Viruses Infecting SOS and Other State Computers?

Secretary of State Mary Herrera said Tuesday that her personal laptop computer and several computers in her office have been the targets of computer virus attacks since April and that other state agencies also have been victims of computer crimes, including an agency that lost $700,000 to hackers.

One of the viruses places, according to a report by KOB television, apparently put links to pornographic websites on the desktop of Herrera’s computer. She said the malicious software, called “Defense Center” was disguised as anti-virus software.

“These unfortunate, common viruses have been capable of penetrating units with up-to-date software protection,” Herrera said in a news release. Herrera’s deputy Franciso Trujillo told KOB last week that Herrera’s computer did not have virus protection.

But, Herrera stressed that none of the viruses ever jeopardized the state’s voter registration database or her office’s program for victims of domestic violence who have their mail forwarded from the Secretary of State’s Office. Those files, which contain confidential information, are all on paper, not in the computer system, Herrera said.

Herrera said that hers is not the only state office to suffer from computer attacks. One hacker was able to steal $700,000 from the New Mexico Educational Assistance Foundation, Herrera said. The state Legislature’s website also was hit recently by computer malware, Herrera said.

A spokeswoman for the state Department of Information Technology couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday night.

Herrera said the first computer infected was one used by office manager Manuel Vildasol. Her news release included an email from an Information Technology employee indicting that Vildasol had been the victim of a “phishing” scam in which he’d inadvertently been tricked into giving his computer user name and password to someone who was “spamming the world” — that is, sending numerous unwarranted e-mails from Vildasol’s account.

Vildasol appeared on the television reporter talking about the viruses on Herrera’s laptop. There he used a hidden video camera to tape computer personnel in Herrera’s office working on her laptop. He accused Herrera of “covering up” anything controversial.

Vildasol does not have a listed phone number and couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday night.

Herrera denied a report that the resume of one of her family members was on her computer.

Below is the news release. (Click on full-screen mode):

SOS Computer Virus News Release

And here's the original KOB report:

Gov. Goes to Bat for Chimps

Gov. Bill Richardson today met with officials at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. to discuss his concerns regarding the NIH plan to transfer the chimpanzees from the Alamogordo Primate Facility to a facility in Texas for medical research.

"I appreciate NIH officials listening to my concerns, shared by many New Mexicans and others around the country, about the organization's planned transfer of chimpanzees from their home in Alamogordo and the continuation of invasive medical research on the primates," Richardson said in a news release this afternoon.

More than 200 chimps are at the Alamogordo facility.

"While it appears (NIH officials) are holding steadfast to their position, I am holding steadfast to mine," Richardson said. "I will continue pressing for a humane, long-term care solution for the care of these chimpanzees which have already had to endure years of medical testing."

The governor also he believes the National Academy of Sciences should do an independent review of policies regarding the use of chimps in medical research. Richardson requested a tour of the Alamogordo Primate Facility operated by Charles River Laboratories and located on Holloman Air Force Base.

According to the agreement with the base, no research may be conducted on the chimps while they are at the facility. But NIH's contract will expire next May -- when NIH plans to transfer the chimps to Texas.

If Richardson is successful, the chimps surely will celebrate, as indicated in the video below:

Live Blogging the First Gubernatorial Debate

I'll be the New Mexican live-blogging team Thursday night when we team up with our close and personal friends at The New Mexico Independent to cover the first debate between Diane Denish and Susana Martinez.

We'll start this at 5:45 p.m. Thursday. You'll be able to follow it on this blog as well as The New Mexican Web site.

CLICK HERE to sign up for a free reminder to tune in.

(The above link, which was broken in previous version, has been repaired. )

Expanding Computer Service

New Mexico's two U.S. senators Tom Udall and Jeff Bingaman today co-hosted a New Mexico "Broadband & Smart Grid Summit" in Moriarty that featured the announcement of more than $73 million in grants and awards to expand broadband services to rural, underserved areas of New Mexico.

According to the press release Udall led the first panel session, titled “Wiring New Mexico for the Future;” while Bingaman led the second panel, titled “Bringing Broadband to Energy – Smart Grid in New Mexico.” About 300 people attended.

