OK - Woman Rolls Through TSA Screening in Bra, Panties, and Wheelchair

Original Article

12/01/2010

Imagine the shock on the TSA agents’ faces when Tammy Banovac showed up for her flight on Tuesday in Oklahoma wearing only her bra and panties and sitting in a wheelchair. Now imagine the look on their faces when Banovac failed her screening because nitrates, used in bomb-making, were found on her wheelchair.

That’s exactly what happened in Oklahoma City yesterday.

Undeterred, Banovac rolled up once again to a TSA screening checkpoint this morning wearing her black undergarments — this time, however, no nitrates kept her from catching a 7 a.m. flight with her dog to Phoenix:



Banovac told NewsOK she chose to wear her underwear because of an unpleasant experience two weeks ago at airport security. She is typically hand-searched at airports because she uses a wheelchair, she said, and she felt violated by the more invasive searches employed at airports recently.

“If it happened anywhere else, it would have been sexual assault.”
- And if a man did this, he'd be on the sex offender list.

OFF TOPIC - FTC Suggests Do-Not-Track Privacy Setting for Web Use

Original Article

Why do they track us in the first place? They should be forced to not do this, unless we Opt-In, not the other way around, IMO.

12/01/2010

First came Do-Not-Call. Now, the Federal Trade Commission is focusing on Do-Not-Track.

In a 79-page report (PDF) issued today, the agency suggested a new framework for consumer privacy in the commercial world, including a way for people to choose whether to allow companies to collect data about their online searching and browsing.

“Many of us on the Commission believe that it’s time for a Do-Not-Track mechanism with respect to third party ads,” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz in a call with reporters. “A Do-Not-Track browser setting would serve as an easy, one-stop shop for consumers to express their choices, rather than on a company-by-company or industry-by-industry basis. Microsoft, Google, Mozilla and Apple have already experimented with this, by the way, as has a coalition of companies.”

He stressed that the report only offers “best practices and guidance for lawmakers….We’re not calling for legislation yet.” And he said he hoped industry would improve efforts to self-regulate so legislation wouldn’t be needed.

“The advantage of industry doing something themselves is that they can move much more quickly than lawmakers,” Leibowitz said. “Industry needs to step up to the plate. To some extent, it has its destiny in its own hands.”

During the call, Edward Felten, who on Jan. 1 starts work as the FTC’s chief technologist, explained how Do-Not-Track might work.

“A consumer expresses the desire to opt out of tracking by using some kind of control on their browser or device,” he said. “When the browser connects to a site, it sends a message to the site that the consumer has opted out of tracking.” The site then refrains from collecting information about the person.

Leibowitz explained tracking via a real-world analogy – imagine you’re walking in a shopping mall and someone is following you who knows more or less who you are and where you live, he said.

“He’s emailing the stores ahead of you, ‘There’s Leibowitz. He’s looking for a jacket and a matching fur coat,’” he said. “And if the person was following your daughter, you’d want to punch him out.”

In the report, the FTC noted that the privacy policies of many companies have become long, legalistic disclosures that consumers usually don’t read and don’t understand if they do. “Current privacy policies force consumers to bear too much burden in protecting their privacy,” according to the FTC.

The report recommends that “companies should adopt a ‘privacy by design’ approach by building privacy protections into their everyday business practices.”

The report also suggests standardized notices that would allow the public to compare information practices of competing companies.

The FTC is soliciting public comment on the report until Jan. 31.

“Trying to get the right balance for consumer privacy is not Euclidean geometry,” said Leibowitz. “Reasonable people can disagree.”

OFF TOPIC - Father of Missing Michigan Boys Charged With Parental Kidnapping

Original Article

Most kidnappings are from the parents or close family, usually over custody disputes, and not by some strange sex offender hiding behind a bush! Also, in some, if not most states, kidnapping a child is an offense that will land you on the sex offender registry, even though it had nothing to do with sex.

11/30/2010

The father of three missing Michigan boys has been charged with three counts of parental kidnapping, authorities announced Tuesday, as hope fades for finding the boys alive.

