Three New York City Gentlemen Charged With Gang Rape of Three Women, On Separate Occasions

Fernando Sandel was one of three men who appeared in Manhattan criminal court Monday (pictured) to face accusations of gang raping three women. He was arrested in August last year at 26 years old.

Isaiah Rivera (above), Joey Cruz (below) and Fernando Sandel are accused of raping three women who had posted online ads offering sex in exchange for money and had made plans to meet with an interested party.

[From article]

Three men appeared in Manhattan court Monday after being charged with gang-raping three different women on three separate occasions in a horrific strings of attacks.
Isaiah Rivera, Joey Cruz and Fernando Sandel were arrested in August 2015 for raping the women and stealing their money, phones or other valuables, police said at the time.
One of the women was forced onto the roof of the building and the other two were sprayed in the face with a debilitating substance such as Mace, the New York Times reported.
All three attacks happened between June and August last year across Manhattan and the Bronx, with one of them located at the Grand Hyatt hotel on East 42nd Street and another near Gramercy Park, according to authorities.
Police first arrested Sandel, then 26, in August last year while officers kept searching for Rivera, then 31, and Cruz, then 26.
They found the remaining two suspects and detained them two days later, authorities said at the time.
Sandel, Rivera and Cruz all appeared at Manhattan criminal court Monday.
The three women had posted ads online offering sex in exchange for money and had planned to meet with an interested party, the New York Times reported.
The first attack happened on June 28, 2015, police said, when a 20-year-old woman made arrangements to meet up in the South Bronx with a man who had responded to her online ad.
Three men showed up and forced her to the roof of the building before raping her and stealing her money, according to authorities.
The woman was treated at Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center and released, CBS reported at the time.
The second rape occurred on August 3, police said, after another woman, who was 34 years old, arranged to meet up with a man at the Grand Hyatt hotel.
There, authorities said, the man sprayed her in the face with an unidentified substance before throwing her on the bed.
Two other men entered the room, tied her up, raped her and stole her handbag and her cellphone, police said.
The woman also received treatment at St Luke’s Hospital before being released, CBS wrote.
The third attack happened the next day, after a 32-year-old woman planned to met up with a man at her apartment near Gramercy Park, according to authorities.
The man arrived and sprayed her with Mace, then two men entered and all three tied her up, raped her and stole her laptop, her cellphone and her bracelet, police said.
The woman was treated at a local hospital.
Police would not specify which man was accused of arranging the dates and which were accused of showing up later on, the New York Post wrote after the arrests last year.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3663114/Isaiah-Rivera-Joey-Cruz-Fernando-Sandel-appear-court-face-gang-rape-charges.html

Three accused gang rapists appear in court charged with horrific string of attacks at a Grand Hyatt hotel and across Manhattan and the Bronx
Isaiah Rivera, Joey Cruz and Fernando Sandel appeared in court Monday
All three were arrested in August 2015 and accused of gang raping women
Three attacks happened between June and August last year, police said
One woman was forced onto the roof of the building and two others were sprayed in the face with a debilitating substance, according to authorities
One of the rapes happened at the Grand Hyatt hotel on East 42nd Street and another took place near Gramercy Park, police said
By CLEMENCE MICHALLON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 19:22 EST, 27 June 2016 | UPDATED: 19:32 EST, 27 June 2016

New York Football Giants Player Sues Reporter For Privacy Violation of Medical Records

Jason Pierre-Paul and Adam Schefter

Photo: AP; ESPN

One more benefit of the new health care law brought to you by lawless and clueless Democrats. Online medical records are easily accessible to hackers, criminals, and data brokers. See e.g., Marc Goodman's book, Future Crimes.

[From article]
Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul is flagging ESPN and its reporter Adam Schefter for posting his private medical records online to millions of readers.
Pierre-Paul, 27, sued ESPN and Schefter in a Florida court Wednesday, citing a violation of his privacy.
The NFL player blew off a finger in a July 4 fireworks mishap and was treated at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, according to his lawyers Mitchell Schuster and Kevin Fritz.
Schefter “improperly obtained” Pierre-Paul’s medical chart showing the defensive end had his right index finger amputated and posting the record on Twitter to nearly 4 million followers, the suit says.
[. . .]
The reporter said he tweeted the image of the medical record to bolster a story about the surgery.
Schefter, 49, who lives in New York, is a regular contributor to ESPN TV programs like “NFL Insiders,” “Monday Night Countdown” and “SportsCenter.”
Pierre-Paul’s Miami Dade County civil suit, which does not specify money damages, says that while the player’s injury may have been “a matter of legitimate public concern,” the “chart was not.”

http://nypost.com/2016/02/24/jpp-sues-espn-adam-schefter-for-posting-his-medical-records/

