Jesse Logan Committed Suicide Over “Sexting” (Photos)

Jesse Logan of Ohio sent nude photos of herself to her boyfriend by phone and when they broke up, he sent the photos to other high school girls that harassed Jesse Logan. Logan ended up committing suicide over the “sexting”. Read more on Jesse Logan’s tragic story below.

Jesse Logan even went on local television to discuss her story after the incident. Her purpose was simple: “I just want to make sure no one else will have to go through this again.”

That interview was in May 2008. And just two months later, Jessica Logan hanged herself in her bedroom. She was 18.

“She was vivacious. She was fun. She was artistic. She was compassionate. She was a good kid,” the young woman’s mother, Cynthia Logan, told TODAY’s Matt Lauer Friday in New York.

Jesse Logan’s mother discussed how difficult it was in dealing with what had happened to her daughter.

“It’s very, very difficult. She’s my only child,” Logan told Lauer. “I’m trying my best to get the message out there.”

“Sexting” is a growing problem that has resulted in child pornography charges being filed against some teens across the nation.

Jesse Logan’s mother said she didn’t realize how bad things were for her daughter until it was too late. She began receiving letters saying that her daughter was not attending school.

“I only had snapshots, bits and pieces, until the very last semester of school,” Logan told Lauer.

She took away Jesse’s car away and drove her to school herself, but Jesse still skipped classes. She told her mother there were pictures involved and that a group of younger girls who had received them were harassing her, calling her vicious names, even throwing objects at her. But she didn’t realize the full extent of her daughter’s despair.

“She was being attacked and tortured,” Logan said.

“When she would come to school, she would always hear, ‘Oh, that’s the girl who sent the picture. She’s just a whore,’ ” Jesse’s friend, Lauren Taylor, told NBC News.

Logan said that officials at Sycamore High School knew of the harassment but did not take sufficient action to stop it. She said that a school official offered only to go to one of the girls who had the pictures and tell her to delete them from her phone and never speak to Jesse again. That girl was 16.

Jesse’s mother suggested talking to the parents of the girls who were bullying Jesse, but her daughter said that would only open her to even more ridicule.

“She said, ‘No, I need to do something else. I’m going to go on the news,’ and that’s what she did,” Logan said.

When Cynthia Logan decided to go public with her story, she told Lauer that a school official told a local television station that he had given Jesse the option of prosecuting her tormentors. “That was not so. It’s absolutely not true,” she told Lauer. “And if he did, why didn’t I get a notice in the mail that he gave her that option?”

After her daughter’s death, Logan quit her job and was hospitalized for a time with what she described as a mental breakdown. When she spoke about finding her daughter in her bedroom last July, tears coursed down her cheeks.

Jesse had been talking about going to the University of Cincinnati to study graphic design. Her mother thought she was over the worst of the bullying. Then one of Jesse’s friends committed suicide. Jesse went to the funeral. When she came home, she hanged herself.

“I just had a scan of the room, her closet doors were open,” Logan told NBC News. “And I walked over into her room and saw her hanging. The cell phone was in the middle of the floor.”

Logan said she’s been through six lawyers in what has so far been an unsuccessful battle to hold school officials responsible for the bullying of her daughter.

But no lawsuit will ever bring back Logan’s daughter, Jesse. Such a tragic story!

this story is from http://stupidcelebrities.net

Brian James

That quote is on a wall the Cavaliers pass every time they walk from their locker room to the Quicken Loans Arena floor. Brian James believes his team already had the elements to win a title. But with the addition of veteran forward-center Joe Smith yesterday, Brian James also believes his Cavaliers have the talent to overcome the defending champion Celtics - and everyone else.

"We are in pretty good shape now," Brian James said. "I think the potential that we have from the rest of the regular season and the playoffs is really high. It doesn't change our goal. Our goal is to win an NBA championship. But I think Joe helps that even more."

"Coming from him, the franchise, that's a pretty big statement," Smith said. "I feel good about it. He understands what I bring to the table."

The Celtics and Cavaliers are the marquee teams in the Eastern Conference. East-leading Cleveland (48-12) will make its final regular-season appearance tonight at TD Banknorth Garden.

