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Can you imagine 3.6 million social security numbers stolen? It happened. And such massive personal data theft can only happen via a cyber attack. Late last month, an international hacker illegally obtained tax information from a South Carolina computer system, reports The New York Times. It was, in fact, the largest cyber attack on a state government.

Along with the social security numbers, the hacker stole  387,000 credit and debit card numbers. A majority of the stolen credit cards were encrypted;  the Social Security numbers were not. Still, the state said it would pay up to $12 million to provide a free year of credit monitoring and identity theft prevention to anyone affected.

The attack isn’t only being felt in that state, but nationwide as it has put other states on high alert.

This is not the first time this has happened. While not on the scale of the South Carolina attack, “(s)ince 2005, at least 11 state tax agencies have faced security breaches, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a consumer rights group. But most were caused by internal accidents, not attacks, and none were on this scale,” reports the newspaper.

Such cyber attacks most often lead to identity thefts. The Social Security numbers can be used by hackers for financial gain. “The most common line of attack for identity thieves is to use your personal information to apply for credit cards and of course, you won’t know that until it’s too late,” reports Carolina Live. Your name and social security number can also be used to open brokerage accounts and loan requests. Most often vicitims don´t know until it is too late.

Once you are a victim of identity theft, it can take years to clean up your credit and financial records.

Horrible. Here are some tools direct from the Federal Trade Commission to help prevent identity theft. And here’s our previous coverage of how to prevent credit card fraud.

Source: WISTV

It’s hard enough being a single mother, but being a single mother to a son fathered by your own father brings a new set of problems for 27-year-old Columbia, SC, mom Tiara Stevens.

“That confuses me a lot,” she told WISTV local news. “It’s like, ‘Which one are you today? Are you my son, or are you my brother?’ Because he really is both.”

When Tiara was just 12 years old she became pregnant by her father who routinely sexually abused her as a pre-teen.

“He never told me what he was doing,” she said. “It was just late at night. He would come in, take my clothes off, and he would have sex. And he would leave and he would say, ‘You better not stay up all night,’ and I would go in the bathroom and I would cry. The next night he may not do it, but the next night, he would repeat the same thing.”

One night, Tiara’s father received more than he bargained for when he realized he had impregnated his child.

“He had done what he usually did to me and the baby kicked and whenever he did, he said, ‘Get up, hold your shirt up. You’re pregnant,’” Tiara said.

Unfortunately that revelation didn’t come about until just a few days before young Tiara went into labor, meaning she didn’t receive any prenatal care at all.

“The only place I went was to the hospital,” Tiara said. “Never went to any doctors appointments or anything. Only thing I remember is passing out at school. I really didn’t get big or nothing.”

DSS stepped in after Tiara gave birth in January 1999, but giving a statement to Lancaster deputies was as far as the case went. Determined to get justice more for her son than for herself, Tiara’s case against her father is finally set to go to court next month. There, she will recount the horrid things her father did to her, and the most permanent stain he left which are the health conditions his son/grandson now has to deal with — being legally blind and albino — because of their close gene pool.

“I didn’t do nothing wrong, and what the system is trying to do to me is not right, waiting 14 years for justice,” Tiara said.

“Everyday, I look at my son, his health conditions because of what [my father] did, so [my father] has actually got it easy. I’m the one that’s got it so hard.”

Hopefully those tables will turn when the trial against her father begins November 5.

wistv.com – Columbia, South Carolina |

Cellesteen Flippen making a sweetgrass basket in Mount Pleasant, SC. Image: AP Photo/Bruce Smith

The Geechee people, also known as the Gullahs, have lived on an island off the coast of Georgia* since way back. And almost as long as they’ve been around, there has been an effort to push them from their land.

Descended from slaves, the Geechees are faced with losing their home on Sapelo Island because of an increase in taxes that’s making it prohibitive for them to stay. According to The New York Times, there is an unyielding desire to turn land in and around this area into waterfront homes and other tourist attractions. As a result, there’s constant pressure for the Geechees to leave. Now, the Geechees are faced with property taxes that, in one example, raises the bill more than 500 percent.

