• 'Bless you for posting': Facebook group reunites tornado victims with photos, documents

    Glen Adkisson via Facebook

    This photo was posted on Facebook by Glen Adkisson after tornadoes struck Oklahoma on Monday. "This was in our yard 5/20/2013...Collinsville," he wrote.

    By F. Brinley Bruton, Staff Writer, NBC News

    The photo shows a baby in diapers on a high chair gazing at a white cake with one pink candle.  

    Glen Adkisson of Collinsville, Okla., posted on Facebook that it had been found "in our yard" following Monday's devastating tornadoes.

    Allison Messer via Facebook

    This photo was posted on Facebook by Allison Messer after a tornado struck Oklahoma, with the message "Found in our pasture between Stroud & Depew. Would love to find the momma this belongs too."

    The message below reads: "This photo is of my sisters deceased husband when he was a child. We are from Shawnee Oklahoma. She did live in the trailer park. She and my 7 year old nephew lost their home. I will try to contact u va Facebook. Bless you for posting this!"

    This exchange appears on a Facebook page -- May 19th 2013 OK Tornado Doc & Picture Recovery -- set up to return photos and documents to victims of a deadly storm system that has ripped across the state. 

    Early Tuesday, the page included hundreds of family photos and documents.  A picture of a cat with one blue eye sat next to another of a woman in a camp chair holding two blond and grinning children. A grimy electricity bill was next to the stained photograph of a toddler sitting on Santa's knee.  An ultrasound photo showed what appeared to be a baby in utero.

    Some postings had happy endings, with pets and pictures being reunited with their families.

    A photo of a brown-haired young man cuddling a smiling girl with long caramel-colored hair elicited an overjoyed response from Dana Davis: “this is my picture it was in my room at my sisters and her house got destroyed by the tornado by lake thunderbird !”

    Becky Miller, one of the page’s administrators, knew the photos and documents that landed on the ground as so-called falling debris, might look like detritus but were in fact irreplaceable artifacts or documents for somebody.  

    This photo was posted on Facebook by Kristi Hodge after a tornado struck Oklahoma with the message "Found 2 miles south of Ramona at 815 PM floating from the sky."

    “People had falling debris 100 miles away – people were saying it is raining debris in the yard,” said the resident of Liberty, Okla., which is about two hours away from Oklahoma City.  “That’s what started it. I wanted people reunited with precious pictures or colored pictures – you can’t replace those in a disaster.”

    Indeed, Jeremy-Trista Blevins posted a ripped picture of three children – the smallest a bald and smiling baby – that she says she found in Sand Spring, 119 miles from where the hurricane struck.

    The page, which was started by Leslie Edgar Hagelberg, Miller’s cousin, and her sister, Sarah Miller-Deibert, quickly turned into a sort of clearing house, attracting others trying to help those in need.

    Diana Gann’s plea for help subduing a traumatized mule prompted almost 150 responses. 

    A posting originally on Photos of Moore Oklahoma Tornado Pets Lost & Found and cross-linked on May 19th 2013 OK Tornado Doc showed a nervous-looking black lab.

    "3 dogs rescued from Moore tornado! Bathed, and cared for at rescuers home. Want to reunite them back with their families," the message with the photo read. "Prayer to all our furry friends and families."

    Erin Lang via Facebook

    Erin Lang posted this photo on Facebook after Monday's tornado in Moore, Okla., writing: "3 dogs rescued from Moore tornado! Bathed, and cared for at rescuers home. Want to reunite them back with their families. Please spread the word and contact Erin Lang or Carey Ralstin on Facebook! Prayer to all our furry friends and families."

    And down the page another message from Farah Payton-Snider declared: "The black Lab is my (friend's)... dog Tin. Please call me ASAP."

    Payton-Snider, 36, said she would close her flower shop and head into Oklahoma City first thing in the morning to try and help reunite people who had been hit by the tornado with their pets.

    "I feel helpless, I want to be able to do something," said Payton-Snider, who lives in Newcastle, Okla.  

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    This story was originally published on Tue May 21, 2013 6:21 AM EDT

  • Facebook shutters page that taunted lawmaker's push to curb military rape

    By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

    A "direct threat" against a U.S. congresswoman — posted on a military-oriented Facebook page that graphically belittled her and her efforts to stem sexual misconduct within the branches — has been referred to U.S. Capitol Police for investigation. 

