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For more than 30 years, a man known as Roger A. Pearce Jr. worked as a prosperous land-use and zoning attorney in Oregon and Washington. He represented some of the Pacific Northwest’s most prominent people and businesses and took on high-profile projects. He served on planning commissions, nonprofit boards and racked up hours doing pro bono legal work. He and his wife retired to a $1.4 million condo on Seattle’s Lake Washington. By all accounts, the now-77-year-old had made a good name for himself. Except one thing: Roger Pearce wasn’t actually his name. It belonged to a baby who died in Vermont in 1952. Pearce stole the identity when he was in his early 20s and looking to leave his troubles behind — college dropout, check fraud, a failed marriage. The State Department unmasked him only in 2022 during a review of one of his applications for a new passport. Federal workers detected that he had applied for a new Social Security number as an adult — a red flag. But they still couldn’t figure out who he truly was. So prosecutors last year indicted the man in federal court in Oregon as “John Doe,” charging him with making a false statement in an application for a passport, a felony. He was arrested last year on a warrant in Washington. When he pleaded guilty three months ago to an identity fraud misdemeanor, the courtroom deputy, at the judge’s behest, asked him to state his name for the record. “My birth name was Willie Ragan Casper Jr.,” he said, marking the first time since his arrest that he gave his real name under oath. “The name I’ve gone under and been known as for the last over 50 years is Roger Alfred Pearce Jr.” When he stood Wednesday in Portland to receive his sentence, he offered an explanation for his decades of duplicity. “I really wanted to start over,” he said. ‘I felt the failure’ Casper was born in Jackson, Mississippi, in December 1946, the older of two boys. He seized an opportunity to leave his hometown to attend Rice University in Texas but wasn’t prepared for the rigor of the classes and dropped out. An early marriage ended around the same time. Then Casper got involved in fraud, writing checks on a bank account with no money in what he called a “fairly naive” anti-war protest against banks during the Vietnam War era, he said. “I was a young person, confused, depressed. I felt the failure,” he said in court, reading in a steady voice from an open binder resting on the defense table in front of him. Casper, tall, slim and white-haired, sat upright beside his lawyer. He wore a black blazer and gray slacks, a white shirt and a black tie that he adjusted just before the judge arrived on the bench. He looked every bit the experienced lawyer he typically portrayed in court during his three-decade-long career, even engaging in small talk with the prosecutor before the hearing began. “I was ashamed that I had wasted a lot of my parents’ money supporting me in a distant city they couldn’t really afford,” Casper said. “My marriage had fallen apart. I had no real career prospects.” He said he also was worried about getting arrested for his check-kiting. A friend had been caught renting a car with a false ID and police had come to the house they shared. He wasn’t home at the time but feared police would return, looking for him. He spoke for about six minutes as his wife sat in the front row behind him in the public gallery. A psychologist who evaluated Casper and submitted a sealed report to the judge was present by video but didn’t speak. Casper said he stayed another six weeks in Houston and then fled. He also changed his identity. “I wanted to start over with a clean slate,” he said. “I felt like everything was at a dead end for me there in Texas.” In 1971, he stole the name of a dead child using the baby’s birth certificate. It’s unclear who gave him the certificate or if he paid for it, but his lawyer said birth certificates were apparently easy to come by during the anti-Vietnam era as others used them to try to evade the draft. Two years later, when he was in his late 20s, he applied for a Social Security number in the name of Roger Alfred Pearce Jr., using the dead baby’s birth certificate. Casper first went to Montana, then to Oregon, where he had some friends in Eugene. “The decision to change my name at that time was foolish, of course. At the time, I viewed it as a clean break from the past,” he said. I was also naive and in love with grand gestures, like some young people are.” He found work and took classes at Lane Community College