Imagine tossing a credit card offer, bank statement or even a phone bill into your trash can, only to have it stolen before it’s picked up on trash day.  That’s probably not something any of us willingly do.  We shred those documents before tossing them, right?  Turns out the IRS doesn’t value our privacy as much we’d hope they would.

The U.S. Treasury investigated procedures the Internal Revenue Service uses in destroying hard copies of our sensitive information and as it turns out, they do little more than toss reams of paper into dumpsters, leaving all of us vulnerable to identity theft and other crimes.  Each IRS office that was audited had identifying information found in its trash bins.  With over $44 billion dollars lost in identity theft each year in this country (in 2003, the dollar figure was $5 billion), it seems the government would be more diligent with taxpayer information.

Unfortunately, these discoveries weren’t isolated.  The offices that were audited are scattered across the country, leading many to believe it’s standard operating procedure for the IRS.  Now though, as a result of this report, measures are finally being put into place, including background checks for subcontractors who are responsible for trash removal.  It’s a start.  Still, with news this week of the FBI’s network being hacked, judgment’s being reserved on whether or not these new measures are enough.

Consumers aren’t the only ones who suffer the consequences of having their identities stolen.  Businesses also lose billions each year when these thieves purchase their products with stolen credit cards or checks, not to mention the banks and credit card companies that forgive charges not made by card holders.

So what does the IRS believe will happen when it’s so careless with our information?  More importantly, has this lax procedure resulted in wreaking havoc in anyone’s life?  Those are questions that most likely will never be answered.  For now, maybe light shed on this policy will result in changes in the way personal information is handled.

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What do you do when someone tries to bring harm to you and your unborn child - and you don’t know until after the attempt?  A pregnant 17 year old girl unknowingly drank Gatorade that was laced with ProstaMate.  ProstaMate is used in cattle for different reasons, one of those reasons being to induce an abortion to the cow.  Her boyfriend and the father of her unborn baby gave her the tainted Gatorade and has now been charged, along with another juvenile and a 48 year old man, with attempted homicide, aggravated assault of an unborn child, endangering another person and at least a few more charges.

The teen gave birth to a healthy baby several months ago, despite the FBI confirming traces of this drug in the Gatorade container.  She had already consumed the drink, which supposedly had a single drop of the chemical, in March, 2008 when someone called her family and warned them of the possibility she might have drank poison.

The fact a 48 year old man seems to be the ringleader is more than disturbing.  He’s facing an additional charge of corruption of minors.  Instead of taking any action to stop these kids when they approached him for advice, he chose to provide assistance in the scheme with full knowledge of the potential repercussions.  This drug could have easily killed the girl, her fetus or both.  The potential also exists for breathing difficulties for anyone who consumes this substance.

Hopefully, if it hasn’t already been done, steps will be taken to ensure the father’s rights are terminated.  Although the baby has been tested and there’s been no damage found, long term effects remain to be seen - for both mother and child.

The one adult is now in jail and will remain until and unless he’s able to make bail.  The two boys will most likely go into a juvenile court and the girl who’s now raising a baby with the knowledge the father tried to harm the both of them will be spending a lot of time determining how she’ll ever be able to tell this to her child when the time comes.

We knew at some point DNA would be collected during every arrest, just as fingerprints are.  There are currently twelve states that collect DNA anytime anyone’s arrested for any crime.  Washington is attempting to become one of those states and insists swabbing a cheek is no more invasive than collecting

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fingerprints.  The law currently allows for DNA to be collected only after a felony conviction and some misdemeanors and only after either a search warrant is obtained or permission from the accused.  The two bills now being considered include one that allows the DNA collection before one’s convicted but after formal charges are filed.  The other bill, of course, allows DNA samples be provided by suspects at the time of arrest. 

The ACLU says it’s unconstitutional and is preparing for a court battle.  Part of the controversy has to do with minors.  No one has to be notified nor will police have to wait until a juvenile’s parents or lawyers show up before demanding - and collecting - the sample. 

The plan is, provided either or both of these bills are passed, to send it to a national database via the FBI for comparison against any open cases.  If there are no matches, the sample should be destroyed.   That sounds reasonable, although it’s worth mentioning fingerprint cards aren’t destroyed and are kept on file indefinitely at police departments across the country.  Fingerprints identify or clear people every day.  It’s not considered an invasion on any level.  So is it equal footing?  Should there be a clause that demands destruction of DNA samples if they don’t send up red flags?

