<![CDATA[National news from metro.us/boston]]> en-us <![CDATA[Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg marries girlfriend Priscilla Chan in surprise ceremony]]>
The 28-year-old billionaire's wedding took place a day after Facebook's initial public offering on the Nasdaq stock exchange on Friday.

More than 280,000 people "liked" Zuckerberg's status change, which was accompanied by a photo of the smiling couple in wedding attire in a small, verdant outdoor setting with a string of lights behind them.

In the photo, the famously casual Zuckerberg is wearing a dark blue suit and tie, a departure from his trademark "hoodie," while Chan has on a sleeveless white dress with lace overlay.

The pair wed in an intimate backyard ceremony in Palo Alto, California, according to People magazine. The couple had planned the exchange of vows for four months, but surprised their guests, who thought they were to celebrate Chan's recent graduation from medical school, the magazine reported.

Zuckerberg's sister, Arielle Zuckerberg, posted, "Balls. Now I'm the only unmarried Zuckerberg..." on her Facebook page. She is listed by Chan as a family member on the site.

Zuckerberg designed a simple ruby wedding ring for Chan himself, People reported. Guests dined on food from the couple's favorite restaurants, and nibbled on mouse-shaped chocolates that the pair ate on their first date nine years ago.

Tim Carvell, lead writer for "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart, reacted to the news on Twitter, writing: "Congratulations, Mark Zuckerberg! As a gift, I got you the names of all my friends, a list of my favorite movies, and some photos of me!"

OPENING BELL TO WEDDING BELLS

Zuckerberg, whose shares are worth nearly $20 billion and who retains voting control of Facebook, marked the debut of his company's stock at Facebook's Silicon Valley campus on Friday, symbolically ringing the opening bell for stock trading.

The IPO did not go as well as the social networking company had hoped, with shares closing just above the offering price of $38 a share after trading glitches and a last-minute, 25 percent increase in the number of shares being sold.

More than 576 million shares changed hands, setting a trading volume record for U.S. market debuts. Facebook posted $3.7 billion in revenue in 2011 and $1 billion in profit. The site boasts 900 million global users.

Facebook's emergence as a cultural phenomenon was depicted in the fictionalized 2010 film "The Social Network."

Zuckerberg, Time magazine's Person of the Year in 2010, started Facebook in his Harvard University dorm room eight years ago, before dropping out of the Ivy League school. Chan just graduated from medical school at the University of California, San Francisco. The couple met while at Harvard.

Neither Zuckerberg nor Chan commented further about their marriage on their Facebook pages, and Facebook representatives did not immediately respond to e-mailed requests for comment on the wedding.

The couple adopted a Hungarian sheepdog named Beast a year ago, and live together in Palo Alto. ]]> http://www.metro.us/boston/national/article/1143538--facebook-s-mark-zuckerberg-marries-girlfriend-priscilla-chan-in-surprise-ceremony Sun, 20 May 2012 10:25:33 -0400 Reuters http://www.metro.us/boston/national/article/1143538--facebook-s-mark-zuckerberg-marries-girlfriend-priscilla-chan-in-surprise-ceremony <![CDATA[Weird news roundup: Don't call 911 for phone sex]]> Diaper discipline
FRIDLEY, Minn. (AP) - Police say a Minnesota mother and her boyfriend shaved the head of her 12-year-old daughter and made her run up and down the street in a diaper because she wasn’t getting good grades.

A neighbor called police Monday night after a crowd of about 50 people gathered in Fridley, near Minneapolis, to watch the girl, who was also wearing a tank top.

Police say the girl was crying and hysterical when an officer approached her.

The couple was arrested. Officials say they were laughing on the way to the county jail, and questioning why police got involved in the incident.

The girl and three younger children have been placed in foster care.

Oklahoma Man Arrested For Talking Dirty to Emergency Operators


OKLAHOMA CITY - Oklahoma City police have arrested an elderly man for allegedly calling 911 operators to discuss the birds and the bees.

According to a police report, Clyde Dorain Hobbs, 72, called 911 on Saturday, May 5 at least 17 times. The report reveals Hobbs made sexually oriented comments to the emergency operators each time he called.

Police say it isn’t the first time they’ve arrested Hobbs for calling 911. Records show he’s been arrested three previous times. The report states when officers arrived to Hobbs’ home, he was "very belligerent and rude."

