Nationally, a gallon of regular averages $3.81 — up 10 cents in the last week and nearly 96 cents above year-ago levels. Industry experts say prices could surpass July 2008's record $4.11 nationally as seasonal demand, speculators and political uncertainty in Libya and the Middle East propel oil prices.
"We could easily tack on another 30 to 40 cents a gallon," said Darin Newsom, senior …
Since this IT, security services and product provider started five years ago, its skyrocketing trajectory has propelled it from Business NH Magazine's 10 to Watch list in 2009 and 2010 to one of the five fastest growing companies on the Private 100 list this year.
The veteran-owned business expanded its customer base in the past year beyond the government sector to serve the Fortune 500 market, says President Keith Turgeon. In the next five years he expects the Fortune 500 market to account for 75 to 80 percent of its business.
The plan seems to be working. In addition to winning big contracts with the U.S. Marine Corps, and $1.2 million in new business from General …
Call it a sign of the times. An unemployed banker has taken to the streets of Manhattan _ wearing a pinstriped suit and an "MIT Graduate for Hire" sign draped over his shoulders.
Joshua Persky, an unemployed financial engineer who was trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, says he'll be passing out resumes during the …
NEW ORLEANS -- Despite aggressive efforts to repair the NewOrleans levee system after the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, itisn't clear yet whether it could withstand a hurricane with a heavystorm surge this year, the head of the Army Corps of Engineersconceded Saturday.
Lt. Gen. Carl Strock said the agency was carefully trackingTropical Storm Ernesto, which was in the Caribbean and projected toreach hurricane strength Tuesday. Ernesto was on a course that wouldbring it over Jamaica today, the U.S. National Hurricane Center inMiami said.
1 year after Katrina, Ernesto?
In Washington, the Homeland Security Department said Ernesto couldbe a Category 3 …
The fable can't end this way. You can't wrap the Disney moviewith the miracle worker waving goodbye and slinging a big bag ofmoney over his shoulder. Credits should roll with accompanyingcheers, not tears.
But unless Northwestern acts quickly, contacts every singlewealthy alum and starts a Save Our Coach fund, the possibility isreal that Gary Barnett soon will leave the greatest college footballstory ever told. Imagine, after so much giddiness, the Coach of theCentury bolting for a better job. In a sick way, it would befitting, the ultimate NU loss.
All indications, none more eerie than his silence, point to hisdeparture. He is seriously weighing the coaching …
KEMPTON, England (AP) — The King George VI Chase was postponed for a second time because of snow and frost on the course at Kempton.
After an inspection on Sunday of the course, Kempton official Barney Clifford said there was "no chance of the frost coming out of the ground" in time for the race to be run Monday. It has been …
World Cup host South Africa beat Jamaica 2-0 in a friendly thanks to second-half goals from Surprise Moriri and Siyabonga Nomvete.
Moriri scored in the 53rd minute and Nomvete in the …
CLEVELAND -- Tony Soprano was about the only Jersey boy missingSunday night at Quicken Loans Arena.
With New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine, Rutgers football coach GregSchiano and men's basketball coach Fred Hill leading the cheers, theScarlet Knights came out smoking and punched a ticket to their firstwomen's NCAA title game with a 59-35 victory over LSU before asellout crowd of 20,704 in the first national semifinal.
Actor James Gandolfini, who portrays Tony Soprano on "TheSopranos," is a Rutgers alum and was on the sidelines for severalfootball games in the fall.
"What Greg Schiano has done is nothing short of a miracle,"Rutgers coach Vivian Stringer said. …
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran successfully launched a new small satellite into orbit early Friday, state media reported, the latest in the country's ambitious space program that has raised concerns in the West because of its possible military applications.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called in to the launch site, saying he was "hopeful this act will send a signal of more friendship among all human beings," the official IRNA news agency reported.
IRNA said the domestically-made satellite, Navid, or Gospel, was designed to collect data on weather conditions and monitor for natural disasters.
It said the satellite weighs about 110 pounds (50 kilograms) and would orbit Earth at …
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A soldier preparing to deploy to Iraq wanted to get married before he left, but his pregnant fiance was ordered to stay on bed rest at a Kentucky hospital.
So Pvt. Shawn Wentworth and Jennifer Paddock held the wedding on Saturday at Norton Suburban Hospital in Louisville. The infantryman is scheduled to leave for Iraq on Sunday.
The couple wanted to get married in …
"Do the old prepare the young or do the young prepare themselves for their role as leaders? Can one hand over power or is power takeni As an old leader I care about these things."
In an e-conversation with the publisher of this newspaper, I made a comment about my excitement over young people being front and center in many things political these days. I wrote that, but at the same time I was longing for conversation with others of my generation. The Democratic convention brought all this to my mind as I watched daughters and sons of the leadership of my generation taking center stage. How energetic they are. How hopeful and powerful they are. How fortunate we are in having them as …
LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Results from the 14th round of Portugal's first-division football league (home teams listed first):
| Friday's Games |
|---|
Setubal 1, Academica 1
| Saturday's Games |
|---|
Sporting Lisbon 0, FC …
To support continuous improvement of munitions, the Project Manager for Close Combat Systems (PM CCS) has applied some outside-the-box thinking. The result - a systems approach to procurement called "in-stride modernization." The goal is to provide warfighters with the quality products they need today while continuing to modernize the munitions they will use tomorrow. It's a whole new way of looking at munitions product improvement as the Army transitions from the Current to Future Force.
The strategy is perhaps most easily explained using an example - the XM141 Bunker Defeat Munition (BDM), also known as the Shoulder-Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapon-Disposable. The BDM is a modified nondevelopmental item weapon system that can defeat fortified positions (bunkers) constructed of earth and timber, breach masonry walls and defeat lightly armored vehicles at an effective range of 150 meters. The weapon is being used successfully by Coalition Forces in Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom.
The BDM originated in response to operational deficiencies of existing shoulder-fired rockets identified during Operations Just Cause and Desert Storm. It was intended as an interim solution, but the follow-on weapons that were to have replaced it were canceled.
With the BDM in full production and needing improvements to be able to support a user requirement for safe firing from an enclosure or confined space, it became the perfect candidate for PM CCS' in-stride modernization initiative. Working with contractor Talley Defense of Mesa, AZ, and Fort Benning, GA, the team will incorporate a new propulsion system, making it possible to meet new user requirements while retaining the weapon system's original capabilities. The PM will implement a nonrecurring engineering effort for the BDM starting this fiscal year. The contract will be quickly negotiated via Alpha contracting. Once the design is finalized, a quantity of production representative munitions will be rapidly assembled and delivered for Army qualification and operational evaluation. Following approval by the Milestone Decision Authority, the new BDM - called BDM Confined Space - will be fielded to the Army. The PM will maintain the flow of these critical weapons to Army inventory while substantially modernizing BDM capabilities to address Soldier requirements.
In-stride modernization allows the PM to quickly address new capabilities or deficiencies by improving existing systems instead of initiating a new program. As part of the effort, PM CCS will also improve BDM training, improve the warhead and make the weapon capable of meeting insensitive munition requirements. Limited funding for ammunition is a fact of Army life, but the need to rapidly respond to evolving needs of warfighters engaged in current operations is crucial. The key to these successful efforts is the partnership between the contractor, materiel developer, combat developer and the Soldier.
