Financial info on celebs, officials leaked online

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Authorities and celebrities were grappling with how to respond to a website that posted what appears to be private financial information about top government officials and stars such as Jay-Z and Mel Gibson.

The Justice Department said Monday the FBI was investigating how the Social Security number, address and a credit report of FBI Director Robert Mueller ended up on the site. The site also posted the same information about Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, and the department said it was investigating the matter.

In addition to Jay-Z and Gibson, other targeted stars included Beyonce, Ashton Kutcher, Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton. Info posted about Vice President Joe Biden and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not include credit reports but included addresses and other sensitive information.

Social Security numbers posted on Jay-Z, Gibson and others matched records in public databases.

The site, which bears an Internet suffix originally assigned to the Soviet Union, expanded throughout the day Monday to add entries on Britney Spears, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and others.

The site did not state how the information was obtained or why the people targeted on the site were selected, describing the records only as "secret files." A Twitter profile linked to the site and created after its existence was first reported by celebrity website TMZ included an anti-police message in Russian.

Several of the purported credit reports appear to have been generated last week.

Representatives of those targeted either declined to comment on the accuracy of the information that was posted, or they did not return messages seeking comment.

Los Angeles police Cmdr. Andrew Smith said the LAPD was investigating the posting of Beck's information and would also investigate the posting of info on any celebrities who live in the city and request an inquiry.

He said confidential information on top police officials has been posted online at least twice before.

"People get mad at us, go on the Internet and try to find information about us, and post it all on one site," Smith said.

"The best word I can use to describe it is creepy," he said about the practice known as doxxing. "It's a creepy thing to do."

Frank Preciado, assistant officer in charge at the LAPD online section, said the postings are also illegal. He said the information was likely taken from what is supposed to be a secure database of city employees.

Several of the pages featured unflattering pictures of the celebrities or government officials whose information was posted.

The site's page on Beck includes a taunting reference to former officer Christopher Dorner, who apparently committed suicide after he killed four people during a multi-day rampage. Beck's page included the message "(hash)YouCantCornerTheDorner" and an image of a woman protesting police corruption.

While government officials often have to disclose details on their finances ? and celebrity divorces sometimes feature public financial data ? the information posted online exceeds those disclosures.

Social Security numbers are rarely included in public records anymore because they can be used for identity theft.

___

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP . Tami Abdollah can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/latams .

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/financial-celebs-officials-leaked-online-222719836.html

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More gun laws = fewer deaths, 50-state study says

FILE - In this Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2009 file photo, two guns lie at the scene where five people were shot and two suspects were taken into custody in a shooting incident that happened along the Mardi Gras parade route in New Orleans. States with the most gun control laws have the fewest gun-related deaths, according to a study published Wednesday, March 6, 2013 in the medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine. The study suggests sheer quantity of measures might make a difference. States with the fewest laws and most deaths included Louisiana, Alaska, Kentucky and Oklahoma. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

FILE - In this Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2009 file photo, two guns lie at the scene where five people were shot and two suspects were taken into custody in a shooting incident that happened along the Mardi Gras parade route in New Orleans. States with the most gun control laws have the fewest gun-related deaths, according to a study published Wednesday, March 6, 2013 in the medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine. The study suggests sheer quantity of measures might make a difference. States with the fewest laws and most deaths included Louisiana, Alaska, Kentucky and Oklahoma. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

CHICAGO (AP) ? States with the most gun control laws have the fewest gun-related deaths, according to a study that suggests sheer quantity of measures might make a difference.

But the research leaves many questions unanswered and won't settle the debate over how policymakers should respond to recent high-profile acts of gun violence.

In the dozen or so states with the most gun control-related laws, far fewer people were shot to death or killed themselves with guns than in the states with the fewest laws, the study found. Overall, states with the most laws had a 42 percent lower gun death rate than states with the least number of laws.