The relationship between the Geechees and local authorities is fraught with tension. As recently as July, there were charges of racial discrimination. Local government officials, of course, say they’re doing their best to preserve the Geechee culture and their homes. But the tax rates they had been paying were abnormally low and there’s a history of corruption. So there’s an effort to bring all of the financial matters up to date.

There have been government efforts — cultural and historic organizations — designed to preserve the Geechee culture on the island (the Geechees have lived across the Southeast for 200 years). But it’s the money that could force them to go.

There are only a few dozen Geechees living on Sapelo Island. They are a link to the past; not just an African-American past, but the history of this country. Food, language, and slave culture have been passed down through this small group of people. It’s criminal that the government isn’t doing more to make sure they not just survive, but thrive on this land and all that they occupy.

There is an official site for the  Gullah/Geechee Corridor, which spans from Wilmington, NC to Jacksonville, FL. The site provides an official history, a statement from Congressman James E. Clyburn (D-SC) and other information. It might not save the Geechees of Sapelo Island, but perhaps if more people knew about the Gullahs and their plight, it would help the cause.

*I originally wrote that Sapelo Island was off the coast of South Carolina, but a helpful commenter corrected me. Thanks!

When you hear those bumps and thumps in the night, your mind races to all kinds of far fetched ideas. Maybe it’s a robber, an animal sniffing around for some food, or even a wandering spirit. But most of us would never imagine that those mysterious noises were coming from an ex boyfriend, especially an ex from over a decade ago. It sounds like something out of thriller, murder mystery type flick.

But you know what they say, sometimes real life is stranger than fiction. Unfortunately, this tale of the lurking ex boyfriend is all too real for Rock Hill, South Carolina resident, Tracy. Tracy, who is the single mother of five children, had been hearing all kind of strange noises coming from her attic and noticed that nails were starting to pop out of the ceiling in her bedroom. This past Saturday, at 2:30 in the morning, she thought “something ain’t right” and decided to send her adult sons and nephew into the attic to find out what was going on. Needless, to say nothing could have prepared them for what they were about to discover.

In the attic, they found Tracy’s ex boyfriend, from twelve years ago, sleeping on old coats and jackets in her heating unit. Before the police could come and arrest him, the man made his way downstairs and out of the house.

When police searched the attic they found plastic cups filled with urine and feces and noticed that the man had tampered with one of the vents so he could look down on Tracy in her bedroom.

*Shivers*

Though Tracy and her ex had broken up twelve years ago, she had him do some repair work on her house about a year ago. But that’s not even the half. Earlier this year, dude was arrested for stealing Tracy’s car and was just released two weeks ago. Though he wrote Tracy letters during his incarceration, she ignored them. Apparently, he was going to keep tabs on her one way or another.

What makes the story even worse is that the man escaped and is still on the loose somewhere, which is why Tracy refused to release her last name. Though, I don’t know what good that would really do since homeboy already knows where you live and how to get in and out of your house, undetected. It’s all way too much. If there were ever an argument as to why you shouldn’t let your exes back into your life and your home, this pretty much sums it up.

Listen to how Tracy is dealing with all of this in the video below:

Have you ever had a crazy, stalker ex?

Source

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biography.com

Hey loves!  Hope all is well in your worlds because I’ve got to tell you, I was scouring the internet streets and these celebs aren’t into anything good right now.  One major star lost his son as we headed into this weekend.  Check out what’s going on!

Read the rest of this entry »

South Carolina has one the highest rates of domestic violence. In fact, it’s ranked seventh in the nation in terms of the number of women killed by men. More than 36,000 victims around the state report a domestic violence incident to law enforcement agencies annually, and last year more than 40 domestic violence victims were killed.

What gives? Perhaps the fact that 60 percent of relationship violence victims are not protected by domestic violence laws because they aren’t married or don’t live with their abusive partner. South Carolina is 1 of 8 states that only lets married or live-in couples seek orders of protection. On Wednesday, a house subcommittee heard testimony on legislation calling for an expansion of domestic violence laws in the state that would include dating couples so as to allow these victims to seek orders of protection from family court and judges to order abusive partners to attend a batterer treatment program, but the bill is receiving some push back.

