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OLCC expands the list of beverage containers you'll pay more for in the new year

The price of kombucha and those hard seltzers that are the hot, new alcohol-delivery beverages will rise by a dime after the first of the year but that's because the containers are now refundable under Oregon's bottle bill.

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission on Thursday approved its own rule changes and some passed by the Legislature.

Also added to the bottle bill were what the OLCC described as, "Kefir, drinkable yogurt, milk-based smoothies and other beverages that are primarily milk or plant-based milk but include other ingredients such as fruit."

Containers of milk, cream, half and half as well as plant or nut-based milks are still not refundable and you won't have to pay a deposit on them in 2020.

You count on us to stay informed and we depend on you to fund our efforts.Quality local journalism takes time and money. Please support us to protect the future of community journalism.

Continued here:
Those empty cans of White Claw will be worth a dime in 2020 - Pamplin Media Group

Cyprus police have arrested three employees of a firm owned by a former Israeli intelligence officer over suspicions they used a high-tech surveillance van to intercept communications.

The latest case follows mounting concern over the operations of Israeli spyware and surveillance companies across the globe who have been implicated in a series of high-profile scandals, including targeting Harvey Weinsteins accusers and selling spyware allegedly used to hack the phones of human rights activists.

The arrests in Cyprus involve a Cypriot-registered company called WiSpear, owned by Tal Dilian, an Israeli described in local media as a former intelligence officer with customers in Africa, the Gulf and far east.

In a bizarre twist, Dilian had been interviewed by Forbes magazine on Cyprus this year boasting of the surveillance capabilities of the vehicle involved, a former GMC ambulance fitted out with about $9m worth of equipment, which he claimed could intercept phones and social messaging apps including WhatsApp from a distance of a kilometre.

A Forbes video, showing the blacked-out van packed with equipment, provoked a media frenzy in Cyprus after it went viral last month provoking calls for an investigation into its activities. The arrests on Thursday follow the seizure of the van last month.

The issue has been pursued by the leader of Cypruss main opposition Akel party, Andros Kyprianou, who has suggested that his party has information that the vehicle was actively involved in spying on the island.

We know a great deal, far more than what we say in public. The information coming to us is extremely alarming, about who is implicated in this process, or what contacts took place during the last years, he added.

When a vehicle with equipment worth $9m [6.9] is out on the streets, and Cyprus being the small place that it is, our suspicions are roused as to what it was doing and how it operated. We expect the government to provide convincing answers.

The Cypriot suspects working for the company, two men and a woman, face 13 charges related to violation of privacy laws, processing private data, falsely obtaining documents and breaking the islands radio communication law.

In an earlier statement police had said their investigation related to data privacy violations. Claims of any wrongdoing are denied by Dilian and WiSpear who claim the van was on the island for demonstration purposes and that claims made by the company to Forbes had been wilfully misconstrued.

For the Forbes interview, however, Dilian appeared to demonstrate to the journalist involved how his equipment could take control of a colleagues Huawei phone from a distance of 200 metres and download malware onto the device.

As the reporter watched, messages from the test subjects WhatsApp account appeared on a monitor in WiSpears van.

According to media reports Dilian spent 24 years in the Israel Defense Forces in an elite combat unit and as chief commander in the technological unit of the IDFs intelligence corps before going into business first with Circles, a smartphone surveillance company which he sold in 2010.

Dilian later founded Intellexa, which claims it can spy on encrypted communications, and WiSpear, whose prospectus offers long-range interception vans.

The company has denied providing services to the Cypriot authorities and says it does not provide intelligence services.

The sole scope of the company is that of selling products and technology it develops, said WiSpear in a statement, adding that the van was only in Cyprus field-testing purposes on company-owned devices and with the knowledge of local authorities.

See the original post here:
Cyprus police arrest three in Israeli-owned spy van investigation - The Guardian

This week we take a look at for your Pacific Northwest radio listeners a criminal illegal alien felon sex offender who was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection who has a past criminal history in the state of Oregon.

According to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Public Affairs Monday, December 9, 2019 news release titled Border Patrol Arrests Convicted Sex Offender CBP Agents assigned to the El Centro Sector on Saturday, December 7, 2019 apprehend previously deported Mexican national criminal alien sex offender Efren Prado-Rodriguez, age 38, for illegal entry into the United States.

