Free Republic

They call it 'AUTONOMOUS REAL-TIME GROUND UBIQUITOUS SURVEILLANCE-IMAGING SYSTEM' for a reason!!! Rumors of an experimental 1.8-gigapixel surveillance video camera in development at DARPA -the ARGUS-IS- first surfaced in 2009. But PBS this year got hold of some actual video feeds- and they are indeed chilling. All it takes now is one lone unit circling an area half the size of Manhattan (at cca 15-20,000 ft.) to provide comprehensive video surveillance of every single inch. They are running a program on the moving objects, meaning generating structured data out of the video, not just displaying still/moving pictures. Just imagine drone-loving Dear Leader with a few hundred of these at...

LAKELAND --  A Lakeland mother shot her son in self-defense on Friday night, deputies said. According to reports, 86-year-old Nancy Pennypacker told deputies she had shot her son, William Pennypacker, 64, in self-defense after he punched her in the face and fired a gun at her. Deputies said moments later the two began shooting at each other, leaving Nancy with a bullet wound that shot through her finger to her shoulder.William Pennypacker was found dead inside the home at Citrus Woods Estates off Orange Blossom Circle in Lakeland. Nancy’s long time friend and neighbor, Sue Robbins, wasn't surprised and said...

The US Navy's quieter way to spy, the Ion Tiger, just bested its own 2009 flight record with a key assist from liquid hydrogen. The unmanned aerial vehicle had previously relied on 5000-psi compressed hydrogen for fuel, but for its latest flight test the Naval Research team swapped that out for a new cryogenic tank and delivery system that relies on the liquid stuff; a choice made for the element's increased density. With that one significant change in place, the craft was able to outperform its last endurance run of 26 hours and two minutes by almost double, lasting 48...

The last time there was a terrorist attack on America, we got the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration. Each entity has spent billions to keep us safe, but neither could stop two brothers, Tamerlan, a permanent resident, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a newly minted U.S. citizen, who lived in America and, reportedly, became radicalized jihadists, from killing and maiming innocent people at the Boston Marathon last week. According to Dana Priest and William M. Arkin of The Washington Post, "Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and...

An important clarification from Senator Rand Paul, who made headlines for a rare talking filibuster challenging Barack Obama to explain the difference between using drones against American citizens overseas and using them in the United States. Neil Cavuto asked Paul about the distinction yesterday in light of the manhunt for American citizen Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Friday, in which a drone or two with real-time infrared downlook capabilities above Watertown might have saved a little time. Paul told Cavuto that this wasn’t the use to which he objected: “If there’s a killer on the loose in a neighborhood, I’m not against...

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — Police said a man shot and killed by officers in Federal Way first shot and killed his girlfriend and then fatally shot three men at an apartment complex. Investigators said they believe the series of slayings began with a domestic violence incident in which the man first fatally shot his girlfriend in the head at their shared apartment in the complex. He then left their apartment armed with a shotgun. Once outside the apartment he encountered two men. Police said he shot both of them. The resident of another apartment in the building, a 62-year-old man,...

President Barack Obama wasn’t shy about invoking Osama bin Laden’s killing during the 2012 campaign — but when it comes to his larger approach to terrorism he’s pursued a policy of speaking softly and ordering lots of drone strikes. That delicate balance was shattered by the Boston Marathon attack, thrusting a downplayed anti-terror campaign into the spotlight and the issue of terrorism to the top of Obama’s second-term priorities, at least in the short term. Obama, whose 2008 election was propelled by opposition to the Iraq War, has jettisoned the clash-of-civilizations rhetoric favored by George W. Bush — even as...

Prosecutors say a Billings woman used a gun to fend off an intruder who forced his way inside her home through a back door. The man was later arrested and is being held in the Yellowstone County jail on a $100,000 bond. Travis Bridger Soderberg, 38, has been charged with felony burglary and misdemeanor criminal mischief. He is expected to be arraigned on the charges in District Court next week. According to charging documents, a woman called police shortly after 8 p.m. on April 6 to report an intruder at her home. The woman, identified only by her initials in...

The Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office says a homeowner shot a suspect after he kicked in his front door. The shooting happened around 6:30 p.m. on Friday night at 532 Hwy 14 in Landrum. Master Deputy Kevin Bobo tells 7 On Your Side, the suspect’s wife was inside the residence with the homeowner. The suspect has been identified as Dakota Hester. Authorities say he kicked in the door, assaulted his wife then proceeded upstairs. Deputies say the homeowner, Jonathan Wofford went into his bedroom and locked the door. Deputies say Hester kicked open the door and then was shot by Wofford.