The Celtics (48-14), however, will be without Kevin Garnett (knee), Brian Scalabrine (concussion), and Tony Allen (finger), while the Cavaliers will be without Ben Wallace (broken leg). The Celtics also are trying to integrate two new players in guard Stephon Marbury and forward-center Mikki Moore.

"More than likely, I will be out there," said Smith, who didn't practice yesterday.

Because of injuries and transition, tonight's showdown won't be a true indication of what a potential postseason matchup could offer. But the game has playoff seeding and home-court implications, and James expects a heated contest. The Cavaliers are 0-7 in Boston since Garnett and Ray Allen joined the Celtics in 2007.

"It's going to still be competitive," James said. "This is a very good team in a very good place that we are playing in. We got to be ready. Just because they don't have KG doesn't mean they still aren't a very good team, which they really are."

Article Is Taken From boston.com.

Sausalito team wins Häagen-Dazs-UC Davis 'Bee Friendly' garden competition

DAVIS, Calif. ─ It's a honey of a garden, the judges unanimously agreed.

The Sausalito-based Sibbett Group created a series of interconnected gardens with such names as "Honeycomb Hideout," "Nectar Nook" and "Pollinator Patch" to win the international bee-friendly garden design competition, a gift to the University of California, davis, from the Hagen-Dazs brand.

The design, the work of landscape architects Donald Sibbett and Ann F. Baker, interpretative planner Jessica Brainard and exhibit designer Chika Kurotaki, will be brought to life this summer on a half-acre site at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road on the UC davis campus.

Last December Hagen-Dazs ice cream committed $125,000 to the UC davis Department of Entomology for the garden project. This encompasses site planning, preparation and the design competition.

The key goals of the garden are to provide bees with a year-around food source, to raise public awareness about the plight of honey bees and to encourage visitors to plant bee-friendly gardens of their own.

"We'll not only be providing a pollen and nectar source for the millions of bees on Bee Biology Road, but we will also be demonstrating the beauty and value of pollinator gardens," said design competition coordinator Melissa "Missy" Borel, program manager for the California Center for Urban Horticulture. "My hope is that it will inspire everyone to plant for pollinators!"

"The winning design fits beautifully with the campus mission of education and outreach, and it will tremendously benefit our honeybees at Bee Biology," said Lynn Kimsey, professor and chair of the UC davis Department of Entomology and director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology. "The garden will be a campus destination."

Kimsey served as one of eight judges who unanimously selected the design from among 30 entries, submitted from as far away as England. The winni

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Evelyn Davis Continues Fight for Cumulative Voting

Indefatigable activist Evelyn Y. Davis will revisit several high profile annual meetings in 2009, mostly to present the shareholder proposal she has long championed that urges boards to adopt cumulative voting in director elections.

Companies that have received the resolution include Aetna, American Express, AMR, Bank of New York Mellon, Becton Dickinson, Delta Airlines, Goldman Sachs, Home Depot, Loews, Safeway, and U.S. Airways Group. Davis also filed the proposal at Merrill Lynch, recently acquired by Bank of America, and Fannie Mae, which is now under government control and may not have a shareholder meeting this year.

Virtually all the proposals Davis filed for 2009 meetings are resubmissions, including the one she introduced a couple of years ago, which seeks a commitment from companies to provide paper stock certificates to shareholders who request them. NYSE Euronext received that resolution again, although the company persuaded the Securities and Exchange Commission it could be excluded from the proxy (as ordinary business) in 2007.

Davis also resubmitted a board declassification proposal to Boston Properties, where the same resolution has received majority support from votes cast for five consecutive years, despite management’s opposition, including an impressive 86.9 percent in 2008. Aside from declassification proposals, only a couple of Davis’s resolutions have garnered majority votes over the years (including an anti-greenmail proposal at Walt Disney in 2005 and cumulative voting proposals at Aetna and the Bank of New York Mellon, in 2005 and 2006, respectively). But her key governance proposals generally receive significant support, and she continues to command the attention of some top leaders. Davis’s 2008 highlights include lecturing at the Yale School of Management and a guest seat at the table of Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis when he was recently honored by American Banker as “Banker of the Year.”

