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Government Corruption and Negligence Drive Most Wrongful Convictions, Report Finds
More than 1,000 tainted cases were tallied in a new nationwide study by the registry that measures the role of government misconduct in wrongful convictions — and how that misconduct falls heaviest on Black exonerees. The study, published Tuesday, examined 2,400 cases from 1989 through February 2019 in which people were absolved of criminal convictions, and it found that 54...
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Government Secrets: Why and How A Special Agent-Turned-Whistleblower Uncovered Controversial Border Surveillance Tactics
Special Agent Wesley Petonak, 34, was sitting at his desk in November 2018 when he came across a PowerPoint presentation file that alarmed him. A nine-year veteran at San Diego’s Homeland Security Investigations office, Petonak knew firsthand the importance of intelligence gathering for successful immigration enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border. But the PowerPoint was different. Nine of the slides...
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Source: Leaked Documents Show the U.S. Government Tracking Journalists and Immigration Advocates Through a Secret Database
The documents detail an intelligence-gathering effort by the United States and Mexican authorities, targeting more than 50 people including journalists, an attorney, and immigration advocates.
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Joaquin ‘El Chapo' Guzman Will Be Tried in US in April 2018
A U.S. judge on Friday set an April 2018 trial date for Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman on charges he oversaw a multibillion-dollar international drug trafficking operation responsible for murders and kidnappings. Guzman answered the judge’s questions through an interpreter. He spent half the hearing looking across the courtroom at his wife, who smiled and waved to him...
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Journalists Sue Trump Administration Over Border Surveillance Program
Five American journalists subject to controversial surveillance tactics at the border are now suing the Trump administration for allegedly violating their constitutionally-protected rights.
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Safety Of Bunk Beds Questioned Following SDSU Dorm Room Death
A whistleblower has lodged a formal complaint with the U.S. Government over the safety of the bunk beds at San Diego State University (SDSU) following the death of a 19-year-old freshman on November 7.
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What's Up: Whistleblower Goes Public on Border Tactics
NBC 7 Investigates spoke with the whistleblower who leaked the U.S. government’s secret database on those connected to the migrant caravan. NBC 7’s Marianne Kushi has what’s up.
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Ruling Backs Asylum Seekers at Border Prior to Policy Shift
A federal judge ruled Tuesday that a partial ban on asylum does not apply to anyone who appeared at an official U.S. border crossing before the policy was announced in July, a decision that may affect thousands of people.
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Trump Administration Preparing to Take Over Private Land in Texas for Border Wall
The Trump administration is preparing court filings to begin taking over private land to build its long-promised border wall as early as this week — without confirming how much it will pay landowners first, according to two officials familiar with the process. Jared Kushner is hosting a meeting with military and administration officials at the White House this Friday, NBC...
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US Proposes Tougher Rules on Work Permits for Asylum-Seekers
The Trump administration has proposed making it tougher for asylum-seekers to obtain permission to work in the United States while their cases are pending, a move that immigrant advocates say would unfairly punish those who need humanitarian protection the most. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said Wednesday a proposed rule would double the time asylum-seekers must wait for a work...
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Federal Court Rules Against Warrantless Searches of Phones, Laptops at Ports of Entry
A federal court in Boston has ruled that warrantless U.S. government searches of the phones and laptops of international travelers at airports and other U.S. ports of entry violate the Fourth Amendment. Tuesday’s ruling in U.S. District Court came in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation on behalf of 11...
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US Launches Review of China-Owned Video App TikTok: Reports
Multiple published reports say that the U.S. government has launched a national-security review of the China-owned video app TikTok, popular with millions of U.S. teens and young adults. The reports Friday from Reuters,The New York Times and others said that the interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews acquisitions by foreign firms, has opened an inquiry...
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US Launches Review of China-Owned Video App TikTok: Reports
Multiple published reports say that the U.S. government has launched a national-security review of the China-owned video app TikTok, popular with millions of U.S. teens and young adults. The reports Friday from Reuters,The New York Times and others said that the interagency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which reviews acquisitions by foreign firms, has opened an inquiry...
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Company Making Costco Pajamas Flagged for Forced Labor
The Trump Administration is blocking shipments from a Chinese company making baby pajamas sold at Costco warehouses, after the foreign manufacturer was accused of forcing ethnic minorities locked in an internment camp to sew clothes against their will. The government is also blocking rubber gloves sold by industry leader Ansell whose customers include surgeons, mechanics and scientists around the U.S.,...
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Trump Administration Shifting to Privatize Migrant Child Detention
On a recent day in a remodeled brick church in the Rio Grande Valley, a caregiver tried to soothe a toddler, offering him a sippy cup. The adult knew next to nothing about the little 3-year-old whose few baby words appeared to be Portuguese. Shelter staff had tried desperately to find his family, calling the Brazilian consulate and searching Facebook....
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Hayward Man Accused of Spying on Behalf of Chinese Government
A Bay Area man who operates tours for Chinese students and visitors was charged with being an illegal foreign agent and delivering classified U.S. national security information to officials in China, U.S. government officials announced Monday.
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Telecom Battle At The Border Intensifies Between Verizon and Altan Redes
Thousands of Verizon Wireless customers along the southern border from San Diego to El Paso, Texas, have found themselves in the middle of a war between two international wireless companies. In one corner stands Verizon Wireless, and in the other is Altán Redes, the newly arrived wholesale wireless network in Mexico.
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Judge Blocks Trump Rules for Detained Migrant Kids
A U.S. judge on Friday blocked new Trump administration rules that would enable the government to keep immigrant children in detention facilities with their parents indefinitely. U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles said the rules conflict with a 1997 settlement agreement that requires the government to release immigrant children caught on the border as quickly as possible...
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Trump Allies Voice Concerns About Rudy Giuliani's Involvement in Ukraine
Even as they publicly insist President Donald Trump did nothing wrong in his call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, his allies are privately acknowledging more serious concerns about the ethical questions raised and potential political fallout from it — especially over the involvement of Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney. Two Trump allies, one of whom is a former senior White...
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The Story Behind Biden's Son, Ukraine and Trump's Claims
In 2014, then-Vice President Joe Biden was at the forefront of American diplomatic efforts to support Ukraine’s fragile democratic government as it sought to fend off Russian aggression and root out corruption. So it raised eyebrows when Biden’s son Hunter was hired by a Ukrainian gas company. The Obama White House said at the time that there was no conflict...