Maine Liberty Journal

WCSH – July 2, 2009:

A Springfield police officer convicted of stealing $2,000 during a traffic stop is set for sentencing.

Officer Steven Buzzell faces a maximum five years in state prison on each count during sentencing Thursday, a day after the Hampden Superior Court jury found him guilty of three counts of larceny over $250.

A second officer, Leonardo Matos, was cleared of those same charges after the jury determined that he was not in a joint venture with Buzzell.

Prosecutors said Buzzell and Matos were partnered on a special detail when the money was stolen from the wallets of three tobacco workers during a traffic stop in June 2008.

Buzzell’s bail was revoked after the verdict.

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Unfortunately, the looting will recommence in full force on Tuesday. Perhaps the depression will become so severe that government offices will be forced to close 20 working days each month.

WCSH – July 5, 2009:

No walk-in service at motor vehicle offices. No tours of the State House. The nearby state library and museum won’t be open, either.

Maine state offices and agencies that closed Friday to mark the Fourth of July holiday will remain closed Monday for the first of 20 shutdown days scheduled over the next two years.

Maine employees not required to work because their departments, agencies and offices are closed must take the days off without pay, saving the state about $14 million.

The $5.8 billion general fund budget that went into effect July 1 also freezes state employee merit and longevity pay for additional savings of close to $12 million. And it requires state workers to begin making contributions toward their health insurance.

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NY Times – February 23, 2009:

A Guantánamo detainee at the center of a long standoff between the United States and Britain was freed and returned to Britain on Monday after almost seven years in American custody.

The detainee, Binyam Mohamed, was captured in Pakistan in April 2002. American officials said he had been part of a conspiracy to detonate a dirty bomb on American soil, but all charges against him were eventually dismissed. He has said he was held for 18 months in Morocco, where he says he was tortured, then was moved to Afghanistan and then to the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

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NY TImes – June 16, 2009:

E-Mail Surveillance Renews Concerns in Congress

The National Security Agency is facing renewed scrutiny over the extent of its domestic surveillance program, with critics in Congress saying its recent intercepts of the private telephone calls and e-mail messages of Americans are broader than previously acknowledged, current and former officials said.

The agency’s monitoring of domestic e-mail messages, in particular, has posed longstanding legal and logistical difficulties, the officials said.

Since April, when it was disclosed that the intercepts of some private communications of Americans went beyond legal limits in late 2008 and early 2009, several Congressional committees have been investigating. Those inquiries have led to concerns in Congress about the agency’s ability to collect and read domestic e-mail messages of Americans on a widespread basis, officials said. Supporting that conclusion is the account of a former N.S.A. analyst who, in a series of interviews, described being trained in 2005 for a program in which the agency routinely examined large volumes of Americans’ e-mail messages without court warrants. Two intelligence officials confirmed that the program was still in operation.

Both the former analyst’s account and the rising concern among some members of Congress about the N.S.A.’s recent operation are raising fresh questions about the spy agency.

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