Text-a-Tip Programs Allow Tipsters To Help Police

Once again technology being used to serve the public interest.

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"A mother in Boston tells police her 8-year-old boy was shot to death in their apartment by gunmen in hooded sweatshirts during a home invasion.Officers later receive a text message from an anonymous tipster that leads them to a much different conclusion: the boy's 7-year-old cousin accidentally shot him while the two boys were playing with a loaded 9 mm handgun.Meanwhile, authorities in Douglas County, Colo., thwarted a threatened Columbine-style attack after an anonymous text about a student's "kill list" led them to weapons in the child's home.After struggling for years with an anti-snitching culture that made witnesses too afraid to come forward, police across the country are getting help from text-a-tip programs that allow people to send anonymous, text messages from their cell phones.In Boston, the first city to heavily promote texting for crime tips, police have received more than 1,000 tips since the program began two years ago. Police credit text tips for providing them with key leads in at least four high-profile killings, including: the accidental shooting of Liquarry Jefferson by his cousin; an arson fire that killed two children; the shooting of a Boston teenager on her 18th birthday; and the fatal stabbing of a man during a bar fight.Officer Michael Charbonnier, who oversees the program, said people who live in high-crime neighborhoods are often afraid that if they talk to police, they could be hurt or even killed by gang members, drug dealers or other criminals."It's either call 911 or live with the bad guy. And if you call, there could be repercussions," Charbonnier said."So when they have this option of texting us - knowing no one will know who they are - well, now, people give us license plate numbers, they give us names," he said.In the past, people feared retaliation for talking to police, but with the texting programs, police never see the tipster's name or telephone number. The text messages are sent to a separate, third-party server, where identifying information is stripped out and they are assigned an encrypted alias before being sent to police."
- Text-a-Tip Programs Allow Tipsters To Help Police - CBS News (view on Google Sidewiki)

Rachel Uchitel, Tiger Woods' Alleged Mistress, Denies Affair

Let's see if this turns out to be false rumor. When did the National Enquirer become respectable enough to be quoted. And if the rumors turn out to be wrong, will Huffington, TMZ, and Drudge apologize?

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"Rachel Uchitel became a major story on Wednesday, when rumors that the 34-year-old was having an affair with Tiger Woods began to circulate. The rumors have picked up steam after the circumstances surrounding Woods' car accident raised more questions than they answered. Uchitel continues to deny the affair. She told the New York Post that the rumors are "completely untrue." Nevertheless, she said, "this is nothing to do with me. We have never had an affair, and the claims we did are completely false. We have never had an affair, talked on the phone or sent any type of text, sexy or not. She denied the National Enquirer story that sparked the rumors to BlackBookMag.com as well: "I totally deny the Enquirer story. They did contact me about it, but they didn't use any of my quotes or any of the information I gave them. They make it sound like I said those things, but it's all other people saying I said things." The Enquirer is standing by its story and has released additional details."
- Rachel Uchitel, Tiger Woods' Alleged Mistress, Denies Affair (INFO) (view on Google Sidewiki)

U.S. Still Running Secret Prison in Afghanistan

How little things really change in this government.

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"An American military detention camp in Afghanistan is still holding inmates for sometimes weeks at a time and without access to the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to human rights researchers and former detainees held at the site on the Bagram Air Base. The site consists of individual windowless concrete cells, each lighted by a single light bulb glowing 24 hours a day, where detainees said that their only contact with another human being was at twice-daily interrogation sessions. The jail’s operation highlights a tension between President Obama’s goal to improve detention conditions that had drawn condemnation under the Bush administration and his desire to give military commanders leeway to operate. In this case, that means isolating certain prisoners for a period of time so interrogators can extract information or flush out confederates. While Mr. Obama signed an order to eliminate so-called black sites run by the Central Intelligence Agency in January, that order did not apply to this jail, which is run by military Special Operations forces."
- U.S. Still Running Secret Prison in Afghanistan - NYTimes.com (view on Google Sidewiki)

Russia: Bomb caused train crash that killed 26

"Russian officials opened a terror investigation Saturday, saying that a home-made bomb planted on the tracks of the high-speed Moscow-to-St. Petersburg route caused a derailment that killed at least 26 people and injured dozens more.

The head of Russia's Federal Security Service, Alexander Borotnikov, was quoted by the Interfax and RIA Novosti news as saying that an improvised explosive device equivalent to 15 pounds (7 kilograms) of TNT had detonated when the train passed over it Friday night. Remains of the device were found at the site of the crash, Borotnikov said.

"Indeed, this was a terrorist attack," Interfax cited Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for federal prosecutors, as saying."
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- Russia: Bomb caused train crash that killed 26 - Yahoo! News (view on Google Sidewiki)