Spending the day shepherding 150 lively seventh graders around a medical school and acute care hospital might be a daunting task for some people, but for UC Davis Health System, generating interest in health careers can make such efforts truly worthwhile.

Students from six capital city middle schools are gathering at the UC Davis School of Medicine in Sacramento on Wednesday, May 21, for an introduction to the world of health-care professions. The half-day event begins at 9 a.m. in the Education Building, located at 45th and X streets, and concludes at 1:30 p.m.

Working in partnership with Sacramento City Unified School District, UC Davis will host a diverse group of 13-year-olds as they enjoy a health professions career fair and attend hour-long workshops that showcase areas of research and medical practice, from biophotonics (the study of light in biology and medicine) to radiology and anatomy of the brain and neurological system.

Organizers of the event say their approach can help address California’s workforce shortage in health care, which is expected to grow dramatically in the coming decade. All of the participating schools have a high proportion of students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged, meaning they don’t have a parent with a high school diploma or they are eligible for reduced-price lunches through the National School Lunch Program.

“As the state’s population increases, ages and diversifies, we have to reach out earlier and more often to promising students in our community who eventually can help us meet the needs of tomorrow’s patients,” said John Shaw, chair of the UC Davis Community Advisory Board and one of the catalysts for the event. “We also know that we greatly need to reach more students from disadvantaged backgrounds and introduce them to the possibilities and wonders of medicine.”

The middle school program is designed to interest young people, especially those from minority backgrounds, in continuing their education and pursuing careers in health care. Organizers hope to establish strong relationships with the students through their high school years and provide guidance and enrollment support for those who are interested in becoming respiratory therapists, pharmacy technicians, radiology specialists and other allied health professions, as well as nurses and physicians.

“For more than 30 years, UC Davis Health System has focused on improving the health of communities across the geographically and culturally diverse Northern California region,” said Claire Pomeroy, vice chancellor for Human Health Sciences and dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine. “We serve Sacramento, where more than 70 languages are spoken, and many remote and rural areas of the state. Ensuring that our workforce reflects the diversity of the communities we serve is crucial to our ability to deliver quality, culturally-competent care and to our goal of reducing health disparities. Inviting youngsters into our medical school and hospital is an important way to teach them about the learning opportunities and exciting career possibilities in health care.”

According to UC San Francisco’s Center for the Health Professions, six of the top 10 fastest-growing occupations over the next 10 years will be in the allied health professions, a group of caregivers and service providers that includes medical assistants, dietitians, physical therapy assistants, diagnostic medical sonographers, cardiovascular technologists and physician assistants. UC Davis Health System is one of the primary training hubs for health-care workers, serving as a clinical location where students complete a variety of internships and certificate programs.

In addition to its School of Medicine and its proposed Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, UC Davis has trained more than 1,600 specialty nurses and physician assistants in its Family Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant program for careers in medical offices and hospitals throughout the state.

“We not only want to open younger eyes and minds to the opportunities that await them in both studies and careers,” added Shaw, “we want to reach students who otherwise might never be exposed to these types of career opportunities. To meet the future challenges of a growing population, our educational pipeline needs to target minority and disadvantaged students for careers in medicine and other allied health fields.”

The half-day event begins at 9 a.m. with a welcome by Shaw and introductions by Pomeroy and the superintendent of Sacramento City Unified School District, Maggie Mejia.

Hands-on and tour activities for the students include the following:

9:30 a.m. — Demonstration involving the school’s computerized training
mannequins, which can simulate a variety of emergency medical
situations
10:45 a.m. — Outdoor career fair, featuring representatives from
pathology, pharmacy, medical interpreting, nursing, medical coding
and other health system departments
11:45 a.m. — Lunch
12:15 p.m. — Small group tours to UC Davis Medical Center, radiology,
the UC Davis Center for Virtual Care and Shriner’s Hospital

By MARCY GORDON

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators on Monday said eight former Time Warner Inc. executives fraudulently inflated the company’s online advertising revenues by more than $1 billion between 2000 and 2002.

Four of the executives have agreed to settle the civil charges brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission by paying a total of roughly $8 million in fines and returning allegedly ill-gotten gains. They are David Colburn, Eric Keller, Jay Rappaport and James MacGuidwin. MacGuidwin was controller of the media company; the other three were in its business affairs unit.

