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Obama campaign manager sees many paths to victory

2012-03-15T05:50:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama's campaign manager says the Democrat has many routes to victory in Tuesday's presidential election. Republicans predicted predicted a historic comeback for John McCain.

Campaign manager David Plouffe said Sunday that Obama has expanded the electoral map by aggressively campaigning in traditional Republican states like Virginia, Colorado and Nevada. Plouffe …

Last sale for minibus

2012-03-15T03:24:00.000-07:00

THE last fundraising car boot sale of the year for a minibus forspecial needs pupils at a Johnstown school is taking place nextmonth.

Canolfan Elfed at QE High School in Johnstown, Carmarthen, catersfor 47 children with learning difficulties.

Staff have set themselves a target to raise Pounds 40,000 to …

Dow Jones Board OKs Deal With Murdoch

2012-03-15T01:00:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK - The fate of Dow Jones & Co. now rests with the Bancroft family, the company's longtime controlling shareholders, who must decide whether to sell the publisher of The Wall Street Journal to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., a global media conglomerate that owns Twentieth Century Fox and the Fox News Channel.

The board of Dow Jones said late Tuesday it was ready to sign off on Murdoch's proposal to buy the company for $5 billion. However, the key remains with the Bancroft family, whose three dozen members have been deeply divided over whether to sell to Murdoch. The are expected to meet Monday to discuss the deal.

Dow Jones wound up agreeing to Murdoch's initial …

Sabbatini, Mallinger lead after 3 rounds at Nelson

2012-03-14T22:40:00.000-07:00

Rory Sabbatini has already won at Hogan's Alley. Now he shares the lead going into the final round at Byron Nelson's tournament.

"Anything associated with his name would be an absolute honor," Sabbatini said after a 5-under 65 Saturday to keep a share of the lead at the Byron Nelson Championship.

Two years after his last victory, at the Colonial where Ben Hogan's larger-than-life statue is prominent, Sabbatini is in position to win again after five birdies in a seven-hole stretch midway through his third round.

Sabbatini and John Mallinger, who entered the third round tied as co-leaders, both shot 65 to get to 13-under 197. That is two …

In tweet, Obama cheers on US women at World Cup

2012-03-14T20:19:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is cheering on the U.S. women's soccer team as it competes in the Women's World Cup final against Japan Sunday night.

Obama sent his support to the team in a tweet …

Diamond Triumph alleges steering by Safelite

2012-03-14T17:59:00.000-07:00

Glass repair companies to square off in Pa. court

The largest retailer in auto glass repair has been named in a lawsuit that alleges charges of steering, breach of contract, breach of good faith and fair dealing, deceptive trade practices and tortious interference, among other accusations. Diamond Triumph Auto Glass Inc. vs. Safelite Glass Corp. was filed in March in United States District Court in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. The complaint states that Safelite, through its national call centers, misleads customers into thinking that they are speaking to their insurance company representatives while Safelite employees are alleged to be the advisers on the other end of the …

WORLD at 1000GMT

2012-03-14T15:38:00.000-07:00

NEW THIS DIGEST:

US-ELECTIONS. Clinton scores 3 victories in night of revival; McCain clinches Republican contest.

IRAQ. U.S. military frees 2 former officials after court drops charges of kidnapping, murder.

COLOMBIA-FARC LAPTOP. Seized laptop shows Chavez-rebel ties.

LEBANON-GETTING BY. Lebanon somehow chugs along despite political, security instability.

CHINA-POLITICS-ENVIRONMENT. Premier promises to cut pollution.

NIRELAND-AFTER PAISLEY. Paisley's retirement raises successor questions.

FREAK GOAL CLINCHES IT FOR WELTON

2012-03-14T13:18:00.000-07:00

WELTON Rovers boss Bob Williams saw his young guns come of age ina dramatic tie against Screwfix League rivals Brislington.

Trailing to Geraint Bater's first-half strike with only 10 minutesremaining, Rovers stunned the visitors with two late goals at WestClewes.

And after watching Aaron Blakemore and Wes Wilson turn the tableson he Premier Division title contenders, Williams declared: "Wedeserved to win.

"I thought we always looked like scoring in the second half andour pace enabled us to win the game in the end.

"This side has an average age of 22 and plays without fear.We werebehind at half time but never gave up and hit the woodwork twicebefore …

2003 BMW X5

2012-03-14T10:58:00.000-07:00

As the price of a vehicle goes up, so too does the power of the magnifying glass with which I scrutinize it. And at nearly $62,000, I feel justified in hauling out the microscope for BMW's tank-like X5. Ironically, the luxury SUV looks pretty darned good when viewed that closely, but when I pull back for the macro view I find some annoying flaws and noteworthy virtues.

First on the "annoying" list are the X5's doors, which are so unbelievably heavy that my 6-year-old daughter couldn't get in and out of the vehicle. To those who rationalize all things German, this might symbolize that the door is extremely strong and sturdy, which I'm sure it is. But so are many lighter and …

Child beggar's father fights abusive teacher

2012-03-14T08:37:00.000-07:00

It hurts too much to lie on his back, so the 7-year-old has spent the past month stretched out on his stomach. His two grandmothers sit on the hospital bed beside him, fanning the pink flesh left exposed by his teacher's whip.

It's progress that Momodou Biteye is in the hospital at all. It's also encouraging that the Quranic teacher who did this to him is behind bars.

But what is most significant is that the boy's father _ a poor farmer who sold part of his harvest to pay for the bus fare to the hospital _ filed the charges against the teacher himself. In doing so, this man with cracked lips and bloodshot eyes braved the wrath of his entire village, …

Debunking of a downturn myth ; The global slowdown this time has not spared even the entertainment industry, which was believed to be recession-proof.

2012-03-14T06:17:00.000-07:00

Here's somethin' that you're never gonna forget. Baby, you ain'tseen nothing yet..., went the lyrics of a popular '70s rock song.Well, delegates at FRAMES 2009, the annual media & entertainment (M& E) industry conclave held recently, weren't exactly crooning theselines, but what many of them talked about the impact of the downturnon their trade, it sounded pretty much like it.

