BruteForce

The defendant, Ramona Fricosu, had unsuccessfully argued that being forced to do so would violate the Fifth Amendment protection against compelled self-incrimination, Wired reports.

"I conclude that the Fifth Amendment is not implicated by requiring production of the unencrypted contents of the Toshiba Satellite M305 laptop computer," Colorado U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn ruled Monday.

The case is being closely watched by civil rights groups, Wired reports, as the issue has never been fully considered by the Supreme Court. Authorities seized the laptop from Fricosu in 2010 with a court warrant while investigating financial fraud.

Blackburn ordered Fricosu to surrender an unencrypted hard drive by Feb. 21. The judge added that the government is precluded "from using Ms. Fricosu's act of production of the unencrypted hard drive against her in any prosecution," Wired reports.

Ride the Pony Express Trail National Back Country Byway

To begin tracing the hoofprints of the "Pony" visit the Camp Floyd / Stagecoach Inn State Park on state highway 73, 5 miles south of Cedar Fort. The Inn was an overnight stop for weary travelers along the Overland and Pony Express Trail. Hours are 9 am to 5 pm. It is open 7 days a week during main season and closed Sundays from October 15 through March 31.

Next, visit the Pony Express National Back Country Byway Visitor Information Site. This interpretive site was constructed in the spring of 1992. It is located 1.8 miles west of the Faust Junction along the north side of the Pony Express Trail on an overlook. The site is clearly marked at the turn-off.

The Pony Express National Back Country Byway route is approximately 133 miles in length. Most of the route is classified as rangeland and managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The elevations along the route vary from 4,900 feet near Fairfield to over 6,100 feet at Lookout Pass. The most common use of the rangeland along the trail is livestock grazing which dates back to the mid 1800s.

The Pony Express Trail is interpreted at a number of locations:

A

Fairfield/Camp Floyd

This station was located with John Carson's Inn and was used by both the Pony Express and stage travel. The Fairfield adobe building was built in 1958 and is still standing, has a wooden facade, and is open to the public. It was operated by the Carson family until 1947 and lodged such visitors as Mark Twain, Porter Rockwell, Bill Hickman and Sir Richard Burton.

Adjacent to Fairfield is Camp Floyd. It was established in November 1858 and named for Secretary of War, John B. Floyd. Camp Floyd was the second military establishment in Utah and its mission was to establish a military route to California and to investigate the Gunnison Massacre.

At its peak, Fairfield had a population of 7,000 of which 3,000 were soldiers. At the time, Fairfield was the third largest city in the territory.

B

Faust Junction

As you travel west along the Pony Express Trail, this stop offers the first opportunity to view interpretive work completed in 1976 by the BLM. There is also a marker at the site which was constructed in 1939 by the Civilian Conservation Corps as part of its project to mark the original Pony Express Trail. Named after station keeper "Doc" Fausts, the station was a two-story stone structure located some distance from the present marker. A change of riders took place and the mail stage stopped for rest breaks at this station.

C

Simpson Springs Station

This station bears the name of explorer Captain J.H. Simpson who stopped here in 1858 while searching for an overland mail route between Salt Lake City and California. It is one of the most dependable watering points in this desert region. George Chorpenning established a mail station at this site in 1858, which was later used by the Pony Express and Overland Express.

A number of structures have been built and destroyed in the vicinity of Simpson Springs over the years. It is not known for sure which served as the station for the Pony Express. The restored structure is located on a building site which dates to the period (1860) and closely resembles the original. A BLM campground is located just east of the station with drinking water, toilets, and 14 camping sites.

D

Boyd Station

This relay station gets its name from Bid Boyd, a station keeper who continued to live here into the early years of this century. In the days of the Pony Express, it was known as Butte or Desert Station. Only a portion of the rock walls that once provided protection from the elements now remains.

Living conditions were extremely crude. The partially dug out, rock-walled living quarters contained bunks which were built into the walls. Furniture consisted of boxes and benches. Life at the isolated station was lonely. Activities of the station keeper, spare rider and blacksmith centered around caring for the horses and a simple existence. The monotony was broken only by the arrival and almost immediate departure of two riders each day.

