| City madam loses appeal over three-year jail sentence
THE woman behind one of Southampton's biggest prostitution rings has had her appeal to cut her sentence refused. Judges at London's Court of Appeal upheld Sharon Moir's three-year jail term despite the fact she argued it was "manifestly excessive". The 47-year-old was convicted in June this year of running brothels and inciting and controlling prostitution for personal gain. She had been caught out after a police officer went undercover for an interview and Moir told her how to conduct herself as a prostitute. Mr Justice Cooke said there was "economic coercion" by Moir - who would have between 10 and 12 girls a day working at her brothels in the city - in that she would take their work away if they didn't work extra hours. See today's Daily Echo for the full story.
Weather blog: Winter storm warning canceled
The wintry weather has led to about 500 cancelled flights at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport Thursday. And as businesses let employees leave early, bumper-to-bumper traffic was reported throughout North Texas. Here are the latest reports from our reporters and other sources: 10:44p UNT clases on the Denton and Dallas campus have been canceled Friday.
- Mark Wright, UNT 10:01p The snow and rain has all moved out. There is nothing more in the forecast than a few snow flurries overnight. We are now watching storm number two. The core of that storm has run into some stable areas and some dry air, which has led to that storm just falling apart. Around daybreak tomorrow, there will be no additional snow in the forecast. But, temperatures are going to drop to freezing or colder.
Onorato says gaming revenue plugged budget gap
In the midst of heated debate with Allegheny County Council's Republican members on Tuesday, Chief Executive Dan Onorato said he would not apologize for receiving $19.9 million in state gaming revenues. Mr. Onorato told council that if the county had not fortuitously received the first installment from a slots-financed state economic development fund on Dec. 31, he would have used the county's fund balance of about $17 million to plug the 2007 budget deficit. That would have left the county with little or no reserves going into this year, a perilous financial situation that could have caused a downgrade of the county's bond rating. After debate over the gaming revenue and a renewed quarrel over the new drink and rental car taxes, council Republicans said Mr.
MOVIE TIMES: What's Showing in North Iowa
The film can contain some profanity, violence or brief nudity, but only in relatively mild intensity.PG-13 — "Parents Strongly Cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13." Violence, profanity or sexual content is intense enough that many parents would not want to expose their younger children to the film, but not so intense as to warrant an R rating. Any movie featuring drug use will get at least a PG-13 rating.R — "Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian." High level of adult content, such as harsh profanity, intense violence, explicit sexual content and extensive drug use.NC-17: "No one 17 and under admitted." Adult content is more intense than in an R movie. .
German advertisers fish for customers with 'retrospeak'
Most German children these days would hardly use the term "klaro," a rather outdated slang expression that was very popular in the 1970s and '80s. Other buzzwords from that era were "cool" and "geil" (randy is its first definition, but it took on a secondary meaning of great, fantastic, terrific). Sometimes German advertisers resurrect words like this, employing "retrospeak" to attract attention, remarked Peter Schlobinski, a professor of Germanic linguistics at the University of Hanover. The "klaro" commercial has two target groups. "The small child using the expression addresses children and youths, and the expression itself is directed at parents and grandparents," said Franco Rota, a professor of marketing communications at Stuttgart Media University. People over 50 years of age "were young in the '70s and used this lingo themselves," he explained.
Stressed-out teens get lessons in relaxing
As Andre Zayas lay on the hard gym floor, the 14-year-old from Dorchester struggled to clear his mind of his myriad burdens. He ached for a friend who was recently shot to death. He worried about finding a job to help his single mother pay the household bills. And in just a few hours, his project on the 1930s was due in humanities class, and he had not finished. Next to him, Chanel Peguero closed her eyes and imagined graduating from high school in four years with a scholarship, the only way she would be able to afford college. The honor roll student cannot wait to escape her home in a South End housing development where her sleep is punctured by sirens, gunshots, and arguing adults. The teenagers, among two dozen Fenway High School freshmen arrayed in a semicircle beneath a basketball hoop, breathed deeply as a stress-reduction trainer instructed them on how to relax.
Top-growing US web categories in January 2008
As the presidential primaries kicked off, the politics category jumped 65% to 13.8 mln visitors as Americans went online for news coverage and opinions and to visit candidate Web sites. BarackObama.com led the category with 2.2 mln visitors, up 429% from December, followed by HillaryClinton.com with 1.1 mln visitors (up 202%). On the Republican side, MikeHuckabee.com attracted 937,000 visitors, up 96%, while JohnMcCain.com grew 261% to 596,000 visitors. The career category was led by CareerBuilder LLC with 24.8 mln visitors, followed by Yahoo! HotJobs with 17.4 mln visitors and Monster with 17.1 mln visitors. Concerns over a shaky real estate market, along with those resolving to move residences in 2008, precipitated a 28% gain to 42 mln visitors to the real estate category in January 2008.
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