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The state's largest computer failure ever continues to hamstring key Virginia government agencies trying to handle their core duties this morning. Agencies across the state are wrestling with different types of problems as a result of computer server failures, which hinder their access to IT applications, shared information and stored data.

A national voter-protection organization has scheduled a press conference for 10 a.m. today to discuss its lawsuit against Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and other top Virginia election officials on behalf of the Virginia State Conference NAACP. The organization is accusing Virginia of an unconstitutional allocation of polling-place resources in Richmond and several other urban areas. Judith Browne-Dianis, co-director of the Washington-based Advancement Project, cited a survey by the organization that determined that minority precincts have too few voting machines and election officials. "Virginians are going to turn out in large numbers, and election officials must act quickly to make sure...

Last week we discovered that some Fedora servers were illegally accessed. The intrusion into the servers was quickly discovered, and the servers were taken offline. Security specialists and administrators have been working since then to analyze the intrusion and the extent of the compromise as well as reinstall Fedora systems. We are using the requisite outages as an opportunity to do other upgrades for the sake of functionality as well as security. Work is ongoing, so please be patient. Anyone with pertinent information relating to this event is asked to contact fedora-legal redhat com One of the compromised Fedora servers...

This morning the VMware’s customers that upgraded their virtual data centers with the new Infrastructure 3.5 Update 2 (build 103908) had an awful surprise: any virtual machine that is turned off cannot be powered on again, and any attempt to execute a VMotion (the live migration of a VM from one host to another) fails. The reason behind this huge and unprecedented issue is an error in the license expiration time. The only way to workaround the problem at the moment is to disable the Network Time Protocol (NTP) client and set the date back to August 10, as promptly...

Seagate Technology LLC has shipped Maxtor disk drives that contain Trojan horses that upload data to a pair of Chinese Web sites, the Taiwanese government's security service warned this weekend. The Investigation Bureau, a part of the Ministry of Justice that's responsible for both internal security and foreign threats, said it suspected mainland China's authorities were responsible for planting the malware on the drives at the factory. "The bureau said that the method of attack was unusual, adding that it suspected Chinese authorities were involved," a story posted by the English-language Taipei Times reported Sunday. "Sensitive information may have already...

A sharp-eyed user of Microsoft's Virtual Earth has found images of classified US Navy technology. The image shows an Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine being pulled out of the water at the Trident Submarine Base in Bangor, Maine and displays its propeller in full view. Submarine propellers are highly classified and are usually hidden when submarines go into dry dock. Dan Twohig, a deck officer on the Washington state ferry service, found the image when he was searching for a new house. He also writes a blog about shipping called Monster Maritime, on which he broke the news of the discovery....

Richmond Mayor-elect Doug Wilder is going to court to try and block the $175,000 severance package approved by City Council for the outgoing City Manager. In a statement from Wilder, released today by Richmond attorney Don McEachin, Wilder says he has enlisted McEachin to "..begin the process of preparing the papers to file what I will call the "people's law suit" against the Jamison/City Council law.” Wilder argues that state law prohibits such a “gift,” and he calls on Council to rescind its action. “But if they insist on their raid of the public treasury,” says Wilder, “I have instructed...

NEW YORK, July 21 (Reuters) - Credit card issuer Capital One Financial Corp. (COF) said on Wednesday its quarterly earnings rose as lending grew, and the company increased its 2004 earnings outlook. The company also announced that it was cutting 1,400 call center jobs in Florida, Texas and Virginia, and took a $56 million charge in the second quarter. Capital One said it will take a $60 to $100 million charge during the second half of 2004 as part of a company reorganization. The McLean, Virginia-based company posted second-quarter earnings of $407.4 million, or $1.65 a share, compared with $286.2...

