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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MORNING REPORT Wednesday, September 3, 2014 INCIDENTS Yosemite NP Fraud Indictment Returned Against Former Lodge Employee Following a two-year-long investigation by the Investigative Services Branch, a federal grand jury returned a six-count indictment on August 28th against J.W., 34, former resident of Yosemite, California, charging him with wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and taking property from Yosemite Lodge. Between October 2011 and December 2012, J.W., who was then assistant manager at Yosemite Lodge, reversed hotel charges on existing and fabricated reservations. He then directed the hotel to credit his and his wife's personal accounts rather than the account of the person whose name appeared on the reservation. In total, J.W. manipulated approximately 50 reservations. He stole and embezzled and defrauded the hotel out of over $87,000 in funds to which he was not entitled. [Investigative Services Branch] OTHER NEWS The following stories are among those in today's webpage editions of InsideNPS (available to NPS employees only) and the Morning Report (available to all readers): Office of Communications - Approximately 150 parks and programs posted messages on Facebook and/or Twitter to commemorate the Service's 98th birthday in August. A Facebook gallery has been created with the nearly 250 images that were submitted. Today's Almanac - A potent storm system will bring a chance of severe thunderstorms to parts of the Upper Midwest. Very large hail, damaging wind gusts, tornadoes and heavy rain are possible. Valley Forge NHP - The park's “Summer of Bugs,” a season-long effort to collect data on insects in Valley Forge, came to a conclusion in late August with a 24-hour BugBlitz. Interpretation and Education Division - A cooperative agreement has been signed with Environment for the Americas that will foster interdisciplinary cooperation related to bird habitat and raise awareness about bird conservation. Jimmy Carter NHS - Twenty people became United States citizens in a ceremony held in the park on Founders' Day. President Carter attended and congratulated the new citizens. Intermountain Region - Tom Baker, a 24-year veteran of the NPS, has been named superintendent of Fort Laramie National Historic Site in Wyoming. He will assume his new role on September 21st. To see the full text of these stories, readers should go to one or the other of the following sites: NPS employees - HYPERLINK "http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index" http://inside.nps.gov/index.cfm?handler=index Non-NPS employees - HYPERLINK "http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/" http://www.nps.gov/morningreport/ The Morning Report is produced by the Office of Communications with the support of the Office of the Associate Director for Information Resources. Edited by Bill Halainen ( HYPERLINK "mailto:Bill_Halainen@contractor.nps.gov" Bill_Halainen@contractor.nps.gov). --- ### --- |