An iconic New Jersey shore beach house that was saved from the wrecking ball is ready to float away to its new home on Long Island.
The Lieb (LEEB) House was lifted onto a barge Thursday morning in Barnegat Light. Workers are preparing it for its 95-mile trip to Glen Cove, N.Y. The home was designed by architect Robert Venturi and his wife, Denise Scott Brown.
The barge isn't …
Rafael Palmeiro's first game-winning RBI in more than a yearwasn't exactly a smash. The new Texas Ranger beat out an infieldchop that Detroit first baseman Billy Bean couldn't handle. Palmeirohad none in 580 at bats last year with the Cubs, the only .300 hitternot to have a GWRBI. The statistic was discontinued after theseason. The Dodgers lost on Opening Day but six of their former pitchers won- Rick Sutcliffe, Jerry Reuss, Tommy John, Brian Holton, CharlieHough and Dave Stewart. Cal Ripken hit a three-run homer on Opening Day. The Orioles didn'thave one of those until the 55th game last year (June 6).
Mitch Webster of the Cubs won the first round over David …
HERAT, Afghanistan (AP) — In the 1970s, tourists traveled to western Afghanistan to climb on the ruins of an ancient citadel, a fortress resembling a sandcastle that has stood overlooking the city of Herat for thousands of years.
The citadel was crumbling then, but today the newly restored structure, dating back to the days of Alexander the Great, is a hopeful sign of progress in a country beset by war.
Hundreds of Afghan craftsmen worked to restore the ruins' past glory with help from the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and about $2.4 million from the U.S. and German governments.
The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Ryan Crocker, was among the tourists drawn to Herat decades …
More than 6,000 police officers will be deployed in Athens this weekend in an attempt to quell violence that might be associated with the first anniversary of the fatal police shooting of a 15-year-old boy.
Suspected anarchist youths attacked police targets in Athens and the southern city of Corinth on Friday, injuring two officers and raising fears a wave of rioting could once again engulf Greek cities.
Riots raged across Greece for more than two weeks last year following the death of Alexandros Grigoropoulos. Police failed to contain members of anarchist groups and violent students who smashed and looted stores across the capital.
The …
AN event to explain plans to site a mobile telephone aerial inShirehampton attracted only two members of the public.
BT Cellnet wants to install the 5m aerial inside a flagpole at StMary's Church, saying its coverage in the area needs to be boosted.
It advertised a consultation exercise in two community newslettersas well as the Evening Post.
A notice was also displayed outside the church for 10 days, thevicar reminded the congregation about the issue and letters were sentto more than 100 householders. Hostility towards the spread of mobiletelephone masts in Bristol has led to city councillors last yearimposing a ban on any further applications in north …
AIChE is your home for professional growth and security. In this era of globalization and downsizing, it is imperative that pensions and insurance benefits be portable and a professional organization can do that. Practicing engineers rely on their professional organization to keep up-todate. AIChE can partner with similar organizations globally to insure the highest worldwide standards of ethics, including safety and environmental. While chemical engineering attracts more women than other engineering fields (about double), women in the workforce sometimes face extra problems. I will work with AIChE's Women's Initiatives Committee to bring their suggestions to employers. I want to continue …
Much of Joachim Loew's success as Germany coach has come from his ability to build a team greater than the sum of its parts. His latest move to keep a harmonious atmosphere at the European Championship was to sanction a discussion between players following the shock 2-1 loss to Croatia.
Thursday's defeat left the team reeling, perhaps more from the poor performance than from the result. The Germans looked impressive in their 2-0 win over Poland but were a different team against Croatia, throwing into doubt their participation in the next round.
Amid reports of possible rifts in the ranks of the three-time champions, Loew allowed a meeting between players to …
Pssst!
Word is Alexandra Kerry, daughter of U.S. Sen. John Kerry, thinksher life is fascinating enough to shop an autobiography to New Yorkpublishers. There ya go!
Tipsville . . .
Whoaaaa!
Don't expect President Bush's inaugural festivities this time tobe branded with a country/western theme. Sneed hears the Bushadministration has issued requests left and right (no pun intended)to all aspects of the entertainment industry ... and is getting ahuge positive response.
"There won't be much of a country flare this time," said a top GOPsource.
Zell's swell . . .
Georgia Dem U.S. Sen. Zell Miller, who made headlines followinghis fiery …
Most people accept use of reclaimed water to irrigate forage crops, create wildlife habitat and for industrial processes, but - points out Bob Bastian in the EPA Office of Water - reuse options involving more "intimate human contact," such as irrigating golf courses, producing food crops, and increasing potable water supplies, face many restrictions and much resistance. Writing in Water Environment & Technology, Bastian notes studies have evaluated crops grown with reclaimed water, compared chemical and microbial data on reclaimed water and local water supplies, and performed epidemiological studies on populations consuming reclaimed water. …
The European Commission wants EU governments to jointly combat the growing economic slowdown with a wide range of measures "big enough and bold enough" _ costing about euro130 billion ($166.54 billion) _ to boost growth and confidence among consumers and businesses.
In a two-year European Economic Recovery Plan, to be made public later Wednesday, it calls on the 27 EU governments to spend billions of euros (dollars) to halt the accelerating economic slowdown that has pushed some European nations into recession.
"Only through a significant stimulus package can Europe counter the expected downward trend in demand," said the Commission …
There are books about chocolate, magazines about chocolate,stores that sell nothing but chocolate, T-shirts touting people'slove of chocolate.
And the romance with chocolate goes back several thousands ofyears.
The cacao, or cocoa, tree is believed to have originated in theAmazon basin 4,000 years ago. The Aztec Indians of Mexico reportedlywere the first civilization to use the cacao bean to make thebeverage we now call cocoa.
According to Aztec folklore, chocolate originated in the heavensand was brought to Earth by the loving god Quetzalcoatl. He taughtthe …
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Jeff Carter had his second career hat trick, scoring three goals to lead the Philadelphia Flyers past the Carolina Hurricanes, 8-1 on Thursday night.
Danny Briere scored two goals, Scott Hartnell had a goal and an assist, and Nikolay Zherdev and Mike Richards also scored for the Atlantic Division-leading Flyers.
They led 3-0 less than 2 minutes into the second period and cruised to their seventh win in eight games and their eighth straight over the Hurricanes.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 35 shots for Philadelphia.
Chad LaRose scored for Carolina, but Cam Ward allowed four goals and stopped only nine shots before he was pulled midway through the …
LOS ANGELES - Southern California appeared to be eliminated from the national championship picture two weeks ago after losing at Oregon State. Two convincing victories and a series of upsets around the country since that time have thrust the Trojans back into the race.
Chauncey Washington rushed for a career-high 119 yards and three touchdowns, USC held No. 21 Oregon's explosive offense in check, and the Trojans celebrated homecoming by beating the mistake-prone Ducks 35-10 Saturday night.
The Trojans (8-1, 6-1 Pac-10) extended their winning streak at the Los Angeles Coliseum to 31 games, and Pete Carroll's teams are 18-0 in November since he became USC's coach in 2001.
USC was ranked ninth after its 38-game regular-season winning streak was snapped Oct. 28, but five higher-ranked teams have been knocked off since that time. And a sixth, Florida, barely avoided being beaten.
The Trojans, ranked seventh entering this weekend, figure to move up to third or fourth when the new rankings are released. They face No. 8 California (8-2, 6-1) next Saturday night at the Coliseum, with the winner clinching the Pac-10 title.
