William Murray, a Sacramento accountant who stole more than $13 million from 52 clients between 2001 and 2009, pleaded guilty today in federal court to mail fraud and interference with tax administration.
U. S. District Judge Edward J. Garcia ordered Murray to immediately be taken into custody by deputy U. S. marshals. The judge set sentencing for May 28.
Murray, 55, told clients to write checks to accounts under his control so he could pay taxes or make investments on their behalf. Much of the money went to support his extravagant lifestyle, including the purchase of real property, a classic car, a fleet of limousines, expensive jewelry and rugs, and fine wines.
He changed his clients' addresses to his own so they would not receive the IRS' delinquent tax notices.
As demands for payment arrived from clients and the IRS, Murray's fraud became a Ponzi scheme that he perpetuated by using more than $3.5 million in recent client receipts to pay off demands stemming from earlier theft.
Before the house of cards collapsed, Murray was a man of some prominence. He was a certified public accountant with a solid client base.
He regularly offered tax advice on a local television channel. He was used as an expert witness in courts in five counties.
He served as a federal tax agent between 1976 and 1980, when he moved to Sacramento to join a former IRS colleague in private practice.
Murray's plea agreement calls for the forfeiture of all his remaining assets to the government, victim restitution, and full disclosure of his finances to the victims.
Source: http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/crime/archives/2010/03/sacramento-acco.html
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Prius with stuck accelerator glides to safe stop
EL CAJON, Calif. – A California Highway Patrol officer helped slow a runaway Toyota Prius from 94 mph to a safe stop on Monday after the car's accelerator became stuck on a San Diego County freeway, the CHP said.
Prius driver James Sikes called 911 about 1:30 p.m. after accelerating to pass another vehicle on Interstate 8 near La Posta and finding that he could not control his car, the CHP said.
"I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car and it did something kind of funny... it jumped and it just stuck there," the 61-year-old driver said at a news conference. "As it was going, I was trying the brakes...it wasn't stopping, it wasn't doing anything and it just kept speeding up," Sikes said, adding he could smell the brakes burning he was pressing the pedal so hard.
A patrol car pulled alongside the Prius and officers told Sikes over a loudspeaker to push the brake pedal to the floor and apply the emergency brake.
"They also got it going on a steep upgrade," said Officer Jesse Udovich. "Between those three things, they got it to slow down."
After the car decelerated to about 50 mph, Sikes turned off the engine and coasted to a halt.
The officer then maneuvered his car in front of the Prius as a precautionary block, Udovich said.
In a statement, Toyota said it has dispatched a field technical specialist to San Diego to investigate the incident.
Toyota has recalled some 8.5 million vehicles worldwide — more than 6 million in the United States — since last fall because of acceleration problems in multiple models and braking issues in the Prius.
Toyota owners have complained of their vehicles speeding out of control despite efforts to slow down, sometimes resulting in deadly crashes. The government has received complaints of 34 deaths linked to sudden acceleration of Toyota vehicles since 2000.
One of the crashes claimed the life of a CHP officer last August.
Off-duty CHP Officer Mark Saylor was killed along with his wife, her brother and the couple's daughter after their Lexus' accelerator got stuck in La Mesa.
The Toyota-manufactured loaner vehicle slammed into a sport utility vehicle at about 100 mph, careened off the freeway, hit an embankment, overturned and burst into flames.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_runaway_prius
Prius driver James Sikes called 911 about 1:30 p.m. after accelerating to pass another vehicle on Interstate 8 near La Posta and finding that he could not control his car, the CHP said.
"I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car and it did something kind of funny... it jumped and it just stuck there," the 61-year-old driver said at a news conference. "As it was going, I was trying the brakes...it wasn't stopping, it wasn't doing anything and it just kept speeding up," Sikes said, adding he could smell the brakes burning he was pressing the pedal so hard.
A patrol car pulled alongside the Prius and officers told Sikes over a loudspeaker to push the brake pedal to the floor and apply the emergency brake.
"They also got it going on a steep upgrade," said Officer Jesse Udovich. "Between those three things, they got it to slow down."
After the car decelerated to about 50 mph, Sikes turned off the engine and coasted to a halt.
The officer then maneuvered his car in front of the Prius as a precautionary block, Udovich said.
In a statement, Toyota said it has dispatched a field technical specialist to San Diego to investigate the incident.
Toyota has recalled some 8.5 million vehicles worldwide — more than 6 million in the United States — since last fall because of acceleration problems in multiple models and braking issues in the Prius.
Toyota owners have complained of their vehicles speeding out of control despite efforts to slow down, sometimes resulting in deadly crashes. The government has received complaints of 34 deaths linked to sudden acceleration of Toyota vehicles since 2000.
One of the crashes claimed the life of a CHP officer last August.
Off-duty CHP Officer Mark Saylor was killed along with his wife, her brother and the couple's daughter after their Lexus' accelerator got stuck in La Mesa.
The Toyota-manufactured loaner vehicle slammed into a sport utility vehicle at about 100 mph, careened off the freeway, hit an embankment, overturned and burst into flames.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_runaway_prius
Monday, March 1, 2010
Pa. man dies during storm when 911 calls unheeded
PITTSBURGH – With her boyfriend in severe abdominal pain, Sharon Edge called 911 for an ambulance in the early morning hours of Feb. 6. Heavy snow was falling — so heavy it would all but bring the city to a standstill — and Curtis Mitchell needed to go to a hospital.
"Help is on the way," the operator said.
It never arrived.
Nearly 30 hours later — and 10 calls from the couple to 911, four 911 calls to them and at least a dozen calls between 911 and paramedics — Curtis Mitchell died at his home. His electricity knocked out, his heat long off, the 50-year-old former steelworker waited, huddled beneath blankets on his sofa.
"I'm very angry, because I feel they didn't do their job like they supposed to," said Edge, 51. "My man would still be living if they'da did they job like they was supposed to ... They took somebody that I love away."
Mitchell, on disability for depression, had a history of pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas, Edge said, and had spent nine days in a hospital in late January. He had been home about a week when he was overcome with pain. Autopsy results are pending, awaiting toxicology test results, authorities said.
Now Pittsburgh officials have ordered an investigation and reforms of the city's emergency services system as Mitchell's case highlighted key shortcomings:
• Details of Mitchell's calls weren't passed on from one 911 operator to another as shifts changed, so each call was treated as a new incident.
• Twice, ambulances were as close as a quarter-mile from Mitchell's home but drivers said deep snow prevented the vehicles from crossing a small bridge over railroad tracks to reach him. Mitchell was told each time he'd have to walk through the snow to the ambulances; in neither case did paramedics walk to get him.
• Once, an ambulance made it across the bridge and was at the opposite end of the block on the narrow street where the couple lived — a little more than a football field's length. Again, paramedics didn't try to walk.
"We failed this person," said Michael Huss, the city's public safety director.
To be sure, Mitchell's ordeal unfolded as the storm dumped nearly two feet of snow on Pittsburgh; the 911 system was swamped with more than twice as many calls as usual and overall emergency response was hampered.
Regardless of how deep the snow was, Huss said it was unacceptable that paramedics didn't walk to help Mitchell. If they had, Huss believes Mitchell may have survived.
"... You get out of that damn truck and you walk to the residence," Huss said. "That's what needed to happen. We could have carried him out."
The six paramedics on the three ambulances could be disciplined, Huss said. He declined to say what that might be.
Paramedics or firefighters will now be required to go to a caller's door.
"Everyone needs to get a response," Huss said Thursday.
That Mitchell died waiting to get to the hospital is a cruel coincidence.
Edge and Mitchell met eight years ago in an emergency room. Both were getting their medications under control for their mental illnesses, she said. He was being treated for depression; she has bipolar disorder.
"We've been stuck together ever since, like glue," Edge said.
Several years ago, they moved into a small red brick rowhouse in Hazelwood, the riverside neighborhood that was home to Pittsburgh's last working steel mill, which shut down a dozen years ago.
Sitting on the tan and blue fabric sofa where Mitchell died, Edge described him.
He enjoyed watching TV, particularly westerns. They hoped to get married by a justice of the peace in April, then celebrate with a little party.
"He did for his friends," she said. "He looked out for other people when they needed stuff. He was there to help."
They didn't have a car. During the storm, a neighbor offered to drive them to a hospital but he couldn't get his car shoveled out.
Edge is a little sketchy on details of Mitchell's worsening condition and death. Then again, she didn't think she'd need to relive them. She thought they first called 911 on the night of Feb. 5, but records indicate the first call was made about 2 a.m. on Feb 6. Sometime Friday night, the storm knocked out their power and the couple sought warmth under blankets as the house got colder.
Edge said Mitchell had begun to feel stomach pains during the week, but he tried to deal with it. By Friday morning, he woke up in pain. Still, he tried to manage with medication, she said.
A review of the 911 calls by the Associated Press shows no anger in Mitchell's or Edge's voices. There was no screaming. Conversations with operators were cordial and the couple seemed to understand the difficulties the snow posed.
Still, Mitchell and Edge let them know he was in pain.
"My stomach man, it's real messed up. It's killing me," he tells a 911 operator about 11:15 a.m. on Feb. 6.
About 8 p.m. that night — in the eighth call to 911 — Edge tells an operator: "My boyfriend called for an ambulance. He's in a lot of pain and we've been waiting for a couple hours now."
At one point, Mitchell can be heard exclaiming "Oh man, what?" when Edge relayed to him that they would have to walk to the ambulance because of the snow. It was not clear when that conversation took place.
In all, three ambulances were dispatched at separate times. In each case, Mitchell was told he'd have to walk to them — and he canceled the calls.
As the hours went by, Mitchell's pain intensified and he began to have shortness of breath. Because he complained of abdominal pain, which is generally not considered life-threatening, he was initially ranked as a medium priority. About 11:20 a.m. Saturday, his priority level was upgraded, but not as an emergency.
Mitchell tried to sleep. He took his prescriptions — oxycodone for pain and sleeping pills for his insomnia. Edge gave him the medication and closely followed the dosage, she said.
"All that time, he was dying and I didn't even know it," Edge said.
Shortly before 8 a.m. on Feb. 7, Edge made her last 911 call.
"I think my husband's dead. Oh God, oh God," she sobbed.
The 911 operator told Edge to calm down and asked for the address and phone number.
"I've been trying to get an ambulance here for three days. He's been having stomach pains," Edge said.
The operator talked Edge through a check to see if Mitchell was breathing. Try to get him onto the floor on his back, the operator said.
But Mitchell's body was cold. Edge couldn't wake him.
"Oh God, he can't leave me ... Curtis? Curtis?" Edge said, struggling to move him.
The operator assured Edge that paramedics were on the way.
"He's dead," Edge said.
"No, no, no. You're going to stay with me," the operator said, continuing the checks on Mitchell.
Finally, someone came to the door.
"Who is it?" asked Edge. "Is it the medics?"
"Yes."
"All right," said the operator. "You did a good job. I'm going to hang up now. Let them in. Good bye."
The snow had long since stopped falling. It took firefighters two minutes from being dispatched to reach the couple's home.
They checked for a pulse, but it was too late.
"They said he was gone," Edge said.
It would be five more hours before workers from the medical examiner's office came for Mitchell's body.
A police officer waited with her. Edge sat on the sofa with the body.
"I kissed and hugged him," she said of Mitchell. "But it was all I could do."
In this photo made on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010, Sharon Edge stands on the porch of the row house where she and her late boyfriend, Curtis Mitchell, lived in Pittsburgh's Hazelwood neighborhood. They first called 911 for help in the early morning hours of Feb. 6 during a snowstorm. Mitchell was in pain and needed an ambulance. Nearly 30 hours later, and after more than a dozen calls involving the couple and 911 operators or ambulance crews, Mitchell, 50, died at his home in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100228/ap_on_re_us/us_snow911_death
"Help is on the way," the operator said.
It never arrived.
Nearly 30 hours later — and 10 calls from the couple to 911, four 911 calls to them and at least a dozen calls between 911 and paramedics — Curtis Mitchell died at his home. His electricity knocked out, his heat long off, the 50-year-old former steelworker waited, huddled beneath blankets on his sofa.
"I'm very angry, because I feel they didn't do their job like they supposed to," said Edge, 51. "My man would still be living if they'da did they job like they was supposed to ... They took somebody that I love away."
Mitchell, on disability for depression, had a history of pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas, Edge said, and had spent nine days in a hospital in late January. He had been home about a week when he was overcome with pain. Autopsy results are pending, awaiting toxicology test results, authorities said.
