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The state auditor's office found "gross mismanagement" at a company that provided rural transportation services for the N.C. Department of Transportation and wants it investigated by authorities.

The Cary company 2Plus worked for years without a contract, overcharged the state, and took poor care of DOT-owned vehicles, according to auditors.

The DOT employee who managed the contract, former Public Transportation Division Director Miriam S. Perry, retired last year.

Noting that the contract with 2Plus was the only one Perry personally managed and that the company employed a former DOT worker, auditors said they were sending the report to the State Bureau of Investigation. Calls to Perry and 2Plus were not returned.

Paul F. Morris said he moved to end the state's association with 2Plus when he started work last fall as the department's deputy secretary for transit.

"We ceased operation of the program, we cooperated with the state auditor's office to identify any deficiencies, and we've since been working diligently to implement every action we can to ensure it doesn't happen again," he said. The company stopped operating the program Nov. 30.

According to the audit, 2Plus received $4.3 million in state and federal money over 11 years to operate the van pool.

In those years, the company worked without a contract for the equivalent of about six years, billed the department for $163,272 in various charges that appear "excessive and unreasonable," and didn't properly maintain the DOT-owned vans, according to the audit. One van went 45,000 miles before it got its first oil change, the audit said.

According to the audit, counties, not the state, usually manage rural van pool programs aimed at getting people in rural areas where there is no bus service to jobs. The report said 2Plus was the only van pool operator paid directly through the state transportation department.

Perry faced no discipline, Morris said, because she retired soon after the department learned of the audit and the scope of the problems. When asked, Perry was forthcoming about the situation, he said.

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Auditors: Investigate transport firm that worked for DOT

RESTON, VA--(Marketwire -03/08/12)- Nearly six million domain names were added to the Internet in the fourth quarter of 2011, bringing the total number of registered domain names to more than 225 million worldwide across all domains, according to the latest Domain Name Industry Brief, published by VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN - News), the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world.

The increase of 5.9 million domain names equates to a growth rate of 2.7 percent over the third quarter of 2011, and marks the fourth straight quarter with greater than 2 percent growth. Registrations have grown by more than 20.4 million, or 10 percent, since the fourth quarter of 2010.

The .com and .net Top Level Domains (TLDs) experienced aggregate growth in the fourth quarter, reaching a combined total of 113.8 million names. This represents approximately a 2 percent increase in the base over the third quarter of 2011 and an 8 percent increase over the same quarter in 2010. New .com and .net registrations totaled 7.9 million during the quarter. This is a 4 percent increase year-over-year in new registrations. The .com/.net renewal rate for the fourth quarter was 73.5 percent, up from 73.3 percent for the third quarter.

Verisign's average daily Domain Name System (DNS) query load during the quarter was 64 billion, with a peak of 117 billion. Compared to the previous quarter, the daily average increased 8 percent and the peak grew 51 percent.

Domain Name Hijacking - A Serious but Manageable ThreatThe latest issue of the Domain Name Industry Brief focuses on "domain name hijacking," in which perpetrators fraudulently transfer domain names by password theft or social engineering. As defined by security experts, domain name hijacking occurs when an attacker falsifies the registration data for a domain name, transferring that name away from its rightful registrant and gaining full administrative and operational control over the domain.

The brief analyzes how attackers use a wide range of techniques to hijack domain names, from spyware and keystroke loggers to "social engineering," in which scammers impersonate registrants, registrars, or other entities in the chain of trust in order to gain access to passwords and personal information.

Regardless of the technique used, the end-result for registrants is often severe. Once an attacker has full control of a domain name, they have free reign to use it for any number of nefarious purposes, from creating their own scam websites, to hosting illegal and dangerous content, to extorting the original owner.

While the danger of domain name hijacking is significant, it is a threat that can be significantly reduced with proper planning and mitigation techniques, such as:

Verisign publishes the Domain Name Industry Brief to provide Internet users throughout the world with significant statistical and analytical research and data on the domain name industry and the Internet as a whole. Copies of the 2011 fourth quarter Domain Name Industry Brief, as well as previous reports, can be obtained at: http://www.verisigninc.com/DNIB.

About Verisign VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN - News) is the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world. Billions of times each day, Verisign helps companies and consumers all over the world connect between the dots. Additional news and information about the company is available at http://www.verisigninc.com.

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Internet Grows to More Than 225 Million Domain Names in the Fourth Quarter of 2011

When news broke that regulators had approved the Comcast/NBCU mega-merger in January 2011, I was at the annual State of the Net meeting on Capitol Hill. I missed most of the conference to hole up in my hotel room and write about the deal; the monster transaction would have more impact on the state of internet access in America than any panel discussion at the conference.

Heres why: With the addition of control over NBCUs wildly profitable cable channels (and NBC sports programming) to its existing commanding lead in territory for the provision of high-speed internet access, Comcast can make it just too expensive for any private-sector wired competitor to show up as a cheaper distributor of information, entertainment, data, and voice services.

High-speed internet is the stuff of modern life and the infrastructure America needs to thrive as a global competitor. But many of Americas great cities are now Comcast country when it comes to wired high-speed internet access. (And if youre not in Comcast country, youre probably in Time Warner or Cablevision country these companies dont enter each others territories.) The consumers bank account is suffering and were lagging as a nation, but Comcast is doing well.

