~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the Los Angeles Times

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mystery deepens as bodies turn up on Long Island

A search on a rustic barrier island for a missing prostitute has yielded a series of grisly finds pointing to a serial killer, or maybe two. Authorities are stumped, and locals are shaken.

by Geraldine Baum and Faye Fiore, Los Angeles Times

April 17, 2011

Reporting from Oak Beach, N.Y., and Washington

In the summertime, the beaches along Ocean Parkway on Long Island are an American photo album of family picnics, July Fourth fireworks and minivans wedged bumper to bumper. But in the winter, this idyllic place is a windswept wilderness laced with thickets of brush that, it seems, provide the perfect dumping ground for murder.

That's the macabre scene that has unfolded since a prostitute went missing a year ago and a search party began scouring this seashore getaway for some sign of her.

What turned up instead was a string of mostly skeletal remains suggesting the work of a serial killer, or maybe two. Police are eager to find Shannan Gilbert, 24, who they suspect is somewhere in the impenetrable terrain that keeps offering up mysteries they can't explain.

So far, this barrier island off Long Island's south shore, 40 miles from New York City, has yielded a terrible crop of death, including the bodies of four other women known to have worked as prostitutes, shrouded in burlap; a bag of arms and legs; a human skull; and the body of an unidentified woman lying near that of a child about 5 years old, wrapped in a blanket.

Authorities are stumped, and the hardy, eclectic, year-round dwellers here are shaken. Yet such grisly finds have taken on a sad familiarity; strings of prostitute killings, most unsolved, exist in almost every major city and many smaller places, experts say, and Long Island has not been immune. Joel Rifkin of East Meadow was convicted of killing nine women, mostly drug-addicted prostitutes, between 1989 and 1993 and is serving a 203-year prison sentence. Robert Shulman of Hicksville was convicted of five such killings in the 1990s; he was serving a life term in prison when he died in 2006.

Last week, law enforcement officers, from the FBI to the local park police, blanketed this island in helicopters and on horseback, and dived into the chilly waters of the Atlantic. Cadaver dogs and their handlers braved poison ivy and thorny knots. Police cadets in padded blue jumpsuits marched four-abreast through the maze. Homicide detectives with binoculars hovered above in cherry pickers attached to firetrucks.

Nassau County Police Det. Lt. Kevin Smith said there was still no prime suspect: "There's been a lot of speculation, but we still don't know what we're doing. The area has never been searched this extensively because criminal activity out here was never suspected before. But it's the kind of place where you never know what will happen."

It began May 1 when Gilbert, who worked as an escort, met a client here in a gated area of Oak Beach, a community of 72 homes along Ocean Parkway. Police said she was seen banging on doors and crying out, "They're trying to kill me." By the time help arrived, she had vanished.

Months passed with no clues. Then during a routine training exercise on the island, chosen for its proximity to where Gilbert had disappeared, a police cadaver dog named Blue sniffed out the first of four women's remains. They were identified as prostitutes in their 20s with ties to Long Island who had been missing between a few months and two years.

The women turned up in an overgrown tangle of scrub and sea grass a mile or so from where Gilbert was last seen. Their placement appeared to be no accident; each was 500 feet from the next, dumped there at different times, judging from their decomposition.

With the spring thaw, the search intensified along a 15-mile stretch. The remains of at least six more people were discovered deep in the dense thicket at scattered points along the parkway.

"If you and I walked 10 feet into it, we would be torn apart by it," Smith said. "This is not an area where you would walk a dog."

Theories abounded: Was this the same madman who recently killed four prostitutes in Atlantic City? (Police say no.)

Even Rifkin had a hunch: He told Newsday in a prison interview that it was probably a local whose line of work would allow him to go unnoticed if he carried burlap sacks, like a fisherman.

Investigators wondered whether the killer, who appeared to be versed in law enforcement techniques, could have been one of their own.

Jack Levin, co-director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict at Northeastern University and an expert on serial and mass murder, dismissed that theory.

