Cambridge, MA Searches For New City Manager

Cambridge, MA City Manager Richard Rossi

Typically this report reveals how the meetings were conducted but little about what the people who attended said about the search for a new city manager. The job description is established in state law. The ideas cited are political issues, not qualities of the manager. Did anyone mention integrity and common sense, qualities that are scarce among city councilors? Is this another attempt to do what Noam Chomsky calls, bewildering the herd?

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/news/20160620/community-outlines-job-description-for-new-cambridge-city-manager

Community outlines job description for new Cambridge city manager
By Natalie Handy
nhandy (at) wickedlocal.com
Posted Jun. 20, 2016 at 11:34 AM
Cambridge Chronicle

Government Demands Apple Unlock Terror Phone. Ignores Service Provider's Data Bank

Beginning To Suspect This is One More Media/Government Campaign to Divert People's Attention

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/17/apple-unlocked-iphones-for-the-feds-70-times-before.html

02.18.16 12:05 AM ET
Apple Unlocked iPhones for the Feds 70 Times Before
A 2015 court case shows that the tech giant has been willing to play ball with the government before—and is only stopping now because it might ‘tarnish the Apple brand.’
Shane Harris

* * *

[From article]
This is no different, in principle, from the phone company telling the FBI how to tap into an old-fashioned hardwire phone system. In either case, in order to tap into one phone the government needs a search warrant. And one can compare these situations even further, and note that the government never used the power to wiretap to tap into everyone’s phone, only those suspected of crime.
The Fourth Amendment clearly states that government may seize documents and what is today called "data" only if a warrant is issued, a warrant that clearly specifies the place, type of information, and reason for the search.
That does not change in this case. If it is possible for Apple to obtain that one phone the FBI is concerned about, and decode only that phone’s data, then this is still consistent with the Fourth Amendment, and protect all others’ phones. Even if everyone else’s phones can then be decoded, the government must still have a search warrant to obtain the information.
The FBI did not say it wants to decode all phones, just the one owned by the terrorist. This was clearly intended to assist the FBI in only one investigation. If Tim Cook is concerned that then all persons’ phones can be decoded, then one can only point to the situation today where almost anybody -- including the government -- can have their personal records hacked, seized without permission, and used in crime. This is impossible to stop, and eventually may be impossible to stop even with iPhones.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/02/apples_issue_with_iphone_encryption.html

February 18, 2016
Apple’s Issue with iPhone Encryption
By Michael Bargo, Jr.

Boston Police Seek Clues In Disappearance of Teen Girl Found In Baltimore in 1976

[From article]
The body of the young woman known as Woodlawn Jane was found 1,500 miles away from Forbes Street in Jamaica Plain, but for two Boston detectives, the search for her identity and her killer -- or killers -- is now personal.
[. . .]
It's the same street that a tipster told police was where Woodlawn Jane Doe lived, a tip that has reinvigorated the search for the killer or killers who dumped the young woman's body in Woodlawn Cemetery outside the city of Baltimore in 1976.
Her body bore evidence of being drugged and tortured.
The tip followed Karen Anderson's 5 Investigates story about the murder.
The tipster believed she had moved from Puerto Rico to Jamaica Plain, went to Blessed Sacrament Catholic School and grew up with five siblings on Forbes Street.
[. . .]



Investigators already had clues that placed the girl in the Boston area. A grass seed bag pulled over her head was sold in only five stores, all in Massachusetts. A piece of the bag was ripped off and stuffed down her throat.
She was carrying two keys that were likely manufactured in Massachusetts, including one marked "Fitchburg."
And recent high-tech tests of pollen on her clothing found it was rare and could only come from a site in New York or the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain.
[. . .]
But despite their efforts so far, police haven't been able to determine her real name. If alive today she would have been between 55 and 65 years old. Massachusetts State Police are joining Boston police and the Center for Missing and Exploited Children in assisting Baltimore County Police with the case.

http://www.wcvb.com/news/boston-police-join-hunt-for-woodlawn-jane-does-id-killer/37040714

Karen Anderson, Kevin Rothstein
Boston police join hunt for Woodlawn Jane Doe's ID, killer
Victim showed evidence of being drugged, tortured
UPDATED 11:44 PM EST Dec 18, 2015

WCVB-TV Boston MA

Lowell, MA Police Search for Missing Disabled Woman

Elga Crespo, 67
[From article]

Lowell police are searching for a missing woman who is described as mentally challenged.
Elga Crespo, 67, was last seen Sunday night walking near her home on Tulip Lane, police said.
Police said Crespo has the mental capacity of an 8-year-old child. Crespo is diabetic and on several medications.
She is Hispanic, weighs 160 pounds and is 5 feet 2 inches tall. She has dark hair and was last seen wearing a gray sweater and black and white pants.