Now Pittsburgh officials have ordered an investigation and reforms of the city's emergency services system as Mitchell's case highlighted key shortcomings:
• Details of Mitchell's calls weren't passed on from one 911 operator to another as shifts changed, so each call was treated as a new incident.
• Twice, ambulances were as close as a quarter-mile from Mitchell's home but drivers said deep snow prevented the vehicles from crossing a small bridge over railroad tracks to reach him. Mitchell was told each time he'd have to walk through the snow to the ambulances; in neither case did paramedics walk to get him.
• Once, an ambulance made it across the bridge and was at the opposite end of the block on the narrow street where the couple lived — a little more than a football field's length. Again, paramedics didn't try to walk.
"We failed this person," said Michael Huss, the city's public safety director.
To be sure, Mitchell's ordeal unfolded as the storm dumped nearly two feet of snow on Pittsburgh; the 911 system was swamped with more than twice as many calls as usual and overall emergency response was hampered.
Regardless of how deep the snow was, Huss said it was unacceptable that paramedics didn't walk to help Mitchell. If they had, Huss believes Mitchell may have survived.
"... You get out of that damn truck and you walk to the residence," Huss said. "That's what needed to happen. We could have carried him out."
The six paramedics on the three ambulances could be disciplined, Huss said. He declined to say what that might be.
Paramedics or firefighters will now be required to go to a caller's door.
"Everyone needs to get a response," Huss said Thursday.
That Mitchell died waiting to get to the hospital is a cruel coincidence.
Edge and Mitchell met eight years ago in an emergency room. Both were getting their medications under control for their mental illnesses, she said. He was being treated for depression; she has bipolar disorder.
"We've been stuck together ever since, like glue," Edge said.
Several years ago, they moved into a small red brick rowhouse in Hazelwood, the riverside neighborhood that was home to Pittsburgh's last working steel mill, which shut down a dozen years ago.
Sitting on the tan and blue fabric sofa where Mitchell died, Edge described him.
He enjoyed watching TV, particularly westerns. They hoped to get married by a justice of the peace in April, then celebrate with a little party.
"He did for his friends," she said. "He looked out for other people when they needed stuff. He was there to help."
They didn't have a car. During the storm, a neighbor offered to drive them to a hospital but he couldn't get his car shoveled out.
Edge is a little sketchy on details of Mitchell's worsening condition and death. Then again, she didn't think she'd need to relive them. She thought they first called 911 on the night of Feb. 5, but records indicate the first call was made about 2 a.m. on Feb 6. Sometime Friday night, the storm knocked out their power and the couple sought warmth under blankets as the house got colder.
Edge said Mitchell had begun to feel stomach pains during the week, but he tried to deal with it. By Friday morning, he woke up in pain. Still, he tried to manage with medication, she said.
A review of the 911 calls by the Associated Press shows no anger in Mitchell's or Edge's voices. There was no screaming. Conversations with operators were cordial and the couple seemed to understand the difficulties the snow posed.
Still, Mitchell and Edge let them know he was in pain.
"My stomach man, it's real messed up. It's killing me," he tells a 911 operator about 11:15 a.m. on Feb. 6.
About 8 p.m. that night — in the eighth call to 911 — Edge tells an operator: "My boyfriend called for an ambulance. He's in a lot of pain and we've been waiting for a couple hours now."
At one point, Mitchell can be heard exclaiming "Oh man, what?" when Edge relayed to him that they would have to walk to the ambulance because of the snow. It was not clear when that conversation took place.
In all, three ambulances were dispatched at separate times. In each case, Mitchell was told he'd have to walk to them — and he canceled the calls.
As the hours went by, Mitchell's pain intensified and he began to have shortness of breath. Because he complained of abdominal pain, which is generally not considered life-threatening, he was initially ranked as a medium priority. About 11:20 a.m. Saturday, his priority level was upgraded, but not as an emergency.
Mitchell tried to sleep. He took his prescriptions — oxycodone for pain and sleeping pills for his insomnia. Edge gave him the medication and closely followed the dosage, she said.
"All that time, he was dying and I didn't even know it," Edge said.
Shortly before 8 a.m. on Feb. 7, Edge made her last 911 call.
"I think my husband's dead. Oh God, oh God," she sobbed.
The 911 operator told Edge to calm down and asked for the address and phone number.
"I've been trying to get an ambulance here for three days. He's been having stomach pains," Edge said.
The operator talked Edge through a check to see if Mitchell was breathing. Try to get him onto the floor on his back, the operator said.
But Mitchell's body was cold. Edge couldn't wake him.
"Oh God, he can't leave me ... Curtis? Curtis?" Edge said, struggling to move him.
The operator assured Edge that paramedics were on the way.
"He's dead," Edge said.
"No, no, no. You're going to stay with me," the operator said, continuing the checks on Mitchell.
Finally, someone came to the door.
"Who is it?" asked Edge. "Is it the medics?"
"Yes."
"All right," said the operator. "You did a good job. I'm going to hang up now. Let them in. Good bye."
The snow had long since stopped falling. It took firefighters two minutes from being dispatched to reach the couple's home.
They checked for a pulse, but it was too late.
"They said he was gone," Edge said.
It would be five more hours before workers from the medical examiner's office came for Mitchell's body.
A police officer waited with her. Edge sat on the sofa with the body.
"I kissed and hugged him," she said of Mitchell. "But it was all I could do."
In this photo made on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010, Sharon Edge stands on the porch of the row house where she and her late boyfriend, Curtis Mitchell, lived in Pittsburgh's Hazelwood neighborhood. They first called 911 for help in the early morning hours of Feb. 6 during a snowstorm. Mitchell was in pain and needed an ambulance. Nearly 30 hours later, and after more than a dozen calls involving the couple and 911 operators or ambulance crews, Mitchell, 50, died at his home in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100228/ap_on_re_us/us_snow911_death
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
'America's worst pedophile'?
Dr. Earl Bradley, a Delaware pediatrician, allegedly abused more than 100 children — here's what's known about this shocking case
Delaware pediatrician Earl Bradley — indicted this week for abusing 103 of his young patients in his office — is being called the worst pedophile in U.S. history. Horrified parents and medical professionals across the country are demanding to know how Bradley, who videotaped his sexual abuses, got away with his alleged crimes for at least a decade, despite a number of red-flags that went unheeded. (Watch a CBS report about Delaware's pediatric pedophile.) A fact sheet on the case that's shocked Delaware and the nation:
Who is Earl Bradley?
Dr. Earl Bradley, who was arrested in December, is a 56-year-old pediatrician. At present, little else is known about his private life. (Check back for details as they arrive.)
Where did he practice?
At the BayBees pediatric practice in Lewes, Delaware — an office was known for its "carnival like" decorations, including a "Disney-themed" examination room, a ferris wheel and VW beetle cars "scattered across the grounds."
Where else has he practiced?
He was previously a doctor in Pennsylvania, and also holds medical licenses in Florida and New Jersey, where local police are also conducting investigations into Bradley's past.
How many victims are there?
Bradley's initial arrest in December involved nine child patients. That count has risen to 103 victims — a figure authorities expect could go higher yet — as authorities uncovered more evidence and more victims stepped forward
When did these acts take place?
Between 1998 and 2009, but the "vast majority" took place since 2007.
Who were the victims?
The victims ranged from toddlers of just six months to 13-year-olds. All but one are female.
How was he caught?
A 2-year-old complained to her mother that Bradley had "hurt her" when he took her to a basement room in his practice during an exam, and the woman informed the police.
How did the evidence of all his victims emerge?
A subsequent police search of his properties found "more than 13 hours" of video documenting his crimes. When the Delaware Attorney General set up a helpline to encourage other victims to come forward, it was "swamped" with calls.
Were there warning signs?
Yes. Bradley was reported to the police in 2005 for "inappropriately kissing a 3-year-old patient." Dr. Bradley's office manager, his sister Linda Barnes, claims she passed on other patient complaints to The Medical Society of Delaware in 2005. Then, in 2008, three parents complained to the police of "inappropriate vaginal exams."
Why wasn't anything done?
The 2005 abuse allegation went nowhere after the Delaware Attorney General's office decided it lacked sufficient evidence to charge Bradley. The Medical Society of Delaware says it has no records of complaints made against the doctor. And the 2008 charges were dropped after an unnamed Superior Court judge declined to authorize a search warrant.
Isn't this a massive failing on the state of Delaware's part?
Beau Biden, the state's current Attorney General (and Vice-President Joe Biden's son), has ordered a "thorough examination" of the state's operations from 2005 onwards to see if anyone failed to pursue complaints against Bradley. Delaware governor Jack Markell has also ordered an independent review.
What has Bradley been charged with?
Bradley has been indicted on 471 charges of sexual crimes including rape, sexual assault, and sexual exploitation of a child. If convicted, he can expect a lifetime in jail with no possibility of parole.
Source: http://www.theweek.com/article/index/106705/Americas_worst_pedophile
Delaware pediatrician Earl Bradley — indicted this week for abusing 103 of his young patients in his office — is being called the worst pedophile in U.S. history. Horrified parents and medical professionals across the country are demanding to know how Bradley, who videotaped his sexual abuses, got away with his alleged crimes for at least a decade, despite a number of red-flags that went unheeded. (Watch a CBS report about Delaware's pediatric pedophile.) A fact sheet on the case that's shocked Delaware and the nation:
Who is Earl Bradley?
Dr. Earl Bradley, who was arrested in December, is a 56-year-old pediatrician. At present, little else is known about his private life. (Check back for details as they arrive.)
Where did he practice?
At the BayBees pediatric practice in Lewes, Delaware — an office was known for its "carnival like" decorations, including a "Disney-themed" examination room, a ferris wheel and VW beetle cars "scattered across the grounds."
Where else has he practiced?
He was previously a doctor in Pennsylvania, and also holds medical licenses in Florida and New Jersey, where local police are also conducting investigations into Bradley's past.
How many victims are there?
Bradley's initial arrest in December involved nine child patients. That count has risen to 103 victims — a figure authorities expect could go higher yet — as authorities uncovered more evidence and more victims stepped forward
When did these acts take place?
Between 1998 and 2009, but the "vast majority" took place since 2007.
Who were the victims?
The victims ranged from toddlers of just six months to 13-year-olds. All but one are female.
How was he caught?
A 2-year-old complained to her mother that Bradley had "hurt her" when he took her to a basement room in his practice during an exam, and the woman informed the police.
How did the evidence of all his victims emerge?
A subsequent police search of his properties found "more than 13 hours" of video documenting his crimes. When the Delaware Attorney General set up a helpline to encourage other victims to come forward, it was "swamped" with calls.
Were there warning signs?
Yes. Bradley was reported to the police in 2005 for "inappropriately kissing a 3-year-old patient." Dr. Bradley's office manager, his sister Linda Barnes, claims she passed on other patient complaints to The Medical Society of Delaware in 2005. Then, in 2008, three parents complained to the police of "inappropriate vaginal exams."
Why wasn't anything done?
The 2005 abuse allegation went nowhere after the Delaware Attorney General's office decided it lacked sufficient evidence to charge Bradley. The Medical Society of Delaware says it has no records of complaints made against the doctor. And the 2008 charges were dropped after an unnamed Superior Court judge declined to authorize a search warrant.
Isn't this a massive failing on the state of Delaware's part?
Beau Biden, the state's current Attorney General (and Vice-President Joe Biden's son), has ordered a "thorough examination" of the state's operations from 2005 onwards to see if anyone failed to pursue complaints against Bradley. Delaware governor Jack Markell has also ordered an independent review.
What has Bradley been charged with?
Bradley has been indicted on 471 charges of sexual crimes including rape, sexual assault, and sexual exploitation of a child. If convicted, he can expect a lifetime in jail with no possibility of parole.
Source: http://www.theweek.com/article/index/106705/Americas_worst_pedophile
Teacher tackles gunman supected in school shooting
LITTLETON, Colo. – The math teacher who has become a national hero after breaking up a potentially deadly school shooting near the site of the Columbine massacre said Wednesday that he was simply doing his job to protect his students from danger during his now-famous scuffle with the gunman.
Schools in Littleton have gone through extensive emergency drills after the Columbine tragedy, and David Benke said he always thought about what he'd do if a school shooting broke out.
"If something happens and there's something that I can do about it, I want to try and do something about it," Benke said at a news conference with other staff members from Deer Creek Middle School, at times choking up with emotion. "I said, 'I hope that I'm capable of doing something about it.'"
