Microsoft to Apply California Privacy Rules for All Users Nationwide
Erdogan Guards Attacked Secret Service in 2017 ; An Elephant-Dung-Infused Gin ; and More Picks
Judge Rules Against Suspicionless Search of Travelers’ Devices (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston ruled in a lawsuit by 11 travelers that border officials need to be able to point to specific facts to justify searching someone’s devices for contraband like child pornography and counterfeit media. That is a higher standard than agents with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under their current policies have been required to apply to conduct routine searches of electronic devices.”
More Than 1,000 California Police Accessed Background Check Database for Personal Use (Reader Steve)
The author writes, “A California Highway Patrol officer was accused of accessing computer files to dig up information on a romantic rival, then allegedly driving out and keying her car. A West Sacramento police officer pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor count of harassment after being charged with accessing department computers and making ‘repeated telephone calls’ to harass someone at their home. And a San Jose police officer was charged in a case where prosecutors said he accessed police computers and then wrote phony traffic and parking tickets against two people who had been involved in a lawsuit with him over a motorcycle accident five years earlier.”
Erdogan Guards Attacked Secret Service in 2017, New Documents Show (DonkeyHotey)
From The Hill: “Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s planned visit to Washington this week is raising concerns about a repeat of violent protests from his 2017 trip, as recent court documents provide new details about the clashes between U.S. and Turkish security personnel.”
US Army Corps of Engineers Allowed Multimillion-Dollar Fraud in Puerto Rico (Chris)
The author writes, “Two hundred employees were paid, but 58 showed up for work. Crane operators invoiced without having set foot on the island. An unqualified lineman earned almost $58,000 for a month-and-a-half of work, which is what a Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) lineman charges in a year and five months. All of this happened in Puerto Rico under the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ watch.”
Special South African Gin Is Infused With Elephant Dung (Chris)
The author writes, “The makers of a South African gin infused with elephant dung swear their use of the animal’s excrement is no gimmick. The creators of Indlovu Gin, Les and Paula Ansley, stumbled across the idea a year ago after learning that elephants eat a variety of fruits and flowers and yet digest less than a third of it. ‘As a consequence, in the elephant dung, you get the most amazing variety of these botanicals,’ Les Ansley said.”
