The six 42-cent stamps are being dedicated in New York and are going on sale nationwide.

The stamps honor the achievements of Ella Baker, Daisy Gatson Bates, J.R. Clifford, Medgar Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer, Charles Hamilton Houston, Ruby Hurley, Mary White Ovington, Joel Elias Spingarn, Mary Church Terrell, Oswald Garrison Villard and Walter White.

Among those dedicating the stamps are Thurgood Marshall Jr., son of the late Supreme Court justice and a member of the Postal Service’s governing board; Medgar Evers’ widow, Myrlie Evers-Williams; NAACP board of directors chairman Julian Bond and Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard University and a member of the citizens stamp advisory committee.

At Home

1.  Do not put checks in the mail from your home mailbox. Drop them off at a U.S. Mailbox or the U.S. Post Office. Mail theft is common. It’s easy to change the name of the recipient on the check with an acid wash.

2. Get all of your checks delivered to your bank - not to your home address.

3.  Reduce the amount of mail you receive by calling the national credit bureaus’ opt-out line at 1-888-5-OPT-OUT (1-888-5-678-688) or at their web site http://www.optoutprescreen.com . This action will reduce the number of pre-approved credit offers you will receive.

4. Treat your trash and mail carefully - Buy a cross-cut type shredder
To thwart identity thieves, who may pick through your trash or recycling bins to capture your personal information, tear or shred your…

* charge receipts
* copies of credit applications,
* insurance forms,
* physician statements,
* checks and bank statements,
* credit card statements,
* expired charge cards that you’re discarding,
* pre-approved credit card offers you get in the mail, and
* any documents that contain your social security number

5. Protect your Social Security number. Practice good home security —Secure personal information in your home, especially if you have roommates, employ outside help, or are having service work done in your home. Securely store extra checks, credit cards, documents that list your Social Security number, and similar valuable items.

6. According to the FTC, over fifty percent of identity-theft victims first detected the fraud by monitoring their own accounts. The sooner you detect the fraud, the better your chances of recovering your money and good name/credit.

7. Be careful of “lucky winner” scams. You just received a letter in the mail  that states that you have been chosen as a lucky winner. All you have to do is give out your personal information like your name, address, credit card number, bank account number so that you can grab your FREE gifts that are worth of thousands of dollars. Doesn’t it sound to good to be true? It is. This is one of the many ways that the identity crooks use to obtain your sensitive personal information.
At Work

8. Keep your purse or wallet in a safe place at work.

9. Ask about information security procedures in your workplace or at businesses, doctor’s offices or other institutions that collect personally identifying information from you. Find out who can access to your personal information and verify that it is handled and stored securely. Ask about the disposal procedures for those records as well. Find out if your information will be shared with anyone else. If so, ask if you can keep your information confidential.
When Traveling

10. Alert your credit card company. Before you go away, tell your credit card company or your bank where you plan to travel. This allows most companies to set up their fraud alert system, which notifies travelers if they are suspected victims of fraud.

11. Minimize the amount of personal financial information you carry. Memorize passwords and PIN numbers. Do not carry them.

12. Newspapers - Nothing says “we’re out of town” more than a pile of newspapers. Don’t forget to stop delivery until you return. Also stop any other automatic deliveries, such as bottled water.

13. Go through your wallet, purse and/or briefcase and remove any of the following items prior to travel:

* Social Security card
* Check book & deposit slip
* Credit card receipts
* Library card
* Video rental card
* Bills
* Extra Credit Cards

Leave your debit card at home. Make credit cards, not ATM cards, your card of choice. Minimize number of credit cards in wallet. No more than two (2). Place all the removed items above into a locked safe and pay bills before you go out of town.

14. Place mail on “postal hold” with the Post Office. Arrange so mail may only be picked up by you and request that identification must be shown to receive held mail.

15. Make copies of your itinerary, passport data page, visas and driver’s license to leave with designated emergency contact.

16. Notify a neighbor to watch your house. Let them know you are not moving.

17. Lock up all your valuables in room safes or hotel safe while you are out of the room. (This includes jewelry, laptops, passports and any other important documents)

18. Heighten your awareness of people and crowds around you – pickpockets thrive in most major cities.

19. Be aware of your surroundings at all times – shoulder surfing is a viable method of obtaining personal information when you least suspect it.

20. Don’t take anything in your wallet that is not absolutely necessary.

21. Do not place purse, belongings or purchases on the floor in a public restroom. Also, do not hang these items on the hook on the door. It is also recommended that you not leave your purse on the floor or on an empty chair.
Online

22. Create hard-to-guess passwords.

23. Online recruiting business giants like Monster.com, CareerBuilder.com and HotJobs.com caution users about false online job listings that are sometimes posted by identity thieves to illegally collect personal information from unsuspecting job seekers.

