| Holocaust Museum founder Lerman dies
Miles Lerman, who fought against the Nazis in Poland and later helped found the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., has died. He was 88. Lerman's wife, Rosalie, confirmed Wednesday that he died Tuesday at his home in Philadelphia. Lerman was a member of a prosperous family whose flour mills were seized by the Nazis. Lerman escaped from a slave labor camp and fought the Nazis with other partisans for nearly two years in the forests of Poland. "Our job was to raise havoc, to raise hell with them and survive," he once told The Philadelphia Inquirer. Lerman and his wife immigrated to New York City in 1947. He worked as a grocery warehouse clerk in Brooklyn, N.Y., then had a chicken farm in Vineland, N.J. He later started a home heating oil business that grew into a major distributorship, and invested in real estate.
Bloomberg Picks Quadrangle Asset Management
As part of an agreement with the city's Conflicts of Interest Board, Mayor Bloomberg has chosen Quadrangle Asset Management LP to manage his investments and those of the Bloomberg Family Foundation, officials said yesterday. Financier Steven Rattner, a friend of Mr. Bloomberg's, runs the Quadrangle Group, the New York Times reported. Mr. Rattner has been a supporter of Senator Clinton's presidential campaign, the Times said. Mr. Bloomberg is considered a potential presidential candidate who would be expected to spend as much as $1 billion on a self-financed campaign should he run. Mr. Bloomberg sought an opinion from the conflicts board to diversify his investments. Under the ruling, he is allowed to invest in hedge funds, real estate, and private equity funds, among other areas, so long as the identities of the money managers and their investment picks are not shared with him.
Ducktown case has similarities to north Georgia homicide
Meridith Emersons body was found on Monday in the mountains of northern Georgia. A number of similarities to other cases, including a case in Ducktown, have arisen since Gary Hilton was taken into custody and charged with her murder. n2 A bank card and bank video surveillance could be clues to tying the transient suspect to Polk County and the disappearance of a North Carolina couple. Meanwhile, a Polk County investigator believes a person who went missing in late 2006 was not a victim of homicide. David Fountain disappeared in the Cherokee National Forest in December 2006. Officials launched an extensive search of the forest and surrounding area, but Fountain was never found though his vehicle was recovered near Thunder Rock. During his investigation, Kevin Cole, criminal investigator for the Polk County Sheriff's Office was able to determine Fountain disappeared on his own.
Collier forecasting a decline in school enrollment
For the first time, the Collier County School District is forecasting a decline in enrollment. That was the news Bob Spencer, executive director for financial services, told the Collier County School Board on Tuesday. It came right after Spencer told the board that the district could expect to lose 410 students and about $3.31 million in full-time enrollment dollars in 2008-09. Collier County is not alone. State economists predicted last month that 8,000 fewer students arrived in Florida schools than anticipated. But that concerns school districts, whose budgets are predicated on the number of students sitting in classrooms. Theron Trimble, director of the district's full-time enrollment, said the district woes came in the summer of 2007, when many students moved away.
IV. The Forensic Evidence
What little is known today about the mass graves in Iraq has come from individual Iraqis who miraculously survived mass executions, witnessed killings, or came across freshly dug graves in the course of their daily activities. In September 2003, a shepherd led Aid Rashid Ido, a lieutenant in the Iraqi Civil Defense Corp (ICDC), to two mass graves located in the al-Jazeera desert west of Mosul. The witness was unsure of the exact month, but he recalled discovering the graves sometime in 1988, shortly after he observed Iraqi military and civilian vehicles transporting what appeared to be Kurdish women and children on the road that passes his village. Lt. Rashid Ido took Human Rights Watch researchers to the site on February 24, 2004, where they found toys, childrens clothing, and remnants of clothing traditionally worn by Kurdish women.
Residents' days are numbered
When he heard about the new law, hardware store owner Vincent Ayd wasted no time calling in his order.
If the Baltimore County Council wants to require some residents to display their address on the back of their properties, he is happy to sell the metal and plastic house numbers.
"I'm putting them right at the front," the store owner said at Ayd Hardware in Towson. "I'm going to call them alley numbers."
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Hank Steinbrenner promises patience
Brian Cashman, the general manager since late 1997, prefers not to comment on moves until they are finalized. Steinbrenner realizes that."There's a famous line from the movie 'Patton' where Patton has gotten himself in trouble again by saying something to the press. And he told his aide, his captain, 'The next time I start to do something like that stop me,"' Steinbrenner said. "Then the guy says, 'Well, I'll give you a gentle nudge.' And he says, 'No, you give me a swift kick in the ass.' So I told Brian that one time."Sure sounds like his father there."Hal is more reserved than George," said Howard Rubenstein, the longtime family and Yankees spokesman. "Hank is really a pretty accurate reflection. When I first saw the pictures in the paper, I had to do a double take."Like his father, Hank Steinbrenner will defend the Yankees against other teams envious of their winning and wealth.
Orlando-area home resales wither amid shaky market
Central Florida's home-resale market continued to stagger last month under the weight of slack demand and sky-high inventory.
Fewer than 1,000 homes were sold in the Orlando Regional Realtor Association's core market in November -- only the second time in nearly 11 years that the number has dipped below that threshold. The other instance was three months ago, in September, when sales in the core market totaled 970.
The preliminary count of 963 sales in November was down nearly 48 percent from the same month a year ago, according to the association's latest monthly report. Through the first 11 months of the year, sales in the core market -- which consists mainly of Orange and Seminole counties -- were down 39 percent from the same period in 2006.
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