"Meet the administrative subpoena (.pdf): With a federal official’s signature, banks, hospitals, bookstores, telecommunications companies and even utilities and internet service providers — virtually all businesses — are required to hand over sensitive data on individuals or corporations, as long as a government agent declares the information is relevant to an investigation.

A rural Oregon man was sentenced Wednesday to 30 days in jail and over $1,500 in fines because he had three reservoirs on his property to collect and use rainwater. Gary Harrington of Eagle Point, Ore., says he plans to appeal his conviction in Jackson County (Ore.) Circuit Court on nine misdemeanor charges under a 1925 law for having what state water managers called “three illegal reservoirs” on his property – and for filling the reservoirs with rainwater and snow runoff.

Zinger quote from full-time artist (and QCO reader) Gwenn Seemel:

I'm fascinated by how artists say that their adherence to copyright is about money (even when they aren't making a living with their work) but that when you dig a little deeper it comes out that it's about fear. It's about the fear that someone will do what you're doing but do it better than you ever did.

If you really want to address racism then we need to address two issues, the drug war and the fact that 3 of every 4 black babies is born to an unwed mother. The war on drugs is disproportionately applied to blacks, and once a person has a criminal record you can “legally” discriminate against them.

In France, raw milk is happily sold in vending machines on street corners, but in California -- a state which used to represent a healthy, happy lifestyle -- raw milk advocates are targeted by the state as criminals, then subjected to personal vengeance campaigns run by the DA's office.