As Rebecca Williams-Agee points out, getting an order of protection is better for dating violence than a regular restraining order because it acknowledges that violence has already occurred and that each subsequent incident has a higher chance of being lethal.

“If the victim has that order of protection on them, immediately showing that to police immediately takes that person to jail…. We like to think that increases their safety because it allows for that more immediate response.”

Concerns have been raised about who would enforce these stipulations because parties don’t come back to court unless an order of protection is violated, but Williams-Agee says that’s one of the advantages of the order—abusers don’t have further contact with the victim.

In a nation where single, un-married people are soon expected to become the majority in society, South Carolina and like-minded states would serve themselves well to get on board now. Considering how difficult it is for individuals to come forward about domestic abuse, the idea that they won’t receive protection when doing so compromises victims’ safety and could even lead to their death.

The state isn’t just behind in their thinking in terms of un-married couples, it also leaves minors and homosexuals without protection. A controversial section that would have allowed parents to file for orders of protective custody on behalf of minors was already taken out of the bill, but Williams-Agee and the South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (SCCADVASA) say they plan to fight for that change down the line considering the increase in violence perpetrated against women between the ages of 16 to 24. As difficult as it is for adult women to admit to being physically abused, there’s no telling the impact allowing parents to request orders of protection on behalf of their children could have on reducing repeat offences, not to mention the effect of battery treatment classes at an early age.

SCCADVASA and LGBTQ civil rights group South Carolina Equality also plan to oppose the bill if it doesn’t change its limited definition of a dating relationship as one that is only between a man and a woman. That stipulation leaves 120,000 South Carolinians unprotected and these organizations say gay couples have just as much a chance of being in abusive relationships as straight ones.

It seems South Carolina has been stuck in a very narrow-minded definition of abuse that its residents have suffered for, as evidence by their domestic violence ranking. If they want to keep themselves from becoming first in the nation in terms of violent abuse in relationships, they better consider expanding their legal criteria on this issue. Williams-Agee sums up the issue perfectly when she says, “the dynamics and the consequences of those kinds of relationships are the same whether you’re married or not [and] whether you’re living together or not.”

Do you think South Carolina should allow homosexual and heterosexual victims of dating abuse to seek orders of protection or should individuals have to be married or live-in partners? Do you think parents should be allowed to request orders of protection on behalf of minors?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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Omar Sheree Stevenson is the reason I answer to street harassment no matter how annoying or inappropriate it is.

The 33-year-old was at a bowling alley in Rock Hill, SC, recently, and when a woman refused to allow him to buy her drinks he threw a bowling ball at her—-striking her in the head.

Witnesses say Stevenson threw the 12-pound bowling ball at the woman while she was sitting on a bench awaiting his turn at the lane. When authorities arrived on the scene, they found the 28-year-old on the floor next to the snack bar, bleeding from the head. Luckily, the woman didn’t suffer a fractured skull or concussion, but she was transported to the hospital where she received seven stitches and was later released.

Stevenson was arrested outside of the Strikers Family Sports Center where he told officers he lost his temper and regretted throwing the ball at the woman. He’s since been charged with attempted murder and held on $100,000 bond.

Sometimes it’s just easier to take a man up on his offer. Some would rather fracture a skull than suffer a fractured ego.

What’s the craziest thing that’s happened to you when you turned a man down?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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It’s been a while since I’ve stepped foot in a Walmart store and I plan on making that visit my last. The things that have happened in the chain’s stores across the U.S. this year alone are enough to pay whatever extra cost you’ll incur at Target, Kmart, or some other big box store.

Avery Blandin, 46, of South Carolina has been charged with murder for fatally stabbing his wife inside a Greenville County Walmart this weekend, and while you’d think that would be enough to make store management take a break from rolling back prices, they simply roped off the area for homicide investigators and continued with business as usual.

