Social Media

A 41-year-old Perris middle school teacher was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of trying to seduce a minor, authorities said. Jeffrey Rightmire, who works at  Lakeside Middle School , allegedly sent harmful material by text and the Internet "with the intent to seduce a minor," the Riverside County Sheriff's Department said in a statement. A spokesman for the Val Verde Unified School District said that two students alerted school officials Monday that a girl was allegedly involved with a teacher on campus, according to a report in the Riverside Press Enterprise . School officials allegedly found inappropriate discussions with between the student and teacher on social media.

A popular canyon area of Joshua Tree National Park has been shut down because vandals have defaced the area with graffiti splashed across rocks and archeological sites, officials said Monday. Rattlesnake Canyon has been shut down temporarily as park officials assess the damage, which apparently has been encouraged by people on social media sites, according to officials. "The continued malicious desecration of the national park has now impacted archeological sites," park officials said in a statement.  Park rangers began noticing the scrawls in January.

In the wake of her death, Margaret Thatcher was mentioned more than 1.5 million times Monday on Twitter, an outpouring of online sorrow, glee and furor over the profoundly polarizing British leader. Although many Twitter users marked her passing with praise or a simple “RIP,” others who loathed the former prime minister joked online about throwing parties to celebrate her death. Many politicians who battled Thatcher during her life chose their words carefully in official statements after her death, but other critics were far less genteel in social media.

Second of two parts Phil Richards used to like his job driving a forklift in a produce and meat warehouse. He took pride in steering a case of beef with precision. Now, he says, he has to speed through the warehouse to meet quotas, tracked by bosses each step of the way. Through a headset, a voice tells him what to do and how much time he has to do it. It makes the Unified Grocers warehouse in Santa Fe Springs operate smoothly with fewer employees, but it also makes Richards' work stressful.

Recent vandalism to rocks and walls at Rattlesnake Canyon has prompted officials at Joshua Tree National Park to close the popular trail temporarily to protect it from further damage. The problem has been building since January, beginning with a few spray-painted markings and scratching in the day use and canyon areas of Rattlesnake Canyon. Officials believe that the defacing has escalated as vandals have used social media to brag about their actions. Damage has now affected archaeological sites, and park officials say they don't have the resources to quickly clean the rocks.

Ellen DeGeneres' discovery on YouTube of two British cousins -- who loved to sing and dance in pink frilly dresses -- marked "the beginning of a beautiful friendship," to borrow from Humphrey Bogart in "Casablanca. " In this case, the friendship that blossomed was between "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and YouTube, the popular video website owned by Google.  Executives at YouTube and Warner Bros., which produces DeGeneres' afternoon talk show, pinpoint the first appearance of the pint-sized crooners, Sophia Grace and Rosie, on DeGeneres' show in late 2011 as a spark that helped ignite DeGeneres' social media supernova status.

Authorities were still searching Friday morning for two missing teenagers who they believe ran away from their homes in Thousand Oaks and may be suicidal. Capt. Dave Wareham of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department said late Thursday that deputies had turned their attention away from a 2,000-acre park and had cast their net wider.   Kaylee Rebert, 14, and Nicholas Marino, 13, are believed to have run away from home early Thursday. Wildwood Park was a likely spot because Kaylee knew the park well and was there Wednesday, Wareham said.

Jimmy Fallon has been crowned the next king of late-night television, but the empire he will inherit has seen better days. "Late Night" host Fallon, who will succeed Jay Leno in "The Tonight Show" chair in 2014, is charged with trying to reenergize a franchise that has lost much of its luster as viewers flock to cable television and the Internet for entertainment. Once an appearance on "The Tonight Show" could turn an unknown into a star overnight. Now a video on YouTube can do that.

SEOUL -- A group of hackers claimed it broke into North Korea's Twitter and Flickr social media sites Thursday. North Korea's Twitter account, which normally posts articles and bellicose rhetoric from the regime in Pyongyang, included tweets reading “hacked” or “Tango down.” The government's Flickr account included a picture of leader Kim Jong Un with a snout and pig ears and a Mickey Mouse image on his torso. The post included text reading "threatening world peace with ICBMs and Nuclear weapons/wasting money while his people starve to death.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Securities and Exchange Commission says companies can use social media such as Facebook and Twitter to disseminate key information just as they already do on corporate websites. But, the agency said, companies must make it clear that they plan to make that information available on social media outlets so that investors know where to look for it. The SEC issued guidance in 2008 allowing companies to post information on websites as long as they alert investors.