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High noon is approaching in a standoff over part of a controversial bill dealing with "stand your ground" self-defense cases.

The House and Senate have both backed passing a bill that would shift a key burden of proof in "stand your ground" cases, but they have taken different stances on an important legal detail.

The Senate is deciding which chamber's proposal to put up for a vote next week, the final scheduled week of the 2017 legislative session.

Sen. Rob Bradley, a Fleming Island Republican who is sponsoring the Senate bill (SB 128) said Thursday the issue won't "die in messages" the process of bills bouncing back and forth between the House and Senate.

The issue stems from a Florida Supreme Court ruling in 2015 that said defendants during pre-trial hearings have the burden of proof to show they should be shielded from prosecution under the "stand your ground" law. The House and Senate would shift that burden to prosecutors, a change backed by groups such as the National Rifle Association.

In changing the burden of proof, the House wants to require prosecutors in "stand your ground" cases to overcome the asserted immunity sought by defendants through "clear and convincing evidence."

But the Senate, which rejected the "clear and convincing evidence" language earlier this session, wants a higher standard known as "beyond a reasonable doubt."

Critics contend that either the House or Senate approach to the issue would make it easier for people involved in fatal shootings to use stand your ground when there are no victims to counter the self-defense claims.

The Senate approved the bill 23-15 on March 15, while the House gave its version a 74-39 vote of support on April 5.

While the stand your ground issue remains to be resolved, Second Amendment advocates have had relatively little to show for the legislative session.

On Thursday, the Senate prepared for a possible vote Friday a measure (SB 616) that would allow people with concealed-weapons licenses to hang onto their handguns until they reach security checkpoints inside courthouses.

The proposal cleared the Rules Committee on Tuesday. But even if it is approved by the entire Senate, the fate of the bill remains to be seen as the House doesn't have a companion bill.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Greg Steube, a Sarasota Republican who is sponsoring a number of firearm-related bills including the courthouse measure, said he hopes House Speaker Richard Corcoran will pick up the proposal when it comes over from the Senate.

Steube refused to say many of his other proposals including proposals that would allow people with concealed-weapons licenses to openly carry guns or carry firearms on university campuses or into airport terminals are dead for the session.

Steube has been unable to advance many of the bills through his divided Judiciary Committee, largely because of opposition Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami.

"They're still live bullets, I mean the language is alive, but I think the members of the Senate have made it very clear where they're at," Steube said.

On Wednesday, the Senate voted 22-13 to approve a measure (HB 849) that would allow people with concealed-weapons licenses to pack heat at private religious institutions that have schools.

The proposal will have to go back to the House because the Senate included a change that would prohibit people from carrying guns during school hours or when school activities are underway. The restriction was not included in the bill when passed by the House.

Supporters have said people with concealed-weapons licenses should be able to be armed at churches for security reasons.

"In this era across the country, we have had attacks during worship services, burglaries or thefts or robberies during worships, and people appear at church services with problems," Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, said. "There is a security aspect in every environment and many people are willing to embrace that responsibility."

Outside of law enforcement officers, state law prohibits people from carrying guns at schools.

With some high-profile gun bills getting stuck in the Senate, the House hasn't focused on the measures.

"Obviously, I think there is interest in the House, but without any movement in the Senate, we've decided to spend time on things that we can actually get done," Rep. Neil Combee, an Auburndale Republican who is a key backer of gun-rights bills, said early this month.

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Burden of proof changes to 'Stand Your Ground' laws still in limbo - Orlando Weekly (blog)

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The criminalization of Black peopleand the use of white vigilantism as a weapon of violence against usare by no means a new concept in America. After all, violence and the very palpable threat of death have followed Black people for 400 years in the land of the free. However, in recent years, part of that legacy of anti-Black violence had assumed a new name: Stand Your Ground.

Beginning in Florida in 2005, through the efforts of conservative lawmakers, the National Rifle Association and the American Legislative Exchange Council, states across the country enacted Stand Your Ground laws. The legislation allows armed people to use deadly force, invoking self-defense as a justification for killing someone they believe poses an imminent threat. Often, these laws justify the murder of Black people by whites. Between 2012 and 2016, Stand Your Ground bills have failed in state legislatures. But now, in GOP-controlled states, these laws likely motivated by racism are making a comeback. Black lawmakers, who represent 10 percent of state legislators, are fighting the resurgence of these laws born from segregation fear and ignorance, as The Trace reported.

While U.S. law traditionally followed the castle doctrine which says the home is ones castle and allows a person to defend his or her home through deadly force without legal consequences this new breed of legislation has enabled the use of deadly force outside of the home or anywhere, whether or not the alleged perpetrator is armed. Within the context of racial justice, Stand Your Ground has proven highly problematic in a nation that views Black people as a threat to public safety, and where white people have relished the opportunity to deputize themselves in the policing and taking of Black lives.

