Transgender people find their voice at NC school

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — Nicole Hatch had spent six figures on her transition from a male to a female, including flying to Thailand for sexual reassignment surgery and spending at least $20,000 on facial hair removal.

But her voice still gave her away — callers would refer to her as "sir" when she answered the phone.

So Hatch came to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where speech pathologists teach transgender people how to speak like the people of the sex they're becoming or have become.

"To me, there's nothing worse than seeing someone dressed as a woman, a beautiful woman," said Hatch, 57. "Then she opens her mouth and she sounds like a sailor. It's very …

The B-Pillar Problem

VEHICLE SAFETY

Proposed new rollover regulations and an increased emphasis on side-impact protection are forcing manufacturers to significantly strengthen the B-pillar. How will the collision industry meet this challenge?

The B-pilar might best be regarded as the "Lone Ranger" of the automotive world. Few nonindustry people are aware of its name, yet this important piece of metal running from the roof down the side of their vehicles to the chassis bottom has protected millions of motorists from death and injury. Now, safety advocates and federal regulators have plans that could compel manufacturers to re-engineer this part - making it even stronger to help protect vehicle …

4 Dead, 3 Missing in Central US Floods

Flooding forced hundreds of people to flee their homes and closed scores of roads Wednesday across a wide swath of the nation's midsection as a huge storm system poured as much as 10 inches of rain on the region.

Four deaths were linked to the flooding in Missouri, a search was under way in Texas for a teenager washed down a drainage pipe, and two people were missing in Arkansas after their vehicles were swept away by rushing water.

The National Weather Service posted flood and flash flood warnings from Texas to Pennsylvania on Wednesday.

Heavy rain began falling Monday and just kept coming. About 10 inches had fallen by Wednesday morning in …

Walshe on hand for derby

Old Sulians Bath and England scrum-half Nick Walshe will be on thetouchline on Saturday when Old Sulians make the short SomersetPremier trip to take on Avon.

And Sulians will be hoping Walshe, who is coaching their backdivision this season, can help bring about a change in theirfortunes.

Despite being Somerset Premier's …

INNOVATION CENTER LAUNCHES SUSTAINABILITY AWARD

Rosemont, Illinois

The Innovation Center for U.S. Daily, in cooperation with the Dairy Research Institute, has launched a U.S. Dairy Sustainability Awards program to recognize dairy farmers, businesses and collaborative partnerships delivering outstanding economic, environmental and social benefits that help advance sustainability in the dairy industry. The awards are divided into three categories: dairy farm, dairy processing/manufacturing and energy conservation/generation. Nominations for the inaugural awards …

La. airport showing posters from area movie shoots

SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — Posters from at least 26 movies made in the Shreveport-Bossier City area are being shown off at the Shreveport Regional Airport.

Movies filmed in the area since 2005 include "The Guardian," ''Drive Angry" and "Battle Los Angeles." The airport itself has been used as a location for more than a dozen movies.

"One of the top questions you get, whether it's local or visitors, is 'What are some of the movies that have been filmed here?' said Kelly Wells of the local tourism office.

Shreveport Film Commissioner Arlena Acree said people are always telling her, "I didn't know that …

Can No. 1-seeded Colts, Saints get to Super Bowl?

For all the talk about the importance of home-field advantage in the NFL playoffs, the cruel truth for top-seeded teams is this: The last time both of them made the Super Bowl was 1993.

The Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints can't like hearing that. Plus, both of them lost at home late in the regular season, albeit not in critical games.

Even so, both are favored to reach the Super Bowl on Sunday when they host conference championships.

The Colts welcome the surprising New York Jets for the AFC crown, while the Saints stage their first NFC title game against the Minnesota Vikings.

Only the Colts and Jets have won a Super Bowl, …

Shopper tells police of syringe attack

Police were investigating a report of a bizarre attack at Lord &Taylor at Water Tower Place, where a woman says a man jabbed her witha syringe and tried to sexually assault her in a washroom over theweekend.

Some police officers initially characterized the incident as asuicide attempt, but officials said Sunday that they were handling itas an attempted criminal sexual assault.

"We're treating it as a serious report," said Chicago policespokesman Kevin Morison. "Anytime anyone comes to us and saysthey've been sexually assaulted, we're investigating it."Police Supt. Matt Rodriguez called the incident "a very strangeand unique kind of case" but added, "We're …

Manchester City slips past Whitecaps 2-1

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Shaun Wright-Phillips scored in the 84th minute and Manchester City of the English Premier League defeated Major League Soccer's Vancouver Whitecaps 2-1 in an exhibition game on Monday.

Wright-Phillips unleashed a shot from about 30 yards that beat goalkeeper Jay Nolly.

It was his second goal in as many games on Man City's North American tour, having scored Saturday in a 2-0 win over Club America in San Francisco.

Wright-Phillips almost had a second goal, but Nolly made a save late in the game.

Mario Balotelli's header in the 68th minute gave City a 1-1 tie after Brazilian striker Camilo opened the scoring for Vancouver, shocking …

Rowdy revelers crowd streets after Lakers win

Crowds of rowdy revelers poured into the streets around Staples Center after Game 7 of the NBA finals, rocking cars, setting bonfires and throwing rocks and bottles at officers.

Nine people have been arrested Thursday for public intoxication, vandalism and inciting a riot, but that number was expected to rise, Los Angeles police …

GETTING TO THE OBJECTIVE: DEVELOPING Junior Military Intelligence Leaders IN A TIME OF WAR

The mission started early in the morning. Two tactical human intelligence (TAC HUMINT) teams, weapons at the ready, moved through an urban area to meet with a potential source. As the first team took up defensive positions around the coffee shop, the second team moved inside to conduct a "meet" with a local Iraqi national. After half an hour of rapport-building, questioning and sensitizing of the source to the team's needs, the TAC HUMINT team moved out on foot back to their link-up point with their escort team. Suddenly, shots rang out; the team was in contact and received heavy machine-gun fire. After taking cover, the team immediately returned fire, suppressed the threat, bounded back …

Ivory Coast factions withdraw from former buffer zone, begin disarmament process

Hundreds of rebels and government soldiers withdrew from the former buffer zone that once split Ivory Coast, and returned to their barracks in the first stage of a nationwide disarmament program expected to last three months.

Several hundred soldiers who had gathered south of the buffer zone at Tiebissou climbed into trucks Saturday and drove to an army barracks in the capital, Yamoussoukro.

North of the buffer zone at Djebonoua, rebels also packed into vehicles and headed toward military barracks their stronghold at Bouake, where they will eventually hand in their weapons to either be integrated into the army or demobilized.

"Starting …

Feyenoord stays third in Dutch league after 0-0 draw at VVV

Feyenoord stayed third in the Dutch league after drawing 0-0 at VVV-Venlo on Sunday.

The draw left the Rotterdam side two points behind first-place Ajax, which beat Willem II Tilburg 3-2 on Saturday.

Defending champion PSV Eindhoven dropped to second place after its second defeat of the season, losing Friday to Roda JC 4-2.

Ajax, which hosts PSV in the next round, has 31 points. PSV has 30, one more than Feyenoord.

Also Sunday, United States midfielder Michael Bradley scored three goals for SC Heerenveen in its 4-2 win over FC Groningen.

Goran Lovre scored an own goal to put Heerenveen into the lead after two minutes before Bradley got his first in the seventh minute.

Erik Nevland leveled for Groningen with two goals inside five minutes but Bradley restored Heerenveen's lead with a close-range strike in the 22nd. He got his hat trick in the 40th.

Sebastien Pocognoli and Demy de Zeeuw scored to lead AZ Alkmaar over FC Utrecht 2-1. Sander Keller scored for Utrecht in the 90th.

Also, it was: Excelsior Rotterdam 0, NAC Breda 3; Sparta Rotterdam 1, NEC Nijmegen 0; Heracles Almelo 2, De Graafschap 0; and Vitesse Arnhem 2, FC Twente 2.

Bush says he's working hard on economic turmoil

President George W. Bush told America on Thursday his administration is working feverishly to calm turmoil in the financial markets. With reports swirling of possibly imminent new government action, the president met with his treasury secretary and the head of the Federal Reserve, who later briefed congressional leaders.

Democratic Rep. Barney Frank said the administration officials sought legislation giving the government broad power to buy up bad debt from distressed financial institutions. He said there was "virtually unanimous agreement" among those at the meeting that such legislation was needed.

Bush was supposed to spend the day in Alabama and Florida raising money for Republicans and talking energy policy. He canceled his trip and sent Vice President Dick Cheney to sub for him at the fundraisers to focus on the worst financial meltdown since the Great Depression.

