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Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Twitter. Show all posts
Monday, October 29, 2012
White Ribbon Against Pornography Week Is This Week!
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Search for autistic child ends in joyful reunion:
Search for autistic child ends in joyful reunion
A five-year-old autistic boy was last night reunited with his relieved family when searchers found him wet and shivering in a creek bed after five harrowing hours alone in the bush.
Ryan Peel, from Churton Park, ran off during a walk in the Rimutaka Forest Park south of Wainuiomata yesterday afternoon.
With the weather deteriorating police were fearful for the boy, who was unlikely to respond to people calling out his name due to his autism.
After vowing to hunt through the night for Ryan, searchers and a police dog found him just after 9pm. He was wet and cold but otherwise unharmed. He laughed and smiled when reunited with his family.
""The immense wave of relief that washed over me when I heard he'd been found safe, I just can't describe it, it was amazing," Ryan's father Edward Peel said.
"I was feeling the anguish that any parent in that situation would feel. You try to stay positive but you keep thinking is he hurt, does he have hypotheremia, has he fallen in a creek... you can't stop thinking those thoughts."
Like many autistic children, Ryan is naturally drawn to water so the family were fearful he would have made his way to a stream.
Rescuer Geoff McGhie said when they found Ryan he was in a creek bed about 800 metres from the track, and had most probably been in the water given his wet state.
McGhie said he and a police dog handler heard a noise they initially thought was another search team, like a small squeal, which led them to the boy.
Wellington Police Search and Rescue Coordinator Anthony Harmer said Ryan's autism had presented his search team with a unique challenge.
''If we were searching for a responsive 5-year-old, you would be able to call out, 'little Sally, little Jenny' and they would likely respond and run towards you,'' he said.
''But in Ryan's case, he may take the opposite approach and just hide, so the search team has kept that in consideration.''
Ryan had been on an outing with his father and stepmother when the he went missing. As he was found last night police were still trying to contact the boy's mother, who was also believed to live locally.
With bush too dense to be able to use a helicopter, the search was spearheaded by 20 people in six search and rescue teams, a dozen volunteers and a specialist search dog.
A base had been set up in the park, where the family holed up in their cark to wait for news.
Clausen said the family had been walking on one of the park's many paths, the Orongorongo Track when the boy ran ahead of the group.
''A short time later the father ran along the track to catch up with his son but couldn't find him,'' Clausen said.
He disappeared just metres from the area's car park, near the Catchpool Stream that runs through the conservation land.
Clausen said the fact the child was wearing warm clothes - a checkered hoodie, navy blue trackpants, blue socks and white sneakers -had been ''a positive note''.
Searchers had earlier been hopeful the boy would be found before nightfall due to worsening weather.
Friday, October 26, 2012
ATF Press Release - Prepare for Hurricane Sandy:
ATF URGES FFLS AND FELS/FEL/PS TO PREPARE FOR HURRICANE SANDY - OTHER NATURAL DISASTERS
WASHINGTON – In preparation for Hurricane Sandy and other natural disasters, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) today urged federal firearms licensees (FFLs) and federal explosives licensees and permittees (FEL/Ps) to be prepared and protect their merchandise and facilities. ATF has prepared guidance, which is available online, regarding how to plan ahead before disasters strike.
For FFLs, an ATF brochure and video are available on ATF's website with information regarding businesses that are affected by flooding or other such incidents. The brochure, "Disaster Preparedness for Federal Firearms Licensees," (ATF publication 3317.7), is available athttp://www.atf.gov/publications/download/p/atf-p-3317-7.pdf. The video, "Disaster Preparedness," is listed under ATF's Online Education Seminars at http://www.atf.gov/training/firearms/ffl-educational-seminars/.
FEL/Ps should review the brochure, "Voluntary Steps to Prepare for a Pending Natural Disaster," (ATF Publication 5400.16, March 2011), which is available at http://www.atf.gov/publications/download/p/atf-p-5400-16.pdf.
FEL/Ps that have additional questions concerning preparedness are urged to contact their local ATF field office or the Explosives Industry Programs Branch at 202-648-7120.
