Police in Houston say a man who had an AR-15 rifle, a shotgun, handgun, and ammunition in his hotel room had no intention to use them

• A man in Houston, Texas, is facing multiple charges after police found a small arsenal of weapons and ammunition in his hotel room.
• Employees at the Hyatt Regency initially called police early Sunday morning because the man was drunk at the hotel bar and refused to leave. Police later found an AR-15 rifle, a shotgun, handgun, and ammunition in his top-floor room.
• Police identified the man as 49-year-old Russell Lawrence Ziemba. Investigators said they do not believe Ziemba intended to use the weapons.

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Police in Texas arrested a man on charges of unlawfully carrying a weapon after they found an AR-15 rifle, a shotgun, handgun, and ammunition in his top-floor hotel room at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Houston.

Hotel employees initially called police early Sunday morning after Russell Lawrence Ziemba refused to leave a bar, the local news station KPRC reported. Responding police called for backup at 1:30 a.m. local time and found ammunition "lying around the man's hotel room," according to Houston Police Lt. Gordon Macintosh.

Law-enforcement officials said Ziemba told them he had planned to celebrate New Year's Eve and had been "drinking for a few days," KPRC said, citing Houston police. Chief Art Acevedo said Ziemba told investigators he brought the weapons to his room because he feared they might be stolen from a truck that he parked in a garage.

A gun show was underway at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston on Sunday, but police have not said whether Ziemba had visited the show or acquired his weapons from there.

Investigators said they do not believe Ziemba intended to use the weapons found in his room. Acevedo said there were no specific threats to Houston ahead of New Year's Eve celebrations getting underway Sunday night. The Hyatt Regency, which was planning festivities of its own, said in a statement:

"The safety and security of our guests and colleagues is our top priority, and consistent with the hotel’s prepared security plans, heightened measures are in place on New Year’s Eve. We are fully cooperating with authorities on an investigation, and further questions should be directed to the Houston Police Department."

The incident with Ziemba closely resembles the events surrounding the Las Vegas massacre in October, during which 64-year-old Stephen Paddock fired on concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest Festival on the Las Vegas Strip. Fifty-eight people were killed and nearly 600 people were injured. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.

Law-enforcement agencies in the US and around the world stepped up measures to protect revelers celebrating New Year's Eve. The New York Police Department conducted specialized training to help officers stop potential suicide bombers, Reuters reported.

In Las Vegas, snipers and spotters, along with additional air support were on hand, with federal authorities stationed at mobile command posts there.

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Multiple deputies are down after police responded to calls of an active shooter in Colorado

"Multiple deputies" were down on Sunday after police responded to a call of an active shooter situation in Littleton, Colorado, a residential area south of Denver, according to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office.

"This morning deputies responded to he Copper Canyon Apartments for a Domestic Disturbance," the sheriff's office said on Twitter. "During the Investigation, shots were fired and multiple deputies were injured. No status on the deputies and no status on civilian injuries. Please avoid this area."

At least eight ambulances arrived on the scene, according to Denver7 News, ABC's affiliate in the area. 

Here was the scene about an hour ago. At least eight ambulances arrived. @DenverChannel pic.twitter.com/CwKfN9XC9s

— Meghan Lopez (@Meghan_Lopez) December 31, 2017

 

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Lawsuits, lies, and Colombian prisons: The downfall of two wildly successful tech entrepreneurs

• Prominent tech entrepreneurs Omar Amanat and Kaleil Isaza Tuzman were found guilty on numerous accounts of fraudulent charges in their dealings with former video management company KIT digital. 
• Both Amanat and Tuzman have led successful but controversial entrepreneurial careers — and their guilty verdict marks a striking fall from prominence. 

---

 

For the past six weeks, a tangled case of complex fraud leveled against two prominent tech entrepreneurs unfolded in federal court. On December 26, the trial's defendants, Omar Amanat and Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, were found guilty on numerous accounts of fraudulent charges, as originally reported by Bloomberg. 

For both Amanat and Tuzman, the conviction is a striking fall from power: The two defendants have made millions of dollars and led successful entrepreneurial careers that have all but unraveled over the course of the past year. 

The court case revealed a series of convoluted legal infractions performed by Amanat and Tuzman in their work with the presently insolvent video-technology company, KIT Digital, a former multi-million dollar leader in the cloud-based video management industry. 

According to Bloomberg, Tuzman, who served as the company's CEO, and Amanat, who dealt in a series of company investments, covered up losses, inflated the value of shares, and defrauded investors. 

The pair are expected to serve a minimum of a decade in jail and their sentencing will be delivered in April 2018. 

Here's a breakdown of Amanat and Tuzman's descent:

Lavish wealth and lurid lawsuits

By the time he was 30 years old, Omar Amanat had sold off his brokerage firm, Tradespace, for $100 million. Amanat was already flush in wealth and had turned his interests towards philanthropy and film production, flaunting connections with A-list celebrities like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. He was known for his lavish lifestyle, an tendency for quoting the Persian poet Rumi, and appearing in designer garb alongside his wife, supermodel Helena Houdova, at high-profile events. 

But despite Amanat's effortless exterior, a series of sensational controversies had begun to dog his career. 

In 2014, a multi-million-dollar real estate deal in Thailand collapsed amid a lurid lawsuit with Amanat and his business partner, the Russian oligarch Vladislav Doronin.

Two years later, Amanat's name was once more featured prominently in the papers. He had leased his lavish Hampton home to a hedge-fund trader, Brett Barna, who allegedly trashed the $20 million estate in a widely publicized madcap party. 

The New York Times reported that  Amanat had threatened to sue Barna for $1 million and was hounding him for thousands of dollars in damages.  

But Amanat's threats were short-lived. Days after he had threatened to sue, Amanat received a visit in his New Jersey home from the FBI, which charged Amanat with multiple counts of fraud.

Right now, Amanat awaits his sentencing in jail. 

On his personal website, he describes the trial's outcome as an "injustice in America."

"The facts of this case will all be made plain to see shortly," Amanat wrote. "You’ve only seen snippets. You’ve only seen what they want you to see."

A successful dot-com millionaire serves time in a Colombian prison

Kaleil Isaza Tuzman is considered one of the preeminent figures of the dot-com boom. 

 A Harvard graduate, Tuzman worked as an analyst for five years on Wall Street, before launching his own company, govWorks.com, which is featured in the documentary 'Startup.com.'

Tuzman, who is considered an expert in the field of digital media, went on to join KIT Digital as the company's chief executive.

