http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_23471621/nyc-dispatcher-spent-almost-8-hours-stroke-call

NYC dispatcher spent almost 8 hours on stroke call

POSTED: 06/16/2013 01:00:31 AM MDT
UPDATED: 06/16/2013 01:00:31 AM MDTThe Associated Press

NEW YORK—A New York City emergency dispatcher is being hailed for spending nearly eight hours on the phone with a woman who had suffered a stroke while rescuers tried to pinpoint the woman's location.

The New York Post reports dispatcher Joann Hilman-Payne took the call around 1 p.m. Monday and kept the line open until medics found the woman around 8:30 p.m.

- snip -

The call was eventually traced to a Manhattan apartment where the woman was working as a housekeeper. She remains hospitalized.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/secret-prism-success-even-bigger-data-seizure

SECRET TO PRISM PROGRAM: EVEN BIGGER DATA SEIZURE

By STEPHEN BRAUN, ANNE FLAHERTY, JACK GILLUM and MATT APUZZO
— Jun. 15 2:53 PM EDT

- snip -

The agents wanted email archives, account information, practically everything, and quickly. Engineers compiled the data, sometimes by hand, and delivered it to the government.

Often there was no easy way to tell if the information belonged to foreigners or Americans. So much data was changing hands that one former Microsoft employee recalls that the engineers were anxious about whether the company should cooperate.

- snip -

The revelation of Prism this month by the Washington Post and Guardian newspapers has touched off the latest round in a decade-long debate over what limits to impose on government eavesdropping, which the Obama administration says is essential to keep the nation safe.

But interviews with more than a dozen current and former government and technology officials and outside experts show that, while Prism has attracted the recent attention, the program actually is a relatively small part of a much more expansive and intrusive eavesdropping effort.

MORE AT LINK

Source: Associated Press

SECRET TO PRISM PROGRAM: EVEN BIGGER DATA SEIZURE

By STEPHEN BRAUN, ANNE FLAHERTY, JACK GILLUM and MATT APUZZO
— Jun. 15 2:53 PM EDT

- snip -

The agents wanted email archives, account information, practically everything, and quickly. Engineers compiled the data, sometimes by hand, and delivered it to the government.

Often there was no easy way to tell if the information belonged to foreigners or Americans. So much data was changing hands that one former Microsoft employee recalls that the engineers were anxious about whether the company should cooperate.

- snip -

The revelation of Prism this month by the Washington Post and Guardian newspapers has touched off the latest round in a decade-long debate over what limits to impose on government eavesdropping, which the Obama administration says is essential to keep the nation safe.

But interviews with more than a dozen current and former government and technology officials and outside experts show that, while Prism has attracted the recent attention, the program actually is a relatively small part of a much more expansive and intrusive eavesdropping effort.

Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/secret-prism-success-even-bigger-data-seizure

Source: Facebook Press Release

Facebook Releases Data, Including All National Security Requests

June 14, 2013
By Ted Ullyot, Facebook General Counsel

Over the last week, in press statements as well as Mark’s post last Friday, we’ve repeatedly called for governments worldwide to be willing to provide more details about programs aimed at keeping the public safe. We’ve also urged them to allow companies to divulge appropriate information about government orders and requests that we receive, in a manner that does not compromise legitimate security concerns.

Requests from law enforcement entities investigating national security-related cases are by their nature classified and highly sensitive, and the law traditionally has placed significant constraints on the ability of companies like Facebook to even confirm or acknowledge receipt of these requests – let alone provide details of our responses.

We’ve reiterated in recent days that we scrutinize every government data request that we receive – whether from state, local, federal, or foreign governments. We’ve also made clear that we aggressively protect our users’ data when confronted with such requests: we frequently reject such requests outright, or require the government to substantially scale down its requests, or simply give the government much less data than it has requested. And we respond only as required by law.

But particularly in light of continued confusion and inaccurate reporting related to this issue, we’ve advocated for the ability to say even more.

Since this story was first reported, we’ve been in discussions with U.S. national security authorities urging them to allow more transparency and flexibility around national security-related orders we are required to comply with. We’re pleased that as a result of our discussions, we can now include in a transparency report all U.S. national security-related requests (including FISA as well as National Security Letters) – which until now no company has been permitted to do. As of today, the government will only authorize us to communicate about these numbers in aggregate, and as a range. This is progress, but we’re continuing to push for even more transparency, so that our users around the world can understand how infrequently we are asked to provide user data on national security grounds.

For the six months ending December 31, 2012, the total number of user-data requests Facebook received from any and all government entities in the U.S. (including local, state, and federal, and including criminal and national security-related requests) – was between 9,000 and 10,000. These requests run the gamut – from things like a local sheriff trying to find a missing child, to a federal marshal tracking a fugitive, to a police department investigating an assault, to a national security official investigating a terrorist threat. The total number of Facebook user accounts for which data was requested pursuant to the entirety of those 9-10 thousand requests was between 18,000 and 19,000 accounts.

