California Legislature Passes 'Yes Means Yes' Standard For College Sexual Assault Policies

8/29/2014

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — State lawmakers on Thursday passed a bill that would make California the first state to define when "yes means yes" while investigating sexual assaults on college campuses.

The Senate unanimously passed SB967 as states and universities across the U.S. are under pressure to change how they handle rape allegations. The bill now goes to Gov. Jerry Brown, who has not indicated his stance on the bill.

Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, said his bill would begin a paradigm shift in how California campuses prevent and investigate sexual assault. Rather than using the refrain "no means no," the definition of consent under the bill requires "an affirmative, conscious and voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity." Earlier versions of the bill had similar language.

"With this measure, we will lead the nation in bringing standards and protocols across the board so we can create an environment that's healthy, that's conducive for all students, not just for women, but for young men as well too, so young men can develop healthy patterns and boundaries as they age with the opposite sex," de Leon said before the vote.

Silence or lack of resistance does not constitute consent. The legislation says it's also not consent if the person is drunk, drugged, unconscious or asleep.

Lawmakers say consent can be nonverbal, and universities with similar policies have outlined examples as maybe a nod of the head or moving in closer to the person.

Advocates for victims of sexual assault supported the change as one that will provide consistency across campuses and challenge the notion that victims must have resisted assault in order to have valid complaints.

Some critics say the legislation is overreaching and sends universities into murky, unfamiliar legal waters.

Gordon Finley, an adviser to the National Coalition for Men, wrote an editorial asking Brown not to sign the bill. He argued that "this campus rape crusade bill" presumes the guilt of the accused.

"This is nice for the accusers — both false accusers as well as true accusers — but what about the due process rights of the accused," Finley wrote.

The bill passed the state Assembly on Monday by a 52-16 vote. Some Republicans in that house questioned if statewide legislation is an appropriate venue to define consent.

There was no opposition from Senate Republicans.

"This bill is very simple; it just requires colleges to adopt policies concerning sexual assault, domestic violence, gang violence and stalking," said Sen. Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres. "They should have already been doing that."

The bill would apply to all California post-secondary schools, public and private, that receive state money for student financial aid. The California State University and University of California systems are backing the legislation after adopting similar consent standards this year.

The bill also requires colleges and universities to adopt "victim-centered" sexual-assault response policies and implement comprehensive programs to prevent assault.

In January, President Barack Obama vowed to make the issue a priority. He announced a task force that created a website providing tips for filing complaints, www.notalone.gov, and issued a report in May naming 55 colleges and universities across the country facing investigation for their responses to sexual abuse and violence. The University of California, Berkeley was included on the list.

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Malaysia Airlines cutting 6,000 jobs

8/29/2014

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Malaysia Airlines will cut 6,000 workers as part of an overhaul announced Friday to revive its damaged brand after two passenger jet disasters.

The staff reduction represents about 30 percent of its current workforce of 20,000.

Khazanah Nasional, the state investment company that owns 69 percent of the airline, said the overhaul includes the establishment of a new company that will take over the existing Malaysia Airlines business and its reduced staff.

The overhaul and new investment in the carrier will cost about 6 billion Malaysian ringgit ($1.9 billion).

The airline will be taken completely under the wing of the government. Khazanah previously announced that it plans to take 100 percent ownership.

Investigators continue to scour the southern Indian Ocean for Flight 370 which veered far of course while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 with 239 people on board.

On Thursday, an Australian official said the sprawling southern Indian Ocean search area for the plane may be extended farther south based on a new analysis of a failed attempt to call the plane by satellite phone.

Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss said the analysis of the call, attempted by Malaysia Airlines officials on the ground soon after Flight 370 disappeared from radar, "suggests to us that the aircraft might have turned south a little earlier than we had previously expected."

In July, 298 people were killed when Flight 17 was blasted out of the sky as it flew over an area of eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

Khazanah said at a press conference that it has begun a search for a new chief executive for the airline, which is likely to be completed by the end of this year.

Current CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya will continue to head Malaysia Airlines until its new incarnation is established in July next year.

The state investment fund said it aims to restore Malaysia Airlines to profitability by the end of 2017.

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Illegals Storm California Beach

8/29/2014

Illegal Aliens Storm the Beach in San Diego, Second Attempt Thwarted

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News To Me: NSA able to target offline computers using radio-waves for surveillance, cyber-attacks

8/29/2014

How my not-so-beautiful assistants or myself could have missed this story is beyond me...




The National Security Agency has implanted software in about 100,000 computers around the world, allowing the United States to surveil those machines while creating a trail that can be used to launch cyber-attacks.

Though most of the software is installed by gaining access to computer networks, the NSA can also employ technology that enters computers and alters data without needing internet access.

The secret technology uses covert radio waves transmitted from small circuit boards and USB cards clandestinely inserted into targeted computers, The New York Times reported. The waves can then be sent to a briefcase-sized relay station intelligence agencies can set up just miles away, according to NSA documents, computer experts and US officials.

