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Protective order requests explode with new Virginia law

Virginia residents by the hundreds – some frightened, some angry – have flocked to their local courthouse in recent months to get a protective order under a new provision of state law.

The volume of applications for protective orders in Virginia has soared since the new law that makes them much easier to get – removing obstacles that formerly existed for non-family members – went into effect July 1.

Statewide, the number of protective orders and emergency protective orders granted through general district courts increased more than 15 fold during the last six months of 2011 compared with the same period in 2010, before the law went into effect, according to data compiled by the Virginia Supreme Court at the request of the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

A total of 2,015 full protective orders and 4,941 emergency proCourts in Richmond and Chesterfield and Henrico counties – and to a lesser degree Hanover County – have been hit hard by the surge of requests. Collectively, the number of full protective orders in the four localities jumped from 13 in the last half of 2010 to 538 during the same period in 2011. Emergency protective orders spiked from 50 to 441.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Va. leads nation in interracial marriages

Interracial marriages in the U.S. have climbed to 4.8 million – a record 1 in 12 – as a steady flow of new Asian and Hispanic immigrants expands the pool of prospective spouses. Blacks are now substantially more likely than before to marry whites.

A Pew Research Center study, released today, details a diversifying America where interracial unions and the mixedrace children they produce are challenging typical notions of race.

“The rise in interracial marriage indicates that race relations have improved over the past quarter century,” said Daniel Lichter, a sociology professor at Cornell University. “Mixed-race children have blurred America’s color line. They often interact with others on either side of the racial divide and frequently serve as brokers between friends and family members of different racial backgrounds,” he said. “But America still has a long way to go.”

The top three states for white-black married couples are Virginia, North Carolina and Kansas, all with rates of about 3 percent.

In all, more than 15 percent of new marriages in 2010 were interracial.

Brief by the Associated Press

Pay raises sought for Virginia workers

The Virginia General Assembly will propose a 2 percent raise in the second year of the proposed 2012-2014 budget for state employees, faculty and classified staff in higher education as well as local constitutional officers and their staffs, according to legislative leaders.

The raise will depend on the state meeting its revenue targets in mid-2013 under the budget proposal that the House Appropriations Committee released Sunday, but the Senate Finance Committee is not linking its proposed pay increase to revenue forecasts.

The Senate budget also will propose savings for local governments to help them pay their share of big increases in contributions to the teacher retirement plan administered by the Virginia Retirement System.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Serious Facebook hack lands UK student in prison

A British student who stole sensitive information from Facebook’s internal network was sentenced to eight months in prison Friday in what prosecutors described as the most serious case of social media hacking ever brought before the country’s courts.

Prosecutor Sandip Patel said that Glenn Mangham, 26, had hacked into the social networking giant’s computers from his bedroom in the northern England city of York and stole what was described as “invaluable” intellectual property.

“He acted with determination, undoubted ingenuity and it was sophisticated, it was calculating,” Patel told London’s Southwark Crown Court ahead of sentencing Friday. He added later: “This represents the most extensive and grave incident of social media hacking to be brought before the British courts.”

London Chief Prosecutor Alison Saunders echoed Patel’s description, saying in a statement that Mangham’s actions were “extensive and flagrant.” It was not immediately clear exactly what he stole, although Saunders said that no personal user data had been compromised.

The police statement said that Facebook Inc. discovered the breach in May and alerted the FBI, who traced the source of the attack back to Britain. Scotland Yard’s e-crimes unit raided Mangham’s home on June 2.

Brief by the Associated Press

U.S. sites hacked as objections grow to piracy deal

Opponents of a controversial global copyright treaty counted three victories Friday as American government websites were hacked and the Eastern European nations of Poland and Slovenia distanced themselves from the deal.

Sites belonging to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the National Consumer Protection Week were vandalized by Anonymous, a loose collection of cyber rebels who have helped lead the charge against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA.

The hackers replaced the sites with profanity-laced statements and a violent German-language video satirizing the treaty.

At the same time, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday the country was abandoning plans to ratify the deal. He said he now sees his earlier support for ACTA as a mistake. “I was wrong,” he said at a news conference.

His announcement came after Slovenia’s government also said Friday that it is halting the ratification of ACTA.

Brief by the Associated Press

Charges against some NY Occupy protesters dropped

New York City prosecutors have been dropping criminal charges against many of the Occupy Wall Street protesters who were arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge last October in a demonstration that helped bring national attention to the movement.

Police hit 686 people with criminal charges after halting the march on the landmark span.

The New York Times reports that so far, 174 of those cases have been dismissed outright. Another 250 people have agreed to conditional dismissals.

A Manhattan judge dismissed 14 cases Friday at the request of prosecutors. Most of the prosecutions were abandoned due to a lack of evidence.

The huge number of arrests brought attention to the marchers, two weeks into their occupation of a New York City park.

Brief by the Associated Press

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