The failure of Tammy Kilgore Alois to fully investigate the crimes, many of which involved sexual offenses against children, from 2010 to 2012 prompted the Coconut Creek Police Department and the Broward State Attorney’s Office to look into Alois’ work. It was found that she failed to interview victims and witnesses, mishandled evidence and neglected to write reports or present cases to prosecutors. It took three internal affairs officers to investigate the cases due to the volume of work.   read more

The oldest known living person is Misao Okawa of Japan. She’s 116, born March 5, 1898. She lost her husband in 1931, and has been a widow for 83 years. Her secret to longevity is plenty of sleep and plenty of food, including sushi. The next oldest is Gertrude Weaver of the United States. Also 116, but a bit younger than Okawa, Weaver has the distinction of being the oldest living American. The Arkansas native has outlived her husband and three children, but has one son in his 90s.   read more

There was half a minute left in the game and Anthony, his team having given up a 14-point lead, was called for an offensive foul. It was at that point that Rotondi let loose with his verbal barrage. After the next play, with 6.7 seconds left in the game, security personnel approached Rotondi to escort him from his seat. When the police arrived, security told them that Rotondi was ejected for interfering with the game and refusing to leave while being escorted out. Rotondi was then arrested.   read more

According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 15.76% of Rhode Islanders used illicit drugs in 2012-2013. Right behind Rhode Island was the District of Columbia, with 15.17, and Colorado at 14.90. Rhode Island also was first for using marijuana at 20.22%, followed by Alaska (19.69), Vermont (19.10) and Oregon (19.03). As for alcohol consumption, no state was less sober than New Hampshire, where 65.19% of residents used alcohol in the past month.   read more

A Freedom of Information Act request was filed with DHS for documents on Operation Aurora, which was a cyberattack on Google. The department responded with 800 pages of documents. However the documents weren’t about Operation Aurora, but were instead on the Aurora Project, which in 2007 demonstrated how easy it would be to disable the nation’s electric and water supply grids.   read more

A century ago, American soldiers attacked nothing more than sacks tied to a string before fighting in World War I. During the Cold War, U.S. troops took aim at human-shaped targets dressed in green, but wearing a red star on their helmets to represent Soviet soldiers. Now that the Red Menace has been replaced by a Middle-Eastern one, American military training uses targets dressed in “eastern-looking clothing” and sporting dark skin.   read more

Wayne County Circuit Judge Deborah A. Thomas has ordered many of those who come before her to finish school or earn a GED. She even papers the wall behind her bench with the documents to encourage the offenders, usually young men ages 19-22, get their lives on a more positive track.   read more

The Supreme Court’s cautious approach is partially driven by its concern for security, said the Chief Justice. “Foreign and domestic hackers, whose motives may range from fishing for secrets to discrediting the government or impairing court operations,” is something to guard against, he wrote. The new online system will cover all court petitions, responses, briefs and other public documents. The change will fall far short of what many legal and media observers of the court desire.   read more

The agency in charge of guarding the nation’s border, particularly the southern boundary with Mexico, wants to significantly increase its ranks of female agents. So the Border Patrol launched a campaign to recruit more women, and so far, it has produced 5,500 applications from females. Currently, women only make up 5% of the Border Patrol. The agency has a total of 21,000 agents and is seeking to add another 1,600, of either gender, through the end of this fiscal year.   read more

Rolando Sarraff Trujillo, an American spy said to have been released from a Cuban prison two weeks ago in a spy exchange with the U.S., is nowhere to be found. Sarraff had worked as a cryptologist for Cuba Intelligence, at which time he secretly fed the U.S. information to crack Cuban codes. Sarraff’s information led to the arrest and conviction of Cuban spies working in the U.S. government, including a senior Defense Intelligence Agency analyst and a former State Department official .   read more

Hacker Jan Krissler claims he replicated the fingerprint of Germany’s defense minister, Ursula von der Leyen, using an ordinary camera and computer software. He said he took high-resolution photos of Leyen’s hands as she moved them while speaking at a press conference, then worked with the images on his computer to duplicate her fingerprints. This would allow him, he said, to hack into any of Leyen’s accounts protected by biometric scanners on any high-end smart phones she might own.   read more

With more people choosing to reduce, if not eliminate gluten from their diet, Catholic leaders have tried to accommodate those who can’t ingest communion wafers—which are made of whole wheat per the Code of Canon Law—without getting sick. “Imagine how painful and spiritually challenging it is for faithful Catholics, who desire to receive Holy Communion...but who are unable to ingest wheat bread because of the grave physical harm it can cause them,” wrote Monsignor Mark J. Meridian.   read more

“A global disease-forecasting system will improve the way we respond to epidemics,” Sara Del Valle, a study co-author, said. “In the same way we check the weather each morning, individuals and public health officials can monitor disease incidence and plan for the future based on today’s forecast.” The researchers said that through Wikipedia, they observed flu outbreaks in the U.S., Poland, Japan and Thailand.   read more

Research by the Institute for the Study of Labor found immigrants who Americanized their names earned more than those who kept their original names, regardless of what they did for a living. Changing first names to popular ones like John or William resulted in a wage boost of as much as 14%. The research was based on information from 3,353 male immigrants found on Ancestry.com. The immigrants were mostly from Italy, Russia, Poland or the Czech Republic.   read more

Texas will not lack for influence in the U.S. House when the new Congress convenes in January. Despite representing a tiny percentage of Americans, white males from the Lone Star state will occupy six of the 21 committee chairmanships. Not bad, considering white Texan men account for only 3.35% of the U.S. population.   read more

Crime data for Denver, the hub of legal pot sales in the state, shows murders, assaults, rapes, burglaries and other violent crimes declined during the first three months of the year, compared with the same period for 2013. Homicides went down from 17 to 8 (a 53% drop), automobile break-ins from 2,317 to 1,477 (down 36%) and sexual assaults from 110 to 95 (down 14%). Overall, violent and property crimes dropped more than 10% from last year to this year during the first quarter.   read more