[Author Affiliation]
GARY L. BARBER is the U.S. Army Shoulder-Launched Munition Project Officer for PM CCS at Picatinny Arsenal, NJ. He has a B.S. in mechanical engineering from New York Institute of Technology and an M.S. in mechanical engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology. He is an Army Acquisition Corps member and is Level III certified in program management and systems planning, research, development and engineering.
CAIRO (AP) — Three Egypt internationals and Al-Ahly players have retired from all football after witnessing the deadly clashes between fans at their league game against Al-Masry on Wednesday.
Mohamed Aboutrika and Mohamed Barakat, who both have at least 70 caps for Egypt, told Al-Ahly TV that they would quit immediately after the mass violence that left at least 74 people dead at a stadium in the Mediterranean city of Port Said.
"I will not play football again," Aboutrika said late Wednesday. Barakat told the channel that there would be "no football after today" for him.
Emad Moteab also said he will refuse to play until there was "retribution for the people that died," leaving the door open for an eventual return to the game.
Aboutrika and Barakat started the game against Al-Masry, while Moteab was a substitute, and all were among the Al-Ahly players forced to flee the pitch after opposition supporters surged onto the field and clashes broke out.
Aboutrika criticized police and security officials for standing by as Al-Masry supporters, armed with knives, sticks and stones, chased Al-Ahly players and fans, who ran toward the exits and up the stands to escape, according to witnesses.
"People here are dying and no one is doing a thing. It's like a war," Aboutrika told the team's TV station. "Is life this cheap?"
Al-Ahly's Portuguese coach Manuel Jose has also reportedly asked the Cairo club — Egypt's most successful ever — to cancel his contract and allow him to return to Portugal, while Al-Masry club president Kamel Abu Ali and coach Hossam Hassan have quit.
The Egyptian Football Association suspended all league games indefinitely before Egyptian Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri dissolved the federation's board on Thursday.
While Al-Ahly's supporters apparently were not the instigators behind Wednesday's violence, Egypt's most successful club has a history of violent episodes connected to its matches.
Al-Ahly was voted Africa's club of the century in 2000 and has won a record 36 Egyptian league titles and the African Champions League six times — also a record.
But its renowned ultras — or hardline supporters — have often been involved in fighting with police or fans of other teams, and antiestablishment violence has often been associated with its games.
Last year, Al-Ahly was forced by Africa's football confederation to play games in the continental club competition behind closed doors after trouble with its fans.
In September, more than 70 fans and riot police were hurt in clashes that spilled out from a stadium into a Cairo neighborhood following an Al-Ahly game.
It came amid long-standing and bitter animosity between the football supporters and Egyptian security forces after the uprising that toppled Egypt's former president, Hosni Mubarak, was fueled by anger over police abuse and brutality.
On Wednesday in Port Said, security forces were accused of doing nothing to stop the violence against Al-Ahly players, fans and officials.
The ultras accused the military council and former members of Mubarak's regime of retaliating against them for their role in the uprising last year and in anti-military protests since.
"They want to punish us and execute us for our participation in the revolution against suppression," the Ultras of Al-Ahly group said in a statement.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — The family of a Pakistani Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy against Islam said Saturday they are hoping for a presidential pardon that could bring her home in time for Christmas.
The case against Asia Bibi — which started with a spat over a sip of water — has renewed calls for reform of Pakistan's blasphemy law, which critics say have been used to settle grudges, persecute minorities and fan religious extremism.
President Asif Ali Zardari has asked for a report on the case and could issue a pardon even before a court issues its decision on an appeal against the verdict, said Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan's minister for minority affairs.
The 45-year-old mother of five appeared in a tearful televised briefing for reporters Saturday at the prison in Punjab province, declaring her innocence to reporters and maintaining the case stemmed from personal disputes that led to a false accusation.
"I have small children," pleaded Bibi, wearing a veil covering all but her eyes. "For God's sake, please set me free."
Bibi has been in prison for the last 1 1/2 years and on Nov. 8 became the first woman sentenced to hang for blasphemy. Pope Benedict XVI has called for her release.
Dozens of Pakistanis are sentenced to death each year under the blasphemy law, which date back to the 1980s military rule of Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq. Most cases are thrown out by higher courts and no executions have been carried out, Bhatti said, but the law is being examined to prevent what he said is widespread abuse by religious extremists and opportunists.
Pakistan's Christians, who make up less than 5 percent of Muslim-majority Pakistan's 175 million people, are frequently the targets of accusers invoking the law, Bhatti said.
The minister said accusations have increased in recent years along with the rise of Muslim extremism that has also fueled the Taliban and other insurgent groups seeking to impose Islamic rule based on a strict interpretation of the holy book, the Quran.
"This law is a tool in the hands of the extremists," Bhatti said.
The blasphemy law is unlikely to be repealed because the government's ruling party — largely secular — relies on the support of Islamist groupings. But Bhatti said the government was working to amend the law.
Among the possible reforms, he said, are including punishments for anyone making false accusations and taking the initial investigation out of the hands of local police and instead entrusting them to district officials.
"Anyone with a grudge can accuse anyone of blasphemy," he said.
Bibi's husband, Ashiq Masih, says that is what happened to his wife in June 2009. He said his wife was picking fruit in an orchard in their village of Attian Wali, west of the Punjab provincial capital of Lahore, when she went to fetch some water for the group. When she returned, some of the Muslim women refused to drink from a container touched by a Christian, he said.
Offended, Bibi exchanged heated words with the women, he said. The family thought nothing further of the spat — until five days later when dozens of Muslims from the town's mosque appeared and dragged her away, according to the husband's account.
The angry women claimed that Bibi had insulted Islam's Prophet Muhammad, and the local imam had denounced her from the pulpit.
Bibi's 18-year-old daughter, Sidra, said she followed the crowd to the mosque and witnessed people hitting and insulting her mother.
"They told her to admit the charges of blasphemy, but she wouldn't," Sidra said. "They tried to force her to convert to Islam, but she wouldn't. Then they started beating her."
Bibi was eventually taken to the local police station and charged with blasphemy.
The family was one of only two Christian households in the village, Masih said. Since Bibi's arrest, the other family has moved away. Masih said he also worries it may be unsafe for the family to stay in the village.
Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer told reporters Saturday he is also going to appeal for Bibi's release.
"I am going to take this petition to the president, and the president will forgive her," he said.
That raised hope among her family members, who say they have only seen her five times since her arrest.
"I want my mother to be released in time for Christmas, so we can celebrate together," Sidra said.
___
Associated Press writer Asif Shahzad in Islamabad contributed to this report.
NEW YORK - New York Mercantile Exchange shares debuted at $120 - more than double their expected price - and continued climbing Friday as the commodity futures exchange ended its 134-year run as a private company.
Nymex Holdings Inc. had priced 6.5 million shares at $59 a piece on Thursday after the market closed, ahead of its previously projected range of $54 to $57. The shares then opened at $120, soared past $150 then came down to about $138 in morning trading.
The company, whose market is famous for its raucous, open-outcry trading of oil and gold futures, raised $293.1 million after underwriting discounts and commissions, but before expenses. Selling stockholders made about $65.5 million on the IPO.