"The American people are concerned about the situation in our financial markets and our economy," Bush said after his meeting with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Christopher Cox, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. "And I share their concerns."

The tumult in financial markets and the disappearance of corporate giants have shaken people's faith in the economy. On Wall Street, the fear is that more significant financial companies will fall, causing a spillover effect within the United States and on world markets.

In brief formal remarks outside the Oval Office, Bush sought to show that the administration is moving swiftly and aggressively by taking "extraordinary measures."

Earlier this month, the administration took over mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. At the start of this week, the Federal Reserve rescued American International Group Inc., an insurance giant, from bankruptcy by granting an emergency $85 billion loan that gives the government an 80 percent stake in the company.

On Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission tightened rules on short selling, the practice of betting that a stock will fall.

And Thursday, the Federal Reserve pumped $55 billion in temporary reserves into the markets after coordinated action with the central banks of other nations.

The White House says the moves will help protect the broader economy and therefore everyday life. But the president used language that resonates more with market analysts than the public.

He promised that the "markets are adjusting" _ a term suggesting the White House hopes that a temporary correction is under way, not a sustained slide.

"The American people can be sure we will continue to act to strengthen and stabilize our financial markets and improve investor confidence," the president said.

Bush did not specify what those steps might be. White House press secretary Dana Perino said she could not comment on them, either. "That's something I'm not at liberty to talk about," she said.

The White House gave little detail of how Bush spent the day, other than the Paulson meeting and staying in regular touch with other economic advisers.

What the president called "serious challenges" facing the markets placed the White House in crisis mode.

But Bush has behaved very differently than in previous crises, such as around the start of the Iraq war, after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005 or after last month's invasion by Russia of tiny neighbor Georgia. In those cases, Bush would talk nearly every day. This week, he has kept a lower profile.

His remarks Thursday were his first since Monday. And he has spurned every attempt by reporters to ask questions about the developments, including again on Thursday. As he finished his very brief statement and turned to walk back into the Oval Office, a reporter asked if he believed the economy was still sound. The president kept walking.

Despite the government's extensive actions, Lehman Brothers, the country's fourth-largest investment bank, filed for bankruptcy protection this week. A weakened Merrill Lynch, deciding it couldn't go it alone anymore, found help in the arms of Bank of America.

A private business group reported Thursday that the economy's health deteriorated for the second consecutive month in August as building permits dropped and unemployment claims rose. Oil prices are rising again as investors eye U.S. financial turmoil. Employers are cutting payrolls. New applications for unemployment benefits are up, partly due to Hurricane Gustav. The housing market remains unstable.

Amid the bad news, lawmakers from both parties are becoming increasingly vocal about their concerns with the information they're getting from the administration.

Administration officials refused to attend a closed-door briefing with House Republicans Thursday morning, said Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader. "Members of Congress have a responsibility to their constituents and to the American taxpayers to have a better understanding of what's happening," Boehner said.

Sen. Chris Dodd, the Banking Committee chairman, was similarly peeved when Paulson twice canceled appearances he was to have made before the panel this week. Senators will have to wait until Tuesday to hear from the Treasury secretary and Bernanke.

"The Treasury Department tried as hard as they could to get information up to members of Congress as quickly as possible, but, granted, more and better and earlier communication between us is always a better thing," said Perino.

Rice Warns Against Conditions for Darfur

PARIS - The world has fallen down on the job of ending the violence in Sudan's Darfur region, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday as she welcomed the fresh energy that France's new conservative-led government has put to the cause.

She called the four-year-old conflict "one of the true humanitarian disasters that we face in international politics, and one the international community has simply got to act more quickly and more responsibly to stop."

Rice also welcomed a summit Monday between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Egypt, calling Arab support for embattled Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas more important than his Western backing. She acknowledged the difficulties Abbas has faced since his Islamic rivals Hamas won Palestinian elections last year.

"Democracy is hard," she told reporters at a press conference with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

The chief U.S. diplomat was in Paris for two days of get-to-know-you meetings with the new French government and a strategy session on Darfur.

Kouchner organized Monday's conference to speed deployment of about 20,000 new peacekeeping troops to Darfur, the vast, arid region where an estimated 200,000 have died in fighting between African rebels and militias backed by the Arab-led Sudanese government. The conflict has driven about 2.5 million from their homes.

"I have seen firsthand the devastation and the difficult circumstances in which people live in Darfur, and I will be very frank," Rice said. "I do not think that the international community has really lived up to its responsibilities there."

Rice visited Darfur in 2005, spending an afternoon in a refugee camp. Kouchner, a Socialist doctor was co-founded the Nobel Prize-winning aid group Doctors Without Borders, has been to Darfur more frequently and more recently.

Sudan was not invited to the Paris conference, a decision that Kouchner justified Sunday.

"This is not a 'peacemaking' meeting, but on the contrary, a meeting to support the international efforts that have been deployed," he said.

Kouchner and Rice noted that China will attend the session. China has trade and energy ties to Sudan and has been accused of running interference for the Khartoum government.

Before arriving Sunday, Rice warned Sudan's government not to renege on its recent agreement to allow a larger peacekeeping force into Darfur. The peacekeepers would come from the African Union and the United Nations.

"If in fact the Sudanese are prepared to accept the hybrid force, they need to accept it once and for all and stop the process of trying to scale it back," Rice said in a press conference aboard her plane. "It seems one step forward, two steps back with the Sudanese government."

Rice's trip is a coming-out party for what the Bush administration hopes will be a happier relationship with French President Nicolas Sarkozy after perceived slights and lectures from his predecessor, Jacques Chirac.

Chirac was the U.S. ally most at odds with President Bush over the Iraq invasion and remained a critic of other U.S. military and anti-terrorism actions.

Washington has grumbled that France sells too much sensitive military technology and armament to potentially unscrupulous buyers. But the U.S. also has praised France for its participation in the international force in Afghanistan.

Part of Monday's session on Darfur was expected to try to flesh out a French proposal for a small, interim peacekeeping force to protect vulnerable refugee camps in neighboring Chad, where some Darfur refugees have fled.

U.S. officials said last week they welcome the idea, partly for what it says about French commitment to take a leading role in the conflict.

The conference is focused on arrangements for the much larger peacekeeping force for Darfur. The Sudanese government agreed to the force this month, but the details remain vague.

"The Sudanese government has not been easy to deal with," the U.S. envoy for Darfur, Andrew Natsios, said in an interview with The Associated Press. He noted the delay since November in getting an agreement on the new troop complement.

"We have that now and what we need now is to build on that and get those troops there as soon as possible, and get the peace negotiations going again because the only thing that's going to end this is a political settlement."

A force of U.N. and AU peacekeepers would replace a 7,000-member AU contingent now in Darfur. That ill-equipped and underfunded force has failed to stop four years of warfare that has left more than 200,000 people dead. Sudan has agreed to allow up to 19,000 peacekeepers, fewer than the 23,000 envisioned in the original U.N. plan.

The U.S. is the world's largest single donor to the people of Darfur, providing more than $1.7 billion in humanitarian and peacekeeping assistance. Still, it has not been enough to halt the violence in the arid region in eastern Africa, which is about the size of Texas.

Bush has branded the crisis as genocide, a term some other governments reject. Human rights activists have accused his administration of being slow to act. Bush announced penalties against the Sudanese government last month, targeting three people with suspected links to the violence as well as about 30 companies in Sudan.

Oil Rises After Manufacturing Report

NEW YORK - Oil prices rose above $62 a barrel a day as traders eyed stock markets worldwide and after a report on the nation's manufacturing activity came in above expectations.

Light, sweet crude for April rose 50 cents to $62.29 a barrel in midday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude also gained 59 cents, trading at $62.48 a barrel, on London's ICE futures exchange.

"Oil traders are torn. They want to be long on this market because demand is at all-time high and the ISM report came in above expectations, but macro economics are holding them back," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago.

The Institute for Supply Management reported Thursday that its manufacturing index registered 52.3 in February, up from January's reading of 49.3 and above Wall Street expectations of 50.

A reading above 50 indicates growth for the sector, while a reading below signals contraction.

On Wednesday, prices hit a two-month high following a U.S. government report that stockpiles of gasoline and distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, dropped last week by a larger amount than analysts had forecast.

Traders, however, remain jittery after Tuesday's sharp fall in U.S. share prices, which may be a harbinger of an abrupt economic slowdown. The fall was triggered partially by a 9 percent drop in Chinese shares amid speculation that Beijing may take further steps to slow China's rapid growth.

