| Now You Can Prevent Cyber Invaders from Infecting Your Computer
(ARA) - "Lions, Tigers and Bears, Oh My!" When Dorothy uttered those words during her long, scary walk through the forest in the movie, "The Wizard of Oz," she had no idea just how scary the world was about to become.The lions, tigers and bears of today are spyware, viruses, spam, pop ups and phishing scams that cost Americans billions of dollars every year. Since none of us have a good witch on our side to keep these threats at bay, it's important to take steps to protect your computer from these cyber invaders.A good first step to take is to develop an understanding of the enemies you're dealing with, and they are plentiful.* Computer virus -- a piece of code that is secretly introduced into a system in order to corrupt it or destroy data.* Spam -- the common name for unsolicited commercial e-mail.
Major rise in foreclosures boosts banks' home sales
More than 8% of the homes for sale in the Charlotte area are being sold by a bank that acquired them in foreclosure. That represents a steep rise in the number of bank-owned homes here amid the subprime mortgage fallout. Of the 27,558 listings of homes available in the Charlotte area as of Oct. 30, 2,254 were bank-owned foreclosures, according to RealtyTrac, an Irvine, Calif.-based national foreclosure research company. That's a 16% increase from the previous quarter, a 31% rise over third quarter 2006 and a whopping 363% increase since the first quarter of 2005. .
Famed names top startup
A Palm Desert acquisition startup whose directors include a former Notre Dame football coach and a U.S. vice president seeks to raise $400 million on Wall Street. Richard J. Heckmann, a well-known Coachella Valley acquisition guru, formed Heckmann Corp. in May, bringing along three well-connected colleagues to serve as board directors. The ensemble consists of Dan Quayle, vice president to George H.W. Bush and chairman of Cerberus Global Investments; Lou L. Holtz, ESPN commentator and former national championship coach at the University of Notre Dame; and Alfred E. Osborne Jr., senior associate dean at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Heckmann Corp., a so-called "blank check" company, issued shares Nov. 12 offering 50 million units at $8 a unit. Each unit consists of one share of common stock and one warrant.
Arrest warrant highlights
In the affidavit, Waco police detective Charles Jaquith says he obtained records by subpoena for several banks where Mills and Downtown Waco did business. The investigation found the following: * Mills wrote 121 checks from Downtown Waco Inc. to herself, cashing some and putting some into her account at First National Bank of Central Texas. Other Downtown Waco Inc. checks were deposited into the account of her son, Richard Coke Mills Jr., at Bank of America. * Mills diverted into her private account at least 10 checks intended for Downtown Waco Inc., worth $19,939. That included checks of several thousand dollars from Kelly Realtors, Waco Independent School District, the Waco Tribune-Herald, McLennan Community College and Baylor University. * Mills wrote $40,800 checks to herself from a Downtown Waco Inc.
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