FFLs with additional questions, should contact their local ATF field office or the ATF Firearms Industry Programs Branch at 202-648-7190.
For other useful information on planning for a natural disaster, please visit www.ready.gov. Further information about ATF is available at www.atf.gov.
FBI - Cyber Security Focusing on Hackers and Intrusions:
Cyber Security
Focusing on Hackers and Intrusions
Focusing on Hackers and Intrusions
Cyber Security
Focusing on Hackers and Intrusions
Focusing on Hackers and Intrusions
10/26/12
Early last year, hackers were discovered embedding malicious software in two million computers, opening a virtual door for criminals to rifle through users’ valuable personal and financial information. Last fall, an overseas crime ring was shut down after infecting four million computers, including half a million in the U.S. In recent months, some of the biggest companies and organizations in the U.S. have been working overtime to fend off continuous intrusion attacks aimed at their networks.
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| October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month |
The scope and enormity of the threat—not just to private industry but also to the country’s heavily networked critical infrastructure—was spelled out last month in Director Robert S. Mueller’s testimony to a Senate homeland security panel: “Computer intrusions and network attacks are the greatest cyber threat to our national security.”
To that end, the FBI over the past year has put in place an initiative to uncover and investigate web-based intrusion attacks and develop a cadre of specially trained computer scientists able to extract hackers’ digital signatures from mountains of malicious code. Agents are cultivating cyber-oriented relationships with the technical leads at financial, business, transportation, and other critical infrastructures on their beats.
| Podcast: Cyber Intrusions |
Today, investigators in the field can send their findings to specialists in the FBI Cyber Division’s Cyber Watch command at Headquarters, who can look for patterns or similarities in cases. The 24/7 post also shares the information with partner intelligence and law enforcement agencies—like the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security and the National Security Agency—on the FBI-led National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force.
A key aim of the Next Generation Cyber Initiative has been to expand our ability to quickly define “the attribution piece” of a cyber attack to help determine an appropriate response, said Richard McFeely, executive assistant director of the Bureau’s Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch. “The attribution piece is: who is conducting the attack or the exploitation and what is their motive,” McFeely explained. “In order to get to that, we’ve got to do all the necessary analysis to determine who is at the other end of the keyboard perpetrating these actions.”
The Cyber Division’s main focus now is on cyber intrusions, working closely with the Bureau’s Counterterrorism and Counterintelligence Divisions.
Special Agent Richard McFeely
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“We are obviously concerned with terrorists using the Internet to conduct these types of attacks,” McFeely said. “As the lead domestic intelligence agency within the United States, it’s our job to make sure that businesses’ and the nation’s secrets don’t fall into the hands of adversaries.”
In the Coreflood case in early 2011, hackers enlisted a botnet—a network of infected computers—to do their dirty work. McFeely urged everyone connected to the Internet to be vigilant against computer viruses and malicious code, lest they become victims or unwitting pawns in a hacker or web-savvy terrorist’s malevolent scheme.
“It’s important that everybody understands that if you have a computer that is outward-facing—that it’s connected to the web—that your computer is at some point going to be under attack,” he said. “You need to be aware of the threat and you need to take it seriously.”
Resources:
- National Cyber Security Awareness Month 2012: Are You the Weakest Link?
- National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force
- Infragard: A Partnership that Works
- Cyber Crimes Stories
- Cyber Crime
- How to Protect Your Computer
- National Cyber Security Awareness Month 2012: Are You the Weakest Link?
- National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force
- Infragard: A Partnership that Works
- Cyber Crimes Stories
- Cyber Crime
- How to Protect Your Computer
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
DOJ - National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children Conference:
Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole Speaks at the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children Conference
Des Moines, Iowa ~ Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Thank you, Chuck, for your kind words and for inviting me to join you today. It is an honor to address all of you here from across the country who are doing so much to protect our children. I’m especially grateful for Chuck Noerenberg and Lori Moriarty’s leadership at the National Alliance for DEC, as well as the remarkable work that the Iowa Alliance for Drug Endangered Children is doing throughout this great State. I am also pleased that some of our fine ambassadors from the Department, including COPS Director Melekian, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom and U.S. Attorney Nick Klinefeldt will be here to share ways that we are trying to better serve DEC.
