Governor Hochul signs novel law that limits cryptomining, for now

New York is taking a first-in-the-nation step to tap the brakes on the spread of cryptocurrency mining, under legislation that Gov. Kathy Hochul signed Tuesday.

The measure comes amid growing scrutiny of the cryptocurrency industry following this month’s collapse of the FTX exchange. But New York’s measure, which passed the state Legislature in June, is specifically concerned with the environmental aspects of crypto.

“I will ensure that New York continues to be the center of financial innovation, while also taking important steps to prioritize the protection of our environment,” Hochul, a Democrat, said in a message explaining her approval.

The new law sets a two-year moratorium on new and renewed air permits for fossil fuel power plants used for energy-intensive “proof-of-work” cryptocurrency mining — a term for the computational process that records and secures transactions in bitcoin and similar forms of digital money. Proof-of-work is the blockchain-based algorithm used by bitcoin and some other cryptocurrencies.

The law also requires the Department of Environmental Conservation to asses how cryptomining affects the state’s ability to meet its climate goals.

Environmentalists said New York was undermining those goals by letting cryptomining operations run their own natural gas-burning power plants.

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Cop Pulls Gun at High School, ‘Accidentally’ Shoots an Innocent Kid and is NOT Arrested or Even Fired

Imagine for a moment that you were carrying a pistol in a public space, and all of the sudden, you accidentally squeeze off a round. Now, imagine if this place was a school.

There are two possible scenarios that would take place; the first one is that police return fire and you are killed. The second, less lethal result would be your inevitable arrest and charges of public endangerment, unlawful discharge, illegal use of a firearm, assault with a deadly weapon, terrorism, or a myriad of other infractions associated with sending a deadly projectile hurling through a space occupied by innocent children. You would immediately be facing fines, jail time, probation, and firearms restrictions.

However, if you are a government agent who’s trusted with carrying a deadly weapon into places others cannot, you needn’t worry about any of those repercussions. The scenario below just so happens to prove it.

Vermillion County Deputy Tim DisPennett, identified as a 19-year veteran of the department, was giving instruction to vocational students at South Vermillion High School when he pulled his gun and “accidentally” shot a student.

The class was geared at teaching students how to be police officers, and participants in the drill were acting out a scenario with a “bad guy,” according to WTHI.

Hopefully, none of the students being taught by Deputy DisPennett were paying attention to his instruction — as his methods are clearly flawed.  

“This morning at South Vermillion High School, there was an isolated incident in one of our vocational classrooms. The incident was an accidental discharge of a firearm by a law enforcement officer during a drill. One student was injured without life-threatening injuries and has been taken to the hospital. Only SVHS is currently on lockdown, due to the abundance of emergency personnel in the building,” read a statement sent out to parents after the shooting.

Luckily the student who was shot was not severely injured and will be okay. As for the deputy, he has not been arrested, nor fired, and has only been placed on paid leave. Detectives with the department are now investigating the shooting.

Aside from the above-the-law treatment of this officer, the excuse for the weapon accidentally discharging is nothing short of asinine.

Guns do not fire themselves.

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Oversight Board tells Meta to stop complying with police requests to censor rap music

Meta’s Oversight Board said that Meta should not have complied with a request from London’s Metropolitan Police to ban a drill music track. Drill music is a rap genre that politicians and law enforcement agencies have associated with gang violence.

In January, rapper Chinx (OS) posted a video of his song “Secrets Not Safe.” Shortly after posting the song on Instagram, Meta received an email from the police requesting the removal of the song. Meta escalated the case to a team for special consideration, and ruled that it violated its policies because it referenced a shooting that took place in 2017 and included what police believed to be a “threatening call to action.”

After the song was removed, Chinx appealed and had it reinstated by a moderator who was not part of the special consideration team. The decision was overruled and the song got banned again after a week, again following a request by the police.

The board questioned whether Meta considered the context, or simply compiled because it was a request from the police.

“Not every piece of content that law enforcement would prefer to have taken down — and not even every piece of content that has the potential to lead to escalating violence — should be taken down,” the board wrote in its decision.

Social media platforms are less transparent about informal requests like the email from the Met.

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HHS Report Recommends Government ‘Encourage or Mandate’ Masking to Fight Coronavirus

A report from the Health and Human Services (HHS) Department is recommending that government officials “encourage or mandate” masking to fight against “long COVID,” conveniently after the completion of the midterm elections.

The HHS report details policies to combat the Chinese coronavirus, which has now been around for almost three years. One of the recommendations includes the reintroduction of masking, contending that it will assist those suffering from lingering effects from their infection.