in the early 1970s, records show. He made new friends, he said. “I crawled out of being depressed and within a few years, that new name was absolutely normal to me,” he told the judge. “After that, I have never thought of myself as other than Roger Pearce.” He did a stint as a dancer and singer in New York before ending up in Seattle, working for a bakery and then got the idea to go to law school, according to his lawyer. He enrolled in what was then the University of Puget Sound law school in Tacoma without a college degree, graduating in his mid-40s as the first in his class, summa cum laude in May 1991, according to his lawyer. He went on to a successful career with the Seattle-based firm Foster Pepper LLC, representing Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Vulcan development company and serving as a lawyer for the Seattle Monorail Popular Authority. In 2014, he was admitted to the Oregon State Bar, later moved back to Oregon and opened Pearce Law in Ashland. He served as chair of Ashland’s planning commission and as a Jackson County hearings officer. He also was secretary of the Rotary Club of Ashland and secretary of the Ashland New Plays Association. ‘False pretenses’ His façade cracked in 2022 when the State Department discovered an unresolved irregularity in his Social Security number. When Casper had gotten his fraudulent number, technology wasn’t available to track the birth certificate he submitted back to a dead child. But the federal government now has fraud detection that screens passport applications of people who received Social Security numbers as adults. Late-issued Social Security numbers strongly correlate to fraud, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan D. Knight wrote in his sentencing memo. The State Department’s screening has caught members of the mafia and other criminals trying to avoid detection. This time, it caught Casper. He had applied for a U.S. passport in 1991 and then renewed it twice more — in 2003 and May 2013 in Ashland. His applications got flagged as suspicious. State Department investigators then confirmed the Pearce name he was using was of someone who had died and had been submitted illegally to get a passport. But they couldn’t figure out his true name — only that the man claiming to be Pearce lived in Oregon and Washington and had been practicing law since 1991. “This is a case, from a criminal perspective, more about who the defendant is not, than who he is,” Knight said. In January 2023, a federal grand jury in Oregon returned a one-count indictment charging “John Doe” with making a false statement on his passport application and he was arrested in Seattle. In a plea deal in August, Casper pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of producing an identification document without lawful authority. The maximum penalty is a year in prison and a $1,000 fine. Prosecutors had weighed his “sustained act of deception” with his “otherwise law-abiding existence” and “fundamental decency,” Knight said. When defense lawyer Janet Lee Hoffman tried to explain at the plea hearing that Casper had pursued an illustrious legal career, the judge hastened to interject. “Under false pretenses,” U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon pointed out. ‘Choice that few receive’ At the start of sentencing Wednesday, Simon asked, “Do you want me to refer to your client as Mr. Pearce, Mr. Doe or Mr. Casper.” Hoffman said Pearce. She sought a year of probation for her client, but the prosecutor recommended two years. “Every person is responsible for and owns their own history and really the shadow that that casts and the consequences that ultimately may bear out,” Knight said. “The defendant’s choice in this case really is an abdication of that basic principle.” Many people come before the court who would have liked the option Casper took to start anew and leave their past behind, Knight said. “He availed himself of a choice that few receive, and that’s why we’re here today,” he said. Hoffman said the defendant lived a model life under his new identity. “Roger had a stellar career and enhanced each community that he lived in and the lives of everyone he touched,” she said. The judge said he considered Casper’s statement, the psychologist’s evaluation and letters from his wife and from Elisabeth Ann Zinser, a retired Southern Oregon University president who had known him for 10 years. Simon noted that Casper’s wife – Julie Benezet, a Seattle finance lawyer and author – hadn’t said in her letter if she knew of her husband’s long