Two brothers have had their freedoms restored after spending 25 years behind bars for a crime they didn't commit.

Brothers David Bintz and Robert Bintz have been cleared of the 1987 killing of Sandra Lison, according to a press release from the Wisconsin Innocence Project.

The brothers were represented by the Great North Innocence Project.

Their release comes after genetic genealogy DNA results showed the perpetrator in the 1987 slaying of Lison near Green Bay was someone else – William Joseph Hendricks, a man with prior convictions for similar crimes.

After a hearing on Wednesday, Brown County Circuit Court Judge Donald R. Zuidmulder signed an order calling for the brothers’ immediate release.

“We could not be happier to welcome David Bintz home,” said Rachel Burg, WIP co-director. “The Wisconsin Innocence Project has been fighting for Mr. Bintz’s freedom for more than 20 years. We are honored to have worked on his behalf and by his side throughout this arduous process. Finally, our hearts go out to the Lison family, and we hope they can now find closure.”

You can read more in an article by Chad Thompson published in the wkow web site at: https://tinyurl.com/3887hvvp.

In a significant response to a data breach that rocked millions of its users, genetic testing company 23andMe has agreed to a $30 million settlement. The breach, which occurred in 2023, exposed sensitive data from millions of customers, leading to concerns about the company’s security protocols and its ability to safeguard personal and genetic information.

Founded in 2006 by Anne Wojcicki, Linda Avey, and Paul Cusenza, 23andme mission is to make personal genetic information accessible to everyone.The company has revolutionized the way people trace their genealogy and understand their health through its easy-to-use saliva testing kits. Users simply provide a sample, which is then analyzed for genetic markers related to ancestry, health, and wellness.

One of the company’s key services is its DNA Relatives feature, which allows users to connect with genetic relatives based on shared DNA segments. Over the years, 23andMe has helped millions of users discover their family origins, connect with previously unknown relatives, and learn more about their health predispositions.

The 2023 Data Breach

In October 2023, 23andMe experienced a credential stuffing attack, a type of breach where attackers use previously stolen login credentials from unrelated websites to gain access to accounts. This incident compromised the personal data of 6.9 million users, many of whom had opted into the DNA Relatives feature. The breach affected 14,000 user accounts directly, exposing sensitive information such as health data, genetic profiles, and other personal details. Additionally, reports indicated that specific communities, including Jewish and Chinese users, may have been targeted, raising concerns about the motivations behind the attack.

While the company maintains that its core systems were not directly breached, the incident highlighted vulnerabilities in user account security, prompting criticism of 23andMe’s security measures. In the wake of the breach, users expressed concerns over how easily their personal data—especially sensitive genetic information—was accessed and misused.

Following the breach, a class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of the affected users. The lawsuit alleged that 23andMe had failed to protect user data adequately, allowing hackers to compromise sensitive personal and genetic information. The case was consolidated into a multidistrict litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

You can read more in an article at: https://www.eladelantado.com/us/23andme-settlement/.

The nonprofit journalism organization Invisible Institute has launched a new tool that allows people to look up police employment history. 

The National Police Index, created in partnership with Innocence Project New Orleans and Human Rights Data Analysis Group, compiles data obtained from state police training and certification boards. The tool currently shows data in 17 states, including Illinois. Data for more states is expected to be available soon. 

On the site, users can select a state, then search an officer’s name, agency or unique identifier number. The site will then show the officer’s start and end dates at their agency of employment and the reason for separating from the agency. 

The tool comes two months after Sangamon County Deputy Sean Grayson killed Sonya Massey in her home in Springfield, Illinois. Records show Grayson worked at five different police departments prior to the shooting and had documented misconduct in at least two of those departments.

“If the Sangamon County sheriff knew people could easily monitor a police officer’s employment history, maybe Sean Grayson would have never been hired,” Chaclyn Hunt, legal director of Invisible Institute, said in a press release. “So-called ‘wandering officers’ have presented a significant danger to residents of every state, and an impediment to lasting police accountability.”

