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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The city of Atlanta government has apparently become the victim of a ransomware attack. The city's official Twitter account announced that the city government "is currently experiencing outages on various customer facing applications, including some that customers may use to pay bills or access court-related information." According to a report from Atlanta NBC affiliate WXIA, a city employee sent the station a screen shot of a ransomware message demanding a payment of $6,800 to unlock each computer or $51,000 to provide all the keys for affected systems. Employees received emails from the city's information technology department instructing them to unplug their computers if they noticed anything suspicious. An internal email shared with WXIA said that the internal systems affected include the city's payroll application. "At this time, our Atlanta Information Management team is working diligently with support from Microsoft to resolve the issue," a city spokesperson told Ars. "We are confident that our team of technology professionals will be able to restore applications soon." The city's primary website remains online, and the city government will continue to post updates there, the spokesperson added.

McGruber writes: Information Technology Services CorporationWipro's 600-employee call center in Chamblee, Georgia is in infected with bed bugs according to Atlanta television station 11Alive. The facilities manager admits there is a bed bug problem and it's been an issue since late May. Employees told the tv station that the bugs are all over the three floors -- and they're biting. But employees are being told they still must go to work. Kwanita Holmes sent 11Alive photos of what she said is a bed bug bite on her arm: "We're at work 8 hours a day and we're getting munched on all day," she said. Wipro said it's paying for in-home bed bug consultations and treatments for employees.

sl4shd0rk writes "It seems you can be arrested in Georgia for drawing 5 cents of electricity from a school's outdoor receptacle. Kaveh Kamooneh was charged with theft for plugging his Nissan Leaf into a Chamblee Middle School 110V outlet; the same outlet one could use to charge a laptop or cellphone. The Leaf draws 1KW/hour while charging which works out to under $0.10 of electricity per hour. Mr Kamooneh charged his Leaf for less than 30 minutes, which works out to about a nickel. Sgt. Ernesto Ford, the arresting officer, pointed out, 'theft is a theft,' which was his argument for arresting Mr. Kamooneh. Considering the cost of the infraction, it does not seem a reasonable decision when considering how much this will cost the state in legal funds. Does this mean anyone charging a laptop or cell phone will be charged with theft as well?"

When an attendant on Hong Kong Airlines tells you to return your tray to its upright position, you'd better listen. The airline is training cabin crew in a form of kung fu called wing chun to aid them in dealing with drunk or unruly passengers. Lumpy Tang, winner of this year's Most Unfortunate Name contest, and newly hired attendant, says, "You cannot predict what will happen on the plane, so wing chun is good because it's so fast. I feel safer because I can defend myself and I'm happy to be one of the first cabin crew to learn wing chun in the world."

Unable to find a baby with a bag of candy to steal, 20-year-old Gage Turner and 21-year-old Warner Robins decided to rob a lemonade stand. 13-year-old Chelsea Edwards set up the stand with the help of some of her friends to raise money for her critically ill cousin Logan. From the article: "'I still can't get over it,' said Logan and Chelsea's grandmother Judy Bailey. She said one of the suspects scratched Chelsea's leg during the robbery, but that wasn't what hurt the most. 'My grandaughter was lying on the ground crying, devastated. She's been really having a hard time at night, the last two nights. I said, 'It's going to be okay. We're going to get there. One way or another we're going to get to Cincinnati, all of us. Don't you worry.'"