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US Bishops Disagree with Designation of Cuba as Terrorism SponsorIn announcing the designation of Cuba Jan. 11, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said it has provided “support for acts of international terrorism in granting safe harbor to terrorists.”WASHINGTON — The US bishops’ chair for international justice and peace has expressed his disagreement with the State Department’s return of Cuba to a list of state sponsors of terrorism.The decision was based in part on Cuba’s provision of haven to Colombian rebel leaders and fugitives from US justice, as well as Cuba’s support of Nicolas Maduro, the disputed president of...

Mainstream media and social media legal “scholars” have been celebrating a decision by Justice Samuel Alito. After accepting U.S. Congressman Mike Kelly’s petition challenging the results of the presidential election, Justice Alito set a deadline of December 9th for the state to respond. It’s a conspicuous date since the so-called “Safe Harbor” date for picking electors is December 8th. This has been interpreted by nearly everyone as an indication the Supreme Court does not want to get involved with the election shenanigans, and that very well may be the case. But in this particularly scenario, it would behoove a reluctant...

Platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and many others, have received legal "safe harbor" provisions as a part of certain laws, harbors they abuse and don't deserve. Instead of growing government and making government stronger with increased regulations, one representative in congress Louie Gohmert has proposed repealing section 230 of the Communications act, based on expectations of even-handed treatment by platforms. But is repealing 230 this enough? I say go big or go home. In the digital world, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is at the forefront of online copyright issues. Section 512 of the DMCA, like section 230...

President Trump made it very clear in his State of the Union Address that he wanted to address the high cost of health care, including out-of-control drug prices.  Well, what if the simple repeal of a law would generate both tens of billions of dollars in savings for the hospital supply chain (which includes the Medicare and Medicaid programs) while promoting free-market competition for the drug and medical supply marketplace at the same time? Does such an opportunity truly exist? It does, and it starts and ends with repealing the Medicare Anti-Kickback Safe Harbor Statute, which would level the hospital supply...

This is a tax question for next year, not this one. I take 3 or 4 distributions from an IRA. Each time they ask me if I want taxes withheld but I say no. It's not a lot of money, less than $20k/year but at what point will the IRS start to penalize me for not paying a portion in advance? The ideal scenario would be for me to pay whatever I owe each year at tax time but I'm afraid they will fine me more than I would even owe for not paying taxes X amount of times during...

"Under federal law (3 U.S. Code § 5) known as the safe harbor provision, a state must determine its electors six days before the Electoral College members meet in person. In 2016, that deadline is Tuesday December 13th, since the college votes on December 19."

Almost missed this one, but Eric Goldman alerts us to the dozen comments filed with the US Copyright Office concerning its plan to force everyone to keep re-registering their official DMCA agent in order to keep retaining the DMCA's safe harbors. As we've discussed in the past, in order to make use of the DMCA's safe harbors, you have to register an official DMCA agent with the Copyright Office. In fact, we've suggested that anyone running a blog or forum site do exactly that. Many of the companies that were successfully sued by Righthaven (before it was discovered Righthaven didn't...

A recent decision by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has confirmed that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides a “safe harbor” for service providers who expeditiously take down allegedly infringing content when they receive written notice from copyright owners. In what may be the first round of a $1 billion dispute -- ongoing since 2007 -- Google subsidiary YouTube, Inc. won a summary judgment motion against Viacom, Inc., the owner of MTV, Comedy Central and other cable television channels, over copyright infringement liability for the posting of Viacom videos on YouTube.com (Viacom Int’l,...

Houston Mayor Bill White will officially launch a fingerprint-based immigration screening program in the city's jails today, fulfilling his pledge to have the system up and running by the time he leaves office. ...the outgoing mayor and Texas gubernatorial candidate, has faced harsh criticism for perceived flip-flopping on the issue of immigration enforcement in the jails. He previously requested to have the city participate in the controversial 287(g) program that would have trained officers to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents screen for illegal immigrants in the jails, but he backed away from that proposal after negotiations with the federal...