“Today was a big day for New Mexico,” Udall said. “Not only did we bring experts from across the spectrum together to discuss the challenges our state faces in bridging the digital divide, but we also took an important step forward in connecting our rural areas with the announcement of more than $73 million in grants and loans.”

That's cool. Now if they could only force AT&T to make my iPhone work in the Roundhouse.

Roundhouse Roundup: All Press Releases Look Alike

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 12, 2010

You read enough news releases from government offices and they all start to look alike.

In this case, literally.

I’m talking about the recent announcement by Attorney General Gary King’s office that a complaint by King and 33 other attorneys general against Topix.com had been brought to a happy conclusion.

Topix is an online news aggregator that handles reader comments for news sites nationwide. Because of pressure from the AGs, the company agreed to stop its policy of charging nearly $20 to expedite reviews of abusive or potentially libelous comments.

King’s office, in announcing the agreement, said, “On behalf of the numerous parents, public officials, and concerned citizens who have contacted me about Topix.com, I am pleased that we’ve been able to reach an agreement with the company to put a stop to the ‘pay-to-police’ policy to expedite removal of abusive posts. I appreciate the cooperation of Topix.com and look forward to continuing to work with the company to ensure that New Mexicans, particularly our kids, are not being harmed by harassing and abusive posts.”

But while Googling around to do some quick research on the issue, I came across a quote from Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway in PC World, an online publication.

Conway, one of the first AGs to complain against Topix, was quoted saying, “On behalf of the numerous parents, public officials and concerned citizens who have contacted me about Topix, I am pleased that we’ve been able to reach an agreement with the company to put a stop to the ‘pay-to-police’ policy on the message board to expedite removal of abusive posts. I appreciate the cooperation of Topix and look forward to continuing to work with the company to ensure that Kentuckians, particularly our kids, are not being harmed by harassing and abusive posts.”

Then I found a virtually identical statement online about the Topix deal from Kansas Attorney General Steve Six.

And something very similar from Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper. He too was speaking on “behalf of the concerned citizens and public officials who have contacted me about Topix.com.” However, Cooper is looking forward to working with Topix “to ensure that our citizens are treated seriously and respectfully in a timely manner.”

Doesn’t he care about ensuring our kids are not being harmed by harassing and abusive posts?

Burning issues: Tom Mullins a flag burner? No, nobody’s accusing the conservative Farmington Republican of burning Old Glory in protest.

A Farmington radio personality and gun-store owner who organizes an annual “U.N. flag burning” event said in a radio show, preserved online in a podcast last October, that Mullins, who is challenging incumbent Democrat Ben Ray Luján for his seat in Congress, was there.

“We had a great time at our U.N. flag-burning,” said Cope Reynolds. “... You know Oct. 24 is ‘Get the U.S. Out of the U.N. Day.’ A lot of people call it ‘U.N. Day.’ We just can’t bring ourselves to do that.”

Reynolds went on to name several people who attended the event outside of his store, including Mullins.

Asked about this, Mullins said Wednesday that he didn’t remember any U.N. flag burning. Instead, he said, the event he attended was a “flag retirement ceremony,” a respectful event in which American flags that are tattered are burned.

The U.S. Flag Code says, “The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.”

Contacted Wednesday, Reynolds said there indeed was a flag-retirement ceremony on the same day. Indeed, in a show prior to last year’s event, Reynolds said people with old flags should bring them to the event for a proper retirement after the U.N. flags were burned.

Mullins said he has some serious problems with the United Nations, which he says is too quick to beat up on the U.S. He said the U.N. needs to be reformed, but said he’s not ready for the U.S. to withdraw from the organization.

Lump Sums etc.

In recent days The Albuquerque Journal has broken two stories about Republican gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez's District Attorney's in Las Cruces.

First there was the article that Martinez's office had bought more than $60,000 from one of her deputy DAs, Janetta Hicks (now DA in Chavez, Lea and Eddy counties.) This was done without bidding and without a formal contract.

Then there was one about Martinez awarding employees thousands of dollars in extra pay, much of which in lump-sum payments, in recent years.

In Wednesday's New Mexican, I tie these threads together. It turns out that one of recipients of the lump-sum "out-of-cycle salary increases" was Janetta Hicks. She got a total of nearly $24,000 in two lump-sum payments.