Anyone with information is urged to call Lowell police at 978-937-3200.

http://www.wcvb.com/news/police-searching-for-mentally-challenged-woman/36055598

Police searching for mentally challenged woman
Elga Crespo last seen Sunday night near Lowell home
WCVB-TV Boston MA
Published 3:14 PM EDT Oct 26, 2015

NYPD Denies Access To Records of X-Ray Vehicle Used For Searches

The Z Backscatter vehicles, also used by US Customs and Border Protection, can scan for drugs and explosives.
Photo: AS&E

[From article]
The top cop was asked Tuesday about the counter-terror vehicles, called Z Backscatter Vans, in light of the NYCLU’s request to file an amicus brief arguing that the NYPD should have to release records about the X-ray vans.
“They’re not used to scan people for weapons,” Bratton insisted. “The devices we have, the vehicles if you will, are all used lawfully and if the ACLU and others don’t think that’s the case, we’ll see them in court — where they’ll lose! At this time and the nature of what’s going on in the world, that concern of theirs is unfounded.”
[. . .]
New York State Supreme Court Judge Doris Ling-Cohan ruled that the department should have to turn over the records, despite the NYPD’s arguments that disclosing that information could interfere with investigations.
“While this court is cognizant and sensitive to concerns about terrorism, being located less than a mile from the 9/11 site, and having seen firsthand the effects of terrorist destruction, nonetheless, the hallmark of our great nation is that it is a democracy, with a transparent government,” the judge wrote in the December 2014 decision.

http://nypost.com/2015/10/13/nypd-has-secret-x-ray-vans/

NYPD has super-secret X-ray vans
By Yoav Gonen and Shawn Cohen
New York Post
October 13, 2015 | 5:39pm

Updated: Purging Memory of Wasting Cambridge, MA Taxpayer Funds, The Spending Other People's Money Society

Posted October 4, 2015 9:02 PM ET; Last updated October 11, 2015 9:35 PM ET



This article was rewritten, and the original one deleted. The new URL and headline is posted below. The new explanation is that the Mayor formed the search committee with the help of the consulting firm. Does that mean they volunteered with no pay? The Mayor did not say. Is this another example of history being rewritten by government to purge inconvenient facts from memory? Is the Memory Hole open and active again in Cambridge? My comment (in red just below this) was deleted along with the original report, press release. Both URLs lead to the new edited, rewritten article

Appears to be a press release from someone. The decision to appoint 19 members of the community to be the search committee sounds questionable. No union leaders? No parents? No teachers? Politicians? Was it necessary to pay a consultant an unknown amount but surely more than $50,000 to come up with this idea? Are school committee members unable to dream up this uncomplicated protocol? City officials have money to hire consultants to advise this common sense structure, but do not have funds to house people without homes. They have taxpayer funds for illegal immigrants who say they are refugees, but not for veterans and American citizens who did no wrong. Who are these officials working for? 

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20151004/NEWS/150939683

Cambridge superintendent search committee formed
Posted Oct. 4, 2015 at 1:15 PM
Cambridge Chronicle

* * *
comment on school super search committee deleted?
comparing articles.
press release changed?

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20151011/NEWS/151005747

Cambridge superintendent search committee formed
Posted Oct. 11, 2015 at 11:15 AM

Revolutionary Promoter of Fourth Amendment

[From article]
John Adams wrote about James Otis’ fiery argument in court against the Writs of Assistance in 1761: “[T]he child independence was then and there born.” A 1783 eulogy poem written by Thomas Dawes described Otis as “first in patriot fame.”
The Writs of Assistance, a method of search and seizure known as “general warrants,” were authorized by Parliament. Otis nevertheless called these institutionalized violations of liberty “illegal.”
[. . .]
Today, the principles of law and liberty argued by Otis are being ignored by America’s soft police state, which uses mass surveillance to violate our property rights and privacy, and other more targeted administrative search and seizure tools to suppress rights of commerce and conscience.
A recent Supreme Court decision shows the judicial disarray on regulation of commerce and principles of the Fourth Amendment at the heart of the famous argument by Otis.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/07/this_independence_day_we_need_james_otis.html

July 4, 2015
This Independence Day, We Need James Otis
By Mark J. Fitzgibbons

Finding Lost Smart Phones Now Easy, But . . .

