Northwestern High-level talk SEMIFINALS

Detroit Sans-culotte Coulisse(1) vs San Jose Sharks (5)

1 THUR APR 26, 4:30PM, Joe Louis Ambit, In front of

2 SAT APR 28, Utmost, Joe Louis Delimited field, NBC

3 MON APR 30, 7:00PM, HP Tollhouse, FSN-HD

4 Confederate MAY 2, 7:00PM, HP Stall, Athwart

5* SAT MAY 5, 11:00AM, Joe Louis Ology, NBC

6* MON MAY 7, TBD, HP Quonset hut, TBD

7* Join MAY 9, TBD, Joe Louis Bailiwick, TBD

*If called for


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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) -- The world's top Nazi-hunter said Thursday he's made progress in finding 94-year-old "Doctor Death," a former concentration camp physician accused of torturing Jewish prisoners as they died and who may have been living for decades in Argentina or Chile.

Efraim Zuroff, head of the Israeli branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told a news conference that his mission to the southern reaches of the Americas led him to at least four people who claim to have seen Aribert Heim in the past 45 days.

"We're better off than before we came," Zuroff said. "That doesn't guarantee Heim's capture, but I'm hopeful."

Zuroff launched the investigation last week in the southern Chilean fishing town of Puerto Montt, where Heim's daughter lives, although she was reportedly overseas at the time.

Zuroff said during the past three years she has traveled several times to the Patagonian town of San Carlos de Bariloche in Argentina, which he visited this week. The Nazi hunter believes Heim is hiding out somewhere between the two towns, separated by the Andes mountain range.

"There is increasing pressure on Heim and on his family," Zuroff said Thursday. "People under pressure make mistakes," he added.

Zuroff told The Associated Press that the Puerto Montt trip was a "turning point" because he was able to speak face-to-face for the first time with acquaintances of Heim's daughter and raise awareness among locals.

"These are people who brought us specific details that gives us something concrete to latch onto," said Sergio Widder, the center's Latin American representative. He declined to elaborate.

Heim was indicted in Germany after World War II on charges he murdered hundreds of inmates at the Mauthausen concentration camp in 1941. The Wiesenthal center says he injected the corrosive poison phenol directly into the hearts of many and used "other torturous killing methods."

Zuroff says Heim's children have made no claim to a bank account with euro1.2 million (US$1.6 million) and other investments in Heim's name. To do that, they would have to produce proof that "Doctor Death" is dead.

He said he's been tracking recent requests by Heim's lawyers for legal documents related to his estate that "would have no value if he is dead." He would not give details.

A reward of euro315,000 (US$495,000) is being offered jointly by the center, the German and Austrian governments and a private donor for information leading to his capture. Heim tops the Wiesenthal Center's list of most-wanted Nazi war criminals.

Zuroff met Thursday morning with Argentine Justice Minister Anibal Fernandez, who said the government will facilitate Heim's arrest and extradition if Heim is found in the country.

Although World War II ended more than 60 years ago, the center continues to take on new cases as Nazi sightings surface. Between March 2007 and 2008, the Wiesenthal Center opened 202 new investigations, Zuroff said.

The South American probe is part of the Jewish human rights organization's "Operation: Last Chance" - an effort to bring aging war criminals to justice before they die. If alive, Heim would be 94.

Answering critics who say Heim's age undermines the validity of the hunt, Zuroff said to "keep in mind what he did when was a very young person."

"If we put a limit on age, in a practical sense that means we're saying you can get away with genocide, which is morally outrageous," he added.

After World War II, Heim was held for two and a half years by the United States military but was released without being tried.

He disappeared in 1962 after he was tipped off that German authorities were about to indict him, Zuroff said.

Pelosi shot back in unusually personal terms.

"You know, God bless him, bless his heart, president of the United States, a total failure, losing all credibility with the American people on the economy, on the war, on energy, you name the subject," Pelosi replied. She then tsk-tsked Bush for "challenging Congress when we are trying to sweep up after his mess over and over and over again."

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino defended Bush.

"What the president said is a fact — this is the longest a Congress has gone in 20 years without passing a single spending bill, so it's clear that the speaker is feeling some frustration at their inability to do so."

Pelosi's outburst was a departure. Her usual practice in public has been to call Bush's policies a failure — not his presidency or him, personally. Pelosi's remarks are the latest evidence of the Democrats' throw-caution-to-the-wind approach to Bush in the waning days of a presidency weighed down by an unpopular war and soaring gasoline prices.

Election Day, after all, is just over four months away; Bush's successor takes his seat on Jan. 20.

Pelosi's counterpart in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid, long ago took off the rhetorical gloves. Last month, he ridiculed Republicans who sided with Bush on a Medicare bill.

"Who would be afraid of him?" Reid, D-Nev., said as many senators looked on. "He's got a 29 percent approval rating."

The public's view of Congress is even worse. Its approval rating has hit a new low of just 18 percent, down from 23 percent last month, according to a new AP-Ipsos poll. Bush's approval is at 28 percent, about even with the 29 percent rating last month.

Only 16 percent of those surveyed thought the country was moving in the right direction, a new low as well, although statistically the same as last month's 17 percent.

Last week Reid and other Democrats dropped any pretense of trying to fight the president on battles they were likely to lose — even on the most important part of their jobs, which is passing spending bills that keep the government running.

Of the 12 annual appropriations bills, Congress is likely to pass one or two and send Bush a temporary spending fix for the rest. That would have to suffice until a new president takes office, Reid told reporters.

Privately, Democrats have said that either candidate for president — Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain — would be easier to make laws with than Bush. But Reid made clear which he'd prefer.

"I would hope that before we would leave here this year that we would do a continuing resolution that would get us (through) until after Senator Obama becomes president," he said.

In an interview with Glamour magazine, Obama said attacks on his wife are "infuriating." The likely Democratic presidential nominee blamed the conservative press for going after his wife as if she were the candidate.

