2 girls arrested in Florida bullying case

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (AP) — Two Florida girls who were primarily responsible for bullying a 12-year-old girl who killed herself were arrested after one of them acknowledged the harassment online, a sheriff said Tuesday.

Police in central Florida have been investigating the death of 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick, who climbed a tower at an abandoned concrete plant Sept. 9 and hurled herself to her death. Authorities said as many as 15 girls may have bullied Rebecca and the investigation was continuing.

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said the arrests of the girls, ages 14 and 12, were hastened when the older girl posted Saturday on Facebook, saying she bullied Rebecca but she didn't care.

"We decided that we can't leave her out there. Who else is she going to torment, who else is she going to harass?" Judd said.

The 14-year-old girl was accused of threatening to beat up Rebecca while they were sixth-graders at Crystal Lake Middle School, telling her "to drink bleach and die" and saying she should kill herself, the sheriff said. The older girl convinced the younger girl to bully Rebecca, and they both repeatedly intimidated her, called her names and once the younger girl even beat Rebecca up, police said.

Both girls were charged as juveniles with third-degree felony aggravated stalking. If convicted, it's not clear how much time, if any at all, the girls would spend in juvenile detention because they did not have any previous criminal history, the sheriff said.

"Time may not be the best trainer here. We've got the change this behavior of these children," Judd said.

The sheriff's office identified the two girls, but The Associated Press generally does not name juveniles charged with crimes.

Judd said the bullying began after the 14-year-old girl started dating a boy Rebecca had been seeing. The older girl didn't like that and "began to harass and ultimately torment Rebecca," Judd said.

A man who answered the phone at the 14-year-old's Lakeland home said he was her father and told The Associated Press "none of it's true."

"My daughter's a good girl and I'm 100 percent sure that whatever they're saying about my daughter is not true," he said.

At the mobile home, a barking pit bull stood guard and no one came outside despite shouts from reporters for an interview.

Neighbor George Colom said he had never interacted personally with girl but noticed her playing roughly with other children on the street.

"Kids getting beat up, kids crying," Colom said. "The kids hang loose unsupervised all the time."

A telephone message left at the 12-year-old girl's home was not immediately returned and no one answered the door to her home.

The girls were arrested Monday night and released to their parents' custody. Judd said the 14-year-old was "very cold, had no emotion at all upon her arrest."

The girls remain on home detention.

The younger girl was Rebecca's former best friend, but the sheriff said the older girl turned her and others against Rebecca, out of fear they would be bullied, too.

Before her death, Rebecca changed one of her online screen names to "That Dead Girl" and she messaged a boy in North Carolina: "I'm jumping." Detectives found some of her diaries at her home, and she talked of how depressed she was about the situation.

Last December, Rebecca was hospitalized for three days after cutting her wrists because of what she said was bullying, according to the sheriff. Later, after Rebecca complained that she had been pushed in the hallway and that another girl wanted to fight her, Rebecca's mother began home-schooling her in Lakeland, a city of about 100,000 midway between Tampa and Orlando, Judd said.

This fall, Rebecca started at a new school, Lawton Chiles Middle Academy, but the bullying continued online, authorities said.

Judd said he was upset the girls who were arrested still had access to social networks, even after Rebecca's suicide.

"If we can find any charges we can bring against their parents, we will," Judd said.

___

Kay reported from Miami.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2-girls-arrested-florida-bullying-case-164108414.html
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Trash Talkin’ Tuesday

Fame Helps Michael Fassbender Score More Chicks [The Frisky] Justin Bieber Releases New Single [HollyWire] Sean Lowe Announces Live TV Wedding Date [Right Celebrity] Natalie Portman Moving to Paris [The Celebrity Cafe] Ke$ha Flashes Butt on Instagram [The Blemish] Lena Dunham Goes After Instagram for Breast Feeding [The Huffington Post] Kim Kardashian Shares Post Baby Diet Secret [PopCrunch] Chris Hemsworth Trashes ‘Thor’ ...

Copyright - Stupid Celebrities Gossip 2013. If you see this content on any other website, it has been stolen. Please report.

