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Sunday, May 14, 2017

Mother's Day Brings No Peace To Violent Chicago Streets


'There’s no peace on this corner for long:' Best friends fatally shot in South Austin



The carloads of relatives began arriving about two hours after the double homicide
 on Mother’s Day.
One woman sprinted toward an officer at the edge of the crime scene at West
Madison Street and North Cicero Avenue in South Austin about 4:40 a.m. Inside
the yellow tape, a black sedan protruded from the wall of a building it crashed
into and shell casings littered the street.
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“How are we supposed to know if that’s our family?” asked the woman. “He’s
not picking up his phone.”
By the time the sun was rising, more people pulled up to the intersection
 frantically looking for detectives. They cried and hugged, trying to soothe
one another with gentle back rubs.


A woman who identified herself as the aunt of one of the victims said the two
 men fatally shot in the car were best friends, but she did not specify which man
 was her relative.
“He had a 9-to-5 (job). He had never been in the streets,” she said through
 sobs. “He was our life. They was wrong. They don’t have to do that to him.”
The two men, ages 24 and 25, were fatally shot after a Chevrolet pulled up
alongside them at a stoplight and someone inside opened fire. The victims
continued driving and turned west on Madison as their car jumped the curb,
crashed into a building next to a Mobil gas station and struck a man in a
wheelchair, who was taken to Stroger Hospital with injuries that were not
 life-threatening.
The 24-year-old was shot in the back and right arm. He was taken to Mount
 Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The 25-year-old man was shot
 and taken to Loyola University Medical Center in critical condition. He was later pronounced dead.
Bruce Hall, 53, watched the aftermath of the fatal South Austin shooting unfold
from the second-story balcony of his brick apartment building. He said he heard
about eight gunshots and saw more than a dozen young people hanging out at
 the gas station when the shooting happened.
As Hall filmed the incident on his cellphone, he couldn’t help but think about
 the last time he took video of a shooting from his balcony. On March 30, an
18-year-old shot in a drive-by was left in critical condition.
“There’s no peace on this corner for long,” he said. “And on this of all days —
 Mother's Day. That’s two mothers who are going to be grieving.”
In addition to the double homicide on the West Side, a 17-year-old boy was
killed and eight others were wounded in shootings across the city, including
a shooting in the outbound lanes of the Kennedy Expressway.
The 17-year-old boy was shot about 8:35 p.m. in the 10500 block of South
 Lafayette Avenue in the Fernwood neighborhood, police said. He suffered
 gunshot wounds to the back and chest and was pronounced dead at the scene.
A man or boy went up to the boy and shot him, then fled on foot, police said. 
In nonfatal shootings
• A 45-year-old man was shot in the right side after arguing with someone
 about 3:10 a.m. Sunday in the Princeton Park neighborhood. During the
 argument in the 100 block of West 95th Street, a gunman emerged from
 a vehicle and fired shots. The victim was taken to Stroger Hospital, where
his condition was stabilized.
• A woman was shot while in a car traveling in the outbound lanes on the
 Kennedy Expressway near Fullerton Avenue about 3:50 a.m. The woman,
 whose age was not available, was shot in the leg. 
• A 17-year-old boy was shot in the right leg in the Lawndale neighborhood
about 1:10 a.m. He was standing in the 1200 block of South Lawndale Avenue
 when a white SUV pulled up and someone inside opened fire. He was taken
to Mount Sinai Hospital, where his condition was stabilized. 
• A 20-year-old man was shot in the right leg while driving away from an
argument in the Brainerd neighborhood about 1:21 a.m. The man was taken
to Advocate Christ Medical Center in fair condition. 
• A 35-year-old man was shot in the right arm in the Gresham neighborhood
about 11:12 p.m. Saturday. A man approached him in an alley in the 8100
 block of South Paulina Street and fired shots. The victim was taken to
Advocate Christ Medical Center in good condition.
• A 28-year-old man was shot multiple times in the 5500 block of South
Throop Street in the Englewood neighborhood about 10:45 p.m. The victim
got himself to University of Chicago Medical Center and was transferred to
 Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition. Police said the victim is a documented
gang member. 
• A 26-year-old man was shot in the buttocks in the 12000 block of South
Lafayette in the West Pullman neighborhood, police said. His condition was
stabilized at Advocate Christ Medical Center. The man was outside when a
blue Chevrolet Traverse pulled up in front of him and at least one person inside
 shot him just after 8:05 p.m., then fled the scene. 
• A 24-year-old man was shot late Saturday afternoon while he was crossing
the street in the Woodlawn neighborhood. About 4:40 p.m., the victim was
 crossing the street at 63rd Street and Cottage Grove Avenue when he heard
 shots. The victim ran north to an alley, where he realized he was shot, police
 said. The man suffered a wound to the upper right leg and was taken to
Northwestern Memorial Hospital in fair condition.  
Copyright © 2017, Chicago Tribune
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Tomorrow Might Be A Disaster

