Florida High School Shooting
February 15th, 2018Update: On the Day of the Shooting, Teachers Were Told There Would Soon Be a “Code Red” or “Lockdown” Drill
Via: Miami Herald:
When the fire alarm rang near the end of the school day on Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, teacher Ernest Rospierski assumed it was a “code red” drill.
Earlier that day at a staff meeting, teachers had been told there would soon be a “code red” or “lockdown” drill — in which teachers and students practice their response to an immediate threat — but they hadn’t been told the date.
Rospierski was sitting at his desk around 2:25 p.m. when the fire alarm rang. His students filed out of their third-floor classroom and made their way toward the stairs. Then Rospierski heard the sound of gunfire.
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Update: The FBI Was Warned About A School Shooting Threat From A YouTube User Named Nikolas Cruz In September
Via: BuzzFeed:
Last fall, a Mississippi bail bondsman and frequent YouTube vlogger noticed an alarming comment left on one of his videos. “I’m going to be a professional school shooter,” said a user named Nikolas Cruz.
The YouTuber, 36-year-old Ben Bennight, alerted the FBI, emailing a screenshot of the comment to the bureau’s tips account. He also flagged the comment to YouTube, which removed it from the video.
Agents with the bureau’s Mississippi field office got back to him “immediately,” Bennight said, and conducted an in-person interview the following day, on Sept. 25.
“They came to my office the next morning and asked me if I knew anything about the person,” Bennight told BuzzFeed News. “I didn’t. They took a copy of the screenshot and that was the last I heard from them.”
FBI agents contacted Bennight again Wednesday, after a 19-year-old named Nikolas Cruz allegedly opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in South Florida, killing at least 17 people.
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Though his name matches the YouTube user flagged in September, FBI officials would not say whether they have confirmed that the account belonged to Cruz.
But around 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday — about 30 minutes after Cruz was taken into custody by police in Broward County — Special Agent Ryan Furr with the FBI’s Miami field office called Bennight and left him a voicemail.
“I think we spoke with you in the past about a complaint that you made about someone making a comment on your YouTube channel,” the agent said in the message, which Bennight provided to BuzzFeed News. “I just wanted to follow up with you on that and ask you a question with something that’s come up, if you wouldn’t mind giving me a ring.”
A few hours later, Bennight said, FBI agents in Mississippi visited him again in person, pressing for more information about the YouTube user Nikolas Cruz.
“They asked me if I knew who he was. I didn’t. I don’t,” Bennight said. “Then they left.”
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Via: Daily Mail:
Valentine’s day shooter Nikolas Cruz was expelled last year for ‘fighting over his ex-girlfriend’ and made shocking Instagram posts detailing a twisted obsession for guns, violence and hurting animals, it has emerged.
Nikolas Cruz shot 17 people dead and injured 50 more when he went on the rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday armed with an AR-15 assault rifle he was able to buy legally.
Former classmates of the 19-year-old, said they had feared he was capable of a school shooting as they revealed he was ‘crazy about guns’. One student said Cruz was expelled after a fight with his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend. The gunman had also been abusive to his girlfriend, the student said.
NSA Shooting: 3 in Custody, Officer Injured After SUV Stopped at Fort Meade Security Gate
February 14th, 2018Via: Baltimore Sun:
FBI officials said they are continuing to investigate an incident at Fort Meade early Wednesday that left three people injured when the driver of an SUV attempted to make an unauthorized entry into the National Security Agency’s compound.
Dave Fitz, a spokesman at the FBI’s Baltimore field office, said late Wednesday investigators are looking into the possibility that the driver made a wrong turn at the complex, but said it is not the only theory officials are examining.
Those injured included an NSA police officer, a civilian onlooker and the driver of the black SUV, said Gordon B. Johnson, special agent in charge for the FBI’s Baltimore office. He said the SUV had a total of three occupants.
At a news briefing at Fort Meade, Johnson described the encounter as “an isolated incident.”
“I cannot emphasize enough that we believe there is no indication that this has a nexus to terrorism,” Johnson said.
The FBI took the lead in the investigation, and at the news conference Johnson said only limited information was available to be shared.
Whistleblower: VIX Being Rigged
February 13th, 2018Via: MarketWatch:
One of the most popular measures of volatility is being manipulated, charges one individual who submitted a letter anonymously to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The letter makes the claim to regulators that fake quotes for the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.26% are skewing levels of the Cboe Volatility Index VIX, -2.50% which reflects bearish and bullish options bets 30-days in the future on the S&P 500 to gauge implied stock-market volatility (see excerpt from the letter below).
