Issue of uninsured back on radar, Bush proposal revives interest, skepticism of issue

DAILY MAIL WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - President Bush has resuscitated an issue that hasreceived little political oxygen in recent years, the lack ofinsurance coverage for more than 43 million Americans.

In his State of the Union address, the president proposedproviding a refundable tax credit to families who purchase their ownhealth insurance coverage and allowing individuals who buycatastrophic health coverage as part of new health savings accounts,which were part of last year's Medicare legislation, to deduct 100percent of their premiums from their income taxes.

Is raising the thorny issue of health care an election yeargambit, or can lawmakers break a …

Chad investigating 74 Chadian children flown to France, says senior official

Chad will investigate reports at least 74 Chadian children were flown to France more than a month and a half ago without their parents' knowledge, a senior judicial official said Thursday.

A network of local human rights groups wrote to the public prosecutor's department with details about the 74 children said to have been flown from Chad to a military airport outside Paris on Sept. 17, said Masngarel Kagah of the public prosecutor's department.

French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani dismissed the report as an unfounded rumor, and the French military said there was no record of a flight landing at the airport mentioned in the human rights …

Stewart opens Chase with 1st victory of season

JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — Tony Stewart has snapped a 32-race losing streak by winning the opening race in the Chase for the Sprint Cup championship.

It is Stewart's first win since California last October and pushes the two-time champion into contention for another title after a mediocre season by his standards.

Most of the field tried to stretch its gas to the finish Monday, but as Stewart …

The light is getting in

"Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack in everything

That's how the light gets in."

These words by Canadian poet/songwriter Leonard Cohen remind me of the "cracks" that Mennonite Women Canada experienced with the folding of Women in Mission organizations in British Columbia and Manitoba in 2008 and 2009. Without representation from those provinces, we realized we were missing key partners in our unique contributions to the national and international church, so we knew it was time to discern the next steps in how to encourage the "light" to keep coming in.

To that end, a task force of eight women was established …

Bush Says New Video a Reminder of Danger

WASHINGTON - President Bush said Osama bin Laden's mention of the Iraq war in his video message is a reminder of al-Qaida's long-term objectives in Iraq and of the "dangerous world in which we live."

"Iraq is part of this war against extremists," Bush said, responding to the terrorist leader's message but never using his name. "If al-Qaida bothers to mention Iraq, it's because they want to achieve their objectives in Iraq, which is to drive us out."

Bin Laden's video, part of which was broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, emerged just days before the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

In a 30-minute speech addressed to Americans, bin Laden mocks the …

Providence mayor wants to tax college students

The mayor of Providence wants to slap a $150-per-semester tax on the 25,000 full-time students at Brown University and three other private colleges in the city, saying they use resources and should help ease the burden on struggling taxpayers.

Mayor David Cicilline (sis-ah-LEEN-ee) said the fee would raise between $6 million and $8 million a year for the city, which is facing a $17 million deficit.

If enacted, it would apparently be the first time a U.S. city has directly taxed students just for being enrolled.

The proposal is still in its early stages. But it has riled some students, who say it would unfairly saddle them with the city's financial …

Grubs, sweat and fears from the Chicago Flood

Notes from Day 3 of the Great Underground Flood:

Even though it's "darker than the darkest night you've everseen," and they wouldn't be able to see their hands in front of theirfaces, the divers keep their eyes closed while they're down under.It's a natural reaction when you're working by touch.

"Time after time, I'd come up from a dive - and only thenrealize that my eyes had been closed all along," says John Lawton, aveteran diver who is now a vice president with The Brand Companies,Inc., one of two firms sending brave men into the Chicago River tohelp seal the most famous black hole on Earth.

The idea of being deep under water and totally in the dark …

Puerto Rico-Cuba flights resume after decades

HAVANA (AP) — Flights between Cuba and Puerto Rico have resumed nearly 50 years after service between the islands was severed due to bad blood between Washington and Havana.

A Cuban travel official says the American Eagle charter flight from San Juan is arriving in the eastern city of Santiago on Friday.

Elizza Cabezas says the passengers are mostly Puerto Rico residents of …

Tourists visit Washington before snow

Tourists are making last-minute trips to Washington's monuments and museums before they likely get snowed in.

Small groups walked up slick steps of the Lincoln Memorial Friday, and a handful of people stopped by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the World War II Memorial.

Meanwhile, visitors streamed through exhibits at the National …

BREAKFAST BRIEFING // CHICAGO

Ameritech age-bias suit settled The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reached a $1million settlement of an age discrimination lawsuit against AmeritechCorp. The EEOC alleged that 40 employees who lost their jobs in arestructuring five years ago were the victims of age discrimination.The employees will receive between $18,000 and $32,000 each. Shoe Carnival chain coming here A shoe chain featuring an in-store carnival barking rattling offspecial deals has landed in the Chicago area. Evansville, Ind.-basedShoe Carnival opened its first area store this month in Geneva andanother will open in Woodridge in October. The 12,000-square-footstores feature a combination of name …

Bulgaria minister ousted over Communist past

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Bulgaria's conservative government says a minister has resigned after it emerged he was accused of working for the former communist secret intelligence service.

Deputy Prime Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov told state television Monday that Bozhidar Dimitrov, a minister without portfolio, had stepped down.

The announcement came as Prime …

Jindal backs ending presidential draft effort

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and his state campaign group want supporters to end efforts to draft him for a presidential run, but the nationally prominent Republican stopped short of saying he won't seek the presidency.

Jindal won the country's attention _ not all of it positive _ in February for delivering the televised Republican response to a major speech by President Barack Obama to Congress. Jindal also traveled to Iowa and several other states, fueling speculation that the first-term governor was exploring a run for the White House.

But Dan Kyle, an officer in the "Jindal for President Draft Council," confirmed Tuesday that the governor's …

New Orthodox era // Greeks welcome 1st American-born archbishop

In a four-hour service replete with incense and ornamentation,Greek Orthodox welcomed home one of their own Sunday - the firstAmerican-born leader of their church.

Making his first appearance in the Chicago area since his Julyinstallation as head of the 1.5 million-member Greek Orthodox Churchin America, Archbishop Spyridon presided at a liturgy in southwestsuburban Palos Heights.

In an interview following the service at St. Spyridon HellenicOrthodox Church, the archbishop said his visits to churches acrossAmerica have revealed to him "a wonderful community very vibrant anddynamic, one that offers many possibilities to do a lot of things forthe future."An estimated eight in 10 Greek Orthodox now marry outside theirfaith. Because Greek Orthodoxy uses Greek in its worship,non-Orthodox spouses often are alienated from the faith. Eventually,the entire family breaks away from Greek Orthodoxy.Spyridon said that conflict is the most pressing problem facingthe church in America."I would say everyone is concerned with interfaith marriages,which means we will have to do a lot in the field of religiouseducation," he said.When Spyridon was chosen by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I,the spiritual leader of all Orthodox in the world, many AmericanOrthodox were thrilled. Some of them felt that foreign-born churchleaders have failed to grasp the complexity of their church as itevolves from an immigrant institution in the United States.Spyridon, 52, was born George Papageorgio in Warren, Ohio.Although he had not lived in the United States for 35 years beforehis appointment as archbishop, Spyridon said the fact that he is anAmerican has been useful as he settles into his new post. "It hashelped in trying to understand the situation in America and assessingour problems and concerns," he said.Spyridon said he has no immediate goals other than "to do ourjob a little bit better than how we are doing right now."The use of English has been a point of contention in manychurches; some use it extensively, a few not at all. Spyridon hassaid he favors striking some sort of balance. That approach wasapparent Sunday as he preached in both Greek and English.For those who have grown up in the faith, Spyridon's easylanguage shift was encouraging.Andrea Petrakos, a 47-year-old Beverly accountant, said herGreek immigrant grandparents were among the first parishioners of St.Spyridon, which was founded in Pullman in the 1920s. Liturgies werealways in Greek when she was a child, she said."People do still send their kids to Greek school, but ourparents were immigrants and so we spoke it around the house. It'snot the same, today," she said.

