| Police Analyze Security Video In Solana Beach Rape Case
SOLANA BEACH, Calif. -- Police are analyzing surveillance video in hopes that a man who raped a 24-year-old jogger at gunpoint has been caught fleeing on camera. The woman reported that she was raped at gunpoint while jogging Thursday evening. View Images | Watch Video .
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Listen to this story on NPR's Day to Day. The Spot: A woman cavorts in her shower while applying Dove Cream Oil moisturizer. (Click here to watch the spot.) This new spot from Dove hits on a couple of current advertising trends. First, it debuted during the Academy Awards telecast—increasingly, the Super Bowl of splashy ads for women. As Ad Age has noted, Oscars ads cost significantly less than Super Bowl ads: $1.7 million compared with $2.6 million for a 30-second spot this year. They reach a more heavily female audience (60 percent of Oscars viewers are women, while that figure drops to less than 50 percent for the football game). And while Super Bowl advertisers face the risk of a massive tune-out if the game grows lopsided, the biggest Oscar presentations are saved for the tail end of the broadcast, so viewers generally stick around.
The toddlers who are running the global economy.
The Federal Reserve's latest attempt to calm the market's tantrums—the half-point interest-rate cut on Wednesday—bought about 90 minutes of market silence. Within hours, as poor economic news continued to materialize, the clamor for further rate cuts began. Mogel puts it in starkly financial terms: "Indulge tantrums and you get short-term gains and long-term loss." .
Holiday gift guide
For the diehard jazz lover on your list, consider signing them up for the 35th annual International Association of Jazz Educators conference being staged Jan. 9 to 12 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Aimed at education, teacher training and professional development, the event features an intriguing array of live interviews, panels, workshops and more than 100 concerts. The 2008 lineup includes a U.K. showcase helmed by British saxist Courtney Pine, performances by singer Kurt Elling (below), guitarist Lionel Loueke, The Tierney Sutton Band and trumpeter Christian Scott. Advance registration and membership costs about $540; lower for students. Visit iaje.org. - Ashante Infantry FOR THE FILM BUFFCool gifts for movie fans this season come in both small and big packages. Let's work our way up: iPod Touch: The latest extension of the category-killing Apple gizmo looks like the skinny brother to the iPhone, the super cell that still hasn't come to Canada.
Tulane season opens at renovated stadium
The stadium couldn't have been built without the finances of donors, who needed to be convinced that building a stadium was smart. Dickson convinced them. "It wasn't so much that it was a hard sale, but explaining to people that this is kind of a beacon out there for us that says, look, we are not just trying to survive, we are trying to achieve and overcome things that we have been through," he said. Perhaps most unusual about Greer Field at Turchin Stadium is the artificial playing surface, the same type used in the Superdome. It now gives Tulane an easy-to-manage facility. "From a distance it does look like one of the most manicured fields you've ever seen in your life," Barto said. "But when you get on it, it's an amazing surface the way it drains rain and the way the ball plays off it.
Santa Monica
The City of Santa Monica is offering competitive landscape grants up to $20,000 to help property owners move away from landscaping that drains resources like water and petroleum, and pollutes, to a landscape that reduces such impacts and mimics native flora and fauna.To qualify for a grant, a landscaping plan must include water-efficient irrigation, plus one or more of the following — California native plants, water-efficient plants, storm-water management systems, "graywater" systems, and/or other innovative water-saving features. Since 2005, local homeowners, apartment owners, businesses and schools have been awarded more than $400,000 in landscaping grants, city officials said.Applications for the current grant cycle will be accepted through March 27th. Applications are available at www.smepd .org/, or (866) 728-3229.
IT Best Buy Shines Brightly as CompUSA Fades Away
When it comes to the realm of consumer electronics, Best Buy is the reigning retail leader. Best Buy's market dominance was made even clearer with the company's fiscal 2008 Q3 earnings report. Best Buy reported a 52% increase in its Q3 profits compared to the same period one year ago. In addition, overall quarterly revenue rose 17% from $8.5 billion USD to $9.9 billion USD thanks to 45 new store openings during the quarter. Revenue from Best Buy's online division helped the total with a 65% increase from fiscal 2007 Q3. Not surprisingly, Best Buy attributed an extra week of after Thanksgiving revenue for its stellar third quarter performance. Hot items for Best Buy during Q3 included consoles, flat-panel TVs, notebook computers and GPS units. When all was said and done, Best Buy's sales mix for the third quarter was 41%, 28%, 19%, 6% and 6% respectively for Consumer Electronics, Home Office, Entertainment Software, Appliances and Services.
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