Following up on the latest stunning revelations released yesterday by German Spiegel which exposed the spy agency's 50 page catalog of "backdoor penetration techniques", today during a speech given by Jacob Applebaum (@ioerror) at the 30th Chaos Communication Congress, a new bombshell emerged: specifically the complete and detailed description of how the NSA bugs, remotely, your iPhone. The way the NSA accomplishes this is using software known as Dropout Jeep, which it describes as follows: "DROPOUT JEEP is a software implant for the Apple iPhone that utilizes modular mission applications to provide specific SIGINT functionality. This functionality includes the ability to remotely push/pull files from the device. SMS retrieval, contact list retrieval, voicemail, geolocation, hot mic, camera capture, cell tower location, etc. Command, control and data exfiltration can occur over SMS messaging or a GPRS data connection. All communications with the implant will be covert and encrypted."

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-30/how-nsa-hacks-your-iphone-presenting-dropout-jeep

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-poll-admired-20131230,0,5816643.story

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Assailants raked the German ambassador's residence in Athens with gunfire in an attack that caused no injuries, Greek police officials said.

Police found 60 spent bullet casings at the scene and detained six people in connection with the incident, which occurred early in the morning in an affluent suburb north of Athens. The bullet casings came from two Kalashnikov assault rifles, according to the police.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack, in which four bullets hit a security gate. But anti-German sentiment has been festering among many Greeks struggling with record unemployment and reduced salaries under a harsh austerity plan required for Greece's international

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/gunmen-spray-german-ambassadors-residence-in-greece-20131231-hv76s.html

Source: AP

The number of law-enforcement officers killed by firearms in 2013 fell to levels not seen since the days of the Wild West, according to a report released Monday.

The annual report from the nonprofit National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund also found that deaths in the line of duty generally fell by 8 percent and were the fewest since 1959.

According to the report, 111 federal, state, local, tribal and territorial officers were killed in the line of duty nationwide this past year, compared to 121 in 2012.

Forty-six officers were killed in traffic related accidents, and 33 were killed by firearms.

The number of firearms deaths fell 33 percent in 2013 and was the lowest since 1887.


Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/2013-fewest-police-deaths-firearms-1887-21369151

Option 1: The Cannabis Policy Reform Act of 2014.

Ed Rosenthal, the cannabis mega-celebrity, is behind this one. He supposedly sent the initiative off to the Secretary of State on Dec. 19 to get it cleared for circulation. For non-medical gardens, the initiative allows for 2600 watts of light for indoor and 100 square feet of canopy for outdoor. Adults 21 and up are allowed up to three pounds of bud or as much as their personal gardens produce. There is no change to medi-pot grow limits. It protects parents that grow. Commercial producers and retailers would be regulated by the Department of Alcohol and Beverage Control.

Option 2: The Marijuana Control, Legalization and Revenue Act (MCLR) of 2014.

This initiative comes from a group called “Americans for Policy Reform.” According to their website, the text of the initiative comes from “a year-long ‘open source’ effort to include thousands of Californians in the law’s drafting.” MCLR 2014 legalizes the non-medical use of cannabis for adults 21 and over. It legalizes the farming of industrial and nutritional hemp, and it is supposed to repair and strengthen existing medi-pot laws to insure safe access anywhere in the state. It allows for 12 plants (6 flowering) per person/legal residence, with no change to medi-pot grow limits.

This initiative would establish “The Independent Cannabis Control Commission” to regulate marijuana, as opposed to leaving regulation up to the ABC or to the state legislature. I just spoke briefly with Proponent Dave Hodges about this aspect of the initiative, and he says cannabis is “such a dynamic” plant, so a regulatory body that is specifically oriented toward cannabis is in order.

An earlier version of the initiative did qualify to circulate, but Hodges says they are waiting for a more recent, amended version to qualify. The proponents expect to start circulating the initiative for signatures at the start of February.

Option 3: The Control, Regulate and Tax Marijuana Act of 2014.

The Drug Policy Alliance is behind this one. The initiative legalizes one ounce of bud and 1/8th of concentrates for adults over 21, the growth of six plants for medicinal users and four plants for recreational users, and it would have the ABC regulate commercial producers and retailers. It stipulates a 25 percent sales.

The initiative is not yet cleared for circulation.

Option 4: The California Cannabis Hemp Initiative 2014.