USC's John David Booty completed 16 of 25 passes for 176 yards and one touchdown with one interception. Steve Smith caught seven passes for 88 yards, and Dwayne Jarrett made six receptions for 54 yards and one TD. Lawrence Jackson had three of USC's four sacks.
Turnovers deep in Ducks territory led to USC's second and third touchdowns, and Oregon (7-3, 4-3) didn't resemble the team that averaged 36.3 points per game in their previous nine games.
Dennis Dixon completed 15 of 23 passes for 130 yards with one interception, and Brady Leaf hit on 13-of-22 for 104 yards and one touchdown. Jonathan Stewart was held to 42 yards on 14 carries.
Washington, who carried 15 times, scored on runs of 3 and 43 yards late in the third quarter to give USC a 28-3 lead. Dallas Sartz recovered an errant pitchout from Dixon to Stewart at the Ducks 12-yard line to set up the first touchdown.
Leaf threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Stewart early in the fourth quarter on fourth-and-goal. The play was reviewed twice - first being reversed because Stewart stepped out of bounds before making the catch, then being upheld because the pass was deflected by a USC player.
The Trojans responded by moving 80 yards on five plays, scoring on a 12-yard pass from Booty to Jarrett to complete the scoring.
USC went ahead for good by scoring twice early in the second quarter for a 14-0 lead.
Freshman C.J. Gable's 2-yard run capped an 80-yard drive, and Taylor Mays, another freshman, intercepted a pass by Dixon and returned it 38 yards to the Oregon 7-yard line on the first play following the kickoff. Washington scored two plays later on a 5-yard run.
USC blew an opportunity later in the period, reaching the Oregon 39 before Washington was held to no gain on fourth-and-1. The Ducks reached the Trojans 6 before Paul Martinez was wide left on a 23-yard field goal with 8 seconds left before halftime.
Oregon moved deep into USC territory again on its first possession of the third quarter, but had to settle for a 22-yard field goal by Martinez to move within 11 points.
Oregon drove 72 yards on 17 plays following the opening kickoff, but came up empty when Dixon was held to no gain on a fourth-and-1 play at the USC 13-yard line.
The Trojans responded with a 72-yard drive of their own to the Oregon 15 before Blair Phillips intercepted Booty's pass over the middle.
The game, played before a sellout crowd of 92,000, was Oregon's first at the Coliseum since the 2000 season, when they won a 28-17 decision during Paul Hackett's last season as USC's coach. The Trojans, who went 19-18 in Hackett's three years, are 62-11 since Carroll took over.
A former NATO commander has been asked to act as a United States' liaison between Israel and the Palestinians as they try to negotiate complicated arrangements necessary to reach a final peace accord, diplomats and Palestinian officials said Wednesday.
Retired Gen. James Jones of the U.S. Marine Corps was the alliance's top commander in Europe. It was not immediately clear whether he had accepted the offer.
The diplomats and officials spoke on condition of anonymity because there has been no official announcement.
The United States pledged Tuesday at an international peace conference on the Mideast held in Annapolis, Maryland, to hold both sides to account if they do not carry out obligations.
The recently revived U.S.-backed road map peace plan quickly foundered after it was presented in 2003 because the Palestinians did not rein in militant groups and Israel did not freeze all construction in West Bank settlements, as it had pledged to do.
Bringing Jones in to closely follow the process is designed to assure that newly resumed peace talks do not languish because promises are broken.
At Annapolis, Israeli and Palestinian leaders formally announced their intention to resume peace talks after seven years of violence. A ceremonial inauguration of the process is to be held at the White House later Wednesday.
Ocean chemists have been aware for years that the absorption of sound in seawater changes with the chemistry of the water itself. A new study by researchers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) shows that as the oceans become warmer and more acidic in a warmer world, sounds will travel farther under- water, potentially changing the behavior of sea mammals.
The MBARI researchers, led by Keith Hester, say that sound already may be traveling 10% farther in the oceans than it did a few hundred years ago. They predict that by 2050, under conservative projections of ocean acidification, sounds could travel as much as 70% farther in some ocean areas (particularly in the Atlantic Ocean). This could dramatically improve the ability of marine mammals to communicate over long distances. It could also increase the amount of background noise that they have to live with.
"The waters in the upper ocean are now undergoing an extraordinary transition in their fundamental chemical state at a rate not seen on Earth for millions of years," says Hester. "And the effects are being felt not only in biological impacts but also on basic geophysical properties, including ocean acoustics."
Hester explains that as sound moves through seawater, it causes groups of atoms to vibrate, absorbing sounds at specific frequencies. Although the chemical interactions are not completely understood, the overall effect is strongly controlled by the acidity of the seawater. According to Hester's calculations, such a change in chemistry will have the greatest effect on sounds below about 3,000 cycles per second (two-and-one-half octaves above middle C on a piano).
This range includes most of the low-frequency sounds used by marine mammals in finding food and mates. It also includes many of the underwater sounds generated by industrial and military activity, as well as by boats and ships. Such human-generated underwater noise has increased dramatically over the last 50 years, as human activities in the ocean have increased.
There are no long-term records of sound absorption over large ocean areas. However, the researchers cite a study off the coast of California that showed an increase in ocean noise between 1960 and 2000 that was not directly attributable to known factors such as ocean winds or ships.
The research was published in an October issue of Geophysical Research Letters. (SOURCE: American Geophysical Union)
At the recently concluded Auto Expo in Delhi, Chinese componentsmakers were out in force with a 100-plus exhibitors taking up 5,000square metres of display space. From truck engine manufacturer FAWGroup to small- and medium-sized players, like gear-box makerWeichai Power, all had queued up. It signals the growing importanceof the Indian market for the Chinese components industry. In 2008-09 alone, imports from China stacked up to Rs 2,000 crore. We try tounderstand the implications of this incipient trend.
Why India?
India is fast becoming an attractive destination for Chinesevendors as the domestic auto industry has recovered swiftly from theaftermath of the economic downturn.
Who's buying?
Several large companies such as Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland, BajajAuto and TVS Motors are among those buying from the Chinese. Andtheir ranks seem sure to swell. Some Indian automakers have even setup procurement offices in China to pare costs.
What's the benefit?
The landed price of Chinese components is on an average 35 percent lower than components sourced locally. On quality, too, theChinese seem to be meeting the standards of the Indian autoindustry.
What's the impact on domestic components industry?
Already, Indian components makers are worried that the Chinesewill hurt their business and are seeking more protection. They feelthe 10 per cent import duty is too low. Says Vishnu Mathur,Secretary-General, Automotive Components Manufacturers Association(ACMA): "We can ask the commerce ministry to help out whenever thereis clear proof of dumping, but with Chinese components makersreceiving a lot of indirect aid and working in a non-transparentmanner, it is very difficult to prove any allegations of dumping."
What's next?
Chinese companies are exploring options to increase theirpresence in India through alliances with Indian companies andestablishing manufacturing bases locally. Look out for more Chinesegear under your car hood.
One man was killed and a woman was seriously injured last nightwhen an Illinois Central Gulf commuter train collided with a pickuptruck at 121st and Emerald on the Far South Side.
Police identified the dead man as Martin Schumacher, 37, of BlueIsland. He was pronounced dead at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn.Sandra Welch, 45, of 12215 S. Halsted, was in serious condition atRoseland Community Hospital.
