West Wales Farmers Bloodhounds

DECEMBER 18 last year saw a very different country scene wheresnow and ice had stopped all hunting for some six weeks before thefestive break.

Not the case this year, as the pre-season hunting kicked off witha short hack to the first lines. Hunters ready for a day's jumpingand crossing country behind hounds, set out from the Pant y BwlchSquare.

With hounds on form and hunting their live quarry well, the threeCardigan Club runners, including veteran runner Gordon Ormes set achallenging course to hunt.

Field Masters Katie Hall and Vicky Haines took the field …

Sheehan Considers Challenge to Pelosi

CRAWFORD, Texas - Six weeks after announcing her departure from the peace movement, Cindy Sheehan said Sunday that she plans to run against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unless she introduces articles of impeachment against President Bush in the next two weeks.

Sheehan said she will run against the San Francisco Democrat in 2008 as an independent if Pelosi does not seek by July 23 to impeach Bush. That's when Sheehan and her supporters are to arrive in Washington, D.C., after a 13-day caravan and walking tour starting next week from the group's war …

Paraguay president hit with $104 traffic ticket

Fernando Lugo occupies Paraguay's highest office, but he's not above the rules of the road.

Police issued the bishop-turned-president a $104 traffic ticket Friday for illegal passing and failing to keep his driver's license up to date, highway transit chief Eduardo Petta said.

Petta told Nanduti radio he was accompanying officers in the field when they stopped a black Ford Explorer without license plates after it passed another vehicle illegally on a highway south of the capital.

"When I got up to the vehicle, I saw that President Lugo himself was behind the wheel," Petta said. "I explained why I had pulled him over and asked for …

RESEARCH

HELP FOR HEARTBURN

Heartburn, that unpleasant burning sensation in the chest thatcomes when you can't believe you ate the whole thing, may becontrolled by rolling over in bed, Philadelphia gastroenterologistshave shown. Ten percent of the American population has heartburnevery day and about $1 billion is spent annually on over-the-countercures and $3 billion on prescription remedies. Donald Castell, chiefof medicine at Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia, and associate LeoKatz wrote 103 heartburn specialists, asking which was worse inproducing heartburn: to lie on your right side or your left side.Forty-five said they didn't know; 27 said the right side is worse.Then …

Reforming the Nuclear Fuel Cycle: Time Is Running Out

Revelations earlier this decade about Iran's clandestine nuclear activities reignited global concerns that the spread of such sensitive fuel-cycle technology would lead to nuclear weapons proliferation. In a 2003 Economist op-ed, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei proposed that the time was right to re-examine multilateral approaches to the nuclear fuel cycle.1

Similar studies had already been undertaken in the 1970s and 1980s but had not produced concrete results.2 Nonetheless, states responded with a plethora of proposals aimed at thwarting the unchecked spread of uranium-enrichment and spent fuel reprocessing technologies, for example, …

WORLD at 1000GMT

NEW THIS DIGEST:

IRAQ-SUICIDE. Woman suicide bomber kills 3, wounds 12.

UGANDA-GADHAFI. Libyan leader Gadhafi to inaugurate mosque in Uganda.

FRANCE-IRAQ-TERROR PROBE. 7 go on trial accused of recruiting for Iraqi insurgency.

PAKISTAN-NEW SPEAKER. Pakistan set to elect first woman speaker.

NIGERIA-OIL UNREST. Wife of Nigerian politician kidnapped.

TOP STORIES:

CHINA-TIBET

BEIJING _ Chinese officials blast the Dalai Lama as a "wolf in monk's robes" and says protests among Tibetans this month have sparked a life-and-death struggle between China and followers of the exiled Tibetan …

Low-key Lawrie won't be worried by the tiger heat

Aberdeen's Paul Lawrie will make an emotional return toCarnoustie tomorrow for the 136th Open Championship. The hero of 1999took time …

Hirtech offers studio time

Dennis Fahnestock was searching for a way to attract new business to his photographic equipment store just north of Lancaster city. It occurred to him that holding photography classes could create new customers and give them a reason to seek out his store.

That idea led to the establishment of a photography studio and darkroom next door to the salesroom for Hirtech Inc., Fahnestock's business in the Moore Business Park at 780 Eden Road, Manheim Township. The studio was completed about eight months ago, and the darkroom about two months ago.

Fahnestock's new facilities have already made a hit with local amateur and professional photographers seeking to learn more about the …

Lawyer Alan Dershowitz to depose Radovan Karadzic

U.S. criminal defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz says he plans to submit testimony from former Bosnian Serb political leader and war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic to present as evidence in a related case at the U.N. Yugoslav Tribunal.

Dershowitz is helping defend Momcilo Krajisnik, the former speaker of the Bosnian Serb parliament, who is appealing a 27-year-sentence for persecution, extermination and the murder of …

SPORTS ON TV

BASKETBALL

8:30 p.m. - New York Knicks at Chicago Bulls WGN

Noon Saturday - DePaul at Florida ESPN

2 p.m. Saturday - Penn at Penn State Fox-Pittsburgh

3:30 p.m. Saturday - Kentucky at North Carolina WOWK

4 p.m. Saturday - Tennessee at West Virginia Fox-Pittsburgh

BOXING

9 p.m. - Friday Night Fights, Angel Manfredy vs. Carlos RamirezESPN2

10 p.m. - Boxing After Dark, champion Bernard Hopkins vs. AntwunEchols for IBF middleweight title; champion Marco Antonio Barrera vs. Jesus Salud for WBO super bantamweight title HBO FOOTBALL

Noon Saturday - Army vs. Navy WOWK

1 p.m. Saturday - MAC championship game, W. Michigan …

10 Dead in Mo. Group Home Fire

ANDERSON, Mo. - An early morning fire broke out in a group home for the elderly and mentally ill Monday, killing 10 people and injuring two dozen others in a blaze that the governor said was being treated as a crime.

The blaze reduced the privately run Anderson Guest House to a skeleton of cinder blocks and stunned this rural community of about 1,800 people tucked in the Ozark hills of southwest Missouri.

Gov. Matt Blunt said investigators were treating the fire as suspicious.

"We're not saying it is definitely a crime scene, but we are treating it as if it is and trying to determine if the fire was set by somebody who had a nefarious motive," Blunt said.

…

US dollar higher against Japanese yen in late afternoon trade

The dollar was trading at 112.42 yen at 4:50 p.m. (0750 GMT) Friday, up from 112.21 yen late …

Review: Musical 'The Road to Qatar!' swerves badly

NEW YORK (AP) — Exclamation points in the title of musicals are usually a promise of fun, merry confection ahead. Think "Oklahoma!" or "Hello, Dolly! or "Mamma Mia!"

That's definitely not the case with "The Road to Qatar!" — a bad musical that is based on the creators' real experience writing an apparently even worse musical for the emir of Qatar in 2005.

The exclamation point is meant to capture the zany fun of a Bob Hope-Bing Crosby road movie. But what opened Thursday at off-Broadway's York Theatre Company is a frantic, groan-producing embarrassment. No punctuation can save it.

Sample lyric: "There's a place where oil is pumpin'/That's the place I know I wanna sit my rump in!"

Sample joke: "Paula Abdul. She from Middle East. I talk to her father, Abdul Abdul."

The musical is supposed to be a lighthearted look at how composer David Krane and lyricist Stephen Cole — "two short Jews," as they describe themselves in the show — were commissioned to create "Aspire," the first American musical to premiere in the Middle East.