E

Canyon Station

The Canyon Station was located northwest of this site in Overland Canyon. Built in 1861, it consisted of a log house, a stable, and a dugout where meals were cooked and served. In July 1863, Indians killed the Overland agent and four soldiers, and burned the station. The Overland Station was built in 1863 at the present marked site, which was a more defensible location. Stone outlines of the 1863 station are still visible.

There are remnants of a round fortification built just behind the station which served as a lookout and place of refuge. It probably never had a roof so defenders could speedily climb over the wall and begin firing through the rifle ports. The depression on the south side of the parking lot indicates where the corral and blacksmith shop were probably located.

Pony Express Facts

• St. Joseph, MO to Sacramento, CA
  Distance: 1900 miles
• Number of Stations: 190 (peak operation)
  Note: The Utah Territory (Utah, Nevada and W. Colorado) carried 65 of the 190
• Number of Horses: 420 (peak)
• Number of Riders: 80 (peak)
• Average Speed: 7 miles per hour
• Average Time: 10 days
• Fastest time: 7-1/2 days (Lincoln's Inaugural Message)
• Distance per Rider: 60-120 miles each
• William C. "Buffalo Bill" Cody: Rode 322 miles in 21 hours and 40 minutes using 21 horses.
• Home Stations: 60 miles apart
• Swing Stations: averaged 11 3/4 miles apart
• Rider Salary: $120-$125 per month
• Station Personnel: 2 agents, l station keeper, and l assistant

The Road Ahead

The sand and gravel road ahead can become unstable when wet. Areas may look solid, however, getting stuck is very easy. Also, watch for flash flooding during the thunderstorm season and be very careful during extreme hot and cold periods. Desert terrain is deceptive in distance and orientation, so study the map carefully.

Come prepared for desert travel--bring extra water and have plenty of gas. There is no gas available between Vernon and Wendover, however gas is sometimes available in Ibapah.

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While en route to Lookout Pass, my first stop was a Pony Express marker.

From this location, I proceeded further West and found a staging area adjacent to the Lookout Pass Pet cemetery. A bit of history on the cemetery:
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In the 1850/60 era the station keeper was Horace and Libby Rockwell. Libby, had a pet cemetery constructed for her pet dogs that passed on. Rumor has it, that her dogs were buried side by side with emigrants who died along the trail as well as employees killed by Indians. The strange part is that the dogs graves were the only ones that were marked with tomb stones.

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A longtime internal policy that allowed Justice Department officials to deny the existence of sensitive information could become the law of the land -- in effect a license to lie -- if a newly proposed rule becomes federal regulation in the coming weeks.

The proposed rule directs federal law enforcement agencies, after personnel have determined that documents are too delicate to be released, to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests "as if the excluded records did not exist." 

Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, says the move appears to be in direct conflict with the administration's promise to be more open. 

"Despite all the talk of transparency, I can't think of what's less transparent than saying a document does not exist, when in fact, it does," Sekulow told Fox News.

Justice Department officials say the practice has been in effect for decades, dating back to a 1987 memo from then-Attorney General Edwin Meese. 

In that memo, and subsequent similar internal documents, Justice Department staffers were advised that they could reply to certain FOIA requests as if the documents had never been created. That policy never became part of the law -- or even codified as a federal regulation -- and it was recently challenged in court.

A final version of the proposal could be issued by the end of 2011. If approved, the new rule would officially become a federal regulation with the force of law.

But the Justice Department got so much pushback in response to the proposal that it took the unusual step of re-opening the public comment period after it had already been closed. That second comment period closed last week. 

When the new comment period began, the American Civil Liberties Union became one of the most vocal critics of the proposal. Mike German, Policy Counsel with the ACLU, authored a lengthy letter in opposition. 

"It's shocking that you would twist what is supposed to be a statute -- that's supposed to give people access to what the government is doing -- in a way that would allow the government to actually mislead the American public," German told Fox News.