Charges are still pending against the other four, who are contesting them: John Michael Kelly, chief financial officer of the company when it was known as AOL Time Warner; Joseph Ripp, ex-chief financial officer of the AOL division; Steven Rindner, a former senior executive in the business affairs unit, and Mark Wovsaniker, former head of accounting policy.

The world’s largest media company by revenue, Time Warner Inc. owns AOL, Warner Bros., CNN and Time magazine.

The SEC said the eight former executives either made or contributed to financial statements that distorted the company’s results. AOL Time Warner pumped up its own ad revenue by giving advertisers the money to buy online ads they didn’t want or need, the SEC charged.

New York-based Time Warner was roiled by the accounting scandal, which also involved subscriber counts. Time Warner agreed in late 2004 and early 2005 to pay $300 million in a settlement of civil fraud charges with the SEC and $210 million to resolve charges of criminal securities fraud in a separate investigation by the Justice Department. Time Warner also agreed to restate three years of financial results and to open its books to an independent examiner.

The restatements reduced Time Warner’s profits by about $1 million in 2000 and $161 million in 2001, while increasing its profits by about $62 million in 2002, $18 million in 2003, $30 million in 2004 and $16 million in 2005. For the first six months of 2006, the restatement raised its earnings by $15 million.

The SEC charges were an unpleasant reminder of a disastrous chapter in Time Warner’s history, when it agreed to be acquired by America Online Inc. in 2000 at the height of the Internet bubble.

Time Warner spokesman Keith Cocozza declined to comment Monday on the SEC allegations, laid out in a civil lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan.

AOL, now a Time Warner division, is trying to reinvent itself into an online advertising company as its dial-up online access business rapidly dwindles as people sign up for high-speed Internet from cable and phone companies.

Many observers expect Time Warner to sell off some or all of AOL or combine it with another online company soon. Jeff Bewkes, who became CEO of Time Warner in January, said AOL is separating its advertising business, which is potentially attractive to other partners, from the declining online access unit.

The SEC also said that Kelly and Wovsaniker, who are certified public accountants, misled the company’s outside auditors.

Through their attorneys, Kelly, Ripp, Rindner and Wovsaniker denied the SEC charges and said they would contest them in court.

“We strenuously reject any accusation that Mr. Ripp was involved in any way with fraudulent conduct,” said his attorney, David Geneson. He said that Ripp in fact had acted as a whistleblower within the company, initiating an internal investigation that uncovered the fraud.

Rindner’s lawyer, Mark Hulkower, said his client “conducted himself appropriately during his three years at AOL (and) looks forward to the opportunity to clear his name.”

Kelly “flatly denies the SEC’s claims and will vigorously defend himself in the courts,” said his attorney, Jonathan Tuttle.

Stephen Topetzes, representing Wovsaniker, called the SEC charges “groundless.” Wovsaniker engaged in no wrongdoing and was called by the government as a witness in related cases “to show that he actively sought to prevent improper conduct by others,” Topetzes said.

Of the four executives who agreed to settlements with the SEC, Colburn is paying a $750,000 civil fine and restitution plus interest of around $3.2 million; Keller is paying a $250,000 fine and $699,868 in restitution and interest; Rappaport also is paying a $250,000 fine as well as $493,629 in restitution, and MacGuidwin pays a $300,000 fine and is returning $2.1 million.

In addition, Colburn and MacGuidwin agreed to be barred for 10 years and seven years, respectively, from serving as officers or directors of any public company

By Rachel Metz

NEW YORK — Google’s online filing cabinet for medical records opened to the public Monday, giving users instant electronic access to their health histories and worrying a privacy advocate.

Called Google Health, the service lets users link information from a handful of pharmacies and care providers, including Quest Diagnostics labs. Google plans to add more.

Similar offerings include Microsoft Corp.’s HealthVault and Revolution Health, which is backed by AOL co-founder Steve Case.

Google Health differentiates itself from the pack through its user interface and things like the public availability of its application program interface, or API, said Marissa Mayer, the Google executive overseeing the service.

Mary Adams, 45, a Cleveland Clinic patient who participated in the Google Health pilot, said that she was initially concerned about the privacy of her medical information.

Still, she felt safe enough to enroll and has been using the service for about six months, linking it with an online health management tool from the Cleveland Clinic and adding information on prescriptions and doctors to her online profile.