Stand Your Ground was implicated in a number of high-profile cases involving the racialized killing of Black teenage victims. Two of these incidents took place in Florida in 2012, including the killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, and the fatal shooting of Jordan Davis over loud music by a white man named Michael Dunn at a Jacksonville gas station. Studies have shown that these laws have made it easier for whites people to kill Black people with impunity. According to a 2012 study from the Urban Institutes Justice Policy Center, whites who kill Blacks in Stand Your Ground states are far more likely to be found justified than in jurisdictions without the law 354 percent more likely as opposed to 250 percent. A 2015 study in Social Science & Medicine revealed the extent of racial bias in Floridas Stand Your Ground statute. According to the report, the race of the victim predicted whether the defendant was convicted, with a jury conviction twice as likely in cases involving white victims vs.non-white victims.

In addition, Stand Your Ground statutes, also known as shoot first laws, have resulted in more bloodshed. For example, according to a 2012 Texas A&M University study, instances of murder and non-negligent manslaughter increased by 8 percent in states with Stand Your Ground laws, translating into 600 more homicides per year.

A study last year from the American Medical Association found that Florida experienced a 24.4-percent increase in homicides and a 31.6-percent increase in gun-related homicides from 2005after implementing Stand Your Ground and 2014.

Black people have not benefited from a law that was not meant for them. The case of Marissa Alexander was a salient example. Stand Your Ground was not available to Alexander, who ultimately spent three years in prison and two years under home confinement in a plea deal for firing a warning shot to ward off her abusive husband. She was initially sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.

More than 20 states have implemented Stand Your Ground laws. Following four years of legislative inactivity during which time the Black Lives Matter movement came into being and, with it, heightened awareness of racial justice issues Republican-controlled state houses are once again enacting these laws, as The Trace reported. Black Democratic lawmakers are on the front lines of the resistance against the laws, but they arewitnessing their waning power in many states, including rural districts. Missouri was the first to make this move, followed by Iowa just recently. Florida, the first Stand Your Ground state, is poised to pass an even more stringent law according to the Tampa Bay Times. The Florida House of Representatives voted for a revised and approved Senate bill that favors shooters, shifting the burden of proof in pre-trial hearings to prosecutors, who must now prove that someone invoking Stand Your Ground should not be immune from prosecution. The NRA supported the bill, while state prosecutors, gun control advocates and the entire Democratic caucus opposed the measure. Marissa Alexander testified in support of changes to the law, while Lucia McBath, the mother of Jordan Davis, expressed her opposition to the measure.

One shot and a 12-minute verdict got me 20 years, Alexander said in February before a state Senate committee, as the Florida Times-Union reported. In my own home. Concealed weapon license. White-collar worker. I had just given birth to an 8-month-old, 4-pound, 12-ounce premature baby.

Youre going to have an inordinate number of cases now that are going to be brought forth to be tried, said McBath, as reported by News4jax.com. More people are going to try to use Stand Your Ground as their lawful defense for shooting first and asking questions later.

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Home featured The Resurgence of 'Stand Your Ground' Laws and What It Could Mean... - Atlanta Black Star

So youve bought yourself a gaming PC or built one from scratch. Now its sitting in pride of place in your office, just waiting to be pushed to its limits.

Whatever the origin, that humming mass of silicon and plastic is in need of superior software to take it to said limits. The catch? Youve blown all your cash on your rig and now your bank balance is looking decidedly depleted.

The solution? Our carefully collated collection of complimentary curatives, of course. These 10 free Windows apps will help turn your burgeoning beast into a towering powerhouse, enabling you to track frame rates, voice chat with ease, and stream like a seasoned pro.

Youve got a PC, a stable internet connection and an unhealthy obsession with gaming. Theres only one way this is going to go: streaming.

There are plenty of options out there when it comes to broadcasting your games, but far too many constrict you with unnecessary limitations. Thats where Open Broadcaster Software comes in a a brilliantly customizable piece of freeware that enables you to stream to your own server or a variety of popular portals (including Twitch, DailyMotion and more).

Setting up Open Broadcaster Software is really easy too, so if youre relatively new to the streaming scene you wont get lost amid all those options. Should you want to get a little more advanced, theres the option to adjust your webcam footage and add images/graphics to add that extra level of professionalism.

The software also supports HD streaming, so if youre into broadcasting with a higher level of quality you can maintain your pristine image online.

Download here: Open Broadcaster Software

If you want to organize secure meetings or record multiple contributors to a podcast or game session, you need to be able to rely on a strong and robust VPN (virtual private network).