School officials praised the quick actions by Benke and his colleagues as further proof that preparations put in place after Columbine have paid off. But authorities are still investigating to better understand what happened, including why and for how long the gunman, 32-year-old Bruco Strong Eagle Eastwood, was inside the school building before the shooting.
Assistant principal Becky Brown said the suspect had signed in at the main office about noon Tuesday — some three hours before the shooting. Investigators were interviewing school staff members in attempt to reconstruct the day's events, and they have found live rounds from the hunting rifle at several places on school grounds.
Eastwood said nothing during a brief hearing Wednesday in which a judge set bail at $1 million cash. The unemployed ranch hand appeared by video hookup from the jail, wearing an orange inmate jumpsuit with his dark, shoulder-length hair hanging loose. He faces two counts of attempted first-degree murder.
Eastwood has an arrest record in Colorado dating back to 1996 for menacing, assault, domestic violence and driving under the influence, and he is believed to have a history of mental issues. The sheriff's department said Eastwood is a former student of the school who has been attending community college off and on in pursuit of his GED.
Authorities said he opened fire in the parking lot with the bolt-action rifle at the end of the school day as terrified teenagers ran for their lives. He had allegedly just wounded two students and seemed ready to unleash more violence when Benke sprung into action.
Benke confronted the gunman, tackled him and pinned him to the ground with the help of another teacher, stopping what could have been a much more violent encounter in a city all too familiar with tragic school shootings. The shooting occurred less than three miles from where the Columbine High School massacre happened nearly 11 years ago.
"Unfortunately he got another round off before I could grab him," Benke said. "He figured out that he wasn't going to be able to get another round chambered before I got to him so he dropped the gun and then we were kind of struggling around trying to get him subdued."
The two students survived Tuesday's shooting and one remained hospitalized. The student in the hospital is one of Benke's students, and the principal said he is "progressing well."
Meanwhile, Benke became a hero. A Facebook page called "Dr. David Benke Is A Hero!!!!" quickly grew to more than 17,000 members, and his actions were discussed on the floor of the state Senate.
"Sometimes that's just what we need. We need someone to be a hero for us," said state Sen. Mike Kopp of Littleton, who lives in Benke's neighborhood.
Benke, a father of 7-year-old twins and a 13-year-old girl, fought back tears after Jefferson County Sheriff Ted Mink thanked him Tuesday.
"Believe me when I say, I think he stopped what could have been a more tragic event than it was this afternoon," Mink said.
The victims, students Reagan Webber and Matt Thieu, were both treated at Littleton Adventist Hospital, where spokeswoman Christine Alexander said Webber was treated and released to her home.
Benke, a 6-foot-5 former college basketball player who oversees the school's track team, was monitoring the parking lot in the afternoon when he heard what he thought was a firecracker and began walking toward the noise.
"At first when I was walking over there, it was kind of what a teacher does," Benke said, still shaken hours after the shooting. "`Hey kid, what are you doing,' you know that kind of thing."
"I grabbed him from the front and we were dancing around pushing and shoving," he said.
In 2005, Eastwood participated in a NASA-funded medical study in which he spent 10 days in a hospital bed so scientists could study muscle wasting, an affliction experienced by astronauts during long flights, according to a story in the Rocky Mountain News at the time.
He told the newspaper that he had a lifelong dream of being an astronaut and described his occupation to the newspaper as horse trainer working at his father's ranch. He pocketed $2,200 from the study and was able to spend a week and a half watching DVDs and playing video games during the bed experiment.
A man who answered the phone Tuesday night at a number listed for Eastwood identified himself only as "Mr. Eastwood" and said he was Bruco Eastwood's father. He was at a loss for words.
"There's nothing you can say about it. What can you say?" the man told The Associated Press. "Pretty dumb thing to do. I feel bad for the people involved." He wouldn't comment further.
As for Benke, he said he still wishes he could have done: "It bugs me that he got another round off" before Benke tackled him to the ground.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100224/ap_on_re_us/us_colo_school_shooting_26
Schools in Littleton have gone through extensive emergency drills after the Columbine tragedy, and David Benke said he always thought about what he'd do if a school shooting broke out.
"If something happens and there's something that I can do about it, I want to try and do something about it," Benke said at a news conference with other staff members from Deer Creek Middle School, at times choking up with emotion. "I said, 'I hope that I'm capable of doing something about it.'"
School officials praised the quick actions by Benke and his colleagues as further proof that preparations put in place after Columbine have paid off. But authorities are still investigating to better understand what happened, including why and for how long the gunman, 32-year-old Bruco Strong Eagle Eastwood, was inside the school building before the shooting.
Assistant principal Becky Brown said the suspect had signed in at the main office about noon Tuesday — some three hours before the shooting. Investigators were interviewing school staff members in attempt to reconstruct the day's events, and they have found live rounds from the hunting rifle at several places on school grounds.
Eastwood said nothing during a brief hearing Wednesday in which a judge set bail at $1 million cash. The unemployed ranch hand appeared by video hookup from the jail, wearing an orange inmate jumpsuit with his dark, shoulder-length hair hanging loose. He faces two counts of attempted first-degree murder.
Eastwood has an arrest record in Colorado dating back to 1996 for menacing, assault, domestic violence and driving under the influence, and he is believed to have a history of mental issues. The sheriff's department said Eastwood is a former student of the school who has been attending community college off and on in pursuit of his GED.
Authorities said he opened fire in the parking lot with the bolt-action rifle at the end of the school day as terrified teenagers ran for their lives. He had allegedly just wounded two students and seemed ready to unleash more violence when Benke sprung into action.
Benke confronted the gunman, tackled him and pinned him to the ground with the help of another teacher, stopping what could have been a much more violent encounter in a city all too familiar with tragic school shootings. The shooting occurred less than three miles from where the Columbine High School massacre happened nearly 11 years ago.
"Unfortunately he got another round off before I could grab him," Benke said. "He figured out that he wasn't going to be able to get another round chambered before I got to him so he dropped the gun and then we were kind of struggling around trying to get him subdued."
The two students survived Tuesday's shooting and one remained hospitalized. The student in the hospital is one of Benke's students, and the principal said he is "progressing well."
Meanwhile, Benke became a hero. A Facebook page called "Dr. David Benke Is A Hero!!!!" quickly grew to more than 17,000 members, and his actions were discussed on the floor of the state Senate.
"Sometimes that's just what we need. We need someone to be a hero for us," said state Sen. Mike Kopp of Littleton, who lives in Benke's neighborhood.
Benke, a father of 7-year-old twins and a 13-year-old girl, fought back tears after Jefferson County Sheriff Ted Mink thanked him Tuesday.
"Believe me when I say, I think he stopped what could have been a more tragic event than it was this afternoon," Mink said.
The victims, students Reagan Webber and Matt Thieu, were both treated at Littleton Adventist Hospital, where spokeswoman Christine Alexander said Webber was treated and released to her home.
Benke, a 6-foot-5 former college basketball player who oversees the school's track team, was monitoring the parking lot in the afternoon when he heard what he thought was a firecracker and began walking toward the noise.
"At first when I was walking over there, it was kind of what a teacher does," Benke said, still shaken hours after the shooting. "`Hey kid, what are you doing,' you know that kind of thing."
"I grabbed him from the front and we were dancing around pushing and shoving," he said.
In 2005, Eastwood participated in a NASA-funded medical study in which he spent 10 days in a hospital bed so scientists could study muscle wasting, an affliction experienced by astronauts during long flights, according to a story in the Rocky Mountain News at the time.
He told the newspaper that he had a lifelong dream of being an astronaut and described his occupation to the newspaper as horse trainer working at his father's ranch. He pocketed $2,200 from the study and was able to spend a week and a half watching DVDs and playing video games during the bed experiment.
A man who answered the phone Tuesday night at a number listed for Eastwood identified himself only as "Mr. Eastwood" and said he was Bruco Eastwood's father. He was at a loss for words.
"There's nothing you can say about it. What can you say?" the man told The Associated Press. "Pretty dumb thing to do. I feel bad for the people involved." He wouldn't comment further.
As for Benke, he said he still wishes he could have done: "It bugs me that he got another round off" before Benke tackled him to the ground.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100224/ap_on_re_us/us_colo_school_shooting_26
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Joe Stack Plane Crash: Why Did He Hate IRS Enough to Kill?
AUSTIN, Texas (CBS/AP) Joseph Andrew Stack's seething hatred for the IRS appeared to have roots at least two decades long, judging from the web post he left behind before crashing his plane into in an Austin, Texas office building Thursday where some 200 employees of the tax agency worked.
Photo: Joseph Andrew Stack.
The anti "tax man" fuse may have been lit in Stack in 1986, when the software engineer confronted a change in tax law, that required companies using high-tech contractors to withhold part of their salaries for income tax purposes.
In the online letter discovered after the crash, Stack wrote, "They could only have been more blunt if they would have came out and directly declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave."
Calvin Johnson, a law professor at the University of Texas who specializes in federal tax laws told the Austin American Statesman it appeared Stack was looking for a way out of the withholding system.
"If Stack had intended to pay tax on the quarterly payment system, he would have had no advantage from getting out of withholding. Indeed, the paperwork burdens go up," Johnson told the paper. "I suspect he therefore had no intent to pay any tax, even when an independent contractor."
Stack also said he got involved with a group that was especially interested in how religious organizations like the Catholic Church got "incredibly wealthy" by taking advantage of "exemptions," according to his online rant.
He goes on to describe an "exercise" the group conducted, aimed at reevaluating laws that, as Stack wrote, "allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living."
But they were apparently unsuccessful, and Stack wrote that it ended up costing him "$40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0," and that it "made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie."
Stack's clashes with the government didn’t stop there. His first wife filed for bankruptcy in 1999, listing a debt to the IRS of nearly $126,000.
According to California state records, Stack also had a troubled business history, twice starting software companies in California that ultimately were suspended by the state's tax board, one in 2000, the other in 2004.
Stack's father-in-law, Jack Cook, told the New York Times that he knew Stack had a "hang-up" with the IRS, and his marriage had been strained. His wife had taken her daughter to a hotel to get away from Stack on Wednesday night, the newspaper said.
That might have been the last straw for Stack. On Thursday he blew up his house, and aimed his plane at what he seemed to believe was the root of all his problems: the IRS.
Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/02/19/crimesider/entry6223276.shtml
The anti "tax man" fuse may have been lit in Stack in 1986, when the software engineer confronted a change in tax law, that required companies using high-tech contractors to withhold part of their salaries for income tax purposes.
In the online letter discovered after the crash, Stack wrote, "They could only have been more blunt if they would have came out and directly declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave."
Calvin Johnson, a law professor at the University of Texas who specializes in federal tax laws told the Austin American Statesman it appeared Stack was looking for a way out of the withholding system.
"If Stack had intended to pay tax on the quarterly payment system, he would have had no advantage from getting out of withholding. Indeed, the paperwork burdens go up," Johnson told the paper. "I suspect he therefore had no intent to pay any tax, even when an independent contractor."
Stack also said he got involved with a group that was especially interested in how religious organizations like the Catholic Church got "incredibly wealthy" by taking advantage of "exemptions," according to his online rant.
He goes on to describe an "exercise" the group conducted, aimed at reevaluating laws that, as Stack wrote, "allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living."
But they were apparently unsuccessful, and Stack wrote that it ended up costing him "$40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0," and that it "made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie."
Stack's clashes with the government didn’t stop there. His first wife filed for bankruptcy in 1999, listing a debt to the IRS of nearly $126,000.
According to California state records, Stack also had a troubled business history, twice starting software companies in California that ultimately were suspended by the state's tax board, one in 2000, the other in 2004.
Stack's father-in-law, Jack Cook, told the New York Times that he knew Stack had a "hang-up" with the IRS, and his marriage had been strained. His wife had taken her daughter to a hotel to get away from Stack on Wednesday night, the newspaper said.
That might have been the last straw for Stack. On Thursday he blew up his house, and aimed his plane at what he seemed to believe was the root of all his problems: the IRS.
Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/02/19/crimesider/entry6223276.shtml
Monday, February 22, 2010
Philly: White women rarely arrested for pot
In Philadelphia and other urban environments white women are the group least arrested for marijuana. Mainstream media has given significant attention recently to American women’s appreciation for cannabis. From Tyra Banks to The View and Marie Claire to the New York Times we can see businesswomen, celebrities and soccer moms smoking pot for medication and recreation.
But a look at the data for Philadelphia in August 2008 reveals that just 9 white women were arrested for marijuana possession of less than 30 grams. In sharp contrast, 362 black men were arrested that month alone for the very same offense.