JPP sues ESPN, Adam Schefter for posting his medical records
By Julia Marsh
New York Post
February 24, 2016 | 8:33pm

Harvard University Students Targets Of Hackers

To learn more about what hackers are doing, from foreign criminals to domestic crime families, terrorists and big data, enabled by your ever friendly Apple Computer and iPhone, Facebook, Snapchat, Google and others, take a look at Marc Goodman's book, Future Crime. Amazing how easily anyone can lose it all.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/2/24/students-admins-phishing-email/

Students, Staff, and Faculty Targeted by Phishing Scam
By HANNAH NATANSON,

Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
February 24, 2016

Leftist Academic Hatred Online Lowers Expectations of Rational Discourse

Citizen Protest Of Government Abuses

[Facebook comments embedded]
[From article]
Whether or not you agree with the actions of the Bundy family and their supporters in taking over a vacant, federally-owned building on the Malheur Wildlife Reserve near Burns, most Americans would wish for a peaceful resolution to the “standoff.” But from the beginning of the standoff, the Bundy Ranch Facebook page has been spattered with posts calling for the Oregon protesters and their families to be slaughtered. Since the killing by law enforcement officers of LaVoy Finicum, a rancher from Arizona who acted as spokesman for the “occupiers,” the vicious rhetoric has only intensified.
[. . .]
What would cause an ordinary-looking guy to pray for the deaths of an entire group of Americans who were peacefully protesting government overreach? James Brent’s Facebook page reveals his profession: San Jose State University Professor -- he studied Political Science at Ohio State.
The San Jose State directory confirms that James Brent, the man “praying” for the Bundys to be shot and killed, teaches Political Science at a California university.
[. . .]
Renee Wheeler and Sherry Hartin apparently think the ranchers are worse than the ISIS terrorists currently ravaging Syria and Iraq, calling for their elimination post-haste.
[. . .]
Renee Wheeler and Sherry Hartin apparently think the ranchers are worse than the ISIS terrorists currently ravaging Syria and Iraq, calling for their elimination post-haste.
[. . .]
Most Americans would agree with Sheriff Ward. There is always space in a free society for disagreement and peaceful protests. Let’s hope America’s ‘safe space’ for peaceful disagreement isn’t overrun with obscene calls for the killing of Americans whose only crime is to defy federal overreach.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/02/san_jose_state_polysci_professor_left_death_wish_on_bundy_ranch_facebook_page.html

February 17, 2016
San Jose State Poly-Sci Professor left death wish on Bundy Ranch Facebook page
By Marjorie Haun

Harvard University Diversifies Its Health Care Services, For Some

But not persons with mental, cognitive or other disabilities? Who will help with that? Do peer counselors explain the supplicants' lamentations may be posted online and collected by data brokers; maybe hacked by criminals, or sold to the government? Oh wait. Privacy laws, will hold the firewall against hacking. Hehe.

[From article]
"According to [HUHS Director Paul J.] Barreira, Indigo is designed to serve any student who feels uncomfortable seeking mental health services due to perceived barriers such as race, religion, or socioeconomic status."

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/2/17/Indigo-peer-counseling/

New Diversity-Focused Peer Counseling Group Launches
By MENAKA V. NARAYANAN

Harvard CRIMSON STAFF WRITER
February 17, 2016

Bernie Generation Taking Over Online Dating

[From article]
Adults 55 to 64 are among the fastest-growing age groups in online dating, doubling their use of romance-related sites and apps since 2013, according to a new poll from the Pew Research Center.
As that baby-boomer bracket gets increasingly savvy on social media, a full 12 percent have tried their luck at finding a date online, up from 6 percent three years ago, according to the survey of about 2,000 adults.
[. . .]
The boomer generation’s growing enthusiasm for high-tech romance lags only that of millennials.
[. . .]
As that baby-boomer bracket gets increasingly savvy on social media, a full 12 percent have tried their luck finding a date online, up from 6 percent three years ago, according to the survey of about 2,000 adults.
A third of adults 55 to 64, meanwhile, report that they know someone who uses online dating, while 28 percent know someone who has entered into a long-term relationship through a Web connection.
For adults 65 and over, those figures are 21 percent and 20 percent, respectively, according to the poll.

http://nypost.com/2016/02/11/your-parents-are-taking-over-online-dating/

Your parents are taking over online dating
By James Covert
New York Post
February 11, 2016 | 9:47pm

