Matthew Keys — the social media editor fired from his position at Reuters Monday for reasons he believes could be political — pleaded not guilty Tuesday to federal charges that he conspired with members of Anonymous to attack Tribune Company websites, his former employer.According to the government’s indictment, Keys provided Anonymous hackers with information including usernames and passwords to access Tribune Company sites in late 2010, after he was fired from his job at a Tribune-owned station in Sacramento. Keys has rejected a plea bargain and, if found guilty, could face up to 25 years in prison and a fine of up to $750,000. His attorneys argue that although Keys had communicated with Anons via online chatrooms, it was someone posing as the journalist who provided the Tribune Co. access information.”There’s an incongruity to all of this that we’re hoping to get to the bottom of in the next couple months,” Key’s attorney Jay Leiderman told HuffPo.Continue Reading… … Read More
Five people killed in Illinois shooting, gunman dies after police chase
Police declined to name the suspect, but relatives and neighbors identified him as 43-year-old Rick Smith from Roodhouse, Illinois.”The guy broke into the house. I couldn’t tell you about the guy, never met him, never seen him, never talked to him. He apparently broke into the home of my wife’s mother and shot everybody inside. I’m at a loss right now,” relative Brad Teeter told the Chicago Tribune.The suspect exchanged shots with police after his white Chevy Lumina was pulled over, according to state police. He was wounded and taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.Authorities said they recovered several weapons from his possession.State police refused to comment on a possible motive. However, a neighbor said that Smith had been going through a custody battle with the mother of his 4-year-old daughter. The mother was related to some of the victims, but was not harmed in the incident.”I know there was a lot of friction with [the mother's] family,” a neighbor said.A five-year-old boy and a one-year-old boy were fatally shot, along with three adults.A 6-year-old child was also shot during the incident, and is currently in serious condition at a Springfield, Illinois hospital.The murders happened inside a single-story public housing complex, and prompted many nearby schools to go on lockdown.Manchester, a town of around 300 people, is located 85 miles north of St. Louis. … Read More
Firefighters killed in West, Texas explosion identified
So far 14 bodies have been recovered from the site of the former West Chemical and Fertilizer Co. outside of Waco, Texas, where a gigantic explosion late Wednesday night leveled the facility and the surrounding homes and buildings for blocks in each direction.At least 11 of the men who perished in the fire and the subsequent explosion were first responders, the Dallas Morning News reports. That number has been confirmed by the Waco Tribune as well.Among the 11 emergency workers killed in the blast were three men — Cyrus Reed, Jerry Chapman and Perry Calvin — who raced out of a volunteer firefighter training seminar Wednesday evening in order to try and extinguish the blaze.“The three men grabbed their gear and sped toward a growing smoke plume in West,” the Dallas News reports. “It would be their last call.”Also identified as killed in the blast is a list of other local men who proudly served as non-paid first responders for the town’s volunteer fire department. One of them, 52-year-old Kenny Harris, doubled as the fire captain for the city of Dallas and is believed to have rushed to the factory while off-duty; two others, Robert and Doug Snokhous, were brothers.”Doug and Robert could always be seen together, whether they were hunting, working on cars, golfing or cooking barbecue at the volunteer fire departments cook-off,” reads a statement penned by members of the Snokhous family following Wednesday’s blast.”They were always together and we were always comforted that they were together at the end.”Christina Rodarte, a 46-year-old West, Texas resident who has lived in the small town of 2,800 people for most of her life, told the Dallas Morning News that nearly everyone in the close-knit community lost someone in the blaze.”We know everyone that was there first,” Rodarte said. “There’s no words for it. It is a small community, and everyone knows the first responders… all volunteer.”County music singer Willie Nelson grew up outside of West and has vowed to donate the proceeds from an upcoming area concert to the town’s volunteer fire squad. In a statement published on his website, he recalls as well the closeness that made West a special place for roughly 2,8000 residents.“These friends and neighbors have always been and are still a part of my life. My heart is praying for the community that we call home,” Nelson said.In addition to the volunteer firefighters that have been named as casualties of Wednesday’s explosion, the owner of a local welding operation and the proprietor of a nearby fencing company were also killed.Several others remain missing, and investigators expect the death toll to rise as the rubble of the fertilizer plant is carefully searched in the days to come.Roughly 200 people were injured in the blast, and as many as 75 homes were significantly damaged. The Associated Press has since reported that the West Chemical and Fertilizer Co. hasn’t been inspected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) since 1985. … Read More
Reuters fires editor accused of aiding ‘Anonymous’ hackers
The news agency Reuters on Monday reportedly fired its deputy social media editor after he was accused of conspiring with the hacker group Anonymous to deface a website owned by his former employer, the Tribune Company. “Just got off the phone. Reuters has fired me, effective today. Our union…
Koch brothers’ real plan for taking over media
Why would anyone want to buy a newspaper these days? This is the question originally raised by my recent Harper’s magazine investigation into the state of the newspaper industry and now resurrected by this weekend’s New York Times report on the possibility of Koch Industries buying the Tribune Company’s eight newspaper properties. The answer is that for all the problems they face, newspapers still offer something extremely valuable to a particular kind of investor – just not what they might publicly admit to because it is more than a bit unseemly.In public, of course, prospective newspaper buyers continue to pretend that they are primarily interested in purchasing newspapers either to 1) preserve a venerated civic institution and objective journalism or 2) to seize an honest, straightforward business opportunity.Continue Reading… … Read More
Bachmann’s ex-chief of staff breaks silence in ethics probe
Rep. Michele Bachmann’s former chief of staff will tell an Iowa Senate ethics panel that the congresswoman made improper payments to the state chairman of her presidential campaign, the Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Kevin Diaz reports just one day after fresh ethics challenges stemming from her book tour surfaced. Bachmann’s former top aide, GOP operative Andy Parrish, has maintained silence in the ongoing ethics issues relating to his former boss — until now. “The time has come to confirm that ‘Witness A’ is Andy Parrish, and he’ll be providing an affidavit with supporting material that completely supports the representations previously made by Peter Waldron,” his lawyer said.Salon was the first to interview Waldron, another former top aide of Bachmann’s in Iowa, after he went public with accusations that Bachmann failed to pay her campaign staffers, among other charges. Parrish is expected to speak about Waldron’s claim that Bachmann’s campaign paid Iowa state Sen. Kent Sorenson, the campaign’s Iowa chairman, in violation of the state Senate’s ethics laws.Continue Reading… … Read More
Bachmann faces fresh ethics questions
The Office of Congressional Ethics investigation into Rep. Michele Bachmann has reportedly widened to include questions about the use of staff to promote her book tour, according to sources who spoke with the Minneapolis Star Tribune.Investigators reportedly began their work by looking into payments to staff from her presidential campaign, but the new questions involve a 2011 tour to promote her memoir, Core of Conviction. Two former staff members told the Star Tribune that they had been asked about whether they worked to promote the book while on the payroll from Bachmann’s presidential campaign, something that would potentially violate federal ethics rules.Bachmann’s campaign lawyer, William McGinley, denied any wrongdoing and said the book’s publisher paid for the tour and promotional expenses. “Records show that the campaign was very careful to ensure that protocols were in place to keep the book tour and presidential campaign completely separate and distinct,” he said. “Any fair and objective review of the record will conclude that Congresswoman Bachmann and the campaign followed the FEC [Federal Election Commission] advisory opinions and acted appropriately.”Continue Reading… … Read More