Cyberattack’s Impact Could Worsen in ‘Second Wave’ of Ransomware

By SEWELL CHAN and MARK SCOTT
An ambulance in London. Hospitals across Britain have canceled surgeries and turned away patients after the National Health Service was hit by a large-scale ransomware attack. Andy Rain/European Pressphoto Agency
LONDON — Security experts are warning that the global cyberattack that began on Friday is likely to be magnified in the new workweek as users return to their offices and turn on their computers.
Many workers, particularly in Asia, had logged off on Friday before the malicious software, stolen from the United States government, began proliferating across computer systems around the world. So the true effect of the attack may emerge on Monday as employees return and log in.
Moreover, copycat variants of the malicious software behind the attacks have begun to spread, according to experts. “We are in the second wave,” said Matthieu Suiche of Comae Technologies, a cybersecurity company based in the United Arab Emirates. “As expected, the attackers have released new variants of the malware. We can surely expect more.”
Britain’s National Cyber Security Center said Sunday that it had seen “no sustained new attacks” but warned that compromised computers might not have been detected yet and that the malware could further spread within networks.
So far, the main targets of the ransomware attack have been outside the United States. But neither the federal government nor American corporations assume that this will continue to be the case.
Over the weekend, the Trump administration’s top security officials, led by the homeland security adviser, Thomas P. Bossert, gathered in the White House Situation Room to assess the threat to American interests, including government agencies, companies and hospitals.
Monday could bring a wave of attacks to the United States, warned Caleb Barlow, vice president of threat intelligence for IBM. “How the infections spread across Asia, then Europe overnight will be telling for businesses here in the United States,” he said.
The cyberattack has hit 200,000 computers in more than 150 countries, according to Rob Wainwright, the executive director of Europol, the European Union’s police agency.
Among the organizations hit were FedEx in the United States, the Spanish telecom giant Telefónica, the French automaker Renault, universities in China, Germany’s federal railway system and Russia’s Interior Ministry. The most disruptive attacks infected Britain’s public health system, where surgeries had to be rescheduled and some patients were turned away from emergency rooms.
A 22-year-old British researcher who uses the Twitter name MalwareTech has been credited with inadvertently helping to stanch the spread of the assault by identifying the web domain for the hackers’ “kill switch” — a way of disabling the malware. Mr. Suiche of Comae Technologies said he had done the same for one of the new variants of malware to surface since the initial wave.
On Sunday, MalwareTech was one of many security experts warning that a less-vulnerable version of the malware is likely to be released. On Twitter, he urged users to immediately install a security patch for older versions of Microsoft’s Windows, including Windows XP. (The attack did not target Windows 10.)
Robert Pritchard, a former cybersecurity expert at Britain’s defense ministry, said that security specialists might not be able to keep pace with the hackers.
“This vulnerability still exits; other people are bound to exploit it,” he said. “The current variant will make its way into antivirus software. But what about any new variants that will come in the future?”
All it would take is for a new group of hackers to change the original malware code slightly to remove the “kill switch” and send it off into the world, using the same email-based methods to infiltrate computer systems that the original attackers used, experts said.
Allan Liska, an analyst with Recorded Future, a cybersecurity company, said a new version of the ransomware he examined Sunday did not have the kill switch. “This is probably version 2.1, and it has the potential to be much more effective — assuming security defenders haven’t spent all weekend patching,” he said.