Classes Axed After Body Spray Sets Off School Fire Alarm


MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (AP) - Officials are saying one student’s "overabundance" of body spray in a locker room triggered the schools fire alarm.

Firefighters were called to Middletown High School shortly after 3 p.m. Thursday.

Officials say the excessive use of scented body spray created a mist cloud below a heat sensor, which tripped the alarm.

Officials deemed the call a "routine accidental." No word on whether the student was spoken to about the proper use of fragrance.

Arkansas Child Lodges Arm In Gumball Machine

An Arkansas toddler reaching for a sweet treat instead found firefighters reaching out to rescue him from the grasp of a gumball machine.

Terrell Parks Jr., 2, was out shopping with his father when, like most toddlers, he was lured in by the line of candy machines near the front of the Texarkana store where they were shopping.

Terrell reached into the machine so far that Fire Rescue had to be called in. They couldn’t just butter him up and slip the arm out…the rescue team needed to dismantle the machine to free the boy.

When his arm was freed…Terrell was still holding onto that gumball.

NY Man Shoots Friend In The Leg…At His Request


STOCKHOLM, N.Y. (AP) - Police say a northern New York man had his friend shoot him with a rifle because he was interested in knowing what it feels like to be shot.

State police say the shooting occurred around 5 p.m. Sunday in the rural town of Stockholm when 25-year-old Shawn Mossow gave in to his friend’s repeated requests and shot him once in the right leg with a .22-caliber rifle.

The 24-year-old is expected to make a full recovery. Police haven’t released his name.

Mossow was charged with reckless endangerment. He’s being held in the county jail on $10,000 bail.

Teachers Dancing Behind Students


Teachers at a Massachusetts charter school had some fun behind students who believed they were participating in a documentary.

Abby Kelley Foster Charter Public School teacher Mike Penney told students he was making a documentary for the school’s annual student film festival, in which the teachers typically have an entry.

While the students were talking to the camera about topics like their favorite classes, teachers at the school snuck into the background and busted out some dance moves.

"It’s pretty rare that we get one over on them," Penney said of the students, who he said weren’t aware of the practical joke until the video was screened at the film festival, itself.

]]> http://www.metro.us/boston/national/article/1143522--weird-news-roundup-don-t-call-911-for-phone-sex Fri, 18 May 2012 17:25:02 -0400 RACHEL PAISTE http://www.metro.us/boston/national/article/1143522--weird-news-roundup-don-t-call-911-for-phone-sex <![CDATA[Facebook fizzles in debut, shares skirt IPO price]]>
The stock opened 11 percent higher and rose to $45 before rapidly heading south in frenzied trade, touching its initial public offering price of $38. The No. 1 online social network raised as much as $18.4 billion in one of the biggest initial public offerings in U.S. history.

After a delay in the opening print that drove up anxiety levels among traders and onlookers outside the Nasdaq, the company's closely watched stock began trading at $42.05, compared with an IPO price of $38.

To rapturous applause from employees, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg -- flanked by Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Nasdaq Chief Executive Robert Greifeld -- rang the bell to kick off trading at the company's Silicon Valley headquarters at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time.

The 28-year-old billionaire founder hugged and high-fived Sandberg and other employees in celebration after he pressed the remote button.

The area outside Facebook's offices at 1 Hacker Way was packed with throngs of photographers, more than 12 television trucks, and a TV news helicopter hovering overhead as the excitement reached fever pitch.

"A 15 to 20 percent pop is in the realm of possibility," said Tim Loughran, a finance professor at the University of Notre Dame, before the start of trade.

"Given they already moved their IPO range up and increased the size, that's bullish to begin with."

Some expect shares could rise 30 percent or more on Friday, despite ongoing concerns about Facebook's long-term money-making potential. An average of Morningstar analyst estimates put the closing price for Facebook shares on Friday at $50. ]]> http://www.metro.us/boston/money/article/1143507--facebook-fizzles-in-debut-shares-skirt-ipo-price Fri, 18 May 2012 13:00:06 -0400 REUTERS http://www.metro.us/boston/money/article/1143507--facebook-fizzles-in-debut-shares-skirt-ipo-price <![CDATA[Did White House 'spin' tip a covert op?]]>
At about 5:45 p.m. EDT on Monday, May 7, just before the evening newscasts, John Brennan, President Barack Obama's top White House adviser on counter-terrorism, held a small, private teleconference to brief former counter-terrorism advisers who have become frequent commentators on TV news shows.

