In fact, 95 percent of the 288,000 jobs created last month were "new part-time" jobs. In addition, the number of workers who were shifted into "part time" status was an astonishing 840K, nearly triple the number of new jobs added.

Read MoreCashin: Be a 'little cautious' this week

So was the push up and through 17K just an overreaction to what looked like a strong headline number? I think yes, but with rates so low and global central banks continuing to throw money at their respective economies, it would've been hard for traders to NOT react that way. In fact, it is hard to argue that this report — which should have caused some concern — will cause the Fed to do anything other than "stay the course."

After a weekend where so many analysts/strategists had an opportunity to digest the data, many are now all of a sudden saying "We might be a bit ahead of ourselves" and are calling for a pullback.

Nobel Prize economist Joseph Stiglitz said it very clear on CNBC Monday morning: He is "concerned" … he is "very uncomfortable with current stock prices" and indices trading at new highs does not mean a strong economic recovery in the U.S.

Read MoreStiglitz: I'm 'very uncomfortable' with current stock levels

"The reason the stock market is high, in part, is that interest rates are low, wages are low and the emerging markets are still growing much faster than the U.S. economy, let alone Europe," Stiglitz said.

He points out that so many U.S.-listed companies (multinationals) are earning an "increasingly large chunk" of their profits from the emerging markets.

"These very strong stock-market prices are, in a sense, a symptom of the weak economy — not a symptom that we are about to have a strong recovery to our real economy," he said.

Read MoreWhy this bullish pro sees big market drop soon

I have been more cautious of late and this report only forces me to remain so. I don't think this jobs report will be what spurs the market higher. In fact, I think it will be what makes the market move a bit lower after last week's run-up.

Although I do believe that the second half of the year will prove to be better, it will be because of improving broader macro data along with earnings and global outlook.

My sense is that we will see the S&P test 2000 and then back off and churn through July and August. A possible pullback of 3 percent to 5 percent would take us to the 1900 range, a level that is not out of line but one that falls short of the expected larger correction — a correction that cannot happen in the current stimulative environment.

Traders will be focusing on earnings for the next three weeks. The NFP report is nothing but a distant memory and will have no real effect on trader mentality now.

Summary: Here's what the real impact of the June jobs report will likely be on the market, says NYSE floor trader Kenny Polcari.


The online streaming website Grooveshark lost its battle with the music industry on Thursday, shutting down immediately as part of a settlement agreement.

The company was been being sued by a slew of record companies, including a $15 billion suit from Universal Music Group.

According a notice posted on the company’s website, they must also wipe clean any records of copyrighted material, hand over their online and mobile platforms, and surrender their patents and intellectual property.

Grooveshark also issued an unequivocal apology.

“Despite our best of intentions, we made very serious mistakes. We failed to secure licenses from rights holders for the vast amount of music on the service. That was wrong. We apologize. Without reservation.”

A March 25 ruling by a U.S. Federal Judge granted EMI Music North America a motion for summary judgement on claims Grooveshark had violated its copyrights, a decision that could have found the web company liable to pay upwards of $420 million.

Grooveshark was founded in 2006 by three college students at the University of Florida and for years has been a thorn in the side of major record labels who claimed the website was illegal.

Summary: Before Spotify, Deezer or Rdio there was Grooveshark


HONOLULU -- A woman pleaded guilty to murder Thursday and described in a Honolulu federal courtroom how she stabbed the wife of the Army medic she was having an affair with and then waited a half-hour to make sure she was dead.

As part of a plea agreement, Ailsa Jackson is expected to be sentenced to 30 to 33 years in prison in exchange for testifying against Sgt. Michael Walker, who has pleaded not guilty to murder and is scheduled to go to trial next year.

They discussed making Catherine Walker's death look like a burglary or having her drink something, Jackson said.

Catherine Walker, left, and her husband Mike Walker in an undated photo.

Last year, as Catherine Walker slept in the Aliamanu Military Reservation home she shared with her husband, Jackson stabbed her multiple times with a kitchen knife, Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Brady said.

The killing was carried out with malice and was premeditated, he said.

After meeting through an online dating site in September 2014, Walker told Jackson he was married and that his "deepest desire" was to have his wife gone, but he couldn't divorce her, Brady said. The two then discussed Jackson carrying out the killing while Walker was at work so that he would have an alibi, Brady said.

On Nov. 14, 2014, they met in the military reservation's gym parking lot, where Jackson said she would kill Catherine Walker that night, Brady said, describing how the two came up with a text messaging code to let Jackson know whether she should enter the home through a window or use a key left in the gravel near the back door. If Walker texted, "good," that would mean use the window and "bad" would mean the key.

Walker texted "bad," Brady said, and at about midnight Jackson walked to the house and found the key, Brady said.

Jackson said in court she "went inside and grabbed a knife and went upstairs and stabbed her."

When U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway asked Jackson why she stayed after the stabbing, Jackson replied, "To make sure she was dead." Mollway asked how Jackson knew she was dead. "She wasn't moving," Jackson said.

Before the hearing got underway, Mollway asked Jackson if she was taking any medication. Jackson said she was taking medication for depression and psychosis but that she understood clearly what would happen at the hearing.

Michael Walker's defense attorney Birney Bervar, who watched the hearing from the courtroom gallery, said afterward that prosecutors are basing their case on a mentally unstable woman.

Walker did have an affair with Jackson, but loves his wife and didn't want her killed, Bervar said. The couple, married for more than 11 years and originally from upstate New York, were about to undergo in-vitro fertilization after about a decade of trying to have a baby, he said.

Walker "had a purely sexual relationship with Ms. Jackson," Bervar said.

Summary: Hawaii woman admitted she stabbed her lover's wife and waited a half-hour "to make sure she was dead"


"The fundamental reason for the victory is that the Chinese Communist Party became the core power that united the nation," says one widely used textbook, referring to World War II.

No one learns that perhaps 30 million people died from famine because of catastrophic decisions made in the 1950's, during the Great Leap Forward, by the founder of Communist China, Mao Zedong.

Similar elisions occur in everything from the start of the Korean War, with an invasion of South Korea by China's ally, North Korea, to the history of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as an irrevocable part of China.

"The Anti-Japanese War finally succeeded, and Taiwan came back to the motherland," another leading textbook states, referring to Japan's defeat in World War II and the loss of its colonial hold on Taiwan.

"The closer history gets to the present, the more political it becomes," said Chen Minghua, a 12th grade history teacher at the No.2 Secondary School in Shanghai. "So for things after the founding of the People's Republic, we only require students to know the basic facts, like what happened in what year, and we don't study why."

Although some defend the curriculum, many academics say the way history is taught in China forces even the best teachers to bob and weave around anything deemed delicate by the country's leaders and leaves students confused about their own country's place in the world.

Asked what they made of the discussion of the 1930's, one student at the Shanghai high school eagerly volunteered that China had prevented Japan from taking over much of the world. Another said war was inevitable. And a third, who approached the teacher after class to pursue the discussion, said the war had not been a bad thing, since it had prevented Japan from becoming a world power.

Defenders of China's curriculum say that whatever its shortcomings, history education has vastly improved in recent years. There is more choice among textbooks, even if all textbooks are carefully screened by the government, and once taboo subjects, like the Chinese Nationalists' contribution during the war against Japan and even the Cultural Revolution are being mentioned, if only cursorily, in more and more textbooks.

Asked why Chinese textbooks do not mention such matters as Tibet's claim to independence at the time Communist troops invaded, Ren Penjie, editor of a history education magazine in Xian, said: "These are still matters of controversy. What we present to children are less controversial facts, which are easier to explain."

Others said such events were too recent to be seen with objectivity, or that the facts were still coming in, both of which are common explanations offered by Japanese historians who defend the lack of candor about Japanese atrocities in World War II.

For his part, Mr. Ren, who took part in the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square, which ended in a military crackdown that left hundreds of civilians dead, counted that event as being far too recent to touch upon.

One 1998 textbook that alludes to the demonstrations calls them a "storm" created by the failure of leaders to stop the spread of "bourgeois liberalism," adding vaguely that "the Central Committee took action in time and restored calm." The most recent edition of the same textbook is vaguer still, speaking only of thoughts fanned by a small number of people whose aim was to overthrow the Communist Party, with no mention of the lethal aftermath.

Some Chinese history specialists were less inclined to make excuses for the evasions, however.

"Quite frankly, in China there are some areas, very sensitive subjects, where it is impossible to tell people the truth," said Ge Jianxiong, director of the Institute of Chinese Historical Geography at Fudan University in Shanghai and a veteran of official history textbook advisory committees. "Going very deeply into the history of Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping and some features of the Liberation" -- as the Communist victory is called -- "is forbidden. In China, history is still used as a political tool, and at the high school level, we still must follow the doctrine."

Taking the long view, though, Mr. Ge, 59, who taught high school during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, when teachers were beaten and education became hyper-politicized, said things were gradually getting better.

Su Zheliang, a historian at Shanghai Normal University, who is himself the author of a new textbook, agreed.

"Sometimes I want to write the truth, but I must take a practical approach," he said. "I want my students to learn, and I've put out the best book that I can. In 10 years, perhaps, China will be a much more open country."

Summary: Several of most widely used history textbooks in China's high school classrooms reveal mishmash of historical details that many Chinese educational experts themselves say are highly selective and often provide deeply distorted view of recent past; most Chinese students finish high school convinced that their country has fought wars only in self-defense, never aggressively or in conquest, and they learn nothing of 30 million who died from famine following Mao Zedong's Great Leap Forward in 1950's; many academics say way history is taught in China forces even best teachers to bob and weave around anything deemed delicate by country's leaders and leaves students confused about their own country's place in world; photo (M)


HOUSTON, Sept. 9— Texas plans to execute a man Wednesday for a murder he committed at 17 years of age, focusing new attention on an potentially emotional issue: Should juveniles be subject to capital punishment?

The execution would be the first in more than two decades for a crime committed by someone under 18. Thirty-two others - all convicted of murders, three committed at the age of 15 - await execution on death rows in the United States. The largest number, nine, are here in Texas.

The laws of 29 states permit such executions, and one state, Indiana, explicitly permits executions of children as young as 10 years old.