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/10/trash-talkin-tuesday-117/
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A Company's Tweets Can Help Make It Creditworthy

Courtesy of Kabbage

Courtesy of Kabbage

For many online and other small businesses, getting a loan or a big cash advance is tough. Banks and other traditional lenders are often leery of those without years of financial statements and solid credit scores.

But some lenders and other financial services companies are beginning to assess credit risk differently — using criteria you might not expect.

Jeffrey Grossman is an acupuncturist in Bellingham, Wash. He's also a small businessman. He creates media marketing materials for other acupuncturists hoping to expand their practice.

Over the years, Grossman has borrowed money from family and from bank lines of credit, but recently, he needed a quick infusion of extra cash. He turned to a company called Kabbage, an online financing firm for small businesses.

He found the concept interesting, but the application also made him skeptical. "They wanted all this information about QuickBooks [accounting software] and UPS accounts and all this stuff," he says.

Such details, says Kathryn Petralia, a co-founder of Kabbage, allows the company to "effectively build a financial statement." The firm provides financing to small businesses — such as online merchants — that banks typically don't lend to. Petralia says Kabbage uses real-time and verifiable data from things like UPS shipments, eBay and PayPal accounts to assess creditworthiness.

"We can see historical data and current data, and we can see tomorrow's data. And we are looking at information that could be as detailed as what people are actually buying from you," Petralia says.

And she says that can be more useful than static financial documents that banks and other traditional lenders typically rely on.

“ Are customers saying that you are doing a good job? Are consumers complaining about you?

- Christine Pratt, financial services analyst

"If you see that the customer's business is changing over time — they're selling different products, they're changing their price points, transaction volume is going up or down — you get a lot more visibility and insight into that business than a pure financial statement's going to give you," Petralia says.

To be clear, small businesses that get money from Kabbage give the company permission to view their online accounts. Christine Pratt, a senior financial services analyst at Aite Group, says Kabbage's use of this real-time transaction data is smart. She also likes the fact that Kabbage looks at companies' social media pages.

"Are customers saying that you are doing a good job? Are consumers complaining about you?" Pratt says.

Kabbage looks at a small business' Twitter account and its Facebook page. The company knows the information there isn't foolproof but says it can add insight into how a company is relating to its customers — and at the margins it can be helpful.

"They use that information to be able to look ahead, to see whether or not your business not only is doing very well right now but can also sustain that business and grow," Pratt says.

She says the use of social and real-time data is growing. Some traditional lenders are starting to embrace it, and Amazon is quietly mining its own data to find retailers it wants to make loans to.

Back in Bellingham, Grossman, the small businessman, decided to take the plunge and gave Kabbage access to some of his online accounts.

"I think we were funded probably within like minutes," he says.

But he has words of caution to would-be borrowers: The company's fees can be steep.

"I don't want to say you're doing business with the devil, but sometimes when you're a small business, if the banks aren't able to give you the money and if you need some cash flow, you kind of have to bite the bullet and do it," he says.

Grossman was approved for up to $25,000 and says the funds he got have helped him grow his business and for that he remains grateful.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2013/10/15/234031395/a-companys-tweets-can-help-make-it-creditworthy?ft=1&f=1049
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Viking's Choice: Acoustic Swagger Exists, And Ryley Walker Has It

Michael Vallera/Courtesy of the artist

Ryley Walker.

Michael Vallera/Courtesy of the artist

Sometimes, friends of friends are the best way to discover new music. Or, at the very least, friends of artists you never want to miss live. This was the case with Ryley Walker, a close friend and frequent tour buddy of American Primitive guitarist Daniel Bachman. Walker would accompany Bachman in seriously raucous and psychedelic live sets only a couple years ago, and Bachman would tell me, "Just wait 'til you hear Ryley's stuff." Well, now it's here — and it's not at all what I expected.

