College Football Players Win Right to Unionize

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Justin Russell

Photo Credit: Justin Russell

Northwestern University’s football team has the right to form the first labor union in college sports, the National Labor Relations Board ruled Wednesday.

All scholarship players on the Evanston, Ill., school’s football team who have not exhausted their eligibility are “employees,” Peter Ohr, the NLRB regional director in Chicago, said in his ruling. He ordered an immediate election to create a union board.

Northwestern said it would appeal the local ruling to the full NLRB in Washington.

The 24-page decision has the potential to alter the landscape of college athletics, which generates more than $16 billion in television contracts and other forms of revenue. It comes as the NCAA is under attack in separate lawsuits from former athletes that challenge its authority.

“It’s a very significant move,” James Quinn, a senior partner at New York-based Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, said in a telephone interview. “Given all of the other pressures on the NCAA and member institutions, things are going to change.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Surprise! White House To Delay ‘Firm’ Obamacare Enrollment Deadline Past March 31

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: AFP

Photo Credit: AFP

Though the Obama administration repeatedly insisted that its March 31 enrollment deadline for Obamacare’s first year was “firm,” many observers predicted that the administration would combat lagging sales of health law-sponsored insurance plans by extending that deadline. Sure enough, on Tuesday night the White House indicated that it would be postponing that drop date in order to squeeze as many people as possible into the program.

Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post broke the story. Goldstein reports that the revised deadline “will apply to the federal exchanges operating in three dozen states” and extend for two to three weeks.

On the spectrum of things that the White House has pushed back or changed about Obamacare, this is a relative tweak. The original open enrollment period for the first year of Obamacare was set up to last for six months; instead it will last for 6.5 months. Unlike some of the clearly illegal extensions and delays that the White House has put forth, this one appears to be legal; the text of the Affordable Care Act doesn’t specify how long the open enrollment period should be, leaving that task to the regulators at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

CMS: ‘We don’t actually have the statutory authority’ to extend deadline

Read more from this story HERE.

Krauthammer: End to NSA’s Bulk Data Collection ‘A Calculated Risk’

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

By Fox News.

Charles Krauthammer told viewers Tuesday on “Special Report with Bret Baier” that “we are taking a calculated risk” when it comes to reports that President Obama is expected to call for an end to the NSA’s bulk data collection program.

“Look, I’m sympathetic to the idea that we have to find a compromise,” the syndicated columnist and Fox News contributor said. “I think it’s probably one you have to have given the mood of the country…but if we get a second attack, we’re going to go violently in the other direction.”

Read more from this story HERE.

______________________________________________________________________

NSA Chief: I’d Love 15 Minutes Alone With Snowden

By Greg Richter and Cathy Burke.

National Security Agency Director General Keith Alexander says that if he had 15 minutes alone with NSA leaker Edward Snowden, he’d make sure he knew how much damage Snowden has done to the United States and its allies.

“I’m not a violent person. I’m not going to try to beat him up or anything,” Alexander said Tuesday on “Special Report” on the Fox News Channel. “I am hugely disappointed that someone that signed a document that said I can be trusted with top-secret data couldn’t be,” he told host Brett Baier.

Alexander said he would tell Snowden, who is living under temporary political asylum in Russia, that he has been a “huge disappointment,” and might also tell him some of the classified problems he has caused so he knows “the significant damage to our nation and to our allies.”

Snowden has made some “huge mistakes” that “will haunt him for the rest of his life,” Alexander said.

Alexander, who leaves his post at the end of this week, said his agency knows what information Snowden was able to take via computer thumb drive. Some that he has not released would hurt military operations and could endanger lives, he said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Michelle: ‘There Were Actually Laws in America that Allowed Discrimination Against Black People Like Me’

/9 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Carolyn Kaster/APFirst Lady Michelle Obama talked about America as she visited a school today in China. She talked about the American dream:

And my story isn’t unusual in America. Some of our most famous athletes, like LeBron James, and artists, like the singer Janelle Monae, came from struggling families like mine, as do many business leaders — like Howard Schultz. He’s the head of a company called Starbucks, which many of you may have heard of. When Mr. Schultz was a boy his father lost his job, leaving their family destitute. But Mr. Schultz worked hard. He got a scholarship to a university, and eventually built the largest coffeehouse company in the world…

Read more from this story HERE.

Harry Reid Blames GOP for Helping Russia Invade Crimea

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP / Max VetrovSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Monday that Republicans may have helped Russia annex Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in a surprisingly sharp attack ahead of a test vote on a bill authorizing more U.S. sanctions on Russia and $1 billion in loan guarantees to Ukraine.

Outlining the Senate’s agenda after a one-week recess, the Nevada Democrat said the first item would be the Ukraine bill that Republicans blocked just before lawmakers went on break. He urged Republicans to consider “how their obstruction affects United States’ national security as well as the people of Ukraine” and said their delay of any congressional action “sent a dangerous message to Russian leaders.”