Indeed, what came through at the three-day affair in Mumbai onFebruary 17-19 was the fact that the entertainment industry is,contrary to the traditional wisdom, not recession-proof, and itwould have to live with lower growth over the next few years.

A FICCI-KPMG report on the Indian M & E …

SAfrican leader wants to keep Mbeki on Zimbabwe

2012-03-14T03:56:00.000-07:00

South Africa's new president says he wants his ousted predecessor to continue working to bring political factions in neighboring Zimbabwe together in a unity government.

President Kgalema Motlanthe says in a statement released Thursday that he is confident Thabo Mbeki can build on "the historic successes" of his mediation effort so far.

Zimbabwe's opposition leaders and its President Robert Mugabe signed a power-sharing agreement mediated by Mbeki on Sept. 15. But implementing the agreement has stalled because the parties cannot decide how to allocate key Cabinet posts.

Without a political agreement, Zimbabweans cannot move on to tackle a growing political and economic crisis.

Report: Valencia rejects Madrid's bid for Villa

2012-03-14T01:02:00.000-07:00

Valencia has reportedly rejected a euro47 million (US$69.5 million) offer from Real Madrid for Spain striker David Villa.

Valencia officials met Monday to discuss Madrid's offer, which several board members were willing to accept, the Web site of sports daily Marca said.

Madrid's bid could have been an attempt to test the resolve of Valencia's new president Vicente Soriano, who said on taking charge that neither Villa nor teammate David Silva would be sold. Silva recently signed a new five-year contract.

Valencia needs funds to finance the club's move to a new stadium.

Juan Villalonga _ who was hired as Valencia's financial consultant and then fired two weeks later _ estimated the club's debt at euro739 million (US$1,091 million) a month ago. Villalonga is the former chief executive of Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica.

If Villa joined Madrid, it would likely hasten the departure of Madrid forward Robinho to Chelsea.

Robinho pleaded with the Spanish champions last Friday to sell him to the London club before the European transfer window closes at the end of the month.

However, Madrid president Ramon Calderon said the Brazilian would have to pay a large sum to break his contract, which has two years to run.

While Robinho's buy-out fee is set at euro150 million (US$220 million), Calderon is said to be willing to accept around euro50 million (US$73.9 million), a sum which would fund the club's reported bid for Villa.

Villa was the top scorer in the European Championship in June with four goals and helped Spain to win the tournament.

The 27-year-old player, who has spent three years at Valencia, played at Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu Stadium on Sunday in his team's 4-2 defeat in the Spanish Supercup second leg. Madrid won 6-5 on aggregate.

Oil prices fall after US data shows rising gasoline stocks offset drop in crude inventories

2012-03-13T22:11:00.000-07:00

Oil prices settled lower Wednesday after swelling gasoline supplies offset a tumble in crude oil stockpiles to their lowest level in more than three years.

Crude inventories fell by 6.8 million barrels, or 2.3 percent, to 282.8 million barrels during the week ended Jan. 4, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report. It marked the eighth consecutive decline, dragging supplies to their lowest point since October 2004.

The drop was more than 8 times the 800,000 barrels that analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast. However, gasoline inventories beat expectations, rising sharply by 5.3 million barrels, or 2.6 percent, to 213.1 million barrels. Analysts forecast stockpiles would climb by only 1.6 million barrels last week.

"The gasoline market won the tug of war," said Tim Evans, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. in New York.

Contributing to the drop in crude oil stocks were efforts by Gulf Coast refineries to minimize their inventories, which are subject to year-end taxes, he said. Crude supplies also tend to bottom out early in the year, Evans said.

"When we have weak gasoline demand, as we do now, and when we have swelling gasoline inventories, as we do now, it's hard to make the case that the overall petroleum market is critically tight," he said.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery lost 66 cents to settle at $95.67 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It rose as high as $97.97 after the inventory report.

February gasoline fell 3.84 cents to end at $2.4355 a gallon. Rising energy prices and a shaky economy have dampened demand for the motor fuel.

In London, February Brent crude fell $1.17 to settle at $94.37 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

The weekly report also showed that inventories of distillate fuel, which includes diesel and heating oil, rose by 1.5 million barrels to 128.7 million barrels. Analysts had expected a drop of 300,000 barrels.

Heating oil futures fell 2.29 cents to $2.6134 a gallon. Natural gas prices climbed 13.2 cents to settle at $8.099 per 1,000 cubic feet.

U.S. refineries ran at an average 91.3 percent of total capacity, an increase of 1.9 percentage points, beating the expected 0.1 percentage point gain, the report said.

Oil was supported somewhat by a surge in the price of gold, analysts said. Gold futures surged above $880 an ounce Tuesday to their highest level ever, not accounting for inflation.

A monthly EIA report Tuesday predicted oil supplies will be tight this year but ease in 2009. The EIA predicted oil prices will average $87 a barrel this year, up from a previous estimate of $85. The average price will then fall to $82 a barrel in 2009, it said.

A barrel of light, sweet crude surpassed $100 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange for the first time last week.

___

Associated Press Writers Gillian Wong in Singapore and George Jahn in Vienna, Austria, contributed to this report.

China: Major cotton production provinces reduce cotton fields

2012-03-13T19:20:00.000-07:00

INSIDE ASIA

Major cotton producing provinces and regions will considerably reduce their cotton fields this year, as cotton growing areas sharply increased last year.

The key reasons for the reduction include: (1) The supply of cotton far exceeds demand on the global market because global cotton production reached an all-time high last year. (2) The income of local cotton growers has sharply decreased because cotton prices have been falling since the second half of 2001. At the end of 2001, cotton prices decreased by 19.4% compared to the same 2000 period, and even fell by 50% in some regions.