The data comes from the Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Report and has been confirmed by Philadelphia Police representatives.
Nationally, statistics show that there is a stronger preference among men for marijuana (or at least to admit use on surveys). The same data shows that women of most ethnicities are well represented within America’s millions of marijuana consumers.
Several studies indicate that black and white women choose cannabis at near equal rates.
Still, black women were three times more likely to be arrested for pot in Philadelphia.
The city saw just 90 white women arrested in all of 2008 for minor marijuana possession while 345 black women were arrested for the same offense.
Overall in 2008 for Philadelphia: 4716 adults were arrested for simple pot possession: 3908 were black men.
Unfortunately Philadelphia is in no way unique. In New York City the data showcasing a racial and gender disparity in marijuana arrests is shocking: NYC saw over ten thousand arrests during just a single year for Marijuana in Public View (MPV), a criminal misdemeanor. Ninety percent of those arrests were black men. Read more
Again, the least arrested category for pot in NYC was white women.
The charge in Philly for cannabis possession less than 30 grams is rather harsh: A Class-A criminal misdemeanor. Unlike every other county in Pennsylvania it requires immediate custodial arrest in the city.
PhillyNORML met with Philadelphia city officials last May to discuss the local marijuana arrest statistics. A report quantifying those arrests in the city criminal justice system is still in progress.
Clearly though, the cumulative effect of marijuana prohibition enforcement in Philadelphia and many urban environments across America is a stark racial and gender disparity. Members of the cannabis reform effort point to such data as the civil rights and social justice core of the national legalization movement.
As more women are being showcased in the media, National NORML in Washington DC created a Women’s Alliance this year to focus on this aspect of reform. Locally at PhillyNORML and NORML-NJ, women are in leadership roles. More info: NORML Women’s Alliance
Women have been some of the strongest voices in the medical marijuana movement: WAMM’s Valerie Corral, OregonNORML’s Madeline Martinez and US Supreme Court litigant Angel Raich, have had a profound impact on the national debate.
Seventy years ago American women decried the effect alcohol prohibition was having on their fathers, brothers and sons. The voice of women made the final push to end the failed policy of alcohol prohibition in 1933.
Today, marijuana advocates are working to bring greater attention to the cannabis arrest disparity. Statistics in Philadelphia and New York City compel greater scrutiny of pot prohibition enforcement.
The infrequent arrest of white women underlines that marijuana legalization is a social policy issue with complex and far-reaching implications.
Source: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-29881-Philadelphia-NORML-Examiner~y2010m2d22-White-women-rarely-arrested-for-pot
Friday, February 19, 2010
Facebook excommunicates WORM because of the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine
Rotterdam, 18th of February 2010
Facebook excommunicates WORM because of the Web2.0 Suicide Machine
It is with great sorrow that we announce that Facebook Inc. has decided that WORM, the producer of the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine, will be excommunicated from Facebook.
The initiative to build the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine came from Moddr_, WORM’s media lab. By threatening WORM, Facebook is trying to take down the Suicide Machine.
The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine allows users of - among others - Facebook to commit ‘social network suicide’. Facebook threatens WORM with further legal action if WORM doesn’t stop targeting the FaceBook platform via the SuicideMachine. In addition, it has now also demanded that WORM immediately deletes its own Facebook profile (WORM_Rotterdam). According to Facebook and its lawyer, the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine has violated Facebook’s Terms of Service and with that WORM has forfeited it’s right to keep using the platform. WORM does not want to engage in a fight over this matter with Facebook. The idea behind the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine was to be able to ‘unfriend’ in an automated fashion and to make users of social networks aware that they should always be in control of their own data. Facebook won’t allow for this control and is also not willing to enter into this debate. We are pretty much done with that and are left with no other choice than to commit online suicide ourselves. The conditions and attitude of Facebook leave no other option as far as WORM is concerned.
WORM deeply regrets the current situation. The web 2.0 Suicide Machine was never intended to target Facebook as such, but meant as a tool for people who, for whatever reason, are tired of their online life. Facebook wants all access to their service, personal data of their users included, to run via their own ‘connect’ platform. In this way, Facebook can set, interpret and change its own rules as it sees fit...
The excommunication of WORM illustrates that data freedom and net neutrality of users is merely an illusion on many social network sites. Not only is it not allowed for people to unfriend (in an automated manner), but companies also have the power to expel users they do not like. Facebook shows that a user only has the rights that Facebook grants it.
Facebook claims all rights. WORM does not want to continue living in this 2.0 world. Which is why we say goodbye to all our friends. We wish you all the best.
No flowers, no speeches.
moddr_labs,
WORM, Rotterdam
worm.org
moddr.net
suicidemachine.org
Source: http://www.suicidemachine.org/
WORM's Facebook Suicide pt.1 from moddr_ on Vimeo.
Facebook excommunicates WORM because of the Web2.0 Suicide Machine
It is with great sorrow that we announce that Facebook Inc. has decided that WORM, the producer of the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine, will be excommunicated from Facebook.
The initiative to build the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine came from Moddr_, WORM’s media lab. By threatening WORM, Facebook is trying to take down the Suicide Machine.
The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine allows users of - among others - Facebook to commit ‘social network suicide’. Facebook threatens WORM with further legal action if WORM doesn’t stop targeting the FaceBook platform via the SuicideMachine. In addition, it has now also demanded that WORM immediately deletes its own Facebook profile (WORM_Rotterdam). According to Facebook and its lawyer, the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine has violated Facebook’s Terms of Service and with that WORM has forfeited it’s right to keep using the platform. WORM does not want to engage in a fight over this matter with Facebook. The idea behind the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine was to be able to ‘unfriend’ in an automated fashion and to make users of social networks aware that they should always be in control of their own data. Facebook won’t allow for this control and is also not willing to enter into this debate. We are pretty much done with that and are left with no other choice than to commit online suicide ourselves. The conditions and attitude of Facebook leave no other option as far as WORM is concerned.
WORM deeply regrets the current situation. The web 2.0 Suicide Machine was never intended to target Facebook as such, but meant as a tool for people who, for whatever reason, are tired of their online life. Facebook wants all access to their service, personal data of their users included, to run via their own ‘connect’ platform. In this way, Facebook can set, interpret and change its own rules as it sees fit...
The excommunication of WORM illustrates that data freedom and net neutrality of users is merely an illusion on many social network sites. Not only is it not allowed for people to unfriend (in an automated manner), but companies also have the power to expel users they do not like. Facebook shows that a user only has the rights that Facebook grants it.
Facebook claims all rights. WORM does not want to continue living in this 2.0 world. Which is why we say goodbye to all our friends. We wish you all the best.
No flowers, no speeches.
moddr_labs,
WORM, Rotterdam
worm.org
moddr.net
suicidemachine.org
Source: http://www.suicidemachine.org/
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Stalked, drugged and raped: Is it happening in San Antonio?
Cynthia Vurbeff is moving. Her home, she says, has become a house of horrors.
“I feel that I've lost my mind, lost my life,” Vurbeff said.
Incident reports from law enforcement tell the tale: Numerous break-ins at the address. She suffered vandalism to her car, motorcycle and computer.
Vurbeff believes she was being targeted.
“Everything... They just went through everything,” she said.
But sheriff’s detectives had little to go on, because the vandals -- though often destructive -- stole nothing. Even from her portable safe, drilled into and torn apart, the contents -- the jewelry -- remained untouched.
'He told me ... I would be stalked'
Vurbeff says her troubles didn’t start until she met two men.
One would become her ex-boyfriend; the other was his partner in a San Antonio pain clinic, Dr. John Hall.
Vurbeff said: “The very first time I met him, we went to his house on the Fourth of July, and he told me that because I was already there in his house, that I would be the next victim, that I would be stalked.”
Vurbeff found the doctor’s prophecy to be correct. She suffered months of oddness:
Lights left on. Doors open. Furniture moved. Her clothes dryer disassembled. Her friends said they noticed the strange happenings. They tell the I-Team they even witnessed a gas oven left turned on.
“As soon as you walked in the house, you smelled gas," one friend said. "The whole house smelled of gas. Immediately turned it off, opened up the doors, but that thing doesn't turn on by itself. And it had been running a good length of time."
Another friend said she and Vurbeff were stalked at a mall.
Vurbeff said all these happenings culminated in an assault. The 39-year old believes someone drugged the food in her home and returned later to rape her.
“I know something happened to me, because... a woman knows,” Vurbeff stated.
She filed a report and was briefly hospitalized with signs of sexual assault.
Book about 'gang stalking'
Dr. Hall says what Vurbeff describes is known as “gang stalking.” Indeed, he writes about it in his book, “A New Breed: Satellite Terrorism in America.”
Vurbeff is not alone. Others in San Antonio have contacted the I-Team and described similar types of occurrences.
Linda Johnson says someone poisoned her water supply with heavy metals in northwest San Antonio. Then, there’s the story of the bracelet that went missing, and then reappeared.
Police, she says, have stopped listening to her. And like Vurbeff, she, too, believes she’s been sexually assaulted, although she never filed a police report.
Johnson said: “I've been to doctors many times, and I've been to the rape crisis center, yes."
Many of these so-called victims of what Hall describes as “gang stalking” meet up on the Internet, finding comfort and information from others who say they, too, suffer from electronic stalking, mind control and even rape.
Loosely defined, gang stalking is where organized groups target and harass unwilling victims to the point of paranoia, leaving the victims to deal with skeptical family members and skeptical law enforcement.
“This isn't stalking that's done by former spouse, or former boyfriend or someone you know is disgruntled at you, but stalking that's done by a total stranger in an organized fashion," Dr. Hall said.
And some Internet links take you to the book mentioned earlier, written by Dr. John Hall.
"The book is fact. It's not a book of fiction. What I've wrote about here is an isolated story in San Antonio,” Dr. Hall said.
Dr. Hall says it is a story about himself, and the harassment and rapes his ex-girlfriends allegedly suffered, beginning in 1996. Dr. Hall believes the people behind it are well-organized-operatives, using government satellite technology to terrorize him and other victims.
"All voicing the same complaints: organized stalking, weird, electronic disturbances going on in their homes. Most of the women complain of drugging and sexual assault. It's a big national problem," he said.
Vurbeff bought the book. And what she read she says caused her stomach to turn: Because within the chapters in the story, she found similarities to her own situation.
Vurbeff said: “I pulled out the book and I started reading it, and I'm like, 'Oh my God, that's exactly what's happening to me.'”
I-Team investigates
The account in Hall’s book is chilling, and the I-Team uncovered some truth to his story.
San Antonio police reports indicate there WAS a rape reported in 2007 in the same quad of condos where one of Dr. Hall’s girlfriends supposedly lived. San Antonio police say the condo rape remains under investigation.
And Bexar County detectives say Vurbeff’s assault case remains open as well.
Although there are some interesting connections to Dr. Hall and the book, law enforcement won’t and cannot say whether Dr. Hall is even a person of interest.
The I-Team thought the similarities were striking, and asked him if he was in fact bothering these women.
Dr. Hall responded: “That's actually one of the reasons why I got out of my ex-fiancé’s life: to make sure that they weren't victimizing her to get at me."
Dr. Hall said he’s been targeted by the same groups and even by fellow doctors. He said the Texas Medical Board retaliated against him for uncovering the gang stalking.
The I-Team confirmed one local hospital suspended Dr. Hall’s clinical privileges for 2 months in 2006.
In 2007, the Texas Medical Board ordered two mental evaluations for Dr. Hall. The first came back normal, but a second evaluation found a “probable delusional disorder” and ordered psychiatric treatment.
And in 2008, Hall’s license was suspended for testing positive for cocaine. In the book, he explains the operatives drugged him with cocaine periodically.
Dr. Hall’s medical license has since been reinstated.
"If you look nationwide, almost everyone who complains of this eventually gets sent to a psychiatrist. And the psychiatrists don't look into the technology. They don't do any research into whether or not any of this is possible," Dr. Hall said.
With his book published, the Dr. Hall is taking his message nationally.
He’s appeared on cable TV shows and late-night radio and even has his own radio program in the works.
Dr. Hall said: "There have been several people in my midst obviously that have been victimized. But if you look at it on a larger scale, it is a national problem."
Dr. Hall’s belief is that we all face some sort of terrorism in our lives that is mostly unseen and deadly. He contends criminals are tapping into our government’s surveillance systems to gain access to our lives and minds.
As for the alleged rapes mentioned in the story, no one has been charged. Both San Antonio police and Bexar County Sheriff’s deputies say they continue to investigate.
