March Newsbytes #4

By: Staff Writer Didi Wu

Local: San Jose police ready to begin testing body cameras and drone use

The San Jose Police Department (SJPD) recently set plans to pilot-test and integrate body cameras and one drone for police use. The department hopes to begin testing the cameras in September and formally implement them in a year. According to the San Jose Mercury News, Independent Police Auditor LaDoris H. Cordell gave her support, saying, “We need body cameras and protocols, and we need them now.” In memos to San Jose’s City Council, SJPD said the drone will provide remote viewing in dangerous situations. SJPD also reassured citizens drone footage will be not be archived and only used for general surveillance.

 

National: Secret Service seeks to build replica White House

Director of the Secret Service Joseph P. Clancy testified before the House Appropriations Committee, on Tuesday, March 17, asking for $8 million to construct a detailed replica of the White House. After an intruder climbed a fence around the White House, raising concerns over security, a panel dedicated to formulating ideas for preventing further breaches wrote a report saying, “A security team should also be trained so that it is intimately familiar with the space in which it is operating.” Clancy argues it is important to have this replica so that agents and tactical teams can obtain more realistic training and better protect the White House.

 

International: Venezuela-funded advertisement, “Letter to the people of the United States: Venezuela is not a threat”, published in US press

Through an advertisement published in the New York Times, Venezuela’s foreign ministry demanded President Barack Obama retract an executive order declaring Venezuela a threat to US security and remove sanctions imposed on seven Venezuelan officials. The advertisement, published on March 17, argues the sanctions are an attack on Venezuelan sovereignty, saying, “Never before in the history of our nations, has a president of the [US] attempted to govern Venezuela by decree.” The executive order, issued March 9, accused the Venezuelan officials in question of public corruption and human rights violations.

 

Quirky: Scientists rethinking possibilities of life on other worlds

By observing Ganymede’s, Jupiter’s moon, magnetic field, NASA confirmed that the moon contains an ocean below its frozen surface on Thursday, March 12. Ganymede is the latest in a group of three moons who have been found to hold liquid water far past the Goldilocks zone, a narrow space that is not too far or too close to the Sun. In the past, astronomers have theorized that factors other than proximity to the Sun contribute to temperatures that allow the formation of liquid water. As evidence accumulates, scientists are reconsidering where and how they will look for life in our solar system and beyond.