Domestic Glance
Robert and Julie Davidson fell hard for the gleaming new house at the Valencia Golf and Country Club in Naples, Florida. They loved the way the palm-fringed, Spanish-style home backed up to the fifth-hole fairway. And they were taken with the three-bedroom's high ceilings and open plan. Plus the neighborhood - with its power-washed driveways, blooming hibiscus and guarded gatehouse - seemed all "dressed up."
But when the Davidsons paid $255,385 in 2011 for the house on Birdie Drive, they didn't know that they had, in essence, bought only from the ground up, and that their homebuilder, D.R. Horton, had kept everything underneath.
U.S. builders hoard mineral rights under new homes
NSA and GCHQ target Tor network that protects anonymity of web users
The National Security Agency has made repeated attempts to develop attacks against people using Tor, a popular tool designed to protect online anonymity, despite the fact the software is primarily funded and promoted by the US government itself.
Top-secret NSA documents, disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden, reveal that the agency's current successes against Tor rely on identifying users and then attacking vulnerable software on their computers. One technique developed by the agency targeted the Firefox web browser used with Tor, giving the agency full control over targets' computers, including access to files, all keystrokes and all online activity.
Majority of US executions come from just 2% of counties, report finds
The arbitrary nature of the death penalty as practiced in the US is laid bare in a new study that shows that just 2% of counties across the nation have generated most of the executions in the past 40 years.
A new report from the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington shows that of the 1,348 executions that have taken place in the US since the death penalty restarted in 1976, more than half originated in only 2% of counties. Under the US judicial system, the decision to launch a capital case lies with district attorneys at the county level.
N.S.A. Gathers Data on Social Connections of U.S. Citizens
Since 2010, the National Security Agency has been exploiting its huge collections of data to create sophisticated graphs of some Americans’ social connections that can identify their associates, their locations at certain times, their traveling companions and other personal information, according to newly disclosed documents and interviews with officials.
The spy agency began allowing the analysis of phone call and e-mail logs in November 2010 to examine Americans’ networks of associations for foreign intelligence purposes after N.S.A. officials lifted restrictions on the practice, according to documents provided by Edward J. Snowden, the former N.S.A. contractor.
West Hollywood becomes first city to ban sale of fur
In West Hollywood, Calif., an ethical fashion faux pas has been cemented into law.
Over the weekend, a citywide ban on the sale of fur apparel, passed by the city council two years ago, went into effect, making the city of 30,000 the first municipality in the nation, and likely the world, to have such a ban.
Nameless And Shameless: Masked DEA Agents Raid Innocent Women, Refuse To Reveal Their Identities
Over a three-day period in June 2007, heavily armed SWAT teams, supported by tanks and helicopters, descended on Detroit's Eight Mile Road. The massive operation involved police and agents from 21 different local, state and federal branches of law enforcement, and was intended to rid the notoriously crime-ridden area of drug houses, prostitutes and wanted fugitives.
After conducting hundreds of raids, the authorities made 122 arrests, according to The Detroit News, and seized about 50 ounces of marijuana, 6.5 ounces of cocaine and 19 guns.
ACLU urges more control, accountability for the FBI
Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the FBI has morphed into a domestic surveillance agency with little accountability, a report said.
The American Civil Liberties Union Tuesday released "Unleashed and Unaccountable: The FBI's Unchecked Abuse of Authority." The group said that Congress and the Obama administration continue to support the FBI while the agency targets minority groups and abuses the rights of U.S. citizens and residents.
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