Border Patrol Agents doing the processing of Efren Prado-Rodriguez (SID: 15505097; DOB: 05/01/1981), during records checks, discovered Prado-Rodriguez was convicted of Second Degree Sex Abuse in 2006, in Marion County, Oregon.

According to the CBP news release, Efren Prado-Rodriguez was sentenced to 36 months of probation.

Furthermore, Efren Prado-Rodriguez was removed from the United States in 2006 as an aggravated felon.

A troubling fact, Marion County Correctional Facility (MCCF) records from February 8, 2011 indicate Efren Prado-Rodriguez was arrested by the Woodburn Police Department (WBP) on January 8, 2011 and incarcerated at the MCCF on the charges of Fourth Degree Assault, Strangulation and Second Degree Sex Abuse.

Seeking additional information on the immigration status Efren Prado-Rodriguez, I contacted via e-mail on Tuesday, December 10, 2019 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Public Affairs Officer Tanya J. Roman with the following questions:

Did ICE actually place an immigration detainers on Efren Prado-Rodriguez during time periods he was incarcerated in the MCCF in Salem, Oregon or at any other location he may have been held for prior criminal convictions like the Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) prison system?

How many times has ICE actually removed Efren Prado-Rodriguez from the U.S.?

If Efren Prado-Rodriguez was previously removed by ICE from the U.S., what were the dates and places Prado-Rodriguez was removed from the country?

Has Efren Prado-Rodriguez ever previously served time in a federal prison for an immigration crime or violation?

On Thursday, December 12th, ICE Public Affairs Officer Roman sent via e-mail the following response to my preceding questions on Efren Prado-Rodriguez:

Convicted sex offender Efren Prado-Rodriguez is a repeat immigration violator who has been removed from the United States on three previous occasions.

On March 23, 2004, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) encountered and lodged a detainer on Prado-Rodriguez a Mexican citizen, at the Jackson County Jail after he was arrested by the Medford Police Department for driving under the influence of intoxicants (DUII) and reckless driving. On March 31, 2004, Prado-Rodriguez was turned over to ICE, following his DUII conviction. On April 9, 2004, an immigration judge ordered him removed from the U.S., and he was removed to Mexico four days later.

Prado-Rodriguez subsequently re-entered the U.S. illegally on an unknown date and location.

On Oct. 27, 2006, Prado-Rodriguez was arrested by the Medford Police Department, this time for intimidation, failure to appear, and possessing a firearm. On Nov. 20, 2006, ICE again encountered Prado-Rodriguez at the Jackson County jail and issued a detainer. After he was turned over to ICE his removal order was reinstated. On Dec. 22, 2006, he was removed to Mexico for a second time.

Prado-Rodriguez subsequently re-entered the U.S. illegally on an unknown date and at an unknown location.

On Jan. 8, 2011, ICE encountered Prado-Rodriguez at as a referral from the Marion County jail after he was arrested by the Woodburn Police Department for menacing, strangulation, assault, and sodomy. On Jan. 9, 2011, ICE lodged a detainer with the jail and Feb 18, 2011, Prado-Rodriguez was turned over to ICE. On Feb. 26, 2011, he was, for the third time, removed to Mexico.

According to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection press release issued on Dec. 9, 2019, Prado-Rodriguez was apprehended while attempting to once again illegally enter the U.S.

Despite the severe challenges that local policies have created for ICE and our law enforcement partners, we remain committed to our public safety mission and will continue to do our sworn duty to seek out dangerous criminal aliens and other immigration violators. ICE seeks straightforward cooperation with all local law enforcement and elected officials. ICE deportation officers carry out targeted enforcement actions every day in locations around the country as part of the agencys ongoing efforts to protect the nation, uphold public safety, and protect the integrity of our immigration laws and border controls. Tanya J. Roman, ICE Public Affairs Officer.

Mexican national criminal illegal alien felon sex offender Efren Prado-Rodriguez is another example of the thousands of previously deported aliens that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents apprehend annually who try to illegally reenter the U.S.

Lars, third full week in the month of December and another criminal alien report for Lars Larson Show KXL FM 101.1 Pacific Northwest radio listeners.

Respectfully,

David Olen Cross

http://docfnc.wordpress.com/.

docfnc

Lars Larson Show: Criminal Alien of the Week Report

US Immigrationand CustomsEnforcement

Media Inquiries

Office of Public Affairs

12/12/2019

ICE Statement: Efren Prado-Rodriguez

Convicted sex offender Efren Prado-Rodriguez is a repeat immigration violator who has been removed from the United States on three previous occasions.

