Google's ultrafast Internet draws startups to KC

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Inside a small bungalow on the street separating Kansas City, Kan., from its sister city in Missouri, a small group of entrepreneurs are working on their ideas for the next high-tech startup, tapping Google Inc.'s new superfast Internet connection that has turned the neighborhood into an unlikely settlement dubbed the "Silicon Prairie."
The home on State Line Road is one of several startup-friendly locations that have sprouted up in Kansas City in recent months. The catalyst is Google Fiber, the search-engine giant's fiber-optic network being tested in the Kansas City area that advertises speeds of up to a gigabyte per second — a rate that massively exceeds the average Internet speeds at homes hooked up with cable modems.
The advantage here for startups is simple: A fast Internet pipe makes it easier to handle large files and eliminates buffering problems that plague online video, live conferencing or other network-intensive tasks. Though the Kansas City location presents challenges for startups, including the ability to raise money outside the traditional Silicon Valley venture capital scene, entrepreneurs like Synthia Payne believe it's the place to be right now for up-and-coming tech companies.
Payne is one of those entrepreneurs hoping to launch her startup dream — an Internet subscription service for musicians who want to collaborate online — on the cheap. She shares the State Line Road house, known as the "Home for Hackers," with other startups under a deal that allows them to live rent-free while they develop their business plans.
Google's network was attractive, Payne said, because her business plan "is dependent upon really good, really fast Internet."
"Without this on-ramp here I probably would have found it very difficult to come here," said Payne, who in December moved from Denver to develop CyberJammer.
Residents here were thrilled when Google announced last year that Kansas City, Kan., and neighboring Kansas City, Mo., would be its test bed for Google Fiber. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company spent months and unknown sums installing optical fiber around the area. Google provides the full gigabit service for $70 a month and its own cable-TV like service for another $50. A slower Internet connection is free on a monthly basis after a $300 installation fee.
The first homes were installed with fiber optics in the fall, with more "fiberhoods" planned in stages over the next several months. Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan., remain Google's only fiber market, though the company has said it plans additional roll-outs. Many in the tech industry believe Google's move could ultimately force broadband providers to accelerate their networks to compete. Making Internet access faster would give the company more opportunities to attract traffic and sell more advertising — the main way Google makes money.
The "Home for Hackers" and its unique business pitch is the brainchild of local web developer Ben Barreth, whose property was among the first wave of houses to be fiber-wired and is a block away from the Google Fiber offices. "Hackers" who pass Barreth's application process and show a real intention to work on a viable project can live there rent-free for three months. Since starting the home in October after cashing in his Roth IRA and putting a down payment on the $48,000 home, Barreth has gotten applications from nearly 60 people seeking a spot in the home.
"The whole startup thing in Kansas City is like this huge growing beast," he said. "It's got this crazy momentum."
The house has been full since mid-December with Payne and two others. One of the rooms also is reserved for fiber tourists who want a place for a day or two where they can download anything faster than they could elsewhere.
"The hope is that these startups will move their operations to Kansas City and this will really bless Kansas City, bring jobs and taxes and we'll build a really cool tech scene," Barreth said.
A few homes away from the "Home for Hackers" is the headquarters of the Kansas City Startup Village, which was started by local entrepreneur Matthew Marcus and where Mike Farmer, founder of mobile search app Leap2.com, has his offices. Farmer said Google Fiber brought attention to Kansas City's startup culture, "because it sort of ignites the imagination about what you can do with that sort of bandwidth capability."
"Most every week I meet one or two or three people that are looking to come in from out of town," he said.
Despite the growth, it remains a challenge for startups to raise money from Kansas City, Farmer said. Silicon Valley venture capital groups in particular want startup entrepreneurs to be nearby in California, he said.
"I've had some really incredible conversations with some big name VCs, and their first statement is that when you're in this early stage you have to be here, right next to us," he said. "That is a hurdle."
Andy Kallenbach recently launched FormZapper.com, an online forms management site, and also has offices near the "Home for Hackers." He said Kansas City has no aspirations to be the next Silicon Valley and may never have a "Facebook or a giant consumer-level company that takes over the world."
He said it may also be "better for us" that it's more difficult to raise money in Kansas City.
"The hardest thing about a startup is execution, OK? A lot of people can go out and raise money and get money for an idea or for some product or they can come up with some awesome presentation. But it doesn't matter if you can't build something that people will use," Kallenbach said. "I think here in Kansas City you have to at some point put your money where your mouth is. You have to 'do.'"

