Loss of Privacy

Last week, Texas attempted to ban the TSA’s ability to grope passengers in its airports. After threats from the TSA, Texas backed down. The TSA may have won this battle, but the war is far from over. New Hampshire has looked into banning the TSA’s security practices. New Jersey state Senator Mike Doherty has also vowed to bring legislation against TSA procedures. Now, Utah is joining the fight.

Rep. Carl Wimmer, R-Herriman, has opened a bill file that states Transportation Security Administration agents would not be exempt from the same requirements that a law enforcement official has when trying to perform a search on a person.

“It is a work in progress,” Wimmer said. “What it would do right now is simply say TSA agents are not exempt from the requirement of reasonable suspicion or probable cause to pat down a citizen.”

The fact remains that such searches already violate the 4th Amendment, but the government continues to press on with its searches at the airports with intentions of expanding further into American communities.

“The absolute overbearing audacity of the federal government in threatening Texas while Texas is trying to protect their citizens should really offend any red-blooded American,” he said.

Wimmer says the issue has morphed from being a 4th Amendment issue — the amendment protecting citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures — and has become a 10th Amendment issue in protecting states’ rights.

Since Wimmer’s bill is still being drafted, it won’t be up for a vote until the January 2012 legislative session begins.

Ogden, Utah is about to launch its Crime Blimp, which will be linked with thousands of private and government CCTVs around the city.

Officials are shooting for an April launch date for the blimp, under construction by Weber State University’s Utah Center for Aeronautical Innovation and Design, which will feed video to a fledgling version of the RTCC. They hope the center is fully operational by July.

The idea is to give officers information about a crime scene while they are still rolling up on an event in progress, officials say. Operators in the real-time crime center linking with any camera systems in the area can immediately relay information on what they see to responding officers.

At the moment, the city is only concerned with linking external cameras together.

Planned at 52 feet long and 4 feet in diameter to hold a 20-pound payload of cameras, GPS gear, and telemetry, the blimp will likely be the first to patrol the skies of an American city, according to Greiner and UCAID.

The blimp causes more heartburn to local civil libertarians like Bernie Allen, a defense attorney for more than 30 years, than do the integrated real-time cameras.

“If police can’t go into your backyard without probable cause, then why would they be allowed to fly over your backyard with a blimp?” he asks.

This will cause numerous privacy and legal issues. The response from the city has been a bit snarky.

“We’re not interested in filming the city’s 80,000-plus population,” Weloth said. “Just the ones causing trouble.”

Eventually, everyone will be filmed because they might, someday, cause trouble. The truth is, you will never be able to stop all crime. A crime blimp is there mainly to spy on all the people, not just the ones who might be causing problems. It’s designed to make everyone afraid at all times so as to better control the citizenry.

Last Friday, the Utah legislature passed a resolution stating that there is no climate change and that carbon dioxide is, essentially, harmless to humans and good for plants. Then, over the weekend, they claim that the best way for schools to save money is to get rid of the 12th grade.

Officially the most Republican state in America, its political masters have adopted a resolution condemning “climate alarmists”, and disputing any scientific basis for global warming.

The measure, which passed by 56-17, has no legal force, though it was predictably claimed by climate change sceptics as a great victory in the wake of the controversy caused by a mistake over Himalayan glaciers in the UN’s landmark report on global warming.

It should also be noted that the resolution is not legally binding. It merely expresses someone’s sentiment. In all likelihood, state politicians voted for this as they were “playing politics” to get something more meaningful that they wanted passed and this may have been their only viable option. If you read the resolution, it is very much financially driven.

The fact is, life changes. We are not the same as we were 10,000 years ago, nor 100 years ago. We have weathered ice ages and will again. The major disputes arise from how much man is helping along climate change. Given that an ultra-conservative politician has suggested getting rid of 12^th grade, many Utahans would then lack the ability to reason scientific facts and believe whatever it told to them.

Utah is trying to save money on a $700 million budget shortfall. The problem with suggesting eliminating 12th grade or making it an option to graduate early is that it was suggested as a way to save money, forgetting the fact that Utah already has the option for students to graduate early if they’ve finished their requirements.

“We’ve always had an option in place for early graduation,” said Debra Roberts, chairwoman of the Utah Board of Education, adding that it was OK to give students the choice to graduate early, but that they shouldn’t be pushed to leave.

State Senator Chris Buttars is known to be out of touch with what actually happens in the real world. Not only has he suggested eliminating the 12th grade, he has spouted racist epithets and gay bashing. Some statements he has said:

“Homosexuality will always be a sexual perversion. And you say that around here now and everybody goes nuts. But I don’t care.”

“Brown v. Board of Education is wrong to begin with.”

Senator Buttars also believes that evolution is a farce and that creationism is factual. Utahans would be best to vote this man out of office so he stops embarrassing the good people of Utah.

At many of Utah’s DMV offices, long lines have arisen at the attempts to implement REAL-ID. Some wait times are nearing four hours, creating havoc at the DMV and irate drivers.

In order to speed up the process, Governor Herbert announced that the D.M.V. located in Draper would be open on Fridays from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. However, this elimination of the Draper D.M.V.’s four-day workweek is temporary. Another service that has been put in place to help with wait times is an estimated wait time page online; this estimated time page encompasses Wasatch Front locations.

Despite long wait times applicants must now provide documentation from four categories: Legal/Lawful Presence or Status Evidence; Identity Verification; Social Security Number (S.S.N.) or proof of ineligibility to obtain S.S.N. or Individual Tax Identification Number (I.T.I.N.). This is an increase of documentation is aimed at screening people who are in the United States illegally.

Document requirements are further complicated by the fact that it changes depending on whether or not applicants are seeking a regular or limited term license. Regular licensing includes people seeking a new driver license or renewing their driver license.

Documentation that qualifies as Legal/Lawful Presence or Status Evidence (for regular I.D.) includes valid U.S. passport, certified birth certificate, valid Permanent Resident Card, Certificate of Naturalization, or a Certificate of Citizenship. Documents used for Legal/Lawful Presence or Status Evidence can be used for Identity Verification as well.

S.S.N. or proof of ineligibility to obtain S.S.N. or I.T.I.N. documents is social security card, W-2 form, pay stub showing name and S.S.N., or an SSA-1099 form. However, Commercial Driver License applicants must have a social security card. Applicants must provide two Utah Residency Verification documents. Residency verification must display applicants’ address and can include utility bills, recent bank statement, valid Utah vehicle registration or court documents. Only one of these two documents can be printed from the internet.

The D.M.V. will scan all documentation, which will be put into a secure system. The D.M.V. suggests that all applicants look at estimated wait times and gather necessary documentation before going to the D.M.V.

This is the newly released surveillance video from the July 9th incident in Salt Lake City.