deception. He asked if Casper would say. Casper demurred, replying, “I prefer not to answer,” while acknowledging that he didn’t expect the government to prosecute his wife for fraud. He also said they have a “really wonderful marriage.” Simon said he was troubled that no one had delved into the real Roger Pearce Jr. Based on a photo in the court documents, he noted that the baby’s gravestone indicated he had lived six months and nine days. “It must be tough for a parent to lose a baby after six months, and it would only be worse if they ever knew or learned that someone else falsely took that baby’s name,” Simon said. Knight told the judge that the baby’s parents had both died. Simon then adopted the prosecutor’s recommendation and sentenced Casper to two years of probation. Casper must now relinquish his licenses to practice law in Oregon and Washington and never reapply to practice law. He also faces an Oregon State Bar disciplinary investigation. He is barred from getting a new piece of identification, whether it’s a driver’s license or Social Security number, in any name other than his legal name. But Casper said he intends to legally change his name to Roger Alfred Pearce Jr. soon, making the prohibition moot. “He will always be Roger Pearce,” his lawyer said after court. ‘Still in shock’ The actual Roger Alfred Pearce Jr. was born in Montpellier, Vermont, in September 1951 and died March 11, 1952. A younger sister, Dawn Hyttinen, now 51, said she believes her brother died of meningitis. He was the first born of seven children, she said. Their mother died in 2016 and father died in 2020, she said. “I grew up hearing about him,” she said. She said her father didn’t talk about the baby, but her mother always did. But she said no one in her family was told that someone had stolen her brother’s identity or was living under his name. “This is just absolutely crazy,” she said. “I’m flabbergasted.” Government investigators couldn’t find any living relatives of the boy, prosecutors said in court records, but an Oregonian/OregonLive reporter found Hyttinen in Arizona. She said she’s very curious about Casper and how he ended up using her brother’s identity. “I’m still in shock,’’ she said. The same is true for the family that Casper left behind. “He’s alive?!” a stunned Justin Casper blurted when contacted by The Oregonian/OregonLive. He’s the son of Casper’s younger brother, Dr. Robert Casper, now 72. “This is the first I’ve heard anything about him,” said Justin Casper, who lives in Arkansas. “We didn’t have a good answer as to what really happened to him. He’s my dad’s long lost brother.” He said he had heard his uncle had some problem with credit card fraud. “He just kind of left. He took off and never said where he was going. He never had any contact with his family again,” Justin Casper said. “I thought he was dead.” In a coincidence, Justin Casper had tried about six months ago to track down his uncle for his dad but couldn’t find anything online about him and was thinking of hiring a private investigator. He said his father hasn’t talked much about his older brother through the years. “I think it hurt him too much,” Justin Casper said. Now, the nephew is eager to learn what happened. “Why? What in the world? I’m happy that he’s alive,” he said. “Maybe we can reconnect with him, though it’ll be an awkward conversation.” Another chance In the months since his arrest, Willie Casper said he has had to face his past. He’s had difficult and emotional conversations with colleagues and friends about what he did but said they’ve been supportive. “I didn’t forget my birth name. I didn’t forget my early history,” he said in court. “I think I just literally compartmentalized it because it wasn’t relevant to my day-to-day life.” He added matter of factly: “I was Roger Pearce.” As he’s reflected on his identity, he said he feels good about what he’s accomplished: “I contributed to my community. I think I’ve helped raise a wonderful daughter.” At the same time, he can’t shake his true past. “I’ve also had an opportunity to think about what I’ve walked away from and lost,” he said. At the time he changed his name, he said he was “disengaged and estranged” from his birth family. His parents didn’t understand his anti-war sentiment, his lawyer said. “I really never got back in touch with them,” Casper said. But now, he said, he would be willing to contact his younger brother. He hasn’t seen him in over 50 years. “Perhaps paradoxically,” he said, “this prosecution may give me the chance to recover some of what I’ve lost.”