According to five people familiar with the call, Brennan stressed that the plot was never a threat to the U.S. public or air safety because Washington had "inside control" over it.

Brennan's comment appears unintentionally to have helped lead to disclosure of the secret at the heart of a joint U.S.-British-Saudi undercover counter-terrorism operation.

A few minutes after Brennan's teleconference, on ABC's World News Tonight, Richard Clarke, former chief of counter-terrorism in the Clinton White House and a participant on the Brennan call, said the underwear bomb plot "never came close because they had insider information, insider control."

A few hours later, Clarke, who is a regular consultant to the network, concluded on ABC's Nightline that there was a Western spy or double-agent in on the plot: "The U.S. government is saying it never came close because they had insider information, insider control, which implies that they had somebody on the inside who wasn't going to let it happen."

Double agent


The next day's headlines were filled with news of a U.S. spy planted inside Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), who had acquired the latest, non-metallic model of the underwear bomb and handed it over to U.S. authorities.

At stake was an operation that could not have been more sensitive — the successful penetration by Western spies of AQAP, al Qaeda's most creative and lethal affiliate. As a result of leaks, the undercover operation had to be shut down.

The initial story of the foiling of an underwear-bomb plot was broken by the Associated Press.

According to National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor, due to its sensitivity, the AP initially agreed to a White House request to delay publication of the story for several days.

But according to three government officials, a final deal on timing of publication fell apart over the AP's insistence that no U.S. official would respond to the story for one clear hour after its release.

When the administration rejected that demand as "untenable," two officials said, the AP said it was going public with the story. At that point, Brennan was immediately called out of a meeting to take charge of damage control.

Relevant agencies were instructed to prepare public statements and urged to notify Congressional oversight panels. Brennan then started the teleconference with potential TV commentators.

White House officials and others on the call insist that Brennan disclosed no classified information during that conference call and chose his words carefully to avoid doing so.

The AP denies any quid pro quo was requested by them or rejected by the White House. "At no point did AP offer or propose a deal with regard to this story," said AP spokesman Paul Colford.

As for his appearance on ABC, Richard Clarke acknowledges he made a logical "leap" when he said that "inside control" meant "there was human inside control rather than anything else I could imagine." But he adds that over the course of a week, ABC "took extraordinary measures ... to make sure" that nothing it was planning to broadcast would damage ongoing counter-terrorism operations.

Premature shutdown


As a result of the news leaks, however, U.S. and allied officials told Reuters that they were forced to end an operation which they hoped could have continued for weeks or longer.

Several days after the first leaks, counter-terrorism sources confirmed to Reuters that a central role in the operation had been played by MI-5 and MI-6, Britain's ultra-secretive domestic and foreign intelligence services, whose relationship with their American counterparts has been periodically strained by concern about leaks.

These sources acknowledged that British authorities were deeply distressed that anything at all had leaked out about the operation.

The White House places the blame squarely on AP, calling the claim that Brennan contributed to a leak "ridiculous."

"It is well known that we use a range of intelligence capabilities to penetrate and monitor terrorist groups," according to an official statement from the White House national security staff.

"None of these sources or methods was disclosed by this statement. The egregious leak here was to the Associated Press. The White House fought to prevent this information from being reported and ultimately worked to delay its publication for operational security reasons. No one is more upset than us about this disclosure, and we support efforts to prevent leaks like this which harm our national security," the statement said.

The original AP story, however, made no mention of an undercover informant or allied "control" over the operation, indicating only that the fate of the would-be suicide bomber was unknown.

The White House may ultimately have to explain its handling of the case both to Congressional oversight committees and to leak investigations the administration itself has launched.

The Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, Representative Mike Rogers, announced a "preliminary review" of leaks about the operation.

Two leak investigations have been opened by the executive branch as well, one by the Director of National Intelligence and one by the FBI.

On Wednesday, FBI director Robert Mueller, appearing before the Senate Judiciary committee, promised the bureau would "investigate thoroughly."
]]> http://www.metro.us/boston/national/article/1143500--did-white-house-spin-tip-a-covert-op Fri, 18 May 2012 11:31:46 -0400 REUTERS http://www.metro.us/boston/national/article/1143500--did-white-house-spin-tip-a-covert-op <![CDATA[Investors brace for Facebook debut on Wall Street]]>
Valued at $104 billion, Facebook is larger than Starbucks Corp and Hewlett-Packard combined, sparking intense speculation on how much higher its valuation will rise once shares start trading.

