A lawsuit alleges that Chase engaged in widespread, illegal robo-signing, among other unlawful practices, to commit debt-collection abuses against approximately 100,000 California credit card borrowers over at least a three-year period. … Read More
Israel exploited loophole to take 1,000 DNA samples from African refugees
The news was comfirmed by Commander Eran Kamin of the Investigations Division, who reported on the issue to a Knesset committee on Tuesday. The issue was first revealed in an article in Haaretz, which said that police officials had earlier had their request for collecting refugees’ DNA samples rejected by Knesset Committees. To bypass this rejection, the police opened criminal cases against the African migrants – they had technically entered the country illegally, which the police then classified as a ‘security-related’ crime.”We are aware that those entering Israel have had unpleasant experiences, to say the least, but still, we’re aware of the fact that they broke the law. The law defines them as infiltrators,” Kamin said, according to Haaretz.In 2012, Israeli police collected more than 600 samples. However, they have not solved any reported crimes as a result of this DNA collection practice, Haaretz said.Police officials claim they are not creating a refugee database, and that the personal data they receive from migrants are placed in a general pool. African immigrants are nevertheless reportedly angered by the procedure, which they have slammed as discriminatory.Human rights activists in Israel strongly oppose the practice: “The criminal process is meant to reach the truth and punish offenders who have been legally convicted. But in terms of asylum-seekers, police are making a different use entirely of the criminal proceeding,” said attorney Asaf Weitzen of the Hotline for Migrant Workers. He added that police were “creating a new law and suiting it to a regime in which there is no longer a need for courts, legislators or public opinion.”Alva Kolan of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel said this is “a cynical use of the Prevention of Infiltration Law, and squarely contradicts the International Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, which explicitly states that infiltration, in itself, cannot be considered a criminal offense.” The DNA collection is another facet of the Israeli government’s crackdown on immigrants coming from such African nations as Libya, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea. After being dubbed “infiltrators” and a threat to state security, they are encouraged to return to their native countries. Many of those unwilling to return home face indefinite jail terms.Israel has regularly been accused of deporting Sudanese migrants back to their homeland, where visiting or living in Israel is a crime. In February, Israel reportedly forced at least 1,000 Sudanese to return home.Israel described the deportations as “voluntary leave,” which the UN Refugee agency dismissed as unlikely. “Deporting Sudanese to Sudan would be the gravest violation possible of the refugee convention that Israel has signed – a crime never before committed,” the UN representative to Israel Michael Bavli said. In August 2012, a report by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism revealed that Israel deported Sudanese asylum seekers by issuing documents with intentionally incorrect nationalities. Having no repatriation agreement with Sudan, Israel gave more than 100 Sudanese nationals passports or birth certificates labeling them citizens of South Sudan, which seceded from Sudan in 2011, the report stated. … Read More
Student debt, job market creating ‘generation of wage slavery’
Poll results released last week reveal that 41 per cent of US college graduates from the past two years are working in positions that do not require a degree, according to a survey of 1,005 former students from consulting firm Accenture. Another 11 per cent of respondents said they are unemployed, seven per cent of which have not had a job since graduation. Almost two-thirds of those polled said they expected to need additional training before entering a career, while nearly fifty per cent believed their studies did not equip them for the working world. National unemployment remains stagnant at 7.6 per cent and graduates of 2011 and 2012 will soon be forced to compete with the graduating class of 2013 in the job hunt. Of those polled, 42 per cent expected to enroll in graduate school. Only 18 per cent of the class of 2013 thought finishing graduate school would be necessary. While useless school curricula and scarce job opportunities are the most obvious targets of blame for society’s disenfranchised youth, the cost of education and its corollary, student debt, have crippled an entire generation. Americans now owe more money on student loans than on credit cards, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as quoted by USA Today.Recent research has showed that students are borrowing twice as much as they did ten years ago (after adjusting for inflation). Lawmakers in Congress have given lenders, including the government, unprecedented collection power far more powerful than mortgage brokers and credit card companies. And student debt is one of the only kinds that can’t be unloaded in bankruptcy. “Students who borrow too much end up delaying life-cycle events such as buying a car, buying a home, getting married, and having children,” Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org, told USA Today. That assessment, echoed by other experts, has financial forecasters wondering if the US