Listen: Ryley Walker, 'The West Wind'

 

With the charming swagger of jazz-folk troubadour Tim Buckley and the resonant, full picking style of Bert Jansch, "The West Wind" comes from Walker's first widely available release, a three-song 12". With acoustic guitar in hand and a voice like browned butter, Walker swings and sways in a lush string-and-piano arrangement right out of Buckley's Starsailor; it slowly picks up to a swirling gallop without bucking the rhythm.

The West Wind comes out digitally on Oct. 22 — and as a 12" EP on Nov. 29 — via Tompkins Square Records. Ryley Walker is currently touring Europe with Daniel Bachman.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2013/10/15/230815583/vikings-choice-acoustic-swagger-exists-and-ryley-walker-has-it?ft=1&f=1039
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Integrys Energy Group, Inc. Announces Third Quarter 2013 Earnings Conference Call

CHICAGO, IL--(Marketwired - Oct 11, 2013) - On Thursday, November 7, at 8 a.m. Central time, Integrys Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE: TEG) will host a conference call to review third quarter 2013 financial results, as well as future prospects. Third quarter 2013 financial results documents will be posted to the company's website after market close on November 6, 2013.

The conference call can be accessed 15 minutes prior to the scheduled start time by dialing 888-788-9425. When prompted, supply EARNINGS as the passcode and MR. STEVEN ESCHBACH as the leader. Callers will be placed on hold with music until the call begins.

A webcast of the event can be accessed at http://www.integrysgroup.com/investor/presentations.aspx.

A replay of the complete conference call will be available from 10 a.m. Central time on November 7, 2013 until February 18, 2014. To access the replay, dial 866-395-1650. 

NOTE: As a reminder, Integrys Energy Group's earnings news release, associated financial statements, and other related exhibits are posted on the company's website and not distributed through a wire service. These documents will continue to be filed in a Current Report on Form 8-K with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. To receive timely notification of financial results, sign up in advance to receive alerts related to the posting of financial news on Integrys Energy Group's website, including earnings results and Form 8-K filings. 

About Integrys Energy Group, Inc.

Integrys Energy Group is a diversified energy holding company with regulated natural gas and electric utility operations (serving customers in Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin), an approximate 34% equity ownership interest in American Transmission Company (a federally regulated electric transmission company operating in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, and Illinois), and nonregulated energy operations.

More information about Integrys Energy Group, Inc. is available online at www.integrysgroup.com.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/integrys-energy-group-inc-announces-180000526.html
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Announcements

On bedrooms in the mansion...
Originally I was going to make a "place" for each character's bedroom. But I soon came to realize that this would clutter the "places" section, so, for the characters who do not already have a bedroom please just post in the "Bedrooms" section. I believe there are only two characters bedrooms, the people whose characters belong in those two bedrooms may continue to use them.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/fUU9vWZdPPw/viewtopic.php
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Demand Media CEO And Co-Founder Rosenblatt Resigns

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — Demand Media said Monday that its CEO and chairman, Richard Rosenblatt, will resign from the company he helped found by the end of the month.

The Internet publisher said that co-founder Shawn Colo is the interim president, effective immediately, and will become the temporary CEO when Rosenblatt resigns on Oct. 31. Demand Media will start a search for a permanent CEO soon. James Quandt, a member of Demand Media's board since 2008, will take over as chairman, effective immediately.

The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company did not explain why Rosenblatt was resigning. He has been CEO since the company was founded in 2006.

"I realize that all journeys must ultimately come to an end and want to wish Shawn and the entire team success as they continue to grow the business," Rosenblatt said in a statement.

Demand Media's shares have lost 66 percent of their value since the company went public in January 2011 with an initial public offering price of $17. Analysts expect the company to report a loss this year, after posting a profit last year, according to FactSet.

Demand Media assigns freelancers to produce stories about frequently searched topics online and then sells advertisements alongside the content at its own websites, which include eHow. That business has suffered from changes in Google's search formula that cut the amount of traffic to its websites.

Earlier this year, Demand Media announced it plans to split itself into two publicly traded companies. The company said Monday that it is still committed to that plan. One of the companies will handle the company's how-to articles and the other will offer domain registry services.

Demand Media shares closed unchanged Monday at $5.85.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=234307903&ft=1&f=
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