"A 15 to 20 percent pop is in the realm of possibility," said Tim Loughran, a finance professor at the University of Notre Dame. "Given they already moved their IPO range up and increased the size, that's bullish to begin with."

Facebook priced its offering at $38 a share on Thursday, but the price could be higher when shares begin trading under the FB symbol on the Nasdaq at around 11 a.m. Eastern Time.

Some expect shares could rise 30 percent or more on Friday, despite ongoing concerns about Facebook's long-term money-making potential. An average of Morningstar analyst estimates puts the closing price for Facebook shares tomorrow at $50.

The IPO, expected to mint more than a thousand paper millionaires at the company, has received wall-to-wall media coverage and sparked hopes of a boom in sales of everything from San Francisco Bay Area real estate to automobiles.

Facebook employees marked the event with an all-night "hackathon" at the company's Menlo Park, California headquarters starting on Thursday evening, a tradition in which programmers work on side projects that sometimes turn into mainstream offerings.

Facebook's 28-year-old founder and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was expected to ring a bell at the company's Silicon Valley headquarters on Friday morning to kick off trading on the Nasdaq.

Founded in a Harvard dorm room in 2004, Facebook has grown into the world's dominant social network with 900 million users.

At $38 a share, Facebook would trade at over 100 times historical earnings versus Apple Inc's 14 times and Google Inc's 19 times.

For all the high expectations surrounding Facebook, the company faces challenges maintaining its growth momentum.

Some investors worry the company has not yet figured out a way to make money from the growing number of users who access Facebook on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. Meanwhile, revenue growth from Facebook's online advertising business, which accounts for the bulk of its revenue, has slowed in recent months.

"With mobile usage growth exceeding desktop, monetization in the near term could be reduced given little-to-no ad coverage on mobile, challenged by limited screen sizes," said a report last week from Susquehanna Financial Group.

GM said on Tuesday it would stop placing ads on Facebook, raising questions about whether display ads on the site are as effective as traditional media. ]]> http://www.metro.us/boston/national/article/1143496--investors-brace-for-facebook-debut-on-wall-street Fri, 18 May 2012 09:06:53 -0400 Reuters http://www.metro.us/boston/national/article/1143496--investors-brace-for-facebook-debut-on-wall-street <![CDATA[Metropolitik: Super PAC attacks have yet to begin]]>
So it was on Thursday morning, when a front page story by the New York Times set the Internet a-twitter with snark. The article in question, "G.O.P. 'Super PAC' Weighs Hard-Line Attack on Obama," detailed a provocative proposal for billionaire conservative Joe Ricketts to mount a super PAC offensive reiterating links between the president and his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

The proposal -- from which Ricketts distanced himself following hours of Web mockery -- played on right-wing fears that President Obama was never properly vetted by the media and that untold stories of his youth hold the key to understanding his allegedly radical beliefs. (The ones, presumably, that he hides beneath his disappointingly moderate exterior.)

One of the most damning elements of the report was the suggestion that Ricketts' Ending Spending Action Fund find an "extremely literate conservative African-American" spokesman, one who can isolate the group from charges of racism while calling attention to the reality of Mr. Obama's cultivated image as a "metrosexual, black Abe Lincoln."

Twitter and assorted news outlets had a good deal of fun over it all (Call him the Great Manscaper!); Mitt Romney gave a half-throated condemnation of attack ads while taking the opportunity to attack his rival; and Ricketts said he'd spend his $10 million on another attack.  

Meanwhile, we learned the lengths to which big-money donors may go to get a Republican in the White House. For billionaires like Ricketts, no price is too high if it can get us to buy into the myth that Obama is a dangerous extremist -- so they can swoop into power and unfurl their own very real dangerous, extremist agenda.

Make no mistake:?The super PAC era has only just begun.

