Downstroke

Hacker attack: If you’ve used your credit card at the A.S. Bookstore lately, expect a note in the mail. The Associated Students are still cleaning up the mess after a security breach of the store’s Web site about a month ago.

The site was hacked on Aug. 7, but a University Police Department investigation indicates that the motive wasn’t identify theft, but rather a desire to use the bookstore’s ample server space to store video images—perhaps illegal copies of movies not yet released on video or DVD.

“We don’t believe that any information was taken,” said Michael Dailey, A.S. president. Even so, Senate Bill 1386, which took effect July 1, requires that customers be notified any time an incident occurs that could have compromised their confidential data.

The bookstore is in the process of sending out about 4,000 letters at a cost of at least $1,000. “It is the law and something we’d want to inform our customers of anyway,” Dailey said.

We just hope no one has to sit through that Gigli movie to complete the investigation.

No supe snub: Each year since he was hired as superintendent of the Chico Unified School District, Scott Brown (pictured) has received a raise. This year, he’ll be sitting it out.

“As much as we all appreciate the superintendent and the fine job he’s doing, we just couldn’t justify it. It would be a slap in the face to the people we had to lay off,” said Trustee Anthony Watts. “We gave him a vote of confidence rather than a raise.”

Besides raising his number of sick days from 12 to 18 per year, Brown’s contract was renewed for four years instead of the usual three. “It’s a show of support for the superintendent and faith in his leadership,” said board President Rick Anderson. This is the first annual review for the superintendent since three new board members were elected last November.

Brown, who is paid $131,187 a year, said he agreed that it was not “appropriate to increase that amount during these difficult budgetary times.”

He started in June 1999 at $115,000 plus a $6,000 car allowance. His first raise was equal to the Cost of Living Adjustment—about 2 percent. This year, no employees groups in the CUSD got COLA increases, although teachers were eligible for steps-and-columns raises to the tune of $1 million.

Take it off: The D.A.’s Office notched a small victory in its case against several strippers from the now-defunct First Amendment Club Tuesday, when one of the women, Shannon Staudinger, 24, pled no contest to one count of indecent exposure. In the bargain, prosecutors agreed to drop the seven prostitution counts Staudinger was facing. She was fined $100 and sentenced to two years’ probation.

The D.A. and Sheriff’s Office have been harshly criticized for pursuing this case by defense attorneys who claim the March 2001 sting of the club was botched and ill-advised. Two separate juries have thrown out charges against other defendants in cases resulting from the bust, one a club manager accused of pandering, the other a stripper accused of prostitution.

The charges stem from an undercover sheriff’s video that seems to show skin-to-skin contact between strippers and clients, which defense attorneys have said is standard in strip clubs across the country. The D.A. will probably drop one more case but is still pursuing charges against five First Amendment dancers.