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he Baltimore Police Department has used an invasive and controversial cellphone tracking device thousands of times in recent years while following instructions from the FBI to withhold information about it from prosecutors and judges, a detective revealed in court testimony Wednesday.. The testimony shows for the first time how frequently city police are using a cell site simulator, more commonly known as a "stingray," a technology that authorities have gone to great lengths to avoid disclosing. The device mimics a cellphone tower to force phones within its range to connect. Police use it to track down stolen phones or find...

A stingray weighing nearly 800lb has become the largest freshwater fish ever caught by rod and line. The gigantic flat fish, which was 8ft wide and 14ft long, took nearly two hours to reel in. It was caught by American TV nature conservationist Jeff Corwin on the Mae Klong river in Thailand earlier this week.

TALLAHASSEE — The case against Tadrae McKenzie looked like an easy win for prosecutors. He and two buddies robbed a small-time pot dealer of $130 worth of weed using BB guns. Under Florida law, that was robbery with a deadly weapon, with a sentence of at least four years in prison. But before trial, his defense team detected investigators’ use of a secret surveillance tool, one that raises significant privacy concerns. In an unprecedented move, a state judge ordered the police to show the device — a cell-tower simulator sometimes called a StingRay — to the attorneys. Rather than show...

The Tacoma Police Department apparently has bought — and quietly used for six years — controversial surveillance equipment that can sweep up records of every cellphone call, text message and data transfer up to a half a mile away. You don’t have to be a criminal to be caught in this law enforcement snare. You just have to be near one and use a cellphone. Police Chief Don Ramsdell, through a spokeswoman, declined an interview request to talk about the police department’s apparent purchase of a Stingray device and associated technology. The department cited a nondisclosure agreement it has with...

http://live.scotusblog.com/Event/Live_Blog_of_opinions__June_25_2014

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that police cannot go snooping through people’s cell phones without a warrant, in a unanimous decision that amounts to a major statement in favor of privacy rights. Police agencies had argued that searching through the data on cell phones was no different than asking someone to turn out his pockets, but the justices rejected that, saying a cell phone is more fundamental. The ruling amounts to a 21st century update to legal understanding of privacy rights. “The fact that technology now allows an individual to carry such information in his hand does not make the...

US pushing local police departments to keep quiet on cell-phone surveillance technology. ... One well-known type of this surveillance equipment is known as a Stingray, an innovative way for law enforcement to track cellphones used by suspects and gather evidence. The equipment tricks cellphones into identifying some of their owners' account information, like a unique subscriber number, and transmitting data to police as if it were a phone company's tower. That allows police to obtain cellphone information without having to ask for help from service providers, such as Verizon or AT&T, and can locate a phone without the user even...

The NSA isn’t the only government agency raising concerns about electronic privacy. Local police departments are coming under similar scrutiny—not only for using spying technology, but for hiding their use from the public. At least 25 police departments now use what is known as “Stingray,” a briefcase-sized box that swallows up cell phone data within a mile radius. More than one in three large police departments are also using license-plate readers, which can record every plate—even on a four-lane highway—from vehicles going at speeds of up to 150 miles per hour. […] But the two technologies raise broader questions about...

Florida police officers are accused of using a cellphone tracking and monitoring device without court permission, saying the device was on loan and they signed a confidentiality agreement with the manufacturer.

"For those who do not know, Harley Earl is the designer of the original Corvette. His design work,...began as a secret project... Well, Mr. Earl, obviously, was given a 1963 Corvette Sting Ray by GM and has kept it for himself for all of these years. Until this weekend when it was auctioned off to the highest bidder....The Corvette that used to belong to Harley Earl is metallic blue with custom blue leather seats and white trim. It has a stainless steel side-exit exhaust, knock off wheels, stainless steel door and foot well inserts, and special unique gauges including altimeter,...

Steve Irwin jokes will still get you in trouble. Rick Mayer of The Tampa Tribune reports the Rays have made an official statement in regard to the polarizing picture of Raymond holding up a sign referencing a "Rays To Do List." Under the header, Steve Irwin—a popular wildlife expert who was killed by a stingray in 2006—has his name crossed out with "World Series" next on the to-do list agenda...