And what about the costs associated with these samples?  In Washington State, a single DNA test costs over $80.00 to process.  One graph shows two million dollars spent on DNA testing in only two years should either of these bills be passed.

Lawyers with the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers say it’s unfair to demand these samples, that they reveal too much and should be considered an unreasonable search and seizure. 

Regardless of what happens, Washington, as well as most other states, is facing financial cutbacks and growing backlogs of samples waiting to be tested.

At 14, I was daydreaming about my future, what I wanted to be (a meteorologist flying into hurricanes) and who I wanted to be married to (one hint: Urban Cowboy had just hit the big screen).  I certainly wasn’t giving any thought to what a typical day for a police officer is.  In fact, I was probably already plotting ways to get past the county line with an ice chest of cold beer without catching the attention of the sheriff’s department.  Of course, this plotting and planning would serve me well only after I’d gotten my license….and after I got enough nerve to actually hit the county line…and planned my escape if my parents ever caught me.

A fourteen year old boy, however, has other goals.  He was far more successful than I was at that age.  He spent Saturday as a police officer, in full uniform, in Chicago without getting caught.  He actually accepted an assignment, spent the day riding with one of his would-be co-workers and was never questioned!  He didn’t carry a gun, which to me, would’ve been a red flag.  I don’t know if I’d want my partner to not carry a gun as we patrolled the streets of Chicago.  This, of course, begs the question: what did his partner-for-the day think as they were driving around?  Surely he questioned him, yes?  For five hours, this kid pulled this off with no problems.  He didn’t get to write the first ticket, but he has found himself in a bit of hot water with the juvenile system.  He’s been charged with impersonating an officer.  I think someone should be charged with impersonating an officer, but I’m not so sure it should be this kid.  Someone dropped the ball - and it’s going to hit hard before it’s all said and done. 

What would have happened if there had been a serious crime - a burglary or some other crime that could have jeopardized his safety?  Remember, he didn’t have a weapon, so it’s not like he could have protected himself. Granted, that wasn’t a wise choice he made, but I can’t get my mind wrapped around the fact he even pulled it off!   Even the police department has called this a “serious security breach”; so why is the kid the only one being punished?  He (and his lawyers) said his motives were simple: he wanted to become a member of the police department.  He was just getting a head start. 

My guess is the FBI will definitely want to be in touch with this boy.  He’d make the ideal undercover agent.  After he’s legally able to do so, of course.

Alabama is having a PR nightmare, and in at least one of its cities, they’re unfolding simultaneously.  Last week, the leader of Decatur’s organized crime unit disappeared.  What appeared to be a struggle and with his family’s fears of a kidnapping, police scrambled in their attempts to find him and feared the worse along with his family.  It didn’t take long, however, before his problems surfaced that included marital difficulties, gambling debts and the pressures of a high-stress job.  This week, police found him in Las Vegas with stolen money recovered in several drug busts.  If that wasn’t bad enough, a volunteer with the police department found herself in the middle of it too.  She helped him stage the scene by scattering papers in his office and turning over furniture.  Police suspect the two are having an affair and she was preparing herself to meet him in Vegas.  The FBI is still trying to determine how much he stole before getting arrested this week.  His gambling debts are due to his travel across the Mississippi/Alabama state line and into the riverboat gambling city of Tunica. The twenty year police veteran now faces major jail time and is being held by U.S. Marshalls in Las Vegas with no bond. 

It gets worse with another police scandal, this time it involves a county official.  The sheriff of the county, Greg Bartlett, was arrested Wednesday for providing inadequate food for prisoners while pocketing the money he saved by providing substandard food.  The money involved?  Over $200,000 over the past three years.  Here’s the kicker: pocketing the surplus money not spent on inmate food isn’t illegal. There’s actually a law that allows sheriff’s to pocket leftover funds.  He was arrested for being in contempt of court for refusing to provide adequate meals, not for keeping the money.  According to the Associated Press, 55 counties in Alabama (there are a total of 67) provide $1.75 per meal, per prisoner a day.  Any monies left over, more specifically, more taxpayer monies, are fair game for these sheriffs.  Ten prisoners testified to the conditions and meals that included half an egg, a teaspoon of oatmeal and one piece of toast for breakfast.  One inmate said he’s lost thirty five pounds over the past few months. 

