Brian Gongol
The Federal government is taking time-stamped photos of license plates in four states
...and saving the records for two years. The data recorded is being shared among agencies, too. The argument is that it's a tool for catching drug smugglers and illegal immigrants. But what about the completely innocent people whose behavior and patterns are now being recorded and aggregated by the Federal government? There's too much surveillance creeping into our daily lives, and though it gives us dramatic videos to watch, that doesn't justify the creeping Big Brotherism.
Kids need simple tasks and basic job training
Straight from the mouth of one participant in a summer-jobs program in Omaha: "Summer Works has helped me a lot, because I would be doing bad stuff right now, so instead of getting into trouble, I work."
They're taking the "MS" out of "MSNBC"
NBC's parent company is going to buy out Microsoft's share of their online partnership (Microsoft got out of the television partnership a few years ago), and they're each going to pursue their own online outlets. Microsoft will stick with MSN.com, and NBC will start pushing NBCNews.com for their news services, and MSNBC.com for their opinion-driven programming. It's surprising that Microsoft hasn't asked them to divorce the "MS" out of the "MSNBC" name to avoid having the reputation of the cable network's left-leaning opinion shows look like they're associated with Microsoft.