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New Corvette bursts onto the road after 9 years

DETROIT (AP) — When General Motors engineers and designers started work on the next-generation Corvette, they drew up the usual requirements for the star of American muscle cars.
Killer looks. Big engine. Handles like a race car.
But topping the list back was something at odds with the roar of the car's big V-8: Gas mileage.
The new Corvette could not be a gas guzzler. Stricter government rules were forcing a leap in fuel economy. If the car burned too much gas, it would trigger fines from regulators and never get built.
"There won't be a Corvette if we don't care about fuel economy," said Tadge Juechter, the car's chief engineer.
But the 2014 Corvette is here, the first all-new version in nine years. The king of American sports cars, driven by astronauts and celebrated in a Prince song, rolled out Sunday night in Detroit. It will arrive in showrooms this fall.
To many fans, the new Corvette symbolizes the rebirth of America's auto industry after its near death in 2009, showing the world that it again can lead in technology, styling and performance — at a lower cost that European competitors.
Getting there was tough for the 1,000-member Corvette team, which gave the car the code name "C7." GM's bankruptcy slowed development twice. With each delay, new safety and gas mileage regulations forced changes. The Corvette team overhauled the car: aluminum replaced steel, super-light rivets held parts together, and the V-8 engine kicked down to four cylinders at highway speeds, saving fuel.
All the changes helped it overcome nine years of government crash safety requirements that could have bloated the car. But even with the lighter materials, the regulations have pushed its weight to a little more than the current base model's 3,200 pounds. Still, it's an engineering achievement. The Corvette is so new that it only shares two parts with the current model.
GM said testing is still being done on the car's fuel economy, but it'll be better than the current base model's 16 mpg in the city and 26 on the highway. Juechter said the window sticker highway mileage won't reach 30 mpg, but he wouldn't be surprised to see some drivers get that or more.
The car's usual buyers — men in their mid-50s — will also notice dramatic changes on the outside of the two-seat car. The hood slopes low to slice through the wind. All the vents and scoops have functional purposes like cooling the brakes or transmission.
On the back, designers took cues from the1963 Corvette, with a sloping roof that tapers toward the bottom. The car has a small Stingray badge on each side, complete with gills. And there's a more modern rendition of the Corvette's crossed-flag logo.
A 6.2-liter small-block V-8 with 450 horsepower takes the car from zero to 60 mph in under four seconds. That's at least a few tenths of a second faster than the current base model.
Engineers also redesigned the somewhat-chintzy interior, giving it a jet cockpit look with leather, carbon fiber and soft plastics.
GM hopes the styling, performance and updated dashboard electronics will expand the car's appeal to younger buyers. The Corvette's been a favorite of adrenaline junkies for 60 years. Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard owned one from the first year — 1953.
The company won't quote a price on the 2014 model. But Juechter said someone who bought the current version can afford the new one. The Corvette starts at $49,600. That is more than $30,000 below what GM considers its chief competitor, the Porsche 911. The car makes a decent profit for GM despite relatively low sales, Juechter said.
GM wouldn't give sales targets for the new car. Last year it sold only 14,000 of the aging Corvettes, down from over 30,000 the first few years after the current version was rolled out. Porsche sold about 8,500 911s last year.
The prospect of a new 'Vette has fans waiting anxiously, browsing the Internet for unauthorized photos or drawings. Thousands of aficionados live in the U.S., and even Europe and the Middle East.
John Browning, 70, president of the Renegade Corvette Club of Hollywood, Fla., one of 600 such clubs in the U.S, said some Corvette lovers can't contain themselves.
"I've got one member, he just sold his '13 in anticipation, to wait for the '14," said Browning. "I think the Corvette is the icon. As far as I'm concerned you can't get a better deal."

