Free Republic

During her keynote conversation with The 19th Represents, former secretary of state and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton urged Americans to confirm their voter registration, vote early when possible and take their phones into voting booths this November. "Take a picture of your vote, take your phone with you," Clinton said.

TUCSON, Ariz. — A local pastor says his church has had four fires since March, and he wants to know who’s responsible and why. KGUN9 checked in with the church and pastor to find out about the latest incident and what the church is planning to do next. We first met Pastor Gene Chewning at the Living Word Church at 3602 South 12th Avenue in March of this year, the church is known as a multi-denominational church in the neighborhood.--------------snip-------------Here’s a breakdown of the dates, the first fire was on March 3rd , the second set on April 17th the...

Chinese company Da Jiang Innovations, the world’s largest maker of drones, has donated drones to 43 law enforcement agencies operating in 22 U.S. states to enforce social distancing rules. Police in Elizabeth, N.J., for example, are using the drones to surveil residents in places where patrol cars can’t easily reach, such as spaces between buildings and back yards. Top articles 4/5 READ MORE America Can’t Face China Alone “If these drones save one life, it is clearly worth the activity and the information that the drones are sending,” Elizabeth mayor Chris Bollwage told MSNBC. In 2017, the U.S. Department of...

The coating flouts the typical trend of hotter objects radiating more lightHotter objects typically glow brighter than cooler ones, making them stand out in infrared images. But a newly designed coating bucks the rule that hotter equals brighter. For certain wavelengths of infrared light, the material’s brightness doesn’t change as it warms, researchers report December 17 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Made of samarium nickel oxide, the thin coating “hides temperature information of surfaces from infrared cameras,” and could therefore be used as a privacy shield, says applied physicist Mikhail Kats of the University of Wisconsin–Madison....

Surveillance footage capturing the outside of Jeffrey Epstein’s cell during his first suicide attempt in July is gone forever, prosecutors confirmed Thursday in a bombshell court filing. The revelation comes after Assistant US Attorney Jason Swergold told White Plains federal Judge Kenneth Karas in December that the footage was missing — and then backtracked the next day, claiming it had been preserved. In a Thursday filing, Swergold admitted that the Metropolitan Correctional Center had preserved footage amid the investigation — only it was the wrong cell in the Lower Manhattan jail. “The Government has learned that the MCC inadvertently preserved...

A Madison Metropolitan School District spokesperson says the students were staying at the Hyatt Regency in Minneapolis for a conference. The district is working with Minneapolis police during an investigation. The staffer who was with the students on the trip has been placed on administrative leave, as per district policy, as a precaution during the active investigation, the spokesperson says. Hyatt Regency Minneapolis general manager Mark Bastis said to KARE11 that the hotel immediately contacted local authorities when they learned about the situation and "conducted a thorough property-wide search for unauthorized recording devices; no additional devices have been found."

Cease and Desist Order Issued. DENVER – The company that designed and installed red light cameras at four Denver intersections beginning in 2008 was not properly licensed according to state authorities and has been ordered to “cease and desist” such operations in Colorado. Colorado’s state board of licensure for architects, professional engineers, and professional land surveyors issued the order Aug. 16, ordering Redflex Traffic Systems to “cease and desist the unlicensed practice of engineering.” ... Redflex was never licensed to practice engineering in Colorado, yet “engaged in the unlicensed practice of engineering when (Redflex) provided professional services to the City...

Two cameras that malfunctioned outside the jail cell where financier Jeffrey Epstein died as he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges have been sent to an FBI crime lab for examination, a law enforcement source told Reuters. Epstein's lawyers Reid Weingarten and Martin Weinberg told U.S. District Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan on Tuesday they had doubts about the New York City chief medical examiner's conclusion that their client killed himself.

Two cameras that malfunctioned outside the jail cell where financier Jeffrey Epstein died as he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges have been sent to an FBI crime lab for examination, a law enforcement source told Reuters. Epstein’s lawyers Reid Weingarten and Martin Weinberg told U.S. District Judge Richard Berman in Manhattan on Tuesday they had doubts about the New York City chief medical examiner’s conclusion that their client killed himself. The two cameras were within view of the Manhattan jail cell where he was found dead on Aug. 10. A source earlier told Reuters two jail guards failed to follow...

