Real estate certainly has its risks and fraud is a growing problem, but now there's a new law that's supposed to protect buyers. As CBS 2's Mike Puccinelli reports the new law will also place an unusual burden on the seller.

Fingerprinting is something we often associate with crime. So the fact that Cook County home sellers will soon have to provide a thumb print left some people shocked.

Republican politicians on Thursday called for a sweeping new federal law that would require all Internet providers and operators of millions of Wi-Fi access points, even hotels, local coffee shops, and home users, to keep records about users for two years to aid police investigations.

The legislation, which echoes a measure proposed by one of their Democratic colleagues three years ago, would impose unprecedented data retention requirements on a broad swath of Internet access providers and is certain to draw fire from businesses and privacy advocates.

Napolitano debates Real ID
Will examine alternatives to driver's licenses

The Washington Times
Audrey Hudson
Friday, February 20, 2009

As governor of Arizona, Janet Napolitano was no fan of the Real ID program that sets federal standards for state-issued driver's licenses which will be required in the future to board airplanes.

Executive Order: Further Amendments to Executive Orders 12139 and 12949 in Light of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/10/20081007-7.html

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including sections 104 and 303 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1801 et seq.), as amended by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-261), it is hereby ordered as follows:

by Declan McCullagh

The U.S. Senate is investigating allegations by two National Security Agency whistleblowers who have described widespread monitoring of innocuous telephone conversations by the Bush administration's clandestine program.

From our friends at Fairfax County Privacy Council:

Norfolk police step on it again on Fourth Amendment privacy
In an interesting article at http://hamptonroads.com/2008/10/norfolk-police-clashes-fires-gun-rights-... the Norfolk police defend an apparent custom and practice to seize people not suspected of any crime in violation of the Fourth Amendment merely because somebody calls 911 and “requests service.”

SNIP

But when state police start entering pharmacies to get full prescribing
records of anyone taking a Schedule II controlled substance like
Oxycontin-- as the Green Mountain Daily blog [hat tip to Daily Kos]