses they/their pronouns.
Best said that DDoSecrets obtained the data from an outside individual who sympathized with nationwide protests against police killings of unarmed Black people. Some of the files offer insights into the police response to those protests, they said.
While hacking into computers and stealing data is a federal crime, U.S. courts have consistently ruled that journalists may publish stolen documents as long as they are not involved in their theft. DDoSecrets says it is a journalistic organization that shares documents in the public interest, as WikiLeaks did before being exploited by Russian agents to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.
The documents came to light via a breach of Houston web-design company Netsential, which hosts portals for law enforcement agencies and “fusion centers,” state-run operations created after the 9/11 attacks to share threat intelligence with local and state police and private-sector partners.
The prosecutor’s office in Zwickau, a German city near the Czech border, said in an emailed statement Wednesday that the server was confiscated July 3 in the town of Falkenstein following a request from U.S. authorities.
The FBI declined to comment. A U.S. Embassy spokesperson in Berlin did not respond to phone calls and emails seeking comment.
The Zwickau prosecutors’ statement said it would be up to German judicial authorities to decide whether to hand the server over to U.S. authorities. It said it would not disclose the reason for the U.S. request. Neither would a representative of Hetzner Online, the company that hosted the server.
Best said they assume the seizure was related to the posting of the BlueLeaks documents. They said the files show “a lot of things that are entirely legal and normal and horrifying,” including police surveillance and police intelligence of dubious origin. Best said none were classified.
The document dump helps expose “the United States’ overdeveloped police intelligence apparatus,” said Brendan McQuade, a criminology professor at the University of Southern Maine who has viewed the documents. The files do not include high-level intelligence but provide a window into the relationship between law enforcement at all levels, he said — one that he believes the FBI doesn’t want the public to see lest it ”add more fuel to the protests” against police brutality and racism in policing.
Best said the files remain publicly accessible through more complicated means such as BitTorrent and the Tor network, both of which complicate censorship efforts. Best said the organization is now rebuilding its infrastructure for public access. “All they cost us is time,” they said.
Shortly after DDoSecrets posted the data, Twitter permanently suspended the organization’s account for publishing links and images from the collection, citing a ban on the posting of hacked material.
One U.S. law enforcement agency affected by the breach is the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy. Its director, Judy Bradshaw, told The Associated Press the breach revealed names of students in academy courses and their drivers licenses, but no financial information.
She said Netsential had scores of clients in law enforcement, where it was a strong niche provider. Netsential itself confirmed the breach in an undated statement on its bare-bones website and said it was assisting the investigation but would provide no further information “due to the sensitivity of client information.”
Executives of the National Fusion Centers Association did not respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment on whether any sensitive investigations may have been compromised by the breach. But Maine State Police said in a statement on June 26 that the FBI was investigating and that affected bulletins may “contain identifying information, such as full name and date of birth of people under investigation by other law enforcement agencies.” It said they “may also involve individuals wanted for criminal activity.”
DDoSecrets was created in late 2018 by Best, a journalist specializing in freedom-of-information petitions. It has worked on various investigations with established media organizations including the German newsmagazine Der Spiegel and the U.S. news organization McClatchy.
Previous DDoSecrets releases include data on offshore Bahamas accounts used as tax havens, files hacked from Chilean police and data from a British provider of offshore financial services that has drawn comparisons, on a smaller scale, to the 2016 Panama Papers leak.
The National Football League did not support (from left) Eli Harold, Colin Kaepernick, Eric Reid and other players who kneeled during the playing of the national anthem in 2016 to protest racial injustice. (photo: Mario Jose Sanchez/AP)
Donté Stallworth | I Played in the NFL. It Needs Way More Than a Black Anthem.
Donté Stallworth, The New York Times
Stallworth writes: "In response to the Black Lives Matter protests, the N.F.L. has decided to play 'Lift Every Voice and Sing,' known as the Black national anthem, in Week 1 of its coming season. As a former N.F.L. player, my initial reaction was: Why?"
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Donté Stallworth, The New York Times
Stallworth writes: "In response to the Black Lives Matter protests, the N.F.L. has decided to play 'Lift Every Voice and Sing,' known as the Black national anthem, in Week 1 of its coming season. As a former N.F.L. player, my initial reaction was: Why?"
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The Health Ministry ordered that 'mild cases' be discharged to enable beds for new COVID-19 patients. (photo: Prensa Latina)
Bolivia's Crisis: Hospital Will No Longer Receive Patients
teleSUR
Excerpt: "La Paz City's Obrero Hospital director Raul Villanueva Wednesday confirmed that his institution will no longer receive COVID-19 patients because its ability to offer services has collapsed."
teleSUR
Excerpt: "La Paz City's Obrero Hospital director Raul Villanueva Wednesday confirmed that his institution will no longer receive COVID-19 patients because its ability to offer services has collapsed."