24. Download, install and update firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware security software regularly

25. Before disposing of an old computer, use a utility program to “wipe” your hard drive.

26. Avoid storing sensitive information like credit card numbers or your Social Security number on your computer

27. Keep your Web browser updated to ensure you have the latest security features installed

28. Dedicate one credit card solely for online purchases

29. Limit personal information you post on the Web and restrict who can access it.

30. Don’t send personal information in e-mail or instant messages
Tax Time

31. Mail Theft Prevention

When mailing your tax documents, always take them directly to the Post Office. Drop them in a box inside the Post Office. If you use an outside Post Office pickup box, it’s best to drop your mail before the last pick-up of the day. Leaving mail overnight gives a thief a better opportunity to steal mail. Don’t leave tax documents in an outgoing mail box at work. Unguarded mail is a theft waiting to happen.

32. Tax Preparers and Personal Privacy

Be selective about who works on your taxes. Investigate tax preparation companies with the Better Business Bureau, especially new or seasonal offices. Ask how your information will be stored, what computer security software is used, and if the person working on your taxes has undergone a thorough background screening. Trust your impressions. Do you see personal papers displayed on desks? If you feel uncomfortable or doubt the firm’s commitment to protecting your privacy, take your business elsewhere.

33. Tax Time Scams
If you receive an email asking for your Social Security Number or financial information, delete it or send it to the FTC at spam@uce.gov for investigation. The IRS does not send emails stating you are being electronically audited. They also don’t contact you by email about refunds which require you to provide bank information.
Related Articles

* What is an Identity Theft Report?
* Differences between a Credit Freeze and a Fraud Alert
* What is a credit freeze?
* 5 Steps to Follow after Identity Theft
* Fraud Alert and How it Can Protect You

Eddie Johnson Identity Theft Identity Theft
Related Articles

* What is an Identity Theft Report?
* Differences between a Credit Freeze and a Fraud Alert
* What is a credit freeze?
* 5 Steps to Follow after Identity Theft
* Fraud Alert and How it Can Protect You

J.R. Clifford, pictured left, is featured on a stamp in the new Civil Rights Pioneers series

Until about five years ago, J.R. Clifford’s contributions to the Civil Rights Movement were virtually unknown. This year Clifford is one of 12 Civil Rights pioneers honored with a stamp by the U.S. Postal Service.

Clifford was the first African American attorney in West Virginia.

He appeared before the State Supreme Court to defend a Black school teacher from Tucker County named Carrie Williams.

The school board shortened the school year in the Black schools and refused to pay William her full salary for the year.

Clifford biographer Connie Rice calls the Supreme Court’s 1898 decision forcing Tucker County’s Board of Education to pay Williams surprising.

“What he did was get equal terms for school children in all the Black schools the same as the white schools,” Rice said. “Plus equal pay for teachers at the time.”

Rice first learned about Clifford more than 10 years ago when she was researching Monongalia County’s African American history and Jim Crow segregation laws in West Virginia. Rice came across an old newspaper article about Clifford making a speech in Morgantown.

“What really surprised me was in 1895 he was invited to sit down and eat in a prominent restaurant with the white mayor and other white dignitaries,” Rice said. “And he was allowed to stay in a prominent white hotel.”

Clifford was born in 1848 in Williamsport, which is now in Grant County. He served in the Civil War and after stints as a barber and operating a writing school.

Clifford attended Storer College in Harpers Ferry and became a school teacher. For 15 years he taught and was principal of Martinsburg’s Black school.

Clifford also published a newspaper called “The Pioneer Press” and eventually became an attorney.

“He believed in constantly working to improve himself,” Rice said. “And he did.”

Clifford was also an early proponent of equal rights, often practicing what he preached.

“He absolutely refused to not be able to go into a restaurant and sit down,” Rice said. “He would go in anyway and force the issue.”

Rice said Clifford also refused to ride on segregated railroad cars and would walk five or ten miles to get where he wanted rather than ride the train.

Clifford died in 1933 and unfortunately saw Jim Crow laws become well entrenched. It was more than 30 years after his death when the Civil Rights Act became law.

Rice has been thinking a lot about what J.R. Clifford would think as she’s watched President Barack Obama take office.

“I thing he would have been really proud and overwhelmed that it actually did come true,” Rice said. “That it’d taken so long I think he would have been surprised at.”

