| Plea bargain gets man 2 1/2 years in prison; down from a possible 40
FARMINGTON — A man initially facing more than 40 years of prison time on domestic violence charges was sentenced in district court this week to serve less than three years. Jose Silva, 34, initially had been charged with first-degree kidnapping, second-degree aggravated burglary, second-degree retaliation against a witness, fourth-degree aggravated stalking, and several misdemeanors including violating a restraining order, battery on a household member and possession of marijuana. The charges were filed in December 2006 when the victim reported Silva hit her in the face and threatened to attack their infant child if the victim did not drive him where he wanted to go. Those charges in October were reduced to just fourth-degree aggravated stalking and misdemeanor criminal damage to property.
Iranian couples trapped by six-figure party dilemma
Sam Cohan recently completed his residency. As he looked for a job locally, his student loans weighed on him. The 30-something Iranian Jew had grown up middle class in the Valley and had to take out the loans to pay for his education at a prestigious medical school.
With no immediate prospect for income, he found himself caught between feelings of frustration and guilt as his fiance, her parents and his parents pressured him into a wedding he couldn't afford.
Cohan didn't want to break with Iranian tradition or disappoint either family, so he borrowed nearly $100,000 to cover the wedding expenses.
"I felt trapped with the whole situation and wanted to call everything off, but I decided to take the loan in the end because my wife agreed that we'd both work and pay it off little by little," said Cohan, who asked that The Journal not reveal his real name.
Stocks battle back; Dow loses 128
The Dow, for example, is down nearly 10 percent since the beginning of the year logging its worst first 14 trading days of the year ever. It is more than 15 percent since its record close of 14,16.53 on Oct. 9, and is at its lowest close since Oct. 17, 2006. Investors are well aware that housing worries remain: Many adjustable-rate mortgages similar to those that went bad last year will still be adjusted higher, and home prices are expected to keep falling this year. Financial companies have lost billions due to those mortgages, retail sales are falling and companies in general arent on a spending spree. Investors, institutional and individual, are also in a defensive mode, one that an interest cut wont immediately change. In the week ended Jan. 15, when many on Wall Street believed a rate cut was in the offing, investors shoveled money into cash reserves at a record pace, according to iMoneyNet.
Court weighs benefits for same-sex partners
You can exist as long as we don't acknowledge you exist," he said.
Depending how the high court rules, benefits for gay couples may continue because conservatives who drafted the marriage amendment don't appear to have big problems with the new benefit policies at least legally.
"They may be constitutional. I don't anticipate further lawsuits on that particular question," said Gary Glenn, president of the Midland-based American Family Association of Michigan.
But Glenn and the AFA still oppose same-sex partner benefits.
"From a standpoint of public policy, we don't believe the taxpayers of Michigan should be forced to subsidize behavior the majority of citizens believe is wrong," he said.
The redesigned policies' legality could be on the back burner Tuesday when the Supreme Court hears an appeal by 21 gay couples who lost their right to benefits for both partners in the appeals court, although those who had them have kept those benefits while the case is being appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court.
Servicer creates homeowner woes
Morgan Stanley said Tuesday it is cutting about 600 jobs and slimming its mortgage business, after a credit crisis upended the home loan industry this summer and forced other investment banks into similar moves. Two weeks after the Wall Street investment bank missed analysts' expectations for the fiscal third quarter and took a writedown of $940 million for corporate loans stuck on its books, Morgan Stanley said it will eliminate about 1 percent of its work force. "It is the direction everybody is going," said Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Brad Hintz. "This is Wall Street voting with their feet about how rapidly the mortgage market is coming back. They are saying it is not coming back quickly." As part of a plan to fuse its three mortgage businesses into one subsidiary based in Irving, Texas, Morgan Stanley will close certain offices and cut 500 jobs in the U.S.
Obama, Clinton are top contenders in S.C. primary
Democratic presidential rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton collided today in a racially charged South Carolina primary, prelude to next week's coast-to-coast competition for more than 1,600 national convention delegates.
Former Sen. John Edwards was the third contender on the ballot, hoping to benefit from the acrimony between the other two.
South Carolina offered 45 Democratic National Convention delegates, as well as the campaign's first indication of Obama's political appeal in a state with a large black population.
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