Spyware is Beyond Evil

So two days ago, my former boss called and asked if I could take a look at her computer. She complained that is was moving really slowly, and I agreed because they were really good to me there. I got the computer and figured that it was just the typical maintenance that needed to be done.

First, I ran the aggressive scan disk, which took about 30 minutes. It did not find anything that really concerned me. Next I ran the disk clean up tool, which took about an hour. The real reason for this is that I allowed it to compress old files. That ended up saving me nearly a gig of disk space, which was nice. Finally I ran the disk defragmenter utility, even though it said it did not really need it. About 40 minutes later I was playing with it and it seemed to be loading up programs a a pretty good clip for a two year old laptop.

I decided that since she was a novice computer user I should also run the Anti-Spyware and Anti-Virus software I installed when she got the computer. First I ran Ad-Aware, it failed to get any updates for it, but I did not think much about that because it failed the last time I ran on my computer as well. I ran a full scan of the computer , and the only thing that it found was tracking cookies. Not a big deal I thought, but I went ahead and deleted them just to be sure.

I also had Spy-Bot Search & Destroy installed on the computer, so I decided to run it as well as they tend to find different items installed on a computer. I ran the updater for this, but it took forever and failed to download anything. Now this concerned me because this has never happened to me before. I launched IE, and her home page failed to load. I grabbed my other laptop to be sure it was not a connection issue with my network, but that one connected just fine to the net. That was pretty weird, so I went to an online anti-virus/anti-spyware scanner, and it found 5 items that were definitely more than just tracking cookies.

I told the scanner to delete the items, and it recommended that I scan again so I did. An hour later it came back with one item. This kind of made me mad because it was one of the ones I told it to delete before.

I deleted it again, rebooted the computer and now was able to connect to the Internet at a decent clip. I downloaded the updates for Spy-Bot and it found remnants of the spyware that I just deleted. I hope that it is gone now, but told my former boss that if it happens again we will need to back up her important files and rebuild the computer from scratch.

I have a feeling that it will come back again. When it does I will recommend that the first thing we do is to install a better anti-spyware program, such as Spy Sweeper to prevent this from happening again. I don't mind doing regular maintenance on a computer, but once you have Spyware you can never be sure it is truly gone without doing a full rebuild of the computer.

Lifeway witness loses job

Lifeway should lose it's License to operate, and the people in charge of placing Marcus with the Carroll's should face criminal prosecution. Taking care of a child is one of the most important jobs in the world, but Placement agencies, and foster parents such as the Carrolls, are turning it into another way to make money, and then the child suffers. These children are our future, and they are being used and damaged. Then we wonder why our society is in the shape it is in. When our kids do not receive the knowledge of right and wrong from loving parents, they will grow up with a distorted view of reality. This distorted view will then be passed on to their children, and the cycle starts over again.

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She says changed records weren't about David Carroll

A foster-care trainer who testified Monday about altering records for Lifeway for Youth has been fired from her new job.

Kathy Sprinkle, who took a job in November as home resource coordinator with a foster-care agency in Springdale, said her new employer told her they had problems with her admission Monday that she changed records related to a foster parent's training after 3-year-old Marcus Fiesel's death in August.

State memos indicate Liz and David Carroll Jr., Marcus' foster parents, also did not attend the full 36 hours of training as required. One of the state's allegations against Lifeway for Youth questions why the Carrolls did not sign in for orientation and sex abuse training sessions in the fall of 2005. The Carrolls were convicted of murder for leaving Marcus tied up in a closet. Marcus was dead when the couple returned from a weekend family reunion in Kentucky.

Christopher Tesi, enforcement coordinator for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, testified Thursday that he has no way of verifying whether foster parents - including the Carrolls - attended all their training, except through Lifeway's billing invoices. Tesi is expected to testify again on Tuesday when the hearings resume at the Rhodes Office Tower.

In an interview with The Enquirer Thursday, Sprinkle insisted that the training records she testified about Monday did not have to do with Marcus' foster dad, David Carroll Jr., but another unnamed foster parent.

"I'm not allowed to tell you who we were talking about but to assume it was David Carroll was (an inaccurate) assumption," Sprinkle said. "What I did was absolutely wrong, but I didn't see it as being deceptive. ... The created documents were setting the record straight, not falsifying anything. ... It looks like I went back and falsified something. What I did was I went back and created something that made it right, because I'd been wrong before."

Lifeway For Youth, the Clark County agency that placed Marcus Fiesel with the Carrolls, is defending its license during state hearings. On Thursday, attorneys for Lifeway asked about a letter from Sprinkle attesting that the Carrolls, and another unnamed foster parent, attended an orientation session on Oct. 27, 2005, for which they had not signed in.

