News 14 Carolina - Political Connections

Cooper not happy. Attorney Roy General and the SBI Computer Crimes Unit picked up an award today from the National Law Center for Children and Families. It's dubbed the Child Defender of the Month Award. It's for their effort to nab criminals who use the internet to pick up kids.

Anywho, Coop was pretty blunt about his disliking of how lawmakers treated his child protection act bill. It passed the Senate and did nothing in the House. He was particularly mad about the social networking parental permission part of the bill that was axed and penalties that were lessened. He said high paid lobbyists for the industry convinced lawmakers to do it. The bill does remain alive for the spring.

The Computer Crimes Unit chief says he gets 20-30 calls a week directly from parents asking for help to catch someone preying on their child.

More on that in my story this afternoon.

I also asked about a death penalty update and well..not much of one. I'm told to expect another hearing in front of Judge Stephens at the end of this month but it's only to take up a few motions.