Tuzman was charged with fraud for his involvement with KIT Digital in 2015. He was reportedly apprehended on a business trip in Bogotá, Colombia by Colombian officials, which had been sent to arrest Tuzman at the behest of the US government. Tuzman spent 10 months in "La Picota," a notorious local prison.

Tuzman described his prison time to the New York Times as a harrowing ordeal: The former CEO claims he was abused, raped, and threatened at knifepoint by Colombian authorities. Multiple attempts on Tuzman's behalf by his attorneys to the US Embassy were met to no avail. 

He was later extradited to the US where he faced trial alongside Amanat.

SEE ALSO: The father of virtual reality sounds off on the changing culture of Silicon Valley, the impending #MeToo backlash, and why he left Google for Microsoft

DON'T MISS: The 50 best-paying big companies, according to employees

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NOW WATCH: Thursday’s big net neutrality vote could drastically change the internet — here’s what it means for you

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Las Vegas is bolstering security for New Year's Eve with snipers, the National Guard, and a hostage rescue team

• Las Vegas is bolstering its security measures for its New Year's Eve celebrations on the Strip, which more than 300,000 people are expected to attend.
• The heightened security comes in the wake of a deadly mass shooting three months ago, in which a gunman opened fire on concertgoers from a nearby hotel.
• Las Vegas has received assistance from the Department of Homeland Security, including extra officers, snipers, a hostage rescue team, and helicopters.

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Three months after a gunman rained bullets on a country music festival in Las Vegas, the city is preparing for more than 300,000 people to descend on the Strip to celebrate New Year's Eve — and scores of local and federal officers will be there in the hopes of preventing another massacre.

For the first time in the city's history, the Department of Homeland Security has given Las Vegas's New Year's Eve festivities its top special assessment rating, a designation that comes with extra resources like federal officers, intelligence, snipers, an FBI hostage rescue team, and helicopters with tactical security forces, The New York Times reported.

The October 1 massacre, which killed 58 and left hundreds injured, was the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, and has served as a warning to large cities hosting major public events that could be seen as targets.

In an effort to combat that threat, cities like Las Vegas and New York have bolstered their security plans for New Year's Eve, when celebrations are expected to draw hundreds of thousands of revelers.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, for instance, said it will deploy every single officer to work a shift between New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.

"We need to be able to focus on multiple shooters, on one or more above the ground — we've got to multiply our forces," Chief Chris Jones told The Times.

He added that more than 5,000 officers will be placed along the Strip, and nearly all of the four miles it comprises will be closed to traffic.

'Out of an abundance of caution'

The New York Police Department, too, is sending in rooftop observation teams and counter-snipers into buildings to spot or disarm any high-rise shooters taking aim at the crowds watching the ball drop in Times Square, The Times reported.

The NYPD, keenly aware of recent terrorist attacks in New York City, are sending out Labrador retrievers that can smell explosive particles on would-be suicide bombers, like the man who partially detonated a makeshift bomb in one of the city's underground passageways earlier this month.

The NYPD is also placing sand trucks around Times Square to prevent vehicle attacks, like the one that killed eight people on Halloween after a driver plowed his rented pickup truck down a lower Manhattan bike path.

NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill said at a press conference Thursday there were no direct, credible threats to the city's New Year's Eve events, but the security measures were being tightened regardless.

"Out of an abundance of caution, however, you'll see a stronger police presence out there than we've seen even in recent years," O'Neill said.

SEE ALSO: The Bronx fire that killed 12 was apparently caused by a 3-year-old child playing with the burners on a stove

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NOW WATCH: A mother and daughter stopped speaking after Trump was elected — here's their emotional first conversation after the long silence

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New, grisly displays in a Mexican tourist hub underscore spiraling narco violence

• Bodies were found hanging from bridges in Baja California Sur several days before Christmas, along with banners known as "narcomantas."
• Such displays were common during previous times of inter-cartel fighting, but it's the first time one has appeared in Baja California Sur.
• Violence has risen precipitously through Mexico over the past three years.

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During the early morning hours of December 20, the bodies of six men were found hanging from bridges in the northwestern Mexican state of Baja California Sur, a popular tourist hub where deadly violence has risen precipitously in recent years.

Around 4:30 a.m., two bodies were found hanging from a bridge near the international airport in the municipality of Los Cabos, at the southern end of the state. Around 5 a.m., two more bodies were found in Cabo San Lucas, hanging from a bridge over a highway connecting that city to San Jose del Cabo.

Around 6 a.m., another two bodies were found hanging from a highway bridge near the international airport in the capital, La Paz, which is north of Los Cabos.

There has been a sharp increase in violence — much of it attributed to fighting between organized-crime groups — in Baja California Sur over the past three years.

The 650 homicide victims in the state between January and November this year was a 223% increase and a 284% increase over the same periods in 2016 and 2015, respectively.

But the December 20 incidents were reportedly the first time bodies had been found hung from bridges in the state.

'A cleansing'

Narcomantas — public announcements by criminals that often accompany corpses — were left with the bodies.

They were attributed to the "Guzmanes y Tegoripeños" gang, and one reportedly said, in part, "This is what will happen to anyone who does not fall into line with us. It has been made more than clear that we hold all the power and that Baja north and south are ours."

Several such signs have been attributed to the gang over the past two months, threatening government officials and boasting of "a cleansing" in the area.

A sign attributed to the group also appeared in the days after Baja California Sur's human-rights ombudsman and his son were gunned down in late November.

The gang's name appears to refer to Tegoripa, a small town in Sinaloa state's Badiraguato municipality, which is where Sinaloa cartel chief Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was born. Guzman's surname appears to be the basis for the other half of the gang's name.

Bodies hung from bridges or other structures with narcomantas appeared frequently elsewhere in Mexico during the major cartel clashes of the 2000s and early 2010s.

Several such displays were found around Tijuana in late 2016, and a body was hung from a bridge in nearby Nayarit state a few days before the incident in Baja California Sur, part of a wave of killings in the state suspected of being organized-crime related. Narcomantas were found at the scene of several of those crimes, including at the bridge.

Tourist hubs like Los Cabos have long avoided the kind of bloodshed seen elsewhere in the country during the last decade of its drug war.

But those areas have seen increasing violence in recent months.

Amid the dizzying increase in homicides through Baja California, the Los Cabos municipality, home to Cabo San Lucas, has also seen a spike: from 49 homicide cases (which can contain more than one victim) through all of 2016 to 286 through the first 11 months of this year — a 483% increase.

