| 'Whimpy Kid' bullies its way to big success
Long before his online comic strip became a series of best-selling books, Jeff Kinney wondered about his quirky title. He knew that "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" would grab attention, but worried "if kids who aren't wimpy would even want to touch it." He's not worried anymore. .
'Abused lives' of Jordan's maids
An announcement has been pinned to the door of a refuge for Filipino maids in the Jordanian capital. It blandly states that the "deployment of Filipino household workers is hereby temporarily suspended". Inside, the reality of life for many Filipino domestic workers in Jordan soon becomes clear. There are more than 150 women here who have fled their jobs. "I was maltreated by my employer," said one, who like all the women that we met did not want to be named. "My boss pulled me by my hair, she slapped me, she beat me, she pulled me crudely by my clothes and tried to put her slipper on my mouth." Stories of physical abuse are common and some of the former maids say they have been raped. Most of the women in the refuge have not been paid for months.
A Super Bowl worth the hype
I'm going to be honest here. There have been years when those of us who monger words for a living had to stretch the bounds of credulity to make a Super Bowl sound super. Just last year, I remember inventing reasons why the Bears and their all-knucklehead quarterback Rex Grossman would give the Colts all they could handle. That's why they call it hype. You could make a good argument that it's that way more often than not. I'm not saying there's any harm in it. But I can see where PETA — People for the Ethical Treatment of Adjectives — might object that thousands of innocent descriptives were needlessly slaughtered in the cause of advancing a very thin story line. .
Massapequa teen left so many people who loved him
The glue to their social circle gone, a group of about 15 of Michael Gruber's closest friends gathered Saturday night at his girlfriend's house to make a photo collage for his wake and funeral.
"He left having so many people that loved him," said Toni Rubano, Gruber's girlfriend.
Gruber, 17, died suddenly on Thursday of meningococcal meningitis, a severe bacterial infection, leaving family, friends and his Massapequa community in shock.
.
Manzullo office says funding for courthouse safe
The plan also includes business tax deductions to spur investment, and it nearly doubles the price of home mortgages that can be bought by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In essence, the president wants to borrow $150 billion from our creditors in China to give Americans money to stimulate the economy by purchasing Chinese TV sets. This makes no sense to me. Bush pledged to veto any bill with a tax increase and asked Congress to make his earlier tax cuts, which expire in 2010, permanent. Democrats say the breaks benefit "the wealthy" and want to let the tax cuts die. "Some in Washington argue that letting tax relief expire is not a tax increase. Try explaining that to 116 million American taxpayers who would see their taxes rise by an average of $1,800," Bush said. Neither the president nor congressional leaders advocate the kind of stimulus package that would improve our economy for a generation — a massive investment in infrastructure, from highways, bridges, rails and ports to fiber optics.
|