The results are based on an analysis of 2007-2010 gun-related homicides and suicides from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The researchers also used data on gun control measures in all 50 states compiled by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a well-known gun control advocacy group. They compared states by dividing them into four equal-sized groups according to the number of gun laws.

The results were published online Wednesday in the medical journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

More than 30,000 people nationwide die from guns every year nationwide, and there's evidence that gun-related violent crime rates have increased since 2008, a journal editorial noted.

During the four-years studied, there were nearly 122,000 gun deaths, 60 percent of them suicides.

"Our motivation was really to understand what are the interventions that can be done to reduce firearm mortality," said Dr. Eric Fleegler, the study's lead author and an emergency department pediatrician and researcher at Boston Children's Hospital.

He said his study suggests but doesn't prove that gun laws ? or something else ? led to fewer gun deaths.

Fleegler is also among hundreds of doctors who have signed a petition urging President Barack Obama and Congress to pass gun safety legislation, a campaign organized by the advocacy group Doctors for America.

Gun rights advocates have argued that strict gun laws have failed to curb high murder rates in some cities, including Chicago and Washington, D.C. Fleegler said his study didn't examine city-level laws, while gun control advocates have said local laws aren't as effective when neighboring states have lax laws.

Previous research on the effectiveness of gun laws has had mixed results, and it's a "very challenging" area to study, said Dr. Daniel Webster, director of the Johns Hopkins Center For Gun Policy. He was not involved in the current study.

The strongest kind of research would require comparisons between states that have dissimilar gun laws but otherwise are nearly identical, "but there isn't a super nice twin for New Jersey," for example, a state with strict gun laws, Webster noted.

Fleegler said his study's conclusions took into account factors also linked with gun violence, including poverty, education levels and race, which vary among the states.

The average annual gun death rate ranged from almost 3 per 100,000 in Hawaii to 18 per 100,000 in Louisiana. Hawaii had 16 gun laws, and along with New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts was among states with the most laws and fewest deaths. States with the fewest laws and most deaths included Alaska, Kentucky, Louisiana and Oklahoma.

But there were outliers: South Dakota, for example, had just two guns laws but few deaths.

Editorial author Dr. Garen Wintemute, director the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis, said the study doesn't answer which laws, if any, work.

Wintemute said it's likely that gun control measures are more readily enacted in states with few gun owners ? a factor that might have more influence on gun deaths than the number of laws.

___

Online:

JAMA Internal Medicine: http://www.jamainternalmed.com

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov

___

AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/bbd825583c8542898e6fa7d440b9febc/Article_2013-03-06-Gun%20Laws-Deaths/id-91d5b5a3573d48978328b8bde7af962a

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PFT: Pats could part with both Welker, Lloyd

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With the Patriots tepid on the topic of keeping cornerback Aqib Talib with a multi-year deal, his former college coach has offered a surprisingly strong assessment in response to the notion that Talib doesn?t work hard enough.

?[H]e loves to play football,? Mark Mangino recently told Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald.? ?He enjoyed practice time.? He hustled, made plays, did all of his drill work full speed, played hard in the games, did what was asked of him in the weight room, got bigger and stronger when he was with us.? I find that a little hard to believe.

?Things can change, obviously, but I stopped into the Tampa Bay Buccaneers training camp [last summer]. I visited with several members of the staff, front office people, strength coaches, trainers, assistant coaches. To the person, they told me what a great job Aqib was doing. ?He is showing leadership. He is working his tail off in the [OTAs].? He?s been a leader.? He is really busting his butt, and he is really working hard.?

?That doesn?t always happen. I have been to training camps in the past where I?ve had a former player that I?ve coached, and the coaches have come up to me and say, ?This player doesn?t work hard. He?s not into it.?? They?ll tell you the truth. When you go to these NFL places, they don?t mince any words.?

The Bucs may not have minced words, but they eventually traded Talib.? And it?s no surprise.? As coach Greg Schiano tries to build a roster of players of high character, Talib was one of several who simply didn?t fit.

