FBI wants local police, prosecutors to link into national DNA database

The FBI wants to link DNA-reading machines in police stations across the country into a federal database. That way, suspects' DNA can be checked to see if they are connected to any other crimes, the Washington Post reported.

The database is called CODIS, which stands for which stands for Combined DNA Index System. Through the system, a Rapid DNA machine — about the size of a large desktop printer — can analyze DNA in about two hours, according to the report. Normally, that process can take days or weeks.

Some local police departments and prosecutors have been using the machines to help solve crimes for about five years. But this would mark the first time the machines are connected to a national database.

What is the reason?

Back in 2015, then-FBI Director James Comey told Congress the technology "would help us change the world in a very, very exciting way." He also said it would allow "booking stations around the country, if someone's arrested, to know instantly — or near instantly — whether that person is the rapist who's been on the loose in a particular community before they're released on bail and get away or to clear somebody, to show that they're not the person."

In addition to the federal government, 30 states currently allow the collection of DNA at the time of arrest, according to the report. In 16 states, the data can be analyzed immediately. And in 14 states, a DNA sample may be collected at the time of arrest, but would not be analyzed until after an arraignment on charges.

CODIS would allow the identification of more crime suspects. It would also reduce the burden on crime labs and the time investigators spend waiting for DNA results.

When is this being rolled out?

Last year, Congress approved legislation to authorize the Rapid DNA network. The FBI plans to begin rolling it out slowly in 2019, according to the report.

"Our goal in 2019 is to be able to have a pilot project done where we actually develop a DNA profile in a booking station, with no human review, and have it electronically enrolled and searched in the national database," Thomas Callaghan, chief biometric scientist for the FBI Laboratory, told the news outlet. "We have to ensure that the quality that's done in a lab can be done in a booking station."

https://www.theblaze.com/news/fbi-national-dna-database

>>4299423

I believe they are trying to set in place arrangements to cover what they have already done illegally

FBI Violated Policy in Flynn’s Case, Judge Demands All Exculpatory Evidence

A federal judge overseeing the case of Former National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn is demanding to see the FBI’s first interviews with the retired three-star general after explosive information contained in a sentencing memo released Tuesday night revealed that senior FBI leadership suggested he not have a lawyer present, nor warn him that his interview was subject to penalties if he failed to provide all the answers, according to the 178 page Defendants memorandum submitted to the court.

U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan ordered Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s office Wednesday night to turn over all the government’s documents by mid-day Friday. The exculpatory documents requested by Sullivan include any memorandums regarding Flynn’s case because of the extraordinary circumstances of the information, according to Sullivan’s request. Further, Sullivan is also requesting any documentation regarding the first interviews conducted by former anti-Trump agent Peter Strzok and FBI Agent Joe Pientka -known by the FBI as 302s- which were found to be dated more than seven months after the interviews were conducted on Jan. 24, 2017, a violation of FBI policy, say current and former FBI officials familiar with the process. According to information contained in Flynn’s memorandum, the interviews were dated Aug. 22, 2017.

Anything beyond five business days is a problem, eight months is a disaster.

FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jeff Danik told SaraACarter.com Sullivan must also request all the communications between the two agents, as well as their supervisors around the August 2017 time-frame in order to get a complete and accurate picture of what transpired. Danik, who is an expert in FBI policy, says it is imperative that Sullivan also request “the workflow chart, which would show one-hundred percent, when the 302s were created when they were sent to a supervisor and who approved them.”

“The bureau policy – the absolute FBI policy – is that the notes must be placed in the system in a 1-A file within five days of the interview,” said Danik, who added that handwritten notes get placed into the FBI Sentinel System, which is the FBI’s main record keeping system. “Anything beyond five business days is a problem, eight months is a disaster.”

“In a case of this magnitude there is no question what is going on,” said Danik. “These agents went in the White House and had a case with a possible witness of his stature and didn’t write it up until almost eight months later? That is is unconscionable – it’s not fair to the defendant and absolutely goes against FBI policy.”

Problems and concerns regarding the 302 interview conducted with Flynn was first reported by this reporter in December, 2017, when a former U.S. intelligence official revealed that “the recent revelation that Strzok was removed from the Special Counsel investigation for making anti-Trump text messages it seems likely that the accuracy and veracity of the 302 of Flynn’s interview as a whole should be reviewed and called into question.”

https://saraacarter.com/fbi-violated-policy-in-flynns-case-judge-demands-all-exculpatory-evidence/

Researchers confirm excessive screen time can irreversibly harm kids’ brains

Digital devices and other electronics are at the top of many kids’ wish lists this holiday season. If you’re considering upgrading your teenager’s cellphone or getting your preschooler their first tablet, you might want to keep in mind the early results of a groundbreaking study that confirms many parents’ fears about the effects of all that screen time.

The preliminary results are in on a huge study carried out by the National Institutes of Health. The $300 million project known as the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study enrolled 11,874 children aged 9 and 10, 2,100 of which are twins or triplets. The study will follow the children throughout young adulthood at 21 research sites in the U.S.

Although not all of the data are available yet, the early results are as insightful as they are alarming. Just as many experts and parents alike have long suspected, all that screen time is impacting not only children’s mental health and emotional development, but it’s changing the physical structure of their brains.

Not surprisingly, the researchers discovered that children who spend more than two hours per day in front of screens get lower scores on thinking and language tests. Teenagers, by the way, spend 4.5 hours, on average, with their mobile phones each day. That finding should be enough to give most parents pause, but the situation is even more serious for those who spend more than seven hours per day in front of a screen.

MRIs of these children showed a premature thinning of the outermost layer in the brain, the cortex, when compared to their peers who don’t use as much technology. The cortex is responsible for sensory input and the type of higher-order functions that make us humans.

https://www.naturalnews.com/2018-12-13-excessive-screen-time-harm-kids-brains.html