    The threat was made last week against Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., and her husband shortly after Speier sent a letter May 8 to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel informing him of the Facebook page which, according to Speier, helped "contribute to a culture that permits and seems to encourage sexual assault and abuse." U.S. Capitol Police have asked Speier and her staff not to divulge the nature of the threat.


    Before that page was taken down Friday afternoon by Facebook, Speier's staff was able to confirm that several active-duty Marines had posted messages on the page, which disparaged the congresswoman and made numerous sexual jokes about women in the military. At least three people who had "liked" the page — and who had posted comments there supporting its content — list themselves as active-duty service members on their personal Facebook pages. As of Friday morning, the page — called "F*** You Jackie Speier — was active and had 182 "likes."

    Speier's staff has not been able to determine the identity of the person or people or who created the Facebook page — or several earlier versions of the same page (with other names) that contained the same content, commentary and photos. Those previous iterations were also dismantled by Facebook. 

    In her May 8 letter, also sent to Gen. James Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, Speier said it was her "understanding that not only is the Marine Corps Inspector General aware of this page and monitoring it, but they have been doing so for over three years." 

    Speier has authored three bills aimed at transforming the military justice system’s treatment of sexual assault cases. Those include the STOP Act (HR 1593), which seeks to take all cases of sexual assault outside of the chain of command by creating an independent office within the military to handle the reporting, investigation, and prosecution of such crimes. The bipartisan bill has 122 co-sponsors but has not been placed into consideration for a House vote. 

    Before the anti-Speier Facebook page was removed, it displayed a banner photo of a topless woman holding up her middle fingers as well as multiple posts and pictures making fun of military rape, including an image posted Friday morning with a caption that joked about raping a pregnant woman.

    In addition, there were photos posted mocking Jewish concentration camp prisoners, African Americans, and President Barack Obama, shown with a rope around his neck. But the page's primary theme involved deriding women in the military, particularly those within the Marines. The administrator posted pictures titled "this is my rape face," and "I can 'bang' even when I'm not on my back!!" atop the image of a woman holding a gun in her camouflage uniform.

    Courtesy Facebook

    A screen grab shows one of the photos posted on a page about Jackie Speier.

    There also was a picture of Speier, photoshopped with a black eye. One poster — whose personal Facebook page lists his occupation as "Military infantry" — wrote of Speier: "I still firmly believe someone needs to struggle snuggle the s*** outta her."

    The Pentagon acknowledged that it is aware of the Facebook page.  

    "Secretary Hagel made clear that sexual assault is a despicable crime and one of the most serious challenges facing the Department of Defense," Cynthia O. Smith, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said Friday in reaction to the page. "Leaders will be held accountable for preventing and responding to sexual assault in the ranks. The Secretary will respond directly back to Congresswoman as appropriate."

    "Unfortunately, we cannot offer comment," added Shennell Antrobus, spokesman for the U.S. Capitol Police. "As a matter of Department policy, we do not discuss information relating to the security of Senators, Members of the House, or the Capitol Complex."

    Facebook declines to comment on individual pages within its network but it does list a strict set of "community standards" that govern allowable content.

    "We maintain a robust reporting infrastructure that leverages over 1 billion people who use our site to keep an eye out for offensive or potentially dangerous content," said Alison Schumer, a Facebook spokeswoman. "This reporting infrastructure includes report links on pages across the Facebook site, systems to prioritize the most serious reports, and a trained team of reviewers who respond to reports."

    Facebook, which also lists its "law enforcement guidelines," has been known to cooperate with police agencies with active investigations that may delve into a suspect's Facebook accounts and activity. 

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  • Gun groups, defense contractors buck downward trend in lobbying

    Brendan Smialowski / AFP - Getty Images file

    Wayne LaPierre, chief executive officer of the National Rifle Association, speaks during a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill on Jan. 30 in Washington, D.C. The NRA spent more on lobbying in the first quarter than it had on any quarter ever.

    By Dave Levinthal, The Center for Public Integrity

    Gun groups, defense contractors, oil companies and the world’s largest social network increased their spending on lobbying last quarter, bucking an overall downward trend, newly filed congressional disclosures show.


    As debate over gun control raged in the Senate, the National Rifle Association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation and Mayors Against Illegal Guns each spent more on federal-level lobbying during the year’s first three months than in any other quarter.

    Raytheon, United Technologies and General Dynamics also fired up their lobbying machines from January to March, easily surpassing their spending from the same period one year ago as budget sequestration forced them to face deep cuts to their bottom lines.

