SAN NARCISO, Calif. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin, the ironic international interlocutor for territorial sovereignty, condemned U.S.-led airstrikes on Syria this week, excoriating the West’s aggressive actions as lacking “authority without buy-in from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad,” a point Moscow emphasized to the United Nations Secretary-General. Perhaps unbeknownst to Putin, his friend al-Assad, who has decimated thousands of his own people since the 2011 rebel uprisings in his country, is not only buying into the bombings, he’s giddily cheering on American military forces for their assistance in wiping out even larger numbers of the Syrian civilians he detests.

SAN NARCISO, Calif. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- On Wednesday, amid a flurry of conflicting media reports, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) derided several press outlets for their unvetted, inaccurate, and conjecture-based reporting of suspects in custody. The New York Post, Fox News, and CNN all claimed that individuals connected with the bombings had been arrested or held for questioning. The Post infamously crossed a line when it wrote that a 20-year-old Saudi national had been detained, seemingly without any proof beyond a random photograph and a bystander's comment. Every allegation published was refuted by investigators, with the Boston police commissioner clarifying that nobody was in custody at that time. After walking back many of its claims, CNN attempted to defend the press on Friday, blaming the confusion on the unprecedented volume of photos and videos submitted by everyday folks, who now serve as the network's primary reporting sources. And in the interest of responsible journalism, CNN then named all 100,000 plus attendees at the event as suspects in the case.

SAN NARCISO, Calif. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- California congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) has pulled out all the stops to defend America's growing population of technology criminals. Citing the need for new legislation, she proposed a bill to introduce "Aaron's Law," which would allow people to break the Terms of Service used by online paid service providers without any legal repercussions. Most online providers require consumers to agree to what were once binding terms and conditions, designed to protect their intellectual property. The namesake and basis for this new law, which would essentially amend the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, is Aaron Swartz, a young man who recently committed suicide while under indictment by the federal government for wire and computer fraud. The federal government invoked the CFAA as the basis for Swartz's indictment.