ALL IS PROCEEDING AS I HAVE FORESEEN: As ‘Higher Education Bubble’ Accelerates, Alternatives Emerge.

PETER WOOD: Janet Napolitano as University of California President: “A Disastrous Choice.”

PRIVACY IN OBAMA’S AMERICA: Driving Somewhere? There’s A Government Record of That.

Chances are, your local or state police departments have photographs of your car in their files, noting where you were driving on a particular day, even if you never did anything wrong.

Using automated scanners, law enforcement agencies across the country have amassed millions of digital records on the location and movement of every vehicle with a license plate, according to a study published Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union. Affixed to police cars, bridges or buildings, the scanners capture images of passing or parked vehicles and note their location, uploading that information into police databases. Departments keep the records for weeks or years, sometimes indefinitely.

As the technology becomes cheaper and more ubiquitous, and federal grants focus on aiding local terrorist detection, even small police agencies are able to deploy more sophisticated surveillance systems. While the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that a judge’s approval is needed to track a car with GPS, networks of plate scanners allow police effectively to track a driver’s location, sometimes several times every day, with few legal restrictions. The ACLU says the scanners assemble what it calls a “single, high-resolution image of our lives.”

Stuff like this is why I take the “mosaic theory” more seriously than some.

BRIAN HUGHES: Obama paints himself into a corner over Trayvon Martin. “The president’s own words more than a year ago — “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon” — are fueling the push for his Justice Department to bring federal charges against Zimmerman, the Hispanic neighborhood watch coordinator who has become a symbol of a broken justice system in the eyes of civil rights groups. When Obama waded into the controversy in March 2012, his words seemed to carry limited consequences. His statement of support for the Martin family played well with supporters and was more than a year away from the polarizing trial. It’s not that simple any more. . . . Despite White House efforts to distance the president from the department’s investigation, Obama inevitably will have to answer for how his administration proceeds. The White House can ill afford to give critics more ammunition as the administration fends off attacks about the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups, the postponement of a major part of Obamacare and the Justice Department’s spying on journalists.”

THE UNPLEASANT PROFESSION of Nancy Grace. Well, it’s certainly unpleasant to me.

DIVORCE MODERNIZATION in the People’s Republic of China. “Since August 13th, when China’s Supreme People’s Court reinterpreted the country’s marriage law, many of the women leaving marriage registry offices like the one in Chaoyang have more than just the end of their marriages to bemoan. According to the new law, residential property is no longer to be regarded as jointly owned and divided equally in the event of a divorce. Instead, whoever paid for the apartment or house is the legal owner and gets to keep it in its entirety.”

REPORT: Rep. Darrell Issa Has Information That Will Link IRS Scandal Up Into the White House!

DAVID FREDDOSO: If You Believe Trayvon Was Attacked In Public, Your Crusade Against Stand Your Ground Is Especially Misguided. “George Zimmerman did not even attempt to put on a ‘Stand Your Ground’ defense, which should really settle the issue. One possible reason is that it would have been incompatible with his version of events. By his account — whether you buy it or not — Zimmerman had no opportunity to flee once he feared for his life, because he was pinned to the ground. No ‘duty to retreat’ would apply in such a situation. Rather, prosecutors had to prove that George Zimmerman was not really defending himself when he shot Trayvon Martin, or that he used disproportionate force. It was a difficult to case to prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.”

DAVE KOPEL: Successes In Colorado Sheriffs’ Second Amendment Case.

WELCOME TO the House Of Special Purpose.

ANNALS OF FREE SPEECH: Kentucky Wants To Censor A North Carolina Columnist.

AT AMAZON, top books in Business & Leadership.

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ROGER KIMBALL: Weaponizing The Acronyms That Rule Us.

VIDEO: Dana Loesch on the road to Damascus.

CONGRESS SHOULD PRE-EMPT: Don’t Blame Big Cable. It’s Local Governments That Choke Broadband Competition.

Despite public, political, and business interest in greater broadband deployment, not every American has high-speed internet access yet (let alone a choice of provider for really fast, high-capacity service). So who’s really to blame for strangling broadband competition?

While popular arguments focus on supposed “monopolists” such as big cable companies, it’s government that’s really to blame. Companies can make life harder for their competitors, but strangling the competition takes government.

Broadband policy discussions usually revolve around the U.S. government’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC), yet it’s really our local governments and public utilities that impose the most significant barriers to entry.

Read the whole thing.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Law Professors Enter A Time Of Consequences As ABA Fights To Preserve Their Status Quo.

SCIENCE MARCHES ON: Scientists power mobile phone using urine.

AT AMAZON, 60% Off On Clothing. For men, women, and kids.

IT’S MORE FUN THAN INVESTIGATING THE IRS, OR BENGHAZI: FBI Surveils Bikini Baristas.

IRS CHIEF COUNSEL INVOLVED IN TARGETING CONTROVERSY:

The chief counsel’s office for the Internal Revenue Service, headed by a political appointee of President Obama, helped develop the agency’s problematic guidelines for reviewing “tea party” cases, according to a top IRS attorney.

In interviews with congressional investigators, IRS lawyer Carter Hull said his superiors told him that the chief counsel’s office, led by William Wilkins, would need to review applications that the agency had screened for additional scrutiny because of potential political activity.

Previous accounts from IRS employees had shown that Washington IRS officials were involved in the controversy, but Hull’s comments represent the closest connection to the White House to date.

Read the whole thing.

RANKING the most liberal and conservative law firms. Note how heavily the overwhelming majority of big-firm lawyers lean Democrat.

SCIENCE: Finding Cancer Cells in the Blood: Technologies that can pull tumor cells from patients’ blood are giving researchers an unprecedented look at cancer.

A PACIFIC RIM RESPONSE: We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Robots: How the Pentagon Could Destroy All Monsters.

ANOTHER SELF-PUBLISHING SUCCESS STORY: Smart Teen Novel Launches Author’s Career — Even Though Publishers Said It Was “Too Intelligent.”

PRAGER UNIVERSITY: Three Types Of Forgiveness.