In "Aspire," the duo were force-fed a ridiculous plot, and producers insisted the work had to have camels, pearl diving, ancient Greece and Muhammad Ali, among other topics. The two completed the musical in a Dubai hotel in just five weeks and then quickly lost control of it. The show that opened had 100 imported actors, dozens of camels and fire-eating jugglers, all accompanied by a 70-piece orchestra.

It was apparently quite horrible — a vanity project gone mad — and yet Krane and Cole compounded the error with their own vanity project by creating "The Road to Qatar!" It seems like it came out of a frat house — and should have stayed there.

It's gamely sung and acted by a five-member cast trying hard. James Beaman and Keith Gerchak play the creative duo, while Bill Nolte, Sarah Stiles and Bruce Warren play a series of other roles, mostly Arab.

Under the direction of Phillip George, they plow through 16 musical numbers and one reprise in just 90 minutes. The best song, it turns out, is not from this musical at all but is the theme song from the original show.

If anything, "The Road to Qatar!" is a live-action Looney Tunes cartoon, complete with offensive stereotypes of Egyptians, Lebanese, Indians, Qataris, Italians, Jews — the list goes on. Perhaps the creators thought making fun of everyone would be hysterically daffy, but the jokes are so crude as to be offensive.

Nolte, Stiles and Warren have great timing and obvious physical comedy skills, but they are wasted with this sophomoric material. In one scene, an Air India flight attendant hands our heroes a bag of food. "Here is your curried curry balls with a curry sauce. The choice of wines is red and curry." There also are camel jokes, "Walk Like an Egyptian" dancing, terrorism jokes and blowup palm trees.

Those old Hope-Crosby road movies look positively politically correct by comparison. At a time when Egyptians are dying on the streets of Cairo and turmoil bubbles in other parts of the region, "The Road to Qatar!" is out of place, a throwback — and not in a good way.

It should have been the road not taken. Put an exclamation point on that!

___

Online:

http://www.yorktheatre.org

Anglican-Ottawa deal over native schools

The federal government and the Anglican Church of Canada have come up with a plan to settle native lawsuits over residential schools. The Anglican church will pay $25 million over five years to a compensation fund; the government's share is estimated at $60 million. This is for claims of abuse only. The church says it will contest claims over cultural and language loss. The agreement has been sent to dioceses for ratification. The legal wrangling was bankrupting Anglican coffers--one West Coast diocese had to shut down last year. The United and Presbyterian churches have not yet worked out deals with the government over schools they helped run.--From December United Church Observer

Spanish cemetery warns of evictions for nonpayment

MADRID (AP) — Pushed for space, a Spanish cemetery has begun placing stickers on thousands of burial sites whose leases are up as a warning to relatives or caretakers to pay up or face possible eviction.

Jose Abadia, deputy urban planning manager for northern Zaragoza city, said Monday the city's Torrero municipal graveyard had removed remains from some 420 crypts in recent months and removed them to a common burial ground.

Torrero, like many Spanish cemeteries, no longer allows people to buy grave sites. It instead leases them out for periods of five or 49 years.

Abadia said the cases involved graves whose leases had not been renewed for 15 years or more. He said Torrero currently had some 7,000 burial sites with lapsed leases out of a total of some 114,000.

He said leases generally lapsed because the relatives or caretakers had died or had moved house and failed to renew the contract. He said in other cases, with the passing of years family descendants sometimes no longer wanted to pay for further leases.

He said the policy was a matter graveyard management and that graveyards were not limitless in space.

"If we keep on building and building spaces for human remains, where are we going to end up?" said Abadia. "It's a problem that is affecting big city cemeteries more and more."

The graveyard began looking for payment defaulters over the past two years. Abadia said the process of trying to notify relatives or caretakers and giving them a chance to decide what to do normally takes up to six months.

"We're not doing it to make money or empty graves but rather to improve management," said Abadia.

The sticker campaign was decided upon to coincide with the Nov. 1 Roman Catholic holiday on which people visit graveyards. Abadia said that since then hundreds of people had called to make inquiries about grave of their relatives.

Nowadays, Spanish cemeteries normally place coffins or cremated ash urns in niches above ground.

Census is a waste of money

Michael Sneed's story on census sportswear outrage over foreign products made me cringe ["Census outrage," April 13].

Buying the lowest-priced item is called "good business practice."

What is wrong with buying items from Haiti, China or Bangladesh? As I recall, we are trying to help those countries. If the cost of labor was not so high in America, perhaps the U.S. Census would buy its T-shirts here.

What I'm outraged about is with 10 percent unemployment, our government is spending more than $14 billion dollars of taxpayer money on this census.

By using existing government databases, a more accurate count could be done for a fraction of the cost.

The census redistricts congressional seats. We don't need a bunch of cheap T-shirts and hats to do that.

Mark Weyermuller,

Wilmette

Narrow Scope: Carreker Changes Itself to Manage PeopleSoft

Carrekera $110.3-million-a-year provider of software and consulting to banks bought software around which it could organize itself. The company found that the best way to manage that choice was to change itself, not its software or its vendor.

The keys to accomplishing that feat: Narrowing the scope of what it was trying to do and changing some of its own business processes to meet the needs of the software.

The company agreed to install PeopleSoft8 - including Human Resources, Financials, Customer Relationship Management, and Enterprise Services Automation - on the condition that the software, out of the box, could handle at least 80% of its needs.

Then it began changing its own business processes, many of which were manual, to accommodate PeopleSoft. Expense reports, for example, would no longer be passed from employee to employee; they would be entered into the system once and be available online.

I and several people on my team have been through these [projects] before, says senior vice president Lori Faris. We said, What's the alternative?'

When workflows are nonexistent and done manually, don't customize; narrow the scope and use the tool on hand.

Faris says she and several of her team members learned big- company project-management techniques in previous jobs at Electronic Data Systems; other team members brought similar experiences from working at IBM.

So far, she says, the key to meeting deadlines and budgets at Carreker has been the team's ability to define precisely what happens if PeopleSoft can't be used out of the box: which workflows are affected and which applications must be customized. It's also had to set a schedule for making those changes and track them against the original plan. HR software was brought up in 50 days, an employee portal in six weeks.

We don't have every bell and whistle, but we're adding them as needed, Faris says.

Carreker works with PeopleSoft development and PeopleSoft Consulting, which itself uses PeopleSoft8. The three-way interplay helps managers within Carreker sort out which of their business processes are so unique or critical that they justify customizing the software.

Hany Soliman, director of mid-market consulting for PeopleSoft, says Carreker senior management examines all exceptions - such as who has authority to approve expense accounts - to the processes provided by PeopleSoft.

When you're implementing PeopleSoft, it could be a 20-year commitment, he says. It has to involve senior management visionaries within the corporation to think how they want the product to look in several years.

Many more customers are trying to avoid customizations now than they were two years ago, Soliman says, but he adds that the level of involvement of Carreker's senior management is still unusual. He says the 80-20 rule that Carreker insisted on is PeopleSoft's goal, but it can't be achieved by all customers.

I think in the past it was always whatever the end-user wanted, Soliman says. We tried to make recommendations, but often the end- user would win. We've now learned it's more of a joint effort to determine what's crucial and what's not.

Carreker began implementing PeopleSoft software in November 2000, and the companies meet once a week at least. Each side sends a project manager, along with product leads who represent elements of the implementation such as financial, technical, HR, and eCenter (PeopleSoft's hosting center), and they bring in other employees as needed.