Chile says part of big forest fire contained

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chile's government says firefighters are making progress against a major blaze in one of the nation's most important national parks.

Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter says three of the six areas of the fire at the Torres del Paine park in far-southern Chile have been controlled by Sunday. The blaze has burned more 48 square miles (12,500 hectares) since starting Tuesday.

A court has ordered Israeli citizen Rotem Singer to remain in the area while officials determine if he should be charged with negligently setting the blaze by failing to completely extinguish burning trash.

The 23-year-old Singer tells Israeli Army Radio he is innocent. In his words, "It wasn't me. They've placed the blame on me."

Indians Swat Yanks 2-1 to Take 2-0 Lead

CLEVELAND - Swat! Take that, New York Yankees. Helped by a freakish invasion of bombarding bugs that rattled rookie reliever Joba Chamberlain in the eighth inning, the Cleveland Indians rallied to beat the Yankees 2-1 in 11 innings Friday night to take a 2-0 lead in their AL playoff series.

Travis Hafner's bases-loaded, RBI single with two outs in the 11th scored Kenny Lofton with the winner.

Lunacy. Surreal. Hitchcockian. Call it whatever you'd like. October baseball has rarely witnessed anything close to it.

After Chamberlain's wild pitch in the eighth gave Cleveland the tying run, the Indians won it.

Lofton, a gnat-like nuisance to the Yankees so far in this series, walked on four pitches to lead off the 11th against Luis Vizcaino. Franklin Gutierrez failed twice to get down a sacrifice before hitting a single.

Casey Blake moved the runners up with a bunt before the Yankees walked Grady Sizemore to load the bases. Rookie Asdrubal Cabrera missed his chance at being a hero by popping up right in front of the plate.

Seconds later, the Indians were swarming Hafner.

Cleveland's designated hitter lined a single on a 3-2 pitch to right-center - making Cleveland 2-for-18 with runners in scoring position - and was mobbed by his teammates as an exhausted crowd of 44,732 towel-waving fans celebrated a win they'll talk about for years to come.

A day after the Indians slugged their way to a 12-3 win, Fausto Carmona and the Yankees' Andy Pettitte put pitching back into the series.

New York finished with just three hits, all off Carmona during his nine spectacular innings. Rafael Perez went two innings for the win.

Game 3 will be Sunday at Yankee Stadium, with Jake Westbrook trying to pitch Cleveland to a sweep against Roger Clemens.

The final four innings were like a low-budget, late-night horror flick. Call it: The Bugs Who Ate The Yankees.

Chamberlain, the wildly popular 22-year-old, came in for Pettitte in the seventh with runners at first and second. He struck out pinch-hitter Gutierrez and got Blake on a soft fly to right to keep the Yankees up 1-0.

That's when everyone started buggin' out.

Chamberlain needed to be sprayed with repellant before taking the mound in the eighth as the pesky insects descended upon the ballpark on another muggy fall night. Chamberlain wasn't alone, either, as Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and the rest of the Yankees infielders waved their gloves and caps in front of their faces to keep the little pests off them.

Chamberlain walked Grady Sizemore to open the eighth, and with the bugs sticking to his muscular, sweaty neck, the right-hander threw a wild pitch before asking for another dose of spray. Plate umpire Laz Diaz, who also was under attack, consented and watched as Chamberlain held out his arms as if he was going through an airport security scan as a trainer sprayed him down.

Cabrera sacrificed before Hafner lined out to first. Then, on a 1-0 pitch to Victor Martinez, Chamberlain uncorked another wild pitch that went all the way to the backstop before caroming directly to catcher Jorge Posada.

With Sizemore barreling down the line, Posada quickly shoveled the ball to a charging Chamberlain, who was upended at the plate by the Indians leadoff man, a former high school football star.

Seconds later, with Chamberlain spitting out the critters like they were sunflower seeds, the giant scoreboard flashed: Bug off Yankees!

The pests have visited before, usually earlier in the summer.

They're called midges. They're scientific name is Chironomus plumosus (Linnaeus) or Chironomus attenuatus Walker.

The Yankees - and their hardcore fans - will forever call them something much less polite.

The bizarre circumstances were somehow fitting for the Indians, who had their season-opening series at Jacobs Field snowed out and played their next home series in Milwaukee.

And while the annoying bugs, who occasionally drop in on the Jake, will be remembered, Rodriguez can't seem to shake his prolonged postseason funk.

A-Rod went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and is now 4-for-47 with zero RBIs in his last 14 playoffs games.

'A Star is' Beyoncé

It looks like the always- seemingly-beingdiscussed update of "A Star Is Born," the one Beyonc� has been attached to for some time now (and before her it was Whitney and before her, etc.), might finally be ready to take flight. And who'll be the man to make it happen? Clint Eastwood. Yes, you read that one correctly. The pair is in talks to add the "Dreamgirls" star to the Janet Gay nor/ Judy Garland/Barbra Streisand legacy with Eastwood in the director chair. If it works out then Jon Peters, who produced the 1976 Streisand version, will be a co-producer. And who'll star opposite Knowles? That one is still up in the air, and it'll probably wind up going to a guy like Usher or Jamie Foxx, but wouldn't it be cooler if it went to a guy whose career really is past its sell-by date? It's not like Jermaine Jackson is all that busy, right?

Bush talks gun-law enforcement; McCain hits soft money

Texas Gov. George W. Bush stressed the need to enforce existinggun laws in Monday's Republican presidential debate. But a strikingshortcoming in gun-law enforcement happened under his watch.

"I'm in favor of keeping guns out of the hands of people whoshouldn't have them, like felons," Bush said.

Yet Texas was stung by revelations last week that during histenure it failed to investigate more than 771 felons who applied forconcealed weapons permits since 1996.

Federal and state law prohibit convicted felons from possessingfirearms.

Also in the debate, Arizona Sen. John McCain challenged Bush toside with him on the spot and seek to end the unlimited andunregulated donations to political parties known as soft money. "Wecan get the special-interest money out of American politics," McCainasserted.

McCain was forced to answer questions last week on how hecollected $10,000 in donations from AT&T executives within two weeksof introducing legislation that would have made it easier for thephone giant to get federal approval for purchases of cable companies.

McCain has denied that donations influenced his decision on thelegislation, pointing out he had long favored such a bill. Still, acampaign spokeswoman acknowledged the timing created a perceptionproblem.

In addition to the donations, a citizen watchdog group noted thatone of McCain's advisers, former Rep. Vin Weber, lobbies for AT&T andco-hosted a $120,000 fund-raising event for McCain.

Also in the debate, candidate Gary Bauer portrayed China's entryinto the World Trade Organization as bad for farmers. But as aprecursor to entering the trade organization, Beijing already hasstruck a deal allowing wheat to be shipped from Pacific Northwestports to China for the first time since 1972.

And farmers have been pushing for expansion of foreign marketslike China. Some of their hopes were dashed when the WTO talks inSeattle last week ended with little progress.

Bush occasionally has stretched his record as governor during theRepublican debates, and again Monday he overlooked problems in hisstate's performance.