U.S. markets fell again early Thursday. The Dow Jones industrials briefly dropped more 200 points to the 12,067 level in the opening minutes of trading after a halfhearted rebound on Wednesday.

U.S. crude inventories climbed 1.4 million barrels to 329.0 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said Wednesday in its weekly report. But gasoline inventories fell by 1.9 million barrels to 220.2 million barrels, and distillate inventories fell by 3.8 million barrels to 124.5 million barrels. Both drops were a bit larger than most analysts were expecting.

Energy analyst Victor Shum, of Purvin & Gertz in Singapore said, however, that the stock market and economic concerns had contributed to slow trading in the oil market.

"I think in the near term we can expect a lot of volatility in the oil market," Shum said, noting continuing concerns over Iran.

Iran's persistent refusal to suspend its nuclear program has also been a driving force behind the energy market's advance.

Iran ignored an IAEA deadline last week to halt its nuclear program. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki reiterated Tuesday that his country would never again suspend uranium enrichment, a move the United States insists on for any negotiations with Tehran.

Vienna's PVM Oil Associates noted that "the bullish influence" generated by Wednesday's U.S. inventory figures "more than offset the adverse impact of data showing weaker than expected U.S. economic growth for the fourth quarter 2006 as well as concerns about the health of the global economy."

Meanwhile, natural gas prices dipped after a government report showed that supplies fell a little less than expected last week.

The Energy Department reported Thursday that natural gas supplies fell by 132 billion cubic feet to 1.733 trillion cubic feet last week, slightly lower than the estimate that analysts and traders polled by Dow Jones Newswire had been expecting. They had predicted a drop of 144 billion cubic feet to 1.721 trillion cubic feet.

Natural gas futures fell more than a penny to $7.287 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Flynn pointed out that traders are now focusing on the weather. On the one hand, the winter season is almost over and the demand for natural gas is likely to decline. However, a report this week from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned that this summer's hurricane season could be more volatile than last year's.

A hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico could shut down natural gas production, putting a crunch on supply, Flynn said.

"We don't have the ability to import enough natural gas in liquid form to make up for a loss in production," he said. "As soon as winter is over, traders are going to start building in a hurricane premium into the price."

In other trading Thursday, heating oil futures under the new April contract lost more than 2 cents to $1.7574 a gallon, while gasoline futures fell more than a penny to $1.8851.

---

Associated Press writers Tanalee Smith in Singapore and George Jahn in Vienna, Austria contributed to this report.

Dollar gains on bleak economic reports

The dollar mostly rose Monday as a flurry of dour economic reports prompted investors to buy up the buck as they exited stocks and riskier overseas currencies.

The 15-nation euro fell to $1.2672 in late New York trading from $1.2708 late Friday. The British pound plunged more than 5 cents to $1.4910 from $1.5412.

Stocks tanked in the U.S. as manufacturing and construction data piled on to concerns about the holiday shopping season. The Dow sank about 680 points in Monday trading, wiping out more than half of last week's big gains.

The dollar has tended to benefit this fall as stocks drop, prompting investors to seek out safety.

The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group, said its index of manufacturing activity fell to a 26-year low of 36.2 in November from 38.9 in October. A reading below 50 indicates the sector is contracting. The Commerce Department reported that construction spending slid by 1.2 percent in October, more than had been expected.

Meanwhile, reports out of Europe and Britain showed the toll the global crisis was taking on their economies. A leading housing report from Hometrack Ltd. in Britain said home prices fell to their lowest level in nearly three years in November, while a survey of manufacturing activity showed a record pace of contraction in November to its lowest reading since January 1992, when the survey began.

In the euro zone, retail sales in Germany fell 1.5 percent in October from the year before, a signal of consumers' reluctance to spend.

Thursday, analysts expect the European Central Bank and the Bank of England to cut interest rates. Both banks cut their benchmark rates last month to 3 percent and 3.25 percent, respectively.

Cutting interest rates can prompt economic growth, but it also can undermine a currency as investors transfer funds in search of better returns.

The dollar also dropped to 93.40 Japanese yen from 95.65 yen late Friday and slipped to 1.2028 Swiss francs from 1.2133. The greenback was unchanged at 1.2386 Canadian dollars.

Taking a Bite Out of Overhead; The defense department's tech budget has too much 'tail,' not enough 'teeth.' how about yours?

The U.S. Marine Corps calls it the "tooth-to-tail" ratio.

That is how the service branch evaluates the effectiveness of its Expeditionary Units, Air Wings and Marine Divisions. The "teeth" are the riflemen, artillerymen, combat pilots and commandos who deliver firepower. The "tail" is all the overhead personnel - barracks staff, administrators, purchasing agents, recruiters, logistics managers and drill sergeants - who keep the lights on, the troops fed and prepared, and the supplies coming in, but don't actually engage in direct combat.

This is a useful ratio to apply to your company's information-technology budget. How much of your technology spending actually supports competitive actions - the teeth of your business' operations? And how much is allocated to support functions such as finance, personnel, corporate management, logistics and infrastructure - the tail?

If more money is spent on the tail than the teeth, the tail is wagging the war. And you can consider your attempt to battle for more business to be ineffective.

To illustrate what one can gain from such an examination of a technology budget, I analyzed the 4,121 Department of Defense projects that make up the projected fiscal year 2006 spending of $30.1 billion.

Shockingly, the amount of money spent on teeth - $7.6 billion - is only about a third of the almost $22.5 billion spent on the tail of Defense Department technology operations.

That ratio is low compared with those of major corporations. The budget also reveals a high correlation between staff compensation and overall technology spending. In fact, spending on technology staff amounts to about 20% of total payroll at Defense.

An extraordinarily large percentage of money is spent on infrastructure. More than half of the tail projects - 1,891 - tend to perpetuate incompatibilities in data and applications. Without radical simplification, Defense's vast range of systems tends to generate chaos. That makes it hard to conduct war. Or defense.

Such chaos also depletes the funds needed to adapt Defense to new circumstances. Fully 51% of the department's information-technology budget is spent supporting the infrastructure. That's $15.3 billion a year spent simply on maintaining existing hardware and software - and not resolving incompatibilities.

This complexity is apparent from an examination of fiscal year 2006 spending patterns. Some 86% of Defense Department infrastructure projects have budgets of less than $10 million. For the military, that's pocket change. Not much systems integration can get accomplished with projects of that size.

There are 1,627 project managers laboring to keep alive whatever local infrastructures were put in place years ago. There are only 21 large-scale projects with budgets exceeding $100 million (for a total of $5.91 billion). This money is spent to support organization-specific needs. The Air Force has five projects for $800 million; the Army three projects for $423 million; the Navy four projects for $805 million. The balance of the money is divided among four agencies for coming up with mission-specific solutions.

To what extent does such a comparison of teeth to tail spending apply to commercial organizations?

Consolidating hundreds of legacy accounting or logistics applications is likely to yield only marginal improvements unless a new, low-cost, greatly simplified infrastructure consisting of an Internet-like network and a universal meta-data directory is put in place beforehand. And by keeping track of the tooth-to-tail ratio, a company can identify where excessive resources are consumed by any part of its technology operations that doesn't make a direct difference in market share or profitability.

That's the best way to put some bite back in your technology operation.

Paul A. Strassmann (paul@strassmann.com) has found that overhead-laden i.T. systems can blunt a company's ability to compete in the marketplace.

military technology: missing teeth?

number OF budget FY 2006 budget percent of

projects category (in billions) total

.

TOOTH 585 Warfighter $7.64 25.4%

Tail 1,891 Infrastructure $15.33 51.0%

102 Acquisition $0.25 0.8%

251 Finance, Accounting $0.64 2.1%

440 HR Management $2.22 7.4%

680 Installation, Logistics $2.55 8.5%

172 Planning, Budgeting $1.44 4.8%

4,121 Total I.T. Spending $30.07 100%

SOURCE: STRASSMANN INC.

Rare footage of Marilyn Monroe sold at auction

Rare footage of Marilyn Monroe on the set of the 1959 hit "Some Like It Hot" sold at auction Thursday for $14,624.

The 2 1/2-minute 8 mm film, which features Monroe goofing around with co-stars Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, was shot by a U.S. naval officer who was invited to the set after Monroe visited his base in San Diego.

The sailor's daughter, who moved to Australia, discovered the film among her late father's possessions.

The footage, which was snapped up by an unnamed collector from Sydney, fell short of the pre-sale estimate (roughly $16,700 to $20,900) but auctioneer Charles Leski of Leski Auctions acknowledged it "was something of a guess."

