The stock of Tulsa-based Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group plunged Monday, after the company sharply lowered its earnings estimate late Friday. The stock of the rental-car firm had its biggest drop in more than 10 years, falling $9.62 a share to $16.40 in New York Stock Exchange Trading. Dollar Thrifty officials estimated Friday that 2007 profit could be 90 cents to 95 cents a share, down from their November forecast of $1.75 to $1.85. Demand over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays was below expectations, CEO Gary L. Paxton said in a press release Friday. The company will report earnings on Feb. 28. .

Dollar Thrifty shares plummet

Shares of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc. plunged 37 percent Monday following news late Friday that the company expects its 2007 profit to be lower than forecast.

The Tulsa-based rental car company saw its share price drop $9.62 to close at $16.40 on the New York Stock Exchange. More than 3.4 million shares were traded.

It was the biggest drop since Dollar Thrifty's initial public stock offering in December 1997, according to Bloomberg data.

The stock price also reached a new 52-week intraday trading low of $16.27, in contrast with a 52-week high of $55.30 last Feb. 14.

The 52-week high coincided with rumors that Dollar Thrifty and Tulsa-based Vanguard Car Rental USA Inc. were in merger talks. Such a deal never materialized.

Thrifty Car Rental Rolls Prepaid Tolls Into Rental Rates in Florida ...

TULSA, Okla., Jan. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Thrifty Car Rental, a subsidiary of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. (NYSE: DTG) is minimizing the stress that takes a toll on globetrotting travelers. That's why it's including Pass24(R) Prepaid Toll Service with select car rental rates at participating Florida locations when customers use any American Express(R) card for payment and make their reservation using Promo Code AXTL. This offer is valid at participating Florida locations through March 31, 2008.

Ordinarily, Pass24 pre-paid toll service is available to Thrifty Car Rental customers for $5.95 per day or $27.95 per week in Florida, which includes all toll charges.

A secret Oregon for any season

It was there, on a deck looking out at the windsurfers and Neahkahnie Mountain, that on my first day I embarked on my first strenuous vacation activity: studying the house owner's foot-high pile of activity brochures.

Without driving more than 10 minutes, I could go boogie-boarding. Crabbing. Golfing. Horseback riding on the beach. Bicycling in the bike lanes along U.S. 101. Kayaking on the Nehalem River. Shopping for antiques in Wheeler.

Or I could just sit back and watch, in the words of one brochure, the "world class" rainbows.

Thrifty Car Rental Rolls Prepaid Tolls Into Rental Rates in Florida ...

TULSA, Okla., Jan. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Thrifty Car Rental, a subsidiary of Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group, Inc. (NYSE: DTG) is minimizing the stress that takes a toll on globetrotting travelers. That's why it's including Pass24(R) Prepaid Toll Service with select car rental rates at participating Florida locations when customers use any American Express(R) card for payment and make their reservation using Promo Code AXTL. This offer is valid at participating Florida locations through March 31, 2008.

Ordinarily, Pass24 pre-paid toll service is available to Thrifty Car Rental customers for $5.95 per day or $27.95 per week in Florida, which includes all toll charges.

Trademark Properties liquidates America's real estate crisis with a ...

This series of sales events across the country is designed to put liquidity back into the local economies by exposing these assets to a much broader buying audience than previously possible, by combining the local physical auction with a real time simulcast to internet buyers who have cash and are looking to place it in real estate. These buyers are shrewd and "liquid." They understand that LiquidationSensation is providing a great buying opportunity at the perfect time, in a real estate cycle for highly motivated sellers and opportunistic buyers to be brought together.Davis estimates that 10% of all existing "for sale" properties would qualify for this type of quick conversion in today's slower real estate market."This isn't all things to all people, this is taking the excess inventories that are clogging the pipeline of a healthy Real Estate economy, so that buyers and sellers can come together to stimulate the market.

Residents strip down inn's business

OCEANSIDE, Ore. -- One young mother from Tillamook gathers her five children and drives two scenic miles to go beachcombing at a quaint hideaway off U.S. Highway 101.Another Tillamook mother slips into a black gown and drives to the same town to dance at the only exotic club on the northern Oregon coast -- the Anchor Inn and Grill. They, along with strip-club patrons, visiting families, longtime residents and retirees, mix it up in this quiet community. Dependent on vacation rentals and tourists, pint-size Oceanside -- population 326 -- sustains one cafe, one coffee shop, one nude adult entertainment venue and lots of feuding citizens.For the past three years, a dispute over growth and development has divided the community. Angry neighbors boycotted the Anchor because it expanded. Then, nearly broke, another owner of the Anchor brought in strippers in December as a last resort.Now a state land-use board is investigating the matter.

Testing home school students has merit

Home-schooling has never been about making sure those kids get a better education, its about keeping them from being exposed to ideas that might conflict with thier parents' narrow world-view. Without some kind of educational guidelines, I wonder how any reputable college or university would even consider accepting a home-schooled student. " .

Driver eases up on dead boy's kin

MADRID, Spain — A motorist who struck and killed a 17-year-old cyclist in northern Spain — and then sued the boy's parents over the damage to his Audi — has dropped the lawsuit, the family said Wednesday.

Businessman Tomas Delgado's car collided with the teen, Enaitz Iriondo, in August 2004, killing him instantly.

In late 2006, Delgado — whose insurance company paid Iriondo's parents $48,000 in compensation for their son's life — filed a lawsuit seeking nearly $30,000 for his wrecked Audi A8 and car-rental costs.

"It's the only way I have to claim my money back," Delgado told reporters earlier this week.

News that Delgado was suing the family had become a top news item, and the subject was debated exhaustively this week on radio and TV chat shows.

On Wednesday, Delgado's lawyer announced that his client decided to ditch the case because of media pressure, Spanish National Radio reported.