Salisbury News

Friday, September 02, 2011

Scotland Yard Arrests LulzSec Hacker 'Kayla'

Scotland Yard has arrested two men who together used the online pseudonym "Kalya" and were central figures in the notorious hacker groups Anonymous and LulzSec.

Security specialists say Kayla was among those behind the hacking earlier this year of Californian-based

Internet security firm HB Gary, which sells services to companies and government agencies, the Wall Street Journal reported. The attack, which involved breaking into the company's computers and releasing tens of thousands of internal emails, represented a watershed in the tactics of those associated with Anonymous.

Should Being Beautiful — or Ugly — Pay Off?

Beauty, or lack thereof, seems to be the topic of the week.

Sunday's New York Times started it off, with an op-ed arguing that ugly people should be protected under the law like other minority groups. Sociologist Catherine Hakim disagreed, contending (and promoting her new book Erotic Capital) that discrimination is a part of life and that women should use their looks to get ahead. Too bad for those of us who aren't gorgeous.

Then, controversy erupted over a girls' T-shirt being sold on J.C. Penney's website. The T-shirt, which was printed with the message "I'm too pretty to do homework, so my brother has to do it for me," was immediately criticized by consumers for being sexist, and the store
pulled it from the site.

Money-Saving Tips For Students

Newsflash for college students: That student loan money may seem like a never-ending fountain of easy cash, but you'll probably be paying for the ridiculous junk you buy now well into your 30s. Pennies you manage to save now will pay off in the long run.

More »

Bloomberg Hid Crucial Detail As Aide Resigned: An Arrest

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s management style has its hallmarks: unwavering loyalty to aides and a deep distaste for exposing private lives to public scrutiny.

So when he described the resignation of a deputy mayor a few weeks ago, Mr. Bloomberg left out a crucial detail — the aide had just been arrested over a domestic violence complaint.

On Thursday, Mr. Bloomberg’s instinct to protect, rather than disclose, engulfed his administration in controversy, as prominent city officials harshly criticized his decision to keep the episode hidden from the public.

Evidence Suggests Cover-Up In ATF Scandal, As More Guns Appear At Crime Scenes

Just hours after the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, federal officials tried to cover up evidence that the gun that killed Terry was one the government intentionally helped sell to the Mexican cartels in a weapons trafficking program known as Operation Fast and Furious.

The revelation comes just days after a huge shake-up of government officials who oversaw the failed anti-gun trafficking program and Congress renewed its demand for more answers.

MADERA, Calif. (KFSN) -- A small medical marijuana grow is causing a big uproar in the North Valley. A Madera family says they are concerned over their safety because neighbors are growing pot plants in their backyard.

Madera Police say they have their hands tied with this one, at least for now.

Miguel Flores is worried about his 6-year-old daughter, Savannah. He fears she's being exposed to the smell of marijuana plants growing just over his backyard fence.

Flores said he worries about safety since the grow is right across the street from an elementary school. "That's the biggest issue, the school and the kids," Flores said. "If something happens, if they get robbed... it's a big if but still it's a possibility something can happen."

Flores is not alone, his next-door neighbor, who also cares for Savannah, said she wonders what will happen if crooks ever try to steal the plants.

New York Mom Of Twins Born Through Surrogate Sues Employer For Denying Maternity Leave

In a case that mixes reproductive technology, family law and employment law, a woman who used a surrogate to give birth to her twins is suing her employer in a U.S. District Court in Massachusetts for refusing to grant her paid maternity leave.

Kara Krill, a clinical business manager on New York's Long Island, has claimed breach of contract, breach of good faith and fair dealing, and negligent misrepresentation against Cubist Pharmaceuticals, headquartered in Lexington, Mass. She seeks an injunction and compensatory and punitive damages for employment law violations.

Dating After Divorce. Get Back Out There!

Is it time? Has it been long enough? Are you ready? When it comes to dating after divorce, only you can answer those questions, but if you are at a place in your life where you feel in complete control and are ready to tackle the big wide world of dating, there are some tips to help you dip your toes back into the dating pool.

Although it might have been years and years since you have had to date, the players are still the same, even though the places might have changed. For instance, being a parent at the age of 40 or 50 might mean that the bar scene is just not for you anymore. And, because you are at a more mature and different point in your life, you will want to find quality over quantity, so where do you go and where do you look?

