California Abruptly Drops Plan to Implant RFID Chips in Driver’s Licenses

As reported by Wired: Following complaints from privacy groups, California lawmakers on Friday suspended legislation to embed radio-frequency identification chips, or RFIDs, in its driver’s licenses and state identification cards.

The legislation, S.B. 397,  was put on hold by the state Assembly Appropriations Committee, despite it having been approved by the California Senate, where it likely will be re-introduced in the coming months. Had the measure passed, it would have transformed the Sunshine State’s standard form of ID into one of the most sophisticated identification documents in the country, mirroring the four other states that have embraced the spy-friendly technology.

Radio-frequency identification devices already are a daily part of the electronic age — found in passports, library and payment cards, school identification cards and eventually are expected to replace bar-code labels on consumer goods.

Michigan, New York, Vermont and Washington have already begun embedding drivers licenses with the tiny transceivers, and linking them to a national database — complete with head shots — controlled by the Department of Homeland Security. The enhanced cards can be used to re-enter the U.S. at a land border without a passport.

Privacy advocates worry that, if more states begin embracing RFID, the licenses could become mandatory nationwide and evolve into a government-run surveillance tool to track the public’s movements.

The IDs are the offspring of the 2009 Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative requiring travelers to show passports when they cross the U.S. border of Canada and Mexico. Those carrying the EDL “Enhanced Drivers License” or an “enhanced” state ID, do not have to display a passport when traveling across the country’s government-run land borders.

The RFID-enabled card would have been optional under the California measure. It was aimed in particular at Californians who make frequent visits to Mexico, and want to ease their return back into the U.S.

“It’s not difficult to imagine a time when the EDL programs cease to be optional—and when EDLs contain information well beyond a picture, a signature, and citizenship status. The government also tends to expand programs far beyond their original purpose,” writes Jim Harper, the Cato Institute’s director of information policy studies. “Californians should not walk — they should run away from ‘enhanced’ drivers licenses.”

According to DHS, about 95 percent of land-border crossings are equipped with RFID-reading technology, making it easy for Customs Border Patrol officials to know who you are. The RFID chip “will signal a secure system to pull up your biographic and biometrics data for the CBP officer as you approach the border inspection booth,” the DHS says.

“An individual that does not understand the privacy and security risks of an Enhanced Driver’s License (EDL) might think, ‘Why not get an one so that I can use it to drive and also cross the border?’ It seems like common sense,” said Nicole Ozer, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer. “But the cost to privacy and security far outweighs any benefits. If you carry one of these licenses in your wallet or purse, you can be tracked and stalked without your knowledge or consent.”

Sen. Ben Hueso, a Democrat whose district touches the Mexican border, maintains the legislation he sponsored makes both financial and security sense.

“Enhanced Driver’s Licenses can provide a significant economic benefit to the state of California, while strengthening border security,” he wrote in a press release last May. “They will greatly reduce wait times at the border thereby incentivizing economic development in our border region.”

The California measure’s shortcomings, among other things, was that it did not prevent state law enforcement officials from eventually tapping into the chips.

Law enforcement already monitors drivers’ whereabouts via the mass deployment of license-plate readers. But the ability to scan for identification cards in public areas could evolve into another surveillance tool.

As the “Identity Project” sees it:

Logs of citizens’ border crossings and movements through non-border checkpoints are obviously of interest to the Feds and their state and local law enforcement partners, especially in conjunction with logs of vehicle movements obtained from automated license-plate readers. Cops don’t need to ask, ‘Can I see some ID?’ when, from outside your vehicle, they can obtain the EDL chip number and corresponding lifetime DHS travel history of every occupant of the vehicle. And as more people carry EDLs, how soon will not broadcasting your ID number be deemed sufficiently suspicious to justify detention, search, or interrogation?

To be sure, the Orwellian nature of these new IDs is — to an extent — speculation.

For the moment, the DHS says that “No personally identifiable information is stored on the card’s RFID chip.” The DHS said “The card uses a unique identification number that links to information contained in a secure Department of Homeland Security database.”

