BUSH LIBRARY DOMAIN NAME WAS BOUGHT BACK FOR $35K

DALLAS – George W. Bush's presidential library domain name has been retrieved after a Web developing company accidentally let it expire — and it apparently came at a high price.


Raleigh, N.C.-based Illuminati Karate paid less than $10 for the http://www.GeorgeWBushLibrary.com domain name and sold it back earlier this year for $35,000 to the library's contracted Web developers, Yuma Solutions, said George Huger, lead Web developer for Illuminati Karate. Mark Mills, owner of Yuma Solutions, did not immediately return calls seeking comment Thursday.

The Tallahassee, Fla.-based company has a history with the Bush family, hosting Web sites for Bush's 2000 campaign and for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's 1998 and 2002 campaigns. Records indicate that in March 2007, the George W. Bush Library Foundation, using Yuma Solutions as its contractor, bought the domain name from a private citizen for $3,000. But the registration was set to expire within a few months. Huger said he grabbed the library name, seeing its potential, while searching through a public list of names that were about to expire, The Dallas Morning News reported in Thursday.

Months later, Huger had received some offers on it, but he declined to provide details. After the Morning News reported that the library had lost the domain, Mills contacted Illuminati Karate and asked to buy it back, Huger said. At the time, a library foundation spokesman said officials were unaware that the name had been lost. Yuma finally reached a deal to buy the Web address back for $35,000, which the company, not the library foundation, apparently paid, Huger said. The site changed hands in April and won't expire until 2013. Mark Langdale, president of the George W. Bush Library Foundation, said he didn't know about the Web site being lost and recovered. But, he said, he would know if the library had been stuck with a surprise $35,000 expenditure.

The George W. Bush Presidential Center — which will include a library, museum and public policy institute — is being built at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

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WOMAN BITES MAN AT BASKETBALL GAME

http://www.newsday.com

ROSLYN, N.Y. – A woman charged with biting a teacher at a raucous Long Island high school basketball game says she was defending herself.

Shaquana Beamon said Sunday that the teacher pulled her to the ground and kicked her Thursday as she approached her brother, a player on the Roslyn High School team.

The 20-year-old Beamon was arrested and arraigned on an assault charge Saturday. Police say she bit the teacher's arm and leg and someone else punched him in the head.

The school district's physical education director says the teacher was working as a supervisor at the rowdy matchup. Police say he was trying to break up the crowd.

The director says he was wearing a supervisor's red jacket, but Beamon disputes that.

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BELGIAN CAR DEALER OFFERS SECOND CAR FOR FREE

BRUSSELS (Reuters); Buy one, get one free: it's a familiar sales pitch for happy-hour cocktails or last season's fashions, but now a Belgian car dealer is luring customers with just that line.


Antwerp-based Cardoen, which sells about 10,000 new and nearly new cars per year, started the promotion at the end of November and said it would run until December 15. During that period, customers can choose from a range of new, full-price cars -- the cheapest being a 22,800 euro ($28,930) Hyundai van -- and then pick a second free vehicle from a selection that goes up to 14,000 euros.

"People have been coming in from all over Belgium and abroad," Cardoen's Commercial Director Ivo Willems said, adding that Cardoen's eight showrooms had seen more than 10 times their usual number of visitors since the promotion began. "People will still buy cars, you just have to give them as much advantage as possible, to sell in an innovative way."

Willems said Cardoen was able to run the promotion without losing money because distributors in southern Europe had been so desperate to get cars off their lots that they were selling them to Cardoen at large discounts.�

The move underscores how difficult the situation has become for an auto industry buckling under a global economic downturn. Belgian new car registrations fell 16.4 percent year-on-year in November, according to data released Monday. In Spain, sales nearly halved. Willems said Cardoen had yet to see an impact on its sales from the downturn.

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MBA GRADUATE POSTS RESUME IN TAXI BACK SEAT

NEW YORK – A recent MBA graduate who can't find work in his chosen field has resorted to posting his resume inside the taxi he's been driving around New York City.


James Williamson earned his master's degree in business administration at Philadelphia's La Salle University. Then he spent four months on interviews while looking for work troubleshooting electronics, doing technical sales or writing advertising copy. When none of that panned out, he got his taxi license a month ago to help pay his bills.�

The native of Durham, N.C., says he posted his resume in the back seat of his taxi as a last resort, hoping one of his customers might become his employer. He says he's received a couple of business cards and supportive comments — but no job offers.

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BOY BREAKS INTO STORE, PLAYS WITH TOYS

http://www.kfdm.com

BEAUMONT, Texas – Police called to a variety store by a burglar alarm overnight found a toddler inside, playing with the toys. Police said store surveillance video showed the unidentified boy trying to open one of the front doors to a Family Dollar store about 3 a.m. Monday, only to find it locked. But the second door was unlocked and the child went inside.

That triggered the silent alarm.

Detective Randy Stevens said the child apparently unlocked a door at his nearby home, got out, then crossed a multilane street to reach the store.

A canvass of the neighborhood turned up a family member searching for the child.

CPS spokeswoman Shari Pulliam said Child Protective Services claimed oversight of a 4-year-old boy during a review of the incident. The boy will be allowed to stay with other relatives, not the parents, during the CPS review period.

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MAN JUMPS INTO RHINO ENCLOSURE AT ZOO

www.sfgate.com/chronicle


SAN FRANCISCO;A man who authorities say jumped into a black rhino enclosure at the San Francisco Zoo has been cited.

Neither the man, whose name has not been released, nor any animals were hurt in Monday's incident. But zoo officials say he was lucky the rhino did not go after him.

The man was cited for violating a park code that restricts people from bothering zoo animals. San Francisco's Animal Care and Control chief, Carl Friedman, said it's not clear why he entered the enclosure. He apparently scaled a fence meant to keep humans out and then went over another metal fence. The incident comes less than a year after a tiger escaped from its enclosure, killing a San Jose teen and mauling two others.

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WHAT IS ODD ABOUT HAWKS ?

http://www.cdapress.com

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho – A large raptor crashed through the window of a northern Idaho home, showering a youngster with glass and stunning itself before recovering and flying off. Karyn Holt said her 1-year-old son was eating breakfast in his high chair Tuesday morning when the bird, possibly a Cooper's Hawk, broke through the window facing their backyard.�

Holt's son, Quinn, suffered only minor cuts. Her daughter came running and asked,
"Mom, why is there a hawk in the house."

Karyn Holt picked up the stunned bird and moved it into the yard, where it rested for about 90 minutes before flying off.

Jane Cantwell, a raptor biologist, says raptors like the Cooper's Hawk are ambush predators that can get so focused on prey that they don't notice sudden threats, like a glass window.

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