A Justice Department document obtained by the ACLU of Northern California shows that federal investigators were routinely using a sophisticated cell phone tracking tool known as a "stingray," but hiding that fact from federal magistrate judges when asking for permission to do so. Stingrays and similar devices essentially impersonate cell phone towers, allowing them to pinpoint the precise location of targeted cell phones (even inside people's homes) and intercept conversations. They also sweep up the data of innocent people who happen to be nearby. By withholding information about this technology from courts in applications for electronic surveillance orders, the federal...

After years of anticipation and speculation, Chevrolet has finally unveiled the all-new, seventh-generation (C7) Corvette. The latest iteration of America’s sports car will launch with more power, an upscale interior and a historic nameplate – the Corvette Stingray. Outside, the new model continues to use the long hood, short rear deck proportions that have characterized Corvettes for decades, but the overall look is crisper and more angular than before. Notable touches include a tapered greenhouse, new rear-quarter windows and closely-grouped, center-mounted quad exhaust pipes. Unlike the first model year of the original Stingray (and the recent Stingray Concept), the C7...

Biologists have just discovered two new species of freshwater stingray in the Amazon rainforest, informally christening them "pancake stingrays" for their distinct IHOPian appearance (see below). Naturally, one of their first orders of business was to x-ray one of the specimens, the unearthly result you see above. The two new species, Heliotrygon gomesi and Heliotrygon rosai, are quite large, though other stingray species in this family (comprised of freshwater stingrays from the New World tropics) can reach an unnerving five feet in diameter. The x-rayed specimen is a preadult male in the Heliotrygon gomesi species, found in the rainforest near...

Ambulances were called to La Jolla Wednesday afternoon after at least 30 people were stung by sting rays. The attacks happened at both La Jolla Shores and Blacks Beach up the coast to the north. Lifeguards said that at one point, they were treating 11 or 12 people at the same time. Paramedics were called in to assist with triage because of the abundance of victims. Source: 30 Stung By Stingrays; 2 Swimmers Hospitalized | NBC San Diego

Freshwater stingrays use water as a "tool" in problem-solving tests, scientists reveal for the first time. Researchers gave South American freshwater stingrays tests to evaluate their problem-solving ability. The stingrays learned to use jets of water as a tool to extract a meal of hidden food from a plastic pipe. It reveals that the fish, once thought a "simple reflex animal", has cognitive abilities to rival birds, reptiles and mammals, scientists say. Scientists from Israel, Austria and the US publish their study in the journal Animal Cognition. Tool use in fish is far from anything seen in birds or mammals...

Caught on film It is one of the rarest giants of the ocean, and it has been caught on film for the first time. An underwater camera crew filming for the BBC has recorded a smalleye stingray swimming off the coast of Mozambique. The smalleye stingray is the largest of all 70 species of stingray, attaining widths of more than 2m. The elusive creature, first discovered in 1908, has only ever been seen alive off Tofo in southern Mozambique. Rare sight Stingrays are cartilaginous fish that are related to sharks. They occur is marine, freshwater and estuarine habitats and vary...

A British angler – with a dozen helpers – has landed what could be the biggest freshwater fish ever caught with a rod and line, it emerged today. The giant freshwater stingray, weighing as much as 350kg (772lbs, or about 55 stone), was the size of a garden shed and so cumbersome that Ian Welch had to enlist the aid of 12 other people to get it out of the water. Welch, a professional fisherman, biologist and columnist for the magazine Angler's Mail, was visiting Thailand to help with a stingray tagging programme when he landed the monster in the...

MARATHON, Fla. (AP) - A 75-pound stingray killed a Michigan woman Thursday when it flew out of the water and struck her in the face as she rode in a boat in the Florida Keys, officials said. Judy Kay Zagorski, of Pigeon, Mich., was sitting in a boat going 25 mph when the spotted eagle ray, with a wingspan of 5 to 6 feet, leaped out of the water, said Jorge Pino, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The 57-year-old woman's father was driving the boat on the Atlantic Ocean side of Vaca Key, Pino said. "He...

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