Find My Phone
Google has unveiled a new feature that allows users to track down their lost phones whenever they have an internet connection. Simply typing “find my phone” into the search engine will bring up the feature, which shows the handset’s location on a map as well as allowing users to ring it so that it can be found. The update relies on having the latest version of the Google app on the phone, but can be used from any browser.

But then there is this:

Apple wants to track iPhones – even when they’re turned off
The plan, for which Apple was awarded a patent at the end of January, would allow phones to go into a kind of zombie mode – apparently shut off, but actually tracking the phone’s movements. But while the feature might sound like a way of Apple and other governments tracking your location, it will likely make the phones more secure. Apple’s Find My iPhone service allows users to track phones if they’re lost or stolen, allowing them to be traced and found. But at the moment, thieves can simply turn the phones off, stopping the tracking feature.

Entire Google Search History Now Downloadable

Google search history can now be downloaded
Everyone can now download their entire Google history, getting everything they’ve ever searched as a comprehensive document. To do so, you can just head to Google’s Account History page, click on the cog in the top-right-hand corner and then click “Download”. When you do so, Google gives you a series of warnings that it says are “not the usual yada yada”. It makes clear that the archive contains sensitive data and that users should be sure they want to access it

Wisconsin State Government Malicious Prosecutions Target Conservative Activists

[From article]
Apparently conservatives in Wisconsin are being targeted by officials for working with budget reforms, and their houses are literally being invaded by police and their stuff is carried out right in front of them. And because of some stupid law in the badger state these conservatives are getting no due process and are required to be unconstitutionally silenced.

http://therightscoop.com/dana-loesch-exposes-intimidation-campaigns-against-conservatives-by-wisconsin-officials/

Published on Apr 21, 2015
You Will Not Believe What Is Happening In America Today

Google Search Rankings Change on April 21, 2015, Mobile Friendly Gets Priority

Use this link to test site for mobile friendliness on Google.

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/


http://www.infoworld.com/article/2906729/mobile-technology/heres-what-googles-mobile-search-change-means-to-you.html

Here's what Google's mobile search change means to you
By Sharon Gaudin
Computerworld
 Apr 8, 2015

FBI Search Powers Increased By Proposed Rule Change

[From article]

Known as Rule 41, the existing provision generally allows judges to approve search warrants only for material within the geographic bounds of their judicial district.
But the rule change, as requested by the department, would allow judges to grant warrants for remote searches of computers located outside their district or when the location is unknown.

[. . .]

But the plan has been widely opposed by privacy advocates, such as the American Civil Liberties Union, as well as some technologists, who say it amounts to a substantial rewriting of the rule and not just a procedural tweak. Such a change could threaten the Fourth Amendment's protections against unreasonable search and seizures, they warn, and possibly allow the FBI to violate the sovereignty of foreign nations. The rule change also could let the agency simultaneously target millions of computers at once, even potentially those belonging to users who aren't suspected of any wrongdoing.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/fbi-s-plan-to-expand-hacking-power-advances-despite-privacy-fears-20150316

FBI’s Plan to Expand Hacking Power Advances Despite Privacy Fears
Google had warned that the rule change represents a “monumental” constitutional concern.
BY DUSTIN VOLZ

Virginia Writes State Law On Fourth Amendment Privacy Protections

[From article]
The proposed amendment clarifies that unreasonable searches and seizures may not be made of our digital data (i.e., e-mails and data stored on computers or cell phones). This is a logical extension of “papers and effects” from James Madison’s 18th-century version.
HJ 578 reverses what is known as the “third-party doctrine” so that people’s data stored in the cloud would be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures.
Since devices the size of birds used to spy on our backyards, fields, and pastures did not exist in the 18th century, the 21st-century Fourth Amendment includes “lands” as being protected.
[. . .]
The Fourth Amendment – not politicians, bureaucrats, or even judges – is what prevents America from becoming a police state. It is law enforcement on law enforcement itself. Gallup polls, however, show that Americans fear their government in record numbers.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/01/21stcentury_fourth_amendment_faces_first_legislative_test_in_virginia.html

