Laws cracking down on student-tracking technology reflect a growing sense of unease among parents over how biometrics are being used, what student data is being collected and stored and what security protects the information.
Rights & Liberties
Does Life Begin at Conception? Nation Eyes Referendum That May Set Precedent
The battle over North Dakota’s Measure 1 highlights the biggest trend in national abortion politics this November: wide-ranging pro-life ballot initiatives that would alter state constitutions in ways whose long-term repercussions are difficult to predict.
Sheriff’s Office, In Echo of 2001 Violation, Keeps Secret the Hospitalization of Murder Suspect at FHF
For two days, a murder suspect was under arrest in Flagler County but not at the jail. The Sheriff’s Office would not disclose his whereabouts–a dungeon-like disappearance that no law allows or protects.
Miscounts Stretch Marathon Canvassing Board Meeting to 16 Hours, Ending After Midnight
Aside from Supervisor Kimberle Weeks hiring a stenographer without the Canvassing Board’s authorization, the meeting Thursday was dominated by attempts to reconcile a four-ballot difference.
Sanford, Ferguson, Tallahassee: When Cops Act Like Vigilantes
When police from Sanford to Tallahassee protect themselves or FSU football players and sit on information that should be disclosed and vigorously pursued, they invite mistrust and charges of a cover-up.
Ebola Isn’t a Problem in the U.S.
Hysteria and Xenophobia Are.
There is not going to be an Ebola epidemic in the United States. There isn’t one now. But there is a an epidemic of hysteria and cowardice that’s costing more lives in Africa, and that could threaten the West if segregationists have their way.
As 32 States Now Recognize Gay Marriage, Pam Bondi Files Latest Delaying Tactic
Same-sex couples should continue to be prevented from getting married in Florida until a legal battle plays out about the constitutionality of the state’s gay-marriage ban, Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a federal-court filing.
Brittany Maynard and the Right to Die: An Open Letter from a State That Denies It
Laureen Kornel, a Flagler Beach resident, was left helpless, watching her mother’s agonizing death from cancer because the right to die on terms other than those dictated by doctors was not an option. She writes Brittany Maynard in hopes of spurring the movement in Florida and other states that deny that right.
Florida Supreme Court Rejects Cell-Phone Tracking by Police, Citing Privacy Rights
Justices, in a 5-2 decision, sided with a man who was arrested in 2007 in Broward County after a search of his vehicle uncovered a kilogram brick of cocaine hidden in a spare-tire well. Police tracked the man, Shawn Alvin Tracey, through location information given off when cell-phone calls are made.
Why Malala Yousafzai Should Have
Won The Nobel Peace Prize
Malala Yousafzai is the 17-year-old Pakistani girl and activist for girls’ education who in 2012 was shot in the head by a shaking, demented terrorist whose allegiance to the Taliban tells us all we need to know about the lethality of religious fundamentalism. Any kind of fundamentalism, really.