    Northrop Grumman, at $5.8 million, posted its third-biggest lobbying quarter in company history.

    And Facebook’s $2.45 million in first-quarter lobbying expenses obliterated its previous quarterly record — $1.4 million during the final three months of 2012 — as it pressed lawmakers and governmental agencies on a variety of issues, from online advertising and privacy concerns to taxation and supporting visas and permanent residency for highly skilled foreign workers.

    But those are exceptions.

    About three-fifths of the nation’s 100 top lobbying organizations spent less on lobbying during the year’s first quarter than the first quarter of 2012, a Center for Public Integrity analysis of congressional disclosure reports and Center for Responsive Politics data indicates.

    A slight majority of them also spent less on lobbying from January through March than they did from October through December — a period on Capitol Hill marked by an election, then  a congressional recess-induced lull interrupted by a flurry of fiscal cliff activity at the end of the year.

    The U.S. Chamber of Commerce this quarter retained its perennial perch atop the list of top lobbying spenders, although its collective first-quarter output ($16.8 million, when including affiliates) is dramatically down from recent quarters.

    The Chamber spent nearly $26.4 million during last year’s first quarter. During the final quarter of last year, it spent more than $40.6 million, in large part because it ranks among a small group of lobbies that opt to disclose state- and grassroots-level lobbying (and sometimes political organizing) costs alongside federally focused efforts.

    Attribute the recent drop-off to 2013 not being an election year, Chamber spokeswoman Blair Latoff Holmes said, noting that the nation’s largest trade group still spent heavily on its policy agenda to “generate stronger, more robust economic growth and create jobs.”

    That, according to its disclosures, included lobbying on implementation of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law as well as the oversight capabilities of the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

    Google’s lobbying expenditures have been on a torrid pace of late, as the omnipresent Internet company jumped from $1.5 million during the first quarter of 2011 to $5.4 million during the first quarter of 2012. But it throttled back this past quarter, spending less than $3.4 million on a range of topics that include federal regulation of online advertising and consumer privacy.

    Among the dozens of other prominent lobbies that spent less during the first quarter than they did during the same period last year: AT&T ($7.1 million to $4.3 million), General Electric ($5.7 million to $5.2 million), the American Hospital Association ($4.5 million to $3.8 million), Verizon Communications ($4.6 million to $3.7 million), Dow Chemical ($3.3 million to $2.7 million), drug maker Pfizer ($3.6 million to $2.9 million) and the American Bankers Association ($2.7 million to $1.6 million).

    While many defense contractors experienced lobbying growth early this year, Boeing and Lockheed Martin experienced slight spending declines during the first quarter compared to the same period last year.

    Of those that spent more, the National Association of Realtors ($6.1 million to $8.5 million) led all others in overall first quarter spending. But like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Realtors association reports its lobbying activity broadly, and their first quarter spending was significantly down from the final three months of 2012, when it burned through nearly $15.5 million.

    Many oil-related companies and associations reported first-quarter lobbying spikes, including ExxonMobil ($4.2 million to $4.8 million), Koch Industries ($2.3 million to $2.6 million), Chevron ($3.2 million to $3.7 million), the American Petroleum Institute ($1.8 million to $2.1 million) and Occidental Petroleum ($1.6 million to $2.1 million).

    The American Medical Association, CTIA-The Wireless Association, AARP, Altria, America’s Health Insurance Plans and the National Association of Manufacturers also recorded mild to moderate increases.

    While not among the nation’s biggest lobbying spenders, the National Rifle Association spent $810,000 during the first three months of the year to lobby the federal government — the most ever during a first quarter.

    Senate Republicans, aided by a few Democrats, have so far blocked passage of all major gun control legislation championed by President Barack Obama and most Democrats.

    Meanwhile, Mayors Against Illegal Guns spent a quarter-million dollars from January through March — five times what it typically does.

    The organization, led by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Tom Menino, had never spent more than $60,000 during a single quarter to lobby the federal government.

    The Center for Public Integrity is a nonprofit, non-partisan investigative news organization in Washington, D.C. For more of its stories on this to go publicintegrity.org.

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  • Facebook photo of boy with gun draws police response

    Shawn Moore / AP

    This undated photo provided by Shawn Moore shows his son Josh, 10, holding a rifle his father gave him for his 11th birthday, at their home in Carneys Point, N.J.