Follow Brayden Simms on Twitter @metropolitik

Metro does not endorse the opinions of the author, or any opinions expressed on its pages. ]]> http://www.metro.us/boston/national/article/1143421--metropolitik-super-pac-attacks-have-yet-to-begin Thu, 17 May 2012 18:19:12 -0400 NEW YORK http://www.metro.us/boston/national/article/1143421--metropolitik-super-pac-attacks-have-yet-to-begin <![CDATA[Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer just can't stop getting robbed]]>
Spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said no one was home at the time of the burglary, which was discovered May 4 by a housekeeper. The Washington, D.C., police were investigating, she said.

Breyer and his wife, Joanna, have a townhouse in Washington's upscale Georgetown neighborhood, according to the Los Angeles Times.

In the February incident on the island of Nevis, the intruder stole about $1,000 but no one was hurt. Breyer, his wife and two guests were present at the time.

There have been previous instances of crimes involving U.S. Supreme Court justices.

In 2004, then-Supreme Court Justice David Souter suffered minor injuries when he was mugged by a group of young men as he jogged alone near his residence in Washington.

In 1996, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had her purse snatched as she walked home with her husband and daughter from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to their nearby residence in their Watergate apartment complex. No one was hurt. ]]> http://www.metro.us/boston/national/article/1143414--supreme-court-justice-stephen-breyer-just-can-t-stop-getting-robbed Thu, 17 May 2012 18:00:44 -0400 REUTERS http://www.metro.us/boston/national/article/1143414--supreme-court-justice-stephen-breyer-just-can-t-stop-getting-robbed <![CDATA[Autopsy: Trayvon Martin had THC in his system the night he was shot]]>
As ABC reports, Martin's blood and urine tested positive for THC, the active chemical in marijuana. The autopsy also revealed that Martin had a quarter-inch by half-inch abrasion on a finger, which may have been caused by a struggle. He was shot from a distance of between one and 18 inches away.

Zimmerman, who is charged with murder, has maintained that he shot Martin in self-defense during a scuffle with the teen. Photos taken on February 26, the night of Martin's death, show bleeding abrasions to the back of Zimmerman's head, which he claimed was slammed on the ground by Martin. Other reports have revealed that Zimmerman suffered a fractured nose and two black eye the night Martin was shot.

The autopsy report with Martin's drug test results came to light as prosecutors prepare to make public new evidence, including videos and photos from the crime scene.

Zimmerman told police he called 911 to report his suspicion about the teen after he spotted him in the gated community where Martin's father's girlfriend lived. He followed Martin, despite the 911 operator's urging him not to, and told police he shot the teen during a struggle. He has been released from jail on a $150,000 bond.
]]> http://www.metro.us/boston/national/article/1143413--autopsy-trayvon-martin-had-thc-in-his-system-the-night-he-was-shot Thu, 17 May 2012 17:43:58 -0400 CASSANDRA GARRISON, NEW YORK http://www.metro.us/boston/national/article/1143413--autopsy-trayvon-martin-had-thc-in-his-system-the-night-he-was-shot <![CDATA[Facebook prices $38 a share at top of range in landmark IPO]]>
The offering puts the eight-year-old company, founded in a Harvard dorm room, a valuation akin to that of Amazon.com Inc, and exceeding that of Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Inc combined.

Predictions on how much the stock will rise on the first day of trading vary greatly, with some experts saying anything short of a 50 percent jump would be disappointing. Other IPO watchers say the large size of the float, coupled with a raised price range, could reduce first-day gains to as little as 10 percent.

"I think anything over 50 percent will be considered a successful offering -- anything under that would be underwhelming," said Jim Krapfel, analyst at Morningstar. "A lot of retail investors are not concerned about valuation. That's what is going to drive the first day pop."

Lee Simmons, industry specialist at Dun & Bradstreet, had a more modest forecast.

"You've got a large offering at an increased price, so a huge pop may be difficult to achieve. I'd think a 10 to 20 percent pop over the offer price is expected," Simmons said. "When you're talking about doubling or a pop the size of LinkedIn, it's more difficult to achieve because Facebook is just offering more shares ... The others were smaller floats, under 10 percent, so you had this artificial feeding frenzy."

Shares of professional networking company LinkedIn Corp's doubled on their first day of trading.

On Wednesday, Facebook increased the size of the IPO by almost 25 percent to 421 million shares, a 15 percent float.

Another social media company, Zynga Inc, an online games developer that makes lots of games for Facebook users, fizzled in its debut and ended down 5 percent on its first day of trading. No one Reuters spoke with said they were expecting a fall in Facebook's stock on Friday.