At $138 a share, it would have a market capitalization of about $12 billion.
The stock lists under the ticker symbol NMX on the New York Stock Exchange.
The debut of Nymex shares had been much-anticipated by investors who have witnessed the stellar IPOs of rival exchanges in recent years.
Shares of IntercontinentalExchange Inc. closed up 51 percent from the $26 IPO price on Nov. 16. Chicago Mercantile Exchange Holdings Inc. shares jumped 23 percent on the first day of trading in December 2002, while Chicago Board of Trade Holdings Inc. saw its shares surge 49 percent after their debut in October 2005.
David Easthope, an analyst with Boston-based Securities and Investments Group, said Nymex shares likely popped "on frothy expectations, takeover possibilities and just hype right now."
"Retail speculation tends to be high when there's been a pattern of successful IPOs in a sector," he said. "The word gets out that exchanges have been popping on the first day."
Q. Why do some teens drink and do drugs even when they know theproblems it can lead to?
A. Student panel from Commerce High School, Commerce, Texas: Aprimary reason is because they want to be part of the "in" crowd.They see their "friends" do it, and they don't want to look as ifthey're stupid or uncool.
They really don't see what it does to them. They might see whatit does to other people, but they just don't think it could happen tothem.
Many people do it to get away from their problems. It makesthem forget about their worries. Some feel that they have nothing tolose in the first place. Their families are split up or maybe theyfeel that they are an outcast.
Drinking or doing drugs gives them a feeling of being free. Aslong as they are feeling the effect of the drug, they have noworries.
Whatever the reason, they should remember that it destroys yourmind. You might not be able to feel it, but it happens. You mightend up dead or messed up for the rest of your life.
Pat and David: Teenagers are curious about drugs and alcohol.They want to experiment and see if there will be some buzz orsensation or if the drugs will produce some fun or relief fromstress.
Some teenagers are just caught up in a peer-pressure scenario.
When your friends and peers make drugs and alcohol standard forpartying, it's pretty hard to say "no" and stay drug- andalcohol-free.
According to a recently published survey on America'sadolescents titled "How Healthy Are They?" from the American MedicalAssociation, "92 percent of high school seniors have consumed alcoholat least once, 50 percent have tried marijuana, and 15 percent havetried cocaine."
So many teenagers rationalize that they won't be the next drugor alcohol statistic: "It's not going to happen to me. I'm not adrunk, alcoholic or drughead. Just because I party a little and dosome stuff doesn't mean that I've got a problem."
However, many of them will have a problem, according toinformation supplied by the National Council on Alcoholism and DrugDependence.
Approximately 1 out of every 9 people who use alcohol is analcoholic. Half of the amount of THC, the major active ingredient inmarijuana, stays in the brain from 70 hours to seven days.
The average crack cocaine user uses five or more vials in anhour because "a crack high is always followed by a low so unpleasantthat the user will do almost anything to get more crack."
So be forewarned.
Questions for this column resulted from a national survey ofhigh school students.
If you have questions for "Talk to Us" or would likerepresentatives from your high school to participate in the column,write to "Talk to Us," Chicago Sun-Times, Features Dept., Room 458,401 N. Wabash, Chicago 60611.
Three men from Bath are better groomed this week after winning amakeover at the newly opened Debenhams store.
Designer Jeff Banks gave Lindsey Jacobs, Blake Gill and BarryCavill a new wardrobe after the trio won a Bath Chroniclecompetition.
"They were all reluctant and a little bit shy to start with, aswe discovered that all three had been secretly nominated by theirwives," said a Debenhams spokesman.
But the men soon relaxed, with Mr Banks breaking the ice bycracking a few jokes and having a chat about their lives andpersonal styles.
After analysing what would suit their shape and colouring, thedesigner sent two assistants off to grab the best clothes andaccessories for the winners.
Celebrity make-up artist Maggie Hunt pampered them withfacemasks, eyebrow trims and massages, while celebrity hairdresserSimon Izzard gave their hair a modern twist.
An audience of 50 people then looked on when the men came out intheir new clothes.
"The audience clapped and cheered each one and the wives were themost shocked and pleased of all," said the spokesman.
TERESA MARGOLLES GALERIE PETER KILCHMANN
Entering the gallery, one found the climate of the building on Limmatstrasse drastically different from what one would expect: Through a pair of humidifiers, water used to wash the bodies of corpses in Mexico's metropolis was being atomized into superfine particles. The rinse water of the anonymous dead settled on the skin of the living and penetrated them when breathed in. More than just the humidity level was being altered. Unsettling social realities, normally excluded from the world of art, were permeating the atmosphere, hardly noticeable but nonetheless powerfully present. A work similar to this one had been shown at P.S. 1 in 2002. Vaporizacion, 2001, was a fog room with a strong visual presence, which in the Zurich piece, El agua de la Ciudad de Mexico (Mexico (Mexico City's Water), 2002, was reduced to pure humidity-only to spark the imagination even further. Ultimately it wasn't revulsion that created a sense of the uncanny but rather the idea of being unable to escape the dead because of this purified water of their last cleansing. They catch up to us, persecute us, like Banquo's ghost in Macbeth.
In Europe, Teresa Margolles's macabre work might be associated with the material-centric performance art of the Viennese Actionists. But such a comparison would miss the Mexican artist's very different conceptual stance and approach to the public. While the actions of artists like Hermann Nitsch or Otto Muehl still follow a theatrical kind of dramaturgy, with Margolles all resemblance to stage and mise-en-scene falls away. The mist of corpse water lands on the skin of all visitors, and all find it hard to breathe. One's own body is engaged; the physical and the mental are equally affected. Only through the absence of any representation and through the minimal means employed do images ultimately begin to come to mind.
Tarjetas para picar cocaina (Cards for Cutting Cocaine), 1997-99, a series of large-format documentary photos, shows drug consumers getting their materials ready. For this they use small pieces of plastic in the same format as credit cards, which Margolles had distributed on the street; these bore images of murdered drug couriers, dealers, and addicts. The image carrier thus becomes a gruesome informer against itself, and the image of death becomes deadly equipment.
The exhibition also included photographic documentation of the action Anden (Sidewalk), 1999: In the Colombian drug center of Cali, Margolles had over a hundred feet of sidewalk ripped out. Relatives and friends of drug-trade victims placed personal items of remembrance in the open grave, and then the sidewalk was repaved. The urban passage becomes an invisible site of remembrance and reflection. For all who know about it, what has been buried-and the act of burying it-cannot ever be forgotten.
Mexico City is one of those places where the social distances between the partial worlds of the global economy seem on the verge of collapse. Margolles punctures the aesthetic distance between social realities without entirely overcoming it. The victims of violent crimes are never voyeuristically presented, but their traces are still unavoidably present. Even the documentary photograph creates an only apparent distance from events. Margolles's works function as an infective agent. Long after a visit to the gallery, breathing remains difficult, one's skin remembering again and again.
-Hans Rudolf Reust
Translated from German by Sara Ogger.
After a 3-13-2 start, the record had "Wait till next year"written all over it. But now that College of St. Francis has won 10of its last 12, coach Gordie Gillespie has revived his chance tobecome college baseball's winningest coach by season's end.
