Hack

The report issued last week by the Justice Department's inspector general only confirmed what many had long suspected: Since 2002, the Bush administration has worked to deliberately undermine the department's independence from political meddling by packing it with conservative ideologues. The report said administration officials trampled the department's long-standing policy of merit-based recruiting in favor of political litmus tests that systematically weeded out Democrats and liberals.

It was 2003, it was Vegas, and Johnny Long was a rock star. He slung the blue speaker badge around his neck - careful to make sure everyone could see it - and strutted through the DEF CON hacker convention with his nose in the air and his ears set to whisper mode, listening for the buzz. Too cool to make eye contact, the 32-year-old cut a path through the crowd, which was mostly made up of men wearing some variation of a black T-shirt, the unofficial uniform for the three-day conference.

On September 3, 2007, SHARON ARLENE (nee McVicker) STONESIFER of Upperco, beloved wife of Ralph L Stonesifer. Mother of Michelle A. Stonesifer, Cherie R. and her husband Nearmon E. Barrett, IV. Grandmother of Dominic R. and Dalton R. Barrett. Daughter of Bernard D. McVicker and Ruth (nee Gover) Hack. Sister of Bernard D. McVicker, Jr., Roland McVicker, Sheila Overholtzer, Brenda Covey, Terri McVicker and the late Valerie McVicker. Step-Daughter of Herman Hack and June McVicker. Services from the ELINE FUNERAL HOME, 11824 Reisterstown Road (at Franklin Boulevard)

A teenage boy was fatally shot and two men were seriously wounded last night as they sat in a "hack" cab in Southwest Baltimore, city police said. The driver, an unidentified woman, was not injured by the gunfire reported about 9:30 p.m. in the 2300 block of Frederick Ave. They were all seated in the car, parked at a Citgo gas station, when at least one gunman approached and fired into the vehicle, hitting the youth in the head and the men each in...

An Edgewater teenager who infiltrated Army computers and was part of a virtual hacking group that charged $1.4 million on others' credit cards in 2003 has pleaded guilty to 11 criminal counts. William Matthew Byrum, who was 16 when he learned hacking how-tos in chat rooms, pleaded guilty Friday in Anne Arundel County Circuit Court to one count of illegally accessing a computer and 10 counts of fraudulently using stolen personal information to spend between $3,000 and $4,000 on a PlayStation, T-shirts and more.

SAN FRANCISCO -- One is the daughter of Las Vegas performers who entered the business world as a secretary and rose to the top of a major investment company. Another is a legendary financier married briefly to the country's best-selling romance novelist and who lately became a novelist himself, with markedly less success. The third is a top nuclear physicist and former White House science adviser who liked to tell people he met on airplanes that he made earthquakes for a living. All are at the center of a broadening criminal probe and corporate scandal that has Silicon Valley wondering what went wrong at Hewlett-Packard Co., the iconic company that for decades was considered such an upstanding corporate citizen that "the HP Way" became a type of shorthand for honesty and fair dealing.

On Friday, April 14, 2006, SELMA DREYER (nee Levin) beloved wife of the late Henry Dreyer, loving mother of Lois Hack of Venice, FL and Ellen Guss of Scottsdale, AZ, devoted mother-in-law of David Hack and Gordon Guss, beloved sister of Naomi Dreyer of Baltimore, MD, loving grandmother of Joseph and Karen Guss, Gary and Gayle Guss, Debra Dauer, Ilysa and William Cohen, beloved great-grandmother of Sean Dauer, Amanda and Molly Cohen. Services and interment will be the held at Beth Jacob Congregation Cemetery-Finksburg on Sunday, April 16 at 10 A.M. Please omit flowers.

Avi Rubin is known for annoying large companies and important people. Two years ago, the Johns Hopkins University professor first alerted the country to troubling vulnerabilities in electronic voting, much to the consternation of election officials and machine-maker Diebold Election Systems. Then earlier this year, Texas Instruments similarly was none too pleased when Rubin's team of what he calls "super geniuses" broke the encryption on its wireless gas payment cards and car keys - a potential threat to millions of consumers.

THE INTERNECINE disputes at the Baltimore Board of Liquor License Commissioners have reduced the agency to a bunch of political do-nothings. Citizen complaints of noisy, unruly bars and taverns have been ignored. Inactive liquor licenses have been left to molder with some holders continuing to pay yearly fees in violation of the law. And now the state prosecutor has launched an investigation - at the request of two former commissioners who were accused of wrongdoing by the board's chief inspector.

Curling not a sport? Tell it to my hamstring. Sure, it looks simple on TV. Grab the polished granite stone by its convenient handle and slide it along the ice in one, smooth motion. Two teammates with little brooms tidy up along the way with frantic sweeping motions until your rock knocks away the other team's rock or your rock blocks your opponent's next shot or you put your rock in the middle of the bull's-eye. As simple as playing football on a cafeteria table with a wooden ice cream spoon.