4 fracking workers’ deaths subject of federal probe
Georgia high court keeps execution-drug info secret
Georgia’s law shielding the identity and methods of companies that make its lethalinjection drugs is constitutional and should not prevent inmate Warren Lee Hill from being executed, the state’s Supreme Court ruled yesterday.
Justices in a 5-2 vote lifted the stay of execution granted to Hill by a lower court after he challenged the 2013 law permitting the source of lethalinjection drugs to be concealed from the public.
Blackshades investigation results in broad crackdown
Federal prosecutors announced charges yesterday against distributors and users of malware used to infect more than half a million computers in 100 countries since 2010.
Among the five U.S. indictments announced yesterday was one naming Alex Yucel as one of the creators of the Blackshades Remote Access Tool, or RAT. Yucel, who the government says was the “owner” of the Blackshades organization, was arrested in Moldova in November and is awaiting extradition to the United States, according to the indictment.
The malware costs just $40 on some sites. It takes control of a computer and hijacks webcams to secretly record.
Man gets 25 years in prison for mailing ricin-laced letters
AMississippi man was sentenced to 25 years in prison by a federal judge yesterday after pleading guilty to sending ricin-tainted letters to President Barack Obama, a U.S. senator and a state judge, prosecutors said.
James Everett Dutschke of Tupelo, a former martial-arts instructor and one-time political candidate who tried to frame an Elvis impersonator with the crime, has been jailed since his arrest in April 2013.
Dutschke pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to four charges of developing and possessing the biological agent ricin and mailing ricin-laced, threatening letters to Obama, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi
and Judge Sadie Holland.
The Obama administration is investigating the health risks of hydraulic fracturing after at least four deaths among oilfield workers in North Dakota and Montana since 2010.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health said the workers were exposed to high levels of volatile hydrocarbons during the drilling process known as fracking. The institute is researching exposure levels, Christina Spring, a spokeswoman for its parent agency, the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, said yesterday in an email.
Legionnaires’ disease lurking in washer fluid?
Windshield-washer fluid might be a breeding ground for bacteria that causes the deadly pneumonia known as Legionnaires’ disease, according to research released by the American Society for Microbiology at its meeting in Boston.
Martial law declared, but army denies it’s a coup
Thailand’s army declared martial law before dawn today in a surprise announcement it said was aimed at keeping the country stable after six months of sometimes violent political unrest. The military, however, denied a coup d’etat was underway.
The move effectively places the army in charge of public security nationwide.
Armed troops entered multiple private television stations in Bangkok to broadcast their message and surrounded the national police headquarters. But the vast skyscraper-strewn metropolis of 10 million people appeared calm.