The Obama administration has hardly been a consistent defender of digital privacy. Recall, for example, its support for the reauthorization of the Patriot Act, or its position—unanimously rejected by the Supreme Court in U.S. v. Jones—that we should have no expectations of privacy in public. Recently, however, the administration gave friends of digital privacy a reason to dance in the chat rooms: On April 25, Obama threatened to veto the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), the dreadful cyber security bill that would have allowed Internet companies to share private emails and web browsing records with the NSA. The New Republic
Submitted 9 days ago

Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon told Alexandria Rotary Club members Tuesday that the state's property insurance market is "more competitive than ever." The Town Talk
Submitted 9 days ago

Friday’s jobs report was a disappointment even though it showed unemployment falling to the lowest level since shortly after President Obama took office. The trouble is that job creation is abnormally sluggish and nowhere near enough to keep bringing down the unemployment rate. This is hardly news, of course. For months economists have been talking about a jobless recovery. And they point to certain factors as having contributed to the problem — from the severity of the recent recession to the so-called skills gap, a shortage of workers with the training needed to fill the jobs that are available. Time
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The new international terminal marks a major milestone for Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, which has seen many changes in its 87 years: 1925 Atlanta Mayor Walter Sims decides to develop an auto racetrack into an airfield, with part of it renamed Candler Field after Coca-Cola magnate Asa Candler. 1941 Delta moves its headquarters from Monroe, La., to Atlanta. 1971 The Atlanta airport is renamed the William B. Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport, after the long-serving Atlanta mayor and aviation advocate, and introduces its first international flight. Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Submitted 9 days ago

There is much debate about what would constitute success for Space X’s coming landmark attempt to launch a privately developed spaceship to the International Space Station.The answer is layered and depends on whose measures of success you’re considering. Technical experts in the aerospace industry, whether they’re from SpaceX, NASA or competing commercial space ventures, will say there are so many parts of this program in “testing,” that pulling off a launch, an orbital flight and close-up rendezvous with the space station would represent major progress. If SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, on just its second orbital flight and its first trying to chase and meet up with the space station, docks at the orbiting outpost, the achievement could be the catalyst for a technical and political game-changer. Florida Today
Submitted 9 days ago

The conventional wisdom is that the world’s largest cities are going to be the primary drivers of economic growth and innovation. Even slums, according to a fawning article in National Geographic, represent “examples of urban vitality, not blight.” In America, it is commonly maintained by pundits that “megaregions” anchored by dense urban cores will dominate the future. Forbes
Submitted 10 days ago

On April 30, the Treasury Department announced that 461 Americans had renounced their citizenship in the first quarter of 2012. A 1996 law requires that every person doing so be named, with their names published in the Federal Register. The idea is to shame those who may be renouncing their citizenship solely to escape taxation. New York Times
Submitted 10 days ago

It, it, it just keeps coming. Swallows up everything in its way, getting bigger and bigger. Nothing can stop it. Oh, my stars. It’s horrible. Texas Watchdog
Submitted 10 days ago

So the voters of Europe have spoken, and surprise, surprise: they are not too keen on fiscal austerity. France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, became the first incumbent to lose since 1981. Alternet
Submitted 10 days ago

The Occupy movement has been an extremely exciting development. Unprecedented, in fact. There’s never been anything like it that I can think of. If the bonds and associations it has established can be sustained through a long, dark period ahead — because victory won’t come quickly — it could prove a significant moment in American history. Salon
Submitted 10 days ago