Last week, Amnesty International, the London-based organization that campaigns for the rights of prisoners, said that Wednesday's execution would violate two international agreements signed by the United States that forbid capital punishment for crimes committed at ages younger than 18. However, the two agreements have never been ratified by the Senate.

The man scheduled to die Wednesday is Charles Rumbaugh, now 27, condemned for the murder of an Amarillo jeweler in a robbery in 1975. He told an Associated Press interviewer last week that he had asked his lawyers to end their efforts. ''I've told them to leave it alone,'' he said. ''I've been prepared for a long time.''

Three of the other youths awaiting execution were 15 years old at the time of their crimes. They are Leon Brown, convicted of the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl in North Carolina in 1983; Wayne Thompson, convicted in Oklahoma last year of the kidnapping and death by beating of his former brother-in-law; and Joseph Aulisio, for the 1981 murders of an 8-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy in Pennsylvania.

The execution of juvenile criminals in this country is not new, though widespread repugnance at the practice meant that it was applied very unevenly over the years. According to research by Prof. Victor L. Streib of the Cleveland Marshall College of Law at Cleveland State University, there have been 266 executions for child-age crimes since Colonial times; one of them as young as 10. The professor traced the earliest to Massachusetts in 1642 when a 16-year-old boy was put to death for the crime of buggery.

Over the years, 42 black youths under the age of 18 were executed by Southern states for the rape or attempted rape of white women. The last child execution took place in Texas on May 7, 1964, when James Andrew Echols, was executed for raping a white girl at age 17.

Today, 16 states explicitly permit executions for under-18 crimes, setting the minimum variously at 17, 16, 15, 14 and 10. The minimum in New Jersey, for example, is 14 years. Eleven other states have no minimum at all, although the law there requires judges and juries to consider age a mitigating factor when meting out capital punishment. Three other states - Delaware, Oklahoma and South Dakota - specify neither minimum age nor age as a mitigating factor and it is possible, in theory, for a child of any age to be sentenced to death there. New York essentially has no death penalty, except in very limited circumstances. The minimum age in Connecticut is 18.

The impending executions raise difficult questions about the capacity of children to understand the difference between right and wrong and whether the youthful criminal can still be successfully rehabilitated. Lawyers for them have argued that death is too severe a penalty, and the Supreme Court, while condoning the death penalty generally in recent years, has yet to rule specifically on challenges to its juvenile application. In 1983, the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association adopted a resolution opposing the penalty for crimes committed under age 18.

Professor Streib, an opponent of the death penalty, maintains that whatever its retributional value, the death penalty is a dubious deterrent when it comes to adolescents.

''It seems clear that few adolescents have any meaningful concept of death,'' he wrote recently in Life Lines, published by the National Coalition Against the Death Penalty. ''In fact, they seem to be attracted to death-defying behavior, so the threat of a death penalty may actually encourage some juvenile crimes. The entire gamut of justifications for the death penalty in general seems to lose any persuasiveness when applied to adolescents.''

On the other hand, some of their crimes have been shocking. Johnny Frank Garrett of Texas, for example, raped and killed a 76-year-old nun in 1981 when he was 17. Lee Roy Barrow was 17 when he beat to death a 70-year-old paralyzed man in a wheel chair in Texas. Frederick Lashley of Missouri robbed and killed his handicapped mother in 1981 when he was 16, and Kevin Hughes raped and murdered a nine-year-old girl in 1979 in Pennsylvania at age 16. In New Jersey, Marko Bey faces death, convicted of raping and killing two teen-age girls in April 1983.

''The younger a person is the more reluctant judges and prosecutors are to impose the death penalty,'' said James Farren, an assistant district attorney in Potter County, in Texas, where Mr. Rumbaugh was convicted of shooting the Amarillo jeweler. ''There is more chance of rehabilitation, but that must be weighed against the seriousness of the crime.'' When it comes to murder, he went on, ''What is right and wrong is so obvious that a 17-year-old should not have any difficulty making that decision.'' He added that frequently the murder followed numerous other serious crimes.

Of the 33 juvenile criminals on death row in 15 states, three were l5 years old, seven were 16 and 23 were 17 years at the time of the crimes, according to Professor Streib's compilation. Racially, 18 are white and 15 are black. As of Aug. 1, according to a tally kept by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in New York, 1,540 inmates were on death row in the 37 states where the law permits captial punishment, meaning that youthful offenders constitute only 2 percent of the total.

Mr. Rumbaugh's life is a case in point of the complexities of the issue. He bears numerous bodily scars, evidence of a tough childhood, in which he first got into trouble at age 6, when he broke into a schoolhouse in San Angelo, Tex. He committed his first armed robbery at 12, using a tire iron to rob a filling station, making his getaway on a stolen bicycle, and has spent many years in reform school, prison and mental hospitals. His last crime was the jewelry store robbery in which he shot the 58-year-old owner, Michael Fiorello, when the jeweler reached for a pistol.

''I got in so much trouble as a kid that all the juvenile officers knew me by my nickname - Chuckie,'' he told The Associated Press.

Tom Curtis, the former prosecutor who obtained the death sentence, had some qualms. ''It kind of bothered me a little,'' he said. ''He was awfully young and he had some tough breaks in his life. But Chuckie is very violent, a really hardened killer, and society has to protect itself.'' xhrrExecutions and the Young Minimum age restrictions in effect in the 35 states that permit capital punishment. These restrictions apply to the age of the convict at the time the crime was committed. 18 years California Connecticut Illinois Nebraska Ohio Tennessee 17 years Georgia New Hampshire Texas 16 years Montana Nevada 15 years Louisiana Virginia 14 years Alabama Idaho Kentucky Missouri New Jersey North Carolina Utah 10 years Indiana No minimum ... ...but age is a factor in sentencing Arizona Arkansas Colorado Florida Maryland Mississippi New Mexico Pennsylvania South Carolina Washington Wyoming ...and age is not a factor in sentencing. Delaware Oklahoma South Dakota


Despite years of global expansion, Starbucks sbux has remained conspicuously absent from a country that is home to millions of the most discerning coffee drinkers in the world: Italy.

But that will change in early 2017: the Seattle-based coffee giant announced on Sunday that it would open its first ever store in Italy next year, in Milan, in partnership with a local licensee, Percassi, with other locations to follow.

While Starbucks now operates in other markets known for coffee snobbishness, notably France, the company said the move into Italy is particularly meaningful to CEO Howard Schultz. During a business trip in 1983 to Milan and Verona, he discovered the Italian art of preparing coffee, which inspired his vision for Starbucks.

“Starbucks history is directly linked to the way the Italians created and executed the perfect shot of espresso,” Schultz said in a statement. “Everything that we’ve done sits on the foundation of those wonderful experiences that many of us have had in Italy.”

Howard Schultz, chairman and CEO of Starbucks, stands in the center of Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, one of the world’s oldest shopping malls, in Milan, Italy, as he announces that Starbucks will open its first store in the country in 2017.Courtesy of Starbucks

Seemingly mindful of the fierce coffee chauvinism of Italians and aware of the risk of being seen as an ugly American company coming in and imposing its ways, Schultz emphasized that the store will show deference to Italians and their coffee culture.

“Now we’re going to try, with great humility and respect, to share what we’ve been doing and what we’ve learned through our first retail presence in Italy,” Schultz said.

Percassi, Starbucks’ Italian partner, has a track record of operating highly successful major brand partnerships across Italy, Starbucks said. Antonio Percassi said Italians are ready for Starbucks. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Starbucks succeed in Italy—many people predicted McDonald’s would fail in France, the original land of foodies. But France is now the fast-food chain’s biggest market outside the U.S.

Europe is also still relatively virgin territory for Starbucks. There are almost 2,500 license or company operated stores in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, only one-sixth the number in North America.

Starbucks did not say how many shops it ultimately plans to open in Italy.

Summary: CEO Howard Schultz promises humility in the land of exacting coffee drinkers


There will be nine official debates as part of the Leadership timetable. Confirmed dates and places are as follows:

The debate in Nottinghamshire on Wednesday 17 August will be broadcast by the BBC, while the contest in London on Thursday 1 September will be presented by The Guardian.

The other debates can be watched on the Labour Party website at www.labour.org.uk/debates.

Other dates will be added and TV broadcasters are hoping to show others.

Labour members and supporters can submit questions for consideration at each of the debates via the Labour Party website.

Ahead of the debates, you can read The Telegraph's guide to Owen Smith's policies and Jeremy Corbyn's policies.

Summary: Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith are going head-to-head in a series of televised debates in a Labour leadership contest strikingly similar to the one held in 2015.


Christopher Kelly for The Texas Tribune

Louis Dorfman, a self-taught animal behaviorist, at the International Exotic Animal Sanctuary.

At the sight of human visitors, the adult lion rose from his slumber and prowled to the front of a wooded enclosure on the grounds of the 50-acre International Exotic Animal Sanctuary, about 40 minutes north of Fort Worth. He made a chuffing noise, poised somewhere between a growl and an exhalation. He bared just a hint of teeth.

This is the moment when most visitors take a big step back.

Louis Dorfman, the self-trained animal behaviorist who is the chairman of this nonprofit organization, stepped inside. The lion calmly sidled up next to him.

âThat sound heâs making is just him saying: âItâs O.K. I recognize you. I respect you. Iâm glad to see you,â he said.

Mr. Dorfman, 75, took a leadership role at the International Exotic Animal Sanctuary 17 years ago. Although he has a law degree and currently serves as the chairman of the Dallas-based Dorfman Production Company, he manages to devote countless hours to promulgating a personal philosophy of animal care that he calls âemotional enrichment.â

The idea is for keepers to develop a mutually respectful relationship with the animals and provide companionship that the animals might otherwise miss in a captive setting. Mr. Dorfman personally interacts with many of the 78 animals at the sanctuary, touching noses with the bears and sometimes taking naps with the big cats. He also encourages staff members to pay careful attention to the moods and individual personalities of the animals.

âI donât try to discipline them. I donât give them treats. I donât give them any incentive other than an emotional relationship,â Mr. Dorfman said. âThe animals choose to modify their behavior because they want me with them.â

Mr. Dorfmanâs efforts to promote his ideas and to see them become commonplace practice seem to be gaining traction. Last month, the sanctuary enjoyed a considerable publicity boost when it welcomed 11 bears that had been grossly mistreated at the Chief Saunooke Bear Park in North Carolina.