Just as each of you has made protecting our children a priority, so too has the Department of Justice. And I welcome this opportunity to share with you just a few of the Department’s many initiatives to support and enhance your work on the ground.
Protecting our children has long been a priority for Attorney General Holder – and I can say that with authority, having known him since he was a line attorney at the Department’s Public Integrity section. I know that one of his proudest achievements since becoming Attorney General was the launch of the Defending Childhood initiative in 2010 to specifically address the issue of children exposed to violence. This program seeks to enhance efforts nationwide by leveraging federal resources, by boosting funding, and by creating government-wide partnerships. Though we have much work to do, I am proud of the progress we have made in that time to end the cycle of violence and defend every child’s right to a safe and secure childhood.
Two years ago, as part of our broader efforts to better identify and serve child victims and to promote the first-ever comprehensive threat assessment of the dangers children face through exploitation, we issued an innovative blueprint to fight these crimes, known as the National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction.
In 2006, the Department launched Project Safe Childhood (PSC) to combat the proliferation of technology-facilitated crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children. Just last year, we expanded that initiative to address all federal crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children. Through that program, we obtained over 2,700 indictments for offenses involving the sexual exploitation of a minor, representing a 42 percent increase in the number of indictments over fiscal year 2006. More importantly, from the launch of PSC through last August, over 4,700 children depicted in child pornography images have been identified and many have been taken out of harm’s way, through enhanced law enforcement coordination, multi-jurisdictional collaborative efforts, and additional contributions by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
In addition to PSC, our Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program has grown from a small, loose-knit program into a highly-trained, coordinated, and effective network of 61 task forces that has seen remarkable success.
The Department of Justice is also committed to a related initiative of great mutual interest— Drug Endangered Children.
Over the years, the Department of Justice has invested millions of dollars in the DEC initiative, including funding for the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children, or National DEC, since its incorporation in 2006. This year alone, the Department has awarded over $1.2 million in funding to further National DEC’s ability to meet the increasingly troubling challenges facing young children in communities nationwide.
Because of this support, the National DEC and its state affiliates have grown from an informal association of a few state leaders into a national voice for training, technical assistance, and advocacy on behalf of abused and neglected children. And despite the tight fiscal climate that we’re seeing at every level of government, the Justice Department has been – and will remain – committed to stand with you and our other stakeholders on the ground to take this work to the next level.
But of course, funding is only one part of the answer to better serve and protect Drug Endangered Children. Beyond financial assistance and grants, we must continue working with our state, local and tribal partners to ensure better collaboration and to put our energy and efforts to more effective uses. This is exactly the role the Federal Interagency Task Force on Drug Endangered Children, or DEC Task Force, seeks to play.
We established the DEC Task Force in 2010 in response to the Administration’s 2010 National Drug Control Strategy. It has been my honor to chair this Task Force, which benefits from active participation from multiple department components, as well interagency partners, including the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, and Homeland Security.
I know that I don’t need to explain to any of you why this effort is so important, but one of our first missions with this Task Force was to make sure that the importance of DEC was understood more broadly. We wanted to use this Task Force to expand the partnership on a federal government level and engage new partners. To do this we just needed to highlight that helping DEC is not only the right thing to do, but also part of our responsibility in ensuring justice, health and safety of vulnerable young members of our communities.
We shared the sad fact that, all too often, today’s drug endangered child becomes tomorrow’s substance abuser or criminal offender. By helping these children as early as possible, we can benefit them in two fundamental ways. Not only can we provide a better future for each child served, but we can also create safer communities around them. Others recognized the importance and value of this work, and as a result, we developed a Task Force that enjoys active participation by over eight federal agencies and over 80 participants in total.
