Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has settled a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of a 19-year-old store clerk who was abducted, raped and killed following her night shift. The parents of Megan LeAnn Holden said the terms of the settlement were confidential. The lawsuit filed by Sheri Kay Dunlap and James Vincent Holden had been set to go to trial Tuesday. Dunlap and Holden sued Wal-Mart and the store's security company, The Wackenhut Corp., in 2005, claiming their negligence resulted in their daughter's death. They claimed Wal-Mart didn't take reasonable security precautions in failing to remove Johnny Lee Williams Jr. from the property or come to their daughter's aid. Holden was kidnapped Jan. 19, 2005, from the parking lot of a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Tyler. Her body was found on the side of a highway in West Texas, about 400 miles from her home. Williams was later arrested in Arizona. ...
http://abcnews.go.com
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Editor - 21:26:00 08-28-06
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 US housing slump fuels crash fears Foundering American property market could spark global slowdown worse than dotcom collapse |
The downturn in the US housing market will force businesses to slash 73,000 jobs a month in the new year and could be more damaging to the world economy than the dotcom crash, economists have warned.After official figures last week showed that the number of new homes sold in July was 22 per cent lower than a year earlier, while prices were almost flat, fears are mounting that the 'orderly' housing slowdown predicted by the Federal Reserve will become a full-blown crash.'Things do seem to be getting worse very quickly. Freefall is a strong word, but I think it's the right one to use here,' said Paul Ashworth, chief US economist at Capital Economics.House prices have been rising at unprecedented double-digit rates in recent years, giving homeowners massive windfalls and supporting a wave of investment in new construction. However, the number of unsold new homes is now at a 10-year high....
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1859024,00.html
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Editor - 21:24:00 08-28-06
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| Californians to defy US hemp ban on 'environment friendly' cash crop |
California farmers are on a high after the liberal state moved to overturn part of a 70-year-old US ban on growing and harvesting cannabis plants.But those hoping that the so-called Golden State is about to become a marijuana smokers' paradise will be disappointed. The California proposal relates only to the cultivation of industrial hemp, used in the manufacture of items such as cosmetics, food, paper and clothing."Hemp bears no more resemblance to marijuana than a poodle bears to a wolf," said Tom McClintock, a Republican state senator who backed legislation that would reverse one key section of a 1937 law banning the growth of all types of the plant. "You'd die from smoke inhalation before you'd get high."...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1860138,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12
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Editor - 21:22:00 08-28-06
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| Experts warn U.S. is coming apart at the seams |
A pipeline shuts down in Alaska. Equipment failures disrupt air travel in Los Angeles. Electricity runs short at a spy agency in Maryland. None of these recent events resulted from a natural disaster or terrorist attack, but they may as well have, some homeland security experts say. They worry that too little attention is paid to how fast the country's basic operating systems are deteriorating. "When I see events like these, I become concerned that we've lost focus on the core operational functionality of the nation's infrastructure and are becoming a fragile nation, which is just as bad — if not worse — as being an insecure nation," said Christian Beckner, a Washington analyst who runs the respected Web site Homeland Security Watch. The American Society of Civil Engineers last year graded the nation "D" for its overall infrastructure conditions...
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003226851_fragile26.html
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Editor - 21:12:00 08-28-06
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| China's Wealth Woes |
With its dollar hoard rising at $17 billion a month and about to pass the $1 trillion mark, Beijing is finding out that it is possible to have too much money. Sometime over the next few weeks, a shipment of lawn furniture, brake pads, lamps or the like is going to make history. The manufacturer, one among tens of thousands churning out product 24/7 in China's humming coast-al cities, will fill an order bound for the United States, take payment in American dollars and add a 12th zero to Beijing's foreign reserve—pushing the tally over the $1 trillion mark. Neither buyer nor seller will realize the transaction's significance, and barring an unforeseen shock to the global trading system, China's reserve will continue to rise by roughly $17 billion a month. Beijing's growing dollar hoard represents the most dangerous imbalance in today's global economy. The United States is both importing heavily from China and borrowing heavily from the country to finance those purchases, pushing ...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14535192/site/newsweek/
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Editor - 21:02:00 08-28-06
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| At least 40 people killed as Shiite militiamen clash with Iraqi forces south of Baghdad |
Shiite militiamen battled Iraqi forces for 12 hours Monday, leaving at least 40 people dead and underlining the government's struggle to rein in an anti-U.S. cleric. The U.S. announced nine soldiers killed over the weekend in separate fighting.The fighting in this southern city dominated a day that saw at least 19 people die in two suicide car bombings in Baghdad _ one outside the Interior Ministry and one on a line of cars waiting for fuel at a gas station.Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, is a Shiite-dominated city where the influence of firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army has been gradually increasing. The militia already runs a virtual parallel government in Sadr City, a slum in eastern Baghdad....
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/29/ap/world/mainD8JPO8IO0.shtml
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Editor - 20:39:00 08-28-06
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