TikTok ban for lawmakers gains steam

By CASEY HARPER THE CENTER SQUARE SENIOR REPORTER

(The Center Square) — A new effort in Congress may ban lawmakers from using TikTok for official communications.

A coalition of House and Senate Republicans sent a letter to congressional leadership calling on them to change the House and Senate rules to bar lawmakers from using TikTok, calling it a “defacto spyware app.”

“It is troublesome that some members continue to disregard these clear warnings and are even encouraging their constituents to use TikTok to interface with their elected representatives — especially since some of these users are minors,” the letter said. State laws on TikTok vary, but many state governments have already taken action. According to the American Legislative Exchange Council, there are 150 million active TikTok users in the U.S., an increase from 100 million in 2020.

“It’s definitely standard practice especially in the U.S. House and especially for those who serve on sensitive committees like Intelligence Committee, that certain applications are not allowed to be on devices,” Jake Morabito, director of the Communications and Technology Task Force for ALEC, told The Center Square.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before Congress in March, but his testimony largely intensified concerns instead of alleviating them.

Mr. Chew tried to assuage fears at the hearing, saying the company has been working for two years on “what amounts to a firewall to seal off protected U.S. user data from unauthorized foreign access.”

Taking Mr. Chew to task was not limited to Republicans. Democrats expressed concerns as well.

“While this hearing shines a light on TikTok, this hearing should also serve as a call to action for the Congress to act now to protect Americans from surveillance, tracking, personal data gathering and addictive

Please see TIKTOK on A4 a home. She was determined: ‘I married you for the rest of your life, and I’m going to take care of you.’

“But it got worse and worse, and actually, it killed her,” Ms. Seymour said. “She died 10 or more years before he died, from the stress of loving him and trying to look after him. I remember thinking, ‘She’s no good to him now because she’s gone.’

“There’s a fine line between what you can do and when you have to take care of yourself, and you need help,” Ms. Seymour said. “I was seeing the same kind of thing with Kim Campbell, but fortunately, she was surrounded by family, who all took turns to help him, and eventually he had to go into a home.”

In “Ruby’s Choice,” Ruby (Ms. Seymour) moves in with her daughter Sharon (Jacqueline McKenzie) after Ruby accidentally burns down her house. She shares a bedroom with her teenage granddaughter Tash (Coco Jack Gillies) in the 2022 film directed by Michael Budd.

The movie, which was filmed in Australia, was shown last year at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

“It was an absolutely extraordinary experience,” Ms. Seymour told the News-Press about playing Ruby. “I have known people with dementia and Alzheimer’s, and I have spent a lot of time around them. So I really felt I knew the subject inside out, but to actually play a woman who had dementia was quite eyeopening. …

“I think what was quite powerful about the movie, and why I did it, was that it was written by a man who’s been working in the field for 30 years,” Ms. Seymour said, referring to Paul Mahoney. (Ellen Shanley also was involved with the writing.)

Ms. Seymour said everyone she knows working in the dementia field told her the film is

Cameras

Continued from Page A1 camera was, concerned that the trail was unsafe. Then I noticed the camera was now pointed at me.

“I went farther up the trail to get away from the camera, and was moving some rocks off the trail when Ed Gonzales, a supervisor for Montecito Creek Water Co., shouted at me from across the creek, telling me I wasn’t allowed to repair the trail,” said Mr. Rosen in an email.

On Feb.19, Mr. Rosen wrote the following in an email to Lael Wageneck, director of public works: “I would like to take the camera down to the Public Works Department. Since the camera claims to be representing Public Works, and is apparently not authorized by the department, it is not good to leave it up there. Unless we want to find who placed it.”

Mr. Wageneck told Mr. Rosen: “Please feel free to remove the camera and bring it to us.”

“... we are concerned that someone would pretend to represent public works in order to record residents and visitors and discourage people from removing the camera. Thank you again for taking the time to let us

Budget

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• May 5 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. – sustainability and resilience, waterfront and library.

• May 22 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. – city administrator, mayor and

Border

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San Diego agents reported over 24,000 apprehensions and over 9,000 gotaways, according to the data.

As Texas’ Operation Lone Star continues to push back against cartel activity, what law enforcement officers have explained is that people and drugs continue to move west to Arizona and California. While

Tiktok

Continued from Page A3 algorithmic operations that serve up harmful content and has a corrosive effect on our kids’ mental and physical well-being,” Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., said at the hearing.

