finding a local BETA reader?

Posting in Beta Readers, Mentors, and Writing Partners might be a good start.

Are you genuinely at the stage where you require a beta reader as such?

A beta reader usually reads finished manuscripts the writer has edited and polished as much as they can - beta readers should not be treated as free editors.

Why do they need to be local?

Safer how? Emailing your manuscript to someone is exactly as safe whether that someone is in Texas or Thailand.

And, of course, you'd need to give everyone an idea of where is local to you

First read this:

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=118148

Second: You are a new, unpubbed author with an MS. Um, the chances of someone stealing are minimal ( the thief would still need to polish and query and work etc, and do you know the percentage that get rejected? Plus you automatically have copyright the moment you put finger top keyboard. If you can prove you wrote it and tehy sell it for a mint, you can sue. Most people won't bother risking it for an untested MS)

Risks do exist, same as in every walk of life. However the chances are not reduced by where your beta lives, or even meeting them face to face.

At some point you will have to share with someone, even if it's an agent. And not all of those are legit....However if you use a reputable group ( such as this one), pick someone who's been around a while ( a thief would make good their escape once outted) and get to know them first, you'd be as safe as you can be.

Minimise the risks by getting to know that person, asking for reccomendations of betas, or, once you've found a beta ask if they can point you to people they've already beta'd for. This goes for whether they are local or not. Basically you need to be sensible. Not paranoid lol, though it's common enough when you've never beta'd to worry about it.

I had the same concerns as you, the betas on this site are great and not only that but as was said, you have copyright once you type it.