acronym

'LMAO.' How a Colloquial Acronym Posted to Facebook Could Derail a New Jersey Murder Trial

A commonly used acronym on social media has thrust a New Jersey murder trial into disarray.

After weeks of testimony and debate, a New Jersey judge could decide on Thursday to call a case against Liam McAtasney a mistrial after a juror posted to Facebook that she was “sitting on the jury LMAO.” According to BuzzFeed News, which earlier covered the story, the judge last week removed the juror from the trial after her post was discovered. The comment was left on a news story about the trial that was published to the social media site.

The judge reportedly asked the entire jury if they had seen the comment on Facebook, and five of them said that they had known about the post but didn’t actually see it. Now, the attorney for McAtasney, who is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole, is seeking a mistrial over the comment and concerns over jurors being influenced by social media.

The McAtasney trial started in January. The 21-year-old McAtasney has been accused of strangling childhood friend Sarah Stern and hiding her body to steal $10,000 in inheritance money she had hidden at her home, reports BuzzFeed News. In total, he faces seven charges, including first-degree murder and desecrating human remains. His roommate Preston Taylor had been accused of helping him commit the crime. Taylor took a plea deal and agreed to testify against McAtasney, according to the report.

Now, though, the case could be halted and a new trial against McAtasney pushed back indefinitely. Judge Richard English will make his mistrial decision on Thursday.

What's in a name? Quite a bit when it's the most hated acronym of 2018

Almost a year after the General Data Protection Regulation came into effect, the European Union's stricter privacy law has claimed another victim.

But this time it isn't a US-owned website locking out EU users, a tech titan facing multimillion-euro fines or a major site running a stripped back version. Neither is it a dodgy data broker or a LinkedIn snake-oil salesman who smelt fresh meat elsewhere.

Nope. This time the regulation has sucked up the time and energy of an unfortunately named Worcester-based marketing biz, GD PR & Media.

The firm – which does public relations, digital marketing and graphic design work – apparently got sick of being confused with the big bad regulation.

Worcester News reported that the firm increasingly found they were getting phone calls asking for advice on GDPR, assuming they were specialists on the EU law.

"It got to a point where we were making jokes about hiring a GDPR expert to handle the enquiries and it was then that we realised we needed to rebrand sooner rather than later," said director David Huckerby.

Where some might have seen that as a golden opportunity to latch on to the regulation's coattails and use it to bring in more interest, GD PR & Media decided to switch its name to Conteur.

Meanwhile, El Reg reckons the less said about the orgs that typed four letters into a search engine and clicked on the first link to ask for compliance advice, the better.

Of course, the moral of the story is: just because someone has "GDPR" in their name or title, don't expect them to know the first thing about it. Something especially true for consultants that claim to be "GDPR certificated". ®

Rhode Island Charter STEM School Comes Under Fire

(TNS) — A local charter school with STEM in its title has come under fire by the state Department of Education for not offering a rigorous and well-designed selection of science courses.

The acronym stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

During the education department's exhaustive five-year review of Times2 STEM Academy, a kindergarten through grade 12 school, the agency found numerous problems with the state's second-oldest charter school, among them:

— Serious problems with the school's leadership by its executive director, Rudolph Moseley, and its board of directors, including a vote of no confidence last summer by the school's teachers.

— A lack of coherence in science courses, with limited science instruction in the elementary school.

— High school students with a free period who had nowhere to go and wound up in the hallway. Other classrooms didn't have an adult assigned.

— Low achievement and growth, with only 13 percent of students proficient in math and 20 percent proficient in English.

— Failure by the board and Mosley to routinely monitor the school's academic progress.

— Repeated complaints by parents and teachers that concerns are ignored by school leaders. The report said communication with parents is "inconsistent."

Because of these problems, the Rhode Island Department of Education issued Times2 a three-year license renewal in late January rather than a five-year one. The Providence charter has until June 30 to address the issues. If it doesn't, then RIDE will take the matter before the Council for Elementary and Secondary Education.

"A vote of no confidence grabs your attention in any school, especially a long-standing charter school," said Steve Osborne, RIDE's chief of innovation. "We have very serious concerns about school leadership."

Asked if RIDE had confidence in Moseley, Osborne said his agency has received more negative feedback about Times2 than it has from all of the other charter schools combined. The criticism ranges from a lack of communication between school leaders and staff to the way decisions are made on course changes and teaching responsibilities.

Charter schools are publicly funded but run by independent boards. They have greater flexibility than traditional public schools over such things as the length of the school day. Times2 is unusual because its teachers belong to the Providence Teachers Union.

No charter school has ever been closed in Rhode Island, although former education Commissioner Deborah Gist tried to shut down Highlander Charter School in Providence. Gist backed down after a huge outpouring of support from parents. Across the United States, dozens of charter schools have been closed, primarily for misuse of funds.

Gist also raised the bar on charter schools, asking them to reach a higher academic standard than their traditional public school peers.

Asked what it would take to close a charter in Rhode Island, Osborne said, "With a school such as Times2, renewal or closure may not [represent] the full range of options."

Moseley agrees that the school "has to make major changes to meet our mission," and said the board has been working on that for three years.

He said Times2 has begun to address some of RIDE's complaints, increasing the number of college courses available to high school students, reducing class size, adding a special education teacher and a social worker, and introducing after-school enrichment programs.

Times2, he said, has also developed a written explanation showing how parents can express their concerns.

"We're on notice," Moseley said. "We have a sense of urgency. At the same time, there are issues that we have already addressed."

But Ana Bazzaro, an outspoken critic with four nieces in the school, said Times2 won't change until Moseley is gone.

"If I was RIDE, I'd call into question his leadership," she said. "Every time I've gone to a school committee meeting, he has thrown other administrators under the bus. He has had his opportunity to show what he's capable of doing. He is not capable of turning the school around."

©2019 The Providence Journal (Providence, R.I.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.