WEST

GOOGLE ORDERED TO PROVIDE WEB ADDRESSES, BUT NOT SEARCHES

A federal judge has ordered the most popular search engine Web site, Google, to turn over a sample of 50,000 web addresses for use in the government’s defense of an anti-pornography law, but he ruled the company need not comply with a demand for thousands of search queries.

The Justice Department subpoenaed the information for use in a lawsuit defending the Child Online Protection Act, but Judge James Ware said the government’s arguments were “not particularly helpful” in explaining just how the Google data would contribute to a study of whether Web filtering programs are effective. The judge found the justification offered was sufficient to order disclosure of the Web addresses, but not the search queries, which do not usually identify users, but can contain names, social security, or even credit card numbers.

“The marginal loss of trust by Google’s users based on Google’s disclosure of its users search queries to the government outweighs the duplicative disclosure’s likely benefit to the government’s study,” Judge Ware of San Jose, Calif. wrote in a ruling issued late Friday. He noted that Yahoo, Microsoft, and America Online have already complied with requests.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

TOWN AUCTIONED ON eBAY UP FOR SALE AGAIN

BRIDGEVILLE, Calif. – The first town ever auctioned on eBay soon will be back up for sale on the online auction site.

Nearly two years after he bought the tiny town of Bridgeville, Orange County financial adviser Bruce Krall said he plans to re-auction the Humboldt County hamlet on eBay next month.

“Due to family reasons, I’m pretty much tied to Southern California for the foreseeable future,” Mr. Krall said. “We can’t move up there. It only makes sense to pass it on to somebody else.”

Mr. Krall said the auction will open April 4 with a minimum bid of $1.75 million – more than twice what he paid for the 83-acre property about 40 miles southwest of Eureka.

– Associated Press

MIDWEST

STUDENT GETS 30-DAY PRISON STAY FOR THROWING PARTY

A student has served 30 days in prison for a wild party held in his rented home when he was not even there. The 21-year-old Southeast Community College business student, Mike Herchenbach, was sentenced to serve 30 days in jail on March 3 for maintaining a disorderly house, the Lincoln Journal Star reported. When police officers arrived at his rented house on October 2, music was blaring from the garage and about 170 guests were drinking beer. Mr. Herchenbach said he did not attend the party because he was visiting his in Lindsay, Neb. that day. Nonetheless, Mr. Herchenbach was charged, along with roommates Mike Ternus and Ken Jensen, because his name appears on the lease.

“Courts need to take a harder look at this type of case and Mr. Herchenbach,” the Journal Star quoted a Lancaster County judge, Gale Pokorny, as saying, because “people can die at these parties.”

– Staff Reporter of the Sun