Rice also thinks Clifford would have been amazed that he he’d made enough progress in the state of West Virginia and in the Civil Rights movement itself that the United States Postal Service decided to give him a stamp.

Rice hopes her book about Clifford will be published by the end of this year or in early 2010.

An organization called the J.R. Clifford Project is working to make more people aware of Clifford’s contribution to Civil Rights.

The Project is also developing a curriculum for middle and high school to teach students about Clifford’s life.

In documents filed with the District court, the District Attorney alleged the company violated the Kansas Consumer Protection Act, by deceptively soliciting consumers to purchase postal exam preparatory materials after falsely implying such materials would help consumers obtain jobs with the United States Postal Service.

The District Attorney reached a settlement requiring Defendants to pay $90,000 in restitution to approximately 781 Sedgwick County consumers at an average recovery of $119 each.

Specifically, the District Attorney alleged that Defendants placed advertisements under the “Employment and Business Opportunity” section of local papers, such as the “Penny Power,” announcing purported job placement opportunities along with various other representations regarding salary, benefits and vacation associated with a job opening with the United States Postal Service. The ads also invited consumers to call an 800 number and provide a reference number when inquiring.

When consumers called this number, Defendants utilized a telephone script asking for a reference code from the advertisement, the consumer’s name, and whether the consumer would be willing to take a drug test before starting work. Once a consumer answered the questions and indicated a willingness to submit to a drug test, they were told, “Congratulations, you are eligible for positions with the United States Postal Service.” Defendants did not disclose they had no affiliation with the United States Postal Service and could not actually place applicants with the Postal Service.

Utilizing the phone scripts, Defendants led consumers to believe they were eligible for a position with the Postal Service and that it would provide materials to help them gain such employment, including exam preparation materials. Defendants charged consumers $119.45 for preparation materials that had the appearance of coming from the Postal Service, as the booklet was blue and white with a postage stamp and American Flag as symbols, and titled “Postal Battery Exam Study Guide.” preparatory materials. Defendants’ materials were similar to other postal exam preparatory materials available in book stores for significantly less money and from the United Postal Service for free.

The District Attorney’s Office is sending letters out to consumers who are eligible to receive a refund. If you do not receive a letter and believe you may have been a victim of this business, please contact Charles Rutter, Prosecuting Attorney, or Andrea Souders, Senior Investigator, assigned to the case at (316) 660-3600.

Remember, the alleged misrepresentations were made over an approximate two year time period, from January 2005 to October 2007. Consumers purchasing materials before or after these dates would not be eligible under the terms of the settlement. Furthermore, any consumer making a claim under this settlement must provide proof of purchase of such materials from U.S. Work Alliance and have received no refund/credit from the company, bank, or credit card issuer.

If you think you have been a victim of a scam, please call the District Attorney’s Office at 316-660-3653.

The Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Postal Service confirmed Wednesday that it has launched a review.

At issue is the conduct of Postal Service executives during a conference call this month, Ted Keating, president of the National Association of Postal Supervisors, wrote to Patrick Donahoe, deputy postmaster general and chief operating officer of the U.S. Postal Service.
Advertisement

“Those remarks were: ‘Some managers ought to be taken out and executed.’ The word ‘executed’ was used more than once,” Keating wrote in the Feb. 11 letter, which was obtained by the Argus Leader and later posted on the association’s Web site.

“As we fight for the very survival of the Postal Service, this type of conduct by senior officers cannot be tolerated,” Keating added.

The Office of Inspector General for the Postal Service is undertaking a review of the matter, said Agapi Doulaveris, director of communications for the office.

The Postal Service itself also is looking into the issue.

“It is under review, and until that review is completed, we really don’t have much else to add,” said Teresa Rudkin, manager of corporate communications for the Postal Service’s western region.

The inspector general’s office is doing a “workplace climate” assessment in the Postal Service’s Dakotas region, where “they have already interviewed many supervisors and managers,” said Neil Baker, a vice president of the National Association of Postal Supervisors who handles issues in South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

In his letter, Keating asked that two postal officials be removed immediately because of the remarks: Western Area Vice President Sylvester Black, who works in Denver; and Dakotas District Manager Clem Felchle, who is based in Sioux Falls.

Black is responsible for all postal operations for the Postal Service’s Western area, which includes the Dakotas, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wyoming and other Midwest and Western states. He manages a work force of 104,000 employees and an annual operation budget of $9 billion, according to information from the Postal Service.

Calls to Black and Felchle on Wednesday were referred to Rudkin, who said details of the review are not available.

