Myspace

MYSPACE and similar sites are dangerous for kids with all their personal information. But it seems they are here to stay, and there's talk about ways to make them safer, especially for minors. One way I haven't heard mention of is to make them pay sites, charging a nominal fee in which a credit card would have to be used to pay for access. Minors would have to go through parents to sign up, and parents would know their child has a page and can monitor it. Joe Tierney, Philadelphia

MySpace is expanding into green space. Joining the effort to save the environment, the social network has broken free of the confines of the Internet to publish its first book, MySpace/Our Planet: Change Is Possible (HarperTEEN, $12.99 paper), a handbook of tips for young adults interested in keeping Earth healthy. The purpose of the book, according to the publisher, is to extend Earth Day - which is today - to last all year long. In the process, MySpace has become the first social network to extend its brand off-line and into the literary world.

A thief made a poor decision when he attempted to rob off-duty Police Officer Deona Carter outside her Overbrook Park home early Wednesday. Carter, 29, an eight-year veteran assigned to the 18th District in West Philadelphia, chased off the would-be thief after smashing him in the face with a glass vase. Just before 2 a.m., Carter went to her balcony after her car alarm sounded, according to police. Five minutes later, the alarm went off again and she went to check on the car, parked behind her apartment complex.

During the 45-minute wait that preceded Kate Nash's arrival on stage at the Trocadero Theatre on Saturday, the sold-out crowd heard a mix of '60s Motown and girl-group hits. Like the Supremes and the Shirelles, Nash sings precise, sharply written, eminently catchy songs of love's travails. It's her hooky, bouncy piano-based tunes like "Foundations" and "Mouthwash" from her debut Made of Bricks that drew the flock of long-haired high school girls in flower-print dresses in homage to Nash's poodle-skirt style.

Like thousands of college students across the country, Jon Lozano uses his online Facebook profile to socialize. But the Penn State junior is also part of a small but growing number of young adults who use their online profiles to stump for candidates. Besides creating a personal snapshot of his life on his Facebook page, Lozano includes a link to an online group he created to support U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum's reelection bid. The political site allows a visitor to connect online with others who back the Pennsylvania Republican and participate in online discussions about the race.

The "Who Killed Matt Novak?" MySpace page has more than 10,000 "friends," but has yielded few clues about the identity of Novak's killers. Two years after the 24-year-old Mullica Hill man was shot in the Spring Garden section of Philadelphia, police and family members continue to pursue tips. A picnic is scheduled for Saturday to raise reward money. "Any waking moment that I have outside of keeping the rest of my family going . . . we're concentrating everything we have on that," said Novak's father, also Matthew.

For the ladies of Square Rootz, the push and pull of MySpace always trumps traditional marketing when getting the word out about their year-old lifestyle and media collective. They post announcements there for Philadelphia and New York events. They link MySpace friends to the grassroots organization's blog entries. MySpace acts as an indispensable business tool, says the group's cofounder, Marly Pierre-Louis. Yet ask Pierre-Louis how she feels about MySpace as a social tool, and that's another story.

Garden Wellington-Logan, a 36-year-old mother, wanted to connect with people online, but figured she was born too late for one of the top Internet hangouts. "We're not the MySpace generation. We missed out on that," said Logan, who avoids the popular social networking site. "It's a little overwhelming. There's always some sort of wild and crazy video. It just seems a little too racy for where I am now. " Instead, she turned to MomSpace.com, a site for mothers created by two women: Joani Reisen, 41, of Chadds Ford, and Erica Rubach, 32, of Garnet Valley.

In the spring of 2006, Shawn Little met a 14-year-old Bucks County boy on MySpace.com, the self-styled "place for friends. " Little, however, was no friend. He was a 25-year-old man trolling the Web for boys. Posing on MySpace as a fellow teen, Little approached the youth online, lured him to his Levittown home, and sexually assaulted him. Calling him "every parent's nightmare," Bucks County Court Judge Albert Cepparulo sent Little to state prison last spring for six to 15 years.

8 tonight CHANNEL 12 Diane Birch's (right) album, "Bible Belt," sounds like the voice of a seasoned professional but it's her debut. She played in hotel lobbies for years until she was discovered on MySpace. Hear her at WXPN-FM's XPoNential Music Festival in Camden.

YOU DON'T SEE Dice Raw with the Roots on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon ," but the North Philly rapper/producer/songwriter played an integral part of the hometown hip-hop heroes' newest release, "Undun. " Dice Raw, born Karl Jenkins , sings on "Lighthouse" and "One Time," two fan favorites on "Undun," and co-wrote and sings or raps on several other songs from the record. A longtime collaborator of the Roots, Dice's contributions to "Undun" and 2010's "How I Got Over" seem to be bringing him the attention he deserves.