On March 23, 2004, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) encountered and lodged a detainer on Prado-Rodriguez a Mexican citizen, at the Jackson County Jail after he was arrested by the Medford Police Department for driving under the influence of intoxicants (DUII) and reckless driving. On March 31, 2004, Prado-Rodriguez was turned over to ICE, following his DUII conviction. On April 9, 2004, an immigration judge ordered him removed from the U.S., and he was removed to Mexico four days later.

Prado-Rodriguez subsequently re-entered the U.S. illegally on an unknown date and location.

On Oct. 27, 2006, Prado-Rodriguez was arrested by the Medford Police Department, this time for intimidation, failure to appear, and possessing a firearm. On Nov. 20, 2006, ICE again encountered Prado-Rodriguez at the Jackson County jail and issued a detainer. After he was turned over to ICE his removal order was reinstated. On Dec. 22, 2006, he was removed to Mexico for a second time.

Prado-Rodriguez subsequently re-entered the U.S. illegally on an unknown date and at an unknown location.

On Jan. 8, 2011, ICE encountered Prado-Rodriguez at as a referral from the Marion County jail after he was arrested by the Woodburn Police Department for menacing, strangulation, assault, and sodomy. On Jan. 9, 2011, ICE lodged a detainer with the jail and Feb 18, 2011, Prado-Rodriguez was turned over to ICE. On Feb. 26, 2011, he was, for the third time, removed to Mexico.

According to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection press release issued on Dec. 9, 2019, Prado-Rodriguez was apprehended while attempting to once again illegally enter the U.S.

Despite the severe challenges that local policies have created for ICE and our law enforcement partners, we remain committed to our public safety mission and will continue to do our sworn duty to seek out dangerous criminal aliens and other immigration violators. ICE seeks straightforward cooperation with all local law enforcement and elected officials. ICE deportation officers carry out targeted enforcement actions every day in locations around the country as part of the agencys ongoing efforts to protect the nation, uphold public safety, and protect the integrity of our immigration laws and border controls. Tanya J. Roman, ICE Public Affairs Officer.

Tanya J. RomanPublic Affairs Officer/SpokespersonAlaska, Idaho, Oregon Washington StateU.S. Immigration & Customs EnforcementCell Phone: 425-282-7362

https://www.ice.gov/contact/media-inquiries

US Customs andBorder Protection

Border Patrol Arrests Convicted Sex Offender

Release Date: December 9, 2019

CALEXICO, Calif. U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the El Centro Sector arrested a previously deported sex offender Saturday morning.

The incident occurred at around 12:15 a.m., when agents assigned to the Calexico Station encountered a man suspected of illegally entering the United States approximately three miles east of the Calexico Downtown Port of Entry. Agents arrested the man and transported him to the El Centro Station for immigration and criminal history screening.

Agents conducted records checks, which revealed that the man was identified as Efren Prado-Rodriguez, a 38-year-old Mexican national, who was convicted of Sex Abuse 2nd Degree in 2006, out of Marion County, Oregon. Prado was sentenced to 36 months probation.

Prado was removed from the United States in 2006 as an aggravated felon.

Prado is being held in federal custody pending further criminal prosecution.

In fiscal year 2020, El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents have arrested and removed 10 individuals either convicted or wanted on sexual assault charges after they entered the United States illegally.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nations borders at and between official ports of entry. CBP is charged with securing the borders of the United States while enforcing hundreds of laws and facilitating lawful trade and travel.

Last modified: December 9, 2019Tags: Border Security

CBP Public AffairsContact Information for Media:Phone: (202) 344-1780Email: CBP Media RelationsAll Other Inquiries: (202) 325-8000

https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/border-patrol-arrests-convicted-sex-offender-10

MCCF Inmate Roster(Click inmates Name to go to VINE for that inmate)8-FEB-2011 11:00Inmate RosterMCCF

1.PRADO-RODRIGUEZ, EFREN

PRADO-RODRIGUEZ, EFREN SID: 15505097 LODGEDLodged: 01/08/2011 18:05 Max: DoB: 05/01/1981Arrest: WBP Type: PROBABL Docket: 11C40183 Hold Auth: MARIONCharge Bail Status Next Court Release1 ASSA IV F 30000 PRETRIA02/08/2011 08:00 CIRCUI2 STRANGULAT CO BAIL PRETRIA02/08/2011 08:00 CIRCUI3 SEX AB II CO BAIL PRETRIA02/08/2011 08:00 CIRCUIArrest: INS Type: OTHER Docket: A97 760 003 Hold Auth: INSCharge Bail Status Next Court Release1 INS HOLD NO BAIL INS

Inmate count: 1

The post Criminal Alien of the Week Report by David Cross appeared first on The Lars Larson Show.

