Rick Perry Announces, Gawker Unionizes, New Snowden Snooping Revelations: P.M. Links

• 

  Credit: Gage Skidmore / photo on flickr

  The latest Edward Snowden revelation: The National Security Agency (NSA) had been authorized by the Obama administration in 2012 to engage in warrantless surveillance of Americans' international Internet traffic in order to look for evidence of hacking. While the searches were for computer intrusions originating from abroad, they authorized domestic surveillance.

• Rick Perry formally declared his candidacy for president in Addison, Texas. He plans to play up his relationship with the military and the successes of Texas as a state.
• Employees at Gawker media have voted to unionize and will be represented by the Writers Guild of America.
• A now-former FBI special agent has been indicted on charges of stealing more than $100,000 in seized drug proceeds in California and hiding it.
• Twitter has quietly killed off Politwoops, a service from the Sunlight Foundation that archived the deleted tweets of politicians. Twitter explained it's a violation of their developer agreement and the privacy of the users, even if these users are elected officials.
• Two brothers in North Carolina have been pardoned of their previous convictions for the rape and murder of a girl in 1983. Their convictions were already vacated (after one of them spent three decades on death row). The pardon makes it possible for each of the brothers to receive $750,000 in compensation for their convictions. Their confessions had been coerced by police when they were teens.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and don't forget to sign up for Reason's daily updates for more content.