Paul Nicholas joins Carl Rosa Opera Company and Orchestra for anacclaimed staging of one of Gilbert and Sullivan's best-loved works,The Pirates of Penzance. A fast-paced, comic tale of pirates,policemen, romance and the demands of duty, this lavish, traditionalproduction opens at the Theatre Royal Bath next Tuesday.
The swash-buckling operetta is set in Cornwall in the 1890s wherethe infamous yet tender-hearted Pirates of Penzance are throwing abirthday party for their young apprentice, Frederic. But thediscovery that he was born on February 29 in a leap year puts allhis plans for the future into disarray - it seems that he won'treach 21 and 'come of age' until he is 84.
Orphaned pirates, flat-footed policemen and a bevy of blushingbeauties (the daughters of Major General Stanley) are the perfectingredients for a fabulous feast of Gilbert and Sullivan. Elegantlyrecreating the original period settings and stunning costumes, thisacclaimed Carl Rosa Opera production, which enjoyed a West End runin 2008, combines what has to be the most topsy-turvy of allGilbert's plots with Sullivan's ever-popular and sparkling score,including the favourite songs I Am The Very Model Of A Modern MajorGeneral and Poor Wand'ring One.
Paul Nicholas stars as The Pirate King, a role he previouslyplayed in Joseph Papp's production of the operetta in the West Endin 1990.
One of the UK's favourite musical stars, his numerous roles rangefrom playing Jesus in the original London production of Jesus ChristSuperstar to Tommy, Cats, Singing In The Rain, the Broadway musicalJekyll & Hyde and the original London production of Hair. He alsoplayed the starring role in the world premiere production of TimRice's Blondel which opened in Bath in 1983.
He performed at the Theatre Royal more recently in The MysteriousMr Love in 1996 and The Dark Side in 1997. Paul Nicholas became ahousehold name for the role of Vince Pinner in the BAFTA award-winning BBC television series Just Good Friends.
The Pirates of Penzance runs from Tuesday to Saturday. Ticketprices range from Pounds 22 to Pounds 35 with concessions available.
To book seats contact the box office on 01225 448844 or visit thewebsite at www.theatreroyal.org.uk.
WIN TICKETS This week we have a pair of tickets to give away forTuesday's opening night performance. To stand a chance of winningjust answer the following question, put your answer on a postcardwith your name, address and daytime telephone number and send it toTheatre Royal Competition, The Guide, The Bath Chronicle, Westpoint,James Street West, Bath BA1 2DA. The first correct answer out of thehat on Monday morning will get the tickets. The question is: whoplays the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance next week?
MIAMI - Miguel Cabrera backs away from the plate, rubs his knee, arches his back, stretches his arms, spits, taps each shoe with his bat, steps back into the box, adjusts his helmet, scuffs the dirt, crouches and gives the bat a menacing waggle. Then he swings and misses. The Florida Marlins have struck out again.
Cabrera and his teammates swing for the fences, and often they miss. Marlins hitters are on pace to set a major league record for strikeouts, and on Monday they fanned 14 times against Brad Penny of the Los Angeles Dodgers. But the Marlins also began the week leading the National League in runs, slugging and total bases, and they have five players on pace to hit more than 20 home runs.
"What does that tell you?" hitting coach Jim Presley said. "If we cut down on our aggressiveness, I think that hurts us. We are a young, get-after-it, hacking ballclub. We like to swing that bat, and striking out is part of it. If that's our only drawback, we're going to be OK."
The Marlins are struggling to stay around .500, but not because of their offense. Injuries have sent four starting pitchers to the disabled list, disrupting a rotation touted as the team's strength, and newcomer Jorge Julio quickly became a bust in the closer's role.
But with the youngest team in the majors, the Marlins are on pace to break franchise records for runs and homers set last year. They're also striking out an average of nine times per game.
"It's the kind of hitters we have," said first baseman Mike Jacobs, one of four regulars in their second major league season.
"There's that old saying in the minor leagues that you're not going to walk to the big leagues, you're going to get there by hitting," Jacobs said. "And I think a lot of us still have that mentality that we're going to stay here by hitting.
"I need to hit the ball, drive in runs, hit my home runs, hit my doubles and get my RBIs. While trying to do that, I'm probably going to strike out 100 times, maybe a little bit more."
By Marlins standards, Jacobs is a contact hitter, with 21 strikeouts through 31 games. Like Jacobs, teammates Joe Borchard (38), Dan Uggla (33), Miguel Olivo (30), Hanley Ramirez (24), Josh Willingham (22) and Miguel Cabrera (20) are on pace to finish with more than 100 strikeouts.
"We come out swinging," Uggla said. "We're not what you would call a patient team. When we hurt you, we're going to hurt you good."
They do it playing in a pitcher's park, where the dimensions can be daunting, especially for left-handed hitters. Still, in one recent stretch Florida hit 23 homers in 13 games, the majority at home.
The lineup is built around slugger Cabrera, by far the Marlins' best-paid hitter at $7.4 million. He led the team through Monday with seven home runs, but Uggla, Willingham, Ramirez and Borchard were also on pace to finish with more than 20.
"To score like they've been scoring, it takes more than one hitter," Dodgers manager Grady Little said. "You'd better be careful, because there are guys around Cabrera who can do some damage."
When they hit the ball, that is. The Marlins' whiffability became apparent eight days into the season, when they struck out 17 times in a loss to Milwaukee. The flailing performance against Penny left them on pace to finish with 1,453 strikeouts, which would break the major league record of 1,399 set by the 2001 Brewers.
The Marlins are divided as to whether they strike out too much.
"Nobody wants to set a record for strikeouts," Uggla said.
"That's something we do need to work on - maybe cutting down our swings a little with two strikes," Willingham said.
"If we're putting up numbers," Jacobs countered, "what's the difference if we're striking out a lot?"
Manager Fredi Gonzalez said the strikeouts aren't a problem as long as his team keeps scoring at its current rate. Hitting coach Presley predicted the Marlins will fan less frequently as the season progresses, but he's reluctant to discourage their aggressive approach at the plate.
"It's like a thoroughbred horse, pulling back the reins on them," Presley said. "We've got some good young hitters. They like to let it go. You like to harness it to a certain extent, but we don't want to cut back so much we're not scoring runs."
PLATTEVILLE, Wis. Rookie tight end Alonzo Mayes said Monday he
was happy with the three-year, $1 million contract he signedSunday,
but he won't accept the argument that because he was afourth-round
draft pick, he deserved fourth-round money.
"I never will. I never will. You can't," Mayes, 23, saidafter
his first Bears practice. "You know what your caliber is as aplayer.
You know what you can do. That was a situation that occurred
(dropping to the fourth round in the draft), but you know yourtalent
better than anybody. You just have to prove your talent to your
coaches and the rest of your peers."
Except for the two weeks of practice Mayes missed, the Bears
have an ideal situation with the 6-4, 259-pound tight end - a
supremely talented prospect who still has to earn the big money.Most
rookies of his caliber are multimillionaires before they step on a
practice field. Mayes has the ultimate motivation. Thoughperformance
incentives could increase the total value of the deal, his signing
bonus was $280,000. Mid-to-late first-rounders average around$1.5
million.
"I wasn't thrilled as far as my fourth-round draft status,but
there are other ways . . . to come out on top of it," said Mayes,
whose draft status dropped from the first or second round to the
fourth when he tested positive for marijuana at the NFL scouting
combine.
"In the long run, everything will come out in the wash, onceI
prove who I am and the caliber of player I will be."
