Crooks With Toy Guns Still Look Deadly

The use of pellet, BB, airsoft and toy guns that look like real firearms in criminal activities appears to be on the rise, some law enforcement officials said.

Earlier this month, two officer-involved shooting incidents in the Sacramento region involved the use of such guns.

Experts, policy researchers and law enforcement officials The Bee interviewed said systematic data in recent years aren't available and little research has been done on the subject.

Read more at The Sacramento Bee.

Nebraska May Require Background Checks for Drivers of Children in State Care

Providing fingerprints and getting an extensive criminal background check could be a prerequisite for transporting kids and vulnerable adults under state care.

On Thursday, state Sen. Arnie Stuthman of Platte Center introduced a bill (LB290) to the Legislature that would require both of those who contract with the state to transport foster kids and vulnerable adults.

People who had felony records would not be able to drive for the state.

Read more at KCAU ABC 9.

VA Commision Splits on Ruling to Close Gun Show Loophole

The Virginia State Crime Commission on Tuesday declined to endorse closing the so-called gun show loophole in Virginia law, heightening uncertainty about the prospects of success in the General Assembly.

The deadlocked vote -- taken before a large crowd that included gun owners, at least one survivor of the Virginia Tech shootings and friends and relatives of other massacre victims -- highlighted an enduring split between country and city that transcends party affiliation in Virginia.

Two key commission members bucked their parties' habitual views of gun control measures. The commission's chairman, Del. David B. Albo (R-Fairfax), voted to recommend that the General Assembly close the loophole by requiring all gun buyers to undergo an electronic background check before any sale, including purchases at gun shows. But House Minority Leader Ward L. Armstrong (D-Henry), who noted the economic importance of an annual gun show in his economically depressed rural district, voted no.

Read the rest of the story at The Washington Post.

In the Internet Age, How Deep Should Someone Dig Before Hiring a PI?

Mary Kington once asked her daughter how to use the Internet to see if someone had served time in prison or had a criminal record.

Katrina Gregory steered her mother, a 56-year-old home-health caregiver from Worthington, to the searchable Web site of the Franklin County Municipal Court and the state prison system's online database of inmates and parolees.

Gregory, 26, said she never would have thought to tell her mother to dig deeper.

Incomplete Background Check Foils Bid to Open New Childcare Facility

The Pleasanton City Council Tuesday rejected for a second time a bid by a martial arts professional to operate a childcare facility for 20 children at a time in the Valley Business Park off Valley Avenue.

The council voted 4-1 to support Councilwoman Cindy McGovern who successfully sought to overturn the city Planning Commission's approval of the project on Nov. 12 and a subsequent recommendation that the council abide by that decision.

Read the rest of the story at the Pleasanton Weekly.

"Mommy On Call" Helps Take Care of Sick Children

Mary King is a single mother who can't afford to miss work.

The paralegal specialist, who is active-duty military at Fort Gordon, has two young children, and she is also six months' pregnant.

Her children recently became ill, but the people listed on her contact list weren't available.

"They started day care, and they're catching every bug that comes through there until they acclimate themselves. I had to take off quite a bit of work to stay home with them," Spc. King said.

If her children become ill again, she said, she's going to contact Mommy on Call, a new Grovetown caregiver service that cares in-home for sick children.

Felonies in College Deter Employees After Graduation

Felony convictions can severely impair a person from attending universities and securing careers. In certain, less severe cases, those potential students and employees still struggle for acceptance in society.

Annually at Illinois State University, between 30 and 40 applicants have a felony conviction on their record. Trying to get a job after college with a felony conviction is extremely difficult, as many administrators explain.

Volunteer Won't Agree to Background Check from "Big Brother"

This Christmas, Donald McGinnis will not follow his annual tradition of filling in at Middlesex Hospice so others can spend valuable holiday time with family.

His volunteer position will very likely be terminated Tuesday.

McGinnis, who has been a volunteer at the hospice center for 18 years, is taking a stand against a new federal law that incenses him. After almost two decades of repositioning patients, shaving the men, giving bed baths, spending time and offering support, the Cromwell resident is being required by the government to submit to a criminal background check.