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Criminal Alien of the Week Report by David Cross - 550 KTSA

OTTAWA The SNC-Lavalin affaircost Justin Trudeau two cabinet ministers, his most trusted aide,the top federal public servant and possibly a second majority mandate;and now the woman at the centre of it all Jody Wilson-Raybould isthe 2019 Newsmaker of the Year.

The former justice minister was therunaway choiceofnews editors across the country surveyed by The Canadian Press.

Prime Minister Trudeau, whose Liberal government was reduced to a minority inthe Oct. 21 election,polleda distant second.

Jody Wilson-Raybould made us think about governance and fairness and loyalty and how all of those things play out every day behind the scenes on Parliament Hill, said Toronto Star senior editor Janet Hurley.

She lifted the curtain and let us see inside and, as the election results ultimately revealed, not everyone liked what they saw. Some called her courageous; others were less kind but in the face of all that she created a national dialogue unmatched this year.

This time last year, Sun News editor-in-chief Mark Towhey said,The number of Canadians who could tell you who Jody Wilson-Raybould was would fit in a mid-size restaurant.

In 2019, she became a household name at the centre of the biggest political story of the year.

It began with an anonymously sourced story in the Globe and Mail in early February, alleging that Trudeau and hisstaffhad inappropriately pressured Wilson-Raybould to stop a criminal prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, the Montreal engineering giant facing corruption charges related to contracts in Libya.

It suggestedTrudeaus demotionof Wilson-Raybould, Canadas first Indigenous justice minister,to Veterans Affairs in a mid-January cabinet shuffle was punishment for her refusal to override the director of public prosecutions, who haddeclined to negotiate a remediation agreement a kind of plea bargain incorporate-corruption cases for SNC-Lavalin.

The controversy quickly spiralled out of control for the government.

Within a week, Wilson-Raybould resigned from cabinet. Less than a week after that, Trudeaus long-time friend and most trusted political adviser, Gerald Butts, resignedas the prime ministers principal secretary.

The controversy dragged on for months and would eventually trigger the early resignation of the top public servant, Michael Wernick, and promptsenior ministerJanePhilpott to resign from cabinet in solidarity with Wilson-Raybould.

In almost four hours of explosive testimony before the Commons justice committee, Wilson-Raybould detailed what she described as relentless pressure to intervene in the SNC-Lavalin case from Trudeau, senior staff in the Prime Ministers Office andFinance Minister Bill Morneau and his aides.She accused Wernick of issuingveiled threats, onbehalf of Trudeau,that her refusal to comply could cost her her jobas justice minister and attorney general.

She would later reveal that she had secretly recorded a phone conversation with Wernick a revelation that proved to be the last straw forher former Liberal colleagues. At the behest of Liberal MPs, Trudeau booted both Wilson-Raybould and Philpott from thegoverning partys caucus and informed them they would not be allowed toseek re-election under the Liberal banner.

Trudeau, Butts, Wernick and others maintained theyd done nothing wrong, that their conduct was entirely within the law and motivatedsolely by the desire to protectthe thousands of innocent employees, shareholders, pensioners and others who could be hurt if SNC-Lavalin were to be convictedcriminally and forced to scale back its Canadian operations or relocate to another country.

Although she felt it was inappropriate to pressure the attorney general, who is supposed to be independent and above partisan considerations, Wilson-Raybould herself said she didnt think anyone had done anything illegal.

But for opposition parties, just months away from an election,it was the gift that kept on giving.The Conservatives asked the RCMP to investigate possible obstruction of justice. TheNDP demanded a full public inquiry.

In August,a month before the start of the campaign and just as Liberal poll numbers had begun to recover somewhat from the downward plunge precipitated by the SNC affair,federal ethics commissioner Mario Dion issued a scathing report that concluded Trudeau violated federal ethics law by improperly pressuring Wilson-Raybould.