Source: http://www.kens5.com/news/Stalked-drugged-and-raped-Is-it-happening-in-San-Antonio.html
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
King Tut Was Disabled, Malarial, and Inbred, DNA Shows
"Frail boy" needed cane, says study, which also found oldest genetic proof of malaria.
One of several, this golden "coffinette" (detail pictured) held part of King Tut's organs.Photograph by Kenneth Garrett, National Geographic Stock
King Tut may be seen as the golden boy of ancient Egypt today, but during his reign, Tutankhamun wasn't exactly a strapping sun god.
Instead, a new DNA study says, King Tut was a frail pharaoh, beset by malaria and a bone disorder—and possibly compromised by his newly discovered incestuous origins.
The report is the first DNA study ever conducted with ancient Egyptian royal mummies. It apparently solves several mysteries surrounding King Tut, including how he died and who his parents were.
"He was not a very strong pharaoh. He was not riding the chariots," said study team member Carsten Pusch, a geneticist at Germany's University of Tübingen. "Picture instead a frail, weak boy who had a bit of a club foot and who needed a cane to walk."
Regarding the revelation that King Tut's mother and father were brother and sister, Pusch said, "Inbreeding is not an advantage for biological or genetic fitness. Normally the health and immune system are reduced and malformations increase," he said.
Short Reign, Lasting Impact of King Tut
Tutankhamun was a pharaoh during ancient Egypt's New Kingdom era, about 3,300 years ago. He ascended to the throne at the age of 9 but ruled for only ten years before dying at 19 around 1324 B.C.
Despite his brief reign, King Tut is perhaps Egypt's best known pharaoh because of the wealth of treasures—including a solid gold death mask—found during the surprise discovery of his intact tomb in 1922.
The new study, published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, marks the first time the Egyptian government has allowed genetic studies to be performed using royal mummies.
"This will open to us a new era," said project leader Zahi Hawass, the Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence.
"I'm very happy this is an Egyptian project, and I'm very proud of the work that we did."
King Tut's Close-Knit Family
In the new study, the mummies of King Tut and ten other royals that researchers have long suspected were his close relatives were examined. Of these ten, the identities of only three had been known for certain.
Using DNA samples taken from the mummies' bones, the scientists were able to create a five-generation family tree for the boy pharaoh.
The team looked for shared genetic sequences in the Y chromosome—a bundle of DNA passed only from father to son—to identify King Tut's male ancestors. The researchers then determined parentage for the mummies by looking for signs that a mummy's genes are a blend of a specific couple's DNA.
In this way, the team was able to determine that a mummy known until now as KV55 is the "heretic king" Akhenaten—and that he was King Tut's father. Akhenaten was best known for abolishing ancient Egypt's pantheon in favor of worshipping only one god.
Furthermore, the mummy known as KV35 was King Tut's grandfather, the pharaoh Amenhotep III, whose reign was marked by unprecedented prosperity.
Preliminary DNA evidence also indicates that two stillborn fetuses entombed with King Tut when he died were daughters whom he likely fathered with his chief queen Ankhensenamun, whose mummy may also have finally been identified.
Also, a mummy previously known as the Elder Lady is Queen Tiye, King Tut's grandmother and wife of Amenhotep III.
King Tut's mother is a mummy researchers had been calling the Younger Lady.
While the body of King Tut's mother has finally been revealed, her identity remains a mystery. DNA studies show that she was the daughter of Amenhotep III and Tiye and thus was the full sister of her husband, Akhenaten.
Some Egyptologists have speculated that King Tut's mother was Akhenaten's chief wife, Queen Nefertiti—made famous by an iconic bust (Nefertiti-bust picture). But the new findings seem to challenge this idea, because historical records do not indicate that Nefertiti and Akhenaten were related.
Instead, the sister with whom Akenhaten fathered King Tut may have been a minor wife or concubine, which would not have been unusual, said Willeke Wendrich, a UCLA Egyptologist who was not involved in the study.
"Egyptian pharaohs had multiple wives, and often multiple sons who would potentially compete for the throne after the death of their father," Wendrich said.
Inbreeding would also not have been considered unusual among Egyptian royalty of the time.
King Tut Plagued by Malaria, Required Cane
The team's examination of King Tut's body also revealed previously unknown deformations in the king's left foot, caused by the necrosis, or death, of bone tissue.
"Necrosis is always bad, because it means you have dying organic matter inside your body," study team member Pusch told National Geographic News.
The affliction would have been painful and forced King Tut to walk with a cane—many of which were found in his tomb—but it would not have been life threatening.
Malaria, however, would have been a serious danger.
The scientists found DNA from the mosquito-borne parasite that causes malaria in the young pharaoh's body—the oldest known genetic proof of the disease.
The team found more than one strain of malaria parasite, indicating that King Tut caught multiple malarial infections during his life. The strains belong to the parasite responsible for malaria tropica, the most virulent and deadly form of the disease.
The malaria would have weakened King Tut's immune system and interfered with the healing of his foot. These factors, combined with the fracture in his left thighbone, which scientists had discovered in 2005, may have ultimately been what killed the young king, the authors write.
Until now the best guesses as to how King Tut died have included a hunting accident, a blood infection, a blow to the head, and poisoning.
UCLA's Wendrich said the new finding "lays to rest the completely baseless theories about the murder of Tutankhamun."
King Tut's Father Not "Egyptian Quasimodo"
Another speculation apparently laid to rest by the new study is that Akhenaten had a genetic disorder that caused him to develop the feminine features seen in his statutes, including wide hips, a potbelly, and the female-like breasts associated with the condition gynecomastia.
When the team analyzed Akhenaten's body using medical scanners, no evidence of such abnormalities were found. Hawass and his team concluded that the feminized features found in the statues of Akenhaten created during his reign were done for religious and political reasons.
In ancient Egypt, Akhenaten was a god, Hawass explained. "The poems said of him, 'you are the man, and you are the woman,' so artists put the picture of a man and a woman in his body."
Egyptologist John Darnell of Yale University called the revelation that Akhenaten's appearance was not due to genetic disorders "the most important result" of the new study.
In his book Tutankhamun's Armies, Darnell proposes that Akhenaten's androgynous appearance in art was an attempt to associate himself with Aten, the original creator god in Egyptian theology, who was neither male nor female.
"Akenhaten is odd in his appearance because he belongs to the time of creation, not because he was physically different," said Darnell, who also did not participate in the DNA research.
"People will now need to consider Akenhaten as a thinker, and not just as an Egyptian Quasimodo."
"Beautiful DNA" Found in King Tut Study
The generally good condition of the DNA from the royal mummies of King Tut's family surprised many members of the team.
Indeed, its quality was better than DNA gathered from nonroyal Egyptian mummies several centuries younger, study co-author Pusch said.
The DNA of the Elder Lady, for example, "was the most beautiful DNA that I've ever seen from an ancient specimen," Pusch said.
The team suspects that the embalming method the ancient Egyptians used to preserve the royal mummies inadvertently protected DNA as well as flesh.
"The ingredients used to embalm the royals was completely different in both quantity and quality compared to the normal population in ancient times," Pusch explained.
Preserving DNA "was not the aim of the Egyptian priest of course, but the embalming method they used was lucky for us."
Source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/02/100216-king-tut-malaria-bones-inbred-tutankhamun/
King Tut may be seen as the golden boy of ancient Egypt today, but during his reign, Tutankhamun wasn't exactly a strapping sun god.
Instead, a new DNA study says, King Tut was a frail pharaoh, beset by malaria and a bone disorder—and possibly compromised by his newly discovered incestuous origins.
The report is the first DNA study ever conducted with ancient Egyptian royal mummies. It apparently solves several mysteries surrounding King Tut, including how he died and who his parents were.
"He was not a very strong pharaoh. He was not riding the chariots," said study team member Carsten Pusch, a geneticist at Germany's University of Tübingen. "Picture instead a frail, weak boy who had a bit of a club foot and who needed a cane to walk."
Regarding the revelation that King Tut's mother and father were brother and sister, Pusch said, "Inbreeding is not an advantage for biological or genetic fitness. Normally the health and immune system are reduced and malformations increase," he said.
Short Reign, Lasting Impact of King Tut
Tutankhamun was a pharaoh during ancient Egypt's New Kingdom era, about 3,300 years ago. He ascended to the throne at the age of 9 but ruled for only ten years before dying at 19 around 1324 B.C.
Despite his brief reign, King Tut is perhaps Egypt's best known pharaoh because of the wealth of treasures—including a solid gold death mask—found during the surprise discovery of his intact tomb in 1922.
The new study, published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, marks the first time the Egyptian government has allowed genetic studies to be performed using royal mummies.
"This will open to us a new era," said project leader Zahi Hawass, the Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) and a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence.
"I'm very happy this is an Egyptian project, and I'm very proud of the work that we did."
King Tut's Close-Knit Family
In the new study, the mummies of King Tut and ten other royals that researchers have long suspected were his close relatives were examined. Of these ten, the identities of only three had been known for certain.
Using DNA samples taken from the mummies' bones, the scientists were able to create a five-generation family tree for the boy pharaoh.
The team looked for shared genetic sequences in the Y chromosome—a bundle of DNA passed only from father to son—to identify King Tut's male ancestors. The researchers then determined parentage for the mummies by looking for signs that a mummy's genes are a blend of a specific couple's DNA.
In this way, the team was able to determine that a mummy known until now as KV55 is the "heretic king" Akhenaten—and that he was King Tut's father. Akhenaten was best known for abolishing ancient Egypt's pantheon in favor of worshipping only one god.
Furthermore, the mummy known as KV35 was King Tut's grandfather, the pharaoh Amenhotep III, whose reign was marked by unprecedented prosperity.
Preliminary DNA evidence also indicates that two stillborn fetuses entombed with King Tut when he died were daughters whom he likely fathered with his chief queen Ankhensenamun, whose mummy may also have finally been identified.
Also, a mummy previously known as the Elder Lady is Queen Tiye, King Tut's grandmother and wife of Amenhotep III.
King Tut's mother is a mummy researchers had been calling the Younger Lady.
While the body of King Tut's mother has finally been revealed, her identity remains a mystery. DNA studies show that she was the daughter of Amenhotep III and Tiye and thus was the full sister of her husband, Akhenaten.
Some Egyptologists have speculated that King Tut's mother was Akhenaten's chief wife, Queen Nefertiti—made famous by an iconic bust (Nefertiti-bust picture). But the new findings seem to challenge this idea, because historical records do not indicate that Nefertiti and Akhenaten were related.
Instead, the sister with whom Akenhaten fathered King Tut may have been a minor wife or concubine, which would not have been unusual, said Willeke Wendrich, a UCLA Egyptologist who was not involved in the study.
"Egyptian pharaohs had multiple wives, and often multiple sons who would potentially compete for the throne after the death of their father," Wendrich said.
Inbreeding would also not have been considered unusual among Egyptian royalty of the time.
King Tut Plagued by Malaria, Required Cane
The team's examination of King Tut's body also revealed previously unknown deformations in the king's left foot, caused by the necrosis, or death, of bone tissue.
"Necrosis is always bad, because it means you have dying organic matter inside your body," study team member Pusch told National Geographic News.
The affliction would have been painful and forced King Tut to walk with a cane—many of which were found in his tomb—but it would not have been life threatening.
Malaria, however, would have been a serious danger.
The scientists found DNA from the mosquito-borne parasite that causes malaria in the young pharaoh's body—the oldest known genetic proof of the disease.
The team found more than one strain of malaria parasite, indicating that King Tut caught multiple malarial infections during his life. The strains belong to the parasite responsible for malaria tropica, the most virulent and deadly form of the disease.
The malaria would have weakened King Tut's immune system and interfered with the healing of his foot. These factors, combined with the fracture in his left thighbone, which scientists had discovered in 2005, may have ultimately been what killed the young king, the authors write.
Until now the best guesses as to how King Tut died have included a hunting accident, a blood infection, a blow to the head, and poisoning.
UCLA's Wendrich said the new finding "lays to rest the completely baseless theories about the murder of Tutankhamun."
King Tut's Father Not "Egyptian Quasimodo"
Another speculation apparently laid to rest by the new study is that Akhenaten had a genetic disorder that caused him to develop the feminine features seen in his statutes, including wide hips, a potbelly, and the female-like breasts associated with the condition gynecomastia.
When the team analyzed Akhenaten's body using medical scanners, no evidence of such abnormalities were found. Hawass and his team concluded that the feminized features found in the statues of Akenhaten created during his reign were done for religious and political reasons.
