CoOlDiGgY news (late edition)

Gov't Laptops Took Thousands of Images of Kids

The system that Lower Merion school officials used to track lost and stolen laptops wound up secretly capturing thousands of images, including photographs of students in their homes, Web sites they visited, and excerpts of their online chats, says a new motion filed in a suit against the district.

More than once, the motion asserts, the camera on Robbins' school-issued laptop took photos of Robbins as he slept in his bed. Each time, it fired the images off to network servers at the school district.

Back at district offices, the Robbins motion says, employees with access to the images marveled at the tracking software. It was like a window into "a little LMSD soap opera," a staffer is quoted as saying in an e-mail to Carol Cafiero, the administrator running the program.

"I know, I love it," she is quoted as having replied.

Those details, disclosed in the motion filed late Thursday in federal court by Robbins' attorney, offer a wider glimpse into the now-disabled program that spawned Robbins' lawsuit and has shined an international spotlight on the district.

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*CBS Poll: Republicans Have Absorbed the Tea Party

*Don’t Drink the Water

*Rhode Island and California's jobless rate hits high of 12.6% in March

*Meteor Lights Up Night Sky




earlier:

US Strikes Killing More of Afghan Civilians

The number of Afghans civilians killed by US-led forces is more than doubled over this time last year

KABUL — Deaths of Afghan civilians by NATO troops have more than doubled this year, NATO statistics show, jeopardizing a U.S. campaign to win over the local population by protecting them against insurgent attacks.

NATO troops accidentally killed 72 civilians in the first three months of 2010, up from 29 in the same period in 2009, according to figures the International Security Assistance Force gave USA TODAY. The numbers were released after Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, issued measures to protect ordinary Afghans.

A Red Cross report out Thursday said the number of civilians killed and wounded by Taliban roadside bombs has soared in Kandahar, where NATO and Afghan forces are preparing for a major offensive against the insurgent stronghold.

Some Afghans say the rise in civilian deaths may help the enemy. "If (it) continues, people will abandon the government and join the Taliban," says Malalai Ishaqzai, a member of parliament.


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*US Accuses Goldman Sachs of Fraud

*Obama Admin Indicts Bush Whistleblower Thomas Drake...

*...Glenn Greenwald: What this indicts says about Obama

*Justice: Racist former LAPD chief, Daryl Gates, dies of cancer

*Elena Kagan: How liberals will be tricked into supporting a conservative Supreme Court nominee

*8 dead in hospital attack in Pakistan


*Delaying kids may prevent financial 'motherhood penalty'

*Federal judge strikes down National Day of Prayer statute

*2009 a mixed year for food-borne pathogens

*Same-sex partners to finally get the same privileges granted heterosexual couples in hospitals that get Medicare or Medicaid funds

*Volcanic cloud casts long shadow over US travel

*As Okla. City date nears, militias seen as gaining strength


*Ousted Kyrgyz president leaves country

*Eight Republicans who may break ranks on bank bill

*Questions Surround Fiorina's Involvement In HP Bribery Scandal

*L.A. City Council and DWP end standoff and will hike rates


*US suspended from adopting Russian children

CoOlDiGgY news (late edition)

Reserve Reveals Bear Stearns Assets it Swallowed

April 1 (Bloomberg) -- After months of litigation and political scrutiny, the Federal Reserve yesterday ended a policy of secrecy over its Bear Stearns Cos. bailout.

In a 4:30 p.m. announcement in a week of congressional recess and religious holidays, the central bank released details of securities bought to aid Bear Stearns’s takeover by JPMorgan Chase & Co. Bloomberg News sued the Fed for that information.

The Fed’s vehicle known as Maiden Lane LLC has securities backed by mortgages from lenders including Washington Mutual Inc. and Countrywide Financial Corp., loans that were made with limited borrower documentation. More than $1 billion of them are backed by “jumbo” mortgages written by Thornburg Mortgage Inc., which now carry the lowest investment-grade rating. Jumbo loans were larger than government-sponsored mortgage buyers such as Fannie Mae could finance -- $417,000 at the time.

“The Fed absorbed that risk on its balance sheet and is now seen to be holding problematic, legacy assets,” said Vincent Reinhart, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington who was the central bank’s monetary- affairs director from 2001 to 2007. “There is both an impairment to its balance sheet and its reputation.”

The Bear Stearns deal marked a turning point in the financial crisis for the Fed. By putting taxpayers at risk in financing the rescue, the central bank was engaging in fiscal policy, normally the domain of Congress and the U.S. Treasury, said Marvin Goodfriend, a former Richmond Fed policy adviser who is now an economist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.


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*Everything You Need To Know About The Latest Jobs Figures

*Sharp Increase in March in Personal Bankruptcies

*Hiring Hot Spots: These companies have been expanding their workforces aggressively

*VIDEO: Congressman says New Health Care Law Trumps Constitution



*California probe clears ACORN of criminal activity

*Cops & CPS Seize Child From Parents For Mistrusting Government

*“We Are in a Cabal... Five or Six Players ... Own the Regulatory Apparatus. Everybody Is Afraid to Regulate Them"

*VIDEO: Officers Accused Of Using Taser On 10-Year-Old



*Second Mexican helicopter sighted in US airspace

*Great-grandmother given an electronic tag and curfew for selling a goldfish to a 14 year-old

*100 million Americans question or find fault with the official 9/11 story

earlier:

Census Project Adds to the Job Picture

200,000 new jobs will be announced today, half of those are temporary Census positions. Critics say that's a drop in the bucket.

When March employment figures are released Friday by the Department of Labor, analysts are expecting to see the biggest U.S. job gains in more than two years.

But perhaps half the 200,000 or so positions expected to be added to payrolls may be the byproduct of a government effort that has turned into a fortuitous job generator: the U.S. census.

The constitutionally mandated nationwide head count arrives this year at a crucial time -- after the start of the country's economic recovery, but before private-sector employers have created many jobs. That's a stroke of luck for the Obama administration, which has been criticized for failing to revive the labor market. And it's a windfall for the 700,000 temporary employees the census expects to hire, although most of the jobs will last only two to six weeks.

This year's census isn't just about counting heads, it's helping create jobs in an economy that needs them badly.

Read more...

*Banks, Debt Collectors Find Ideal Debtors: Working Poor

*For Unemployed, Tax Deadline Brings New Worries...

*...Health Care's Job Creation: up to 100,000 New IRS Agents


*2 million eager for health care on parents' plans

*Five Reasons the Democrats Are Not Running Scared - Yet

*US to impose new airline security measures

*Army chief reverses course, to uphold policy on gays

*Rhode Island looks to slow recovery


*Mexico drug gangs turn weapons on army

*Obama and China's Hu discuss nuclear Iran in phone call

*Vanishing Beaches: Southern California beach erosion is worst in a decade

*Thirteen Israeli air strikes hit Gaza Strip

*US Sues KBR On Security Costs

*One of the Metro bombers could be teen 'Black Widow' – report