Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/321988531?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Saturday, July 27, 2013
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Bill would prevent military pay during pre-trial confinement
Service members in pre-trial confinement for serious crimes ? including rape, sexual assault and murder ? would have their military pay and allowances suspended, under legislation introduced Monday.
Withheld money could end up going to the victim of the crime under the terms of the bill, HR 2777.
The Stop Pay for Violent Offenders Act is aimed at accused service members such as Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, the suspect in the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, who has continued to receive his military pay while in custody. Hasan?s trial is now under way in Texas.
The bill?s chief sponsor, Rep. Tim Griffin, R-Ark., said the fact Hasan still receives pay is ?outrageous.? Griffin is an Army Reserve lieutenant colonel who has been a judge advocate since 1996. He worked in the White House during the George W. Bush presidency as a special assistant for political affairs.
Under the bill, military leaders would decide whether to suspend all or just part of pay and allowances during confinement. A waiver could be requested, but would have to be done within seven days.
The bill does not specifically address what would happen to the pay and allowances of a service member with a family that depended on it as the sole source of income, but this is one of the issues that could be covered by a waiver.
A statement from Griffin?s office said a waiver also could be used in instances when a service member can provide affidavits or other evidence to show they may have been falsely accused.
The bill allows, but does not require, a formal hearing to consider waiver requests.
If a service member is acquitted of charges, or if they are convicted but their sentence is commuted or suspended, they would receive full back pay and allowances. If they are convicted, the withheld pay would be provided to the victim or victims of the crime.
The fate of the bill is unclear. It was referred to the House Armed Services Committee, which is responsible for military criminal law. However, this committee generally wraps all of its legislation for the year into a single defense policy bill, which already has passed the committee and the full House of Representatives. The bill may sit until next year before getting serious attention.
A cosponsor, Rep Frank Wolf, R-Va., said withholding pay of service members in pre-trial confinement makes sense because similar rules already apply to federal law enforcement officers in similar situations.
?This bill would correct a huge oversight that has allowed military personnel charged with a serious crime to continue to receive their pay while awaiting trial,? Wolf said.
Former Army judge advocate Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., said there is a sense of justice involved. ?How can we justify the fact that the victims of the Fort Hood attack and their families are fighting to get the benefits they deserve, while taxpayers have paid Nidal Hassan almost $300,000 to sit in a jail cell? This is unconscionable.?
Source: http://www.armytimes.com/article/20130723/NEWS05/307230034
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Concert Review: 'Video Games Live: Bonus Round!' at Wolf Trap
?Video Games Live? at Wolf Trap. Photo courtesy of Wolf Trap.
For those who call video games anti-social or who think that only a minority of people, ?nerds? play them they are in for a shock when going to a performance of Video Games Live: Bonus Round! The evening opened with Video Games Live creator and Video Game composer Tommy Tallarico saying, ?Some people think video games are just for little kids, video game music is just a bunch of annoying bips and bloops, video games are the cause of violence.? Well if there was ever a crowd to staunchly disagree it was at Wolf Trap saturday night. People of all ages were out to see the National Symphony Orchestra and a chorus prepared by Danny Ozment perform music from Pacman to Skyrim.
Video Games Live! was created by Mr. Tallarico in 2002 as an immersive audio and video experience to celebrate and support the art of video game music. It is now in its 10th anniversary of touring with two albums and numerous awards.
Emil de Cou the NSO at Wolf Trap festival conductor wrote in the introduction ?all the worlds of music are welcome on our stage? and never was it more true than for the Video Games Live: Bonus Round performance. If you are a fan of orchestra concerts ?the calm spectators clapping politely at just the right moments? this performance was not for you. Rarely have I seen such audience enthusiasm, energy and sheer joy for the music being performed, it was infectious.
??a fun, exciting, and unique experience.
The National Symphony Orchestra was stellar, conducted with elegance and mirth by Emmanuel Fratianni. They were gleefully cheered on as they had to perform the music, sound effects and all, while select members of the audience got on stage and played super smash brothers live. It is hard to imagine a better way to expose young people to the wonder of the orchestra as with music that they already love and appreciate.
Composed by Nobuo Uematsu, a ?famous? composer in the gaming world,??Final Fantasy 8, Liberi Fatali? was one piece that stood out, and I must say that the music was absolutely AMAZING. ? This song is the introduction when you start a new game, foreshadowing the epic love story between Squall and Rinoa. ?For the time this game came out (1999), this took video game music to a whole new level. ?Nobuo said, ?screw that?, to conventional video game music, which was usually really short and catchy. ?He wanted to make something huge and beautiful ?and he did.They also performed a medley from Zelda. ?The girl who played the flute for the medley is Laura Intravia, and she became popular via youtube for doing this.