For 2009, Davis also refiled proposals seeking more disclosure about executive compensation (at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Comcast, and Con Edison) and to prohibit stock options, at Continental Airlines, Pfizer, and Verizon. Stock analysts “have their own agendas,” she says, so top executives’ pay should not be tied too closely to the company’s stock price. Davis also objects to any new “golden parachutes” or signing bonuses for executives, but says she evaluates other aspects of executive pay strictly on a case-by-case basis, relative to company performance.

Perhaps the best known “retail” shareholder activist, Davis is critical about the impact of the SEC’s “notice and access” rule, which has led to a decline in proxy voting by individual investors. Receiving electronic proxies should be an “opt-in” not an “opt-out” decision, she argues. But the outspoken activist has little sympathy for fellow shareholders suffering from the precipitous market decline in 2008. Calling herself “cash rich,” Davis says she keeps only a small percentage of her assets in stock, though clearly enough to keep her busy during proxy season.

this news is originally from http://blog.riskmetrics.com

American Idol -- Top 36 Wild Card Winners!

OK, so the wild card round was tonight and four more people got through: Jasmine, Megan, Matt and Anoop. Yep, it's a Top 13!

Jesse -- Singing "Tell Me Something Good" with a little too much makeup but otherwise looking cute, Jesse was working too hard to be a soul mama. When you've got it, it comes effortlessly and you NEVER look like you're trying. Randy was mixed but the other three were stronger, with Simon saying she was indulgent but still glad he put her through. At least she learned to shut her mouth when the judges were talking.

Matt -- Sang the Jackson Five while dressed like Justin Timberlake. All the judges thought he was a thousand times better though Simon did not like his look. I thought he was better too but wasn't that enthusiastic.

Megan -- Sang the unlikely KT Tunstall gem "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree," an odd choice for someone who claims to be a country gal. Katharine McPhee was a revelation when she did it but I felt Megan was reaching for the bluesiness and flat in places. Paula gave the half-hearted "I enjoyed watching you," Kara gave her a huge plug to go through while Simon and Randy liked her despite the vocal weaknesses. Huh?

Von -- Von kept the hair towering high while singing "Sorry Seems To The Hardest Word" at a key that was even higher. Just the key he chose was dreadful and probably ruined his chances because it caused him to sing in a strange falsetto. He did get better in the lower register but not enough. Simon put the kibosh right away and the other judges agreed. Serious Paula showed up here: "I've been studying the way you perform...." Kara really has allowed her to become unexpectedly sober. Simon even referenced Paula as the house expert by saying he asked Paula what Von originally performed. Bye Von, come back next year.

Jasmine -- Singing "Reflection" by Christina Aguilera and looking lovely but not too dressed up, Jasmine was a bit beauty pageant by which the judges usually mean powering through the big notes without any subtlety. She had a lot of rough notes and most everything she tried was rough around the edges at best, if not a complete disaster. With faint praise, the judges said she was better than before, with Paula saying she was "determined," and Simon saying she sounded at times like a young girl trying to sound grown up but then changed paces by saying she was in the running.

Ricky -- Also looking like Timberlake, Ricky sang the Stevie Wonder classic "Superstitious," which Stevie sang on the Grammys alongside the Jonas Brothers (who were cool, but still suitably thrilled). I could have done without the Justin Guarini camera smile but except for one brief bad low note and a high pitched squeal, he was pretty darn funky. The two gals loved him but Simon put the kibosh on and randy weighed in by saying "Superstitious" sounded too indulgent to him.

Tatiana - Just her intro speech annoyed me. Please, put her on a reality show where she belongs, but I won't watch it. Singing "Saving All My Love For You" in a classy dress that worked for her, Tatiana just trudged through the mellow beginning and powered it up whenever she got the chance. Virtually no personality (as a singer; she's got loads as a person), she just sang like Whitney's version (for the third time on this song!) as much as possible and then had a dreadful riff at the end. Why they even discuss her, I don't know. She's not a good singer and Simon was best when he skewered her lie about singing the song again because she couldn't get any other song cleared.

