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Friday, July 21, 2017
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EU’s New Antitrust Chief Needs Time to Decide on Google Issue

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EU's New Antitrust Chief

EU’s new antitrust chief, Margrethe Vestager, has revealed yesterday that she would need to take some time in order to decide on what the next step should be for the Google investigation that has been going strong for the past four years. Vestager’s predecessor, Joaquin Almunia, scrapped a settlement with the tech giant.

On November 1st, Margrethe Vestager took over from Joaquin Almunia and became EU’s new antitrust chief. Vestager was a free-trade advocating economy minister in home country, Denmark.

In one of the few statements she made after being assigned their role, she said that she would gather a sample of views from parties which are involved in the Google case and check on the latest developments of the case before making any decisions.

She revealed her plan during a European Parliament hearing.

The issues at stake in our investigations have a big potential impact on many players, they are multifaceted and complex. I will therefore need some time to decide on the next steps.

She also said that the investigation would and should only focus on competition issues, even though some critics are saying that it should expand to media pluralism issues and data privacy.

Microsoft is one of Google’s most fervent critics and in September, the tech giant, along with publishers across Europe and some politicians, put pressure on Almunia to reject a set a concessions from Google.

Google wants to settle the EU probe and avoid any possible fine that they might get. The world’s most popular search engine could be fined up to 10% of its global turnover.

EU’s new antitrust chief didn’t say how much time she was going to need to come up with a solution or a decision about Google’s probe, but she added that:

To decide how to take our investigations forward, I need to know what those most directly affected by the practices in question have to say. I need to have a representative sample of views of those concerned. We are talking about fast moving markets—I have to be sure that we have all the facts up to date to get it right.

California Ends Race-Based Punishment in Prisons

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Race-Based Punishment

In 2006 two guards at the California’s High Desert State Prison were attacked by a group of African American prisoners. After the riot was contained, the warden of the prison declared a full lockdown that kept all the African Americans from one wing of the jail locked in their cells for 14 months. Race-based punishment is what this method of control and penalty is called.

They weren’t allowed to go outside, exercise, have prison jobs or attend rehabilitation programs. Everyone who was African American in that wing of the prison had to endure the punishment for something two African American men did.

The state of California announced today that it agreed to renounce its use of race-based punishment as a tool to control people in crowded prisons. This decision comes after a six-year-long lawsuit that was filed in 2008 over the High Desert lockdown. Jeffrey Beard, corrections chief settled with the lawyers of the inmates and this decision was made.

During the trial, the case extended to cover all the prisoners in the entire state that practiced race-based punishment. The agreement and settlement is on its way to a federal judge to get approved.

A staff lawyer at the Prison Law Office, Rebekah Evenson, revealed that this decision represents a success, a tremendous result.

The settlement papers reveal that the state has agreed to a system that will determine each and every prisoner to be locked down. Prisoners on lockdown will be permitted to exercise in the courtyard after two weeks in lockdown. The loss of further privileges such as mail, showers and visits are included with full lockdowns.

Prison officials have admitted that race-based punishment has always been a very important tool to keep violence at a minimum in prisons. They claimed that there is a need to immobilize large sections of the prison population during the investigations for riots.
During one year in the prisons of California, there have been as many as 160 race-based lockdowns. Race-based punishment happens all over the country. California is the first state to take the first step to end race-based punishments.

Terrorist Training Camp Attendee Arrested by Scotland Yard

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Terrorist Training Camp

We’ve seen the latest autopsy report on the body of Michael Brown that revealed the young boy was shot at close range and now it’s time for some more police-related news. It appears that U.K.’s Scotland Yard have arrested a man on suspicion of attending terrorist training camp, just hours after making another similar arrest.

Man Thought of Attending Terrorist Training Camp Arrested

Anti-terror officers arrested a man today in London who was thought by the Scotland Yard to have attended a Syrian terrorist training camp. Two London addresses were searched, which lead to the arrest.

The Scotland Yard have revealed that the man is 32-years old was detained in custody for being suspected of attending a terrorism training camp in Syria.

The man is set to be questioned soon and right now is being held in custody at a central London police station. Two addresses are involved in this investigations: one in west and one in south west London.

The 32-year-old man’s arrest comes only hours after a young woman was arrested in Bedforshire by anti-terror police. She was suspected of wanting to join jihadists in Syria and was help on suspicion of preparing acts of terrorism. The woman was still in the U.K. when she was arrested by the Scotland Yard, but reports claim that she was planning to head over to Syria as soon as possible.

A Metropolitan Police officer spoke to the press and revealed that:

Officers from SO15 Counter Terrorism Command have today arrested a 32-year-old man on suspicion of attending a place used for terrorist training contrary to section 8 of Terrorism Act 2006.He has been taken to a central London police station where he remains in custody. An address in west London and an address in south-west London are being searched as part of the investigation under the Terrorism Act. This investigation is Syria related.

Up until this date, 10 women and 38 men were arrested in the United Kingdom on suspicion of terrorism offences. The majority of these are related to the war-torn country of Syria.

Michael Brown Was Shot Within Close Range, Says Autopsy Report

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Michael Brown Was Shot Within Close Range

Yesterday we reported on how important cadaver dog work has become to police officers and today we’ve got more news about a case that has potentially forever changed the way Americans view police. The young black man who was unarmed and shot by the police, Michael Brown was shot within close range, the latest autopsy report has disclosed.

Michael Brown Was Shot Within Close Range

Other autopsy reports have been made in the case of Ferguson native, Michael Brown and now another one has come to the attention of the media. The latest Michael Brown autopsy has revealed that Michael Brown was shot within close range, at least once.

Police officer, Darren Wilson, shot the 18-year-old six times: twice in the chest, once in his right thumb, once in the upper right arm, once in his forearm and once in his forehead. This is no news, as this piece of information was made public soon after the shooting.The killing of Michael Brown sparked heated protests in his town of Ferguson.

Now, following the most recent autopsy, it was revealed that Michael Brown was shot within close range in the right thumb. Experts were able to determine this after finding no powder burns around the wound. This usually happens when the bullet doesn’t travel too big of a distance.

New York City Chief Medical examiner, Dr. Michael Baden, performed his own private autopsy and his results were that Michael Brown wasn’t shot from close range, because the shots lacked stipple, as the doctor put it. The results of this recent autopsy only contradicts what Dr. Brown found.

It was only last week that Wilson, Brown’s killer, told investigators that the young man reached for his gun when they were fighting and that Brown had pushed him and punched his face. Brown’s tissue was found in Wilson’s car, which confirms Wilson’s statement.

The toxicology report that came with the autopsy results confirmed that Brown had pot in his system at the time of the incident.

We will provide more information about the Michael Brown case as soon as it becomes available.

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