Baker said the situation is unfortunate because Felchle is highly regarded. He disagrees with his group’s decision to make the letter public on its Web site.

“The Dakotas district manager is probably one of the best in the country,” Baker said of Felchle. “He’s being crucified by making one mistake on the words.”

The National Association of Postal Supervisors is a management association, not a union, according to information on its Web site. Its members include more than 35,000 active and retired supervisors, managers and postmasters who work for or retired from the Postal Service.

“We’re supposed to be working with the Postal Service for the betterment of everybody,” Baker said.

The committee’s charge was to explore the current status of the forensic sciences and to guide future research that would best serve the U.S. justice system and its citizens.

Today, the NAS released the panel’s findings in a report called “Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward” that can be found at http://www.national-academies.org.

In the conversation below, Srihari, a SUNY Distinguished Professor in the UB Department of Computer Science and Engineering, discusses how his work in the field of pattern recognition has influenced and guided his interest in forensic science and how the NAS report’s findings reflect the powerful potential that the field holds given proper scientific support.

In addition to founding and directing UB’s Center of Excellence in Document Analysis and Recognition (CEDAR), Srihari is a fellow of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the International Association of Pattern Recognition. He organized the first-ever international workshop on computational forensics in the U.S. held last August at the National Academy of Sciences. The author of more than 300 peer-reviewed publications and the subject of numerous stories by such well-known media as ABC News and The New York Times, he also has served on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Library of Medicine.

How has serving on the NAS committee changed or influenced your perception of how much science can be applied to forensics?

I am a believer in strong artificial intelligence. Given sufficient time and resources, specific intelligent tasks that humans perform can be automated. Forensic tasks are much more challenging than reading postal addresses, for example, and, of course, much more is at stake.

What does this report mean to you as a researcher?

The NAS report puts the focus on the need to develop more objective methods. One of the areas that I hope we will be able to develop is something I call “computational forensics.” It is about developing algorithms and software to perform forensic analysis. The results of such analysis will be less prone to criticism that forensic testimony is tainted by bias.

Hopefully, financial support of research in the forensic sciences, which at present only the National Institute of Justice is able to provide, will improve. Present support of National Institute of Justice research is miniscule in comparison to support for agencies like the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Currently, there are only a handful of scientists in this field in the U.S.; so hopefully, additional funding will attract more researchers.

Dr. Srihari, when you began your career in the 1970s, you were researching how to get machines to read handwriting for the U.S. Postal Service. Today, you study how to rigorously apply science to forensics. Please describe how that evolution occurred.

My research for the past 30 years has been in the field of computer science known as “pattern recognition.” It is an area of artificial intelligence that is about developing algorithms to get computers to perform cognitive tasks normally performed by skilled humans. An example of such a skill is that of recognizing handwriting. That interest resulted in my work being funded by the U.S. Postal Service, since they were interested in automatic reading of handwritten addresses. At the time, it was considered a difficult, if not impossible, task. Today, more than 95 percent of all handwritten addresses in the U.S. are processed by computer.

But the techniques of pattern recognition are far more general, and forensics is a natural application for them: one where humans perform specialized cognitive tasks and where algorithms could be devised to provide an objective basis for their work. The Supreme Court ruling in Daubert v. Merrell Dow, 1993, stated that “pattern evidence” had to have a proven scientific basis if it was going to be allowed in court. The first task we considered was developing algorithms to compare handwriting samples. Computers allowed us to perform large-scale tests to show that indeed this kind of comparison can be done with a high degree of accuracy (Journal of Forensic Sciences, July 2002). We were also able to develop computational tools to assist the handwriting examiners.

Then my colleagues and I at CEDAR decided to look at fingerprints, specifically friction ridge patterns, the swirling lines that make up the print. With high-speed computers, we found we were able to conduct large-scale tests to determine the degree of individuality and uniqueness in a given fingerprint (Journal of Forensic Identification, January 2008 and CEDAR Technical Report, TR-2009).

What surprised you most about working in the field of forensics?

The forensic examiners welcomed my participation in their community, which was under attack. Here was a fairly small community of underpaid and overworked individuals, whose work was being challenged. They were eager to engage with, and learn from, us. As an academic, it also is satisfying work because it is not a highly lucrative commercial field, so my contributions can make a difference even when profit-making is not the main priority.

How has the use of DNA evidence changed the whole field of forensics?

The accuracy of DNA has raised expectations for other forensic modalities, but DNA is available only in about 10 percent of cases. As with DNA, it would be useful for other types of evidence to provide exact probabilities of having a random match. Such probability calculations are to a large extent lacking.

