Police say six teenagers trapped 16-year-old Victoria Lindsay in a house and then beat her until she lost consciousness. Their evidence? Video, which authorities say the girls planned to upload to MySpace and YouTube. Lindsay's mother told Good Morning America she in part blames the site for the attacks. "I don't understand it" Lindsay says in the clip above. "I don't understand how our society has gotten through peer pressure to our kids that's its OK to act in violence and then want to post it on MySpace or YouTube or anywhere else, just for entertainment and a laugh." Ah, whimpering and weeping, the stuff of pure ROFLMAO.

Here is a prime candidate for immediate cloning: John Clifford, a 6'4, quick-tempered former police officer and a lawyer whose greatest pleasure in life seems to be riding the Long Island Rail Road and aggressively screaming at jerks who are talking too loud on their cell phones. Clifford was just found not guilty of charges stemming from his latest enforcement action, when he cussed out an obnoxious cell phone user he described as "a 19-year-old nitwit waking up one girlfriend after another." But this isn't even close to being the first time he's had to regulate on some yapping nitwits on the train:

The 2007 Internet Crime Complaint Report from the FBI and National White Collar Crime Center says that reported fraud online reached a new high of $240 million. In other words, Nigerian scammers make more money than Mahalo. [ICCC]

In the case of Jacksonville, Oregon's Robert Salisbury, whose property was ransacked after a "Free Stuff" free-for-all allegedly sparked by a Craigslist post, the San Francisco-based community website turned over the IP addresses under subpoena. The Jackson County Sheriff's department then tracked the location back to Amber Herbert, who turned over a computer. A hard drive search connected the machine to the post. Herbert has now admitted to stealing saddles from Salisbury with husband Brendon Herbert's help. But another post from the same computer could have been their undoing — and may also play a role in their defense.

Kevin Trudeau is the infomercial star and dressed-up hustler who cons the gullible of America by claiming to sell things that "THEY" don't want you to know. Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About. The Weight Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You To Know About. Debt Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About. The Federal Trade Commission (maybe the real "They?") has fined Trudeau millions over the years and tried to ban him from making misleading claims, but he just keeps it up [WBZ TV]. In the olden days, thousands of people who had wasted money on his worthless books would storm his home with pitchforks and torches, and that would be that. Today, though, it has to go through the system. After the jump, a look at Trudeau's scams.

The Times ran a long story on the front page of its Business section yesterday about Gary Milby, an "oil man" who has swindled investors out of millions of dollars. What has he done with his ill-gotten gains? Bought lots of shit for his spoiled teenage daughter, apparently. Her name is Ariel, and both she and dad were featured on an episode of MTV's apocalyptic teenage hatefest "My Super Sweet 16." And the show was so over-the-top that it caught the attention of the feds, speeding up the investigation of Milby's wrongdoing [NYT]. First time ever "My Super Sweet 16" has displayed redeeming social value! Below, a clip from the show, leading up to Ariel's "Fairytale" party. Here's a fairy tale, mean girl: your wealth. Ha ha.

Kenan Thompson, SNL castmember and beloved icon of childhood for bloggers of a certain ridiculously young age, was driving a white Escalade a bit erratically Wednesday night, because of the Mary Jane. Thankfully, Kenan's passenger proved himself to be the biggest bro in the history of brodom. The Smoking Gun explains what happened when the cops pulled Kenan over:

What time is it? Time to pile on the LA Times for its fictitious Tupac shooting story! When one of the nation's top four papers (or, one that once held that position) splashes an investigative story this big that turns out to be based on forged evidence from a lifelong con man, you can expect a lot of tsk-tsking from the journalism establishment. But actually the reaction has been pretty muted. The reason: most reporters know deep down that they could be done in by fake documents just as easily. Slate's Jack Shafer has a rather gentle column today on what LAT reporter Chuck Philips could have done differently—mainly, don't trust con men, and always vet your documents. Your sympathy for Philips (those were convincing forgeries, after all) might be diminished, though, by this quote he gave in a recent web chat, defending his 2002 story that alleged that Biggie "Christopher Wallace" Smalls was involved in Tupac's murder—he sure was sensitive about forged documents back then:

Two employees of the Salem, N.H., Apple Store (where I shop, natch) have been arrested and charged with stealing 332 iPhones. No word on what the two delinquents did with the phones, worth almost $133,000, but we suspect they were sold off to be unlocked overseas. Here's what I want to know: How the hell did they steal 300-plus phones?

