Here's a condensed recap of today's press conference held by Wake County Superintendent Tony Tata.

Tata reported that both the overall rate of incidents of school crime and of violent crime in particular had dropped. There were 41 reported violent incidents this past school year, compared to 99 the prior year.

“Make no mistake,” Tata. “It’s my belief that one violent crime incident is one too many but we’re moving in the right direction here.”

Here's an abbreviated recap of today's Wake County school board meeting with more to come later.

A decision on the grading practices was delayed until Aug. 16 to give more time for public comment and to allow staff to report back on additional information on the rationale for going back to letter grades in grades 3-5 and to learn more about how behaviors would be incorporated into the policy.

But the signs are that the new grading policy will pass with school board vice chairman John Tedesco strongly advocating for the revision. But you could still see some revisions made to the R&P.

Is Wake County school board chairman Ron Margiotta now singing a different tune on the issue of reviewing the school resource officer program?

In an interview Wednesday on the Bill LuMaye Show on WPTF, Margiotta was effusive in this praise of the school resource officer program as being necessary now that society has changed. He said he's hoping Superintendent Tony Tata's review will not result in any change of the program.

"I have some serious concerns with the fact that we're even considering making any changes," Margiotta said. "That's my personal feeling."

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST

How much change, if any, will be made in the way school resource officers operate in Wake County schools?

As noted in today's article, Wake Superintendent Tony Tata is expected to report back in September to the school board on the survey they requested of the effectiveness of the SRO program. It's a prelude to efforts to revise this memorandum of understanding that governs how the SROs operate in the schools.

While a majority of the board asked for the survey and indicated they wanted to review the MOU, it's uncertain how far they're willing to go to change the agreement. It's also uncertain how much the various law enforcement enforcement agencies would be willing to change.

It looks like, for now, high schools in Cary and Raleigh will still have police officers assigned to them for the 2011-12 school year

After a lengthy debate, the Wake County school board unanimously agreed tonight to continue their contracts with the Raleigh and Cary police departments for school resource officers for the high schools. As part of the vote, Superintendent Tony Tata was directed to come back in three months with a review of the SRO program.

But before the vote, some board members talked about delaying the vote and what would be necessary should they terminate the deals.

DroidKungFu gives hackers full control over an infected device, and has ninja-like ability to avoid detection by mobile anti-virus software.

N.C. State researchers, assistant professor Xuxian Jiang and Ph.D. student Yajin Zhou, identified the new Android malware, called DroidKungFu, which is spreading via several Android app stores and forums based in China. While they have not discovered the malware beyond Chinese sources yet, the report stresses the search is in the early 'grasshopper' stage.

Yes, again, Sony has been hacked. This time hacker group Lulz Security is taking credit for the attack on SonyMusic.co.jp.

"This isn't a 1337 h4x0r, we just want to embarrass Sony some more," the hackers said in a note mocking Sony which also delivered a warning of two other vulnerable data bases.

Does it make you think twice ... or thrice about your online accounts?

It's been expensive both in terms of monetary cost and staff time responding to the various NAACP-related complaints filed against the Wake County school system for ending the diversity policy.

Based on a handout shared at Tuesday's board work session, school administrators estimated that they've spent 807.7 hours in staff time dealing with the Open Meetings lawsuit, the AdvancED investigation and the federal civil rights investigation.

The majority of the time, 592.2 hours, was spent responding to the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights investigation.

Sony says hackers may have stolen credit card data in the attack that brought down the electronic giant's PlayStation Network comprised of about 77 million users.

On the online FAQ it has posted in response, Sony states, "If an account holder provided credit card data through PlayStation Network or Qriocity, it is possible that the credit card number (excluding security code) and expiration date may also have been obtained."

The warning came several days after the security breach. Sony says their forensic analysis of the April 19 intrusion did not discover the risk until late Tuesday.

Several major retailers and banks have issued warnings to customers following a security breach. Customer email lists were exposed during an unauthorized entry at Epsilon, a Texas-based marketing firm whose clients include Best Buy, Capital One, Kroger and many more.

The emails could be used in "phishing" scams or mass spamming.

Several companies have acknowledged the security risk:

    Ameriprise Financial
    Barclays Bank
    Best Buy
    Brookstone
    Capital One
    Citigroup
    The College Board
    Disney Destinations
    The Home Shopping Network
    JPMorgan Chase & Co.
    Kroger
    LL Bean Visa Card
    Marriott Rewards
    McKinsey Quarterly
    New York & Company
    Ritz-Carlton Rewards
    Tivo Inc.
    US Bank Inc.
    Walgreens