Read more: http://newsroom.fb.com/News/636/Facebook-Releases-Data-Including-All-National-Security-Requests

Source: Reuters

Web companies to disclose surveillance info after deal with U.S.

Filed 2013-06-15T01:05:43+00:00

Updated 2013-06-15T01:54:07+00:00

Several Internet companies have struck an agreement with the U.S. government to release limited information about the number of surveillance requests they receive, two sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters.

The companies are expected to release numbers of government requests, without breaking out how many originate from a controversial National Security Agency program disclosed last week intended to gather intelligence about non-U.S. residents, the sources said.


Read more: http://preview.reuters.com/2013/6/15/web-companies-to-disclose-surveillance-info-after

http://www.guardiannews.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/14/edward-snowden-worst-fear-not-realised

Friday 14 June 2013 14.00 EDT

Edward Snowden's worst fear has not been realised – thankfully

The NSA whistleblower's only concern was that his disclosures would be met with apathy. Instead, they're leading to real reform

In my first substantive discussion with Edward Snowden, which took place via encrypted online chat, he told me he had only one fear. It was that the disclosures he was making, momentous though they were, would fail to trigger a worldwide debate because the public had already been taught to accept that they have no right to privacy in the digital age.

Snowden, at least in that regard, can rest easy. The fallout from the Guardian's first week of revelations is intense and growing.

- snip -

In the wake of the Guardian's articles, I heard from journalists and even government officials from around the world interested in learning the extent of the NSA's secret spying on the communications of their citizens. These stories have resonated globally, and will continue to do so, because the NSA's spying apparatus is designed to target the shared instruments used by human beings around the world to communicate with one another.

The purpose of whistleblowing is to expose secret and wrongful acts by those in power in order to enable reform. A key purpose of journalism is to provide an adversarial check on those who wield the greatest power by shining a light on what they do in the dark, and informing the public about those acts. Both purposes have been significantly advanced by the revelations thus far.

MORE AT LINK

tonightshownbc

Jeremy Scahill on NSA leaks - the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Published June 13, 2013.

Source: CNN

CNN Breaking News - Multiple people have been shot inside a St. Louis business, CNN affiliate KTVI reports, citing police. Reply STOP 2 unsub

Will update.

Read more: Link to source

Source: Bloomberg

Barclays’s Jenkins Says Bankers Must Regain ‘Moral Compass’

By Howard Mustoe
June 12, 2013 1:54 PM EDT

Barclays Plc (BARC) Chief Executive Officer Antony Jenkins said bankers must regain their moral footing and serve society’s long-term interests if the industry is to undo the damage caused by the financial crisis.
Bankers were too focused on the short-term, too self-serving and too aggressive in their actions in the years leading up to the global credit crunch, Jenkins said today at a debate hosted by London’s St. Paul’s Institute, a church group that seeks to engage banks with moral questions.

“The financial crisis exposed the destruction that can be caused if we have capitalism without a moral compass -– lacking the control which can make it a force for good,” Jenkins said in prepared remarks at the 17th-century St. Paul’s Cathedral. “And the behavior of banks, of course, was at the center of this lightning storm.”

Jenkins, 51, who took over as CEO in August, is seeking to revive profit at the lender and avoid repeating the regulatory missteps that led to the resignation of his predecessor, Robert Diamond. Jenkins said in February he will cut 3,700 jobs and target a return on equity, a measure of profitability, that exceeds the lender’s 11.5 percent cost of capital.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-12/barclays-s-jenkins-says-bankers-must-regain-moral-compass-.html

Source: Gallup

June 12, 2013

Americans Disapprove of Government Surveillance Programs Americans split on whether leaker did the right or wrong thing

by Frank Newport PRINCETON, NJ

-- More Americans disapprove (53%) than approve (37%) of the federal government agency program that as part of its efforts to investigate terrorism obtained records from U.S. telephone and Internet companies to "compile telephone call logs and Internet communications."

These results are from a June 10-11 Gallup poll. Although the current survey context was different, these results are similar to those obtained in a May 2006 Gallup poll measuring support for a government program that "obtained records from three of the largest U.S. telephone companies in order to create a database of billions of telephone numbers dialed by Americans." In that survey, 43% approved and 51% disapproved.

There are significant partisan differences in views of the government's program to obtain call logs and Internet communication. Democrats are more likely to approve, by 49% to 40%. Independents (34% vs. 56%) and Republicans (32% to 63%) are much more likely to disapprove than approve.

In 2006, when Gallup asked a similar question about a program that came to light at that point, Republicans were significantly more likely to approve than Democrats. The differences in partisan reaction between 2006 and 2013 reflect the party of the president under whose watch the programs were carried out at those two points in time.

Read more: http://www.gallup.com/poll/163043/americans-disapprove-government-surveillance-programs.aspx