I covered this one back in October here on LoCO - OTP. Remember the verbose, kooky older hippie, cannabis-will-save-the-world types that I quoted? Yeah, dawggs. This is the Jack Herer Initiative. Free the weed!

Among other things, this initiative legalizes 99 flowering female plants and 12 pounds of flowers per person for personal use and caps the excise tax on commercial sales at 10% of retail price, with no tax on medicinal marijuana. CCHI is already circulating for signatures. The proponents have until Feb. 14th to gather just over half a million signatures to qualify for the 2014 ballot.

Tammy Newcomb, the Northern California Regional Coordinator for the campaign, tells me this in a Dec. 24 email that the recent numbers on signatures for CCHI 2014 are 200,000 confirmed registered voters. She also says that the Humboldt Libertarian Party is supporting the initiative and that they have over 1,000 volunteers gathering signatures with another 300 paid “volunteers” and 3 signature gathering groups workin’ it too.

http://lostcoastoutpost.com/2013/dec/30/loco-pot/

Marijuana users in Colorado and Washington are counting down the hours before the western US states become the first to legalize recreational pot shops on January 1.

Blazing a trail they hope will be followed in other parts of the United States, cannabis growers and others are also rubbing their hands, while tax collectors are eyeing the revenue the newly-legalized trade will generate.

Enterprising companies are even offering marijuana tours to cash in on tourists expected to be attracted to a Netherlands-style pot culture — including in Colorado's famous ski resorts.

“Just the novelty alone is bringing people from everywhere,” said Adam Raleigh of cannabis supplier Telluride Bud Co.

“I have people driving in from Texas, Arizona, Utah... to be a part of history.

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_24815204/blazing-cannabis-trail-us-states-eye-tourism-surge

Police say they're unsure whether the son of Las Vegas' current and former mayors was injured in an attack or an accident while jogging earlier this month.

Las Vegas police spokesman Bill Cassell, in a statement issued late Saturday, said the serious head injury suffered by Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Eric Goodman at South Tower Park on Dec. 15 is under investigation.

"Because Judge Goodman's injuries have prevented him from providing information concerning the incident, no accurate determination can be made as to whether any criminal activity was involved in this case," he said.

As a result, Cassell said, police are seeking the public's help for leads in the case involving the son of Mayor Carolyn Goodman and former Mayor Oscar Goodman.

Eric Goodman was found unconscious in a men's restroom at the park about 2.5 hours after he left home to go jogging. The 6-foot-3, 220-pound Goodman was wearing a gray beanie, a gray jogging suit, a T-shirt and blue tennis shoes.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Police-unsure-how-Vegas-mayor-s-son-was-injured-5100369.php

It was June of 2010 and Kyra Byrne attended her first San Francisco Pride celebration. The workers' rights advocate had moved from the East Coast the previous year, and the last thing on her mind was a relationship.

At a Michael Jackson dance party that broke out spontaneously in the Mission, a random man grabbed her hand.

"There's the cutest guy over there, come meet him with me," he said. Kyra reluctantly played wingman, and shared an awkward moment with these two strangers. She then fled back to her friends.

It could have ended there. But as soon as "the cutest guy" laid eyes on Kyra, he was done.

"I have a feeling about that girl," Sawyer Steele told his friends. In his words, "I instantly became obsessed with her."

Soon, Kyra and Sawyer were talking, and then dancing together. Kyra noticed Sawyer's "Trans March" button from earlier in the day.

"I'm trans!" he blurted out.

http://www.sfgate.com/style/unionsquared/article/Bride-wed-her-soul-mate-a-transgender-man-5094273.php

A survivalist accused of killing his wife and two young daughters after hiding an arsenal of weapons in an underground bunker is still on the run seven months later, in one of the few cases of gun violence against children in the U.S. without an arrest since the Newtown shootings.

Shane Franklin Miller, 45, a sometime marijuana grower with a criminal record, is the sole suspect in the May 7 shooting deaths of his 34-year-old wife Sandra and their two daughters, aged eight and four, in the remote Northern California village of Shingletown. He’s on the U.S. Marshals’ Most Wanted list after disappearing into the foggy wilds of Humboldt County, famed for rugged, forest-clad mountains and hidden marijuana farms.

“He better hope that the police get hold of him before a lot of the guys around here, because they would just as soon tar and feather him and string him up,” Vera De Witt, president of a local non-profit raising money for a memorial for the girls, told NBC News.

http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/23/21986626-survivalist-sought-in-murder-of-wife-and-two-young-daughters