I can promise you that going to a performance of Video Games Live, whether you are a gamer, a musician, a parent or all three, you will have a fun, exciting, and unique experience.
Running time: Three hours with two encores.
Video Games Live: Bonus Round!?was their only performance at Wolf Trap. ?For future events at Wolf Trap, click here.
Source: http://www.mdtheatreguide.com/2013/07/concert-review-video-games-live-bonus-round-at-wolf-trap/
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VINCENT BONSIGNORE: Dallas Cowboys are California dreaming
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OXNARD -- The pleasant 65-degree weather Sunday in this coastal Ventura County city was a distinct tipoff the Cowboys were no longer in Dallas.
And considering the scorching 93 degrees most of Texas was sweating through back home - with 43 percent humidity - that was a good thing.
As for the hundreds upon hundreds of fans decked out in Cowboys gear screaming their favorite players' names through most of a late afternoon practice, well, that was Dallas through and through.
In other words, you can take the Cowboys out of Texas but that won't stop their legion of fans from following them wherever they end up.
On Sunday - and for the next six weeks or so - that would be Oxnard, California, the Cowboys' on-again, off-again summer training camp home.
And a cooler, more agreeable home it is, the players soaking in the delightful conditions as they took their first step on a journey they hope will deliver them to the postseason for the first time in three seasons.
Rather than withering in the steamy conditions back home in Texas.
"It was a great start," Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo said. "I think our football team took some steps to get better. I think they did that during the offseason, so I'm excited about the way the day went and what we're doing to get better."
The Cowboys returned to Oxnard for the eighth time since 2001 in search of a launching pad more conducive to building a championship team, the hope being the better weather results in
better work habits resulting in a team better prepared to navigate its way back to the playoffs.Somewhere Dallas hasn't been since 2009.
Three years without a postseason appearance doesn't go over very well in Dallas, most notably the big office occupied by Cowboys owner Jerry Jones at the club's Valley Ranch headquarters.
Presumably, a fourth straight season out of the playoffs will put head coach Jason Garrett in imminent danger of losing his job, although Jones downplayed any of that talk as his club prepared to kick off training camp.
"Everything I'm thinking about is not only about how to beat the Giants when we open up (the season), but also about what our future is in a plus manner or in a positive way with Jason," Jones said. "I look to the future with Jason, not just through his contract that we're sitting here with right now. I think he has a couple of years left on his contract, but that's not a thought.
"It is not what is implied when you say, 'This is an Armageddon year for him.' It's not that with me."
Read what you want into that, but it sure sounds like the dreaded vote of confidence to me.
And with Jones working on his seventh coach over his 24 years owning the Cowboys, it's obvious he has a tendency to quickly run out of patience if things are operating at an optimal level - optimal being the Cowboys consistently knocking on the door of the Super Bowl.
Still, Jones went out of his way to reduce the heat to the seat on which Garrett sits, pointing out Garrett's strong relationship with Romo and the role Garrett's played in Romo's development iinitially as an assistant and now the head coach.
"He's been directly involved in the coaching of Romo for six years. When he got here, Romo had never had the same guy two years in a row. We've got to take advantage of that. His safety-net presence for what we're doing not only as a team but on offense is a big part of the plan. It gives us a real advantage. "Romo has the kind of skills, by everyone that has ever been around him, to do what we're asking him to do. I don't mind telling you, it'd be tough to go there if you didn't have Jason who has been involved and right there as quote, if you will, 'the safety net' as to how we're going to not only put the team together, but what we're doing offensively, make no mistake about it.
"To answer your question specifically, one of the neatest things about not only this year but a positive about this year is that, if you're in close here, you see how Jason is responding to obviously unsatisfactory times. And I can tell you firsthand that's impressive, so I like that looking ahead at the future. It is very good."
Perhaps, but that didn't prevent sweeping changes on the coaching staff this year as Garrett and Jones try to strike the perfect balance, the most notable change Garrett relinquishing play calling duties in favor of taking a more broader role in the running of the team. Garrett, who has called plays for the Cowboys since 2007, is handing the job over to former Raiders head coach Bill Callahan.
"It'll just give you a practical opportunity to kind of step away from the offense a little bit," Garrett said. "I made a very conscious effort over the last couple of years to coach the whole football team. I spent time with the defensive guys on their side of the practice field. I spent a lot of time in the defensive meetings and the special teams meetings. I've always done that.
