PI Buzz reports that Court TV is currently looking for professional private investigators, who are currently working on active cases, to appear in primetime television programming.

You can find out more by visiting PI Buzz.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports on a MySpace confession, allegedly posted by a teenage driver that has led investigators to file criminal charges against her in a drunk driving case.

From the report –

Heather Ann Tucci, an 18-year-old motorist accused of swigging vodka just before a crash in August that killed two of her friends, refused to talk with investigators about what happened.

But she apparently opened up on MySpace, admitting the crash was “my fault” and taking “full responsibility” for the deaths.

Now authorities are aiming to use those words against her. Investigators have obtained a search warrant to get records from MySpace to confirm that Tucci authored the posting.

Tucci is charged with two counts of criminal vehicular homicide in the Aug. 19 wreck in White Bear Township. The one-car crash killed passenger Joseph Murphy Renner, 19, and Joseph E. Shafer, 19.

Tucci also was charged with criminal vehicular operation in connection with injuries her best friend, Samantha Eileen Ziebell, 18, suffered.

Source: MySpace, my confession?

As expected, California Attorney General Bill Locker has filed charges against former Hewlett-Packard executives, data providers and outside investigators that were involved in the HP spying scandal.

From Forbes.com –

Attorney General Bill Lockyer accused two ousted HP insiders – chairwoman Patricia Dunn and chief ethics officer Kevin Hunsaker – and three outside investigators – Ronald DeLia, Matthew DePante and Bryan Wagner – of violating state privacy laws in HP’s attempt to root out the source of boardroom leaks.

The five each face four felony counts in the charges filed Wednesday: use of false or fraudulent pretenses to obtain confidential information from a public utility; unauthorized access to computer data; identity theft; and conspiracy to commit each of those crimes. Each charge carries a fine of up to $10,000 and three years in prison.

The spying problems at HP continue to keep the issue of personal data providers, phone record access and pretexting in the public eye. As a result, more politicians will surely jump on the anti-pretexting bandwagon to pass more restrictive laws against obtaining phone records. This is fine as long as it is done for the right reasons and recognizes legitimate situations that require access to phone records by skip tracers, private investigators and legal professionals.

Source: Charges Filed in HP Spying Scandal

On September 29, 2006 a US House Congressional Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations will hold a hearing on “Internet Data Brokers and Pretexting: Who Has Access to Your Private Records?”

The hearing is scheduled to begin @ 10 AM EST. You will be able to watch the hearing through a live web cast and get transcript information at Internet Data Brokers and Pretexting: Who Has Access to Your Private Records?.

Source: PIBuzz

The Marin Independent Journal has published a professional article on the life and career of local private investigator, Richard Schmidt.

From the article –

RICHARD SCHMIDT may not have Tom Selleck’s red Ferrari or moused chest hair, but this San Rafael private investigator can actually lay claim to tailing cheating spouses, locating missing relatives and discrediting trial witness for multimillion-dollar verdicts.

The thrill of investigations led Schmidt to the field after retiring from a long stint on the San Anselmo police force. But don’t go thinking his days are filled with helicopter flights along the coast or bare-chested tennis matches with wealthy Sausalito wives.

“As a PI, you’re alone all the time,” he says.

Schmidt, 61, was born in upstate New York, but his family relocated to Southern California when he was very young. He grew up in Torrance, joined the Air Force in high school and eventually landed at Hamilton Air Field.

“I spent three and a half years there,” he says.

Schmidt says he always wanted to be a cop, but most law enforcement agencies refused to take him on until after he left the service. However, the San Anselmo chief relaxed the policy and let him work nights, weekends and periods of short staffing until becoming full time.

You can read the entire article @ Life of a sleuth: Schmidt likes challenge of being private investigator.

Wired.com is reporting on a little-known spy agency called the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency that studies satellite imagery for use in dealing with national security issues, government intelligence and natural disasters. Some privacy advocates are worried about the amount and level of information being collected on everyday citizens by the NGA, but the positives appear to far outweigh the negatives with this newest addition to the US intelligence community.

WASHINGTON — A little-known spy agency that analyzes imagery taken from the skies has been spending significantly more time watching U.S. soil.

In an era when other intelligence agencies try to hide those operations, the director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper, is proud of that domestic mission.

He said the work the agency did after hurricanes Rita and Katrina was the best he’d seen an intelligence agency do in his 42 years in the spy business.

“This was kind of a direct payback to the taxpayers for the investment made in this agency over the years, even though in its original design it was intended for foreign intelligence purposes,” Clapper said in a Thursday interview with The Associated Press.

Geospatial intelligence is the science of combining imagery, such as satellite pictures, to physically depict features or activities happening anywhere on the planet. A part of the Defense Department, the NGA usually operates unnoticed to provide information on nuclear sites, terror camps, troop movements or natural disasters.

You can read the entire Wired article @ Sky Spies Watch Us from Space.

Slate.com has a short and interesting article regarding the use of data mining and social network analysis by the National Security Agency in its efforts to hunt down terrorists and terrorist cells. Social network analysis is used by the NSA as an effective way to establish links between known and potential terrorists.

From the article —

Last Thursday, USA Today reported that the NSA has been collecting the phone records of millions of Americans. The agency is apparently using “data mining” techniques to scour these records for connections between terrorists. According to an intelligence official interviewed by USA Today, the NSA is analyzing this data using “social network analysis.” What’s social network analysis?

A technique to map and study the relationships between people or groups. The basic concept of the social network is familiar to anyone who has used Friendster or played Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Social network analysis formalizes this parlor game, using details about the network to interpret the role of each person or group.

In a basic analysis, people are seen as “nodes” and the relationships between them are “links.” By studying the links—in the case of the NSA program, telephone calls—it’s possible to determine the importance (or “centrality”) of each node.

You can read the entire article @ How the NSA Does “Social Network Analysis”.

Managing Information News is reporting that Experian is acquiring background check provider Backgroundchecking.com.

From the article –

Experian, the global information solutions company, has acquired Backgroundchecking.com, an organisation specialising in candidate background checking for job applicants and contractors.

The acquisition will enhance Experian’s existing verification and fraud prevention offerings. It will enable clients to comply with regulations and significantly reduce the risk and impact of taking on an unsuitable candidate or failing to check existing employees and contractors. Given the potential costs of poor hiring decisions, more and more companies are placing a greater emphasis on robust recruitment practices.

You can read the entire article @ Experian Acquires backgroundchecking.com.

The Smoking Gun is reporting on the clever use of Ebay auction monitoring by federal agents to raid an Ecstasy lab in New York City. Federal investigators this week raided a New York City home after spending months monitoring purchases on Ebay of laboratory equipment and chemicals used to manufacture the drug Ecstasy.

You can read the entire article @ Got It On “E”-bay.

PI Buzz is the official blog of Professional Investigator Magazine. Investigation and skip tracing professionals should read the PI Buzz blog and subscribe to their news feeds to keep up to date on the latest news and legislative developments that affect all aspects of the investigation field.

You can visit the PI Buzz blog @ PI Buzz.