Cybersecurity firm says international hacking ring steals up to $1 billion from banks
By Mae Anderson, AP Technology Writer4 hours ago
NEW YORK (AP) — A report from a cybersecurity firm says an international hacking ring has stolen up to $1 billion from banks around the globe in what would be one of the biggest banking breaches known.
The hackers have been active since at least the end of 2013 and infiltrated more than 100 banks in 30 countries, according to Russian security company Kaspersky Lab.
After gaining access to banks’ computers through phishing schemes and other methods, they lurk for months to learn the banks’ systems. Then the hackers have programmed ATMs to dispense money at specific times or set up fake accounts and transferred money into them.
Summer Job Openings Hoping to be Filled at YWCA Bergen County Job Fair Become Part of the YWCA Team as a Summer Camp Counselor or Lifeguard YWCA Bergen County will be holding a job fair in search of individuals who want to join our team as Summer Camp Counselors and Lifeguards. Positions available for three of our Summer Camps throughout Bergen County as well as Lifeguarding opportunities at our camps and Englewood swim programs. Job fair will be held from 6:00 – 8:00 pm on Thursday, February 26, 2015 at YWCA Bergen County, 112 Oak Street, Ridgewood. There will be information regarding summer camps and Englewood swim programs, applications available, and on-site interviews with YWCA staff. Camp Counselors must be at least 18 years of age and available to work June 22 – August 21, 2015 at our Dumont location or June 29 – August 21, 2015 at Mahwah and Saddle River Locations. Lifeguards must be at least 15 years of age and able to work May 16 – September 7, 2015. For more information, please contact Kerry Jannicelli at 201-345-1906 or email [email protected].
Prescription Opioid Abuse: A First Step to Heroin Use?
Prescription opioid pain medications such as Oxycontin and Vicodin can have effects similar to heroin when taken in doses or in ways other than prescribed, and they are currently among the most commonly abused drugs in the United States. Research now suggests that abuse of these drugs may open the door to heroin abuse.
Nearly half of young people who inject heroin surveyed in three recent studies reported abusing prescription opioids before starting to use heroin. Some individuals reported taking up heroin because it is cheaper and easier to obtain than prescription opioids.
Many of these young people also report that crushing prescription opioid pills to snort or inject the powder provided their initiation into these methods of drug administration.
Heroin is an opioid drug that is synthesized from morphine, a naturally occurring substance extracted from the seed pod of the Asian opium poppy plant. Heroin usually appears as a white or brown powder or as a black sticky substance, known as “black tar heroin.”
In 2011, 4.2 million Americans aged 12 or older (or 1.6 percent) had used heroin at least once in their lives. It is estimated that about 23 percent of individuals who use heroin become dependent on it.
How Is Heroin Used?
Heroin can be injected, inhaled by snorting or sniffing, or smoked. All three routes of administration deliver the drug to the brain very rapidly, which contributes to its health risks and to its high risk for addiction, which is a chronic relapsing disease caused by changes in the brain and characterized by uncontrollable drug-seeking no matter the consequences.
How Does Heroin Affect the Brain?
When it enters the brain, heroin is converted back into morphine, which binds to molecules on cells known as opioid receptors. These receptors are located in many areas of the brain (and in the body), especially those involved in the perception of pain and in reward. Opioid receptors are also located in the brain stem, which controls automatic processes critical for life, such as blood pressure, arousal, and respiration.
Heroin overdoses frequently involve a suppression of breathing. This can affect the amount of oxygen that reaches the brain, a condition called hypoxia. Hypoxia can have short- and long-term psychological and neurological effects, including coma and permanent brain damage.
After an intravenous injection of heroin, users report feeling a surge of euphoria (“rush”) accompanied by dry mouth, a warm flushing of the skin, heaviness of the extremities, and clouded mental functioning. Following this initial euphoria, the user goes “on the nod,” an alternately wakeful and drowsy state. Users who do not inject the drug may not experience the initial rush, but other effects are the same.