    By Wayne Parry, The Associated Press

    The ruddy-cheeked, camouflage-clad boy in the photo smiles out from behind a pair of glasses, proudly holding a gun his father gave him as a present for his upcoming 11th birthday.

    The weapon in the photo, posted by his dad on Facebook, resembles a military-style assault rifle but, his father says, is actually just a .22-caliber copy. And that, the family believes, is why child welfare case workers and police officers visited the home in Carneys Point last Friday and asked to see his guns.

    New Jersey's Department of Children and Families declined to comment specifically on the case but says it often follows up on tips. The family and an attorney say father Shawn Moore's Second Amendment rights to bear arms were threatened in a state that already has some of the nation's strictest gun laws and is considering strengthening them after December's schoolhouse massacre in Connecticut.

    In this case, the family believes someone called New Jersey's anonymous child abuse hotline.

    Shawn Moore said he gave his son Josh the gun as a present to use on hunting trips. The elder Moore was at a friend's house when his wife called, saying state child welfare investigators, along with four local police officers, were at the house, asking to inspect the family's guns.

    Moore said he called his lawyer Evan Nappen, who specializes in Second Amendment cases, and had him on speakerphone as he arrived at his house in Carneys Point, just across the Delaware River from Wilmington, Del.

    "They said they wanted to see into my safe and see if my guns were registered," Moore said. "I said no; in New Jersey, your guns don't have to be registered with the state; it's voluntary. I knew once I opened that safe, there was no going back."

    With the lawyer listening in on the phone, Moore said he asked the investigators and police officers whether they had a warrant to search his home. When they said no, he asked them to leave. One of the child welfare officials would not identify herself when Moore asked for her name, he said.

    The agents and the police officers left, and nothing has happened since, he said.

    "I don't like what happened," he said. "You're not even safe in your own house. If they can just show up at any time and make you open safes and go through your house, that's not freedom; it's like tyranny."

    State child welfare spokeswoman Kristine Brown said that when it receives a report of suspected abuse or neglect, it assigns a caseworker to follow up. She said law enforcement officers are asked to accompany caseworkers only if the caseworkers feel their safety could be compromised.

    "It's the caseworker's call," she said. "It is important to note the way an investigation begins is through the child abuse hotline. Someone has to call to let us know there is a concern."

    Carneys Point Police Chief Robert DiGregorio did not answer a call late Tuesday to his office. 

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Investigation after teen points gun at classmate in video

    New Mexico police are investigating a video posted on Facebook that shows a teen pointing a gun at a 16-year-old autistic boy and threatening to shoot him if he didn't kiss his shoes. KOB's Jill Galus reports.

    By Elizabeth Chuck, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A disturbing video of teenagers pointing a gun at one of their peers, taunting him, has led to a police investigation in New Mexico.

    The video, in which a reportedly autistic boy is cornered in a bedroom while another kid holds a weapon up to his face, shows at least two other teens laughing and yelling.

    One, referring to the gun, says "It's f***ing loaded, b*tch," then props his foot up on a bed. He tells the boy, "Kiss my shoes." The other says, "dude, you better f***ing kiss his shoe."

    NBC affiliate KOB.com reported the video was recorded in January, but only recently posted onto Facebook. The father of the boy who was being taunted shared the video, which was taken down from Facebook, with the news station; the faces of all the teens have now been blurred to protect their identities.


    The 16-year-old boy who was being terrorized in the video was autistic, his father told KOB.com.

    Calls from NBC to the Los Alamos police department were not immediately returned, but the school district confirmed the incident took place at a house in Los Alamos, off of school grounds.

    "There were not any arrests," Los Alamos Superintendent Gene Schmidt said. "Two detectives did come onto our campus to interview potential witnesses. From what I understand, later on, a citation was issued."

    KOB.com reported that the teen with the gun was charged with aggravated assault, but it was not clear if the other teens faced charges or if anyone was physically harmed.

    The students all attended Los Alamos High School, Schmidt said.

    He couldn't comment on disciplinary action in the case, but said, "We do have an active protocol when the school is concerned that bullying may or may not be taking place. We work very actively to set up a safety plan for those people involved. ... Our administrative team was aware of this investigation, and a parallel universe was developed in which safety plans for students at the high school was developed and deployed." 

     

  • New York lawmaker in hot water for blackface costume at party

    A state assemblyman from Brooklyn, N.Y., wore blackface paint and an Afro wig to a costume party over the weekend, and says he "can't imagine anyone getting offended."  