Both Wilson-Raybould and Philpott ran for re-election as Independent candidates. Philpottlost but Wilson-Raybould defied the odds and handily won her Vancouver Granville riding.

Just this month, she was in the news again forrefusing to move out of the offices on Parliament Hill assigned to her when she was a minister.

Some news editors surveyedsaw Wilson-Raybould as an inspiring example a beacon of hope whospoke truth to power and left Trudeaus feminist credentials in tatters.

She chose principle over politics and will not be soon forgotten for staying true to her convictions, regardless of the consequences, said Danny Kingsbury, national format director for Rogers Media.

Others took a more nuanced view.

The Wilson-Raybould saga laid bare for many Canadians the sort of wheeling and dealing that goes on inside governments a necessary evil if you buythe prime ministers arguments, a corruption of the justice system if you accept her viewpoint, said Christina Spencer, editorial page editor at the Ottawa Citizen.

Either way, thescope of the story and its repercussions left little doubt among news editors that the woman at the centre of it was this years dominant newsmaker. She may well continue to influenceevents as the SNC-Lavalin casemakes its way through the judicial system and Wilson-Rayboulds successor as justice minister, David Lametti, grapples with whether to order a remediation agreement.

As Spencer put it: It involved Quebec, jobs, justice, a woman, an Indigenous cabinet minister, two senior officials who had to leave their jobs and the issues that loom ahead have yet to be resolved.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 18, 2019.

Joan Bryden, The Canadian Press

Original post:
Jody Wilson-Raybould chosen Canadas newsmaker of the year - CityNews Winnipeg

CEO of Twitter, Jack Patrick Dorsey, speaks during an exclusive interview with Hindustan Times at Twitter India office, at the Crescent, on November 14, 2018 in New Delhi, India.

Burhaan Kinu | Hindustan Times | Getty Images

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced Tuesday the company is funding a new research team that will develop an "open and decentralized standard for social media," in part to address some of the current problems with the platform.

The idealistic long-term vision is to make disparate social media networks more like email, so that users could join different networks but still communicate with each other no matter which one they're using.

Shared technical standards would also make it easier for users to gain some control over how these networks recommend content, which could reduce the tendency to guide users to the most outrageous material and users in hopes of keeping them engaged, according to Dorsey. It could also make it easier for the social networks to enforce restrictions against hate speech and other abuse, essentially helping them share the load at a lower cost.

There are already social media platforms that operate on a decentralized framework, the most popular of which is Mastodon, an open-source social network that's often used as an alternative to Twitter. Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the World Wide Web, has also launched several projects advocating for a decentralized internet.

But unlike these projects, which have struggled to gain traction, Twitter already has a devoted user base of more than 300 million people, which could give Dorsey more traction in trying to push the standard through and convince other social networks to lend support.

It seems unlikely, however, that Facebook, which currently dominates the space with an audience of more than 2 billion users, would be willing to cede control to an external coalition. A Facebook spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Dorsey announced the vision and team, called Bluesky, in a string of tweets:

Bluesky will include up to five architects, engineers and designers charged with creating the standards. The goal is that one day Twitter will become a "client" of the network, though it's likely the standard will take several years to develop, Dorsey said.

"For social media, we'd like this team to either find an existing decentralized standard they can help move forward, or failing that, create one from scratch," Dorsey said. "That's the only direction we at Twitter, Inc. will provide."

The standard would allow Twitter to focus its "efforts on building open recommendation algorithms which promote healthy conversation," Dorsey added.

Focusing on recommendation algorithms could help Dorsey deflect some of the content moderation problems the company continues to face, such as its failure to curb hate speech, said Jennifer Grygiel, a social media professor at Syracuse University. In an open source framework, Twitter would handle how content surfaces on the platform, akin to Google searches, instead of hosting and managing the content itself.

By announcing Bluesky, Twitter appears to have realized that hosting and managing content "is a business model that doesn't have many benefits," Grygiel added.

"They're looking to deal less with the responsibility that is the walled garden, aka the platform," Grygiel said.

When asked to elaborate on the Bluesky project, a Twitter spokesperson pointed to Dorsey's tweets and said in a statement: "We've long demonstrated our commitment to doing critical work in the open and empowering people to build off of the fundamentals of our service. Apart from the technical elements outlined by Jack today, this is about exploring the fullest and most participatory vision of our service."

Continued here:
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has an idealistic vision for the future of social media and is funding a small team to chase it - CNBC