Earlier this week, dangerous fiend Gene Morrill was convicted of 20 charges of sex crimes involving minors. At his sentencing hearing in Stafford County, Virginia, yesterday, Morrill offered a stunning defense: a sasquatch molested him in the woods of New Hampshire. The heroic journalists at Washington DC's WJLA led with this story on yesterday's 5 p.m. newscast. Reporter Jessica Weinstein actually contacted experts at the Bigfoot Field Research Organization to ask whether Bigfoot had ever been spotted in New Hampshire. This is why blogs can never replace genuine shoe-leather reporting. The ABC7 report is attached. [WJLA]

The Smoking Gun has a treasure trove of incriminating information on Jimmy Sabatino, the incarcerated serial con man who the site says forged documents that the LA Times relied on in its (now doubtful) scoop associating Puff Daddy with the 1994 shooting and robbery of Tupac Shakur. Sabatino's shady and unreliable nature was well known; back in 1999, the Miami New Times published a long feature story titled "Con Kid" that detailed Sabatino's history of outrageous scams that he used to hobnob with celebrities and land free stuff. TSG also says that Sabatino's father is a restaurant manager, not a mobster as the LAT reported (and we repeated). The LAT's story today on the launch of its own internal investigations notes that the paper "has not identified the source of the purported FBI reports," but that would presumably change if it turns out Sabatino was the source, and the documents were false. After the jump, a screengrab [via TSG] of Sabatino's MySpace page—the entire "About Me" section is apparently fiction:

In an episode that was simultaneously poignant, noble, and hilariously out of touch, old New York Times reporter David Dunlap—who is always on the lookout for "illegal marketing campaigns"— says he "sensed a story on the evening of the 14th, when I came across two or three young men stapling posters for a new hip-hop album to lampposts." He started taking pictures of them, and they asked him what he was doing. He replied that what they were doing was illegal; then a guy attacked him and smashed his camera [City Room via FishbowlNY]! Dunlap got pushed down and roughed up, but is unharmed. And he refuses to press charges, because he's so grateful that they didn't stomp him out or rob him at the same time!

Here's something else for you to do this weekend: avoid getting murdered. New York City's murder rate this year is up by 26% compared to last year [NYDN]—and just in time for the NYPD to cut 1,000 officers! Far be it from us to advocate for more cops, but this seems like it might be a problem. The police department argues that regardless of the increase, it's still the second-lowest murder rate in the city's recorded history. Okay fine, but that might not last long with all those Michael Bloomberg-branded firearms for sale now. Below, a handy NYC crime report with weekly, monthly, and yearly perspectives. Now go buy your gun.

Shock! The Mayflower Hotel, a charming old Washington DC institution, apparently doesn't forcibly stop women who may be prostitutes from going up to the rooms of men who may be johns! Attractive women in "stilettos and lacy camisoles" are so out-of-place in downtown DC that the hotel staff play a game called "Guess the Call Girl," where they quietly declare these women to be whores. But even after spotting the loose women, the staff sit idly by and do nothing while innocent men are led down the path of temptation. Disgusting. [NYT]

Back in 1999, Cristophe Bisciglia was a teenage programming prodigy in the sleepy seaside town of Gig Harbor on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula. He was already doing web development work for clients, like Visnet, a tiny ISP in Port Orchard. But a dispute with the owner left a chip on his shoulder. So Bisciglia hacked into the ISP's servers and borked them by sending out thousands of emails, including emails to Visnet's customers pointing out the company's security flaws, according to the Kitsap Sun. While his record was probably cleared once he turned 18, he was convicted of a misdemeanor at the time.

Linux kernel contributor Hans Reiser is accused of murdering his ex-wife Nina Reiser (née Sharanova), the mother of their two children. Today in Oakland, prosecutor Paul Hora finally got a chance to cross-examine the defendant. Reiser's statements this afternoon were "evasive and confrontational" according to Wired's David Kravets. A sampling:

Former nightlife big shot and current honest blogger Steve Lewis reminisces today about his experiences with the clubland PR business. He starts out by saying, "When I used to hire PR it was for damage control." Not for strategic brand building outreach? Such a forthright man! Then he tells a story about a long-ago high profile stabbing incident that made its way onto Page Six; it sums up everything you need to know about spin, gossip, and the dangers of imaginary caviar forks:

Rap mogul Sean "Puff Diddy Daddy" Combs has denied yesterday's LA Times report that he had advance knowledge of a 1994 ambush on rival Tupac Shakur that left Tupac with five bullet wounds. Jimmy "Henchman" Rosemond, the music manager that the Times named as the mastermind of the attack, also denied the charges. The Times is standing by its story so far. Below, Puffy's and Rosemond's statements—as well as (BONUS!) the lyrics to two verses of "Who Shot Ya?," the 1994 Biggie Smalls/ Puffy song that was widely believed to be an allusion to the Tupac shooting in question.

Former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio will be getting yet another day in court. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals cited improper exclusion of testimony and evidence in Nacchio's April 2007 conviction on insider trading charges. Nacchio faces six years in prison and $71 million in fines and forfeitures if he loses this appeal.

An exclusive story in the LA Times today says that P. Diddy, aka Puff Daddy, aka Sean "Puffy" Combs, the hip hop superstar and head of Bad Boy Records, knew in advance about a 1994 ambush in which rap icon Tupac Shakur was shot five times and robbed in a New York recording studio. According to the story, a promoter and talent manager who were friendly with Puffy set up Tupac because they were angry about his insolent posture towards NYC and its hip hop heavyweights. The key facts: