After the violent shootings in Aurora, Colorado and Newtown, Connecticut recently, many lawmakers are pointing at violent video games as the culprit. Just a couple of days ago, a Missouri lawmaker submitted a bill that seeks to levy a tax on violent video games sales. This time around, a Utah House Representative wants to ban video games that don't have an ESRB rating, as well as enforce stricter laws to prevent the sale of violent video games to minors.
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‘government’ Stories
New House bill seeks stronger laws for video game ratings
Yelp adds restaurant inspection scores in New York and San Francisco
Yelp is one of the best places to go for restaurant reviews, but that's really only for how good the food is and how friendly the staff is. What about the hygiene levels in a given restaurant? It turns that Yelp is finally adding health inspection scores to restaurants in New York City and San Francisco.
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Missouri lawmaker wants to levy tax on violent video games
Gun control and violent video games have been a hot topic recently. Ever since the shootings in Aurora, Colorado and Newtown, Connecticut, critics have put blame on violent video games as the source of violent behavior by teenagers and young adults. And now, a Missouri lawmaker is proposing a new bill that would levy a 1% tax on the sale of violent video games.
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Anonymous forces Westboro Baptist Church out of Aaron Swartz funeral protest
Over the past week we've seen several reactions to the death of freedom of information activist Aaron Swartz, one of the most disturbing being the planned protest of his funeral by the Westboro Baptist Church. It would appear that today the hacktivist collective known as Anonymous has saved the day, having promised action against the WBC if they did, in fact, show up at the funeral in Highland Park, Illinois. The WBC's lawyer has reportedly since contacted local police, stating that the group would not be attending the vigil - and by the looks of it here the day after the event, they did indeed stay away completely, not a one of them showing up.
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Aaron Swartz case dismissed posthumously by US District Court
Though it’s not the posthumous complete reprieve from the crimes he’d been accused of that his followers, friends, and family had wished for, Aaron Swartz’s court case has been dismissed due to his death. The man known as Aaron Swartz was found to have ended his own life just this past week, his legacy of pushing for freedom of information appearing very much to be living on in his wake. The announcement this week from the US District Court stops the case that accused Swartz of involvement in the theft of digital documents from JSTOR, a journal archive, a case where he faced decades in prison time if found guilty.
Homeland Security still warns against Java use despite fix
Well that didn't last very long: this morning Oracle released a fix for a Java vulnerability that had the government suggesting users turn off the software. As it turns out, The Department of Homeland Security is still saying that Java poses a risk, despite the fix. The Department said in an updated security note this afternoon that Java 7 Update 11 may not actually restrict access to privileged code.
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Library of Congress tweet collection tops 170 billion
Back in 2010, we learned that the Library of Congress had struck a deal with the fine folks over at Twitter to archive every public tweet ever made. In order for this to be accomplished, the Library of Congress first had to go back to 2006 and, starting with the first tweet ever sent using the service, archive all of the tweets to April 2010. This required that the Library of Congress not only create a way to manage a constant stream of tweets on a daily basis, but to also "create a structure for organizing the entire archive by date."
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Connecticut offering $25 for every violent video game destroyed
It would appear that the folks in Southington, Connecticut are looking to terminate the enemy with extreme prejudice - the enemy being violent media of all shapes and sizes. The group hosting the event by the name of "Violent Video Games Return Program" will be allowing in all manner of violent media with a promise that they'll get a $25 "certificate" for every unit they turn in from the local Chamber of Commerce. One thing they'll be sure to have victory on is a massive pile of old games and movies, that's for sure - how empty their pocketbooks will be at the end of this may be a different story.
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California and Illinois pass laws preventing employers from demanding social media passwords
In this day and age of social media, one wrong move could result in you losing your job. Employers who demand their potential employees' passwords to their social media accounts don't make things any easier, but thankfully two states have just imposed laws that prevent employers from doing just that. If you live in California or Illinois, you'll be pleased to know that it's now illegal for employers to demand your Facebook, Twitter, or other social media passwords to gain access to your private information.
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President Obama signs bill to extend warrantless phone tapping until 2017
Late last week, the US Senate passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Reauthorization Act that would authorize phone surveillance of Americans without a warrant for counter-terrorism purposes for the next five years. The bill then moved onto the Oval Office, where President Obama signed it last night, officially putting the bill into action.
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Senate approves warrantless phone tapping until 2017
The US Senate has voted 73-23 to approve the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Reauthorization Act, which will authorize phone surveillance of Americans without a warrant for counter-terrorism purposes for the next five years. The bill extends the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act of 2008, which granted immunity for wiretaps and email monitoring under the Bush Administration.
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Toyota hit with whopping $17.35 million fine from NHTSA
Toyota is finding itself with a big bill to pay today, with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration hitting the company with a $17.35 million fine. The fine is based on safety defects discovered in 2010 Lexus RX 350s, though Toyota isn't getting fined simply because those defects exist. Instead, the company is getting hit with this fine because it allegedly failed to report these defects within the allowed window of five business days.
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