The cotton growing areas in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Anhui and Henan Provinces (China's three largest cotton producers) are expected to decrease by 21.8%,17.7% and 10.3% respectively. The areas in Hunan, Hubei, Shandong and Jiangsu Provinces are to be reduced in the range of 7% to 9%.

'Inspiring' founder of event dies

2012-03-13T16:25:00.000-07:00

Tributes have been paid to a Swedish woman who launched a popularNorth-east fish festival.

Berit Jarvis, of Johnshaven, died on Saturday, aged 72, afterbattling motor neurone disease.

Originally from Gothenburg, Berit started Johnshaven FishFestival 11 years ago to repay residents of the village for makingher and husband Michael so welcome.

Family friend John Hearne described her as inspirational. Hesaid: "Berit had great ideas and always did things with tremendouspanache."

Her funeral was to be held at Johnshaven Parish Church today.

McCain criticizes Obama on Iran

2012-03-13T13:33:00.000-07:00

Republican John McCain raised the specter of a nuclear Iran in a speech to a pro-Israel group, once again chastising Democrat Barack Obama for his willingness to meet with leaders of Iran and other U.S. foes.

McCain has criticized Obama for saying in a debate last year that he would meet leaders of Iran and other U.S. foes without preconditions. The Arizona senator argues Obama is naive and inexperienced to think that such a meeting would yield progress.

"It's hard to see what such a summit with President (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad would actually gain, except an earful of anti-Semitic rants, and a worldwide audience for a man who denies one Holocaust and talks before frenzied crowds about starting another," McCain told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

He criticized Obama for seeming to suggest that Iran is trying to develop a nuclear program because the U.S. refuses to engage in presidential-level talks. McCain said the Clinton administration in particular tried to engage Iran for two years, even lifting some sanctions, to no avail.

"Even so, we hear talk of a meeting with the Iranian leadership offered up as if it were some sudden inspiration, a bold new idea that somehow nobody has ever thought of before," McCain said as dozens in the audience laughed.

His campaign said he was referring to Obama's comments in an interview last month with Fox News: "Iran is stronger now than when George Bush took office. And the fact that we have not talked to them means that they have been developing nuclear weapons, funding Hamas, funding Hezbollah. We have had no impact whatsoever as we pursue our policies."

Obama's campaign said Monday that McCain supports an Iraq war that has made the U.S. and Israel less secure.

"He promises to continue a war in Iraq that has emboldened Iran and strengthened its hand," Obama spokesman Hari Sevugan said. "He promises sanctions that the Bush administration has been unable to persuade the (United Nations) Security Council to deliver."

In his speech, McCain called for measures aimed at increasing pressure on Iran, such as severely limiting Iranian imports of gasoline, targeted sanctions such as denying visas and freezing assets and a worldwide campaign to divest from companies doing business with Iran.

McCain called for financial sanctions on the Central Bank of Iran, which he said aids in terrorism and weapons proliferation, and he criticized Obama for opposing a measure to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization responsible for killing U.S. troops in Iraq.

McCain has warm relations with the group, which is influential in the Jewish community. His call for sanctions against gasoline imports is a priority that AIPAC's members plan to lobby for on Capitol Hill later in the week.

In contrast, Obama has worked to reassure Jewish voters who have expressed some unease about his candidacy.

"I welcome the Muslim world's accurate perception that I am interested in opening up dialogue and interested in moving away from the unilateral policies of George Bush, but nobody should mistake that for a softer stance when it comes to terrorism or when it comes to protecting Israel's security or making sure that the alliance is strong and firm," Obama said in an interview last month with The Atlantic magazine. "You will not see, under my presidency, any slackening in commitment to Israel's security."

(This version CORRECTS UPDATES with Obama comment and background; corrects that Obama voted against Revolutionary Guard measure sted Central Bank measure.)

Everyone wins -- everyone loses; Blago convicted, Fitzgerald

2012-03-13T10:33:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine hit the nail on the head after watching the prosecution flame out at the federal building Tuesday. The political class, he wrote in an e-mail last night, has very mixed feelings.

On the one hand, they wanted Blagojevich to be convicted and to just go away. They got their first wish -- the lone felony count of lying to the FBI -- but not the second, because we'll be hearing from him all the way up to the crucial midterm elections.

Meanwhile, that political class has always wanted to see U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald embarrassed and for him to just go away. They've gotten their first wish with this verdict -- what with Lincoln refusing to roll over in his grave -- but not the second. Fitzgerald will live to fight another day.

When I speak of the political class, by the way, I'm not just talking about Democrats, although they are the ones moaning in pain at the moment at the prospect of having the airwaves filled with GOP election ads attacking them over Blagojevich the same way they, just four years ago, bludgeoned Republicans with George Ryan.

But let's start with the Democrats, since today, ominously, is the Governor's Day rally at the state fairgrounds in Springfield. Let's just say that Pat Quinn, Alexi Giannoulias, Mike Madigan and all the other Dems won't need a corn dog to get indigestion.

They'll get that from reporters asking their thoughts on the fiscal wisdom of retrying an already impeached, broke, convicted former governor when the state and federal governments are bleeding red ink and there aren't enough cops to protect kids from being gunned down in our streets.

Citizens are fed up with a government that many believe has done little for them in the way of jobs and public safety.

And so, suddenly, neither Rod Blagojevich nor Patrick Fitzgerald is getting a lot of love.

Blagojevich, who became the first Democratic governor in a quarter century to head a state in which his party controlled everything -- the House, the Senate and virtually every executive office -- used his awesome power to peddle a populism that he couldn't translate into accountable, transparent, effective government.

Fitzgerald, who is anything but a politician, used his own awesome power in this case with too heavy a hand. And so Blagojevich wasn't hit with a federal indictment but a veritable Mack truck of complicated and redundant charges.

The feds are accustomed to winning. They wear it, too often, as a righteous entitlement. There is value in this loss.