Meanwhile the Association of Zoos and Aquariums is overseeing a series of experimental studies on emotional enrichment, partly financed by Mr. Dorfman. Some of the studies explore the neuroscience of calmative behavior.

Many zookeepers around the country already employ their own variations on these techniques. But emotional enrichment is not yet being practiced or taught on an institutional level at zoos or in animal sciences university programs â something that Mr. Dorfman would like to see change. The first round of studies is expected to be completed next year.

âPeople in the zoological community began to think about animal enrichment 20 years ago,â said Paul Boyle, of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, citing practices, now widespread, like offering zoo animals toys to play with or hiding their food to replicate the experience of foraging in the wild.

According to Dr. Boyle, the associationâs senior vice president for conservation and education, Mr. Dorfmanâs theories represent âa natural evolution, and many institutions are thinking about this.â

Nonetheless, the sight of Mr. Dorfman crouching beside a brown bear and patting its head as it eats a lunch of raw meat, melon and avocado can be jarring.

Indeed, there are countless stories of human-animal relationships gone bad. They include the death of the naturalist Timothy Treadwell, who spent 13 summers in Alaska living with grizzly bears before they killed him,and mauling by the Las Vegas illusionist Roy Horn in 2006 by one of the white Bengal tigers that performed in the Siegfried and Roy stage show.

Mr. Dorfman argues that tragedies like those occur when humans stop paying heed to the signals animals are sending or when they romanticize their relationships with the creatures. Not all animal professionals have the temperament required to get as close to the animals as he does, Mr. Dorfman acknowledged, but he believes that emotional enrichment can be practiced without direct contact.

âI wouldnât say thereâs resistance to what weâre doing, but I would say there is some people not understanding,â said Richard Gilbreth, the sanctuaryâs executive director. âThe problem is that when someone is afraid of something, they usually just donât understand it.â

On a recent morning, the animals seemed to be responding favorably to Mr. Dorfmanâs methods. After just a month in their new home, Mr. Dorfman said, the North Carolina bears were more social and relaxed.

As for the big cats, Mr. Dorfman escorted a visitor â along with Mr. Gilbreth and the sanctuaryâs lead keeper, Nissa Marione â to a large enclosure and instructed the group to wait outside the fence. A few minutes later, he emerged in the distance, walking alongside a 500-pound white Bengal tiger. Species differences notwithstanding, they looked like two longtime acquaintances taking a leisurely afternoon stroll through the park.

âI know when the big cats are feeling irritated. I know when they are feeling perfectly content and want to say hi,â Ms. Marione said as she stood behind a fence and watched Mr. Dorfman. âBut in terms of being able to do what heâs doing right now, I donât ever foresee myself being able to do that.â

Summary: At the International Exotic Animal Sanctuary near Fort Worth, a self-trained behaviorist is using a method known as emotional enrichment to improve the lives of animals in captivity.


Howard Backen is famous for designing buildings that are rustic on the outside and luxurious on the inside. He's also renowned for his ability to work with high-profile, highly demanding clients.

He's working with Apple's Steve Jobs to design the company's first off-campus dining facility for its employees, as well as other projects. He initially balked at the job—describing the Apple founder as "impossible" and the process of working with him again, after designing personal residences for him, as "too much of a hassle." He eventually relented, recently presenting the idea of building a rooftop garden on the restaurant, since providing high- quality, locally grown foods to his employees is a priority for Mr. Jobs. (Mr. Jobs didn't respond to requests for comment.)

Mr. Backen has also worked on plans for a Pacific Palisades home for Nancy Meyers, who directed the films "Something's Gotta Give" and "It's Complicated." Known as a perfectionist, Ms. Meyers said that Mr. Backen listened carefully and sketched out his ideas on onion paper throughout their meetings, sometimes returning with entirely new plans. Describing him as "enormously talented" and accommodating, she said that it's no coincidence a key character in "It's Complicated" was an architect, played by Steve Martin, whose office was decorated with photos of buildings that Mr. Backen designed.

On almost every Thursday for the past 18 years, Mr. Backen has met with Napa Valley vintner Bill Harlan, known for his close attention to detail and for producing some of the world's most sought-after wines. The two are now working on Mr. Harlan's fourth winery; Mr. Harlan first hired Mr. Backen in 1993 for his home, after he'd already spent more than a decade working with three other architects and dug multiple foundations.

Other projects by Mr. Backen include a just-built "very un-Hollywood" house for Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO of DreamWorks Animation, Robert Redford's Sundance Institute in Utah, the Esperanza resort in Baja and the new Continuum winery for Tim and Marcia Mondavi. All of the projects incorporated elements from rural structures into otherwise modern buildings.

Mr. Backen, 75, begins each day by braving the cold outside to reach the outdoor shower off his bedroom, which he finds invigorating. He often rides his Trek bike about 2½ miles from his home in Oakville, Calif., to a single-story farmhouse in St. Helena, where about a third of the firm's staff work. There, he usually parks himself in a light-filled conference room with a large table that overlooks the pool of an adjacent hotel. "There are no doors. No rules. People continuously wander in," he said.

His assistant generally leaves him at least two days a week without any scheduled meetings so that he can drop in unannounced on construction sites. He often prefers to visit construction sites without the client, talking with the workers to hear directly from them about any problems, as well as to brainstorm ideas.

He also keeps time open to work without interruption, often at home, where it is quieter. As his wife, interior designer Lori O'Kane Backen, put it: "He never doesn't work." He keeps sketch paper and a pen on his bedside table. Some of his best ideas come to him between two and four in the morning. When these night-time inspirations hit, "sometimes I just get up, because I can't sleep anymore," he said.

One of his favorite spots for drawing at his five-acre compound is a long zinc table in an open-fronted pool house shaded by a corrugated metal roof. He doesn't work on a computer because he feels it slows him down. Instead he sketches out his ideas on a roll of tracing paper and then turns them over to others in his firm, who transform them into computer drawings.

One new venture is a stake he's taking in a new restaurant, where he, his wife and his daughter are designing everything from the napkins to the kitchen. "I never think about it as a job. It's what I do 24 hours a day," he said.

He gets some of his best ideas late at night, when there are fewer distractions, and first thing in the morning in his outdoor shower.

When he is facing a challenging problem, he reschedules meetings and informs both his wife and his assistant that he needs to concentrate without distractions.

He listens to classical music while he works and particularly likes Mozart, which his daughter also plays on the piano at the family's Oakville home.

One of his favorite books is "Architecture Without Architects" by Bernard Rudofsky.

He believes his bracing ritual of outdoor morning showers is one of the reasons he still has so much energy in his mid-70s.

Summary: The architect is famous for his ability to work with high-profile clients like Apple's Steve Jobs, director Nancy Meyers and DreamWorks' Jeffrey Katzenberg.


The financial pressures of raising a family has led them to rack up credit card debts totalling around £8,000 on 0pc introductory deals, but these are due to come to an end next year.

Their single biggest outgoing is the £2,500-a-month mortgage on their £725,000 family home in south west London. They still have £510,000 left to pay, on top of the £170,000 mortgage debt on their buy-to-let flat in south east London, which is now worth £315,000.

They are currently renting it out for £950 a month which covers the buy-to-let mortgage, but they are worried that heavier taxes facing many landlords could mean they will soon make a loss.

They have two daughters, Emme, who is two and a half, and Belle, who is just nine months old.

Having both been privately educated themselves, Adam and Megan are keen for the girls to have the same experience, and have signed them up to two private primary schools nearby.

Both have fees of around £4,000 a term, meaning that by the time Emme and Belle are both at school in a few years’ time, they will be spending at least £24,000 on school fees every year.

• Divorcee with £300,000 savings wants to downsize – but her adult children have nowhere else to live

• I've saved £700,000 by 42. Can I afford to semi-retire?

• Nine ways of improving your chances of retiring early

Their dilemma is how to fund the cost of the girls’ education without sacrificing their lifestyle. Megan, who is currently on maternity leave, usually works four days a week but she could increase her salary considerably if she goes back to work full time.

With two small children she’s reluctant to do this.

The couple could, alternatively, sell their buy-to-let to pay the school fees - but they don't want to miss out if the property rockets in value in the future. They also see it as a long-term nest egg to boost their pension.

They only have a few hundred pounds in cash savings and have a very limited knowledge of investment - but are willing to take on some risk.

Education funding seems to be the main priority for the Brownsons - but they have quite rightly identified that their immediate need is to establish an emergency fund.

They are currently heavily reliant upon their salaries, meaning a redundancy or illness could leave them "financially broken".

It is therefore absolutely necessary that they redouble their efforts to establish a level of savings from which they could cater for any emergency expenses or cover outgoings in times of unemployment. The level of emergency fund required should typically equate to anticipated outgoings over a six to twelve month period.

Next they should repay the credit card debt. It's no use building a savings pot on top of debt that could cost significantly more than the interest attained via savings. Even 0pc credit cards will typically incur transfer fees of around 3pc when they decide to transfer to balance to a new card.

• We save £20k a year by eating school dinners, but can we afford a £350k house?

• ‘I want to invest £75,000 to maximise returns – what should I buy?’

It seems they are on top of their main residential mortgage with a good deal and, as it stands, the mortgage on the buy-to-let property is being covered by the rent received.

One important point to consider though, is that the mortgage on the buy-to-let flat will become a financial burden from the Brownsons should they encounter a period of non-tenancy.

With little to no savings, and the unwillingness to sell the flat, the couple have no other choice but to save from their income.

However, it’s imperative that they do not over-commit to saving, putting a strain on their standard of living and then turn to credit cards in times of need: that's a certain recipe for disaster.

The first thing they need to do is carry out their own expenditure analysis; monitor their spending habits and identify where cutbacks can be made.

If they continue to spend everything they earn they will get nowhere. To privately educate their children, they need to drastically cut back on their standard of living, which most find hard to do.

In order to realistically be able to fund for school fees for their girls from age 4 to 18, Adam and Megan will need to cut back on their current lifestyle

To put things into perspective, it costs £600,000 to privately educate two children from nursery age to their A-Levels, and then send them to university for three years. This takes into account primary fees of £4,000 per term, secondary fees of £5,000 per term and university fees of £9,000 a year, each increasing each year by 2.5pc.