The radio frequency technology - which often needs to be physically inserted by a spy, manufacturer or unwitting user - has helped US spies access computers that global adversaries have gone to great lengths to protect from surveillance or cyber-attack.

The NSA calls use of the infiltration software and radio technology - all part of a program known as Quantum - “active defense” against cyber-attacks, though it has condemned use of similar software by Chinese attackers against American companies or government agencies.

“What’s new here is the scale and the sophistication of the intelligence agency’s ability to get into computers and networks to which no one has ever had access before,” James Andrew Lewis, cyber security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told The Times. “Some of these capabilities have been around for a while, but the combination of learning how to penetrate systems to insert software and learning how to do that using radio frequencies has given the U.S. a window it’s never had before.”

Quantum targets

The Chinese Army has been the most frequent target of Quantum. The US has accused the Chinese Army of infiltrating American industrial and military targets to often pilfer secrets or intellectual property.

Other Quantum targets include Russian military networks, systems used by Mexican police and drug cartels, trade institutions within the European Union and even allies like Saudi Arabia, according to American officials and NSA materials that show sites that the agency calls “computer network exploitation.”

There is no evidence that Quantum’s capabilities were used in the US. While not commenting on the scope of the program, the NSA said Quantum is not comparable to actions by the Chinese.

“NSA’s activities are focused and specifically deployed against — and only against — valid foreign intelligence targets in response to intelligence requirements,” Vanee Vines, an agency spokeswoman, said in a statement. “We do not use foreign intelligence capabilities to steal the trade secrets of foreign companies on behalf of — or give intelligence we collect to — U.S. companies to enhance their international competitiveness or increase their bottom line.”

Parts of Quantum were revealed by documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. A Dutch newspaper published a map indicating where the US had inserted spy software, usually in secret. Der Spiegel recently published the NSA’s collection of hardware products used for transmitting and receiving digital signals from computers, known as ANT.

The NSA's Spy Catalog (Image from spiegel.de)

An NSA advisory panel, ordered and staffed by President Barack Obama to review NSA practices following the Snowden leaks, recommended the spy agency cease exploiting flaws in common software in the name of US surveillance. The panel also suggested the NSA stop undermining vital encryption protections.

“Holes in encryption software would be more of a risk to us than a benefit,” said Richard A. Clarke, a former intel official and member of the review group. “If we can find the vulnerability, so can others. It’s more important that we protect our power grid than that we get into China’s.”

President Obama is scheduled to announce Friday what portions of the panel’s recommendations he is accepting. Reuters reported Tuesday that one policy suggestion from the panel received criticism from an unlikely place recently.

In a letter sent to Obama on behalf of the federal judicial system as a whole, former federal judge John Bates, the director of the Administrative Office of the US courts, warned against a possible "Public Interest Advocate,” which would represent privacy and civil liberty concerns before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court. The secretive FISA court approves US government spying requests.

100,000 implants worldwide

A 2008 map, revealed in the Snowden leaks, offers 20 programs to gain access to major fiber optic cables in the US and places like Hong Kong and the Middle East. The map indicates that the US has already conducted “more than 50,000 worldwide implants.” Though a more recent budget document said that by the end of 2013, the figure would be at around 85,000. A senior officials told The Times the figure was more like 100,000.

Officials told The Times most of the implants, by far, were for surveillance and to serve as early warning for a cyber-attack aimed at the US. One official likened them to buoys used to track submarines.

The US has targeted a Chinese Army unit thought to be responsible for most of the bigger cyber-attacks wielded against the US. Documents from Snowden’s trove show the US has two data centers in China from which it can insert malware into computers.

The US maintains Quantum is not used for economic purposes, as it has complained that Chinese attacks have done.

“The argument is not working,” said Peter W. Singer, co-author of a new book called“Cybersecurity and Cyberwar.” “To the Chinese, gaining economic advantage is part of national security. And the Snowden revelations have taken a lot of the pressure off” the Chinese.

The radio-transmission technology employs many gadgets revealed by Der Spiegel in December. Among them is Cottonmouth I, a normal-looking USB plug with a small transceiver that transmits information from a computer “through a covert channel” that allows “data infiltration and exfiltration.” Most of the revealed products are at least five years old, The Times reports, but have been updated to make the US less dependent on hardware installation in its surveillance operations.

The NSA would not discuss the devices despite publication of the documents describing them by the European news outlets.

“Continuous and selective publication of specific techniques and tools used by NSA. to pursue legitimate foreign intelligence targets is detrimental to the security of the United States and our allies,” said Vines.

Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of US House lawmakers introduced legislation on Tuesday that would require President Obama to unveil budget figures for all 16 spy agencies. The secretive “black budget” for US intelligence agencies was reported to be $53 billion for fiscal year 2013, based on documents from Snowden reported by The Washington Post.

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ISIS Commits MASS SLAUGHTER – Murders HUNDREDS of Soldier Prisoners In Syrian Desert

8/28/2014

ISIS TERRORISTS COMMIT ANOTHER MASS SLAUGHTER–
The violent jihadists captured hundreds of Syrian soldiers, marched them mostly naked into the desert and slaughtered them.

