CIVIL LIBERTIES

64% OF AMERICANS USE THE WORD 'FUCK' BUT FCC STILL THINKS IT KNOWS
BETTER

AP - Nearly three-quarters of Americans questioned last week - 74
percent - said they encounter profanity in public frequently or
occasionally, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll. Two-thirds
said they think people swear more than they did 20 years ago. And as
for, well, the gold standard of foul words, a healthy 64 percent said
they use the F-word - ranging from several times a day (8 percent) to a
few times a year (15 percent).

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12063093/

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ALASKAN TOWN HAS ONE SPY CAM FOR EVERY 30 CITIZENS

TOMAS ALEX TIZON, TIMES - From Anchorage it takes 90 minutes on a
propeller plane to reach this fishing village on the state's
southwestern edge, a place where some people still make raincoats out of
walrus intestine. This is the Alaskan bush at its most remote. Here,
tundra meets sea, and sea turns to ice for half the year. Scattered,
almost hidden, in the terrain are some of the most isolated communities
on American soil. People choose to live in outposts like Dillingham
(pop. 2,400) for that reason: to be left alone.

So eyebrows were raised in January when the first surveillance cameras
went up on Main Street. Each camera is a shiny white metallic box with
two lenses like eyes. The camera's shape and design resemble a robot's
head. . .

By mid-February, more than 60 cameras watched over the town, and the
Dillingham Police Department plans to install 20 more - all purchased
through a $202,000 Homeland Security grant meant primarily to defend
against a terrorist attack. Now the residents of this far-flung village
have become, in one sense, among the most watched people in the land,
with - as former Mayor Freeman Roberts puts it - "one camera for every
30 residents."

Roberts, mayor of Dillingham from 1972 to 1978, says the cameras
constitute an invasion of privacy, and beyond that, they're just plain
creepy. He scratched together a petition demanding removal of the
cameras and collected 219 signatures within days. He carries the ragged
sheaf of names next to him in the truck. The City Council, which
supports the cameras, threw out the petition, claiming Roberts did not
follow the law, which requires that the signatories be registered
voters. Now Roberts is working with others to put together a legal
petition to force the issue on the October ballot.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-secure28mar28,0,3284078.story?col
l=la-home-headlines