But just the mechanics of someone else calling the actual plays allows me to maybe take a different view of it. So you'll see that on the practice field. That's how we operated all throughout the offseason in our OTAs and our mini-camp, and it worked very smoothly for us, and we'll continue to do that."
As for Romo, he was cleared for full practice Sunday after having a cyst removed from his back last April. Sunday also marked his first practice after signing an eight-year, $108 million contract that includes $55 million in guaranteed money.
That's an enormous amount of money invested in a quarterback that hasn't won a playoff game - and it's more than Super Bowl winner Joe Flacco got from the Baltimore Raven last offseason.
But the Cowboys are clearly comfortable with hitching their wagon to Romo, and step one was getting through the initial practice with a clean bill of health.
"I feel good," Romo said. "I've been running and throwing and doing all of that stuff. But I was excited about getting out here. Honestly, just the smell of the grass of a football field is a great feeling. You never want to take that for granted."
The Cowboys aren't taking anything for granted these days. Three seasons out of the playoffs will do that to a team. Vincent.bonsignore@dailynews.com @DailyNewsVinny
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Monday, July 22, 2013
Use of Automated License Plate Readers Expanding in Northern California, and Data is Shared With Feds
The feeling of freedom that comes from driving down California?s sunny open roads is at risk?and rising gas prices are not to blame. Our investigations show that at least twenty Northern California law enforcement entities as well as the California Highway Patrol track the whereabouts of millions of Californians using automated license plate readers (ALPR), and some apparently even share records with a ?fusion center? connected to the federal intelligence community.
Scanning thousands of plates per minute, ALPR cameras create records of innocent people?s movements that can be held for years. Unfortunately, as the ACLU?s recent report shows, many agencies use ALPR without clear privacy protections for the collected data. Without proper safeguards, license plate readers can be used to identify every car parked near a protest or event, or to collect data about your visits to a doctor?s office, local bar, religious services, and more. We need clear, strong rules to prevent the misuse of ALPRs and the data they collect.
The massive amounts of data collected by a few Northern California police departments show how ALPR data makes it easy to track residents? whereabouts. In Piedmont, a tiny city east of Oakland with about 11,000 residents, the local police department captured 1,641,841 plate scans with one ALPR unit in just one year. South Bay city Milpitas, with only 67,000 residents, collected 4.7 million plate images in slightly more time. On the state?s highways, the California Highway Patrol operates at least 200 cameras, but we don?t even know how much data they have collected. To bring into focus how these large quantities of scans can be used to track cars within a given area, take a look at these maps produced by Berkeley?s ALPR parking enforcement system.
Unfortunately, there are no statewide privacy protections for these records, and many individual law enforcement agencies have no such protections either. In fact, only about half of the 20 agencies we learned use ALPR had a written policy manual at all. Of those agencies with written policies, many allowed the data to be used for all ?legitimate law enforcement business.? Some cities, including Milpitas in the South Bay, do not even keep records of who accesses the ALPR information. In addition, agencies vary wildly in how long they retain ALPR records. Although the Marin County town of Tiburon deletes records after 30 days if not associated with a criminal investigation, cities such as Concord, Elk Grove, and East Palo Alto allow the data to be held for upwards of two years?and Berkeley did not even have a retention policy.
We also found that sensitive ALPR data is shared with other counties and potentially the federal intelligence community through a ?fusion center.? A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by Daly City describes an ALPR database shared by a Bay Area fusion center and fifteen Northern California counties. Under the plan, participating counties get continuous access to each other?s data with no clear limits on what it can be used for. By combining records from multiple jurisdictions, this database has the potential to contain extensive records of motorists? travels throughout Northern California. The U.S. Senate concluded in 2012 that fusion centers fail to make us safer, tend to be mismanaged, and needlessly intrude on Americans? privacy, so the suggestion that counties are sharing Californians? data en masse is particularly concerning.
ALPR technology should be used to accomplish specific law enforcement goals, not deployed as a tool for dragnet surveillance. As it stands, lax safeguards on the use of ALPR and the availability of collected data to the federal intelligence system raise substantial privacy concerns. Real safeguards formed through democratic debate can shed light on the technology?s use, and prevent future misuse. The starting point for establishing these safeguards is to have an open discussion with local government and citizens about the risks and benefits of ALPRs. Driving may be a privilege, but privacy is a right.
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Boxing Matthysse vs. Garcia Propel Floyd News ... - Top Sports Up
You?ll forgive my suspicion when Golden Boy Promotion?s CEO Richard Schaefer informed me previously this month that they were considering placing a bout between Lucas Matthysse (34-2, 32 KOs) and Danny Garcia (26-0, 16 KOs) on the undercard of the soon to be common Floyd Mayweather versus Saul Alvarez battle.
