| Missing candidate mystery deepens in N.H.
The mystery deepened yesterday in the case of a man accused of faking an overnight disappearance in 2006 to attract attention to his flagging congressional campaign. Authorities believe that Gary Dodds may have spent some of the 27 hours he was missing after a car crash hiding in an apartment in an 1805 mansion believed to have a tunnel to the outside. Police say that when they knocked on the door, a man answered but would not let them in. When they got in hours later, the man had vanished. Dodds owned the building, Cutts Mansion in Portsmouth, which also housed his campaign office. Police went to the apartment of campaign staff member Alison Spruce on the afternoon of April 6, 2006, while searchers were looking for Dodds in the snowy woods two towns away. State Trooper Joseph Ebert said he and other officers stood watch until Spruce returned home and let them in.
Solid south swell booms into SoCal
OK, if you happen to live in Southern California, wipe the saltwater crust off your face and stop grinning already. We know you're stoked. (Hell, we know East Coasters are stoked after Hurricane Irene's run of surf last week, and SoCal was way about overdue for some kind of something.)
Last week, Sean Collins explained SoCal's dismal summer thusly: "Dominant high pressure in the Southern Hemisphere has continued to prevent the storm track Down Under from getting a good aim on California, and most of the swells have been directed toward South America. I think we had one decent swell in each month of May, June and another in July, but overall extremely poor results from the Southern Hemisphere this year."
But things, obviously, if you look over at the pictures or pick the sand out of your ears, things are looking up.
Phelps ready to tackle 'hefty goals' of Olympic year
LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) - Michael Phelps showed up at his first meet of the Olympic year looking like a scraggly surf bum - long plaid shorts, Detroit Tigers cap worn to the side, unkempt curly hair and Fu Manchu facial hair. Then he hit the pool. That's when the six-time Olympic gold medalist became instantly recognizable. .
Chinese new year enjoys an early welcome
The Chinese calendar is based upon cycles of the moon, with the beginning of the year falling between late January and early February. Chinese timekeeping, meanwhile, is recorded in 12-year cycles. So, the Year of the Rat occurs once every 12 years. Many other Asian cultures also use this method to mark the passage of time. "This is our second Chinese new year celebration," said Bruce Lockard, director of Modesto's Maddux Youth Center. "We're building toward the big celebration Feb. 10 at the Centre Plaza." Lockard said anywhere from 400 to 500 people were expected to drop by the senior center Sunday, and the place was packed at midafternoon. Last year's inaugural program attracted about 300 people. The Modesto Parks and Recreation Department co-sponsored the event with help from the Modesto Chinese American Culture Club, Stanislaus Chinese Culture Society, Stanislaus Chinese Association and the Fantasia Performing Arts Center of Fremont.
Un-Hollywood: In Russia, Films Promote the State
It's a plot straight out of Hollywood. A sexy female superagent circles the globe in pursuit of a cold-blooded terrorist who has hidden nuclear bombs in four of the world's major cities. In the climax, the two of them fight in a Pakistani fortress while the heroine's bosses nervously watch the countdown from their high-tech command center. But this isn't your latest Jerry Bruckheimer action movie. It's a Russian production called "The Apocalypse Code," and its heroine, Darya, works for the FSB, the successor agency to the KGB. The command center is supposed to be the Lubyanka, a real-life building in central Moscow that was once the headquarters of Stalin's dreaded secret police. Sergei Bazhenov, the film's executive producer, says he wants to bring "ideology" back to Russian cinema.
Jobs Wows Apple Faithful, Oracle Seals the Deal, Exploding Batteries
After a lot of chest-thumping over BEA Systems' worth, enterprise software giant Oracle upped its final final offer, and the two companies shook hands over the $8.5 billion price tag. That's a 14 percent increase over what Oracle first offered, and pretty much the mid-point between the numbers neither would budge from during the last go-round. Vendor White Papers Featured ListingsECT News Network's directory of e-business, IT and CRM white papers provides resources you need to make informed purchasing decisions. Browse Listings. .
Coming Soon: SR to Release E-mail Exchanges ... (Not so fast...)
Update: After reviewing the messages and our options (none good), we've decided not to post the messages. Here's the situation: Of the 50 messages, a few have explicit photos embedded in the message. We can't publish those photos (one shows a toddler's penis). We also have a strong ethical policy against blurring or otherwise manipulating photos. Some of the messages are completely innocuous. The rest of the messages only refer to attachments. Those attachments are explicit, so we can't publish them. We've also gone through each message to blur e-mail addresses for privacy reasons. So, if we don't publish any of the explicit images, and we refuse to blur, crop or otherwise alter them, all we're left with is a bunch of forwarded messages that say things like "take a look at this!" We decided that did not advance the story in any significant way.
Weekend calendar
Longmire visitor information, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. daily, weather and road conditions permitting, Mount Rainier National Park, Tahoma Woods, Star Route, Ashford; $15/per vehicle park entry fee (360-569-2211, ext. 1, or www.nps.gov/mora). Hurricane Ridge SAT, SUN Guided 90-minute snowshoe walks, 2 p.m. Saturdays, Sundays and Monday holidays through April 1, $5/per person, space limited, sign-up available at visitor center 30 minutes before walks; Sunrise Family Snowplay Area and Small Children's Snowplay area for ages 8 and younger open for sliding and tubing, conditions permitting; cross-country and snowshoe trails available; downhill ski tows, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, conditions permitting; Hurricane Ridge Road may be closed due to weather conditions or when the summit parking lot is full, bus from Port Angeles available Saturdays and Sundays through Feb.
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