Q: What’s the educational background of Edward Snowden, who keeps showing up on the news? How did he get so far up to know all that?
—Richard Martin, Austell
A: Snowden always was considered smart by his friends and family, and has taken college level classes, but doesn't have a degree. He joined the U.S. Army Reserves in 2004, but was discharged after breaking both legs in training.
Snowden was hired by the University of Maryland’s Center for Advanced Study of Language in 2005, and the CIA hired him in 2006, where he excelled with computers. That led to a consulting job with Dell, which assigned Snowden to a National Security Agency facility in Japan. It’s thought that he stole up to 200,000 documents while in this position.
Snowden resigned from Dell in March 2013 to work for Booz Allen Hamilton, a U.S. defense contractor, which provided him with access to “1.7 to 1.8 million” documents, the Wall Street Journal reported. Snowden, who has been charged with espionage and theft of government property after leaking classified documents to the media, lives in Russia, where he has a three-year residence permit.
Q: I recently caught part of a weekend morning show and thought I saw Dagmar Midcap, who used to do the weather in Atlanta. Did I see her? Do you have any information on her?
—Pat Keller-Shew, Snellville
A: Midcap, who was the weather anchor at Atlanta's CBS 46 from 2008 to 2010, is the weather anchor at San Diego's NBC 7 News, but filled in on the weekend edition of "Today" on Aug. 2. Midcap has been with the San Diego station since 2011.
Andy Johnston wrote this column. Do you have a question about the news? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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