A thief made a poor decision when he attempted to rob off-duty Police Officer Deona Carter outside her Overbrook Park home early Wednesday. Carter, 29, an eight-year veteran assigned to the 18th District in West Philadelphia, chased off the would-be thief after smashing him in the face with a glass vase. Just before 2 a.m., Carter went to her balcony after her car alarm sounded, according to police. Five minutes later, the alarm went off again and she went to check on the car, parked behind her apartment complex.

ANOTHER MONTH, another lawsuit filed against Officer Deona Carter. This could get expensive for Philadelphia taxpayers. Carter, 29, who sparked an Internal Affairs investigation this year by posting on MySpace a steamy photo of herself in her police hat, is being sued yet again - this time by her own cousin and former roommate in West Philadelphia. The latest civil-rights suit, the third filed against Carter since October, alleges that Carter used her badge to intimidate Taleah Bryant, 28, and to file bogus terroristic-threat charges against her after Bryant refused to allow Carter's mother to take custody of her child.

ANOTHER MONTH, another lawsuit filed against Officer Deona Carter. This could get expensive for Philadelphia taxpayers. Carter, 29, who sparked an Internal Affairs investigation this year by posting on MySpace a steamy photo of herself in her police hat, is being sued yet again - this time by her own cousin and former roommate in West Philadelphia. The latest civil-rights suit, the third filed against Carter since October, alleges that Carter used her badge to intimidate Taleah Bryant, 28, and to file bogus terroristic-threat charges against her after Bryant refused to allow Carter's mother to take custody of her child.

Ruth Furman admired her close friend's candor and excellent communication skills. That's why it seemed like a slap in the face when that same friend unexpectedly ended their relationship in an e-mail instead of in person. "It was devastating," says Furman, who runs a marketing and public relations firm. Friendships used to be based on socializing and shared values, interests, and experiences. As lives changed, friendships waxed and waned. Friends could drift apart naturally, says Andrea Bonior, a licensed clinical psychologist and author of this year's book The Friendship Fix: The Complete Guide to Choosing, Losing and Keeping Up With Your Friends.

"Domelights.com ain't dead yet!" So says a Twitterer who semi-resurrected the online police forum that police brass abolished in 2009 because commenters so frequently sunk to racist rants and other offensive diatribes. The Domelights Twitter account as of yesterday had 350 followers - far fewer than the thousands who checked out Domelights.com during its nine-year run. The identity of the Twitterer is unclear; Sgt. Frederic McQuiggan, the cop who created the controversial website, couldn't be reached for comment yesterday.

SINCE JOINING the Philadelphia Police Department in 2003, Officer Deona Carter has been heralded by her supervisors as a "reliable" cop with "sound judgment. " "Carter's appearance is professional and she gets along well with her peers," her boss wrote in a 2008 performance report. The 29-year-old officer's Internet fans also rave about her appearance. "Sexy ass," one horndog wrote on her MySpace page. "If u r the law i m so doing the crime," another wrote. "YOU CAN HANDCUFF ME AND BEAT ME," wrote an online friend named "butta.

YESTERDAY, when it had become clear that Arnold Schwarzenegger had diddled a member of his household staff, there was some question as to what the then-unnamed woman did. Personal assistant? Nanny? Cook? Nope, Mildred Patty Baena was a maid. As if there was any doubt. The woman who mussed up Maria Shriver 's sheets, also washed them. Here are the other updates to one of the creepiest tales since the Brothers Grimm . The "event," as Arnold referred to it in his statement (not even giving it the dignity of a "special event")

She's got the looks, poise, and voice. But whether spunky Chester Springs singer-songwriter Katelyn Krapf makes it - wherever it resides these days - depends on fickle strangers with laptops. Krapf, a soulful West Chester University freshman, seems completely unfazed by the thought of trusting her fate to electronics. Just 18, she's already a veteran of two American Idol auditions and a $20,000 Nashville recording scam. The 2010 Downingtown High School East graduate has five websites where fans can look, listen, and learn about the self-described "nobody.

AT THE RISK of sounding harsh, how could the parents of accused shooter Jared Lee Loughner have missed so many signs that their son was a major safety threat? I know no one wants to acknowledge that his or her child could become a mass murderer, but I'm tired of hearing from relatives after the fact that they didn't know their loved one was capable of committing the unspeakable. Randy and Amy Loughner haven't spoken out publicly yet so we don't know what they have to say. But they had to know their son was in deep trouble.