Appeals Court Rejects CIA Secrecy on Drones

A federal appeals court has just ruled that the CIA cannot continue to “neither confirm nor deny” the existence of the drone war, in a court case prompted by a Freedom of Information Act request by the American Civil Liberties Union. ACLU press statement: “This is an important victory. It requires the government to retire the absurd claim that the CIA’s interest in the targeted killing program is a secret, and it will make it more difficult for the government to deflect questions about the program’s scope and legal basis,” said ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer, who argued the case before a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit...

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More People Moving Into NYC Than Moving Out for the First Time in Over 60 Years

Mayor Bloomberg announced that more people are moving to New York City than are moving out for the first time since before 1950, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimates released today. The estimates show New York City’s population has hit an all-time record high of 8,336,697. The city’s population increased by 161,564 since 2010 – about two percent in two years. This increase is among the largest two-year increases in recent decades. The increase is fueled by a continuing increase in people moving to the city and a decline in the number of people leaving the city, as well as the continued growth in the surplus of births...

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Privacy backlash against CISPA cybersecurity bill gains traction

A petition to the White House asking the president to "stop" a controversial cybersecurity bill passes the 100,000 mark. The only problem: President Obama has already threatened to veto it. House members during last year's floor debate on CISPA (clockwise from top left): Jared Polis, who warned it would "waive every single privacy law ever enacted"; Adam Schiff; Sheila Jackson Lee; Hank Johnson; Mike Rogers; Jan Schakowsky (Credit: C-SPAN)  It's not exactly a secret where President Obama stands on a controversial Republican-backed cybersecurity bill: he's already promised to veto it. But a cadre of Internet activists opposed...

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