    The party was for the Jewish holiday Purim, a festive celebration often commemorated by dressing up.  

    According to Politicker, Assemblyman Dov Hikind hosted a Purim party at his home over the weekend.  

    A photo posted on Facebook by Hikind's 32-year-old son, Yoni Hikind, shows the lawmaker with a darkened face, wearing a black wig, sunglasses and what appears to be an orange jersey over a white t-shirt. The assemblyman's wife wore a devil costume.

    The caption reads: "How cool are my folks... Lol" 

    See the controversial photo at NBCNewYork.com

    Dov Hikind told Politicker that he was "trying to emulate, you know, maybe some of these basketball players."

    "Someone gave me a uniform, someone gave me the hair of the actual, you know, sort of a black basketball player,” Hikind said. “It was just a lot of fun. Everybody just had a very, very good time and every year I do something else. … The fun for me is when people come in and don’t recognize me.”  

    Hikind said he couldn't imagine the costume bothering anyone.

    “Purim, you know, everything goes and it’s all done with respect. No one is laughing, no one is mocking. No one walked in today and said, ‘Oh my God.’ … It’s all just in good fun with respect always, whatever anyone does it’s done with tremendous amounts of respect and with dignity, of course.”

    By NBCNewYork.com staff

  • Facebook restores wedding photo of gay couple; man decries harassment

    Bishop Erik Swope-Wise

    Bishop Erik Swope-Wise, right, and his husband Kelsey Swope-Wise stand before a unity candle on their wedding day on April 28, 2012. The photo was inadvertently removed from Facebook by the site after a complaint was made about the image.

    By Miranda Leitsinger, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A gay man whose wedding photo was pulled from Facebook after an anonymous complaint believes the social network’s reporting policy allows for a "subversive" type of harassment.

    The photo of Pastor Kelsey Swope-Wise, 37, and his husband, Bishop Erik Swope-Wise, 49, of Elgin, Ill., was taken down from the Gay Marriage USA Facebook page on Monday after someone lodged a complaint with Facebook. The administrator of the page, Murray Lipp, said Facebook informed him on Monday that the image of the biracial couple standing together at their April 28, 2012, wedding "violates policies and community standards."

    "It’s subversive, the type of harassment, meaning that you can do it anonymously," Erik Swope-Wise, who founded a local chapter of The Affirming Pentecostal Church International, told NBC News on Tuesday. “So you can throw the rock and hide your hand. There’s no accountability for somebody’s actions. So somebody could make that accusation, ‘Well this picture’s offensive.’ Well we don’t know who said that, so how can we even go back to them and say, ‘Why is this offensive? Tell me why it’s offensive.’”

    Facebook restored the photo on Tuesday and apologized to Lipp, who told NBC News that the social networking site had initially blocked his ability to post for one week in addition to taking down the photo. This wasn’t the first time he has had problems with posts being reported.

    “Sadly, Facebook's reporting system is so flawed that it allows people against equality to attack & target pages like mine and Facebook almost ALWAYS sides with those who complain. I was given no opportunity to respond or say anything … ,” he wrote in an e-mail.

    Erik Swope-Wise said Lipp asked to post the image last weekend. He initially was pleasantly surprised by the outpouring of support in comments and likes, but then the messages turned “hateful” and “condescending.” Some who made comments were upset because the men are Pentacostal, which traditionally rejects same-sex marriage, though their church does not.

    Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes told NBC News in an email that the photo did not violate their “policies or community standards and was removed in error. The image has been restored and we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused." A team reviews hundreds of thousands of reports every week, and occasionally mistakes are made, he said.


    “I accept that … we’re all subject to human error,” Erik Swope-Wise said. “However the process by which Facebook uses to make those determinations is probably a little too mechanical. When a person puts an opposition to a post … it’s a list of choices that you choose to describe why this is offensive or inappropriate but there gives no validation, you know, as to what that really is.”

    What might be offensive to one group may not be to another, and the term “offensive” was also “too general,” he added. “I think the scrutiny of it needs to be a little more clear before they take such harsh action.”

    Rich Ferraro, a spokesman for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), said he has seen this happen before but that Facebook has always taken quick action.

    “More often than not reporting tools on sites like Facebook are used positively to report anti-LGBT bullying or hate speech. Unfortunately, anti-LGBT users have also used these tools to target LGBT community members -- but when GLAAD has brought incidents like this to Facebook, they have always immediately restored the content,” he wrote to NBC News in an email.

