By Steve Neavling

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner surprised many people this week when he issued licenses to 70 medical marijuana businesses before they would have to undergo criminal background checks as required by state law, The Associated Press reports.

Rauner said he began issuing the licenses because patients shouldn’t have to wait any longer following the mishandling of the licensing process under former Gov. Pat Quinn.

Once the FBI authorizes the use of its criminal history checks, Rauner said the businesses that have been issued licenses would still be subjected to the background checks.

Illinois’ medical marijuana law excludes anyone with a violent crime or drug felony.

istock photo

A Border Patrol agent opened fire on a car in Texas after the driver tried to run him over Thursday night during a surveillance sting, ValleyCentral.com reports.

Border Patrol agents approached two suspects while conducting surveillance in McAllen. When the federal agents identified themselves, authorities said the car tried to run over one of the agents.

An agent fired a weapon at the car and apprehended the passenger.

The driver managed to flee.

More information about the incident is expected to be released today.

By Steve Neavling

When it comes to drones, it’s safe to say that law enforcement has looked the other way on many occasions.

Not this time.

A man accused of operating a drone that crash landed at the White House last week may be charged for violating national defense airspace, CNN reports.

The flyer, Shawn Usman, said he was trying to fly the drone just outside of his friend’s apartment when it inexplicably took off took the White House.

“Many of the public reports of his actions with respect to this incident are inaccurate,” his attorney Jim Garland said in a statement. “He has cooperated fully with the Secret Service’s investigation and looks forward to putting this unfortunate episode behind him.”

Federal law prohibits the flying of drones in Washington.

Federal investigators are trying to determine whether charges are warranted.

By Steve Neavling

A license-plate scanning system designed to combat drug trafficking and other crimes has raised serious privacy questions because of the technology’s ability to snap photographs of drivers and their passengers, the ACLU said, reports Bloomberg.

The concern is that authorities will combine the photographs with facial-recognition software.

“This adds a whole other dimension to what is already a very significant surveillance infrastructure,” Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst for the ACLU, said in an interview. “Facial recognition software holds the potential to super charge this kind of system. We haven’t seen anything like a nationwide systematic infrastructure snapping photographs of Americans as they go about their lives, and this is what this appears it can turn into.”

Records obtained by the ACLU found that the license-plate database had more than 343 million records.

“An automatic license plate reader cannot distinguish between people transporting illegal guns and those transporting legal guns, or no guns at all; it only documents the presence of any car driving to the event,” the ACLU said in a blog post last month. “Mere attendance at a gun show, it appeared, would have been enough to have one’s presence noted in a DEA database.”

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