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National DNA database gets kickstart from feds With virtually no fanfare, President Bush signed into law a plan ordering the government to take no more than six months to set up a "national contingency plan" to screen newborns' DNA in case of a "public health emergency." The new law requires that the results of the program – including "information … research, and data on newborn screening" – shall be assembled by a "central clearinghouse" and made available on the Internet. According to congressional records, S.1858, sponsored by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., was approved in the Senate Dec. 13, in the House April 8 and signed by Bush April 24. "Soon, under this bill, the DNA of all citizens will be housed in government genomic biobanks and considered governmental property for government research," said Twila Brase, president of the Citizens' Council on Health Care. "The DNA taken at birth from every citizen is essentially owned by the government, and every citizen becomes a potential subject of government-sponsored genetic research." Brase has objected extensively to plans in Minnesota to provide state government the same option now handed to the federal government by Congress. The bill, she said, strips "citizens of genetic privacy rights and DNA property rights. It bill also violates research ethics and the Nuremberg Code. "The public is clueless. S. 1858 imposes a federal agenda of DNA databanking and population-wide genetic research," Brase continued. "It does not require consent and there are no requirements to fully inform parents about the warehousing of their child's DNA for the purpose of genetic research....
Your personal data just got permanently cached at the US border Now that US customs agents have unfettered access to laptops and other electronic devices at borders, a coalition of travel groups, civil liberties advocates and technologists is calling on Congress to rein in the Department of Homeland Security's search and seizure practices. They're also providing practical advice on how to prevent trade secrets and other sensitive data from being breached. In a letter dated Thursday, the group, which includes the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the American Civil Liberties Union and the Business Travel Coalition, called on the House Committee on Homeland Security to ensure searches aren't arbitrary or overly invasive. They also urged the passage of legislation outlawing abusive searches. The letter comes 10 days after a US appeals court ruled Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents have the right to rummage through electronic devices even if they have no reason to suspect the hardware holds illegal contents. Not only are they free to view the files during passage; they are also permitted to copy the entire contents of a device. There are no stated policies about what can and can't be done with the data. Over the past few months, several news reports have raised eyebrows after detailing border searches that involved electronic devices. The best known of them is this story from The Washington Post, which recounted the experiences of individuals who were forced to reveal data on cell phones and laptop devices when passing through US borders. One individual even reported some of the call history on her cell phone had been deleted....
Border runners turn to Pacific Surf's up, but Aaron Dorsey fears what he may find paddling out to sea. A body? An abandoned boat or its wreckage? Or smugglers, possibly armed? Already, five boats belonging to smugglers of drugs or illegal immigrants have been found beached or wrecked by reefs in the past six months—a sign that smuggling by sea is the latest route to avoid the new border fence and toughened frontier. While waterborne journeys have been common on the Atlantic with Cuban or Haitian migrants, the Pacific passage is unusual because it's occurring year-round now, not just confined to the warm months when smugglers' bigger boats hide in plain sight amid U.S. marine traffic, federal officials say. Equally troublesome is how smugglers are now using disposable, sometimes barely seaworthy boats, such as a 26-foot watercraft called a panga that held 17 people and was intercepted last week by a federal patrol. The voyages sometimes end as far as 30 miles north of the border, on the shores of upscale Del Mar, known for its horse-racing track. Distant from the base of federal sea and air patrols in San Diego, the illicit crews can land and escape, close to the interstate highway leading to Los Angeles, a hub for illegal immigrants heading to Chicago and elsewhere in the country, federal officials say....