Jane

Fyi

Movie and TV star Jane Seymour will be the keynote speaker when the Alzheimer’s Women’s Initiative Inspire Luncheon takes place from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. April 26 at the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront, 633 E. Cabrillo Blvd.. Santa Barbara. Tickets are still available. To purchase, go to inspire2023.givesmart.com.

Ms. Seymour will discuss her movie and TV career in the Life and the Arts section in Friday’s News-Press.

completely accurate, including its depiction of Ruby, her family and the circumstances. The movie deals with family secrets that Ruby tells Tash, who comes to have a better appreciation for her grandmother.

know about this. We definitely want to know who is pretending to act on our behalf and why,”

Mr. Wageneck told Mr. Rosen in an email on Feb. 20.

“On the 21st, Mr. Wageneck wrote to me: Did you get the camera?” Mr. Rosen told the News-Press. “If not, can you give me a little more info on where it was (how far up the trail)? We should be able to grab it today if it is still there. If you have it and would like to drop it off, I can meet you at my office downtown.”

On Feb. 21, Lt. Ugo Arnoldi of the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office wrote an email to Mr. Rosen and others, saying: “As I understand it, the cameras were placed at that location with the approval of several groups. The primary purpose of the cameras is to capture illegal activity of various types: Being in a ‘Posted Forest Closure Area,’ constructing pools and diverting water for the natural environment, vandalism to the existing private water system, etc.”

Mr. Rosen said he didn’t see any signs indicating that the forest was closed.

Lt. Arnoldi continued in his email: “The California Department of Fish and Wildlife, United States Forest city council, city attorney, human resources and finance.

• May 24 from 9 a.m. to noon

– community development and information technology.

• May 25 from 9 a.m. to noon –parks and recreation.

• May 31 from 9 a.m. to noon

– public works and capital the numbers are still high and border-related crime is rampant in Texas, the data shows a trend of more illegal entries and apprehensions occurring in the El Paso Sector, followed by the Tucson and San Diego sectors. Tucson Sector Chief John Modlin explained the situation to Congress in February. “The vast majority of encounters are single adult males attempting to avoid detection. The smuggling organizations to our south are very well organized

The concerned legislators said even after the added proof given at that hearing, TikTok continued collecting data.

“Even after the March 23, 2023, hearing, in which it became blatantly clear to the public that the China-based app is mining data and potentially spying on American citizens, members of dementia couldn’t handle,” Ms. Seymour said, referring to the family secrets in the plot.

“So she ended up being probably the most valuable member of the family rather than the problem,” Ms. Seymour said.

Family members rediscover Ruby’s value in their lives.

Experts and family members of people with dementia have noted that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, that every patient is an individual on their own journey through a difficult disease. Ms. Seymour agreed with that and talked about Mr. Campbell during his final concerts that were filmed for “Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me.”

“I’d be sitting there watching, going, ‘Oh, is he going to even make it on the stage?’ He did. That’s good! Will he know what song he’s singing? He’ll start singing one song, and then start singing another, and his daughter would come up and say, ‘Hey, Dad, we’re singing ‘Rhinestone Cowboy.’ He needed prompts.

“But once he started singing, he knew everything,” Ms. Seymour said.

Mr. Campbell was given “cheat sheets” with lyrics in case he forgot some of the words.

“But he played it (each song) and sang it better than anyone on the planet, and the last thing to go for him was the music,” Ms. Seymour said.

Ms. Seymour recalled seeing Mr. Campbell at his house, where he wouldn’t recognize people. “Then suddenly he would know them. He’d go, ‘Oh, yes, oh, yes. God bless you! God bless you!’

“That was his way of getting over the fact he didn’t know anyone’s names,” Ms. Seymour said.

DREYER, Margaret P (Bazzi)

Margaret P Bazzi Dreyer was born at the Saint Francis Hospital in Santa Barbara on March 21, 1925, the first day of spring. Margaret graduated from Santa Barbara High School. She loved her beautiful hometown, Santa Barbara, and never wanted to leave. She later on met Warren J Dreyer from Michigan who was a Marine. Warren fell in love with Margaret, Santa Barbara, and his soon to be Italian in-laws.

