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NY high school raises $489K with marathon dance

by MICHAEL HILL

SOUTH GLENS FALLS, N.Y. (AP) — The 710 students from South Glens Falls High School danced for more than a day: Conga lines, "Gangnam Style," giddy-ups, hand jives and the "Harlem Shake." Then, flushed and weary, the teens showed why this is a dance marathon with a difference.

Students cleared a path for a group who walked or were wheeled to the stage set at one end of the gym. One by one — a woman battling cancer in a stocking cap, mothers of ailing children, car crash survivors — thanked the teenage dancers who just raised almost $500,000 to help them tackle life's challenges.

"When a community comes together to help lift financial stress, which allows a child to get the proper care and have the best chance in life, that's priceless," Kate LaFoy told the hushed crowd in a choked voice. Her 15-month-old daughter Alessandra has Turner Syndrome, a genetic condition. "You know how they say it takes a village to raise a child? You're part of our village now. We are forever grateful."

South Glens Falls High School students donated the hefty sum to LaFoy and 39 other recipients by dancing around the clock this weekend as part of an annual event in this small, weathered village just south of New York's Adirondack Mountains.

The dance marathon was started in 1978, the age of turntables and disco. It has morphed into a monster event consuming not only the students, but the community. Kids go door-to-door seeking donations, sponsor pancake breakfasts, collect bottles and lean on family, friends and neighbors to pitch in. Locals — many who fondly remember their own dancing days — help direct traffic, donate goods for auction, paint faces or cut hair to raise money.

And they open their wallets — something not so easily done in this village of about 3,500 souls still struggling to find its economic footing. Paper mills once powered by the Hudson River have shuttered and residents have a median household income of $47,587, lagging behind the national figure of $52,762.

The weekend's record $489,716 easily topped the $395,352 collected last year, maintaining a trend of growing tallies. Some well-heeled colleges raise money into the seven figures with their annual dance marathons but you'd be hard-pressed to find any high schoolers pulling in this kind of dough.

"You're raised in the South Glens Falls community, you're expected to dance in the marathon dance," said senior Carly Weller, a member of the student committee that organizes the dance and selects recipients, all local. "And after you do it once, you're hooked."

This dance marathon is different from the old endurance contests in which the last exhausted couple on the floor escapes the tap on the shoulder to win. The teenage dancers get a couple of hours to sleep, plenty of food and drinks and some other breaks from Friday night to Saturday night. There are costume parades and opportunities to chill out on the gym floor.

But it's still grueling.

"Definitely sleep during sleep break, drink lots of water, (use) deodorant," said senior Blake Snyder. "Deodorant is key. And change your socks every time you can because if your feet are comfortable, you're comfortable."

Students get by not only on adrenaline, but the knowledge that they are contributing to something larger in their community, said art teacher Tom Myott, an adviser for the marathon. Myott said the marathon's mission has been consistent since he was a student dancer three decades ago. Now it's his daughter's turn: freshman Mackenzie Myott danced her first marathon this weekend.

The 40 recipients chosen by students this year include children and adults fighting potentially fatal illnesses, a family recovering after a house fire and a local food pantry.

"The money will come in very handy," said Kristina Lemery, whose 4-year-old son Lukas has a brain tumor. "The bills are still coming in the mail and it seems that it's never ending."

As Lukas bounced around a school room set aside for recipients, Lemery explained Lukas still faces potential peril and that he is blind in one eye.

"The tumor might grow back, he might need another surgery. He might need chemo. Right now we just take it day by day. ... So it's really nice that in such hard times, there's something joyful."

Lemery was among the recipients who lined up in the gym to say a few words to the dancers and the families packing the stands at the end of the marathon Saturday night.

The thanks were as profuse as the tears.

Then the grand total was announced. The marathon was over and the dancers melted into each other's arms.

"Physically I'm exhausted. Emotionally I'm exhausted," Weller said. "But I've never been as happy in my life. "

http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/NY-high-school-raises-489K-with-marathon-dance-4325408.php

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From Hollywood to Kansas, drones are flying under the radar

(Reuters) - They hover over Hollywood film sets and professional sports events. They track wildfires in Colorado, survey Kansas farm crops and vineyards in California. They inspect miles of industrial pipeline and monitor wildlife, river temperatures and volcanic activity.

