- No credit for owning your Big Brother antics two months
too late and only after being exposed, state of Ohio. The Buckeye State has
added a new level of spying on its citizens to the mix, only officials did so
without notifying the public. State Attorney General Mike DeWine admitted he
should have let Ohioans know that their images from driver's licenses were
being used by law enforcement in criminal investigations even though he didn’t
offer a great explanation as to why he chose not to do so. "If I had to do
it over again, would we have announced it when we did it? Yeah, we would have.
And I'll take responsibility for that," DeWine said. The controversial
facial recognition technology program will continue, according to DeWine, who
also said an advisory board will be created to review the system's usage and to
suggest policy changes to avoid misuse of the program. The program gives police
the capability to compare a photograph of a suspect or crime victim to an
electronic pool of mug shots and driver's license photos in the Ohio database,
with comparisons made of facial measurements from one image to the next in
search of a match. Ohio is one of dozens of states to use such a program, according
to a statement from DeWine, but the only one to lie about it and then say, “Oh,
my bad.” Ohio law enforcement agencies began using the facial recognition
technology in June and DeWine's concession that he should have let the public
know about the program sooner didn’t placate anyone. "The time for press
conferences and advisory boards was months ago," Gary Daniels, associate
director of the ACLU of Ohio, said in a statement. "This system needs to
be shut down until there are meaningful, documented rules in place to keep this
information secure, protect the privacy of innocent people, and prevent
government abuse of this new tool." States have gradually begun using the
technology, which was developed in 2010, and it has already been used 2,677
times by Ohio law enforcement. In addition to identifying suspects, the system
also assists law enforcement officials in identifying homicide victims, missing
persons who suffer from Alzheimer's, dementia or amnesia, and human trafficking
victims……..
- How is life, New York Mets fans?
Your team is 13 games below .500, in fourth place in the National League East
and the one player who has made this season even remotely tolerable is
potentially staring down Tommy John surgery on his elbow. Right-hander Matt Harvey has been diagnosed
with a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow, meaning
his is unlikely to pitch again this season, general manager Sandy Alderson
said. A final decision on surgery will have to wait 2-3 weeks, until swelling
subsides and a clearer assessment of the extent of the tear can be determined.
Harvey is hopeful that he can avoid surgery by strengthening the area around
the ligament tear, although Alderson was less optimistic. "I'm going to do
everything I can so I don't have to get surgery,” Harvey said. Should Tommy
John surgery be necessary, it typically requires a 12-month recovery time and
would cost Harvey most if not all of the 2014 season. This bitter news came
down after Harvey was sent Monday morning to the Hospital for Special Surgery
in Manhattan after complaining of forearm discomfort following a 102-pitch
start Saturday against the Detroit Tigers. Dr. David Altchek did an MRI MRI
that revealed the UCL tear. "Doctors will always tell you that if you
could avoid surgery you should," Alderson said. "However, we have had
situations in the past -- not just here, but across baseball -- where the
conservative approach doesn't work, and what you end up with is a loss of time
and therefore a delay in recovery. That all has to be taken into account.”
Harvey ends his season with a 9-5 record, 2.27 ERA and the hearts of every Mets
fan on the verge of shattering into a thousand pieces…..
- A German man who clearly didn’t read the Bible much before
he stole a 200-year-old version of the holy book has finally realized the error
of his ways. The stolen Bible was pilfered from a British church four decades ago
and Simon Scott, treasurer of the Holy Trinity Church, in the coastal resort of
Hastings, England, received the large, leather-bound book in the mail earlier
this month. An anonymous note accompanied the book and came inside an envelope
marked with a German return address. The note explained that the man stole the
Bible in 1971. "I've never managed to pluck up the courage to come and
hand it back personally. But now that I've retired, I've definitely decided to
get on the right side of things,” the note read. It went on to say that the
author was from Germany and had gone to the town to take an English language
course with his wife but the lecturer seemed to be “very old, and had no
teaching skills.” Some of the classes he took were at the church and when he
saw some unused Bibles, he somehow reasoned that he would take one “as
compensation for the poor course” and to read at home. “In fact,” he said in
the letter, “I never got around to doing it,” adding that his wife was “very
angry” with him for taking the book. "Whenever I came across the bible I
would have this guilty conscience about doing it.” Scott has been a member of
the church since 1980 and admitted he wasn’t expecting the Bible to be
returned. “I hoped it was something to help fill our coffers,” Scott explained.
“But it turned out to be a 200-year-old Bible which was of little monetary
value but came with a major story behind it. It wouldn't have been an easy
steal. It would have taken a bit of carrying, really.” He sent a reply to
the address list on the envelope and said he hoped the thief’s conscience was
now clear……..
- Whew. We dodged a bullet on that one, world. After the
most predictable man-band reunion ever as ‘N Sync Town Boys Degrees took the
stage together Sunday night at the MTV Video Music Awards, the world had to
wonder if the reunion tour bug would strike the middle-aged popsters. The
man-banders played a 15-minute greatest hits medley with snippets of singles 'Take Back
The Night,’ 'SexyBack,’ 'Like I Love You,’ 'My Love,’ 'Cry Me A River,’
'Señiorita' and 'Rock Your Body,’ completing a truly terrible night for music
in which frontman Justin Timberlake took home the prize for Video Of The Year
award, as well as the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award, which he pledged to
share with his former bandmates. "Half of the Moonmen I've ever won, I won
with those four guys right there," Timberlake said, pointing to his
bandmates. "I'm going to share this with them." Them would be former
bandmates JC Chasez, Lance Bass, Chris Kirkpatrick and Joey Fatone, all of whom
have properly faded back to irrelevance since the group broke up. Chasez
confirmed the much-awaited news that the reunion was a one-off gig and nothing
more. "It was just about five guys who were great friends, who spent 10 or
15 years together touring, and we wanted to give that back to our fans, but we
were there mainly to support Justin," he said. "Literally just a few
days ago, Justin gave me a buzz and he pretty much said, 'Hey man, listen, I'm
getting this award and they've given me a pile of time to perform, and we
started our careers at MTV and I think we should get the band back together.’”
With man bands reuniting seemingly every day and touring the United States to
torture the world with their crappy music all over again, it’s good to know
this is one tour that won’t happen…….
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