PHOENIX, Arizona - August 25, 2010 - An Arizona man fighting to keep a historical American flag flying outside his home vows he will not take it down unless ordered to do so by a judge.

Andy McDonel of Leveen, Arizona, says he received a letter on August 6 from his homeowner’s association, Avalon Village Community Association, instructing him to "remove debris" from his suburban Phoenix home within 10 days or face a $25 fine.

BOSTON, Massachusetts - August 24, 2010 - As the privacy controversy around full-body security scans begins to simmer, it’s worth noting that courthouses and airport security checkpoints aren’t the only places where backscatter x-ray vision is being deployed. The same technology, capable of seeing through clothes and walls, has also been rolling out on U.S. streets.

NEW YORK - August 23, 2010 - Earlier this year, Officer Adrian Schoolcraft of Brooklyn's 81st Precinct made headlines when he accused commanding officers of massively under-reporting crime stats.

Now, Schoolcraft is suing the NYPD for $50 million for trying to discredit and silence him by throwing him in a psych ward unwillingly, and subsequently suspending him for going "AWOL."

TAMPA, Florida - August 23, 2010 - When Martin O'Malley became Maryland's governor in 2007, one of his first moves was to double the number of cameras used to spy on cars. The cameras, stationed at tollbooths and parking garages and mounted on police cars, scan license plate numbers and instantly match them with a database for tracking stolen cars.

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania - August 22, 2010 - Between her blog and infrequent contributions to ehow.com over the last few years she says she’s made about $50. To Marilyn Bess, her website is a hobby. To the city of Philadelphia it’s a potential moneymaker, and the city wants its cut.

NEW YORK - August 21, 2010 - It sounds like a Hollywood movie: cybercriminals in a van use a laptop to hack wirelessly into the computer-controlled systems of the car on the road ahead. In seconds the target car's engine, brakes, and door locks are under their nefarious control.

It doesn't take a great scriptwriter to figure out what's next - except that it's not the movies anymore. It's real - well, almost.

BERLIN, Germany - August 21, 2010 - The production of Radio Frequency Identification chips (RFID), an integral element of the new generation of German identity cards, has started after the government gave a 10 year contract to the chipmaker NXP in the Netherlands. Citizens will receive the mandatory new ID cards from the first of November.