Kellock shows his class

England A international James Kellock made his mark for TeamBathBuccaneers, scoring with two great flicks and getting an assist in a3-2 victory over Stourport.

And he followed that up with a hat-trick on Sunday as the Buccseased into the third round of the EH Cup.

The weekend did not get off to the best of starts as Stockportpunished a lapse in concentration to take a 15th- minute lead inSaturday's Slazenger English League Division 1 match.

But Kellock struck five minutes later through a power flick andthen slipped the ball wide of the keeper to allow James Grogan toknock into an open goal to make it 2-1.

Stockport began the second half strongly and got …

Brazil as Litmus Test: Resende and Restrictions On Uranium Enrichment

Seven years ago, Brazil joined the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). Standing in the gilded treaty room on the top floor of the U.S. Department of State, then-Foreign Minister Luiz Felipe Lampreia formally deposited the instrument of ratification before secretary of State Madeleine Albright and a small group of nonproliferation experts.

Calling Lampreia the "Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire of international diplomacy" for ratifying both the NPT and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, Albright noted that Brazil's NPT accession would have been unthinkable 15 years earlier.

For Lampreia, his appearance in Foggy Bottom symbolized a 30-year odyssey since serving on Brazil's 1968 …

New York Times retains Goldman for Red Sox sale

The New York Times Co. says it has retained investment firm Goldman Sachs to help explore a sale of its stake in the company that owns the Boston Red Sox.

Investors have been pressuring the company to sell assets as advertising revenue plummets.

The company holds a 17.8 percent stake in New England Sports Ventures, which owns the Boston …

TO YOUR GOOD HEALTH

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Would you discuss glaucoma, specificallyopen-angle type, and its treatment? H. S.

DEAR H. S. : Glaucoma is increased pressure within the eye.The eye's front compartment contains a fluid slightly thicker thanwater. The normal eye regulates this pressure by balancing fluidproduction against what's drained out through its outlet duct.

In open-angle glaucoma, the most common type, pressure buildsbecause of abnormal drainage. The corner of the eye (where drainageoccurs) is wide open, but something is obstructing flow through theoutlet duct. Some readers confuse eye fluid pressure with bloodpressure rise. The two are not related.

If …

'Ritz' Creation Wins Ice Cream Contest

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Chocolate-covered Ritz crackers, gooey caramel and vanilla ice cream - it doesn't get much better than that, judges ruled at an ice cream contest.

Judges said Tasha Callister's entry, Puttin on the Ritz, tasted great and had a clever name. The flavor got top prize in the national Ben and Jerry's Do Us a Flavor Contest in Waterbury, Vt., on Thursday.

But the combo initially had people thinking it was a bit gross, Callister said.

"People were asking me if I was pregnant. They said it sounded like something a pregnant lady would put together," Callister, of Jacksonville, …

Germany set to keep hold of No. 1 spot as world's top exporter, government says

Germany, already Europe's biggest economy, is confident it can fend off booming China to remain the world's top exporter, the government's Economics Ministry said Tuesday.

The country of 82 million has claimed the top spot among the world's countries and national economies for four years, but production by China, buoyed by demand from hungry markets such as the United States and Europe, has propelled it to the No. 2 spot, despite a spate of recalls.

The ministry said that Germany's ranking in the first nine months of this year was unlikely to change. It said the World Trade Organization did not expect Germany to slip, citing its World Trade Report 2007 …

Streak-breaker Danks wins a 'Blackout' beauty

It made no difference to Ozzie Guillen whether it was ''Blackout'' good on Tuesday.

All that mattered to the White Sox manager was that starting pitcher John Danks was good enough to end a four-game losing streak, as well as helping handcuff the red-hot Tampa Bay Rays in a 4-1 win.

''It was important for us,'' Guillen said. ''I'm not going to say it was a must-win, but ... it might have been one of the best days I've seen him throw the ball.''

It was Danks that put himself on the map, and in the hearts of Sox fans, in 2008 when he shut down the Minnesota Twins in the ''Blackout'' play-in game that won the Central. The way the Sox were reeling and letting 2010 slip …

Taiwan: Fabric industry increases DTY purchasing

Polyester filament yarn has been experiencing an off-season, but POY prices for August shipment maintained the same level in the preceding month. Furthermore, prices remained weak, but the demand for textured yarn has turned slightly upward in July.

The period from June to August was an off-season for the polyester industry as well. Compared with the situation until May, a substantial shrinkage of the trade volume and falling prices were usual in an average year. This year, however, sales in April and May were favorable more than anticipated and the repercussion was considerable. As a result, June sales declined considerably, and the yarn market cooled down rapidly.

June …

Colombia announces capture of drug-trafficking twin

Colombian police say they have captured the second of two drug-trafficking twins who were among the country's main cocaine shippers.

Police say Miguel Angel Mejia was captured before dawn Friday about 60 miles west of the capital of Bogota.

His brother, Victor, was killed earlier this week in a police …

Secrecy clouds high court case

The legal battle over lethal injection, which comes before theSupreme Court today, has been conducted in unusual secrecy, withcourts permitting states across the country to keep from lawyers andthe public precisely how death row inmates are executed.

In state after state, defense lawyers contending that theexecution method inflicts unnecessary pain complain that judges havedenied them access to crucial information, including the identity ofexecutioners and details about the drug cocktail used in the fatalinjections.

State officials have successfully argued that releasing suchinformation could compromise prison security and the safety ofpersonnel. But lawyers for …

'Jungle Rot' is featured at the Noble Fool Theatre about the Congo

The Noble Fool Theatre Company, 16 W. Randolph, is presenting the Chicago premiere of Seth Greenland's cold war Congo comedy, "Jungle Rot," directed by Sheldon Patinkin, in a limited engagement through June 5. The official press opening is Monday, April 12 at 7 p.m.

Cold war tensions, restless natives, and high-society-hallucinations permeate the think jungle air in this black comedy satirizing operations during the Eisenhower years. After spending years as a forgotten man in the American Embassy in the Congo, John Stillman (Tim Schueneman) is suddenly tapped to help assassinate the country's new Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba (Moshe Adams). A CIA assassin will be coming to …

Branson abandons attempt at trans-Atlantic record

British billionaire Richard Branson abandoned his bid to break the trans-Atlantic speed record Friday after a "monster" wave ripped the main sail of his single-hulled racing yacht two days after setting sail from New York.

Branson and his crew made the decision at about 1115 GMT Friday when the Virgin Money was about 965 kilometers (600 miles) out in the Atlantic. No one was injured in the storm, and the sailors hoped to reach St. George, Bermuda _ the nearest point of land _ later Friday.

"We got taken by one massive, monster wave, which approached us from behind and took one of our life rafts," Branson said in a conference call from …

Circuitry discovery could lead to beefier memory

For nearly 40 years, scientists have speculated that basic electrical circuits have a natural ability to remember things even when the power is switched off. They just couldn't find it.

Now researchers at Hewlett-Packard Co. have proven them right, with a discovery they hope will lead to memory chips that store more data but consume far less power than those found in today's personal computers and other digital devices.

The newly discovered circuit element _ called a memristor _ could enable cell phones that can go weeks or longer without a charge, PCs that start up instantly, and laptops that retain your session information long after the battery dies.

It also could challenge flash memory, which is now widely used in portable electronics because of its ability to retain information even when power is off. Chips incorporating the HP discovery would be faster, suck up less power and take up far less space than today's flash.

"It certainly looks promising," said Wolfgang Porod, professor of electrical engineering at the University of Notre Dame and director of the university's Center for Nano Science and Technology. "However, if it's going to be 100 times better or 1,000 times better (than today's flash), it's very hard to say at this point."

Scientists have suspected since the 1970s that along with the three well-known elements of a basic circuit _ the resistor, the capacitor and the inductor _ a fourth fundamental building block is possible.

The memristor built by HP Labs researchers and reported Thursday in the scientific journal Nature is made with a layer of titanium dioxide sandwiched between two metal electrodes. The researchers discovered that the amount of resistance it exerts depends on how much electric charge had previously passed through it.