You have been involved as an expert witness in several cases. Can you discuss that experience?

I spoke about the degree of accuracy obtainable with handwriting evidence using computational techniques. This has allowed handwriting evidence to be allowed in several cases. Expert human capability is still higher than today’s computational capabilities.

What are some of the biggest challenges in trying to bring science into the courtroom?

Judges are open to hearing scientific testimony. However, they have to make sure in a preliminary hearing that it will be presented in a form that is understandable to a lay jury. For example, the strength of the evidence cannot be expressed as raw numbers or probabilities. Still, these ideas can only be simplified so much.

Can you talk about the backlash where some defense attorneys use the term “junk science” to discredit scientific methods in the courtroom? Will this attitude intensify with the release of this report?

This report will galvanize defense attorneys’ position that the scientific basis for introducing evidence is lacking. But justice has to be carried out. With this report, judges and juries can become more aware that there is always an inherent error rate, and therefore multiple types of evidence should be considered in arriving at a final decision. Also, it has to be kept in mind that science is always a work in progress. Newton’s laws were a reasonable explanation until they could not explain the behavior of small particles; thus, quantum theory was introduced, which may, one day be replaced by another theory, such as string theory.

Do you think the time is ripe for making forensics more scientific?

Yes, indeed. And applied science will have many economic spinoffs. We saw that with U.S. Postal Service funding of our research. Prior to those research successes, there was no funding for such work at U.S. universities, and the field of postal automation was left to Japanese and German companies. After the USPS-backed research proved fruitful, American companies, such as Northrup-Grumman — which applied some of our technology to reading IRS forms — and Lockheed-Martin — which became the prime USPS contractor — created many new technology jobs in the U.S. It also allowed the USPS to remain competitive and to keep its costs low.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Tuesday that many job hunters are being approached with e-mail offers of employment. Invariably they ask for money up front. Consumer advocates warn they are likely scams, the newspaper says.

The U.S. Consumer Protection Agency received several thousand complaints a year about bogus headhunters and employment and placement agencies. It’s only getting worse with an estimated 3.6 million more U.S. workers unemployed.

“There’s always people out there willing to take advantage of people’s misery,” said Chris Thetford, director of communications for the Better Business Bureau of Eastern Missouri and Southern Illinois. “I’ve never met anyone who had to pay to get a legitimate job.”

There are efforts to try to catch these predators. For example, the Federal Trade Commission filed a federal court complaint in November against a Georgia outfit charging $120 to $140 for materials to help applicants pass a U.S. Postal Service qualifying exam.

In early 2008, the Ohio attorney general fined a personnel service for enticing clients to pay $389 for a connection to nonexistent jobs.

But, the experts say, beware because more scam artists are out there.

Rep. Sam Graves has taken the congressional lead in pushing the U.S. Postal Service to continue its six-day mail delivery service.

While postal officials warn of huge operating losses resulting from declining mail volume and last year’s high gas prices, the Republican lawmaker called the current delivery schedule “an essential service.”

The Northwest Missouri representative has introduced legislation that would express “the sense of the House” about maintaining a six-day schedule that began in 1912. Any reduction, Mr. Graves said, would serve a particular hardship on a largely agricultural district like the one he represents.

“I believe that any cutback on postal delivery would disproportionately hurt rural areas,” he said in a statement.

House leaders referred the proposed resolution to the chamber’s Oversight and Government Reform Committee. A bipartisan group of lawmakers, Democrats Nick Rahall of West Virginia and Zoe Lofgren of California, and Republican Chris Smith of New Jersey, joined the Graves bill in co-sponsorship.

The resolution claims working families depend on the postal service for the timely delivery of paychecks. It also contends a curtailed schedule might create mail back-ups that could actually escalate costs because of increased overtime.

Also, “Social Security is the primary or sole source of income for many senior citizens, and any delay in the delivery of their Social Security checks would make it difficult for them to purchase even essential items, such as food and medicine,” the resolution reads.

In testimony before a congressional subcommittee late last month, Postmaster General John E. Potter said the postal service could experience a net loss of $6 billion this fiscal year, despite sweeping efforts to cut costs. Contributing factors were the high cost of fueling 220,000 postal vehicles and mail volume expected to decline 12 billion to 15 billion pieces this fiscal year from the last.

“It is possible that the cost of six-day delivery may simply prove to be unaffordable,” Mr. Potter told the subcommittee.

To curtail the schedule, Congress would have to remove a provision in its annual postal service appropriation that calls for six-day delivery. That stipulation has been in place since 1983.