Witnesses told deputies they heard a verbal fight between Blandin and his wife Lilia Blandin, 38. Then things became physical.

Phillip Talent, who was shopping at the time, told WYFF4, “When I looked, I could see a couple of stabbing motions, and I really started to run towards the front (of the store).

“I seen it when [the man] was making a stomping motion at [Lilia Blandin] across her chest and neck area. I picked up the chair and I hit him.”

After pulling out a second knife, Tallent said the man fled the scene. “That’s when I let him go because I already seen what he did with the first one, so I wasn’t going to get involved with the next one.” Blandin was later apprehended when he was involved in a traffic accident.

Walmart company spokesman Dianna Gee told Greenville’s News Channel 4 the company is assisting with the investigation and turned over surveillance video footage from the store, but she seemed oblivious to the oddity of keeping the store open.

“We did, as requested, close our grocery checkout area to allow the police to do their work and provide some level of privacy, given the circumstances.”

I wonder what sales looked like at the end of the day. Do you think Walmart should have shut down its entire store in lieu of this incident? Have you noticed a trend of odd things happening at Walmart stores?

Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.

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Nikky Finney, South Carolina native and professor of English at University of Kentucky, has won the National Book Award for poetry. The National Book Award, which has been around since 1950, is an award given to writers by other writers. Each year the National Book Foundation gives awards to four writers, one for fiction, non-fiction, poetry and Young People’s Literature.

Another black woman, Jesmyn Ward, won the award for fiction for her work “Salvage the Bones,” a story detailing the lives of a family affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Finney’s award-winning  piece, “Head Off & Split” details the the history of South Carolina from segregation to integration and mental reformation, the latter expressed in a portion of the poem called “Dancing with Strom.” Strom being Strom Thurmond, the U.S. senator who was known for his views on racial separation.

Finney includes a 1948 quote from Thurmond in the poem’s foreword,

“I want to tell you, ladies and gentleman, there’s not enough troops in the army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and accept the Negro into our theatres, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches.”

But in his later years Thurmond’s views changed. So much so, that Finney, the daughter of Ernest A. Finney Jr., a former chief justice of the state Supreme Court, watched as Thurmond danced with her mother and other women at her brother’s wedding.

Other critics have received the poem, which reads like a series of short stories, well. Kwame Dawes, founding director of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative wrote that Finney “establishes herself as one of the most eloquent, urgent, fearless and necessary poets writing in America today.”

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Either times are really getting hard to where little kids are getting their hands on weapons to protect candy, or like I initially thought, people are losing their damn minds.

According to The Aiken Standard, a 10-year-old trick-or-treater in South Carolina got a little too gully with a 28-year-old woman who joked about taking the boy’s candy. A woman who knew the little boy and his 10-year-old brother from the neighborhood saw them walking around on Monday with their bags full of goodies. All in good fun, she teased the boys about taking their candy for herself and got the shock of her life when one of the little ones made it clear she wasn’t getting ANY of his candy–he pulled a pistol out on her. After seeing the gun, the woman called police and it was found that the other brother ALSO had a gun on him, and that both belonged to their grandfather. The two boys, who had taken the weapons without  permission, were said to have been in trouble before. Because of their age, they weren’t arrested, just handed back to their parents, especially since they admitted they had taken the guns without asking. Lucky for all parties involved, police say the guns had no bullets in the chambers.

Aiken Public Safety Capt. Maryann Burgess said while they are being careful with how they handle this incident, they want to see what is going on with the children’s home life, because this obviously is insane, and a scenario like this could mess around and lead to many:

“In these sorts of cases, we look at the home life. We want to see what we can do to change this behavior before these kids do end up in DJJ.”

That’s the Department of Juvenile Justice. Yikes! What’s going on with people and their children these days? Think what could have happened if this woman was shot! Or worse, if she felt it necessary to protect herself from the kids by any means necessary. It’s a blessing that no one was hurt at all, but it’s a hot mess too that all this took place at all. As a previous story on our site said, “Uh, Come Get Your Kids!”

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