New York high school student arrested for attending in-person classes on remote learning day

A New York high school student was arrested on school grounds Thursday after being suspended Tuesday for attending in-person classes on his scheduled remote learning day.

Maverick Stow, 17, is protesting the coronavirus regulations in place at William Floyd High School in Mastic, N.Y. The teen was being held at the 7th Precinct in Shirley, N.Y., on Thursday morning, his mother Nora Stow told Fox News.

The school district said on Thursday the high school will be "virtual for the foreseeable future" for all 3,000 students if Stow returns to school.

"Mr. Stow continues to display irresponsible and selfish behavior with today's latest publicity stunt," the school district said in a statement. "He arrived wearing a neon green shirt – for high visibility – with a contingent of media just outside the fence line trying to capture him getting arrested as he entered the building. He entered the building and was immediately arrested by the Suffolk County Police Department without incident and transported to the police station."

Despite his suspension, Stow returned to William Floyd High School on Wednesday, prompting a police response, according to the school district.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/maverick-stow-in-person-class-arrest-long-island

U.S. sanctions pro-Russia Ukrainian lawmaker over election interference

Washington — The Trump administration announced Thursday it has sanctioned a pro-Russia Ukrainian lawmaker who has been spreading unsubstantiated allegations designed to hurt Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden for attempting to influence the U.S. presidential election.

The Treasury Department said the lawmaker, Andriy Derkach, has been an "active Russian agent" for more than a decade and has close ties to Russian intelligence. Since late 2019, Derkach has "waged a covert influence campaign centered on cultivating false and unsubstantiated narratives concerning U.S. officials in the upcoming 2020 presidential election, spurring corruption investigations in both Ukraine and the U.S. designed to culminate prior to election day," the agency said.

Derkach released edited audio tapes and other unsubstantiated information between May and July that aimed to discredit unnamed U.S. officials, the Trump administration said. The Ukrainian lawmaker has also leveled "unsubstantiated allegations" against other American and international politicians.

In addition to Derkach, the U.S. sanctioned three others with ties to Russia. The three, Artem Lifshits, Anton Andreyev and Darya Aslanova, are employees of the Internet Research Agency, a Russia-based troll farm that spread disinformation on social media as part of the Kremlin's interference operation in 2016.

"Andrii Derkach and other Russian agents employ manipulation and deceit to attempt to influence elections in the United States and elsewhere around the world," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

Senate Republicans have been investigating possible links between Democrats and Ukraine, including possible conflicts of interest between Biden and his son Hunter, and Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that employed Hunter Biden. But Democrats have pushed back on the probe, saying Republicans are pursuing conspiracy theories peddled by Kremlin proxies and helping to spread Russian disinformation.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/united-states-sanctions-ukrainian-andrii-derkach-member-parlaiment-election-interference/

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Baltimore man charged with human trafficking at Jessup hotel

Howard County police have charged a Baltimore man with human trafficking at an Jessup hotel, the department announced Thursday.

Michael Allen Steadman, 33, was arrested Tuesday and charged with sex trafficking, police said.

During an undercover operation, Howard police determined prostitution activity was occurring in a hotel in Jessup.

Police believe Steadman provided transportation to and from prostitution appointments for a 26-year-old woman and kept a portion of her money.

The woman was referred to services for assistance after Steadman’s arrest, police said.

Steadman is being held on $10,000 bond at the Howard County Detention Center.

Howard police can offer treatment, housing and other help to victims of human trafficking. If someone suspects human trafficking, if they are a victim or know someone who is a victim, they can speak privately to a detective at 911 or 410-313-3200.

Anyone with information can contact police at 410-313-STOP or hcpdcrimetips@howardcountymd.gov.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/baltimore-man-charged-with-human-trafficking-at-jessup-hotel/ar-BB18Ulny

Army conducting ‘digital Louisiana Maneuvers’ in Arizona desert

WASHINGTON — The Army is in the midst of conducting what Army Futures Command Commander Gen. Mike Murray likes to call “this generation’s digital Louisiana Maneuvers” in the Arizona desert that aims to bring key technologies together designed to fight across air, land, sea, space and cyber.

The famed Louisiana Maneuvers during World War II was designed to figure out how the United States could use its existing technology to fight in a fundamentally different way against the German military airplanes, radios and tanks.