Gillespie is 19 victories away from passing Rod Dedeaux, who won1,332 games at Southern California from 1942-86.
Gillespie, who also coaches football, amassed his victories in24 years at Lewis University and 17 at St. Francis in Joliet.
"Ten days ago, we thought there was no chance," Gillespie said."But the kids are playing well so it's a possibility. It reallyisn't something I think about unless somebody mentions it to me."
Gillespie, who'll celebrate his 67th birthday Thursday, says hewants to coach two more seasons. Pursuit of the record isn't whatkeeps him going.
"The only thing that really matters is that Jesus Christ is notgoing to ask me how many games I won or lost," Gillespie said. "He'sgoing to ask me what kind of man I was. That means family man and anexample as a coach. I know I've lost my temper and said things Ididn't mean, but my biggest thing is that I touched somebody's lifeand made it better."
Gillespie says coaching is still fun. "I coach every game likeit's the seventh game of the World Series," he said.
St. Francis (13-15-2), an NAIA school, has 26 regular-seasongames remaining. Hoffman Estates graduate Paul Chovanec (4-0, 1.93,one save) is the Saints' top pitcher.
MADE TO BE BROKEN II: St. Francis plays host Monday to LewisUniversity, whose coach, Irish O'Reilly, is 18 victories shy ofreaching Gillespie's school record. O'Reilly has 607.
Lewis is bouncing back from a rough start, too. O'Reilly's clubis 13-13 after a 5-11 Florida trip. Center fielder Dennis Krob, aDivision II All-American last season and graduate of Benet Academy,leads the team with a .355 average, two home runs and 14 stolenbases. Mount Carmel graduate Josh Barron (3-1, 1.34 ERA) is Lewis'No. 1 pitcher.
CHICAGO CONNECTION: Creighton has seven Chicago area players,including preseason All-America pitcher Alan Benes, a Lake ForestHigh graduate and brother of San Diego Padres pitcher Andy Benes.Benes won his third consecutive game Saturday after an 0-2 start.Benes, who beat Southern Illinois 2-1, has 10 or more strikeouts ineach of his last four starts and has lowered his ERA to 2.45. Ajunior right-hander, Benes ranks second on Creighton's all-time listfor starts (36) and complete games (15) and is third in victorieswith a 25-8 record.
Sophomore second baseman Jon Dunlop, a Thornwood High graduate,was leading Creighton with four home runs before sustaining adislocated shoulder that will keep him out seven to 10 days. Dunlophas a streak of 124 errorless chances covering 29 games going back tolast season.
Other Bluejays with Chicago ties are pitchers Eric Maloney ofCarmel and Aaron Puffer of Glenbard East, outfielders Eric Dantzlerof Providence and Chris Piggott of Stevenson and catcher A.J.Walkanoff of Zion-Benton.
CONNECTIONS II: Northwestern has familiar names with outfielderMatt Huff, brother of White Sox outfielder Mike Huff; first basemanDale Torborg, son of Mets manager Jeff Torborg; infielder Geoff Will,son of writer George Will, and catcher Tom Sandt, whose father withthe same name is the Pirates' first base coach. Torborg will playagainst Cub manager Jim Lefebvre's son, Ryan, when NU hosts Minnesotain a pair of doubleheaders May 1-2.
CLASSY COMPANY: Junior shortstop Paul Petrulis recently hitthree doubles in a game, joining Rafael Palmiero, Will Clark andBobby Thigpen among those sharing the Mississippi State record.Petrulis, an Oak Park graduate, is batting .304 with two home runsand 11 RBI for Mississippi State (18-6), ranked No. 1 in the nationfor two weeks before dropping to fourth, sixth and seventh in thisweek's national polls. Petrulis, second team all-SoutheastConference as a sophomore, batted a team-high .338 last season.
The U.S. Department of Energy will give Archer Daniels Midland up to $99 million in stimulus funds to help pay for the Decatur-based agricultural company's second carbon-capture project.
ADM says the money will allow it to begin designing and building the new demonstration project starting in 2012. The company hopes the project will capture and store 1 million tons of carbon dioxide a year from ADM's ethanol plant. ADM plans to spend $43.6 million.
The carbon will be stored in a rock formation beneath ADM's Decatur location known as the Mount Simon Sandstone.
ADM has a separate carbon-capture project working at its Decatur location design to store a thousand tons a day for several years. The location will then be monitored for leaks as a test.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The case of Michael Jackson's doctor was placed in a jury's hands Thursday after contentious legal arguments over who was to blame for the superstar's death — the celebrity who craved sleep at any cost or the doctor accused of providing the drugs that killed him.
In final statements delivered in a packed courtroom, a defense attorney cast Dr. Conrad Murray as a victim of Jackson's celebrity, saying he would never have been charged with involuntary manslaughter if his patient was someone other than Jackson.
"They want you to convict Dr. Murray for the actions of Michael Jackson," attorney Ed Chernoff said. "This is not a reality show. It is reality."
Prosecutor David Walgren portrayed Murray as a liar and greedy opportunist who put his own welfare before that of Jackson.
"Conrad Murray is criminally liable for the death of Michael Jackson," he told jurors. "Not because it was Michael Jackson but because Conrad Murray is guilty of criminal negligence."
Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor submitted the case to jurors after a full day of arguments and told them to begin deliberations Friday.
If convicted, Murray could receive a minimum sentence of probation or a maximum of four years. He would be unlikely to serve that much time, however, because of jail overcrowding.
Earlier, Walgren, in a carefully structured argument enhanced by video excerpts of witness testimony, spoke of the special relationship between a doctor and patient and said Murray had corrupted it by giving Jackson the anesthetic propofol as a sleep aid.
He ridiculed the defense theory that Jackson had injected himself with the fatal dose of the anesthetic and denounced the testimony of defense expert Paul White who blamed Jackson for his own death.
"What you were presented by Dr. White was junk science. It was garbage science," Walgren said.
Chernoff countered that Dr. Steven Shafer, a propofol expert who testified that evidence showed Murray killed Jackson, was wrong and overstepped his role as a scientist by becoming an advocate for Murray's conviction.
He said Shafer ignored Murray's statement to police in which the physician said he gave the singer a small dose of propofol and left the room after the drug should have worn off.
Walgren also projected images of Jackson's grief-stricken children on a giant screen and told jurors that Murray took away their father.
With Jackson's mother and siblings watching from the courtroom gallery, Walgren showed a photo of Jackson at his last rehearsal before the picture of the three Jackson children — Prince, Paris and Blanket — at their father's memorial.
He also reminded jurors of the scene in Jackson's bedroom when Paris came upon Murray frantically trying to revive her lifeless father and screamed, "Daddy!"
"For Michael Jackson's children this case goes on forever because they do not have a father," Walgren said.
The prosecutor repeatedly called Murray's treatment of Jackson bizarre and said there was no precedent for the cardiologist giving the singer propofol to help him sleep.
Still, Jackson trusted him and that eventually cost the singer his life, Walgren said.
"Conrad Murray looked out for himself and himself alone," the prosecutor said.
Walgren said Murray was more concerned with earning $150,000 a month as Jackson's personal physician and traveling to London for his "This Is It" concert than with the welfare of his patient.
