National Security Agency chief Gen. Keith Alexander revealed Wednesday that his spy agency once tested whether it could track Americans' cellphone locations, in addition to its practice of sweeping broad information about calls made.Alexander and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on proposed reforms to the NSA's surveillance of phone and internet usage around the world, exposed in June by former NSA analyst Edward Snowden. But neither spy chief discussed proposed reforms; instead they were questioned about new potential abuses that have come to light since then.

NSA chief admits testing US cellphone tracking

On August 21st, Congressman Mark Meadows sent a letter to John Boehner. Meadows is a former restaurant owner and Sunday-school Bible teacher from North Carolina. He’s been in Congress for eight months. Boehner, who has served in Congress for twenty-two years, is the Speaker of the House and second in the line of succession if anything happened to the President.

Where the G.O.P.'s Suicide Caucus Lives

The US Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear a case that would determine if someone convicted of domestic violence could be allowed, in some cases, to own a gun.The top US court, the final arbiter of America's most burning legal questions, will hear a challenge to a 1996 law making it illegal for someone to possess a firearm if they have been convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence involving physical force or a deadly weapon.

This is one to watch

Supreme Court could end domestic violence gun ban

The federal government shutdown has forced the U.S. Park Service to close the country’s national park system, affecting 401 areas covering 84 million acres. Rangers closed many roads and advised most overnight campers that they have 48 hours to leave. Here are reports from parks around the country, and from the towns and businesses that rely on the tourists they draw.

At Yellowstone, the country’s first national park, all entrances were closed Tuesday morning and day visitors were directed to find the nearest exit, a park spokesman said. Those staying in the park’s hotels and campsites had 48 hours to find other lodging — and enjoy the grounds unencumbered by crowds.At Pahaska Tepee Resort, just outside Yellowstone’s east entrance, some guests were cutting their trips short, said manager Angela Coe, who on Tuesday checked out tourists from China, Thailand and France.

Not only does this hurt the rangers and people who work at the parks because they are furloughed it hurts the communities that rely on the business drawn from people visiting national parks (hotels, food, gas, etc)

Tourism hit feared at national parks because of government shutdown - Yahoo Travel

Part-time fugitive and antivirus software founder John McAfee has a new invention he's working on. Speaking at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center on Saturday, McAfee unveiled his grand plan to create a "D-Central" gadget that communicates with smartphones, tablets, and laptops to create decentralized networks that can't be accessed by government agencies.

Possible?

John McAfee wants to sell you a $100 gadget that blocks the NSA

A government shutdown starting Tuesday, Oct. 1, now seems virtually certain. The House and Senate still can't agree on a bill to fund the government, and time has run out.

So... it's shutdown time. Let's take a look at how this will work.

Not all government functions will simply evaporate come Oct. 1 — Social Security checks would still get mailed, and veterans' hospitals would stay open. But many federal agencies would shut their doors and send their employees home, from the Environmental Protection Agency to hundreds of national parks.

Here's a look at how a shutdown would work, which parts of the government would close, and which parts of the economy might be affected.

Here is another version of information about what shuts down and what doesn't

Absolutely everything you need to know about how the government shutdown will work

It's been 17 years since the federal government last faced a partial shutdown because Congress and the president couldn't agree on a spending bill. A lot has changed in that time, leaving federal employees, citizens and even government decision-makers confused about what a shutdown would mean.Every shutdown is different. The politics that cause them are different. Because of technology and structural overhauls, the way the government functions has changed since 1996. Much of what will happen is unknown.Here's what we do know about Tuesday's looming shutdown:

I am so done with the friggin US government!!

66 questions and answers about the government shutdown

More than half of 259 accidental firearm deaths of children aged 14 and younger reviewed by the Times were not recorded as accidents, the paper said, mostly because of inconsistencies in way such deaths are classified by authorities.

In nearly all of the child shooting deaths reviewed by the paper, the shooter was male, as were more than 80 percent of the victims — highlighting an "almost magnetic attraction of firearms among boys," the Times said. "Time and again, boys could not resist handling a gun, disregarding repeated warnings by adults and, sometimes, their own sense that they were doing something wrong."

I am going to put this out there. I do NOT want my child in a house with guns

Many accidental child gun deaths not classified as accidents

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz will have spent more than 20 hours speaking nearly nonstop on the Senate floor in protest of the federal health care law known as Obamacare when Senate rules force him to stop at noon Wednesday. But during his all-night talkathon, Cruz dabbled in pop culture, which will enshrine Dr. Seuss, Darth Vader, Duck Dynasty and Ashton Kutcher in the Senate record forever.

I thought there were rules in fillabustering but I can't find them.

Top 5 pop culture moments from Ted Cruz's marathon speech

Depending on whom you ask, the enormous monument carved into Georgia's Stone Mountain is either a proud statement or a blight and an embarrassment.

Depicting the only president of the Confederate States, Jefferson Davis, riding beside Gens. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, it's two football fields wide, making it the largest of its kind.

11 Alive reports that a petition that seeks to remake this famous—and infamous—landmark is causing controversy.

Should Stone Mountain Be Changed?