"I doubt this is a cop. More likely he's a police groupie or a cop wannabe. They live in uniforms, have shortwave radios in their cars; they watch 'Law and Order' or 'Criminal Minds' to pick up points; they may not be geniuses, but they know how to get away with it and they love the feeling of power," Levin said.

Amateur crime solvers, pondering from the decks and the docks of Long Island, say there could be any number of explanations for such a gruesome bounty. Rumrunners famously dumped black-market booze here during Prohibition. Gangsters have long appreciated its desolation. Other possibilities, Smith said, include family members disposing of a suicide or taking "an easy way out" rather than burying an elderly loved one.

This isn't the upscale Hamptons, 60 miles to the east, where the wealthy summer in beachside mansions amid designer boutiques, or even rustic Fire Island, the next barrier island over, where singles party and cars aren't allowed.

The most famous community here is Jones Beach, a state park that in June alone drew 1.5 million visitors fighting for spaces in parking lots as big as Western prairies.

The rest of the year this place is left to a small band of beach people who can stand the wind of a barrier island on a cold winter day.

When it first appeared that prostitutes were the prime victims, the locals were more curious than threatened. But their fears have intensified with each ghastly find, not to mention an army of law enforcement crawling through their bushes and blocking roads.

"Now I'm a little scared, especially if it's pitch-dark out," said Howard Rubin, 58, a weekend motorcyclist who has spent years riding the empty stretches of beach. He was warming up over a cup of coffee recently at one of the only restaurants open this time of year, recalling the night his bike got stuck in the sand near the dark woods. "I was terrified to be out there all alone. Not many cars come by. You don't know what's gonna happen."

There may be cause for nerves, said Northeastern's Levin, who suspects the culprit is a local. Serial killers sometimes start with one kind of prey and change patterns for variety. He offered as an example the Boston Strangler, who began in 1962 with elderly women, then shifted mostly to young women.

"Killers change their modus operandi," he said. "They get bored."

But sooner or later they slip, Levin said, citing Rifkin, who is linked to 17 slayings. His mistake was transporting one of the bodies in his pickup truck with no license plate on the back. The police made a routine stop.

"That was it." Levin said. "He was caught."

The four dead women and the one still missing at Oak Beach are mostly faceless victims even in the media blitz surrounding the investigation. But their families are distressed. The sister of Amber Lynn Costello, 27, who has been missing since September, was smuggled this month by a CNN reporter onto a bus provided by police for media to see the search operation. "I just wanted to get a chance to see where my sister had been," she said.

The mother of Shannan Gilbert, meanwhile, told Newsday that although the search had not led to her missing daughter, it had done some good: "She has helped other families find their babies."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-long-island-bodies-20110417,0,4015003,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

For Alejandra Tapia, prison as punishment

A judge gave Alejandra Tapia a longer sentence so she could be in a rehabilitation program. But we're moving away from that idea in our justice system.

April 16, 2011

On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that focuses on a narrow issue: whether a judge had the right to increase a convicted defendant's sentence so she could participate in a rehabilitation program in prison. But the case of Alejandra Tapia also raises the much broader question of whether Congress should reconsider the nature and purpose of incarceration.

After being convicted of smuggling illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border, Tapia came before a federal judge who sentenced her to a period in prison long enough for her to enter a drug rehabilitation program with a long waiting list. The judge said that "one of the factors that affects this is the need to provide treatment."

His heart was in the right place. Faced with a woman with a sad history, he sought to use his office to help her improve her situation. But Tapia's lawyer cites language in federal law saying that "imprisonment is not an appropriate means of promoting correction and rehabilitation." The only approved objectives of imprisonment are deterrence, incapacitation and retribution.

The lawyer defending the enhanced sentence acknowledged that Congress has rejected the "rehabilitative ideal, the amorphous hope of reforming every convicted criminal's soul through isolation and prison routine." But he insisted that the law allows a judge to consider "needed educational or vocational training, medical care or other correctional treatment."

Tapia's lawyer's reading of the law is the more persuasive. For better or worse, since the 1980s federal sentencing policy has de-emphasized the importance of rehabilitation. That is reflected not only in sentencing but in the abolition of parole. A federal prisoner who rehabilitates himself is released only slightly sooner than an incorrigible one.