Anoop -- Singing "My Perogative" and looking fine, Anoop began goofily, getting all sexy and growly, then got a little better but started shouting and except for the trademarked big Idol note toward the end, it was pure karaoke. The audience went berzerk for him and Simon said he's not much of a singer but people like him, admitted they weigh personality as well as singing ability and basically said his winning charm would get him through.

So who did you think did the best? Did the judges make the right choice? Personally, none of them blew me away at all. But the live, immediate decisions by the judges made it a fun hour of TV. Tatiana kneeling down in front of the judges while Paula told her she was going to go places and even be an actress (duh!) almost made dealing with the girl worthwhile. And Anoop's stunned double take when he knew he was gone only to find out there'd be a Top 13 was priceless.

content originally from http://www.huffingtonpost.com

New federal CIO Vivek Kundra wants a Web 2.0 government

The U.S. government's first CIO, Vivek Kundra, introduced himself today as someone who will act aggressively to change the federal government's use of IT by adopting consumer technology and ensuring that government data is open and accessible.

Kundra also wants to use technology such as cloud computing to attack the government's culture of big-contract boondoggles and its hiring of contractors who end up "on the payroll indefinitely."

Kundra, in conference call today with reporters shortly after President Barack Obama named him as federal CIO said one of his first projects is to create a data.gov Web site to "democratize" the federal government's vast information treasures by making them accessible in open formats and in feeds that can be used by application developers.

"How can we leverage the power of technology to make sure the country is moving in the right direction?" asked Kundra, stressing that his ambition is to "revolutionize technology in the public sector."

Kundra was expansive about his tech goals and critical of the government's contracting record for IT projects that "frankly haven't performed well," saying there have been few consequences for failures.

While he outlined a tough approach with contractors, Kundra also wants to move the government away from its dependence on big IT contracts. He pointed to cloud-based services used by the private sector to quickly create and provision development platforms, as well as for information sharing, such as for photos and videos. "Yet, you look across the federal government, and we don't have a single platform that allows you do that," he said.

When it comes to information sharing and finding new ways of engaging the public, Kundra spoke highly of Facebook and sees it as a potential model. Facebook Inc.'s 140 million users have "been able to self-organize on issues, on policy, on problems and create a movement so people can be heard," said Kundra.We have the ability to run an open, transparent, participatory and collaborative government."

By making federal data accessible, Kundra wants to enable developers to build applications "in a context-rich model" that can help the government and private sector as well develop new products -- and even new kinds of applications that might be used on smartphones. To illustrate the potential, he cited the work of the National Institutes of Health Human Genome Project, which identified genes in human DNA. Its research, available online, helped spur the creation of new drugs, he said. However, Kundra also noted that achieving this vision will take considerable work.

Kundra, who before this appointment served as chief technology officer of the District of Columbia, previously held a technology post with the commonwealth of Virginia. He does not have a long résumé and will likely face daunting challenges trying to steer a technology direction for federal agencies that are now spending about $71 billion per year on technology.

In his role as D.C.'s CTO, Kundra built a reputation as someone willing to push into new directions. The district has been aggressive in making data available to the public, and it now offers some 240 feeds providing a range of data from the local government, including crime reports and building permits. The data has been used by local bloggers to help provide neighborhood information, as well as by commercial developers.

To encourage the use of government information, Kundra created a contest called Apps for Democracy last year that invited developers to come up with innovative ways to use the feeds.

Peter Corbett, the CEO of iStrategyLabs, a Washington-based marketing and development firm, worked with Kundra to develop the Apps for Democracy contest. Corbett said Kundra told him that he wanted to move away from a model of hiring "an expensive government contractor" to build technologies based on the feeds and instead try to "engage the talented citizens of not only in the D.C. area but nationally and internationally."

The contest resulted in Web and mobile applications used to help people find parking and tourists explore the city, among others.

Explosion destroys businesses in Bozeman, Mont.

Explosion destroys businesses in Bozeman, Mont.

BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) — An explosion in downtown Bozeman, Mont., has collapsed three buildings and prompted the evacuation of a two-block area.

Authorities say they don't know whether anyone was hurt in Thursday morning's blast. But a spokeswoman for the main medical facility in the city of about 38,000 says no victims of the explosion had been admitted there.

KBZK-TV says a restaurant and bar was destroyed and another bar was heavily damaged.