"The sale price was in the ballpark but we didn't have too much to compare it with," Leski said. "Our only comparison _ the only other bit of amateur footage of Monroe that changed hands at an auction _ was a 47-minute film shot by an extra on another of her films, `The Misfits,' which was sold in Las Vegas in June for $60,000."

The film shows Monroe surrounded by sailors at the base and later cuts to scenes from the movie set.

Monroe, who died in 1962 from a drug overdose, won a Golden Globe award in 1960 for her performance in the screwball comedy classic.

UCI gives Belgium extra race in World Tour

AIGLE, Switzerland (AP) — The International Cycling Union has added another one-day classic race in Belgium to the World Tour calendar.

The UCI says it granted the E3 Prijs Vlaanderen-Harelbeke race a four-year license as a World Tour event through 2015.

The March 23, 2012 race will open the Belgian spring classics season.

UCI President Pat McQuaid says raising the race's status recognized the "remarkable heritage" of cycling in the Flanders region.

Its also gives Europe an extra berth on a 28-event program of one-day classics and stage races after Montreal, Quebec and Beijing were recently added.

The Harelbeke race has been staged since 1958. Switzerland's Fabian Cancellara won the past two editions.

Iran president declares new era for country

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sought to disperse the clouds of doubt surrounding his re-election in his first major television address. But even as he spoke, opponents went to their rooftops shouting "death to the dictator" _ a sign of continuing defiance.

In his half-hour address late Tuesday, Ahmadinejad insisted that the June 12 elections were fair and that his government was legitimate. His staunch line gave no ground to opponents who claim the vote results were fraudulent and launched a wave of mass protests in recent weeks.

"It was the most clean and free election in the world," Ahmadinejad said, adding that during a re-count "no fault was discovered. The whole nation understood this." He said the 85 percent turnout and his landslide victory according to official results had given his government a new legitimacy.

In a bid to win over skeptics, he promised to accomplish "higher and grander things" during his second term, saying his government would focus on improving the economy. "This is a new beginning for Iran ... we have entered a new era," he said. "We must all join hands to achieve Iran's lofty goals."

Ahmadinejad has the support of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and hard-liners in the clerical leadership. Khamenei declared the election results valid and unleashed security forces to put down the giant street protests with a wave of arrests.

But while calm has been imposed, Iranians in many parts of the capital continued late Tuesday what has been a nightly ritual of defiance _ climbing to their rooftops to shout, "death to the dictator" and "God is great." The shouts could be heard during Ahmadinejad's address.

Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims to have won the election, is seeking to rekindle the movement after its protest momentum was shattered by the crackdown by police, Revolutionary Guards and Basij militia. Mousavi met late Monday with the other two top pro-reform leaders, former president Mohammad Khatami and cleric Mahdi Karroubi, who also ran in the presidential election.

The three demanded that ruling clerics end the heavy "security atmosphere" imposed after the elections and free those detained in the unrest, according to Mousavi's Web site. They warned that continuing the security crackdown "will only lead to radicalization of political activities."

There was no sign of a let-up in the clampdown. Police say 20 people were killed in postelection violence and more than 1,000 arrested, though they say many have been released.

Authorities this week closed universities and dormitories, apparently because of Web site calls for new protests on Thursday, the anniversary of a 1999 attack by Basij and police on protesting students.

The anniversary could be a test of how willing opposition supporters are to defy tough security measures. The government has also closed government offices, saying the closure is due to unusually heavy dust clouds and pollution hanging over the capital and other parts of the country the past two days.

Mousavi hinted on Monday that he may move away from the tactic of protests and create a political party to work in what he called "a legal framework."

But it is not clear how much margin the opposition will have for political action. Many of the top reform figures _ including Khatami's former vice president and one-time members of his Cabinet _ are in detention and could face charges of fomenting riots. Earlier this week, the head of the Revolutionary Guards warned that the elite force would take a major role in defending the country's system of clerical rule.

Despite the regime's rhetoric, a number of top clerics have continued to question the election _ a rare defiance of the supreme leader from the ranks of the religious establishment.

Six U.N. human rights experts on Tuesday issued a statement expressing "grave concern about reports of killings, ongoing arrests, use of excessive police force and the ill-treatment of detainees." They questioned the legality of the arrests of journalists and demonstrators, saying they face "arbitrary detentions."

Ten Nobel Peace Prize winners including Archbishop Desmond Tutu sent a letter to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon Tuesday asking him to send a special envoy to Iran to investigate allegations of human rights abuses.

"We deplore the violence and crackdown on peaceful protesters, the increasing restrictions on civil liberties and the imprisonment of ... civic leaders," the letter said.

_____

AP correspondent Ron DePasquale at the United Nations contributed to this report.

talking TURKEY

Make any day a holiday with a healthy and tasty turkey dish

If any vestiges still remain of the history lessons of your early school years, you may recall that Benjamin Franklin favored the turkey to be designated as the national bird, and he was deeply disappointed when the bald eagle won that title. But did you know that centuries earlier, the Aztecs domesticated this uniquely North American fowl, not only consuming its meat and eggs for their high protein content, but also using its festive feathers for ceremonial vestments?

And while we may not routinely adorn ourselves with trailing headdresses, we would be well advised to emulate the Mesoamericans in utilizing the turkey as a major source of protein in our daily diets. Recent research has demonstrated that turkey meat can provide benefits that red meats such as beef cannot and avoids some of the pitfalls that red meats often inflict.

Those pitfalls include such hazards as threats to the cardiovascular system and a higher risk of colon cancer, neither of which have been evidenced in the consumption of turkey - which is considered a "white meat," even the so-called "dark" thighs and drumsticks. In fact, the breast meat is "white" in domesticated turkeys only because they never fly; in the wild, turkey breast meat is just as dark as the rest of the bird.

Beyond providing a substantial dose of healthful proteins, turkey also offers a generous supply of vitamin B6, as well as niacin, selenium, and zinc. And if the bird's diet included foods containing omega-3 fatty acids, then those useful nutrients will be available as well.

Studies have shown that the feed the bird consumes, and its health before slaughter, have a significant impact on the nutritional benefits to be derived. Of course, it's tough to quiz your grocer on the mealtime habits and general health of that package of drumsticks, right? So for this and other reasons, it's best to seek out organic turkey meat and, if possible, "pastured" birds. This designation, which indicates that the birds experienced actual outdoor activity, is preferable to "free range," which only requires "access" to the outdoors and offers no guarantee that the sun has shone upon that bird. An organic label also ensures that no antibiotics or additives have been used, which is always preferable.

Oh, and you know that old wives' tale about the tryptophan in turkey making you sleepy after Thanksgiving dinner? Not really - it's all those side dishes filled with carbohydrates that you overindulged in, not to mention that second bottle of wine. In any event, it's time to think outside the "holiday box," and start enjoying turkey year-round!

[Sidebar]

MEDITERRRNERN TURKEY MERTLOAF

SERVES 8

Serve uuith smashed boiled potatoes uuith olive oil and baby peas. The leftovers make great sandwiches.

3 lbs. ground free-range organic dark turkey meat

1 egg

� cup milk

7 oz. crumbled French feta cheese (I use Valbreso brand)

3 oz. pine nuts

3/4 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil, drained

1 cup shredded fresh basil

3/4 cup panko bread crumbs

1 Tbs. Italian seasoning mix

3/4 cup organic ketchup

1. Preheat oven to 375�F.

2. Place all ingrethents except ketchup in large mixing bouul and combine, mixing lightly uuith hands.

3. Transfer to 9x13 baking dish (or disposable foil pan) and shape into loaf - don't pack too tightly.

4. Spread ketchup evenly over top. Bake 1 hour 10 minutes; remove from oven, and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing, and serve.

PER SERVING: 494 CRL; 44 G PROT; 27 G TOTAL FRfT (7 G SfiTFflT); 18 G CRRB; 145 MG CHOL; 626 MG SOD; 1 G FIBER; 6 G SUGARS

[Sidebar]

SMOKED TURKEY & FENNEL SALAD

SERVES 6

A little something different for lunch - serve over greens for a refreshing salad or make a hearty sanduuich uuith uuhole grain bread and romaine lettuce.

1 1/2 lbs. louj-sodium smoked turkey, cut into half-inch cubes

2 stalks celery, chopped

1 small fennel bulb, chopped

1/4 cup Italian parsley leaves, chopped

2 Tbs. fresh lemon juice

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1 Tbs. Dijon mustard

Grind or tuuo of black pepper

In a large bouul, toss together turkey, celery, fennel, parsley, and lemon juice. In a small bouul, stir together mayonnaise, mustard and pepper; spoon over turkey mix and stir to combine.

