| WEDNESDAY (23rd)
Live Latin influenced bands and DJs. Bboy/Bgirl City Dance Studios, 32 Otis; 820-1452. 7-8pm, $15. Hip-hop dance lessons. Bondage Playspace Glas Kat. 9:30pm-2:30am, $5-7. Death disco, drrty pop, and go-go dancers. Cathouse Cat Club. 9:30pm-2am, $5. Dance the night away to new country and rock. I guess that's something like the Axl Rose hipshake meets line dancing. Cat's Corner Swing Party Savanna Jazz. 6:30pm-1:30am, $8. Dance lessons and live swing bands. *Coo-Yah Bruno's, 2389 Mission; 643-5200. Dancehall and reggae with DJs Green B and Daneekah. dotCLUB Pink. 10pm-2am, free. Indie-electro dance party with DJs LXNDR and Loverde, featuring music videos and visual art projections by VJ JOX. Dynomite Beauty Bar.
Student claims slur by teacher
An Orange Park High School teacher told a class that all Muslims are terrorists waging war against Americans and Christians, a 16-year-old Muslim student told the Times-Union on Thursday. School officials confirmed they have been notified of the student's claim. .
Murrieta leads county in homes lost to mortgage crisis
A full 80 percent of the area's 35 December home sales were bank-owned homes the result of foreclosure.-- More than half of the month's sales, 66 percent, sold for more than 10 percent below the original listing price. One home sold for 36 percent lower than the original listing, a $172,500 freefall.The main cause of Murrieta's foreclosure crisis, real estate agents and homeowners say, is extensive development that attracted first-time buyers into brand-new homes.With much of that development coming during the housing boom, many homeowners faced tumbling property values, putting them in situations in which they owed more than the home was worth.Effects overwhelmingJust as the real estate market is hyper-local -- homes of the same size on the same block can vary in price by 15 percent -- so are the foreclosures that have overwhelmed the market.Each foreclosure tells a different story, each with different causes:-- Laura Lovell's husband was laid off as a structural engineer for homebuilders five months before their mortgage graduated from an initial "teaser" interest rate, increasing their monthly payments by more than 60 percent to $2,100.-- Fong Noimanivone in Murrieta said she has not entered foreclosure but is struggling to make monthly mortgage payments after four investment homes in Arizona went bad.
BARBARA WALTERS BLABS ABOUT BRITNEY SPEARS
Walters, den mother for the ABC gabfest "The View," said on the show that she recently chatted with Spears' longtime confidant Sam Lutfi, who spilled the beans about Britney's visits to the shrink. "He said that she has been to a psychiatrist and that she . . . is starting some kind of treatment," Walters said. "[Spears] is suffering from what he describes as mental issues which are treatable." Spears' mental health has been an issue over the past month since cops showed up at the pop wreck's home to rescue her kids Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1. She had refused to give the kids back to their father - ex-husband Kevin Federline - after the pop tart's visitation was over. A judge stripped Spears of her parental rights days after the standoff. But in court papers released yesterday, the judge ruled last week that Spears could talk to her kids on the telephone.
Djokovic Beats Tsonga for Aussie Title
He's a Grand Slam champion for real.Serving notice that his rapid rise in the rankings last year was no fluke, third-ranked Djokovic ended the Cinderella story of the Australian Open by beating unseeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (2) in Sunday night's final."I think every player dreams about winning a Grand Slam," Djokovic said. "It's something special."Top-ranked Roger Federer and No. 2 Rafael Nadal had combined to win the last 11 Grand Slams. Djokovic personally held up Federer's drive for Pete Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slam titles on hold by ousting him in the semifinals. Federer now will go for No. 13 at the French Open.Despite reaching at least the semifinals at the last three Grand Slams, Djokovic has been better known as "Djoker" for his wry sense of humor and impressions of other tennis players that have become hits on YouTube.It was easy to see that requests for the impersonations were wearing on him at Melbourne Park - he tried to beg off when he was asked to mimic Maria Sharapova after a match early in the two-week tournament - so Djokovic let his tennis do the talking.It spoke volumes.The 20-year-old Serbian, who said he listened to music, watched funny videos and told jokes in the locker room to relax before going on court, hadn't dropped a set in six matches until Tsonga stunned him with a pair of great shots to break and take the first set.Djokovic didn't crumble.
False Sense of Security in Iraq
Iraqi Red Crescent reports indicate that 40,000-plus refugees returned home from Syria between September and December 2007. In theory, this is a good thing because it implies increased safety in Iraq. At least that is how Western media is telling the story. Yet even Said Hakki, the organization's president, is downplaying the numbers, recognizing that given the 1.2 million Iraqi refugees in Syria alone and the 1 million in neighboring countries such as Jordan, Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, and Turkey, these returnees remain a small part of the picture. The U.S. military, furthermore, appears disinclined to see an increase in the numbers of refugee returns. Afraid that a flood of refugees will incite further sectarian violence, General David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, refuses to put resettlement responsibilities in the hands of U.S.
Asia Markets Sink on US Economy Fears
Investors reacted nervously after a U.S. government report showed a sharp and unexpected decline in manufacturing activity and figures that showed housing starts plunged to their weakest pace in more than 16 years. That helped send the Dow Jones industrial average sliding 2.5 percent Thursday to 12,159.21, its lowest level since last March. Investors around the world are jittery about the full extent of the subprime mortgage crisis in the U.S., which has led to a credit crunch and billions of dollars of losses at major American investment banks Citigroup and Merrill Lynch & Co. due to writedowns of bad assets. Recent signs of slower U.S. consumption has added to concerns that the American economy might contract, weakening demand for Asian electronics, cars, clothing and other exports.
Get a new view of a destination from a cemetery
The hilly land once belonged to Jesuits who came here on retreat, including Father Francois de la Chaise, confessor of Louis XIV and the cemetery's namesake. Built on wooded hills where stone paths wind below trees and around shrubs and flowerbeds, Pere Lachaise is part park, part burial ground. Parisians come to stroll. Visitors search for tombs. More than 1.5 million people a year wander this maze of monuments and mausoleums. Maps in hand, they seek the final resting spots of the famous, including actress Sarah Bernhardt, painters Camille Pissarro and Georges-Pierre Seurat, French intellectual Marcel Proust, lovers Heloise and Abelard, writers and companions Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas and composer Frederic Chopin (his body is here, but his heart is buried in Warsaw). The tomb of novelist, poet and playwright Oscar Wilde stands out among the flat grave markers and telephone booth-size monuments.
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