Twitter caption: The 200 Assad dogs captured while performing tactical withdraw on foot in the desert.

ISIS barbarians filmed the entire march into the desert.
(WARNING ON VIOLENT CONTENT)

From the video – Soldiers stripped down to their underwear are forced to march into the desert.

From the pro-ISIS Twitter page: Once again rawafidh are sheeps in the middle east and Muslims the shepards. What a nice sight!

ISIS terrorists force the men to run into the desert.

The men must know that they are going to die.

The Twitter feed says the “Nusayriyoun” are being “brought to the slaughterhouse.”

This is 21st Century ISIS behavior.

ISIS has yet to release the rest of the video – when the soldiers are shot dead like dogs.

This follows a graphic mass execution of HUNDREDS of Shiites in Iraq in June-July.

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Jury acquits Texas dad accused of murdering sons' killer

8/28/2014

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ANGLETON, TEXAS (AP) -- A jury has acquitted a southeast Texas man of murder in the fatal shooting of a drunken driver who had just caused an accident that killed the man's two sons.

David Barajas cried when the verdict was read Wednesday. He faced up to life in prison, if convicted.

Prosecutors had alleged that Barajas killed 20-year-old Jose Banda in a fit of rage after Banda plowed into Barajas and his sons while they were pushing a vehicle on a road near their hometown of Alvin.

Twelve-year-old David Jr. and 11-year-old Caleb were killed.

Defense attorney Sam Cammack says Barajas didn't kill Banda and was only focused on saving his sons.

The gun used to kill Banda wasn't found and there was little physical evidence tying Barajas to the killing.

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Smuggler's Blues: Family searches for beloved criminal family member after smuggling attempt gone wrong

8/28/2014

Cry me a river...

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Family members of 20-year-old Edinburg resident Eric Samora say he was likely looking for quick and easy money when he agreed to help smuggle undocumented immigrants around the Falfurrias checkpoint.

"He had to be convinced to do it, be I know my brother I know that he wouldn’t have done it if it didn’t feel right," his brother Raymond Samora Jr. said.

It happened exactly a week ago today near the San Manuel area.

The smuggling attempt was foiled and Eric ran and hid trying to avoid being caught be authorities.

His cousin who was with him promised to go back for him but never did.

The next day his mother learned Eric was missing and the last words he spoke to his cousin.

"He told me (his cousin) that he was scared, he was thirsty and there were two persons running behind him," Eva Zamora said.

Eric’s family has spent the last five days searching the vast ranchlands of Brooks County.

They know he may be near death and that every second counts.

This year 50 undocumented immigrants have succumbed to the elements in Brooks County trying to walk around the Falfurrias checkpoint.

The sweltering heat and sand like dirt makes the area a death sentence to anyone who is unprepared or becomes lost.

Although Eric was allegedly committing a crime when he became lost, the Brooks County Sheriff’s office and Border Patrol have been actively looking for Eric hoping to find him alive.

His disappearance is a reminder of how the immigration crisis is leaving a footprint on the lives of Rio Grande Valley residents.

"Living here with that type of situation going on here in the Valley, every parent should advise their kids, whether they are young, teenager or in their 20s to stay away of things like that," Raymond said.

Eric had recently finished studying to become an accountant and is the father of a baby girl.

His family says they would rather him be alive in a jail cell than die in the ranchlands because of a decision he made hoping to make some easy cash.

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Spain's anti-rape guide: 1) Close your curtains

8/28/2014

Spain's Interior Ministry has been slammed after it released a series of anti-rape measures for women, including closing the curtains at night to stop peeping toms.

Photo of woman closing curtains: Shutterstock

“It’s a form of scaremongering, it puts the blame on women and it stops them from taking responsibility,” tweeted Socialist Party equality spokeswoman Carmen Montón about the ruling party’s anti-rape advice sheet.

The country’s Interior Ministry has offended many other Spanish citizens with its ‘preventative’ list of points, including “carrying a whistle”, “not writing your first name on your letter box”, “leaving the lights on in more than one room at home so it doesn’t seem like you’re alone” and “not getting into the lift if there’s a stranger”.

Led by the religiously devout Jorge Fernández, Spain’s Ministerio de Interior has been described as “retrograde”, “unbearable” and “insulting” on social media, an overwhelming number of tweets on the advice list arguing it holds women responsible for being the victims of rape.

Former socialist politician Soleded Murillo tweeted: "There's nothing more dangerous than an incompetent government: Close the curtains to stop women from being raped, says Interior Ministry". 

The news comes after police in Malaga arrested five young men aged 17 to 23 for the rape of a young woman on Sunday.

Francisco de la Torre, mayor of the southern Spanish city, has also been criticized for playing down the importance of the crime when stating “there are more than a thousand rapes every year in Spain” and “let’s not give the impression that Malaga is unsafe”. 

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