The Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation has built a database of roughly 8,500 historic cemeteries across the state and invites people to submit information about gravesites yet to be documented.

"It's really important to know about the cemeteries because of the possible construction of a building or road or pipeline," said Brian Davis, executive director of the nonprofit trust.

"It's a way to respect and protect the cemeteries," he said. 

The newly launched Louisiana Register of Historic Cemeteries "is a way of letting people know, 'This is a cemetery,'" Davis said. 

"It's especially important in the southern part of the state," he said. "Because of erosion and rising sea levels, some cemeteries are going underwater, especially in lower Lafourche Parish." 

One is Leeville Cemetery, noted on the new historic cemetery registry. The graves there date back to 1905, when there was an epidemic of yellow fever.

The Louisiana Trust of Historic Preservation worked on the new database over the past year, with the help of the Louisiana Cemetery Board and graduate students in Tulane University's master's of science program in historic preservation, Davis said. 

People who are familiar with any of the cemeteries currently on the list are invited to add information about the site, he said.

You can read the rest of this article at: https://tinyurl.com/3m97cvsm.

From Prague to Podgorica, official photos from Europe's Eastern bloc during the years of communism tend to look the same, as seen below.

Crowds in Sofia listen to a speech by Leonid Brezhnev during the Soviet leader's 1967 visit to Bulgaria.

Now, thanks to two visual historians, an online resource called the Bulgarian Visual Archive (BVA) offers an intimate glimpse into what life was like for ordinary people behind Bulgaria's iron curtain.

Spring in the park known as the Garden of the Memorial to the Soviet Army in 1961. The Soviet monument in the background was removed in December 2023 after decades of public debate.

Since its launch in 2019, the BVA has amassed a collection of more than 16,000 images from the previous century, with many donated from personal collections.

You can read more at: https://www.rferl.org/a/bulgaria-visual-archive-socialist-era-photos/33148284.html.

The following article was written by Lauren Edmonds  and was originally published in the Business Insider web site:

Things have gone downhill for 23andMe.

After the direct-to-consumer genetic testing company launched in 2006, it appeared to be on a steady incline and a notable standout among Silicon Valley ventures. As of 2021, according to Crunchbase, it had raised over $1 billion from investors.

However, a 2023 data hack kicked off a series of problematic hurdles that 23andMe just can't seem to clear.

News that hackers were selling user data — which included birth details and names — on the dark web broke that October. The company confirmed in December that hackers had accessed ancestry data for just under 7 million users. A data breach notification filing in January said it took 23andMe five months to realize hackers had stolen the data.

The incident led to a class action lawsuit, which 23andMe settled this September for $30 million, according to Reuters.

Less than a week later, the independent directors of 23andMe's board resigned in a letter addressed to CEO and cofounder Anne Wojcicki.

The letter said the directors "wholeheartedly support" 23andMe's mission, but "it is also clear that we differ on the strategic direction for the Company going forward."

The Wall Street Journal reported that despite earning $299 million in revenue in 2023 and $219 million in 2024, the company never made a profit. Its stock price peaked in February 2021 but has steadily declined since, reaching an all-time low of 29 cents.

23andMe's reputation took a further hit with consumers in September when Wojcicki said in an SEC filing she was "considering third party takeover proposals." She walked back that statement later that month in a separate filing, but the damage was done.

Outlets like The Atlantic reported that Wojcicki's potential sale of 23andMe could also mean the sale of user data. The director of cybersecurity at Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit focused on digital privacy, urged their 186,000 X followers to delete their data from 23andMe. That post garnered more than 531,000 views in three days.

The X post touched on concerns plaguing the DNA test kit industry: Your private DNA data may not stay private.

"Data is data — once it's out there, it's very hard to control," James Hazel, a biomedical researcher, told Business Insider in 2019.

23andMe says the personal data it collects includes registration information like birth date, genetic information like a user's genotype, sample information like saliva, and self-reported information.

"Beyond our contracted laboratory, with which we work to process a customer's sample and deliver their results, customer information will not be shared with any other entity unless they provide us with consent to do so," a 23andMe spokesperson told Business Insider.

The full article continues on for some time at: https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-delete-your-23andme-data-2024-10

Forensic genetic genealogy has become an important tool for law enforcement agencies across the country, including Cincinnati Police. Now, more local, state and federal investigators are being trained to use the tool. 