"If they have a difference with me on policy, they should debate me. Not her," Obama told the magazine.

Michelle Obama has been highly active in her husband's campaign, appearing with him at events and by herself at other times in an effort to help tout his candidacy. She promotes his policy agenda at fundraisers and gives interviews to reporters in support of her husband's views.

An Associated Press-Yahoo poll suggests Michelle Obama has higher favorable ratings than Cindy McCain, wife of presumptive Republican nominee John McCain. However, Michelle Obama's unfavorable ratings are also higher.

Michelle Obama came under fire in February when she said she was proud of her country for the first time in her adult life. She later clarified her remark, saying she has always been proud of her country and was particularly proud to see so many people involved in the political process.

Obama said the attacks are ironic because his wife is "the most quintessentially American woman I know."

Michelle Obama, 44, has worked as a lawyer and hospital executive. The couple has two daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7.

The Internet has been a double-edged sword for the Obama campaign. While it's allowed them to organize supporters and raise millions of dollars, Obama said it's also provided a vehicle for rumors and myths to spread quickly.

"It's very hard to catch up," he said.

Glamour's editor-in-chief also interviewed McCain. Full interviews with both candidates were scheduled to appear in the magazine's October issue.

Across Atlanta they stood, orange signs with black letters that read "Men At Work" or "Men Working Ahead."

Sometimes, the signs stood next to women working alongside the men.

Good demanded Atlanta officials remove the signs and last week, Atlanta Public Works Commissioner Joe Basista agreed.

Score one for gender equality, Good said Wednesday.

"They get it," Good said about the city in a telephone interview.

Public Works officials are replacing 50 "Men Working" with signs that say "Workers Ahead." It will cost $22 to cover over some of the old signs and $144 to buy new signs, said Public Works spokeswoman Valerie Bell-Smith said.

Good, founding editor of Atlanta-based PINK Magazine, a publication that focuses on professional women, said she's not stopping with Atlanta.

"We're calling on the rest of the nation to follow suit and make a statement that we will not accept these subtle forms of discrimination," said Good, 48.

Good pressed the issue after Atlanta police came to her office last month on a complaint that she spray painted "wo" onto a "Men At Work" sign.

Did she do it? Good replied by complaining about the signs.

Good fired off letters complaining about the signs to Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and Gov. Sonny Perdue.

State transportation officials said they will ask contractors to remove signs specifying just men are working at a construction site.

Atlanta union leader Gina Pagnotta said some women employees of Atlanta Public Works complained about these signs years ago.

"It is a little bit bias to say 'Men Working,' " said Pagnotta, president of the Professional Association of City Employees. "Women are working, too."

Bush went to the Energy Department Friday, where he met with his senior economic advisers to discuss soaring prices for gasoline and crude oil. Bush said one answer is to increase supply in this country by tapping "the vast potential" of crude oil reserves on offshore lands and in Alaska as well as oil shale.

He said Congress must address this issue before it goes home.

MIAMI (AP) -- Bermuda has issued a tropical storm watch as Hurricane Bertha approaches.

Forecasters say tropical storm conditions are possible in the area by late Saturday night. Bertha has already been producing large swells and high surf there, and that's expected to continue over the next few days.

As of about 11 a.m. EDT Friday, Bertha's center was about 310 miles south-southeast of Bermuda.

The Atlantic season's first hurricane has maximum sustained winds of about 85 mph with some higher gusting. It's traveling northwest at about 6 mph and is expected to turn north in the next 24 hours. It could be close to the island by Saturday.

Forecasters says the strength of the Category 1 storm could fluctuate in the next couple of days.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The online hangout Facebook is getting more serious about grammar. No more should users see jarringly incorrect declarations such as "Debbie changed their profile picture."

Users who haven't specified their gender in their Facebook profiles will be asked to do so in the coming weeks. That way, Facebook doesn't have to default to "their" or the made-up word "themself," as it had been doing.

While not knowing someone's gender poses grammatical challenges in English, it has created even larger headaches as Facebook expands to other languages, where a gender-neutral option isn't available in plural form.

"People who haven't selected what sex they are frequently get defaulted to the wrong sex entirely," Naomi Gleit, a Facebook product manager, wrote Friday in a company blog.

Transgendered people and other users who find the male-female distinction too limiting will still have the option of removing gender entirely from their profiles.

This isn't the first time Facebook, one of the world's most popular social-networking sites with some 80 million users worldwide, has had to confront grammar.

At first, members were restricted in what they could say in "status updates" for their friends, as in, "Nick is wasting time on Facebook." Each update had started with the member's name and "is," followed by a blank box.

Late last year, Facebook quietly dropped the "is," allowing users to supply their own verb and write updates such as "Nick just wasted time on Facebook."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Individual Americans have a right to own guns, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday for the first time in history, striking down a strict gun control law in the U.S. capital.

The landmark 5-4 ruling marked the first time in nearly 70 years the high court has addressed the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It rejected the argument the right to keep and bear arms was tied to service in a state militia.

Justice Antonin Scalia said for the majority the Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with militia service and to use it for traditional lawful purposes, such as self-defense in the home. However, he said the new right was not unlimited.

The court struck down two parts of the country's strictest gun control law adopted in Washington, D.C., 32 years ago -- the ban on private handgun possession and the requirement that firearms kept at home be unloaded and disassembled or bound by a trigger lock.

The ruling marked the first time the court has struck down a gun control law for violating the Second Amendment.

The ruling won praise from the White House, Republican presidential candidate John McCain and Wayne LaPierre of the politically powerful National Rifle Association, who said, "This is a great moment in American history."

It drew fire from gun control groups, which warned of new legal attacks on existing gun laws, and some Democrats in Congress like Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who said the decision "opens this nation to a dramatic lack of safety."

The four liberal dissenting justices warned of the ruling's consequences. "The decision threatens to throw into doubt the constitutionality of gun laws throughout the United States," Justice Stephen Breyer said.

Although an individual now has a constitutional right to own guns, that new right is not unlimited, wrote Scalia, a hunter.

