After-Christmas shopping unlikely to save season

By SARAH SKIDMORE

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — There's holiday joy and post-holiday blues, but for the nation's retailers it's all been one big downer.

The holiday shopping season was one of the most dismal in years and even the after-Christmas period, when consumers normally rush to stores to use gift cards and seize on big sales, isn't expected to be enough to save retailers from a terrible year.

Holiday sales typically account for 30 percent to 50 percent of a retailer's annual total. But shoppers cut back their spending this year as they struggled with job cuts, home foreclosures, portfolio losses and other economic woes.

Analysts have kept slashing their holiday estimates. Michael P. Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers, now expects that sales at established stores for November and December will fall 1.5 percent to 2 percent — which would make it the weakest holiday season since at least 1969, when the index began.

According to preliminary data from SpendingPulse — a division of MasterCard Advisors that tracks total sales paid for by credit card, checks and cash — retail sales fell between 5.5 percent and 8 percent during the holiday season compared with last year. Excluding auto and gas sales, retail sales fell between 2 percent and 4 percent, according to SpendingPulse.

A better indicator of how retailers fared won't arrive until Jan. 8, when major stores report same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, for December.

Retailers are still trying to entice consumers with big markdowns, extended hours and other perks.

"It has a Black Friday feel to it," said Tom Aiello, a spokesman for Sears and Kmart, likening the post-Christmas promotions to those found the day after Thanksgiving.

Sears stores are opening several hours early and offering doorbuster deals through noon. Shoppers can get jeans for less than $10 or special financing on exercise equipment to help keep their New Year's resolutions.

Kmart is cutting in half prices on necessities, such as fall and winter clothes for the family, and offering deals on seasonal decor.

Although gift cards sales overall are predicted to be down, Aiello said Sears and Kmart have not seen that and are expecting strong redemption. Retailers cannot record a sale on gift cards until they are redeemed.

Toys R Us said it is cutting prices by 60 percent on some brands the day after Christmas. And kids who didn't get the Hannah Montana doll they wanted may be able to find it for half off.

Other retailers such as Target are pushing online deals, rather than in-store promotions, more heavily in the post-holiday period. Target said it is putting thousands of items on clearance and making them eligible for free shipping the day after Christmas.

Others, like Wal-Mart Stores, are waiting until the weekend to make markdowns on items such as televisions, office and home goods but say they will continue in-store promotions of the week.

Several retailers said they will continue or add new promotions in January, as experts predict the recession will carry into 2009.

Source:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gjMKBGIg_Z20DaMKTqzDslm1t_ZwD95A757O0

Military center tracking Santa's sleigh ride

By IVAN MORENO – 4 hours ago

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Who says Santa Claus doesn't exist?

The military personnel charged with being the eyes in the sky are certainly acting like he does — and they've been joined on the Internet by millions of believers.

Even doubters have reason to pause when they hear the North American Aerospace Defense Command — or NORAD, which monitors air and space threats against the U.S. and Canada — is in charge of the annual Christmas mission to keep children informed of Santa's worldwide journey to their homes.

"They challenge it, but only to a point," said Senior Master Sgt. Sharon Ryder-Platts, 49, who for five years has been a Santa tracker, taking calls from those wanting to know the location of jolly old St. Nick.

According to NORAD, Santa began his latest flight early Wednesday at the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean. Historically, Santa visits the South Pacific first, then New Zealand and Australia. NORAD points out that only Santa knows his route.

Last year, NORAD's Santa tracking center answered 94,000 calls and responded to 10,000 e-mails. About 10.6 million visitors went to the Web site, which can be viewed in English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Japanese and Chinese.

NORAD's holiday tradition can by traced to 1955, when a Colorado Springs newspaper printed a Sears, Roebuck & Co. ad telling children of a phone number to talk to Santa. The number was one digit off, and the first child to get through reached the Continental Air Defense Command, NORAD's predecessor.

Col. Harry W. Shoup answered.

Shoup's daughter, Terri Van Keuren, said her dad, now 91, was surprised to hear that the little voice on the other end thought he was Santa.

"Dad thought, `What the heck? This must be some kind of code,'" said Van Keuren, 59.