As you know, the DEC movement has grown both in focus and impact over the past ten years. And while some DEC efforts in the field remain meth-specific, many others now include a broad spectrum of drugs. One of our first tasks at our initial DEC Task Force meeting in May of 2010 was to create a consensus on our use of the term “Drug Endangered Children.” We agreed to a definition that would include a person under the age of 18 who lives in or is exposed to an environment where drugs, including pharmaceuticals, are used, possessed, trafficked, diverted or manufactured illegally.
Many of you will recognize aspects of our definition—but you may also notice some variances. For instance, we wanted our efforts to include all children under 18—including infants and older teens. Our definition also includes illegal use of legal, pharmaceutical drugs, which has recently become a fast-growing area of crime. Additionally, our definition includes the children harmed by the many facets of the drug industry—from the childcare provider who is a trafficker to the parent who is a user—and from the many types of drugs causing these harms, not just methamphetamine.
Our Task Force members quickly realized that there was no end to the ways these children need and deserve our help, but that there were limits to the impact we might have—both because of the unfortunate reality that we don’t have infinite resources and because most of the necessary efforts would need to occur outside of our purview on the state and local level. We also agreed that we wanted to be both ambitious and realistic in setting our goals to raise awareness of DEC, to identify promising practices, and to increase opportunities for DEC training.
In order to accomplish these objectives, we engaged partners within and far beyond government to gather critical information about how to carry this work forward. And in doing so – and after realizing that there was not even a consolidated review of the DEC-related efforts already underway at the federal level – we set out to collect and review the current DEC efforts within two months of the Task Force’s formation.
In our outreach, we also learned how critical it is to simply raise awareness of the existence of DEC in our communities. In order to accomplish this goal, we launched a public awareness campaign in May of 2011. At this event, I was joined by Attorney General Holder, ONDCP Director Kerlikowske and DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart, who moderated a panel discussion featuring the Attorney General and actors from the HBO hit series, The Wire. We used that opportunity to announce the launch of the DEC website, which is linked to the White House’s homepage at White House.gov. With the support of our COPS office we also released a CD based toolkit which provides resources identified and created by the Task Force. We continue to seek additional opportunities —on the local, state and federal levels—to bring these children out from the isolation of their homes and into the general awareness of their communities.
From speaking with you and other partners in the field, we learned that the most successful efforts are those that capitalize on the resources of a multi-disciplinary team. That is the model we created at the Federal level and asked others to do at the local, state and tribal level.
As a result, several of our U.S. Attorneys have taken on this challenge. One great example is our US Attorney in South Carolina, Bill Nettles, who convened an Orangeburg DEC Task Force with the county Solicitor and Department of Public Safety Chief - together with federal, state, and local law enforcement - as well as a strong contingent of community leaders, including first responders, educators, ministers, social service professionals, victim advocates, child advocates, and health care and treatment professionals. Since their initial meeting in March of 2011, they have made great strides in better serving DEC. They have created a Protocol, which has been signed by 10 regional agencies and service providers. As part of this Protocol, children now are declared victims on the police reports, opening them up for more potential funding for services. As a result, within just a month of signing the Protocol, children who before would not have been declared victims of their situation had a multi-disciplinary team monitoring their progress and providing support. In addition, at the inaugural Orangeburg DEC Task Force training seminar last January, which included over 60 local individuals representing multiple disciplines and professions, three officers from the North Charleston, SC Police Department were so moved that they decided to start their own DEC program, now dubbed the Low Country DEC Coalition.
Another promising practice you, in the field, identified is having checklists available to help first responders identify and plan, in advance, when children may be present on the scene of an arrest. As a result, our Task Force now offers specific checklists for Law Enforcement, Child Protective and Child Welfare Services, Medical First Responders, Prosecutors, and Educators. We have made these and other resources available in one, easy to use toolkit, which is available on our CD, from our COPS office, and on the DEC website.
We also know how important it is to provide DEC training, so we have increased DEC training for law enforcement on the Federal level. Our Task Force partner, the Department of Homeland Security, has made great strides in including DEC training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. The DEA, as you may know, has also been on the forefront of the DEC initiative for a long time by mandating training at all domestic offices and by heightening DEC awareness in presentations at conferences and trainings across the country.