    Issues can arise when social networking sites wade into heated debates.

    "This is involving a lot of judgment calls right, like what is hate speech and what is a political statement. It's extraordinary difficult some times," said Rebecca Jeschke, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, which advocates for the public’s digital rights.

    She said best practices would be to have a “really clear procedure for contesting any kind of take down and for that to be followed consistently.”

    "Lots of activists use these forums for their activism and so if you censor their activity through Facebook then you're functionally censoring their speech activity on the Internet,” she said. “Facebook isn’t like a state government. It can restrict speech in any way it wants, but sometimes the ramifications are the same."

  • Facebook photo of students' mouths duct-taped gets Ohio teacher in trouble

    By Vignesh Ramachandran, Staff Writer, NBC News

    An Ohio math teacher could be fired after posting a Facebook photo of her students with duct tape over their mouths, according to local media reports.


    Middle school teacher Melissa Cairns told newsnet5.com in Cleveland that she gave a female student a roll of duct tape after the girl asked for tape to fix a binder. Cairns claims the student then cut a piece of tape, put it over her own mouth and laughed. The incident happened last October at Buchtel Community Learning Center in Akron.

    "The other kids in the class thought it was funny also, and they proceeded to pass the tape and scissors around the class," Cairns told newsnet5.com.

    Ultimately, eight or nine students put tape on their mouths, Akron Public Schools told newsnet5.com. Thinking her Facebook privacy settings would only show her friends, the math teacher posted a picture of the duct-taped students on the social network, with a caption that read, according to newsnet5.com: "Finally found a way to get them to be quiet!!!"

    It was all supposed to be a joke, Cairns told newsnet5.com, adding that the students had encouraged her to take the picture. But the photo was spotted by another employee, who alerted a supervisor, and Cairns was asked to take the picture down.

    The Akron School Board is pursuing termination, but the teacher's attorney is filing paperwork for an appeal process, according to newsnet5.com. School board president Jason Haas told the TV station the act violated the students' privacy.

    "I would never in a million years do anything to harm students," Cairns told newsnet5.com, who added that she regrets the decision. "Do I feel that this one, stupid mistake should cost me the last 10 years of all the good I've done? Absolutely not."

    But Cairns was disciplined in 2007 over references to sex, marijuana and alcohol on her MySpace account,  the Akron Beacon Journal reported.

    Cairns is on unpaid leave, the Beacon Journal reported. A referee -- requested by a local teachers union -- will hear the case and present a recommendation to the school board, which will meet on Jan. 28, according to the newspaper.

    The issue of teachers questionably engaging with social media isn't new. In 2011, a Chicago teacher posted a photo on Facebook, mocking a 7-year-old schoolgirl's hairstyle. Last summer, a teacher in Florida got in trouble for a Facebook post comparing a student to an orangutan. In 2011, a New Jersey teacher who made anti-gay posts on Facebook was placed on leave. She eventually resigned. 

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  • Inspired to spread the word, man's #26Acts Facebook effort goes viral

    Courtesy Warren Tidwell

    Warren Tidwell checks in on the 26 Acts of Kindness Facebook page he started to promote the acts of generosity in remembrance of the Newtown victims.

    By Ben Popken, NBC News contributor

    After covering the tragedy in Newtown, Conn., NBC News’ Ann Curry wondered what could be done to ease the national suffering over the loss of 26 children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary. Why not, she tweeted, commit to doing one act of kindness for every child killed there? People responded – and wanted to up that to 26 acts of kindness for every child and adult lost at the school. Now people around the country are committing random acts of kindness – connected through the hashtag #26Acts (#20Acts and others are also trending). Get inspired: You can start your own acts of kindness right now.

    On the day of the tragedy in Newtown, Conn., Warren Tidwell came home early from work because he wasn't feeling well. As he watched the story unfold on TV, his heartwrenching feeling only worsened. "I had to do something," the 34-year-old auto parts salesman told NBC News. He logged onto Facebook and within minutes had started a new page: 26 Acts of Kindness.

    The idea was simple. Commit to performing one act of generosity for each of the victims lost in the massacre, and share the results. He posted a photo of his first act, giving a box of chocolates to an unknown woman at his local supermarket in Auburn, Alabama. Attached to the box was a note that read, "To honor the 26 taken from us at Sandy Hook we are doing 26 acts of kindness. You are #1."

