Archive for the ‘Security’ Category

MN Gov. Tim Pawlenty – McCain’s VP choice?

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

Some speculate Pawlenty is McCain’s man.

Interesting article about “Governor No” who has “racked up more vetoes this year than any governor in Minnesota’s history.”

elephants in the room

More GOP news from the CityPages Elephants in the Room blog.

Hillary Clinton gave the Twin Cities a shoutout in the line of the night during her speech at the Democratic National Convention.

After ticking off John McCain’s agenda–with a pointed reference to him not believing women deserve equal pay for equal work–Hillary used the geography of the Republican National Convention to deliver a bon mot that cemented the “McSame” meme:

“With an agenda like that, it makes sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities. Because these days they’re awfully hard to tell apart.” more on McSame quotation

And don’t forget the activists – Minneapolis cops detain activist journalists, confiscate their cameras

Three activist journalists in town to videotape the RNC protests were stopped, questioned, and searched by police officers early this morning and had their cameras, a computer, and personal effects seized, one of the three, Vlad Teichberg, told City Pages this afternoon.

Posted in Freedom, Minneapolis, Politics, Security | No Comments »

Chuck

Wednesday, August 13th, 2008

The TV show, Chuck, is about to resume on Monday, Sept. 29th.  The best new show of 2007.

chuck

Watch it. Episodes are also available online.

Posted in Art, Communism, Freedom, Humor, Security | No Comments »

St. Paul installs $2,000,000 camera system for RNC

Tuesday, August 12th, 2008

St. Paul is getting their new 45 camera surveillance system ready for the upcoming RNC. It’s paid for by the Department of Justice – costing a mere $2 million. Soon the camera video feeds will be available to anyone over the internet, YEAH!!. I’ve been wanting to watch drug deals going down in downtown St. Paul – live. Especially the undercover wheelchair cop (“St. Paul Police say this wasn’t a stunt to clean up St. Paul before the Republican National Convention.”). The cameras can read a license plate at a distance of two blocks. More on the reasons such a camera network is needed.

rnc camera rnc march banner

Posted in Minneapolis, Politics, Privacy, Security, Technology | 3 Comments »

32 St. Paul bars qualified to serve till 4 AM during the RNC

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

Unquestionably, one of the most pressing issues facing the city of St. Paul this summer as they plan for the upcoming Republican National Convention is deciding which bars can stay open until 4 AM during the convention. Fortunately, the Minneapolis Star Tribune is on top of the story, keeping its readers informed of every development.

As of June 26th, 32 bars have qualified.

However, many bar owners are not excited about paying the $2500 fee – is anyone surprised?

The St. Paul City Council on Wednesday voted 6 to 1 to approve an ordinance that will allow bars that meet certain conditions and pay $2,500 to stay open late during the four nights of the event, to be held Sept. 1-4 at the Xcel Energy Center.

About 32 bars, maybe more if they can find a way to add more seats, are eligible. There are 257 places that sell liquor, wine and beer in the city. About 90 currently have licenses to stay open until 2 a.m.

Bars must already have a 2 a.m. closing license to be eligible, and they must have at least 291 seats or be in downtown or commercial development districts, such as Selby-Dale.

If a bar without a 4 a.m. license is caught serving after 2 a.m., it faces a $2,000 fine per incident.

Don’t forget – that the crowds will not be homogeneous. In addition to the 35,000 RNC attendees, there will also be upwards of 100,000 protesters here during the convention. It sounds like it will be an exciting event! Even Minnetonka is donating a couple police officers to help keep the peace in St. Paul.

Posted in Freedom, Idiots, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Minnetonka, Politics, Regulation, Security, Terrorism | No Comments »

UK Security Camera, 30th Aniv. of Spam, Robotic Suits

Saturday, May 24th, 2008

4.2 million surviellence cameras hasn’t reduced crime in the UK.

ccta

“Massive investment in CCTV cameras to prevent crime in the UK has failed to have a significant impact, despite billions of pounds spent on the new technology, a senior police officer piloting a new database has warned. Only 3% of street robberies in London were solved using CCTV images, despite the fact that Britain has more security cameras than any other country in Europe.”

30th Anniversary of Spam was May 3rd.

spamboy

According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, Gary Thuerk, who at the time worked for Digital Equipment Corp., sent what is believed to be the first spam message, an invitation to an open house for a new DEC computer (a VAX 11/780?) that he sent to 400 of the 2,600 or so people who had email accounts on the ARPANET at the time.

Thuerk claims that his email generated about $12 million in new sales. However, many people who received his email also got highly irritated, complained to US Defense Department (which operated the net) which in turn told him never to do it again. Thuerk says he never did, either.

Thuerk also said in the story that “people have one of three reactions when they meet him: Some are excited to meet someone with an unusual claim to fame; some want to beat him up on the spot; and others just avoid him like the plague.”

Robotic Suit for the Army Being Tested

robosuit

There was an AP story last week on the Army’s “exoskeleton” robotic suit being developed by Sarcos Inc (now owned by Raytheon) that potentially will “multiply a person’s strength and endurance as many as 20 times.”

“Jack Obusek, a former colonel now with the Army’s Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center in the Boston suburb of Natick, foresees robot-suited soldiers unloading heavy ammunition boxes from helicopters, lugging hundreds of pounds of gear over rough terrain or even relying on the suit to make repairs to tanks that break down in inconvenient locations,” according to the story.

The suit is still not practical: it is very expensive, and the suit’s battery life currently lasts only 30 minutes.

