| Homeless Man Gets $25,000 For Tip On Suspected Deputy Killer
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A homeless man will receive $25,000 for helping police capture the suspected killer of a Broward County Sheriff's deputy. Mark Spradley picked up Michael Mazza in Hollywood, drove him to a soup kitchen and then to a pawn shop. It was there that he recognized Mazza after seeing his mug shot on TV. The pawn shop owner, Scott Kelly, called 911. He'll receive $1,000 for his role. Deputy Paul Rein was taking Mazza to court for a hearing when authorities say Mazza overpowered Rein and killed him with his own gun in Pompano Beach. Mazza fled in Rein's van and later hitchhiked to Hollywood. Mazza was arrested at the pawn shop. Spradley previously received $2,500 from another police group. .
Ex-New York policeman pleads guilty in child porn case
A former police detective who tried to set up a sex tryst with a 14-year-old girl pleaded guilty Monday to child pornography charges.
Michael Farrell, 36, pleaded guilty in Manhattan to attempted dissemination of indecent material to minors and was promised a one-year jail sentence. He would have faced up to four years in prison had he been convicted after trial.
Farrell, of Levittown, N.Y., admitted having computer photographs of underage children depicting sexual conduct and acknowledged that he had arranged to meet in lower Manhattan and have sex with someone he thought was a 14-year-old girl. He has similar charges pending in Nassau County.
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House price gloom as the wealthy turn away
House prices fell for the first time in two years this month, sending a shudder through millions of homeowners already hit by rising mortgage repayments and more expensive borrowing. The outlook for homeowners is likely to worsen with news that the wealthy are losing confidence in bricks and mortar as an investment. There has been a big drop in City bonuses being used to buy prime property in Central London and in the popular second-homes areas, triggering fears of price falls in the South West, East Anglia and the Cotswolds. Today’s figures will increase the anxiety of millions who have banked on ever-rising prices to fund their old age and pay off mortgages. To add to their misery came a new warning from America, that Britain would not escape the fallout from the US as the property market there went through its worst recession in 16 years.
Gordon Brown backs bank robbers
As the vultures circle around Northern Rock the government seems set to feed them with billions of pounds from the public purse. Not content with buying into the bank at a knock down price, these asset strippers and privateers want working people in Britain to subsidise their takeover. Chancellor Alastair Darling has already handed out �24 billion to bail out the bank and is set to shell out up to �50 billion. That is more than double what New Labour spends on housing and the environment, and two thirds of what it spends on education every year. Families on the housing waiting list or children being taught in Victorian schools with leaking roofs might wonder why they are valued less than the hedge funds and speculators seeking to profit from Northern Rock�s collapse.
Stocks End Volatile Day With Comeback
NEW YORK (AP) -- Wall Street ended a volatile week with a late-day comeback Friday after investors set aside some concerns about the banking sector and the health of the overall economy. Stocks began Friday's trading having fallen in six of the prior seven sessions as investors fretted about whether consumers would succumb to higher energy prices, rising mortgage costs and an anemic dollar. Continuing credit turmoil has also stirred concerns about the soundness of corporate balance sheets and profits. A sharp rally Tuesday was largely undone by subsequent pullbacks; on Friday, the market appeared headed to another down day before the major indexes, which had flip-flopped all day, turned higher in the last half-hour. Financial stocks fell, partly due to a Fortune story that raised the possibility Fannie Mae could be masking the true magnitude of credit-related hits to its profits.
Man Takes Practice Ordnance From Ocala-Area Bombing Range
OCALA NATIONAL FOREST, Fla. -- The Marion County Sheriff's Office reports that officials are looking for a man who took a live practice ordnance from a Navy bombing range in the Ocala National Forest. According to a sheriff's office report, the man put the ordnance in a basket of an ATV and fled the scene when employees tried to stop him. Officials said if it is activated, the practice ordnance can detonate. It contains explosive material. .
Principal plagiarism report gets people talking
Six more letters have arrived in The Express-Times' mailbox about the newsletter column a Phillipsburg High School principal wrote that contained several paragraphs of a Texas therapist's work without crediting him. Mary Jane Deutsch first denied she plagiarized the essay about the virtues of modesty, then apologized for a mistake she called inadvertent. Get more background information here, and keep reading for six newspaper readers' views. (The editorial board takes a stand here.) A Lopatcong Township man says the story didn't belong on the front page of the newspaper. "Please leave the front page for principals who allegedly sit naked at their desks and allegedly deal drugs from their offices," Richard McQuade writes, referring to former Nitschmann Middle School Principal John Acerra.
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