The forensic tool garnered national attention in 2018, when an investigator used it to identify the Golden State Killer, decades after he had committed dozens of rapes and murders in California. 

Investigators from numerous agencies, including Cincinnati Police, the Hamilton County Prosecutor’s Office, the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, Forest Park Police, Independence, KY Police, the Hamilton County Coroner’s Office, Dayton, Ohio Police, and the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office attended a free training on forensic genetic genealogy last month. 

Retired Cincinnati Police Captain Steve Saunders, who is now a Law Enforcement Fellow with Othram, said the first part of the training focused on the process of getting DNA evidence. 

“Room full of investigators, some that work sexual assault cases, some that work with homicides, some investigators that work unidentified human remains cases, and they’re looking at this new technology and finding a way that they can utilize this in their job to help find answers,” Saunders said. “[Learning the] DNA basics - here’s the workflow of when you collect the DNA, the samples, whatever that process is, whether it’s body fluids, blood evidence, hair with rooted hair shafts from a location, and then taking that and how you submit from the coroner’s lab and BCI.”

Cincinnati Police Specialist Jeff Smallwood, who has a background in biology, has used forensic genetic genealogy and was one of the people who presented during the training. He says the investigative method is incredibly useful when you have DNA, but it does not match any profiles in national databases. 

“If there is a good DNA profile that we have, that just isn’t identified through the traditional methods, we can send it off to a private lab, get it converted to a different type of file, and then use that file in some open genealogy databases, and then we kind of do the work of building trees and looking for that offender in and among those relatives,” Smallwood said. 

One of the private labs that can be used for that is Othram, the company that sponsored the free forensic training at the Hamilton County Coroner’s office. With 14 genealogists on staff, Othram specializes in using DNA to build family trees. 

“They want to get to an investigative lead that gives the detective or the investigator, coroner’s office, medical examiner, and say this is who we think it is, or these few people we think this person might be in the family tree,” Saunders said. “It’s up to the detectives and the investigators to determine through confirmation testing, through getting samples of the DNA, whether that’s through a search warrant or surreptitiously, to determine is that person the person who was identified through this process.”

Saunders joined Othram after retiring from CPD because he says he was inspired by the work the company does. He has seen them solve homicides dating back to the 1980s, identify Jane and John Does and help track down suspects in sexual assaults. 

Othram was involved with two cases that have local ties. Company genealogists helped Boone County investigators identify the person who raped and murdered Carol Sue Klaber in Boone County in 1976 as Thomas Dunaway. 

They also helped Las Vegas police ID a Jane Doe who was found there in 1979 as Gwenn Marie Story from Cincinnati. 

Smallwood says Cincinnati Police investigators have been using forensic genetic genealogy to solve cases too. 

“Serial rape investigations that had kind of always haunted our unit,” he said. “The original investigators did a tremendous amount of legwork, sent things up for DNA, and we had profiles of the offenders, but those guys had never gotten in trouble for anything else. They were very good at what they did and stayed out of trouble.”

DNA evidence, coupled with ancestry websites, led police to believe Stoney Brown was responsible for multiple rapes in the 1990s. On a search warrant, they took Brown’s DNA from his trash, confirmed it was a match to the crimes and arrested him in 2020. 

He is now in prison for sexually assaulting four women, three of whom were University of Cincinnati students at the time of the rapes. 

Forensic genetic genealogy also led to police and prosecutors putting William Blankenship behind bars, a man who terrorized women for three decades. DNA connected him to three home invasion sexual assaults that happened in the Mt. Washington area in the early 2000s and another string of rapes reported in Northern Kentucky beginning in 1987. 

“It shows kind of what you can do when state, local and federal agencies kind of work together,” Smallwood said.

In 2023, it helped with a homicide, when CPD detectives made an arrest in the 2003 murder of Herman Brown. Using DNA found on cigarettes at the scene, genealogy helped them narrow in on Robert Stewart as the suspect. 

Stewart is currently sitting in jail, awaiting trial. 

It is because of those success stories that both Smallwood and Saunders are encouraging investigators who have not learned about forensic genetic genealogy to undergo training. 