Illinois has a similar officer lookup tool that allows users to see which departments an officer has worked for, but unlike the National Police Index, it doesn’t give the reason why they left. 

“Police often avoid accountability by moving to another agency rather than face discipline,” Tarak Shah, data scientist at the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, said in the press release. “This tool, allowing anyone to look up and track the histories of such officers, provides an invaluable service for the human rights community in our fight against impunity.”

On Saturday, Oct. 12, at 9:45 am, Larry Cates will present “An Introduction to Wills and Estates for Family History.”

Clallam County Genealogical Society will host the event. The program will be available via Zoom and all are invited to join. In this presentation, Cates will discuss two major ways property is passed between generations and how the accounts of a deceased person are reconciled, how the records can be located and accessed. Learn about their types, structure, and implications for family history. Probate records provide information, not just about the family of the deceased, but also about the relationships and roles of many others in the community.

Larry W. Cates has been a professional genealogist for several years. For his contributions to genealogy in research, preservation of old documents, his books, articles and lectures, he has received several outstanding awards including the National Genealogical Society’s prestigious Filby Award for Genealogical Librarianship. He is presently the librarian of the Hi Point, North Carolina Public Library Heritage Research Center, and the editor of the Guilford Genealogist.

To get the Zoom meeting number and passcode, contact the Clallam County Genealogical Society by phone or email. For more information, check our website.

Phone: 360-417-5000 Email: askus@clallamcogs.org. Our website: www.clallamcogs.org

The program will also be shown at the CCGS Research Center located at 304 E. 8th Street, Port Angeles, WA 983662. Researchers are always welcome to visit and use the facility.

There is no charge to hear this outstanding speaker.

The following is a press release written by QIAGEN:

QIAGEN N.V. announced that Bode Technology, the largest private U.S. forensics laboratory company with a growing presence in other regions, will become the exclusive global commercial partner for the GEDmatch PRO genealogy database, which is used to assist police and forensic teams with investigative comparisons of genetic data.

The multi-year agreement between QIAGEN’s subsidiary Verogen and Bode extends the long-standing partnership of two leading companies in forensic investigative genetic genealogy (FIGG) to further accelerate the use of GEDmatch PRO in law enforcement and identification of human remains. QIAGEN has been providing GEDmatch PRO to customers since the early 2023 acquisition of its subsidiary Verogen, a proven leader in equipping forensic science laboratories and criminal investigators to use next-generation sequencing (NGS) to gain deeper insights.

GEDmatch PRO is the leading forensic investigative genetic genealogy solution and has been used around the world to solve cases that could not be solved with traditional genetic fingerprinting. When capillary electrophoresis (CE) based analysis fails to yield an identification, NGS can find patterns of ​single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as the basis for finding genetic associations in GEDmatch PRO.

Combining QIAGEN’s expertise in forensic products and Bode Technology’s in forensic services will also further boost the use of QIAGEN’s next-generation sequencing (NGS) products for use in human identification (HID) and forensic investigations.

As part of the partnership, Bode will manage all commercial transactions for GEDmatch PRO globally, while QIAGEN will continue to develop new features with input from Bode’s genealogy experts. Bode will maintain the highest level of data security as GEDmatch PRO users will continue to own their case data and no additional identifying information will be shared with Bode.

QIAGEN’s subsidiary will continue to have sole responsibility and manage the separate GEDmatch consumer database and its free DNA comparison-and-analysis website, which are not affected by this partnership.

”This partnership will accelerate the adoption of using extensive DNA data to enable many cases to be solved, including investigations that have gone 'cold', and bring resolution to the families and friends of victims,” said Richard Price, Vice President and Head of QIAGEN's Human Identification and Forensics business. “This partnership leverages the resources of QIAGEN and Bode to further improve GEDmatch PRO while maintaining the highest level of ethics, data privacy and security that customers have come to expect. QIAGEN has worked well with Bode for over 20 years and this is a natural step in our partnership.”

