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Daily Archives: January 13, 2025

Special Counsel Report Says Trump Would Have Been Convicted in Election Case

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The New York Times – gift article “…The Justice Department delivered the 137-page volume — representing half of Mr. Smith’s overall final report, with the volume about Mr. Trump’s other federal case, accusing him of mishandling classified documents, still confidential — to Congress just after midnight on Tuesday.  The former special counsel Jack Smith stood behind his case against President-elect Donald J. Trump in a report released early Tuesday, saying Mr. Trump would have been convicted but for the Justice Department’s policy against prosecuting sitting presidents.

The report amounted to an extraordinary rebuke of a president-elect, capping a momentous legal saga that saw the man now poised to regain the powers of the nation’s highest office charged with crimes that struck at the heart of American democracy. And although Mr. Smith resigned as special counsel late last week, his recounting of the case also served as a reminder of the vast array of evidence and detailed accounting of Mr. Trump’s actions that he had marshaled. In his report, Mr. Smith took Mr. Trump to task not only for his efforts to reverse the results of a free and fair election, but also for consistently encouraging “violence against his perceived opponents” throughout the chaotic weeks between Election Day and Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, injuring more than 140 police officers. Mr. Smith laid the attack on the Capitol squarely at Mr. Trump’s feet, quoting from the evidence in several criminal cases of people charged with taking part in the riot who made clear that they believed they were acting on Mr. Trump’s behalf…”

Official title – FINAL REPORT ON THE SPECIAL COUNSEL’S INVESTIGATIONS AND PROSECUTIONS VOLUME ONE: THE ELECTION CASE REPORT ON EFFORTS TO INTERFERE WITH THE LAWFUL TRANSFER OF POWER FOLLOWING THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OR THE CERTIFICATION OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTE HELD ON JANUARY 6, 2021. Special Counsel Jack Smith. Submitted Pursuant to 28 C.F.R.§600.8(c) Washington, D.C. January 7, 2025.

California wildfires map

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The Los Angeles Times has this amazing interactive map, based on real-time open data provided by CalFire and the Geospatial Multi-Agency Coordination. See also Analysing satellite imagery of the Jan 2025 Southern California wildfires: “3.9 micron data from the GOES-16 East and GOES-18 West satellites on the January 2025 Southern California fires. We download the… Continue Reading

Apple auto-opts everyone into having their photos analyzed by AI for landmarks

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The Register: “Apple last year deployed a mechanism for identifying landmarks and places of interest in images stored in the Photos application on its customers iOS and macOS devices and enabled it by default, seemingly without explicit consent. Apple customers have only just begun to notice. The feature, known as Enhanced Visual Search, was called… Continue Reading

Open Port Chronicle: What Port 80 Revealed About The Internet

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“At RedHunt Labs, we conduct extensive internet-wide studies as part of Project Resonance to stay ahead of the evolving cyberspace and enhance our Attack Surface Management (ASM) platform. This blog highlights our recent research, where we analyzed billions of IP addresses to check for port 80 open, uncovering fascinating insights.  The internet is massive –… Continue Reading

AI Is Like Tinkerbell: It Only Works If We Believe in It Keep clapping. Louder

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Futurism – “There’s no limit to the promise of artificial intelligence. Or at least, there’s no limit to the promises that the powerful make about AI. We’re told by tech companies and their investors that AI has the capacity to transform everything, making us more productive workers and more efficient learners — before eventually making… Continue Reading

Inside the Black Box of Predictive Travel Surveillance

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Wired – “Behind the scenes, companies and governments are feeding a trove of data about international travelers into opaque AI tools that aim to predict who’s safe—and who’s a threat… In Europe, at least four technology companies—Idemia, SITA, Travizory, and WCC—offer governments around the world software that uses algorithms on traveler data to profile passengers.… Continue Reading

Strict Scrutiny

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“A podcast about the United States Supreme Court and the legal culture that surrounds it. Hosted by three badass constitutional law professors– Leah Litman, Kate Shaw, and Melissa Murray– Strict Scrutiny provides in-depth, accessible, and irreverent analysis of the Supreme Court and its cases, culture, and personalities. Each week, Leah, Kate, and Melissa break down… Continue Reading

Search the BIRLS Database

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“Department of Veterans Affairs (the VA). It provides an index to basic biographical information on more than 18 million deceased American veterans who received some sort of veterans benefits in their lifetime, including health care, disability or life insurance policies, educational benefits (the GI Bill), mortgage assistance (VA loans), and more. The BIRLS database includes… Continue Reading

ABA Free Legal Answers surpasses 400k inquiries; nearly 100,000 pro bono hours served

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ABA: “Free Legal Answers, the virtual legal advice clinic sponsored by the American Bar Association, hit a major milestone, crossing the 400,000-mark in the total number of questions handled since the program’s inception in 2016. The program’s more than 15,000 attorneys registered nationally to volunteer performed over 16,500 hours of pro bono service in 2024,… Continue Reading