On Carreker's side, Soliman says, the product leads are high- level employees such as the controller or the human resources vice president. These are decision-makers who can give immediate direction on how the project should be planned, how resources should be allocated, how other employees can be persuaded to lend their support.

Yet Faris broke one cardinal rule of project management: She didn't establish hard-and-fast development deadlines at the outset. Instead, she assigned seasons for completing phases of the PeopleSoft project.

I don't give them a date until I have enough documentation and buy- in from everybody, she says. Once you set a date, that's what you have to live with.

Team members - be they from Carreker or PeopleSoft - also strive not to blame others when something goes wrong but to focus instead on communicating clearly and directly while keeping their emotions in check.

That attitude helped Carreker work through a difficult decision: whether to handle payroll in-house or job it out.

Carreker had been using an outside service, but bringing it in- house would help PeopleSoft8 work better.

Outsourcing payroll would have required several interfaces to be developed which could complicate system maintenance and future upgrades as well as impact real-time features of the system, Soliman says.

Moving Carreker's business processes to the Web has saved hundreds of hours per month in employees' time, but Faris' big challenge still is getting people to change their ways and feel comfortable using the new software. Carreker employees go through change management courses 20 people at a time to learn PeopleSoft; power users get special training.

In effect, Carreker is managing PeopleSoft by managing itself in new ways. But if PeopleSoft did not respond to its narrowed scope of requests and requirements, Faris would not hesitate to address the issue.

We know [PeopleSoft CEO] Craig Conway; we know we can escalate to the top, says Faris. We haven't had to do it yet.

Assessing outcomes of surgical procedures

The article in this issue by Young and her colleagues (page 188) is an important one and appropriate for readers of the Journal. The authors' objectives were to review the appropriate literature and to identify those patient factors that would correlate with functional outcome and prosthesis survival after total hip arthroplasty. In their introduction they note that the literature was difficult to assess because of methodologic flaws, heterogeneous observations and variable reporting methods. They found it impossible to conduct a metaanalysis, which they considered the preferred methodology for presenting this type of information. Their findings are extremely well presented and appear reliable. Their conclusions are logical and important.

In conjunction with the difficulties in reviewing the orthopedic literature, Young's group also noted that the definition of an outcome is inconsistent, and they tacitly imply that the way in which different patients define a desirable outcome may differ. They included prosthesis survival because it is the most commonly reported outcome. If one defines prosthesis survival as those prostheses not requiring revision, then revision is the least controversial outcome measure and the most comparable factor between studies. It is important to note that prosthesis survival may not represent a satisfactory outcome for the patient and that the definition of prosthesis survival as the major outcome variable is a necessary but not a sufficient way to define an adequate outcome.

Long-term outcomes must be studied systematically so that several alternatives may be compared. There is inadequate clinical research with statistically acceptable methods and focus to consider variations in practice and to achieve objective evidence-based decision-making or efficient high-quality evaluation. Patient-oriented results must consider symptoms, function, quality of life (QOL) and patient satisfaction. QOL has many definitions but must permit multifactorial considerations and patient differences and must be disease dependent. These QOL outcome measures must also allow for different and often changing priorities for the patients over time.

The World Health Organization defines QOL as a state of complete physical and social well-being not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.1 The question of who should measure QOL - the doctor or the patient - is important. Patient-selected QOL measures usually focus on physical, psychological and interpersonal well-being, and QOL scales must be divided into disease-specific, function-- specific and population-specific domains. Health-related QOL studies must reflect these 3-dimensional domains: objective, subjective and health specific. The objective QOL domain encompasses general health and functional status, along with social status, whereas the subjective domain deals with life satisfaction and measures of self esteem.

We must attempt, in our assessment of treatments, to ask and be sensitive to the question "What do these patients really want?" These QOL domains resolve into physical states and functional abilities as follows: psychological status and well-being, social interactions, and the impact of the disease and the treatment on economic status. Measurement tools may be broad and empiric or specific to symptoms, functions and population, but in all cases, the health-related QOL measurement tools must be assessed for reproducibility, validity and responsiveness. Outcome instruments, usually questionnaires, must assess the clinical factors of interest, account for the fact that over time what is important to the patient changes in relation to current physical, psychological and physiologic status. Generally, the domains in health-related QOL that are of greatest importance to young people are social (friends), emotional, sexual, sports, recreational and financial. These priorities change with age, physical ability and disability, sex and the extent of the surgery performed, along with any diagnostic criteria. Generally speaking, physical activity is 2 to 3 times more important than pain and emotional concerns. When we critically analyse the available literature on this subject, we recognize that patient priorities differ according to demographics, disease, the physical and functional deficit and the duration of follow-up.

When performed by experienced surgeons, total joint arthroplasty gives excellent results and often a variety of improvements in different outcome measurements. The impact of the outcome of the procedure on the QOL of our patients must be evaluated, compared and reported.

The type of analysis put forward by Young and colleagues is timely and critical because of the contiued interest in functional outcome measures for frequently performed and costly surgical interventions. The authors have combed the literature for key performance indicators and have concluded that despite the limitations of the existing literature, several patient factors appear to affect the outcome of total hip arthroplasty. These factors may be important for heightening clinician awareness of patient factors and how they might be associated with outcomes of total hip arthroplasty, for educating journal readers about the various ways in which these patient factors could mediate outcomes, for highlighting areas of controversy, which are many in this field, and for providing the impetus, justification and focus for future research into patient factors that may predict outcome after total hip arthroplasty. All these objectives and purposes combine to make this an extremely relevant article. Further, the article is well written, clear, succinct and extremely well referenced. It will also be relevant to journal readers outside of orthopedics, since these questions are being asked in other areas of surgery.

[Reference]

Reference

[Reference]

1. WHO Expert Committee on Cancer Pain Relief and Active Supportive Care. Cancer pain relief and pallative care: report of a WHO expert committee. no. 804 of Technical Reports series. Geneva: World Health Organization; 1990.

[Author Affiliation]

Professor, Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Calgary, Calgary, Alta Member, Editorial Board, Canadian Journal of Surgery.

Correspondence to: Dr. Norman S. Schachar, Professor, Department of Surgery, Division of Orthopedics, Heritage Medical Research Building, 436-3330 Hospital Dr. NW, Calgary AB T2N 4N1

Blues' anxious wait

Chelsea cruised into the quarter-finals of the Champions Leagueby defeating Olympiacos but the evening was soured by news of anankle injury to Petr Cech.

The 25-year-old goalkeeper was not involved in the 3-0 win overthe Greeks and was expected to have a scan today to determine theextent of the problem he picked up in training.

"We hope it won't be for long," said Chelsea boss Avram Grant.

Carlo Cudicini, Cech's deputy, had a straightforward return toaction as Chelsea joined Arsenal and Manchester United in the lasteight of Europe's elite club competition.

Michael Ballack headed in an early opener to establish a leadafter the first-leg stalemate, then Frank Lampard tapped in a secondand Salomon Kalou added a third just after the break.

Although Olympiacos were woeful, Chelsea's result was anotherresponse after the recent Carling Cup final defeat to Tottenham.

"I have confidence in my team," said Grant.

"I have had full confidence in the team, even though most of thepeople didn't believe we would have a good year.

"So far it has been a good development and that pleases me morethan the results."