They also locate marijuana fields, reconstruct crime scenes and spot illegal immigrants breaching U.S. borders.

Tens of thousands of domestic drones are zipping through U.S. skies, often flouting tight federal restrictions on drone use that require even the police and the military to get special permits.

Armed with streaming video, swivel cameras and infrared sensors, a new breed of high-tech domestic drones is beginning to change the way Americans see the world - and each other.

Powered by the latest microtechnology and driven by billions in defense industry and commercial research dollars, domestic drones are poised for widespread expansion into U.S. airspace once regulation catches up with reality.

That is scheduled to begin in late 2015, when the U.S. government starts issuing commercial drone permits.

Veteran aerial photographer Mark Bateson, a consultant to the film and television industry and some police departments, said one reality show producer asked him last year whether his custom-made drone could hover over a desert and use its thermal imaging sensors to spot ghosts for a ghost-hunter reality series.

Bateson rejected that request. "But I heard they eventually found someone to do it," he said.

"Commercially, the culture already exists," said Ben Miller, a Mesa County, Colorado, sheriff's deputy who has been flying drones with special authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration since 2009.

"Turn on your TV and pay close attention to major sports events. You'll see that in many cases they are getting aerial shots using a UAS (unmanned aerial system). I would venture to say that if you've seen an action movie in the last five years, chances are that a UAS was used."

OPEN SKIES

Federal legislation enacted last year requires the FAA to prepare a plan to open U.S. skies in 2015 to widespread use of unmanned aircraft by public agencies and private industry.

Potential markets include agriculture, shipping, oil exploration, commercial fishing, major league sports, film and television production, environmental monitoring, meteorological studies, law enforcement and the news media.

The aviation and aerospace industry research firm Teal Group estimated last year that global spending on unmanned aircraft will double over the next 10 years, to nearly $90 billion, with the U.S. accounting for 62 percent of research and development spending and 55 percent of procurement spending.

For decades, model airplane hobbyists have been allowed to fly small, remote-controlled aircraft up to 400 feet and at least a quarter mile from any airport. While public agencies can get permission to use unarmed drones, all commercial use remains banned.

"As a hobbyist - I can do whatever I want right now, within remote-control guidelines," said Bateson, the aerial photographer. "But as soon as you turn it into a business ... the FAA says you are violating the national airspace."

Bateson said that whether his drone shoots video for fun or for profit, "there is no greater danger to the national airspace."

Last year the National Football League petitioned the FAA to speed the licensing of commercial drones, joining Hollywood's Motion Picture Association of America, which has been lobbying the agency for several years, an MPAA spokesman told the drone news website UAS Vision.

The FAA has issued 1,428 drone permits to universities, law enforcement and other public agencies since 2007, when the agency formally banned commercial drone use. Of those, 327 permits remain active, said FAA spokesman Les Dorr.

TOUGH TO ENFORCE

Bateson flies a customized 48-inch-wide Styrofoam fixed-wing remote-controlled aircraft that cost about $20,000 - compared with up to $1 million for a helicopter. He said his aircraft has logged 1,800 miles and has recorded 60 hours of high-resolution video. He said he has never run into trouble with the FAA.

Patrick Egan, an unmanned aircraft consultant to the U.S. military and editor of sUAS News, a drone news website, said the FAA's commercial ban on drones is unenforceable.

"How do you possibly enforce these regulations?" he said.

Earlier this year, Connecticut marketing firm ImageMark Strategy and Design launched a drone-powered aerial photo and video service to offer to its existing clients, which include universities, golf resorts and real estate firms.

Partner Scott Benton said his company invested about $20,000 in remote-controlled multi-rotor copters equipped to carry camcorders or SLR digital cameras with swivel tilts. Benton said he wasn't even aware of FAA restrictions on commercial drone use until after he purchased all the equipment.

He said his company plans to charge clients for editing and post-production work, not the drone flights.