There are reasons for this shift: Too often, decisions about who was sufficiently rehabilitated to be released were subjective and unfair to minorities. But that doesn't mean rehabilitation is a waste of time, which is why prisons continue to offer programs like the one the judge believed Tapia should attend. It might be time for Congress to revisit the question of whether rehabilitation also should figure in how long someone is sentenced to serve in prison, and how fast he or she gets out.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-rehab-20110416,0,3245917,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Facebook looks to cash in on user data

Profiles, status updates and messages all include a mother lode of voluntarily provided information. The social media site is using it to help advertisers find exactly who they want to reach. Privacy watchdogs are aghast.

by Jessica Guynn

April 17, 2011

Reporting from Palo Alto

Julee Morrison has been obsessed with Bon Jovi since she was a teenager.

So when paid ads for fan sites started popping up on the 41-year-old Salt Lake City blogger's Facebook page, she was thrilled. She described herself as a "clicking fool," perusing videos and photos of the New Jersey rockers.

Then it dawned on Morrison why all those Bon Jovi ads appeared every time she logged on to the social networking site.

"Facebook is reading my profile, my interests, the people and pages I am 'friends' with, and targeting me," Morrison said. "It's brilliant social media but it's absolutely creepy."

For Facebook users, the free ride is over.

For years, the privately held company founded by Mark Zuckerberg in a Harvard dorm room put little effort into ad sales, focusing instead on making its service irresistible to users. It worked. Today more than 600 million people have Facebook accounts. The average user spends seven hours a month posting photos, chatting with friends, swapping news links and sending birthday greetings to classmates.

Now the Palo Alto company is looking to cash in on this mother lode of personal information by helping advertisers pinpoint exactly whom they want to reach. This is no idle boast. Facebook doesn't have to guess who its users are or what they like. Facebook knows, because members volunteer this information freely — and frequently — in their profiles, status updates, wall posts, messages and "likes."

It's now tracking this activity, shooting online ads to users based on their demographics, interests, even what they say to friends on the site — sometimes within minutes of them typing a key word or phrase.

For example, women who have changed their relationship status to "engaged" on their Facebook profiles shouldn't be surprised to see ads from local wedding planners and caterers pop up when they log in. Hedgehog lovers who type that word in a post might see an ad for a plush toy version of the spiny critters from Squishable.com. Middle-aged men who list motorcycling as one of their hobbies could get pitches from Victory Motorcycles. If a Facebook user becomes a fan of 1-800-FLOWERS begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-800-FLOWERS end_of_the_skype_highlighting , her friends might receive ads telling them that she likes the floral delivery service.

Marketers have been tracking consumers' online habits for years, compiling detailed dossiers of where they click and roam. But Facebook's unique trove of consumer behavior could transform it into one of the most powerful marketing tools ever invented, some analysts believe. And that could translate into a financial bonanza for investors in the 7-year-old company as it prepares for a public offering, perhaps as soon as next year.

But privacy watchdogs say Facebook's unique ability to mine data and sell advertising based on what its members voluntarily share amounts to electronic eavesdropping on personal updates, posts and messages that many users intended to share only with friends.

"Facebook has perfected a stealth digital surveillance apparatus that tracks, analyzes and then acts on your information, including what you tell your friends," said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. "Facebook users should be cautious about whether the social networking giant ultimately has their best interests at heart."

Bon Jovi fan Morrison has removed some information from her profile to make it more difficult for advertisers to target her. "I thought, 'Wait a minute, I didn't give you permission to look into my life,'" she said.

Facebook says it does not disclose information that would allow advertisers to identify individual users, but filters them based on geography, age or specific interests. It also lets users control whether companies such as 1-800-FLOWERS begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-800-FLOWERS end_of_the_skype_highlighting can display the users' names to others to promote products. But any information users post on the site — hobbies, status updates, wall posts — is fair game for ad targeting.

