SEC staffers watched porn, not Wall Street
WASHINGTON, April 23 (UPI) -- While Wall Street tumbled, many of the people who regulated the U.S. financial system viewed porn on their government-issued computers, a report indicates.
A Securities and Exchange Commission report said 33 SEC employees or contractors violated the commission's policies and government standards by viewing the sexually explicit material while on the job, CNN reported Friday.
"During the past five years, the SEC OIG (Office of Inspector General) substantiated that 33 SEC employees and or contractors violated commission rules and policies, as well as the government-wide standards of ethical conduct, by viewing pornographic, sexually explicit or sexually suggestive images using government computer resources and official time," the report's summary said.
In one instance, a regional office staff accountant tried to access pornographic Web sites nearly 1,800 times, using her SEC-issued laptop during a two-week period, and saved hundreds of pornographic images on the laptop's hard drive, the report said.
The report also singled out a senior attorney at SEC headquarters who admitted to downloading pornography up to 8 hours a day, exceeding available space on his hard drive and forcing him to download porn "to CDs or DVDs that he accumulated in boxes in his office."
"It is nothing short of disturbing that high-ranking officials within the SEC were spending more time looking at pornography than taking action to help stave off the events that brought our nation's economy to the brink of collapse," said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who sits on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
The investigation became known Thursday, the same day President Barack Obama called for reform in the financial industry.
Work started to contain gulf oil leak
NEW ORLEANS, April 23 (UPI) -- Efforts were under way Friday to stop crude oil leaking from the site of an explosion-toppled oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, officials said.
New Orleans' WWL-TV reported crude oil appeared to have spread more than 5 miles from the Deepwater Horizon accident site off the Louisiana coast. By Thursday night, an estimated 500,000 feet of boom had been laid out in the gulf to collect the oil on the surface, with another 500,000 feet of protective barrier expected to be stretched out Friday, the TV station said.
Crews were trying to cap the well below the surface and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced the state has activated its crisis action team.
David Rainey, vice president for British Petroleum, which had contracted with TransOcean, a Swiss company that operated the rig that exploded Tuesday leaving 11 people missing, said the situation "certainly has the potential to be a major spill."
Tony Hayward, BP Group's chief executive, vowed to do everything possible to limit the spill.
"We are determined to do everything in our power to contain this oil spill and resolve the situation as rapidly, safely and effectively as possible," Hayward said in a statement. "We have assembled and are now deploying world-class facilities, resources and expertise, and can call on more if needed. There should be no doubt of our resolve to limit the escape of oil and protect the marine and coastal environments from its effects."
Rainey said it was uncertain whether 700,000 gallons of diesel fuel stored in barrels atop the structure were still intact or leaking into the gulf.
Immigration reform taking center stage
WASHINGTON, April 23 (UPI) -- President Barack Obama used the backdrop of a naturalization ceremony Friday to urge the overhaul of U.S. immigration policy.
Speaking in the Rose Garden where 24 active-duty U.S. service members from more than a dozen countries became Americans, Obama said their efforts to earn their citizenship is a reminder "of how we must remain both a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws."
"This includes fixing America's broken immigration system," he said.
The president said that while disagreements have gone on for years, "surely we can all agree that when 11 million people in our country are living here illegally, outside the system, that's unacceptable."
He called for "common-sense, comprehensive immigration reform grounded in the principles of responsibility and accountability."
He said his administration is working to strengthen border security and that businesses that "ignore the law and exploit and abuse vulnerable workers and try to gain an unfair advantage" over law-abiding businesses will be held accountable.
"And people who are in America illegally have a responsibility -- to pay their back taxes and admit responsibility for breaking the law, pay a penalty, learn English, pass criminal background checks, and get right with the law -- or face removal -- before they can get in line and eventually earn their citizenship," he said.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has given Democratic and Republican point men three weeks to reach bipartisan agreement on immigration reform aides said.
'South Park' altered following threat
NEW YORK, April 23 (UPI) -- A "South Park" episode's portrayal of Prophet Mohammed was altered with bleeps and graphics after a radical Muslim group warned of retribution, producers said.
In the "South Park" show aired this week on Comedy Central, producers Trey Parker and Matt Stone altered images and dialogue about Mohammed with a "censored" graphic and audio bleeps after Revolution Muslim posted a warning of dire consequences on its Web site, The New York Times reported Friday.
Besides those measures, Comedy Central "placed numerous additional audio bleeps throughout the episode," Parker and Stone said Thursday in a post on their company's Web site, SouthParkStudios.com. The message also said the network wasn't allowing the episode to be streamed on the Web site, where "South Park" shows usually appear on their Comedy Central broadcast.
In their statement, Parker and Stone wrote, "In the 14 years we've been doing 'South Park' we have never done a show that we couldn't stand behind. We delivered our version of the show to Comedy Central, and they made a determination to alter the episode."
A spokesman for Comedy Central confirmed to the Times Thursday it bleeped out more audio on the show that regularly jabs sensitive subjects and did not rebroadcast the new episode as it normally does.
The show had depicted the prophet wearing a bear costume.
Revolution Muslim member Younus Abdullah Muhammad restated that the post was not a threat, linking the group's complaints about "South Park" to its grievances about American support for Israel and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Times said.
Asked if the FBI was investigating the matter, Special Agent Richard Kolko in New York told the Times the agency did not "monitor people or groups -- we investigate criminal activity."
Baghdad hit by explosions; several dead
BAGHDAD, Iran, April 23 (UPI) -- A string of bombs shattered the Baghdad area's always-uneasy calm Friday, killing dozens and injuring many more, authorities said.
The New York Times said terrorists struck mosques, a market and a shop in the capital and also attacked the homes of a prosecutor and police officers in western Iraq. It wasn't known whether the bombings were the work of al-Qaida in Iraq, whose top leaders killed or arrested this week, the newspaper said.
The Iraqi Interior Ministry said a dozen bombs killed at least 50 people and wounded more than 100 more in Baghdad, the Times said.
An attack in the Anbar region in western Iraq left seven members of one family dead when explosions struck houses in their small village. The Kuwaiti news agency KUNA reported that attack involved explosives and targeted the houses of a police officer and a judge in Khaldiya. About 13 other people were injured and the police officer and judge survived.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Air Force said an American soldier died of non-combat injuries in Baghdad, KUNA said. The incident was being investigated, the Air Force said in a statement.
