Job Seekers Getting Asked for Facebook Passwords

By Manuel Valdes and Shsannon McFarland

Seattle - When Justin Bassett interviewed for a new job, he expected the usual questions about experience and references. So he was astonished when the interviewer asked for something else: his Facebook username and password.

Bassett, a New York City statistician, had just finished answering a few character questions when the interviewer turned to her computer to search for his Facebook page. But she couldn't see his private profile. She turned back and asked him to hand over his login information.

Bassett refused and withdrew his application, saying he didn't want to work for a company that would seek such personal information. But as the job market steadily improves, other job candidates are confronting the same question from prospective employers, and some of them cannot afford to say no.

In their efforts to vet applicants, some companies and government agencies are going beyond merely glancing at a person's social networking profiles and instead asking to log in as the user to have a look around.

"It's akin to requiring someone's house keys," said Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor and former federal prosecutor who calls it "an egregious privacy violation."

Questions have been raised about the legality of the practice, which is also the focus of proposed legislation in Illinois and Maryland that would forbid public agencies from asking for access to social networks.

Since the rise of social networking, it has become common for managers to review publicly available Facebook profiles, Twitter accounts and other sites to learn more about job candidates. But many users, especially on Facebook, have their profiles set to private, making them available only to selected people or certain networks.

Companies that don't ask for passwords have taken other steps — such as asking applicants to friend human resource managers or to log in to a company computer during an interview. Once employed, some workers have been required to sign non-disparagement agreements that ban them from talking negatively about an employer on social media.

Asking for a candidate's password is more prevalent among public agencies, especially those seeking to fill law enforcement positions such as police officers or 911 dispatchers.

Back in 2010, Robert Collins was returning to his job as a security guard at the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services after taking a leave following his mother's death. During a reinstatement interview, he was asked for his login and password, purportedly so the agency could check for any gang affiliations. He was stunned by the request but complied.

"I needed my job to feed my family. I had to," he recalled,

After the ACLU complained about the practice, the agency amended its policy, asking instead for job applicants to log in during interviews.

"To me, that's still invasive. I can appreciate the desire to learn more about the applicant, but it's still a violation of people's personal privacy," said Collins, whose case inspired Maryland's legislation.

Until last year, the city of Bozeman, Mont., had a long-standing policy of asking job applicants for passwords to their email addresses, social-networking websites and other online accounts.

And since 2006, the McLean County, Ill., sheriff's office has been one of several Illinois sheriff's departments that ask applicants to sign into social media sites to be screened.

Chief Deputy Rusty Thomas defended the practice, saying applicants have a right to refuse. But no one has ever done so. Thomas said that "speaks well of the people we have apply."

When asked what sort of material would jeopardize job prospects, Thomas said "it depends on the situation" but could include "inappropriate pictures or relationships with people who are underage, illegal behavior."

In Spotsylvania County, Va., the sheriff's department asks applicants to friend background investigators for jobs at the 911 dispatch center and for law enforcement positions.

"In the past, we've talked to friends and neighbors, but a lot of times we found that applicants interact more through social media sites than they do with real friends," said Capt. Mike Harvey. "Their virtual friends will know more about them than a person living 30 yards away from them."

Harvey said investigators look for any "derogatory" behavior that could damage the agency's reputation.

E. Chandlee Bryan, a career coach and co-author of the book "The Twitter Job Search Guide," said job seekers should always be aware of what's on their social media sites and assume someone is going to look at it.

Bryan said she is troubled by companies asking for logins, but she feels it's not a violation if an employer asks to see a Facebook profile through a friend request. And she's not troubled by non-disparagement agreements.

"I think that when you work for a company, they are essentially supporting you in exchange for your work. I think if you're dissatisfied, you should go to them and not on a social media site," she said.

More companies are also using third-party applications to scour Facebook profiles, Bryan said. One app called BeKnown can sometimes access personal profiles, short of wall messages, if a job seeker allows it.