He cited evidence showing Murray did not call 911 after finding Jackson unresponsive. Instead he called Jackson's personal assistant, a decision the prosecutor said was just one of the doctor's bizarre actions on the day the singer died.
He suggested Murray delayed the call until he could hide medical equipment and bottles that might incriminate him.
Evan after paramedics arrived, the doctor made no mention of giving Jackson propofol because of "a consciousness of guilt," Walgren said.
The prosecutor also played statements of several doctors who testified that they would never have agreed to give Jackson propofol for insomnia in a private home.
"The setting represents an extreme violation of the standard of care," Walgren said. "No one ever did it until it was done to Michael Jackson. It is gross negligence and it is a cause of Michael Jackson's death."
At one point, Walgren suggested Murray was conducting "an obscene experiment" on Jackson.
Chernoff contended that prosecutors hadn't proven that Murray committed a crime by giving Jackson doses of propofol in the singer's bedroom. He also suggested multiple prosecution witnesses had lied and that Shafer was "a cop" with an agenda.
The prosecutor responded with sarcasm to Chernoff's claim that Murray was the victim in the case and listed an array of witnesses who had been blamed by the defense.
"Poor Conrad Murray," he said repeatedly in a mocking tone. "Everyone is just allied against him."
Walgren told jurors the case is not complicated.
"What's unusual," he said, "is that Michael Jackson lived as long as he did under the care of Conrad Murray."
With only Jackson and Murray present in the singer's room on the day he died, there are things that will never be known about his death, Walgren said. But he said it was clear that Murray, untrained in anesthesiology, was incompetent.
"The people won't prove exactly what happened behind those closed doors," he said. "Michael Jackson could give answers, but he is dead.''"
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AP Entertainment Writer Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.
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McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP .
MOSCOW - As Alexander Litvinenko lay dying at a London hospital, a fellow former KGB agent wrote angry letters from a Ural Mountains prison colony saying his warnings that a government hit squad had been hunting Litvinenko were ignored.
After a series of sensational accusations by Mikhail Trepashkin, authorities transferred him to a higher-security barracks. Trepashkin's lawyers say he has been placed in conditions that exacerbated his chronic asthma, threatening his life.
In letters released by his lawyers late last year, Trepashkin said he had long warned of a death squad formed by Russia's FSB security service to kill Litvinenko and other Kremlin critics.
"I'm feeling a great anger in my soul over Alexander V. Litvinenko's death," wrote Trepashkin, who was convicted of divulging state secrets. "Anger at the fact that the weak and disorganized human rights movement in Russia could neither prevent political murders nor provide protection to people persecuted by the authorities for political motives."
Russia's top prosecutor dismissed the letters as "stupidity" and refused to allow a team of Scotland Yard officials to talk to Trepashkin during a December trip to investigate Litvinenko's poisoning death.
Trepashkin's lawyer, Yelena Liptser, said it looked like an attempt by officials to hide the truth. "If they want an objective and thorough investigation, they must provide access to a person claiming that he has information related to the probe," she told The Associated Press.
On Tuesday, Britain requested the extradition of former KGB bodyguard Andrei Lugovoi, saying it had enough evidence to charge him in Litvinenko's death. Lugovoi met with Litvinenko at a London hotel the day his tea was poisoned with polonium-210, a radioactive substance. He has denied any involvement in Litvinenko's murder, and Russian authorities said his extradition was unlikely.
Several human rights organizations have appealed for Trepashkin's release or for improved medical treatment. In late March, the U.S.-based group Human Rights First warned Trepashkin "could die in custody."
Liptser said the prison where Trepashkin, 50, is held, near the industrial town of Nizhny Tagil, 750 miles east of Moscow, is next to a huge coke plant whose toxic emissions badly exacerbated his condition. Officials have rejected appeals that he be hospitalized or transferred elsewhere.
"He's having regular asthma attacks, and we fear that he may die of it one day," Liptser said.
Lyubov Kosik, another Trepashkin lawyer, said prison doctors told Trepashkin he needs no special medication, leaving him to seek a remedy "from a local drug store."
"He never loses his strength and keeps saying he must continue his fight," she said.
Trepashkin, who became a lawyer after quitting the FSB - an agency that succeeded the KGB - was arrested in October 2003 on charges of illegal possession of a gun, which he said was planted. He was arrested days before he was to have taken part in a trial related to the 1999 apartment building explosions that killed about 300 people in Moscow and two other cities.
The government blamed the explosions on Chechnya-based rebels, but Litvinenko and other Kremlin critics alleged they were staged by authorities as a pretext for launching the second Chechen war. Trepashkin was one of those who rejected the official version of the bombings.
Trepashkin said in his prison letters that FSB officers possessed poisons that could be applied to a car's steering wheel, door handles, telephone receivers and elsewhere - some of which wouldn't leave a trace in the victim's body. He said Litvinenko could be the most recent of a number of people allegedly murdered by FSB poisons.
Trepashkin wrote that FSB Col. Viktor Shebalin met with him in August 2002 and asked him to join a group targeting Boris Berezovsky, a self-exiled Russian tycoon living in London, and Litvinenko.
Shebalin could not be located for comment.
Trepashkin said he refused to cooperate with the team, whose task was to "mop up" Berezovsky, Litvinenko and their accomplices.
When Trepashkin was tried on charges of divulging official secrets, Shebalin was the main witness for the prosecution. He denied divulging state secrets.
"It would seem ridiculous if it weren't so sad," Liptser said of the charges.
Trepashkin wrote bitterly that his case had remained largely out of public eye: "Litvinenko and I weren't the last victims of persecution. You keep silent? Any of you could be next in the line."
After 25 years of service, Art Hardin is out of a job and doesn'tknow where to turn.
He was one of 872 workers laid off last month when Quebecor WorldInc., the world's largest commercial printer of magazines, catalogsand newspaper circulars, shut its printing plant in Downstate Salem.More than a tenth of the town's population was left unemployed, andthe rest were left unnerved.
Auto-parts plants and other manufacturers in southern Illinoistowns have been cutting jobs this year to preserve profits as theU.S. economy stumbles.
"It's next to impossible to find a job down here," said the 57-year-old Hardin, who helped load pallets stacked with monthly issuesof Good Housekeeping and Cosmopolitan magazines.
"There aren't plants or factories sitting around on every corneraround here."
While manufacturing's slowdown isn't limited to smaller towns suchas Salem, it's particularly acute in rural areas because a singlefactory can make up such a big part of a small town's economy.
"For every one of these manufacturing jobs that you lose, there'sseveral on the service side that may be affected," said Salem MayorLeonard Ferguson. "It has a snowball effect."
Salem's real estate agents, child-care providers and car dealersare feeling the pinch.
The shutdown at Montreal-based Quebecor represented 11 percent ofthe town's population of 7,900 and 4.2 percent of the Marion Countyworkforce of 20,854. Those workers enter a labor market with an 8.1percent unemployment rate before the plant closing.
Manufacturers across the United States fired 389,000 workers inthe second quarter, the most since the first quarter of 1991 when449,000 factory workers lost their jobs in the midst of the lastrecession, according to the Labor Department. That's a reflection ofsluggish consumer and business demand.