“It’s so important that we get more people on board with this and get people to understand that this is a new tool for your tool belt that you can use to get closure on not only cold cases, but also current cases,” Smallwood said. 

As crisp fall weather fast approaches, bringing with it the vibrant change of colors to tree leaves across the Northeast, leaf peepers are traveling to destinations like Vermont to take in all the Autumnal season has to offer.

Strikingly colorful nature images of the fall foliage in New England have started to flood social media feeds from TikTok to Instagram where users have posted the best stops to get the perfect scenic shot.

But for some small towns, like Woodstock which is two hours outside of Boston, the crowds have been overwhelming.

Some residents in the area told ABC News that in recent years the beautiful fall scenery has brought with it chaos and droves of influencers in search of viral TikTok acclaim, some of whom have encroached on private property.

"They are walking on the lawn, the property, to take their photo shoots," Amy Robb, who lives nearby Sleepy Hollow Farm in Pomfret Vermont, told ABC News.

"I have been asked, 'Where's the parking area? Where are the bathrooms? Where's the food facilities?' There's none of that here," Michael Doten, another local resident, added.

Local officials confirmed it’s not just an annoyance, but that crowded narrow streets can pose a hazard.

"If we had to have first responders go in that area in case of emergency, they may not be able to get through in time," Eric Duffy, the Municipal Manager for the Town of Woodstock, told ABC News. "And so that was our concern."

Some neighbors in the community have taken action in the form of fundraising to close down small roads and pay deputies to post up and keep busloads of people from coming through.

People stand under an autumn colored tree in Cold Spring, New York, Oct. 31, 2015.

Gary Hershorn/Getty Images, FILE

Windsor County Sheriff Ryan Palmer confirmed to ABC News that two roads have been closed off this year, which he said has proven effective at maintaining peace for neighbors, while still encouraging tourists to visit the public areas of their beautiful community.

"We love it, right? It's just what has happened with the social media influence -- ultimately, we want people to come to Vermont," Palmer explained. "We want people to enjoy the scenery, the foliage, shop in our shops, all those type of things. It just has become too much on these particular roads."

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) will launch a newly updated paddling trails website Sept. 22 in celebration of World Rivers Day. The revamped website is designed to give paddlers in-depth information and innovative tools to make the most of their adventures on the water.

“Whether you’re looking for a tranquil afternoon getaway or an exciting paddling challenge, this resource is your gateway to finding and enjoying the perfect paddling trail,” said Shelly Plante, TPWD nature tourism manager. “We are excited about showcasing all the wonderful paddling experiences available throughout the state of Texas, and this newly designed website makes it simple for folks to find their perfect fit.”

The website features information on all 81 certified trails in the state, including trail length, estimated paddling time and what paddlers can expect along each route. The website also highlights local wildlife viewing and fishing opportunities for each trail and provides information on nearby canoe and kayak rental services to streamline the planning process.

The new, interactive “Texas Paddling Trail Finder” application enables paddlers to search for trails by water body or location. The mapping tool allows visitors to visualize their options and select the perfect paddling destination based on the area of the state or water body they want to explore. Other helpful resources include a frequently asked questions section, flow gauges and conservation tips. Each trail on the website also features photos and detailed maps to aid in the navigation and planning process.

“With detailed trail information and an interactive map, planning your paddling trips is more straightforward than ever,” added Plante. “Knowing what to expect, including wildlife and fishing options, enriches the preparation process and the adventure.”

Paddlers who are interested in getting the latest updates about upcoming trail launches and other news can subscribe to TPWD’s paddling trail email list through the Texas Paddling Trails Website.

World Rivers Day was launched in 2005 and is celebrated annually on the fourth Sunday of September.

Purdue University Galleries recently launched a fully digitized and searchable website showcasing its permanent collection.

With the 2022 Henry Luce Grant, Purdue University hired Kirstin Gotway, curator of Purdue University Galleries' Permanent Collection, and developed a website to make the collection more accessible. For the first time, Purdue's permanent collection is publicly searchable, benefiting not only the university community but also global classrooms and art researchers. The website is updated regularly with ongoing scholarship, showcasing the diversity of the collection and raising its visibility, as only 2% of the artworks in the permanent collection can be displayed publicly at any given time due to a lack of exhibition space. 

