"The 'core millennial' group, identified as people ages 18 to 24, is at the greatest risk because it takes them longer to figure out that they have been defrauded -- meaning their information is compromised for a longer period, according to the survey, which is a snapshot of the identity fraud landscape from last year.

" 'Millennials don't protect enough or detect enough,' said James Van Dyke, president of Javelin Strategy & Research, a California-based company that examined where identity theft threats are coming from and what effects they are having on consumers.

"It takes young people an average of 132 days to detect fraudulent activity on their credit cards, bank accounts and other personal holdings, and those in older age groups average 49 days, the survey shows. When their identities are stolen, millennials are victimized by thieves for an average of about five months.

• "What is identity theft?"
  
• "How do thieves steal an identity?"
  
• "What do thieves do with a stolen identity?"
• "How can you find out if your identity was stolen?"
  
• "How long can the effects of identity theft last?"
• "What should you do if your identity is stolen?"
  
• "Should you file a police report if your identity is stolen?"
• "How long can the effects of identity theft last?"
  
• "What can you do to help fight identity theft?"
  

"Among the common schemes: phishing, (in which e-mails direct a victim to fraudulent Web sites that mimic respectable entities, including banks), smishing, (in which text messages bait a victim to download malicious spyware), pharming, (in which malicious code on computers sends victims to bogus Web sites), and keylogging, (in which hidden software monitors victims' keystrokes to collect passwords).

"When people are victimized with those methods, it's much harder to detect, often leaving them with no explanation about how their identities were stolen. Only about half of the victims file police reports, the study found."

Baez: $200,000 came from a deal that was done by my client with the American Broadcasting Companies.

A prosecutor asked: From where, sir?

Baez: ABC.

Prosecutor: ABC News?

Baez: Yes.

Prosecutor: And that money's been paid?

Baez: Yes.

Prosecutor: And there's no other deal for any future monies coming from ABC News?

Baez: No. And I've heard the recent rumors ... and the recent news reports, but those are 100 percent completely false.

Judge Stan Strickland: Since we have referenced the rumors about the money to come ...

Baez: Apparently there is some rumor that was being spread that apparently I'm supposed to get $700,000 at trial.

You can also watch WFTV's raw video outside the courthouse, where a reporter asks Baez: (at 00:45 on the time line):

Reporter: What did ABC get for their $200,000?

Baez: Those were for licensing of photos and nothing else.

In a related story, Mediabistro's "TV Newser" reported that "Last February (2009), court documents showed ABC News paid for a three-night hotel stay at a Central Florida Ritz-Carlton for Casey's parents George and Cindy Anthony."

• "Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived.
• "Remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility.
• "Disclose unavoidable conflicts.
• "Deny favored treatment to advertisers and special interests and resist their pressure to influence news coverage.
• "Be wary of sources offering information for favors or money; avoid bidding for news."

• Should news organizations ever pay a crime suspect for photos or video, no matter how much the payment?

• Is it a journalism organization's obligation to disclose if or how much it paid a source?

• Is the old "we don't pay sources" standard now so old-fashioned that it no longer applies to journalism?

"Those figures come from NCAA rates compiled by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at Central Florida. They do not include transfers or players who leave early for the NBA. They do not reflect athletes who will play in the tourney, as they include the most recent four-year classes that have had six years to graduate."

Duncan's proposal comes just after the University of Central Florida released studies on the graduation success rate of Division I women's and men's tournament teams:

• "The 2010 Division I Women vs. Men Basketball Study" [PDF]
• "The 2010 Division I Men's Basketball Study" [PDF]
  

The disparity in graduation rates between white and black players [PDF] on teams heading into the NCAA playoffs grew last year. The Associated Press reported:

"The annual report by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida found 45 teams graduated 70 percent or more of their White players, up from 33 teams last year. But only 20 teams graduated at least 70 percent of their Black players, the same as last year."

The Washington Post added some perspective on this issue:

"Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.) raised concerns about graduation rates on Tuesday night during debate on a House resolution honoring the University of Maryland men's basketball team. Campbell noted that the Terrapins' 8 percent graduation rate is the lowest of the 65 teams selected for the tournament.

"The 8 percent figure comes from a study by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at Central Florida. The study's formula does not include student athletes who transfer elsewhere or who leave early to join the National Basketball Association, but it does account for athletes who will play in the tournament.

"Maryland Terrapins Coach Gary Williams disputed the findings and their significance in an interview with The Washington Post."

U.S. News & World Report pointed out that this is far from a new problem:

"Federal data calculating the rate of graduation within six years for the four classes that enrolled from 1999 through 2002 show that on average, teams from last year's tournament graduated just 43 percent of their players. That includes six teams with graduation rates under 20 percent and two others in single digits. Then there's California State-Northridge, the only team where the chances of an NCAA player getting drafted by an NBA team -- 1.2 percent -- were actually higher than its zero percent graduation rate.

"An NCAA-created graduation rate formula that excludes students who turn professional, transfer, or drop out, as long as they leave in good standing, produces only slightly better results. Under this calculation, last year's teams had an average graduation rate of 59 percent, meaning that 2 out of every 5 players on the floor were still falling short academically.

"Poor results notwithstanding, it's easy to dismiss academics as an ancillary issue. College basketball players are given a free college education, so who cares if they fail to take advantage of it?"