Cambridge, MA Police Trace Online Bomb Threats To Europe

Cambridge Police In Harvard Square

[From article]
The anonymous bomb threat against Cambridge Schools made last Thursday night has been traced to an organization overseas, but a suspect has not yet been identified, according to police.
This is the fourth threat of violence made against Cambridge schools since November.
Unlike the other three, which were received through the anonymous tip form on the Cambridge Police Department’s website, the most recent one was sent directly through email to an “executive’ at the schools on Jan. 21, according to police.
“The IP address [used by the suspect in this threat] was associated with an organization overseas, so obviously we’ve contacted that organization and are trying to work with them,” said Warnick. “But one of the hurdles is that those IP addresses can be masked. So it could be someone locally using an overseas IP address.”
[. . .]
“It’s a tough time right now for the United States and around the world with threats, and it requires all of us to work together to keep students safe. People are on edge, and understandably so,” said [Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jeffrey]Young.
Police believe the bomb threats against Cambridge schools made on Nov. 16 and Dec. 1, as well as a threat of gun violence made on Dec. 3, were done by a single student. An arrest has not been made, however, and Warnick said Cambridge Police continues to work in collaboration with the FBI on the investigation.

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/news/20160127/police-trace-cambridge-bomb-scare-to-overseas-organization-suspect-not-yet-identified

Police trace Cambridge bomb scare to overseas organization; suspect not yet identified
By Amy Saltzman
Cambridge Chronicle
By Natalie Handy
Posted Jan. 27, 2016 at 3:46 PM

Public Libraries Lend Wi-Fi Hotspots For Patron's Use

[From article]
According to the American Library Association’s 2015 State of American Libraries report, the modern library has evolved from its traditional role as a research-centric establishment to a central location for digital access, learning and literacy.
[. . .]
Around 97 percent of public libraries now offer Internet access in the form of free onsite Wi-Fi and 98 percent offer some form of technology training, according to the report.
[. . .]
In Spring Hill, Tenn., pop 35,000, a fast-growing suburb of Nashville, officials noticed patrons flocking to the library after hours for access to public Wi-Fi. In 2014, they launched a program to make portable Internet hot spots available to anyone interested in taking them home.
[. . .]
Through a partnership with T-Mobile, the telecom service provider, the city library is able to provide roughly 20 devices to the public free of charge. Urban said the operational costs are around $8,500 a month.
Since the launch, Urban said there's been a regular waiting list of 20-30 residents and the library hopes to expand the program in the future.

http://www.govtech.com/network/Wi-Fi-Hot-Spots-for-Rent-How-Public-Libraries-Are-Changing-with-the-Times.html

Wi-Fi Hot Spots for Rent: How Public Libraries Are Changing with the Times
Public libraries in cities small and large are helping to close the digital divide by making portable Internet hot spots available to patrons.







BY EYRAGON EIDAM / JANUARY 14, 2016

Quincy, Massachusetts Gentleman Arrested, Charged With Online Impersonating Women, Soliciting Rape and Home Invasions

Photo: Angela Rowlings
ARRAIGNED: Thomas M. Sheehan pleaded not guilty yesterday in Haverhill District Court to charges including soliciting rape and soliciting kidnapping.

[From article]
Investigators say a former limo driver is suspected of posting the names, photographs and addresses of “numerous” unsuspecting women on an adult website, and, posing as them, inviting men to break into their homes and rape and torture them.
Thomas M. Sheehan, 45, of Quincy, pleaded not guilty yesterday in Haverhill District Court to charges of soliciting rape, soliciting kidnapping and soliciting assault and battery with a dangerous weapon in connection with one of the cases. Thomas Ralph, Attorney General Maura Healey’s chief of cybercrime prosecutions, said Sheehan not only put up pictures of a Groveland woman on the adult website, but her two juvenile daughters, as well.
[. . .]
Patten set bail at $15,000 cash and ordered that if Sheehan posts it, he be on GPS monitoring and 24-hour lockdown at home. He is also forbidden from using computers or the Internet, or from having any contact with children.
Sheehan’s attorney, Michael J. Baldassarre, protested. “I would purport to the court that it was role-play fantasy only,” he said, “not meant to be acted upon.”

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_coverage/2016/01/investigators_man_posed_as_women_invited_rape_torture

Investigators: Man posed as women, invited rape, torture
Laurel J. Sweet

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Online Dating Rape In New York City

[From article]
The 28-year-old victim told cops she met a man named “Jeffrey Kent” on the popular dating Web site. It is unclear if that is his real name, police said.
Kent and the woman — whose name and hometown are being kept confidential by authorities — agreed to have their first date in New York and she took a bus into the city on Monday, arriving at around 4 p.m., police said.
The two met at an agreed-upon spot inside the Port Authority, but he did not make a good first impression — not by any stretch — immediately suggesting they go to a hotel, a law-enforcement source told The Post.
The woman was furious, and refused.
[. . .]