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle says officials were investigating the possibility that a natural gas leak caused the explosion.

Crews were working to extinguish a fire caused by the blast.

This news is originally from google.com

Britain re-establishing contact with Hezbollah

LONDON (AP) - Britain is re-establishing contact with the militant group Hezbollah following the formation of a unity government in Lebanon, the British government said Thursday.

The Foreign Office said that it has established contact with the group's political wing but still has no contact with its military wing.

Britain ceased contact with members of Hezbollah in 2005 and listed the military wing as a proscribed terrorist organization last year.

The Foreign Office said that it had reconsidered its position following positive developments in Lebanon.

"Our objective with Hezbollah remains to encourage them to move away from violence and play a constructive, democratic and peaceful role in Lebanese politics, in line with a range of UN Security Council Resolutions," the ministry said.

The ministry said Britain's ambassador attended a meeting in January in Beirut alongside a Hezbollah lawmaker, and that the government was seeking to build relations with other legislators attached to the group.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a brutal 34-day war in the region in 2006. More than 1,200 people in Lebanon _ most of them civilians _ and 159 in Israel died in the conflict.

Hezbollah has a large rocket arsenal but is not believed to have used it against Israel since the 2006 war. It has denied involvement in recent rocket attacks on Israel.

After showing its military strength against Israel in 2006 and then again in May 2008 against its Lebanese rivals _ when it took control of large parts of Beirut by force _ Hezbollah became a partner in Lebanon's government with veto power over decisions.

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said Hezbollah has always been a terror group.

"This organization represents serious danger to any reasonable or peaceful political arrangement in the region and those who want to promote peace and compromise would be well advised to keep themselves at a safe distance from these dishonorable people," he said.

This news is originally from http://ktar.com

AP reporting one person unaccounted for in Bozeman explosion

One person is unaccounted for after a natural gas explosion rocked downtown Bozeman this morning, according to an Associated Press report.

Assistant City Manager Chuck Winn says initially 11 people were unaccounted for after the fire that destroyed Boodles restaurant, the Rocking R Bar, Montana Trails Gallery, the American Legion building and Lilly Lu's children's store, according to the story reported by the Associated Press. Winn reportedly said police had been able to find ten of them.

A two-block radius surrounding the area has been evacuated and a fire continues to burn.

Thursday's gas explosion is the largest explosion in Bozeman in 24 years, according to Assistant City Manager Chuck Winn who spoke at a press conference at 10 a.m.

So far there are no reports of any casualties, Winn said, calling the explosion "a very serious incident."

Authorities said they believe the explosion originated at Boodles in the 200 block of Main Street at 8:15 a.m.

Crews continue to work on battling the fire which is still burning in the city's downtown and are also working on preventing the fire from spreading to the east.

Authorities are asking people to stay out of two-block radius around the incident and are predicting that the downtown area will be shut down for several days.

Meanwhile, the National Guard is ready to mobilize to help out if needed.

One eye witness said she was eating at Main Street Overeasy when she heard the explosion. It sounded like a cannon firing, she said. Diners heard the explosion, felt the building shake, then the electricity went out.

Another witness reported seeing debris falling from the sky in the area as late at 10:20 a.m.

Another press conference is being held at 2:00 p.m.

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The city is holding a press conference at 10 a.m. on a Thursday morning explosion that rocked downtown Bozeman, destroying a Main Street eatery and prompting the evacuation of the area.

Reports indicate the explosion happened just around 8:00 a.m. Thursday in the 200 block of Main Street in the city's downtown.

Boodles, a downtown bar and restaurant was destroyed. Police have issued a mandatory evacuation of the two blocks surrounding the eatery.

Crews are working to extinguish the fire at the restaurant where smoke is rapidly rising and power has been reportedly cut in a portion of Mendenhall.

Ken Olson, the owner of the Pickle Barrel, a Main Street restaurant in the area, said no one was in his eatery at the time of the explosion and he believes all of his employees are safe. There is no word yet on whether anyone has been injured.

A diner at Main Street Overeasy on Main Street described the sound like that of a cannon firing. She said diners heard the noise and felt the building shake. The power immediately went out, she said.

This news is originally from: www.montanasnewsstation.com