State records show some of the felons who escaped scrutiny intheir gun applications were non-violent offenders with decades-oldconvictions. Others, however, were convicted murderers and otherviolent criminals.

Texas officials acknowledged they failed to refer the felons tofederal or state prosecutors to investigate if they illegally were inpossession of firearms.

State public safety officials said they didn't consider turningover information about possible gun violators a top priority but arechanging that now.

Bush's spokeswoman has said the governor learned about the problemearlier this fall and moved quickly to remedy it.

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Poultry freeze caused by too much manure

Environmental problems have caused the The Netherlands to put a freeze on the country's rapidly growing poultry population. According to a news report from Reuters, the number of chickens has surged 10 percent to 98.7 million since 1995. "The manure is the biggest problem," Agriculture Minister Haijo Apotheker wrote in a letter to parliament. The Netherlands has long fought a battle against phosphates from mountains of manure, to curtail groundwater pollution from intensive livestock farming. A new law requires that the number of pigs be cut 10 percent this year and then reduced another 10 to 15 percent in 2000.

Under previous agreements with farmers, most chicken manure was meant to be shipped abroad, but the actual export levels fell far short of expectations, a government spokeswoman told Reuters. An increase in turkey numbers to 1.5 million-a 25 percent increase since 1995 - also brings them under the freeze.

Jill Biden resumes teaching at Va. college: ; Scholars say she is first 'second lady' to work while husband serves as vice president

Vice President Joe Biden often joked on the campaign trail abouthis wife's lofty educational achievements. She had two master'sdegrees and had already worked for nearly a quarter century as acommunity college instructor. But he had a better idea.

"Why don't you go out and get a doctorate and make us some realmoney?" he said he told her. (That was always good for a laugh,especially in university towns.)

In 2007, at age 55, Jill Biden did earn a doctorate - ineducation, from the University of Delaware. Since then, in campaignnews releases and now in official White House announcements, theprefix "Dr." is used before her name. This strikes some people asperfectly appropriate and others as slightly pompous, a qualityoften ascribed to her voluble husband.

Last week, the White House announced that Jill Biden has returnedto the classroom - believed by some who study the presidency andvice presidency to be a historical first. Biden is teaching twocourses at Northern Virginia Community College, the second-largestcommunity college in the U.S. She began teaching before theinauguration; the announcement was delayed out of respect for thatevent.

"She's just really excited to be back in the classroom," said herspokeswoman, Courtney O'Donnell. "Teaching is such a huge passionand a joy for her."

Some second ladies, as vice presidents' wives are called, areaccomplished professionals. Marilyn Quayle is a lawyer, but she didnot practice while her husband, Dan, was in office. Lynne Cheney,Biden's immediate predecessor, is a novelist who earned a Ph.D. inEnglish with a dissertation titled "Matthew Arnold's PossiblePerfection: A Study of the Kantian Strain in Arnold's Poetry." Shegoes by Mrs. Cheney.

But Biden is believed to be the first second lady to work for aliving while her husband holds office.

"I think she is unique," said Joel Goldstein, a professor at St.Louis University School of Law and an expert on the vice presidency.Other second ladies - Cheney, Quayle, Tipper Gore and Joan Mondale -wrote, lectured or did important volunteer work.

"But I think Dr. Biden is the first that I was aware of tobasically continue in the regular workforce," said Goldstein.

Biden, on the trail, explained that his wife's desire for thehighest degree was in response to what she perceived as her second-class status on their mail.

"She said, 'I was so sick of the mail coming to Sen. and Mrs.Biden, I wanted to get mail addressed to Doctor and Senator Biden.'That's the real reason she got her doctorate."

Taking the Pulse of Employer-Sponsored Health Care

Between 2000 and 2010, the average cost of family health insurance coverage rose 114 percent from $6,438 to $13,770. At the same time, the employee contribution towards that coverage rose 147 percent from $1,619 to $3,997.

With hikes like that, as reported by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Health Research & Educational Trust, it's little wonder that employer-sponsored health benefits are under the microscope. Not only have costs risen, but coverage has declined with employees increasingly shouldering higher deductibles and co-pays.

The question is will federal health care reform make the situation worse or better? Two reports offer conflicting scenarios: A Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study suggests coverage will rise and premiums will fall. A survey by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co. suggests 30 percent of employers will likely stop offering coverage.

Employers are in a holding pattern, says Adrienne Rupp, vice president of communications for the Business and Industry Association of NH. "It seems a lot of employers are still confused about federal health care reform. It's partly a lack of knowledge, but it's also uncertainty about what might happen," she says. For now, they are responding by increasing cost sharing and deductibles, she says of feedback they received from a focus group of larger employers in April.

Key facets of the law include allowing young adults to stay on their parents' plans, providing free preventative care and small business tax credits for employers who provide coverage. One major facet, competitive health care exchanges where individuals and small businesses can shop for coverage, takes effect in 2014.

Smaller employers, those with fewer than 50 employees, are more focused on what health care is costing them now than on policies that won't take effect for another two and half years, says Jim Scammon, executive vice president of Granite Group Benefits in Manchester. The major components of federal health care reform, which take effect in 2014, are too far off to concern them. "From my perspective, it doesn't matter what happens with health care reform because we already have smaller employers contemplating dropping coverage because they can't afford it," he says.

He says larger employers are asking him what would happen if they dropped coverage, as a hypothetical, taking into account the penalties that would apply. The equation, he says, is complex. "On a straight dollar basis it's going to be less expensive to pay the penalty," Scammon says. "Then we walk them through, 'if you don't offer benefits and your competitors do, what's that going to mean?' Are you going to have to increase salaries, which then has implications on payroll taxes and workers' compensation costs ... it's not as simple as 'are the penalties less expensive'."

Insurers say it's too soon to say what employers will do, mostly because the details of the exchange the major alternate option for purchasing coverage - have not yet been worked out. Lisa Kaplan Howe, the policy director for the nonprofit NH Voices for Health, says the law has potential to help. As of now, small businesses with between two and 25 employees and with average wages. under $50,000 receive a 35 percent tax credit when they provide insurance coverage, and Howe says that jumps to 50 percent in 2014. In addition, an exchange that is transparent about costs would make it easier for small insurers to complete based on the value they provide. So hopefully it will incentivize more insurers to come into NH.

LA Church to Pay $600M for Clergy Abuse

LOS ANGELES - The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will settle its clergy abuse cases for at least $600 million, by far the largest payout in the church's sexual abuse scandal, The Associated Press learned Saturday.

Attorneys for the archdiocese and the plaintiffs are expected to announce the deal Monday, the day the first of more than 500 clergy abuse cases was scheduled for jury selection, according to two people with knowledge of the agreement. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the settlement had not been made public.

The archdiocese and its insurers will pay between $600 million and $650 million to about 500 plaintiffs - an average of $1.2 million to $1.3 million per person. The settlement also calls for the release of confidential priest personnel files after review by a judge assigned to oversee the litigation, the sources said.

The settlements would push the total amount paid out by the U.S. church since 1950 to more than $2 billion, with about a quarter of that coming from the Los Angeles archdiocese.

It wasn't immediately clear how the payout would be split among the insurers, the archdiocese and several Roman Catholic religious orders. A judge must sign off on the agreement, and final details were being ironed out.

Lead plaintiffs' attorney Ray Boucher confirmed the sides were working on a deal but would not discuss specifics. He said that negotiations would continue through the weekend and that there were still many unresolved aspects.

Tod Tamberg, archdiocese spokesman, declined to comment on any settlement details.

"The archdiocese will be in court Monday morning," he said.

