HHS Looking for Hookah Smoking Machine
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is interested in buying a “Shisa smoke machine.” The National Cancer Institute (NCI) will use it for studies that compare hookah and cigarette smoke.
Entries by Joe Miller
Feds Upset Over Release of Mexican Drug Lord who Ordered DEA Agent’s Killing (+video)
A Mexican court’s releasing of a drug lord who killed a Drug Enforcement Administration agent in the 1980s is sparking outrage this weekend among U.S. law enforcement officials.
Conoco-Phillips Plans New Well in Alaska National Petroleum Reserve
ConocoPhillips has applied for permits to develop a new field in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, a vast unit of federal land that has yet to yield commercially produced oil, according to the federal agency managing the reserve.
Encrypted Email Service Refuses ‘to Become Complicit in Crimes Against the American People’; Can Never Be Safe From NSA Snooping (+video)
Lavabit owner,Ladar Levison, had promised that it would be an “e-mail service that never sacrifices privacy for profits” and “only release private information if legally compelled by the courts in accordance with the U.S. Constitution.” The service backed up those claims by storing only encrypted versions of emails on its servers, which could only then be decrypted using a user’s passphrase, which the service didn’t store.
Food-Stamp Use Rises; Some 15% Get Benefits; Many Game System (+video)
The number of recipients in the food stamp program, formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), is at 47.6 million, or nearly one in six Americans.
NSA Scandal Sparks Hacker Rebellion
The result is that U.S. efforts to recruit hackers may have taken a substantial blow, and Moody suggests it may now be much harder to “keep up the pace of technological development within the spying program.”
DOJ Memo Asserts that All US Phone Calls Are ‘Relevant’ to Terrorism
The Justice Department on Friday released its legal rationale for why all U.S. phone calls are “relevant” to terrorism investigations.
Reid on Immigration Reform: ‘If We Go to Conference, We Will Win’
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Friday that if House Republicans end up sending their collection of immigration bills to a conference with the Senate, Democrats and illegal immigration advocates would win.
‘Mother F***er Racist Sons of B**ches From Hell’: Wedding Venue Gets Threats, Fears Shut Down After Refusing Gay Couple’s Nuptials
Another business is facing retribution for declining service to a same-sex couple. Betty and Dick Odgaard, owners of Görtz Haus Gallery in Grimes, Iowa, are catching the ire of gay rights advocates after they declined offering their venue to Lee Stafford and his fiance Jared.
Darrell Issa Subpoenas Treasury Department Over Auto Bailout Documents
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., sent a subpoena today to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew regarding the 2009 taxpayer-funded $50 billion bailout of General Motors.