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A key US government surveillance tool should face new limits, a divided privacy oversight board says

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:49:41 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal spy agencies should be required to get court approval before reviewing the communications of U.S. citizens collected through a secretive foreign surveillance program, a sharply divided privacy oversight board recommended on Thursday.The recommendation came in a report from a three-member Democratic majority of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent agency within the executive branch, and was made despite the opposition of Biden administration officials who warn that such a requirement could snarl fast-moving terrorism and espionage investigations and weaken national security as a result.The report comes as a White House push to secure the reauthorization of the program known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is encountering major bipartisan opposition in Congress and during a spate of revelations that FBI employees have periodically mishandled access to a repository of intelligence gathered under the law, v...

Emails at centre of court martial for Lt.-Gen. Whelan deemed inadmissible

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:49:41 GMT

OTTAWA — The military judge presiding over a court martial for Lt.-Gen. Steve Whelan has decided the emails at the centre of the case are not admissible as evidence.Cmdr. Martin Pelletier presided over a hearing Thursday afternoon to determine whether the emails could be admitted as part of the prosecution’s case. Earlier Thursday, he imposed a publication ban on that hearing and on the emails themselves until such time as they are either admitted into evidence or the proceedings are over.Pelletier told the court it was a challenging decision to impose the ban.“There come times in the judiciary when you have to fly by the seat of your pants, and this is one of the cases,” Pelletier said as he read his decision Thursday afternoon. Military prosecutors wanted to enter into evidence 10 packages of email correspondence between Whelan and the complainant in the case, who has been testifying this week. The defence argued that the emails are not relevant to the charge.Whe...

Stock market today: Wall Street ticks higher as pressure eases from the bond and oil markets

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:49:41 GMT

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street ticked higher Thursday to trim its sharp loss for September after pressure squeezing it from the oil and bond markets relaxed a bit. The S&P 500 rose 25.19, or 0.6%, to 4,299.70. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 116.07 points, or 0.3%, to 33,666.34, and the Nasdaq composite gained 108.43, or 0.8%, to 13,201.28.A drop in oil prices took some heat off the stock market, a day after crude reached its highest price of the year. Treasury yields also relaxed to give the stock market more of a breather, particularly Big Tech companies. A 2.1% climb for Meta Platforms and 1.5% gain for Nvidia were two of the strongest forces lifting the S&P 500. Stocks, though, are still on track for their worst month of the year as Wall Street grapples with a new normal where interest rates may stay high for a while. The Federal Reserve has pulled its main interest rate to the highest level since 2001 in hopes of extinguishing high inflation, and it indicated last w...

Former lawmaker who led Michigan marijuana board is sent to prison for bribery

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:49:41 GMT

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A man formerly known as a powerful Michigan lawmaker was sentenced Thursday to nearly five years in federal prison for accepting bribes as head of a marijuana licensing board.Rick Johnson admitted accepting at least $110,000 when he led the board from 2017 to 2019.“I am a corrupt politician,” Johnson told the judge, according to The Detroit News.Johnson was a powerful Republican lawmaker years ago, serving as House speaker from 2001 through 2004. He then became a lobbyist, and ultimately chair of a board that reviewed and approved applications to grow and sell marijuana for medical purposes.U.S. District Judge Jane Beckering sentenced Johnson to about 4.5 years in prison.“You exploited your power, and you planned it out even before you got the appointment,” Beckering said.Two lobbyists who referred to Johnson as “Batman” in text messages have also pleaded guilty to bribery-related charges. A Detroit-area businessman who paid bribes, John Dalaly, was recent...

Friend of slain B.C. Sikh advocate says police warned him of threat after killing

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:49:41 GMT

A member of the Surrey, B.C., gurdwara where Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar served as president before he was gunned down in June says police have also warned him about a threat to his life. Gurmeet Toor, who calls himself a close friend of Nijjar, says he was surprised when two police officers knocked on his door one night last month and handed him a “duty to warn” letter saying his life may be in danger.Toor told The Canadian Press in an interview conducted in Punjabi that police advised him to be careful, to avoid gatherings and move to a safer location, but they wouldn’t provide details on the threat. He is member of the management committee at the same gurdwara where Nijjar was shot and has been campaigning in the unofficial referendum for an independent homeland in part of northern India. The warning to Toor came on Aug. 24, before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Parliament, on Sept. 18, that Canada’s intelligence services were investigating “...

