News

Pitt shooter had no ID; fingerprints yield nothing

PITTSBURGH — The University of Pittsburgh psychiatric clinic gunman who killed an employee and shot several others wasn't carrying identification and his fingerprints have yielded no clues to his identity — but the mother of the slain employee said Friday she doesn't believe the gunman knew her son.

The gunman's ...

Lennon trial hears of wires find

BBC - News - Sat, 2025-06-07 22:41
Damaged wires were found in the home of a man charged with sending a suspect package to the Celtic manager, a trial hears.
Categories: BBC, News

Afghan bomb kills at least 10, including 3 GIs

AP - World News - Sat, 2025-06-07 22:41
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- A suicide bomber on a motorcycle killed at least 10 people, including three American soldiers, at a park in a relatively peaceful area of northern Afghanistan on Wednesday, part of an increase in violence at the start of the spring fighting season....

US Army issues Facebook warning

BBC - News - Sat, 2025-06-07 22:41
Photos posted on social media sites like Facebook that are geotagged - marked with a location - put soldiers and their families in danger, the US Army warns.
Categories: BBC, News

VIDEO: Nigeria raid 'best hope for hostages'

BBC - News - Sat, 2025-06-07 22:41
The Defence Secretary, Philip Hammond, has said that the best chance of saving two hostages in Nigeria was to go in to try and rescue them.
Categories: BBC, News

AR: Bad nighttime search purpose saved by GFE

FourthAmendment.com - News - Sat, 2025-06-07 22:41

In a nighttime search case, the safety of children on the premises with a meth lab could be considered by the police and courts in issuing a nighttime search warrant. While all the prior case law deals with officer safety and a nighttime search, here it needed to mean that the children were generally at risk and the warrant happened to be sought at nighttime. That is not a valid reason for a nighttime search warrant. However, the officers were acting in good faith, and this nighttime search would not be suppressed. [Presumably the next one would? The dissenters seem to think not.] State v. Tyson, 2012 Ark. 107, 2012 Ark. LEXIS 124 (March 8, 2012) (4-3):

Additionally, as evidenced by this split opinion, this court cannot unanimously agree in the exact interpretation of the language in Rule 13.2(c)(iii). Therefore, we cannot hold that an officer should have known that the threat of immediate harm to the children inside a trailer with an active methamphetamine lab was not the type of reasonable cause covered by Rule 13.2(c)(iii) to execute the search warrant in hand that had been considered and signed by a judge. Accordingly, we hold that the Leon good-faith exception applies under these circumstances and that the circuit court erred in suppressing the evidence from the nighttime search and seizure.

One curious part of this case is the fact that Arkansas as a rule-made good faith exception that it did not even discuss. So why have it?

Opinion: Government reads your tweets

CNN - Top Stories - Sat, 2025-06-07 22:41
Dean Obeidallah asks whether the Department of Homeland Security's surveillance of social media websites is an invasion of our privacy.
Categories: CNN, News

VIDEO: Tourists return to Japan beauty spot

BBC - News - Sat, 2025-06-07 22:41
The tourist trade in the scenic coastal town of Matsushima disappeared following the 2011 tsunami, but now locals and other Japanese tourists are coming back.
Categories: BBC, News

Day in pictures: 9 March 2012

BBC - News - Sat, 2025-06-07 22:41
24 hours of news photos: 9 March 2012
Categories: BBC, News

Work firm A4e in new fraud probe

BBC - News - Sat, 2025-06-07 22:41
An investigation into an allegation of attempted fraud against welfare to work company A4e is launched by the Department for Work and Pensions.
Categories: BBC, News

Cebit offers visions of future

BBC - News - Sat, 2025-06-07 22:41
Pole-dancing robots and cars that can shrink in size are among the new tech on display at this year's Cebit trade show in Germany.
Categories: BBC, News

Records show Japan gov't knew meltdown risk early

AP - World News - Sat, 2025-06-07 22:41
TOKYO (AP) -- Reconstructed documents show Japanese leaders knew hours after the tsunami that the Fukushima nuclear power plant's reactors could melt, but kept their knowledge from the public for months....

