Your right to resell your own stuff is in peril

“It means that it’s harder for consumers to buy used products and harder for them to sell them,” said Jonathan Bland, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, who filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries and the Association for Research Libraries. “This has huge consumer impact on all consumer groups.” 

Another likely result is that it would hit you financially because the copyright holder would now want a piece of that sale. 

It could be your personal electronic devices or the family jewels that have been passed down from your great-grandparents who immigrated from Spain. It could be a book that was written by an American writer but printed and bound overseas or an Italian painter’s artwork. 

It has implications for a variety of wide-ranging U.S. entities including libraries, musicians, museums and even resale juggernauts eBay and Craigslist. U.S. libraries, for example, carry some 200 million books from foreign publishers.

“It would be absurd to say anything manufactured abroad can’t be bought or sold here,” said Marvin Ammori, a First Amendment lawyer and Schwartz Fellow at the New American Foundation who specializes in technology issues.

Your right to resell your own stuff is in peril - Jennifer Waters's Consumer Confidential - MarketWatch

Lawmakers claim administration opening door to Gitmo transfer with Illinois prison buy | Fox News

The Obama administration plans to buy an Illinois prison that at one point was considered for housing Guantanamo prisoners -- with Republican lawmakers now claiming the purchase would open the door for ultimately carrying out the Guantanamo transfer.
Administration officials, though, denied that they were looking for a new home for Guantanamo inmates. They insisted the decision to buy Thomson Correctional Center, an under-used state prison 150 miles west of Chicago, was a move to alleviate overcrowding and create jobs in the process.

Lawmakers claim administration opening door to Gitmo transfer with Illinois prison buy | Fox News

100 million Nigerians to be registered in new biometrics database

October 1, 2012 - 

The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) of Nigeria announced a proposal to register 100 million Nigerians in its recently introduced biometric database system within a period of 30 months.

NIMC Director General Chris Oneyemenam, said in an interview with newspaper Leadership, that the proposed project will require Nigerians, who are 16 years and above, to participate in the biometric registration that involves capturing and enrolling all detailed information of an individual.

The participants will then be issued a National Identity Number (NIN) and a National Smart Card, which will integrate and harmonize a variety of important databases including driver’s licence, voter’s registration, sim registration, and online banking.

100 million Nigerians to be registered in new biometrics database | BiometricUpdate.com

Travel without boarding pass

Boarding passes may soon be passé — thanks to biometric self-boarding, bag drops and ‘bagtrac’ applications

Travel without boarding pass | GulfNews.com

Alaska: Real ID Act sows confusion, privacy concerns

October 03, 2012

Brooks Hays

 

Alaska drivers' licenses may not be accepted at airport security checkpoints and elsewhere if the Real ID Act of 2005 goes into effect next year as expected.
As the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports, employees at the local Division of Motor Vehicles had been warning ID-seekers that Alaska air travelers would seen need to show passports. A DMV official told the paper that staffers have since been instructed to stop offering that advice – but it may be sound nonetheless.

The Real ID Act attempts to strengthen and standardize the state photo ID process across the country. The law requires states to use digital photographs and machine-readable technology such as magnetic strips or bar codes, and to verify birth certificates when issuing licenses.

The agency has granted numerous extensions to states slow to come on board with the new requirements, but in March, DHS Assistant Secretary for Policy David Heyman said his agency had “no plans to extend" the current January 15^th deadline.

Real ID has proven quite unpopular, even for a federal mandate. As many as seven states have made little to no progress on Real ID Act compliance, including Alaska. Half of all state legislative bodies have formally come out against the law, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Most accuse the federal government of overstepping its bounds, and argue that the law is an unfunded mandate.

Earlier this year, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) predicted that DHS, in the face of such strong opposition, would simply "declare every state materially compliant based on their independent actions to improve security (even the states that have opted out)." And as another ACLU article pointed out, DHS has already watered down its implementation guidelines.

GIMBY | Blog | Real ID Act sows confusion, privacy concerns

Judge dismisses St. Louis suit challenging health care law's contraception mandate : Stltoday

A federal judge in St. Louis has dismissed a claim that the 2010 health care reform law’s contraception mandate violates an employer’s religious freedom. It is believed to be the first decision on the merits among more than two dozen such lawsuits across the country.

O’Brien Industrial Holdings, owned by Frank O’Brien, a devout Catholic, filed notice Monday of appeal.

The law requires coverage of prescription birth control pills and implants at no cost to enrollees in all private health insurance policies, starting in 2013.
U.S. District Judge Carol Jackson ruled late Friday that the “regulations do not impose a ‘substantial burden’ on either Frank O’Brien or OIH, and do not violate (their) rights.”

O’Brien’s lawyer, Francis Manion, said he thinks Jackson’s ruling is “not well-supported by the law or logic.” He added, “Court of appeals, here we go.”


Judge dismisses St. Louis suit challenging health care law's contraception mandate : Stltoday

More states could join California's ban on gay teen 'conversion' therapy | CTV News

(No matter how much legislation gets passed preventing the deliverance of young people from this spirit, God is able to reach the heart and deliver them directly...let's continue to sow the Word of deliverance into them and see their heart reach out to the Lord - AW)

Gay rights advocates are making plans to get other states to join California in banning psychotherapy aimed at making gay teenagers straight, even as opponents prepared Monday to sue to overturn the first law in the nation to take aim at the practice.

After months of intense lobbying, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill late Saturday that prohibits licensed mental health professionals from using so-called reparative or conversion therapies with clients under age 18. Brown called the therapies "quackery" that "have no basis in science or medicine."
Two New Jersey lawmakers already are drafting similar legislation, while groups that helped get the California law passed are sharing research, witnesses and talking points with counterparts in other gay-friendly states, said Geoff Kors, senior legislative and policy strategist for the San Francisco-based National Center for Lesbian Rights.

"There are lots of folks today who are looking at this, now that the governor has signed it," Kors said. "We'll be reaching out to all the state (gay rights) groups, especially in states that have had success passing LGBT rights legislation."
The law only applies to licensed therapists, not ministers or lay people who counsel teens to resist same-sex attractions.

Two Christian legal groups, meanwhile, said they would sue in federal court in Sacramento to prevent the law from taking effect on Jan. 1.

Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/more-states-could-join-california-s-ban-on-gay-teen-conversion-therapy-1.979414#ixzz28A87WuoM

More states could join California's ban on gay teen 'conversion' therapy | CTV News