He said the ruling should not be taken to cast doubt on long-standing prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill or on laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in places like schools and government buildings or laws imposing conditions on gun sales.

The Supreme Court's last review of the Second Amendment came in a five-page discussion in an opinion issued in 1939 that failed to definitively resolve the constitutional issue.

In the 64-page opinion, Scalia said an individual right to bear arms is supported by "the historical narrative" both before and after the Second Amendment's adoption.

"What is not debatable is that it is not the role of this court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct," he said.

"Few laws in the history of our nation have come close to the severe restriction of the district's handgun ban," Scalia said.

GUN POINTED AT BURGLAR WHILE CALLING POLICE

Scalia said a citizen may prefer may prefer a handgun for home defense because "it can be pointed at a burglar with one hand while the other hand dials the police."

The justices split along conservative-liberal lines in the ruling, one of the most important of the court's current term, in deciding a legal battle over gun rights in America. The ruling came on the last day of the court's 2007-08 term.

President George W. Bush's two appointees on the court, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, both voted with the majority in finding an individual right to keep firearms.

White House spokesman Dana Perino said, "The president strongly agrees with the Supreme Court's historic decision today that the Second Amendment protects the individual right of Americans to keep and bear arms."

Republican presidential candidate John McCain applauded the ruling and criticized his likely Democratic opponent Barack Obama for comments he had made during the political campaign.

"Unlike the elitist view that believes Americans cling to guns out of bitterness, today's ruling recognizes that gun ownership is a fundamental right -- sacred, just as the right to free speech and assembly," McCain said.

"I have always believed that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to bear arms," Obama said, "but I also identify with the need for crime-ravaged communities to save their children from the violence that plagues our streets through common sense, effective safety measures."

The United States is estimated to have the world's highest civilian gun ownership rate. Gun deaths average 80 a day in the United States, 34 of them homicides, according to Centers for Disease Control data.

The ruling was a victory for Dick Anthony Heller, a security guard who lives in a high-crime neighborhood and who wants to keep a handgun in his home for self-defense.

For decades, the meaning of the Second Amendment has been at the heart of a political and legal debate over gun control. People have argued whether it guarantees the right to bear arms to individuals or to citizens in a militia.

Written more than 200 years ago, the amendment says, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

In a dissent, parts of which he read from the bench, Justice John Paul Stevens said the court left for future cases the formidable task of defining the scope of permissible gun regulations.

"I fear that the district's policy choice may well be just the first of an unknown number of dominoes to be knocked off the table," Stevens said.

NEW YORK CITY (NY Times) Updated, 2:07 p.m. | This morning, a Boston-born performance artist, Yazmany Arboleda, tried to set up a provocative art exhibition in a vacant storefront on West 40th Street in Midtown Manhattan with the title, “The Assassination of Hillary Clinton/The Assassination of Barack Obama,” in neatly stenciled letters on the plate glass windows at street level.

By 9:30 a.m., New York City police detectives and Secret Service agents had shut down the exhibition, and building workers had quickly covered over the inflammatory title with large sheets of brown paper and blue masking tape. The gallery is across the street from the southern entrance to The New York Times building.

The police officers declined to answer any questions, and at first would not permit reporters to speak with Mr. Arboleda, who was wearing a black T-shirt and making cellphone calls from inside the makeshift gallery.

Later, Mr. Arboleda, who is 27, said in an interview: “It’s art. It’s not supposed to be harmful. It’s about character assassination — about how Obama and Hillary have been portrayed by the media.” He added, “It’s about the media.”

Mr. Arboleda said the exhibition was to open on Thursday and run all day.

The interview was abruptly ended as Mr. Arboleda was led off to the Midtown South police precinct for what he called an interrogation.

Reached by telephone this morning, Eric Joza, the building manager for the building at 264 West 40th Street, between Eighth and Seventh Avenues, said: “I had no idea what he was going to do. All I knew is that he was an artist and was going to use the store for two days: today and tomorrow.” There are offices above the storefront.

Mr. Joza would not identify the building’s owner, and he would not disclose the terms of the lease or the previous occupant of the storefront, beyond saying that the storefront had been vacant.

Mr. Arboleda has even set up elaborate Web sites, one for Mrs. Clinton and one for Mr. Obama.

Shortly after 11:30 a.m., Mr. Arboleda called reporters to let them know that he had been released.

“The Secret Service had to do a whole questionnaire with me,” he said. “It was about an hour of questioning. They asked if I owned guns, if I was a violent person, if I had ever been institutionalized.”

Mr. Arboleda answered no. Nonetheless, he said the Secret Service asked him to take down the exhibition title from the window.

“I’m renting that space; the space was allocated for an exhibition and it’s my right to put those words up,” he said. “They said it could excite someone to do something crazy, like break the window. It’s terrible, because they’re violating my rights. If someone breaks a window, they’re committing a crime.”

He added, “The exhibition is supposed to be about character assassination. It’s philosophical and metaphorical.”

He said he had not yet decided whether to take down the exhibition’s title, saying he first needed to speak to representatives of the building’s owner.

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, speaking to reporters at 1 Police Plaza around noon, said, “I am not certain he has been arrested,” then added, “He put up signs indicating the assassination of Senator Clinton and Barack Obama. And we notified the Secret Service. This individual is being spoken to. He apparently made statements that had to with their reputation. This is all under investigation.”

Asked whether the artwork was being seen as dangerous, Mr. Kelly said: “Obviously, it sounds totally inappropriate. We need more information as to what the purpose of it was. As I say, apparently he made some statements that he was referring to their reputations … don’t know, we will have to get more information. But he is being questioned now by our detectives and the Secret Service.”

Mr. Kelly was also asked why the artist would be questioned at all. “Why would we question him?” he responded. “Well, we want to determine what his motives are. Obviously they could be interpreted as advocating harm to protectees; both of the senators, of course, are now being provided Secret Service protection, that’s why the Secret Service was interested; both of them are federal employees, so, ah, of course it is a concern to federal authorities as it is to ourselves. Our lawyers are researching it and will determine if there are any violations of law; right now he is being questioned.”

