Kickstarter: Hackers got customer data
NEW YORK – Online fundraising site Kickstarter says hackers got some of its customer data.
Kickstarter co-founder Yancey Strickler said in a blog post hackers accessed usernames, email addresses, phone numbers and passwords. The passwords are encrypted, but the company said it’s possible for a hacker to guess a weak or obvious password. It recommended users change their passwords.
Hackers did not get credit-card information, said New York-based Kickstarter, but two accounts saw unauthorized activity.
Kickstarter is one of dozens of crowdfunding websites letting people raise money from donors for projects.
Calif. officials destroy explosive-filled home
REDDING, Calif. – Sheriff’s deputies in Northern California on Sunday successfully incinerated a mobile home whose resident had amassed more than 60 pounds of highly volatile explosive material days after evacuating dozens of people living nearby.
The chemicals, gunpowder, primers for firearms cartridges and other materials found in the house in a sparsely populated area of Redding earlier this month made it too unstable for deputies to even walk on the property without risking a blast, Shasta County sheriff’s Lt. Dave Kent said.
Sheriff’s officials consulted with water and air-quality officials before starting the incineration with a remote-ignited flame at midday Sunday, and the fire went off without incident, he said.
Obama applauds player for coming out
RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – President Barack Obama is praising University of Missouri football player Michael Sam for announcing he is gay before the NFL draft.
Obama says Sam’s attitude is he knows he can play great football, and he should be judged only on those facts.
Sam could become the NFL’s first openly gay player. The defensive end is scheduled to participate in the league’s scouting camp in Indianapolis later this month. He’s projected to be a mid-round draft pick in May.
First lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden sent Sam messages of encouragement last week.
Snake-handling pastor dies from snake bite
MIDDLESBORO, Ky. – Jamie Coots, a snake-handling Kentucky pastor who appeared on the National Geographic television reality show “Snake Salvation,” died Saturday after being bitten by a snake.
Coots was handling a rattlesnake during a Saturday night service at his Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name Church in Middlesboro when he was bit, another preacher, Cody Winn, told WBIR-TV.
“Jamie went across the floor. He had one of the rattlers in his hand, he came over and he was standing beside me. It was plain view, it just turned its head and bit him in the back of the hand ... within a second,” Winn said.
When an ambulance arrived at the church at 8:30 p.m., they were told Coots had gone home, the Middlesboro Police Department said in a news release. Contacted at his house, Coots refused medical treatment. Emergency workers left about 9:10 p.m. When they returned about an hour later, Coots was dead from the venomous snake bite, police said.
Associated Press