Morenci Police Chief Larry Weeks said John Skelton was arrested by FBI agents after he was released Tuesday from a medical facility in Lucas County, Ohio. He said Skelton has been charged with parental kidnapping in the disappearance of his sons, 9-year-old Andrew, 7-year-old Alexander and 5-year-old Tanner Skelton.

Authorities said earlier that it's looking less likely that the boys -- who have been missing since a Thanksgiving Day visit to their father's home -- will be found alive, though no murder charges have yet been filed. The announcement did not stop searchers from scouring the countryside for a fourth day hoping for a happy ending.

Weeks, looking tired and strained, chose his words carefully as he addressed the efforts to find the children. Skelton, 39, tried to hang himself Friday, and police have determined that he lied about giving the boys to a female acquaintance to pass along to their mother.

"Statements he made to investigators indicate it's not going to be a positive outcome," Weeks told reporters, volunteers and some members of the boys' extended family Tuesday morning.

"He's been forthcoming with some information, the credibility of which we can't verify," Weeks said of Skelton, who underwent psychiatric treatment at a hospital.

Police released Skelton's photo on Tuesday and are looking for anyone who may have seen the boys or the Skeltons' blue, Dodge Caravan between Thursday and Friday afternoon. Police have seized the van, but were trying to determine where Skelton may have taken them before he attempted suicide.

Weeks said their mother, 45-year-old Tanya Skelton, who is Skelton's estranged wife, was told about the search's possible outcome.

Her reaction: "Imagine your worst nightmare come true," Weeks said. "How would you respond?"

For a fourth day Tuesday, crews searched the woods and fields around Morenci, about 75 miles southwest of Detroit and just north of the Ohio state line.

The purpose of the search may have changed, but it will continue, vowed Bill Foster of Morenci, who was wearing the names of the boys on the back of his yellow vest.

"It's not what you wanted to hear," he said. "The whole community had been hoping for a Christmas miracle."

"We're very saddened by the news, but the search has to continue. We won't quit the search until we bring the boys home."

Foster said locals began searching fields and woods on Saturday. They joined police efforts when those started.

Lenawee County sheriff's Corporal Jeff Paterson said woods, ponds, creeks, clumps of trees, tilled cornfields, roadsides and barns in Ohio and Michigan were searched Monday. He expected more of the same Tuesday.

"As long as tips continue to come in, we'll stay on it," he said.

The boys last were seen on Thanksgiving in their father's Morenci backyard.

Tanya Skelton filed for divorce in September. A judge gave her custody of the boys, but she and John Skelton reached an agreement on visitation.

She reported the boys missing Friday.

MO - Missouri sex offender registry includes those busted for public urination

Original Article

12/01/2010

By Leisa Zigman

ST. LOUIS - With more than 12,000 people on Missouri's sex offender registry, some groups are advocating change. They argue law enforcement can't keep track of everyone on the list. To make the system more efficient and fair, groups like Missouri Citizens for Reform want all non violent offenders removed from the list.

Dennis Conlin started Missouri Citizens for Reform.

"Not everybody on the registry is violent," Conlin said. "Should the Romeo and Juliet case where the 19-year-old boy is having consensual sex with 15-year-old girl, should he be on the registry for life? I don't think so. Should a person being accused of urinating in public be on the registry for life? No, I don't think so."

Conlin said the current system lumps all offenders together and brands everyone, even those arrested for streaking, with a lifetime scarlet letter.

"In Missouri it's one size fits all. Everyone is on the registry," said Conlin.

But he doubts change will come soon. Conlin said most lawmakers don't want to risk political suicide by promoting such a bill.

"I see an injustice here. I see legislators, politicians, prosecutors; nobody wants to seem soft on child crime," Conlin said.

Some researchers and reform groups claim the registry doesn't prevent sexual assaults and, in fact, are counterproductive because they drive sex offenders underground, making them more difficult to track. Others believe the registration laws need to be repealed altogether and replaced with tougher punishments for the most violent of sex crimes. Still, others say the registries themselves are a good idea, but want to see greater limits placed on those required to register.