The Colorado Court of Appeals has ruled persons on probation may not use marijuana, even if they have a valid state license to do so. The opinion is here.

The Court based its decision on federal law which it says outlaws possession and use of marijuana. (Actually, federal law only bans possession, not use of a controlled substance but no one seems to raise creative ways one could use marijuana without actually or constructively possessing it.)[More...]

Sledgehammers, motorized saws, assault weapons and more were used in the raid of MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom's compound. TV 3 in New Zealand has new details of the raid in an interview with a police official who attempts to justify the excessive force.

Seventy-six police officers, many armed with automatic weapons and pistols, including members of the elite Special Tactics Group, arrived at Kim Dotcom’s Coatesville property on January 20, to arrest him on charges relating to copyright offences.

In a related new article, Kim DotCom's security chief, Wayne Tempero, who took TV3 on a tour of the mansion, says:[More..]

Karen Handel, the senior vice president of public policy for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, resigned today. Koman founder and CEO Nancy Brinker released this statement:

"Today I accepted the resignation of Karen Handel, who has served as Senior Vice President for Policy since April 2011. I have known Karen for many years, and we both share a common commitment to our organization's lifelong mission, which must always remain our sole focus. I wish her the best in future endeavors."

You can read Handel's letter here.

Update: The 9th Circuit has affirmed the lower court's ruling that Prop 8 is unconstitutional. The 128 page opinion is here.

The 2-1 decision found the ban -- known as Proposition 8 -- "served no purpose, and had no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationship and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples." That violates the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection under the law, the decision states

The Voice is back. The singers are so much better than those trying out for American Idol. They just need to get rid of their new "social media correspondent" and posting tweets onscreen.

Is anyone going to watch Smash?

Anonymous is now at war with Symantec. (Background here.) They published emails of the company offering them $50,000 not to release the source code taken in 2006 and according to Anonymous, to lie. Anonymous says it's declined and sometime tonight will release the source code for free. (Update: They have posted the code. You can find their link to it on Twitter or Pirate Bay. Symantec acknowledges the e-mails are real but says the FBI was in on the negotiations -- they viewed it as an extortion attempt and had contacted them. Anonymous says Symantec tried to bribe them.)

The National Lawyers Guild is ready to help out Anonymous members. They've put up this webpage. You can follow the latest via @YourAnonNews and AnonymousIRC or just #Anonymous or #AntiSec.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

I'll be busy the rest of the day, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

12 agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice, AG Eric Holder and others for discrimination.

[Their lawyer says] agents hired in the U.S. who come to Puerto Rico receive a bonus for working in a so-called high-intensity drug trafficking area, which Puerto Rican agents already on the island don't get. She says they also get more dangerous assignments because they have local experience that the U.S. agents lack.

Reading through the Complaint, available on PACER: the lawsuit claims National Origin Discrimination in federal employment practices; Disparate Treatment; and Equal Protection violations. It alleges the Justice Department has violated the Federal Workforce Flexibility Act of 2004. The agents, who are from Puerto Rico, claim they are not receiving the same benefits as "non-local hires" and receive 25% less pay.

The agents also claim they are being used as "cannon fodder" for the DEA, forced out of administrative positions and back onto the dangerous streets. [More...]

The State Department issued a notice today that the U.S. Embassy in Syria has closed and all employees have left the country.

The recent surge in violence, including bombings in Damascus on December 23 and January 6, has raised serious concerns that our Embassy is not sufficiently protected from armed attack. We, along with several other diplomatic missions, conveyed our security concerns to the Syrian Government but the regime failed to respond adequately.

The violence in Syria continues to escalate.

Mimi Beardsley, now Mimi Alford, was a 19 year old intern for JFK. In 2003, JFK's former assistant Dave Powers, wrote a book in which he mentioned a young intern as one of JFK's paramours. She would not discuss it.

Now 69, she has written a book about it. The New York Post has excerpts. The affair lasted 18 months. She was interviewed on the Today Show this morning.

Her reason for coming forward now? She says living with this kind of secret is debilitating. [More...]

Update: Superbowl video here. Better quality here or here (but 15 second commercial.)

I'm tuning into the Superbowl but just for the halftime show with Madonna which is about to start. She'll sing 4 songs, 3 old and "Give Me All Your Luvin'" her new song with Nikki Manaj. She told Anderson Cooper she's nervous:

"First of all, it's the Super Bowl. I mean the Super Bowl is kind of like the holy of holies in America right? ... I have to put on the greatest show on earth, in the middle of the greatest show on earth. I have eight minutes to set it up and seven minutes to take it down and 12 minutes to put on the greatest show on earth. That's a lot of pressure."

How do you think she did?

I like the Giants (+3) (15 units.) Some late Pats money seems to be coming in.

Open Thread.

The U.S. military has dismissed a murder charge against Army Specialist Michael Wagnon, the remaining member of the 5th Stryker Brigade charged with pre-meditated murder in the 2010 "Thrill Kill" spree of killings and corpse mutilation of unarmed Afghan civilians.

The dismissal of the case against Wagnon, 31, brought to an abrupt end the Army's prosecution of the most egregious atrocities that U.S. military personnel have been convicted of committing during a decade of war in Afghanistan.

Five members of the infantry unit formerly known as the 5th Stryker Brigade were charged with killing Afghan civilians in cold blood in random attacks staged to look like legitimate combat engagements. Seven other GIs were charged with lesser offenses in a case that began as an investigation into rampant hashish abuse within the unit.

[More..]