That characteristic gives the memristor an innate ability to remember the amount of charge that has flowed through it long after the power to it is turned off. That means the circuit itself can be built with a memory function baked in.

Otherwise, data have to be stored in power-hungry transistors configured for storage. That also takes up valuable real estate on microprocessors or requires separate memory chips.

Some outside researchers, however, said more study is required before the memristor upsets the memory business. The HP Labs team said commercial viability is at least "a few years" away.

"These structures are going to be very small. It's obvious to me one could make very dense memory out of them, but how it could compete against other memory like flash remains to be seen," said Porod, who was not involved in the HP research.

Leon Chua, a professor in the electrical engineering and computer sciences department at the University of California, Berkeley, published a paper in 1971 theorizing that it should be possible to build such a structure.

Over the years, researchers observed behavior that seemed to suggest circuits possessed this ability, but they either dismissed it as a fluke or didn't realize the significance of the observation.

Stan Williams, a senior fellow at HP Labs and one of the four researchers on the Nature paper, said his team was able to identify the behavior and build a structure to harness its power because the effect is more apparent _ and gets stronger _ as the wiring in the circuits gets smaller and smaller.

Chua, who wrote the first paper on the topic when he was a new professor at Berkeley, is now 71 years old and says he's nearing retirement from the university.

"I never thought I'd live long enough to see this happen," Chua said with a laugh. "I'm thrilled because it's almost like vindication. Something I did is not just in my imagination, it's fundamental."

Camera Puts Sunken U-Boat on Screen

When treasure hunters Al Olson and Taras Lyssenko found a WorldWar I submarine in Lake Michigan a few weeks ago, their sonar lookeddown on it from 250 feet away.

Tuesday they viewed it from inches away, without getting wet.

Al, 37, and Taras, 31 - the A & T of Berwyn-based A & T Recovery- sent down a sled-size remote-operated vehicle carrying a videocamera.

Skimming it over the silt-covered surface of the 182-foot craft,they saw the deck, slotted to allow water to escape, and the wheelthat sailors once turned to tighten a hatch cover. "It looks prettygood," Lyssenko said.

The same could not be said of the news media. As the 33-footsearch boat rocked in 4-foot waves, a seasick TV producer, TVcameraman and Sun-Times reporter were too busy rushing to the side towatch the on-board TV monitor for very long.

Lyssenko was no help. On the 20-mile trip back to MontroseHarbor, he slurped pudding and observed, "Isn't it glamorous being atreasure hunter?"

The intact condition of the sub, the UC-97, will make it easierto raise, which Olson and Lyssenko hope to do next year.

They want to put it on display, perhaps at Navy Pier. That'swhere Chicagoans viewed it after World War I, until all seized Germancombat vessels were ordered destroyed.

Sinking something in the lake was not frowned on then, and theU-boat was hauled out and used for target practice on June 21, 1921.Until Olson and Lyssenko found it, no one had seen the UC-97 since.

Finders keepers? Not exactly. Unless a previous owner - say,the U.S. Defense Department - claims the sub, it becomes stateproperty. David Blanchette of the Illinois Historic PreservationAgency said, "We may determine it's best to leave it there, or raiseit, or something in between."

But Lyssenko said the state is being cooperative so far. Notingthat the craft is too deep to be a state-sanctioned site for scubadiving, he said, "Where it is now, only we get to see it."

The pair, whose boat is loaded with $500,000 worth of searchequipment, have found about 25 shipwrecks in the lake - "most of themajor ones," Olson said.

PREPARING FOR DEATH

IDOC has tight schedule leading up to execution

Idahoans got their first glimpse of F Block in the Idaho Maximum Security Institution when boiseweekly.com published its photograph on Oct. 20. On Friday, Nov. 18, convicted rapist and murderer Paul Rhoades is slated to get his first, and last, look at the execution chamber.

Brent Reinke, the man in charge of Rhoades' execution, in addition to managing 6,700 other inmates in more than a dozen facilities, has been preparing for the fateful procedure for more than a year. This will be Reinke's first professional involvement in an execution. He has been director of the Idaho Department of Correction since 2007. If Rhoades is indeed put to death on Nov. 18, his will be the first Idaho execution since 1994 and only the second since 1957.

BW sat down with Reinke to talk about Rhoades and the detailed schedule leading up to the anticipated execution.

This extraordinary event is certainly outside of your day-to-day operations.

I first met with Gov. [C.L. "Butch"] Otter a year ago, and we were looking at the possibility of being here today. We wanted to make sure as we moved forward that we had an execution chamber that encompassed three areas - professionalism, respect and dignity.

What does that mean?

It's a state-of-the-art execution chamber. We spent some time with a number of our staff involved in the 1994 execution. We're concerned about lessons learned from them, and we've been watching the United States Supreme Court, particularly regarding cases in Arizona and Washington where they recently conducted executions. As we move forward, everything will be covered - as we move from 14 days to seven days, down to 24 hours, 12 hours and the event itself.

Is there an expense to this event?

Of course there is.

Do you have a sense of what that expense will bei

We'll know when we're done. As we work with our partners from a security standpoint, there will certainly be expenses. We're already doing some tabletop exercises with the Idaho State Police, the Idaho Guard, Boise Police and Kuna Fire. They're all involved.

Will a team of physicians be a pan of the execution process?

There will be an escort team, a medical team and an injection team. The identities of those teams will all remain concealed.

Can you speak to maintaining an appropriate, structured environment for your staff and inmates over the next few weeks?

We're concerned about our inmate population, but above all, we're concerned about our staff because of the professionalism that they have and will need to maintain. We're drafting a message for our inmate population on what kind of disruptions they can expect, especially when we are within the 24-hour window to the event. We want to keep as minimal an interruption to our inmate population as we can. And we understand that they're no different than those on the outside of the fence in wanting to know what's going on. The thing we're letting our staff know is that this is not about us. We've got to focus on the victims. We've got to focus on making sure that what the juries found, and what the court has ordered, be carried out to the best of our ability with professionalism, respect and a dignified fashion.

What do you know about Rhoades?

A fair amount. Our warden has been working with him very intently. He's in the F Block holding cell now. We're going to treat him with as much dignity as we can, knowing the future.

How would you characterize his behavior since he has been behind bars?

The feedback I have received from staff is that, at times, he has good days and he has bad days, as do many of our individuals on Death Row. But at this point, I'm not equipped to speak to his character or how he's addressing the past.

[Sidebar]

Idaho's state-of-the-art execution chamber in F Block.

Redevelop Broadmead Soon To Lure Selfridges

Bristol must move fast to redevelop Broadmead if it is not to loseout to Cardiff in the race to attract top department storeSelfridges.

That is the grim warning from retail expert Stephen Jones, ofproperty consultants King Sturge.

Speaking at King Sturge's annual property review, Mr Jones saidBristol and other South West shopping centres were already laggingbehind retail outlets in Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle which allhave top shops open in redeveloped centres now.

Birmingham's Bull Ring centre is set to be opened this year. ButBristol, regional capital of the South West, will have to wait untilat least 2006 for the new look Broadmead to be completed.

Other South West cities will also have new shopping centres openaround the same time.

Mr Jones said: "There is still keen demand among the big retailersfor sites in these city schemes, but we face the challenge ofkeeping that demand warm for another four years if we are to catch upwith other regions.

"It is crucial, therefore, that none of our cities slow the paceof their shopping centre projects, especially now we are entering aperiod when consumer spending and retailer performance are beginningto look like slowing." And he said that Bristol should beware thatCardiff did not win the race for Selfridges by finishing its centrefirst. The department store is set to choose between the two cities,which both promise similar types of shoppers for Selfridges.

Mr Jones said: "Selfridges is unlikely to invest in two hugestores, so there is every chance that whichever city, Bristol orCardiff, looks like being the first to get its new shopping centreoperational will be the city that Selfridges chooses.

"The lesson for all involved, therefore, is to avoid any danger ofslowing the Broadmead expansion." The battle to attract Selfridges tothe city has been hotly contested by Cardiff.

While Broadmead's redevelopment is built around the flagship storethat developers hope will become home to Selfridges, Cardiff too hasplans to make the store a central point in its planned extension tothe St David's shopping centre in the city centre.