<p>The area's largest nongovernment employer could reduce its work force by as much as 20 percent - or about 3,400 people companywide - in the next 18 months, according to documents obtained by The Times-Dispatch.</p> <p>Most of the cuts are expected to hit the Richmond area, where more than half of its employees work. By some estimates, about 2,550 jobs will be lost here.</p>

Capital One has cancelled a deal with India's largest call centre after it emerged that Indian workers had misled the US credit card company's customers with unauthorised offers of credit. Wipro Spectramind, the Indian technology company, discovered the offers in a routine inspection and disclosed the evidence to Capital One, which decided "not to renew" its telemarketing contract with the New Delhi-based call centre. The US card issuer declined to comment further yesterday, but its decision comes as a wider political backlash against the outsourcing of such work overseas threatens to undermine the sector's dramatic growth. Politicians in Washington are...

School superintendents from Henrico, Hanover, Chesterfield and Richmond have decided to cancel classes once again on Tuesday. Randolph-Macon will also be closed on Tuesday

I've started getting these threatening letters from Los Angeles County saying I owe child support to some lady there I've never heard of. They're threatening to garnish my wages, put a lien on my house, etc. I have no idea who this lady is. I haven't lived in California since 1984. I've live in Virgina now and have been faithfully married since 1991. The children in question were born in 1993 and 1997. I've never had to hire a lawyer before. What kind of lawyer do you get for a case like this? Do I get a Virginia lawyer or...

<p>Question: Do you think President Bush is handling the current crisis correctly?</p>

Bush Wins! Dec 14, 2000 We now have a President-elect five weeks after the election. George W. Bush will go to the White House and, we're sure, do the best he can under close-to-impossible circumstances - but more on that below. Several things, among many, are important to say about Bush's victory. (1) The rule of law prevailed; the system worked. Clearly the more conservative candidate, Bush won partly, and ironically, as a consequence of the judicial activism conservatives deplore - i.e., of precisely the activ- ism inhering in the courts and the media that are two of liberalism's ...

Nov 29, 2000 The story made the rounds as soon as it became clear the 2000 election would be as tight as 1960's. Sometime after taking office John F. Kennedy was asked whether his narrow (and hotly disputed) margin over Richard Nixon deprived him of a mandate. According to the legend, JFK said something along the lines of I'm here, he's not; that's my mandate. The witty crack made a compelling point: A President's "mandate" is not fixed on Election Day but results from his performance in office. Kennedy won the closest election in history (up to that time); many ...

Twenty supporters of President-Elect Bush braved 40-degree weather and rain do decry the apparent fraud being perpetrated in Florida Reaction from passers-by was overwhelmingly positive; with only a few supporters of the Vice-Perpetrator adding to the discourse with an upraised finger. The highlight of the Richmond FReep was a visit by Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore. Governor Gilmore was very supportive and told us all to "keep up the good work". He announced that he would be leaving for Floriday tomorrow and expressed a fear that the damage to our electoral system may have already been done. Richmond FReeps: YOU DONE ...

Nov. 24 &#151; Suspicious of Miami-Dade election officials&#0146; sudden decision to stop the manual vote recount, Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Lieberman and six congressmen today accused Republicans of orchestrating a demonstration to intimidate the county elections board. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Until Wednesday, the heavily Democratic Miami-Dade was one of the three Florida counties conducting recounts in the still-unresolved presidential election. On that day, in an apparent exercise of spontaneous public outrage, pro-George W. Bush demonstrators surged through the county office building in Miami-Dade County, demanding an end to the hand recount there. Protesters try to stop Miami recounts. RealVideo (download RealPlayer) ...

Is the Fix In? Christopher RuddyFriday, Nov. 24, 2000 Al Gore’s team says it will contest the Florida election beyond Sunday if Gore doesn't get the votes he needs to be certified the winner. Gore’s spokesmen also say they probably won’t need to contest the results if votes come in from Palm Beach and Broward counties, as they expect. They may be right. Earlier this week I warned about complacency in the Bush/Republican camp. With Bush leading by more than 900 votes, and the manual recount yielding so few votes for Gore, Republicans have the illusion that Gore would ...