Why NATO and Russia must talk

December 03, 2015 - Daily News Briefing

Despite deep differences over everything from Ukraine to Syria, Russia and NATO are still talking.

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As many as three heavily armed attackers opened fire on a banquet at a social services center for the disabled Wednesday, killing 14 people and seriously wounding more than a dozen "as if they were on a mission," authorities said. The attackers escaped, setting a large region east of Los Angeles on edge, but several hours later police riddled a black SUV with gunfire two miles from the late-morning carnage. One person lay motionless on the pavement — dead or dying — with a gun nearby. Officers appeared to remove a second person from the vehicle. San Bernardino police spokeswoman Sgt. Vicki Cervantes said authorities had not immediately confirmed whether those in the SUV were involved in the morning attack.

The US Department of Justice has been asked to investigate the Chicago Police Department following the release of dash cam videos more than a year after the fatal shooting of black teenager Laquan McDonald by white Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke. Many speculate that police officials “dragged their feet on the investigation” and possibly attempted to “cover up what happened,” a crime that could result in 20-year sentences for those found guilty. On Tuesday, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed the request citing that the police department violated federal law, signaling a need to investigate the department’s “use of deadly force and whether a pattern or practice of discriminatory policing exists.”

After two weeks of deliberation over the trial of a former Massey Energy chief, the federal jury remains deadlocked. Don Blankenship was charged in 2014 on three counts for ignoring hundreds of safety breaches and “conspiring to break safety laws and defrauding mine regulators” which allegedly led to the 2010 West Virginia Upper Big Branch Mine blast that killed 29 people. If found guilty he could face up to three decades in prison. The fact that Mr. Blankenship is facing criminal charges is indicative of a broader shift in corporate accountability. It has been widely reported that this is the first time a coal executive has been personally held to account for mine management. The verdict, whenever it comes, could reverberate throughout the mining industry, which has already taken some steps to improve mine safety since the deadly blast.

A federal grand jury has indicted three Virginia men accused of plotting to shoot up or bomb synagogues and black churches. The Richmond-area men were originally charged last month. A federal magistrate found probable cause to send the case to a grand jury, which returned a three-count indictment Tuesday. Court records show that Robert C. Doyle, 34; Ronald Beasley Chaney II, 33; and Charles D. Halderman Jr., 30, are charged with a robbery conspiracy. The government claims the men conspired to rob an unnamed silver and coin dealer and use the money to stockpile weapons, buy land and train for a race war.

In the wake of last month's terrorist attacks in Paris, Americans have been fiercely divided on how to prevent foreign terrorists into the country. Currently the visa waiver program allows travelers from 38 approved nations to enter the country for 90 days without securing a visa – a privilege that nearly 20 million visitors to the US take advantage of every year. But on Tuesday, a bipartisan group led by Democrat Dianne Feinstein of California and Republican Jeff Flake of Arizona introduced a bill that would deny the visa waiver privilege to anyone who has visited Syria or Iraq in the past five years, underlining US officials fear of possible Islamic State militants entering the US under the program.

Google has been tracking children’s personal information on their devices, even after the technology company signed a pledge specifically stating that it would not do so, according to a complaint filed Tuesday by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Google's use of children's data is just one component in a larger discussion of how to define consumer rights in data collection and what level of responsibility technology companies should bear in protecting their data. The use of children's data has struck a particular chord because children are less likely to understand the implications of the personal information they reveal online. The data collected includes students’ browsing history and searches, YouTube videos, and password information.

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