If we then take into account holidays of say, £5,000 per year and ensuring they have a modest emergency fund, it’s likely they’ll need to save more than £800,000 in total over the next 20 years.

Taking into account an interest rate on savings of approximately 2pc per year, this could potentially be achieved with regular savings of approximately £3,100 (increasing each year by 2.5pc) per month.

Again, for a couple who currently live to the extent of their means this sounds impossible, but if they are currently living without Mrs Brownson’s wage, then this income could become available upon her return to work.

• How 'middle class' inflation is threatening your standard of living

Indeed, a combined salary of over £190,000 per annum, equates to over £10,000 net in hand each month after tax.

Bearing in mind "core" monthly mortgage expenses of £2,500, massive savings each month can undoubtedly be made. If this amount however, sounds like too much of a burden, then perhaps education funding needs to be reconsidered, at least in part.

Either this, or the flat should be sold and the equity released used to clear credit cards, provide an emergency fund and any excess invested to help cover education costs.

• Weekly newsletter: Investment ideas and Money Makeovers

There is limited benefit in Megan going back to work full time as she would be doing 25pc more work for not even 15pc more income. Plus she'll have to foot additional potential costs of childcare.

In order to realistically be able to fund for school fees for their girls from age 4 to 18, Adam and Megan will need to cut back on their current lifestyle.

Pupils at Eton College - one of the most expensive schools in Britain Photo: Graeme Robertson/Getty Images

They say primary school costs £4,000 per term and secondary £5,000, but these are only basic fees. School fees have tended to increase quicker than inflation, and with additional costs of sports, clubs and trips this could easily cost in excess of £20,000 per child per year.

This could be funded by a one-off cash injection of around £250,000 per child, but as they do not have this luxury, it reiterates the need to cutback now.

If they raise £145,000 by selling the flat and committing to spending £2,500 per month net less, they can realistically fund £20,000 a year of school fees when the girls are aged between four and 18 - with next to nothing left at the end.

They have minimal assets available in an emergency and I would suggest having around £30,000 to £40,000 in cash.

In terms of an investment strategy for any further savings, they state they are happy with the risk of the FTSE All-Share index. But this is actually a very volatile index considering they stated have “very limited knowledge” and “not much room for risk”.

To pay the school fees, they would be better off capping any of their exposure to equities to around a third of their portfolio. They should opt for a global portfolio, with the rest being put into lower-risk fixed interest securities like government debt and high quality corporate bonds.

Finally, their current pension provisisions are relatively modest, and judging by their current expenditure they would need total savings, investments, pensions or other capital assets available of around £1.5m to £2m in today’s money when they retire.

Pensions are a very appealing way to save as contributions can be made free of income tax, with 25pc available at retirement tax-free. This means for each 60p invested, they could see 85p back in retirement, along with tax-free growth along the way.

• READER OFFER: Get first currency transfer free

If you'd like to be considered, please send your responses to all the following questions with the header ‘Give me a Money Makeover’ to money@telegraph.co.uk.

You must be willing to be photographed for the article, which will appear online and in the paper. And if you don’t mind being filmed for a short video, that’d be a bonus. If we pick you, we'll have our trusted financial experts give you practical help and tips on how to reach your financial goals.

Your name Your age Your telephone number (we will not share this with anyone) Your main financial goals (as much detail as possible please) Any debts (including mortgages) How you would describe your attitude to investment risk (as much detail as possible please) Your current investments (please provide as much detail as possible about your holdings and their value as a percentage of your overall portfolio. Please also tell us about cash and property you own).

• Newsletter: Get a weekly round-up of investment ideas

Summary: Adam and Megan Brownson are high earners - but struggle with the cost of   London life


If you think you had a good day Thursday, but Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had a really good Thursday: His net worth rose $6 billion in the span of just 20 minutes.

On the heels of a stellar Amazon earnings report, the tech giant executive saw the value of his 82.9 million shares in the company increase by more than 10% in after-hours trading, Fast Company reported. The jump made Bezos the fifth-richest man in the world, with a net worth of $53.7 billion. For a brief time Thursday, his net worth increased as high as $60 billion, surpassing Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim, who lost nearly $3.5 billion that afternoon, Vanity Fair reported.

Bezos—along with fellow ultra-rich businessmen Slim, Mark Zuckerberg and the Koch brothers—have been swapping spots in the billionaire rankings for the past several months. Their flip-flopping is likely a result of fluctuations in the broader stock market, in particular with volatile tech company earnings. (Not every big tech player has been as hot as Amazon and Facebook: Apple, Google, Intel, and Microsoft all reported lackluster quarters).

Earlier this year, Facebook CEO Zuckerberg also saw his net worth jump by $6 billion in a day, as his company reported fourth-quarter earnings that far exceeded analyst expectations. The increase allowed him to leap over the Koch brothers, whose fortune remains tied to the flagging oil market, and Bezos, whose company saw less impressive earnings that quarter, into the fourth-place spot.

Calculate: What is my current net worth?

Now, Amazon’s impressive earnings have catapulted Bezos ahead of the Kochs and Zuckerberg, though as of Friday morning, Bezos is back to trailing behind Slim in terms of net worth. Amazon reported a fourth-straight profit-grossing quarter this week, with revenue up 28% from last year. The company’s success can be in part attributed to its profitable cloud computing business, which has become essential for companies like Netflix that host their computing power on Amazon’s servers.

Summary: That's $300 million per minute.


What should we do with the anger inspired by Brock Turner, the former Stanford swimmer who was sentenced to just six months in jail for sexual assault?

A movement to recall the judge who ordered that sentence, Aaron Persky, continues to gain support, with a celebrity-studded fund-raiser this month.

In California, legislators have proposed several bills meant to prevent short sentences for sexual assaults, including one that would require a mandatory-minimum term for anyone convicted of sexually assaulting an intoxicated or unconscious person.

We share in the outrage at Mr. Turner’s actions, but worry that this law could cause more harm than good. History shows that this reform would not deter violence and most likely would perpetuate punitive racial and class disparities.

Under California law, most instances of rape are punishable by a mandatory minimum sentence of three to eight years. However, for certain kinds of sexual assault, judges can opt out of the mandatory punishment. If a defendant did not use physical force, a judge may have him serve some of that time as probation.

Of course, Mr. Turner had no need to use such force. The victim was blacked out, unable to resist. California legislators are correct to recognize an injustice here: Why does it matter if a rapist uses a gun or alcohol to facilitate an assault? Either way, the victim was denied autonomy. The proposed bill seeks to close what these legislators see as a loophole.

But inflexible mandatory minimum sentences, like the kind the California legislators want, are not the answer to our anger. During the second half of the 20th century, federal and state governments established mandatory minimum sentences, with a special focus on drug offenses. Many supporters saw minimums as a way to be “tough on crime,” but some also saw an opportunity to reduce disparities in sentences. Reformers worried that people like Brock Turner, white men with access to expensive lawyers, received more lenient sentences than minorities and poor people charged with the same crimes. These advocates hoped that minimums might make sentences fairer.

Unfortunately, mandatory minimums have proved a failed experiment, contributing to prison overcrowding, racial imbalances and overly punitive sentences — all without, studies show, reducing crime.

Because criminal laws are written expansively, mandatory minimums shift sentencing power from judges to prosecutors, who can effectively choose the sentence when they decide which of a range of eligible charges to bring against a defendant. And while defendants can appeal judges’ opinions, decisions made by prosecutors are nearly impossible to challenge.

Although mandatory minimums were meant to reduce disparities, in practice they hurt the populations some reformers sought to protect. Minorities and people with lower incomes are more likely to be arrested, and then more likely to be charged with crimes that carry higher mandatory minimums than others who commit the same act.

Consider, for example, Raul Ramirez, a Salvadoran immigrant whose rape case was also assigned to Judge Persky. Some advocates have pointed to Mr. Ramirez’s prison sentence — years longer than Mr. Turner’s, for a strikingly similar act — as evidence that the judge gave a light punishment to Mr. Turner because he was white. But Judge Persky didn’t choose the sentence: a prosecutor charged Mr. Ramírez with a more serious crime accompanied by a mandatory minimum, and Mr. Ramirez accepted a plea agreement. Prosecutorial discretion empowered by inflexible sentencing, not judicial discretion, produced the inequity.

With mandatory minimums, the privileged can still get off easy. Leading victims’ groups oppose mandatory minimums in part because judges and juries may be less likely to convict at all if they are uncomfortable with imposing a long sentence on a “sympathetic” (read: white and wealthy) person.

Repeated studies also show that mandatory minimums do not significantly reduce crime because it is the likelihood of a sanction, not its severity, that deters potential wrongdoers.

The country is moving away from mandatory minimums. Groups as diverse as the American Civil Liberties Union and the conservative Koch brothers have banded together to fight them. The Obama administration has instructed federal prosecutors not to use particularly devastating mandatory minimum laws against certain drug offenders.

None of this is to say that Mr. Turner and the judge are not worthy of our disgust. There are better ways, though, to make courts responsive to rape and its victims. Some states have revised their criminal codes so that physical force is not a defining metric of the harm wrought by sexual assault and California should do the same. Consistency in sentencing can come through setting a ceiling, not a floor, for prison time.

We also have to look outside criminal law. The high visibility of the Turner case obscures the extreme rarity of rape prosecutions. Justice and accountability, then, will require increased access to the civil legal system where victims, not prosecutors, can decide whether and how to bring a case. The law in California makes it easier to take sexual abusers to court than it is in most other states, but legal representation is often prohibitively expensive. We need better state and private funding for legal services for survivors.

Tolerance for rape is an old but freshly infuriating story. Victims deserve a new solution, not a stale policy.

Alexandra Brodsky, a senior editor at Feministing, and Claire Simonich are recent graduates of Yale Law School.

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTOpinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter.

A version of this op-ed appears in print on August 11, 2016, on page A23 of the New York edition with the headline: What Mandatory Sentences Won’t Fix. Today's Paper|Subscribe

Summary: His sexual assault case inspired a lot of anger. But it shouldn’t lead to inflexible sentencing laws.