(In fact, when Mr. Kelly spoke, Mr. Arboleda had already been released from custody a short while earlier.)

According to Mr. Arboleda’s Web sites, he was born in Boston in 1981 and lives in New York City. His family moved to Medellín, Colombia, shortly after he was born, and lived there until 1992. He holds a master’s degree in architecture from the Catholic University of America and has been trained in photography, painting, fashion design and graphic design. His first solo show, “The New Vitruvians,” was presented at Tribeca Issey Miyake in 2007.

Assassination has been the subject of many cultural products, including even a Stephen Sondheim musical, “Assassins.” But in the post-9/11 context, recent comments touching on assassination during this political season — including references by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton — have hit a nerve, and have been followed by apologies.

The safety of Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee, has been an issue. When he was assigned Secret Service coverage in May 2007, it was the earliest point in a campaign that a candidate had been given protection. In February, Jeff Zeleny of The Times did a Political Memo on the “hushed worry” on the minds of many Obama supporters, in which it was mentioned how his wife, Michelle Obama, had voiced concerns about his safety.

“Checkpoint,” a 2004 novel by Nicholson Baker, purported to plumb the thoughts of a would-be presidential assassin. In 2006, a British digital-television station commissioned a 90-minute film, “Death of a President,” about the aftermath of a fictional assassination of President Bush by a sniper.

Last week, the Rev. Michael Pfleger mocked Clinton at Sen. Barack Obama's former church, saying the New York senator felt "entitled" to the Democratic nomination for president.

In a guest sermon at Trinity United Church of Christ, Pfleger pretended he was Clinton crying over "a black man stealing my show."

Pfleger's sermon, along with past controversial statements by Trinity's former longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, led Obama to resign his membership at Trinity. Pfleger apologized for his comments Sunday.

George asked Pfleger to take leave from pastoral duties at St. Sabina Church in order to "reflect on his recent statements and actions in the light of the church's regulations for all Catholic priests," according to a statement Tuesday from the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Officials have said the Catholic Church does not endorse political candidates.

The leave was effective Tuesday and was scheduled to last about two weeks, said Archdiocese spokeswoman Susan Burritt.

"This is the Cardinal's way of hopefully relieving some of the pressure, to step away and reflect a little bit. That is the intent here," she said. "This has been a difficult week in light of everything that's happened."

Pfleger, who has promised George he would no longer mention any presidential candidates by name, did not believe "this to be the right step at this time," according to the statement.

"While respecting his disagreement, I have nevertheless asked him to use this opportunity to reflect," George said in the statement. "I hope that this period will also be a time away from the public spotlight and for rest and attention to family concerns."

A message seeking comment was left for Pfleger.

Pfleger, a 59-year-old white priest at a largely black parish, has gained a reputation for impassioned sermons and activism. The Archdiocese said his temporary replacement is the Rev. William Vanecko, pastor of Chicago's St. Kilian Catholic Church.

WELLINGTON, Utah (AP) -- Along Utah's Nine Mile Canyon lies what some call the longest art gallery in the world - thousands of prehistoric rock carvings and paintings of bighorn sheep and other wildlife, hunters wielding spears, and warriors engaged in hand-to-hand combat. But now, a dramatic increase in natural gas drilling is proposed on the plateau above the canyon, and preservationists fear trucks will kick up dust that will cover over the images.

And they worry that one possible solution - a chemical dust suppressant - could make things worse by corroding the rock.

"They're irreplaceable," said Steve Tanner, a member of the Nine Mile Canyon Coalition, which wants more done to funnel industrial traffic away from the canyon to protect the art on the sandstone walls. "When they're gone, they're gone."

The more than 10,000 petroglyphs have been a source of fascination and speculation since their discovery in the late 1800s. The art is believed to be the work of the Fremont people, who lived in present-day Utah, Idaho, Colorado and Nevada from 700 to 1300 A.D., and the ancestors of modern-day Ute Indians.

(The canyon - a mix of private and public land - is actually 78 miles long; it might have gotten its name because a cartographer for the 19th-century explorer John Wesley Powell used a nine-mile section in mapping the passage.)

The federal Bureau of Land Management has pronounced it "the greatest concentration of rock art sites" in the country.

But the scrubby, rugged landscape around the canyon is also rich in minerals. Oil and gas development along the West Tavaputs Plateau has been going on since the 1950s, though for most of that time consisted of no more than several dozen wells.

Then, in 2002, Denver-based Bill Barrett Corp. paid about $8 million for more than 47,000 acres of oil and gas leases in and around the plateau. The area now has 100 to 110 active natural gas wells by the BLM's estimate, and the agency is proposing to allow roughly 700 to 800 more to be drilled over eight years.

Traffic along the narrow gravel road through the canyon would increase from about 107 vehicles per day now to a maximum of 441 per day during peak development, which would probably last two to three years, according to BLM estimates.

As for the effect on the artwork, some warn it would be akin to driving a truck through the Louvre. Others expect the drilling to be fairly benign.

"I don't think we really know what the damage might be being caused right now," said Kevin Jones, Utah's state archaeologist. "I think the resource is valuable enough that we ought to find out."

In 2006, the Bill Barrett Corp. agreed to pay for a study of the possible effects of the dust. Constance Silver of Preservar Inc., which conducted the study, said she found that kicked-up dust that lands on a rock art panel creates "a very serious conservation problem."

At one of the canyon's most famous spots, a scene depicting a great hunt, dust clouds from passing trucks travel more than 100 feet and linger in the air for at least 10 minutes before settling on the rock carvings, she found.

Another issue raising concern: the use of magnesium chloride on the road to harden the dirt and keep dust down. The salt compound is already being applied in an agreement between the county and the company.