Steven Sanchez, 47, was one of the plaintiffs set to go to trial Monday. He was expected to testify in the trial involving the late Rev. Clinton Hagenbach.

Sanchez, a financial adviser, said the past few months have been especially difficult because he had to repeat his story of abuse for depositions with his attorneys and archdiocese attorneys in preparation for trial.

"We're 48 hours away from starting the trial, and I've been spending a lot of time getting emotionally prepared to take them on, but I'm glad," he said. "It's been a long five years."

The settlement would be the largest ever by a Roman Catholic archdiocese since the clergy sexual abuse scandal erupted in Boston in 2002. The largest payout so far has been by the Diocese of Orange, Calif., in 2004, for $100 million.

Facing a flood of abuse claims, five dioceses - Tucson, Ariz.; Spokane, Wash.; Portland, Ore.; Davenport, Iowa, and San Diego - sought bankruptcy protection.

The Los Angeles archdiocese, its insurers and various Roman Catholic orders have paid more than $114 million to settle 86 claims so far.

The largest of those came in December, when the archdiocese reached a $60 million settlement with 45 people whose claims dated from before the mid-1950s and after 1987 - periods when it had little or no sexual abuse insurance. Several religious orders in California have also reached multimillion-dollar settlements in recent months, including the Carmelites, the Franciscans and the Jesuits.

However, more than 500 other lawsuits against the archdiocese had remained unresolved despite years of legal wrangling. Most of the outstanding lawsuits were generated by a 2002 state law that revoked for one year the statute of limitations for reporting sexual abuse.

Cardinal Roger Mahony recently told parishioners in an open letter that the archdiocese was selling its high-rise administrative building and considering the sale of about 50 other nonessential church properties to raise funds for a settlement.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge overseeing the cases recently ruled that Mahony could be called to testify in the second trial on schedule, and attorneys for plaintiffs wanted to call him in many more.

The same judge also cleared the way for four people to seek punitive damages - something that could have opened the church to tens of millions of dollars in payouts if the ruling had been expanded to other cases.

Douglas Gordon

DOUGLAS GORDON

GAGOSIAN GALLERY

Douglas Gordon's latest video installation, in which an Indian elephant moves silently across two freestanding screens and a monitor installed in the gallery's cavernous space, has been taken as everything from a comment on man's relationship with nature to an unlikely instance of abstraction. But Gordon's Play Dead; Real Time, 2003, is perhaps most effectively read as an allegory of the spectacularization of late-'60s critical practice that has marked the art of the last fifteen years.

Harking back to the earlier era's effort to dismantle the artwork's autonomy by refracting it across multiple registers, Gordon's project is a filmic re-presentation of a live action. Its integration of the cinematic image into a Minimalist-derived sculptural idiom, and the resulting fusion of black box and white cube (to quote Whitney curator Chrissie Iles), is equally indebted to the art of that time. The structure of Robert Morris's Finch College Project, 1969, for example, is remarkably close to that of Gordon's new piece. Both are moving-image installations designed for the spaces in which the actions they depict in fact occurred. (Gordon's elephant was trucked to the gallery from a Connecticut game farm for a shoot last May.) And, in both, there is a tasklike, agentless quality to the activities enacted for the camera. But-and this is a pretty big "but"-in Gordon's case, the acts are undertaken not by a human actor but by an enormous circus-trained animal.

Responding to a series of inaudible off-camera prompts, the elephant walks around, backs up, lies on its side, and, most impressive, returns to its feet by rolling its unwieldy body back and forth for momentum. The performance is at once stupendous and absurd. In the context of this gallery's spotless converted-warehouse space, it's hard not to see the poor beast as a quasi-comic cipher for the contemporary artist, burdened to the point of collapse by the demands of over-production. Yet Play Dead; Real Time is affecting in a way that delivers the work from either sheer cynicism or pure farce.

Gordon's installation suspends both artwork and spectator in a zone somewhere between the literal and the virtual. The brute fact of reality is insisted on through the artist's real-time documentation and his decision to cultivate the viewer's phenomenological experience of the gallery space. But that reality is simultaneously fractured through mechanical reproduction and rendered numbingly distant through the use of shimmering screens and ultra-slick camera work. This strategy, widely deployed in recent film and video installation, typically comes off as formulaic, even mannerist. But here it works: It's simply impossible not to be moved by the animal's efforts. After an initial attempt to stand up, the elephant pauses, exhausted, one gigantic eye staring out at the viewer. Then it tries again. Something unexpected ensues: a relationship with the image that, while entirely distinct from the estrangement generated by Morris's, and others', anti-aesthetic, nonetheless evades the mechanisms of spectacular absorption. As with all allegories, insofar as it is melancholic and not transformative, the redemption Play Dead; Real Time offers can only be partial. But it does succeed in conjuring a moment of genuine experience in a realm from which that possibility had seemingly been banished.

US coalition says 30 militants killed in battle

The U.S.-led coalition said Thursday it had killed more than 30 insurgents in a battle in eastern Afghanistan, fighters an Afghan governor said were responsible for an attack that killed 10 French troops this week.

Lutfullah Mashal, the governor of Laghman province, said coalition bombs targeted fighters on the border of Laghman and Kabul provinces. He said the insurgents were fleeing the valley where Monday's attack on the French took place.

Mashal said Wednesday night's airstrike was not directly in retaliation for the French ambush because the targeted militants also had been involved in "repeated attacks" in the area.

Lt. Col. Rumi Nielson-Green, the top spokeswoman for the U.S.-led coalition, said the coalition was not "completely certain" that the militants were directly involved in the attack on the French.

"They were certainly at a minimum complicit," she said. "It doesn't matter if they were or weren't involved in an attack today, yesterday or on Sept. 11, 2001. We seek out terrorists and we will give them the option to be captured or killed or possibly flee."

Coalition troops and Afghan commandos were conducting a search operation in Laghman when militants engaged the troops in a battle Wednesday, the coalition said in a statement. A coalition airstrike destroyed an "enemy fighting position" in the area, it said.

More than 30 militants were killed and one militant was wounded and taken for treatment after the clash, the coalition said. It said 200 civilians fled the area before the airstrike.

Afghan officials said about 20 civilians were wounded in the fighting. Mashal said it was not clear if the coalition bombs wounded the Afghans or if Taliban fighters had.

Abdullah Fahim, spokesman for the provincial Health Ministry, said 21 civilians were wounded, including five children. Laghman deputy police chief Najibullah Hotak said one civilian died in the fighting and 20 were wounded.

Afghanistan is experiencing a surge in violence despite ongoing Western efforts to stabilize the country.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy rushed to the country Wednesday to reassure French troops and the world of its commitment to the cause a day after a massive Taliban assault an hour east of Kabul killed 10 of his country's troops and wounded 21 others.

Violence engulfing areas of neighboring Pakistan is also dimming the prospect of the new civilian government there tackling Taliban sanctuaries in its territory.

Three Polish soldiers were killed Wednesday when a roadside bomb exploded in the central province of Ghazni, Polish Defense Ministry spokesman Jacek Poplawski said Thursday. A fourth soldier was wounded in the blast.

Warnings from Western commanders in Afghanistan that militant attacks are growing larger and more sophisticated were borne out by Monday's attack on the French, which was the deadliest ground attack by insurgents on foreign troops in the country since the U.S. invasion in 2001.

NATO and Afghan officials blame the surging violence in part on the ease with which militants can cross from safe havens in Pakistan's ungoverned tribal areas.

On Wednesday evening, missiles destroyed a compound in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal region that Pakistani intelligence officials said was frequented by foreign militants.

Between five and 10 people were believed killed, though their identities were not immediately known, the officials said.