U.S. industrial production fell 0.7 percent in June, extending aslump in manufacturing to nine months, the longest since a 10-monthdecline in 1982, a recession year.
The National Association of Purchasing Management's factory indexdropped to 43.6 in July from 44.7 in June. A reading below 50 signalscontraction, and the index has stayed in the 40s for a year.Manufacturing is "bouncing along the bottom," said Neal Soss, chiefeconomist at Credit Suisse First Boston in New York.
"The shutdown of a branch plant is a common headline in ruralAmerica," said Mark Drabenstott, director of the Center for the Studyof Rural America at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
The slowing Illinois economy is making conditions more difficultfor businesses in the state. The Illinois economy, the fourth-largest in the country, turned in its worst performance in nine yearsin July, a University of Illinois report showed.
The university's Flash Index--a weighted average of growth ratesin consumer spending, personal income and corporate earnings--fell to98.3 in July from 98.4 in June. A reading below 100 indicates thestate's economy contracted.
"A period of watchful waiting continues with the state economyhovering between recovery and recession," said J. Fred Giertz, aUniversity of Illinois economist and the author of the monthlyreport.
A drop in personal income tax and sales tax payments dragged theindex to its lowest reading since July 1992, a new low for a secondconsecutive month. The state's corporate tax collections roseslightly after falling in June.
"The economic environment in the U.S. continues to bechallenging," said Joseph Galli, chief executive of Newell RubbermaidInc., in a conference call with investors.
The Freeport-based company said its second-quarter profit fell 44percent, hurt by declining sales of Little Tikes toys and Graco babystrollers. In May, Newell said it would eliminate 3,000 jobs, or 6percent of its workforce, over three years to save $100 million ayear.
The manufacturing slowdown has helped push the Illinois joblessrate above 5 percent for four consecutive months after reaching afive-year high of 5.4 percent in April.
Quebecor shut the Salem plant to consolidate operations and savemoney, a recurring development in manufacturing this year.
National Textiles LLC, which produced fabric and yarn used by SaraLee Corp.'s Hanes underwear and Champion sportswear, is firing 480 asit closes its knitting plant in Gaffney, S.C., population 13,900.
Northwestern Steel & Wire Co., said in May it was going out ofbusiness and cutting 1,300 jobs in Downstate Sterling, population15,300. The company made rod, wire and semi-finished steel. Steelproduction in the United States has fallen about 20 percent in thepast year, according to the American Iron and Steel Institute.
Many rural towns focused economic development efforts onattracting large factories in the 1970s and 1980s, offering taxincentives to garner jobs, Drabenstott said.
Once the value of the plant is depreciated and the tax benefitsexhausted, "it is easy for the corporation to conclude that theymight as well get in this game again someplace else," he said.
"That's often a poor path to sustainable economic development," hesaid. "You are very much at the whim of a company whose headquartersis elsewhere." Towns should instead try to expand their own smallbusinesses and encourage local entrepreneurs, he said.
Quebecor's departure has shaken other businesses in Salem, thehometown of populist presidential candidate William Jennings Bryanand John T. Scopes, the Tennessee teacher who went to jail in the1920s for teaching the theory of evolution.
Dennis Suarez, who owns the Neighbor 2 Neighbor real estatecompany in Salem, said sales are down 10 percent to 15 percent fromthe same period last year. The Quebecor plant's closing "has trulyslowed down business here," he said. "This should be the best time ofthe year for us, but all big-ticket items--cars, real estate--they've all realized a big drop." In response, Suarez has cutspending on advertising for the three-year-old firm.
Earl M. White opened his Maxwell Motors car dealership just as theplant was closing. The shutdown has "negatively impacted us in termsof greater revenue and profitability," White said. "Families areconcerned about finding suitable employment."
Pat Jamison, director of a local day care provider, has lost "acouple" of customers.
"We haven't been affected that much, but it still hurts. It's alittle scary," she said. "Another lady was looking to open a day carein Salem. But she's having trouble getting funding because thatfactory closed. The lenders are concerned there isn't the demand thatthere used to be."
Bloomberg News
THE SELECTION OF FLOUR ALTERNATIVES HAS NEVER BEEN BIGGER OR BETTER
A diet free of gluten used to mean giving up baked goods. Luckily, it doesn't have to anymore. Nowadays gluten-free flour options abound-even for those on low-carb or hypoallergenic diets-and making gluten-free treats has never been easier.
Why Avoid Gluten?
Gluten is the collection of proteins found in many grainswheat, rye, barley, oats, spelt, kamut and triticale -providing the elasticity that helps hold dough together, trap air bubbles and make bread light and airy. The trouble is, not all people can tolerate gluten. At least one out of every 133 Americans reacts strongly enough to develop celiac disease, an autoimmune reaction that damages the small intestinal lining. An even higher number of people have gluten sensitivity-high levels of antibodies to gluten-but without the damage in the gut that characterizes celiac disease.
With both celiac disease and gluten sensitivity, symptoms ranging from gastrointestinal upset to nutrient deficiencies clear up when gluten is eliminated from the diet.
Options Galore
Enter gluten-free flours, a diverse group that allows gluten-intolerant people to have their cake and eat it, too. Options include flours made from gluten-free grains, beans and nuts. If one of these products doesn't work for a person because of other food sensitivities, chances are that another one will.
Rice, Bean and Starch-Based Flours
Multipurpose baking mixes without gluten are now widely available in health food stores. Brown rice flour, one of the most common ingredients, is combined with starches (such as potato starch or tapioca starch) for lightness, and bean flours (such as soy, chickpea or a chickpea/fava bean combination) for better texture and nutritional value. Some mixes may also include cornmeal, wild rice flour, almond meal or chestnut flour. Eggs or oil and a few other simple ingredients are all you add to these mixes to create a tasty baked good in a jiffy.
Another option for gluten-free shoppers is sorghum flour, made from the chewy, sweet-tasting grain by the same name.
Nut Flours
Trying to limit carbs for weight loss or medical reasons?
Then go a bit nutty with nut flours.
Flour-free nut tones are a decadent treat often found in upscale restaurants, along with nut flour-based cakes. Use at home to make your own version of treats like muffins, cookies, cakes and breads. Nut flours can also substitute for breadcrumbs in certain recipes.
You can buy ready-to-use almond flour or grind your own: Combine nuts such as almonds, hazelnuts, pecans or walnuts in a blender, about � cup at a time.
Nut flours add texture, richness and flavor to baked goods, and are excellent sources of vitamin E, magnesium, fiber and heart-healthy monounsaturated fats. Another benefit: Studies show that eating nuts regularly reduces the risk of heart disease, diabetes and macular degeneration, a common eye condition.
Coconut Flour
Coconut flour, the newest gluten-free, low-carb alternative, has a unique nutritional benefit: far more blood sugar-regulating and "help you feel full" fiber than any other flour-twice as much as wheat bran and four times as much as oat bran or soy flour, according to Cooking with Coconut Flour by Bruce Fife, ND.
Coconut flour also is a good flour substitute for people who are allergic to nuts, grains and/or beans. Coconuts are not related to other nuts, and few people are allergic to them.
