Federal agents showed up at the Cleveland office of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative on Thursday and spent hours questioning staff, said Prentiss Haney, a board member of the grassroots organization.

Agents seized phones and laptops of Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a group that does voter registration work

The FBI raided the office of a voting rights group in Ohio on Thursday, prompting immediate concerns the Trump administration is cracking down on such organizations ahead of the midterm elections.

FBI agents raided the Cleveland office of the Ohio Organizing Collaborative, a grassroots group that does voter registration work, said Prentiss Haney, a board member of the group. Agents seized computers and phones, he said, and also showed up at homes of people affiliated with the group throughout the state and interviewed them.

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© Photograph: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

Police released photos of person of interest in Tuesday’s cross burning, often linked to white supremacy and racism

Chicago authorities are searching for a suspect after a cross was burned in Grant Park earlier this week.

At about 2.30pm on Tuesday, Chicago’s fire department responded to reports of a cross set ablaze in the park. No injuries were reported and firefighters quickly extinguished the flames.

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© Photograph: Keinika Carlton/AP

© Photograph: Keinika Carlton/AP

© Photograph: Keinika Carlton/AP

FBI Director Kash Patel says his agency is making terrorist attack prevention its top job during the FIFA World Cup games, which kick off Thursday afternoon.  “Extremists have used major global sporting events in the past to do harm and spread their twisted ideologies,” Patel wrote in a Wednesday social media post. “We are totally…

FBI Director Kash Patel says his agency is making terrorist attack prevention its top job during the FIFA World Cup games, which kick off Thursday afternoon.  “Extremists have used major global sporting events in the past to do harm and spread their twisted ideologies,” Patel wrote in a Wednesday social media post. “We are totally…

President Donald Trump was displeased with the outcome of the California primary elections. Convinced his intervention was decisive, he insists that without the pressure he exerted in recent days on behalf of the Republican candidate for governor, Steve Hilton, he would not have advanced to the November runoff, where he will face the candidate backed by the Democratic establishment, Xavier Becerra. “But the only reason they approved Steve Hilton, it was going to be two weeks, they said. And then they approved it that night because the heat was on them because they’re cheating dogs,” the president said Wednesday from the Oval Office.

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© AARON SCHWARTZ / POOL (EFE)

Chemical tank overheated in May and forced evacuation of 50,000 nearby residents due to danger of explosion

The FBI is searching a southern California aerospace facility where an overheated chemical tank forced 50,000 residents to evacuate last month, after federal authorities served a search warrant there on Wednesday.

Signed by a federal judge last week, the warrant approved the seizure of records related to the “storage, use or disposal” of methyl methacrylate, the chemical stored inside the tank that authorities feared could explode.

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© Photograph: Ethan Swope/AP

© Photograph: Ethan Swope/AP

© Photograph: Ethan Swope/AP

The warrant signed by a federal judge last week approved the seizure of documents and records related to the "storage, use, or disposal" of methyl methacrylate, the chemical inside the affected tank.

Pulte or no Pulte, renewal of Section 702 will be an uphill battle unless Republican leaders allow votes on genuine reform. 

Pulte or no Pulte, renewal of Section 702 will be an uphill battle unless Republican leaders allow votes on genuine reform. 

by Anthony Kimery | Biometric Update America’s surveillance architecture has grown from an opaque counterterrorism framework into a complex and far-reaching system with deep implications for civil liberties. The federal government’s expanding use of facial recognition, AI, and data aggregation tools has prompted urgent concerns among civil rights advocates, legal scholars, technologists, and lawmakers. And their message is clear: without stronger oversight, warrant requirements and transparency, the very technologies deployed in the name of safety may become the greatest threat to Americans’ freedoms. Last year, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights detailed in a 194-page report how federal agencies are […]