Margaret & Warren had three children: Sondra Dreyer, Mark Dreyer, & Wayne Dreyer. Mark Dreyer married Sandi Degiero giving Margaret her first and only granddaughter, Kristy. Kristy Dreyer gave birth to Braden Dryer, making Margaret a great-grandmother. Wayne Dreyer was born with cerebral palsy and Margaret devoted her life to him. Wayne goes to Alpha Training Center and lives a full life. Margaret loved to dance, she danced at the Senior Center well into her 90’s. She loved to garden and grew beautiful flowers. Margaret was one of the nicest people, she had great empathy for all living things. Margaret passed away on April 8, 2023, at the age of 98. She will be greatly missed. A celebration of her life was held on April 18, 2023, at 10:00 a.m. at Mount Calvary, followed by a reception at her home. Donations can be made in Margaret’s memory to Alpha Resource Center.

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“When I saw the final movie, it came out a lot better than I ever imagined, and I was particularly thrilled by the fact that Ruby inadvertently dealt with all the elephants in the room, all the things that people who didn’t have

Service, County of Santa Barbara, and many other groups are very aware of the illegal activity taking place in the Hot Springs drainage area. Mr. Harry Rabin was authorized to install these cameras and is responsible for monitoring the activity and forwarding that information to the affected agency.”

The News-Press talked with Mr. Rabin.

“It was my decision as an individual to place the trail cams up there as was requested by those of authority as a volunteer and responsible member of the Santa Barbara community. There was zero wrongdoing,” Mr. Rabin told the News-Press.

Mr. Rabin clarified that he did so acting as a private citizen and not on behalf of a nonprofit he’s involved with, Heal the Ocean.

On Feb. 23, Ashlee Mayfield of the Montecito Trails Foundation reached out to Mr. Rosen: “I heard you found cameras at the hot springs. Are they still there? The county didn’t put them up. I’d like to be sure someone collects them before the original ‘poster’ collects them and they vanish. Tomorrow won’t be safe.”

“All cameras were taken down,” Mr. Rabin said. “Only two out of the five cameras had footage of people on the trail.”

(General Fund and Measure C).

• June 5 from 2:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. – if needed.

• June 7 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. –budget deliberations.

The city council is scheduled to act on the recommended budget during the regularly scheduled meeting from 2 to 5 and resourceful,” he said, referring to Mexican cartels. “Each and every person crossing through the Tucson Sector must pay these criminal organizations. These criminal organizations employ various tactics to move thousands of migrants illegally across the border.”

He reiterated that the majority coming through are single men of military age wearing camouflage to avoid detection by law enforcement.

Congress continue to utilize the app to communicate with their constituents,” the letter said.

Federal employees are currently banned from using the app on government devices.

“We feel this situation warrants further action to protect the privacy of both sensitive congressional information and

“It was truly one of the greatest experiences in my life, in a way, to be that close to a genius in his own right, in terms of music, and at the same time, it was so tragic to see him getting lost,” she said.

“But it was also magical to see how his family came together and helped him.” email: dmason@newspress.com

“I personally saw three cameras. The first was pointed at a hot spring pool,” Mr. Rosen told the News-Press in an email.

“The second at the pipes about to be installed into the hillside to collect hot water — to be put in by Montecito Creek Water Co., pending permits from Fish and Game. The third was a little ways up Hot Springs Trail pointing at the trail. I am responsible for the first two cameras turned into Public Works, forwarded to the sheriff.” email: news@newspress.com p.m. June 13. email: nhartsteinnewspress@ gmail.com

“When we learned that cameras on forest service land had tags that misidentified the owner, our goal was for the labels to be removed and to clarify that the cameras were not our property,” Mr. Wageneck told the News-Press in an email.

“We are investigating this matter, to include an internal investigation component assessing the handling of the matter by Sheriff’s personnel,” per Undersheriff Craig Bonner, Raquel Zick, public information officer for Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Office, told the NewsPress in an email.

Ashlee Mayfield of Montecito Trails Foundation did not respond to the News-Press request for comment.

The city’s recommended budget for FY 2024 and 2025 can be found by accessing the online budget tool at santabarbaraca. gov/budget-reports.

“The migrants we encounter are completely outfitted in camouflage by the smuggling organizations before they cross,” he said. “Most run from and fight our agents to avoid apprehension. Many are previously deported felons who know they are inadmissible to the United States and many pose a serious threat to our communities.” the personal information of our constituents,” the letter said. “To that end, we urge you to enact a change to the Senate and House rules to ban members of Congress from using TikTok for official use.”

The CBP report also excludes record apprehensions reported at the northern border.

Casey Harper works at The Center Square’s Washington, D.C., bureau.

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