January 24, 2015
21st-century Fourth Amendment faces first legislative test in Virginia
By Mark J. Fitzgibbons

ACLU Teaching High School Students How To React To Being Stopped By Police, Politely

East Side Community High School is teaching its students how to interact with the NYPD during stop-and-frisks. 
Photo: Helayne Seidman

[From article]
The principal of East Side Community HS invited the New York Civil Liberties Union to give a two-day training session last week on interacting with police.
The 450 kids were coached on staying calm during NYPD encounters and given a “What To Do If You’re Stopped By The Police” pamphlet.
NYCLU representatives told kids to be polite and to keep their hands out of their pockets. But they also told students they don’t have to show ID or consent to searches, that it’s best to remain silent, and how to file a complaint against an officer.
[. . .]
But some law-enforcement experts say the NYCLU is going beyond civics lessons and doling out criminal-defense advice.
[. . .]
Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Association said, “Education is the key, but are Civil Liberties going in with an agenda or to educate? I think we deserve equal time and should have the opportunity to follow up with the same platform to explain exactly what police do and what we think is the best way to deal with the police.”

http://nypost.com/2014/11/23/new-hs-class-teaches-kids-how-to-deal-with-cops/

New high school course: ‘How to deal with cops’
By Kate Briquelet
November 23, 2014 | 2:14am

NYPD Officer Accused of Theft of $1300 Cash From Suspect

From article]
The investigation was launched after a video emerged showing the unidentified officer putting his hand into the pocket of Lamard Joye and pulling out what looks like papers as the Brooklyn man is ­being held up against a fence shortly after midnight on Sept. 16.
In the video — which was taken by an onlooker with a cellphone camera — Joye can be heard yelling after the officer took the “papers.”
“Give me my money, man! Give me my money!” Joye exclaims.
The officer then pepper-sprayed him, said Joye’s ­attorney, Robert Marinelli.
[. . .]
After allegedly taking the dough and pepper-spraying Joye, the cop also pepper-sprayed Joye’s sister, Lateefah Joye, who protested the alleged cash grab, Marinelli said. She had also asked for the officer’s shield number.

http://nypost.com/2014/10/09/cop-allegedly-steals-workers-money-during-search/

Cop accused of stealing $1,300 during search
By Josh Saul
New York Post
October 9, 2014 | 3:37am

Google Tried To Redact Court Decision To Hide How They Search Your Emails

[From article]
It turns out that Google, which bases its business on collecting and analyzing huge reams of data for advertising purposes, has been scanning users' emails even before users have a chance to open or read them, including email messages that are deleted without being opened. Google knows what's in your email before you do.
The revelation came in a now-settled legal dispute over Google's Gmail service. Dozens of the nation's largest newspapers and media companies fought to make sure that the case — and its wide-ranging implications for Internet users — received a full public airing.
[. . .]
Google tried, and failed, to redact information about its email scanning process from a transcript of a public court hearing. Last month, the judge in the case ruled that portions of the transcript from that February hearing could not be redacted retroactively, since that would be tantamount to closing a public courtroom.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/09/04/google-spying-advertising-privacy-column/15051241/

The information Google doesn't want you to organize: Column
Thomas R. Burke and Jonathan Segal

10:17 a.m. EDT September 4, 2014

Police and US Army Have X-Ray Gun For Searches

Posted June 22, 2014 8:14 PM ET; Last updated June 23, 2014 9:07 PM ET


How long will it take for criminals to obtain and use these for nefarious purposes? One day later local police already have these devices to search people.

[From article]
an X-ray gun that can see through fabric, rubber and aluminum to find drugs, money, explosive liquids and even people. The recently released X-ray gun is the first device of its kind that a soldier or would-be superhero can hold in her hands. It’s about the size of a breadbox and works with the press of a button, allowing the user to actually see the outline of organic material buried behind cloth, leather or even aluminum by running the X-ray gun over the material and zapping it with low-level X-rays.

