According to an Associated Press report, a man in Bloomfield, Connecticut pulled out a rifle-sized BB gun on Monday as the presidential motorcade passed by. President Obama had just given a speech about gun control at the University of Hartford, and was on the way back to Bradley International Airport to board Air Force One.

The man was reportedly pacing back and forth while acting suspicious. He was arrested by police as soon as he pulled out the gun. The man’s name has not been released, though he was scheduled for a court hearing in Hartford on Tuesday.

Hartford is less than 50 miles from the site of the Newtown mass shooting that took place at Sandy Hook Elementary School last December.

Connecticut Attorney State General George Jepsen announced today that Google has paid out $7 million to settle charges brought against it by the 38 states affected by its Street View Wi-Fi spying. On top of the cash settlement, Google must adhere to a number of agreements:

…engage in a comprehensive employee education program about the privacy or confidentiality of user data; to sponsor a nationwide public service campaign to help educate consumers about securing their wireless networks and protecting personal information; and to continue to secure, and eventually destroy, the data collected and stored by its Street View vehicles nationwide between 2008 and March 2010. Google also collected similar data around the world.

Jepsen hopes that the settlement will hopefully dissuade Google from trying anything like this in the future:

“While the $7 million is significant, the importance of this agreement goes beyond financial terms. Consumers have a reasonable expectation of privacy. This agreement recognizes those rights and ensures that Google will not use similar tactics in the future to collect personal information without permission from unsuspecting consumers.”

The settlement is the latest, and potentially final, chapter in the Wi-Fi spying scandal that hit Google in 2010. The company was fined by the FCC last year to the tune of $25,000 for obstructing an investigation into its Wi-Fi eavesdropping practices, but the Commission ultimately dropped the investigation. Privacy advocates had called for a renewal into the investigation, but that didn’t exactly pan out.

Those same privacy advocates are no doubt pleased then by today’s settlement. They’ll probably argue that the $7 million settlement isn’t nearly enough, but at least the company will finally destroy all the data it collected.

[h/t: The Hill]

The event, first announced at the beginning of this month, asked people to bring in their copies of “violent” video games, movies, and CDs, to be broken, tossed in a giant dumpster, and eventually incinerated.

They claimed that the event was not to be taken as a statement on the cause of recent violent massacres such as the recent Sandy Hook elementary school shooting – but that evidence suggests that violent media is responsible. So video games didn’t lead to Sandy Hook, but they totally did. Something like that.

SouthingtonSOS planned to hand out $25 gift cards to anyone brave enough to snap a copy of Call of Duty in order to tackle the real problem behind the gun violence plaguing the nation. If that sounds like it’s dripping with sarcasm, that’s because it is.

The two goals that they met, they say, were to raise awareness and get parents talking to their kids.

“We are pleased to announcethat awareness here has been raised significantly, thanks to the support of the media and widely disseminated e-mail communications within our community through our local Southington SOS member organizations. The result has been a swift, positiveand supportive response of parents, young people and the general population of our community,” said SouthingtonSOS in a statement.

“An equally important goal was to encourage parents in Southington to have a courageous discussion with their childrenabout thistopic. Day by day the response has increased and continues to increase, making it clear that parents are having these conversations. So, this second mission of inspiring conversations at home has also been accomplished.”

For those reasons, the group has “reevaluated” and decided to cancel the “return” part of the “Violent Video Game Return” program.

Now they won’t have to hand out any $25 gift cards, I guess.

No word on whether SouthingtonSOS has any plans for a future book burning, to tackle the disturbing problem of teenagers making out behind the library.

On Saturday, January 12th, the town is sponsoring a “Violent Video Games Return Program” that asks people to bring their discs to a local theatre, break them, and toss them in a dumpster. Polygon says that the disposed-of games, cds, and dvds will later be incinerated.

The game burning drive is being put on by SouthingtonSOS, an “adhoc group of representatives of organizations across the spectrum of the Southington community responding to the recent violence and murderous massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. This includes the local Chamber of Commerce, YMCA, board of education, United Way, and clergy.

