Technology Slice Blog

Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas - Tax rates for some of the county's 1,500 taxing bodies went down, Orr disclosed Monday. Tax rates for Northwest suburban schools, which typically make up about half of a person's tax bill, dropped or increased modestly, with several exceptions. Coupled with lower property assessments for homeowners across the county, that should mean few surprises on many bills being mailed out on Wednesday, said Bill Vaselopulos of the clerk's office. But some areas where rates rose higher could buck that trend, and one wild card could push individual homeowners' tax bills up, Vaselopulos said. That's the record 430,000 property assessment appeals filed with the Cook County Board of Review half again more than the previous record of 280,000, and almost a quarter of the county's 1.8 million properties. Homeowners could see significant increases in their tax bills if many of their neighbors won significant assessment reductions and ...

Broward County Schools Lockdown Lifted - All schools in Broward County, Florida, are under lockdown because of what a county spokeswoman described as a "credible threat." A woman told a local radio station that her husband had threatened to fire shots at a school, police said. Later, the radio station received an e-mail saying "something big" was going to happen, CNN's Rich Phillips reported. During a noon news conference, a police spokesman said all students, faculty and staff are safe, and all approximately 300 schools and administrative buildings in Broward County were locked. Police in Broward County, Florida, have lifted a school lockdown; Pembroke Pines police Capt. Dan Rakofsky said. Broward County Schools Lockdown Lifted

Cam Newton Is Not Suspended - Sorry, folks, it’s just a rumor that Cam Newton was suspended. Stop listening to those people on Twitter already! If you’ve been following Twitter, you’ve probably heard that Cam Newton was suspended, but Just like Justin Bieber dating Kim Kardashian, it’s just a rumor. Apparently Twitter trouble makers said there was a report from Ian Fitzsimmons of ESPN radio that Newton was going to be suspended in the next few hours. Only problem was Fitzsimmons never reported any of that. But that didn’t stop the thousands, maybe millions, of re-tweets that followed. But in the end, it wasn’t purposely done. A listener, who just happened to be a blogger as well, misunderstood something Fitzsimmons said and came up with Cam Newton is going to be suspended in three or four hours. It’s like a bad game of Telephone. Cam Newton Is Not Suspended

Roberta Mancino Model - Roberta Mancino is an extreme athlete, and has been skydiving since 2001, at which point it chose her as her profession! She does everything from skydiving to B.A.S.E. jumping, has logged over 4,000 jumps and is the Free Fly record holder. On top of all of that, she is absolutely gorgeous! That explains why she is a favorite among Men’s Fitness readers. That and the fact that she has also done four jumps in the buff! She just did an interview with the men’s magazine, where she talked about skydiving, training for competitions (I didn’t even know there were skydiving competitions, and her parachute failing. Yea, it’s happened five times! Zero is enough for me! My favorite question was about training for skydiving. Who knew?! She says, Roberta Mancino Model

Carnival Cruise Ship Stranded After Fire - Carnival's 113,000-ton cruise ship, Splendor, has been dead in the water since early morning, when a fire in the engine room left it stranded. The cruise line announced that tugboats were en route to the scene and that the Coast Guard had sent cutters and aircraft 200 miles south of San Diego, where the vessel is located. Still, the 3,299 guests and 1,167 crew members can't be very happy. Carnival said air conditioning is off and guests only have access to cold water and cold food. That much Gerry Cahill, president and CEO of Carnival Cruise Lines, admitted in a statement. "Conditions on board the ship are very challenging," he said. "And we sincerely apologize for the discomfort and inconvenience our guests are currently enduring." We haven't been able to locate any reports from inside the cruise liner. The Navy did release a photograph of the ship out at sea. Carnival Cruise Ship Stranded After Fi...

Amazon MP3 - Amazon.com, Inc. announced a new method for sending Amazon.com Gift Cards to friends on Facebook. According to a release, customers can now connect to their Facebook account on Amazon.com and create a personalized gift card that will be delivered on the recipient's Facebook Wall. After connecting to his or her Facebook account on Amazon.com, the company noted, the sender can choose a gift card design, specify an amount up to $5,000 and provide an optional gift card message. The sender can also schedule the date for the gift card to appear on the recipient's Facebook Wall up to a year in advance. "We think our customers who use Facebook will be thrilled that we've made gift-giving more social," said Michal Geller, director of ACI Gift Cards, Inc., the exclusive issuer of Amazon.com Gift Cards. "Sending gift cards has never been easier and we're excited to offer the Facebook option just in time for the holidays." Amazon MP3

Carnival Splendor Fire - The crew of a Mexico-bound cruise ship battled an engine room fire for three hours which left the vessel adrift, officials said. According to a statement from Carnival Cruise Lines, the blaze aboard the Carnival Splendor broke out Monday around 6 a.m. as the ship was about 55 miles off of the northern Baja coast. The ship is carrying 3,299 guests and 1,167 crew members. The fire was extinguished by 9:10 a.m., the firm said. No one was hurt. "Currently several key hotel systems, including air conditioning, hot food service, flushing toilets and telephones are not available," according to the statement on the cruise line's website. "The ship's crew is actively working to restore partial services." Officials decided to terminate the cruise when power couldn't be fully restored. The ship's crew first asked guests to move to the ship's upper deck, but later provided them with bottled water and food and allowed them ...