shadow-music.net

Saturday, May 18, 2019

On Wednesday in the US state of Alabama, Governor Kay Ivey signed the Alabama Human Life Protection Act, officially outlawing nearly all circumstances of abortion in the state. This bill passed the Senate of the state on Tuesday.

Republican state representative Terri Collins who sponsored the bill remarked the bill was not enforceable under the current interpretation of the US Constitution established by the US Supreme Court ruling in the Roe v. Wade case. Terri said the bill would become enforceable after the Supreme Court revisits the case.

Apart from when the mother’s life is threatened by the pregnancy, the bill provides for any terminations to potentially result in life sentence penalties.

The bill has sparked controversy and protests. Planned Parenthood, along with the American Civil Liberties Union have announced their plans to oppose the bill by lawsuit.

The governor tweeted her reasoning saying, “Today, I signed into law the Alabama Human Life Protection Act. To the bill’s many supporters, this legislation stands as a powerful testament to Alabamians’ deeply held belief that every life is precious & that every life is a sacred gift from God.”

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has asked the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), host of Wikinews and its sister projects, to take down its image of the FBI seal from its websites. However, the WMF declined, saying that FBI lawyers had misinterpreted the relevant federal law.

In a letter dated July 22, David C. Larson, Deputy General Counsel of the FBI demanded that the WMF remove the seal from its websites within fourteen days, claiming that “it facilitates both deliberate and unwitting violations of these restrictions by Wikipedia users.”

Larson cited 18 U.S.C. 701, which states: “Whoever manufactures, sells, or possesses any badge, identification card, or other insignia, of the design prescribed by the head of any department or agency of the United States for use by any officer or employee thereof, or any colorable imitation thereof, or photographs, prints, or in any other manner makes or executes any engraving, photograph, print, or impression in the likeness of any such badge, identification card, or other insignia, or any colorable imitation thereof, except as authorized under regulations made pursuant to law, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.”

Larson went on to say that use of the FBI seal may be authorized only by the director of the FBI; the FBI director has not given such permission to WMF.

The WMF, represented by General Counsel Mike Godwin, responded, saying in a letter dated July 30, that Larson’s interpretation “is both idiosyncratic (made especially so by your strategic redaction of important language) and, more importantly, incorrect.”

Godwin said that “while we appreciate your desire to revise the statute to reflect your expansive vision of it, the fact is that we must work with the actual language of the statute, not the aspirational version” Larson provided. According to the relevant case law, it “was intended to protect the public against the use of a recognizable assertion of authority with intent to deceive.”

Godwin asserted that the use of the FBI seal by the WMF and its projects do not fall under the purview of that law.

The websites of the Wikimedia Foundation are filled with user-generated text, pictures, and other materials, uploaded and curated by independent, often anonymous, volunteers, who change the websites minute by minute. The most well-known sites are the Wikipedias, encyclopedias with over 13 million articles in hundreds of languages. However, the foundation also hosts an image and media library, dictionaries, the Wikinews news websites, book websites and many other educational collaborations.

Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (where Godwin was once staff counsel), said that the WMF’s constitutional right to free expression allows it to use the FBI seal. “I have to believe the FBI has better things to do than this,” she said. The reason for the FBI’s request is unknown, as the FBI seal is published on many other websites, including Encyclopedia Britannica.

Friday, September 23, 2016

The following is the fourth edition of a monthly series chronicling the U.S. 2016 presidential election. It features original material compiled throughout the previous month after an overview of the month’s biggest stories.

In this month’s edition on the campaign trail: the vice presidential nominee of the Reform Party is revealed; those attacked in a high profile campaign speech respond; and Wikinews interviews an economist seeking the presidency a second time.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Scotland has refused bail to the Libyan man convicted of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 despite his terminal cancer, as he can receive treatment in prison. Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al-Megrahi was jailed in 2001 for the 1988 bombing of the transatlantic airliner, killing 270 people, but is seeking to have his conviction overturned.