Researchers are also investigating the long-term effects of opioid addiction on the brain. One result is tolerance, in which more of the drug is needed to achieve the same intensity of effect. Another result is dependence, characterized by the need to continue use of the drug to avoid withdrawal symptoms. Studies have shown some deterioration of the brain’s white matter due to heroin use, which may affect decision-making abilities, the ability to regulate behavior, and responses to stressful situations.
People who inject drugs are at high risk of contracting HIV and hepatitis C (HCV). This is because these diseases are transmitted through contact with blood or other bodily fluids, which can occur when sharing needles or other injection drug use equipment. (HCV is the most common blood-borne infection in the Unites States.) HIV (and less often HCV) can also be contracted during unprotected sex, which drug use makes more likely.
Because of the strong link between drug abuse and the spread of infectious disease, drug abuse treatment can be an effective way to prevent the latter. People in drug abuse treatment, which often includes risk reduction counseling, stop or reduce their drug use and related risk behaviors, including risky injection practices and unsafe sex. (See box, “Treating Heroin Addiction.”)
What Are the Other Health Effects of Heroin?
Heroin abuse is associated with a number of serious health conditions, including fatal overdose, spontaneous abortion, and infectious diseases like hepatitis and HIV (see box, “Injection Drug Use and HIV and HCV Infection”). Chronic users may develop collapsed veins, infection of the heart lining and valves, abscesses, constipation and gastrointestinal cramping, and liver or kidney disease. Pulmonary complications, including various types of pneumonia, may result from the poor health of the user as well as from heroin’s effects on breathing.
In addition to the effects of the drug itself, street heroin often contains toxic contaminants or additives that can clog blood vessels leading to the lungs, liver, kidneys, or brain, causing permanent damage to vital organs.
Treating Heroin Addiction
A range of treatments including behavioral therapies and medications are effective at helping patients stop using heroin and return to stable and productive lives.
Medications include buprenorphine and methadone, both of which work by binding to the same cell receptors as heroin but more weakly, helping a person wean off the drug and reduce craving; and naltrexone, which blocks opioid receptors and prevents the drug from having an effect (patients sometimes have trouble complying with naltrexone treatment, but a new long-acting version given by injection in a doctor’s office may increase this treatment’s efficacy). Another drug called naloxone is sometimes used as an emergency treatment to counteract the effects of heroin overdose.
For more information, see NIDA’s handbook,Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment.
Chronic use of heroin leads to physical dependence, a state in which the body has adapted to the presence of the drug. If a dependent user reduces or stops use of the drug abruptly, he or she may experience severe symptoms of withdrawal. These symptoms—which can begin as early as a few hours after the last drug administration—can include restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea and vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps (“cold turkey”), and kicking movements (“kicking the habit”). Users also experience severe craving for the drug during withdrawal, which can precipitate continued abuse and/or relapse.
Besides the risk of spontaneous abortion, heroin abuse during pregnancy (together with related factors like poor nutrition and inadequate prenatal care) is also associated with low birth weight, an important risk factor for later delays in development. Additionally, if the mother is regularly abusing the drug, the infant may be born physically dependent on heroin and could suffer from neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), a drug withdrawal syndrome in infants that requires hospitalization. According to a recent study, treating opioid-addicted pregnant mothers with buprenorphine (a medication for opioid dependence) can reduce NAS symptoms in babies and shorten their hospital stays.
Special Report: In Heroin’s Grip
UPDATED: SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2015, 1:39 AM
By REBECCA D. O’BRIEN
Photos by TYSON TRISH
Videos by THOMAS E. FRANKLIN
Today, The Record begins an inside look at the effects of North Jersey’s burgeoning heroin trade, which has linked the region’s suburbs with Paterson’s most impoverished neighborhoods in a cycle of ruined lives and streets, played out in the shadows of one of the most affluent areas of the nation. The unique online presentation below will run in print over the course of three days starting Sunday in The Record.
In the northwest section of Paterson, police patrols have been a rare sight in recent years. Gunshots ring out almost daily. Community programs have left town; churches have closed their doors.
On some streets in the city’s 1st and 4th wards — a few square miles bordering the Passaic River just south of suburban neighborhoods with manicured lawns and quaint downtowns — more than half the houses are abandoned or dilapidated, used as drug dens, makeshift shelters or rental units.