Magnesium chloride has damaged concrete buildings and works of art before, according to Silver's report, and its use around Nine Mile Canyon ought to be "carefully considered." The fear is that it will collect in the pores of the rock and eat away its surface.

This summer, two other kinds of dust suppressants will be tried on the road.

"While there's no definitive information on the effect of magnesium chloride on the art itself, we have enough information we're concerned to the point where we're looking for alternatives," said Brad Higdon, a BLM environmental coordinator.

Company spokesman Jim Felton defended the project, saying if drilling does not go forward, the implications will be "immediate, dire and drastic" given the demand for energy in the U.S. The project would also create nearly 1,000 jobs in the area, according to the BLM.

Bill Barrett Corp. said it has put about $2 million into improving roads in the area, including rounding out curves to make them safer and building a route that moves traffic away from one of the most famous panels. By the time the project is complete, the rock art won't be any worse off and visitors will have a better experience, Felton said.

"There are those out there trying to create a false paradox, that you must either protect the artifacts or allow for oil and gas development," Felton said. "They're not mutually exclusive deals."

Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is among those who have come out against the drilling project. He said Nine Mile Canyon is of "global importance" as a "historic document that we don't yet know how to read."

"The threat is real and imminent and frightening," Moe said in a statement. "If you compare photographs taken last year with photos taken in 2003, you can see what the dust is doing to the images."

Already, it seems, the character of the canyon is changing. The site has long been a popular stop for rock art enthusiasts from around the world.

In the past two years or so, visitors' inquiries about the canyon have dropped off as gas drilling and truck traffic picked up, according to Chanel Atwood at the Castle Country Regional Information Center in Price.

Some worry about the health effects of the dust, and others are concerned for their safety as they try to share the curvy road with pickups and big rigs, Atwood said.

"I had some people say it's their last visit, they're not going back," Atwood said. "It's just too dusty and too busy and they were looking for a more serene place to see rock art."

---

On the Net:

http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/vernal/recreation-/nine-mile-canyon.html

WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday brought up the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy while defending her decision to stay in the race against Barack Obama - drawing a furious reaction from the front-runner's camp.

"My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don't understand it," she said, dismissing calls to drop out.

Clinton made her comments at a meeting with the editorial board of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader, a paper in South Dakota. She is campaigning in the state ahead of its June 3 primary.

During the session, she complained, "People have been trying to push me out of this ever since Iowa."

The Post on its Web site yesterday published the first story containing the extraordinary comments, based on a Web cast of Clinton's interview.

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton rebuked Clinton, saying her remark was "unfortunate and has no place in this campaign."

Any comments about assassination and the primary contest are especially sensitive because Obama is the first African-American to advance so far in the race for the White House and he has faced threats, congressional sources have said.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who has already expressed anger toward Clinton during the race, planned to spend his rally today at his Harlem-based National Action Network addressing "a sense of outrage and dismay at statements made by" the New York senator, according to his office.

Secret Service protection was given to Obama earlier than it had ever been authorized for a presidential candidate, and he always travels with a heavy security detail.

Robert Kennedy, the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy, was gunned down in 1968 after winning California's Democratic presidential primary.

The New York senator had been a hero of the left for his civil-rights agenda and his calls to end the Vietnam War.

Related...

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LONGON - After criticism of a 59-page spread of her grandson's wedding photos in a glossy magazine, Queen Elizabeth has reportedly banned the selling of press access to future Royal events.

The ban comes just days after Hello! magazine was granted unprecedented access to the Windsor Chapel during Saturday's wedding of Peter Phillips and Canadian-born Autumn Kelly.

Hello! published pictures Wednesday from the ceremony and reception, which included formal portraits of the Royal Family. It is widely believed the Queen had no idea she was posing for pictures as part of a commercial arrangement.

The magazine is said to have paid Phillips and Kelly C$975,000 for the exclusive opportunity to attend the lavish event.

Other shots included pictures of the girlfriends of Prince William and Prince Harry -- Kate Middleton and Chelsy Davy. Both young women have been hounded by the press and take pains to avoid the paparazzi. They reportedly slipped in a side door at the church on Saturday to avoid photographers before the ceremony.

British MPs have criticized the tabloid's private access to the wedding.

"The British public would expect the Queen to rise above being pictured in the pages of Hello! She is the Queen, not a footballer's wife," British Labour MP Ian Gibson was quoted saying in Thursday's Telegraph.

Observers believe that Phillips, who has no title, has surrendered his right to privacy with the photo spread, and may have compromised the privacy of others in the family.

"It will never happen again. In hindsight, it should never have happened in the first place," a senior royal source was quoted saying.

Richard Fitzwilliams, a royalty expert and the former editor of International Who's Who, said the problem is that the Hello! deal commercialized a Royal wedding.

"What the Queen did was allow her grandson to marry in the historic St. George's Chapel and have the reception at Frogmore House. She had absolutely nothing to do with this deal," Fitzwilliams said.

Buckingham Palace was apparently not directly involved in the deal, Fitzwilliams said, and Peter Phillips held the copyright of his photographs which were reportedly passed to Hello!

The Queen's recent ban of this type of intimate media access will prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.

"There was a very definite danger of it happening again if Zara Phillips, for example, who is both a celebrity and member of the Royal Family, were to marry rugby-star Mike Tindall," Fitzwilliams said.

"The door has been firmly closed in the face of celebrity magazines. And it should stay that way."

The Buckingham Palace has only commented that the matter is "private."

Allowed to take pictures outside but barred from the actual wedding, some members of the British media were shocked by this week's photo sale.

"The Queen's never done anything like this in the whole of her reign," said photographer Arthur Edwards. "She's always been above all that, commercial deals and all that."

Peter Phillips is 11th in line to the throne but holds no title and doesn't perform any official duties. He works for the Royal Bank of Scotland, and some believe he sold the pictures to Hello! to pay for the wedding.

Kelly comes from the Montreal suburb of Pointe Claire.

The couple, both 30, met when they were each working at the Montreal Grand Prix in 2003.