That said, Talib possibly was working hard; it could be that his four-game suspension for violating the league?s policy regarding performance-enhancing substances prompted the trade.? And it could be that an Adderall-free Talib doesn?t work as hard as he does when taking the banned stimulant.

Still, it seems a little odd Mangino is singing Talib?s praises.? Throughout Talib?s various on-field and off-field struggles, Mangino has not been a particularly vocal defender.? Also, it was widely known during the weeks preceding the 2008 draft that Kansas coaches were not saying flattering things about Talib to scouts.

The question now for the Pats is whether they can strike a deal that will extend Talib?s stay beyond a handful of 2012 games.? If he leaves, they won?t have gotten much in return for the fourth-round pick they sent to Tampa.

But at least they got a seventh-round pick back in return.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/10/talk-in-new-england-that-welker-lloyd-could-both-be-gone/related/

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PFT: Niners TE Walker could seek starting job

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With the Patriots tepid on the topic of keeping cornerback Aqib Talib with a multi-year deal, his former college coach has offered a surprisingly strong assessment in response to the notion that Talib doesn?t work hard enough.

?[H]e loves to play football,? Mark Mangino recently told Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald.? ?He enjoyed practice time.? He hustled, made plays, did all of his drill work full speed, played hard in the games, did what was asked of him in the weight room, got bigger and stronger when he was with us.? I find that a little hard to believe.

?Things can change, obviously, but I stopped into the Tampa Bay Buccaneers training camp [last summer]. I visited with several members of the staff, front office people, strength coaches, trainers, assistant coaches. To the person, they told me what a great job Aqib was doing. ?He is showing leadership. He is working his tail off in the [OTAs].? He?s been a leader.? He is really busting his butt, and he is really working hard.?

?That doesn?t always happen. I have been to training camps in the past where I?ve had a former player that I?ve coached, and the coaches have come up to me and say, ?This player doesn?t work hard. He?s not into it.?? They?ll tell you the truth. When you go to these NFL places, they don?t mince any words.?

The Bucs may not have minced words, but they eventually traded Talib.? And it?s no surprise.? As coach Greg Schiano tries to build a roster of players of high character, Talib was one of several who simply didn?t fit.

That said, Talib possibly was working hard; it could be that his four-game suspension for violating the league?s policy regarding performance-enhancing substances prompted the trade.? And it could be that an Adderall-free Talib doesn?t work as hard as he does when taking the banned stimulant.

Still, it seems a little odd Mangino is singing Talib?s praises.? Throughout Talib?s various on-field and off-field struggles, Mangino has not been a particularly vocal defender.? Also, it was widely known during the weeks preceding the 2008 draft that Kansas coaches were not saying flattering things about Talib to scouts.

The question now for the Pats is whether they can strike a deal that will extend Talib?s stay beyond a handful of 2012 games.? If he leaves, they won?t have gotten much in return for the fourth-round pick they sent to Tampa.

But at least they got a seventh-round pick back in return.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/10/delanie-walker-could-be-getting-a-chance-to-start-elsewhere/related/

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Lack of stiff opening round opposition a double edged sword for Canada in Sochi

So the draw is set for Sochi and the 2014 men?s Olympic hockey tournament. After qualifying tournaments played this past weekend across Europe, Canada is in a pool (Group B) with Finland, Norway and Austria ? one perennial medal contender and two just-happy-to-be-there squads.

What is the opposite of a Group of Death? Canada gets two virtual walkovers in its first three preliminary-round games and there are two schools of thought about that development.

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The good: In a venue as geographically removed from North America as Sochi is ? where the players will need to deal with the effects of travel and a 12-hour time change ? it is not a bad thing to face a couple of minnows early on to get their legs under them.

The bad: While other teams are getting battle-tested by more challenging opponents, Canada will be on cruise control for two-thirds of the preliminary round and could potentially play just the one meaningful game against the Finns before it gets to the one-and-done stage of the tournament.

