Lindsay Lohan due in court for probation hearing

The next stage of Lindsay Lohan's life is in a judge's hands.

The starlet is scheduled to appear Tuesday in a Beverly Hills, Calif., courtroom for a probation revocation hearing that could end with Lohan either headed for jail or her next movie role.

The hearing is the culmination of several missteps by the 24-year-old actress, whose probation for a three-year drug and alcohol case was revoked in May after she missed a hearing. She faces an increasingly impatient judge who has seemingly grown tired of the actress' inability to complete the terms of her sentence, or appear in court on time.

Lohan's fate is far from decided though. The hearing Tuesday …

Staying Aloft

Harrisburg International Airports terminal boasts space light, efficiency. High ceilings can swallow crowd noise. Baggage claims can accommodate traffic. Restaurants, bars and gift shops can han dle swarms of customers.

They can, but they rarely do.

"The potential is there," said Karen Deklinski, owner of souvenir shop Perfectly Pennsylvania in HIA. "As it stands, we could not rely on the airport business to succeed."

Deklinski, like many airport tenants, recently completed the first year of a 10-year lease for her store. She based her business plan on the airport management's projections for travelers flying into and out of HIA. However, a shrinking airline industry …

Oil prices fall back after previous day's jump on US inventory report

Oil prices fell Thursday after a jump the previous session on unexpected declines in U.S. crude and heating oil stocks and following the Federal Reserve's announcement of a plan to help banks through the credit crisis.

The almost 5 percent gain Wednesday lifted crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange to its highest close since Nov. 27.

But on Thursday light, sweet crude for January delivery fell 63 cents to US$93.76 a barrel by afternoon in Europe in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The Nymex crude contract had gained US$4.37 on Wednesday to settle at US$94.39 a barrel.

In London, January Brent crude fell 66 cents to …

Wine-ordering for dummies: Noses off the cork

Don't sniff the cork.

Unless you generally go around sniffing things — like door handles and other people — don't sniff the cork when a restaurant server places it on your table after pulling it from the bottle you have just ordered.

When a cork comes from an old wine, make sure it's not dry and crumbly. Otherwise, just let it sit there. And keep it away from your nose. Now that its sealing job is over, the cork is more of a souvenir than anything else.

For a lot of people, the stress that accompanies ordering wine in a restaurant is on par with the stress that those same people would experience speaking in public in their underwear while closing on a new home — in …

Psychiatric Clinical Skills

Clinical Skills Psychiatric Clinical Skills David S Goldbloom. Toronto (ON): Elsevier Canada; 2006. 408 p. CDNS66.95.

Reviewer rating: Excellent

Today, clinical assessment is often reduced to ticking off a diagnostic checklist, and the time pressure and managed care constrict the contact with a patient. Systematic, comprehensive observing and differential psychopathology are often neglected. This excellent book on clinical skills and interviewing counteracts successfully such an unfortunate fashion.

The reader is taken from the preliminaries, such as how to set the stage and explain the interview to the patient, through the basic structure of the interview, all the …

Qwest 3Q Earnings Rise With Tax Benefit

DENVER - Telecommunications company Qwest Communications International Inc. said Tuesday its third-quarter profit jumped, aided mainly by a $2.15 billion tax benefit.

For the period that ended Sept. 30, Qwest earned $2.07 billion, or $1.08 per share, compared with $194 million, or 9 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

The company said its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization - or EBITDA - totaled …

Stocks slip as July consumer confidence falls

Stocks are edging lower following a report that consumer confidence fell in July.

The Conference Board says its Consumer Confidence Index has fallen to 46.6 in July from 49.3 in June. Economists were expecting a reading of 49.

Consumers' confidence is closely watched because their spending accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.

Stocks began Tuesday zigzagging following mixed corporate earnings reports.

Following the data, the Dow Jones industrials are down 18 at 9,090 after rising 14 ahead of the report. The S&P 500 index is down 5 at 977, while the Nasdaq composite index is down 7 at 1,961.

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