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The Iowa House has approved a sweeping gun bill that includes a stand-your-ground provision and allows citizens to sue local governments that impose weapons restrictions

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) The Iowa House on Tuesday approved a sweeping gun bill that would include a stand-your-ground provision and allow citizens to sue local governments that impose weapons restrictions.

The Republican-controlled chamber voted 58-39 mostly along party lines. The bill now heads to the GOP-majority Senate, where it has support.

The legislation would make several changes to Iowa's gun laws, and is the culmination of years of failed attempts from Republicans to amend current rules. The party controls both legislative chambers and the governor's office for the first time in nearly 20 years, and this legislative session marks their first real window to make major revisions.

"It's been a long time coming for this bill," said Rep. Matt Windschitl, R-Missouri Valley, shortly before the vote. "There's still work to be done. I'm still open to input from anybody out there that has concerns with it."

The stand-your-ground provision has been part of those concerns. It would allow a person to use deadly force anywhere if he or she believes such force was necessary to avoid injury or risk to one's life or safety. It allows a person to be wrong about an estimation of danger.

That's problematic, said Rep. Ras Smith, D-Waterloo. The black lawmaker at one point during floor debate put on a hoodie, a reference to the 2012 death of Trayvon Martin. The 17-year-old Martin was wearing similar clothing when he was shot and killed in Florida by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer. Zimmerman ultimately didn't use that state's stand-your-ground law as defense, though its consideration garnered attention. Zimmerman was later acquitted of charges related to the shooting.

The circumstances surrounding the shooting Martin was black and unarmed led to protests and a national debate about race relations.

"The idea that you can be wrong in your estimation of a threat, but as long as you have good reason, is terrifying for some of us," Smith said.

Another proposal in the bill would allow a citizen to sue a local government for enacting ordinances that regulate gun-free zones if the person argues that he or she is adversely affected. Republicans have pointed out that existing law already prohibits such ordinances, but it hasn't stopped communities from enacting policies over the years. Some Democrats said the new provision impacts local control.

"Each of our counties and cities are different," said Rep. Mary Mascher, D-Iowa City. "We have different values and beliefs regarding gun ownership and gun safety. Our local government bodies should have the right to determine what is best for their citizens and community."

At least one Republican agreed. Rep. Dave Heaton of Mount Pleasant noted that in 1986, the mayor of his community was gunned down by a resident during a city council meeting. Two other council members were wounded in the shooting.

"Afterwards, we banned weapons from our city council chamber," he said. "And this bill challenges the right of that city council to ban weapons from the city council chamber. My town will never forget what happened."

There are several other changes in the bill. It would allow children under age 14 to use handguns with parental supervision and allow concealed weapons on the Capitol grounds. Some initial proposals to allow guns on college campuses and lifetime firearm permits were scrapped.

Around 50 gun rights activists gathered at the Capitol Tuesday to lobby for the legislation, and a handful stuck around for the chamber debate. Kurt Liske, vice president of the Iowa Firearms Coalition, told supporters the legislation was the "biggest pro-Second Amendment bill in state history."

"At no point will we take a bigger step forward in protecting and enhancing your Second Amendment rights than we will when we sign this piece of legislation into law," he said. "This really, truly is historic."

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See the article here:
Iowa House OKs gun bill with stand-your-ground provision - East Oregonian (subscription)

THURSDAY, MARCH 2, 2017, 9:21 A.M.

In this Sept. 13, 2016, file photo, George Zimmerman looks at the jury as he testifies in a Seminole County courtroom in Orlando, Fla. (Red Huber / Associated Press)

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Floridas stand your ground law, a source of contention for years, could soon provide even more protection to people who invoke it. Some lawmakers want to make prosecutors prove a defendant wasnt acting in self-defense before proceeding to trial.

Florida has been a leader in giving citizens immunity in cases of self-defense, with its stand your ground law serving as an emotional point of debate after several high-profile shooting deaths, including that of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin.

While at least 22 states have similar laws that say people can use force even deadly force to defend themselves from threats, Florida could soon be alone shifting the burden of proof to prosecutors.

Republican Sen. Rob Bradley says his bill isnt a novel concept.

We have a tradition in our criminal justice system that the burden of proof is with the government from the beginning of the case to the end, he said.

Floridas Supreme Court has ruled that the burden of proof is on defendants during self-defense immunity hearings. Thats the practice around the country. According to a legislative staff analysis of Bradleys bill, only four states mention burden of proof in their stand your ground laws Alabama, Colorado, Georgia and South Carolina and all place the burden on defendants.

Bradleys bill died last year but now its chances are improving: Its ready for a full Senate vote when the session begins next week, and one of two House committees assigned to hear it has approved it.

Democrats are opposing the bill, but have little leverage to stop it in a legislature dominated by Republicans and with a Republican governor.

The bill has received passionate opposition from people who feel the existing law has already been abused and will be invoked even more by people seeking to avoid responsibility for violent crimes.