It was also unclear who carried out the attack, though similar attacks in the past by U.S. drone aircraft have killed senior al-Qaida and Taliban leaders.

Militants are also engaged with Pakistani security forces in at least two regions on that side of the border. Hundreds have reportedly died and tens of thousands have been displaced in that fighting in recent weeks.

Western officials complain that Pakistan is not putting enough pressure on militants in the tribal areas. The Afghan government also has accused Pakistan's spy agencies of secretly supporting the Taliban.

Pakistan denies the charges and insists army troops deployed in the border region as well as peace deals struck by the government with tribal leaders are helping control militancy.

This year is on course to become the deadliest yet for the international forces in Afghanistan. Some 178 foreign troops, including nearly 100 Americans, have died this year, according to an Associated Press count. In all of 2007, 222 international troops died.

In all, more than 3,400 people _ mostly militants _ have been killed in insurgency-related violence this year, according to figures from Western and Afghan officials.

NFL Playoff Glance

Wild-card Playoffs
Saturday, Jan. 7

Houston 31, Cincinnati 10

New Orleans 45, Detroit 28

Sunday, Jan. 8

New York Giants 24, Atlanta 2

Denver 29, Pittsburgh 23, OT

Divisional Playoffs
Saturday, Jan. 14

San Francisco 36, New Orleans 32

New England 45, Denver 10

Sunday, Jan. 15

Baltimore 20, Houston 13

N.Y. Giants 37, Green Bay 20

Conference Championships
Sunday, Jan. 22

New England 23, Baltimore 20

N.Y. Giants 20, San Francisco 17, OT

Pro Bowl
Sunday, Jan. 29
At Honolulu

AFC 59, NFC 41

Super Bowl
Sunday, Feb. 5
At Indianapolis

New England vs. N.Y. Giants

Train of thought runs late for Union Station

The governing board that runs Amtrak, the federally subsidizedrailroad, is again nearing a decision on a developer for Chicago'sUnion Station. But the pick could wind up as another error that willderail improvements at the landmark building for a few more years.

Sources said Amtrak is leaning toward Lincoln Property Co., whichenlisted the architecture firm Lohan Caprile Goettsch in crafting aplan to put up two towers totaling 1.2 million square feet on top ofthe station. The other contenders are Jones Lang LaSalle andarchitect Lucien Lagrange, who would build half that space in onetower.

The two-tower plan could pay off more for Amtrak, but itsfeasibility is doubtful. It also would require a whole new round oflandmark hearings with city officials. The one-tower plan,originally fronted by Prime Group Realty Trust, already has passedthe landmarks panel and is closer to reality.

However, reality is a hard concept for Amtrak, whose bureaucracyis just as slow as its trains. A twin-tower idea was advanced in the1980s, but Amtrak gets around to the station's redevelopment onlywhen the market turns foul.

SOAKING IN IT: Some 50,000 square feet of retail space in the oldPalmolive Building, 919 N. Michigan, sold for a hefty $57 million.Draper & Kramer, which is converting the building to condos, soldthe space to a trust controlled by Ross Hilton Kemper, an investorin Beverly Hills, Calif.

MONDO CONDO: Chicago's Terrapin Properties closed on theacquisition of the 37-story Grand Plaza West Tower apartmentbuilding at 545 N. Dearborn. A source said the price was upwards of$90 million. A condo conversion is in the immediate works, withpurchase options being offered to current tenants. Sales tooutsiders are expected to start in September.

Terrapin partnered in the deal with Jerry Jaeger. Sellers were ahigh-powered group that includes Joel Carlins, Jim Loewenberg, C.A."Bud" Cataldo, William Marovitz and U.S. Equities Realty's RobertWislow.

PRESERVATION PROTEST: The group Preservation Chicago has struck ablow against Itasca-based Hamilton Partners' plan to plop a 50-story office building on top of the buildings at 29 and 39 S. LaSalle. The group's vice president, Michael Moran, sent a letter tocity planners opposing a zoning change for the project because ofits effect on 39 S. La Salle, known as the New York Life building.Completed in 1894, the building is one of the best remainingexamples of William Le Baron Jenney's work as an innovator in steelframing.

Moran said the "facadectomy," the hollowing out of old buildingswhile preserving their shells, doesn't work in this case. "The wholepoint of the New York Life building is Jenney's steel frame, andthis is what the proposed Hamilton Partners project would be rippingout," Moran said. "That is completely unacceptable."

The plan calls for making the building a boutique hotel. Inreturn for the major surgery, developers would agree to a landmarkdesignation for 39 S. La Salle. Moran's letter makes that sound likepinning a medal on a corpse.

DOMAIN MASTERS: That U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that saidgovernment can take your home and hand it to a shopping malldeveloper is getting attention in the Illinois General Assembly.Some House Republicans have submitted a bill, HB 4091, that wouldrestrict eminent domain powers to more clearly defined public uses.The bill follows general precepts laid out by the IllinoisAssociation of Realtors, which is expected to endorse it.

Julie Sullivan, assistant director of governmental affairs forthe Realtors, said she believes the bill or one like it will bedebated during the veto session this fall.

DOMAIN MASTERS II: We've all seen urban sprawl in action, butthis must be a first. The industrial brokerage Lee & Associates ofIllinois is distributing a map of the "Chicago metropolitan area"that basically covers the entire northern third of the state. Toshow thriving freight transfer points such as Rochelle, which issouth of Rockford, the map goes almost as far west as Galena. So bydecree, Freeport and Sterling are now suburbs. Look out, Iowa!

HOT PROPERTIES: From a July 22 auction by Cook County PublicAdministrator Michael Ian Bender come surprising clues to propertyvalues. A three-story mixed-use building at 5507 N. Lincoln,appraised at $775,000, sold for $1.22 million. A similar building at2621 W. Lawrence appraised at $1.34 million sold for $1.66 million.And a vacant lot near Lake Bluff appraised at $54,000 sold for$130,000. The properties were part of estates Bender is liquidating.

DOING THE DEALS: For $24 million, Watson Pharma Inc. bought a272,000-square-foot building in the CenterPoint Business Center inGurnee, across I-94 from Six Flags Great America. . . . The@properties brokerage spent $3.57 million for 212 E. Ohio and willmake it its fifth Chicago office.