“It was a combination of those three technologies and how the Germans put it together to execute what we call Blitzkrieg" that was “fundamentally different” than any of the capabilities the Allied forces, to include the U.S., brought to the battlefield, Murray told Defense News in an exclusive interview on the Army’s new effort at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona.

In this generation there are three key technologies that when paired together in novel ways can provide a strong advantage against possible conflict with near-peer adversaries, according to Murray. Those technologies are artificial intelligence, autonomy and robotics in the air and on the ground.

“To make those three work in a digital environment, you have to have an underlying robust and resilient network,” Murray said, “and you have to have a data architecture and the data and the talent to put all that together.”

Enter Project Convergence, the Army’s weeks-long “campaign of learning” to bring together the weapons and capabilities it envisions fighting with in the 2030s and beyond in a seamlessly networked environment, according to Murray.

https://news.yahoo.com/army-conducting-digital-louisiana-maneuvers-170817708.html

Air Force B-2s 'attack targets' to train for war in Pacific

U.S. Air Force B-2s bombers are finding and attacking targets in the Pacific to ensure combat readiness, adjust to moving enemy formations and coordinate warfare operations with Australian Marines.

Operating with B-2s and B-1B bombers, both U.S. and Australian Joint Tactical Air Controllers “worked alongside Australian Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopters and U.S. Marine Corps RQ-21A Blackjacks to identify and surveil simulated targets,” an Air Force report stated.

The exercise is part of a strategic effort to refine, increase and accelerate Bomber Task Force operations throughout the Pacific, according to senior Air Force commanders. The concept is to implement more readiness and combat training activities to move toward a less "static" global force posture.

“We are sustaining a surge in bomber operations. BTFs [Bomber Task Forces] are vital to demonstrate our commitment to peace and stability. We need to be unpredictable and keep potential adversaries off balance. We were too predictable and too inflexible and became imbalanced, placing presence over readiness. We are transitioning to a dynamic force-deployment model,” Maj. Gen. Mark E. Weatherington, commander, Eighth Air Force, and commander, Joint-Global Strike Operations Center, told The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies in a video interview.

https://www.foxnews.com/tech/air-force-b-2s-attack-targets-to-train-for-war-in-pacific

New Study Finds Toxic 'Forever Chemicals' Contaminating School Water Systems In 18 States

A study published Thursday warned water systems for numerous schools and day care centers in 18 states may have been contaminated by toxic chemicals produced at nearby chemical plants.

The Environmental Working Group conducted the study by looking at the water systems for schools across the U.S. at risk of contamination, focusing on finding per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS or fluorinated “forever chemicals.”

“Suspected industrial discharges of the toxic fluorinated chemicals known as PFAS are located less than a mile of 27 schools or child care facilities that maintain their own water systems,” Environmental Working Group policy analyst Jared Hayes and senior scientist Tasha Stoiber said in the report. “Schools or child care facilities in 18 states, including Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, were located within 5,000 feet of manufacturers that are known or suspected of producing or using PFAS.”

PFAS are chemicals commonly found everyday items, such as household cleaning and food storage products.

“Certain PFAS can accumulate and stay in the human body for long periods of time,” the Environmental Protection Agency said on its website. “There is evidence that exposure to PFAS can lead to adverse health outcomes in humans,” including weakened immune system, hormone disruption and cancer.

The Environmental Working Group encouraged schools to test their water systems thoroughly to minimize PFAS exposure to children.

“We don’t know the full scope of PFAS pollution in our water, but we do know that where you look for PFAS contamination, you usually find it,” Hayes said in a press release.

https://www.ibtimes.com/new-study-finds-toxic-forever-chemicals-contaminating-school-water-systems-18-states-3043697

Twitter to Label or Remove Misleading Claims on Vote Results

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Twitter said Thursday that starting next week it will label or remove misleading claims that try to undermine public confidence in elections.

The policy will apply to tweets that attempt to undermine people’s faith in the electoral process itself, such as false claims about election rigging or ballot tampering, or about the outcome of the vote, Twitter said.

The policy goes into effect Sept. 17, a few weeks before the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election. Many Americans are expected to vote by mail due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is likely to delay election results. Social media companies have been working to strengthen their policies to prevent misinformation, but it's not clear if their efforts will be enough.