In ancient Egypt, Akhenaten was a god, Hawass explained. "The poems said of him, 'you are the man, and you are the woman,' so artists put the picture of a man and a woman in his body."
Egyptologist John Darnell of Yale University called the revelation that Akhenaten's appearance was not due to genetic disorders "the most important result" of the new study.
In his book Tutankhamun's Armies, Darnell proposes that Akhenaten's androgynous appearance in art was an attempt to associate himself with Aten, the original creator god in Egyptian theology, who was neither male nor female.
"Akenhaten is odd in his appearance because he belongs to the time of creation, not because he was physically different," said Darnell, who also did not participate in the DNA research.
"People will now need to consider Akenhaten as a thinker, and not just as an Egyptian Quasimodo."
"Beautiful DNA" Found in King Tut Study
The generally good condition of the DNA from the royal mummies of King Tut's family surprised many members of the team.
Indeed, its quality was better than DNA gathered from nonroyal Egyptian mummies several centuries younger, study co-author Pusch said.
The DNA of the Elder Lady, for example, "was the most beautiful DNA that I've ever seen from an ancient specimen," Pusch said.
The team suspects that the embalming method the ancient Egyptians used to preserve the royal mummies inadvertently protected DNA as well as flesh.
"The ingredients used to embalm the royals was completely different in both quantity and quality compared to the normal population in ancient times," Pusch explained.
Preserving DNA "was not the aim of the Egyptian priest of course, but the embalming method they used was lucky for us."
Source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/02/100216-king-tut-malaria-bones-inbred-tutankhamun/
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Feds push for tracking cell phones
Two years ago, when the FBI was stymied by a band of armed robbers known as the "Scarecrow Bandits" that had robbed more than 20 Texas banks, it came up with a novel method of locating the thieves.
FBI agents obtained logs from mobile phone companies corresponding to what their cellular towers had recorded at the time of a dozen different bank robberies in the Dallas area. The voluminous records showed that two phones had made calls around the time of all 12 heists, and that those phones belonged to men named Tony Hewitt and Corey Duffey. A jury eventually convicted the duo of multiple bank robbery and weapons charges.
Even though police are tapping into the locations of mobile phones thousands of times a year, the legal ground rules remain unclear, and federal privacy laws written a generation ago are ambiguous at best. On Friday, the first federal appeals court to consider the topic will hear oral arguments (PDF) in a case that could establish new standards for locating wireless devices.
In that case, the Obama administration has argued that warrantless tracking is permitted because Americans enjoy no "reasonable expectation of privacy" in their--or at least their cell phones'--whereabouts. U.S. Department of Justice lawyers say that "a customer's Fourth Amendment rights are not violated when the phone company reveals to the government its own records" that show where a mobile device placed and received calls.
Those claims have alarmed the ACLU and other civil liberties groups, which have opposed the Justice Department's request and plan to tell the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia that Americans' privacy deserves more protection and judicial oversight than what the administration has proposed.
"This is a critical question for privacy in the 21st century," says Kevin Bankston, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who will be arguing on Friday. "If the courts do side with the government, that means that everywhere we go, in the real world and online, will be an open book to the government unprotected by the Fourth Amendment."
Not long ago, the concept of tracking cell phones would have been the stuff of spy movies. In 1998's "Enemy of the State," Gene Hackman warned that the National Security Agency has "been in bed with the entire telecommunications industry since the '40s--they've infected everything." After a decade of appearances in "24" and "Live Free or Die Hard," location-tracking has become such a trope that it was satirized in a scene with Seth Rogen from "Pineapple Express" (2008).
Once a Hollywood plot, now 'commonplace'
Whether state and federal police have been paying attention to Hollywood, or whether it was the other way around, cell phone tracking has become a regular feature in criminal investigations. It comes in two forms: police obtaining retrospective data kept by mobile providers for their own billing purposes that may not be very detailed, or prospective data that reveals the minute-by-minute location of a handset or mobile device.
Obtaining location details is now "commonplace," says Al Gidari, a partner in the Seattle offices of Perkins Coie who represents wireless carriers. "It's in every pen register order these days."
Gidari says that the Third Circuit case could have a significant impact on police investigations within the court's jurisdiction, namely Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; it could be persuasive beyond those states. But, he cautions, "if the privacy groups win, the case won't be over. It will certainly be appealed."
CNET was the first to report on prospective tracking in a 2005 news article. In a subsequent Arizona case, agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration tracked a tractor trailer with a drug shipment through a GPS-equipped Nextel phone owned by the suspect. Texas DEA agents have used cell site information in real time to locate a Chrysler 300M driving from Rio Grande City to a ranch about 50 miles away. Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile logs showing the location of mobile phones at the time calls became evidence in a Los Angeles murder trial.
And a mobile phone's fleeting connection with a remote cell tower operated by Edge Wireless is what led searchers to the family of the late James Kim, a CNET employee who died in the Oregon wilderness in 2006 after leaving a snowbound car to seek help.
The way tracking works is simple: mobile phones are miniature radio transmitters and receivers. A cellular tower knows the general direction of a mobile phone (many cell sites have three antennas pointing in different directions), and if the phone is talking to multiple towers, triangulation yields a rough location fix. With this method, accuracy depends in part on the density of cell sites.
The Federal Communications Commission's "Enhanced 911" (E911) requirements allowed rough estimates to be transformed into precise coordinates. Wireless carriers using CDMA networks, such as Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel, tend to use embedded GPS technology to fulfill E911 requirements. AT&T and T-Mobile comply with E911 regulations using network-based technology that computes a phone's location using signal analysis and triangulation between towers.
T-Mobile, for instance, uses a GSM technology called Uplink Time Difference of Arrival, or U-TDOA, which calculates a position based on precisely how long it takes signals to reach towers. A company called TruePosition, which provides U-TDOA services to T-Mobile, boasts of "accuracy to under 50 meters" that's available "for start-of-call, midcall, or when idle."
A 2008 court order to T-Mobile in a criminal investigation of a marriage fraud scheme, which was originally sealed and later made public, says: "T-Mobile shall disclose at such intervals and times as directed by (the Department of Homeland Security), latitude and longitude data that establishes the approximate positions of the Subject Wireless Telephone, by unobtrusively initiating a signal on its network that will enable it to determine the locations of the Subject Wireless Telephone."
'No reasonable expectation of privacy'
In the case that's before the Third Circuit on Friday, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, said it needed historical (meaning stored, not future) phone location information because a set of suspects "use their wireless telephones to arrange meetings and transactions in furtherance of their drug trafficking activities."
U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Lenihan in Pennsylvania denied the Justice Department's attempt to obtain stored location data without a search warrant; prosecutors had invoked a different legal procedure. Lenihan's ruling, in effect, would require police to obtain a search warrant based on probable cause--a more privacy-protective standard.
Lenihan's opinion (PDF)--which, in an unusual show of solidarity, was signed by four other magistrate judges--noted that location information can reveal sensitive information such as health treatments, financial difficulties, marital counseling, and extra-marital affairs.
In its appeal to the Third Circuit, the Justice Department claims that Lenihan's opinion "contains, and relies upon, numerous errors" and should be overruled. In addition to a search warrant not being necessary, prosecutors said, because location "records provide only a very general indication of a user's whereabouts at certain times in the past, the requested cell-site records do not implicate a Fourth Amendment privacy interest."
The Obama administration is not alone in making this argument. U.S. District Judge William Pauley, a Clinton appointee in New York, wrote in a 2009 opinion that a defendant in a drug trafficking case, Jose Navas, "did not have a legitimate expectation of privacy in the cell phone" location. That's because Navas only used the cell phone "on public thoroughfares en route from California to New York" and "if Navas intended to keep the cell phone's location private, he simply could have turned it off."
(Most cases have involved the ground rules for tracking cell phone users prospectively, and judges have disagreed over what legal rules apply. Only a minority has sided with the Justice Department, however.)
Cellular providers tend not to retain moment-by-moment logs of when each mobile device contacts the tower, in part because there's no business reason to store the data, and in part because the storage costs would be prohibitive. They do, however, keep records of what tower is in use when a call is initiated or answered--and those records are generally stored for six months to a year, depending on the company.
Verizon Wireless keeps "phone records including cell site location for 12 months," Drew Arena, Verizon's vice president and associate general counsel for law enforcement compliance, said at a federal task force meeting in Washington, D.C. last week. Arena said the company keeps "phone bills without cell site location for seven years," and stores SMS text messages for only a very brief time.
Gidari, the Seattle attorney, said that wireless carriers have recently extended how long they store this information. "Prior to a year or two ago when location-based services became more common, if it were 30 days it would be surprising," he said.
The ACLU, EFF, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and University of San Francisco law professor Susan Freiwald argue that the wording of the federal privacy law in question allows judges to require the level of proof required for a search warrant "before authorizing the disclosure of particularly novel or invasive types of information." In addition, they say, Americans do not "knowingly expose their location information and thereby surrender Fourth Amendment protection whenever they turn on or use their cell phones."
"The biggest issue at stake is whether or not courts are going to accept the government's minimal view of what is protected by the Fourth Amendment," says EFF's Bankston. "The government is arguing that based on precedents from the 1970s, any record held by a third party about us, no matter how invasively collected, is not protected by the Fourth Amendment."
Update 10:37 a.m. PT: A source inside the U.S. Attorney's Office for the northern district of Texas, which prosecuted the Scarecrow Bandits mentioned in the above article, tells me that this was the first and the only time that the FBI has used the location-data-mining technique to nab bank robbers. It's also worth noting that the leader of this gang, Corey Duffey, was sentenced last month to 354 years (not months, but years) in prison. Another member is facing 140 years in prison.
Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10451518-38.html
FBI agents obtained logs from mobile phone companies corresponding to what their cellular towers had recorded at the time of a dozen different bank robberies in the Dallas area. The voluminous records showed that two phones had made calls around the time of all 12 heists, and that those phones belonged to men named Tony Hewitt and Corey Duffey. A jury eventually convicted the duo of multiple bank robbery and weapons charges.
Even though police are tapping into the locations of mobile phones thousands of times a year, the legal ground rules remain unclear, and federal privacy laws written a generation ago are ambiguous at best. On Friday, the first federal appeals court to consider the topic will hear oral arguments (PDF) in a case that could establish new standards for locating wireless devices.
In that case, the Obama administration has argued that warrantless tracking is permitted because Americans enjoy no "reasonable expectation of privacy" in their--or at least their cell phones'--whereabouts. U.S. Department of Justice lawyers say that "a customer's Fourth Amendment rights are not violated when the phone company reveals to the government its own records" that show where a mobile device placed and received calls.
Those claims have alarmed the ACLU and other civil liberties groups, which have opposed the Justice Department's request and plan to tell the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia that Americans' privacy deserves more protection and judicial oversight than what the administration has proposed.
"This is a critical question for privacy in the 21st century," says Kevin Bankston, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who will be arguing on Friday. "If the courts do side with the government, that means that everywhere we go, in the real world and online, will be an open book to the government unprotected by the Fourth Amendment."
Not long ago, the concept of tracking cell phones would have been the stuff of spy movies. In 1998's "Enemy of the State," Gene Hackman warned that the National Security Agency has "been in bed with the entire telecommunications industry since the '40s--they've infected everything." After a decade of appearances in "24" and "Live Free or Die Hard," location-tracking has become such a trope that it was satirized in a scene with Seth Rogen from "Pineapple Express" (2008).
Once a Hollywood plot, now 'commonplace'
Whether state and federal police have been paying attention to Hollywood, or whether it was the other way around, cell phone tracking has become a regular feature in criminal investigations. It comes in two forms: police obtaining retrospective data kept by mobile providers for their own billing purposes that may not be very detailed, or prospective data that reveals the minute-by-minute location of a handset or mobile device.
Obtaining location details is now "commonplace," says Al Gidari, a partner in the Seattle offices of Perkins Coie who represents wireless carriers. "It's in every pen register order these days."
Gidari says that the Third Circuit case could have a significant impact on police investigations within the court's jurisdiction, namely Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania; it could be persuasive beyond those states. But, he cautions, "if the privacy groups win, the case won't be over. It will certainly be appealed."
CNET was the first to report on prospective tracking in a 2005 news article. In a subsequent Arizona case, agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration tracked a tractor trailer with a drug shipment through a GPS-equipped Nextel phone owned by the suspect. Texas DEA agents have used cell site information in real time to locate a Chrysler 300M driving from Rio Grande City to a ranch about 50 miles away. Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile logs showing the location of mobile phones at the time calls became evidence in a Los Angeles murder trial.
