Greg Watkins stood at the bar at a New York City nightclub, watching a fashion show unfold onstage and trying not to think about all the drinks his guests were charging to his credit card. He was paying for three rappers, two of whom each ordered an entire bottle of Hennessy cognac. Pretty soon the tab exceeded $600--and that was the least of his worries.

It was late August 2006, and Watkins's New York City-based company, the hip-hop news website AllHipHop.com, had spent a year planning this festival. Watkins and Chuck Creekmur, his co-founder and childhood pal, hoped the event, AllHipHop Week, would catapult their brand into the big time. Instead, it had turned into a cash-flow nightmare. A few days before the week began, their accountant had broken bad news: The company was plunging deeply into the red.

Would You Bomb Iran, Yes or No?

If the only conversation about Iran that they ever prompt is one that demands to know whether or not we are going to war, then they shouldn't be surprised when that is the rhetoric that dominates the national discourse on this matter. To the Democrats' credit, unlike the Republicans, they usually don't take the bait. For the most part, they refuse to consider hypotheticals and demand that different kinds of questions be asked. Journalists manning these debates should listen. They can either help initiate a productive exchange about Iran and the options available to a future leader or they can shut down the conversation completely. In a setting such as the one last night, they have that kind of power and they should use it wisely.

Jones Beach to weigh in on divisive Trump project

Steve Schwimmer, who thinks Trump on the Ocean would be good for his Bohemia credit-card transaction processing firm as well as Long Island, has sent 6,000 e-mails to business contacts urging them to come out and support it.

Civic activist Patricia Friedman, who considers the Jones Beach catering hall and restaurant an abomination, has been busy calling sympathetic individuals and groups such as the Audubon Society to get them to send alerts to their friends and members.

Galvanizing Friedman, Schwimmer and others: a hearing scheduled for Tuesday at which a review board will consider, and likely rule on, Donald Trump and partner Steve Carl's application for a variance from the state building code's prohibition on building a basement in a floodplain.

Investigation Over 9/11 Teachings

On the radio show and in an interview with a Wisconsin newspaper, Barrett said that he would share his views in class (noting that he would also share what he considers the official, whitewashed version of the events). Madison officials and educators elsewhere typically have an easier job defending the right of professors to espouse views that are widely seen as lies if those views aren’t shared in class. Northwestern University, for example, has repeatedly resisted calls to fire Arthur R. Butz, an engineering professor who is a Holocaust denier, but who doesn’t discuss the Holocaust in class.

In his announcement that Barrett’s plans for the fall course would be reviewed, Farrell stressed the fact that Barrett had talked about views he would share in class. "Mr.

Filed under: NFL

-The worst month for sports is what were going through right now. The NBA is hitting the mid-season and there is yet to be any real excitement. You have the NFL that just got over a month ago, and yes, we're all sad because that marks the end of football for another 6-7 months. College Football recruiting is always fun, but we all know that in a sense it is just a waiting game that is boring. We have College Basketball hitting conference schedules real hard which is truely fun to watch, but we then enter the conference tournaments and they mean nothing. MLB isen't even heard of in this month, and NASCAR has qualifying on the week before Daytona. Isen't that just interesting. The month of February is a complete let-down. This month is almost worthless in the world of sports. I mean, the NBA season may be shaping up, but there is another 40 games to be played.

Credit crunch changes everyday life in U.S.

"We live in a small town, and everybody looks at your clothes and what you drive and where you have your hair done," said Gamble, who earns about $2,600 a month as a grievance counselor at a local prison.

And when she looks across the street at that Cadillac, her envy has been replaced by pity for the neighbor who must be on the hook for the payments.

The starting gun sounds for the .ASIA domain landrush

Domain registrars are getting ready for what they hope is a high-demand, frantic "landrush" of domain registrations, beginning today as .asia moves toward becoming the Internet's second regional top-level domain.

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With online tickets, it's buyer be careful

Buying tickets for shows, concerts and sporting events online is akin to walking a virtual tightrope, with box offices and authorized companies on one side and ticket scalpers on the other. Fall on the wrong side and you will likely have to deal with outrageous prices and refused refunds.

Sign up for alerts, venue memberships and fan clubs that move you to the head of the line.