And Selfridges has warned repeatedly that it may not chooseBristol, its acknowledged favourite, if the city's transport problemsare not resolved.

The top department store has been in talks with the BristolAlliance to build a GBP35 million, 12,000 sq ft store at the end ofthe M32 as part of the GBP500 million expansion of Broadmead.

It has said Bristol is at the top of its list for expansion - butno confirmation of the plans has been made, despite the two beinglinked for more than three years.

Selfridges has said that before it can give that confirmation itwants to be sure that adequate transport is laid on for shopperstravelling to the city centre.

Other considerations include concerns about the area aroundBroadmead, since the company does not want to be surrounded by anunimproved area.

The other plans for the expansion of Broadmead include a 2,650-space car park to replace Bond Street and Tollgate car parks, a newquarter centred around Quakers Friars, another 15 major stores andmore than 108 other new shops.

Pablo Escobar's Ex-Lover Flees Colombia

BOGOTA, Colombia - A former lover of slain drug kingpin Pablo Escobar fled to the United States on Tuesday after revealing information Colombian prosecutors had hoped would help convict a former justice minister in the 1989 assassination of a presidential candidate.

The U.S. Embassy said "for safety and security reasons," it had escorted former television news anchor Virginia Vallejo to the United States, where her help is sought in ongoing drug investigations.

The abrupt departure by Vallejo, whose leggy ads for a brand of stockings seduced the nation in the 1980s and won her the heart of Escobar, came two days after she broke a decade of silence to tell the Miami newspaper El Nuevo Herald that she witnessed former Justice Minister Alberto Santofimio urging her lover to kill Luis Carlos Galan.

Santofimio is on trial on charges he ordered a hit squad to kill Galan during the 1990 election campaign in order to boost his own presidential candidacy and prevent Escobar's extradition to the United States. It was unclear how Vallejo's departure would affect the trial and prosecutors' strategy.

Vallejo's surprise interview included details of her long affair with and the pudgy, unkempt Escobar - a love she confessed to "paying for with 20 years of tears."

Vallejo said she was present on three occasions when Santofimio, considered Escobar's political godfather, urged him to "neutralize Galan," calling him a threat to their plans to "convert Colombia into a narco-state."

After learning of Vallejo's revelations, prosecutors hoped her sworn testimony would provide the final evidence to convict Santofimio, who was a senator and justice minister in the 1970s. Santofimio, 62, faces up to 40 years in prison.

Even though Vallejo was not slated to take the witness stand and open-court proceedings ended 10 days ago, prosecutors on Monday formally asked Judge Jesus Antonio Lozano to make an exception and allow her last-minute testimony.

"The judge should make an independent evaluation of this new piece of evidence and make a ruling accordingly," Attorney General Edgardo Maya told the Colombian daily newspaper El Tiempo.

It was unclear whether Vallejo would return to Colombia for testimony or would provide evidence in writing.

Before he was killed by authorities in 1993, Escobar's Medellin drug cartel waged a bloody campaign of killings, bombings and kidnappings to intimidate judges, police, journalists, Cabinet ministers and an attorney general to prevent their boss' extradition. Hundreds more died in Medellin and the capital of Bogota.

We'll bring more creative capability into India: Alan Herrick ; Alan Herrick, Chief Executive Officer of Sapient, the world's largest interactive marketing firm, spoke to BT's Kushan Mitra about how online marketing is changing its India growth plans.

Alan Herrick, Chief Executive Officer of Sapient, the world'slargest interactive marketing firm, spoke to BT's Kushan Mitra abouthow online marketing is changing its India growth plans.

The way technology is changing marketing is shocking. This isalready a trillion-dollar industry amidst a massive change. In Indiawe have people in the technical space and we also have a studio thatis in creative production for digital marketing. What we want to dois to bring more and more creative capability into India.

We recently won an award at Cannes for a smileactivated ice-cream vending machine, where you walk up to the machine and smile.If your smile is big enough - it actually measures the amplitude ofyour smile - it vends you a free ice-cream bar and it simultaneouslyclicks a picture of your smile and uploads it to Facebook.

The whole convergence between the digital and physical world isjust starting to happen. There has to be an integrated marketing andcommerce process and the first part is to integrate the marketingprocess - web, mobile, kiosk and the second part is online commercewhich is part of that experience.

After Trade Comments, Kidd Leads Nets

Jason Kidd may want to leave New Jersey, but that desire apparently isn't shared by his fans.

Kidd was greeted by the usual loud cheers when he was introduced before Tuesday night's game against Milwaukee, a day after the All-Star point guard publicly demanded to traded.

He gave the announced crowd of 14,133 a vintage performance, scoring seven points and forcing a key turnover in the final 1:42 to help New Jersey hold off the Bucks 87-80 and snap a nine-game losing streak.

The only scattered boos came when Kidd shot a technical foul in the third quarter.

Afterward, Kidd mostly deflected questions about comments he made to ESPN The Magazine on Monday, though he said he appreciated the fans' reception.

"I've been here for seven years and I've given a lot to the Nets and New Jersey's given a lot back to me," he said. "For a comment to ruin everything we've had, I didn't think that was going to be the scenario."

In an interview in ESPN The Magazine on Monday Kidd said of the Nets, "We tried to make this work. We've found out it doesn't. It's time for us all to move on."

Asked before the game whether he was disappointed that Kidd went public with his opinions, Nets coach Lawrence Frank said, "I don't personalize it. I'm more disappointed about where we are as a team right now. My job is to get us out of this hole that we've dug ourselves."

Earlier Tuesday, Nets president Rod Thorn said he hadn't talked to Kidd since the remarks were published, and declined to discuss which teams have expressed an interest in the nine-time All-Star. He said he wouldn't be forced into making a deal.

"The reality is we're only looking to make deals that make sense for us," Thorn said. "If every time someone said, 'I want you to trade me,' you acquiesced, then you put yourself in a very vulnerable position because you have a revolving door."

Thorn added that with the development of second-year guard Marcus Williams as Kidd's backup, the Nets would "probably not" require a point guard to be part of a deal for Kidd.

Vince Carter didn't comment on Kidd's remarks except to say, "We still have a job to do, and he still comes out to play every night, and that's what's important."

There was no shortage of Kidd's No. 5 jerseys among the crowd at the Izod Center. Damian Joseph, 33, of Linden was wearing one of them and cast a vote against the Nets unloading the disgruntled superstar.

"They should keep him," he said. "He's still a good ballhandler. All it'll take is a few wins."

Trade speculation has followed Kidd since last February when the Nets were close to making a deal that would have sent him to the Los Angeles Lakers.

In December, Kidd sat out a game against the New York Knicks with a migraine, a move suspected by some to be a one-day walkout to force a trade or new contract.

At a news conference, Kidd denied those were his motives, saying, "I am having one of my best seasons _ why would I want to be asked to be traded? And as a team, we are doing better than last year."

New Jersey was 9-10 at the time. Since then, the team has dropped 16 of 25 games to fall to 18-26.

Kidd is under contract through the end of next season and will make $19.7 million this year and $21.3 million next year.

Kidd was acquired in a trade with Phoenix in 2001 and led the Nets to the NBA finals in 2002 and 2003. But his six-plus seasons have been tinged with off-court controversy.

His wife, Joumana, and their young son were subjected to taunts at Boston Garden in 2002 stemming from charges that he struck her in 2001 while playing for the Suns. Kidd was fined and underwent anger counseling.

Last year, both spouses filed restraining orders claiming physical abuse, and Joumana Kidd claimed in divorce papers that her husband cheated on her throughout their 10-year marriage.

In December, a 23-year-old model filed a lawsuit accusing Kidd of groping and threatening her at a Manhattan nightclub in October.

Those distractions have not affected Kidd on the court, according to Frank.

"One thing that is unique about Jason is his ability to separate anything else that goes on and, once he steps between those lines, give his best effort," Frank said. "He's proven that since he's been here as he's dealt with different things."

Kidd leads the league in triple-doubles this season with 11 and has 98 for his career, third behind Oscar Robertson and Magic Johnson. Earlier this month he became the sixth player in NBA history to reach 9,000 assists.