Martinez campaign manager Ryan Cangiolosi defended the salary increases for Hicks and the others saying Martinez's staff earned the money because of increased caseloads and responsibilities.

Cangiolosi also noted that none of Martinez's prosecutors earned as much as a $71,000-a-year "scheduler" in Denish's office, which was noted a couple of months of in the New Mexico Watchdog blog.

More Yakety Yak About Truth in Music

I'm not sure whether to post this one in my music blog or my political blog. Guess I'll do both.

Today The New Mexican published my story about Veta Gardner, wife of Carl Gardner, the last living member of The Coasters, being upset about an imposter version of The Coasters playing The Clovis Music Festival. Initially the festival advertised that The Coasters were playing, but after complaints, the festival website was changed to reflect that these Coasters are "Billy Richards' Coasters."

As Mrs. Gardner points out, the website still says Richards' Coasters "breathed life into classic Leiber & Stoller songs like: `Charlie Brown,' `Yakaty Yak,' (sic) `Love Potion No. 9' and many more." She also said using the phrase "Clown princes of Rock 'n' Roll" is a copyright infringement.

Richards was a member of an early '60s Coasters offshoot, started by Bobby Nunn, an original member who Veta Gardner says was fired from the band in the late '50s. But he didn't record with the actual Coasters on those songs listed above or "Along Came Jones," "Searchin'," "Youngblood" or any of the Coasters hits you might remember.

The story of "the man with the big cigar" ripping off rock 'n' roll artists in the '50s and '60s is well documented. "Imposter" bands is just another way to screw the artists who created the music.

This issue -- a phenomenon that has been going on for decades -- was discussed last year in the state Legislature. (Here's my column about that .) The House passed the "Truth in Music Act," sponsored by Rep. Al Park, D-Albuquerque, and the bill made it through the Senate Judiciary Committee. But the session ended before the full Senate could vote on it. Maybe next year.

A little story-behind-the story: The issue of The Coasters at the Clovis Music Festival was first brought to the attention of Veta Gardner, the festival, myself and anyone else who would listen by a lady named Virginia Pritchett. Though she lives in Texas now, she's a former College of Santa Fe student who was raised in eastern New Mexico. Virginia is a record collector, an "oldies" fanatic who used to be a DJ at an oldies station in California. She's genuinely concerned about imposters harming the livelihood of the musicians who created the music.

She pointed me to this 1997 article in the New York Observer about Carl Gardner's long struggle against imposters.

And here's the link to the Vocal Group hall of Fame Foundation, which is leading the effort nationwide for "Truth in Music" legislation.

UPDATE: Jeff Vee responds to my Coasters story: CLICK HERE

Here's a 2007 report on this issue by ABC's 20/20 featuring a confrontation between a real Drifter and a fake Drifters group.



Here's a video of The Coasters

Mea Culpa

In this week's Roundhouse Round-up column, when talking about exaggerated claims by folks on various issues, I wrote, "I haven't read about a single instance in which a concealed carrier was able to stop a rapist, attacker or any other evil-doer thanks to the law."

Sure enough, a reader has proven me wrong.

I was just directed to this 2005 Associated Press article:

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - One man was killed and a woman was injured during an apparent domestic dispute inside a Wal-Mart on the city's southeast side, the second time in less than a week that one of the retail giant's Western stores has been the scene of deadly violence.

Police spokeswoman Trish Hoffman said a witness told authorities that a man had been stabbing the woman inside the store when another man intervened and shot her attacker.

... "It looks like it's a possibility that the guy who shot the other man will be justified," Hoffman said. "From what witnesses are telling us, it corroborates his story that the male was stabbing the female and he intervened."

So there, I stand corrected. Don't shoot.

Roundhouse Roundup: Celebrating Food Poisoning and Other Nightmare Scenarios

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
August 5, 2010

I just got back from a two-week vacation, but judging from my e-mail pile, I didn’t miss very much while I was gone. In fact, a huge chunk of my mail could be boiled down into two basic messages:

1) “Nanny nanny boo boo! Republicans said something stupid.”

2) “Nanny nanny boo boo! Democrats said something stupid.”

My personal favorite was one from the state Democratic Party sent late last week.

The subject line: “In case you missed it ... Green Chile Gets the Best of Michael Steele.”

