European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 24, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday March 24 2007 s tar s an d stripes Page 11 judge strikes child online Ion Law by Maryclaire Dale the associated press Philadelphia a Federal judge on thursday dealt another blow to government efforts to control internet pornography strik ing Down a 1998 us Law that makes it a crime fior commercial web site operators to let children Access harmful material in the Riding the judge said parents can protect their children through software filters and other less restrictive Means that do not limit the rights of others to free speech perhaps we do the minors of this country harm if first Amend ment protections which they will with age inherit fully Are chipped away in the name of their Protection wrote senior us District judge Lowell Reed or who presided Over a four week trial last fall the Law would have criminalized web Sites that allow children to Access material deemed harm Ful to minors by contemporary Community standards the Sites would have been expected to re quire a credit card number or other proof of age penalties included a Fine and up to six months in prison Phoeun m Devin James holds a few samples of his crime newspaper jail at his Home in Orlando Fla capitalizing on an idea that came to him while in prison 10 years ago for Domestic violence James Hopes his paper will deter crime and provide a Public service Mug shots luring Many avid readers in Orlando by Jim Ellis the associated press Orlando Fla America loves a Good Mug shot the More frizzled frazzled and frantic the better an Orlando entrepreneur has seized on that fascination recently starting jail a weekly news paper filled with nothing but the unflattering thumbnails Page after Page with Only a few ads in Between a Mug shot is a couple notches below your Drivers License Pic Ture said Devin James 41 dressed casually in sweat pants sneakers and a Ball Cap and everyone takes a messed up Drivers License picture Mug shots have gained popular Ity online thanks to Sites like the smoking gun which feature arrest photos of professional ath letes musicians and Hollywood a band clusters Nick Nolle Glen Campbell and Mel Gibson among them in jail the stars Are the read ers neighbors charged with everything from drug Possession to prostitution to murder some Mug shots beg for More detail like the bar chested Man arrested and charged with Bur Glary perhaps a shirt was one of the items he hoped to steal James carefully chooses the Mug shots on the front Page is sues with attractive women on the front move fastest sex Sells James said James said he got the idea nearly a decade ago after a three month stint in the Orange county jail after he says he got into a loud fight with a Girlfriend and the police sided with her he denies hitting her he published two issues in 1999 but gave up when it didst take off using he earned moving furniture James launched again in december the timing is right for this paper now he said America is in the midst of a crime wave James said he now distributes More than 8000 newspapers weekly and struggles to keep stores stocked the papers Are sold for at 175 Moman pop convenience stores throughout Orange Semi Nole and Osceola counties James delivers them himself the Mer chants provide counter space in return for half the profits we sell out of them each week said Rafael Gil manager of the Plaza Market in downtown Orlando thousands of arrests each week in the papers three county distribution area provide plenty of material All obtained free from police and sheriffs departments sexual health Sites the online Magazine Sald com and other web Sites backed by the Ameri can civil liberties Union challenged the Law they argued that the child online Protection act was unconstitutionally vague and would have had a chilling effect on speech the us supreme court up held a temporary injunction in 2004 on grounds the Law was Likely to be struck Down and was per haps outdated technology experts said parents now have More serious con Cerns than web Sites with pornography for instance the threat of online predators has caused Wor Ries among parents whose Chil Dren use social networking Sites such As news corps myspace the Case sparked a Legal fire storm last year when Google challenged a Justice department subpoena seeking information on what people search for online government lawyers had asked Google to turn Over 1 million ran Dom web addresses and a weeks Worth of Google search queries a judge sharply limited the scope of the subpoena which goo Gle had fought on Trade secret not privacy grounds to defend the 9yearold child online Protection act govern ment lawyers attacked software filters As burdensome and less effective even though they have previously defended their use in Public schools and libraries it is not reasonable for the government to expect All parents to shoulder the Burden to Cut off every possible source of adult con tent for their children rather than the governments addressing the problem at its source a govern ment attorney Peter d Keisler argued in a pos trial Brief the Law addressed material accessed by children under 17 but applied Only to Content hosted in the United states and creator puts Obama in hot seat by Jim Kuhnhenn the associated press Washington the inter net video sensation that targeted sen Hillary Rodham Clinton now has rival sen Barack Obama on the spot heralded by Many As the embodiment of we driven citizen activism a mysterious youtube and now stands revealed As the work of a democratic operative employed by a consulting firm with Obama links its True yeah its me said Philip de Vellis a 33yearold strategist with Blue state digital a Washington company that advises democratic candidates and lib eral groups Blue state designed Obama web site and one of the firms founding members Joe Rospars took a leave from the company to work As Obama director of new Media Obama Blue state and de Vel Lis All say de Vellis acted on his own de Vellis left the company on wednesday he said he re signed Thomas Gensemer the firms managing director said he was fired the entire episode hangs a Cloud Over the Obama Camp since he arrived on the National political scene Obama has won convert after convert with a vow to Rise above the bar knuckle fray of politics however tenuous any link to the and with its orwellian image of Clinton As big brother raises questions the Obama Camp would rather not face in a statement the Obama Campaign said it had no knowledge and had nothing to do with the creation of the and Blue state digital has separated ties with this individual and we have been assured he did no work on our campaigns account it added de Vellis in a blog he wrote after he had been identified by Huffington Ostrom appeared to acknowledge the trouble he had brewed i support senator Obama he wrote i Hope he wins the primary i recognize that this and is not his style of the unmasking of de Vellis also cracks the enticing image of the internet As a freewheeling Arena where average citizens engage in vigorous often provocative Dis course de Vellis said he acted like any techno Sawy politically attuned web surfer he said he worked sen Hillary Clinton on a sunday in his apartment using his Mac computer and video editing software to alter an updated version of a classic Apple and that aired during the super bowl football Champion ship in 1984 but the fact remains that de Vel Lis was a political professional he had worked for democratic rep Sherrod Brown in his successful Campaign for us Senate in Ohio and he was working for a firm with political clients including Obama obviously some people Are going to look at this and see that in working in politics and  think that its kind of disingenuous or not genuine de Vellis said i still think that Ordinary citizens can change politics it could have been anyone else who could have made this and Letterman Melman Dies at 85 new York Calvert Deforest the White haired bespectacled Nebish who gained cult status As the oddball Larry Bud Melman on David Letterman late night television shows has died after a Long illness the Brooklyn born Defor est who was 85 died monday at a Hospital on Long Island Letterman late show announced wednesday he made dozens of appear ances on Letterman shows from 1982 through 2002 handling a variety of twisted duties dieting with Sonny Bono on i got you babe doing a Mary Tyler Moore impression during a visit to Minneapolis handing out hot towels to arrivals at the port authority bus terminal everyone always wondered if Calvert was an actor playing a character but in reality he was just a genuine modest and Nice Man letter Deforest Man said in a statement at Deforest request there will be no funeral ser vice he left no survivors Petty officer found in Boston Harbor Boston the body of a missing Navy Petty officer was found by divers in Boston Harbor wednes Day authorities said Boston police spokesman David Estrada said the cause of death was still under investigation the body was identified As Petty officer 3rd class dust in Willis 26 of Hatteras Island no Navy it Paul Brawley said members of the Boston fire depart ment dive found Willis body in 22 feet of water about 100 Yards from the restaurant where he was last seen Friday night Willis was reported missing after he failed to re turn to his ship the Norfolk abased destroyer uss Donald Cook on sunday the ship made a St Patricks Day weekend visit to Boston Brawley said Willis had an excellent service record and had received a Navy achievement medal for Superior performance just three Days be fore he disappeared from the associated press