PER SERVING: 226 CRL; 29 G PROT; 12 G TOTAL FAT ( 2 G SATFAT); 4 G CARB; 65 MG CHOL; 904 MG SOD; 1 G FIBER; 1 G SUGARS

SKorean, Uzbek leaders sign $4.1B worth of deals

ALMATY, Kazakhstan (AP) — The presidents of Uzbekistan and South Korea have signed energy deals worth a total of around $4.1 billion, marking a notable investment coup for the diplomatically isolated ex-Soviet nation.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak wrapped up a two-day state visit Wednesday to Uzbekistan that was crowned by an agreement to develop a major gas field and build a chemicals plant in the country.

"This is where we declare the beginning of a petrochemical complex that can change the history of Uzbekistan," Lee was cited as saying by South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

Uzbekistan's foreign ministry said in a statement on its website Wednesday that the chemical plant will require $2.6 billion worth of investments to complete. The plant will process reserves drawn from the yet-undeveloped Surgil field, which is estimated to hold around 130 billion cubic meters of natural gas.

Surgil is located near the Aral Sea, which has almost entirely dried up as a result of grand Soviet-era river-diversion projects designed to nourish the region's lucrative cotton industry.

Yonhap said companies involved in the gas project will include South Korea's GS Engineering & Construction Corp., Samsung Engineering Co., Hyundai Engineering Co. and Uzbek state energy company UzbekNefteGaz.

In total, more than 20 agreements in sectors including energy, engineering and construction were signed during Lee's visit.

The former Soviet country has had trouble attracting Western investment amid widespread international concerns over its opaque business climate. Uzbekistan was ranked 172nd out of 178 nations in Transparency International's most recent index for perceived levels of public-sector corruption.

It has had more luck in Asia, however. China earlier this year signed $5 billion in investment deals to boost gas supplies from the resource-rich country.

Uzbekistan has long been a major investment destination for South Korean companies. Trade turnover between the two countries reached approximately $1.5 billion in 2010. Almost all of that consisted of exports to Uzbekistan.

Some 200,000 ethnic Koreans deported by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin live in Uzbekistan. It is the largest Korean community across the former Soviet Union.

Dutch courts to try pirates now held in Denmark

The Dutch government will prosecute five suspected pirates captured off the coast of Somalia after reaching an extradition agreement, a spokesman said Thursday.

The Danish navy captured the men in the Gulf of Aden on Jan. 2 after receiving a distress call from a Netherlands Antilles-registered freighter, which fended off the pirates with signal flares until a Danish ship arrived and sank the attacking vessel.

The ministers of justice of Denmark and the Netherlands agreed on the extradition during a brief meeting outside an informal gathering of European justice ministers in Prague, Czech Republic, said Dutch spokesman Wim van der Weegen.

The Dutch prosecutor's office was drawing up charges, but the suspects likely will be tried for piracy under international law, he said. It was unclear when the suspects would be handed over.

On Tuesday, the Russian navy came to the rescue of a Dutch container ship off the Somali coast. The pirates chased the Dutch vessel for about 30 minutes but aborted their attempt to board it after a Russian warship and helicopter arrived at the scene, said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Malaysia.

The Dutch navy is due to send its own frigate with a crew of 170 to the Gulf of Aden in March to protect shipments of food and other humanitarian aid to Somalia.

Sponge-Like Aerogel Soaks Up Hg, Separates H^sub 2^, and Improves HDS

Northwestern Univ. chemists have designed a brittle, freeze-dried, sponge-like material that can remove mercury from polluted water, easily separate hydrogen from other gases, and is a more-effective hydrodesulfurization (HDS) catalyst than the one currently used to pull sulfur out of crude oil.

The material is a new class of chalcogels - random networks of metal and sulfur atoms with very high surface areas discovered only a few years ago at Northwestern. The new chalcogel is made from common elements, is stable when exposed to air or water, and can be used as a powder.

Mercouri G. Kanatzidis, professor of chemistry in Northwestern 's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, and doctoral student Santanu Bag make their catalyst using a method different from that of conventional catalysts.

The Northwestern material is an aerogel made of cobalt, nickel, molybdenum and sulfur (in nominal stoichiometries of CoMoS^sub 4^ and NiMoS^sub 4^) that is freeze-dried to produce a sponge-like material with a very high surface area. (One cubic centimeter has approximately 10,000 H^sub 2^ of surface area, or about half the area of a football field.) This high surface area and the material's stability under catalytic conditions are responsible for the chalcogel's high, sustainable activity.

The researchers demonstrated that the new chalcogel soaks up toxic heavy metals from contaminated water better than other materials. The chalcogel removed nearly 99% of the mercury from water containing several parts per million of the pollutant. Mercury has an affinity for binding to sulfur, and the chalcogel contains many sulfur atoms that serve as binding sites.

Two years ago, Kanatzidis and Bag reported a chalcogel that could remove mercury from liquid, but that chalcogel contained expensive platinum. The new material contains only inexpensive elements, with cobalt and nickel taking the place of the platinum. The cobalt and nickel link through the sulfur atoms of the thiomolybdate anions to create a three-dimensional porous network.

"We succeeded in doing something very difficult: eliminating the platinum and only using common materials to create a gel," says Kanatzidis. "We found the proper conditions to get the properties we wanted. The key was changing the solvent from water to formamide. It is important to stabilize a gel. If a stable gel cannot form, no high surface or porous material is obtained."

Hydrodesulfurization is a widely used, highly optimized catalytic process that removes sulfur from natural gas and refined petroleum products, such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuels. It is the largest scale catalytic reaction. Scientists have tried to improve HDS, but have not made much progress - many consider it to be optimized already. The Northwestern researchers, in collaboration with colleagues at Western Washington Univ., also report that their catalyst is twice as active as the conventional HDS catalyst, even though it is composed of the same elements.

"I was surprised at the impressive activity of our catalyst, given how difficult it has been to improve HDS," says Kanatzidis. "In principle, our catalyst could process and desulfurize twice as much crude oil as the same amount of conventional catalyst. We are currently conducting studies to see how the catalyst operates under more commercial conditions."

In addition to being a mercury sponge and a better HDS catalyst, the chalcogel also is very effective at gas separation. The researchers showed that the material easily removes carbon dioxide from hydrogen, an application that could be useful in the hydrogen economy. This is the first published research to report chalcogels being used for catalysis and gas separation.

The gas separation process takes advantage of the soft sulfur atoms of the chalcogel's surface along with the very high surface area. These atoms interact with other soft moving molecules, slowing them down as they pass through. Hydrogen, the smallest element, is a hard molecule - it quickly transfers through while softer molecules like carbon dioxide take more time.

[Sidebar]

Northwestern Univ. researchers have created a chalcogel that separates H^sub 2^ from CO2 (top), plays a role in hydrodesulfurization (middle) and removes Hg from water (bottom). The images at the right show the chalogel on centimeter, micron and nanometer scales. Image courtesy of S. Bag.

Romeoville mayor wins; Homer Twp. gains village

In Will County, Romeoville Mayor Fred Dewald said his efforts tobring commercial growth and lower taxes to the far southwest suburbled to his victory by a nearly 3-1 margin over village Trustee Edward"Doc" McCartan.

Growth was also the issue in Homer Township, where residentshoping to curb it won a referendum creating the new 19-square-milevillage of Homer Glen with 66 percent of the votes cast.

Twice before, voters had rejected incorporation, many fearinghigher taxes. This year "people realized it was finally time," saidMike Divivio, a member of the Committee to Incorporate Homer Glen.

"There may not have been a reason to before, but with theannexations surrounding towns have made, the people can finally seethat it's going to continue and the only way to protect us as acommunity is to define our borders," Divivio said.

Committee members sought to carve out two-thirds of the township,containing 22,000 people, in an effort to prevent annexations andpreserve the area's rural character.

In Romeoville, challenger McCartan tried to make growth an issue,but only won 27 percent of the vote to Dewald's 73 percent.

McCartan was for slowing the rate of growth, saying residents inthe older part of the village were footing the bill for services tonew subdivisions.

But Dewald said he viewed the vote as a mandate to continue whathe calls "smart growth."

"To know this kind of support is there-it's a mandate not to sitback and relax but to keep working for the next four years."

Just one recent development brought in $10.8 million in new taxrevenue, which is being used to repair older streets in the village,Dewald said.

Incumbent Frankfort Mayor Ray Rossi took 60 percent of the vote todefeat Robert Herrick.

Feds: brakes weren't applied on crashed US Prius

Federal regulators say computer data from a Toyota Prius that crashed in New York show that at the time of the accident the throttle was open and the driver was not hitting the brakes.

