Both are being investigated for misconduct, and, as the Daily News notes, both of the "good-looking" language teachers were very popular with their students. • General Mills has announced plans to reduce the amount of sugar in cereals marketed to children. This means that munchie-favorites like Lucky Charms and Count Chocula could drop at least 25% of their sugar, until there are less than 10 grams per serving. Wonder if that will effect the taste. •  According to an Italian newspaper, Amanda Knox still has hope that she will be freed. She reportedly told Italian lawmaker Walter Verini that she "has faith in the Italian justice system," including her pending appeal. • New York State's oldest registered sex offender could be released from a halfway house soon. Prosecutor Frank Sedita has warned against the dangers of releasing the 100-year-old convicted child molester, who he calls the "personification of evil." •  A 10-year-old British girl has made the news after she wrote an angry letter to the man who broke into her house. Her letter, which describes her feelings of fear and sadness, will be sent out to known burglars with the hopes that it will deter them from robbing again. •  In the past few weeks, three top female newspaper editors have announced that they are leaving their jobs, and do not intend to continue careers in journalism. The timing of their resignations has lead some to worry about diversity in the newsroom. However, Sandra Mims Rowe, editor of the Oregonian says it is not always gender-specific issues that force editors to seek new opportunities, and that times are tough across the board. •  The New York Times helpfully reminds us of the number one rule of any affair: don't put anything in writing. Oddly, many otherwise intelligent-seeming people (Tiger Woods, Senator John Ensign) seem to think that this does not apply to text messaging, which has led the NYT to deem texts the "new lipstick on the collar." Professor Shirley Turkle rather poetically describes our cellphone-blindness: "Like Peter Pan, we do not see our electronic shadow until it is pointed out to us. We assume it is not there." • Kumari Fulbright, the former beauty queen and University of Arizona law student accused kidnapping of her ex-boyfriend, pled guilty to conspiracy to commit kidnapping and aggravated assault today. She'll spend the next two years in prison. • A Pennsylvania woman who drank herself unconscious at her 20th birthday party is suing a hospital for medical malpractice because she passed out while sitting on the floor in the emergency room and was left in that position for 12 hours. This cut off circulation to her legs, and they were later amputated at the knees • The International Olympic Committee has reallocated two of the three gold medals Marion Jones was stripped of in 2007 when she admitted to using steroids. But for the first time the IOC is leaving a gold medal spot vacant because 100-meter silver medalist Katerina Thanou of Greece is still facing charges for staging a motorcycle accident to avoid doping tests. "She disgraced herself and the Olympic movement by avoiding three doping tests. We are not legally bound to give medals," said an IOC spokesman. • Police arrested a Florida woman for allegedly throwing a raw steak at her disabled live-in boyfriend when he asked for a roll instead of sliced bread with his dinner. Authorities say she beat the man, who has terminal cancer and an injured left leg, in the face with the meat and threw a bag of clothing at his bad leg. She repeatedly told a deputy that she only slapped him "so that he can learn." •

The hoax appears to be based on an urban myth circulated by e-mail since 2005. Police departments around the country have been getting calls about the texts, which are tailored to each local area and claim gangs are killing women at Walmart as part of their initiation rites. The texts are making the rounds in at least 16 states, including Maryland, Delaware, Florida, North Carolina, Colorado, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Hawaii. It's a particularly inopportune time for Walmart, since many stores are holding Twilight parties at midnight on Saturday, but it's not clear if this is a coincidence or a coordinated effort to sabotage the event. [Advertising Age]

Authorities say that 21-year-old Williams sent a lewd text message to a 17-year-old girl whom she had heard was involved with her boyfriend. The specifics of the text message were not released, but some voicemails that Williams and others had left the girl threatened rape.

Williams' lawyer, Michael Kielty, claims that the new law which his client is accused under is poorly written and makes something illegal which wouldn't be under other circumstances:

Kielty said Missouri's revised harassment measures are bad law. "It's probably one of the worst written laws I've seen in my career," he said.

He said kids used to say things face to face or pass notes in school commenting on someone's looks or weight. The new law "criminalizes behavior that otherwise wouldn't be illegal except for the medium," he said.

"It's not criminal. It might be mean-spirited, but it's not criminal," he said.

One of the problems with Kielty's arguments is that Williams' behavior would in fact be considered criminal in another medium. The prosecutor of the Williams case notes that telephone harassment (which is essentially what Williams did) has been a crime for years in Missouri.

Kielty argues that because dumb kids say dumb things to each other about their looks or weight (he carefully avoids talking about threatening sexual violence) that Williams' harassment should not be seen as illegal.

Anyone who has been in high school in the past 15 years knows that harassment akin to the Meier's and William's cases are common. Kids do dumb things on the internet all the time, but now the dramatic influence of bullying and girl-on-girl crime are getting national attention. Are we—as some of the commenters on the Wired blog fear—turning into a coddling nanny state by expecting laws to save us from any uncomfortable moment? Or would ignoring these cases of bullying just make it okay for people to make threats of sexual and non-sexual violence just because they did it over a text message or a Myspace bulletin and not to the victim's face?

Prosecutors Charge Seven People Under New Cyberbullying Law [Wired]
Woman Accused Under New Cyberbullying Law [CBS News]

P.S. No animals were drugged in the making of this video.

The research uncovers that men will text back their crush within the hour (57 minutes). Women, however, leave their dates hanging 22 minutes longer, taking an average of 1 hour 19 minutes to reply. Don't leave it any longer than 2 hours 36 minutes, though — this is officially the point when 'playing it cool' becomes 'plain rude.' ... Once again it is the women who leave men hanging after the first date, waiting an average of up to 2 hours 45 minutes compared to 1 hour 51 minutes to text their crush afterwards.

Okay. Is the UK a totally different universe? Texting back within hours of wrapping up the first date? Because here in the US it seems like most guys still subscribe to that ridiculous, old-fashioned "wait three days" rule. And are women really so slow in texting back? Because most we know are of the variety who reply to texts immediately. And correct us if we're wrong, but don't most men set out to use as few words as possible while texting? So that you're staring at the screen, trying to decode the message, wondering what its brevity could possibly mean?

So yeah, English men? The ones who send perfect texts, which, by the way, "take 1 minute 12 seconds to compose" according to the study? We'd like them to text us. Because we our phone is painfully silent today.

The Joy of Text [Cellular News]

WNBC