Tabitha Berg

HOUSTON, Texas -- This year's holiday "Cyber-Monday" showed an unprecedented 26% increase over the same day last year as internet shoppers handed over $608 million to internet sellers. The modern shopping boom is accompanied by interest in modern products, at least in one area where a brand new diamond shape is receiving what we should call "X-plosive" attention over its traditional counterparts, say the folks at Whiteflash.com.

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- So, you want to be a P.I.? Florida Private Investigator, John Krause, has re-released "The Private Investigator's Guide," (ISBN: 0-615-13411-4, printed version; and ISBN: 0-615-12404-6; CD-ROM version) previously published in 1997. "The Private Investigator's Guide" is the most comprehensive guide on the market; it teaches the novice P.I. the tricks of the trade and provides basic information for business start-up.

KANAGAWAKEN, Japan -- KAYAC Co.Ltd. CEO Daisuke Yanagisawa announced that the company has launched a new blog widget "THANKS" from their blog widgets site "BlogDeco." According to Yanagisawa: "This blog widget 'THANKS,' is our fist release targeted abroad, in both Japanese and English versions."

CHICAGO, Ill. -- The LJR Group today announced publication of a revised edition of the book "Our Uncle Sam: The Sam Cooke Story From His Family's Perspective" (ISBN: 1-4120-6498-8, www.ourunclesam.com). Written by Cooke's great-nephew Erik Greene, Our Uncle Sam not only emphasizes Cooke's accomplishments in music history, but gives the reader an inside look on the childhood influences that drove him to excel.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- Buying and servicing a boat has become a much easier task for consumers around the country, thanks to Boating Industry magazine's second annual Top 100 Dealers, a ranking of an incredibly powerful group of marine dealers that generated more than $2.88 billion in retail sales, or nearly 8 percent of the entire $37 billion marine market.

HARTFORD, Conn. -- The psychological thriller "TO THE BONE" (ISBN: 0-9769688-3-5) by Mark Vann is based on an astonishing medical case history and offers readers a villain like no other in the annals of crime fiction. The strands of the plot are darkly and deftly intertwined like the DNA helix of the killer. In addition, this groundbreaking novel brings to the forefront a subject that has always been considered taboo.

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. -- Looking for the perfect wine for your holiday gifts or dinner parties? Then you shouldn't miss the special episode of W the women's show "Holiday Greetings." Winemaker, Daniel Baron, of Silver Oak and Twomey Cellars will be taking viewers on a tour of the vineyards, tasting rooms, and cellars in both Napa and Sonoma counties that produce award-winning California wines.

KOH KTEAH, Cambodia -- GoldenPalace.com, the Internet casino famous for their unusual and often outrageous advertising campaigns, has done it again by sponsoring Canadian director Matt Frame's record-breaking feat for the world's longest handcuffed swim. Matt made the brutal 5.8 kilometer (3.1 nautical miles) swim from Koh Kteah to Serendipity beach without the benefit of a wetsuit or any help. The Guinness people have officially confirmed this to be a record-breaking swim.

DENVER, Colo. -- Denver-area public companies and their audit committee members are invited to participate in "Governance Update: SOX compliance...and what's next with the SEC," a free seminar offered by RSM McGladrey, one of the top accounting, tax and business consulting organizations in the country. The seminar will be held at the Wyndham Hotel Denver Tech Center on Dec. 6, 2006, from 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla. -- This holiday season, W the women's show will help women learn how to make the most of their printer purchases on its "Holiday Greetings" special. The hit Quorum Productions television program will feature an expert from Dell Computers who will explain how to make buying, owning, and operating a printer an easy task.

DALLAS, Texas -- The Texas Almanac has partnered with the William P. Clements School of Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University to reproduce their 1936 Centennial Edition.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- A specialty government and economic development consulting firm is extending its reach further into the Midwest as it announced today the opening of an office in Minneapolis. GSP Consulting, based in Pittsburgh, Pa., has announced it will establish its 10th office in Minneapolis. Led by former legislator and leading bioscience advocate Lynne Osterman, the firm will bring to the marketplace its unique brand of government and economic development consulting.

