Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
After years of apparently dwindling away into the annals of history, the Ku Klux Klan saw something of a resurgence in activity last year, according to a report published by a hate group watchdog. The number of Klan-affiliated groups in America grew to 190 last year, up from 72 in 2014, according to the Southern…
Apple CEO Tim Cook’s refusal to help the FBI access an encrypted phone is an important and unprecedented event in the long, strained relationship between Silicon Valley and the government. But there is one particular line, near the end of his letter, that sticks out: “We are challenging the FBI’s demands with the deepest respect…
After a couple shot 14 people in San Bernardino, CA before being killed themselves on December 2nd, the authorities recovered a locked iPhone. Since then, the FBI has complained it is unable to break the device’s encryption, in a case that it has implied supports its desire for tech companies to make sure it can…
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died at the age of 79 on Saturday. It was an apparently peaceful death, by all accounts, in his bedroom at a West Texas luxury resort after a weekend of quail hunting. He has children and grandchildren and Ruth Bader Ginsburg to mourn him; let’s not do that here. Because…
Washington Post reporter Robert Barnes explains where the Supreme Court stands after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia and how the vacant seat will impact the presidential election. (Whitney Leaming/The Washington Post) After Justice Antonin Scalia’s death Saturday at 79, the Supreme Court is now evenly divided between four liberal justices and four conservatives, even…
What are the legal and political implications of Antonin Scalia’s sudden death? First, in regard to the legal status of all cases currently before the Supreme Court, all of Scalia’s votes on those cases no longer count. Justices cast their initial votes on cases in a conference, and the task of writing the majority opinion…
His death set off an immediate debate about whether President Barack Obama should fill the seat in an election year. Obama said Saturday night that he plans to nominate a replacement, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the nomination should wait until the next president comes into office while top Democrat Harry Reid called…
Officer Peter Liang was found guilty of manslaughter and official misconduct in the fatal shooting of unarmed Brooklyn father Akai Gurley on Feb. 11. View Full Caption Pool/Mary Altaffer DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — Rookie NYPD officer Peter Liang is guilty of manslaughter for fatally shooting an unarmed man in a Brooklyn housing project in…
Pay up, kid Look, being shot to death by police doesn’t get you off the hook when it comes to paying your medical bills. At least according to the City of Cleveland, which filed a notice with the probate court Wednesday, demanding that the estate of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old who was shot to death by…
Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher at the center of an armed standoff with federal officials in 2014, was arrested in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, according to jail records and news reports. He was reportedly on his way to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in isolated southeastern Oregon, where an armed occupation in its 41st day seemed to be…