Shoup, described by his daughter as "just a nut about Christmas," didn't want to break the boy's heart, so he sounded a booming "Ho, ho, ho!" and pretended to be Santa Claus.

Enough calls followed that Shoup assigned an officer to answer them while the problem was fixed. But Shoup and the staff he was directing to "locate" Santa on radar ended up embracing the idea. NORAD picked up the tradition when it was formed 50 years ago.

"If we didn't do it, truly I don't know who else would track Santa," Maj. Stacia Reddish said.

The task that began with no computers and only a 60-by-80-foot glass map of North America now includes two big screens on a wall showing the world and information on each country Santa Claus visits. It took off with the Web site's 1997 launch, Reddish said.

Now, curious youngsters can follow Santa's path online with a Google two-dimensional map or in 3D using Google Earth, where he can be seen flying through different landscapes in his sleigh.

NORAD officials are hesitant to list all the potential sites Santa will visit with certainty.

"Historically, Santa has loved the Great Wall of China. He loves the (Space) Needle in Seattle. He of course loves the Eiffel Tower," Reddish said. "But his path is completely unpredictable, so we won't know."

Ryder-Platts, 49, who has a 17-year-old son, said taking calls from children helps her keep her Christmas spirit.

"For someone like myself, my son is older, you know it just keeps you in touch with the spirit of Santa Claus," she said. "I miss out on that at home so this keeps me close to Santa. I believe! It keeps me in touch with other believers."

On the Net:

• http://www.noradsanta.org

Source:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hSs7pZAO0zEW8EwGcGSwMN5yQuCwD95926EG0

Most Wanted: Manuel Benitez Known As Child Star Mark Everett Killed In A Shootout

by Mitch Marconi

One of America's most wanted men was found and killed at strip mall by the police. Manuel Benitez was shot to death by the Los Angeles County officers. Apparently he was held up in a restaurant where he was holding his 7-year-old son hostage according to the AP.

The police reportedly threw a flashbang grenade which most likely blinded Benitez, and after exchanging some shots they were able to kill him and save the boy. There was a $20,000 reward on this man if reported to the police anything that led them to him. Benitez was orginially looked for by the police after he reportedly killed ex girlfriend Stephanie Spears with a dumbbell four years ago.

Benitez was killed in a Chinese restaurant in El Monte strip mall. Benitez was also a child actor who went by the name of Mark Everett. He starred in hit movie Pee Wee's Big Adventure. Its been four years he was looked for, it's good to seem him finally caught. (c) tPC

Source:

http://www.postchronicle.com/news/original/article_212195497.shtml

Moore music for the new year

'Purlie' star Melba Moore comes to the Rrazz Room

Published 12/25/2008

by Robert Sokol

	Stage star Melba Moore.

One afternoon in the late 60s, a 20-something Melba Moore was working a recording gig. "These two hippies, who didn't have sense enough to put on shoes even though they were in a recording studio in New York City, walked in and asked me if I wanted to do Hair . I said, 'Excuse me, but I did not get a Bachelor's Degree in Music to do nobody's hair.'" She laughs long and hard. "I was an educated fool!"

Moore opens at the Rrazz Room at Hotel Nikko this Saturday, and is ringing in the New Year with sistah diva Darlene Love.

Yes, she did the then-infamous Hair nude scene. "I was there when it was created, and it was fun and exciting. We were past previews, and someone on the creative team came up with the idea. At first, it caused something of a breach with the cast. Here we are doing this show about freedom, then we're told we have to do something that we might not like." When the costume-dropping was made optional, the concept was embraced. "As it turned out, eventually most everybody wanted to do it, to experience it, for various reasons."

She stayed with the show for 18 months, eventually inheriting the role of Sheila from an Annie Hall-bound Diane Keaton. "Before Hair, I wasn't really into Broadway. I saw a few shows, but it wasn't a dream for me." A castmate in the show suggested she start auditioning for other shows, if not for the roles, at least for the experience, and told her of an open call for a new show. "That's the spirit in which I went up for Purlie. I didn't know the language – stage right, stage left, nothing – and I got the part!" As Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins, Moore stopped the show nightly with the joyous "I Feel Love," and picked up a slew of that season's awards, including a Tony for Featured Actress in a Musical.