PLUS NEWS

NO NEW JOBLESS AID: President Bush is unlikely to extend unemploymentbenefits, White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater indicatedtoday, because of "good economic signs" for the nation. House andSenate Democrats ignored administration objections and passed a $5.2billion bill that would extend the benefits by up to 20 weeks forthose who have completed their 26 weeks of eligibility but have notfound jobs. The catch is that the bill cannot go into effect unlessBush issues an order declaring an economic emergency. In dismissingthe likelihood, Fitzwater said: "Our position is quite clear. Thenation is coming out of a recession. We're moving into a recovery.We see good economic signs." MURDER SUSPECT SOUGHT: A murder warrant has been issued for aneighbor of a 38-year-old woman strangled in her home near Fox Lake,Lake County Sheriff Clint Grinnell said today. The suspect, BurlMason, 31, lived across the street from the victim, Susan Pauly, andwas seen driving her missing auto Friday, a day after she died,Grinnell said. Mason was paroled July 26 from a six-year burglarysentence imposed in 1989. He has more than a dozen convictions since1978, according to Grinnell. YOUTHS FOR UNITY: College students from North and South Korea huggedand sang a unification song when they met today at the heavilyfortified border. It was the first such gathering in 46 years. Butnew problems arose when the North called off talks on fielding ajoint Korean team for the 1992 Olympic Games. The Pyongyanggovernment said it will not go back to the table until a North Koreanjudo champion, who defected to Seoul two weeks ago, returns home.That is unlikely. North Korea also accused the Seoul government ofblocking a unification festival in South Korea. The developmentscould jeopardize ongoing prime ministerial talks between the Koreas.The fourth session is scheduled in two weeks. NEW PINATUBO WOES: At least 13,000 residents fled 15 villages in thenorthern Philippines after rains swept volcanic debris off the slopesof Mt. Pinatubo and flooded a river, officials there said today. Theflow destroyed or damaged more than 1,000 homes in Tarlac provinceovernight Sunday, reported Lucia Gutierrez, social work director ofneighboring Pampanga province. The evacuees were housed in publicschools. Pinatubo began erupting June 9, after standing dormant forsix centuries. It forced mass evacuations from the giant Clark AirBase, which the United States will close next year because of thelingering danger from volcanic ash. RESCUE PLANE LEAVES: A Soviet aircraft took off for the Antarctictoday to retrieve 169 members of a scientific expedition trapped on aship in polar ice drifts. Tass said the situation there was notsimple because of "strong winds, frost and the polar night to reckonwith." The news agency said the research ship Somov had beenoperating in the Antarctic for 15 months and had completed its work.But it had proved impossible to unlock the vessel from the ice andreturn home. South Africa allowed the rescue plane, an Ilyushin 76,to stop for refueling. `HELPER' ROBS MAN: An elderly U.S. tourist became a crime victimtwice in a short time, police in Liverpool, England, said today.First, muggers beat Anthony Wilcox, 65, of Sherman Oaks, Calif., andstole his $10,000 Cartier watch. They left him unconscious, with abroken nose. A "good Samaritan" passing by helped get Wilcox to ahospital - but stole about $1,200 from his money belt, authoritiessaid. FERRIS WHEEL FALL: A Kansas boy plunged 60 feet to his death whenhis seat on a Ferris wheel at the Fantasy Island amusement park nearBuffalo, N.Y., slipped off its axle, sheriff's deputies said today.Kenneth Margerum, 14, slid from under his protective bar and diedafterward in a hospital. Authorities said Margerum was visitingrelatives in Silver Springs, N.Y., which is about 50 miles southeastof Buffalo.

With state budgets in crisis, is it time to end public sector unionism?

Although the American labor union movement began in the private sector in the late 1860s, the unionization of government employees wasn't legally permitted in Pennsylvania until 1970. For more than a century, everyone - yes, everyone, including union-friendly FDR and private sector labor union leaders themselves - argued that collective bargaining wouldn't work in the public sector.

In 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt said "the process of collective bargaining ... cannot be transplanted into public service" because a strike by government employees was "unthinkable and intolerable."

AFL-CIO President George Meany said in 1955, "It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government."

And in 1959 - the same year Wisconsin became the first to allow state public employees to unionize - the AFL-CIO Executive Council declared, "In terms of accepted collective bargaining procedures, government workers have no right beyond the authority to petition Congress - a right available to every citizen."

Opposition to allowing the public sector to unionize stemmed from the recognition of the important differences between the public and private sectors. Private sector unions bargain over how much unionized employees should share in the profits of a business. Profits are limited, and the existence of competition from other businesses moderates unreasonable demands for higher wages and benefits.

Government, on the other hand, earns no profits and has no competition. It is a monopoly. Therefore, public sector unions - gaining a monopoly over the government work force - can only negotiate over tax dollars. And when union demands are not met at the bargaining table, the lack of competition allows public sector unions the power to deprive citizens of essential government services such as public safety, mass transit and education.

Opposition to public sector unionism began to wane in the 1950s when private sector unions began their precipitous decline that continues to this day. In Pennsylvania, while the state added nearly one million jobs between 1983 and 2009, private sector union membership dropped from 855,000 to 430,000. Today, only 9 percent of private sector employees work in a union shop, while 53 percent of Pennsylvania's government employees are in a collective bargaining unit.

As predicted, public sector unionization has effectively raised the cost of public services for taxpayers. In 1991, Pennsylvania's state and local tax burden was 24th in the nation. Today, it is the 10th highest. Granting unions a monopoly over the government work force has given them significant leverage over budgets and taxes. Unions use the power of compulsory union dues to lobby for higher taxes, more government jobs and increased compensation.

Today, the average government employee enjoys better health care benefits, better pensions, better job security and an earlier retirement than the average private sector worker. To pay for this, however, taxpayers have been strapped with unfunded liabilities that are poised to raise state and local taxes by billions of dollars in few years.

Pennsylvania's two statewide pension funds for public employees - the Public School Employees Retirement System for public school workers and the State Employees Retirement System for state workers, legislators, staff and judges - have funding deficits of $31 billion and $11 billion, respectively. Unfortunately, due to political manipulations to the systems last fall, PSERS's unfunded liabilities alone are projected to reach close to $50 billion by 2020, before it begins to decrease.

It is time we recognized that this 40-year experiment with public sector unionism hasn't worked for the taxpayers. Government unions have become the top political spenders because not only do they negotiate with someone they can hire and fire, but with someone who can give away others people's money. This, of course, has become a formula for fiscal disaster.

While the private sector in Pennsylvania has lost 124,000 jobs since 2000, state and local governments added 39,000. The biggest increases were in the heavily unionized public schools, which added nearly 33,000 jobs despite losing almost 27,000 students. In what industry other than government would you lose "customers" and still be adding employees?

Gov. Tom Corbett has the opportunity to reclaim the position once held by the AFL-CIO and FDR in opposition to public sector unionism. With 17 of 19 state union contracts set to expire in lune, now is the time to restore the balance of power back to the taxpayers of Pennsylvania.

[Sidebar]

Today, the average government employee enjoys better health care benefits, better pensions, better job security and an earlier retirement than the average private sector worker.

[Author Affiliation]

Matt Brouillette is president and CEO of the Commonwealth Foundation, a public policy think tank in Harrisburg. E-mail him atinfo@commonwealthfoundation.org.

Orioles Hire MacPhail as President

BALTIMORE - Andy MacPhail was hired Wednesday as president of baseball operations for the Baltimore Orioles, two days after the last-place team fired manager Sam Perlozzo.

MacPhail will oversee all baseball operations for the struggling club, which has not had a winning season since 1997. He said he believes owner Peter Angelos will allow him the independence he needs to run the team.

"If I didn't feel that way, I wouldn't be here," MacPhail said noting he outlined to Angelos where he thinks the boundaries of the owner's influence are.

MacPhail was president of the Chicago Cubs from 1994-2006, also serving as general manager from July 2000 to July 2002. He was …

NAPF calls for state pension age to be linked to life expectancy.(National Association of Pension Funds)(Brief Article)

The National Association of Pension Funds is calling for the state pension age to be indexed to longevity.

Chief executive Christine Farnish told delegates at Cityforum's Pensions Crisis Resolved conference in London last week that an advisory body of actuarial and mortality experts should be established along similar lines to the Bank of England's monetary policy committee. It would control when and by how much the state pension age is increased.

Farnish said a state pension age is needed to provide people with the security of knowing when their state benefits will begin. She advocated raising the state pension age to 70 by 2030 and pegging it to longevity thereafter. Anyone who cannot work to 70 or who is in poverty would be supported by means-tested benefits under the NAPF proposals.

Independent pension policy adviser Ros Altmann said she preferred a flexible approach and pointed out that raising the state pension age to 70 would disadvantage the lower social groups, given their shorter life expectancy.

Farnish said the difference in life expectancy between the top and bottom ends of the social strata has shrunk in recent years, due largely to falling smoking rates.