Many commercial drone operators offer similar arguments. Some say they operate only on private land. Others say they are selling data, not drone flight time.

Still others say they will simply take their chances.

"Honestly?" said one commercial operator, who requested anonymity to protect his business. "My hope is that I'm far afield enough and small enough potatoes to the FAA that I can fly under the radar on this one."

PRIVACY CONCERNS

In 2011, News Corp's tablet news site, the Daily, sent a Microdrone MD4-1000 into the skies over Alabama, Missouri and North Dakota to capture dramatic aerial footage of flood damage. A subsequent FAA investigation resulted in a warning, an FAA spokesman told Reuters. A News Corp spokesman declined to comment.

Last fall, a collective shudder rose up from Hollywood when false reports surfaced that the aggressive tabloid news website TMZ was seeking permission to fly its own drone.

The report was false, but it raised concerns.

"I'm less worried about the police getting a fleet of drones than I am about the news media," said Egan.

"Imagine what it will be like when the paparazzi can send a fleet of drones into the Hollywood hills."

The boom in drone use, both private and public, is also raising privacy concerns.

Civil liberties groups are urging federal and state legislators to place immediate restrictions on drone use by U.S. law enforcement agencies, which have historically been quick to capitalize on emerging technology like cell phone tracking.

At least 15 states have drafted legislation that would restrict drone use. In Seattle last month, a public outcry prompted the mayor to order the police chief to return the department's two new drones to their manufacturer.

BLACKSHEEP DRONES

An even bigger concern for many is security. The activities of some drone operators are fueling fears about the potential for terrorism or that drones could interfere with manned air traffic and cause an accident.

A group of skilled drone operators using "first person view," or FPV, technology, has sent Ritewing Zephyr drones that capture high-quality video of visual thrill rides around some of the world's most famous landmarks.

The group, known as Team Blacksheep, has made a series of videos using drones circling the torch on New York City's Statue of Liberty and London's Big Ben clock tower. Team Blacksheep's FPV drones have darted through the arches of the Golden Gate Bridge and buzzed the peak of the Matterhorn.

The videos, captured at dizzying angles, are wildly popular online, but hobbyists and other drone enthusiasts worry that such videos give the industry a bad name.

"Those are the people the FAA should be going after," Bateson said.

A Team Blacksheep founder did not respond to requests for comment on security concerns.

Would-be attackers have already tried to exploit drones. Last fall, a Massachusetts man was sentenced to 17 years in prison for plotting to attack Washington, D.C., with three remote-controlled airplanes carrying C-4 explosives.

Drones may also be vulnerable to hacking.

Last summer, Department of Homeland Security officials challenged Texas aerospace engineering professor Todd Humphreys and his class to try to "spoof" a DHS drone's GPS system.

GPS "spoofing" is a technique by which a vehicle's GPS receiver can be tricked and taken over by a slightly more powerful signal that mimics the attributes of the original signal - essentially an airborne hack.

Humphreys and his students succeeded in hacking the drone and took control of its flight path.

If a college class "can spoof the GPS, what can other nation states or terrorist groups do?" Representative Paul Broun (R-Ga.) asked at a recent congressional hearing on domestic drones.

CHINESE DOGS

Some U.S. drone designers worry about the consequences of what they see as a slow U.S. response to a rapidly evolving technology.

"The Chinese are going to kill us," said Texas pilot Gene Robinson, who spent $20,000 designing an innovative fixed-wing drone for search-and-rescue missions. "They have copied every single design, including mine, that they can get their hands on."

Robinson said he installed Web-tracking software on his drone design Web page and then watched last spring as a Chinese design company "spent a month on my Web page ... reverse-engineered my design" and began selling mass-produced copies in December - for $169.

Side-by-side pictures of Robinson's model and the Chinese model that he showed a reporter look virtually identical.

Robinson went online and ordered one of Chinese models - to see if he could attach his equipment to the cheaper version.