Facebook, with some 900 million users, raised the target IPO price range on Tuesday to between $34 and $38 per share, from between $28 and $35.

The company could raise north of $18.4 billion if a greenshoe option for underwriters is exercised.

Facebook will celebrate its Wall Street debut with an all-night "hackathon" at Facebook's Menlo Park, California, headquarters starting on Thursday evening, a company tradition in which Facebook's computer programmers work on side projects that sometimes become part of the main product offering.

SPORTS BOOKS AND ODDSMAKERS

Despite the high expectations, Facebook faces challenges maintaining its growth momentum.

Some investors worry the company has not yet figured out a way to make money from the growing number of users who access Facebook on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. Meanwhile, revenue growth from Facebook's online advertising business, which accounts for the bulk of its revenue, has slowed in recent months.

Sports betting firms had varying estimates of where Facebook would end up at the close of its first day of trading. Spreadex Limited in the UK said clients are speculating shares could end up trading above $56 a share in the first day, having come down a bit in price since the number of shares slated for sale was increased.

Betting on Intrade, a popular online betting site for political events, was limited, with only about 750 shares changing hands in contracts that bet on a closing price anywhere from $25 to $60. By contrast, more than 200,000 trades have been made on President Barack Obama's chances for re-election.

"Hundreds of millions of people are extremely passionate about this product. A lot of those people want to be a part of this event, of this company that they have an affinity for. That's creating a level of excitement for the stock that you don't normally see," said Steve Weinstein, an analyst with ITG Research.

Some financial advisers have warned their clients against jumping into Facebook right away, but the well-known brand could still attract enough interest to exceed the 458 million shares traded the day General Motors went public after emerging from bankruptcy in 2010.

One UBS adviser initially received calls from 12 clients clamoring to buy shares of Facebook, but over the past couple of

weeks, two have changed their minds.

"A lot of people are thrown off by the recent negative stories in the press," the adviser said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "One guy was worried about General Motors stopping its advertising on Facebook."

GM said on Tuesday it would stop placing ads on Facebook, raising questions about whether the display ads on the site are as effective in reaching consumers as traditional media.

Overall financial advisers are struggling to manage clients' expectations about what the stock will do and in some cases, if they will be able to get any stock for them.

"People want to just own it because they think it's the next Google and they missed out on that," said a financial adviser from Wells Fargo Advisors, the brokerage division of Wells Fargo & Co, which is part of the syndicate underwriting the deal.

Facebook has 33 underwriters for the IPO, led by Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs. ]]> http://www.metro.us/boston/national/article/1143396--facebook-prices-38-a-share-at-top-of-range-in-landmark-ipo Thu, 17 May 2012 16:58:05 -0400 Reuters http://www.metro.us/boston/national/article/1143396--facebook-prices-38-a-share-at-top-of-range-in-landmark-ipo <![CDATA[White House implements new rules to prevent prison rape]]>
Advocates of a 2003 law to eliminate prison rape see sexual assault in U.S. prisons as rampant and grossly overlooked.

"Sexual assault crimes committed within our correctional facilities can have devastating consequences - for individual victims and for communities far beyond our jails and prisons," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement.

More than 209,400 people were victims of sexual abuse in prisons, jails and juvenile detention facilities in 2008, the Justice Department said.

Holder on Thursday signed a detailed plan for implementation of the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act that directs adult prisons and jails, lockups, community confinement facilities and juvenile facilities to begin screening inmates for risk of being sexually abused or abusive.

It also mandates background checks on prospective employees of these facilities for any history of sexual abuse.

Officials said the rule also applied to confinement centers operated by executive departments and agencies other than the Justice Department, including immigration detention centers.

Other measures include barring juveniles from being housed with adult inmates, a ban on cross-gender pat-down searches, video monitoring and special attention to lesbian, gay, transgender or bisexual inmates vulnerable to abuse.

States which do not come into compliance with the rule, checked by audits every three years, would lose five percent of any Department of Justice grants for their prisons. Facilities would have about two months to come into compliance. ]]> http://www.metro.us/boston/national/article/1143384--white-house-implements-new-rules-to-prevent-prison-rape Thu, 17 May 2012 15:45:24 -0400 Reuters http://www.metro.us/boston/national/article/1143384--white-house-implements-new-rules-to-prevent-prison-rape