But things could easily change. Government-issued cards routinely evolve away from their original purpose.

Consider the Social Security card. It was created to track your government retirement benefits. Now you need it to purchase health insurance and even obtain employment.

Predator UAV Provides Surveillance in Battle Against Yosemite Fire

The MQ-1 Predator assigned to the 163rd Reconnaissance Wing
flies over Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, CA.

As reported by Inside GNSS: Better known for supporting U.S. troops in firefights in Afghanistan firefights, a Predator drone has been deployed to help the California National Guard fightfighters battle wildfires raging around Yosemite National Park.

U.S. Department of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel approved the use of a GPS-guided MQ-1 Predator to support firefighters battling the Rim Fire that has expanded to more than 160,000 acres, according to Air Force Lt. Col. Thomas Keegan, California National Guard public affairs officer.

The UAV, built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., is guided by an integrated GPS/inertial navigation system.

The California Air National Guard’s 163rd Reconnaissance Wing deployed the Predator last Wednesday (August 28, 2013) in direct support of the fire incident commander under the command and control of Army Maj. Gen. David S. Baldwin, California’s adjutant general, Keegan said.

Flying from the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville for up to 22 hours without landing, the Predator is capturing and delivering real-time information on remote portions of the wildfire. The UAV is equipped with infrared heat sensors and a rotating camera operated by a remote pilot.

“The impact of this will be significant,” Keegan said. “It will identify where fire activity is located and how it is moving, as well as where it has been controlled.”

The aircraft also will identify safe routes of retreat for firefighters on the scene privacy concerns raised recently over domestic drone operations, Keegan emphasized that the images will be used only to support firefighting operations.

NASA satellite photo shows northward drift of smoke from
wildfires near Yosemite National Park.

and verify new fire created by lightning strikes or floating embers. Perhaps sensitive to

The aircraft’s pilots, located at March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, Calif., will remain in constant contact with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic controllers from takeoff to landing and fly over unpopulated areas whenever possible, he said. The flight path generally will be limited to 30 nautical miles of the Rim Fire area, and whenever it flies outside the restricted airspace for the fire, a manned plane will escort it.

The FAA is responsible for issuing permits for domestic use of UAVs on a case-by-case basis, including for the California fire operations. Meanwhile, the agency is leading a congressionally mandated initiative designed to allow expanded civil use of UAVs in the domestic air space.

Meanwhile, nearly a dozen aircraft and crews from the California Air and Army National Guard are battling wildfires across Northern California.

California Army Guard helicopter crews and California Air Guard air tanker crews are working in coordination with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and U.S. Forest Service firefighting crews to battle the American, Swedes and Rim fires, Keegan reported.

Two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters supporting operations at the Rim Fire. The helicopter crews have completed 905 drops, releasing more than 450,000 gallons of water and fire retardant since the crews were activated August 17, Keegan said.

In addition, Air National Guard crews are using two C-130J Hercules air tankers to fight the Rim Fire. Both aircraft are equipped with the Modular Airborne Firefighting Systems II and are capable of discharging 3,000 gallons of water or retardant in less than five seconds. Since their activation Aug. 13, the air tankers have completed 122 drops, releasing more than 333,000 gallons of retardant, Keegan said.

The Rim Fire is not the first in which California has used remotely piloted aircraft technology to support firefighting. In 2007, NASA piloted a similar unmanned aircraft in response to a request from the California Office of Emergency Services and the National Interagency Fire Center.

Those flights were conducted during daytime hours, complemented by nighttime imaging flights from NIFC’s Cessna Citation and an Air Force Global Hawk, both equipped with an earlier-generation infrared camera. Pilots in a ground control station at NASA Dryden controlled the flights via satellite links.

NASA conducted additional remotely piloted aircraft missions in 2008, to monitor wildfires in Southern California, and in 2009, to assess fire damage in Angeles National Forest. The current mission, officials said, is the longest sustained mission by an unmanned aircraft in California in support of firefighters.