Minutes after Edinburgh’s Appeals Court rejected bail on compassionate grounds Jim Swire, spokesman for the victim’s families who lost his daughter in the disaster, complained about the ruling. “It has never been a goal of our group to seek revenge,” said a lawyer outside the court reading from his statement. “The refusal of a return to his family for a dying man whose verdict is not even yet secure looks uncomfortably like either an aspect of revenge — or perhaps timidity.”

Al-Megrahi, a former intelligence officer, is 54 and serving a minimum of 27 years for the bombing. He has advanced prostate cancer which is spreading through his body. His request for bail was rejected by Lord Hamilton, Scotland’s head judge, who said that as doctors say he could live a few more years he should not be released unless and until after his appeal succeeds or his condition worsens.

Some other doctors give his time as just months, as the cancer has reached his bones. Hamilton however said that palliative hormone treatment could prolong his life. Hamilton also said Al-Megrahi was not suffering “material pain or disability”.

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission ruled last year that the conviction may be a miscarriage of justice. It said there was significant doubts to be raised over several key pieces of evidence in the original trial.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Workers in Greece have gone on strike in protest against the government’s second round of austerity packages. Greek prime minister George Papandreou announced €28 billion in cuts Monday; loans worth up to €155 billion from the European Union and International Monetary Fund depend on the measures passing.

Tens of thousands of workers are planning to march through Athens and five thousand police officers have been brought into the capital to supervise the strike. Most public services in Greece are affected, including hospitals, ambulances, trains, buses, ferries and even air traffic control. The Athens metro will remain open “so as to allow Athenians to join the planned protests in the capital.” Thanassis Pafilis, an MP with the Greek Communist Party, said that the budgetary measures “are a massacre for workers’ rights,” adding, “It will truly be hell for the working man. The strike must bring everything to a standstill.”

With a sixteen percent unemployment rate in Greece, between 70 and 80 percent of Greek citizens oppose the cuts. The measures are “tough and in many respects unfair,” said Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos, but the government continues to push for austerity measures, as failure to secure credit may force the government and banks of Greece to default as early as July on the €380 billion in debt owed to France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Switzerland, Japan and Spain.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

With two by-elections coming up in Australia, many minor parties and independents will be looking to gain a seat in the House of Representatives. Stephen Murphy is one of the independents.

Mr Murphy is a computer programmer from the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick.

“After growing up in South-East Melbourne I studied Science at Monash with first class Honours, worked in Europe for 10 years and have recently returned to Australia. I work in finance as a computer programmer and speak five languages,” Mr Murphy said.

Wikinews reporter Patrick Gillett held an exclusive email interview with Mr Murphy, candidate for the Division of Higgins.

((WN)) Why do you want to get into parliament?

Stephen Murphy: I am standing up for what I believe is the correct course of action on the biggest issue in Australian politics in 100 years – Kevin Rudd’s flawed emissions trading scheme (ETS).

((WN)) What would the three main policies you are taking into this by-election be?

SM: I will oppose the emissions trading scheme, ensure that all government policy is based on accurate scientific evidence and return common sense to Canberra

((WN)) How would you address these policies?

SM: By asking for a Royal Commission into climate change so that the facts (such as that global warming stopped in 2001 and the emissions trading scheme will not change the climate one bit) are openly presented to the Australian people.

((WN)) Sending asylum seekers to Indonesia: good or bad?

SM: Any government policy that does not properly consider all implications (be it emissions trading, or any other issue) is a bad one.

((WN)) Is the Australian dollar’s near parity with the US dollar a sign that the Australian economy is healthy, the US economy in chaos or both?

SM: It’s a sign of both. Many countries around the world look with envy at how well (relatively) Australia is doing, to our credit! It is of concern that the American economy is in such bad shape and that their levels of debt seem unsustainable.

((WN)) How do you rate the governments economic stimulus package?

SM: The economic stimulus package was poorly targeted and poorly carried out. When we could have been building roads, dams, railways and hospitals yet instead we were paying for tattoos, PlayStations and overseas holidays.

((WN)) Should it be wound back?