She said Government Actuary's Department tables show that, at 65, a male in social class one is expected to live until 86 while a male in social class five has a life expectancy of 81 years.

Watson Wyatt partner Alan Pickering told the conference that increased working class lifespans are one of the reasons why the state pension system is under strain.

Farnish said: "We would like the decision on the state pension age to be taken out of politics and have an advisory body analyse mortality data. The retirement age should also be indexed to longevity."

Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

NAPF calls for state pension age to be linked to life expectancy.(National Association of Pension Funds)(Brief Article)

The National Association of Pension Funds is calling for the state pension age to be indexed to longevity.

Chief executive Christine Farnish told delegates at Cityforum's Pensions Crisis Resolved conference in London last week that an advisory body of actuarial and mortality experts should be established along similar lines to the Bank of England's monetary policy committee. It would control when and by how much the state pension age is increased.

Farnish said a state pension age is needed to provide people with the security of knowing when their state benefits will begin. She advocated raising the state pension age to 70 by 2030 and pegging it to longevity thereafter. Anyone who cannot work to 70 or who is in poverty would be supported by means-tested benefits under the NAPF proposals.

Independent pension policy adviser Ros Altmann said she preferred a flexible approach and pointed out that raising the state pension age to 70 would disadvantage the lower social groups, given their shorter life expectancy.

Farnish said the difference in life expectancy between the top and bottom ends of the social strata has shrunk in recent years, due largely to falling smoking rates.

She said Government Actuary's Department tables show that, at 65, a male in social class one is expected to live until 86 while a male in social class five has a life expectancy of 81 years.

Watson Wyatt partner Alan Pickering told the conference that increased working class lifespans are one of the reasons why the state pension system is under strain.

Farnish said: "We would like the decision on the state pension age to be taken out of politics and have an advisory body analyse mortality data. The retirement age should also be indexed to longevity."

Copyright: Centaur Communications Ltd. and licensors

On the same page. (Business Management).(business enterprise partnerships)

Business failure can occur when two or more stakeholders--who must work together because of operational or financial arrangements--view a situation differently. Call it "philosophical discontinuity." Disagreements and undercurrents of dissension can chip away at a company's foundation for years until one day management discovers that the business has been irrevocably altered.

When families, friends and associates decide to build a business together they often focus only on the positive. They agree on everything from the company's long-term vision to its operational basics, and quickly sweep away any philosophical disagreements. They grant concessions to make the new enterprise work. By doing so, however, they are really setting up the business for difficulties and possible failure.

Once operations begin, the parties form their own ideas about the company's direction. The singular vision, once held by everyone, diverges into two, three or even more mind-sets.

Sometimes team members discuss their ideas and reach consensus. Often they don't. But even if they communicate on smaller issues, they frequently fail to confront the major questions of how to run the company.

It's easy to agree on what the company should manufacture or what services it should provide. But how this is done is the important question and an area in which differences in style, experience, education, culture and mind-set quickly emerge.

You see this in professional firms. Their purpose is to support and service …

Nctrend.(Statistical table)

 NCTREND  EMPLOYMENT                    Latest  Previous  Previous  % change from                               month    month      year       last year  Employed (000s)              4,306.2  4,325.9   4,306.3       (0.0)  Civilian labor force         4,532.7  4,547.2   4,509.9        0.5  Manufacturing                  528.4    530.0     543.9       (2.8)  Service                      3,354.1  3,344.2   3,279.0        2.3  Government                     714.5    708.6     700.5        2.0  Unemployed                     226.4    221.4     203.6       11.2  Avg. manufacturing workweek     40.1     41.4      41.0       (2.2) (hours)  Avg. hourly production wage   $15.41   $15.32    $14.98        2.9 

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

 … 

EX-SCOUT LEADER INDICTED IN SEX CASE.(CAPITAL REGION)

Byline: KENNETH C. CROWE II Staff writer

BALLSTON SPA -- A former Boy Scout leader was indicted by a Saratoga County grand jury Friday on charges that he sodomized and sexually assaulted three teenage boys, a spokeswoman for District Attorney David A. Wait said.

Jeffrey M. Himmel, 31, of 4030 Silver Beach Road, Malta, was indicted on felony counts of first-degree sodomy, second-degree sodomy and first-degree sexual abuse. He also was indicted on six counts of unlawfully dealing with a child and second-degree sexual abuse, all misdemeanors.

The crimes allegedly involved three teenagers, two of whom were members of Boy Scout Troop 2 in Ballston Spa, …

Barclays sponsors Premier League for 3 more years

Barclays PLC agreed Friday to pay 82.25 million pounds ($134.5 million) to sponsor England's Premier League for another three years from next season.

One of the few major banks not to take part in the British government's multibillion pound bailout of the sector last year, Barclays has had naming rights to the league since 2004.

Barclays will pay 25 percent more than the 65.8 million pounds it found for the three-year deal that expires at the end of this season.

"The clubs unanimously accepted Barclays proposal," Premier League Chief Executive Richard Scudamore said.

The agreement gives Barclays domestic and …

A prophetic call

Violence against Protestant churches, congregants still a reality for Colombian Christians

Some Colombian government statistics would suggest that human rights violations in this South American country are improving, but the churches there offer a fuller version of what's really happening.

Janna Hunter-Bowman, a Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) worker, coordinates a documentation and advocacy program that records the suffering and hope of the Colombian Protestant churches. JustaPaz, a Colombian Mennonite peace and justice organization, and the Peace Commission of the Evangelical Council of Colombia released their second report on the violence endured by the Protestant …

Aurora.(Brief Article)

International Wood Products[R] introduces Aurora, the world's finest composite doors. Beautiful doors specifically engineered to withstand the harshest of elements. The new Aurora line is an excellent value, designed …

Fiat asks more from top executives; New Alfa boss Cravero also to lead model development at Fiat and Lancia brands.

Byline: Luca Ciferri

Sergio Cravero's promotion to CEO of Alfa Romeo is part of a broader restructuring of Fiat Group Automobiles.

Fiat has created four new cross-brand functions to strengthen synergies within the company's three brands: Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Lancia. (See panel, right)

Cravero, 48, gets one of those cross-brand functions.

The Turin native will be responsible for coordinating product development of individual models and for determining product initiatives for the three automakers.

Fiat group CEO Sergio Marchionne said the automotive sector is experiencing changes that require Fiat to adapt its organizational …

CRAMMED, CRAMPED AND COOPED UP.(CAPITAL REGION)

Byline: DANIELLE T. FURFARO Staff writer North Greenbush The town built its public safety building in 1971 as temporary quarters to house the part-time police force of a bedroom community. -

Yet, 33 years and countless subdivisions later, that small building remains the hub of North Greenbush's public safety activity. And, with a police force that now totals 17 full-time and three part-time employees, it is bursting at the seams.

From the outside, the building looks like little more than a storage garage. Inside is a maze of tiny rooms cobbled together from space including a three-bay garage. It was transformed into offices, evidence storage and a locker …

HANGING OUT WITH SONGWRITERS ON TOUR.(Living)

Byline: David Bauder Associated Press

Singer Dion DiMucci grew up in a tumultuous household with grandparents who fought and told him to keep quiet. He expressed his emotions by writing songs, and his grandparents told him to keep singing.

Punk rocker Joey Ramone wrote the song, "Beat on the Brat," in honor of an obnoxious neighborhood kid that his band couldn't stand.

Both stories came out during an innovative songwriting series that's been a staple for two years at the New York City nightclub the Bottom Line. Now promoters want to spread that series across the country.