“Our galleries’ permanent collection has been an underutilized resource on campus. We hope the launch of the collection’s website will help students and scholars, both on campus and around the world, be able to access our spectacular holdings,” said Gotway.

Erika Kvam, Director and Head Curator of Purdue University Galleries, continued, “Making art accessible and inclusive is a driving motto for Purdue Galleries and digitizing our collections has been a primary goal of mine since taking on the director’s role. I am elated to have all 7,255 objects and object records available online to anyone via our new, bespoke website.  I am also very grateful to the Luce Foundation for supporting this project that is so important to fulfilling our mission of sharing our permanent collections with art researchers worldwide.”

Purdue University Galleries’ permanent collection is comprised of over 6,000 objects from around the world and through time, with artwork ranging from ancient Peruvian textiles to 21st-century American printmaking.

Gotway added, “We are indebted to the Henry Luce Foundation for supporting this project. This new website represents a major step forward in our mission to make art accessible and inclusive and, hopefully, spark a lifelong engagement with artists among Boilermakers and non-Boilermakers past, present and future. We look forward to continuing to add to our collections records and producing first-rate scholarship.”

About the Galleries

All Purdue Galleries exhibitions and events are free and open to the public. For class and group visits, contact Erika Kvam at Purdue Galleries at 765-494-3061. For more information, visit http://www.purdue.edu/galleries or follow @PurdueGalleries on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

About Purdue University

Purdue University is a public research institution demonstrating excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top four in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, including nearly 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue’s main campus has frozen tuition 13 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap — including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the Mitch Daniels School of Business, Purdue Computes and the One Health initiative — at https://www.purdue.edu/president/strategic-initiatives.

The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

There are additions spanning three centuries to discover this week. 

Our record collection grew substantially this week, with the addition of two new sets. Spanning 200 years, there are over a million English directory records for you to explore. 

With brand new transcriptions. you can also discover the history of Jersey's Huguenots between the 17th and 19th centuries. We've also updated our Royal and Imperial Calendars and added two new titles to our newspaper archive.

England Directories

This new collection consists of over 10 million transcriptions and images. 

With records spanning the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, explore England's past in more detail than ever.

Jersey, Huguenot Abjurations 1685-1815

The Huguenots were a Protestant group that fled France from the 18th century to escape persecution. 

This new record set documents the lives of Huguenots that settled on the Channel Island of Jersey, between 1685 and 1815.

Britain, Royal and Imperial Calendars 1767-1973

We've also added 4,395 browse-only images to our collection of British calendars this Findmypast Friday. 

Explore this record.

These images are from intermittent years between 1844 and 1926.

New pages from Whitley to Wolverhampton

We added two new titles to our newspaper collection this week and updated a further 26.

Garstang Courier. 

With brand new pages from across England, there are so many fascinating stories to discover. Here's a full rundown of everything we've added to our archive this week. 

New titles:

• Garstang Courier, 1994, 1998  
• Horsham Advertiser, 1997-1998  

Updated titles:

• Bicester Review, 1994, 1999
• Bridlington Free Press, 1887-1889, 1990, 2000
• Buxton Advertiser, 1977, 1984, 1992
• Dewsbury Reporter, 1993, 1997
• Driffield Times, 1993, 1996
• Dunstable Gazette, 1996-1997, 2001-2002
• Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 1997
• Hemel Hempstead Gazette, 1950, 1981, 1990, 1997
• Knaresborough Post, 1997, 2000
• Lancing Herald, 1995
• Leigh Chronicle & Weekly District Advertiser, 1876, 1880, 1917
• Lincolnshire Standard and Boston Guardian, 1959, 1974
• Magnet (Leeds), 1877-1878, 1880-1882, 1885-1889, 1893
• Milton Keynes Citizen, 1990
• Newton and Earlestown Guardian, 1911-1912, 1949-1950
• Peterborough Advertiser, 1959-1962
• Rugby Advertiser, 1990, 1992, 1997, 2000
• Shields Daily Gazette, 1987, 1990
• Shoreham Herald, 1993-1996
• South Yorkshire Times & Mexborough & Swinton Times, 1955, 1962-1973
• Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette, 1987
• West Lancashire Evening Gazette, 1988, 1990
• Whitley Bay Guardian, 1993-1994

Police said Ernesto Ramon Mercado, who may have been a rideshare driver, targeted young women living in off-campus shared residences. He's linked to crimes in the Georgetown and Glover Park area, and one near the University of Maryland.

