Matthew Heller

Government Downplaying Sensitivity Of Metadata Collected By NSA

Heart conditions, gun ownership, religious affiliation, romantic entanglements — Stanford grad students show what the NSA can really glean from telephony metadata.

Matthew Heller
By Matthew Heller

LOS ANGELES --- Since whistleblower Edward Snowden exposed the National Security Agency's bulk telephone collection program last year, the government has repeated a familiar mantra to ease the privacy concerns of Americans. “You have my telephone number connecting with your telephone number,” President Barack Obama said in a PBS interview last

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Huge Growth In Oil Shipments By Rail Fuels Safety Concerns

While it’s faster to transport oil by rail than by pipeline, it’s quickly becoming apparent that these “mobile missiles” filled with volatile crude offer no safety advantages.

Matthew Heller
By Matthew Heller
Train Derailment

LOS ANGELES --- As recently as three years ago, communities in California didn't really have to worry about the safety risks of transporting crude oil by rail. In 2011, there were only three incidents involving oil-by-rail in California, reflecting low levels of oil-by-rail traffic. In 2012, only 1 million barrels, or 0.3. percent, of the oil

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Sheriffs Defy Feds By Refusing To Honor “Detainer” Requests For Immigrants

From the Northwest to the Midwest, local law enforcement are declaring independence from customs officials by refusing to continue federal immigration holds.

Matthew Heller
By Matthew Heller

LOS ANGELES --- When it comes to immigration, the state of Kansas hasn't exactly been a model of tolerance. Its Legislature passed a bill requiring would-be voters to show proof of citizenship and Mother Jones magazine has called its secretary of state, Kris Kobach, the “legal mastermind behind the wave of anti-immigration laws sweeping the

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California Moves Toward Making Bitcoin Legal Currency

Though the current bill doesn’t address all the issues associated with Bitcoin transactions, the Golden State is close to being the first state to make it a legal currenc

Matthew Heller
By Matthew Heller

LOS ANGELES --- Since California adopted its first constitution in 1849, it has been illegal in the state to use anything but currency issued by the federal government. That maybe about to change. Bowing to the Digital Age, the Legislature is headed toward approving a bill that would make California the first state in the nation to allow the

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Activists Say “Potty Watch” Searches In California Prisons Are Form Of Torture

California inmates suspected of ingesting drugs or weapons are restrained and monitored until at least three bowel movements either produce the contraband or don’t.

Matthew Heller
By Matthew Heller
California Prisons

LOS ANGELES --- At least 524 times last year, California prison inmates suspected of swallowing weapons or drugs had to undergo a “contraband surveillance watch” procedure that, at a minimum, lasted as long as it took them to have three bowel movements. Also known as “potty watch,” the practice -- as described clinically in the operations manual

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Fatal Shooting Of Octogenarian Fuels Concern Over SWAT Team Drug Raids

Law enforcement says SWAT teams are a response to the increase in well-armed suspects, but critics worry about the militarization of civil law enforcement.

Matthew Heller
By Matthew Heller
Seattle Campus Shooting

LOS ANGELES --- Early on the morning of June 27, 2013, a SWAT team of nine Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department officers went searching for a clandestine methamphetamine lab in the dusty desert community of Littlerock. They pulled up in front of a property that consisted of a 600-square-foot main house and several smaller structures,

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Toxin-Resistant Corn Pest Thwarts Genetic Engineering Efforts

Due to farmer error and poor enforcement on the part of biotech companies, a pest that should have been poisoned by GMO corn has become resistant to the toxins.

Matthew Heller
By Matthew Heller
Larry Hasheider

LOS ANGELES --- In a case of evolution outfoxing agricultural biotechnology, a voracious rootworm that was supposed to be poisoned by genetically-modified corn has become resistant to the toxins produced by the plant. Populations of western corn rootworms, which used to cause billions of dollars in damage to U.S. crops, plummeted across the

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