BlackBerry loses US$42 million in second quarter

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:49:41 GMT

WATERLOO, ONT. — BlackBerry Ltd. says it lost US$42 million in the second quarter of its 2024 fiscal year, compared to a loss of US$54 million in the same period last year.The Waterloo, Ont.-based tech company, which reports its earnings in U.S. dollars, says the loss works out to seven cents per diluted share.BlackBerry says its revenue for the second quarter was $132 million, compared to $168 million in the prior year’s quarter.While revenue from the company’s cybersecurity segment declined by 40 per cent year-over-year, revenue from its IoT segment increased by four per cent.The company says it expects its IoT revenue to continue to grow, and is forecasting its fourth quarter to be the strongest ever for that segment.BlackBerry also announced the resignation of Timothy Dattels from its board of directors Thursday.This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 28, 2023.Companies in this story: (TSX:BB)The Canadian Press

North Carolina governor vetoes bill that would take away his control over election boards

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:49:41 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed Republican legislation Thursday that would take away his powers to choose State Board of Elections members and give them to legislative leaders as the 2024 campaign cycle begins in the closely divided state.Cooper already had signaled a veto was coming, which sets up override votes likely next month. The GOP has narrow veto-proof majorities in each chamber and the final bill passed the House and Senate last week on party-line votes.The measure, if enforced, would remove from Cooper and future governors the ability to pick an elections board that contains a majority of appointees from their own party. For decades, the governor’s party has held a 3-2 seat advantage.Republicans have said such division breeds distrust among voters about board decisions. Their proposal would increase the board to eight members and give the House speaker, the Senate leader and the minority party leaders in each chamber two seats t...

Ohio football coach whose team called ‘Nazi’ during game says he was forced to resign, no ill intent

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:49:41 GMT

BROOKLYN, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio high school football coach says he was forced to resign by his school district and intended no harm to opposing players after he and his team repeatedly used “Nazi” as a game call in a Sept. 22 match. In an interview with The Associated Press Thursday, former Brooklyn High School coach Tim McFarland said he never meant any offense by using the term and that it “didn’t even occur” to him that it could be taken as antisemitic But the team’s use of “Nazi” has been largely criticized as such, especially given that the plays were called during a game against Beachwood High School — a school based in a largely Jewish Cleveland suburb. Peter Pattakos, McFarland’s lawyer, balked at the idea of the word Nazi being deemed antisemitic and said it is a historical term, not a slur. Citing an Ohio high school coaching book from the 1990s, Pattakos said “Nazi” is often used in football to warn teammates of what is known as a “blitz.” Beachwood School...

Appeals court blocks hearings on drawing a second majority-Black congressional district in Louisiana

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:49:41 GMT

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge’s plan to hold hearings next week to draw up congressional boundary lines giving Louisiana a second majority-Black district was blocked Thursday by a divided appeals court panel.Supporters of establishing a second such district had hoped a recent Supreme Court ruling upholding a redrawn map in Alabama would soon result in similar results in Louisiana. But in a 2-1 ruling, a panel of judges at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Baton Rouge-based U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick was moving too quickly and must give the state more time to consider a new map. Dick had issued an injunction last year blocking a map that had been drawn up by the Legislature, saying it violated the Voting Rights Act. But the map was used in the 2022 elections after the Supreme Court put the Louisiana case on hold, pending the outcome of the Alabama case. Writing for the majority in Thursday’s appellate ruling, Judge Edith Jones said Dick had set an “impossibly...

Sovereignty act may be used to fight 2035 net-zero electricity plan: Alberta premier

Published Wed, 25 Dec 2024 05:49:41 GMT

EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she would use her province’s sovereignty act as a last resort to challenge any attempt by the federal government to impose a net-zero electricity grid by 2035.Smith says achieving net-zero 12 years from now is not realistic, adding that it could lead to power blackouts because Alberta wouldn’t have a reliable source of baseload power such as natural gas.Smith’s government is arguing for a net-zero grid by 2050 and has a working group discussing the issue with federal counterparts.“We’re preparing a sovereignty act motion and I’m hoping we don’t have to use it,” Smith told reporters in Calgary Thursday.“That’s why we’re at the table having these negotiations.“But we are going to defend our constitutional jurisdiction to make sure that we develop our oil and gas industry at our own pace and that we develop our electricity system so that it achieves the goal of reliability and affordability.”The act is formally titled the Alberta Sov...