Last December, the other shoe dropped: Verizon Wireless and Comcast agreed to market each others services. Verizon waved a white flag, implicitly agreeing not to compete with Comcast on the wired side of high-speed internet access by recognizing that the moat around Comcasts (and Time Warners) business was just too wide to cross. (As a practical matter, only Verizons FiOS can compete with Comcasts DOCSIS 3.0 services, but in 85% of Comcasts footprint there are no FiOS services. Because its too expensive to rip out copper and install fiber, Verizon isnt going to expand, leaving Comcast customers with no choice.)

The prospects Comcast are targeting with Internet Essentials arent customers it wants in the long run; the program, in a sense, filters out people who cant pay by readying them to pay later.

Comcast was also implicitly agreeing not to build its own wireless facilities, making Verizon Wirelesss business plans more certain.

And so the private providers of internet access in America are dividing the market you take wired, Ill take wireless which is all to the good for their shareholders, but not so great for the rest of us.

Now that it faces no competition from other private wired providers and is conceding that wireless was always a complementary service not a substitute for its wires even Comcast has to be just slightly worried that someone will notice that it is selling an essential commodity with zero oversight. Its as if a single company was providing water or electricity in your town and could choose whom to serve and how much to charge not something most Americans would think was a good idea.

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Water, Internet Access and Swagger: These Guys Are Good

Teen Internet addiction can predict past or present drug abuse. (Credit: Thinkstock/Getty Images)

Parents already panicky about the amount of time their teenage children spend online may now have something new to worry about: All those hours spent Web surfing, chatting, gaming, texting and posting to Facebook could be a warning sign of substance abuse, according to a new study in the March issue of the Journal of Addiction Medicine.

Greek researchers found that teenagers with pathologic Internet use were more likely to admit to drug abuse, and as excessive Internet use increased, so did the likelihood of substance abuse. The study also linked substance abuse and excessive Internet use to such personality traits as nonconformity, aggressiveness, recklessness and impulsiveness.

Not only did we find that specific personality attributes were important in both substance abuse and Internet addiction, but that Internet addiction remained an important predictor of substance abuse, study co-author Georgios Floros, at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, said in an email to ABCNews.com.

Floros and colleagues surveyed 1,271 students between the ages of 14 and 19 on the Aegean island of Kos about their Internet use, substance use and personality. To determine who was Internet addicted, the researchersadministereda 20-question Internet addiction test that asked how often the students stayed online longer than theyd intended, how often their grades or studiesslipped because of the amount of line spent online, how often theyd yell, snap or act annoyed if someone bothered them while they were online.

When they compared the mean values of illicit substance abuse among the teenage participants, the researchers found that those who reported substance abuse had significantly higher mean scores on the Internet addiction test, and that those scores were important predictors for substance use, either past or present.

The predictive element showed an interesting new finding, said Floros.

Its not a shocking result to me, David Greenfield, a Connecticut psychologist and founder of the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction, told ABCNews.com. The study offers another set of variables to look at when doing a workup.

Dr. Megan Moreno, a pediatric and adolescent medicine specialist at UW Health in Madison, Wis., said, Ive definitely seen kids who showed signs of problematic Internet use. Some of them do go on to have other problem behaviors. Sometimes thats substance abuse, sometimes its other addictive behaviors, like excess exercise or excess shopping.

Parents might wonder when they should start to worry about their Internet addict kids. At what point does mere gadget fixation morph into something more pathologic or addictive?And what is pathologic Internet use?

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Internet Addiction Linked to Drug Abuse

MARQUEE VALUE: End of the Rainbow

By Matthew Blank 09 Mar 2012

Judy Garland's final days will play out at the Belasco Theatre when the hit End Of The Rainbow makes its Broadway debut there March 19, 2012. Michael Cumpsty, Tom Pelphrey and Jay Russell will join Olivier Award nominee Tracie Bennett.

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As previously reported, Bennett, who earned an Olivier Award nomination for her portrayal of Garland in the final year of her life, will repeat her performance for American audiences. Peter Quilter's music-filled drama will officially open at the Belasco April 2, 2012, under the direction of Tony Award-winning La Cage aux Folles director Terry Johnson.

photos by Monica Simoes

Joining Bennett will be Cumpsty (The Constant Wife, Democracy) as Garland's accompanist, Anthony, with Emmy winner Pelphrey ("Guiding Light") as her husband, Mickey Deans, and Russell (Our Town, The Play What I Wrote) in a variety of roles.

Prior to their Broadway arrival, the American cast of End of the Rainbow will first play Minneapoliss Guthrie Theater Jan. 28-March 11, 2012.

According to the producers, "End of the Rainbow is set in December 1968 and Judy Garland is about to make her comeback... again. In a London hotel room preparing for a series of concerts, with both her new young fianc and her adoring accompanist, Garland struggles to get 'beyond the rainbow' with her signature cocktail of talent, tenacity, and razor-sharp wit. This savagely funny drama offers unique insight into the inner conflict that inspired and consumed one of the most beloved figures in American popular culture. End of the Rainbow features some of Garlands most memorable songs, performed with the show-stopping gusto for which she will always be remembered."

Bennett previously worked with Johnson in the London revival of La Cage aux Folles. She earned Olivier Awards for her performances as Velma Von Tussle in Hairspray and as Ilona Ritter She Loves Me. Her stage credits also include Les Miserables and Cash On Delivery. Numerous screen appearances include "Vincent," "The Long Firm," "Heroes and Villains," "Next of Kin," "Coronation Street," "Going Out," "Shirley Valentine," "Knights and Emeralds" and "Deep Red Instant Love."

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MARQUEE VALUE: End of the Rainbow