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Daily Archives: April 6, 2017

Trump Can Pull Money From His Businesses Whenever He Wants

ProPublica: “Update, April 4, 2017: In an interview with ProPublica, Trump Organization attorney Alan Garten confirmed that President Trump can withdraw profits and underlying assets from his trust at any time. He also said the president has been able to withdraw money since Trump took office on Jan. 20. That language was not included in a Jan. 26 summary of the trust — what’s known as a trust certification — but was included in a Feb. 10 version of the document. Asked about the change, Garten said the Trump Organization prepares different versions of the summaries to “highlight different things for different people.” The full details of the trust are in what’s known as a trust agreement, which Garten said the Trump Organization will not release. He referred further questions about release of the trust agreement to the law firm of Morgan Lewis, which did not respond to a ProPublica request for comment. We have updated the story’s headline to reflect Garten’s comments…”

The Four Flavors of Automated License Plate Reader Technology

EFF – “Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) may be the most common mass surveillance technology in use by local law enforcement around the country—but they’re not always used in the same way.  Typically, ALPR systems are comprised of high-speed cameras connected to computers that photograph every license plate that passes. The photo is converted to… Continue Reading

Partial Transcript: Trump’s Interview With The Times

“The following is a partial transcript of President Trump’s interview with The New York Times’s Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush. It has been lightly edited for content and clarity, and omits several off-the-record comments and asides.At least six White House aides were sitting in: Gary D. Cohn, President Trump’s lead economic adviser and a former… Continue Reading

Library of Congress National Recording Registry – 2016 inductees include Bowie, Sonny Rollins, Talking Heads

“Each year since 2002, the National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB) and members of the public have nominated recordings to the National Recording Registry. The depth and breadth of nominations received highlights the richness of the nations’ audio legacy and underscores the importance of assuring the long-term preservation of that legacy for future generations. Each year,… Continue Reading

WaPo – How Gorsuch’s judicial experience compares with current justices

Follow up to several related postings on Judge Gorsuch – via the Washington Post: “By comparing how frequently a judge saw one of 23 legal topics on the appeals court with how frequently the same topics reached the Supreme Court in the last three years, The Washington Post created a relative exposure index that measures… Continue Reading

Twitter pushes back on revealing anti Trump account identity

Reuters: “Twitter Inc on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit to block an order by the U.S. government demanding that it reveal who is behind an account opposed to President Donald Trump’s tough immigration policies. Citing freedom of speech as a basis for not turning over records, Twitter filed the lawsuit in federal court in San… Continue Reading

Map shows US really has 11 separate ‘nations’ with entirely different cultures

Business Insider – “In his fourth book, American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures in North America, award-winning author Colin Woodard identifies 11 distinct cultures that have historically divided the US. “The country has been arguing about a lot of fundamental things lately including state roles and individual liberty,” Woodard, a Maine native who… Continue Reading

States where the most people use cellphones

24/7 Wall St – “Americans are steadily abandoning traditional telephone landlines and exclusively using wireless devices. While 8.4% of U.S. households used only cellphones in 2005, this was true of nearly half of all American households only a decade later. The likelihood of living in a cellphone-only household varies considerably across states. New Jersey has… Continue Reading