The "In Their Own Words" tour is billed as a performance-discussion. …

German consumer confidence strong

A closely watched survey shows German consumers are upbeat about their economy, indicating it is sustaining its upward trend despite worries about the global recovery.

Germany's GfK institute said Thursday its forward-looking overall indicator for September edged …

Sore foot sidelines Panthers RB DeAngelo Williams

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Carolina Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams has missed practice with a foot injury.

Williams sat out Wednesday after hobbling off the field in the final minute of Sunday's win over San Francisco. Coach John Fox provided no update on his condition.

After rushing for more than 1,100 yards last …

'Phenomenal' turnout --4-hour wait for free test

On Thursday, John Gilbert joined the crowd -- one of 2,400 men who have been screened for prostate cancer so far this week in free tests co-sponsored by the Sun-Times and the National Prostate Cancer Coalition.

It was the second year in a row Gilbert participated. Last year, he was told that, although he had a slightly elevated level of PSA, or prostate-specific antigen -- a potential sign of trouble -- in his blood, it wasn't high enough to require any action.

"I was relieved," said Gilbert, who was screened at Rush University Medical Center. "That's why I'm back today. I want to make sure that the score didn't increase to the point where I'd have a problem."

One …

STATE JUDGES ARE PAID LIKE IT'S 1999.(Opinion)

As the governor and the Legislature prepare their budget proposals and search for economic solutions, may I suggest a methodology that has been imposed upon the members of the state judiciary. It's called the "judicial reality formula."

The judiciary, the legislature and certain executive department executives have gone without any increase in salary since 1999. They have received neither cost of living adjustments nor any other increase in budgeted compensation for 10 full years.

The increase in the cost of living for the period January 1999 through December 2008 is conservatively estimated at more than 29.2 percent. I suggest all departments, agencies and …

ARMY PAYS TOP DOLLAR FOR OLD PARTS IT SOLD CHEAP.(MAIN)

Byline: MIKE McINTIRE Associated Press

MERRIMACK, N.H. -- Harold Foote plucked a small, dusty box off one of the piles that rise like cardboard stalagmites from the floor of his cavernous warehouse.

He snapped the fossilized Scotch-tape seal. Inside, swaddled in khaki-colored tissue paper that crumbled to the touch, was a metal valve used in aircraft engines.

A faded label indicated the U.S. Army purchased it in 1962 from Avco Lycoming, a defense contractor that has since been merged out of existence. The valve was never used, and the army eventually sold it to Foote for a few dollars at one of its regular surplus auctions.

Foote figures he could get as much as $3,000 for it someday. Who might want to buy it?

The U.S. Army.

The valve is among thousands of gauges, rivets, bearings and other overstocked spare parts the military sells to surplus dealers at bargain basement prices, as low as 2 percent of the original cost. But often the military discovers later that it needs some of the parts it sold, so it buys them back -- at a huge markup -- from the same dealers.

The defense department doesn't separately track such sales, so determining how much it spends repurchasing its own equipment is difficult. A review of military audits and auction records and interviews with surplus dealers suggest the amount spent …

SmarTruck: V-6 efficiency, V-8 performance.(News)(Brief Article)

Byline: Michelle Darwish

Forget the electric-shock door handles and the .50-caliber machine gun.

The U.S. Army's latest rolling command-and-control-center concept vehicle, the SmarTruck III, is more than a nightmare on wheels.

The vehicle features hydraulic launch assist, which augments the propulsion power of the internal combustion engine from the time the vehicle starts moving. It is built on a medium-duty truck platform from International Truck and Engine Co.

"The SmarTruck III has the performance of a V-8 with the fuel economy of a V-6,'' said Dennis Wend, executive director of the National Automotive Center, after unveiling the …

Stocks Point Lower on China Market Drop

NEW YORK - Stocks pointed to a lower opening Wednesday as investors responded to a plunge in Chinese stocks and grew increasingly wary ahead of the Federal Reserve's release of minutes from its latest meeting.

On May 9, after keeping interest rates steady, the Fed stated that curbing inflation remains its top priority. Most on Wall Street are hoping the Fed minutes, scheduled to be released at 2 p.m., will indicate that policy makers are not leaning toward a rate hike, and instead are more likely to lower rates by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, investors were already reacting to a decline in Asian markets, triggered by Beijing tripling a tax on stock trading in an effort …

A Taliban suicide car bomber flattened the house of a senior counter-terrorism police officer in Pakistan's financial capital Karachi yesterday, killing eight people including six policemen.

A Taliban suicide car bomber flattened the house of a senior counter-terrorism police officer in Pakistan's financial capital Karachi yesterday, killing eight people including six policemen.

Senior Superintendent Aslam Khan escaped unhurt, but his home was destroyed and he said he knew he was the target, claiming that he had been threatened by the al-Qaeda-allied Pakistani Taliban. The Islamist militant group claimed responsibility for the attack and said Khan had been targeted for arresting, torturing and killing Taliban members.

British police said yesterday they had arrested six men and a woman in Birmingham as part of a major …

ENGINEERS TAKE A SLOW TRAIN TO PLAYOFFS.(SPORTS)

Byline: ALAN HART Staff writer

With about eight minutes remaining in the second period of the Feb. 28 Dartmouth-RPI hockey game at Houston Field House and his team trailing only 3-1, sophomore forward Nick Economakos dug a puck away from the right boards and skated hard toward the Big Green net.

Economakos, No. 4 scorer for the Engineers with eight goals and eight assists for 16 points, fired a hard wrist shot on net, but Dartmouth goaltender Nick Boucher advanced toward him and made a good save.

Just a short time later, Dartmouth's Kent Gillings scored to put his team up, 4-1, and take much of the zip out of the Engineers.

It was a telling …

Inability to Pump Oxygen During Exercise Could Pinpoint Early Heart Problems.

Byline: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions

BALTIMORE, Oct. 17 (AScribe Newswire) -- Mildly elevated blood pressure affecting millions of Americans could lead to heart pumping disorders if left untreated. A new Johns Hopkins study indicates that the amount of oxygen that can be circulated throughout the body during each heart beat while exercising could reveal to doctors early signs of heart trouble in this population.

The research, to be presented Oct. 17 at the annual meeting of the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACVPR) in Kansas City, should help physicians better follow patients with problems of the left ventricle, or …

PAQUETTE, PIERRE, B.A., M.A. (Joliette)

B. Jun. 1, 1955 in Sorel, Que. A professor. Political Career: First elected to the H. of C. g.e. 2000. Re-elected g.e. 2004. Former B.Q. Critic for International Trade. B. Q. Critic for International Financial Institutions, B.Q. Critic for Finance. B.Q. Critic for Financial Institutions since Dec. 2003. B.Q. Critic for International Trade since August 2004. Mem., Standing Ctee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Party: B.Q. Address: Leg. Office: Rm. 378, Confederation Bldg., House of Commons, Ottawa, Ont., K1A 0A6, (613)996-6910, Fax: (613)995-2818. Riding Office: 420 de Lanaudiere St., Joliette, Que., J6E 7X1. …

STERN'S VOICE MAY REACH MORE.(MAIN)

WASHINGTON -- Pointing to a recent court decision that struck down federal restrictions on indecent broadcasting, officials at the Federal Communications Commission said Thursday that they might not be able to stop the company that employs Howard Stern, the radio personality, from buying more stations.

Stern's chief critic at the FCC, James Quello, a commissioner, conceded Thursday that the commission would face big legal obstacles in any attempt to block Infinity Broadcasting Corp., Stern's employer, from buying three radio stations for $170 million.

Last week, the commission turned aside pleas by Infinity …