“Since a few Republicans blocked these important sanctions last work period, Russian lawmakers voted to annex Crimea and Russian forces have taken over Ukrainian military bases,” Reid said. “It’s impossible to know whether events would have unfolded differently if the United States had responded to Russian aggression with a strong, unified voice.”

Reid’s charge comes despite widespread support among Republicans and Democrats in Congress for providing Ukraine with much-needed economic assistance and hitting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government with sanctions.

And GOP Senate aides noted the House has passed different legislation, meaning the Senate bill could not have become law before recess anyhow. They blamed Reid and Democrats for blocking the Senate from taking up the House legislation.

Read more from this story HERE.

Illinois Democrat Under Investigation for Possession of Child Pornography (+video)

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: downtownelgin / Creative Commons An Illinois lawmaker who recently resigned his seat is under investigation for possession of child pornography.

Authorities from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations seized electronics from Keith Farnham’s state office last week and are seeking child pornography materials, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The warrant states they are searching for “documents in any format or medium pertaining to the possession, receipt, or distribution of child pornography,” the newspaper reported.

Read more from this story HERE.

Spyware App Turns the Privacy Tables on Google Glass Wearers

/0 Comments/in /by

Photo Credit: Naked SecurityCritics of Google Glass usually remark on how the device allows its owner to take photos and videos of other people without their knowledge or consent, which has contributed to some backlash, including bans on Glass in some establishments and an alleged assault on a Glass user.

But a spyware app developed by two researchers has shown that Google Glass can be used to secretly take photos of whatever a Glass wearer is looking at without their knowledge – making the Glass user the one whose privacy and security is potentially compromised.

The lens display usually lights up whenever Glass is in use, which is the only way to tell when Glass is on – other than witnessing voice and gesture commands used by the wearer such as “Okay Glass, take a photo.”

However, according to media reports, the app takes a photo every 10 seconds when the display is off, meaning the wearer (or anyone in view of the camera) is unaware that it’s recording.

The app can also access the internet from the user’s Glass connection to upload the images to a server.

Read more from this story HERE.

Connecticut in Turmoil as Gun Owners Demand Return of Rights

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Getty ImagesA Second Amendment fight is brewing in Connecticut over new legislation that turned tens of thousands of gun owners into potential felons.

The law, passed last April in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, put in place bans on magazines that carry more than 10 rounds of ammunition and on many types of weapons, including those that simply have the cosmetic appearance of assault weapons.

The law also requires residents to undergo mental and criminal background checks and to register certain types of guns with authorities.

The pro-gun group Connecticut Carry “calls on every state official, every senator, every representative to make the singular decision: Either enforce the laws as they are written and let us fight it out in court, or else repeal the 2013 gun ban in its entirety. We say: Bring it on,” the group said on its website in a memo intended to rally members.

A challenge to the law has already been shot down, although U.S. District Judge Alfred Covello acknowledged in his ruling that the text of the gun law was fuzzy and that legislators hadn’t written it “with the utmost clarity.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Group Rips Off Gadsden Flag in Pro-ObamaCare Bumper Sticker

/3 Comments/in , /by

A President Obama-aligned group trying to drum up enrollment for ObamaCare is giving away bumper stickers that spoof the Gadsden flag — a symbol informally adopted by the Tea Party movement and, for that reason, long derided by Democrats.

Photo Credit: OFA

The stickers are a marketing ploy by Organizing for Action, an advocacy group which helped Obama win reelection in 2012. The stickers feature a doctor’s stethoscope, instead of the coiled rattlesnake on the original golden-colored flag.

“This is for everyone who’s tired of hearing the other side talk smack about health care reform that is helping millions of Americans get affordable, quality care,” OFA Executive Director Jon Carson said in announcing the free stickers through Facebook…

Read more from this story HERE.

NYT Reporter: Obama Administration ‘The Greatest Enemy of Press Freedom’ in a Generation

/6 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: REUTERS/Jason ReedNew York Times reporter James Risen called the Obama administration “the greatest enemy of press freedom that we have encountered in at least a generation” on Friday, explaining that the White House seeks to control the flow of information and those who refuse to play along “will be punished.”

Poynter reports that Risen made the remarks while speaking at Sources and Secrets conference — a meeting of journalism , communication and government professionals held in New York City. The foreign policy reporter, who is currently fighting a fierce court battle with the federal government over his protection of a confidential source, warned that press freedom is under serious attack in today’s America.

In a speech kicking off the conference, Risen claimed that the Obama administration wants to “narrow the field of national security reporting” and “create a path for accepted reporting.” Those who stray from that path, he cautioned, “will be punished.”

Read more from this story HERE.