Speed and red-light cameras are the bane of many motorists. A modern idea made possible by technology, they have been installed in at least 24 states. Although these cameras are a revenue boon for governments across the nation, their intrusion into daily life is disturbing, and their constitutionality is dubious. Specifically, use of these cameras could violate the Sixth Amendment. The Confrontation Clause grants criminal defendants the right to be confronted with the witnesses against them. Since it is a camera and not a person that witnessed the offense, such violations generally cannot be considered a criminal offense. The ticket...

There’s something about cameras that seems to divide our nation, while at the same time pointing out dizzying differences in terms of how we evaluate the technology based on who is using it. We already know that privacy advocates (for lack of a better term) hate facial recognition software when it’s used by law enforcement of any kind. However, most of them don’t seem to have any problems with Facebook and other social media apps “tagging” them and their friends at the latest party. Speed cameras are also seen as being evil, even if they do occasionally catch violent felons...

ACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The I-TEAM gets results for a Jacksonville driver who was puzzled after getting a bill in the mail from a toll road in Miami – as she doesn’t drive outside of Northeast Florida. What News4Jax learned highlights imperfections in the new, high-tech toll system coming to Jacksonville this year. When Jacksonville’s tolls came down in 1989, drivers paid at the familiar toll booths along expressways around Jacksonville and across the state. Now, with the latest advances with the SunPass system, drivers can pay tolls electronically without stopping. This system is coming to Jacksonville’s First Coast Expressway and...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Force Academy has installed several thousand closed-circuit TV cameras on campus over the past year to create a safer environment for cadets and to deter criminal behavior. The cameras were mentioned by Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria, the academy’s superintendent, during testimony Feb. 13 before a subcommittee hearing of the House Appropriations Committee about the military service academies. The superintendents of each military service academy testified nearly two weeks after the Pentagon released its annual report on sexual assault and harassment at the academies. The report’s anonymous scientific survey found that 747 students said they experienced...

Asking the Freeper community for advice on features to evaluate and even product recommendations.

harassed by government UAVS

A freelance automotive journalist worries a testing site operated by the Illinois Tollway Authority could be for more than just testing automated tollway technology. Paul Brian said he’s noticed a site with various sensors on northbound I-294 for years with a sign that reads “for testing purposes only.” Illinois Tollway Authority officials said the site is used for testing various sensors, but only for tollway purposes. The site, established in 2015, had an initial price tag of $2.7 million. “The Illinois Tollway has used the test site to study a range of systems – some of which were adopted and...

I am thinking about setting up a wireless security system. I want just the basic plug in and go, no monthly fees.

Watching the events on TV, important ones involving dignitaries posing for cameras and dimwits journalists, gets really annoying. Cameras are clicking away, like machine guns, obscuring important words from presidents, kings, queens. Esteemed photojournalists: today we have mirrorless super cameras and phone cameras that do not click - "shoot" - make stupid annoying clicky noise. They are SILENT, no need to make a racket. Please disable the clicking or get camera that doesn't click when you "fire". Modern cameras are silent when taking photo or video!!! This should be the rule and idiot clickers should be banned for life from...

Armed with advanced gadgets and mapping, officers can get to crime scenes “in time to see the guy still shooting.” But what does it mean for residents’ privacy? Just after 3 a.m. on May 4, a police officer received an alert that gunshots had been fired near an alley in a neighborhood known as the Back of the Yards. The alert came from a hidden street sensor called a ShotSpotter, and the officer was able to pull up a map of nearby police cameras and review the video. Without leaving a room the size of a walk-in closet, he watched...

I haven't posted any "Hiking California" threads in a while. I joined a couple of local MeetUp hiking groups and these folks move at a good clip, so not much time for photography. But it's great fun getting out with others with similar interests and very motivational. When I went to bed on Thursday (Jan 18, 2018), the local news said that there were 55 to 60 foot waves at Mavericks north of Half Moon Bay (this is not far south of San Francisco). So, when I woke yesterday morning and saw we had a glorious morning, I decided I...