Mens Rea: Lois Lerner Sent Confidential Taxpayer Information Through Private Emails
Why is that important? Consciousness of guilt. It is a well-known trick of our Federal Masters that they will resort to using private emails -- safely immune from automatic record-keeping, and generally not subpoenaed (unless you know exactly what you're looking for) -- for their more, um, controversial missives.

We knew she had the actus reus -- the guilty act. But she could always say "Serious You Guys, I didn't know the rules, I made a mistake."

But here now the mens rea, the guilty mind. Why does this illegal activity just happen to occur in private email, if not due to knowledge it is in fact illegal?...

Obamacare Marketplace: Personal Data Can Be Used For ‘Law Enforcement and Audit Activities’
...Should you decide to apply for health coverage through Maryland Health Connection, the information you supply in your application will be used to determine whether you are eligible for health and dental coverage offered through Maryland Health Connection and for insurance affordability programs. It also may be used to assist you in making a payment for the insurance plan you select, and for related automated reminders or other activities permitted by law. We will preserve the privacy of personal records and protect confidential or privileged information in full accordance with federal and State law. We will not sell your information to others. Any information that you provide to us in your application will be used only to carry out the functions of Maryland Health Connection. The only exception to this policy is that we may share information provided in your application with the appropriate authorities for law enforcement and audit activities. ...

...If you send us an e-mail, we use the information you send us to respond to your inquiry. E-mail correspondence may become a public record. As a public record, your correspondence could be disclosed to other parties upon their request in accordance with Maryland’s Public Information Act....

Ole Miss forces whole play audience into re-education camp over mysterious gay slurs
The University of Mississippi will now force all students who attended a play about murdered gay student Matthew Shepard to go to a re-education session because a few unidentified audience members disrupted the performance by voicing anti-gay slurs and laughing at the wrong times, reports The Commercial Appeal.

The Ole Miss administration had charged a six-person Bias Incident Response Team with determining exactly which students (or non-students) disrupted a university theater production of “The Laramie Project,” a play based on reaction to the 1998 torture and murder of Shepard, a student who attended the University of Wyoming....

Kotkin: So, California is looking kind of feudal these days, huh?
...As late as the 80s, California was democratic in a fundamental sense, a place for outsiders and, increasingly, immigrants—roughly 60 percent of the population was considered middle class. Now, instead of a land of opportunity, California has become increasingly feudal. According to recent census estimates, the state suffers some of the highest levels of inequality in the country. By some estimates, the state’s level of inequality compares with that of such global models as the Dominican Republic, Gambia, and the Republic of the Congo....