“I hate pieces of paper lying around my house, so I love the fact that i can log on with my normal Google login info and see everything at a glance,” she said, adding that with its public availability she’ll try to get her sister to use it.

The service, still a non-final “beta” version, does not include ads. But Mayer said Google doesn’t plan to start placing them to support the site. A search box on Google Health pages leads to standard Google search results pages, where there are advertisements.

Besides importing records from providers, users can enhance their password-protected profiles with details such as allergies and medications, they can search for doctors and they can locate Web-based health-related tools.

Mountain View-based Google Inc. views its expansion into health records management as logical because its search engine already processes millions of requests from people trying to find information about injuries, illnesses and recommended treatments.

Before this public launch, Google stored medical records for a few thousand patient volunteers at the nonprofit Cleveland Clinic.

The health venture provides fodder for privacy watchdogs who believe Google already has too much about the interests and habits of its users in its logs of search requests and its vaults of e-mail archives.

Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, said services like Google Health are troublesome because they aren’t covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA.

Dixon’s group issued a cautionary report on the topic in February on such third-party services.

Passed in 1996, HIPAA set strict standards for the security of medical records. Among other things, the law requires anyone seeking a patient’s records by subpoena to notify the patient and give the patient an opportunity to fight the request.

By transferring records to an external service, patients could unwittingly make it easier for the government, a legal adversary or a marketing concern to obtain private information, Dixon said.

“We are in uncharted territory here. A privacy policy, I don’t think, is enough to protect what needs to be protected in a doctor-patient record,” Dixon said.

Mayer said, however, that users medical records “are generally speaking as safe with Google as they would be with a HIPAA-regulated entity.”

During a webcast Monday, she said users’ health information is stored at Google’s “highest level of security” on computers that are more secure than those used for the company’s search functions.

Mayer said in an interview with The Associated Press that Google will not aggregate users’ health information across services so activity on the health service will not show up in search results.

by George Wong

There´s also a concern thTo The recent meteoric rise of MMA, (mixed martial arts), but more specifically, the UFC the last three years has been dogged by one major question: Is it merely a fad or a bonafide trend? This is a fair question with all things that seemingly come out of nowhere like the UFC has.

Four years ago, nobody outside of the hardcore fans knew who Chuck Liddell, Georges St. Pierre, Rampage Jackson or Tito Ortiz were. Now, it´s hard to find an 18-25yr old male who doesn´t know these guys. But in order for the sport to continue its rise or maintain its trajectory, several things must come together.

Recent numbers for their main revenue stream, pay-per-views, have been very strong. UFC 79, 82 and 83 rank in the UFC´s top 10 grossing pay-per-views. This, in spite of the UFC recently having raised their pay-per-view prices by five dollars. These numbers can be attributed to their headline fighters. More on these fighters later. UFC 79 had the long-hyped “dream match” of Chuck Liddell vs Wanderlei Silva and Matt Hughes vs Georges St. Pierre in a contender elimination match. UFC 82 was built around basically one fighter, Brock Lesnar. Lesnar carried lots of fame/fans from his pro wrestling days with him into the octagon, and it showed. It was a relatively weak card but the promotion was based on his match with Frank Mir. UFC 83 speaks for itself, the very first UFC card in Canada, with Canada´s top MMA fighter Georges St. Pierre challenging the wise-talking New Yorker who dethroned him a year ago.

Getting back to the headlining fighters, Chuck Liddell is 38 years old. Matt Hughes is 34 and has “two to three” fights left before he retires. Wanderlei Silva is 32, but has lots of miles on him, and he´s not a very big name in the States. Heavyweight Champ Randy Couture is 44 years old and is entangled in a legal dispute with the company. Brock Lesnar has a pro record of 1-1 even though he is already 31 years old and is untested in MMA. Of these fighters, only Georges St. Pierre is young, at age 26 has a long career ahead of him. The company needs to find ways to build new headliners and it appears it had done a good job so far. Forrest Griffin, Roger Huerta, Anderson Silva, Rampage Jackson and “second tier” fighters Diego Sanchez, Jon Fitch, Kenny Florian are just a show a similarity, look at pro wrestling. In its heyday of the late 90s, it´s top stars were the Rock and StoneCold Steve Austin. Now its top star is John Cena. While Cena is a star, he´s nowhere near the Rock and Austin´s level, and the business has reflected as much.
e UFC may be burning out its home base, Las Vegas. They had to heavily “paper” or give away free tickets to its UFC 81 show to make the live crowd larger even though pay-per-view for this show was strong. Multiple cards may have worn the novelty off, but the UFC is smart enough to expand and take their show on the road.