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U.S. stake sale of GM to revive image

DETROIT (Reuters) - The sale of the U.S. Treasury's stake in General Motors and a possible credit rating upgrade of the U.S. automaker in 2013 will help distance the company from the stigma of its 2009 bankruptcy restructuring.
"We lose the stigma of 'Government Motors'," GM Treasurer James Davlin said on Sunday during a speech at a conference of automotive analysts. "People will be more focused on the things that they should, which is our underlying operations."
The U.S. Treasury outlined plans last month to sell its GM stake over the next 12 to 15 months. Last week, Chief Executive Dan Akerson said he expects GM to earn an investment-grade credit rating in 2013.
GM is already "trending toward investment grade," Davlin said. He pointed to GM's eleven-quarter streak of profits, its large financial cushion and its strong position in the world's two largest automotive markets, the United States and China.
"We want to ensure we have the liquidity to make it through the cyclicality of the industry," Davlin said, speaking to reporters and analysts a day before the Detroit auto show.
Until recently, uncertainty over when and how the U.S. Treasury would sell its 26-percent stake hurt GM's overall market value, Davlin said. But GM shares have risen nearly 20 percent since the U.S. government announced its exit strategy.
GM shares are ended at $30.36 per share on Friday.
Still GM has a number of challenges ahead, most prominently of which is Europe. GM is struggling to stem years of losses in the depressed and highly competitive European market where its core brands are Opel and UK-based Vauxhall.
It has made inroads in restructuring its European operations, including announcing plans to close its assembly plant in Bochum, Germany. But Akerson said he is not yet satisfied with GM's current position.
"That's probably my greatest concern -- how quickly can we turn that around," Davlin said, of Europe.
He also predicted that the U.S. dollar would rise against the Japanese yen and the euro this year. This would represent a "slight headwind" to GM, which must convert its earnings overseas into U.S. dollars. GM is also expecting a stable U.S. economy in 2013.
"We don't see a big rebound in the economy or a return to financial doldrums," Davlin said, of 2013.

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NHL-League owners approve new labor deal

Jan 9 (Reuters) - The National Hockey League's (NHL) board of governors ratified the tentative labor deal on Wednesday, bringing players one step closer to playing after a four-month lockout that threatened to wipe out the entire season.
Requiring a simple majority to pass, league owners voted unanimously to approve the tentative agreement that was agreed to early on Sunday after a marathon 16-hour bargaining session.
The NHL Players' Association are expected to vote on the deal on Friday and Saturday.
If the players approve the deal it will remove the final obstacle standing in the way of what is expected to be a 48-game regular season that would open on Jan. 19. (Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto; Editing by Frank Pingue)

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UPDATE 1-NHL-Maple Leafs fire Brian Burke as general manager

