| Gates Foundation pledges grants totaling $306M
Juvenile Rights Project receives Gates grant [Portland] Washington Post names Xerox chief to board [Washington, D.C.] High Point community center gets help from feds [Seattle] Microsoft, Mayo Clinic announce deal [Seattle] Mayo, Microsoft partner on new health management system [Mpls./St. Paul] .
Gill Charlton: on the case
Travel expert Gill Charlton tackles your travel conundrums. This week: non-refundable hotel rates, railcard snags and car drop-off charges.
Travel directoryPrevious On the Case articleContact GillTaking insurance for non-refundable hotel rates Amit Green, London, writes .
Fed's rate cuts ignite a rush to refinance
A positive note in the chorus of bad economic news sounds loudly, like a call to arms. Or, as happened after the Federal Reserve dropped short-term interest rates three-quarters of a percentage point Tuesday, a race to refinance. The refinancing frenzy began right after the Fed's announcement, local brokers and bankers reported. The 10-year Treasury bond rates on which fixed mortgages are based also fell, and interest rates for 30-year loans plunged as far as 5.125 percent, the lowest level since spring 2004. On Jan. 1, the 30-year fixed rate averaged 6.07 percent; it has ranged between 6 percent and 6.5 percent for two years. Though the number of refinancing applications will not be available until Wednesday from the Mortgage Bankers Association, newspaper and television accounts from Bangor, Maine, to Los Angeles described a boom in activity.
Father Foley Cape Cod abuse case settled For $550,000
The Archdiocese of Hartford agreed this week to pay $550,000 to a man who accused the Rev. Stephen Foley of using his position as Hartford County fire chaplain to sodomize him when he was a 14-year-old parishioner in Windsor Locks. Foley, who has been accused of abuse by at least 11 men since 1993 and was removed from public ministry in 2002, is still affiliated with the county fire organization he belonged to when the alleged assault occurred. He now holds the title of "chaplain emeritus" of the group, according to board members... The current president of the group is Windsor Locks Fire Chief Gary Ruggiero. Haber said Ruggiero sent an e-mail to the board of directors Friday criticizing the newspaper for publishing a story last Sunday that exposed Foley's continued use of a police-equipped Crown Victoria with flashing lights, sirens and scanners... abuse took place on a weekend when the boy and his friend accompanied Foley to a home on Cape Cod, which Foley said was owned by his aunt, the brief said.
State and Local
Hillary Rodham Clinton in second place and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who placed third in the state where he was born. Edwards said Saturday that he will continue the campaign. Obama, who won 55 percent of the vote, credited the landslide to racial unity and not racial division. "We have the most votes, the most delegates, and the most diverse coalition of Americans we've seen in a long, long time," the Illinois senator told supporters at his victory rally Saturday night. "They are young and old; rich and poor. They are black and white; Latino and Asian." Obama has established himself in the win column in overwhelmingly white Iowa and as a close contender in equally white New Hampshire. But political observers now wonder if his South Carolina victory - coming after some very contentious battles with former president Bill Clinton over issues involving race - may also pose some ongoing challenges for both his campaign and that of his leading rival, Hillary Clinton, as the two head into the Feb.
Big sweat as human hippo Brady Barr gets stuck in mud
I have long believed that hippo sweat can provide breakthroughs in waterproof sunblock and antiseptics," said Barr. "It works for them in some of the harshest environments in the world; it could work for us. But extracting it did not prove to be as easy as we hoped." Most of the weight in Barr’s suit is in the body armour. It is able to withstand a bite three times as powerful as that of a great white shark. Hippos cause more human deaths than any other animal in Africa. When reassembled in the African bush, the suit was finished off with a daubing of mud and dung to disguise the scent of the scientist staggering beneath it to the riverbank to await a passing hippo. Barr’s plan was then to open a flap, tap a hippo with a long pole and scoop off fresh drops of its sweat.
Elling's Short Game
For the second time in the PGA Tour's three full-field events in 2008, guys who technically made the cut were sent packing on Friday at the Buick Invitational. Under a new and controversial provision designed to keep the pace of play moving on weekends, a new rule was passed last fall a few days after the tournament at Disney World saw a stultifying 88 players make the weekend cut. Previously, the low 70 players and ties advanced, which often produced massive logjams on weekends. Now, the low 70 and ties advance unless there are more than 78 players in the total. In such instances, the cut number drops to the closest number to 70. That trimmed 16 players from the field at the Sony Open in the second week of the season. Friday at the Buick Invitational, 19 players were pared after finishing in a tie for 67th at 1 over.
Reader comments: Mitt deflects questions about faith, finances
Mitt, on what he would do to run against both Bill and Hillary in the general election: "I can't imagine a Bill Clinton in the White House with nothing to do." WHAM -- the ball sails over the wall in deep left center. . . love him or hate him, he'll eat up Hillary in the general election and reveal her for the liberal fool she is -- Obama would even be better. I can't imagine a general election with battle lines more clearly drawn no matter who the Republican nominee is, and after last night and he sweeps Florida it's going to be Mitt. He can catch, run, hit and throw. He's ready for the big club. .
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