Phil Woods brings hot new sounds to Chicago

When the subject is music, it's hard to get a word in edgewisewith Phil Woods. An hour before his Tuesday opening set at the JazzShowcase, the alto saxophonist had every right to be fatigued: Hisflight to Chicago had been delayed two hours. But when you're hot,you're never shot. The past year has been so extraordinary for himartistically, there's no slowing down.

"It's been fun," said Woods, who has outdone himself with threewonderful, varied recordings: "Bop Stew" (Concord Jazz), alive-in-Japan set by his quintet (Volume 2 is due in about a week);"Evolution" (Concord), a stellar feat of arranging, featuring PhilWoods' Little Big Band (the quintet plus three horns), and "Here's toMy Lady" (Chesky), a new compact disc, teaming him with pianist TommyFlanagan, bassist George Mraz and drummer Kenny Washington.

Woods still is glowing over the special way in which "Lady" wasrecorded last December. Producers David and Norman Chesky, who hadspecialized in classical music, eschewed the usual division-of-laborapproach, gathering the players around a single microphone andkeeping the bass amp in the closet.

"That was right up my alley," said Woods, an auralfundamentalist who likes to perform without amplification. As achange of pace, he embraced the short form, cutting songs in thefive-minute range instead of the longer ones the quintet records."You can't do it with a bona fide jazz band, because you have to giveeveryone a chance to stretch out," he said. "But with only one horn,and a bassist like George, who doesn't solo much, I had theopportunity. It was like returning to the days of 78s. I think it'ssomething every artist should deal with once in a while."

Whatever the glories of "solo" Phil, it's his longstandingquintet that matters most: pianist Hal Galper, bassist Steve Gilmoreand drummer Bill Goodwin (all of whom have been with Woods for morethan a dozen years) and trumpeter Tom Harrell, a native of DownstateUrbana, who signed up five years ago. At a time when the workinggroup is an endangered species, the Phil Woods Quintet is a happyexception to the rule.

"Sometimes we take ourselves for granted," said Woods, 57. "Thatwe've managed to stay together so long, and get along so well, ismore amazing to the people who love us. Fact is, we all need themusic we play."

There's no questioning the role that Harrell, 42, has played ininspiring Woods to greater artistry. "If Tommy isn't a genius, no oneis," said the leader. "He's an amazing writer. He just came in with22 new tunes. And as a player, he never relies on the licks anddevices us mere mortals resort to. His soloing is full-blown, rightoff the high board."

What many people didn't know until it was revealed in the linernotes to Harrell's fine new LP, "Stories" (Contemporary), is that hesuffers from schizophrenia and is constantly under heavy medication.In the absence of that knowledge, some fans and writers haveresponded cruelly to his catatonic appearance. Woods, Harrell'sprotector, flashes anger over this. But, he said, the trumpeterdoesn't get a free pass: He has to carry his own weight.

At the Showcase, 636 S. Michigan, where Woods will performthrough Sunday, the quintet is breaking in some terrific,soon-to-be-recorded new material by Woods and Harrell. TrombonistHal Crook, a member of the Little Big Band, will join them in thestudio, giving the songs added harmonic coloring.

Woods said he is a bit disappointed that the L B B hasn't hadmany calls for live dates. But that's unlikely to slow theenterprise down. A onetime Juilliard student, Woods plans to writeand record a belated sequel to his recently reissued 1961 jazz suite,"Rights of Swing."

"Obscure harmonies have always intrigued me," he said. "And withthese guys to write for, the possibilities are endless."

SARDINE SWING: Considering that on an average trio-music night,only a relative handful of people can be squeezed into the Gold StarSardine Bar, 680 N. Lake Shore Dr., it's a bit ludicrous to tout anevent involving a 17-piece band. But for those with the willpower topush their way in and the fortitude to endure pressed flesh,tomorrow's appearance by the Loren Schoenberg Big Band is highlyrecommended.

The theme of the one-night-only gig is a tribute to BennyGoodman, with whom Schoenberg, 30, studied and played. That maysuggest woozy nostalgia, but Schoenberg's specialty is pumpingvitality and modern relevance into the swing thing. A gifted tenorsaxophonist, he also has the chops to ride excitingly over the music,in much the same way that his mentor did.

"Solid Ground" (Musicmasters), the new recording by Schoenbergand his Jazz Orchestra, demonstrates his ability to go way beyondGoodman territory. Taking in pieces by Benny Carter and EddieSauter, Billy Strayhorn and Thelonious Monk - "Blue Monk," arrangedby Gary McFarland, is a delight - it's one of the liveliest and mostsuccinctly rewarding big-band efforts in quite some time.

RECORDINGS: SUSANNAH McCORKLE, "No More Blues" (Concord Jazz)(STAR) (STAR)

Because of her blend of intellect and musicality, SusannahMcCorkle is many critics' vision of an ideal singer. To these ears,though, her determination to impart cleverness gets in the way of thestandards in which she specializes. Backed by a first-rate band ledby Ken Peplowski (a frequent cohort of Loren Schoenberg) andincluding Dave Frisberg and Emily Remler, McCorkle does well byAntonio Carlos Jobim's title cut. But her maiden effort for Concordleaves this critic's emotions untouched.

[Debating dropouts: critical policy & research perspectives on school leaving]

New York: Teachers College Press, 1996. xviii+222 pages. ISBN 0-8077-3541-8 (pbk.)

Debating Dropouts consists of papers prepared for a conference designed to debate social, economic, and policy issues associated with early school leaving. It is divided into three loosely-defined sections: general policy, specific research on dropping out and returning to school, and differing perspectives. The editors have tried to fill in the necessary background to the issues and to rationalize the selection and classification of the papers.

As a reader may expect in such collections, not all papers focus directly on the basic theme, nor do they actually "debate" the issues. The topic is important, and the questions associated with it deserve serious study, but that discussion is not found in this volume. The editors nobly attempt to provide the missing content and appropriate references, but the spaces are too great to fill. However, their discussions of the stigmatization of the dropout, the creation of the in-school dropout, and the effort to make secondary schools responsible for providing youth with the skills required to make Canada more competitive, are particularly enlightening. Furthermore, the papers have been prepared by both Canadian and U.S. authors working from the assumption that the main issue is the same in both countries, that is, that a greater number of secondary school graduates will lead to a better-prepared workforce, which in turn makes the economy of the country more globally competitive. However, there are fundamental differences between the two countries in the structure of the education system, the funding of education, and the relationship between the school and business and industry, and those differences should have been examined.

These comments are not meant to disparage the quality of the papers included in the book, because they are mostly well-written and effectively conceptualized. Kari Dehli offers an incisive analysis of recent Canadian government policy documents designed to reduce the number of dropouts. Although the research on dropout prevention programs and their context is thin, the case studies by Margaret D. LeCompte and Deirdre M. Kelly are useful illustrations. Harvey Krahn and Julian Tanner present a detailed characterization of the post-school employment experiences of early school leavers. More examples of this type of research would have provided readers with a much greater understanding of both the reality of being a dropout and also the role the education system plays in encouraging students to leave school prematurely.

George J. Dei's case study of Black youth trying to find meaning in Toronto schools adds substance to the sense of alienation experienced by youth as part of the process of dropping out. Paul Anisef and Lesley Andres show first how a Canadian stay-in-school initiative was constructed in response to a "manufactured" crisis, and then place it in an historical framework. On the same issue, Leslie G. Roman examines effectively the language and meaning behind the Canadian government strategy to frame dropouts in the context of an economic problem. But some articles are peripheral to the issue of dropouts -- for example, the discussion of life-long learning (i.e., the need for upgrading, or retraining for career change) is more ideological than research-based.

What would have been particularly helpful is an analysis of characteristics of the Canadian and U.S. education systems that encourage dropping out, and a description of the dynamics of dropping out. Let me try to provide some examples of what I mean, using some Canadian research.