SM: The question about levels of stimulus spending is a complicated one and requires expertise in economics, however one could say in general terms that all government spending should be well targeted and spent in the most efficient way.

((WN)) Is Kevin Rudd a better Prime Minister than John Howard?’

SM: Australian voters are the best judge of that and we will know in 2019 🙂

((WN)) Is the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme an effective solution to climate change? Why?

SM: Absolutely not. The CPRS will not change the climate by any amount that we can measure – it’s just a new tax that will hurt Australians and drive businesses and jobs overseas. Since 2003 there has been mountains of new scientific data which contradicts the popular theory that human carbon dioxide emissions are causing significant global warming. Recently, many of the scientists who wrote the IPCC report (on which the ETS / CPRS is based) have been reported as manipulating scientific data to create scary global warming scenarios. The science is definitely not settled

((WN)) Is there a better solution?

SM: We can very easily refocus the momentum and goodwill that has been generated on climate change and channel this energy into other worthwhile environmental projects in Australia that will make a difference.

((WN)) Why should the electorate vote for you?

SM: I will oppose the ETS and support responsible environmental policies instead of radical environmental policies that could end up costing every Australian taxpayer $4550 per year in new taxes.

Saturday, February 7, 2015

The death toll from Wednesday’s plane crash in Taipei, Taiwan reached 40 today with the recovery of five more bodies.

There were 58 on board when TransAsia Airways Flight 235 crashed into the city’s Keelung River. Fifteen survived and three more remain missing. Tzu Chi Foundation volunteer Lee Hung Shu-ying said today cold weather meant the families of the missing believe their loved ones are dead.

The Aviation Safety Council is investigating. The plane was in the air for minutes before banking steeply, hitting an elevated road, and crashing into the river. The domestic flight from Taipei Songshan Airport was headed to the island of Kinmen.

Investigators are focusing on the ATR 72-600’s engines. One engine automatically ‘feathered’ itself. Feathering involves the turboprop’s propeller rotating its blades to reduce drag.

Engines autofeather when they fail (‘flaming out’). By reducing drag on the non-working engine, a twin turboprop plane can fly safely using only its other engine. A feathered engine will not provide any thrust. The reason for autofeathering is presently unclear; what is known is the flight crew subsequently shut off the wrong engine. A series of stall warnings went off in the cockpit as the aircraft headed to disaster.

Aviation Safety Council managing director Thomas Wang confirmed an automated “number two engine flameout” message should have alerted the crew to the engine trouble, leading them to follow “the corresponding checklist”. “There are procedures that pilots go through — safeguards — when you’re going to shut down an engine, particularly close to the ground,” said John M. Cox, former commercial pilot and boss of a safety consultant. “Why that didn’t occur here, I don’t know.”

Stephen Fredrick, a former pilot of similar aircraft, told CNN video showing the final seconds is consistent with dual flameout. He said the wings-level, nose-down position suggested gliding.

Wang, however, cautions it is too early to blame any particular factor. “At this moment we just release the numbers, the parameter we’ve confirmed, we did not release any judgment who did what at this time”. The Aviation Safety Council has teamed up with engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney Canada to examine the engines.

Also being prioritised is finalising a cockpit voice recorder transcript and cockpit examination. The aircraft was near-new.

Local prosecutors are investigating potential “professional error”, and the Civil Aeronautics Administration has ordered TransAsia retest all ATR pilots. 90 flights over three days are cancelled to allow the proficiency checks. TransAsia and Uni Air have also been ordered to check their collective 22 ATRs for engine and fuel system problems.

Pilot Liao Chien-tsung and his co-pilot, not publicly identified, were initially hailed as heroes by prosecutors, mayor Ko Wen-je, international press, and at least one relative of a survivor. After declaring “Mayday Mayday, engine flameout” to air traffic control the pair grappled with their struggling plane, avoiding buildings in its path.

They have been credited with reducing the death toll. Their bodies were found in the cockpit, with leg fractures. Both were still holding the wrecked plane’s controls.