While south and east sections of the city contain stable, working-class neighborhoods, this part of Paterson has become increasingly isolated and violent.
The story of Paterson’s decay is not new; the city has eroded for decades as mills and factories closed. But the decline has a new engine at its core: heroin so pure and inexpensive that it is not only hastening the fall of this once vibrant city, but feeding on the wealth of nearby suburbs, towns like Glen Rock and Clifton, Mahwah and Waldwick.
Paterson is at a crisis point, one that reverberates in the towns that surround the city.
Reader asks , Bergen County Clerk performed a lot of weddings on Valentine day.Was our Village Mayor asked to the same ? If so and is there any wedding cake left over.Love you all — Dom the Marriage broker of Robert St.
According to Deputy Mayor Albert Pucciarelli , “Gretchen and I were married on Valentine’s Day 1981…..it was sunny and 70 degrees in Ridgewood that day!”
Valentine’s Day brings wedded bliss at Bergen County Clerk’s Office
FEBRUARY 14, 2015, 8:42 PM LAST UPDATED: SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2015, 10:04 PM
BY STEPHANIE AKIN
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
When Diana Acosta and Cristian Sanchez decided to get married two weeks ago, they considered planning a wedding a year in advance. Then they realized all their close family members would be in town for the Presidents Day weekend and that the Bergen County Clerk’s office would be performing ceremonies.
The last detail seemed like a happy coincidence: It was Valentine’s Day.
So Acosta and Sanchez — she in a shimmery white dress, he in a gray blazer — became one of eight couples to exchange wedding vows in the county clerk’s office Saturday.
“Usually we go to dinner for Valentine’s Day,” Acosta said. “Now it will be our anniversary.”
Beyond Bergen County, other couples who exchanged Valentine’s Day vows included 100 who were wed atop the Empire State building; British actor Benedict Cumberbatch, who married his fiancée Sophie Hunter on the Isle of Wight; and as many as 1,500 people who were expected to be issued marriage licenses in Las Vegas over the Presidents Day weekend, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal.
Study Shows Warming Skeptics Know More Climate Science Than Believers
By Jeff Dunetz
In order to cut off debate, believers of the global warming hypothesis disparage those who are skeptical of it by comparing them to people who say the Holocaust never happened, calling them “deniers.” Some, like Secretary of State Kerry, say skeptics are like members of the “flat earth society.” But, a study by Yale Professor Dan Kahan to be published in Advances in Political Psychology reports that skeptics score slightly better in a quiz about climate science than believers.
As reported by FoxNews.com 2,000 respondents were asked “nine questions about where they thought scientists stand on climate science.”
On average, skeptics got about 4.5 questions correct, whereas manmade warming believers got about 4 questions right.
One question, for instance, asked if scientists believe that warming would “increase the risk of skin cancer.” Skeptics were more likely than believers to know that is false.
Skeptics were also more likely to correctly say that if the North Pole icecap melted, global sea levels would not rise. One can test this with a glass of water and an ice cube – the water level will not change after the ice melts. Antarctic ice melting, however, would increase sea levels because much of it rests on land.
Antarctic ice should not be a problem, at least in the near term. A study released in January 2015 reported that the South Pole’s sea ice extent has been growing since 1979, while other research says Antarctic temperatures haven’t increased during the same period.
Liberals were more likely to correctly answer questions like: “What gas do most scientists believe causes temperatures to rise?” The correct answer is carbon dioxide.
The believers who answered the above correctly are refusing to acknowledge that, 12,750 years ago, the Earth’s average temperature was about the same as it is today – but, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere at the time was higher than current levels. They are also ignoring the fact that, during some of the Earth’s ice ages, the CO2 levels were 5-10x higher than today.
A similar study conducted in 2012 and published in the journal Nature Climate Change found that global warming skeptics know just as much about science; but the study detailed above questioned respondents specifically about climate science.
Climatologists who are skeptical about the extent of man-made global warming say the results don’t surprise them.
“It’s easy to believe in the religion of global warming. It takes critical thinking skills to question it,” Roy Spencer, a climatologist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, told FoxNews.com.