But Blagojevich, who now faces five years in prison, thought he could play his populist game while turning government into his own pay-to-play profit center. The feds were investigating him almost from the beginning of his first term -- and for good reason. What part of that did he not get?

And so the political class is stuck with Blagojevich on radio, TV and, heaven help us, more reality TV for a lot longer. That won't help the Democrats.

And they're stuck with Fitzgerald, who will not only retry Blago but will very soon go after Bill Cellini, one of the most powerful, least-known Republicans in this state. It was some of Cellini's political pals, in concert with Blagojevich's inner circle, who in 2004 tried to persuade the Bush White House to dump Fitzgerald. It was outrageous and didn't work.

Cellini's trial won't help the Republicans.

Citizens, meanwhile, are left in the lurch. Not feeling good about much of anything at the moment.

Comment at suntimes.com.

Special Edition - The Blagojevich Verdict

Color Photo: Scott Stewart, Sun-Times / Rod Blagojevich gives his wife, Patti, a smooch before entering the Dirksen Federal Building to hear the verdict. He'll be retried on 23 counts, which means he'll still be in the news during the midterm elections.

Options for dewatering manure

2012-03-13T07:06:00.000-07:00

Different technologies are available to reduce moisture content of wet manure and help create valueadded products.

ONE SOLUTION to nutrient overloading from manure is creating value-added products that can be economically shipped outside of an overburdened watershed. Value-added manure products can be produced by composting, chemical stabilization, dehydration and pelletizing. For all of these technologies, the manure must be reasonably dry at the start. With the exception of litter from broiler and turkey farms, most manure comes out of the barn wet. Typically, moisture contents of raw manure range from 85 to 98 percent, depending on how much bedding is used and how the manure is collected (e.g. flushed or scraped).

Moisture content can be reduced by adding dry amendments, as is often practiced in composting. However, it is often preferable to reduce moisture content simply by removing water - dewatering. Unlike adding dry amendments, dewatering minimizes the amount of material that needs to be handled and processed. Several technologies are used for reducing the moisture content of wet manure, including gravity separation (e.g. settling), natural drying, mechanical separation and drying with heat (i.e. dehydration). Each technology has its target applications and limitations in removing water.

GRAVITY SEPARATION

Gravity separation methods, such as settling basins, are often the first step in dewatering liquid manure. In a settling basin, the velocity of liquid manure flow decreases, causing the solids to settle by gravity to the bottom of the basin. The mostly-liquid portion above drains away through a pipe or over a weir. Periodically, the solids are harvested from the basin. Various types of settling devices are used, from concrete vessels to earthen ponds. They are used for liquid manures, primarily to capture solids from liquid streams rather than lower the moisture content of solids. Gravity separation is only partially effective. A large amount of solids escapes with the liquid, and the harvested solids still have a very high moisture content. However, it is now practical to dry the solids by other means.

NATURAL DRYING

Under the right climatic conditions, evaporation beds, ponds, and small piles can effectively remove moisture by natural aeration. Essentially, these devices promote evaporation, maximizing the exposure of the manure to air, wind and solar radiation. Agitation is often used to enhance drying. Natural drying methods are mechanically simple and inexpensive, although they require a relatively large land area. Potentially, they can produce very dry manure. However, they are at the mercy of the weather so natural aeration techniques are only effective in dry climates or dry seasons.

MECHANICAL SEPARATORS

Because of the limitations of gravity separation and natural aeration, many farms use mechanical dewatering equipment. Mechanical dewatering techniques are used both to reduce the solids load on liquid manure handling systems and to recover solids at a lower moisture content for composting or as bedding. Mechanical separators employ a combination of pumps, screens, conveyors, rollers and other devices to separate water from manure solids. Several different mechanical separators are used. Stationary screens, roller presses and screw presses are three common types. Most stationary screens are simple sloping screens. After liquid manure is pumped on the screens, the liquid drains through the holes while solids remain on the surface and eventually slough off into a pile. Roller presses also use screens (flat or circular) but add a set of rollers that squeeze out additional water from the solids before they leave the screen. Screw presses squeeze water from manure with a rotating auger or screw inside the press. The auger forces manure against a screen, pushing water out the screen holes. The squeezed solids are conveyed out of the press by the auger. Stationary screens can produce solids with a moisture content in the 80 to 90 percent range. Solids from roller and screw presses typically range from 75 to 80 percent moisture.

DEHYDRATION

Driving off moisture by heat and air flow is warranted when the manure must be very dry and natural drying isn't feasible. In a sense, composting and lime stabilization perform this using the heat generated by the process to fuel drying. Most manure drying systems use fossil fuel for heat. Dehydration take places in vessels such as rotary drums or cyclones. Cyclone type mechanisms employing high-speed air are attracting interest because they can both evaporate moisture efficiently and reduce particle size.

Drying systems - whether natural or with fuel-heated air - concentrate the nutrients in the solids, although some nutrients, such as ammonia, are lost in the process. In contrast, gravity and mechanical separation produce two materials that must be managed liquids and solids. The lion's share of the nutrients remains with the liquid.

Broadcasters hit airwaves as floodwater hits the Loop // Broadcasters, water had Loop covered

2012-03-13T03:19:00.000-07:00

Chicago's broadcast newsrooms rose to the occasion Monday asflood waters rose throughout the Loop.

From midmorning on, all three network-owned television stationsdumped their regular daytime lineups of soap operas, game shows andgabfests to air live, continuous reports on the crisis.

Radio's one glaring exception to otherwise predictable coveragewas the decision by "all-news" WMAQ-AM (670) to cut away from thenews to broadcast the Chicago White Sox home opener during theafternoon.

Not since the death of Mayor Harold Washington in 1987 has onelocal news story so thoroughly dominated the air waves around theclock. Held together by top-gun news anchors, broadcast coverage wasprofessional, responsible and, for the most part, remarkably free ofhysteria.

"I can't imagine anything as big as this story," said oneseasoned television news executive, who asked not to be identified."You've got about a million people affected by a freak accident forwhich the city had no backup plan. The impact is incalculable."