Sears is one of the companies using apps. An applicant has the option of logging into the Sears job site through Facebook by allowing a third-party application to draw information from the profile, such as friend lists.

Sears Holdings Inc. spokeswoman Kim Freely said using a Facebook profile to apply allows Sears to be updated on the applicant's work history.

The company assumes "that people keep their social profiles updated to the minute, which allows us to consider them for other jobs in the future or for ones that they may not realize are available currently," she said.

Giving out Facebook login information violates the social network's terms of service. But those terms have no real legal weight, and experts say the legality of asking for such information remains murky.

The Department of Justice regards it as a federal crime to enter a social networking site in violation of the terms of service, but during recent congressional testimony, the agency said such violations would not be prosecuted.

But Lori Andrews, law professor at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law specializing in Internet privacy, is concerned about the pressure placed on applicants, even if they voluntarily provide access to social sites.

"Volunteering is coercion if you need a job," Andrews said.

Neither Facebook nor Twitter responded to repeated requests for comment.

In New York, Bassett considered himself lucky that he was able to turn down the consulting gig at a lobbying firm.

"I think asking for account login credentials is regressive," he said. "If you need to put food on the table for your three kids, you can't afford to stand up for your belief."

Energy Expert Calls MidAmerican Nuclear Plant "Bad Idea"

By  Jillian Petrus

Iowa City, Iowa - Dr. Arjun Makhijani, President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research in Takoma Park, Maryland is a world renowned energy expert.

On Sunday, Eastern Iowans had the unique opportunity to hear Dr. Makhijani speak about his concerns over small nuclear reactor proliferation in the Midwest.

“Nuclear reactors are risky and expensive,” Makhijani says, “I do not believe the small reactors that are produced are going to alleviate this problem. I think there’s more hype than substance to that.”

At the Iowa City Public Library, a group of about 30 people listened to Makhijani talk about the dangers of nuclear energy on the one year anniversary of Japan’s Fukushima disaster. Dr. Makhijani expressed a strong opinion that the United States is not putting enough emphasis on testing our own reactors against similar situations. He says people living in the Midwest, particularly Iowans, can grow safer alternative energy methods.

“There’s more wind energy in the Midwestern belt of the country than all the oil production of all the oil exporting countries put together.”

Makhijani has conducted studies in Utah, Nebraska and Minnesota looking at how wind energy can be grown as a major energy source while maintaining cost efficiency. He says, based on his findings, it is possible.

He also addressed the issue of a bill currently in the Iowa senate. It proposes a rate increase for MidAmerican Energy users. The energy company says the additional money generated by the increase would go toward building another nuclear plant. Makhijani calls this plan a “particularly bad idea”.

“The way it is financed, basically, is pay in advance without even a guarantee that it will be delivered.”

Iowa lawmakers could take action this week on the bill, but some are still questioning, like Makhijani, if the measure would hurt customers and distract from the growth of alternative energy possibilities in Iowa.

Odd Stories: Mustache Bill Puts Congressman in Hairy Situation

Washington - A Republican congressman from Maryland is in a hairy situation over a proposal to give tax breaks to Americans with mustaches.

The American Mustache Institute claimed Tuesday that Rep. Roscoe Bartlett had lent his support to the 'Stache Act, which calls for a tax deduction of up to $250 a year for facial hair grooming.

But Bartlett's office said he never supported the measure. Staffers said Wednesday that they only forwarded a copy of the proposal to the House Ways & Means Committee, without the congressman's knowledge, after receiving a media inquiry about it. That led the institute to believe Bartlett, who has long had a mustache, supported the measure.

"For the record: Roscoe is pro-stache, but he does not believe Americans should pay for people's personal grooming decisions," Bartlett's chief of staff, Deborah Burrell, said in a statement.

So far, no other representatives have supported the mustache proposal.