In Canadian provinces, secondary school students are rarely differentiated according to program and career destination (they may, however, be streamed according to the level of difficulty of the courses they take). In contrast, the most common practice in education systems throughout the world is to place students in specialized programs or special schools whose primary purpose is to prepare students for different types of careers. Although this sorting typically occurs in secondary school, it may take place in much earlier grades, as is the case in Germany and Austria. Even countries with a student-centred, social democratic orientation introduce this formal vocational sorting at some stage in the secondary school years. For example, in both Sweden and Denmark, the decision point is at the end of Grade 10 (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, 1993). Although this approach to program differentiation does not necessarily result in fewer dropouts, it does lead to far more specific career preparation in countries that do this than in Canada. In this country, the sorting of students is much less formal and typically based on individual timetables of courses offered at different levels of difficulty.

Specific programs, and requirements as to when they must be undertaken, are conspicuously absent in Canadian secondary schools. Colleges and universities provide most of the available vocational or professional education. As a result, both secondary school graduates and, of course, dropouts are poorly prepared for the world of work. If one compares post-secondary school aspirations of Grade 10 students in countries such as Sweden, Germany, and Canada, the most notable difference is that Canadian students are far more likely to plan on university (King & Peart, 1996; King, Wold, Tudor-Smith, & Harel, 1996). But the aspirations of young people in the other countries are far more likely to correspond with their realization than is the case in Canada. Generally speaking, the more rigid the sorting process and the more clearly defined the program, the more efficient will be the interface between secondary school and work. When the sorting process is informal and unstructured, the student has greater difficulty in determining where he or she stands in identifying career goals, and there is a greater likelihood that he or she will continue to take university-bound courses beyond the point of such goals being attained. As a result of this vague competitive sorting, students are forced to leave school. Far behind their peers in credit accumulation, they drop out because they cannot see a way of graduating in a reasonable time (King, Warren, Michalski, & Peart, 1988). Although most early school leavers directly or indirectly blame the school, the reality is that the system is best designed to prepare a relatively small percentage of students for post-secondary education; it leaves the others with little in the way of preparation for the next stage of their life. Marks facilitate both this sorting process and university and college admissions decisions. Subjects such as English, mathematics, and science represent hurdles that must be successfully cleared if students are to progress to graduation.

Students do not leave school because they want to -- they are well aware of the economic and social implications of school leaving. In our survey of school dropouts, my colleagues and I found that the vast majority had either vague or specific plans to upgrade their education (King, Beazley, et al., 1988; King, Warren, et al., 1988). They only leave when the likelihood of graduation approaches zero. The students who remain to graduate but not necessarily go on to post-secondary education recognize the value of the secondary school graduation diploma as a first-level employment screen. However, the courses such students typically select provide the easiest route to graduation rather than some form of career preparation.

School-to-work transitions are notoriously weak in Canada because there is no tradition or legislation supporting co-operation between schools and business or industry (King & Peart, 1996). Although there are many examples of collaboration between specific businesses and schools, they are not generalizable and definitely not the norm. As a result, the transition from school to work tends to be very uncertain, and the preparation for work lacks specificity. There is also a layer of part-time work in the service sector that many young people enter while they are students and often continue in after they have graduated. This work, usually in fast-food restaurants and mall stores, is relatively low-paid and without career prospects. This phenomenon actually inhibits effective school-to-work transitions.

In this environment, and with the stigma attached to dropping out, the decision to drop out is not easy, and it is not surprising to find that the actual process of leaving is long and painful.

Although this discussion may suggest that there is a simple answer to the question of how to make secondary schools more functional in terms of career preparation and to reduce the dropout rate, such a conclusion would be very misleading. If North American society requires that schools minimize streaming to avoid the appearance of discrimination against some ethnocultural groups, and if there is no pressure directed toward business and industry to develop stronger ties with schools, then very little can be done to attain higher retention rates and better preparation for the labour market. Although reducing dropouts can be accomplished by reducing academic expectations, at least for the lower-achieving third of students -- that is, by reducing course failure rates to enable students to graduate -- such a policy would not only make curriculum less relevant but also develop habits in young people that will not translate well to the work setting.

In summary, these policy, research, and analytical papers are useful in examining issues around to early school leaving. Although they are not comprehensive, they do provide a useful resource to supplement more basic work on the issues.

References

King, A. J. C., Beazley, R. P., Warren, W. K., Hankins, C. A., Robertson, A. S., & Radford, J. L. (1988). The Canada youth and AIDS study. Kingston, ON: Queen's University, Social Program Evaluation Group.

King, A. J. C., & Peart, M. J. (1996). Factors inhibiting the transition of youth to work and to adulthood. In B. Galaway & J. Hudson (Eds.), Youth in transition: Perspectives on research and policy (pp. 162-177). Toronto: Thompson Educational.

King, A. J. C., Warren, W. K., Michalski, C., & Peart, M. J. (1988). Improving student retention in Ontario secondary schools. Toronto: Ontario Ministry of Education.

King, A. J. C., Wold, B., Tudor-Smith, C., & Harel, Y. (1996). The health of youth: A cross-national survey. Albany, NY: World Health Organization.

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. (1993). Education at a glance: OECD indicators. Paris: Author.

2¢ worth

Q. What financial planning advice do you have for parents of a child diagnosed with autism?

A. Learning that your child has autism can be devastating. However, there are steps you can take to improve the financial security of your family and your child.

First, locate legal and financial experts who serve the special needs community. Your planning requires working with professionals with specialized knowledge. Your "dream team" should initially consist of a special needs attorney and a financial planner. As time progresses, other specialists can be added to your team.

The special needs attorney will draft or revise your estate plan to provide special needs trusts for your child. Special needs trusts will allow your child to qualify for government-funded programs and benefits while preserving and protecting your family's assets.

The financial planner will help your family analyze future needs, prioritize goals and develop a strategic plan for accomplishing them. The planner should also refer you to other advisers and advocates as needed.

Finally, develop a network of friends who face the same challenges. The insights and emotional support derived from the friendships will help you stay positive and focused when times are most difficult.

Michael C. Walther II is a member of the Financial Planning Association of Illinois and can be contacted at info@fpaillinois.org. This or another planner in your ZIP code area can be reached by going to PlannerSearch.com.

American League Leaders

AMERICAN LEAGUE

BATTING_Cano, New York, .371; ISuzuki, Seattle, .341; Morneau, Minnesota, .338; Beltre, Boston, .337; Ordonez, Detroit, .335; Butler, Kansas City, .333; Guerrero, Texas, .333.

RUNS_Youkilis, Boston, 58; Crawford, Tampa Bay, 55; Cano, New York, 52; MiCabrera, Detroit, 49; Hamilton, Texas, 47; Andrus, Texas, 46; Gardner, New York, 46; Pedroia, Boston, 46; Teixeira, New York, 46.

RBI_MiCabrera, Detroit, 60; Guerrero, Texas, 57; Longoria, Tampa Bay, 52; Hamilton, Texas, 50; Cano, New York, 49; TorHunter, Los Angeles, 49; Beltre, Boston, 48; Konerko, Chicago, 48.

HITS_Cano, New York, 99; ISuzuki, Seattle, 95; MYoung, Texas, 89; Beltre, Boston, 88; Butler, Kansas City, 88; Hamilton, Texas, 86; DeJesus, Kansas City, 85.

DOUBLES_Pedroia, Boston, 23; VWells, Toronto, 23; Butler, Kansas City, 22; Longoria, Tampa Bay, 22; Markakis, Baltimore, 22; MYoung, Texas, 22; Cano, New York, 21; DeJesus, Kansas City, 21; TorHunter, Los Angeles, 21; FLewis, Toronto, 21.

TRIPLES_Crawford, Tampa Bay, 6; Borbon, Texas, 4; Gardner, New York, 4; Span, Minnesota, 4; 12 tied at 3.

HOME RUNS_MiCabrera, Detroit, 19; JBautista, Toronto, 18; Konerko, Chicago, 17; Hamilton, Texas, 16; VWells, Toronto, 16; Guerrero, Texas, 15; DOrtiz, Boston, 15; CPena, Tampa Bay, 15.

STOLEN BASES_Pierre, Chicago, 27; RDavis, Oakland, 26; Crawford, Tampa Bay, 24; Gardner, New York, 22; BUpton, Tampa Bay, 21; Podsednik, Kansas City, 20; ISuzuki, Seattle, 20.