A housekeeper driving the car on March 9 told police that it sped up on its own before crashing despite her braking.

The accident prompted an intense investigation because Toyota has recalled more than 8 million cars since last fall because gas pedals could become stuck or be held down by floor mats.

Technicians from Toyota and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration examined the wrecked Prius on Wednesday in New York.

On Thursday, NHTSA said information from the car's computer systems indicated there was no application of the brakes and the throttle was fully open.

Ex-official receives another sentence

A former Public Service Commission official who recently served aprison term for diverting public money for his personal use received12 months probation for another legal matter.

Wayne Crowder, the PSC's former manager of administration,pleaded guilty to violating the terms of a protective order obtainedby his former wife, Cindy Lucas.

Crowder was also charged with making harassing phone calls toLucas.

Kanawha Magistrate Carol Fouty on Monday sentenced Crowder to 90days in jail and $255 in fines as part of a plea agreement. Thesentence wound up being 12 months probation because of the timeCrowder had already served.

Fouty asked Crowder whether he would be able to pay the fines.

"Are you working?" she asked.

"No," Crowder said.

"That may be a problem," Fouty said.

"It's a big problem," Crowder responded.

Crowder must complete 32 sessions of domestic violencecounseling, Fouty said.

He was ordered to have no contact with Lucas or her family,although he wanted to make sure his lawyer could contact hers toresolve pending issues over the house they owned together.

Crowder served a four-month prison term for defrauding the PSC of$19,000 by using the agency's funds to buy expensive clocks, pens,manicure sets and other items not actually used by the agency.

Matthews not pleased by 8-for-18 performance

Shane Matthews can play better. He knows he must.

Matthews looked like a carbon copy of Steve Stenstrom in theBears' 9-6 preseason victory over Indianapolis on Saturday night,going 8-of-18 for 110 yards. He was 5-of-10 for 57 yards on hisfinal drive, which ended with a 30-yard field goal by Todd Sauerbrun.

"I didn't play nearly as well as I wanted to," Matthews said. "Mycompletion percentage was just horrible. That's one thing I think Ican bring to this team - if it's not open downfield, dump it off andgo on to the next play. But 8-of-18, that's not going to get itdone."

Though he has played in only two games in his six-year NFL career,Matthews has prided himself on playing well when he gets in a game.He couldn't this time.

"I made a few bad reads. A couple of balls slipped out of myhands," he said. "For the most part, if I make the correct reads andthrow it on time, those balls are completed."

BIG IMPRESSION: Macey Brooks made another bid to stick with fivecatches for 51 yards.

"I guess I was just the right person at the right place at theright time," he said.

But he's careful not to make too much of it.

"You just have to keep working hard and try to make plays and makethe team," he said.

DRAFT NEWS: Linebacker Chris Draft is on the bubble in a crowdedfield. He has played well in practice and made a key play againstthe Colts by recovering a fumble that clinched the game. GregWilliams, the former Bolingbrook high school All-American, caused thefumble.

"I don't know how important a play like that is," Draft said. "Ihope it's important. But you never know. Anything good helps."

KICKING BACK: Sauerbrun was 3-for-4 on field goals as a stand-infor Jeff Jaeger, who was out with a hip injury. Sauerbrun missedfrom 41 yards, then hit field goals of 25, 30 and 31 yards to providethe margin of victory.

"I just hope Jeff comes back soon enough so I can focus on my joband let Jeff do his thing," Sauerbrun said.

COMPLIMENTS: Coach Dick Jauron was pleased with the effort by thedefense.

"I thought Rashard Cook stood out," Jauron said. "I thought therewere three big hits he made. I thought Warrick Holdman was veryactive on the field. Khari Samuel made a nice hit on a special-teamsplay. There were a number of good things."

BACK IN BUSINESS: Tom Carter is picking up where he left off.

The veteran Bears cornerback, who had two interceptions in threegames last year before suffering a season-ending broken collarbone inthe fourth game, intercepted a Peyton Manning pass in the firstquarter.

Manning underthrew wide receiver E.G. Green on a deep pass, andCarter easily cut in front of Green to make the interception.

Caption Only [Color Photo: Luis M. Alvarez/AP / DENG LEADS BULLS TO...]

Caption …

Plenty of work to be done

When the supposedly financially strapped White Sox pulled the trigger on $115 million worth of deals to acquire starting pitcher Jake Peavy and outfielder Alex Rios in a 10-day span, the general reaction from the supposedly deep-pocketed Cubs was, ''Must be nice.''

Imagine that: The Cubs envying the Sox when it comes to spending money.

Pretty soon, it will be back to business as usual for the Cubs -- but not soon enough to rescue the 2009 squad.

The Ricketts family finally cleared the biggest hurdle Friday by signing a definitive agreement to acquire 95 percent of the franchise from the Sam Zell-controlled Tribune Co. for $845 million.

Zell, who has lost his magic financial magic touch since acquiring Tribune Co. and the Cubs in April 2007, didn't get the $1 billion he was seeking, but there is no doubt the Ricketts family overpaid for their fixer-upper. Forbes magazine valued the Cubs at $700 million this year, making them the fifth-highest-valued franchise in Major League Baseball. The New York Yankees were tops at an estimated value of $1.5 billion.

Real face, real office

The group headed by the father-son team of Joe and Tom Ricketts, a lifelong Cubs fan, won't get the keys to its new toy until at least November, when MLB's owners will meet for a previously scheduled meeting in Chicago.

But at this point, the bankruptcy red tape -- and there is plenty -- and getting approval from 75 percent of the owners are mere formalities. For the first time since 1981, when the Wrigley family sold the club and its ballpark to Tribune Co. for $20.5 million, the Cubs will have an owner with a real face and a real office.

And that means no more corporate mazes to negotiate to get approval for even the smallest moves.

That's the way life has been for the Cubs since the for-sale sign was shoved into the ground on Opening Day 2007, the official start of the Lou Piniella era. The Cubs lost Piniella's opener, prompting the new manager to say: ''There are enough distractions on Opening Day without your team being sold.''

The real distractions hadn't come until the last 10 months or so, when the sale process was stalling at every turn and there was a freeze on general manager Jim Hendry's bankroll. You want to bemoan the losses of Mark DeRosa and even Jason Marquis? Blame the lingering sale of the team.

It was startling how the cash flow hit a dam after an unprecedented free-spending mode. Remember the $300 million shopping spree before the 2007 season? The reason Hendry was cut loose to spend like a crazy man was to polish up a clunker of a team coming off a 96-loss season.

The mandate was to make this team look appealing to potential buyers. That's why Hendry overspent -- in dollars and years -- to acquire free agent Alfonso Soriano, a 46-homer, 41-steals player who was the most attractive free agent on the market that offseason.

Wrigley in dire need of repair

Before the Ricketts family signed their agreement Friday, Tribune Co. was negotiating with two potential buyers, the other a group headed by Marc Utay and Leo Hindery. That complicated matters for the baseball side of things because there wasn't a clear-cut buyer.

Now we know it's the Ricketts group.

How they will manage the Cubs is anyone's guess. Yes, they are fans. But they just overspent on the team, the ballpark and a 25 percent stake in Comcast SportsNet. Wrigley Field, which turns 100 years old in 2014, is in desperate need of updating. And you can be sure the city soon will be pressing the new owners to come up with a plan to update the grumbling building.

In addition, the payroll is weighed down by back-loaded and bad contracts, and the farm system is depleted.

The Ricketts family survived the 2 1/2-year battle to earn the right to be considered the next owners of the Cubs. Now the real work begins.

Comment at suntimes.com.

SUGGESTION BOX

Here are five things that should top the to-do list of the Cubs' new owners:

1. Dump Crane Kenney. He went from Tribune Co. lawyer with a good seat for games to thinking he was Connie Mack. Kenney did a decent job shoveling paper during the transition, but he's also the clown who invited a Greek priest to spread holy water in the Cubs' dugout before their playoff series last October against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

2. Update and improve Wrigley Field. The ivy on the walls looks cool, but the smelly concourses and third-world bathrooms are anything but fan-friendly. Minor-league ballparks do a better job of accommodating fans. This is one area where Tribune Co. consistently cut corners.

3. Let the baseball people run the show. As much grief as general manager Jim Hendry and manager Lou Piniella have received this season, they have been more successful in those jobs than any others in the organization in the last 100 years.

4. Don't forget about the farm system. Inheriting a 101-year World Series title drought can make a new owner do crazy things. The Cubs' core is getting older, and the cupboard looks bare below.