“Our commercial responsibility for GEDmatch PRO means that law enforcement and other professionals can work with a single full-service accredited DNA provider for forensic analysis,” said Mike Cariola, President and CEO of Bode Technology. ”Our complete in-house workflow and extensive experience working with investigators means we can recommend the best technologies for specific cases and maximize the likelihood of successful outcomes.”

Bode will focus on client acquisition and service. As the largest private forensic DNA laboratory in the U.S. and a growing presence worldwide, including projects in Europe, Australia and the Middle East, Bode has nearly 30 years of experience providing a comprehensive set of state-of-the-art forensic DNA collection products, ISO 17025 accredited DNA analysis services, and research services to law enforcement, the justice system, and other government agencies worldwide.

QIAGEN has a leading position in the use of NGS for forensic and human identification applications and will continue to focus on enhancing GEDmatch PRO's software tools, security, and other features. QIAGEN leverages its NGS and FIGG technology on its MiSeq FGx instrument and ForenSeq Kintelligence workflow which is designed for use in forensic labs. This workflow can deliver results from severely degraded or contaminated DNA and challenging samples that are common in forensics. 

Investigators in Philadelphia are exhuming samples from eight bodies buried in a potter's field this week in the hope that advances in DNA-based sleuthing can help them identify the long-ago victims and perhaps learn how they died.

The victims include a 4- to 6-year-old girl found dead in 1962, an infant boy found in 1983 and three men and three women found between 1972 and 1984.

Philadelphia Police, FBI and forensic specialists work to exhume bodies at Parkwood Soccer Field/Potters Field for DNA-based testing in Philadelphia, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. Credit: AP/Jose F. Moreno

“When there is an ID, it is satisfying to be able to give that information to the family, to give that closure to the family. Your loved one is now identified,” said Ryan Gallagher, assistant director of the Philadelphia Police Department’s forensics unit.

The dig is the latest task in the city’s long-running effort to identify its unknown dead, who were buried at the small field in northeast Philadelphia through the late 1980s. Detectives will now work with genetic genealogists, the city Medical Examiner’s Office, the FBI and others to piece together the mystery of who they are and how they died. Some of the work, in Philadelphia and elsewhere, is being funded through federal grants.

And they have cause for optimism, after scientific breakthroughs in recent years led them to identify the city’s most famous unclaimed victim, long known as “America’s Unknown Child” or “ The Boy in the Box.” The small child, whose battered body was found inside a cardboard box in 1957, was identified in late 2022 after decades of work as 4-year-old Joseph Augustus Zarelli. Investigators have some theories on how he died, but so far have not announced any conclusive findings.

That case followed a string of cold cases that were re-examined and sometimes solved around the country, including the Golden State Killer, through advancements in genetic genealogy.

Joseph’s body had also been buried in the city-owned potter’s field until those devoted to the case moved him to a featured spot just inside Ivy Hill Cemetery, under a weeping cherry tree. Last year, they dedicated a new headstone with his name and picture on it on his 70th birthday.

Police hold out hope they can do the same one day for the eight victims included in their current project, who all died in violent or suspicious ways. If they can find family members through DNA tracing, they will ask if they can help piece the story together.

Homicide Lt. Thomas Walsh, speaking from the potter's field Tuesday, said it's rewarding to see “the relief on the people’s faces when you can sit down in their living room and tell them, ’Hey, this is your loved one, that’s been missing for 30, 40 years.'”

“Of course, it’s tragic, the way it ended, but the relief is there, that they finally know this is my loved one and this is where they’re at,” he said.

Solving cold cases is a yearslong pursuit that mixes art with science.

“There's always that eureka moment,” Walsh said.

“Not everything’s cellular devices and video cameras,” he said. “Sometimes it takes good old-fashioned police work to bring a case in.”