He forced her downstairs into the maze of underground concrete spaces and tunnels that extends west of the Port Authority, sources said.
She told police that she was raped inside an area with what looked like an abandoned train track running through it, sources said.
The woman could not easily pinpoint where she’d been taken, one source said.
“She’s from out of town and could only say that she saw train tracks,” the source told The Post.
After the attack, the woman somehow managed to find her way out onto West 41st Street between Tenth and 11th Avenues.
She ran up to a parked fire truck and asked for help.

http://nypost.com/2016/01/15/woman-raped-at-gunpoint-by-eharmony-date-cops/

Woman raped at gunpoint by eHarmony date: cops
By Tina Moore and Larry Celona
New York Post
January 15, 2016 | 12:43am

Tuifts University LIve Streaming Music Concerts

http://as.tufts.edu/music/musiccenter/liveStream.htm

Live streaming Music from Tufts University



8:00 PM Thursday December 10, 2015

Pains of Passion - Night of Opera Scenes




8:00 PM Friday December 2011 

Kiniwe, drum and dance concert of Ghana

Online Food Delivery May Not Be From Where You Think

[From article]
Chew on this — the food you order on GrubHub and Seamless may have been cooked in a low-grade, or even totally unregulated, “ghost kitchen.”
Many restaurants listed on the food-ordering Web sites are not the ones that actually cook and deliver your food, a new report has found.
Many restaurants listed on the food-ordering Web sites are not the ones that actually cook and deliver your food, a new report has found.
A survey of 100 of the top customer-ranked restaurants on the popular sites revealed that just over 10 percent were “ghost” listings whose name and addresses are nowhere to be found in the city’s database of restaurant-inspection grades, NBC New York said.
Take the GrubHub listing for Really Chinese, at 235 E. 31st St. in Manhattan, for example. There’s no listing for such a restaurant in the city database, and there’s no physical restaurant at that address.
[. . .]
Worse, some of the fake listings could actually be fronts for people cooking out of their own kitchens or in off-the-grid rogue restaurants, the DCA warns.
“New Yorkers should not be deceived by fake listings when they are ordering food online,” city Consumer Affairs Commissioner Julie Menin said Wednesday.
Her agency has reached out to Seamless and GrubHub — which merged in 2013 but maintain separate Web sites — asking them to check that all of their listings are, in fact, registered with the city Health Department’s database of inspection grades.
Seamless and GrubHub are now doing so, a spokeswoman for the Web sites said — adding that the listing for both Really Chinese and Abby Chinese have already been taken down. “We are partnering with New York’s Department of Consumer Affairs to address this issue and remove inaccuracies from our platforms,” the spokeswoman said Wednesday.


http://nypost.com/2015/11/11/your-seamless-order-may-have-been-cooked-in-a-ghost-kitchen/

Your Seamless order may have been cooked in a ‘ghost kitchen’
By Laura Italiano
New York Post
November 11, 2015 | 3:53pm

Adapting To Uber App, New York And London

[From article]
When Uber arrived in London in March 2012, the city’s transportation market was already full of cars for hire,
[. . .]
“None of the laws were written for the modern mobile phone and app era,” said Sir Peter Hendy, the mayor’s transport commissioner. He declared Uber legal.
[. . .]


London mayor Boris Johnson has acknowledged the taxicab industry’s concerns, expressing his own fears about “brash American Internet companies and the way they think they can come over and disrupt the market in this country.”
[. . .]
Uber’s influence has already changed the market. Nearly 5,000 black cabs now offer low, fixed prices on off-peak journeys booked through a new app, Gett. The Licensed Taxi Drivers Association concedes that its app is a direct response to Uber. Without the backing of London’s mayor for an outright ban on Uber, the taxi industry has recognized that it must compete on quality and price.

[comment from Canadian]
letstalkcandidly October 01, 2015 at 10:43 AM
We are having the same fight by cabbies against Uber, here. There were two days recently when cabbies took over City Hall, stripping off their shirts, screaming, spitting, demanding Council shut down Uber. That is not going to happen. Our cab industry is awful. It has been treating customers like scabs, charging outrageous prices, driving away in the dead of winter if a customer wasn't a big fare, no cabs to take kids home from the bar at 2am, people having to wait hours in the cold, rude drivers who can't speak a word of English and growl when you talk to them; we even have the new phenomenon of cabbies refusing rides to Hasidic Jews and people with seeing-eye dogs. People here will NOT go back to that. Uber is doing a brisk business and we love it.

http://www.city-journal.org/2015/eon0930mh.html

Michael Hendrix
A Tale of Two Taxi Cities
London and New York struggle to get along with Uber.
September 30, 2015

US Court of Appeals 9th Circuit Improves Fair Use Protections For Online Posting

[From article]
On Monday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, cleared the way for the case to go to trial, and set a guideline that may change the way media companies police their holdings online. In its decision, the three-judge panel ruled that copyright holders must consider fair use before asking services like YouTube to remove videos that include material they control.
[. . .]