After a morning walk-through, Mayes went through a fullpractice
in the afternoon. He only made one significant play, acatch-and-run
over the middle off a pass from Rick Mirer that showed a glimpseof
what the Bears hope he can do.
"Alonzo looked like a guy today who's been out of camp for 10
days," vice president of player personnel Mark Hatley said. "Hemade
one play, but he was sluggish. He's got a ways to go and a shorttime
to catch up."
"I feel all right," Mayes said. "Just getting the cobwebsoff
me, that's all."
Mayes told the Bears' coaches that he studied his playbookand
stayed in shape during his holdout. That remains to be seen. Butif
so, Mayes will still have a shot at opening the season as thestarter
at tight end.
"He's not going to get thrown in there on Day 1 and be the
starter," offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh said. "He's goingto
have to fight for it. If he fights well and we feel at the end of
camp he's the best one we've got, he'll be playing."
"It's going to take some time," coach Dave Wannstedt said."He's
missed 15 practices, 30 meetings and three walk-throughs. That's48
sessions. If you were getting ready to take a test and you missed48
classes, I don't know how prepared you would be.
"If he's been studying, like he says he has been, if he's in
good shape, which he says he (is), he'll be able to catch up. Ifnot,
that will show up, too."
"He's got a ways to go," tight ends coach Tom Rossley said.
"Probably the biggest thing he'll have to adjust to is blocking at
this level."
Wannstedt said the Bears' coaching staff will work with Mayes
between practices "morning, noon and night" to help him catch up.
Already, he plans to give Mayes significant time in the team's
preseason opener Saturday on the road against the BaltimoreRavens.
"(Winning the starting job) would depend on how quickly he
adjusts to the NFL and the coverages," Wannstedt said. "The runstuff
is pretty similar to college. But the passing game and coveragesand
adjustments, all that stuff is different. How he handles that inthe
next couple of weeks, we'll all be anxiously waiting to see."
"I don't feel too far behind," Mayes said. "Just being out
there, the only thing I lack is knowing all the players and
understanding their roles and my role. Other than that,
philosophy-wise and structure of the offense, I'm not too far
behind."
Mayes said the holdout was worth it because he gainedfinancial
concessions from the Bears he did not have on the table before
training camp.
"The reason it took so long is I was still dealing with the
situation that occurred with my draft selection," he said. "Plus,me
and my agent (were) inexperienced at this ordeal. We were bothnew to
the game, so we were taking it nice and slow. We don't understand
this business. It's a new business, so there was no real reasonto
rush it until you understand your (situation)."
Though he was not happy with the limitations his draft status
put on his contract, the negotiations were not acrimonious.
"(Bears negotiator) Ted Phillips did a good job and the whole
Bears organization did a good job in helping me get the best deal
possible," Mayes said.
Mayes said he still hopes to earn the starting job by theseason
opener Sept. 6 against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
"That's four legitimate weeks for me to prepare for it," he
said. "I'll be darned if I'm not going to be ready."
Ron Congemi has been named senior vice president, strategic industry relations for First Data Corp., Denver. In his new role, Congemi will be responsible for building and maintaining relationships with key clients, associations, industry stakeholders and organizations.
Congemi was senior vice president of Concord EFS Inc. and president of its network services segment when Concord was acquired by First Data last year.
Pennsylvania planners perpetually find themselves in a pickle. Here's the issue: Counties are required to write comprehensive plans. Municipalities are not. However, municipalities don't have to follow county plans.
The planning system can affect a region's economic development, said Ed Drogaris, president of The Drogaris Companies, a real estate development enterprise in Lancaster.
"(All the municipalities) can get together and talk the talk, but as soon as there's a problem, they just walk," Drogaris said. The strong, independent community focus of the state can foster competition among municipalities, he said.
Pennsylvania's local government structure affects the planning and economic-development policies for Harrisburg and its region. The same is true for capital cities Annapolis, Md., and Richmond, Va. All three metropolitan regions are of comparable size but have vastly different approaches to planning and economic development.
There are more than 100 municipalities in Dauphin, Cumberland and Perry counties alone. The Tri-County Regional Planning Commission oversees planning for them all. Executive director Jim Szymborski sees the same disconnect that Drogaris pointed out between planning documents and enforcement rights in Pennsylvania. He and his staff host centralized planning workshops, encouraging municipalities to consider cooperative plans.
"If you have centralized decision-making, you're inclined to have a coordinated effort toward planning," Szymborski said.
In Virginia, counties collect taxes, draft growth plans and enforce them. Cities are autonomous from counties. Some towns have some power over their regulations. Richmondarea counties work together to plan for their region, said Paul Fisher, executive director of the Richmond Regional Planning District Commission. One thing that he encourages among the nine local governments the commission serves is to work with the private sector to spur economic development.
"All of our political jurisdictions have a very open-door policy to allow permitting," Fisher said.
One part of the Richmond community that helps bring in outside investment is the Greater Richmond Partnership Inc., founded in 1994. Three counties, the city of Richmond, and private companies contribute to Greater Richmond, which is the first point of contact for businesses looking to relocate in Richmond. Together, the contributors give the nonprofit an annual budget of about $3 million. Leaders in Greater Richmond meet with prospective businesses and discuss their needs. Then, the local officials try to woo the firm. Greater Richmond has offices in China, Korea, Germany and England, as well as Richmond, said Greg Winfield, the nonprofit's executive director.
"Taken as a region, Richmond is a much more powerful product," Winfield said.
Philadelphia and Pittsburgh have similar economicdevelopment organizations, Winfield said. But Drogaris isn't sure the big-city model would work for Central Pennsylvania.
"If that example were used here, it would be at least 60 municipalities involved. It's hard enough to get three (local governments) working in the same direction," Drogaris said.
Cooperation is a challenge even in Maryland, which has the most unified governmental system of the three states. Annapolis collects its own taxes and sets its own zoning laws but is officially part of Anne Arundel County, which collects taxes and sets zoning for the rest of the county, including the Annapolis suburbs.
"In the region around Annapolis, there's a lot of tension," said Daria Hardin, chief of comprehensive planning for the city. "Connections (between city and county planning) are mostly on a professional level. There is no mandated, formalized coordination. That's something people are calling for. But on a political level, no one wants to give up power."
Despite friction between county and city, Annapolis' economy is booming. Commuter spillover from Washington, D.C., in addition to Annapolis' government and tourism markets, keep the economy stable, Hardin said. Another tool her department has used to direct development is strict, clear land-use ordinances, especially in historic districts.
"As much as people whine about the red tape, it really has preserved the architecture that's here over the years," Hardin said. "Even if processes are very stringent, it's better than them being very vague."
Here in the midstate, the Tri-County Planning Commission is working to clarify local ordinances. The nonprofit is writing model ordinances that municipalities can adopt or tweak for their own use, Szymborski said.
Szymborski's staff also tries to keep an eye on developments in other counties and states, seeing what others are doing and adapting some ideas to fit Central Pennsylvania.
"I think it's important for states, counties and municipalities to look at what others are doing," Szymborski said. "One of the first things we do on each project is contact one of our neighboring county planning directors and learn from their experiences.
Regional planning is getting better in Pennsylvania, Szymborski said. He regularly attends transportation and environmentalplanning meetings with government officials from throughout the state.
Those efforts are unlikely to have teeth unless tax revenues are shared among groups of municipalities in Pennsylvania, Drogaris said. But he thinks planning improvements can be made on the local level, even within the current system.
