Newsmonger: AG investigation into Daughters, Tracking chips and Devil marks, Climate bomb

John Jay students use the new IDs to access the school's library, cafeteria, and to sign up for extracurriculars. "This student could not use the library facilities, the cafeteria facilities, she wasn't even allowed to vote for the homecoming king and queen," Whitehead said. "So she's already suffered damage. She's being treated unequally."

While Hernandez objects on religious grounds, civil liberties groups have loudly decried Northside's pilot program as an Orwellian breach of privacy. Over the weekend, someone claiming to be allied with the hacktivist collective Anonymous, going by the Twitter handle @tr1xxyAnon, attempted to shutter Northside's website, writing on Pastebin that the Northside "is stripping away the privacy of students in your school." Gonzalez said the district's server logged a flood of traffic, but that the site never went down. He said district officials will forward whatever evidence they gather to law enforcement this week.

Climate bomb

Last week in East Texas the Tar Sands Blockade continued to fight against the Keystone XL pipeline with protests and disruption at two construction sites. The direct action came amid speculation President Barack Obama may once and for all sign off on the TransCanada pipeline, slated to run from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast.

Protesters have targeted the new stretch of pipeline from Oklahoma to Texas because it would make huge fields of Canadian tar sands open for development and export if that northern expansion is approved. Tar sands are blend of heavy-oil bitumin, sand, and clay that release several times the global-warming greenhouse gases of traditional crude when developed, and activists fear the damage that could be caused by tar sands spills. NASA scientist James Hansen has called the opening and refining of tar sands "game over" for the planet.

"Valero, Chevron — we need to target these investors," said Grace Cagle, a demonstrator with the Tar Sands Blockade last week. "We need solidarity actions everywhere." With upgrades to their refineries, SA-based Valero has positioned itself to benefit from the tar sands oil that would come from Canada.

Last Monday in Wells, four demonstrators chained themselves to heavy equipment as morning crews worked to clear a path for the pipeline. Three other activists camped out 50 feet above the ground in trees in the pipeline's path. By afternoon all were in custody facing felony charges.

To stop cherry pickers from removing protesters from trees at one site, activists swarmed the road to block equipment. One 75-year-old woman from Nacogdoches was pepper sprayed in the scuffle with local sheriff's deputies. "It was surprising we did not have anyone seriously injured," said Lauren Regan of the Civil Liberties Defense Center. "It was very disappointing to see the use of force."