NoneAn online debate over foreign workers in tech shows tensions in Trump’s political coalition

One of the greatest aspects of Linux is how efficient it is at using your system’s resources. However, there are instances when you might tax your Linux system, such as when running virtual machines, playing video games, or editing 4K video. In these situations, you may want to keep an eye on your system to make sure its components aren’t getting too hot. Here are some of the best system monitors you can use to check your system resources in Linux. Mission Center is a beautiful system monitor that provides a deep overview of your Linux machine. It comes with features that you’d expect out of a monitor app such as the ability to check the CPU load, memory usage, and overall network traffic. What sets Mission Center apart is the level of detail that it reports to the user. For instance, it can show you the load on the different CPU cores on your system and scale its graphs based on that data. This makes it incredibly attractive to users that want a monitor that strikes the balance between aesthetics and functionality. Aside from that, the developers of Mission Center designed the program to be “ Flatpak first.” This means that you can easily install the app on any Linux distro without worrying about dependencies and package conflicts. Bottom is a powerful terminal-based system monitor that focuses on flexibility and compatibility. Similar to htop and gtop, Bottom provides a wealth of features such as the ability to read system stats as well as display and manage system processes. One of the biggest features of Bottom is its highly modular and customizable interface. By default, the program treats every “monitor” as a widget that you can tweak and customize. This allows you to fine tune your setup depending on the machine and load that you’re monitoring. Lastly, the developers of Bottom built the program to run on all major desktop platforms. This means that you don’t need to learn a new program whenever you switch OSes. As someone who often distro hops, Bottom is a handy app that I keep on my toolbox whenever I need to check if my system is working well. Glances is another terminal-based system monitoring tool for Linux that provides a comprehensive overview of your computer. It achieves this by fetching data on almost every aspect of the machine. This includes the usual CPU and RAM usage graphs along with more specific points such as component temperatures, fan speed, and active processes. Unlike Mission Center, Glances doesn’t mask its sensor data with fancy UI and UX. While this makes the program trickier for beginners, advanced users might find Glances capable enough to handle complex monitoring workloads. For instance, you can even configure Glances to monitor Docker containers currently running on the system. To add to that, the developers of Glances designed a server daemon that allows you to view the current state of your system remotely. This could either be through a Web interface or an SSH session. Further, Glances also supports exporting its data to CSV, making it easier to keep track of your computer’s performance over time. On a side note: looking to test the limits of your computer? Learn why my colleague uses OCCT to stress test his CPU and GPU . Cockpit is more than a system monitor for Linux. It’s a software platform that can control your machine straight from a web browser . It comes with a solid set of diagnostics tools, making it good for admins looking to level up their server management UI and UX. Cockpit stands out as a tool that can correlate resource use to actual system events and processes. This gives you a more holistic overview, allowing you to make informed decisions on running your system. Having used Cockpit for two years, I can attest to how this software transformed how I manage my servers. Cockpit also has a rich ecosystem of modules that extend the basic functions of the program. For instance, you can install both libvirtd and cockpit-machines to manage VMs directly through your browser. Htop is a minimalist terminal-based system monitor for Linux focusing on process management. Inspired by top , htop distinguishes itself by giving users a more intuitive and easy-to-use interface for browsing and controlling processes. While htop doesn’t have a “killer feature,” it makes up for it by providing a rock-solid core experience. It comes with a bar graph showing resource usage and a searchable process list, and it can send signal interrupts to your programs. In my experience, htop can cover all the basic tasks that you might need out of a system monitor. Exploring the best system monitor apps for Linux is just a small part of the OS’ large software ecosystem. Learn more about the different programs that you can install on Linux . Image credit: Lukas via Unsplash . All alterations and screenshots by Ramces Red. Our latest tutorials delivered straight to your inbox Ramces is a technology writer that lived with computers all his life. A prolific reader and a student of Anthropology, he is an eccentric character that writes articles about Linux and anything *nix.Richard Parsons, one of corporate America's most prominent Black executives who held top posts at Time Warner and Citigroup, died Thursday. He was 76. Parsons, who died at his Manhattan home, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2015 and cited "unanticipated complications" from the disease for cutting back on work a few years later. The financial services company Lazard, where Parsons was a longtime board member, confirmed his death. Parsons' friend Ronald Lauder told The New