Even the nation's top-rated network newscast, "ABC World NewsTonight with Peter Jennings," saw fit to lead with the Chicago story.

Handicapped by electrical power shutoffs prompted by the floodswas WLS-Channel 7 (with studios at 190 N. State and transmitter atthe Sears Tower both within the affected area). The station wasknocked off the air for about four minutes around 11:30 a.m., withcolor bars filling the screen. Regular broadcasting resumed thanksto a backup generator that supplied limited power.

"We're operating with maxiTurn to Page 43 Continued from Page 15 mum staff and minimum equipment," Channel 7 news anchor Mary AnnChilders told viewers. For several hours, the station was forced todo without its usual array of graphics, maps and othercomputer-generated visual enhancements.

Although nonbroadcast personnel also were evacuated from NBCTower as a precaution, WMAQ-Channel 5 was up and running with thestory from the start of its "Chicago Live" program at 9 a.m.

Channel 5 news anchor Ron Magers, who performed masterfullyalongside Warner Saunders in the studio, showed no sign of fatigueeven though he had been working since pre-dawn hours Monday asfill-in newscaster for Jonathon Brandmeier's WLUP-AM/FM (1000 and97.9) morning show.

WBBM-Channel 2 was the last of the big three to go on withcontinuous coverage, although it quickly recovered once news anchorBill Kurtis rushed in to the studio from out of town, and reporterJay Levine took command at the Chicago River accident site.

At one point, Levine immodestly but truthfully told viewers: "Ithink we're in the right spot - but we have been for much of themorning." His panoramic vantage point - on the eighth floor balconyof an attorney's office overlooking the scene - was unbeatable.

Perhaps hardest hit of all Chicago television outlets wasWCIU-Channel 26, which was knocked off the air for hours when powerwas lost at its studios in the Chicago Board of Trade building, 141W. Jackson Blvd. Also affected for limited periods were WTTW-Channel11, WPWR-Channel 50 and WEHS-Channel 60, all of which share SearsTower transmitter space with Channel 7 and Channel 26.

On the radio side, officials of seven local stations held theircollective breaths for most of the day as they faced the prospect oflosing their transmissions from atop Sears Tower.

WBBM-FM (96.3), WJMK-FM (104.3) and WCKG-FM (105.9) had nobackup transmitters to employ if power to their Sears site had beencut. The four others, WLIT-FM (93.9), WLS-FM (94.7), WTMX-FM (101.9)and WWBZ-FM (103.5), had auxiliary transmission plans in place.Sears Tower never shut off its antennas, however.

Elsehwere on the air Monday: WMAQ described its decision to switch to the White Sox broadcast at1:15 p.m. as a "tough call." News director Jim Frank said: "In ourview the (flood) story had stabilized itself by 1 o'clock and theworst of the crisis had passed." The station's competitors wereflabbergasted by the call. WJMK and sister station WJJD-AM (1160), which lost power temporarilyat its 180 N. Michigan studios, played tapes for about two hoursduring the middle of the day. No one answered phones at the station. After power was cut at the 333 N. Michigan studios of ABC Radiocommentator Paul Harvey, WLS-AM (890) invited Harvey to broadcastfrom its facilities at 190 N. State. All-talk WLS also was the firstto take out newspaper ads urging listeners to "keep your head abovewater!"

Mary Ann Bill Magers Childers Kurtis

For Obama, big agenda and small window for results

2012-03-13T00:17:00.000-07:00

President Barack Obama's intense juggling of domestic issues reflects all the realities he faces at once: a vast agenda, a smaller window for results this year and a need to keep promises to constituencies that will have a huge say in the fall congressional elections.

Obama is in the heart of a period in which he has pledged to do everything he can to make the case for a health overhaul. This time-consuming blitz, he hopes, will end in a final vote in Congress this month. That's on top of his commitment to make jobs his top priority.

Yet his agenda this week alone _ with immigration and energy near the top _ signals he is trying to move on other matters affecting most every American. The coming months likely amount to his best shot to pass the heavy legislation he wants and that will help drive the midterm elections in November.

At the moment, his health care plan is the chief concern. Obama made two outside-of-Washington campaign stops for it this week and plans another in Ohio on Monday. And he just delayed a trip to Asia until later in March to stayed focused on health care as that issue reaches a make-or-break moment.

The rest of Obama's week, though, has provided a revealing snapshot of his balancing act.

A trade speech took precedence Thursday morning. Then he devoted coveted time to lawmakers and activists involved in immigration reform, a far-reaching and sensitive issue that rose and crashed in the second term of President George W. Bush. Friday he meets with his national security team to assess the war in Afghanistan and Pakistan, then assembles his science and technology advisers.

Earlier this week, Obama had 14 senators of both parties to the White House to try to build support for stalled climate and energy legislation. Throw in that twice in recent days Obama promoted his education agenda of boosting standards and graduation rates, with federal money as leverage.

The president is also invested in pushing through an overhaul of the rules governing Wall Street. A bipartisan effort on that front appeared to break down Thursday, but the White House hopes that will change as the legislation advances, still optimistic that financial reform will get done this year.

"There are lawmakers who care deeply about these other issues. There are constituency groups. There are substantive policy reasons for pursuing them," said Thomas Mann, a congressional scholar at the Brookings Institution. "A president doesn't have time to deal with matters just one at a time."

Obama has a key edge in setting the agenda: public approval. His job-performance rating is holding mainly steady at 53 percent, while a new Associated Press-GfK poll finds that fewer people approve of Congress _ a mere 22 percent _ than at any point in Obama's presidency.

Yet polls don't change people's lives. Results do. And ultimately, the search for results is what drives how Obama spends his time.

A closer look at the factors:

_ The agenda. Obama is still early in his presidency and trying to use his clout on all the big items he promised. The massive economic stimulus plan came first, but health care, energy and global-warming legislation, further jobs bills, a financial regulation overhaul and immigration all remain. Obama is trying to push that agenda around the rush of other events _ from terrorism threats to natural disasters _ that can demand his time.

