The Rev. Al Sharpton, who came to prominence as an imposing figure in a track suit, shouting indignantly at the powerful, stood quietly on a stage last month at the Four Seasons restaurant, his now slender frame wrapped in a finely tailored suit, as men in power lined up to exclaim their admiration for him.

Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo hailed him as a civil rights icon. President Obama sent an aide to read a message commending Mr. Sharpton’s “dedication to the righteous cause of perfecting our union.” Major corporations sponsored the lavish affair.

It was billed as a “party for a cause,” in honor of Mr. Sharpton’s 60th birthday. But more than a birthday celebration, or a fund-raiser for his nonprofit advocacy group National Action Network, the event in Manhattan seemed to mark the completion of Mr. Sharpton’s decades of transition from consummate outsider to improbable insider.

“I’ve been able to reach from the streets to the suites,” he said that night.

via Questions About Sharpton’s Finances Accompany His Rise in Influence – NYTimes.com.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Gov. Jay Nixon has declared a state of emergency and activated the National Guard in advance of a grand jury decision about whether a white police officer will be charged in the fatal shooting of a black 18-year-old in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson.

Nixon said Monday that the National Guard would assist state and local police as needed, in case there is civil unrest when the grand jury’s decision is announced.

There was no indication an announcement was imminent. There is no specific date for a decision to be revealed about whether Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson should face charges for shooting Michael Brown on Aug. 9. The St. Louis County prosecutor has said he expects the grand jury to reach a decision in mid- to late November.

via State of emergency declared over Ferguson | New York Post.

President Obama met with Ferguson protest leaders on November 5th, the day after the midterm elections. The meeting was not on his daily schedule. He was concerned that the protesters “stay on course.”

What does that mean?

And why is the president meeting with the violent Mike Brown protesters before a verdict is reached in the court case?

via Obama Met With Ferguson Activists – Said He’s Concerned They “Stay on Course” | The Gateway Pundit.

A bicycle accident in Central Park has left rocker Bono injured and facing surgery — and forced U2 to cancel a week-long appearance on “The Tonight Show,” the band revealed on its website Sunday night.

“It looks like we will have to do our ‘Tonight Show’ residency another time — we’re one man down,” read the statement.

“Bono has injured his arm in a cycling spill in Central Park and requires some surgery to repair it.

“We’re sure he’ll make a full recovery soon, so we’ll be back!

“Much thanks to [‘The Tonight Show’ host] Jimmy Fallon and everyone at the show for their understanding.”

The Web post provided no details on the crash.

The accident came on the heels of another frightening incident for the rock star, whose private plane lost a rear hatch on Wednesday as he traveled from Dublin to Berlin.

Besides Bono, whose real name is Paul David Hewson, there were four other passengers and two pilots on board.

The crew didn’t know the hatch was missing until after the aircraft had landed, about 11 minutes after it blew off.

Fallon had been promoting the band’s appearance all last week and was holding a YouTube “lip sync” contest for fans who wanted to sing the band’s new song, “The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone),” live with U2.

U2 released its latest album, “Songs of Innocence,” for free on iTunes to all 500 million customers — much to the dismay of Apple users who are not fans.

Bono later apologized for the failed p.r. stunt in a mea culpa.

“I’m sorry about that,” he said on Facebook.

“I had this beautiful idea, but got carried away with ourselves. Artists are prone to that kind of thing. A drop of megalomania, a touch of generosity, a dash of self-promotion and deep fear that these songs, that we poured our life into over the last few years, mightn’t be heard.”

Apple reportedly spent up to $100 million on the campaign.

via Bono facing surgery after Central Park bike crash | Page Six.

Prayer carpets were laid out under the soaring arches of the Washington National Cathedral early Friday for an unprecedented Muslim worship service in one of the best known churches in the United States.

Reverend Gina Campbell welcomed worshippers, declaring the Washington National Cathedral “a place of prayer for all people.”

“Let us stretch our hearts and let us seek to deepen mercy for we worship the same God,” she told the men and women sitting separately in rows, on the floor before her.

In the sermon, or Khutba, Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool praised religious freedom in America and lashed out against extremism, specifically mentioning Islamic militants who have slaughtered Christians in the Middle East.

“If we do not stop them at the monasteries, they will make their way to the mosques,” he said.

Church leaders and their Muslim partners say they hope the Friday Jumaa prayers will send a message of interfaith brotherhood that counters extremists’ use of religion to justify hatred and strife.

The idea came to the cathedral’s director of religious liturgy, Rev. Gina Campbell, and South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool, who is a Muslim, when they organized an interfaith memorial service for Nelson Mandela last year.

The carpets have been arrayed diagonally in the transept, to the side of the sanctuary, so that worshipers can face in the direction of Mecca without seeing crosses or Christian icons. Muslims are not supposed to pray in view of sacred symbols alien to their faith.

Ambassador Rasool said the service is meant to be both a symbol for America’s three million Muslims to feel welcomed in its predominantly Christian society, as well as for Muslims in countries where they are the majority, to show hospitality to people of minority faiths.