Posted in Culture, Food, Privacy, Security, Technology, The Web, Trivia | No Comments »

MSP Vandals Disrupt Service for Xcel Energy, Qwest & Comcast Utility Customers

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

Three twenty-something Twin Cities men plead guilty to causing outages to local electric, phone and television customers through senseless acts of vandalism. Their activities were nothing to joke about:

Law enforcement seized key-making equipment, computers, utility uniforms, badges, lock-picking tools, keys for U locks, an Xcel Energy credit card, radios, a U hospital pager, Northern States Power padlocks, Xcel Energy hard hats, padlocks from various businesses and much more from the mastermind of the operation.

From the Pioneer Press:

# A special investigative team made up of police, the FBI and Xcel Energy staff was created to look into a series of thefts, vandalisms and disruptions of power grids across the Twin Cities. It eventually involved as many as 10 jurisdictions.

# Unknown individuals had been cutting or disabling the locks to the “overhead throw” switches, which are used by emergency crews to cut power to areas. There were 27 incidents where these locks were tampered with and the switches thrown, killing power for hundreds or thousands of homes and businesses.

# Glennie said he met McCombs through online “urban exploring” Web sites. Urban exploring involves going into underground or off-limits areas. He met Walter through McCombs.

# Their criminal activity “accelerated a great deal” from early 2007 and “became almost like an addiction,” Glennie said. All three worked to defeat locks belonging to Xcel Energy, Qwest and Comcast, cutting service to customers.

# Glennie told a probation official that he had “always had an obsession to having access to things.”

# Walter, one of the co-defendants, told police after his arrest that the threesome would collect the locks like trophies, he said.

# On the night of the November incident, they had wanted to “mess with” another urban explorer who had said something bad about McCombs online. So they attempted to disrupt the phone service where the man lived.

Otherwise, the targets were random.

“This is really just a senseless, senseless act,” Vlieger said.

For his plea of guilty to damaging utility property, Glennie was sentenced to 90 days in jail. He will have to serve another year if he does not abide by the terms of his probation.

Posted in Destruction, Minneapolis, Power Grid, Security, Terrorism | No Comments »

FBI infiltrating RNC protest groups

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

In preparation for the Republican National Convention, the FBI is soliciting informants to keep tabs on local protest groups

moles

Need some extra cash this fall?  The FBI is looking for a good informant…

—someone to show up at “vegan potlucks” throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership

“This is all part of a larger government effort to quell political dissent,” says Jordan Kushner, an attorney who represented Ganley and other Critical Mass arrestees. “The Joint Terrorism Task Force is another example of using the buzzword ‘terrorism’ as a basis to clamp down on people’s freedoms and push forward a more authoritarian government.”

Posted in Freedom, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Politics, Privacy, Security, Terrorism | No Comments »

MN News: Cuba, Real ID and Delta-NWA

Friday, April 18th, 2008

Minn. House urges Congress to normalize relations with Cuba (AP)

flag

MN House members have approved a resolution urging Congress to normalize relations with Cuba. The debate featured pictures and recollections of Cuban trade missions and a greeting from former Minnesota Twins star Tony Oliva, who is from the Caribbean island.

Rep. Al Juhnke, DFL-Willmar, says the lifting of trade and travel restrictions could bring Cuban pineapples and coconuts to Minnesota and open a new market for soybeans, corn and even Spam. Cuba has been under a U.S. embargo since the 1960s.


Why is the state questioning REAL ID?

realid

Starting in 2009, the federal government will require all states to have a ‘REAL ID’ card. The REAL ID would form a standardized identification card for all 50 states, in an effort to protect against terrorism and fraud.

But Minnesota can choose not to accept the program. However, if the state doesn’t implement the REAL ID program, Minnesotans would not be able to use a state drivers license to board a commercial airliner.

“REAL ID is real in the sense that it’s happening — it’s required by federal law,” explained Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

One of the main problems that the Governor and the legislature are grappling with is the expense of the REAL ID program. It could cost Minnesota $11 billion over five years and U.S. Congress has only approved $40 million to help states pay for it. “We don’t need the federal government telling us that we need to put in place a card that meets their requirements at our people’s expenses,” said state Sen. Mee Moua.

Moua supports a U.S. Senate bill that states Minnesota would refuse to take part unless the federal government pays 95 percent of the cost. The state has until 2009 to decide whether to implement REAL ID.

Delta, Northwest Airlines CEOs try to calm fears that Minnesota will be big loser in merger

deltanwa

They promise no airport jobs losses and that new, bigger Delta will live up to state commitmentsSteenland, the Northwest chief, said there would be “zero job loss” for Northwest at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport as a result of the deal. And for the handful of Delta flights at the Twin Cities airport, the ramp work already is outsourced, said Delta’s Anderson.

Northwest now employs about 11,500 in Minnesota, down more than 8,000 from 2000.

The Delta-Northwest merger still has many obstacles ahead, including an antitrust review by the U.S. Department of Justice, congressional hearings and integration of its pilots unions’ seniority lists.

The biggest issue facing the merging companies? Which brand of soft-drinks to serve – Northwest serves Pepsi, Delta serves Coke. My guess: there’s no way Delta will serve anything but Coke.

Stories via MPR‘s Polinaut blog’s Daily Digest.

Related news: Wired has the scoop on Delta’s new passenger flight safety video and its starlet “Deltalina.”

Deltalina

Plus, Wired comments on a ridiculous, terrible, new, anti-hijacking product: electronic passenger bracelet that will allow the crew to zap would-be hijackers.

emdknife

Posted in Cuba, Free Trade, Idiots, Minnesota, Northwest, Privacy, Security, Technology, Terrorism | 1 Comment »