Facebook's first experiment with paid ads was a flop. In 2007 it rolled out Beacon, which broadcast information on Facebook about users' activities and purchases elsewhere on the Web without their permission. Facebook pulled the program after settling a lawsuit brought on behalf of Facebook users.

This time around, company officials appear to be proceeding more cautiously. David Fischer, Facebook's vice president of advertising and global operations, says Facebook delivers ads that are relevant to users' lives.

"This is an opportunity for brands to connect with you," Fischer said. "When someone likes a brand, they are building a two-way conversation, creating an ongoing relationship."

A lot is riding on getting it right. Last year, online advertising in the U.S. grew 15% to $26 billion, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau.

People familiar with Facebook say its ad revenue doubled to $2 billion in 2010, and is expected to double again this year as more major advertisers including American Express, Coca Cola and Starbucks climb aboard.

In February, more than a third of all online display ads in the U.S. appeared on Facebook, more than three times as many as appeared on its closest competitor, Yahoo, according to research firm ComScore Inc. Facebook's moneymaking potential has wowed investors. Its market value is estimated at $55 billion on the private exchange SharesPost.

"If you take a look at the history of media, ad dollars go where the eyeballs are," Wedbush Securities analyst Lou Kerner said. "If you look at Google today, with annual revenue of $29 billion, it's not hard to think of Facebook generating that kind of revenue in four or five years. That's why we continue to be bullish on Facebook even at these price levels."

Facebook still faces some skepticism from big brands that question how often people click on the ads or how effective they are in getting people to buy something. One recent survey found that Facebook ads performed about half as well as traditional banner ads.

But Facebook's ability to pinpoint paying customers has dazzled some small-business owners, including Chris Meyer. Over the last 18 months, the Minneapolis wedding photographer had Facebook aim his ads specifically at female users who divulged the following information about themselves on the social networking site: college graduates, aged 24 to 30, who had just gotten engaged and lived within a 50-mile radius of Minneapolis.

Meyer says his $1,700 ad buy generated $110,000 in sales.

"I could not have built my business without Facebook," he said.

It's much the same for Anne Puthoff. Her store, Emmy's Bridal, is located in Minster, Ohio, population 2,800. She managed to pack the shop for a special weekend trunk show of prom dresses — in February, no less. Her secret weapon: $200 worth of Facebook ads targeting high school girls from the surrounding area.

"Our fan base has grown steadily in an economy where stores are going out of business or not thriving," Puthoff said. "I think that's due largely to the new customers we are bringing in via Facebook."

Indeed, Facebook users such as Kara-Noel Lawson say they enjoy receiving ads from merchants they like instead of useless spam. The 30-year-old mother of three from Rancho Santa Margarita in Orange County routinely "friends" businesses on the social media site and clicks on advertising that interests her. More often than not, she said, she is rewarded with coupons, gift cards and discounts.

"I don't feel any weird privacy thing," she said. "We are all putting everything out there already."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-facebook-ads-20110417,0,4593395,print.story

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Google News

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FAA to extend minimum time off for controllers

Air traffic controllers would be guaranteed a minimum off at least nine hours off between tightly scheduled shifts under a plan that U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood plans to announce on Sunday morning.

LaHood's announcement of shift changes will come a day after a seventh air traffic controller was suspended for sleeping on the job. The incident in a Miami traffic center prompted Federal Aviation Administration head Randy Babbitt to announce immediate changes in scheduling practices deemed to put drowsy controllers behind the microphone.

Finalizing those schedule changes took negotiation with the controllers union, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, whose members favor scheduling practices that compress their schedule and lengthen their weekend to three days or more.

Those issues were worked out yesterday, according to an internal union e-mail sent to members late Saturday night, and LaHood is to announce the results on the Sunday morning television talk shows.

The four changes that will be implemented within 72 hours include a guaranteed nine-hour minimum between shifts, a ban on trading shifts with other controllers unless the minimum is met, prohibited swapping of regular days off in some circumstances and an extension of the hours a manager is on duty until 1 a.m.

The e-mail said details of some of those provisions were still being worked out.

The union explanation to its members appeared to indicate that controllers would be allowed to nap while on their scheduled breaks, a practice that had been prohibited because controllers are subject to being summoned to return early if airplane traffic demands.