Lampard was upset after picking up a second-half booking fordiving, and he protested his innocence after the final whistle.

"The referee said it was because I threw my arms up," Lampardsaid.

"I was asking for a penalty but I don't mind not being given apenalty.

"But to call me a diver, that's not the way I play and it'sunfortunate because it puts me on a yellow."

PLUS NEWS

BURNING WEST: Firefighters finally made headway against the largestand most persistent of several Western fires, but lost groundelsewhere as dozens of new blazes burned in Washington and six otherstates. Thousands of firefighters were able to extend fire linesaround two-thirds of the 116,000-acre Tyee Creek fire in centralWashington. In all, about 18,000 firefighters were battling 37 majorfires. HAIRY ISSUE: The U.S. Justice Department wants a judge to reconsidera ruling allowing The Citadel to shave Shannon Faulkner's head whenshe enters the South Carolina military school's cadet corps. And ifU.S. District Judge C. Weston Houck will not do that, the departmentsays, the judge should delay his order until the issue can beappealed. Faulkner is expected to report to campus Aug. 15, but anyappeal could delay her entrance into the corps. JERUSALEM VISIT: King Hussein is planning to visit Jerusalem for thefirst time since Jordan lost the eastern part of the holy city toIsrael in the 1967 Middle East War, Jordanian sources said. Thesources said the visit would take place "soon" after the inaugurationMonday of a four-mile highway linking the Red Sea port city of Aqabawith the Israeli port of Eilat. They did not specify a date. ATTACK CONDEMNED: Lebanon strongly condemned an Israeli air raidThursday that killed two children and five others. Prime MinisterRafik Hariri called it a "new link in the chain of Israeliaggression." Israel issued a highly unusual apology for the Thursdayraid in which a jet fired a missile into a two-story house in thissouth Lebanese village of 9,000. The attack, which Israel was amistake, wounded 17 people, all civilians, police said. CLINTON ON ECONOMY: President Clinton used a rain-interrupted RoseGarden ceremony to claim credit for the nation's good health on thefirst anniversary of the passage of his economic program. The billraised taxes on the wealthiest Americans and set in motion a processto slash $500 billion from the deficit over five years. Clinton saidthe measure "helped drive those interest rates down and got thiseconomy moving again." CLINTON ON CRIME: President Clinton lashed out at the National RifleAssociation for blocking a House vote on anti-crime legislation,saying they sought to "let procedures get in the way of saving thelives and the future of the United States." He complained that eightdays after congressional negotiators agreed on compromise crimelegislation, foes are blocking a final vote in the House. Supportersof the bill have been unable to muster enough votes to approve a rulethat must be in place before the legislation, which includes some guncontrol provisions, can come up for a vote. ON ALERT: Restive forces led by Russia's most popular and outspokengeneral, Alexander Lebed, went on alert in the former Soviet republicof Moldova in response to reports he had been ousted by Moscow. Inordering all commissioned and noncommissioned officers to stay in thebarracks with their troops, the 14th Army commanders were apparentlydefying Moscow, which wants to withdraw the army from Moldova'sTrans-Dniester region.

JOE ANDOE

JOE ANDOE

FEIGEN CONTEMPORARY

"All of us had police records, some more than me. But still, before I was sixteen, I got busted for acid and was put in jail over night on two hits of it. Then I got arrested for driving under-age and had to work at the zoo. At sixteen I got a car that I totaled and went on to total three more and was charged with DWI, DUI, and reckless driving and busted for drugs three more times before I was done being a teenager."

New York painter Joe Andoe's confessional short story "Out on the Perimeter" (2004), reproduced as an introductory wall text, set the stage for a collection of suitably rough-hewn canvases dominated by scenes of the artist's teenage bad-boy antics in late-'60s and early-'70s Tulsa. Interspersing images of stripped-down cars bombing down rural highways at night with sultry portraits of girls in various states of undress and intoxication, Andoe conjured a darkside Americana familiar from the work of Larry Clark and Harmony Korine (specifically Clark's "Tulsa" photographs, 1963-71, and the duo's collaboration on Kids [1995]), David Lynch's postmodern road movies Wild at Heart (1990) and Lost Highway (1997), and the sex 'n' death novels of Dennis Cooper.

Andoe's vision is cinematic in its wide-angled viewpoint but has none of the smooth texture of celluloid. Rendered in muted dark or sepia-toned oils, the application of which veers unpredictably from smeared impasto to dry scrub (images are often made by wiping paint off the surface of the canvas rather than layering it on), these pictures suggest photographs bleached by the desert sun or found lying half-buried by the side of the road. The fuzzy grays of his image of a speeding white car and the violent reds of his depiction of a siren in jean shorts leaning back on a bed point to a use of color that is at once rigidly disciplined and richly evocative, worn down to the bare essentials. A three-dimensional equivalent might be Richard Prince's "Hood Paintings," 2003-2004, in which the titular car parts are given a painterly "weather-beaten" patina. Andoe's compositions too are stark and focused, his backgrounds largely restricted to fore-boding skies streaked with high clouds, his figures stylized and silent.

Invariably, the people Andoe paints-drawn from personal and cultural memory-exude a noirish cool. In one large portrait, a woman's face appears, like the image in a locket, framed in an oval cloud of paint and surrounded by a dreamy pastel blue haze. Another depicts a waiflike creature, hair cascading over her bare breasts, clutching a brew with both hands. The landscapes inhabited by these characters are distinctively Oklahoman-expansive, and troubled by history only as it is made manifest in gradual economic decline-yet their openness is consistently upset by an echoing melancholia and the possibility of imminent disaster. Andoe's study of an unnamed lake feels more like a crime scene than a pastoral idyll; the foliage might hide some terrible evidence, and that water looks as hard and dry as gunmetal. A painting of an empty road vanishing into the distance under a darkening sky is similarly ominous, a route straight through to the middle of nowhere.

"This was just the way things were," claims Andoe in defense of his checkered past. "I didn't know any different. I knew it was bad and it drove my folks crazy. Then I discovered painting."

-Michael Wilson

CONCACAF to Make Push for 2018 World Cup

NEW YORK - Soccer's governing body for North and Central America and the Caribbean will push to host the 2018 World Cup.

FIFA's executive committee voted unanimously in August 2000 to rotate the sport's top event among the six continents, and the U.S. Soccer Federation decided last month to proceed with a bid for the 2018 tournament.

"In the cycle, this would be the fifth, would be CONCACAF, and I suspect that will be fulfilled as of 2018," CONCACAF general secretary Chuck Blazer said Wednesday.

Japan and South Korea co-hosted in 2002, and last year's tournament was in Germany. South Africa is the 2010 host, and Brazil and Colombia are bidding for 2014, with FIFA's executive committee set to vote in November.

Blazer, a member of FIFA's executive committee since 1996, said that Australia's decision to leave Oceania and compete in Asia meant a five-continent rotation rather than six.

"Oceania, while being a confederation, with Australia having moved to Asia, has no potential host," he said.

The British government has said it would back a bid by England for the 2018 tournament. Europe has eight spots among the 24 members of FIFA's executive committee, but Blazer said he hopes the group doesn't alter the rotation plan.

"If they change that, I think they have to consider greater changes than that," he said. "I think ultimately equity should play its role first, and that if we started a process of rotation, then let's finish it before we switch to something else."

The United States hosted the World Cup in 1994 and England staged it in 1966, when it won its only title. The only other CONCACAF country to have hosted a World Cup is Mexico in 1970 and 1986.