As of the end of the summer, increasing violence in those places, which has largely taken place outside tourist areas, hadn't appreciably affected tourist activity (though feelings of insecurity among residents have risen).

From June to August, Los Cabos saw a 6% increase in hotel occupancy compared to the previous year, as well as a 17% increase in passenger arrivals during the first nine months of the year.

Nevertheless, violence in those tourist areas did prompt the US State Department to issue a travel warning for Baja California Sur at the end of August. Quintana Roo, home to Cancun and Play del Carmen, was also included.

Many areas of Mexican have been listed for some time, but the August notice was the first time those two states had been included.

At the time, Mexican officials admitted there were areas of concern in the country, but they also said the timing of the notice could have been a sign of political maneuvers by Washington in relation to ongoing NAFTA talks.

SEE ALSO: Deadly violence in Mexico is at record levels, and new crime data adds to the ugly picture

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NOW WATCH: The wives of El Chapo's henchmen reveal how they hid and spent $2 billion

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Comedian Iliza Shlesinger sued for banning men from a comedy show

Brazil captured an alleged member of one Mexico's most powerful drug cartels on his Christmas vacation

• Jose Gonzalez Valencia was arrested at a resort area near Fortaleza in northeastern Brazil.
• Gonzalez Valencia is believed to be a leader of the powerful Jalisco New Generation cartel and is wanted by the US government.
• The CJNG is one of Mexico's most powerful criminal organizations.

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Brazilian police have arrested an alleged Mexican drug boss, federal prosecutors said on Wednesday, in a blow to one of the most powerful organizations in Mexico's criminal underworld.

According to the arrest warrant, police detained Jose Gonzalez Valencia, 42, a leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), with the intention of fulfilling a US extradition request.

Once a little-known gang, the CJNG has grown in recent years to challenge the Sinaloa Cartel of captured kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman for primacy of the drug trade in Mexico.

Gonzalez Valencia had been living in neighboring Bolivia for two years after fleeing Mexico and had entered Brazil as a tourist using a Bolivian passport, Brazilian prosecutors said in a statement.

Gonzalez Valencia was arrested at a beach resort near the coastal city of Fortaleza and brought to the headquarters of the federal police for the state of Ceará. He had been in Brazil on vacation with his family since December 22, a Brazilian police official said, and did not resist arrest.

He was reportedly carrying a Bolivian identification card that declared him a Mexican citizen named Jafett Arias Becerra.

#Jafett #was the name in the false bolivian ID of the #CJNG #Jalisco boss José González Valencia, #La Chepa arrested near #Fortaleza #Brasil pic.twitter.com/LwzqlcyGS5

— maria zuppello (@mzuppy) December 27, 2017

An official at the state prosecutor's office in the western Mexican state of Jalisco — where the CJNG established itself and serves as a base for much of its operations — said Gonzalez Valencia is the brother of Abigael Gonzalez Valencia, a CJNG leader captured in February 2015.

The Jalisco official said Gonzalez Valencia was due to be extradited straight to the US from Brazil.

Abigael Gonzalez Valencia was named by the US as a narcotics trafficker and leader of the Los Cuinis drug-trafficking organization, alongside alleged CJNG chief Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera Cervantes, in April 2015.

"These two organizations have rapidly expanded their criminal empire in recent years through the use of violence and corruption," acting Office of Foreign Asset Control director John E. Smith said at the time. "They now rank among the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in Mexico."

Los Cuinis and the CJNG are tightly allied; some believe Los Cuinis is the financial arm of the CJNG, while others see them as partners. Some reports prior to Gonzalez Valencia's arrest identified him as the overall leader of the two groups.

The CJNG itself originally formed as a faction of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, but it broke away around 2010, assuming control of drug trafficking in Jalisco state. In the years since, CJNG's expansion, first eastward and then northward, has helped push deadly violence to new highs in Mexico.

Along the way, the CJNG has corrupted and bloodied police and military personnel, expanded into the US market, and, according to some, become the US's main supplier of crystal meth.

The CJNG is now considered one of the most powerful criminal groups in Mexico — many see it and the Sinaloa cartel as the only true cartels left, after years of law-enforcement pressure and inter- and intra-cartel fighting caused rival groups to splinter in smaller factions.

Competition between the CJNG and the Sinaloa cartel seemed to accelerate in the months after Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's arrest in January 2016, driving violence in and around Sinaloa state — including the August 2016 kidnapping of at least of one of Guzman's sons, who was returned unharmed.

Fighting between the CJNG and Sinaloa cartels appears to have eased in recent months, but factions of each organization are believed to be competing for control of Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez, both of which are valuable territories for smugglers seeking entry to the voracious US drug market.

(Reporting for Reuters by Lisandra Paraguassu and Lizbeth Diaz; writing by Gram Slattery; editing by Leslie Adler)

SEE ALSO: Deadly violence in Mexico is at record levels, and new crime data adds to the ugly picture

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NOW WATCH: Forget 'El Chapo' — this is Mexico's most powerful drug lord

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Black civil rights leaders say Trump judicial nominee is 'a product of the modern white supremacist machine'

• Civil rights leaders are calling on the Senate to reject Thomas Farr, President Donald Trump's nominee for a federal court in North Carolina.
• William Barber II, president of the North Carolina NAACP, called Farr "a product of the modern white supremacist machine."
• Farr is the latest in a string of federal judicial nominees who progressives, and some Republicans, have argued are unfit to serve.

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Civil rights leaders are calling on the Senate to reject President Donald Trump's nominee to a federal court in North Carolina, arguing that Thomas Farr has long worked to promote racist policies and is "a product of the modern white supremacist machine."

Farr, Trump's pick for the US District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, began his career as counsel to former US Sen. Jesse Helms, a supporter of racial segregation who represented North Carolina for 30 years.

Over the last decade, Farr and his law firm colleagues have defended voting restrictions and identification laws that courts have struck down as deliberately discriminatory. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals found in 2016 that North Carolina's voter restriction laws targeted black communities "with almost surgical precision."

Black civil rights leaders and progressive groups, including the Congressional Black Caucus, are calling on the Senate to reject Farr. In October, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved him in a party-line vote, and Farr is now up for confirmation by the full Senate.

Rev. William Barber II, president of the North Carolina NAACP, wrote in a Tuesday New York Times op-ed that Farr, who he called the most "alarming" of all of Trump's judicial nominees, would pose a direct threat to North Carolina's black communities.