Although the group states that they are responding to the tragic school massacre in Sandy Hook, they also state that this project shouldn’t be thought of as a statement on video game violence playing a role in the tragedy. Except the evidence suggests that. But they’re not saying it. But it totally does.

Here, check out their statement for yourself:

The announcement of the Violent Games Return program was also disseminated electronically last Friday by the Board of Education in behalf of Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Joseph Erardi to the homes of all. The publication of the first press story today has attracted a significant response which was no surprise to SouthingtonSOS. The group’s action is not intended to be construed as statement declaring that violent video games were the cause of the shocking violence in Newtown on December 14th.

Rather, SouthingtonSOS is saying is that there is ample evidence that violent video games, along with violent media of all kinds, including TV and Movies portraying story after story showing a continuous stream of violence and killing, has contributed to increasing aggressiveness, fear, anxiety and is desensitizing our children to acts of violence including bullying. Social and political commentators, as well as elected officials including the president, are attributing violent crime to many factors including inadequate gun control laws, a culture of violence and a recreational culture of violence.

Participants won’t leave empty handed, as the group says they’ll hand out $25 gift cards on site.

“As people arrive in their cars to turn in their games of violence, they will be offered a gift certificate donated by a member of the Greater Southington Chamber of Commerce as a token of appreciation for their action of responsible citizenship,” says SouthingtonSOS.

So, if you’re in the area and feel like destroying your kids’ copy of Halo 4, make sure to read your Bradbury and head on down to the drive-in for a rockin’ good time.

Lanza was an avid gun collector and was described by those who knew her as a “survivalist” who stockpiled water and food for an oncoming economic crisis. She was also loathe to let anyone into her home and friends and family say they rarely saw Adam Lanza; it’s been reported that he suffered from Asperger’s Syndrome, and some say the combination of the disorder and a lack of social interaction could be huge factors in what set him off last week.

Described by those close to him at school as a “genius”, Adam struggled with a learning disorder and spent much of his time at home on the computer, absorbed in his own world. Rumors that Nancy Lanza was so protective of her youngest son that she wouldn’t let him out of her sight–even to use the restroom–are being circulated after it was reported that she stopped working in order to spend more time taking care of him. Still, the anti-social behavior continued right up until the shooting tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

“You would say ‘‘hi’’ and he would say ‘‘hi’’ back but he didn’t give you a lot to work with. He wasn’t exactly welcoming,” said Kate Leen, who attended school with Adam.

An acquaintance of Nancy’s who spoke to her in a pub about a week before the shootings says she knew something was going on with her son but felt she couldn’t help him.

“Nancy told me he was burning himself with a lighter. In the ankles or arms or something,” he said. “It was like he was trying to feel something.”

Nancy Lanza was found shot to death in her bed after police raided the home, and a computer in Adam’s room was smashed to bits on the floor; investigators are currently trying to repair the hard drive in an effort to look for any small clue as to why Adam took off with his mother’s guns on Friday and ended so many lives.

Some media outlets began to show the profile picture, and there were even a bunch of fake Facebook pages that quickly popped up:

Shortly thereafter, reports came out that this was not the same Ryan Lanza. Gawker points to a couple of people who are allegedly Facebook friends of Lanza’s, who say it’s not him, sharing alleged screenshots (it has not been confirmed that these are authentic, to my knowledge) of Lanza’s profile, where he says things like:

“IT WASN”T ME I WAS AT WORK IT WASN’T ME,” “I’m on the bus home now it wasn’t me,” and “Everyone shut the fuck up it wasn’t me.” The profile has since disappeared from Facebook.

Follow @Fletch788

Andrew Fletcher
@Fletch788

Facebook statuses from Ryan Lanza. #Newtownhttp://t.co/mRjHihqt

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1 hour ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

Follow @MattBors

Matt Bors
@MattBors

I’m FB friends with the profile being sent around. This is a real screen grab. http://t.co/YuEIdkW5

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58 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto

Another Ryan Lanza on Twitter assured everyone that it was not him either, despite recent tweets like “fuck parents” and “depression… fml…”

Follow @Ryan__Lanza

Ryan Lanza
@Ryan__Lanza

so aperently im getting spammed bc someone with the same name as me killed some ppl… wtf?