5. Let the fans know you're around. For too long, this has been a corporately owned team with no face behind the franchise. You don't have to become George Steinbrenner, but let the fans know there is a real person signing the checks.

Chris De Luca

Photo: (See microfilm for photo description). ;

National League Standings

All Times EDT
East Division
	W	L	Pct	GB
Philadelphia	45	28	.616	—
Atlanta	41	33	.554	4½
New York	35	37	.486	9½
Washington	35	37	.486	9½
Florida	32	41	.438	13
Central Division
	W	L	Pct	GB
St. Louis	40	33	.548	—
Milwaukee	40	34	.541	½
Cincinnati	38	36	.514	2½
Pittsburgh	35	37	.486	4½
Chicago	30	42	.417	9½
Houston	27	47	.365	13½
West Division
	W	L	Pct	GB
San Francisco	39	33	.542	—
Arizona	39	34	.534	½
Colorado	36	36	.500	3
Los Angeles	32	41	.438	7½
San Diego	30	43	.411	9½

___

Sunday's Games

Cleveland 5, Pittsburgh 2, 11 innings

L.A. Angels 7, N.Y. Mets 3

Cincinnati 2, Toronto 1

Atlanta 4, Texas 2

Boston 12, Milwaukee 3

Baltimore 7, Washington 4

Tampa Bay 2, Florida 1

Minnesota 5, San Diego 4

St. Louis 5, Kansas City 4

Detroit 9, Colorado 1

Oakland 2, San Francisco 1

Seattle 2, Philadelphia 0

L.A. Dodgers 1, Houston 0

Chicago White Sox 8, Arizona 2

N.Y. Yankees 10, Chicago Cubs 4

Monday's Games

Baltimore 8, Pittsburgh 3

Colorado 8, Cleveland 7

Boston 14, San Diego 5

Atlanta 2, Toronto 0

L.A. Angels 2, Florida 1

N.Y. Yankees 5, Cincinnati 3

Texas 8, Houston 3

Tampa Bay 8, Milwaukee 4

Chicago Cubs 6, Chicago White Sox 3

L.A. Dodgers 4, Detroit 0

Tuesday's Games

Baltimore at Pittsburgh, 7:05 p.m.

Seattle at Washington, 7:05 p.m.

Colorado at Cleveland, 7:05 p.m.

Oakland at N.Y. Mets, 7:10 p.m.

San Diego at Boston, 7:10 p.m.

Toronto at Atlanta, 7:10 p.m.

L.A. Angels at Florida, 7:10 p.m.

N.Y. Yankees at Cincinnati, 7:10 p.m.

Houston at Texas, 8:05 p.m.

Tampa Bay at Milwaukee, 8:10 p.m.

Chicago Cubs at Chicago White Sox, 8:10 p.m.

Arizona at Kansas City, 8:10 p.m.

Philadelphia at St. Louis, 8:15 p.m.

Detroit at L.A. Dodgers, 10:10 p.m.

Minnesota at San Francisco, 10:15 p.m.

Wednesday's Games

Baltimore at Pittsburgh, 12:35 p.m.

N.Y. Yankees at Cincinnati, 12:35 p.m.

Toronto at Atlanta, 1:05 p.m.

San Diego at Boston, 1:35 p.m.

Tampa Bay at Milwaukee, 2:10 p.m.

Detroit at L.A. Dodgers, 3:10 p.m.

Seattle at Washington, 7:05 p.m.

Colorado at Cleveland, 7:05 p.m.

Oakland at N.Y. Mets, 7:10 p.m.

L.A. Angels at Florida, 7:10 p.m.

Houston at Texas, 8:05 p.m.

Chicago Cubs at Chicago White Sox, 8:10 p.m.

Arizona at Kansas City, 8:10 p.m.

Philadelphia at St. Louis, 8:15 p.m.

Minnesota at San Francisco, 10:15 p.m.<

PLUS NEWS

Search for missing warplane back on With clear, calm weather today, the Air Force decided to sendsearchers back to the Colorado mountain peak where pieces of amissing warplane were recovered two days ago. A helicopter went outthis morning to scout for a location to lower three searchers bycable. They were to be dropped by a larger helicopter and hike tothe crash site, possibly today, but would stay only two or threehours, officials said. An elite military recovery team, unable toovercome snowy conditions, abandoned efforts on Thursday to reach thewreckage of an A-10 Thunderbolt that disappeared April 2 when thepilot veered away from his formation while on a training mission …

Extrajudiciary Technical Experts and Consultants' Society and the standard on which is based.

1. INTRODUCTION

The Extra Judiciary Technical Experts and Consultants' Society from Romania has a great purpose according to the status of the Romanian technical expert and work this period to realize the Professional Standard for this activity. The term expert is frequently used but the Romanian legislation introduced the occupation of extra judiciary technical expert in the Occupations Cod of Romania only in 2005, position 241801, like answer to the efforts of our society and with the next definition: The extra judiciary expert is a specialist in technical field who draws up extra judiciary technical expertise reports with the purpose to establish and to specify some "fact circumstances", who analyses the technical and economical aspects of an organization, with regard to reorganize, to develop or to improve the production or commercial proceedings and who draws up extra judiciary technical and economical expertise reports for third person/party (Brown, S. 2001). The expertise activity, judiciary end extra judiciary, is materialized in the expert's report or report of expertise.

The expert is one who has acquired special skill in or knowledge of particular subjects through professional training and practical …

DON'T LET NOSY CO-WORKER SUCCEED AT THE SHAME GAME.(LIFE & LEISURE)

DEAR MISS MANNERS: My brother is in a long-term relationship with another man. A co-worker found this out from another source, and confronted me about it, asking all sorts of details about my brother and his lifestyle.

I smiled and said, ``That's kind of personal, and I never asked the details anyway; his business is his business.''

Then the co-worker accused me of being ashamed of my brother, not concerned for him, bigoted, uncaring, all sorts of things.

This is not true. I love my brother; we are great friends. I just don't feel it is my right to talk about his sex life to co-workers -- or anyone! What should I have said? GENTLE READER: Miss …

IX81 motorized inverted microscope.(Literature Focus)(Advertisement)

The IX81 advanced motorized inverted microscope from Olympus features a modular frame and two-tiered, V-shaped optical design to provide 9 access ports for input or output devices. Four ports offer simultaneous access to a primary image. Motorized Z-axis drive, 6-position nosepiece and light path …

Tripoli before Gadhafi's fall

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Before Moammar Gadhafi lost his grip on Libya's capital, foreign journalists assigned to cover his side of the war were largely confined to a luxury hotel in Tripoli, allowed to venture out on bus tours organized by bureaucrats.

At one point, a die-hard Gadhafi loyalist told journalists that the airplanes buzzing overhead were Libyan air force planes, claiming NATO airpower had been defeated.

While still under pressure to show him their allegiance, residents of Tripoli were apprehensive about the imminent fall of the only leader many of them had ever known. …

Nations in the news

Leisure travel, vacation homes fly high

NEW YORK -- A new poll suggests that vacations and leisure travelare increasingly important to Americans, with more advance planning,longer vacations and less focus on work.

Sixty-two percent of those surveyed said they like to spend theirleisure time doing things that are fun and pleasurable, up 10 pointsfrom 2002, according to the annual Roper Reports/NOP World summertravel outlook study.

Just a third of those polled blamed work commitments for keepingthem from pursuing leisure activities, down 20 points from six yearsago.

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Kyrgyz human rights activists picket UN House in Bishkek in support of their detained colleague.

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Mechanisms of cardiodepression by an [Na.sup.+]-[H.sup.+] exchange inhibitor methyl-N-isobutyl amiloride (MIA) on the heart: lack of beneficial effects in ischemia-reperfusion injury (1).