By itself, coconut flour produces breads and cakes that are light, fluffy and moist-but it can't simply be substituted for equal amounts of wheat flour in standard recipes. Because of its sky-high fiber content, coconut flour performs differently from other flours, so follow recipes designed for that specific ingredient until you become accustomed to using it.
[Sidebar]
ARROWHEAD MILLS GLUTEN FREE ALL PURPOSE BAKING MIX includes brown rice flour, potato starch and fava bean flour for biscuits, waffles, breads and cookies.
NOW FOODS NATURAL, UNBLANCHED ALMOND FLOUR (100% almond flour) is a good low-carb alternative and an excellent source of essential fatty acids.
BOB'S RED MILL ALL PURPOSE GLUTEN FREE BAKING FLOUR contains garbanzo flour, potato starch, tapioca flour and fava flour for breakfast items and other baked goods.
PAMELA'S PRODUCTS ULTIMATE BAKING & PANCAKE MIX combines brown rice flour, cultured buttermilk and natural almond meal, among other ingredients.
[Sidebar]
A Gift from the Desert?
A traditional Native American food from the Southwest desert may provide an upcoming gluten-free alternative. Mesquite meal, from ripened, ground-up mesquite bean pods, is a fragrant flour low in carbs and fat and high in fiber. It is also a low-glycemic food, meaning it is digested and released as glucose slowly into the bloodstream over many hours. The meal is surprisingly sweet with a flavor that's slightly nutty, fruity and caramel-like.
Mesquite meal is a good source of calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, zinc and lysine-containing vegetable protein. It can be substituted for up to one-quarter of the flour in standard recipes.
[Author Affiliation]
By Melissa Diane Smith, Dipl. Nutr.
Hi Lo Otlk
Akron 84 57 PCldy
Charlotte 85 69 Cldy
Cincinnati 83 69 Rain
Cleveland 83 62 PCldy
Columbus,Ohio 85 67 Rain
Dayton 83 67 Rain
Daytona Beach 88 73 PCldy
Greensboro,N.C. 87 68 Cldy
Lexington 84 68 Rain
Louisville 86 72 Rain
Norfolk. 89 72 PCldy
Philadelphia 87 70 PCldy
Pittsburgh 83 60 PCldy
Raleigh-Durham 88 70 Cldy
Richmond 88 70 PCldy
Washington,D.C. 85 70 PCldy
Youngstown 84 57 PCldy
FEES and charges for Brentwood Council services - such as leisurefacilities - will increase by one per cent to offset a dramatic cutin revenue.
The council is looking to shave around Pounds 2.75 million fromits budget after being warned that its central Government settlementgrant will be slashed by 17 per cent next year and 13.5 per cent theyear after.
Residents have already been warned that some services will haveto go completely.
But to help further mitigate the cut - significantly higher thanthe average reduction of 9.9 per cent - the council is to increasecharges across a range of services, raising around Pounds 50,000.
Hartswood Golf Course prices are to go up by 50p per round.
The cost of using the paddling pools in King George's playingfields will rise from Pounds 1.10 to Pounds 1.50.
Local mum Lynsay Marder of Shevon Way, Brentwood, said: "Iregularly take my two children to the paddling pool in the summer. Aprice increase of 40p is quite steep, I won't be able to take themas often as I'd like."
Keen golfer Jon Atkinson, 28, of Billericay, frequently plays inthe Brentwood area said: "Me and my friends use the Hartswood coursea lot, I pay Pounds 15 to use it, but if there is a hefty price riseI'll go somewhere else."
Council leader Louise McKinlay said: "Initial figures show thisis the toughest settlement we have ever had to deal with.
"It is going to take some time to look at the full implicationsfor Brentwood.
"Government has only given us figures for the next two years,which also makes it difficult for us to do any accurate long-termplanning yet."
Pulmonary aspergillosis occurs in parenchymal cavities or ectatic airways. Aspergillus is a ubiquitous dimorphic fungus. It rarely affects healthy people with an intact immune response, but those with preexisting structural lung disease, atopy, occupational exposure or impaired immunity are susceptible.1 Aspergillosis can remain asymptomatic or present with hemoptysis, which can be life-threatening. In this report, we describe a patient who presented with an aspergilloma arising in a cavitating adenocarcinoma of the right lung.
Case presentation
A 54-year-old man, a smoker who was otherwise healthy, presented with history of cough productive of brownish sputum for 4 weeks. …
Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday its U.S. sales fell 24 percent in May from a year ago, but sales rose 20 percent from April as the automaker continues to gain market share from its competitors now under bankruptcy protection.
General Motors Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection Monday. Chrysler LLC, which filed in April, is preparing to exit bankruptcy protection under an operating agreement with Italian automaker Fiat SpA. Both automakers, and others, report their May U.S. sales results later Tuesday.
Dearborn-based Ford said it sold 161,197 cars and light trucks in the U.S. last month. Sales of the Ford Fusion rose 9.4 percent as the company began selling new …
WASHINGTON - Sales of existing homes fell for a fourth straight month in June and even a small increase in home prices was not enough to lift the gloom surrounding the housing industry.
The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of existing homes dropped by 3.8 percent in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.75 million units, the slowest sales pace in 4 1/2 years.
The median price of a new home edged up slightly to $230,300 in June, a 0.1 percent increase from the sales price a year ago. That was the first year-over-year price increase in 11 months but analysts cautioned that it would take more months to determine whether the downward trend in …
Sometimes, families just need a little room to grow. That's certainly been the case for the Jones automotive family of Arizona. The Joneses started with one store in Wickenburg, Ariz. Now they have four dealerships in three central Arizona locations, with Ron Jones, 49, and his brother Tom Jones, 55, sharing ownership. The Jones Auto Centers include a store in Buckeye, 40 miles west of Phoenix; the original location in Wickenburg, 55 miles northwest of Phoenix; and two dealerships in Casa Grande, 50 miles south of Phoenix. Each location includes a Ford dealership. Wickenburg also handles Mercury, Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep. Casa Grande has Lincoln Mercury, plus a separate dealership that handles Oldsmobile, Buick and GMC. ``My brother manages …
Byline: JUSTIN MARTIN
During the reign of Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi newspaper Azzaman could only be published in London. Fleeing the government's muscular arm in the 1990s, the newspaper's founder, former Saddam aide Saad al-Bazzaz, was forced to run his media operation out of Europe for nearly a decade.
But after Saddam's expulsion in 2003, al-Bazzaz set up offices in Baghdad, and he has since been busy running what is considered Iraq's most credible Arabic publication. With a daily circulation of more than 75,000, Azzaman is a modern journalistic success story and a publication that has added greater depth to the political debate in Iraq.
Among …
Fannie M. Ricci, 86, of Maplewood Manor died Sunday at the manor after a long illness.
Mrs. Ricci was born and educated in Watervliet. She lived in Troy for many years before moving to Waterford in 1970. She resided at Maplewood Manor for two years.
Mrs. Ricci and her late husband operated Rick's Tavern on Seventh Avenue in Troy for a number of years before retiring in 1970. In her earlier years, she had been employed at the former Forman & Clark Co. in Troy.
Mrs. Ricci was a communicant of St. Patrick's Church in Troy.
She was the widow of Joseph P. Ricci Sr.
Survivors include five …
Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso has announced a 30 trillion yen ($300 billion) stimulus package and credits to bolster the country's economy.