Some of America’s top producers of TV content are saying no to video deals with the world’s biggest social media site.

Facebook fb has been trying to woo the NFL, Comcast’s NBC Universal cmcsa , Disney’s ABC dis , and other “premium content” creators to purchase “Suggested Video” ads and Facebook Live features used 0n the company’s site, but so far most of the major players have declined its advances, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Facebook’s Suggested Video ads were introduced last year to compete with Google’s YouTube. When users click to view videos in their Facebook Newsfeed, the ads appear as “Related Videos” beneath the video being viewed.

Networks fear the ad feature and Facebook Live content will compete with programmers’ own video sharing features and take traffic away from their self-hosted digital content, The Journal reports.

Even Time Warner, which inked a one-year, $2.5 million contract with Facebook to produce live video content, isn’t sure if it can turn a profit from the venture.

“If we can’t figure out a way to monetize it, it’s hard to see the long-term viability,” Time Warner Editorial EVP Andrew Morse told The Journal.

Facebook has been fiercely competing with Twitter twtr for marketshare in the still-emerging social live stream and video content sector, spending millions to secure live stream deals with YouTube celebrities and BuzzFeed since introducing the feature last year.

Facebook VP Nicola Mendelsohn in June predicted the site could be “all video,” within five years. “If I was having a bet,” Mendelsohn told Fortune, “it’d be video, video, video.”

Summary: "It’s probably going to take a bit of time.”


With “The Light Between Oceans,” the prodigiously talented filmmaker Derek Cianfrance (“Blue Valentine,” “The Place Beyond the Pines”) sets out to prove he can make them like they used to — a sweeping romantic period drama, heavy with themes of love and duty and fate, lifted up by cinematic craft and great performances.

Like David Lean used to make, in other words, and as ambitious filmmakers have attempted over the intervening decades. The new film wants to be as glorious to look at and listen to as Terrence Malick’s “Days of Heaven” (1978) and as wracked with emotions as James Gray’s “The Immigrant” (2013), and if it doesn’t match the achievements of those two, Cianfrance still proves his point. He can paint on an immense canvas, and he can do it with conviction.

But, really, all I have to do is say Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander making googly eyes at each other in period costumes in a gorgeous remote location, and a lot of you are in, right? Adapted from a 2012 novel by M.L. Stedman, “The Light Between Oceans” takes place mostly in a lighthouse on an island in western Australia between the Indian and Antarctic oceans. (Get it?) The Great War — World War I to us — is over, and Tom Sherbourne (Fassbender) has returned shell-shocked and grateful to be alive.

Taking the job of lighthouse keeper on the remote Janus Rock (played by Cape Campbell, in New Zealand), Tom woos and marries Isabel (Vikander), daughter of the local schoolmaster on the mainland. A newly-anointed Oscar winner (for “The Danish Girl”) and the latest busy acting beauty, Vikander continues to surprise in each role. Isabel is girlish yet fully realized, with a smile that hints at a joke she’s not telling and a glint in her eye that promises delight or serious trouble. The love scenes between the leads are hushed and sanctified and intensely moving, Tom as steady as a rock and Isabel as changing as the sea.

They want to have children; they can’t. A sequence of Isabel pregnant and pounding on the lighthouse door in a raging gale is evidence that Cianfrance is working at full elemental gallop, the novels of Thomas Hardy not far in the rearview mirror. A dinghy floats to the island, inside it a dead man and a live baby girl. Isabel, by now nearly bereft of her senses, pleads with her husband to keep the child. A dutiful man, he resists, and then caves, and Fassbender makes you feel every step of Tom’s capitulation. “No one will ever know,” Isabel says.

Well, of course they will, and the back half of this luxuriant, implacable movie concerns the slow closing of the trap. I can’t say more other than that Rachel Weisz gets involved, as she seemingly must in every serious movie these days, and that the various babies playing the infant Lucy have been cast for maximum audience joy, as has Florence Clery, who plays the girl at age 4, when the screws really start tightening. As a bonus, smaller roles are played by Jack Thompson and Bryan Brown, two fine Australian actors who haven’t been seen in these parts for much too long.

At 130 minutes, “The Light Between Oceans” takes its time. It’s attentive to micro-shifts of actorly emotion and to the play of light on spindrift. Some audiences may be bored. I was held, even as I realized the story had only one place to go once that baby washed ashore. Cinematographer Adam Arkapaw makes every shot seem freshly arrived at (his camerawork on last year’s “Macbeth,” also with Fassbender, was the only worthwhile aspect of that disaster), and composer Alexander Desplat does his best to update the sonic lushness of Maurice Jarre’s scores for Lean.

The movie’s a long, holy bath in craft, in other words, but it never fully touches the soul because there are no surprises. Everything in it feels pre-ordained, almost biblical in intensity and, sadly, inevitability. “The Light Between Oceans” is a meal that lights up the tastebuds but doesn’t fully satisfy. Without question, Cianfrance is a filmmaker to be reckoned with. But he may need to forget that if he ever wants to make his best work.

Directed by Derek Cianfrance. Written by Cianfrance, based on the novel by M.L. Stedman. Starring Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Rachel Weisz. At Boston Common, Kendall Square, Coolidge Corner, West Newton, suburbs. 130 minutes. PG-13 (thematic material, some sexual content)

Summary: Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander shine in a throwback love story.


Police wondered what was cooking when they found a South Australian motorist allegedly using a metal fry pan as a steering wheel.

Officers discovered the modification in central Adelaide on Sunday morning when they spoke to the driver, whose car was also allegedly unregistered and uninsured.

A 32-year-old Adelaide man has been charged with a number of a traffic offences and refused bail ahead of a scheduled appearance in the Adelaide Magistrates' Court on Monday.

Summary: An Adelaide man will face court after allegedly driving with a steering wheel made from a frying pan.


WHAT IS HAPPENING IN WA POLITICS?

Unchallenged for eight years, Liberal premier Colin Barnett will be challenged in a party room spill when its 46 MPs meet on Tuesday.

Mr Barnett is expected to defeat the challenge from former transport minister Dean Nalder, who is accusing him of erratic and illogical leadership.

Liberal Murray Cowper will call a leadership spill, saying it was clear to him Mr Barnett would not honour his previous commitment to step aside if it was in the best interests of the party.

Some backbenchers say they'll vote against Mr Barnett, but all his cabinet colleagues have vowed to support him.

The West Australian government is in disarray after two ministers, Mr Nalder and Tony Simpson, resigned on Saturday saying they no longer supported Barnett.

Mr Nalder is linked to a group of businessmen who last month commissioned a private poll in marginal seats, showing the government would lose the election under Mr Barnett.

Mr Barnett ordering an investigation into the businessmen's dealings with government and whether they broke any laws, accusing them of interfering in democracy through a silent coup.

The Liberal National government have been in power for eight years but have trailed the Labor opposition in a series of voter polls since late last year. The government's time in power has included the mining boom when WA's economy was Australia's richest. However, the economy is now struggling and nervous MPs believe the government is a strong chance of losing the WA election in March. Some believe Mr Barnett's time is up.

Summary: WA Liberal MPs are expected to vote on whether they want to retain Colin Barnett as leader and premier in a leadership spill.


Kylie Maybury was found dead in a gutter in Preston.

A six-year-old girl found dead in a Melbourne gutter the day after her disappearance in 1984 was suffocated, a court has heard.

Police allege Kylie Maybury was abducted by Gregory Keith Davies on Melbourne Cup Day 32 years ago, imprisoned overnight, then murdered.

The court heard Kylie died from suffocation and that a toxicology report indicated there was valium in her system.

The new details of the cold case emerged in Melbourne Magistrates' Court on Thursday during a hearing to discuss how many witnesses will give evidence when Davies, 73, faces court next year.

Kylie and her mother had visited their Preston neighbour on November 6, 1984.

She was sent out to buy sugar and never returned.

Davies' defence team said they wanted to cross examine Kylie's mother on whether the girl could have had access to valium before she vanished.

"The mother says there's no way she took valium," the lawyer said.

"We want to explore if she could have while she was out of sight."

Davies was arrested and charged in June with abducting and murdering Kylie.

He was also charged with other offences.

Police alleged he imprisoned her on November 6 and murdered her on November 7.

Davies has previously unsuccessfully sought to have a DNA sample taken from him during the investigation destroyed.

Summary: A court has been told that a girl snatched from a Melbourne street more than 30 years ago died from suffocation.


Pankaj and Radhika Oswal's unfinished, derelict "Taj Mahal on the Swan" mansion in Perth's ritziest suburb is finally being demolished.

The $70 million property in affluent Peppermint Grove was intended to be Australia's most expensive and Mrs Oswal's "absolute fantasy" home.

It was to boast six bedrooms, a temple, observatory with revolving roof, and parking for 17 cars.

But the Indian couple abandoned the ambitious project in 2011, a year after their Burrup Fertilisers empire collapsed and they left Australia as the ANZ Bank called in more than $US500 million in loans.

The cost of razing the graffiti-daubed property is estimated to be $300,000 and will take three weeks to complete.

Peppermint Grove - the nation's smallest municipality covering just 1.5 square kilometres - fought to have the mansion removed because it attracted antisocial behaviour and was considered a dangerous structure.

Mrs Oswal fought back with an application to the State Administrative Tribunal to prevent the demolition, but that was dismissed in 2015.

For six years, trespassers threw parties on the site while videos of parkour and freerunning devotees showing off their stuff from inside the mansion were YouTube hits.

Dozens of neighbours gathered to watch and cheer as the first of the mansion's seven domes tumbled on Monday.

Shire president Rachel Thomas said she was delighted to see the end of the eyesore.

"We're very relieved that it's finally starting," Ms Thomas told AAP.

Pankaj Oswal (rightt) and his wife Radhika (2nd left) and their daughters 12-year-old Riddhi and 18-year-old Vasundhara leave the Supreme Court of Victoria in August. (AAP)

"It's a very big undertaking and is going to be disruptive in terms of truck movements and noise for the next three weeks, but I'm sure the neighbours will be happy to put up with that.

"They've had a pretty miserable couple of years with disturbances on the site."

Ms Thomas said the council was optimistic the Oswals would pay back the costs.

