On Jan. 16, the news syndicate Breitbart reported that the U.S. embassy in Geneva has been conducting illegal surveillance on Swiss territory. In 2006 and 2007 U.S. missions in Geneva and Bern had requested protection of their buildings through surveillance programs, but the requests were denied. 

As U.S. airport security measures tighten, squeezing every last ounce of dignity out of law-abiding travelers, even European officials have had enough. Oklahoma’s NewsOn6.com carried Thursday’s AP report that British Airways Chairman Martin Broughton “accused the U.S. of demanding completely redundant security checks at airports, such as removing shoes and separate examinations of laptop computers.”

At an APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit last weekend in Hawaii, President Barack Obama told CNSNews that the United States needs to step up its courtship of foreign dollars. He said America has been “a little bit lazy” in promoting itself to overseas investors.

Two weeks ago, concerned about news reports that President Obama would order the investigation of citizens buying two or more rifles at a time, a licensed Texas gun dealer contacted his local Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) official to find out if the reports were true, so he could be in compliance. The ATF official assured him that he was aware of such legislation having been considered, but added, “The law is not going to pass, and we can’t enforce something that isn’t law.” This week, however, gun dealers and pawnshop owners across the country received a certified letter from the ATF requiring just such compliance.

Saturday, April 16 found the national Nullify Now! tour stop in Austin, Texas, a popular destination for area activists. The vision of the Los Angeles-based Tenth Amendment Center (TAC) and WeRefuse to educate and activate Americans about nullification of unconstitutional law was shaped into the idea of Nullify Now! - successful once again in the Lone Star State.

“Nullification begins with the axiomatic point that a federal law that violates the Constitution is no law at all. It is void and of no effect. If a law is unconstitutional and therefore void and of no effect, it is up to the states, the parties to the U.S. Constitution, to declare it so and thus refuse to enforce it ... Nullification provides a shield between the people of a state and an unconstitutional law from the federal government.”

Successes in states around the nation in defeating a “con-con,” or Article V convention to change the Constitution, are playing out in Arizona, too. Last week, constitutionalists in the Grand Canyon State prevailed upon their state senators to kill the measure in the upper chamber, although two House bills — HCR 2015 and HCR 2022 — remain in committee.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, March 8, a bill requiring Utah schools to teach that the United States is a republic and not a democracy, is being sent to the governor for his signature, after being passed in both houses of the state legislature.

Texas state Representative David Simpson (R) is taking Texas-style aim at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) with the filing of three bills in the State Legislature to stop TSA abuses.

“Keep Austin Weird,” the city motto of the Texas state capital, got a boost Saturday when the city’s second annual, no-questions-asked, “Guns4Groceries” campaign attracted a gun rights group which outbid the city for guns in order to put them back into residents’ hands.