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Top Stories: Aug. 26, 2009by Staff on Aug 26, 2009‘Ahalan wa-Sahalan ya Maktoob,’ Says Yahoo Is Yahoo the online mouse that roared? The former internet giant, now teamed up with Microsoft, took another step forward in its efforts to win back web dominance by investing in an untapped overseas market: the Arab world. In a recent announcement Yahoo declared its plans to buy Maktoob.com, one of the first Arabic-language email providers and search engines, based in Jordan. According to Yahoo, 320 million people speak Arabic worldwide, but internet infiltration is still low. Though it's the fifth largest language in the world by number of native speakers, just one percent of web content appears in Arabic … so far. Reports claim that Yahoo only acquired the original email service, and the price tag for the purchase has yet to be disclosed. Nevertheless, it can hardly compete with Google's infiltration into the Arabic-language market, where it controls all of its products. In many ways the sale echoes with Yahoo's situation in the Far East: it recently sold Yahoo China to a local company, Alibaba.com; and does not own a controlling interest in Yahoo Japan. Now the Maktoob deal is running along the same lines. That's hardly the way to put a stop to Google's quest for world domination. Still, Yahoo is greeting Maktoob with a heart ahalan wa-sahalan [welcome]. Read More at NBC Bay Area. Property Values up Slightly in Santa Clara County While most of California saw assessed property values decline by 2.4 percent to $4.448 trillion over the past year, three Bay Area counties with rolls over $100 million saw their properties increase: San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara. By far the greatest increases took place in San Francisco County, where property values rose 7.1 percent. In contrast, Santa Clara's assessed property values increased just 0.1 percent, but even this is an improvement over the Bay Area's overall decline of 0.8 percent. The news comes in the wake of news that a much-anticipated report on home sales will show that they have increased nationwide over the past month. This would be the fourth straight month in which home sales have grown. A second report, this one on consumer goods, is expected to show a similar increased, despite a drop of 2.2 percent in June. In general, consumer confidence has grown slightly since its low at the start of the recession. Nevertheless, economists warn that confidence, a key gauge of the economy's health, is still far from healthy. Read More at the Business Journal. Read More at KCBS. Special Ed Teacher Arrested for Sex with Student Edward Riley Slate III, 41, a special education teacher at Santa Clara's Wilcox High School, was arrested earlier this week for having sexual relations with a 17-year-old student. While Department of Safety investigators questioned students about Slate, school officials refused to comment on the incident, saying that any matters involving staff are considered confidential. Read More at ABC 7. Plastics People Peeved at Bag Ban Ryan Kenny of the American Chemistry Council called San Jose City Council's proposal to ban plastic (and many paper) bags from the city "a punitive measure" that harms consumers but won't change anyone's behavior in practice. The ACC, which advocates for the plastics industry, has already poured thousands of dollars into campaigns intended to defeat similar measures across the country, and has even supported law suits claiming that the ban (or in some places, a fee for bags) have failed to consider its impact sufficiently. The threat of one such lawsuit has already forced Oakland to forego its plans to eliminate plastic bags, and it is impossible to tell how San Jose might respond. Councilman Sam Liccardo, a proponent of the ban, points out that people are "already paying for the cost of single-use paper and plastic bags through higher food prices and higher recycling rates." Councilman Pete Constant, an opponent of the ban, argues that plastic bags have multiple uses, from taking out the garbage to scooping up dog poop. And of course, he has the ACC on his side. Read More at Watchdog Silicon Valley. Read More at The Mercury News. Who Was the Hillside High Bomber After? Two days after Hillside High was shut down after a former student was prevented from setting off a potentially deadly attack, police, school officials, and former classmates are pondering what might have brought 17-year-old Alex Youshock over the edge. At a news conference, Police Chief Susan Manheimer said that "the suspect's sole intent was to kill, injure, or commit mayhem to as many students, and school faculty, staff, and administration as possible." In contrast, the Mercury News reported yesterday that the troubled teen wanted revenge against the school staff specifically. Quoting Manheimer again, they wrote that Youshock "was fixated on several 'perceived' wrongs and was going to kill the people responsible for them." But so far, no one even knows what Youshock was up to in the days and months leading up to the attempted attack. His mother and sisters have not been seen since the incident, while his grandmother in New Jersey reported that it was "totally out of character," and that Youshock was a straight A student. Where? He had left Hillside High after his sophomore year in 2007, and though he was reported to attend the Peninsula Continuation School, that school denies that he was even enrolled there. Youshock is now locked up in Hillcrest Juvenile High. Read More at ABC 7. Read More at the Mercury News. by Staff on Aug 26, 2009 |
 Yahoo has announced plans to buy the leading online presence in the Arab world. |
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