Trucker Shortage Worsens As Energy Sector Booms

The trucking industry employs about 3 million people, but is
short about 30,000 drivers - a number which could significantly
increase in coming years.

As reported by NPR: When goods arrive in Houston, they may come in containers stacked high on huge ships or strung out on long lines of rail cars. But to get to the customer, those goods need to be put on trucks and driven to their final destinations.

And now with the oil and gas sectors booming, the demand for truckers is soaring. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says oil delivered to refineries by trucks shot up 38 percent between 2011 and 2012.

But while the need for truckers is growing, the ranks of well-trained drivers are shrinking as baby boomers hit retirement age.

"The driver pool is aging, and there are not enough young drivers coming out of truck-driving school to replace those drivers, at the same time that the demand for freight is increasing," said Brian Fielkow, president of Jetco Delivery, a Houston-based trucking company.

The American Trucking Association says about 3 million truckers are on the nation's roads today, but companies need about 30,000 more. And that shortage may balloon in coming years as the boomer-retirement wave slams into the energy-sector surge.

The trade association's latest figures show competition for drivers has become ferocious, causing truckers to flip from one employer to another. The most recent report shows the annual turnover rate among truckers is 97 percent.

With competition intense, earnings have been improving for truckers. James Stone, who has spent the past decade servicing firefighting equipment, wants to get into the field. He is studying for his commercial truck driver's license at San Jacinto College in Pasadena, Texas.

"From checking with various carriers out there, entry-level [pay] is probably going to be in the range of realistically $40,000 annually, possibly up to $50,000. And then beyond that, it can get up [to] $60,000, $70,000, $80,000 a year," Stone said.

"I've had one company told me it's not a real problem with them to make $100,000 a year, but you've really got to, you know, plan and stay on things and stay busy," he said.

Stone's goal is to earn a hazardous materials permit from the U.S. Department of Transportation. That would allow him to drive tankers, transporting crude oil and chemicals — making him just the sort of driver of which the industry is desperately short.

But employers say not everyone who wants to be a trucker can pass the background checks. Drug use and spotty driving records wash out a lot of applicants.

Among those who do have clean records, many are reluctant to become truckers because of the long stretches away from home. Stone says he first looked into becoming a truck driver about 20 years ago. But his plans took a different turn when he had to care for ailing family members.

"Depending on which company you work for and what division you're in with them, you could be gone two weeks at a time, three weeks at a time, six weeks at a time," he said. "You've got to make sure things are right at home where you don't put a strain on the family life."

Earning top dollar also requires driving long hours into the night, which can take a toll on truckers' health. The Transportation Department estimates driver fatigue leads to more than 1,000 crashes every year.

To reduce accidents, the department enacted new hours-of-service regulations that took effect on July 1. The limits on driving time may be better for the driver's health, but not necessarily for his wallet.

Lorie Qualls, manager of Lone Star College's Transportation Institute, said regulations can have a big impact on drivers, in terms of both pay and time away from home.

"Basically, what's happening is instead of having the ability to drive 82 hours in a seven-day period, they're losing 15 percent, and going to 70 hours in seven days," she said.

Once they hit 70 hours, truckers have to take a 34-hour break — including two overnight periods. If the driver times it wrong, that reset could add as much as two full days to the cross-country journey.

Verizon, Vodafone Reach $130 Billion Wireless Deal

As reported by the Associate Press: Verizon will own its wireless business outright after agreeing to a $130 billion deal to buy the 45 percent stake of Verizon Wireless owned by British cellphone carrier Vodafone.

The buyout, the second-largest acquisition deal on record, would give Vodafone PLC additional cash to pursue its expansion ambitions in Europe. It would also give Verizon Communications Inc., the opportunity to boost its quarterly earnings, as it would no longer have to share a portion of proceeds from the nation's No. 1 wireless carrier with Vodafone.