And a mobile phone's fleeting connection with a remote cell tower operated by Edge Wireless is what led searchers to the family of the late James Kim, a CNET employee who died in the Oregon wilderness in 2006 after leaving a snowbound car to seek help.
"This is a critical question for privacy in the 21st century. If the courts do side with the government, that means that everywhere we go, in the real world and online, will be an open book to the government unprotected by the Fourth Amendment."
--Kevin Bankston, attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation
The way tracking works is simple: mobile phones are miniature radio transmitters and receivers. A cellular tower knows the general direction of a mobile phone (many cell sites have three antennas pointing in different directions), and if the phone is talking to multiple towers, triangulation yields a rough location fix. With this method, accuracy depends in part on the density of cell sites.
The Federal Communications Commission's "Enhanced 911" (E911) requirements allowed rough estimates to be transformed into precise coordinates. Wireless carriers using CDMA networks, such as Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel, tend to use embedded GPS technology to fulfill E911 requirements. AT&T and T-Mobile comply with E911 regulations using network-based technology that computes a phone's location using signal analysis and triangulation between towers.
T-Mobile, for instance, uses a GSM technology called Uplink Time Difference of Arrival, or U-TDOA, which calculates a position based on precisely how long it takes signals to reach towers. A company called TruePosition, which provides U-TDOA services to T-Mobile, boasts of "accuracy to under 50 meters" that's available "for start-of-call, midcall, or when idle."
A 2008 court order to T-Mobile in a criminal investigation of a marriage fraud scheme, which was originally sealed and later made public, says: "T-Mobile shall disclose at such intervals and times as directed by (the Department of Homeland Security), latitude and longitude data that establishes the approximate positions of the Subject Wireless Telephone, by unobtrusively initiating a signal on its network that will enable it to determine the locations of the Subject Wireless Telephone."
'No reasonable expectation of privacy'
In the case that's before the Third Circuit on Friday, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, or ATF, said it needed historical (meaning stored, not future) phone location information because a set of suspects "use their wireless telephones to arrange meetings and transactions in furtherance of their drug trafficking activities."
U.S. Magistrate Judge Lisa Lenihan in Pennsylvania denied the Justice Department's attempt to obtain stored location data without a search warrant; prosecutors had invoked a different legal procedure. Lenihan's ruling, in effect, would require police to obtain a search warrant based on probable cause--a more privacy-protective standard.
Lenihan's opinion (PDF)--which, in an unusual show of solidarity, was signed by four other magistrate judges--noted that location information can reveal sensitive information such as health treatments, financial difficulties, marital counseling, and extra-marital affairs.
In its appeal to the Third Circuit, the Justice Department claims that Lenihan's opinion "contains, and relies upon, numerous errors" and should be overruled. In addition to a search warrant not being necessary, prosecutors said, because location "records provide only a very general indication of a user's whereabouts at certain times in the past, the requested cell-site records do not implicate a Fourth Amendment privacy interest."
The Obama administration is not alone in making this argument. U.S. District Judge William Pauley, a Clinton appointee in New York, wrote in a 2009 opinion that a defendant in a drug trafficking case, Jose Navas, "did not have a legitimate expectation of privacy in the cell phone" location. That's because Navas only used the cell phone "on public thoroughfares en route from California to New York" and "if Navas intended to keep the cell phone's location private, he simply could have turned it off."
(Most cases have involved the ground rules for tracking cell phone users prospectively, and judges have disagreed over what legal rules apply. Only a minority has sided with the Justice Department, however.)
Cellular providers tend not to retain moment-by-moment logs of when each mobile device contacts the tower, in part because there's no business reason to store the data, and in part because the storage costs would be prohibitive. They do, however, keep records of what tower is in use when a call is initiated or answered--and those records are generally stored for six months to a year, depending on the company.
Verizon Wireless keeps "phone records including cell site location for 12 months," Drew Arena, Verizon's vice president and associate general counsel for law enforcement compliance, said at a federal task force meeting in Washington, D.C. last week. Arena said the company keeps "phone bills without cell site location for seven years," and stores SMS text messages for only a very brief time.
Gidari, the Seattle attorney, said that wireless carriers have recently extended how long they store this information. "Prior to a year or two ago when location-based services became more common, if it were 30 days it would be surprising," he said.
The ACLU, EFF, the Center for Democracy and Technology, and University of San Francisco law professor Susan Freiwald argue that the wording of the federal privacy law in question allows judges to require the level of proof required for a search warrant "before authorizing the disclosure of particularly novel or invasive types of information." In addition, they say, Americans do not "knowingly expose their location information and thereby surrender Fourth Amendment protection whenever they turn on or use their cell phones."
"The biggest issue at stake is whether or not courts are going to accept the government's minimal view of what is protected by the Fourth Amendment," says EFF's Bankston. "The government is arguing that based on precedents from the 1970s, any record held by a third party about us, no matter how invasively collected, is not protected by the Fourth Amendment."
Update 10:37 a.m. PT: A source inside the U.S. Attorney's Office for the northern district of Texas, which prosecuted the Scarecrow Bandits mentioned in the above article, tells me that this was the first and the only time that the FBI has used the location-data-mining technique to nab bank robbers. It's also worth noting that the leader of this gang, Corey Duffey, was sentenced last month to 354 years (not months, but years) in prison. Another member is facing 140 years in prison.
Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10451518-38.html
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Google takes on Facebook and Twitter with network site
Google has taken the wraps off its latest social network known as Buzz.
The service - integrated directly with its e-mail service Gmail - allows users to post status updates, share content and read and comment on friends' posts.
The site pitches Google directly against rival networks such as Facebook, which has amassed nearly 400 million users since its launch in 2004.
Buzz will try to capitalise on the number of regular Gmail users, which is currently around 170 million people.
BBC News technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones said that the launch appeared to be a "major land grab by Google for the social networking space".
"They've launched Buzz with plenty of interesting new features, particularly for mobile users, but the real question is whether there's enough to entice social networkers away from sites like Facebook and Twitter," he said.
Rival Yahoo already offers a service that allows people to see updates from sites such as Twitter and Flickr from inside their Yahoo Mail page.
Local chatter
The new features are built directly into Google's free e-mail service Gmail.
Users can post private or public status updates - known as a buzz - and share content from other sites such as Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Picassa.
Gmail logo
The service integrates directly with Gmail
The messages - highlighted with a Buzz symbol - are incorporated directly into a person's Gmail inbox. Private updates are automatically added to a user's profile page, whilst public updates will also be available to search engines.
The site also incorporates elements of Twitter, such as the ability to "follow" people that share updates, and features that appear in Facebook such as the ability to "like" content.
Buzz will also recommend content from people that it thinks you may like to see and incorporate it directly into a user's content stream.
Google Buzz product manager Todd Jackson described it as "an entirely new world in Gmail" during a press event at Google headquarters in Mountain View.
The firm has also integrated it with its mapping service and mobile platforms. For example, it has launched a mobile application for phones running its operating system Android.
Status updates sent from phones will record the location of the sender and add it to the message.
Other users can then search public messages from their phone.
"You can see what people in your neighbourhood are saying," said Google's Vic Gundotra.
Public updates will also be added to Google Places, a directory of businesses that include reviews of restaurants and theatres, for example.
The firm has also built the technology into the mobile versions of its maps.
It is not the first time Google has tried to launch a social network.
In 2004, it released Orkut. However, while it has become big in countries such as Brazil and India, it has been overshadowed by sites such as Facebook elsewhere.
The firm also recently launched Google Wave, a tool that mixes e-mail, with instant messaging and the ability for several people to collaborate on documents in real time.
Facebook is currently the most popular social network worldwide.
Last week it rolled out a new site layout and design for parts of the service to make it easier to search messages and chat.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8506148.stm
The service - integrated directly with its e-mail service Gmail - allows users to post status updates, share content and read and comment on friends' posts.
The site pitches Google directly against rival networks such as Facebook, which has amassed nearly 400 million users since its launch in 2004.
Buzz will try to capitalise on the number of regular Gmail users, which is currently around 170 million people.
BBC News technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones said that the launch appeared to be a "major land grab by Google for the social networking space".
"They've launched Buzz with plenty of interesting new features, particularly for mobile users, but the real question is whether there's enough to entice social networkers away from sites like Facebook and Twitter," he said.
Rival Yahoo already offers a service that allows people to see updates from sites such as Twitter and Flickr from inside their Yahoo Mail page.
Local chatter
The new features are built directly into Google's free e-mail service Gmail.
Users can post private or public status updates - known as a buzz - and share content from other sites such as Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and Picassa.
Gmail logo
The service integrates directly with Gmail
The messages - highlighted with a Buzz symbol - are incorporated directly into a person's Gmail inbox. Private updates are automatically added to a user's profile page, whilst public updates will also be available to search engines.
The site also incorporates elements of Twitter, such as the ability to "follow" people that share updates, and features that appear in Facebook such as the ability to "like" content.
Buzz will also recommend content from people that it thinks you may like to see and incorporate it directly into a user's content stream.
Google Buzz product manager Todd Jackson described it as "an entirely new world in Gmail" during a press event at Google headquarters in Mountain View.
The firm has also integrated it with its mapping service and mobile platforms. For example, it has launched a mobile application for phones running its operating system Android.
Status updates sent from phones will record the location of the sender and add it to the message.
Other users can then search public messages from their phone.
"You can see what people in your neighbourhood are saying," said Google's Vic Gundotra.
Public updates will also be added to Google Places, a directory of businesses that include reviews of restaurants and theatres, for example.
The firm has also built the technology into the mobile versions of its maps.
It is not the first time Google has tried to launch a social network.
In 2004, it released Orkut. However, while it has become big in countries such as Brazil and India, it has been overshadowed by sites such as Facebook elsewhere.
The firm also recently launched Google Wave, a tool that mixes e-mail, with instant messaging and the ability for several people to collaborate on documents in real time.
Facebook is currently the most popular social network worldwide.
Last week it rolled out a new site layout and design for parts of the service to make it easier to search messages and chat.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8506148.stm
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Haiti detains Americans taking kids across border
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Ten Americans were detained by Haitian police on Saturday as they tried to bus 33 children across the border into the Dominican Republic, allegedly without proper documents.
The Baptist church members from Idaho called it a "Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission," meant to save abandoned children from the chaos following Haiti's earthquake. Their plan was to scoop up 100 kids and take them by bus to a rented hotel at a beach resort in the Dominican Republic, where they planned to establish an orphanage.
Whether they realized it or not, these Americans — the first known to be taken into custody since the Jan. 12 earthquake — put themselves in the middle of a firestorm in Haiti, where government leaders have suspended adoptions amid fears that parentless or lost children are more vulnerable than ever to child trafficking.
"In this chaos the government is in right now we were just trying to do the right thing," the group's leader, Laura Silsby told The Associated Press at the judicial police headquarters in the capital, where the Americans were being held pending a Monday hearing before a judge.
Silsby said they only had the best of intentions and paid no money for the children. She said her group obtained them through a well-known Haitian pastor named Jean Sanbil of the Sharing Jesus Ministries.
Silsby, 40, of Boise, Idaho, was asked if she didn't consider it naive to cross the border without adoption papers at a time when Haitians are so concerned about child trafficking. "By no means are we any part of that. That's exactly what we are trying to combat," she said.
Social Affairs Minister Yves Cristallin told reporters the Americans were suspected of taking part in an illegal adoption scheme.
Cristallin said the 33 children were lodged late Saturday at an SOS Children's Village outside of Port-au-Prince. SOS Children's Villages is a global nonprofit based in Austria.
Many children in Haitian orphanages aren't actually orphans but have been abandoned by family who cannot afford to care for them. Advocates both here and abroad caution that with so many people unaccounted for, adoptions should not go forward until it can be determined that the children have no relatives who can raise them.
UNICEF and other NGOs have been registering children who may have been separated from their parents. Relief workers are locating children at camps housing the homeless around the capital and are placing them in temporary shelters while they try to locate their parents or a more permanent home.
The U.S. Embassy in Haiti sent consular officials, who met with the detained Americans and gave them bug spray and MREs to eat, according to Sean Lankford of Meridian, Idaho, whose wife and 18-year-old daughter were being held.
"They have to go in front of a judge on Monday," Lankford told The Associated Press.
"There are allegations of child trafficking and that really couldn't be farther from the truth," he added. The children "were going to get the medical attention they needed. They were going to get the clothes and the food and the love they need to be healthy and to start recovering from the tragedy that just happened."
