Manns Medium

From the Associated Press comes a news story that hits very close to home but sounds so familiar as to make many think that this is the very same story that they have heard before.  The situation may sound the same but it totally about a different child and a different set of parents who must now bury that child all because they thought that their child would never do something that would cause her death in such a grotesque manner as this. The title is “ McHenry County girl dies in Arizona after being shot” and it reports; “ Police say a teenage girl reported missing in Illinois has died in Arizona after being shot.  Phoenix police say 16-year-old Faith Kies of McHenry County, Illinois, died at a hospital Saturday after being shot Friday night.  Police found her wounded inside a home where a man described by police as her boyfriend was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.  He was identified by police as 24-year-old Alexander O'Neill. The shootings oc...

Beware all government, private industry, and academic travelers who rely on their laptops to not only stand in touch with friends and family but also keep up to date with work.        The Federal Bureau of Investigations is warning that “recent analysis demonstrates that malicious actors are targeting travelers abroad through pop-up windows while they are establishing an Internet connection in their hotel rooms.”   They continue by explaining that “traveler was attempting to set up the hotel room Internet connection and was presented with a pop-up window notifying the user to update a widely used software product. If the user clicked to accept and install the update, malicious software was installed on the laptop. The pop-up window appeared to be offering a routine update to a legitimate software product for which updates are frequently available.”   They recommend “taking extra caution before updating software products through their hotel Internet connect...

Sometimes our news agencies fail to report things that affect many of us directly and because the information is not shared, many more are taken advantage of.   This has certainly been the case during this economic turn-down and with so many struggling to make ends meet.   A few that I thought would be of good use to know are taken from the alert email received from the Federal Bureau of Investigation Internet Crime Complaint Center or IC3. The IC3 continues to receive reports of counterfeit check schemes targeting U.S. law firms. The scammers contact lawyers via e-mail, claiming to be overseas and requesting legal representation in collecting a debt from third parties located in the U.S. The law firms receive a retainer agreement and a check payable to the law firm. The firms are instructed to deposit the check, take out retainer fees, and wire the remaining funds to banks in China, Korea, Ireland, or Canada. After the funds are wired overseas, the checks are determined ...

In Peter Svensson article titled AT&T to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion that was written for the Associated Press.   The article reported that “the acquisition would give AT&T 129 million subscribers, vaulting it past Verizon Wireless' 102 million. The combined company would serve about 43 percent of U.S. cell phones”, but this was more than just a business deal.  Even though shareholders will be excited and happy about the news, those who came to embrace T-Mobile will soon find quite a bit to be discouraged about.  The majority of those who embraced T-Mobile were middle class and poor Americans. The real reason behind the acquisition was nothing more than one company trying to out do the other and to reduce competition so that only a few could demand the telecommunication and internet stage.  Proof of this is evident in the quotes found in this very article, quotes like, “T-Mobile USA customers would get access to AT&T's phone line-up, including...