How about some Really Good News today?

WASHINGTON, Nov. 13, 2008 – The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are fought in deserts and mountains far removed from the oceans’ blue waters. But U.S. Navy sailors are increasingly seeing desert and mountain combat as they augment the units of traditional foot soldiers and medics. Navy Senior Chief Jim Pitts, a non-clinical case manager for wounded warriors, talks with Veterans Affairs social work supervisor Scott Skiles and Army Sgt. 1st Class Lee Smith, a wounded warrior military liaison. All are stationed at the Palo Alto Polytrauma Rehabilitation Center in Palo Alto, Calif. DoD photo by Fred W. Baker...

Police Chief Valerie Harris confirmed Friday afternoon that a Placer High art teacher hid a suspected gunman in his classroom during Monday's full-campus lockdown. "Our investigation did reveal that Evangelista was in Mr. Covich's classroom during the lockdown," Harris said Friday. "Information came to our attention after students were being released, and has in fact been a very concerning fact of the incident. Further investigation is being conducted and at this time I need to limit my response on the issue." Ceramics teacher Tobin Covich allegedly hid Francisco Evangelista in his classroom Monday during the lockdown. Officers arrested Evangelista late...

LEE COUNTY: A church youth leader accused of repeated sexual assaults on two teenage boys now has a $300,000 bond after his first court appearance. The judge ordered a mental health evaluation and ordered him not to have contact with minors if he bonds out of jail. NBC2 spoke to a woman who knows Elantonio "T.O." Gomez and the boys. It's a story one woman says will haunt her for a long time - a story she says leaves her so heart-broken, she only agreed to talk if she could remain anonymous. She fears if her name or face were...

Washington, D.C. — Concerned Women for America (CWA) expressed its strong dismay at the multibillion-dollar broadcast industry’s latest attempt to abuse the public airwaves. After repeatedly offending the public with indecent broadcasts, four major broadcasters filed what CWA believes are frivolous lawsuits challenging the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC’s) recent rulings. A license to broadcast doesn’t give anyone – not even super-rich Big-Media conglomerates – the right to broadcast indecent language between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. The four major broadcasters want the courts to approve the indiscriminate use of words for excretory and explicit sexual conduct. “All four broadcast networks...

The Bush plan is...we win! Judson Cox October 11, 2004 John Kerry accuses the Bush administration of not having a plan in Iraq. He says Iraq is, "The wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time." Sen. Kerry has a plan for fixing nearly every ill of American society; seldom does he tell us exactly what these plans are, but he assures us that he has plans and the President does not. President Bush's plan is simple. The plan is, we win. We invaded Iraq for a reason. Iraq is an important facet of the fight against Islamic...

A new approach to working with endangered species At first glance, Bob Long may seem to be an unlikely environmental activist. He is a minister, a rancher and a staunch defender of property rights. He is also leading the way in the fight to preserve the endangered Houston Toad, populations of which have a tenuous foothold in Bastrop County and on Long’s family ranch there. “I wanted to get off dead center,” Long says. “We had a stakeholder group that was bogged down in paperwork, and I saw an opportunity to get something going on my ranch that could be...

Radio Giant In Record Indecency Settlement By Frank Ahrens Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, June 9, 2004; Page A01 The Federal Communications Commission has reached a record-setting, nearly $2 million settlement with Clear Channel Communications Inc. that would clear the radio giant of all charges of indecency lodged against it, including on-air remarks made by shock jock Howard Stern, according to government and radio industry sources.

More in U.S. Calling for Regime Change by Joo Yong-jung (midway@chosun.com) WASHINGTON - The emphasis of Washington's North Korean policy appears to be shifting gradually toward regime change, as more officials conclude that anything short of that will fail to conclusively solve the nuclear crisis. At the same time, American policymakers are striving to ensure that the North's nuclear ambitions and human rights abuses are high-profile issues. The Republican policy committee in the U.S. Senate recently brought a Japan-based opponent of the Kim Jong Il regime to the United States for a week and introduced him to several high-ranking officials....