Congresswoman Suzan DelBene joined a panel of experts on privacy policy at the UW’s Evans School of Public Policy & Governance on Monday morning to discuss the need for regulation of mass aerial surveillance. Last February, DelBene and fellow lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill to reform outdated privacy legislation, which provided a starting point for the panel’s discussion.
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Earlier this year, news reports revealed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been conducting aerial surveillance missions over many U.S. cities. The reports suggested that some of the aircraft were equipped with devices, such as StingRays and high resolution cameras, which can capture massive amounts of data including images, emails, texts, calls and geolocation. While technology is clearly a helpful tool in defending our country from criminals and acts of terror, we must ensure i...
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In 2012, voters in Washington state passed Initiative 502, which legalized the sale, consumption and taxation of marijuana products. Including Washington, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized some form of marijuana, and in 2016, several more states are expected to consider marijuana legalization ballot initiatives. Yet, marijuana possession or use for any purpose is still prohibited under the federal Controlled Substances Act, leaving participants in all of the state markets — i...
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When members of the U.S. Congress form a “fact-finding” select committee, they often spend their time in other ways. Grandstanding, point scoring, and political theater can take precedence over any actual investigation. And that’s especially true when the focus is a hot button issue like abortion rights. This is the situation in which U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA) says she’ll likely find herself in coming months, as part of a new Select Investigative Panel organized by House Republicans. Announ...
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It's a Catch-22 common to Native American tribes in rural areas. Telecommunications companies will say it's not profitable for them to provide services, but when tribes try to create their own telecoms, the companies prevent them from doing so. Travis Hill, operations manager for Salish Networks in Tulalip, was part of a roundtable of state tribal representatives who brought their concerns to U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene Nov. 7. "If a private company is getting money from the government, it should be...
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A House bill introduced on Thursday would require federal law enforcement officials to get a warrant if they want to conduct aerial surveillance inside the country. It would also forbid them from identifying people who are inadvertently captured by aerial surveillance. The measure, dubbed the Protecting Individuals From Mass Aerial Surveillance Act, is sponsored by Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.). “Just because technological advances have made it easier for the federal government to collect informa...
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Democratic Congresswoman Suzan DelBene was appointed Wednesday to a new House committee investigating the policies and practices of Planned Parenthood. DelBene will be one of six Democrats on the select Energy and Commerce Committee created in early October by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. “I hope this will be a fair and honest investigation, rather than a venue for political theater,” DelBene said in a statement. “So far, there has been no evidence of unlawful activity by ...
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USDA has awarded a $3.6 million grant to the Seattle Jobs Initiative (SGI) to set up a so-called Center of Excellence designed to develop and disseminate best practices to help state job training centers find work for participants in the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program (SNAP). This will “enable us to centralize our efforts to improve our (SNAP) employment and training efforts across the fifty states,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters on a conference call. The center...
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Amy Griffin believes "the beautiful game" has been hiding an ugly secret. "Why don't we just do the smart thing to begin with and not always wonder?" Griffin asked. For years, she has been watching the sport she loves turn into what she fears could be the cause of pain, cancer and even death. "I said, 'OK, what's in this rubber?' " Griffin said. Synthetic turf fields filled with carved up crumb rubber tires have become the norm across the Northwest and the country. As a University of Washington ...
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