Inhofe Wants to Bomb N. Korea, Another Corruption Scandal Hits New York, Idaho Lawmakers Restrict Drones: P.M. Links

• Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) is
  buying the fear North Korea is trying to sell us and wants to
  launch a
  pre-emptive strike on the country. British Prime Minister
  
  David Cameron is also concerned the nuclear threat to the West
  is real.


• Another day, another political scandal in New York. A state
  lawmaker who represents the Bronx was arrested for
  taking bribes in order help some developer buddies.


• Another day, another solar power industry failure. Former
  employees of a recently shuttered (and subsidized) solar plant in
  Pennsylvania are trying to force the company into
  bankruptcy proceedings for its failure to pay their
  severances.


• Idaho lawmakers have signed off on legislation to require
  police to
  get warrants to use drones for surveillance, except in
  emergencies.


• Google appears to be challenging one of the
  National Security Letters that are used to demand the company
  hand over private data about users.


• The United States is offering
  a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture and
  conviction of brutal warlord Joseph Kony.

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Inhofe Wants to Bomb N. Korea, Another Corruption Scandal Hits New York, Idaho Lawmakers Restrict Drones: P.M. Links

• Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) is
  buying the fear North Korea is trying to sell us and wants to
  launch a
  pre-emptive strike on the country. British Prime Minister
  
  David Cameron is also concerned the nuclear threat to the West
  is real.


• Another day, another political scandal in New York. A state
  lawmaker who represents the Bronx was arrested for
  taking bribes in order help some developer buddies.


• Another day, another solar power industry failure. Former
  employees of a recently shuttered (and subsidized) solar plant in
  Pennsylvania are trying to force the company into
  bankruptcy proceedings for its failure to pay their
  severances.


• Idaho lawmakers have signed off on legislation to require
  police to
  get warrants to use drones for surveillance, except in
  emergencies.


• Google appears to be challenging one of the
  National Security Letters that are used to demand the company
  hand over private data about users.


• The United States is offering
  a $5 million reward for information leading to the capture and
  conviction of brutal warlord Joseph Kony.

Have a news tip for us? Send it to: 24_7@reason.com.

Follow Reason 24/7 on Twitter: @reason247

Follow us on Facebook
and Twitter,
and don’t forget to sign
up for Reason’s daily updates for more
content

Read More

Judges Rule on Police Practices Along the Canada-New York Border: No Unreasonable Searches, No Unreasonable Stops

A U.S. district judge ruled on Friday that cops
in Niagara County, New York were wrong to detain a couple for hours
for having windows tinted beyond what’s allowed in the state (it
was a permissible tint in Tennessee, where the car was registered)
and that, further, from the
Newspaper:

"Given that material issues of fact exist as to whether
the continued detention of plaintiffs was constitutionally
permissible, a reasonable fact-finder could find that it was
objectively unreasonable for the officers to conclude that removal
of plaintiffs to a border facility, a further search and x-ray of
their car without their consent, and their continued detention for
an unspecified amount of time, did not violate plaintiffs'
constitutional rights," Judge [Richard] Arcara ruled.

The couple says in the lawsuit they were stopped because they
were black.

Meanwhile, a county judge in St. Lawrence, New York
earlier ruled the Border Patrol
could not stop somebody just for driving carefully, even if a
subsequent search turned up drugs. From the
Newspaper:

Agent [Brandon] Carrier became suspicious and about an
hour into the stop a drug dog was called to the scene, and a tire
filled with marijuana was found in the trunk. This evidence,
however, was thrown out because the traffic stop itself was deemed
invalid and the Border Patrol had no business stopping them.


"The court believes that Officer Carrier decided to follow the
white SUV and do a radio run because the driver appeared nervous,"
Judge [Kathleen] Rogers ruled. "Her actions were completely
consistent with a person who was not engaged in any criminal
activity. There was no basis to believe that a vehicle with a NYS
license plate and registration had crossed the border or was
engaged in any way with smuggling persons or contraband across the
border."


Agent Carrier testified that he also became suspicious when he
learned the car was registered to someone with the common Indian
name of Deer.


"A vehicle stop must be valid at its inception: it cannot be
bootstrapped into reasonable suspicion by mounting concerns over
diverging explanations from the vehicle occupants as to their
intended destination," Judge Rogers ruled. "His candid testimony
that the occupants looked like Mohawks and that one had what
Carrier believed is a Mohawk name, and that the car was listed for
an address near the Mohawk Indian reservation bordered on improper
racial profiling."

It may have turned out differently in the agent had said his dog
alerted him from the beginning, based on
the recent unanimous Supreme Court ruling that a dog’s ok was
enough to warrant a search by police.

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The Most Expensive Homes You Can Buy In New York City

The New York City real estate world is abuzz over two properties reported to be hitting the market for well over $100 million in the past couple of days.

One belongs to SAC Capital honcho Steve A. Cohen; the other was owned by late investor Martin Zweig.

In light of these two blockbuster properties, we're taking a look at the 10 most expensive homes that are currently for sale in New York City, based on publicly available listings.

#10 A 7-story townhouse on the Upper West Side is on sale for $50 million.

This townhouse on West 86th Street was built in 1900 in the Beaux Arts style.

It was gut-renovated in 1998, and has eight bedrooms, 14 bathrooms, and a roof garden. 

#9 A duplex penthouse on the Upper East Side is on sale for $50 million.

The penthouse at the all-new 135 East 79th Street has six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, and multiple terraces.

The apartment, a duplex, is 8,987 square feet, and is located on the 19th floor of the building.

#8 The penthouse atop the Mandarin Oriental in Columbus Circle is listed for $50 million.

The penthouse at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Columbus Circle's Time Warner Center has bounced on and off the market for more than a year. It was previously listed for $42.5 million, according to Curbed.

The 4,825-square-foot condo has a 30-foot gallery and a wine cellar, as well as access to the hotel's concierge service and amenities.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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