PITCHING_PHughes, New York, 10-1; Price, Tampa Bay, 10-2; Buchholz, Boston, 9-4; Lester, Boston, 8-2; Pettitte, New York, 8-2; Lackey, Boston, 8-3; Verlander, Detroit, 8-4.

STRIKEOUTS_JerWeaver, Los Angeles, 107; FHernandez, Seattle, 97; RRomero, Toronto, 96; Lester, Boston, 96; Liriano, Minnesota, 93; CLewis, Texas, 90; Verlander, Detroit, 85; JShields, Tampa Bay, 85.

SAVES_Gregg, Toronto, 18; NFeliz, Texas, 18; Rauch, Minnesota, 17; RSoriano, Tampa Bay, 16; MRivera, New York, 16; Soria, Kansas City, 16; Valverde, Detroit, 15; Papelbon, Boston, 15.

Nestrans money helps to complete Aberdeen projects

Three projects have been completed in Aberdeen thanks topounds130,000 from the regional transport group Nestrans.

The biggest of the projects was the pounds110,000 resurfacing ofRiverside Drive.

In an effort to minimise disruption, the project, carried out byLeiths contractors, coincided with essential sewer maintenance aswell as resurfacing work on Riverside Terrace by Aberdeen CityCouncil.

The second project saw new lighting installed at the south end ofthe Beach Esplanade as part of a pounds12,400 upgrade scheme.

Four new street lamps were put in along the waterfront and fourfive-metre columns were replaced with eight-metre ones to improvevisibility in the area.

Nestrans contributed pounds10,000 to the scheme with the citycouncil funding the other pounds2,400.

Another pounds13,300 was spent to create a new footpath linkingSkene Road bus stop to Aberdeen Crematorium.

The work was carried out by the council.

Nestrans Chairman, Councillor Kevin Stewart, pictured, said:"These are among a host of individual transport improvements that weare delivering across the region in this financial year."

Wildfires Rage in Southern Calif.

MALIBU, Calif. - From the high desert to the Pacific Ocean, out-of-control wildfires engulfed swaths of drought-parched Southern California, claiming one life, destroying several homes and a church in Malibu, and forcing an entire community to evacuate.

Thousands more homes remained at risk as hot, dry Santa Ana desert winds continued to churn into the region early Monday.

Firefighters started the weekend on high alert as forecasters warned of strong winds. But by Sunday night, they had to admit they were overwhelmed.

"You do not expect something to stretch our resources to this magnitude," Los Angeles County Fire Inspector Sam Padilla said. "To try and staff something this big, you cannot predict it."

The Malibu fire was among about a dozen blazes that burned more than 35,000 acres from north of Santa Barbara to San Diego. Late Sunday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency in seven Southern California counties.

Things weren't improving Monday: Two new wildfires broke out in San Diego county, bringing to four the number of blazes burning there.

One person died in a fire near San Diego, which burned more than 14,000 acres - or about 22 square miles - about 70 miles southeast of San Diego, just north of the Mexican border town of Tecate, California Department of Forestry spokesman Matt Streck said. Details were not immediately available.

Four firefighters and at least 10 other people were hospitalized, Streck said. Some of the injured were hikers, and others may be illegal immigrants.

Another blaze devoured more than 5,000 acres in northern San Diego County and forced the evacuation of the community of Ramona, which has a population of about 36,000.

Several structures were burned on the edge of town and sheriff's deputies called residents to alert them the fire was approaching the city, said San Diego sheriff's Lt. Phil Brust.

In Malibu, about 700 firefighters worked to protect hundreds of homes in several upscale communities nestled in the hills. About 1,500 people were evacuated and the blaze destroyed a church and several homes, one of them the landmark Castle Kashan, a stately fortress-like home with turrets and arched windows. Chunks of brick fell from the exterior of the burning building overlooking the coast.

No residents or firefighters were injured, Los Angeles County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman said.

The castle belonged to Lilly Lawrence, the daughter of a former Iranian oil minister. She said she was able to gather a few things before the fire engulfed her home, including some jewelry and memorabilia that included Elvis Presley's Army fatigues.

She didn't seem too worried about losing most of her belongings in the fire.

"My parents taught me not to allow my possessions to posses me," Lawrence told KABC-TV. "So, that's the story. The house is a house."

Winds carried embers across the Pacific Coast Highway, closing the popular road and setting fire to cars and trees in the parking lot of a shopping center where a supermarket, drug store and other shops were damaged.

"This fire is zero percent contained, which means we're at the mercy of the wind," acting Malibu Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich said Sunday.

In all, five homes and two commercial buildings had been confirmed lost throughout the Malibu area, Los Angeles County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman said. Nine more homes were damaged, he said.

The fire is expected to burn for another two to three days, he said. Until the blaze is extinguished, "there will literally be thousands of homes that will be threatened at one time or another," he said.

The fire may have been started by downed power lines, Capt. Mike Brown said.

"This is a conflagration we knew was going to come at some point," Los Angeles County Zen Yaroslavsky said at a Malibu press conference Sunday, noting Southern California's ongoing dry spell. "We were cruising for a bruising. We are very, very lucky as we stand here tonight that the damage has been as limited as it has been."

Cuba Perks Show a Post-Fidel Touch

HAVANA - With Raul Castro in charge, Cuba has raised payments to milk and meat producers, is paying off its debts to farmers and has stopped blocking the import of parts needed to keep vintage cars rumbling along.

Travelers can even bring in DVD players and game consoles, highly coveted by Cubans starved for high-tech entertainment.

Raul's ailing brother Fidel is still showing leadership behind the scenes, and as provisional president, he has only taken small steps. But he's already giving clues to how he might govern once he takes full control - paying special attention to quality-of-life problems, publicly scolding state managers and bluntly acknowledging that salaries don't cover basic needs.

The new Chinese buses on intercity routes are evidence of the Raul effect. They were in the planning before Fidel got sick, but they have become much more visible since Raul gave a speech late last year saying he was sick of hearing bureaucrats' excuses and wanted results.

To boost food production, lawmakers agreed in June to pay producers 2 1/2 times more for milk and meat included in the island's heavily subsidized ration program and in meals provided at similarly low-cost workplace cafeterias, schools, hospitals and community centers. The prices consumers pay will remain the same.

At the same gathering National Assembly members were told that the state had just paid off debts worth $23 million to the small farmers and cooperatives that grow two-thirds of the island's fruits and vegetables, and renegotiated $35 million in other debts.

The change is evident in style too. Where a Fidel speech could devote hours to communist, his brother's oratory is much more short and direct, and Cubans love his public attacks on government failures.

But 76-year-old Raul is only a caretaker president, and officials insist that 81-year-old Fidel will be back. And as long as Fidel is alive, no one thinks Raul will dare to make big moves that could annoy the older brother he has loved and admired since they were boys.

Thomas Fingar, the U.S. Deputy Director of National Intelligence, told the U.S. Congress in June that while the Cuban public has high expectations of improvement, "Significant, positive political change is unlikely immediately."

As caretaker president, Raul has "very limited running room," said Cuba analyst Phil Peters, of the pro-democracy Lexington Institute think tank outside Washington. "He seems to be looking for small practical things that can make Cubans' lives easier."

Cuban exiles in Miami are consumed with rumors that Fidel is dying or dead. But Cubans on the island rarely mention him nowadays - they're already more focused on what Raul, Fidel's constitutionally designated successor, will do.

They were pleased to hear him confirm on television that state salaries fail to cover basic necessities, and some even cheered when Raul delivered a slap at inefficient state managers by commenting sardonically about government farms infested with a fast-growing, thorny bush called marabu.

They nodded knowingly as Raul publicly questioned why all Cubans aren't guaranteed milk in their monthly food rations, not just children under 7. They also noticed that the milk comment was dropped from the official transcript of the televised speech.

On a personal level, Cubans were moved to see Raul appearing to choke back a sob after kissing an urn containing his wife's ashes at her state-televised funeral in June. The cameras also showed a vault next to Espin's that already bears Raul's name - an unusual acknowledgment of a Cuban leader's mortality in a country where talk of Fidel's death has always been taboo.