NORMAN, Okla.—The family of a man who was questioned by police for a shooting Saturday afternoon says he shot another man in self-defense. Police were called to the 4000 block of Mayfair Dr. around 10 a.m. Saturday, regarding a fight. While officers were on their way to the scene, the fight intensified to a shooting. Authorities took the suspected shooter, 47-year-old Todd William Hoss into custody at that time. After investigating the shooting, police learned that Hoss may have fired the weapon in self-defense.

KALISPELL — Police in Whitefish continue to investigate a weekend shooting death while the woman who reportedly told neighbors she shot her boyfriend has been released from custody.

n what appears to be a slap in the face for gender equality, the report found the divorce rate among couples who shared housework equally was around 50 per cent higher than among those where the woman did most of the work. “What we’ve seen is that sharing equal responsibility for work in the home doesn’t necessarily contribute to contentment,” said Thomas Hansen, co-author of the study entitled “Equality in the Home”. The lack of correlation between equality at home and quality of life was surprising, the researcher said. “One would think that break-ups would occur more often in families...

Nikki Y. McNeil, 33, was trying to leave an Ocala residence Saturday evening when Lamark D. Tucker Sr., 36, her ex-boyfriend -- and father of her three children -- took away both McNeil’s car keys and cell phone, according to a news release from the Marion County Sheriff's Office. McNeil then used spare keys to leave, but as McNeil pulled away, Lamark jumped onto the hood of the car and held on while continually threatening McNeil as she drove nearly ten miles, the release stated. McNeil, deputies said, stopped at least twice asking people for help.

EVANSVILLE — A 79-year-old Evansville man shot and killed a 19-year-old who was attacking his granddaughter, Evansville Police said in a news release. Davon Obryant Gee was pronounced dead at a home in the 500 block of South Denby Avenue on Sunday night, according to the Vanderburgh County Coroner's Office. The name of man who shot and killed Gee has not been released by police because the man has not been charged with a crime, according to city police officials. Police said Gee got into an argument with a 17-year-old girl at the Denby Avenue home on Sunday evening. Gee...

WEST JORDAN — What appeared to be a fight between a couple turned into a much more serious shooting after an armed neighbor apparently tried to intervene. Police say a they were called to the shooting at about 1 a.m. A man was arguing with his girlfriend in a car just outside the Woodgate apartment complex at 3581 W. Cobble Ridge Drive. As the argument got more heated, a man walking his dog passed by, saw the argument, and asked the female if she needed help, according to West Jordan officer J.C. Holt. An ensuing argument between the two men...

The Grand Forks County Sheriff's Department has received a federal license to use a miniature helicopter drone as a law enforcement tool across 16 northeastern North Dakota counties. The drone carries a camera and no weapons. It weighs 2 pounds and can easily be carried in a squad car. The drone could have many uses, Sheriff Bob Rost said. Those could include finding lost children or escaped prisoners, monitoring a hazardous material spill or checking flood conditions, according to the Grand Forks Herald.

A Florida teen armed with a handgun shot and killed his father, and in turn prevented his mother from being strangled on Nov. 24. Although the evening ended in tragedy, it seemed to have started pleasant enough as a small group of family and friends gathered around a bonfire outside the family's home near Tampa. But the tone changed sometime around 10 p.m. when the mother Jill Thorpe, 35, went inside their mobile home and her husband Christopher Thorpe, 36, followed suit, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. The couple began arguing inside the house and the fight quickly...

Cellphones seem to be increasingly attractive to the Department of Justice, documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union show. Agencies affiliated with the department used more than 37,600 court orders in 2011 to gather cellphone data, a sharp increase from previous years. They were almost equally divided between “pen register” data, which captures outgoing phone numbers, and “trap and trace” orders, which refer to incoming phone numbers, which means one phone could have two separate orders associated with it. The total number has roughly doubled since 2007, when cellphone communications were more limited. By law, the data can be...

The unmanned aerial vehicles have become a mainstay of the U.S. military. In combat zones, the pilotless craft perform everything from surveillance to missile strikes against U.S. enemies in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Now, just as our troops are coming home, so is their most advanced technology. And it's bringing with it a cargo of safety, privacy and civil liberty concerns. Benjamin Wittes, a Washington, D.C., national security analyst, has been asking that what-now question and expects to pose it to Minnesota leaders at the second annual Robotics Alley conference in Edina, Thursday, Nov. 15 -- a conference designed to...

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - A spokesperson with the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office says an intruder who was fatally shot on the city's west side on Oct. 26 was shot in a case of self defense. Police received a call that someone had kicked in the door of a residence in the 7600 block of Wyckford Court. Officers found one person fatally shot and IMPD later identified him as Clint Anderson , 31. Police officials say there were children at the home, but none were injured. The Prosecutor’s Office says the shooter was not the ex-girlfriend who had a protective order against...