UNION CITY, Calif. (AP) - Republican John McCain rejected the months-old endorsement of an influential Texas televangelist after an audio recording surfaced in which the preacher said God sent Adolf Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land."

Obviously, I find these remarks and others deeply offensive and indefensible, and I repudiate them. I did not know of them before Reverend Hagee's endorsement, and I feel I must reject his endorsement as well," the presidential candidate said in a statement issued Thursday.

Hagee quickly responded that he was withdrawing the endorsement.

McCain actively courted Hagee, who leads a megachurch with a congregation in the tens of thousands and has an even wider television audience. Former GOP presidential rivals also sought Hagee's backing.

The preacher has controversial views that were well-known before McCain accepted his endorsement at a news conference Feb. 27 in San Antonio shortly before the Texas presidential primary.

McCain has faced a barrage of criticism, with some comparing the situation to the controversy faced by Democrat Barack Obama over the views of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

McCain has tried to distance himself from Hagee's views, saying he strongly condemned anti-Catholic rhetoric. Yet he never rejected the endorsement.

"I'm glad to have his endorsement," he said on ABC's "This Week" in April. "I condemn remarks that are, in any way, viewed as anti- anything."

The Arizona senator has said he sought Hagee's support because the pastor, like himself, is a strong supporter of Israel.

The formation of Israel was at the heart of the remarks that prompted McCain to reject Hagee's support. The comments came in a sermon Hagee gave in the late 1990s, an audio recording of which was posted last week on the liberal blog "Talk to Action."

In his sermon, Hagee said, "Then God sent a hunter. A hunter is someone with a gun, and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter. ... How did it happen? Because God allowed it to happen. Why did it happen? Because God said, 'My top priority for the Jewish people is to get them to come back to the land of Israel.'"

Hagee tried to repair the damage by apologizing to Catholics in a letter released just last week. Saying he had emphasized the darkest chapters in the history of Catholic and Protestant relationships with Jews, Hagee wrote, "I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful."

On Thursday, Hagee issued a new statement saying he was weary of the controversy and was withdrawing his endorsement.

Hagee said critics are "grossly misrepresenting my position on issues most near and dear to my heart."

"I am tired of these baseless attacks and fear that they have become a distraction in what should be a national debate about important issues," Hagee said. "I have therefore decided to withdraw my endorsement of Senator McCain for President effective today, and to remove myself from any active role in the 2008 campaign."

Meet Alex Phillips.

The Wisconsin teenager is facing felony child pornography charges for allegedly posting naked photos of his 16-year-old ex-girlfriend on his MySpace page.

When contacted by police about the two images, Phillips, 17, balked at removing the pictures of the girl. Warned that he could face jail for publishing images of the minor, Phillips told an investigator, "F*** that, I am keeping them up," according to a criminal complaint filed yesterday in Lacrosse County Circuit Court.

Phillips, pictured in the above mug shot, told cops that he posted the photos last week "because he was venting."

The cell phone camera photos had been taken by the girl, who provided them to Phillips.

Along with posting the photos, Phillips added explicit captions like, "Yo, U see how big her hole is! Its from me!"

While claiming that his goal was not to harm the girl, Phillips acknowledged that, "he probably should not have done this," according to the May 20 court filing.

Along with the child porn count, Phillips was charged with defamation and sexual exploitation of a child.

Matthis Chiroux is the kind of young American US military recruiters love.

"I was from a poor, white family from the south, and I did badly in school," the now 24-year-old told AFP.

"I was 'filet mignon' for recruiters. They started phoning me when I was in 10th grade," or around 16 years old, he added.

Chiroux joined the US army straight out of high school nearly six years ago, and worked his way up from private to sergeant.

He served in Afghanistan, Germany, Japan, and the Philippines and was due to be deployed next month in Iraq.

On Thursday, he refused to go, saying he considers Iraq an illegal war.

"I stand before you today with the strength and clarity and resolve to declare to the military, my government and the world that this soldier will not be deploying to Iraq," Chiroux said in the sun-filled rotunda of a congressional building in Washington.

"My decision is based on my desire to no longer continue violating my core values to support an illegal and unconstitutional occupation... I refuse to participate in the Iraq occupation," he said, as a dozen veterans of the five-year-old Iraq war looked on.

Minutes earlier, Chiroux had cried openly as he listened to former comrades-in-arms testify before members of Congress about the failings of the Iraq war.

The testimonies were the first before Congress by Iraq veterans who have turned against the five-year-old war.

Former army sergeant Kristofer Goldsmith told a half-dozen US lawmakers and scores of people who packed into a small hearing room of "lawless murders, looting and the abuse of countless Iraqis."

He spoke of the psychologically fragile men and women who return from Iraq, to find little help or treatment offered from official circles.

Goldsmith said he had "self-medicated" for several months to treat the wounds of the war.

Another soldier told AFP he had to boost his dosage of medication to treat anxiety and social agoraphobia -- two of many lingering mental wounds he carries since his deployments in Iraq -- before testifying.

Some 300,000 of the 1.6 million US soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from the psychological traumas of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression or both, an independent study showed last month.

A group of veterans sitting in the hearing room gazed blankly as their comrades' testimonies shattered the official version that the US effort in Iraq is succeeding.

Almost to a man, the soldiers who testified denounced serious flaws in the chain of command in Iraq.

Luis Montalvan, a former army captain, accused high-ranking US officers of numerous failures in Iraq, including turning a blind eye to massive fraud on the part of US contractors.

Ex-Marine Jason Lemieux told how a senior officer had altered a report he had written because it slammed US troops of using excessive force, firing off thousands of rounds of machine gun fire and hundreds of grenades in the face of a feeble four rounds of enemy fire.

Goldsmith accused US officials of censorship.

"Everyone who manages a blog, Facebook or Myspace out of Iraq has to register every video, picture, document of any event they do on mission," Goldsmith told AFP after the hearing.

"You're almost always denied before you are allowed to send them home."