“Today’s ruling sends a strong message that copyright law does not authorize thoughtless censorship of lawful speech,” Corynne McSherry, the foundation’s legal director, said in a statement.
A spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America, Jonathan Lamy, said, “We respectfully disagree with the court’s conclusion about the D.M.C.A. and the burden the court places upon copyright holders before sending takedown notices,” referring to the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
In her suit, Ms. Lenz argued that her use of Prince’s music was protected by fair use, which allows the use of copyrighted material under certain conditions like commentary, criticism or news reporting.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/15/business/media/youtube-dancing-baby-copyright-ruling-sets-fair-use-guideline.html?src=twr

YouTube ‘Dancing Baby’ Copyright Ruling Sets Fair Use Guideline
By BEN SISARIO

SEPT. 14, 2015

Uber Versus Taxis, Two Essays

Some of these arguments apply only to New York City.

[From article]
Uber and other ridesharing companies have been a boon to New York’s middle- and lower-income residents—expanding transit options and offering employment opportunities. Focusing his Uber attacks on Manhattan, de Blasio scants the needs of outer-borough residents, many of whom have limited transportation choices. The established taxi system does little to help; yellow cabs are so notorious for only cruising south of 96th Street that in 2013 the city instituted green taxis, which are allowed only to pick up rides north of Central Park and in the outer boroughs. This system is inefficient, though, because if a green taxi picks up a passenger who wants to go to midtown or downtown Manhattan, the cabbie has to drive an empty vehicle out of Manhattan. And yellow cab owners have fought to keep green cabs out of the busiest parts of the city. Uber has effectively expanded transportation access for all New Yorkers.
[. . .]
A report issued by Uber and Mothers Against Drunk Driving showed that people often use ridesharing services instead of trying to drive themselves home after a night out.
[. . .]
Taxi drivers’ occupational fatality rates are four times higher than the U.S. civilian average. Over three-quarters of these fatalities are homicides. In ridesharing, however, the identities of passengers and drivers are verified beforehand, and the cars’ locations are electronically tracked.
[. . .]
Threatened by this formidable new competitor, the city’s traditional taxi industry is fighting furiously to shut it down or at least slow its growth—and it expects help in this effort from de Blasio, to whom it donated more than $550,000 during the mayoral campaign. The taxi industry does have some grounds for concern. Drivers or fleet owners paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for the taxi medallions that permit them to accept street hails, and they’re seeing the return on this investment decline. Common-carrier regulation forces taxis to submit applications before they can increase their rates. Changing rates can take years, while Uber can adjust its rates to changes in demand.
[. . .]
Yellow cabs should also be able to charge pre-determined prices that depend on the time of day and amount of congestion. Anyone who has tried to hail a cab late at night or in the rain knows how hard they are to find. More cab drivers will work during these periods if they have a chance at higher pay. And in many cities, including New York, traditional taxis can already use the Uber platform to hail rides

http://www.city-journal.org/2015/eon0723jm.html

JARED MEYER
Let 100 Ubers Bloom
The rideshare company wins a temporary reprieve in New York City—but the battle is just beginning.
July 23, 2015

* * *

[From article]
California Labor Commission [. . .] ruled that Berwick, a transsexual who previously operated a phone sex business—Linda’s Lip Service—was a full-time-equivalent employee during four months of sporadic driving for Uber. (Berwick, now a financial consultant, expressed disappointment with the money an Uber driver makes.) The decision directly threatens Uber’s business model,
[. . .]
Last week, a U.S. district judge in San Francisco allowed a group of cab companies to proceed with a false-advertising lawsuit against Uber. The same judge also greenlit a suit against Uber claiming that it spammed potential drivers with recruitment text messages.
[. . .]
Interest groups can complain, but drivers and customers continue to vote for Uber with their time and money. In a free country or a sane state, a clear market decision in favor of a business would be the end of the discussion. But Uber is increasingly under pressure to furnish evidence that its model works in theory as well as in practice
[. . .]
The median wait time for an UberX ride in L.A. neighborhoods was five minutes and 52 seconds; for a taxi ride, it was 14 minutes and 33 seconds. The maximum recorded wait time for UberX was 20 minutes; for a cab, 57 minutes. Despite Uber’s widely maligned practice of “surge pricing”—a concession to the law of supply and demand that is for some reason considered outrageous—UberX also soundly beat traditional cabs on price, with a median cost per ride of $6.28, versus $15 for taxis. Surge pricing didn’t even produce a higher maximum price. UberX’s max cost per ride was $11.68, against $22 for cabs.