“The lifting of mask mandates and indifferent attitude toward masking and social distancing typical in many public and private places further isolates people with Long COVID,” the report stated, recommending those in government “encourage or mandate policies and protocols regarding masking and social distancing in public spaces.”

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FBI Paid Out $42 Million a Year to Confidential Human Sources – Including Thugs Who Set Up Trump, Whitmer Kidnap Hoaxers, and Others

A 2021 report by Open the Books revealed that the federal government paid over $548 million to informants in recent years. That’s over half a billion taxpayer dollars.

And the FBI paid out $42 million a year to its confidential human sources.

We know a few of the more famous FBI operatives.

Stephan Halper, a crack cocaine addict, was paid over $1.05 million to spy on Trump associates and help set up the Trump-Russia hoax.

The FBI used at least 12 informants out of 15 individuals to plot, plan, pay for, and execute the Whitmer kidnap hoax.

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Did the FBI Tamper With the Frame Rate of the Jan 6 Pipe Bomb Footage?

More than a year has passed since the FBI last released footage of the pipe bomber who allegedly planted explosive devices near the DNC and RNC party headquarters the night before January 6, 2021.

The FBI has reportedly collected 39,000 video files relating to the suspect’s identity, according to Steven D’Antuono, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Washington D.C. Field Office. Yet since September 8, 2021, not a single new video file has been released.

At Revolver, we have been focused on the two clips of video footage from DNC building security cameras that the FBI released on March 2021 and September 2021, respectively.

In August 2022, we definitively proved the DNC camera footage from the FBI’s September 2021 release should have captured the “money shot” of the pipe bomber taking the bomb out of the bag and planting it near a park bench in front of the DNC building. But for some reason, the FBI censored the tape so that the public could not see the alleged criminal walk back into the camera frame to commit the actual criminal act.

Over the past two months, we took a closer look at the DNC surveillance footage the FBI provided to the public. What we found was even more bizarre, and more damning than our initial discovery that the FBI is withholding critical footage of the pipe bomber actually planting the bomb.

The original “missing moneyshot” – reflecting the FBI’s deliberate censorship of the commission of the crime, effectively – is a red flag of such stunning proportions that it alone merits Congressional investigation under a GOP-led House commission on FBI malfeasance.

The new findings we are about to discuss, however, are so implausible, specific, and suspicious that we are compelled to demand that a future GOP-led commission subpoena and demand the exact chain of custody for the DNC surveillance tapes that the FBI released to the public

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Are Game Wardens Watching You? – Part 1: The Case of the Hidden Trail Camera

Imagine you go hunting one morning, on your own land, and you find a cellular trail camera that isn’t yours. Now imagine that the camera was obviously placed in such a way as to be entirely hidden from you—except for a hole cut through the brush so that it could surveil the comings and goings on your property.

You’d probably be creeped out and pull that camera down, right? That’s what Hunter Hollingsworth of Camden, Tennessee, did when he spotted an unknown trail camera pointed toward the gravel road through his family farm.

Then a few months later, he found his home surrounded by armed law-enforcement officers who threatened to kick his door down if he didn’t let them inside to search for the camera. This was just the beginning of a series of events that snowballed into a lawsuit that would eventually put a national spotlight on the near century-old practice of game wardens entering private land without a search warrant. The case would go on to fundamentally change how officers with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency are able to do their jobs—and it could set precedents for similar cases in other states, too.

But no matter where you live and hunt, the Hunter Hollingsworth case—and the cases it continues to inspire—could ultimately decide whether you might one day find a camera hidden in your trees, or a game warden on your property without a warrant.

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Hunter Biden Laptop Repairman Reveals ‘Chilling’ Warning From FBI Agent

John Paul Mac Isaac, the laptop repairman who allegedly obtained Hunter Biden’s laptop, revealed Monday that he is working with Republican lawmakers as they prepare to investigate the younger Biden after taking the House majority during this month’s midterms.

Mac Isaac alleged in a Monday interview with Fox News that an FBI agent gave him a “chilling” warning when he first interacted with the bureau after finding the laptop. The Delaware-based laptop repairman said he recalled telling one agent that he would change their names when he published his book.

“That’s when Agent Mike turned around and told me that, in their experience, nothing ever happens to people that don’t talk about these things,” Mac Isaac said, claiming that it was a veiled threat to keep silent.

“I have been dealing with retaliation from multiple fronts for the past two years when what I did was leaked to the country. I’m expecting it, and I’m going to expect it to continue,” he added to Fox News while promoting his book.

Republicans, he said, should hold “the FBI accountable for colluding with our mainstream and social media to block a story, a real story with real consequence,” and they should “get to the bottom of what the Biden family was up to when Joe Biden was vice president.”

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