There is no more capacity. The coronavirus patients area is collapsed. We have 80 people there,” Villanueva told local outlet Pagina Siete.
"We don't have enough reagents. We do not have human resources because some of our staff got sick. We do not have oxygen and there is no space to attend to patients with respiratory pathologies,” he added.
The case of the Obrero hospital, however, is not the only one in this Andean country. To enable beds for new patients, Bolivia's Health Ministry ordered that COVID-19 isolation or recovery centers discharge patients who have not presented clinical symptoms and patients who have been admitted with the "mild cases" criteria.
"These patients must remain in their homes for an observation period until the corresponding laboratory tests are done," the Health Ministry ordered.
La Paz City Mayor Luis Revilla warned that Cotahuma and La Portada hospitals, which have been enabled to care for patients with COVID-19, are already full. To illustrate his city's dire situation, he also mentioned that 300 patients are hospitalized at the Real Plaza Hotel.
In the last 24 hours, Bolivia again set a daily record of infections with 1,439 COVID-19 patients. In this week, the coup-born regime led by Jeanine Añez could not implement forceful measures to fight the pandemic, which even affected its Health Minister Eidy Roca.
In the country's most populous cities such as Santa Cruz, El Alto, and Cochabamba, hospitals and other health centers do not have the conditions to continue serving COVID-19 patients and warned that they will be forced to close or limit their services to emergency care.
In Cochabamba, the situation is dramatic as there are cases of people who die on the street and of families who must wait days to bury or incinerate the dead.
As of Thursday morning, Bolivia had reported 42,984 COVID-19 cases and 1,577 deaths.
A grizzly bear cub in Yellowstone National Park. (photo: Alan Rogers/AP)
Victory for Yellowstone's Grizzly Bears as Court Rules They Cannot Be Hunted
Todd Wilkinson, Guardian UK
Wilkinson writes: "In a stunning victory for wildlife conservationists and indigenous tribes - and for bears - a US court ruled on Wednesday that grizzly bears living in the vast Yellowstone ecosystem will remain federally protected and not be subjected to sport hunting."
Todd Wilkinson, Guardian UK
Wilkinson writes: "In a stunning victory for wildlife conservationists and indigenous tribes - and for bears - a US court ruled on Wednesday that grizzly bears living in the vast Yellowstone ecosystem will remain federally protected and not be subjected to sport hunting."
The US Fish and Wildlife Service had sought to strip Yellowstone-area grizzlies of safeguards conferred by the Endangered Species Act. This would have allowed the states of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho to permit a limited number of people to obtain hunting licenses, though sport hunting would have remained prohibited within Yellowstone itself.
“We applaud the decision of the 9th circuit court – a triumph of science over politics – in ensuring that Yellowstone grizzly bears are allowed to truly recover and thrive,” said Sarah McMillan, conservation director for WildEarth Guardians.
WildEarth Guardians was among eight environmental groups, citizens and tribal entities that sued to have the highest level of species protection restored to grizzlies, on the basis that the bears’ recovery had not been assured.
The Greater Yellowstone population of bears is not only globally renowned and the focus of a robust nature-tourism industry, but synonymous with the wild character of Yellowstone, the world’s first national park.
The number of bears in the region has rebounded from about 140 in the 1970s to more than 700 today, and grizzlies have expanded their range to places where they haven’t been in 100 years. Their comeback is considered one of the greatest successes in conservation history.
Both the states and sportsmen’s groups contend that hunting is therefore on the table. “The grizzly population has more than recovered,” says Tex Janecek, outgoing president of the Montana state chapter of Safari Club International. “We should be having a hunting season and the states should be regulating it. Bears are ranging far beyond the greater Yellowstone region and they are getting in trouble with livestock and putting people at risk. Hunting can be an effective tool.”
Tim Preso of the environmental law firm EarthJustice, who argued the case on behalf of conservation groups and Native American clients, said the federal government and states have been managing grizzlies effectively for more than four decades without needing to enlist hunters to remove bears that get into conflict with people.
Currently there are about 2,000 grizzlies in the lower 48, a mere fraction of the 50,000 that historically existed south of Canada. They exist today in five separate “island” populations, all disconnected from each other.
Conservationists argue that true recovery means linking bears in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem to bear inhabiting the so-called northern continental divide ecosystem, along the US border with Canada.
The fate of the grizzly population has hung in the balance for several years. In 2018, a federal judge halted plans by Wyoming to commence its first trophy hunt of grizzlies in 44 years only hours before the first hunters went afield.
This year a half dozen people have been injured by grizzlies in the greater Yellowstone area, none fatally, and nearly every instance has involved a hiker or mountain biker surprising a bear.
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