The Daily Moth 11-26-19

Two major federal court decisions involving President Trump | Three Maryland men wrongfully convicted of murder is freed after 36 years | Mass. State Police tests out robot dog | Lewis the koala passes away; Trump signs animal cruelty bill | Distracted police officer crashes into deaf woman, causing traumatic brain damage

[tiggerlady]

I’m glad Sarah is doing better. I keep praying for her future and better health.

[Goldwingrider]

In police dept...I been arrested for asking for interpreter, they tried using notes, the police has broken into our home. If in near future, they do use robots, it be biggest disadvantage for deaf not hearing the demands of robots audio system, I personally believe I will be killed by the police department’s robots or police themselves due many police departments have flagging system. When deaf asked for interpreter, police will label them unstable. I’m not kidding. I personally believe many police departments has overstepped their boundaries in deaf community. Using of robots???

[TheDailyMoth]

[Transcript] Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Tuesday, November 26. Ready for news?


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Two major federal court decisions involving President Trump


Here are two major federal court decisions on Monday that has to do with President Trump.


The first — Axios reported that the Supreme Court granted an emergency stay to block House Democrats from enforcing a subpoena for President Trump’s financial records and tax returns.


In October, a lower federal court said Congress could subpoena the tax returns, but with the Supreme Court’s emergency stay yesterday, Trump’s tax returns from his accounting firm will not be forced to be turned over for now.


NPR explained that Trump’s lawyers can file an appeal for a full briefing and hearing by the Supreme Court and then it will be up to the Court to hear the case this term.


Axios has predicted that the Supreme Court will take up the case sometime in January. The final decision will be issued by June.


Trump has also asked the Supreme Court to block a similar subpoena from the Manhattan district attorney in a case that is about hush payments to two women before the 2016 election. There is no update on that yet.


The second court decision is from D.C. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson about whether President Trump and the White House can stop their aides from testifying before Congress. This case is specifically about former White House counsel Don McGahn.


The judge said the president does not have the power to stop their aides from responding to Congress and that presidents are not kings. The judge clarified that McGahn can invoke executive privilege to protect sensitive information while testifying.


The Trump administration said they would appeal and requested Judge Jackson to put a temporary pause on her ruling.


McGahn was a key witness during the Mueller investigation on matters concerning whether Trump obstructed justice. House Democrats want him to testify about those things.


Trump tweeted today that he would prefer for both his former and current aides to testify, but he is fighting for the Office of the President and for future presidents, that what has happened to him should never happen to another president.












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Three Maryland men wrongfully convicted of murder is freed after 36 years


Three men from Maryland who have been behind bars for 36 years have been released and exonerated of murdering a 14-year-old teenager student in Baltimore in 1983. Their names are Alfred Chestnut, Ransom Watkins, and Andrew Stewart.


The Baltimore prosecutor’s office reopened the case this year and found that detectives targeted the three men, who were 16 years old at the time, by coaching and coercing other teenage witnesses to speak against them.


The review found errors in the investigation and concluded that a different student, who was 18 at the time of the shooting, was the shooter. This is based on a witness who saw the shooter dump a gun when police arrived. That suspect has already passed away in 2002 — he was shot to death.


The three men were arrested on Thanksgiving day in 1983 and sentenced to life in prison in 1984, when they were still teenagers.


A Maryland judge told the three men that he apologizes on behalf of the criminal justice system, but admitted that he is sure that the apology means very little to them.


Watkins said after being released that this should have never happened and that someone’s got to pay for this, that the fight is not over.


Stewart said he couldn’t stop crying when he found out (he would be freed), but now he has to learn how to live now.


The Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said the three men were convicted as children because of police and prosecutorial misconduct, and that she plans to fight to make sure the three are compensated. She said the three are now free to spend the holidays with their loved ones for the first time in 36 years.






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Mass. State Police tests out robot dog


WBUR in Boston reported that Massachusetts State Police is the first law enforcement agency in the country to use a dog-like robot made by Boston Dynamics. The dog is called Spot and is capable of walking up to a door and opening it. It has a 360-degree, low-light camera and can walk up to 3 mph and climb various terrain. Here is a video that shows what it can do.


[Video of two robot dogs opening a door]


WBUR reported that civil rights advocates are raising concerns on oversight on police using robots.


The Mass. State Police’s bomb squad is using the robot dog to help offices look at suspicious devices or hazardous locations and have used it in two incidents.


Boston Dynamics said they do not want the robot dog to have weapons and only allows other organizations to use it on a lease agreement with the agreement that it is not used in a way that can physically harm or intimidate someone. The company said they would take back the robot dog if the lease is violated.


Mass. State Police said they never put weapons on any of their robots.


WBUR pointed out that there was an instance of a robot being used to kill a person — this is when the Dallas Police sent a bomb disposal robot that was armed with C4 to go up near a sniper who killed five police officers. The sniper died when the bombs detonated.


WBUR said activists are concerned about the “deadly potential” and the lack of transparency about how police are using robots. They want a policy on use of robots.


Here’s another reason for concern — Boston Dynamics have developed a humanoid robot named Atlas. It can do a lot of things.


[Video of Atlas the robot walking, rolling around, and doing somersaults]


So, what do you think about police departments using robots?






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Lewis the koala passes away; Trump signs animal cruelty bill


Here are two news related to animals.


The first — the koala that was rescued by a woman during Australia’s bushfires, named Lewis, has passed away because it was not recovering from its wounds.


The Port Macquarie Koala Hospital said they had to put it down because their number one goal was animal welfare.


Lewis was estimated to be 14 years old and was badly burnt. Yesterday I reported that it was thought he would have a 50-50 chance of survival, but sadly he’s gone.


It is estimated that more than 350 koalas have died from fires in New South Wales.


The second news — yesterday afternoon President Trump signed a bill into law that makes animal cruelty a federal felony. The bill had bipartisan support through Congress.


The bill, named the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act (PACT), will make it a federal crime for anyone to intentionally cause serious harm to mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians. The penalty can include a fine, a prison term of up to seven years, or both.


Every state already have laws that say animal cruelty is a crime, but this federal legislation makes it easier to prosecute instances of animal cruelty that spans different states or jurisdictions.


Lawmakers and some law enforcement groups said there is a link between extreme animal cruelty and violence against people.

[joelpennington]

Police departments should use robot for intention to disarm the bomb or potentially bomb. In other case, if there are shooters in the school or any build, police departments should use human to face the problem because robot don't have emotion to screen out the suspicious shooters, and hell we don't want robot to have a target on innocent humans.