Dennis Evans, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, called Sprinkle's firing unfortunate, saying there can be consequences to telling the truth.

Job and Family Services officials allege that Lifeway overbilled the state $3,075 for 10.5 hours of required training that foster parents, including the Carrolls, did not receive. Sprinkle was not a volunteer witness; she was subpoenaed to appear by both sides.

"The lack of supervision at Lifeway was appalling," Sprinkle said Thursday. "I made some really bad errors, none of them were meant to be deceitful. ... I told the truth and I knew Lifeway wasn't even going to think about telling the truth. They were going to lie to the very end."

Haunting Charleston

My wife loves a good scary story, so we are planning on going to see the 1408 Movie. The idea of going to see this movie reminds me of the time we decided to take a ghost tour in Charleston, South Carolina, home to legions of haints, spirits, specters, and a banshee or two. Waiting with a group at Waterfront Park at 7:30 p.m., we met our guide, Nick, who took us on a wonderful walking tour filled with spooky tales.

A Bridge Too Far

Nick began by explaining that he took his tales from the book, The Ghosts of Charleston, written by Julian T. Buxton III. "Charleston doesn't have more ghosts than other cities," said Nick. "Charleston just knows how to cash in on it." The first story he told involved the old Cooper River Bridge.

"A family was coming back from staying on Sullivan's Island in 1966," began Nick. "They were starting over the bridge when the father saw a car up ahead. It looked like it was out of 1945-an old green Oldsmobile-and it was stopping and starting on the bridge. He decided to move around the car."

Nick continued describing the old car, which held two young children and a lady in the back seat, looking pale and lifeless, wearing 1940s clothing. In the front seat, a man and woman sat, both with eyes sunken into their skulls. Frightened, the father slammed on his brakes and let the old car pass. Then it vanished.

Research later revealed that a ship, which had broken loose from its moorings in 1946, hit one of the main support pillars of the Cooper River Bridge and caused its collapse. One car-a green 1940 Oldsmobile with a family of five inside-was trying to get across the bridge, and it went into the river.

Bed-and-breakfast and Strange Bedfellows

Another ghost tale had a different twist. Nick guided us to the location of a popular inn on South Battery as he relayed the story of the Gentleman Ghost. "While elderly twin ladies were staying here at the Battery Carriage House Inn in Room No. 10, one went to sleep, but the other one had an odd feeling about the room," related Nick. "As she lay awake in the middle of the night, she saw a man walking back and forth across the floor. He was dressed for a fancy party." Nick said that the ghost floated up next to the amazed elderly woman in bed and put his arm around her. When she called out to her sister, the man disappeared.

"We think the spirit is the ghost of a young Charleston man," said Nick. "He found that his best friend had married his girl. He probably climbed to the third-floor balcony and jumped, landing where Room No. 10 is. We think he's come back to get a wife." Nick added that this ghost can be seen only by women. This is the story that I thought of when we started seeing the previews for the 1408 Movie.

He continued his stories, leading the enthralled group through Charleston's historic downtown, pausing for stories at St. Philip's Episcopal Church and its cemetery, East Bay Street and the Wagener Building (now Southend Brewery & Smokehouse), and the Dock Street Theatre.

"We find that people who are very skeptical are the ones who see ghosts," noted Nick. No, I didn't see a real, un-live ghost on my tour, but I certainly learned a lot about Charleston and its otherworldly inhabitants. Plus, we had a spirited good time.

Woman tried to poison hubby

People really mystify me. Why would you try to kill someone by poisoning them? You will be caught. If things are that bad that you don't want to be with them, you need to leave. Get a divorce. Don't do something that will destroy your life. I've been mad before, but I do not try to kill people. I remove myself from the situation until things calm down, or I never go back. There are better ways to deal with a bad situation than breaking the law.

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A woman tried to poison her husband by slipping cleaning fluid into his beer, police said today.

Christina Truesdell, 41, was released from the Clermont County Jail Monday on $25,000 bond following her arrest Saturday for felonious assault, court records show. She is scheduled to appear next in court June 14.

Truesdell was taken into custody after Mercy Hospital Anderson told Union Township police a man they suspected had been poisoned came into the emergency room about 12:30 a.m., said Lt. Scott Gaviglia.

Jonathan Truesdell complained of soreness in his mouth and throat, which were swollen after he sipped a beer at home. The couple has been struggling with marital problems, the lieutenant said.

"We believe it was a cleaning solution," he said. "We are still trying to find the exact mixture."