The deal isn't expected to have much of an effect on Verizon consumers or on the company's operations. Vodafone had little influence on Verizon Wireless' day-to-day operations, and the two companies have kept out of each other's territory.

The Verizon-Vodafone partnership started in 2000, when what was then Bell Atlantic combined its East Coast wireless network with Vodafone's operations on the West Coast. Vodafone had entered the U.S. market a year earlier by outbidding Bell Atlantic to buy AirTouch Communications Inc. of San Francisco.

Verizon has had a long-standing interest in buying out its partner, but the two companies hadn't agreed on a price until now. Analysts said Verizon wanted to pay around $100 billion for Vodafone's stake, while reports suggested that Vodafone was pressing for the $130 billion.

The largest deal on record is Vodafone's $172 billion acquisition of Mannesmann AG in 2000, according to research firm Dealogic. Verizon's buyout of Vodafone should be completed in the first quarter of 2014, the companies said.

Vodafone is already one of the world's largest cellphone companies and has its sights set on dominating media services in Europe, its biggest market. The company is making a takeover bid for Germany's biggest cable operator, Kabel Deutschland.

The deal comes amid a changing telecommunications landscape in the U.S. The wireless business has been lucrative for Verizon Communications as traditional landline services decline. But the company faces growing competition in a saturated market. No. 4 T-Mobile US Inc., for instance, is making a resurgence after shattering industry conventions, including two-year service contracts.

In the April-to-June quarter, Verizon Wireless added 941,000 devices to its contract-based plans, exceeding analyst estimates and continuing a strong run. It boosted service revenue by 8.3 percent from a year ago. Its closest rival, AT&T, is seeing revenue increases of around 4 percent.

But almost all of Verizon's gains on the wireless side resulted from customers upgrading to higher-priced plans or adding more devices to their existing plans, rather than an influx of new customers.

Meanwhile, No. 3 wireless company Sprint Corp. received a $21.6 billion investment from SoftBank Corp. in July, giving the Japanese investment firm a 78 percent stake. T-Mobile grew larger through a merger with smaller rival MetroPCS on April 30.

Microsoft to buy Nokia's handset business for $7.2 billion

As reported by NBC News: Two years after hitching its fate to Microsoft's Windows Phone software, Nokia collapsed into the arms of the software giant, agreeing to sell its main handset business for 5.44 billion euros ($7.2 billion).

Nokia, which will continue as a maker of networking equipment and holder of patents, was once the world's dominant handset manufacturer but was long since overtaken by Apple and Samsung in the highly competitive market for more powerful smartphones.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, who was hired away from Microsoft by the Finnish company in 2010, will rejoin Microsoft after the deal is completed, the companies said.

Nokia and Microsoft have been trying to make inroads in the smartphone market as part of a partnership forged in 2011. Under the alliance, Nokia's Lumia smartphones have run on Microsoft's Windows software, but those devices haven't emerged as a popular alternative to the iPhone or an array of Android-powered devices spearheaded by Samsung Electronics' smartphones and tablets.

Nokia CEO Stephen Elop unveils Nokia's Lumia 1020 smartphone
July 11, 2013, in New York.  Elop will join Microsoft once the deal
between the two companies is completed.

Microsoft is betting it will have a better chance of narrowing the gap if it seizes complete control over how the mobile devices work with its Windows software.

In a joint news release from the two companies, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said the deal will bring Nokia's capabilities in hardware design, engineering, manufacturing, sales, marketing and distribution to Microsoft.

"For Microsoft, this transaction is the key next step in furthering the company's transition to a devices and services company," the statement said.

Nokia is still the world's No. 2 mobile phone maker behind Samsung, but it is not in the top five in the more lucrative and faster-growing smartphone market.

Nokia, which had a 40 percent share of the handset market in 2007, now has a mere 15 percent market share, with an even smaller 3 percent share in smartphones, Reuters reported.

When the deal closes, expected to be in early 2014, about 32,000 Nokia employees will transfer to Microsoft. Nokia Chairman Risto Siilasmaa will take over CEO duties while the Espoo, Finland-based company looks for a new CEO.