_ The calendar. The realistic window for getting major legislation passed in this election year at best runs only until August, when Congress takes its summer break before the final, frantic weeks before Election Day. So Obama must do overlapping legislative work on matters nearing an end, like health care, and ones needing much work, like immigration.

_ The bully pulpit. Obama has little say over when Congress does its business, as evidenced best by the health care debate, which in Obama's vision was supposed to be finished last year. He can, however, control what issues get public attention by scheduling events designed to drive the debate.

_ The election. Obama isn't on the ballot in November, but in a lot of ways, his presidency is. To help stem the expected loss of Democratic seats in the House and Senate in November, Obama needs to show results, demonstrating that both he and the candidates from his party can use their power to lead.

_ The coalitions. Obama appears clearly headed toward a Democrats-only health care bill, if he is able to get it. But he knows he must have Republican support to get comprehensive energy and immigration reform passed. His meetings this week on both topics were designed largely to foster that kind of backing.

_ The quiet work. Obama gets scores of briefings and holds domestic meetings that never even make it on his public schedule. So, in one sense, announcing an event on immigration can give an outsized, all-of-a-sudden importance to a matter he has been trying to finesse for months. But it can also signal to key groups and the nation at large that he is working on several issues at once and that he takes them all seriously, which can play to the White House's advantage.

_ The constituents. People mainly want jobs and an economy that restores the value of their homes and bank accounts. There are plenty of other issues though that matter to groups such as the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, both of which met with Obama on Thursday. Obama must pay some heed to the concerns of those who elected him: 95 percent of black voters supported him in 2008; 67 percent of Hispanic voters did the same.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama doesn't have time to schedule events that, on the surface, might be seen as a political response to those who helped get him his job.

"Anytime you do these meetings, you're going to be judged on whether you can accomplish anything out of them," Gibbs said. "So I think doing them just to say you're doing them, in the end, doesn't usually work."

___

Associated Press Polling Director Trevor Tompson and AP News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this report.

Conceiving Companies: Joint-Stock Politics in Victorian England

2012-03-12T21:20:00.000-07:00

Conceiving Companies: Joint-Stock Politics in Victorian England. By Timothy Alborn. New York: Routledge, 1998. ix + 297 pp. Index, notes, bibliography. Cloth, $90. ISBN 0-415-18079-1.

Modern polities and economies are structured around a small set of seemingly hard-and-fast cultural distinctions: public versus private, political versus economic, shareholder versus stakeholder. These are not merely ideological contrasts between the extremes of black and white, however, for they are manifested in concrete institutional arrangements and organizational structures. In Conceiving Companies, Timothy Alborn returns to a period in English history when such distinctions were in flux and examines how they became hardened and fastened. His interesting and important account focuses especially on joint-stock companies, which achieved legal personality by means of parliamentary charters that granted them special rights but also encumbered them with particular responsibilities. Such companies possessed a complex admixture of organizational features that blurred and muddied the distinctions that became so clear later on. When combined with Britain's Victorian laissez-faire state, the stage is set for Alborn to explicate exactly when and how companies acted politically.

To begin with, companies like the Bank of England and the East India Company were created by explicitly political legislative acts and charged with public duties, although they remained "private" institutions. These two companies pursued their own economic interests but also performed political duties (like providing monetary currency, or administering the Indian subcontinent). Internally, corporate governance revolved around a mini-polity, in which shareholders elected boards of directors to run the companies. It is ironic that at a time when the pre-1832 political franchise involved a welter of rules that varied from one constituency to the next, joint-stock companies were established with transparent and consistent rules that granted voting rights to shareholders. And, like the state, a corporation is an organized collectivity whose survival depends on legitimacy in the eyes of its constituents.

Alborn organizes his argument around a complex historical narrative that begins in the late eighteenth century with the Bank and East India Company and finishes with banks and railways in the early twentieth century. Established in the seventeenth century, the Bank and East India Company helped shape the cultural and organizational trajectory along which joint-stock banks and private railway companies subsequently moved. The Bank fared better than the East India Company (which did not survive), in part because it continued to support the government financially and thus was in a stronger bargaining position when its charter came up for renewal.

Alborn shows in detail how administrative and organizational developments in one sphere influenced changes elsewhere, acting through porous public/private or political/economic boundaries. For example, the use of competitive exams as a way to combat corruption and nepotism was developed first in the East India Company and was only later applied to the British civil service (p. 33). Corporations and government both wrestled with "democratic" forces that threatened to hand control over powerful political and economic institutions to non-elites (thus the debate over expansion of the political franchise paralleled discussions over bank shareholdings). Corporations tried, with varying degrees of success, to frame their activities as strictly "private," so as to escape the duties that public accountability would impose. As a private matter, railway rates were like prices, but as a public imposition such rates were akin to taxes and thus subject to criteria like "fairness" (p. 230). In a narrowly legal sense, firms were answerable to their shareholders, but in fact each corporation had to manage its relations with a much wider coalition of stakeholders and constituents (including, variously, customers, creditors, competitors, shareholders, managers, and employees). Sometimes these constituents were local, sometimes national, and very often both.

Alborn's analysis is a clear, well-documented one, and he makes good use of the comparison between railways and banks. The argument occasionally disappears into thickets of historical detail, and one can lose sight of the forest, but Alborn's main points are well worth heeding. The boundaries and distinctions that organize social, political, and economic life themselves have a particular history shaped by politics, rhetoric, and ideology. "Efficiency," for example, is not simply an end-state toward which institutions evolve as they experience market-based competition. Rather, it is a complex idea, recurrently contested and selectively imposed because of the expectations and standards it induces.

[Author Affiliation]

Bruce G. Carruthers is professor of sociology at Northwestern University. He is writing a book on the history of credit and credit decision-making.