• Take a recent draft of your writing and test it for coherence and cohesion.
• To test for coherence, mark the parts of your text, at least beginning, middle, and end, and write a subtitle for each part. Now turn those subtitles into an "index." What have you learned about the coherence of your work during this process?
• To test for cohesion, read the text aloud -- either to yourself or a partner. Listen for disconnections, non sequiturs (literally, "it does not follow"), or leaps of logic or meaning. Check those sentences and try to rewrite them, using the old knowledge to new knowledge model.

• Make sure states aren't significantly behind the national average for 3G coverage
  

• Save energy
  

• The cost
  

"The FCC is proposing that Congress allocate the Universal Service Fund (USF) to broadband deployment over a ten-year period. The USF was created to meet the goals of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which included nationwide universal access to telecommunications services. The USF spends about $4.6 billion a year to meet this goal.

"The FCC also wants Congress to authorize $9 billion over three years to speed up broadband deployment. The agency also is expected to ask Congress to authorize another $12 to $16 billion for a nationwide broadband network for emergency services personnel. This would allow first responders to communicate with other agencies more quickly and effectively in the event of local or national crises.

• How would the United States measure up?

"When President Bush signed the act into law, he was probably thinking of people such as Steve Burton. Burton, of Palm Springs, Calif., appeared at his high school reunion in 2009 in the uniform of a Marine lieutenant colonel supporting enough medals to make a Soviet general blush. Unfortunately for him, he ran into a former classmate who is a real Navy commander, and she reported the possible fraudulent medals, including a Purple Heart, Bronze Star and the Navy Cross. His claim to have fought in Afghanistan and Iraq also drew suspicion.

"... While most people, no doubt, share the anger and disgust with people claiming such honors, the question is where to draw the line between free speech and criminal conduct. Citizens have a right to burn an American flag as a form of protected speech. However, if they do so while wearing a single falsely claimed medal, they can be prosecuted. If Congress can criminalize such claims, it could make half of the pick-up lines used in bars across the country crimes. It could theoretically criminalize other false claims from architects to accountants to anthropologists.

"... From 2005 to 2009, federal prosecutors charged 48 people under the Stolen Valor Act."

"At the end of the term, their average grade was 71 percent, 'almost the same as the average for the students who didn't come at all.'

"Sieber believes that those students, in turn, divert the attention of the students behind them, a parabolic effect she calls the 'cone of distraction.'

"José A. Bowen, dean of the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University, is removing computers from lecture halls and urging his colleagues to 'teach naked' -- without machines. Bowen says class time should be used for engaging discussion, something that reliance on technology discourages.

"[Law Professor David D.] Cole surveyed one of his Georgetown classes anonymously after six weeks of laptop-free lectures. Four-fifths said they were more engaged in class discussion. Ninety-five percent admitted that they had used their laptops for 'purposes other than taking notes.'

"Even when used as glorified typewriters, laptops can turn students into witless stenographers, typing a lecture verbatim without listening or understanding.

" 'The breaking point for me was when I asked a student to comment on an issue, and he said, "Wait a minute, I want to open my computer," ' said David Goldfrank, a Georgetown history professor. 'And I told him, "I don't want to know what's in your computer. I want to know what's in your head." '

"Some early attempts to ban laptops met resistance. In 2006, a group of law students at the University of Memphis complained to the American Bar Association, in vain. These days, the restriction is so common that most students take it in stride."

"The problem isn't the laptops; it's the students and the teachers.

"Students who want to be in class will at least try to pay attention, even if they have a laptop, a phone, eight different books on their desk, and David Blaine doing card tricks out in the hallway.

"Students who don't want to be in class -- who find the lesson unorganized, uninteresting, or unconnected from the real-world -- won't pay attention, even if they have no distractions.

"I wasn't there, but I assume not everyone paid constant attention in classrooms of the 1970s either.

"If students want to pay tuition, skip all of their classes and fail, they should be free to do that. If students want to pay tuition, come to class, distract themselves with Facebook and fail, they should be free to do that. The only line that should be drawn is when students start to distract others who have paid their tuition and are trying to learn."

• David Cole of Georgetown University explains why he banned laptops in his classroom
• The Independent Collegian, St. George's University School of Medicine: Laptops banned in some classes
• Kansas State Collegian: Texting, Facebook still classroom nuisances

The New York Times wonders whether the first responders are distracted while they are behind the wheel:

"Ambulances and police cars are becoming increasingly wired. Some 75 percent of police cruisers have on-board computers, a figure that has doubled over the last decade, says David Krebs, an industry analyst with the VDC Research Group. He estimates about 30 percent of ambulances have such technology.

"The use of such technology by so-called first responders comes as regulators, legislators and safety advocates seek to limit the use of gadgets by most drivers. Police officers, medics and others who study the field say they are searching to find the right balance between technology's risks and benefits.

"The computers allow police, for example, to check license plate data, find information about a suspect and exchange messages with dispatchers. Ambulances receive directions to accident scenes and can use the computers to send information about the patient before they arrive at hospitals."

" 'The technology is enormously beneficial,' said Jeffrey Lindsey, a retired fire chief in Florida who now is an executive at the Health and Safety Institute, which provides continuing education for emergency services workers.

"But he said first responders generally did not have enough training to deal with diversions that could be 'almost exponential' compared with those faced by most drivers.

"The New York Fire Department, which coordinates the city's largest ambulance system, said drivers were not supposed to use on-board computers in traffic. That is the role of the driver's partner, and if the partner is in the back tending to a patient, the driver is supposed to use devices before speeding off."

But, of course, they do use the devices while they are rolling. Just as they talk on cell phones while driving. Some departments are looking into voice controlled, hands-free computers.