The Microsoft patch will help, but installing it across large organizations will take time.
Microsoft has complained for years that a large majority of computers running its software are using pirated versions. The spread of hacking attacks has made legal versions of software more popular, as they typically provide automatic updates of security upgrades.
Governments around the world were bracing themselves for the start of the workweek.
“This is crucial for businesses when reopening on Monday: Please beware and anticipate, and take preventive steps against the WannaCry malware attack,” Indonesia’s communication and information minister, Rudiantara, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, said at a news conference.
He confirmed that one hospital — Dharmais Hospital in the capital, Jakarta, which specializes in cancer treatment — had been afflicted by the malware, but without major effects on patients.
“Through collective efforts by Indonesian cybersecurity stakeholders, I am optimistic that we will be able to minimize the severity of the threat,” Mr. Rudiantara said in a phone interview.
In Britain, the fallout from the attack continued on Sunday. Two opposition parties, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats, asserted that the governing Conservative Party had not done enough to prevent the attack. With a general election scheduled for June 8, officials have been racing to get ahead of the problem.
Britain’s defense minister, Michael Fallon, told the BBC on Sunday that the government was spending about 50 million pounds, about $64 million, to improve cybersecurity at the National Health Service, where many computers still run the outdated Windows XP software, which Microsoft had stopped supporting.
A government regulator warned the N.H.S. last July that updating antiquated hardware and software was “a matter of urgency,” and noted that one hospital had already had to pay £700,000, about $900,000, to repair a breach that began after an employee clicked on a web link in an unsafe email.
“The threat from cyber attacks has not only put patient information at risk of loss or compromise but also jeopardizes access to critical patient record systems by clinicians,” the regulator, the Care Quality Commission, wrote in its report.
At the National Health Service, employees said they had been cautioned about their computer use.
“We are all being extra careful,” said Greg Elston, a paramedic at St. Mary’s Hospital in central London. “We’ve been instructed not to open email attachments on our phones.”
Nancy Harper, who accompanied her mother to the hospital on Saturday for an X-ray, said: “It’s concerning that the N.H.S. was dependent on these outdated systems. If your average person has access to cheap cloud storage these days, then hospitals should be using similar backup methods. I hope this was a wake-up call.”
Others praised the service for maintaining services despite the strain. Himmat Sandut, who took his mother to the emergency room after she collapsed at home, said his experience had been smooth and fast.
“I was worried we would be faced with a huge queue, but we were seen within 10 minutes, and they’ve now given my mum a bed,” he said on Saturday. “I’m surprised and impressed under the current circumstances.”
The least functioning part of the hospital appeared to be the elevator, which got stuck on Saturday before resuming operations — in the wrong direction.
“Was the elevator hacked as well?” one man asked jokingly, causing an elevator packed with tense doctors and nurses to erupt in laughter. “Are we going to have to pay a ransom to get out?”
Sewell Chan reported from London, and Mark Scott from Rome. Reporting was contributed by Keith Bradsher from Beijing; Joe Cochrane from Jakarta, Indonesia; Steve Lohr and Austin Ramzy from New York; Paul Mozur from Hong Kong; Richard C. Paddock from Bangkok; and Ceylan Yeginsu from London.
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Jet Blue Joins Other Airlines Kicking Off Passengers

