Bob Collins1) THE FACE BEHIND THE TARGET THEFT?
Brian Krebs, a security expert, has been far ahead of just about everyone — including Target, it would seem — on the theft of millions of credit card numbers and data from Target customers.
He’s followed the trail of several online websites that sell fraudulent credit cards and has unmasked this guy:
His name, one of several, is Andrew Hodirevski. He lives in the Ukraine.
Krebs says he’s not sure Hodirevski is responsible for selling the Target cards, but he says he was offered $10,000 by him not to publish the the sleuthing. Krebs published it anyway.
Thousands of carolers gathered in West Reading, Penn., last weekend to fulfill the wish of a young local girl dying from leukemia. Eight-year-old Delaney Brown, also known as Laney, had asked to see carolers as part of a “bucket list” of experiences, and organizers estimated that close to 10,000 people took part in the event.
She died on Christmas morning.
3) NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED
In Milwaukee, a bus route supervisor saw a man beating up a woman on a city street. He intervened on behalf of the woman, getting slugged twice.
Then he got fired by the transit bosses for exceeding the scope of his duties.
“I guess I’m supposed to act like nothing was happening,” William Bierman said. “Don’t be a human. Don’t be a citizen.”
4) SUDDENLY, DRONE DELIVERY MAKES SOME SENSE
@amazon @ups what am I supposed to do with this? It was a Xmas gift !!! STILL not delivered. pic.twitter.com/UoVL3RouKu
— Richard Kemp (@Kemprich) December 26, 2013
Crushed by online retailers in recent years, brick-and-mortar stores missed out on an obvious marketing advantage: Your Christmas gifts actually arrive when you buy them locally. UPS says so many people bought presents online that they weren’t able to deliver them on time.
Most will be delivered today, the Associated Press reports.
5) THE GREAT PROPANE TANK CONTROVERSY OF 2013
The fact that no picture was ever released of the package officials found at MSP airport’s terminal two last week, the one that caused an evacuation of a part of the terminal and subjected the woman who left it behind to the arrows of the Internet, should’ve been a clue that officials had overstated the threat.
The woman’s husband says there was no propane tank, only a camp stove. He says the woman wasn’t allowed to check the baggage because it wasn’t wrapped up securely.
“Ultimately, the box did not contain a propane tank — only a propane burner and stand,” airport spokesman Patrick Hogan told the Star Tribune.
“All we knew that morning was that we had a … box with a hole cut into the top and a metal pipe and hose sticking out,” he said. “From our limited view of the part of the pipe sticking out of the box, it resembled piping used with propane, which in fact is exactly what it was. There was no way to know whether it was attached to a propane tank until we evacuated the area and had the bomb squad investigate.”
Hogan said Morocho’s decision to abandon a “very suspicious-looking box and get on an airplane headed out of state was ample reason for concern. The result was hundreds of people’s flights being delayed. That could all have been avoided if she’d obeyed the ordinance and not abandoned the box.”
So once the package was opened and deemed to be safe, why announce to the world that it was a propane tank?
WHAT WE’RE DOING
Daily Circuit (9-12 p.m.) – First hour: Best science stories of 2013.
Second hour: Roosevelt’s Second Act, an interview with author Dick Moe.
Third hour: Civil War life might not be the first thing that pops into your head when thinking of Minnesota, but that’s the era Geoffrey Wilson draws his inspiration from when penning songs for his band Jus Post Bellum. The band’s name, in fact, is war-related. It’s a Latin phrase that refers bringing closure to the end of a war and translates to “justice after war.”
MPR News Presents (12-1 pm) – A new documentary, “Mexico Uncovered.” by David Hernandez and Mary Stucky, about Mexico’s economy and culture.
The Takeaway (1-2 p.m.) – Edith Windsor, the plaintiff in the case that
struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, reflects on love, relationships, and becoming a civil rights icon
All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) -A non-profit group in southwest Minnesota has become one of the state’s leaders in building new housing, expanding to cover a third of the state. The organization is working on several projects now, mainly in rural communities that have continued to expand their economic base despite the recent years of recession. MPR’s Mark Steil will have the story.
With the Minnesota Orchestra lockout about to enter its 16th month, other major orchestras around the country are looking on aghast. In many cases they are thriving, but only after having survived their own crisis. MPR News’ Euan Kerr will have the story.
A research tool called optogenetics is changing the way researchers look at the brain. The tool allows them to switch entire brain circuits on and off using light. That’s allowing experiments that hint at what’s going wrong in diseases from epilepsy to depression. NPR will report on the progress and potential uses of optogenetics.