Aso said Thursday the package would include loans and credits for small and medium-sized businesses, a reduction in highway tolls and 2 trillion …
``The White House in Miniature'' a 60-foot-long scale model (1inch per foot) of the White House, constructed by hand, is on displaythis year, the Executive Mansion's 200th anniversary, at the NationalBuilding Museum in Washington, D.C.
The dollhouse-size replica, constantly updated, has working TVsets, phones that ring, a burbling outdoor fountain, functional rice-size light bulbs, authentic custom-whittled furniture, computermonitors on which you can read such constituent names as ``G.P.Cutie'' and even eensy-weensy framed photographs of Hillary andChelsea.
Two additional models are …
George Foster Peabody, whose name the awards bear, was born in Columbus, Ga. He became a highly successful New York investment banker who devoted much of his fortune to education and social enterprise. Mr. Peabody was especially interested in the state university of his native Georgia and made significant contributions to the university's library, the War Memorial Fund and the development of the School of Forestry. Along with his business partner Spencer Trask and Mr. Trask's wife, Katrina, Mr. Peabody helped found Yaddo, the famous …
GARY Thompson, chairman of Buxton Boxing Club presents the shield for the most improved boxer to Simone Golden, watched by …
Byline: BRENDAN LYONS Staff writer
What looked like a slam dunk drug courier case has presented investigators with a tough moral dilemma.
A mentally disabled Brooklyn teenager who police think was duped into carrying a shipment of heroin to Albany on board a bus is now trapped in a legal quagmire as investigators Friday worked to track down his family and evaluate his mental capacity.
The sheriff's investigators don't want the young man treated like a criminal. But now that the teen is in custody on felony drug charges his quick release is not a certainty.
``This kid isn't that sharp,'' said Albany County Sheriff's Inspector John Burke. ``I made an arrest, but that doesn't mean I have to proceed with it.''
The boy, who is charged as a juvenile, remains in …
Byline: Catherine Clabby Staff writer
Michael Rickman, for two years engaged in a battle with city officials over two Jefferson Street buildings, complied with a agreement he made in January and gave up ownership of the buildings.
If Rickman had failed to do so, he risked being jailed by City Court Judge Madonna Stahl.
Rickman told Stahl he had filed new deeds for 126 and 128 Jefferson St. in the Albany County Courthouse just minutes before his morning appearance in City Court. He turned ownership over to Ralph Catroppa and Anthony Mustari Sr., whom he said hold mortgages on the properties.
A city building official on Friday prepared an …
Andrea Fischbacher of Austria led after the opening super-G portion of a World Cup super-combined event Friday, with Lindsey Vonn of the United States in second place.
Fischbacher finished in 1 minute, 16.28 seconds on the Corviglia piste, 0.33 seconds ahead of Vonn.
"It's just a really great feeling," the 24-year-old Fischbacher said. "It was a really good run."
Julia Mancuso of the United States, who started wearing bib No. 50, was third and had 0.87 to make up in the afternoon slalom leg.
Vonn was given an unexpected chance to extend her lead in the overall standings when Maria Riesch of Germany skied out near …
NEW YORK - John Maine took a three-hit shutout into the eighth inning to earn his second win in eight starts, pitching the New York Mets to an 8-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins on Monday night.
Carlos Delgado homered and Maine (7-4) limited Minnesota to four hits over 7 1-3 innings as the NL East leaders won for only the fourth time in 16 games this month.
Delgado, who batted just .189 on the Mets' 2-7 road trip, gave New York the lead with his 11th home run in the second inning. He connected on a 1-1 pitch from starter Carlos Silva (4-8).
Two innings later, Delgado singled and reached third on a double by Shawn Green, who went 3-for-22 on the road trip. …
* A story on Page 1 of the Oct. 29 issue contained several errors:
The story inaccurately described changes in Ford Motor Co.'s dividend. Ford's third-quarter dividend was 30 cents per share, compared with 50 cents in the year-ago quarter. Ford cut its fourth-quarter dividend in half, to 15 cents per share.
The story misidentified the auto industry analyst for Burnham Securities Inc. in New York. He is David Healy.
In some editions, the story incorrectly reported details of the combined net cash position of Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler. The companies have burned through more than $12 billion in the last nine months, …
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
A: Extreme CCTV's EX85 Megapixel IP Imager is now compatible with products from OnSSI. A culmination of today's most advanced imaging tecnnologies, me EX85 incorporates dual megapixel sensors. …
Byline: -- Associated Press
MOSCOW -- Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin's government pledged Monday it will no longer fall behind in paying wages, attempting to ease tensions before a nationwide workers protest.
Hundreds of thousands of Russians weary of broken promises and the government's apparent inability to end an economic crisis could take part in demonstrations planned Wednesday for cities, towns and factories across the country.
Teachers are one of the groups …
Prince Fielder says he doesn't care if Atlanta's pitchers are aiming for him as long as his Brewers keep winning.
Corey Hart hit a three-run double in Milwaukee's five-run seventh, Fielder homered before he was hit by a pitch for the second straight game, and the Brewers beat the Braves 6-3 on Saturday night.
Chris Narveson tossed six effective innings to outpitch Tim Hudson as Milwaukee earned its second straight win after losing the opener of the four-game series.
Fielder hit his 21st homer in the Brewers' big seventh and was plunked in the eighth, leading to ejections for Braves reliever Jonny Venters and manager Bobby Cox. Tommy Hanson hit …
THE CASE FOR A NEW BANK TAX:
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has been in gun-slinging mode recently, striding out to defend Canada's banks against the mandarins at the International Monetary Fund. They want the G-20 governments to impose a new bank tax to help pay for the bailouts and deficits that resulted from the global financial crisis. But Flaherty is having no part of it.
Before a supportive hometown crowd on Bay Street, he denounced the idea of "excessive, arbitrary, punitive" taxes on Canadian banks, who have weathered the financial storm with flying colours. (Of course, that $200 billion low-interest line of credit from Ottawa helped just a bit.) "We're not going to …
(ADPnews) - May 21, 2010 - Fitch confirmed Thursday UK electricity and gas network operator National Grid's (LON:NG) long-term issuer default rating (IDR) of BBB with a "stable" outlook, its senior unsecured BBB+ rating and the short-term IDR of F2.
The agency also decided to keep the long-term IDRs of A- with a "stable" outlook assigned to National Grid Electricity Transmission plc (NGET), National Grid Gas plc (NGG) and National Grid Gas Holding plc (NGGH), as well as their short-term IDRs of F2.
The affirmation is based on Fitch's expectation that NG's credit metrics will not worsen on a mid-term scale following its announcement with respect to higher …
RENSSELAER -- A state-approved safe boating class will be held from 6 to 10 p.m. Tuesday, July 25, and Wednesday, July 26, at the Boys and Girls Club of Southern Rensselaer County, 544 Broadway. This eight-hour course is mandatory for youths ages 10 to 20 who operate a personal watercraft. Successful completion of this course can save one up to 15 percent off on all boat liability, collision and personal injury protection.
The cost is free for ages 10 through 17 if accompanied by a paying family member and $50 for ages 18 and older. A portion of the fee will benefit the club. Class size is limited.
For more information and to register, call Catherine at the …