"African-Americans seeking to have their rights protected under federal law have much to fear if Mr. Farr takes the bench," he wrote.

He went on, "Senators from both sides of the aisle must condemn the experience Mr. Farr brings with him. Having practiced white supremacy for decades, Mr. Farr is not likely to withdraw. Every senator who condemned the racism on display in Charlottesville must vote to prevent it from having power in the federal judiciary."

Barber noted that about half of North Carolina's black residents live in the area presided over by the Eastern District. And despite President Barack Obama's efforts to seat two black female nominees on that court, the Eastern District has never had a black judge.

Both of North Carolina's GOP senators, meanwhile, strongly support Farr's nomination.

'A grave disservice'

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus tore into Farr's record in a September letter to the Judicial Committee, pointing to his work on Helms' 1990 Senate campaign, during which postcards were mailed to 100,000 black voters wrongly suggesting they were ineligible to vote and warning they could be arrested and prosecuted for fraud if they tried.

"It is no exaggeration to say that had the White House deliberately sought to identify an attorney in North Carolina with a more hostile record on African-American voting rights and workers' rights than Thomas Farr, it could hardly have done so," the Caucus members wrote.

Farr told the Senate during his September hearing that he only learned of the postcards after they were sent and that he was "appalled" by the strategy. But a former Department of Justice official who investigated the incident has directly contradicted Farr's claim, arguing that he was "certainly involved in the scheme as it was being developed."

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights has accused Farr of lying to the Senate and called on him to withdraw his nomination. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund is calling on the Senate Judiciary Committee to bring Farr back in for more questioning.

"Farr appears to have explicitly misled the Senate about his role in a scheme to intimidate Black North Carolinians and stop them from voting in the 1990 midterm elections," the NAACP wrote last month, arguing that Farr is neither sufficiently qualified nor competent to serve on the federal judiciary.

This comes after the American Bar Associated determined that four of Trump's judicial nominees are "not qualified" to serve on the federal bench. Those listed unqualified by the ABA did not include one nominee, Matthew Petersen, who withdrew his nomination earlier this month after he failed to show basic knowledge of legal procedure.

Petersen's withdrawal was the third by a Trump judicial nominee in 10 days.

Trump, who is filling federal judicial vacancies at a rapid rate, and other GOP leaders have accused the ABA of having a liberal bias.

SEE ALSO: Controversial Trump judicial nominee used to be a ghost hunter and has a cult following for his horror novels

DON'T MISS: Black Alabamians carried Doug Jones to victory — and it should be a warning to Democrats for 2018

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NOW WATCH: Former White House photographer describes what is was like to capture Obama on the worst day of his presidency

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Deadly violence in Mexico is at record levels, and new crime data adds to the ugly picture

• Violence in Mexico has reached record levels, eclipsing levels reached during the depths of inter-cartel warfare in 2011.
• At the state level, violence has grown precipitously in some areas, driven in part by fragmentation of criminal groups.
• Mexico's governing party has pushed for deeper military involvement in crime-fighting.

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With a month left in the year, 2017 has already seen record levels of deadly violence throughout Mexico.

The 2,595 homicide victims recorded across the country in November are second only to the 2,773 registered in October. All together, the numbers vault Mexico to 26,573 homicide victims through the first 11 months of the year — more than in any full year since the government began releasing that statistic in 2014.

The January-November total for homicide victims is a 27% increase over the same period last year, a 55% increase over that period in 2015, and a 67% increase over the first 11 months of 2014. (Mexico's government has also been accused of manipulating crime data to lower the incidence of high-impact crimes like homicide.)

Mexican officials opened 2,212 homicide cases — which can contain more than one victim — in November. That's an average of 73.7 cases each day, and 68% of those involved a firearm.

During the first 11 months of 2017, 23,101 homicide cases were opened — a 23% increase over the same period in 2016.

The total homicide cases for the first 11 months of this year already exceed the number recorded during all of 2011, which was most violent year on record since the government began releasing crime data in 1997.

The homicide rate over the first 11 months of this year, based on the number of cases opened, was 18.7 per 100,000 people, according to Animal Politico. That exceeds the previous high of 17.8 cases per 100,000, registered in 2011.

2017 is also the third consecutive year of increases in the homicide rate over the first 11 months of the year — a cumulative increase of 57%.

At the state level, the increased violence has also been widespread, with some areas seeing a greater intensification than others.

Twenty-eight of Mexico's 32 states have seen an increase in homicides this year in comparison to last year, according to Animal Politico. (One of the four that haven't is Michoacan, a traditional hotspot for drug-related crime.)

Among the states that have seen increases, Baja California Sur, home to the Los Cabos tourist hub, saw the biggest year-to-year increase in homicide victims, rising 223%. Quintana Roo — the state on the opposite site of the country that is home to Cancun and Playa del Carmen — had a 108% increase in homicide victims.

Baja California, the border state where Tijuana is located, saw a 90% increase. Chihuahua, a border state prized by drug traffickers, had a 35% increase. As Mexican security analyst Alejandro Hope noted on Twitter, Baja California had a smiliar number of homicide victims as Mexico state, despite having one-fifth the population.

Colima, a Pacific coast state that has been the site of fighting between the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels, saw the number of homicide victims rise 35% between 2016 and 2017.

But Colima's 2017 homicide numbers were 368% higher than those recorded in 2015, and the state now has Mexico's highest homicide rate: 83 per 100,000 people.

The number of homicide victims rose 38% in Sinaloa, the site of a turf war between factions of the Sinaloa cartel earlier this year.

Nayarit, which borders Sinaloa to the south, saw a dizzying 610% increase, rising from 41 during the first 11 months of 2016 to 291 over that period this year.

Other data included in the government's report, as well as new information included for the first time, sheds more light on the scope and intensify of criminal activity in Mexico this year.

While the total number of crimes reported in the country fell between October and November, the first 11 months of this year have already seen 13% more crimes than were reported all last year.

The total number of violent robberies rose 37.5%, while violent car robberies — car-jackings — have risen 41% during the first 11 months of the year. Of the 23,101 homicide cases opened in January through November this year, 66% of them involved a firearm — up from 61% during the same period last year.

The total number of assaults rose a little more than 12% during the first 11 months of the year, and within that category, assaults with a firearm rose just over 37%, from 5,575 in January through November 2016 to 7,651 during that same period this year.

Two other high-impact crimes, extortion and kidnapping, rose 10% and 3%, respectively, though those crimes often go unreported.

