Nation’s voting machines tested in secret: Companies refuse to discuss flaws in touchscreens
The three companies that certify the nation's voting technologies operate in secrecy, and refuse to discuss flaws in the ATM-like machines to be used by nearly one in three voters in November.
advertisementDespite concerns over whether the so-called touchscreen machines can be trusted, the testing companies won't say publicly if they have encountered shoddy workmanship.

Are private firms helping Big Brother too much?: ACLU warns of surveillance-industrial complex
In May 2002, the Professional Association of Diving Instructors voluntarily provided the FBI with a disk containing the names, addresses and other personal information of about 2 million people, nearly every U.S. citizen who had learned to scuba dive in the previous three years. That’s just one of the myriad ways federal law enforcement agencies are quietly recruiting private industry and private citizens as de facto agents in the war on terror, according to a report recently issued by the ACLU called The Surveillance-Industrial Complex. The study paints a picture of an unofficial government policy to enlist companies and citizens in the building of massive databases aimed at monitoring people in the United States.

John Kerry related to the Queen
Presidential hopeful John Kerry is a distant cousin of the Queen. His is also a descendant of Henry III and Henry II and is related to Richard the Lionheart say aristocracy experts.