Of course, all this presupposes that the NHL is actually going Sochi, which will still require some give-and-take at the bargaining table before it becomes a fait accompli.

The NHL has meetings scheduled with the International Ice Hockey Federation and the International Olympic Committee in New York later this week to see if they can come to an agreement.

Some time ago, the NHL ?shared? with both bodies the conditions under which it will consider participating in the 2014 Olympics so that when the stakeholders come to the bargaining table, there will be no surprises at the 11th hour.

The NHL wants a number of concessions, most of them involving access issues, including the right to show images from the Olympic hockey tournament on its own web site, for its own marketing purposes. Indications are that the IIHF is on board with some of the NHL?s demands, but there could be issues with the IOC ? which, as a matter of policy, rarely wants to relinquish control over any aspect of the Games. The fear is that if the IOC accedes to the NHL?s requests, other governing bodies in other sports, such as FIFA, will ask for even greater concessions.

It is a balancing act, kind of a CBA negotiation in microcosm. Deep down, the IOC must surely understand that the presence of NHL players at the Olympics greatly enhances the rights fees that they can charge to broadcasters for the Games.

On its side, the NHL must just as surely feel an obligation to NBC Sports, which signed a $2-billion deal with the league last year and then found itself without product to put on its cable sports channel during 3 1/2 months of the season, thanks to the lockout. Competing in Sochi ? even if it doesn?t commit to South Korea four years later ? would be seen as the NHL extending an olive branch to an important sponsor. There are enough good reasons on both sides to see them coming to an agreement, but until it actually happens, there are no guarantees.

For Sochi, Russia is in Pool A with Slovakia, the United States and the third qualifier, Slovenia, which will compete in the Olympics the first time in its history. In Pool C, Latvia earned the other Olympic qualifying berth and will join the Czech Republic, Sweden and Switzerland.

The IIHF is always tweaking and adjusting its format because it wants to be inclusive ? and give the second tier of the hockey-playing world a chance to compete against the big boys.

In Vancouver, Canada had just a so-so record in the round-robin portion of the tournament ? a win over Norway, a shootout win over Switzerland and a loss to the United States. In the Olympics, where the three-points-for-a-victory system is in effect, that gave Canada just five out of a possible nine points and forced it to play an extra game in the qualification round (against Germany) before advancing to the quarter-finals.

There the Canadians met a rested Russian team that had cruised through the preliminaries ? and you probably remember the rest of the story. Canada came out like ?a gorilla out of a cage? (Russian goalie Ilya Bryzgalov?s colourful post-game description) and crushed the Russians. Afterward, most of the Canadian players agreed ? playing the extra game against the Germans actually helped them get untracked in the tournament. From there, they defeated the Slovaks and Americans in subsequent rounds and won the gold medal. Television ratings, in Canada and the United States, reached record levels.

Accordingly, the NHL holds considerable leverage here and if it ultimately decides to give Sochi a pass, it won?t be going to South Korea in 2018.

Some Russian players say they will defy the league and play in Sochi, no matter how the talks unfold, but aside from them, it would be a watered-down tournament without the NHL. No amount of warm and fuzzy Olympic profiles about the kids and minor-leaguers that would be playing instead is going to fool the hockey-watching public into thinking this is anything more than a second-rate show.

If the NHL stays home, about the only thing you can safely predict about the 2014 Olympics is that the gap between international hockey?s haves and have-nots will shrink considerably.

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Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/lack-of-stiff-opening-round-opposition-a-double-edged-sword-for-canada-in-sochi/article8434618/?cmpid=rss1

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LinkedIn's 4Q gets rave reviews from investors

FILE - In this Monday, May 9, 2011 file photo, LinkedIn Corp., the professional networking Web site, displays its logo outside of headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Linkedin is reporting their fourth quarter 2012 earnings on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

FILE - In this Monday, May 9, 2011 file photo, LinkedIn Corp., the professional networking Web site, displays its logo outside of headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Linkedin is reporting their fourth quarter 2012 earnings on Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, File)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? Online professional-networking service LinkedIn's fourth-quarter performance added another line to its sterling resume as a public company.