"We've had some discussions with the owners over the last couple of weeks and we think we're nearly there with an agreement.

"If there are difficulties, we will pursue reimbursement through the normal channels as a debt."

She said the shire had also recently reached an agreement with the couple about unpaid rates.

"They will be paid in full, including penalties, by the end of October."

Ms Thomas said the Oswals ended up wanting the demolition to go ahead, with the large block of land likely to be divided into six lots.

"They have commissioned someone to give them advice on the most profitable way to dispose of it," she said.

Youngsters Mitchell and Jack Johnston came to watch the spectacle on their school holidays after their father agreed to drive them the 25km from Canning Vale.

"We like watching stuff get destroyed," Jack told AAP.

The Oswals and the ANZ last month settled the couple's lawsuit over the sale of the Burrup business, bringing to an end one of the nation's biggest civil cases.

The settlement was confidential but is believed to total more than $200 million.

The couple had been seeking up to $2.5 billion.

The Oswals also settled with the Australian Taxation Office and immediately left Australia after a travel ban was lifted.

Summary: The Oswal's derelict, half-finished mansion in the ritzy Perth suburb of Peppermint Grove is finally being demolished, much to the relief of neighbours.


There was the search for the Northwest Passage, the idea of making Trenton, N.J., the U.S. capital, the Edsel, George McGovern running for President. Now there is this idea, turning the wry, happy-spirited animated TV series about four mutated turtles into a live action movie.

It was probably a hopeless project from the start (Batman notwithstanding), since the continual violence that is innocuous, cartoonish brouhaha in animation becomes troubling mayhem when inflicted on real actors in a live movie. Parents should consider carefully before exposing young children to this kind of pounding.

The tone of the dialogue is inferior too. The disarming banter that raises the animated series above its competition is largely missing from this version of the turtles’ story. Here the turtles go around saying “Damn!” Characters sneer lines such as “You want a fist in the mouth?” The hand-to-hand combat is relentless, and a lot of the film is shot almost in the dark, as if someone pulled a plug on Jim Henson’s animatronics, which were used to make the guys in turtle outfits seem more lifelike.

Furthermore, the turtles are relegated to supporting status by a lame romance involving Hoag and Koteas (Tucker).

Some of the series’ amusing minor characters—including the bumbling villains Bebop the boar and Rocksteady the rhino—are missing, though the evil Shredder, played by a human in a Darth Vaderish outfit, is around. So is the turtles’ mentor, Splinter the rat, a puppet piloted by humans.

The turtles appear mostly as humans dressed in nicely designed turtle suits, with a few Henson effects—such as moving lips—operated electronically.

The visual side of this film, uninspired as it is, wouldn’t have been fatal if director Steven Barron (who did Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” video) and screenwriter Bobby (The Jeffersons) Herbeck had created a way to transpose a brilliant cartoon idea. As it is, they made a movie that displays two traits nobody would ever associate with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: It is grim and it is no fun. (PG)

(More or less concurring opinions from two reviewing brethren: Nick Carcaterra, 3, says, “I liked the part when Raphael said, ‘I love being a turtle.’ I liked the part when Donatello opened the pizza box. I liked the part when Michaelangelo told the Turtles, ‘Cowabunga!’ I missed Bebop and Rocksteady. I like the cartoon song better. Hi-Ya!” Thad Novak, 10, adds, “It’s a good movie for a martial-arts action movie, but for a Turtles fan, it’s not so good. Raphael doesn’t have that anger streak in him, for instance. There’s too many things wrong with that picture for someone who watches the TV show.”)

Summary: Judith Hoag, Elias Koteas There was the search for the Northwest Passage, the idea of making Trenton, N.J., the U.S. capital, the Edsel, George McGovern running for President. Now there is this ide…


Former Howard government treasurer Peter Costello says One Nation has now gone maintstream.

Mr Costello said when he was in office, the government was focused on ensuring One Nation, then viewed as out on the political fringe, didn't become part of the mainstream.

"One Nation has now mainstreamed itself. That's the difference. One Nation now has several senators and the balance of power," He said on ABC news.

Mr Costello said perhaps One Nation had become smarter and more sophisticated.

One Nation wasn't alone and the Senate now features independent Derryn Hinch and members of the Nick Xenophon party.

"Perhaps the major parties left a bit of a vacuum which they came and filled," he said.

Mr Costello said this wouldn't be good for the nation in the long term as it would mean decisions would be horse-traded.

However, the government remained stable and would survive but the quality of its work would be affected, he said.

"My hope is after people have seen this unedifying spectacle for a few years they'll break it at the next election," he said.

Summary: Former treasurer Peter Costello says One Nation has now gone mainstream, perhaps because it's become smarter and more sophisticated.


Sometimes, modern does not mean better. And when it comes to listening to music, a classic vintage system not only looks more beautiful, but in many cases will actually improve the sound quality.

Why would you want a blank plastic iPod dock sitting in your front room, when you could choose instead a piece of musical history, with glowing dials and vacuum tubes and good old-fashioned craftsmanship? Why choose the tinny, compressed sound of an mp3 file when you can bask in the warmth and rich tone of vinyl, played through a proper valve amplifier?

The jukebox is not only an objet d’art, but a solid financial investment

The truth is – perhaps uniquely – vintage sound systems not only look better than their modern equivalents, they sound better too. From classic jukeboxes and turntables to amps and radiograms, it pays to go old-school with the way you listen to your tunes...

For any vinyl lover, the jukebox is not only an important cultural objet d’art, bringing to mind the golden age of rock ‘n’ roll, but a solid financial investment – with the most collectible 1940s and 1950s models by Wurlitzer, Rock-ola, Seeburg and AMI selling for anything up to £10,000.

If your budget won’t stretch that far, don’t despair: a solid reproduction Wurlitzer from the 1980s can still be picked up for less than £1,000, will play all your old 45s and will easily be the most beautiful piece of furniture in your home.

Such was the popularity of radiograms that in the 1950s that many manufacturers tipped them to be a better investment than televisions. And by the 1970s there was barely a household in the country that didn’t have one of these (often huge) cabinet-cum-record-player-cum-radios in the living room... often incorporating cassette decks, space for storing LPs and tapes and sometimes even cocktail cabinets.

If the sound quality from most radiograms doesn’t really compare to that of a modern music system (one of the most immediate problems being the housing of turntable and speakers in the same cabinet), their worth as kitsch cultural items makes them well worth investigating.

The good news? They were manufactured in such huge numbers that there are plenty of bargains to be had... and the serious investor should keep an eye out for models by Dynatron, Blaupunkt, Braun and Hacker Radio Ltd.

Turntables are enjoying a remarkable renaissance at the moment – and modern “retro” versions of vintage Dansette record players can be picked up brand new – some even incorporating USB connections for digitising your vinyl. For those after the real deal, however, nothing compares to the craftsmanship and build quality of a proper vintage record deck.

Keep an eye out for the PL-630 from 1979, the best consumer turntable Pioneer ever produced

Audiophiles will be familiar with Technics decks as the leading choice for most vinyl DJs today, but equally a vintage 1977 Technics SL-1600 player in good condition is both a great investment and a lovely way to listen to your records.

Collectors should also keep an eye out for models by Dual – the 1975 510 deck especially – the 1978 Marantz 6370Q, and the Pioneer PL-630 from 1979, described by industry experts as the best consumer turntable Pioneer ever produced.

A proper amplifier – providing power and control between your source (a record deck or radio tuner) and speakers can transform a home stereo system.

Again, the 1960s and 1970s are your Golden Age for vintage amps – and although many swear by “solid state” amplifiers (using diodes and transistors to power the sound), for the real connoisseur there is no substitute for the warmth and higher dynamic range of a valve amp, where the amplitude or power of the signal is controlled through a series of vacuum tubes.

Look out for the Dynaco ST-70 – produced from 1959 through to the late 1970s (and now being relaunched) – the 1960s-era McIntosh MC275, which remains one of the most popular valve amps ever, perhaps thanks to the fact it actually packs a pair of stonking 75w amplifiers in its casing.

And those with an eye for a rarity should snap up any sighting of a Marantz 8B – the 1961 model two-tube amp remains one of the most collectible on the market.

Just remember that any dedicated amp – valve or solid state – will need a pair of quality speakers too!

To find a globally-curated mix of vintage fashion, jewellery, furniture, art, classic cars and rarities including old vinyl records, coins and comics, visit catawiki.com

Summary: Embark on a musical journey back in time with these vintage music players


Rescue crews have responded to almost 200 calls for help as trees and powerlines came crashing down and thousands of homes were without power after a wild storm swept across Brisbane and neighbouring Ipswich.

The storm, described by authorities as very dangerous, twice forced play in the first Test between Australia and Pakistan at the Gabba to be stopped.

Some flights at Brisbane Airport were also delayed until the storm passed.

There were 36,000 lightning strikes and 10,000 southeast Queensland homes and businesses were left without power, according to energy company Energex.

The State Emergency Service has received 144 calls for help in Ipswich, with reported damage in several suburbs.

Another 41 jobs were logged in Brisbane, Logan and Scenic Rim.

The weather bureau says 55mm of rain fell in Ipswich within half an hour.

A supermarket in Bellowrie was closed due to a partially collapsed roof while Wynnum Esplanade was also shut after a damaged shop front fell onto an unoccupied car.

Fallen trees have also been reported on many roads, including Gympie Rd at Chermside, while powerlines are also down in Bardon.

Authorities have warned people to stay inside and beware of fallen trees and powerlines.

The Darling Downs, Wide Bay and Burnett, and Granite Belt regions could also be hit with severe storms.

Summary: Residents of southeastern Queensland are being warned to brace for severe storms on Sunday afternoon, with the worst predicted for the Ipswich region.


‘The villain is the 20th century,” says emigre film-maker Jonas Mekas in Douglas Gordon’s pompous, empty feature film about this counterculture celebrity’s early life. Cue loud explosions against a dark screen, or a gorilla staring from its cage, or one of the other momentarily impressive but ultimately futile gimmicks that substitute for any actual insight.

Mekas has led an extraordinary life and played a spectacular part in New York’s art and film worlds. As a leader of the “underground film” movement in the 1960s he founded the Film-Makers’ Cinematheque and, later, Anthology Film Archives; helped Andy Warhol become a film-maker; and shot hundreds of hours of avant garde life in his copious diary films.