The US Marshals Service (USMS) is yet another key partner in providing Federal DEC training. The USMS arrests over 120,000 fugitives per year and covers over 100 houses each day while conducting fugitive and other USMS investigations. After participating in the DEC Task Force and attending this conference last year, the USMS created DEC lesson plans in their Basic Deputy Training and their Advanced Deputy Training Program. To date, they have taught DEC in nine classes, and are scheduled to offer eight training courses in FY 13, starting next week. The USMS is creating an online DEC course for all operational personnel, which they hope to develop this fiscal year. I commend Inspector Taker and Inspector Nelson, who are representing the USMS here today, for the great work that USMS is doing to better serve DEC.
Most importantly, we recognize that it takes all of us working together to make this effort successful. Outstanding training events such as this annual conference demonstrate the benefits of increased collaboration and partnership. Your participation in this conference not only helps to improve your individual skills, but also helps to advance our critical efforts to protect our children from child exploitation, neglect and abuse.
At the Department of Justice, we are fully aware of how critically important, and oftentimes life-saving, this work really is for countless children nationwide. It is critically important to the children whom we prevent from experiencing the trauma of living in a drug-abusing home or being torn from parent during a drug arrest. And it is critically important to the health and prosperity of our country to end the cycle of crime and substance abuse.
I am proud that protecting our children has been one of the Department’s highest priorities. But we cannot do it alone. We cannot simply arrest and prosecute our way out of the growing epidemic of drug abuse, trafficking, and addiction by parents and childcare providers. Saving these children requires a multi-disciplinary approach involving coordinated teams comprised of law enforcement, child protective services, healthcare professionals, educators, victim service specialists, child advocates, courts, and the community. It requires all of us.
This work is difficult and gut wrenching. I want to thank you for your willingness to take this on. We are grateful for your dedication to serve and protect Drug Endangered Children. Every day we work to identify and help a drug endangered child is a day that gets us closer to our goal – a world in which every child can grow up safe and able to realize his or her full potential.
Thank you.
Traffic, not candy, at top of the fright list:
Lifestyle
October 23, 2012 at 1:00 am
By Beth J. Harpaz - Associated Press
Children should carry a flashlight or glowstick to make themselves visible while crossing streets Halloween night. (Daniel Mears / The Detroit News)
Hey, mom and dad: Halloween's not really all that scary — except when it comes to traffic safety.
Despite warnings about tainted candy, candle fires and even child abductions, real Halloween headlines are rarely about any of those things. Instead, tragedies related to the holiday typically involve trick-or-treaters hit by cars. Fortunately even those accidents are relatively few in number.
And here's something that might surprise you. A study published in 2010 in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics found that the most emergency room visits involving children around Halloween are related to sports.
The report stated nearly 18 percent of injuries on Halloween were to the finger and hand, and a third of those were lacerations, with some likely resulting from pumpkin-carving. But the report added that "a much higher proportion of injuries that occurred on Halloween were associated with sports, including football and basketball, than with knives."
Which is not to say parents should spend Oct. 31 relaxing. (Are parents ever allowed to relax?) Obviously, you need to know where kids are, monitor candy hauls, and make sure they can see out of their masks and won't trip on their costumes. But here are some statistics to provide a reality check on what's really scary about Halloween.
Fear of tainted candy
Is the danger of tainted candy urban legend or reality?
Of course you should examine goodies and make sure kids avoid treats that aren't sealed. But know this: "There isn't any case of a child killed or injured from a contaminated treat picked up in the course of trick or treating," according to Joel Best, a professor at the University of Delaware who has extensively researched the subject.
Best says there have been more than 100 reports of tainted treats going back to 1958, but they include a father who poisoned his child to collect insurance money, incidents where someone gave out booby-trapped goodies but nobody was injured, and cases where kids had food allergies.
Car accidents
According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation, in four out of six years from 2006 to 2010, more pedestrians younger than 21 were killed by cars on Oct. 31 than on Oct. 30 or Nov. 1.