As you might have guessed since its included in this list Hamachi is totally free to use, but dont let the absence of a price tag scare you off free most definitely does not equal 'cheap'.

Hamachi enables you to establish an airtight network between multiple computers and do everything from sharing files to playing private games, using a supersecure P2P protocol to ensure it can smoothly access servers, firewalls and routers. It boasts one of the simplest interfaces weve ever used in the world of VPNs, so if youre relatively new to the concept, Hamachi wont make you feel a total noob.

Download here: Hamachi

Okay, this ones an easy sell. If youve built or bought a shiny new PC for the express purpose of gaming, theres one piece of software you simply wont be able to live without: good ol Steam. We love it here at TechRadar, and were pretty sure youll have a lot of affection for it too.

Steam gives PC owners the kind of secure, professional ecosystem normally associated with closedbox consoles. You can search for freetoplay games, inexpensive indies or full blown tripleA titles, and launch them directly from the software. Theres even support for achievements, plus Big Picture mode for gaming from your sofa.

Download here: Steam

It might be the software of choice for the overclockers and their hardwaretesting ways, but even if you're not interested in pushing your PC to breaking point, Fraps can revolutionize how you play games on PC and the components you choose to upgrade.

No one wants to see a drop in frames especially when youre playing something twitchbased like a fighting game or an arena shooter. Every frame counts, so why not count them properly and see just how well your machine is holding up?

Thats exactly what Fraps does, providing you with a tiny tool that sits in the corner of your screen displaying the current frame rate of your chosen game in realtime. You can then open out Fraps deeper set of utilities and fine tune your PC to help increase the frame rate and find the right balance between graphical flair and performance.

Download here: Fraps

Gaming can be a great source of escapism, but few things compare to joining up with your friends online for a good chat over your headset. Whether you want to link up on World of Warcraft or simply chew the fat while everyone is playing their own thing, a great a VoIP (voice over internet protocol) app is essential.

There are a lot of options out there when it comes to voice chat, but our favorite VoIP app is TeamSpeak 3. You can connect to your friends with ease, and its suite of options is seriously impressive, enabling you to tune sound levels, employ echo reduction and even use encryption.

TeamSpeak is free for everyday non-commercial PC use, though you'll have to open your wallet to rent a server or use the mobile app.

Download here: TeamSpeak 3

MSI originally wrote Afterburner to overclock its own range of graphics cards, but the software has since been opened up to enable Nvidia and AMD card owners to push their hardware to the limit. If you have even a passing interest in making your new gaming PC's graphics card earn its price tag, free optimization software MSI Afterburner is essential.

Think of MSI Afterburner as the way to unlock the inner potential of your GPU the software opens up the voltage settings of your chosen bit of hardware and enables you to improve its overall performance.

Video memory and clock speed are the two areas MSI Afterburner shines the most when it comes to overclocking your machine. Be warned, though mucking about with this settings can seriously overheat your rig, so make sure your cooling unit is set to full blast before you start cooking your GPU.

Download here: MSI Afterburner

Away from your smartphone, gaming sessions usually mean long stretches in front of your display, straining those peepers of yours in the quest for trophies and achievements. Its a fine old life, but its not going to do your eyes any good in the long run. One potential solution is a piece of software specifically designed to make your monitor that bit less damaging over long periods.

One such option is f.lux, and its especially useful if you like getting in your gaming hours later at night with the lights down low. This free Windows app works by dynamically adjusting the colour temperature of your display depending on the time of day and the light sources in the place you have your new gaming PC PC set up. It will help reduce eye strain and potentially improve sleep patterns when gaming later in the evening. It's also pretty tiny, and won't gobble up system resources better used by your favorite games.

Download here: f.lux

Much like MSI Afterburner and f.lux, CPUZ is all about finetuning your beloved PC gaming machine into a welloiled, well, machine.

Its certainly not an attractive program, but its the kind of back end kit you should really try if you want to get your PC in the best possible condition (especially if youre trying to break into the eSports scene or youre building a career in streaming).

CPUZ enables you to review all kinds of detailed information about various areas of your PC in a fairly straightforward format. Its certainly not for the faint hearted, but its definitely worth spending some time in if maximizing PC performance is your bag. You can see what's going on in real time, and save reports at any time in TXT or HTML format.

Download here: CPU-Z

Razer, as a long established maker of many a PC gaming peripheral, has become one of the few big names to offer free software with this many options and features. Of course, there are areas of the suite that will lead you to some of Razers premium apps, but theres still a lot of gratis gold to be mined from Game Booster.

Its been designed to work with every kind of PC, so whether youre rocking a basic build or a soupedup monster of a rig, Game Booster has something to offer your machine. Whether youre using Steam, Origin or any other platform to launch your games, Game Booster will start trying to enhance your settings to improve your experience automatically.

