From "Free Speech Radio News": "Today, a federal court in New York City began hearing a legal challenge to the National Security Agency’s sweeping domestic data collection program. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the NSA in June after documents leaked by Edward Snowden revealed that the government had been collecting and storing the phone records of millions of Verizon customers. As the ACLU and other privacy advocates try to end these spying powers by taking the government agency to court, lawmakers in the House of Representatives tried this week to end them by cutting funding, using an amendment to the more than $500 billion military funding bill. Michigan Democrat John Conyers co-authored the amendment. “All this amendment is intended to do is curtain the ongoing dragnet collection and storage of the personal records of Americans. It does not 'defund the NSA' and it would continue to allow them to conduct surveillance as long as it’s on someone who is the subject of an actual investigation!” The measure failed by just 12 votes, despite broad support from many Democrats and Republicans. The House also rejected, by wider margins, amendments to prohibit the expansion of the Guantanamo Bay prison and end the indefinite detention of the 86 detainees who have been cleared for release." Locally, Republican Rep. Chris Gibson of Kinderhook voted for the amendment, against the NSA surveillance.