Sheriff Bartlett admitted to a $95,000 surplus last year, $62,000 in 2007 and $55,000 in 2006.  The federal judge has ordered him to remain in jail until he agrees to and submits improved menus.  Three nutritionists testified on behalf of the county and said the prisoners weren’t malnourished and that these complaints were common in jails across the country.  Still, there had to have been some evidence that convinced the judge to order the sheriff to jail. 

It’s becoming increasingly difficult for the citizens in Decatur to maintain their faith in law and order.  With the two top law enforcement agents in hot water, one who is an inmate himself and another who’s looking at major jail time, it’s going to be hard to differentiate between the law breakers and the law enforcers.

As bad as the latest political scandal is, the governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich has singlehandedly confirmed the very thing we have spent our lives hoping would never come to pass: the sale of politics.  For a vacancy to become a commodity with a price tag undermines every principle the framers had hoped would safeguard our Constitution.  Despite all of the other scandals politicians

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seem to bury themselves in, this is by far one of the most disgusting we’ve seen in this lifetime.  This one is a kick in the teeth to every foundation this country is built on.  In one fell swoop, he’s managed to drop jaws across political party lines, the citizens who voted him into office and the general public as a whole. 

He was arrested and released on Tuesday after federal prosecutors accused him of a one man “political corruption crime spree”.   Some of these crimes he’s accused of includes threatening one of the country’s largest newspapers, Chicago Tribune, if it refused to fire writers who criticized him, as well as his redefinition of “pay to play” for politics.  He has been accused of giving jobs, political appointments and contracts for hefty price tags. This evidence has been gained via wiretaps on his home and office phones and it’s been said some of these conversations would fit nicely into any of the Godfather movies with “tough guy” talk and profanity.  He refers to political peers as “Candidate 1″, “Candidate 2″ and so.  Unfortunately, these candidates he refers to as considerations to fill the seat left vacant by Barack Obama have had to release statements that no one in public office should have ever have to make.  They’ve reiterated their respect for the political offices they hold and have stated not only did they have no idea of what the governor was doing, but they were as disappointed as the rest of the country.  None of those considered for this vacant post are suspected of participating in this political auction.  Now, though, instead of an immediate replacement being named, it appears as though a special election might be the only solution that’s fair and will renew the faith of the state’s voters. 

He’s also accused of complaining about his inability to make good money as governor and said he felt ’stuck’.  If you’re interested, he makes over $175,000 a year as governor.  He’s also overheard negotiating a position for his wife and stated he was looking for a gravy position where she could make at least “150 grand” a year.  He was lining the remainder of this golden brick road to cover him after he left office as governor.  When the pompous governor answered the door at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, his reply to the two FBI agents who’d announced they were there to arrest him was, “Is this a joke?”  That left it wide open - I don’t know if I’d have had enough self-discipline to keep from going into how the joke would ultimately be on him in ways he could never imagine.  I suppose that’s why I never considered that as a line of work.  It’s difficult, if not impossible, to bite my tongue. 

In the past two days, he’s vehemently asserted his refusal to step down as governor.  That’s been met with the state’s attorney releasing a statement that he didn’t have to, they were taking immediate steps to remove him from office.  So you see, if it was a joke, it’s clearly on Governor Blagojevich.

There are two siblings in college, each with a monthly spending allowance of one thousand dollars, no questions asked by their parents. The parents, in their efforts to show much trust they have in these kids, have really painted themselves into a bit of a problem. Because they never questioned where the money was going, and in fact, found themselves depositing even more money when the kids called mid-month and demanding more, they realized they’ve sunk more than fifty thousand dollars into two separate accounts that have basically been mismanaged. Not only that, but what they figured was just the cost of educating their kids has resulted in lazy kids who are flunking out of an ivy league school.

The parents are owners of a large corporation with many employees. Now the parents are broke and have decided to not extend bonuses or raises for their employees, and further, they expect to not add to their employment base and have even considered rescinding offers of promotions to many of the employees. It’s clear they expect their loyal employees to take the hit for the mismanagement of their personal finances and poor choices of giving their now-grown kids free rein. The problem with the employees, besides the obvious, of course, is if they stand together and decide it’s not acceptable - after all, these employees have no problems living within their means and saying no to their kids - and choose to institute a company-wide resignation, the whole community suffers. It’s one of the largest employers in the state, so it will certainly have an effect on a state level as well. The guilt begins and the employees begin to feel the pressure. They want to remain loyal to their own sense of pride and responsibility, but they also don’t want to be forced to finance the solution to this wealthy couple’s lapse of judgment. No matter what these people choose to do, it’s a no-win on some level.