Crime data for November also comes with new categories meant to link the government's numbers to those reported by the national statistical agency and close gaps between the two data sets, according to Animal Politico.

The new data includes 31 new crimes, such as femicide, domestic violence, human trafficking, street-level drug sales, and environmental crimes. It will also contain information on the age and sex of victims.

Among that newly included data, which covers the period from January 2015 to November this year, domestic violence and street-level drug sales were the two most committed crimes. There were 436,145 cases of the former over that period and 113,639 of the latter.

Over that period, there were also 1,525 reported cases of femicide, or homicides that specifically target women.

SEE ALSO: There's a 'double-edged sword' hanging over Mexico's decade-long war on drug cartels

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NOW WATCH: The wives of El Chapo's henchmen reveal how they hid and spent $2 billion

source http://www.businessinsider.com/mexico-record-homicides-new-data-crime-numbers-2017-12

A federal judge has partially lifted the Trump administration's ban on refugees

• A federal judge on Saturday partially lifted a Trump administration ban on certain refugees entering the US.
• US District Judge James Robart ordered the federal government to process certain applications for refugees that have a "bona fide relationship" to a person or entity in the US.
• President Donald Trump restarted the refugee program in October "with enhanced vetting capabilities."

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A federal judge in Seattle on Saturday partially lifted a Trump administration ban on certain refugees after two groups argued that the policy prevented people from some mostly Muslim countries from reuniting with family living legally in the United States.

US District Judge James Robart heard arguments Thursday in lawsuits from the American Civil Liberties Union and Jewish Family Service, which say the ban causes irreparable harm and puts some people at risk. Government lawyers argued that the ban is needed to protect national security.

Robart ordered the federal government to process certain refugee applications but said his directive did not apply to people without a "bona fide relationship" to a person or entity in the United States.

President Donald Trump restarted the refugee program in October "with enhanced vetting capabilities."

The day before his executive order, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke and Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats sent a memo to Trump saying certain refugees must be banned unless additional security measures are implemented.

It applies to the spouses and minor children of refugees who have already settled in the US and suspends the refugee program for people coming from 11 countries, nine of which are mostly Muslim.

In his decision, Robart wrote that "former officials detailed concretely how the Agency Memo will harm the United States' national security and foreign policy interests."

Robart said his order restores refugee procedures in programs to what they were before the memo and noted that this already includes very thorough vetting of individuals.

Saturday's ruling isn't the first time Robart has tangled with the Trump administration on issues regarding immigration and refugees — he famously placed a similar block on Trump's first travel ban earlier this year.

Robart, who has well-known conservative credentials and was appointed to the bench in 2004 by then-President George W. Bush, became a prime target for Trump's outrage in the wake of his February ruling on the travel ban. 

Trump took to Twitter, blasting Robart as a "so-called judge" and accusing him of removing the rule of law from the US.

'Gaps' in the refugee screening process

The ACLU argued the memo provided no evidence for why additional security was needed and didn't specify a timeframe for implementing the changes. The groups say the process for imposing the policy violated a federal law.

August Flentje, a Justice Department attorney, told the judge that the ban is temporary and "is a reasonable and appropriate way for agency heads to tackle gaps" in the screening process.

The lawsuits from the two groups were consolidated and represent refugees who have been blocked from entering the country.

The ACLU represents a Somali man living in Washington state who is trying to bring his family to the US They have gone through extensive vetting, have passed security and medical clearances, and just need travel papers, but those were denied after the ban.

Lisa Nowlin, staff attorney for the ACLU of Washington, said in a statement they were happy for their client — "who has not yet had the opportunity to celebrate a single birthday with his younger son in person — will soon have the opportunity to hold his children, hug his wife in the very near future, and be together again as a family for the first time in four years."

Two other refugees included in the Jewish Family Service lawsuit are former Iraqi interpreters for the US Army whose lives are at risk because of their service.

Another is a transgender woman in Egypt "living in such extremely dangerous circumstances that the US government itself had expedited her case until the ban came down," said Mariko Hirose, a lawyer with the Jewish Family Service case.

Yet another is a single woman in Iraq, Hirose said. Her husband divorced her after she was kidnapped and raped by militants because she worked with an American company. Her family is in the US but she's stranded by the ban, Hirose said.

SEE ALSO: Trump reportedly said Haitians 'all have AIDS' and Nigerians live in 'huts' during outburst on immigration

DON'T MISS: The 10 best cities in the US for immigrants

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NOW WATCH: How much money you need to save each day to become a millionaire by age 65

source http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-judge-partially-lifts-trump-administration-ban-on-refugees-2017-12

Looking to buy some stolen credit card numbers? Just head to Facebook (FB)

• Stolen credit card numbers are openly advertised for sale on Facebook.
• Facebook's Community Standards prohibit such pages and takes them down if they are reported, but they still appear in abundance.
• The profusion of such pages illustrates Facebook's struggle policing its 2-billion member social network.

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For most people, Facebook is a place to go see photos of friends, read news and watch videos. But for a subgroup of shady characters, the social network serves as a handy forum for another hot commodity: credit card numbers.

Dozens of Facebook pages and groups viewed by Business Insider advertise bulk sales of credit card account information. These purveyors of credit card "dumps," a term for stolen credit card accounts obtained through hacking, skimming and other nefarious means, are easily accessible and seemingly rampant on Facebook. 

While Facebook explicitly forbids the sale of credit card information on its 2 billion member social network, examples of the trade are not hard to find. A simple Facebook search for the term "cvv" or "cvv2" — abbreviations for credit card security codes — bring up a cornucopia of pages claiming to buy and sell the goods. 

One such group with the not so stealthy name "Sell CVV- CCV - CC Fullz - Dumps - Bank Login_Dumps with Pin" has 6029 members. Another page titled "Sell cvv" describes itself as a business service in Mobile, Alabama and has 597 likes and 4.8 stars.

Facebook removed both pages after Business Insider inquired about them.

But even several days later, it was not difficult to find countless similar pages on the Facebook. 

"I have cvv all type (visa, master, amex, disco, bin, dob, fulz...) all countries, Dumps Track 1 & 2 pin" read another Facebook page, which listed an address in Russia and contact info using the alias "bestdumpsskimmer36."