    He followed that act by giving a $10 gift card to hungry students at the deli, then picked out toys to give to the local firemen's Toys for Tots drive, and then prepared cookies to wrap and place on the windshields of first responders.

    Courtesy Warren Tidwell

    Warren's four-year old son celebrates their fourth act of kindess, donating toys to the local firemen's Toys for Tots drive.

    "I felt empowered, instead of the helplessness, hurt, and fear," said Tidwell. "I can put the good back in the world that was taken from it."

    As his spirit grew, so did the comments, submissions and "likes" on the Facebook page, which he handed over to NBC News to run and spread even further, withdrawing himself as page administrator, at 1,000 likes. It now has over 27,000. Watching the stories and comments roll in from around the country, was "cathartic," he said. One woman said her family was taking the money her family had budgeted for vacation and was splitting it into a $260 gift for each of her three children's teachers. Another handed out Christmas cards to strangers around town. 

    Story: #26Acts of kindness you can do right now 

    Reading these stories, "It was humbling to know I had a hand in that," said Tidwell.

    26 Acts isn't Tidwell's first foray into charitable efforts. It all began in 1998, when his family returned to their home in Jasper, Alabama to find it had burned to the ground. "I know what it's like to lose everything," said Tidwell.

    Living in Tornado Alley, and with a father in the construction business, by 16 Tidwell was driving relief trucks after the area's frequent weather events. He volunteered for Katrina relief efforts, and also started Toomer's for Tuscaloosa after recent devastating tornadoes. Like 26 Acts, it began as a Facebook page, but grew to involve hundreds of thousands of individuals donating millions. Using social media sharing techniques, Tidwell said, the group got food and supplies to needy rural areas before state and federal agencies were able to arrive. Six months after buying a house with his wife, Tidwell left his job to run the group, which eventually became a non-profit organization. Tidwell has handed off the group to others to run but he uses the lessons he learned to drive his new projects.

    "I'm just your average Joe, John Q Public," said Tidwell, "with a belief in the power of a common goal."

    There are many questions about Friday's shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, but one being asked by just about everyone is how to best honor the victims. In Newtown and across the country, random acts of kindness are being performed in the memory of each person lost. NBC's Andrea Canning reports.

    More: 
    #26acts of kindness: Nebraska woman spreads good will one dollar at a time 
    Inspired to act: #26Acts of kindness to honor those lost in Newtown, Conn. 
    Paul Simon performs at teacher's funeral 
    'If you do good, you'll feel good': Origins of #26Acts of Kindness
    'Light amidst the darkness': Heroic teacher Victoria Soto remembered

     

  • Hug tweeted 'round the world and floating dogs: the most social stories of 2012

    By Josh Belzman, Social media manager, NBC News

    From inspiring tales of love to the tragedy of the Aurora, Colo., theater shooting and intrigue surrounding the presidential election, 2012 offered stories that quickly became the talk of social networks. Here's a look back at some of the most-shared stories of the year on NBCNews.com and TODAY.com.

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  • Cyber-graciousness: Students set up Facebook sites for compliments

    By Isolde Raftery, NBC News

    Eyal Hanfling was browsing Facebook one recent evening when he noticed that a friend, a student at Columbia University in New York, had received a glowing comment from an account called “Columbia Compliments.”

    Further down his newsfeed was a compliment for another friend from an account called “TJ Compliments,” for Thomas Jefferson High School.

    By midnight, Hanfling established an account for his school, Walt Whitman High in Bethesda, Md., a public high school of about 2,000 students. By the next evening, about 300 compliments had been submitted to Hanfling – at that point still an anonymous administrator – who in turn posted them. Those receiving the compliments were tagged in the post, but they didn’t know their flatterer.   

    Courtesy of Eyal Hanfling

    The Facebook page "Whitman Compliments" was inspired by Queens University Compliments in Canada, created in September. Students submit compliments, which are then posted online anonymously. There are now at least 98 similar sites at universities and high schools, most of them in Canada and the U.S.


     

    The Facebook compliments craze was started in September by four students at Queens University in Ontario, Canada as an antidote to cyber-bullying and a way to spread joy across campus. The women who founded Queens U. Compliments have since started a hub page for all compliments groups, of which there are now 98, most of them in Canada and the U.S.

    Speaking with Time’s Techland blog, Queens U. Compliments co-founder Rachel Albi likened the page to the 2000 movie, "Pay It Forward," about an 11-year-old boy who starts a goodwill movement in which people do favors for people who, in turn, do favors for others.