Ballmer surprised the technology world Aug. 23 by announcing he would step down as CEO of Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft within 12 months, ending a tenure marked by the software giant's declining dominance and struggles to keep pace with its competitors.

Microsoft said then that Ballmer would retire "upon the completion of a process to choose his successor. In the meantime, Ballmer will continue as CEO and will lead Microsoft through the next steps of its transformation to a devices and services company."

The announcement further stoked speculation in the technology press that Elop might be the one to replace Ballmer. Oddsmaker Ladbrokes had set the odds at 2-to-1 that he would be chosen -- even before news of the deal, the International Business Times reported.

Named in 1871 after the Nokianvirta river where mining engineer Fredrik Idestam set up his second paper mill, Nokia spent more than a century making tires, boots or cables before producing the first handheld mobile phone, the Mobira Cityman, in 1987.

Galileo to Miss Another Launch Date as Tests Continue on FOC Satellite

As reported by Inside GNSS: As engineers painstakingly work their way through tests of the first full operational capability (FOC) Galileo satellite at the European Space Agency’s European Space Research and Technology Center (ESA/ESTEC) in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, European space sources admit that the new generation spacecraft’s maiden voyage will not occur until December 28, if then.

Last week, ESA reported details of acoustic tests on the FOC conducted in the Large European Acoustic Facility, LEAF, designed to recreate the roar of a rocket lifting off. The satellite has since had its solar wings removed as part of the preparations for the thermal vacuum testing phase. The main satellite “box” will stay in a vacuum chamber for several weeks, subjected to the same temperature extremes it will experience in orbit.

The second FOC satellite arrived at ESTEC on 9 August from manufacturer OHB in Bremen, Germany, and will undergo a similar series of tests. These will be followed by a System Compatibility Test Campaign in which the satellite is linked with Galileo Control Centers in Germany and Italy to transmit signals to ground user receivers as if it was already in orbit.

Late last year Galileo program managers laid out an ambitious schedule of launches, including two dual-satellite launches this year, that called for having 14 to 18 FOC spacecraft in place by the end of next year so that they could declare the beginning of “early services” based on the system’s civil signals. But missing a planned September launch date will now cast further doubt on the prospects for achieving the latest milestones of the long-delayed program.

Nonetheless, last month ESA and the European GNSS Agency (GSA) invited companies to take part in a test campaign of Galileo chipsets to assess their readiness to support the reception and processing of Galileo signals in view of the planned declaration of early services.

The campaign will be undertaken by ESA between October 2013 and September 2014 and will consist of a series of laboratory and real-life signal tests making use of ESTEC facilities. Under GSA coordination, other product compatibility assessments may also be performed with the support of the European Joint Research Center in Ispra, Italy.

The tests will focus on the compatibility of the devices with the reception of Galileo Open Service Signals and their combined use with GPS and GLONASS, covering aspects such as time to first fix and accuracy. Depending on the capabilities of the devices, tests can be extended to cover assisted-GNSS performance.

The purpose of the campaign is to get feedback and recommendations from the Galileo user community, with results on proprietary receiver test results being treated as confidential.

Ex-Garmin worker charged with $1M in GPS thefts

A former employee of Garmin International has been charged with stealing more than $1 million worth of GPS devices from the Kansas-based company.

The U.S. Attorney's office says 31-year-old Terrence M. Heathington, who now lives in Atlanta, was indicted Wednesday on 40 counts of mail fraud.

Heathington worked from March to September 2008 as a Garmin warehouse material handler in Olathe, where the company is headquartered.

The indictment alleges he caused about 165 cases of stolen GPS devices to be shipped to his home and those of co-conspirators. The devices were then sold on eBay and elsewhere.

In addition to the criminal charges, prosecutors are also seeking a forfeiture judgment.

No phone listing could be found for Heathington in Georgia, and court records do not list a defense attorney.