* Maple Leafs failed to make playoffs during Burke's tenure
* Toronto placed 13th in the Eastern Conference last season (Adds quotes, detail)
TORONTO, Jan 9 (Reuters) - The Toronto Maple Leafs fired President and General Manager Brian Burke on Wednesday in a shock move just days before the National Hockey League returns to action following a bitter labor dispute with players.
Assistant General Manager Dave Nonis will replace Burke, who is remaining with the Maple Leafs team as a senior advisor.
"This is a decision the board and myself made collectively," Tom Anselmi, president of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment told a packed news conference at the team arena. "It's not the product of any one incident or any one thing.
"The leadership change is more about a tone, a voice of leadership, than it is about changing gears and going in a different direction."
Burke arrived in Toronto to great fanfare in 2008, heralded as the architect who would rebuild the storied franchise to its former glory and bring the hockey-mad city its first Stanley Cup since 1967.
But in four seasons under Burke's watch the Maple Leafs failed to make the playoffs.
The Maple Leafs, who last year were rated by Forbes as the first ice hockey team to be worth $1 billion, have not made the playoffs since 2004 and are coming off a 13th place finish in the 15-team Eastern Conference.
Burke, who was also general manager for the United States national men's ice hockey team that won the silver medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics, won a Stanley Cup as general manager of the Anaheim Ducks in 2007.
He also served as general manager of the Hartford Whalers and Vancouver Canucks.
Unafraid to speak his mind, Burke brought a swagger and fondness for a physical, hard-nosed brand of hockey saying his teams would play with truculence and be held accountable.
CONTROVERSIAL TRADES
His managerial style was characterized by bold signings and controversial trades but ultimately could not build the winner he promised.
Burke's time in Toronto was also punctuated by feuds with the media and personal tragedy, as he dealt with the death of his 21-year-old son Brendan, who was killed in a car accident in 2010 shortly after revealing he was gay.
In the following years, Burke became an advocate for anti-bullying and gay rights committing more and more of his time to those causes.
With his team continuing to lose, Burke came under attack for a lack of focus that reached a peak two years ago when he paid a visit to troops in Afghanistan during the crucial trade deadline.
Anselmi made it clear that Burke's personal life played no part in his departure.
"The news is coming as a shock but the decision didn't happen overnight," said Anselmi. "This is a conversation myself and the board have been having for several months.
"Did the four years of missing the playoffs factor into the discussion with the shareholders? Sure it did ... but at the end of the day it was really looking for a different voice."
Despite Anselmi's insistence that the discussion had been ongoing for awhile the news came as surprise to everyone, including Burke, who learned of his firing as he was preparing to fly to New York for a Board of Governors meetings.
"It's a shock for a lot of people," said Nonis, who was general manager of the Canucks for four years prior to being brought in by Burke as his assistant in 2008. "We're not going to spend a lot of time grieving ... we have things to do."

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Maple Leafs fire Brian Burke as general manager

TORONTO (Reuters) - The Toronto Maple Leafs fired President and General Manager Brian Burke on Wednesday in a shock move just days before the National Hockey League returns to action following a bitter labor dispute with players.
Assistant General Manager Dave Nonis will replace Burke, who is remaining with the Maple Leafs team as a senior advisor.
"This is a decision the board and myself made collectively," Tom Anselmi, president of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment told a packed news conference at the team arena. "It's not the product of any one incident or any one thing.
"The leadership change is more about a tone, a voice of leadership, than it is about changing gears and going in a different direction."
Burke arrived in Toronto to great fanfare in 2008, heralded as the architect who would rebuild the storied franchise to its former glory and bring the hockey-mad city its first Stanley Cup since 1967.
But in four seasons under Burke's watch the Maple Leafs failed to make the playoffs.
The Maple Leafs, who last year were rated by Forbes as the first ice hockey team to be worth $1 billion, have not made the playoffs since 2004 and are coming off a 13th place finish in the 15-team Eastern Conference.
Burke, who was also general manager for the United States national men's ice hockey team that won the silver medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics, won a Stanley Cup as general manager of the Anaheim Ducks in 2007.
He also served as general manager of the Hartford Whalers and Vancouver Canucks.
Unafraid to speak his mind, Burke brought a swagger and fondness for a physical, hard-nosed brand of hockey saying his teams would play with truculence and be held accountable.
CONTROVERSIAL TRADES
His managerial style was characterized by bold signings and controversial trades but ultimately could not build the winner he promised.
Burke's time in Toronto was also punctuated by feuds with the media and personal tragedy, as he dealt with the death of his 21-year-old son Brendan, who was killed in a car accident in 2010 shortly after revealing he was gay.
In the following years, Burke became an advocate for anti-bullying and gay rights committing more and more of his time to those causes.
With his team continuing to lose, Burke came under attack for a lack of focus that reached a peak two years ago when he paid a visit to troops in Afghanistan during the crucial trade deadline.
Anselmi made it clear that Burke's personal life played no part in his departure.
"The news is coming as a shock but the decision didn't happen overnight," said Anselmi. "This is a conversation myself and the board have been having for several months.
"Did the four years of missing the playoffs factor into the discussion with the shareholders? Sure it did ... but at the end of the day it was really looking for a different voice."
Despite Anselmi's insistence that the discussion had been ongoing for awhile the news came as surprise to everyone, including Burke, who learned of his firing as he was preparing to fly to New York for a Board of Governors meetings.
"It's a shock for a lot of people," said Nonis, who was general manager of the Canucks for four years prior to being brought in by Burke as his assistant in 2008. "We're not going to spend a lot of time grieving ... we have things to do."

