Daily Blend: Saturday, July 31, 2010

Carl Kasell [source: UNC News Releases]

• San Luis Obispo, California deputies burst into a man’s home despite a lack of a warrant or any probable cause at all, then caught on audio recorders fabricating a reason to explain their illegal search.

• If you’re a professional football team who loses the World Cup, you go home in shame. Unless you’re the North Korean team, in which case you go home in shame, then face a six-hour public inquisition where you’re accused of betraying your leader and become outcasts.
  (via The Agitator)

• Minnesota appeals court rules that merely avoiding cops without actually doing anything wrong is grounds for being pulled over.
  (via The Agitator)

• House of Representatives passes legislation to protect seniors from fraud – no thanks to the 79 House Republicans who voted against it.

• Round-up of stories where cops ignore the law and persecute civilians who record their activities.

• Upset over former NPR newscaster Carl Kasell’s ^[pictured] (of Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me! fame) nomination for Chicago’s Radio Hall of Fame, Howard Stern attacks and mocks him on the air. Kasell responds. Classy pwnage FTW.

• Old News: Security breach resulted in private information regarding roughly 100 million Facebook users being leaked online. News: Info was made available in a torrent at The Pirate Bay and was downloaded many times. Holy Shit: Downloaders include dozens of major companies including Apple, AT&T, BBC, Disney, Goldman Sachs, IBM, Intel, Lucasfilm, Sony, the UN, and even the Church of Scientology, amongst many others. (Note that they were identified via IP backtracking, which leads to specific workstations and not the actual companies, so many of them may just be cases of overly curious employees rather than the organizations themselves.)
  (via @ontahb)

• Anti-Defamation League joins bigots and the legally illiterate in opposing the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque”. Their reasoning? That while the owners have “every [legal] right to build at this site”, the placement would “cause some victims more pain”. Okay, so a radius of two city blocks is obviously not far enough for Muslims to build anything peacefully without offending people. Maybe two cities over? Would that be acceptable, or “right”?
  (via @todayspolitics)

As always, if you have any story suggestions, feel free to send them in.

Tags: San Luis Obispo, California • Fourth Amendment • football • North Korea • Minnesota • police • cops • traffic stops • House of Representatives • fraud • Republicans • douchebags • watching the watchers • Carl Kasell • Howard Stern • radio • Hall of Fame • Facebook • leaks • Anti-Defamation League • Ground Zero Mosque • Muslims