http://www.city-journal.org/2015/cjc0723tc.html

TIM CAVANAUGH
California’s Uber Hunt
Golden State regulators and taxi companies want to bury the ridesharing company in paper.
July 23, 2015

Forty Six Women and Counting Claim Sexual Assaults by Bill Cosby; NY Magazine Site Hacked

Cover of New York Magazine, July 27, 2015

[Video and text embedded of individual women telling their stories]
[From article]
In 2005, a former basketball star named Andrea Constand, who met Cosby when she was working in the athletic department at Temple University, where he served on the board of trustees, alleged to authorities that he had drugged her to a state of semi-consciousness and then groped and digitally penetrated her. After her allegations were made public, a California lawyer named Tamara Green appeared on the Today show and said that, 30 years earlier, Cosby had drugged and assaulted her as well. Eventually, 12 Jane Does signed up to tell their own stories of being assaulted by Cosby in support of Constand’s case. Several of them eventually made their names public. But they were met, mostly, with skepticism, threats, and attacks on their character.
[. . .]
He asked a modeling agent to connect him with young women who were new in town and “financially not doing well.” In the deposition, Cosby seemed confident that his behavior did not constitute rape; he apparently saw little difference between buying someone dinner in pursuit of sex and drugging them to reach the same goal. As for consent, he said, “I think that I’m a pretty decent reader of people and their emotions in these romantic sexual things.” If these women agreed to meet up, his deposition suggested, he felt that he had a right to them. And part of what took the accusations against Cosby so long to surface is that this belief extended to many of the women themselves (as well as the staff and lawyers and friends and others who helped keep the incidents secret).
[. . .]
[In 2012] when a 14-year-oldMissouri cheerleader accused a popular older boy at her school of sexual assault, her classmates shamed her on social media and the family’s house was burned down. The whole world watched online. How could this kind of thing still be happening?
[. . .]
There are now 46 women who have come forward publicly to accuse Cosby of rape or sexual assault; the 35 women here are the accusers who were willing to be photographed and interviewed by New York. The group, at present, ranges in age from early 20s to 80 and includes supermodels Beverly Johnson and Janice Dickinson alongside waitresses and Playboy bunnies and journalists and a host of women who formerly worked in show business. Many of the women say they know of others still out there who’ve chosen to remain silent.

http://www.nymag.com/thecut/2015/07/bill-cosbys-accusers-speak-out.html

‘I’m No Longer Afraid’: 35 Women Tell Their Stories About Being Assaulted by Bill Cosby, and the Culture That Wouldn’t Listen
By Noreen Malone and Amanda Demme

New York Magazine

* * *


Barbara Bowman

[From article]
Their stories remained a secret for decades, because they feared no one would believe them if they spoke out.
Now, nearly 60 years since Bill Cosby's first alleged sexual assault, a group of women who say 'America's favorite dad' attacked them have come forward to reveal their harrowing experiences.
The 35 women, ranging in age from their early 20s to 80, have bravely agreed to be pictured for an issue of New York magazine, set to be published on Monday, while revealing the details of their encounter with the disgraced comedian.
The waitresses, actresses, Playboy bunnies, journalists and writers described how they were allegedly drugged, raped or molested by the star.
[. . .]
The claims span experiences from the 1960s all the way to 2008, when Chloe Gains, 24, said the embattled film star spiked her drink during a party at the Playboy mansion.
[. . .]
He also stated that he obtained prescriptions for quaaludes by claiming it was for a sore back, but actually gave the drug to women
Interviewed in a Philadelphia hotel over four days by a lawyer acting on behalf of a 30-year-old Temple University employee Andrea Constand, Cosby claimed he believed their encounters to be consensual.
[. . .]
Barbara Bowman, 48, told the magazine: 'I went into this thinking he was going to be my father. To wake up half-dressed and raped by the man that said he was going to love me like a father? That's pretty sick.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3175673/We-t-disappeared-35-Bill-Cosby-s-rape-accusers-come-powerful-magazine-cover-tell-harrowing-experiences-hands-America-s-favorite-dad.html

'We can't be disappeared': 35 of Bill Cosby's rape accusers come together in powerful magazine shoot to recount their experiences at the hands of America's once favorite dad
Women came forward and agreed to be pictured for the publication
Each one described their encounters with the disgraced TV star
They include waitresses, actresses, Playboy bunnies and journalists
The brave group range in age from their early 20s to 80
They came forward a week after a shocking deposition from 2005 surfaced
Comedian admitted he gave quaaludes to women he had sex with
By WILLS ROBINSON FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 00:18 EST, 27 July 2015 | UPDATED: 04:54 EST, 27 July 2015

