donal brown

Exasperated by Republican attacks on their investigative firm, Fusion GPS, for their intelligence reports on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, the firm’s founders are imploring the senate judiciary committee to release the transcripts of their 21 hours of testimony in August that discredit the attacks. “It is time to stop chasing rabbits,” write the founders. “The public still has much to learn about a man with the most troubling business past of any

The National Coalition Against Censorship, December 20, 2017, found that some of the worst assaults on free expression came from the Trump administration that started out in January by imposing a gag order on government agencies including Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency. The Trump administration also attempted to ban seven offensive words among them “fetus” and “evidence-based” in budget documents produced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The American

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education’s annual survey of free speech on the nation’s campuses showed gains with 37 percent earning the highest rating as opposed to only eight percent in 2008. But one in 10 schools still maintained free speech zones. Thirty-two percent of schools surveyed still have severe speech codes down from 39 percent in 2016. (FIRE, December 2017) The Justice Department is supporting students challenging free speech zones on their campuses,

Bans and restrictions on internet freedom during 2017 were not limited to such countries as North Korea, China or Iran. A recent study showed that the United States and other countries around the world are suffering attacks on that freedom. Freedom House studied 65 countries and found that there was  a decline in freedom in half the countries in access and content. (Wired, December 30, 2017, by Issie Lapowsky) Thirty some countries even distributed fake

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed in October to determine if Microsoft can keep its data stored overseas private. Federal prosecutors want the court to hear the case following a federal court decision stifling a warrant for e-mails stored in Ireland. (The Atlantic, October 16, 2017, by Matt Ford) European countries warn in briefs that the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation forbids honoring warrants without going through international treaties. If the Supreme Court finds for