Blazer also said CONCACAF will propose the same qualifying format for the 2010 World Cup that it used for the 2006 tournament. Under that system, three teams qualify from a six-nation final round, and the fourth-place team goes to a playoff for a berth.

"Had we had four places, which we had been pushing for, we could have come up with a different solution," he said, adding that two final-round groups of four would have been considered.

Blazer spoke before Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber was honored at the UJA-Federation of New York's sports for youth luncheon, which raised $200,000. Los Angeles Galaxy general manager Alexi Lalas was master of ceremonies.

English midfielder David Beckham, set to join the Galaxy after his contract with Real Madrid expires in June, injured a knee last weekend but is expected to miss only a month.

"We were concerned. Obviously he's a very important part of our organization and our league," Lalas said. "We're pleased that by all accounts it's going to be a short-term thing and that it won't affect at all his arrival in Los Angeles nor his start with the Galaxy."

Since the deal with Beckham was announced in January, greater attention has been focused on the team and the league.

"We will have a jersey sponsor by the beginning of our season," Lalas said.

Beckham is expected to play his first MLS game Aug. 5 at Toronto, the start of a stretch that has the Galaxy playing 10 of 15 games on the road.

"We've bent over backwards for this league in terms of the scheduling and we are at a competitive disadvantage," Lalas said. "We accept that fact, that there is a business side of it."

Because of the CONCACAF Gold Cup and the Copa America, the Galaxy could lose Landon Donovan for periods in June and July. Many MLS teams will be in a similar situation with their top players.

"We've been in deep discussions with the federation," Garber said. "We'll figure it out so it minimizes the impact on the league."

UN Seeks Aid Of Warlords In Somalia

NAIROBI, Kenya A United Nations special envoy appealed toSomalia's warlords Monday to protect the workers assigned to deliverfood to the starving country.

Mohamed Sahnoun issued his call a day after armed looters stoleabout 100 tons of food aid from the port of Kismayu.

Meanwhile, 34 U.S. military personnel arrived at the IndianOcean port of Mombasa to prepare to airlift 145,000 tons of food.

Tens of thousands - perhaps hundreds of thousands - of Somalianshave died from the combined effects of drought and warfare, and aidexperts say 1.5 million others could starve within weeks if food isnot delivered immediately.

By some estimates, almost half of the 88,000 tons of foodalready delivered to Somalia this year has been stolen. Four aidworkers have been killed and dozens assaulted or threatened.

Sahnoun urged warlords to resolve their differences through anational conference and disarm the thousands of young men who arekilling and looting for food.

The main warring factions are those of interim President Gen.Mohamed Ali Mahdi and rival Gen. Mohamed Farah Aideed, who havefought for power since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted inJanuary, 1991.

Sahnoun won agreement from Ali Mahdi and Aideed last week forthe deployment of a 500-strong UN armed security force to guard foodshipments in the capital of Mogadishu. It is expected to arrivewithin two weeks.

Flooding in Hawaii closes schools, disrupts traffic

HONOLULU - Heavy rains triggered flash floods in parts of Oahu,closing schools and snarling traffic.

The National Weather Service kept a flash flood warning for partsof Oahu in effect throughout Thursday, urging people to seek higherground and to stay away from streams and low-lying areas.

Authorities closed down part of Kamehameha Highway and the OahuCivil Defense Agency warned residents to avoid traveling betweenWaiahole and Kahuku because of road closures.

"We're advising everyone who lives on that side to stay away andmake arrangements to stay elsewhere this evening, if at allpossible," said William Balfour, agency administrator.

An emergency evacuation shelter was opened at the Hauula Chapel inHauula, civil defense officials said.

US stocks higher despite jobs report

Buyers returned to the stock market Friday after two days of heavy losses, mindful of a worse-than-expected employment report but attracted by stocks' lower prices. The Dow Jones industrial average rose nearly 150 points.

The Labor Department said the nation's employers cut 240,000 jobs in October, hurtling the U.S. unemployment rate to a 14-year high of 6.5 percent. The market had expected employers to cut 200,000 jobs and for the unemployment rate to rise 6.3 percent.

Meanwhile, Ford reported dismal third-quarter results and announced plans to cut more than 2,000 additional white-collar jobs. General Motors is also expected to report results Friday.

Although the day's news was worse than expected, investors seemed to be attracted by stock prices beaten down the past two sessions.

Investors have been optimistic before, snapping up bargain stocks only to cash in the profits when jitters return. Barack Obama's election to the White House was preceded by a big rally, and then followed by a two-day loss of about 10 percent in the major indexes as investors turned their focus once more to the economy's woes.

Despite the gains early Friday, investors have not lost sight of the potential for a deep and protracted recession. Analysts still expect plenty of bad news to come. President-elect Obama will inherit an economy marred by a housing collapse, mounting foreclosures, hard-to-get credit and financial market upheaval when he assumes office early next year. And, the employment situation is likely to get worse. Obama is meeting Friday with economic experts to discuss the first steps toward fixing the broken economy.

To provide fresh relief, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats will push for another round of economic stimulus later this month.

In the first hour of trading, the Dow gained 144.88, or 1.67 percent, to 8,840.67.

The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index added 15.30, or 1.69 percent, to 920.18, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 27.50, or 1.71 percent, to 1,636.20.

On Friday, the dollar fell against most other major currencies, while gold prices rose.

Light, sweet crude rose 35 cents to $61.12 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The three-month Treasury bill's yield was at 0.33 percent, up modestly from 0.30 percent late Thursday. A low yield suggests high demand for safe assets.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.76 percent from 3.69 percent late Thursday.

Bank-to-bank lending rates fell again, though, suggesting that banks are more willing to lend to one another _ a positive signal for the tight credit markets. The London interbank offered rate, or Libor, for three-month loans in dollars dropped for the 20th straight day by 0.10 percent to 2.29 percent, the lowest level since November 2004.

____

On the Net:

New York Stock Exchange: http://www.nyse.com

Nasdaq Stock Market: http://www.nasdaq.com

Limited tickets available for Seoul Olympics

The Summer Olympics in Seoul start in six weeks, but it's stillnot too late to book a trip. The three Olympic essentials - ticketsto the competitions, lodging and airplane seats - remain available.However, the choices are increasingly limited.

The best bet at this late date is buying a package from a tourorganizer. Americans who want to travel independently may be ableto obtain lodging reservations and event tickets - mostly forpreliminary events or less popular sports - but they probably willhave some difficulty finding an empty airline seat to or from Seoulduring the Games, which run Sept. 17-Oct. 2.

Despite official concerns about possible terrorist incidents,at least one tour operator says business is brisk as opening dayapproaches. "We're swamped," says Robin Pagano of Far East TravelConcepts in Florida. "Things are getting busier instead of slackeningoff."

Estimates of the number of American spectators expected totravel to the Games range from about 8,000 - the figure offered bythe firm handling event ticket sales in the United States - to50,000, the perhaps optimistic number cited by Korean tourismofficials.

If you decide to go, the situation is as follows:

EVENT TICKETS: The United States received an allotment fromSouth Korea of about 100,000 tickets to competitions in 23 sports.The tickets were sold through a lottery system administered byOlson-Travelworld of Los Angeles, a travel firm designated by SouthKorea's Olympic organization.