Officials take "hard facts and slice them into small pieces to make them presentable to the secretary of state or the president -- and all with the intent of furthering the occupation of Iraq," Goldsmith added.

Chiroux is one of thousands of US soldiers who have deserted since the Iraq war began in 2003, according to figures issued last year by the US army.

But while many seek refuge in Canada, the young soldier vowed to stay in the United States to fight "whatever charges the army levels at me."

The US army defines a deserter as someone who has been absent without leave for 30 days.

Chiroux stood fast in his resolve to not report for duty on June 15.

"I cannot deploy to Iraq, carry a weapon and not be part of the problem," he told AFP.

Today we went and met with the designers at Hasbro, the toy company. Kenny, their design director, gave us an awesome presentation about their company and design process. It was really interesting to see how the toys that most of us played with while we were younger (and many of us still play with i.e. Nerf guns) were designed.

Kenny took us through a little bit of their initial sketching phases but mostly showed us how they go about finalizing their designs through prototyping and manufacturing analysis. The Transformers projects were amazing. I am still not sure exactly how they figure out and decide how and where to put joints and all of the moving parts to make it actually work and still resemble a figure.

After going to Hasbro we went over to a store called GOD Warehouse. Their name stands for Goods of Desire. They make furniture and lighting along with other household items. While we were there they took us on a tour through their showroom and showed us a few of their products. It was interesting to see how the designs of contemporary furniture in China compare with the designs of contemporary furniture from other places around the world.

-Drew

Professor Joel Wittkamp, Drew and college photographer Hon Low sport the snazzy SCAD polos while riding our favorite mode of transportation, the MTR.

Hagee's support for McCain has drawn cries of outrage from some Catholic leaders who have called on McCain to reject Hagee's endorsement. The likely Republican nominee has said he does not agree with some of Hagee's past comments, but did not reject his support.

In a letter to William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Civil and Religious Rights, Hagee wrote: "Out of a desire to advance a greater unity among Catholics and evangelicals in promoting the common good, I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful."

Donohue, one of Hagee's sharpest critics, said he accepted the apology and planned to meet with Hagee Thursday in New York.

"I got what I wanted," Donohue said in an interview. "He's seen the light, as they like to say. So for me it's over."

The controversy had threatened to pursue McCain throughout the campaign, potentially hurting his standing with Catholic voters. A narrow majority of Roman Catholics voted for President Bush in 2004 and for Al Gore in 2000, critical votes in close elections.

The letter came after Hagee met Friday for lunch in a French restaurant in downtown Washington with 22 influential religious activists, virtually all of them Catholics.

Hagee has cited the Inquisition and the Crusades as evidence of anti-Semitism within the Catholic church and has suggested that Catholic anti-Semitism shaped Adolf Hitler's views of Jews.

"In my zeal to oppose anti-Semitism and bigotry in all its ugly forms, I have often emphasized the darkest chapters in the history of Catholics and Protestant relations with the Jews," Hagee wrote. "In the process, I may have contributed to the mistaken impression that the anti-Jewish violence of the Crusades and the Inquisition defines the Catholic Church. It most certainly does not."

Hagee has often made references to "the apostate church" and the "great whore," terms that Catholics say are slurs aimed at the Roman Catholic Church. In his letter, Hagee said he now better understood that his use of those descriptions, taken from the Book of Revelations, are "a rhetorical device long employed in anti-Catholic literature and commentary."

He stressed that in his use, "neither of these phrases can be synonymous with the Catholic Church."

The remarkable 2 1/2-page letter was no doubt inspired by the political storm Hagee's endorsement caused. Hagee leads a San Antonio, Texas, megachurch with a congregation in the tens of thousands. He has an even wider television audience.

When he endorsed McCain in late February, Donohue and other Catholic leaders demanded that McCain repudiate him. The Democratic National Committee also weighed in, highlighting Hagee's remarks over the years.

Some commentators even likened Hagee's affect on McCain to the controversy Democrat Barack Obama faced as a result of the views expressed by his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

McCain initially embraced Hagee's endorsement, eager to reach out to religious voters by securing the support of a prominent Christian conservative. But he was soon forced to put some distance with Hagee.

"Any comments that he made about the Catholic Church I strongly condemn, of course," he said during an April appearance on ABC's "This Week."

Campaigning in North Bend, Wash., McCain on Tuesday said Hagee's apology was "very helpful."

"Whenever somebody apologizes for something they did wrong, then I think that that's a laudable thing to do," he said.

Asked if he or his campaign played a role in brokering Hagee's letter, McCain simply said: "I certainly wasn't."

During the early primaries, McCain won strong support from Catholic voters. But Hagee threatened to become an issue heading into the general election.

Hagee is no stranger to provocative remarks. On National Public Radio in 2006, he said Hurricane Katrina was God's judgment because "New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God." He has written that the feminist movement represents "a rebellion against God's pattern for the family." On Tuesday, the Democratic National Committee said that considering those and other comments McCain still should renounce Hagee's endorsement.

But Donohue said Hagee, by offering his apology now, may have defused a potential problem from the Arizona senator.

"Had this happened after Labor Day I think it would have been an insurmountable problem for McCain to reach out to Catholics," Donohue said. "Now, with this behind him, I think the raised eyebrows in the Catholic community will begin to normalize."

In a statement posted in the Catholic League's Web site, Donohue added: "What Hagee has done takes courage and quite frankly I never expected him to demonstrate such sensitivity to our concerns."

Joe Felsenstein

So yes, the mathematics of Gambler’s Ruin speaks to the issue of natural selection—but it confirms its effectiveness.

(The other issue raised by Cordova, that of interference between mutations at different loci, is the well-known Hill-Robertson effect. If the loci have more than a tiny amount of genetic recombination between them, the interference largely vanishes. Cordova and the other commenters there have forgotten this.)