I Had Nowhere to Go is not about any of that. Instead it focuses relentlessly on Mekas’s childhood and youth in a world shattered by war. Born in Lithuania, he was a sensitive young man – “a poet” – caught between the Nazis and the Red Army in what the historian Timothy Snyder calls the “bloodlands” of eastern Europe, the worst killing fields of the second world war. He avoided the Nazi draft, survived slave labour and eventually made it to New York, he tells us in Gordon’s film.

How might a conventional documentary tackle this story? It would probably use a lot of archive footage to help visualise Mekas’s memories. There would be black and white shots of Lithuania before and during the war, images of Panzer tanks, Russian soldiers, slave labour camps. Or perhaps the film-makers would take Mekas back to the land of his birth and show him walking over the sites of the terrible things he saw. The documentary maker would surely interview historians to explain the context of this filmed memoir, perhaps even search for people Mekas knew as a youth, fellow survivors of that horrific time.

Douglas Gordon, however, is an Artist. So what he has done is to simply record the voice of Jonas Mekas – admittedly a rich, resonant voice; Mekas has never lost his accent in all the time he’s lived in the US – and juxtapose it with a screen that is blank and abstract, in subtly changing hues, for most of the film’s 98 minutes.

This almost parodically “radical” cinematic gesture might be more effective if Gordon actually stuck to it. It might leave the numbed audience with a sense of the darkness that is the past. Yet he is inconsistent. There are brief sequences of vegetables being chopped, apes in Berlin zoo, and Mekas playing the accordion.

These images are oddly ineffectual. What’s so moving about chopping up veg? The photography is beautifully coloured, with the unfortunate result that instead of evoking the hard lives of Lithuanian peasants, the vegetable sequences look like excerpts from a sublimely tasteful cookery show.

A gorilla and chimpanzee staring at the camera make for much more powerful images. They seem utterly alone and unhappy. Their discomfort and incarceration evokes the suffering of displaced human beings that Mekas is telling us about.

Then again, to say that is to realise how clumsy and melodramatic the analogy is. People in slave labour camps are like apes in a cage … Are they? And clumsier still is the film’s bombastic use of sound. At first this is promising. From the New York traffic noises against a blank screen that begin it, the combination of visual sparseness and complex sound can be effective. Yet I was left with the sounds of massive explosions echoing in my head like a firework display. One blast might have been profound; 30 is fatuous.

Gordon does not have the courage of his own minimalism: he throws around these massive explosions on the soundtrack as if desperately trying to make us feel the violence Mekas describes. The result is a film that tells us to be moved by history, instead of showing us the facts that would make us cry.

You can’t make a serious film about modern history just by playing some sad folk music. Mekas tells a funny story about that: once in postwar New York he was singing because he was happy, and a man said he sounded very sad. He suddenly realised that all Lithuanian folk music sounds sad – a fact he demonstrates by playing it. Like a folk song that sounds sad even if you are happy when you sing it, Gordon’s ostentatiously severe film wallows in a grief it has not earned.

I don’t doubt that Gordon feels deeply about modern history and wants to makes us feel its horrors. He once told me how he’d seen the devil in a bar in Berlin. Europe is haunted and it needs ghost hunters – but this is not how to dig into those death pits. It’s more like a high-class piece of perverse nostalgia porn.

What this film needs are facts. The realities of mass murder and human displacement need to be shown as only cinema can – and that takes work, research, curiosity. If Douglas Gordon wants to make a great film to compare with Claude Lanzmann’s Shoah he needs to leave his editing suite and go out into landscapes still stained with human ash.

• I Had Nowhere to Go screens at the London Film festival, Friday 7 October, 9pm; and at Tate Modern, Saturday 8 October, 7pm

Summary: The Turner prize-winning artist has turned his attention to underground film-maker Jonas Mekas, pairing ponderous images with Mekas’s memories of the second world war. The result is clumsy, confused and desperately manipulative


Scovia Anzoa and Akoor Dhelbai play Aussie Rules for the Butler Falcons, in a suburb of Perth in Western Australia. Scovia came to Australia from South Sudan in 2003 on a humanitarian visa. Akook’s parents are also from South Sudan, and she was born in a refugee camp in Kenya before coming to Australia in 2004. Akoor says the team ‘has just become almost a family to me. When I play it’s not like “Oh, she’s a refugee”. They just see me as another human being.’ Scovia is a coach and youth leader. ‘I’ve been able to pick up the game quickly because of the support around me,’ she says. ‘Refugees do want to come to Australia and succeed … my mum is very proud. And yeah, we’re Australian citizens now’

Summary: Scovia Anzoa and Akoor Dhelbai, who came to Australia on humanitarian visas talk about their passion for playing Aussie Rules


During the last two months of a brief, troubled life marred by drugs and bizarre scandal, Dana Plato I seemed to have found respite by the aquamarine waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Traveling down to West Palm Beach in her mobile home in early February, the former TV actress and her new boyfriend, Robert Menchaca, 28, stopped off for the night at Magnolia Beach Campground in Navarre, Fla., 25 miles east of Pensacola. Plato liked the tranquil trailer park so much that the next morning she decided to live there for a spell. Only gradually did campers recognize her as the girl who’d played Kimberly Drummond on Diff’rent Strokes from 1978 to 1984. “She didn’t walk around telling anyone she was a celebrity,” says Charles Inman, 36, a framing contractor and full-time resident at the camp. He and Plato, 34, became friends, and one day she shared a cherished memento of child stardom—a black choker she’d worn as Kimberly on the NBC sitcom. “She showed it to me and put it on,” says Inman.

The couple stayed until May 1, then headed off. Plato told Inman she was planning to jump-start a career that essentially ended after she became pregnant at 18 and left Strokes. First up was a scheduled appearance on shock jock Howard Stern’s national radio show broadcast from New York City. Then she was going to host an adult-entertainment expo in Chicago. In farewell, she gave Inman a digital photo portrait from her computer. She autographed it with a favorite saying: “Rainbows and butterflies forever.”

But there was to be no comeback, only one last, fatal misstep. Over Mother’s Day weekend, Plato and Menchaca, who claimed to be both her fiancé and her manager, were visiting his family in Moore, Okla. They parked her 37-foot Winnebago—their only home—outside his parents’ residence, a modest redbrick house on a block spared by the tornadoes that roared through a few days before. Late in the afternoon of May 8, Menchaca later told police, Plato said she wasn’t feeling well. She had taken a couple of pills—Valium and Lortab, a powerful prescription pain reliever 10 times stronger than codeine—and lain down in the RV. Menchaca joined her soon after, but before drifting off noticed she was cold and sweating. He covered her with a blanket and fell asleep beside her.

When Menchaca awoke shortly before 9 p.m., he couldn’t wake her. “Robert called out, ‘There’s something wrong with Dana,’ ” says his mother, Marcela Menchaca, a nurse technician who was sitting outside with Albert, another son. “We dashed over there and started CPR.” It was too late.

Although friends believe Plato might have been upset by the predictably cruel jokes that accompanied her visit to the Stern show the day before, authorities at this point regard the death as an accidental overdose. “There was no indication of suicide,” says Moore Police Sgt. Scott Singer. Indeed, advises Ernest D. Lykissa, M.D., a Houston toxicologist, Lortab is easily abused and potentially lethal, especially when combined with Valium. Lortab, he adds, “is a nuclear bomb you give yourself.”

Yet some who knew Plato couldn’t help assuming the worst scenario. Since her early teens, the actress had taken one unsavory detour after another, until her life and career turned into that tragic cliche of the TV age: the cute kid star who stumbles into adulthood—then free-falls. In the 15 years since she was written out of Diff’rent Strokes, Plato crossed the line from fame to notoriety, most notably in 1991, when she held up a Las Vegas video store with a pellet gun, taking $164. Plato’s victim, a cashier, reported to 911: “I’ve just been robbed by the girl who played Kimberly on Diff’rent Strokes.”

She repeatedly admitted to substance abuse, chiefly of Valium and alcohol. “I was so wasted, it would take me a good five days to sober up and go to work,” Plato told the cable entertainment channel E! last summer. She had a rough time being a mother to her son Tyler, 14, who for the most part has been raised by his father, Lanny Lambert, who lives in Tulsa, and paternal grandmother, Joan Richardson. Plato was often broke, even though she once earned $25,000 an episode for her series. She posed for Playboy in 1989 and, at her nadir, starred in a 1997 soft-core porn flick, Different Strokes: The Story of Jack & Jill…and Jill. In the words of former Partridge Family star Danny Bonaduce: “[Former child stars] have got a big billboard that says ‘failure.’ ”

Yet, Plato occasionally pulled herself together—and somehow preserved a fundamental if odd sweetness. Sara Corwin, an L.A. photographer who was a friend, recalls, “She would call me at all hours to tell me things like, ‘I just saw the most beautiful flower today.’ ” Even when she wound up working as a cashier in a Las Vegas dry-cleaning shop in 1990, customers were touched by her friendly lack of airs. “Normally,” noted onetime customer Phil Harrington, “you don’t have a former TV actress picking up your pants.” Of course, beneath the gentle manner was a truly troubled soul. Plato’s former drug counselor Ray Slaughter told E! last summer that at one point she was drinking almost a gallon of vodka a day. As of last September she was still making attempts to stay sober, says Gerald Wolff, her manager from 1993 to 1998. “But,” he adds, “she started to go crazy again. I was hoping she was going to straighten herself out.”

The same has often been said, over the years, about Gary Coleman and Todd Bridges, who played Plato’s two brothers, Arnold and Willis, adopted by her cheery father, Philip Drummond (Conrad Bain). Bridges, now 33, has a police record dating back to 1983. In 1990 the former cocaine addict was acquitted of shooting an accused drug dealer in an L.A. crack house. The diminutive Coleman, 30, feuded with his parents over his $6 million fortune, worked as a security guard at a mall and, last year, was arrested for allegedly punching a female fan who had approached him for an autograph. Diff’rent Strokes‘ creative supervisor Al Burton remembers meeting Plato at a party in 1990. “She told me, ‘I just posed nude for Playboy, Gary is suing his parents, Todd was arrested. That Drummond sure was a terrible father.’ ”

Bridges recently told USA Today he now stays sober with a 12-step program, and Coleman was required to take anger-management classes after pleading no contest in the autograph incident. Plato, though, always remained a concern to former teen star Paul Petersen (The Donna Reed Show, 1958-66), now 53 and head of A Minor Consideration, a watchdog organization for the rights of child actors. “I was doing the Sally Jessy Raphael Show [in May 1990] with Dana,” he says, “and she bumped into me before the show, fresh out of the bathroom, with cocaine powder all over her nose. Five minutes later she was on the air saying she’s clean and sober.” Plato, he says, “lied to everybody.”

