What happened to being a good neighbor? Texas tops the nation in wind energy, but Sunday two of the nation's biggest ranches were full of hot air over wind turbines. King Ranch, located in South Texas, decided to stick its nose into neighboring Kenedy Ranch's business to stop them from building more than 200 turbines. Although the turbines will not be on King Ranch's property, the ranch has said they will be an eyesore and could interfere with the migratory patterns of birds in the area. Their concern is ironic, considering King Ranch makes millions of dollars every year off of hunting leases along with oil and gas royalties. Additionally, these "eyesores" will produce a form of energy that is kinder to animals than Texas' recent favorite - coal plants.
"Against unreasonable searches and seizures..."
The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that e-mails stored with Internet Service Providers, like Yahoo!, are untouchable by prosecutors without a warrant or probable cause. This gives private correspondences, unless explicitly denoted as public, the highest level of protection under the Fourth Amendment. For the Bush administration, this ruling cuts both ways. On one hand, the court's decision guarantees that potentially illegal e-mails sent by political operatives like Karl Rove are safe from Justice Department investigators, yet the ruling also precludes Justice investigators from searching through e-mails of U.S. citizens, residents, suspected terrorists or run-of-the-mill evildoers. Will the administration maintain itself or maintain surveillance?
Only in America
A California woman is facing deportation for - get this - voting. Zoila Meyer's parents brought her to the United States from Cuba when she was a year old, and she has lived here ever since, believing she was a citizen. Meyer, who was once elected to Adelanto, Calif.'s city council, was arrested on June 19 by immigration officials for illegally voting in the 2004 election. While Meyer originally pled guilty to this fraudulent voting in 2006, only last week did she find out that it is a deportable offense. Resident, taxpayer, voter, councilwoman, and now, deportation casualty. She said of her case: "I see people writing, 'This is my country.' It really isn't. It belongs to the government and they decide who stays and who goes … you think you're free - you're really not."
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