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.