Olson-Travelworld received about 100,000 requests for tickets,but because there were many duplicate requests for popular events,the firm expects to fill only about 80 to 85 percent of the orders.Subsequent to the lottery, Olson-Travelworld received an additionalallotment of tickets, mostly to less popular events.

For a list of what is available and instructions on ordering,write Olson-Travelworld, 5855 Green Valley Circle, Culver City,Calif. 90230; phone (800) 992-9511.

Olson-Travelworld plans to operate a booth in Seoul during theGames to help travelers exchange unwanted tickets. South Koreantourism officials say tickets will be sold at the sites of the events- although there may be long lines.

A few tour operators have tickets they will make available totravelers who purchase a tour. Some operators say they receivedtheir own ticket allotments from South Korean sources and were not apart of the lottery arrangement.

LODGING: Hotel space, except for rooms reserved by touroperators, is reported to be often impossible to obtain.Budget-priced accommodations are still available in small inns,called yogwans, and a government-sponsored home-stay program.

Of 10,000 rooms in yogwans, about 44 percent have been bookedso far, says Byoung H. Lee, assistant director of the Korean NationalTourist Corp. The inns, all of which have rooms with private bath,have been upgraded.

Plenty of vacancies remain in the home-stay program, wheretravelers stay with a family in a private home. At least one memberof the Korean family is expected to be able to speak English. Theprice for a room at a yogwan begins at about $30 a night for two. Astay in a home is about $30 to $35 for two.

Applications for either a yogwan or a home stay can be obtainedfrom the Korean National Tourism Corp., 230 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago60601; call 346-6660.

PACKAGES: Korean Source has put together 12 itineraries for theGames, seven of which are to Seoul only. The others include a stayin Hong Kong. Accommodations are in deluxe hotels and, according topresident Rita Gould, the firm has its own source of event tickets inKorea.

Ten-day packages from New York begin at $2,915 per person,double occupancy. The cost of event tickets is additional.

For information: Korean Source Inc., 673 Boyleston St., Boston,Mass. 02116; call (800) 541-9949.

Olson-Travelworld has limited space left in deluxe andfirst-class hotels and Olympic Family Town apartments. It also hasseats aboard United Airlines and tickets to some events.

An eight-day package, which includes round-trip air fare fromLos Angeles and accommodations in a condo apartment, is $2,250.

FLIGHTS: Airlines serving South Korea from the United Statesare United Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines and KoreanAir. All Nippon Airways and Japan Air Lines fly to Seoul via Tokyo.Some tour operators still have seats available. Otherwise, youprobably will have to shop around for a seat.

Letters

CAFE, Hydrogen and Utopia

Your February editorial, "Freedom from CAFE" was very bold and right on. You don't see a line of trucks and SUVs at the filling stations in Europe. As for your statements about fuel cells being the "Ultimate Game Changer," I don't get the breakthrough effects, other than cleaner tailpipe emissions! Where does everybody think that hydrogen comes from? Last I heard, they weren't sinking any hydrogen wells. It has to be made - from petroleum,natural gas, coal, bio-mass, or maybe even nuclear-powered hydrolysis.

The energy demands are reduced somewhat, due to somewhat better overall Efficiencies. But what else in the equation changes?

Scott T. Wood

Re: The Hydrogen Economy: In the days of "producer gas," water was broken down into its constituents using heat from coke, and the hydrogen (with some CO) sent to the cooking stoves. The only clean energy to do the job today is nuclear power which, unlike coal, can supply us with both the hydrogen and oxygen for our fuel cells.

This dream, however, is made illusive by our politicians and the socalled "environmentalists" who vie with media reporters for the title of being the most technically ignorant, and would rather we choked on products of combustion.

Your allusion that our wars in the oil producing region are to insure our oil supply is erroneous. The oil producing nations depend entirely on oil for their livelihood: the oil will go to the market, where we buy it, regardless of which faction owns it. A case in point is our war with Iraq. Not only did we spend our wealth and lives to defend a country which is much richer per capita than we, but we stopped Iraq from shipping oil which, of course, made less oil, not more, available in the market.

The wars in the Middle East are purely political. They are the cause of the terrorist attacks, and may eventually change this country to emulate Israel, a nation which never knows where the next attack will come from.

Leon J. Kaliniec Senior Project Engineer Spectral Development Co.

America must drastically reduce oil consumption to survive! We must look beyond Utopian dreams of hybrids, fuel cells and even fish carburetors; we must change our way of life! The versatile automobile has allowed us to live and learn and shop in far away places, but this is not necessary since the Internet, Ebay and educational TV are here. Distance is no longer the problem.

My dream is that each local school becomes a small communication and supply center that we could walk to when required (for milk computer repair, etc.) Forget the second car - who needs it? Forget the two- and three-car garage, of course. Get the latest gossip at your local "village/school center." Live Locally! Sell your old SUV while you can.

Phil Pauley Sacramento, Calif.

I hope that the American public will finally understand that the new program dubbed FreedomCar is a scam to get more of the taxpayers' money, and do nothing to improve the situation immediately.

The only way to cut pollution right now and accelerate the establishment of the Hydrogen society is to get rid of heavy and inefficient cars and introduce the ultralight vehicles. Lengthy arguments about safety are only scare mongering to maintain the status-quo in CAFE standards, or get rid of it altogether. There is no proof that simultaneously lowering weight of the fleet of the vehicles will increase fatalities.

The CAFE will not (and should not) be scrapped. The much more stringent CAFE standards are needed, much more than proposed, to get rid of big SUVs and pickup trucks which are being promoted for wrong usage (mainly city driving). It just doesn't make sense!

Mark Kmicikiewicz CKE Technologies Inc.

As an alternative fuel, "bio-diesel" is derived from canola, soy, corn, sunflower, etc. Its emissions can be considered "zero" when the plants recycle the C02 and water vapor. The absence of Sulphur allows catalytic converters to be used for CO/NOx control.

Perhaps best of all, the existing distribution infrastructure can be used for bio-diesel. I've been using it for nearly a year now. It's a well developed technology that will be cost competitive as soon as diesel fuel prices exceed approximately $1.70/gallon. We may eventually change completely to hydrogen, but bio-fuels seem likely to be a major part of the transition.

Are any U.S. major automakers doing any development work with biofuels? I've only heard about European work being done.

John Ousterhout General Dynamics Corp.

I agree that it would be nice to have energy independence. But I think the difficulties of establishing a hydrogen infrastructure and the safety thereof are being seriously underestimated. Also, where will the hydrogen come from, and what are the energy requirements to obtain and transport it?

The simplest way to reduce our use of oil, especially imported, is to legislate a gasoline tax which increases by $0.25/year until the consumption is reduced sufficiently. This will allow people adequate time to change their driving habits and/or vehicle choice. If the money from this were applied to mass transit in the cities, it would also provide another transportation choice for commuters. To see the validity of this approach, just look at Europe.

Glenn Turner

Bosch vs. Denso

The February issue was great as usual, but I wonder why Denso Corp. wants to pass Robert Bosch in the automotive supplier sector? ("Denso Drives Ahead," pg. 39). I appreciate if Denso is going to be No. 3, because Bosch is already No. 2. Including the newly consolidated Japanese company, Bosch Automotive Systems, Robert Bosch is the number two automotive supplier in the world market, well ahead of number three.

I can't see anyone in the rearview mirror!

Wolfgang Plothe Stuttgart, Germany

Mr. Plothe is deputy account manager with Robert Bosch GmbH.