As to the Secretary of State’s claim that warming skeptics are like the members of the Flat Earth Society, in February 2013 after President Obama made a similar Flat Earth Society claim, Salon sought out the president of the “Flat Earth Society” to find out how the group feels about climate change. Turns out, the group’s president, Daniel Shenton is a global warming believer:
I accept that climate change is a process which has been ongoing since beginning of detectable history, but there seems to be a definite correlation between the recent increase in world-wide temperatures and man’s entry into the industrial age,” he said. “If it’s a coincidence, it’s quite a remarkable one. We may have experienced a temperature increase even without our use of fossil fuels since the Industrial Revolution, but I doubt it would be as dramatic as what we’re seeing now.
Thanks to the latest study by Professor Dan Kahan, we now know that along with having the same beliefs as the leader of the “flat-Earthers,” proponents of the global warming hypothesis are not as knowledgeable about climate science than those who are skeptical about climate change.
IMPORTANT PROGRAMMING NOTE: For those who planned to attend the Yale University Global Divestment Day sponsored by Fossil Free Yale, the event has been canceled. Per the Daily Caller the “frigid, snowy weather set for this weekend will mean their global warming protest will have to be postponed.”
Ned Colt w/NBC (Top Left) – Bob Simon w/CBS (Bottom Left) – David Carr w/NY Times (Bottom Right) – Bob Hager w/NBC (Top Right). Photo courtesy of: J. Schuyler Montague
Four American Journalists Dead Within a 24 Hour Period
February 14,2015
staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ok is it just us but four American journalists dead Inside the US within the past 24 hours? First Ned Colt of NBC dropped dead of a stroke yesterday.(. he was “supposedly” kidnapped during the Iraq war for several days, then freed?)
Bob Simon of CBS died in a car crash yesterday.. (he also was “supposedly” kidnapped held captive for 40 days in an Iraq jail. David Carr of NY Times just died suddenly interestingly enough after interviewing Edward Snowden, and had just come out against Brian Williams from NBC while on CBS ,calling Williams out for lying about being shot down in the Iraq war and then there was Bob Hager the NBC aviation expert now has a head on crash. This us not to mention the Brian Williams debacle and who is now off the air for lying about the Iraq war.
Correction :Bob Hager is fine (https://www.adweek.com/tvnewser/former-nbc-newser-bob-hager-unhurt-after-head-on-crash/255845 ) Longtime NBC News correspondent Bob Hager was involved in a head-on collision near his home in Vermont Thursday. Hager was uninjured; his wife, Honore, was hospitalized with back and neck injuries. Our sincerest apologizes .
How much does your state spend on welfare? New Jersey spends 22 percent
By Jason Russell | February 12, 2015 | 12:29 pm
Wyoming spends the smallest portion of its budget on welfare programs, according to fiscal year 2013 data released by the Census Bureau. About 13 percent of Wyoming’s budget goes to welfare, with education getting 30 percent of the budget, and the rest going to other various government functions.
On the other hand, Tennessee spends the highest portion of its budget on welfare, at 36 percent. Tennessee spends slightly less on education with 32 percent of its budget dedicated to schools, and the rest going to other functions, especially highways.
Nationwide, state governments collectively spend $2 trillion, with $520 billion of that going toward welfare programs, or just under 26 percent. Education is the highest category of state government spending, with 30 percent of state government spending nationwide.
Reader says the punishment was ineffectual because had it gone to trial, the whole coin room issue and a lot of employees and management would have been exposed
Perhaps “accomplices” is too narrow a description. If I could re-write this piece, I would not use “accomplices”, but rather other employees, whose actions ranged from not doing their job, to outright stealing (albeit on a much lesser scale). I have no doubt that this coin room was viewed as a place of petty cash, where little to no accounting was effectively maintained. It was a place where handfuls of the stuff could be used for all kinds of incidental expenses, such as coffees and meals. The whole process of old-style coin meters that didn’t record how much they took in made this possible. Basically, the amount of money that was “supposed” to be in the coin room was whatever was either in there, or you wanted it to be. The meters didn’t leave an audit trail whereby they collectively would record the amount that should be in the coin room. The only reason Rica was busted is because he absolutely went completely overboard with his stealing. The reason why the punishment was so ineffectual was because had it gone to trial, his lawyer would bring up the whole coin room issue and a whole lot of employees would be exposed, and management would have been shown to be thoroughly incompetent in their oversight. What couldn’t be allowed to come out was the whole abuse of the coin room, which no matter how you try to rationalize it, is nothing less than Village officials stealing public money.