Texas DPS' criminal databases missing thousands of records

More than a third of criminal records are missing from the online Department of Public Safety database available to the public, a Fort Worth company found in a study.

Even government agencies, which have access to more detailed criminal records to screen teachers, doctors, volunteers and tradespeople, use a DPS system fraught with gaps, officials and experts said.

Man Brings Cocaine to Police Station While Getting a Background Check

A man accused of bringing cocaine into the Jackson police station has been formally charged.

Lawrence Hayes, 29, of Jackson was arraigned Thursday on charges of domestic violence and possession with intent to deliver cocaine.

DCF Admits Mistake in Child's Death

Ashley and Tammi Baker were the care takers of five month old Gabriel Golden when he died earlier this month. They found him unresponsive inside their home, and he later died.

Top managers with DCF are admitting the agency made mistakes. William DAiuto is the top administrator for the Lake County area. He said that clearly the agency could have done more.

DCF first got involved when someone complained about Gabriel's biological parents. The Goldens left Gabriel with the Bakers to be his care takers. DCF now says they focused too much attention on the Goldens and not enough on the Bakers.

A new DCF report concludes the investigator was supposed to do a background check on the Bakers within 72 hours, but he waited almost thirty days to do the check.

State Passes Background Check

Do you know if your repairman has a criminal record? For the first time the state is requiring background checks for folks who come into your home to fix things. So when you turn on the heater this weekend - the state says you may want to worry about more than the safety of your home.

The capital city is bracing for a Canadian cold front. James Poole works for Austin's Strand Brothers, and knows a lot of folks are getting ready to switch on the heater. "It's the beginning of our season, as soon as the cold snap comes in that's when everything starts."

So besides checking your furnace and filter, the state says you many want to check the repairman's record.

Student Teachers' Backgrounds Often Go Unchecked

Background checks that are standard for Kansas teachers don't extend to teachers in training.

While some school districts are vigilant about checking the backgrounds of volunteers, no scrutiny is required of student teachers. Schools in Kansas often don't check their backgrounds, sometimes expecting that colleges and universities do that work. In reality, colleges and universities may do little checking before passing student teachers along to work in schools.

 

"I think we expected the institution had already done it for them to get their certificate," said Mike Mathes, Seaman Unified School District 345 superintendent.

Auburn-Washburn USD 437 has had such concerns that it will begin conducting checks on potential student teachers in January. None of the other Shawnee County school districts conduct criminal background checks on incoming student teachers.

92 Guards Hired Without Background Checks

A privately run immigration lockup in Tacoma hired nearly 100 security guards without background checks, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement didn't catch the practice for two years, court documents show.

Sylvia Wong, an administrator in charge of hiring at the Northwest Detention Center, pleaded guilty this week in federal court in Tacoma to one count of making a false statement, for lying to investigators. In her plea agreement, she admitted that soon after starting work in November 2005, she began hiring guards without background checks "because of the pressure she felt to get security personnel hired at the NWDC as quickly as possible."

ICE auditors discovered early this year that 92 guards had been hired without the checks. The agency acknowledges that some of the guards have been fired following subsequent background checks, but won't say how many.

"In response to this investigation we have implemented a multi-tiered vetting process ... so that no contractor or federal employee has sole responsibility to process and approve employment documents," ICE spokeswoman Lorie Dankers said Thursday. "We have taken proactive steps to prevent this from happening again."

New Jersey Senate Passes Background Check Bill

The New Jersey Senate unanimously passed a bill last week that will revise the current background check requirements for all school employees who come in contact with students.

Sponsored by Sens. Loretta Weinberg, Barbara Buono and Shirley K. Turner, bill S-110 will revise the current criminal background check requirements for employees by requesting that all teachers and school district employees undergo a criminal background check. Besides the faculty and administration, people who are considered school employees also include bus drivers, cafeteria workers and janitorial staff.

