Nationally known criminal profiler and author Pat Brown shared tips for parents on how to keep their children (particularly their daughters) out of harm's way, as well as discussed the characteristics of serial killers and psychopaths. She believes there's been a rise of psychopathy in the United States, due to the breakdown of the family and rampant narcissism. While most psychopaths don't kill, they can be problematic in other ways that may involve violence, she noted. Serial killers have different personalities, and some can appear friendly and helpful to neighbors. There are probably a few in each major metropolitan area, but their murders tend to stop and start, spaced out between years, she detailed. Male serial killers murder for the thrill of watching someone die, and the sense of accomplishment, but when women kill, it's typically mothers who do away with their own offspring, as part of attention seeking behavior associated with Munchausen's Syndrome by proxy.

A daughter acting out, such as turning to drugs or prostitution, isn't something that happens overnight, she commented. "It happens because your daughter is moving in a direction which allows her to consider these possibilities, whether it be running away from home, or selling herself for drugs because now she's a drug addict, or whether she's so desperate for attention that she's willing to do what a guy says," Brown explained. It helps to have a daughter respecting the parents' decisions and opinions before they hit their teenage years, because if that is not already in place, it will be more difficult to achieve, she continued.

You can't expect kids not to respond to peer pressure but parents should work toward placing their children in the best environments possible, she advised. If your child is an "adrenaline junkie," you should provide them with positive outlets such as sports like mountain climbing, so they won't get bored and seek out trouble, she said. Brown also addressed problems associated with teens using the Internet, social media, and cell phones. In the era before these communications were prevalent, parents could readily act as gatekeepers, but now it's become far trickier. She suggested that teens do not need to have every type of technology available for use in the privacy of their bedrooms.

Electronic Voting Update

First hour guest, researcher Bev Harris shared updates on voting system issues in the United States. A Spanish company, SCYTL, bought America's SOE software (used for tabulating electronic voting), and will be announcing the results from some 1,200 voting locations in the November presidential election, she reported. Rather than hackers, the real risk is that the system cannot be secured from its own administration, so an insider could potentially alter election results; "this company is centralizing the level of control over an election with insiders to an unprecedented degree," she lamented.

News segment guests: Lauren Weinstein, Douglas Hagmann, Robert Zimmerman