Abstract: Although [Na.sup.+]-[H.sup.+] exchange (NHE) inhibitors such as methyl-N-isobutyl amiloride (MIA) are known to depress the cardiac function, the mechanisms of their negative inotropic effect are not completely understood. In this study, isolated rat hearts were perfused with MIA to study its action on cardiac performance, whereas isolated subcellular organelles such as sarcolemma, myofibrils, sarcoplasmic reticulum, and mitochondria were treated with MIA to determine its effect on their function. The effect of MIA on intracellular [Ca.sup.2+] mobilization was examined in fura-2-AM-loaded cardiomyocytes. MIA was observed to depress cardiac function in a concentration-dependent manner in HC[O.sub.3.sup.-]-free buffer. On the other hand, MIA had an initial positive inotropic effect followed by a negative inotropic effect in HC[O.sub.3.sup.-]-containing buffer. MIA increased the basal concentration of intracellular [Ca.sup.2+] ([[[Ca.sup.2+]].sub.i]) and augmented the KCl-mediated increase in [[[Ca.sup.2+]].sub.i]. MIA did not show any direct effect on myofibrils, sarcolemma, and sarcoplasmic reticulum ATPase activities; however, this agent was found to decrease the intracellular pH, which reduced the myofibrils [Ca.sup.2+]-stimulated ATPase activity. MIA also increased [Ca.sup.2+] uptake by mitochondria without having any direct effect on sarcoplasmic reticulum [Ca.sup.2+] uptake. In addition, MIA did not protect the hearts subjected to mild [Ca.sup.2+] paradox as well as ischemia-reperfusion-mediated injury. These results suggest that the increase in [[[Ca.sup.2+]].sub.i] in cardiomyocytes may be responsible for the initial positive inotropic effect of MIA, but its negative inotropic action may be due to mitochondrial [Ca.sup.2+] overloading as well as indirect depression of myofibrillar [Ca.sup.2+] ATPase activity. Thus the accumulation of [[[H.sup.+]].sub.i] as well as occurrence of intracellular and mitochondrial [Ca.sup.2+] overload may explain the lack of beneficial effects of MIA in preventing the ischemia-reperfusion-induced myocardial injury.

Key words: sodium-hydrogen exchanger, calcium handling proteins, calcium paradox, ischemia-reperfusion.

Resume : Les inhibiteurs de l'echangeur [Na.sup.+]-[H.sup.+] (NHE) comme le methyl-N-isobutyl amiloride (MIA) sont connus pour diminuer la fonction cardiaque, mais les mecanismes de leur effet inotrope negatif ne sont pas totalement compris. Dans la presente etude, on a perfuse des coeurs isoles de rats avec du MIA pour examiner son action sur la performance cardiaque, et on a traite des organites subcellulaires isoles, sarcolemme, myofibrilles, reticulum sarcoplasmique et mitochondries, avec cet agent pour determiner son effet sur leur fonction. On a examine l'effet du MIA sur la mobilisation du [Ca.sup.2+] intracellulaire dans des cardiomyocytes charges en fura-2-AM. Le MIA a diminue la fonction cardiaque en proportion des concentrations utilisees dans le tampon sans HC[O.sub.3.sup.-]. Par contre, le MIA a eu un effet inotrope positif initial suivi d'un effet inotrope negatif dans le tampon contenant du HC[O.sub.3.sup.-]. Le MIA a augmente la concentration de [Ca.sup.2+] intracellulaire ([[[Ca.sup.2+]].sub.i]) basale et amplifie l'augmentation de la [[[Ca.sup.2+]].sub.i] induite par le KCl. Le MIA n'a pas montre d'effet direct sur les activites ATPases des MF, du SL et du RS; toutefois, cet agent a diminue le pH intracellulaire, ce qui a reduit l'activite ATPase stimulee par le [Ca.sup.2+] dans les MF. Le MIA a aussi augmente la capture de [Ca.sup.2+] par les mitochondries sans avoir d'effet direct sur la capture de [Ca.sup.2+] par le RS. De plus, le MIA n'a pas protege les coeurs soumis a un leger paradoxe calcique et a une lesion d'ischemie reperfusion (I/R). Ces resultats donnent a penser que l'augmentation de la [[[Ca.sup.2+]].sub.i] dans les cardiomyocytes pourrait etre a l'origine de l'effet inotrope positif initial du MIA, mais que son action inotrope negative pourrait etre due a une surcharge de [Ca.sup.2+] mitochondriale et a une diminution indirecte de l'activite [Ca.sup.2+]-ATPase myofibrillaire. Ainsi, l'accumulation de [[[H.sup.+]].sub.I] et la presence d'une surcharge intracellulaire et mitochondriale de [Ca.sup.2+] pourrait expliquer l'absence d'effets benefiques du MIA pour la prevention de la lesion d'I/R myocardique.

Mots-cles: echangeur de sodium-hydrogene, proteines du metabolisme du calcium, paradoxe calcique, ischemie-reperfusion.

[Traduit par la Redaction]

Introduction

The cardiac contractile function is determined mainly by the interaction of [Ca.sup.2+] with myofilament proteins as well as the coordinated activities of sarcolemmal (SL) and sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) [Ca.sup.2+] cycling proteins (Dhalla et al. 1982; Bers 2002). Various investigators have demonstrated that impairment in energy production at the level of mitochondria and energy utilization mechanisms at the level of myofibrils (MF), SL, and SR are the main factors responsible for the ischemia-reperfusion (I/R)-induced contractile dysfunction (Carrozza et al. 1992; Kusuoka and Marban 1992). The cation transport studies have revealed that the accumulation of intracellular [H.sup.+] by anaerobic metabolism during ischemia activates [Na.sup.+]-[H.sup.+] exchange (NHE), which causes an increase in intracellular [Na.sup.+] with a parallel increase in intracellular [Ca.sup.2+] through the [Na.sup.+]-[Ca.sup.2+] exchanger. These events result in the development of intracellular [Ca.sup.2+] overload and depression in cardiac function (Fig. 1) (Karmazyn et al. 1999). Although a wide variety of experimental studies using various amiloride derivatives as NHE inhibitors have demonstrated the protective effects of these agents in terms of improving I/R-mediated cardiac contractile dysfunction (Meng et al. 1993; Karmazyn 1999), the cardioprotective effects of these agents seem to depend upon the animal models, the time of starting the therapy, dose of the agent, as well as the end point determined (Hurtado and Pierce 2001). In fact, amiloride derivatives have been shown to depress the cardiac function under basal conditions (Pierce et al. 1993). Neither the mechanisms of the cardiodepressant effects under basal conditions nor the exact reasons for the lack of beneficial effects under certain pathophysiological situations are completely understood. The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that inhibition of NHE causes direct or indirect alterations in mechanisms for energy production and energy utilization leading to contractile dysfunction. To study the effect of NHE inhibition on cardiac function, isolated hearts were perfused with a known NHE inhibitor, 5-(N-methyl-N-isobutyl) amiloride (MIA) (Moffat and Karmazyn 1993). In view of the fact that HC[O.sub.3.sup.-] interferes with the action of NHE (Shimada et al. 1996), some experiments were carried out to determine the effect of MIA on cardiac function in HC[O.sub.3.sup.-]-free buffer. The effects of MIA on the activities of various subcellular organelles such as mitochondria, MF, SL, and SR were determined to examine changes in energy production and utilization. To understand the effect of MIA on intracellular [Ca.sup.2+] mobilization, the concentration of intracellular [Ca.sup.2+] ([[[Ca.sup.2+]].sub.i]) was measured in quiescent and KCl-depolarized cardiomyocytes in the absence or presence of this agent. In addition, the hearts were treated with MIA before subjecting to mild [Ca.sup.2+] paradox or I/R injury to investigate the effect of NHE inhibition on cardiac function. Because NHE is known to promote the efflux of [H.sup.+] generated by myocardial metabolism (Putney et al. 2002), pH of isolated cardiomyocytes was measured in the absence and presence of MIA.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Methods

All experimental protocols were approved by the University of Manitoba Animal Care Committee according to the guidelines of the Canadian Council on Animal Care.

Perfusion of isolated rat heart and experimental protocol

Male Sprague-Dawley rats (250-300 g) were anaesthetized with a mixture of ketamine (90 mg/kg body mass) and xylazine (9 mg/kg). The hearts were quickly excised, mounted on Langendorff apparatus and perfused with Krebs-Henseleit (K-H) buffer gassed with 95% [O.sub.2] : 5% C[O.sub.2], 37[degrees]C, pH 7.4 at a constant flow of 10 mL/min (Saini et al. 2005). The composition of K-H solution was (in mmol/L): 120 NaCl, 4.7 KCl, 1.2 K[H.sub.2]P[O.sub.4], 1.2 MgS[O.sub.4], 25 NaHC[O.sub.3], 1.25 Ca[Cl.sub.2], and 11 glucose. The hearts were electrically stimulated at 300 beats/min via a square wave current of 1.5 ms by using Phipps and Bird stimulator (Richmond, Vir.). The left ventricular systolic pressure (LVSP), the rate of change of pressure development (+dP/dt) and rate of change of pressure decay (-dP/dt) were measured via a transducer (Model 1050 BP-Biopac System Inc., Goleta, Calif.), which was connected with a water-filled latex balloon inserted into the left ventricle (LV). At beginning of the experiment, left ventricular end diastolic pressure (LVEDP) was adjusted to approximately 10 mmHg by …