It?s not that Schaefer is specifically undependable, not as boxing promoters go anyhow. It?s merely that a move like that, using genuine headliners in an assisting role, hasn?t belonged to the boxing tradition in years.
Pay-per-view telecasts, in the last decade a minimum of, usually include a tremendous centerpiece, some customers on the undercard and nothing more from another location palatable. Only true gluttons for penalty would certainly risk sit through a whole show. The majority of listen for the main event just.
That?s been the case for many years, a practice somewhat established in stone. Is it any kind of marvel I found it unlikely that even Schaefer, among the most effective guys in the recreation, could transform the system that substantially?
But, here we are. The two best 140-pound fighters worldwide will indeed do fight on September 14 before Mayweather takes the stage. Just like that, an event that guaranteed to be amongst the biggest pay-per-view spectaculars of perpetuity threw its hat in the wedding band to be amongst the best also.
The battle, Schaefer stated, has actually currently damaged the Nevada document for ticket sales, going beyond $19.5 million, with tens of countless closed-circuit tickets anticipated to move rapidly in the days prior to the fight too. While he feels positive that they will certainly damage the total revenue generated by Mayweather-De La Hoya, he cut short of predicting a record-setting number of buys.
?I do not intend to be that vibrant,? Schaefer stated, maybe actually. Nevertheless, including a marquee fight to an already sold-out show is just one of the boldest relocate current boxing history and a legacy-making move for Schaefer and his partners, the most effective promoters in boxing.
Source: http://www.topsportsup.com/boxing-matthysse-vs-garcia-propel-floyd-news-review/
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Sunday, July 21, 2013
Kody: 'Sister Wives' are not pushing polygamy
TV 
2 hours ago
Kyle Christy / TLC
The Brown family, from left, Christine, Meri, Janelle, Robyn and Kody.
The fourth season of TLC's "Sister Wives" is about to kick off, and that means there's more drama on the way for the Brown family.
Even though Kody Brown and his four wives ? Meri, Janelle, Christine and Robyn ? have been open about how they live their lives for some time now, there are still those who have big problems with the polygamous family and aren't shy about saying so. In fact, on the upcoming season premiere, the family travels to St. George, Utah, and find themselves in the midst of some of those unwelcoming faces.
It's no surprise that there are some in St. George who have a particular problem when the topic of polygamy comes up. The community is located close the FLDS headquarters, a base for a group of Mormon Fundamentalists who embrace polygamy and have been embroiled in many scandals involving child marriages, child abuse and incest. St. George is also the town in which FLDS president Warren Jeffs was once tried and convicted of being an accomplice to the rape (a conviction later overturned) before going on to be convicted of two counts of sexual assault of a child in Texas. (Jeffs is currently serving a life sentence for his crimes.)
While the Brown family practices a very different sort of polygamy than that seen in Jeffs' church, it's a difference that's lost on some. That's why Robyn felt so much trepidation about returning to the area, as she explains in this clip from the "Sister Wives" premiere that TLC shared exclusively with TODAY.com.
"I remember in high school, actually, teachers would make derogatory comments about polygamists," she said. "I kept my nose down and I hid who I was because of this."
The family actually encountered a wide range of reactions on the trip, as the full episode will reveal on Sunday night, including one very negative reaction.
TODAY.com recently spoke to Browns about that and asked them how they felt about encountering such rejection.
"I just feel like we live in a world of diversity, and we've chosen how to structure our family," Kody explained. "And we are not pushing it on other people. We don?t even push it on our children."
It's a live-and-let-live attitude he'd like to see from others.
"We kind of anticipate that we'd really appreciate the same kind of tolerance," Kody said.
Things are much different back in their new hometown of Las Vegas. There, the family has found tolerance.
"It's been the land of opportunity," Christine told TODAY.com. "I know that seems weird when you talk about Vegas. We usually refer to it as Sin City, but because of the diversity of the culture, it's actually worked in our benefit. You know, our children aren't expected to be anything but good people ? just because of the diversity. ... As far as the ladies goes, (we have) more friends than we've ever had before. People are welcoming and it's really, really sweet."
And for the kids in school, it's a far cry from the environment Robyn recalled in the episode.
"They've been fully embraced, and they can embrace their brothers and sisters (publicly)," Janelle said. "It is true that we have two or three children in the same grade. We actually have multiple children graduating from high school every year for the next 10 years, pretty much. So the teachers in the school are very well aware of who we are because they have so many of the children."
See how the Browns' trip to St. George plays out and find out more about life back home on the season premiere of "Sister Wives," Sunday at 9 p.m. on TLC.
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