While it's unclear whether the credit card account info for sale on the Facebook pages is legitimate, or whether the pages are mere scams designed to ripoff other miscreants, their presence on Facebook is undesirable and problematic either way. And at a time when Facebook is under pressure to do a better job of policing the content on its site — from fake political ads to posts celebrating violence and racism, the proliferation of CVV pages illustrates the scale of the challenge confronting the company. 

The wave of data breaches has led to a glut of stolen credit card info

Angel Grant, director of fraud, risk intelligence, and identity management at the security consultant firm RSA told Business Insider his company has made Facebook aware of the CCV dumps in the past. But he said that the pages are so abundant and pop up so frequently, that Facebook has a hard time keeping up. 

According to a 2016 post by computer security blogger Brian Krebs, fraudsters can use different types of CVV information to create physical clones of credit cards or to make purchases online. The CVV data can range in price from $2 to $20, the post says, though it does not specifically single out Facebook as a market for such data.

While it might seem odd for criminals to openly sell stolen credit card accounts on Facebook, RSA's Grant said there is a good reason for this: the epidemic of data breaches has led to a glut of stolen CVV numbers; prices have plunged and are now chump change for hackers. Some cybercriminals have so much stolen information, they are having a hard time getting it off their hands, and so have resorted to selling it in plain sight.

“They are leveraging existing infrastructure that’s already there," said Grant.

In a statement to Business Insider a Facebook spokesperson said, "Facebook's Community Standards do not allow the promotion or the sale of illegal goods or services including credit card numbers or CVV numbers. Once something is reported to us, our teams review it and will remove it if it violates those policies.”

When questioned further, the spokesperson said that Facebook has a system running in the background to catch threats and remove them before the pubic becomes aware of them. 

SEE ALSO: 'The fight isn’t over': Tech erupts after the FCC's vote to kill net neutrality

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NOW WATCH: The differences that matter between Splenda, Equal, Sweet’N Low, and sugar

source http://www.businessinsider.com/pages-advertising-stolen-credit-card-numbers-are-all-over-facebook-2017-12

First 6 defendants cleared of all charges in anti-Trump Inauguration Day protests that turned violent

• A jury acquitted six defendants on Thursday over their roles in violent protests that erupted on Inauguration Day.
• The defendants argued that they had not participated in any violence, while prosecutors said they were guilty of destroying property and engaging in a riot because they were aware of violent intentions of others.
• The defendants were the first group to stand trial of the dozens of other protesters arrested the same day.

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Six defendants who stood trial over their roles in an Inauguration Day protest in Washington, DC, that turned violent were cleared by a jury of all charges on Thursday.

Each of the defendants had been charged with destruction of property — a felony — and engaging in a riot and conspiring to riot. The verdict came after a nearly four-week trial.

The defendants — Jennifer Armento, Oliver Harris, Brittne Lawson, Michelle Macchio, Christina Simmons, and Alexei Wood — had been part of a larger group encircled by police and arrested after the protests turned destructive. Prosecutors argued that they were among the protesters that smashed windows of businesses and set a limousine on fire, causing damages that totaled $100,000.

Defense attorneys, however, argued that the defendants had not participated in or supported the violence, and the First Amendment protected their rights to participate in the protest despite the violent actions of some.

Thursday's verdict handed down a sweeping victory to protesters and journalists and boded well for the remaining 166 people — known as "J20 protesters" who were arrested during the Inauguration Day protests on January 20 and scheduled for trials throughout 2018. It's unclear whether the government will pursue the remaining cases after Thursday's verdict.

Press freedom advocates had watched the trial closely, as Wood had attended the protest as a freelance photojournalist. Two of the women also attended as "street medics" and had brought with them medical supplies such as gauze.

Prosecutors had not provided any evidence during the trial that any individual defendant was guilty of destroying property. Instead, they made the broader case that all protesters were aware of the violent intentions of other participants.

SEE ALSO: Insane Clown Posse fans lost a legal battle with the FBI over labeling Juggalos a 'gang'

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NOW WATCH: A mother and daughter stopped speaking after Trump was elected — here's their emotional first conversation after the long silence

source http://www.businessinsider.com/j20-trial-verdict-jury-acquits-inauguration-day-protesters-trump-2017-12

The Feds say they just blew up a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme aimed at thousands of elderly people in Florida

• The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against Robert H. Shapiro, alleging that he bilked investors — many of them senior citizens — out of $1.2 billion as part of a Ponzi scheme.
• All remaining assets have been frozen as the SEC pursues its case, which includes charges of fraud and violations of broker-dealer registration provisions.

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The US Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against a group of unregistered investment funds and their owner, alleging a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme.

Robert H. Shapiro is being accused of using a group of unregistered investment firms, collectively called the Woodbridge Group of Companies LLC, to defraud more than 8,400 investors — many of them senior citizens. Formerly headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, the company allegedly promised to pay investors interest of 5% to 10% annually.

Woodbridge claimed that its primary business was the issuance of loans to supposed third-party commercial property owners, which they said paid 11% to 15% annual interest. Yet the SEC's complaint alleges that the "vast majority" of borrowers were companies owned by Shapiro that had no income and never made such interest payments.

"Our complaint alleges that Woodbridge’s business model was a sham," Steven Peikin, co-director of the SEC’s Enforcement Division, said in a release. "The only way Woodbridge was able to pay investors their dividends and interest payments was through the constant infusion of new investor money.

"Our complaint further alleges that Shapiro used a web of layered companies to conceal his ownership interest in the purported third-party borrowers,” added Eric I. Bustillo, director of the SEC’s Miami regional office. “Shapiro used the scheme to line his pockets with millions of investor dollars."

Shapiro and Woodbridge are also accused of trying to keep investors from exiting their positions at the end of their terms, and in turn boasted of a 90% renewal rate in marketing materials. Further, they allegedly paid $64.5 million in commissions to sales agents who pitched the opportunities as "low risk" and "conservative" to potential clients.

The complaint also alleges that Shapiro funneled $21 million to himself, then spent that on chartered planes, country club fees, luxury vehicles, and jewelry.

The SEC is pursuing the case in the wake of the alleged Ponzi scheme's collapse in early December, which came as Woodbridge stopped paying investors and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the complaint said. The commission has also frozen all affiliated assets.

Shapiro, Woodbridge, and certain related companies are being charged with fraud and violations of the securities and broker-dealer registration provisions of federal securities laws. As part of the proceeding, the SEC is pursuing the "return of the allegedly ill-gotten gains with interest and financial penalties."

An initial court hearing has been scheduled for December 29, 2017.