economy’s slow recovery might only be temporary. Nick Pardini, an investor and financial blogger, told the paper the current climate is “going to create a generation of wage slavery.” Two-thirds of 2011’s college graduates completed their higher education owing money, with debt ranging up to an average $26,600 per person – a five per cent increase from the year before, according to the Associated Press.Still, college grads are in far superior shape than those without a degree, as 19.1 per cent of people with only a high school diploma were unemployed in 2011. “In these tough times, a college degree is still your best bet for getting a job and decent pay,” said Lauren Asher, president of the Institute for College Access and Success. “But, as debt levels rise, fear of loans can prevent students from getting the education they need to succeed.” Despite the gloomy outlook for young people there is cause for hope overall. The US economy added 165,000 jobs in April, a boost from the monthly average of 138,000 over the six months prior. The growth could indicate that the slashed federal budget “does not mean recession,” John Silvia, a chief economist at Wells Fargo, told the Associated Press. … Read More
Pentagon claims China’s cyber spying targets U.S. government
China is engaging in state-sponsored cyber espionage to collect intelligence about the US government’s defense programs, said a Pentagon report issued Monday. “China is using its computer network exploitation (CNE) capability to support intelligence collection against the US diplomatic,…
Dinner with superstar chef auctioned off for $36,750
An Asian gourmet splashed out $36,750 at a New York auction to have dinner for four with famed chef Ferran Adria. The dizzy tab contributed to a $913,605 sale at Sotheby’s late Friday that was based on the revolutionary Catalan chef’s stellar wine collection, which he sold along with…
Cybersecurity, Ricin, and More from CRS
For reasons that are hard to comprehend, Congress for many years has directed the Congressional Research Service not to make its products directly available to the public.
CRS reports naturally vary in quality, originality and breadth of focus. But as a class of documents, they are both interesting and useful. Along with impartial treatments of complex policy issues, they often provide unexpected, telling detail. (“At present, about 30 million Americans, nearly 10% of the population, are subject to debt collection for amounts averaging $1,500 per person,” a newly updated report on the subject notes in passing, citing the CFPB.) Even in cases where individual reports are deficient, they are nonetheless significant to the extent that they help to inform congressional deliberation. It is therefore proper and necessary that they should be available to the public.
Some of the latest CRS reports that have been withheld from public access are posted below.
The Army’s Ground Combat Vehicle (GCV) Program: Background and Issues for Congress, April 17, 2013
Western Sahara, April 14, 2013
Cybersecurity: Selected Legal Issues, April 17, 2013
Cybersecurity: Authoritative Reports and Resources, April 17, 2013
Ricin: Technical Background and Potential Role in Terrorism, April 17, 2013
Child Welfare: Structure and Funding of the Adoption Incentives Program along with Reauthorization Issues, April 18, 2013
The Independent Payment Advisory Board, April 17, 2013
The World Bank Group Energy Sector Strategy, April 16, 2013
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), April 11, 2013
Codes of Conduct for Multinational Corporations: An Overview, April 16, 2013
Changes to the Residential Mortgage Market: Legislation, Demographics, and Other Drivers, April 16, 2013
International Climate Change Financing: The Green Climate Fund (GCF), April 16, 2013
Submission of Mental Health Records to NICS and the HIPAA Privacy Rule, April 15, 2013
Teenage Pregnancy Prevention: Statistics and Programs, April 15, 2013
Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) Acquisition: Issues for Congress, April 16, 2013
“Gang of Four” Congressional Intelligence Notifications, April 16, 2013
Ensuring That Traffic Signs Are Visible at Night: Federal Regulations, April 16, 2013
The post Cybersecurity, Ricin, and More from CRS appears on Secrecy News from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy. … Read More
Hopi fail to block auction of sacred masks in Paris
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The sale has gone ahead in Paris of a collection of Hopi masks that the native American tribe considered sacred, and had demanded be returned.
A court ruling cleared the sale after the Hopi attempted to sue the auction house.
“The court decided to let the sale proceed because those masks, as sacred as they may be for the Hopis, are not bodies, human bodies, alive or dead, body parts, and the court found that’s the only thing that could have been protected, with which I disagree,” said the lawyer representing the Hopi, Pierre Servan-Schreiber.
The Hopi had support from the US ambassador to France and show business personalities like Robert Redford. The tribe itself made no bids on the masks.
“Those objects have been sacred since about 20 years ago. Before that the Hopi used to sell those masks. We already saw that in New York as part of the collection of Andy Warhol. And at that time the auction didn’t lead to such a fuss,” said auctioneer Gilles Neret-Minet.
The collection, comprising dozens of masks, was assembled by an amateur who lived in America for some 30 years before putting it up for sale.
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