"They need to have a plan that is executed systematically, block-by-block, until there is meat on the bones of the community," Drogaris said. "The best thing we could have is a comprehensive economic plan, broad-based, and stick to it."
THIS BREAKFAST STAPLE IS GETTING A MAKEOVER WITH OUR DOS AND DONTS FOR FILLING YOUR MORNING BOWL
Let's face it: Cereal is often guilty of almost every cardinal sins of nutrition. Sugar. Marshmallows. Food dyes. Artificial flavors. More sugar. But before it became an American breakfast staple with sky-high sugar counts, cereal had a clean record- as a nourishing food for health spa patients. In 1863, sanatorium operator and vegetarian lames Caleb Jackson invented the first cereal in an attempt to combat the digestive woes of a population that routinely ate meat for breakfast. The cereal, which he named Granula, was composed of heavy bran nuggets that required overnight soaking to be chewable.
Fast forward to the 1950s, when cereal morphea into an almost dessertlike food, with up to 56 percent sugar packed in one bowl! Today, many grocery aisles still overflow with not-sohealthful options, but fortunately, it is possible to return to cereal's noble roots. The right kind can provide a host of nutritional benefits, from fiber to B vitamins like folate and niacin to minerals like iron, magnesium, and selenium.
Lighten Up
"1 always recommend looking for a cereal that's flaky or puffy as opposed to dense and nuggety; lighter cereals usually contain fewer calories per portion than more dense ones," says Elisa Zied, MS, RD, author of Feed Your Family Right! and a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association. With any cereal, it's best to eat no more than 1-2 cups per serving, she advises. This can contain up to two whole-grain servings while leaving room for low-fat milk or other add-ons.
Be a Label Lover
"Look for three key numbers |on labels]: calories, fiber grams, and sugar grams," says Zied. She recommends cereals that contain no more than 200 calories per cup, provide at least 4 g of fiber, and add up to less than 15 g of sugar per serving. Stay away from labels that list sugar, dextrose, and high fructose corn syrup as ingredients, particularly if they are among the first five ingredients.
Go Grainy
When selecting a boxed cereal, look for whole-grain varieties. Whole grains are high in fiber and can help prevent type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and even some cancers. To glean the full benefit of whole grains, Beatrice Trum Hunter, author of A Whole Foods Primer, says you may want to avoid boxed cereals altogether. "They have a lot of additives that are not all that desirable. It would be not only more nutritious but less expensive to get whole grains either loose or in packages," she says. Brown rice, barley, steel-cut oatmeal, quinoa, amaranth, millet, buckwheat, or bulgur can all provide a nutritious breakfast when cooked. Many health food stores have a bulk bin section featuring a variety of cereal grains. Hunter suggests soaking the grains with dried fruit overnight, and then adding sunflower seeds and a little half-and-half after cooking it in the morning.
Substitute for Sugar
A few final tips for boosting your morning bowl's nutritional value: "An ideal way of sweetening cereal is to simply add some dried fruit - raisins or currants, dried apricots, prunes, mango, pineapple, or banana," says Hunter. You can also reduce sugar by mixing sweetened cereals with less sugary ones. Or top with fresh fruit like berries and a sprinkle of stevia or drizzle of honey.
[Sidebar]
QUICK TIP
Wake up in a bad mood? Food Cures author Joy Bauer suggests the following option: 1 cup whole-grain cereal with 1 cup soy milk, and 1 Tbs. each of walnuts and wheat germ.
A new director is on watch for the School of Horology at the National Association ofWatch and Clock Collectors Inc.
The Lancaster County organization announced in July that Jim Michaels was appointed director and lead watch instructor at the school in Columbia.
Michaels served as the school's director for several years when it opened in 1995. He returned in January as an adjunct instructor.
The school, which also operates the National Watch & Clock Museum, prepares students to enter horological-business fields. It is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges of Technology.
- Jessica Bair
SEOUL, South Korea - The chief U.S. envoy to North Korean nuclear talks called Tuesday for rapid progress in shutting down Pyongyang's bomb-making reactor when U.N. nuclear inspectors visit the communist nation next week.
Next week's trip by the International Atomic Energy Agency will be the first concrete step toward dismantling North Korea's nuclear program after a weekend breakthrough in a financial dispute that has delayed implementation of a disarmament accord.
"We want the IAEA to be able to quickly make an agreement and get on with shutting down the reactor," Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill told reporters.
The Vienna-based IAEA said it would send inspectors to the North next week, possibly as early as Monday, to discuss how to monitor and verify the shutdown of the Yongbyon nuclear reactor, as agreed by Pyongyang under the February agreement.
Under that deal reached in Beijing with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States, North Korea had pledged to shut down the reactor by the middle of April.
There is no new deadline set, however, for Pyongyang to carry through the pledge after the first deadline was missed.
Hill, on a regional tour to Beijing, Seoul and Tokyo, has said he hopes to see a shutdown "within weeks, not months."
Russia's Interfax-China news agency cited an unidentified North Korean official on Monday as saying Pyongyang plans to shut down the reactor in the second half of July.
"Again, we're going to really have to pick up the pace if we're to get back on our timelines," Hill said, stressing the need to make up for time lost due to the banking dispute.
The envoy said he said he has been in contact with the IAEA and it understands the "need to move quickly."
In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice welcomed as "indeed a good step" North Korea's invitation of the IAEA team. "We expect North Korea to carry through with its obligations," she said.
The process of persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear program was stalled for months by a dispute over about $25 million in North Korean funds that were frozen in a Macau bank backlisted by the United States.
North Korean state media said Saturday that enough progress had been made on the issue that a "working-level delegation" from the IAEA had been invited to discuss procedures for the verification and monitoring of the reactor's shutdown, as agreed under the February pact. North Korea expelled IAEA inspectors in December 2002.
North Korea had boycotted the six-party nuclear talks for more than a year, saying the financial freeze was a sign of Washington's hostility. It conducted its first-ever atomic bomb test last October.
Hill said Tuesday that the banking issue, which involved the transfer of the money from Macau's Banco Delta Asia to a North Korean account in Russia via the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Russian central bank, is resolved.
"As far as we know, it's been transferred. As of yesterday, we understand that the final glitch ... was resolved. I'm sure the money is in the North Korean bank account today. You should go check," he said as he left for Tokyo.
Hill said the transfer involved "the total amount" of disputed North Korean funds, and said it was "something like $23 million."
It was not clear why the amount is different from what has been reported.
Earlier in the day, Hill said that the North Korean account is in a bank in Vladivostok in the Russian Far East and any delay in transferring the money from the central bank would be due to the vast time difference from Moscow.
South Korea plans to start shipping 50,000 tons of heavy fuel oil to North Korea by the time it shuts down its nuclear reactor as part of the disarmament deal. North Korea is to eventually receive further aid equivalent to 950,000 tons of heavy fuel oil in return for irreversibly disabling the reactor and declaring all of its nuclear programs.
---
Associated Press Writer Kwang-Tae-Kim contributed to this report.
Both U.S. presidential candidates turned their focus back to America's wobbly economy and ripped the Bush administration as the White House projected the next chief executive would take office facing a staggering $482 billion national budget deficit.
The administration said on Monday the red ink was being driven to the all-time high by the sagging economy and tax rebates to 130 million households in an effort to put a floor under the economic skid. The deficit could climb even higher if the economy performs worse than the White House predicts.