US economy adds jobs in February

BBC - News - Sat, 2025-06-07 22:41
The US economy created 227,000 jobs in February, while the unemployment rate stayed at 8.3%, official figures show.
Categories: BBC, News

GA: Reckless driving doesn't support search incident of car

FourthAmendment.com - News - Sat, 2025-06-07 22:41

Driver’s arrest for reckless driving in a shopping mall parking lot did not support a search incident of the passenger compartment. Canino v. State, 2012 Ga. App. LEXIS 252 (March 7, 2012).

A controlled buy was probable cause for a search warrant that produced more drugs; § 1983 case fails on the merits. Abreu v. Romero, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 4703 (2d Cir. March 7, 2012) (unpublished).*

Officers went to defendant’s place for a knock-and-talk and could smell marijuana coming from around the door. One looked through a gap between the blinds and the window frame. Even if this look was excluded from the application, there would still be probable cause. Also, defendant saw the officers and fled the premises. That added to the probable cause. United States v. Newton, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 4871 (5th Cir. March 8, 2012) (unpublished).*

Paracetamol killed young mother

BBC - News - Sat, 2025-06-07 22:41
A 20-year-old mother from Carmarthenshire died after taking too many paracetamol, an inquest has heard.
Categories: BBC, News

Adoption: 'The best thing I have ever done'

BBC - News - Sat, 2025-06-07 22:41
Families speak out over England's adoption process
Categories: BBC, News

D.Kan.: Defendant's wife had full access to consent to search of defendant's computer

FourthAmendment.com - News - Sat, 2025-06-07 22:41

Based on representations from defendant’s wife and all the police officers knew, she had apparent authority to consent to a search of what they believed was the family computer. It was not locked with a password, and she had full access to it. The after-acquired facts were not enough to undermine what they knew at the time. United States v. Schuler, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30512 (D. Kan. March 8, 2012):

The court heard the testimony of Mrs. Schuler and Officer Crawford. The court also heard the testimony of defendant. The court has reviewed the parties' briefs and the applicable law. The court does not believe that Officer Crawford was presented with an ambiguous situation here, nor was he required to make further inquiry. Mrs. Schuler had retrieved her husband's laptop from their home, had it in her possession, and provided it to officers–on and unlocked–explaining that she believed it was used to write the letters and/or that it contained the letters, although she was not able to find them on it. The computer was in her care, custody, and control when she provided it to officers and consented to their search of it.

It is true that police only later learned more facts that would either support or undermine Mrs. Schuler's authority to consent to the search, such as where the laptop was kept; whether Mrs. Schumer had previously been provided a password (or whether any password was actually required); and whether she occasionally used the laptop. However, the critical inquiry is what police knew at the time consent was given. Sanchez, 608 F.3d at 689, n.1 (noting that reasonableness of officer's belief that a third party has authority to consent is an objective inquiry, "based on the 'facts available to the officer at the moment,'" quoting Illinois v. Rodriguez, 497 U.S. 177, 188 (1990)); United States v. Andrus, 483 F.3d 711, 722 (10th Cir. 2007) (noting that "[a]ny after-acquired factual knowledge that 'might undermine the initial reasonable conclusion of third-party apparent authority [is] generally immaterial,'" (quotation omitted)). The court need not resolve contradictions in the hearing testimony because these additional facts are not relevant to the inquiry. The court agrees with the government that, at the time and under the circumstances in which Mrs. Schuler gave consent to search, it was reasonable for Officer Crawford to believe that she had authority to do so.

US gen apologizes for Afghan deaths in airstrike

AP - World News - Sat, 2025-06-07 22:41
PATROL BASE PUL-I-ALAM, Afghanistan (AP) -- The top commander of U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan offered a somber apology on Friday in an eastern province where officials say 18 civilians - half of them children - were killed in a coalition airstrike this week....

VIDEO: Tsunami steers Japan tech innovation

BBC - News - Sat, 2025-06-07 22:41
Dan Simmons reports on the advances Japan has made with technology to help in the future should disaster strike again.
Categories: BBC, News

US strikes Afghan prison accord

BBC - News - Sat, 2025-06-07 22:41
The US and Afghanistan reach a deal to transfer US-run prisons, including the controversial Bagram jail, to full Afghan control.
Categories: BBC, News
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