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Samsung forced to reveal Galaxy sales data to Apple

Samsung (005930) was found to have infringed upon six of Apple’s patents this past August and ordered to pay the company $1.05 billion in damages. Apple (AAPL) is also seeking additional damages after its bid to blocks sales of eight Samsung devices failed. In order to asses the damages, Apple requested that Samsung hand over its sales data for its popular Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets. The company refused, however, in an effort to protect its confidential pricing details and profit margins.
[More from BGR: ‘iPhone 5S’ to reportedly launch by June with multiple color options and two different display sizes]
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh recently ruled that Samsung must file an exhibit listing the total number of units of sold during certain time periods, Bloomberg reported. In a separate order, the Judge granted Samsung its request to delay the publication of part of a sealed document that showed per-unit operating profit for two of its phones.
[More from BGR: Nokia predicted to abandon mobile business, sell assets to Microsoft and Huawei in 2013]
Koh denied most of Apple’s and Samsung’s other requests to seal documents, noting that here isn’t a “compelling reason” that would require them to be sealed.

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Apple may have sold up to 4 million iPhones to businesses in Q4

As we’ve mentioned countless times, it’s a good thing that RIM (RIMM) will release BlackBerry 10 soon, because otherwise Apple (AAPL) and Android will continue to wreck its market share among enterprise users. Benzinga reports that Trip Chowdhry, a managing director at Global Equities Research, has put out a research note estimating that Apple sold between 3 million and 4 million iPhones to businesses over the past quarter, some of whom have switched over from BlackBerry.
[More from BGR: ‘iPhone 5S’ to reportedly launch by June with multiple color options and two different display sizes]
“This figure emerges from a combination of new purchase of iPhones and users switching to iPhones from Blackberry,” Chowdhry writes. “After the two-year contract expiration on Apple iPhone[s], [the] majority of the enterprises have replaced their employees’ current phones with the new iPhone 5.”
[More from BGR: Nokia predicted to abandon mobile business, sell assets to Microsoft and Huawei in 2013]
As for reasons why more companies are switching to the iPhone, Chowdhry says that salespeople for key enterprise apps such as Salesforce, Workday and VMware are increasingly “demonstrating their enterprise offering on iPhones, which is also acting as a trigger for enterprises to purchase iPhones for their employees.” Chowdhry also thinks that the advent of mobile device management software has boosted the iPhone’s security capabilities and has made it less risky for companies to adopt.

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Everything You Need to Know About Steubenville High's Football 'Rape Crew'

In the past 24 hours, the story of an alleged rape in the small, football-driven Ohio town of Steubenville has transformed from a local controversy with a curious social-media angle to an all-out Internet crusade, with potential cover-ups, allegations of prosecutors colluding with coaches, disgusting new video, and hackers to the rescue. Here's a primer on what looks like it may become one of the most emotional and controversial news narratives of the new year:
RELATED: Inside the Anonymous Hacking File on the Steubenville 'Rape Crew'
So there was a rape in this small town?
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Well, it's not that simple, but allegedly yes: Two 16-year-old boys from Steubenville High are each facing a rape charge for the assault in August of a 16-year-old girl apparently from across the Ohio River in Weirton, West Virginia.
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How come we're only hearing about this now?
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Because a lengthy New York Times story on the case last month got lost in the spotlight on the Newtown school shootings, maybe, or because the Anonymous hacking collective started calling major attention to it this week.
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But what makes this rape case different?
You see, Steubenville is the stuff of Friday Night Lights. The 19,000-person eastern Ohio town is a giant football community, and this alleged rape involves member of their storied Big Red team. "Everybody around here goes to games on Friday nights, and I mean everybody — people come for miles," a local told the Times's Juliet Macur and Nate Schweber. "It's basically the small-town effect. People live and die based on Big Red because they usually win and it makes everybody feel good about themselves when times are tough."
So how did this assault take place?
Well, back on the night of August 11, the alleged victim was at an end-of-summer party and had a lot to drink, police said, when Trent Mays and Malik Richmond allegedly approached her: "Richmond was behind her, with his hands between her legs, penetrating her with his fingers, a witness said," reported the The Times.
And how is that different from all the other assaults against young women in this country?
Here's the chilling part: the alleged victim didn't know she was assaulted until she started to find out about it on social media the next day.
Really? That's pretty gross. How did she find out?
Instagram, YouTube, and some pretty disgusting tweets. And the girl's mother told The Times that her daughter didn't even know the full extent of the attack until a local paper wrote about it the next day. On August 22, Mays and Richmond (right) were arrested on charges of rape and kidnapping. (Defense attorneys did not respond to requests for comment from The Atlantic Wire.)
Why only those two? They were at a party, right? And there were all those tweets?
Well, word spread among the students at or around the party quickly, and as the Cleveland Plain-Dealer reported, "Before the 16-year-old girl’s parents reported the crime to Steubenville police, many of the online posts had been deleted — or so students thought."
We live in an age when social media exists as evidence that can't just disappear, and Alexandria Goddard, who runs a crime blog called Prinniefied.com, turned up those deleted pictures from the night in question. Like this one:

