PPE Kills Birds, World’s Dumbest Man Found, Your Car Is Insecure … and More

The FBI is using a controversial technology traditionally used to locate smartphones as a car tracking surveillance tool that spies on vehicles’ on-board WiFi. Known as a Stingray or a cell-site simulator, the tool masquerades as a cell tower in order to force all devices in a given area to connect into it. Agents can then pick the number they’re interested in and locate the device. Normally that would be a mobile phone, but a search warrant application discovered by Forbes shows it can also be used to find vehicles, as long as they have onboard Wi-Fi. That’s because car Wi-Fi systems act like a phone, in that they reach out to mobile networks to get their data.

Wildlife and ecosystems around the world are suffering from the impact of discarded single-use COVID-19 protective gear, researchers warn March 22 in Animal Biology. Latex gloves and polypropylene masks which protect people from the coronavirus are exacerbating the plastic pollution problem when not disposed of properly and are causing wildlife deaths. The study is the first global documentation of the impacts of COVID-19 litter on wildlife via entanglement, entrapment and ingestion.

Massive passport-processing delays, due to COVID restrictions and staffing shortages, are ruining summer travel plans and prompting fantastical workarounds. One of the key chokepoints in the process is the initial "lockbox" phase, when an application is received at a secure location, assigned a tracking number, then forwarded to the main processing office. This process, which is overseen by the Treasury Department and outsourced to Citibank, usually takes 24 hours. But according to Sen. Lankford, "In a June 30 memo to Congressional staff, the [Treasury] Department stated, 'Treasury-operated Citibank lockboxes…have been experiencing operational issues.…Service partner operational delays are currently up to six weeks after the passport was mailed.'

Roughly one in three Louisianans are fully vaccinated. This week, the state's health department reported the highest number of COVID-19 hospitalizations since late February. Scott Roe is one of them. "Here I am recovering, getting out of here finally tomorrow. Am I going to get a vaccine? No, because there's too many issues with these vaccines." This father, former baseball coach, small business owner and hunter caught COVID and then developed pneumonia. "Before you got sick," Begnaud asked Roe, "if you would have had a chance to get the vaccine and prevent this, would you have taken the vaccine?" "No," Roe said. "I would have gone through this, yes sir… Don't shove it down my throat. That's what local, state, federal administration is trying to do - shove it down your throat." "What are they shoving," Begnaud asked, "the science?" "No they're shoving the fact that that's their agenda," Roe said, "their agenda is to get you vaccinated."

A major internet outage Thursday disrupted many popular websites and online services. Among the companies reportedly facing at least some online disruption were UPS, FedEx, airlines Delta and Southwest, financial sites Charles Schwab, US Bank and Fidelity, HBO Max, Costco, EA, and tech companies Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. Game services including the PlayStation Network and Steam PC gaming store site were also affected.

Former President Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen are bringing their podcast to the book world. After already having launched their podcast for Spotify, Penguin Random House announced Thursday that it will publish a book of the same name, Renegades: Born in the USA, in partnership with former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama’s production company Higher Ground. Renegades: Born in the USA will chronicle the candid conversations Obama and Springsteen began in their Spotify co-produced podcast. In the eight-episode series, the friends sat down and discussed everything from race to fatherhood to modern manhood and the state of America today.