The flaw allows trading firms with sophisticated algorithms to move the VIX up or down by simply posting quotes on S&P options and without needing to physically engage in any trading or deploying any capital. This market manipulation has led to multiple billions in profits effectively taken away from institutional and retail investors and cashed in by unethical electronic option market makers.
The whistleblower’s claims are consistent with those documented by John Griffin, professor of finance at the University of Texas and Ph.D. candidate Amin Shams in May 2017 in research that says the cost of manipulating less-liquid SPX options would be more than paid for by a successful bet on the direction of the VIX. The paper is consistent with the whistleblower’s conclusion—that manipulators are moving prices of the SPX options by spoofing at settlement—entering quotes for trades that are never executed—to “paint the tape” and, therefore, influence the value of expiring VIX derivatives.
Related: The Economist: It Appears Market Conspiracy Theorists Were Right
Total U.S. Household Debt Soars to Record Above $13 Trillion
February 13th, 2018Via: CNBC:
The American consumer is loading up on debt.
Total household debt rose by $193 billion to an all-time high of $13.15 trillion at year-end 2017 from the previous quarter, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Center for Microeconomic Data report released Tuesday.
Israeli Police Recommend Bribery Charges Against Netanyahu
February 13th, 2018Wake me up when this monster is prosecuted for war crimes.
Via: Reuters:
Israeli police on Tuesday recommended indicting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for bribery, opening the way for what could be the biggest challenge yet to the right-wing leader’s political survival.
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In a detailed statement, police named Arnon Milchan, a Hollywood producer and Israeli citizen, and Australian businessman James Packer, saying that for nearly a decade, from 2007 to 2016, they gave gifts that included champagne, cigars and jewelry to Netanyahu and his family.
In all, the merchandise was worth more than one million shekels ($280,000), the statement said. Any legal proceedings would likely focus on whether political favors were sought or granted.
Netanyahu’s lawyers said the presents were simply tokens of friendship.
Hey Buddy, Can You Give Me a Hand?
February 12th, 2018Via: Boston Dynamics:
German Court Rules Facebook Use of Personal Data Illegal
February 12th, 2018Via: Reuters:
A German consumer rights group said on Monday that a court had found Facebook’s use of personal data to be illegal because the U.S. social media platform did not adequately secure the informed consent of its users.
The verdict, from a Berlin regional court, comes as Big Tech faces increasing scrutiny in Germany over its handling of sensitive personal data that enables it to micro-target online advertising.
The Economist: It Appears Market Conspiracy Theorists Were Right
February 12th, 2018I wasn’t going to post this. It might have been newsworthy 20 years ago, but since people are submitting it, here you go.
Via: ZeroHedge:
Three new recently published scientific papers seem to confirm what many have claimed for years: the “efficient markets” are not only inefficient – from an informational standpoint – they are also badly rigged. Of the three papers, the Economist reports, one argues that well-connected insiders profited even from the financial crisis, while the other two go so far as suggesting the entire share-trading system is rigged.
Unlike conventional insider trading cases – which traditionally require fortuitous tip-offs and extensive, expensive investigations, involving the examination of complex evidence from phone calls, e-mails or informants wired with recorders – the papers make imaginative use of pattern analysis from data to find that insider trading is probably pervasive, according to the Economist.
The 11 Cities Most Likely to Run Out of Drinking Water – Like Cape Town
February 11th, 2018Via: BBC:
Cape Town faces the unenviable situation of being the first major city in the modern era to run out of drinking water.
However, the plight of the drought-hit South African city is just one extreme example of a problem that experts have long been warning about – water scarcity.
Foxconn Unit to Cut Over 10,000 Jobs as Robotics Take Over
February 10th, 2018Via: Nikkei:
Foxconn’s panel arm Innolux is planning to slash more than 10,000 jobs this year as part of the company’s aggressive efforts to increase the use of automation in manufacturing, said Honorary Chairman Tuan Hsing-Chien on Tuesday.
“We will reduce our total workforce to less than 50,000 people by the end of this year, from some 60,000 staff at the end of 2017,” Tuan said in a press conference.
Innolux is a liquid crystal display-making affiliate of major iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry, better known as Foxconn Technology Group. Tuan is also a technology adviser to Foxconn, Sharp and Innolux.