What about some of his ( worker ) friends had to know some thing, or see some thing . he had bank papers next to the lamp, and coins all around. what about all the things he just bought and did, you would think how can he pay for all this on 85 grand. I say bull , others new and just said zip . well his big head got him caught . and for top managers should be fired. other workers told up top watch out for this guy but they looked the other way, why I don’t know . you think about it. tom must of had real dirt on people, what else would it be. the problem we have is we have lap dogs in this town. and the upper managers like that and take care of those who suck up to them. but the rest of the workers know just who they are, and they will get it in the end. what comes around goes around. so wake up brown nose. yeah you.
Ridgewood refines policies as opt-out movement gains steam
February 14, 2015 Last updated: Saturday, February 14, 2015, 9:30 AM
By Darius Amos
Staff Writer |
The Ridgewood News
Elisabeth Rose’s daughter used to enjoy going to school. She loved to read and loved to learn.
But all that changed once her child’s third-grade class began preparations for the state-mandated PARCC exams.
“She couldn’t understand the text and the questions … she’s not liking school anymore,” Rose said, speaking candidly at Monday’s Board of Education (BOE) meeting.
She further described her daughter’s transformation as one that “breaks my heart,” particularly after days when the student came home crying.
“It’s really sad because she can’t be the only one who’s having trouble in the elementary school setting. There was a time when [students] weren’t taught to test; they had the freedom to learn,” Rose added. “Please put something in place so the students have an option.”
$620,000 in Ridgewood
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Open House: 1:00 P.M. – 4:00 P.M. Sun. 2/15
25
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20
FCC Commish: Obama Taking Unprecedented Direct Control Over Internet Changes
Friday on Newsmax TV’s “The Steve Malzberg Show,” FCC commissioner Ajit Pai said President Barack Obama is about to succeed in his attempt to take “alarmingly unprecedented direct involvement” into the FCC’s plan to regulate the internet, which he explained will mean “billions of dollars in new taxes,” slower broadband speeds and “less competition.”
Discussing the plan that the FCC has refused to let the public see Pai said, “Unfortunately it looks like the cake has been baked. President Obama gave his direction to the FCC in back in early November and lo and behold, the FCC majority has put together President Obama’s plan for Internet regulation. And it looks to be posed pass it on a 3-to-2 vote.”
WIND CHILL WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM LATE SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH MONDAY MORNING.
URGENT – WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW YORK NY
1030 AM EST SAT FEB 14 2015
…BLIZZARD WARNING FOR COASTAL CONNECTICUT AND SUFFOLK COUNTY
LONG ISLAND TONIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY MORNING… …SNOW AND STRONG
WINDS LATE TONIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY…
…WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 1 PM EST
SUNDAY…
…WIND CHILL WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM LATE SUNDAY NIGHT
THROUGH MONDAY MORNING…
* LOCATIONS…INTERIOR NORTHEAST NEW JERSEY…THE LOWER HUDSON
VALLEY…AND SOUTHWEST CONNECTICUT.
* HAZARD TYPES…SNOW…STRONG WINDS AND BLOWING SNOW…WITH
NEAR BLIZZARD CONDITIONS POSSIBLE.
* ACCUMULATIONS…SNOW ACCUMULATION OF 3 TO 7 INCHES.
* WINDS…WEST 25 TO 35 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 50 MPH.
* TEMPERATURES…FALLING INTO THE TEENS TONIGHT AND SUNDAY.
* WIND CHILL…25 TO 30 DEGREES BELOW ZERO AFTER MIDNIGHT SUNDAY
THROUGH NOON MONDAY.
* VISIBILITIES…ONE QUARTER TO ONE HALF MILE OR LESS AT TIMES.