The results announced Thursday extended LinkedIn Corp.'s uninterrupted streak of exceeding analysts' projections for both earnings and revenue. It marked the seventh consecutive quarter since LinkedIn's May 2011 IPO that the company has pulled that off, to the delight of investors.

The run of pleasant surprises is one of the reasons that LinkedIn's stock has tripled from its initial public offering price of $45. The shares surged $11.71, or 9.4 percent, to $135.80 in extended trading after the numbers came out.

Besides a 66 percent increase in earnings from the previous year, the latest quarter was highlighted by an influx of 15 million accounts to propel LinkedIn's total membership beyond 200 million. Visitors to LinkedIn's website also viewed 67 percent more pages than the previous year, an indication that the company's efforts to add more business news and career tips from top business executives are paying off.

Wall Street's embrace of LinkedIn contrasts with the cold response given to other Internet services that have gone public during the past few years. Most of them are trading below their IPO prices. The most notable is Facebook Inc., whose stock is worth about 25 percent less than it was when it made its market debut in May.

Although both run websites devoted to connecting people with common interests, LinkedIn and Facebook are targeting different audiences. Facebook focuses mostly on letting friends and family share good times and swap stories, while LinkedIn concentrates on helping people advance their careers and helping companies fill jobs.

Facebook, which is based in Menlo Park, is the larger of the two services, with more than 1 billion active users and $5.1 billion in revenue last year. LinkedIn, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., has 202 million accountholders and revenue of $972 million in 2012.

But LinkedIn is growing more quickly, partly because it's less dependent on advertising than Facebook and most Internet services. In the fourth quarter, advertising accounted for 27 percent of LinkedIn's revenue. The remainder comes from various tools that it sells to help recruit workers and glean more insights from the information that its users post on its website.

Reflecting its belief that the member data are becoming increasingly valuable, LinkedIn said Thursday that it intends to raise some prices this year. Setting up a member profile remains free. The price increase reflects the additional information that the company has accumulated as its membership has more than doubled in less than two years, according to Steve Sordello, LinkedIn's chief financial officer. The company provided no specifics on the increases.

LinkedIn earned $11.5 million, or 10 cents per share, during the final three months of last year. That compared to $6.9 million, or 6 cents per share, a year earlier.

If not for the costs of employee stock compensation and certain other charges, LinkedIn said it would have earned 35 cents per share. That was far above the average estimates of 19 cents per share among analysts surveyed by FactSet.

Revenue soared 81 percent from the previous year to $304 million ? about $24 million above analyst forecasts.

LinkedIn's revenue outlook for the current quarter and all of 2013 were roughly in line with analyst estimates, setting the stage for the company to clear those financial hurdles once again.

Management's forecast for annual revenue of $1.4 billion this year appears conservative, given that it would translate into an increase of about 45 percent from last year. In 2012, LinkedIn's annual revenue rose 86 percent.

"We are trying to utilize a prudent approach to year-over-year growth," Sordello told analysts during an analyst conference call.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-02-07-US-Earns-LinkedIn/id-fef9fa0048da4fb3b660f24ef31df0f6

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APNewsBreak: Flaws found in missile shield

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Secret Defense Department studies cast doubt on whether a multibillion-dollar missile defense system planned for Europe will ever be able to protect the U.S. from Iranian missiles as intended.

Military officials say they believe the problems can be overcome and are moving forward. But proposed fixes could be difficult.

The studies are the latest to highlight serious problems for a plan that has been criticized on several fronts. Republicans claim it was hastily drawn in an attempt to appease Russia. But Russia is also critical of the plan, which it believes is really intended to counter its missiles.

The classified studies were summarized in a briefing for lawmakers by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office. The briefing, which was not classified, was obtained by The Associated Press.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apnewsbreak-flaws-found-missile-shield-081631698--politics.html

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