FLE

EPA's Ruby Ridge of the Blue Ridge In 2001, "60 Minutes" ran a report on the EPA CID. In traditional muckraking style, they chronicled the ordeals of Steve McNabb and a Massachusetts plant owner, Jim Knott, with a similar story. Knott’s wire manufacturing plant was raided at about the same time as American Carolina Stamping. Jim Knott was criminally indicted by the EPA CID for water ph levels emitted from his plant. However, during the trial an FBI forgery analyst testified that CID agents had falsified the incriminating documents. The federal judge ruled in Knott's favor. During the raid, McNabb, his wife, and his son were threatened with prison sentences. When McNabb demanded to use his tape recorder, agents pulled their weapons on him, handcuffed him, and stood him outside while they searched his office. They also searched Jay McNabb’s house, which is on the factory’s property, without a search warrant. McNabb later contested this in court, but a judge ruled that Steve McNabb’s belligerent behavior after he was denied the tape recorder gave agents sufficient cause to fear for their own personal safety....
Federal ID Act May Be Flawed A federal law designed to make it harder to assume someone else's identity may instead have the opposite effect, critics of the measure say. The Real ID Act, attached to a crucial bill for military spending and tsunami relief that was signed by President Bush on May 11, sets new rules for issuing driver's licenses and requires states to share electronic access to their records. The standards are intended to weed out impostors applying for licenses, in part by requiring state employees to check on the validity of birth certificates and other supporting documents. After states adopt the necessary changes, anyone applying for or renewing a license will get one reflecting the new standards. But once the law takes full effect three years from now, it will also give many more bureaucrats access to personal information on people nationwide. And it will add more data to each file — including digital copies of documents with birth and address information. To some industry experts and activists concerned about the fast-growing crime of identity theft, putting so much data before more eyes guarantees abuse at a time when people are increasingly concerned about who sees their personal information and how it gets used....
You've Been Drafted: Uncle Sam Wants You for the War on Drugs We alerted you last week to the bill, entitled "Defending America's Most Vulnerable: Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child Protection Act of 2005" (H.R. 1528). We already told you about many of the terrible provisions in this legislation, but we are especially concerned about a section of the bill that turns every American into an agent of the state. Here's how it works: If you "witness" certain drug offenses taking place or "learn" that they took place you would have to report the offense to law enforcement within 24 hours and provide "full assistance" in the investigation, apprehension, and prosecution of the people involved. Failure to do so would be a crime punishable by a mandatory two year prison sentence....

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