Its a really clever bit of free software for your gaming PC, and its ideal if you're looking for a little extra improvement without much effort. Its also great if you want to make an older PC work a little harder.

Download here: Razer Cortex: Game Booster

Whether you realize it or not, your gaming PC or laptop is full of files and various bits of digital detritus you simply dont need. All those extra bits and bobs take up valuable space, and that means said PC is going to run slower and slower as time goes by. Not the kind of situation you want with a gamingdedicated rig. The solution: a proper cleaning utility like CCleaner.

It can delete temporary files and broken Windows registry entries automatically, and identify software your system doesnt need. There is a caveat, though: CCleaner is very powerful, so make sure you check its settings before turning it loose on your machine to avoid accidentally deleting anything you'd rather hang onto (saved passwords in your web browser, for example).

Still, dicey as it may be, CCleaner is an excellent free app for your new gaming PC.

Download here: CCleaner

Welcome to TechRadar's 3rd annual PC Gaming Week, celebrating the almighty gaming PC with in-depth interviews, previews, reviews and features all about one of the TechRadar teams favorite pastimes. Missed a day? Check out our constantly updated hub article for all of the coverage in one place.

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The best free software for your gaming PC - TechRadar

Fstoppers

Want to Edit Video? Check out Avid's New Free Software Fstoppers Luckily, users will now be able to get a dumbed down version for free this year. In a press release, Avid has finally spilled the beans on a much anticipated wing to their software packages. "Media Composer First" will be severely limited, however this ...

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Want to Edit Video? Check out Avid's New Free Software - Fstoppers

April 26, 2017 Alex Woodie

You cant do anything on IBM i without the proper authority. Unfortunately, instead of using the tools IBM includes in the OS to set fine-grained policies, most IBM i shops run wide-open when it comes to user authorities. Now Raz-Lee Security hopes reign in this free-for-all with a free tool it just released.

For a glimpse at how bad the use of authorities in IBM i has gotten, check out our coverage of a recent security study of the IBM i marketplace. Its no secret that theres widespread abuse of special authorities, such as ALLOBJ and SECADM, among the majority of IBM i shops. Many user profiles and even group profiles run with these special authorities baked into them because its easier that way (if less secure).

While abuse of special authorities arguably gets more press, a more widespread problem may be the misuse of authorities when it comes to object security.

IBM empowers administrators to set access authority levels on public objects, including the data and programs used by common applications. About nine in 10 IBM i shops run with this public authority level set in a way that basically allows any user with a valid ID and password to access any piece of data in a given library, according to the previously mentioned study.

IBM responded to this sad state of object-level security with a new capability in IBM i OS version 7.3 called authority collection. This capability essentially identifies which users have access to what data and determines what level of access they have and what level of access they should have.

Unfortunately, getting useful information out of the authority collection is easier said than done. Without the capability to write complex SQL queries, most IBM i users will be out of luck when it comes to understanding the authority data collected.

Thats where Raz-Lee Security hopes to make an impact with Authority Inspector, a new solution designed to help IBM i professionals better understand the information collected by the authority collection facility.

Authority Inspector makes it easier for users to view and understand the data collected by IBMs authority collection.

According to Raz-Lee, Authority Inspector simplifies the information by presenting a summary of the authority collection data in easy-to-read tables and graphs. The software, which runs on a PC, replaces encoded field values with meaningful titles to further aid in understanding.

Authority Inspector helps users create filters by selecting values directly from the screen, which further reduces the amount of data presented. Users can also export the data to Excel with a single click.

Raz-Lee CEO Shmuel Zailer says the company decided to make this solution free as a way to pay back the community that has made the company so successful. Raz-Lee has decided to give all customers its Authority Inspector product for free, with no license or maintenance charges, during 2017, he says in a press release. Simply visit our booth at COMMMON in Orlando or in Brussels, get the free code and download the product from our website and enjoy.

The New York-based company shared several other pieces of product news ahead of the COMMON Annual Meeting and Exposition, which is slated for May 7-10 in Orlando, Florida. The focus is on several new features in Raz-Lees iSecurity suite, including:

Raz-Lee will be exhibiting in booth 418 in the COMMON expo.

State Of IBM i Security: Seven Areas That Demand Attention

IBM i Priorities For 2017: Pivot To Defense

IBM i 7.3: High Time For High Security

Tags: Tags: ALLOBJ, IBM i, SECADM, Special Authority

Four Hundred Monitor, April 26 Surround Tech Keeps IBM i Websites Hip to the Times

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Raz-Lee Tackles Excessive Authorities with Free Software - IT Jungle