Meanwhile, Mom and Dad are still sinking money into checking accounts for two kids who refuse to acknowledge their roles. As spoiled kids go, these two are top of the line. They feel entitled and believe indulgence is as much their right as the right to vote.

Understandably, the employees are concerned that this will be a short-term and temporary fix since the parents of these kids/company owners, believe they’re being reasonable. The employers feel it’s been a successful year and since they’ve always treated their employees like a large family - turkeys at Thanksgiving, extended maternity leaves - they can’t understand the hesitance, resentment and even anger from those on their payroll.

Even when the employees request a more detailed explanation and a satisfactory reason as to why they should shoulder this huge parenting failure, they’re told they have no right to ask. These company owners aren’t obligated to release any proprietary information, which is how they refer to this problem. Ah, but in the middle of all this drama, the company gets audited and huge discrepancies in earnings and reportings are discovered. Not much incentive for the employees to bail their employer out, is it?

The employees, it appears, will be forced to eat this liability. Think it doesn’t affect you? Well, maybe it does.

The two spoiled kids would be Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

The parents are the government

The company employees are you and me

And the auditors? This would be the FBI who’s just released a statement announcing they’ll be conducting and investigation into both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Courtesy of FBI

The FBI is in the process of providing new or revised guidelines used for identifying and questioning potential suspects. These guidelines have more than raised a few eyebrows, especially with the ACLU. The primary change would allow the FBI to investigate any American without what’s now considered “just cause”. The guidelines also allow investigations based on one’s race. Brian Roehrkasse, who is the spokesperson for the Justice Department, said “It is simply not responsible to say that race may never be taken into account when conducting an investigation. The reality is that a number of criminal and terror groups have very strong ethnic associations.” My first impulse was similar to how I would handle someone plundering around my life looking for something to gossip about: “Have at it. You’d be better off just asking me, though. I’ll tell you the truth and I can assure you, the truth is far more interesting and makes for better gossip than anything you dig up on your own.”

But, after a little more thought, I realize the repercussions are far greater than the lonesome housewife’s gossip and how she lives vicariously through her neighbors’ comings and goings. Basically, if instated, these laws will allow the same latitudes afforded the FBI when investigating possible terrorism suspects. Most of us are likely to have the attitude of it not affecting anyone who has nothing to hide. And I agree. For the most part.

I was searching for a bank online last night because it’s such a pain for my current bank to grasp the concept of what PayPal is for. I’m all for a security question or two, but my current bank wants to know everything about me up to and including my shoe size. So, I find a nationally known bank with a branch within twenty miles of the house (I live in the country). I like the rates and the commercials on TV make me laugh. I know…that’s never a good enough reason, but still….they make me laugh.

I go through the process, verify the security features they have in place and then I go to log in for the very first time so that I can transfer money to this new account. There was one final security hoop I needed to jump through. They’d been relatively painless up until now. Predictable “pick your security question” processes. This final screen pops up and imagine my surprise when the question is: “Our records show that XXX XXXXX is well known to you. Where is this person’s current residence?” This is followed by four options of cities and states. And one of them is ACCURATE!! This person their records say I know is my sister!! Neither of us go by our maiden names - she’s married and I kept my married name after the divorce years ago. Now, there’d been no reference to my sister at all during my application process. And then I thought well, maybe she’s found some way to play a prank on me. Then I realize how crazy that sounds because a.) she had no idea I was changing banks and b.) this is the same sister who brought her report from one of her labs to me yesterday to “fix” because the columns didn’t line up and she needed it imported into a PowerPoint presentation. Bless her heart - she had no more idea of what PowerPoint is than I do of the subject of her presentation. So I know she wasn’t playing a prank on me. At some point since she got married ten years ago, our names got linked in some fashion and the result was a security question to verify MY identity! Go figure. It gets better. I clicked the little radio button with the correct answer, the little hourglass does its dance and the page loads and says (No…I’m NOT making this up!): We’re sorry, your answer does not match our records. Please contact customer service during normal business hours.

Last time I checked, my sister and I lived within about ten miles of each other, and as far as I know, she hasn’t relocated to Evanston, Indiana. I managed to laugh at this irony and chalked it up to the systems only being as good as the humans who input the information.

Now here I am posting about the FBI’s new guidelines and how’re they designed to further protect us. Then I remember the mistake in the banking system and I can’t help but think we can only be protected to the extent of the accuracy of information any law enforcement agency has. If these guidelines are approved, they will go into effect October 1.

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