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Friday, January 4, 2013

ICE arrests 245 alleged pedophiles, rescues 44 children

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents announced today they have rescued 44 children from sexual abuse as part of a child pornography investigation that netted 245 arrests over five weeks late last year.

Agents have identified an additional 79 individuals who have been abused as children including 24 victims who now may be adults and are seeking the public's help to identify individuals who are alleged to be sexually abusing young children, with the images posted on the Internet.

"Many times, our investigations into people who possess and trade child pornography reveal new material that points to the ongoing sexual abuse of children. In these cases, our primary objective is to rescue the victim from their horrific situation. And our next step is to arrest and seek prosecution for their abusers," said ICE Director John Morton in a statement.

Among those arrested: Bradley Vaine from Fresno, Calif., who was allegedly abusing a 7-year-old girl who suffered from mental disabilities. Also arrested was Samuel Gueydan from Clovis, Calif., who allegedly had over 1.2 million images and 7,000 videos of child pornography on his computer, ICE said.

The investigation was dubbed "Operation Sunflower" to commemorate the anniversary of a case where agents discovered evidence that a child was in imminent danger of being raped by a relative. According to ICE, the tip initially came from Dutch investigators who found Internet postings suggesting the girl was in imminent danger.

Investigators turned up an image of the girl taken in a moving vehicle. The image held a critical clue -- a road sign in the background containing an image of a sunflower. A sharp-eyed agent discovered the sunflower emblem was unique to road signs in Kansas. ICE agents spent several days combing Kansas highways to find the exact spot where the photo was taken. Eventually they traced the location, which led them to the girl, sparing her from being further victimized, the agency said.

As part of "Operation Sunflower" agents have sought a Jane and John Doe warrant for an unknown man and woman who are depicted in a video sexually abusing a young girl who appears to be 13 years old. Agents, who believe the video is about 11 years old, said they want to solve the case to identify the abusers. Jane Doe is believed to be 35 to 45 years old in the video, which depicts her with several tattoos including a butterfly on her right hip and a blade tattoo on her right shoulder along with a curled up cat. Based on forensic analysis, agents believe the abuse occurred in the Los Angeles area, ICE said.

Agents said they are also seeking an unidentified white male with gray and white hair, a full beard and wearing wire-framed eyeglasses, who was sexually abusing a toddler in Internet images. A second suspect being sought by Homeland Security Investigations agents out of Portland, Ore., is a white male with a tattoo on his right tricep who was allegedly sexually abusing a young male child.

ICE's efforts in recent months to identify unknown abusers led to agents arresting two suspects who were allegedly molesting young girls on the internet. Last September, Michael Serapis Freeman and Michelle Lee Freeman turned themselves in to local police in Oregon after a media campaign resulted in tips identifying Michelle Freeman as the Jane Doe suspect.

Last month Corrine Danielle Motley of Okaloosa County, Fla., was arrested and charged with the production and distribution of child pornography. Motley, 25, was arrested by the Northwest Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force members and Homeland Security Investigations special agents.

Calls to the suspects named in this story and emails to their lawyers weren't immediately returned.

Pa. governor sues NCAA to end Penn St. penalties

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett announces a federal anti-trust lawsuit against the NCAA over sanctions imposed against Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

By NBC News staff and wire services

The state of Pennsylvania took the field on behalf of battered Penn State on Wednesday, with Gov. Tom Corbett announcing a lawsuit against the NCAA over sanctions imposed on the university in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

"This was a criminal matter, not a violation of NCAA rules,? Corbett said at a press conference Wednesday to announce the lawsuit would be filed in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg, Pa., later in the day. "The NCAA didn't have any business in imposing these sanctions."

The university agreed in July to the sanctions, which included a $60 million fine that would be used nationally to finance child abuse prevention grants. The sanctions also included a four-year bowl game ban for the university's marquee football program, reduced football scholarships and the forfeiture of 112 wins but didn't include a suspension of the football program, the so-called death penalty.

