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The Statue of Liberty Ellis Island Foundation launched a crowdfunding campaign to build a new Statue of Liberty Museum on Liberty Island.

The foundation launched the "For Lady Liberty" campaign on crowdfunding website Indiegogo, seeking at least $50,000 toward funding the 26,000-square-foot museum planned to open in May 2019.

Designed by U.S. architecture firm FXCollaborative, the new museum is meant to hold more guests than the existing exhibit inside the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.

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Tickets to the museum, which will become the new home of the Statue of Liberty's original torch, will be included in the price of ferry tickets purchased for Ellis Island and Liberty Island.

The foundation is offering donors a variety of perks including a tour of the museum alongside the designers, tickets to the opening gala and ribbon cutting ceremony and apparel including hats, T-shirts and watches, depending on the amount of the donation.

Donors will also have their names displayed in a digital registry, known as the Founders Star, inside the museum.

The foundation noted Joseph Pulitzer led a crowdfunding campaign to complete the statue's pedestal in 1884 in which 120,000 people donated more than $100,000.

Donors were also encouraged to contribute donations of $18.86 in honor of the year the Statue of Liberty was dedicated.

The campaign has received $12,105 from 366 backers.

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March 13 (UPI) -- Nearly 15,000 empty shoes were laid on the grass outside of the U.S. Capitol Tuesday -- a memorial for all the children who've died by gun violence in the United States in the last five years.

The memorial, named "Monument For Our Kids," included a pair of shoes for each child killed by gun violence in the United States. The 7,000 pairs represent all child victims since 20 kindergartners and first-graders died at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012.

"What we're saying is killing has to stop," Emma Ruby-Sachs, deputy director of Avaaz, told FOX 5-TV. "Culture is changing in America right now. The majority of Americans want gun control. The majority of gun owners want gun control and we're putting lives of these children at the feet of Congress and saying, 'Catch up, act now, let's end this.'"

The silent protest is intended to spur lawmakers to take action on gun reforms. Other protests have occurred in Florida and Washington since 14 students and three educators died at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

The shoes will be on display from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesday on the southeast lawn of the U.S. Capitol across from the Library of Congress.

"We want to represent everyone who's been lost," Andrew Nazdin, who helped create the memorial, said. "We want to bring the tragedy that's been felt in communities across the country right to Congress' doorstep."

Organizers of the memorial said the Parkland shooting was the catalyst for creating the memorial.

This week, President Donald Trump said strengthening background checks for gun purchases would be "fully backed" by the White House, as well as other provisions. No assault rifle ban, though, is expected to pass in Congress.

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Mexican Federal Police stand on a dock near a boat after an explosion in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, on February 21. U.S. officials closed a consulate there Wednesday due to ongoing security concerns. Photo by Alonso Cupul/EPA-EFE.
March 8 (UPI) -- Citing a security threat, the U.S. Department of State has closed a consulate in the Mexican tourist town of Playa del Carmen and barred employees from traveling there.
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City posted the notice on its website Wednesday for the popular coastal spot near Cancun and Cozumel on the Caribbean.

The warnings came after a bomb exploded last month and injured at least 25 people on a ferry that runs between Playa del Carmen and Cozumel.

Initial reports had indicated the explosion was caused either by a gas leak or engine failure, but a security alert posted on the U.S. Embassy website said the blast was caused by an explosive device. The alert also said undetonated explosive devices were found last week by Mexican law enforcement on a tourist ferry that operates on the same route.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told ABC News the agency will provide more updates Thursday.

"We take our obligation to provide information to U.S. citizens seriously as evidenced by the clear, timely and reliable safety and security information we release worldwide," Nauert said.

Princess Cruises, Royal Caribbean and Carnival Cruise Line canceled all shore excursions involving ferries in Cozumel following the warning.

Playa del Carmen and other tourist regions have seen a surge in violence in recent months. Last summer the State Department warned people traveling to Mexico about the possibly of tainted alcohol that led to serious illness and even death for some travelers.

Travelers have also reported being "sexually assaulted, beaten, robbed, taken to jail and mistreated at local hospitals," according to an investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which also found that travelers encounter indifferent, and at times hostile, resort workers, police and hospital staff.

A laptop computer running is on display at a retail store in New York City on July 29, 2015. This week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation released documents that show the FBI used employees of Best Buy's Geek Squad as paid informants for several years. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI
March 8 (UPI) -- The FBI used employees of Best Buy's Geek Squad repair service as paid informants for several years, according to records obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital privacy rights organization.

The documents, obtained by EFF through the Freedom of Information Act, shows the relationship between the FBI and Best Buy going back to at least 2008, when FBI agents in Louisville, Ky., met with Geek Squad employees at a Best Buy facility there.
According to the documents, the agency's Louisville division "has maintained close liaison with the Geek Squad's management in an effort to glean case initiations and to support the division's computer intrusion and cyber crime programs."

When people sent their computers into Best Buy to be fixed, Geek Squad employees would alert the FBI's Louisville field office when they believed they found child pornography.

"The FBI agent would show up, review the images or video and determine whether they believe they are illegal content," EFF said. "After that, they would seize the hard drive or computer and send it to another FBI field office near where the owner of the device lived. Agents at that local FBI office would then investigate further, and in some cases try to obtain a warrant to search the device."

But when people sent their computers in for repairs, they weren't informed that they were essentially waiving their Fourth Amendment rights and that their device would be subject to a search by a paid FBI informant and then the FBI, EFF says.

Best Buy told NPR that it reports child pornography to law enforcement, required by law in many states. But employees are prohibited from looking for it.

The relationship between the FBI and Best Buy has led to problems in at least one criminal case.

In 2014, a Geek Squad employee found an image he or she believed to be child pornography and alerted the FBI, leading to a raid on a California man's home and subsequent felony charges. The FBI paid the Geek Squad employee $500 for the find.

But last year, a judge ruled that the image wasn't child pornography and that the search warrant obtained because of the image was invalid. The charges were then dropped.

EFF accused the FBI of withholding a trove of documents related to the Geek Squad operation and said it plans to challenge the agency to get them released under FOIA.