"It was a dog, a pig," he said. "It didn't fly worth a damn."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/03/us-usa-drones-domestic-idUSBRE92206M20130303

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Untested Rape Kits Not From the Ohio Valley

by TYLER REYNARD

Local police and sheriff's departments are not among those Ohio law enforcement agencies that recently sent more than 2,400 untested rape kits to a state crime lab to be examined.

After learning in December 2011 that many untested rape kits were sitting on shelves in evidence rooms, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine urged the state's law enforcement to pass them on for analysis. Since then, Bureau of Criminal Investigation labs have received 2,430 kits from 52 departments.

No law enforcement agencies from Jefferson, Belmont, Harrison or Monroe counties had submitted untested rape kits, however, according to statistics provided by DeWine's office last week.

Martins Ferry Police Chief John McFarland said his department has two rape kits in evidence from the 1990s. Both of those kits, however, were promptly sent to a state lab and analyzed when the crimes were initially reported, he noted.

"Whenever we've had a rape case, we always forwarded the (rape kit) to the BCI lab for work to be done," McFarland said. "Once we were notified again (in 2011), we sent those back to BCI."

Toronto Police Chief Randy Henry noted that many rape investigations are launched at the hospital, where investigators first meet with victims following the crime. Rape kits are performed there, he said, and quickly passed on to the BCI lab in Youngstown.

Fact Box

BY THE NUMBERS

• 52 departments statewide turned over 2,430 rape kits.

• Cleveland Police Department turned in half the kits.

• Akron and Cleveland gave 340 untested kits.

• Toledo turned in 225 of the kits.

Monroe County Sheriff Charles Black also said there are no untested rape kits in his department's evidence room.

The analysis of that evidence is something the department traditionally has treated with urgency, he added.

"I've been here for 20 years and there's not a case that I'm aware of where they haven't been tested and sent immediately to BCI," Black said of rape kits. "As soon as we get them, we send them to BCI."

Nearly half of the untested kits were submitted by the Cleveland Police Department alone, while Akron and Cincinnati police each submitted about 340 untested kits. After Toledo's 225, no other department submitted more than 60 untested kits.

http://www.theintelligencer.net/page/content.detail/id/582118/Untested-Rape-Kits-Not-From-the-Ohio-Valley.html?nav=510

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Georgia

RCSO Facebook Page to Help with Community Policing

by Tyrone McCoy

2013 seems to be the year of news for the Richmond County Sheriff's Department. New sheriff, new divisions, new website and a new Facebook page; putting the Sheriff's office at the fingertips of residents for the first time. The goal?

"One team, one dream: community and law enforcement working together," Lt. Lewis Blanchard with the Richmond County Sheriff's Office explains.

An initiative to build the trust of Augusta-Richmond County in the sheriff's department and lower the crime rate. But Lt. Blanchard warns it could get worse before getting better.

Blanchard adds, "we actually believe our crime statistics will go up because of community policing. Once we are more in the community and we're able to talk more to the community citizens and they feel like they're able to trust us more, you actually see a hirer reporting of crime."

Reports deputies are already seeing on their Facebook page through tips and patrol requests Lt. Blanchard says they don't take for granted.

"Then we'll follow up with them in an offline capacity or in a private message setting to try and find out exactly what they need," says Blanchard.

A move that has certainly hit the 'like' button of residents here in Richmond County.

Janet Kerinse, a Richmond County resident tells us, "maybe people can communicate with them a little better. I think it'll be a better community."

"Maybe we can stop on all of these crimes and some of the shootings and all these killings that doesn't have to be," adds Shana Johnson also a Richmond County resident.

The Richmond County Sheriff's office asks that you keep a few things in mind during this transition.

"There's 202,000 citizens and only 750 of us. So, the community is our eyes and ears," asks Lt. Blanchard.

After being up for about a month, the Richmond County Sheriff's Office Facebook page already has 2,500 likes. Lt. Blanchard hopes the page will continue to bridge the gap between the sheriff's office and the community.

http://www2.wjbf.com/news/2013/mar/03/rcso-facebook-page-help-community-policing-ar-5719854/

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New Jersey

Cinnaminson Police Offer Youth Academy for High Schoolers

Officer Michael Czarzasty says the department wants to be known for more than just "locking up bad guys and stopping cars."

by Rob Scott

Springboarding off the success of last year's police academy for middle school students, Cinnaminson Police are offering a similar program for high schoolers this spring.