At least one of Bartlett's Republican primary opponents is criticizing him over the facial hair flap. The longtime incumbent faces several challengers in the 6th District, which was redrawn to include more Democratic voters.

The American Mustache Institute, meanwhile, issued a statement faulting Burrell for what it called a "shameful reversal."

"We are highly disappointed by their reversal based on the fact that the congressman's opponents in the race are jumping on the bandwagon to criticize him," chairman Aaron Perlut said. "They obviously don't understand what it is to be a mustached American."

The institute plans to send Burrell an autographed photo of Burt Reynolds as a goodwill gesture, Perlut said.

State Delegate Kathy Azfali, who is challenging Bartlett in next month's primary, said the 'Stache Act situation was a sign that the 10-term incumbent had lost control of his staff and "is out of touch with voters."

Bartlett told WTOP-FM last fall that he grew his mustache in the 1950s as an affront to the clean-shaven.

"For someone who was kind of a nonconformist, it was kind of a symbol of rebellion," he said.

Bartlett supports the Movember campaign, which encourages men to grow mustaches in the month of November to raise money and awareness for men's health, specifically prostate cancer. The mustache institute has contributed to that campaign and other charities.

"I would encourage people who find out about the mustache institute's efforts to make tax-deductible charitable contributions toward the serious Movember philanthropy effort," said Lisa Wright, Bartlett's press secretary.

Wright said she forwarded the mustache institute's white paper on the 'Stache Act to the Ways & Means Committee because it's the committee's role to address media inquiries about tax policy.

"I looked at it, and I knew it was a joke," Wright said of the 'Stache Act.

Autism Not Diagnosed as Early in Minority Children

By Lauran Neergaard

Washington D.C. - Early diagnosis is considered key for autism, but minority children tend to be diagnosed later than white children. Some new work is beginning to try to uncover why — and to raise awareness of the warning signs so more parents know they can seek help even for a toddler.

"The biggest thing I want parents to know is we can do something about it to help your child," says Dr. Rebecca Landa, autism director at Baltimore's Kennedy Krieger Institute, who is exploring the barriers that different populations face in getting that help.

Her preliminary research suggests even when diagnosed in toddlerhood, minority youngsters have more severe developmental delays than their white counterparts. She says cultural differences in how parents view developmental milestones, and how they interact with doctors, may play a role.

Consider: Tots tend to point before they talk, but pointing is rude in some cultures and may not be missed by a new parent, Landa says. Or maybe mom's worried that her son isn't talking yet but the family matriarch, her grandmother, says don't worry — Cousin Harry spoke late, too, and he's fine. Or maybe the pediatrician dismissed the parents' concern, and they were taught not to question doctors.

It's possible to detect autism as early as 14 months of age, and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that youngsters be screened for it starting at 18 months. While there's no cure, behavioral and other therapies are thought to work best when started very young.

Yet on average, U.S. children aren't diagnosed until they're about 4½ years old, according to government statistics.

And troubling studies show that white kids may be diagnosed with autism as much as a year and a half earlier than black and other minority children, says University of Pennsylvania autism expert David Mandell, who led much of that work. Socioeconomics can play a role, if minority families have less access to health care or less education.

But Mandell says the full story is more complex. One of his own studies, for example, found that black children with autism were more likely than whites to get the wrong diagnosis during their first visit with a specialist.

At Kennedy Krieger, Landa leads a well-known toddler treatment program and decided to look more closely at those youngsters to begin examining the racial and ethnic disparity. She found something startling: Even when autism was detected early, minority children had more severe symptoms than their white counterparts.

By one measure of language development, the minority patients lagged four months behind the white autistic kids, Landa reported in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

It was a small study, with 84 participants, just 19 of whom were black, Asian or Hispanic. But the enrolled families all were middle class, Landa said, meaning socioeconomics couldn't explain the difference.

