| Wild Card/Vacation Day 11 of 12
Only two more shopping days until I return to the final days of the City Council campaigns. Then, we'll have fun taking apart the campaigns. Any dirt yet? Any mudslinging. You know, the good stuff. Or is everyone behaving? My wife is now looking over my shoulder -- literally -- so I have to pretend that I'm just checking ball scores. See ya in two days. Here's Wild Card ... .
Madeleine McCann: What Shannon Matthews Is Worth, Asda And PR
Contrast the media-savvy McCann campaign with the brave efforts of Petra Jamieson, 30, a friend of Shannon's mother, who managed to persuade her local branch of Asda to donate 24 white T-shirts on which the girl's photograph had been printed. What happened to Shannon Matthews? Who can we blame? The parents? A deprived background, a dysfunctional family and a down-on-its-luck Yorkshire mill town: none of this is Shannon Matthews's fault, yet it seems that she is paying the price. No holiday scene. No excuse for hacks to go to hotter climes. Yorkshire in winter. Grey. Grim. GLASGOW DAILY RECORD: “Mother's Day Wish" THE distraught mum of missing schoolgirl Shannon Matthews last night cried: "All I want for Mother's Day is my princess back." DAILY MIRROR: “ALL I WANT FOR MOTHER'S DAY IS MY PRINCESS BACK" Shannon Matthews' desperate mother last night movingly declared: "All I want for Mother's Day is my princess back."As police continued searching thousands of homes for the missing nine-year-old schoolgirl, mum Karen, 32, said: "It is a special family day and we would all spend it together.
Will 'Amnesty' Sink McCain?
Every program in the world that has allowed illegal immigrants to stay has been called an "amnesty." McCain himself called it "amnesty" as recently as May 2003, when he told the Tucson Citizen "I think we can set up a program where amnesty is extended to a certain number of people who are eligible … Amnesty has to be an important part ..." But once the focus-group results were in, "amnesty" became a four-letter word. ...[snip] Real Straight Talk would be to say "Sure, it's an amnesty, but we don't really have any choice" ... P.S.: The McCain, post-focus-group argument is that it can't be "amnesty" if it has some requirements--e.g., to pay a fine, learn English, etc. But it turns out that Ronald Reagan's 1986 "comprehensive" reform, which he and everyone else called an "amnesty," had requirements too, including payment of fees.
Online holiday shopping starts strong in U.S.
The Friday after Thanksgiving is nicknamed “Black Friday," and is one of the busiest shopping days of the year in brick-and-mortar stores as retailers kick off their holiday sales season, often with steep discounts. Increasingly shoppers are also turning to online merchants to do that shopping and look for bargains. PriceGrabber, which operates a price comparison shopping site, saw a 47 percent increase in the number of referrals it made to retailers this year over last year, while competitor Shopping.com said referral traffic was up 61 percent over last year. The hottest category was video games, with sales up 134 percent, said comScore. Within the video game sector the hottest product is Nintendo's Wii. Consumers in search of the Wii hit both retailers and eBay.
2007 Christmas gadget countdown - the people's choice
Every year in the run-up to Christmas, Nigel Harris, executive peripherals editor of BusinessZone's sister website AccountingWEB, chooses the 12 objects that most deeply stimulate his electronic desires. This year we also asked online community members for their suggestions. The Nintendo Wii games console (pictured above, left) has been crowned Gadget of the Year in this year's Christmas countdown. Adding to the products cachet, the Nintendo Wii has been notoriously difficult to find in the shops in the run-up to Christmas. .
Board sets $378 million school-bond vote June 3
Palo Alto schools will be getting bigger and better, school board members said Tuesday as they unanimously approved putting a $378 million bond measure on the June 3 ballot. The bond measure would extend to 2042 the current property tax of $44.50 per $100,000 assessed valuation established under a 1995 bond measure. That means a continuation of about $445 in yearly taxes for a home assessed at $1 million. The bond measure requires 55 percent voter approval under state Proposition 39, which also requires the formation of a citizens' oversight committee. The bond measure would expand and improve crowded, run-down schools, school officials said, echoing concerns presented at meetings in the months leading up to the final Tuesday vote.
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