Facebook said last week it will restrict new political ads in the week before the election and remove posts that convey misinformation about COVID-19 and voting. It will also attach links to official results to posts by candidates and campaigns that prematurely declare victory.

Twitter has had more aggressive policies than Facebook. It has banned political ads altogether and began labeling President Donald Trump's tweets with fact checks in May, earning his ire.

San Francisco-based Twitter said its policy of labeling, rather than removing violating tweets from world leaders, will still apply with its newest rules. This means even if a candidate posts misleading claims about the election outcome, the post would likely stay up because Twitter deems it in the “public interest." That said, the post's visibility would be reduced and people won't be able to retweet it.

“We will not permit our service to be abused around civic processes, most importantly elections," Twitter said in a blog post Thursday. “Any attempt to do so — both foreign and domestic — will be met with strict enforcement of our rules, which are applied equally and judiciously for everyone."

Though the policy comes weeks before the U.S. election, more than 80% of Twitter's users are outside of the U.S. and it will apply globally.

https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2020-09-10/twitter-to-label-or-remove-misleading-claims-on-vote-results

Judge: Ex-school security guard to pay $3M in sex abuse case

CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge has ordered a former security guard at a suburban Chicago high school to pay $3 million in damages to the family of a former student who said in a lawsuit that he sexually abused her dozens of times.

The default judgment granted Tuesday by U.S. Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer against Michael Haywood of Evanston awards the student’s family $2 million in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages, the Pioneer Press reported, citing court records.

A default judgment is issued when a defendant fails to appear in court or enter a plea. According to court documents, Haywood, 35, “failed to appear and answer or otherwise plead.”

The girl’s family filed a lawsuit in August 2019 alleging Haywood “groomed” the Evanston Township High School student in 2018 and 2019 when she was 17 and engaged in “unwanted and unauthorized sexual and other contact” with the teen more than 40 times, including several times at the school.

The family’s civil case against the high school and the city of Evanston is ongoing. The suit also alleges that the school failed to adequately protect girls from purported predators and didn’t fully inform parents of the allegations against Haywood after firing him in January 2019.

Haywood has not been criminally charged in the assaults described in the lawsuit, but he was charged in February 2019 with sexually assaulting a different student in November 2018 who is not involved in the civil suit.

Haywood has pleaded not guilty in that case and is currently on home electronic monitoring, according to court records.

At attorney representing Haywood in the criminal case declined to comment on the civil suit.

Andrew M. Stroth, the attorney representing the teen and her family, declined to comment on the probability of being able to collect $3 million from Haywood, but said he considers the judgment a positive development for the case against the district and city.

Molly Thompson, an attorney for Evanston Township High School District 202, emphasized that the default judgement was issued solely against Haywood and not the other defendants in the lawsuit.

“The Board of Education of Evanston Township High School District 202 and the other defendants, besides Haywood, filed motions to dismiss plaintiffs’ First Amended complaint, which are currently pending,” Thompson said in a statement.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Judge-Ex-school-security-guard-to-pay-3M-in-sex-15557018.php

Arizona ice dancer charged in sex assault on Lee 13-year-old faces similar Collier charges

The Arizona ice dancer charged with sexual assault on a 13-year-old Lee County girl is facing two similar charges in Collier County.

Dane Francis Ayers, 20, of Scottsdale, Arizona, was arrested in Lee County on Tuesday on charges he sexually assaulted the same girl multiple times from September to December 2019.

Ayers was arrested July 8 on the Collier County charges at a Hampton Inn in Pembroke Pines, by the Plantation Police Department. The Collier charges stem from Ayers' sexual assault of the same girl while in that county on Oct. 6 and Nov. 18.

Ayers was arraigned on the Collier charges Aug. 17 and released on $20,000 bond.

The case is under review by the State Attorney's Office.

During the Collier County Sheriff's Office investigation the victim's mother made a phone call to Ayers with an investigator listening.

During what was described as a controlled call, Ayers was confronted by the mother about having had sexual contact with her daughter, now 14, a charge he did not deny and apologized for several times. When asked what he was apologizing for, Ayers replied "everything," and also replied "yes" when asked if he had used a condom.