One of the study's participants, Marlo Lemon, ignored family and friends who told her not to worry that her son Matthew, then 14 months, wasn't babbling. Boys are slower to talk than girls, they said.

"I just knew something was wrong," recalls Lemon, of Randallstown, Md.

Her pediatrician listened and knew to send the family to a government "early intervention" program that, like in most states, provides free testing and treatment for young children's developmental delays. Matthew was enrolled in developmental therapy by age 18 months, and was formally diagnosed with autism when he turned 2 and Lemon enrolled him in Kennedy Krieger's toddler program as well. In many of his therapy classes, Lemon says, Matthew was the only African-American.

Now 7, Matthew still doesn't speak but Lemon says he is making huge strides, learning letters by tracing them in shaving cream to tap his sensory side, for example, and using a computer-like tablet that "speaks" when he pushes the right buttons. But Lemon quit working full-time so she could shuttle Matthew from therapy to therapy every day.

"I want other minority families to get involved early, be relentless," says Lemon, who now works part-time counseling families about how to find services early.

For a campaign called "Why wait and see?" Landa is developing videos that show typical and atypical behaviors and plans to ask Maryland pediatricians to show them to parents. Among early warning signs:

—Not responding to their name by 12 months, or pointing to show interest by 14 months.

—Avoiding eye contact, wanting to play alone, not smiling when smiled at.

—Saying few words. Landa says between 18 and 26 months, kids should make short phrases like "my shoe" or "where's mommy," and should be adding to their vocabulary weekly.

—Not following simple multi-step commands.

—Not playing pretend.

—Behavioral problems such as flapping their hands or spinning in circles.

Odd Stories: Pennyslvanian Elk May Not Return to Owners

Pennsylvania/West Virginia - A family that's been searching for a pet elk has found out what happened to him, but can't get him back.

Although West Virginia officials want to return the elk to the Richter family, but Pennsylvania officials, fearful the three-year-old elk has chronic wasting disease, say it can't be returned because it may have chronic wasting disease.

"We told them, no, they couldn't bring the animal back," said Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Samantha Krepps.

Gerald Feaser of the Pennsylvania Game Commission added “Similar to mad cow disease, animals with the chronic wasting disease act lethargic, have droopy eyes, salivate excessively and are often found near water. The injuries may also mimic rabies, so most people couldn't recognize CWD specifically.”

The worry is due to the fact Pennsylvania's neighbor states of West Virginia, Maryland, and New York have the disease in its population. While it's not known to affect people, it is capable of remaining after an animal leaves a population. Krepper states the state is “CWD-free and we really want to keep it that way,”

The elk escaped when a family friend accidentally left the gate to the pen open after recording sheep that were on the Richter's property.

Two other elk escaped, too, but one returned and the other has yet to be found.

Odd Stories: Man Jumps Off Radio Tower

Fairfax/Crownsville, MD - In another show of stupidity, unpreparedness, or most likely both, Virginia man Robert Scott Morgan's jump off a radio tower didn't exactly turn out like he and his friend planned it.

Along with Sean Michael Bullington, from Draper, Utah, Morgan sneaked onto private property. Morgan was equipped with a parachute and took the leap off the structure. Unfortunately for him it didn't open all the way and he hit the ground, causing him to injure unmentioned parts of his lower body. While at the hospital as a precautionary measure he was cited for trespassing. Bullington, his accomplice, was cited for trespassing as well as providing a false statement to police.

I don't think the police should've charged Robert Morgan. The knowledge he could've died should be enough for him.

Climate Change Strikes Hard in Thailand

Denver – The Listera virus is continuing its outbreak and claims a 29^th life. The victim is the eighth death in Colorado. According to the Centers for Disease Control 139 people either died or were sickened in 28 states.

The reason why new listeria outbreaks are occurring weeks after they were pulled from the shelves is its symptoms may not show up for three months.

Some of the other deaths happened in Indiana, Maryland, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming, Reuter adds.