Flush with success, Moore returned to her first love and launched a recording career that saw multiple Grammy nominations throughout the 70s. She returned to Broadway in Geoffrey Holder's visually exotic but troubled production of Timbuktu! On her co-star Eartha Kitt, Moore demurs. "Let's just say I have better memories of Eartha after the show closed. She was going through some problems, and basically was not a nice person to be around at the time. It was a beautiful show and should have toured and been recorded, but Eartha really slam-dunked it. She killed it. I hope somebody does it again someday."

For her current gig, she's definitely feeling the Love. "We started having fun from the first rehearsal!" she beams. Though this gig marks their duo debut, the ladies have followed a parallel path of early success, a long and painful intermission, and a solid second act. In Moore's case, a sudden divorce left her financially destitute and questioning her future. She is retrospectively pragmatic about that time. "It was the process of going from the mailroom to the CEO position of my life. I have bloomed because I am in control now. You have to be willing to start over again, again and again. I've become a great student."

She's also become a writer and producer, hard at work on the development of Still Standing, an autobiographical musical. "We're taking it on a tour of 13 historically black colleges in Arkansas as a showcase," she says, and is actively seeking collaborators with an eye toward a New York production.

Looking far younger than her 63 years, Moore gives thanks to God, but not without humor. "God has been good to me for a long time," she acknowledges. "He's given me a second chance. He's coming back, you know, and he told me he doesn't want any raggedy, wrinkled-up, nasty-looking divas," she says with a hearty chuckle. A born-again Christian, Moore holds her faith close. "He owns the whole planet. It all belongs to him," she says, the use of personal pronouns emphasizing the intimate relationship she feels. "Those of us who have been given gifts, whatever they may be, are really responsible for doing good things with them. Those of us who have made him first and last make that a [life] study, and we speak about it. With that as my focus, I can go wherever he allows me to go." She admits that showbiz does not frequently create sacred spaces, and reconciling her personal and professional lives can be a challenge. "We have to be the thing that bring sacredness into it, and that's not always religion. We just have to be his emissaries wherever we go."

Melba Moore & Darlene Love at the Rrazz Room, Hotel Nikko, Dec. 27-Jan. 4. Tickets: $50. Two shows New Year's Eve ($75-$175) with champagne and Midnight buffet. Info: (866) 468-3399 or www.therrazzroom.com.

Source:

http://www.ebar.com/arts/art_article.php?sec=music&article=567

Child porn investigation catches California lawyer

(CNN) -- A lawyer who served in the Clinton administration and more recently was an advisor to California's lieutenant governor pleaded guilty to a child porn charge in a San Diego federal court Monday.

Wade Rowland Sanders admitted to having 600 images of minors on his computer, including a video depicting "several prepubescent females engaged in sexual conduct with an adult male and performing oral sex on one another," according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Karen Hewitt.

FBI agents raided Sanders' home last May after they suspected his home Internet service account was used to download several pictures and a video showing underage girls having sex with adult men, according to an investigator's sworn statement.

"Sanders admitted that he had downloaded child pornography using the program Limewire but that he deleted the files once he noticed that they had been downloaded," FBI Special Agent John Caruthers said.
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A search of Sanders' computer found the child porn files saved on his hard drive in two "My Documents" folders, Caruthers said.

At least one of the young girls in the photos was identified and is a "known victim," the investigator said.

When Sanders, 67, is sentenced on March 30, he could get up to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay a $250,000 fine. The minimum sentence for the charge is five years with supervised release for his lifetime and registration as a sex offender, the prosecutor said.

FBI agents discovered the illegal downloads as part of a nationwide initiative called Project Safe Childhood. The multi-agency program, which began in 2006, is "designed to combat the growing epidemic of child exploitation and abuse," the U.S. Attorney's statement said.

Sanders was a U.S. Navy Swift boat captain during the Vietnam War, where he earned the Silver Star, Bronze Star and Purple Heart. He retired from the U.S. Navy as a captain.

Sanders was chosen by fellow Swift boat veteran John Kerry to introduce him at the 2004 Democratic Convention, when the senator accepted the presidential nomination.

He briefly entered the 2000 congressional race in a San Diego district, but withdrew citing lack of funding. He ran as a Democrat.

