www.tomsguide.com – “How to Hack Into a City's Power Grid” – February 28^th, 2014:

Employees are the weakest link when securing industrial control systems that run power plants, municipal water supplies, electric grids and other pieces of critical infrastructure, a professional hacker said at the RSA conference here in San Francisco.

"The objective is simple — to gain access," Andrew Whitaker, director of the Cyber Attack Penetration Division at the Reston, Va.-based Knowledge Consulting Group, told the audience of information-technology professionals. "We target SCADA engineers. You know how to get into industrial control systems."

“Then we need physical access,” Whitaker said. “We’ll hop fences or figure out ways to walk into buildings”

It’s also quite easy to create a fake corporate badge, Whitaker explained – and then “tailgate” a group of legitimate employees who will glance at the badge and let the wearer in. “Thanks to all the smokers out there,” he joked, “for leaving doors unlocked” and not looking too hard at a new employee who seems to cough a lot when he smokes.

www.kirotv.com – “Woman speaks out about backseat attack” – February 26^th, 2014:

Tacoma, Wash. — "I thought he was going to kill me," Marilyn Sirmans said as she described what it was like to get into her car and get attacked by a man hiding in the back seat. "The first thing is I'm dead", said Sirmans. "He's definitely going to rape me and kill me."

Sirmans said on the night of Feb. 13, just before 10, the man asked her for a light as she walked into a Safeway supermarket at 72nd and Portland in south Tacoma. She gave him a light, then went into shop. Sirmans said while she was in the store the man entered her car through an unlocked door and hid in the back seat. He tried to attack her as she was driving away and heading home. "He jumped in between the seats, so the only thing I could do was I slammed on the brakes as hard as I could and threw him into the dashboard. It kind of stunned him," Sirmans said. "I'm just screaming for him to get out. (I've) never been so scared." Sirmans said leaving the car unlocked was a mistake, but added she's always felt safe in the neighborhood where she grew up. "Bad mistake, big mistake," she said.

Lansing (Michigan) State Journal - "17-year-old accused of sexually assaulting woman in East Lansing while she slept" - February 25th, 2014: 

A 17-year-old from Commerce Township is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in her home early Sunday while she slept.

Darcel Johnson Jr. was arraigned Tuesday in 54B District Court on two sexual assault counts including first-degree criminal sexual conduct. He also is charged with possession of marijuana and being a minor in possession of alcohol.

Johnson is accused of entering the home in the 500 block of Evergreen Avenue through an unlocked door and sexually assaulting the female resident who was sleeping at the time, police said. Officers were dispatched to the home at about 5:30 a.m., said East Lansing police Capt. Jeff Murphy.

A preliminary hearing, which determines if there is enough evidence for a trial, is set for March 7. Judge Andrea Larkin set bond at $5,000, court records show. Larkin said Johnson must live at his parents’ home and ordered a 10 p.m. curfew. 

Youngstown (Ohio) Vindicator – “Man gets high bond in assault” – February 20^th, 2014:

A man charged with two misdemeanors was given a $40,000 bond Wednesday at his arraignment in municipal court.

Danny Trevathan, 44, of Youngstown, was arraigned before Magistrate Anthony Sertick on charges of assault and aggravated trespass for an attack on a former girlfriend Saturday evening at a West Side home in the 100 block of North Osborn Avenue.

City Prosecutor Dana Lantz asked for the high bond because of Trevathan’s lengthy criminal record and the injuries to the victim. She said Trevathan could not be charged with a felony aggravated burglary or burglary charge because he entered the home through an unlocked door. Lantz said recent appeals court rulings say some sort of stealth or force must be shown to file a burglary charge, and because Trevathan entered through an unlocked door, there was no force or stealth involved.

Lantz said the victim recently had broken up with Trevathan and that he continued to keep in contact with her. She did not want him in her house, but a family member left the door unlocked.

She posted a bloody picture of herself on a social-media website, which is when police were called by her sister just after midnight Sunday.

Reports said that besides cuts and bruises on her face, there also was a hole in the wall where her head was shoved through, and she also was choked. Lantz said the victim feared for her safety.

Lantz said Trevathan has past convictions for aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery, attempted felonious assault, being a felon in possession of a firearm and abuse of a corpse.

Corvallis (Oregon) Gazette-Times Police Log - Thursday, February 20th, 2014:

A man reported that someone stole about a dozen iPad Minis from his apartment, valued at nearly $6,000. He told police he was preparing to send them to his friends in China because the electronics are cheaper to purchase in the United States. He guessed that the burglar entered through his unlocked front door.

Daily Breeze (Torrance, California) – Police Log: Beach Cities – February 18^th, 2014:

El Segundo:

Residential burglary: Police took a report Feb. 12 from the 700 block of Lomita Street. Entry through an unlocked door. Firearms and jewelry.

The Journal Times (Racine, Wisconsin) - Mom charged with prostitution, child abandonment — left kids alone to meet 'john' – February 17^th, 2014:

A Racine mother spent her 22nd birthday on Monday being charged with prostituting herself so she could pay rent. Investigators said Brittney D. Booker allegedly left her 2- and 5-year-old children home alone to meet with her client, who turned out to be an undercover investigator posing as a john.

Booker allegedly told investigators she paid $3 to post the online ad and “intended to use the money she earned to pay rent.” The complaint didn’t state on which website her ad was placed.

Booker asked investigators to check on her two children, giving them two different addresses. She later said they were home alone, sleeping on the couch with the door unlocked, according to the complaint. At 1:55 a.m. on Sunday, officers found them asleep on the couch inside the home, which they described as “filthy.” They reported that the children “smelled unclean,” the complaint stated.

Booker was to appear in court Monday on the charges, but a woman with a similar name was incorrectly brought to the hearing room from jail. That woman is not charged with misdemeanor prostitution.