Last week, when the Department of Homeland Security leaned on Mozilla to remove a Firefox add-on making it simple to bypass domain name seizures, we wondered at the request. After all, the add-on only made it easier to do a simple Google search, and we wondered "what the next logical step in this progression will be: requiring search engines to stop returning results for seized domain names?"

Turns out that's exactly what's being contemplated.

[...]A Wyoming couple is now accusing national rent-to-own chain Aaron's Inc. of spying on them at home using their rented computer's webcam without their knowledge. Aaron's also allegedly used a keylogger and took regular screenshots of the couple's activities on the machine, leading the couple to file a class-action lawsuit in the US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

[...]Special 301 is the US Trade Representative's "hall of shame" roster for countries that don't toe the US line on copyright. Canada has repeatedly appeared on its priority list due to its allegedly "weak" implementation of intellectual property rights and border enforcement. "The United States encourages Canada to provide its border officials with the authority to seize suspected infringing materials without the need for a court order," the trade rep added last year.

[...]Former National Security Adviser Richard A. Clarke suggests a thought exercise in his hit book Cyber War: imagine you are the assistant to the president for Homeland Security. The National Security Agency has just sent a critical alert to your BlackBerry: "Large scale movement of several different zero day malware programs moving on Internet in US, affecting critical infrastructure."

A spate of unusual bills by newly elected Republican majority lawmakers in Montana is drawing criticism and even ridicule, especially from the state's Democratic governor, as Tea Party-backed lawmakers in states across the West shake things up in their capitols.

"Some of these legislators, they draft bills just to get an effect from the people," Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer told Fox News. "And unfortunately, it kind of makes some of them look bat-crap crazy."

Whoops—in its bid to sue hundreds of bloggers, commentors, and website operators from posting even a few sentences from newspaper stories, the copyright zealots at Righthaven have just scored an own goal. Last Friday, a federal judge ruled in one of the company's many lawsuits, saying that even the complete republication of copyrighted newspaper content can be "fair use."

[...]

Angered by repeated releases of secretly filmed videos claiming to show the mistreatment of farm animals, Iowa's agriculture industry is pushing legislation that would make it illegal for animal rights activists to produce and distribute such images.

ADDY, Stevens County — DNA evidence and purchases of electronic components led investigators to the former Fort Lewis soldier accused of planting a rat poison-laced bomb along the route of Spokane's Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

Kevin William Harpham, who reportedly has links to a neo-Nazi group, was arrested by FBI agents and local law enforcement Wednesday morning at his home near Addy, a community of about 1,400 people roughly 55 miles northwest of Spokane.

BP and other companies sued over the massive Gulf oil spill are asking a federal judge to dismiss many of the claims filed by businesses and people who say they have been harmed by the disaster.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier set Monday as a deadline for BP, Transocean and other companies to file motions to dismiss claims over last year’s deadly Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and the spill that followed it.

GULFPORT — Baby dolphins, some barely three feet in length, are washing up along the Mississippi and Alabama coastlines at 10 times the normal rate of stillborn and infant deaths, researchers are finding.

The Sun Herald has learned that 17 young dolphins, either aborted before they reached maturity or dead soon after birth, have been collected along the shorelines. [...]

6-year-old Jack Dorman was placed on a psychiatric hold after he drew what school officials say was a "disturbing picture" that expressed a wish to die, according to NBCLA.

Hackers have repeatedly penetrated the computer network of the company that runs the Nasdaq Stock Market during the past year, and federal investigators are trying to identify the perpetrators and their purpose, according to people familiar with the matter.

The exchange's trading platform—the part of the system that executes trades—wasn't compromised, these people said. However, it couldn't be determined which other parts of Nasdaq's computer network were accessed.

U.S. military officials tell NBC News that investigators have been unable to make any direct connection between a jailed army private suspected with leaking secret documents and Julian Assange, founder of the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

Thousands of Yemenis are demonstrating in the capital Sanaa, calling on Ali Abdullah Saleh, president for more than 30 years, to step down.

Reports say they gathered in at least four locations in the capital, including Sanaa University.

Protesters chanted anti-government slogans and made reference to the overthrow of the Tunisian president.

Organisers have called on students and civil society groups to protest against corruption and economic policies.