The last major concern is the lack of a major network television deal. The UFC has been in negotiations with several networks, bu the stumbling block appears to be how the show will be presented. The UFC wants to use its own announcers while the networks want to use their people. The UFC believes their own people got them there, and want their own people announcing their own product and rightfully so. Until this last hurdle is cleared, there´s no guarantee of smooth sailing. A niche network like SpikeTV doesn´t cut it.

 Michael David Smith

On Thursdays post about which fight various MMA writers most want to see, FanHouse commenter Drew asked, “MDS, you watched ESPN.com Original series MMA Live???? discuss it after viewing it.”
So there you have it, the premier episode of MMA Live, a 30-minute show that appears to be taped in an ESPN studio in Bristol, just like SportsCenter and ESPN’s other studio shows, but that is shown only on ESPN.com, not on television.

I liked it a lot. Host Jon Anik and analysts Kenny Florian and Franklin McNeil offered good analysis of all the major issues — Fedor Emelianenko’s upcoming Affliction fight, Tito Ortiz’s upcoming final UFC fight, whether Randy Couture will ever have another fight, and so on.

I also like the fact that this is ESPN covering mixed martial arts as a sport and not as a spectacle. That is a very good sign that there are people at ESPN who “get it” when it comes to MMA.

Will the show succeed? Will it ever move off ESPN.com and onto TV? I don’t know. There are three commercial for Toyota Trucks during the show, so I assume it’s bringing in some revenue, but I also as

 by Matthew Yi

A day after the state Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples should have the right to marry in California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Friday that he supports the court’s decision even though his personal view is that “marriage is between a man and a woman.”

Advocates of same-sex marriage have praised Schwarzenegger for embracing Thursday’s decision, which overturned a voter-approved law allowing only opposite-sex marriage. They also expect him to make good on his promise last month to help fight a new initiative, aimed for the November ballot, that would overturn the court’s ruling.

But the Republican governor’s stance on same-sex marriage has been curious and confusing to many people. Since his election in 2003, Schwarzenegger has twice vetoed bills to legalize marriage for homosexual couples.

Last month, he appeared to make an about-face, placing himself in the spotlight when he told a group of gay Republicans that he would campaign against the Limit on Marriage initiative. Backers of the measure have submitted more than 1 million signatures to the secretary of state’s office, which will decide next month whether the initiative qualifies.

In a meeting with The Chronicle’s editorial board on Friday, Schwarzenegger was asked to clarify his position.

“First, I have always said that for me, marriage is between a man and a woman,” he said.

Then he added: “But I don’t want to make everyone else go in that direction.”

Schwarzenegger said he vetoed same-sex marriage legislation because he felt the Legislature shouldn’t override voter-approved Proposition 22, which had defined marriage as between a man and a woman and was nullified by the high court on Thursday.

However, the governor said he doesn’t necessarily feel the same when it comes to the Supreme Court overturning a statute enacted by a voter initiative.

“When the people vote, people are not legal experts, constitutional experts or any of that,” he said. “I think that’s why we have the courts. People may vote with good intentions, but then the court says, ‘This is not constitutional.’

“It’s not that the court interferes with the will of the people,” he added. “But the court says, ‘You voted for something, but it’s not constitutionally right, so let’s rework this.’ That’s really the idea.”

While he supports the notion that same-sex couples should enjoy the same protections as heterosexual couples, the governor said same-sex marriage is not something that he has felt strongly about. He added that he has attended ceremonies for domestic partnerships.

Schwarzenegger’s outspoken rejection of the proposed Limit on Marriage initiative gives the opposition campaign a huge lift, said Barbara O’Connor, director of the Institute for the Study of Politics and the Media at Sacramento State University.

John J. Pitney Jr., a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College, said the biggest boost that the governor can have in that campaign would be in fundraising.

Meanwhile, Republican campaign consultant Kevin Spillane said he believes that the proposed measure, if it qualifies for the fall ballot, could lift the Republican Party’s “dispirited conservative base.”

But just how that might play out in the presidential or other local elections will be complicated to figure out, he said.

