Hasta La Gadget!

At the moment the Apple Watch relies quite a bit on having a connection to the iPhone for quite a bit of its features. We suppose in a way it’s good because that encourages the purchase and dependency on more Apple products, but it’s also bad because it means that in terms of functionality, it isn’t quite as “free” as one would like.

That could change with the third-gen Apple Watch, or at least that’s according to Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Christopher Rolland who believes (via MacRumors) that the Apple Watch Series 3 could finally introduced cellular connectivity. This will come in the form of a SIM card slot where users could purchase LTE data plans for use with the device.

According to Rolland, “We understand a model of the next Apple watch will include a SIM card, and therefore is likely to support LTE. We understand some issues remain, including battery life and form factor size, but significant progress has been made. Apple may be employing VOIP and data across a CAT-M1 connection for superior battery life.”

He also claims that this connectivity will also mean that Apple will try to promote the Apple Watch alongside the AirPods to make and receive phone calls. Whether or not his predictions will come true remains to be seen, but we have seen LTE-enabled smartwatches before so we guess this shouldn’t really come as a surprise.

Third-Gen Apple Watch Could Finally Include Cellular Connectivity , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Residents of Lewiston, New York, were upset last week to find that someone had dropped 10 to 20 “white lives matter” fliers on properties in the area. The leaflets contained anti-immigrant messages, as well as false statistics about crime and race similar to the ones Donald Trump retweeted to his millions of followers in 2015.

The controversy was a big enough deal that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) decided to weigh in, because the racist literature contradicted “all that we stand for as New Yorkers,” he said.

Well, local TV station WKBW tracked down the person responsible so he could “set the record straight,” and the interview went pretty much exactly how you’d expect.

“There’s been misrepresentations of what was on those flyers and why they were passed out in the area they were passed out in,” the man, Scott Lacy, told the station.

Lacy went on to claim that his statistics, which appear to be copied and pasted from white supremacist sources, were factual and definitely not “fabricated out of the blue.” And he said he was really just sharing them to “raise awareness with whites about the plight our people face in this country.”

At that point in the conversation, you’d expect Lacy to start in with the “I’m not racist, but…” bullshit. What he did instead was at least refreshingly honest.

“I consider myself a racist,” said Lacy. “But not because I believe in hatred towards anybody else ― it’s because I love my own people.”

And there you have it. “White lives matter” ― the rallying cry for racist white people who believe you should only love other white people, because racism.

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NEW YORK ― If the Trump administration follows through on a promise to strip federal funding from so-called sanctuary cities, New York City will take the fight to court, City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito (D) said Monday.

Mark-Viverito and officials from more than 30 cities began a two-day summit on immigration policy as Attorney General Jeff Sessions told reporters in Washington his department would soon follow through on a promise to attack funding for cities that don’t fully cooperate with deportation efforts.  

Mark-Viverito said it was “really sad” and “extremely irresponsible” for President Donald Trump to endanger security for a campaign promise ― although not entirely surprising. She pledged that New York wouldn’t be coerced by the threats.  

“Our laws are legal,” Mark-Viverito told reporters after speaking at the summit. “We have the right as a municipality to enact them. And we will defend them, even if that means a lawsuit.”

Trump ― fresh off a string of political setbacks on Obamacare and his travel ban ― dispatched Sessions to reiterate a promise he made in January to punish localities that don’t comply with federal efforts on immigration. The policy wasn’t new, but the threat was more specific. And it set up what will likely be a defining legal battle over whether the federal government can use funds to coerce local governments.

Sessions said the Justice Department will require all jurisdictions seeking federal grants to certify that they are complying with federal law that they must not keep information from federal immigration enforcement agencies. He said the department will also “ take all lawful steps to claw back” funds from jurisdictions that willfully violate the law. Sessions attached the threat to more than $4.1 billion in Justice Department grants this fiscal year.

“I urge our nation’s states and cities to consider carefully the harm they are doing to their citizens by refusing to enforce our immigration laws, and to re-think these policies,” Sessions said. “Such policies make their cities and states less safe, and put them at risk of losing valuable federal dollars.”

State governments ― often Republican-led ― have attempted to crack down on “sanctuary” policies as well. On Monday, Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) signed a law banning local policies that limit cooperation with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Texas state lawmakers aim to do the same.

But some municipalities have pledged to fight, saying the law grants them the right to make their own decisions about the intricacies of their cooperation with deportation efforts.

Legal experts, immigration advocates and local governments supportive of sanctuary-city policies charge that the president and attorney general can’t twist the arm of non-cooperating jurisdictions without violating the Constitution ― although it might not stop them from trying. Longstanding Supreme Court precedent has made clear that only Congress can condition federal funding to states and localities, and it must do so very clearly. Anything less risks violating the 10th Amendment.

It should be the mantra: What we’re doing is legal, what they’re doing is not.
Lourdes Rosado, Civil Rights Bureau at Office of the Attorney General of New York State

It’s possible to simultaneously follow the law to provide information to ICE and maintain sanctuary policies, Lourdes Rosado, who leads the Civil Rights Bureau at the New York state attorney general’s office, said at the summit. In January, the attorney general’s office released guidance for local officials on how to enact policies that are within the bounds of the law.

