7 reasons it’s time to shut down the Department of Homeland Security

Congressional Republicans are once again holding the government hostage against a budget authorization bill, this time threatening to put the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) into furlough. Maybe it’s time to call them on their bluff and go one step further: Let’s shut down the DHS. The agency is no longer relevant in an age where cyberterrorism may be the new normal,…

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Guantánamo torturer led brutal Chicago police regime of shackling and confession | US news | The Guardian

The results of a Guardian investigation into Richard Zuley’s detective work, particularly when visited on minority communities, suggest a continuum between Guantanamo interrogation rooms and Chicago police precincts Illustration: Nate Kitch for the Guardian A Chicago detective who led one of the most shocking acts of torture ever conducted at Guantánamo Bay was responsible for…

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The disappeared: Chicago police detain Americans at abuse-laden ‘black site’ | US news | The Guardian

While US military and intelligence interrogation impacted people overseas, Homan Square – said to house military-style vehicles and even a cage – focuses on American citizens, most often poor, black and brown. ‘When you go in,’ Brian Jacob Church told the Guardian, ‘nobody knows what happened to you.’ Video: Phil Batta for the Guardian; editing:…

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Weather: An Immediate, Personalized Form Of Breaking News We Can All Learn From | Melody Joy Kramer

February 21, 2015 Weather: An Immediate, Personalized Form Of Breaking News We Can All Learn From It’s snowing in DC. I’m not going to write a long note today, but if you get a chance today, take a look at the Capital Weather Gang Twitter feed. You’ll notice that most of the information is crowdsourced from…

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The Media’s Unproductive Obsession With Oligarchs and Gentrifiers

The Media’s Unproductive Obsession With Oligarchs and Gentrifiers By: Stephen Smith on February 20th 2015 at 4:00 pm Time Warner Center, image from Wikipedia Earlier this month, the New York Times published the results of its year-plus-long investigation into the buyers of condos at the Time Warner Center and other buildings around the bottom of Central…

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Homeless man survives cold steps away from NYC’s $100M pad – NY Daily News

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Published: Monday, February 16, 2015, 10:06 PM Updated: Tuesday, February 17, 2015, 2:49 PM They’re 500 feet apart: the city’s most expensive penthouse and a 50-year-old homeless man swaddled in five blankets. “I just survive,” Deuce said Monday, as he burrowed deeper to escape the brutal cold just half a block…

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‘Nut rage’ prompts South Korea to consider law against high-handed conduct – Yahoo News UK

google_ad_section_start By Ju-min Park SEOUL (Reuters) – Resentment has mounted so much in South Korea against what has come to be known as “gabjil”, high-handedness by the rich and powerful, that parliamentarians are proposing legislation to punish some of the worst abuses. A bill to be presented in the national assembly this month is formally…

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