The following is a rundown of the day’s news drawn from other media sources with topics curated just for Money and Markets readers: personal security and freedom, Obamacare — and Christmas follies.
Personal security and freedom
NSA Phone Surveillance Program Likely Unconstitutional, Federal Judge Rules
Judge Richard Leon declared that the mass collection of metadata probably violates the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures, and was “almost Orwellian” in its scope.
Edward Snowden Says Judge’s Ruling Vindicates NSA Surveillance Disclosures
“I acted on my belief that the NSA’s mass surveillance programs would not withstand a constitutional challenge, and that the American public deserved a chance to see these issues determined by open courts,” Snowden said.
Stunning Revelation From Man Who Sued the NSA
Once his allegations that the federal government was violating the Constitution with its “watch-every-call” strategy hit the courts, he noticed problems with his email. “People began receiving from me emails that I had never sent. The government just wanted me to know they were watching me.”
Kiss and Yell: Italian Protester Charged With Sexual Assault After Kissing Riot Police Officer
“If the policeman had kissed her, World War III would have broken out,” he said. “Or what if I had patted her on the behind? She would have been outraged. So if she does that to a man on duty, should it be tolerated?”
Dangerous MRSA Bacteria Expand Into Communities
Investigation shows MRSA bacteria, once confined to hospitals, are emerging in communities to strike an increasing number of children, as well as schools, prisons, even NFL locker rooms.
Obamacare
House Report: Ill-Trained Obamacare Navigators Encouraging Fraud, Jeopardizing Private Info
The Obama administration decided that Obamacare Navigators would not undergo mandatory background checks. Now, in the 10 weeks since the launch of Healthcare.gov, the ill-trained Navigators have put Americans’ sensitive health and tax information at risk.
Darrell Issa: Obamacare Ineptness Puts Lives at Risk
“This is an administration that isn’t just ideologically driven to do things we shouldn’t want done; they also cannot do the things they want to do well. That’s perhaps more dangerous.”
Worried About Looking ‘Ignorant,’ Team Sebelius Seeks Media Help
Providing HHS officials with timely, easy-to-digest information on a daily basis keeps them in the best position to react to fast-moving events and unfolding issues of concern to the department,” said an HHS notice.
Bloomberg Columnist: Offer Marijuana to Young People Who Sign Up for Obamacare
“It isn’t fair, you say? Who said life is fair? Obamacare is based on the idea of young, healthy people, who don’t use a lot of health-care services, subsidizing the sick and elderly. Their generation is on the hook for the debt incurred to provide for the baby boomers in retirement. So forget fair.”
Republican Senator Explains His Wife’s ‘Fiasco’ on Obamacare Website
“The fiasco my wife just faced with the health-care website is being experienced by Americans across the country when they try to sign up for health insurance. If this were just a matter of a slow-moving computer glitch, well, then maybe that would be excusable, but it’s much more than that.”
Christmas news
‘Keep Christ in Christmas’ Movement Spreads
“Let’s make the season what it’s really about — it’s Christ’s birth. When you see Snoopy on a lawn and Santa on a motorcycle you say where is Christ in this, it’s Christmas?” shop owner Sarah Ryan said.
Santas Brawl Near Union Square
A group of men, believed to be participating in SantaCon, was captured on video throwing blows at the corner of 17th St. and Third Avenue in Manhattan Saturday night.
Man Dressed as Buddy the Elf Is Arrested for Drunk Driving
Brandon Touchet, 34, was nabbed at 3 a.m. Sunday by Louisiana cops and booked into the Lafayette Parish Sheriff’s Office jail for operating a vehicle while intoxicated and driving at an excessive speed.
Woman Displays Holiday Spirit With 277 Christmas Trees Inside Her Home
It started about 20 years ago as a competition between Zanco and her sister who lives in Oklahoma. “Each year, she would call me up and say, ‘How many trees did you put up?’ And then, of course, I would have to outdo her,” explains Zanco.
Fatal Carjacking Makes Christmas Shopping at U.S. Mall a Nightmare
Police on Monday were seeking a pair of suspected carjackers who shot to death a lawyer who was Christmas shopping with his wife at a high-end New Jersey mall and then fled in the couple’s luxury SUV, prosecutors said.
Best wishes,
The Money and Markets Team