SEE ALSO: An econ professor turned small-business owner breaks down his 3 big problems with the GOP tax plan

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NOW WATCH: PAUL KRUGMAN: Trump can't take credit for the soaring stock market

source http://www.businessinsider.com/sec-exposes-alleged-12-billion-ponzi-scheme-aimed-at-elderly-2017-12

Trump grants clemency to an Iowa meatpacking exec convicted in a fraud case

• President Donald Trump granted clemency to Sholom Rubashkin, a former Iowa slaughterhouse executive who was sentenced to 27 years in prison in a fraud case.
• Rubashkin was convicted in a fraud case in 2009, and was sentenced to 27-years in prison.
• The decision had bipartisan support, including from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah.

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President Donald Trump commuted the 27-year prison sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, a former Iowa slaughterhouse executive convicted in a 2009 fraud case.

Rubashkin is the former CEO of Agriprocessors, a large kosher meatpacking company that was raided in 2008. Federal agents arrested hundreds of people in the raid, some of whom were found to be living and working in the US illegally.

According to multiple local and national news media reports about the Agriprocessors raid, prosecutors later accused Rubashkin of falsifying financial documents which he allegedly used to secure a multimillion-dollar credit line. A St. Louis-based bank lost $27 million as a result of the fraud, USA Today reported.

Trump's decision to commute Rubashkin's sentence had bipartisan support, including from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, according to a White House statement released on Wednesday.

More than 100 US attorneys general, judges, and other judicial professionals signed a letter to Trump in February, pleading for clemency on Rubashkin's behalf.

"Mr. Rubashkin is a devoted husband and father, a deeply religious man who simply doesn’t deserve a sentence of this length, or anything remotely close to it," the letter read.

The statement added that Rubashkin — a first time, non-violent offender and father of 10 — was sentenced for longer than the "median sentences for murder, kidnapping, sexual abuse, child pornography and numerous other offenses exponentially more serious than his."

Rubashkin has served more than eight years of his 27-year sentence.

Last December, a former deputy attorney general who served under President Bill Clinton wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post claiming that Rubashkin's sentence was based on "perjured testimony and prosecutorial misconduct.

Calls for Rubashkin's release were heightened last year after former President Barack Obama granted clemency to 231 inmates in one day.

In August, Trump granted a presidential pardon to the former Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff Joe Arpaio who was found guilty of criminal contempt.

SEE ALSO: Where Donald Trump stands on criminal justice

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NOW WATCH: A Navy SEAL explains why you should end a shower with cold water

source http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-commutes-sholom-rubashkin-sentence-2017-12

CHRIS CHRISTIE ON JARED KUSHNER: 'He deserves the scrutiny' he's getting in the Russia investigation

• Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said that White House senior adviser and President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner "deserves the scrutiny" he's getting from the ongoing Russia probe.
• Christie reasoned that Kushner "was involved in the transition and involved in meetings that call into question his role."

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Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said that White House senior adviser and President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner "deserves the scrutiny" he's getting from the ongoing Russia probe that has so far ensnared three former Trump aides.

"I'm telling you that he deserves the scrutiny, you know why? Because he was involved in the transition and involved in meetings that call into question his role," Christie said to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Tuesday. "And the facts will determine that ultimately."

Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election and its possible ties with the Trump campaign has reportedly set its sights into Kushner's role during the campaign and Trump's transition to the White House.

Issues surrounding Kushner's security clearance form and prior conversations he had with Russian officials — including one where he reportedly floated the idea of setting up a back-channel line of communication to Moscow with former Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak — has reportedly raised eyebrows from investigators.

Kushner was interviewed by Mueller's team in November, who specifically asked questions about former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Flynn pleaded guilty earlier this month to lying to the FBI about his prior conversations with Russian officials.

Christie said if it turns out that Kushner is innocent of any wrongdoing, "that will come out as Mueller examines all the facts."

"And if he's not, that will come out too," he said.

Christie, who was fired from the transition team, has had a contentious history with the Kushner family. While he was a US attorney, Christie successfully prosecuted Kushner's father, real estate mogul Charles Kushner for tax evasion, lying to the Federal Election Commission, and retaliating against a federal witness.

"Seeing my father's situation, I felt what happened was obviously unjust in terms of the way they pursued him," Kushner said during an interview in 2014.

SEE ALSO: We just got a big reminder of how much Devin Nunes still controls the House's Russia probe

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NOW WATCH: Trump's family church explains why he refuses to accept failure

source http://www.businessinsider.com/chris-christie-on-jared-kushner-russia-investigation-2017-12

Insane Clown Posse fans lost a legal battle with the FBI over labeling Juggalos a 'gang'

• Insane Clown Posse fans lost their bid in a federal appeals court to have the FBI scrap its designation of the group as a gang.
• A 2011 FBI report to Congress described Juggalos — the group's fans — as a "loosely organized hybrid gang."
• The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the 2011 report had no direct legal consequences on Juggalos.

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Fans of rap-metal music group Insane Clown Posse have lost an appeal to have an FBI report scrubbed of language referring to them as a gang.

The group's fans are known as Juggalos. They're upset that a 2011 report given to Congress describes Juggalos as a "loosely organized hybrid gang." The fans filed a lawsuit in Detroit, blaming the report for harassment by police.

The 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that the report carries no direct legal consequences. The court also says the Justice Department isn't responsible for how other police agencies use information in the annual report.

Juggalos often have jewelry and tattoos with the group's symbol, a man running with a hatchet.

The American Civil Liberties Union says the court "let the FBI off the hook." Juggalos aren't mentioned in subsequent gang reports.

Juggalos made headlines earlier this fall after hundreds of the tattooed, face-painted fans descended on Washington, DC to protest the gang designation and draw mainstream awareness to the cause.

The Juggalo March's official website argued in September that the gang label resulted in "hundreds if not thousands of people subjected to various forms of discrimination, harassment, and profiling simply for identifying as a Juggalo."

"We have tried to use the American judicial system to achieve justice and we failed," the website read.

SEE ALSO: Thousands of 'criminal' clowns will march on Washington this weekend — here's why

DON'T MISS: People are freaking out about a potential clash between a 'gang' of 'outsiders, misfits, and weirdos' called the Juggalos and far-right Trump supporters

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NOW WATCH: Why Korean parents are having their kids get plastic surgery before college

source http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-insane-clown-posse-fans-cant-rid-gang-tag-in-fbi-report-2017-12

'Silicon Valley' actor T.J. Miller denies sexual assault allegation

• "Silicon Valley" actor T.J. Miller has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman while in college, The Daily Beast reports.
• The woman, who remained anonymous in the report, said the alleged assault occurred during a brief relationship with Miller in 2001. 
• Miller and his wife, Kate, denied the allegations in a joint statement. 

