Hasta La Gadget!

Every now and then, we see school districts give out free computers and other devices to students designed to help them with their education or to help students who might otherwise be underprivileged. However, a school district employee Kristy Stock decided to take those devices and resell them.

According to the Department of Justice, Stock was sentenced to prison after it was discovered that she had stolen about 3,000 iPods that were initially designated to be given to Native American students. Stock stole the iPods and resold them where she reportedly made as much as $800,000 from them.

Government officials also discovered during the investigation that Stock had filed fraudulent tax returns on her income, resulting in a tax loss of $270,000. It appears that this scheme took place back in 2013 while Stock was in charge of a program for the Central Consolidated School District of New Mexico.

Together with her conspirators, Stock took federal grant money that was earmarked to purchase the iPods, and instead ended up shipping it to Maryland where it was then sold on eBay for marked up prices. Stock herself faces 18 months in prison, while one of her conspirators was sentenced to 66 months, and the other for 366 days.

Woman Sentenced To Prison For Stealing 3,000 iPods Intended For Students

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The far-right extremist group Oath Keepers may soon face particularly serious repercussions for its actions on top of a string of internet bans. A DC federal grand jury has unsealed seditious conspiracy charges against Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and 10 other individuals for their alleged roles in the US Capitol breach on January 6th, 2021. Rhodes and followers face accusations they planned to use force to oppose the electoral college vote certification, including the direct attempt to seize the Capitol building as well as through multiple “quick reaction force” teams that planned to deliver guns and other weapons to extremists inside the building.

The Oath Keepers’ digital savviness played an important role in the charges. The paramilitary group discussed plans with co-conspirators through encrypted messaging apps, social media, text messaging and websites, according to the Justice Department. Federal investigators revealed they’d used Signal messages as part of the case, although it wasn’t clear how they’d obtained the discussions — CNBC speculated that a participant in group chats leaked the contents to federal agents.

Rhodes and Edward Vallejo, who reportedly helped coordinate the quick reaction teams, are the only ones facing charges for the first time. The rest, including prominent members like Donovan Crowl and Jessica Watkins, were already facing indictments. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The legal action could effectively bring down a group long accused of promoting harm both on- and offline. The Oath Keepers had threatened violence online, prompting a Twitter ban in September 2020, and spread COVID-19 conspiracy theories that sometimes included QAnon-linked hashtags. The group’s Capitol incursion, meanwhile, was partly fuelled by online election misinformation promoting unsupported claims of widespread fraud during the 2020 presidential vote.

The Oath Keepers already lost much of their online presence in the months before and after the Capitol incident, but the new charges could make it that much harder for the group or its members to maintain that internet representation. This also underscores social media outlets’ imperfect attempts to curb violent organizations and the misinformation that fuels them. While more aggressive crackdowns wouldn’t have necessarily stopped the 2021 breach, outlets like Facebook have acknowledged they could have done more to curb groups that spread and acted on that misinformation.

Vance also told HuffPost that he doesn’t know whether he would back Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for majority leader.

Smartphones and tablets are an incredible way to stay in touch with others and access the world’s knowledge. They’re also, at times, an annoying distraction that may break your concentration at the worst possible time or wake you up in the middle of the night with an ill-timed notification. Fortunately, there’s one feature that addresses all of these issues: Do … Continue reading

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