“Gay marriage is a tough issue for both parties,” he said. “You’ll have socially moderate and younger Republican voters who may be more supportive of gay marriage, but then you also have African American and Latino Democratic voters who are more socially conservative.”

Schwarzenegger said he doesn’t think same-sex marriages in the coming months will stir up Californians much.

“I think life will go on as usual,” he said.

Big Brown will face a surprisingly large field of rivals in the 1 3/16 miles Preakness Stakes; odds makers have been sharpening their Preakness odds all day Friday and will continue to do so up until post time.

Here is a “screenshot” of the Preakness odds as of Saturday, May 17 at 9am ET. Alternatively you may logon to any of our preferred online racebooks (Bodog Racebook, SBG Global Racebook and Bookmaker Racebook) to check out the latest odds, matchups and props for the 133rd running of the Preakness Stakes.

Gate    Horse                       Odds
 1      Macho Again                20/1
 2      Tres Borrachos             30/1
 3      Icabad Crane                30/1
 4      Yankee Bravo               15/1
 6      Racecar Rhapsody        30/1
 7      Big Brown                     1/2
 8      Kentucky Bear              15/1
 9      Stevil                            30/1
10     Riley Tucker                 30/1
11     Giant Moon                  30/1
12     Gayego                         8/1
13     Hey Byrn                      20/1

Naturally, undefeated Big Brown holds the upper hand off his impressive Derby triumph. “He’s good,” trainer Rick Dutrow said. “He came out of the race good and he’s been training good.”

These contenders have the best chance of hitting the board despite obvious drawbacks.

Hey Byrn, 20-1, post 13: Colt won an allowance contest in February at Gulfstream Park with a 97 Beyer in the first of three triumphs in four starts this year, including the Holy Bull on April 12 at 1 3/16 miles. He and Big Brown are the only two winners beyond 1 1/8 miles.

Gayego, 8-1, post 12: Can hit the board if he stays out of trouble and manages a clean trip. Adding blinkers should keep him focused.

Post time of the Preakness Stakes (race number 12) is 6.15pm ET.
 
Get all your Preakness odds, up-to-date contenders analysis and bet on the Preakness Stakes in our preferred online racebooks.

 by Mark Tran

The US senator Edward Kennedy speaks at a news conference in January. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty

Senator Edward Kennedy, one of America’s last unashamedly liberal politicians, was rushed to hospital today, reportedly suffering from “stroke-like” symptoms.

Kennedy, 76, was rushed from the Kennedy compound at Hyannisport, Massachusetts, where the family holidays, to Cape Cod Hospital at 9am local time (2pm BST), a hospital spokesman told Reuters. He was then airlifted to a Boston hospital, the spokesman said.

CNN reported that Kennedy, who recently angered the Clintons by throwing his support behind Barack Obama for the presidential elections in November, was taken to the hospital on Cape God with symptoms of a stroke, citing an unnamed prominent local Democratic politician.

Kennedy, the senior senator from Massachusetts, had surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in October to unclog a partially blocked carotid artery in his neck, the Cape Cod hospital spokesman said today. The blockage was discovered during a routine check of the senator’s back and spine, doctors said. A blocked carotid artery can lead to a stroke and death, he said.

Kennedy, who ran unsuccessfully for president in 1980, has suffered from back problems since a plane crash in 1964 in which the pilot and one of Kennedy’s aides were killed. The senator was pulled from the wreckage with a back injury, punctured lung, broken ribs and internal bleeding.

He has consistently taken liberal positions during a long political career that began when he was elected to the senate in a special election in 1962. In keeping with his liberal credentials, he opposed the Iraq war.

In September, 2003, a few months after George Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq, he denounced the case for going to war as a fraud “made up in Texas” to give Republicans a political boost.

Kennedy belongs to one of America’s most illustrious political families, but tragedy has stalked the Kennedy clan. His brother John was president until he was struck down by an assassin’s bullet in November 1963. His other Robert, was also assassinated, when he was shot during the 1968 presidential campaign.

Ted Kennedy has enjoyed widespread respect from his peers but his reputation was severely blighted by the death of Mary Jo Kopechne in 1969, who drowned after a car accident in which Kennedy was the driver. The accident was not reported until 10 hours after it happened.

 By MIKE NIZZA

The Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., delivered a guardedly optimistic message to business leaders on Friday, saying that the economy was moving toward a rebound after months of malaise.

