By Yaël Ossowski / March 3, 2015 / Watchdog.org After pushing Americans to contact the FCC and lobby to make the Internet a public utility under Title II, British comedian John Oliver used part of his HBO show Monday to celebrate the regulation and his effort to implement it. “Yes! Cable and telephone companies will […]
Top GOP contenders seek to change nation’s tune on immigration
By Yaël Ossowski / February 27, 2015 / Watchdog.org In the wake of a Texas judge’s decision to halt President Obama’s temporary amnesty for illegal immigrants, derided by most House and Senate Republicans, a quartet of top GOP leaders are bringing fresh perspective to the idea of positive immigration reform within their party and, if […]
It’s here: FCC adopts net neutrality, first significant Internet regulation
By Yaël Ossowski / Watchdog.org / February 26, 2015 Watched by leagues of passionate activists on both sides, the Federal Communications Commission today passed its first significant Internet regulation by reclassifying it as a Title II public utility, known as net neutrality. “The American people reasonably expect and deserve an Internet that is fast, fair […]
Has the tide turned against the FCC’s plan for regulating the Internet?
By Yaël Ossowski / Watchdog.org / February 23, 2015 Whether the public knows it or not, the Internet is set to face its biggest transformation yet when the Federal Communications Commission meets in Washington, D.C. on Thursday. It’s at this meeting of the commissioners, cloaked in bureaucratic mystique, that FCC chairman Tom Wheeler is expected […]
Mark Cuban: FCC control of Internet ‘scares the sh*t out of me’
By Yaël Ossowski / Watchdog.org / February 20, 2015 The idea of the Federal Communications Commission regulating the Internet by way of net neutrality is not only a bad idea in Mark Cuban’s view, but it’s also literally scary. “Having them overseeing the Internet scares the sh*t out of me,” said Cuban at the Code/Media […]
States don’t want illegal immigrants, but could they need them?
By Yaël Ossowski / Watchdog.org / February 19, 2015 A coalition of 26 states fought and won a battle to freeze President Barack Obama’s deferred action plan to give temporary work visas to illegal immigrants with children born in the United States. Judge Andrew Hanen’s injunction order, issued Monday, makes certain eligible illegal immigrants won’t […]
Does the NSA have a spy in your hard drive?
A protestor holds up a sign at a rally against the NSA’s spying program. By Yaël Ossowski | Watchdog.org | February 18, 2015 A Russian security firm claims to have uncovered a major tool used to rewrite hard drives and collect all stored information in potentially millions of computers and hard drives around the world. […]
Anonymous is hitting ISIS harder than any government could
By Yaël Ossowski / February 11, 2015 / Watchdog.org The hacking collective Anonymous is on the offensive yet again, striking the Islamic State’s many proactive social media users who use sites such as Twitter and Facebook to recruit for jihad terrorism. In a series of posts on the website Pastebin over the weekend, purported members […]
FCC commissioner: If you like the IRS, you’ll love net neutrality
By Yaël Ossowski / February 9, 2015 / Watchdog.org After years of dithering, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler has at last deposited the formal proposal to reclassify Internet as a public utility and subject it to federal regulation, championed by proponents as “net neutrality.” Wheeler outlined the plan in an article for Wired magazine […]
Supreme Court: Cops can pull you over even if you haven’t broken a law
By Yaël Ossowski | Watchdog.org In a ruling handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court, the nation’s top court found that a police officer who mistakenly interprets a law and pulls someone over hasn’t violated their Fourth Amendment rights. The case pertained to a traffic stop initiated on Nicholas Heien in North Carolina, on account […]