“While we are working to also change FAA policy on rest periods on breaks we have been told that they will not discipline anybody for using their break time to ensure that they are alert while on position,” the memo said. “We expect more formalization around recuperative breaks to occur soon.”

The union also said it expects that radios and CD players, but not use of headsets, will be permitted on overnight shifts in control towers and in radar rooms during other shifts. They had been banned.

The FAA said a Miami-based controller who directs planes after they reach cruising altitude fell asleep on the job early Saturday. It was the seventh instance this year when FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt has suspended a controller on allegations of sleeping on the job.

The sleeping controllers have been working the overnight shift, and until their dozing was discovered, at least 28 control facilities had just one controller working that shift. Babbitt and LaHood ordered an end to single-person staffing this week.

Although scheduling is flexible to meet the air traffic system's demands, one of the most popular schedules is known as the 2-2-1. Under it, a controller begins the workweek with two evening shifts, does a quick turnaround to a pair of day shifts and then does another quick turn before an overnight shift.

Those quick turnarounds — usually just eight hours — have been blamed for controller fatigue, particularly when the final quick turnaround comes at the end of the workweek and just before an overnight shift that usually is the least busy of the week.

The 2-2-1 is favored by many controllers because it compacts their workweek and creates a weekend of at least three days. That schedule format would be altered to extend the number of hours off under the plan LaHood planned to describe Sunday, but it would not be fundamentally changed, according to the union memo.

In 2007, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended that the FAA work with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association to “reduce the potential for controller fatigue by revising controller work-scheduling policies.”

Babbitt, who has developed a close working relationship with Paul Rinaldi, president of the air traffic controllers union, worked on the scheduling changes with Rinaldi's group on Saturday. The FAA said those discussions already were underway. The changes will affect 15,475 controllers.

The Miami controller who was suspended Saturday was working the midnight shift at the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center , which directs planes after they reach cruising altitude.

Babbitt and LaHood were briefed on the incident early Saturday by David Grizzle, acting chief operating officer of the FAA's Air Traffic Organization.

Grizzle assumed that acting role Thursday after his predecessor, Hank Krakowski, was forced to resign. Krakowski was ousted after recent embarrassments when controllers were caught sleeping and a year in which recorded errors by controllers — some of them leading to near mid-air collisions — increased 51 percent.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/faa-to-extend-minimum-time-off-for-controllers/2011/04/17/AFTepItD_print.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wondering where your tax dollars go? There's an app for that.

With many Americans scrambling to pay their taxes before April 18, the White House launched an online tool that lets people see where their tax dollars are going.

The White House's Federal Tax Receipt tool allows tax payers to enter their tax information and gives back an breakdown of which general areas of government get what amount.

It also comes as President Obama has launched a full-scale war against the Republican Party over the nation's tax policy and tax cuts for the wealthy.

In his weekly radio address, Obama hailed the new tool, saying "for the first time ever there's a way for you to see exactly how and where your tax dollars are spent and what's really at stake in this debate."

A look at the site reveals a breakdown of the biggest use of American tax payer dollars that begins with 26 percent of federal tax dollars going to national defense spending.

Healthcare spending comes in second at 24 percent, and "job and family security" comes in third at almost 22 percent. That includes unemployment insurance, food assistance programs and housing assistance programs.

The next highest percentage of federal tax dollars spent is "education and job training," which comes in at less than 5 percent.

Sen. Bill Nelson's (D-Fla.) office hailed the new tool, saying it was similar to a proposal Nelson and Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) proposed as legislation last month.

The group Third Way, which proposed the same idea last year, also hailed the new tool in a release.

"Given the gross distortions we are hearing in the budget debate, the Obama administration's federal taxpayer receipt and their efforts for greater understanding and transparency are important," the group said in a statement. "The taxpayer receipt is a simple but effective tool that will allow tax payers to see the truth about where their money is going."

Try it on the White House website.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/156477-white-house-launches-tax-receipt-to-show-where-tax-dollars-are-spent

.