In America the Rule of Law Is Vacated

With bank fraudsters, torturers, and war criminals running free, the US Department of Justice (sic) has nothing better to do than to harass the famous Tennessee guitar manufacturer, Gibson, arrest organic food producers in California and send 12 abusive FBI agents armed with assault rifles to bust down yet another wrong door of yet another innocent family, leaving parents, children, and grandmother traumatized.

What law did Gibson Guitar Corp break that caused federal agents to disrupt Gibson's plants in Nashville and Memphis, seize guitars, cause layoffs, and cost the company $3 million from disrupted operations?

No US law was broken. The feds claim that Gibson broke a law that is on the books in India.

More

THiS MaCHiNe KiLLS FaSCiSTS...aND THaT ONe KiLLS JoBS

There are many many reasons why the industrial engine that once was the American economy now lies fallow. Zero Hedge readers are very well versed in these.

I don't know what kind of last minute half baked job creation nonsense Obama is planning to spout just before kick off time next Thursday night. But I do know one thing that that solar powered moron and his bankster loving halfwit AG don't know: America makes the best damn guitars in the whole wide world, bar none.

I have been thinking about what the administration is doing to the Gibson Guitar Corporation, the Cadillac of "Made in USA" guitars. The answer to our problems is likely to be found somewhere between Barry's pet solar powered stimulis project, Solyndra and the harassment of Gibson by Eric (Inaction Jackson) Holder's bankster loving DOJ in collaboration with the US Fish and Wild Life Service.

Solyndra is, or more accurately was, a US start-up manufacturer of solar panels. It just laid off approximately 1,900 employees, shut its doors and filed a bankruptcy petition. Solyndra received US government "stimulis loans of approximately $500 million, but was unable to come up with a business model capable of competing with low cost solar panels from guess where: China.

Gibson, along with several other American icons like like Fender, Martin and Taylor, is one of the world's leading manufacturers of fine guitars and other quality stringed instruments. It employs over 2,000 Americans. It has not borrowed a dime from the US government. It has a simple plan: people around the world will buy guitars that are designed and manufactured with love and care by American luthiers. It's primary competition is where? You guessed it: China.

More

Virginia City Weighs Confederate Flag-Flying Limits

LEXINGTON, VA. – Officials in this city where Robert E. Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson are buried are considering limits on downtown flag-flying, including the Confederate flag, angering defenders of the divisive Southern symbol.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans organized a rally ahead of a scheduled public hearing Thursday night and an expected vote. Organizers of the "Save our Flags" rally are offering free hot dogs and music, have lined up speakers and distributed a flyer with a drawing of Lee, a tear rolling down his cheek.

Massive Wave Of Lawsuits To Be Filed By The US Against America's Biggest Banks As Soon As Tomorrow

In a move that could either send BAC stock limit down overnight or send it soaring (we are still trying to figure out just what is going on here), the NYT has broken major news that the US is preparing to go nuclear on more than a dozen big banks among which Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, in an attempt for Fannie and Freddie to recoup $30 billion if not much more. The lawsuit is expected to hit the docket in the next few days: "The suits stem from subpoenas the finance agency issued to banks a year ago. If the case is not filed Friday, they said, it will come Tuesday, shortly before a deadline expires for the housing agency to file claims." Now, taken at face value, this would mean that Bank of America can kiss its ass goodbye as unlike the Walnut Place litigation, this will take place in Federal Court where Article 77 is not applicable. Yet there is something that gives us pause: namely logic, captured by the following words: "While I believe that F.H.F.A. is acting responsibly in its role as conservator, I am afraid that we risk pushing these guys off of a cliff and we’re going to have to bail out the banks again,” said Tim Rood, who worked at Fannie Mae until 2006 and is now a partner at the Collingwood Group, which advises banks and servicers on housing-related issues." In other words: if the banks are sued, and if justice prevails, the end of the world is nigh and cue TARP 2 - XXX. Now where have we heard that argument over, and over, and over before.
From the NYT [18]:

The suits will argue the banks, which assembled the mortgages and marketed them as securities to investors, failed to perform the due diligence required under securities law and missed evidence that borrowers’ incomes were inflated or falsified. When many borrowers were unable to pay their mortgages, the securities backed by the mortgages quickly lost value.

Fannie and Freddie lost more than $30 billion, in part as a result of the deals, losses that were borne mostly by taxpayers.

In July, the agency filed suit against UBS, another major mortgage securitizer, seeking to recover at least $900 million, and the individuals with knowledge of the case said the new litigation would be similar in scope.