JetBlue kick family off plane in confrontation over their mom's birthday cake after it is 'deemed a SECURITY RISK' on flight to Las Vegas to celebrate her 40th

  • Family was kicked off JetBlue flight after 'improperly storing' their birthday cake
  • Cameron and Minta Burke, and their two children, from New Jersey, were flying to Las Vegas on May 3 to celebrate Minta's 40th birthday
  • They brought onto the plane a buttercream birthday cake 
  • The Burkes were asked by a flight attendant to move the cake to an overhead bin, then to another bin and finally to the floor
  • Another flight attendant came over and confronted the family
  • Two Port Authority officers were called to remove the Burkes but deemed there was 'no wrongdoing' on their part
  • The family was still forced to exit the plane but had their tickets refunded
  • Cameron Burke says he intends to bring a lawsuit against the airline 
By Mary Kekatos For Dailymail.com
PUBLISHED: 00:38 EDT, 14 May 2017 | UPDATED: 10:54 EDT, 14 May 2017
A family claim they were kicked off a JetBlue plane because the birthday cake was deemed a 'security risk'.
Cameron Burke, his wife and two children were flying to Las Vegas from JFK on May 3 to celebrate his wife's 40th birthday - and they brought a buttercream cake with them.
But after they say they received conflicting advice about where they could store it a disagreement developed and they were ordered off the flight.
The airline claims the family stored it in areas that were 'improper' - an overhead bin for safety equipment - and refused to move it. But the family say they followed all the cabin crew's instructions. 
Even after Port Authority officers called to the scene deemed 'no wrongdoing' on the part of the family, as see in a video obtained by ABC 7 NY, airline staff nonetheless forced them to exit the plane.
Scroll down for video 
Cameron Burke and his family (right) were on board a flight to Las Vegas for his wife's 40th birthday and brought a buttercream cake with them
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After one flight attendant asked them to move the cake from an overhead bin to the floor, another flight attendant came over to reprimand her colleague - and the Burkes
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Cameron Burke and his family (left and right) were on board a flight to Las Vegas for his wife's 40th birthday and brought a buttercream cake with them. After one flight attendant asked them to move the cake from an overhead bin to the floor, another flight attendant came over to reprimand her colleague - and the Burkes 
When another airline employee asked Burke and his family to leave, he refused and began recording
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Two Port Authority employees were called to force the family off the flight. The Burkes' two children can be seen crying and scared (pictured)
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When another airline employee asked Cameron and his family to leave, he refused and began recording. Two Port Authority employees (left) were called to force the family off the flight. The Burkes' two children can be seen crying and scared (right)
The Burkes had boarded a Jet Blue flight out of Kennedy Airport and stored their buttercream cake in the overhead bin before taking their seats in the last row.
'A flight attendant nicely asked me to remove the cake from that compartment, so I moved it to another one,' Cameron told the New York Daily News.
'She then asked me to move it to underneath the seat in front of me, I did.'
Then, chaos unfurled.
According to Cameron, another flight attendant appeared and confronted her colleague and then Cameron.
'You know, you could see the gestures - then she was pointing to her, did you tell him he couldn't put anything in the overhead compartment? 
'I had approached them, and I said everything was fine, and she said, 'sir, this does not involve you. When she told me I had been non-compliant, then I said 'ma'am, had you been drinking?' because her behavior was not normal''  
When another airline employee asked Cameron and his family to leave, he refused and began recording.
Officer Cheung (pictured with Cameron Burke) tells an airline employee that he sees 'no wrongdoing' on the part of the Burkes and just took down their information before leaving
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Officer Cheung (pictured with Cameron Burke) tells an airline employee that he sees 'no wrongdoing' on the part of the Burkes and just took down their information before leaving
Video, obtained by ABC 7 NY reporter CeFaan Kim, showed Port Authority officers questioning the family as the Burkes tell them the cake is on the floor as flight attendants has requested.
Their seven-year-old son, Cameron Jr, and nine-year-old daughter, Camille, appear scared as the officers question the family.
'I just want to know why,' Cameron's wife, Minta, says out loud. 'Exactly!' he replies. 'For a cake?'
One of the officers then tells an airline employee that he sees 'no wrongdoing' on the part of the Burkes. 
Airline staff then had all passengers on the full flight exit the plane in order to remove the Burke family.
The family's tickets and reward points were refunded. Their luggage went to Las Vegas, and was collected by his mother-in-law.
According to JetBlue, the Burkes are at fault for the disruption. 
The company says the cake was originally stored in an overhead bin with safety equipment, not meant for passenger carry-on and that the family 'refused several requests to move the dessert'.
Airline staff then had everyone on the full plane exit so the Burkes could be removed. Their tickets and reward points were refunded
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Airline staff then had everyone on the full plane exit so the Burkes could be removed. Their tickets and reward points were refunded
Cameron says he was able to book a United Airlines flight out of Newark for Las Vegas the following day, and intends to file a lawsuit against JetBlue (Minta pictured with her children before the incident onboard the flight)
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Cameron says he was able to book a United Airlines flight out of Newark for Las Vegas the following day, and intends to file a lawsuit against JetBlue (Minta pictured with her children before the incident onboard the flight)
'The customers became agitated, cursed and yelled at the crew, and made false accusations about a crew member's fitness to fly,' said JetBlue spokesman Doug McGraw.
'After the customers refused to speak with a team leader about the situation, the Port Authority Police Department was called and the entire aircraft deplaned.'
Cameron says he was able to book a United Airlines flight out of Newark for Las Vegas the following day. He has since reached out to the National Action Network, and intends to file a lawsuit against JetBlue.
'I want the flight attendant fired, she has no business serving the public,' said Cameron


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4503800/JetBlue-boots-family-flight-birthday-cake.html#ixzz4h67XQvMF
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