A Northern Virginia man could get up to life in prison if he’s convicted of a string of sexual assaults dating back more than a decade. Police say he targeted students at two D.C.-area universities. He was arrested due to new technology and the work of a special unit working with the U.S. Attorney and others to close sex assault cases.

Ernesto Ramon Mercado, 54, of Arlington, is charged with first- and second-degree sexual abuse in connection with a series of home invasion rapes. He’s linked to a total of six assaults between 2008 and 2012.

“These cases stem from six unsolved home invasion rapes,” Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith said. “Five of these crimes occurred in the Georgetown, Glover Park area of Northwest D.C. and one near the University of Maryland in College Park.”

Investigators say Mercado targeted young women living in off-campus shared residences and struck late at night or before dawn.

“In each case, Mercado likely identified his victims through stalking and Peeping Tom activities,” said MPD detective Alexander Mac Bean.

Police say he’d pick intoxicated victims, usually as they walked home, and would wait till the victim was asleep to break in or get in through an unlocked door.

The offender came to be known as the "Georgetown cuddler," but the lead investigator in the case says that term belies the seriousness of the crimes he’s charged with and the harm the victims have suffered.

How DNA and genealogy helped police find the suspect 

Police got DNA from the scenes. While they couldn’t identify who it came from, they knew it was from the same person.

Court documents show police zeroed in on Mercado through DNA profiles submitted to a consumer genealogy service. It's an investigative tool known as genetic genealogy. Police can look up DNA profiles found at a crime scene to find people who are related to the suspect, narrowing down the pool of potential perpetrators.

It’s possible that a relative of Mercado’s was creating a family tree, and police followed the branches as the cold case heated up fast.

Police staked out Mercado's Arlington home and got a warrant for his DNA on Monday.

“We obtained that sample yesterday morning, submitted it for rapid DNA analysis — another tool that has only recently come into existence — and had a DNA match by early afternoon,” U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves said.

“The reward from a case like this is being able to tell a victim years later that we’ve identified the perpetrator that committed this crime,” Mac Bean said.

When Mercado was arrested, time was of the essence. Investigators found that he may have been a rideshare driver. They considered the possibility that he could seek more victims through that work.

Police hope that by releasing pictures of Mercado, anyone else who’s had an encounter with him will come forward.

Police believe Mercado is responsible for dozens of sexual assaults, burglaries and voyeurism cases and there may be additional victims. Anyone with potentially relevant information or who may have been the victim of a related attack is asked to contact police.

The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) today announced the activation of its Humanitarian Emergency Response Operator (HERO) database to facilitate the business aviation industry’s mobilization in support of relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which has caused widespread damage to communities across the Southeastern U.S.

The HERO database allows people to enter information about the availability of airplanes, personnel and other assets for relief missions. Information from the database is provided to government agencies and non-government organizations upon request. The database has previously been activated to support relief missions in the aftermath of hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural disasters. 

“Business aircraft have long played an essential role in providing relief for people and communities in need in times of crisis,” noted Doug Carr, NBAA senior vice president, safety, security, sustainability and international operations. “They are often able to turn roadways into runways, or hillsides into heliports, in order to reach isolated locations. NBAA’s HERO database offers one-stop access to those in business aviation who want to lend a helping hand with their aircraft and other assets.”

The damage from Hurricane Helene is extensive, and the need for emergency supplies continues to grow as many communities remain without critical infrastructure, including electricity, water and cellular service.

The storm came ashore Sept. 26 in the Big Bend section of Florida near the city of Perry with 140 mile per hour winds, moving on into parts of Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Insurers and forecasters have projected that catastrophic damage caused by Helene is somewhere between $15 billion and $100 billion. 

# # #

Founded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their businesses more efficient, productive and successful. The association represents more than 10,000 company and professional members and provides more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community, including the NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE), the world’s largest civil aviation trade show. Learn more about NBAA at nbaa.org.

Members of the media may receive NBAA Press Releases immediately via email. To subscribe to the NBAA Press Release email list, submit the online form.