* Chicago Drops ShotSpotter, Mayor Brandon Johnson says city won’t renew contract with provider of controversial detection system – Newser.

The system, which relies on an artificial intelligence algorithm and network of microphones to identify gunshots, has been criticized for inaccuracy, racial bias, and law enforcement misuse – AP.

Chicago’s contract with SoundThinking, a public safety technology company that says its ShotSpotter tool is used in roughly 150 cities, expires Friday – The city plans to wind down use of ShotSpotter technology by late September.

* Since 2018, the city has spent $49 million on ShotSpotter – soundthinking.com

* Several of the 51 former intelligence officials who signed a letter casting doubt on the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s laptop before the 2020 presidential election are now pushing Congress to enhance the surveillance of Americans.

* Big pharmacies are distributing Americans’ private medical information to law enforcement agencies without a warrant, lawmakers said in a Tuesday letter to the HHS.

* Law enforcement agencies discreetly get a hold of thousands of Americans’ prescription records per year with no warrant, and often with no legal review.

* Special Counsel Jack Smith collected data from the cellphone Trump used in the White House, according to a recent court filing.

* Any potential investigative leads pointing towards Joe Biden were “off the table” during the DOJ criminal investigation into Hunter Biden, new testimony from two IRS agents shows.

IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler testified Dec. 5 before the House Ways and Means Committee and described how they “weren’t allowed” to look into leads potentially implicating Joe Biden, according to testimony excerpts released by the committee.

* Sudden Russian Nuclear Threat in Space? – Joel Skousen, WorldAffairsBrief.com

* Rep. Mike Turner, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, released an urgent warning on Wednesday about a “serious national security threat” of Russia putting a nuclear weapon in space ostensibly as an anti-satellite weapon.

* It appears that Russia is in the process of deploying (via multiple recent satellite launches), or is preparing to deploy, an anti-satellite based nuclear weapons system into space.

* Russia has cheated on every treaty they’ve ever signed (bio-weapons, INF, and START Treaties) when it didn’t serve their needs, and so has the West relative to biological weapons. So, treaties are no deterrent.