Cubans have never had such a personal glimpse of Fidel, who does not appear in public with his family, and they don't know where or how his funeral will take place.

Authorities insist the brothers are united, and bristle at suggestions Raul is more open to change than his brother. They note that Fidel also hinted at reforms in November 2005, when he acknowledged that if government corruption and inefficiency are not controlled, "this revolution can destroy itself."

Dissident economist Oscar Espinosa Chepe wrote in an essay e-mailed to international media that he suspects government hard-liners are worrying that possible changes could undermine their legitimacy. He also noted that just five days after Raul said he would be open to discussing improved relations with a new U.S. president, Fidel wrote that the United States - "the empire" - would never negotiate with Cuba.

In the past, Raul expressed interest in China's model of a market economy in a one-party state. But Vice President Carlos Lage says Cuba won't copy that model.

"The countries now working to build socialism in different parts of the world," Lage said, "are doing so in situations very different politically and economically from ours."

Ferrero to lead Spain against Switzerland

Defending champion Spain picked Juan Carlos Ferrero, David Ferrer, Tommy Robredo and Marcel Granollers on Tuesday to face Switzerland in their Davis Cup opener next month.

Captain Albert Costa said Rafael Nadal and Fernando Verdasco will miss the tie through injury, as expected. Both helped Spain sweep past the Czech Republic 5-0 in the Davis Cup final last year.

Ferrero won his second title in two weeks at the weekend at Buenos Aires. He won in Costa do Sauipe to start Latin America's clay swing.

The former French Open champ missed last year's Davis Cup final, but has played in 16 ties since 2000 for a 17-7 record.

Spain faces Switzerland from March 5-7 in the 11,000-capacity bullring in the northern city of Logrono.

Switzerland will be without world No. 1 Roger Federer.

Spain and Switzerland have played each other five times, with Spain winning four.

Barcelona beats Espanyol 5-1 in Catalan derby

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Barcelona obliterated Espanyol's home dominance with braces by Pedro Rodriguez and David Villa to claim the Catalan capital derby 5-1 and provisionally move five points clear of second-place Real Madrid in the Spanish league on Saturday.

Espanyol had conceded only two goals in its seven victories at El Prat-Cornella Stadium, but Barcelona needed just 30 minutes to double that number and beat the best home side in the league.

Rodriguez raced by the pair of Espanyol center backs to slot a ball from Lionel Messi past a diving Carlos Kameni for Barcelona's 19th-minute opener.

Xavi Hernandez added the second at the half-hour mark, smashing in a rebound of his own pass from the right side of the area with very little angle after a nice buildup from his teammates.

"My team does not stop surprising me," said Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola. "They have the mental tranquility that comes with having done so much in football."

The numbers speak for themselves. Guardiola's team has won 10 straight, gone unbeaten in 22, and scored five or more goals seven times this season in all competitions.

After jeering the Barcelona players as they were announced, the 40,000-seat stadium saluted Andres Iniesta with a standing ovation for his dedication of his World Cup-winning goal to friend and Espanyol defender Daniel Jarque, who died of a heart attack in 2009.

"I felt (the warm response) on the pitch," said Iniesta. "People come before any rivalry."

Five minutes after Xavi gave Barcelona a 2-0 lead, Jose Callejon got behind the Barcelona defense and Victor Valdes had to react quickly to deflect his hard strike in Espanyol's best chance of the half.

"The first two goals marked the game," said Javier Marquez, whose Espanyol fell into fifth place. "We gave it our all, but we had a great team in front of us."

Just out of the break, Espanyol defender Victor Ruiz dived to cut off Pedro's pass to Messi in front of goal, and moments later Kameni stretched to block a shot by Iniesta.

Kameni withstood Rodriguez one-on-one just before the Spain winger got his brace rushing in to beat the Espanyol goalkeeper to a rebound of a Messi strike in the 60th.

Pablo Osvaldo grabbed one back for Espanyol two minutes later to end Barcelona's four-game run of not allowing a goal. Before the Argentine's goal, Barcelona had outscored opponents 31-0.

Villa added the fourth in the 76th and capped the win in the 84th — to bring his season tally to 11 goals — with identical charges from the left with the Espanyol defense completely undone and Kameni without a hope.

Earlier, Giuseppe Rossi piloted Villarreal to a 3-1 win over Mallorca.

Rossi flicked on a cross for Santiago Cazorla for the 11th-minute opener, and after Jonathan de Guzman drew Mallorca even in the 28th, he made it 2-1 from the penalty spot.

Nilmar sealed the win with a beautiful chip shot in the 51st to move Villarreal to within five points of second-place Real Madrid, while Mallorca remained 10th after its third straight loss.

Also, Athletic Bilbao beat Levante 2-1, while Valencia downed Real Sociedad 2-1 and Deportivo La Coruna drew 1-1 with Sporting Gijon.

Athletic Bilbao's second away win lifted it to 25 points and into sixth place.

Igor Gabilondo put Athletic ahead in the 10th with a well-taken free kick before Fernando Llorente had to be substituted for a leg injury.

Felipe Caicedo equalized for Levante in the 21st, but Javier Martinez's header gave Athletic the win in the 73rd.

At Anoeta Stadium, Xabi Prieto put Real Sociedad ahead in the 23rd through a penalty, but Tino Costa leveled for Valencia by curling a free kick into the far corner of the goal in first-half injury time, and Aritz Aduriz got the winner in the 91st. The victory lifted Valencia into fourth place and Sociedad remained in ninth.

Diego Castro scored in the 89th to pull Sporting level after Aythami Oliva gave Deportivo the advantage in the 12th tapping in a rebound.

Sporting remained in second-to-last place with 12 points, and Deportivo stayed 13th.

On Sunday, it's: Real Madrid, Sevilla; Almeria vs. Getafe; Osasuna vs. Zaragoza; and Malaga vs. Atletico Madrid.

Hercules visits Racing Santander on Monday.

Senate Bill 652: Council groups fight board over legislative proposal

Senate Bill 652: Council groups fight board over legislative proposal

Since mid-March, the School Board has been locked in a struggle with advocates for local school councils over board proposals to amend the Chicago School Reform Act. The board says the measures are needed for accountability; the advocates contend they would return schools to central control.

Legislators have repeatedly demanded that the two sides seek a compromise, and local civic organizations reportedly have been trying to craft one. However, as CATALYST goes to press in late April, no compromise has emerged, and none seems imminent.

The most hotly contested provision would reduce the authority of local school councils in deciding whether to renew a principal's four-year contract. Under the proposed law, an LSC's decision could be appealed to a three-member panel, which would make a recommendation to the School Board.

Other parts of the board's proposed legislation would require LSC members to submit to criminal background checks, give board officials a new intervention tool to regulate possible financial mismanagement, and set some new restrictions on councils when principals are being selected.

Board officials have dropped several controversial proposals and modified others since unveiling their wish list on March 17. For example, the original legislation would have allowed the board to establish a code of conduct for LSC members and to remove any members who failed to meet the code's requirements; that measure was dropped. On the matter of principal retention, the School Board and the general superintendent would have been the only parties involved in deciding whether to overturn a council's decision; the three-member panel later was added as a compromise.

As CATALYST goes to press, no legislative committee in either house has voted on any of the board's proposals. With reform groups fighting back, the Senate Education Committee passed a "shell bill," Senate Bill 652, in the hopes that compromise language could be added as an amendment later.

Principal retention

The shell bill came before the House Education Committee in mid-April. Although board officials announced some changes, they presented no new language to the House committee, making the debate, in the words of committee Chair Larry Woolard (D-Carterville), "a discussion on something that ain't." The committee heard arguments for and against the board's proposals but took no action. At press time, the committee was scheduled to take up the bill again on April 28.

On April 21, CATALYST obtained a copy of the latest legislative language. Here is a summary of the proposal on the hot-button principal-retention issue, as of that date:

In deciding whether to renew a principal's contract, LSCs would be required to consider four criteria: the length of a principal's tenure, instructional leadership, school management and "the effective implementation of programs, policies or strategies to improve student academic achievement." Board officials would be required to use the same four criteria in their annual evaluations of principals.