Stand your ground is not just about guns: The defense can be invoked after any act of violence aimed at self-protection, whether its punching, stabbing, shooting or striking someone with an object.

Neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmermans fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin isnt the only case thats part of the debate in Florida.

Lucy McBaths 17-year-old son Jordan Davis was fatally shot by Michael Dunn during an argument over loud music outside a Jacksonville convenience store. And in the Tampa Bay area, retired police officer Curtis Reeves is claiming self-defense in a stand your ground pretrial hearing after fatally shooting Chad Oulson in a dispute over a cellphone at a movie theater.

Both Zimmerman and Dunn claimed self-defense at trial and stand your ground was included in their juries instructions. Zimmerman was acquitted and Dunn was eventually convicted of murder.

McBath believes the way the law currently reads is why Dunns first jury couldnt reach a decision, and says expanding stand your ground protections would make it harder to keep people safe from gun violence.

Testifying against the bill at a Senate committee meeting, McBath said the current law already encourages citizens to shoot first and ask questions later.

This legislation would effectively require defendants who raise stand your ground defenses to be convicted twice, she said. Having lived through this grueling experience first-hand with two trials for my sons murder, I can attest to the anguish and the pain that this process elicits. We should not make it harder for family members to achieve the justice that they deserve.

Marissa Alexander, in contrast, supports Bradleys bill. She unsuccessfully tried a stand your ground defense and was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2012 for firing a gun near her estranged husband. She called it a warning shot to protect herself from abuse. Her conviction was thrown out on appeal and she was freed after reaching a plea deal in 2014.

I feel like you go into that kind of situation guilty until proven innocent, she said. She hopes Florida will start another trend if it passes.

Florida kind of sets the tone and other states follow, she said.

Read more:
Florida could flip burden of proving 'stand your ground' - The Spokesman-Review

Like bizzaro Facebooks, Tagged and Hi5 launched in 2004 to help you meet new people instead of connecting you with friends you already know. Through social games and paid dating features, they earned a surprising amount of revenue despite being relatively unknown. Tagged bought Hi5 in 2011 before branching out into standalone social app development and renamed the parent company If(we).

But after Taggeds newer apps fell flat, its now decided to sell for $60 million in cash to MeetMe, a fellow social discovery network formerly known as myYearbook that went public in 2014. Tagged and Hi5 will remain their own distinct brands.

Tagged had originally planned to go public itself before the shift to mobile led to a precipitous drop-off of its desktop properties. If(we) managed to pull in $44 million in revenue in 2016, with mobile revenue up 56 percent in a year as it began to follow its users to smartphones. If(we) ended the year with 5.4 million monthly users. It says its still adding 18,000 users per day. The startup had raised $28.7 million, including a $15 million round in 2012 from Lighthouse Capital Partners and Comerica Bank.

Taggeds old homepage, courtesy ofAppAppeal

By joining forces with MeetMe, the combined company will have 10.6 million total monthly users, and nearly 1.1 million daily users in the U.S. MeetMe expects If(we) to add $9 million in adjusted EBITDA to its earnings over the next 12 months. MeetMe will fund the buyout with cash on hand, revenue, earnings and a $30 million loan from JP Morgan.

The markets responded favorably, sending its share price up 19 percent in after-hours trading to hover around $6.

We believe this combination provides a clear pathway to $150 million in annualized revenue with adjusted EBITDA of $50 million for our combined company, saidGeoff Cook, CEO of MeetMe.

MeetMes mobile social discovery app

Greg Tseng, Taggeds founder who stepped back from daily operations, tells TechCrunch, They did a great job with the Skout acquisition so that gave us confidence in combining. MeetMe bought the location-focused social discovery network Skout in June. He says MeetMe also plans to invest in live video.

Given that Tagged, Hi5 and MeetMe all try to turn strangers into friends or more, bringing them together rather than competing could save them money on product development and marketing.

All three companies were/are doing similar things so it makes a lot of sense to combine and the market is reacting very well to it, Tseng concludes.

Read the original:
Old-school social networks Tagged and Hi5 bought by MeetMe for $60M - TechCrunch

There were 203 Russians reportedly convicted for online speech crimes in 2015, and roughly half of those were for posting, sharing, or liking something on Russias Facebook clone, VK.com.

As a result, many Russians seem to be moving into a post-social-networking era. Specifically, they are turning to Telegram, an encrypted messaging service founded by Pavel Durov, the same person who started VK but was later forced out and became an open critic of the Kremlin.

Despite being developed as a messaging service, Telegram has been able to approximate a very basic social network. The services channels have been compared to newsletters, where authors build a subscriber base and following for their missives. Users cant chat in a channel or interact directly with its authors unless the author explicitly shares their Telegram username, which means less noise in the channels. Users can still share posts, however, which means memes and popular posts can still spread fast. Authors can grow a substantial following similar to YouTube or Facebook, although much smaller Telegram claims to have 100 million users, but even recommended channels have fewer than 50,000 followers. The ecosystem is also disjointed, with no central search engine and no good way to discover new channels without following a bot or looking at lists on the web.