The new deficit projection only underlined the deep troubles facing the American economy, the No. 1 issue with voters who are facing rising mortgage foreclosures, falling home prices, skyrocketing gasoline and energy costs and the loss of nearly 500,000 jobs so far this year.
At a Washington meeting with more than a dozen economic advisers, Democrat Barack Obama said the ballooning debt "was not an accident or a normal part of the business cycle that led us to this situation. There were some irresponsible decisions that were made on Wall Street and in Washington."
Republican John McCain, who is fighting the perception that his election would mean a continuation of the economic policies of a highly unpopular President George W. Bush, blamed wasteful spending by the current White House.
"There is no more striking reminder of the need to reverse the profligate spending that has characterized this administration's fiscal policy," McCain said in a statement issued Monday.
"As president, I have committed to balancing the budget by the end of my first term," McCain said. "Today's news makes that job harder but should not change our resolve to make the tough decisions and the genuine effort to reach across the aisle that are needed to ensure a lasting solution to the spending problem that threatens the very stability of our economy."
Obama didn't name the Bush administration, but his implication was clear.
"We can't afford, I believe, to keep on doing the same things we've been doing," the first-term Illinois senator said. "We have to change course, and we have to take immediate action."
Obama said the economy needs both short- and long-term fixes, including another round of "stimulus" measures from Congress to revive the economy and a longer-term focus on renewable energy to curb high gas prices and on universal health care to trim costs.
Obama has called for an aggressive course from Washington to stimulate the economy, and while he offered few details about his plans, he said the economy would be the focus of much of his attention in the three months until the election.
He warned his economic advisers that the current crunch was "a direct result of putting off tough decisions for too many years. I believe that more action is going to be necessary."
Obama said he would convene his economic advisers routinely through the campaign to get advice. It's also a way of putting the focus on domestic issues, where polls show him running strongly against four-term Arizona Sen. McCain.
"I've laid out an economic strategy in this campaign that I think will provide short-term relief and long-term growth," Obama said. He planned to focus on the economy this week. He also was heading to Missouri and Iowa later in the week, and raising money in Texas before heading to Florida.
On Monday, Obama held an eight-point lead nationally over McCain _ 48 percent to 40 percent _ among registered voters in the presidential race, according to the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update. A day earlier, Obama held a nine-point lead in the poll, his largest margin over McCain since Gallup began tracking the general election race in March.
Despite slipping in the poll after Obama's flashy foray overseas last week, McCain stuck with his favorite campaign format, small gatherings where he is at ease with an informal give-and-take with voters.
McCain had lunch with supporters in Bakersfield, California, where he pressed for lifting the quarter-century ban on drilling in U.S. coastal waters as a means of reducing American dependence on imported oil. Obama opposes offshore drilling.
And McCain revealed to reporters that he had a small patch of skin removed from his face and checked for cancer cells as part of a regular checkup with his dermatologist.
"She said that I was doing fine," McCain said at a presidential campaign visit to an oil rig where he spoke briefly about his proposed energy plan. "She took a small little nick from my cheek, as she does regularly, and that will be biopsied just to make sure everything is fine."
The Arizona senator underwent the procedure in Phoenix during a checkup he undergoes every three months. He sported a small bandage on his upper right cheek on his campaign plane but had removed it by the time he spoke with reporters. A small, dark spot stood out on his face.
The fair-skinned Arizona senator, who suffered severe sun damage from his 5 1/2 years in Vietnamese prison camps, gets an in-depth skin cancer check every few months because of a medical history of dangerous melanomas.
McCain said he could get the biopsy results Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a Washington anti-tax group criticized McCain Monday for signaling an openness to a higher payroll tax for the Social Security retirement system, contrary to previous vows not to raise taxes of any kind.
Speaking Sunday on a nationally televised talk show McCain said: "I don't want tax increases. But that doesn't mean that anything is off the table."
The group, called the Club for Growth, said in a letter Monday to the senator, that his words were "shocking because you have been adamant in your opposition to raising taxes under any circumstances."
Both candidates have said Social Security's funding formula needs to be changed to ensure the program's long-term viability.
A tornado killed a woman and her 9-week-old infant and also injured at least 30 Friday in central Tennessee as a line of storms lifted homes, ripped off roofs and dumped hail in the Southeast.
Elsewhere, a tornado touched down in southwestern Kentucky, injuring two people and destroying homes. A possible tornado was reported in northeast Alabama. And large hail began falling in several North Carolina counties.
Three dozen people were hurt in Rutherford County, Tennessee, four of them critically, in the aftermath of a storm system that killed three in western Arkansas a day earlier.
"I think we're right in the middle of tornado alley these days," said Dan Goodwin of the Rutherford County Sheriff's Department.
Dispatchers at the Rutherford County Emergency Management Agency said the area has been "heavily impacted" after several eyewitness reports of a tornado on the ground at about midday.
In Murfreesboro, 30 miles (50 kilometers)southeast of Nashville, at least three dozen homes were destroyed.
Andrew Piro, 23, who was on his way to work when the tornado struck, told the Knoxville News-Sentinel he came upon a man who said his brother's wife and child were missing.
"Outside under the rubble, we found the wife," Piro said. "She was right beside the driveway, about 20 feet away from the house. She was under a bunch of wood, I guess part of the roof. We found the baby strapped into a car seat, about another 20 feet away under a tree. It broke my heart."
Kori Bryant, in her mid-20s, and 9-week-old Olivia Bryant were identified as the dead.
"They were found outside of the residence," rescue official Randy White said. "It looked like they were trying to get to the car. The infant was in a car seat."
Joe Spencer, 23-year-old student, said he survived a direct hit on his house.
"I was going to open the door to see what was going on and I looked straight at a tornado," Spencer said.
He yelled at his brother to take shelter and ran to the bathroom.
"The bathtub started shaking, and I just tried to grab hold to anything I could. I grabbed the nozzle and turned on the water," said Spencer who was shaken but uninjured.
Friday afternoon, search teams fanned out across Murfreesboro, a city of about 100,500, looking for anyone trapped in homes. Clyde Atkinson, spokesman for the Murfreesboro Police Department, said he believes there were three to five touchdowns mostly in the northern and western parts of the city.
A grocery store evacuated customers into a cooler until the storm passed.
Roofs were ripped away from at least a dozen homes, and some trees were blown down. A bulldozer was clearing tree limbs and other debris from streets.
Several homes were emblazoned with a spray-painted "c," indicating emergency crews had checked them.
Thousands of utility customers lost power.
In Kentucky, State Trooper Stu Recke said one person suffered a broken hip and leg while the other suffered a broken ankle. Both were taken to a hospital for treatment, Recke said.
One of the homes destroyed belonged to Robert Huggins, 65, who said he, his son and two other men were working in his garage when the tornado hit.
"We heard it coming," Huggins said. "We went to the garage door and it got louder and louder. It was like a freight train like everybody says."
Huggins said his son told him to hit the ground when debris started flying, then his son and another man fell on top of him.
"When we stood up, there wasn't anything left," he said. It only took about three minutes, he said, and his 2,500-square-foot home was gone.
His daughter-in-law, who was inside the home, was thrown about 70 feet and was taken to the hospital. He said his 10-year-old grandson, who was also in the home, suffered only bruises.
On Thursday night, a black funnel cloud descended on the western Arkansas hamlet of Mena, killing at least three, injuring 30 and destroying or damaging 600 homes.