PZ Myers at Pharyngula observes similarly in a posting titled 'squish'

That's the sound you should hear when Joe Felsenstein takes on an idiotic claim by Sal Cordova. Would you believe that Cordova claims that Kimura and Ohta's classic 1971 paper "shatters the modern synthesis"? That's what he claims, on the basis of his poor understanding of the mathematics of population genetics, which is ridiculous on the face of it. So it's very satisfying to see one of the big guns of population genetics take him down with one brief explanation: contrary to Cordova, the principle he's describing confirms the effectiveness of natural selection.

The ACLU says in September 2007, Beasley asked her staff to give her the names of students who were couples, heterosexual and homosexual, because she wanted to keep an eye on them to cut down on public displays of affection.

She's accused of publicly posting the names of those students, including two boys, Andrew and Nicholas, who had just started dating.   The ACLU says that in doing so, Beasley revealed their relationship to other students, teachers and even their parents.

In a letter sent Tuesday, April 29, 2008 to Memphis City Schools, the ACLU says the principal's actions violated the students' constitutional rights to equal protection, freedom of expression and association, due process and privacy.

"Our first reaction was wow, this is unbelievable that a principal has gone this far," says ACLU attorney Christine Sun.   "The constitution protects all of us from the government intruding in our private lives when there isn't a reason to do that.  This was morally and legally wrong."

One of the young men, Nicholas, an 11th grader who just made the Dean's List, spoke with Eyewitness News Everywhere.

"It was actually frightening," he says, "to see a list with my name on it where not just other teachers could see but students as well."

Nicholas says his teachers and other students treat him differently as a result of Principal Beasley's decision and that he and Andrew have both had to deal with verbal assaults.   Nicholas was also not allowed to go on a trip to New Orleans to help rebuild homes because, as one of his teacher's explained, he would "embarrass" the school by engaging in gay affection.

"I really feel that my personal privacy was invaded," Nicholas says.  "I mean, Principal Beasley called my mother and outed me to my mother!"

The ACLU wants the school district to create new policies that would prevent these types of acts from happening again.   The group is also asking for compensation for Andrew and Nicholas and for an apology from the principal.

And the final demand from the ACLU says attorney Sun:  "Some sort of reprimand to the principal because this type of thing should not be happening at any school."

Eyewitness News Everywhere requested a response from MCS.   Van Davis Turner Jr., the associate general counsel for the Memphis City Schools Board of Education, released the following statement:  "We take all allegations of invasion of privacy and discrimination seriously.  At this time, we have not completed our internal investigation of this matter.   Once we have completed our investigation, we will submit a formal response to the ACLU, directly addressing the issue.  We look forward to working with the ACLU to amicably resolve this matter, if possible."

The ACLU wants a reply from MCS by Friday, May 9th or legal action will be pursued.

Hollis F. Price Middle College High School opened in 2004 in a collaborative effort with LeMoyne Owen College.  Students can earn a high school diploma and two years of college credit.   About 150 kids are enrolled right now in grades 9 through 12.

The episode, which also features Tina Turner, will air May 8.

Winfrey plans to feature Cruise during episodes airing Friday and Monday. She told Cher that when she was at Cruise's Colorado home recently, the actor stressed that Winfrey should say hello to Cher for him.

"So how much of a date was that?" Winfrey asked, according to advance remarks released Wednesday by Harpo Productions.

"Oh, that was a long date," Cher said. "Really. I lived in his apartment."

Cher is now 61, Cruise 45.

"He was so wonderful. And I was so crazy about him," said Cher, an Oscar, Emmy and Grammy winner who has released 25 albums that have sold more than 100 million copies. "And he was so, like, different. He was a shy boy. He didn't have any money."

It was unclear from the remarks released by Harpo exactly when the relationship took place.

But in a similar interview in February to "Entertainment Tonight" Cher indicated it was after Cruise made "Risky Business," in 1983 but before "The Color of Money," in 1986. She also talked about the relationship in February to "Good Morning America."

---

On the Net:

"The Oprah Winfrey Show": http://www.oprah.com

China can design. That was the thought running through my head as I listened to presentations today. China can design systems; China can design sexy products; China can even design brand identities and resurrect old faithful brands, like Hoover.

China has up its sleeves countless tricks the likes of which the world has not seen since the age of old master designers. The designers of yore, the Frank Lloyd Wrights of the world, the Eames’s, Jean Prouve and so on would look at the China of our current world and grow gitty with anticipation; they would see it, the wonder that China holds.

If good design means being cohesive from start to finish then Leon Yoong, director of industrial design at TTi, knows good design. The designers at Gold Peak also understand what it takes to make design affordable, accountable and essential. It seems, according to both Simon and Leon, directors at GP and TTi respectively, that good design starts with good research and a deep understanding of the client, the customer and the market.

If this foundation isn’t there, then can you really call yourself a designer? It seems to me that in this day and age there are too many people calling themselves designers when they merely push lines around a page and call it done.

Today was refreshing. It strengthened a flame in me that was starting to dwindle, a flame that asked: Is the world moving away from people and towards systems and can we right the wrongs of our past? Today’s presentations may not be the end all, be all solutions to my questions but it put a few thoughts at ease.

Yes, China is the new frontier, and yes, China is the future of design. I am proud that one day I’ll be able to say that I was there when the world looked for a solution and found it sleeping in the green hills of China.

Bradley's portrait atop a piece of furniture designed by Freeman Lau, whose studio we visited at the InnoCentre May 16.

William Dembski wrote:

As for your example, I’m not going to take the bait. You’re asking me to play a game: ”Provide as much detail in terms of possible causal mechanisms for your ID position as I do for my Darwinian position.” ID is not a mechanistic theory, and it’s not ID’s task to match your pathetic level of detail in telling mechanistic stories. If ID is correct and an intelligence is responsible and indispensable for certain structures, then it makes no sense to try to ape your method of connecting the dots. True, there may be dots to be connected. But there may also be fundamental discontinuities, and with IC systems that is what ID is discovering.

Source: William Dembski Organisms using GAs vs. Organisms being built by GAs thread at ISCID 18. September 2002