Melanie Ann Pustay, director of the Justice Department's Office of Information Policy, said the entire consideration process for the proposal "has been open and transparent." 

She also notes that sensitive information requires special consideration. 

"To ensure that the integrity of the exclusion is maintained, agencies must ensure that their responses do not reveal the existence of excluded records," Pustay said.

Sekulow says he is not buying that argument, and argued that FOIA requesters who get a response telling them that officials can neither confirm or deny the existence of documents now can at least go to court to sue for more information. 

If they're told that no documents exist, there is no basis for a legal challenge at all, Sekulow said. 

"The real concern is here is it changes the entire dynamic of what the law was intended to do, and really gives the Department of Justice the upper hand in area where they shouldn't have it."

On Friday, October 21st (2011), we departed Salt Lake City for Fillmore. Our goal was to get in one more camping and ATV'ing adventure before the weather turned cold and snowy.

On the first Fillmore exit, we stopped to hit Carls Jr. for a quick lunch. Just as we parked, we noticed a guy on a golf cart inspecting every trailer that pulled into the lot. At first, we didn't think much of it.

A few minutes later, this guy was looking at my 5th wheel tires with much interest. He came over and told me that my tire tread was separating and that if I pulled my rig to the service station a few hundred feet away, his guys would gladly mount my spare. I pulled to the service station and was immediately told that all six of my 5th wheel tires were coming apart.

Initially, it looked very likely that I was in a very dangerous situation with my trailer. I was quoted $2100 for 6x Cooper "Provider" tires in 235/80 R16. I declined and we made the 2-3 mile tow to the Fillmore KOA.

Google was fired up and I researched Cooper tires. To my dismay, I learned that Cooper doesn't carry a brand called "Provider", nor did they carry my tire size. Clearly, these guys were pedaling Chinese knock-off tires at twice the price I could source replacements from Discount Tire/Sears/Walmart.

To compound matters, upon arriving at the KOA, we determined that the front electric motor for the levlling legs was not working. We had to manually crank to lower (and then raise) the legs. Additionally, the rear garage door was not sealing completely, allowing both sunlight and bugs to come through.

We settled in that Friday night and for dinner, drove the ~50 miles to Hoovers for another awesome meal.

The following morning (Saturday), we decided to sleep in a bit. Overnight temps were near freezing, so nobody was really inclined to get out into the cold morning air.

My 11am, we had the ATV's loaded and were ready to roll. Destination: Marysvale (just shy of 60 miles one-way across two mountain ranges (Pahvant & Tushar).

Our route would start at the far North/East corner of Fillmore via the Paiute 03 trail through Chalk Creek.

Somewhere near the middle of the Max Reid trail (Paiute 01), the Honda Rancher lost all brakes at one of the steepest sections of trail. My tactic: Get my ATV and my sons in front of the wife and have her just coast down using the two front ATV's at brakes. Success!

Hunters were everywhere in the woods. How they managed to spot a deer is amazing considering how close they all were to each other. Deer to hunter ratio had to be 100:1 (100 hunters for every deer).

We returned to camp after sun-down with temps in the 40-50F range.

That evening, we discussed the situation with the 5th wheel tires. I went out and inspected and determined the tires would be able to handle the 140 mile return trip home.

We departed early Sunday morning and didn't exceed 55mph the entire trip home. We arrived without incident. Seems to me that tire center in Fillmore has a pretty interesting (and unethical) racket: Scope out every trailer, spread FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt), then when they hook somebody, they increase their tire prices by $600-800 over normal retail.

The quest for replacement tires is underway and the 5th wheel goes back to Motorsportsland for service on Friday. What an eventful weekend. It would be nice to have one outing with the 5th wheel not end with maintenance/repair issues!

It would seem Netflix has reversed themselves and are not splitting DVD -v- streaming into two websites. In light of this, SNL made a pretty awesome sketch over this issue:

CNet article regarding cancellation of Qwikster spin-off:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20117888-261/netflix-cancels-qwikster-spinoff/?tag=mncol;topStories