Polk County, Arkansas, Sheriff Mike Oglesby said search-and-rescue teams had combed through the city's downtown Friday and a neighborhood just west that sustained the brunt of the storm without finding any other victims. The sheriff said he had no reports of anyone else missing in the city of 5,700 in the Ouachita Mountains.
An initial survey of the damage suggests the tornado packed winds of at least 136 mph, weather service forecaster John Robinson said Friday.
In Oklahoma Friday, strong winds whipped a blaze that destroyed more than 50 homes that official said was intentionally set.
An area near a wrecker service where the fire started Thursday is frequented by teenagers from a nearby high school and investigators were looking into the possibility that they might have set the blaze, Fire Marshal Jerry Lojka said.
Authorities have not identified any suspects or determined a motive.
The fire, one of several statewide driven by strong winds and fueled by dry grass and brush, engulfed homes throughout east Oklahoma County, including in Midwest City and Choctaw. So far, more than 100 houses had burned down in the state and 49 people were injured, the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management said.
Fire investigators were still trying to determine what caused the other fires.
At least three people were killed in Texas across the state lines where 60 mph (100 kph) winds diminished, allowing evacuated residents to return to neighborhoods with charred homes, blackened vegetation and ruined cars.
___
Associated Press writer Lucas L. Johnson II in Mannington, Kentucky, contributed to this report.
From Chicago to Memphis, from Cincinnati to Kansas City, thenation's heartland continued to broil yesterday, weathering astubborn, sticky heat wave that has claimed more than 30 lives, putstress on power companies and tested the sanity of sweat-torturedcity dwellers and farmers alike.
Since July 19, when a "blocking high pressure system" anchoreditself over the Midwest, stopping the flow of cool air from Canada, ahuge swath of the country has been suffering day and night, not fromrecord temperatures, but from continuous heat and humidity, miseryround the clock.
"It's been unbearable," said Shannon White, a National WeatherService meteorologist in Wilmington, Ohio. "I mean, it stays hot for24 hours, and the heat builds up and builds up, and it's taking atoll."
From July 19 through Monday, Cincinnati's main airport recordedpersistently high daily temperatures of 93, 90, 94, 96, 96, 95, 97and 94, with sopping humidity. As of yesterday afternoon, the localcoroner's office said, at least 10 people had died from the heat inCincinnati and its suburbs.
As in other heat-stricken states, the Ohio temperatures were notexcessively above normal and not nearly record setting,meteorologists said. But so many consecutive days and nights oftemperatures in the mid- and upper-90s, combined with oppressivehumidity, is rare, they said.
Through Monday, the weather service said, St. Louis had enduredtemperatures of 94 or above every day for a week, as had Louisville,where the temperature Sunday hit 100 for the first time since 1991.All over the Midwest map--in Iowa, Kansas, Illinois--the "heatindex," a combination of temperatures and humidity, has been hoveringat blistering levels for more than a week.
"It looks like the middle of the country will get a break bySaturday, but not before," said Mike Looney, the weather service'schief meteorologist for the central United States. The blocking highpressure system "is breaking down enough so that we'll get cooler airthis weekend," he said. "Not cool--but cooler."
In the meantime, the region can only wait, wipe sweat from itsbrow and bury its growing numbers of dead, many of them elderly.
Near Peoria, Ill., the body of 82-year-old Helen Lane was found inher home Saturday. The windows were shut, the air conditioning wasoff, and the temperature in the house was 102, authorities said. Shewas among at least 11 people in that state reported dead from theheat as of yesterday.
In Hamilton County, Ohio, which includes Cincinnati, two peoplewere found dead yesterday, a 34-year-old woman and a 47-year-old man.Eight people already had died over the weekend, said Terry Daly, ofthe county coroner's office. "They ranged in age from 64 to 98, andmost of them were very elderly. Many of them were overweight, aswell, which is a big contributor."
Like officials in other states--including Illinois, where twotoddlers perished in their parents' sweltering car--Daly said almostall the deaths in his jurisdiction were preventable. He said many ofthe elderly victims lived by themselves and contributed to their owndeaths. In one instance, a wealthy 91-year-old woman was found deadin her spacious home, with the air conditioning off and windowslocked.
"She was bundled in clothing," Daly said. "The neighbors said shealways wore layers of clothing. She was always saying she wascold."
When she was found, Daly said, her body temperature was 110.6degrees.
As farmers and ranchers tended to crops and livestock threatenedby the unrelenting sun, other people afflicted by the heat stayedindoors, cranking up their air conditioning, putting a strain onpower companies from Michigan to Louisiana to the East Coast.
The electricity transmission network for Pennsylvania, New Jerseyand Maryland warned that shortages may occur in the nation's largestpower grid, which has been strained by the heat wave.
At the weekend Woodstock '99 music festival in Rome, N.Y.,officials said, more than 1,000 people were treated for heatexhaustion and dehydration.
Todd Luna, 19, was passing through Chicago yesterday on his wayhome to Iowa after attending the festival. "It was three days withno shade," he said. "The medical tents were always full."
Letha Oliphant, a 38-year-old office manager in Chicago, said shehas changed her schedule to avoid being outdoors.
"I try to stay inside and just come out later at night, like avampire," she said. "People need to realize how hot it is and knowtheir limitations."
Special correspondent Kari Lydersen in Chicago contributed to thisreport.
Round-the-Clock Heat Wave; As Deaths Mount, Midwest Can't Shake High Temperatures, HumidityFrom Chicago to Memphis, from Cincinnati to Kansas City, thenation's heartland continued to broil yesterday, weathering astubborn, sticky heat wave that has claimed more than 30 lives, putstress on power companies and tested the sanity of sweat-torturedcity dwellers and farmers alike.
Since July 19, when a "blocking high pressure system" anchoreditself over the Midwest, stopping the flow of cool air from Canada, ahuge swath of the country has been suffering day and night, not fromrecord temperatures, but from continuous heat and humidity, miseryround the clock.
"It's been unbearable," said Shannon White, a National WeatherService meteorologist in Wilmington, Ohio. "I mean, it stays hot for24 hours, and the heat builds up and builds up, and it's taking atoll."
From July 19 through Monday, Cincinnati's main airport recordedpersistently high daily temperatures of 93, 90, 94, 96, 96, 95, 97and 94, with sopping humidity. As of yesterday afternoon, the localcoroner's office said, at least 10 people had died from the heat inCincinnati and its suburbs.
As in other heat-stricken states, the Ohio temperatures were notexcessively above normal and not nearly record setting,meteorologists said. But so many consecutive days and nights oftemperatures in the mid- and upper-90s, combined with oppressivehumidity, is rare, they said.
Through Monday, the weather service said, St. Louis had enduredtemperatures of 94 or above every day for a week, as had Louisville,where the temperature Sunday hit 100 for the first time since 1991.All over the Midwest map--in Iowa, Kansas, Illinois--the "heatindex," a combination of temperatures and humidity, has been hoveringat blistering levels for more than a week.
"It looks like the middle of the country will get a break bySaturday, but not before," said Mike Looney, the weather service'schief meteorologist for the central United States. The blocking highpressure system "is breaking down enough so that we'll get cooler airthis weekend," he said. "Not cool--but cooler."
In the meantime, the region can only wait, wipe sweat from itsbrow and bury its growing numbers of dead, many of them elderly.
Near Peoria, Ill., the body of 82-year-old Helen Lane was found inher home Saturday. The windows were shut, the air conditioning wasoff, and the temperature in the house was 102, authorities said. Shewas among at least 11 people in that state reported dead from theheat as of yesterday.