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43 minutes ago via Mobile Web (M2) · powered by @socialditto

The President fought back tears as he expressed his sadness at the loss of life that occurred today.

“Our hearts are broken today for the parents and grandparents, sisters and brothers of these children and the families of the adults we lost. As a country, we have been through this too many times. This evening Michelle and I will do whah every parent in America will do – hug our children a little tighter and tell them that we love them. There are families in Connecticut that cannot do that tonight and they need all of us tonight. May god bless the memory of the victims and in the words of scripture heal the broken hearted and bind up their wounds,” said the President as he closed his remarks.

Watch his entire statement below:

Google Street View cars are on the road a lot. They’ve put so many miles on the road that those little trike-equipped cars have accumulated 5,000,000 unique miles since they took to the roads to collect images for Google Street View. Given that distance would turn the odometer over several, several times, it shouldn’t be that surprising to find the Google Street View cars in the occasional bang-up.

While this has likely happened before, one of these accidents was actually witnessed by somebody who had the quick reaction to grab a picture. The image was shared by reddit user grangerm, which you see at the top of this article. Here’s the full image, complete with on-the-scene police officer.

That’s a bit more than a fender bender, really. The whole front end of the car got crunched up accordion-style, and given there’s not any damage to the sides of the car, you could probably make a fair bet that the Street View car rear-ended somebody (note: don’t text while driving!). Also, the impact seems to have knocked back that camera mount on the car, which, if I had to guess, is probably worth at least around the same amount as the car. Not a good day at the office for that Googler.

Utilizing my dazzling ability to do a Google Image Search for various state license plates to find one that matches the front plate of the cop car, it appears that this accident happened in Connecticut. After a little trial and error search on Google Maps using the clues of the street signs in the background, there’s a good chance that this accident happened in the swell city of Bristol, CT, at the intersection of Brook Street and Farmington Avenue, as you can see in the map below:

View Larger Map

The map for that intersection of Bristol was last updated in 2009, which would make sense that the Google Street View car would be there since the city is probably due for an update. I guess one good thing for that Googler driving the car is that you know the whole accident was probably documents. Then again, if it’s the Googler’s fault, that could be bad news for job security.

[Via reddit.]

Rep. Kim Rose, D-118th District, said Facebook did not respond quickly to repeated complaints that her name and photo were being used without her permission to ask for money.

Jepsen wrote a letter to Facebook Monday saying his office would investigate “because of the real and immediate danger of financial fraud and identity theft associated with this scam.”

Jepsen asked the company for information about the number of complaints it had received in the last 18 months about fraudulent or “hacked” accounts; its policies and procedures for responding to complaints and how long it took them to do so and information about any safeguards in place to detect and disable fake or “hacked” Facebook accounts.

“My hope is to work cooperatively with Facebook to ensure that is users in Connecticut and elsewhere are provided adequate security and receive quick and effective responses when security breaches occur,” Jepsen said.

Facebook was asked to provide the information to the Office of the Attorney General by Feb. 22.

A little background information, since this matter has been dragging on for so long: then-Attorney General Richard Blumenthal began investigating in June whether Google’s Street View cars had collected sensitive WiFi data.  Other states joined the inquiry (the coalition now has 40 members), and eventually, Blumenthal issued the equivalent of a subpoena.

Jepsen’s taken a more subtle approach.  The only problem for Google is that the company’s had to make some uncomfortable admissions.

A statement issued by Jepsen’s office indicated, "Google has now stipulated that while collecting network identification information for use in offering ‘location aware’ services, it did in fact collect and store the payload data that contained private information."

Then the statement continued, "In particular, Google stipulates, for purposes of settlement discussions, that the payload data collected contained URLs of requested Web pages, partial or complete e-mail communications or other information, including confidential and private information the network user was transmitting over the unsecured network while Google’s Street View car was within range. . . .  Google also will not contest during settlement negotiations that such private information was collected every day that the Street View cars operated."

One other important point: if the private negotiations with Google don’t go well, Jepsen’s reserved the right to scrap this agreement and take the whole matter to court.