    The compliments forums could have a “contagious effect in a positive sense,” Glenn Stutzky, an instructor at the School of Social Work at Michigan State University, told the Detroit Free Press.

    Courtesy of Eyal Hanfling

    Eyal Hanfling, a senior at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Md., was inspired to create the Facebook page, "Whitman Compliments."

    “I like the idea of having something other than cyber-bullying,” Stutzky said. “This is cyber-graciousness.”

    Hanfling said there has been cyber-bullying at his school, but few turned up in submissions to Whitman Compliments. 

    “I was really worried that people would take advantage of the system and write horrible things about their classmates and peers,” he told NBC News. But of the 1,500 comments or so submitted over four days, just four or five were unkind, he said. Only one used a curse word.

    If anything, the complimenting became competitive. That’s not too surprising for a high school that graduates 88 percent of its students to four-year colleges and that was profiled in a book called, “The Overachievers.”

    “Students were overachieving in the compliments,” Hanfling said. “Someone would post a compliment, and someone else would post an even longer, even more supportive and even funnier compliment.”

    Among the more carefully considered compliments:

    "This is an appreciation post dedicated to your hair. Let us all marvel its beauty."

    And:

    "Youre the only person I know who can run a 5K with a smile on their face. Your style is impeccable and it looks like you're always swaggin out. You're there in the hard times and the great times and just an amazing friend who I am always happy to be around."

    And:

    "you're one of the sweetest guys I've ever known. We grew so close last year and I love talking to you because you're such a genuine listener. You're an incredibly strong person and I really admire that. Never change! You're amazing."

    Hanfling closed Whitman Compliments at midnight on Thursday. In a column for the student newspaper, the Black and White, he identified himself as the creator and manager of the forum. Not even his parents or younger sister had known. Hanfling wrote:

    When was the last time we complimented a random person in one of our classes? When was the last time we actually wished a random athlete “good luck” in the hallway before their game or congratulated someone on their victory at a tournament? Friends can “like” online posts, but real-life conversations are always more meaningful.

    After the column was published online, Hanfling enjoyed momentary stardom. He walked into a classroom and received a standing ovation. At a hockey game, he was given a similar reception.

    And while he hopes his classmates compliment each other in person now, there was another reason Hanfling curtailed the Facebook page: homework. For the four days that Whitman Compliments existed, Hanfling dedicated his evenings, from 5 p.m. to midnight, to the forum.   

    “I do not have enough hours in my day to copy and paste so many compliments,” he said.

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  • Father who posted picture of tape-bound daughter on Facebook cleared of 1 charge

    Facebook via nbcchicago.com

    A caption with this Facebook photo read "This is wut happens wen my baby hits me back."

    By NBC News staff

    A father accused of binding his toddler daughter with painter’s tape and then posting a picture on Facebook was acquitted Tuesday of unlawful restraint but still faces a pair of domestic battery charges, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.


    Andre Curry, 22, has claimed the incident was a misunderstood joke, NBCChicago.com reported.

    The photo on Curry's Facebook page showed his then-22-month-old daughter with her mouth taped shut and her hands bound by blue tape, NBCChicago.com reported.

    The caption beneath the photo read, "This is wut happens wen my baby hits me back."

    On Tuesday, during an hour-long bench trial before Cook County Judge Lawrence Flood, Curry’s relatives and Chicago police testified that Curry’s daughter was jovial and playful following the Dec. 13 stunt and did not have any visible injuries.

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    Curry’s sister, Annastesia Curry, described the events at her South Side Chicago home last year as horsing around. The taping incident, she said, lasted just 30 seconds and the baby was laughing afterward, the Sun-Times reported.

    Andre Curry texted the picture to the child’s mother, writing, “Mommy help me.” The mother, Yesmin Doss, 21, testified for the prosecution, the Sun-Times reported.

    Detective Charles Hollendoner testified that he saw no bruises or marks on the baby when he checked up on her after Curry’s Facebook friends called officials about the posting, the Sun-Times reported. Hollendoner said Curry told him that he and his daughter continued to play after she slapped him, but that the taping was not retaliatory.

    Flood said he would render his verdict on the domestic battery charges on Nov. 8, the Sun-Times reported.

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    Curry was jailed until he posted $100,000 bond. He was ordered to stay off the Internet and away from all children under the age of 18, including his daughter, NBCChicago.com reported.

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