Telegram isnt completely secure. There has been at least one report alleging that the Kremlin cracked Telegram, and its certainly not the most secure messaging app on the market. The Russian government also reportedly collaborated with a cell phone operator to take over two activists accounts in 2016.

So why do Russians prefer Telegram to the widely trusted encrypted messaging app Signal, or other messaging services that are more secure? The reason is the emphasis on publishing.

Anyone can log in and start a channel, but the interface is extremely minimal basically, it looks like crap. To make up for this, Telegram invites developers to make add-ons for its platform, including clients, and bots that let users add stickers, font styling, links, and polls. Authors can also use Telegrams service Telegra.ph, which is essentially a clone of Facebook Instant Articles.

Journalists and people working in media were the first to start posting in channels some anonymously, most by name. In some cases, their individual following is higher than the number of people subscribed to the official accounts of news organizations, many of which have their own channels on Telegram.

Today, Telegram has a great variety of channels. You can subscribe to skill channels and learn Excel in GIFs or find out about digital-marketing from professionals working in the industry. There is even a channel for a guy working as a surveyor and looking for oil in the Arctic, and one led by an aspiring doctor writing about medicine for millennials.

The app also supports a number of channels around delicate topics including drugs, raving, sex, and politics. Traditional shakedown near the Rodnya club, be ready, one techno channel posted, alerting its users.

There is also support for those dealing with mental illness. Psychostory is a channel allegedly run by a 25-year-old woman struggling with depression. I met with one of my subscribers today, she was in a state psychiatric clinic in her childhood, a recent post read in Russian. She told me that no one really cared about the kids with suicidal tendencies there, they just took all the sharp things away from them. Those children found rough walls lacked renovation and rubbed themselves to blood which sometime stayed unwashed for days. The author of this channel announced in February that she has a book contract with one of the biggest publishing houses in Russia. This is the first book from a Telegram channel, she wrote.

Even if you dont get a book deal, its possible to monetize a channel on Telegram with ads. The service doesnt have an official ad network, but it does have a primitive black market. Advertisers contact the owner of a channel to negotiate, and at least anecdotally, the clickthrough rates are good.

For many, Telegram is primarily a source of news. The information there is sometimes reliable, often not, and its difficult to tell but the app has been praised for circumventing the traditional state-controlled media.

Telegram hasnt escaped the Kremlins notice. In January, authorities were reportedly exploring ways to identify users of messaging apps including Telegram, WhatsApp, and Viber by regulating SIM card contracts. Then in February, some channel authors reportedly attended an unofficial meeting with Roskomnadzor. Afterward, one of the channel authors, who specializes in the intersection of politics and information technology, said that officials wanted to know more about how exactly Telegram works.

If anonymity is truly compromised on Telegram, much of its appeal for Russians will go away. Even though there is no way to vet sources of information on the app, its a thriving alternative to the increasingly censored web, where a user can go to jail for sharing a meme.

Andrey Urodov is a freelance journalist and the publisher of the magazine Russia Without Us.

Read the original here:
Russians are using Telegram like a - The Outline

While everyone was flabbergasted with the idea of social networking and Facebook was gaining importance, other technology giants also tried dipping their toes into the said ecosystem. One such social experiment So.Cl (pronounced social) came from the fun people at Microsoft Research FUSE Labs. But, the platform failed to gain traction and is now closing down after a five-year-long stint.

Microsoft debuted the said platform back in 2011, with the aim of providing consumers with a collaborative platform rather than the usual communication stack. It allowed them tocreate, collect and share everything from rich visual collages to short animated video (now known to us GIF). These posts or collections could be shared on So.Cl, as well as other existing social platforms as well.

When theplatform made its initial debut for students, before a wider roll out, it was being closely compared to Facebook or Twitter. It was being seen as Microsofts attempt to build a social network to take the competitors head-on. But, the company never intended the collaborative service to rival them as So.Cl itself used Facebook login to onboard users. Also, the visual and media-focused approach it followedwas reminiscent to Pinterest boards, if nothing else.

So.Cl quietly continued to exist on the interweb and mobile for a period longer than most wouldve imagined. The platform failed in its mission to redesign and enhance the social experience through the said approach. Thus, it is now going offline within a weeks time, on March 15. In an official blog post, FUSE Labs bid farewell to the experimental social network as under:

So.cl has been a wonderful outlet for creative expression, as well as a place to enjoy a supportive community of like-minded people, sharing and learning together. In supporting you, So.cls unique community of creators, we have learned invaluable lessons in what it takes to establish and maintain community as well as introduce novel new ways to make, share and collect digital stuff we love.

[emailprotected]

Continue reading here:
Microsoft is shuttering its little-known experimental social network 'So.Cl' - The Tech Portal