Sanders served as the senior advisor to California Lt. Gov. John Garamendi for Veterans and Military Affairs until the time of his arrest, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. He was also in the Clinton administration as a deputy assistant secretary of the Navy.

When Garamendi's office announced Sanders' appointment in July 2007, it said he was a practicing lawyer and a community activist.

"He is a member of the San Diego Police Department Senior Oversight Committee and has served on many non-profit boards," the lieutenant governor's office said.
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Source:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/12/23/porn.conviction/

Thanks for CNN for this news

Our advice for last minute holiday shopping

By Shay Quillen

Mercury News
Posted: 12/19/2008 12:00:00 AM PST


Holiday Guide
• Celebrate the season with gift, food, travel, decoration ideas and more
Why am I writing the last-minute gift guide? Because I never got around to coming up with an idea for the regular gift guide, of course.
So why are you depending on me for advice? I have no idea, but don't worry, we'll get through this together.
The good news: As you read this, Christmas is still four days away, an eternity for a true last-minute shopper. You've got time to go to a store and buy anything you want, even if some assembly is required, then sit around for a couple of days drinking eggnog before calmly wrapping it Christmas Eve as the gentle sounds of Johnny Mathis' "Merry Christmas" waft around your abode. A piece of cake or, should I say, a piece of fruitcake.
If your loved one doesn't live in the area, no problem. At Amazon.com, you can get two-day shipping, guaranteed to arrive on Christmas Eve, as late as 3 p.m. Monday (Pacific time) for some items. For one-day shipping, you can go as late as 3 p.m. Tuesday.
But let's say you really, really, really push your luck and you're truly coming down to the wire. Let's say TNT has already started its 24 hours of "A Christmas Story" and Santa and the reindeer are taxiing for takeoff. What will you do? What will you do?
Stay cool, Frosty. Here are a few ideas:
• Walgreens. The 24-hour Walgreens locations in the South Bay will be open all night and all day, as usual, on Christmas Eve and Christmas, so you can even pick up all your
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presents on the way to your holiday gathering — say Celine Dion's Belong perfume for Mom, a Jim Beam barbecue set for Dad and a remote-control car for Junior. Buy a Santa hat for yourself while you're there so you can make a grand entrance. Ho, ho, ho!
• Tickets. Head to www.ticketmaster.com and find a good show, hand over your credit card digits and print out your tickets from your computer. Stick 'em inside a nice Christmas card (or not) and — voilà! — an instant present, perfectly suited for your loved one's taste, whether it's the San Francisco Symphony playing Tchaikovsky (Jan. 16 at the Flint Center in Cupertino, $40-$67), Smokey Robinson crooning "Being With You" (Jan. 24 at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, $39.50-$85), or Disturbed belting out "Down With the Sickness" (Jan. 27 at San Jose State University Event Center, $37.50).
• A mix CD. Note: Burning a copy of "Tha Carter III" is not acceptable. Nor is recycling a mix you made for an ex-girlfriend two years ago. You must assemble a disc from the heart, specifically for this recipient at this time. Then add punny title, cool packaging and heartfelt sentiments to taste, depending on your time available and level of artsiness. Shouldn't take more than a few hours, depending on how obsessive you are.
Of course, this gift requires having a computer with a burner and some blank CDs (available at Walgreens, natch). But even if you've got no tools, can't make it out of the house and don't want to spend any money, you've still got one good option left ...
• Poetry. Some people say the gift of yourself is worth more than some material gift like, for instance, an iPhone 3G or "Rock Band 2." Here's a good way to put that preposterous theory to the ultimate test: Write a poem. If you start on Christmas Eve, you've got enough time to crank out a villanelle or a halfway-decent sonnet. But even if you wait till Christmas morning, you can still bust out a haiku in a matter of minutes.
Tip: Write neatly and use decent paper. Even Masaoka Shiki himself wouldn't impress anybody if he sloppily scrawled his 17 syllables on the back of a Comcast bill.
Last word: Don't toss out those Sunday comics; they make a dandy substitute for wrapping paper! Merry Christmas, everyone!

Source:
http://www.mercurynews.com/letters/ci_11273798
Thanks for this great article!