TROY, Mich. -- Invisible Hand Productions today began pre-production of the feature film "Guilty of Innocence: What's Said Behind Your Back Can Kill You," a documentary on the failings of the U.S. legal system. The independent film, to be completed in Q1 2008, will be shot on location in Michigan, Florida, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia, with a budget not to exceed $200k.

ASHBURN, Va. -- Core Concepts, LLC, a corporate development organization located in Northern Virginia and South West Florida since 2002, announced today the launch of Core Concepts Publishing in conjunction with their first book publication, 4 Circles of Good Business, written by Christopher Novak of Marcellus, New York (ISBN 0-9788668-0-0).

KIRKLAND, Wash. -- As the end of the tax year approaches, millions of Americans may neglect a hefty deduction, the cost of long term care insurance, according to LTC Financial Partners LLC, the nation's most experienced long term care insurance brokerage. For some people, especially business owners, the tax breaks can be quite substantial.

DENVER, Colo. -- Fetter Logic, Inc., the premier full service provider of advanced data and information management solutions for the financial services industry, today announced the availability of Helio - a comprehensive data aggregation solution with unparalleled data quality. Helio is the first financial services solution that promptly and accurately integrates all forms of data including direct mutual funds, annuities, one or more clearing firms, proprietary firm assets and creates intelligent information for the user.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- Deborah J. Copeland announced today the release of her first Young Adult Novel, "The Kids at Latimar High" (ISBN: 0-595-40381-6), published by iUniverse. School reporter, Lauren O'Neil, a.k.a. "news girl" and her best friend, drop dead gorgeous cheerleader, Rosalyn Brown, are breaking all the rules when they discover they're competing for the same guy at school - Kevin Johnson, Latimar High's star quarterback.

CHICAGO, Ill. -- In a city that still takes boastful pride in its beery connection to gangster Al Capone, author Bob Skilnik says Big Al's brewing legacy is more baloney than brewing history. In his recently released book, BEER: A History of Brewing in Chicago ($24.95, Hardcover, 416 pages, Barricade Books, ISBN 1569803129), the beer historian argues that the real brains behind the beer that flowed through Chicago's streets was Capone's mentor, Johnny Torrio.

VILLANOVA, Pa. -- What do you do if think you own a million dollar domain name and you want to sell it? The new service - DomainLiquidations.com - will promote and broker the sale of your premium domain name for you. Today's advertisement on page A6 of the Wall Street Journal (think expensive) reflects a major shift in how premium domain names are bought and sold.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- The schedule was released today for HDFEST's Los Angeles event which will be staged at Dolby Laboratories in Burbank. This December event is the final stop on the HDFEST 2006 World Tour, which also included HD Festival events this year in Seoul, New York, Finland, and London. HDFEST Los Angeles will include screenings of high-definition movies, panels on HD moviemaking and digital cinema, festival parties and the HDFEST 2006 Deffie Award Ceremony.

GLENDALE, Calif. -- Intellikey Labs, the first and most established content and DVD testing lab, is on the forefront of DVD content copy protection testing. Utilizing its proprietary protocols developed specifically for copy protection testing, Intellikey performs definitive copy protection testing for optical media via its expansive domestic and international DVD player matrices.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Washington area writer, Diana Mayer, has accomplished what few authors would attempt - a sequel to "A Tale of Two Cities." Inspired by that classic story, and the lack of works like it in today's "easy read" market, Mayer set out to bring a little of Dickens' literary style back to modern readers.

FLUSHING, N.Y. -- Bruce L. Roistacher, a prominent Long Island attorney announced today that the founder and leader of the China Democracy Party and the Party for Freedom and Democracy in China has been acquitted of all criminal charges after a jury verdict in Suffolk County, New York.

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- The co-author of the recently published "Get Fit In Bed" (ISBN: 1572244607), Dr. Genie Tartell, a nationally known Chiropractor who has appeared on ABC-TV, "The View," and the Fox morning program, "Fox & Friends," says you can get a better nights sleep by exercising in bed. Dr. Tartell wrote "Get Fit In Bed" with co-author Ted Kavanau, the founder of CNN Headline News.

AUSTIN, Texas -- deverus today unveiled its new, one of a kind, service line, the Vero Hire. The Vero Hire is an on-demand, Web-based software application designed to help background check and employment screening companies deliver new and advanced services to help HR hire and retain productive employees.