"Penn State does have a moral responsibility to the victims and to the community, and it has accepted that responsibility and is working with the victims in the civil courts," Corbett said, standing in front of a group of business owners on Penn State's campus in College Park. "Penn State should continue to work with the victims of sexual abuse and an effort towards prevention, so we can assure that tragedies like this never happen again. With that said, though, the NCAA shouldn't have sanctioned Penn State. I believe and our suit contends that the NCAA has no authority and operated outside of their own bylaws with these sanctions they brought."

State and congressional lawmakers from Pennsylvania have objected to using the Penn State fine to finance activities in other states. Penn State has already made the first $12 million payment, and an NCAA task force is deciding how it should be spent.

In a statement issued after Corbett's announcement, Donald M. Remy, NCAA executive vice president and general counsel, said the governor was belatedly interceding in a matter that was well on its way to being resolved.

"We are disappointed by the governor's action today," Remy said. "Not only does this forthcoming lawsuit appear to be without merit, it is an affront to all of the victims in this tragedy -- lives that were destroyed by the criminal actions of Jerry Sandusky. While the innocence that was stolen can never be restored, Penn State has accepted the consequences for its role and the role of its employees and is moving forward. Today's announcement by the governor is a setback to the university's efforts."

Penn State also issued a statement saying that it "is not a party to the lawsuit and has not been involved in its preparation or filing."

The NCAA has previously indicated that at least a quarter of the $60 million would be spent in Pennsylvania, but that continues to be a sore point with some Pennsylvania lawmakers.

Republican Rep. Charlie Dent called the NCAA's response "unacceptable and unsatisfactory" to a request from the state's House delegation that the whole $60 million be distributed to causes within the state.

Last week, state Sen. Jake Corman, a Republican whose district includes Penn State's main campus, said he plans to seek court action barring any of the first $12 million from being released to groups outside the state.

In announcing the news conference, Corbett, a Republican, did not indicate whether his office coordinated its legal strategy with state Attorney General-elect Kathleen Kane, who is scheduled to be sworn in Jan. 15.

Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com

Kane, a Democrat, ran on a vow to investigate why it took state prosecutors nearly three years to charge Sandusky, an assistant under legendary football coach Joe Paterno. Corbett was the attorney general when that office took over the case in early 2009 and until he became governor in January 2011.?

Sandusky, 68, was convicted in June on charges he sexually abused 10 boys, some on Penn State's campus. He's serving a 30- to 60-year state prison term.

Eight young men testified against him, describing a range of abuse they said went from grooming and manipulation to fondling, oral sex and anal rape when they were boys.

Sandusky did not testify at his trial but has maintained his innocence, acknowledging he showered with boys but insisting he never molested them.

NBC News' Tom Winter and the Associated Press contributed to this report.?

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Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/01/02/16301483-pa-governor-to-file-suit-says-ncaa-didnt-have-any-business-imposing-sanctions?lite

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Sandy Hook children, parents tour their new school

Carlo Allegri / Reuters

People walk past a makeshift memorial in Sandy Hook after the Dec. 14, 2012 shooting tragedy , in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 28, 2012.

By Tracy Connor, NBC News

Students from Sandy Hook Elementary will go back to class Thursday in a borrowed building that one police official described as ?the safest school in America.?

They will enter classrooms that have been furnished to look like the ones they left last month as Adam Lanza carried out his massacre.

Desks and even abandoned backpacks and coats have been brought from Sandy Hook in Newtown, Conn., to the new school in Monroe, seven miles away.

Pupils and parents had a chance to tour the building ? an unused former middle school ? on Wednesday after Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy met with teachers.

When they return at 9 a.m. Thursday, they will find counselors and extra police on hand.

?It feels extremely secure there,? Newtown School Superintendent Janet Robinson told reporters.

Police declined to say what security measures were in place, but Monroe Lt. Keith White said parents don?t have to worry.

?Right now, it has to be the safest school in America,? he said.

David Connors, 40, who has 8-year-old triplets, said he knows that sending his kids back to school will be difficult ? but crucial.

?The past three weeks have been just crazy,? he?told NBC Connecticut.? ?Getting back to that sense of figuring out what the new normal is going to look like, I think, is important. Everyone is waiting for that to happen.?