What happened when that got out?
Goddard started posting on August 26, and attorneys for Mays and Richmond filed a defamation lawsuit October 25 — it was dismissed on December 27. But the local press had already picked up the story, and Goddard's site now carries the student Instagram photographer's apology:
“I deeply regret my actions on the night of August 11, 2012. While I wasn’t at the home where the alleged assault took place, there is no doubt that I was wrong to post that picture from an earlier party and tweet those awful comments. Not a moment goes by that I don’t wish I would have never posted that picture or tweeted those comments. I want to sincerely apologize to the victim and her family for these actions. I also want to acknowledge the work of several bloggers, especially Ms. Goddard at Prinniefied.com, in their efforts to make sure the full truth about that terrible night eventually comes out. At no time did my family mean to stop anyone from expressing themselves online – we only wanted to correct what we believed were misstatements that appeared on Ms. Goddard’s blog. I am glad that we have resolved our differences with Ms. Goddard and that she and her contributors can continue their work.” – Cody Saltsman
How come the other kids at the party didn't get in trouble? Isn't that aiding and abetting?
It's not like the cops didn't try: "The thing I found most disturbing about this is that there were other people around when this was going on," Steubenville Police Chief William McCafferty told the Times. "Nobody had the morals to say, 'Hey, stop it, that isn’t right.' ... If you could charge people for not being decent human beings, a lot of people could have been charged that night."
So what happened to the social media evidence? Isn't this supposed to be a case of our times?
That's where the investigation — a preliminary trial is scheduled for February 13 — runs into problems. Despite all the Instagramming and social media sharing, Chief McCafferty told the Times that witnesses failed to come forward:
The city’s police chief begged for witnesses to come forward, but received little response. In time, the county prosecutor and the judge in charge of handling crimes by juveniles recused themselves from the case because they had ties to the football team.
And, well, some of the evidence went "missing":
That player told the police that he was in the back seat of his Volkswagen Jetta with Mays and the girl when Mays proceeded to flash the girl’s breasts and penetrate her with his fingers, while the player videotaped it on his phone. The player, who shared the video with at least one person, testified that he videotaped Mays and the girl “because he was being stupid, not making the right choices.” He said he later deleted the recording.
Is anyone questioning the two boys' guilt?
Yes. About half the town of Steubenville, actually. Five months later, local students are still blaming the alleged victim for bringing the attack upon herself — she has been referred to on Facebook as "train whore":