Private holders of mortgage securities are already trying to force the big banks to buy back tens of billions in soured mortgage-backed bonds, but this federal effort is a new chapter in a huge legal fight that has alarmed investors in bank shares. In this case, rather than demanding that the banks buy back the original loans, the finance agency is seeking reimbursement for losses on the securities held by Fannie and Freddie.

Amid a furor over Google+'s ban on pseudonymity and anonymity, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt just admitted the company intends to be an 'identity service"

Ever since Google (GOOG) launched its new Google+ social network, we and others have pointed out that the search giant clearly has more in mind than just providing a nice place for people to share photos of their pets. For one thing, Google needs to tap into the “social signals” that people provide through networks such as Facebook so it can improve its search results. There’s a larger motive, too: As Chairman and former Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt admitted during an interview in Edinburgh over the weekend, Google is taking a hard line on the real-name issue because it sees Google+ as an “identity service” or platform on which it can build other products.

Schmidt’s comments came during an interview with Andy Carvin, the National Public Radio digital editor who has become a one-man newswire during the Arab Spring revolutions. Carvin asked the Google chairman about the company’s reasoning for pushing its real-name policies on Google+—a policy that many have criticized (including us) because it excludes potentially valuable viewpoints that might be expressed by political dissidents and others who prefer to remain anonymous. In effect, Schmidt said Google isn’t interested in changing its policies to accommodate those kinds of users: If people want to remain anonymous, he said, then they shouldn’t use Google+.

U.S. taxpayers are the biggest owners of repossessed homes. For now, they’re stuck with them

For sale or rent by distressed owner: 248,000 homes. That’s how many residential properties the U.S. government now has in its possession, the result of record numbers of people defaulting on government-backed mortgages. Washington is sitting on nearly a third of the nation’s 800,000 repossessed houses, making the U.S. taxpayer the largest owner of foreclosed properties. With even more homes moving toward default, Fannie Mae (FNMA), Freddie Mac (FMCC), and the Federal Housing Administration are looking for a way to unload them without swamping the already depressed real estate market.

Trouble is, they haven’t figured out how to do that. The government admitted as much in August, when Fannie, Freddie, and FHA issued a joint plea to the public for ideas about how to solve the problem. (Give it your best shot: You have until Sept. 15 to submit ideas to reo.rfi@fhfa.gov.) “They’re stuck,” says Karen Shaw Petrou, managing partner of Federal Financial Analytics, a Washington-based consultant that advises banks and other clients on government policy. “They don’t know what to do.”

Time To Ban Oyster Fishing?

In the late 1880s the Chesapeake Bay was the biggest oyster fishery on the planet. Now, the upper bay is at risk of losing its entire oyster population. Experts are calling for a ban on harvesting oysters.

Full Story

Patriots Day Event

Car Sales Rise - Against All Odds

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Consumers shrugged off a slowing economy, plunging stock markets and even a hurricane to keep buying cars at a decent clip in August.

Industrywide sales were up 7.5% from a year ago in August. And the pace of August sales works out to an annual rate of 12.1 million, off only slightly from the July's 12.2 million pace.

More

Charges Of Cover-Up In ATF Scandal

Allegations surface that officials covered up evidence that the gun used to kill border agent was part of the failed ATF operation as senator reveals more than 20 guns connected with the program have been found at crime scenes in Mexico.

Conservatives Raise Alarm About Fairness Doctrine In 'Different Garb'

The Federal Communications Commission may have killed off the controversial Fairness Doctrine this week, but conservatives -- offering faint praise for the move -- are sounding the alarm over what they see as backdoor attempts by the Obama administration to regulate political speech on the airwaves.

They point to ownership diversity and "localism" as other ways Democrats can try to keep the spirit of the Fairness Doctrine alive and silence conservatives and Christian broadcasters.

It's a natural human action, but you need to keep your participation under control

It’s been said that “you can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your family.” And unless you’re in HR, chances are you aren’t able to choose with whom you share an office space either.

Often, what comes from throwing random strangers together into a cubicle-clad office space can lead to situations that make fingernails on a chalkboard sound like a four string quartet. From the break room food klepto to the budding office romance, co-workers offer juicy material for water cooler chatter or hearsay that sparks at your desks, in the break room, or on the elevator. Even at the bar after work.

What starts with a casual observation of how you saw “Joe and Sally exchange lingering glances” can escalate into allegations that could hurt both their personal and professional images, and yours.

Here are a few tips that will keep your professional life from getting tangled up in the web of office gossip.

Attention