Despite its name, the Washington National Cathedral is not an official U.S. government church, which is prohibited by the Constitution. However, the Episcopal church, which is funded by private donations, does possess important symbolic value and regularly hosts official events, such as presidential inaugurations and funerals.

via National Cathedral Holds Friday Muslim Prayers.

Home Depot has confirmed in recent months that it too has been the victim of a complex malware attack, with hackers reportedly stealing more than 56 million credit cards and over 53 million emails in a record cyber heist. The Wall Street Journal has learned more details about the attack, revealing that hackers used a Windows machine as a point of entry, from which they were able to spread the malware and collect customer data. Interestingly, one of the first moves Home Depot made after learning about the attack was to purchase new, secure, MacBooks and iPhones for execs.

On September 2nd, the Secret Service told Home Depot that hackers were already selling credit card numbers on the black market, which were traced back to Home Depot.

The company managed to buy some of those credit cards and started its investigation, discovering a few days later that malware had been deleted from a store computer. At that point, unsure about what information had been compromised, Home Depot “bought two dozen new, secure iPhones and MacBooks for senior executives, who referred to their new devices as ‘Bat phones.’”

It’s not clear what vulnerability in Windows the hackers exploited, but Microsoft patched it after the breach began. However, that was too late to stop the Home Depot hackers, who “were able to move throughout Home Depot’s systems and over to the company’s point-of-sale systems as if they were Home Depot employees with high-level permissions,” after using the vulnerability to move from “a peripheral third-party vendor system and the company’s more secure main computer network.”

ORIGINAL

More ABC US news | ABC Health News

A destructive “Trojan Horse” malware program has penetrated the software that runs much of the nation’s critical infrastructure and is poised to cause an economic catastrophe, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

National Security sources told ABC News there is evidence that the malware was inserted by hackers believed to be sponsored by the Russian government, and is a very serious threat.

The hacked software is used to control complex industrial operations like oil and gas pipelines, power transmission grids, water distribution and filtration systems, wind turbines and even some nuclear plants. Shutting down or damaging any of these vital public utilities could severely impact hundreds of thousands of Americans.

Hackers Breach White House’s Unclassified Computer Network
DHS said in a bulletin that the hacking campaign has been ongoing since 2011, but no attempt has been made to activate the malware to “damage, modify, or otherwise disrupt” the industrial control process. So while U.S. officials recently became aware the penetration, they don’t know where or when it may be unleashed.

DHS sources told ABC News they think this is no random attack and they fear that the Russians have torn a page from the old, Cold War playbook, and have placed the malware in key U.S. systems as a threat, and/or as a deterrent to a U.S. cyber-attack on Russian systems – mutually assured destruction.

The hack became known to insiders last week when a DHS alert bulletin was issued by the agency’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team to its industry members. The bulletin said the “BlackEnergy” penetration recently had been detected by several companies.

DHS said “BlackEnergy” is the same malware that was used by a Russian cyber-espionage group dubbed “Sandworm” to target NATO and some energy and telecommunications companies in Europe earlier this year. “Analysis of the technical findings in the two reports shows linkages in the shared command and control infrastructure between the campaigns, suggesting both are part of a broader campaign by the same threat actor,” the DHS bulletin said.

The hacked software is very advanced. It allows designated workers to control various industrial processes through the computer, an iPad or a smart phone, sources said. The software allows information sharing and collaborative control.

FULL ARTICLE:

(CNN) — For the first time, three networks have rated “excellent” in an annual survey of LGBT portrayals on television, the LGBT media advocacy organization GLAAD said Wednesday.
In its annual Network Responsibility Index, GLAAD said that ABC Family, HBO and MTV all earned its top grade for its LGBT representations on their original programming in the 2013-14 season. The networks air such shows as “Faking It” (MTV), “Looking” (HBO) and “The Fosters” (ABC Family).
On the other end of the spectrum, A&E, History and TNT all earned “failing” grades. (TNT and HBO are both divisions of Time Warner, as is CNN.)
ABC, The CW, Fox, NBC, FX and Showtime earned “good” marks, and CBS, TLC and USA received “adequate” grades.
“Television networks are playing a key role in promoting cultural understanding of LGBT lives around the world, and are now producing some of the best LGBT-inclusive programming we’ve yet seen,” said GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis in a statement.
In the future, said Ellis, GLAAD will also be making transgender content a key part of earning an “excellent” grade.
The organization also put out its Where We Are on TV report chronicling the number of LGBT characters in the current television season.
For 2014-15, 3.9% of prime-time broadcast scripted series regulars will be lesbian, gay or bisexual, an increase of 0.6% from last season. Broadcast scripted series have 33 recurring lesbian, gay or bisexual characters; cable scripted series have 64 regulars and 41 recurring lesbian, gay or bisexual characters.
Transgender characters have major roles in two series from streaming services: “Orange Is the New Black” (on Netflix) and “Transparent” (from Amazon).

FULL ARTICLE