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Albert pleads guilty, is red from NBC

"From my point of view, I just felt like I had to end this ordeal," Albert said outside court in a weary voice after agreeing to a deal in which prosecutors dropped the more serious charge of forcible sodomy, which carried from five years to life in prison.

Albert was accused by a longtime lover of flinging her onto a bed, viciously biting her back and forcing her to perform oral sex in an Arlington hotel room Feb. 12 because she failed to bring another man into their bed.

His plea came a day after a surprise witness came forward with similar accusations: that Albert - wearing white panties and a garter belt - bit her on the neck and tried to force her to perform oral sex on him during a 1994 struggle in a Dallas hotel room that left her holding the sportscaster's toupee.

IRS agents allege agency wrongdoing

"Statistics drive the organization. ... The tail wags the dog," one Internal Revenue Service inspector testified as the Senate Finance Committee concluded three days of hearings featuring horror stories alleging tax agency abuses.

The inspector and the five other secret witnesses, concealed by devices usually reserved for organized crime hearings, also asserted that the agency retaliates against whistleblowers and does too little in investigating internal misconduct.

"Retaliation in our office is almost on a daily basis," said another witness, described as a long-term revenue officer.

Still another witness, identified as a criminal investigator, said the agency's "climate and culture" often hinders investigations of employee wrongdoing. IRS managers have weakened administrative sanctions to the point "where they have no effect in controlling employee misconduct," the witness said.

Researchers say infants learn in crib

Peter Jusczyk of Johns Hopkins University said new research shows that reading to children at such an early age can start the process of learning language.

"As you are sitting there reading, the child is learning something about sound patterns of words," he said. "That is important because they learn how words are formed and it helps them to segment sound patterns out of speech."

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