The tale of the San Bernardino terrorist's cell phone keeps getting deeper: As it turns out, the FBI's legal battle with Apple could have easily been avoided.
Tami Abdollah and Bree Fowler report in KPCC: "The county government that owned the iPhone in a high-profile legal battle between Apple Inc. and the Justice Department paid for but never installed a feature that would have allowed the FBI to easily and immediately unlock the phone as part of the terrorism investigation into the shootings that killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California."
"If the technology, known as mobile device management, had been installed, San Bernardino officials would have been able to remotely unlock the iPhone for the FBI without the theatrics of a court battle that is now pitting digital privacy rights against national security concerns."
"The service costs $4 per month per phone."
It is revealed that the FBI actually locked itself out of the San Bernardino terrorist's phone shortly after acquiring it.
From Sean Sposito in the Chronicle: "The FBI arguably set the stage for its controversial legal fight with Apple over unlocking access to the iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook when it had the password to his iCloud account reset shortly after he took part in the December massacre that killed 14."
"Not long after the Dec. 2 shootings, the FBI directed a San Bernardino County employee to reset Farook’s Apple ID, according to court documents and an FBI statement made over the weekend. The phone and the Apple account used by Farook, who was a county employee, were owned by the county."
"The changes made to Farook’s settings shut down the possibility that his iPhone could be backed up to the tech company’s cloud storage and computing service iCloud after it was retrieved."
The Adult Use of Marijuana Act is projected to meet California's November ballot with the goal of legalizing the substance and reducing gorilla gardening across the state.
From the LAT Times' Phil Willon: "Devout cannabis advocates and social justice reformers believe this may finally be the year that California voters legalize all marijuana, and that optimism has led to a mashup of proposed statewide ballot measures -- more than 20 filed so far."
"They vary from a one-sentence constitutional amendment that simply declares California adults are free to “grow, own [and] purchase” marijuana to a 62-page treatise on how to best regulate and tax legal pot."
"But just one has attracted the deep-pocketed donors and leading advocacy groups to emerge as the clear favorite to make the November ballot -- the so-called Adult Use of Marijuana Act."
California seeks tax neutrality for health care programs and invidiuals.
Jim Miller with The Sacramento Bee reports: "A $2.4 billion managed-care organization tax package awaiting votes in the California Legislature reflects the heavy imprint of the state’s health insurance industry, which pushed for major changes to avoid any tax hit that could be passed on to customers."
"The approach has earned the backing of the California Chamber of Commerce and neutrality from the influential Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. It has a strong chance of winning enough support from Republican lawmakers to reach the needed two-thirds vote threshold to pass. Then, the state would be on the verge of its ultimate goal: continuing to pull in more than $1 billion in federal matching money."
"State policymakers normally have detailed knowledge about how government programs receive and spend money. Yet the current package, hammered out in weeks of private talks between the Brown administration and health plan representatives, rests on a major unknown: How each plan would fare after the “tax reforms,” or offsets."
Democrats are pushing the governor to implement more anti-poverty programs.
From KQED's Marisa Lagos: "Joseph Latichinson works full time as a security guard at a shopping plaza in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood. He makes $12 an hour — $2 more than the newly increased statewide minimum wage."
"But Latichinson doesn’t have a place to sleep — he’s homeless. He said it’s impossible to make ends meet in a city as expensive as San Francisco unless you have subsidized housing or other help."
“I live in a shelter,” he said. “Even if you raise the minimum wage, if you don’t lower the costs of all the other things you need to survive, then minimum wage is a joke.”
And now from the least browsed corners of the internet: It appears that dogs really are man's best friend. Not only do they love us unconditionally... they can also make us gobs of cash.
"Pauline Dunne, a great grandmother from Underwood in Nottinghamshire, says her £100,000 scratchcard win was all down to her dog, Alfie, and that he'll be getting a few extra treats as a reward."
"74-year-old Pauline was out taking Alfie for his usual morning stroll, when she decided to pop into her local newsagents for a newspaper and a scratchcard. She took the card home, made a cup of tea, played the card, and discovered she was the lucky winner of £100,000."
"She said it was still early in the morning, so her partner Stewart was still in bed, but she woke him because she needed someone else to check she had won. When she called her daughter Angela to share the good news, she initially didn't believe her, so she popped round for a look too."