Next on councilman's agenda: active retirement

By J. Harry Jones

UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

December 7, 2008

POWAY – Last week, Bob Emery, one final time, cast a series of votes in his role as a member of the Poway City Council.

“It will be a change to go from somebody with status to somebody with none,” Emery said later.

But Emery, 67, a former middle school teacher who has been a member of the City Council since Poway incorporated in 1980, will always have status in the city he has had so much influence in shaping.

He moved with his wife, Suzanne, to Poway in 1967, and was a member of a county planning advisory committee beginning in 1970. Its members were sick and tired of county planners ignoring their suggestions and allowing Poway to develop haphazardly.

In 1980, Emery and many other community leaders backed a ballot measure calling for Poway to incorporate as a city. Twenty-seven people ran for positions on a new City Council that wouldn't exist if the measure failed.

It passed 52 percent to 48 percent, and Emery was the top vote-getter for one of five seats. And there he stayed, easily winning re-election again and again.

At the council's meeting Tuesday night, Emery will step down from his seat in the council chambers, which were named after him in a vote last month. He chose not to seek an eighth term.

It will be the end of 38 years of continual service to Poway, although Emery still will be a volunteer reserve park ranger, a program he brought before the council in 1992.

Jan Goldsmith, elected San Diego City Attorney on Nov. 4, was mayor of Poway for a short time in the early 1990s.

“He is indeed Mr. Poway. He's always put Poway first,” Goldsmith said of Emery. “I love the guy.”

The original council had a vision for the city. Three years after incorporation, it developed a general plan that called for keeping “The City in the Country,” as Poway calls itself, as rural as possible while dealing with inevitable growth.

Today that plan is intact.

“If you were in the space shuttle looking down on Poway, you would see that the plan adopted in 1983 is almost identical to what the city looks like now,” said Jim Bowersox, Poway's first city manager, who retired in 2005. “Bob has steadfastly defended that plan.”

Poway has long enjoyed a reputation in the county as a well-run and financially healthy city. Emery and Bowersox are two of the reasons why.

“There are only two things that have happened that I wouldn't have expected on the day we incorporated,” Emery said in a recent interview.

The first was the creation of the Poway Business Park in the southern part of the city, which has brought 20,000 jobs and about $3 million annually in sales taxes to the city. The park was conceived a few years after incorporation, “and was the smartest thing we ever did,” Emery said.

The second, Emery said, is the way northern Poway has developed. The city always envisioned large lots where people could build bigger houses and keep horses. But north Poway became a wealthy area filled with “incredible mansions,” many built behind gates, Emery said.

“None of us saw that coming,” he said.

There were a few mistakes made early on, Emery said.

Shortly after incorporation, the council, thinking it had all its legal i's dotted and t's crossed, ordered five large billboards removed from Poway Road.

That led to a lawsuit, during which a judge threatened to jail the entire council.

“They worked it out, and the billboards are gone and Poway Road is much better for it,” Emery said.

The other was a “rather Draconian” council decision in the early 1980s restricting development in various floodplain areas. The ordinance had the effect of denying many landowners the ability to build on their property, and residents made it clear they were unhappy.

“We turned that one around real quick,” Emery said.

Emery is proud of the council he has served on. He takes pleasure in the fact that unlike the factionalism and infighting evident in some other cities – with council majorities that seize power and silence minority members – Poway has largely avoided that.

“It hasn't always been a bed of roses, but when the crunch came everybody has always voted for what is best for Poway,” he said. “Everybody I've served with on the council has had the best interest of the city at heart.”

Bowersox first met Emery in 1981 during his second interview for the city manager's job. It was Emery who called Bowersox to let him know he had been hired.

“How do you summarize a guy whose been around for 28 years?” Bowersox said. “I have a lot of respect for him and consider him not just to be a former boss but a good friend, too.”

Don Higginson, who has served on the council since 1986 and will now become its longest-serving member, said that if you were to cut Emery's vein open, “little P's for Poway would come out.”

“Bob is as consistent as you can get,” Higginson said. “You know how Bob philosophically feels about anything and everything and he never varies. He's big on personal property rights and zoning and planning.

“He's been a great comrade up there.”

Source from:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/northcounty/20081207-9999-1mc7emery.html