Trinity Wins: 15 Laterals on Last Play

2012-03-12T17:45:00.000-07:00

Picture the ending of the Stanford-California game in 1982, without the band and with three times as many laterals. Trinity University used 15 laterals after a completed pass on the final play of the game for an unlikely touchdown and 28-24 victory Saturday at stunned Millsaps. Call it the "Mississippi Miracle" for the Tigers, an NCAA Division III team in San Antonio.

"Things have to go perfectly for that to work," coach Steve Mohr told The Associated Press after the Tigers got home Sunday night from Jackson, Miss. "We couldn't do that against air if we tried."

There were 2 seconds left, only enough time to snap the ball once, when Trinity (7-1) took over at its own 40.

Blake Barmore dumped a short pass over the middle to a wide-open Shawn Thompson, who gained 16 yards before he ran into a defender and made the first pitch to Riley Curry. Then there was another lateral, and another and another.

Curry got the ball four times, the last after it was bounced off the turf into his hands around the 34 and he sprinted to the end zone. He crossed the goal line 62 seconds after the ball was snapped.

That bounce was the only time the ball touched the ground, and Mohr thinks that actually helped the Tigers.

"Some of the Millsaps players stopped. That created the seam for Curry," said Mohr, figuring some of the exhausted defenders might have thought it was like an incomplete pass to kill the play. "It was never batted, never touched the ground except the last throw, 14 straight completions."

California needed only five laterals on its game-ending kickoff return for a touchdown in 1982, when Stanford's band had stormed the field thinking the game was over.

Seven different Trinity players touched the ball, including two offensive linemen. Josh Hooten, a 266-pound guard, got it twice.

Hooten was the recipient of the second pitch, then threw the ball over his shoulder. Luckily, it went to receiver Michael Tomlin.

"He caught it and pitched it over his head blindly," Mohr said. "It was like he caught it and thought he's not supposed to have it. It was comical."

The third touch by Curry ended when he pitched back to Tomlin and then Curry wound up on the ground after being tackled. Tomlin ran toward the sideline and got rid of the ball as he went down in a crowd, throwing to Hooten, who quickly pitched to Brandon Maddux.

With defenders surrounding him, Maddux desperately pitched the ball back toward the middle of the field. It took a perfect hop to Curry, who had gotten back to his feet.

"The worst part about it is we had five or six guys just quit on the play," Millsaps coach Mike DuBose, the former Alabama coach, told The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger. "That type of thing just shouldn't happen. Sure, we were tired. But so was Trinity. You have to finish the play. We stopped."

Trinity cut it to 24-22 when Barmore threw a 13-yard TD pass to Curry with 2:11 left. But Barmore threw an incompletion on the 2-point conversion try and Millsaps recovered the attempted onside kick.

But the Majors (6-2) gave the ball back after failing to convert on fourth-and-2.

With the victory, Trinity remained in contention for the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference title and an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III playoffs. Millsaps would have clinched the playoff spot by winning.

"This puts us in position to play for something in November," said Mohr, 143-53 in his 18 seasons at Trinity. "It doesn't guarantee anything. Our kids understand it, but at least it kept us in the hunt."

Santorum: 'Don't ask, don't tell' repeal foolish

2012-03-12T14:01:00.000-07:00

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum says the end of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy that barred gays and lesbians from serving openly is a social experiment pushed by Democrats.

Santorum on Thursday said the military has one responsibility: protecting the country. He says that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly is a distraction to that role.

The former senator from Pennsylvania was responding to a video question from a gay soldier that yielded boos from the debate audience. Congress repealed the Clinton-era ban; it ended Tuesday.

Santorum says that "sex is not an issue" and the government should leave it alone. He also says he would not expel the soldier who asked the question.

Take a walk on a walkthrough

2012-03-12T10:31:00.000-07:00

AIO Jeannie Gallo and her crew observe instruction at an Albany Park elementary school.

`I thought I was a good principal," says Jeannie Gallo, Area 2 AIO who last year supervised principals at 38 North Side elementary schools. "But I would have been better if I'd known about the walkthrough process."

Gallo, who oversees more schools than most AIOs and will add another this fall, visited each of them informally early last year to meet-and-greet with principals and staff, tour the buildings and introduce the concept of using a process called walkthroughs--the signature of a districtwide initiative to improve the quality of teaching.

On her next round of school visits, Gallo conducted walkthroughs. She completed 27 of them between March and June and plans to begin picking up the final 11 schools this month.

Gallo says some AIOs who conducted walkthroughs earlier in the year were met with skepticism because they neglected to meet with teachers first to describe the process. Some of those teachers complained to their union, and ultimately, the CPS chief education officer issued a mandate that AIOs meet with school staff before they conduct walkthroughs.

"So, actually, I was glad I started a little later," says Gallo.

The walkthrough: Wednesday, May 28

At 8 a.m., Gallo and her Area 2 team meet Carl Dasko, Bateman's acting principal, and several teachers in a conference room for coffee and rolls. At 8:30, everyone goes to the library, where Bateman's staff is gathered.

Gallo tells the teachers that before becoming Area 2 AIO, she spent 12 years as principal at Smyser Elementary, where test scores and the student population doubled under her leadership. "Like Bateman," she says, "we had to build a big addition."

She describes the walkthrough as a qualitative look at a school. The principal picks several teachers to participate, Gallo explains, and as a group they will decide which classrooms to visit and what to look for in each of them. After each classroom visit, the team will spend three to five minutes discussing what they've observed. Then, at the end, they will meet in the conference room to debrief. The Area 2 team members will later write up their findings and suggestions, and deliver the one-page report to Bateman.

"These are quite useful little snapshots that will start a dialogue about what you value," Gallo notes. "We're not here to scrutinize. I evaluate principals, not teachers. We're here to offer suggestions. You can take them or not, but we're hoping you take them."

Besides Dasko and Gallo, the walkthrough team consists of three Bateman teachers--reading resource teacher Sharon Deutsch, bilingual teacher Mushtaq Ali Khawaja and 2nd grade teacher Nydia Dalmau--and specialists in reading, special education and bilingual education from Area 2.

