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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Patriot Act to Get Another Vote

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Thursday, February 10, 2011   

ALBANY, N.Y. - An extension of some provisions of the controversial anti-terror measure known as the Patriot Act comes up for another vote as early as today, and critics of the act are urging New York's congressional delegation to vote "no."

Opponents say the act, passed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, needs amending because some of its provisions run counter to the individual liberties spelled out in the Constitution. An attempt to gain fast-track passage of the extension failed to get a two-thirds majority Tuesday when eight freshmen Republicans, including Chris Gibson from New York's 20th district, went against their party's leadership and voted "no." An attempt to get a simple majority is the next step.

Zachery Heiden, legal director of an affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, stresses the importance of this vote.

"All members of Congress, new and old, right and left, who care about the Constitution should be concerned about reauthorizing these provisions of the Patriot Act because they're contrary to our core constitutional values."

The Act's supporters say threats remain real and the Patriot Act is a valuable anti-terrorism tool. Heiden says he knows of no one who is arguing that the Patriot Act is no longer necessary.

"But people have been arguing, and I will argue with them, that the Patriot Act, as it was drafted and passed and re-passed, was a flawed piece of legislation and needs to be fixed before it's reauthorized."

Among the parts of the Act that raise objections is the controversial library-records provision, which Heiden says allows the government to snoop into what citizens are reading without reasonable suspicion or probable cause.

"Most people recognize that the government has no business snooping around in people's library records, looking into what books people are reading. The Patriot Act, as it's written now, allows for this wide open 'fishing expedition' which really goes too far."

He argues that the three expiring provisions of the Patriot Act give the government sweeping authority to spy on individuals inside the United States, in some cases without any suspicion of wrongdoing.


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