Haiti has imposed new controls on adoptions since the earthquake, which left thousands of children separated from their parents or orphaned. The government now requires Prime Minister Max Bellerive to personally authorize the departure of any child as a way to prevent child trafficking.
Silsby said they had documents from the Dominican government, but did not seek any paperwork from the Haitian authorities before taking 33 children from 2 months to 12 years old to the border, where Haitian police stopped them Friday evening. She said the children were brought to the pastor by distant relatives, and that the only ones to be put up for adoption would be those without close family to care for them.
The 10 Americans include members of the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho and the East Side Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho, as well as people from Texas and Kansas. Idaho friends and relatives have been in touch with them through text messages and phone calls, Lankford said.
"The plan was never to go adopt all these kids. The plan was to create this orphanage where kids could live. And kids get adopted out of orphanages. People go down and they're going to fall in love with these kids, and many of these kids will end up getting adopted."
"Of course I'm concerned for my wife and my daughter," he added. "They were hoping to make a difference and be able to help those kids."
The group described their plans on a Web site where they also asked for tax-deductible contributions, saying they would "gather" 100 orphans and bus them to the Dominican resort of Cabarete, before building a more permanent orphanage in the Dominican town of Magante.
"Given the urgent needs from this earthquake, God has laid upon our hearts the need to go now versus waiting until the permanent facility is built," the group wrote.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cb_haiti_earthquake_americans_detained
The Baptist church members from Idaho called it a "Haitian Orphan Rescue Mission," meant to save abandoned children from the chaos following Haiti's earthquake. Their plan was to scoop up 100 kids and take them by bus to a rented hotel at a beach resort in the Dominican Republic, where they planned to establish an orphanage.
Whether they realized it or not, these Americans — the first known to be taken into custody since the Jan. 12 earthquake — put themselves in the middle of a firestorm in Haiti, where government leaders have suspended adoptions amid fears that parentless or lost children are more vulnerable than ever to child trafficking.
"In this chaos the government is in right now we were just trying to do the right thing," the group's leader, Laura Silsby told The Associated Press at the judicial police headquarters in the capital, where the Americans were being held pending a Monday hearing before a judge.
Silsby said they only had the best of intentions and paid no money for the children. She said her group obtained them through a well-known Haitian pastor named Jean Sanbil of the Sharing Jesus Ministries.
Silsby, 40, of Boise, Idaho, was asked if she didn't consider it naive to cross the border without adoption papers at a time when Haitians are so concerned about child trafficking. "By no means are we any part of that. That's exactly what we are trying to combat," she said.
Social Affairs Minister Yves Cristallin told reporters the Americans were suspected of taking part in an illegal adoption scheme.
Cristallin said the 33 children were lodged late Saturday at an SOS Children's Village outside of Port-au-Prince. SOS Children's Villages is a global nonprofit based in Austria.
Many children in Haitian orphanages aren't actually orphans but have been abandoned by family who cannot afford to care for them. Advocates both here and abroad caution that with so many people unaccounted for, adoptions should not go forward until it can be determined that the children have no relatives who can raise them.
UNICEF and other NGOs have been registering children who may have been separated from their parents. Relief workers are locating children at camps housing the homeless around the capital and are placing them in temporary shelters while they try to locate their parents or a more permanent home.
The U.S. Embassy in Haiti sent consular officials, who met with the detained Americans and gave them bug spray and MREs to eat, according to Sean Lankford of Meridian, Idaho, whose wife and 18-year-old daughter were being held.
"They have to go in front of a judge on Monday," Lankford told The Associated Press.
"There are allegations of child trafficking and that really couldn't be farther from the truth," he added. The children "were going to get the medical attention they needed. They were going to get the clothes and the food and the love they need to be healthy and to start recovering from the tragedy that just happened."
Haiti has imposed new controls on adoptions since the earthquake, which left thousands of children separated from their parents or orphaned. The government now requires Prime Minister Max Bellerive to personally authorize the departure of any child as a way to prevent child trafficking.
Silsby said they had documents from the Dominican government, but did not seek any paperwork from the Haitian authorities before taking 33 children from 2 months to 12 years old to the border, where Haitian police stopped them Friday evening. She said the children were brought to the pastor by distant relatives, and that the only ones to be put up for adoption would be those without close family to care for them.
The 10 Americans include members of the Central Valley Baptist Church in Meridian, Idaho and the East Side Baptist Church in Twin Falls, Idaho, as well as people from Texas and Kansas. Idaho friends and relatives have been in touch with them through text messages and phone calls, Lankford said.
"The plan was never to go adopt all these kids. The plan was to create this orphanage where kids could live. And kids get adopted out of orphanages. People go down and they're going to fall in love with these kids, and many of these kids will end up getting adopted."
"Of course I'm concerned for my wife and my daughter," he added. "They were hoping to make a difference and be able to help those kids."
The group described their plans on a Web site where they also asked for tax-deductible contributions, saying they would "gather" 100 orphans and bus them to the Dominican resort of Cabarete, before building a more permanent orphanage in the Dominican town of Magante.
"Given the urgent needs from this earthquake, God has laid upon our hearts the need to go now versus waiting until the permanent facility is built," the group wrote.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/cb_haiti_earthquake_americans_detained
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Experts stunned by swan 'divorce' at Slimbridge wetland
Experts have told of their surprise after witnessing a rare "divorce" between a pair of swans at a Gloucestershire wildfowl sanctuary.
The Bewick's swans have returned to winter at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust centre at Slimbridge - but both have brought new partners.
It is only the second time in more than 40 years that a "separation" has been recorded at the centre.
Staff have described the new couplings as "bizarre".
It is not unheard of for the birds, which usually mate for life, to find a new mate but it tends to be because one of the pair has died, they said.
Staff were initially concerned when Sarindi arrived with a new mate
During the past four decades 4,000 pairs of Bewick's swans have been studied at Slimbridge, with only one previous couple moving on to find new partners.
Normally loyal
First suspicions of the rare event were raised when male swan Sarindi turned up in the annual migration from Arctic Russia without his partner of two years Saruni and with a new female - newly-named Sarind - in tow.
The pair's arrival led conservationists to fear the worst for Saruni.
But shortly afterwards Saruni arrived at the wetlands site - also with a new mate, Surune.
And after observing them, the experts discovered the old relationship had ended and new ones had begun.
Failure to breed could be a possible reason, as they had been together for a couple of years but had never brought back a cygnet
Julia Newth
Wildlife health research officer
Julia Newth, wildlife health research officer at Slimbridge, said the situation had taken staff by surprise.
She said swans tended to have "real loyalties to one another" and long partnerships.
"As long as they are both still alive, they will try to stay together. If they have a change of mate it is perhaps because of mortality, not necessarily through choice," she said.
In this case, however, both swans and their new partners are now over-wintering in close proximity on the lake at Slimbridge.
Ms Newth said the old pair had not acknowledged each other with any signs of recognition or greeting - even though they are occupying the same part of the small lake.
As for why they may have split, she said: "Failure to breed could be a possible reason, as they had been together for a couple of years but had never brought back a cygnet, but it is difficult to say for sure."
Bewick's swans are the smallest and rarest of the three species found in the UK and each individual can be identified by their unique bill pattern.
Source http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/gloucestershire/8477351.stm
The Bewick's swans have returned to winter at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust centre at Slimbridge - but both have brought new partners.
It is only the second time in more than 40 years that a "separation" has been recorded at the centre.
Staff have described the new couplings as "bizarre".
It is not unheard of for the birds, which usually mate for life, to find a new mate but it tends to be because one of the pair has died, they said.
During the past four decades 4,000 pairs of Bewick's swans have been studied at Slimbridge, with only one previous couple moving on to find new partners.
Normally loyal
First suspicions of the rare event were raised when male swan Sarindi turned up in the annual migration from Arctic Russia without his partner of two years Saruni and with a new female - newly-named Sarind - in tow.
The pair's arrival led conservationists to fear the worst for Saruni.
But shortly afterwards Saruni arrived at the wetlands site - also with a new mate, Surune.
And after observing them, the experts discovered the old relationship had ended and new ones had begun.
Failure to breed could be a possible reason, as they had been together for a couple of years but had never brought back a cygnet
Julia Newth
Wildlife health research officer
Julia Newth, wildlife health research officer at Slimbridge, said the situation had taken staff by surprise.
She said swans tended to have "real loyalties to one another" and long partnerships.
"As long as they are both still alive, they will try to stay together. If they have a change of mate it is perhaps because of mortality, not necessarily through choice," she said.
In this case, however, both swans and their new partners are now over-wintering in close proximity on the lake at Slimbridge.
Ms Newth said the old pair had not acknowledged each other with any signs of recognition or greeting - even though they are occupying the same part of the small lake.
As for why they may have split, she said: "Failure to breed could be a possible reason, as they had been together for a couple of years but had never brought back a cygnet, but it is difficult to say for sure."
Bewick's swans are the smallest and rarest of the three species found in the UK and each individual can be identified by their unique bill pattern.
Source http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/gloucestershire/8477351.stm
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Burger King bar debuts in Miami
Burger King Corp. said Friday it plans to open a Whopper Bar in the South Beach area of Miami next month.
To keep up with Miami's night life, Burger King (BKC)'s new Whopper bar will offer American beer and Whopper sandwiches around the clock, staying open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
It will be the chain's first U.S. location to sell beer, and the restaurant will offer a delivery service for local customers, a walk-up window for orders on the go and an outdoor dining area.
"Not only is South Beach in our backyard, but the warm weather, famous nightlife and colorful personality of the destination make it a great fit for a Whopper Bar restaurant," Chuck Fallon, Burger King's North America president, said in a company statement.
Burger King's bar will offer variations on its traditional Whopper sandwich, including an exclusive addition: the Black & Bleu Steakhouse XT. Customers will be able to choose from 20 sauces, displayed in a "visible toppings theater."
And when South Beach locals pick up a 4 a.m. burger, they will also have their choice of Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors beer, including Budweiser, Miller Lite and Budlight Lime at a cost of $4.25.
"That adds a new element to the Burger King brand," said Tom Forte, an analyst at Telsey Advisory Group. "It also creates a different mystique for going to a Whopper Bar versus a traditional restaurant."
The Whopper Bar concept was introduced in March 2008, and the first bar opened a year later at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida. Burger King has also opened bars in Munich, Singapore and Venezuela.
Las Vegas, New York City and Los Angeles could be some of Burger King's next Whopper Bar targets, the company said.
Forte said he won't be surprised if beer pops up on the menus of other fast food restaurants as well.
"In the restaurant industry, if it works for one, others will try," said Forte. "Other operators are watching from the sidelines to see how effective this is for Burger King and then may consider it."
"Edgier" restaurants with the same core demographics as Burger King -- such as Carl's Junior and Jack and the Box -- may be next to jump on the bandwagon, he said.
Source: http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/22/news/companies/burger_king_whopper_bar/
To keep up with Miami's night life, Burger King (BKC)'s new Whopper bar will offer American beer and Whopper sandwiches around the clock, staying open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
It will be the chain's first U.S. location to sell beer, and the restaurant will offer a delivery service for local customers, a walk-up window for orders on the go and an outdoor dining area.
"Not only is South Beach in our backyard, but the warm weather, famous nightlife and colorful personality of the destination make it a great fit for a Whopper Bar restaurant," Chuck Fallon, Burger King's North America president, said in a company statement.
Burger King's bar will offer variations on its traditional Whopper sandwich, including an exclusive addition: the Black & Bleu Steakhouse XT. Customers will be able to choose from 20 sauces, displayed in a "visible toppings theater."
And when South Beach locals pick up a 4 a.m. burger, they will also have their choice of Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors beer, including Budweiser, Miller Lite and Budlight Lime at a cost of $4.25.
"That adds a new element to the Burger King brand," said Tom Forte, an analyst at Telsey Advisory Group. "It also creates a different mystique for going to a Whopper Bar versus a traditional restaurant."
The Whopper Bar concept was introduced in March 2008, and the first bar opened a year later at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida. Burger King has also opened bars in Munich, Singapore and Venezuela.
Las Vegas, New York City and Los Angeles could be some of Burger King's next Whopper Bar targets, the company said.
Forte said he won't be surprised if beer pops up on the menus of other fast food restaurants as well.
"In the restaurant industry, if it works for one, others will try," said Forte. "Other operators are watching from the sidelines to see how effective this is for Burger King and then may consider it."
"Edgier" restaurants with the same core demographics as Burger King -- such as Carl's Junior and Jack and the Box -- may be next to jump on the bandwagon, he said.
Source: http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/22/news/companies/burger_king_whopper_bar/
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