1. A thumbs-up for NSA Internet spying on foreigners
WASHINGTON (AP) — Endorsement of the NSA’s Internet surveillance programs by a bipartisan privacy board deeply disappointed civil liberties activists Wednesday while providing a measure of vindication for beleaguered U.S. intelligence officials.
James Clapper, director of national intelligence, welcomed the conclusion by the independent Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board that the National Security Agency’s Internet spying on foreign targets in the U.S. has been legal, effective and subject to rigorous oversight to protect the rights of Americans.
Activist groups panned the report as a dud.
It was a dizzying turnabout for a privacy board that in January drew criticism in the other direction for branding the NSA’s collection of domestic calling records unconstitutional.
As they unanimously adopted their 190-page report Wednesday, the five board members — all appointed by President Barack Obama —sought to explain their largely favorable conclusions about surveillance programs that have provoked worldwide outrage since former NSA systems administrator Edward Snowden revealed them last year.
At issue is a spying regime, first definitively disclosed in Snowden documents last year, under which the NSA is using court orders to obtain foreign customers’ emails, chats, videos and texts from Google, Facebook and other U.S. tech companies under a program known as PRISM. The documents also showed that the agency is intercepting foreign data as it transits fiber optic lines in the U.S.
2. GM sales rise 1 percent despite safety recalls
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors said its U.S. sales rose 1 percent in June despite a record-setting string of safety recalls.
Sales were led by the Buick Encore small SUV, up 82 percent. The redesigned Chevrolet Tahoe big SUV also had a strong month with sales almost doubling.
GM sold more than 267,000 vehicles for the month.
GM has recalled nearly 29 million vehicles this year as it reviews years of safety problems. The string began in February with the recall of 2.6 million small cars with faulty ignition switches. GM admitted knowing about the problem for 10 years but it failed to recall the cars until this year.
3. Palestinians say Israeli extremists killed teen
JERUSALEM (AP) — The Palestinians accused Israeli extremists of abducting and killing an Arab teenager and burning his body Wednesday, sparking hours of clashes in east Jerusalem and drawing charges that the youth was murdered to avenge the killings of three kidnapped Israeli teens.
Seeking to calm the explosive situation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged a swift inquiry into the “reprehensible murder” and called on people to respect the rule of law. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said it was clear extremist Jewish settlers were responsible and called on Israel to bring the killers to justice.
“The settlers have killed and burned a little boy. They are well known,” Abbas said, accusing Israel of tolerating settler violence toward Palestinians. “I demand that the Israeli government hold the killers accountable.”
The death added to the already heightened tensions caused by the killings of the three Israeli teenagers, whose bodies were discovered Monday just over two weeks after they disappeared in the West Bank. Israel accused Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls Gaza, of being behind the abductions, which led to the largest ground operation in the West Bank in nearly a decade, with Israel arresting hundreds of Hamas operatives as part of a broad manhunt.
4. Pence submits request for Medicaid alternative
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Gov. Mike Pence on Tuesday asked that the federal government expand health care coverage for Indiana’s low-income residents using a state-run alternative to traditional Medicaid.
Pence’s proposal, dubbed the Healthy Indiana Plan 2.0, would still rely on billions in federal aid to cover residents earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, like states that approved the Medicaid expansion included in the federal health care overhaul. But Pence and his supporters contend it supports personal responsibility in a way Medicaid doesn’t because it would rely on health savings accounts and patient input.
The plan expands on the state’s existing Healthy Indiana Plan, which has been covering about 35,000 to 45,000 low-income residents for the past six years. Pence wrote in a letter Tuesday to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell that he wants to expand that concept.
If approved, the program would cover up to 458,000 low-income residents without health insurance. State analysts expect the proposal to cost roughly $18 billion through 2020, with Indiana paying $1.5 billion and the federal government covering $16.5 billion.
5. Civil Rights Act signing recreated via Twitter
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The LBJ Presidential Library marked the 50th anniversary of the signing of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act by using technology that’s decidedly 2014.
Experts and archivists at the Austin library took to Twitter on Wednesday to re-enact President Lyndon B. Johnson’s day as it unfolded 50 years ago, when he signed the act into law on July 2, 1964.
They tweeted photos, videos and links to period documents and telephone conversations.
The 1964 act helped end legal discrimination based on race, sex, color, religion and national origin. Many consider it the most significant law produced by the civil rights movement.
In April, the LBJ Library hosted a civil right summit marking the 50th anniversary that featured President Barack Obama and three former presidents.
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