Menchaca, who met her in Tulsa only four months ago, is distraught over the suggestion that drugs caused her death. “Dana’s name has been dragged through the dirt,” he says. “I want the world to know what kind of person she was. I learned from her it’s the little things that count. Never take life for granted.”

Plato kept trying to repair her own damaged life. She went on Stern’s show to refute the claims of a woman named Jennifer Wejbe, who had once been her L.A. roommate. Wejbe told The National Enquirer in March that she and Plato had been lovers, that Plato was still a drug user and that the actress had run off with her money. Callers to the show mocked Plato as a has-been, a lesbian and a mental case. The occasional well-wisher reduced her to tears.

Plato, says her cousin Kim Jaafil of Northridge, Calif., was “always an outgoing, bubbly kid, very happy and well-adjusted.” Still, her world was never stable. She was given up for adoption at birth by her mother, Linda Strain, then 17 and now the married mother of three in Springfield, Mo. Her adoptive parents—Dean Plato, who owned a trucking company, and Kay, who oversaw her career—divorced before Dana was 4. After that, Dean seldom played a part in her life, except in 1984, when he unsuccessfully sued her for support. Not long after the adoption, Kay was diagnosed with a rare blood disease that killed her 20 years later. Because of her illness, Jaafil suggests, “Kay wanted to give Dana everything while she was still around.”

As a child star, Dana lacked very little. She began acting at age 6, appearing in some 250 commercials before Al Burton cast the then-13-year-old in Diff’rent Strokes. “But she was always insecure,” says Sy Levin, who managed her from age 13 to 17. “She was third on the totem pole. It was always Coleman, then it was Todd. Then it was her.”

There were problems far more serious than professional rivalry. At 14, according to Levin, she overdosed on Valium. By the time she was 15, she was coming to the set drunk. “She would show up in a daze, in a funk,” says Burton. Then, at 18, she got pregnant by her 21-year-old boyfriend, and her Strokes stint was over. Conrad Bain, for one, was disturbed by her recklessness. “She deliberately got pregnant while doing the series,” he says. “When I spoke to her about it, she was enthusiastic about having done that.” She later told him, “When I get the baby, I will never be alone again.”

Years later, Plato told fellow camper Charles Inman that she didn’t regret the decision to have her child. Tyler was born in July 1984, four months after Plato married Lambert. “I would never trade Tyler for anything,” she said. But when the couple divorced in 1989, custody of Tyler was awarded to his father. With her substance-abuse troubles, “I was making him crazy,” she later said in an interview with USA Today, “so I sent him away.” The boy lived with Plato periodically, however, and she hoped to have him back soon, according to one friend. “She wanted her son,” says Inman. “She wanted unconditional love.”

Plato was devastated when her mother Kay died in 1988. “They had remained very close,” says Jaafil. “It was a real blow”—one Plato believed tipped her into the drinking-and-drug spree that climaxed with her comically inept 1991 video-store robbery. Her disguise of dark glasses and black hat was so transparent “even she knew it was a laughingstock,” says Clark County D.A. Stewart Bell, her attorney at the time. “The robbery was a cry for help.” (She got out of jail when Wayne Newton, who’d never met her, posted her $13,000 bail. “He felt sorry for her,” says his spokeswoman. “Here she was alone in a jail cell, and no one came forward.”) Another cry for help came that December, when Plato began forging Valium prescriptions. She earned two five-year probation sentences for the offenses.

That same year, Plato sought out her biological mother, Linda Strain, and eventually appeared with her on The Maury Povich Show. “Linda was thrilled,” says Strain’s sister Becky Heidger. “We watched this girl grow up on TV. She looked identical to our brother’s daughter, but we never put two and two together.” The reunion was short-lived, however. Plato eventually stopped speaking to Strain. “Dana turned Linda’s world upside-down and made it wonderful,” says Heidger, “for a very short time.”

Meanwhile, there were many people trying to keep Plato emotionally grounded. She was always welcome in Tulsa by her ex-mother-in-law. “I was very fond of her,” says Joan Richardson. “We were her only family.” Says child-actor advocate Paul Petersen: “I can’t tell you the number of checks I had to give Dana to cover the rent.” Last year he introduced her to Fred Potts, 41, an aspiring filmmaker in Tucson. They became engaged last June but soon broke up over her drug use. Still, Potts encouraged her to leave L.A. behind. “She was going to settle in, be an Arizona beach bum, sit by the pool, relax, no drugs, no alcohol,” says Potts. The move never happened: “I never got an explanation.” And former Family Affair child star Johnny Whitaker, 39, now a talent manager, took her on as a client. Himself in recovery, he talked to Plato about sobriety and asked her to check in daily. “But she’d only call about once or twice a week,” he says. “For the past three weeks, Dana hadn’t called at all.”

By then, she was with Robert Menchaca, whom few of Plato’s friends had even heard of until her death. “I didn’t meet Dana as a celebrity,” says Menchaca. “We dated a few times, and things just clicked.” Now he, too, has lost Plato. At a press conference at his home on May 11, he said, “I’ll always love her, and I know the millions of fans out there love her.”

A viewing was held in nearby Oklahoma City for Plato’s family that same day. Her son Tyler “is holding up well,” says Whitaker, who spoke with him by phone. “His grandmother tells me he’s the spitting image of Dana. And he asked me, ‘When all this is over and done with and I come to Los Angeles, do you think that you could manage me?’ I guess it’s in the blood.”

Tom Gliatto Champ Clark, Ken Baker and Monica Rizzo in Los Angeles, Laurel Brubaker Calkins in Houston, Gabrielle Cosgriff in Moore, Mary M. Harrison in Missouri, Melissa Schorr in Las Vegas, Tim Roche in Navarre and Bob Meadows in New York City

Summary: Dana Plato, the lovable star of Diff’rent Strokes, became a Hollywood casualty at age 34


Lower prices are part of the natural order in the world of electronics. Sometimes, though, the slow but relentless drop in price turns into a torrent. That's happening now in personal computers.

Prices are falling fast on notebook computers, as much as 18.5 percent so far this year, according to statistics compiled by Current Analysis, a market research firm. The bulk of notebooks now sell for less than $1,000.

The lower-priced notebooks are pushing desktop prices down, too. "I would expect even more intense price competition," said Charles Smulders, an analyst with Gartner, another market research firm.

The pace of price cuts has accelerated because a price war has broken out that offers great benefits to anyone in the market for a PC. And that could be a pretty large market. Forrester Research estimates that 70 percent of PC's in use are more than two years old and 90 percent of second, third and fourth computers are even older. The wars started quietly a year ago this week when Acer, a PC maker in Taiwan, re-entered the American market. The strategy was to get into the top tier of PC vendors as quickly as possible, which meant it would grab market share by keeping prices low.

Acer and other makers took business from Dell, which began to look less like the growth company that its investors were accustomed to. Dell's response came earlier this year as it cut prices.

Intel, meanwhile, was losing a significant portion of the microprocessor market to Advanced Micro Devices. Intel's share dropped to 77.9 percent from 81.5 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to Gartner, while A.M.D.'s market share grew to 20.4 percent from 16.6 percent two years ago. Intel is fighting to win back share, which means PC makers use the rivalry to get a price break.

Apple switched its processor to an Intel chip. Apple also makes running Windows applications on a Mac very easy. Owners of iPods are beginning to notice that Apple does more than sell music.

At the same time, Microsoft has pushed back the release of Vista, its new operating system, from before Christmas to early next year. Normally that would slow PC sales. But Microsoft is considering whether to offer incentives for consumers to buy PC's before Vista's release.

Some analysts had expected coming into the year that prices would actually go up slightly. Instead, the average price of a notebook computer dropped to $963 in April, an 18.5 percent decrease from a year ago, according to Current Analysis, which is based in Sterling, Va.

When an electronic device breaks through the $1,000 psychological barrier, sales take off. Samir Bhavnani, director for research at Current Analysis, said 37 percent more notebooks have been sold so far this year. About 60 percent of all notebook computers sold last month were priced below $1,000. He credits Dell, saying, "They love getting down in the mud."

Dell is running a promotion, which it bills as a celebration of its 22nd anniversary, with a $400 discount on PC's, plus a free monitor and free shipping.

Another statistic will tell you just how good consumers have it. While the number of notebooks sold is up 37 percent, revenue growth in the period is up only 15.5 percent, Mr. Bhavnani said. Companies are making less money on each notebook. Desktop computers are literally being given away. Retailers sold 14.8 percent more of them in the first five months of the year, but revenue declined 4 percent, Mr. Bhavnani said. Half of the computers sold for less than $500.

Consider the Hewlett-Packard Compaq Presario desktop offered this week at Office Depot. For $300 you get a PC with 512 megabytes of RAM and a 100-gigabyte hard drive. Office Depot tossed in a 17-inch CRT monitor and a printer.

"The material cost, before the printer, was around $400," estimated Mark Hill, Acer's vice president for sales in the United States. "It's crazy." Not that he's complaining. Acer has gained one point of market share this year by artful pricing.

So how does a consumer play this? As always with electronics, it is worth waiting. Expect even better deals around the Christmas season. But if you need to get one now, you certainly won't suffer. Deals will abound during the back-to-school season, which starts in June just as the school year ends.

Many consumers will end up waiting for Vista, Microsoft's new operating system. Some analysts expect that to keep computer sales from flagging during the year-end holidays, manufacturers will pressure Microsoft to offer a free upgrade to Vista to anyone buying a new PC.

Summary: Sometimes the slow but relentless drop in electronics price turns into a torrent. That's happening now in personal computers.