AUCKLAND, New Zealand - July 4, 2011 – Dakta Green, the premiere activist in New Zealand on behalf of decriminalization of marijuana possession and legalization of cannabis for medical use, has been sentenced to 8 months in prison for the courageous stand he has taken against pot prohibition laws.

He has been isolated from the outside world; authorities are making it difficult for him to receive phone calls or even mail.  He would very much appreciate your letters and postcards.

by Dennis Grover, American, in Independence

RENO, Nevada - July 4, 2011 - I live my life fully engulfed in joy. I live it that way because I created it that way and cannot imagine anything different. It is the Fourth of July, “Independence Day” and I have to ask; independent from what?

On this holiday I received more emails than usual exclaiming various degrees of ecstatic joy. Nevertheless, however I viewed one patriotic video with a variety of pictures of soldiers, Washington D.C. monuments and other familiar national treasures, it brought tears to my eyes, not because of the patriotic words and scenery, but because of what realities now lay behind them.

LOS ANGELES, Kalifornia (PNN) - June 24, 2011 - Officials at a Los Angeles County jail plan to test out an invisible heat-beam weapon - a torture device - originally developed by the military as a way to subdue brawling inmates by making them feel "intolerable heat."

The technology, called an Assault Intervention Device, is a non lethal-weapon developed by Raytheon Company. It employs a form of torture in order to quell prisoner dissent.

WASHINGTON - June 22, 2011 - A group of U.S. Representatives plan to introduce legislation that will legalize marijuana and allow states to legislate its use, pro-marijuana groups said Wednesday.

The legislation would limit the federal government's role in marijuana enforcement to cross-border or inter-state smuggling, and allow people to legally grow, use or sell marijuana in states where it is legal.

The bill, which is expected to be introduced on Thursday by Republican Representative Ron Paul and Democrat Representative Barney Frank, would be the first ever legislation designed to end the federal ban on marijuana.

GASTONIA, North Carolina - June 20, 2011 - Often, crimes are commited out of desperation. However, most robberies aren't motivated by a desperate need for health care.

James Richard Verone, of Georgia, attempted to steal one dollar from a bank so that he would be arrested, taken to jail, and - most importantly - provided with health care, the Gaston Gazette reported.

LONDON, England - June 17, 2011 (PNN) - A new generation of battery-free surveillance devices, which can be implanted under the skin and transmit over huge distances via wireless, have been developed by scientists.

Researchers are working on nano machines that could be injected into the arms of patients and then report back to doctors who are monitoring them from miles away.

NEW YORK - June 15, 2011 - If you want to prepare your children for their next TSA checkpoint, Wild Planet has just the thing. The company’s Spy Gear series includes the Security Scanner, a handheld metal detector that’s not for finding loose change on the beach, but instead for finding hidden weapons in your pants.

By Brent Johnson

Frequently these days, I am approached by someone complaining to me about the problems with modern society in the United States.  The complaints tend to cover a wide spectrum: the economy is collapsing, the education system is inadequate, there are too many regulations, taxation is out of control, etc.

While each of these statements may be true, I do not believe that any of them represent the cause of their respective complaints.  Rather, they are each a symptom of a more basic problem.

WASHINGTON - June 9, 2011 - Billing it as a way to end the one-size-fits-all approach to airport security, the International Air Transport Association on Tuesday unveiled a mock-up of what it called the "Checkpoint of the Future."

Instead of a single screening procedure applied to all fliers, the group envisions that passengers would be divided into risk categories based on information available about them. They would then be directed to one of three lanes: "Known Traveler," "Normal" and "Enhanced Security."

In ancient Rome, the government (i.e. Caesar) gave the general population free bread and circuses, in the form of “games” held at the Coliseum.  These “games” were one-sided affairs that pit fully armed and armored Roman champions against unarmed gladiator slaves.  Frequently, they would add live tigers to the bout, making it that much more certain that the slaves would be killed.