Police Director Mickey King said the program is part of the department's continual focus on community policing, and also an effort to forge better relationships between the township's youth and law enforcement.

Officer Michael Czarzasty, who led the middle school academy last year and runs the department's other community policing programs, said these programs aren't there just for the feel-good aspect.

"Police are known for locking up bad guys and stopping cars," he said. "Well, we want people to come up to us and talk to us. If we have more ties to the community, its obviously going to help us out. People will be more forward with us if we have a good relationship with them already."

King added: "And this gives (the students) a chance to see if this is a career they might want to pursue."

He said the high school academy will be a little more rigorous and detail-oriented than the middle school academy held last year, with lessons including:

Law Enforcement Meet and Greet — Cadets meet officers from the FBI, DEA, Secret Service, New Jersey State Police, Philadelphia Police, Burlington County Sheriff's Department and a forensic scientist. Courtroom Testimony — Real attorneys come in and see if the cadets have what it takes to testify. Defensive Tactics — Police show cadets the basics of law enforcement self-defense. Firearms Safety Training — State-certified range instructors teach firearms safety, after which each cadet will individually have an opportunity to fire a real gun (under the supervision of instructors). Crime Scenarios — Toward the end of the academy, cadets will take part in scenarios in which they play the officers and the officers are the criminals to test what they have learned. Physical Training — The cadets will go through various physical activities (running, push-ups, sit-ups), plus team-building activities.

Reflecting on last year's academy, Czarzasty said, "It was fun to see these kids develop over the course of a few weeks. Their confidence was boosted, they were a little more outgoing … They actually see what we actually do. It's kind of eye-opening to them."

King said just about every officer was involved in the program in some way last year, with many of them donating their time to participate.

"We couldn't do it without the officers donating their time," he said.

The academy is open to Cinnaminson residents only. High school seniors and juniors will get preference.

Those interested in enrolling should email Czarzasty at mczarzasty@cinnaminsonpolice.org. In the email, include your name, address, telephone number and the name(s) of a parent or guardian. The department will then drop off an application at your residence.

There is a $100 enrollment fee, which covers the cost of a shirt and hat for each cadet, and the supplies needed for the range and graduation. The deadline is March 25. There are approximately 25 spots in the academy.

The 10-day academy will run throughout the month of May.

For more information, contact Czarzasty at mczarzasty@cinnaminsonpolice.org or call 856-829-6667, ext. 2053

A separate middle school academy will be held in July.

http://cinnaminson.patch.com/articles/cinnaminson-police-offer-youth-academy-for-high-schoolers

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Massachusetts

Sign up for Citizens Police Academy

SOMERSET — In keeping with its mission of Community Policing, the Somerset Police Department will conduct a Citizens Police Academy from March 11 to May 13. Classes will be held each Monday at the Somerset Police Department from 6 to 9 p.m.

The goal of the Citizens Police Academy is to foster a positive image of the Somerset Police Department within the community it serves through education, interaction and cooperation. The intent is for all participants to learn more about the Somerset police officers who are serving their community, gain insight into how officers handle various situations and why they make the decisions they do.

The Citizens Police Academy is open to any Somerset resident, business owner or high school student age 14 or older who has an interest in the Somerset Police Department or law enforcement in general. Candidates must been of good moral character and have no felony convictions.

All instructors will be trained law enforcement professionals. The curriculum will include lectures and hands-on exercises in criminal law, constitutional law, motor vehicle law, patrol procedures, crime scene investigation, use of force, shoot/don't shoot and several other important topics. At the conclusion of the academy there will be a four-hour ride-along with a certified field training officer.

Applications may be obtained at the Somerset Police station and must be returned by March 8. For more information, call Program Coordinator Sgt. Todd Costa at 508-679-2138.

http://www.heraldnews.com/news/x2082705030/Sign-up-for-Citizens-Police-Academy