The numbers are small: A total of 16 deaths took place on Oct. 31 during those five years, compared to 11 on Oct. 30 and 10 on Nov. 1.
But a quick survey of news stories from 2011 suggests that traffic safety on Halloween is one area where parental vigilance is warranted. Last year, children and teenagers trick-or-treating or heading to Halloween parties were injured or killed in Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Egg Harbor Township, N.J., Port Bolivar, Texas, Lower Allen Township, Pa., and Colorado Springs, Colo. Most cases involved pedestrians hit while crossing streets or walking along roads; one case resulted in a drunken driving arrest. In another case, parents were injured along with their child.
One way to increase pedestrian visibility on Halloween: Have kids carry a flashlight or glowstick, or add glow-in-the-dark necklaces or reflective tape to costumes.
Where are your kids?
Statistically it's rare for children to be kidnapped by strangers, but it seems like there's always a case in the news. In the last few weeks, a girl was found murdered in Colorado and another child was abducted, then found, in Wyoming. So it's understandable that Halloween makes parents nervous, with kids out after dark, sometimes unaccompanied by parents, often approaching strangers to ask for candy.
Obviously parents should keep track of kids, stay in touch by cellphone with teens, and make sure younger children have adult supervision.
But perhaps you'll find this reassuring: There is no data to suggest an increase in reports of missing children on Halloween, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
Fire and Devil's Night
Candles are often used for spooky decor and to light pumpkins. Be mindful if kids in billowy costumes are nearby.
But the fact is, according to Dr. John Hall, division director of the National Fire Protection Association, "there is no localized spike in reported fire injuries around Halloween."
In past years, there has been a phenomenon called "Devil's Night," especially in the Detroit area, of arson at abandoned properties. A 2005 report from the U.S. Fire Administration noted that "on Halloween, and the night before, incendiary and suspicious structure fires are about 60 percent more frequent than on an average day."
But the number of fires has been decreasing thanks to community and police patrols and other efforts. In 1984, more than 800 fires were started in Detroit during the Halloween period, compared to 169 in 2010 and 94 last year.
Monday, October 22, 2012
Advocates: Let lights shine for Jacob Wetterling:
Posted: Oct 22, 2012, 9:53 am
Advocates: Let lights shine for Jacob Wetterling
ST. PAUL — The Jacob Wetterling Resource Center is asking people to leave their porch lights on to honor the St. Joseph boy abducted 23 years ago.
Jacob was 11 when he was abducted on Oct. 22, 1989, by a masked gunman along a rural road. He hasn't been seen since and the case remains unsolved.
Every Oct. 22, the resource center that bears his name asks individuals to leave a porch light on to remember Jacob. This year, the center is also asking people to honor all missing children by talking to others about child safety.
The resource center was founded in 1990, originally as the Jacob Wetterling Foundation. It merged with the National Child Protection Training Center in 2010 with the goal of ensuring every child grows up safely.
Jacob was 11 when he was abducted on Oct. 22, 1989, by a masked gunman along a rural road. He hasn't been seen since and the case remains unsolved.
Every Oct. 22, the resource center that bears his name asks individuals to leave a porch light on to remember Jacob. This year, the center is also asking people to honor all missing children by talking to others about child safety.
The resource center was founded in 1990, originally as the Jacob Wetterling Foundation. It merged with the National Child Protection Training Center in 2010 with the goal of ensuring every child grows up safely.
Jacob's Story
The Jacob Wetterling Foundation was established on January 22, 1990, four months after eleven year old Jacob Wetterling was abducted near his home in St. Joseph, Minnesota.
Jacob Wetterling was born on February 17, 1978. He grew up in St. Joseph , Minnesota
The local police were called to the scene of the abduction only minutes later and a search ensued that involved hundreds of volunteers, local law enforcement, FBI agents, and others. Jacob’s case has resulted in over 50,000 leads and has been studied by staff and trainees at the FBI academy in Quantico , Virginia
To date, law enforcement and Jacob’s family still do not know what happened to Jacob or his abductor or where they are now. Above is an image of Jacob shortly before the abduction and below is his age progressed photo as to what he may look like now.
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