* * *

[From article]
A self-described hacker called ThreatKing, who says he hates New York City, claims he has successfully overwhelmed the site with a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS), overloading its servers with traffic. As of this writing, New York is completely inaccessible.[. . .]
ThreatKing provided a link to Vikingdom's Soundcloud page, which gives a hint into the group's reasoning. There, in a recording titled “Warning Message to the United States,” a robotic voice says “We are going to destroy state websites, city websites, agency websites and court websites of the United States. You have took away our country and its time to get it back by destroying the United States.”

http://www.dailydot.com/crime/new-york-magazine-ddos-bill-cosby-cover/

Anti-NYC hacker takes New York magazine offline
By William Turton
Jul 27, 2015, 6:58am CT | Last updated Jul 27, 2015, 3:48pm CT

YouTube Secrets

[selection of tips, more in article, plus more details]
[From article]
You know when you're watching a video and little clickable messages pop up over the video and block what you want to see? Most YouTube creators use these sparingly, but some go overboard, and it can ruin the video.
To turn these off, click the gear icon at the lower right of the video player, and next to "Annotations," click "Off."
[. . .]
On any video, click the gear icon in the lower-right corner of the video player and click the drop-down box next to "Speed." You can drop the video speed to half or a quarter of the normal playing speed.
[. . .]
You found a hilarious video you want to share with a friend. Unfortunately, it doesn't get good until three minutes in. The first part is boring and you don't want your friend to stop watching.
Cue up the video to the start of the section you want your friend to see. Then right-click the video and select "Get video URL at current time." Copy the link that appears and paste it into an email or on Facebook. When someone clicks on the link, the video will start at the exact spot you wanted.

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2015/07/18/5-youtube-secrets-should-try/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fmost-popular+%28Internal+-+Most+Popular+Content%29

5 YouTube secrets you should try
By Kim Komando
Published July 18, 2015
The Kim Komando Show

One Million Digital Fingerprints of U.S. Government Employees Hacked

More and more theft of personal information enabling identity theft. Yet the mindless politicians and government bureaucrats continue to encourage more and more Wi-Fi and internet usage without providing or requiring informed consent for use of their personal private information to the users of this technology. It is not only a problem of a dumbed down population but a dumbed down government.  

[From article]

The Office of Personnel Management announced last week that the personal data for 21.5 million people had been stolen. But for national security professionals and cybersecurity experts, the more troubling issue is the theft of 1.1 million fingerprints.
Much of their concern rests with the permanent nature of fingerprints and the uncertainty about just how the hackers intend to use them. Unlike a Social Security number, address, or password, fingerprints cannot be changed—once they are hacked, they're hacked for good. And government officials have less understanding about what adversaries could do or want to do with fingerprints, a knowledge gap that undergirds just how frightening many view the mass lifting of them from OPM.
"It's probably the biggest counterintelligence threat in my lifetime," said Jim Penrose, former chief of the Operational Discovery Center at the National Security Agency and now an executive vice president at the cybersecurity company Darktrace. "There's no situation we've had like this before, the compromise of our fingerprints. And it doesn't have any easy remedy or fix in the world of intelligence."

[. . .]

Questions also remain about what the ultimate goal of the OPM hackers is, and the administration so far continues to refuse to publicly blame China for the intrusion. Some have likened the breach to an enormous surveillance operation, one that Beijing conducted in order to build databases on the ins and out of the U.S. government and to potentially coerce, blackmail, or bribe officials into divulging closely guarded secrets.
Whatever the motives, the stolen fingerprints are viewed as a uniquely important and unprecedented data heist—one that could reap huge rewards for the hackers for decades to come.

[. . .]

Part of the worry, cybersecurity experts say, is that fingerprints are part of an exploding field of biometric data, which the government is increasingly getting in the business of collecting and storing. Fingerprints today are used to run background checks, verify identities at borders, and unlock smartphones, but the technology is expected to boom in the coming decades in both the public and private sectors.
"There's a big concern [with the OPM hack] not because of how much we're using fingerprints currently, but how we're going to expand using the technology in the next 5-10 years," said Robert Lee, cofounder of Dragos Security, which develops cybersecurity software.

[. . .]

Also problematic is that there is "no way to reissue a fingerprint," Lee said, meaning that once a set is in the hands of a foreign adversary they are vulnerable as long as that person is working in government.
That reality could create a squeeze on government for decades to come, as agencies may be forced to forgo fingerprints for things like two-factor authentication and instead rely on another biometric, such as facial recognition or iris scans. But those could also someday be hacked, as the OPM hack showed that just about anything stored in a government database can be up for grabs.