“We are still working through housing and capital markets issues, and expect to be doing so for some time,” he said in remarks at a conference sponsored by The Washington Post. “We also expect to see a faster pace of economic growth before the end of the year.”

Playing an important role, he said, would be roughly $100 billion in stimulus payments to Americans over the next few months.

“The fiscal stimulus will provide support to the economy as we weather the housing correction, capital markets turmoil, and higher energy and food prices,” he said.

Another important factor, he added, was a less rambunctious Wall Street. “The markets are considerably calmer now than they were in March,” he said.

Mr. Paulson also stressed that risks remained, albeit weaker ones.

“Some bumps in the road” are likely, especially in the housing sector, he said, but “we are closer to the end of the market turmoil than the beginning.”

Hours before his remarks, analysts debated the importance of housing figures from April.

New-home construction increased 8.2 percent last month, offering signs of life in a deeply troubled sector, the Commerce Department reported on Friday. But most of the gain came in multifamily housing, masking further bad news on single-family homes, whose groundbreakings dropped to a 17-year low.

Housing starts rose to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1 million. Construction of multifamily units surged 36 percent, compared with a 35 percent drop in March, a huge swing — and an average one in recent months, the agency said in a report.

While building permits were up 4 percent in both areas, ground was broken on 1.7 percent fewer single-family homes in April, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 692,000 from 704,000.

There were varied reactions to the new figures, with one analyst telling Reuters that “it’s a nice upside surprise” and another telling Bloomberg News that the trends remained “horrific.”

Michael T. Darda, of MKM Partners, said, “The bump in starts owes entirely to multifamily dwellings.” While the single-family figure was bad news, he also said it indicated that the builders were “rapidly taking supply off the market, which ultimately will lay the foundation for stabilization in the sector.”

The month-to-month figures may have been mixed, but the year-to-year comparisons left no doubt that housing was far from a full recovery. Overall housing starts plunged 30.6 percent compared with those in the month a year earlier, and permits sank by 34.3 percent.

 By Michele Masterson

Federal prosecutors have filed an indictment in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles against Lori Drew, who is accused of using a fake MySpace account to send bullying messages to a teen who later committed suicide.
The O’Fallon, Mo. mother, was charged with one count of conspiracy and three counts of computer crimes. In addition to Drew, her daughter and another teen that were reportedly involved in the harassment; all have denied their involvement.

Drew allegedly created the MySpace account pretending to be a 16-year-old boy using the alias “Josh Evans” and sent messages to 13-year-old Megan Meier, an acquaintance of her daughter. Starting in September 2006, the messages were friendly and expressed romantic interest in Meier, but by the next month, “Evans” sent Meir a final message saying, “The world would be a better place without you.” Consequently, a distraught Meier hung herself.

Drew was indicted on one count of conspiracy and three violations of the anti-hacking Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. She is scheduled to be arraigned in a Los Angeles District Court in June, and if convicted, could serve as much as 20 years.

The indictment said that in violation of terms of service, “Drew and co-conspirators knowingly and agreed with each other to intentionally access a computer used in interstate and foreign commerce without authorization and in excess of authorized access, and by means of an interstate communication, obtain information from that computer to further a tortious act, namely, intentional infliction of emotion distress.”

The indictment also said that defendant “Drew” “‘directed a juvenile who had knowledge of the Josh Evans account to “keep her mouth shut” and refrain from further accessing the Josh Evans My Space account.’

In the indictment, MySpace was identified as the “operator of the site, [which] acted as an ISP.” The case was taken to Los Angeles, where MySpace owner, Fox Entertainment Media, is located, after attempts to charge Drew and the others in Missouri failed.

The question of whether or not such Drew could be convicted on charges has been met with some doubt.

U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O’Brien told Reuters that this was the first time the federal statute on accessing protected computers has been used in a social-networking case.

“Any adult who uses the Internet or a social gathering Web site to bully or harass another person, particularly a young teenage girl, needs to realize that their actions can have serious consequences,” O’Brien told Reuters.

For its part, MySpace issued an announcement saying that it, “does not tolerate cyberbullying and is cooperating fully with the US Attorney in this matter.”

MySpace and Attorney Generals from 49 states and the District of Columbia in January 2008 formed the Multi-State Working Group on Social Networking to improve online safety particularly for teens, following the October 2006 Meier suicide.