York Times that the cause of death was cancer. Parsons stepped down Dec. 3 from the boards of Lazard and Lauder's company, Estée Lauder, citing health reasons. He had been on Estée Lauder's board for 25 years. "Dick was an American original, a colossus bestriding the worlds of business, media, culture, philanthropy, and beyond," Ronald Lauder said in a statement on behalf of the Lauder family. David Zaslav, the CEO of Time Warner successor Warner Bros. Discovery, hailed Parsons as a "great mentor and friend" and a "tough and brilliant negotiator, always looking to create something where both sides win." "All who got a chance to work with him and know him saw that unusual combination of great leadership with integrity and kindness," Zaslav said, calling him "one of the great problem solvers this industry has ever seen." Parsons, a Brooklyn native who started college at 16, built a track record of steering big companies through tough times. He returned Citigroup to profitability after turmoil from the global financial crisis and helped restore Time Warner after its much-maligned acquisition by internet provider America Online. Parsons was named to the board of CBS in September 2018 but resigned a month later because of illness. Parsons said in a statement at the time that he was already dealing with multiple myeloma when he joined the board, but "unanticipated complications have created additional new challenges." He said his doctors advised him to cut back on his commitments to ensure recovery. "Dick's storied career embodied the finest traditions of American business leadership," Lazard said in a statement. The company, where Parsons was a board member from 2012 until this month, praised his "unmistakable intelligence and his irresistible warmth." "Dick was more than an iconic leader in Lazard's history — he was a testament to how wisdom, warmth, and unwavering judgment could shape not just companies, but people's lives," the company said. "His legacy lives on in the countless leaders he counseled, the institutions he renewed, and the doors he opened for others." Parsons was known as a skilled negotiator, a diplomat and a crisis manager. Although he was with Time Warner through its difficulties with AOL, he earned respect for the company and rebuilt its relations with Wall Street. He streamlined Time Warner's structure, pared debt and sold Warner Music Group and a book publishing division. He also fended off a challenge from activist investor Carl Icahn in 2006 to break up the company and helped Time Warner reach settlements with investors and regulators over questionable accounting practices at AOL. Parsons joined Time Warner as president in 1995 after serving as chairman and chief executive of Dime Bancorp Inc., one of the largest U.S. thrift institutions. In 2001, after AOL used its fortunes as the leading provider of Internet access in the U.S. to buy Time Warner for $106 billion in stock, Parsons became co-chief operating officer with AOL executive Robert Pittman. In that role, he was in charge of the company's content businesses, including movie studios and recorded music. He became CEO in 2002 with the retirement of Gerald Levin, one of the key architects of that merger. Parsons was named Time Warner chairman the following year, replacing AOL founder Steve Case, who had also championed the combination. The newly formed company's Internet division quickly became a drag on Time Warner. The promised synergies between traditional and new media never materialized. AOL began seeing a reduction in subscribers in 2002 as Americans replaced dial-up connections with broadband from cable TV and phone companies. Parsons stepped down as CEO in 2007 and as chairman in 2008. A year later AOL split from Time Warner and began trading as a separate company, following years of struggles to reinvent itself as a business focused on advertising and content. Time Warner is now owned by AT&T Inc. A board member of Citigroup and its predecessor, Citibank, since 1996, Parsons was named chairman in 2009 at a time of turmoil for the financial institution. Citigroup had suffered five straight quarters of losses and received $45 billion in government aid. Its board had been criticized for allowing the bank to invest so heavily in the risky housing market. Citigroup returned to profit under Parsons, starting in 2010, and would not have a quarterly loss again until the fourth quarter of 2017. Parsons retired from that job in 2012. In 2014 he stepped in as interim CEO of the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers until Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took over later that year. "Dick Parsons was a brilliant and transformational leader and a giant of the media industry who led with integrity and never shied away from a challenge," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. Parsons, a Republican, previously worked as a lawyer for Nelson Rockefeller, a former Republican governor of New York, and in Gerald Ford's White House. Those early stints gave him grounding in politics and negotiations. He also was an economic adviser on President Barack Obama's transition team. Parsons, whose love of jazz led to co-owning a Harlem jazz club, also served as Chairman of the Apollo Theater and the Jazz Foundation of America. And he held positions on the boards of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the American Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Parsons played basketball at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and received his law degree from Albany Law School in 1971. He is survived by his wife, Laura, and their family.