The bill revises criminal history record checks for public and nonpublic school employees and bus drivers, and expands the list of offenses that would disqualify an employee from working at a school.

Buono said revisions to background check procedures are something she had been thinking about for a while.

"There were loopholes that needed to be closed," she said.

Library Volunteers Not Happy with Background Checks

Volunteers at Albuquerque libraries are upset about having to undergo criminal background checks mandated by the city for all volunteers.

The Friends of the Library volunteer group says their members don't have any contact with children-they only help with the books.

Volunteers say they were shocked when they were forced to submit to a background check.

"I was quite annoyed that I would have to be going through something like that at the library because I'm assuming that the reason for all that is due to contact with children," a volunteer named John said. "We as volunteers there have absolutely no contact with children."

John said he and other volunteers consider background check a slap in the face and say they are worried their personal information could wind up in the wrong hands.

"Who is really going to be retaining that data? How secure is it, and why does it have to be retained," asked John.

NY Governor Orders Background Checks of His Staff

Gov. David Paterson has ordered background checks of all executive chamber employees after learning that such a check had not been done on his chief of staff, who came under fire for failing to pay taxes.

Sixty percent of executive chamber employees didn't have completed background checks and some of the material employees submitted for the checks is lost, Paterson said in a statement Wednesday night.

The background checks, which are not required by law, were started by Paterson's predecessor, Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

The checks were designed to discover and avoid any conflicts of interest. Potentially, an employee could lose his or her job if the check discovered a conflict or some other major problem, such as a felony conviction, that the employee hadn't reported to the governor.

A background check had not been completed on Paterson chief of staff Charles O'Byrne, who failed to pay nearly $300,000 in taxes from 2001-2005.

Background Checks Not Required for All Adults that Work With Children

It's a frightening prospect - 21 men, some driving hundreds of miles, to meet your child.

This time, the kids were actually adult decoys and police. The next time, and the time before, it may have been a different story.

When asked by 24 Hour News 8, one of the men arrested in last weekend's Internet predator sting said this was his first attempted encounter with a minor.

"You're telling me that this is the first time that you got into a sexual conversation with an underage person on the Internet?" 24 Hour News 8 asked one of the suspects.

"That I remember," answered 35-year-old Tyson Jenkins, a disabled Gulf War vet from Indiana.

Perhaps more frightening is the jobs some of these men have that put them in direct contact with children.

Eric Wesche was a junior varsity soccer coach in Cedar Springs. Mike Greenberg was a youth hockey league referee in Hazel Park. Michael Shaler worked at a Toys R Us store in Saginaw.

Nothing 24 Hour News 8 discovered in these men's history indicated a previous problem that a background check would have found.

TSA Proposes Background Checks on Private Jet Passengers

Travelers who fly on private corporate jets would have to clear background checks before boarding under a new proposal made Thursday by the Transportation Security Administration.

The TSA is seeking to impose the security requirements on roughly 15,000 corporate jets and 315 small airports that currently have none.

A group of private-plane owners and pilots warned that the proposal could be costly and represent an unprecedented intrusion into private flying. Hundreds of thousands of people travel each year on such jets.

There is no specific threat to corporate jets, but the TSA said in its 260-page proposal that many are the same size and weight as commercial planes "and they could be used effectively to commit a terrorist act." Private jets, possibly packed with explosives, could fly into a building or could transport terrorists or dangerous materials, the TSA said.

"This is an important milestone," said Michal Morgan, TSA head of general aviation security. "It's the evolution of security into a new operating environment."

Law Puts Troops on Fast Track to Citizenship

A new law will help speed up the application process for foreign-born U.S. troops seeking American citizenship.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) introduced the Military Personnel Processing Act, which will reduce FBI background check delays and other red-tape barriers holding back Iraq and Afghanistan service members' citizenship applications. President George W. Bush signed the bill into law yesterday.

"When men and women risk their lives overseas to serve and protect America, it is unconscionable that America would then leave them hanging by a thread for months and years while waiting for citizenship in the country," Schumer said.