Copied and pasted was a story from CNN about the Republican National Committee chairman having to cancel an appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists because he was suffering from food poisoning. The story noted that Steele had been in New Mexico at a fundraiser for GOP gubernatorial candidate Susana Martinez the day before.

I could wring my hands about the state of political discourse falling to such a level that one party is celebrating the other party’s leader getting sick.

But I have to admit, the e-mail made me laugh.

Dire consequences: As the campaign progresses, expect the rhetoric from both sides to become increasingly overheated. But don’t expect it to stop when the election’s over. It’ll return with a bang when the Legislature convenes in January.

The next one will be a 60-day session where in addition to the state budget, all sorts of issues can be debated. And in the case of controversial social issues, advocates on both sides are prone to conjuring nightmare scenarios, which, they say, are sure to unfold if the other side gets its way.

The gun issue is one of the most emotional issues with which politicians have to deal. Both sides envision devastating consequences if the wrong move is made.

But consider this: New Mexico has had its concealed-carry law for about seven years now. And so far, there hasn’t been a bloodbath caused by gun-slinging maniacs, as some of the law’s opponents suggested would occur. In fact, I can’t think of any shootout in the state that’s happened because the concealed-carry law is in effect.

And even though it’s too early to judge the effect of the new law allowing concealed-carry license holders to take guns into restaurants that serve beer and wine, I strongly suspect that there’s little danger of an upswing of gun violence in such establishments.

On the other hand, even though the concealed-carry advocates claimed the law was necessary for honest people to protect themselves, I haven’t read about a single instance in which a concealed carrier was able to stop a rapist, attacker or any other evil-doer thanks to the law.

Speaking of gun violence, during a Senate debate on the bill that outlawed cockfighting, then-Sen. Shannon Robinson, D-Albuquerque, envisioned a situation in which police officers might shoot and kill cockfight enthusiasts fleeing from a bust.

There have been some arrests since the law went into effect in 2007. But so far the police commendably have restrained themselves from opening fire on cockfight organizers.

There has been no death penalty in New Mexico for more than a year now. We can argue whether or not there are some criminals who deserve execution. But so far, despite the implications of some capital-punishment advocates, there’s no evidence that the repeal has emboldened more people to commit first-degree murders with aggravating circumstances.

Likewise, there’s been no noticeable increase of drug addicts crawling the streets because of the state’s medical marijuana program, which has been in effect since 2007.

So no matter who wins the election, no matter what passes or doesn’t pass the Legislature next year, the sun still will rise the next day.

Lass Endorses Republican

Rick Lass, the former Green party member who ran against troubled Democrat Jerome Block, Jr. for PRC in 2008, has endorsed the Republican running against Lucky Varela for state representative in District 48.

"Bob Walsh is a social liberal – in support of domestic partnerships, reproductive rights and strong environmental protection – but a fiscal conservative," a press release from the Walsh campaign said.

Lass, who registered Democrat after the last election, ran against Varela in 2002

A statement from Lass said:

Many of you know that I ran for PRC as a Green Party candidate in 2008 and received over 60% of the vote in Santa Fe. I believe this vote total is an indication that the voters of Santa Fe have lost faith in traditional Democratic Party politics, and are looking for an alternative.

Bob Walsh is that alternative.

As a social progressive, Bob Walsh supports fair elections, domestic partnerships, a woman’s right to choose, and the protection of our environment. I worked alongside Bob during the 2004 Presidential recount effort, and know that he has been a leader in election and ballot reform in New Mexico. For example, Bob was instrumental in establishing the state laws requiring paper ballots and voting machine audits.

I believe he will be a strong, progressive voice for change, and I urge everyone to support Bob’s campaign. With enthusiastic volunteers, a little money and great word-of-mouth, we can bring progressive change and good government to Santa Fe!

Varela, who has represented the heavily Democratic Santa Fe District since the mid 1980s, is expected to win re-election. But remember, everyone thought Ben Lujan would have an easy time in the primary against an unknown opponent and he ended up winning by only 80-some votes.

And speaking of that campaign, according to Walsh's press release, his campaign is being managed by Faith McKenna -- who was chief strategist for Carl Trujillo's primary campaign against Lujan.