Patrick Tucker
At a recent demonstration, the device could see through boxes, bags, car seats and airplane wings to reveal various organic compounds — everything from bricks of simulated cocaine to paper, ammonia and other potentially explosive materials. Even a handful of grapes.
[. . .]
The MINI Z comes in at $50,000, or half the cost of a typical airport backscatter X-ray. But the most important feature, from a national security perspective, is the simplicity of use. You turn it on, point, shoot and get an image. It requires almost no training to operate. That’s key because it’s not necessarily U.S. soldiers that will be using it

http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2014/06/military-now-has-x-ray-guns/86965/?oref=d-river
Patrick Tucker

11:36 AM ET

* * *

[From article]
The video for the handheld MINI Z Backscatter imaging scanner, developed by American Science and Engineering Inc (AS&E), brags that it will “allow operators to see more than ever in more places than ever.”
The scanner will be used by “law enforcement, first responders, border control, event security, maritime police and general aviation security,” in order to search for currency, drugs and explosives. Police will use the device to inspect “vehicle bumpers, tires, panels and interiors” and to detect IEDs.
According to AS&E, the scanner represents a “game changer” for law enforcement and border patrol and will be used to ensure “public safety.” However, the company admits that the device “is not designed to scan people” because it emits radiation.
[. . .]
In 2010 it emerged that American Science & Engineering had sold many of the larger devices to U.S. law enforcement agencies, who were already using them on the streets for “security” purposes.
The company’s founder, Joe Reiss, told Forbes that more than 500 backscatter x-ray devices were already being used domestically by U.S. authorities and were being, “driven past neighboring vehicles to see their contents.”
[. . .]
The plans mirrored leaked documents out of the UK Home Office three years prior, which revealed that authorities in the UK were working on proposals to fit lamp posts with CCTV cameras that would X-ray scan passers-by and “undress them” in order to “trap terror suspects”.

http://www.infowars.com/police-to-get-x-ray-scanner-for-vehicle-inspections-public-safety/

POLICE TO GET X-RAY SCANNER FOR VEHICLE INSPECTIONS & “PUBLIC SAFETY”
Handheld version of 'roving street scanner' to snoop on contents of cars
by PAUL JOSEPH WATSON

JUNE 23, 2014

Judges Negated Fourth Amendment

[From article]
And in his recent NSA decision, Judge Leon alerted future U.S. historians and students to this: The Bush and Obama administrations, along with compliant Congresses, had not been able to show a "single instance in which analysis of the NSA's bulk metadata collection actually stopped an imminent attack, or otherwise aided the government in achieving any objective that was time-sensitive in nature."
Meanwhile, all of us lost our Fourth Amendment rights to personal privacy.
"The judge," according to The New York Times, "wrote that James Madison 'would be aghast' at the degree of privacy invasion the data sweep represents."
[. . .]
Whether or not you agree with this judge, whom I regard as a hero of the Constitution, it's clear that there would not have been a case to judge had it not been for the "leaks" -- the disclosure of so many other government acts of contempt for our personal privacy -- by Edward Snowden, the former contractor for the NSA.
I've already noted that, depending on the candidates for the presidency in 2016, I may write in Snowden for the Oval Office.

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/hentoff010214.php3#.Uswl8900i6Y

Jewish World Review 

Jan. 2, 2014/ 1 Shevat, 5774 

Are heroes of the Constitution bringing it back?
By Nat Hentoff

Teen, 15, Charged With Impersonating Police, Strip Seaching Woman

http://www.breitbart.com/InstaBlog/2013/10/11/Cops-15-Year-Old-Charged-with-Kidnapping-After-Impersonating-Deputy-and-Attempting-to-Strip-Search-a-Woman

Cops: 15-Year-Old Charged with Kidnapping After Impersonating Deputy and Attempting to Strip Search a Woman
by JON DAVID KAHN
11 Oct 2013, 7:42 AM PDT

Supreme Court Of The US Condones Illegal Searches of Students

[From article]
These searches were conducted without any individually cited suspicions of wrongdoing by any of the students, not to mention total disregard of due process.
[. . .]
The appeals court ruled the school's interest in drug use outweighed Diane's privacy rights. The Supreme Court then refused any further review of the case.
In his dissent of the Supreme Court's decision, Justice Brennan roared: "Schools cannot expect their students to learn the lessons of good citizenship when the school authorities themselves disregard the fundamental principles underpinning our constitutional freedoms."

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/hentoff101613.php3#.UmC7gd00jDo

Jewish World Review
Oct. 16, 2013/ 12 Mar-Cheshvan, 5774
Supreme Court teaches students they're outside constitution
By Nat Hentoff