TV News LIES

The general counsel of the National Security Agency on Monday compared the agency’s telephone metadata collection program to the highly controversial “stop-and-frisk” practice used by law enforcement officers, saying the agency uses that same standard to choose which phone numbers to query in its database.

“It’s effectively the same standard as stop-and-frisk,” Rajesh De said in an attempt to explain the evidentiary use of “reasonable and articulable suspicion” to identify which phone numbers to target from the agency’s huge database of stored cellphone records.

A D.C. government agency paid a Chicago consulting firm $89,995 for one day of work at a recent city education conference, a fee that included a half-hour keynote speech, three 45-minute parent workshops and hundreds of copies of parenting books.

The Office of the State Superintendent of Education hired the firm without soliciting or considering other bids, according to an agency spokeswoman. The agency sponsored the Sept. 7 conference in an effort to reach out to parents, using D.C. tax dollars to pay the Chicago firm even as many speakers that day — as well as the keynote speaker at the same conference in 2012 — volunteered.

The Supreme Court won't consider Oklahoma's appeal seeking to reinstate its law banning medical abortions, such as those performed with the drug RU-486. The decision comes after the state's Supreme Court said the law, which would restrict the use of several abortion-inducing drugs to their labels, effectively bans all medical abortions.

That apparently was enough for the justices to leave alone the lower court decision striking down the law. But similar controversies in other states, including neighboring Texas, make it possible another case will reach the high court eventually.

On Friday, a gunman “pulled a Smith & Wesson .223-caliber assault rifle from his duffel bag” and opened fire on an airport. Officials have arrested the alleged shooter, 23-year-old Paul Ciancia, who killed a TSA agent and wounded six others at a security checkpoint. The incident is the second airport shooting in six months.

The National Rifle Association has not yet said a word on the tragedy (the day before, the NRA tweeted a story about the so-called “exploitation” of Sandy Hook). But in the past, the NRA has vigorously campaigned to make it easier to bring firearms into airports and criticized TSA agents for their aggressive efforts to ensure guns don’t make it onto a plane. Federal law prevents all travelers from transporting firearms beyond checkpoints (they must be unloaded, checked, and declared in luggage), but the NRA has been a force in weakening state law to permit guns before the security checkpoint.

In general, the group—which celebrated its second birthday this September—works to “honor the Confederate soldier” in any way possible, including parades, rallies, and protests. So far—according to the group—they have demonstrated against a reception at the Virginia Governor’s mansion celebrating the film Lincoln, rallied against a “Lincoln Day” bill in the General Assembly, petitioned the Lexington City Council for a “Lee-Jackson Day” proclamation, and attacked a legislative proposal to create a “Virginia Slave Commission” dedicated to studying the state’s role in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.

In other words, the usual activities of a neo-Confederate group.

The former headmaster of an exclusive private school who stepped down last week amid a criminal investigation, surrendered to authorities Friday, the state Attorney General's Office said.

Christopher D. Wheeler, 53, was charged Thursday with 25 counts of dealing in child pornography, which authorities discovered during an Oct. 22 search of his office and former home on the campus of Tower Hill School here.