His children, he said, are ready for the transition.

?They want to see their teacher. They want to see their classes. They want to get back into a routine,? he said.

The 500 students have not been in school since Adam Lanza blasted his way into Sandy Hook on Dec. 14 and killed 20 children, six staffers and himself. He had earlier killed his mother.

Teachers from Newtown and Monroe spent their holiday break readying the new building for the children, and Robinson said it looks ?cheerful and happy? and is decorated with paper snowflakes sent in from around the world.

She said the first day back will be as ordinary as possible, and the school will wait some time to honor teachers for their bravery during Lanza?s killing spree, which was largely confined to two first-grade classrooms.

"There's certainly going to be children that are scared,? Thalia Andernen, a counselor with The Center of Hope, a nonprofit family support center,?told NBC New York.

?They're going to be frightened and feel very insecure about going back, but a lot of them are going to be resilient.?

Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images

A nation mourns after the second deadliest school shooting in U.S. history left 20 children and six staff members dead at Sandy Hook Elementary.

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Thursday, January 3, 2013

You May Not Recognize Yourself in 10 Years

Think you'll be the same person in 10 years that you are today? Think again. Most people realize they've changed in the past, but few expect to change in the future, a new study finds.

Instead, while acknowledging that their tastes, values and even personality have varied over the past decade, people tend to insist the person they are today is the person they will be in 10 years ? a belief belied by the evidence, said study researcher Daniel Gilbert, a psychologist at Harvard University.

"It's not that we don't realize change happens, because we all admit at every age that a lot of change has happened to us in the last 10 years," Gilbert told LiveScience. "All of us seem to have this sense that development is a process that has delivered us to this point and now we're done."

Permanent personality

In a new study published this week (Jan. 4) in the journal Science, Gilbert and his colleagues dub this mistaken belief the "end of history" illusion. No matter what age, Gilbert said, people act as if history shaped them and ended, leaving them in their final form. [7 Ways the Mind & Body Change With Age]

The illusion emerged when the researchers recruited participants online to fill out various personality, preference and value surveys as themselves 10 years prior and as themselves 10 years in the future. Over the series of studies, more than 19,000 people participated.

In each case, the researchers compared the look-ahead answers of 18-year-olds with the look-back answers of 28-year-olds, and so forth (comparing 19-year-olds with 29-year-olds, and 20-year-olds with 30-year-olds) all the way up to age 68. The older ages always reported changing in the past decade, but the younger ages did not expect to change nearly as much in the future as their elders' experiences suggested they would.

"When a 40-year-old looks backward, they say, 'I've changed a lot in terms of my personality, in terms of my values, in terms of my preferences,'" Gilbert said. "But when 30-year-olds look forward, they say, 'I don't expect to change a lot on any of those dimensions.'"

To make sure the results weren't a consequence of people overestimating their past change rather than underestimating their future change, the researchers analyzed the actual personality change of 3,808 people who filled out personality questionnaires in 1995-96 and then again in 2004-05. Sure enough, the measures of actual change in this group were nearly identical to the reports of change among the current study participants. In other words, people are good at gauging how much they've changed in the past. It's the future that gives them trouble.

The "end of history" illusion may be driven by two factors, Gilbert said. One is that people find it comforting to believe that they know themselves and that the future is predictable. Thus, people are motivated to see the present as permanent.

The other is that it's simply harder to imagine the future than to remember the past. People may struggle to imagine how they might change and mistakenly conclude that since they can't figure it out, they won't change at all, Gilbert said.

Consequences of changing

This misjudgment can have real-world consequences, Gilbert said. For one thing, people make a number of life choices, from marriages to careers, assuming that decades from now they'll like the same people and activities they do today. The researchers even demonstrated some of these consequences by asking 170 people, ranging in age from 18 to 64, how much they'd pay today to see their favorite band perform in 10 years. They also asked how much the people would be willing to pay to see their favorite band of 10 years ago perform this week. [7 Personality Traits That Are Bad For You]

People were willing to shell out $130 to see their current favorite band in a decade. But they wanted to part with only $80 to see their former favorite band play now. The gap suggests people are overestimating how similar their future preferences will be to their current ones, Gilbert said.

