The Times reported in its online edition that it was Wallace who provided the weapon used to murder Shakur as well as $1 million bounty.

As Paul Harvey would say...'and now you know the rrrrrrrest of the story'.

Yahoo! News - L.A. Times Fingers Rival in Tupac Shakur's Murder

The slew of companies caught red-handed in this year of corporate sleaze face potentially colossal legal claims, but they may enjoy pleasant reprieves next year — huge tax breaks from Uncle Sam.
...
The IRS’s conclusion: “The amounts paid by Taxpayer pursuant to the settlement are currently deductible.”
...
“People are going to be upset when they hear companies can deduct these expenses,”

Hrm, I'm not. Corporations are not people. Corporations do not pay taxes on expenses. The reason for this is that eliminating specific deductions would allow the government to incent corporations to operate a certain way, thus leading to effective centralized economic control. This is a fundamental feature of capitalism. If the agencies that are levying fines don't think that the fines are punitive enough on their own, they should RAISE the fines rather then setting a precident that will lead to central control of the economy.

Firms accused of chicanery could get IRS tax break

This week, a federal court of appeals declared that "democracies die behind closed doors" and demanded that Attorney General John Ashcroft open up the immigration hearings for suspects connected to Sept. 11 roundups. But wherever the courts open one door, Ashcroft and the Bush administration manage to close another. And so we find ourselves in peril of losing the right to search warrants granted by real judges in real courts, as the attorney general again attempts to drag the Constitution into dark caverns and windowless towers.

This is a good article on its own merit but I want to raise a tangental issue. Slate uses the word "bitch" in this article. Slate. These are the guys who showed up deriding all the pundits like Brock Meeks who claimed that the Internet wanted opinionated journalism in common language rather than the traditional media fare of high brow faux objectivity. Slate obviously gave up on that. At least the net pundits were right about something. :)

Secrets and Lies - Seventy-five little reasons to be terrified of the FISA court. By Dahlia Lithwick

Based on publicly available information, the facts contained in this report demonstrate that under the regime of Saddam Hussein, Iraq continues to repress its people, threaten the region, and obstruct international efforts to provide humanitarian relief.

This is from 1999...

U.S. Department of State - Saddam Hussein's Iraq

"Cheney doesn't give us the intelligence sources of his information and can't be expected to. But it is inconceivable that he should be speaking in that high pitch of resolution unless he has the evidence on which he frames his analysis. We assume that he is justified in the evidence he has, and right in the course recommended, and that the acquiescence of Congress is implicit. Which means: The American people should now be told that we are at war against Saddam Hussein. "

I can't tell if Buckley is really serious about his assumption or if he is being sarcastic. Maybe it doesn't matter...

IRAQ: QUESTION CLOSED?

"In practical terms, this means encrypting all information that passes over the network and equipping every computer with its own host-based firewall."

This is an anti-recommendation. Besides the obvious observation that Garfinkel's friend's network probably doesn't work too well if his whole company is connected by *hubs,* there is a serious flaw in this logic. If all security is host based, then control is in the hands of each individual employee. This doesn't make sense in a corporation, where policy needs to be in the control of the people who own the network. If policy is in the control of the individual, then this requires an organizational struture where everyone is an independent contractor who is responsible for his own personal business. Despite how attractive this idea might seem, business organization should be designed around what helps people work better, rather then what helps computers work better.

Do firewalls really give protection?

I'd love to hear from IP readers who have adopted OS X. Were you switching from OS 9, Windows, Linux, or Unix? Are you still using your old system as well, or fully switched?

Read the results...Most people I know is all saying the same thing. /me licks Mac OS X. :)

O'Reilly Network: Mac OS X Switcher Stories [Aug. 21, 2002]

The Food and Drug Administration has approved the first national trial of a drug to treat West Nile virus, which is quickly spreading west and has infected more than 250 people in a dozen states.
Sold by Schering-Plough as Intron A, the drug is a hepatitis treatment which has been shown by lab tests to be effective against West Nile virus.
West Nile first appeared in the United States in 1999, when seven people infected with it in New York died. Nationwide, the CDC has reported 12 U.S. deaths this year from West Nile, eight of them in Louisiana. As of Tuesday, 253 human cases of the virus had been reported to the CDC this year in 11 states and the District of Columbia.

FDA OKs West Nile therapy trial

IRC version of the matrix...

Bastardization of The Matrix

One of its agents has issued a warning about the popular practice of using chalk marks to show the location of wireless networks.

The marks, or "warchalks", are cropping up in cities and suburbs across the world.

The FBI is now telling companies that, if they see the chalk marks outside their offices, they should check the security of wireless networks and ensure they remain closed to outsiders.

FBI warns of Wireless Warchalking