Ford's Restructuring

Maryann Keller's recent column, "Ford Restructures Again," was great. It's exactly what rve been feeling for a long time. The big companies (even big suppliers) pay too much attention to trying make Wall Street happy in the short term.

I think we need to do a better job at making long-term changes and then communicating that properly to Wall Street If the investment community chooses not to listen, it will still work out in the end as the company improves.

Chuck Peters Kautex TEXTRON

Just the Usual Praise Dept.

Your February issue was dynamite! From the cover photo of Larry Burns on the AUTOnomy to the story about Dodge re-entering the NASCAR circus, to the one about Hybrid cars, the magazine is really interesting reading. Keep up the usual good work.

John Donovan General Motors Tech Center Warren, Mich.

Just the Usual Criticism Dept.

Andrew Cummins seems to view the auto industry only from a Detroit-- regional viewpoint. In his "Wise Guys" column in the February issue, he writes about the industry leaders with the most experience. But he only mentions Lutz, Scheele and Padilla! Three people? Even with a short list, Cummins failed to acknowledge Dieter Zetsche, who's been a leader (engineering and top management) at Mercedes-Benz and Freightliner Corp. for over 20 years.

There are many more veteran leaders to mention of course. Cummins needs to get out of Detroit once and a while.

Robert Cimini DaimlerChrysler AG

We welcome your letters. They must include your name and daytime phone number or e-mail address. We reserve the right to edit them for space.

[Sidebar]

"The simplest way to reduce our use of oil is to legislate a gasoline tax which increases by $0.25/year. - Glenn Turner

[Sidebar]

"More stringent CAFE standards are needed, to get rid of big SUVs and pickup trucks." -Mark Kmicikiewicz

Letters

President Gore?

I'm writing to let you know of my displeasure with the January issue. Specifically, the cover with Vice President Al Gore and the forgiving story on him were too much to take. Since when does AI make political endorsements? Why do I get the feeling that someone there is doing a favor for one of their friends at the Gore for President 2000 Campaign? I must be one of those conservative conspiracytheorists people.

Dave Moulton

Torrington Co.

North Canton, CT

Since when has Gore been President? I feel the front cover of the January Al was very inappropriate, considering the majority of the U.S. can't stand the man. I love how he has …

US state sues to keep site for nuclear waste

Washington state has filed suit to stop the federal government from permanently abandoning a planned waste repository in the Nevada desert, the latest clash in a long-standing dispute over where the nation's dangerous radioactive waste should be stored.

Waste and spent nuclear fuel from south-central Washington's Tri-Cities, site of the highly contaminated Hanford nuclear reservation and the only commercial nuclear plant in the northwestern United States, had long been intended to go to Yucca Mountain, the Nevada site 90 miles (145 kilometers) from Las Vegas.

The U.S. Department of Energy has said the proposed desert mountain repository is no longer …

The Bypass Trust: Using Disclaimers to Manage Large IRA Balances.

Trying to fund a bypass trust can be problematic if clients only have a residence and a large retirement plan as their major assets.

On the surface, a residence isn't a good asset for a bypass trust for two reasons: A trust doesn't qualify for the exclusion under IRC Sec. 121; and--probably most importantly--the surviving spouse generally wants to own the family residence.

Likewise, an IRA (or qualified plan) isn't the best choice for a bypass trust because of income taxes imposed on the retirement benefits. When the spouse is named as beneficiary of the retirement plan and all other assets are in a revocable trust, the first spouse's unified credit exemption can go unused.

This fact pattern may be a problem now, but will be more prevalent when the unified credit exemption equivalent amount reaches $1 million and higher. Beginning next year, we will be faced with funding larger bypass trusts. At that dollar level, avoiding the use of retirement assets will be almost impossible.

Required Minimum Distributions

The IRS issued proposed regulations in January 2001 to assist …

Active Volume Amidst Recession Fears and Write-Downs.

Mortgage volume has been above normal in recent sessions, with Treasury yields trending lower and with the outlook for a full-blown recession gaining steam.

Influencing events in the first half of last week were a weaker-than-expected retail sales report for December, Citigroup's record loss of $9.83 billion in the fourth quarter, resulting from $18.1 billion in write-downs, and a lower-than-expected quarterly profit from JPMorgan following a $1.3 billion write-down. By midweek, the market was waiting to hear Merrill Lynch's fourth quarter results that came out on Thursday.

MBS flows were mostly supportive in the first two trading sessions last week. There was a wide range of investor participation from hedge funds, money managers and overseas buyers …

DOCTOR SAYS NIXON'S CONDITION WORSENS.(MAIN)

Byline: Associated Press

NEW YORK Former President Richard Nixon took a turn for the worse and was returned to intensive care Tuesday, a day after a stroke left him paralyzed on most of his right side and unable to speak, his doctor said.

Nixon was suffering from swelling of the brain as a result of the stroke he suffered Monday, said Dr. Fred Plum.

``His prognosis is guarded. The next 72 hours are a critical period,'' he said.

Earlier in the day Nixon, 81, had been moved into a private room at NewYork Hospital.

Nixon's internist, Dr. Michael Giordano, said then that the former president was out of grave danger and described …

Obama signs memo seeking science strategy

In an implicit criticism of his predecessor, President Barack Obama is calling for a strategy that he says will restore scientific integrity to government decision-making.

In lifting the restrictions on federal funds for embryonic stem cell research, Obama was signing a memorandum Monday directing the head of the White House Office of Science and …

National scoreboard

today's odds

NFL Playoffs

Favorite Open Today O/U Underdog

Saturday

at Tampa Bay 1 1/2 2 1/2 (3) Washington

at New England 7 1/2 8 (37 1/2) Jacksonville

Sunday

at N.Y. Giants 2 1/2 2 1/2 (43) Carolina

Pittsburgh +1 3 (46) at Cincinnati

football

2005-06 Bowls

Dec. 20

New Orleans Bowl

At Lafayette, La.

Payout: $750,000

Southern Miss. 31, Arkansas State 19

Dec. 21

GMAC Bowl

Mobile, Ala.

Payout: $750,000

Toledo 45, Texas-El Paso 13

Dec. 22

Las Vegas Bowl

Payout: $750,000

California 35, Brigham Young 28

Poinsettia …

RCN, MediaOne Keep Competition Fierce in BEANTOWN.(Company Business and Marketing)

Competition is changing the way cable operators do business around the nation, but never more so than in suburban Boston, where telecommunications providers in several medium-sized communities west of the city have battled for customers' hearts, minds and pocketbooks for two to three years.

These towns -- Arlington, Somerville, Newton, Waltham and Watertown -- are ground zero in a struggle for market share that pits incumbent cable operator MediaOne Group (soon to be AT&T) against insurgent RCN Corp. for video, voice and data services. There are satellite companies, too, as well as mighty Bell Atlantic Corp., plus countless smaller firms wing for a piece of the action in telephony and high-speed Internet access.

"It's (the Boston suburbs) one of the most competitive markets in the country," says Alicia Matthews, director-cable television division of the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Energy. The FCC recognized this in 1999, when it declared Arlington, Newton and Somerville as communities that …

Outsourcing Expert Reacts to Report on H-1B Visa Fraud; Ron Hira, Author of 'Outsourcing America,' Calls Program 'Thoroughly Corrupted'.

