The Obama administration wants to make the Internet wiretap-ready. The justification for the planned expansive legislation is that law enforcement just needs to be able to keep up with technology. The impact of the legislation, if passed, would give the government back-door access to electronic communications such as e-mails, messages on social media sites such as Facebook, and even encrypted messages.

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The Hartford Police Department, already under investigation for officers’ possible use of excessive force, is facing a new charge connected to an incident that happened earlier this month. The Valley News has reported that a 37-year-old woman alleges a Hartford officer pushed her headfirst into the pavement outside a local motel where she was staying. Bleeding, apparently unconscious, she was handcuffed by police before being taken to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. She spent two weeks in and out of the hospital, the Valley News said, with a concussion, bruised ribs, and a partially collapsed lung. She has been cited to appear in court on a disorderly conduct charge.

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Hartford officials will tell a judge Monday that if police arrive at your door with guns drawn, pepper-spray and handcuff you, and drag you out of your own home, that you haven’t been arrested. You’ve only been taken into “temporary custody.”

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Last week David Blumenthal, the Obama administration’s point person on e-medical records, was in Vermont for a medical records conference. He also gave a radio interview, and he said two things that stuck out.

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U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder paid a visit to Vermont on Friday. He spoke at a conference in Montpelier on “Opiate Drug Abuse,” and wished Vermont troops departing for Afghanistan well. It’s an honor for the head of the U.S. Justice Department to be here. But a number of people wondered, might Attorney General Holder comment on the decision the Obama administration won this week from the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals in California on extraordinary rendition?

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We’re not at war with the Islamic faith — but that’s what the Dove Outreach Center in Gainesville, Fla., would have you believe as members move forward with plans to burn copies of the Quran on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.

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