Ayers had his first appearance on the Lee County charges Tuesday. He was released on $20,000 bond, ordered to have no contact with victim and must wear a GPS location monitor.

His next Lee County court appearance is at 8:30 a.m. Oct. 12.

All the charges, under the state's Lewd and Lascivious Statute, are second-degree felonies.

An arrest warrant from the Lee County Sheriff's Office said Ayers, then 19 and living in Estero, met the girl during training at Hertz Arena in Estero and the sexual assaults took place in various U.S. and international cities in 2019.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/arizona-ice-dancer-charged-in-sex-assault-on-lee-13-year-old-faces-similar-collier-charges/ar-BB18U2dW

Dropbox reports Sugar Land man for alleged possession of child porn

A man is in custody for allegedly using the popular cloud service Dropbox to view and distribute child pornography after Dropbox, Inc., reported him.

Ricky Roydell Momon Jr., age 23, from Sugar Land was arrested Aug. 25 by the Fort Bend County Sheriff’s Office and charged with two counts of possession of child pornography, according to Jessica Reyes, public information officer for the Sheriff’s Office.

The investigation began Oct. 12, 2019, when Dropbox, Inc. reported a tip to the Houston Metro Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force’s CyberTip program of “what appeared to be pornographic material of children” had been uploaded to one of their accounts.

“Detectives assigned to the specialized Human Trafficking Internet Crimes Against Children Unit executed a search warrant,” Reyes said. “During the search, several electronic devices were seized.”

According to the search warrant, there are multiple victims in the photographs, and the children appear to be between the ages of 3 and 6.

Using dropbox.com, users can store and share an unlimited amount of data, including photographs, files and documents.

Requests for comment from Dropbox, Inc. were not returned, but the dropbox.com’s privacy policy states, “We may disclose your information to third parties if we determine that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or appropriate government request; (b) protect any person from death or serious bodily injury; (c) prevent fraud or abuse of Dropbox or our users; (d) protect Dropbox’s rights, property, safety, or interest; or (e) perform a task carried out in the public interest.”

https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/sugarland/news/article/Dropbox-reports-user-for-alleged-possession-of-15557274.php

Bechtel part of Northrop Grumman nationwide team awarded US Air Force ICBM modernization contract

RESTON, Va., Sept. 10, 2020 /PRNewswire/ – Bechtel National, Inc, the U.S. government contracting subsidiary of Bechtel Corp., is part of the Northrop Grumman-led nationwide team selected this week to deliver the U.S. Ground Based Strategic Deterrent System of inter-continental ballistic missiles and launch infrastructure for the U.S. Air Force. GBSD is the Air Force program to modernize the nation's aging force of ICBMs, the land leg of the U.S. nuclear deterrent.

Bechtel will provide launch infrastructure design and construction as part of the program's Engineering and Manufacturing Development phase.

"The GBSD program is a crucial component of U.S. strategic defense," said Barbara Rusinko, president of Bechtel's Nuclear, Security, and Environmental global business unit. "The existing system must maintain capability during the entirety of modernization, presenting a complex logistical and planning challenge. We are fully aligned with the Air Force and Northrop Grumman, and ready on day one to begin design, construction and turnover of the ground-based facilities."

The program begins immediately and is scheduled to last 8 ½ years. Bechtel's work will take place in Roy, Utah; Reston, Virginia; and Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Development of test and training facilities at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California; Hill Air Force Base, Utah; and other locations will provide valuable feedback on design and installation methods for use at the operational silos and launch centers.

"The GBSD program will modernize the entire Minuteman weapon system," said Greg Manuel, vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman's Strategic Deterrent Systems Division. "A 21st century system will be installed ensuring America's land-based leg of the triad remains safe, secure, and effective for decades to come. We're excited to have Bechtel's engineering and construction expertise on our nationwide team."

Bechtel's recent experience in the sector includes delivery of launch silos and infrastructure in Alaska, California, and the Marshall Islands for the U.S. missile defense system known as Ground-based Midcourse Defense. Bechtel also constructed launch complexes for NASA and the Air Force and is now working to provide the NASA mobile launcher that will send astronauts to the moon and eventually Mars.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bechtel-part-northrop-grumman-nationwide-181500188.html