Psychologists actually know quite a bit about how personality and values change over a lifetime, Gilbert added. For example, people tend to become less open to new experience over time but more conscientious, he said. And the older you are, the less you're likely to change in the future ? though you'll still probably change more than you expect, this study suggests.

"If we know that our preferences are likely to be less stable than they feel, we can take great care when we make decisions. We can build in a margin for escape? ?? so, for example, if I am going to buy a ticket to see a concert in 10 years, I ought to buy a refundable ticket," Gilbert said.

But before you write a 10-year opt-out clause into your wedding vows, take heed: Gilbert's other research has found that when people feel they have the ability to change their minds, they're less happy with the choices they've made. People who make irrevocable choices tend to be happier with them than those who can flip-flop later, Gilbert said.

"The best of all possible worlds would be a world in which you're allowed to change your mind but you don't know it," he said.

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas?or LiveScience@livescience. We're also on Facebook?&?Google+.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/may-not-recognize-yourself-10-years-191147723.html

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Iran says it captured 2 more US drones in past

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? An Iranian navy commander claims Iran captured two small U.S. drones in past missions in addition to at least four others reported earlier.

Adm. Amir Rastgari says the two drones were of the small, low-altitude RQ-11 type, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency. He said one was captured in summer of 2011 and the other Nov. 2012.

Rastgari claimed most of the data from the unmanned aircraft was recovered.

Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said last month that it captured a ScanEagle American drone after it entered Iranian airspace over the Persian Gulf. At the same time, Iran claimed it had taken possession of two other simple, small ScanEagles.

In 2011, Iran claimed it brought down a more sophisticated CIA spy drone after it entered Iranian airspace from Afghanistan.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-says-captured-2-more-us-drones-past-152708227.html

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REPORT: Apple Is Working On A Bigger iPhone ... - Business Insider

Apple is preparing a new iPhone in multiple colors and sizes, analyst Brian White at Topeka Capital reports.

Thus far, Apple has only released one model of the iPhone, with one screen size, at a time.

"We believe this is about to change with the next iPhone offering different screen sizes that we believe will allow Apple to better bifurcate the market and expand its reach," says White.

He thinks Apple could have three screen sizes. The small iPhone with a 3.5-inch screen, the medium iPhone with a 4-inch screen, and then a bigger iPhone with a bigger screen.

The next iPhone is going to come out in the May-June time frame, says White.

White thinks Apple makes the next iPhone more colorful, similar to what it's done with the iPod Touch, which available in a wide variety of colors. He's not the only one saying this. Jefferies also thinks the next iPhone comes in colors.

Almost every other smartphone maker offers bigger screens than the iPhone, so it makes sense for Apple to increase the size of the iPhone screen. While the 4-inch iPhone is nice, it would be nicer if it was even bigger.

The risk for Apple is that it introduces a mess of fragmentation for developers. When it introduced the iPhone 5, with a taller screen and new proportions, developers had to update their apps. We're not sure how developers would handle working on three screens, but we supposed it's possible a bigger screen could have the same proportions as the iPhone 4, making life easier for developers. Or, maybe Apple can create a software solution to eradicate the fragmentation problem.

Here's White's exact quote on screen sizes:

Our checks are also indicating that the next iPhone will offer customers more choice in terms of screen size. Although Apple offers a 4-inch screen on the iPhone 5 and a 3.5-inch screen on the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4, the Company has never offered multiple screen sizes for a single model. We believe this is about to change with the next iPhone offering different screen sizes that we believe will allow Apple to better bifurcate the market and expand its reach. This eventually opens up the possibility for a lower-priced iPhone (i.e., iPhone mini) with a smaller screen size that could allow Apple to further penetrate markets such as China and open up opportunities in India. At the same time, Apple could unveil a larger screen size compared to the recently updated 4-inch screen on the iPhone 5. Clearly, there are many smartphone models that are now larger than 4 inches and even some bigger than five inches on the market.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone-6-2013-1

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