And some, like one of Steubenville High's 19 football coaches, are blaming her for shaming the storied program:
"The rape was just an excuse, I think," said the 27-year-old Hubbard, who is No. 2 on the Big Red’s career rushing list.
"What else are you going to tell your parents when you come home drunk like that and after a night like that?” said Hubbard, who is one of the team’s 19 coaches. "She had to make up something. Now people are trying to blow up our football program because of it."
If not everyone believes the rape happened, aren't the town's football allegiances going to get in the way of a fair trial?
Well, yes, there's this from the Times report: "the county prosecutor and the judge in charge of handling crimes by juveniles recused themselves from the case because they had ties to the football team."
Wait, is this some sort of cover-up?
Well, that's why the hacktivist collective known as Anonymous — and, more specifically, one of its  cells known as Knightsec — got involved. The hackers, and their partners at the site LocalLeaks, are "giving a voice to the victim of this horrible crime" by rounding up new information that the police haven't been able to — or at least that hasn't been made publicly available in advance of next month's trial. They seem to believe that there are more people involved, that there are more victims, that the accused are getting special treatment because they are football players, and that there's a bigger group of boys involved, which Anonymous has dubbed the "Rape Crew." Oh, and they've set up Occupy Steubenville protests too.
Why do they think there's a cover-up, exactly?
For starters, Steubenville High head coach Reno Saccoccia didn't even bench the players involved. The Times wrote:
Saccoccia, pronounced SOCK-otch, told the principal and school superintendent that the players who posted online photographs and comments about the girl the night of the parties said they did not think they had done anything wrong. Because of that, he said, he had no basis for benching those players.
....
Approached in November to be interviewed about the case, Saccoccia said he did not "do the Internet," so he had not seen the comments and photographs posted online from that night. When asked again about the players involved and why he chose not to discipline them, he became agitated.
"You made me mad now," he said, throwing in several expletives as he walked from the high school to his car.
Nearly nose to nose with a reporter, he growled: "You're going to get yours. And if you don't get yours, somebody close to you will."
So is the country prosecutor trying to get her son and his teammates off the hook?
That's one of many new alleged details Anonymous and Local Leaks claim they have evidence of, in a document dump that started Wednesday, which they're calling The Steubenville Files. We detailed the findings already, and we're not sure of their sourcing, but their leaks suggest that the football coach and the country Sheriff are friends. And even though the boys will now be tried as juveniles, they allege that Saccoccia has ties in the juvenile court system.
Wait, how many moer people are involved in the assault?
The hackers allege that there are more than two boys who perpetrated the alleged crime. They also suggest that one of the parties that the unconscious girl was dragged to actually took place at the county prosecutor's house. The leaks read:
When the family of the victim went to file the charges, Jane Hanlin [the prosecutor] was present. She strongly discouraged them from filing. Hanlin frightened not only the victim, but the parents as well. Telling them that her name was going to be dragged through the mud, she will be in and out of court for well over two years, the press wouldn’t leave any of the family alone once the crime was made public. Scared out of their wits, the parents said they didn’t want that and Hanlin then said not to worry just leave it up to her and the detectives on the case.
And the hackers even dug up this video that had been deleted, which we showed and warned you about yesterday, of a former Steubenville student laughing about the attack:
Should we trust this new info?
Anonymous is notorious for doing borderline criminal fact-finding with good intentions. Just by bringing more Internet attention to the case, they've already pushed it forward. They continue to ask for the witness accounts that the town police chief has been asking for.
But the kid in that video up there will have his name attached to this case for years to come. And while he might deserve it, there's also a question of vigilanteism, since Anonymous has already published the personal information of certain other students it's convinced belong to this "Rape Crew":

How emotional should everyone get about all this before the trial?
Well, just this week Congress failed to pass the Violence Against Women Act, which is supposed to help protect women against assault and encourage them to come out in public when assaults do happen. The bill's failure, for the first time since 1994, is sort of poetic.

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Storm leaves Gaza man dead, Jerusalem snowed in

Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2013. In Gaza, civil defense spokesman Mohammed al-Haj Yousef said …more
JERUSALEM (AP) — A Gaza health official says a Palestinian man was electrocuted after being struck by a power cable snapped loose by ferocious winter winds, while a rare snowstorm paralyzed traffic in Jerusalem, its suburbs and the nearby West Bank.
Ashraf al-Kidra says the 24-year-old died late Wednesday in the accident, which left four others injured. While heavy rains have subsided, wind gusts continue to wreak havoc with the territory's electrical supply, and power has been cut off this week for up to 14 hours a day.
On Thursday, several inches of snow piled up in Jerusalem, its environs and the West Bank for the first time in five years, shuttering schools and crippling transportation.

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