* TIMING…LIGHT SNOW WILL DEVELOP THIS AFTERNOON…BECOMING
HEAVY AT TIMES TONIGHT INTO EARLY SUNDAY MORNING…BEFORE
TAPERING OFF BY NOON SUNDAY. CONSIDERABLE BLOWING AND DRIFTING
SNOW…WITH NEAR BLIZZARD CONDITIONS…IS LIKELY LATE TONIGHT
THROUGH SUNDAY MORNING.
* IMPACTS…DANGEROUS TRAVEL DUE TO SNOW AND STRONG WINDS WITH
NEAR BLIZZARD CONDITIONS. STRONG WINDS MAY DOWN POWER LINES
AND TREE LIMBS.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
A WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY MEANS THAT PERIODS OF SNOW…SLEET…OR
FREEZING RAIN WILL CA– USE TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES. BE PREPARED FOR
SLIPPERY ROADS AND LIMITED VISIBILITIES…AND — USE CAUTION WHILE
DRIVING.
A WIND CHILL WATCH MEANS THE THERE IS THE POTENTIAL FOR A
COMBINATION OF VERY COLD AIR AND STRONG WINDS TO CREATE
DANGEROUSLY LOW WIND CHILL VALUES. MONITOR THE LATEST FORECASTS
AND WARNINGS FOR UPDATES ON THIS SITUATION.
Need A Date for Valentines : The Robot That Knows When to Swipe Right
A new Tinder bot learns who its human overlord finds attractive. Then it goes to work.
Robinson Meyer Feb 13 2015, 7:45 AM ET
I have come to think of Tinder as a sort algorithm for the mind. It surfaces individual data entries—which happen to be humans—and asks the user to make a single decision about them: Would you make out with this person? Or, more tamely, would you be friends with this person?
If both minds sort each other’s data entries into the same category, a chat window opens.
The process is efficient, and the computer does everything except make that one, crucial choice. But perhaps that is too much work. Perhaps that single choice can be automated.
The Vancouver-based programmer Justin Long has done just that. In a post on his personal website, he describes how he automated Tinder using facial-recognition algorithms and a chat bot.
The bot, he writes, is “amazingly effective”—so effective he eventually turned it off.
Long’s bot, which he calls Tinderbox, has two steps: a sort phase and a chat phase. First, Tinderbox asks users to sort 60 faces from Tinder into the “yes” or “no” piles. Using the facial-recognition scheme Eigenface, it notes what kind of features users seem to like—attempting, in other words, to distinguish a user’s “type.” Then it goes to work, automatically sorting images from other Tinder users along the parameters it judges important.
Green Scheme Brings Down Democrat Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber
Governor John Kitzhaber announces his resignation
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber resigned effective Wednesday, Feb. 18, in a letter submitted to Secretary of State Kate Brown.
“I am announcing today that I will resign as Governor of the State of Oregon,” he wrote in a statement released just after noon Friday.
Brown, also a Democrat, will be sworn in as Oregon’s 37th governor, but the timing of that ceremony is uncertain.
In just four months, a public corruption scandal involving Kitzhaber and his fiancee, Cylvia Hayes, has hobbled one of Oregon’s most durable politicians. Kitzhaber, a public official for 37 years, was sworn in for a historic fourth term as governor just a month ago. Facing not only a state criminal investigation and an ethics review, Kitzhaber watched his support from fellow veteran lawmakers crumble this week.
The governor’s resignation does not end either the criminal investigation or ethics review.
Kitzhaber, 67, did not appear in public on Friday and neither did his fiancee, Cylvia Hayes. Instead, he issued a page-long statement that was released Friday that made clear his pain and frustration with having to abandon what was to be a historic fourth term. Yet, he wrote, he understood why the move was necessary.
Criticism had mounted in recent weeks over how Kitzhaber had handed Hayes’ roles as an unpaid clean energy and economic policy adviser in his office, and as a consultant paid to promote the same topics. Since Kitzhaber took office in 2011, Hayes had collected at least $213,000 from contracts, records showed.
Questions remain as to whether Hayes reported some of that income on her federal taxes.