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Comedian T.J. Miller, a former actor on HBO's "Silicon Valley," has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman who knew him in college, The Daily Beast reports. 

The alleged victim, who remained anonymous in the report, said the assault occurred during a brief relationship with Miller in 2001. 

"He just tried a lot of things without asking me, and at no point asked me if I was all right," the woman told the outlet. She alleged that in two separate incidents, without her consent, Miller choked her, punched her, and penetrated her with a beer bottle during sex. 

The allegations were reportedly addressed by a "student court" while Miller and the woman were taking classes at George Washington University, and The Daily Beast corroborated parts of the woman's story with statements from college associates and classmates. 

Miller and his wife, Kate, denied the allegations in a joint statement to The Daily Beast. They also published a full statement on Instagram on Tuesday. 

"[The accuser] began again to circulate rumors online once [my and Kate's] relationship became public," the Millers wrote. "Sadly she is now using the current climate to bandwagon and launch these false accusations again. It is unfortunate that she is choosing this route as it undermines the important movement to make women feel safe coming forward about legitimate claims against real known predators."

In the report, the woman said the first incident with Miller took place after she met Miller in a comedy group in the fall of 2001, when he was a student at George Washington and she was taking classes. She alleged that while having sex with Miller, he punched her in the face, fracturing a tooth and bloodying her lip. 

She alleged that in a second incident, Miller choked her during sex to the point where she was "audibly choking," and then penetrated her with a bottle without her consent. 

Nearly a year later, the woman said she took the incident to the George Washington campus police. She told The Daily Beast that she was directed to a "student court" proceeding, which lasted three weeks before the university told her that the issue had been resolved. 

George Washington University declined to comment on the issue to The Daily Beast, citing federal privacy laws. The university did confirm to the publication that Miller graduated from the school in 2003, while other sources claimed to the outlet that Miller was "expelled after he graduated." 

Miller left HBO's "Silicon Valley" in June after four seasons on the HBO series. 

Miller's representatives did not immediately respond to a request for further comment on the allegations. You can read the full joint statement denying the claims below:

We met this woman over a decade ago while studying together in college, she attempted to break us up back then by plotting for over a year before making contradictory claims and accusations.  She attempted to discredit both of our voices and use us against one another by trying to portray Kate to be a continuous abuse victim of T.J. (further efforts to hurt the two of us). She was asked to leave our university comedy group because of worrisome and disturbing behavior, which angered her immensely, she then became fixated on our relationship, and began telling people around campus “I’m going to destroy them” & “I’m going to ruin him.” We are confident that a full consideration of accounts from and since that time will shed light and clarity on the true nature of not only this person’s character, but also on the real facts of the matter. (See the e-mails referenced). We stand together in stating this is nothing more than an unfortunate resurgence of her lies designed to wreak havoc on two happily married people in the public eye.
She began again to circulate rumors online once our relationship became public.

Sadly she is now using the current climate to bandwagon and launch these false accusations again. It is unfortunate that she is choosing this route as it undermines the important movement to make women feel safe coming forward about legitimate claims against real known predators.

We stand together and will not allow this person to take advantage of a serious movement toward gender equality by allowing her to use this moment to muddy the water with an unrelated personal agenda. We feel we all have an obligation now more than ever to prevent people from using reporters to spin lies into headlines, and focus instead on what is real.

We both champion and continue to stand up for people everywhere who have truly suffered injustice seeking to have justice brought into their lives. - Kate & T.J. Miller

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NOW WATCH: Behind the scenes with Shepard Smith — the Fox News star who's not afraid to take on Trump

source http://www.businessinsider.com/silicon-valley-actor-tj-miller-denies-sexual-assault-allegation-2017-12

The first bill to examine 'algorithmic bias' in government agencies has just passed in New York City

• New York City has passed the algorithmic accountability bill, which will assign a task force to examine the way that city government agencies use algorithms.
• Algorithmic bias is a critical issue in the justice system, which often relies on algorithmic risk assessments to inform criminal sentencing in federal court.
• The bill is the first of its kind to be passed in the nation, and will attempt to provide transparency in the way that the government uses algorithms. 

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New York City has unanimously passed a bill that will attempt to provide transparency to the way that city government agencies use algorithms.

It's the first bill examining algorithmic bias to be passed in the country, and could spell out increased scrutiny in the government's use of algorithms nationwide.

The bill, which was signed by Mayor Bill de Blasio last week, will assign a task force to examine the way that New York City government agencies use algorithms to aid the judicial process. 

According to ProPublica, council member James Vacca sponsored the bill as a response to ProPublica's 2016 account of racially-biased algorithms in the American criminal justice system. The investigative story revealed systemic digital bias within judicial risk assessment programs that favored the release of white inmates on the grounds of future good behavior over the release of black defendants. 

Algorithmic source code is typically private, but issues of bias have called for increased transparency. The ACLU has spoken out on behalf of the bill passing, and it described access to institutionalized algorithmic source code as a fundamental step in ensuring fairness within the criminal justice system. 

New York Civil Liberties councilmember Rashida Richardson describes the bill as a watershed moment.

“This bill is the first in the nation to take such a broad view of the problem and recognize that for algorithms to benefit society, they must be subject to public scrutiny...to remedy flaws and biases," Richardson said in a statement to Business Insider. "A flawed algorithm can lead to someone being trapped in jail for no good reason or not receiving a public benefit."

Algorithmic bias is a far-reaching issue in the criminal justice system. Bernard Harcourt, a law professor at Columbia University who has studied risk assessment programs extensively, told Business Insider that "algorithmic bias in government agencies is widespread and growing, especially in areas like policing and criminal adjudication that are getting cannibalized by the facile solution of predictive tools."

Harcourt says the New York City bill is a step forward for the American justice system, but recommends and even greater increase in algorithmic transparency.

"The source codes of all algorithms that directly affect New Yorkers have to be open to the public for us to evaluate their racial and other biases," Harcourt said. "This bill is a critical first step, but it is only a first step and needs to be supplemented with far greater transparency."

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NOW WATCH: How Area 51 became the center of alien conspiracy theories

source http://www.businessinsider.com/algorithmic-bias-accountability-bill-passes-in-new-york-city-2017-12