[. . .]

But fingerprints are likely only going to grow in importance for the government in the coming years, he said, and that is true for hackers, too.
"You never know down the line where we are going to use the fingerprints," Kesanupalli said.
Penrose, the former NSA official, also speculated that most of the stolen fingerprints were likely digital scans and not the older ink-based records, which may suggest that the bulk of the prints belong to active or recent employees.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/opm-hack-fingerprints-china-20150714

How Much Damage Can the OPM Hackers Do With a Million Fingerprints?
The pilfering of 1.1 million fingerprints is “probably the biggest counterintelligence threat in my lifetime,” one former NSA official said.
BY DUSTIN VOLZ

July 14, 2015

Massachusetts Attorney General Wants To Stop Online Ads For Prostitution, and Exploitation of Women

The U.S. Court Judge protects advertisements on Backpage due to the law that Congress wrote. Why is that law being enforced according to the way it was written? The Supreme Court of The United States interprets laws, rewrites them, and adds to them as desired by the White House. The previous Attorney General enforced laws selectively and ignored inconvenient laws. Who decides which laws will be strictly enforced, which ones can be changed according to desires, and which laws should be ignored altogether like the immigration laws? Why are low level street dealers being hauled into court every day, provided taxpayer attorneys, translators, and accommodations, while corporations, and wealthy and influential celebrities can avoid accountability? The President regularly shows his disdain for law, for Congress and for the Courts. Why should anyone pay attention to what judges or prosecutors say? 

AG Healey says, "That federal law protects websites when a third party produces the offending content. That law — and other constitutional defenses — have kept Backpage out of trouble.
Healey acknowledged the problem, but said the law is outdated." There are several areas where the law is years behind. Technology is one. How many new devices are being used to abuse, to control, to steal from civilians by criminals, while the law has no knowledge or means to protect them? Even when some legislatures wrote laws protecting citizens, the state provides no training and/or no funding for technology to counter the new devices being used. Only when millions are stolen from banks do spineless politicians notice.   

[From article]
An escort was killed in a Burlington hotel, children have vanished, and yet men seeking prostitutes can still set up a rendezvous with minors with a 
couple of clicks.
It all could have been avoided if Backpage had simply removed its “adults section,” according to Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey. The site’s sexual advertisements have gone 
unchecked because federal 
law shields Backpage from 
prosecution.
So Healey is attacking in one of the few places Backpage is vulnerable — the court of public opinion.
“Behind every posting on that site is someone’s mother, sister or daughter. So many of them are dealing with serious addiction issues and they’re being kept there by pimps and traffickers,” Healey told me yesterday. “We need to get after the Johns and the pimps, but we also need companies like Backpage to stop being part of the problem.”
Healey is calling on the classified ad site to follow Craigslist and take down its sex trade ads. Her predecessor, Martha Coakley, played a key role in forcing Craigslist’s hand and also took aim at Backpage in 2011.
But unlike Craigslist, Backpage has continued to fight. The site had laws thrown out in Washington state, Tennessee and New Jersey that would have held it criminally liable for its ads. It also recently won a local federal case involving women who said “they were molested and repeatedly raped after being advertised as sexual wares” on Backpage.
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Sterns dismissed the case in May, citing the Communications Decency Act, and wrote, “Putting aside the moral judgment that one might pass on Backpage’s business practices, this court has no choice but to adhere to the law that Congress has seen fit to enact.”

http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2015/07/mcgovern_maura_healey_hopes_to_change_law_that_protects_backpage

McGovern: Maura Healey hopes to change law that protects Backpage site
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
By: Bob McGovern

Boston Herald

Convicted Sex Offender, 41, Found With 14-year-old Tennessee Girl In Virginia

[From article]
The 14-year-old Tennessee girl who vanished more than two weeks ago was reportedly found Tuesday with a convicted sex offender she met online.
Hayleigh Wilson and 41-year-old Benjamin Shook were located by the U.S. Marshals Service in a trailer park in Smyth County, Va., WCYB.com reported. The station reported that the teen was living off apples and spring water for the past week and a half.
The two reportedly met on an online app called Kik, WTVR.com reported. The station reported that the app is popular for sexting.
Wilson disappeared on June 22 when police said she took her father's Ford Explorer to pick up Shook. Federal, state and local authorities took part in the search after an Amber Alert was issued.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/07/07/missing-tennessee-teen-found-in-virginia-with-sex-offender/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxnews%2Fmost-popular+%28Internal+-+Most+Popular+Content%29

Missing Tennessee teen found in Virginia with sex offender
Published July 07, 2015

FoxNews.com