Once Gallo completes her presentation to the staff, the team meets to decide what to look for during the walkthrough. Dasko has two suggestions: Assess the level of teacher-student interaction (which he also describes as student engagement) and the physical set-up of the room. With a variety of learning levels represented in the school, Bateman has been working to create stations or learning centers in its classrooms, he says. This way, students can work independently while the teacher meets with individuals or small groups.

The group decides to focus on both of these. Area 2 reading coach Harlee Till helps them clarify what to look for: How are teachers interacting with the students? Are there any learning centers? How are student desks arranged? What's posted on classroom walls? Is the teacher moving around the room or standing stationary in front of the class?

Before heading out, Dasko wants to know when staff will get the area team's report. "They'll want to know how they did," he says.

"This is not about evaluating them," Till reiterates.

"I've told them more than once that it's not a show we're putting on," says Dasko. Still, he says, they'll be anxious to get the report.

The first stop is a primary special education class. An audio tape is playing as the teacher holds up pictures. She holds up an image of a monkey when the tape plays a monkey song. Children make the "mmm" sound. The visitors circulate and take notes on clipboards. The visit lasts three minutes.

Out in the hallway, Gallo begins first, praising the word web chart on one wall and a list of "words to know" on a chalkboard. However, the room could be better organized, she says, noting materials scattered around that could be stored in bins. Till suggests the room could use more labels on objects, especially since this is a special education class.

Area 2 team members do most of the talking, but Bateman staffers chime in. Bilingual teacher Khawaja, for instance, notes that the students were gathered in one group despite their range of abilities. Deutsch, the reading specialist, says students in this classroom usually are organized into groups, but the walkthrough team happened to catch them at a time when they're all together.

The next stop is a four-minute visit to a 3rd-grade class. Students are sitting in rows of desks. The teacher is standing at the chalkboard, writing vocabulary words and discussing their meaning. In the hallway, the observers describe the classroom as "very traditional."

"There was not a whole lot of engagement," says Till. "Maybe she could have had the students write the words on the board." More charts around the room would support the instruction, says Gallo. A Bateman teacher remarks that the student work on the bulletin board was several months old.

The third visit, to a 4th-grade classroom, renders only positive comments. The room has a math center, a writing center and a well-organized library. Charts on the walls support instruction. One of them lists the steps for writing a summary--the topic of the teacher's lesson. The students were engaged, the observers decide.

A 6th-grade class is the next stop, and again, team members like what they see. The teacher sits at the front of the room, reading a novel, with students seated in chairs scattered around her, listening and answering questions. The room is organized into learning centers, the students are paying attention to the story and to the teacher's questions, which are relevant to the text.

Visits to the last three classrooms proceed in a similar fashion and the walkthrough, which took about two hours, is finished by 11:15 a.m. Team members head to a conference room to wrap up. Till and Gallo cite the team's overall impressions:

Students generally were engaged in learning.

With one exception, desks were arranged in groups, not in rows.

Most rooms were well organized and teachers had attempted to create learning centers.

Two rooms had old student work on the walls.

Every classroom had computers, but some were not turned on or plugged in.

Gallo mentions two elementary schools, Jahn and North Kenwood/Oakland Charter, where teachers have been successful creating classroom learning centers and using them effectively. Teacher field trips to those schools are discussed.

Before the area instructional team leaves, Till says she hopes the teachers won't view the walkthrough as a negative experience. Dasko answers that most teachers will welcome the feedback but "the key is how you approach it."

Postscript: `We'd like to experiment'

The following day, Bateman receives the team's one-page report. Dasko makes copies to distribute to every teacher, and they discuss it at a staff meeting two days later. Over the next few weeks, he also meets individually with the teachers whose classrooms were visited.

The report is divided into two sections: Findings and suggestions. Among the findings are "most rooms grouped students for instruction" and "in some rooms, environmental print (what teachers post on the walls) supports current instruction." Suggestions include "use more manipulatives" and "use more effective cooperative group techniques and strategies." Individual teachers are not named.

According to Dasko, teachers were receptive to the walkthrough and the feedback, and several teachers confirm his impression.

"It's another pair of eyes to see what we're doing," says Deutsch, the reading resource teacher. "The teachers I talked to afterwards felt fairly positive about it."

Juanita Martinez, a 3rd-grade teacher who was observed by the walkthrough team, says the experience motivated her to make some changes. For one, she plans to buy containers to sort the books in her classroom library into categories. "It was something I was going to do but never got around to," she says. "I appreciated getting some feedback. I'd like to try it again next year."

Dasko says he was mostly satisfied by what he saw during the walkthrough and felt that the short time spent in each class was enough to pinpoint a few strengths and weaknesses. The walkthrough also reaffirmed a few priorities as Bateman's instructional leader: Post timely student work, set aside money to buy more manipulatives and make sure every classroom has learning centers.

After experiencing a walkthrough with the AIO, principals are expected to do them on their own, Gallo says. "We're asking the principals to continue the process with their own teams," she says. "You can do a half-hour a day--make a little schedule and get into those classrooms."

Dasko says he has not yet conducted his own walkthroughs, but is looking at the possibility of picking up the practice this school year. "It's something we'd like to experiment with," he says.

Much of Gallo's summer was spent meeting with principals and writing their evaluations, but she has not yet evaluated Dasko, who was named contract principal in July and comes up for evaluation next summer, after a year on the job.

As an AIO, Gallo is responsible for improving instruction in schools and for training principals to be instructional leaders. "We're supposed to provide professional development, mentor them and help them through the bumpy times," says Gallo, who declined to discuss how many of her principals were being steered toward extra supports.

However, Gallo says her clout is limited when it comes to principals, who are hired and fired by local school councils or the School Board. "I don't select principals," she says. "I really don't have any control over them. I'm going to evaluate them but [have no recourse] if they're doing a poor job."