You can read more in an article published in the Newsday web site at: https://www.newsday.com/news/nation/philadelphia-potters-field-bodies-dna-r54410#

Some say as many as one in seven Americans have family roots in Brooklyn, and I expect the newly digitized Brooklyn city directories now available through the Internet Archive will get heavy use from genealogists, historians, authors, journalists, students, and even artists to trace connections to the diverse and ever-changing borough.

What is now the Center for Brooklyn History first joined the Internet Archive’s Community Websprogram in 2017 as part of the original cohort. This program gave us the tools and training we needed to save over 2TB of web-based Brooklyn history content, including over 1,000 individual URLs. We also host our digitized high school newspapers and audiovisual material on the Internet Archive.

In addition to helping us preserve this web-based content, Community Webs has now also made it possible to increase access to our physical collections through digitization. As part of the Collaborative Access to Diverse Public Library Local History Collections project, made possible by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, we were able to partner with the Internet Archive to digitize 236 microfiche sheets of Brooklyn city directories. 

You can read more in an article by Anna Trammell published in the Internet Archive Blogs at: https://eogn.com/page-18080/13411081

An excellent collection of pictures of Dr. Schweitzer's life may be found at: https://tinyurl.com/2nu6wyz3.

The 3-day global family history gathering will be March 6-8, 2025, both in person and online.

Details are available at https://tinyurl.com/uuwkhtf3.

Note: I am a fan of Chromebooks and Chromeboxes and have written about them several times. The following is the latest info by Robby Payne about Chromebooks and Chromeboxes:

Well, folks, the day is here and we’re in New York for the semi-annual Chromebook Showcase. If the past two events are anything to go by, there are quite a few things to expect at this event, including new Chromebook hardware and maybe some updates on new features on the way to ChromeOS as well.

The hardware

I’ve said it before, but there are quite a few Chromebooks I’m looking forward to this fall. Most of them are simply hopes – a new HP x360 14c, Lenovo Flex 5i, Lenovo Slim 3i, or maybe even a new ASUS CM34 Flip – but a couple are definitely a reality.

Chief among those we know are on the way are the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus and the new Lenovo Chromebook Duet. Both of these devices have 100% been confirmed and I’d bet good money on the fact that they will be at the event for sure.

The other devices I listed above would be an awesome surprise, but I’m not holding my breath on those. For better or worse, I simply don’t have a lot of proof that any of those devices are actually on the way at this point, so I have very little confidence we’ll see any of them at this event. You never know, though, right?

New software updates

On the software side of things, I’m expecting a few updates to ChromeOS that we’ve been keeping eyes on over the past few months in the Beta and Developer channels. The first I’m expecting is a change to the Gemini app to make it even more a baked-in part of the OS.

With the Galaxy Chromebook Plus clearly having both an Assistant key and a Dictation key, it seems Google and Samsung are working towards a bit deeper of an integration with Gemini on ChromeOS. A few small updates to the Gemini PWA could easily make that happen in a seamless fashion.

I’m also hoping to see a bit more about the latest Google Photos update that specifically made the video editing a bit better. I’ve not yet received that update on my phone, but I know its on the way. With Chromebooks getting some of the initial video editor features first in past updates, I’m hopeful there are some special treats for Chromebook users who leverage the Google Photos app for a bit of simple video creation.

And finally, I’d expect to hear a bit about deeper Gemini integration throughout the OS. I’m not talking about calling up the chat app with Samsung’s Assistant key; I’m talking more about features akin to ‘Help me write’ that slip in a bit of AI smarts where you need it, when you need it.

With the move to the Android kernel, I’m sure we’ll eventually see a time where new AI tricks on Pixel phones hit Chromebooks immediately, but we’re not quite there yet. For now, I’d love to see Chromebooks continue to utilize AI tools right in the OS in helpful ways that many users may not even recognize. Oh, and I’d love to see some new Chromebook Plus wallpapers, too.