An LSC's decision to let a principal go at the end of a four-year contract would be subject to review if the principal had received a satisfactory rating or better on his or her most recent evaluation by School Board officials. The review would occur only if the principal, an LSC member or the CEO requested it.

Reviews would be conducted by a three-member committee, with the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association, the board's Local School Council Advisory Board and the board's Academic Accountability Council each sending a representative.

The committee would be bound to consider the same factors as LSCs, plus any reasons provided by the LSC for its decision and any views expressed by students, parents, school faculty and staff, and community members.

The committee would make a recommendation to the board, which would have the final say.

Board officials say the proposal would simply provide clearer criteria for deciding whether to retain sitting principals. "Currently, the school reform law provides no criteria on which the renewal decision is to be made," says a flyer the board sent to LSC members in late March. "As a result, principals who have received positive evaluations from the general superintendent--and even from the LSC--are sometimes refused a new contract.

The new rules would provide a check on councils who aren't doing a good job, according to Beverly Tunney, president of the principals association, which strongly supports the board's proposals. "The two words that we're stressing right now are accountability and fairness," says Tunney. "We don't want bad principals in schools. We want to be accountable. The reform groups [who oppose the bill] don't understand the variances in councils. You can have a wonderful council, or you can have one that can't get a quorum together. There's really no one who makes sure things are done in the right way."

Many supporters of local school councils are dead-set against the proposal, saying that it would strip LSCs of their ability to weed out bad principals. Parents United for Responsible Education (PURE) claims that the provision "would take CPS back to the days when principals had lifetime tenure" and cites recent figures showing that no sitting principal received less than a satisfactory rating from central office last year. "Our schools can hardly be considered so successful that all our principals have earned a satisfactory or better rating."

The board's proposals "would turn LSCs into advisory councils," says Steve DeBretto, director of the North River Commission, a Northwest Side community group. DeBretto says that in making the rounds of LSCs in his group's area, he's found little support for the board's proposals. "Overwhelmingly, people are pretty upset with it," he says. "While there may be some problems that Vallas has pinpointed, there's no need to change the legislation. There's a very delicate balance of power right now, and Senate Bill 652 would skew that."

"It's important for communities to have the right to make their own decisions, whether we like them or not," says Corretta McFerren, a School Board consultant and director of WSCORP, a West Side community group.

One possible avenue for compromise may be the venue in which appeals of LSC decisions are heard. Opponents see the current committee as being stacked against LSCs: two members come from groups appointed entirely or in large part by the School Board, and the third would be a representative from the principals' group. "That's like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse," scoffs McFerren.

Possible compromises

Woestehoff suggests that her group may be open to discussing alternatives on this issue. "There are other models, both from industry and education," she notes, giving the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board as one example.

Tunney sees it as an area open for discussion. "We're certainly willing to compromise. We're not afraid of who this review board is," she says. "We want this to be as professional as possible. I do feel there should be a principal on the review board, because unless you've walked a mile in our moccasins, you can't really know the challenges we face."

Board officials considered expanding their proposed review board in late April, but as CATALYST went to press, no details were available.

Tunney and Woestehoff both agreed that the board's current principal-evaluation process could be improved. The Financial Research and Advisory Committee (FRAC), an arm of the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago, will pilot a new principal-evaluation process next year; both Tunney and Woestehoff expressed support for the effort.

The controversy on principal evaluation may have a silver lining, says John Ayers, director of Leadership for Quality Education, another arm of the Civic Committee. "The result of the fight over 652 is that we all better be doing a better job with principal evaluation," he says. "When all the dust settles, the real work is gonna be figuring out how to do training of LSCs and principals in a way that helps them and leads to professional development and school improvement."

At press time, the Civic Committee was widely reported to be working with another business group, Chicago United, to bring both sides together but were making little headway. Staff for the two groups declined to comment on the reports.

Rep. Edgar Lopez (D-Chicago) also was trying to start negotiations, but he wasn't optimistic. "At this point, I don't think CPS wants to negotiate," he told CATALYST.

Lopez's assessment echoed comments CEO Paul Vallas made to the House Education Committee in mid-April: `We are not going to compromise with ourselves or with groups that don't want any change," Vallas said. "You can water a bill down into oblivion."

Correction... [Derived headline]

Correction

Carney's lead is 14 percent

Due to incorrect information provided by Times-Shamrock, theamount of Rep. Chris Carney's lead over challenger Chris Hackett inthe 10th Congressional District race as determined by a recent pollwas erroneously reported in the Thursday edition. Carney's lead,according to the poll, is actually 14 percent.

Correction... [Derived headline]

Correction

Carney's lead is 14 percent

Due to incorrect information provided by Times-Shamrock, theamount of Rep. Chris Carney's lead over challenger Chris Hackett inthe 10th Congressional District race as determined by a recent pollwas erroneously reported in the Thursday edition. Carney's lead,according to the poll, is actually 14 percent.

Correction... [Derived headline]

Correction

Carney's lead is 14 percent

Due to incorrect information provided by Times-Shamrock, theamount of Rep. Chris Carney's lead over challenger Chris Hackett inthe 10th Congressional District race as determined by a recent pollwas erroneously reported in the Thursday edition. Carney's lead,according to the poll, is actually 14 percent.

CITY SHORTLISTS TEN COMPOSTING TECHNOLOGIES

Vancouver, British Columbia

Metro Vancouver, interested in citywide food waste collection and composting, issued a Request For Information and Qualifications (RFIQ) on composting technologies. The purpose of the RFIQ was to find information on composting systems that are proven to work at full scale, and that are available in Canada.

Out of 23 responses to the RFIQ, Vancouver shortlisted 10: Canada Composting, Inc. - operates the BTA anaerobic digestion facility in Toronto; Cascades Renewable Carbon Corp. planning a Natur-Tech composting system; Engineered Compost Systems (ECS) - installations of both containers/boxes and horizontal silos; Orgaworld - horizontal silos at Ontario facilities in London and Ottawa (under construction); Maple Reinders Christiens technology at facilities in Hamilton and Peel Region; Net Zero Waste - Gore Cover System; Organic Waste Systems - Dranco anaerobic digestion technology; Yield Energy anaerobic digestion; and R-Earth International Composting Corp. rotary drum on Vancouver Island.

Another aftershock of that baby boom

The 10 millionth baby boomer will turn 50 at 1:20 a.m. Chicagotime on May 17, if QT's calculations are correct, and they may not beif the past is any indication, so let's not get too excited yet.Grand gesture

Twentieth Century Fox, having acknowledged complaints that itsmovie may have incorrectly portrayed R.M.S. Titanic First MateWilliam Murdoch as a murderer and bribe-taker, announced it will give$8,000 to a fund honoring his memory.

Don't knock yourself out, Twentieth Century Fox.Mir crackedNews Item: Two Russian cosmonauts are forced to cut short aspacewalk during which they were to repair a bent solar panel becauseof problems with a thruster engine.Get out of that thing.Get out of it now.Martha's big turn-onMartha Stewart announced she will hook up her hoses on April 15.Don't squeeze the statisticsCharmin wants you to know that the average American goes through74.3 rolls of toilet paper a year and uses 8.6 sheets a trip for anaverage of 57 sheets a day, which comes to 6.6 trips a day, andCharmin, at the request of QT, is working on an answer to thequestion of how one makes .6 of a trip to the bathroom, so we willhave to wait.Serious as a heart attackNearly 50 percent of heart attack victims delay seeking help forat least 12 hours because they think they are suffering from a virus,lack of sleep or indigestion, British researchers found.That is today's day brightener for those of you coming off theflu, five hours of sleep and two bagel dogs for lunch.Chime in anytime"Chimes," the Chicago area Mensa newsletter, has noted that twoMensa members, Gerri Sue Hesselberg of Des Plaines and MarcellaPerunko of Park Forest, have contributed items to QT.Only two?No ifs about itMaj. Gen. George Friel of the U.S. Army Chemical andBiological Defense Command on the chances of a major biological orchemical terrorist attack on the United States:"It's no longer a question of if."That is your millennium countdown message for today.Contributing: Susy Schultz, Associated Press