Experts said most sanctuary policies are within the bounds of the law. Law enforcement agencies routinely provide ICE with secondhand information, because they send fingerprints to the FBI, which shares the information with immigration agents. Local law enforcement agencies also routinely allow ICE to pick people up from jails.

However, under most sanctuary policies, local law enforcement declines ICE requests to hold certain individuals for extra time if they would otherwise release them. Supporters of those policies say they help maintain trust between police and immigrant communities, save taxpayer money and prevent costly lawsuits over unconstitutionally detaining people without a warrant.

Rosado said the federal government “can’t make us spend money to do their dirty work.” Efforts to force jurisdictions to change their policies, whether from the federal government or disapproving state governments, should not cause local officials to lose confidence in what they’re doing, she said.

“It should be the mantra: What we’re doing is legal, what they’re doing is not,” Rosado said.

But that doesn’t mean local officials will hold firm if they fear losing funding or angering constituents. The day after Trump signed his executive order on sanctuary cities, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Giménez (R) instructed jails to hold individuals on ICE request, even if they would otherwise release them.

Giménez’s order reversed a policy adopted in 2013 that county officials said saved hundreds of thousands of dollars. A federal judge rebuked the county for that policy change this month, saying Trump’s executive order effectively coerced the county into doing his bidding.

There’s also a risk that the federal government could retaliate in other ways, Michael Wishnie, director of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School, said at the summit. He has been involved in other litigation against the federal government over immigration, including a 2009 lawsuit over ICE raids in New Haven, Connecticut, after the city approved municipal identification cards that would be available to undocumented immigrants. The plaintiffs alleged those arrests were made in retaliation. Ultimately, the government agreed to a $350,000 settlement that halted deportation for some of those arrested.  

Wishnie told the local officials and advocates that they would prevail if they stuck to their lawful policies and banded together.

“There’s no guarantee they won’t try, but they know that when they retaliate, they pay,” Wishnie said. “And they can try to punish individual members of the community for the collective decision of the elected officials and try to take it out on a handful of people, but when the community surrounds those people and defends those who bear the burden of that retaliation, they can’t touch us.”

Cristian Farias contributed reporting.

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WASHINGTON, March 27 (Reuters) – The United States is considering deepening its role in Yemen’s conflict by more directly aiding its Gulf allies battling Iran-aligned Houthi rebels, officials say, potentially relaxing a U.S. policy that limited American support.

The review of potential new U.S. assistance, which includes intelligence support, would come amid increasing evidence that Iran is sending advanced weapons and military advisers to the Houthi movement, a Shi’ite ally.

Any elevation in U.S. support could be seen as a sign that President Donald Trump’s administration has made confronting Iran and its allies an early priority.

For the moment, however, any increase in direct U.S. assistance may be restricted to non-lethal measures and there was no sign the United States was considering waging strikes on Houthi targets, for example.

Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, increasingly sought to limit U.S. ties to the civil war in Yemen and his administration became unnerved by civilian casualties caused by the Saudi-led coalition, which have come under intense international scrutiny.

Yemen’s conflict has claimed the lives of more than 10,000 people and pushed the impoverished country to the brink of famine.

Critics of U.S. participation in the conflict, which has included arms sales to Saudi Arabia and refueling of Saudi-led coalition jets, say Washington carries some of the blame for the civilian fallout.

“The U.S. should not escalate our military involvement in a civil war in Yemen halfway around the world without any explanation by the president of what we are doing there and what is our strategy,” said Representative Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California and a longtime advocate in Congress for a suspension of U.S. cooperation with the Saudi-led coalition.

MEMO FROM MATTIS

Trump’s defense secretary, Jim Mattis, wrote a March memo to the White House advocating limited support for operations by Gulf partners, officials told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

One of the officials said the United States was examining offering the United Arab Emirates, for example, U.S. intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets and information sharing.

The memo was first reported by the Washington Post and comes amid a broader U.S. review into its policy in Yemen, which for years has been seen almost entirely seen through the prism of America’s fight against al Qaeda.

Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, has taken advantage of Yemen’s war pitting the Houthis against the Saudi-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to try to broaden its wealth and power.

Iran rejects accusations from Saudi Arabia that it is giving financial and military support to the Houthis in the struggle for Yemen, blaming the deepening crisis on Riyadh.

But Iran’s role in Yemen has increasingly been the focus of U.S. policymakers since the United States struck Houthi targets with cruise missiles in October in retaliation for failed missile attacks on a U.S. Navy destroyer.

U.S. officials say the Houthis have benefited from Iranian-provided know-how and weaponry, including ballistic missiles.

The proposed U.S. support could allow America to aid an eventual push on the western port city of Hodeidah, which is under the control of the Houthis.

It is near the Bab al-Mandab strait, a strategic waterway through which nearly 4 million barrels of oil are shipped daily.

Obama’s administration was long wary of operations involving the port, given its strategic importance as a vital gateway for humanitarian supplies, and last year rejected a proposal to assist its Gulf allies in a push for the port.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by James Dalgleish)

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The bachelorette party should be a fun, celebratory weekend for the bride and her best friends.

Unfortunately, things don’t always go as planned. Below, 10 people on the secret-sharing app Whisper get honest about their bachelorette party experiences. 

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