Byline: Rochester Institute of Technology

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Oct. 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- A new report that reveals a 20-percent violation rate in the nation's H-1B Visa program has led to strong criticism of the system by outsourcing expert Ron Hira, assistant professor of public policy at Rochester Institute of Technology and author of "Outsourcing America."

The H-1B program provides temporary work visas to skilled foreign workers employed in the United States. Hira argues that loopholes and lack of program oversight have allowed companies to misuse the H-1B system by paying below-market wages to foreign guest workers and facilitating the outsourcing of U.S. …

WITNESS RECALLS VIOLENCE OF FATAL FIGHT.(CAPITAL REGION)

Byline: Associated Press

CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE, N.J. -- A man who witnessed a fatal late-night street melee described watching from his second-floor porch as one teenager savagely beat another, calling him a ``shoobie.''

Testifying in the murder trial of Joseph M. Campon, 19, of Schenectady, witness Steven Bauer said he heard cursing and breaking glass in the street in front of his Cape May vacation home, which prompted him to call 911.

Campon is charged with killing Christopher Loftus, 19, of Lower Township, in a July 2, 2001, brawl that started when Loftus and another local man made advances on Campon's sister and another girl at a beachfront …

ALBANY CAMPUS' NEW NAME SLOW TO CATCH ON.(Local)

Byline: Tim Spofford Staff writer

The State University at Albany is literally doubling its efforts to be called something else - "the University at Albany."

Not Albany State. Not SUNYA. Not even State University of New York at Albany, its official name.

The Albany campus recently released a new logo that twice identifies the school as the University at Albany. The logo includes a seal showing Minerva, goddess of wisdom and the school's founding date (1844), and Latin motto. Translated, it is "Knowledge for its own sake and for the sake of teaching."

On the seal, and again in boldface below it, is the name that since 1986 campus officials …

Formal charges expected in death of Utah boy

Formal charges are expected Friday against the mother and stepfather of a 4-year-old boy whose badly beaten and disfigured body was found wrapped in plastic and buried in a Utah canyon.

Nathanael Sloop, 31, is being held on suspicion of aggravated murder in Ethan Stacy's death. He and Stephanie Sloop, 27, also face charges of desecration of a corpse, felony child abuse and obstruction of justice, police said.

Both remain jailed. Their first court appearances are scheduled for Friday and security will be tight, said Deputy Davis County Attorney David Cole.

Attorney Richard Gallegos, who has represented Nathanael Sloop in previous criminal cases, has …

Judge rejects competing Tribune bankruptcy plans

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — A federal judge on Monday rejected Tribune Co.'s plan to emerge from bankruptcy protection, along with a rival plan from dissident creditors.

Judge Kevin Carey said in a 126-page ruling that he may appoint a trustee to help end the 3-year-old case if the media conglomerate cannot come up with an acceptable plan soon.

Tribune declined comment Monday, saying it was still reviewing the decision.

Carey scheduled a Nov. 22 meeting to determine how to proceed.

Tribune owns the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, other major newspapers and more than 20 television and radio stations, including WGN in Chicago. It sought bankruptcy protection in …

Net income, sales climb at Walgreens.

Net income, sales climb at Walgreens

DEERFIELD, Ill.--Double-digit growth in same-store sales and effective expense controls carried Walgreen Co. to a 16.2% increase in first quarter earnings to $28.7 million from $24.7 million a year earlier.

Sales for the three months ended November 30 advanced 14.9% to $1.39 billion from $1.21 billion in last year's first quarter, sparked by a 10.7% jump in same-store volume. Prescription sales, which now account for nearly one-third of corporate volume, were up 21.5% chainwide over the prior-year level.

Walgreens' ability to pump additional volume out of its stores and keep operating expenses in check helped …

Winter flu deaths warning.

Local GPs have issued a stark warning for patients to take up the offer of their free flu jab, or face the prospect of serious illness or worse - this winter.

Early indications are that the uptake of the free vaccination is low and the worst seen in some areas for almost ten years.

Local health professionals are attributing the fall in uptake to the mild October.

But GPs are saying that the flu virus will catch people by surprise if they are not immunised in time.

Free flu jabs are available to anyone aged 65 or over and to those deemed to be at risk, such as people with serious heart or chest conditions, kidney failure or diabetes. …

DOG'S EYE CONCERT IN SARATOGA.(LIFE & LEISURE)

Byline: FRED SHUSTER Los Angeles Daily News

LOS ANGELES -- Dog's Eye View leader Peter Stuart had some explaining to do last week. First, there was the single, ``Everything Falls Apart,'' taken from his major-label debut, spreading like wildfire on radio playlists across the country.

Then, where did that unusual band moniker come from? And was his tuneful, radio-friendly pop purely an attempt to jump on the Hootie & the Blowfish nice-guys-can-rock-too bandwagon?

Stuart, who got his first break when he handed a demo tape of his songs to Counting Crows singer Adam Duritz, took the last question first.

``Songwriting is my chief concern,'' the …

ICAM-4 of red blood cells binds to I domain of some leukocyte integrins.

2003 JUN 19 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Red blood cells and leukocytes do interact through binding of the ICAM-4 to the I domains of CD11/CD18 integrins.

"Intercellular adhesion molecule-4 (ICAM-4, LW blood group antigen), a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily expressed on red cells, has been reported to bind to CD11a/CD18 and CD11b/CD18 leukocyte integrins.

"The location of the ICAM-4 binding sites on CD11a/CD18 and CD11b/CD18 are not known. CD11/CD18 integrin I domains have been found to act as major binding sites for physiological ligands and a negatively charged glutamic acid in ICAMs is considered important for binding," scientists in Finland …

Mission cutbacks affect Canada

Winnipeg, Man.

Cutbacks at Mennonite Mission Network, the mission agency of Mennonite Church USA, are expected to have a significant impact on the international ministries of Mennonite Church Canada Witness.

The Mission Network has announced a cutback of 10 percent for next year (see related story). The reduction amounts to over $1 million US from the current $9 million US budget. It will go into effect February 1.

Janet Plenert, director of International Ministries at MC Canada, said the effects of the cutbacks would be clearer in coming weeks.

"Mennonite …

Green Shoots.(V-Vehicle Co)

Byline: Dave Guilford

Ligocki brings credibility to green venture

When V-Vehicle Co. failed to get a federal loan this spring, the general assumption was that it had hit a significant -- perhaps fatal -- roadblock.

But the San Diego startup served notice this month that it is still in the game, changing its name to Next Autoworks and hiring Kathleen Ligocki as CEO. Ligocki, 54, brings significant credibility, having held senior positions at Ford Motor Co. and major suppliers.

Like a bunch of other seasoned executives moving to startups, Ligocki says she relishes the chance to reinvent the auto industry at a small, agile company. (See story, Page 1.)

"At …

ACTIVISTS FOR WORKERS PLAN 40-HOUR FAST.(CAPITAL REGION)

Byline: DEBORAH MARTINEZ Staff writer

It's anything but confrontational. Or loud.

But the power of fasting comes through: Gandhi led India to its independence from Britain because of it. Cesar Chavez fasted repeatedly, sometimes as long as three weeks, to draw attention to the dire conditions farm workers endured on the job.

And annually for the past five years the New York State Labor-Religion Coalition has fasted for 40 hours, attempting to focus New Yorkers on the working poor. The coalition's movement, which begins its sixth observance next Tuesday, is proven to move state lawmakers to action, said Sen. Nick Spano, R-Westchester County.

…