In Hamilton County, Ohio, which includes Cincinnati, two peoplewere found dead yesterday, a 34-year-old woman and a 47-year-old man.Eight people already had died over the weekend, said Terry Daly, ofthe county coroner's office. "They ranged in age from 64 to 98, andmost of them were very elderly. Many of them were overweight, aswell, which is a big contributor."
Like officials in other states--including Illinois, where twotoddlers perished in their parents' sweltering car--Daly said almostall the deaths in his jurisdiction were preventable. He said many ofthe elderly victims lived by themselves and contributed to their owndeaths. In one instance, a wealthy 91-year-old woman was found deadin her spacious home, with the air conditioning off and windowslocked.
"She was bundled in clothing," Daly said. "The neighbors said shealways wore layers of clothing. She was always saying she wascold."
When she was found, Daly said, her body temperature was 110.6degrees.
As farmers and ranchers tended to crops and livestock threatenedby the unrelenting sun, other people afflicted by the heat stayedindoors, cranking up their air conditioning, putting a strain onpower companies from Michigan to Louisiana to the East Coast.
The electricity transmission network for Pennsylvania, New Jerseyand Maryland warned that shortages may occur in the nation's largestpower grid, which has been strained by the heat wave.
At the weekend Woodstock '99 music festival in Rome, N.Y.,officials said, more than 1,000 people were treated for heatexhaustion and dehydration.
Todd Luna, 19, was passing through Chicago yesterday on his wayhome to Iowa after attending the festival. "It was three days withno shade," he said. "The medical tents were always full."
Letha Oliphant, a 38-year-old office manager in Chicago, said shehas changed her schedule to avoid being outdoors.
"I try to stay inside and just come out later at night, like avampire," she said. "People need to realize how hot it is and knowtheir limitations."
Special correspondent Kari Lydersen in Chicago contributed to thisreport.
Eugenio Montejo
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) _ Eugenio Montejo, a Venezuelan poet and essayist who won the 2004 Octavio Paz prize, died Thursday. He was 70.
The poet's publishing house said he died of natural causes.
Montejo's poetry is known for its rich texture and was published in numerous books in Spanish. His work also reached a wider audience thanks to the 2003 film "21 Grams" by Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.
In one scene, Sean Penn's character quoted a line from a 1988 poem by Montejo. It reads: "The earth turned to bring us closer. It turned on itself and in us, until it finally brought us together in …
Five teenagers lost on Schweitzer Mountain were found Sunday -wet, cold and hungry but without serious injury after spending afrigid night in snow caves.
All accidentally had skied out of bounds on the mountain's backside and gotten lost Saturday. The boys had been skiing in twoseparate groups.
One group - three 15-year-olds with a Spokane church group -emerged from the woods about 10 a.m. and wandered to a home on U.S.Highway 95 several miles from the ski resort.Nearly six hours later, a group of five Sandpoint snowmobilersfound the other two, a pair of brothers from Spruce Grove, Alberta,Canada.News of the brothers' rescue was greeted by loud cheers …
5 SURVIVE NIGHT ON SCHWEITZER SPOKANE TRIO HIKES DOWN MOUNTAIN; SNOWMOBILERS FIND CANADIAN BROTHERSFive teenagers lost on Schweitzer Mountain were found Sunday -wet, cold and hungry but without serious injury after spending afrigid night in snow caves.
All accidentally had skied out of bounds on the mountain's backside and gotten lost Saturday. The boys had been skiing in twoseparate groups.
One group - three 15-year-olds with a Spokane church group -emerged from the woods about 10 a.m. and wandered to a home on U.S.Highway 95 several miles from the ski resort.Nearly six hours later, a group of five Sandpoint snowmobilersfound the other two, a pair of brothers from Spruce Grove, Alberta,Canada.News of the brothers' rescue was greeted by loud cheers …
Teaching's Mt. Everest: Is it worth it?
Educators, funders bank on National Board Certification to improve classroom instruction
In the quest to improve the quality of classroom instruction in Chicago public schools, National Board Certification for teachers has emerged as a focal point.
Funders, educators and civic groups have committed significant resources to recruiting and supporting programs to get more teachers certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. In the last two years:
The brand new Chicago Public Education Fund has pledged $1.3 million--half of its 2000 and 2001 grant budgets--to help teachers go through the …
FRANKFURT, Germany - The German autoworkers union said it will give the UAW one of its three seats on the board of the proposed DaimlerChrysler AG, the first time a US. union would be represented on a German company's board.
"We plan to give up one of our seats to allow our U.S. colleagues a voice in the new company," said Klaus Eilrich, a spokesman for IG Metall, Germany's largest union, which represents about 100,000 of Daimler-Benz AG'S 310,000 workers.
IG Metall, a metalworkers trade union, is the German equivalent of the UAW Chrysler Corp. and Daimler-Benz AG plan to merge this fall.
Representatives from IC Metall will meet with UAW President Stephen …
A month after partnering its JAK3 inhibitor program in a potential $189 million deal with Madison, N.J.-based Wyeth, Pharmacopeia Drug Discovery Inc., of Princeton, N.J., signed another collaboration with Organon, of Oss, the Netherlands, to discover and develop small-molecule drugs against a range of indications. That …
Three people were injured and one man was charged with driving while intoxicated following a three-vehicle accident on Route 20, town police said.
Edrys
Woodroofe, 62, of Okara Drive, Guilderland, and the passenger in her car, Dorothy Gladwish, 79, of Gay Lane, Guilderland, were both treated at Memorial Hospital in Albany and later released.
Anthony Sgambellone, 24, of Guilderland, was taken to St. Peter's Hospital in Albany, where he was also treated in the emergency room and released. He was passenger in a pickup truck driven by Todd J. Hanley, 23, of 127 Church Road, Guilderland.
The driver of the third car, Patricia Leininger, 45, of Hite Court, Guilderland, was not injured.
Police Officer John Tashjian said Woodroofe and Leininger had stopped their cars in the westbound lanes of Route 20 at the red light to the entrance to Guilderland Hospital about 7:30 p.m. Friday.
The officer said Hanley, who was also westbound, did not stop in time and spun the driver's side of his truck into the Woodroofe car, pushing it into the eastbound lanes. Hanley's truck continued …
| All Times EDT |
| East Division |
| W L Pct GB |
| Philadelphia 16 13 .552 _ |
| New York 14 12 .538 1/2 |
| Florida 15 13 .536 1/2 |
| Atlanta 12 15 .444 3 |
| Washington 12 17 .414 4 |
| Central Division |
| W L Pct GB |
| St. Louis 18 11 .621 _ |
| Chicago … |
Byline: Phil Kurz
A new coalition of organizations launched Nov. 1 in Washington, D.C., aims to support the evolution of broadcast television and its integration with other technologies and platforms.
The group, The Future of TV Coalition, formed to support and promote digital broadcasting in public policy brings together a diverse set of constituencies that rely on broadcast television, including elected local officials, programming distributors, electronic equipment manufacturers and multicast networks.
"Our members work together to advance public policy initiatives that allow broadcasters to continue to rigorously innovate and invest to better serve …
SYRACUSE - A Cicero-North Syracuse High School student was given 10 years of probation for e-mailing nude photos of junior high school girls.
Michael Wixson, 17, also is receiving youthful offender status, which means his guilty plea to a misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of a child won't be part of his permanent …
